My thoughts, in a nutshell.

**ZippyTheSquirrel** · 10/20/2008 05:23:14

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*Blurry. Appears to be mobile outpost attached to underside of floating machine, possibly one of the General's units. Hazy figure, sitting against wall.*

I dislike United Tomorrow. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it has something to do with the sheer amount of anonymity they impose on many of their users. If you have to hide behind a mask to betray your true feelings, what good are you in a forum of truth? A mask is inherently a lie, and to tell the truth while hiding behind a lie is just... blegh.

*Focus, unfocus, focus, sharpen, figure comes into focus. Dark, baggy, faded blue eyes. Brown hair, messy, clumpy, dirty. He's ... missing an arm? Figure coughs*

Health issues, blah blah. Apparently living inside the Matrix while hooked to an IV in the Real wasn't such a viable option after all. Plus, with the General constantly moving back and forth in his operations and my decision to follow him to help, jacking in just isn't as open a schedule as it used to be. Speaking of the General...

*Static. Figure shifts. Unfocus. View to outside becomes more clear. Electrical storm seen in distance. A sentinel flies by.*

I'm still worried about what Mercury and his goons have been up to. Last any of us really checked up on him there was a very suspicious suggestion that he was in possession of a cheat code... wonder what he's been doing with it all this time...

Today, the Intruders are making a general mess of things. It's like Unlimit all over again, except instead of a large group of kinda-overpowered nitwits, it's a single super-overpowered genius. Dangerous, but it looks like she's letting her feelings take priority over her intellect, which is why she's let that Bippy thing slip through her non-existant fingers... is she even still alive?

*New figure enters. Feminine. Too blurry to--focus, sharpen. Appears to be hispanic, tidier hair, still mottled. Looks as tired as first figure. Holds needle in hand, injects male figure with it. He yelps in pain, then mutters quickly in an incomprehensible language. Female leans over and kisses male on top of his head. Leaves.*

Anyway. I haven't had the chance to keep up, but apparently Persephone's gone emo or something? Maybe she'll finally set the Merv straight about treating us like we're expendable.

Bippy. What's it's problem? It looks like it's just running around having a grand ole time, like Noma with a full bladder and no leash. Last we saw it, it was teasing the Merv with some "wake up" message left on his PC. Kinda like the message left when the 01 mainframe went down for a bit. Coinicdence, or was Bippy hiding there for a brief moment? Hmm..

*Unfocus, blurry. Figure turns and watches as shapes of sentries, other machines whizz past. Waves to one.*

What else is going on nowadays... Oh, those Zionites code bombing the Matrix. I'm surprised noone's reported them to Veil or Cryptos yet. Maybe I should send them a little message. Doubt they'll be able to read it, but gotta make the motions. It's not that I don't condone their actions, oh no. Stick to your convictions, I say. But if they keep killing innocents like that, they're gonna lose what's left of their humanity and wind up like... hm... like Vanil, maybe. Someone utterly devoid of emotion...

They need to refocus their energies on bombing more important targets. Maybe even take their fight to the Real, cut a few wires. THAT will get attention, I guarentee it. All I know is, if they get too close to my neighborhood, I'll have to do something. Maybe I'll pull a few plugs, that usually gets Zion riled up.

*Focus, unfocus. Not as blurry as before. Figure turns back to camera.*

I wonder how the Joker's doing... is he dead or what? I kinda miss the little freak... he was interesting, compared to what we have to deal with now. Now that I think about it... there's really no good mysteries to look into nowadays, is there? Bah...

*Figure straightens abruptly.*

One, two, buckle my shoe... I forgot about that. What the f*** was that supposed to mean? I still don't get it. Maybe it's because I never took the time to ask anyone else.

*Figure moves forward.*

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*Blurry. Figure leans back.*
I did a quick search. It looks like one of those Lupine lieutenants that was offed a while back. They used a pup to get to him. I forget why they wanted him dead. The point is, shortly before the public report about it was made on the data node, I was sent that image. Maybe it's irrevelant now. Maybe someone's already solved it. Maybe.

In that case...

*Figure turns towards opening again. A lone Sentinel flies from the opposite direction as the others.*

I'm gonna need to find me something else to do. Best of wishes, all that.

*Figure motions to say something, then hunches over and vomits.*

Ungh... Fidget, you missed the ******* ... hurracch! Ugh. End transmiss.. transmiss... vleaggh... end transmission!

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**MatrixRefugee**

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:: A raspy female voice speaks::

I'm not privy to United Tomorrow... no interest in it at all, being, heh, *what* I am, but the anonymity is refreshing to some. Since no one knows who you are, you can speak your piece without it coming back to bite you, the way it repeatedly does with Miss Innocence when she tries to draw the moral line in the sand and someone, knowing it was her who did it, steps across to smack her in the face for it.

As for Perse going emo... She feeds on emotion the way I feed on Exilic code... specifically love... and since she ain't getting any love from the Boss and there's so much hatred flying around, the poor dear is fading.

And I'd better add that Dante has one berserk button that someone I know isn't above mashing. I'm just not going to tell you what it is. :: A raspy snigger::

That said, measures are being taken to deal with certain poo-throwing monkeys. I'm not at liberty to discuss them, though.

And last but not least, anything human that works with the General and depends on him for their real-side necessities is bound to come to grief. His boys don't exactly have the same necessities. Yah might want to find someone to run with who's got an outpost with actual food and hot water and medical supplies in it, but that's just me saying it.

Take care of yourself, squirrel-boy... Mwah...
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**ZippyTheSquirrel**

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No, no, the trick is to pull out your damaged ones as the battle is being conducted so you can repair them. What's more costly, repairing a bunch of Sentinels or making them? Do we even have any production factories? Huh. We should try stealing some blueprints. I know the Merv would be happy to be able to make more of these guys. Hell, why don't we just try EMP'ing a bunch of Machines, then copy-and-paste some of our programs into their husks? It's just a bunch of code!

...Hey, is this thing on? Fidget! Did we repair the camera? What? Where the hell are you? Oh. Okay.

*Light source. Focus. Correct for lighting. Figure appears.*

Hah, whoops, left the cap on. Okay, I got it!

Hello, all you soldierly Matrix people! Zdravstyet, I think.

Me and the Sentinels are out doing whatever the Merv wants us to do. I don't normally pay attention to what's going on, and I'm far enough behind the main swarm so I don't get caught up in whatever the General keeps running into. I like being out here, because I don't have to deal with other hovercrafts, and it's fun watching the General work. I also help out on repairs, like getting little pieces of rock out of the mechanowhatsits that the big guys can't reach themselves. I keep telling the General we should commission a team to find a way to get more Sentinels available, but he seems more preoccupied with some sort of ambush or something.

I'll be jacked in tomorrow. I hear you guys are getting another weird infection thing going on, and I wanted to dust off my shotgun and blow away some zombies! Rawr!

You keep letting those cookie crumbs bomb the crud out of the place, and some weird s***'s bound to happen. They keep this up, we might have a full-blown zombie apocalypse on us. Try to put them down a little faster, hm? Or at the very least, convince them to bomb better targets that could benefit both of our sides. I'll see what I can do, since you pansies can't seem to grasp the concept of "take the bomb and run away to an already broken-down location."

Which reminds me: What the grief are you doing about Bippy? You just gonna wait around for Flood to yell at you to go find it? Lay some traps, for grief's sake! I hear it likes cake. Those messages it's been leaving on computers... there was something in the historical archives that looked familiar. Remember the story of Neo's awakening? Look into it. Maybe Bippy's following that path.

There's a q--whoa!

*Vision tilts. Figure slides to side.*

What the hell?! Fidget, what.. ohhh...

*Figure turns to outside view.*

Yowsa. That's a lot more than last time. Hey, Fidget! Get your tail in here, there's another Machine attack! I don't care about your-- what? Fine! I'll get it. You get in here. No, get in here. NOW!

*Second figure appears from bottom view. First figure moves to second's entry location and drops down.*

What's it look like again?

She's got a red dress and green button eyes.

Dolls. Of all things. I'll be right back. Shut that thing down for me, will ya?

Be careful!

*First figure disappears through bottom view. Second figure moves closer.*

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**ZippyTheSquirrel**

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Okay, I'm bored tonight, so I started pondering this mystery picture that probably doesn't have any significance at all anymore. But hey, couldn't hurt.

One Two Buckle My Shoe

Time to get analytical...

18 letters.

ooo, n, eee, t, b, u, c, k, l, m, y, s, h

1 syllable, 1 syllable, 2 syllables, 1 syllable, 1 syllable

11211

12 2 1 1

Shoe Buckles! Wait, no... what was the signficance of that Lupine, again? Let's dig that up... aha.

...

Okay, I got literally nothing from that. Was there even a point to that mission? Bah, this picture has no real meaning. Vulg vulg vulg vulg vulg... maybe he was a lupine working for... Hm... let's see... nope, that was Markov. Wonder what happened to him.

I think the real answer (or the most simplistic one to me) is that the picture is merely a tease, a taunt, a nothing, to mess with me. Well, screw that. You wanna mess with me, try actually doing something.

I gotta find a real mystery to get into, jeez.

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