destinystrings | Johnny Rivers probably should have been hired for the montage music

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Johnny Rivers probably should have been hired for the montage music

Who: Ruri Hoshino + open
Where: Cancer (morning), Virgo (Afternoon) and Leo (evening) districts
When: The morning of the 22nd
Warnings: None of note

The data corruption Ruri witnessed on the network the other night had her nervous. It could be a system glitch, however given how it was a corruption over time part of her saw the Nergal and EDF cover up of the Jovians again. She had been working on a side project over the month, and it had taken a back seat to monitoring the network after the disappearances but it seemed like it was important to move ahead again. Dressing in a sweater and skirt, like any other 16 year old she'd seen and with a hand full of fliers she headed out.

As she was out she's posting fliers reading "Ruri Hoshino: Computer repair (contact number)" with several little bits to rip off with her number and a cute picture of SD Ruri in a neko outfit hunched over a broken computer fixing it. She tends to do this around coffee houses, cafes and other places that offer free network access and as she posts them she seems to be very meticulously looking over the area, as if trying to find something. All the while she never once brings up her usual holo-screens, but makes notes in a paper notepad.

"One more down, I wonder how many of these posts there are."

((feel free to tag her anywhere, just let me know where))

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Cancer had, naturally, more than its share of network hotspots and, of course, one of them was at the frill-tastic café where Latooni and several other Visitors worked.

"Good morning."

Latooni is on duty in full maid regalia, but business is slow this time of the morning on a weekday. She notes Ruri's note-taking and walks a bit closer.

"I've only had a little bit of time to check for network access points," she said quietly. "After seeing what happened last night, I'll make more time."

Ruri nods a bit.

"Right now I'm just looking for ones with little camera access. And comfortable chairs. I may have to move faster than I want to if they're starting to censor the network."

"The evidence points to that. I hate to imagine the government is as bad as the Anoli claimed, but the data is starting to add up...," she admitted.

Latooni kept her expression neutral. The café didn't have a great deal of obvious security cameras, but it did have enough traffic that not everyone here was a known quantity.

"I also noticed something. Aside from Mr. Hanamura's post getting corrupted and the abridged version of the Anoli leader's speech on the news, there's also no complete public data casualties from the attack. Not even a list of names," she said.

"That and they brought in an AI to handle it all, but it still seems... Messy. I talked with her and she seems nice, but I get the feeling this is another issue of covering up data by using an innocent as a shield."

Ruri sighs and shakes her head.

"I really wanted to slowly move in and see what I could take over without being obvious but there are too many unknowns."

Latooni nodded. "Even in hacking, sometimes you need to just charge ahead before the enemy can get an advantage. I'll help however I can. What are you going to focus on?"

"Attacking from as many points as possible at once, causing enough chaos that they won't notice something put inside to just monitor the data. Nothing big, just a little back door to watch the com chatter."

She looks at her fliers and offers Lat one.

"As much as I hate using attacks like this, if it comes from enough random places they hopefully won't notice something quiet."

"Just be careful," she said. "Between the AIs on the network and the fact that the Anoli seem to have attacked it before, the Government is probably very prepared for this."

"Probably. I would be. But I get the feeling that if I keep analyzing this things will only get worse."

[Tachikoma loves going to the Cancer Ward, so many gadgets and things it can just casually play with, even as a human! Plus people to interact with too! So when she's walking about and Ruri offers a flier, she happily accepts it and looks it over. She gasps as what it says on the flier sinks in.]

"Oh my gosh, you can get paid for playing with computers?! I usually would get yelled at if I did that and didn't stick with the mission parameters. Where can I get a job like this? Or maybe can I help this one out?"

"I'm offering to fix computers for money. Its not really playing though. Are you a computer technician as well?"

But sometimes when you connect to a system and its network, it's like a giant playground! Don't you get that feeling! And on the hardware side too! It's like putting together a puzzle!

...Oh, but no, I'm not a technician, those are those guys in red who did our major maintenance checks. Just that sometimes as part of providing support for Section 9, we'd sometimes have to manipulate computer systems, or search for data. It's okay though, as a government agency, we had authority to do so, or a warrant when necessary. Usually though we'd leave things as they were and without a trace, so no one would be able to tell we did that, and thus wouldn't have to show we had the authority to do so!

"True and decrypting security can be something to do to pass the time. But still if its for an AI its rude to try and break into their programing. Not that there are many here."

Ruri looks over the other woman and tilts her head slightly.

"A government agency? Something through the EDF or something local to whatever planet you were from if it wasn't Earth? I don't have a lot of data on clandestine organizations myself."

Oh, yeah if it's an AI, it wouldn't be fair to do so without permission. I know I'd feel bad if a stranger tried to access me without asking first. But still, if it was someone I know, we'd probably could have a lot of fun!

[Tachikoma also tilts it head as she ponders the questions Ruri asks.]

What exactly is the EDF? Where I'm from, Section 9 is part of the Japanese Ministry of Home Affairs, like the other Public Security bureaus. If you don't have information about clandestine organizations though, that might be why you never heard of it. A lot of the work we did was classified work against cyber-terrorists.

"Are you an AI?"

Ruri blinks, tilting her head slightly.

"As for Japan, I lived there briefly, but most of my ties were with Peaceland, the UN, Nergal, the Jovian Colonies and Mars."

I use to be one! When I woke up here, it was in this human body, so I'm no longer an AI! Though I haven't made completely sure if I have a ghost, so technically I can't say with scientific accuracy I'm human either. I might just be an AI program imprinted on a completely biological brain, but that's really hard to do even where I'm from, let alone legal.

But where I'm from, we don't have anything called Nergal or Peaceland, I think. Nor have we colonized other planets, everyone still lives on Earth, even though it can get really crowded at times.

"Then logic would dictate you are from a different Earth, or a different time. What year was it before you appeared here?"

2030! What year was it for you?

...Actually I haven't checked what year it is here yet, now that I think about it. I've only gathered a bit of background information since getting here.

"I'm from the early 23rd century. Its possible that we are from the same Earth but I find it unlikely. Still, its nice to meet you miss."

It'd be hard to tell, maybe we'd have to match up events in your history that might be in mine as well? Like World War III or IV? When did people start colonizing other planets?

Ah! But it's nice to meet you too! I'm Tachikoma, what's your name?

"History is something of a weakness of mine. I have little training in it. I'm Ruri. Hoshino Ruri."

With that she bows.

[Tachikoma beams and returns the bow, happy to make a new friend before speaking up.]

That's okay, most of the history I have are just what is stored in common data files open to the public from where I'm from. Well, not including any historical data we obtained during our operations, but those usually tie into a specific event and not the world history in general.

"Other than scientific and mathematical history my educators didn't find it very important."

That's a rather narrow focus though! History is very important sometimes. You'd be surprise what things you can reasonable predict or better understand in the context of previous historical events!

Though I guess there's nothing much that can be done about it now... On the plus side, it means you can learn all kinds of new things!

"...My teachers weren't good people, and yes, I've picked up some of it but there is only so much time. That and here I'm not sure how much bearing it would have on things."

But new information is new information! Don't you like getting new data?

"It depends on the relevance of the data. New data can take time to properly log and categorize when other more important data needs to be collected."

But data is data and it's always fun to collect even if not needed at the time!

"Your AI roots are showing. I'm not an AI, so I need time to synthesize it into something that stays with me."

Oh, so humans can't easily store and synthesize certain amounts of data?

What about if they have a cyberbrain though? It can record memories and data like a computer, so a human doesn't have to worry about using their actual brain to synthesize it until they might need it?

"Those aren't common on my world, they tend to cause people to have fits of psychosis without the proper conditioning and that conditioning is horribly illegal."

Oh...

Where I'm from, cyberbrains are pretty common. Only undeveloped nations, areas, or the poor don't have it, and it's usually installed when people are quite young.

There are some rare cases where it can cause problems, like Closed Shell Syndrome or Cyberbrain sclerosis, but there's therapies and medicine to help reverse or mitigate that.

"Most people don't want to have machines implanted into them, and the nanomachines that simulate those cause a lot of problems. They can lead to loss of senses and emotions, or to pure insanity. Its causing a lot of problems with the boson jump system as most artificial means of making it safe for people have these terrible problems."

Boson jump? And why do the nanomachines you use cause those problems? Are they more invasive? Most of the ones we use are only to allow a smoother interface between the biological brain and the cyberbrain...

Oh, and there's the nanomachines Japan created that cleans up nuclear fallout.

Well, this person isn't dressed all that much like the natives. Which is to say, probably not at all, really. Maybe apparently being an odd demon (not an angel, despite the wings, right? Would angels have those ears? Or the blue skin? ~~In Atlus games, absolutely, but uh.~~) meant not trying to blend in? It was one thing to need to alter clothes to accommodate wings, but the style was all different, more... robes-like, and hardly very modern at all.

But the person, who probably appears to be about teenager-ish despite all that blue and black coloration and general oddness, is getting a nice big dish of ice cream, covered in whipped cream, some colorful flavor or other, and looking entirely happy to sit right down to eat it. They'd taken a seat pretty much right near the doorway... and the community billboard area, which she'd surely want to post a flier on. After taking that first bite of their ice cream, savoring the flavor while playing with the spoon in their odd three-digit hand (and surely angels wouldn't have hands with fingers so similar to birds' toes, with big nails like that, would they? Those things were half a step away from being talons!) they turn to look out the window, people-watching as they have the dessert. And surely taking notice of Ruri too, if she's in view.

At least they seemed pleasant enough, smiling like that. They must really enjoy ice cream, to be sitting down to such a huge bowlful of it there in the middle of winter, while bundled up with a fluffy cloak sort of coat thing and all, huh?

Ruri wasn't used to seeing demons integrated like that, not that it bothered here, just it struck her as a trifle unusual for this place. Walking over with her usual deadpan she offers a flier.

"If you need any help with your computer issues, I find discrimination to be a bad business practice."

He blinked, giving her a little smile as he accepted the paper, and swallowed the ice cream he had in his mouth before replying.

"Does this include the little ones meant for being worn on one's wrist, as well? I haven't a larger one from a merchant of them, just yet...."

He didn't look to be wearing the watch-like COMP on either of his own wrists, if he actually had one....

"Yes, I know most of the repair procedures for the COMPs as well. Are you one of the visitors?"

He nodded a little, setting his spoon back down in the ice cream's bowl, and reached under his fluffy cloak-like coat thing, to pull his out from somewhere, presumably a pocket. "It isn't so much a repair issue, as merely a question of use. I'm still not at all accustomed to such devices."

Ah, there it was! He pulled the COMP out, opening it, and set it to a text mode, so that the tiny keyboard showed up, its hologram hovering just above the watch's face.

"I realize this is both much a smaller thing than the ones being sold elsewhere, and meant for humans' smaller fingers to begin with... but is there a way to make this any larger? It's not all that convenient to write with, as it is...."

He must be ignorant of the ability to simply try to write in midair, as another method of text entry. Has no one really shown him how to really use and take advantage of this tech yet? Because it seems like it might be the case....

"I can increase the side of the keyboard, but why don't you just try writing into it. I think it can copy most forms of written language and has a passable translation system."

"Writing into it? ....how? I mean-- with what?"

Yep, he's confused. He looks back down to the little COMP again, turning it slightly, looking to see if there's some sort of pen or something that he'd overlooked.

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Johnny Rivers probably should have been hired for the montage music

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