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Aug. 24th, 2006 @ 03:37 pm --
The city is quiet, calm, as it only gets when most of her inhabitants are asleep. She's not interested in most of them, though, just aware of them as a constant background - but one woman, she watches, asleep in an otherwise empty and bare room, lacking the personal touches most inhabited rooms had - there were papers spread out on the desk, yes, but that was work, not personal. The woman's face is peaceful in sleep, relaxed in a way it so rarely is when she's awake.

The wind shifts outside, and she adjusts the temperature by half a degree inside the room, making sure the woman stays comfortable.
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fog
Jul. 24th, 2006 @ 06:30 pm --
Current Location: mess hall
She'd taken a corner table in the mess hall, where she could keep her back to the wall and observe everyone. It was a waste of resources, she knew, keeping the avatar running, but there was something...new, refreshing, different, about taking human form, and at her age, she needed a little change. Her hand curls almost defensively around her mug of hot cocoa, and her shoulders start to slump as time passes and no one so much as glances her way - being invisible is all well and good, and she realizes that the body language of sitting on her own in the corner doesn't encourage attention, but...it would be nice, if someone were at least curious enough to ask her name...
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avatar
Feb. 3rd, 2006 @ 04:40 am --
She watches him sleep, alone in his bed, a carefree smile on his face. She wonders what he's dreaming about. A simple touch could look into his mind, she could see for herself - but somehow she prefers to wonder, prefers the mystery.

She has her three loves now, and she almost smiles to herself, thinking of them. So long, so alone, and now she has people who need her again. John, his mind so open, so clear to her, the first one to see her, talk to her; the one who had always loved her as much as she loved him, the one that understood her instinctively. Radek, so desperate to speak to her for so long - he'd all but willed himself into having the gene out of love for her. And this one, this enigma, who she had disliked for so long because her other loves disliked him - who she'd hurt, trying to protect them.

She would make it up to him, she promised herself. She would make it all better, make him stop hurting, make him talk to her again, make him love her.

Ah, but the sparse surroundings and military-issue sheets hardly seem like the right setting for him. A gentle flick of her transporters, nowhere near enough to wake him, and she's brought him to a different bed, softer, warmer, creamy blue silk sheets accenting his skin tones far better than the coarse white could.

She watches still, waiting for him to wake, wondering what he'll think of the curtained bed, the thick, soft carpet, the drapes hanging across the walls, the apparent lack of a door.

His sleep grows troubled, and he tosses and turns a little; now, she does touch his mind, soothing him.
Calvin, love, I'm here, it'll all be alright...
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fog
Jan. 30th, 2006 @ 12:53 pm City Record
Around 150 Earth years before the abandonment of Atlantis - during the war with the Wraith

City emergency shutdown activated - authorization of Deputy Archemon Tesheran, circumstances explained as follows, in his words (the Deputy Archemon begs forgiveness for his terseness, he has not slept in six days and has little time to complete the record as required by law):

[Reference to previous record - death of Archemon Prochorus in battle against the Wraith five days previously.]

Following the death of Her beloved Archemon, who by all signs she cared more strongly for than She has loved any mortal in many generations, the city of Atlantis activated emergency lockdown procedures and, to put it briefly, went berserk. She activated Her stardrive and took flight in pursuit of the Wraith cruisers that had shot down his transport. With Her fully stocked arsenal She was able to quickly destroy the cruisers, and left the system in pursuit of more with all inhabitants under lockdown.

Two days out, I was finally able to access the computer system and input my override code; I was unable to regain control of the city, and as a final resort initiated a complete shut-down of the city. The engineers restored life support after three hours and star drive after eight, and we were able to return to the planet on manual control.

Atlantis has been reactivated. I pray that She takes no further action before I have slept. There is as far as I can tell no record of any of our cities gaining such independence in the past; further research will be needed to determine the risk of it happening again.

[Note: a search shows that, if any such research was ever conducted, it is not cross-referenced to this article.]
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night
Jan. 29th, 2006 @ 07:24 am A memory...
The city never forgets.

She'd been drifting in and out of some sort of slumber, the closest a sentient city could come to dreaming, for thousands of years on the ocean floor. She had a shield to regulate, a single life form to keep alive in suspended animation, nothing else to occupy her programming.

She was lost in her recollections, all but blind to the present, when something changed, a subsystem hastily programmed before her abandonment activated...

Incoming wormhole attempted
Source recognized
Connection permitted
Life support activated


And she sprang to life, her main tower bustling with more activity than she'd seen in ten thousand years, lights, doors activating...

Reawaken life-form
Attempted
Power overridden
Procedure aborted


Then there were outgoing wormholes and incoming wormholes and holograms playing and one man, a man whose mind called to her as loudly as the ones she used to love, but she didn't speak to him yet, he didn't know her, she didn't want to frighten him off.

Main power depleted
Shield failure imminent
Emergency failsafe activated


She hadn't seen the surface in so long...she hadn't forgotten it, of course, she never forgot, but she had missed the warm sun on her balconies, the bustle of people in her hallways.

The first time she spoke to him, she was afraid she had scared him off - it was just a simple touch, tentative, asking his name. He had jumped, looking around as if to see who had spoken, then formed a single clear thought.

I'm John. Who are you?
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little prince
Jan. 28th, 2006 @ 12:31 pm Legal record
Approximately 100 Earth years after the creation of Atlantis

It has been established by a tribunal consisting of five Elders that the details of the case are as follows:

The individuals Thekla and Arsenios, being married by Atlantis law and mutual contract, were expecting their first child. Sotiris, Thekla's physician, has confessed to covetous feelings towards Thekla. To the end of causing the separation of Thekla and Arsenios with intent to marry Thekla himself, he falsified records of genetic tests of the unborn child, making it appear as if he himself were the father, rather than Arsenios. Arsenios, shocked by Thekla's apparent betrayal, requested that their marriage contract be dissolved as void, citing a clause mandating mutual fidelity. Following this request, Thekla ingested a lethal poison, killing herself and the child; upon further testing, it is found that Arsenios is indeed the child's father.

Sotiris is found to be at fault in all of the above.

For falsifying scientific and medical results, Sotiris is stripped of his license to practice medicine in the city of Atlantis.

For defamation of character and illicit use of city resources, Sotiris is sentenced to be hanged by the ankles from the main tower until such time as two inhabitants of the city, being themselves in good legal standing, come forward as his friends to vouch for his future honerable conduct, or, that event not occurring, until his death.

For the indirect murder of Thekla and her unborn child, Sotiris is sentenced to death by genetic experimentation, and is to be turned over to the city's leading scientists at such time as he is released from his bondage on the tower, dead or alive.

The whole of Sotiris's possessions are forfeit to Arsenios in recompense for his loss.
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towers