Garrison & Darcy | Training with Vi
Aug. 20th, 2023 10:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsDarcy does training with Vi somewhere safe: the Danger Room. Garrison watches, and ends up confused.
"I brought you a mid-morning snack," Darcy announced as she entered the observation room, a coffee in each hand and a bag gripped carefully between her fingers like a pinching crab. The bag got dropped lightly on an empty chair, and a closed cup of coffee was set near Garrison's elbow. "Not a bribe, that would be a beer or sneak paying part of your tab at Harry's one night, but I haven't had second breakfast yet so you might as well join me." From the bag she extracted one muffin for herself, holding the bag with the other out. "Blueberry maple muffin, you're welcome."
"Ooh, going for all the stereotypes. It just needs some peameal bacon on top." He joked, but didn't hesitate in taking the coffee and muffin and sampling it.
"Less sweet than the sugar based versions, doesn't burn through my system quite as fast." She hooked the chair behind her and took a seat. "So what I'm thinking is I just go downstairs, you can let Vi manifest as herself or just run some basic simulation, I immerse myself in it? I could do it up here too, but I'd probably need to be actively touching things if I did. Downstairs I can just lay down in a grassy field or something. No bugs, or I'll pinch you."
"It depends what you think you want to accomplish. Is this about testing Vi's limits or yours?" Kane said, pausing to take a long gulp from the black coffee.
"My own, mostly. And getting Vi accustomed to the way I feel when I'm nosing around so she can tell the difference between my vibes and hostile intent. I'll probably learn something about her limits in the process, but that's just..." Darcy did a little shrug, waving her hand broadly. "Part of it, I think? I don't really know. Everything I did with Lemon - uh, the X-Force VI, moon on a stick, the beast, whatever you've heard people call it - was before I knew. Instinctive. Lot of late nights and little sleep. This would be on purpose, and Vi is... bigger, I think. Maybe not as more, yet, but just being the DR encompasses a lot, and she's more than that.
"Vi has significantly more capacity than was intended. Integrated nanites, an upgraded Vi... I don't know. I showed up one day and everyone yelled Turing test at me like that made sense."
Darcy laughed. "Not a hard sci-fi fan, I take it? The simple version is that it's one of the tests to see if a computer has achieved sentience. In this case, if Vi's still a virtual intelligence, or if she's ascended to become an artificial intelligence. Of course, that brings up Terminator images for a lot of people, and I understand there's been some incidents with AI and the mansion in the past. I know Doug's antsy about them, although he took Lemon's ascension and my new abilities well enough."
"I'm more of a sports page guy." Kane was always quick to undercut his own intelligence. He liked when people underestimated him. "I need to know what the crash buttons triggers are going to be. Like, if circuit boards start flying and attaching to you and your eyes are digitized, do I shut it all down then or what until you've gone a couple of rounds with Superman first?"
"Uh huh." Darcy's look was bland, but her slightly raised eyebrow was giving 'don't bullshit a bullshitter'. She didn't see the point in calling Garrison out on it. You didn't get seconded to the FBI by being a complete idiot. "I'm not telekinetic, I can't move things with my mind. Since we're not doing an active combat scenario, I'm hoping that nothing bad will happen this time. If it does... it'll probably be a lot like last time. We feedback loop, I overload from the data influx and pass out, end up with a lingering vicious headache while my brain tries to sort it all. And you get the unfortunate luck of dumping me in my room after and making sure the door's shut so my mind is safe. I don't actually know what I look like when I'm under, it's not like I'm aware enough to stare at a mirror while I'm working deep in a system, but I've never come out with computer parts attached."
"Man, you ruined a masterful Superman 3 reference. With Richard Pryor? Man, that movie terrified me as a kid." Kane said, although he'd obviously taken what she said seriously. "So, you ready to enter Thunderdome? I mean, the DR, but I do have a Thunderdome built environment for it, if you want."
"I'm good with something relaxing this time. Someone might actually lock me in a tower if I managed to get as banged up as I did last time." The someone was probably Maya, honestly, given how overprotective the younger woman could be. Maybe Terry. She shuddered at the idea of the two of them teaming up. "I didn't like losing the ability to talk because my neck was so irresistible." She winked at Garrison over her coffee and stood, turning to head downstairs.
"Restful. I can do restful." By the time she got downstairs and stepped into the DR, it was a vast meadow full of wild flowers. A chaise lounge rested just ahead of her, and to the right, a string quartet was working their way through Vivaldi's 'Spring' from 'Four Seasons'.
"Excellent, thanks babe!" Darcy curled up on the chaise, fingers trailing the ground as she settled into something resembling a meditative state. She didn't close her eyes, just tipped her head back and focused on the ceiling of the room. Her eyes slowly brightened to a neon version of their usual blue-green as she reached out to Vi, some cross between knocking and hand-shaking but all the more intimate as lines of code and thoughts started to intermingle. It was less instinctive than her easy rapport with Lemon or Doug's friendos, a little more reserved, but then she'd interacted with Vi far less than she did with the others. Fuller sentences than the nanites, certainly, fewer pictures, much better comprehension. A mental picture of the nanites as a small hoard of cute, robotic dogs - friendly, eager, and ready to play - received a sense of almost amusement back, and Darcy relaxed even further into the chair.
Vi was always there; always present, but finally, it manifested a form to interact; a glowing energy-like body with blazing blue eyes. Over the months since she'd first manifested, the form had grown more human mannerisms. Stopping to look around, tiny motions suggesting they were adjusting to the surroundings, like a person entering a new room.
{Good afternoon Darcy. Do you have a request for me?} The head tilted slightly as it queried her.
Darcy pulled her feet closer. "Somehow I didn't think you'd manifest your form," she mused, patting the empty part of the chaise in an invitation to sit, even if Vi didn't need to do such a thing. "I just... last time was a bit of a mess, so I wanted to get to know you in a less tense setting? Do some interacting, if you're okay with it. Let you get used to me poking around, make sure you know the difference between me in your system and something - or someone - with actual hostile intent. Make some effort so an overload won't happen again if I have another flashback in here."
{Of course, Darcy. You are free to interface with me how you see fit. If you have a specific request how, I can aid you.} Vi said, and Kane touched the button on his mic.
"Vi is in interface mode, so it is focusing on how to provide service. You'll need to work through that routine."
"I feel like I should at least get Vi some dinner first," Darcy quipped in response. She tilted her head as she observed the manifestation, then let her eyes slip shut, hands resting lightly in the same space as Vi's. A trickle of information started. Slow. Steady. Then faster as she got used to what she was seeing, dots lit up in a mental map that showed her where various electronics were, in a color-coding that initially only made sense to Vi. Darcy poked around them, cautious yet curious.
A dull to brighter yellow-orange seemed to be things on just the utility circuits. Fridge, freezers, laundry, some of the lights... rudimentary programming at best, but nothing that would be considered particularly 'smart' in technology terms. There was a drip coffeemaker somewhere, and a microwave giving... wait. "The Chapel microwave's mad at Clint? Why?" she murmured, unaware that her words were out loud. Impressions flew past, the scent of acrid burning lingering in her mind. "Oh, yeah. Okay. I would also be mad if someone burned things that badly around me. What if I have him apologize and give you a good scrub?" She got the impression of a sulky assent. "And maybe banning him from minute frozen dinners for a while?" The impression brightened slightly, and she chuckled.
She moved on, touching the next set of colors lightly.
Kane had been content to sip his coffee and pick at his muffin while Darcy did... whatever the hell she was planning. However, he set everything aside as background sensors started to spike.
"What the fuck-" He muttered, shifting screens. If Darcy's powers were messing with Vi's code, it was far above his paygrade to fix. "Lewis, whatever you're doing you need to-" He paused as the monitors suddenly dropped back to normal range.
Completely unaware of Garrison's alarm, Darcy continued her explorations. The next band of colors held smarter but still fairly simple appliances. She took note of a few that seemed to not be drawing power efficiently, or that were having connectivity issues, then moved on. The third set of colors had her eyes open wide in awe, that unfamiliar blue-green neon shining from them as she took in the space around them. "Whoa." It was soft, almost reverent. "So this is... Vi, can –???" Her hand had risen into the air, and there it hovered as she waited for some sort of go-ahead.
There was nothing in the void, and as she moved her hand forward finally, a field erupted around her. It was a common DR default; just a wide meadow, mountains in the distance, speckled with wildflowers and a mid summer sun shining on her face as she stood in the middle. "Hm, no." She concentrated, mentally flipping through options and scenarios. Eventually, the sky darkened, stars popping up brightly in a cloudless night.
Darcy wasn't aware of turning, or the way her mouth had dropped open as the stars appeared. The room's actual appearance and the intricate layers of coding making it up were both visible to her. She hadn't done anything to the code – just bypassed the touch screen interface – but she'd also never taken the time to really browse through the seemingly inexhaustible list of every option and scenario the DR could provide before. Seeing what the room was truly capable of on two levels was almost overwhelming. After taking it in for several minutes, she felt nudged on.
The final layer of colors wasn't... final, necessarily. But it contained multitudes. A few things blocked off, with the impression that if Darcy tried to force the issue Vi would consider her a threat. It was easy to assume what some of that might be, and other than brushing against the protections briefly to peek for any holes that might need shoring up, she was fine with moving on. The various "smart" devices around the mansion lit up along the network like a miniature galaxy, and Darcy couldn't resist running a virtual hand across them, mind in this state spitting back notes on various devices that needed a better level of protection. Vi could perhaps prompt users for a password update, alert them to apps with unusual permissions, and that would fix it on a basic level. She'd talk to the rest of the tech people about a better firmware update later.
A few of the devices were very familiar to her, and she sent a teasing gif to Garrison's phone through the link without hesitation.
Kane sat at his chair, watching Darcy... just standing in the middle of the Danger Room. She'd rotate slowly, make tiny gestures with her hands and occasionally nod her head, but as far as he could tell, wasn't doing much of anything. His phone buzzed and he checked it. A gif of a multi-coloured haired woman in a blue and silver futuristic coat popped out, but from Darcy. And she hadn't been anywhere near her phone.
'The hell?"
The tour Vi had led her through was basically over, and she had plenty of notes that – done correctly, she hoped – would be sitting in her email waiting for her. The chaise rematerialized in the room, and Darcy flopped backwards onto it as she slowly pulled herself back to alertness, the neon brightness to her eyes fading as her surroundings settled.
"I'm sure you have questions. Come down here and ask them, or go somewhere off the record?"
"Oh after all this, I need a drink. Two drinks. In fact, three drinks. Maybe with olives. No, that's a lie. Just drinks." Kane said into the mic. The room sensors were basically worthless, saying nothing abnormal had happened while he was watching.
"Corner at Harry's it is." She stood with a long stretch, the scene fading around her with just a thought as she sauntered up the stairs to the control room. "Unless you're scared of me now." Darcy leaned against the frame of the door, not wanting to get too close in case she had given the other man a spook, and gave him a nervous smile. "I know what I can do has the potential to be terrifying in the wrong hands. Just as much as what I could do before. There are reasons I didn't train it beyond the bare minimum."
"You're mistaking confused for my terrified face. That is reserved for firebirds and mutants with stars for minds." Kane said. "I'm confused why there is basically no reference to what you do in the logs other than if you were a standard user."
Darcy was leaning over his shoulder in a minute. "Show me?" She waited for him to pull up the logs, eyes scanning over everything that the room had recorded. As she read through, her smile got sharp. "It's simple really. You're thinking it'll show an intruder, something that doesn't quite fit, yes? I'm not intruding, Garrison. I'm invited. For all noticeable purposes, I am the machine."
"I brought you a mid-morning snack," Darcy announced as she entered the observation room, a coffee in each hand and a bag gripped carefully between her fingers like a pinching crab. The bag got dropped lightly on an empty chair, and a closed cup of coffee was set near Garrison's elbow. "Not a bribe, that would be a beer or sneak paying part of your tab at Harry's one night, but I haven't had second breakfast yet so you might as well join me." From the bag she extracted one muffin for herself, holding the bag with the other out. "Blueberry maple muffin, you're welcome."
"Ooh, going for all the stereotypes. It just needs some peameal bacon on top." He joked, but didn't hesitate in taking the coffee and muffin and sampling it.
"Less sweet than the sugar based versions, doesn't burn through my system quite as fast." She hooked the chair behind her and took a seat. "So what I'm thinking is I just go downstairs, you can let Vi manifest as herself or just run some basic simulation, I immerse myself in it? I could do it up here too, but I'd probably need to be actively touching things if I did. Downstairs I can just lay down in a grassy field or something. No bugs, or I'll pinch you."
"It depends what you think you want to accomplish. Is this about testing Vi's limits or yours?" Kane said, pausing to take a long gulp from the black coffee.
"My own, mostly. And getting Vi accustomed to the way I feel when I'm nosing around so she can tell the difference between my vibes and hostile intent. I'll probably learn something about her limits in the process, but that's just..." Darcy did a little shrug, waving her hand broadly. "Part of it, I think? I don't really know. Everything I did with Lemon - uh, the X-Force VI, moon on a stick, the beast, whatever you've heard people call it - was before I knew. Instinctive. Lot of late nights and little sleep. This would be on purpose, and Vi is... bigger, I think. Maybe not as more, yet, but just being the DR encompasses a lot, and she's more than that.
"Vi has significantly more capacity than was intended. Integrated nanites, an upgraded Vi... I don't know. I showed up one day and everyone yelled Turing test at me like that made sense."
Darcy laughed. "Not a hard sci-fi fan, I take it? The simple version is that it's one of the tests to see if a computer has achieved sentience. In this case, if Vi's still a virtual intelligence, or if she's ascended to become an artificial intelligence. Of course, that brings up Terminator images for a lot of people, and I understand there's been some incidents with AI and the mansion in the past. I know Doug's antsy about them, although he took Lemon's ascension and my new abilities well enough."
"I'm more of a sports page guy." Kane was always quick to undercut his own intelligence. He liked when people underestimated him. "I need to know what the crash buttons triggers are going to be. Like, if circuit boards start flying and attaching to you and your eyes are digitized, do I shut it all down then or what until you've gone a couple of rounds with Superman first?"
"Uh huh." Darcy's look was bland, but her slightly raised eyebrow was giving 'don't bullshit a bullshitter'. She didn't see the point in calling Garrison out on it. You didn't get seconded to the FBI by being a complete idiot. "I'm not telekinetic, I can't move things with my mind. Since we're not doing an active combat scenario, I'm hoping that nothing bad will happen this time. If it does... it'll probably be a lot like last time. We feedback loop, I overload from the data influx and pass out, end up with a lingering vicious headache while my brain tries to sort it all. And you get the unfortunate luck of dumping me in my room after and making sure the door's shut so my mind is safe. I don't actually know what I look like when I'm under, it's not like I'm aware enough to stare at a mirror while I'm working deep in a system, but I've never come out with computer parts attached."
"Man, you ruined a masterful Superman 3 reference. With Richard Pryor? Man, that movie terrified me as a kid." Kane said, although he'd obviously taken what she said seriously. "So, you ready to enter Thunderdome? I mean, the DR, but I do have a Thunderdome built environment for it, if you want."
"I'm good with something relaxing this time. Someone might actually lock me in a tower if I managed to get as banged up as I did last time." The someone was probably Maya, honestly, given how overprotective the younger woman could be. Maybe Terry. She shuddered at the idea of the two of them teaming up. "I didn't like losing the ability to talk because my neck was so irresistible." She winked at Garrison over her coffee and stood, turning to head downstairs.
"Restful. I can do restful." By the time she got downstairs and stepped into the DR, it was a vast meadow full of wild flowers. A chaise lounge rested just ahead of her, and to the right, a string quartet was working their way through Vivaldi's 'Spring' from 'Four Seasons'.
"Excellent, thanks babe!" Darcy curled up on the chaise, fingers trailing the ground as she settled into something resembling a meditative state. She didn't close her eyes, just tipped her head back and focused on the ceiling of the room. Her eyes slowly brightened to a neon version of their usual blue-green as she reached out to Vi, some cross between knocking and hand-shaking but all the more intimate as lines of code and thoughts started to intermingle. It was less instinctive than her easy rapport with Lemon or Doug's friendos, a little more reserved, but then she'd interacted with Vi far less than she did with the others. Fuller sentences than the nanites, certainly, fewer pictures, much better comprehension. A mental picture of the nanites as a small hoard of cute, robotic dogs - friendly, eager, and ready to play - received a sense of almost amusement back, and Darcy relaxed even further into the chair.
Vi was always there; always present, but finally, it manifested a form to interact; a glowing energy-like body with blazing blue eyes. Over the months since she'd first manifested, the form had grown more human mannerisms. Stopping to look around, tiny motions suggesting they were adjusting to the surroundings, like a person entering a new room.
{Good afternoon Darcy. Do you have a request for me?} The head tilted slightly as it queried her.
Darcy pulled her feet closer. "Somehow I didn't think you'd manifest your form," she mused, patting the empty part of the chaise in an invitation to sit, even if Vi didn't need to do such a thing. "I just... last time was a bit of a mess, so I wanted to get to know you in a less tense setting? Do some interacting, if you're okay with it. Let you get used to me poking around, make sure you know the difference between me in your system and something - or someone - with actual hostile intent. Make some effort so an overload won't happen again if I have another flashback in here."
{Of course, Darcy. You are free to interface with me how you see fit. If you have a specific request how, I can aid you.} Vi said, and Kane touched the button on his mic.
"Vi is in interface mode, so it is focusing on how to provide service. You'll need to work through that routine."
"I feel like I should at least get Vi some dinner first," Darcy quipped in response. She tilted her head as she observed the manifestation, then let her eyes slip shut, hands resting lightly in the same space as Vi's. A trickle of information started. Slow. Steady. Then faster as she got used to what she was seeing, dots lit up in a mental map that showed her where various electronics were, in a color-coding that initially only made sense to Vi. Darcy poked around them, cautious yet curious.
A dull to brighter yellow-orange seemed to be things on just the utility circuits. Fridge, freezers, laundry, some of the lights... rudimentary programming at best, but nothing that would be considered particularly 'smart' in technology terms. There was a drip coffeemaker somewhere, and a microwave giving... wait. "The Chapel microwave's mad at Clint? Why?" she murmured, unaware that her words were out loud. Impressions flew past, the scent of acrid burning lingering in her mind. "Oh, yeah. Okay. I would also be mad if someone burned things that badly around me. What if I have him apologize and give you a good scrub?" She got the impression of a sulky assent. "And maybe banning him from minute frozen dinners for a while?" The impression brightened slightly, and she chuckled.
She moved on, touching the next set of colors lightly.
Kane had been content to sip his coffee and pick at his muffin while Darcy did... whatever the hell she was planning. However, he set everything aside as background sensors started to spike.
"What the fuck-" He muttered, shifting screens. If Darcy's powers were messing with Vi's code, it was far above his paygrade to fix. "Lewis, whatever you're doing you need to-" He paused as the monitors suddenly dropped back to normal range.
Completely unaware of Garrison's alarm, Darcy continued her explorations. The next band of colors held smarter but still fairly simple appliances. She took note of a few that seemed to not be drawing power efficiently, or that were having connectivity issues, then moved on. The third set of colors had her eyes open wide in awe, that unfamiliar blue-green neon shining from them as she took in the space around them. "Whoa." It was soft, almost reverent. "So this is... Vi, can –???" Her hand had risen into the air, and there it hovered as she waited for some sort of go-ahead.
There was nothing in the void, and as she moved her hand forward finally, a field erupted around her. It was a common DR default; just a wide meadow, mountains in the distance, speckled with wildflowers and a mid summer sun shining on her face as she stood in the middle. "Hm, no." She concentrated, mentally flipping through options and scenarios. Eventually, the sky darkened, stars popping up brightly in a cloudless night.
Darcy wasn't aware of turning, or the way her mouth had dropped open as the stars appeared. The room's actual appearance and the intricate layers of coding making it up were both visible to her. She hadn't done anything to the code – just bypassed the touch screen interface – but she'd also never taken the time to really browse through the seemingly inexhaustible list of every option and scenario the DR could provide before. Seeing what the room was truly capable of on two levels was almost overwhelming. After taking it in for several minutes, she felt nudged on.
The final layer of colors wasn't... final, necessarily. But it contained multitudes. A few things blocked off, with the impression that if Darcy tried to force the issue Vi would consider her a threat. It was easy to assume what some of that might be, and other than brushing against the protections briefly to peek for any holes that might need shoring up, she was fine with moving on. The various "smart" devices around the mansion lit up along the network like a miniature galaxy, and Darcy couldn't resist running a virtual hand across them, mind in this state spitting back notes on various devices that needed a better level of protection. Vi could perhaps prompt users for a password update, alert them to apps with unusual permissions, and that would fix it on a basic level. She'd talk to the rest of the tech people about a better firmware update later.
A few of the devices were very familiar to her, and she sent a teasing gif to Garrison's phone through the link without hesitation.
Kane sat at his chair, watching Darcy... just standing in the middle of the Danger Room. She'd rotate slowly, make tiny gestures with her hands and occasionally nod her head, but as far as he could tell, wasn't doing much of anything. His phone buzzed and he checked it. A gif of a multi-coloured haired woman in a blue and silver futuristic coat popped out, but from Darcy. And she hadn't been anywhere near her phone.
'The hell?"
The tour Vi had led her through was basically over, and she had plenty of notes that – done correctly, she hoped – would be sitting in her email waiting for her. The chaise rematerialized in the room, and Darcy flopped backwards onto it as she slowly pulled herself back to alertness, the neon brightness to her eyes fading as her surroundings settled.
"I'm sure you have questions. Come down here and ask them, or go somewhere off the record?"
"Oh after all this, I need a drink. Two drinks. In fact, three drinks. Maybe with olives. No, that's a lie. Just drinks." Kane said into the mic. The room sensors were basically worthless, saying nothing abnormal had happened while he was watching.
"Corner at Harry's it is." She stood with a long stretch, the scene fading around her with just a thought as she sauntered up the stairs to the control room. "Unless you're scared of me now." Darcy leaned against the frame of the door, not wanting to get too close in case she had given the other man a spook, and gave him a nervous smile. "I know what I can do has the potential to be terrifying in the wrong hands. Just as much as what I could do before. There are reasons I didn't train it beyond the bare minimum."
"You're mistaking confused for my terrified face. That is reserved for firebirds and mutants with stars for minds." Kane said. "I'm confused why there is basically no reference to what you do in the logs other than if you were a standard user."
Darcy was leaning over his shoulder in a minute. "Show me?" She waited for him to pull up the logs, eyes scanning over everything that the room had recorded. As she read through, her smile got sharp. "It's simple really. You're thinking it'll show an intruder, something that doesn't quite fit, yes? I'm not intruding, Garrison. I'm invited. For all noticeable purposes, I am the machine."
