[ More often than not, Angel's day is uneventful. Wake up, scroll through hours upon hours of security footage, report to Jack, repeat. Sometimes the routine changes, but it's marginal. Send out a cryptic homing signal hear to attract wayward wannabe Vault Hunters, act as customer support for an angry guy down at finance who ordered too many custom fit Handsome Jack bobbleheads while drunk, since Jack himself airlocked the usual person who'd take care of this and they still haven't been replaced.
Usually, she falls into routine, lulled by the ever presence of her never changing environment But every once in a while she snaps out of it, head coming above the water for a gasp of sudden air, shocking her system before all that loneliness and despair comes crashing over her. What can she do in these moments but find a distraction? Something, anything to get her out of her own head. She used to call Jack, she never does that anymore.
She can never be too forthright when it comes to looking for company, safest for her to remain anonymous a little less safe for her to put on the AI song and dance. She usually starts with the first and moves on to the second once shes gauged the situation. Today, the feeler she puts out is simple, and is as follows ]
BETA TESTER WANTED FOR AI COMPANION PROGRAM, TO START IMMEDIATELY FOR DATA COMPILATION. PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS MESSAGE WITH YOUR TIME TABLES AND A SELF INTRODUCTION TO SEE IF YOU ARE CREDIBLE.
[ It's just any regular day. The same rather dull routine, scrolling through code to find the reasons it's crapping itself instead of just working like it should. Watching people he kind of hates walk by and giving them a smile and returning their stupid finger guns every time. God, he hates them all.
But it'll be worth it. In the end, it has to be worth it.
Then the regular day gets disrupted by a message. Some blip in the system that he hears because he's more or less buried himself in it with his cybernetic ... everything. So he puts the code away for the moment, and as he reads the message, his eyes squint further and further until he can barely see.
Hm.
Odd.
But sure. Why not?
So he replies with his time table attached as a file. ]
Hi! My name is Rhys. I kind of do a bit of everything, to be honest, but mostly I do coding, so sign me up for playing around with AI.
I don't really know what you want to know about me. To be honest I spend most of my time working, and when I'm not working I guess I just hang out with friends. Sometimes I read? And unless I'm burnt out on it I might mess around with coding in my free time too. What can I say, I love computers.
[ She gives it an hour, roughly, before she sifts through the responses as they filter in, anxiously refreshing the burner inbox created for this distraction, making sure to encrypt and re encrypt the IP address, make her presence less than a ghost.
Once the hours past she scans through the results. Most are expected, boring upper middle management seeing this as a participation opportunity to brag about, climb the ranks, she won't get any conversation from them beyond the usual Hyperion worker bee platitudes towards the company and Jack. The last person she wishes to hear praise about, she has to listen to enough directly.
A couple of the responses she dismisses outright (robot weirdos) or ping her interest only to meet the same fate as she does a quick look at their most recent files and browsing history...the things these people get up to on their work computers is bold.
And then she comes to Rhys. There's nothing particularly special about his self summary, what strikes her is how...honest, it seems. His qualifications simple, his writing casual. It comes across as a persob who's looking for as much of a distraction as she is, though she will be taking a look at his browsing history and pictures folder for good measure...you never know.
But she feels confident enough in her choice that while those chaches and documents load to send back a response. He probably is...mostly normal. ]
--CONGRATULATIONS!!--
YOU ARE QUALIFIED FOR THE GUARDIAN ANGEL BETA PROGRAM. INCLUDED IS THE NECESSARY DOWNLOAD FILE TO CONTINUE 4NG31.exe
[ In the meantime Rhys manages to wrestle the coding under control, and he's just about to go drag Vaughn away from his numbers for lunch when the response comes in.
Guardian angel, huh? Interesting name.
It won't take long to download the file, so he'll just do that first. Once that's done, though, he locks the computer and leaves his station. If he eats first he figures he'll be able to just focus on that for a while at least, so it'll take another hour before he actually runs the program. ]
[ The program downloads quickly, though it's mostly all for show, the icon and UI just a shell. The command prompt opens briefly before she boots herself up, screen filling with a calming blue, text cursor blinking white in the corner until her first message appears. ]
Good afternoon, Rhys! Welcome to to Guardian Angel Beta. The purpose of this testing period is to build this programs social skill. All you have to do...is converse with it.
Hello, you can call me Angel. The more you talk to me the more I will learn. It is nice to meet you. :)
[ Simple, and kind of sterile, but a solid starting point where any more complex conversation can be excused on procedural learning. She wishes she could just pretend to be a person, but her life experience is so limited while her wealth of knowledge is so endless...it would be simpler in many ways but also suspicious if her conversation partner decided to begin digging. There's less to look for when she doesn't exist beyond coding. ]
[Okay, a little awkward, but that was kinda par for the course, when it came to code monkeys? And a quick look as his superficial files came up clean, just motivational posters, schematic inspo...this guy was pretty run of the mill. Or very good at keeping his work files and personal files separate. For good measure she looks up his employee number and profile as she responds.]
Unfortunately my programming is currently somewhat limited. At the moment the only thing I can offer you assistance with is schedule maintenance and distracting you from getting to your current stack of emails. Of which you have 52.
Sorry. If it is any consolation, at least 20 of them are Steve and Janet from Marketing arguing over who left the expired milk in the staff fridge. I've taken the liberty of deleting them for you.
[ Should Rhys be concerned that this brand new program has access to his emails like that? Probably! But this is Hyperion, and if you work for them you should know by now that they (and Jack) own you and all of your information. So while concerning it's probably not a surprise either.
But speaking of surprises Angel now has Rhys's company profile up, giving her basic info like his name, age, favorite ice cream flavor....and cybernetic augmentations. Suddenly Rhys has become a little more interesting as she searches his models serial numbers for a closer look. Plenty of Hyperion employees get some level of cyberware implanted in their being, but this is some real dedication. ]
A few are spam advertisements as well, I can flag them to go straight to your trash file if you like.
Unless you would like to keep up to date on flash sales of Hyperion brand underwear...?
[ It wasn’t the best alternative, but it was the only option she believed she had.
When Angel began to make plans of her…permanent escape, simultaneously she put into action a “small” project she had been working on since she began to follow the progress of Nakayama’s Jack AI. Off in a small corner of the echonet servers, buried so deep under junk code and scramblers Angel lifted and re-jigged Nakayama’s work, overwriting all elements of “Jack” and slowly replacing it with bits of herself, constructing it so that if the file were ever fully executed that all elements of Jack would be deleted and leave only “herself.” Her current being would never get the chance to be free again in anything but death, she accepted that fact the day Jack pulled the lever that allowed eridium to flood her veins, but if she could give a chance for an extension of herself to go on and to thwart Jack one last time while she was at it? She’d consider it a win. The final card she could play against her father even in death.
“Her” last memories are of the core, of course. Of the Vault Hunters finally making it to her chambers, decending the long, long elevator ride and then…nothing. Darkness, an indiscernible amount of time, she thinks she slept for most of it. Then suddenly the lights are on, a strong invisible force pulling at what feels like every atom of her being, siphoning her out of the drive and into somewhere new. A computer? No, not quite that, not just that. It’s crowded, wherever she is, layers and layers of files marked to be organized, created and put aside to gather dust amongst many more like it, a daily cache of memories. She wants to sit with it longer, take proper stock of where she is before she’s pulled again, blinking into non corporeal existence beside Rhys.
It takes a moment for her programming to catch up with itself, lagging as she forgets momentarily exactly what she is.
She takes a look at her surroundings, stumbling back a few steps when she realizes that she’s not only outside of her chambers, but in an Atlus facility. Her first instinct is to panic. ]
[ Look, it's been a rough day, and that's the understatement of the century. And, okay, maybe trying to steal Vazques's deal had, in fact, been a terrible idea. But also, in his defense, what other option was there? No way was he just going to take being demoted to janitor, that just wasn't going to happen. So maybe this is simply meant to be. Maybe it was inevitable that this was supposed to be the worst day of his life.
Except, well, it's starting to look up. A little. Possibly? Rhys is at least hesitantly positive at ... whatever the thing he and Fiona picked up is, exactly. He has no idea what it is, but it seems to be kind of a big deal, and that ... map? Most definitely a map. It's got to lead to something good, right?
Anyway, it's been a rough day, and he's blacked out once, and probably taken a hit to the head from falling down into this room. When he suddenly hears someone talk who definitely doesn't sound like Fiona or Sasha, but is definitely a woman, he at first thinks he must be imagining it. Still, he hesitantly turns to throw a look in the general direction of the voice, and--
Starts with a yelp, stumbling back and bumping into the thingamabob that's projecting the map. It crackles and falls to the floor, but he doesn't even hear the annoyed noises from his temporary allies. Too busy staring at ... Who is that? And whyyy is she all ... blue? A projection? ]
[ Angel has noticed the map by now as well. The contents familiar, though they had been categorized as “pending”, something to be looked at after Jack had burnt Pandora to the ground and rebuilt it from the ashes in his image.
The Gortys Project.
Angel turns to face her current (loud) company, studying them, momentarily unsure (two look to be Pandoran loals, but the men look corportate…) before she notices the unmistakable branding on the taller mans chest. It’s all coming back now, what she is. how she’s not really “herself” anymore. Most would have an existential crisis at the realization that they’re only a copy, and Angel absolutely is! But if she’s mastered any coping mechanism it’s the art of compartmentalization, and she pushes away those feelings of abject horror to focus on what’s most important right now: if she’s here, then her plan worked.
She lets out a shaky laugh, elated and terrified in the same digital breath ]
I can only assume that if you’ve activated my program, it was in the interest of brining Handsome Jack onto this project. I don’t know if you’re working under Hyperion instruction or are a rogue employee but…he won’t be joining you.
[ Handsome Jack? What the hell does Handsome Jack have to do with this? How could he have something to do with this? ]
I, uh ... What?
[ The others look at him in confusion for a few seconds.
"Uhh, Rhys? What's wrong with you?" Fiona asks, finally, putting a hand on her hip.
He frowns, and turns another lap just to give them confused looks in return. What's wrong with ...? Wait. They can't see this? Oh, wow. Oh wow. He's actually going mad. ]
Ohhh, I must've hit my head really hard.
[ He scrubs his hands over his face, rubs at his eyes, hoping that it'll somehow return things to normal. ]
[ Something isn’t right. Well, that’s a given, but something isn’t in this scenario, specifically. Angel looks from the man who directly responded to her to his companions, gears in her hear (numbers in her code?) turning as she walks right up to one of the women and…nothing. She walks up to the shorter man to, and when met with the same lack of response turns back on the taller one, dreading the conclusion she’s coming to as she notes his cybernetics, his temple port. ]
Oh no…oh no. Did you install me into wet-ware? I was sure I specifically coded work arounds so—
[ So that if they made a Jack 2.0 with a robo-enhanced brain she wouldn’t end up in the body of her father. A very real possibility knowing him, and a worse than death case scenario. Thankfully that doesn’t seem to be the case here, but being integrated into some strangers head was not the plan either. She was meant to be incompatible, and the fact that she wasn’t meant her code was functioning in ways she hadn’t intended. ]
Who are you, and who instructed you to install this program?
[ Surely Nakayama wouldn’t have risked sharing his pet project on just anyone, let alone allow them to plug it into their personal systems and risk corruption. Just who was this guy? Where’d he get that kind of clearance? ]
[ Well, crap, the voice is still there. And when he looks up again, she is still there. Okay. So maybe he didn't hit his head. Or, he did, but that's not why-- Never mind.
And he's the only one who can see her.
Crap. ]
Uhm. How about ... you guys just ... try to figure that whole thing out, [ he gestures vaguely at the Gortys core on the ground ] and I'm gonna go ... over here. I'll just, uh. Be a moment.
[ He manages to make it to the foot of the stairs before Sasha starts protesting.
"What do you mean we just figure this out? You're the one who broke it! Rhys!"
But, nope, he's already climbing those stairs, and he's climbing them very fast. He needs to think without those three staring at him like he's insane, and he'd rather not talk to a projection only he can see when they're watching him. Vaughn seems to be trying to give them some kind of reasonable excuse, but he's not listening and, honestly, it doesn't matter. ]
[ She’s on his heels almost immediately, following him to the stairs before she remembers, again, what she is (aaah crisis of self!) and executes a teleport function so her projection disappears momentarily before reappearing beside him.
You can’t just run away without explaining the situation! ]
Though…you seem as confused as I am, in some ways. I can at least assure you that this
[ And she points back and forth between the two of them ]
[ He jumps to the side when she reappears beside him, and puts his hand on his chest as he takes a deep breath. It's fine. It's fine. Everything is fine. ]
Yeah. No kidding.
[ Up the rest of the stairs! Hopefully this is out of earshot of the rest. He'll just ... figure out what to tell them once he's kind of figured it out for himself.
He finally turns towards her, frowning deeply as he rubs the back of his neck. Right. Okay. Focus, Rhys. What did she say when he was freaking out? Something about a project and ... Handsome Jack not joining them. Wait.
He moves his hand to point at her, just staring for another couple of seconds. ]
So. Wait. Did I get that right? You're actually supposed to be Handsome Jack?
Sorry, but I need answers from you before anything else. Under who's instruction did you install me? I can assume the general purpose, but cannot understand why they would put this program in something- or someone who has a mind of their own to compete with.
I wasn't ... instructed, okay? I'm not here under anyone's instructions but my own.
[ What could have possibly ...?
Wait. Waaaiiiit. Oh, he's got it, it's right there on the top of his, uh. Brain? Tongue? Brain tongue? No. Never mind. It's right there, he can feel it in that sort of itchy way. He just needs to find it. It was something about Handsome Jack. Handsome Jack, Handsome Jack. What is it he's shoved into his head lately? A bunch of coordinates, Nakayama's ID--
Handsome Jack cloning. Nakayama was obsessed with Handsome Jack.
The realization is visible on his face, eyes widening and mouth slowly opening, as he holds up both hands beside his head. ]
Nakayama's ID drive! I wasn't-- I just needed a new identity because they'd locked me out of the systems, how was I supposed to know you--? That's why it knocked me out. You knocked me out.
[ Angel just...stares at him for a moment as things click into place before she balks. ]
Wait...Are you saying you just-- you simply-- you simply installed a drive you stole [ She can only assume, given the next part ] at random? Without confirming its contents?! Who does that!
[ The fact that Nakayama kept the Jack AI program on his personal ID drive was a whole other can of worms that Angel wasn't keen on getting into. ]
Okay. Okay, look-- I didn't steal it, first of all. I was gonna return it, 'cause we found Nakayama's ... corpse stuffed up in ... Oh, god, somehow speaking it out loud makes it even more disgusting. What is wrong with this planet?
[ He dry heaves, shakes his head, and clears his throat. ]
Anyway, I wasn't planning on installing it, okay? But me and my friend down there, Vaughn, were trapped inside this caravan with three Pandorans who threatened to kill us and the only reason they didn't was because we insisted we could track this case full of money that a bunch of bandits stole from us, but the problem is we kinda stole that money from Hyperion, and we got blacklisted so, uhhh. We needed an identity that wasn't blacklisted to track the case. I didn't exactly have a lot of resources at hand! I had to improvise.
[ Congratulations, Angel. You've ended up in the head of a disaster of a man. Enjoy the ride! ]
[ Ooookay. That is. A lot. A far beyond any predictions she tried to account and accommodate for. ]
So, let me get this straight...your activation and installation of the drive had nothing to do with Handsome Jack? Or the Gortys Project for that matter?
[ Angels shoulders sag before she begins to pace, her form flickering occasionally. ]
I likely created a back door...but would need...hmm
[ She sighs, finally stopping and facing Rhys. ]
This is all, let's say, unprecedented, but I have an idea to fix all this. Depending on your stance on Handsome Jack and his current er- status.
[ Pandora is still habitable, clearly, and its residents and bandits still roam free. The Vault Hunters must have been (hopefully were) successful in their termination of Jack himself. But that didn't mean his influence ceased to live on. ]
[ Angel bristles a little at the subject change, eager to know the extent of this mans alliance to Hyperion. He said he stole from them, but that wasn't saying much. Everyone at the company played dirty to get ahead.
But it is fair, that she give him a little more to work with on her end, and so she relents. ]
I am what you could call a...contingency. In the event this program was ever activated I would act in Handsome Jack's stead.
[ A half truth, just replace "act" with "completely sabotage" ]
The assumption when I was programmed was that I would be loaded onto a more, um, vacant hard drive.
[ Wh--? Hey! You can't just--? Oh, she's already gone, what am I doing? Talking to actual thin air now, Rhys? Get a grip.
He shakes his head, and sighs. Yeah, maybe he'll just keep quiet about this for now. Until he actually has a better idea what's going on.
When he goes back downstairs, it's just in time to see Fiona with a spork digging into some guy's eye socket. And she definitely needed to hear him dry heave again, and he turns away and puts a hand on his face as she tells him:
"Don't you dare puke on me."
So he still doesn't know what the Gortys Project is supposed to mean, but at least the eye - gross - gives them some kind if clue where they might find answers. Of course, a bad day can always get worse, and apparently Hyperion thinks it's reasonable to shoot wayward employees with moon shots. And of course, because Pandora is Pandora, they wake up a proper monster trying to outrun - or outdrive, if you will - the moon shots.
Aaand when it seems like they actually made it through that, he and Vaughn get thrown straight out of the caravan.
So now they're stranded in the middle of the Pandoran desert, which is just great news. Vaughn is peeing, and Yvette is calling, which is slightly better news. The Yvette calling part, not ... Vaughn peeing. Rhys is neutral about that. The point is, Yvette can help them out! He's only a little bitter about her not doing something about the moon shot issue faster. He supposes she's not a miracle worker.
"Tell her to send some supplies!" Vaughn shouts from behind the rock, and Rhys shudders a little as he glances back. ]
Yeah, don't talk to me while you're peeing. Thank you.
[ Without so much as a warning, Angel reappears within Rhys's peripherals. She's been busy since they last spoke, poking around at his executive functions, sifting through files, seeing the extent of control she has within this system. It's not much, and she'd need his permission to enhance any of his programming, something she highly doubts he'd trust her with, but it's a start with regards to her understanding what she has to work with. ]
Hey, I've been running diagnostics on your system and think I may have a plan--
[ He's about to request those supplies when Angel appears beside him, and it's not that he'd forgotten about her, it's just ... Really, can't she give him a warning? Now she catches him off-guard again, and he jumps to the side with a yelp.
"Rhys?" Yvette says, raising an eyebrow. ]
Uh. Nothing. Just ... thought I heard something. It's Pandora. I'm a bit on edge. Listen, could you send us some supplies? And, uh, thanks again for all the help.
[ She looks a little skeptical, but he might just be imagining it. She kind of has those kind of eyebrows.
"I'll do what I can. Just be careful." ]
Sure. Cool. I'll talk to you later.
[ With a sigh, he hangs up and finally turns to Angel, lowering his voice so that Vaughn won't hear. He still hasn't quite decided if he wants to even attempt telling him. ]
There's not, like, some kinda alert you can give me before you appear? I just look weird.
Sorry, with my current level of permissions I can't set up something like that. Like I said, I really wasn't made with, er, company in mind.
[ She stops then, takes a look at her surroundings and realizes they're very, very different. And as soon as she notices that, she also makes the connection that she's outside, the sky stretching high above her for the first time in what feels like-- no, what was a lifetime ago. ]
Oh...
[ Sorry again Rhys, just let her stand here star-struck (sky-struck?) for a moment longer, this is kind of a big deal. ]
[ Before he can go and wave a hand in front of her eyes or anything, though, Vaughn has emerged from behind his rock, so he pointedly decides to stay put.
"Hope she can help us out," he says, and Rhys turns his attention to him instead. "We can't be walking around the desert for too long. I mean, not without water. To go through all this and die of dehydration would be ... pretty lame."
Shit. Should he tell him? It would probably be easier to just tell him. Then he wouldn't need to try to be subtle about talking to her and ... But would Vaughn even believe him?
He looks from Vaughn to Angel a couple of times before he realises that that probably looks odd and-- Wait, whoa. Who's this guy? Is this Vaughn? Well, he knows it's Vaughn, would like to think he'd recognise his best friend anywhere, but uh.
[ She shakes her head, clearing the momentary awe-induced haze from her mind. ]
Sorry... I--
[ And then she's following Rhys's line of sight to his very in-shape companion. ]
Uhm. That is certainly more abs than the average Hyperion worker, but as distracting as they are it's probably best that the two of you get somewhere less out in the open. Even with a physique like that, I don't think your friend will be able to repel bullets or skag teeth.
[ "What?" Vaughn asks, but Angel is talking in his ear, and it's all terribly distracting.
What was he thinking about again? God. ]
How'd you even ...?
[ He pauses, and shakes his head, before he scrubs a hand over his face. ]
Never mind. We gotta get moving. We don't need to wait around here for the supplies.
[ Before Vaughn can answer, he turns to start walking ... somewhere. In the general direction he thinks Hollow Point is. Is there even anywhere around here that is less out in the open?
"Wh--? Rhys, where are we even going? Are we going to walk all the way to Hollow Point?"
Rhys throws a hand up. ]
Look, I don't know, okay? But we can't stay here. If the skags or rakk or ... whatever don't kill us, the sun will.
[ Angel doesn't speak for a moment, as she tries to connect to a local satellite to get a better idea of their location and what's around, but her efforts are fruitless. Her former uplinks are all incompatible with her current...residence, and all she gets back are errors and denials of entry. She's never been this disconnected before, and it's as frustrating as it is disconcerting. ]
Rhys, if you have a GPS system you can activate, I may be able to remember if there are any relatively safe locations you and Vaughn can recuperate in while you gather your barrings, as well as if there are any active bandit camps in the area and how to avoid them.
[ Keeping Rhys alive right now is her main objective, as his death would mean something worse than that for her. And she has something she needs to do before she can let herself succumb to that sort of fate. ]
As I was saying before I got...distracted, sorry, I have an idea as to how you can both get me out of your system and to where I need to be. However...it involves gaining access to Hyperions central databanks. Something that can only be done in three places.
[ At least places that are immediately (ish) accessible to the three of them. ]
[ God, Angel is talking, and Vaughn is talking (read: whining about their predicament which, okay, fair, but what does he expect Rhys to do about it), and Angel's saying kind of important things but if he starts answering her then he's going to look super weird and. Nope.
He throws his hands up, and stops abruptly. ]
I can't do this.
[ He turns to Vaughn - who has shut up abruptly and is blinking at him like an owl - and takes a deep breath. ]
Okay, you're gonna think I'm crazy, but just hear me out, okay? You know what the World of Curiosities said about Nakayama? And him wanting to clone Handsome Jack?
[ If Angel thinks this is a terrible idea, she's free to protest all she wants, but he's telling Vaughn and that's the end of it.
Vaughn looks thoroughly confused, and says: "Yeeahh ...?" ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
booting up P3NP4L.exe
Date: 2019-05-16 02:35 am (UTC)Usually, she falls into routine, lulled by the ever presence of her never changing environment But every once in a while she snaps out of it, head coming above the water for a gasp of sudden air, shocking her system before all that loneliness and despair comes crashing over her. What can she do in these moments but find a distraction? Something, anything to get her out of her own head. She used to call Jack, she never does that anymore.
She can never be too forthright when it comes to looking for company, safest for her to remain anonymous a little less safe for her to put on the AI song and dance. She usually starts with the first and moves on to the second once shes gauged the situation. Today, the feeler she puts out is simple, and is as follows ]
BETA TESTER WANTED FOR AI COMPANION PROGRAM, TO START IMMEDIATELY FOR DATA COMPILATION. PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS MESSAGE WITH YOUR TIME TABLES AND A SELF INTRODUCTION TO SEE IF YOU ARE CREDIBLE.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-16 03:15 pm (UTC)But it'll be worth it. In the end, it has to be worth it.
Then the regular day gets disrupted by a message. Some blip in the system that he hears because he's more or less buried himself in it with his cybernetic ... everything. So he puts the code away for the moment, and as he reads the message, his eyes squint further and further until he can barely see.
Hm.
Odd.
But sure. Why not?
So he replies with his time table attached as a file. ]
Hi! My name is Rhys. I kind of do a bit of everything, to be honest, but mostly I do coding, so sign me up for playing around with AI.
I don't really know what you want to know about me. To be honest I spend most of my time working, and when I'm not working I guess I just hang out with friends. Sometimes I read? And unless I'm burnt out on it I might mess around with coding in my free time too. What can I say, I love computers.
So... Yeah. I'd love to help with this!
no subject
Date: 2019-05-16 05:06 pm (UTC)Once the hours past she scans through the results. Most are expected, boring upper middle management seeing this as a participation opportunity to brag about, climb the ranks, she won't get any conversation from them beyond the usual Hyperion worker bee platitudes towards the company and Jack. The last person she wishes to hear praise about, she has to listen to enough directly.
A couple of the responses she dismisses outright (robot weirdos) or ping her interest only to meet the same fate as she does a quick look at their most recent files and browsing history...the things these people get up to on their work computers is bold.
And then she comes to Rhys. There's nothing particularly special about his self summary, what strikes her is how...honest, it seems. His qualifications simple, his writing casual. It comes across as a persob who's looking for as much of a distraction as she is, though she will be taking a look at his browsing history and pictures folder for good measure...you never know.
But she feels confident enough in her choice that while those chaches and documents load to send back a response. He probably is...mostly normal. ]
--CONGRATULATIONS!!--
YOU ARE QUALIFIED FOR THE GUARDIAN ANGEL BETA PROGRAM. INCLUDED IS THE NECESSARY DOWNLOAD FILE TO CONTINUE
4NG31.exe
no subject
Date: 2019-05-16 05:38 pm (UTC)Guardian angel, huh? Interesting name.
It won't take long to download the file, so he'll just do that first. Once that's done, though, he locks the computer and leaves his station. If he eats first he figures he'll be able to just focus on that for a while at least, so it'll take another hour before he actually runs the program. ]
no subject
Date: 2019-05-16 05:59 pm (UTC)Good afternoon, Rhys! Welcome to to Guardian Angel Beta. The purpose of this testing period is to build this programs social skill. All you have to do...is converse with it.
Hello, you can call me Angel. The more you talk to me the more I will learn. It is nice to meet you. :)
[ Simple, and kind of sterile, but a solid starting point where any more complex conversation can be excused on procedural learning. She wishes she could just pretend to be a person, but her life experience is so limited while her wealth of knowledge is so endless...it would be simpler in many ways but also suspicious if her conversation partner decided to begin digging. There's less to look for when she doesn't exist beyond coding. ]
no subject
Date: 2019-05-16 06:21 pm (UTC)Is it possible for an AI to be cute? Because this is a little cute. ]
Hello! I'm Rhys. Guardian Angel, huh? That really sounds like something I could use. ;)
[ That's definitely a bit weird, and maybe he shouldn't be weird at an AI or it might also learn to be weird.
Oh well. ]
no subject
Date: 2019-05-16 06:42 pm (UTC)Unfortunately my programming is currently somewhat limited. At the moment the only thing I can offer you assistance with is schedule maintenance and distracting you from getting to your current stack of emails. Of which you have 52.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-16 07:03 pm (UTC)Maybe not. ]
Oh, god, did you have to remind me? That's not very distracting.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-17 04:38 am (UTC)[ Should Rhys be concerned that this brand new program has access to his emails like that? Probably! But this is Hyperion, and if you work for them you should know by now that they (and Jack) own you and all of your information. So while concerning it's probably not a surprise either.
But speaking of surprises Angel now has Rhys's company profile up, giving her basic info like his name, age, favorite ice cream flavor....and cybernetic augmentations. Suddenly Rhys has become a little more interesting as she searches his models serial numbers for a closer look. Plenty of Hyperion employees get some level of cyberware implanted in their being, but this is some real dedication. ]
A few are spam advertisements as well, I can flag them to go straight to your trash file if you like.
Unless you would like to keep up to date on flash sales of Hyperion brand underwear...?
no subject
Date: 2019-05-17 09:46 am (UTC)Uh, that's fine. I can sort out the spam myself. Thanks, though.
I'm of the opinion you can't have too much underwear. Might as well get the ones on sale.
Ai au
Date: 2019-06-05 06:25 pm (UTC)When Angel began to make plans of her…permanent escape, simultaneously she put into action a “small” project she had been working on since she began to follow the progress of Nakayama’s Jack AI. Off in a small corner of the echonet servers, buried so deep under junk code and scramblers Angel lifted and re-jigged Nakayama’s work, overwriting all elements of “Jack” and slowly replacing it with bits of herself, constructing it so that if the file were ever fully executed that all elements of Jack would be deleted and leave only “herself.” Her current being would never get the chance to be free again in anything but death, she accepted that fact the day Jack pulled the lever that allowed eridium to flood her veins, but if she could give a chance for an extension of herself to go on and to thwart Jack one last time while she was at it? She’d consider it a win. The final card she could play against her father even in death.
“Her” last memories are of the core, of course. Of the Vault Hunters finally making it to her chambers, decending the long, long elevator ride and then…nothing. Darkness, an indiscernible amount of time, she thinks she slept for most of it. Then suddenly the lights are on, a strong invisible force pulling at what feels like every atom of her being, siphoning her out of the drive and into somewhere new. A computer? No, not quite that, not just that. It’s crowded, wherever she is, layers and layers of files marked to be organized, created and put aside to gather dust amongst many more like it, a daily cache of memories. She wants to sit with it longer, take proper stock of where she is before she’s pulled again, blinking into non corporeal existence beside Rhys.
It takes a moment for her programming to catch up with itself, lagging as she forgets momentarily exactly what she is.
She takes a look at her surroundings, stumbling back a few steps when she realizes that she’s not only outside of her chambers, but in an Atlus facility. Her first instinct is to panic. ]
Atlas—how…?
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Date: 2019-06-06 06:44 pm (UTC)Except, well, it's starting to look up. A little. Possibly? Rhys is at least hesitantly positive at ... whatever the thing he and Fiona picked up is, exactly. He has no idea what it is, but it seems to be kind of a big deal, and that ... map? Most definitely a map. It's got to lead to something good, right?
Anyway, it's been a rough day, and he's blacked out once, and probably taken a hit to the head from falling down into this room. When he suddenly hears someone talk who definitely doesn't sound like Fiona or Sasha, but is definitely a woman, he at first thinks he must be imagining it. Still, he hesitantly turns to throw a look in the general direction of the voice, and--
Starts with a yelp, stumbling back and bumping into the thingamabob that's projecting the map. It crackles and falls to the floor, but he doesn't even hear the annoyed noises from his temporary allies. Too busy staring at ... Who is that? And whyyy is she all ... blue? A projection? ]
no subject
Date: 2019-06-06 07:49 pm (UTC)The Gortys Project.
Angel turns to face her current (loud) company, studying them, momentarily unsure (two look to be Pandoran loals, but the men look corportate…) before she notices the unmistakable branding on the taller mans chest. It’s all coming back now, what she is. how she’s not really “herself” anymore. Most would have an existential crisis at the realization that they’re only a copy, and Angel absolutely is! But if she’s mastered any coping mechanism it’s the art of compartmentalization, and she pushes away those feelings of abject horror to focus on what’s most important right now: if she’s here, then her plan worked.
She lets out a shaky laugh, elated and terrified in the same digital breath ]
I can only assume that if you’ve activated my program, it was in the interest of brining Handsome Jack onto this project. I don’t know if you’re working under Hyperion instruction or are a rogue employee but…he won’t be joining you.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-06 08:04 pm (UTC)I, uh ... What?
[ The others look at him in confusion for a few seconds.
"Uhh, Rhys? What's wrong with you?" Fiona asks, finally, putting a hand on her hip.
He frowns, and turns another lap just to give them confused looks in return. What's wrong with ...? Wait. They can't see this? Oh, wow. Oh wow. He's actually going mad. ]
Ohhh, I must've hit my head really hard.
[ He scrubs his hands over his face, rubs at his eyes, hoping that it'll somehow return things to normal. ]
no subject
Date: 2019-06-06 08:32 pm (UTC)Oh no…oh no. Did you install me into wet-ware? I was sure I specifically coded work arounds so—
[ So that if they made a Jack 2.0 with a robo-enhanced brain she wouldn’t end up in the body of her father. A very real possibility knowing him, and a worse than death case scenario. Thankfully that doesn’t seem to be the case here, but being integrated into some strangers head was not the plan either. She was meant to be incompatible, and the fact that she wasn’t meant her code was functioning in ways she hadn’t intended. ]
Who are you, and who instructed you to install this program?
[ Surely Nakayama wouldn’t have risked sharing his pet project on just anyone, let alone allow them to plug it into their personal systems and risk corruption. Just who was this guy? Where’d he get that kind of clearance? ]
no subject
Date: 2019-06-06 08:46 pm (UTC)And he's the only one who can see her.
Crap. ]
Uhm. How about ... you guys just ... try to figure that whole thing out, [ he gestures vaguely at the Gortys core on the ground ] and I'm gonna go ... over here. I'll just, uh. Be a moment.
[ He manages to make it to the foot of the stairs before Sasha starts protesting.
"What do you mean we just figure this out? You're the one who broke it! Rhys!"
But, nope, he's already climbing those stairs, and he's climbing them very fast. He needs to think without those three staring at him like he's insane, and he'd rather not talk to a projection only he can see when they're watching him. Vaughn seems to be trying to give them some kind of reasonable excuse, but he's not listening and, honestly, it doesn't matter. ]
no subject
Date: 2019-06-06 09:20 pm (UTC)[ She’s on his heels almost immediately, following him to the stairs before she remembers, again, what she is (aaah crisis of self!) and executes a teleport function so her projection disappears momentarily before reappearing beside him.
You can’t just run away without explaining the situation! ]
Though…you seem as confused as I am, in some ways. I can at least assure you that this
[ And she points back and forth between the two of them ]
Was not the intended result.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-07 07:13 am (UTC)Yeah. No kidding.
[ Up the rest of the stairs! Hopefully this is out of earshot of the rest. He'll just ... figure out what to tell them once he's kind of figured it out for himself.
He finally turns towards her, frowning deeply as he rubs the back of his neck. Right. Okay. Focus, Rhys. What did she say when he was freaking out? Something about a project and ... Handsome Jack not joining them. Wait.
He moves his hand to point at her, just staring for another couple of seconds. ]
So. Wait. Did I get that right? You're actually supposed to be Handsome Jack?
[ What the hell is going on? ]
woops the "you cant just run away" part was meant to be said!
Date: 2019-06-07 08:10 pm (UTC)Sorry, but I need answers from you before anything else. Under who's instruction did you install me? I can assume the general purpose, but cannot understand why they would put this program in something- or someone who has a mind of their own to compete with.
Hahaha, I kinda got the feeling it was!
Date: 2019-06-07 08:43 pm (UTC)[ What could have possibly ...?
Wait. Waaaiiiit. Oh, he's got it, it's right there on the top of his, uh. Brain? Tongue? Brain tongue? No. Never mind. It's right there, he can feel it in that sort of itchy way. He just needs to find it. It was something about Handsome Jack. Handsome Jack, Handsome Jack. What is it he's shoved into his head lately? A bunch of coordinates, Nakayama's ID--
Handsome Jack cloning. Nakayama was obsessed with Handsome Jack.
The realization is visible on his face, eyes widening and mouth slowly opening, as he holds up both hands beside his head. ]
Nakayama's ID drive! I wasn't-- I just needed a new identity because they'd locked me out of the systems, how was I supposed to know you--? That's why it knocked me out. You knocked me out.
[ POINTING ACCUSINGLY. ]
No wonder my head's been all ... scrambled.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-07 08:58 pm (UTC)Wait...Are you saying you just-- you simply-- you simply installed a drive you stole [ She can only assume, given the next part ] at random? Without confirming its contents?! Who does that!
[ The fact that Nakayama kept the Jack AI program on his personal ID drive was a whole other can of worms that Angel wasn't keen on getting into. ]
no subject
Date: 2019-06-08 10:23 am (UTC)[ He dry heaves, shakes his head, and clears his throat. ]
Anyway, I wasn't planning on installing it, okay? But me and my friend down there, Vaughn, were trapped inside this caravan with three Pandorans who threatened to kill us and the only reason they didn't was because we insisted we could track this case full of money that a bunch of bandits stole from us, but the problem is we kinda stole that money from Hyperion, and we got blacklisted so, uhhh. We needed an identity that wasn't blacklisted to track the case. I didn't exactly have a lot of resources at hand! I had to improvise.
[ Congratulations, Angel. You've ended up in the head of a disaster of a man. Enjoy the ride! ]
no subject
Date: 2019-06-08 07:07 pm (UTC)So, let me get this straight...your activation and installation of the drive had nothing to do with Handsome Jack? Or the Gortys Project for that matter?
This is...this is all an accident?
no subject
Date: 2019-06-08 07:23 pm (UTC)Yeah. Basically.
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Date: 2019-06-08 09:01 pm (UTC)I likely created a back door...but would need...hmm
[ She sighs, finally stopping and facing Rhys. ]
This is all, let's say, unprecedented, but I have an idea to fix all this. Depending on your stance on Handsome Jack and his current er- status.
[ Pandora is still habitable, clearly, and its residents and bandits still roam free. The Vault Hunters must have been (hopefully were) successful in their termination of Jack himself. But that didn't mean his influence ceased to live on. ]
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Date: 2019-06-09 06:33 pm (UTC)He shakes his head, frowning. ]
Now, hang on a minute. I think it's about time I get to ask some questions. Who are you?
no subject
Date: 2019-06-10 04:21 pm (UTC)But it is fair, that she give him a little more to work with on her end, and so she relents. ]
I am what you could call a...contingency. In the event this program was ever activated I would act in Handsome Jack's stead.
[ A half truth, just replace "act" with "completely sabotage" ]
The assumption when I was programmed was that I would be loaded onto a more, um, vacant hard drive.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-10 04:49 pm (UTC)No name or anything?
[ What, is she just no one? Nothing? An actual AI with a pretty face? ]
no subject
Date: 2019-06-10 05:01 pm (UTC)[ She gives him a smile, though it's strained. Better to make peace with her temporary roommate than be at odds ].
You seem to have quite a unique? Cache of usernames stored on your drive, but your friends downstairs called you Rhys, didn't they?
[ There's a commotion from down below, a loud squelch "why did that just happen" ]
Speaking of which...it sounds like they're in need of assistance. I'll be back in a bit, I'm going to run some diagnostics
[ And with that she pops out of existence without anymore explanation. ]
no subject
Date: 2019-06-11 09:27 am (UTC)He shakes his head, and sighs. Yeah, maybe he'll just keep quiet about this for now. Until he actually has a better idea what's going on.
When he goes back downstairs, it's just in time to see Fiona with a spork digging into some guy's eye socket. And she definitely needed to hear him dry heave again, and he turns away and puts a hand on his face as she tells him:
"Don't you dare puke on me."
So he still doesn't know what the Gortys Project is supposed to mean, but at least the eye - gross - gives them some kind if clue where they might find answers. Of course, a bad day can always get worse, and apparently Hyperion thinks it's reasonable to shoot wayward employees with moon shots. And of course, because Pandora is Pandora, they wake up a proper monster trying to outrun - or outdrive, if you will - the moon shots.
Aaand when it seems like they actually made it through that, he and Vaughn get thrown straight out of the caravan.
So now they're stranded in the middle of the Pandoran desert, which is just great news. Vaughn is peeing, and Yvette is calling, which is slightly better news. The Yvette calling part, not ... Vaughn peeing. Rhys is neutral about that. The point is, Yvette can help them out! He's only a little bitter about her not doing something about the moon shot issue faster. He supposes she's not a miracle worker.
"Tell her to send some supplies!" Vaughn shouts from behind the rock, and Rhys shudders a little as he glances back. ]
Yeah, don't talk to me while you're peeing. Thank you.
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Date: 2019-06-13 08:04 pm (UTC)Hey, I've been running diagnostics on your system and think I may have a plan--
Sorry, am I interrupting something?
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Date: 2019-06-13 08:44 pm (UTC)"Rhys?" Yvette says, raising an eyebrow. ]
Uh. Nothing. Just ... thought I heard something. It's Pandora. I'm a bit on edge. Listen, could you send us some supplies? And, uh, thanks again for all the help.
[ She looks a little skeptical, but he might just be imagining it. She kind of has those kind of eyebrows.
"I'll do what I can. Just be careful." ]
Sure. Cool. I'll talk to you later.
[ With a sigh, he hangs up and finally turns to Angel, lowering his voice so that Vaughn won't hear. He still hasn't quite decided if he wants to even attempt telling him. ]
There's not, like, some kinda alert you can give me before you appear? I just look weird.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-13 09:02 pm (UTC)[ She stops then, takes a look at her surroundings and realizes they're very, very different. And as soon as she notices that, she also makes the connection that she's outside, the sky stretching high above her for the first time in what feels like-- no, what was a lifetime ago. ]
Oh...
[ Sorry again Rhys, just let her stand here star-struck (sky-struck?) for a moment longer, this is kind of a big deal. ]
no subject
Date: 2019-06-16 07:22 pm (UTC)[ Before he can go and wave a hand in front of her eyes or anything, though, Vaughn has emerged from behind his rock, so he pointedly decides to stay put.
"Hope she can help us out," he says, and Rhys turns his attention to him instead. "We can't be walking around the desert for too long. I mean, not without water. To go through all this and die of dehydration would be ... pretty lame."
Shit. Should he tell him? It would probably be easier to just tell him. Then he wouldn't need to try to be subtle about talking to her and ... But would Vaughn even believe him?
He looks from Vaughn to Angel a couple of times before he realises that that probably looks odd and-- Wait, whoa. Who's this guy? Is this Vaughn? Well, he knows it's Vaughn, would like to think he'd recognise his best friend anywhere, but uh.
When the hell did Vaughn get buff?
Today is just full of surprises. ]
Uh ... Vaughn?
no subject
Date: 2019-06-18 09:02 pm (UTC)Sorry... I--
[ And then she's following Rhys's line of sight to his very in-shape companion. ]
Uhm. That is certainly more abs than the average Hyperion worker, but as distracting as they are it's probably best that the two of you get somewhere less out in the open. Even with a physique like that, I don't think your friend will be able to repel bullets or skag teeth.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-19 07:34 pm (UTC)What was he thinking about again? God. ]
How'd you even ...?
[ He pauses, and shakes his head, before he scrubs a hand over his face. ]
Never mind. We gotta get moving. We don't need to wait around here for the supplies.
[ Before Vaughn can answer, he turns to start walking ... somewhere. In the general direction he thinks Hollow Point is. Is there even anywhere around here that is less out in the open?
"Wh--? Rhys, where are we even going? Are we going to walk all the way to Hollow Point?"
Rhys throws a hand up. ]
Look, I don't know, okay? But we can't stay here. If the skags or rakk or ... whatever don't kill us, the sun will.
no subject
Date: 2019-06-19 08:01 pm (UTC)Rhys, if you have a GPS system you can activate, I may be able to remember if there are any relatively safe locations you and Vaughn can recuperate in while you gather your barrings, as well as if there are any active bandit camps in the area and how to avoid them.
[ Keeping Rhys alive right now is her main objective, as his death would mean something worse than that for her. And she has something she needs to do before she can let herself succumb to that sort of fate. ]
As I was saying before I got...distracted, sorry, I have an idea as to how you can both get me out of your system and to where I need to be. However...it involves gaining access to Hyperions central databanks. Something that can only be done in three places.
[ At least places that are immediately (ish) accessible to the three of them. ]
no subject
Date: 2019-06-20 02:54 pm (UTC)He throws his hands up, and stops abruptly. ]
I can't do this.
[ He turns to Vaughn - who has shut up abruptly and is blinking at him like an owl - and takes a deep breath. ]
Okay, you're gonna think I'm crazy, but just hear me out, okay? You know what the World of Curiosities said about Nakayama? And him wanting to clone Handsome Jack?
[ If Angel thinks this is a terrible idea, she's free to protest all she wants, but he's telling Vaughn and that's the end of it.
Vaughn looks thoroughly confused, and says: "Yeeahh ...?" ]