Topic: The things she never learns

Summer Daniels

Date: 2012-08-13 16:43 EST
*It is inappropriate to try and hog-tie a dragon.
*Driving a motorcycle around a minotaur waving a red flag shouting ?OLE Doggie!? is not funny.
*Offering a vampire a nice, cool glass Iced tea made with holy water, also, not funny.
*Offering a vampire a plate of spaghetti you cooked in holy water... not funny.
?

She pulled out the list she?d started when she got here on things that you shouldn?t do in Rhy?din. It was things that Jacks told her after she had already done them in an effort to shame her into not doing them again. It hadn?t worked, but he had stopped taking tea, or food from her home.

The list actually made her giggle because each and every one of the things on there she thought was damn funny. It?d been awhile since she made a new friend in this town, to be fair she rarely tried to make new friends. Few people got her sense of humour, put up with her incessant need for knowledge, her rambling about different computer innovations... she just wasn?t the people-person that was exemplified by her cousins.

Then there was Dr. Daniel Jackson. He was older than she was but it was rare she found someone her age that she felt comfortable around. If she could just manage to keep the crazy geek part of herself to a minimum around him maybe he?d keep talking to her? There was some part of her brain that nagged at her, telling her that she should just chalk it up to having a nice conversation or two and leave off. In a day or two he?d be head-over-heels in love with someone, probably one of her cousins, and wouldn?t want her hanging about asking him questions.

She crumpled up the paper in her hand and tossed it at the wall. ?Stupid. How many times you gonna get your hopes up to get ?em squished like a bug? Might as well be a hound dog trying to get a ticket to the ball as think a man like that?d want to be your friend.?

And yet... Oh, she?d said she was going to wait for him to test her puzzle solving abilities but that word he?d used, StarGate. had struck a memory so deep that the context of it had been lost. Everything she saw stuck in her memory but sometimes when she tried to pull a memory back up it was fragmented, as though the pointers to the bulk of it had been corrupted.

Accessing her computer had yielded her results quickly. It had been a program she?d run into one of her trips into the Void, that nebulous place created by hackers, for hackers, an homage to the Neuromancer, and her home away from home. The language that had been used was like none she?d ever seen before and she?d spent months searching out other texts so that she could figure out what the symbols meant. She was fairly sure she did a good job of it and the riddles, and once translated they were easily solved.

All had been easy to solve except that the last of the three seemed to be missing a word, well maybe Dr. Jackson could shed some light on that too? ?He?s going to run from you faster?n the speed of light, Summer. Why not just open with 'this is not the droid you're looking for' next time you see him.?

With a sigh she went about the painstaking process to recreate the writing so that it was legible. The viking runes and Egyptian hieroglyphs had been easy because she practiced those...more than she ever wrote in English. This was something she?d only read and never written and so it took her a try or two before she was satisfied that he would be able to read it.

Sending the note along to the Inn ℅ Dr. Daniel Jackson.

Dr. Jackson,

First off, I hope the dinner with my family wasn?t too scary, we sure appreciated the company. Second, I know I said I wouldn?t bother you if you didn?t want to do the puzzles, but I would really like to see how you fare with these.

Summer

Written in what Daniel would call the Ancients language, but Summer knew only from the files she?d found in the Void and called ?Atlantean symbology?, naming it after the tag name of the one that spread these puzzles all over the Net.

I'm struck and cut, shaped and cooled, then bound by rings to release what's stored.

I shake the earth with booming thunder, fell forests whole and homes complete! I influence ships, topple kings, sweep down swift yet remain unseen!

Battle-scarred in times of strife. Resistant to...

Summer Daniels

Date: 2012-08-20 08:46 EST
There were very few markers to find this small corner of the Void, an act of deliberate obfuscation on the part of the creator. It wasn?t unusual, her own domicile in the Void had proven safe enough from intruders that she had yet to have a single visitor.

Now that the memory had been dragged up it became clear to her that someone had messed with her mind to force her to forget this place. The fact that it had worked should have warned Summer off and she should have let it go, especially after Dr. Jackson couldn?t provide her with the answer to the last riddle. But despite being the geekiest of the bunch she was still a Daniels and the stubborn streak told in her blood every bit as much as any of her cousins.

The place she was standing in front of had an object in front of a cave, it was ill-lit and exuded an atmosphere of ?you should get the f*ck out of here while you can?. The object in front of the cave was what she had come to identify as a DHD, a dial-home-device. It had taken her months to find that term and even then she wasn?t positive it was correct until Daniel had the reaction he did. He was part of the reason she was here, if she wanted to be honest with herself, given just her natural curiosity she might have stayed away from so dangerous a player in the Void.

The Void was more than just bytes and routines running on an ever shifting matrix of mainframes, it held a part of your mind and soul when you were here and that part could be harmed. The Void itself was connected to sixty two different Planes that connected to the Nexus that was present in Rhydin and that number was growing slowly. Earth was not one of those Planes because, while our imagination was on par with any of the current Planes, our technology was not up to snuff. So sixty two highly evolved in technology Planes and those all full of beings that dwarfed the imagination in the number of smarter-than-a-whip inhabitants that longed to participate in the Void.

Summer was there in her Puck persona, killing two birds with one stone she had her new subroutine, the Puck Pack, with her to test. The Puck Pack in the Void looked like just that, a backpack slung across the slender shoulders of her avatar. What it was in actuality was a method through which she could bring another consciousness along with her into the Void, one that could not manage the feat alone. They wouldn?t be able to interact with anything here, that was impossible without the proper implants, but they would be able to see, listen and communicate to Summer.

The application of this was originally meant as a vehicle to bring her cousins to this place and show them part of what she did, a much more verbose explanation than any mere words could provide. She was thinking that it might also serve to bring along a certain Dr. Jackson so that he could see where she had begun getting her information. That would require that she trust him a lot more than she did at present. She was an affable sort, easy to befriend and quick to laugh, but trust? She could count to one and that?d be the number of people, outside her family, that she trusted. Some lessons burned deep into your soul and left the path to such places untenable to cross.

Those things were a part of her shortcomings and she didn?t want that to prevent her from helping Dr. Jackson to get home if she could. Satisfied she had the layout of the location memorized she called up her bike routine and sped off on the tron-like vehicle content she could prepare and return later. She?d promised she?d help him if she could and she would, even if she believed there was no payout to be had, some things you did because they were the right things to do, and her momma had raised her right.

Summer Daniels

Date: 2012-08-22 10:39 EST
The afternoon was laid back, and relaxed as she hung out with Rhett. He cooked up some steaks and they both put back a few brews. After she felt like they had done enough bonding she brought up the real reason she wanted his company today.

?So, y?all know that I do ?computer stuff? but I wanted to figure a way to really show people what I do. I know I don?t hafta say this but anything I show you has to be kept secret.? She paused and glanced over him. He looked a bit leery but still willing and so she continued.

?I made something I call a Puck Pack.? She held up a hand to forestall his questions. ?Half my work is done in a virtual reality space named the Void. Kind of like Tron?? Giving him a look to see if he recognized that reference. ?It?s more complex than that but that?s the basic jist of it. It?s as dangerous, more so really, than the movie. Anyway. With this routine I?ve written I should be able to bring someone?s consciousness with me into the Void in a manner that is safe for them.?

Taking a breath and then pushing on. ?It?ll allow a person to see what?s going on and hear but not interact with anyone, or anything there. I?ve added a subroutine that will allow the person to speak to me without others hearing so you can do some things.? Another breath. ?I really can?t emphasize enough that the place is dangerous and I need you to take that seriously. I think I?ve made it so that the person riding the Puck Pack is safe but I... haven?t tested it yet.? And then she paused and looked at him with that half-pleading expression she got when she wanted to convince one of her cousins to do something that might be stupid but really needed them to trust in that she thought it through as well as could be done... and that was no small thing.

Rhett fixed her with a skeptical look. She'd been fixed with one since she said the word "Tron," a movie he hadn't seen since he was a kid but he remembered the most important part of it: a computer program that got people killed. Under normal circumstances he would have refused flat out, but something about this stuck out in his mind...

"You mean to tell me you've been going into this Void thing... alone?" He shook his head and sloshed the last quarter of his beer around in the bottle, nearly raised it for a sip and decided against it. Rhett wasn't so good at finishing his drinks as he used to be. "It's safer to have someone tagging along. If you mean to go into this place anyway, I'd better go too. I'll try it."

Biting back a sigh as she saw the shadow of ?best I play big brother while Summers are still far away? cross over Rhett?s features she shook that off and lead him into her computer room. It was in the back corner of the house and although she hadn?t explicitly stated he couldn?t go in there it had been implied. The room was a good twenty degrees colder than the rest of the house and dark, lit only by the glow of a dozen monitors of varying sizes. There was a very comfy looking couch, which she motioned Rhett to sit in, and a chair that had the look of being well used in the middle of the room.

Once Rhett was settled she handed him a headset that would fit snugly around his head, a dark visor was set in a lowered position. When it was placed on, she then adjusted the fit and had him close his eyes so that she could attach two nodes to his lids. ?Won?t hurt, or shouldn?t. Remember, you can talk to me through the link, but you have to make sure you think what you want to say, I won?t be able to hear you if you just say the things aloud.?

Satisfied that she did all she could to make him comfortable she then went to her chair, she didn?t need any gear, her connection would be established via the implants she possessed. ?Ok, Rhett, time to dive on into my world. Hold tight.?