Hard Reset

What's with all these updates? I don't wanna restart anything. ----○---- RP tumblr for Wallace Edison, d̷̸̵á̵͏̧҉t̶̛͢a̴͘͡ ̴̸̧̕͞c̷̷̸̛̕o̷͞͠r̸̸̡r̶ų̵̴͏̡p҉̴t̕͟͞e̡̛d̀́͡. M!A: None.

[electric-engineer]

It's been a few months now since I got everythin' fixed and workin' properly, but it's still hilarious to get the one hand to pop off when people try a handshake. People just don't seem to expect anythin' mechanical under a glove, which...honestly, that's kinda surprisin', given the whole--theme of our jobs, here.

[pierregrassou]

A collection of robots saying “f**k this sh*t”

[electric-engineer]

...oh, right. Food's a thing, isn't it.

[electric-engineer]

I guess I don't have to complain about doin' maintenance now. That's...good? Is it?

[electric-engineer]

mmMMMM alright I know I said I was gone yesterday, but. there are some things that get my ire up and then I don't shut up. recent revelations have contributed to that. dapper gets pissed about things 2k14.

The current topic of the day? CP-Standin. Or...Standing, Landin, whatever else the blog may call it. That base is not okay. The people running it are also not okay.

You do not get to directly rip off other bases and then get off with a quick little 'sorry' and a bunch of self-deprecation--that's not how this works. Nah.

April 20th 2014, 11:46:00 pm · 6 minutes ago Well…it’s a bit hard to describe since as a mun I was banned from sending any apps in, so that is basically why I made him neutral. He is part of it but dosen’t really participate in battles. He’s just there…it’s hard to explain…

So what we learn from this is that you kind of have a record of doing unsavory things with bases. Moving on, though.

You just absolutely admitted to directly stealing things from other groups. Do you see why that's not going to fly? For one, you've got a history, and secondly, you're also really obvious to pick out. I took one look at Lumberyard and I knew it was you. Didn't take much to confirm it, either; the post you made to promo it was obvious enough, but when you were the only one that signal boosted it with any positive notes--within seconds of it being posted, might I add--that just put another nail in the coffin. After that, I thought about it a bit. I know Mountain Lab rejected you, and--oh look, there was ML stuff all over the place. Not sure if Upward did the same, but hey, there it was as well! The fact that the whole base got deleted right as you came back was what really pegged you for it, though. Here you are again, though, doing the exact same thing with a new name slapped on it. I'm sorry, but no.

Writing up your own stuff for a base is, as I said yesterday, actually a lot of fun. I wrote up everything for Nightfall from scratch, and it was a breeze. No copypasta or plagiarism required, either! Bases can be similar, yes, but you went beyond similar and just ripped everything off. You and your cohort stole literally hours and even days of late-night writing sessions, base mechanic talks, and people coming together to make something that they can be proud of--aka their own base. Bases are rarely a one-person deal, and you two have managed to piss off plenty of people as a result. Because--seriously? Stealing from Upward of all places? That's a bad move right there. A really, really bad move.

I try not to stick my head in the wasps' nest. I do. But when you're stealing ideas and hard work from people who've spent so much time and effort to make something for other people to enjoy, I just can't tolerate that. That's--no.

Just. Stop. Your base isn't going to go anywhere but down, because people know what you've done. Your co-admin isn't blameless, either, and while I can't say much on them due to my not knowing who the hell they are, I've got more than enough on you, buddy. The fact that they willingly went in with you on this definitely speaks for their character, though.

People aren't going to forget this. To be honest, you should delete the blog, and directly apologize to the admins of the bases you stole from. Even then, that's only going to do so much, and you deserve it, really. You know the consequences of stealing, I have no doubt--you can't say you didn't know to any of these things. Because--well, you did. [ Other ] [ comments ] have also been made on the current issue, and they do a real good job of summing it up, too.

Take the blame, nut up, and apologize. That's all you can do at this point.

[electric-engineer]

[The only thing I'm dredging up this blog to do is express my complete and utter disappointment at that base.]

[srs. typing up a base isn't all that hard--it's actually a lot of fun, too! you don't have to go raiding other bases for stuff for yours. that's just rude as hell, anyhow. BC]

[electric-engineer]

[Character offline for the foreseeable future.]

[o-do-dok]

Engineers

[electric-engineer]

Breathe.

It took a second or two to realize that was what he needed to do, and he gulped in air like he'd been suffocating now that he was once more part of the land of the living. He hadn't dared to try and take a look at what had happened yet, but Edison at least knew that his efforts had somewhat worked. The fact that he wasn't seeing the pure blackness that came with shutting his optics off was a big hint--instead, everything was a warm brown, and it wasn't hard to tell that the glow was from the lights he knew were above him. He was sore as hell and felt like he'd had the wind knocked out of him, but as far as he could tell, it had gone right this time.

The next thing to come to his attention was that he should probably get up sometime soon. Still, for now, laying on the floor wasn't exactly a bad thing. He let out a shaky chuckle as he relaxed, a dull sense of pride beginning to worm its way through the pounding in his head as he realized what he'd just managed to pull off. He'd done it. Everything else could wait for a minute or two, because he'd actually done it.

Squinting against the lights as he cracked open an eye, the Engineer slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position, gritting his teeth at the prickling in his--leg? That didn't feel right. Then again, nothing had felt exactly right, to be honest. One of his hands wasn't responding, either; that was alright, he could just restart his--wait, no. People didn't restart body parts. The nagging sense of dread was more than enough for him to open both eyes despite the harsh glare, breathing a short hiss as his headache redoubled its efforts in retaliation.

Red was the first thing he saw. It wasn't supposed to be there, everything told him--that was blood. It looked like he hadn't entirely dodged the bullet after all, and the first thing he could come up with as to why was his impatience. Shit. He should've waited more than a few minutes--there was no way that had been enough time, now that he actually stopped to think about it for more than a second. His left hand had remained robotic, a few straggling chunks of plating digging into the skin past his wrist in a manner that appeared to be very much painful; Edison didn't feel anything yet, but he was sure that he would later. A glance down at the leg he'd been wondering about proved that it too had suffered the same fate from the knee down, blood and tattered denim clinging to the hard surface and giving it a sickening sheen. That uncertain chuckle resurfaced, though this time coming out far more strained as he got a better look at his injuries. The metal limbs felt more like blocks of concrete, and Edison wasn't sure if he could make himself stand at the moment.

He leaned back against the wall, plastering a pained grin to his face as he closed his eyes.

It had worked, sort of. Enough to count.

[electric-engineer]

Edison was so close now, and it looked like everything was lining up. If he could only keep going, he might even be able to get himself through the system soon to see if he'd done everything right--if, again. He really didn't like that word.

What was stopping him now, anyway? He'd swapped the templates, and it should have finished uploading the right one by now. The problem was that he had no idea how long that process even took; for all he knew, it could take days, if not weeks. It probably didn't, but caution was the word, as he'd reminded himself ad nauseum by now. Would he be able to get away with respawning at this time of night? There wouldn't be any way to hide it, not with how the system was built. And if it worked, he'd have to explain himself all over again...hm. He had no choice but to be willing to do that. What was the worst that could be done in response to that? Couldn't put him back in the robot or anything. At least--he hoped they couldn't. Edison was out of options now, though. Whatever happened at this point was it, he guessed.

He could do it if he really wanted to. It would be easy--just trigger a respawn, and see what happened. The option was there. After logging out of the terminal, Edison took a step back, holding perfectly still for a few moments as he debated with himself.

He went for it.

As he'd been told when he'd been briefed on his noncombatant duties, his respawns took longer than the full mercenaries' would. The fact had been a bit grating, but he'd accepted that; the alternative was no respawn at all, and Edison was not willing to try that. He'd heard stories about Arena bases, and he didn't feel like having his own personal slice of hell cut right from that and delivered to his door. Dying was simply part of the job, anyway. Whether or not it took him a while to come back didn't matter quite so much, but if he could in the first place did. Still, limbo was almost pleasant, even if it was almost too easy to lose track of time while waiting to come back. It was impossible that his respawn had gone unnoticed, but he still had time left to waste before he had to worry about that. For now, everything was quiet and still, just as it always was.

He must have gotten distracted somewhere along the road, because it wasn't all that much longer to him before he felt that familiar tug, and his countdown was up.

The first thing he noticed was the pain. There was no way to describe it other than white-hot, and it burned through his skull and seared its mark on the backs of his eyelids--at least, he thought it did. Did he even have those? Almost everything was numb on the outside, but it felt like he was burning from the inside out. He couldn't see, and something was keeping the world from making sense to him--it was as if his sensors were still present, jamming everything with alerts and alarms meant for systems that weren't there anymore. Whatever had happened, it wasn't meshing well, and Edison was all the worse for it. When he tried to get up, all he heard was a metallic clanking that sent a cold lance down his spine; then there was a sickening twinge, and he was back in limbo again.

That hadn't gone how he'd planned at all.

[electric-engineer]

Alright, he was in. The fact that there hadn't been any alarms going off or traps sprung was one that he was very much thankful for, even if he didn't waste any more time reflecting on it. He had things to do, anyway, and not as much nighttime to do it all in as he would've liked. Having to explain this to somebody wasn't anywhere near the to-do list, and Edison didn't really want to get fired, either.

The console wasn't hard to locate, but he doubted the rest of it would be that easy. The system was locked down for a reason--considering just what it was, it made perfect sense to put it under high security. Whether or not that would hold up very well against what he could do was a different matter, but it was the principle of the thing, really. The BLU switched the monitor on, fidgeting in place as it began to come to life in front of him. He had to be careful with the keyboard, gently typing in his code again when prompted. He hadn't been wrong in expecting security, either; the next few commands were ones that he was a lot less sure on, but making it through them simply took time. Being careful was the top priority in this case--if he made a wrong move and set off an alarm of some sort, he was absolutely fucked. What would happen if he did trigger something? Locking him out went without saying, but the rest of it was far more vague. Would it alert the Administrator? Edison didn't want to tangle with him, either. Then again, did anybody, really? Aside from that Scout, but--well, she was a bit of an outlier.

Giving a soft rasp of static by means of a sigh, Edison pulled up his templates, optics flaring bright as his current one appeared. The outline on the screen was very clearly inhuman, all sharp edges and hard lines that looked more at home on a tank than they did anything shaped like a person. If he deleted it, there would be no going back--whatever happened with the template he selected to replace it would be what he'd have to deal with, for better or for worse. Then again, how much worse could he get, really? He was a robot. That was bad enough, in his opinion. His other option was dated, to say the least, but it had the only thing that mattered to him right now: an actual human body. One from thirteen years in the past, if memory served--and of course it did. Circuitry didn't fail as easily as neurons.

Setting his first template as his primary one took only a few confirmations. Deleting his robotic template was altogether satisfying, despite the repeated alerts that what he was doing was permanent; he didn't need to be reminded. He was glad that it was the end of it, even. If he did this right, it would finally be over.

If.

[electric-engineer]

This was potentially one of the stupidest things that Edison had ever tried to mess with.

He wasn't all that good with respawn. Sure, some Engineers had been selected for additional training on the subject, as far as he'd been told, but he definitely hadn't been one of them. Come to think of it, he probably should've opted in for that. How was he supposed to know that he'd need that sort of information thirteen years in the future, though? Really. He was getting himself off-track, now that he'd stopped to consider it. That was the exact opposite of the plan, and the Engineer grumbled to himself as he continued on down the hallway. Better not get too distracted, or he'd run the risk of messing up.

He was clutching his toolbox tight enough to make the poor thing creak in protest, tools rattling faintly inside as if they were nervous. They weren't the only ones, and they had every right to be.

It was late enough to where--hopefully--nobody would think much of the resident mechanical repairman roaming around, aside from maybe a few complaints about the clanking as he passed by. He'd made sure that every variable that he could control was well in hand, and that there would be next to no distractions rearing their heads when he got down there; at least, he thought he had. Whether or not that was actually going to be the case was a different matter entirely.

When he'd reached the proper door, Edison cautiously keyed in his access code, watching with clear trepidation as the lock released itself. For a moment, he hesitated, standing at the top of the stairs and staring down what lay below. The lights flickered on one by one, and he would've taken a deep breath if he'd still had lungs.

He took the first step down.

[electric-engineer]

It couldn’t be said that Edison hadn’t seen that one coming. He returned the Spy’s earlier stare with an equally flat one, optics dimming faintly in as much of a disapproving manner as he could manage. It was the thought that counted, as he’d often told himself. He’d get the message. Probably.

"Nnnope. Just remote-controllin’ this one, here." A good five seconds passed before the BLU realized that maybe sarcasm wasn’t such a good idea—it wasn’t as if he had a lot of outward cues to make it a little more obvious. "I get that a lot, so—sorry. Wasn’ bein’ serious." He fidgeted in place, hardhat sliding to one side. "S’pose it’s a bit obvious, though? Not like I’ve got any disguises goin’ for me."

[employee5091047]

In those five seconds before the Engineer revealed the truth, the Spy was legitimately very impressed.  If they were capable of building such a thing, why didn’t more engineers use remote-controlled robots, it would make their life at work much easier.  But that thought was quickly replaced with a raised eyebrow and a ‘you-got-me’ smile.

Still, that didn’t answer many questions.  Why was there a robot at this base?  Did one of the engineers build him?  Did RED have one too?  But even with the lack of facial cues, the spy sensed from the fidgeting that the strange engineer didn’t particularly want to talk about it.

"Ah well, I’ll see you on the battlefield then?"  After a beat, he added, "do you participate in battles?" In a rainy climate like Nightfall, a robot probably would not fare very well.  "I’ll be sure to take care of your doors."

[electric-engineer]

"Probably won't. I'm a noncombatant, so--my job's off the field, mos'ly. I work on both bases, though, which means that if anythin' gets broken, you can just pop on over to my workshop on BLU, and I'll get to fixin' it. Oooor you can just wait for me to head over there. Doesn't really matter too much." He put a hand on the back of his neck, lightly drumming his fingers on the metal for a moment. Bringing up the doors again drew a frustrated grumble from him, and Edison shook his head, almost wishing he wouldn't have mentioned those.

"The doors were, uh. Some jerkoff who thought it'd be funny to run off with a few over on BLUside. Took plenty of time to get that straightened out, and--yeah, I'd rather not repeat the mess." A brief enough explanation, but hopefully one that would work alright. "Anyhow. Figure you've got some things to get done, bein' that you just got here. I already went through and patched up most of the rooms, but if yours has any problems--well. Already went over that."

[electric-engineer]

"I sure hope not. I’m pretty much the only one keepin’ this place from fallin’ apart at this point, and makin’ my job harder’s not gonna earn anybody any favors." He’d hoped that such a thing would be obvious by now, but—then again, it wasn’t as if this RED had been around before. Not that he was aware of, anyway.

After a brief pause, Edison crossed his arms, shifting in place as if he was getting comfortable. Perhaps he hadn’t started this conversation off in the most polite way, now that he thought about it. Trying to smooth that over a bit might not hurt. “You, uh—just transfer in, or….?”

[employee5091047]

The spy replied with a meek smile, betraying the fact that he wasn’t very comfortable talking to a robot.  ”Ah yes, just this morning,” he explained.  He scratched the back of his head, and nervously looked around.  

Was there really any polite way to ask someone ‘what are you.’  Rémi fell into awkward silence as he searched for the right words.  Being blunt was probably best.  ”Sorry to ask this,” he started - week grin to try and show his good intentions.  ”Are you a robot?”

[electric-engineer]

It couldn't be said that Edison hadn't seen that one coming. He returned the Spy's earlier stare with an equally flat one, optics dimming faintly in as much of a disapproving manner as he could manage. It was the thought that counted, as he'd often told himself. He'd get the message. Probably.

"Nnnope. Just remote-controllin' this one, here." A good five seconds passed before the BLU realized that maybe sarcasm wasn't such a good idea--it wasn't as if he had a lot of outward cues to make it a little more obvious. "I get that a lot, so--sorry. Wasn' bein' serious." He fidgeted in place, hardhat sliding to one side. "S'pose it's a bit obvious, though? Not like I've got any disguises goin' for me."

[electric-engineer]

[there was an actual IC instance where Edison did jazz hands, and I need to stop forgetting this because the thought of him doing that amuses the hell out of me.]

[electric-engineer]

RED unit detected. Scans initiated—now loading data packet…

employee5091047

Oh hell no. Don’t need to be fussin’ with Spies at this time of night.

…you’re new, though. Please tell me you didn’t come around just to mess up somethin’ I fixed. If—if you mess with any of these doors I will do somethin’ about it and you’re not gonna like what it is.

[employee5091047]

The spy returns the engineer’s greeting with a deadpan stare.  He’d only just managed to understand splices and their plight… and now this?  He was getting far too old for this job.  

"Look, you don’t need to worry about your doors," he punctuated his sentence with a exasperated wave of his hand.  "I’m just here to do my job,"

[electric-engineer]

"I sure hope not. I'm pretty much the only one keepin' this place from fallin' apart at this point, and makin' my job harder's not gonna earn anybody any favors." He'd hoped that such a thing would be obvious by now, but--then again, it wasn't as if this RED had been around before. Not that he was aware of, anyway.

After a brief pause, Edison crossed his arms, shifting in place as if he was getting comfortable. Perhaps he hadn't started this conversation off in the most polite way, now that he thought about it. Trying to smooth that over a bit might not hurt. "You, uh--just transfer in, or....?"

[plr-nightfall-blog1]

[Hello everyone!

This is an official announcement to let everyone know that due to an imbalance in the number of team members, all applications for the RED team are currently closed. Any applications sent to us for RED will be asked to be balanced to BLU or be put on hold until the numbers are even. We are currently accepting applications for all classes on BLU!

Finally, we have noticed a slight drop in activity as of late due to many different reasons and would like to propose an event to try to bring a bit more life back to the base. We are welcoming any and all suggestions!

Thank you!

-Mod G]