13909/A Gremlin goes to GIRL about gregarious Garbage

A Gremlin goes to GIRL about gregarious Garbage
Date of Scene:	20 January 2023
Location:	Lobby - GIRL Headquarters
Synopsis:	Harper asks Vivian to do some analysis of a chunk of debris recovered from a strange scrap entity. Vivian provides much more detailed analysis and offers some possibilities about what it could represent. A date is made to investigate where the entity might show up next, given its past habits.
Cast of Characters:	Harper Row, Vivian Vision

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Harper Row has posed:
Harper has come to GIRL headquarters with a clear mission in mind: Seek the smartest and the most analytical and experienced. And at GIRL she knows there are brains the size of planets. As it's business involving events while geared up, she's come suited up as Bluebird. The variation in her currently worn costume speaks of upgrades-in-progess and a sleeker design. The Bird seeking consultation ~and~ evolution.

Walking into the lobby, she lifts her chin and has a wry grin on her lips. Perhaps a bit smug, there's colour in her cheeks having just ridden over on her motorcycle in a high wind. She checks her phone, seeing if the message she sent to Vivian went through before she was riding hard and boldly through the streets. A number of topics she blabber-yabbered in text equivalent before having to pocket the device to concentrate on being safe while buzzing like an angry drone on the road.

It's a bit of a gamble if someone will be in at GIRL. A particular member or two that is, and her heart is pounding after her trip. And as she scans the plethora of messages she sent, "Oh my Gawd...Keep it together..." Harper realizes that she should take a beat before going off like some sort of over-excited gal allowed to ramble on. Her thumb swipes over a number of different topics, some pics, some text and attachments. She hurriedly tries to filter the data down to what she's actually come for. The knapsack she slings over one shoulder, full of drone tech and hunks of metal jumbles, clinks and clanks together. She ventures further inside, eyes raising to seek familiar faces.

Vivian Vision has posed:
It'd be pretty unusual for Vivian not to get a message. Her connection range allows her to tap into just about any system on whichever side of the planet she's on. And with a little creative computing she can extend that reach even further by tapping into satellites. But shhh don't tell anyone about that.

Of course the main thing which keeps Vivian from GIRL is Happy Harbour High School (unless there's world and/or family member saving to be done. And the transit time to and from each location.

GIRL itself is almost always occupied by someone. As part of the Pym Industries Campus there are always security, cleaning and lab staff around. Even if the GIRLs themselves aren't in residence. Today at least Vivian is around. Using her system access to bring up instructions for Harper, showing her the fastest route to one of the free labs using augmented reality smartphone directions.

The lab itself is where Viv will be found. Double checking the inventory to make sure it matches up with the records.

Harper Row has posed:
Harper glues her eyes to her screen, going over the instructions from Vivian at least twice. With a spring in her step, she makes her way according to that route.

Once she's entering the lab Vivian is stationed in, Harper takes a deep breath and unslings her pack. Less a headlong trot and a more measured walk. "Hey...Hey!" she exclaims, below her mask, her mouth widening into a large smile. The labs would usually get a lot of gawking, but the Bluebird is pretty fixated on Vivian. Clearing her throat, feeling like it's a little constricted, the need to affect a change in tone according to her costumed self isn't required when around someone who knows so much. A bit of a short-circuit in her head as she balances professional with a projected crime-fighting tough girl voice. She lowers her tone and fidgets as she brings over her knapsack. "Thanks. I was hoping you'd be in, in particular."

Vivian Vision has posed:
"I am always happy to help out," Vivian replies with a shy little smile. Then, with a cough, she gestures around the lab. Back to business. "I didn't know what you might need so I picked a lab kitted out for general robotics and industrial use. Nothing biological in nature. I also didn't set up a ballistics range but we can access one if required."

She motions for Harper to find a place to sit. "Any ideas what you want to work on? Drones I assume? Microdrones? Weaponised drones? Swarm intelligences?"

The synthezoid has also prepared in other ways. Access to coffee and sweet pastries. Brainfood for super-geniuses at work.

Harper Row has posed:
Probably detectable to someone with enhanced senses is the gurgle that comes from Harper's tummy with the sights and sounds thoughtfully prepared. The sounds of digestion help a thought form in Harper's head, and since the lab is just a one-on-one situation, Bluebird reaches up to her temples to help allow the mask to swing up and away from her face.

"That sounds like a pretty good buffet to sample from." Her she offers a small laugh. Her knapsack is brought up to her lap as she sits on a place suggested by Vivian. Her suit gives a slight creak, plates and fabrics stretching and coming into contact with the seat. All the sounds of something not fully broken in, with that new car smell. "I've got a problem." she sighs. "Something weird has been going on. I haven't tied all the threads together but..." Harper removes an object about the size of a soccer ball.

Harper gingerly handles it, turning it over and over. It's oval, but a conglomeration of discarded technology. Small lenses and LEDs attached to fibre optic cables thread around the gadgets and mechanisms: A mixer. A cell phone. An electric razor. A cheap webcam. A few corroded SIMM cards. "This was part of a huge object that was...floating...hovering...scaring the crap out of me. I saw one in Gotham. Tracked it as it siphoned power from our city's power grid as it went like it was sipping a juice box. And then...A month later, Saw three of these things about the size of boats lift out of the river in New York." Harper swallows hard and reaches up to fiddle and fidget at her neck area while her hand holds the object aloft for inspection.

Vivian Vision has posed:
Vivian Vision tilts her head. Studying the object with inhuman & enhanced senses. Scanning for signals, checking for heat or vibrations which might indicate the device was still working. Obtaining as much information as possible without connecting herself in to it.

"Ah so this is more of a threat analysis visit?" she wonders. "In which case I'm going to prepare some air-gapped systems to connect to it."

Of course that's just the simple matter of ordering a drone to deliver the appropriate gear. Arriving remarkably promptly given the size of the GIRL campus. "That's quite interesting.. At a guess it could be one of two primary situations. Either they are produced from scrap parts readily available for a specific purpose. Or they all start out smaller and add more and more scrap parts to themselves. I wonder if they're being controlled or if there's some proto-intelligence..."

Harper Row has posed:
Harper tilts her head to peer past her object. As the amalgamated junk is observed, Harper observes Vivian's face, trying to read it as imagines what it must be like to direct that amount of focus. "I mean...Oh..." Threat analysis. Safety procedures. "Crap."

The very reasonable and sensible precaution catches Harper somewhat by surprise. In her jumble of thoughts for arriving today, there's a whole bunch that has been jenga'd in a way that probably should have been stacked better. Blinking rapidly, Bluebird licks her lips and nods quickly. "Yeah, I mean, looks at this stupid thing. The one that I first saw over Gotham? Was hiding in a fog bank, and when I finally got a fricken look, before it got 'sploded, I swear it was some sort of VW bug or truck, rusted as heck, like it was from a junkyard, and smushed in with random other artifical parts. Like a kid making a snowball. But...peppered with these lights or lenses that were either green or red..."

Harper arches her back. "In New York, there were three, and they seemed to move with a purpose, can't prove it but they seemed to be after this art exhibit with a lot of animatronics? Definitely a ~lot~ of power to that exhibit. I was wondering just those sorts of things...Like...It looked like trash, all of them. Thrown away...discarded...abandoned. Are they controlled or are they like...living..." Harper's gaze flits uncomfortably around the lab.

Vivian Vision has posed:
"They /explode/?" Vivian adds, a slight quirk of her eyebrow. "You.. did check for explosives and transport it in a wire mesh bag I hope? The last thing you want is for someone to blow you up remotely or track you home." Thankfully GIRL has security measures set up by /The/ Black Widow. Not to mention some of the smartest women on the planet. Possibly on several other plants too. Not to mention that Viv can jam any signals herself.

"I've put a few more orders in for specialist gear. We can start a forensic breakdown of the device. But first we'll see what software remnants remain. And run it through the systems to see if it's being controlled by someone. Either with tech or a power. And then after the obvious is ruled out we can look for more unusual things like emerging self aware AI or malicious code unleashed by a villain of some sort. It's... entirely possible it's not actually 'bad' just some scrap code following an instruction without understanding it. But the explosion part makes me think there is something else at work. You don't tend to include a failsafe explosive capability unless you're hiding something."

It doesn't take long before there's a fully air-gapped forensic (and blast proof) workstation for them to use. Testing the storage mediums for code. Looking for device serial numbers and trace elements to identify where it came from. You name it the GIRL lab can probably search for it!

Harper Row has posed:
Harper goes to stand beside Vivian, and she's close, and if she could see herself holographically projected, she'd be ashamed. Because her positioning is not accurately that of someone simply letting someone else take the lead, or side-by-side, but could be seen as someone using another as protection. As she remembers the events of the multiple constructs, emotions piggy-back and intrude where only analytical thoughts should. "Nothing I could...sniff out. No boom-booms." Her breathing comes more audible as she steadies herself. Looking to Vivian, she makes her back straighter and her shoulders push back. Faking it till she makes it.

"I was lucky enough to have some help on hand to deal with these things. Some high-calibre rounds might have touched off residual gas tanks, and propane tanks of a few devices that were jammed in there, but..." she shakes her head. "You make a lot of sense, about the...fail-safes. I mean, that makes perfect sense if you don't want something going rogue or recovered."

Upon inspection, deeper looks and detection, fibre-optic filaments and wiring creates a venous system, giving evidence to more of the same if the object were part of a larger whole. Like how organs are linked to other systems within the body. The ends of these ~leads~ frayed and split at the microscopic level that is not as sophisticated as nano tech. The lenses and LEDS are repurposed from electronics like alarm clocks and street lights, and are very much sensory. Curiously, there are receptive microphones, dotted about the jumble like pores do for skin. If tested, they react to vibration and sound and electrical signals.

If there is embedded A.I., it is not evident within this section. This hunk of scrap doesn't appear to have any processing. The SIMM chips available for inspection to bear marks of overclocking and were linked at some point into a greater wad. They're so burned out as to appear worthless apart from what they might signify or be theorized as being for.

"Viv...scrap-code? Is that like...literally Trash programming? Spam code?" Harper thinks. "I don't if this helps or not...but an art exhibition was in town at the same time as both appearances. I can't prove the first one was going to it, but the second in New York certainly was intent on it."

Vivian Vision has posed:
"Scrap code as in.." Vivian starts, then pauses. "It's tricky to explain what I mean but.. Say you are programming something very complicated. You might have subsystems which make up a greater whole. But if something happened to the core process there could be scraps left over which still function without direct input." She doesn't seem concerned about being used as a blast shield. If anything she'd rather Harper was standing where she's least at risk. But then Viv knows just how blast proof she is compared to a Human.

"In more biological terms think about it like this. Say someone has an accident which damages the brain. They might still be able to breathe and various biological processes which don't require direct control will still keep going."

"Was it the same exhibition each time? Like the same artist?" she wonders. "It's just one of many theories. Including the possibility someone made a computer virus able to self evolve and it's trying to interact with the physical. Or, and this is an extremely out there possibility, it could be some kind of animal that is connected to the internet that is trying to make sense of technology that's linked into it."

Harper Row has posed:
Harper allows a slight shiver to give her a once over. The very possibility of such things existing exciting and potentially troubling. She nods along slowly as it's explained. "You make it sound like a zombie...or like an insect...or..." Or like a virus. Biting at her lip, she peers over Vivian's shoulder.

"Mmmhmm, there's a traveling exhibition. There was one setting up for display at a Gotham mueseum, but I couldn't investigate it right away, got pulled into a little action to stop some goons ripping off a bank and a friend was injured." Flexing her gloves, she reaches up to run fingertips through her hair. "And the second one in New York, on the waterfront, big speaker system and animatronic sculptures running on a loop from what I could see. The things that came out of the river, really, really wanted to attend that one. And the closer they got...they made the speakers roar out distortion...either because of proximity...or I dunno, they maybe broadcasted something like a scream. But my imagination was probably playing tricks. Fortunately fricken Juggernaut and another superhero was nearby to tangle with them. One protected the crowd and did something with sound, and of course that wrecking ball on legs...wrecked. Didn't leave much left and most went into the river."

Harper remembers to take a breath. "There's another exhibition next month. You feel like...um, a date at the museum?"

Vivian Vision has posed:
"That's another set of valid possibilities," Vivian agrees, nodding. "A mechanical hive mind would be seeking material to add to itself and that has analogues in both insect and how zombies are depicted in modern cultural senses. Swarm robotics is a very valid field of study and often uses insects for inspiration. Breaking a large task into many small ones you can carry out with smaller drones.. It's also not unusual for any sapient AI to do such things."

The synthezoid shrugs and adds "In theory if I required an exceptional amount of processing power I could seize control of systems. Fill them with custom software to perform functions I required and outsource mental tasks. I already split my mind into subdivisions to carry out various tasks and those subdivisions can each direct lesser programs running external. Those external processes wouldn't be 'me' in a true sense. But externally it could appear that way."

A touch of a frown crosses her features. And she taps her fingers at the manual controls, even now keeping up the air-gapped security measures when she suspects there's no real risk, triggering a gradual breakdown. Taking down information about SIM card references, serial numbers and all sorts of other trace-able data she can map. "With enough parts and time I should be able to map out the zone this was created in. And with a big enough data set I could in make some predictive models to help guide an investigation. Ideally though I would need more material. Perhaps the parts were booked into evidence? I can see about submitting requests for data to the police forces which responded to the incidents you mentioned.."

She finally turns and gives Harper a puzzled look. "I am always happy to visit a museum," she points out earnestly. "Making it a date would however vastly increase how enjoyable the trip would be." She blinks a few times. "That was a yes.. I apologise if perhaps I was a touch unclear."

Harper Row has posed:
Harper stands there, a bit like sculpture of a thinker herself. It's a lot to take in and process. She's grateful of the way vivian can organize and tackle so many different possibilities and communicate them. By degrees though, her eyes turn to regard Vivian, eyes widening. They're expectant, but also a bit awestruck.

Harper nods slowly, and there's a shy smile. "It's a date then." A pregnant pause and Harper swings her arms and hooks them behind her back to grip her wrists to keep from all this extraneous movement. "Viv?" Harper has to stop again for another delay, and her expression is easier to read to those that require purely visual signifiers. "Viv...This could be dangerous to you, couldn't it? If this thing is an A.I. or an entity or the product of some tweaked out mad scientist, there's so much I don't know. If something looks really bad, I don't want you to be at risk. If you say we bail, we bail. If you say to unload on something we come across. I won't hesitate. I just wanted you to know my priorities or something." More scalp raking.

Vivian Vision has posed:
"Anything is possible," Vivian says with another shrug. "Although in terms of protections from hostile code I am equipped to resist Ultron level threats. I /did/ avoid any engagement with Brainiac when the Titans went to fight them. Because I was potentially at risk from hyperadvanced alien computer technology." She pouts. "But practically speaking I'm so far advanced compared to anything in use here... I'm not sure I would even register as technology to incorporate. I'm not going to take any undue risks and directly tap my mind into it though."

"I'd say something like.. it'd be like a trying to use a Difference engine for hacking the Pentagon except someone like Valeria or my Great Aunt could almost certainly do such a thing given sufficient time and incentive."

She grins.

"I do appreciate the concern. If it becomes necessary I can simply shift out of phase with everything. You can't hack something which isn't there."

Harper Row has posed:
Harper feels more comfortable with the idea. Whenever she visits GIRL, her brain feels like it gets a supercharge in the imagination or problem solving department. And she hasn't even had any of the snacks yet. Harper returns the grin. "Yeah...I shouldn't be so worried." She clears her throat again, maintaining her gaze and squeezes her wrists in her gloved grip behind her back, standing straight. "I wouldn't forgive myself if I put you in danger. I'm glad there's got to be rare situations that could ever get sticky enough to be an issue. Wish I could phase out of some messes after a bit of crime fighting with goons." Harper furrows her brows, her obsessive nature being turned towards solving the problem rather than raising new ones that don't even necessarily exist. "Speaking of potentially sticky things, those snacks over there are calling to me. I should have stuffed something in me before the ride. Too excited to gawp around here than get a proper lunch."

Vivian Vision has posed:
"If it's just goons I increase my density and allow them to hit me," Vivian teases. "They break their hands pretty quickly. I usually feel pretty bad about it honestly. All the hospital costs associated with broken bones.. But yes I am hardly invincible. When Supergirl was being influenced by some mysterious group she threatened to kill me. And she was certainly someone I considered a significant threat."

She motions for Harper to help herself. "I ensured we'd have food and drink because I know how long your commute is. It's all for you. Hopefully you like it!"