Post by Vidar (PROJECT: RAGNAROK) on Nov 6, 2020 11:45:30 GMT -8
It was peaceful out there.
The sky above was bright, a beautiful blue, with thick puffy cotton candy clouds sparsely dotting the seemingly endless expanse above him. The sun looked and felt larger than before, perhaps it was due to the lack of many clouds, less shade. It was beating down on the landscape mercilessly, and yet it was not uncomfortable. There was a breeze, cool and sharp, working its way through the area. That breeze swept over the turquoise waters of the ocean, broke the waves, and carried with it a bittersweet somewhat tangy and salty briny flavor and scent with it.
The bittersweet scent of the ocean was nice. The ocean waves splashing so lazily against his feet was nice.
There were seagulls crying high above, their caws could be heard for great distances, and their white bodies carried by the wind danced, dropped and rose again, as if in tempo with a beat only they could hear.
There were people nearby. He could sense them, their energy signatures, their heat signatures, their heart beats, he could sense all that. He could hear their laughter, the kids splashing in the water, the adults playing volleyball. He could see them from the corner of his eye. They were enjoying the sea, not thinking of anything but relaxation and serenity.
But, all that did not seem to register with him. Vidar's mind was elsewhere. He was surrounded by distractions, by noise, sights, and smells, all attempting to get him to give up on his fruitless search; fruitless in that his HUD had been running nonstop, decrypting and searching through every file he could get his hands on, not literally as they were all stored in his head, as he attempted to find a clue, no matter how small, as to the location of anymore of Doctor Kringle's hidden labs. There were more, he was sure of it. They could not have all been lost to time. They had to exist.
A bit of movement caught his attention. His body moved as if its by its own volition and he turned and raised his arm. It was all without thinking about it, was it instinct? Or was it his body's augmentations reacting in a manner akin to programmed self preservation? Either way, he raised his arm and caught the object flying toward his face... It was a ball. He caught it perfectly in the air, as the people who were rushing toward him stared, eyes wide, mouths agape, at the strange looking blonde man standing ankle deep in the water. His strange eyes caught their eye, bright yellow irises with black sclera. The fact that he had caught the ball with his one good arm; where the other arm should have been was an empty port in the shoulder. And he was visibly not just your run of the mill human, he had been augmented, his one arm was obviously cybernetic. They stared at him, not just staring at him due to his physical appearance but also due to how fast he had managed to catch the ball. They hadn't even had time to warn him or shout.
He had just caught it. He hadn't even been looking in their direction. He just caught it.
"Wow, that was pretty cool. How did you do that?" The youngest, and the one nearest to him, spoke up; a young boy of about thirteen with messy chestnut hair and bright emerald eyes, "Are you a robot, or something, Mister?"
"I am a cyborg," He corrected the young man, who only stared with larger shocked eyes than before, a mixture of wonder and curiosity.
"That's so cool!" The young boy grinned wide. "How did you lose your arm? Did you get into an awesome robot battle? Were you attacked by robot ninjas?" The kid certainly had seen a lot of television shows.
"You're not too far from the mark," Oddly enough, he wasn't, "I participated in a tournament. My opponent was a cyborg samurai. One of his attacks shattered my arm," He looked at the spot where his arm would be, "I am in need of replacing it."
"Can't you just build one?" The boy's question caused him to peer over at him.
"Unfortunately, I lack the files to self repair. I am currently searching for those files in my databanks, or at the least find the lab where they are stored."
"Oh. Well, can we get our ball back?"
"Of course," With a gentle flick of the arm, Vidar tossed the ball to the young boy as he caught it in the air.
"Good luck getting your arm fixed." The boy nodded and waved before running back to the rest of his group, holding up the ball in triumph, shouting I GOT IT BACK.
A small alarm caught his attention. It was inside his head. He turned his eyes away from the ocean, away from the waves, and looked down at his feet, though in reality he was turning his attention to the messages sprawling across his internal HUD.
FILE DECRYPTION COMPLETE...
OPEN FILE...? Y/N
Y...
OPENING FILE...
The data that streamed down like a waterfall before his eyes was a messy affair; the file had been encrypted and sabotaged, purposefully, by Doctor Kringle to make finding any of his research difficult. He did not want anyone to get a hold of his work, especially not whatever was left of the Red Ribbon Army. That included any of his other various hidden laboratories.
There was a lot of information. It was surprising how much Kringle wanted hidden. But, a lot of the information on this particular file included things he already knew about. He scrolled past it, skimming over it, or at least skimming over what he could write, as the file was still somewhat corrupted and some of the data had been replaced simply with random symbols or just left blank in spaces.
Wait. What was that?
One particular line in a paragraph near the end of the document had caught his eye.
.... Communications have been lost with Doctor .... 's lab... Southern Islands... Rosewater Island.
Half the sentence was missing, as if it had been heavily redacted. But, there was something there, a name; Rosewater Island. There was a lab down there, in the Southern Islands. Specifically, somewhere on or near Rosewater Island. That was it, that was what he needed.
Now, where was Rosewater Island.
His HUD began to work on finding that, pulling up maps of the entire Southern Islands region, attempting to triangulate Rosewater and come up with the fastest route to get there.
WC: 1,105
The sky above was bright, a beautiful blue, with thick puffy cotton candy clouds sparsely dotting the seemingly endless expanse above him. The sun looked and felt larger than before, perhaps it was due to the lack of many clouds, less shade. It was beating down on the landscape mercilessly, and yet it was not uncomfortable. There was a breeze, cool and sharp, working its way through the area. That breeze swept over the turquoise waters of the ocean, broke the waves, and carried with it a bittersweet somewhat tangy and salty briny flavor and scent with it.
The bittersweet scent of the ocean was nice. The ocean waves splashing so lazily against his feet was nice.
There were seagulls crying high above, their caws could be heard for great distances, and their white bodies carried by the wind danced, dropped and rose again, as if in tempo with a beat only they could hear.
There were people nearby. He could sense them, their energy signatures, their heat signatures, their heart beats, he could sense all that. He could hear their laughter, the kids splashing in the water, the adults playing volleyball. He could see them from the corner of his eye. They were enjoying the sea, not thinking of anything but relaxation and serenity.
But, all that did not seem to register with him. Vidar's mind was elsewhere. He was surrounded by distractions, by noise, sights, and smells, all attempting to get him to give up on his fruitless search; fruitless in that his HUD had been running nonstop, decrypting and searching through every file he could get his hands on, not literally as they were all stored in his head, as he attempted to find a clue, no matter how small, as to the location of anymore of Doctor Kringle's hidden labs. There were more, he was sure of it. They could not have all been lost to time. They had to exist.
A bit of movement caught his attention. His body moved as if its by its own volition and he turned and raised his arm. It was all without thinking about it, was it instinct? Or was it his body's augmentations reacting in a manner akin to programmed self preservation? Either way, he raised his arm and caught the object flying toward his face... It was a ball. He caught it perfectly in the air, as the people who were rushing toward him stared, eyes wide, mouths agape, at the strange looking blonde man standing ankle deep in the water. His strange eyes caught their eye, bright yellow irises with black sclera. The fact that he had caught the ball with his one good arm; where the other arm should have been was an empty port in the shoulder. And he was visibly not just your run of the mill human, he had been augmented, his one arm was obviously cybernetic. They stared at him, not just staring at him due to his physical appearance but also due to how fast he had managed to catch the ball. They hadn't even had time to warn him or shout.
He had just caught it. He hadn't even been looking in their direction. He just caught it.
"Wow, that was pretty cool. How did you do that?" The youngest, and the one nearest to him, spoke up; a young boy of about thirteen with messy chestnut hair and bright emerald eyes, "Are you a robot, or something, Mister?"
"I am a cyborg," He corrected the young man, who only stared with larger shocked eyes than before, a mixture of wonder and curiosity.
"That's so cool!" The young boy grinned wide. "How did you lose your arm? Did you get into an awesome robot battle? Were you attacked by robot ninjas?" The kid certainly had seen a lot of television shows.
"You're not too far from the mark," Oddly enough, he wasn't, "I participated in a tournament. My opponent was a cyborg samurai. One of his attacks shattered my arm," He looked at the spot where his arm would be, "I am in need of replacing it."
"Can't you just build one?" The boy's question caused him to peer over at him.
"Unfortunately, I lack the files to self repair. I am currently searching for those files in my databanks, or at the least find the lab where they are stored."
"Oh. Well, can we get our ball back?"
"Of course," With a gentle flick of the arm, Vidar tossed the ball to the young boy as he caught it in the air.
"Good luck getting your arm fixed." The boy nodded and waved before running back to the rest of his group, holding up the ball in triumph, shouting I GOT IT BACK.
A small alarm caught his attention. It was inside his head. He turned his eyes away from the ocean, away from the waves, and looked down at his feet, though in reality he was turning his attention to the messages sprawling across his internal HUD.
FILE DECRYPTION COMPLETE...
OPEN FILE...? Y/N
Y...
OPENING FILE...
The data that streamed down like a waterfall before his eyes was a messy affair; the file had been encrypted and sabotaged, purposefully, by Doctor Kringle to make finding any of his research difficult. He did not want anyone to get a hold of his work, especially not whatever was left of the Red Ribbon Army. That included any of his other various hidden laboratories.
There was a lot of information. It was surprising how much Kringle wanted hidden. But, a lot of the information on this particular file included things he already knew about. He scrolled past it, skimming over it, or at least skimming over what he could write, as the file was still somewhat corrupted and some of the data had been replaced simply with random symbols or just left blank in spaces.
Wait. What was that?
One particular line in a paragraph near the end of the document had caught his eye.
.... Communications have been lost with Doctor .... 's lab... Southern Islands... Rosewater Island.
Half the sentence was missing, as if it had been heavily redacted. But, there was something there, a name; Rosewater Island. There was a lab down there, in the Southern Islands. Specifically, somewhere on or near Rosewater Island. That was it, that was what he needed.
Now, where was Rosewater Island.
His HUD began to work on finding that, pulling up maps of the entire Southern Islands region, attempting to triangulate Rosewater and come up with the fastest route to get there.
WC: 1,105