Video - Four days after Malicant's message

[highprofilerichkid]

[Malicant has made his move, and Tony has decided that it's time for the Foreigners to step up their game. Starting with their communication network. As Bakura demonstrated, the consoles are no longer safe from Malicant's prying eyes (if they ever have been).

After a marathon troubleshooting session with Akito, Tony has also concluded that if a truly secure secondary network is going to happen any time soon, there's going to need to be a lot more people working on it. His time and resources are stretched thin, and he needs help.]

The consoles are not secure. I don't know if anywhere is, but we can actually do something about the consoles, at least. I know there've been some attempts to encrypt the console traffic and a couple false starts at a secondary network. I think it's time to get down to business and get a fully independent secure mobile network up and running, as soon as possible.

Magic is too susceptible to influence, so this network is going to be strictly technological. Pure tech and heavy encryption give us the best chance of shutting out our nosy neighbor.

If you have any expertise with radio, electronics, or telecommunications - anything that might be helpful - get in touch. Engineering, physics, cryptography... Hell, if you worked a summer job in IT. I want you here at Stark Industries.

Also, if any foreigners from higher-tech worlds brought any stuff along with them that they don't mind giving up, I'd like to take a look at it. Electronic devices like cell phones would be the best. A lot of post-industrial-revolution consumer goods contain minerals and compounds that are hard to get a hold of here, and we'll need as much of those as we can get.

And one more thing: I've put together a dozen... self-defense devices. Nothing big, but enough to give you a few seconds if you're in a tight spot. Distributing them to the turtle parents is the top priority, but if there are any left over, it's first come first serve. If you want one, meet me at SI and I'll give you the rundown here.

[private to ALL TURTLE PARENTS]

The fewer people are bonded to each turtle, the more vulnerable they are. Protecting the turtles means protecting their parents, so you all get first dibs on the toys. Anyone who's interested, send me a message and I'll set one aside. And come to SI as soon as you can.

[private to AYA, RICHIE FOLEY, CLARK KENT, DONATELLO, and MIKE WESTON]

I'm contacting you all specifically because I know you have tech skills or because Aya told me that you've worked on the secondary network in the past. We need you in on this.


---


((ooc: For the sake of security, Tony will only be describing the self-defense gadgets in person. Anyone who comes to SI to claim one will be given the following information:

There are six aversive devices [remaining: 4]. They consist of a slightly concave hemisphere - sort of like a very thick-walled bowl - that fits in the hand. They work on a principle similar to the Active Denial System. When they are held with the concave side facing out, and a button on the side is pressed, they emit a ten-second burst of radiation that, while harmless, causes immediate and intense discomfort to any person standing in range. Anyone without extreme magic- or drug-enhanced pain insensitivity will be compelled to move out of range. The area of effect is a wide cone that extends out about thirty feet. Each device has enough power for two bursts before it must be recharged.
[claimed by: Enjolras, Annabeth]

There are six force field generators [remaining: 5]. These are devices are disk-shaped, with about the same dimensions as a restaurant pager. Press the large button on top, and they will generate a transparent force field bubble about six feet in diameter. The field lasts about six seconds under ideal conditions, but may collapse sooner than that if it is interacting with a lot of matter (e.g., if the person holding it is swimming, or in tall, dense grass). The field can be moved, and will remain centered on the device when in motion (in other words, you can run with it). Each device has enough power to generate one force field before it must be recharged.
[claimed by: Raine]

Both devices can be recharged at any console, or at Stark Industries.))

Comments

[highprofilerichkid]

[Tony watches Anton write the sigils with intense focus, surprisingly patient throughout the slow process. When Anton's done, he takes the radio back and peers at it. He takes it apart again, examines the sigils up close, and then puts it back together.]

And anyone can do this? Can I try?

[gistful]

Theoretically, yes. But it's also a language, and a foreign one at that, and this is a complicated set of sigils.

[Anton considers for a moment.]

Such as writing a software program. Technically, anyone can copy the program if given something from which to transcribe, but those without experience will be more likely to make mistakes.

[highprofilerichkid]

[Tony pulls over another one of the early radio prototypes and picks up the knife.]

So as long as I copy it correctly, it'll work?

[gistful]

Unfortunately, no. Execution matters. The manner in which sigils are drawn have an effect on how they work.

[Anton pulls some paper closer and draws the set, but slowly so Tony can see how he performs each sigil and their connective components.]

Start with the circles. They don't need to be closed immediately, if you don't want power to enter them quite yet--that's relevant for some of these but not others. The rest of the lines should be drawn along similar circular lines. Like colouring a picture, for example--all the strokes of your pencil should be in the same direction. The circular layout of a sigil set should work in the same manner.

[highprofilerichkid]

Yeah, okay. [Tony watches Anton draw the sigils on the paper - a little impatiently. He's pretty sure he memorized the order and direction of the strokes when Anton was carving them. They're not all that different from very tiny little technical diagrams, after all. And with Extremis, that kind of eidetic memory task is a cinch. But he pays attention anyway, in case he missed anything the first time around.

When Anton is finished, Tony picks up the pencil and starts copying the set, carefully mimicking Anton's precise strokes.]

[gistful]

[It's the impatience and the dismissiveness that makes Anton wary. Though he knows who Stark is, this one is still a child, and subject to a child's eccentricities; and the preciseness of mimicry is the reason Bakura's sigils failed the first time he tried.]

Fluidity and connection is more important than technical accuracy. As long as the sigil contains all the necessary characteristics, they can face any direction and can come in a variety of shapes.

[It seems like an idle addition, the sort to expand knowledge of context, but it's still something of a direction.]

[highprofilerichkid]

[Tony looks up at Anton and raises his eyebrows.] Yeah? Hm. [He looks down again, absently chewing the end of the pencil and tilting his head ever so slightly, studying the sigils from - literally and figuratively - a new angle. He finishes copying the full set, then returns to staring intently at the sheet of paper.

After a minute of scrutiny, he writes down a handful of meticulously copied sigils, and then follows each one with several increasingly impressionistic variations. The altered sigils are permutations of the variables he's identified, modified to test the boundaries of the rules he thinks he's parsed out.]

So which of these are valid, and which won't work?

[gistful]

There will not.

[Anton points to the ones he means.]

They contain the same variables, but in a manner which crosses others, which changes the result or interrupts the effect entirely. But all of these--

[He points to the rest.]

Any of these will work. You will be able to put them in any area where they fit.

[highprofilerichkid]

Okay. [Tony nods, tapping the end of the pencil against his lower lip. After a few more seconds of study, he tries again. Each incorrect sigil gets redrawn one or two or three times, depending on how certain he is of the resorted variables.]

How about now?