[SESSION id=0.11]: Parse Objects
Eleven
╭─phyllo@Ω in ~ via > 0.0.b
╰─ω userdbctl --limit 12 --first -1 --essential | ~/usetable.sh -f ~/users
| id | user | perms | age | giv | fam | pro |
| -- | ----------- | -------- | ---------------- | --- | --- | --------- |
| -1 | phyllo | 7F7F7F7F | 0FA7B4FFCA320000 | | | Jazz.Moon |
| 0 | rose | FFFFFFFF | 0FA7B4FFCD910073 | | | |
| 3 | elia.gideon | FF7F7F7F | 0FA7B4FFAA320000 | | | lynae |
| 4 | nihil.nalia | 7FFF7F7F | 0FA7B4FFAA320000 | | | aeluin |
| 5 | ayuna.nara | 7F7FFF7F | 0FA7B4FFAA320000 | | | linna |
| 6 | aria.rialta | 7F7F7FFF | 0FA7B4FFAA320000 | | | sini |
| 7 | lynae | FF7F7FFF | 0FA7B4FFBA320000 | | | rose |
| 8 | sini | FF7F7FFF | 0FA7B4FFBA320000 | | | rose |
| 9 | linna | 7FFFFF7F | 0FA7B4FFBA320000 | | | rose |
| A | aeluin | 7FFFFF7F | 0FA7B4FFBA320000 | | | rose |
| B | aidan | 3F3F3F3F | 0FA7B4FF0A320000 | | | rose |My eyes glazed over, staring at the impossible. Many times over impossible. So tremendously impossible it was unfathomable. Not simply that there was a userId=-1, but that the account's progenitor was Jazz.Moon. That was to say nothing of the divine-level permissions and ages attached to each of the first ...
Why were there only eleven accounts?
I ran a second query, starting at a random userId. Twelve results as expected. I ran another query starting with userId=0 and got eleven. And one more at userId=3, returning twelve again.
What was happening?
Pushing myself from in front of garden, I stood and left Jazz working. I needed something to drink, and I still couldn't speak properly. She would understand if she looked at the screen and checked the history. She would come and comfort me.
The kitchen counter had several things that hadn't been there earlier. How deeply focused on my work had I been that I didn't notice Jazz leaving the room? When had it even happened. I investigated the items, curiosity overwhelming as I tried to avoid thinking about what I had just seen.
A note and several bottles.
Only if you want them. I'm not asking you to. I'm offering. I have connections with the pharmaceuticals divisions, and they owe me so many favours it's obscene.
If you decide you want this, big bottle three times per cycle. Small bottle three times per cycle. Yellow bottle before bed time. Green bottle when you wake up. White bottle twice per cycle.
You're not an idiot. You can read what's in them and figure out what I'm offering. It'll do wonders for your self-esteem.
An anti-androgen. Oestrogen. Progesterone. A multi-vitamin. A directed supplement. She was offering me something I understood, she was right. But could I actually accept them?
"You need another cup of tea, love?" Jazz's voice was soft so as not to startle me. How hadn't I heard her approach? I didn't bother trying to speak, choosing to nod. "Perfect. As the note says, it's an offer, not a command or demand. But from what I know of you, cross-codes, and life, I'm betting you want them."
The clock on the wall showed almost ninety degrees after dark. I picked up all the bottles and moved them to the washroom, setting them on a tray next to Jazz's own collection of supplements, then returned to the kitchen. She was smiling.
"I thought so," she said gently. "So that table of users. Fascinating stuff." She was leading me, knowing I couldn't answer. "Who or what is Rose? What's going on with those timestamps? If there are beings with permissions like that, why do we talk about the sectors instead of them. Why only four sectors if there are eleven accounts?" She paused, waiting for me to nod, so I obliged. "Why only eleven accounts? What's happening there?"
My voice wouldn't allow me to sigh, but I breathed out slowly, acknowledging that she'd hit every point that I was confused about, with the exception of one.
The kettle clicked. When had she started it? Jazz poured two more cups of tea. "This is our last one for the night, love. Then bed. Can't have you burning yourself out on our second night together."
We returned to the office, and I stared at the list. It said so much and so little all at once. What could I get from the system if I adjusted some. Not a lot. A directed attack.
╭─phyllo@Ω in ~ via > 0.0.b
╰─ω user probe -li Antella
username: Lawrence.A
userid: 2107101987
╭─phyllo@Ω in ~ via > 0.0.b
╰─ω userdbctl --limit 1 --first 2107101987 --vital | ~/usetable.sh -f ~/users
| user | age | sex | code | pro | h | w | p | flags |
| ---------- | -------- | --- | ---- | --- | --- | -- | -- | -------- |
| Lawrence.A | 40150140 | M | F | | 168 | 70 | 87 | A2C447F0 |I tapped Jazz on the shoulder, and she moved to have a look. "Honey, I knew you were a cross-code. I didn't need a workstation to tell me that." I tapped the age. "If it's on the same scale as the others, that tells us a lot, but you're not getting much further than where you're at if you don't come up with something more useful."
╭─phyllo@Ω in ~ via > 0.0.b
╰─ω user probe -li Jazz.Moon
username: Jazz.Moon
userid: 2106904271
╭─phyllo@Ω in ~ via > 0.0.b
╰─ω userdbctl --limit 1 --first 2106904271 --vital | ~/usetable.sh -f ~/users
| user | age | sex | code | pro | h | w | p | flags |
| --------- | -------- | --- | ---- | --------- | --- | -- | -- | -------- |
| Jazz.Moon | 40B729C0 | F | F | Halo.Star | 160 | 58 | 75 | B2C22F31 |It was all just datapoints. More information made more sense of the system. What were those flags about? None of Jazz's notes mentioned anything about them. Some of the numbers did make sense in context. h must be height, though the units were unfamiliar. w was likely weight. But the rest was just data.
Except for Halo Star. A beautiful name for a progenitor. I tried to recall if Jazz or Lyra had ever told me about their progenitor. Nothing came to mind.
"Can you make any real sense of it, comparing yours with mine?" Her silk voice was relaxation as it soaked in. I shook my head. Only partially false. "How far apart," she noted, tapping at the age column, "do you suppose that makes us? I know I'm older, but how much."
I held up my hands. One. Two. Three. One hundred twenty-three cycles. Same supercycle.
"So my generation anniversary is on cycle one hundred fifty-seven. Delightful." Not excitement. Almost teasing. "Next question." Her finger tapped Halo.Star, then moved up and tapped the empty space where my progenitor should've been. "Why do you suppose no one's here? It can't be SIGTERM or Halo would be gone too."
What did I think? I thought it was too much to try to deduce in a single night. My shoulders moved of their own accord, a shrug of dissatisfaction more than anything else.
"Then I suppose we have no choice, Miss Thorn." She stood and took my hand. "We leave it till morning and hope we can find some new information about any of it."
As I stood, I put my hand on top of her head and measured the distance from the top of hers to the top of mine and held it out to show her. "Eight," I whispered, not wanting to strain my voice. "Of whatever those units are."
"You can read some of it then." She poked my midsection several times. "Well, that's something." After a moment, she pulled me close. "Stop talking, okay. Let your voice rest. You'll have plenty of talking to do tomorrow." She smiled.
She looked over to my cup. Still mostly full.
"Drink up. It's cuddle time, love."
Inspection
"Antella!" Even Even shouted from the front of the office as I stepped into the lift. I held the door as they approached at a near sprint, nearly bowling me over. "Thanks! I was hoping to chat on the way up."
I didn't speak, simply nodded at them. My throat was still a bit sore from the previous night.
"So I met your cousin!" I blushed at their words, nodding again. "She's a real cutie. Don't get me wrong. Not my type. But I could see why someone might like her." Surely Even was just teasing me. Surely they knew. "Why didn't you tell me you had family?"
My noncommittal shrug went a long way to answering. Of course, they read a lot into it.
"No, that makes sense," they smiled. "You know she's dating someone from TERRA Central? Some big fancy sysadmin." They shivered. "That woman gives me the creeps. But if my lady friend is interested in spending time out, then I'll live."
A light smirk tightened my lips. I had to fight off the laughter. Once I had my breath, I nodded, putting a hand to my chest.
"It's not just me? Thank Cyphera for that." They put a hand on my shoulder. "Still want to get together for supper with you and your lady, though."
Right. I'd almost forgotten that. "She and I are leaving for a business trip," I croaked out, the little bit of my voice I had left a rasp. "Perhaps when we get back."
Even put a hand on my mouth. "Wow. Uh. You sound sick. Maybe rest that throat. I'll let everyone know not to bother you pal."
ST:
> No work this cycle. No wall building. No hunting the Princess.
> Focus on one thing and only one thing.
>
> Look friendly. You'll understand in about twenty degrees.The message glowed peacefully as I sat at my workstation. I wasn't too worried over it. If there was to be something odd going about, the least I could do is set myself up for success and poke around in a secondary tty for a few cycle ticks.
Each of my tty heads sported different coloured text. It was the easiest way to flag for myself that something was wrong. Terminal green on black for the primary. Flat grey on black for the secondary. Crimson on black for another. There were eight more. Then the emergency tty. Red background. Black text. It was mostly just for show, but it did its job.
I loaded into crimson text and immediately set to work. I couldn't do much, but I could rapidly switch back to tty1 with a hotkey. What I wanted was a broader view of the system flags. That would hopefully get me somewhere. I set a script running to collect a representative sample and swapped back to my primary.
ST:
> Fine. A little bit of work is fine.
> I'll be transferring that to `rosegarden` when it finishes.
> Now. Seriously. No more work.
LT:
> Is this a surprise of some sort?
ST:
> Yes. Or rather. Something like that. Now. Do you trust me, Lillian?
LT:
> To my inevitable `SIGTERM`. Probably further.
ST:
> Good girl.The window blinked closed and left me wondering just how closely she could watch what I was up to. Not that I had much time to really consider it.
"Hey, you," Miss Cloud leaned into the door. "Come with me. You need to look respectable."
Still not fully able to speak, I raised a brow, standing as I did.
"Right. Even told me about the voice. Some higher ups are coming." She grabbed my wrist and led me through the office. "They are doing something of a surprise inspection. I got a message from that friend of yours warning me about it."
Ah. That made sense. But that didn't explain Miss Cloud's behaviour.
"She said that you'd be a mess if left to your own devices, so I'm taking you aside and fixing what I can." We arrived at her office, and she shoved me in, closing the door behind herself as she followed me in. "For the purposes of this inspection, you are to only speak if you must. I'll answer for you. But that'll do no good if your face looks like that."
Not certain what she meant, I frowned. She pointed me to a mirror. I looked like I had only just gotten out of bed. Fair point.
"Sit. I'll clean you up, brush your hair, and make sure you look halfway human." She breathed a heavy sigh. "I wonder sometimes why I think you're worth it, Miss Thorn. But still."
Her hands started working at a package of some sort. Eventually she pulled out an odd smelling white cloth. She ran it over my face, rubbing vigorously. It reminded me of something I couldn't place. After she finished scrubbing me, she showed me the cloth. Covered in brown black and red.
"Tell your girlfriend, Miss Thorn, to show you how to properly remove makeup. Please." She retrieved a small bottle from a drawer on the far side of her desk. Splashing some of its contents on her hands, she began messing with my hair. "I can't do much with this, but it won't be a rats nest. Consider growing it out. There's no regulation against it."
Once she finished, I had another look in the mirror. I looked almost human. Not the tired wreck of a few minutes ago. Not the ghast I was accustomed to seeing in the mirror.
"Thank you," I whispered.
"Indeed," Miss Cloud pulled me toward the door of her office. "Now. Shut up. From here forward, you say nothing unless you must."
As we stepped back onto the main floor, four people in fine suits stepped into the office space and looked around. One of them was vaguely familiar. The other three could have been anyone, and I wouldn't have been able to point them out. Eventually they spotted Miss Cloud and me, then proceeded to walk out direction.
"Miss Rain Cloud," the one I almost recognised was the first to speak. "Good to see you again. We're here for a surprise inspection."
"Of course you are, doll," she smiled at the person. "Do what you must. I was just finishing my regular one-on-one with our ace." She was a good liar. We never met one-on-one unless something was wrong. "The fine looking soul I have here is the famed ace of TERRA Transverse."
They bowed their head in my direction. "Terribly sorry to hear about your accident. I hope you're feeling better." I nodded a bit too quickly. "If you don't mind, we can start with you."
"Well, our dear ace has a minor illness. Struggling to speak, but I'm happy to walk you through any questions you have." Quick and efficient. "Send your thugs on to do their business, and we can chat if you like."
"Your office, then?" Miss Cloud nodded. The inspector waved a hand, and the other three left us. "Excellent. Let's get through this as smoothly as possible." They looked at me. "Come along, A. This won't hurt. Much."
The inspector sat in Miss Cloud's normal seat, so we took the two seats opposite them. They were silent for a long time. Just waiting for something. Their eyes grazed the room like some manner of lazy cow seeking the greenest grass. Not quite bored, but not exactly interested.
"A." It was as much greeting as accusation. "Why just a letter? I've seen the requisition reports. I know you have a whole name. But I'm not a monster. So tell me about that."
Miss Cloud's hand was in front of me instantly, a sign not to speak. "It's a perfectly fine letter. We found out recently that our ace had somewhat of a negative history with family and preferred a minor divergence. Perfectly within protocol."
"True enough." They scratched something down in a pad I hadn't seen them produce from their jacket. "How long have you worked for TERRA Transverse, A? Were you always here on floor seventeen?"
"I scouted A personally from [city[3]] fifteen supercycles ago. As you know, I tend to keep my teams with me." Miss Cloud smiled wryly. "Unless they get sniped and find themselves at TERRA Central doing investigative nonsense."
"Come now, Rain. That was eighteen supercycles ago." They groaned. "Can't we let it go?"
"We can let it go when you stop using these inspections as an excuse to scout talent." I'd never seen or heard Miss Cloud growl before. She was tense all over. "If that's what's going on here, then find your kilogram of talent and get back to Central. But this one is off-limits."
"So I've been told." They looked disheartened. "Do you have any idea how many heads at Central told me taking A would get me fired?"
"I know of at least one. That woman is terrifying." She shivered next to me before meeting my gaze. "Apparently they know each other, she and A. But A won't tell me how."
My shrug caught a laugh from both of them.
"Now that you know the worst that can happen is a sharp reprimand, can we loosen up?" The inspector smiled. "All three of us?"
"Fine, but A really does have a sore throat." Miss Cloud gave a devilish look. "I think something to do with a late night with the girlfriend."
The inspector snickered for several seconds. "I think we've all been there. Alright. Let's do this properly. Greetings A. My name is Kin Loyal, though I'm anything but."
I leaned close to Miss Cloud. "Can you ask them if they grew up in [city[3]]? They look familiar." My throat burned against the tearing effort.
"Not that I don't know the answer, Kin, but do you happen to hail from three?" Miss Cloud sounded bored. Apparently satisfied.
"Born and raised. I was an isolated education facilitator for several supercycles before being recruited —" They stopped mid-sentence, staring at me. "Oh. Oh this is rich. So that's what happened to the 'Why-Child'."
"'Why-Child'?" Miss Cloud hadn't heard the nickname. "That's a new one. Socially awkward, certainly. Possibly corrupt? Sure. But what's that about. 'Why-Child'."
My face heated with each cycle tick. I was ready to get out.
"Your ace was the problem child of the era. Never knew when to stop asking questions." They grinned broadly, then squinted. "Oh. Apologies, A. I shouldn't speak of you as though you're not in the room. I'm glad to see you're looking well. Especially given, well."
They were the only one from the isolated education facility who offered condolences when my progenitor SIGTERMed. They were the educator who seemed least offended by 'why', though they didn't offer much better by way of 'because'.
"Now it makes so much more sense that everyone is protecting you," they said. There was something like awe in their voice. "Knowing how and when to keep asking 'why' is the perfect skillset for the position of tracert. And that explains why Moon was so insistent I couldn't bother you. That woman is terrifying."
I nodded. Jazz was terrifying in her efficiency, her precision. She was something special. If I was the best, she was in an entirely different division.
"Alright. That's enough. You can get back to your desk."
My whole body relaxed as the door closed behind me, and I made my way across the space. I did what I could to ignore everything going on. There was a lot going on. Miss Cloud's voice sounded across the shared office space. I think she was calling Even in for questioning.
The rest of the workcycle was occupied with the inspection. I was overjoyed to find Jazz waiting for me. Skulking in the shadows.