Greybox

[BetaB17]

Cid•

"A shell's a shell.. I don't see what the exclamation is all about.." Cid muttered

[Kerr]

Kuo and Mark didn't seem to be paying much attention to Kidisti, presumably more occupied with other things.

"Her's isn't held in the same place, insurance company has it. We just broke into her gaff, took what we could and got out. What we could included your egos." said Mark as he made his way back over to Kuo. "Missing maybe wasn't the right term. We know you went off-world, must have sold the shell first. We know she went to Titan and we know where she wants to go eventually, if she's not there already." said Kuo. "Look we want to find DuClair and we want to hire you to help us do it. Now it's a lot easier if I just start from the beginning, so can I just give this presentation already?"

Hidden:

For somebody who believes alien conspiracies, I'm surprised Jing never heard of Lifeboat.

[Aarah]

Grayden

"I've been ready for the last five minutes."

Grayden looked round at everyone else.
"Everyone pipe down and let the lady play her report."

[BetaB17]

Cid•

He didn't so much move or readjust his gaze, just staring off into some distant space of unimaginable boredom

[The SheoDovah]

Jíng

"It is not a shell! That's my body!" Jíng exclaimed upon hearing Cid's remark. "But I'm here! Not there and that's my body!" She pointed at Gryff again. The name lifeboat did seem familiar to her but her emotional state was a bit unstable due to the revelation of being in another body along with having spent countless hours looking at various consiparcies about Aliens. Some were a bit too far fetched for her to believe, some, she believed. Others? She dismissed as somehow getting high on jelly baby residue.

Hidden:

Kinda bigger issues then realising that Lifeboat exists. Such as being in anther body.

[Baloth-Kul]

"Shh!" Gryff shushed at Jíng, with mild annoyance. "If that's true, we can talk about it in a minute. Presentation time now."

[Kerr]

"Christ." said Mark rolling his eyes while Jing's outburst continued.
---

Kuo began her presentation. A picture appeared on the screen behind her of a tall lanky white man in his 30s wearing a white lab coat. He had shoulder length hair dyed silver and light ginger stubble with blue eyes behind a circular pair of glasses. The picture was taken outside in front of a tree, he had a half hearted smile on his face.

"Dr Alphonse Gillen. Sometimes known as Silver. Probably haven't heard of him, he was a researcher in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Before The Collapse he was recruited by the US military and became team lead on the top secret Project ISAAC. The project's aim was to create the Intelligence System for Adaptive Automated Combat to assist in the ongoing war effort. Think we all know how that went." Kuo began. "Presumably he was killed with the rest of his team at their research base in Ohio when it fell to ISAAC forces early in The Collapse."

"The Project ISAAC staff were the only people to ever create a Seed AI. That we know of at least. So needless to say a lot of groups, ourselves included, would be very interested in finding a copy of his ego. It's not an exaggeration to say that if he fell into the wrong hands, transhumanity might face a second collapse or even cease to be."

A variety of six faces of various genders and ethnicity appeared on the screen.

"Verity, popular Titanian Socialite and host of The Sunday Edition. Current affairs comedy talk show thing, sure some of you've seen it. DuClair was a guest on the show on Sunday the 9th of March. That's after your backup. The two have been friends for a while. We infiltrated DuClair's mansion while she was away, orders from above, just standard surveillance. Wanted to know what she was up to, what she was hiring you lot for. According to records we found Verity had offered to put Constance in contact with an engineer they knew who used to work at the Scylla facility in the Pacific Ocean. Name checks out, it's real, not sure where it is but it was US Government research installation. This engineer left the day before The Collapse and apparently one of the people they worked with was Alphonse Gillen. A fork of Alphonse Gillen, a fork who the engineer said was in regular contact with the Gillen working on Project ISAAC."

"Mark and I are Vanguards, junior agents. We put in word with a Sentinel, a senior agent and they want us to follow up on this and keep them informed. Now Verity or this engineer could be lying. But it certainly seemed real enough for DuClair to believe it and people haven't heard from her in couple of weeks. This lead could be genuine and we need to follow through on it."

Kuo gestured to Mark.

"Mark was against the idea, but we need more help. And who better than the people DuClair hired in first place? Lifeboat hires surrogates all the time, people who work with us despite not being part of the organisation." said Kuo. "Verity is visiting Elysium today and we have a copy of their schedule. If we can intercept them, we might be able to find out who this engineer is and where we can find them."

[Aarah]

Grayden

Grayden blew air out through his lips, producing a loud puff.
"That's a bloody lot of information to give us when we've just been put in new bodies."
He rubbed his right eye.

"So...what, like, are you worried that DuClair is gettin together with this engineer fella and they're gonna be workin on makin a new Seed AI or summat?"

[Baloth-Kul]

"I assume the quid pro quo here is that we help you, we might find our previous bodies--dead or alive--along the way, and stave off the creation of ISAAC 2.0?" Gryff asked, with the intent of clarifying. They squirmed a little in their seat.

"Do you even know what happened to them? Were they destroyed? Are they missing? You wouldn't back us up if our bodies were just sitting in the next room." Unless you were holding our bodies for ransom, or something like that.

With no signs of further mutilation, dry heaving, or otherwise, Gryff stopped reshaping the garments into a raincoat--instead opting for a cyan blue tanktop and baggy black pants.

Hidden:

Can/does the reshaping apply to give us, yknow, footwear? Or does that come in a little while?

[Kerr]

Kuo nodded. "That and 25,000 Chits a piece. Plus expenses. My guess is you all accepted the job DuClair offered you and you're where she is. Explain why there's no sign of you on Mars." said Kuo. Kuo turned to look at Grayden. "The engineer knows where the Scylla facility is and presumably they know how to get into it. With that information DuClair could launch an expedition to Earth to retrieve Gillen. I don't know what she wants with him, but we can't let this pass us by."

"Look, it's not just not making sure another Seed AI isn't created. Gillen knows more about Seed AI than any of us. He could help us make sure something like the Collapse never happens again, he can tell us how ISAAC thinks, what it wants, how to stop it." Kuo added with Mark making a dismissive 'tch' noise upon mention of the possibility of stopping ISAAC. "If he knew how to stop them, he'd have done it 14 years ago. Still, better in our hands than a MegaCorp or URM or some other bunch of [&@%!]." said Mark.

Hidden:

Yup, regular footwear can be changed no problem, they're also made of smart fabric. Can make high heels, loafers, trainers, boot, sandals, etc.

Grav Boots can't be changed but none of you are wearing Grav Boots so that isn't a problem.

[Baloth-Kul]

Gryff raised an eyebrow at Kuo's idea of 'stopping' ISAAC, but said nothing on it. "Twenty five large? Well, holy chit--count me in. Dooooes 'expenses' include a backup if our current shells go missing, too?"

'Better in our hands', hm? Wonder how many times that's been said in human history, before something went terribly wrong.

[BetaB17]

Cid

"Well then.. It ain't like I got anything better to do" he held up his shackled arms, jingling them once more "Or in any position to refuse it seems.. Yay...." The sarcasm was obvious to hear, his genuine interest, less so. In truth, the moment ISAAC or Dr Gillen were involved, he already knew his due course

"By the end of this.. Things are gonna be great.. Sure beats finding out we destroyed an entire city and will not be getting our reward.. But who knows... Maybe by the end of us.. We're gonna have to go to Earth or something... We're all gonna die". He said with a thick layer of 'concern'. "Yay....". He rolled his eyes for that one

It was weird, but between missing a finger or finding yourself cuffed and at the mercy of some secret agents, he had somehow grown more relaxed

[Aarah]

Grayden

Grayden's eyebrows raised and his eyes sparkled with the mention of 25,000 chits.

"Good question." He said in regards to Gryff's comment on expenses.

"I'm in. But if DuClair's goin to Earth...no [&@%!] way am I goin there. Place is a hell planet."
He leaned back in his chair and looked at Mark with a serious expression.
"So, take note of that, will yuh. I don't wanna do a load of hard work and then you start gettin huffy because you want me to go to Earth when I already told yuh that I'm not."

He waited for verbal confirmation that Mark was listening.
"Yeah?"

[Velvet LeChance]

Dr. Yirgalum Kidisti

For the longest while, Kidisti was silent, as if expecting their hosts to get back to his question. Features simmering, his glare intensified with each passing moment. People couldn't just get to do this to him - they wouldn't, he didn't let them. But that they were ignoring him became soon evident. He took a breath. Lips parted, poison threatened. Then a name he recognised - Gillen. The words caught in his throat. The glare softened.

He eventually nodded. "Fine." It was motioned neutrally at the close - but the light in his eyes suggested he was hooked on the idea, bot-body be damned.

[The SheoDovah]

Jíng

"Fine but we're speaking about my body afterwards." Jíng reluntactly told Gryff and paid attention to the presentation. "That sounds rather simple to be honest." Jíng commented whilst examining her new body. "So, 25k for what is basically a courier job?" She liked the sound of it. Sure, it wasn't exactly a courier job but she knew what she meant. "I mean, we're collecting.....ourselves, only, no-one gave us the details." She expected to get a few looks from the others because of that statement. "Oh and I am in. That and I have little choice due to my body lacking me."

[Kerr]

"If by go missing you mean die, then yes, shells are expenses." said Kuo. "That doesn't mean kill yourself on a whim." Kuo added glaring at Cid.

Mark laughed at Grayden's demand and waved his hand dismissively. "Yeah, because running off like a big girls blouse if things get too scary is hard work. Definitely the sort of thing we'd pay you 25 grand for, leaving a job before it's done." said Mark. He nodded in Kuo's direction. "You heard them, if we find Scylla we're going there. Earth's not exactly a place any of us want to go back to, but that's the job."

[Aarah]

Grayden

Mark's remark caused Grayden to go on the defensive, his face expressing as much, though his inner feelings were that of apprehension at the prospect of returning to Earth.

"Hey, I'm far from a big girl's blouse, mate. I'm not scared of nothin; if you knew me, you'd know that...but you don't so shut yer gob until you do, alright?"

He scratched his chin with his top teeth and shrugged.
"I can go to Earth if I want, no bother to me. I just didn't know it was compulsory. But if it is, then fine." He shrugged again.
"Wha'ever. No skin off my nose."

[BetaB17]

Cid

When the glare had reached him, he gave a cheeky shrug with a half-hearted smile, almost like he was caught red handed. "What can I say? Habits are hard to kill.". He leaned forward, leaning the side of his face on his bloody palm, returning that glare back at Kuo "Well.. Most are.. You don't need to strangle yourself twice to know how boring it is.." He twirled one of fingers around the chain of his handcuffs. "Ya never quite can destroy that greybox, now can ya?". He ended it with one more shrug, as far as one could tell

He began to scratch at his neck with one of his hands, like there was some itch that couldn't be scratched before rocking a bit back in his chair, then to suddenly standing up

[The SheoDovah]

Jíng

"It'll be easy unless someone decides to get us unwanted attention." Jíng remarked though she was still shocked by being in another body. "Oh and if we do get to earth, I don't suppose it would be ok to stock up on a lot of candy?" She hoped she could get some access to a basic chemistry kit and brew a ton of candy. Sure, it was unhealthy but she just loved making the stuff and had once accidentally created a odd mixture of Jelly babies, chocolate and jawbreakers. It was oddly enjoyable as well. "Oh and is it safe to assume that these smart fabric outfits are free of charge?" She inquired as she looked at the jumpsuit.

[Aarah]

Grayden

The long haired man turned and looked at Jing, his lips curled incredulously.

"Candy? We're talkin about Earth, you know, the planet with the super intelligent genocidal robot, and you're asking about stuffin your pockets with [&@%!] candy? What are you, five?"

Grayden gave the worker borg another look, before he moved his attention to Kuo.
"Can we ge'up now? Cuffs off n'all? I want t'stretch these new legs...and see what I look like. All I can feel is a [&@%!] load of hair."
He shook his brown locks with a rough shake of his head.
"Hope I'm good lookin. Not goin to be pullin the ladies if I've got a face like an old man's arse, amma?"
A chuckle arose, and Grayden glanced at everyone as he enjoyed his own sense of humour.

[BetaB17]

Cid

Already standing up, with a lanky presence, he took a few small steps away from his chair, arms limp in every motion before stopping where he stood "I wouldn't call ISAAC genocidal.. That's to allude to if we even knew it's motives.. It exterminated it's opposition.. So what?" He reached up to scratch his hair, taking his other hand along with it, and his eyes angled in a dead gaze "That's what weapons do... Right?".

He yawned, breaking the melancholy of his little 'correction' before adding, sitting down precisely on the floor where he stood, legs crossed of course and bored already "What a color caste you've gathered now.. Huh Mark? Couldn't you guys, maybe, have done with a few less than what ya got?".

[Kerr]

"Sure, I'll get them now. There's a bathroom where you can shave if you want." said Kuo. Kuo got to work unlocking and taking the handcuffs back off the surrogates one by one. "We can give the briefing on the Verity op when you're ready."

Mark shrugged off Cid's comments. "Not my idea." said Mark nodding at Kuo. "I think putting our faith in a bunch of random people who want to go sweet shopping in the worst place in the solar system or bite off parts of themselves is a [&@%!] plan. But to be fair, other you probably met Verity. So at least that's something."

[Aarah]

Grayden

Grayden stood up after his cuffs were taken off and stretched; his arms reaching high into the air until he was on his tiptoes. He produced an odd groaning sound and then looked down at his feet as he returned to standing flat on the ground.
"Am I taller? Could be."
He rubbed his beard and then began to stroll about, taking in the sights of his surroundings.

"Don't worry, Matt. I'll keep this lot in line." He gave Mark a nod of assurance and a grin.

"Right then. A bathroom, you say?" He began to point in all directions with his two forefingers. "Which way?"

[BetaB17]

Cid

Even when freed from his restraints, he still lounged on the floor like some sloth "Hey.. I'm agreeing with you. Not that it really matters for me, one way or another, I still get to chase after an interesting lead. Not that I didnt already agree to this.. And it's not like I personally have anything better to do, right?". He looked up at Mark "But what do I know? I'm not from Lifeboat. And if I die, so what? Not like I'll remember what I'll miss?"

Standing up, he rolled around his neck in it's place, like he was stretching "Wouldn't per chance have some equipment.. Or a printer. Wouldn't mind making some alterations.. Unless..." In the mist of twisting his back, he looked back at the android before glancing off ".. Someone feels like trading..". He then began to limber up his wrist, looking at his hand while he did so

[Kerr]

"This is the middle floor. Living room's out the door, bathroom's just across the way. You'll be able to see the door soon as you step out." said Kuo to Grayden, giving him directions to the bathroom.

"What like... cyberware? No, we don't do that here. Wouldn't have time anyway, we've got a date to keep. You all have some mods, skillsoft at least. Sex-Switch for you, if you want that. We only had six spares and we didn't know your preferences." said Mark talking to Cid. He began to nod his head. "But yeah, could swap two of you, if yous want. Got all the equipment for that upstairs. Might at least shut that one up." He added pointing at Jing, her incessant shouting about how Gryff stole her body hadn't gone unnoticed.