11-10-2006, 03:56 AM
NOT a bunny. For a change. More of a spamfic, offered for your amusement.
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I hate ZPIs.
Zero-Prep Insertions are the bane of every IA like myself. Theyre dangerous, unpredictable, often sanity-bending, and worst of all, usually frustrating as all hell.
But they give the highest entertainment value, the most interesting psycho-socio-whateverilogical data, and the highest sheer WTF factor. Which means they pay the most. And I happen to have a reputation- for being good at them.
So there I was. Again. Inside the QLP accelerator, wearing my birthday suit and a coating of conductance gel, waiting for the Beckett-Mallory field to hit critical and catapult me into a whole nother universe, with no idea where I was going or who Id be when I got there.
My last ZPI, I ended up leaping into a guy who ran a small ramen shop in a place called Konohagakure. No problem, right? Except I dont know Thing One about making ramen, aside from the microwaveable kind. And you- try replacing a mildly well-known restauranteur in a city populated by paranoid super-powered ninja who have a lot- of experience dealing with professional shapeshifters and bodysnatchers. Im mildly amazed I lasted three hours.
That Ibiki fellow wasnt too bad, though the mind-gamers are always fun. Insertion Agents just about have- to have abnormal degrees of mental flexibility, to deal with what we do. By the time I tripped my Recall and bailed out, Id actually impressed him a bit he made me promise to drop by and have another stare contest the next time I was in town.
The ZPI before that one, I was Gendo Ikari. You wouldnt think that was so bad, would you, jumping into the Guy In Charge? Well, think about this: what happens inside a paranoid, disassociative, intrigue-riddled snakepit like NERV when the Top Dog suddenly cant remember his passwords, his master plan, or where he left his blackmail material? I know- what happens, and let me tell you, it aint pretty. The only good part about that entire disaster is that after I bailed, he probably couldnt convince them that he was the real Gendo Ikari again. Couldnt happen to a more deserving fellow.
And the time before that, I leaped in just in time to get killed by a multi-gigaton explosion. My survival module Recalled me just a couple of milliseconds into the blast front, but I still spent a month in the regen tanks. The after-action analysis of my sensorium recordings concluded that Id leaped aboard some kind of very, -very- large space vehicle that was in the final seconds of descent through a planetary atmosphere before striking the surface. The estimated impact energy wasnt a Dinosaur Killer, but couldve been a Tunguska -- somewhere, somebodys got a continent with a big chunk missing.
So, I wasnt exactly looking forward to this next trip. Not that I had a choice. Id already accepted the assignment, spent the advance, and the accelerator was too far along to stop n--
Reality went bye-bye.
The techs insist that the leap is instantaneous, that its not possible to perceive, and that the subjective perceptions of the leap are just neurological static as our brains adjust to the sudden change of location, time, the laws of physics. Well, dont believe it. Every IA experiences the transfer differently, but we all perceive the time in between departure and arrival. Some go crazy, some quit after the first run, some get addicted to it. Most, like me, just deal. But dont ask us to describe it.
My ears always come back first. I was still trying to figure out what the heck was up with my eyeballs when it registered that the voices Id been hearing for the last few seconds were familiar. Familiar from the second-to-last time Id been strapped down to an interrogation apparatus, to be specific.
Suddenly, I wanted my vision back really- bad. I could tell I was standing up, in water nearly up to my neck, and in some kind of restraints. But my body felt oddly numb, only partially attached everything seemed to be really far away....
My visual cortex finally figured out how to deal with its new inputs, and my vision suddenly came back like one of those magic image pictures that you have to stare at for five minutes before you see whats there. It was kind of odd, more like a video image than normal vision, and the perspective was odd, but--
A new voice made itself heard, and suddenly everything snapped into place. Id seen this scene before, from a different angle. A blonde in a lab coat, a yummy brunette in a short skirt and red jacket, a shrimpy dark-haired teen and the source of the new voice, staring down at them through a window that was directly across from me at... eye... level....
Holy crap.
HOLY CRAP!
I was EVA Unit 01.
I was a giant biological robot. That could take out entire armies.
I eyed Gendo and grinned mentally. Oh, I was going to do some damage-. Starting with Mr. Sacrifice-The-Human-Race-In-Order-To-See-My-Wife-Again....
Um. First problem. I couldnt move. And it wasnt the restraints. It was like all my motor nerves were disconnected. Um wasnt there something about the Entry Plugs? They plugged into a gap in the spinal column or something? But EVA-01 had moved on its own in canon, right? If Yui could do it, I could too. I just had to figure out how to
Thats when I saw the medical team wheeling Rei in on a gurney, and realized I was just about out of time....
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I hate ZPIs.
Zero-Prep Insertions are the bane of every IA like myself. Theyre dangerous, unpredictable, often sanity-bending, and worst of all, usually frustrating as all hell.
But they give the highest entertainment value, the most interesting psycho-socio-whateverilogical data, and the highest sheer WTF factor. Which means they pay the most. And I happen to have a reputation- for being good at them.
So there I was. Again. Inside the QLP accelerator, wearing my birthday suit and a coating of conductance gel, waiting for the Beckett-Mallory field to hit critical and catapult me into a whole nother universe, with no idea where I was going or who Id be when I got there.
My last ZPI, I ended up leaping into a guy who ran a small ramen shop in a place called Konohagakure. No problem, right? Except I dont know Thing One about making ramen, aside from the microwaveable kind. And you- try replacing a mildly well-known restauranteur in a city populated by paranoid super-powered ninja who have a lot- of experience dealing with professional shapeshifters and bodysnatchers. Im mildly amazed I lasted three hours.
That Ibiki fellow wasnt too bad, though the mind-gamers are always fun. Insertion Agents just about have- to have abnormal degrees of mental flexibility, to deal with what we do. By the time I tripped my Recall and bailed out, Id actually impressed him a bit he made me promise to drop by and have another stare contest the next time I was in town.
The ZPI before that one, I was Gendo Ikari. You wouldnt think that was so bad, would you, jumping into the Guy In Charge? Well, think about this: what happens inside a paranoid, disassociative, intrigue-riddled snakepit like NERV when the Top Dog suddenly cant remember his passwords, his master plan, or where he left his blackmail material? I know- what happens, and let me tell you, it aint pretty. The only good part about that entire disaster is that after I bailed, he probably couldnt convince them that he was the real Gendo Ikari again. Couldnt happen to a more deserving fellow.
And the time before that, I leaped in just in time to get killed by a multi-gigaton explosion. My survival module Recalled me just a couple of milliseconds into the blast front, but I still spent a month in the regen tanks. The after-action analysis of my sensorium recordings concluded that Id leaped aboard some kind of very, -very- large space vehicle that was in the final seconds of descent through a planetary atmosphere before striking the surface. The estimated impact energy wasnt a Dinosaur Killer, but couldve been a Tunguska -- somewhere, somebodys got a continent with a big chunk missing.
So, I wasnt exactly looking forward to this next trip. Not that I had a choice. Id already accepted the assignment, spent the advance, and the accelerator was too far along to stop n--
Reality went bye-bye.
The techs insist that the leap is instantaneous, that its not possible to perceive, and that the subjective perceptions of the leap are just neurological static as our brains adjust to the sudden change of location, time, the laws of physics. Well, dont believe it. Every IA experiences the transfer differently, but we all perceive the time in between departure and arrival. Some go crazy, some quit after the first run, some get addicted to it. Most, like me, just deal. But dont ask us to describe it.
My ears always come back first. I was still trying to figure out what the heck was up with my eyeballs when it registered that the voices Id been hearing for the last few seconds were familiar. Familiar from the second-to-last time Id been strapped down to an interrogation apparatus, to be specific.
Suddenly, I wanted my vision back really- bad. I could tell I was standing up, in water nearly up to my neck, and in some kind of restraints. But my body felt oddly numb, only partially attached everything seemed to be really far away....
My visual cortex finally figured out how to deal with its new inputs, and my vision suddenly came back like one of those magic image pictures that you have to stare at for five minutes before you see whats there. It was kind of odd, more like a video image than normal vision, and the perspective was odd, but--
A new voice made itself heard, and suddenly everything snapped into place. Id seen this scene before, from a different angle. A blonde in a lab coat, a yummy brunette in a short skirt and red jacket, a shrimpy dark-haired teen and the source of the new voice, staring down at them through a window that was directly across from me at... eye... level....
Holy crap.
HOLY CRAP!
I was EVA Unit 01.
I was a giant biological robot. That could take out entire armies.
I eyed Gendo and grinned mentally. Oh, I was going to do some damage-. Starting with Mr. Sacrifice-The-Human-Race-In-Order-To-See-My-Wife-Again....
Um. First problem. I couldnt move. And it wasnt the restraints. It was like all my motor nerves were disconnected. Um wasnt there something about the Entry Plugs? They plugged into a gap in the spinal column or something? But EVA-01 had moved on its own in canon, right? If Yui could do it, I could too. I just had to figure out how to
Thats when I saw the medical team wheeling Rei in on a gurney, and realized I was just about out of time....