Nevereign (General)

"Corps go at each other all the time." Greg said, after his usual delay. "Half the time they don't even bother using their own troops, the gangs will get blamed for it anyways so they might as well take the cheap route and pay them to do the hit."


The remainders of the burger disappeared into his mouth before he continued, "What makes this 'incident' so special?"


@Mr_DC

@Cashdash25


"True, true." Lee nodded, doing his best impression of a professor contemplating an equation on a board. "But I have this feeling that this is something more." He started flailing his arms around as he spoke. "If you want to stick on the sides, doing a commentary of the awesome things I'm doing instead of joining me, you're free to do so but I need some hardened hands." He raised his. "These aren't worth much." He grinned again. "At least not away from a computer. . I figured you had the nuts to join me, don't tell me I'm wrong." He grinned, already expecting a positive answer.  


"Listen..." He frowned, and clenched his hands into fists. "Here's the thing." Lee looked the man opposite to him right in the eye. "I've been getting cash wired to my account for attacking corporations. At first I thought it was just some corp trying to get me to screw their enemies but..." He lowered his voice, frowning. "I got to pick my targets. All I had to do was fuck with whatever corporation I want to pick on. I even didn't have to do much." He chuckled, a sound painful to the ears. "I got provided with some custom viruses which did most of the dirty work for me. I have enough cash to retire." He laughed. "But I want to retire to a pool filled with tons of whatever drugs are popular at the time." He rolled his eyes back, closing them. "Mmmm..."


When Lee opened the eyes again, he smirked. "So, this is the thing." He pointed at the ceiling. "A week ago, I get a request. An actual request of what to do, with my usual fee tripled. I get someone to fuck up a corp party. I get my money and pay them out from my share. I tracked you guys down because I can't trust mercs to help me against corps, they'd just follow the money. You guys, on the other hand." He winked. "You won't budge, no matter how much cash they throw at you."

"Blindly taking money from unknown suppliers?" Greg tried to sound surprised, but mostly just sounded the same. "You're braver than you look."


Greg sat in contemplation for a minute, gazing around the room, taking in every detail of the surrounding area, "Whose party were you supposed to crash anyways?"


@Mr_DC

@Cashdash25


Lee wagged his finger. "No, no. It was dumb. I was an idiot. Could have easily been a trap. As soon as I got paid, though, it became brave." He grinned. "I'd still do it again." He chuckled ominously.


Leaning back, he shrugged. "I'm still supposed to do it, why do you think I'm here? That security giant, Ronin, is meeting with another security company, Bullwark, and planning on taking over the police in the city. That means no partying." Lee frowned, crossing his arms on his chest. "They will be attacked by Lazarus troops, though, who will pretend to be MosTech." He leaned in with a whisper. "I also got word that the head of Lazarus, Bulwark, AND Lazarus are all going to be there. Imagine the chaos if they all died." He grinned wide. "Now, it is impossible to kill all of them but at least one head should roll, right?" He clasped his hands. "We've still got an hour until this happens. I can't give you any gear now but if you're feeling like having a bit of fun..." He winked. "I'll make sure you guys get half of my payment and I'll call you for future jobs. My patron says this is just the first step, after all."

"You said Lazarus twice." Greg pointed out. Lee opened his mouth to say something in response but was cut off by Greg's hand clamping around his throat. The waitress at the counter screamed as Greg stood up, hauling the frail hacker into the air. A manic smile played across his face as he strangled the junkie, it reminded Lee of a shark. "Y'know what the worst part about not being Syndicated is?" Greg asked, his voice sounding both more and less Human as the darkness faded and emotions, mostly hate and anger, returned to him. Lee, gasping for air as a metal hand crushed his larynx, was unable to respond.

"No one comes to avenge you when you do something stupid, like say, contact violent and dangerous men in such a manner as to make them want to hunt you down for compromising them and then being enough of an idiot to approach one of them, and you die for it." Greg then pitched the slightly built man into the diner's counter top with enough force to snap his spine like a twig. "I'd say 'It's nothing personal'," Greg offered as he drew the Five-seveN, "But it's completely personal." He paused, "Thanks for the tip off though, I'm sure the boss will be happy to hear about it."


The pistol's loud report sounded repeatedly as Greg drilled the Hacker. Three to the chest, two to the head, just like in training, he thought to himself. The waitress by this point was cowering under the counter crying and fumbling to call 911, Greg hopped the counter and shot her in the face, putting the poor bitch out of her misery. That done Greg busted open the cash register and pocketed the till, frisked both bodies for wallets and other valuables, picked up his spent casings, and piled both of the dead on top of the kitchen's stove before turning all of the burners on high, knocked over everything that looked flammable and left the place to burn down.


A few minutes later as he made his way through Nevereign's usual late night traffic he pulled a second disposable commlink and dialed the number again, someone answered on the forth ring, "The wild child is coming home to the silver mountain." He said, emotions still coloring his voice.


@Mr_DC

The rumbling of the motorcycle put it's continuous vibrations through her body. As she made a slow turn onto her destinations street she could finally hear the rocks on the black top crunch under the weight of the synthetic tires getting louder the slower she drove the bike. Finally she placed her foot against the concrete curb the chugging of the exhaust cut short by the ignition being turned off. The segmented parts of her cybernetic hand quickly closed once the key had slid back into the forearm, seamlessly hiding the several parts of her anatomy. She kicked the stand down causing the metal to grind against the tar momentarily before swinging the same leg over the vehicle and standing at the corner of the curb just beneath a flickering holographic street sign.

This place wasn't anywhere significant but she had visited this area quite a few times. As she pulled out the last cigarette from it's crumpled carton discarding the empty box while retrieving the bic brand lighter from it's descending package. A bright spark caused by the firm human like thumb lit it's flame as it made contact with the spring loaded fuel switch. She brought the small flame to the cigarette loosely pressed between her red lips before inhaling causing the paper and tobacco to turn black and begin to glow a citrus orange. The flame was extinguished as the apparency of Lotus' location became obvious.

Her eyes came up to a small convenience store located across the quiet street just underneath a highway overpass. The occasional roar of an industrial diesel could be heard overhead but the traffic seemed a bit light for this time of day. Lotus let the drag sit in her throat for a few moments with eyes closed before letting it out and proceeding across the road. As she approached, the casual glance of a shopkeeper through a window let her know she had been realized before she swung the glass door open with a small automated jingle. The interior was cool compared to the outside and it smelled faintly of hot dogs and fountain drinks. The shopkeeper was already reaching back for a carton of Marlboro Premium Black before placing it on the counter swiftly and bringing the news paper up to his face again.

"Is that au for you today?"

--Yeah.

Her dominant hand flicked open revealing a bright LED lit "cred" card swiping it across the PoS external accessory. The older model system took a bit to process her card in the meantime Lotus was examining the surveillance system. The man folded the newspaper down subtly to get a good look at her before bringing it back up.

"Yeah got a new system coupl' days ago"

--I see that, looks nice. I see you finally got the door fixed too... did they ever catch em'?

He brought the newspaper down fully engaging in the conversation now, with no one in the store it was nice to just have some peace and a casual conversation. He motioned with his hands in an exaggerated manner.

"Ah... yeah you know how it is.. review the footage, they' got camers' all over the damn place you be lucky ta' get halfway roun' the block before they catchum."

The PoS was done processing and brought a notification to let Lotus know the receipt had been implied on her account. With that her hand folded together again and she picked up the carton before placing it between the magazines on her side.

"Oi! Fuckem! Your au pack'd an loaded, what that been about?"

The surprise had brought his accent out, whatever that may be.

--Had a bit of trouble at work today. Nothing serious just some ruffians trying to put a corp down. No luck though

She winked and turned around making her way out

"You outta take air'a that, pretty face like that only comes in once uh week!"

--You take care of yourself too, don't let some punk put down such an aged man like yourself!

"You shoul' get yourself sum pocket's next time!"

That put a smile on her face pushing the door open, a second jingle as she stepped out, she knew the clerk wouldn't take her phrasing as rude. "Aged like fine wine" was more the intent. She got back on her bike popping the stand up once again as the suspension of the bike lowered. The engine roared to life and she made her way back to Ronin.

Almost every channel was broadcasting the same thing from different angles. Even cooking channels reported on the status in the corners of their usual shows. INS - the news conglomerate - had their cameras aimed at an empty podium for almost an hour as a crowd of reporters gathered. The biggest names of the news world were sitting in the front rows.




The black letters spelled on the wall behind the podium. The podium appeared to be in a well-lit lobby of a clean office building. A pair of specialists on either side of the podium and several more along the sides of the room. What used to be whispers grew into open arguments and speculation of why Lazarus summoned such an audience. Several politicians openly advised to paying attention to the moves of Lazarus over the next week and everyone listened. After all, the news were in corporations for years now. No one cared about the latest arson spree. Everyone cared about the latest products. This, though, felt more than a product. It felt like something more. It was so unavoidable that it had to be more.


There he was. Franklin Winthrop Steele. The man who paid so much for all those reporters to gather. The man who had something to say and wanted everyone to listen. In his trademark white suit, his gorgeous cybernetic arm, and charming smirk, Steele took the stage. His power was almost tangible. Like a wave, the room got silenced. They were tired of waiting but no one intended to interrupt. It was his show. They were merely the observers.


"Ladies and gentleman of the press." His smooth voice came unobtrusively through the speakers, making everyone feel like he was speaking to them and only them. "Thank you all for coming here today. I apologize for the wait..." His smirk grew. "I had difficulty finding a date for the evening." He finished, getting scoffs from the crowd. Like a corporate CEO couldn't get a date. Among the sea of old, worn, dead-looking CEOs, Steele had the advantage and disappointed the press by keeping his relationships stealthy. No one knew where he was meeting his partners or whether there were any at all. "To business." He raised his cleanly shaved chin, looking down at the reporters starving for the big reveal. Every second felt like an eternity but he enjoyed dragging it on. They all saw it. "I would like to thank senators Brown and Meek, as well as the vice president for turning your attention to this matter. I would also like to thank the president for intending to do the same but I assured her it wasn't necessary." He looked over the crowd. What a way to say the president wanted to do your bidding. Every politician was owned by corporations but to openly say the president was willing to point at you was another thing entirely.


"Lazarus Corporation has been a pioneer in many aspects of your lives through various channels. Dai Lung Medical was the first corporation to turn cybernetics into something the common man can access." Several reporters in the crowd frowned. It couldn't have been just a PR move. He wasn't just talking up his company. Was he?


"Cybertek improved artificial intelligence technologies and turned robots into something we see on every corner." Steele was serious. He always was when he was talking about his company. Even when he was talking about the 'great' things they have done, Steele had a dead-serious expression on his face. "And now, Lazarus - the child of these two legendary companies - is going to change everything once more."


His head tilted forward, an almost ominous smirk on his face as he examined the crowd, all of them holding their breaths like they were holding a competition to see who can hold out the longest. It was enough waiting. Steele grinned gently. Like a chess player suddenly seeing exactly how he can finish the game and there was nothing more his opponent could do.


"Lazarus..." He paused, receiving pained stares from the reporters. "Has defeated death." Steele closed his eyes, taking in the gasps, murmurs, and mocking snorts.


That pause wasn't long. He didn't let them assume for long. "We have been working on a project in secret for a long time now. Government agencies were forthcoming enough that they allowed us to make progress without public supervision." The veteran reporters rolled their eyes almost in unison. They knew what that meant. A pretty way to say that they worked on it completely without anyone watching over their shoulder. "As you know, Lazarus has been working on cloning for medical purposes and the public aspect of that was growing new organs to replace failing ones. However, we worked on something far more exciting." He gesticulated with his right, cybernetic hand as he spoke. "We finally have the technology which allows us to upload the consciousness of a person into a pre-created body at the time of their death. We already ran countless successful tests and several politicians signed up."
 


Half of the people watching the announcement who understood what he said screamed in disbelief. Steele stole every politician from every other corporation by offering them something no one else could. Immortality. "Of course, this feature will be available to everyone, not just public figures." He nodded. A nod of understanding, one which would calm the hottest of hearts. People, however, understood what that meant. Of course, not everyone will be able to use it. Something so powerful was a way to make money, not a way to help people. Steele wouldn't give up such power just for public image. "I won't go into details now as this isn't the only thing I have to announce today." He smirked at the shocked expressions of the journalists. Something more?


"I had a long conversation with the top political figures in our country and we reached a conclusion." He was serious again and so was everyone else. That sentence wouldn't lead to anything good. He wasn't about to declare a new welfare plan. He was about to announce something horrifying. "We decided to implement a new system of city management in the United States. It is just a test at the moment and only a select few cities will go through it but we see it as the future of politics." He paused again, infuriating the reporters. At least those who weren't frantically typing on their phones or holopads. "Those cities, one of which is Nevereign, will be run by corporations in hopes of making a profit and dragging our country out of this crippling recession. In the future, corporations will be selected based on their efficiency and profitability but as it was Lazarus that arranged for this, we will manage these first cities. After all, I think after my previous announcement, there is no better candidate." And it became clear. Steele had such a grip on the politicians desperate for immortality that he convinced them to hand over cities to his control.


The reporters had enough. They couldn't wait anymore. As soon as the first one asked a question, everyone else started shouting, begging Steele to take their question. He, however, didn't. Steele simply watched them like they were animals in the circus doing tricks. He had to pay for them to come and those who rejected the invitations were being pushed out of business by their competitors who showed up.


Not everyone was taking the announcement professionally. Steele invited anti-corporate journalists for some reason and one in particular had enough. Swinging her arm in such a move that he managed to catch the cheek of a younger reporter, the older woman flung her pen towards Steele.


Everyone gasped as time appeared to almost slow down. An act of disrespect to one of the most powerful people in the county. An act which wouldn't go unpunished. The pen flew straight towards Steele who was still smirking at the reporters. The pen flew at him and simply passed through as if he wasn't even there. Everyone stopped again. What just happened?


Steele raised his cybernetic finger and cocked an eyebrow. "Lazarus Corporation would also like to announce several new products, including a perfected version of our holographic projector." He spread his arms with a nod. "Thank you for your attention." And he simply vanished, fading from the bottom up.


What Steele did would drag on through the news for weeks or even months. Maybe even years. Steele managed to shake the world once again. Steele managed to spark world-wide protests. Steele managed to get every politician begging to offer their services. Steele managed to change the world.

The engine roar wasn't enough to hide the hundreds of giant holographic screens throughout the city all showing live footage of the event Steele's words slow but exaggerated cleanly cut through the engine's ruckus. Lotus pulled off to the side of the road stopping it completely and cutting the engine off. She watched as Steele milked the audience for their attention. She decided to pull out a fresh smoke and light it up listening to what he had to say.

--Oh you had a hard time finding a date did you Steele? I'm still expecting your call for me

She laughed a bit speaking, obviously to herself. But as he continued to drag on each and every sentence even Lotus couldn't help but feel a little suspense.

--What are you up too Steele?

Her eyes didn't seem to move from the screen and as Steele mentioned "immortality" she seemed rather unfazed by the statement or the explanation of the testing procedures. She was more than aware of technologies abilities as she, herself, was more augmented than most normal people, more than most militants for that matter. She was unfazed because to her... it was fairly obvious that it was only a matter of time before the technology was available... but to the public? That was something to make her raise an eyebrow.

--What kinda political move is that?

She thought about it for a moment before realizing the amount of debt and revenue to be generated by something like that. Millions of people already in poverty this would only add to their circumstances and probably even make it worse. Between a government opposition that would surely use "repo-men" to take back what the middle and lower classes couldn't afford. Sure it happened from time to time but this was something entirely different. With all of the important politicians eating out of Lazarus' hands he could very well have an important role in wars and the whole federal system in general. If Steele wanted it... it would happen at this point.

She stopped for a moment not looking at the screen and instead remembering the horrible things people were going through right now without the help of oppression as well. She exhaled a large cloud of smoke and looked at the screen just in time to see the pen fly through Steele's holographic body, she had already pieced together what had happened before the crowd was able to let out a shocked gasp.

--You're much more clever than I had originally thought, and I gave you a lot of credit to begin with.

She admired Steele's ambitious nature and seemingly endless intelligence. From a business perspective he was one, maybe even the only... force to be reckoned with now. This brought a lot of consideration to mind... to leave Ronin and join Lazarus. Why did it matter if it was this evil or that evil in a world like this? The smart business decision was to go with the more profitable company. However before she could think about it too much she decided to see where her casual 1 on 1 with Steele would go. That would be the deciding factor for her. She turned the ignition and kicked the bike to life before speeding off again. The screens all over the city suddenly being covered by all the media outlets discussing the politics and ethics of the technology. @Mr_DC

Nully kicked open the back door to her van from the inside. The van was parked on the outskirts of Nevereign but used a series of signal boosters planted all over the city to hide her IP and location. She scooted back on the worn red rug carelessly thrown down on top of the ridged metal floor of the interior. The interior was modified quite heavily with metal shelving, external battery packs, outdated routers, ethernet cords, and a few pieces of custom hardware. She flipped open her laptop and began plugging away at the mechanical keyboard. She was quickly brute forcing a few of the media streams to the various screens all around Nevereign. Because most of them worked wirelessly it was a matter of matching their frequency and boosting the signal of her van momentarily to get a live feed going into the cities media hubs. She adjusted her webcam to face her.

The screens in Nevereign that showed the controversial discussion of immortality and it's ethics began flickering and began cutting out the signal from her van amping up to it's fullest capability. Large glitch like artifacts ruined the images that populated the city. They all went dark for a moment or two before flickering to life with the distorted image of a hooded figure whose face was hidden by the shadows and a matrix like code melting downwards. The figure began speaking but it was also distorted.

"Hello Nevereign... Hello Corpsec. We are the Dead Mollies. We see you operating in the shadows thwarting the common people's attempts to lead normal lives as the rest of you have for decades now. Let this be a message to Nevereign... and the world. Lazarus... Steele... You are not invincible, and you are not the only one who is capable of changing the game. Let this be a message to the poor and middle class... we are fighting, and we will succeed. Help us take down these corporations by banding together. Protest, riot, spread the word.... anything to help yourselves. We are the champion you've been waiting for and we will stop at nothing to bring these corporations down to their knees. Any news outlet that speaks against us will have their media cut from the world for an entire week. We await the first arrogant. We will not forget you, Dead Mollies- out."

The vans signal cut the transmission and shut off, she leaned forward grabbing both the door handles and shutting them tight.

With that the live news media coverages tuned back onto the screens several of the media spokespeople were either off screen or staring at the cameras with utter confusion. She closed the laptop and turned around crawling between the seats shifting the van into drive and pulling the wireless card from her laptop before sitting in the driver's seat the laptop resting in the passengers. She turned the ignition and drove forward deeper into Nevereign, tossing the wireless card in front of the van and running it over with a satisfying crunch before parking the Van in front of a small local cafe. She pulled a lever located on the side of the seat making it recline, the ancient relic of a gas guzzler was parked dormant next to the curb. She kicked her combat boots up onto her steering wheel and leaned over to the glove box popping it open, where she pulled another wireless card out from 4-5 dozen others. She smacked it into the side of the laptop and re-opened it loging onto the dead mollies site and jotting down a few announcement messages directed towards Lazarus. She grabbed the I'm uncultured resting in the top of her ear placing it between her lips before arching her back and pushing her hand into the pocket of her skinny jeans to retrieve a lighter. She gave it a few flicks but the flame wouldn't light, a few more and it finally flickered. She puffed away on the smoke for a sec before violently throwing the lighter out the manually rolled down window, a loud "POP" was heard. She took the nicotine in inhaling through her nose and closing her eyes, pushing her back against the reclined worn seat of the old van.

"Let's see you deal with this shit storm you piss ants"

She said through a muffled and raspy voice, before exhaling and putting her hands behind her head. Watching the buzz contaminate the dead mollies chat. @0stinato @Mr_DC

DC981

- Hey there.
A text message arrived on Nully's phone.
- Cool broadcast. You hid yourself amazingly well. I actually didn't think we'd find you and that doesn't happen often. Or ever.
- I represent the Bunnies and we meant to contact you before but I guess this is as good of a time as any. We saw your message and just had to say that that was so cool. Just awesome.
- I know you probably don't consider us important but if you don't mind a talk, feel free to track us down. We didn't heavily encrypt our location so just figure it out and come over. I think we can do great things together

HarleyQuip

The punk chick Nully examined the text on her phone then looked into the back of the van.

"Ya fuckin useless pieces of shit... god fuck, you!"

She slammed her head into the top of the reclining chair in pure frustration that she had been tracked at all.

"Time for a fuckin upgrade..."

She put her laptop onto the passenger seat and started the noisy monstrosity once again. Putting her feat down and re-adjusting her seat before driving off away from the cafe. She casually pulled the smoke from her lips between two fingers before grabbing her cell with the same hand; using her knees to steer now she popped the back off and destroyed the SDI card by taking it out, chewing it into pieces and spitting it out the window before tossing the whole phone onto the street running it over and smashing it with the wheels of her van.

She sat back putting her knees down, one hand on the steering wheel. She brought the Van to the side of the road and into a back alley before turning the van off again. She reached over and grabbed another mobile from her glove box powering it on for the first time. She connected it to her laptop and ran an automated jailbreak which scrambled it's IP and wireless signature. She sighed clicking the message button and jotting down a few words after the software was done running.

"Ay need a new brick, updated but still analog. What do you got?"

She waited for a bit before getting a reply her vendor wanted to leave it in a dead drop for her at a privately disclosed location. She agreed and turned the phone off. After a few moments of car alarms, wind, horns, traffic, and the sounds of people flooding the interior she brought the computer over to her lap again. After a few moments she had the location of The Bunnies. She'd need to make a few preps incase anything went wrong during the meetup. She spent the day visiting various resources before she finally was ready.

After she finished installing a home made remotely detonated pipe bomb to the car, that had been sitting in the parking lot of an abandoned apartment for a couple of weeks, that she hotwired she was almost ready. She slid her phone into her pocket and got into the car, popping the dashboard up exposing it's intricate cpu. After a few adjustments with a soldering iron, a few alterations to the cars code she was finally good to go. She took a deep breath and pressed the ignition button.

Nothing

"Ah c'mon ya piece of shit...."

She slammed her first onto the dashboard sending her (luckily) cooled soldering iron flying into the back seat before the car roared to life like a 67' muscle car.

"AHhhhhhhh fuck yeah!"

She shifted the car into drive and floored the gas pedal causing the tires to smoke and screech for a few moments before she sped off to The Bunnies invite location, leaving her Van in the parking lot under some construction tarp. She pulled up on the outskirts of the block their meeting was to take place and turned the vehicle off scooting herself down enough to see past the edge of the door keeping an eye out for anyone. The place was relatively abandoned so anyone here would feel out of place and she'd know it was them. She pulled her hood up with a custom made "Dead Mollies" face mask built into it, that covered her face like a ski-mask.

'Alright, alright where are you?"

She was even speaking with different emphasis on certain syllables sounding more business and robotic like as to hide her real voice.

DC981

The location in question was a small bakery in the office district of the city. The pink storefront and smell of cupcakes didn't fit into the cold steel of the office buildings but it seemed to have a lot of traffic from corporate drones checking the place out in search for something sweet.
A young girl with pink bunny ears and a rather skimpy outfit poked out the front door, hitting an annoyed man in a fine suit with the door who was passing by. She looked straight at the car and waved hyperactively, almost hitting the suited man again. She had an overly enthusiastic look on her face and a tray with colorful cupcakes in one hand. And after just a few waves, she got back into the brightly colored bakery which had a few more bunny girls and boys serving deadly serious customers who hardly fit in with the theme of the place.

(One paragraph... I didn't really know with what more to reply with. Sorry.)

Was the city alive? Could concrete do something akin to breathing despite not having the capacity to do so? Could the fluorescent beams cascading down her hair be watching her somehow, cold and unnerving, while she trudged back towards the Palace with the ringing of people in her ears?

These were the thoughts Ema wondered as she walked back. The weather had taken a slight turn tonight, a chill coming from somewhere and the more narrow streets acted as wind tunnels. Should she walk past them after a gust and she'd feel it breathe out from beneath the buildings towards her. Her hands were rooted in her pockets and her head was down. Despite enjoying her own company more than she enjoyed the company of others, she felt quite alone.

Miky's world was at the Dancer, and it was a world Ema wasn't able to climb into. Miky was fast, mind moving in all directions while Ema struggled to comprehend the significance of something that mightn't be significant at all. So she'd made some excuse and departed from Miky after around five hours.

That was her limit, apparently. Miky seemed somewhat pleased to have been in her company, though Ema wasn't an expert in reading emotions, especially when a face was lit up only by a glowing blue pulse from a floating screen. They'd exchanged mobile numbers and, for a few minutes after she'd got outside, Ema thought she'd made a tentative friend.

That was until she realised how shit she'd been. First of all, in her defensiveness at the beginning of the evening, she'd told both Miky and Fleur that she was male. Yes, Lars was her alter-ego, providing her with more confidence than she would have otherwise, but it wasn't true. And she'd made an excuse to leave the Dancer, rather than living with Miky in her world.

Was she selfish? Was that what the fluorescent lights and the unfriendly buildings were thinking of her as she passed? That she was just another selfish creature, who wanted only for herself and would give back nothing. Try to spend time in someone else's life only to escape back to yours, you worm, you slitherer. Because you like the things your way, you like to do things by your book and no one else's. So run. Run back to your little room at the Palace or better still, hide back at your warehouse. It's where you belong. On your own. You cannot be selfish in your own company, can you?

But she didn't give into her thoughts telling her to run back there. No. She pressed on, step after step, to the Palace. Maybe Fleur was still there with Ira and maybe Ira had got out some smooth liquor. Not that Ema needed nor wanted any more but still, perhaps it'd take the edge off Ira's veiled aggression and Fleur's defensive stance.

Ema didn't know though. A part of her hoped it was just Ira there, just Ira there to listen to the words Ema wouldn't bother saying. She'd come in with hallowed eyes and Ira would know she was paranoid about something. That was a skill Ira had, but it only extended to his sister - he could read her like a novel. Because he created parts of her. He moulded her, practically etched away undesirable parts and replaced them with other undesirable parts.

But Ira would know every facial change. And Ira knew how to treat Ema when she got like this. Don't say a word. Smile, take her coat to hang up for her, but don't try to talk. Tell her when she's ready, he'll listen. And, when she does finally talk, never disagree with her. Always take her side, don't make her feel like her own brother is against her.

Ema's hands clenched into fists. Everything was becoming strangely obvious to her now. All her flaws, all the things that didn't make sense. She wondered why as she crossed a silent part of the road. Why was she so able to eject herself from her emotions and look at them with a raised eyebrow? She could see they didn't make sense but she didn't know why she could see that in the first place.

She opened her mouth to sigh. Best keep these thoughts to herself. If she was going mad, she'd be the only one to spot it.

0stinato

"Turn the lights on." Shark requested. Demanded even. She wanted to know what was making that sound. She wanted to know. Now that Tethys complied by dropping her weapons as well, she would get to see what it was. Right?
"We dropped out weapons." Shark added, looking at where she was certain the sound was coming from. She was about to demand again when the scared voice stuttered again.
"S-sure." She said and, with a click, the room turned bright white.

Shark got blinded as she was straining to find out what was the clockwork mechanism in front of her but she refused to react to it in a dramatic way. As the bright light burned her, she closed her eyes and waited it out. Gave herself time to get used to it. Then she opened her eyes.

They were in a massive server room. The headquarters of the Bunnies right in front of Lazarus' nose. Amazing that they hadn't found them before. However, the servers were dead. No whir of the machines. No blinking lights. No ventilation doing its best to fight the burning heat of the machines. Shark caught all of that with her peripheral vision. Her eyes were focused on the thing in front of her. The utterly beautiful creation.

Made of countless brass pieces, all moving along and doing their own duty, was a model of the city. A highly detailed model. Impossibly complex. So many parts moving, doing something just for the sake of doing it. It was perfect.
Shark wasn't even trying to pick her jaw off the floor. Her perfect posture was quickly abandoned as she took a step closer to the model sprawled across the ground. She looked over it, her mind unable to spend enough attention on every piece that deserved all of her focus. She didn't even realize she was holding her breath since she saw the city until her lungs were burning.

"L-like it?" The nervous voice asked, sounding somewhat satisfied. "I made it myself." She quickly added, still speaking from nowhere in particular. The room, as far as they could tell, was empty. "There's s-s-something about that big collection of p-p-p..." She sighed in frustration. "Pieces that's just so..."
"Perfect." Shark finished.

"Yes." The woman uttered with relief. "Sorry for not having a-a-anything cool to show you, Tethys." She added. "Perhaps you'll l-like it too."

(Changed the location simply because it would feel lazy to keep posting in Lazarus until the end. Also, sorry for the wait.)

This whole room seemed tailor-made for Shark. As Tethys looked at the creation before them, and hearing the stuttering woman's words, it was undoubted this was planned. There was a chance it was simply a huge coincidence; this woman had created a next-tier mini city out of the exact perfection that Shark loved so much just because she liked the design of clockwork too. But Tethys wasn't going to be optimistic about it. The Bunnies definitely were expecting them.

But-- maybe not. Maybe the Bunnies were expecting Shark. The woman had nothing to show Tethys because she hadn't planned on Shark having company. Again, there was a chance that this was not the case, and Tethys didn't want to assume. She merely stood for a few moments in the tick-tock silence, quietly impressed at her processing power.

"It's fine you got nowt to show me, I don't mind. You could go Godzilla on that though, that might be fun."

As soon as the words left her lips, she glanced self-consciously at Shark. Her own thoughts - certainly with no intent behind them - might be insulting. Shark was dumbfounded and silent with awe at this point, and all Tethys could do was joke about destroying it? She bit her lip while trying to remain relaxed, but couldn't stop a Sorry echoing in her head.

Did Shark hear it though? Something was wrong. Instead of feeling like she was thinking words into a vacuum, where they would be sucked away for someone else's mind to hear, it was as if the word had been bounced back. Tethys blinked. Neuralware down? Was it the Bunnies doing this, or was it Lazarus? Either seemed plausible in her mind.

So they were alone here, two lone rangers tasked with the CEO's own desires. And not even that, Tethys was tasked with that desire. Shark was just here because... she was here.

"I don't wanna disturb the moment," Tethys said slowly, mind racing as to how she might possibly carry out this job. At the moment, it did seem as if she'd have to resort to using her arms and hands for the result. Not that that was an issue; with years working on vehicles and outdoing men by opening jars they were struggling with, Tethys felt guilty and confident. Life was essentially training. Training for this.

"I think we have a few more important things to attend to, or didja want to finish yuh Show and Tell part first? It's impressive, sure, but I think this is more of a MosTech thing than a Lazarus thing, don't you think?" she tilted her head.