Etraya Inbox

[hexcope]

𝐓𝐄𝐗𝐓 | 𝐕𝐎𝐈𝐂𝐄 | 𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐎 | 𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

Comments

[hexcope]

Felt like a decent place to hang out.

[]

[ornithologist]

For several days?

[hexcope]

I missed the camping experience.

[Technically not a lie.]

[ornithologist]

[ Well, he'd been trying to be more diplomatic about this, but... ]

Should I take it that Dr. Romano isn't the only person you're interested in helping with revolutionary healing nanobot magic technology?

[hexcope]

[A groan and a sigh.]

Fine. Some things got out of hand involving the people from my world and some brat named Robin. I said some things I shouldn't have, and all hell broke loose. I brought Viktor to the Library because I thought it'd be a safer place than our rooms in Caitlyn's mansion, which has been broken into multiple times already, or the lab, which I don't know how to secure.

[ornithologist]

[ Oh. That's much faster capitulation than he'd expected. ]

Where did you end up establishing your lab? Perhaps we could amend that. I have some experience establishing safehouses.

[ Some experience is a vast understatement. ]

[hexcope]

[Misdirection!! If he talks about the reason for hiding he doesn't have to talk about Viktor's illness.]

S.T.A.R. labs. It has everything I'd need, so I didn't see the point in requesting a new space. It's fairly massive, but if there was a way to turn at least some of it into a safehouse, it'd solve at least five different problems.

[ornithologist]

[ Harold has not forgotten in the slightest, he is just merciful that way. For the moment, at least. ]

Yes, I can see the security concerns, considering it's entirely unsecured. That would be the point in requesting a new space. If I give you some specifications to ask for, might we start there?

[hexcope]

Specifications to ask for in securing S.T.A.R. labs or requesting my own? Feels like a waste to not use what's already there.

[And for other reasons that rhyme with article refridgerator.]

[ornithologist]

Request your own space and whatever you have there that you wish to salvage transported to it. The bots are more than capable of that; the buildings got here somehow in the first place.

Making it so obvious where your sensitive materials are located is your first problem.

[hexcope]

[Could he get away with requesting a second particle accelerator? Maybe. Then no one will know what he's doing with it. More control over who's around, who's got eyes on things... He'll have to concede the point. It'll be a little costly, but worth it.]

Right. Okay. I'll have to figure out how many points I have to work with...

[ornithologist]

Please consider something less conspicuous than an enormous superhero base as well.

Did the hell breaking loose have something to do with your work? You said securing the lab would solve several problems.

[hexcope]

["Make it less conspicuous" when the city he's from looks like this.]

Noted. But I won't do something underground.

I've already told Ace about this, and even then I probably shouldn't have. My "fat mouth" is what started the problem to begin with. I'm not eager to overshare again.

[ornithologist]

It doesn't particularly matter what it is so long as you don't hang out a shingle saying "Hextech Located Here". And you'll want at least some operational security, meaning you might consider having a public-facing lab and a private one. The public one would be largely a trap, of course.

You needn't go into detail, I'm simply trying to gauge how much of an immediate threat it is for someone to misappropriate your work. You may be incautious but I sincerely believe you want to help others and prevent harm. That will not be true for everyone.

[hexcope]

Right.

[It feels like a lot of effort just for a misdirection, but Harold sounds like he knows what he's talking about.

The amount of pause on Jayce's end implies he's doing more pacing. Maybe he can phrase this more carefully...]

The person who currently has some of my work has been dangerous in the past, but not here.

[ornithologist]

[ It is a lot of effort. And then one day you have to destroy all your computers and abandon the library and go deep undercover for several years, and you're intensely grateful there was nothing there to trace back to you. ]

Mr. Talis, are you trying not to tell me about it or trying to tell me?

[ Because he'd answered a question he hadn't been asked, offered more information than was warranted after saying he was trying not to share. Harold would never make an accidental admission of something sensitive. Apart from that one time he revisited a place he and Grace used to go, and he got Elias and Root both killed because of it, sent it all spiraling... No. He knows the price of letting sentiment drive you into slipping. It's with this painful understanding that he prods Jayce here. ]

You're not used to keeping things secret, are you?

[hexcope]

Uh

How do I delete messages?

[ornithologist]

The first rule of the internet is that you can't. Not in any way that matters.

[hexcope]

The internet sucks.

[ornithologist]

I'm quite fond of that characteristic, but then, I mostly exploit it rather than contribute to it.

Would you like to explain further or shall I return to giving you advice on becoming sufficiently paranoid without knowing the specifics?

[hexcope]

Let's go back to the paranoia and you can pretend I didn't tell you anything?

[ornithologist]

Very well. In that case, what are the possible ramifications of someone misusing your work?

Be honest, please. It will change my proposed measures considerably.

[hexcope]

[Possible ramifications.

In seconds, the whole council room was in rubble, the roof crashing down onto all inside. Shoola's skin singed off her face as she stumbled over debris. Cassandra's body on her side, eyes wide and staring at him, but the light gone. Viktor, half-buried in rubble and semi-undressed; the blast didn't kill him instantly but rather left him with just enough life to know he was dying and scraping at his own chest to breathe. Jayce's breathing quickens as he sits alone in his room.]

A single gemstone could blow up a building.

[And his world has hundreds of them. All used to power the Hexgates.]

But as long as the gemstone remains intact, its energy needs the right runic sequence to be utilized. If someone tried to deconstruct a gemstone somehow... I don't know how bad it could be.

[ornithologist]

[ It's maybe a little funny how banal that feels to Harold. He's used to trying to secure something that had the possibility of reshaping the whole world, quietly, behind the scenes. Infinite information can be used to so many grotesque ends.

But nuclear armaments are a more prosaic kind of threat, however terrifying, and therefore more straightforward. ]

Then I reiterate hiding it is the best first defense, and we should devise fakes as the second.

As for where it's actually stored, I can establish biometric scanners that unlock based on your actual biology, so it can be keyed to specific individuals only.

Of course, someone could blow through that given the abilities around here, so we'll want a safe emergency disposal mechanism as well. You need a panic button that will nullify the gemstone somehow, taking it out of both their hands and yours. Not a literal button, obviously, that's far too easy to take out of the equation. I could devise something for the trigger mechanism if you could come up with the solution to nullify it.

[ There's paranoia, and then there's Harold Finch levels of securing dangerous technology. ]

[hexcope]

[Okay, that's a lot. Biometric scanners sound perfect. Him and Viktor having the only access would be ideal. Fakes could be made closely identical in appearance. Nullifying the gemstones, though...]

Like an anti-magic field?

When I fortified the gemstones from their original crystal state, it involved some degree of anti-magic in the sense that it used the crystal's own magic against itself to stop the cracks from leaking out excess force... I wonder if the shield principles I used for the gauntlets could be applied.