futurology | video; @tama (also @laphicet and @z)

Entry tags:

video; @tama (also @laphicet and @z)

Okay, so…

[Amado's tucked away somewhere, away from the rain and the attention of anybody he might not want to see him recording this. Nearby are Zari and Laphicet.]

Everything's pretty chaotic right now with the planned slave labor and the jail and stuff, but you guys have gotta see this shit. Me n'Zari n'Laphi managed to snoop around that broadcast station for a bit before the cops showed up and like...okay. Did anybody else have to deal with people who had KlarTech cybernetics and now they're useless 'cause the government pulled their sponsorship? There was a big scene about it and me'n Majima had to deal with it and apparently Laphi did too and afterwards we were wonderin' why it even happened in the first place, so the three of us decided to try and look and see if we could find anything.

Here's what we found.

[He attaches a copy of the recording they found. The CEO of KlarTech slighted the Prime minister in some insignificant social setting and as a response, the Prime Minister issued a recall on the business' cybernetics and pull their state sponsorship, which, as anyone who dealt with it themselves will know, caused a hell of a lot problems for KlarTech's consumers.]

Not that we needed anymore proof, but this guy's completely off his freakin' rocker. I think the only questions here are how and when do we show this to everybody with a functioning pair of eyes and if anybody managed to find anything else like this.

[Find some juicy info while exploring in the Electric Sheep log? Now'd be a great time to share it! Also note, Zari and Laphicet will be out in this post as well!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Good times, man. Good times. ]

Ginko and I talked to some of those upper class folks. Most of them know that what's happening now's wrong, but it ain't like they're actually doin' anything about it. Couple of hardliners into the Vakdir takin' out the trash, if ya know what I mean.

Mostly what you'd expect. It don't affect them personally -- so until it does, they're not gonna give two shits.

[ Remember when he stabbed that one guy, that was great ]

Somehow that doesn't surprise me, at all.

[Her tone is oh so dry and she shakes her head.]

Did you run into anyone we might be able to turn into an ally?

Nah. Never that easy, right? When you're up on that ladder and ya don't agree with the guy up top, ya don't broadcast it if you wanna keep your head.

[ It'd probably require more investigation than the two of them had put in to suss out real sympathizers. ]

Mostly been running around springin' prisoners and dodging lasers, shit like that.

Fair enough.

[They have had bigger problems on their plate than trying to turn spies. But hopefully with more bits of information like this, maybe they'll be able to turn things around.]

At least we have some leverage now.

Yeah. Maybe it'll finally wake some people up.

[ And if it didn't, they'd just have to find something else. ]

In my experience, people can be pretty stuck in their ways unless the world gets in their way.

[She hopes that somehow making them angry enough to do something will drive them to action.]

Maybe we'll be able to find some information that will make the wealthy turn on him.

Yeah. Somethin' that really hits 'em where they live.

Although if that plan we broadcasted doesn't count...

[ yikes ]

[She gives a small shrug in return.]

People who can afford to be self-focused tend to be, at least in my experience.

[I remember panicking when you stabbed that guy.]

Well, it's gonna affect 'em sooner or later. It seems like this guy is just getting crazier and crazier as time goes on. At least if we shove this stuff in their faces, they might realize that their Prime Minister can come after them for whatever stupid reason gets into his head whenever he wants to.

[ God, he hoped so. ]

Yeah. Although this is the kinda thing that happens all the time back home. Good ol' fashioned political corruption.

Granted, they were usually a little smarter about it.

I'd at least like to think that Japan ain't this bad. This place is totally beyond the pale.

[ Someday maybe he'd ask Amado if his Japan had helicopters opening fire on office buidings. Someday. ]

And anything we did to smooth things over at KlarTech's only gonna be a band-aid till the real cause gets addressed.

Hfff...

This place was already messed up even before the Prime Minister went completely Disney Villain Psycho on everything, according to the dossier. I think this place needs a complete overhaul, frankly, but like...what do we do after we get rid of the yahoos in charge?

...Can't we convince the upper class citizens? We do have negotiators.

I dunno. Their powers work that well?

[ Because if so, this mission suddenly got a lot easier. Which was fine with Majima tbh, maybe all they'd have to do then would be make a broadcast of their own. ]

Jason managed to convince the angry crowd to disperse with his negotiator ability. Well, some of them.

[ Both he and Jason still have low level specializations. He had to crank up the effectiveness with his inventor skills. ]

How did you and Mr. Amado deal with that, anyway?

We reasoned with them.... uh, reasonably.

[ wow, so convincing. the weird part was that it was true ]

Got the administration to see it as a PR opportunity, and dusted off a couple of guys who were up to no good.

Oh. Okay?

[ Reasoned reasonably sounds weird, but okay. He'll take that answer. ]

"Dusted off"? What's that mean?

We beat 'em up before they could beat anyone else up.

[ To, you know. Varying degrees of 'requires immediate medical attention'. It was fine, probably. ]

So what'd you do with the ones it didn't work on?

[ There's a small pause before he answers that seems to indicate his surprise. ]

...oh. Wow. Then everyone started listening to you?

I wouldn't say Jason's powers failed entirely. They calmed down, but they were more hesitant to leave. We just took that chance to speak with the doctors before they changed their mind.

Yeah. Y'know how people always say 'violence doesn't solve anything'? They're wrong. Once we roughed up a couple of those guys, their friends mostly backed off.

And the hospital staff were grateful they didn't have to deal with any prosthetics to the back of the head, so they were a lot more open to listen.

[ The moral of this story was that violence solved literally everything, the end. ]

We did have to cut out before the cops showed, though.

Yeesh, no wonder this city is in trouble.

[ This guy must be a headache to deal with at best on a good day, huh. ]

I managed to download some broadcasts that haven't been tampered with yet, but it's really long and it could use a few other eyes to comb over and hopefully find anything of interest. Anyone got something I can transfer these files onto?

I have a tablet we can load it onto. Let me know where to meet you and I'll help you go through it.

Sounds like it'll do the trick. As for a place... We'd need to be discreet about it, so—maybe the hotel? Then again, Rost's hideout might be better. I've been meaning to throw this stuff at them too, anyway.

Hideout sounds good. I can meet you there in an hour?

[That'll give her time to round up all her tech and make sure she isn't being followed.]

Can do. I'll see you then.

[ When Zari shows up, she might be able to catch 9S at the tail end of a conversation with a member of Rost; the woman he speaks with gives him an offer of thanks before they split off. With nothing to do but wait now, 9S moves out of the way of others and opts to lean against the nearby wall, arms folded over his chest. All the meanwhile, a peculiar little bot remains hovered over 9S' head, moving along wherever he does. ]

[And Zari will just wander her way over, waiting until he's finished before smirking at his robot friend.]

Cute bot. He come with you from home?

[ —Ah, there she is. In the next moment, he straightens his posture almost immediately. ]

Oh, Pod? Yup, that's my support unit, though it blends in pretty well in this city, huh?

[ Small blessings, really; it was a hassle trying to hide his Pod around the Hanabira lands. ]

[She can imagine. She was able to stash her tablet in a bag for most of that trip, and thankfully her amulet just looks like really ornate jewelry a lot of the time.]

Yeah, that's pretty lucky. I can imagine how that wouldn't always go well in a job like this.

[She says, as a time traveler who has complained about the lack of the internet in the 1930s.]

Well, so far it hasn't been too troublesome, at least. 'Sides, I'd never leave it behind– [ 9S glances upward. ] –right?

[ From the little bot comes a tinny, monotone female voice that doesn't miss a beat in responding: ] It is not recommended that unit 9S separate from this pod under most circumstances. It would hinder several functionalities, as well as reduce your range of—

—Oookay, that's enough. You don't have to make her think I'd be useless without you...

[She grins a bit at that.]

In my experience, AIs tend to think we'd all lose our heads if they weren't screwed on. The one on my ship, Gideon, is definitely like the disembodied mom we never really asked for.

[ If he had to be honest, 9S isn't actually sure what it's like to have a mother around. Though, from his understanding, he thinks he gets the gist of it... And while he would certainly never consider his Pod a paternal figure by any means, it certainly gets naggy, at times. (Nevermind the entire point of a Pod is to look after the android it's assigned to.)

Her comment still gets some contrary commentary out of him— ]

I wouldn't say every AI... [ He says, a little defensively; 9S would never be that bad about it, if you asked him.

But he realizes they're getting wildly off track. ] —Anyway, you said you had a tablet, right? I'm ready to get all this footage off of me.

[Yep, back to business. Zari reaches into her shoulder bag and flips it open to fish out her tablet, before holding one hand out to him for what she's assuming is a flash drive or a USB cable or what have you.]

Let's do it.

[ Nothing of the sort. Instead: ]

—One sec.

[ Rather than some sort of plug or chip, 9S pokes at the air in front of him, and in place a holographic screen flickers to life; it resembles something like a computer screen loaded with all sorts of system information. He takes a few seconds more to prod at buttons and scroll through windows. ]

Aaand... there. I've established a link you can connect to—as soon as you do that, I'll send it right through.

[ Like weird robot wifi. ]

[Her eyebrows go up a bit at that, before she pulls out her tablet to hop on to the connection.]

So what, you're like your own walking hot spot?

Oh, well... It's standard for androids like myself, since we needed to be able to send data on the fly often. A wired connection is possible too, but this is a little easier.

[ With one more press of a button, an upload bar appears on his screen. ]

It's going through now, but it might take a few minutes.

No worries.

[She's patient. Usually. It depends on what she's waiting for.]

So androids are pretty common where you're from?

Zari's tablet should do it. Y'have any idea what's on 'em?

So far, a lot of talking about nothing. [ Read: 9S went through the broadcasts for like ten minutes before he got too damn bored to keep going and find the real info. This sort of dull data analysis work just isn't for him. ] But I downloaded it from the control booth, so it's gotta have something in there.

Either way, it's worth lookin' it over. Maybe we can like. Split it up into segments and a bunch of us can all take one and see if there's anything worth knowin' on it. Whatever we do, I'll help y'sort through it.

Sounds like a plan. I'm about to meet up with—Zari, was it? Anyway, I'm about to hand over the footage to her, so we can figure it out after that.

Oh dear...

I knew he was corrupt, but I was expecting cruel politician, and not an absolute madman.

As for when do we show this... Well, we may be getting even more information from the Prime Minister's residence through our robot spies. We could release it all at once.

Edited 2018-05-13 01:31 (UTC)

It's like. It's the kinda logic a kid employs when someone makes them mad.

How'd someone this unhinged even get to the top in the first place, is what I'm wonderin'.

I do hope it doesn't have anything to do with our missing temporal shard, but the fact that it hasn't turned up yet makes it more and more likely...

[Amado grimaces. He's read about the shards a bit on his magitek, but all that stuff, even the mission Ophelia did to recover one of them, was before he showed up.]

Do we know what those...do? If it wound up in the upper levels, could it be makin' the Prime Minister do this stuff?

Or maybe he could be using it to keep himself in power? Like ... can it brainwash people?

[It's highly likely that the upper class still doesn't care, but it's worth some consideration.]

Brainwash, no, but it's a power that shouldn't be held by normal humans. It's a piece of a larger whole, and the untold power the temporal crystal had isn't to be trifled with.

We haven't seen what a shard will do if in contact with a human, but we know it's dangerous to let it happen at all.

So we don't actually know what the shard does, but we do know there's one in this city, somewhere, and we think it could be with the Prime Minister.

...I suddenly find myself really hopin' these robot spies find it. Are they good robot spies?

They're very advanced audio recorders, unfortunately. Unless someone is actively talking about it, they won't find anything...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

video; @tama (also @laphicet and @z)

video; un: kyouken

@z

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

video; @9S

@z

no subject

no subject

>to action?

>to action!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

video; un: urahara

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject