[b]Fiona:[/b] This is the most utilitarian part of the maintenance, the one that’s only interesting from the mechanical puzzle solving of it. Most of the motors in bodies like these are centralized, and that goes for humans as well. The torque in your fingers is carried all the way down from your shoulders and biceps. It’s mechanically impossible to get the grip strength you’d need out of your hands from the muscles that would [i]fit[/i] in your hands. Batteries take up nearly as much space as a full digestive system would, motors most of the rest. Coolant pumps in place of a circulatory system, filters and chemical sensors in place of a larger stomach and lungs. And- Huh. Reagents need restocking soon. It’s like seeing the low ink warning in an expensive laser printer, you know it can happen but it’s not something you ever think about. The problem is, like laser printers, by the time it happens you tend not to be able to buy the cartridge anymore. You’re expected to just update to a new model of printer with a new model of cartridge. The maintenance will help a lot for now, but it’s a sign that parts of these bodies are getting towards their expected end-of-life anyway. The holdout colours that don’t want to change that much - what are their choices going to be when they start losing their senses of taste and smell? Just… bootleg jerry-rig the reagents themselves, to commit? All she can really do now is oil and lubricate the friction surfaces, wrap some bright pink electrical tape around the parts of wires getting pinched and caught to give them a bit of protection, and write a little quote on Pink’s heart motor in a glitter gel pen she pulls from the bedside table. She’s tempted by an Oscar Wilde quote, “Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live. It is asking others to live as one wishes,” but that’s something she just wants to [i]tell[/i] Pink, not something she thinks she should carry over her heart where no one else can see it. [i]This little heart of mine, [/i] [i]I’m going to make it shine[/i] Better. Just the arms, now. [b]Train Gang:[/b] Chaka can load her guns from the disused station she’s at - Crimson Tower sits at the ‘disused’ control switch, and it’s still got the hardware there for loading and unloading. It’ll mitigate the problems, will prevent needing to get her in front of the crowd. Again, the real issue is if the train gets intercepted under your orders or credentials. Chaka would also probably appreciate [i]someone [/i]taking one of those trains down to help her with the lifting, it’d help her move quicker, but you don’t need to do that. She’s a strong independent panther who can pack her own shit and come find you on her own, when she’s done. [[i]Whether the carriage gets intercepted will be a heat roll, made at the end of the operation, with a difficulty based on how much attention Crimson Tower draws to herself with her operations here.[/i]] The first of the Ares vanguard is starting to filter through the turn-off streets all across the block, the more aggro of the forward scouts fanning out and checking everyone’s routes. They wave to the station before turning back to check the streets again. No, there was no resistance here that actually resisted, your numbers were too great and too organized for that, and your plan to draw aggro too effective. … but the riots weren’t the real crisis and the real enemy here, were they? This was always your opportunity, against your real declared enemy; the state. Seizing the trains for real will be their territory. The cops have left, and taken their comms line with them. The station is yours for now, pre-packaged with a faraday cage and some other nice defensive goodies the cops couldn’t take with them. Now there are two things to do here; [b]Red: [/b] You just need main public trains for this, now, you’ve got a strong enough decentralized system that people can be sent to the other district central stations and still be organized enough to get onto the right trains fast enough from there. And Fiona’s gotten you most of your address list of what trains they’ll need from there. That’s easy, that makes this part much faster, this is pure payoff from making right decisions earlier. Corday gets on it, but she drops the pencil she’s twirling in her fingers, catches it before it hits ground. “Shit. Uh. Sorry. I’m just thinking, what do we do if the cops at the receiving stations are the same was the ones were here? How are you going to stop them from sending things back? We can’t even co-ordinate with the district team right now.” [b]November:[/b] The decentralized organization structure means it’s going to be about twenty minutes to get everyone into the station off the streets, then fifteen minute intervals loading trains out - just in terms of getting trains here from further and further away, the trains you can use and the platforms you have access to are both big enough makes to make loading times negligible. Ninety minutes, of fewer and fewer defenders. But with the nearest cops about half an hour away, counter-protestors in the area moving in the opposite direction, and the group from Apollo sharing the scouting information that confirms it… Everyone’s started having fun again? LIke, this is just [i]thrilling [/i]now. The danger is far enough away that people feel safe from it even though they’re aware of it: The rollercoaster has the safety bars in place, and the crowd has actors and performers and its party clothes on. This is starting to feel like a game, an adventure to most of them. A story they’ll get to tell later with a happy ending. How do you feel about that? [b]Euna:[/b] ‘Mew’ keeps pace just one step out and to the front of Euna, keeping her close to her weaker side. “No, Sabom, nothing good has,” she laughs “Maybe that’s why everyone’s so pent up? There’s nothing good at the moment. Chelsea Windsor’s new album since since she failed out of marketing is soulless, the Snow Owls new thing was [i]showtunes[/i], and Leviticus is doing love songs for teenagers which is worse.” “Thanks, though.” Her tail swishes left when she steps with her right foot, right when she steps with her left, a hypnotic constant crossover. “I’ll be fine, really, this stuff isn’t even for me, it’s for my roommate. He can get his own milk and Scorchers™ next time. We just didn’t think it was going to be this bad.” And that’s really it, she’s not [i]that[/i] scared, and she’s questioning her sense of judgement because of it - it’s already gotten her into danger once today. Hidden from Euna, walking ahead as she is, a shadow flashes across the cat-android’s face. Nothing’s happened on the short walk home, even as you take the turnoff at the end of her street. Does she feel like an idiot for wasting Euna’s time over nothing, or is she an idiot for [i]still[/i] feeling like this is all nothing? “Do you think you’d be getting into fights like that, if you weren’t looking for them?”