MARCH UPDATE

POSTED ON Mar 19, 2023 16:47:14 GMT

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Gunner stepped into the lobby of the building that the Hoenn Bureau of Intelligence and Counterterrorism used as their headquarters. Dressed in a suit and tie, with his ID card on a lanyard around his neck, he looked every bit the proper representative of the Bureau.[break][break]

However, the visitor arriving at the building was not any high-ranking government official, military officer, or member of the Council. No, quite the opposite: a civilian freelancer who worked IT jobs across the region. And while the HBIC had their own IT department, the particular situation they'd found themselves in had stumped them all.[break][break]

So Gunner was there to swipe him in and show him to the server room. Frankly, it was easy to spot the freelancer; he was the only person in the lobby who looked like it was his first time seeing the inside of the building.[break][break]

"Mr. Whitlock?" Gunner said when he approached, offering a polite smile and a hand to shake. "I'm Agent Graves. Thank you for coming."

[attr="class","ooc"]

[attr="class","tag"]emerson whitlock

[break]

NOTES

⬥ Mission: Bond Bridge (March 2023)

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Umbreon ♀ (Laudine) | Synchronize | Dark Pulse, Double Kick, Helping Hand, Swift, Take Down

[attr="class","credit"]

MADE BY GUNSMILE

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em, @lockedown

he/him

twenty-five

july 12th

medali, paldea

bi, babey

it guy / hacker

silph co. civvie

5'5 height

i can’t take this place, no i can’t take this place. i just wanna go where i can get some space.

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POSTED ON Mar 19, 2023 23:13:04 GMT

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The HBIC wanted his work on a job? When he’d been contacted, he’d all but balked at his phone screen. No way. This had to be like big, important tech, yeah? Of course, given his tinkering with PENELOPE LIVY on some independent projects, one would think that Emerson would be a little more accustomed to this stuff by now.[break][break]

And yet.[break][break]

There he was, standing in the lobby of the sleek business building—gawking at literally everything around him. His porygon-z, Glitch, hovered behind him waiting for any requests made before they evaluated the system interface.[break][break]

His shoes felt alarmingly squeaky on the tile flooring. Mousy and small, he huddled at his designated meeting point and tried not to look too intimidated by the tall, serious man who eventually approached. He peered up at Gunner Graves , nodding. “Y-yes, of course, Agent!” A tentative smile was offered back.[break][break]

Then he huffed a breath, pushing away his nerves to move into work mode. “Any update or changes on what’s going on?”

[break][break]

[attr="class","bottom"]Gunner Graves [break]
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September 5

Fallarbor Town, Hoenn

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i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

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POSTED ON Mar 20, 2023 12:26:43 GMT

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[attr="class","gunner2"]

[attr="class","text"]

Gunner shook his head. "No. The status is still the same as what we explained in our email," he said. With a sweep of his hand, he gestured past the security gates. "If you'll come with me, please."[break][break]

He swiped both himself and Emerson through the gates and proceeded down the halls to the server room, his Umbreon at his heels. She eyed Emerson's Porygon-Z carefully but did not seem to register it as a threat.[break][break]

"Our techs already ran the usual diagnostics and repairs on our servers, but the health monitors are still showing a critical status. All of the hardware is healthy, or so they say. Reboots haven't helped." He shrugged. IT was not his forte.[break][break]

When they reached the server room, Gunner swiped his ID card against the security panel on the wall. The doors beeped in confirmation of his clearance and swooshed open. He stepped through into the chamber, a large, windowless, and climate-controlled room filled with rows of large server racks. A tidy arrangement of cabling ran across the ceiling, connecting the machines to the larger network.[break][break]

Gunner turned to Emerson. "Please proceed. I'll stay here in case you need anything." And to ensure the other man didn't perform any sabotage.

[attr="class","ooc"]

[attr="class","tag"]emerson whitlock

[break]

NOTES

⬥ Mission: Bond Bridge (March 2023)

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Umbreon ♀ (Laudine) | Synchronize | Dark Pulse, Double Kick, Helping Hand, Swift, Take Down

[attr="class","credit"]

MADE BY GUNSMILE

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played by

lou

em, @lockedown

he/him

twenty-five

july 12th

medali, paldea

bi, babey

it guy / hacker

silph co. civvie

5'5 height

i can’t take this place, no i can’t take this place. i just wanna go where i can get some space.

awards

244 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @em

POSTED ON Mar 23, 2023 3:32:58 GMT

[attr="class","enzo"]

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He nodded, silently following Gunner through the building halls. Long, curious glances were cast into any room with an open door.[break][break]

Emerson hummed, brows furrowing as Gunner explained the lack of change and the lengths that the IT staff had already gone to. No sense in suggesting the “turn it off, then back on” method. A tried and true tactic for a lot of his older clients. No, this was a crew that by all accounts seemed to know very much what they were doing.[break][break]

“Well, I hate to make you waste the time to bring someone in, but I’m not sure what could be done by me that hasn’t already been tried…” Still, he moved toward the line of servers. “Can’t hurt having a second set of eyes, I suppose.”[break][break]

A sidelong glance was directed at Gunner, along with a small smile. “I appreciate it.” With a wave of his hand, the porygon-z that had been floating along behind him quietly drew up to Emerson’s shoulder. “Run a diagnostic for me?”[break][break]

Glitch began to flit from server to server, Emerson following behind. “Has anything like this ever happened before today?”

[break][break]

[attr="class","bottom"]Gunner Graves [break]
[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-porygon-z"]

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September 5

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i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

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POSTED ON Mar 23, 2023 17:02:22 GMT

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[attr="class","gunner2"]

[attr="class","text"]

"You were well recommended," Gunner said, recalling how PENELOPE LIVY had vouched for Emerson herself. "If you can't find the root cause, we're ready to rebuild the servers, though we'd prefer not to."[break][break]

After all, it was a costly endeavor.[break][break]

Gunner stood a polite distance away to give Emerson room to work. He shook his head, his eyes trained on the Porygon-Z's movements.[break][break]

"Not that I've heard of. One of our techs suggested it might be interference from an external source, but our cybersecurity team already took a look. I don't believe they found any of the usual signs of breaches, either."

[attr="class","ooc"]

[attr="class","tag"]emerson whitlock

[break]

NOTES

⬥ Mission: Bond Bridge (March 2023)

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Umbreon ♀ (Laudine) | Synchronize | Dark Pulse, Double Kick, Helping Hand, Swift, Take Down

[attr="class","credit"]

MADE BY GUNSMILE

close tab

played by

lou

em, @lockedown

he/him

twenty-five

july 12th

medali, paldea

bi, babey

it guy / hacker

silph co. civvie

5'5 height

i can’t take this place, no i can’t take this place. i just wanna go where i can get some space.

awards

244 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @em

POSTED ON Mar 27, 2023 1:12:32 GMT

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“Oh,” surprise filtered into his expression, and in spite of his efforts to remain even-keel, his face reddened. “Well, I’m glad I’ve made a positive impression.” Having any sort of reputation or reaction certainly wasn’t something he’d anticipated.

“Oof, yeah,” Emerson grimaced, “That’s an undertaking. Hopefully I can help you avoid that.”[break][break]

Except…his scans weren’t really yielding much difference, either. Glitch returned to him, chirps informing him that, yes, the systems seemed to be healthy. Em frowned. “It all seems clean to me too.”[break][break]

Reaching back to tie the long mop of his red hair into a bun to push it out of the way, he mulled over the agent’s words with knit brows and a stern expression that almost didn’t fit right on his babyface. “What kinds of external sources did they search for?” His hand lifted to rest atop his porygon-z’s head where it levitated alongside him.[break][break]

“Just invasive tech? Or anything else, as well?”

[break][break]

[attr="class","bottom"]Gunner Graves [break]
[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-porygon-z"]

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"Lancer"

he / him

September 5

Fallarbor Town, Hoenn

pansexual

paralegal / special agent

agent

6'1" / 185 cm height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

awards

1,455 posts

DOLLARS

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POSTED ON Mar 27, 2023 13:27:06 GMT

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[attr="class","gunner2"]

[attr="class","text"]

When Emerson's scans did not yield different results, Gunner frowned. He hoped hiring this young man had not been a waste of time and HBIC resources. But then Emerson asked a strange question.[break][break]

"Just invasive tech. Hackers and the like," Gunner replied, confusion written plainly on his face. "Why? Is there something else it could be?"[break][break]

The expression on Emerson's face indicated the turning of his mental cogs, as if he was considering the possibility of something entirely unusual. Gunner's Umbreon glanced between the two men and tilted her head curiously, uttering a soft meow.

[attr="class","ooc"]

[attr="class","tag"]emerson whitlock

[break]

NOTES

⬥ Mission: Bond Bridge (March 2023)

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Umbreon ♀ (Laudine) | Synchronize | Dark Pulse, Double Kick, Helping Hand, Swift, Take Down

[attr="class","credit"]

MADE BY GUNSMILE

close tab

played by

lou

em, @lockedown

he/him

twenty-five

july 12th

medali, paldea

bi, babey

it guy / hacker

silph co. civvie

5'5 height

i can’t take this place, no i can’t take this place. i just wanna go where i can get some space.

awards

244 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @em

POSTED ON Mar 27, 2023 14:46:12 GMT

[attr="class","enzo"]

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“Might be something else, maybe, yeah..” He looked down at the umbreon, and let the last few puzzle pieces click into place. “Is your umbreon very good at tracking? Or scenting even.” Emerson didn’t have any good trackers of his own—maybe he should look into that, if his hunch proved correct.[break][break]

“Going out on a limb here…It doesn’t happen often, but…it might be like…an infestation?” Or maybe possession was a better word for it. His hands slipped into his pockets casually as he looked up at Gunner.[break][break]

“I could be wrong, but if there’s nothing wrong with the hardware, and there’s no evidence of tampering or firewall breaching, it might be a Pokémon causing some mischief.”[break][break]

Looking back over the room, he considered. “It could be in here, but if it’s, say, a rotom. It could be anywhere in the building, on some connected tech. Computer tower, installed router..anything like that.”[break][break]

He tipped his head at his porygon-z to try again—that time with an altered operative.

[break][break]

[attr="class","bottom"]Gunner Graves [break]
[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-porygon-z"]

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"Lancer"

he / him

September 5

Fallarbor Town, Hoenn

pansexual

paralegal / special agent

agent

6'1" / 185 cm height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

awards

1,455 posts

DOLLARS

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TAG WITH @gunner

POSTED ON Mar 27, 2023 19:13:48 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","gunner2"]

[attr="class","text"]

Gunner blinked. The thought had never occurred to him, or to HBIC's IT team, for that matter.[break][break]

"A Pokémon infestation," he repeated slowly, the gears in his mind turning at the new possibility. Then he nodded. "We can start looking. Laudine? Search the room for any foreign smells that aren't us and Emerson's Porygon-Z."[break][break]

The Umbreon uttered a small, confident bark before putting her nose to the ground and wandering off. She started in one corner of the server room and wove her way between racks. Gunner followed at a distance, giving her room to investigate.[break][break]

Finally, she froze between two server racks. She stretched up on her hind legs, her front paws clinging to the front of the servers for balance, and started to bark.[break][break]

"Here," Gunner said to Emerson, beckoning. "Seems like Laudine found something."

[attr="class","ooc"]

[attr="class","tag"]emerson whitlock

[break]

NOTES

⬥ Mission: Bond Bridge (March 2023)

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Umbreon ♀ (Laudine) | Synchronize | Dark Pulse, Double Kick, Helping Hand, Swift, Take Down

[attr="class","credit"]

MADE BY GUNSMILE

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played by

lou

em, @lockedown

he/him

twenty-five

july 12th

medali, paldea

bi, babey

it guy / hacker

silph co. civvie

5'5 height

i can’t take this place, no i can’t take this place. i just wanna go where i can get some space.

awards

244 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @em

POSTED ON Mar 27, 2023 21:00:17 GMT

[attr="class","enzo"]

[attr="class","top"]

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Emerson’s head bobbed in confirmation. “Yep! It doesn’t happen often, but I’ve seen it a couple times when one has nowhere to go, yannow?” A big im’ catch me if you can! more or less.[break][break]

Luckily, Gunner’s umbreon seemed quite keen, picking up the order with ease. By far a better tracker than his floating bird.[break][break]

His hands clapped together when the umbreon properly identified what should hopefully be the correct hiding spot. “Very well done, Laudine!”[break][break]

His typically awkward demeanor had faded in the moment, making way for the arena he was comfortable in. Though he didn’t really register that.[break][break]

He followed Gunner to the spot. “Glitch, LOCK-ON please, then force it out if you can manage.” He paused, a last minute thought coming to him. “Nothing electrical—don’t want to fry one of their servers in the process.”[break][break]

The porygon-z fixated on the rack, seemingly pinpointing with accuracy before shooting a bright SIGNAL BEAM in that direction. Just a burst of channeled light, but it should hopefully force whatever was hiding in there out.

[break][break]

[attr="class","bottom"]Gunner Graves [break]
[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-porygon-z"]

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"Lancer"

he / him

September 5

Fallarbor Town, Hoenn

pansexual

paralegal / special agent

agent

6'1" / 185 cm height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

awards

1,455 posts

DOLLARS

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TAG WITH @gunner

POSTED ON Mar 29, 2023 16:49:08 GMT

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[attr="class","gunner2"]

[attr="class","text"]

Gunner did not know what to expect when Emerson's Porygon-Z used SIGNAL BEAM on the server in question. He watched with a degree of nervousness, hoping the move wouldn't damage to the equipment. But thankfully, it did not.[break][break]

Instead, it ejected a base evolution Porygon, who tumbled head-over-body out of the server and collided lightly with the neighboring rack. It collapsed onto the floor, dizzy from the attack.[break][break]

"Another Porygon?" Gunner exclaimed, shocked. He quickly stepped toward it and snatched it up in his hands. Injured as it was, it did not resist him.[break][break]

Turning to Emerson, Gunner asked, "Is this the culprit, then? Should we run new scans?"

[attr="class","ooc"]

[attr="class","tag"]emerson whitlock

[break]

NOTES

⬥ Mission: Bond Bridge (March 2023)

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Umbreon ♀ (Laudine) | Synchronize | Dark Pulse, Double Kick, Helping Hand, Swift, Take Down

[attr="class","credit"]

MADE BY GUNSMILE

close tab

played by

lou

em, @lockedown

he/him

twenty-five

july 12th

medali, paldea

bi, babey

it guy / hacker

silph co. civvie

5'5 height

i can’t take this place, no i can’t take this place. i just wanna go where i can get some space.

awards

244 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @em

POSTED ON Apr 10, 2023 2:11:16 GMT

[attr="class","enzo"]

[attr="class","top"]

[attr="class","icon"]

Ah! Another porygon! “I wonder how it managed to get in here..”[break][break]

He gave a brief nod. “Looks like it!” Emerson chirped in response as he gathered his own up into his arms, scratching it under the chin as praise for a job well done. “It was probably nesting, or…something to that effect.”[break][break]

Making itself comfortable despite causing the systems to go haywire. Em nodded though, and released the porygon-z from his hold once again. “Absolutely. Glitch, once more please.” The digital bird drifted away again, floating along the rows of servers.[break][break]

“Oh, I would have your department run some more tests as well, though, if you like. Just for that extra peace of mind.” After all, this is mostly just quick diagnostic work.[break][break]

He smiled lightly, “I Think you’ll find it’s cleared up relatively quick, though. Without that little guy camping out.”

[break][break]

[attr="class","bottom"]Gunner Graves [break]
[attr="class","pkspr pkmn-porygon-z"]

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played by

gunsmile

"Lancer"

he / him

September 5

Fallarbor Town, Hoenn

pansexual

paralegal / special agent

agent

6'1" / 185 cm height

i used to dream in the dark of palisades park.

awards

1,455 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @gunner

POSTED ON Apr 10, 2023 23:23:35 GMT

[nospaces]

[attr="class","gunner2"]

[attr="class","text"]

Gunner frowned, filled with concern that a Pokémon had caused such a disturbance in the HBIC's servers. How had their IT department missed that? He'd have to bring it up with their manager later.[break][break]

"Thank you for your help, Mr. Whitlock," Gunner said. "I'll have them do that."[break][break]

He waited until the Porygon-Z's diagnostic was complete so that he could escort Emerson and his Pokémon back to the front lobby.[break][break]

"Has Miss Livy already sorted out your payment for this job?" he asked as they headed out of the server room.

[attr="class","ooc"]

[attr="class","tag"]emerson whitlock

[break]

NOTES

⬥ Mission: Bond Bridge (March 2023)

[attr="class","pkmn"]

Umbreon ♀ (Laudine) | Synchronize | Dark Pulse, Double Kick, Helping Hand, Swift, Take Down

[attr="class","credit"]

MADE BY GUNSMILE

close tab

played by

lou

em, @lockedown

he/him

twenty-five

july 12th

medali, paldea

bi, babey

it guy / hacker

silph co. civvie

5'5 height

i can’t take this place, no i can’t take this place. i just wanna go where i can get some space.

awards

244 posts

DOLLARS

part of

TAG WITH @em