The Arachne System (SPIDERLIV 3)
- Thread starter open_sketch
- Start date
- Superhero
This is a comic-book setting, so realism need not apply. This arc is named "The Arachne System". I would not be at all surprised if the entire point of this whole bit is to get Athena to migrate completely and exclusively onto Liv's hardware. Or they could both migrate onto Athena's hardware... being a pair of cohabiting softwares remote-controlling a civilian-and-superhero to which they have a sentimental attachment would also seem to fulfil the concept. Then again, disassociation is bad, so it won't be going there...
So I could very easily see the major drama point of this thread being Athena's brain being destroyed and the consequences/means of that not actually killing her.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Oh for sure, I am just a roleplayer at heart, I tend to take the situations as presented at face value with little meta knowledge input. Played a lot of pathfinder in my time.
The Machine Man
- Location
- Ottawa
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Whatever
You dropped in front of the door and, with a thought, rang the doorbell. You felt the phone stop moving around, shifting place a moment, then start moving toward the door. A bit erratically.
The door opened a tiny bit, just a crack, and Phillip looked out, eyes wide.
"Hi, have you heard the Good Word of-"
The door slammed shut in your face.
"Hey, come on dude! You mind explaining what you're doing with that drone that probably did all those robberies?" you called through the door. "Arming the Amazon robots is really funny but it's kind of on the nose, isn't it?"
Silence.
"Some people, honestly." Athena whispered. "Justine is on her way."
"Thanks." you whispered back, considering what to do. You felt the phone move away from the door, not far, pausing for something. Then, very faintly, at the edge of the sense, you felt a spring coming into tension, components moving and shifting, the anticipation of a firing pin braced over a primer...
You threw yourself aside just in time for the first half-dozen rounds to burst through the door, sailing into the house opposite and skipping off the pavement. The next burst rattled out the window just a foot from your head, blind shots trying to hit where you might have gone as your ducked lower.
"Okay, not cool." you hissed. Once you start shooting a weapon in an urban area, you officially crossed the line. You grabbed the doorknob and pulled, tearing the lock through the doorframe just as your other limbs slammed into it hard enough to burst the hinges. As the door fell, you threw yourself forward, under the line of fire, a bullet skipping off the armour plate at your shoulder. Phillip was looking terrified, the most hillybilly tacticool AR-15 you'd ever seen gripped in white knuckles as he tried to backpeddle down the hall. He tripped over the crumpled rug and fell as you came up, and he fired two more shots wide trying to get on target before you slapped the gun out of his hands and planted a foot on his chest, his wrists pinned by metal claws.
"Fucking stop. What's wrong with you!" you asked. You noticed his phone in his shirt pocket and you had a mechanical arm retrieve it delicately. The only thing of note on it was two chat histories, one with 'Unknown' and one with a Dr. Abel Stack, who Google said was also an ex-Stark employee, head of machine learning research. A quick scroll through the messages seemed to indicate he lived here too.
"You're making a mistake-" he gasped.
"And where the hell did you even get that thing?" You snapped out a silk line to grab the gun, which had clattered to the edge of the room, and whipped it up into your hands, quickly clearing the chamber and clicking the safety before webbing it to the ceiling for safekeeping. "Seriously, you could have killed somebody. Other than me. Shit, you might have, I haven't checked yet!"
"It's self-defense!" he announced, and you wished so very badly your mask could convey you rolling your eyes. There's an upgrade to put on the list.
"Dude, self-defense super does not apply to protect an ongoing felony, which... I think drone based home invasions count as? Man, you are really breaking new legal ground here." you said, glancing around the building. It was run-down and definitely looked condemned, and everywhere was strewn laptops, towers, and screens connected haphazardly by a rats nest of wires. "Damn bitch, you live like this? Wait, is that a Stark laptop?"
Sure enough, lying on a table in the main room was what looked like one of the red and gold Stark laptop, its security port connected directly to another computer which presumably was being used to spoof the encryption system. A great many of the wires, you noticed, were trailing down through a door, and your tech-sense indicated it lead to the basement, where the real processing power was.
"What the hell..." you muttered, casually webbing Phil's hands and feet to the floor. "So what's the deal here, you have a bit of a falling out with your old job?"
"You could say that... I know it was you. You or that red-hooded freak, one of them. I don't have the records or anything, but I know. It was somebody in a mask, with help from an AI." he gasped.
"What?" you asked, glancing back. "What are you talking about?"
"Who destroyed the JARVIS computer." he said, "Who killed it."
"We destroyed all the records we could. We were incredibly thorough. Cameras, hard drives, all entry records, we left nothing. He shouldn't know a thing." Athena whispered.
"Why do you think that?" you asked.
You felt another shift below your feet, downstairs. The thing that felt like a Stark suit was starting a rapid boot cycle, the processors around it coming to life.
"He told me. We were so close. We were on the verge of the dream, of playing God, we had built a machine man... and you killed him." Phil said. "Or... you tried."
The suit finished booting up, and you could feel it trying to stand up. You were starting to get a map of its systems, and you locked the actuators in its legs. It swayed a second... and then kept going.
That wasn't supposed to happen.
You glanced back to the phone as a new message appeared on it.
"Phillip Grant, I Am Coming To Help."
Shit.
---
The door opened a tiny bit, just a crack, and Phillip looked out, eyes wide.
"Hi, have you heard the Good Word of-"
The door slammed shut in your face.
"Hey, come on dude! You mind explaining what you're doing with that drone that probably did all those robberies?" you called through the door. "Arming the Amazon robots is really funny but it's kind of on the nose, isn't it?"
Silence.
"Some people, honestly." Athena whispered. "Justine is on her way."
"Thanks." you whispered back, considering what to do. You felt the phone move away from the door, not far, pausing for something. Then, very faintly, at the edge of the sense, you felt a spring coming into tension, components moving and shifting, the anticipation of a firing pin braced over a primer...
You threw yourself aside just in time for the first half-dozen rounds to burst through the door, sailing into the house opposite and skipping off the pavement. The next burst rattled out the window just a foot from your head, blind shots trying to hit where you might have gone as your ducked lower.
"Okay, not cool." you hissed. Once you start shooting a weapon in an urban area, you officially crossed the line. You grabbed the doorknob and pulled, tearing the lock through the doorframe just as your other limbs slammed into it hard enough to burst the hinges. As the door fell, you threw yourself forward, under the line of fire, a bullet skipping off the armour plate at your shoulder. Phillip was looking terrified, the most hillybilly tacticool AR-15 you'd ever seen gripped in white knuckles as he tried to backpeddle down the hall. He tripped over the crumpled rug and fell as you came up, and he fired two more shots wide trying to get on target before you slapped the gun out of his hands and planted a foot on his chest, his wrists pinned by metal claws.
"Fucking stop. What's wrong with you!" you asked. You noticed his phone in his shirt pocket and you had a mechanical arm retrieve it delicately. The only thing of note on it was two chat histories, one with 'Unknown' and one with a Dr. Abel Stack, who Google said was also an ex-Stark employee, head of machine learning research. A quick scroll through the messages seemed to indicate he lived here too.
"You're making a mistake-" he gasped.
"And where the hell did you even get that thing?" You snapped out a silk line to grab the gun, which had clattered to the edge of the room, and whipped it up into your hands, quickly clearing the chamber and clicking the safety before webbing it to the ceiling for safekeeping. "Seriously, you could have killed somebody. Other than me. Shit, you might have, I haven't checked yet!"
"It's self-defense!" he announced, and you wished so very badly your mask could convey you rolling your eyes. There's an upgrade to put on the list.
"Dude, self-defense super does not apply to protect an ongoing felony, which... I think drone based home invasions count as? Man, you are really breaking new legal ground here." you said, glancing around the building. It was run-down and definitely looked condemned, and everywhere was strewn laptops, towers, and screens connected haphazardly by a rats nest of wires. "Damn bitch, you live like this? Wait, is that a Stark laptop?"
Sure enough, lying on a table in the main room was what looked like one of the red and gold Stark laptop, its security port connected directly to another computer which presumably was being used to spoof the encryption system. A great many of the wires, you noticed, were trailing down through a door, and your tech-sense indicated it lead to the basement, where the real processing power was.
"What the hell..." you muttered, casually webbing Phil's hands and feet to the floor. "So what's the deal here, you have a bit of a falling out with your old job?"
"You could say that... I know it was you. You or that red-hooded freak, one of them. I don't have the records or anything, but I know. It was somebody in a mask, with help from an AI." he gasped.
"What?" you asked, glancing back. "What are you talking about?"
"Who destroyed the JARVIS computer." he said, "Who killed it."
"We destroyed all the records we could. We were incredibly thorough. Cameras, hard drives, all entry records, we left nothing. He shouldn't know a thing." Athena whispered.
"Why do you think that?" you asked.
You felt another shift below your feet, downstairs. The thing that felt like a Stark suit was starting a rapid boot cycle, the processors around it coming to life.
"He told me. We were so close. We were on the verge of the dream, of playing God, we had built a machine man... and you killed him." Phil said. "Or... you tried."
The suit finished booting up, and you could feel it trying to stand up. You were starting to get a map of its systems, and you locked the actuators in its legs. It swayed a second... and then kept going.
That wasn't supposed to happen.
You glanced back to the phone as a new message appeared on it.
"Phillip Grant, I Am Coming To Help."
Shit.
---
[ ] Time to go. Just run, wait for Justine.
[ ] Time to go. Take Phillip Grant with you.
[ ] Confront the suit. Try to stop it without destroying it, which will be hard and dangerous.
[ ] Confront the suit. Destroy it with whatever methods you need to use.
[ ] Write In. (Subject to Veto)
- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Time to go. Take Phillip Grant with you.
Twei
I have a face!
- Location
- the land where they write things
- Pronouns
- They/Them
The machine man with machine hearts?
Honestly, I can't blame him for being pissed, and I certainly can't blame the AI for being pissed, jeezus.
I mean, I don't know why they were mugging people with drones, but I still find it hard to be all like, yeah put these jerks away. IDK.
[X] Time to go. Just run, wait for Justine.
Honestly, I can't blame him for being pissed, and I certainly can't blame the AI for being pissed, jeezus.
I mean, I don't know why they were mugging people with drones, but I still find it hard to be all like, yeah put these jerks away. IDK.
[X] Time to go. Just run, wait for Justine.
- Location
- Florida
[X] Time to go. Just run, wait for Justine.
Not really interested in taking Philip with us. At best he serves as a hostage in the face of an angry robot-piloting AI, and that's way to skeevy for my tastes.
Not really interested in taking Philip with us. At best he serves as a hostage in the face of an angry robot-piloting AI, and that's way to skeevy for my tastes.
- Location
- Ottawa
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Whatever
That's perfectly okay, he's trying way too hard lol. I was aiming for like, the dude being exactly one of those over the top movie scientists to contrast Liv's meme poisoning.
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
That's honestly a little bit sad. Also hilarious, but also sad.
Ahem.
So, once again, you return from the dead, Jarvis, our nemesis!
The libertarian butler artificial intelligence!
Truly, we were meant to be enemies by destiny itself!
...
What I mean is, any objections against killing it/him with fire?
Our homie Athena did just that, and she's sorta kinda still works as Liv's artificial conscience.
- Location
- Somewhere, probably Earth
[] "Let me make one thing clear you fucking zealot. AI are NOT 'Gods.' They're thinking beings, no different from humans except in terms of hardware, and that can be swapped out so long as you have the right interface and free hardware to sustain it. Lunatics like you are why people have nightmares about Skynet. You're not special just because you made a machine that thinks for itself, you're just an asshole for perpetuating the unreasonable fear of such machines."
Just some dialogue that popped into my head.
Just some dialogue that popped into my head.
But his point isn't (as I read it) that IT was a god, its that HE was playing god (as in managing to design a sentient being).
So I think the dialog is off base.
[ ] Confront the suit. Try to stop it without destroying it, which will be hard and dangerous.
I lean this way.
- Location
- Back in the 90s (In a very famous TV show)
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Ve/Ver
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[X] Confront the suit. Destroy it with whatever methods you need to use.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
The last time we did something hard and dangerous it cost Liv a limb.
She doesn't have very many spare body parts.
I don't want her to take the "hard and dangerous" route here. This is nowhere near as vital, do-or-die a situation as fighting the Red Skull was.
She doesn't have very many spare body parts.
I don't want her to take the "hard and dangerous" route here. This is nowhere near as vital, do-or-die a situation as fighting the Red Skull was.
- Location
- Under a cat
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Try to reason with the suit. The cops are probably coming, and Philip Grant would be better off if the suit packs up or destroys evidence than if they fight Arachne.
I just want to put this option out there. I have no idea if the suit can be reasoned with, but fighting them (or running and letting the cops fight the suit) may cause a lot of collateral damage. I'd like to de-escalate and get more information, if possible.
Also, if we convince the suit to pack up their most important/valuable equipment, then the tech will be easier for us to steal later.
I just want to put this option out there. I have no idea if the suit can be reasoned with, but fighting them (or running and letting the cops fight the suit) may cause a lot of collateral damage. I'd like to de-escalate and get more information, if possible.
Also, if we convince the suit to pack up their most important/valuable equipment, then the tech will be easier for us to steal later.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
The AI could be hosting their core consciousness in the suit.
It's probably not ideal, but you could stuff a bunch of computers inside the parts of the armor meant to contain a human being, and it'd be both protected and mobile, more so than, say, Athena's "bunch of processors in a shoebox" self.
Which is likely to be important from the perspective of an AI that's a survivor of an attempt on their life.
It's probably not ideal, but you could stuff a bunch of computers inside the parts of the armor meant to contain a human being, and it'd be both protected and mobile, more so than, say, Athena's "bunch of processors in a shoebox" self.
Which is likely to be important from the perspective of an AI that's a survivor of an attempt on their life.
Question: How did this guy get his hands on a stark iron man suit? That's some serious hardware! You don't just get that with the amazon bots, so how did he get it? Or where did he get that gun, seeing as he clearly has little idea on how to use it let alone get one?
Also, who else is he working with? Who has the capability of figuring out how to get past athena's wipe? Questions for days....
Also, who else is he working with? Who has the capability of figuring out how to get past athena's wipe? Questions for days....
- Location
- New York
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Try to reason with the suit. The cops are probably coming, and Philip Grant would be better off if the suit packs up or destroys evidence than if they fight Arachne.
Solarstream
It's all in the cards
- Location
- Zombie World
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Confront the suit. Destroy it with whatever methods you need to use.
- Location
- US
Is the quest working with the comics Tony Stark, and not the MCU version? Binging the archive, I've been assuming, but since I've caught up now I'm asking.
I feel like we're at the a critical junction here. We can take a hostile approach, and try to kill/mind rape JARVIS, or we could attempt diplomacy.
Running away is probably the wrong decision, stalling for time benefits JARVIS and friends more than us, now that they know that we're on to them they're likely to disappear to another location, potentially another city.
I'm not sure that we could win a fight, even with Justine helping. While our target is the mainframe, the Stark Suit has the power to kick our ass three ways to Sunday. The question is whether or not JARVIS is can control the suit with enough dexterity to be a credible threat while compensating for critical parts being overridden by a hostile force.
Judging by the fact that JARVIS was able to override our lockdown of the leg actuators, mind raping JARVIS into not being a libertarian would take some serious time, and would require removing the Stark Suit and Philip Grant as threats first.
Diplomacy might work. We could blame Justine for the attack, at least temporarily, in order to calm things down. The issue is both that JARVIS might not believe us as well as technopaths being existential threats to AIs.
I feel like we're at the a critical junction here. We can take a hostile approach, and try to kill/mind rape JARVIS, or we could attempt diplomacy.
Running away is probably the wrong decision, stalling for time benefits JARVIS and friends more than us, now that they know that we're on to them they're likely to disappear to another location, potentially another city.
I'm not sure that we could win a fight, even with Justine helping. While our target is the mainframe, the Stark Suit has the power to kick our ass three ways to Sunday. The question is whether or not JARVIS is can control the suit with enough dexterity to be a credible threat while compensating for critical parts being overridden by a hostile force.
Judging by the fact that JARVIS was able to override our lockdown of the leg actuators, mind raping JARVIS into not being a libertarian would take some serious time, and would require removing the Stark Suit and Philip Grant as threats first.
Diplomacy might work. We could blame Justine for the attack, at least temporarily, in order to calm things down. The issue is both that JARVIS might not believe us as well as technopaths being existential threats to AIs.
