3047/Knock OFf EP3: Shattered Mind

Knock OFf EP3: Shattered Mind
Date of Scene:	18 September 2015
Location:	AMATERASU Lunar Mining Facility 01
Synopsis:	With 'Miho' save. Rory, Staren and Kotone speak to her. Hoping to get some understanding of just what the heck happened to Miho. Or even if she is the actual Miho to begin with.
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, Staren, 673
Tinyplot:	Knock Off

---

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
The mining base was one of the safest places it was fairly off grid at least to Kotone and Miho's world. After all there was a lot of info out there and if you had no idea where to look? Even a killed person with AI support would have a heck of a time with it. Kotone's been seemingly ready for action as sh'es found most often than not in her light optical cameo armour than her casual clothing, but she's been trying to just be with Miho so she's not alone. If this is even Miho and if not? It's still someone who deserves comfort...

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Rory's been hanging around the base catching up on some news and taking a long time speaking with her Muse about the situation! It's a complicated matter she'strying to broach.

    Once she's ready though, Rory starts wandering through the base, followed by a short drone on wheels with all of her typical tools. It's neatly folded up for now to not be very scary and just whizzing along behind her. Just in case she needs them.

    Through one door and another, she's headed for the chamber Miho's staying in! That's not hard to do, the base's wired up neatly for tracking locations...

    Eventually Rory knocks on the door... "Miho? Are you available?"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa has been with Miho quite a bit. Kotone's here leaning back in a lounge chir with Miho whose been cleaned up, and is in a fresh set of clothing. She's trying to read something and Kotone looks up.

Miho looks up sets down the book and says "Yes...come in Rory."

Miho's still stuttering anf seeming off but she's far less paniced than the last time Rory saw her as she lets the AGI come on into the room. Kotone looks over to her friend and opens up a channel.

<<She's got huge chunks of missing memory we're talking year sizes gaps.>>

Staren has posed:
    After taking a fresh look at the cybertronian-sized facilities in Njorun, Staren resleeved back into his normal body. So it's not a mecha but a regular old catboy who comes walking down the corridor. He's in his regular clothes -- the sight of a labcoat may or may not be a comforting sight for someone unused to Staren's idiosyncracies. He spots Rory just as she's knocking on the door, walking over to her and giving her a slight nod of acknowledgement. <<You think she might be a... fork? I don't suppose there's been any chance to check if there's still a Miho at her home?>>

    Once they're let in, Staren waves and tries to smile comfortingly. "Hey." he greets simply, not sure what else to say to her.

    The last thing he needs is a repeat of what happened when he tried to comfort /Kotone/...

Rory White (673) has posed:
    <<One of the things I expected to happen. We must find whoever did this and stop it from happening again!>> Rory answers, as she comes in and sits down. She adjusts her hair, pushing some of it over her shoulders as it's getting in the way.

    But she does her best to put on a smile after taking in a deep breath. "Sorry it took me so long to make my preparations. We're far outside the sort of situation I'm used to dealing with... have you remembered anything else about what's going on yet?"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa also bruings staren into the link.

<<Just be easy with Miho, we can talk shop together here where it won't distress her at all, all right? She's finally calming down as much as someone whose missing years of her life can be.>>

Miho looks to Staren and smiles a little.

"Your the youn hardsuit engineer right? I ... I can't recall your name. I am sorry..."

<<I'm terrifed of what this could be...>>

"I am ... sorry I have...not. Nothing that would help you. A little bit of my childhood but there's a gap all the way to late highschool then another till now. I know I went to school but can't recall any of it. I ...saw...something. Something ... bad someone ... hurt me..."

Staren has posed:
    <<Wait, you expected it to happen?>> Staren shoots Rory a confused glance. Then he smiles a little as Miho... /sort/ of remembers him. "Combat roboticist. Staren. It's okay. Um... I don't suppose you have any recordings or other files that might give us a clue, saved on your cyberbrain?"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    <<It's hard to be easy and also accurate. Although she claims to be Miho, none of her body is organic. None of it, which by Kotone's understanding of cybernetics should be impossible. I believe we are speaking with a partially corrupted fork of Miho. Either an escapee from a secret project or a deliberate plant meant to infiltrate us. That someone would go to such lengths simply to cover up coming across confidential information is very illogical. Further supporting this, there is no evidence backing the idea that she is remote controlling this body from somewhere.>> It's a grim, harsh, analytical response, but Rory's Morph's face shows a different story. She's grimacing a bit. She has NO idea how to break this news.

    "I wish we knew who those people were. The ones chasing you. It would help me explain the situation you're in and figure out the best way to help. For now though, we're safe here."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Miho ohs at Staren and tilts her head a little bit she thinking.

"I might have something."

She pauses at Rory for a moment looks at her.

"I think I recall one thing I was at a resarch facility..of some sort."

Miho looks hopefully at Rory, Kotone and Staren for a moment.

<<...That shouldn't be possible dubbing ... wait it does ... make degenerated copies. What would have Miho saw to make someone do this to her? She's too costly an asset to just pictch away lightly... I but I can't just ....>>

"I don't know whom they are I knew someone...no someones...chasing me...had to run...hurt, it hurt what they did..."

Staren has posed:
    <<Impossible? Hmm. Ah, right, cyberbrains in her world are part organic.>> Staren recalls. <<But why would someone fork her? And what happened to her? If Miho, or at least her original body, is still missing, it may well be that she's been transferred.>> Well, Staren's certainly not going to try to explain. "So... you do remember /some/ things from the missing times..." He's not sure what more to say, but he does have a sudden thought. <<Wait, what kind of idiot puts her in a position she can escape from? If this was a botched cover-up, she'd be in her original body. If they wanted a kidnapped copy of her... wouldn't they keep it in VR?>>

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Don't press too hard! But anything that comes to mind..." Rory leads off, only to purse her lips a few moments later. HOW to broach this subject?

    "..." She'd come here to try and explain things, but at the rate things're going she's no explaining anything at all.

    She doesn't have the heart to.

    <<I don't have enough information.>>

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa <<Barring android ones yes, there's always an organic compoent. Ghosts don't last long as pure data they errode if that makes any senses. IF they were to say go on the net. I know and I'm worried about how long she has if it's happened.>>

Miho shakes her head at Staren

"There's nothing there it's blank."

<<Something's going on here...Who knows there was enough that an armed team was brazen enough to operate in New Port...>>

Staren has posed:
    <<That's...>> Staren winces at the news that ghosts don't last outside an organic brain. <<Isn't there anything we can do? There must be a more permanent way... although... if she /is/ just a copy with lost memories, maybe she'd rather fade away...>> Staren blinks, and pats Miho's shoulder briefly.

    Dawn transmits, <<She was last heard of saying she was going away on business. Whatever it was was secret enough for them to make her sign an NDA.>> Staren adds, <<Perhaps we should go looking for her then? I mean... corporate security can't be as important as whatever's going on here, right? Or do we need to report this to Section 9 and let /them/ handle it to avoid an inter-world... kerfluffle?>>

Rory White (673) has posed:
    <<I will not stand by idly while the relative of a close friend is being tormented. I will rip apart the entire networks of whoever is behind this if need be to track down what really happened. If Kotone is right we don't have much time... unless we can transfer her into an Argonaut-design Cyberbrain, but...>>

    Rory's still making a difficult face, but she asks Miho, "Do you remember where you were when you realized everything was wrong? Where you... awoke?" The very CONCEPT of waking up is unusual to Rory, so the word comes out weirdly.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa gets very quiet for the momnt she's just looking at Staren and Rory, she's clealry listening however. Staren gets a look for a moment it's a bit unfoxed as he says the bit about just letting Miho die.

<<She should be all that's left of her...>>

Miho is unaware thankfully unaware of what's going on.

"I think...wait there ...was somehing she said she was ... also me...said i had to ... run like my sisters..."

Miho looks /very/ confused.

"I don't ... undertand...there can only..be..one of ...somene."

<<Yes we need to get looking asap.>>

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "It is not impossible, Miho." Rory's voice comes out gently. "Not impossible at all. But it seems someone in your world, perhaps your work place, is experimenting with technology they are not ready for." There's some anger slipping into her tone now.

    "Copying a... ghost, in your world's terms, is easy to do with Argonaut technology. That's what I think you've fallen afoul of. But this WILL be set right... that I promise you!"

Staren has posed:
    <<You think she's all that's left? Hmm... we should probably determine which it is as soon as possible. But can we really tell her 'You /might/ be a copy, or you might not, we don't know, also you're going to fade away if you stay on that hardware'?>>

    Staren blinks. "Sisters?" And then he gives Miho a confused look. "Who said anything about more than one of someone...?" Staren's a bit uneasy at Miho's sudden topic shift.

    'Copying a ghost.' Staren mouths the phrase, watching Miho for her reaction before adding /anything/.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa looks to Staren and Rory.

<<Ghost dubbing is illegal across most of the world and even so far as I'm aware even rogue states won't touch it. The early rests on aniamsls had thier rudemanty ghosts be ripped apart and the copies were degernerated...>>

Kotone throws some links on the legality etc of dubbing. It's not pretty with what public results there are.

Miho looks confused at Rory for a moment and she says somewhat dazed.

"Ghosts... can't be... copies... I don't know why she said she was also me..."

She holds her head a bt and she shakes her head.

"She said she was Miho.....you can help. I want to be ... helped....but ... I'm the ... only me...."

Staren has posed:
    <<Legal or not, it /happened/.>> Staren plays the last bit of conversation over again. Oh. He misheard Miho. "She? So..." his face falls. "I see. That's the scenario, then. Yes, there can be only one of /you/. But there could be a lot of people, with the same memories as you, up until you all woke up, right? This 'she' you mention... she wasn't one of the ones chasing you, right?"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "Don't complicate matters, Staren!" Rory quickly snaps out, seeming spooked by him suddenly speaking on this issue.

    Instead she gives Miho her est smile and bows her head. "And we will help."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
<<...>>

Miho looks very confused and she seems to be focuing on Rory's other questions and Staren's offer ot help though she gets up and kinda clings to Kotone who moves ot just hug her and says nothing as shie holds on to her cousin.

"No...she helped me... I think ... there where ... two or .. three others...we went seperate ways..."

Staren has posed:
    Staren nods, looking concerned and not saying more. <<We have to find her. And them. What are we going to do with them? ...I guess that's up to them.>>

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "I think I see some of what might have happened.... can you remember where you parted, Miho?" It's the only lead Rory can think of working with here!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Miho thinks hard "I was put in a shipping crate it ended up where you found me. She told mt to keep still and not to make any noise until a certain amount of time had passed..."

Kotone is just litening now and talking to the others over the link. <<One step at a time...whatever is going on it has to be big...>>