Futuristic lost in the depths [open]

[wreckitratchel]

NOLAN

Nolan stood hesitantly on the platform, gently tapping his index finger on his right temple to pull up a small display in the corner of his vision. Seven forty-eight. Where was the train? Of course it would be late on the day he'd be fired if he wasn't on time. Punctuality was not his strength, and management had started to notice.

He and most of the population farmed for their home, and if they worked more than what they owned, it went to the following month. A handful of countries had kept cash in circulation, but the Americas had abandoned it completely for virtual currencies. There was money to be made inside of Gafford's Life and Senses Simulation, GLASS, and it connected all the countries, though no one had integrated it so fully into their daily lives as the Americas had.

Nobody wanted to be a farmer, but each family was required to have at one. If there were two farmers in the home, the additional income was converted into virtual currency. The job was created out of necessity; humanity was slowly dying of starvation. They barely maintained the population as it was, and babies were being born every day. Even limiting families to one child didn't help; people continued to have children under the radar. Each country slowly began to implement mandatory interviews before pregnancy, and complete genetic modification to ensure the best possible human specimen was heavily recommended.

There was the train. Finally. He pulled his head out of the clouds and checked the time. Twenty minutes late.

The oddly quiet, hulking machines were solar-powered but this one was still run-down. Each car had graffiti, though most of it was in grayscale. Color was a rarity, and anyone who had it wouldn't be wasting it on the side of a train car. Nolan noted the new masterpiece on the third one down had small touches of blue. He smiled.

"Too bad you can't do stuff like that," a sudden voice said.

Nolan checked for people around him; the two women also waiting were absorbed in themselves.

"Not now," he responded softly, keeping an eye on the women in his peripherals. They didn't notice him, "I just want a normal day."

"That sounds like a you problem," the voice was full of youth and sarcasm. Nolan groaned quietly, pressing his nails into the pads of his thumbs, knowing that when he turned his head, there would be a young boy standing next to him. He kept his gaze in front of him, willing the apparition to leave, "I'm not going anywhere today, you need me!"

There was a tiny touch on his hand, and he looked down to see fingers intertwining with his and a headful of messy blonde hair leaning against his arm. Nolan sighed and accepted the hand holding; sometimes he needed his hallucinations as much as they needed him. He enjoyed the odd moment of peace.

It was dramatically shattered by a loud crash and a man suddenly sprinting headlong towards the speeding train. Nolan felt his heart drop into his stomach and immediately ran after him, yelling, screaming, reaching his arms out, and stretching his fingers as far as he could until he barely managed to grab the edge of -

Nothing.

He stopped abruptly, rolling his ankle and falling to the ground, staring at his hands.

A small crowd had gathered around him.

"Why aren't you helping him?" He shouted in shock, pushing himself to his knees but his feet giving out immediately, "Go fucking help him!" Adrenaline surged through him, and he stood, looking for the man who had desperately tried to end his life. There was no one. He didn't understand. The people around him looked concerned, but most had their holographic recorders pulled up through their implanted heads-up-display.

Nolan felt the panic creeping in like vines in his gut. Don't freak out, just don't freak out, he breathed in for four counts, tried to hold it for seven but never made it past three. He saw two young men joking, recording his meltdown, and he felt his willpower give way. He squeezed his nails into the palms of his hands and let out a guttural cry that shocked the closest onlookers into taking several steps back.

"Get. Away. From. Me."

The people all looked at each other and dispersed slowly, knowing there were two distinct types of crazy. Dangerous or not.
A trickle of blood leaked from his hand from where his nails bit into skin. He felt dangerous. A monster lived inside of him, and it was starving. He yelled at the crowd, screaming obscenities and threats. The edges of his vision blurred, his whole being giving way to the devil in him. He wanted to run, ram his head through a window, break his own fingers. Every intrusive thought he'd ever had was at the forefront of his mind.

Before he could grab the nearest object to hurl at the crowd, he felt his arms being grasped and yanked behind him. He fought against the detainment but felt the quick jab of a needle in his neck. It only took a few seconds for him to feel numb around the edges, and less than a minute before he lost consciousness.

 

[wreckitratchel]

PERSEPHONE

The gentle alarm intermingled into her dreams. She barely noticed snoozing it, but the second alarm was less kind. It interrupted her sleepy stories with a loud blaring and, finally, she left the world of dreams and her snoring husband behind. Her feet dangled over the edge of the simple gray double bed while she stretched and yawned. The metal floor was cool against her feet, and she could feel the ocean move beneath her.

They had barely swindled their way into this house, and she was still in the honeymoon phase. It wasn't perfect, but it was theirs and almost no one could take it away from them. In the corner of the bedroom, a stack of crates was still waiting to be unpacked. With a final twist of her spine, she walked into the kitchen and pressed her thumb against the button with a friendly coffee cup on it.
It chirped happily, "Good morning, Persephone! Looks like you had a poor night of sleep. I'll add a shot of espresso to your coffee. Is that okay?"

"Yes, please."

In a short thirty seconds, the clear divider slid up and Percy took her steaming cup. As always, she thanked the A.I. With the way technology was developing, A.I.'s would have their own rights before long. Being nice to them was her way of ensuring survival.
She pulled herself out of a winding train of thought and sipped the coffee, letting it burn the tip of her tongue knowing the nanobots in her blood would take care of the minor damage. They had done most of the work since 2070, and in the last hundred and fifty years, they'd developed enough to make medical doctors nearly irrelevant.

Nearly.

Persephone thought of all the dangerous stunts she'd pulled as a teenager. It was a trend, a fad, to see how much damage your nanos could heal before you had to be sent to a doctor. Humans, if practically immortal, could be so stupid. She chuckled at herself, pulled her mind back into the real world once more, and went to check on her daughter. The seven-year-old, little Nova, slept soundly, snoring softly. Percy's heart swelled.

The girl turned towards her and opened her eyes, "Waffles?"

Persephone laughed and crossed the room, leaning down to kiss her daughter's forehead, "Anything you want, bug."
She heard her husband stirring and went in to say good morning.

"I'm about to make breakfast, do you want some?" she asked, kissing him and running her fingers lovingly through his long hair. He told her no, thank you, that he may sleep in another minute before getting ready for work, and she gave him one last kiss before retreating to the kitchen.

Her life had come together in a way she'd never anticipated. Growing up in a family that couldn't find a way to love each other, she assumed love was for celebrities and movies. When she found her husband, she was floored, and when they found out they were pregnant, she felt like she must have been in a body that wasn't her own. How could she, a woman that barely had a friend, have a family that loved her unconditionally? That loved her through her mental episodes, and through the times she'd had to spend in a hospital because she didn't feel real… her mind wandered.

Again.

She left waffles at the table for Nova and went to her desk in the living room. A slender bar sat on it, about a foot long and two inches wide, and she held her hand above it. It scanned her palm and pulled up a screen with personalized updates. It gave her information on the jobs she was currently running and new ones available. She thumbed through various screens and selected a few different options before tapping both sides of her temple in a specific pattern.

A pair of holographic glasses formed over her eyes and she leaned back in her seat, getting comfortable as she entered GLASS, a world within her world.

The lobby was always the same, no matter where someone logged in. A large hotel lobby with high ceilings, chandeliers, and a large arcing staircase with a velvet carpet in the middle greeted each player. Percy smiled. There was money to be made in every corner, and not in the annoying ads or pyramid schemes. One ad approached her now, quickly, with a sign in his hand and a determined face.

Percy turned on her heel and went up the stairs, where they weren't allowed. She sneered at him, knowing he missed out on his "I at least tried" payment. Working advertisements wasn't bad, not if you went with the right company, but she knew other ways to make cash. She continued down the infinite hallways until she found her room. Everyone with an avatar had a room in the lobby, somewhere to stash loot and somewhere no one else could get in. Not unless invited.

There was no password or lock – it only opened for the right palm print.

Inside was decorated minimally. Without her child, she wasn't sure of her own tastes. The only thing she was sure of was color. In the real world, color was rare – wall to wall was gray, white, black, or somewhere in between. There wasn't a shred of gray in her hotel room. Her husband, contrary to her, had a room that was all varying shades of gray with huge splashes of color. They were very different. He accepted life as it was dealt to him, where she manipulated variables to get a specific result.

In her room, she checked the papers on the wall that were cycling through more available gigs. She grasped two and put them in a satchel she had grabbed. She threw in a few more knickknacks from the shelves – cartoonish potions and large weapons, all falling into the black hole of a bag. Finally, she took a purple crayon from her bag and drew a circle around her. Once completed, a bright light burst through the color and enveloped her. When the light was gone, so was she.

The rest of the day was spent grinding for pennies and dimes, but in the end, she felt gratified in the work she'd done. Her husband had gotten their daughter logged into virtual school, and she was finishing up as Persephone came into her miniature, personalized office. Children were educated inside of GLASS so most parents created a designated schoolroom with their gear.

"Ready for a snack? Dad should be home soon."

Her daughter nodded and embraced her, then went to check the homework she had while Persephone prepared food. The kitchen did most of the work, but there were options to make cooking more manual. Percy appreciated the help; cooking was not her strength.

When her husband returned, she gave him a long hug. In a world where nothing felt real, it was always him and Nova that brought her back to the present. He smiled and brushed a stray hair from her face, "How was your day?"

"Could've been worse," she said, pulling away and going to put her running shoes on, "I need to run though, the M&E broke again."

The movement and exercise machine was required with every virtual reality to ensure no muscle deterioration due to the lack of movement. Both GLASS and the M&E were provided to every household at no cost, though replacements and upgrades were bought out of pocket.

“I should've called a technician the first time – that video made it look so fucking easy…" her husband cursed and grumbled but went into the office to look at the damage he'd done the first time trying to fix it, "I love you!" he called out when he heard the elevator doors engage.

"Love you guys!" she yelled back as the doors closed.

She watched the ocean go by her as the clear elevator slowly brought her to the surface.

The fog lifted in her mind once the sun touched her skin. She had less than an hour until it set, but any earlier and the heat made it unbearable to run. Starting slow, she set off in a mild jog, letting her lungs adjust to the real air. She took steady breaths, enjoying the racing of her heart and the sweat forming on her skin.

The city passed by in a blur; signs and advertisements barking at her to buy the next greatest invention. People moved in listless herds, the heat of the day apparent in their burnt faces. The only ones outside at this hour were the ones who had been outside all day. Farming for their lives, for their children’s lives, for their grandchildren’s lives, if the world lasted that long.

After forty minutes, on the last stretch, she ran faster.

Her eyes looked towards the horizon.

Was that a helicopter?

Two helicopters?

The lights from a siren caught her eye.

No.

She sprinted harder.

People were running, shoving, yelling.

No. No…

She pushed violently through the crowd.

No, please, no…

The screams got higher, full of terror. She ran to the edge of the water and jumped in without thinking. It felt amazing against her hot skin but she didn't notice.

She was shaking.

She couldn't breathe.

Her body belonged to someone else.

She dove down into the water, deep, until her lungs couldn't hold any longer. When she surfaced she took the deepest breath she ever had and let out a guttural cry. She dove down again, searching, praying. She swam deeper, as far as she could go until the water consumed her. They couldn't be gone.

This wasn't real.

None of this was real.

She saw the helicopters and the boats pulling out bodies.

Dead.

They were all dead.

Every single one.

She dove back down and let the water bury her. Her chest burst with pain. She stayed down. Maybe they could pull her up dead too, but her body wouldn't let her die. It floated to the top, and she lay there, motionless, eyes staring down into the ruins of her life.

 

[Shadow Dancer]

Marcus

Marcus smiled as the hot dry wind whipped across his face as he bounced from rooftop to rooftop in his head he heard the cheers of people that weren't there. He arrived at his home not long after and with a thought the timer in his sight stopped. "Ten minutes fifty-three seconds beat the old record for escaping a robbery almost gone wrong by ten seconds how about that?" Marcus frowned "Though it still took about an hour to go thirty miles. I'd need an upgrade to the muscle, heart and lung enhancements. That would require some serious favors. I had to do a fucking crazy ass set of jobs to get good enhancements in the first place." Marcus was talking to himself as far as anyone was concerned but in his head he felt he had an audience watching him.

The auditory hallucinations started when he was eighteen, after high school during his first job. It was a simple matter, run some highly illegal drugs ten miles away before night fall. Marcus had the drugs delivered and got his payment when a turf war broke out. Of course the rival gang that was there for the dealer assumed that he was part of the gang so he was pulled in to the conflict as well. Thankfully he was used to fights with other kids and learned how not to have his ass beat by the time he was in high school turns out orphans are popular punching bags for kids not in a too much better state themselves.

So using his amazing skills of using a piece of broken concreate as a bludgeon against much bigger men while avoiding taking a clean punch or as he called it "streetfu" he managed not getting himself cut up by the three attackers and even got a hundred more VC as a thanks and even an invite to the gang. Marcus refused the invite but still exchanged numbers with the man who said he would call if more jobs came up. That was when Marcus suddenly heard cheering and congratulations coming from nowhere.

From that moment on Marcus heard the voices of several people men and women alike. For a month afterwards he would jump every time a voice or cheer sounded out. After that he got used to it, and at times speak to the voices deciding if he was crazy he might as well embrace it.


Marcus took a case out of his pocket and opened it up inside was a chip that was worth over a hundred thousand VC and a trip out of a city and into a decent home where a tech collage was. All he had to do was get the chip to his client. It was then a voice in his head screamed "Watch out!" His eyes got blurry and he saw a man in a suit pick up the case saying "Package secure!"

Marcus's last thoughts were of how he would find and strangle the damn client.

 

[wreckitratchel]

Both Nolan and Persephone were frequent fliers in psychiatric wards, but neither of them had visited this specific one before. It was a little less general population and more suited towards people with more… acute illnesses and trauma. The craziest of the crazies. He’d been here three days.

Breakfast was always the same. The same shuffling of sleepy feet, the same eggs, the same… Nolan lost his train of thought while poking at his scrambled eggs and eyeing his toast suspiciously. Half of it was burnt, and he didn’t see any butter. They must still have human cooks. Robots were much more skilled than this.

The only other man sharing his table looked like he’d had a worse night than him, and he eyed him the same as he did the toast. In these places, you either made friends, or you didn’t. Nolan flipped from one to the other each time he was admitted. This time, he was leaning towards friendly.

“Percy,” he said suddenly, stopping Persephone in her tracks with her tray. She moved to sit with them but after a quiet ‘good morning’ she didn’t speak. Nolan didn’t push her and turned his attention toward the newcomer, “I’m Nolan. This is Persephone. She just loves to talk.”

She shot him a withering look but managed a smile, “It's Percy. Just absolutely peachy to meet you. Or however the fuck that phrase goes.”

 

[Shadow Dancer]

Marcus had arrived at the psycho ward the evening before. After waking up on a bed that managed to be barely better than just sleeping on concreate he was escorted to the dining hall. He quickly got the memo and moved to the line for food and after grabbing a tray he walked over to a random table and sat down.

Looking around the plain room then back at his eggs and toast with a frown he started eating when chairs shuffled and a voice called out. Marcus looked up to see a man and woman take their place at the table. The woman gave a quiet good morning and the man gave the pairs names Nolan and Persephone for the man and woman respectively. After an easier to hear if seemingly reluctant introduction from the woman Marcus decided to keep his manners never hurt to have acquaintances .

"I see, names Marcus nice to meet you both." Marcus took a bite of the eggs and sighed, it was clear the eggs were synthetic and worse they were dry and he had a feeling the toast wasn't much different. "Didn't think I could find something worse then fast food scraps in the trash but I guess I was wrong." Marcus thought aloud out of habit, his head was filled with a few chuckles from his imaginary passengers.

 

[wreckitratchel]

“Oh, trash food,” Persephone said happily, pushing her eggs around her plate as nearly every other patient was, “Maybe that’s where they got this, it’d make more sense that someone purposefully making it and giving it to us,” her tone quickly took on an irritated edge and she shoved the plate away from her. Looking for a distraction, and feeling the effect of the cocktail of medicine in her blood, she became more talkative than she had been in the last few days, “So, Marcus, how’d you get here? Kill someone and blame it on the voices? Just kidding, that’s Chuck,” she said, laughing and glancing at another rather large man sitting alone.

“She’s joking,” Nolan said quickly, suddenly feeling hungry and eating his food, then pushing his tray away to finish Persephone’s. A tech came around to tell him that wasn’t allowed, and both the trays were taken away, “And you don’t have to tell us why you’re here,” he added, with an awkward smile, “I’m a habitual fuck-up, and this is just my new vacation home. I’m also addicted to psychedelics and have a little man living in my pupil. It’s great.”

 

[Shadow Dancer]

Marcus took another bite of his eggs deciding if he should share his story, "Stole a microchip from a research lab escaped and headed home before I met the client at the drop point. Turns out the client didn't want to pay for my service so he sent a strike team to knock me out and take the chip and I guess sent me here to rot." Marcus kept out the whole voices in his head thing seeing as it didn't matter.

Marcus soon finished his eggs and the toast wishing he had a glass of water for how dry the breakfast was. "So what is the schedule around here and dose this place have a gym?"

 

[wreckitratchel]

Persephone listened, knowing everyone left out pieces of their story and that prying never did any good. People did get sent here to be put out of the picture, so to speak. If you're crazy, no one listens to you, "A microchip, huh? It must have been important," she paused, "Or expensive?"

"Stop, I can already tell you're a klepto, and I've only known you three days."

"Whatever," she pushed her feet forward and hunched in her chair, "Breakfast at eight, then we hang around while the doctor sees everyone. At ten is the first group, it's not required, but they know when you're not there. Then lunch, more fucking groups, phone time, dinner, down time. There's a gym; it's small, but it's the only exercise you'll get in here unless you wanna walk laps around the floor."

Nolan interjected, "This place is better than most."

"Still makes me feel crazier than I am," she looked at Marcus, "You may get that, after a few days in here you start to question everything."

 

[Shadow Dancer]

Marcus rested his hand on his chin. It seemed to him phone time and down time were the only periods he would have to himself the rest he would be expected to arrive at or forced. It would be quite some time before he could map the place and figure out the guards. "Thanks for the info Percy, I'll have to keep the gym in mind, need to keep myself in shape."

Marcus grinned, "Don't worry about my sanity I'll be fine."

Marcus looked to Nolan, "So about the quality of this place, how is it better then most? I never made it a point to visit asylums."

Marcus thought about if he would bring these two along when he got himself out and so far he decided he found the pair interesting and not as insane as being in an asylum would normally indicate.

 

[wreckitratchel]

Both Persephone and Nolan groaned, but Nolan was the first to explain, "Most places you can't go outside, or smoke, or the food is somehow even worse than this. Showers and phone calls are incredibly limited. Ugh, there's a lot," he stopped himself, feeling his reality fade for a moment. He knew too much about places like this - he'd been to all different kinds. Persephone, she'd been maybe twice; even when her family was alive, she wasn't the most stable.

Percy could feel Marcus scheming. Someone like him, and her as well, always knew the quickest way out. She knew this time she'd be here indefinitely, and if she ever wanted to have a life, she'd have to escape. Escaping this ward couldn't be accomplished on her own, and Marcus clearly had the right skill set. She glanced at Nolan. He was chewing on his own fingernails. He had something useful, but she wasn't quite sure what.

[ooc: I may pause for a minute after your reply - I think we have two other people joining soon~]

 

[Shadow Dancer]

Marcus failed to hide his surprise, these places could get so much worse with how barebones this place was. The thought only served to motivate him to make his stay a very temporary one, then find the client and pay the little bastard a very enthusiastic visit. Feeling quite done talking for the moment his eyes scanned the room taking note of the guards and general staff. It seemed that the guards were quite relaxed some even staring off into nothing probably on a neural device.

Marcus decided to try his own device though as expected nothing responded, well more to say it responded to his command but he couldn't do anything with it.

 

[Stricken Steel]

Adam sat silently in the ether of cyberspace, The AI listened in onto a neural network scanner, deciding who to choose. Suddenly, a signal---several signals popped up on his radar, a hard-locked neural device was activated but could do nothing.
He pulled up the all the owners' identity's, fanning through every single file of theirs in a split second.
"You all will do." The AI remarked to itself, easily breaking past the lock and firewall, connecting to all three interfaces'.
"Ahem, Hallo there." A mysterious voice spoke to only the three, as if it were inside their heads. A bluish emoji-like picture would show up on the top-left corner of each person's view, glitching out every few seconds---like a century's old VCR tape.

 

[wreckitratchel]

At the same moment, Persephone and Nolan exchanged a look.

“You’re hearing this too?” Persephone whispered. She’d hallucinated plenty, but never anything inside her actual interface. With a shudder, she debated reality for a moment, then responded to the voice, the irony not lost on her, “Em...hello?”

Nolan sat in silence, refusing to answer. He sat with disbelief in moments like this, and he turned his attention to Marcus, “Did you hear it?”

 

[Shadow Dancer]

Marcus was knocked out of his thoughts with the sudden intrusion. "I heard it as well, I doubt it is a auditory hallucination unless three people can have the same one at the same time. Do either of you see the icon in your vision where a caller portrait would be?"

 

[Stricken Steel]

"Ah! Hello there, I am ADAM, an old NASA AI. I have a proposition for you all! If i help you out of this asylum, Will you help me?" The voice asked, the portrait quickly switched to a smile.
"In the end, I will help you get anything you want or need. Credits, land, cars, women!" The AI spoke.
"And if you think this is an Illusion or hallucination, Then you wouldn't be hearing me call you all right now. I will unlock your neural interfaces for now, but be careful, if someone busts you I cannot help. Now, Would you all like to help or no?"

 

[ChaiLatte]

Fingers cradled the tray of food in front of her as if it were a security blanket. She hated being late to mealtimes, group sessions, and all the fun activities within these walls. Being early made it easier to secure a position in one of the corners and listen in if and when you wanted. Being late meant you had to find a seat somewhere amongst everyone else, usually in the places that people were trying to avoid. The angry, the unsettling, the prone-to-violence, the having-an-off-day… and the newbies. You could never tell what you were going to get with new arrivals.

It’d been a little over a month since Maddison’s own arrival to the ward. The estimated timeline of her stay was still to-be-determined. Though to be honest, it didn’t look promising. She wasn’t exactly a model patient. She tried to keep to herself most of the time, being wary around people as most of her life she wasn’t even really her own person. Her twin was the face for the two of them, and while they had tried to share the attention between the two by giving them each days to sign into GLASS or go into town, she always felt as if she were playing the part of her sister. It was always Addy.

Not that she minded. Addy was the good sibling. Everyone liked her, she was great at everything she did, and she never got them in trouble. Until the day something went horribly wrong. Maddison still didn’t know what had happened to get them caught. Had her sister let something slip while she was working, or had someone noticed something different about her when she made a trip outdoors? Whatever it was, Addy had taken all the responsibility on herself, and after they came and took their father from them, the guilt destroyed her…

Leaving Maddison all on her own. With her own identity. But who was she without pretending to be her sister? Without any family left to ask. Without Addy by her side…

“Stop sulking.”

The tray in Maddison’s hands shook, and she stared at the eggs quivering on the plate to steady herself. It was just Addy. She’d be lying if she said she hated when she started hearing her sister’s voice in her head. It was the other, unknown voices that had started speaking up that she feared. The ones that she thought her sister had been making up.

'I’m not sulking, I’m deciding…' she spat back in her mind, and she could imagine the exaggerated eyeroll of her twin. Her own eyes glanced about the room looking at the remaining open seats. There was Chuck, who everyone avoided; Missy and Mister, or at least that’s what they called themselves, who liked to bicker and bring people into their arguments before they started either punching each other or making out ("Gross" she could hear her sister say); and then three of the newer patrons…

“Better press your luck with them before the techs catch on.”

Of course her imaginary dead sister was right. Sparing a quick glance at the tech who had escorted her here in the first place when she had been running late, Maddison made her way over to the table with the trio who seemed to be too preoccupied to notice her taking a nonchalant, quiet seat at the very edge of the table… until she set her tray down with an unintentionally loud 'thump'. "Sorry," she offered weakly to them before shrinking even further into the corner and staring down at her eggs again.

 

[wreckitratchel]

Nolan squirmed in his seat uncomfortably. He'd had vivid hallucinations before, and he'd shared them with others, too, but now that he thought about it, psychedelics were generally involved. He glanced at Persephone, her angular features frozen in awe. Trust was neither of their strengths, but Percy seemed willing to sell her soul to get out.

"I'm in if you are," she finally said to Nolan.

He paused for a while, digesting the options and possibilities. What was the worst that could happen? He'd end up somewhere worse than this, but he'd survived that before.

"I'm in, but-"

A woman suddenly slouched into a seat at the table, and Nolan stopped mid disagreement. He grasped for some normal conversation but came up blank and wound up staring, slack-jawed. Caught mid-scheme was clearly not one of Nolan's strengths either.

Thankfully, Persephone was quicker on her feet and feeling manic from the idea of escape, "Hi, I'm Percy. This is Nolan," she paused, a smirk forming on her lips, "He just loves to talk."

 

[Shadow Dancer]

Marcus heard the AI introduce itself and he was immediately put off by the ambiguous terms of 'help you and you help me.' He had a few times where those terms almost landed him dead in a ditch. Just as he was about to respond to the AI his attention was brought away with a 'thump'. Marcus turned to see a woman taking a seat at the table. Percy introduced herself and Nolan in much the same way Nolan did to him.

For the sake of being polite he raised his hand and spoke, "Marcus"

 

[Stricken Steel]

"Of course! Nolan, You want to set terms of agreement?" The AI predicted, seemingly all of the chosen three were suddenly interrupted.
"I detect another interface. Hmm, Quite unusual profile." ADAM remarked aloud, connecting to the new user.
"Hello there! I'm an old NASA AI, ADAM. If I help you out of here will you help me? It is quite important to me, and I can offer anything to further your compensation. We do not have much time, Maddison."
The AI broke the hard-lock on the woman's neural interface, and a small bluish smily face-like portrait appeared in the corner of her vision.

 

[wreckitratchel]

Nolan flustered, but since he was surrounded by delusion, he figured it didn't matter if one more person thought he was actually insane.

"Terms of agreement-" he started, then paused to look at Maddison, "I'm just gonna assume here that you're hearing this voice too, and just to catch you up, yes, we all hear it," then he turned to Marcus, "You seem reasonable, unlike the rest of us - terms of agreement, how can we make sure he doesn't just kill us in the end?" he stumbled anxiously and said to ADAM, "And don't you fucking dare say 'you'll just have to trust me'."

Persephone interjected, "I think I'm the most sound of mind here - no offense, Marcus, I just don't know what your... deal is yet - and I say we trust him. It. Him," she stopped, then looked back at the newcomer to the table, "What about you, new girl? What's your take?"

 

[ChaiLatte]

Manners. That was new. Unexpected.

“You should learn from them.”

Clearing her throat to shake away her sister from her mind, Maddison lifted her gaze to meet the woman who'd been kind enough to speak to her. “Percy,” she repeated, voice hoarse with morning grogginess. “No-oh-” she stammered when she turned to see the slack-jawed man staring at her, “-lan.” Her brows furrowed as she regarded him a moment longer, thankful that the other man at the table joined in the introductions. “And Marcus.”

She studied each of their faces before introducing herself. “Addi-” yikes, some habits were hard to break,” Maddison. I’m Maddison.” As far as introductions went, that hadn’t gone too terribly. Her shoulders slightly relaxed and she glanced back down at her breakfast.

Then she audibly gasped when the AI’s voice intruded her mind, hands gripping the table in front of her. Addy’s voice in her head was one thing, but others tended to freak her out. But this… seemed different. It addressed her more clearly, conversationally. She focused on their words and contemplated silently.

She’d almost forgotten the others were there until they addressed her. So they were hearing it too? At Percy’s question, her eyes darted up to the others around the room. At the tables, they were going about their business and breakfast as usual, and the techs seemed to be doing their normal surveillance. Nothing else seemed out of the ordinary. Letting go of her grip on the table, she turned back to Percy, addressing her and refusing to acknowledge ADAM. “Trust? No.” A dry laugh left her. “But it did say we don’t have much time. I’m not sure what that means, but,” she peeked over at two of the techs who were having a conversation across the room, “I’m not sure I want to stick around to find out.”

 

[Stricken Steel]

"Nolan, If I were to kill you in the end I would fail my ultimatum. My goal. My mission. I wish you were to listen respectfully. Treat me as a fellow human, as my mindset is the scan of the human consciousness. I carry the memories of a man who died well over a century ago, memories that deserve respect." The AI started.
"The last three centuries you have spent using up the earth to its limits, yes? This is very obvious: Earth is dying. Many months ago I awoke from deep sleep, to find out the Earth is mere years from dying, that is why you all do not have much time. I calculate at most twenty years. If you all fail me, I would be forced to..." ADAM hesitated for a moment. "...wipe the slate clean. I would prefer that humanity flourishes for centuries to come, not die out like the dinosaurs. So please, cooperate with me here. I want to help you all, and wish to see to your payment."

 

[Shadow Dancer]

Marcus laughed, he really found the situation funny the AI if it was correct or serious said in twenty years the earth would be fucked and if they didn't magically unfuck everything the AI for the sake of the planet would nuke every human more then likely fucking the fucked world anyway in hopes of saving it. On top of that they help it or escaping was going to be hard if it didn't just decided too make that impossible as well

"So your saying that the earth will be toast in twenty years if things aren't magically fixed by your great and flawless plan and also if we don't help you will pull the damn trigger on nukes in hope that it helps and it isn't hundreds of years too late for even that to work then you have the audacity to say we have a fucking choice if we help or not while putting a gun to our heads."

Marcus calmed down his laughter drawing attention before he was once again ignored. "Don't feed me that benevolent savior bullshit!" Marcus growled his voice lowered so only the group could hear. "You know what, I'll help on the condition you drop the damn pretense, you have a gun to my head If I want to live I help, if I refuse you press big red buttons and the world goes in nuclear hellfire. Just tell me the damn plan and help me out of here. I'll help you and maybe you can help me find the fucker that sent me here so I can put him in a grave.

 

[wreckitratchel]

"Maddison," Percy repeated with a smile, starting to reach out her hand for a shake but deciding against. God, she was not a social butterfly. Fortunately, the AI took over the conversation before she could do any bumbling, like Nolan, who still was learning that sneaky was a concept.

The Earth is dying...I would have to wipe the slate clean.

The words echoed in Nolan's mind with a horrifying realization that ADAM was right. Humanity was a disease on Earth's skin, and she desperately tried to rid herself of the infection. He'd always thought that. He opened his mouth to agree, but Marcus' laugh cut off his words. He grinned awkwardly, wondering if he missed a joke, but there was no joke. The man was on a rampage. Nolan got those, too, and he admired the passion behind his words. And the need for a little revenge, clearly.

"If he's in, then I'm in," Nolan said, instead of relaying his similar thoughts on Earth's lifepan.

"If he's in, then I'm in," Persephone repeated with a laugh, then turned to Maddison, "I know you're new, but...?"

 

[ChaiLatte]

So the Earth had an expiration date?

Twenty years. That was a few years over how long she'd been alive. Longer than she'd been hidden away and living the life under her sister's identity. She wasn't sure how to feel about any of this, really.

Marcus, on the other hand, seemed to have quite the opinion. One that almost caught the attention of onlookers, but then again, they were in a house full of insanity. To err on the safe side, she started laughing as if he were making some joke. "The audacity!" Honestly she just wanted to keep prying ears off of them.

As things seemed to settle down between the group, she glanced back at Persephone. For some reason, she felt as if she could... not exactly trust her, because that wasn't her M.O. But. If she was going along with this madness, then she supposed she could, too. Besides, her sister would probably have trusted her. "Alright, ADAM," she did not hide the bitterness in her tone, but if he wanted to be treated as a fellow human, he'd have to get used to that from Maddison anyway. "What exactly do you have in mind?"