#the allagan node's name is Projection

[eorzeanflowers]

Two new flowers have joined my ranks! Introducing:

The Strelitzia

Beatrice ‘Beat’ Caralli is a Corvosi native turned pirate that has a lovely cheerful demeanor. Equally skilled with greataxe, knives, and pistol, Beat is a firecraker friend. Always on the edge of her seat for a new adventure, she rushes headlong into situations just for the thrill of it. She can be sneaky when she needs to be, especially if she wants to break into someone’s vault. But loud is her preferred method after her time at sea. She has a bit of temper, but usually is calmed down by her partner, Mai. Speaking of...

The Tulip

Mai is a woman who has pushed past her traumas to enjoy life. A former slave of a crew operating out of the Rhotano Sea, Mai cannot speak. She never had any form of happiness until Beat came along with her crew and rescued the mute girl. Mai became quite attached to her rescuer and eventually they fell hard for each other. Mai has a head for numbers and can help almost anyone with a financial trouble. This talent allowed her to apprentice at the Arcanist’s guild for a time, where she learned how cast magic. Mai acquired an Allagan node to help her converse with people, but it is prone to not accurately projecting her thoughts so she gets annoyed with it easily.

And some more screens under the cut.

Beat:

Mai:

[dragons-bones]

FFXIV: A Synthesis of Aether

#FebHyurary Day 17: Food + Day 18: Music

A/N: So I had too many ideas for yesterday, but knew for today touching on Synnove’s aether synesthesia would work well, and then I said, “DT YOU FOOL YOU CAN COMBINE BOTH DAYS FOR HER AETHER SYNESTHESIA.” And lo: a fic! Mostly dialogue, I haven’t done a dialogue heavy ficlet in a loooong time so I feel a bit rusty, but this was a fun exercise!

RATING: T WORD COUNT: 1455 WARNINGS: None!

---

[Installing SCAEVAN SYSTEMICS operating software.]

[Installation successful, running update cycle.]

[Updates complete. Archive Node Unit 453 now online. Please specify primary user.]

“Synnove Greywolfe.”

[USER: SYNNOVE now registered. How may I assist you today?]

“Please stand by for audio recording.”

[Standing by.]

The node’s lights dimmed from bright grass green to soft seafoam as it partially powered down, its northern and southern hemispheres slowly rotating in opposite directions.

Synnove lowered her hand and glanced over at Rereha. “All right, you can babble now,” the Highlander said.

Rere took her hands off her mouth to tug at her braided pigtails and beamed at her. “Whatcha doing?” she said, in the sing-song tone of someone feeling exceptionally nosy, rocking back on her heels.

Synnove rolled her eyes and set her hands on her hips. “Y’shtola’s working on a compilation of aetheric synesthesic perceptions as a downtime project,” she said. “She asked me if I was willing to contribute, to which I obviously said ‘yes.’ But because I’m not often able to spend much time in Revenant’s Toll that doesn’t devolve into Warrior of Light or Ironworks business—”

“—audio recordings you can send or give her are more convenient.”

“Careful, Rere, or other people will begin realizing you’re smarter than you pretend to be.”

The lalafell gasped. “Madam, you wound me!”

She received a satisfied smirk in reply as Synnove added, “And what better way to create an audio recording than with my new archive node?”

Rere pulled herself up onto Synnove’s desk, sitting on the edge and kicking her feet back and forth as she leaned back to rest on her hands. “Did you liberate it from the Ironworks?”

“I purchased this fair and square, I have a bill of sale from Jessie herself.”

“Nero’s OS?”

“The fact you know that term is vaguely frightening, but the man does have an unparalleled understanding of Allagan technology and if you tell him I said that, I will hang you by your toes from the edge of the Steps of Faith.”

Rere mimed locking her lips.

“Hand me that stack of paper, please.” Synnove pointed to Rere’s right. The lalafell snagged it and dutifully handed it over.

The arcanist shuffled through them, humming tunelessly as she did, before she came across the correct page. “All right,” she said, mostly to herself. “Start with Y’shtola’s list of baseline sensations today and go from there.” Louder now: “Begin recording.”

[Audio recording now live.]

Synnove automatically straightened her spine and rolled down her shoulders in the same way she did before she began a lecture for the fourth-year arcanist students. In a clear, strong voice: “Synnove Greywolfe recording for Y’shtola Rhul on the 18th day of the Second Umbral Moon, 11 Year of the Seventh Astral Era, on the subject of synesthetic perceptions of aether. I personally perceive aether, in addition to visual manifestations, as both taste and sound. Occasionally, one sensation will dominate the other, and certain sounds and tastes aren’t exclusive to one elemental type.

“For this recording, I’ll describe the overall generalities I associate with different elemental aether; variance is high depending on factors such as location or origin, in terms of ambient or crystallized aether, or in the case of spells, if they are being performed correctly or are altered in some capacity.”

“How to spot the catastrophic boom just before the boom becomes catastrophic and it’s too late to do anything about it.”

Synnove sighed. Rere giggled.

“Y’sthola, remind me to recalculate the angle needed to ensure Rere lands in Silvertear if thrown from the highest tower in the Toll.”

“Hey!”

“You’d be fine, Hydaelyn likes you best.”

Rere pouted, lower lip pushed out to the point of exaggeration, which meant she wasn’t actually offended.

“To get back on topic: fire. Fire aether most frequently tastes like hot spices, such as peppers; coffee; red meat, such as buffalo; bitter chocolate; cherries; wine. Sound tends to be uniformly brass instruments such as horns and trumpets; very occasionally it can sound like metal striking metal.

“Earth aether is auditorily simple and gustatorily complex. The sound of earth is always rhythmic and steady, if not outright drumming; the sensation of it echoing follows fairly often, too. Taste runs a huge gamut: savory or sweet seasonings, such as cumin or cinnamon; white meat, such as pork; most vegetables, particularly green or starchy vegetables; certain fruits such as apples and figs; bread; cheeses; stews; whiskeys.”

“I’d call most of those foods ‘homey.’”

Synnove frowned thoughtfully. “That’s a fair assessment,” she said after a moment. “Earth aether tends to ‘taste’ comforting.”

“Does that mean Tyr is the ultimate comfort food?”

“Does that mean you want to go flying out of my office window into the harbor?”

“I’m going to shut up now!”

“See how long that lasts,” Synnove said under her breath while her sister smiled beatifically. “Where was I… Ah, wind.”

The Highlander frowned. “Wind aether is another oddity, taste-wise. Mint tends to present quite frequently, along with sweet chocolate, white grapes, vanilla, white wine, arak, olives, and scallions. Thankfully when it seems to be a combination of flavors, it’s complimentary…” She shook her head. “Sound is similar to flutes, chimes, whistles. Bit stereotypical, honestly.

“Lightning…” Synnove paused, frowning again. “Sound tends to be similar to specific string instruments such as violas and cellos; deeper sounds. Low notes on a piano or harpsichord, sometimes simple humming or vibrations. Taste does not tend to be strong, but most frequently has manifested as berries and/or stonefruits. Alcohols such as gin, palm wine, ouzo, and brandy.”

“That is not the element I’d consider boozy,” Rere said idly. She had lain back on the desk and was staring up at the huge arched ceiling of the tower office, twiddling her thumbs.

Synnove shrugged without further comment, already looking at the next item on the list Krile had transcribed on Y’shtola’s behalf. “Water is what one would think would be boozy but I have legitimately never tasted ‘boozy’ water aether before. Tropical fruits dominate; in terms of savory, as horrifically stereotypical as it is, seafood. But almost never in a way that makes sense, I once found a water cluster in a bluefin tuna’s belly that tasted like Coerthan oyster confit.”

“I remember that, you made the weirdest face.”

“I still can’t find the words to describe just how fucked up that taste versus visual dichotomy was. In any event, water aether also sounds like string instruments, mostly harps, dulcimers, and brighter pianos. Also, a very specific drum… Rere, what’s that staccato-sounding drum the Flames have been using in their parades of late?”

The lalafell picked her head up. “Snare drum?”

“That’s the one. Timpanis on occasion, too. And finally…ice. Sound leans towards woodwind instruments like the clarinet and piccolo, as well as bells. Any bell. Taste…hmm. Slaw, fruits that freezes well, fruit juices, Thavnairian sweet tea—”

“That is not tea, that is an abomination.”

“—some melons, cucumbers, white rum, wintergreen.”

“I still can’t believe you’ve never come across ice aether that tastes like the Bismarck’s root beer float.”

“They introduced it to the menu last year.”

“So?”

Synnove sighed that heavy, gusting sigh everyone who spent longer than thirty minutes with Rereha learned. “Y’shtola, I see a note here about Primordial Light and Dark, but I’ll do that in the next recording along with variations and discrepancies, as first, I need to beat my sister over the head with a grimoire—”

Rereha hopped down from the desk and ran for the office door, shouting BYE Y’SHTOLA I LOVE YOU BEST over her shoulder as she did.

“—and second, I’m hungry and now is a good time to break for lunch. Recording end.”

[End of recording. Is there anything else on which I may provide assistance?]

“No, that will be all for now—ah! Before I forget. Please create new nodal designation of own choice.”

[Clarification requested.]

“Pick a name for yourself.”

[…]

[Accessing imperial Allagan databases for repository of birth certificates. Scanning records.]

[Archive Node Unit 453 rename complete. Archive Node Unit 453 is now Kleio.]

Synnove smiled, pleased. “It’s nice to meet you, Kleio.”

[…Thank you. Database scans are currently inconclusive as relates to instruments in modern usage versus those of Allag. What samples are available to provide edification?]

The Highlander cocked her head, staring at the silver-and-green node for a few long moments, before another smile, this one slow and delighted, crossed her features. “I have a few orchestrion rolls that include solos and chamber music that you could listen to while I have lunch, and I can provide lists of which instruments are used in each piece.”

[That would be satisfactory.]

“Perfect! Let’s get you set up…”

[maxikha-ffxiv]

Open for RP - Seseta Sesebeta

The Basics ––– –

Age: 25

Birthday: 18th day of 3rd Astral Moon

Race: Lalafell

Gender: Female

Sexuality: unsure, at the very least Heterosexual

Marital Status: Single

Data Center: Crystal (home world Mateus)

Physical Appearance ––– –

Hair: Blue, white highlights

Eyes: Blue-green

Height: Average for a Lalafell

Build: well toned, muscular, athletic

Distinguishing Marks: Various burns from hot metals and acids

Common Accessories: her goggles from when she joined the Machinist’s guild, her yet-to-be-named node always following her

Personal ––– –

Profession: Smithy/Tinkerer for the Machinists Guild in Ishgard

Hobbies: making things out of metal, shooting things

Languages: Common languages of Eorzea

Residence: Ishgard

Birthplace: Ul’dah

Religion: enough to keep the Holy See fanatics off her back

Patron Deity: Oschon

Fears: losing all of her work, being forced to go back home

Relationships ––– -

Spouse: None

Children: None

Parents:Talks with mother via letter all the time, had a large falling out with father

Other Relatives: does not maintain contact with anyone of importance

Pets: An allagan node she’s restored and got running. It keeps track of various lists and notes for her

Traits ––– -

* Bold your character’s answer.

Extroverted / In Between / Introverted

Disorganized / In Between / Organized

Close Minded / In Between / Open Minded

Calm / In Between / Anxious

Disagreeable / In Between / Agreeable

Cautious / In Between / Reckless

Patient / In Between /  Impatient

Outspoken / In Between / Reserved

Leader / In Between / Follower

Empathetic / In Between / Apathetic

Optimistic / In Between / Pessimistic

Traditional / In Between / Modern

Hard-working / In Between / Lazy

Cultured / In Between / Uncultured

Loyal / In Between / Disloyal

Faithful / In Between / Unfaithful

Additional information ––– –

Smoking Habit: casual, usually only if it’s a formality to do so Drugs: nothing that will mess with her work Alcohol: drinks regularly. not an alcoholic, but won’t turn down a free round at the nearby tavern

RP Hooks ––– –

Seseta’s main job is as a hired smithy for the Machinist’s guild in Ishgard. She doesn’t design or make the weapons for them, what she does instead is create some of the more intricate parts in order to improve performance out in the field. Her goal is to never have her work be noticed by the actual users, because it means she’s done her job well

Even though she doesn’t usually make larger items, doesn’t mean she can���t. Her rifle and her gunblade were both made from scratch designs she found as pet projects, and she has learned how to use both. Seseta won’t say no to outside commissions either, provided the job is good and interesting to her

Seseta is a classically trained Ul’dahn goldsmith, but doesn’t have the heart for it. A large fight with her father over her future led to them falling out, and she left the city to go do her own thing. After trying archery for a bit (she hated it), she found herself in Ishgard, and became fascinated by the metalworkers there. After a few years, she learned the trades well enough to be able to work just about any metal sent her way, for whatever purpose it’s needed

Seseta won’t admit to it, but she’s lonely. Pouring herself into work the way she has, there’s been no time for romance or friends. She’d more likely take to the latter, but if romance blossomed from it, I’d not be opposed 

If you have ideas, feel free to share. Open to just about anything with her. Also won’t say no to pre-established relationships with others if that would be easier

[finalrespite]

Vision One

It was the late period of the Third Astral Era. While the unprecedented resurrection of Allag’s founding emperor - the first Xande - marked a turning point for a stagnating superpower that desperately needed revitalization, there would be no small amount of opposition from within in what would follow. Seeing Xande’s relentless approach and the brutality that unfolded in conquering Meracydia, resistance cells rose to take the future into their own hands.

Under the pretenses of war, unrest and intrigue, an array of advancements in machina did occur. The Kaliya, units deployed to Meracydia and eventually to the fallen wyrm Bahamut’s nacelle, were a noted foray into testing machinery with biology. Meanwhile, technologists had further honed their clockwork forgekin with the humanoid Predator and Hunter models, intent on creating units that would not only be incorruptible by the resistance, but be the means by which the imperium could counter their dissenters.

While nearing the end of the line, it was not the end of innovation for ancient Allag.

The earliest drafting for the next generation of clockwork came not long after deployment of the hunter-class soldiers. Not content with the efforts to cull the resistance, the results of which varied, Imperial technologists considered means to infiltrate the resistance groups and effectively ‘disembowel’ them. This called for the conception of humanoid clockwork units with a lifelike quality that the Allagans had not seen before.

While the art of cloning had been perfected, Amon’s scientists did not expect such a creation to wield the power or integrity they had yearned in a clockwork automaton - one to challenge or exceed the strength of their own hunters. Nonetheless, to make any strides toward their intended goal they had to challenge one key hurdle that eluded them in the past: the ease of mobility and dexterity akin to a spoken race. Having explored the merger of living tissue with their machina prior, it came to naught due to difficulty of the grafting process and of preventing the flesh’s degradation.

To the imperial minds, perfection was not to be found in reattempting the merger of biology, but to artificially replicate and synthesize life in every last detail. With the pooled resources of the three continents, and new discoveries for every sun that passed over Meracydia, a crack team of technologists and aetherochemists laid the groundwork for the Vision project.

The new combat units, termed replicants, would incorporate the most advanced internal systems seen in a clockwork yet surrounded by a muscular system of synthetic fibers and a robust frame. Layers of dermis from a polymer compound conceived by the aetherochemists would finish the lifelike build, with the outer layers having their own special functions to optimize the replicants’ capabilities in subterfuge.

Part for part, the replicant would be vexing for even the best model clockwork hunter, at the size of an average Allagan or automaton soldier. After a series of prototypes to work out the imperfections, the first replicant was created, designated XE116. While this in itself was a momentous achievement on the advancement of clockwork automata, perhaps even a milestone in bioengineering, it was not by any means finishing line for the Vision team. The overall complexity of XE116, or “Vision One”, made it a marked challenge for proper mass production. Furthermore, a combat unit of One’s caliber would ultimately only be as good as its artificial intelligence, which by Allag’s standard might prove too gravely limited for the tasks it needed to undertake.

A potential solution to both issues would soon become apparent, in the form of “Epitaph”.

While the Vision team were responsible for advancements in clockwork, a group of scientists in the research sector Azys Lla were at work advancing AI and the empire’s excessive number of nodes. It was the belief that by linking the nodes into a network by a synthetic gestalt intelligence, there would be the means to perpetually sustain and revitalize the nation’s infrastructure without it falling into the same manner of complacency and disarray. The modular core of Epitaph, yet in its prototyping phase, was also reaching new levels of bioengineering as an adaptive construct. While by default similar to other nodes, it was capable of changing shape and potentially converting other hardware to suit its perimeters, and its intelligence too could learn and grow like never before.

The people behind Epitaph were largely men and women detached from the Imperial agenda, even disenfranchised by the long-term benefit of Xande’s revitalization by conquest. Hence, when they started to collaborate with the Vision team, they started to rub off on the latter with their perspective. The Vision scientists too had generally grown weary of the course Allag had taken, and of the growing atrocities committed in their name, of the conquests and the moral affronts. For many the abrupt face-heel turn of General Phlegethon, once hero of the people, was a hot-button issue.

Quietly yet dramatically, the tone had shifted. It was no longer about perpetuating their sins, but planting the seeds of atonement, safeguarding the future or at least having something that could represent justice for Allag long after they were gone. Such was their Epitaph.

One of the leading and most sympathetic minds of Vision, Astraea Sonde, set about nurturing their finalized unit One, imposing the virtuous ideology and properly integrating them with the prototype node. With the potential of their replicant realized, the team could turn back to setting up reproduction of further units. Unfortunately, these plans would never fully coalesce.

Allag’s conquest of Meracydia had all been assured, secured by the use of voidsent, and Xande grew restless. He never felt more alive than when the threat of oblivion stood at his gates, and he would see to relive that feeling by any means -- even if it meant making use of his deal with the devil, the Cloud of Darkness, to invite the very hells to rain upon the star.

Words of such designs spread fast, as few in the imperial court stood with them, and the people revolted. The resistance cells came out of hiding to unite to form a proper army. The Vision and Epitaph teams too dropped all pretense and allied with the people, prompting them to gear Vision One for the fight; instead of assassinating revolutionaries, their goal would be to assassinate Xande himself. For the urgency of it, they were thus equipped with the Epitaph core node as their weapons.

As fate would have it, though, time had run out. Having been chased into Syrcus Tower along with his remaining loyalists, Xande began the process of opening the voidgate that would invite the Cloud of Darkness to their world. However, having gravely underestimated the surge of energy they were inviting from their catalyst, the great iron gaol used to contain the captured Bahamut, it was more than the land beneath the Crystal Tower could contain. The earth buckled and consumed the great citadel, and ere long the land all around it was laid to waste by tremors of untold proportions. Just like that, the Allagan Empire was no more.

The calamity had claimed countless lives, and with the Tower lost, much of the remaining technology that it had sustained was fast losing power. The Vision-Epitaph science team had also mostly perished, but a handful of individuals were saved by a rapid intervention from Vision One. While Dr. Sonde had survived the initial calamity, she did not escape without being mortally wounded. While a partially damaged One was capable of prolonging Sonde’s life, the loss of resources meant she wouldn’t last. The doctor had one last desperate gambit to pull before her end.

The surviving scientists were tasked on preserving as much of their Epitaph computer as they could. Most of them scattered on sojourns to hook up portions of their construct to whatever facility they could find. Meanwhile One, Sonde and her partner, AI researcher Creshia Veld, fashioned a one-way trip to Azys Lla - with the Epitaph core in tow.

It took the most of One and Epitaph’s remaining energy to get them into Helix, leaving the automaton at a minimally functioning level. Nonetheless, Epitaph’s software was reintegrated into Azys Lla, and Creshia said her tearful final farewells to Astraea thereafter. Alone, she was left to make an attempt to safeguard One, choosing to make a harrowing journey to an isolated storage depot in the south of the floating subcontinent. There, she left Vision One to sleep, accompanied by her trusted ancillary node MX-I and the Epitaph core. Although knowing that she herself would surely die as well, maybe all too soon, Creshia felt assured in One’s safety; that as long as the automaton was able to just subsist, someday they would carry on the fleeting hopes of the few who dreamt of their peoples’ atonement.

It would be around five thousand years before Azys Lla was to be rediscovered by the outside world, and before a slumbering Vision One would be rediscovered by a curious girl named Ai.

[gold-eyes-vengeful-heart]

BTHB :: Dissociation

((Or: Runya and Sorin find the old lab Runya was formerly kept in.

Needless to say I borrowed @aetherstitch​ again lol))

---

Runya had expected to find...well. More.

The laboratory complex had been, clearly, abandoned for some time; his boots crunched softly on broken glass in the entryway, and only half the lights still flickered overhead, sending shadows writhing along the wall like ghosts. 

“Are you sure this is the place?” Sorin’s voice filled the space easily, even as gargantuan as it was. 

“Very certain.” Runya knew that the blandness in his tone was gaining increasingly concerned looks from the healer, but somehow, the way that should have made him feel bad rolled right off of him as water off of oil. He should have been feeling...something, anything, but his mind just disconnected from his body and it just moved like an automaton, following old paths that his subconscious certainly remembered, with how thoroughly and deeply those memories had been scored into it—as much as his consciousness had desperately tried to bury it.

(About as effective as burying snow under lava, that.)

“Are you certain you’re alright?” Sorin’s voice came from behind him again and his hand reached to touch Runya’s shoulder. “This isn’t doing you any good—“

Runya flinched, and the touch withdrew as soon as it had appeared. And he glanced over his shoulder to meet Sorin’s worried eyes with his own increasingly-distant ones. “I need to see whether anything is here.” 

“It’s all derelict,” Sorin stated bluntly, leaning over to look into yet another dingy room full of shattered and broken equipment, then leaning the other way to look into what had been an operating room—

(One Runya remembered well)

—only to shiver and pull away, visibly unnerved by the vicious implements he was catching gleaming glimpses of in the shuddering, sporadic electric light. “There can’t be anything here for you but bad memories.”

The half of Runya that wasn’t drowning under those memories steered his body around a corner and he just shrugged one shoulder, the reaction deepening Sorin’s frown in a way he intellectually knew was bad, but...that he still felt nothing about. Odd. It felt more like just watching a recording than anything actually real. “Perhaps I can find something about what they did to me here,” he noted, stepping towards a door halfway to falling off its hinges. “I wasn’t privy to all the details, even with Angerona trying to explain some of it.”

(They walked by the long room where he had first been forced to see that her mind was gone and she had been turned into a mindless drooling automaton of a person and he couldn’t think about it he would stop thinking about it RIGHT NOW and so he did, after a few moments of swaying in place with the effort to compose himself.)

That frown of Sorin’s got even deeper at the mention of her name and the odd pause Runya had just taken—and again, it just rolled right off of Runya. “Then you could have just asked me to come here; I could have done that without you subjecting yourself to—“

Runya cut him off by kicking in the door. The rending crash, terribly loud in the otherwise silent and confined space, startled Sorin so badly that his tail bristled and his ears flattened back against his skull, his already-wide pupils even wider now.

“You...you could have warned me, thank you!”

“Mmm.” Runya walked in, and just for a moment, actually felt something: a little pang of confusion, before it was swallowed up by the drowning-sea of his numbing apathy. A control room? Or a records room? Some combination of the two. He couldn’t be arsed to figure it out beyond it had paperwork and this was a room he wasn’t at all familiar with.

...And some faint little corner of his botched false Echo tugged a little towards this place. Given its propensity for randomly inserting memories and information into his battered skull, he could only assume something important was here.

“Ah, here we are, I think,” Runya noted, and started into the room. But barely had he gotten a few paces in before something spherical—multiple somethings, actually—lit up in the corner and loomed towards the pair, two of them hulkingly large and sparking ominously. One of the smaller ones “spoke” then, in a tinny voice of indeterminate gender.

“[IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR ENTRY.]”

“Runya!” Sorin hissed, Selene flaring into existence over his shoulder. 

“[IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR ENTRY],” the little node repeated, pointedly moving closer until it was barely a fulm from Runya. The motion, combined with the other nodes closing in, effectively blocked them both from going further. “[IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED FOR ENTRY. UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS WILL BE MET WITH LETHAL FORCE.]”

“Runya!”

But the gaunt Miqo’te didn’t so much as bat an eye at the warning; instead, he reached out with one hand and something flickered in his eyes, a faint glow that shimmered briefly through previously-invisible markings that coursed over his body. “Oh, come now, you cheeky thing, behave.”

The smaller node flickered right back in the same strobing pattern, blipping and beeping for a few moments that dragged by interminably...before it spoke again. “[IDENTITY CONFIRMED AS: PROJECT DISCORDIA. AND GUEST.]”

Runya cheekily smiled.

“[ACCESS GRANTED.]” The two larger nodes stopped sparking and backed away, and the smaller ones dispersed to power off once more—except for the one that had just been speaking, which hovered near Runya’s shoulder like an obedient pet, its internals glowing faintly orange. 

Sorin just blinked. “...How—?”

“One of the many things they did to me,” Runya interrupted blithely, feeling just a little more in his own body as he pulled open drawers and started to flick through papers. Useless, useless, more useless...but the thin metallic datapads were another matter. A simple swipe of his fingers brought it to life with a soft hum, and information scrolled rapidly by under his hand as he moved it. “Interesting, interesting. These are the ones. The papers are useless, though—and someone has been filching through them, at that,” he added with an annoyed click of his tongue at the smaller node. He could swear the beep he got before it spoke again was an apologetic one.

“[OPERATIONAL CAPACITY OF DETERRENCE ESTIMATED AT...THIRTY PERCENT.]”

“Mm, and we were the lucky ones that actually managed to wake you, I take it?” But he kept flicking through the datapad’s various chapters and appendices and realized full well that this was referring to him.

“Discordia.” Sorin’s voice briefly pulled Runya from his reverie, and the thinner Miqo’te’s ear swiveled to follow his voice. “Is...that what they called you here?” “It was the name of the project, yes. I was merely Subject some number or other. A grand scheme of research, of the mysterious Echo and the magic of souls—the precursor to the vast variety of things they used to enhance the dearest Prince, I believe,” he added offhandedly. “I was intended to power my abilities through the ambient aether, but...ambient aether is fairly useless outside of areas of great concentrations of it.”

His clinical tone was earning him one of those stares again. But he continued. “So they began experimenting with stapling multiple souls to one another, and...well. There is a reason that the woman who was managing me isn’t in control of her own body anymore.” His smile was so sharp, as he turned to Sorin, that the other Miqo’te’s ears went flat once more.

(Of all the things to make him feel something again.)

The smile disappeared at the sight, and he just tucked the datapad under his arm, grabbing another and then another. “But enough of the chatter. I do wonder what else they had intended for me, given what a random combination an Echo’s power and control over Allagan weaponry is.”

Finally, Sorin’s ears flicked a little more upright, and he held out his eerily-patterned hands to take a couple more of the technology from him. “It is fairly strange,” he admitted, and his eyes finally stopped nervously darting between his friend and the still-lurking nodes. “And this is all we have to go on, with no one here and without the Alliance capturing any of them...”

“And that is even stranger.” Runya turned on another datapad, mostly on a whim. “This place had a great many workers, you know, particularly for as few subjects as they supposedly held here. Of course, logistics is logistics and always requires more people than one might think at a glance, but I do recall it being particularly strange that we had so many guards and the like so deep into—at the time—Imperial territory.”

“Hm.”

“And another thing,” Runya continued aloud, “is that I haven’t failed to notice that this place appears to have been left in an awful hurry, and may have even been attacked judging by many of the bloodstains and gun-marks I’ve noticed here and there on the walls—“

Sorin shuddered, and yet Runya continued.

“—But I haven’t seen a lick of any bodies or even parts of bodies. A pity, because I could have used something to kick around.”

That earned him a look. “Runya.”

But Runya ignored it. “You told me yourself when you found this place that the Alliance hadn’t been here, as far as you were aware. It’s almost as if something attacked them and made off with the corpses. Whether it was something outside or inside, who can say?” An interesting thing for sure, and the gears of his mind were turning far more rapidly than they had been before they found this place. (Even his friend had noticed and, irritation with some things he said aside, appeared to be fairly pleased with that over the...dissociating he had been doing earlier.)

“Well,” Sorin ventured, looking down at the datapads he was now holding, “let’s take these back and take a look?”

“Of course, but...Sorin?” Runya saw the other Miqo’te’s ears prick up, and so he continued. “Let’s not drag the Alliance into this yet.”

Much as Runya had expected, Sorin frowned. “This won’t and shouldn’t be a secret forever, Runya,” he warned. “It shouldn’t be a secret at all.”

“Ahhh, I thought a vaunted Warrior of Light might say that,” Runya remarked idly. “But answer me this: what are you going to do when they’re, inevitably, going to want to stuff me in a cage and poke and prod at me just like they did that Skulls woman, whatever her name was?” 

Sorin’s frown deepened.

“Or,” Runya added, “I imagine they might be a little upset about an Imperial experiment running around with a Warrior of Light and would send me away ‘for your safety’.” He actually twitched two fingers mid-air, around the words. “In other words: I would much rather prefer to let them discover it in their own time while I—sorry, we figure out how to fix whatever they did to me.”

And it wasn’t just that, either. Sorin probably hadn’t felt it, but...Runya’s false Echo hadn’t exactly been pointing to this room. In fact, it was pulling slightly downwards, as if something below-ground was actively trying to call him to it. And if he could keep the Alliance’s collective interfering nose away from this place until he figured out what it was...better for him.

But the notion had clearly escaped the unsuspecting Sorin, who merely nodded and glanced down with a sigh. “They...would not take kindly to it, I’m certain,” he admitted with some reluctance. “They’re only quiet about it because they’re unsure who you really are, and they believe you only have problems with Daeyona—which they’re not keen to get in the middle of.”

“Yes, yes, they rather dislike her, I’m aware.” Runya’s ears twitched happily. “It’s more a matter of they don’t care, as long as they’re having to devote their attention to the battle-front.”

Sorin coughed awkwardly but didn’t argue the point. So Runya started to walk, gesturing with his head for the nodes to follow, much to Sorin’s trepidation. “They won’t bite, dear Sorin.”

“Is it that good an idea to have more Allagan things around you?”

“They’re mere nodes,” Runya replied with a one-shouldered shrug. “And they recognize me as someone who commands them, so I will hardly need to strain myself—and I presume that’s what you’re worried about?” he added teasingly, and oh he could swear that Sorin almost went as red as his hair for a moment. But only for a moment, before he just huffed in annoyance.

“That isn’t...Runya, I may remind you that I’m your healer? I have some interest in making sure you don’t hurt yourself; I have to fix it.”

“Oh, you wound me, Sorin.”

“Runya.”

“Wound. Me.”

Sorin almost threw his arms up in exasperation, but he refused to relinquish his grip on what he was holding, so it warped into an awkward half-motion with his shoulders. “Fine, I’m sure I do.”

Runya chuckled, but he started to walk, Sorin by his side and the nodes silently hovering after them both. He had, perhaps, been inwardly hoping to find more about what they did to Angerona, but...all of that seemed to have been missing. Taken, in fact, and he tried not to think about the implications too much as of yet—

(And yet his thoughts raced on unimpeded on the topic, anyway.)

He would figure out more about himself, though, at a minimum. And maybe, about whatever he was fairly certain was lurking below the facility.

Interesting, indeed.

[thetitor]

About the Muse: Titor Jaraba

NAME OF YOUR MUSE: Titor lux Jaraba/Citadel 54

ONE PICTURE YOU LIKE BEST OF YOUR MUSE’S FC:

TWO HEADCANONS YOU HAVE FOR YOUR MUSE:

Titor always has wires that he has curled up and close to his back. He can use these as either extra tentacle-like limbs or to connect to other magitek. They can be removed if he is using peripherals, but they’re definitely close by in a bag or pocket. 

Titor’s limbs are quite numb. He has some feeling in them, but not very much. He’ll keep this a secret though as he doesn’t want people to question his abilities as a medicus or alchemist. He does, however, heavily rely on visual input for performing complex procedures. 

THREE THINGS THAT YOUR MUSE LIKES DOING IN THEIR FREE TIME:

Processing Data - Even though it’s one of Titor’s primary jobs, he finds it highly amusing and entertaining. It is one of those situations where his work and hobbies overlap

Trying out exotic foods  - Even though Titor does not eat all too much, he absolutely loves trying out exotic and tribal foods. He has a penchant for bitter foods, and finds that Steppe food often incorporates this into their dishes, so he enjoys trying out Steppe food in particular. 

Playing with Morty - Morty is Titor and Dex’s virtual pet. A fat-cat that can show up in augmented reality. Morty is one of Titor’s favorite things, and he could play with the digital feline for hours on end. 

SEVEN PEOPLE THAT YOUR MUSE LOVES/LIKES/RESPECTS:

Dex, Citadel 71( @digitaldisaster-xiv​ )-What turned out to be a frightening attack against him ended up becoming the greatest love of his life. Titor is certain that Dex is his datamate, and they are compatible with each other both as individuals and on a code level.

Drag - Like a brother to him. This Allagan node is always in a cheerful mood and helpful. Titor’s mood is usually lifted after talking with Drag, and Titor is quite concerned about his wellbeing

Kage Krueger - After Kage had inadvertently hacked admin permissions on Titor’s augment, Titor had become rather attached to the man. Titor respects Kage quite a bit and is always looking to please him. Kage’s talks about airships fully pique Titor’s interest.

Aiza Epocan ( @aizaepocan ) - Titor’s previous boss and very good friend. Aiza has always showed such kindness and understanding towards him, and as such, Titor would put his life at risk to protect her in return. 

Lucien kir Korbinius ( @glowinggunmetal ) - This kir definitely deserves a higher rank than he has. After having saved Titor’s life from a few close encounters with viruses and hacking attempts, Titor really owes a life-debt to the man, and hopes that he can repay it someday.

Mahv Kelsin ( @waywardskylarking ) - Although Titor has just recently met the summoner, they seem to get along pretty well. While the egis scare the crap out of him (and Tertius), she seems to be inquisitive enough and he is curious to get to know her more.

Glace/Frost ( @winterdeepelegy )  - Titor has mad respect for Frost and hopes to win his approval someday. Titor wishes he could be more like the man in feelings and judgement, and highly respects and fears the Elezen’s skills and abilities. 

TWO THINGS YOUR MUSE REGRETS:

Not speaking up when he knew an experiment was going to fail.  Back in his early 20′s, he was volunteering as part of a project on time travel. He knew something was off with the calculations, but was assured everything was fine. He felt it, but kept quiet. Everything was not fine, and it ended up destroying the entire lab group as well as himself.

Not being in control of some of his impulses. Titor’s augment will sometimes amplify or reduce emotions or feelings. This can lead to him entering feedback loops during certain occasions. He has ended up hurting some people that he loves, with the primary be going too far and severely damaging Dex. 

A PHOBIA YOUR MUSE HAS:

Agoraphobia - Titor actually has mild fear of open places or places that he can’t easily escape and hide from. The larger the space, the more his calculations go wild and the harder it is to control variables and predict outcomes. He is able to mask it most of the time, but he’ll often feel great anxiety in marketplaces or large events.  (I am excluding water here since it’s less of a phobia and more of a valid concern for him to fear)

TAGGED BY: @glowinggunmetal TAGGING: Anyone I had pinged prior in this post, and anyone who wants to do it!

[onidephor]

RE: Request for Transfer of Subject #271

Attention named Titor Jaraba:

I have received your request for transfer of one of my units and first and foremost, your request is denied. While you may have intended this letter to go to the head of research division of the Colossus Project, I have intercepted it and forwarded it to its proper location. Your tampering with this unit may have compromised the researched to which it was created. Subject #0271 has been created for a very specific purpose, and as intuitive as your research ideas may be, they do not align themselves with the original purpose of this unit.

I have personally reviewed each proposal you included within your letter. While each is beneficial to the unit in question, the correction of these failures, as you named them, will neutralize the unit from its original purpose of being a critical component of the Evolution Project. For your education, I have included a brief description of Model #0271′s purpose.

Previous failures to upgrade unit #0271 to a combat subject have lead it to be what it is today, and in an attempt to scrap it, we discovered the adaptive nanites implanted into him along with his fluid genetic code allow us to mold it into a perfect catalyst for the crux of the Evolution Project’s goals. Included within Model #0271 is an Allagan-derived node that regulates aetheric flow into a body coded “CHIMER-I” [Cybrid Host Integration and Manager of Evolution Regulation - Intelligence] model. The atrophy you see is a failsafe to keep the unit from abusing its own features and overwhelming its systems with growths and cancers that cannot be mended with surgery due to the reactive nanite swarm utilized within it. Even with current failsafes, mutations have formed on the unit. These mutations come from the nanite swarm harvested from unit #0230, a failed and now inactive disposal unit of the Colossus Project, from a partial incompatibility. Its design is meant to observe, learn rapidly, and reproduce beneficial mutations, benefiting the unit overall as a blend of two very different technologies.

Why I have elected to cross two units in a single being brings me to the purpose of the Evolution Project, which is the creation of higher mechanical advancements, prosthetic, and tissue development through the combination of traits found in foreign populations. Their genetic study has brought us great advancements in medical treatments for our nation’s own citizens. By the creation of a living project chimera, we have proven the compatibility of particular cores within a single body. This compatibility will theoretically be used to revive broken soldiers and improve new ones for the Empire’s purposes.

You have a great many ideas, yet I must decline their use in my subject #0271, for it could greatly destabilize what I have worked so hard to balance. A single misstep from your project could cause a genetic unraveling and result in a cascade that kills this unit. If you remove the failsafe that results in atrophy, you will be left with a tumor-ridden pile of flesh incompatible with life.

If you wish to further your ideas, submit a resume to Castrum Solus officials and we will review your worth. This subject no longer belongs to the Colossus Project or its development team. If you or your team continue to tamper with it without official request forms being filed with our team, I will inform you now that the subject contains remote access controls to its termination protocols that we are more than content to utilize, Citadel 54.

Tribunus Lysander sas Theius Head of Research and Development Of Evolution Magitek Prostheses Third Legion; Second Cohort

[ @thetitor ]

[kodie-ffxiv]

Prompt 4 Saving Time

When he wasn’t out in the field, and alone, Kodie was more than likely inside his workshop tinkering on whatever he can possibly find while he was adventuring. From upgrading his weapons, and gear, to building new items such as drones, utilizing Allagan tech to further assist in his job. Though as he delved into more advanced techniques, it meant more time consuming work, which some days made it difficult to complete.

Finding dormant allagan nodes were common in his line of work, Kodie managed to take a few for himself, figuring he could use the parts for another project. The thought then crossed his mind in reactivating one to become an assistant, all he had to do was make sure it didn’t have any weapons of sort, the last thing he wanted to do was have a renegade node loose in Mist.

Reactivate the node wasn’t as easy as he thought it would be, finding working parts, as well as a data center to link up the node was needed, Kodie wouldn’t argue taking jobs that involved exploring old Allagan ruins. Not only did they pay well, but it gave him the opportunities to get the components he needed. After months of work, Kodie had all the pieces needed, putting it all together, once he connected the node to the terminal, the Midlander began the activation.

“Here goes nothin, please don’t blow up the house..” He said as he pushed the touch screen to start the process.

He could hear his generator beginning to rev up, outputting more power to the system than normal. The lights within the shop began to flicker, and he knew power within the house would do so as well, thankfully no one was here, but it probably drew some curious attention from any outside passerbyers in Mist. He kept an eye through his goggles on the generator’s stability, making sure it was able to handle the work it was outputting, at the sametime keeping an eye on the meter within the screen, as it slowly was reaching its goal.

“Come ooooooooon…” He said as watched the meter creeping, glancing over once in awhile at the generator as it began to whirl loudly, and shake. “Hang in there!!”

Once the meter reached max, the node itself began to illuminate. Quickly the Hyur shut down the generator, giving it time to cool down darkening the room, the only source of light was now the Node itself. The Allagan Relic began to float, spinning at the same time, not doing anything else as if it was loading itself up. Moments passed and Node stopped, remaining in the air as he began to quickly scan Kodie. The Midlander, held onto a remote, finger on the “Killswitch”, used just incase things didn’t quite work out. After a minute of scanning, the Node stopped, and approached him.

“Processing language set up: Common. Scanned Subject: Midlander Hyur. Identifying as Master, name unknown…awaiting identity of Master.”

Kodie removed his goggles, beaming with excitement, it worked, the Node worked! It seemed as though scanning him not only gathered what language he used, but also imprinted him as he was the Node’s Master. Guess it was a good thing he was alone at the time. “Kodie Durant.”

“Master Identity Kodie Durant, high level clearance. Awaiting programming orders…”

“Hmm well, you’re going to be my assistant here in this shop, will need help not only working on more advanced Magitek and Allagan items, but various other jobs like nonlethal security, we’ll work on other types of jobs too. Guess that means you need to scan the house huh? Well scan this shop first.”

The node immediately did as ordered, scanning the entire room. At the same time Kodie turned back on the generator as power returned to the house. “Subject: Workshop, Tools: Primitive..”

“Ouch, already with the jabs huh?” Kodie snickered as he turned back to the Node. “Hmmm we gotta give you a name, calling you node ain’t gonna be as fun.”

The Midlander paused thinking of a name as the Node approached Kodie. “Name is unnecessary, but if Master wishes to provide one.”

“Well first off don’t call me Master, just call me Kodie. As for a name? We’re gonna go with Ace. I think it suits you.”

The Node remained silent for a few moments, spinning as if it was processing the information. “Affirmative: Master will now be referred to as Kodie, and node will be known as Ace..”

This was working out better than Kodie had thought, he was waiting for the shoe to drop though, expecting it to suddenly go berserk and attack him, or escape and cause chaos in the region, but thankfully that hadn’t occurred….yet. “Alright, Ace. Let's get to work.”

[charm-in-spades]

м03в1vѕ

Sacrifice. Such a concept was not unfamiliar to the Coyote. As a former soldier, and as a man who’d known only a life of struggle, he’d grown intimate to loss and the need to do what others could not bring themselves to do. He had never balked at the idea before but somehow the task he sought to do was much harder than he’d anticipated. 

He stood tall and straight backed. Unwilling to move but knowing he would have to do this to avoid the more terrible implications. They ordered the sacrifice of something held dear, and it was just innocuous enough that the range some people might reach to appease Their wishes left Caelric feeling grim. He expected the number of obituaries to rise dramatically in the coming days. 

Before him was the super computer he’d built with nothing more than his mind, his hands, and some spare parts. It was the project of projects that had kept him sane in the midst of his crumbling life, a measure of control and order he could keep with but a few lines of simple coding. Structure. It was not an understatement to say the man often felt more understood by the bots he created, the AI’s often so advanced he could distinguish personalities in every construct.

His hands fled across holographic key displays, typing in a final command despite the discontent that was growing like a burden upon his soul. The God’s View. An arrogant name to be sure, but Caelric had been proud of the capabilities and potential such a machine held. It was his very own brain child, and his pride of all that he’d come to create. A series of prompts flashed across the broad screen, his chin lifting as he brought a hand to his ear to drown out the sound of the diminishing data and focus on his last message. 

“There’s thunder in the distance, and I can hear the distant storm louder than ever now”  “Is it time then?” She’d asked, her voice the sound of hope breaking. It shattered his resolve, and with that, he had only one response. 

“I'm so..so sorry.” 

{ Notification: Admin Caelric Spadille has been expunged from God’s View Servers.}

He didn’t get to hear the last notification his members would receive of him, but the message flashed across the screen to alert the change in profiles. His access denied to an incredible tool, the Coyote felt faintly stripped of his own resources. That had been the point though, hadn’t it? He knew it was a minor inconvenience at best. Or would have been, but his final fix would keep his access contained. 

A series of whirs and beeps to his left drag the direction of his shamrock optics onto the re-purposed Allagan Node, its floating body rolling within the air as if to wave to him. “B-M0.” He greeted, looking to the second part of his sacrifice. “I will miss you.” This was true, and B-M0 let out a sad tone, that descended in pitch. As if the little droid was stating a similar confession. Caelric held out a palm, the node descending to the calloused surface of his hand. Before it has a change to offer much more to its master, Caelric initiates its sleep mode with a single command. “Good night, B-M0.”

The lights upon its rounded body fade and dim from a vibrant crimson, to a quiet white and as the sounds of his droid lower to nothingness, the engineer places a small tomestome to its side.  It’s propped upright as he moves the glowing metal sphere into a groove within his magitek console. A final look to the place he’d once called home with another is taken, with a heavy uncertainty that he’d ever return at all. There’s the brief swell of sadness as he leaves, cutting the lights and pressing his fist one last time to his good luck Cactaur at the door, as he departs, the compression locks seal behind him. 

The room is quiet for but a few minutes after Caelric leaves, and then  with a faint hum, the God’s View’s dark screen fills the room with a faint, blue glow as an image comes to life upon its surface. 

Warning: Initiating Command Prompt: M03B1VS....1%.......

OOC Note: Late story for the Faceless plot-line. This takes place on the day a demand for sacrifice was given to the Marked. It’s been a minute since I’ve written any big stories for this blog, so its not all that exciting but enjoy it nonetheless! 

@enambris

@the-faceless-ffxiv

[yuri-cocaine]

Appearance -

Gender: Female. Race: Midlander/Highlander mixed Height: 5′7′’ Eye Color: Red Hair Color: Black  Skin Color: Pale Scars: There’s one on her nose from when she ran into a tree.

The Facts -

Name Day: 32nd sun of the 6th umbral moon Occupation: Sellsword/amateur fisher Sexual identification: Questioning Romantic identification: Questioning Alignment: Chaotic good??? Criminal History: Stole food and money from the Sapphire and Ruby Avenue Exchanges but was never caught Relationship Status: Single Sweet on: Free food

Favorites –

Favorite food: Pastry fish and persimmon leaf sushi Favorite drink: Green tea with a pickled plum in it Favorite scent: The smell of old books in a library Favorite person: Anko

Randoms –

Ten facts about your muse:

-Because of Echo shenanigans, Aisling’s original self Anko is still alive in a ghostlike form within Aisling herself. The two communicate in dreams and through their Crystal of Light. 

-I based her off of Popola with Anko as her Devola. If anyone tries to take away her Crystal of Light, and therefore severing her connection with Anko, Aisling would completely lose her shit. 

-Aisling hasn’t had much experience controlling her aether, so when she’s really angry or upset when casting magic her aether flares out of control. Aisling’s Flare is incredibly destructive but also dangerous to use. 

-Her name is pronounced “ice-ling” instead of “ashling.” This is because her parents found the name in a book of baby names and thought it was nice but didn’t bother to learn how to pronounce it.

-Because everyone on her mother’s side of the family, Anko included, have mochi-themed names, Aisling’s Doman name will eventually be Kagami (kagami mochi). It also means “mirror,” which is fitting since Aisling is a mirror of Anko.

-She loves collecting dolls! Aisling relates to them in a strange way, and genuinely believes that if she took good care of the dolls she keeps in her room, they won’t feel lonely. 

-Aisling is trained in computer programming and is able to hack into most Garlean servers. Since her trip to Azys Lla with Yun and L’lakshai, she has her own node that she uses for hacking.

-The project to emulate Allagan cloning techniques had a total of 28 subjects gathered from various labor camps throughout Gyr Abania as well as a pair of Doga and Unei clones retrieved from Crystal Tower to act as controls. Only four out of the 28 survived: Aisling (No.8), Sizha’a Epocan (No.3), Daring Falcon (No.10), and O’lamana Raha (No.12).

-Despite being told that they were released on account of being failures, the surviving four were actually released due to the chief medicus in charge of the project having a change of heart and deciding killing them would be inhumane. Aisling would be the only one out of the four to continue to survive, with Sizha’a having been killed by Aisling in Azys Lla and Daring And O’lamana eventually succumbing to their genetic illness.

-The data from the Allagan Cloning Emulation project is used to create hypertuned soldiers. There are several hypertuned Aisling clones serving as security within Castrum Abania. They are completely devoid of emotion and will, living only to serve the Empire. 

Five Things -

5 Things they like:

-Trying new food -Reading -Fishing -Sightseeing -Fiddling with computers

5 Things they dislike: -Being locked up anywhere -The smell and taste of aetherochemical fluid -Alchemists -Clinics -Diremites

5 Good Habits: -A fast and efficient worker -Very patient and kind to others -Is very tidy and organized -Good at weapon maintenance and upkeep -Can swiftly memorize directions and the layouts of places 5 Bad Habits: -Pathological liar -Can’t say no to money, and ends up working for shady individuals -Has zero social graces and will do things like taking her clothes off in front of others because it’s too hot or picking her nose because she doesn’t know what’s acceptable and what isn’t -Tends to overspend (mostly on food) because managing money is also a new concept to her -Believes that people must react in a certain way and gets super confused when confronted with differing opinions or personalities

5 Personalities they gravitate toward: -Warm and welcoming -Bookworms -People with a special interest in anything (she likes to hear people go on and on about what they like) -Humorous people -People with a strong sense of justice

5 Personality types they avoid: -Honestly, Aisling is only a year old. She hasn’t had enough time to figure out what kinds of people she would prefer to avoid. Right now everyone is interesting, because it’s all new to her.

5 Fears:

- Dying from her illness before she can truly live and see the world

- Being taken back by the Garleans for more experimentation

- Losing her Crystal of Light, and therefore losing Anko

- Alchemists

- Huge bugs (especially diremites!!!!)

Tagging: @rasenkaikyo, @yaianse, @theseventhdawn, and @kukurubean!

[kisskissrommie]

Cold Winds: The Team

“A pirate, a Garlean and an Ala Mhigan terrorist walk into a bar,” began the Miqo’te. Green eyes fell on her expectantly, but were only met by impassive purple. “It isn’t the beginning of a joke, Andromeda. It is the beginning of your assignment.”

Rommie sighed and lowered her head. Of course it was. And of course it was an ‘assignment’. “I manage a business now, Iris. A pretty sucessful one. I can’t just run off because you need someone to rouse rabbles in the Brume or put out your messes in Parliament. All debts have been paid. Accounts are settled. My security chief would ne-”

“You’re going to be robbing a Castrum, Rommie.”

This stopped Andromeda mid-thought. She blinked a few times. She leaned back in her chair. She thought. She thought some more. She thought again. A heist? Against a fantastically dangerous and well-secured target? With a pirate, a terrorist and a defector as her team? This was the shit legends were built on. This was the shit that people talked about for generations. 

“Go on.”

Iris made a small hand motion and a little red sphere rolled from behind her chair. It began to glow and lifted off, hovering above the ground. It was Odelia, Iris’ data storage node and lab assistant. Rommie’d been uncomfortably catalogued by it once and given the designation S-H133. In response, Rommie called the node ‘Creepybot’.   

Creepybot spun her bottom and top hemispheres in opposite directions, revealing a red core at her center, and from that was projected a beam of light. The light cast an image of a map of Coerthas on the table, all red lines and harsh edges. Above the frozen walls of Snowcloak was a large triple-diamond emblem, the symbol of the Empire. Below that symbol read the name “Castrum Aquilonis’.

It was that weekend, a Lightsday, that Rommie met the rest of the team. She’d seen them all before, of course, when she invited them to meet with Iris, but now they were all in one room, the library under the beating heart of advanced science in Eorzea. Equinox Genetic Engineering. 

Equinox specialized on refurbished and retrofitted Allagan technology and the opulence of the estate they held showed how well the company had done for itself on that particular course. Outside Garlemald, Equinox was perhaps the most technologically advanced place not built by a dead society. It was a place Iris had invested significant resources, and a place that would be secure against any meaningful government surveillance. It paid to be smart and paranoid, apparently. 

The women in the room were an eclectic bunch, by her estimation, but seemed at least passingly capable. Well enough, she supposed. She had too much going for her to agree to take a dangerous assignment with amateurs. 

Illua Corcavo was a ‘tol’, which was a very high rank in the Legion as Rommie understood it, when she took her reaper and ran. It was a damned suspicious story as far as Rommie was concerned, but Rommie had also been pretty solidly convinced that her rank had been a way to retire her from serious black operations shit. The kind of stuff that would make the butchers of Doma blush, she figured. 

Sasaca Saca was a pirate when she was younger. Then she’d worked for Iris’ dad for a decade or so before buying her own ship and running up Maelstrom colors. Rommie wasn’t going to guess at Captain Saca’s age, both because the lalafell terrified her and because she’d met some seriously ancient lalafell who didn’t look the part, but based on the work history Rommie knew about, Saca had to be at least forty-five, if not substantially older.

Agnes “Agni” Isolde had a few misfortunes in life, not the least of which was having the name Agnes. To hear Agni tell it, she wasn’t a freedom fighter, because freedom fighters had codes and cared about collateral damage and wanted to save those Ala Mhigans helping the Empire. Agni believed that collaborators were guilty as the occupiers themselves. She believed ends justified means. 

The tiny rabbit man with Agni, Tidingway, didn’t seem to say or do all that much, but he did listen, take notes, and sit next to Agni the whole time. Iris had said he was a ‘hummingway’, but didn’t explain much beyond that. Some manner of beastman, Rommie assumed. 

Rommie herself was Andromeda Dulaque; thief, courtesan, entrepreneur, con artist. She had a variety of talents, and survival was one of them. Rommie fancied herself the leader of the merry band of misfits, if for no other reason than Iris had called them for a heist job and she doubted the other three had the ability to steal a thing - at least Saca probably hadn’t much experience stealing things on land. She was the safecracker, the smash-and-grabber, the confidence woman. This was her field of expertise.  

And lastly, there was Iris. Lady Iris Lilith Blanchimont, Matriarch of House Blanchimont, Minister of the Ishgardian Parliament, mad scientist and seriously scary when she wanted to be. Friends with Aymeric de Borel, able to invoke Bahamut’s egi, student of Tonberries and chosen by Hydaelyn Herself to wield the power of perfect communication called the Echo. Iris doing anything meant it was probably insane, probably important and absolutely not going to be done with half-measures. 

Here they were. The team assembled. The target was Castrum Aquilonis. 

Cold Winds: The Mission >

[finalrespite]

Manifestation

(feat. @yunkinko​​) (theme 1) (theme 2)

From darkness, a line of bright yet sickly light pierced through. This gap widened, as the intense groan of metal followed; an attempt to resist giving away secrets long plunged in shadow.

Finally, however, the gates were thrown wide.

Kharaa stood at the threshold, relaxing her stance upon having pried the doors open until the conceded to her forceful entry. She narrowed her gaze as she attentively peered in; a ramped corridor, descending into a veil that light’s reach quickly tapered off, again to near-pitch black.

“That clinches it. Let us proceed.”

“Oh, well done!” Ai responded, as she came around to flank her friend. “But, um, Miss One— Sorry, uh, Kharaa, I guess— Are you sure about this?”

“Positive. I was bade to return to this place, and since we arrived it has been as if a beacon has been guiding me, beckoning me home. This is it, I am certain.” Kharaa glanced back at Ai. “Ready?”

“Ah, I— yeah…” The girl nodded back, rubbing her hands together. It was then that she thought to reach into her bag and pulled out her magitek bit, giving it a soft toss upward to let it take flight. 

In truth, she was more concerned about the fact that they were in the Gamma Quadrant. While this made sense, given its importance in Azys Lla for developing machina, it was nonetheless crawling with Imperial troops. None would take kindly to intruders. Still, Vision One was made— born for these kinds of endeavors, she knew, even while having her in tow. If One had no concerns about the Empire, then she would do her best set aside her own.

“Just stay with me, and permit me to lead. There may yet be hidden security protocols in this facility.” Kharaa followed up, and Ai tried to focus, chakrams ready in reply. With that, the two disappeared into the abyssal hall.

The pair and bit did not walk for long before finding a conspicuous sort of platform in the last dim light. Kharaa stepped forth and knelt to examine it.

“Well, what is it?” Ai inquired.

“An elevator,” The Xaela replied, rising back to her feet. “However it seems it no longer functions… “There appears to be an alternative route. Let’s head that way.” She turned to another threshold - more descending hallway, and they proceeded. Shortly, the last vestiges of ambient light were snuffed out.

“I can’t see for the life of me down here… um, must be great for you, though!” Ai scoffed toward Kharaa, whose striking yellow eyes were unmistakable. She could also make out a certain whirring of mechanisms opposite her…

“Hey, Bit! Lights, please!” Ai reached out unceremoniously tapped her fist against the magitek bit, sending its flight path swerving for a brief moment. Still, in compliance, seconds later did it project a cone of light ahead of them, granting Ai the sight she yearned for.

All sides of the twisting, descending hallway was in that signature Allagan fashion: intricate trails and ridges of copper with interspersed neon, only with no fluorescent glow proceeding them. Being otherwise plunged in silent darkness, it made the path seem all the more claustrophobic and foreboding. There was no telling to its end, it seemed.

Still, to their benefit, they had yet to meet with any lurking threats.

“I sense a change in the air,” Kharaa finally spoke up. “I do surmise the end is near.”

“Um, could you word that a little nicer, Miss Kharaa?” Ai chuckled nervously, only to be stopped and startled by bumping into her bit - hovering in position. Quickly, she took stock of her surroundings; the corridor had opened up to a much larger room. 

Ai’s gaze followed the bit as it scanned its light abroad: an array of computers, empty containment vessels and other cryptic machinery filled the room. All seemed to be long untouched, and Ai couldn’t begin to parse what it all did. Her hands hovered beside her chakrams…

“Hm…” Kharaa began to step forward, in slow measured steps. It was then that Ai noticed … a change. The further her friend went, more light seemed to pulse out from those steps, running throughout the room along geometric trails. They almost seemed like echoes made manifest, or the very room was reacting to her approach. As the light grew brighter, a hum followed. And then a flicker.

“U-uh, Miss Kharaa…??” Ai started stepping back until the room came alive. The apparent facility and all of its machines brimmed with neon blues and greens, instilling a sense of awe in both parties.

“Whoa…”

“This really is it, Ai,” Kharaa looked back. “This is where ‘Epitaph’ began.”

“‘Epitaph’...?” Ai mulled that over. “Um, right. That was your weapon. That node?”

“//Epitaph is more than a simple node, child of Allag.” An electronic voice rung out in reply, startling the girl.

“Eep! Um… hello? ‘Child of—’ Well… I guess I am a clone... but what does that make you?”

“Maxie,” Kharaa realized. “That is your voice, am I correct?”

Between the pair, a conspicuous sphere the size of their heads promptly formed and took shape, hovering fulms above the floor.

“//Affirmative,” MX-I responded. “//It has been a while, approximately thirteen moons, not counting for lack of calibration. “//...It is good to be at your side once again.”

Ai looked pleasantly surprised. “Oh! It’s your other node friend! Did she not get crushed too?”

“//At approximately 1900 yalms below ground surface level, yes my original shell was destroyed. However, my software has long been backed up in this facility, allowing me to retain and restore my existence. The same factors applied to Epitaph systems, courtesy of developer C. Veld.”

As Maxie spoke, numerous projected screens filled the air around them, displaying curious imagery and swathes of text in an ancient script..

“Um, this is all… a lot,” Ai rested her hands on her hips. “What is this Epitaph? It saved, er, Miss One too, right?” Kharaa quietly observed.

The ancillary node hovered around them while screens changed and more piled up. “//While significant quantities of data remain corrupt or missing as a result of the Fourth Umbral Calamity, such is certain; Epitaph was an attempt of Allag to create a node-based global network with superior intelligence, based on the highest understanding of technology and aetherochemistry — not unlike the basis for Vision One. The name ‘Epitaph’ would suggest that its creators perhaps foresaw Allag’s ruin in some way or another, and as time would show you, mankind pushes its limits when they believe they are at the brink.

“//It is a system of data that has only been layered on over time, made to evolve, thriving as a vast cloud of information, retaining as much of Allag’s legacy as possible, albeit limited by the ruined state of its infrastructure. Because Vision One has long been synchronized with the Epitaph’s intelligence, their own data — their soul — was also preserved and floated upon the network by which we have a hold; albeit there was nominal control over where or when Vision One would ultimately arrive.”

“Wow... Amazing! That makes sense!” It did, in sooth, not make sense to Ai.

“//Regardless, it was through such coordinated means that One could be reintroduced to a physical form… However, it was always imperative that you find your way here, not only to retrieve a restored processing unit, but to properly reintegrate yourself with our updated drivers. At this point, all that it requires is that you make contact with this node.”

Promptly, a nearby platform seemed to generate a silver sphere, comparable to a giant ball of mercury; not quite solid, not quite holding shape. As it hovered, it took form like another Allagan node.

Kharaa turned to the sphere and stared with a measure of hesitance, before she began to approach it. Ere she had a chance to get too close, however, Maxie chimed in again:

“//It is advised, however, that you momentarily discard any personal effects of organic or chimerical nature before you proceed, as potentially irreparable damage may occur in the process. Epitaph holds no liability for such expenses.”

Kharaa paused, then shrugged gently before beginning to undo her tabard and sashes.

Ai snapped herself out of her moment’s lapse in focus to find the Au Ra nonchalantly pulling off her top-- 

“Aaii!! Miss O— K-Kharaa?!”

--prompting the young woman to flinch and shield her eyes.

“Hm? Is there a problem?” Kharaa looked back to her flustered friend.

“N-no! No! I’ll just - um - look over here for a bit!” Ai hastily turned away and tried to avert her attention toward anything else; in this case, the number of projected displays at present. Her bit joined her at her side. “Mph..!”

Ai’s eyes darted from screen to screen, trying to make sense of all the various analyses and diagnostics checks. Most of it escaped her, especially since it was all in Ancient Allagan, so she tried to affix on any images that drew her attention. One of them did.

“What’s this…?” The display seemed to shift at intervals to convey a variety of individuals, or perhaps one type of individual with different variants — among them Ai could swear to make out those with semblances to One, both past and present. These were accompanied by streams of code - different from the other Allagan letters but still quite incomprehensible.

Maxie floated over at Ai’s curiosity to single out the display. “//Inquiry acknowledged. Subject reads as project code: SERAPH. A cursory scan of supplementary data infers a possible continuation of the clockwork replicant project that fostered ‘Vision One’. This data, however, is incomplete and offers no indication of having progressed. Probability is reasonably high that no further units would see functionality up to or after the Fourth Umbral Era.”

“Hm…” Ai looked pensive. “That’s so sad... It’d be nice if Miss One had a little family in the realm.”

Kharaa heard this, giving a soft smile at the sentiment. By that point, she had taken off the last of her attire and was ready to go forward. 

She sauntered forth, stepping carefully onto the platform and standing before the amorphous sphere. She could only gaze upon it, weighing her own thoughts in doing so.

“Just one thing,” Kharaa said. “I have felt as if the more I know, the less I have been able to grasp in my continued existence. What am I supposed to make of this, exactly?”

“//...You have the right to be here,” Maxie responded, seemingly taking a softer, slightly less formal tone. “What you make of it falls upon you; It is up to every inheritor of Allag’s legacy to decide their place in this world, and what they have to give to it. Nothing else can answer that, not even Epitaph.”

Kharaa furrowed her brow, contemplating for a soft moment. “...You seem different, Maxie.”

“//I could apply the same sentiment to you, Kharaa. Not to mention, I adapted from you.”

The Xaela grinned, point taken. With a small sigh, she reached out and placed her hands on the sphere. To the touch, the malleable metal seemed to harden and then take on a glow.

“//Initializing. Calibration in process.”

Numerous beams of light and esoteric panels of steel accumulated around Kharaa before culminating to gather around a single bright pillar.. 

“Oh!!” Ai turned back around, taken aback by the sudden illumination. “M-Miss One?”

“//Validating…”

“//Confirming…”

“//Complete.”

The surrounding steel withdrew and the light dispersed, particle by particle, as One stood - eyes opening bright before fading into standard, limbal rings assuming their place. For appearances, One generally remained unchanged as an Au Ra, although in this interim state her body’s panel and joint lines were made visible, bringing awe to Ai. Notable also was that her hair appeared to have withdrawn in length.

“//All systems green. Nominal deviation detected.”

“//Systems check and synchronization complete. Please stand by.”

The android flexed the joints in her hand and looked up. She turned to Ai, somewhat alarmed by how her friend’s gaze looked; piercing eyes almost a life of their own were made even more poignant in contrast to black sclerae. But an assuring smile gave her ease and cause to smile back.

“//Now preparing and initializing supplementary loadout sequence.”

One raised a brow, then looked back down, examining herself as matter seemed to manifest out of nowhere around bare skin, atom by atom, trailing static in their wake. It all felt rather light, actually, like the materializing suit was an extension of herself. A mask on her face was last to form.

“Whoa…” Ai mused. “Um, is this still even Allagan?” She noted that it seemed unlike anything she had seen prior, be it from the Allagans or the Garleans. 

“//Your new tactical and special operations rig, a late period design,” Maxie clarified. “You will find that it utilizes a blend of cutting edge nano-tech innovation similar to those in the Vision and Epitaph projects to shift and adapt to your current style protocol. Field testing is highly recommended; feel free to access the database for further information.”

Lastly, a pair of bizarre yet familiar blades appeared in One’s hand.

“//Finally, your renewed core equipment in their ferrofluid-based potential. It will change in shape as necessary, and further battle data has been pre-installed for your usage. Continued combat testing is recommended.”

The node spun in almost an excited manner around the android. “//Orientation briefing complete. Welcome back, Master. Awaiting further query.”

One put her blades away and stepped off the platform. Her full-face visor withdrew as well, seemingly into the suit. Ai approached, gathering her partner’s clothes in the process.

“Um, what now, then?”

One smiled. “...For now let’s leave, and we’ll figure it out from there. One step at a time.” 

A series of thuds ensued as if in response, like more machinery firing back up.

“//Central lift is now fully operational. Warning: multiple signatures detected near surface level. Preliminary analysis suggests magitek units of the VIth Legion.”

One crossed her arms and smirked.

“Well, there’s the first step.”