retrospec | Lingering Worries

Entry tags:

Lingering Worries

Hitori Togusa
10/2 near Recolle Police Station
I've got a question, and I don't mean for it to scare people, because what I'm really looking for is proof that I'm wrong.
If these other people, the ones Retrospec is giving us the memories of? Retrospec is also slowly giving us their bodies. A piece at a time, it seems.
What if they were sick? Is it slowly going to happen to us, too?
How can we help each other out if it does start happening?

So that I'm not wasting everybody's time with this, though. I've been asking about Dr. James Halliday, a memory researcher a bunch of us came across the name of in August. Despite the fact that Retrospec seems to have been interested in his work, I don't think they're using it.
It specialized in deep-brain stimulation, but I personally had a check done to see if there were any changes to my brain from being on the app for eight months now, and there's nothing.
Just so we can rule that one out.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, there's the public help, which is 'hey, our brains aren't being altered, even though Retrospec was interested in the research of a guy who wanted to alter brains.' So that's nice. But I think the doctors got that one figured out.

But the part you'd be able to help with is personal. Doubt anybody else is going through this.

Okay, so what kind of help do you need from me? I'm not exactly sure what I could do considering but still, I'll help with what I could.

Can I come to you? In a way, it does have to do with net connectivity.

[He'll be glad to come by Yoon-sung's work or home, but he's been thinking over how to explain to Yoon-sung exactly what has happened to him, and it requires a demonstration.]

You can. I'm at my place.

[ And he gives Togusa his address a little curious as to how whatever Togusa's talk of sickness would result in a net connectivity. ]</small.

Togusa shows up shortly, he heads straight over there. Despite everything, he does take his time looking around when he arrives, because Yoon-sung's place is significantly nicer than his. He eventually knocks on the door. He is in civvies, and holding one of the medical folders from Grell.

"Hey," a small smile. "Thanks for letting me come over."

It takes him a few moments to get to the door, so when he opens it, he is standing there in his fuzzy green sweater with a cat tucked under his arm.

"Hey," he said shuffling back to let Togusa in. "It's fine, I wasn't working anyways."

The entrance was just a few steps really, with shoes on one side and house slippers on the other, before it opened up into a huge living area and kitchen combined. The big screen tv had been muted on a show and there was a second cat lounging on the oversized white sectional, well, more importantly lounging on the blanket tossed over the one end of the couch.

"Have a seat."

Kitty! Togusa's face lights up a little, but he doesn't reach for the cat in Yoon-sung's arms. Although he owns a dog, he is not opposed to cats, too. Leaving his shoes is automatic, before he follows Yoon-sung further inside. "This is a nice place," he admits, even though Yoon-sung doesn't need him to say that.

Aha! Cat number two! Togusa reaches out a hand towards the lazing cat for it to sniff. "So I mentioned that I had the doctors scan my head, right? Testing out whether or not we've been affected by some sort of deep-brain stimulation, like what was outlined in Dr. Halliday's work. Answer to that question is a no, but I'm betting his work is still going to turn out to be important in a different way."

The gray cat under Yoon-sung's arm wiggled free and did a little kitty huff on the floor, licking down it's fur with tail lashing at the aborted attempt to escape. Yoon-sung ignored it as he followed Togusa, taking a seat on the couch and shifting the blanket enough to let the cream ball of fluff over so Togusa could sit. This cat took a few moments to regard the cop with wide-eyed suspicion before getting up, turning around a couple times, and settling back down in her spot again.

"Cheshire is the wannabe escape artist, and Dinah is the princess," he said, introducing to the two cats. After a moment, Cheshire's head appeared as the cat peered over the coffee table before ducking down as if he expected no one to have seen him do that.

"So, did the scan find some kind of disease or something?"

Togusa can't help but smile at the fluffball before sitting. She'll warm up to him. He keeps a hand semi-close if she wants to inspect it more. "Who's the Alice fan, you or David?" Can't help but notice the naming pattern there.

"Not a disease. I didn't want to put this up on the network because I know this is going to be unique to me. Didn't want people panicking."

He hands over the folder. There is a sheet of black-and-white images of the head, from the top-down. "CT looks at the fluid density of the brain," Togusa explains. "You'll get mostly gray, anything that shows up white, though, is solid matter, like bone."

There are tiny dots of white throughout every part of the imaged brain, like something is dispersed at an equal level throughout. There's something in there.

"Actually, they were Alice's cats. She decided to not take them with her to England when she left because of how much trouble it would be for them, and here we are."

Dinah was a princess and she was going to sit there regally until she feels that she made her point. Yoon-sung ignored her like he ignored the stalking by Cheshire, instead taking the folder and looked at the scans. He then looked at Togusa.

"I take it that the white dots are not bone, now are they?"

Oh no, he'd forgotten about Alice, and now it's an odd synchronous joke. He smiles down at the fluff cat, she's already got one person wrapped around her paw.

"No. Micromachines. Apparently similar to the kinds used at the hospital for emergency surgery, each the size of a micrometer, so what you're seeing there is really clusters of them. Best Grell could tell was that they're made of a ceramic composite, no metal. Otherwise we wouldn't have been able to do the second scan."

Togusa looks at Yoon-sung seriously. "Each one is a miniature processor. I can't tell what the initial reason for someone having these is, all I can do is speak to what it's done to me."

Yoon-sung looked at the scans again, frowning a little and then closed the folder and set it on the table. That seemed to be all the motivation needed for a gray ball of fluff to get on the table and sit on the folder as one does.

"Nanomachines are the stuff of scifi geeks everywhere. Rich hacker geeks like myself feel that they are the kind of things that one gets to make hacking easier as well as other things."

He reached over and poked Cheshire's side, making the cat shift, give him a look and then flop entirely down on the folder.

"Why don't you tell me what they give you help with and I'll hum along once I get the melody."

Braaat cat. It can’t help but make Togusa smile though. He shoots that same smile at Yoon-sung. He holds up both hands in plain view. “Nothing up my sleeves...”

Yoon-sung’s phone dings. New message.

Presto.

Togusa will wait a moment for the reaction before he tries to explain further.

Yes, Cheshire was the brat and he made sure the whole world knew it. Meanwhile Dinah decided o reach out with a paw to tap the new person's leg and then look at them. Attention on her, new human. Which means that Yoon-sung was reaching down to scratch at her ears.

That was until his phone went off. He took it out and frowned at the message and then put his phone on the table. He wouldn't be that much of a hacker of any kind if he didn't know what that meant in general.

"So you now have tiny micro-computers in your head," he said, looking at Togusa again. "Have you figured out what else they can do? And if they are dangerous to share with others?"

That's actually a good distraction, Dinah. Togusa leaves a hand close to her to sniff at, maybe to skritch later. These conversations are always easier around pets.

Togusa nods more solemnly. "They're connected to my senses, so things I see and hear can get transmitted through them. I was accidentally sending people pictures whenever I was focusing on things too much, right when it started."

"Impossible to share, though." Togusa shakes his head, automatically puts a hand on the back of his head and scratches, as if he's suddenly itchy just thinking about what's in his head. "I don't know if they're self-propogating, but they're entirely contained in my brain tissue. So. Sorry, couldn't share with somebody else."

"At least that's one thing you don't have to worry about - tiny machines infecting everyone around you and submitting them to be your slaves."

Yoon-sung was talking general scary robot fiction here, especially given that there might be problems that may occur with tiny mind machines. Although there might be other problems to worry about even if the technology they have these days was not a match with tiny mind machines.

"The biggest worry I would have is if they are hackable, but since it's not a technology we have yet, it won't be that big of a concern right now. And if they are transmitting things through phones and computers...."

He tapped his fingers on Diniah's head, the cat flicking her tail but otherwise use to the treatment. She also reaches out with her paw again, but this time to touch the hand closest to her. Yes, that was an invitation for skritches.

"In my opinion, I think what you have are neural interface. They are probably made for the instant human/data interactions that people dream of in some sci/fi stories, and probably should be part of some kind of hookup with like an AI gun or something similar."

"Oh, damn, Other-Togusa's conniving plan for world domination is foiled," Togusa dryly mutters. He takes the offer and starts skritching the very fluffy cat now that she's warmed up to him.

Togusa frowns, and he admits, "That was actually one of the first things somebody brought up. That somebody could piggyback off my net connection, but I have no clue how that would even work," he shrugs his shoulders. He hasn't thought about the big picture, the possibility that people could use it to see what he sees. Or even manipulate what he sees.

"But you're likely right about the interface properties. Maybe to those tanks I saw? Other similar machinery?"

"Sorry, looks like he needs a different plan."

Dinah purrs at the attention, leaning into his hand and fuzzy paws curling and Yoon-sung tsks, muttering something in Korean at the cat about how spoiled she was.

"Wifi hacking isn't that hard to do. If you don't have a protection grid up in place, someone can hook into that and then go to town, but that all depends if they know about the nanites. They might think they are hopping onto a phone or something instead."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Lingering Worries

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject