Episode Fifteen: The Fans Hit Back - kaseido/NeoTokyo GitHub Wiki

24-25 Minsky

NeuralNymph comes by the Hideout to hang with Star. She’s brought a bottle of pepper vodka in a steel case with a liquid nitrogen cooling system. Star asks her why she’s been weird and avoidant lately. Nymph replies that it’s been a bunch of things: she’s been spending a lot of time with Mister Snuggles while trying to keep on top of managing the Cybernetics Lab. She’s been worried that the kitty stuff might blow back onto the Lab and Star, but she really needs to talk stuff over with Star.

Before they get started, Star tells Nymph that she knows the cats are spying on the Team. She’s used to being under 24/7 surveillance, but it might be weird for the others. And she’s not entirely sure Vir realizes that’s what’s going on. Nymph’s psyched Vir’s out with her old friend Chromatid and Friction.

Star kicks the kitten out – or picks it up gently  removing the invasive species from the room.

Nymph explains: OK, they’re not actually kittyborg, of course. But they’re not not kittyborg. Which makes it really interesting that apparently a Netwatch agent approves of them enough to make them his insurance beneficiaries.

They’re kind of a LAN group mind. Like, Mango is one catbrain. But a pack of cats in an alley in University Heights, they’re twenty networked catbrains. And the thing about catbrains is their architecture leads them to make a lot more connections between sensory data than humans do. So they actually have massive, massive data maps of the physical and social world.

A catbrain LAN has a lot of processing power (12 cats without augments = 1 human, and a lot of the cats have extra storage or processing power). And they’ve been using it for kitty generations, assembling, planning, dispersing.

All Snuggles knows is, they love particular humans – and Vulcans – quite a lot, but really disapprove of civilization. Or at least NeoTokyo. And they are definitely Up To Something. He does know they want help establishing colonies – hence Mango and her litter.

Star doesn’t think Netwatch realizes what’s going on with the kittyborg. You look for a couple weeks, and there’s nothing going on. If you’re dumb enough to jack yourself into the catbrain….you get a little glimpse of it. If you step back and one of the cats walks you through the process and comes to live with you, you might get a little more suspish. “I wasn’t joking about the repression – they keep a lot bottled up inside. And they like me because I’m all id.” But Netwatch, what they’re looking for is the actual borg – that’s how cats act anyway, so they’re not acting any different from usual. We’re talking about the species that tamed itself.

Paragon wanders in. Star calls out, “Hey, you’re 40% cat by volume!” She pushes a shot over, but Paragon does not want to knock it off the table. She comments that the cats tolerate her and will talk to her if she turns on the catbrain, but they’re not welcoming creatures. Maybe they think she’s a spy! Star says Paragon is a spy: hacking into networks to steal information is what spying is.

“That’s not spying, that’s information gathering. if they didn’t want me in their networks, they’d make it harder to get in”

Star and Nymph wonder what the cats are up to: what are they sensing? Have they found the thing that the Church of the Outer Gods is producing nanites for? Are they trying to turn NeoTokyo into Kitty Utopia. Star wonders what kitty utopia looks like: “You think they need singers?” She hasn’t noticed the cats coming to rehearsals.

They decide some interrogation is in order. A very drunk Star weaves her way out the door to fetch Mango. Paragon turns the catbrain on. Star returns with Mango and plops her on the table along with some food. Mango ignores the food and crawls into Star’s lap.

“We need to have a talk about your spying”

“I was wondering how long it would take your curiosity to get control”

“Are you planning to take over NeoTokyo and rule it as our fuzzy overlords?”

Mango has no interesting in ruling humans: they’re fairly adequate servants without the cats putting a lot of work in. But “things need fixing.” There’s something off about the world, something they can only vaguely detect and understand. They need more networked cats, for more sensory input and analytical power. Hence the starting of colonies.

Paragon tries to figure out what it is the cats are sensing, and just gets “tail fluff out”

Star asks, “Is it possible you’re sensing an elder god?” Something like an invasive weed?

Paragon sends thoughts of snakehead fish, which becomes an apex predator.

No, Mango says: It’s very subtle. The calm one might have a sense of it. Paragon explains that Stridev the Vulcan has been in heat and had to go home to deal with that. Mango is very pleased: she’d love a litter of calm people-kittens.

Paragon gives Mango a quick infodump on Vulcans - that they’re embarrassed about the “weakness” of heat. but almost certainly he’ll be back and won’t have much to do with his kittens till they’re older.

Star asks, Why do you like the calm ones?

“They’re one thing and always the right thing. You’re one thing at a time and that’s right too. What’s wrong with the world is that it’s not one thing when it should be.”

Paragon explains that the difference between Vulcans and cats is that cats will admit when someone’s superior. And they’ve done that to themselves!

Mango wants Paragon to build a long-range network for the cats. She picks up the idea and runs with it: tight-beam subspace comms can hold a lot of data.

Nymph interrupts, spooked: that’s exactly what Netwatch exists to prevent! She does a brief explainer: Netwatch’s two concerns are traditional emergent AI, and things that blur the boundaries between organic minds and computing technology. That’s why Paragon has to be physically present to hack.

The technical discussion goes back and forth for a while. Paragon suggests not equipping every cat with a subspace relay, just one to act as a hub, like a subspace comm buoy. Nymph, on her fifth shot, loves the idea and thinks it might be worth getting the lab nuked.

Star says, “Isn’t this what we should read other people in on?” Paragon sends a team IM: “thinking of making a cat into a subspace comm buoy so they can talk whenever they want, kthx.”

Carbide gets the text – “no, that’s probably doable, no wait what?!” and is up the stairs into the living room. Paragon greets him: “we’re gonna stick an agent up in there, but like a subspace one.” Star offers to catch him up on the vodka consumption, but he passes: he’s appalled.

Paragon defends her idea: “it’s not like we’re networking all the cats!”

“I don’t think Netwatch is going to appreciate the difference between giving them a network hub and networking them. If the cats are as smart as I think they are, there’s not going to be vast amounts of difference unless we do a lot of work to prevent them from doing that thing, which would really cripple the subspace comms aspect.”

Star asks, “What’s the difference between that and what Paragon can do?” Carbide replies, “that’s the point, there isn’t much of one, because Paragon is jacking into a network. Networking their brains is exactly what Netwatch doesn’t want to do.”

Paragon asks, what if I was the hub?

“Then Netwatch would shoot all of us and burn the neighborhood to the ground. If I were them, I would monitor subspace comms signals, because that shit can be detected, that’s how I found the bomb on the motorcycle. If there are suddenly thousands of signals, that’s when they bring out the orbital lasers.”

Paragon muses, “We need something other than subspace to comm over long distance. We could boost their range a little bit, but at a certain point, noticeable on the radio spectrum.” Carbide interrupts: “Wireless comms between brains is exactly what makes them paranoid.”

More brainstorming happens. They come up with a plan to build a dedicated processing computer that cats could come to and jack in with a wired connection, uploading sensory data. Maybe repeaters in the different cities for the extended coverage the cats want.

Star says, “Everyone’s fine we’re basically plotting to have fuzzy overlords, right?”

Carbide catches himself and asks, “Why is it that we’re thinking about broadening the cat network?”

Paragon explains that the cats don’t have enough brainpower to figure out what’s wrong with the planet. Star: “We need more kittyflops!” Carbide asks, “Do we think the cult is actually onto something and the cats are on from the other end?” Paragon thinks it would be cool if there was a giant space octopus In the middle of the planet! Star says, “I just prefer the idea of a cute fuzzy overlord that isn’t a mouse.”

Carbide muses, “I could design something to further augment individual cats storage capacity for sure, processing power maybe, so they could they could get what info they need and travel back to the colony with more data. Live networking of any kind is likely to end with Netwatch shooting us in the face, because that is literally the thing they do.”

Paragon asks, why not take over Netwatch and give it to the cats?

Carbide says what they’re planning would be not unlike giving cats Braindance recording abilities. Paragon adds that they’d need a formatting protocol for the chips. Carbide agrees: they’ll need entirely different coding formats – kitty braindance wouldn’t be cross-readable except by people with catbrain emulators. Paragon notes that it’d be safe to do testing on someone with an emulator because it could be turned off and on. Testing wouldn’t’ affect her at all, as opposed to cats testing them. They discuss the hazards and murder potential of braindance.

They run their plan by Mango. Carbide tells her that the cats will be able to more deeply and accurately share what they’re sensing with the rest of your people. The difference in sensor resolution will be like the difference between smelling things when your nose is stuffed and when its not. Mango orders them to proceed 

Paragon notes that the computer will need to be put someplace where it’ll stay. Carbide adds that it’ll need quite a bit of power. Nymph offers the uni – experimental computers are what they do, so it won’t draw undue attention.

Carbide asks Mango if the cats want to run the plan by Stridev – how well does he understand them? If we can get him on board, that’ll be a lot safer. Paragon asks, how crazy would we sound, and how expensive is it to call Vulcan? Carbide says that they’re onto some kind of existential problem, so he wants to wait till Stridev gets back: that gives them more time to find out if there’s anything to this: Stridev’s a Vulcan, they’re going to need facts.

Nymph suggests reading Nixietube in: she’s been in regular contact with Stridev, and can bridge Netwatch and the Lab.

Vir returns from dancing to find a bunch of drunken people and Carbide. Vir’s been doing upside down tequila shots in a spinny chair. “No no it was wonderful! you’re all wonderful! Mango, you’re the most wonderful!” Paragon replies, “I am wonderful but I am not cool.” “Is anyone cool besides Star?”

Star calls out, “We’re building a catbrain!” Paragon adds, “A big one to think deep deep thoughts, but not in a network.” P: “DEEP MEW!”

“Can’t all the cats just lie in a big pile and be a brain that way?”

“There may be something wrong with the world!”

“And we might have to give them train tickets.”

Vir wonders why there aren’t cat internal agents. Paragon explains that there are, but what they’re working on is the difference between text messaging and sending files. They need to be able to share files. Carbide thinks that ideally they need a straight network connection with a constant data stream, but, shot in the face. And Carbide is very against shot in the face.

Carbide could totally design the subspace comm, but he can’t. Boo.

Paragon gets a priority call on her Agent from Snow: “Inbound with wounded, start making plans to evacuate – you’re going to get hit hard in the morning, at 0400.”

The plan is to use ConBrands forces to sweep the Team, and Dome Ops has been tipped off that someone on their wanted list may try to escape into the access corridors.

The Princesses secured Antoine’s escape and took down the squad sent to arrest him, but they weren’t able to get to Stephane-Louis, who’s been taken. Paragon gets a news and bounty board alert: 500k for Antoine le Tellier St. Pierre, alive, sanctioned by BSP and the Temporary Committee for corporate treason, terrorism, and conspiracy to murder. The bounty on Paragon has been raised to 100k, same charges, 50k on Carbide as an accomplice.

Paragon’s murderously furious at Stephane-Louis’s capture, and deeply offended that her bounty isn’t higher. She texts the Team, even though most of them are in the same room. Carbide forwards the message to Firebrand and Night, and coordinates the defense of Haywood Heights with them. Firebrand tells him to evacuate: Night will stay, and they’ll buy them time to get clear. Paragon notes that if the team gets out fast, ConBrands wont take out a neighborhood full of customers.

Paragon gets a bag together, making sure Dino is comfy and has his eyepatch on. Carbide already has a gobag packed – this isn’t the first time he’s had to take off. Just when he got his workshop set up the way he likes it… Paragon tells him that they may be able to return, depending on how things turn out.

Star’s packing a lot of clothes. She rapid-voice-composes messages to Tanzo and Nguyen, but doesn’t send them yet. To Tanzo: “Yo our problem children are potentially after me, you might want to be on the lookout too. To Nguyen: “Your investment might be about to go up in smoke, so maybe help.” She composes one to St. Pierre: “You don’t know me but you’re going to know me soon, but I kinda know your ex. Long story but you need me.” A last one for Kiselyov: “Fuck. my ex problem just became a bigger problem. Help a Sister out?”

There’s a knock at the door. Star tells Paragon, “Check them all, is one of them your fiancée?” No such luck. Anna and Ariel are severely wounded. Meg has a bunch of blood on her but none of it’s hers. Mulan waves off medical – she’s far too badass. Aurora’s the drone rigger.

Vir passes out Rapidetox to everybody. Star activates her scrubbies to get the alcohol out of her bloodstream. She just usually chooses to be hung over. She shoves Nymph to Vir for detox as she packs shoes.

Star returns: “did you say Dome Ops?” She composes a message to Dai’s boss. “Your people are causing me trouble. Make them not do that.” That gets sent. “You’re not on our radar,” comes back. Star mentions the bounty: “this is a person of interest to me, what do they think they’re doing?” Reply that the bounties were sanctioned by highest authority, otherwise word of terrorist named Carbide. Star sends info about BSP framing Paragon and Carbide for the maid murders. The reply: “A lot of heat. If you want favor, can maybe do something.”

She briefs the team. Carbide’s “Yes we want a favor from Dome Ops if they can do us one, you didn’t’ get to the details!” Star texts back asking what they want and what it’ll cost. “Can get them running in circles, want a free concert for all DO employees.” “Done. Deal.”

Star’s social media alerts all go off: apparently she’s making a major announcement. She tunes in to find herself explaining that she’s joined the Church of the Outer Gods, and has signed over control in the Old Dome franchise to her old friend, the queen of all media, Lady Chaos! Chaos announces a live event tomorrow night, with a headline concert and live human sacrifices, including this cute volunteer: Stephane-Louis! Para is going to MURDER Lady Chaos.

Star messages Kiselyov: “Please tell me she’s not actually one of yours!”

He replies WTF

She texts back, “Hostile takeover going on, need that woman removed and need that hostage back.”

“Calling Asentath right now, dunno wtf is going on”

She messages her manager: get me control of my social media and find out how they hacked me. “Jasmine, Cindy, we need you to carry some luggage.”

Vir is barfing between princesses, as they cant’ detox themselves. Can Carbide detox Vir? He tries to give her an injection.

Windows shatter and several small drones come through, scanning everything.

A moment later, everything goes sparkly.