NETWORK post, backdated to the 15th

[failedpromise]

Who: Cortana
Username: Chosewell
Warnings: Cybersecurity bullshit, high likeliness for supernaturally fueled paranoia

Just a little PSA:

If you're getting weird, hurtful, or distressing messages from you friends, don't panic. No one's account has been hijacked, and no one is secretly plotting against you.

Someone is spoofing accounts, however. For those of you who didn't pay attention in cybersecurities class, that means someone can make it seem as though they're someone else. Anyone else.

Unfortunately, whoever it is is really good at hiding their identity, so I don't actually know who the real culprit is yet.

(Says the AI who impersonated Manji for laughs, to a bunch of people who are supernaturally predisposed to paranoia right now.

...This isn't gonna be disastrous at all.)

Comments

un: supertemp; text

[thedoctorsmate]

Is there any way to identify the messages that are coming in from the spoofed accounts vs. what's real?
And are we sure it's, like... an actual person?
I'm wondering if it's not just some weird supernatural effect thing.
Or that bug lady avatar?
Didn't meet her, but she sounded bloody awful.

[failedpromise]

Not at a glance, no. I'd suggest confirming anything that seems weird or unusual directly with the individual in question.

As for the rest of the questions ...it seems like there's a person behind it but I can't actually confirm anything.

Bug lady?

cw: mention of amputation, mold

[thedoctorsmate]

This is why we need some sort of guide.
It happened before I got here, but there was some vlogger girl who ended up being an avatar for the Corruption.
She got into ADI's computer systems and caused some sort of problem.
Mold from playing a mobile game?
Charlene in accounts was telling me about it.
The HR lady, Pam, had to have her hand chopped off because of it.

[failedpromise]

That explains Pam's interest in cybersecurity.

(Or rather, why she nearly cried when Cortana pointed out how easily she could hack accounts, but Cortana doesn't say that. Though she is curious if Donna ever figured out that it was her who hacked Manji.)

You know, I'm starting to think that it's for the best that I can't just automatically connect to computer systems here.

(Sure, no conventional virus is likely to harm her, but mold? What is she going to do against that?

...Just not going to think about her experiences with a certain asshole talking fungus.)

[thedoctorsmate]

Oh, god, yeah... if there's creepy supernatural stuff in the wires?
Dunno how that'd affect you.
Have you noticed anything off with those signal creatures that are still hanging about?

Private/locked to Donna

[failedpromise]

If I told you that it turns out the advancements that make me more clever than other Smart AI should have also increased my operational lifespan and the reason they didn't is at least partially because of the interference of the closest thing my universe has to "creepy supernatural stuff"?

(It could be really bad, is what she's saying.)

Those? Getting too close resulted in my audio output being hijacked-it didn't hurt me, though it wouldn't have sounded like it to anyone nearby.

perma-private

[thedoctorsmate]

I'd say that's bonkers, but par for the course around here.
So, wait, does that mean these creepy supernatural things are creeping on you here?

[She'll come back to the signal creatures and what they might be doing to Cortana, but the first part seems important to address first.]

[failedpromise]

Other than fueling my hard light avatar, no.

I'd prefer to keep it that way.

[thedoctorsmate]

I wonder if there's a way to power you without them.
Or, I guess you might already be looking into that?

[failedpromise]

I am, actually.

[thedoctorsmate]

Yeah?
Any luck on that front?

[failedpromise]

Some. It seems like the best solution would be to permanently transfer myself to a robot body.

[thedoctorsmate]

[Donna's brows rise.]

That seems like it might a bit of trouble with how complex you are and how... limited tech can be.
I mean, I'm not saying it's impossible.
But if we're working on human tech and not alien...

[failedpromise]

I am technically Human tech, you know.

(She's been heavily exposed and altered by alien technology but that doesn't make her any less Human... does it?)

I get what you're saying, though. I'll be testing the possibility with less advanced bodies before I actually try any sort of permanent solution.

[thedoctorsmate]

Right, I'm just worried you're going to wind up stuck in a roomba, or something.
Nothing wrong with a roomba, but it's not the most versatile thing.
No thumbs.
Can't do stairs...

[failedpromise]

I don't think that's likely unless I actively chose to be stuck in a roomba. I'm designed to transfer between systems, remember?

(It's a horrifying thought, being trapped and helpless again. Living in a data chip as a hologram had been like a prison, she doesn't ever want to go back to that.)

[thedoctorsmate]

Well, yeah, but if this is supposed to break you off from the Entity, what if you just get stuck in the first thing you transfer into?
Not trying to scare you.
I'm worried, is all.
Is there some way that you'll sort of... know when the switch flips and the Entity isn't leeching on you anymore?

[failedpromise]

Well, I know what it feels like when an entity is using me to feed. So I'm guessing it'll be an absence of that.

...I've actually transferred between systems here before.

[thedoctorsmate]

Have you?
How does that feel?
Is it like, I dunno, getting into a car and just traveling somewhere for you?

[failedpromise]

More like becoming the car and traveling somewhere, though the vehicles here aren't actually advanced enough to host me. ADI doesn't approve, so I haven't done it much, but it does save time when hacking.

[thedoctorsmate]

Yeah, I can imagine if you're just inside the computer.
I got trapped in a computer once for a while.
It was nice.
I mean, up until it wasn't.
Saved me from getting eaten by horrible shadow aliens, though.

[failedpromise]

Nice, huh?

You sure you don't mean confining?

(She much prefers being outside the computer over being inside of it.)

Something tells me there's a story here.

[thedoctorsmate]

Definitely a story.
But it didn't feel confining for most of it.
Not until I noticed I was actually in a computer.
Didn't realize it at first.
In my universe, there's a place called The Library.
It's one massive planet that's a repository for every book that's ever been made.
At least up to a certain point.
There was a problem that happened.
They used the wrong trees to make the books and these shadow aliens called the vashta nerada got in, infested the whole place.
The Doctor called them piranhas of the air.
Don't suppose you've got anything like that where you're from?

[failedpromise]

Can't say I've ever heard anything about airborne piranhas.

So where exactly does being inside a computer come into all this?

[thedoctorsmate]

The Doctor's ship, the TARDIS, brought us to the Library.
I got separated from him and the rest of the group we found there.
To stop the vashta nerada from eating me, the consciousness running the library used a sort of teleportation beam.
It put my mind into the database, built a whole little life for me there with a husband and family.
There wasn't any harm meant by it.
The consciousness in the computer was a little girl who'd been really sick.
Her family had built her the library and uploaded her to the machine something like a hundred years ago.
To save everyone who'd been in the Library the day the vashta nerada hatched, she did the same for them.
Put us all in there and slowly started coming apart as she tried to keep everything going.
Preserving our consciousnesses until the Library was safe to return us.