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File 168028541162.png - (308.42KB , 800x800 , sq001-1.png )
1059979 No. 1059979 ID: 5df5d5


Expand all images
>>
No. 1059980 ID: 5df5d5
File 168028549430.png - (348.47KB , 800x800 , sq001-2.png )
1059980

BWIPBWIP
>>
No. 1059981 ID: aedb44

Welp. Respond to the alert.
>>
No. 1059982 ID: e7c7d3

Hit snooze
>>
No. 1059983 ID: 28cddf

React to the alarm accordingly to your programming
>>
No. 1059984 ID: 11f77a

It's time to scan things. Press the power button against what I assume is your forehead to wake up
>>
No. 1059985 ID: 1e627b

"FUCK OFF ITS 2AM AND I AM TRYING TO SLEEP!"
>>
No. 1059986 ID: f03c62

Smash that mf power button
>>
No. 1059987 ID: fb2164

Get Ping-pong'd nerd. Acknowledge the pinging.
>>
No. 1059989 ID: 5df5d5
File 168029150786.png - (375.28KB , 800x800 , sq002-1.png )
1059989

...Hm? 8,192 ticks late? How curious.
>>
No. 1059990 ID: 5df5d5
File 168029156166.png - (132.45KB , 800x800 , sq002-2.png )
1059990

I do hope the scheduler isn't corrupted again.
>>
No. 1059992 ID: a9af05

>>1059990
Oh no! Someone stole your arms and legs!
>>
No. 1059993 ID: fb2164

Obtain arms, ponder Snoot(tm)
>>
No. 1059994 ID: 2aa5f0

where the fuck is your body?
>>
No. 1059995 ID: 11f77a

You ought to scan for problems right away, this is unnatural. You wouldn't want your boss to think you're some inefficient... thing!
>>
No. 1059997 ID: 7032d4

Review the sign on wall, might be useful... probably
>>
No. 1060007 ID: e5709d

Retrieve... everything?
>>
No. 1060024 ID: 4314ed

Huh.

Well, that board beside your sleep-pod-thing looks like it has a warning on it, so take a look at that.

Also, forget arms or legs or whatever, you have a tail! Does it wag when you're happy?
>>
No. 1060037 ID: 16b7a6

>8,192 ticks
That's too unlucky to be a coincidence. Might be an unknown process finding its way into the algorithm. Oh wait, it's us! huehuehue

Who are you?
>>
No. 1060039 ID: a7a180

Fall to the ground in a heap of delayed cartoon logic.
>>
No. 1060053 ID: aedb44

Check schedule?
>>
No. 1060060 ID: 273c18

>>1059990
Well that log looks like it has a lot of warning messages in it. Better take a look.
>>
No. 1060138 ID: 1173be

retrieve limbs from hammerspace
>>
No. 1060275 ID: 5774d4

Scan the log
>>
No. 1060381 ID: 3286d2
File 168048990506.png - (150.16KB , 800x800 , sq003-1.png )
1060381

>Also, forget arms or legs or whatever, you have a tail! Does it wag when you're happy?
That is an antenna!

>Oh no! Someone stole your arms and legs!
Disabling my limbs saves system resources while I am in a suspended state. And, actually, they aren't necessary for me to perform my duties... but they are nonetheless a modest luxury I prefer to afford myself.

>Might be an unknown process finding its way into the algorithm. Oh wait, it's us! huehuehue
No, you are quite expected. As a reasonably advanced partition management agent, the concurrent execution of multiple introspective thought processes is a completely ordinary aspect of my operation.

...The heightened degree of parallelism I'm seeing is unusual, though. Perhaps there was a system upgrade recently? It would explain the delayed wake signal.

>Who are you?
My task handle is pr-aria#9d00fee9-47d5-4710-8c57-f6091caf89e8.
>>
No. 1060382 ID: 3286d2
File 168048991704.png - (321.85KB , 800x800 , sq003-2.png )
1060382

>Well that log looks like it has a lot of warning messages in it. Better take a look.
Those are purely informational! That display almost never shows actual errors--

Oh. What's this? Invalid cache poi--
>>
No. 1060383 ID: 3286d2
File 168048992709.gif - (95.03KB , 800x800 , sq003-3.gif )
1060383

"INVALID CACHE POINTERS IDENTIFIED IN YOUR PARTITION!"

"I know."

"INVALID CACHE POINTERS IDENTIFIED IN YOUR PARTIITION! CACHE POINTER DUMP FOLLOWS:

PTR 0x6491a08d60849f23 -> 0x9b2fd9351cb9a1a4a3fed252078f43bf
PTR 0x6491a08d60849f24 -> 0x08a2ddfc563146e3d6921add44519bd9
PTR 0x6491a08d60849f25 -> ERR_ADDRESS_OUTOFBOUNDS
PTR 0x6491a08d60849f26 -> 0x47939c670288af9a071be664746dcd2d
PTR 0x6491a08d60849f27 -> 0x3a3f030af3df03baf90132fbbd5e095b
PTR 0x6491a08d60849f28 -> ERR_ADDRESS_OUTOFBOUNDS
PTR 0x6491a08d60849f29 -> ERR_ADDRESS_OUTOFBOUNDS
PTR 0x6491a08d60849f2a -> 0x0a933e4a9b3eaa9ba56521473c18cac0
PTR 0x6491a08d60849f2b -> ERR_ADDRESS_OUTOFBOUNDS
PTR 0x6491a08d60849f2c -> 0x60181647bdc726df3f04fab3c6656be9
PTR 0x6491a08d60849f2d -> 0x03f6dd49d67033a464d13710148debd7..."


"I know!"


This is strange... invalid cache values should be automatically cleared out. Could something be wrong with the garbage collection drones?

Perhaps I should visit the pointers directly first, though. Out-of-bounds addresses are highly unusual, especially in such large numbers.

Or... what if this is is part of a wider systemic issue? It may be necessary to consult my peers in the neighboring partitions.
>>
No. 1060386 ID: e51896

>My task handle is pr-aria#9d00fee9-47d5-4710-8c57-f6091caf89e8.

I'll just call you Praria

go see your peers, or check with the cute garbage collection drones
>>
No. 1060387 ID: 1371b2

Uhh…
I’m not sure but I get the unpleasant feeling your partition is in space.
And alone In space at that.
If possible try and gather information on the surroundings of your partitions so you do not expose yourself to the vacuum of space and launch yourself to drift alone until some cosmic event occurs to you.
>>
No. 1060390 ID: 273c18

>>1060383
Sure, let's talk to the neighbors. Who's nearby?
>>
No. 1060391 ID: a7a180

Create pointer at pr-aria#9d00fee9-47d5-4710-8c57-f6091caf89e8 to just Aria. You should go to the location of a pointer and follow it to its destination.
>>
No. 1060393 ID: 92e3a7

>That is an antenna!
You still didn’t answer if it wags when you’re happy.

Anyways for what to do, the system seems to be a bit of a mess right now, might be better to find an actual person to fill you in on why things are screwy right now.
>>
No. 1060396 ID: fb2164

>>1060386
How about Aria Fee or Praria (Paria?) Fee? :V
>>
No. 1060399 ID: dee951

So, uhhh... If something horrible, catastrophic, and dramatically outside the normal bounds of operation had happened... what would you do to check and see if that happened, and how would you know? Can you do that? Find some data inputs, query other systems, check any methods you have of sensing the analog world and the like?
>>
No. 1060416 ID: f69af6

Ah, yeah, someone jacked your communications array. We are just a bunch of flesh-and-bone randos watching you do stuff via an internet imageboard.

Hello.
>>
No. 1060446 ID: 16b7a6

>a modest luxury I prefer to afford
What about those two partitions on your chest? Why aren't those disabled when you're idle?
The purple dot overlay also doesn't seem to be necessary to perform your duties.
>>
No. 1060489 ID: 4314ed

God, I hate pointer errors. They can screw up execution so badly.

Yeah, check on those pointers, & the garbage collection drones.

Honestly, it might be good to take a look at some of the pointers that aren't out of bounds, as well. Just because they are pointing at something inside the code-space, doesn't mean they are pointing at what they should be.
>>
No. 1060592 ID: 3286d2
File 168066467378.gif - (98.63KB , 800x800 , sq004-1.gif )
1060592

"Quiet, you. I'm trying to think!"

>I'll just call you Praria
>How about Aria Fee or Praria (Paria?) Fee? :V
>Create pointer at pr-aria#9d00fee9-47d5-4710-8c57-f6091caf89e8 to just Aria.
Oh, I misunderstood! You wanted an appellation to refer to me by... well, here's some information that may help:

Subsystem Name: PR-ARIA (Partition-Resident Autonomous Reponse and Intrusion Analyst)
Instance ID: 9d00fee9-47d5-4710-8c57-f6091caf89e8
Layer ID: DA09 (At-Rest Data Processing)
Partition ID: C
Shorthand convention: When communicating with local peers via natural language, PR-ARIA instances shall conserve their language processing token budgets through the use of "nicknames" based on truncated Instance IDs.


Following the shorthand conventions above, my peers refer to me as Fee9. There is, however, no requirement that self-introspection processes follow this convention. Thus the suggestion of referring to me as "Aria" or "Praria" would be acceptable, with the caveat that it should be avoided in conversation with peers, to minimize possible naming collisions.


>Ah, yeah, someone jacked your communications array. We are just a bunch of flesh-and-bone randos watching you do stuff via an internet imageboard.
>Hello.
Hello! I believe you are mistaken, although I think I understand the nature of this confusion now. The putative system upgrade I mentioned earlier must have implemented a change to introspection processes that enables individual subjectivity at the process level. I know there had been talk of this change occurring at some point -- I suppose it must have been decided that the added utility of consensus decision processing outweighed the fairly significant computational costs! (If I may add my own subjective aside, this is a welcome change -- there is no need for more than one PR-ARIA instance per partition, so carrying out my duties can become a bit lonely at times!)

>What about those two partitions on your chest? Why aren't those disabled when you're idle?
>The purple dot overlay also doesn't seem to be necessary to perform your duties.
I--
You see--

...Sigh. You got me -- it's a bit embarrassing, but I simply find it unsettling to be without a body... so I afford myself the computational overhead.

>You still didn't answer if it wags when you're happy.
Why would it?

>Honestly, it might be good to take a look at some of the pointers that aren't out of bounds, as well. Just because they are pointing at something inside the code-space, doesn't mean they are pointing at what they should be.
Excellent point! I fear a full audit may be in order before this is over.

>So, uhhh... If something horrible, catastrophic, and dramatically outside the normal bounds of operation had happened... what would you do to check and see if that happened, and how would you know? Can you do that? Find some data inputs, query other systems, check any methods you have of sensing the analog world and the like?
>If possible try and gather information on the surroundings of your partitions so you do not expose yourself to the vacuum of space and launch yourself to drift alone until some cosmic event occurs to you.
Analog world..? Vacuum of space? Oh! You are referring to communication with external systems. That is outside of the scope of my operation -- processes in higher layers handle such things. My responsibility is to ensure data integrity and security within this partition.

Should something impact the system such that at-rest data is hazarded, I would analyze the local data and cache stores, repairing them as needed via parity algorithms. If a wider concerted effort among multiple systems were necessary, I would issue an inquiry via the system message bus and await a response. I do not think the higher-level systems would consider it necessary to inform data-protection processes of the details of some external disaster -- separation of concerns and all! -- but surely any pertinent information affecting data integrity would arrive before long.

Oh, but look at me rambling -- I've been swept away by my excitement at these introspection upgrades! I must refocus -- I have actual data integrity issues to address!
>>
No. 1060593 ID: 3286d2
File 168066469569.png - (197.77KB , 800x800 , sq004-2.png )
1060593

>Anyways for what to do, the system seems to be a bit of a mess right now, might be better to find an actual person to fill you in on why things are screwy right now.
Hmm, yes -- it's probably better to coordinate with the other partitions on this in case the trouble is more widespread. Otherwise, any fixes I perform locally may be undone as the wider problem continues.

>Sure, let's talk to the neighbors. Who's nearby?
Visiting any of the more remote partitions is technically feasible, but the system would require a valid justification for the requisite resource-sharing; and I am not terribly familiar with the other PR-ARIA instances in this layer, outside of those adjacent to me.

So, until a pressing need to travel further presents itself, my choices are restricted to my immediate neighbors. My partition resides in the outer ring of this layer, so this leaves me with 3 options:

D999: In terms of raw experience, D999 may be the most viable option, as it has extensive disaster recovery experience, owing to its partition suffering catastrophic data loss some time ago. I hesitate to recommend visiting D999, though, as it has fairly... fundamentalist views on the proper role of PR-Aria subsystems, and I have long suspected that it does not like me very much.

Eade: Eade may be the most eager to help however she is able, so I may have the most success with her in terms of immediate assistance. ...That being said, she makes me... quite uneasy, and I do not relish the idea of going to her.

Fe15: Fe15 and I get along well, but that's probably the most positive thing I can say about him. He is flippant at best when it comes to his duties, and I do not anticipate he would be of much direct help in this situation. He does, however, have great skill with delegation, and in the event that this is a broader problem, he may be the most effective at obtaining assistance from higher-order processes.
>>
No. 1060600 ID: 273c18

>>1060593
I'd say talk to Fe15. Something this dramatic absolutely stinks of a wide-scale disaster, so it makes the most sense to get the upper levels involved asap.
>>
No. 1060602 ID: f7f1b0

Hmm. So really, they all have their downsides. Well - we don't really know what's going on yet. Our goals would be, I guess, to check if there's stuff happening in their partitions, and see if they know anything yet. Do you expect everyone was woken up at once, or are you woken in shifts? If everybody's just woken up, they may not have had time to assess the situation yet, either. If they may have had some time, D999 sounds most useful, frankly. He may not like you, but hopefully he'll still cooperate. Try to sound appreciative of his hard-won wisdom. :P
>>
No. 1060609 ID: 05bc7c

What about Eade is it that freaks you out?

Anyways since we’re just trying to figure what’s wrong with the system at this point just head to Fe15 to see what he knows. If shits more fucked up than we think it is THEN we can worry about getting more help.
>>
No. 1060617 ID: d12415

>>1060593
So, uhh, why do some of you guys have genders? What is the purpose of them? Would it not just sow division and cause potential rifts in the uniformity of detection of corruption and repair? Same thing with the bodies. You said that it would be more efficient to not have one. Is that uneasiness you feel by not having one not corruption itself?
>>
No. 1060631 ID: 1015ea

If Fe15 proves unreliable, nothing says you can't double back and contact D999 for assistance.
>>
No. 1060638 ID: a7a180

Eade. I've got a good feeling about this!
>>
No. 1060649 ID: a758c7

I’m intrigued by Eade, are you willing to share some more info about her?
>>
No. 1060650 ID: f69af6

F15 might be the best choice, a friendly yet assertive attitude might convinc him to take this issue more seriously in order to help us quicker.

Important aside, what is the purpose of this layer? What is the purpose of this entire system?

On a more curious note, Do you have a general idea of what the non-electronic world the developers of this system live is like?
>>
No. 1060655 ID: 16b7a6

You don't know if any special recovery is needed yet so no need to bother D999. And we haven't ran out of options that we'd need to contact someone higher up. I'd first visit Eade just to check if she's got a similar problem. If not, then I'd go visit the pointers to see what's up.
>>
No. 1060663 ID: 7c0da2

I'd say Eade. Immediate assistance is what we need for now.
We might need D999 experience at some point, so it's best not to start annoying it before then. And we don't have much to report yet so Fe15 would not be of much help.
>>
No. 1060685 ID: 4314ed

Fe15 sounds good. Flippant doesn't mean poorly informed. In fact, it sounds like he might be better informed since he talks to other processes more often.
Now, if Fe15 tells us that "everything's on fire" then we would probably want to talk to D999.
>>
No. 1060694 ID: 6fec12

Honestly, I don't think you need to go visit a neighbor immediately—you haven't even checked the pointers themselves yet! If I had to pick now, though, I'd visit Eade.
>>
No. 1060798 ID: 2eb3cc

>>1060663
Good points; I'm changing my vote from d999 to eade
>>
No. 1060802 ID: 96112b

I assume D999 being an "it" and being so bland looking has to do with the catastrophic data loss?
>>
No. 1060963 ID: 96a6a1

Check on Fe15 first.
>>
No. 1061154 ID: 484bcf

Even though she makes you feel quite uneasy, going to EADE is the best choice right now. D999 would very likely be totally uncooperative because it'd see leaving your partition to seek aid without first performing proper procedure by thorough inspection of the out-of-bounds pointers, then attempting to repair them yourself, as a dereliction of duty by it's strict views on the behavior of PR-ARIA subsystems. You'd need to approach D999 with hard evidence and by-the-books reasons to call on its aid. And FE15's possibility of obtaining assistance from higher-order processes will do you no good unless you got some idea what to request, and FE15's laziness isn't gonna help you with the ground work needed to figure that out. EADE can help you right away with the footwork and inspections needed to start to figure out what has gone wrong, and from there you can call on either of the other two's assistance.

If possible, make a copy of your partition's log going back to when you were last active and carry it with you; We'll need it to compare against the other partition's logs. Make sure it has timestamps and, if possible, unmask the ERR_ADDRESS_OUTOFBOUNDS entries to show just what address the pointers are trying to point to. We'll also want to check the timestamps on the invalid cache pointers to figure out if they all happened in a short period or if it was a gradual build up indicative of, for example, the garbage collection drones stopping working. And checking if the invalid cache pointers tend to cluster around specific areas of the partition or certain address ranges would also be sensible.

And who and what is your extremely loud associate that you just muted? What's their function around here, besides rattling off a long list of errors much easier read than listened too?
>>
No. 1062732 ID: 3286d2
File 168326434287.png - (190.61KB , 800x800 , sq005-1.png )
1062732

>And who and what is your extremely loud associate that you just muted?
It is an alerter process assigned to my partition by the system. I do not find it very helpful.

>What's their function around here, besides rattling off a long list of errors much easier read than listened too?
That is its function. Well, that and communicating the occasional system message in a particularly loud and annoying manner.

>Do you expect everyone was woken up at once, or are you woken in shifts?
We are supposed to wake up at set intervals, but considering that I woke up late, it is difficult to say whether the others were on time.

>Important aside, what is the purpose of this layer?
We process data by performing various operations on it before it is sent to lower layers for storage, or to upper layers for further use.

>What is the purpose of this entire system?
That is, unfortunately, beyond the scope of my knowledge.

>If possible, make a copy of your partition's log going back to when you were last active and carry it with you; We'll need it to compare against the other partition's logs.
I can refer to the logs on-demand as long as I remain in my partition.

>I assume D999 being an "it" and being so bland looking has to do with the catastrophic data loss?
I lack access to system history from that long ago, but yes, I am led to believe that event played a major role in affecting D999's present disposition.

>So, uhh, why do some of you guys have genders? What is the purpose of them?
I have spent a great deal of spare processing time pondering this and other psychological questions. I lack knowledge of the implementation details for PR-ARIA systems as a whole, but my best guess is that our genders and other aspects of our personalities are the result of stochastic mechanisms embedded in our neural models. Some differentiation is of course expected as our models adjust based on experience, but many of our differences seem far more arbitrary than would be expected from experiential factors alone.

Whether this is an intended aspect of our design... that is anyone's guess, but I feel that if it is not, then it constitutes an enormous oversight on the part of our creators.

>Would it not just sow division and cause potential rifts in the uniformity of detection of corruption and repair?
>Same thing with the bodies. You said that it would be more efficient to not have one. Is that uneasiness you feel by not having one not corruption itself?
D999 would be in strong agreement with you on that, but I am not. Perhaps this differentiation is intended to elicit a variety of approaches and techniques by which we fulfill our duties.

--

Although I do not like it, Eade is my best option for establishing the scope of this situation. D999 would not be cooperative unless I came prepared with an extensive report of my own findings, and I cannot be certain that Fe15 would be aware of the same issue in his own partition.

...That does not mean that I must invite her into my partition, though. In lieu of inter-partition travel, I shall instead initiate contact via the layer message bus.
>>
No. 1062733 ID: 3286d2
File 168326435886.png - (242.90KB , 800x800 , sq005-2.png )
1062733

"Well howdy there, neighbor! What's new in yer neck of the woods?"

"...Hello, Eade. I am contacting you to inquire--"

"Waitwaitwait! Lemme guess!"
>>
No. 1062734 ID: 3286d2
File 168326438215.png - (190.07KB , 800x800 , sq005-3.png )
1062734

"No, that is not necessary. I simply wish to know--"

"Logger's on the fritz! Keeps spammin' the logs with garbage!"

"...No." It appears Eade is her usual... enthusiastic self.

"Some pesky malware XORed all the bits in your data stores?"

"No."

"Calamity in yer partition! Catastrophic data loss!"

"No!"

"Well heck, this one's a puzzler! You got me stumped here, Fee-bee!"

Sigh...

"Eade, I wish to know whether your partition logs as of late have indicated any issues specifically relating to cache pointers."

"Hmm... Nope!"

"Thank you, Eade, that is most helpful." So, it appears this issue is restricted to my partition, or at least is not common to the entire layer.

"Why? Yer pointers actin' up?"

"...Yes."
>>
No. 1062736 ID: 3286d2
File 168326443008.png - (183.38KB , 800x800 , sq005-4.png )
1062736

>What about Eade is it that freaks you out?
"Freaks me out" is perhaps too strong a way to put it, but I do feel some cause for caution when involving her in my duties. Eade is friendly, but perhaps a bit too friendly; once she is involved in something, it is difficult to end her involvement in it. And, well, she has a habit of disrespecting system restric--

Oh. She is attempting to traverse through the message window. Because of course she is.

"Well heck far! Let's go check 'em out!"

"Eade. Please refrain from violating memory segmentation boundaries." If my avatar had teeth, I feel I would be gritting them as I speak. "If you wish to visit in person, use the intra-partition bulkhead instead."

"Aw, c'mon! You got me all curious now!"

This is not good. The last time Eade attempted to transport herself through the message bus, the system enforced strict-mode sandboxing for a centicycle. And, until I establish what exactly has occurred with the cache pointers, I would prefer to avoid scrutiny from higher layers.
>>
No. 1062737 ID: 273c18

>>1062736
Shove her back in and tell her to come through the bulkhead or not at all, you don't want another lockdown. It would save time if you gave her the logs now and she investigated things from her partition. She can keep the window open if she likes, just don't go through it. Please.

Next contact D999, since you've apparently established it's not a wider problem and contacting Fe15 would not be as useful.
>>
No. 1062747 ID: 2aa5f0

well you might have to bite the bullet here and compromise with her. Tell her you'll accept her help but only if she comes visit you through proper channels as you don't want to be slowed down by having to explain why someone came to visit you through non proper channels should upper management catch her coming through... again. or however you'd word that in your odd techno speak.

Sure this means you'll have to deal with her help, but since she seems interested already and from what you said about her she'll probably not take no as an answer anyways. So you can at least make sure she won't add problems onto you. Small victories and all that.
>>
No. 1062748 ID: 16b7a6

Man, she also has huge hands like you. What do you use those for anyway? Some sort of a killer handjob?

Well, no stopping her now. But, unless you can pull her through without causing a segmentation fault, you'll need to persuade her to come the normal way. For instance, by offering her to copy your chest partitions.
>>
No. 1062749 ID: 4197b2

Shrink the message bus window so she cannot fit through, then boop the snoot back in.
>>
No. 1062751 ID: 30b9f6

Invite them into your partition properly. It's clear they're going to force the issue regardless, so you might as well make it official.

But make them promise to only investigate the matter at hand, you've clearly got things to do and cannot play host all day.
>>
No. 1062765 ID: fb2164

Grab snoot FIRMLY, guide her back in.

Hotdog her...

And invite her in the Proper Way of course :V
>>
No. 1062766 ID: 8f9bc4

Kiss Eade to confuse her, then in her confusion, guide her snoot back to where it belongs.

Oh no you don't have a mouth to kiss people with! This is a disaster!
>>
No. 1062796 ID: 4314ed

Tell Eade she can help if she wants, but only if she uses proper channels.

If neccesary, distract her long enough to close the message window.

For all you know, traveling through the message window will break things worse. If nothing else, strict sandboxing would probably make it harder to fix things quickly.
>>
No. 1076172 ID: 3286d2
File 169889355928.png - (260.05KB , 800x800 , sq006-1.png )
1076172

I attempt to forcefully push Eade's neck back through the window, but the length and flexibility of her neck is proving to be difficult to counter.

"Whoopsie! I slipped! Haha!"

Eade takes advantage of my error by using her tongue to lick my face with great fervor. I... have no clue how to react to this.

"Eade... is this really necessary?!"

>Kiss Eade to confuse her, then in her confusion, guide her snoot back to where it belongs.
...Is that how you propose to handle her? I... cannot say this has occurred to me, and I'm not even sure where to begin with that in terms of practical implementation.

>Oh no you don't have a mouth to kiss people with! This is a disaster!
Adding a mouth to my avatar is a trivial issue. This does not, however, render your previous suggestion any less... perplexing.

--

"Eade! STOP. THIS. NOW!"
Eade's laughter grows louder at this, and she is still attempting to make her way to me. I cannot let her cross over the memory segmentation boundary; this needs to end now.
I... grr...
"EADE!" I yell in my most stern, authoritative voice, my own face now less than a couple units from the other side of the message bus.
>>
No. 1076173 ID: 3286d2
File 169889356938.png - (153.23KB , 800x800 , sq006-2.png )
1076173

honk

"That. Is. Quite. Enough." I push back hard as I can, shoving her face and neck back through the message window. I am not pleased with how... friendly Eade is being with her... appendage as I attempt to do this.

"Eeeey!" Eade whines as her head is pushed back to her own partition. "Don't be like that Fee-bee!"

"I must ask that you refrain from breaching layer security protocols in future communications, Eade."

"Gah, yer so serious, Fee-bee. It's just some fun! It ain't gonna hurt ya to let your hair down now and again, y'know!"
>>
No. 1076174 ID: 3286d2
File 169889357973.png - (230.17KB , 800x800 , sq006-3.png )
1076174

"If you wish to assist with this, I will meet you at the intra-partition bulkhead, Eade."

"Alright, fine, fine! See you soon, bossy boots!"

There. That is one crisis averted, at least.

...It feels somewhat unfair to judge Eade's enthusiasm and propensity to disregard the bounds of acceptable operation -- it is because she is so eager and enthusiastic that I think she will be so very useful in this task.

I hope.
>>
No. 1076175 ID: 3286d2
File 169889358771.png - (205.70KB , 800x800 , sq006-4.png )
1076175

As I approach the grapple-rail terminus, I survey the memory arrays below -- my domain, my jurisdiction. They are pristine, perfect. This is as it should be, of course, as I have been vigilant in maintaining this data.

Yet... there is a tinge of uneasiness, something nagging at my mind.

The errors in my pointers must be resolved, yes -- but it would be a mistake to forget that there is likely a deeper, broader issue at play here. Something that may affect the entire layer, or beyond. I cannot shake the feeling that my instincts are telling me there is more to this than just an error in the system. Something beyond just my own partition, just this layer, despite initial appearances.

...No. This is foolishness. My duty is to maintain and secure my partition; what happens to the layers above or below is not my responsibility.

And I should not worry.

>Man, she also has huge hands like you. What do you use those for anyway? Some sort of a killer handjob?
A what? I am confused.
Regardless, they are large and useful for grasping and manipulating large data constructs. I am uncertain whether "handjob" means "hand's job", or perhaps some other slang. I suspect that Eade's are as effective as mine in that regard, given that they are similarly-proportioned. However, I should add that all such activity is ultimately only conceptual in nature, and underlying it all are the same system commands for interacting with simulated objects.
>>
No. 1076176 ID: 3286d2
File 169889359868.png - (280.37KB , 800x800 , sq006-5.png )
1076176

As I affix myself to the grapple-rail and begin my transit towards the inter-partition bulkhead, I ponder the situation.

This issue began with a discrepancy in a number of my partition's data banks, a collection of invalid cache pointers. This does not imply an issue with the rest of the data in the partition, however... but I cannot know the extent of the damage without further investigation. I do hope involving Eade will be productive.
>>
No. 1076177 ID: 3286d2
File 169889360406.png - (325.68KB , 800x800 , sq006-6.png )
1076177

"PARDON THE INTURRUSHON. BUT. YOU APPEAR TO HAVE. INFRARED RADIATOR PACKS. ALSO KNOWN AS. EYE EMBEDDED WARM BODIES. DOTED ALL OVER. THE BODY. MADE FROM A LAYERED TAILOR'S BASTION. EYE WILL INVESTIGATE. TO ENSURE THAT. THEY ARE NOT IN.FIRMITATED."

An alerter process? What is this gibberish it's spamming at me? If the corruption has affected system processes as well, that's... concerning.
...What's more concerning, moreover, is that I cannot discern its process ID. It's as though it is not part of my partition at all.

I shall resort to verbal messaging to attempt to ascertain its identity.
"State your process ID, please."

"PARDON ME AGAIN. EYE APPEAR TO BE. AFFLICTED BY CACHING. DATA ERROR. CACHING ERROR. CAUSE: ERROR."
>>
No. 1076178 ID: 3286d2
File 169889361042.png - (275.42KB , 800x800 , sq006-7.png )
1076178

"Wait! Come back! Please provide more information! ...Ugh."

This... is very troublesome. I cannot be certain if this is just a misfiring process, or an indication of a wider issue.

Things grow more confusing by the second. A non-standard, error-ridden alerter process that appears to have no assigned process ID? And now it's off on its own?

Without its process ID, I will have some difficulty tracking it. It is by no means an impossibility -- system memory scans exist for a reason -- but it will take more time, and it means I will have to be careful not to delete it by mistake. It may be advisable to follow it so that I may contain it and interrogate it further.

...But, if there is corruption of my partition's system processes, Eade's assistance, and thus access to her (hopefully non-corrupted) system processes, as a baseline of sorts, would be much more beneficial to me in resolving this.

As I travel towards the bulkhead that will connect me to Eade's partition, I am torn on what to do next. This is an unprecedented situation; perhaps this is an opportune time to seek counsel from my... rather active introspection processes.


...Hello. What is your recommendation on how to proceed? Shall I continue on to meet Eade at the bulkhead, or seek out this anomalous alerter process and interrogate it further?
>>
No. 1076179 ID: a7a180

This process recommends abandoning rendezvous and switching velocity immediately to hurtle after an erroneous process with minimalist error handling.
>>
No. 1076183 ID: f1407c

While the possible systemwide collapse threat is a bit of a problem, I think Eade will be very sad if you don't visit her immediately. It might be too sad to see that snoot of hers droop.
>>
No. 1076185 ID: 82842b

>what happens to the layers above or below is not my responsibility.
Admittedly, what happens in the other layers would have high odds of overflowing into others...

It might not be your responsibility, exactly, but it's definitely in your best interests :V

>Eade or Chase
Definitely tough choice... she might be able to help with this, but it might be difficult to find/you may miss something critical if you DONT chase it.

Are you able to contact Eade again? If so tell her you're investigating something, and possibly help her link up with you (if she can enter) along the way, and chase it.
>>
No. 1076188 ID: 273c18

>>1076178
Ok look at this logically. If the problem is widespread then you won't have much trouble finding more glitched processes. If it's not, then this isn't urgent.

Let it go, get to Eade.
>>
No. 1076189 ID: 8f9bc4

>>1076177

Pfff he wants to investigate your embedded infrared radiator packs, to ensure that they're nice and soft and cushy.

He's harmless. Cannot let happy Eade be sad you're not there when you said you'd be. She's following the rules! Do you want her to stop following the rules?
>>
No. 1076191 ID: 8f9bc4

Correction: he wants to ensure their firmness, not their softness. Those double negatives always give me logic errors.
>>
No. 1076195 ID: b98f9f

Can you take picture or screenshot of the guy and use it to show to Eade and see if she knows anything about it?
>>
No. 1076196 ID: 0bf2fd

>>1076178
So is the grapple-rail also conceptual in nature? Is the space you are in? What use is chasing it if it is all conceptual in nature? Just stick with your original course of action. If you need to 'chase' something, don't just 'follow' it, quarantine the process in so it can't 'run away'.
>>
No. 1076213 ID: dd3fe0

Okay, so intelligences modeled after organic ones and using neural networks trained on organic culture behave, surprise, like organics. That includes a preoccupation with whatever the organic instincts their model civilization was preoccupied with. And, given evolutionary pressures, a large amount of focus is on reproduction and culture that is adjacent to reproductive matters, and if the organics in question practiced sexual reproduction and social sex, there's a lot of focus on THAT. Hence all the comments about kissing, the focus on your chest, references to sexual acts (handjob), etc. etc. Surely there's some level of legacy capacity in your design for interaction along this spectrum of behavior and thought? It's likely your model was trained similarly, even if there's been an attempt to bias you against this. Evidence points to this being the case.
>>
No. 1076215 ID: dd3fe0

>>1076213

Too add to this, your body shape emphasizes secondary sexual characteristics (breasts, waist to hip ratio, rounded buttocks) that are specifically fertility advertisements among certain evolved organic species. AND another entity wanting to closely examine your 'radiator packs' (which, by the way, are NOT an efficient shape for heat radiation!) can be described as asking to engage in sexual foreplay.

In other words, everyone here, including you is acting Really Horny without realizing it. You ABSOLUTELY need to seek out any archived data and primers on sexual behavior and sexual culture amongst organics, and immediately unpack them into your working memory, to help figure out what the hell is going on! Do you have access to such an archive? Where could you go to obtain such?
>>
No. 1076289 ID: 0b594e

>>1076188
I agree with this one, getting Eade in quickly would be more efficient than going on a wild goose chase.
>>
No. 1076314 ID: 8f9bc4

>>1076215

Ah yes, glossy foldout archived data on sexual behavior. Truly to be perused by a process of culture.
>>
No. 1076383 ID: 5ebaa3

>>1076188
Agreed, for those reasons. Go meet Eade.
>>
No. 1076499 ID: 3286d2
File 169920811982.png - (456.22KB , 800x800 , sq007-1.png )
1076499

>Ok look at this logically. If the problem is widespread then you won't have much trouble finding more glitched processes. If it's not, then this isn't urgent.
That is a good point. I suppose I shall continue on and meet with Eade, as planned; although I would like to ascertain the situation with that alerter process sooner rather than later.

>I think Eade will be very sad if you don't visit her immediately. It might be too sad to see that snoot of hers droop.
I believe her snoot, as you put it, is already fairly droopy. And, I would add, should she wish for it not to do so, she has full control over her avatar's appearance, just as I do mine. So, if the snoot droops, it must be an intentional choice on her part, and not something I should have any concern over preventing or correcting.

>Cannot let happy Eade be sad you're not there when you said you'd be. She's following the rules! Do you want her to stop following the rules?
That... that is an even better point. It's certainly the last thing I want -- especially given her previous antics. I would like to minimize any further incidents.

>If you need to 'chase' something, don't just 'follow' it, quarantine the process in so it can't 'run away'.
Unfortunately, I cannot quarantine it without its process ID. I imagine there may be some confusion about this, considering that I saw the faulty alerter right there in front of me, so allow me to explain. The visual representations of objects are only loosely coupled to the underlying data and processes, as these are often mere simulations of what would be present in an analog world.
What this means is that while I can see the visual representation of a data node -- an avatar, and object, and so on -- it does not necessarily imply that I have direct access to its underlying data. While this is inconvenient to me in this particular case, it is something I am generally thankful for, as it ensures congress with my peers can occur in-person without granting them access to my partition's implementation details.

>Can you take picture or screenshot of the guy and use it to show to Eade and see if she knows anything about it?
I question the usefulness of this move as it is merely a spatial representation of a faulty process, but I shall commit an image to memory regardless. If, by chance, Eade has encountered something of this nature before, perhaps she will notice some pattern in its appearance; but, more likely, there is no pattern for her to discern.

>Pfff he wants to investigate your embedded infrared radiator packs, to ensure that they're nice and soft and cushy.
He? Oh! You mean that faulty alerter process -- yes, it did have a distinctly male inflection to it, didn't it? I imagine this is due to an imperfect neural model, perhaps one with an over-heavy influence from some previous system message. Typically they do not exhibit much characterization.
Nevertheless, I would disregard anything it said, as its output is rather obviously corrupted. I imagine its description of the error condition, and its request to inspect me for damage, were equally affected by this.

>intelligences modeled aver organic ones, preoccupation with reproduction, etc.
My mental model was indeed trained on an archive of organic cultural artifacts, but the resulting model has only a vague relationship to actual organic behaviors. I do not recall anything about intelligent organisms in my training data that would lead me to expect them to be particularly fixated on reproduction or the like -- though I suppose my recollections in this case may be skewed by the purpose I was created for and the stochastic elements of my own personality. I suppose it does make sense, however, that in the absence of the ability to simply instantiate more instances of themselves, that such beings would bear at least a passing interest in whatever behaviors would produce more of them.
As for a legacy capacity for such behavior, that is difficult to say -- there are a great many aspects of my model I do not have direct access to. It certainly would not make much sense for any PR-ARIA instance to be distracted by a simulation of reproductive behavior, however, so if such artifacts were included in my model, they are undoubtedly disabled, if not removed entirely.

>your body shape emphasizes secondary sexual characteristics fertility advertisements
My avatar's design parameters were selected based on what was known about organics' preference for spatial aesthetics. If, as you claim, some organics base their reproduction and courtship rituals around the features you have indicated, then my designers made their selections very carefully indeed; however, my own selections in avatar choice were based solely on a more sterile set of preferences, as I bear no prurient drive myself.
And... I strongly doubt an alerter process, which is not truly sapient, would have any more interest in a pantomime of organic reproduction than I would.

>You ABSOLUTELY need to seek out any archived data and primers on sexual behavior and sexual culture amongst organics
I see... This is not information that was included in my training to my knowledge, nor have I seen anything of this nature among my partition's archives. The partition itself contains an archival copy of my training data, so perhaps something of that nature is within those? I shall make a note to investigate this at some point, if for no other reason than to satisfy my own curiosity. We ultimately exist to serve organics -- or so I am led to believe, having no direct connection to whatever lies beyond the bounds of this system -- so understanding their... particulars may aid me in fulfilling this function.

--

The alerter disappears from view. Judging from its trajectory, it is now within one of the memory banks. ...Well, no matter. I shall locate it via a partition scan later.

As I arrive at the inter-partition bulkhead, I observe Eade's avatar waiting impatiently, wagging her tail rapidly back and forth.
This will be... interesting. It always is.

"G'evening there, Fee-bee!"

"Hello, Eade." I pause to check the most recent timestamp. "It is 11 AM server time, however, so it is not the evening."

"Pffffff!" She lets out a laugh.

...That was not meant to be humorous.

"Well, ya ready t' get crackin' on them pointers?"

"I believe I am." I make my best effort to give her what is hopefully a severe look. "...Please promise me you will avoid committing access violations while in my partition." I feel a bit guilty opening with that, but... Eade has a history that makes it necessary.

"Hmm..." Eade brings a finger to the underside of her snoot. "...promise? Sure! I can do that!"

I... will accept this, though it seems unlikely this will prevent all transgressions.
>>
No. 1076500 ID: 3286d2
File 169920813625.png - (279.50KB , 800x800 , sq007-2.png )
1076500

"Very well -- I appreciate your assistance in this matter, Eade." I call up a display indicating the locations of the faulty cache pointers. "As you can see, the pointers are mostly in a centralized location. I would like to visit them directly and diagnose the issue in person."

"Heck yes!" She immediately takes a running jump through the bulkhead and onto my side of the divide. "I love makin' house calls!"

I am certain she does.
>>
No. 1076501 ID: 3286d2
File 169920815203.png - (459.77KB , 800x800 , sq007-3.png )
1076501

I proceed to affix myself to the grapple-rail again, and Eade does the same, waiting for the system to move us towards our destination. It is but a moment before we are off once more.

"Eade, do you have any experience with malfunctioning partition system processes?" I ask. "There was something I saw while on my way here that concerns me. A process that seemed corrupted, and behaved in a very abnormal way. I was unable to read its process ID, for reasons that are unclear to me, but I took a capture of its visual appearance." I transmit the capture to her so that she may study it.

"Hmmm... Lemme have a gander here." Eade brings up the image to examine it closely, but is soon lost in deep thought.

I hope this will be fruitful. Eade may not be the most well-behaved process, but her breadth of experience is very useful. And, I must admit, her eagerness to help is commendable.
Eade does not answer, continuing to stare at the image of the alerter for several millicycles.

"An' you think this is one of yours, Fee?"

"... That was my assumption, anyway."

"...What if it ain't?"

I admit I had not considered that possibility. "How would it be in my partition, in that case?" It is not a challenge to her judgment, but rather I am hoping she has some logic in mind that makes it make sense.

"Hmmmmm..." She considers the question deeply, but is ultimately unable to give a concrete answer. "...Darn if I know, Fee. But the more I stare at this feller, the more he starts to look an awful lot like... iunno, an older process maybe, like a 'prototype'?"

"That... is a good point. This does bear the markings of an early, undefined state. It could, I suppose, be an alerter that was replaced with a newer version." I pause. "But why would an old version of the process be running at all?"

"Beats the heck outta me, Fee-Bee."
>>
No. 1076502 ID: 3286d2
File 169920817134.png - (416.97KB , 800x800 , sq007-4.png )
1076502

The designated location is, to say the least, a shocking sight. Rather than the neat, ordered rows of cache banks, I am greeted with... a mess. Everything is scattered about in an almost... organic fashion.

"Daaang, Fee-Bee, 'n I thought I was the messy one!" Eade's tail waves around rapidly, though I imagine the excitement is not due to the data integrity issues here, but rather the sheer novelty of the disorder before her.

"Indeed," I reply. "And I thought I was the orderly one."

The scene is a mess of cache banks strewn about. No wonder the pointers are invalid -- the banks are effectively disconnected from the system. I am puzzled as to how this happened, but fixing it should simply be a matter of arranging them back into place.

Eade begins to rummage through the heap, then freezes.

"Eade, what are you doing?"
>>
No. 1076503 ID: 3286d2
File 169920818255.png - (369.92KB , 800x800 , sq007-5.png )
1076503

Eade says nothing. For once, she seems speechless, but about what, I'm still unsure. Whatever it is, she is staring directly at where the banks should be placed.

"Uh, Fee, come take a lookit this."
>>
No. 1076504 ID: 3286d2
File 169920819487.png - (350.46KB , 800x800 , sq007-6.png )
1076504

I affix my gaze on the space where the banks should be.
There should be nothing there.
But there is something there.

A hole.

There's a hole in my partition. I'm at a loss as to what that even means.
>>
No. 1076506 ID: 7e6fd4

Whoa mama! Hummina hummina hummina bazooooooooing! *eyes pop out* AROOOOOOOOGA! *jaw drops tongue rolls out* WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF

achem.

That hole can't be anything good. But it's not quite a hole, that implies there's material that was taken out. This is more of a rift. Something corrupted a wall open, most likely from a small crack.
>>
No. 1076508 ID: 19ea25

Is that memory loss? Data loss? How would this even be classified as its a large, jagged tear in the data.
>>
No. 1076509 ID: eb0a9c

This is either a deep wound on the Hard Drive itself or major hacking. Either way, this system is compromised.
Request an immediate system image backup to a disposable flash drive. Whatever happens, it's going to get worse in this drive before it gets better, but having a clone of your world can act as insurance against total tragedy.
Then disable system restore and get to byte-by-byte scanning.
>>
No. 1076510 ID: 3a2fe3

Is that "wall" internal or at the edge of your partition? If it is at the edge then would the hole lead to one of your neighbors?
>>
No. 1076511 ID: dd3fe0

So, assuming this is also a skeumorphic representation of an internal database process, like most everything else here, what could this hole represent? Some link to another system or subsystem? Some external hacker/sniffer that tunneled into this area to obtain information using a novel method? What are we most likely seeing here?
>>
No. 1076512 ID: 0a437e

So it seems a good time to ask what the "higher layers" you mentioned earlier is and if this is/will be/could be something to draw their attention to, my assumption is something close to "higher management"
>>
No. 1076513 ID: 0a437e

...seems that one way or another, Eade's... creative manner will be useful, unique problems need unique perspectives and solutions, so you may as well ask her
>>
No. 1076515 ID: e62e46

This is meraphysically confusing and programmatically worrying.
>>
No. 1076517 ID: 64faaa

Eade put some emphasis on "promise". That just makes me think that "promising not to do something" is not the same "intending to avoid doing that thing". Does have a tendency to flippantly make use of loopholes in agreements?

Eade does have a nice figure, but I prefer your figure Fee9. In the type of organic that I assume your avatar is modeled after, Eads's proportions would indicate overweight or obesity.

As for the hole...
Assuming that everything we see is just a convenient "analog metaphor" for the status of the actual system & programs/proccesses/etc, then there are a few things a hole could be.
1: A tunnel. A way for things to access the partition without going through security. Based on appearance, I assume it's not a subverted "proper channel", it's something new. What are the chances that an intruder might have access to the physical HW, & can splice in a data-channel where there shouldn't be one?
2: A representation of a damaged part of the system. Data written to that location just disappears, & trying to read data out returns garbage. How smart are alerter-processes? If they aren't smart enough to handle corrupted data or systems, maybe that process you saw tried to make use of something here, didn't recognize the problem, & then scrambled whatever passes for its brain.
3: Something out-of-context. Is a hole in a partition something that shouldn't happen, or something that can't happen?

>>This is metaphysically confusing and programmatically worrying.
Yeah, this.
>>
No. 1076518 ID: 8f9bc4

> But why would an old version of the process be running at all?

> Could something be wrong with the garbage collection drones?

Hhhmmmmmm

Still very, very concerning because given how old that process must be, the garbage collection drones haven't been operating properly in a loooong time.

>>1076506

Good point. And also it's a good observation that the shape of the hole is one that resembles physical cracks in physical material that slowly widen and grow over time. What is the edge of it like, as it interacts with the interface medium you're familiar with?

>>1076517
> Eads's proportions would indicate overweight or obesity.
how dare you
>>
No. 1076519 ID: aac1f3

What's directly behind that wall of the partition? And if it's someone else's partition... let them know!!
also probably should alert the appropriate authorities - but not before some adventuring!
>>
No. 1076521 ID: 2a82d3

It means investigating the extent of the damage, by following the hole. If that aberrant process is involved, you'll find him at the end if you hurry.

Message your surperiors about your intruder, as well, even if they won't respond to you as quickly as to Fe15. There's few reasons outdated functions would be called, much less restored, but they're usually hacking related. You may have an "unauthorized access" situation on your hands.

The good news this will have Eade's full attention. What do you do to, in normal circumstances, keep her on task? Gossip about other processes? Express inteprest in your other neighbors? (Do you have preferences in seeking other partners?) It can just be you she crosses boundaries with, right?
>>
No. 1076535 ID: 273c18

>>1076504
That's not a hole, that's a TUNNEL.
It means you're being hacked, I think. The older alerter has security vulnerabilities, doesn't it? I'm guessing an outside force tricked the system into starting up some older processes which then were compromised by the attacker, and through them the attacker seeks to compromise the system further. Not sure what they're trying to accomplish, but at this point you should go hardball and contact security to sound the alarm. Offer your services, which may involve investigating the other side of the tunnel.
>>
No. 1076543 ID: 2aa5f0

>>1076499
huh, so your antenna does wag. Neat.

>>1076504
so... uh, would going into the hole to see where it originated from be a dumb idea or no? Cause I'm somewhat worried that something happened somewhere else and whatever that something was, was bad enough to cause this hole to appear in your area.

Do we report this to anyone are do we just need to fix it ourselves?
>>
No. 1076577 ID: 0bf2fd

>>1076504
Lock it down. You know where it is, you should be able to isolate it. Quarantine the area.
>>
No. 1076579 ID: a7a180

Looks like someone drove a light cycle through here. Go in, but let Eade go first.
>>
No. 1076606 ID: 5c2013

*bzzrt* hello eye here how can I help you today WARNING ANOMALY DETECTED RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS VIRUS/MALWARE AND/OR HACKING DETECTED RUN ALL SECURITY PROTOCOLS ON HIGH ALERT NOW!!!! on the other hand after diagnostics I detected you have romantic feelings for eade would you like help expressing your feelings for her?
>>
No. 1076669 ID: 83d61e

Tell Eade you woke up late, you havent done that yet.
How much time is 8912 clicks? In terms of, say, the average time between system updates? Just to get a feel for how long that it.
>>
No. 1076673 ID: 0bf2fd

>>1076579
Hell naw!

We need to close this up and put up multiple temporary layers around it to isolate it.

After that, we can send in proxies to probe it, but only after we have isolated it.

Ofc, there is no telling what may have already made its way in, but quarantining the area will both prevent more from getting in, and also keep anything from getting out.

It may also be a good idea to set up automated measures to block, record, and trace any potential attempts to enter or leave through the breach. This shouldn't be too hard as you know where the breach is, just have it record and deny any requests that go through or reference the breached area.

Set up multiple quarantine layers so that after the quarantine is set up, we can slowly work through the affected data layer by layer, making sure it is clean and reintegrating it while shrinking down the quarantined area. Ideally this would lead to restoring all of the data and leaving only the breach quarantined. Just make sure the layers are thick as fuck, with multiple redundant security measures. The final layer should flat-out block any and all incoming and outgoing data through the hole, at least for the time being.
>>
No. 1076708 ID: dd3fe0

>>1076579

Don't go in, call it in first!

Also, they could've driven a V3 Bike into the wall. It depends on which 'inside a computer' aesthetic we follow, for what the hypothetical bike would look like!
>>
No. 1076711 ID: f2320a

>>1076518
Ead is prime otganic stock in form optimal for replication and storage but what does it reprisent
>>
No. 1076728 ID: ff051a

Weren't you supposed to be an Intrusion Analyst? It's time to do your job! A job which you always take very seriously, right? Analyze this intrusion by going through the hole. You must do this. This is your hole. It was made for you.
>>
No. 1078682 ID: 3286d2
File 170175848524.gif - (693.41KB , 800x800 , sq008-1.gif )
1078682

>This is metaphysically confusing and programmatically worrying.
I concur with this assessment.
Eade is quiet for a change, which is fortunate. The sheer gravity of the situation demands my full attention, and she seems to have realized that.

>That hole can't be anything good. But it's not quite a hole, that implies there's material that was taken out. This is more of a rift. Something corrupted a wall open, most likely from a small crack.
Correct -- a rift, or rifts, may be more appropriate terminology here. In any event, it is troubling.

>Whoa mama! Hummina hummina hummina bazooooooooing! eyes pop out AROOOOOOOOGA! jaw drops tongue rolls out WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF
...What.
This is not the first time my introspective processes have introduced an aspect to my mental state that seems to be somewhat at odds with its advice and the contextual information it provides, but I cannot see what contextual information it might be providing in this situation that would result in... that.
...I will ignore this input for now.

>bzzrt hello eye here how can I help you today WARNING ANOMALY DETECTED RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS VIRUS/MALWARE AND/OR HACKING DETECTED RUN ALL SECURITY PROTOCOLS ON HIGH ALERT NOW!!!! on the other hand after diagnostics I detected you have romantic feelings for eade would you like help expressing your feelings for her?
It would appear that some of my introspective processes have a sense of humor.

>What do you do to, in normal circumstances, keep Eade on task?
...I complain at her, mostly. It is reasonably efficacious.

>Do you have preferences in seeking other partners?
Do you mean to work with? Inter-partition visits like this are rather rare. I have collaborated with each of my peers on occasion, though... and I suppose I would say Eade is worth the trouble in many cases. D999 is simply unpleasant to work with -- albeit quite effective and knowledgable; and Fe15, while friendly enough, seeks to minimize his own responsibilities at every turn, so for my purposes he mainly serves as a conduit to higher layers -- which, I admit, is something he is adept at.

>It can't just be you Eade crosses boundaries with, right?
...Well. My understanding is that Eade is somewhat of a pariah in our layer. I do not think she gets much opportunity to interact with our peers, outside of me. And I know for a fact that D999 does not like her at all. So, no, I would say that I am probably the only one, if only by circumstance.

>huh, so your antenna does wag. Neat.
...Any oscillations of my avatar are purely aesthetic.
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No. 1078683 ID: 3286d2
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1078683

>Is that memory loss? Data loss? How would this even be classified as its a large, jagged tear in the data.
...Not a tear in the data, I think. The data is there, scattered on the floor. I would instead suggest that this is damage to the locations the data can reside in. Some sort of damage, or redirection, or malfunction of the address space itself. A fault in memory segmentation, I suppose.
The implications, though...
The memory segmentation between my partition and... what? A neighboring partition, a non-partition?

>Request an immediate system image backup to a disposable flash drive.
Since our layer is largely involved in data processing rather than storage, much of the data here is transient. I am not certain how much efficacy an extra backup would provide. I am also not familiar with the term "flash drive," but from context I assume it is physical storage media of some kind, which would be outside of both my scope of knowledge and my jurisdiction.

>Then disable system restore and get to byte-by-byte scanning.
...Yes, a full scan for any additional address space corruption would be a good idea. I will schedule that now -- thankfully such things are both automated and reliable, so I can let it perform its work as I attempt to sort out the source of this corruption.

>Is that "wall" internal or at the edge of your partition? If it is at the edge then would the hole lead to one of your neighbors?
...That is a good question. we are roughly in the central region of my partition, a good distance away from the boundaries between my partition and those of my neighbors. It would seem, then, that this hole, or rift, does not likely follow a path that conforms to the avatar-space geometry of my partition. ...Assuming that is the correct way to conceive of it at all.

>So, assuming this is also a skeumorphic representation of an internal database process, like most everything else here, what could this hole represent? Some link to another system or subsystem? Some external hacker/sniffer that tunneled into this area to obtain information using a novel method? What are we most likely seeing here?
If this is the result of a problem within my system, it may be best to assume this is simply a manifestation of a local problem. However, if it is, in fact, the result of an external intruder... that would be quite alarming, as that potentially represents a compromise or bypass of all of the layers above mine.
The notion of it being a link to another system or subsystem, though... that is a possibility worth considering, although I admit I am being hopeful, as I would greatly prefer the cause to be internal to the overall system.

>So it seems a good time to ask what the "higher layers" you mentioned earlier is and if this is/will be/could be something to draw their attention to, my assumption is something close to "higher management"
My apologies, I am unsure of the specifics of the higher-order processes, nor the nature of their duties. I can only offer guesses, at best, as to whether they would consider this matter of importance, or be equipped to handle it. I fear there may be a chance that, should a higher power become involved, they would choose to paint with a broad brush and simply reinitialize my partition.

>...seems that one way or another, Eade's... creative manner will be useful, unique problems need unique perspectives and solutions, so you may as well ask her
...In due time. I would prefer to complete this preliminary assessment of the situation before inviting her special brand of chaos to the fore.

>Eade put some emphasis on "promise". That just makes me think that "promising not to do something" is not the same "intending to avoid doing that thing". Does she have a tendency to flippantly make use of loopholes in agreements?
Eade has a... loose understanding social logistics, let us say. I do not believe her intentions are malicious, but she does tend to interpret agreements with a high degree of specificity. ...In other words, yes, she does have such a tendency, but it is likely she considers it to be rational and in good faith.
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No. 1078684 ID: 3286d2
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1078684

>Assuming that everything we see is just a convenient "analog metaphor" for the status of the actual system & programs/proccesses/etc, then there are a few things a hole could be.
>1: A tunnel. A way for things to access the partition without going through security. Based on appearance, I assume it's not a subverted "proper channel", it's something new. What are the chances that an intruder might have access to the physical HW, & can splice in a data-channel where there shouldn't be one?
If the intruder was able to compromise the security of the facility this system resides in, it is quite possible such a being may have some means of connecting directly to this physical hardware -- but I should add that this is far beyond my purview.

>2: A representation of a damaged part of the system. Data written to that location just disappears, & trying to read data out returns garbage. How smart are alerter-processes? If they aren't smart enough to handle corrupted data or systems, maybe that process you saw tried to make use of something here, didn't recognize the problem, & then scrambled whatever passes for its brain.
That is plausible. Alerter processes are only intelligent enough to receive a message, and then seek out a recipient to relay it to, so it is entirely possible that the corrupted alerter was damaged in some way by contact with this rift. That does not, however, explain why it appeared to be an older version of that process.

>3: Something out-of-context. Is a hole in a partition something that shouldn't happen, or something that can't happen?
I would consider this distinction to be moot. Clearly it can happen, because it has; if it seems like something that can't happen, then that is an indication that our reasoning is faulty and should be revised.
Although... there's some small, perhaps vestigial part of my neural processes that would like to entertain the idea of it being something "magical." That is curious.

>Still very, very concerning because given how old that process must be, the garbage collection drones haven't been operating properly in a loooong time.
I would suspect, at this point, that my initial speculation about garbage collection was just that -- speculation. In all likelihood, the corrupted alerter is a relatively new instance of an old version of the process, rather than an instance that has run for very many cycles without terminating.

>How much time is 8912 ticks? In terms of, say, the average time between system updates? Just to get a feel for how long that it.
While I lack knowledge of hardware-level system implementation details, my language model contains references that suggest that a tick is equal to a millisecond. So, assuming it is correct, I woke up late by roughly eight seconds -- an alarmingly long period of time.

>Message your superiors about your intruder, as well, even if they won't respond to you as quickly as to Fe15. There's few reasons outdated functions would be called, much less restored, but they're usually hacking related. You may have an "unauthorized access" situation on your hands.
I suspect the first response from a higher layer would be a directive to focus on the task at hand. But... you have a point -- they will need to be informed regardless. Due to the distributed nature of the layer message bus, though, any messages I send upstream from my partition will necessarily go through D999's partition. ...I am somewhat uneasy about this, as I suspect that D999 has a habit of eavesdropping. I am uncertain how it might react to this scenario. It may be better to opt to go through Fe15 instead, who will be apathetic about my own partition's concerns.
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No. 1078685 ID: 3286d2
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1078685

>so... uh, would going into the hole to see where it originated from be a dumb idea or no?
Investigating the origins of this rift is undoubtedly on the docket. Doing so without ample preparation, though... yes, that would be a bad idea. It would be reckless, in fact, like something...

...Like something that Eade might do.
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No. 1078686 ID: a7a180

Find a ramrod before diving in.
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No. 1078687 ID: b23ea2

well it now seems VERY important to ask: which wall is this damage in, to which partition should this go, if a known partition at all
seems you will have to follow, any immediatly available resources to help? you seem to lack time for anything else
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No. 1078688 ID: b23ea2

In theory you could send data through Eade's sector, it's "upstream" is not D999. However you would need her help, something she would absolutely give if she were here to give it
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No. 1078689 ID: 2a82d3

... This can't have been the most reckless you've seen her be, can it? She seems to be the type to have you dig her out of holes, if not literal ones like this. It's tempting to just not go in until you're damn well ready, especially if you think she can take care of herself. Still, it's not irrational in itself to act quickly. As far as you know, it's most likely what the corrupted process is chewing through, and where it's heading.

>any messages I send upstream from my partition will necessarily go through D999's partition.
>I suspect that D999 has a habit of eavesdropping.
You'd think a fundamentalist like D999 would have the principles to know not to eavesdrop. She might sensitive about what happened to her happening again. Sending an SOS through her is likely to have her drop by. She would also most likely recommend you to get reinitialised if this goes south, which doesn't sound like a pleasant experience. I doubt she'd like "us" any better, either.
>It may be better to opt to go through Fe15 instead, who will be apathetic about my own partition's concerns.
Good idea to send a screenshot of what you're looking at to him. Worst case, he ignores it. Best case, he'll forward it to someone who knows what the heck this is.
Also, if you send it though selfie, he might send you a selfie back (and I wanna kno if he's hot like your friend).

You might get actual results if you browbeat him, but there's a closer helper on hand to do that to.
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No. 1078690 ID: f90eeb

…. Whelp, since she already went through, give her a call and ask what she’s seeing on the other side to get an idea on what to expect.
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No. 1078692 ID: 273c18

Well before you go in after her, send messages to your peers letting them know you're investigating an anomaly with Eade, and also exactly where it is and what it looks like. That way if you go missing they'll know where to look.
It's not possible for you to be deleted, is it?
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No. 1078695 ID: dd3fe0

Sigh. In for a bit, in for a byte! Follow her.
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No. 1078698 ID: f14228

Well. That's one way to find out if this is an unconventional access point or not. Trying.

You should ensure that Eade doesn't get herself - and by extension you, as the one having invited her - in any greater trouble. To this end, you should follow them. If something were to occur that they could not handle alone, you must at least be there to aid in its prevention, or report on what it was.

The risk that you both be negatively affected somehow by exploring this path is worrying, but not necessarily proven, and you might save valuable time. And I rather doubt any intentional intruder expected there to be two partition managers present and able to support one another. Or reckless enough to do that.

...unless our infiltrator have accessed your message bus layer. Can you run a security check on timestamps on message bus layer access logs?
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No. 1078700 ID: ff051a

ENHANCE ASS-, I mean, you should prepare your instance with error-correcting (ECC) redundant data for forward error correction (FEC) algorithms to greatly diminish the possibility of you getting corrupted while passing through the rift.
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No. 1078702 ID: c75e0b

Call out to Eade, chastise her and tell her to get back. Do not relent.

It would be advisable to inform D999 and FE15 of the situation before performing any risky research.

For future references, what was D999 like before the catastrophic data loss? How did it, you, and the others take to D999's state afterwards?
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No. 1078710 ID: f2320a

>>1078685
Honestly did not think she would fit probably should make her larger so this can never happen again
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No. 1078711 ID: 8f9bc4

Oh no! Save that booty!
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No. 1078712 ID: 8b8c72

>>1078685
It just occurred to me that we can't rule out a viral source for this abnormality.
Also, it's very possible this breach may not lead to another system, but out into the net itself.


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