Can You See Me Now?

[cachedout]

Who: Cayde-6 and, quite possibly, you
What: Scouting the rig's security systems
Where: Anywhere your heart feels
When: The pre-mission days after the first sheetcake party
Warnings/Notes: If you do brackets with me that is 100% fine I'll come do brackets too

One of the local robot people is out and about. Cayde is pushing boundaries, which is to say that Cayde is having a pretty typical day since he found himself in Jorgmund's loving corporate chokehold. If he has to be stuck in a frosty tincan with a bunch of strangers, he's going to make the best of it and figure out what that "best" just might look like. A key part of that is getting a grip on where he can and can't go, and how much security is going to limit his movements and activities.

Right now, he's playing with security cameras.

"Alexa," Cayde asks the ceiling, pleasant and casual, orange throat lamp lighting up as he speaks, "Can you see me on the cameras right now?" He's making eye contact (well, glowing blue optic contact) with a shiny black security camera lens as he says it. He gives it a little wave.

She processes for several silent seconds, then a sweet and chirpy reply rings out:

"No, Cayde-6, you are currently outside of visual monitoring!"

"You'd recognize me if you could?"

"Yes!"

"Is there anybody under...." he takes a few steps closer to the camera and squints up at it to check it for identifying marks, then gives her the camera number.

"Not currently!" Alexa reports brightly.

"That's very interesting. Thank you, Alexa."

"You are welcome, Cayde-6!"

He repeats this test throughout the rig. While he's careful to avoid actual world-resident Jorgmund staffers, he's less careful about other new hires. Each time, he feels like his heart (or whatever Clovis Bray gave him instead of one) grows another size. It's hard for a robot with no lips to grin from ear to ear, but the subtle shift in the plates around his eyes conveys some of the expression as Cayde figures out just how many great and nasty ideas he is probably going to be able to get away with here. The company can't visually track him. That doesn't mean they haven't planted a tracker of some kind on him, he'll have to find a way to test that later, but as long as he's within acceptable crew areas? This is an absolute game changer.

PROMPT A:

Cayde finishes another round of camera checking, asking Alexa if she can see him, and confirming that she can't. Someone else nearby might have some opinions on seeing this situation develop, no?

PROMPT B:

Cayde notices another new hire is conveniently nearby the latest camera. Wherever they are on the rig, someone finds a robot man asking them: "Hey, wanna help with an experiment I'm doing?"

Comments

[cachedout]

"To see how much line they got," he offers, a gentle correction. " ...Or however this metaphor goes with figuring out our safe operating limits, I can't say I'm much of a fisherman."

He shakes his head a little, letting go of trying to figure out how to lay down this thought in fish analogies. A good joke's in there, maybe, but he's busy.

"A gift horse this big is probably a trap. If it is, I get to learn some rules to the game. If it isn't, though..." Cayde's grin returns, little plates shifting under his eyes like cheeks pulling up, browplate lowering to make the expression just a little dangerous. "We have found ourselves one hell of a nice piece of wiggleroom to play in."

[wheyoftheadept]

"Yeah - I found a couple blind spots, some bolt holes, but they don't fit more than maybe three, five if we don't mind getting friendly." She's still staring at the cameras, hands on hips. "God fucking damn me, I wish I was any good with tech. Coulda worked it out sooner."

She looks at him slantwise. "You sure you can cut the line in time? Might be good to have backup, if you don't already."

[cachedout]

Cayde snorts.

"They're not gonna kill me. They want me here. My status as "valued asset to the company" may be a bunch of crap —" he makes sure to fingerquote 'valued asset' as is only proper "— but I'm much more useful alive than dead. Here's what happens: They catch me doing something they don't want us to do, they rough me up and make an example out of me and undo what I've done. But if I've not done much yet, I haven't lost any effort, we know more, and let's be honest here: I came off the reality bus in worse shape than anything they're gonna do if they want me in fighting shape."

He's putting chips down on this. He'll say it in front of the supposedly dead camera. If Alexa's lying to him, he's going to find out about it.

[wheyoftheadept]

Saturday nods. It's not a bad plan, as plans goes.

"But you still need a plan B," she points out. "Just in case. Best laid plans, mice and men, factor in sheer fucking randomness and I'm still seeing one guy sticking his neck out alone. Unless someone went and started the conspiracy without me, which would be super rude."

[cachedout]

Cayde doesn't seem bothered. It's the kind of work he's used to, the kind of work he misses. He feels useful when he's ahead of the pack to find out what's ahead.

But, well. The last time he was without backup, things didn't end so well. Kid might have a point.

"You got a suggestion?" he asks. There's no accusation or wounded pride in it, just an arched metal brow and curiosity.

[wheyoftheadept]

"Start a conspiracy." She grins at him. "Runnin's easier with a crew. You gotta stick your neck out, fine - but bring some people. Figure out what's the best target, how you're gonna run at it. Figure out what could go wrong, and how to cope with it. Have an extraction for when it all goes fucking sideways."

She crosses her arms, not challenging, but sliding too easily into the roll of facilitator. "Do you have an idea how you want to play it? That'd be the place to start. What are you going after, and how are you gonna do it? And if you don't get caught, how do we up the ante until you do?"

[cachedout]

"You're further along than I am," Cayde says, mirroring her posture. "This is the part where I don't pull other people in with me yet because I have to figure out what I'm asking 'em."

It's due diligence, good faith, proper rigor, something like that.

"Besides. I haven't exactly decided who I'm asking."

Is that an RSVP? Maybe.

[wheyoftheadept]

"Well, I've been making a shortlist." Dear god, she's missed talking to real operators. Saturday tilts her head, with just a bit of a challenging smile playing around the corners of her mouth. "We could compare notes. And if we need a first target," she adds, "well, dunno about you, but I'm running low on smokes and I could really use a drink."

[cachedout]

"Should be a good option for a first attempt. We have a solid guess where we'd find those." The exec deck, home of the repugnant and well-catered who deserve some not-quite-friendly pilfering anyway.

"My other priority here: figuring out where we're gonna stash stuff. Crew quarters are an obvious no-go."

He has an idea or two himself, but those he'll guard a little more carefully. A first cache is going to be potentially sacrificial. Save the real good places for when he's a little more certain they'll be safe.

"Once I've got my non-dangerous scouting done, I might be open to putting together some kind of a team to try something. Wouldn't be the first time."

He says it casually, like it isn't 100% the plan already.

[wheyoftheadept]

"I've found a lot of boltholes and possible caches. Got a knack for the hollow spaces, you might say. I can mark locations if you have a sign, or we can take a tour."

Specifically, she can twang on the pattern of the local reality weave and watch the ripples with her mind's eye, like sonar. At least that's what she's been told she's doing. She just - reaches out and knows.

And oh, he really has done this before. What an incredible relief.

"I have some people you might like for a run like this. Not counting myself."

[cachedout]

Cayde looks up at the camera, speculating on the risk of naming names in front of it. He's willing, eager even, to put his own neck at risk and Saturday's clearly on board, but he doesn't want to pull anyone else in any deeper than he has to without so much as a by-your-leave.

"That's some information I'll take if we're a little more out of sight of the security measure I'm banking on being a phony. In the meantime, we might as well scout out a spot," he says.

"Keep your real good ones, this might be a sacrificial lamb here."

[wheyoftheadept]

Saturday thrust her hands in her jumpsuit pockets, feeling very keenly the loss of her overcoat. It just makes for a better prop.

"Hope you don't mind the rain."

She leads him out to the deck of the rig, and across to a grate that looks down on a tangled web of piping. The grate pops out of its shell with a well placed slam on the heel of her hand, and she drops down. Despite appearances, there is just enough room for a single person of average size to pass. She lands on some grating what looks to be about twenty feet down, waves, then crouches and moves to one side.

[cachedout]

"I don't," he confirms. "Had a couple people ask me if it'll short me out and the answer is, quite luckily, no."

He follows along and, when Saturday gets the grate open, he watches her drop down. Oh, this is promising. He pulls the cover over behind him as he hangs down into the space, and then he drops down too. Despite being made of metal, Cayde's landing is surprisingly light and quiet. Evident practice.

"I can already tell I'm gonna have a lot of fun around this place," Cayde muses, throat lamp especially evident in the dim space.

[wheyoftheadept]

"It ain't big, you can see." There's only about room for the two of them, and then mostly because Saturday is so small. It's a very good thing that neither are claustrophobes. "But it's enough for a conversation, or a cache."

She's backed herself up as far as she can, against a wall next to a vent of some kind, which she nods to. "This leads off somewhere. Haven't gone looking, yet."

And hadn't liked the idea of going off somewhere she couldn't turn around in without a spotter. Too many horror stories of runs gone wrong when someone got stupid in the vents. "So. Who are you thinking?"

[cachedout]

Cayde leans back against the opposite bound of the gap she's found.

"My list of people I trust so far? Pretty short. I can guarantee Saint-14 won't sell me out, but he's not exactly a stealthy fellow. Sticky Ben I got a good feeling about, but haven't said anything to him yet. You?"

[wheyoftheadept]

"My bunkmate, Guts, is a solid guy. Real pissed off and he's lived the life, so he knows the game. Downside is he's pretty much pure muscle, but he's on board. Stacia, the werewolf, is an operator; she's probably got a list, too. Haven't sounded her out, yet, though."

Saturday ticks off her fingers as she goes.

"That guy Loken is some kind of military, and seems to have some experience with guerilla rebellions; he looks likely and has expressed an interest. The problem with Bunny is gonna holding him back, not getting him going. And there's Cain, who - well, he's got problems with anything that doesn't look like vanilla homo sapiens, but it seems like where he's from, literally everything humans have ever met that wasn't them has immediately tried to kill them. And he's a good face, better than me, maybe. Definitely better than me right now. So far he's kept his shit together, and he's a 'phobe more than a supremacist. Not gonna side with Jorg because fuck the muties, dig?"

She shrugs.

"Anyway, that's who I like of who I've met so far."

[cachedout]

Cayde takes in Saturday's assessment, she's met some people he hasn't and gotten more info about some people he has some cursory contact with. It's all good to know, and she doesn't seem like she'd have any reason to show this much of her hand and then feed him bullshit.

He can do paranoid for a good while, it's a survival trait like any other, but Cayde's also... Cayde. He can only stand lining up a shot for so long before he takes it and lets the consequences come.

"Plenty of friends who might be up for a little grab and run," he says. "Not exactly a high profile target you're after here, good test case."

"I haven't been graced with the opportunity to hobnob any, they seem to agree some with that Cain fella about guys like me."

Robots aren't popular with Jorgmund. He's not sure how much of it's genuine and how much of it's just being petty because they know they have the leeway.

"That said, I'd relish the opportunity for a little visit. See what nice stuff they've got that could be our nice stuff."

[wheyoftheadept]

"Well, I always like a job better when I know where I'm going. I'm not the only person mapping; if we can find a quick access to the c-suite, then it's basically send the sneaky guys while the charming ones make a distraction." Saturday taps her chin. "You up for that kind of scouting?"

[cachedout]

Cayde thinks aloud for a moment.

"Can't be too tight up there. There's going to be maintenance access, and if they think we haven't noticed the cameras are blind they're going to lean too far on those as a deterrent. That or we all get busted, but we knew that."

He looks off along the dark space into the unknown for a moment, then shakes his head.

"But what am I doing running my mouth? Absolutely."

[wheyoftheadept]

"I had a feeling." Her grin looks - less like a grin by the minute, and more like a dragon's maw yawning open. But she's on your side, so that's all right. "I'll be in touch, then."