[X] Plan Freeze Everything And Then Blow It The Fuck Up.
Panopticon: A Game of Posthumans, Perniciousness, Paranoia, Politics, and Plasmaguns
SR III: Las Desperadas
SR III: Las Desperadas
The back of the ambulance smells of disinfectant and plastic. There is sheeting laid down over the floor and then a layer of biofilm has been sprayed on top - and over the back door and roof, too. Enough to confuse any sensors looking for living organisms within this space.
There's only one of those. A wild-eyed construct - the geneline markers clear for anyone who knows what to look for - rummages furiously through a sealed case. There's a needler slung over its back, and a grenade launcher propped against the wall. Its hands are shaking, like it's got too much combat stim in its veins, and there's a look in its eyes which suggests that whatever's in its head isn't entirely sane. The construct is a Vanessa - a multirole combat construct using a fifth generation baseline designed to render the old Victors entirely obsolete. Just as strong as a standard Victor, but so very much smarter. Smarter than your average baseline human. And deadly. It - she - might be wearing a paramedic's outfit, but under her clothes there's the bulk of a light biosuit. It gives her the apparent physique of an ordinary person rather than a model.
There's something else there. The body of Serafina Rosario lies there, unmoving. She's not breathing. Her chest doesn't move. She's cold. Someone's stuffed her in a skintight white suit, and there's machinery covering her face, cables and wires running from it to the sleek form of Progenitor diagnostic equipment.
And above her body Serafina floats. The air feels like cold water against her, but she can't see her… her body. No, she can. It's down there. But it's not what she's looking from. Her hands are mist, surrounded by gauzy layers of… something. Something which looks a bit like medicinal gauze and rather more like smoke.
Letting out a distressed wail, Serafina desperately tries to rationalise what's going on. She's seeing things. Yes. She's clearly down there plugged into Progenitor biomachinery so she's being kept alive and possibly this is some kind of trick and she's being fed sensory data in some way to incline her to RD positions and she has no idea what's going on but this doesn't make any sense and…
The Vanessa whirls on her body. In one swift movement, it pops open a seal on the biomachinery, exposing its fleshy core, and slots an injection cylinder in. Serafina drifts closer, trying to read it. The lights on the machine flash green.
And that's when the pain starts. A blinding, agonising pain which feels like… like… like something she's forgotten, but which she knows too well. Serafina screams, a keening wail which echoes in a way it really shouldn't, and as she screams she sees memories flash before her eyes.
She blacks out.
There's a flash of light before her eyes, and her world fills with blue. White lines stream before her eyes, which only slowly resolve into text. And then her world fills with colour. It's meaningless at first, but then - as if she's staring at an optical illusion - it resolves into a biofilm-covered ceiling and a blond woman leaning over her.
Everything looks fake. She's seeing in the kind of ultra-high-resolution that normal human eyes can't manage, where there's no depth of view and everything is in focus at once. The world looks like a training sim or a video game - a feeling not helped by the HUD that floats in front of her eyes. There's a lot of red on the HUD. A lot.
"Fucking damn it Sera, stay with me!" the woman screams down at her. "Work! Work, you fucking crash kit! Power's fine, nutrients… fine, come on! Sera! Live, damn you! You don't want to die!"
The words wash into Serafina's head. No, she realises slowly. She doesn't… she doesn't think she does. She opens her mouth, and closes it again. It's only a few seconds later that she realises she isn't breathing.
"Stabilising… stabilising… we're back to orange," the blonde mutters to herself. "Please work, please work, please work…"
Serafina tries to speak. She can't. She's not breathing. Her lips move, but no sound comes out. Instead, a synthetic voice states what she's trying to say. "A. Li. Cia."
"Sera!" Alicia hovers in place, torn between her desire to lunge forwards and give her friend a hug and wanting to collapse from sheer relief. She's crying now, big fat tears running down her beautiful face. "You… don't you ever dare! Don't you dare do… do something like that again! Ever! Ever ever ever! Or… or… or…"
Digging through her recent memories, Serafina finds them all a blur. There's… all kinds of things. All out of sequence. Childhood and present and recent past are all mixed up, like a paint palette someone's swirled a brush through. "Alicia. What. Happened?" The words are coming now, said through the synthesiser without speaking, but she… hurts. No, she doesn't hurt. Not exactly. She's numb, in the way that pain suppressants leave you when they're blocking a lot of pain.
"How many fingers am I holding up?" Alicia asks her, holding out a hand.
Serafina wants to cough, but can't. It's a strange feeling. "Three. Or two. If you don't count the thumb. As a finger."
Alicia beams, even though the grief and worry on her face. "Technicalities! You're totes going to get better if you can already think up that kind of thing!"
Serafina tries to laugh. It's bitter and morbid, but it's that or cry. Except she can't cry or laugh in her current state. She only manages to say, "Ha. Hah," with the speech synthesiser.
"That's the spirit!" Alicia tells her.
"Ha. Ha." No swallowing, either. "Alicia. What happened?"
Alicia wipes her eyes on the sleeve of the paramedic outfit she's wearing over her usual Damage Control biosuit. "You got hit by a self-termination memeplex," she says, a guarded note in her voice. "One engineered to make you… make you want to kill yourself. Sera, it was… it was the highest-grade weaponised suicide meme complex I've ever seen. You didn't stand a chance. It nearly got me too. Only the fact it was tailored for you meant I didn't get caught fully. Still got hit. I… I nearly let you die."
Cold runs through Serafina's mind. A memory forces itself into her consciousness. "Alice," the mechanical voice says mutely. "She is dead and it is my fault and-"
"No!" Alicia almost lunges for her. "No! Sera! I unpicked it! It… it was touch and go but I unpicked it! That's just memories now! You don't feel that!"
She's right. Serafina doesn't feel much right now. Just numb. That doesn't change things. Or maybe it does. Because if it was a memetic attack, it might have been lies. "Is. She alive?"
Alicia winces. "I don't know," she whispers. "I hope she is. I… I have a suspicion she is. And some evidence. But I don't know for sure."
Serafina would sigh, if she could. It's something, at least. "Wish. I could tell her that I'm sorry. I wonder if she got the message I. Tried to pass along to her in Moscow."
Alicia raises her eyebrows. "Good thing I'm here and not one of Li's cronies," she points out. "He'd use that against you." Her shoulders slump. "But yeah. I… I don't like the idea of her hating either of us."
There's silence. Serafina is too exhausted to speak, while Alicia is busy checking the feeds and the machinery plugged into her.
"How bad is it?" Serafina asks, when she can pluck up the courage to enquire after what she… she did to herself.
"So," Alicia says thoughtfully. "Do you want the good news or the bad news? 'Cause it's kind of a good news bad news scenario."
"What do you mean?" the synthesiser says impassively.
"Yeah, that's sort of it. You have mild brain damage from oxygen deprivation, which means you're sort of… um, blind right now. I've hooked the biosuit up so it's doing pre-image processing for you and bypassing the damaged areas. You'll have some memory loss until we can get you into a proper neurobiology lab. I got you into the emergency biosuit in time so you're not dead and it's keeping your brain alive! Although… uh, you went into NBD four times. Thank fuck for crash kits. You did good work with them."
Serafina listens in numb shock. "And the good news?" the synthesiser says for her.
Alicia winces. "That was the good news."
An awkward silence fills the back of the ambulance, broken only by the noise of the city and the bleeping of the machinery.
"How bad?" Serafina manages. Her head hurts. Ha. Hah. Because if what she fears is coming is true...
"Triage means your brain's in a pretty good state compared to the rest of you, 'cause I isolated it and put all my effort into saving it," Alicia says quietly. "Basically… everything below the bypasses I stuck into your carotid arteries is various levels of fucked. Heart stopped, lungs paralysed, kidneys and liver just plain dead. The biosuit is keeping it fresh, but…" She sighs. "I have a plan, but I'm trying to not… uh, kill you because you really can't take any kind of system shock at the moment."
… yes. It's what Serafina feared. That she half-suspected, because her proprioception was telling her things about her body that she didn't want to think about.
"Alicia. Thank you."
Alicia swallows, reaching out to squeeze Serafina's shoulder. "I'm your friend," she says. "I'll be here for you whenever I can. Always. No matter what. I got you out here to Mexico away from them and I'll keep you safe and… and..." She bursts into tears again. "I've missed you so much! For all these years and… and you've been so lonely and I've had no one to talk to and I know you've been suffering and…" she degenerates into incoherent sobbing and mumbled words like "so sorry" and "wish I could have been there for you".
"There, there," Serafina says, wishing she could get more emotion into her voice. She… she remembered things. A few scenes of Alicia from school. They're something which must have been removed, when her personality was adjusted.
She's left with the feeling that she'd be getting angry right now, if she could. How much of the problems she's had with her life were caused by what her parents did to her? Were there changes to stop her associating with 'unsuitable types' and are they why she has problems getting close to people? Did this cause her somewhat infamous attention span problems - and was this why none of the medication she's tried to help her focus worked?
And yet. She remembered some of the good times with them, too. She thinks they love her. But that didn't seem to stop them from… from… from…
Serafina sinks back into unconsciousness - but this time she's just sleeping.
She wakes beneath a velvet sky, speckled with stars. Well, wakes is a too gentle word. She comes to, in a too-sharp computer-rendered world.
"You with us again?" Alicia asks, leaning over her.
Serafina tries to nod, and realises again that she can't. "Yes," she says through the synth.
They're in the countryside. She can see trees, and the sky's too dark to be in an urban area.
"Right! Beelicio! Get her arms! Seelicia! Cuff her legs, and then get your weight on them! I'll give the shot and then pin her down! Tell me when you're ready, 'cause when I start the feed, it's going to get nasty!"
"I'm in place."
There's the sound of something being attached down at her legs. "Ready."
"What are you doing?" she says through the synthesiser. She'd panic, but there's something in the drugs she's on which makes that too much effort.
"Getting your body working again," Alicia says, attaching something Serafina can't get a good look at to one of the input ports of the biosuit. "This might hurt a bit."
"It'll hurt a lot," the woman by Serafina's legs says.
"Not necessarily!" Alicia says, sounding hurt.
"You're giving her a dose that would cause heart failure in someone in good health."
"Technically true, but… oh, wait, nearly forgot to turn off the voice."
"Wait. What do you me-" Serafina manages before the synthesiser gets cut.
"On the count of three! One, two, three!"
The waxing moon hangs in the sky. The ambulance is hidden under the cover of trees, parked off-road in the Mexican countryside. The glow of city lights to the north are still visible.
"See! That wasn't so bad, was it?" Alicia asks brightly. She has a black eye and scratch marks - claw marks - all over her face. She's taken off her outer layer of clothing and is now just wearing the biosuit.
Serafina glares at her, wrapping her borrowed clothing around her tighter. The two of them are sitting on the back of the ambulance, legs dangling out the back. The other man and woman - Alicia's Vanessas - are out 'acquiring' transport. Her eyes are nearly solid red from the capillaries bursting and she's twitching faintly. She also has chocolate smeared around her mouth. "I… I should slap you," she growls, her hands balled into fists.
"Oh, Sera," Alicia says brightly. "That's just the werewolf extract speaking. Side effects include irritability, aggression, psychotic rage and genocidal urges. Being a bit tetchy is nothing! And now you've stopped with the clawing and the biting and the howling and you know, the bit where you tried to run away on all fours. And your hands and mouth have gone back to normal! Honestly, I'm pretty impressed you managed to break those cuffs! Those were DC issue!"
Serafina tries to damp down the anger surging through her. She needs to be calm. She needs to be serene. Alicia was just trying to help. "You stuck enough in me to kill a Victor!" Serafina accuses, voice shaking.
Hmm. It's really hard to stay calm when she's feeling like this. Does Rose feel like this whenever she channels her haemophage genetics?
"And now your organs are working again," Alicia says happily. "So it all worked out. I didn't have a lab, so I just pumped you full of werewolf juice." She grins in a manner which would probably have many Celestial Choristers trying to ward off such lewd behaviour. "Of course, that's not the first time that's-"
"Shut up!"
"There, there," Alicia says, patting her on the shoulder. "I'm sure you'll cheer up and not be so mean to poor little life-saving me when you get some more food in you."
Serafina swallows, her mouth watering. It's true. The hunger gnaws in her gut, and Alicia's clothes hang loose on her. They had some erg cola in the van and some snacks, but she's had them and she's starving again - and running a temperature from her still-elevated metabolism. She's burned off terrifying amounts of fat - enough that Alicia has her on a nutrient drip. The biosuit used a lot just running itself, and then the rest almost literally melted off her under the effects of the regen serum. She's somewhere between 'top fashion model' and 'African famine victim' weight-wise at the moment.
She laughs bitterly. When… when Henriette gets back, if… if they both survive and ever meet again, she'll get to be the one making the boob comments. It's not very funny at all, but she has to believe she'll get to make those remarks. She has to.
"See! Now you're laughing," Alicia says.
Serafina grits her teeth, pulls herself to her feet and goes to find something to kick. Or tries, rather, and falls over - barely being caught by Alicia.
"Easy, easy," Alicia says, concern in her voice. "You just need to rest for now. Once you get some food in you, we can start building the muscle back up. You just need some time."
"I… I don't have time!" Serafina chokes out. "Someone went for me! That means they'll… they'll go for everyone else! We need to get in contact with my amalgam!" She looks around, only upright thanks to Alicia. "You said we're in Mexico? Why are we in Mexico? What's going on? Alicia, we need to… to…"
"Let me put it this way," Alicia says, eyes narrowed. "I got enough of a look at the memeplex they got in your head when I was trying to unpick it so I could wake you up without you trying to off yourself again. It was brilliant. Hybrid of Nu-Woo and our techniques. And really, really high end Prog stuff. Deliberately exploited some of your augs for a feedback loop. Like, seriously, there are maybe twelve Progenitors I can think of who could do something like that. You're one. I'm another. Your dad's one. Of the other nine, all of them are famous and-slash-or really high ranking."
She shakes her head grimly.
"If any of them are willing to take you out like this, we have to keep away from Progenitor command structures. 'Cause Professor Li's on the list. Do you get my drift?"
It's like a blow to the gut. "He wouldn't…" Serafina breathes.
Alicia raises her eyebrows. "You don't sound sure," she says, almost mockingly.
"I'm not," Serafina says. Because goodness, she doesn't think 'having her killed' is a thing he would really be unwilling to do. At an ethical level, at least. She's an annoyance to him. Too soft. They're both pro-construct rights, but she's always felt that the right he's interested in for a lot of constructs is the 'right' for them to do what they're designed to do without being held back by wombborn Unionists who bring influences in from the rest of society. More than that, she's political capital for her mother as an official Hero of the Technocratic Union for what she did in Moscow. That makes her incredibly valuable as a martyr. "But… but Rose!"
Alicia massages her temples. "It's a mess," she says bluntly. "I just happened to be in the neighbourhood because I was going to drop in and check on you. You'd been working too hard - you needed some time off. Then I saw the meme package, realised what it was, and... and had to shake off the urge to let you die. That took precious time."
Serafina viciously wipes her eyes. "I… I nearly tried before," she says in a tiny voice.
Alicia squeezes her tight. "I know," she whispers. "I… I got in just in time. Managed to get you into the biosuit. You weren't breathing. Managed - barely - to get it to keep your brain alive. That brought me more time. And since your body was basically dead… they must've thought you were dead. They didn't take chances. Sent in DC to collect your body. Eight combat constructs for a dead woman. They're pissed at you."
"What happened?" Serafina asks.
Alicia smiles. It's not a very pleasant smile. "I happened," she says.
Serafina hugs her tighter.
"Three dead, five subverted." Alicia glowers. "If they work out what happened, next time they'll probably send HITMarks. Wouldn't have worked if they hadn't sent Vanessas - but they wouldn't have been able to get through the lab security so sneakily if they'd been full of primium. Eight Vanessas and a black helo'd be more than enough if I hadn't been there. I took some of them with me, sent the rest as a distraction, and made a run for it. Heading south with what gear I could grab. Trying to keep you alive when you kept on brain-deathing on me."
There's a silence. "Alicia," Serafina says. "It… it was Panopticon, wasn't it? And you stole their Vanessas."
"Yeah. And yeah, I'm almost certain of that. I looked through the memories of the ones I stole when I was sticking pruned beta forks of myself in their heads. They're pretty fresh decantees, but either it's Panopticon, or someone setting things up to make it look like them. And given your history with them in Moscow… it's probably them."
"I put you in danger." A surge of anger. "You should have stayed out of this!"
"Sera, I'm already in danger from Panopticon." Alicia grins wryly. "I just can't keep my nose out of things, and… I did some poking post-Moscow. That's how I got back in contact with you, remember?"
"You still shouldn't get involved!"
"I don't have a choice," Alicia says. "Least of all now. Sera. They tried to kill you. That means it was probably them who killed - or tried to kill - Alice. And given what happened to Belltower… yeah. Not liking the odds. They've got elite Progenitors and someone who's really good at Nu-wooery working for them. I don't know who. It's probably Panopticon. So we need to get the fuck off the radar for now."
Serafina wraps her arms around herself, rage boiling in her stomach. "They'll go after Rose," she whispers. "She won't be able to say no. They'll go after her and… and they'll give her orders. And she'll obey them. Kill me and… and Jamelia's not around and she won't have a choice. We need to save her!"
"Sera." Alicia sounds old. Old and unhappy and… and strange. "It's been six hours. They'll have already done whatever they planned to do."
"Then you should have let me die!" Serafina wails. She tries to punch Alicia, but can't and just ineffectually beats against her chest, blows bouncing off the biosuit. "You should have… I hate you! I hate you I hate you I hate you I hate you I… I hate you!"
"No, you don't," Alicia tells her gently.
"I do!" Serafina insists through the tears, before collapsing against her friend's shoulder.
There's a look of familiar pain in Alicia's eyes as she lets Serafina sob against her. "At least this time I'm here," she whispers, clutching Serafina to her like a crying child. "Oh, Sera."
Serafina's sobs eventually quieten and fall away. "Sorry," she whispers.
"Hey, you've got enough liquified werewolf in you that I'm surprised you're not planning the genocide of Panopticon," Alicia says. "Acting like a ball of hormones is gonna happen 'till you get it out of your system."
"Panopticon isn't an ethnic group," Serafina tells her, wiping her bloodshot eyes.
"But it does have an institutional culture. Thus, it can be genocided."
Serafina sniffle-giggles. "Good point." She pauses. "You have a plan."
"Do I look like a woman with a plan?" Alicia asks innocently.
"Yes."
"... so unfair. I might have one, yes." Aicia sighs, leaning back at looking up at the pale moon. "But I don't know if I should do it. A bit of me just wants to get you somewhere safe and hide you away until you're better."
"What's the plan?" Serafina asks, twitching. Her stomach makes a rumbling noise, and right on cue she can see the two figures of the Vanessas approaching. They look like they have carrier backs. That means they should have food. They have to.
"Some of the data I grabbed from the Vanessas. They know about a low key Panopticon field op in Mexico City. Vanessas are smart enough to put things together - I wouldn't've got this from Victors," Alicia says, flashing a weary smile. "Field assets are mostly constructs - second in command is a Vanessa from their growth batch. I got some Panopticon codes from them. It's how I got us across the border. So we head to Mexico City, scout out the op. If we find them and can take them, we subvert the Prog hardware they have. Grab one of them who might know more about what's going on. Find their chain of command. Find who's behind this." Alicia's expression is locked in an adrenaline snarl. "I want to know," she growls. "Make them pay for what they did to you."
Once upon a time in Mexico
They've got a stolen ambulance, a mentally unstable scientist, an eccentric Damage Control agent and two 'borrowed' Panopticon Vanessas. There's some more 'loaned' Union hardware in the back of the ambulance. It's night. They're wearing mirrorshades.
[ ] To Mexico City!
[ ] Go to ground. Get out of the line of trouble until it's blown over (this will end Serafina's side story)
[ ] Try to persuade Alicia that Serafina still needs to go back to help the others (success will end Serafina's side story. So will failure, because Alicia will sedate her and take the go-to-ground option)
The back of the ambulance smells of disinfectant and plastic. There is sheeting laid down over the floor and then a layer of biofilm has been sprayed on top - and over the back door and roof, too. Enough to confuse any sensors looking for living organisms within this space.
There's only one of those. A wild-eyed construct - the geneline markers clear for anyone who knows what to look for - rummages furiously through a sealed case. There's a needler slung over its back, and a grenade launcher propped against the wall. Its hands are shaking, like it's got too much combat stim in its veins, and there's a look in its eyes which suggests that whatever's in its head isn't entirely sane. The construct is a Vanessa - a multirole combat construct using a fifth generation baseline designed to render the old Victors entirely obsolete. Just as strong as a standard Victor, but so very much smarter. Smarter than your average baseline human. And deadly. It - she - might be wearing a paramedic's outfit, but under her clothes there's the bulk of a light biosuit. It gives her the apparent physique of an ordinary person rather than a model.
There's something else there. The body of Serafina Rosario lies there, unmoving. She's not breathing. Her chest doesn't move. She's cold. Someone's stuffed her in a skintight white suit, and there's machinery covering her face, cables and wires running from it to the sleek form of Progenitor diagnostic equipment.
And above her body Serafina floats. The air feels like cold water against her, but she can't see her… her body. No, she can. It's down there. But it's not what she's looking from. Her hands are mist, surrounded by gauzy layers of… something. Something which looks a bit like medicinal gauze and rather more like smoke.
Letting out a distressed wail, Serafina desperately tries to rationalise what's going on. She's seeing things. Yes. She's clearly down there plugged into Progenitor biomachinery so she's being kept alive and possibly this is some kind of trick and she's being fed sensory data in some way to incline her to RD positions and she has no idea what's going on but this doesn't make any sense and…
The Vanessa whirls on her body. In one swift movement, it pops open a seal on the biomachinery, exposing its fleshy core, and slots an injection cylinder in. Serafina drifts closer, trying to read it. The lights on the machine flash green.
And that's when the pain starts. A blinding, agonising pain which feels like… like… like something she's forgotten, but which she knows too well. Serafina screams, a keening wail which echoes in a way it really shouldn't, and as she screams she sees memories flash before her eyes.
She blacks out.
***
There's a flash of light before her eyes, and her world fills with blue. White lines stream before her eyes, which only slowly resolve into text. And then her world fills with colour. It's meaningless at first, but then - as if she's staring at an optical illusion - it resolves into a biofilm-covered ceiling and a blond woman leaning over her.
Everything looks fake. She's seeing in the kind of ultra-high-resolution that normal human eyes can't manage, where there's no depth of view and everything is in focus at once. The world looks like a training sim or a video game - a feeling not helped by the HUD that floats in front of her eyes. There's a lot of red on the HUD. A lot.
"Fucking damn it Sera, stay with me!" the woman screams down at her. "Work! Work, you fucking crash kit! Power's fine, nutrients… fine, come on! Sera! Live, damn you! You don't want to die!"
The words wash into Serafina's head. No, she realises slowly. She doesn't… she doesn't think she does. She opens her mouth, and closes it again. It's only a few seconds later that she realises she isn't breathing.
"Stabilising… stabilising… we're back to orange," the blonde mutters to herself. "Please work, please work, please work…"
Serafina tries to speak. She can't. She's not breathing. Her lips move, but no sound comes out. Instead, a synthetic voice states what she's trying to say. "A. Li. Cia."
"Sera!" Alicia hovers in place, torn between her desire to lunge forwards and give her friend a hug and wanting to collapse from sheer relief. She's crying now, big fat tears running down her beautiful face. "You… don't you ever dare! Don't you dare do… do something like that again! Ever! Ever ever ever! Or… or… or…"
Digging through her recent memories, Serafina finds them all a blur. There's… all kinds of things. All out of sequence. Childhood and present and recent past are all mixed up, like a paint palette someone's swirled a brush through. "Alicia. What. Happened?" The words are coming now, said through the synthesiser without speaking, but she… hurts. No, she doesn't hurt. Not exactly. She's numb, in the way that pain suppressants leave you when they're blocking a lot of pain.
"How many fingers am I holding up?" Alicia asks her, holding out a hand.
Serafina wants to cough, but can't. It's a strange feeling. "Three. Or two. If you don't count the thumb. As a finger."
Alicia beams, even though the grief and worry on her face. "Technicalities! You're totes going to get better if you can already think up that kind of thing!"
Serafina tries to laugh. It's bitter and morbid, but it's that or cry. Except she can't cry or laugh in her current state. She only manages to say, "Ha. Hah," with the speech synthesiser.
"That's the spirit!" Alicia tells her.
"Ha. Ha." No swallowing, either. "Alicia. What happened?"
Alicia wipes her eyes on the sleeve of the paramedic outfit she's wearing over her usual Damage Control biosuit. "You got hit by a self-termination memeplex," she says, a guarded note in her voice. "One engineered to make you… make you want to kill yourself. Sera, it was… it was the highest-grade weaponised suicide meme complex I've ever seen. You didn't stand a chance. It nearly got me too. Only the fact it was tailored for you meant I didn't get caught fully. Still got hit. I… I nearly let you die."
Cold runs through Serafina's mind. A memory forces itself into her consciousness. "Alice," the mechanical voice says mutely. "She is dead and it is my fault and-"
"No!" Alicia almost lunges for her. "No! Sera! I unpicked it! It… it was touch and go but I unpicked it! That's just memories now! You don't feel that!"
She's right. Serafina doesn't feel much right now. Just numb. That doesn't change things. Or maybe it does. Because if it was a memetic attack, it might have been lies. "Is. She alive?"
Alicia winces. "I don't know," she whispers. "I hope she is. I… I have a suspicion she is. And some evidence. But I don't know for sure."
Serafina would sigh, if she could. It's something, at least. "Wish. I could tell her that I'm sorry. I wonder if she got the message I. Tried to pass along to her in Moscow."
Alicia raises her eyebrows. "Good thing I'm here and not one of Li's cronies," she points out. "He'd use that against you." Her shoulders slump. "But yeah. I… I don't like the idea of her hating either of us."
There's silence. Serafina is too exhausted to speak, while Alicia is busy checking the feeds and the machinery plugged into her.
"How bad is it?" Serafina asks, when she can pluck up the courage to enquire after what she… she did to herself.
"So," Alicia says thoughtfully. "Do you want the good news or the bad news? 'Cause it's kind of a good news bad news scenario."
"What do you mean?" the synthesiser says impassively.
"Yeah, that's sort of it. You have mild brain damage from oxygen deprivation, which means you're sort of… um, blind right now. I've hooked the biosuit up so it's doing pre-image processing for you and bypassing the damaged areas. You'll have some memory loss until we can get you into a proper neurobiology lab. I got you into the emergency biosuit in time so you're not dead and it's keeping your brain alive! Although… uh, you went into NBD four times. Thank fuck for crash kits. You did good work with them."
Serafina listens in numb shock. "And the good news?" the synthesiser says for her.
Alicia winces. "That was the good news."
An awkward silence fills the back of the ambulance, broken only by the noise of the city and the bleeping of the machinery.
"How bad?" Serafina manages. Her head hurts. Ha. Hah. Because if what she fears is coming is true...
"Triage means your brain's in a pretty good state compared to the rest of you, 'cause I isolated it and put all my effort into saving it," Alicia says quietly. "Basically… everything below the bypasses I stuck into your carotid arteries is various levels of fucked. Heart stopped, lungs paralysed, kidneys and liver just plain dead. The biosuit is keeping it fresh, but…" She sighs. "I have a plan, but I'm trying to not… uh, kill you because you really can't take any kind of system shock at the moment."
… yes. It's what Serafina feared. That she half-suspected, because her proprioception was telling her things about her body that she didn't want to think about.
"Alicia. Thank you."
Alicia swallows, reaching out to squeeze Serafina's shoulder. "I'm your friend," she says. "I'll be here for you whenever I can. Always. No matter what. I got you out here to Mexico away from them and I'll keep you safe and… and..." She bursts into tears again. "I've missed you so much! For all these years and… and you've been so lonely and I've had no one to talk to and I know you've been suffering and…" she degenerates into incoherent sobbing and mumbled words like "so sorry" and "wish I could have been there for you".
"There, there," Serafina says, wishing she could get more emotion into her voice. She… she remembered things. A few scenes of Alicia from school. They're something which must have been removed, when her personality was adjusted.
She's left with the feeling that she'd be getting angry right now, if she could. How much of the problems she's had with her life were caused by what her parents did to her? Were there changes to stop her associating with 'unsuitable types' and are they why she has problems getting close to people? Did this cause her somewhat infamous attention span problems - and was this why none of the medication she's tried to help her focus worked?
And yet. She remembered some of the good times with them, too. She thinks they love her. But that didn't seem to stop them from… from… from…
Serafina sinks back into unconsciousness - but this time she's just sleeping.
***
She wakes beneath a velvet sky, speckled with stars. Well, wakes is a too gentle word. She comes to, in a too-sharp computer-rendered world.
"You with us again?" Alicia asks, leaning over her.
Serafina tries to nod, and realises again that she can't. "Yes," she says through the synth.
They're in the countryside. She can see trees, and the sky's too dark to be in an urban area.
"Right! Beelicio! Get her arms! Seelicia! Cuff her legs, and then get your weight on them! I'll give the shot and then pin her down! Tell me when you're ready, 'cause when I start the feed, it's going to get nasty!"
"I'm in place."
There's the sound of something being attached down at her legs. "Ready."
"What are you doing?" she says through the synthesiser. She'd panic, but there's something in the drugs she's on which makes that too much effort.
"Getting your body working again," Alicia says, attaching something Serafina can't get a good look at to one of the input ports of the biosuit. "This might hurt a bit."
"It'll hurt a lot," the woman by Serafina's legs says.
"Not necessarily!" Alicia says, sounding hurt.
"You're giving her a dose that would cause heart failure in someone in good health."
"Technically true, but… oh, wait, nearly forgot to turn off the voice."
"Wait. What do you me-" Serafina manages before the synthesiser gets cut.
"On the count of three! One, two, three!"
***
The waxing moon hangs in the sky. The ambulance is hidden under the cover of trees, parked off-road in the Mexican countryside. The glow of city lights to the north are still visible.
"See! That wasn't so bad, was it?" Alicia asks brightly. She has a black eye and scratch marks - claw marks - all over her face. She's taken off her outer layer of clothing and is now just wearing the biosuit.
Serafina glares at her, wrapping her borrowed clothing around her tighter. The two of them are sitting on the back of the ambulance, legs dangling out the back. The other man and woman - Alicia's Vanessas - are out 'acquiring' transport. Her eyes are nearly solid red from the capillaries bursting and she's twitching faintly. She also has chocolate smeared around her mouth. "I… I should slap you," she growls, her hands balled into fists.
"Oh, Sera," Alicia says brightly. "That's just the werewolf extract speaking. Side effects include irritability, aggression, psychotic rage and genocidal urges. Being a bit tetchy is nothing! And now you've stopped with the clawing and the biting and the howling and you know, the bit where you tried to run away on all fours. And your hands and mouth have gone back to normal! Honestly, I'm pretty impressed you managed to break those cuffs! Those were DC issue!"
Serafina tries to damp down the anger surging through her. She needs to be calm. She needs to be serene. Alicia was just trying to help. "You stuck enough in me to kill a Victor!" Serafina accuses, voice shaking.
Hmm. It's really hard to stay calm when she's feeling like this. Does Rose feel like this whenever she channels her haemophage genetics?
"And now your organs are working again," Alicia says happily. "So it all worked out. I didn't have a lab, so I just pumped you full of werewolf juice." She grins in a manner which would probably have many Celestial Choristers trying to ward off such lewd behaviour. "Of course, that's not the first time that's-"
"Shut up!"
"There, there," Alicia says, patting her on the shoulder. "I'm sure you'll cheer up and not be so mean to poor little life-saving me when you get some more food in you."
Serafina swallows, her mouth watering. It's true. The hunger gnaws in her gut, and Alicia's clothes hang loose on her. They had some erg cola in the van and some snacks, but she's had them and she's starving again - and running a temperature from her still-elevated metabolism. She's burned off terrifying amounts of fat - enough that Alicia has her on a nutrient drip. The biosuit used a lot just running itself, and then the rest almost literally melted off her under the effects of the regen serum. She's somewhere between 'top fashion model' and 'African famine victim' weight-wise at the moment.
She laughs bitterly. When… when Henriette gets back, if… if they both survive and ever meet again, she'll get to be the one making the boob comments. It's not very funny at all, but she has to believe she'll get to make those remarks. She has to.
"See! Now you're laughing," Alicia says.
Serafina grits her teeth, pulls herself to her feet and goes to find something to kick. Or tries, rather, and falls over - barely being caught by Alicia.
"Easy, easy," Alicia says, concern in her voice. "You just need to rest for now. Once you get some food in you, we can start building the muscle back up. You just need some time."
"I… I don't have time!" Serafina chokes out. "Someone went for me! That means they'll… they'll go for everyone else! We need to get in contact with my amalgam!" She looks around, only upright thanks to Alicia. "You said we're in Mexico? Why are we in Mexico? What's going on? Alicia, we need to… to…"
"Let me put it this way," Alicia says, eyes narrowed. "I got enough of a look at the memeplex they got in your head when I was trying to unpick it so I could wake you up without you trying to off yourself again. It was brilliant. Hybrid of Nu-Woo and our techniques. And really, really high end Prog stuff. Deliberately exploited some of your augs for a feedback loop. Like, seriously, there are maybe twelve Progenitors I can think of who could do something like that. You're one. I'm another. Your dad's one. Of the other nine, all of them are famous and-slash-or really high ranking."
She shakes her head grimly.
"If any of them are willing to take you out like this, we have to keep away from Progenitor command structures. 'Cause Professor Li's on the list. Do you get my drift?"
It's like a blow to the gut. "He wouldn't…" Serafina breathes.
Alicia raises her eyebrows. "You don't sound sure," she says, almost mockingly.
"I'm not," Serafina says. Because goodness, she doesn't think 'having her killed' is a thing he would really be unwilling to do. At an ethical level, at least. She's an annoyance to him. Too soft. They're both pro-construct rights, but she's always felt that the right he's interested in for a lot of constructs is the 'right' for them to do what they're designed to do without being held back by wombborn Unionists who bring influences in from the rest of society. More than that, she's political capital for her mother as an official Hero of the Technocratic Union for what she did in Moscow. That makes her incredibly valuable as a martyr. "But… but Rose!"
Alicia massages her temples. "It's a mess," she says bluntly. "I just happened to be in the neighbourhood because I was going to drop in and check on you. You'd been working too hard - you needed some time off. Then I saw the meme package, realised what it was, and... and had to shake off the urge to let you die. That took precious time."
Serafina viciously wipes her eyes. "I… I nearly tried before," she says in a tiny voice.
Alicia squeezes her tight. "I know," she whispers. "I… I got in just in time. Managed to get you into the biosuit. You weren't breathing. Managed - barely - to get it to keep your brain alive. That brought me more time. And since your body was basically dead… they must've thought you were dead. They didn't take chances. Sent in DC to collect your body. Eight combat constructs for a dead woman. They're pissed at you."
"What happened?" Serafina asks.
Alicia smiles. It's not a very pleasant smile. "I happened," she says.
Serafina hugs her tighter.
"Three dead, five subverted." Alicia glowers. "If they work out what happened, next time they'll probably send HITMarks. Wouldn't have worked if they hadn't sent Vanessas - but they wouldn't have been able to get through the lab security so sneakily if they'd been full of primium. Eight Vanessas and a black helo'd be more than enough if I hadn't been there. I took some of them with me, sent the rest as a distraction, and made a run for it. Heading south with what gear I could grab. Trying to keep you alive when you kept on brain-deathing on me."
There's a silence. "Alicia," Serafina says. "It… it was Panopticon, wasn't it? And you stole their Vanessas."
"Yeah. And yeah, I'm almost certain of that. I looked through the memories of the ones I stole when I was sticking pruned beta forks of myself in their heads. They're pretty fresh decantees, but either it's Panopticon, or someone setting things up to make it look like them. And given your history with them in Moscow… it's probably them."
"I put you in danger." A surge of anger. "You should have stayed out of this!"
"Sera, I'm already in danger from Panopticon." Alicia grins wryly. "I just can't keep my nose out of things, and… I did some poking post-Moscow. That's how I got back in contact with you, remember?"
"You still shouldn't get involved!"
"I don't have a choice," Alicia says. "Least of all now. Sera. They tried to kill you. That means it was probably them who killed - or tried to kill - Alice. And given what happened to Belltower… yeah. Not liking the odds. They've got elite Progenitors and someone who's really good at Nu-wooery working for them. I don't know who. It's probably Panopticon. So we need to get the fuck off the radar for now."
Serafina wraps her arms around herself, rage boiling in her stomach. "They'll go after Rose," she whispers. "She won't be able to say no. They'll go after her and… and they'll give her orders. And she'll obey them. Kill me and… and Jamelia's not around and she won't have a choice. We need to save her!"
"Sera." Alicia sounds old. Old and unhappy and… and strange. "It's been six hours. They'll have already done whatever they planned to do."
"Then you should have let me die!" Serafina wails. She tries to punch Alicia, but can't and just ineffectually beats against her chest, blows bouncing off the biosuit. "You should have… I hate you! I hate you I hate you I hate you I hate you I… I hate you!"
"No, you don't," Alicia tells her gently.
"I do!" Serafina insists through the tears, before collapsing against her friend's shoulder.
There's a look of familiar pain in Alicia's eyes as she lets Serafina sob against her. "At least this time I'm here," she whispers, clutching Serafina to her like a crying child. "Oh, Sera."
Serafina's sobs eventually quieten and fall away. "Sorry," she whispers.
"Hey, you've got enough liquified werewolf in you that I'm surprised you're not planning the genocide of Panopticon," Alicia says. "Acting like a ball of hormones is gonna happen 'till you get it out of your system."
"Panopticon isn't an ethnic group," Serafina tells her, wiping her bloodshot eyes.
"But it does have an institutional culture. Thus, it can be genocided."
Serafina sniffle-giggles. "Good point." She pauses. "You have a plan."
"Do I look like a woman with a plan?" Alicia asks innocently.
"Yes."
"... so unfair. I might have one, yes." Aicia sighs, leaning back at looking up at the pale moon. "But I don't know if I should do it. A bit of me just wants to get you somewhere safe and hide you away until you're better."
"What's the plan?" Serafina asks, twitching. Her stomach makes a rumbling noise, and right on cue she can see the two figures of the Vanessas approaching. They look like they have carrier backs. That means they should have food. They have to.
"Some of the data I grabbed from the Vanessas. They know about a low key Panopticon field op in Mexico City. Vanessas are smart enough to put things together - I wouldn't've got this from Victors," Alicia says, flashing a weary smile. "Field assets are mostly constructs - second in command is a Vanessa from their growth batch. I got some Panopticon codes from them. It's how I got us across the border. So we head to Mexico City, scout out the op. If we find them and can take them, we subvert the Prog hardware they have. Grab one of them who might know more about what's going on. Find their chain of command. Find who's behind this." Alicia's expression is locked in an adrenaline snarl. "I want to know," she growls. "Make them pay for what they did to you."
Once upon a time in Mexico
They've got a stolen ambulance, a mentally unstable scientist, an eccentric Damage Control agent and two 'borrowed' Panopticon Vanessas. There's some more 'loaned' Union hardware in the back of the ambulance. It's night. They're wearing mirrorshades.
[ ] To Mexico City!
[ ] Go to ground. Get out of the line of trouble until it's blown over (this will end Serafina's side story)
[ ] Try to persuade Alicia that Serafina still needs to go back to help the others (success will end Serafina's side story. So will failure, because Alicia will sedate her and take the go-to-ground option)
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Cornuthaum
Be kind to each other.
- Location
- Austria
- Pronouns
- He/Him
One might call them almost magical, indeed.
- Location
- in the trash
Reality Deviant sympathies detected. Please report to Reprocessing, Poster Cornuthaum.
EDIT:
Really, Alicia? That's even worse than Henriette-A.
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Cornuthaum
Be kind to each other.
- Location
- Austria
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hey, Henrietta-A is a perfectly valid designation!
Alicia is an inhumanly smart super-genius with Int 7.
Nothing about that technically means she has to be good at naming things. And you need to have a marketing-based or PR-based Mind paradigm to enhance such things.
Aleph
Princess of Stabbity
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
... it's been six hours. Alicia told us so. It is already too late to help, things are over - one way or another. And also, when your Avatar tells you to do something for your own good, you listen.
[X] To Mexico City!
13th Bee
Worker
- Location
- Tennessee, USA.
In which case we need to regroup. I also still think it is very important that we have a way to expose a very possible clone replacement of Sera. She's in no shape to be doing commando shit anyway and the Vanessas might be vulnerable to overrides by Panopticon.
Additionally, IIRC, Alicia is the one who gave Sera the idea to make a boyfriend, and we all know how that turned out. Just 'cause she's your Avatar doesn't mean she doesn't have some bad ideas.
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Sending a message to Rose might , acording to Serafinas perspective not work in case they got her into her command codes, which leaves Donald as the most likely target for a comunication attempt even if it would be easier to verify ourself to her without Panopticon knowing that we are the contacting party.
So, anyone have a good idea how to do so without getting them hot on our trails again?
So, anyone have a good idea how to do so without getting them hot on our trails again?
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Aleph
Princess of Stabbity
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Regroup with who? For all we know, everyone back at base is dead or fled for parts unknown. Going back is, if anything, more dangerous than going to ground. You're absolutely right, Serafina is in no shape to be doing commando shit and the Vanessas are vulnerable to overrides. So you know what we shouldn't do? Walk back into Panopticon's bullseye when they may well have already won. Much smarter is to pursue the fact that Alicia is fairly sure Alice is still alive and go try to find her. Then we can, you know, come back when we're actually healed up and in a fit state to do anything whatsoever, with a powerful psychic and knowledge - both of Choi and of the fact that Panopticon is striking at Jamelia through as many roots as possible.
...Of all the possibilities I'd thought of for the Vanessa, I certainly hadn't thought of that.
Well, ending Serafina's interlude here would just be boring, and I don't think Serafina would be of much use in the LA fight right now - if it's still even happening (hey, the Anathema might still be chasing Rose and Donald... maybe.) Thus,
[X] To Mexico City!
...And hey, where did Alice go to ground again?
Well, ending Serafina's interlude here would just be boring, and I don't think Serafina would be of much use in the LA fight right now - if it's still even happening (hey, the Anathema might still be chasing Rose and Donald... maybe.) Thus,
[X] To Mexico City!
...And hey, where did Alice go to ground again?
Clock's got the NWOoblet looking for Alice in Mexico.
[X] To Mexico City! Time for a high school reunion!
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- Location
- in the trash
[X] Mexico City
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
And it's a Hell of a lot more than 106 miles to Chicago...
[X] To Mexico City!
What does every girl need after a bad night in LA? A wild Mexican road trip with her best buddy!
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
Tequila is fine, but i draw the line at ... You know what, never mind.
[X] To Mexico City! (and most def not Tijuana)
- Location
- in the trash
Not when the road trip involves werewolves, ex best friends who are also psychic goths, and unsafe amounts of drugs.
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
So what are the bad parts, because all I'm hearing is more awesome?
Bursting Eagerness Soul
Threadwalking Rating Machine
- Location
- Wisconsin
[X] To Mexico City!
Because getting the Alice-Alicia-Serafina team back together is obviously the best option. And who knows? They might just be able to add the NWOoblet to that lineup.
Because getting the Alice-Alicia-Serafina team back together is obviously the best option. And who knows? They might just be able to add the NWOoblet to that lineup.
Quantumboost
Now with 50% more dots in Dimensional Science
- Location
- Ensemble Space
[X] To Mexico City!
Let's fuck up some people's (and maybe Sabbat vamps') shit.
Let's fuck up some people's (and maybe Sabbat vamps') shit.
[X] To Wonderland!
(because Alice and maybe looking-glass Seekingness though that ship kinda sailed when Serafina get resurrected after her little out-of-body-experience, ha, ha.)
(because Alice and maybe looking-glass Seekingness though that ship kinda sailed when Serafina get resurrected after her little out-of-body-experience, ha, ha.)
- Location
- The end of all things
[X] To Mexico City!
Winged One
Not the Simurgh
- Location
- definitely the ground
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It
[X] To Mexico City!
More Serafina side story!
And I can see why Progenitor crash kits were used as an example of the metaphysics, because holy shit.
More Serafina side story!
And I can see why Progenitor crash kits were used as an example of the metaphysics, because holy shit.