[Social] Keep A Record Of The Wreckage In My Life

[Natalie Denisov]

"Good luck with that," Natalie says, "The world that revolves around Sam seems decidedly 'mystical' in its outlook."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Science wouldn't be any fun without a challenge," he smirked.

[Natalie Denisov]

"I'd just as soon stay out of the mystical bullshit myself, but can't seem to avoid it around here."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"It is pretty intent on making things complicated."

[Natalie Denisov]

"Even those crystals in the basement of the Point seem to be in on it, or at least I got a bit of that impression when I took a trip into them."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"What exactly did you see?" he asked with interest.

[Natalie Denisov]

"It's either an exceptionally good visual interface or a gateway of sorts. It was a fortress of some sort, spires in all directions. It's called the Starlight Citadel and it seemed to connect to... other places. The Citadel's system didn't much care for me being there as I wasn't authorized and our 'dimension's' authorization token was already in use starting just prior to my arrival. I could have forced the issue, but that seemed unwise at the time."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Is nothing safe from red tape?" he groaned.

"Wait. Back up. In use? By who?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"I don't know. The Caretaker subprocess in the system said it might be Ashlie, but I'm not sure I buy that and I certainly don't trust it."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Did you... tell it she's gone?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"It's possible her code is still out there in the Citadel's system somewhere. I shared some programming containment code with her prior to the... well... I shared it with her. So she might be out there somewhere. I don't know."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Perhaps this Caretaker can find out? Or get you some kind of guest access?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"Supposedly, yes, to both those questions, but only if we integrate his source crystal with the rest of the crystals. And considering I trust him about as far as I can throw him, that wasn't going to happen even before I got kicked out of the Point."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Lippincott locked you out? He's really growing quite the iron fist. It's like he wants to hamstring us. Next time a crisis rolls around, I swear he'll get someone hurt."

[Natalie Denisov]

"Well, I presume it was because they didn't want a student admin for the Point, despite me knowing the systems down there better than most. But it sucks not being trusted."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"I should see if my credentials still give me access to the crystal cave."

If not, he could scout out the underwater entrance Lippincott hopefully didn't know about.

[Natalie Denisov]

"I haven't had a good way to go check on it. Been keeping my fingerprint on the system intentionally small."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"It's too late to manage my footprint, so I can check."

[Natalie Denisov]

"If you find something interesting, let me know."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"You can count on it."