001 [TEXT] [LOCKED TO NEW HIRES ONLY]

[pathkin]

[The screens of the New Hires flicker with a text message. The image of a starburst briefly flashes on the screen, alone in an empty sky.]


[The screen that pops up changes the way the network interface usually looks. It makes it a bit more surreptitious, so that pencilneck looking over their shoulders would think they're using an innocuous data entry program. There's also a panic button in the corner that they can hit to shut their connection down early.]

[The program makes their comms connection even slower, since the network's already running at terrible speed, but at least it's discreet. And resources have been devoted to at least making the panic button shut down fast if they need it.]

[The post is a text post, and where the posters name should be it says: ┖⍟ϗϵ⸈₮αℜ]

Evening, ladies and gents and variations thereupon, the name's Lonestar.

None of us have all day and I'm not the type for melodrama about how big brother's eyes are watching, so I'm going to keep this to the point. I'm a New Hire like you and want us to get out of here as much as most of you all likely want to leave

With these internal shock collars, getting free is most likely going to be difficult. And a long-term, coordinated effort. But to coordinate, we need ways of communicating Jorgmund can't see.

I've created this program to let us encrypt and filter our conversations away from Jorgmund. It just auto uploaded and self-executed to your comms but you can quickly uninstall it any time if you need to be extra cautious.

[A link appears on the screen to some kind of drop box type interface, containing a file.]

That link will let you download the installation file so that it can be saved and dispersed by any New Hires to any future kidnapping victims even if I'm found out and killed.

Locked posts will have a small signifier noting they're locked, an innocuous interface that mimics a notepad application Jorgmund has on our comms, and a panic button to cut off the connection and boot you out of the interface in case a Jorgmund staffer is looking over your shoulder.

However, while it can encrypt our conversations, it can't mask overall network usage so we'll need to keep maintaining non-locked conversations about whatever inane topics make for good public discussion. The resources the encrypted posts use are minimal, so as long as unlocked traffic occurs, it should be able to mask our more discreet conversations.

[That means they must shitpost like their lives depend on it.]

I know that you have good reason to not be inclined to trust me, but the only reason I'm hiding my identity is so any potential snitches can't report me to Jorgmund so I get "fired."

Possibly out of cannon.

The encryption will let any of you go anon, too, in case people want to play spy and drop something useful that Jorgmund would get in a snit about. As much as it'd be helpful to all hold hands and sing happy songs, we don't know if anyone here might brown nose and snitch for their own benefit.

Anon posting and replies can only happen in locked post because Jorgmund doesn't have it enabled on our normal network posts.

Oh, also, there seems to be script for a swearing filter on normal network posts. In locked posts, you can say "fuck" all you want.

Comments

TEXT

[xrater]

You'll pardon me if I'd want to examine things more closely before indulging in what feels very much like a trap.

text

[pathkin]

Understandable. Feel free to examine the code all you like.

Trust takes time. I intend to earn it with any help I can offer under this false identity.

And perhaps in time you might earn mine enough that I feel no need for a mask. But for right now, I'd like to create a means for us to actually coordinate without putting a target on my back from the word go.

[greyaria]

[not saying anything, because she is not an idiot who walks into things that look like really clumsy traps, but she is quietly ripping apart Brainy's Lonestar's code for anything that even remotely resembles a Trojan or a keylogger or the like]

[pathkin]

[The code is as legit as it gets. It's not set up to log anything, it's not set up to execute any monitoring software. It's mostly a glorified vpn with an innocuous fake interface, and heavy, heavy encryption that almost qualifies as rudimentary AI, set up to adapt to any type of intrusion. There's always a risk some New hire could hand their comm over to Jorgmund but there also failsafes that allow the connection to be cut from a comm and for it to auto-wipe their whole comm of any data with a massively destructive boot sector virus. These failsafes are also set up to execute on any outside computer trying break the encryption. Someone in network can easily scope out the code but if some outside computer tries to break it it'll turn into a glorified paper weight.]

[The risk of someone handing a comm over to Jorgmund is why there's anonymous posting, as long as it's from a New Hire designated comm. That way anyone can communicate or drop helpful information without exposing themselves.]

[passifloraincarnata]

[Setsuna is also team "not responding to anything that anyone will notice but definitely also doing all of the noticing possible, just in case it's real". She's not a hacker or a codebreaker, but she does know enough about social engineering and best tech practice to know - if this is legit or not, they won't need to wait long for any of them to find out.]

anon text / action

[credit_not_blame]

Fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck.

A blessing on your house for the swears, good sir/ma'am/other!



[Stacia isn't one of the Garou who are best with computers, but she's been interested enough to put in the work to be far better than average. She'll be taking a long, leisurely stroll through the code before she posts anything remotely incriminating or secretive, though.]

text

[pathkin]

I find that foul mouthed blaspheming is sometimes the best possible stress reliever.

[His team is full of absolute foul mouths. Brainy had noticed the disparity when he was in Earth's past. The Justice League didn't swear nearly as much. He's not one to curse as often as the others, but even he vents with the occasional "sprock" or "grife." In fact, when he lets loose it's usually because things have gotten very bad, so it's a lot of sprocks.]

[He leaves off the interlac cursing here, though. English seems to be ruling the day, so English cursing it is so he doesn't stand out.]

[The code is strange. Alien. He's making it dance in unexpected ways. But it isn't set up to log or monitor anything, and has the failsafe cut offs and auto-wipes one would hope for for something Jorgmund might want to nose in on and try to un-encrypt.]

[partiallysquirrelblood]

[Doreen, really, really wants to trust this. She likes believing the best of people. But she also knows she can't, not without verifying. So, like others before her she's going through that code from top to bottom.]

[pathkin]

[It's written in a very self-taught, strange, but effective style, with programming meant to adapt to outside attempts at un-encryption with an adaptiveness that almost borders on rudimentary AI. Even though it has to use the hardware they were given, it almost borders on being its on operating system.]

[It definitely does not match the terrible kludgy normal programming of the rest of the comms and network, and certainly is a far cry from that terrible slideshow they were all shown.]

[It screams white hat hacker trying to circumvent corporate surveillance.]

TEXT

[greatlyexaggerated]

[Yes, this just screams 'trap' to Cain's paranoia. He dismisses it as such as he scans the post, incredulous and derisive at the predictability of their first play, and resolving to just leave it well alone. However, when he gets to the words "It just auto uploaded and self-executed", Cain drops the dataslate-like communicator in alarm.]

[He fumbles for it as it's falling, but only succeeds in batting it away further down a full flight of stairs.]

CHJV
hjkdsflllllll;;
h

text

[pathkin]

I hope you're not having a seizure.

TEXT

[scavengineer]

Is everything okay?

[bringinghopewithme]

Oh really? Good onya, mate.

[While there would be a certain irony in a rabbit being the first to jump RIGHT into a trap - doesn't that sound like a proverb in the making - someone has to verify this, and if someone has to risk a beat down to verify a potential asset, better him than some mortal barely out of childhood.]

So if I admitted to breaking onto a restricted deck and stealing a suit's keys here, I won't be tortured before tomorrow for saying so here?

[Stealing keys is a lie, but humans are always losing keys. Doubtless someone will be prepared to pin an innocent loss on him now if this channel isn't safe.]

anon

[turntex]

[Dave's a smart kid practically raised by the internet, he knows when to go anon.]

well thats one way to check how secure this shit really is
i guess if rabbits on the menu tomorrow well all have our answer and one hell if a feast on top of that
way to take one for the team peter cottontail

[shipoftheseus]

[Phos has developed a good amount of suspicion and caution over the last year. However, Phos has also never interacted with any kind of technology in their life and didn't even understand half the words used in this post. They can't even begin to imagine how pushing pictures of letters on his device could somehow be monitored remotely, let alone how someone else could use this to screw them over.

Their typing is slow and clumsy, half from inexperience and half from the dumb screen frequently not recognizing their rocklike fingers, but they manage eventually.]

can other peopl read this??
i d on't undrstand
whatdoes fuck mean

[pathkin]

Yes, this is a form of communication.

And someone else can field the "fuck" answer. There are beautiful nuances to the word that are hard to lay down.

[tarnishedavenger]

[He just closes it out and deletes it before it finishes its little flashy display

It's a corporate fucking nightmare, of course it comes with bloatware.]

TEXT

[morebetter]

dude this is sooooo long and boring

anyway i got a pen and wrote the link down how do i install it

text

[pathkin]

You install it by shredding the paper you wrote the link on until it's unreadable and make a wish.

At that point it should work.

anon text/action

[monkey_wrench]

[First day here and some anonymous someone already has a wide-scale rebellion in the works, complete with a secret communication network that's capable of conveniently uploading itself? Yeah. Sure.

Like so many of the other's Jack's positive this is a trap. Not enough to just delete it outright but definitely enough that he's already digging through the code. And it's...weird. It functions, hell it more than functions, it's more advanced and better designed than anything else on these pieces of junk, but it's not coded like anything he's really seen before. On the surface, it does seems to be exactly as advertised. It's not any kind of malware or virus, no monitoring going on here, lots of fail-safes.

Of course, they might have implemented that last bit just to make it look legitimate to people like him that would tear through it. After all, none of that means much of anything if the person or people on the other end of this thing was Jorgmund. But it is more effort than he was starting to think they were capable of.]

so, you really made all this in one day? or have you been here longer than the rest of us?

text

[pathkin]

I work fast.

Don't be so shocked. It looks like we've got fifty kinds of badass in the backgrounds of people here.

I would've waited a bit but last thing we need is some idiots doing some plotting out in the open and getting the rest of us punished for it.

[becauseimacoward]

[Dojima frowns, mulling it. This could be so valuable, but it's also so risky. Almost too good to be true, some would say, especially since he doesn't have as much information as he'd like about Jorgmund's methods and tactics.

In the end, he decides to uninstall the application for the time being. He decides to observe during the next few days or weeks for any signs Jorgmund knows something's up, or any indications somebody is getting in trouble in the near future.

But he really, really hopes this will prove reliable. Better remember the access to the drop box interface]

text

[takenalive]

This takes me back. A shame I always left encryption to technicians, but we also put less emphasis on the written word for this sort of thing. Perhaps that experience wouldn't carry over, then.

Anon text

[walkingballpit]

I think the emphasis on the written word is because the controlled environment. They’re probably recording us most of the time. Getting everyone on the same page with a spoken code would take forever.

[Anon Text]

[fromfryingpantofire]

[Everybody else has pretty much said what he's thinking and part of him is thinking he should really leave this be. But...it's the name. It's not even quite the right spelling, but he has to say something. Even if nobody else gets the joke.]

May the Schwartz be with you.

anon text

[stickypete]

Lone Starr, I am your father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate.

text

[ahtohollaback]

[This typing is so, so slow. It is very hunt-and-peck. Language and technology barriers are making this hard, why can't they just carry letters by wind spirit like normal people??

After reading and re-reading the post about three times, trying to parse all of the unfamiliar concepts like link and download and encryption, she finally figures out how to send a reply.]

So you can read this, but Jorgmund can't?

I'm sorry, but I'm not familiar with magic that can do this. Almost everything here is new to me.

Anon text

[walkingballpit]

Technology isn’t magic, but enh. I guess it can look that way if it’s all new.

anon text unless otherwise noted

[cachedout]

Oh oh oh, are we doing code names? Well then, Ace of Hearts at your service.

[ The only one here who has a shot in hell of recognizing that is Saint-14 or (probably more likely) his Ghost, Gepetto. It's been Cayde-6's towernet ident since the Tower got the net in the first place. ]

Not to say too much in potentially mixed company, but our friends here really don't know what they're dealing with. I cheerfully anticipate that's true for plenty of you, too.

So, sound off: How we doing on supplies, my fellow corpos? I know I'm not seeing good portion sizes in the mess if some of you with the weird powers don't just run on 100% wishes and magic.

same

[turntex]

oh shit are we picking codenames
no one told me we were picking codenames

[wheyoftheadept]

[Saturday is watching this all go down, but not commenting until someone trustworthy verifies the system for her IRL. She doesn't know enough to figure it out on her own.]

text

[gautiheir]

[ By some miracle, Sylvain has managed to get anon turned on before commenting. Maybe not entirely a miracle; he's bright, even if this is way outside his wheelhouse. ]

okay, i admit this stuff is way beyond my time, but please tell me if i'm imagining this in vaguely comparable terms.
this being a network of communication, let's pretend each comment is like a carrier pigeon with a letter.
so you're saying that this network is like releasing a few more into the air alongside what's already there/
so if there are already plenty of messages flying around, it's not easy to notice, but if there's nothing already in the air it'll attract a lot more attention.
right/