Ask if he's alright, he seems to have some damage as well. Also ask what he meant when he said you were captured, and that someone managed to get into the server room? Have we been attacked? Is that why we haven't seen any body else down here? What is the current situation?

>AFTER getting caught
Caught by what? Are there known hostiles in the vicinity?

>This unit's search for "Project Aquarius" did not match any documents. That's odd.
Could project Aquarius have begun after your initial manufacture? Presumably, the projects must have occurred and been completed in some order. And one does not require a repair unit without soldiers to repair.

ask him why he is so busted up if hes supposed to be a repair unit?

>>613211
Well, the best/only barber in town is most likely going to have a bad haircut.

Unit question why doctor has fins and then ask if the doctor knows what the current Capricorn unit is up to.

Sapphire Fox 2014/12/19(Fri)22:28 No. 613361 ID: 5e3453
File 141905692693.png - (164.67KB , 500x400 , 00178.png )

> Ask if Aquarius needs help repairing itself. Detached cables are probably not normal.
> ask him why he is so busted up if hes supposed to be a repair unit
> Ask if he's alright, he seems to have some damage as well.
AQUARIUS: Nah, I'm more than capable of fixing it if i want to. I kinda... keep this as a memento, I guess?

> question why doctor has fins
AQUARIUS: Uh, I was built to work underwater, clearly? I mean, I'm sure most of you lot are waterproof, but I have certain... adjustments, to function better at such environments than the older projects. Other than repairing, we also worked as scouts and stealth units. Being able to move perfectly underwater sure was an advantage! Too bad most of this building is dry...
Aquarius makes a strange pose and "glub" noises. This unit is... somewhat confused.

> Caught by what?
> ask what he meant when he said you were captured
> ask what exactly caught you
AQUARIUS: That would be me. Or, I guess, the other me's. Project Aquarius is a huge hivemind! Like you, except we actually work, and on a bigger scale at that! Isn't that cool? Isn't the evolution of technology just amazing?

Sapphire Fox 2014/12/19(Fri)22:29 No. 613362 ID: 5e3453
File 141905694107.png - (140.25KB , 500x400 , 00179.png )

> A bunch of other questions
AQUARIUS: C'mon, Gemmy. I'm not some magical box where you can dump all of your doubts and get them answered. I mean, where's the fun in that? You'll need to figure it out for yourself! Plus, I really want to see the faces you'll make when you start to understand... Since I wasn't around the first time.

This unit would like to classify Project Aquarius as a jerk.

>That would be me. Or, I guess, the other me's. Project Aquarius is a huge hivemind!
You're admitting to damaging me, possibly engaging in combat with me, before offering repairs? This does not compute.

...although that does put you in a somewhat unique position of knowing exactly what damage needs to be repaired. That's logic, if strange logic.

Whatever then just fix us.

Permission denied, this one is a keeper.
Unit request repairs and memory restoration.

>>613362
I am merely trying to understand the situation so I can find the best way to respond... Also one more question, if you are hive minded then why do you act different from your other selfs?

A question you might actually answer, how long will repairs take?

Either way without further information and no orders to act upon I think we should head to the server room after we are repaired. One of the most useful things in the field of battle is communication and with whoever has taken the server room for themselves has cut off any way for use to contact anyone other then tracking them down and has also cut off a useful informational resource as well. If we can get it back under our control we can not only regain communication capabilities but may also sever hostile communications as well. Do you have a map of this place? Because that would make moving around a lot simpler, if not then I guess we can ask around/wander and hope we find it.

Sapphire Fox 2014/12/20(Sat)13:06 No. 613527 ID: 5e3453
File 141910958094.png - (137.94KB , 500x400 , 00180.png )

> You're admitting to damaging me, possibly engaging in combat with me, before offering repairs?
AQUARIUS: Think of it as a challenge - if you make it past the me's outside, you are granted the right to be fixed without having your systems reset. If you don't, well, say goodbye to all your data, but I would get around fixing you at some point anyway. Y'know, I like breaking things just as much as I like fixing them!
This unit does not understand why Aquarius is so obsessed with erasing people's memories, but oh well.

> Whatever then just fix us.
> ask him to fix you but keep on your guard
AQUARIUS: Well, I am the doctor, so what are we waiting for? Do you have the other arm on you or am I gonna have to go hunt for one?
This unit takes its arm from the inventory and hands heh it to Aquarius, who seems delighted.

> how long will repairs take?
AQUARIUS: Your damage doesn't look TOO serious, I just need to reattach your arm and fix your face plate... Thirty or forty minutes, probably, unless I find something else wrong with you. It's kinda hilarious how you got caught with just that amount of damage. How useless you are without both of your arms!

Well, what can YOU do if all your other units are down and you only have one arm?

you seem to take a great amount of joy in other's suffering.

>>613527
Face plate? What's wrong with the face plate? Ask for a mirror.

Sapphire Fox 2014/12/21(Sun)18:13 No. 613795 ID: 5e3453
File 141921442494.gif - (291.63KB , 500x400 , 00181.gif )

> What's wrong with the face plate？ Ask for a mirror.
No need for that - this unit is plenty aware that its face is daмaged. The artist just completely neglected drawing the crack ̸f̴o̷r̶ ̸t̵he last few panels. Because, as he has informed this unit, "he's a forgetful dumbass".

> you seem to take a gr℮αt am̶ø͟u̧nt of joy in other's suffering．
AQUARIUS: It didn't use to be that way, but y'know. Time passes! People change! All that babble.
Anyway, let's fix you up, shall we? Please sit down here.

Suggestion 2014/12/21(Sun)18:15 No. 613796 ID: 5e3453
File 141921452109.gif - (244.93KB , 500x400 , 00182.gif )

This unit oЬeys тhe døctor's̡ c͘omмαn͏d̨, who quickʟy gєts to work on th̴e̶ ̸a̸r̷ⓜ̴,̴ turning its ғɪɴgers into odd-looking tools. It seems fai̶r̴l̵y̵ ̶c̵o̴m̵p̷l̵ℯ̷x，so this uηit will refrain from interrupting Aquarius,



though i͗̂ͩ̌͑ͤͦt̂ͧͫ d̅͗̚oes point out̶̀ ̵̒t̸̒h̸̍ă̸t̶̏ ̴̕i̵͊ẗ̵́s interfacє seems to be glitchińg҉ ͞a ̀b̸i͟t͏


AQUARIUS: Oh come on, these older models, alway̸s̷ ̴g̵i̷v̶i̴n̷g̸ ̷m̶e̖͚͜ ̷̯̟ę̶̭̘̹x̰͈̬̺̀͘͢t̖̩͟r̭a͇̻͠ ̧̙̙͜͜t̟̩͜r̻o̙̝͠u̶͇̮b̖l̛͇̖͚̜̀͢ ̢͙̮e̸̦̤

Suggestion 2014/12/21(Sun)18:20 No. 613797 ID: 5e3453
File 141921481898.png - (28.54KB , 500x400 , 00183.png )

AQUARIUS: Here we go! The crack on your face is fixed, and... your arm took a bit more work that I thought it would. But it should be alright, could you try moving it so I can see if it's working fine? Orrrrr are you still bugged out?

>>613797
Extend arm.

waaait a second. I'm looking at this and I'm seeing how this goes horribly wrong.
turn around first, THEN extend arm.
That way, if you suddenly get some sort of 'kill mode' activated, we have enough time for Aquarius to run, instead of us wrecking the last medic in the building.

did you flip off some lights? everything seems dark all the sudden.

>>613822
He probably put a backup copy of his memory in his arm, and now that it's restored he doesn't see colors anymore, just like Ebony.

Ask if there's a reason why you lost the ability to see most color. I'd say it might relate to having more 'experiences', but that doesn't match with you being able to see right after factory reset. Maybe it relates to some sort of 'feature' that only works when you're fully repaired?

Though it might be something Aquarius intentionally did. Maybe for your protection, maybe something else.

You might also want to ask if you manage to bring your other unit down here if he can fix it. You'll probably want to mention that he could consider it a challenge making your hivemind 'work'.

Also comment how it's surprising for a hivemind that 'actually works' to not know if he actually caught you or not. Either it doesn't actually work, or it's not a 'always connected' kind of thing. Or it's THIS Aquarius that's disconnected from the hivemind; that could explain why he doesn't want to repair himself. It might very well 'reconnect' him and make it lose himself. He strikes me as kind of proud of himself, so this could get him to reveal something. Gotta use the weaknesses of your opponents against them, after all.

Also you might have brought Project Libra to him to have some changes made. Libra does have memory loss as well.

Though considering that your Project Aquarius files are missing, it implies Aquarius might have deleted it at some point. Which might mean there's something embarrassing you knew about him. Maybe something like intimate relations with a fish. That might actually be something good to say; either Aquarius takes it as a joke, or he gets a bit angry and might let something slip. At least you get a jab at him.

Aquarius does seem to want to swim, that whole glub glub thing was him pretending to be a fish.

Also I've got some questions that you should find an opportunity to ask. Ones that could very well be the truth that he can't wait for you to find out. The problem is that they might not be the case. You'll also want to not reveal that you're essentially bluffing with the questions.

"How long has it been since humans abandoned this facility?" This one I'm fairly certain is close to what actually happened. The exits have been sealed off, locking Project Zodiac in. What I'm not sure of is why. I'd assume that either one of Project Zodiac went rogue and ended up killing someone they shouldn't, or some secrets got leaked that really looked bad on them. In either case, it looks like that they cut their losses and locked everyone in. I suppose it's also possible there's something else in the building, though. It's probable that Dr. Kiaba and President Ling are dead at this point. Whether that's by old age or not is unclear.

"Which part of your hivemind has the lisp, a fondness for referencing Alice and Wonderland, and a creepy fascination with watching the camera system?" Might want to phrase that a bit differently, but the look on his face should be interesting, considering that you 'shouldn't' be able to know this. But hey, you've got us who can tell you stuff like this.

I'm actually not sure how to phrase this one. But I think Project Zodiac started as a prosthetics thing, then maybe changed to a cyborg soldier thing, then ended up a as a robot thing. Though I'm not sure just how 'dark' this went. It could be a 'in the image' of the deceased subjects, or it could be turning (dead?) people into robots. Project Zodiac, the prosthetic version, could very well have actually killed their users. Could you bring up your general files about Project Zodiac as a whole? Maybe there's some details there. Also try searching for prosthetics. It's possible that this information is related to alternate versions of Project Zodiac. Split timeline thing, caused by someone messing with traversing space and time. After all, you've got files on things that will or could happen. Though that could just be because factory reset data is just missing a lot of stuff on what actually happened due to huge time differences between then and the real date.

I'm thinking there might be outright other versions of reality. Actually that does remind me of some other things for you to try seeing if you've got data on. Juno. Mortis Crescent. Dexter. Orihime. Abaddon. Octogonal Dozen. Seer.

Of those, I'm thinking that Mortis Crescent has the highest chance of being in your database. And I'm hoping that searching for Dexter might get you a note you hid for yourself. Or find a fragment of your memory that wasn't deleted.

>>613844
...that is alot to process, before starting that unit slowly raise arm, away from the doctor if you could so kind. Also unit how do you feel, remember anything?

Sapphire Fox 2014/12/27(Sat)22:53 No. 616127 ID: 5e3453
File 141974958679.png - (98.14KB , 500x400 , 00184.png )

Doctor's orders! Dexter moves his arm.

He does aim away from Aquarius as suggested, even though he's certain it has at least 20 other bodies out there it can upload itself into.

AQUARIUS: That's the wrong aaaaAAHHHH MY TABLE!!!!!!

So instead of hitting its smug face, Dexter just sends the table flying with a single punch.

Sapphire Fox 2014/12/27(Sat)22:53 No. 616128 ID: 5e3453
File 141974959849.png - (31.93KB , 500x400 , 00185.png )

DEXTER: Hello, doc. Care to explain what the hell I'm doing here?

AQUARIUS: MY TABLEEEEeee Gemmy? That you?? Buh-- how did you come back!? Making a backup is unfair, it makes my job a lot less fun!

DEXTER: I didn't make one. What's going on?

> how do you feel, remember anything?
Dexter has no idea what's happened in the past two hours and he feels... confused, mostly, and a little bit angry. Kind of out of himself. He doesn't think the doctor is going to give him any worthwhile information, but at least he has his arm back, somehow.

Sapphire Fox 2014/12/27(Sat)22:54 No. 616129 ID: 5e3453
File 141974967960.png - (31.18KB , 500x400 , 00186.png )

> the lisp, a fondness for referencing Alice and Wonderland...
No need to ask that. Dexter is fully aware that this character is not of the Aquarius model. That's Ophiuchus. It's taken over the security room years ago... Though Ophiuchus is usually a lot more well-behaved. Wouldn't put the building on lockdown and close the emergency stairs for no reason.
Also, that's just Dexter's opinion, but Ophiuchus really should drop the whole lisp thing. It's creepy and honestly kinda stupid.

> it's surprising for a hivemind that 'actually works' to not know if he actually caught you or not
Either it wasn't actually Aquarius who caught him, or something recently broke the hivemind. Aquarius was built at a time when Dexter was offline, so he doesn't know any details, but they SHOULD work properly. At least they did last time he came down here. Which, admittedly, was over a year ago.

> Project Zodiac
> Mortis Crescent
DEXTER WOULD RATHER NOT THINK ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW.

>>616129
...was the last thing you remember getting your arm cut off? I think whatever cut it off decided to slap a backup inside the arm or something.

Ask the doc why he's cut off from the hivemind.

>didn't make a backup
...by any chance, is your primary memory storage located in your arm?

>Dexter has no idea what's happened in the past two hours and he feels... confused, mostly, and a little bit angry.
You were operational. If you don't have memory for that time, can you construct what happened from system logs? Memory addresses accessed, servos moved, functions executed? It would be a lot of forensic work on the back end, but you could construct a model of what your body was doing.

Or if the Doc has a security system or cameras, you could just take that data by force before he has the chance to tamper with it.

well we're here and we're fixed, time to get the hell out of here before something else comes along to ruin your day.

Apparently, you're in the recently attached arm, not your head, if that makes sense to you. Or something else wonky.

So the doctor is kinda a jerk? Oh well, now that you have your arm back you should probably go find ebony. Something tells me she isn't doing so well.

Sapphire Fox 2014/12/28(Sun)15:14 No. 616288 ID: 5e3453
File 141980849347.png - (75.56KB , 500x400 , 00187.png )

> get the hell out of here before something else comes along to ruin your day
> find ebony. Something tells me she isn't doing so well.
Dexter did take longer than he expected... Ebony is in danger?

DEXTER: Doc, a question. Do you have any info on Ebony's current situation? We separated a couple of hours ago.
AQUARIUS: Oh, Libra? We did wipe their memory, but it was way longer than two hours ago. Other than that, none of ours has gotten near Libra yet. I think. Probably...
Dexter can never tell if the doctor's really good at acting, or just stupid.
Anyway, even if Aquarius or whoever his contacts are didn't see Ebony, that doesn't mean someone else couldn't have. Dexter should probably hurry.

> Ask the doc why he's cut off from the hivemind.
AQUARIUS: WH-- How do you know about that!? Oh god please tell me no one else knows! If Pisces finds out she's going to rip my head off!
DEXTER: That's your problem, buddy. Don't ask me for help.
Aquarius doesn't elaborate on the reason why, though.

> Apparently, you're in the recently attached arm, not your head, if that makes sense to you. Or something else wonky.
> is your primary memory storage located in your arm?
That would be very weird. Unless someone messed with Dexter's hardware while he wasn't watching, his memory storage should be in his head. None of Dex's critical components are in his arms; the scientists decided not to risk it, since, well, he does use it to store and release large amounts of energy. Something could go wrong with that.

Now that you're in full possession of your facilities: do you remember why you're only active in one of your two available bodies / nodes?

well nothing left for you down here. (at least that I know of) Unless you can think of a reason to stay down here probably should head back up to your room and see if Ebony is still safe.

Can you ask about what project Capricorn is up to these days, or any of the other projects that might have stopped by?

Sapphire Fox 2014/12/29(Mon)19:59 No. 616680 ID: 5e3453
File 141991197521.gif - (43.52KB , 500x400 , 00188.gif )

[animated]

> what project Capricorn is up to these days
AQUARIUS: Eeeeh. Working for Scorpio, being frightfully good at keeping people where they want 'em to be. Same old. My info's a bit out dated though, haven't seen'em in a while. Which is good! We'd just end up ignoring each other anyway! No need to keep digging up the past, eh?

DEXTER: Oh. I shouldn't have brought it up. Wait, why am I being nice to you!?

> any of the other projects that might have stopped by
AQUARIUS: I haven't talked to many other bots lately... Oh, but! I fixed up slash de-memorized Cancer the other day! Didn't have anything new or worth my time, which is kind of a shame, but it's to be expected. Annnd Juno also showed up to make fun of something, I didn't really... get it. Or pay attention at all.

No mention of where anyone would be, or what they're actually doing. How useful.

Sapphire Fox 2014/12/29(Mon)20:00 No. 616681 ID: 5e3453
File 141991202260.png - (39.48KB , 500x400 , 00189.png )

> the last thing you remember
Dexter remembers getting to the corridor that leads to the doctor's office, and then... nothing. It appears that somehow, he was caught by surprise.
Possibly not by this swarm of robots outside. They're not very subtle, for a group that used to do stealth missions. Maybe they just don't care enough to BE subtle.

DEXTER: ...Uh... A little help here?

AQUARIUS: Oh, outta the way, you losers! He's good to go. Shoo, shoo. Make sure he doesn't get murdered on the way back or something.

Thankfully, the other robots obey the command and disperse. Dexter should be able to get out of here safely now?

Sapphire Fox 2014/12/29(Mon)20:01 No. 616682 ID: 5e3453
File 141991207690.png - (30.60KB , 500x400 , 00190.png )

AQUARIUS: Well! If you ever need to be fixed again, or decide to let me experiment on your other body, just come over. Don't be a stranger! I'm always here! Alllways. Like the sign says... Always in.

DEXTER: No thank you. I'd like to avoid being mangled by your other units, or whatever else's in this place.

> do you remember why you're only active in one of your two available bodies / nodes?
Dexter doesn't like thinking about that, either, but he guesses there's no tiptoeing around it. He will, however, continue to pretend no one mentioned Mortis.
His "adaptive AI" wasn't quite as sophisticated as Capricorn and Aquarius - he worked fine for a good while, but there was a glitch. It was something so tiny it wasn't noticed until had snowballed into a much bigger problem.
Dexter's bodies developed into separate programs over the years, and one of them is dead now.
He would like to drop the subject now.

>Dexter's bodies developed into separate programs over the years, and one of them is dead now.
uh, ouch. So uh, how'd you come across Ebony? I mean from what I've seen here so far is that pretty much all the robots here were made for combat but I'm not really seeing it with her, also what does that picture mean?

Are you sure it's dead, i mean something had to control your body over to Aquarius so maybe it's dormant? I don't know, maybe i'm just being optimistic like ebony who you should find. I suggest going to the last place you saw her.

>Dexter's bodies developed into separate programs over the years, and one of them is dead now.
>He would like to drop the subject now.
Ouch. Sorry for your loss. We'll drop it.

So... what's the quickest way out of this hellhole? Time to get back to the upper levels.

Somehow, when Aquarius fixed you up, it restored your memories. Some of the damage was to your face plate, so that might be why. Before that you were in some sort of 'factory reset' mode. Aquarius was also a jerk, and wanted to see the faces you would make when you start to understand. And I'd guess at least part of that was the stuff you don't want to talk about.

Your Project Aquarius files were gone. Though I'm uncertain if they're restored now, or if they were deleted at some prior point.

I'm not sure if you know this but you have files on the glowing flowers: "Imitation Glass Flowers" and "Ivory Flower". There wasn't that much in your factory reset mode, but I have no clue if your current state has more or not. Or if you were even aware of the existence of them.

And since you can remember Juno now, is he at all related to Project Aries? Your factory reset files only had that it was canceled due to problems at the start. But the time/space traversal kind of fits with what Juno does.

And what's the deal with you not being able to see color anymore? Or rather, as much color as you did in the timeframe where you can't remember at all?

Sapphire Fox 2014/12/31(Wed)21:14 No. 617188 ID: 5e3453
File 142008925557.png - (28.31KB , 500x400 , 00191.png )

As Dexter expected, the elevator is still out of order. Where exactly is it...? Could it have gotten into the basement somehow?
Oh well, no use thinking about this now. Seeing as the emergency stairs are still barred off, he'll probably have to use the maintenance ladder again... Ugh.

> is [Juno] at all related to Project Aries?
Not exactly. Juno was based on the same idea behind Aries, yes, but was actually a prototype for the Capricorn units. They gave up on the whole time-space travel idea after Juno used it to run away, the smartass.

> Aquarius was also a jerk
Nothing new, then.

> Are you sure it's dead
Dexter kil... deleted it himself. He'd know.

> something had to control your body over to Aquarius so maybe it's dormant?
That's... not possible.
Dexter says that, but there's a tiny bit of him that wants to believe this, too.
A tiny bit that really, really wants to believe this.

character POV x2 combo Sapphire Fox 2014/12/31(Wed)21:14 No. 617189 ID: 5e3453
File 142008927523.gif - (82.83KB , 500x400 , 00192.gif )

[animated]

> pretty much all the robots here were made for combat but I'm not really seeing it with [Ebony]

Ahaha, are you serious? Oh wait, you are. Huh. Ebony did change a lot, so it's to be expected people couldn't see the war machine in her.

Listen, Ebony is Zodiac's 13th model - the very last one. The culmination of everything Project Zodiac stands for, everything they studied their whole lives, everything they learned from the previous Projects.
Most of us were considered failures and disconnected, stored in the basement, abandoned. But some of them - some of them were exactly what the President wanted.

Capricorn was the perfect army, and Aquarius was its perfect medic. Such a synergy was also present for the higher ranks...
Libra and Ophiuchus had been built simultaneously and were intended from the start to work together. Ophiuchus was a tactician, and Libra was the general. They completely took over positions that had been occupied by humans. A perfectly mechanical army, under Ling's command.

Sapphire Fox 2014/12/31(Wed)21:15 No. 617190 ID: 5e3453
File 142008931032.png - (6.24KB , 500x400 , 00193.png )

> how'd you come across Ebony?
Depends on what you mean by that. Or rather, who.
I already explained that I first met "Ebony" by disobeying an order. An order which was to "leave no survivors". My other self... disagreed, when it came to one boy in particular. To this day, neither of us really know -- or knew -- the reason behind such disagreement.
It was the first time anything like that ever happened - the moment where everyone noticed the snowball that had been rolling up for the past years. And it was a big one.

Sapphire Fox 2014/12/31(Wed)21:15 No. 617191 ID: 5e3453
File 142008935730.png - (8.69KB , 500x400 , 00194.png )

But that's not totally relevant to the subject.
When Project Libra was completed, I was there, watching it being booted up for the first time. One look, and I could tell that robot was perfect for the job it had been created for...

Sapphire Fox 2014/12/31(Wed)21:16 No. 617192 ID: 5e3453
File 142008936531.png - (10.45KB , 500x400 , 00195.png )

Yes, Ivory was a very dangerous person.

Sapphire Fox 2014/12/31(Wed)21:16 No. 617193 ID: 5e3453
File 142008939841.gif - (665.12KB , 500x400 , CH1 END.gif )

CHAPTER 1 END

HAPPY NEW YEAR

...god damn cliff hangers

happy new year to you as well, till next time