alaspooryork | IC Contact: Sanctum

[ North returns home from South's as rapidly as he's able. He goes looking for Delta the minute he gets there. As soon as he finds him, North is thrusting his glasses at him. He's clearly agitated. ]

Play this video.

[Delta blinks. Hi to you too, North. But as requested he queues up the file, frowning. When it completes he rewinds it and watches again, looking for any details he might have missed. Yes, he'd seen North's post earlier about South being missing, but as they say, "if you can't say something nice, don't say nothing at all". After the second playthrough he stops, frown still on his face.]

If this is accurate, it would indicate Bifrons is responsible for what they term "sending people home".

Yeah, pretty much.

[ North's not in the mood to deal with people stating the obvious. ]

I think that's what we all thought anyway, isn't it?

[He shrugs.]

I do not know how anyone else would be responsible. [Ugh, he should probably say something like that he's sorry for North's loss, but he's not. Truth be told, if South is gone it's a relief to him.] Were you simply looking for confirmation, or is there additional data you would like me to retrieve from the file?

Yeah, there's an encrypted file that goes along with it. Whoever sent it said you'd know the key.

Ah. One moment, please.

[He pokes around a little more and oh hey, it's from Lingormr. He can't help a brief, unconscious smile at the signature, but it disappears almost as soon as it appears and he cracks the code with little difficulty.]

It is the raw data from the cameras in question, including location and timestamp. I am afraid it has been several days since this footage was taken.

Shit.

[ He puts a hand to his forehead and rubs it with the back of his thumb and stalks away a pace before turning. ]

I can't believe I didn't notice for this long.

[Delta grimaces, watching North carefully.]

There is a line between allowing someone to be their own person and negligence. You have never crossed that line, North. Would noticing earlier have made a difference?

It would make it less likely that they've had time to move her after taking her.

[He nods, though he's still got an unhappy expression on his face. yes, okay, he'd flipped out and moved heaven and earth when Loki got taken, but--

--well, he'd cared. That's really the difference here. Ugh, North probably wants to rescue her, doesn't he?]

Understood. I can give you the algorithm we used to locate Loki, although the circumstances were different in that case.

So you can get into their security systems and find out?

I can look. However, I must warn you they may have increased certain security measures since our recent break-in.

That's fine, it's worth a try.

[ He reaches for his glasses and once he has them back he motions with his head. ]

I'll give you a little time to do that. I want to check how much ammo I have.

[Delta bites his lip and nods, still looking distinctly unhappy - not that North probably notices.]

Acknowledged.

[Doot doot, it takes a while for him to look, but eventually he comes back with some more information.]

The feeds after she enters the Hub are all either restricted to local access only, or appear to be nonexistent. I apologize that I was unable to find more.

[ North had returned after taking stock and when Delta gives him the news he glowers a bit. ]

Figures.

[Delta nods; it does make sense, though, given the recent break-in.]

It is possible she has "gone home" as well. The CoHo or another point of contact while she is ill may be able to confirm this.

After this, if you still believe that going home story...I'm not sure what to say to you. That's not what happens, Delta. They kept both of us in their facilities for months, wiped our memories, and then released us again when they had their reasons to. And I'm not surprised it was just before the Director came. Why do you think they want her again? It's too damn convenient.

[Delta's eyebrows raise. Clearly North didn't hear his invisible quotation marks.]

Allow me to clarify. I do not believe anyone is actually sent to their home timelines. Rather, it is likely they undergo some other process, but we have not confirmed its results. I use the phrase "going home" to refer to their name for the procedure.

[The assumptions about being kept and memory-wiped? Pretty baseless, actually.]

I cannot speculate as to any reason they may have chosen her rather than any of the rest of us. Why do you assume the Director is involved?

I can. He knew how much she wanted an AI. And she never got her chance to have one.

[Delta winces visibly. "Never" is an awfully long time.]

No. That would not account for her expression in the video, her lack of contacting those who might care about her, the practical aspect of what benefit an AI would have to her without functioning armor or equipment, the escort, or her final destination. Upgrades take place in medical facilities, not the Hub.

Hmph. I think it accounts for a lot of things, but that's just me. I don't think they'd be able to get her to do anything for them if she still had her memories of being here this time.

[And yet Delta's pretty damn sure she would do a lot for them of her own free will if the right carrot were dangled - that's why he doesn't think she'd need to be drugged to go in if they offered her an AI.]

May I ask for your reasoning on that, and what your current theory is?

[ He's getting annoyed with Delta's reticence to believe his theory. He frowns. ]

Look, I know her, okay? Better than anyone else. She can see what they're doing to you AIs.

My theory? My theory is they took her after they wiped her. I don't know what they're going to have the Director do but there's a lot he's capable of, and he won't have a problem with doing it.

[He huffs. Maybe he knew her better than everyone else. No, no, Delta's supposed to remember that this isn't the South he's familiar with, or at least, it won't be her for another couple years.]

If anything, she should be happy they are modifying us. We can no longer provide what she perceives to be an unfair advantage.

The Director is aware that we already maintain suspicion of him. I do not believe he would risk himself openly this early in the game.

[ North stares at him for a moment. ]

What's your problem, Delta? I mean it's one thing to disagree with me; fine, whatever. But you keep sighing and stuff.

Action | Day 141 | Early afternoon

Action | Day 141 | Early afternoon

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The circumstances being that Delta cared

PRETTY MUCH

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