London 2056 - A CyberPunk RP [Game thread - Started]

[FalloutJack]

Of course, even after she gave her instructions for both the inside and the out to focus their efforts on a particular area of the flames, she had to wait for that coordination to meet before she could really get going. Asagi could see through the drones and just about estimate where it was going to be, but they had to be careful. This place was - she realized - a precarious thread of blown-up material holding up other parts of the building, ravaged by fire and about to be subjected to extreme cooling. She would have to be quick. So, even as Charles was "On it!", she knew this to be a dangerous game, more-so than she had been playing a moment ago.

Trying...not to think about Sienna's condition in her arms, Asagi moved forward to meet the area in which Charles was blasting. She knew that this was a little awkward for him, but as she suspected, the extinguishers were able to be improvised by the one-handed man. Again, she wondered who he was. He wasn't a normal homeless git. He was a strangely cool guy who cared about things. Well, no different - she supposed - than the military woman saving her neighbor's daughter, perhaps. In any case, soon, she could see water streaming in around the area that she had originally gone in. Karl was directing all the emergency surfaces to that spot. Asagi knew she could count on him.

Once the path had been cleared, she boldly strode out of it. She had to go on ahead of Charles. The kid was the priority and she was holding the kid. Sienna was out-cold still. She was lucky, in a way. Ironically, Nathaniel Cray had solved all of their problems. He had been a terrible husband, but at least he did what was right as a father, and protected his child. So, Irina would at least have her back. It was just...it was just... Oh god, not now! Not now! Karine felt herself trying to spasm where the muscles in her arms use to be. She had these great prosthetic limbs, but not without disadvantages. For one: A Phantom Limb Syndrome that tied in with how disturbed she had been by the result of her accident, three years ago. She now handed Sienna over to the paramedics, getting her coat back.

"T-take her. She'll be bleeding internally. Legs are pretty bad. Earsdrums damaged. I need..."

Air? Open space? Asagi wasn't sure. She backed away, feeling a temporary relapse of how foreign her limbs had felt to her before she had been properly-oriented. She had all the connections and advanced reactive programming in the world, but the memory of the accident had just been triggered, and Karl would recognize the lingering effects of Cyber-Psychosis, the mind-body shock of having a foreign feeling where the limb or part of the body where it normally resided. She would've wandered off to ride it out, but she noticed the sound of materials shifting, looked over, and saw-

"Charles, look out!"

Debris from above! Part of the next floor up wanted to say hello!

 

[CrazyGirl17]

Liam was beginning to lose his patience with the cops. Something didn't feel right, and everything in him was screaming that this all wasn't a coincidence.

Plus, there was that explosion in the distance, that was probably more pressing.

"Look, I know you're on duty, but I think we should really get this over with. It's late and I need to get home..."

He knew he sounded irritated, but he was really antsy for various reasons. Cautiously, he opened the door slightly wider, at the same time motioning for Ira to step closer.

 

[Neuromancer]

Due to the intensity of the heat of the inferno they were in, the flames took a while to die down, s fact made further difficult by Charles' awkward use of the fire extinguisher. As Charles was busy firefighting, he threw glances at Karine and Sienna. Karine looked extremely concerned, which was understandable, considering the child of her best friend was slowly dying in her arms. Yet, judging from her body language and her at moments disconnected glare, there was more to it than that. It didn't matter; as long as little Sienna made it our alive, nothing else really mattered. And for her to make it out alive, the flames needed to die.

And die they did. The path was cleared and, before he could even so much as motion Karine to move, she was already past him. The woman sure moved fast and he could sparcely keep up, but on the flipside, things were looking up, as the firefighters had quenched the flames at the entrance. As he run forward towards the exit, Karine had already handed over frail young Sienna to the paramedics.

It was good, he felt. Unlucky young Siena was injured badly, but she would receive help soon enough and hopefully, no, surely survive. For once, things had gone smoothly.

Then he heard the chanting, and his legs stopped moving. And the next one minute and fifty four seconds were as though they went in slow motion.



It was wierd, this feeling he was experiencing. Normally one would be greatly concerned if his extremities stopped following their commands, yet, Charles was woefully indifferent to it. He was woefully indifferent to everything.

As he stood there and this... paralysis? Could it be called so? Whatever the case, as this "paralysis" made its way up from his legs, the sounds around him started to fade out, until there was only the chanting. It reached his hand and stump, and so the fire extinguisher he was holding fell down to on his leg. He stared puzzlingly at it. The weight should have crushed it, yet Charles didn't experience pain. He didn't experience anything.

"Charles!"

Karine's voice echoed in the distance. How was she doing he wondered. Hopefully she was feeling better, that whole ordeal sure generated a lot of stress for her. He raised his head and looked to her eye to eye. It was already getting hard to move. She sure was staring at him terrorised. She needed to calm down. Everything was ok.

"Look o̷u̕t͘!"

Charles blinked once, indifferently. As he broke eye contact, his eyes activated and started letting out that cold, artificial light. Speaking of light, he looked up. Had to see what the fuss was all about. What he saw was light, as though from the heavens, grossly incandescent. And in the middle of it all flew a bee. There was something inexplicably peculiar about this bee. Charles felt strangely compelled to pursue it. Drawn to it, even.

It was the last thing he saw as everything went black.

 

[Texas Joker 52]

~ Karl Adler ~​

When Asagi finally emerged from the flaming wreckage of the building entrance, Karl's eyes were immediately drawn to the shape in her arms. His voice got caught in his throat as he rushed to her side and looked at the injured little girl.

"T-take her. She'll be bleeding internally. Legs are pretty bad. Eardrums damaged. I need..."

"Christ Jesus..." he whispered in abject horror of her wounds.

As she handed the little girl off to a paramedic, he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder out of reassurance before noticing how she was shaking. It was like her limbs had a mind of their own, twitching uncontrollably. He recognized this, he realized. He had seen the effects of how some reacted to prosthesis, the fact that their nervous system and mind had to adjust to some foreign object in the place of natural limb, and almost tried to reject it. Cyber-Psychosis, some called it. The fact that both of Miss Asagi's arms and legs were twitching like that... Oh merciful Christ Jesus...

"Miss Asagi, you ought to sit down, get your bearings--" he started as she began to walk away, only to turn as he heard the sounds of straining metal.

"Charles, look out!"

The one-armed man who dove into the CyCorp building behind Asagi was just inside the exit when the ceiling started to buckle and collapse above him. He seemed to blink before his eyes glowed and he looked up. The next moment, he was buried in debris.

Biting off a curse, Karl didn't think before he broke into a run and skidded next to him, pulling off jagged bits of metal and drywall from atop him.

"Someone help me get him out of here!" he called out after a moment, motioning for anyone nearby.

 

[FalloutJack]

[OOC: Collaborated between myself and Texas Joker.]



Psychosis momentarily broken, Asagi went right to work herself, basically ordering anybody nearby to help as well. Not that the half-dozen-or-so firemen needed to be told. They do that for a living. Therefore, in no time, they hoist up Charles and take him to his own personal ambulence. He and Sienna were taken off, sirens traveling further away. She wanted to follow and keep Irina apprised of her daughter's condition, tell her that her ex was dead, but...she needed a minute. Work made her focus to a fine point on a razor's edge. Thinking too much could unravel that cool. She crumpled down upon a nearby curb, doing pretty much what Karl advised, trying to get a hold of herself.

As soon as the one-armed man, Asagi had called him Charles, was being hauled into an ambulance of his own, Karl followed the military Operative to the curb and slowly sat down next to her. He was in a worse state than earlier, with his suit stained with ash and soot, his hair was a mess, and his glasses were filthy. But at least the girl that Asagi had rescued from the CyCorp building was on her way to a hospital, and Charles wasn't far behind. So, he reached up and pushed his hair back before glancing over at the woman.

"Are you alright? You look like you're about to shake yourself to pieces. Is it your prosthetics?" he asked in a tone of quiet concern.

She nodded, yes to it being the prosthetics, red eyes still staring at the ground.

"It doesn't happen that often anymore, but every now and then... Sienna's legs were- She'll need new ones, like me."

Something that Karl didn't know, that she knew the girl personally. She didn't react to Charles' missing hand. She DID react to a little girl's ruined legs, especially that of someone she had met having to go through what she did. The fact that she knew the girl didn't come as much of a surprise to him. After all, she had found out she was trapped in the lobby due to a very well-timed phone call. But he slowly shook his head and sighed.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry. Who are her parents? At least one has to work for the company for her to have been there." he pointed out. Asagi straightened up her position slightly, looking over at him. Her expression was not the military professional, but a human being with human concerns. Despire the cyber-eyes, they'd managed to preserve her humanity and that 'feeling down' sort of look that was present on her now.

"Her mother is Irina Rostikova, my neighbor. Nathaniel Cray is the father, Irina's ex-husband. I'm not sad to see him go, but at least he protected her as best he could."

So, the father is dead and the mother was the caller. Karl pulled back after a moment after she mentioned the name of the girl's father.

"Nathaniel Cray? He's a prominent employee of CyCorp. I don't know him personally, but I know of him. So she was with her father?" he said, the implications dawning on him and he grimaced with a small nod. "Regardless of what he was like before, that at the very least counts for something. Have you called her mother yet? Told her what happened?"

I will. I just needed to gather myself. Thanks."

She decided not to tell him about the whole situation about Irina almost being killed by his bodyguards because she KO'd the man over the custody rights of their daughter. That wouldn't help things at all. Of course, he could easily find out, but there was no need to bring that up right now.

"I understand. If you need a ride to the hospital, I can drive you there. It wouldn't be any trouble, and I have a feeling that there might be something I can do to help." he offered, standing up and offering a hand for her. Asagi looked at him for a second, then took his hand, standing once more.

"Alright. I'll need to come back for my bike later, though."

She referred to the Kawasaki Mirage locked up like it was a solid piece with frigging Batmobile armor. He chuckled softly and nodded, "Of course. That's no problem." Once he helped her up, he motioned for her to follow him as he walked over to his sedan, and he opened the passenger seat for her before taking the wheel himself. Before long, they were streaking down the street at just above posted speed limits in the direction of the hospital.

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

Ira made his way over to the door and stood just behind Liam. There was no point hiding but he didn't want to draw too much attention to himself. "Evening." said Ira to the police officers.

 

[Generic NPC 22]

London 2056 | A Hospital
Capcha: In Limbo... Creeepy?​

The Ambulance moved briskly and efficiently through London's morning traffic as it carried its cargo to the nearest trauma ward outfitted for Automated Pediatric Surgery, though anyone with a hack saw could have done what needed to be done, albeit quite a bit more painfully. The young girl's legs would have to be amputated, one just below the knee and one just under the hip. She would never walk on her own two legs again.

"Female Patient, Age 8, Severe damage to both Legs, Damage to ear, Puncture wound to Abdomen."

With improvements in the field of robotics, surgery no longer required that surgeons lay hands upon their patients. All the tools were controlled remotely. This meant that none of the many millions of infection causing micro-organisms would be tracked into the surgical unit by staff members.

"What in the hell happened to this kid? She hit by a semi?!"

The Surgical room was featureless, save for a slab of metal not unlike an autopsy table set in the center of the room. The various tools of the surgical trade were stored within the walls where they had been rendered sterile by a combination of chemicals and heat treatments. The lights themselves had been manufactured to emit Ultra Violet light, killing any micro organism that had made the mistake of floating into the room. It was a room such as this that the Trauma Room staff placed Sienna.

"Might have been better if she died..."

Automated Pediatric Surgery was a misnomer. The surgery still required that a surgeon perform the operation. It was still more cost effective to teach a surgeon everything they could learn about the inner workings of the human body rather than rely on updates that could contain a malpractice suit causing bug.

"Welcome back, Doctor. The patient is sedated and ready."

Various panels opened up to reveal a bevy of medical and surgical instruments. While one arm inserted a needle into the forearm of the young child, another connected it to an IV drip. Another arm cut away the child clothing while still another wiped down her body with an anti-bacterial cleaner.

"Alright. Sorry kid."

[hr]

When Sienna woke up not one hour later, she found herself laying on a bed inside of a room. The noise from a nearby display showed her Mommy talking about the technical specifications of some product or another. Daddy never let Sienna watch any of Mommy's VidCasts but she sneaked a peak every so often, just so she could see how her Mommy was doing.

She felt funny. Especially in her legs. She tried to move them but didn't feel anything. An automated voice chimed in over a speaker next to her head

"Hi there, Sienna. Please refrain from moving. You've just been through surgery and should concentrate on getting better." The voice said.

"H... hello?!" Sienna called out, looking around. She saw that she had been covered by a blanket and that her arms had been strapped to the bed. Panic entered the equation as she called out once again, "HELLO?!"

Looking to her right, she saw another bed with man in it. A stranger. A stranger with one arm that seemed to be sleeping.

"[small]What in the hell happened?![/small]" A familiar voice asked from outside the room. Following it, Sienna saw her Mommy and Ms. Asagi outside her room, talking quietly with another man in a suit. Mommy was crying. She didn't look happy at all. What was going on?

There was a short beep as the pain pump administered another dose of morphine and for Sienna the world went black again.

 

[FalloutJack]

The first thing she had done after getting into the care was to call Irina, who was naturally waiting in all anticipation for some answer regarding her daughter's condition. After managing to get her to calm down enough to speak without interruption. The woman would know that Asagi's attitude was down in the dumps by the way she spoke, but she calmed her anyway and told her what she needed to know. She said...

"Sienna's alive, Nathaniel is not. But...she IS hurt. Come to London General Hospital as fast as you can. She'll need her mother."

She didn't say much during the trip, just letting - just wanting - Karl focus on driving instead of them talking, for now. Asagi had nothing against him. In fact, were circumstances less grim, he and her would get along splendidly. They only arrived a short while after Sienna. Using her authority, Asagi passed any security wishing to stop her or Karl, which is where - of course - she procured the girl's file.

God...

She stared at it for a moment, then handed it back to whoever she got it from, leaning against the wall with the feeling of responsibility crushing her spirit. She'd saved her, and now she got to live her life with fake foreign legs and maybe other adjustments. Asagi didn't like that, not at all... Of course, it didn't help that - while waiting for Sienna's recovery - Irina came in, looking...exactly how you'd expect her to look.

"What in the hell happened?!"

"She was injured in the explosion at CyCorp. Looks like Nathaniel shielded her, or was in the way of the blast when it occurred. Either way, the damage was...was still severe. She'll live, but...I'm sorry, Irina. Her legs... They were irreparable except by prosthetic."

She felt bad for saying it. Asagi worked well with these things. She was military, disciplined. Sienna was a child...and she sympathized with what she would have to go through from now on.

 

[Texas Joker 52]

~ Karl Adler ~​

The drive to London General Hospital was quiet, save for the single phone call Miss Asagi made to her friend, regarding the young girl and the late Nathaniel Cray. While he felt sorry for the girl, he couldn't honestly say the same about Cray. Under other circumstances, he may have seen the man as a threat, since he knew that at the very least he was an ambitious womanizer, not too different from himself, and may have been an obstacle for his own ambitions to power.

The very thought made him cringe inwardly in shame, though he made no outward show of it. He was well aware that he was hardly a paragon of good nature and kindness, but he thought that he had standards at the very least. It was thoughts like that that sure seemed to prove him wrong.

As soon as they got to the hospital, both he and Asagi made their way through security with her using her military authority to get them past with minimal fuss. But when they got to where young Sienna was just starting to recover, Karl felt a fresh tug of sorrow as he looked into the window.

"What in the hell happened?!"

He turned at the sound of a woman's voice, presumably the girl's mother. When he finally got a good look at her however, she wasn't at all what he was expecting, though his face kept the same somber expression on it. But even then, he took note of the cybernetic cat ears and tail, which only made her look even more distressed, along with the numerous piercings. Well, you did meet all kinds in London, he reflected after a moment.

"She was injured in the explosion at CyCorp. Looks like Nathaniel shielded her, or was in the way of the blast when it occurred. Either way, the damage was...was still severe. She'll live, but...I'm sorry, Irina. Her legs... They were irreparable except by prosthetic."

Taking that as his cue, Karl took a step forward.

"I may be able to help with that part. Miss Rostikova? My name is Karl Adler, and I work for CyCorp. First, I wanted to give you my sincere apology for the death of your ex-husband and for..." he started, swallowing hard before he could continue, "What happened to your daughter. But I think I can help regarding any augmentations she may need. If you could give me a few minutes to make some phone calls, I'll see what I can do."

He gave them both a nod before striding to a nearby waiting room.

[hr]

His phone calls ended up taking the better part of ten minutes, and each one ended the same way. While they couldn't hear just what was being said, he always ended a call with a small, smug-looking smile, like he had gotten exactly what he wanted even if whoever was on the other end of the line didn't like it. But when he was finished, he put away his phone with a sigh and pushed his hair back wearily.

"Well, I have some good news at the very least," he said when he rejoined them, "I've managed to find a way for you to get your daughter all the necessary augmentations she'll need for a full recovery, free-of-charge. But, there is a catch."

He folded his hands behind his back at that, and his expression turned stony.

"The augmentations in question are experimental: They're only just beginning to reach the final stages of human testing. This means that if you accept my offer, your daughter will be, for all intents and purposes, a test subject in the employ of CyCorp. She'll have to undergo extensive, and possibly even invasive examinations to make sure what augmentations she has are working as intended, but any examinations, servicing, or even replacements will be covered by the company, not by you." he told her, before breaking into a small smile, "If it helps, think of any exams as Quality Control, since that's essentially what they're for."

 

[Generic NPC 22]

London 2056 | Hospital | Surgical Recovery Ward
Decisions, decisions​

Irina Rostikova was glad that Karine was there with her. Since Karine had suffered wounds similar to those of Sienna, she would understand what would be best for Irina's baby girl. Mister Adler, on the other hand, was an unwelcome guest in the Surgical Recovery Ward. He reminded Irina of everything that she disliked about Nathaniel and despite the fact that Karl was not Nathaniel and he was offering to cover the cost of augmented limbs for Sienna, there was something about the man that made Irina's bile rise into the back of her throat.

CyCorp, at least the CyCorp that Cat Eared VidCaster was familiar with, was not known for their generosity, in fact they were known more for their blatant greed than anything else. If Karl were offering to cover the costs of Sienna's Augmentations, Recovery, Therapy and Followup visits, there was a catch.

"But, there is a catch." Karl said before going into Corp Drone mode. "The augmentations in question are experimental: They're only just beginning to reach the final stages of human testing. This means that if you accept my offer, your daughter will be, for all intents and purposes, a test subject in the employ of CyCorp. She'll have to undergo extensive, and possibly even invasive examinations to make sure what augmentations she has are working as intended, but any examinations, servicing, or even replacements will be covered by the company, not by you."

So what he was proposing was turning Sienna into a human guinea pig. A real world beta tester for an experimental system that could do more harm then help to Irina's young daughter. The way he presented the offer was slick, as if he was doing her a favor by hiring Sienna.

Despite knowing that what Karl was offering was a lifetime of servitude for Sienna, a large part of Irina's mind was aware that the cost of current gen augmentations were prohibitively expensive, even if she were able to pull in all the favors from all the Hollywood Starlettes that she had helped with a little career boost, she'd still never get the money for a life time of augmentations, especially for a child. With Sienna's age, there would come a point where her augmentations would have to be replaced every few months and it wasn't like there was a market for second hand augs.

Despite what Karl had told her, there was still something that Karl was probably hiding from her. It was bad enough that Sienna would be absorbed into the CyCorp biomass, but surely Karl was also going to ask something from Irina.

"What's the other catch?" Irina asked Karl before looking over to Karine. Knowing Karine's background with augmentations and CyCorp, Irina's neighbor would be the best source for advice.

 

[FalloutJack]

After what she said, Karl spoke up and introduced himself. As he did so, he indicated that he would possibly be able to help Sienna through her dark time ahead. Then, he got on the phone with - Asagi assumed - someone from CyCorp about something he had already in the works that could be aimed at this situation. He had some sort of plan in mind, and by her estimate...something that he wanted to benefit from.

"I've managed to find a way for you to get your daughter all the necessary augmentations she'll need for a full recovery, free-of-charge. But, there is a catch."

And there it was, the lynchpin of the discussion. All expenses paid, but... And that 'but' was that they wanted to use Sienna to test the latest line in prosthetic legs. So, on the one hand...Sienna's life begins to improve, but on the other hand...she was the test subject for any and all teething troubles the legs might have. Prosthetics that didn't work properly could be dangerous. It made sense to test them thoroughly, and somebody had to be the one doing it, but Asagi could understand the gears turning inside of Irina's head. She was suspicious of it all.

"What's the other catch?"

"I don't know the other catch, if there is one, but I know a few certain realities you'll have to deal with. Even if you yourself paid for the limbs and all that, you know of course that they'll have to be replaced to meet with her size. Sienna's a growing girl, after all. There's something else..."

She looked down.

"The therapy's important because traumatic limb-loss and recovery via prosthetics can lead to Cyber Psychosis, where the body's initial reaction to a Phantom Limb sensation contradicts with the sensation of this foreign mass trying to tell the brain that this is the limb now. The mind rejects, especially if acutely aware of what removes the limb, and so sometimes...they spaz out."

Now, eye contact returned.

"It can be overcome, though."

Her head them turned to Karl with an inquisitive expression.

"Are there more conditions, Mr. Adler? I'd prefer it if you were completely up-front with Irina about this, please."

What Asagi wanted, right now, was for her parents' good faith in this manager to be justified.

 

[Texas Joker 52]

~ Karl Adler ~​

From Miss Rostikova's expression whenever she looked at him, it was pretty clear that she didn't like him, and Karl couldn't help but wonder just what it was that she saw in him. Was he some sort of strange reflection of her ex? After all, he worked for CyCorp as well, so maybe even that was enough for her to compare him to Cray. She seemed to digest what he told her for a few moments before speaking up.

"What's the other catch?"

Karl paused for a moment, giving Asagi an opportunity to explain that, even with the opportunity he was offering for Sienna, chances were that she would have other problems that he simply couldn't help with. Namely, the chance for Cyber Psychosis, which the Operative seemed to suffer from herself. After her explanation, she turned to him with an expression he couldn't exactly describe, but it certainly made him feel like he was put on-the-spot.

"Are there more conditions, Mr. Adler? I'd prefer it if you were completely up-front with Irina about this, please."[/i]

"Well, besides the mountain of paperwork? I can only guarantee the augmentations themselves, maintenance and replacements, but not therapy. Unless it's technically related, it's out of my hands. I can only do so much as a General Manager for R&D." he told them with an apologetic shrug.

"Other than that, no. You'll be given full disclosure of whatever CyCorp intends to do, and I'll smooth the way for you as best I can." Karl said before he slipped his hands into his coat pockets, "I'm not doing this to get some kind of compensation from you. I'm simply offering to help."

 

[Generic NPC 22]

London 2056 | Hospital | Surgical Recovery Ward
Devil's Deal​

Looking through the observation window, Irina was spared from seeing the full extent of the damage done to her beloved daughter's body by a thin piece of cloth that had been draped over where Sienna's legs used to be. That did not mean that the Faux Feline Mother was unaware of what it would look like and how it would affect little Sienna Rostikova for the rest of her life. Would she spare her daughter the pain of being labeled a cripple or would she make a deal with the very people who had turned an ambitious young man into the corrupt executive that Nathaniel Cray was at the end of his life.

The one advantage that Sienna would have over Nathaniel was being stuck with someone who cared about her. Looking at the bright side, being released from the burden of having to pay the exorbitant cost of augmentations would allow for Irina to invest the saved money into Aug Therapy. turning to the General Manager of CyCorp's Research and Development Division, Irina chose for her daughter.

"Fine." The Feline Featured VidCaster said, though no hint of thanks could be heard in her acceptance of Karl Adler's magnanimous gift.

Turning away from Karine and Karl, Irina went off to go consult with one of the nurses.

[hr]

Back in the patient recovery room, Sienna was dreaming. Her eyes moved about under closed lids and the sheet that kept what remained of her legs moved as if she was running. The sleeping child smiled briefly as she continued to dream, right until the moment she awoke.

She found herself back in the white room. Nearby, a big of saline pumped fluids and medication into Sienna's blood stream, keeping her body from feeling the pain of having had two limbs amputated. Again, she saw a man laying nearby in another one of the patient beds.

"H... hello?" She called out to the man, wondering if he was alive.

 

[FalloutJack]

It sounded to her like they could certainly trust Karl to keep his end without trying anything objectionable. He wasn't really 'simply' offering to help, per se. He was offering to help with something that would also benefit himself. It was a businessman's way of handling a situation, but his heart was in the right place. To be fair, Asagi had a military way of doing things, so all's fair and so on. Irina continued to mull over it...and then finally agreed, then went over to talk to a nurse. The military woman herself seemed relatively calmer, herself, even though they were still largely in the presence of an injured girl, or close enough. She now turned back to Karl with a small smile on her face.

"Thank you for helping. I was largely going to ask you for information in regards to the coming investigation, but it's nice to know how well you can be counted on. I should get back to work, though..."

She had gone straight from home to a blazing building while giving out orders for keeping the peace, then leapt INTO the building to rescue someone on her own (though she got help), and now after all this...including that relapse...she wants to go back to work? Dayum...

 

[Texas Joker 52]

~ Karl Adler ~​

As Miss Rostikova seemed to consider his offer, her fairly obvious distaste for either him or CyCorp in general made him feel like a devil trying to wrangle a soul out of someone in exchange for something they desperately needed. The fact that his online handle of "Mephisto", the shortened version of Mephistopheles was almost scarily appropriate, though he wasn't sure who the Faust of this arrangement was. Miss Rostikova? Young Sienna herself? Ultimately, it didn't matter when she finally made her decision.

"Fine."

He nodded, telling her, "I'll forward you all the necessary paperwork, and I'll expedite the process as best I can."

As she strode off to find a nurse, Karl finally let out a mild sigh. Then he looked over at Asagi as she regarded him with a small, charming smile.

"Thank you for helping. I was largely going to ask you for information in regards to the coming investigation, but it's nice to know how well you can be counted on. I should get back to work, though..."

"It's nothing." he told her, giving her a smile of his own.

"Though, I was going to ask if you had plans for this morning. I was hoping to tempt you with breakfast and ask you how Ari and Toshiro were doing the last time you saw them." he said, before chuckling softly, "Particularly regarding what they told you about me. I'd hate to not live up to any good expectations."

 

[Knife-28]

"Indeed Kaz, this is a very grim day indeed."

Kazuko gave a small nod as the two, like so many others in London, watched as the monolithic headquarters of CyCorp were enveloped in flickering tongues of flame. Instead of rain, ash, molten glass and steel fell upon the streets around what was a few minutes ago the mega corp's headquarters, and the small video in the top left corner of Kaz's vision painted an identical scene occurring at the headquarters of the H.A Dynasty.

"Christ, I might pass on the coffee and ask you break out some of the harder stuff after all." Kazuko said, running a hand through his black and neon hair as he stepped away from the window.

Questions buzzed in his head like angry hornets; Who had the ability to blow up the offices of not just one, but two megacorps, in London of all places? What were their motives? Was the fact that employees of both CyCorp and the H.A Dynasty had been shot just earlier tonight have anything to do with the bombings?

With a low groan, Kaz slumped on the couch, and found his gaze drawn to the menpō sitting on Selene's shelf, as if it's own vacant eyes were staring into his own.

 

[Neuromancer]

As Charles' conciousness returned, he felt exhausted and... different. Something was covering his head and most of the upper left side of his face, including his eye. His neck felt pressured and restricted, as did his left leg, something was applying pressure at the back of his right hand, something was blowing air on his mouth, and breathing took considerably more effort.

He could hear... noise, in the distance. As he slowly half-opened his free eye, he saw nothing. Even as his "vision" was naught but pitch black, though, it still was heavily glitching.

[table border="1" cellpadding="1"]
[td]R͡e̡b͝oo̡t̵in͢g̸...[/td]
[/table]

A flickering, glitched, brightly-coloured "rebooting" appeared. This has only ever happened before after Charles' eyes activated fully and the virus kicked into overdrive.


[table border="1" cellpadding="1"]
[td]E҉RROR!̛[/td]
[/table]

This was a familiar sight. Charles had, in the past, spent entire days just watching as "rebooting" and "error" alternated between each other, as though they were having fun at his expense.

[table border="1" cellpadding="1"]
[td]Réb͝oóti͟n͞g...[/td]
[/table]

He was lucky, this time, because the rebooting was successful, and he could see again, albeit the quality of his sight much akin to that of pre-smartphone era cellphone cameras.

How.. did I...

He was lying on a hospital bed. It was bandages that were covering his face, a collar was placed on his neck, a cast around his leg, he was receiving oxygen from an oxygen mask, a butterfly was placed on his hand to feed him whatever medicine and painkillers the doctors had decided, and from what he could see beneath his patient's robe, his upper chest was bandaged aswell.

What... happened...?



A familiar face was on one of the displays, though she looked much taller than she really was. So, that's what she did for a living. Watching Irina go about the specs of whatever she was trying to sell made him slowly recall things. The bomb, CyCorp...

Sienna!

The returning memories brought about an awakening of a sort in Charles, as he anxiously started looking around the room, despite being unable to turn his head due to the collar.

Shite, what in the hells happened?

His last memory was of running towards the exit of the burning building. No memory of how he got his injuries. Not that it matter right now, because finding out about Sienna was top priority. Charles always had a certain tendency to put others before himself, but Sienna's case hit particularly close to home. Charles turned his upper body to the left to examine the rest of the room; a difficult and rather painful ordeal, considering his injuries. He was sharing the room with someone else, someone familiar. Upon seeing her sleeping, Charles let out a sigh of relief.

Sienna was alive. In a bad shape and without legs, yes, but alive. That's what mattered, in the end. Laying back in his bed, Charles couldn't help but smile and be filled with a sense of satisfaction. Drowsiness filling him from his exertion, he closed his eyes and prepared to sleep...

"H... hello?"

Hmm?

The voice of a child reached his ears, and Charles awoke from his almost-slumber to investigate. Turning to his left again, wincing as he did, he saw young Sienna, awake and a bit confused, if not scared.

"'ello, there," he said softly, giving off the kindest and friendliest smile he could, "Pleased ta meetcha, young lady. I'm Charles. Ya feelin' alrite?"

 

[Generic NPC 22]

London 2056 | Hospital | Surgical Recovery Ward
Amputee Agitation​

Were Sienna much older, she would have realized that the drugs that the hospital was pumping into her veins intravenously was "the good stuff." But being as young as she was, she didn't quite like the foggy feeling that seemed to envelope her head and make her thoughts come out as slowly as frozen yogurt from a clogged dispenser. Despite this, there was a sense of euphoria that masked whatever fears she would have had. Those fears were being reserved for later. For now, confusion was the entree being served at the moment.

The strange man next to her stirred and turned to look at her. Despite the fact that she didn't know the strange man that smelled like burnt insulation and singed hair, she found his smile oddly charming for an adult. That being said, there was something left to be desired in regards to his accent.

"'ello, there. Pleased ta meetcha, young lady. I'm Charles. Ya feelin' alrite?" Mister Charles asked with his mouth full of cotton balls.

"I... I feel weird." The drugged up youth admitted to the mush mouthed hobo. Most drug abusers would have given their legs to get the sort of drugs that Sienna was getting.[footnote]Too soon?[/footnote] The fact that she was being impolite by not reciprocating introductions didn't dawn upon the young girl for another few heartbeats, "Oh... sorry. My name is Sienna. Nice to meet you Mister Charles."

Looking up at the ceiling, Sienna tried to take stock of her situation, a task that was fairly difficult at that particular moment. She knew that she was in some sort of hospital. Her class had taken a field trip on one of London's many hospitals a couple of months ago to learn about doctors. She knew that something must have happened to her if she was laying on one of the hospital beds but her memory was blank as to the reason for her stay. The second thing that she noticed was that her legs felt weird. They hurt... sort of and it felt like they were itching. She wanted to scratch her legs but her arms had been strapped down to the bed.

Turning back to her roommate, she wondered if he knew her. The way he looked at her suggested that he knew her.

"Excuse me. Mister Charles... are... are you one of my mom's boyfriends?" The child with no word filter asked as she regurgitated some of the information that her father had fed her in regards to her mother.

 

[FalloutJack]

"It's nothing."

Ah, modesty... She reembered that, back when she beamed with accomplishment and liked that she was getting noticed by those in charge. Well now, she'd been noticed and her position in life was quite set. The only way she could go up now was if she became a military leader in official capacity like McArthur. yeah, she'd been set, set by a severe operation... The nightmares in her past, back in the beginning, had been that of doctors chainsawing her arms and legs off while using red-hot pokers to burn out her old eyes, then followed up by attaching limbs and new eyes who bit down on her body and chewed further at her. She had coped, but she had not healed. Despite the highly-effective implants and prosthetics, there were times in which Asagi felt like she was a helpless torso caught in a web. She had flashbacked today for the first time in a long while, and it wasn't pleasant. She usually buried herself in her work to keep her mind from revisiting thoughts like that. Kept her sane. She still felt that something irreplaceable had been lost, though...and that was why she was the way she was. Today, Karl Adler had put some of her mind at ease by helping Sienna the way the military had put up for her own recovery, because the alternative in either case was so much worse.

"Though..."

Though? Asagi had just been turning away when she paused and looked back, curious now.

"...I was going to ask if you had plans for this morning. I was hoping to tempt you with breakfast and ask you how Ari and Toshiro were doing the last time you saw them."

Her eyes twitched, a reflex of looking at part of the HUD, namely for the time of day.

Breakfast? Yes, it IS that time. I didn't realize how late it was when I got through all this. So much has been going on...

she blamed herself for part of it, because she still wanted to try and be a human, even though parts of her were not.

"Particularly regarding what they told you about me. I'd hate to not live up to any good expectations."

Oh, I think you've done well enough, at least in my eyes.

It was hard to see those red cyber-eyes as something friendly, but she managed that kind of expression right now. He was a businessman, a man who had come far in CyCorp. He thought in terms of business, but...he had turned out to be a decent sort of fellow. Her parents had not been wrong about him. Asagi gave a slight nod.

"Alright, but I should warn you. I can't eat that much. Doctor's orders."

Karl would understand this as much as anything to do with the technology grafted onto humans. Sienna might not have to worry about it that much, but someone like Asagi, who had no natural arm and leg portions to really speak of? There WAS another catch. A human being in her situation still has a functional set of organs. Minus the eyes, she had every one of them intact. Heart, liver, lungs, stomach, etc. However, several areas of natural energy use and exercise had been made redundant and useless by the loss of her limbs. They were incredibly advanced machines, made to look and react human very well, but they were not real muscles. They did not circulate blood. They were a simulation of the human experience taken to a high degree. They did not make the body exert itself that much, maybe one-tenth the normal amount. Asagi compensated by doing exercises that involved alot of torso work, like sit-ups, but she still needed to maintain a strict diet in most cases because her body did not actually need the energy for anything. But nevertheless, breakfast it was. Asagi felt that she wanted to talk with him in such a setting.

 

[Texas Joker 52]

~ Karl Adler ~​

She started to turn away when he asked if she was interested in having breakfast with him, and when she looked back it looked like he had piqued her interest. After a moment, she regarded him with a friendly gaze and nodded. He couldn't help but smile a little more reflexively.

"Alright, but I should warn you. I can't eat that much. Doctor's orders."

Right, her prosthetic limbs. Those would certainly make it so that she wouldn't need to eat that much, but that didn't deter him in the slightest.

"That's fair enough. I hope you don't mind if I cook. After the night I've had, the idea of cooking is very nice right about now. Though I imagine you've had an even longer night yourself, Miss Asagi." he observed with a small nod before motioning for her to lead the way.

"How do omelets sound? That shouldn't be too much I wouldn't think." Karl said, smiling at her as he followed her on their way out of the hospital.