[A flashing status icon followed by a question mark.
Those familiar with mirror!Rinzler would recognize this as a "how is everyone?" post.]
((ooc: HRBGLRHB. MAYBE LJ WILL LET ME EDIT THIS POST THIS TIME.
Rinzler is affected. Mirror!Rinzler is a network ghost who keeps mostly to himself and leaves cryptic photo comments on things, except when it
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How extensive is the damage?" Vasilia asked quietly, as soon as she'd slipped in and determined that they were alone.
She could never see the results of Toshiko's brutal modifications without remembering with some despair the death of Jander Parnel-- her father's second humaniform, driven to mental freeze-out by Amadiro's graceless attempt to back-engineer her father's design by interrogation. As that had been a crystalizing moment in her understanding that the science of Robotics must be supported with an ethics of Robotics, so too was Rinzler's abuse a reminder that no compromise was possible with the Wardens.
She held out a gloved hand, containing a data disk; on it, a grid-compliant encryption code of some sophistication-- it should protect his vital function and his base code. If it worked!
"It's based on a flash of inspiration I had on Solaria-- modified for your programming platform. Perhaps the switch from Auroran-typical code will make it hard for foreign systems to detect, and break. The next iteration, I hope, will include a temporary buffer that will allow you to quarantine the more grievous of her changes. I am afraid to implement it, though; if the code malfunctions it could hurt you," she said, her face twisting with worry. "As ever-- the encryption will dissolve if tampered with. She will hopefully never know. I have done my best but there are no guarantees. She has a brilliant mind." It was deeply saddening, how Toshiko's genius was warped-- and that genius was a threat to Rinzler every time Vasilia tampered. She dared not implement any protection so strong that the warden notice, for the punishment bestowed upon her friend would be debilitating.
She would take the punishment herself-- she had suffered and died here, her weak immune system leaving her open to frequent infection that she dared not ask treatment for. But Rinzler-- vulnerable down to the code, her friend, so like her dear absent Giskard-- she would never do anything to bring him to harm.
[OOC: Ffff it was not good enough and I started to feel horrible about it so have a different one lawl AND THEN IT POSTED HALF COMPLETED and just flail and this one is crap too but agh]
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He lifted his head as Vasilia approached, the usual engine-at-idle thrum of the growl that accompanied him everywhere smoothing out into something more welcoming on recognizing his friend. Her familiar concern was welcome as well, even if that first question brought him up against a hard choice.
One that the Program had been sitting here in the garden brooding over while waiting for her to arrive. Ultimately, it was Vasilia's worry that decided him as she described the purpose of her latest code--something that he listened to with rapt interest. She was someone he'd trusted with his sanity time and again; she deserved to know what had happened between him and the...other version of Toshiko that was now on the Barge.
"She has a brilliant mind." It was true; and Rinzler nodded sadly to that, reaching back over his shoulder to retrieve his ID disc. He keyed it into display mode, then offered it to Vasilia in exchange for the data disk she held out to him.
The code that poured upward from Rinzler's disc might have been almost unrecognizable for the fact it wasn't damaged any longer.
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"Rinzler, I don't understand. Did you do this? How? It's-- oh, you're thoroughly beautiful." She brought a gloved hand to her mouth. Seeing his code, uninjured-- without deliberate bugs, without subroutines corrupted-- she'd never seen him so healthy, so himself. "Who? How?"
[it's cool! Thought you had hit bed, not sure what time zone you are in. <3 ]
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Producing his communicator, he fanned out a set of images across the screen with the brush of one hand: Toshiko, Heero, Bruce Banner, a handful of other Inmates and Wardens who'd abruptly changed in the wake of the violent disturbance of the Barge that "wasn't a flood". There was a pattern to it, his silent display implied.
He picked out the image of Toshiko, then, banishing the others and pulling it up to take up the full screen. This one was newly taken, and seemed...different, if the question marks Rinzler had attached to it were not enough. This version of the Torchwood hacker hadn't been marked by cruelty the same way the version they knew had.
"She did," the Program breathed, voice barely above a whisper. He could hardly believe it himself, even now, but she had fixed it.
((ooc: pacific! and i do admit my bedtime is totally erratic and terribles. ;_;))
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"I cannot even thank her without risking her safety." Vasilia said, with deep regret. "But it explains the strangeness on the network. Mozenrath, do you have him-? He is not himself. He is... healthy. I understand now, that was the difference I saw."
She took a deep breath. "This ...absence of flood. Who knows how long it will last. Can we help her while it is sustained, this Toshiko? We must protect those who don't understand our barge, warden and inmate alike."
[OMG no wai I am also pacific happy dance. SO RARE THAT PEOPLE ARE NOT IN BED THREE HOURS BEFORE ME.]
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Because it's Vasilia, he found it easier to use real words instead of symbols to communicate. He pulled up a picture of Rhade from the communicator's memory, typing out a careful caption: «Some of them seem to remember this place. Rhade is making his plans still. The best help might be escape.»
((ooc: hooray! yeah it seems like everyone on the game is either east coast or further. ;; RARE INDEED.))
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Her mouth pulled into a line. Something about young Holmes raised the hairs on the back of her neck, and her carefully-won supply of anti-anxiety medication had begun to disappear almost as soon as she had been sorted to him.
"He knows something of programming but is hindered by his timeline. Positronic logic is still unknown to him. But he is fond of mysteries."
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