Pattern Detection [Open]

[morphitudinous]

Who: Billy and whoever wants to find him late at night!
Where: Anywhere, just name a location in your tag.
Summary: Billy thinks he sees a pattern in the recent repoddings. Worried about his future and all the recent revelations, he prepares for the worst.
Warnings: None

Using patterns to predict future events wasn't foolproof, especially when the existence of a pattern was unclear or debatable, but Billy wasn't taking any chances. The most critical thing, as they'd all discussed, was to write down and copy information just in case. He'd been neglecting that duty, and with the recent events, the 'just in case' he was supposed to prepare for suddenly looked more likely. Billy hoped he was wrong about this, but now was not the time to take a risk. There were too many important things that needed saving.

It was late into the night, at an hour when most of his friends should be asleep, and Billy showed no sign of going to bed any time soon. He was coding his files on the latest Engineering projects onto multiple datapads and making hand copies of the same blueprints wherever possible. Once done, he hid the most important files in the lab, in his room at home, in the media library, on the observation deck, in his old car in the City, and in a few nondescript buildings here and there.

He roamed the halls, poking at his datapad to maintain the illusion that it was business as usual. The main thought echoing in his head was Not yet, please not yet.

Comments

The Lab

[snarkingscribe]

Proper sleep schedules are not a thing that Veronica is very familiar with, at least since spending time traveling with The Courier - they had a good head for things, but they also had a tendency to push themselves to the limit in terms of when to sleep - so trying to break that habit after getting used to it wasn't something that was going well for the scribe.

Instead, she used this time to both snoop around this big crazy ship, and at times, attempt to make progress on getting involved more - recent events were leading her to be more prudent about that, and to be less enthralled by all the neat stuff here.

This leads her to a research area, though it seems pretty quiet for the most part. "Anybody home?"

Re: The Lab

[morphitudinous]

More research? Good. Billy pulled himself away from the underbelly of the nearest deck, standing to meet the intruder.

"Hey," he greeted awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck. "I'm here. I was just installing some reminders so the department stays on track. I don't think I've seen you here before, though."

[snarkingscribe]

"Poked my head in a couple of times, but haven't spent much time here just yet. Been looking to join up, actually." She grins a bit. "This place has all kinds of tech that I'm itching to look at, figure I can at least be useful while I do it."

Old car in the city

[kaya_waterwave]

Kaya also could not sleep. She had too many things on her mind, not the least of which was what was going to happen with the W.I.T.C.H bus. Of course she had been maintaining it since Matt left, but with almost no one in it at this point, what could she do? It was sometimes heartbreaking to go there, but go there she did, and was coming back from there when she spotted Billy tinkering about now.

"Billy? What are you doing?" There was something different in his face, like he might be struggling with some of the things she was thinking about.

Re: Old car in the city

[morphitudinous]

Billy would recognize that voice anywhere. He was relieved. There would be a chance to say his piece before anything could happen to him. Once he'd finished stuffing things in the glove compartment, he stepped out to meet her.

"I'm glad you're here, Kaya. I definitely wanted to talk to you as soon as possible." He pulled a rag out of his pocket to wipe the window of his beloved car, then continued. "I've been putting my plans and notes in as many places as I can. They might disappear if I don't."

Re: Old car in the city

[kaya_waterwave]

Kaya frowned. She definitely didn't like the way this seemed to be going. She could feel that there was something going on with him that he wasn't talking about, and she was likely not going to like what he was going to say. That aside, it was not going to let her fears get the best of her.

"All right. What's going on?"

Just outside engineering

[curiousredsoul]

As busy as the dragon had been, sleep was something that was pushed off to later times. Such as it was she was taking the opportunity of the quiet hours to take a trip to Engineering to procure a few bits and pieces for both her portal system and the reinforcement process of the new safe houses.

When she saw a familiar figure walking down the halls toward her, she gave a dip of her head in greetings. She could tell something was off though, "Billy, pulling a late night again?" she greeted and asked seemingly casually, watching him carefully though.

[morphitudinous]

"Celena," Billy greeted her with a wave. The more people he could spread their information to, the better. He rolled up his sleeves and strode up to her.

"I've been working all night, trying to make sure that our information is in order. With everything that's been going on, I think something might happen to it," he added, lowering his voice. He looked left and right, worried. Was someone listening?

[curiousredsoul]

Celena dipped her head as he spoke, "Of course, it is best to have information so that it can be best accessed by the department when needed, wouldn't want to accidentally loose information after all," she replied before nodding in the direction she was walking.

"Perhaps we should walk a moment, I could lend you a hand as it were in the matter?" She turned to walk with him as if nothing were out of the ordinary, once they were a little further down the hall she stated quietly, "You are troubled,"

[wizardsaregodtier]

Hopefully Billy would forgive this -- but he WAS acting a bit suspiciously, the way he was roaming about the City poking into various things. Aibghalien thought he had better stop and investigate.

So, descending from on high in dragon form (he never flew in his normal shape any more), he landed not far away, folding his wings behind him. "It's not that I'm surprised you'd be pulling a late night, but out here?"

[morphitudinous]

Rather than offended, Billy was quite relieved to see Aibghalien. Some solid proof that not everyone in his category had been taken. Maybe there was still time, but this needed doing. There were still other ways Billy could be taken out of the picture.

"I'm storing and duplicating information," Billy explained, coming close enough to lower his voice. "You've seen what could happen to our memories, right?"

[wizardsaregodtier]

That was a sensible enough answer to relieve Aibghalien's concerns. He spoke the command words to assume his natural form, crossing his arms once they were properly his again. "I have. I keep very detailed journals against such an occasion, though I believe I would be aware of memory modification in time. It is not the first time I've endured such a process."

Engineering

[soulinherfists]

Allenby leaned back in an old swivel chair, messing with some shield designs on a datapad. Usually she didn't keep such late hours, but she was determined to do something that made Zakus better and more stylish. She'd caught Billy out of the corner of her eye a couple of times, but on his third pass she sat up straight. That wasn't an absentminded, thoughtful wander of someone working on a project. He was marching around for some more serious reason.

"Hey, Billy!" she called, waving. "What's eatin' ya?"

Re: Engineering

[morphitudinous]

"Allenby!" Billy waved her over, hoping to explain as much as he can as quickly as he can.

"Well...you've been reporting on the ship's past and urging us to rebel, right? You remember the risks we all talked about?"

Re: Engineering

[soulinherfists]

Allenby hopped up and walked over, trying to get an upside-down look at what Billy had on his datapad. Her look quickly turned grim when he began talking.

"Do I ever," she said. The fear of having her memory wiped, modified, or stolen by Stacy was never far from Allenby's mind; it had even been promoted to first place over her other fear that the ship would simply take control of everyone's brain to turn them into puppet soldiers. "Did something happen outta that?" Had someone been captured by the Daligig or been wiped of that knowledge? If that was true...

...well she couldn't exactly sock the Daligig, but she'd do something.

Media Library

[bonnypiperlad]

One of his friends was, in fact, actually asleep. Well, more accurately, Jamie had settled down to watch a movie in the Media Library and promptly fallen asleep. It was quiet in the little pod room now, and the noises from outside were just enough to wake him back up again. He stuck his head outside the door to see what was going on rubbing at his eyes as he did so.

"Mm. Billy? What are ye doing?"

[morphitudinous]

Billy's encountered his friends in many odd places, but 'asleep in the media library' is still one of the last places he'd expect to find Jamie. He turns around, punching a few buttons on his omnicom to terminate the upload of his latest files.

"I'm making backups of our information. We need as many as possible, and we need as many people to know as possible." Otherwise, they'll lose it all. "That's an odd place to sleep."

[bonnypiperlad]

"Aye, well," he comments, rolling his head about to try and work a crick out of his neck. "I was watching one of those action-y moving pictures. Victoria doesn't like those so much, but I wanted to see one, so I had a bit of free time and thought I'd watch one before I went home. Must've fallen asleep during it."

Or a non-action filled part of it, anyway. It wouldn't be the first time he's dropped off during a lull in something happening. The mention of backups, however, manages to get his full attention rather quickly.

"Because of what Sakura and Barbara showed us in the Sensoriums? Aye, that's not such a bad plan, but why do it in the middle of the night if people need to know?"

Engineering

[poorlycopingstrategist]

When Jamie came out of one of the storerooms and nearly ran smack into Billy, he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Geez!" he hissed, out of reflex rather than annoyance. Looking sheepish, he continued in a more normal tone, "Sorry. Department was empty when I went in the back, guess I wasn't expecting anyone to be here when I came back out. Getting some extra hours in?" This wouldn't have been surprising in and of itself; Engineering was full of workaholics, after all.

[morphitudinous]

Tripping in the middle of the night was not fun. Billy stumbled back, eyes darting around for any sign of damage. No, neither of them had managed to hurt the lab tonight. Good.

"I wasn't expecting it either, I'm sorry." He straightened up the nearest work table, laughing awkwardly. "And you could say that. I'm trying to make sure the work I've already done doesn't get lost. You?"

[poorlycopingstrategist]

"Just keeping busy." Read: distracting himself with work to avoid thinking about things. He frowned slightly at Billy's wording and looked at him askance. "Why would your work get lost?..."

Random path in The City

[whining_unicorn]

Normally Rarity was the sort of pony who loved her beauty sleep but there was something about The City this particular night and it was calling out to her. Maybe it was the shadows, the hues, the subtle change of colour?

All she knew was that she was getting inspiration and learning.

With her keen eye for detail, she did notice a man walking around with his data pad. "Hello there, are you getting inspiration too?" She called our cheerfully.

[morphitudinous]

Billy lifted his head, startled by the voice. It wasn't exactly a very familiar one.

"Inspiration? Uh...no, I can't say that I am. I wish I was." He looked over at the other woman, a pony. Ah, there were more! He vaguely remembered a visit with Pinkie Pie.

"Oh, hey. Do you know a pink pony named Pinkie Pie? She was about your size." Her wild cheer could really help the crew right about now, from what he recalled.

The City, random street!

[shiest_sunbeam]

What's that loud banging noise echoing through the dark and dreary street Billy? It sounds like someone's beating into a robot something fierce. In fact, you seem to be just in time to see an old car just fly past you and crash against an old building but the extent of the damage seems to have happened prior to the collision, it actually looks like the vehicle was pounded into a pulp before being launched!

And down the street under a flickering streetlight, you see a familiar silhouette, stretching and cracking her knuckles as she started walking towards the next object that was left unattended by the grand ship they all lived in everytime she picked up a piece from someone's world.

It seems sensoriums wouldn't do it for the short, timid half-orc today. She wanted to truly feel a bit of extra training and frustration venting as evident by the immediate crunch and straining sound of a steel door to a bank safe as she began using it as a punching bag and making quick work of it.

[morphitudinous]

Those crashes sounded dangerous. So dangerous, in fact, that the thought of them thoroughly derailed any plans he'd had for his hiding spaces. It was time to investigate, just to ease his mind. Things going bump in the night were definitely not welcome now, not when there was so much to look out for!

Billy jumped up, taking off at a run toward the source of the noise. He approached the sound of crunching steel with one hand steady on his morpher, prepared to step in.

As it turned out, he did not need to fear Daligig, more monsters, or the dreaded tentacles he feared seeing so much. The source of the noise was Ronnae.

He skidded into the light, quickly pressing against a wall to avoid any flying objects. "...Making scrap metal?"