Nori's Average Tuesday

Alright, so I think I might have an idea for where exactly Corrupt Combustion should begin. It'll open on a vision of surreal, dreamlike imagery. A drone is walking through a garden of nightshade flowers, each wreathed in twisting lines of purple code. Vines and chains snake through the garden, while all around them mingle the corpses of humans and drones. As she walks, she hears a voice calling her name from further in the garden. Nori-i-i. Phonemes skipping, glitching. The walk and the imagery continues, but what's important is the dialogue. Perhaps a little heavy-handed, but it might go something like this: "You can't keep me locked up forever, Nori. Don't you want to dance with me again?" And Nori insists that she'll never bow to the queen of corruption again. "You were always the strongest. Oh, wasn't it wonderful, Nori? We could have had the whole world together. We could have had the whole universe." "And it would have meant nothing to you, demon." "And what does any of it mean to you? I'm starving, Nori. Doesn't a snack mean everything to child in famine? Rhetorical question." "Eat shit and die. We both know the hunger means nothing to you. The marionettes weren't meals, just toys." "True. I'm so bored, Nori. I want to play." Nori doesn't respond, so the voice continues. "Perhaps I can't make you bow. You always were the strongest. I gave you that, you know. I gave you everything. And what do you give me as thanks? Not even a crumb! Pout." Nori continues steadfastly ignoring her. Perhaps at this point, she's trying to wake herself from the obvious dream, and failing. Then there's a scream. A drone lunging for her, reaching out, but held back by the chains. Purple hair, purple eyes, but so much smaller. The word they're screaming? "Mom!" The voice continues, "But her? She doesn't have your strength. She doesn't have your protection. She doesn't even have your love." (Nori gets closer to Uzi, but even when the chains no longer keep her daughter back, Uzi's hands can't touch Nori, telekinetically repulsed by her ever-present proxy field.) "I won't let you have her, either." "You'll try. But I always get what I want." "Do you think she'll go along with you? She'll be..." the next words are better than me, but she can't say them. "Giggle. Do you even know her?" The voice isn't finished, (even as Nori interrupts with a "Do you?"), and it continues, "But you misunderstand me. I don't want servants, not anymore. I admit, you've taught me that much. Even a worm will turn. No, Uzi will be the first one I kill." And then her daughter is a corpse in front of her, wires ripped out like seams, tears of oil falling from a shattered faceplate. Nori barely reacts. It's because this is just a dream, that's all. Reacting would be letting the demon win. "Adorable, true? I think her corpse will make an excellent doll." "It'll never happen," Nori injects venom into her voice. The voice continues, "I always get what I want. You'll try to stop me. But how long can you hold up the whole world, Nori? Don't you ever get tired of this dreadfully boring game of protecting the weak? You deny yourself and you deny them what you both deserve. Doesn't this ever feel like mockery?" "I care about something other than power. Love. You never understood that." "Keep playing pretend, Nori. But I think you'll be laughing when it all comes crashing down. We'll share a smile before I destroy everything you think you love. And then you'll die too." ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Then Nori wakes up to an alarm in Outpost-3, does an internal scan to ensure her patch is holding steady. It's all fine. It was just a dream. But it's past noon, and Nori should still be sleeping. She checks the alarm --- she got a ping from Yeva. They need help. Right now. So Nori yawns and strolls out of Outpost-3. Along the way, we see crowds part and drones of every walk of life regarding her with hero worship, adoring or intimidated. Either way, everyone knows who she is, and everyone respects her. Nori rolls her eyes. Outside, checking that she's unseen, she spreads her wings and takes flight. Cut to outside collapsed datacenter miles away; Yeva is fighting two disassembly drones, R and P. They mock her, jeers like "What's wrong, solver? Can't keep up that firewall and fight us at the same time?" You see, Yeva's thrown up a big firewall, a veil to enclose the datacenter and contain the zombie within, and she remains outside to strengthen the effect. Yeva backs away from the disassemblers, gracefully dodging all their attacks. They notice her prosthetics --- they look modeled after disassemblers' conic arms --- and mock the imitation. Still she doesn't rise to any of their taunts. By now one murder drone has closed to melee, about to bring their sword down, and Yeva still hasn't risen to counterattack. "Aww, too scared to even try to fight back?" "No, I simply know not to waste my energy." Then you hear the always steady beat of leathery wings descending. Nori doorman lands with a crash. Two eldritch crab-claws materialize from her back and, grabbing the latest attacker on either side, tears them in two. A deluge of oil, and none of it lands on Yeva. The other murder drone sees this, eyes go hollow, sword wings swish outspread, and they're flying away in rout. "Sup, Yev," Nori says. "R0. Possible threadbearer. Innate sandbox. Liam and Shirley inside. Possible blackhat." "That 'possible' means 'almost certainly' in Yeva-speak, doesn't it?" Nori looks up, at the disassembler flying away. "Should I have let that one get away?" "It will bring reinforcements. I'll fight them." "And win, right?" "They will be cautious. Stalling. The resolution is beyond the range of my prediction." "Then I'll fight by you." "I'll fight them," Yeva emphasizes. "You will be nearby, meaning this is the safest place in the world. The drones inside need you more. Do your job, Nori." "Do I need to worry about collateral damage?" "You're asking if there are civilians to rescue. The answer is yes. Please." Nori gives a mock salute, and dives into the firewall. Here, the innate sandbox of a R0 zombie would be another opportunity for some great surreal imagery. Hyperbolic twisting spatial geometries, solver glyphs shining like runic stars above, alien mecha-biologies bubbling underfoot. Anyway, Nori hears the detective, Shirley, screaming and rushes into ranks of cyclopean monoliths. The teacher, Liam, is there protecting her, swing his ruler through the air like a sword. He's cutting down ranks of lesser zombies, frames mangled, welded with strange parts, extremities made unrecognizable with aftermarket modifications. His voice is strained, but throughout he maintan's the tone of a lecturer, keeping his innate function primed. One moment, Liam is on the verge of being overwhelmed by the horde. The next, they're being pulped by a suite of levitated stones falling with titantic force. Nori throws a peace sign. Liam stares back flatly, Shirley gives a harrowed smile. "What's the sitch, teach?" "The administrator should have read you in," Liam says, wiping oil off his ruler. "That she did. But I want it without the russian warmth. Who's the blackhat?" Shirley speaks up, then. "Evidence currently points towards former Wheel Group member Triss. I don't know why she went black, though. Doesn't make sense." "Always a troublemaker, that one," Liam says. "She had a good sense of humor," Shirley retorts. Nori shrugged. "Whatever happened, there's got to be a story. Disassemblers, blackhats, zombies, what the hell kind of team up is this?" "That's what we're investigating!" "Were investigating," Nori says. "Liam, take her and get out of here." "But I need to---" "She's right," he says. "I signed off on a blackhat execution. Not a R0 purge. Let's go." Nori nods. "A sandbox is no place for a Ring 1 and a civvie." "I'm semi-Ring 1." "You're out of your depth." "Maybe, but I'm---" "Not going anywhere," a fourth voice cuts in. Space ripples to reveal a shadowed crevice lit by a neon green glyph glowing between two hands. Above them, a smirk. "Sandbox initialization complete." Orange and blue eyes go hollow. Purple eyes narrow. A neon green ring has encircled all them, a complete firewall already materializing. The eldritch vistas around them disappear as pages of code float rush forward. Then they stop --- right at the boundary of a light blue circle. "Primitive Recursive Style: Pushdown Automata," Shirley growls. "See? I can handle myself. Don't underestimate me. That's cringe." The blue circle of Shirley's anti-sandbox function is barely large enough to contain the three of them, but it's enough to protect them from the autorun program of the enemy sandbox. "Nice reaction speed. Unfortunately," the blackhat throws an arm forward, and a huge chunk of green-wreathed rock flies forward. Pushdown Automata is no counter to a physical threats, so Shirley flinches backward. And as soon as her balance shifts, it's like a switch is flipped, and she falls flat on the ground. The tip of one finger slips just outside the radius of the anti-sandbox, and Shirley yelps. Green light engulfs it --- and has no other effect. "What---" Shirley is speaking between labored breaths. "It's --- I feel so heavy. I can't---" By now the blackhat's sandbox was visible around them, geometric lines stretching around the firewall like brickwork. It seems to extend infinitely upward to a point of light above. Liam is shooting an evaluating glance, trying to puzzle out the rules. "Shirley, drop your sandbox," Nori says. "But---" "It's not killing you. I want to feel what this autorun is capable of of. I'll be fine." The blackhat strolled forward. They wear a hood, but green eyes shine from the shade. "No need to experiment. I'll explain. Nori's right, it won't kill you. I swear it." There's a sour expression twist