Twists of Fate [Part 4]
Nov. 4th, 2014 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
esp_dragonFandom: Noblesse
Summary: Nakida’s a hacker in the middle of a job to find some information. Except they’re not the only one breaking into the building that night - there’s a silver-haired guy walking around like cameras don’t exist. If he wants to get caught, it’s not their problem.
Huian’s on guard duty to protect the information they’re after. Usually it’s quiet - all she has to do is enter the system, keep an eye on the camera feeds and patrol around the clusters of data to make sure no-one gets to them.
Their pasts connect them, even if they don’t remember. And the past does tend to come back.
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Reincarnation fic! :D Written for nano! So expect some weirdness as I churn this out, haha.
Genre: General.
Word count: 2,046
Total word count: 8,779
Status: Work in progress
It also meant the guards were more zealous over what they were supposed to be protecting, and pointing Nakida straight to them.
They'd hidden their body in time - being hooked up to the system helped the guards have a wider coverage, but there was still only a limited amount they could process at one time and Nakida knew roughly where the cameras they wanted to alter were on the feeds.
And if they had the time, they would be taking a copy of the feeds from the night before to see how Kang-dae got in and out.
* * *
In some ways, hacking wasn't that different from trying to physically steal something - there was an object located somewhere that was protected by a variety of different things that needed to be surpassed.
But doing it within a system levelled the playing field, so it didn't matter as much what a person's physical state was, if their mind was sharp and able to work with the speed and malleability in the system, then they were the ones with the advantage.
Nakida didn't so much step towards where a number of the guards were focused on as float - the senses were expanded in a system, able to take in more at a time. If the person was willing to go that far. Most kept to a reasonably human shape because that was what they were used to. That, and the stories of people reaching out too far, stretching themselves out so much that they became part of the system they were inside, bodies left as an empty husk, or only with part of the original person left.
Maybe Nakida had an affinity with systems or it had been all the time they'd spent around technology, but they hadn't seemed to have that problem, able to keep their sense of self even when they'd changed their 'shape' to fit more with the system. Guards listened out for footsteps, something that stood out, that didn't pulse with an even beat.
And because most tried to keep their selves as in tact as possible, the image they formed inside the system was usually a copy of themselves.
That fact had been what had helped Nakida stay away the net over the years, being able to change the way they looked inside a system.
There were a number of places of interest, and this would be a waiting game, waiting until the guard was distracted or had to take a break.
* * *
Nakida swiped the port at the back of their neck a few hours later in their new inn, bringing out the cable and sending it towards their console, hooking their brain up to it, downloading the mass of information they'd gained from the company. It was more than they'd expected - they'd have to upgrade their data storage at some point soon.
While their console got the data, Nakida spent the time doodling nondescript things in their room on their communicator, things that wouldn't take too much processing away from the download. Sometimes they drew people while they got through the times they wouldn't do anything, but it depended on how they were feeling at the time.
They were yawning by the time the upload was done, and they glanced back at what they'd done without thinking as they started up the application to start decoding everything. It was Kang-dae with the beginning sketch a long haired person who had their arm around him. They must have been thinking about one of the many pictures they'd seen of him while doing that.
It was weird that they'd drawn the guy smiling though, but both their brain and body was demanding sleep and like the rest of the drawing, it was probably something they'd done without realising it.
They deleted the picture, set their console to the side and crawled into bed, falling asleep within minutes.
* * *
Their console was still working away when they woke up again just before midday. That wasn't the only piece of information they'd been able to get, and they opened up the upper level floor feeds of the previous night, narrowing down the time frame and trying to find when exactly Kang-dae entered the building.
Nakida blinked when they saw him first exit from one of the offices. They skipped back but they didn't see him enter the room.
That… They leaned back in disbelief. Had he literally came in through a window? The windows in the offices were usually tall and opened at the top - big enough for someone to squeeze through if they were determined. If they could reach. The windows on the upper floors didn't tend to be alarmed either, because the chances of someone doing that was slim, and it was a waste of money to cover every single window.
He seemed interested by the elevators, eyeing them for a few seconds before continuing on. What was his plan…? Was it the same as theirs – trying to uncover something about the company?
They'd reached the point where they'd gotten in touch with him. His body language from what Nakida could originally see didn't surprise him, the man's hand clenching into a fist out of view, his walk stiffer than it had been before they'd called.
When the call was finished, Kang-dae stood there for a few seconds not doing anything and then he –
What?
Nakida stopped the feed and skipped back, playing it again, leaning closer to make sure.
…No, they'd been right. Kang-dae turned around and then disappeared from sight.
Had he hacked into the feeds and erased his presence? But why do it then instead of – had they been the distraction instead the other way around?
Nakida curled one corner of their lips up. If it was, damn. They would have gotten all of the guards' attention when they'd been found, everything stopping as they looked after Huian.
But that was if he'd known they were going to be found.
Hm.
They skipped back the feed again, playing it one more time one frame at a time.
He turned. Blurred. Then disappeared.
Nakida frowned again. If he'd erased his presence, it would have been a clean cut – he was on screen and then he was gone. There shouldn't be any blurring.
With that in mind, they widened the scope of the feeds, slowing everything down so the screens ticked by frame by frame.
They picked out a blur three cameras away from where Kang-dae had last stood only six frames later.
That… He couldn't be moving that fast.
Except he was. Or something was, a blur popping up every couple of frames, heading for higher up, probably where he'd entered.
How-?
There had been human experiments, people trying to enhance humans past what regular drugs to do. It was why Nakida had access to be able to put ports in their body. Stories of chimeras being made, trying to implant animal DNA into human to make them stronger.
But they'd never worked, the bodies usually failing within a short period of time, barely getting to adulthood, the DNA tearing the body apart, a balance never getting struck between them.
Or was that just what the public had been told? So they wouldn't worry, would think that they were safe when there really were people who could lift several times their own weight or run faster than the eye could see, live longer than any regular human could?
And why was someone like that interested in this security company?
* * *
Huian stared at Fadia behind her desk. "You can't be serious." That didn't make sense.
"I am." Fadia slid the document over, letting Huian see it.
It was as Fuian said: she was getting promoted. Two days after letting a hacker get away. "But why?" she burst out.
"You were the one who noticed the hacker on the feeds, as well as the first one to intercept-"
"Anyone would have seen him on the feeds! And it was because I was in that stairwell I found him!" Those weren't accomplishments; it was only luck that she'd gotten to it first.
Fadia shook her head. "It's already been set - you're leaving at the end of the week."
They were sending her away. That was the real reason she was getting 'promoted'. "Fine." With a tight jaw, she swiped the document to her communicator and walked out.
* * *
They were giving her a bigger place, Huian read in the document. She was also being sent to another damn country. But… It did seem like she was moving up…
It just felt empty to her.
"Ah, Huian?"
She looked up, and blinked at…Joyce's face at the doorway. They bowed in greeting and Joyce glanced at the document hovering in front of Huian. Huian let it hover there.
"I was wondering if you wanted a coffee from down the road." She lifted the take-out cup in her hand.
That was the better than what they could get here. "What's in it?" Huian asked, studying the cup, her eyebrows drawn in. Why was Joyce offering?
"Black at the moment, since I don't know what you like."
"That's…fine," she said, still peering at Joyce. "We've got stuff we can add here. Why…?"
"I wanted to check on you," Joyce said with a smile, coming in and holding the cup out to her.
"I only had a couple of bruises," Huian said, shrugging as she took the offered cup. She set it down, wrapping her hands around it, warming them. "I didn't have any of the symptoms they warned me about." It felt as if the hacker had only used a cable to hit her, not shock her as well.
"That's good." Joyce glanced at the document again, her lips going at a wry angle. "Am I allowed to ask what that is?" Then she laughed, holding up her hands. "I'm sorry – I'm one of those really curious people who asks about everything."
"Ye-" Huian huffed, grimacing a little as her thoughts went back to it. "I'm being promoted." Joyce would find out eventually if she kept visiting.
"Really?" Joyce gave her a bright smile. "Congrats!"
"Yeah…" Huian shifted in her chair, not looking at her as she tugged on a sleeve.
"…You're not happy about it…?"
She sighed, tugging harder. "I don't deserve it."
"Someone thinks you do," Joyce pointed out.
Or they wanted her gone, but Huian didn't say that out loud. She closed her eyes instead. "I can't decline it, so this is my last week here." If someone got a promotion, they were expected to go where they were told. It would be a hassle to start anew somewhere else, but at least the company took care of her accommodation; not all did that.
"Ooh. So when's you're leaving party?"
Huian opened her eyes to blink at Joyce. Leaving party…? Right, she'd probably have one of those, wouldn't she? "I don't know."
"Well, when you do know, tell me?" Joyce swiped at her own communicator and checked the time. "And I need to finish some more reports, so I'll speak with you later!" She bowed and turned, already moving towards the door.
Huian stared after her. "How many reports do you do a week?" Joyce had come in a few nights ago to retrieve notes for one and she had to complete more already?
"Usually two or three." Every week? Joyce's smile turned into a grin at Huian's expression. "You get used to it."
Which was why she was coming back to work in the middle of the night several time a week. Joyce was gone before she could say anything and Huian shook her head, bringing her attention back to the coffee and the document.
There really wasn't anything she could do now except concentrate back on work. She'd stewed enough on it already. Once she'd finished the coffee, she'd go back into the system.
* * *
Nakida's console had finished decoding everything and now they had the monumental task of going through all of the data, making sense of it and trying to find where the discrepancies were, if they could find anything that was amiss.
_______________________
Sure, some sort of random info-dump of worldbuilding, pfft.
Huian has a diamond-shaped tattoo on her wrist. I'm not sure which, but she's got on. I just don't know how to show it. Maybe Joyce asking when she and Huian were in the car. That was part of the reason why Huian had been fiddling with her cuff.
Summary: Nakida’s a hacker in the middle of a job to find some information. Except they’re not the only one breaking into the building that night - there’s a silver-haired guy walking around like cameras don’t exist. If he wants to get caught, it’s not their problem.
Huian’s on guard duty to protect the information they’re after. Usually it’s quiet - all she has to do is enter the system, keep an eye on the camera feeds and patrol around the clusters of data to make sure no-one gets to them.
Their pasts connect them, even if they don’t remember. And the past does tend to come back.
Rating: PG-13
Notes: Reincarnation fic! :D Written for nano! So expect some weirdness as I churn this out, haha.
Genre: General.
Word count: 2,046
Total word count: 8,779
Status: Work in progress
It also meant the guards were more zealous over what they were supposed to be protecting, and pointing Nakida straight to them.
They'd hidden their body in time - being hooked up to the system helped the guards have a wider coverage, but there was still only a limited amount they could process at one time and Nakida knew roughly where the cameras they wanted to alter were on the feeds.
And if they had the time, they would be taking a copy of the feeds from the night before to see how Kang-dae got in and out.
In some ways, hacking wasn't that different from trying to physically steal something - there was an object located somewhere that was protected by a variety of different things that needed to be surpassed.
But doing it within a system levelled the playing field, so it didn't matter as much what a person's physical state was, if their mind was sharp and able to work with the speed and malleability in the system, then they were the ones with the advantage.
Nakida didn't so much step towards where a number of the guards were focused on as float - the senses were expanded in a system, able to take in more at a time. If the person was willing to go that far. Most kept to a reasonably human shape because that was what they were used to. That, and the stories of people reaching out too far, stretching themselves out so much that they became part of the system they were inside, bodies left as an empty husk, or only with part of the original person left.
Maybe Nakida had an affinity with systems or it had been all the time they'd spent around technology, but they hadn't seemed to have that problem, able to keep their sense of self even when they'd changed their 'shape' to fit more with the system. Guards listened out for footsteps, something that stood out, that didn't pulse with an even beat.
And because most tried to keep their selves as in tact as possible, the image they formed inside the system was usually a copy of themselves.
That fact had been what had helped Nakida stay away the net over the years, being able to change the way they looked inside a system.
There were a number of places of interest, and this would be a waiting game, waiting until the guard was distracted or had to take a break.
Nakida swiped the port at the back of their neck a few hours later in their new inn, bringing out the cable and sending it towards their console, hooking their brain up to it, downloading the mass of information they'd gained from the company. It was more than they'd expected - they'd have to upgrade their data storage at some point soon.
While their console got the data, Nakida spent the time doodling nondescript things in their room on their communicator, things that wouldn't take too much processing away from the download. Sometimes they drew people while they got through the times they wouldn't do anything, but it depended on how they were feeling at the time.
They were yawning by the time the upload was done, and they glanced back at what they'd done without thinking as they started up the application to start decoding everything. It was Kang-dae with the beginning sketch a long haired person who had their arm around him. They must have been thinking about one of the many pictures they'd seen of him while doing that.
It was weird that they'd drawn the guy smiling though, but both their brain and body was demanding sleep and like the rest of the drawing, it was probably something they'd done without realising it.
They deleted the picture, set their console to the side and crawled into bed, falling asleep within minutes.
Their console was still working away when they woke up again just before midday. That wasn't the only piece of information they'd been able to get, and they opened up the upper level floor feeds of the previous night, narrowing down the time frame and trying to find when exactly Kang-dae entered the building.
Nakida blinked when they saw him first exit from one of the offices. They skipped back but they didn't see him enter the room.
That… They leaned back in disbelief. Had he literally came in through a window? The windows in the offices were usually tall and opened at the top - big enough for someone to squeeze through if they were determined. If they could reach. The windows on the upper floors didn't tend to be alarmed either, because the chances of someone doing that was slim, and it was a waste of money to cover every single window.
He seemed interested by the elevators, eyeing them for a few seconds before continuing on. What was his plan…? Was it the same as theirs – trying to uncover something about the company?
They'd reached the point where they'd gotten in touch with him. His body language from what Nakida could originally see didn't surprise him, the man's hand clenching into a fist out of view, his walk stiffer than it had been before they'd called.
When the call was finished, Kang-dae stood there for a few seconds not doing anything and then he –
What?
Nakida stopped the feed and skipped back, playing it again, leaning closer to make sure.
…No, they'd been right. Kang-dae turned around and then disappeared from sight.
Had he hacked into the feeds and erased his presence? But why do it then instead of – had they been the distraction instead the other way around?
Nakida curled one corner of their lips up. If it was, damn. They would have gotten all of the guards' attention when they'd been found, everything stopping as they looked after Huian.
But that was if he'd known they were going to be found.
Hm.
They skipped back the feed again, playing it one more time one frame at a time.
He turned. Blurred. Then disappeared.
Nakida frowned again. If he'd erased his presence, it would have been a clean cut – he was on screen and then he was gone. There shouldn't be any blurring.
With that in mind, they widened the scope of the feeds, slowing everything down so the screens ticked by frame by frame.
They picked out a blur three cameras away from where Kang-dae had last stood only six frames later.
That… He couldn't be moving that fast.
Except he was. Or something was, a blur popping up every couple of frames, heading for higher up, probably where he'd entered.
How-?
There had been human experiments, people trying to enhance humans past what regular drugs to do. It was why Nakida had access to be able to put ports in their body. Stories of chimeras being made, trying to implant animal DNA into human to make them stronger.
But they'd never worked, the bodies usually failing within a short period of time, barely getting to adulthood, the DNA tearing the body apart, a balance never getting struck between them.
Or was that just what the public had been told? So they wouldn't worry, would think that they were safe when there really were people who could lift several times their own weight or run faster than the eye could see, live longer than any regular human could?
And why was someone like that interested in this security company?
Huian stared at Fadia behind her desk. "You can't be serious." That didn't make sense.
"I am." Fadia slid the document over, letting Huian see it.
It was as Fuian said: she was getting promoted. Two days after letting a hacker get away. "But why?" she burst out.
"You were the one who noticed the hacker on the feeds, as well as the first one to intercept-"
"Anyone would have seen him on the feeds! And it was because I was in that stairwell I found him!" Those weren't accomplishments; it was only luck that she'd gotten to it first.
Fadia shook her head. "It's already been set - you're leaving at the end of the week."
They were sending her away. That was the real reason she was getting 'promoted'. "Fine." With a tight jaw, she swiped the document to her communicator and walked out.
They were giving her a bigger place, Huian read in the document. She was also being sent to another damn country. But… It did seem like she was moving up…
It just felt empty to her.
"Ah, Huian?"
She looked up, and blinked at…Joyce's face at the doorway. They bowed in greeting and Joyce glanced at the document hovering in front of Huian. Huian let it hover there.
"I was wondering if you wanted a coffee from down the road." She lifted the take-out cup in her hand.
That was the better than what they could get here. "What's in it?" Huian asked, studying the cup, her eyebrows drawn in. Why was Joyce offering?
"Black at the moment, since I don't know what you like."
"That's…fine," she said, still peering at Joyce. "We've got stuff we can add here. Why…?"
"I wanted to check on you," Joyce said with a smile, coming in and holding the cup out to her.
"I only had a couple of bruises," Huian said, shrugging as she took the offered cup. She set it down, wrapping her hands around it, warming them. "I didn't have any of the symptoms they warned me about." It felt as if the hacker had only used a cable to hit her, not shock her as well.
"That's good." Joyce glanced at the document again, her lips going at a wry angle. "Am I allowed to ask what that is?" Then she laughed, holding up her hands. "I'm sorry – I'm one of those really curious people who asks about everything."
"Ye-" Huian huffed, grimacing a little as her thoughts went back to it. "I'm being promoted." Joyce would find out eventually if she kept visiting.
"Really?" Joyce gave her a bright smile. "Congrats!"
"Yeah…" Huian shifted in her chair, not looking at her as she tugged on a sleeve.
"…You're not happy about it…?"
She sighed, tugging harder. "I don't deserve it."
"Someone thinks you do," Joyce pointed out.
Or they wanted her gone, but Huian didn't say that out loud. She closed her eyes instead. "I can't decline it, so this is my last week here." If someone got a promotion, they were expected to go where they were told. It would be a hassle to start anew somewhere else, but at least the company took care of her accommodation; not all did that.
"Ooh. So when's you're leaving party?"
Huian opened her eyes to blink at Joyce. Leaving party…? Right, she'd probably have one of those, wouldn't she? "I don't know."
"Well, when you do know, tell me?" Joyce swiped at her own communicator and checked the time. "And I need to finish some more reports, so I'll speak with you later!" She bowed and turned, already moving towards the door.
Huian stared after her. "How many reports do you do a week?" Joyce had come in a few nights ago to retrieve notes for one and she had to complete more already?
"Usually two or three." Every week? Joyce's smile turned into a grin at Huian's expression. "You get used to it."
Which was why she was coming back to work in the middle of the night several time a week. Joyce was gone before she could say anything and Huian shook her head, bringing her attention back to the coffee and the document.
There really wasn't anything she could do now except concentrate back on work. She'd stewed enough on it already. Once she'd finished the coffee, she'd go back into the system.
Nakida's console had finished decoding everything and now they had the monumental task of going through all of the data, making sense of it and trying to find where the discrepancies were, if they could find anything that was amiss.
Sure, some sort of random info-dump of worldbuilding, pfft.
Huian has a diamond-shaped tattoo on her wrist. I'm not sure which, but she's got on. I just don't know how to show it. Maybe Joyce asking when she and Huian were in the car. That was part of the reason why Huian had been fiddling with her cuff.