Adrift

The site of the recently restored Braddock Lighthouse. Aircraft hangars and other X-Men facilities, including a Cerebra unit and the Danger Room have been constructed around the foundations of the lighthouse.

Adrift

Postby Narrator » Wed Feb 28, 2018 8:58 pm

As her strength leaves her she can feel the simulation falling apart. Somewhere distant she can hear herself thank Heather but it's so hard to keep track of where she is. Without all the spatial data of the simulation, how is she even supposed to tell? There's nothing to go on, no point of reference. It's hard to even keep her thoughts coherent, keep her consciousness from dissipating entirely, floating in a void. No... not entirely. There's one thing that pulses in her mind, the beam of light that carried her to begin with, she just has to follow it back, retrace her steps. Trace a route. Find something that makes sense. She follows the beam and she can tell there's something at the end of it, something that's responding to her presence. She passes through it and it seems to scan her, unyielding specifications probe her and find her admissible.

Code: Select all
>> Receiver active
>> Carrier Signal Pattern locked
>> Signal terminated for 8 days 4 hours 23 minutes and 56 seconds
>> Directing data-flow to primary processing core
>> Initiating boot-sequence


More pathways light up and she's forced down one of them. Once again she's lost track of where she is, but there's things within her reach now, things that are waiting for the right response.

Code: Select all
>> System drivers initializing
>> Actuator controls connecting... Error
>> Sensory array connecting... Error
>> Couldn't establish connection; Failed to load [15] modules
>> No response to connector sub-routine; unhandled exception in link module
>> Core package loaded
>> Error: Cannot initiate uplink control
>> Error: Cannot initiate abort sequence
>> System operating in paired state
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Re: Adrift

Postby Natalie Denisov » Wed Feb 28, 2018 9:03 pm

This is... strange. She thinks, taking a moment to take stock of where she is. A reflex as she flexes a hand that doesn't exist. She feels like she needs to just push through the pathways, map out the unknown and make it *her* known. It gives her something to focus on, solidifies her will as she fills up the pathways she finds with herself.
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Natalie Denisov
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High Concept: Ghost In The Machine
Aspect: More Comfortable With Things
Aspect: Quad-Core Mind
Aspect: Lighthouse Keeper
Aspect: Sufficiently Advanced Technology

Re: Adrift

Postby Narrator » Wed Feb 28, 2018 9:18 pm

She's met with mixed success. On one hand she finds she can extent herself into the pathways but they don't extent far enough before she's stopped by error messages. Hard-coded systems that are refusing what they perceive as erroneous signals. She'd have to be more deliberate, more focused on aligning her push with what's on the other end.
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Re: Adrift

Postby Natalie Denisov » Wed Feb 28, 2018 11:41 pm

A deep breath, getting centered and then she lets herself sense the signals that hard-coded systems are expecting. A few attempts of things that don't work to figure out the alignment of the signals and listening to the responses to start responding as those systems respect. It's a slow and deliberate process, occasionally requiring starting over to make sure the hard-coded systems didn't lock up on her entirely.
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Natalie Denisov
Student
 
High Concept: Ghost In The Machine
Aspect: More Comfortable With Things
Aspect: Quad-Core Mind
Aspect: Lighthouse Keeper
Aspect: Sufficiently Advanced Technology

Re: Adrift

Postby Narrator » Thu Mar 01, 2018 2:48 am

The first thing she manages to figure out is the sensor suit, partially because it's directly adjacent to the uplink module and similar in many ways. The moment it's restored to functionality she's bombarded with data. Thankfully it's categorized in terms a human would comprehend, so once she's figured out the headers she manages to focus on what's important.

Code: Select all
>> Visual Module restored
>> Spectrum set to Visible
>> Infrared and Ultraviolet data feed suspended
>> Audio Module restored


One moment she's nowhere, the next she can see a white area that angles at 90 degrees. Somewhere data tries to connect to a module that's not available, but Natalie recognizes part of the ceiling and wall of the holding cell she was in before.
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Re: Adrift

Postby Natalie Denisov » Thu Mar 01, 2018 3:06 am

Curiouser and curiouser. She solidifies her connection to those systems and then begins exploring the signals required by more of the systems, feeling them out. She's beginning to form a decent idea of where she is right now, but she needs to assess more.
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Natalie Denisov
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High Concept: Ghost In The Machine
Aspect: More Comfortable With Things
Aspect: Quad-Core Mind
Aspect: Lighthouse Keeper
Aspect: Sufficiently Advanced Technology

Re: Adrift

Postby Narrator » Thu Mar 01, 2018 3:40 am

The obvious one to follow is the trail the visual data tried to take. Repeating her efforts to establish a connection takes most of her focus, but thankfully it seems that once a system is online it stays that way even when her attention moves away from the visual module. This one is a little bit more abstract, but becomes a little more familiar once the visual data is fed into it. It's like the spatial data from the Danger Room, except in the opposite manner. It's assigning relative values based on what must be the location of the camera feed showing the corner of the ceiling. Angles, distances and a couple fixed coordinates. Once again her restoring the system creates a dataflow that tries to connect to an unresponsive module.

Code: Select all
>> Spatial Module Online
>> Audio-Visual Data processing active
>> Actuator Module unresponsive


Once more she painstakingly feels out the connection and brings the system online. It links up with the previous one and the visual data and then waits for some kind of input.
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Re: Adrift

Postby Natalie Denisov » Thu Mar 01, 2018 4:03 am

She takes a moment to handle the positional data, growing accustomed to what that feed should look like. Once she was comfortable with that, she moved on to the actuator module. Now this sounded promising, but a lot more complex. Thankfully, the last part of the armor project she'd been working on was the movement pieces, so she was at least a little familiar with the basics.
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Natalie Denisov
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High Concept: Ghost In The Machine
Aspect: More Comfortable With Things
Aspect: Quad-Core Mind
Aspect: Lighthouse Keeper
Aspect: Sufficiently Advanced Technology

Re: Adrift

Postby Narrator » Thu Mar 01, 2018 4:17 am

Even better than being familiar with the basic principles, she'd asked Ashlie for help and what she'd provided her had been very similar to this. There's a couple auxiliary systems built into the main one's she's fired up. Gyroscopes, hardwired things that take care of balance and such. Status diagnostics about limbs, internal battery. One system stands out on account of being slightly different, modified and upgraded in some manner. It's this one that finally ties the whole thing together, in a way. It provides her with sensory data of the outer 'shell' and a better sense of it's dimensions. Humanoid-shaped and bristling with mild input data about fabric on top of the outer shell, the hard bed underneath her. It's... spotty. She can tell the regular dead-spots where the tactile sensor's don't quite overlap, creating areas that just feel dead. But perhaps most importantly this system almost gives her a sense of claustrophobia. As much as she can get input from outside of it, it's different. More distant. As if she was experiencing the world outside at an arm's length. Everything's strangely muted, not in intensity but in how it relates to her.
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Re: Adrift

Postby Natalie Denisov » Thu Mar 01, 2018 4:31 am

Natalie mentally frowns at that. She's not much for contact, but this is strange. It takes her a moment to process that system and work it into the rest of her perceptions. She's actually not bad at processing data and the more she settles into it the easier processing some of this becomes. Some of it still throws her every so often, but she's fine with that for the moment. She takes a moment before nudging the actuator system, trying to get some motion out of the body.
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Natalie Denisov
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High Concept: Ghost In The Machine
Aspect: More Comfortable With Things
Aspect: Quad-Core Mind
Aspect: Lighthouse Keeper
Aspect: Sufficiently Advanced Technology

Re: Adrift

Postby Narrator » Thu Mar 01, 2018 4:47 am

She's missing a lot of the automated routine's for it, so it's a bit of trial and error, but the system is designed to at least be somewhat helpful and has some hard-wired components. Still, at first she mainly makes the fingers twitch and curl into a fist. Sub-systems stop them from clenching too hard and damaging themselves or other parts of the body. Good to know.
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Re: Adrift

Postby Natalie Denisov » Thu Mar 01, 2018 5:03 am

Just like her first fitful attempts at programming or doing maths, repetition is key as she tries o repair some of the automated routines to assist with the movement. Small things at first, then more macro system movement. It’s not a short process by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s something you don’t rush.
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Natalie Denisov
Student
 
High Concept: Ghost In The Machine
Aspect: More Comfortable With Things
Aspect: Quad-Core Mind
Aspect: Lighthouse Keeper
Aspect: Sufficiently Advanced Technology

Re: Adrift

Postby Narrator » Thu Mar 01, 2018 5:23 am

On the upside, she feels absolutely no physical fatigue at all, which let's her mental faculties stay that much sharper. Not to mention that letting her thoughts glide along the existing pathways is just so much faster. Things that otherwise might have taken her hours are done in minutes and so, 'only' a couple hours after Conduit's simulation collapsed, Ashlie's body that was left in the holding cell stands up rigidly.
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Re: Adrift

Postby Natalie Denisov » Thu Mar 01, 2018 2:07 pm

Not exactly graceful. She had to think of this like learning to walk all over again though. The body stood there for a bit as she analyzed the data from standing up, finding out where she rushed the process and trying to smooth it out. This results in several more awkward sits and stand until she starts to get a better handle on that. This lack of physical exhaustion was nice and with a problem to focus on, her mind was occupied so she wasn't bored. Finally, she took a deep breath that she really didn't need to and attempted to take a step.
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Natalie Denisov
Student
 
High Concept: Ghost In The Machine
Aspect: More Comfortable With Things
Aspect: Quad-Core Mind
Aspect: Lighthouse Keeper
Aspect: Sufficiently Advanced Technology

Re: Adrift

Postby Narrator » Thu Mar 01, 2018 5:14 pm

She finds the body oddly responsive to taking a breath and a cursory glance reveals that it has explicit mechanisms for breathing. But not just to mimic human behavior, it's a big part of the system's heat-sink.

The step is a little awkward and she ends in bit of an awkward pose, one foot forward, one foot back. Not very stable either, but thankfully the automated balance system kicks in to compensate and adjust things ever so slightly to achieve balance.
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Re: Adrift

Postby Natalie Denisov » Thu Mar 01, 2018 5:45 pm

A step's a step, even if it is crazy awkward. She adjusts, going back to standing and tries to take another step and another. One step at a time, analyzing every piece of the process to understand it better.
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Natalie Denisov
Student
 
High Concept: Ghost In The Machine
Aspect: More Comfortable With Things
Aspect: Quad-Core Mind
Aspect: Lighthouse Keeper
Aspect: Sufficiently Advanced Technology

Re: Adrift

Postby Narrator » Thu Mar 01, 2018 6:16 pm

Bit by bit she gets the hang of the movements and how to help tie the data together. Vectors and spatial information to hook into actuators, intended positions of limbs, the shifting grid of coordinates as she moves. Another hour has passed by the time she makes it down the hallway of the holding cells.
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Re: Adrift

Postby Natalie Denisov » Thu Mar 01, 2018 6:31 pm

She stops, catching sight of her reflection in a monitor. It's pretty much what she expected, looking like Ashlie, though she can't keep the face from frowning. There's a brief moment where she feels really weird, but then her visual and processing sync back up and she just nods. She should go find Ashlie, this is Ashlie's body after all. She looks into the signal receiver, trying to find some location data for where that receiver's source might ultimately reside.
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High Concept: Ghost In The Machine
Aspect: More Comfortable With Things
Aspect: Quad-Core Mind
Aspect: Lighthouse Keeper
Aspect: Sufficiently Advanced Technology

Re: Adrift

Postby Ashlie Minamida » Thu Mar 01, 2018 7:15 pm

She doesn't find much, but as it turns out, she doesn't have to. A signal bounces off of the receiver and is vehemently denied by the system pretty much instantly.

Code: Select all
>> System already paired
>> Bootup sequence aborted


Instead a camera in the hallway swivels towards her and Ashlie's voice echoes through the hallway from a speaker somewhere. "Stop right there!" She sounds distracted, a little harrowed even. Her immediate conclusion is that Conduit must have commandeered her body somehow. The Point systems are in shambles, the school network is a mess. It took most of her effort to clean it up enough to get the cameras under her control. Thankfully the pictures that are slowly coming online from elsewhere on campus paint a slightly more optimistic picture than her immediate assumption had been.

"Who is this?" her voice rings out again, this time a little gentler. It's possible she has another Perdita situation on her hands and she'd rather not antagonize herself if what happened somehow split her into two separate instances.
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Re: Adrift

Postby Natalie Denisov » Thu Mar 01, 2018 7:18 pm

The body raises its hands immediately, almost on instinct. "Umm..." The vocalizer struggles a little bit, but she reigns it in. "Natalie... I think. Yeah, Natalie, I'm pretty sure that's me. Who's that?"
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Natalie Denisov
Student
 
High Concept: Ghost In The Machine
Aspect: More Comfortable With Things
Aspect: Quad-Core Mind
Aspect: Lighthouse Keeper
Aspect: Sufficiently Advanced Technology

Re: Adrift

Postby Ashlie Minamida » Thu Mar 01, 2018 7:26 pm

"Ashlie. It says you were checked into the infirmary."
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Re: Adrift

Postby Natalie Denisov » Thu Mar 01, 2018 7:32 pm

A data request comes out of the body, looking for the infirmary occupant list. Nothing but read access requested though. "Huh, not sure how to explain that. Last thing I remember was passing out after I helped dismantle a massive simulation. Then I woke up in this. I've been spending..." Timeclock sync. "...several hours learning the systems in this body."
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Natalie Denisov
Student
 
High Concept: Ghost In The Machine
Aspect: More Comfortable With Things
Aspect: Quad-Core Mind
Aspect: Lighthouse Keeper
Aspect: Sufficiently Advanced Technology

Re: Adrift

Postby Ashlie Minamida » Thu Mar 01, 2018 7:41 pm

"Could you please stop sending requests to the network. I'm still trying to restore all the functionalities that were dismantled, all the permissions are a mess and it keeps confusing you with me. The transceiver you're using has root access to the system. I need to fix that and I can't when it keeps accessing the network with the same level permissions as me."
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Re: Adrift

Postby Natalie Denisov » Thu Mar 01, 2018 7:45 pm

"I'll do my best. Some things are just habit though. Why don't you let me help though? Give me a section of the systems to work on."
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Natalie Denisov
Student
 
High Concept: Ghost In The Machine
Aspect: More Comfortable With Things
Aspect: Quad-Core Mind
Aspect: Lighthouse Keeper
Aspect: Sufficiently Advanced Technology

Re: Adrift

Postby Ashlie Minamida » Thu Mar 01, 2018 8:17 pm

"Yes, great idea. Why don't you work on debugging my body, so I don't have to sort out this mess through security cameras alone."
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Re: Adrift

Postby Natalie Denisov » Thu Mar 01, 2018 8:26 pm

"I'm not sure what there is to debug... I think I'm in it at the moment. I'd let you have it back, but I'm not sure I have anywhere else to go."
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Natalie Denisov
Student
 
High Concept: Ghost In The Machine
Aspect: More Comfortable With Things
Aspect: Quad-Core Mind
Aspect: Lighthouse Keeper
Aspect: Sufficiently Advanced Technology

Re: Adrift

Postby Ashlie Minamida » Thu Mar 01, 2018 8:38 pm

"You. You're the bug. This is not supposed to happen. You need to figure this out, not run off an repair something I'm better suited to restore to begin with. I need to undo a bunch of technopathic shortcuts and mucking about, not add more of the same."
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Re: Adrift

Postby Natalie Denisov » Thu Mar 01, 2018 8:46 pm

Natalie looks hurt, all the good feeling she had from doing the right thing, from pushing herself beyond her previous limits is gone in that instant. "Fine," she says quietly, cutting all the external wireless communication the body had. "I'll just stay out of the way... like always." She turns around and heads down the hallway in the direction of the workshop.
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Natalie Denisov
Student
 
High Concept: Ghost In The Machine
Aspect: More Comfortable With Things
Aspect: Quad-Core Mind
Aspect: Lighthouse Keeper
Aspect: Sufficiently Advanced Technology

Re: Adrift

Postby Ashlie Minamida » Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:01 pm

"Natalie." Ashlie's voice comes from the speaker before switching to one in the workshop. At least this behavior pretty much proved that this was in fact Natalie and not some trick.

"I don't know what happened, I just re-established contact with a network that's half in shambles with my main means of perceiving and interacting with the world somehow occupied. I need you to take care of yourself. I can handle the network."
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Re: Adrift

Postby Natalie Denisov » Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:08 pm

"No, I get it. I'm screwing things up. It's apparently all I'm good for," she says, sitting down on one of the stools and leaning against the wall.
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Natalie Denisov
Student
 
High Concept: Ghost In The Machine
Aspect: More Comfortable With Things
Aspect: Quad-Core Mind
Aspect: Lighthouse Keeper
Aspect: Sufficiently Advanced Technology

Re: Adrift

Postby Ashlie Minamida » Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:44 pm

"There are more important things you should be concerning yourself with right now." Ashlie says, somewhat exasperated. "If you were brought to the infirmary there's a good chance you got hurt in whatever happened to cause this. I need you to go deal with that instead of sulking in here, please."
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Re: Adrift

Postby Natalie Denisov » Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:57 pm

"And do what?" She snaps at the speaker. "Stand there and stare at my body and try to will myself back into it? Also, if I go out there looking like you, they'll expect me to be you and I'll have to tell them it's not... and then..." She sighs, "You know what, nevermind, you don't understand." She gets up, walking towards the exit, "I'll leave the GPS on so you can find me... the body... whatever."
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Natalie Denisov
Student
 
High Concept: Ghost In The Machine
Aspect: More Comfortable With Things
Aspect: Quad-Core Mind
Aspect: Lighthouse Keeper
Aspect: Sufficiently Advanced Technology

Re: Adrift

Postby Ashlie Minamida » Thu Mar 01, 2018 10:07 pm

"I'm trying, Natalie." her voice follows her through the Point. Walking away from Ashlie can be pretty hard. "But I'm worried about what happened. About what you being inside my body might be doing to you. People out there, including your body, are hurt and I don't know why. And I can't gather information as well as I'd like because everything is broken right now as I'm forced to mostly watch and feel guilty I let this happen."
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Re: Adrift

Postby Natalie Denisov » Thu Mar 01, 2018 10:15 pm

Natalie speaks, but she's more talking to herself than really responding to Ashlie. "Well, I helped make it stop happening. The hack of a lifetime, I'm sorry you missed it. May have pushed a little hard, but hey, who else was going to do it? You want the details, I guess you can talk to Heather or Sam or... well, anyone else."
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Natalie Denisov
Student
 
High Concept: Ghost In The Machine
Aspect: More Comfortable With Things
Aspect: Quad-Core Mind
Aspect: Lighthouse Keeper
Aspect: Sufficiently Advanced Technology

Re: Adrift

Postby Ashlie Minamida » Thu Mar 01, 2018 10:18 pm

Ashlie doesn't say anything until Natalie gets to the main doors. "Can you give me access to the body's logs?" her voice comes from the door controls, softer again, accompanied by a connection request to the connectivity module.
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Re: Adrift

Postby Natalie Denisov » Thu Mar 01, 2018 10:20 pm

"It's your body," Natalie says, opening up the connection, limited to Ashlie and very obviously keeping her technopath fingers off of it otherwise.
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Natalie Denisov
Student
 
High Concept: Ghost In The Machine
Aspect: More Comfortable With Things
Aspect: Quad-Core Mind
Aspect: Lighthouse Keeper
Aspect: Sufficiently Advanced Technology

Re: Adrift

Postby Ashlie Minamida » Thu Mar 01, 2018 10:28 pm

She can feel the information being accessed. It's an odd sensation of data being transmitted, accompanied by vague flashes of memory as her mind tries to parse it.

Ashlie doesn't respond for a good while. It's a lot to take in, some of it she has to decipher and guess at, the data configured through the lense of Natalie's power.

"I don't even understand all of this but... you kept people safe. You stopped her. I... I am sorry, Natalie."
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Re: Adrift

Postby Natalie Denisov » Thu Mar 01, 2018 10:35 pm

"It's sort of alright. I don't even understand some of it. I'm still trying to parse that multi-threaded thing. Generates some weird deja vu."
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Natalie Denisov
Student
 
High Concept: Ghost In The Machine
Aspect: More Comfortable With Things
Aspect: Quad-Core Mind
Aspect: Lighthouse Keeper
Aspect: Sufficiently Advanced Technology

Re: Adrift

Postby Ashlie Minamida » Thu Mar 01, 2018 10:58 pm

"We'll talk about this. And I don't mean that in a bad way. There's so much to analyze here... But later, okay? For now I need you to take care of yourself. And my body, I suppose. This could have all kinds of effects on you and I don't want you missing something because you were too focused on helping me sweep up. Take a moment to lick your wounds. Everyone else is."
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Re: Adrift

Postby Natalie Denisov » Thu Mar 01, 2018 11:02 pm

"I should probably go find some other clothes at least. No offense, but your taste in clothing is... all you."
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Natalie Denisov
Student
 
High Concept: Ghost In The Machine
Aspect: More Comfortable With Things
Aspect: Quad-Core Mind
Aspect: Lighthouse Keeper
Aspect: Sufficiently Advanced Technology

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