afterliving | < Operation: FINAL BOSS >

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< Operation: FINAL BOSS >

A. Video; Filtered to remaining SSS members, Accelerator, Yamashita, Ai;
I'm sure everyone's noticed by now how many people are in comas. I've got an idea how it happened, but.. I have no idea how to fix it. The best we can do now is to hope that we can find the Programmer and stop him from taking the rest of us. I had an idea a while ago that I talked over with Accelerator, then I spoke to that Ai NPC about it so she's been working on it. She's almost done writing what we need, so I need to talk to all of you in person. SSS room, one hour. I've texted the password to the phones of the two people I could find that weren't comatose.

action; meeting
[ Yuri's sitting on her desk instead of in the big imposing chair that she normally ran these meetings from. There were people who weren't in the SSS here anyway, it wasn't really a formal meeting. Despite that, it was all business. ]

Welcome to < Operation: Final Boss >. [ She knew the name was corny, but it was her attempt at finding something, anything that they could take humor in so that they didn't all feel like it was hopeless. Because it wasn't, because they were going to win. Yuri hoped, anyway. She crosses her legs, both hands on the desk by her side as she speaks, her expression not showing any mirth, real or false. ]

We've all lost a lot. I'm not saying that this is going to solve all of our problems, and if you think the best way for you to get out of this is to accept your life and disappear, then don't feel as though anyone is going to blame you for that. The choice is yours, and you're welcome to do that. But I want you all to listen to this idea first, and those who want to stay can stay and fight.

[ And with that, Yuri proceeds to explain the plan. The last time she had to go through this, she went off on her own. She'd tried to protect everyone without help, and it nearly caused everyone to fail. She wouldn't pull away from everyone this time. She would be their leader and she would be there fighting with them this time. That was the only way they could win..

{{ Feel free to comment this post for either Yuri OR Ai, as both are at the meeting. Questions, concerns, conversations.. anything can go. The log will go up as described on Tuesday the 12th! }}

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[ Talk to Yuri by replying to this comment! ]

So this is it then? The grande finale?

At least, I'm gonna be disappointed if it's not, with all the build-up.

[ He's trying to be casual about this, but in truth he's a little scared as well. He wants it to be over so badly, but he knows there's not really anywhere to go when it is. In life or death, it came down to this... succeeding came with an uncertain future for yourself. ]

I think it's going to be the finale one way or the other. Let's just make sure that it's our way.

[ No hoping about it. It was in their power. That was what she wanted to emphasize. ]

...How likely do you think it is he caught on?

[He being The Programmer, of course.]

To the fact that we're up to something? Plenty. But I'd be willing to lean on the idea that he thinks we're going to focus on going out to save the coma patients instead of attack him.

[takes a quick glance around at the others in the room; some of them he knows, some he doesn't particularly recognize. the number of people remaining is, in and of itself, dismally small compared to all the names he's used to seeing in the phone directory.]

That'd explain why he didn't target you.

[Based on what little he knows about the incident with Tachibana, Yuri is better left alone so she can lead the others into focusing on saving the coma victims. The Programmer could have set it up that way on purpose.]

But I wouldn't lean too heavily on that, considering who else is unaffected.

[Too many strong-willed fighters, and despite his best efforts he knew some of their movements in the school had to have been noticed, especially in the security room.]

I wonder if he just picked out of a hat who we'd be left with.

[ A lot of them didn't make sense to leave behind. Not all of them were strong, but many of the ones who were left were dangerous. ]

I'm not leaning on his motives though. We need to focus on making our plan work. Unless he's got a special spot in hell for me, I'm seeing this through.

So am I. I need to punch his damn face in this time.

I'm pretty sure there's going to be a line for that.

We've been here the longest. We get the front of the line.

I might owe him two. Do I have to get back in line once I'm done with the first?

After how much he's fucked everyone over, what do you think?

[He sounds oddly casual and almost bored-sounding as he replies to her on this.]

I get to punch him three times, the third time on behalf of the group.

[half-amused snort]

How restrained of you.

What can I say? I've been practicing.

[ Yeah right. ]

[ Talk to Ai by replying to this comment! ]

Hey. You alright with all this?

[The whole "using herself as bait" thing, he means. He didn't know her very well, and this was probably the only chance they had at this, but... using girls as bait is pretty gross!

(And not just because girls are scary.)]

My job is to assist each of you aaand prevent changes in the program. The probability of this succeeding are slightly higher than the probability of it failing, so it's a risk I would be willing to take to eliminate the source of the problem. Heh, it sounds a liiiiittle harsh, but if there's a back-up then it's the same as me being here normally!

[Wow, no?! Yata actually looks visibly upset when she says that.]

Do you really think that?

[They were practically strangers, but even if she wasn't technically a real person, to consider oneself replaceable so easily... It was just so sad.]

Is it wrong to think that?

[ Ai learns things from others, after all. ]

You're damn right it is. You think that just because it's a copy, it'll be the same thing?

[Isn't that usually what "copy" means?! While Yata wasn't a genius, he knew about how computers and programs worked. He wasn't a complete idiot. But even then...]

I'm not human, so it's the same thing as transferring my consciousness to another body. As long as someone puts the back-up in, I'll be fine. Are you still you when you wake up from a long sleep?

Are you saying that's supposed to be the same thing?

[Because he doesn't think so! It's completely different! It's not like his consciousness leaves his body...!]

Having the same memories doesn't mean a damn thing. She wasn't the one that had those experiences, you were.

[ This is actually confusing her and it's showing as she furrows her brows slightly while she tries to comprehend this. ]

I don't have a soul, I'm made up of data. You don't think of a character in a game as a unique person based on which copy of the game you're playing, do you?

[After hovering near Yuri for a while and chitchatting with her, Accelerator heads on over to where Ai is.]

...What's the progress on the virus and the other shit we talked about?

[He hasn't exactly made much effort to talk to her since that day they met up during the mega glitch. Not that that was too different from usual, but... Yeah.]

It's almost complete, buddy! [ it has to be on purpose for someone who's supposed to be a self-learning NPC to be doing that still. ] I've been putting false pathways in to the source of the virus so that it won't be so easily beat.

[ She knows that it will be harder to get her back into the system using the back-up, but it will increase the probability of this plan actually working if she's thorough. ]

[small nod, staunchly ignoring the 'buddy' for now. He may speak up about it if she does it again, though.]

One or two sets of dummy information to trip him up wouldn't be a bad idea either. I don't know that there's time to add that in if you didn't already try it, though.

[It had been dummy information that had falsely led him and Yoshikawa into believing they had until midnight to save the clones, not sometime a little past 8pm that night. Because of it, he had wasted precious time that could have saved her sooner. There was no point to What Ifs, what had happened had happened, but that kind of experience was something he could use to contribute to other situations like this one.]

I'll add some in, then. Do you have any requests for specific information to be added?

No specific requests. Just do what you can to keep him from figuring out the important shit too quickly based on what he can find.

[ She gestures in what has to be a perfect salute, save for the smile and the flippant way she releases it. ]

I'll do everything I can to keep him from the important shit!

[He's quiet for a moment, at first seemingly satisfied with that response. But then he speaks up again.]

What risks do the rest of us need to know before you go off and release that virus?

Anything supported using the Angel Player network should go offline. That includes the phones, the food services, all NPCs, many but not all of the animals, and the town which was built using Angel Player. Anything that doesn't go offline is going to glitch to freeze. All personal data will be deleted from any computers placed into the network. I am inputting a system reboot into my back-up program, so when it is uploaded back to a network computer, it should return the world to its state before its initial destruction. At that point, once I am reloaded, I should be able to find the NPC that you all call "Fantoche" and shut the shadows down. This will all only work if you've captured the Programmer and restored me to stop interference, of course. I should note that unfortunately, this will not affect those who have gone into comas. The only way to recover from that is for them to do it on their own. While the cause of the coma was an altered version of an Angel Player Guard Skill, the damage is already done.

[brief glance toward Yuri at Ai's confirmation regarding the comaed people, expression sour. he lets out a low, breathy sigh of annoyance.]

It's like what happened to that Tachibana person, isn't it?

[narrows his eyes]

So. We just need to make sure someone gets to the Programmer once he shows his face.

[another glance toward Yuri. perhaps they should deliberately set things up to increase the chances of the bastard surfacing somewhere specific.]

[ Ai nods in response to the first question, then focusing on the second. ]

Perhaps we should set up a false offer to trade me? In which case, he'll have no choice but to appear and will expect each of you to be on your guard, but will not expect me to be the one launching the virus.

Edited 2014-08-18 21:55 (UTC)

If we do that, Yuri's the one to plan out the location and setup.

[points over at Yuri]

Back when those bastards first put a bounty on you she'd had some kind of idea like that.

[He recalls listening to all of the responses to Yuri's post back then, and that particular detail was stuck in his mind.]

And if you have shit like blueprints of the school, you can look at them to figure out which locations are the best strategically.

[He and the other members of GROUP had found their way inside a certain building's hidden zones once by looking for suspicious areas on the fire department's copies of the building blueprints.]

Nakamura-san should have those already if she got her laptop back from the dormitories. If not, I'll forward them to her.

I doubt she did.

Then I'll do it.

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