[Social] Home Inspection

[Natalie Denisov]

Caretaker was working on repairing the connections to the network had been severed, but the crystal cave's connections were repaired and the Point connection were coming back on line and Natalie was testing them by materializing in various locations and doing a visual inspection of the corridors. She faded into view in one of the corridors leading to the hangars, looking around, looking at the information that Guardian and Caretaker were feeding her. Clarion was indicating that she still needed to talk to the Citadel, but Natalie had snoozed that, preferring to make sure the university was stable first. She sighed, her avatar reaching out to touch the wall and flip open a panel, visually inspecting the connections behind it.

((Open))

[Toshiro Narumi]

Exploring the Point again without Lippincott's restrictions, Tosh spied Holo-Nat and wandered over.

"So, um... you were in a weird crystal computer now. Neat?"

[Natalie Denisov]

Natalie pushes one of the connectors back together, a minute adjustment, but important the information tells her. When she hears Tosh, she turns, "Still in the crystal computer actually." She pauses, "Actually am the crystal computer now, I'm pretty sure."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"What do you mean?" he asked, "Did something happen to your body?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"Long story, but yes. Most of it is Ashlie's story to tell, but I had to assume the duties of the Mastermind system and I had to give up my body so Ashlie's nanites could have a pattern to work from to build hers. So... yeah..." She flips the panel closed.

[Toshiro Narumi]

He didn't even know how to begin addressing what a sacrifice that was, so his brain mostly saved it away for later.

"I trust there was no other way to get her back?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"She was using the MGH core from the rock monster as a temporary power source and the fluctuations I was detecting in her nanite swarm's make-up were... concerning. Ghost had damaged the crystal computer pretty significantly and we had our hands full trying to keep the system from unraveling and reestablishing connection to the network. I couldn't take the chance that there would be a repeat of that mission and... I couldn't risk us losing her again."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"For what it's worth, I'd have made the same call. She's important to me too."

Then he paused. "Wait wait, back up... her nanite swarm?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"Yes. Again, her story, but she was using Acala as a... hiding mechanism? She and I still need to talk. I understand she was injured in apprehending Lippincott, so I expect that talk will have to wait."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"I was wondering how her getting wounded worked."

"So she was here all along, just partitioned away in Acala. Now I feel really dumb ever blaming the swarm for her loss."

[Natalie Denisov]

"It's natural and understandable, based on the evidence we had at the time. I'm glad the hypothesis was wrong though."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Yeah. Me too. It's just too bad this is what it took to wake her up. I owe Lippincott a piece of my mind."

[Natalie Denisov]

"I imagine there's a very long line for that privilege," Natalie says. "So... want to meet the others?"

[Toshiro Narumi]

He raised a brow. " The... others?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"It's a good test of the projectors in this section," she says. As she does so, three new figures materialize behind her. Their images aren't as stable as Natalie's, but they're solid enough. "Tosh, meet Caretaker, Guardian, and Clarion."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Duuude. You did all this to join the multi-self club, didn't you?" he joked.

[Natalie Denisov]

"Having some extra processing is nice," she admits, "But no, I had no idea what would happen when I had the system designate me as the core node."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"I wish my brainmates came with extra processing. But no, all I get is wacky banter and the occasional confidence boost. And fish puns."

[Natalie Denisov]

"They're new, give them time, I imagine they'll get there," Natalie says. "Caretaker handles maintenance, Guardian handles defense systems, and Clarion handles communications, especially with the Starlight Citadel."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Trust me, you don't want constant puns."

[Natalie Denisov]

"That I can probably do without, but if it happens, it happens," she says with a laugh. The other three disappear and she sobers, "Have you seen Shari?"

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Not lately, no. No conspicuously large lutrinae either."

[Natalie Denisov]

"I'm going to have to figure out how to talk to her about this... Hopefully I handle it better than I did last time something like this happened. I should have projector access to the campus restored before too much longer."

[Toshiro Narumi]

He gave a sympathetic wince.

"Yeeaah. I don't envy that conversation."

[Natalie Denisov]

"I *think* she'll understand, just be disappointed that I won't be leaving campus for the foreseeable future."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"But you'll be able to appear anywhere on campus? That's convenient I guess."

[Natalie Denisov]

"In theory. Still have some points of the system that I don't understand."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Such as what? Not that there's a computer thing I understand better than you do."

[Natalie Denisov]

"The protocols with the Starlight Citadel are a bit unclear at the moment, but I've been more focused on 'here' and letting that worry about itself for the moment. Also, I haven't quite reconnected to the extent of the campus network, so I'm not exactly sure what the capabilities are there."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Yeah, I'm sure it's complicated enough without other worlds and all the... Merlin stuff the... what'd you do with the old Caretaker anyway?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"Locked him up in my personal brand of code containment. The Citadel said he's under interdiction for actions leading to the death of a member of the Captain Britain Corps, insurrection against the Citadel, and some other things I don't totally understand. I'm still looking for where he ended up after the system got damaged by Ghost's pet. No sign of him yet, so he was probably caught up in the damage.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"If he was, it might be best if the destruction was total. A glitched out version could be a problem."

[Natalie Denisov]

"I have no reason to doubt the Citadel's records and I didn't have a lot of time to deliberate the decision. He was very upset that I didn't hand the authentication token over to him though."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Well it's moot now I guess. Whatever his intentions, you're the caretaker now and you know how to handle buggy software."

"Just... well, I don't need to tell you to be careful."

[Natalie Denisov]

She smiles, "Thanks, Tosh. For better or worse, I made my digital bed on this one and I have to take care of it now, but I'll do my best."