ROLEPLAY HQ - missed-the-mark-monolith

A short but bright flash fell back into a semi-transparent sphere of black energy. Inside a figure gasped and reached for the edge, there was a crackle and the energy disrupted in a series of bolts. The black sphere popped open and dropped the figure gracelessly onto the unrecognized ground. He landed on all fours, blonde hair peeked out of black glossy armor in two layers. The figure breathed hard as though he'd ran a great distance. The same bolts that the sphere had decayed into before popping formed around the armor, it retracted into a glass-like sphere that clinked as it landed below his chest. His hair, no longer bound by the armor, spilled down completely around his face, long enough to reach almost to his butt, and a pale blonde that almost seemed bleached though it was in fact his natural color. He opened pale blue eyes almost gray and took one hand to push his hair out of his face. He pushed with his other hand and dropped into a seated position. He grabbed the glass sphere with confusion on his face, he held it to his face and looked deep into it as though trying to will something to happen. Nothing happened. He looked more confused, he held it to his face, as if expecting to feel something unusual, but it was just cold, and looked like glass though it probably wasn't as it didn't have any scratches after landing on the ground. It was a cloudy black, semi-transparent, like an oversized childs marble or boulder perhaps 2 and a half inches in diameter. As he put the marble in one of his slacks pockets, he pulled out an old but sturdy looking flip phone- No Service. "Well at least thats not a surprise," he said at last.

Nyx saw a light, and strange sounds came to her ears. She gracefully danced along the rails of the scaffolding, going to investigate. Hopefully this was some new corpo-tech that she could get the scoop on. She’d been hoping to spot something near these business buildings for a while. Her normal broker was out of commission and jobs and tips had been scarce lately. Hopefully Gail would be back soon, but she wasn’t sure about that. She was confused as she saw a young man. Long bleach-blonde hair, looking at an ancient piece of retro-tech. Like he expected that to work? Why was he carrying it with him? What was that black thing he slid into his pocket? She decided to make her way down and talk to him. What’s the worst that could happen? She was good at climbing and running, her face was hidden in a black mask, and she knew how to defend herself. She hopped down and made herself known by clearing her throat. “Are you lost bud?” she asked, studying him curiously. Her hair was hidden under a hood, but her eyes were dark green gems in the sea of black clothing and shadows. She was hesitant to take the hood and mask off, in case he wasn’t particularly friendly. Her hair and eyes made her easy to recognize, and she liked to hide herself when she could. At least untill she knew there wasn’t any danger. (edited)

! Possible triggers or Warnings: NSFW

Aric smirked, stifling a snort of a small laugh. "Lost, yes, I think that might be the word," he sucked in a deep breath dramatically. He had a purple, silk, button down shirt he tugged at before he pushed himself to his feet and stood. He closed the phone and slipped it back in his pocket, he reached across his chest as if he was expecting something else to be there. He looked back over at her. "So ah- this may sound weird depending on how screwed I am, but what year is this?"

"2107." Nyx sounded confused, and had a kind of tone that implied that he should know this. "Why would you be screwed? You're in a decent part of town all things considered." She said, wondering who he was and where he thought he was. "What year do you think it is?" She glanced around, wanting to get off the street. "If you want to continue this, lets get out of plain sight. Corpos are paranoid, and these are some of their main offices."

Aric made a smacking sound with his lips, "Well, lead the way," he motioned for her to do so. As he followed, "Kind of Ironic I left 2000 for 1985 and end up in a future that sounds like 1984, or has that book been banned into oblivion Farenhiet 151 style," he snorted in amusement at his own joke, really just trying to take in everything. He clenched his right fist and then looked around as though he expected something to happen. He quicked his pace to the nearest large shadow and clenched his fist again and closed his eyes for a second as if using his other senses. Then looked around confused again before returning to Nyx, "Oh yeah, I'm so screwed." He took a deep breath and held out his hand with two fingers extended again as if expecting something. "Nope," he said after a moment, "Not just outta juice. I thought the armor might have just been too spent to even retreat back into me, but I guessing the entire laws of physic must work a little different here." He frowned, "Plus side, no more crazy magic-using psychopaths trying to steal my shit or tap me like a battery...?" He sighed, "So tell me about these Corpos, if I'm gonna annoy them it might as well be on purpose eh?"

Nyx looked totally confused, and bewildered. "1984, Farenheight 451? What are you on man? And what do you mean left 2000? " Then he started clenching his hands and sticking his hands into thin air as of something was going to happen. Rambling about armor, and batteries. She held up her hands, taking a step back. "Whatever braindance you took, count me out." Then he asked about corpos. "Corpos......Corporate employees? They work for Bosanko, and Adonai. They own this tower. Their name is on literally everything...." she said, kicking a nearby trashcan with the orange logo of the construction conglomerate Bosanko, and the red and black logo of the pharmaceutical titan Adonai splashed on the side. (edited)

"Braindance? 100 years to run out of all the cool names for stupid shit people do to kill themselves one dose at a time?" Aric scoffed. He looked around himself in a short twirl, "Okay then skeptic, how you explain a weirdo in what I assume is dated as hell clothes out of nowhere? Then again men's fashion can't have changed that much, and probably repeats in semi-predicatable patterns?" He thwacked his knuckles against the trashcan, "What do you think I meant, I mean I asked for a favor from an aunt that's already tried to kill me once to basically take a crapload of power and shotgun me through time, apparently the wrong way- and sideways..."

Nyx shook her head. "You look like a trancer with some retro-tech, hallucinating like crazy." she admitted. She thought about it though. "You really have no idea where you are, or what century you're in, do you?" she said, narrowing her eyes. "What comes to mind when I say Godspire, or Monolith?"

He shrugged, "Card games? Fantasy Towers with flaming floating eyes or rampaging monkeys in space- all of which is probably lost media by now? Frankly the Cellphone was military issue and a gift from a friend, was supposed to connect to secret military satellites?" He scratched his head, "So 1984 doesn't ring a bell? God I hope it's not that bad here, I really don't need to be guilted into overthrowing a dystopic goverment... especially when I'm not magically enhanced to punch tanks anymore, hell, I don't even know if the crazy ancient quasi-mystic martial arts I was studying are worth a damn here when I can't even activate what should be existing enchantments, let alone actual spells." He sighed, "So, how bad is it? We sound like we're well past presidents denying blowjobs...?" (edited)

Nyx let out a heavy sigh. "Cellphones are obsolete. The corps run the satellites. " she said, latching onto the only part of what he said that made sense. Either this man was certifiably insane, or he really was from a hundred years ago. "No. We are on a godspire right now. This one is called Monolith. Ya know. Godspires. Giant life support towers sponsored by the corps." She then widened her eyes at the mention of presidents and blowjobs. "Uhh. Presidents haven't mattered for about 50 years. Since the first monolith collapsed in the Juan De Fuca. The corps run the show. Who ever sits in the chair on the District spire is just a puppet. Everyone knows it. " (edited)

Aric furrowed his brows, "So giant, mostly self contained Arcologies?" He sighed, "So were still limited to earth, I'd've figured we'd have at least a few colonies on other planets by now?" "Eitherway, so this Monolith is basically a City-State of continental proportions, only vertically?" He snorted, "How Phallac and pedestrian."

Nyx shook her head. "These aren't eco friendly. But you have the gist. And no. There are places out in space. It's just for rich assholes though. Corps owners and friends. The rest of us get to run around here. Adonai tried to make a tower that extended into space, but that ended in disaster. The Chigago Spire almost failed because of that nonsense." (edited)

He stiffled another short chuckle, "They Tower of Babel'ed themselves? I gotta say the level of repeated history mistakes is more entertaining than I would have imagined." He takes a steadying breath, my luck one of those rich assholes is still somehow a Valson, just to push my buttons." He put a hand to his forehead to rub away an imaginary headache.

Nyx was confused. "V-Valson? As in the corporation that runs most of the West Coast Spires? " she said, wondering what this guy was playing at. She was afraid now. If this guy was tied into the corps directly, she'd already probably said too much. Maybe this was a sting. She grabbed her pistol tucked in her jacket. "Just what are you playing at?" she demanded, growing more and more hostile by the second as she sensed danger.

"Fuck me sideways, I really can't get away from that asshole," he scowled and put a hand on his face. "I swear to god- wait- no- I'm done invoking Murphy... not after Tim told me about Murphy's daughter..."

Nyx took a step back, taking out the gun. "You're nuts. Honestly. Nuts. And I'm not gonna get involved in any corpo shit. So you better give me a good reason not to leave you here." she demanded, completely confused and scared by what this mad man was saying, and his apparent connections to one of the more ruthless and bloodthirsty mili-corps out there.

Aric sighed in pure annoyance, looking absolutely crazy for not being intimidated by the gun. "Because either I am as crazy as you think, and my only harm comes from me accidentally pissing someone off with my crazy-coked out talk, or I'm telling a hundred percent the truth, and you might be able to use that somehow." (edited)

" You don't seem to be really grasping this. Valson is one of the worst corps out there. They were the ones who built the towers that collapsed, and let it happen. They are the ones who start conflicts, just to sell the guns. They almost don't even deny it anymore. So, for you to say you're involved in them.....that makes you dangerous. Really dangerous for someone like me. I shouldn't even be talking about this."

Aric sighed, lowered his hand, "If- and I mean if, we're on the same page, the Valson /I/ know ran a bloody crusade that nearly wiped magic from the earth, was the Immortal prophet for a cosmic entity that was basically an alien antichrist with reality warping powers. So what you say this world's Valson did really doesn't shock me, and to be clear- I don't side with him. But if they /are/ similar I might have DNA you can use to bypass something, somewhere...."

Nyx shook her head like she was getting water out from her ears. “If- if you’re related, then maybe. Maybe the world’s most talented hacker could rig something. But that would be expensive and dangerous. You don’t know what you’re suggesting, you lunatic.” Nyx put the gun away and rubbed her temples. “Let’s get some food. I’m feeling like crap right now.” She admitted

He looked to one side and then the other, "I should be famished? Especially if I'm no longer getting strength from a whole bunch of outside sources?" His eyes widened a bit as his stomach made noises. "Oh, there it is." He cleared his throat, "You keep calling me crazy and I might have to start taking it personal? Enough crazy stuff happens to and around you, perfectly normal looses it's reference." He frowned, "Now I wonder if there's a version of me or my sister already here." He winced in sudden shock and pain, he put a hand over his eyes and held his temples. "NO!" He said with a pout, "You’ve gotta be kidding me, I can't call my armor or my enchantments, but I can't be lucky enough to lose the premonitions too." He lowered his hand just enough to look with one eye, "Can I get a side of Ibuprofen with that food?"

Nyx sighed. This guy was going to make no sense. At all. She just had to accept that. She shook her head and started going back towards where she'd hidden her bike. "Come on. Let's get out of here. It's too clean, and there's too many cameras around for my taste. I know a good noodle shop a few levels down though." The higher you went up in the tower, the more money, and more corporate presence there was. Right now, they were towards the top of the tower, and Nyx had been there gathering information. Her real home was much lower down though, in the Rubata district where there was less corporate presence, more dirt, and more crime.

5:42 AM

@Doom of the Destiny

As they arrived Aric mused, "Not to go all armchair psychiatrist, but when you say too clean, it's not that you hate the clean, it's you hate the lack of lived-in, I can see it too, the people here don't really live here, it's a show they put on, and you hate the pretense." He scoffed, "I'd ask to drive but lord knows I don't know the roads, I haven't been able to cut loose in a while, outside of fighting anyway." He huffed, "If you have any maps and stuff, history books, anything to put some context on the crazy mess of a vision I just had, that would go a long way to helping me make sense."

Nyx just laughed dryly. “Hell no am I going to let some random stranger touch my bike. Let alone drive it. I’ll drive us there. As for information. You literally found an info runner. I know most of the roads and any stuff that happens in East Rubata and above. My services aren’t free though. I’m not a library.” (edited)

"And the real crux," Aric chuckled, "I went out of my way to make sure all the cash I'm carrying was printed before 1985, somehow I doubt American Dollars are worth more than toilet paper right now- But! I might have a compromise. And it involves libraries. I need to know where on earth I am relative to the past, and even if some of them were destroyed or just not built, I know the locations of literal dozens of Valson's SECRET libraries, some of which have to still exist if he's the same person, as was implied by my picture-book migraine I'm trying not to vomit over."

"Dollars aren't a thing. You'll have to get some credits or gold to do buisness." Then he continued. "Wait. Physical libaries? Those don't exist anymore. They're a waste of space. Most everything except for a small collection of historical pieces were digitized." Nyx explained. "Migrane? Picture-book? Will you just speak straight for once? " She sighed.

Aric sighed, "So you don't know what Migranes and Ibuprofen are? Like, most of the rest makes sense, computers were already eroding newspapers and to a lesser extent books, but these libraries would have things Valson wouldn't want public or even hackers- jacker- deckers- whatever you call them, he wouldn't risk them being accessed behind his back. And I have a migrane, which is a severe kind of headache usually limited to a small portion of the head, from a vision, or premonition, which was me seeing semi-random places and things from the past or future- like memories but they're not mine, I can try to explain better but this probably isn't the time or place, and Ibuprofen was a pill or drug that made the brain limit how stimulated your pain receptors can be- mind you thats an oversimplification. And if that isn't straight talk enough then I'm gonna need a dictionary... either way we can talk over dinner, which I'll have to pay you back for when I'm a little more accustomed to what everything is worth. Frankly if my magic were working I could literally fly into space and grab some platinum off an asteroid or something, but for some reason magic doesn't seem to work, except what's locked in my body like the visions," he stopped and looked at his arms, "where's something heavy that isn't bolted down, I wonder how much of my enhanced strength I still have? Probably not that impressive either way, I'm sure you've got cyborgs or whatever you call humans with mechanical upgrades now?"

Nyx sighed. "You don't stand a chance against most chrome-jocks. I also seriously doubt you could even go LEO. Never mind up into space." She rolled her eyes. "Sure. I can get you something to take the edge off your migrane. I know what you meant, you gonk. I'm just tired of feeling like I'm four steps behind whatever you say. Pay me back by making yourself useful. You sound like you might know something that could either mean major jack, or get me zeroed." With that, they finally got down to the neon-lit chaos of East Rubata. "Welcome home, Choom." she said softly, getting off and locking up her bike as best as she could. "Let's go, and just eat in peace for a moment." (edited)

Aric snorted, "See now most of that made sense, even the words I never heard before, except for LEO- which... low earth orbit," he sounded unsure, "as for those chrome jocks i don't know if I can take 'em or not until I know what I'm still working with. As for flying though space, I used to know this beautiful planet on the verge of destruction, constant snowfall as its moon came within the Roche Radius so its probably all gone to- apocalypse by now? Lastly, I wonder if by Zeroed you mean eliminated dead or just black bagged? Not that it matters, either way is mucho-mal" He shook his head. As they arrived he asked, "What's Choom? Either way your probably right, less talk-y over food is a good idea."

Nyx sighed, too frustrated with this man’s chatter to be polite. “With the way you run your mouth, you sound like you’re either a vidiot, or a dorpher. Just chill for a minute, and stop making eye contact.” She advised as she took a seat at the counter of a ramshackle little hut made of rusted tin and plastic. She slid some credit chips to the borg running the shop. She took two steaming bowls of noodles in return and passed one to her companion, focusing on the food for a moment while she gathered her thoughts. (edited)

While he was fair to confident she wasn't trying to poison him- at least nothing more than mildly inconvenient for his mouth, he still put the bowl under his nose to try and identify the flavor. He looked around for utensils as he set it down and looked to follow her lead. He realized he didn't even know what to call her yet. Or if it was even safe to use his real name, going by his armor as a nickname sounded pretentious without the armor to back it up. Not talking was probably making her feel better, but all it was doing for him was forcing him to actually confront the situation. Not only had he failed his mission, missed his chance to see his dead lover again, but he was potentially stuck in a world where he world where he didn't know everything, and worst, what he did know might have the potential to make things worse. He had his head where he could see Nyx in his peripheral vision, but as he stared at the noodles his exuberant confidence seemed to fade, not completely, but noticeably. (edited)

Nyx grabbed a set of chopsticks and a broth spoon and handed them to the stranger next to her. She grabbed some utensils of her own. These seemed to be made of wood, but almost felt plastic, or fake in some ways. Synthetic might be a better way to describe the feeling of it in your hands. She pulled down the mask to eat, revealing pale skin, a squared jaw, and freckles. A tiny piece of her flaming red hair was pulled free from it's hiding place as well, giving a more complete picture of what this woman actually looked like. She took a few bites and the tension in her shoulders released as her blood sugars regulated themselves. She hadn't eaten all day, and it had been wearing down on her. She sighed softly, as she finished her food, clearly in a much better mood. All it had taken was a few moments of silence for her to think, and some food to help her focus. "Well. It's getting dark, and this place is already an edgezone as it is. Let's get out before the mob comes out to play." she said, getting up and fixing her mask and hair again. She went to the bike and started it up. "I'm sorry for snapping. I guess I was hangry." she admitted. (edited)

Aric actually smiled, fighting every urge to make a ginger joke. He took the chopsticks and after a moment to to get used to the feel of them, actually showed some flair with them. After the first bite he paused to gauge the taste, similar enough, though he assumed the grain had been modify by a mix of breeding and engineering, the taste was close enough to what he was used to he only caught it because he was expecting it- unless he was imagining it for the same reasons. Either way, even taking his time he finished up around the same time. As she apologized he smiled again, "It's fair, I'm a bit of an asshole, and despite both of our apparently broad ranges we're both a bit out of our depth here. I’m especially Flailing and guessing. If you've got a computer or whatever equivalent you don't mind lending access to I can do a bit of research, maybe catch up on the more important lingo changes, then I can start making a smidgen more sense, I won't promise how much," he said with a smirk. "Either way, lead the way."

"You're not using my deck. But there's a Data term on the corner by my apartment we can visit." Nyx started driving, the neon colors flashing as they went. Green, blues, reds, yellows. Advertisements chimed out occasionally, and all sorts of languages filled the air. She went through a hologram and it flickered and flashed around them. "We'll need to get you a netlink. You can't do anything without it really. We'll also need to create some kind of ID for you. The name you have is going to attract too much attention. Also, if what you say is true, we need to find a way to get your id dirty. No DNA link. We might need to see a ripperdoc and see what they can do." she ran a hand through her hair. "That's all going to have to wait for the morning through. For tonight though, I'll answer a few questions if you'd like."

"Well, we'll have to add one more thing to the list," he reached into his pocket and took out the glossy glass-like sphere of smoky black, "Given the forces that forged this, I don't expect it to be fragile, but if I can't get it to respond to me, I'd like to find a way to keep it safer than just in my pocket. If there's ever a way home, I'm sure this will be key, so I need it on me, but like- in a small box of some kinda alloy preferably, but like the other things, it'll probably have to wait until morning, in the meanwhile, speaking of IDs, after I mentioned my surname we kinda skipped any proper introduction." He rolled his wrist around catching light through the sphere, but despite the glossy appearance, it seemed to absorb all light rather than reflect it. He frowned and tucked it back into his pocket, "So since I don't know if my name is dangerous or not, you can call me Doom, and it's less pretentious than it sounds I promise, just some stuff I'd have to prattle on about to explain. What should I call you, be it nickname or real one, whichever?" He held out a hand to shake.

Nyx rolled her eyes. What a drama king. "You can keep your first name, gonk. It's the surname you'll have to ditch." she grinned. "Nyx. Just call me Nyx. I can help you get a little safe box. Maybe we go to a netrunner instead of the doc. I don't know who the hell can help out in your situation. No ID. No creds. A possible biological connection to a dangerous family, and at the very least an instant association." She sighed as she unlocked the door to her apartment with her thumbprint. "Touch my shit, I break your hands. Got it? " she warned as she walked in and hung up her jacket, and mask. She took down her hair from its messy bun, revealing it's length was down to her lower back. She laid down in her hammock and gestured towards her couch. " Take a seat. You can ask me what you need to know to figure out where the hell you are. Anything more, I'll have to charge."

"Doom does make sense though, it was the name I assumed when I wore what's inside this," he tapped his pocket with the small sphere. "But if you must know, it's Aric. While wearing the armor I tried not to use my real name so if any collateral damage happened it was harder to pin on me." He snorted, "frankly I probably needn't have bothered, crazy blatant magic shit, only a few kinds of crazies are gonna investigate that, and most of them we're already-" he stopped and frowned. "Anyway, I really didn't want Valson nosing into my business in my timeline, thats why I studied magic in the first place, he distrusts it, I definitely don't want to confront him here." He sat on the couch she motioned to and took the hairbands off his ponytail and ran his fingers through, "I didn't bring my jacket, and it had my brush in it." "Anyway," he began after a moment, "it would work best if I could see an actual map of some kind, Geography doesn't change too much on the scale of centuries. But most of the better libraries that are more likely to have existed in the first place will be nearer to what was the middle east. The ones I tended to hit the most were in Europe though, one in England, one in Ireland, one in Germany. But the absolute largest would have been in what was the Ukraine. If any of that made sense to you, I imagine is bordering on ancient history for you."

Nyx got down and opened up her deck. She pulled up a map that showed North America. The heading still said US, but there weren't any state boundaries. Instead, there were broad labels. "Arizona waste" "Baton Rouge crater" "Big Easy Tower." Up towards the top of the map was Monolith, in the left near where Seattle used to be. Chigago was in the middle. DC was the upper right. There were a few more towers, but none as big as those. There were a string of spires in what used to be California that were indicated to be smaller. "That's whats left of the US. We're in Monolith. The West Coast towers here are the ones Valson runs. Notoriously cheap, dangerous, and falling apart. Some of the worst Dorps get run through there, and some of the worst braindances get produced there. The really awful stuff most decent humans never want to see." Nyx explained, pointing to the map as she mentioned places. She then pulled up a map of Europe that looked similar. "Paris. Rome. Beijing. London. Moscow. Dubai. New Dehli. They have the big towers and complexes. There are small ones here and there outside of those, but that's it. You'd be insane to even try to make the trip over there though. International travel is monitored too closely, and costs a lot unless you have corporate business." (edited)

Aric quirked an eyebrow, "I've never known Valson to do anything cheap, so whatever he's doing, the poor deranged and drugged have to be smokescreen?" Aric was about to shake it off when he lurched forward grasping his head, "Son of a ghost whore!" He swore in pain. He stayed very still, clutching his temples as he focused on controlling his shakey breath. When his breath was finally normal he took one hand off his temple and the other covered his eyes. "Ya know, they never hurt like this when I was in my own timeline, I betcha it has something to do with with the lack of magic." His voice oozed frustration. He still had his eyes closed and covered, "None of the library's I saw in the America's were all that special but one, we didn't actually stay there that long, but it had a machine, looked like the thing that just blasted my brain, when I asked Valson about it we just left for the next library, he didn't even bother to give me a cover for it. I don't know what it does, frankly I probably don't /want/ to know, but I'm guessing it's more dangerous than a-" he paused, "something something lethal euphemism?" He sighed, "Sorry, best I got until I can see straight. But I'm sure that machine ties into why he wants people that are by all rights disposable to him."

Nyx watched Aric with wide eyes as he swore and clutched his head. She scooted away from him and listened to his constant chatter. “Ok. This machine. You don’t know what it does. But you suspect it will hurt a lot of people to further Valsons agenda. Which is to serve an evil Alien. And you know where the machine I s? That’s what all the moaning and head grabbing was about? You’re seeing things?” She said, trying to make sure she understood. “And you normally have…..magic. Which makes this hurt less, and let’s you do weird things with that black marble. Right?” She wanted to try to see if she understood what this gonk was saying to her. “How can you prove you’re not just strung out on brain dances or dorphs?” (edited)

"Pretty much yeah, that's the bare bones jist." He slide down onto the floor and tentatively opened one eye, moved his hand away from his face and opened the other. He let out a sigh of relief. "Now as for proof, aside from blood tests just to show I'm not blasted or whatever, the only thing I can think of is a demonstration of my strength after I prove I'm not a- what did you call it- Chrome-Dome, Chrome-jock!," he paused, "but to be fair I don't know how much strength I still have, I just know it should be more than what normally fits in a frame like this." He scoffed, "I could show you pictures but you'd just say their fake... digitally altered, whatever. Photoshop was already a thing in my time, lord knows what it can do now." He kept thinking. "I mean the libraries would probably prove I'm not imagining things at least, but you're looking for something to justify the trip and your time and money, I do get it."

Nyx frowned. "You're not a chrome jock. That's pretty much obvious. Nor do I think you're strung out. I'm still debating on whether you're just off mentally. That happens sometimes." She sighed deeply and shook her head. "Show me the pictures. I could probably be able to tell if they were edited." She ran a hand through her hair, just trying to process all of this one step at a time. "You're seriously saying you went forward in time by a hundred years, to an alternate reality?" she said, seeming kind of overwhelmed by that thought.

"Something like," he started as he fished into his pocket on the side opposite where he kept his phone and the sphere. "I feel more like some event long before I left my timeline created this alternate future, because Valson clearly exists, and seems to be equally immortal, I can't confirm he was born four or five thousand years ago, but it's implied if the rest is the same." He took out his wallet, a fat leather Chonky Boi that folded over itself creating three sets of compartments. In one of the sections with clear plastic over it was his driver's license that clear as day read Arizona, Issued 1999. As he opened it the rest of the way a packet of clear plastic revealed and it took it out by the tiny slip that stuck in. The picture in Front was him in a shirt nearly identical to what he wore now and black slacks with a woman who had a mixture of asiatic and mogoloid features, long black hair, though not as long as his. And they seemed to each wear half of an Amulet that looked like it fit together to create a Yin Yang, but each part only had half and was encircled by an Asian serpentine dragon, his was blue and hers was green. He held it out for her to see, flipping through pages, the next one had what had to be his immediate family given all the shared features, but it was an older photo, as he looked considerably younger in the picture. It had a acne-scar ridden older man, presumably his father, with large and thick glasses, a woman apparently the same age, a younger girl but older than him. Some other pictures, some that had him and presumably other friends and family, and some that were without him. The last picture, in the very back, an only slightly younger Aric and a boy of about age ten with a stern looking man of about five foot ten height, vaguely olive skined, and looked only about the same age as Aric's father, though the features shared between that man were less than the ones that man shared with his father. If she had ever seen pictures of Valson the only difference was the clothes. Body language showed Aric was uncomfortable but trying to hide it, probably for the sake of the younger male. (edited)

Nyx looked at them, learning a lot from each snap shot of his life. He'd had a family, and a lover. Where was she now? Was he missing her? That thought made her a bit sorry for him and realize that she'd been a bit harsh. Then came the last picture and she froze. She then wordlessly pulled up a picture of the founder of Valson Inc. It was the same man. Down to the stern expression and faint olive tone to his skin. She whistled lowly. "I don't think you're faking." she said, holding out her hand for the photos so she could analyze them further. "If I may. Don't worry. I just want to look at that last one."

Aric fumbled just the slightest bit as he slid the picture out of the plastic and handed it over. "That's Ray, he's- technically my uncle but documented as my cousin, the most terrifying thought to me is if he lives in this world where his father somehow might be more cold and distant than he already was." He sighed, "Ray loves and Idolized his father, I never understood how, but he must be a better father than he is a person, even my dad seemed to genuinely care- but whatever it is, it isn't just me who sees him as this distant glacier. Everyone in this world must see that." He clenched one fist in feelings ranging from anger to confusion. He hated the things Valson had done, but even he couldn't honestly say he hated the man. (edited)

Nyx could see Aric getting more and more worked up, and set a hand on his shoulder. “Hey. Look. The average person doesn’t like Valson any more than you do. Don’t worry.” She said as she scanned the photo for analysis. She examined the stats that pulled up and whistled lowly. “You aren’t joking.” She said, handing the picture back. “How does that family dynamic work again? Uncle, but documented as your cousin? What?”

Aric sighed, "If he doesn't change identity every 20 to 30 years, he starts getting unwanted attention, and to make it easier to keep track of immediate family, he usually just posed as his own son, so around the time I was six, he switched identities and I had to learn to call him uncle in public instead of grandpa... kinda weird thing for a six year old right, but then he goes an extra step, his wife decided she wanted another kid, so her and their daughter about two years older than me get new identities too, to preserve the family unit, and they have Ray, biologically my uncle as he's my father's youngest brother, but brought up and legally classified as my cousin." He tucked the photo back into the plastic, then that back into the wallet. "As for my distaste for Valson, while the more I've worked incidentally against him, the worse it got, I think it really only began when he approached me to start training to be a Genai, but of course because he lives a state over it's the same trip he brings down that slightly older than me cousin/aunt to check up on my older sister right after going into something similar enough to a coma from one of her visions. I mean I later found out it was only tangentially related to her Genai training and had almost equally as much to do with me, but that was four years later when she woke up, by then I'd already gotten the armor and decided I didn't trust Valson to not go warpath on all the others if he found out." He shook his head, "The worst part is the armor was crafted using stolen life energy from Valson via another Genai, so- that literally makes my powers no different than any other Genai, except for my feeble spell casting." He was looking down at his own arms and hands. (edited)

Nyx listened patiently. "Your sister. She got visions and they sent her into a coma?" she asked, kind of concerned now. This was not the place to be needing medical attention. Especially if you didn't have the credits to pay for it. What if his visions incapacitated him. For all she knew, they might. They seemed painful at any rate. "Are you in danger?" she asked, trying to process all of this. The more she learned, the more confused she got. "And the Genai. That's the evil alien Valson serves? And they made a suit of armor that you got your hands on? Where is it? " she asked, not having associated the black sphere with armor. This was all a twisted spaghetti junction as far as she was concerned, but she was doing the best to piece it together. One step at a time.

Aric quirked an eyebrow, but didn't say anything, he'd learned it all over years and it was an awful lot to tell. "No, Kanpeki is the alien lord, Genai are people he's empowered to be superhuman, and one particular Genai in his greed took that power Valson gave him, and made it into an armor, my armor is one ninth of that armor, now trapped in the glass sphere since the magic seems unable to manifest." He intentionally awnsered that question before the other. He sighed, "As for my visions, my sisters coma was a very complicated situation I don't expect anything like that to happen, I'm more worried about how painful they are in a near magicless world."

The ginger had an inscrutable expression on her face as she listened to his explanation. She simply got up, pressed a button on a panel and a shelf with liquor appeared. She quickly poured herself a drink of what smelled like whiskey, but looked like cherry koolaid. The label was torn and tattered, but it said "Red 47" She grimaced a little as it burned, pushing the shelf back into it's hiding place. She leaned back in her seat again, silent for a moment as she nursed her drink. "So. What do you want from me? What do I have to do with this insanity aside from finding you in the middle of the corpo plaza. Which, by the way. I want to know how you got there. Did you seriously just appear out of thin air? I heard this wierd noise, saw a flash and there you were. I'd just walked by a few moments earlier and it was empty." (edited)

Aric tried and this time failed to stifle a chuckle, that slowly built into a pitiable laugh, ended by a desperately empty sigh. "I need to ask myself that more often," he said. "In short you don't have any obligation, it really is as simple as you just stumbled onto me, and if you can walk away, I'm not gonna stop you, I am asking for help though, and I think what I'm offering is worth." As he sniffled he caught a whiff of her alcohol and wrinkled his nose. "As for how I got there, I wouldn’t call it thin air, I was trying to go into the past to stop someone else who already had, given the nature of the multiverse it may have been futile anyway, but- well, it's a whole pair of stories itself, centered around a Bootstrap Paradox, if you happen to know what that means, if not, it's not important. So I called in a favor from my aunt who was literally thinking about killing me just over a year before, and using a crapload of magical energy I was /launched/ through time, I just happened to land where you found me instead of where we were aiming."

Nyx nodded. “So. I deal in information and secrets. Corpos hire fixers, and the fixers will hire someone like me directly, or a broker who has a network of us for intelligence purposes. Usually corporate espionage and sabotage is what the information is used for. I also do a little merc work on the side. Security, theft, whatever’s needed. What you’re saying is that you might be able to give me information to help a corporation take down Valson. Or at least give a company heads up that they’re going down in order to fill that vacuum it’ll create in Cali. Am I understanding this right?” (edited)

"You want specifics, I can only tell you what was there. A lot of things someone might want to blackmail Valson with if they were willing to face possible retaliation. Valson is ruthless and might be willing to sacrifice a lot to get back at anyone with the balls to go against him. Also the collected knowledge of the thousands of magic users he hunted down and killed seven- ahem- eight hundred years ago, most of that is probably useless unless I can figure out how /he/ stopped magic from working, as he's the only I know who would try. It would also have maps to various easily liqudatable assets, like fine art, gems and precious metals. And journals, Valson is meticulous about recording everything the happens, things he's done, things he's figured out. I imagine a lot of shadey things have happened over the years that could get people in trouble if anyone knew who did it, so it would have the power to blackmail any number of people, not just Valson." (edited)

Nyx listened intently. She nodded and sipped on her Red 47. “I see. If what you’re saying is true, that’s major sharp at stake. It’d be the score of a career. Enough to retire, and enough to get the attention of the major fixers, or even become one if I want to keep working.” She pondered this carefully. High risk, High reward. No insurance. Her usual handler/broker wouldn’t go for this. She would be alone. Completely. She went through the mental gymnastics, doing a cost benefit analysis. “Fuck it. I’m in. But if I go down, I’m taking you with me. Got it? There’s a group of runners that would be sad to see me to, and have your ass zeroed.”

Aric sighed, then nodded. After a moment he spoke, "I would ask to have some of what you're having, but of the three times I've ever drank, one time I opened up to a woman I already knew was going to die in my arms about six months later, one time I opened up to a woman who was way too excited to learn about the dangers of my world, and the last time I found out the woman I was dating was not only the daughter of a man trying to kill me, but I'd unknowing fought against her almost a dozen times but didn't know because we both had helmets on..." He shook his head at the absurdity of it, "That said I could use some water, or any fluid you're willing to offer that isn't going to chemically alter my brain, please," he added as an after playing back his own words and realizing he didn't mean to sound ungracious.

Nyx raised an eyebrow. How. Pretentious. She rolled her eyes and then got up and handed him a glass of water. “Here. Just know the decontamination process isn’t reliable the further down you go. The water isn’t always the cleanest. But usually it’s ok enough to drink.”

He nodded, "Thanks." He took a sip, first a small one to judge if it was safe to take larger gulps. He winced a little, "Meh, no worse than the hard water back home if you're drinking without a filter, kinda scares me what might have been in it before if this is decontaminated though," he gave a small chuckle. He slid back onto the couch he'd slid off of earlier. He made himself drink more than half the glass because he knew he'd need something. After that he looked for somewhere to set the glass down. He wanted to say something quirky, but 75% of what he said tended to confuse, or frustrate her. He felt strangely tired, in a way he couldn't remember feeling. He probably visibly looked tired suddenly, like he'd been running on fumes and was finally puttering out. He shook his head as though it were wetness on a dog. "Still, sometime tomorrow I need to figure out exactly how fast-" he yawned, "and strong I am."

Nyx nodded slowly, her own energy levels fading fast. She gestured towards a side table next to the couch for him to set his water down on. "Here." she pressed a button on the side and the couch collapsed into a bed. She tossed a few pillows and a blanket onto it. "There's a place to sleep." she said, crawling up into her hammock after washing her face and combing her hair. She disinfected the comb, and picked the hair out of it before handing it to Aric. "Just set this in that jar once you're done. Alright?" she said, offering the ghost of a smile. "I'm sorry for being a little prickly. It's just a lot to take in, and I wasn't feeling the greatest. We'll go see where're your at and keep on investigating Valson. Alright? One step at a time though. Let's get some rest."

He looked at the comb, in an effort to not appear ungracious he gave another nod and a "Thanks," though it would take much longer to deal with his hair with a comb. He still ran it through a few times before braiding it- it was an awkward and ugly braid job, but clearly one he had practiced to keep his hair from tangling up in the night. He also removed the stray hairs from the comb before putting it in the jar she had directed. Once that was done he laid back on the transformed couch/bed. It wasn't his old futon, and it certainly wasn't a proper bed, but it was more than he expected when she offered the couch, so he seemed genuinely glad for that as he arranged the pillows, laying on his stomach with his face pressed between two pillows allowing only just enough room for air, one arm hung off one edge and one leg off the other.

"Goodnight Aric." Nyx murmured. She wasn't going to fall asleep untill she was sure he was asleep, but preteneded to sleep by regulating her breathing, and making her body go limp in the hammock. She didn't completely trust this guy, but she had to start somewhere, and it didn't seem like he was lying so far. In the morning, she got up, crawled down and started making breakfast. She pulled out small boxes and pulling the tabs on them, small crackling and popping sounds emerging as steam rose from the freshly activated packages. "Come and get it, while it's hot. It's shit when it cools down." she said, offering him a plate.

Aric had learned a lot of meditation himself, and would have more or less tried the same as her, except once he actually relaxed he was SO tired. The very unaltered weight of his own deceptively firm body under all that loose clothing, the energy that much muscle takes to maintain without cheating. And all of it without the symbiotic relationship he had formed with the armor, the armor made him more everything, and in exchange it fed off the energy he radiated, the more powerful he became with the armor, the better it fed, the stronger it was able to make him. Just over two years of this relationship- snatched away. Normally a paranoid light sleeper, he only shifted in his sleep in response to her initial efforts as she made the food. The smell of food was just starting to pull him into consciousness when her voice jumped him back to full awareness. In seemingly unfamiliar location he tensed, his eyes darted around and he was halfway into a defensive stance in one surprisingly swift motion before the realization of the night before clicked and he remembered what was up. His posture dramatically slumped as he had literally been 100% battle ready and went back to drowning in uncertainty. He clutched at his chest and pulled out an Amulet from under his shirt, it was both halves of the matching pair she'd seen in his pictures with the older woman. Maybe a trick of the light but maybe there was a twinkle in the Amulet and Aric started to relax again. Finally moving towards the table, "Thanks again, and ah... sorry." He said sheepishly. Taking her advice he got right into the food, but between bites he was working at pulling out the braiding in his hair.

Nyx took a step back, eyes widening as she saw how tense he was. Holy cow. She saw him relax a little after handling the amulet that he’d seen him and that girl wear in the photo. She handed him some food once he sat. “It’s alright. I get it. But, you’re better off here than a lot of other places. Trust me. I can’t say it’s safe, but it’s off the radar of the corps, so that’s something to be thankful for. The big players over look us. The mob technically owns this, but they really don’t care unless you see something you shouldn’t.” She took a few bites of her food before addressing another thought she had. “Tell me about her, if you can. I’m curious since she seems really important to you. You said you lost her in a paradox. Right?”

He swallowed hard, "It's another one of those stories that kinda sounds insane, but- after my sister went into her coma, I kept having this vision of a woman, sometimes I'd only see her last moments, dying in my arms, sometimes I'd see the the battle, her jumping in the way, which- I still don't know even after it happened if it was necessary, but it gave me the opening to finish Sensoukami off, he was... well, kinda just a minion, but a tough and stubborn one, survived things none of his peers did. But anyway, rarer still, I'd see flashes of us just together, I even felt her love for me from her perspective." He shook a little bit but took a breath and straightened up, "All that before I even met her. She was older than me, almost ten years, but the real twist, she met me just about 13 years ago, when I'd come from the future to stop, well, another bad guy, that's who I was trying to follow now, I was going to see her again... for the first time." He cleared his throat, "Even after she died she saved me one last time, through this," he just patted where the Amulet was under his shirt again. (edited)

Nyx listened, a frown on her face. “I’m sorry. That sounds…traumatic. To say the least. How did she save you? Did her energy get stored in there, like the way you said your armor stores energy?” She asked, finishing up her food. She got up then and began cleaning up. Once that was done, she began washing her face and braiding her hair. “Well, where should we start today?”

"I guess you could call it that, with her last breath she gave it to me, and it left a little of her with me." He also finished his food, he had three hairbands in his ponytail, top, middle and bottom, but he only seemed to braid it at night. "Anyway, I do need to figure out how much remnant strength I have, then, well, like I said, the American libraries were the smallest, maybe now that he seems firmly based there he expanded them. But they we're both hidden in desert, one in what was New Mexico, one in what was Death Valley California, if it hasn't sunk into the sea," he choked back a laugh. "So, self-test, the procure whatever we need for travel, probably starting with a fake ID like you mentioned last night. I'm sure that's not cheap, but- the alternative is the blunt approach, we probably don't want that, it's not your style, and even with my powers I tend to use force as a last resort." (edited)

Nyx nodded. “Right. Well. I can take you to a gym nearby to let you see what you can do I guess.” She said, sighing a bit. She was bleeding credits here, but she didn’t know what else to do. “I might need to go running tonight and get some funds.” She admitted, heading to the door after grabbing her jacket and a hat.

"Maybe you'll find whatever you were looking for right before I showed up," he smiles, "but seriously, if there's a way I can pull my weight out there, don't be worried about telling me. I was the leader, and a smart enough one to ask for advice whenever I could." Everything he still owned was on him, he was desperately missing his jacket, a birthday present from two people who's lives he would probably never get to change the way they told him. He just stood awkwardly near the door trying not to be in the way as they got ready.

Nyx nodded. “Thanks. I’ll think about it.” She said, heading to her bike. She started it up and waited for him to join her before whizzing down alleys and back streets. There were people speaking all kinds of languages and flashing ads and signs all around, creating a whole host of auditory and visual stimuli as they made their way though the neighborhood. She pulled up outside of what looked to be some rusty shipping containers lashed together. “Here. The outside is rough, but the equipment is good.” She assured him.

On the drive durring the day he was a little less culture shocked, glancing at ads as they whizzed by told him a lot. No surprise they still catered to a heavy English bias, but he was surprised how many other languages he saw, he didn't recognize them all, some had to be new, but he could recognize grammar, guess at word origins and cognates in places. He nodded as she warned him not to pre-judge the gym, "Hey I did my best training in a warehouse, I'm not gonna complain." He followed her lead. He knew he was going to stand out, so he didn't try to hide, instead like a switch he flipped, and he was all business, an air of importance as he took in his surroundings. He didn't want something as showy as full scale dumbbells, but if he could find the hand weights to start that would tell him a lot there, afterwords he needed a treadmill or something that had a similar enough function. He hadn't headed over to anything yet for the first few minutes just plotting his route.

Nyx wasn’t sure what Aric was waiting for, but decided to get in a quick workout after sliding the lady at the desk the creds to let them in. She went to go for an easy 10 minute run on a ‘mill pad, shrugging off her jacket.

As Nyx walked by him he smiled and internally laughed at himself. As he planned he went to the hand weights first, to not make an idiot of himself or come off as a show off, he picked up a middling weight, still more than the average person would have been expected to lift. While he wasn't burdened with it, he was surprised how heavy it felt. Before the armor he had minimal muscle mass, in less than six months he had firmed up a lot, but wore clothing that hid it. After a few reps with those he put them back and glanced around before grabbing the heaviest pair. He caught in his peripherals someone rolling their eyes, but he walked over to sit down and did the same with those much heavier weights. He didn't see anything that looked designed for superhumans, but maybe that was in another room. He set those down. His muscles weren't taxed, but he learned a lot from that, and he resisted the urge to try to actually tax himself. About 8 minutes into her ten minute run Aric found the pad next to her and examined the menus for a moment before he just hit the highest number. While it sped up much faster than he expected, making him look a bit like a doofus, despite that he caught himself at the last second and after a couple large oversteps found his stride. If she had any expirence she could tell he was probably at or near his limit, but he kept his cool and didn't act like it, showing a scary ammount of stamina to keep up that speed for the entire length of the program unless interrupted before the half hour program reached its conclusion. After about 10 minutes just as he was starting to break a sweat, he took off his shirt, the buttons were all snaps and with a clean motion he opened it and rolled out like she had with her jacket. He was only about 5'7" and very narrow shouldered, but with his shirt off the tightness of his muscles was much more pronounced. He had moderate hair on his chest that was much darker than what was on his head, and his abs were downright shocking. Once the program was done he picked up his shirt and threw it over his shoulders. He wasn't gasping for air but he was clearly winded. He walked over to her, "Probably should have taken it easier, but if you have another 5 to 10 minutes to spare, I should do a couple katas on the mats before we go, it'll also wind me down so my heart isn't racing so much."

Nyx was stretching out, doing her own cooldown exercises. She’d seen Arics little display and it surprised her and made her uneasy due to the attention it drew. Pretty much everyone kept to themselves though and it didn’t seem like they’d be given a hard time. “Sure. I’m just cooling down myself.” She said, stretching out her limbs. “Nice speed. You weren’t kidding.”

Aric wasn't sure how to take that, he knew she meant it as a compliment, but it was hard to hear. "Well, not like either of us want any trouble but if it finds us I'd like to have a realistic appraisal of my abilities, underestimating yourself can get you killed almost as easy as overestimating." He put an effort into smiling, made difficult from both just being a bit tired but still amped, alongside the downright existential fear of what he'd lost. He found some open space on the mat. The first few moves were traditional, things you see in any martial art. But very quickly it was clear what he learned was extreme. At one point he ran up the wall at least three steps on pure momentum before pushing off the wall into what started as a spinning kick and ended as a hook kick seconds before touching the ground and flipping his other leg around in a sweeping motion low to the ground. Two or three other moves blended together before he finished with two simultaneous punches, one atop the other. He was about to start a second kata, but he felt rather than saw eyes, he casually walked by Nyx without stopping, he just intentionally looked suspiciously in one direction and then the next hoping she got the message. He stood by the door way trying to not look like he was waiting for her.

Nyx went from playful and good natured to uncomfortable and irritated. She got the message loud and clear. She slowly but surely finished her cooldown snd wandered towards the door. “Idiot.” She hissed at him as she passed by him on her way out.

Once they were outside he still spoke quietly, "Look for all I know I may be overreacting, but I figured better overcautious than black bagged. You mentioned everything is run by corporations now, do you know what happened to the remnants of the old government?"

Nyx sighed. “They’re still in place technically, but they only make themselves known when things are bad. Corporations have such a foothold in government that most bigwigs are also in boardrooms.”

Aric sighed, "So on the bright side there's an incredibly remote chance I only pissed off a friend doing espionage instead of... well, either way we probably should get elsewhere." He put a hand to his chin, "I wonder if he is still alive? Di warned me was was much older than he looked, and while I'm pretty sure he's not immortal, he might be as close as you can get without magic?" He shook his head just waiting for her lead to get on the bike.

Nyx sighed and got on her bike. “Who’s still alive?” She asked, shaking her head. “By the way. We really shouldn’t be drawing attention to ourselves like this. We need to be laying low.” (edited)

"I was taught one Martial Art... that just happens to be super fucking ancient, and a secret sect of the government got wind of it in the 1930s when they were working on some prototype superhuman quasi-magic at the limits of primitive scienc-y stuff. I had a buddy from later in that project who taught- was teaching me it. I barely got my first belt, this is the read deal kinda stuff. So I kinda figured no one would really think anything worse than wow..." He sighed in that yeah I messed up tone. "Sorry."

“It’s impressive. For sure. But damn is it flashy. People will remember that, and that’s bad if someone starts trying to find us, or identify us. I’m glad you can defend yourself though at least.” Nyx couldn’t help but concede that. “Well. We need to get you an ID and get moving.” (edited)

Given how hard he'd worked to get that far and how hard it was, flashy certainly wasn't a word he thought of, but he was just glad to drop it. There was one aspect of the arts he was always dread to explain, though given his dread stemmed around cultural drift on certain words, maybe it wasn't still relevant, but he was just as glad not to find out. He just nodded with an agreeing "Mhm," and left it at that. It was actually a bit foreign to him just how needed the ID would be, given how easily he had used to just dodge those sorts of things in the past. Heck in particularly critical situations he could just invoke the family name, as long as he wasn't actively working against him. Di had basically confirmed as much in own of their confrontations, he respected someone who didn't just let himself be walked over. But this Valson didn't know him, wouldn't have that same respect, and would definitely investigate any mysterious reports around his name. The ride to wherever she was taking him for identification was probably the quietest she'd heard him excluding while he was asleep. But he was thinking about what his options were if confronted by either Valson's agents, or the governments. He wasn't liking how sparse those options seemed to be. He radiated concern. His carefree attitude had steadily melted away from the minute he learned he didn't have magic here, and the more he learned, the less he liked. The library should have awnsers, even if only a few.

Nyx got off the bike, and turned to him. “You look like I told you the sky is falling. What’s on your mind? You haven’t stopped talking since we met. Why now?” She teased, trying to get a chuckle out of him.

Aric curled one side of his lips, but it was worry rather than a smile, "Just, feeling watched made me worried about getting dragged into an actual fight." He sighed, "And not just Valson's agents, my friend from the government had very harsh, hard-ass bosses. Whether /he's/ alive or not some agents have to be, and probably better trained than me too."

Nyx sighed. “The government is too inept. Be scared of the corporations. Please, take that advice to heart. If nothing else.” She cautioned. “Just, please. Practice those martial arts in private from now on.”

"Hey, right there with you on the don't accidentally show off part, and I ain't gonna argue what corps can do when they were building the bridges to do it in my time, but just because the heads of the government were mewling sycophants who were easily bought doesn't mean they didn't have some kick-ass scary people behind the scenes. Maybe they let themselves be bought after the government fell, maybe they started their own Corp, but in the end, it all comes down to people, usually one taking advantage of others." Aric rolled his eyes as if at himself, "sorry, didn't mean to get all preachy and philosophical there, hazard of being a college student," he snorted a laugh. He motioned for her to show the way with a partial bow.

Nyx just rolled her eyes. This guy was obnoxious. Seriously so. “Yeah. This way.” She said, trying not to let it get to her. She went inside and glanced to Aric. “Keep your mouth shut. I mean it.” She growled. This was one of her brokers that she did business with. Information was valuable and he tended to spout it off like it was water from a retro firehouse. If the broker got any whiff of what they were up to, it could mean disaster. “Aay. Gail!!” She called. Out of the black at the back of the room scurried a little old lady in a bright kimono and thick glasses. Harmless looking at first, but there was a subtle steel in this woman’s gaze, and an iron strength in her movement that revealed she wasn’t all she seemed. “What do you know? And who’s this gonk? Why’s he in my shop?” She demanded, a Japanese accent coloring her words. They proceeded to have a conversation of mashed up English and Japanese. Nyx was trading some information she’d gathered before Aric appeared and the promise of more credits to make up the difference soon in exchange for Gail making Aric a new ID with a last name that wasn’t Valson. Nyx was careful not to reveal too much, knowing that Gail would just as soon sell them as help them. All she revealed was that his family was looking for him, and he didn’t want to be found. (edited)

While Japanese was actually one of the languages he was weaker in, the simplicity of their conversation, mixed in with English, made it relatively easy for him to follow, as he was introduced he gave a polite bow. It honestly took effort that was physically visible for him to not at least say the basic niceties like greetings and thanks. But especially after the workout fiasco he was determined to not stand out, and there wasn't much he could say that wouldn't stand out, even his mannerism clearly broadcasted a confidence that was rather uncommon, even after his recent deflation. He simply didn't grow up worried about the same kinds of things. That said having dealt with so many people who projected small innocence and were anything but, certainly kept him from underestimating this woman in front of them. Heck, his childhood best friend /was/ small and innocent but underestimating her was still a quick way to be humbled.

A few moments later, Gail went to the back, grumbling about the short notice. Nyx sighed in relief as she leaned on the counter. “She’s great, but will take you to the cleaners or sell you out if it’s what keeps her alive. I didn’t want her knowing too much either, and have her try to come in and sell us out, or steal our info and sell it first.” She explained, her voice hushed. “I’m sorry I’ve been an ass. I just want to make it out alive.”

Aric nodded, "No, I do understand. It's relatively forgien to me since I grew up in some pretty prosperous times, but I do get it. If most people act a certain way, you have to respond accordingly with everyone." He scoffed, "And its not easy to explain why someone who knows so much knows exceptionally little about the world at large."

Nyx chuckled a little, about to respond, but Gail was coming back. “Here you are. I put the chip in a net link for him. It will spoof his biometrics and work well enough for what you need. Just don’t get cocky. There’s only so far this will get you. Stay under the radar.” “Thank you, so much.” Nyx said, bowing.

He bowed again as well. "Arigato Gozaimasu, Gail-San," it was passible but clearly unpolished. He hit some of the traditionally harder bits for Americans because of all the other languages he studied, but it certainly wasn't native. He wanted to be respectful without actually saying anything meaningful. It was maybe pride, but he didn't want to be seen as a dunce, but he also didn't want to give her any information she couldn't have sus'd out from his body language. He turned to Nyx trying to gauge if that was too far or not and follow her lead either way.

Gail smiled, appreciating the effort. “Whoever you are, at least you have manners.” Nyx smirked, finding that ironic. “Sometimes, yeah.” She motioned towers the door and sauntered off, in a good mood.

He waited until they were outside, "Hey, I have manners, we just haven't been in a situation that needed them before now. I mean I'm so in over my head I can't see daylight and I've been mostly hitting my Ps and Qs..." He scoffed, there was no bite in his teasing, especially since there was humor in her underhanded compliment. "So, before I have to actually use this thing, what is it supposed to do, like, in my time I'd need something like it to drive or buy alcohol, come back across a border, I'm guessing that's the main reason we got it is that last one, other- cities? Have their own borders here I assume."

Nyx just laughed, shaking her head. Then he asked the question about the net link. “You need it for travel, purchases, transportation, anything. Heck. My door to the apartment normally scans the Net ids of everyone entering. It’s a chip. Some people have the chip implanted. Others just keep their net link coms on them. But every one has one. You can’t get far without it.”

"Hmm," he shrugs, "sounds like a lot of TV I used to watch, especially durring my downward spiral while Lynn was in her coma." He looked at it before putting it in the smaller pocket for pocket watches in his pants. "So is the next step earn money for travel?"

“Yeah. I’m getting pretty low on creds between paying Gail and everything. I have some, but not enough to get us very far.”

"Well, I dunno for sure, but I imagine you do your best work at night, why don't we have lunch, either out or at your place, and we can discuss what I can do to help."

The ginger smiled. “That sounds like a plan. Let’s go back to mine and I can cook something. Maybe scout the news for anything interesting.” She threw on her helmet and mounted her bike, driving off once Aric was seated behind her. Once they’d arrived, she went inside and turned on a portable burner and grabbed some packets of food before rifling with the floor panels and pulling out a dusty radio from its hiding spot underneath them.

As he was waiting in the apartment, on the one hand he wanted to offer to help, but he saw how small the "kitchen" was and knew they'd just be fumbling over each other. As he sat back he found himself in a memory, talking to Ryuko, the lover who had died. He remembered them talking, as she pointed out to him not everyone was as carefree about their money as he had been. While living in Ryuko's apartment after she died had taught him a little bit about household expenses, he was still rather used to being able to spoil himself. Valson had long ago set up an account that worked rather similar to how some of the native American tribes worked, he got what was basically an allowance, and how much he got went up by things like graduating high school or college. He would never have been forced to look for work, only encouraged to find something he liked. "We'll have to figure out a proper way for me to earn my keep while I'm here," he said at last, "food may be cheap but I imagine it isn't free, and if nothing else, I think I'm gonna want a 'deck' of my own, though you'll probably have to show me how to use it without being hacked, or whatever the term is for it these days." (edited)

“Yeah. If you’re worried about being hacked, the deck is gonna cost you more.” Nyx admitted. “The thing is, is that it takes a lot of skill and luck to find anything worth much. High risk high reward. Besides. You have to know what to look for and have some background to know what’s worth it.”

"I mean it's a joke to you, but I was pretty good with computers and the internet. I don't delude myself into thinking it means much now, but I can be taught." He chuckled, "I mean if Moore's law was even half what was predicted, the ammount of data storage alone has got to be staggering, and the speeds, have to rival if not exceed human thought, how useful that is depends on the programing."

She nodded. “I don’t think you’re stupid. Just a little naive and over confident. I’m just scared you’re gonna underestimate someone. People are desperate. They’ll do any thing from selling organs for transplants to torture and murder for entertainment. Tread lightly.” Nyx handed him some food and took a seat.

"I mean, that shits been out there since day one, it's just a little more accepted as unavoidable now? We had tales of varying degrees of truth of people waking up in ice baths, online hookups gone all kinds of wrong, and anything you want to find being out there somewhere if you're willing to do the digital legwork. I had alts, never did more than dip my toes in some of the crazy, always avoided leaving evidence, but I'm guessing corpos owning all the satellites makes stuff a lot more traceable."

“Exactly. Everything is watched, and it’s difficult to impossible sometimes to hide your tracks. It takes a lot of skill, because hackers and net runners are on both sides and sometimes play both sides of the fence. That’s why I’m an inforunner. The nets dangerous. Especially when you jack in. You can get your brain barbecued if you get caught.”

"I mean we joked about that in the Y2K Era, but yeah, obviously I've got a lot to learn, and I cope with bad humor, so I'm sorry my jokes aren't even at the level of dad jokes for terrible-ness." After he finished the food he thanked her. He took out the strange sphere, looking more than ever like an oversized smokey marble or boulder. He intentionally reflected light off it as if he was searching for something within it. (edited)

“Nah. You’re fine. I’m just not used to someone who’s a stranger talking this much. Usually people are way more reserved than you are.” She took some bites of her food, and enjoyed it more than she thought she would. Nyx noticed him moving the marble around, and tilted her head curiously. “That’s actually a suit of armor? Like tin can style metal armor?” (edited)

"I mean, short awnser yes, long awnser the original forms of the armors looks a lot more traditional, the forms me and my friends got are a lot more- bastardized? Kind of a hodgepoge of different styles, like some sort of nerd picking and choosing the elements they liked. They're basically pure magic solidified, neither metal nor leather, but also practically Weightless. I imagine a nuke might break them, ya know, sheer atom smashing annihilation, but shy of that, I've never even seen them dent. But just to break them down and shuffle them up the way my friends got them required someone to use them as a raw power source for a spell, since then the armors kinda symbiote'd themselves, making us stronger so they could tap us and recharge." He chuckled, "For better or worse, my friend Mat, he did a lot of extra work thanks to the armor, and for some reason it reverted to its older form, which he's not capable of unlocking. I imagine they'll all eventually revert, they changed cause it's like they were hurt, they're not literally alive but they've been connected to humans for so long, and the original source of their power was Valson. They have a bit of a personality, feelings, its...." He struggled for words, "It's hard to really explain unless you've /felt/ it. They're less than an animal but more than just a suit of armor." He sat back, still kind of unsatisfied with his own explanation.

Nyx blinked slowly as she took all of that information in. “It’s…..alive. And is solidified magic that feeds off of you?” She shook her head. “Wow. That’s crazy.” She focused on her food again.

"I'm not sure alive is the word, though it does harken to similar questions. Whatever, I'm not an expert, I literally only started practicing magic to defy Valson and cover up the energy of the armor under my own aura." He sighed. "But of course, even the giant middle finger of magery only made Valson more interested in me, according to Di he liked that I had the courage to stand up to him." He chuckled, "So, yeah, I've always been a brazen little shit. Ever since I was a teenager and saw he couldn't even do as much as he thought he could, so arrogance runs in my blood I guess." The laughter subsided into a very depressed sigh. "I kept his secrets for so long. But when I got the armor, my friends needed to know how much danger we were in, I guess the other me never made that one change. Which just makes it all the more important to me."

Nyx chuckled as well. “Well. You’re brave. I’ll give you that much.” She said shaking her head. “Other you? One change? I lost you somewhere.”

He chuckled, he didn't mean anything mocking by it, but it was funny to him. "I told you I was trying to go back in time, because among other reasons including stopping a crazy desperate man who'd just lost every reason to be cautious. Because I'd already seen evidence that a version of me had been in the past, but he was different, according to those that met him in the past. I even got to see his body in cryostasis, they were preparing to thaw him out as Di was making ready the spell to send me back."

Nyx shook her head a bit, trying to wrap her brain around. She didn’t appreciate being laughed at, but didn’t say anything. She just finished cleaning up and took her seat again. “So. You want to make yourself useful and earn some creds? How about you be my spotter while I get into some office buildings tonight. I can get you into the cameras and you can tell me what’s coming my way, via netlink.”

Aric nodded, "Sounds like exactly what I had in mind," he pocket the orb, "I imagine you've got schematics of the building, so we can detail both the plan, and how to adapt if it goes south?" He sat forward clearly invested and taking this serious. Like in the morning when the switch had flipped and he looked panicked, only this time the switch flipped and he was in control. Alert and engaged, his posture was significantly more professional. This wasn't downtime, this wasn't bumbling trying not to stand out, this was ready to do something and do it with certainty.

Nyx paused for a second, seeing the shift. For the first time, she finally felt like Aric was taking her and this situation seriously. She nodded once in approval before grabbing her deck and pulling up a schematic. “Here. This is Bosankos hr division headquarters. I heard some rumors that there are some interesting people being taken on. Researchers and such being taken from other corps, and flown in all secret like. Their specialties suggest they’re planning something big. Possible downward expansion towards the earths core since space is kind of inaccessible. If they are, Bosanko could be making enough creds to buy out Adonais share of the ownership of Monolith. That would mean a huge power vaccum.”

While he was thrown by the suggestion space was a no-go, he'd get back to that one, the rest made sense, power vacuums always left room for money to be made, and expansion underground created more usable space, also worth money. He nodded as she explained, the specifics would be important, but he was also trying to put himself in the layout of the building. "I'm assuming just bugging the place and listening from a distance is right out, likely to be jammed and or backtraced, so, you either want to tap into existing surveillance or find a way to point something that sees or preferably hears from enough of a distance to not be caught?"

“Yeah, exactly. They have the place littered with cameras. If we do it right, we should be able to get into a few and look around. The trick is, they will have a team of net runners of their own that they hire to keep an eye on the system and catch anyone trying to do what we’re trying to. Normally I’d ask a friend for help and split the creds, but this is the spot we’re in. We need them too much to split them three ways. Right now, it’s honestly not much more than speculation on Gail’s part. She heard about some key players quitting their jobs and took a guess based off what she heard they were shipping in. Usually she’s not far off. If shes right, this will be some of the most valuable info I’ve gathered in a long time. She’ll pay well for it.”

"Just keep moving up, if this is the score of your life, and Valson has half what I expect, you're gonna need a bigger apartment to hold all the ego it'll give you," he was looking close at the schematics of the building. "So do you find the main network room or just tap in from anywhere that seems safe?"

Nyx laughed at that, shaking her head a bit. “This is one of the bigger scores I’ve had, true.” She admitted. “Depends on the setup. Usually my net runner bud just has me plug in a chip once I sneak in, and then I hide for a minute while they become my eyes and ears, so I’m not moving around blind too much.”

Aric nodded, "While I imagine it looks a bit like scrying, it's a whole different skill set," he pointed to what looked like a big maze like room of cubicals, "So you'd want to try and plug one of those chips somewhere easy like that, for a direct link to the network your partner can use to tap security while you move in for more secure grabs?" It was clear he understood the principles, but equally clear he had no practical experience.

“Those are just office spaces. Grunts wouldn’t have access to the security system. I’d need to find a terminal in the basement, or in the security office. Which is harder, but I can do it. I can get in a lot of places I shouldn’t be. Not always, but usually there’s a way.” Nyx scanned over the blueprint, wondering what the best play would be, chewing her lip a little as she thought. “There aren’t any windows in the basement, which makes it a little more tricky. Corps caught on that people like me were exploiting them as a weakness.” (edited)

"If only I could still use my Void Out enchantment to teleport," he glanced wistfully at his left hand. "Hell the little minions my demon friend made for me would be just as useful, they can travel through shadow. But," he sighed, "need to focus on what I can do, not what I can’t." "So basic Ninja espionage to get yourself into the basement, am I literally just a lookout keeping your bike safe, or are we getting me a deck so I can watch the cameras for you after you tap in?"

"We'll find you a deck. Then we can get in. I'm debating if we want to wait until after hours or not to get in. Things wouldn't be locked up so tight if people were coming and going, but there's less people to work around if we go in later. What do you think? " she asked.

Aric chuckled, "If I were more familiar with things I'd definitely say go for earlier, but I think I still stand out a bit." He smiled, still mostly serious, he was getting a bit excited too, for an assortment of reasons, not the least of which they were talking about getting him one of those deck things. Frankly even if they got him the dirt cheapest model it be some time before he noticed, his father bought top of the line hardware he had done most of his learning on, but after moving out he hadn't gotten around to upgrading away from Ryuko's desktop, which was significantly behind. But computers, especially good ones, weren't cheap in his mind. The idea this deck thing would be smaller than the laptops he'd worked with and literal orders of magnitude faster and able to store data. CDs were still one of the best middle grounds, floppies burnt out to fast, and magnetic tape drives were only practical for archival. And yet if he put all that into words it would only double down her doubts. He knew more than a casual ammount of networking, and while the tech all upgraded, especially security, the principles could never be too different, just the specific language.

"I think later is better. Gives me more time to move around. I don't have to be as precise." Nyx said, knowing that he'd have a lot to learn. "Don't worry. You'll just be monitoring cams. I'll help you get into the system. I know enough to tap into cams." Nyx twirled her hair around her finger as she thought, chewing her lip slightly. She was debating the best way to do this. "I'm not the best at covering my tracks. But for this, I should be able to make it work. Gah. I wish I could call Cypher. But I don't want to give her a cut." she lamented, debating this all the way around. "We need the credits. And to keep this under raps as much as possible." The less people who know what's happening with Aric and this situation, the better. (edited)

"Well, technology and software I'm sure has changed, but the basic notions of networks and file structure is still a thing, if you can give me a crash course on the software, I should be fine." He wanted to reassure her best he could. He didn't want to worry or possibly bore her with antique computer hardware memory lane, but he wanted to get across he had a fundamental understanding that would help him learn fast.

"I can't teach you enough for you not to get caught. I can teach you the UI of the deck. And how to navigate the feeds. But I don't think it'd be smart for you to play with it too much. Just tell me if theres anything coming my way, or if anything looks off. Ok?" Nyx seemed nervous. Usually she'd go in with someone a lot more experienced. This was madness. She still wasn't sure why she was doing this. Well. High risk, high reward. If they pulled this off, she'd be making major sharp. She sighed a little. "Just be careful, and don't press buttons without knowing what's going to happen. Ok? "

"I mean of course, don't play with someone else's toy, and fumble around on your own time, not on the clock," he reassured her. He sighed, "Look, I may act like a dunce, but that really is just a coping strategy, I'm used to life throwing me curveball after curveball, so bad I literally broke for a few years while Lynn was in her coma, but as I came out of it, and realized the friends that saw me through the dark times were important to me, I wanted to be their strength not the other way around, so the blustering and posturing, it has a purpose. It's a show of solidarity for both my friends, and myself." He smiled, "Only Ryuko ever really got to see the toll it takes. But I assure you, I've been through my share of fire."

Nyx paused, not used to Aric cutting the shit and speaking without blasting his way though the conversation. She sighed deeply. “Alright. I think we’re gonna be fine. I know someone who owes me a favor. I’ll buy a deck on credit. Pay them back. Then I’ll show you what to do to pull up the feeds and monitor them once I get the chip in.”

Honestly Aric was still kind of silent, while he'd dated since Ryuko, he hadn't really been blunt or honest since that huge fight with his best friend shortly after her death. And while that had probably been more his fault than not, it was still hard to think about. He sat down on the couch and started stretching a bit. There certainly wasn't space for proper exercise here, but given his sudden departure ealier- also more his fault than not, he was more tense than he was letting on. More about missing his own world and not even getting to see his older friends when they were younger. He'd actually been looking forward to seeing /her/ in the past, even if he knew it was gonna be awkward with what he knew.

Nyx watched him curiously. “Still a little tense?” She asked, getting up to go press some buttons to get things to slide back to open more floor space to give him room to more.

He scoffed, "Bit of that too, I was," he thought about it, "missing her, I thought I'd be able to see her again." As she made more space available he smiled with a mild chuckle, "Thanks." He was quite flexible, Magic or no he'd had to train his flexibility to really use the speed or strength that had been enhanced. He wasn't double jointed or any of the really scary things humans could do, but he could arch his back enough to wonder about his spine, and while he was leery and seemed to stop just short, he seemed able to do the splits.

Nyx nodded appreciatively as she saw him stretching. “You probably would make a good info runner with some practice. Get you basic hacking skills, and infiltration tools, you’d just have to get used to navigating and not looking down at the wrong moment.” She teased. She grew serious though as he mentioned his lover. “I’m sorry. I can’t really imagine how that feels.” (edited)

"It probably is the closest to my former profession," he made a clearly joking dramatic pose, "college student by day, superhero by night," he shook his head, "not that I really saw myself that way." He sat back down, having finished stretching. "The armor came to me, everyone after the armor needed to control me to take it, Valson would have controlled me too if I hadn't said no, and he still thought he could out stubborn me, years later." His shoulders slumped. "All the fancy magic and super-powered martial arts was just me having to fight to run my own life." (edited)

Nyx frowned. “You said no. It was that easy?? You need to explain this stuff more clearly.” She said, shaking her head. “It’s a huge leg up that you can defend yourself.”

"I mean, if he hadn't liked me he probably wouldn't have taken no, but he liked me because I was brave enough to say no, but also was his grandkid? My Aunt that was going to train me told me some of the plans he had for me," his face was full of concern, "it's," he considered his words, "scary, powerful, but scary, maybe even eventually his right hand, I really don't want to be associated with the things he's done." He shuddered, then tried to shake off the discomfort. "Without his libraries I don't have the evidence, but I could literally go for hours listing some of the dangerous, scary, and terrible things he's done, and at least half as long on the entity he serves, less on him just because I only know of him through Valson's journals." "I think though, if what happened to my sister hadn't, I might have at least been tempted, swayed by his power, but what happened to Lynn cemented his fallibility. I wouldn't have seen the repeated patterns of trying a new direction, taking it too far, it going wrong, him moving on to the next thing. For all his power and now apparently influnce, he's still just a man making mistakes, he's just had a lot of time to learn from them." (edited)

Nyx sighed deeply, starting to understand more. “He’s dangerous because he’s not afraid of risk and has no moral limit.” She chuckled. “No wonder he’s a shareholder. You can’t get that far up without sticking your neck out a bit.”

"See I hear that and I'm just thinking we're about to put our necks out too, hopefully if the blade comes down it's his head not ours. It we do it right, his neck'll just get wrung a little by people with more money then sense and we live to giraffe again." He blew out a breath like a scoff but without any actual laugh added. "I'm assuming your friend also runs his business at night, so this is all gonna be rather tight on the timetable isn't it?"

“Not necessarily. I can call him any time. I’ll do that in a minute here. It might take him an hour or two to tell us where to meet. When he does, we need to be there when he says to pick up the stuff. No delays.”

Jun scoffed at a funny thought, "I was gonna say we probably wanna hurry if we want time for a proper crash course, but I was also just thinking an air of incompetentece could let to my performance of not seeming there to do dirty, as long as I didn't overplay it." He pats at his chest where the Amulet lies under his shirt. A far more noticeable recurrent pattern once it's clear to her what's there, ther doesn't have to be literal magic where psychological shenanigans are at play. And if there is something extra, well that just makes it even more understandable. The hyperactive brain follows strange paths, from money, to family, to- "Ya know, I have no idea what is or isn't different, but it occurs to me, my father being born, that's not completely improbable, ignoring the timing of conception, but if Valson was more successful in wiping out magic, my mother's bloodline would have been wiped out almost 800 years ago. So if there is a version of me here, he's a lot different than the other me I saw- course he'd also be 127, so, depends on what level of life extension you guys have- for the rich anyway," he actually shuddered at bit at some part of that.

The ginger nodded, watching Aric as he patted the amulet under his shirt. Knowing what it meant to him, that made more sense to her know. Then he started talking about time lines and whether people would be born, and different versions of himself, and she had to shake her head to clear it. Time travel didn’t seem all that believable despite what she saw the last day or so. “I don’t know. If you want to investigate your family and what they’re like, we can. In fact, I’d assumed we would be in this pursuit of Valson.”

Aric made a low noise of uncertainty. "Honetly, much as my brain wonders, I don't see anything good coming from investigating, most likely everything is different and unfamiliar, but if it isn't, I'm going to either find someone so repressed they can't imagine betraying Valson for all he's done to benefit them, or I find someone absolutely miserable who I just don't have the awnsers to." He paused, "Or I find some weird ass paradox that just blows my mind at the worst possible time." "Well, I'm not gonna go out of my way, but like you say, I'm sure we'll learn a lot as we go. You should call your friend so we can get started."

Nyx nodded and grabbed her netlink. She dialed the number and waited for her friend to pick up. A quiet conversation ensued where she had to cajole her friend a little into helping. “Thanks. We’ll see you then!” She said finally, ending the call. “We need to meet him in two hours. We should head out now. It’s a long drive, and I’d like to get you some clothes too.”

He looked down at himself, the same purple silk shirt he'd arrived in, basic slacks, "Something less posh, or just fresher?" He asked with a hint of amusement. He moved his arms, missing his jacket, he almost felt naked without the jacket and all the things he normally carried in it, though most of those things would be moot here, either technologically obsolete, or magic related and currently useless. He tended to be the type to over prepare, but he had been intending to go backwards in time, and didn't want to bring anything too overprocessed or blatantly futuristic, since he was at what would be the beginning of a huge technological reform. Even though already a lot had changed in his memory, just going back 13 years as intended would have been about a full generation and a half back in technology terms. It still bothered him to have so little, and the cash he had carefully collected to bring back was useless here unless he happened on some random nostalgia collector...

Nyx laughed a bit. “Yes. I’d love for you to be less conspicuous.” She said, grabbing her keys. “Let’s go.” She said, going to her bike. She drove them though the winding alleys with practiced ease, slipping the bike through questionable gaps in traffic in order to keep moving. Once they were at the markets she pushed her way through the crowd to her favorite clothing vendor. She explained what Aric needed and gestured him to come forward to pick out the sizes he needed out of the basket the shop keep offered of black running clothes. “They aren’t glamorous by any stretch, but they’ll help you keep your head down. And they’re comfortable.” Nyx said. (edited)

Once he had the chance to change into them, unsure of what to do with his old clothes, he tucked them into the giant pocket in the front of the hoodie and let his hair pool back into the lowered hoodie. Aric smirked, holding back a proper chuckle, "Ryuko put so much effort into getting more color and less denim in my wardrobe. Anyway, it's certainly comfy enough, and hides my physique even more so," he scoffs. "Which has its own advantages." He smothed out the clothes on him, he looked a lot more physically plain, he still had an aura of confidence and capability about him, though he'd already shown he could reign that in to a degree, frankly he was a lot more capable of making himself not stand out, but he hadn't felt the need anywhere other than in Gail's shop. "Thanks. Where too next?"

“Don’t thank me. My thanks will be the stack of sharp you help me earn.” Nyx was only half joking as she replied. She got on and once Aric was behind her, she drove. Down, and down, and down, into the seedy underbelly of East Rubata. “To my friends to get the deck. Then back up to teach you how to use it enough to pull up the feed and monitor.”

While Nyx's neighborhood had reminded him of Ryuko's apartment complex, which he had taken over, further down reminded him more of Klien's neighborhood, though even he was better off than he pretended, running his own convenience store. It had been a lower class suburb but with the help of his friends he owned it outright with no mortgage. As they reached her friends shop it was more like the kind of place Klien thought he lived in. But more metal. He watched people's body language more closely, if he was going to appear harmless, those were the behaviors he would have to keep in mind. It might even occur to Nyx how attentive Aric was being, this wasn't a battle to quip and bravado, he was studying, like when he had looked over the schematics of the building with her earlier.

Nyx noticed Aric being attentive, and focusing more. She relaxed a little, seeing that he wasn’t going to bluster through this. She walked up to the door and knocked. After supplying the passcode, they let inside. “Who’s the newbie? I thought you worked alone usually?” A thin, high voice came from the back, and out came a lanky man with glasses and two chrome colored cybernetic arms. “Aric. He’s a lead actually. We need a deck so he can be useful to me. Got anything?” “I sure do. I’ll hook you right up if you have the sharp. Nice to meet you Aric. I’m Xander.”

While he managed to avoid staring at the man's arms it was difficult. "Nice to meet you Xander," he wanted to say more, but he didn't want to give anything away, just how much he was new to, frankly even admitting he was a newbie could be dangerous no matter how true it was, for all Xander knew he was just an outsider, and that made him a newbie here, but it didn't tell how out of his depth he was. He couldn't even politely joke he was a fast learner because that would confirm he was a newbie. Still in an effort to be polite he couldn't resist, he did hold out his hand for a shake, he wouldn't start anything aggressive, just be ready to return any pressure applied. Despite how curious he was he didn't want to jeopardize anything, as long as Xander wasn't a show off a simple handshake would be harmless- right?

Xander paused, the handshake taking him off guard for a split second. Most people didn’t handshake anymore, and it was seen as old fashioned. He smiled though and shook the hand that was offered, applying a normal amount of pressure for him. It was maybe on the more firm side for a handshake, but not excessively so. “Nice to meet you too.” He looked between the two then. “Well. Depending on what you want, I’ll need at least 800. Maybe nine. It won’t be super powered, but enough to hack pull up a camera feed. You got that much?” “I will, after this job.” Nyx admitted. Xander frowned. “Red….come on. You know the shop rules. Up front, half for repairs, full if you wanna walk out with a deck.” “He has an in for me. Please throw me a bone. I’m hurting here.” “Fine. Your ass is grass though if you don’t come through. No chop shops will do business with you again if you don’t hold up your end. Understand?” (edited)

"I know you mean her, since you don't know me, but I do pride myself in paying my debts," he wasn't sure how much was safe to say, but did his best to stay vague, "That's why I'm here, she helped me out and I'm earning my keep until I can pay her back."

Xavier considered it. “Fine. I’ll loan you the creds personally. But you need to pay be back. With interest. 950, and you have a week. Got it?” “Thanks. I won’t let you down. Don’t worry.” “You better not. You’re a good customer. I’m sticking my neck out for you here.” With that, Xavier turned to go grab the equipment.

Aric glanced over at Nyx, among other things gauging her reaction, not wanting to ask if that had been right or wrong but at least try to read a general feel. He kept glancing around not so much nervous as just perpetually updating and taking in his surroundings. It didn't look worried, but it did look strangely hyperalert. Every so often he'd cross his arms and catch himself and then put them back at rest. He'd stop short of putting his hands in his pocket. The sorts of things only the more observant really notice, but most people would just dismiss it as fidgeting. After a moment he took a deep and slow breath and relaxed a little, but he just plain wasn't sure what to do, being aware of how different things were was only making him more observant and aware of it. Once he had something to do with his hands it would be easier, he reassured himself.

Nyx saw Aric fidgeting a bit and tilted her head. “What’s wrong, Aric? We’re lucky Xavier said yes you know.” She sighed. “I just hope tonight goes well. Otherwise I’m screwed.”

Aric smirked, "No, I'm- well fine is not the word, but I'll survive. I was- just thinking about how I'm so much better at dealing with other people's problems than my own," he gave a half hearted hah. "I'm not great at waiting, and it's always easier to go out there and find something else to solve than to wait between steps, make sense? I guess I'm just saying I'm pent up wanting to do something. Years of constant go go go, and- the constant rush of-" he patted his pocket where the orb he had said the armor was in, he meant magic as a whole, but figured it wasn't something he should blurt out even while her friend was out of the room, "Everything just feels slower. And I'm sure all that will change crazy fast, but that's then, and this is now." Aric shook his head and quietly laughed at himself. There was more on his mind but he didn't want to prattle on and try to sort out his jumbled thoughts, every time he'd done that she seemed to be frustrated at trying to follow. "I think I'm just used to being the one who knows everything and has to teach rather than be taught, this isn't school and Academia, it's..." He shrugged as he failed to find the word. "It's a whole lot of adjustment all at once instead of bit by bit." He took a slow breath, "But I'm good when crunch time comes, when it comes to salvaging a situation in the chaos." He frowned, thinking, "Maybe that's the problem, I'm treating this whole situation like chaos to adapt to and I need to actually start structuring things."

Nyx pondered what he said. It started to make all his behavior and mannerisms that had driven her crazy make sense. “You’re used to being in charge. Telling people where to go and what to do. If you weren’t in charge, you were at least knowledgeable about what was happening and not over whelmed. You knew what was happening.” She sighed. “I’m sorry for snapping, and not being patient. I guess it didn’t register just how new and unintelligible this reality is. For me, it’s my life. For you, it’s a radical shift. Let’s agree to just ask one question at a time and give shorter answers so it’s not all coming at us at once. Alright?”

Aric smiled and chuckled with an almost giddiness haunting it, he stopped to take a sharp breath, "I can only promise to try." He blew out the breath in a dragged out manner, if only to keep himself from laughing again. "But, before now I was two for two on mentor figures consoling me out of a breakdown only to transition to lover," he smiled but managed not to smirk, "Not that I'm implying anything about you, rather about my own tendency towards defensive breakdowns and letting my guard down around powerful women." He looked around for a moment, the whole time he had been trying to sense if he could feel Xavier in the next room, used to feeling auras and life forces, but like the bracelet on his wrist it didn't seem to work. He vaguely thought he might sense something in the next room, but it was more likely a mix of his other senses and positive thinking. It was disorienting, even now it felt almost like a missing sense. Not only the lack of magic in him, but his inability to sense it.

Nyx raised an eyebrow, and was about to say something about how she wasn’t going to become his lover any time soon when Xavier returned. “I owe you. Big time.” “Yeah you do.” Xavier sighed. “This should work. I got the sense that he’ll need some help, so I installed some wizards to help prompt him and explain things.” He glanced at Aric sheepishly. “I hope that’s ok.”

"Oof," he mused, "I probably will but it's gonna feel a little condescending to have some equivalent to Clippie jumping in all the time," he smirked to be clear he wasn't being antagonistic. "I suddenly wonder if that meme makes sense here, whatever, I used to hang out with a crowd waaaay into antiquated meme culture." It seemed a safe enough excuse peppered with truth without any real substance to betray.

Xavier burst out laughing. “Clippie. Man Nyx. Where did you dig up this fossil. What the hell kind of lead is he?” Nyx’s cheeks suddenly blended into the red of her hair. “Shut up, you gonk. He knows enough to be useful. He just hasn’t used a deck in a while.” “I suppose so. Hey. If they’re annoying, have Nyx disable the training wheels for you. I was just trying to make sure you don’t get her killed, since she knows me 950.” Nyx rolled her eyes. “Let it rest. I’m good for it.”

Of all the things that amused him most, was that this futuristic currency seemed to be reasonable close, top of the line laptops were just over 3k and bottom of the barrel tended to be around 1k. But even the bottom here had to be leauges above anything he'd even breathed on before, let alone touched. "Oh I'll keep the training wheels on for a while at least, my pride isn't worth the mission," he smiled, eager to get somewhere where he could give a closet look at this "deck" and how it compared to a laptop or a PDA.

After saying their goodbyes, Nyx left with Aric and sighed in relief. “That’s an amazing deal on that. Probably because it was stolen.” She murmured, shaking her head. “It’s easily worth double what we paid.” She got on her bike with a weary sigh.

As he got on as well, still excited about the machine, maybe even more than his first. He was used to top of the line because his father used them in his work, but when he had moved out into Ryuko's apartment when she died, he mostly used her beat up machine, like a lot of the things she had had, it wasn't the best, he often had to reassure her he wasn't flaunting or trying to spoil her when he just paid for things for her sometimes. He often did the same for his friends so he really hadn't thought much of it before. So when he bought his own first computer, it didn't have all the bells and whistles, he had learned he didn't need, but it was definitely not a cheap model either. And while this deck Nyx assured him was good, it probably wasn't top of the line either, but he was sure it blew away even the top of the line machines his father used. He was also glad the 'clippie' remark had gone well enough under the radar, understood as an ancient reference, as the term meme hadn't caught on yet when he left, but was blown off Quick enough, and he was glad for now that she wasn't making a big deal out of it, probably also excited about her deal, and the upcoming job it let them do. "That's good, so is the plan: lunch, fundamentals, maybe time to test on a different security before the final run?"

“That works for me, honestly. Let’s go get some soba at that shop by my place. It’s my favorite.” admitted Nyx. She drove them through the alleyways and crowds, and let the colors, flashing, and noise wash over her. She took a few extra turns to make sure they weren’t being followed before pulling into the super crowded square and locking her bike down.

Aric managed a smile that didn't look bewildered, deranged, or insane. He motioned towards the table they'd been at last time, "For now I can only trust your judgment, I'll get the table." As he moved to the table there was a noticeable difference. He wasn’t excited or giddy, but he was definitely interested, more to it he was beginning to understand the plan a little better as pieces fell into place. The world still bewildered him a little, but if his friends could adjust to magic and war, he could adjust to mundane and espionage. He knew he was capable, he'd seen evidence of his alternate timeline self's actions. If anything, taking a moment to collect himself while she got the food only served time to ruminate. He was still looking forward to trying out the deck, and while he had been joking before about dating mentors, it had unintentionally reminded him he hadn't actually gone that long between relationships, it was barely a month after Ryuko died that Tina had convinced him to go out, and after he let her down, it was only a couple months after he met Izzy, after they stopped trying to kill each other they're relationship had actually puttered off and ran its course, and now, little more than a month later he had tried chasing her father back in time expecting to see Ryuko again, and ended up here instead. On the one hand he both didn't want to jeopardize their current arrangement that seemed more professional than personal for now, if only slightly; and he figured maybe it was a good time to cool his jets anyway. On the other hand, Murphy had a sick sense of humor, so here he was yet again thrust into the presence of another strong-willed woman who was more than capable of taking care of himself.

Nyx came over to the table, two hot bowls of noodles with synthetic meat on them in her hands. “Here we are. This is my personal favorite. I think that pork is the closest to the real thing, so that’s why I got it.” She smiled over at him and took a bite. “You seem lost in thought. How are you doing with all of this?” She asked, a small frown replacing the smile. She hoped he’d be alright, since things were going to pick up soon, and he’d need to stay sharp to stay alive. There was also a small hint of something else. She found that she genuinely felt for him, and hoped that things got easier for this poor sap who got sucked into a world that was nothing like his own. She was surprised to realize that she was a little worried about the whole thing. Huh. Maybe Aric was growing on her. At some level, she cared about his well being as more than just a business partner, and something closer to a friend. (edited)

Aric chuckled, "Well now that I have food in front of me I'm more focused on how much I miss mall food court food," he took the chopsticks, "not that I'm not grateful, thank you." He took a mouthful to make a point first, before swallowing and continuing, "I miss Cheeseburgers, Chilli Dogs, Chilli Cheese Fries," he scoffed, "greasy and terrible for your health, enough salt to force you to drink more," he made a dramatic flare with the chopsticks, "Food intentionally made cheap and fast for impatient teens and twenty-somethings." He had a wistful smile, like he could almost taste the food in his minds tastebuds. "Maybe even some Beef and Broccoli or Orange Chicken, again, don't get me wrong, I love this kinda food too, I just miss- well- where I came from I guess," he sighed, the smile finally wearing off. He took another mouthful, "I mean, this is one of your comfort foods, those were mine, despite what my mother used to accuse me, I'm not a particularly picky eater, but I still have my go-tos."

Nyx nodded, sympathetic to the way he felt. “There was this synth-burger place in my old neighborhood. Maras. I went there all the time. I moved and this became my spot. I miss Maras though and it’s been years.” She took a few bites. “I can maybe find you some food like that, a few levels up. Alright?” She didn’t know how to help with home sickness entirely, but she could at least help find some comfort food. (edited)

"Hmmmm," Aric had some reservations in his voice, "I'm sure the tech has come a long way, but I hear synth burger and I remember the fake meat burgers I had in middle school, you ever see a kid drop broccoli and carrots and drown them in mustard to drown out the flavor of flat fake meat?" He chuckled, "Still, I'm sure you're right that it's worth checking out." He sipped some of the broth before mowing down the rest of the noodles.

Nyx frowned a bit. “It’s the best we can do. You have to be a rich executive to afford anything real.” She said, a tinge of sadness in her voice. She finished her food as well, a happy sigh leaving her. “That hit the spot. Let’s go and make sure you know how to use that deck properly and get some practice in before tonight.” She said as she got up and got ready to leave. She wasn’t sure why, but Arics lack of enthusiasm at her idea to maybe help him had stung, and made her sad. He knew what real food tasted like. She had never known anything different. It was a stark reminder of how much better off people in his time had been and how screwed her generation was in this situation. She also felt a tiny bit offended. Like he was turning up his nose at what she had to offer to try and help him find some comfort. She knew that didn’t make sense. He wasn’t trying to be snobby. Just missing the specific thing he was used to, and she was offering an imitation. A very close one, but an imitation none the less.

On the one hand, he definitely noticed he seemed to have bothered her with his remark, it certainly wasn't his intent, and he'd tried to be clear, but on the other he could certainly see how it was easy to take as insensitive. He wanted to clarify, but was worried it would only exacerbate the situation. He furrowed his brow for a moment trying to concatenate his thoughts in a more careful way. "I'm sure what you suggested is leauges better than the lowest bidder crap my middle school served," he looked directly at he with a face he hoped was encouraging and reassuring. "And," he continued, "when we find those libraries, maybe I can find a way to go home and you can come visit my time, if I can get home I'm sure I can send you back, maybe even with all kinds of tools to improve your life and those you care about. All of that on top of the current plan to figure out and stop this world's version of my grandfather from his mackiavelian schemes."

Nyx sighed. “If there was a way to improve our lives, don’t you think we’d have found it by now?” She said gently, shaking her head as they got on the bike and rode to her apartment. She got off and walked up to the door, unlocking it with her ID and taking a seat. “It’s fine, Aric. I get it. You’re home sick. Nothings gonna quite scratch that itch.” She grabbed the new deck and started setting it up for him. “Let’s just figure out a way to stop your grandfather and get you home.”

Aric definitely picked up a drop it vibe, and this certainly wasn't the time to suggest politics or radical solutions. Even just suggesting he leave her with raw resources she could turn into capitalistic gain was probably crude at best and insulting at least. Having grown up on star trek, it was almost hard to see such a dystopian reversal: somewhere between 1984 and Brave New World. He reminded himself his habit of adopting other people's problems wasn't a healthy way to cope with his own. He watched intently as she was setting up the deck, presumably following menus on a futuristic startup wizard.

Nyx noticed him watching. “Here. Why don’t I let you take it from this point. Get you used to the controls. The wizard gives you the options, here’s what they mean…..” she handed him the controls and explained what it was trying to tell him briefly. “You might want to set it up this way, because it’s easier to find the security systems if you don’t know what to look for. I do it another way, because I can spot them and it makes it easier to get in and out once you’re done. Less layers of security to put back up.”

Maybe it was imagination, maybe it was the stress washing away, but it almost looked like glowing as Aric smiled and sat in front of the deck. His eyes even seemed more vibrant than they had before, his normally pale blue eyes captured and reflected the light and looked cerulean as he blinked before stretching and cracking numerous knuckles and joints in one extreme reaching stretch. He blew on his fingers as if they were dusty, then set them hovering just above the keys. There wasn't too much show off with as it was menu after menu for a few screens. She'd already done the things that would probably embarrassed him to realize he didn't know, like date, time, and while she had skipped inputting a location he wouldn't have recognized any of the options on that drop down anyway. Now he was on mostly frivolous stuff like themes optional add ons. The graphics even at defualt were beyond crisp. He set it to the smallest icon and font settings allowing him to maximize space. His eyes had zero difficulty, especially with how many pixels were crammed into such a small space, but the text was almost to the level advertisements used to hide their fine print. He did frown as it came to another menu he needed her input for, network settings... his shoulders lowered just a tiny bit, but noticeable. He turned back towards her.

Nyx chuckled at Arics enthusiasm and his little display of stretching and ‘dusting off’ his fingers. It was funny to her, and quaint. Mannerisms people didn’t use much anymore. She was surprised as he minimized everything so tiny, as she had to squint and lean in to see it sort of clearly. Then he paused his shoulders slumping. “Hey. It’s not easy. The net isn’t what it used to be. It’s completely different. Here. This is how I’d do it. Go here, and then…..” she explained the different steps and types of connections and let him click and explore for himself if he wanted.

Aric Hmm'd as she explained, "I know a few towns in what was California were discussing the possibility of free public Wi-Fi, this seems to be an extention of that, when I paused, I assumed there was some network password I needed, now I almost feel more embarrassed at my assumptions," he chuckled. Once the wizard was done, he started by investigating the fundamental apps and file structure, figuring that would give him some hints on how the operating system worked. A quick glance at the net browser structure told him most of his old understanding of http was nearly useless, while it did a lot of the same things, a quick glance at the source code of the default homepage told him a lot about how much he didn't know as much as he did. After that he opened an app that seemed to have been preloaded with the "training wheels" Xavier had mentioned. He still hadn't had to type much, but his form quickly adjusted to the smaller keyboard layout.

Nyx watched him examine the machine and the interface with a smile. “You’re learning quick. I’m impressed. Now. Try and use that program to hack into this and turn it on.” She challenged, grabbing an old camera she’d found abandoned a while back. She’d fished it out as a training exercise. “You might want to use this program.” She pointed to the one she meant. “You can also do it through the net if you know what you’re doing. Your choice.”

"So, even in powersave it's able to recieve signals?" He shook his head at that, used to when things were off they were off, the entire idea of things not being fully off was strange to him in a world of small batteries and outlet electricity only being 80-95 percent reliable depending on where you were, there were still parts of the world that just didn't have power. Still, it wasn't incomprehensible, just alien. He looked at the icons, "So this one would be a direct connection, and this would be to come at it through the net," While it was a dangling question, it was somewhat rhetorical as he was fairly confident he understood. "Which will I be using in the mission, I should practice that one?"

“Yes. It’ll receive signals. You have to give it a cue to boot up. But yeah. You can do it.” She paused as he asked her which method to try. “Try both. I’m not so sure what their set up is, so. We may have to use either.” Nyx set the camera down and took a seat next to Aric again, wondering how he’d choose to tackle the problem she’d given him. (edited)

Deciding the net approach would be harder he started there, he suspected there might be information on the camera itself which would simplify the matter, but on the assumption he'd have no such assistance on their actual task he ignored that. He actually took a moment to search the specifics of the camera figuring to eliminate a lot of guess work as he tried to find the device. Again, doing it the direct way first would be easier since he would just have a small list to work from of nearby devices. As he pinpointed the locations of his best guesses he was amazed by the precision of there GPS equivalent. Used to guessing by ranges of a couple miles, this was able to pinpoint to within the width of this room. After he activated the camera with an amused flourish he made it take a picture of him holding up a victory pose on one hand.

Nyx clapped her hands appreciatively. “Very nice!! I’m impressed. It took me a day or two to figure that out. That’s awesome. Now. Your next challenge is to get out of there and leave me no clues you were in there.” She said, smirking as his job was made infinitely harder by the fact he’d taken a picture. It was a great opportunity for practice though.

He smiled but rolled his eyes, "I get in the actual thing I'll have to be careful, but it's a camera, can't I just factory reset?" He held back all but half a laugh, "I remember in high school all my friends use to go into the admin drive and clear out our log files, but I have to imagine modern security is a little harder to bypass than just manually entering Z-slash-colon."

Nyx laughed, but in a friendly way. At his joke, but not him. “Well. You could, but there’s after images of the data and traces it leaves that a net runner can find easily. Also. My photos would be gone, and that’s a dead give away. Think about their system. They’d have footage stored, and settings and so on. They’d be suspicious if it was all acting like it was new, right?” (edited)

"Yeah, but I meant that one, which doesn't have all that, I'm saying in this specific circumstance that would be an appropriate shortcut. And if I'm factory reseting wouldn't that include a reformat which would at least make the data as close to invisible as you could without completely overwriting the data several times over." He sighed, "But I'm assuming there's an application that does something to that effect, their system I'd be super stupid to reset as you say, but this camera, if there were pictures I could copy and paste them back after the reset." He started browsing the assortments of applications already installed, opening a simple document file to start writing down which did what, purely to put it in memory as he deleted the thing as soon as he finished.

“To the trained eye, it’s possible to tell. You’re right though. That makes it hard to tell what you did. But someone really skilled could possibly tell someone was in there. That’s if they knew what to look for.” Nyx said gently. “Hey. There’s an app that will encrypt things for you, and bounce the signal. It’s this one. It’s a new one, the corpos haven’t caught on to. It masks as a word processor. But if you use the insert symbol button and insert this obscure math symbol, it shows it’s true colors.” (edited)

"Sounds a bit like some of the old peer to peer sharing programs of the past," he mused. Aric chuckled for a moment, "Ya know, my dad and I used to talk about encryption, he always talked proudly about how even the most simple encryption would take years to brute force and the cutting edge ones at the time could take thousands or even hundreds of thousands of years of computing time. Even then though I didn't say it, I wondered how pointless that was when it was already possible to network together thousands of computers and cut that down to a single year, less if you get lucky. SETI was already basically doing that, distributing packets of math for people to download and let their home comouter run and send back. But here, now, I can't hardly fathom how complex encryption has to be to discourage the brute force approach..." He scoffed. He'd already connected back into the camera and was saving the picture he took onto his deck before the next step; in which he set up a macro so he could look away once he started the loop, using the app she pointed out he used the net to connect to the camera from numerous different addresses one after another, such that it would overwrite several times over any record of previous connections, each time it uploaded the largest stock photo he could find, and duplicated it to the camera's max memory, the deleted it all, before connecting again and doing it again. In the end there would enevitably be a record that something had connected, and that something had been on the drive, but nothing that could be traced. If he hadn't taken the picture all he'd have to do was bombard the thing with connection attempts, but because he had, as she knew, it was much harder to hide, but this way all that would remain were fragments of that same stock photo. He set the macro to end with inputting the original command to start the Macro, so it would continue until he canceled out of the prompt. He smirked with a memory, "I used to grind idle games similar to this, record a series of mouse clicks and loop them." He turned to face her while the process continued behind him. (edited)

Nyx watched him approach the problem and was impressed. “Simple, but effective. I like it. It works if you aren’t in a huge rush, or have things prepped. Good job!” She said, giving him a pat on the shoulder. “I can really tell this has come a long, long way from what you’re used to, but you’re taking it like a champ.” She looked at what he had done. “There’s a hint someone was here, but not what they did. Very nice.” She said. “Now. I’m going to hook this camera up to my deck and monitor it. Hack it and grab my picture without me noticing.” She commanded, grinning with anticipation. She knew this would be a real challenge, but she was really curious about how far Arics beginner luck and contextual knowledge would take him. “Yeah. Encryption comes in various levels. Top level stuff needs a team of net runners, and a good hacker to have a shot. Info runners like me and common jackboots can get into low to mid tier stuff.” She shrugged nonchalantly as she braided her fiery mane so it wouldn’t get in her way. (edited)

He gave a "Hmm," of pondering and even put a hand to his chin for a moment. He popped onto the net and looked up some more information about the company that made the camera. He even scratched his head for a moment as he was clearly looking for very specific information. What he was about to do was relatively new to him, his friends had been the real coders and hackers, he just picked up a few tricks my osmosis. He wrote down network addresses used by the company, particularly for its auto-update systems. He copied that down for later and began looking up various cheat sheets for software coding, he knew of a few older code languages but had never used them, so he was practically guessing as he picked out what he hoped was an appropriate code language and cheated out an incredibly dirt simple executable he disguised as an update file. For once he was actually able to show how quickly he could type, slamming out several lines of code, then going back to his cheatsheet reference to make sure it was correct. Using the other program she had shown him to bounce around his data he made the point he was rerouted to pretend to have the network address of the company that ran the software. He had to wait for its periodic ping to check for updates and send the executable disguised as an update package. When it finally happened the camera would send all of its data and it would only look like the normal exchange required to download an update and confirm. The hardest part was finding the creditials the software company used so he could trick the camera, it certainly wouldn't pass a professional if they looked at the update file, but on a casual glance it would pass as an update, and would look like that's where any connection came from. He sat back after a while and waited, putting his hands behind his head, it would probably take anywhere short of an hour, but once he did the picture and anything else stored on the recently blanked camera would be delivered to him. (edited)

Nyx watched Aric from across the room at her own deck curiously. She monitored the status of everything and soon enough an update came along and she didn’t pay much mind beyond looking at the names and a bit of the code. It seemed a little different than other updates but things changed all the time so she didn’t pay it much kind as she let it run its course.

A moment after his deck chirped an alert that the the data had been sent, he opened the image she had wanted him and turned his screen proudly, "I'm almost as surprised as you that worked," he chuckled. "I'm sure once you go prodding around you'll figure it out, but it shouldn't be backtrackable."

Nyx swore. “That update!!! I knew it didn’t look right!!!” She furiously clicked around and found it and read more carefully. “Yeah. Damn. That’s clever. You’re a natural at this.” She was genuine in her praise as she examined the photo he’d taken. “Damn. That’s a good shot too.” She chuckled, looking at the unflattering angle, which made her jaw look even blockier.

He scoffed, "Natural, I literally had to keep another window open with cheat sheets for my coding, that's literally the most complicated thing I've ever done before. The next most complicated things would be either a few dense macros or the time all my friends and I were showing off making full on sidescroller rpgs on our calculators." He appreciated the praise but he was being hardheaded about accepting it, he was being far more critical of himself than he needed to be. "Honestly with the talk of not being detectable has me worried, not like I can just spoof update myself into this place's surveillance systems," he chuckled, still sitting back calmly but his hands were in front of him now. (edited)

Nyx laughed. “Just make it not obvious. The goons watching the system aren’t that clever and won’t look that hard. I’m a little better than they would be at spotting it, but you got past me. So, kudos.” She leaned back and stretched her limbs out. “How are you feeling about this? Do you think you can manage the security system tonight? I’ll be counting on you to keep me alive.” That wasn’t an exaggeration either. The automated systems would try to tear her apart just as much as the guards it would summon to track them both down. (edited)

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