Give Me a Month

Participants:

alia_icon.gif ygraine2_icon.gif

Scene Title Give Me a Month
Synopsis Liberty acquires a potent - and confident - new ally, who does have a rather personal interest in seeing it succeed.
Date March 21 2011

An hotel suite, close to Remi's hospital


For the time being, at least, she has the aparthotel suite to herself - Jaiden on duty at the hospital, and Graeme enjoying his day off. And in any case, this particular room within it as been staked out as her own. The door is closed, the curtains drawn against the inclement weather outside, and the place gently illuminated with the glow of corner lighting. Fresh from the awkwardness of a one-armed, bandage-protecting shower, Ygraine is now clad in a silken robe (as well as the now-customary sling) and half curled up in bed. Her laptop is open beside her, hooked into the building's wireless network - though she's just closed down the video link that let her chat to Jennifer over the latter's breakfast. Now, she's trying to muster the energy to do a little more work on the Survivors forum, while waiting for her painkillers to kick in so that she can catch up on some of the on-going sleep-debt caused by keeping watch over Remi.

The sound of someone clearing their voice can be heard. From the laptop. A window had popped itself open. The video is a blank static feed. The voice hwoever seems to be coming from it. "Hello, Ygraine is it? I'm sorry to interrupt what you likely would prefer to otherwise, but getting ahold of you safely is a bit problematic." THe synth voice is personable in that it carries personality. It doesn't sound like the average text-to-speech reader at all. D.Crypt is at work it seems.

If she had both hands available, then Ygraine might well have applied Control-ALT-Delete on instinct. As it is, there's no way at all that she can manage that… and is thus reduced to confusion for long enough for the hijacking of her computer to register as being aparently non-hostile.

Still, it feels rather like an intrusion, and she can't help but glance towards the door, tugging the lapels of her robe a little closer together. "I… ah… who on Earth are you?", the Briton asks apprehensively.

A sigh-like sound comes from the laptop. "You can call me De-Crypt for now. Knowing me is a dangerous occupation at the moment thanks to my… skills. WHich leads to why I seek you and yours. Liberty in specific." The voice is talkative. Maybe the woman is much less a shell this way. Anyone who met Chavez in real life likely wouldn't recongize her at first due to this alone.

Ygraine finds herself nodding slowly to the laptop, giving it a rather warily dubious look - before somewhat sheepishly catching herself and forcing a nervous smile. "Ahh. Hi. Hello. May I ask how you identified me as someone to talk to about Liberty?"

There is a slow chuckle. "Word of mouth spreads digitally too. I would have got in touch before but… I just spent a rather… long period of time incarcerated without trial. I'd rather not go into detail just yet on that. Trusting too much can be dangerous."

"Word of mouth?", Ygraine enquires, still wary. "In all the formal listings, I'm shown as nothing more than a technical advisor - and that only if you go looking. So I admit to being curious quite who told you to look to me in particular. And in this kind of… presumably-secure fashion. I'll gladly answer any questions I can, of course. We need all the help we can get, in truth…."

Alia sighs. "Nobody told me to. I am very… technically minded. ANd in a bit of trouble. You might say I would be the test case everyone is looking for. Except I'm pretty sure the local government heads would rather have me dead then on the stand. IN for a penny, in for a pound, the saying goes? Let's try this again. My name is Alia Chavez."

A pause, Ygraine once again looking startled, before she inclines her head to the screen. "Ygraine FitzRoy. Thank you for… trusting me. I have the impression that you don't exactly give out your name freely. Now… I recently heard mention of a 'Project ALIA'. Would… that be anything to do with you or your troubles?"

A pause on the other end. "Ah. that. That would be related, yes. I spent… about two months in the 'tender' care of the DoEA, after taking up a contract. Government work is full of all kinds of pitfalls you see… Ended up learning a few things I rather not know. Like that the current local head of the DoEA thinks it's a better idea to keep me either negated or forcibly shoved into a computer system to run an evolved prison. After I agreed to help their current AI person in return for not being left to rot on some disc somewhere. Offically, I'm listed as unregistered, unless they finally fixed that. NOt that it matters, they have the matching card somewhere too. I'm very much a non-person these days."

Ygraine sighs worriedly, settling back against the pillow behind her. "Non-people, we might struggle to directly help. But… hrmmm. Tell me what it is that you hope for as an outcome, and I can see what I might be able to do to bring it pass."

Alia pauses, to consider her words. "… I want to make sure nobody goes through what I did. Nobody deserves being treated like that." The words are simple, from the heart. "I want to help make sure that people like lovely Mayes can't make us all regret life.

"Mayes is, I'm told, Humanis First - either formally, or at least in active sympathy", Ygraine says dryly. "Hrmmm. I'm not sure if we could use someone already… 'dealt with' in your fashion as a test case. It might be too easy for them to present it as a desperate ploy to evade justice, or the like. But I can try to look into that… and if you are as talented with computers as you seem to be, then we could certainly benefit from your assistance. Especially if you can work subtly."

"Yes. She claims herself a subtle terrorist. One of the few bits I escaped with." The voice is quiet… that is still a fresh scar on Alia's soul, that whole experience. "… I am very subtle, at times. But when need be I can hit with a sledgehammer too." A textfile with an email address appears on the desktop. "If you need anything, send mail to that address? I check it often, via means that if they do track it, they'll be looking for me in Brazil. Or further a field.

Ygraine chuckles softly. "I… well. I can instantly think of some ideas, if you could bring them to pass without drawing attention to yourself, and without risk of anything… illegal coming back to bite Liberty. Given what we're trying to do, we have to be painfully above-board and legal-minded. But I was wondering if you could do things like boost the prevalence of 'Liberty' as a search term, and of us in connection with the Evolved, with Registration, with civil rights…. Increase the hits to our various mirrors around the world. Bump us up the rankings so that more people will see us on the first page of searches on those terms. It'd probably be something to work on building up to - if it happened overnight, it'd draw too much attention, I'd guess. But… of course. I've no idea if that's the sort of thing you can actually do."

Alia giggles. "Google is very manipulatable. Give me a month. For that I don't need to do anything even shady. Or technopathic."

Ygraine cracks a grin. "That's what I was hoping. I… know enough to commission people to do work for me, as with the set-up for Liberty, but not enough to do much personally. Oh. Should you want to, and be able to suggest anything simple we could do - feel free to have a look over the set-ups for the Liberty site, and the trust fund's mechanisms and protection. But… hrmmm. Is there anything I can do for you immediately? Even it's just a purely personal favour, or something…"

Alia ponders this offer very very carefully. "… no, at the moment I'm alright. My next bit of chaos involves trying to figure out a solution for… if Project ALIA is… hostile." She doesn't like that idea, it sounds like.

Sighing, Ygraine nods worriedly. "Are you… in contact with many other people? I'm not the only one who might be able to help you. Not, I admit, that I've managed to offer a great deal of that in the short term…."

Alia laughs softly. "I am… in contact with a great deal of people, yes.

"Quite probably more than me, eh?", Ygraine asks, shaking her head as she smiles at the static display. "But… good. I'm glad. It sounds as if you're in need of help. And… hopefully, you can help us to help you. But if anything occurs to you that I can do, or can help with, let me know. And I'll do my best to make sure that we make the best use we can of anything you do to boost our profile."

Alia nods. "I'll be in touch… and my name is worth some weight in the… slightly shady areas of the world. I'll see if I can't stir up some support for you."

Ygraine chuckles, then inclines her head. "Thank you. I… look forward to working with you."


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