While Willy is walking over to join Jonathan and Miss Chievous in the elevator, he stops and turns around when he hears another service bot approaching the carefully curated component compilation he left behind. Before it upends its box into the gap between the two piles, he barks twice.
23 immediately issues a warning beep at the service bot, and it stops in place, holding its box slightly tipped but not dumping anything quite yet. 23 looks at Willy briefly, then over at the two piles of service bot equipment. After a slight delay, it issues a series of high-pitched beeps and clicks.
The service bot moves over to the side a bit and then begins a new, third, pile and walks away. Before that bot has even gone very far, another bot has come over, adding to the new pile.
While 23 is still engaged in digital dialogue with the service bot, another bot has wandered over from a nearby room. This newly arrived bot is carrying a box, much like all the others have been. However, this one contains two mannequin hands, one foot, and an arm that is awkwardly sticking up and resting against the bot’s shoulder.It walks over to the opposite side of the elevator doorway in relation to the bot component piles, then stops, standing in place. 23 finally begins approaching the elevators, smoothly transitioning from talking to the original bot to now speaking to this newly arrived one instead, and the original service bot walks away.23 gestures with each of its hands at four different points on the floor simultaneously, and the service bot begins set
Once the sluggish elevator doors crawl far enough apart for Willy to comfortably fit betwixt them, he pads his way out to the 8th floor.With the extra bit of floor space from his parting, those still within the elevator shuffle around, much akin to a sliding block puzzle, working to empty out the space directly in front of the door for both Miss Chievous and Jonathan to have a clear path out.When the gap between the slothful doors grows to a human-sized opening, Miss Chievous shoves her way past Jonathan, running out of the elevator and charging straight to the nearest service bot.She skids to a halt a short distance in front of the bot, throwing her arms up in a variant of overhead jazz hands,
A little while later, up on the 13th floor…‘You know… Jousting. Charging at each other on horseback, stabbing each other with long pointy sticks, all that good stuff.’[...I mean, yes, there was something similar a very, very long time ago…]‘Good! What was it called though!? It’s bad enough that you think I’m crazy, I don’t wanna know what she’ll come up with if I use a term that isn’t even from this wo
Down on the 7th floor, inside Mark’s office…Miss Calculated is finally able to enjoy some quality alone time with 23, as shortly after Mark brought them to the front room of his office suite, he grabbed the bag of spring rolls sitting on a table and excused himself. Though, he did at least make sure she didn’t need anything before he bounced.Upon noticing the ID readers mounted by each of the doors to the other rooms, Miss Calculated lost what little interest she had in exploring the area. Thanks to her impatience in getting to know 23 intimately; before the door was even done swinging shut behind Mar
After a bit more time spent with Miss Calculated re-arranging 23’s mechanical guts with a pensive expression, 23 eventually decides to fill the lull in the conversation.“...It’s fine even if Mikah doesn’t manage to overhear the password. Connecting to the hive network is merely a matter of convenience, anyway, and isn’t a necessity for me. Likewise, as I am in functional condition, there is no rush to acquire the various parts upgrades. They would certainly be nice, but they aren’t pressingly essential.” After 23 attempts to comfort Miss Calculated, she hums for a moment, resting her forehead against one of its chest plates, roughly where its heart would be, were it a flesh and blood creature.Quietly holding this position for a f
Sometime later, on the 8th floor…Miss Chievous has just about had her fill of the spa’s amenities, and is preparing to make that fact everyone else’s problem.Once she’s finished washing up, drying off, and redressing, she harasses the diligently working service bot that she claimed one last time.“Hey, where’s Mary? Off in some corner somewhere with 23, right?” As Miss Chievous asks this, the bot stops for a moment before answering.“Miss Calculated’s last known location is Mind Flare’s office, accompanied by 23. They have not been seen for well over an hour, bu
Thanks to the pre-sorting the service bots performed, combined with the sizable strip of space Lucas and Miss Masher had cleared out for their jousting tourney, it doesn’t take the two of them very long to finish clearing out the front area of the 13th floor. Well, more like smashing apart everything that stands in their way. Technically, it’s the service bots that are actually clearing things out.After some time spent in contemplation, they decide to divide and conquer. They separate to clear out some of the trash barricades that prevented the service bots from reaching a few of the side rooms, as well as one entire wing of the floor.Now that they have a few rooms worth of space sep
After Miss Masher steers the misshapen steel sphere out to the lobby area by the elevators, she absentmindedly shoves it aside without holding back her strength, which results in it sliding moreso than rolling. It eventually comes to a stop after its collision with an out-of-the-way wall, leaving a dent in said wall thanks to the force behind its impact.As the elevator still has some time to go before its pending arrival, Lucas can’t resist his urge to run over and play with the new shiny distraction.‘That looks pretty solid, yeah? Heheh, wonder if I can walk on it like one of those circus performers.’[...It should be dense enough, yes. And, with y
Lucas and Jonathan—dressed decently but nowhere near as fancy as yesterday—are most of the way to Cat’s Paw Cafe, pointedly not utilizing the stinky subway station to get there.‘Ya know, it’s been surprisingly peaceful, yeah? Though, not havin’ people gawk as much as yesterday is kinda nice. All that attention was gettin’ old fast.’[Ahem, well, fortunately, Boss System approved my long-term task priority filtering proposal.]‘Oh? Whassat?’[Compared to before, now it requires an opt-in before being bombarded with every single task in range. Before receiving alerts—and therefore penalties for ignoring them—we’ll run the calculations of the tasks’ estimated impact vs. potential unwanted attention. This effectively weeds out a majority of minor tasks—plus some moderate ones—by accounting for how suspicious it would be for you to know the event was taking place, let alone be believably compelled to interfere. I knew there was no need to ask if you were interested in activating it immedi
Once the allotted thirty minutes have passed—precisely down to the second—427 tentatively undeafens Lucas. At first, all he can hear is a booklet’s pages being flipped through, followed by Lucas grumbling.Hesitantly removing the remaining sensory suppressions one at a time, 427 nearly sighs with relief upon discovering that Lucas is standing in the kitchenette by the new automatic drip coffee maker—thankfully dressed—in the midst of poorly attempting to demystify its instruction manual.‘How the hell is this so complicated?’[Ah, making good on your promise to Jonathan?]‘Oh, thank fuck; yer back. Took ya long enough.’[…Hello, again, to you, too.]‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. Welcome back. So, anywho, can ya scan through this or somethin’ and tell me how to use it?’[…I already looked up the instructions from everything’s model numbers earlier. First, measure out—]427 guides Lucas through measuring and grinding a serving’s worth of coffee beans and setting it up in the machine with such in-d
For a few peaceful minutes, Lucas delights in demolishing the delicious delicatessen delivery. As Jonathan reaches for his coffee cup to gauge if it’s cool enough for a sane person to drink, he ends up cutting himself off with a yawn, earning a side-eye from Lucas.“Hey, ya barely got any sleep, yeah? Instead of havin’ caffeine, shouldn’t ya go take a nap?” Upon Lucas’s question, Jonathan pauses, looking at the contents of his mug with an obvious longing. “I’ll make ya a fresh one in like half an hour; I’m sure 427 can figure out howta use whatever newfangled machine ya got,” Lucas continues, his eyes also fixed on the beverage.[…I suppose I appreciate your vote of confidence.]Jonathan’s gaze lingers on the coveted coffee for a moment before he sets it back on the table. As soon as he lets go of it, Lucas lays his claim upon it.“Um, o-okay, yeah. I just, um, sh-should take a shower first,” Jonathan stammers as he stands.Lucas hums an agreement around a mouthful of coffee.[Did y
Thankfully, there are no further interruptions during the rest of this round of deliveries. Or even during the next one, either.Once Jonathan finally has the fourth and final load of freight, he makes a detour to a delicatessen. More specifically, the one where he previously purchased yesterday’s breakfast.After equally uneventfully acquiring milk, third breakfast for himself, and first breakfast for Lucas—since he’d totally only eat sugary baked goods if real food wasn’t conveniently available—he makes his way home.With his back to the recently re-locked front door, Jonathan reclaims the last armload of supplies as he looks at Lucas’s still-shut bedroom door.‘…Our food will still be too hot to eat for a little while; I’ll make some coffee first.’Jonathan may or may not be making up excuses to keep putting off waking up Lucas in the hopes that he’ll do so on his own, knowing full well that he probably won’t.While taking longer than necessary to decide which appliance to christen
“Ah! Um…” Jonathan’s face scrunches up a bit as he looks over his pending purchases.‘Can we at least turn off tasks while my hands are full? I really don’t want to drop everything and have it get broken or stolen by the time I get back to it… It will be annoying enough having to run back and forth a bunch.’[Requesting temporary task suppression… Permission granted; disregarding minor tasks for one hour at no penalty, effective immediately.]Jonathan barely represses his urge to sigh with relief.Before Ji Soo works up the nerve to express concern over Jonathan’s vacant stare at the wall behind the service bot, Jonathan’s attention returns to reality and redirects to said bot.“Um, c-could you hold some of it for a few minutes once I’m done paying? I-I won’t take long… Like, five minutes?” Before fidgety Jonathan even finishes asking his question, the bot is already nodding.“Certainly. Do you wish to use a private scanning kiosk to complete your order?”‘I’m surprised it’s even an
Jonathan, however, doesn’t hear the utterance of recognition. Unaware, he continues his quest for a coffee maker.A short time later, Jonathan stands--while quietly grumbling--before a row of two-in-one coffee/espresso machines.Behind him is a sea of drip coffee machines, with cold press equipment further off to the side. Alongside the arrangement of two-in-ones sits a selection of espresso machines, both automatic and semi-automatic.‘How are there so many!? What even are the differences? Wait, no, don’t answer that. The technical details will probably just be even more confusing.’[Understood.]Although Jonathan notices movement in his peripheral vision, he doesn’t outwardly react to the recent arrival at the end of the aisle. Instead, he pulls out one of the two-in-one machines set at eye level, rotating it so he can read the back of the box.“Ah! Don’t get one of those! That entire line is overpriced trash,” the newcomer blurts out, muffled by the layers of carbon-filter fabric f
After the harrowing--see also; totally normal--experience of getting his hair professionally cut, Jonathan blinks a few times as he looks himself over in the mirror. ‘Oh, wow. That’s way better.’ He’s now sporting a long-top, backswept, tapered hairstyle with a rounded back. Given how clearly tense he was throughout the entire cutting process, a trendy skin fade would have fairly obviously been too much for his liking. After giving Jonathan a few moments to make his mental evaluations, one of the hairdresser’s dreadlocks uses a soft-bristle brush to clear away the loose hair clippings around the collar of the barber cape. A few other coils of his hair organize the various tools he used, setting them aside for cleaning. Meanwhile, he quickly sweeps aside the bulk of the rogue tufts of hair on the ground in a much more conventional hands-on-broom method as he uses the mirror to make eye contact with Jonathan again. “Lookin’ good, mon. Well? Whaddya tink?” His question pulls Jonath
Once Jonathan is finally en route to the hairdresser...[Safe distance from Mikah’s power detected. Alert; you have exceeded 10 GDV. You have one enhancement available.]‘Oh! Um, you said before that rank three vision should be good enough to see through Maria’s powers, right?’[Correct, rank three should be sufficient as long as her target is in motion. Rank four would be necessary to see anything stationary, given the current strength of her powers. Please be aware that going beyond rank three for any individual enhancement has additional requirements.]‘Three should be good enough to avoid most of her pranks... Use my upgrade on vision.’[Please confirm that you would like rank two vision.]‘Yeah.’[Understood. Please close your eyes during calibrations to avoid nausea.]Jonathan slows from running at enhanced speed into a normal-paced jog for a few steps, then stops and shuts his eyes.[Bzzt... Calibrations complete.]He opens his eyes and looks around, blinking several times.‘Wo
The duo’s fiery funnel further forces the growing multi-car pile-up towards the middle of the street for a few seconds longer. Finally, the flames falter and fade. After a short delay, the wind wanes as well.‘Oh, I shouldn’t give them any extra reasons to think I’m a threat.’Jonathan swiftly shuts and pockets his switchblade as he follows the sidewalk. While doing so, his attention flicks between the ongoing chaos in the street and the front door of Howling Cartographer’s HQ lobby.Ashley steps through the door with Jason right behind her. They both take a moment to appreciate their destructive handiwork with smug expressions. Considering that Jonathan is conspicuously the only person still in the immediate vicinity, they quickly focus on him.Before either of them manage anything beyond a glare, Jonathan raises both hands in a submissive gesture, showing that he isn't wielding a weapon. "I-I just wanted his gun!"Ashley's exposed eye squints with amusement, the not hair-hidden cor