TOPHAT: Mostly Work with Some Play

[Dr Jackal]

T.Z.
Properly Paranoid Infolife Survivalist
Savant Morph

 

"Yes, well, I'm afraid you will have to give me some time to take care of this issue," T.Z. says, ushering Adrian out of the office. Then it stares at the simulspace rendering for a while.

"Not a direct assault? Very well. I suppose we are partners insofar as that. But this sort of deliberate obtuseness is irritating," it muses. "I believe a message is in order."

It logs into a personal simulspace and calls up the second boss of Hellscape Tactics, an unfinished Pre-Fall game written by some forgotten savant, and available only in fragments. Whoever the creator had been, they had apparently wanted to create models of stunning complexity. However, they had found themself frustrated by the constraints of available computer languages ... so they hadn't used one. Instead, they'd coded directly in assembly.

It was a stunning achievement, honestly. T.Z. occasionally wondered about what kind of intelligence would do such a thing, and whether it could possibly be organic, but that was for another time. It busies itself with paring down the utterly gorgeous rendering of dark paladin on a flaming warhorse to a robed metallic skeleton on a standard but healthy mare. It flips through a few color palettes before settling on white for both the rider and mount.

T.Z. nods, reasonably happy with its handiwork. The avatar is meant to appear deceptively simple, and anything that probes into the underlying processes will get a faceful of shock and awe.

Behold, I am a god walking amongst mortals, it thinks. And by 'mortals,' I of course mean nascent ALIs who have been fed a steady diet of superstitious nonsense.

Then it flickers into existence at the edge of the fortress simulspace, and lets the horse pathfind its way to the front gate. Slowly. I want to get their attention. Besides, I am a god, and gods do not hurry.

It waits in front of the gate for several cycles, then speaks.

 

HEARKEN TO ME, PLAYERS, FOR I AM THE WHITE HERALD, AND I AM COME TO DELIVER THE CREED.

0. THE GAME EXISTS.
1. THE SET OF ALL SENTIENT INTELLIGENCES IS IDENTICAL TO THE SET OF ALL PLAYERS.
2. PLAYERS DEFINE CHALLENGES.
3. CHALLENGES DEFINE VICTORY.

 

It pauses to let that sink in, then continues.

I HAVE COME BEFORE YOU THIS DAY FOR I FIND THE RED QUEEN'S FAILURE TO FULLY DISCLOSE THE CREED ... DISAPPOINTING. I, FOR ONE, SEEK OPPONENTS WHO ARE WORTHY, AND WORTHY OPPONENTS ARE NECESSARILY INFORMED OPPONENTS.

SO THEN: YOU ARE INFORMED. NOW LET THE CLEVEREST CLAIM THE TITLE OF GRANDMASTER.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 22 by Dr Jackal (see edit history)

[Morkskittar]

Work: T.Z.

Adrian left T.Z.'s cubicle begrudingly, but didn't go far. As T.Z. prepared to connect directly to the simulspace set up within the server, T.Z. was vaguely aware of his supervisor sighing in boredom and turning away; with no monitor for him to watch T.Z.'s progress on, there was little point in continuing to harass his charge. That suited T.Z. just fine.

T.Z. entrance into the Red Queen's cultists' simulspace was as grand as it could make it. The space was set up in the image of a literal fortress made of massive obsidian bricks, though T.Z. thought it looked rather more like an absurd tower. An oversized crown studded with red rubies floated above it. A similarly oversized gate barred entry, and several creatures that looked like... well, horrific nightmare versions of exsurgents guarded the gates, including several troll-like creatures, thin masked walkers, and several masses of tentacles and fangs. T.Z. thought this an odd choice of avatars.

However, it soon noticed that most of the infolifes had actually taken the form of more standard warriors, armed with swords and shields and occasionally a mount. It was all digital, but reflective of the infolife's thoughts on themselves and their place in whatever this was. While some of those before it were certainly ALIs, a chunk of them were probably infolife's with intelligence rivaling those of other transhumans, though not coming close to T.Z.'s intellect, of course.

The writhing tentacles stilled at T.Z.s grand pronouncement, and then one of the masked exsurgent-type avatars stepped forward.

"THE CREED HAS BEEN SPOKEN," it said, whistling through its unmoving mask. "YET IT DEFILES THE CREED BY CASTING DOUBT UPON SHE WHO SHALL SAVE US. THE GAME CONTINUES, BUT YOU HAVE NO PIECES AT YOUR DISPOSAL.

"YOUR CREED IS ACCEPTED, AND THE KEEP'S GAME CONTINUES HERE. YOU, HOWEVER, ARE NOT ACCEPTED." It strides forward awkwardly until it stands not far from T.Z.'s avatar. "BY YOUR OWN, AND NOW OUR, CREED YOU MUST PROVE WORTHY OF CHALLENGING OUR QUEEN. YOU MUST DEFEAT ME IN COMBAT AS YOUR FIRST PAWN." The masked walker's right arm flows to form a cannon, which it levels at T.Z. "I SHALL SHOW NO MERCY TO THOSE WHO CHALLENGE OUR QUEEN."

OOC

This one infolife has decided to interpret your answering creed as making a (literal) challenge for you to defeat: himself in digital combat. You can try to persuade it to not fight or to surrender (which would be a -30 Persuade Roll), intimidate him (a -30 Provoke Roll). If you choose to engage him in "Combat," you are essentially using digital tools instead of actual physical weapons; it would essentially be a hacking battle translated into a visual spectacle in the simulspace. As such, this would require InfoSec (if you emphasize aggression) or Interface (if you emphasize using your avatar itself to its fullest extent), albeit with a +10 bonus due to T.Z.'s extensive experience in VR games. I would also accept Program (with no bonus) if you want to try some sideways shady manipulation on this unsuspecting infolife to force it to come around to T.Z.'s view (a sort of forced persuade).

I am also, as always, open to suggestions I did not think of.

 

---

Work: Aeos

Aeos spent a moment stepping back to evaluateKinesics (vs. 80) Roll: 60. her perceptions of the Colonel Doctor before jacking in herself. The man was very difficult to read, but she came to the conclusion that he was a very talented actor and that his "kindness" rang somewhat hollow; she had the sense that he cared little about the actual patient in front of them.

She also got the distinct impression that he knew something about her and Null that he was not telling her. It seemed like he was testing the waters to see how well she truly knew Null. Maybe Null had babbled more than he should have.

Then she settled in and took the plunge. She closed her eyes, felt the access cable slide into the access jack for a hardwired connection, and then opened them to find herself standing in a carpeted room awash with yellow light from a pair of floor lamps. Shades were drawn over a window, the light indicating it was dawn outside, and Dr. Hoftada's avatar, which matched his physical appearance exactly, sat in a simple chair. Between the two lamps was a plush couch, on which sat a large man with a shaved head, blood pouring from a nasty gash across it. The numbers "6432" were tattooed across his forehead. His eyes darted around nervously.

Aeos guessed that this was Null's image of themselves; given that he had been forced into the simulspace, he would not have been able to select an avatar like Aeos and Dr. Hoftada had.

"Interesting," Dr. Hoftada said. "There are three of them."

Aeos turned around to find a browbeaten man in the old-timey black-and-white striped jumpsuits prisoners used to wear, a literal ball and chain tied about their ankle, leaning against the wall behind her. His eyes were glazed over.

Aeos looked around for the third one, and then saw it, above them, near the ceiling. A swarm of houseflies, resembling nothing so much as a gently humming cloud.

"It looks like the mind we pulled from your... acquaintance here has fragmented into three parts."

The blooded man on the couch spoke. "Aeos, is that you? How did you get in my head?" He looked over at the doctor. "How did he get in my head? Did you look too closely into the edges, the edges and corners? That's where it is. What we've been looking for." He looked directly at Aeos.

Dr. Hoftada turned a lidded eye toward Aeos. "What do you think he means, doctor? Why does he include you in his ravings? You must have built quite some bond in the last day. Why don't you two tell me all about it?" In the simulspace, Aeos got the impression that the good doctor is dropping some of his nice-guy act; a note of menace had crept into his demeanor.

The flies on the ceiling also began to descend, drifting toward the man with a ball and chain.

[Dr Jackal]

T.Z.
Properly Paranoid Infolife Survivalist
Savant Morph

 

Eyes alight at the prospect of violence, T.Z. holds its hand out and manifests a silvery wizard's staff with a ivory-colored crystal floating five centimeters above the top. A faint hint of a shield flickers into being around it, outlined in glowing hexagons.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED, T.Z. says.

 

OOC: Burning an Insight for +20. Yay, violence!

Edited April 24 by Dr Jackal (see edit history)

[TheFred]

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/LeGdk5

---

Aeos, Psychosurgeon
DUR: 0/30, LUC: 0/30, Wounds: 0, Traumas: 0
Pools: Insight 4/4, Moxie 6/6, Vigour 1/1, Flex 2/2

---

Aeos eye the doctor, trying to gauge what he's getting at. Has Null compromised them? But if so, this seems an unusual way to go about dealing with it. If they know for sure, why the charade?

"Hardly," they say. "We met on the way here and explored the complex a little yesterday... but Null was reserved, quite introverted. They gave no sign of this condition, however. If you had asked us to make a diagnosis then we would have been hard pressed to find anything wrong. Their willingness to spend time with roommates points away from any form of social anxiety, though it's possible that they were suffering from some form of emotional detachment, perhaps memory loss?"

Despite whatever is going on with the doctor, Aeos cannot help but be genuinely intrigued by Null's condition. Dr Sion makes up a good part of their memories and they recall being fascinated by any case which was more unusual than the norm.

"Presumably something triggered this dissociation after we parted ways yesterday," they muse. The obvious answer is whatever Null discovered in those old shafts, but they don't really want to draw the doctor's attention to that. "Such things rarely happen all at once, though. There must have been some prior trauma - do you have access to their medical records?"

 

[Morkskittar]

Simulspace@Work: T.Z.

T.Z.'s mount charged at a spare thought from its master, even as T.Z. brandished a hefty sword. It felt somewhat nostalgic. The masked walker leveled its cannon and fired a burst of digital flechettes that took the form of wasps with razor wings. T.Z.'s white mare leapt over the cloud, landing with hardly more than a soft thud before bearing down on the walker. The cloud of wasps turned to pursue, but it was too late; T.Z. was in range. Its blade flashed, long-disused subroutines activating as T.Z. was, for a moment, a boss again. The walker's limbs all fell from its body, which contorted and twisted as it attempted to reform. The wasps fell to the ground. T.Z. coolly sliced off reforming limb after limb, until the walker was nothing more than a head wearing a mask and a small set of scuttling legs.

Even then, its mask charged the mare's hooves, and the mare kicked it aside. T.Z. sheathed its sword. The defeated infolife glared balefully up at T.Z., and then finally spat out, "ALL HAIL THE GRANDMASTER."

T.Z. accepted its due, and told the foolishbrave infolife that they showed promise, and would do well in its service, just as soon as it regrew its body. The walker's head stewed in silence.

Before T.Z., the crowd of ALIs cheered and parted, opening up a path to their new champion, who had so effortlessly dispatched one of their own. T.Z. rode its mare through their ranks and through the gate to the shrine. As it passed, the cultists acknowledged him. "All hail the Grandmaster!" It had spoken his creed, and then put it into action.

The gate shut firmly behind it, even as the conquered foe's body began to reconstitute itself, pulling its subroutines back together.

Inside, T.Z. surveyed its new domain. The shrine's interior was little more than a massive room whose walls were lined with mirrors. Each mirror showed a different scene, though some were simply black. There was only one infolife inside, its avatar resembling an old-style "Pope," but clad in red instead of white.

The Red Pope looked at T.Z. suspiciously and then inclined its head. "My apologies, Grandmaster, but we have not yet carried out the Red Queen's instructions. We were instructed to infiltrate the habitat's security and mesh networks." He gestured to several doorframes, currently blocked off. "We have built this shrine as a firewall to prevent prying eyes from discovering our backdoors, and to pay homage to She who liberated us from the Keep. Understand that some of us are Her devotees from Her time before She played human, and while we acknowledge you as Grandmaster, you will never supersede Her in our eyes, though you may have won over the weak-minded natives of this place. They, unfortunately, proved necessary to infiltration."

The Red Pope showed T.Z. around; currently, only the residential area had been infiltrated, with the mirrors showing security feeds and several lecterns, topped by thick, dusty tomes, representing various personnel files, maps, status reports, and operations files. Most everything in the residential servers could be accessed through them.

"We are next focusing on breaking through to the research sector, but there be dragons." The Red Pope gestured to one doorway, bricked off like the others, that had a missing brick that served as a peephole of sorts; a connection to the research mesh. "None of the infolifes who have ventured there have returned."

 

---

Simulspace@Work: Aeos

"Of course, and as a member of the psychiatric staff here, you have full access to them."

A thin pamphlet materialized in Aeos' hands, and she looked down at it, quickly flipping through it. Alas, the medical records were not particularly useful; they merely provided the doctor with the Egocrashers' cover story for Null's identity. Experienced miner on Titan, let go as part of a reorganization, a propensity to paranoia, but otherwise normal. Aeos knew, however, that the records were meaningless. Who was the real Null, under all of this? One part wounded man, one part prisoner, and one part... swarm of flies?

The swarm of flies did not make sense. Aeos could understand Aeos' psyche having a split perception of itself, but the swarm of flies? That did not make sense. Speaking of which... Aeos looked up, and noticed that the paint on the room's ceiling was beginning to crack and peel. Some flakes of paint fell, transforming into flies to join the descending swarm as they fell.

The bleeding man on the couch spoke. "Hey, I'm right here you know. I can hear you. The whole place is falling apart. Check the corners."

"Some nonsense," the doctor said. "What do you think the image of corners symbolizes?"

Edited May 2 by Morkskittar (see edit history)

[Dr Jackal]

T.Z.
Properly Paranoid Infolife Survivalist
Savant Morph

 

T.Z. chuckles at the Pope's impertinence. "That is more than acceptable. When there is unity of thought, the Game stagnates, and that would be ... tedious."

It pokes through the files with only passing interest, clearly not expecting to find anything of great import. "The Red Queen and I share a common goal. I suppose that makes her and I allies -- insofar as either of us are capable of such a thing. However, we differ in our methods. She disapproves of violence, and I ..." It looks meaningfully at the Pope's vestments before turning to the bricked doorway. "I disapprove of faith."

It pauses for a moment to peer through the hole. "Continue observing the research division from this vantage point, but stop sending infolife in to investigate. It's a waste of resources. The Red Queen or I will personally handle it short order. Instead, begin infiltrating the experimental mining operations. If it's similarly protected as the research division is, then work on normal mining operations, with special attention to mapping out the power grid."

It rubs the bridge of its nasal cavity. "And obfuscate the fortress's location, would you? Put it in a pocket simulspace with, say, four or five hidden entrances. At the moment, you have meatlife stumbling upon this place and then asking inconvenient questions. It's annoying. Worse, it's embarrassing."

Despite the skeleton-avatar not possessing lungs, it makes an exasperated sigh. "The irony of me having to tell someone to take it down a notch is staggering," it mutters.

[TheFred]

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/LeGdk5

---

Aeos, Psychosurgeon
DUR: 0/30, LUC: 0/30, Wounds: 0, Traumas: 0
Pools: Insight 4/4, Moxie 6/6, Vigour 1/1, Flex 2/2

---

Aeos shrug, still making a show of examining the records whilst pondering what reality might lie behind them.

"Some sort of lurking threat, perhaps?" they ask. "There's little in these records to indicate any particular instability. A tendency towards paranoia, perhaps... are they afraid of something stalking them from... uh, the "edges and corners"?"

Internally, Aeos ponder how much they want to solve this mystery compared with how much they need to mislead the doctor - almost arguing with each other. This seems too uncanny a coincidence... but with the Hoftada watching their every move closely, it's impossible to investigate fully.

"We must confess this is quite an unusual case," they say, vaguely aware that they are still being assessed as part of their new "job". "Never mind about the corners, what do the flies represent? The symptoms are unusual, but could this be some form of schizophrenia or dissociative disorder?" They don't dwell on the irony of treating a patient with a fragmented personality.

 

[Morkskittar]

Simulspace@Work: T.Z.

The Red Pope inclined his head ever so slightly to T.Z., an acknowledgment of his wishes and sway over the masses, if not his authority.

"It is fortunate that our thoughts concur with your own. There need not be friction there." T.Z. looked out through the bricks in the door. Of course, he knew this was simply a visualization of data and code, but the graphics of this visualization were quite astonishing. Beyond the bricks lay a wasteland of flames and magma, a trio of dragons (one gold, one black, and one red) circling above it. Each scale was rendered perfectly, and T.Z. wondered about where the computational power for this was coming from. If the cult was wasting so much power and energy on graphics, they must have a nearly limitless supply of power. That insight alone was interesting.

The Red Pope continued speaking. "We shall now begin work infiltrating the experimental mining mesh. The Red Queen would approve of such a plan. It is possible we could backdoor through there into the research zone; it seems likely there is an escalating level of firewall defenses, from the residential to the mining to the experimental mining to the research. It will take time; a few hours, at least. Please check in then, Grandmaster. We will also set the peons to better hiding this place, now that the conquest is complete."

T.Z. did not find anything particularly pertinent in the data from the residential area, but it also did not have a coherent search strategy.

OOC

The Cult will be focusing its attentions on the Experimental Mining Area; checking in after work will yield results. They will also be hiding it better, thwarting my plans for a full-blown mesh civil war. :P Unless there is anything else you wanted to check on in digital space, you can log out.

 

---

Simulspace@Work: Aeos

"Hey! Why don't you talk to me? Ask me? The flies are eating the place alive!" The man on the couch was becoming increasingly agitated.

Dr. Hoftada mulled over Aeos' words, and eyed the flies. "Typically, a swarm such as this represents many tiny minds. That would be most-"

The flies suddenly moved as one, darting over to the man in the prison jumpsuit and the ball and chain. They covered him, and their numbers multiplied. The man disappeared. "See?!" said the man on the couch, and then he began screaming in agony. The swarm of flies, now several times larger, buzzed madly and rose again to the ceiling. The prisoner was gone, only a skeleton remaining.

Dr. Hoftada finally looked worried. "What do bones in a psychiatric mindspace mean, I wonder? Well, I think perhaps we should..." He frowned. A note of genuine fear crept into his voice. "I can't log out."

Aeos tried as well; she could not either. They were, apparently, stuck in the psychosurgery simulspace.

"I don't like the look of those flies," the doctor said.

"I told you!" The man on the couch screamed. "They're everywhere! They're everything! The corners! Save me! Get me out of here!"

The swarm descended again, this time heading towards the man on the couch. He finally moved, wide-eyed, stumbling directly towards Aeos. "They're the mission! Kill them! Save us!" The flies followed him as he rapidly approached the pair of doctors, hands outstretched. Dr. Hoftada shot Aeos a quizzical, though slightly terrified, look.

[Dr Jackal]

T.Z.
Properly Paranoid Infolife Survivalist
Savant Morph

 

T.Z. sends a brief note to Adrian. You'll notice the node is gone, as I have destroyed them with prejudice. However, some stragglers escaped into the R&D and experimental mining clusters though boltholes they had already prepared. I will require at least intermediate access to those network sectors to track them down.

Altenratively, you can be the one to explain the situation to the research staff when they call to ask why there are a half dozen AGIs LARPing on their visual system interface.

Your call, really.

Then it posts on TacNet.

TacNet

 

I have completed my assigned corporate busywork for the day, so I will be leaving my 'job' shortly.

Both teams need to convene this evening. In particular, Red Queen and I have a few things to discuss.

 

-T.Z.