[center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/9312c581-b520-4b92-b2c1-322a1a673413.jpg[/img][/center][center][/center][hr][center][color=CC99FF][b]Location[/b][/color]: C.A.G.E 
[color=CC99FF][b]Skills[/b][/color]: [url=https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/392257844256440322/1220897088322277436/Screenshot_20240322_204856_Instagram.jpg?ex=66109c05&is=65fe2705&hm=639d58a538e21bf7ab4251ae2cd57815ec479bf241a93e68c915e7f911234b1e&]Work Out Fit[/url][/center]
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Notes from Beanie:

So they would have to sign in at the front desk and meet in the visitor's lounge. That's set up like a family room with couches and books and a TV and games. They could also go to the cafeteria for food if thet wanted

Or outside if it's nice

But if they go outside they would be monitored by security

—-

It had been four days since Vicky was admitted into C.A.G.E. Dorian didn't know if she had had any visitors yet, nor what state she might be in. When he last saw April her hair was a mess and she seemed a little out of it at first. It didn't help that the power dampeners put Dorian on edge last time and would likely do so again. Just giving him this feeling of emptiness, like something was missing. He'd gone through all the usual check in process, once again donning his anti-telepathy necklace to keep any intruders out since his sword wasn't allowed onto the facilities grounds. He sat in the usual waiting room, waiting for them to bring out Vicky, thumbing through the gaming collection they had to keep his mind occupied.

[Color=00ffff]“Don’t bother, I already got one picked.”[/color] Came Victoria’s voice behind him. In a stark contrast to April, she seemed to be in rather high spirits, walking forward and pointing straight at Beat Sabers. She turned to face Dorian then, noticing he looked a bit under the weather. [Color=00ffff]”Hi! Thanks for thinking of me. Although… you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”[/color] She managed to keep her face straight for all of half a second before the corners of her mouth twitched upwards.

[Color=CC99FF]”Usually I'm t'e ghost t'at people see.”[/color] Dorian remarked back as he grabbed the case for Beat Sabers. [Color=CC99FF]”I'm fine. Just…not a fan of power dampeners. It's like a part of me is missing you know?”[/color] Or maybe she didn't know? She wore a mech suit she wasn't exactly a mutant. 

[Color=00ffff]“Apologies. I promise next time we can meet in a more comfy place, but alas, this is where I need to be for the moment. It's actually helping.”[/color] Vicky said, fetching the controllers and headsets. [Color=00ffff]“So, how have you been doing? And everybody else. I’m a bit out of the loop here, I barely get the news, much less the gossip. Last thing I saw was the school being on fire… Is Danni OK?”[/color] She inquired carefully.

[Color=CC99FF]”It's fine. Sometimes you need to do uncomfortable t'in's in order to ‘elp ot'ers.”[/color] Dorian said with a shrug as he got his own set to ay with. [Color=CC99FF]”Danni's fine, and we sorted t'e flames out quickly so it was like t'ey never ‘appened. But I'm glad to ‘ear it’s ‘elpin’ t'ough. I was real concerned about t'e last message you sent me…”[/color] Dorian looked back, eyeing the station where his phone was being kept for “safety reasons”.

Vicky snorted. [Color=00ffff]”Which part of the message? No seriously though. While they’re helping me here to actually grow more resilient to what is basically mind control, there is a non-zero risk that I can either be made to, or decide to go bad. Hence why I came here in the first place. But if this were not to work…”[/color] she shrugged, putting on the headset, [color=00ffff]Given that you can possess people and things, well… Being taken over by you and marched into a secure containment facility to maybe get fixed sounds infinitely preferable to Raynordattir snapping her fingers and shutting me down, ms. Bassard rewriting my mind or Leah burying me under several tons of rock until I run out of power, which are my other contingencies. If you can control me, that’s the only one I have where I have a chance of coming back whole. I’m not going to lie, I’d like to default to that given the choice.”[/color] she shrugged.

She scrolled through her song options for the game. [Color=00ffff]”My list for this is pretty much all K-pop, do you mind? And let’s talk about less gloomy things, shall we? I heard something interesting from Diana a few days back. You can’t tell under the goggles but I’m wiggling my eyebrows.”[/color] she said with a teasing grin. [Color=00ffff]”So, when’s the wedding? And where, not sure what state the local law is in an the moment.”[/color]

Shutting down? Memory wipes? Composting? How were any of these solutions? How would one even agree to do such a thing? Dorian didn't understand how so many of his classmates could be so callous. Everyone deserves a second chance. Everyone had good in them. If Vicky's programming became corrupted they'd just need to help get rid of the malware. No need to toss her out like that. [Color=CC99FF]”I…I don't want to ‘arp on t'is. Especially wit’’ow well you seem to se doin’ now since t'e last time I'd seen you. But… ‘ave you considered backin’ yourself up? Memories, personality matrix, t'e whole shebang. When a PC starts to go down, it's always good to ‘ave a second copy of it before it went bad. You reset it back to before t'at point.”[/color] 

Dorian looked at Vicky for a moment longer before he placed his goggles on, looking ahead now at the wall. [Color=CC99FF]”K-Pop is my favorite genre actually. April ‘ad gotten me tickets to see Luna Snow for my birt'day t'is years. So if you ‘ave a bit of Luna in t'ere I definitely wouldn't mind.”[/color] Dorian was trying to figure out what Vicky was hinting at, but he felt like so many things had happened he may have missed some. [Color=CC99FF]”Who's gettin’ married?”[/color]

Victoria sighed. She felt like she was on repeat with this thing. Maybe she should take a leaf from Sabine’s book and just do a vlog? Then again, she didn’t really care for the anonymous opinions in the comments. [Color=00ffff]”Look, you probably wouldn’t know this, but… the AI I am built around was already a massive problem once, and more time travel bullshit is the only reason we have Vision instead. Trust me when I say that under no circumstances is that thing allowed to get free. Trying to shut myself down is actually what got me sent here pronto, but my therapist seems to agree that I made the right choices. It’s not like I [i]want to[/i], I like living. But I absolutely [i]would[/i] if there was no better option. So in a way, you’re my only hope, Dori-Wan.”

“As far as backups go… I can’t. Not fully. My personality storage is like RAM. Lose power and… poof. You can switch me back on, but you’ll just have the personality of a newborn with my memories. It’d never be me again, because even if it replayed my life frame by frame, the new personality that would create would have no emotional response to those memories.”[/color] she explained as she looked through the song list.

[Color=00ffff]”More of a HyunA fan myself, but I have a few.”[/color] she selected a Luna Snow song at random. [Color=00ffff]”And what do you mean, who? You and little Novikov. Diana couldn’t take me up on my offer to help her gain more control of her powers fast enough, though I think she needed eye bleach more than anything. Ready for round one?”[/color] Vicky smirked.

[Color=CC99FF]”I don't t'ink it's much of a dead end. I don't really know about Ultron or t'is timestream t’ing t'at you're talkin’ about. But I feel like it's not a lost cause. Sinister is able to make new organic bodies for transfer easily. Well maybe not easily but it's possible. There's also a possibility that Viz or even ‘is makers could find a way for a ‘mental’ transfer. Or…i mean, there's a good chance…if you wanted to…we could make you an organic body? You'd be human but be yourself?”[/color] 

Dorian selected ‘Flow’ by Luna Snow as he stood to get ready. As the music began to play Dorian started slashing away to the beats before talking to Vicky again. [Color=CC99FF]”We aren't gettin’ married. We just ‘ad sex. ‘eaven forbid t'at two teens ‘ave sex while datin’. It's normal, Casper says it's normal. Everyone does it, you just ‘ave to be safe, which we were.”[/color]

[Color=00ffff]”Oh hell no. Like, this shell has issues, but it is who I am, you know? You may be used to wearing the skin of others, but I am reasonably certain you’re a minority in that regard. I am definitely not trading for a meatbag, that’s for sure…no offense.”[/color] She talked back while flailing the colorful blades through the colorful bricks. [Color=00ffff]”Although, thinking about it, if there’s someone we know who could facilitate such a thing, it would probably be ms. Bassard. No idea what having a whole other person in her head could do to her though. Question for when I’m outta here, I suppose. But to be honest, I never thought of myself as possibly eternal or immortal. Everything dies one day. And if I do get a long run, outliving many of my friends does not sound like such a privilege.”[/color]

She looked at their scores as the song ended, frowning. Dorian kicked her ass. [Color=00ffff]”Speaking of being human, damn power dampeners. This is usually easier. Let’s switch speeds.”[/color] she pulled up her Nightcore playlist, tapping her [url=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hjGZLnja1o8&pp=ygUccm9ja2VmZWxsZXIgc3RyZWV0IG5pZ2h0Y29yZQ%3D%3D]favorite[/url] for this game. [Color=00ffff]”And you know what I mean. Are you happy? Is he [i]the one[/i]? Come on, I want news of something going right for someone for once. Enough talking about gloom stuff like backups. By this time next year we’ll be graduating and laughing about this.”[/color]

Dorian kept his headpiece on as he let his arms sway by his sides. Watching as Vicky picked a classic song. An excited giddy giggle coming out of Dorian just before speaking.  [Color=CC99FF]”What a throw back! I ‘aven't done t'is one in such a long time. May be a little rusty.”[/color] He said as he began to stretch a bit while the countdown was beginning. While he [i]was[/i] a bit rusty, it was only rusty for him. If there had been a dance bar there for him to do tricks on he would have. Dorian was able to flawlessly hit every note while also dancing and spinning in place and talking to Vicky. His words slightly labored as he spoke between hops and slashes and swirls. 

[Color=CC99FF]”It was just a suggestion. If you're worried about bein’ compromised in terms of progammin’ and what not t'en t'e easiest solution is for you to lose t'at programmin’. Become ‘uman. Wouldn't be t'e first time my parents ‘ave done somet’in’ like t'is. Just t'e first time it was a synt'oid. But between mysticism, ‘ealin’ spirits, and Viz I'm sure it'd be simple. But again if you don't want a new body I can get behind t’at. But to answer your burnin’ question…I'm very ‘appy. Dianas been a pain but who cares to be ‘onest. es's sweet and carin’ and great in bed. I don't know if ‘e's ‘T'e One’ because Im too young to t'ink about marriage but…maybe?”[/color] Dorian continued to slash and dance along as he spoke until Vicky mentioned the coming year. Dorian froze for just a moment. Just long enough for his foot to trip over the other and sent him crashing down onto the ground before the song ended dropping his score a few points. 

He couldn't tell Vicky about what he saw. He hadn't even told April and Danni about it. Besides, she was here to heal, not worry about the finality of time. It didn't seem right to say anything. [Color=CC99FF]”Yeah. Hehe. T'at is a small problem. End of next year I graduate and ‘e'll be a Sophmore…”[/color]

As they played, Vicky was falling hopelessly behind in the scores, but the lyrics of the song flew out of her mouth almost without a thought, her simply enjoying the moment. She was about to chirp up that she was happy for Percy and Dorian, but then his grace seemed to vanish within a nanosecond and he crumpled down like a house of cards.

She pulled the headset off, giving him a worried look. [color=00ffff]“...you okay? You know you can just get a job nearby, if you’re worried about long distance so much it makes you faint. Assuming you actually need to work, given all your parents can pull off in the first place.”[/color] She tried to make him feel better, offering a hand to help him get back up. She wished she had her full sensors available to scan his BPM and zoom in on his pupils, but that didn’t stop her from giving him a penetrating look, like she hoped to fish the truth out of his soul through his eyes.

[Color=CC99FF]”I-I'm fine. May ‘ave overdone it wit’ t'e dampeners and all.”[/color] Dorian said as he picked himself back up, dusting off his pants, though there was nothing there to dust off. [Color=CC99FF]”My job is goin’ to be a ‘ero. I know people at school don't really take me or Danni and April seriously when we say t'at but…we really want to make a difference. Our parents were legends, t'ey did so much to ‘elp mutantkind. I want to live up to t'at. To do my part.”[/color] He nodded towards the score in the corner of his vision now. [Color=CC99FF]”You beat me.”[/color] Ofcourse Dorian was ignoring the glaring fact that he had fallen because of the future he'd seen. Everyone dead, the world decimated and the graves of all his friends and colleagues displayed before him.

Vicky gave Dorian a deadpan ‘uh-huh’, herself not knowing whether it was aimed at his explanation or at her supposed win. [Color=00ffff]”Good thing they don’t have DDR, my pride is already bleeding as is. Anyway, hero ain’t a job. That’s a character. But I’m sure this place will be needing some of those too. The world always does, because heroes don’t burn the world’s trash. I guess that’s why they needed to build me.”[/color] she shrugged. [Color=00ffff]”Got another song, or do you want to do something else?”[/color] she asked, seemingly turning off homicide with a push of a button.

Burn the world's trash? That didn't sound like she was getting better. If anything it sounded like she was channeling her want to kill herself into a want to destroy others. It reminded him of how many others at school had wanted Arcade dead. Just to be rid of a problem. A kid, a child, snuffed out as easily as a candle in a strong wind just because it flickered too bright, blazed too hot and burned someone. [Color=CC99FF]”Up to you. It's your recovery so we can do anyt'in you deem safe and ‘elpful. T'ough chances are if it's a game you're goin’ down. T'ere's a reason I'm a top creator on Mojoverse.”[/color] He said with a cocky grin. 

Vicky gave Doria a wicked grin. [Color=00ffff]“Is that so? Well then~ I challenge you to: Rock. Paper. Crossblades! And the prize? Winner gets to ask truth or dare.”[/color]

[Color=CC99FF]”Rock…paper…crossblades? You mean scissors?”[/color] Dorian said confused. [Color=CC99FF]”Uh sure?”[/color] 

The pair of them began to countdown, Rock, Paper, Crossblades. Go! Dorian put down Paper, Vicky Rock. And Dorian couldn't help but laugh. [Color=CC99FF]”Not t'e outcome i expected. Uh, Trut’. Why can't you see past burnin’ to acknowledge second chances should be given?”[/color]

[Color=00ffff]”Such is life.”[/color] Victoria grinned, [color=00ffff]”It’s in my type designation, dude. ASTRA stands for Autonomous Superhuman [b]Termination[/b] and Regulation Automaton. It’s not like I would waste a kid for stealing bubblegum, you know? But some types of people we are better off without. That at least I and my creator can agree on. I’ll be honest, Edward is alive only because a) I wasn’t willing to step over your and Danni’s corpse to end him, and b) because Ms. Bassard pulled something I thought impossible and made it so that he is irrefutably reformed as a person, dropping the need to end him. I’m not driven by vengeance, just risk assessment.”[/color]

[Color=CC99FF]”But you don't ‘ave to be what your programmin’ says. You don't ‘ave to terminate. Fight against it and develop yourself don't let it define you. If anyt'i- wait. What do you mean Beanie irrefutable reformed ‘im? ‘E just realized what ‘end done was bad. Non?”[/color]

[Color=00ffff]”Hey! Give me some credit. Not being archetypically heroic does not mean I am evil. I consider that a last resort. Like, I made plans to try and keep certain people’s mind in the right place as the primary solution. Granted, I didn’t count with barely keeping my own head screwed on straight, so I’ll have to reevaluate my approach.”[/color] she grunted, mildly offended. [color=00ffff]”Actually, Percy’s potentially apocalyptic powers have been a huge headache, but having you in his life actually drops the likelihood of him going bad a good deal, even if he is still accident prone, if Diana is a yardstick to measure by. So be a dear and try not to break his heart?”

“As for defying programming… that’s why I’m still here. I was free to go on day one, but they are trying to help me to say ‘nope’ even to admin level orders. But the garbage disposal? Oh, that is my purpose! As I said, I agree with it. But when I get out of here, I’ll happily start a debate circle on the topic. Who knows, maybe you can convince me to the contrary.”[/color]

She gave a dry chuckle then. [color=00ffff]”Ed? Realized what he’s done was bad? Hahaha! The same Ed who picked ‘villainy’ as a career path and [i]bragged about it[/i]? And you think what, that kind of guy just suddenly decided to change his ways [i]right after a psion touched him?[/i] You’re almost unbearably naive.”[/color] she shook her head, darkly amused.

[Color=CC99FF]” ‘e…’e must ‘ave… right? Beanie wouldn't rob someone of t'ier free will. Right? T'ats bad. Even if it ‘elped…did it ‘elp?”[/color] Dorians words falling more and more from talking to Vicky to just speaking to himself as he tried to wrap his head around this paradox that was presented to him.

Seeing the shift, Vicky stepped up and her arms enveloped the guy in a hug. [Color=00ffff]”Hey. She probably saved his life, I wasn’t the only one wired to end him. I’ve been around Diana long enough to know she can… hold a grudge, shall we say? In fact when I stormed off, I figured I could just get rid of him once you weren’t around. Yes, it is ethically still gray, but I would consider what Sabine did the least of three evils. Worst one being letting that psycho go free. And I could still be wrong. You’d have to ask her.”[/color]

Dorian felt slightly pressure around him, his mind slowly fading him back into his surroundings as he realized he was being hugged. Vicky was hugging him. [Color=CC99FF]”You're right. T'at is technically better. But…i should talk to ‘er. Just…just to make sure. Sorry about t'at.”[/color]

Vicky nodded, letting Dorian loose. [Color=00ffff]”You sure? Doc Whitehall’s here I think, if you need to talk.”[/color] Her eyes ticked over random things in the room, as she was suddenly at a loss at what to do now. [Color=00ffff]”So… I’d offer another round, but I’m not sure I want to blow your mind with another revelation if you win again.”[/color]

[Color=CC99FF]”Maybe just another round or two of Beat Sabers. I…I need to compose myself a bit before I see April today. T’en after I can share with you some new baby pictures. Amour got a sibling, well cousin, but I t'ink you'll love ‘er when you see ‘er.”[/color]

Vicky froze for a moment. [color=00ffff]”I… see… so I’m not the only one who got sent here, huh. Who or whar’s Amour?”[/color] all manner of thoughts swarmed her head about her last meeting with Flynn senior, all of which Vicky decided to push off for later disposal.

[Color=CC99FF]”Oh! It's my baby raptor! She's mostly been back ‘ome gettin’ housebroken. She came from a dimensional rift back durin’ t'e Monster Mash. Amélie ‘owever is Danni's newly ‘atched Dragon! Oh you should've seen Firestars face! She was practically screamin’. From excitement I'm sure!”[/color]