Title: FFXIV Write 2024 - 22. On Cloud Nine
Characters: Zoissette Vauban
Rating: Teen
Summary: Zoissette 'Riot' Vauban might actually hate it here
Notes: Cyberpunk AU, an Aetherwave story
"We should burn it all down," growled Yoho, as they left the elevator, finally getting clear of the Everkeep Arcology.
They had spent the day on Cloud Nine. On a literal Cloud Nine.
That was the name, anyroad, for Everkeep Arcology's entertainment district. The Arcology was a self-contained city within a city, and Cloud Nine in turn was a self-contained amusement park of sorts for the people who lived there. It was a grandiose spectacle, taking up what would have been ten by ten city blocks at street level.
They were arguably here for a meet, to drop off their ill gotten goods with the client who had contracted them. Riot had met with Mr. Johnson, and handed off the stolen data. He had been an interesting man. Most Mr. Johnson types were reserved, stern, severe sorts, but he was almost a jester, exuberant, joyful. She had given him the data and the codes to decrypt it. He had given her the team's payout, doubled it, and as an extended bonus, a set of full independent day passes to stay on Cloud Nine. He'd babbled and wandered off, and shortly after, she had handed out the passes and told the team to stay connected over the BAT-TAC-NET and otherwise enjoy their day.
And it was a good day, really. The work they had gotten paid for was exactly the kind of work Riot preferred, work where the megacorporations stole from each other and poked each other in the eye. The kind of work which would cause shareholder distress, but not result in a hab block's worth of wage slaves to suddenly scramble for new employment opportunities. Clean work, bloodless this time.
Also not the kind of work that wound up with her chest being made concave again. That was nice.
The team had wandered off, not a one of them ever having been immersed in such an interesting take on luxury. Cloud Nine was a rich person's playground, to be sure, but it felt warm and real and welcoming, tasteful, happy, fun. It was a place of joy, a place where nobody had to worry about anything. There were kiosks where one could indulge in almost any pleasure they might imagine. Places for people to go and do things that met almost any interest they might have. The place was full of people, busy but not crowded, noisy but not loud.
Nyx had been the first one to vanish, and her BAT-TAC-NET icon flashed to overwatch. Riot was not surprised at this. The little entity would be happiest just observing, and she was not sure there was any earthly need it desired that would be met by this sort of place anyroad.
Digit was next, wandering off, periodically expression amazement at the network architecture of the place, talking in excited rapid tones. He couldn't crack the security here, of course, but he didn't need to. The local security seemed to not mind the light amount of electronic support the team needed, and so Digit diligently kept the team in contact with one another and helped keep an eye on the digital landscape.
However, he was in wonderland. The host here was beyond ultraviolet rating, apparently. It boasted a more real than real virtual reality environment, apparently, but did not have the earmarks of better-than-life signal boosting. Good enough to live a comfortable and long virtual life in, not so good that it would have fried someone's synapses to uselessness. And then he found the virtual assistants, virtual pets, system agents, and eventually Riot just killed his feed to only respond to an override from him. She did not mind his excitement, just decided to leave him to it.
Valentine nudged Riot, and shared his augmented reality feed with her. She looked over. "Complimentary escorts... and complimentary services," she said. "Anyone you recognize?"
"No, and that's weird, don't you rather think?" he said, closing up the feed again. "I'm going to go take a look around, see if I can't get some commcodes. Maybe if I'm nice to the right worker they'll let me into the worker crawlspaces."
Riot had been trying to find those herself. Place like this, it should have an entire second traversal space, for any workers to come and go nearly invisibly. Underground walkways, hidden doors. "Keep me posted, stay out of trouble. This is not a run." He nodded, and vanished into the crowd.
This place was too nice for Yoho. She was doing her usual shtick, hamming it up, schmoozing, being everyone's friend. Just being larger than life. It didn't take too long before she was raiding kiosks for all she could gather, talking to every one they passed that might have been a worker instead of a guest - and Riot did have to admit, it could be hard to tell, some people seeming to melt from one role to the next effortlessly - and eventually, she too wandered off.
I want to punch someone in the face, Yoho said over comms not so much later.
I've been invited to punch someone in the face, came across even later, her voice slightly awed even as it was incredulous. Riot checked in on her feed, and saw that Yoho was signing up for a go in the combat arena.
Of course the place had a combat arena.
Solitaire had been guarded since they entered, but Riot had caught her looking upwards and wide-eyed. When they had each began to wander the space freely, she had expressed how astounded she was at the rich aetherscape that the place apparently held. Spirits existed here, freely, and were mingling in their own way among the population. And then she had gotten lost upon finding out that the library covered the latest in aetherological research matters, and was free for her perusal for as long as she wished. Well, free was perhaps the wrong word. Gratis, was perhaps more accurate. Well, the team was not paying for it, and Solitaire had been left, contented pored through tomes that were very possibly impossible to find elsewhere.
Riot just moved on. Moved through the space. She kept her big grin on her face, because she was still a big warborg, and while she may have had an all day pass, she was not eager to too quickly give someone a reason to kick her out for being made of metal in public. However, most people here just seemed to give her a curious glance over before moving on. A few asked for a picture with her, but were gracious when she demurred.
She figure out why fast enough. She was far from the only warborg here. The others were subtle. Well, not really subtle. They were part of the decor, part of the functionality, interacting cheerfully with everyone around them. Their armor was painted and formed to look intimidating, but in an entertainment kind of way. They looked like knights, or like samurai, or one even looked like a futuristic sort of space infantry combatant.
Riot stared at that one for a long time. He looked up, and waved jauntily at her. She felt her grin become a bit more rictus, but she wiggled her fingers back at him, trying to at least seem friendly, and then moved on.
She walked close to the combat arena area, wondering how Yoho was getting on, and starting to feel a bit like she herself wanted to punch someone. She did not find Yoho, but she did find an impossibly large enclosure where warforms were being pitted against each other. She had not seen one since near the end of the war, and here were several, apparently, for entertainment. She thought they were mostly myths to most people. Hybrid chimerised animals that had been heavily augmented. Bioware, cybernetics, magically trained, magically enhanced with special made foci, even boasting robust augmented reality interlinks which had been custom programmed to help them be more lethal. She watched for a bit, as the crowd around chattered and pointed and excitedly babbled. A quick look at the augmented reality feed, and she could see various statistics on them.
The might creatures crashed together, firing soft rounds that nevertheless cracked with power, one of them beginning to warm up a powerful elemental blast. Arms waved and people were obviously into it, but there was none of the loud raucous uncontrolled jubilant cheering she would have expected.
She found herself moving away. Trying to find an away. Still grinning at everyone she passed, still giving nods to people who acknowledged her, still keeping her hands in her pockets and her shoulder slightly hunched. Hiding was out of the question, but she could minimize how much she stood out.
Not enough, apparently. A man fell in step beside her. "Well, hello," he said.
"Hi." Keep it short. Do not engage. Do not be rude, hope he will get bored and wander off soon enough.
"How are you enjoying your time here so far?"
She grinned a little bigger. Too big, she knew, it would be off-putting, but not in any way that would escalate. In fact hopefully it would de-escalate this guy into going elsewhere.
"Great place. Lots to do."
"And yet, you have done none of it."
"You watching me?" That came off sharper than intended.
"Of course. We try to make sure all our guests and workers are looked after adequately. Not so much as to spy, of course, privacy must be respected, but it is my duty to try to check in from time to time."
They had finally reached somewhere Riot wanted to be. The outer edge of Cloud Nine. While it was lit on the inside by an artificial sun floating across its ceiling as part of its artificial sky, it nevertheless also had windows to outside along its edges. There were few people here. There was not much of interest to see outside, after all. All the interesting things were in.
She stopped here, and looked the man over. This was the most alone she had managed to get since arriving, and it was practically just him and her, and well, he did not seem to be wanting to go away anytime soon.
There was something off, and Riot could not quite put her finger on it. She looked the man over, up and down, reassessing him. Pleasantly attractive enough, she guessed, in a borderline androgynous kind of way. Exquisitely tailored suit, which did not mean much in this place. In fact, if it was not for his proximity and the fact that she had been talking to him, she was not sure he would stand out at all. He had the kind of face that would get lost in a crowd.
His readings were not unusual in any way. Nothing that would stand out. Thermographic signature, ultrasound profile, radar return. Riot had all the usual human senses, and many extra senses beyond that, all refined, all enhanced or augmented in some manner, and none of them indicated anything at all was wrong.
Almost on instinct, she punched him, and only barely for a split second regretted not warning the team she was about to do something that would get them all in trouble.
But trouble would not be coming. Her analysis software finally flashed an alarm in her vision, as deception warfare protocols flagged him as false and highlighted him. Confidence factors as to what he was exactly dropped to low double digit percentages, and her BAT-TAC-NET software began to run combat solutions against him.
She frowned. Her fist was halfway through his form, and the oddest voxel static fizzing around where her forearm intersected his chest.
He laughed, a noise that was hollow, somehow.
"Few that see past the illusion," he said. "I knew you were special."
Riot just looked between his face and the hole she had punched through in him, and cleared her throat, pulling her arm back. He reformed, and her systems continued to flag him as false, even as confidence parameters shifted back to where they were before, uncertain. She killed the BAT-TAC-NET simulation, no point to even thinking about getting in a fight here. He would not be unflagged, not until she cleared it, but to her senses, he once again seemed fully human.
"If you say so," she said. She waved her hand in the air as though she had actually hit something, as though to shake it off.
"I do," he said. "I know a little of your work history. An obsolete retired military prosthetic soldier, and not that long ago you went up against one that was state of the art, with full powered armor support, and you won."
Riot's smile faltered, and came down a bit. But she saw no real point to trying to deny or redirect about the matter.
"I walked away," she said. "And got my chest caved in for the effort."
"And quite the remarkable crew you have assembled and managed to run. For years, no less. Hard work, hard life. Not often grey operatives last so long."
"Is that what this is, then? Job interview? I knew there was no way we would have been invited to a place like this just for a payout. Or is this a trap?"
Gods, she hoped it wasn't a trap, but he laughed again, that hollow noise once more.
"No trap. Just curious. I must admit, I did want to see you up close."
"Right," she said. "So. You must be the Engineered Sophant, then."
The man bowed. "You may call me Mirage, if you like."
He smiled. She still couldn't tell what it was that had put her off in the first place. It was not as though he was uncanny or anything like that.
And in fact, until she put her fist through him, he seemed very real. Now that she had taken it back out, the illusion had returned. Her smile finally fell off.
"Well, Riot. I would like to ask again. What do you think of this place?"
"You more or less built it, right? Whole thing. First building designed from the ground up by the first intelligence that was also designed from the ground up."
"You know my propaganda well enough."
Riot looked back into Cloud Nine. They were high up, relative to most of the place. She could see the roller coaster going through its loops. She could look down, and in her vision, highlight where the library was, with Solitaire. She could still tell sort of where the combat area was. It was a land of food and drink a plenty, no charge for anything, because just by being here you had earned it. A place where warborgs were a curiosity, not a threat. There was mingling, dating areas, magic demonstrations, augmented reality attractions and fun for everyone.
It was a gigantic playground, for people who had never had to care about anything, ever.
The man made a thoughtful noise.
"Interesting, interesting. I tried to make a place that would have at least something to appeal to everyone. I have found achieving that objective so very difficult. Something I should change, perhaps? Or do you just want to destroy it all in some kind of impulse of disgust?"
She was so, so tired. Of everything.
Riot turned, looked out the window, scanning, until she found the section of the city that she wanted. She pointed to it.
"That right there is a z-sector," she said. "One of the poorest areas of this city. Let us say I directed water from this party. Food. Supplies. How much would this party be diminished to provide good food, clean water, reasonable shelter, security, to those people? For a day? A week? A month, a year, a decade?"
The man shrugged. "I would not need to divert it from the party at all," he said. "Everkeep is more than Cloud Nine. I could diminish current operations in no way the people here would perceive or care about and provide what you are asking after."
Riot nodded, and let her hand drop. "And it would not change a damned thing," she said.
"It would change it for those people."
"But not the overall system. I would do it, I would improve those people's lives. But I also know it would not change the system that allowed you to be built, allowed this place to be built, allowed any of this, allowed that. There would still be places just like that, all around the world. And places like this, still built on their backs."
She turned, and gestured back inward, at the amusement park, the kiosks, the restaurants, the entire epitome of the edifice of capitalism.
"I do not want to destroy this. It is just a symptom, and I do not begrudge the people here for who they are and what they have. I bet even those who think about what it took, they do not understand it in any real way. This is their life. This is what they know. This is all they have known, and if I tried to tell them otherwise, it just would not make sense to them. But sure, destroy it. Let us say I do. Bring back a force that you could not stop. Roll in, and destroy everything."
She gestured out the window. "That would still exist. It wouldn't change anything.
"So no. I do not want to destroy this place. I just want it to stop existing at the expense of those people, out there. Of everyone. I do n'o hate your little world you have made here. I hate what it takes to make it happen. I hate that I do not know how to change that. But I do not want to destroy anything."
She stuck her hands in her pockets, and frowned.
"Well, okay. That battle coliseum with the warforms, I would destroy that."
"Your friend Yoho participates in blood sport, does she not? I don't see the difference between one arena and the other."
"She gets a choice in the matter, unlike those creatures."
"Does she? Do any of you have a choice? Does not seem like much of one, if it is between shelter and sustenance."
Riot looked over at him, and he shrugged at her.
"Right. You're only the second engineered sophant I've ever encountered," she said. "I suppose we must seem closer to animals than to thinking beings to you. "
"And the first one you have ever encountered is so much smaller. They have managed to disappear off my security mapping, though. Well done to them."
Riot glanced at the BAT-TAC-NET readout in her vision. It happened so often, that she had not even noticed that Nyx had vanished off it again, her entry in the squad list showing an empty icon with an err:disconnect message.
She smiled a little bit at that. A comm call might get Nyx back, but better to leave it.
"I'm not going to help you with that."
"Was worth the attempt. You are very clever, Miss Riot."
"Right," she said. She shook her head. "But yeah. Klynt could choose to go without either if she wanted."
"To intentionally choose suffering." The man looked over at Riot. "Like you do every day."
Riot slowly turned to look at him.
"I choose survival every day," she said.
"The imperative of all life," the man responded. "And you are miserable for it. Your stress markers are obvious. You get shot at to make enough money for shelter. You eat bland food to sustain that obsolete body. And I do not think a well adjusted person would go around grinning all the time, trying to cover up what they are with such a paltry mask."
"Is this some stupid serial? The 'artificial intelligence' that uses some bizarre straw logic with shit axioms to make an argument for the protagonist to tear down in the third act?"
"And what argument would you make for your existence?"
"I would not. But here I am. And I choose to live. Sure, it is shit sometimes, I will grant you that. All life is suffering, etcetera, acceptance mantra. Maybe tomorrow will be better. Maybe it will be worse. Maybe I step outside your beautiful gilded cage here and get run over by a tank and that is my end, spare parts and a grease stain."
Riot turned, and strode right at the man, not breaking pace. He did not bother to get out of the way as she walked right through him.
"But I choose to live anyroad. That choice is my prerogative as a human."
She turned, facing him again.
"I am leaving," she said. "Find a more interesting philosophical thread for your next conversation partner."
She stuck her hands in her pockets, and strode away.
Fascinating, thought Mirage in thoughts levinic.
Riot called the team up. Gathered them together.
And now they were here on the street again, outside the elevator, the impressive edifice of the Arcology sloping up away and behind them, Yoho's invective following them out.
She was not the only one. They all had noticed Riot's demeanor in the elevator on the way down. Yoho now had a hand gently on her shoulder. Solitaire was on the other side, one hand lightly touching an arm. Nyx had moved to stand in front, between her and the world, Digit next to them, hands up, obviously busy, scanning for threats in VR. And Valentine was at her back.
All had moved around her. To protect her. And had waited until they were free and outside of the building to speak.
"Not often you're not wearing your face, friend," said Valentine, his voice cautious.
Yoho lifted her hand to clap it down again. "We got your back," she said, and then the team spread out a little.
Just as Riot had showed them, once. Close enough to support one another. Able to block for any other. Not so close that a single attack was like to take them all out.
Riot raised her hand in the air, bringing up accounts in her augmented reality display, and disbursed their payout. Digit whistled low as the numbers came down.
"Double payout," he said. Then he turned slightly to look up at Riot. "We in the clear, then?"
"Yeah. We're clear," she said. "Let's get out of here."
The team nodded, and coordinated over the BAT-TAC-NET channels, moving as a coordinated team until they were back in their vehicles and on their way out. Solitaire gave her one last look and a pat before leaving, and eventually, Yoho and Riot were in the oversized van that Riot preferred to drive.
It swayed back and forth, as the two heavies climbed aboard, and the engine started, heading out.
"Anything you wanna talk about?" asked Yoho.
Riot didn't take her eyes off the road.
"...want to go help the Antecedent?" she asked.
"Yo-ho, yo-ho, my big strong arms for a bottle of rum," sang Yoho.
Riot smiled thinly. "Let's go help some people," she said.
Yoho nodded, looking out the window. After a moment, she turned her head to look over at Riot. "That place sucked," she said. "Best I'm going to eat for the next forever, though."
Riot smiled a bit, and laughed. "Yeah, right?"
"How you holding up? You almost never drop face."
The van bounced around for a little bit, as Riot thought.
But what mattered, what really mattered, was that her team had seen through it, and they had her back, and now they were safe.
And paid. That was important.
Yet another successful mission.
She smiled. A real one, and looked over at Yoho.
"Forget the Arco," she said. "I'm doing great."
Yoho crowed, and broke into full a belted shanty, as they drove down towards the z-sector, where the Antecedent's mission was and a night of decent useful work was waiting for them.
