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.

[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]

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.

[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.]

[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.]

TEXT

[xrater]

[Oh, she is. If 'Lonestar' has any sort of monitoring under his little green paws, Alia's already cloned it off several times and is switching between shredding one and going through two more with a fine-toothed comb.

She's not particularly in a trusting mood at the moment. But whoever's behind this is at least... remotely competent. Maybe better than she was initially willing to give credit. It's very unlike Jorgmund's preferred coding, but that doesn't mean Jorgmund doesn't have some smart programmer capable of doing something different.]

[pathkin]

[The code is almost...alien. It certainly has to work within human computer systems, but it's set up in very complex, tricky ways, like it was created by someone who didn't learn about programming the way humans learn.]

[A self taught coder has a different style than someone that went to school for it, and an alien certainly has a different style than a human.]

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.]

[greyaria]

[welp, she really hopes this person is legit, because if Jorgmund has a programmer this good, she's worried]

[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.]

[xrater]

[Given that she knows exactly how humans code things, that is sort of a big thing right there. Alia certainly wouldn't code like this.

She's still not entirely satisfied how safe it is, though. So one of those programmed clones is going to undergo some very nasty viral attacks. And when it comes to Alia, she knows nasty viruses. The final clone is getting a trace program to see just how many other connected devices she can ping and locate. Just to see what kind of security it can offer.]

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.]

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

[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

[pathkin]

I hope you're not having a seizure.

[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 text / action

[credit_not_blame]

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.

Blasphemy isn't really my thing, but I love me some soothing profanity.

Fuckery fuck fuck shit-guzzling fuck.



[Well, hello there gorgeous! Come to mama you fancy thing, she'd love to learn to dance like you...]

[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

[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.]

[partiallysquirrelblood]

Okay, so once you feel like revealing yourself, you need to teach me how you did this, cause friggin' heck this code is amazing.

[She's got a pretty good idea of who it is already, but she's not going to pester Brainy for lessons until he's comfortable with saying something.

She still really wants to learn, though. This is loads more interesting than the last self-designed code she'd encountered. Admittedly, that wasn't saying much considering last time had been Doom and his programming language made entirely of variations of his own name.]

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

Re: anon

[bringinghopewithme]

[Boy, this crew sure is ...... they sure have spent their entire lives at the top of the food chain havent they.]

Ah that joke's always hilarious when it's coming from someone actively trying to kill me. I have a chortle every time. My name's not Peter.

[if he has a name at all, anyway, it probably isn't that.]

TEXT

[morebetter]

dude this is sooooo long and boring

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

anon

[turntex]

i didnt know pointing out a potential dead bunny walking constituted an attempt on ones life
learn something new everyday i guess
shoulda told me i was gonna get schooled today
i would have packed a lunchbox

[pathkin]

[The programming adapts to the viruses like a living thing. It isn't sentient but it is a rudimentary AI, somehow running on a system that's barely more complex than a word processor. No viruses get through, nothing gets decoded, no other devices are pinged, any spoofed anon identities have their anonymity protected.]

[The only reason her attempts at breaking things don't auto wipe her comm is that Brainy wanted to allow the New Hires looking into the code a chance to mess with it without getting the full Jorgmund "sprock you."]

[So the auto-wipe doesn't execute but there are enough traces for her to see how an outside Jorgmund computer would be treated. And after the attempts are foiled, the message that would show for Jorgmund pops up. (He'd had to dig around the vestiges of the left over internet to find something useful.)]