whisperhacks

[whisperhacks]

who: open! where: bar velo when: late june 2040

devna doesn’t hang around bar velo much more than she has to. doesn’t frequent many bars at all. there’s too much talking, for starters, and then there’s the drunks and the people who can’t hold their liquor. she can’t really judge them - she's an incredible lightweight. if she were someone who drank. she would be a one and done, down for the count, call her a taxi and send her on her way. any drinking she’s ever done has been sparse or, at one time, in the safety of a shared dorm room with odessa. she’s not about to change her ways tonight; she’s got a keyboard calling her name and investigations to focus on.

until one of said drunks bumbles into her, splashing his drink on her and pushing her into someone else. with a grimace, devna shoves him off before turning to his secondary victim.

sorry mouthed before she taps out a quick message on her phone that the ai voice reads aloud. “you good?”

[whisperhacks]

her dark eyes skim over greg once - something like barely disguised contempt in them - before she acquiesces. “yes.”

short, pre programmed responses only in a contrastingly friendly computer voice. she pushes off the wall, keeping an eye on him - arms folded over her waist because whether she’d admit it or not this is entirely out of her comfort zone. the volume on her implants is up - letting her hear more clearly the noises around them. gregory flores might be helping crux in his own weird way but he’s still a nsa slug and she doesn’t trust him to not decide this endeavor has grown wearisome enough to rat them all out.

“what do you have?”

location: behind the lux nightclub @whisperhacks

play nice. that’s what he tells himself. it’s not surprising at all that he’ll face opposition from a crux member. the only reason greg is engaging the team (‘engaging’ might be too kind of a word, ‘bankrolling’, ‘financing’, ‘tossing them out to the wild while he sits back and reap the rewards’ might be more fitting) is because they have a common enemy. their relationship is transactional. no one really gives a shit about the others’ wellbeing. and he knows that the team knows that.

but is it still irritating that dev refuses to play nice when he himself is trying to place nice?

yes.

yet, there’s something refreshing that she doesn’t feign politeness around him. she never spares him a glance, barely acknowledges him. no matter. give her what she needs then get out. that’s enough.

“you want new tech or?”

[whisperhacks]

devna taps a few keys to pair her device with suzu’s own. “i can get you something by the end of the week at the latest.” she double clicks the camera mainframe to open the bank of them on her monitor, keeping an eye on the whole cafe in case anyone happens to be looking their way too much. as if anyone really would be, really cares to know what two women are doing in the back corner. still, it gives her a peace of mind to keep tabs on everyone else.

chipped neon green painted nails move fleetingly over her keyboard. “good. no- unless you feel like getting me another six pack.” she nods to her celsius cans. probably shouldn’t drink as many of the energy drinks as she does. probably shouldn’t do a lot of things. impatiently, she taps a finger on her space bar without depressing it before typing again.

“vulcan is bringing some tech for us later this week. meeting him behind lux. keep an eye out?” not that dev really thinks ol’ greg will cause any problems, but she doesn’t care for him. and that’s not just because he’s a wealthy playboy or a so-called crusading nsa hero. “he annoys me. always talking.”

“just checking in,” suzu signs. “figured i’d find you here.” she drags a chair up next to devna and sits down, switching to her phone to type. a holographic screen pops up in front of them, messages filtering in one after the other. “i need information on these people.” a few faces appear on-screen, photos captured in motion from the cameras in suzu’s contact lenses during the night of the break-in. “i sent you the pictures and whatever else we got on them, but we do like to be thorough. and you’re very good at that.” 

the pictures blink away, replaced by lines of text. “that aside, how are you doing?” she likes to check on the other members of crux as needed, and there’s a sense of responsibility she feels towards devna for being the one to recruit her in the first place. “anything in particular you need?” 

[whisperhacks]

AMITA SUMAN for DSCENE (April 2023)

[whisperhacks]

when: april 2040 where: cybercafe who: @amarcnthined / suzume!

devna is fairly confident she alone could keep the cybercafe in business. the employees all know her face, know she doesn’t talk to them (or anyone for that matter), know she knows more than they do about computers, know to leave her alone from her spot wedged into the back of the cafe with a 12-pack of celsius and a few sandwiches from her parents’ deli. this corner all but belongs to her- everyone else gets directed away from it on the rare chance dev isn’t already there occupying it.

one-handed, she pops the tab on her next celsius without even looking away from her screen - too enraptured in the lines of code therein but not so that she doesn’t see suzu come into the cafe. the security camera mainframe stays up in the corner of the monitor at all times, after all. three am isn’t late for crux heroes by any means, but she doesn’t often get in person visits from any of them.

“fancy seeing you here,” dev types before reluctantly pulling her attention away from the computer to switch to sign language. “were you looking for me?”

[whisperhacks]

( amita suman, cis woman, she/her ) - did you hear that DEVNA KHADKA was spotted near the huge explosion over at 46th and madison? rumour has it, the TWENTY-FIVE year old has been a part of CRUX as the VIGILANTE for TWO YEARS - isn’t that so cool? i’ve heard they’ve gotten CYBERAUDIO ENHANCEMENTS done, too. WHISPER has been described by many as FREE-THINKING and RESOURCEFUL, despite being SUPERSTITIOUS and EXPEDIENT- but, who knows, right? i heard they really remind people of RAVEN REYES FROM THE 100, and have great taste in music! i always hear CUE by POPPY blaring from their headphones.