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

Prompt A

[fromfryingpantofire]

Okay. He hasn't met the guy before, but he definitely catches Sam's eye as he's walking the rig. So Sam settles back and listens, watching, and looking up at the cameras on the ceiling.

Eventually, though, he straightens and reaches up to tap one of the cameras. "Seriously. I figured the budget for this place was pretty shit. I didn't think it would be THAT shit."

A

[partiallysquirrelblood]

Doreen's walking down the hall when she hears Cayde. It's enough to make her pause mid-step and double back towards him.

"Hi, couldn't help but overhear," she whispers. "How many cameras are up just for the psychological effect so far?"

[wheyoftheadept]

Saturday's mouth is hanging open in shock.

" - it's got to be fucking bait," she says. "No fucking way."

But god, please be true, please be true. She's torn between hope and absolute, bitter, experienced cynicism. It's plain on her face.

b

[takenalive]

Alloran's been standing around spaced-out, which is looking like it's pretty common with him. He tries to notice when he does it and find something to do, but it's something he has to overcome. It's annoying to be addressed and realize he was waiting in the passive no-space of an old host, again.

He flicks the end of his tail, past the blade, with that irritation. It is at least becoming easier to move when he's not half in a stupor.

<What sort of experiment?> Thought-speech is perceptible to robots and advanced computers where he's from, but he is from a reality where it's a fairly common way to communicate.

B

[becauseimacoward]

"It depends on what you have in mind"

Dojima indeed had been examining the camera. He knew enough about security cameras to try to deduce a thing or two, but he hasn't started messing up with them. He's doing things veeeeery carefully while in the rig. He doesn't want to get in trouble or earn a shock.

He had intended to just examine several cameras without touching them, but then Cayde approached with an experiment. That could be...interesting.

"What do you have in mind?"

B

[gautiheir]

"How much trouble will it get us in? That won't necessarily stop me from saying yes, I should note, but it's always nice to know these things upfront."

Sylvain's used to landing in some kind of trouble, honestly. It's mostly just his own inability to give a one-word answer without running off at the mouth instead.

Prompt A

[stickypete]

Peter has already gotten a sense that something is off about the cameras, mainly because Cayde has a bit of a delighted energy. He's happy to see him on his feet, moving around, more animated than when they first met.

"Look at you, getting all sneaky-sneaky."

The voice comes from up on the ceiling. Habitually silent as usual, Peter had crawled up behind him as he poked at a camera. The idea that someone suddenly talking from the ceiling might surprise others is not lost on him, but hey, good to keep everyone on their toes.

Plus he likes being upside down. Hanging upside down on a web-line is often one of his "thinking" positions.