...

[failedpromise]

Who:Cortana
Username:Chosewell
Warnings:Loss of time, mental fuckery, discussion of AI rampancy (so like, terminal illness and dementia type stuff).

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(No translation or explanation is offered. In fact, any attempts to contact Cortana at all will not be replied to for at least an hour, and anyone who goes looking for her will find that she's not in her room at Bonnie's or at her desk in the ADI building.)

Comments

un: badgirlcoven | text (1/2)

[edalyn]

uh are u good blue

fall asleep at your keyboard or something?

text (2/2)

[edalyn]

[Even if Eda hadn't picked up the imagery of this being something tech related from pop culture, she's also done at least a little digging into trying to understand what Cortana is in the past.

That, and googling wtf do ones and zeros mean gets a pretty quick answer.

The most frustrating part is getting her phone to paste the whole thing into one of the many translators she found. All in all, her next response shows up about half an hour later.

And she's worried.]

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[failedpromise]

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(She might not realize she's talking in binary.)

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[edalyn]

[And Cortana not seeming to realise the way she's communicating makes Eda even more worried.]

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[It's a guess at best, but that particular word catches her attention as something she'd heard recently somewhere else. And, well, she'd actually suggested Cortana acquiring some of Steel's money Nia, before the trip.]

[failedpromise]

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(Yeah... it might be harder to convince her of what's going on than it should be.)

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[text] un: cupkate

[bossyboiler]

Cortana, please respond. Most of us don't speak binary.

[failedpromise]

(It will be at least an hour before she gets a response.)

...I don't remember posting this.

[bossyboiler]

That's not good. What's the last thing you remember?

[failedpromise]

I was examining the source code for HAL, the software used by Copernicus prosthetics. It appears to cause a milder version of what he did to people's brains: overwhelming them with information.

[bossyboiler]

By yourself? Was that wise of you Cortana?

[failedpromise]

I figured if I was going to find anything it was going to be a hostile AI, not ...this.

[bossyboiler]

You could have been seriously hurt. Maybe the next time you try something like this, have a buddy with you? It would be safer.

[failedpromise]

(I can do it myself, she doesn't say, because Kate is right. Kate is not only right, her words are coming from a place of genuine concern for her wellbeing and not just avoiding the possibility of a rampant, homicidal AI.)

I'll talk to IT about my concerns before opening up suspicious source code next time. I'd figured it'd be safe since I wasn't actually running it, but that's clearly not the case.

Action

[worthallthis]

Winter can recognize binary, even if he has no idea how to translate it. He checks her tracker. He visits her apartment. She's fuckin' left her tracker there.

He starts searching Bonnie's flophouse for her, then the surrounding streets, in wider and wider circles.

[failedpromise]

It'll take some time to find her and when he does she's looking confused but otherwise unharmed. She'll spot him only moments after he notices her and wave before heading in his direction.

"Hey Winter. Everything alright?"

[worthallthis]

Not hard to spot him at all, because as soon as he realizes that's her, he breaks into a jog in her direction. "You left your tracker in your room," he says, which is not really an explanation. Thankfully he continues, "After leaving a really weird message on the network. I was worried."

[failedpromise]

She blinks, startled. "What?" She's already reaching for her phone, and when she puts in her password the app-and her post-is the first thing to show up on the screen.

"Oh Hell." Her tone is dismayed and exasperated in equal measure.

[worthallthis]

"Yeah," Winter agrees, though some of his alarm is fading now that she seems okay. And lucid. And not, like, beeping in binary or something. He's still watching her with some concern, though. "You feel normal again?"

[failedpromise]

She puts her hand to her forehead with a sigh.

"Other than embarrassment? I feel fine. Should probably get a checkup, though."

[worthallthis]

"You don't need to be embarrassed. It's entity shit. Nobody knows how that's gonna affect anybody," Winter says, shaking his head. "I can walk you there. Or back to your place."

[failedpromise]

"Somehow, knowing that doesn't help." Especially considering she should have known looking at that data was a risk. She did know that looking at it was a risk.

Still, she smiles at Winter. "Sure."

[worthallthis]

He turns, then, and offers her his arm like an actual gallant gentleman. He's plenty sure she can walk on her own, but it seems-- nice to do. Almost whimsical, but he's serious, too. "Pretty sure ADI will still let me on their grounds to get you there."

[failedpromise]

A gentleman, huh? She smiles up at him before taking the offered arm. "They better."

[text, un: rue]

[ruevealing]

Cortana? Are you unwell, my friend?

[failedpromise]

I don't remember posting this if that answers your question.

But I'm fairly certain I know what caused this, so I'll report it to ADI and avoid it in the future.

[ruevealing]

Cortana, my friend, I am very sorry that this happened to you.

But my question still stands. Are you alright? I care about you.

[failedpromise]

I'm alright. Just a little embarassed.

Sorry for worrying you.

[ruevealing]

I only worry because you are my friend and you have often come to my aid when it was needed. You have nothing to apologize for.

Just please, if I can help you in anyway, let me know. There are so few of us left in ADI, we must support one another through this.

[failedpromise]

Other than the aforementioned reporting and avoiding, I'm not sure there's much that can be done, but thanks.

text | un: SGR

[punched_hitler]

[Steve can't understand any of this, but he still can't help thinking uncomfortably of certain conversations they've had.]

Cortana, can you answer me in English?

[failedpromise]

(Over an hour later.)

I'm alright, Steve.

[punched_hitler]

[Oh, thank god. He was really getting worried.]

Good.

That was a lot of ones and zeroes.

[Is he trying to be funny? Or actually clueless? Who knows.]

Where are you?

[failedpromise]

I'm actually in the process of heading back to Bonnie's. I'd gotten confused and wandered off, but Winter found me.

[punched_hitler]

Oh, good. Maybe stay with him. Is he making that worried face at you?

[Steve bets he is. As he should be! This is worrying, Cortana.]

[failedpromise]

He is, actually.

Don't worry, I'm not going to run off.

(She's doing her best to hide her own concern here.)

[punched_hitler]

Good. It means he cares.

We care.

Good.

Let me know if I can help. With anything. I mean it.

[failedpromise]

Thanks. That means a lot, actually.

(It means more than he'll likely ever know.)

[byeeeeeeeee]

[That is a lot of ones and zeros with no explanation. It could be some kind of code, and he spends far too long trying to figure it out before just asking the source.]

Do the numbers mean something?

[failedpromise]

(The response comes nearly an hour later.)

It's binary. A sort of code where numbers represent the electrical charges that form a computer's thoughts.

Apparently the software I was working on had some entity influence and made it hard to communicate.

[byeeeeeeeee]

[He's not even going to pretend to understand what any of that means.]

r U okay now?

[failedpromise]

Yeah. I'll be fine. Sorry if I worried you.

text; un: imwithgenius

[energyfieldgood]

[So while this is going down, Rodney's a little preoccupied not getting killed in Dogtown. Again. Which is why it takes him a while to see this but eventually he does when catching up on the network.

Huh.]

Provided you are well again and I don't have to keep translating binary in my head, do you want me to run a diagnostics?

[failedpromise]

I think I'm okay.

(She's not super into having someone she isn't really familiar with looking at her coding.)

I'll be making a report to Nia about this--someone should probably know that the software behind a major medical technology is tied to what I'm pretty sure is the Vast.