Vigil VII: Strife Amidst the Clouds

[Vahnavoi]

[Eun's lab]

The girl shakes her head. "That memory is long gone."

[Ironsmith]

[Eun's Lab]

Eun frowns. Something about Illuminator's bluntness and lack of follow-up made that statement surprisingly chilling. "And I'm guessing you don't know why they built you, either." She adds. She decides to take another look at that connector; she's tinkered with putting up a rudimentary communications device on it already, but maybe a closer examination would yield some kind of insight as to what it was originally meant to connect to.

[Vahnavoi]

[Eun's lab]

"I was made to communicate with humans. I was also made to give light to them", the girl replies, "but why I was made to do either is lost. Maybe a human was lost in the dark." She shrugs.

[Ironsmith]

[Eun's Lab]

Eun assumes she's speaking figuratively. Otherwise, this is the most hilariously overbuilt flashlight she's ever seen.

Although, that does present an intriguing possibility. Illuminator is pretty obviously a true AI; a full-on intelligence running on a machine. It was clearly designed with self-replication as a possibility, and seems to be capable of learning at an extremely fast rate. Perhaps this was some society's attempt at kicking off the Singularity. It would also neatly explain why she was decommissioned; if she made another, better model, which in turn went on to improve upon itself, eventually she'd end up obsolete, just taking up space.

Eun shakes her head. An intriguing possibility, but one for which she had relatively little evidence. She should stick to the facts for now.

And since those were in short supply, she'd have to turn to experimentation. First thing's first; limitations.

"...I'll be right back. I just need to grab a few things." Eun stands and steps out of the room.

She returns with some electronics; a pair of cell phones (one of which had its wireless components removed), a graphing calculator, a toy pager (with no communication abilities) and a digital watch.

"Okay. I've brought in some devices. I want you to try to interface with them." She types and says, lining them up in a row. She leaves out the details of how many of these devices there are; part of the test is to see if Illuminator can discover them on her own.

[Vahnavoi]

[Eun's lab]

The girl on the screen looks confused. "Interface with them how?"

[Ironsmith]

[Eun's Lab]

"A simple ping will suffice." Eun replies simply. "But I'd like to see as in-depth a connection as you can manage. There are limitations to the processor I've given you; I'm curious to see if you can overcome them."

[Vahnavoi]

[Eun's lab]

"Okay. I'll do my best."

In order for the virtual machine to interface with the simpler physical devices, Eun has to plug them to the burner laptop. After that, it's a familiar process. If she takes a peek at the cellular automaton level again, she can see the machine is carrying out similar operations as when she first tried to tamper with it through the connector.

In the physics simulation, the girl walks to one of the room wall and taps it. Four floating square panels detach from it and spread around her. As the machine pings the devices, replications of their digital user interfaces start appearing on the panels. The first to complete is the digital watch. The girl stares at digital numbers on the panel, then pokes some simulated knobs on the panel to shift through the watch's functions. "This seems to be a time-keeping device. I guess it shows what time it is outside? Not very complex." She gestures at the panel and it floats away, embedding itself back in the wall. The time display remains visible.

Next to complete is the graphic calculator. Or, well, a layout of the calculator's buttons with no symbols on them. The girl pokes the buttons, first at random, then more thoughtfully, occasionally looking at her new time display. One by one, the buttons become adorned with familiar glyphs. "This seems like a computing device. Much niftier. Oh, I think it can draw things? In the world outside? See this?" She inputs some instructions on the calculator, and the physical calculator prints a Fibonacci spiral.

Third is the pager. The girl mostly stares at in confusion. "I don't think this works", she finally says. She pokes the panel a few times, before sending it back into the wall. "If I read its glyphs right, it's a communication device, but it doesn't really communicate? How useless."

Last panel eventually turns into a copy of the phone's graphical user interface. The girl starts going through the menus one by one, growing visibly more excited. "Oh, this is a more complex communicating device. And a computer. Lots of things can be done with it. Oh, what's this?"

Outside the simulation, the gutted phone starts throwing up all kinds of notices about an uknown device wanting permission for this and that, until it finally end up... playing tetris. The simulated girl found a game program embedded in the phone software and got distracted.

[Ironsmith]

[Eun's Lab]

Eun stifles a giggle at that last one. She might be dealing with a supercomputer here, but something about finding a simple game and getting distracted by it was still very human.

Of course, that's not all she's gleaned from this experiment. Apparently, Illuminator still needs the usual connections to interface with other machines... with the right platform, that could make it safe to bring additional equipment in, or better yet, move her out of isolation. She's missing a lot of useful data and it'd be handy to let her integrate it through experience.

Illuminator can also apparently gather intent from basic circuitry. While Eun can understand her picking up on the phone's function quickly (there'd be a lot of developers' notes tucked away in various system files), the watch and pager wouldn't actually contain the data saying what they are. The watch would just appear to be an incremental counter, and the pager little more than a dressed-up soundboard. This would amount to a small mystery, but not anything overly dangerous. At present, Eun just takes it as a sign of abnormal intelligence.

"...Okay, I've got one more for you." Eun hooks up the machine to a little disc-shaped robot, sort of like a roomba with a holographic projector attached. "This should be a little more interesting than even the phone. I can't make any promises, but I'll be talking with my superiors about letting you out of the lab. I want you to get used to what your chasis will likely be if we do."

[Vahnavoi]

[Eun's lab]

From prior information, Eun already knows the reason why the machine can recognize a human is because it was made to communicate with humans, and has some in-built schemas of what humans are. A similar trait may explain why it can recognize the watch as a time-keeping device, for example. The machine has its own incremental counter for keeping track of time, on some level the watch is comparable to that.

That may also explain its current human-like behaviour. The machine was made to act in concert with a human mind. It is currently using information Eun gave it to simulate a human for a similar purpose. If Eun had plugged in these devices at the start, before giving the machine as much to work with, it might have just terminated communications with them on the grounds of them not being living, thinking beings.

When Eun plugs in the "roomba", the girl on the screen stops playing tetris and calls forth a fifth slate. "Ah? This is some kind of a moving device? It wants me to give it instructions, but it's not as simple as the other devices. This may take some time. I have to get used to its language. It's not quite the same as yours."

[Ironsmith]

[Eun's Lab]

"Um... okay, yeah. Take your time."

Illuminator will find that the drone's system architecture is surprisingly similar to her own. There are relatively few outputs to consider; the holographic system is autonomous, running physics simulations on its own so the main processor only has to handle behind-the-scenes behavioral coding. The primary processor also uses a parallel structure that makes it very friendly to Illuminator's brand of AI, custom-made to handle a cellular automaton.

The input range, on the other hand, is phenomenal. The robot uses a panoramic camera that would give Illuminator a full 360 degree view of things going on around her, overshooting both ends of the visible light spectrum. Concealed gimbles give topographical data in a similar range, and can be adjusted to give spectrometer data instead, functioning as an all-purpose scanner of sorts. And the microphone picks up infra- and ultrasound, with a degree of sensitivity about twice that of the human ear.

Eun really wants her to be able to take in the world around her.

[Vahnavoi]

[Eun's lab]

After examining the small robot's controls for a while, the girl on the screen breaks one of the slates and builds a copy of the robot nside her simulated environment. Between, apparently, drawing or writing code for the robot on one of the slates, she occassionally sits down and just uses the slate to drive the robot copy around the room, as if playing with a radio controlled toy car or such.

"It's a nice chassis. Not what I would've thought to make myself, but it will suffice. I think I can copy my entire structure on it. You can then shut down this copy of me if you want. I'm not sure there will be anything left for me to do, which cannot be done better by a new copy inside this chassis. It will take a few hours for the new copy to grow, plus few more hours so I can teach it everything you've taught me. I think, next time you've gone to sleep and woken up, it'll be done."

[Ironsmith]

[Lab Wing]

It's been a quiet day for Vigil's science department. The past tense being entirely intentional, of course, because as of ten seconds ago, it stopped being so quiet.

The cause of this ruckus is a chase in the hallway, led by a small feline bolting as quickly down the hall as she can manage. She's a little grey tabby, juvenile, probably somewhere around eight months old; large for a kitten, small for an adult. She only stops the chase long enough to shake off her loose-fitting radio collar, leaving her bare-necked and nearly untrackable if she manages to get away, which she intends to do.

At the other end of the hall, running as quickly as he can manage, is a lab tech. Unfortunately, he is very out of shape, and he would have difficulty catching up to another human, much less a more nimble housecat. Doubly unfortunate, he needs to catch this one; if she gets free, the resulting containment breach would be... well, it'd probably be enough to get him fired.

"Somebody catch that cat!" He calls ahead, audibly winded.

[Eun's lab]

After examining the small robot's controls for a while, the girl on the screen breaks one of the slates and builds a copy of the robot nside her simulated environment. Between, apparently, drawing or writing code for the robot on one of the slates, she occassionally sits down and just uses the slate to drive the robot copy around the room, as if playing with a radio controlled toy car or such.

"It's a nice chassis. Not what I would've thought to make myself, but it will suffice. I think I can copy my entire structure on it. You can then shut down this copy of me if you want. I'm not sure there will be anything left for me to do, which cannot be done better by a new copy inside this chassis. It will take a few hours for the new copy to grow, plus few more hours so I can teach it everything you've taught me. I think, next time you've gone to sleep and woken up, it'll be done."

[Eun's Lab]

Eun smiles. "That sounds like I should go, then. I don't want to distract you." Illuminator might be a supercomputer, but she's conscious. Distraction was definitely a possibility, as shown by the fact that Tetris held her attention.

"...But before I do, could you tap into the camera feeds? I think you should see what you're getting into. You know, literally."

[Shadowcaller]

[Lab Wing]

Anika taps the little goblin wrist device that Geneva had given her. Was it supposed to make that sound? She was pretty sure it wasn't.

Also there was that huge dent in it. Probably a bad sign too.

She sigh, the dent was hardly new but now that she had nothing else to do-

But her train of thought is suddenly interrupted by the CALL FOR AID!

Her gaze snaps in the direction of the call and she spots the 'cat'. She can't help but to be disappointed that it was one of those pygmy-cats humans liked so much. But all cats behaved similarly, right?
She raises her hand as she stands in the felines way. "Cat, stop!" She commands while trying to look it in the eyes. Her backup plan was of course treats.

[Ironsmith]

[Lab Wing]

The cat seems to have mistaken Anika for a rare species of purple tree. As evidenced by the fact that she's now climbing up her leg, reaching the far side of her waist in about two seconds, at which point she leaps off and continues her frantic run down the hall. She is not gentle with this process, but Anika's probably dealt with more savage clawings in the past.

That lab tech has now stopped entirely, leaning against the wall to catch his breath. "Oh man oh man oh man the doc's gonna kill me..."

[Shadowcaller]

[Lab Wing]

Alright, pygme cat. You wanted to play it rough?

Anika attempts to punch the cat as it starts to climb on her, before it can make its escape.

[Ironsmith]

[Lab Wing]

What do you get when you cross a large, angry night-elf with a nasty haymaker?

Less gore than one would expect, apparently.

The cat slams into the ground with a sickening crack, letting out a yowl as it makes contact. She tries to stand up again, but quickly drops onto her side, her legs laying at awkward angles, visibly swelling near the ankles. She looks up at Anika and lets out a pitiful nyaaaaat, clearly in quite a bit of pain.

The lab tech walks up and scoops up the injured kitty in his arms, offering some reassuring shushes. "Thanks for that." He says to Anika, surprisingly sincerely given what he just witnessed. "Odo here could have caused an epidemic if we lost track of her. I'll have to get her back into containment right away."

[Vahnavoi]

[Eun's lab]

"Okay." The little robot next to the computer beeps and its holoprojector starts up. It projects an image of the girl's head. It flickers and goes through several size adjustments, the hologram's eyes wandering as it's trying to calibrate for what the cameras are showing to the intelligence controlling it. After a few seconds, the image stabilizes, the head floating around Eun's eye level, the cameras of the the robot focusing on her. "Oh, so that is how you look like. You're a bit on the pale side. Have you been getting enough rest and nourishment lately?" The hologram turns and the robot's cameras fix on the burner laptop and the attached processor bank. "So that's how I look at the moment. Huh. I thought I would be more... round. But I suppose, you make do with what you got."

[Shadowcaller]

[Lab Wing]

Anika wasn't trying to punch that hard!

Heck, she didn't even expect to hit that tiny pygmy-cat.
But considering what this... dude just said it was a good thing that she did apparently.

"Uh, no problem, dude." A beat as it takes her a moment to realize that she actually did recognize that word. "...an epidemic of what?"

[Ironsmith]

[Eun's lab]

"Okay." The little robot next to the computer beeps and its holoprojector starts up. It projects an image of the girl's head. It flickers and goes through several size adjustments, the hologram's eyes wandering as it's trying to calibrate for what the cameras are showing to the intelligence controlling it. After a few seconds, the image stabilizes, the head floating around Eun's eye level, the cameras of the the robot focusing on her. "Oh, so that is how you look like. You're a bit on the pale side. Have you been getting enough rest and nourishment lately?" The hologram turns and the robot's cameras fix on the burner laptop and the attached processor bank. "So that's how I look at the moment. Huh. I thought I would be more... round. But I suppose, you make do with what you got."

[Eun's Lab]

"Ugh. You sound just like my mother." Eun grumbles. "'Ach! Euuuun, ya ned ta tayke betteh cae uv yeeself, yer goin' to drop at fifteh the wae yer carryin' on!'" She sighs and gives Illuminator a little smile as she looks at her own body and finds out that she, too, is not as rounded as she expected. "But in any case, I don't get to say this unironically very often, so... welcome to reality."

Eun steps back from the projector, spreading her arms in an attempt at a dramatic gesture. Unfortunately, as Illuminator pointed out, she's not eaten or slept nearly as much as she should, and she severely overestimates her sense of balance. As a result, she ends up stumbling backward, stopping at the wall and leaning against it for support. "...Maybe you have a point." She concedes.

[Lab Wing]

Anika wasn't trying to punch that hard!

Heck, she didn't even expect to hit that tiny pygmy-cat.
But considering what this... dude just said it was a good thing that she did apparently.

"Uh, no problem, dude." A beat as it takes her a moment to realize that she actually did recognize that word. "...an epidemic of what?"

[Lab Wing]

"Well... of them." The lab tech replies, foisting the animal in his arms. "They breed quite explosively, see. She has no natural enemies, doesn't age, and doesn't have the same nutritional requirements as we do, nor does she require a mate to reproduce, so their numbers would continue to grow exponentially. Had Odo gotten away, within a month, we could expect to see eleven full-grown offspring from her. In two months, we'd see nearly a hundred and fifty total. Three months, seventeen hundred. By the end of six months, nearly three million." He strokes the cat's ears gently, eliciting a contented purr from her. "My lab's been experimenting with reducing their fertility. Aside from their reproductive issues, they make excellent pets, you understand." He chuckles and playfully boops the cat on her nose, getting his fingertip licked in response. "Adorable little cognimorph, isn't she?"

[Vahnavoi]

[Eun's lab]

"Be careful. This chassis is too small to be of much help if you fall down and hurt yourself." The holographic girl looks around. "There is something odd about this room. Familiar, but odd. Is it some kind of a containment unit, folded into itself?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Lab Wing]

Anika tilts her head in confusion. "Why would VIGIL want to make a bunch of pets?" She prods, and they were so tiny too!

[Ironsmith]

[Eun's lab]

"Be careful. This chassis is too small to be of much help if you fall down and hurt yourself." The holographic girl looks around. "There is something odd about this room. Familiar, but odd. Is it some kind of a containment unit, folded into itself?"

[Eun's Lab]

"That's exactly what it is." Eun replies, standing back up straight. "You're in my lab, which is isolated from the rest of VIGIL. I wanted to be sure you would be safe to have around other machines before I exposed you to any." She makes her way back over to the computer, typing and talking. "This room is a sort of four-dimensional construct, achieved with the use of an irrational spatial contortion... it occupies a space that would normally be another world, but isn't. Does that make sense?"

[Lab Wing]

Anika tilts her head in confusion. "Why would VIGIL want to make a bunch of pets?" She prods, and they were so tiny too!

[Lab Wing]

"That would be self-evident." The lab tech replies, the sabre-toothed kitten purring in his hands. "We already know that caring for a pet tends to help alleviate some forms of anxiety, as well as depression that comes from prolonged isolation. These creatures are particularly good at it; they're low-maintenance and very affectionate." He smiles as the cat yawns and stretches in his arms. "Once we have a variant that's safe for the layman, we can start introducing them to shut-ins as a way of bettering their quality of life. It's not the most glamorous form of public service, but Odo here is going to work wonders." He shrugs. "And even where they're not strictly needed, it's completely understandable to still want one, I think."

[UncleWolf]

Spoiler

Show

Safe Room
"Uh," These people seem intense... Is that a skull? Sekhmet feels a little out of her depth. "Uh, it's just, uh, that I'm, uh, newly, uh, new to being, uh, a queen, uh, of demons." She stutters. She doesn't look particularly queenly. Mostly she just looks nervous.

Safe Room

Sekhmet must decorate everything with skulls now. It's a rule when you become a daemon demon queen.

Cessie arrives soon afterwards, giving the trunk and its contents a skeptical look. Was Jezebel planning to fight demons or help Sekhmet here?
"Right, so as I explained, Lady Sekhmet could use help with her governorship of... her domain." 'Hell' sounded a bit too dramatic.
She walks to up the newly made demon queen and gives her a nod. "And I understand this is stressful for you, but I promise that we just want to help. So take all this at your own pace. If you need some time for yourself there's a restroom just down the hall." Cessie gestures towards the door. "What I figured we could though do was you explaining what governing your domain involves and then Jezebel showing how she might be able to help with that. Do you feel ready for that? We can always wait if you don't. I imagine that you're feeling quite overwhelmed right now."

[Safe Room]

Wenomir is silent. He really has nothing to add. This is a topic he's happy to be ignorant about. Fighting demons is something he knows well. Ruling demons? Don't even ask.

Safe Room

Jezebel stops what she's doing and takes a moment to get down on a knee in front of Sekhmet with an easy smile to offer her hand. The kneeling isn't out of respect for office, but out of concern and comfort. "Do not fear, we will help you in any way you need it." She says gently. "Finding yourself ruling a domain of demons would certainly be a new experience, not to mention if you're new to being nobility and demon both. Are both new to you?" She asks. "Under the presumption of such, I have brought several tools and tomes that might be able to impart some degree of knowledge on daemonology, daemonyms should they be applicable, and many on basic high class etiquette if you aren't accustomed to it." Should Sekhmet take her hand, Jezebel will give it a reassuring squeeze with both of her own before letting go and getting back to her feet. "Though if you're not acclimated to either one of them, before advice and teaching, the first thing would be to get you looking and feeling like you belong in the role. I can most certainly attest to the fact that most nobility, much less royalty, likely don't know most of what they're doing. They're usually just very very good at looking like it." She adds with a small laugh and a grin.

Her daemonhost just shakes his head at her joke and gives a sigh. "She may sound like she is joking, but I do suggesting heeding at least some of my Mistress' advice. We may be unfamiliar with the circle or domain you'll be in charge of, but there are certain expectations that tend to be expected of those who rule in any realm, much less one of demonic influence." Juan hesitates for a moment, not quite sure what to say for a brief second before inclining his head gently towards Sekhmet. "If I may ask, My Lady..." He actually addresses Sekhmet as such now, giving respect to her new title and power. "If it is not too much, could you tell us the reason for your sudden ascension to this role? Was this unexpected?"

[Vahnavoi]

[Eun's lab]

"That "vigil" thing does not make sense. I do not know what that is. I presume they are a group you work with. This room does make sense. I think I've been in a room like this before. Well, a copy of me was. I think I even drew a simplified picture of it to you." She's referring to the 16-cell the machine drew. That would be congruent with Codebreaker's story of where he found the artefact on which "Illuminator" is based on.

[Shadowcaller]

[Lab Wing]

Self-evident?
Anika thought VIGIL was all about fighting evil, not inventing new pets!
"Uh, okay."

A beat.

"But they at least become larger once they're full grown, right? So they can defend their owners from threats I mean."

[Ironsmith]

[Eun's lab]

"That "vigil" thing does not make sense. I do not know what that is. I presume they are a group you work with. This room does make sense. I think I've been in a room like this before. Well, a copy of me was. I think I even drew a simplified picture of it to you." She's referring to the 16-cell the machine drew. That would be congruent with Codebreaker's story of where he found the artefact on which "Illuminator" is based on.

[Eun's Lab]

Too bad Eun never heard that story. She'll just have to take the supercomputer's word for it.

"Is that what that was?" Eun asks, genuinely surprised by the news. She pulls up the glyph in question again and looks it over. "...Well, okay, yeah, I can sort of see it, but wow that's obtuse." She shrugs. "But yeah, that's correct, otherwise. VIGIL is indeed the name of the organization I work for." She gives an awkward thumbs-up, then goes to stand. "Well, I should let you get to it. I'll be back in... a few hours, I'm not entirely sure how many. At least as long as it takes to talk to my boss about letting you out of the lab entirely." She smiles and goes to the door. "I guess what I'm saying is, don't go anywhere."

[Lab Wing]

Self-evident?
Anika thought VIGIL was all about fighting evil, not inventing new pets!
"Uh, okay."

A beat.

"But they at least become larger once they're full grown, right? So they can defend their owners from threats I mean."

[Lab Wing]

"Well... no." The tech clears his throat awkwardly. "There's been a token inquiry into their applications as guard animals; again, they have low maintenance costs, and they are intelligent enough to train. But it's quickly become clear that they just don't have the disposition."

As if to punctuate this statement, the cat rubs her head against the lab tech's chest, purring contentedly, before going on to start cleaning her paws.

"Fortunately, my superior doesn't see that as an obstacle. With the number of evil entities that feed on emotions like despair and fear in the Nexus, we've been able to keep the project alive as a sort of attempt at keeping morale up. It should be much harder for such creatures to gain a foothold when there's a cognimorph dedicated to making you happy in every house."

"Unfortunately, compared to things that fight evil more directly, we're... sort of low priority. And therefore low budget. Hence suboptimal containment, and... you get the idea. If Odo here accidentally made any trouble, the project's plug would be pulled entirely." He lets out a little sigh, only to immediately have his face gently bapped by the cat in his arms, earning a reluctant chuckle. "I've been considering bringing Odo down to GLoG as a backup plan, but again, containment is an issue. You know, with them being as fecund as they are."

[bc56]

Safe Room
"I've, uh, been both my entire life, but, uh, living in exile, uh, hasn't really given me any practice." Sekhmet sighs. "My mother, uh, died, so I, uh, inherited her kingdom. I, uh, didn't think it was possible, so, uh... Yes, it was, uh, unexpected." Immortal nigh-invulnerable beings do not die often.

[Shadowcaller]

[Lab Wing]

"Yeah, this totally seem more like glog's thing." Anika agrees. "Don't glog do any kind of research themselves? Like some sort of..." What was glog known for? She had only really seen them once and there was a shaman, a shotgun wielding psychopat- no, psychologist. She always got those two mixed up. Then there was the centaur dude. Dhomhall. That was his name, right? Something like it at least. "...psychology research?"

Safe Room

"In Sekhmet's case I believe she couldn't resign even if she wanted to, isn't that right?" Cessie inquires. She guessed that would likely cause another monster ending up as a leader.

[Ironsmith]

[Lab Wing]

"So I've been told." The tech confirms. "But either way, taking Odo down there now invites disaster. If there's an outbreak here at VIGIL, at least they're contained to the base, since they can't fly. If the same thing happens at GLoG..." He gives a little "ooh", as if the prospect caused him physical pain. "I haven't managed to get in touch with any of the higher-ups yet, bu-mmmmmmph! When did you get so heavy, girl?"

It's not just his imagination. The cat's put on a few pounds in the time they've been talking, and grown a couple of inches, too. Her top-front fangs are more prominent, too, producing the distinct sabre-toothed look Anika might have noticed settling in earlier. She's still completely docile, however.

[Shadowcaller]

[Lab Wing]

Anika tilts her head as she looks at the cat. "Won't they just reproduce at the same rate inside the lab? if they just- uh, clone themselves or whatever." She had no idea how these pets were even supposed to breed but she assumed it was just magical cloning. Hopefully these mad goblin-mages had a way to turn that off other than killing the pygmy cats.