I Moderate (i_moderate) wrote in we_archive, @ 2006-03-25 13:14:00 |
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Entry tags: | anthony crowley, barbara gordon, eddie dean, matt murdock |
i_lovemybentley Back to the Stone Age
Well, Crowley knew he'd have to get to work at some point. He was good at his job, that was the crux. And he liked things that he was good at.
He's already taken time to get a feel for the City. Currents of information, the flow of the City changing, the way people moved through it, from the mundane inhabitants to the superpowered humans. It wasn't easy, but one thing had come naturally to Crowley.
Technology.
He'd always been good with technology. He loved the humans for inventing it. For having the imagination to invent it. And they were so deliciously dependent on it. It just made things easier. Poor creatures. When it decided to stop working, by fair means or foul, they went into these gloriously dark moods, and spread their annoyance like a plague.
Sitting in his flat, Crowley closed his eyes and dismissed physical reality from his senses. Locking on to the lines of communication, he carefully started to disrupt things. At first, it was slow - a simple static signal across the City. Cell phones crackled, wireless signals weakened, portable computers lost communication abilities. That lasted for about twenty-five minutes.
Then came the next wave. Cell phone service was obliterated by a severe static storm in every cell phone tower. All forms of wireless communication was terminated. No signals could be received or transmitted. Low-frequency radios began to suffer from static interference.
It was an hour later that the hard lines began to feel the effects. Just as everyone began to feel comforted that at least those were working, televisions, computers, radios, and even landline phones were cut off by the increasing static storms.
Once everything was in place, Crowley was able to keep the fields up merely by keeping them in mind. He returned to his physical body and smiled to himself. His own flat was, of course, unaffected. But it wasn't as though anyone else in the City would be able to figure that out.
He stretched his senses, and could hear the arteries clanging shut across the City. Perfect. It was just before lunchtime. A few thousand people were about to get bloody furious. And they'd go back to the office and take it out on their secretaries and co-workers, who'd go home and take it out on their wives, husbands, kids, or lovers, all in hundreds of ways that -- and this was the best part -- they'd think up themselves. Waves of angry, vindictive, hateful feelings, and one barely had to raise a finger.
Granted, his disruption would only last a few hours. The hard lines were the hardest to disrupt, so those fields would come up in an hour or so. But the wireless comms would be out of commision until at least 7pm. Well past normal business hours.
Crowley brushed off his suit, slipped on his sunglasses, and went out to the streets to see the results of his handiwork.
OOC: Feel free to post reactions and responses here!
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 03/25/2006 12:16:22
[Part I]
"Well, if you could just send me the documentation on the patients you've had there in the past, that would be wonderful."
"Of course, Ms. Gordon. This isn't standard operating procedure, you know I'm sure, to release this information to the public, but since it is you… was there anyone specific that you were looking for?"
"I really appreciate it Dr. Harris. And yes, I'd specifically like to see a file on Jack Napier, if you've got one. Also Harleen Quinzell, Pamela Isley, Arnold Wesker, and Jervis Tetch. If you can't find them that's alright, but I'm thinking they'll be there."
"Certainly, I'll ask the nurses to—"
BEEP… this call cannot be completed as dialed. Please hang up, and try your call again later.
"Hello… hello, Dr. Harris?"
Babs pulled her cellphone away from her ear, looked at it, and scowled. The library usually had excellent service. The entire city generally had excellent service, dead zones were a very rare thing and the one service provider in The City didn't often drop calls.
Just her luck that it would happen while she was trying to coerce files from the head of Arkham Asylum. She sighed. An email would have to do, though it was so much more impersonal. These things were so much better to do over the phone, or better yet in person, but she'd missed him during her visit on Thursday, and then hadn't been able to go back on Friday. So she'd chosen to call him on Saturday afternoon.
She set her cellphone down on the table before rolling over to the computer desk. She'd just send him a quick email, and explain that she'd call back. She grabbed the cordless sitting on the edge of one of the tables, and held it up to her ear as she moved towards the computer. A loud series of static clicks and buzzes greeted her when she went to dial the number.
"Weird," Babs muttered to herself, settling in front of the computer desk and bringing the machine out of sleep mode. She thought nothing of clicking on the icon that signed her on to CityNet.
Today, though, when she clicked it, it didn't sign on. Babs clicked it again, scowled, and then brought up her Oracle network. If all else failed, she could sign on and send emails from there. It never even occurred to her that her own network could be down. She'd built it, after all.
But it was down. It took eight times trying to sign on to convince her as such, and when she finally was convinced she still didn't actually want to believe it. There had yet to be a time when she couldn't sign into her network, and she'd worked hard to keep it that way. Often times people's lives depended on her being able to access that network.
Babs glared at her computer for a moment, as if that would fix the problem, before trying one more time to sign on. When it didn't work she picked up the phone again, dialing the number for the manor and forgetting that the phone wasn't actually working until she heard the same static as before.
From: [info]i_seeall Date: 03/25/2006 12:16:49
[Part II]
Putting the phone down, she turned and hurried out of her back office and into the main one. There was a computer there too, connected to the Institute's network. Though, not today, as again when she tried to sign on, nothing happened. It wasn't just her computer then, and not just her phones. The ones out here refused to put anything through either.
Jumping to conclusions was never a good thing, but Babs couldn't help but think that someone was either just messing with her, or with the entire city. It seemed more likely at first, that it was just her. A suspect immediately came to mind, if only because she knew that Jack would know that this was the perfect way to drive her slightly mad. Break all of her computers, shut down her coms, and basically make it impossible for her to communicate with those whom she needed to.
Her theory was trashed when she finally left the clock tower after admitting to herself that trying to make anything up there work was just going to be in vain. It seemed the rest of the world was having the same problems. There was a never ending amount of people staring at cellphones and hand held computers in frustration, Babs found as she headed toward her van. Definitely not just her.
She drove up to the manor as quickly as she could which, with all the lunch hour traffic being enhanced by the communication being down, was not very fast, but she got there eventually. And when she did, it was straight down to the cave.
The cave computer was about five times more powerful than hers, and while it didn't have all of her security on it, it was still the most secure thing in the city next to her own computers. If it was down, then things were seriously wrong.
It was on, and all the information was on it. But try as she might, Babs could not make anything else on it work. She couldn't connect to Bruce's office and tell him (though, he'd probably noticed by now), and she couldn't call anyone on any of their individual comlinks. She shook her head, and pinched the bridge of her nose.
This had to be fixed. Forget the rest of the city, she had to fix the main computer. Or at least make the attempt. Even if that attempt took the rest of the afternoon. Which it very well could.
Babs tried connecting once more and then sighed. She pushed away from the central hub and rolled back over to the stairs, hoping Alfred had several pots of coffee on. Babs was getting the feeling she was going to need it.
From: [info]i_object Date: 03/25/2006 14:23:22
"I'd like to place an order for a large pepperoni pizza? Delivery, please?"
The guy was going through the total and everything when the line went dead.
"Hello?" Matt repeated. There was no response. He tried dialling again, but still got no response. Odd. Guess he'd have to walk down the street to the pizza place to pick it up.
Not having a CityNet connection hooked up in his apartment at the moment, he didn't realize how lucky he was to not have to depend on that. The only inconvenience this communications blackout was to him was his telephone.
From: [info]i_crackjokes Date: 03/25/2006 14:51:18
ooc: mun just wanted to use the icon. No idea whose phone Eddie is using, ect, ect.
"Hello? Hello!" Eddie sighed and glared at the phone in his hand. So much for the 'brilliant' idea of seeing if there was any type of directory assistance in this place. The phone was dead, he couldn't even raise an operator by hitting zero repeatedly.
"Stupid fucking technology. If it's not psychotic trains, giant robot bears, it's phones that don't work."