[network] @IAmLegend; video; Day 182 [open]

[definingfuture]

In case anyone hasn't spoken to a friend for obvious reasons, we seem to have all cooled off. I know now might not seem like the best time, but after what happened it's more important to keep in contact with each other and stay with people.

[Tony really wishes Steve were here. It should be him making this kind of announcement.]

What happened the day before wasn't an accident. It was something, the town maybe, trying to reach out and assert its influence over all of us. And if we react by dropping the work everyone has done so far? It wins. It gets exactly what it wants, because all of us break apart, making us easier to pick off. Or we give up. What we should be doing is pushing back and finding out who the prophet really is. We need to try to figure out what they intend to do for our own safety.

If there's anything I can do to help the rest of you, I still intend to do that. I'm not going to stop. I want everyone to be safe. And the best way to help each other is communication. Like the man said yesterday, don't shut down. He's a good guy.

So, on that note, my name is Tony Stark. I'm considered a superhero on the Earth I come from. We handle organizations that want to endanger the world, the occasional intergalactic threat, and... Things like this when they happen. Some of you might consider that a police force, but we're more of a general emergency response solution. I just want to give you a fair idea of who I am.

[He's holding the tablet up so he can address them properly, and raises his off-hand to gesture.]

Also, I have questions. First, how are your eyes? If you are still showing signs of change, I'd like to know. Do you feel different? Secondly, if you are alone right now and weren't with someone when this started, please check in. Let us know everyone is still here and no one is stranded without help. And if you have questions, today I'm going to be completely open.

Comments

[definingfuture]

Yeah, well, some of us still believe we will. You can be the healthy voice of cynicism for us.

I agree, but stalling just seems unnecessary. It's giving us the time to make use of those resources, however limited, to try to escape. Maybe the ultimate goal is something else. And the Admin's team could be inadvertently playing into that goal.

And I'm not asking you to sleep next to me, doctor. I just want to make sure you're not going to shut down. That was pretty traumatic.

[Don't tell him you weren't shaken, House. He knows better!]

We can keep doing what we were doing. But if we start holding back with friends--or useful hands--because of what the Prophet did to us, we'll be in trouble. That's all I'm saying.

--Andromeda's eyes glowed? Did you see them? What kind of light was it?

[rubikscomplex]

maybe
there're a lot of maybes, stark
if we have two opposing forces with neither having full control
it stands to reason they're wrestling
the rogue ai might not be intending to let us make use of those resources
but it's working through firewalls or whatever internal defenses the admin system has

i don't have time to shut down
i have to find the ragdolls

[And after that... maybe there will be another puzzle to look after in the morgue. Holmes had an idea about it.]

i never met her in the dreams
winter's mentioned it
talk to england to learn more about her
she possessed him for a while

[definingfuture]

I know. But we're looking for answers. We'll just have to dig through the maybes and find the ones that make sense.

We know at least two forces are at play, but what they want still isn't very clear. You think the AI wants to deny us resources or just make things difficult for the Admin? An AI doesn't need much.

We're chasing puzzles, but not really looking for answers. I think we need to look beyond the next puzzle.

[He's worried about House. Going from one project to the next to the next... He recognizes that cycle all too well.]

I'll ask England about that. What about you? Do you need anything?

[rubikscomplex]

you wanna chase theories when we don't have the means to narrow them down?
be my guest

i think the rogue ai is fighting for control of this town
for whatever reason
it wants to destroy it
might be remnant programming from a hostile state actor
might be some kid decided he really hated the

[He breaks off and there's no further response for nearly five minutes as he goes back through the public records and archives.]

what if it was derricks?
she was part of the protests
she built the network we're using
she's one of the original designers of the system
she builds a program designed to take out the admin's control
but she puts it on a timer
or it's designed to chip away slowly at the server defense system to avoid detection
but when it finally gets in
she's senile, technology marches on
and contact with the newer systems twists the original program
can that happen?
you're mr. tech

[Ignoring that question on whether or not he needs anything. And the comment about looking beyond the next puzzle. It they look too far, everyone is dead.]

[definingfuture]

I'd rather chase theories than just freeze to death. Something's has to stick. We can at least narrow it down.

[Okay, the five minute break actually gets uncomfortable. He thought the break off was odd, but it's House. Maybe something else caught his attention. But the pause goes on too long. Tony is about to send back an additional concerned message when House's next text comes in.]

It could be sabotage. If you know the system as well as it sounds like she did, you could set up a trap to go off after a certain time. Or after a specific prompt. She could conceivably corrupt the system.

[Which was what he had tried to do, in fact. It would explain why the security is so high.]

The network is locked down far more than most I've seen. It feels like the Administrator is preparing for a bigger threat than most of us should be, given that we're coming in stripped down to the basics. She's locked the system down like a bunker.

[And that's his professional opinion, having tried to break it.]

Do you want me to see if someone will get you something?

[You're not getting off that easy, House.]

[rubikscomplex]

[Still not paying attention to your mothering, Tony. Nope. If House ignores it hard enough, it will probably go away, right?]

the russian government is the threat, apparently
at least if you believe miller
probably every other world power

there's a hell of a lot more to this place than it just being an out of the way town
they had a state of the art ai
one of the most advanced on the planet
they have giant metal wall fortifications and force fields
they have this admin system
they have whatever it is that brought us here
whether it's just our neurological patterns or our actual bodies
this place HAS to have been military
with the friendly town guise as a cover

[definingfuture]

[Accept his help, House. He's not going to ask anything back for it.]

If we believe Miller. It's kind of weird, isn't it? A year so far in the future playing out relations we've moved past? It's playing a little close to home at the very least. Well, anyway, that's just a thought.

So it's a testing facility. A base set up for something specific even before it went to Hell. And whatever it was protecting was monitored by the system they set up.

[He goes quiet, but doesn't disconnect.]

If it were a weapon, it would be housed somewhere. Underground, maybe, but they'd have access to it. But this doesn't feel right. If I were building an advanced weapon, something I didn't want the rest of the world to find, I wouldn't just sit a bunch of people on top of it. That's too many loose variables. I wouldn't want to take the chance of someone tripping security.

hover for the RHIC acronym

[rubikscomplex]

[No, because that's how they get you. The carers. You let them in and it's all over.]

the world keeps turning
we find new things to bitch at each other about
and if all of what happened was really in 2050
it's not that far in the future
geopolitical landscapes don't shift that quickly
not in any permanent way
and even if we're technically allies
you have to know we're spying on the ruskies and vice versa
you're not naive enough to believe anything else

we know there's some space about 500 feet underground
chances are those hatches scattered around town lead to it
and are how everyone got down there for miller's little horror-themed trivia/puzzle game
miller's said that's where he and eve are
along with whatever cryopod he came out of

they're out in the middle of nowhere
minimal interference for electronic instruments that way
so maybe they weren't building a weapon
something else?
hell if i know
might be something like the tevatron or rhic?
and whatever they made actually managed to open up a wormhole

[definingfuture]

[He's going to care and somehow check up on House. The more House avoids the subject, the more Tony worries.]

I have friends that are on the Russian defense team.

[Yes, granted, he does know the tentative relationship their countries have and have had. He frowns over the video, briefly turning his gaze away from the tablet. Being Iron Man and being part of SHIELD makes it difficult to deny House's claims. Thanks, Doc.]

We don't know the explanation they gave us is true. I'm just saying it's convenient, that's all. It fits right into the puzzle.

I think you might be onto something. Whatever they were building might actually be tied to the doorway out. It would explain some of the odd occurrences.

Water, by the way? Are you staying warm enough?

[rubikscomplex]

golly, mr. stark
have you figured out how to hand people water over the internet?
because it sounds like you're asking me for some.
and if i wasn't staying warm enough
there's hell all you could do about it

as for the actually important part of this conversation
yeah
pretty much
alternative is that the device that was meant to pull people from across the country somehow to fill the population quota failed after a certain point because no more people
and the ais
(or the regular old dumb computers)
warped the tech along with whatever virus got into the system
to fit the new needs
take from wherever you can get
or maybe make your own people based on these templates
and that's what we are

[definingfuture]

Don't try me, Doctor Grinch. I'm a superhero and a professional in business. I can find a way to mass-produce TLC just for you. Answer the questions, or I'll work on a hug delivery service.

Everything I talk about is important.

[Sometimes he has to repeat things like this just to remind people he's smart.]

A replicator? I guess the application could be militarized. That doesn't seem like what we're dealing with, though. If we were, I would think we'd see more failed copies of ourselves. Making people out of data even just to fill the quota seems like a long way around. Pulling people from other places sounds more likely.

I wonder why people? They had AIs. I could produce a population of AIs if there were no human resources and fill this quota they apparently keep. But they need real people.

Right now I want to know if the device picking us up was a malfunction caused by possible sabotage, or if that was actually part of the original plan. That could help us figure out what they were originally working on. Not a traditional weapon, but maybe something that needed the townsfolk? A quota means they had a plan for them.

[And as someone that focuses on energy production, Tony thinks that his field might apply.]

[rubikscomplex]

stiffi has you beat on the hug delivery service

[In case you missed the video of his torture, Tony. Also continuing to not answer the question because screw you, authority figure. You're not his dad!]

they had a few ais that were actually at the level of sentience
maybe it's something to do with neural activity?
or the functional equivalent for an ai
no idea how you'd harness that
but with the anomalies being tied to our memories
there's an argument to be made there

[definingfuture]

So you're saying I should send one along, then. Do you want anything with it?

[Still not accepting the non-answer, House. He's the Avengers dad.]

Imprinting thought patterns, you mean? Now that's an idea that might work. It would be experimental enough that they could have pulled it off.

I've been thinking that if we're transferring thoughts and using those to generate energy for the town, then side effects like the anomalies might occur. In theory, we might create our own vision of reality.

[rubikscomplex]

i'm saying there are 50 other people here who would appreciate you playing mommy more than i do

so is the solution here to think happy thoughts?
where's tinkerbell and her fairy dust when you need it?

[That's another potentially relevant theory to add to his list, though.]

[definingfuture]

A mother doesn't do it for appreciation. I'm pretty sure it's more about making sure her kid has what he needs.

Well, I think it's more like finding a way to control the input we're feeding the machine. If it really is using us as a resource for data, than we can find a way to manage what it takes from us. At the very least, it would help us know how the process works.

[rubikscomplex]

i'm honestly a little shocked i have to say this
but you're not my mom, stark
you'd have to be way shorter for a start
and you're not my dad, either
you'd have to be way more of a bastard

and how do we manage the inputs?
we aren't in control of the environment and all communications are monitored on the network
unless you've got the local workaround on that

[He means the shadownet.]

[definingfuture]

You're so grouchy I assumed you were older than me, hot stuff. You really don't have to point it out.

Concern doesn't have anything to do with being parental. I'm just asking.
Is it that bad to want to know you're okay? It's free.

I haven't figured that out yet, but they are drawing information from our nanites, right? There must be communication other than the network.

We only use a small fraction of the tablets' abilities.

[rubikscomplex]

it's horrifying
the worst thing i could ever think of
be my hero
never care again, iron man!

you know the last guy who hacked the network had his brain fried?
i'm all for second time's the charm
but just a heads up

[He's assuming that's where this is going, anyway.]

[definingfuture]

What is it with you and the allergy against people honestly asking if you are okay?
It's not like you're obligated to say yes.
Just call me Tony. Don't be weird.

Omelets and eggs. Although I won't do it without a plan. I still think we could figure something out.

[rubikscomplex]

but i like iron man!
that burning hunk of man metal

so you don't mind breaking a few eggs to get the job done?
that's interesting
i thought you hero types were against people sacrificing themselves

[definingfuture]

You haven't met Iron Man. Tony is just fine.

Firstly, I'm assuming this isn't actually death. We've seen that it doesn't stick. I doubt you're really sacrificing yourself, although I can't say I'm thrilled either way.

And I'm not sure what your mental image of heroes is, but I run a company that deals in electronics and development of new technology. My activity as a hero lately is with a world peacekeeping organization, not a vigilante Indie band. I don't think you should do anything stupid, but I do want answers.

[rubikscomplex]

preeeeetty sure everyone met him when you were like
"i am not tony stark
i am iron man"

people think i do stupid things all the time
you want in on the results on the experiment, then?
it'll probably break your tablet
but you can find another one easy

[definingfuture]

Okay, I guess that's true. But my name is actually Tony. And I don't think Iron Man has much point here.

I can sacrifice my tablet.

[rubikscomplex]

what was the point of him before?
apart from playing your superhero alter ego
anything?

i'll loop you in

[House isn't going to readily admit that this had helped on some level. Wilson's death is still too close for him to do something like thank Tony, but it's on House's mind.]

[definingfuture]

He was my second chance.

[Simple as that. Iron Man has been a new life for him. The escape from himself Tony really always sought.]

I look forward to it. I'll keep the tablet ready for whatever you've got in mind.