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[Dwarmin]

"...Hard to say, since we don't know how you were specifically damaged." Kauko had conferred, measuring his hat in the mirror. He wasn't sure if he should dress up for the lecture...did they want ties? He'd better read the sign up sheet again...

"...The only real cure is to, well, walk. If we can actually find your physical source-wherever you came from-this becomes a lot easier. I'm sure your designer could get you working again. They may even have backups...though some Navi don't like them...my old navi Fry was like that...

I can think of two technological maladies otherwise.

First, you took one two many punches from viruses and your deep systems were scrambled-your memories buried themselves deep down, to protect themselves, and are rendered in a non-readable state. But Damaged systems always seek self repair, and once you become familiar with your functions again you'll be able to self diagnose Deep Log Errors-you'll begin to feel them, I believe, as a sort of subtle internal injury you hadn't noticed until then. You can guide me, once you know where these locked sections are located and how to access them safely. Touching your core data without knowledge of your essential self is like me trying surgery on a space alien...I could learn a lot, but without knowledge of your digital 'anatomy', you wouldn't survive the process-not as who you are now, anyway. At best you'd end up like ZombieMan. I hope you don't meet him! He's sort of creepy...

Second-if your data was lost-removed, stolen, or eaten? You'll be in a worse position generally, but recovery is always possible...it is a bit dense to explain technologically...but, a system missing essential parts will be generating hidden searching algorithms...WindKnight, you are probably better for this part..." Kauko said, deciding if he should wear his top hat. He didn't get to wear it often. And was his skull topped cane too ostentatious?

...

WindKnight sprayed his digi-plants with water as he spoke to Score.

"...I was never good at speaking on matters of the Spirit. That was FireCavaliers specialty, he who wielded a white-hot blade and the horns of the great bull. But, I will try!

...

It is difficult, as Kauko says, to completely erase or remove a Navis data-I prefer to think of it as a soul-particularly powerful Navi are said to linger even after death. As our basic function, Navi exist as interlocutors among the Thunder-Track, which is an older word for what you know as the Internet.

No matter how badly we are changed, we want to be part of the storm-and to weather it as our ideal selves. Who we were once, the innocence of our creation, is never truly lost. It bands us together, as brothers and sisters in data-waves.

If a part of yourself has been lost, and not merely hurt-you will be able to feel it calling out to you in an attempt to become that whole once more. You need only follow your instincts...and trust in your self. Banal words, perhaps, but good ones. If it is your truest desire to obtain your whole self, what you lost will share the feeling. Or at least desire an end to the schism-even through a trial of combat-in any way it might come about. It will in any case provide a resonance, a wave, that only you can feel and hear. This will surely guide you...but, the only map exists within your own heart-which no one, not even Kauko for all his wizardry, can read...

Hopefully you forgive an old knight his rambling. These old spiritual matters are not so popular these days, in an age of wisdom and sorrow that we live in. You may take up the matter to Lumi and SnowMan, who are after all, experienced explorers in their own right-they know much more of this world than I, and of material matters. They have no doubt seen much and may have some insight to share on finding lost things..."

WindKnight picked up a fallen sunflower and admired it.

[Chevaleresse]

". . . I will have to take some time to parse all of this. I cannot express my gratitude for your support sufficiently." Score sat at her barebones desk, gazing into the plant WindKnight had gifted her as if it held the answers. She held a hand up, and started to form geometric shapes of hard light over her palm as she spoke. A simple progression - symmetrical shapes with increasing numbers of points, then variations of the symmetry, then expansion to a simple cube to restart in the third dimension.
"I will simply have to keep working in the meantime. My abilities at data analysis are. . . compromised, but perhaps I will be able to draw in useful data that can then be parsed by another.

I will do my best to ensure you are recognized and rewarded properly by my operator when we encounter them. I am sure they will appreciate the support you have given me. I also hope that such an occasion would not mean an end to our cooperation." Score cycled through a few more shapes, the lattice of light becoming hazier, before she closed her hand. The construct vanished, and she refocused herself.
"My apologies for diverting so much time. We should likely get moving, lest we end up missing out on valuable information. I plan on exploring from the local Square outward. WindKnight, do you wish to work alongside me, or split to cover more ground?"

[Dwarmin]

WindKnight considered it.

"I shall accompany you, at least we find a task that draws us closer to the monastery-this is the true reason for Kaukos attending the lecture...and his abominable choice of fashion. There is no reason not to draw blades alongside one another..."


WindKnight couldn't exactly point outside, but from the screen on his PET, he could see his Wizard was seemingly preparing for the local circus. Was that a feathered cloak? Surely not...

[Dwarmin]

"...So, what are your plans Lumi?" Kauko had asked his sister, over a bowl of FrostMan Mega-Flakes the morning before.

"I doubt you'll want to attend the lecture...and we'll not need all of us with our Navi for a big fight anytime soon...

Are you going to that huge protest thing? Everyone on the BBS is talking about it..." *munch munch*

[SeriousConcentrate]

"Nah, I think I'll crash the lectures. I can probably find a way in without registering and maybe I'll learn something interesting." It was more useful than going to some for-show protest that never did any good anyway.

[Dwarmin]

"My sister finally gains an interest in academia! Do you need to borrow one of my top hats?" Kauko said between mega-flakes.

[SeriousConcentrate]

"...I don't think standing out is a good idea, bro," Lumi said, reaching over and flicking the end of his nose for suggesting such a preposterous thing. "Anyway, I think I can find a place to sneak in, and if not I can always jack in Snowman. He's pretty good at getting into places, too. I could also ask a friend of mine if she'd help out; we could use another hand."
Meanwhile, Snowman was patrolling around the IoT in the Lehtonen household, making sure no viruses were trying to sneak in through any ports Lumi might have carelessly left open.

[Dwarmin]

Kauko attempted to parry the vicious sisterly attack with his breakfast spoon.

"I stand out wherever I go!" Kauko proclaimed. "People would notice me more, if I tried to not draw attention to myself." He reasoned, logically.

[SeriousConcentrate]

Lumi withdrew her finger, shaking it slightly from the sting of getting whacked with a spoon. "You're in a mood today, that's for sure. Big plans, big bro?" she asked, picking up a piece of slightly burnt toast and crunching into it.

[Chevaleresse]

"I believe this is primarily an opportunity to demonstrate Kauko's unique sense of aesthetics."
"On a more practical note, does the phrase discussed earlier have any relevance to you or SnowMan?"

[SeriousConcentrate]

"Hmm..." Lumi thought about it. 'Unreliable Seaside Inventor'? It didn't really ring a bell as a whole, but part of it... "Well..."
Some time ago...

Lumi had been exploring the coastal mountain range along the west side of the island, near the place everyone called Pirate's Fort, when she had come across a half-buried and slowly rusting transmitter. Of course she and Snowman had immediately jacked in to see what it was connected to. Snowman had reported feeling watched, but felt he was stronger than whatever viruses were lurking and that he noticed a distress signal further in.

The code of the transmitter was rather... eclectic, Lumi would later describe it. Snowman had reported multiple dead-ends, one-way passages, non-euclidean geography, and hordes upon hordes of weak viruses that he had run-and-gunned through like an old-school sidescroller as he searched for a way to the signal. After several harrowing minutes of combat with nearly zero reprieve, he had stumbled upon a barely extant, unconscious NAVI of a decidedly custom design almost buried entirely under mounds of junk data - the same kind he had been seeing when deleting the viruses attacking him. With his rifle in one hand and dragging her by the collar with his other, Snowman had managed to fight his way to an exit port and return to his PET with the custom NAVI although the beating he had taken doing so had nearly wiped him as well.
"...And then we brought you home so Kauko could repair both of you," Lumi finished. "As I recall, there was a locked signal inside that transmitter, and even Snowman couldn't crack it. I don't know where it originated from but I'd bet that if I could find that transmitter again - if it's even still there and receiving - and we could crack it, we might find where you entered from. But I wonder why you were there in the first place." For that, she had no answer. Testing Score's combat abilities? Someone else just exploring and had lost connection with their NAVI? Maybe an attempt to hide Score from something else and the person had just never had a chance to come retrieve her? There were many possibilities and any of them could have been true.

[Dwarmin]

Kauko nodded.

"SnowMan found WindKnight as well, before then..." Kauko added. "A little bit more mundane-he was in an Antiyktheran Rejuvenation Pod. Most of those are full of...old bones...but, this one was different..." Kauko pondered.

After SplashWoman had been...deleted...Kauko hadn't really felt like doing anything anymore. For some reason, Lumi had keep bringing him treasures she found, programs to decipher and work on, despite him saying she didn't have to...

"...Finding the transmitter would help. We'd just have find the same signal that led SnowMan to it."
 

[Dwarmin]

Netbattlers: The S-Files/Episode 1: Data Points
The Lehtonen household is one of the more dangerous hotspots on the net-between Kaukos experiments running amok, Lumi plugging SnowMan into every unsecured port she can find, and the net-traffic that comes for their mother and fathers Cross-Theater, hostile data tends to produce a lot of oddities-and needs a lot of daily protection. Thankfully the combat Navi who populate it are more than capable of handling most problems. Kauko keeps track of them in his 'S-Files'. Here's a few of the ones that came up recently...

Performing grid-scan...

Threat logic program running...

Potential flash points detected...

Rerouting Security Nodes...

Anti-Virus Utility Alerted.

[Primer: Lights, camera, action! You're all chilling in the Lehtonen Household when a barrage of security updates pops up on your security feeds-calling you to handle one mess or another that has popped up. It's rare to have five at once, however!

They can be handled as a team or individually, and in any order you like. Some of them have 'time limits'-you'll have to solve them in under a certain amount of dice rolls to get the best outcome (dice rolls I give you don't count, only ones you call for). Not all are combat oriented. Traveling between 'locations' costs no time, nor does things like talking or looking, only actions or chip uses. Complete them all with full success for the best outcome to this episode!]

"...This is most unfortunate. Is anyone at home? I'm getting a lot of security pop-ups...I and Kauko are unable to assist at the moment, as he's fairly deep practicing for the JumpJumpLiberation tournament at the local net-arcade..."

In the distance, Kauko seems to be trying to 'bust a move'

"...Unfortunately, I have to dance as well...it's a Navi/Operator competition. Anyway, I hope you get all this solved before anything too terrible happens. Simply address each issue one by one, and try to do so efficiently. We'll be back to check up your progress soon enough."

@RustyTengo
Circe gets a surprising personal message from Kauko, of all people.

[Hey...I know we've had our differences. That's not a great way to start off these sorts of things, is it? Well, I've seen you sniffing around...wait, let me start again.

I want to bring you on board. For the thing I can't talk about, but I know you're interested. We'll meet up later. As a show of trust, I'm giving you some system keys, if you want them-it'll let you link your homepage with mine. Maybe we can trade some spring cleaning? It'll be good for getting you know the rest of the team...see you soon, Circe.]

...

1. Living Room Net-Router
Issue Reported: Data Slowdown
Viral Activity: Undefined (?)
Info: Kauko repurposed the router in the living room as a sort of 'merchant stall' he uses to deal with people online, more or like acting like a living room in the net. It's fairly secure from conventional threats-the system is modded to detect ANY attack inputs and expel intruders automatically, by force if necessary-its automated firewalls are quite lethal. And Kauko has stressed that there's no real target acquisition, even to Navi friendly to the system. His first line of defense. Even then, you get some odd characters in now and again-they usually just have to be shown the door politely.

2. Garden Hose Network
Issue Reported: Water Pressure Inhibited
Viral Activity: Light (Wood and water elemental viruses common)
Info: The Mother of the Lehtonen Household has her own little garden on the rooftop where she grows fragrant herbs for the kitchen-as is old tradition among many people on the island. Her busy life helping run the Cross-Theater, means she relies on extensively automated watering system to handle it when she is out. Like a lot of things around here, Kauko helped program it and if anything he was a bit too enthusiastic-it is something of a labyrinthine nightmare, with less than the usual amount of viruses, but an overly complex operating system burdened by the wear and tear of your standard outdoors network device.

3. Cute Antikytheran Toy Horse
Issue Reported: Erratic Signals
Viral Activity: None (Totally Safe)
Info: The Lehtonen household plays home to its own collection of knickknacks and artifacts picked up over the years-there are enough you can find them gathering dust in the homes of most locals. Many of the ones here are brought home by Lumi during her adventures-the majority of them are system connected, able to interface with modern devices.

4. Cross-Theater Square
Issue Reported: Traffic Overload
Viral Activity: Moderate-High (Connecting to the general public, a great many wild and varied viruses are found here-it's something of a shooting gallery at times.)
Info: The 'backdoor' to the Lehtonen Household leads the net-square that interfaces with the general public in regards to the families Cross-theater, providing scheduling, updates and a BBS board for locals to plan trips and buy tickets. As can be expected, it's one of the more digitally dangerous areas of the house, akin to the 'wild west frontier'-it's one of the few areas Kauko didn't design himself, having existed before he was born.

5. Solar Panel Zero
Issue Reported: Rotation Skew
Viral Activity: Low (Heat and fire loving viruses are common, but not aggressive unless provoked)
Info: Government sold solar panels (tax deductible!) are located on many roofs on homes on the island, taking advantage of the islands premium sunlight-it lowers the demands on the power grid and allows functioning even in some emergencies. It's not directly connected to many other devices rather than the homes main battery, and relatively safe-it has to be routinely patrolled due to this, however, since the battery is the most important device in the house.

[SeriousConcentrate]

Seeing as Lumi was taking a nap, Snowman was left to his own devices... which meant the same thing he usually did when not needed, patrolling the local network. It appeared there were more than a few issues that needed resolving today, but the most important one was keeping the solar panels running - without them, the rest would be much more difficult to fix. And his cold set-up generally worked pretty well against the heat-loving viruses that congregated in that network. He put his hand to his headset.

"Score, I'm going to fix the issue with Solar Panel Zero. I'll let you know if anything comes up."

And with that, he navigated his way from his PET terminal up toward the roof of the house...

[Dwarmin]

Seeing as Lumi was taking a nap, Snowman was left to his own devices... which meant the same thing he usually did when not needed, patrolling the local network. It appeared there were more than a few issues that needed resolving today, but the most important one was keeping the solar panels running - without them, the rest would be much more difficult to fix. And his cold set-up generally worked pretty well against the heat-loving viruses that congregated in that network. He put his hand to his headset.

"Score, I'm going to fix the issue with Solar Panel Zero. I'll let you know if anything comes up."

And with that, he navigated his way from his PET terminal up toward the roof of the house...

Jacking into the SolarPnlComp, SnowMan finds familiar stomping grounds-the digital realm of Solar Panel Zero server resembles a chain of peg like, metal islands-vaguely tropical-stamped in the middle of a wide ocean made of slowly rolling reflective glass. It’s hard for a human to understand what that looks like, exactly, but here a navi can literally feel the energy flooding in from above. This is place of natural power, and plenitude. It's a feeling of vast, contented warmth permeating the air that makes one want to relax and just soak in the rays. Perhaps that is why the local viruses tend to be so docile. Most of them don't even harm the system proper, just feeding passively on the power. And there's enough to spare.

At least on sunny days-on cloudy days, everyone gets a little more tetchy...today seems to have clear skies, however-and yet not as bright as it could be...he passes a few oversized FlaMeow viruses cuddled together, that pay him no mind more than a few contented purrs-they snuggle back under their kotatsu without much fuss. They're not the issue he is looking for, though in other times he might delete them simply out of convenience. Traveling the server isn't too difficult as long as you stick to the island-the surface of the glass sea require careful footwork so as not to get burned or shocked. He feels a slight rumble in the distance even before he gets close to it...indeed, the entire 'ocean' seems to be tilted at a somewhat uncanny angle...

No doubt the source of the issue is ahead.
 
...

Goto is the Pink NormalNavi who keeps an eye on this place-she runs the equivalent of an isolated radio station in the pacific ocean-she makes sure the power flows cleanly and reports any issues.

She had waved snowman over to her humble little home. It resembled WindKnights house in the same way that it was a fairly unimaginative block like building-but Goto always has it dressed up in some fashion or another, biding her time by making holiday decorations. She's not good at keeping time, however, so her reading of what holidays to celebrate are somewhat skewed...

Right now, it still seems to be Halloween. The cute WitchGirl.EXE is creeping along the roof with her 13 catty viruses. Fake tombstones dot the yard, mostly reading names like "Deter Leted" "Tra Shbin" and "Pack Etloss"

...



“Howdy! SnowMan, are you doing well? I hope you're having a spooooooky month!

I can guess what brought you, and it's not just trick or treat (Right?). The dish. It's spinning round and round and not getting enough sunlight-the viruses are gonna get grumpy. But hey, I think I know the problem...”"

She points out, unnecessarily, the issue at hand-while offering him a bucket of cyber candy with the other.

...

In the distance, SnowMan spots a 20 ft tall Mettaur (with a pirate hat and an anchor rather than a helmet and pick) slowly lumbering over the nearby sandbars-singing an incomprehensible virus shanty-it’s bouncing up and down to its own manic rhythm, seemingly enjoying itself.

"Mettool, mett metta metool...mettool mettoo metool tool toola...mettool metta, metta, metta mettool!" (Sung to the tune of Spanish Ladies)

Well. Each of its dance steps sends a minor shudder through the entire server. The Mega Mettaurs very size is simply drawing too much resources and sending errors flying through the panels OS-he doesn't seem to be actually attacking, however. He'd probably do a lot more damage if he was...

As a general rule Mettaurs are a lot like digital termites-they look for weaknesses in digital architecture and undermine them, which makes a system more vulnerable to infestations of more powerful viruses...


“The big fella is throwing off the balance equations for the dish! The more be bounces around, the harder it is to control the skew...I've never seen one so big, myself. Maybe it's just that time of year? Brisk autumn winds, the crunch of leaves underfoot...but how would he know that? The odd part is he's not really attacking...on purpose...”
 
What do you do?