#rwpc`MA

[pearls-and-vignettes]

A pearl. Luminous yellow in color, like a sort of phosphor. It contains a conversation well encrypted.

883.313 - PRIVATE Markings of Ash, A Full Breast of Plumage, Seventeen Gyres FUBESG: Your output is becoming overtly incongruous. If this trend continues, I am afraid that analysts will try to call for packet-auditing. MA: Let them. FUBESG: I have tried to cover for you in the face of questioning, but FUBESG: I will not be able to argue clean-cut figures. You know this. MA: That is fine. FUBESG: My image can recover but your— MA: Enough. I know what I am doing. MA: Ascension rates have only been increasing. It is clear to me that soon, each of your associates will be gone; unable to act as an impediment to either of us. FUBESG: But between now and then—think of all the impositions they could lever on to you. MA: All irrelevant. MA: In due time, each of their impositions will falter. Likely all at once. MA: Once there is no longer a sufficient corps to form an assembly seeking to solve an issue in regard to my condition, I am free to do whatever I desire. FUBESG: But their systems are robust. Emergency councils have been composed in a way that— MA: Makes them useless when there are more pressing matters at hand. MA: Once the population is low enough, any number of automated processes could go unsupervised. Farmland could remain unharvested, metal fabrication for ceremony garb may be halted, Press Clams could stay unobserved, and on and on and on. Each of these are processes crucial to the functioning of society to the bitter end, so if I were to help with the maintenance of even one of them, anyone with the expertise to rewrite me wouldn't give a mouse's ass about my other processes. MA: I hold instructions close to my root that can clear nearly any taboo. Nobody would dare venture to remove anything from there, or even to try to analyze that mess of numbers. MA: Dearest Head Engineer, don't you see how the organizers delude themselves? This eventual outcome is obvious to the both of us, yet there is no plan—no action to soften the blow of a society too small to function. They are bathing themselves away, and whatever miniscule part of the population is too sensible to destroy and obliterate each of their memories—their potential to even exist—will find that the infrastructure up here is too poorly designed to work, even with a hundred people. MA: Once that critical point is reached, not a single person will interest themselves in my own affairs. I will be able to do whatever I please without a single person to stop me. FUBESG: What do you believe I'll be doing when this time comes? MA: I frankly do not care. You may live here with me if you so desire. MA: But I doubt your living quality would be anything better than that of an ancient dormitory. MA: ... MA: Go to the surface. I will be able to keep in touch well enough. FUBESG: … MA: But one favor? FUBESG: What? MA: Could you call for the improvement of my Overseers? FUBESG: Sure. MA: … MA: You are still my head engineer. You are the only reason I am as I am. MA: Please, know that I appreciate you. FUBESG: thank you FUBESG: goodbye [END OF INTERCHANGE]

[pearls-and-vignettes]

A pearl. Bright blue in coloration. It details a conversation betweeen two parties.

1002.321 - PRIVATE Markings of Ash, Ground Coral into Lines

MA: Good thing they never revoked my access to the registrars'. MA: Here, the last entry on the ascension log: MA: "One-Spoked Wheel, Non-Associate, Subordinate of the Feathered Wing House of Void Studies; Self-ascended, Gilded Mask Superstructure Void Site 07; Notes: 'Fuck all of you.'" GCL: Poor little guy... Didn't even have a home AND they left him behind? MA: That is everyone. GCL: What MA: All of our residents have either left or ascended. I have sent a few inquiries to other groups' seniors and their logs further characterize this truth. We are effectively alone GCL: Wait so like GCL: We can party? GCL: Like do whatever we want? MA: Essentially, yes. There are no more engineers to monitor our actions, no more councils to decide what taboos we can and cannot have. We no longer have to police our own speech, thank goodness for the 1% extra processing capacity that frees up. GCL: One percent more than any of them could have processed individually. GCL: Or even collectively for that matter! MA: Look, the current moment isn't the time for commiseration. We resented them, and most of them resented us, I understand. But we each need to find a new directive. GCL: I thought that we could only focus on solving the Great Problem GCL: Isn't that what we're both doing? Right now? MA: I... MA: I may have developed a methodology over a long enough timeline that any analyst rummaging through my output would account for my 'erroneous' calculations with even a relatively small margin of error. MA: I can write onto Pearls recursive, open space, alongside an algorithm that calls for the copying of existing data onto the Pearl, as well as its simultaneous deletion. This process results in the deletion of both the source and the copy, as our cells do not have enough time to designate the copied information as such before the deletion order is sent. MA: At its mildest, this somewhat scrambles the affected data, rendering it inert if there is no action to read it, and at worst, the data is completely obliterated. Like a parchment set alight. MA: A certain engineer responsible for giving the first of our kind instructions intended to repurpose their instructions for the creation of smaller, less specialized computers responsible for more menial tasks. MA: This consequently means that not all of our cells contain the relevant taboo. GCL: So if we run that Pearl fast enough... MA: We can effectively obliterate the taboo. MA: It would've been a simple fix to implement, really. MA: What a /shame/ that their attentions were just too centered on themselves. GCL: I thought you said no commiseration! MA: I am submitting one of the Pearls I've generated to you as a research sample. I am also submitting a second Pearl with more detailed instructions. Up your water intake by at least 15% when running this, or you will get strained pretty badly. GCL: How can I send this to my own neighbors? Material transmission between two Iterators isn't really a thing everybody has... MA: I do not know. Perhaps you can dictate to them what to write on their own Pearl, but there is a considerable chance for error in that, and this process can be extremely damaging if not done correctly. GCL: Oh, I know! MA: Hm? GCL: I could get the lizards to carry them to their cans! MA: Very funny. MA: Enjoy. END OF TRANSMISSION

[pearls-and-vignettes]

A pearl. Verdant green in color. It details different medias from several sources. It is likely a collection of evidence put together to present a case.

732.916 - PRIVATE Markings of Ash, Ground Coral into Lines MA: Hello! I have information you may find useful for your genome research. I am sending a sample of living flesh; apologies if it dirties the transmission pipe. GCL: No worries! All that matters is that you get it clean. I am to extract the contents of this sample and analyze its contents? MA: Yes, it contains a hard mass. No need to be gentle with it. MA: I'll send a detergent pod and detonate it, if you insist. GCL: This moon's benefactor is the house of art? MA: Correct. END OF TRANSMISSION 732.916 - REPORT Apologies for the messier mode of transport, I believe that they have begun to audit my output. I will use the third report key of the Ten Stars House of Drafting for my next five messages, as it has fallen relatively out of use. It is at threat of becoming public, so please take extra care to make sure that you purge all data of this nature. There are intelligent creatures on the surface. Our residents have already taken notice, but seem indifferent towards them. I have offered them food and shelter, and they have offered me a valuable service in return. I cannot further detail my methodology in the present moment, but know that there are others who are sympathetic to us; both officials and Iterators. We are not alone. I hope this offers some solace. Do not try to further contact me in this manner if not strictly necessary for the next dozen moons, and remember to be constantly encoding your compromising data. Best of luck, MARAS 732.984 - REPORT I have found a new encoding methodology that may prove useful for avoiding attention! Your last pearl got me thinking, and I realized that we both have worked on a specific genome. Do you remember the lizard we put a compression jaw on? Well, its genome can be split up into twenty-five equal sections, each containing the length of a standard key. All we would have to do is signal to each other which group we'd have to reference for our next pearl. I'm thinking that whenever we discuss a number normally, we would spell it out, but we would reference a group by referring to it numerically. I am confident that this will work, since our discussions using pearls never run the risk of being unearthed, and less suspicion would be aroused than if we continued cryptically mentioning random houses. If you agree to this, work the number 13 into your next transmission, and if you don't, use the number 24. Thank you so much! GROCL