ζ We do a job, we get paid; By definition… things don’t get more “professional” than that right? big smile showing all the teeth. In a lower tone and faster: Besides, we got the required clearence, which is none so…
Off to a good start!! Hi there friend, no need to worry about my business associate.
The name is Bagheera, “Baggy” at your service ^^ and my partner…
*I extend my arm with ceremony pointing Risk both to not talk over… I bet he’s not in the mood for that, and to get a good look at the newcomer without him noticing too much. ζ
Doubt: I guess I need ask for a notice check to… well, notice, in general? or you’ll reveal based on my notice level as we go? @hivefleetbothan
I’ll wait for @hivefleetbothan to clear that last bit to make my entry.
Also, sorry for the lack of activity, The Withness happened, I’ve been meaning to post before but somehow I got distracted.
I will make announcements based on your general notice level, but if you want to try and do better go ahead and roll a check… Back to IC
The security projection turns slightly hazy, its voice begins to fizzle and fade until finally the projection disappears… a minor mindscape alteration by Serzalir removes the security protocol with ease.
I’ma let @Inferry respond since I assume this will influence their post.
“I assume this will influence their post” hell yea it did D:
Coming from the west door, a droid that has clearly been through more than what it was designed for, started speaking with a robotic, yet fluid double voice towards Serzalir.
「 I’ll appreciate if you could limit the use of your abilities for when they are properly required, we are yet to find the full extent of this place’s capabilities. 」
「 ⋯ are these the ones you spoke of? 」
Said the automaton turning its gaze over the new arrivals.
OK peeps…sorry to have been conspicuously absent/quiet…my dogs been a little ill and, whilst I have my account sent to email me forum alerts, I only get those for @ mentions, PM’s, quotes and posts in my topics. This has meant I’ve been a little tied up. Will slap myself on the wrist and improve my conduct as best I can.
A cascade of energy crackles and sparks around the rough shape of a human figure standing motionless in the corner of the room. Spitting and fizzing erratically, the field eventually cuts out revealing a roguish looking human male. A small plume of smoke trails from the shoulder mounted device that appears to have just failed. Moving slowly forward, arms outstretched and palms extended outward, he doesn’t seem outwardly hostile.
♆ Well, looks like that’s another fantastic purchasing decision to go in the book of wise money use. Pfft, at least it was fun whilst it lasted.♆
♆ So, (turning to face each player character in a slow sweep) assuming my universal stance of non-aggression is accepted by you fine fellows, you obviously all saw the same recording as I just did. Any initial observations or plans? I find that comment about lack of Mindscape connectivity intriguing… On the other hand if my charming company isn’t welcome here…well…(a slow smile crosses his face)… let’s not consider that an option just yet. Nice to meet you all… ♆
{I’m not quite sure on the first/third person usage here…}
'Risk turns to face the newcomer, it’s apparent that he is slightly shaken by the sudden appearance.
He rolls his shoulders causing his muscles to ripple visibly through his dark grey bodyglove.
ǂ It was referring to me, it’s much easier to not be found if you are disconnected. ǂ
ǂ Your rather sudden company may or may not be welcome, who exactly are you, and why would you hide yourself? ǂ
Three new projections appear in the room, their flickering forms all identical. The same vague face, but this time clearly dressed in a sharply focused black and white formal suit, with crisply pressed corners, pleats and edging and immaculately rendered stitching.
The three projections move in lock step, but a single voice plays through the room. This one is a reedy monotone, almost certainly male, but at the same time not definitively human.
Sensors indicate you have recently been connected to a Mindscape Instance with a more up to date library than our own. For the purpose of better serving you, and all of the commonality, may I have your permission to update this facilities Midscape Instance with data stored in your Mindscape implant and associated memory storage?
With a slow rumbling sound, the three doors in the room begin to melt away, the steel and bulwark edges suddenly taking on liquid properties and merge into the same off-white shade as the wall. Solidifying into a seamless wall leaving no evidence of the door that was once there. In the center of the room, the three projections blend together into a single figure, flickering and blurring as the projected voice becomes filled with static.
Keywords Recognized: Facility state is in Ksshk, Directive: Memory Error. 854 kssshk have been deleted, as per ksssssshk there are currently 2 open casefiles, Project kssshk and kssshk Status: Unknown. Administrative User: Unresponsive. New User: ksshk requesting administrative capacity pending admin approval from administrative core ERROR. kssssshk Restored Modus Operandi: 1 user is currently running 302 room simulations, findings are kssssssssssssssssssssssssssssshk We are kssshk sorry, but our system encountered an internal error while trying to process your request for a kssshk STATE REPORT. Please kssshk tech-support and check with research staff if the files/actions/memories you are trying to modify are currently being used in any kssshk capacity. ksssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssshk
A single large doorway appears in the center of the wall, a long hallway extends out from it.
New users noted, room simulation 304 beginning. Initiating Project PLATO. MEMORY CORRUPTED ERROR NUMBER 9746592. INTERNAL REROUTE. DIRECTORY CONNECTION. SUCCESS. INITIALIZING AUDIO RECORDING: SUCCESS. Hello Users, this is Senior Director Alexis Jones, let me be the first to welcome you to Project PLATO. Here you are going to accomplish great things! I will be talking to you at critical moments in the project in order to help guide you. Unfortunately, I cannot speak to you live for reasons you are already aware of, found in your internal file labeled ‘TULA’. But please feel free to converse with any of the other Users around you, but be sure to read the internal ruleset file that has now been unlocked in your ‘RULES’ folder. Users may experience feelings of disorientation following consciousness upload, please take this moment to orient yourself inside your testing vehicle. Any questions may be directed to the administrative AI Karen! I will let Karen give you further instructions. AUDIO RECORDING COMPLETED. ERROR ERROR ERROR FATAL ERR.
Then with a final flicker the projection disappears.
No projection appears, but instead a small recording speaks from the hallway:
A request to allocate an ephemeral user from the global space has failed due to all such users being unresponsive. Routing to Admin Karen at port 0004589375385893 has failed, port could not be located. Please contact your administrator to find a fix to this issue.
The brief break in the silence fades away, and the eternal stillness resumes.
Disrupting the silence, a small projection appears next to the robotic figure of @Inferry
Greetings same. One of the groups inside the facility completed one of the trials, the administrative account wasn’t open for long, but we managed to mine out almost an entire folder. As requested, we brought the pertinent information to your attention.
With a few bursts of binary a command prompt is executed and a file brought out of the temporary shell the mining program placed it in. A voice begins to play, filling the narrow spaces of the room with a commanding voice, occasionally interspersed with light shuffling and coughing.
…You see Ladies and gentlemen, we have been approaching this problem from the wrong direction, in order to create a program that can truly think, to go beyond simple consciousness… Hell, I’ll say it, to transcend the ‘mask’ of consciousness, make something that could evaluate human consciousness the same way the Turing test assesses machines.
Well, we just have to ask ourselves what creates consciousness? What differentiates a ‘person’ from a collection of coded tasks? We have been asking about feelings, love… Throw it all out! The key to consciousness is hypocrisy, the ability to think of yourself as having qualities different from others, even when you are the same. We need to build an intelligence with these inherit instabilities, then stabilize them, with that we can devote another ten million years of processing time to buff them out from this “base” form into…
A new voice much quieter begins to play.
…they still won’t tell us what this is about, they just suddenly demanded we halt all development of the AI program, all testing has been halted and the prototypes have been seized and locked into some storage bay. We here won’t be party to their plans though, whatever these guys want with our programs they won’t be able to find them. Not when we bury them in a recursive loop run by the admin account, some of the guys on level B were even talking about smuggling out…
Unfortunately that is all the data we recovered. However, if the ‘guinea pig’ teams continue to make progress into the facility we will have another shot at it soon.
'Risk draws breath - his expertly honed senses, a combination of innate ability and years of combat training - cause time to move at a different rate for him than for mundanes; A millisecond feels like a minute, a second like an hour, a minute like a week.
Time has passed.
His lips move silently, an occasional word can just be heard.
ǂ … … … … mast … … ǂ
The repetition continues, but it’s getting progressively more strained.
'Risk is agitated and starts visibly trembling.
Suddenly his frame stills, quick as a flash he draws his blaster and squeezes off a snap shot at the projection. Almost before the shot has left the barrel, the blaster is back in its holster at his hip.
'Risk’s eyes glitter as the bolt of directed light sizzles across the intervening space.
