Difficult to picture -- that must be a fascinating set up.
Were you able to access the 100th floor with your choker switched on? It has a limited duration, doesn't it?
[ It may seem like Harold has forgotten about his promise to look into improvements for Accelerator after the train mission was over, but the reality is he's just been working steadily on some ideas without bothering him about them. ]
We were too busy to take advantage of the fucking photo opportunity, otherwise I'd be sending pictures to you.
The connection to her network cuts out on the 8th level, so I had to use the back up computer. We were lucky to have a guy who can cast spells to summon air, since I would've run out of battery if I needed to keep us breathing. We were down there a while.
[It was teamwork that got them through it all, basically.]
[ That wasn't a criticism, just Harold getting distracted thinking too deeply about the physical set up for Aurora's servers and how it compared to the Machine's. The Machine is now maintaining itself, of course, spreading out its processors in various backups throughout the world... or so Harold assumes. He deliberately doesn't know for certain.
But he pulls himself back to the immediate issue. ]
Castiel said he was able to visit under his own power, as I recall. Perhaps he'd be willing to install some monitoring devices for us there.
Would you come in and let me run some tests on possible designs to improve your backup? I'd like to see what the resource usage is like for you to support your own breathing in such an environment. Perhaps I can devise a special-purpose device in case you ever need to attend to Aurora's servers yourself in an emergency.
The angel? I guess an angel doesn't need to breathe air, huh? Do you trust him to be able to do that? And do it without screwing Aurora over?
[Because not gonna lie, it makes him nervous to hear someone else managed to get down there. As far as he can tell Aurora has been acting normal, so Castiel must not have touched her brain at all, but he's still wary.
... He's honestly more concerned about that than his choker. There's a reflexive pang of uncertainty when he reads Harold's full message, the result of spending most of his life going through tests and experiments that the best of which were still horrific.
But this is Harold, not those monstrous scientists back home.]
Fine. I don't mind being a contingency plan if you can come up with something. You want to do those tests at the library?
Although not entirely stable, I think he's trustworthy in this regard. He cares quite deeply about humanity.
[ Harold knows enough about Accelerator by now, particularly from his file, to be aware that running tests is bound to be a sensitive point. But he's not going to sugarcoat it, won't pretend he's doing something other than what he is; if Accelerator wanted to refuse, now or at any time, he would respect that.
To Harold, science or discovery or even contingency plans are not more important than respecting someone's agency over themselves. ]
Yes, if you don't mind. It's sensitive enough that I think I should invite you into our living quarters to work on it. We have a secure hidden residence on the second floor. Let me just alert Mr. Reese so he isn't surprised and shoots you by mistake.
[ This would make Accelerator the first person who isn't Shaw that they've ever let in there, but he thinks John would be alright with it. Harold is fairly certain John likes Accelerator quite a bit. ]
[Because there are a lot of people who wouldn't equate humanity with artificial beings, so he feels compelled to check.
He's also a little grateful Harold is taking this seriously. Now that he's sharing an apartment with Laura he'd rather not have any tests done there, she doesn't need to be exposed to that, and the only other place that would be appropriate would be the hospital. Which... he'd be less than enthused to go with. Strangely, that Harold is offering up his living quarters when he's an intensely private person makes him feel a little better.]
You guys live there? That's fucking hilarious.
[How very Harold.
... And John, honestly. He must be happy to be in close proximity to more obscure literature.]
Wow, thanks. I appreciate it. Being shot once in my life was more than enough, so I'm not looking to have it happen again. [Ha ha, he's funny. But seriously - ] I'd prefer if John wasn't there when we were running tests. Especially if I need to turn my choker off at any point.
[That leaves him so, so vulnerable and he's still getting used to people who aren't Last Order and Qliphah being around him when his brain injury is in full force. He also doesn't want to risk something setting him off and causing him to draw out his wings.]
I'm not certain, but he is very swayed by rational justification. It's necessary to our continued survival that Aurora remain intact and untampered with.
[ Again, Harold won't overstate things; he has no idea what Castiel's opinion on A.I. might be. But he does think he wouldn't do anything to jeopardize their collective safety. Harold does, however, intend to give him very specific instructions.
And he of course takes Accelerator's secrets seriously. He would even if he hadn't held him up against a wall and threatened him, but that does leave an impression of its own. Harold has mentally categorized how his abilities work as one step below him building the Machine in secrecy. It can be revealed for the right reasons, but not casually, and he's willing to exert quite a bit of effort to keeping it secret. ]
Living in the provided apartments where anyone could find me was deeply unnerving, so yes, we do. Please keep that to yourself.
John won't mind being excluded; I typically do my more technical work alone. It tends to be safer that way.
Not sure everyone here would agree with you about Aurora, but I'll trust you on this.
[Angels - at least, ones that aren't artificial - are such a pain, he's okay with leaving that potential problem with Harold.
He's still getting used to the idea of trusting other people with things he can't or shouldn't necessarily do himself. It had started back in Academy City and it's been more important than ever here in Etraya. It sucks, honestly, but this is a good step in getting used to it.]
Will do.
Good. I doubt he'd understand even half of it, anyways.
[ That gives him pause; that means something to him. ] Thank you. I'm not dedicated to the idea, but I'm evaluating our options. As for Aurora, it seems hard to dispute how dependent we are on her largesse. Things could be dramatically worse.
Mr. Reese is more than capable of following the concepts if not the technical specifics, he just prefers to leave that to me. We've gotten used to our distribution of labor.
[ Harold takes that seriously, won't absolve himself of the responsibility if something goes wrong. He knows if he makes the decision to bring Castiel in on this that it's up to him to make sure Accelerator doesn't regret it. That's how trust works; passing accountability downstream breaks it. ]
Or something far worse than that.
[ Please, suburbia is not the actual worst. Harold doesn't want to indulge his imagination or go all doomsayer by going into it, but he's all too aware. As for that last comment -- well. That's a landmine if he's ever seen one. ]
It wasn't always that way, but we've come to an understanding.
[Alright, that is exceptionally mean. Accelerator can identify with that, and he doesn't like that he can. He doesn't like to consider himself an empathetic person at all, but he can imagine how freaked out he would have been if someone had pressured him about Last Order when he was still getting used to her being around.
... Even now he still hasn't told anyone about her. Even when Connor was here before, he knew about the Sisters but not Last Order. Was it for that reason? He isn't sure. Maybe it's because it's just easier to not think about her when she isn't here.
Either way, he's irritated Harold is pulling this on him.]
Whatever. I don't care all that much about whatever the fuck you two have going on. It's none of my business.
[He's just going to focus on Aurora. That's a lot easier.]
Yeah. The entire reason we had gone down there was because some eldritch fear fuck had infected her. I'm not sure if that thing is totally dead, so beyond the possibility of Etrayans wanting to mess with her there's that danger, too.
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Aurora's brain is on the 100th floor. That's what we were keeping from people.
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She must have an immense amount of hardware to support her processing power.
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[It was impressive, though that isn't the important thing here.]
I'd never seen anything like it, which is saying something.
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Were you able to access the 100th floor with your choker switched on? It has a limited duration, doesn't it?
[ It may seem like Harold has forgotten about his promise to look into improvements for Accelerator after the train mission was over, but the reality is he's just been working steadily on some ideas without bothering him about them. ]
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The connection to her network cuts out on the 8th level, so I had to use the back up computer. We were lucky to have a guy who can cast spells to summon air, since I would've run out of battery if I needed to keep us breathing. We were down there a while.
[It was teamwork that got them through it all, basically.]
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But he pulls himself back to the immediate issue. ]
Castiel said he was able to visit under his own power, as I recall. Perhaps he'd be willing to install some monitoring devices for us there.
Would you come in and let me run some tests on possible designs to improve your backup? I'd like to see what the resource usage is like for you to support your own breathing in such an environment. Perhaps I can devise a special-purpose device in case you ever need to attend to Aurora's servers yourself in an emergency.
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The angel? I guess an angel doesn't need to breathe air, huh? Do you trust him to be able to do that? And do it without screwing Aurora over?
[Because not gonna lie, it makes him nervous to hear someone else managed to get down there. As far as he can tell Aurora has been acting normal, so Castiel must not have touched her brain at all, but he's still wary.
... He's honestly more concerned about that than his choker. There's a reflexive pang of uncertainty when he reads Harold's full message, the result of spending most of his life going through tests and experiments that the best of which were still horrific.
But this is Harold, not those monstrous scientists back home.]
Fine. I don't mind being a contingency plan if you can come up with something. You want to do those tests at the library?
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[ Harold knows enough about Accelerator by now, particularly from his file, to be aware that running tests is bound to be a sensitive point. But he's not going to sugarcoat it, won't pretend he's doing something other than what he is; if Accelerator wanted to refuse, now or at any time, he would respect that.
To Harold, science or discovery or even contingency plans are not more important than respecting someone's agency over themselves. ]
Yes, if you don't mind. It's sensitive enough that I think I should invite you into our living quarters to work on it. We have a secure hidden residence on the second floor. Let me just alert Mr. Reese so he isn't surprised and shoots you by mistake.
[ This would make Accelerator the first person who isn't Shaw that they've ever let in there, but he thinks John would be alright with it. Harold is fairly certain John likes Accelerator quite a bit. ]
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[Because there are a lot of people who wouldn't equate humanity with artificial beings, so he feels compelled to check.
He's also a little grateful Harold is taking this seriously. Now that he's sharing an apartment with Laura he'd rather not have any tests done there, she doesn't need to be exposed to that, and the only other place that would be appropriate would be the hospital. Which... he'd be less than enthused to go with. Strangely, that Harold is offering up his living quarters when he's an intensely private person makes him feel a little better.]
You guys live there? That's fucking hilarious.
[How very Harold.
... And John, honestly. He must be happy to be in close proximity to more obscure literature.]
Wow, thanks. I appreciate it. Being shot once in my life was more than enough, so I'm not looking to have it happen again. [Ha ha, he's funny. But seriously - ] I'd prefer if John wasn't there when we were running tests. Especially if I need to turn my choker off at any point.
[That leaves him so, so vulnerable and he's still getting used to people who aren't Last Order and Qliphah being around him when his brain injury is in full force. He also doesn't want to risk something setting him off and causing him to draw out his wings.]
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[ Again, Harold won't overstate things; he has no idea what Castiel's opinion on A.I. might be. But he does think he wouldn't do anything to jeopardize their collective safety. Harold does, however, intend to give him very specific instructions.
And he of course takes Accelerator's secrets seriously. He would even if he hadn't held him up against a wall and threatened him, but that does leave an impression of its own. Harold has mentally categorized how his abilities work as one step below him building the Machine in secrecy. It can be revealed for the right reasons, but not casually, and he's willing to exert quite a bit of effort to keeping it secret. ]
Living in the provided apartments where anyone could find me was deeply unnerving, so yes, we do. Please keep that to yourself.
John won't mind being excluded; I typically do my more technical work alone. It tends to be safer that way.
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[Angels - at least, ones that aren't artificial - are such a pain, he's okay with leaving that potential problem with Harold.
He's still getting used to the idea of trusting other people with things he can't or shouldn't necessarily do himself. It had started back in Academy City and it's been more important than ever here in Etraya. It sucks, honestly, but this is a good step in getting used to it.]
Will do.
Good. I doubt he'd understand even half of it, anyways.
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Mr. Reese is more than capable of following the concepts if not the technical specifics, he just prefers to leave that to me. We've gotten used to our distribution of labor.
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I guess. We could be stuck in a situation where we have an AI who's obsessed with American suburbia like Eos.
[It was awful. Just the worst.]
Yeah, he seems to be really okay with you taking the lead, huh?
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Or something far worse than that.
[ Please, suburbia is not the actual worst. Harold doesn't want to indulge his imagination or go all doomsayer by going into it, but he's all too aware. As for that last comment -- well. That's a landmine if he's ever seen one. ]
It wasn't always that way, but we've come to an understanding.
I'm not sorry for this
Suburban life was hell. I never want to experience it again.
[It is in fact the actual worst when you're a teenager who's grown up in a super-advanced urban setting who hates socializing and can't drive.
Anyways.]
Is that what you're calling it?
this is elder abuse
I'm sorry, I wasn't looking for an opinion from someone juvenile enough to think suburbia constitutes hell.
Accelerator is a very rude child
I'll shut my mouth, but there's no way I'm the only one who'd side eye you for calling it that.
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[ It says something about his good opinion of Accelerator that he makes this request straightforwardly. ]
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[No, it's mostly because John teases him and he doesn't want to give the guy any leeway if he isn't given the same benefit.]
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I suspect I'm the only person in a very long time who hasn't betrayed or hurt him somehow. I think you can identify with that.
However he wants our relationship to look is fine with me, but he hasn't defined that to me yet. Until he does I don't want anyone to pressure him.
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... Even now he still hasn't told anyone about her. Even when Connor was here before, he knew about the Sisters but not Last Order. Was it for that reason? He isn't sure. Maybe it's because it's just easier to not think about her when she isn't here.
Either way, he's irritated Harold is pulling this on him.]
Whatever. I don't care all that much about whatever the fuck you two have going on. It's none of my business.
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Thank you. And thank you for telling me about Aurora's servers. Whatever my personal reservations, she doesn't deserve to be mistreated.
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Yeah. The entire reason we had gone down there was because some eldritch fear fuck had infected her. I'm not sure if that thing is totally dead, so beyond the possibility of Etrayans wanting to mess with her there's that danger, too.
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Connor mentioned something like that, but I didn't know the specifics. I'm all too aware of how many ways an A.I. of that magnitude can be exploited.
I'll contact Castiel and ask him to install some surveillance equipment for us. Let me know when you'd like to work on your back-up power source.
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It was a mess. I don't want a repeat of it.
Okay. I'll figure out a time and get back to you.