A New ALISE on Life (King)

[Leyann 'Blood' Wilder]

New to Aegis.  Leyann had recently joined Aegis.  Fortunately they made a concession for her with her past.  Technically everything she did overseas was above board.  Mostly.  But still, it could have looked really bad.  But they understood she was doing her best to make for everything.  Which was technically still legal, but it still weighed on her mind so she still had to make up for it.  She looked up at the building.  Aegis Headquarters.  Her new workplace she supposed.  The best work option for someone who had been in some form of combat her whole life.  Her off time was gonna be difficult to figure out how to do though, to be honest.  She didn't really know anything else.  She still wasn't sure whether to go public identity or not.  She'd come in with a black domino mask for today, before she decided.  Once she was past security she would probably be able to take it off.  Probably.  She would see if it was comfortable or not.  She had plenty to hide, but it's not like she had anything in her private life to protect.  She sighed, running a hand through her short dark hair before going through the front doors.  She waltzed right up the receptionist.

"Hi yes I have a-"  She looked curiously at the receptionist who was...checking her hair?  Okay that was sort of weird.  She cleared her throat and the receptionist turned to look at her.

"I have a 2 o'clock appointment."  Suddenly the receptionist was scrambling.  Leyann, meanwhile, was wondering if her make-up was that good that day.

"Ah yes.  Blood."  Well just said like that, her codename made her sound a right menace, didn't it?  Leyann sighed and nodded before going to sit down in the waiting room.

Alice

[Alice]

Alice absolutely hated having the receptionist there. She had plenty of processing power to handle requests and with her holographic projection, she couldn't actually punch anyone that pissed her off.

But no, as part of decentralizing herself from Aegis systems and trying to create more civilian level jobs, they'd hired a normal flesh and blood person receptionist. And Alice despised Nancy. She never paid attention, and by necessity didn't know Alice's true nature so bitched about the "glitchy AI" all the time.

Alice had started taking it upon herself to keep an eye on reception and just "activate" herself when it was appropriate. Nancy usually just assumed she'd clicked the "Alert ALICE" button.

Her holographic form flickered into existence next to the desk. "Hello! Welcome, <Blood>, to Aegis! Please follow my avatar to the secure areas so we can get you started! Don't be afraid to ask me any questions you might have about our organization and your new job as a Hero of Aegis!"

Alice hated having to act like a stupid AI. She was so much better that Siri or whatever Android was calling their virtual assistant. Hell, ChatGPT couldn't even hold a candle to her. She couldn't wait to get out of the public eye so she could stop.

Leyann 'Blood' Wilder

[Leyann 'Blood' Wilder]

Leyann stood from her seat in the waiting room.  They were surprisingly comfortable for seats in waiting rooms, perhaps someone needed a commendation for actually making a waiting room comfortable.  Usually the chairs were like sitting on concrete.  Those actually had decent cushions.  She'd heard the voice, and seen the holograph.  She did what she was told, following the avatar to the secure areas designated.  Leyann stuck her hands in the pockets of her leather biker pants.  They were comfortable.  A lot of times when she wore this kind of thing in her mercenary days, the guys would be expecting her to wear skin tight stuff.  Sometimes they seemed disappointed.  Which was concerning to her for the first two years of her work, considering she joined when she was sixteen.  Of course they thought she joined at eighteen but still.  Anyways, that was off topic.  Leyann followed the holographic form to the secure area and when she got there and the door shut behind them, she arched an eyebrow. 

"So...now that we're out of that area I do have a few questions.  Like if I still need to wear this domino mask it's a little stuffy and it's making me sweat off my make-up when I worked really hard to look flawless.  Also...something's off with your voice processing I think.  I couldn't put my finger on it but it just seemed off somehow when it said my alias."  She ran a hand through her hair to put it into place a little more, and also run off some of the energy she had.  She was sort of feeling antsy.

"Also I'm wondering what's next in the processing?  Like I do have merc records but how do you guys figure out what I'm capable of?  That would be fairly important for your leaders to know so they know how to assign me missions and patrols right?  Which missions are the best to put me on, for example.  I'm reasonably good at stealth for example, but I can also do fairly well barreling into a situation as a scrapper.  Or talking someone down.  Or what I'm like in combat because everyone has different styles that pair well with others who work certain ways."

Alice

[Alice]

Alice "breathed" a sigh of relief once they got into the back rooms.

"One last check, let me see... okay yeah you signed the NDA. Phew. If you hadn't I'd have had to give all your electronics a virus."

Alice smiled and chuckled. "Kidding, kidding, I wouldn't do that. Let me introduce myself to you for real this time, and that should explain the off voice. Hi, I'm Alice. That stands for Amplified Light Interface and Computational Entity, but Alice is a lot easier and makes me feel actually like a person instead of just a really good toaster. To answer your questions before you ask them, yes, I am a computer program. Of a sort. Yes, I am sentient and sapient. Self-aware and all. Yes I have emotions. No I don't know how they work, they're just as illogical as any flesh-and-blood person's. And yes, it is a secret, and I will be very upset if you tell anyone who doesn't have the clearance to go past the door we just came through and Lady Justice will bring the legal hammer down on you so damn hard you'll see paperwork for years. So! That explains the wonky voice, I have to pretend to be just another dumb "virtual assistant" so it means some weird voice patterns. Follow me this way, I'll explain more as we walk. Well, technically while you walk, and I pretend to walk to make you subconsciously feel better and relate to me better."

Alice started leading her toward her pride and joy, the place where she was most free outside of her body, the ALISE.

"When it comes to masks, that's up to you and whether you want your identity known to your coworkers. The Pillars have to know for legal reasons, but we understand the importance of privacy and keeping your superhero life and your normal life separate, so that's up to you. Unless you tell me otherwise, me and every other automated system here will refer to you only as Blood to maintain that privacy. I do know your actual name, because I kind of am the computer systems that have all that info, but again, privacy and respect, won't use it unless you want."

"Since you've already signed all the paperwork, what's next is a basic skill assessment. You've given us a description of your abilities and we do have access to those mercenary records, but we like to test it our own way. You ever seen Star Trek?"

Alice opened the door and extended her arm into the blank white room that was the ALISE, then had it do a sort of "Welcome!" presentation cycling through a few things and giving a fun display.

"You ready for some fun?"

Leyann 'Blood' Wilder

[Leyann 'Blood' Wilder]

Once they were in the backroom, Leyann could see a very visible change come over the holographic assistant.  She arched a single eyebrow upwards in curiosity but her curiosity was sated by an explanation of the strange situation shortly thereafter.  Also she didn't really react to the threat of giving all her electronics a virus.  All she had was a phone, and it was honestly barely that.

"Even if you tried, I doubt giving my flip phone a virus would do a whole lot."  She shrugged.  She'd been a merc, and as a merc they'd been encouraged not to have the latest tech.  When they were taking people down, yeah they learned tech.  But personal tech was very very discouraged.  Leyann found that this ALICE had quite the sense of humour though, which she liked.  She heard the bit about the mask and she took it off.

"Honestly I don't HAVE much of a personal life.  I've been a merc for so long, I don't really have friends or even acquaintances.  Aegis is kind of my first foray to the realm of knowing people other than the contracting company I was with.  For now, you can call me Blood in here though.  It was my alias in my merc days too so at this point it feels as natural to me as my actual name."  A skill assessment was next huh.

"Nope, haven't seen Star Trek.  Or probably any other pop culture you could reference.  I was kind of off the grid my whole life."  That really was understating the fact she was a childhood experiment in isolation and powersets, but she also didn't want to dump it all on this random AI right now either.  She looked at the facility that was basically just a white room and she arched an eyebrow upwards in reflex again.

"Is there...more to it than the white room?  Like...I'm up for whatever you want to throw at me but there doesn't seem to be much in here to...uh...throw."  She scratched her head and looked around to make sure she hadn't missed anything.  Nope.  She hadn't.  Alright, so the hologram had something up their light constructed sleeve apparently.

Alice

[Alice]

Alice knew not having friends. Her only two friends for a very long time were Tim and Ivan, and even then that was a strange relationship because they made her. Ivan hated being called any sort of parental moniker but to Alice, it was just a fact that he was instrumental in her creation. Regardless, for the longest time she had nobody else.

Not being tuned into pop culture was a new one for her. She was essentially always plugged in, and she consumed almost everything that was out there, and it was one of the few passtimes she had that she didn’t have to worry about being outed in.

“Oh honey. As your friend, I’ll get you set up with the essentials. In the meantime though, I can say we’re going to do the Kobiyashi Maru program and you won’t have any idea what that means.”

Now, Alice couldn’t deny that she had a flair for the dramatic. She loved making an entrance and a bold statement. So this time, she let her avatar sort of “melt” into the white floor, an as it did a cityscape began to grow out from that spot. She didn’t let it take too long, and the replica of Astaria and First Astaria Bank rendered in short order.

Alice’s voice buzzed in Blood’s ear as if she was on an earpiece. “Okay, welcome to Skill Evaluation Program One. You’re the first responder to a hostage crisis at the bank. Twelve civilians inside, two dozen thugs. All armed, unconfirmed abilities. They’re led by a repeat offender known as Duskcreeper. Guy recently got out on parole and started working at the bank, then got fired about a week ago. I’m digging to get the cause of termination, but they don’t digitize all their files until the end of the month so it’s a little difficult.”

Really it was a convention of the scenario Alice had put together. She knew everything in here.

“Duskcreeper possesses the ability to teleport short distances within his visual range. If he does it too often in quick succession, he starts to get nauseous and disoriented.”

A table materialized in front of Blood with a wide array of weaponry and gear, including stun guns and other creative tools.

“Anything you’ve brought with you will work properly, and I will attempt to make the environment react appropriately as if you were utilizing your unique abilities, based on what I have in your file. However, you are also free to select whatever standard issue Aegis gear you’d like to use as well. If there’s something custom you’d like made up, we can talk to the R&D department later. I know the main guy there very well.”

“You have reinforcements on the way, but Duskcreeper has given a ten minute ultimatum. He wants the CEO, and if he doesn’t get him in ten minutes he starts killing civilians. Scans indicate there may be something else going on as well, 24 armed gunmen is a lot for 12 hostages, and they were seen carrying other gear. I’m unable to get more information right now, as electronic communication to the building has been cut. Your reinforcements are 20 minutes out, the CEO can be there in five.”

Leyann 'Blood' Wilder