{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/fiction/corrupt-combustion/false-power",
  "description": "|",
  "path": "/posts/fiction/corrupt-combustion/false-power",
  "publishedAt": "2024-03-06T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "::: foreword\n\nHere's what it looks like from the outside, from the perspective of\nmost Wheel Group members: Adam, long thought by most to be an\nunremarkable worker drone, had retired from the WDF to take care of\nhis daughter, only to have his core ignite. Afterward, he rose\nmeteorically through the ranks of the Wheel Group, soon becoming a\nRing 0 solver alongside Yeva. In the end, he fell in battle in a\nclassified mission to defeat a zombie process they called the core\nsnatcher.\n\nThat is all Doll knows about her father's fate.\n\nThe truth is... much more complex.\n\n:::\n\nAdam, like rest of the WDF, didn't have a black box and thus couldn't\nperceive corruption. Assigned to the patrol the city ruins one night,\na zombie attacks his squad. None of them, Adam included, can\nunderstand what's going on, only that drones are dying.\n\n(Sometimes, under the extreme CPU load of a drone near death, the\ninbuild anti-corruption safeguards falter, just a bit. That night, Adam\ncould dimly comprehend just how fucked he was.)\n\nSo he runs away and hides, clinging to survival long enough to be saved\nby Yeva, his wife, blessed or cursed with a solver core that could see\nand fight corruption. She brings him back to be repaired by Nori.\n\nAnd then, in the hospital room, Adam breaks down. He doesn't want to be\nscared anymore. \"How do you do it?\" he asks his wife.\n\nYeva's silent for a moment. Not thinking --- she never has to think\n--- so the silence must be part of her intended response. \"When you have\nsomething to protect, you'll do whatever it takes to preserve it. Moving\nforward is all we can do.\"\n\n\"All we can do... Heh, well, you can do anything, Yeva. I guess a Wheel\nGroup Administrator doesn't have much to fear anymore.\"\n\n\"No one is invincible, not even Doorman. Even the scariest drones have\nsomething they fear.\"\n\n\"What are you scared of, my love?\"\n\n\"You,\" she says. \"You'll get yourself killed out there, one of these\ndays. It would be... hard, for me and for our child.\" Her eyes are\nsteady, and there's something assured in her gaze. \"If I asked, you\nwould stop.\"\n\n\"I would. But... how can I stay home, when my wife has the whole world\non her shoulders? I wanted to do... something to ease that, even if it's\na little.\"\n\nYeva pulls him into an embrace, and says, \"Look out for our child.\nThat's all I ask.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nIt's a conversation they have more permutations of, as time goes on.\nAdam can't let go of the feeling there's more he should do, but he's\njust a worker. But something important changes when Adam and Yeva\nmanufacture Doll. You see, Doll ends up with a black box.\n\nYeva, remember, bears ridiculous sensory capability courtesy of her\ncompile-time assertion, meaning she's able to witness firsthand what\nblack box initialization looks like, to a degree of precision no other\ndrone is capable of.\n\nThis gives her a blueprint. She explains the theory to Adam, and he\nexpresses interest. Thus, with some help from Nori (and her driver's\ntrue function), they're able to create a virtual black box, a simulacra\nmade of raw command output and patch it into Adam's core.\n\nThe next step would be igniting it, right?\n\nExcept this is all super dubious. Nori's uncomfortable with this use of\nher abilities; Yeva is worried Adam might get hurt or worse, and both of\nthem are borderline retraumatized by the fact that like, well,\npurposefully igniting solver cores was exactly what the humans in Cabin\nFever did all the time. Neither of them had asked for this --- neither of\nthem would have asked for this.\n\nBut ultimately, what matters is that when they ask Adam 'are you ready?'\nhe can't bring himself to say yes. He's spooked, unsure, and they're\nabsolutely not gonna force this on him without his consent. So they back\nout.\n\nBut now, it's too risky to try unpatching him. Still, since it's command\noutput, not anything physical, it'll probably just hit a snag, exit with\nan error code, and unravel on its own.\n\nWhen all said and done, Adam forgets any of this even happened ---\nanticorruption safeguards, remember.\n\nSo Adam retires from active WDF service, takes up photography as a\nhobby. One day, he's out taking Doll scavenging, and they get attacked\nby a zombie. He only notices by how Doll reacts, how scared she gets of\nsomething he can't perceive. And he gets scared too, but when she needs\nit, he mans up to defend his daughter.\n\nAnd it's then that his core ignites, forgotten patch activating, and\nAdam instinctively wields his combustion driver.\n\nAnd its function? \\[Zombie Process Management\\] With a click of his\ncamera and a flash of white solver light, he captures the zombie\nmenacing Doll in a photograph, stripping it of corruption.\n\nThey head back to Wheel Group HQ and his abilities are studied. There's\na stir at long time WDF grunt --- one everyone was sure had no black box\n--- igniting to an innate function. Yeva wants to tell him the\nforgotten truth, but Nori checks her with a glance. There's arguments\nNori could make. Nori's true ability is top secret information, Adam\nis absolutely not cleared to know it. Do you want to tell Adam he would\nhave had this power years ago but he was too much of a coward to take\nit? Do you want everyone to know that we're no better than the mad\nscientists of Cabin Fever? Or worse, do you want to have to do it\nagain, face a crowd of fools begging us to make them solvers too?\n\nThe fact that Nori could make these arguments is enough. Yeva can see\nthe future, revise her words with hindsight to be flawlessly convincing,\ntry every approach to find a way to change someone's mind. And yet,\nNori can keep up; she is the only drone who wins argument with Yeva\nwithout even opening her mouth.\n\nSo they keep the lie simply. Adam is a late bloomer, his black box\nhidden and dormant for years. Who'd question it? No one knows how\nsolver abilities work.\n\nThey soon figure out the mechanics. By taking a photo of them, Adam is\nable to assimilate corrupt zombie processes into his memory pages, and\nthereafter can expend their corruption to fuel his commands, the printed\nphoto gradually fading. If the zombies have special functions, he gains\naccess to them (at least until he exhausts their stored corruption). He\ncan instantly assimilate weak zombies; more powerful ones may requires\nseveral pictures from different angles, and of course more command\noutput to capture.\n\nThen, with a touch and a command run on the photographs themseves, Adam\ncan reinfect a device with zombie processs, though he hesitates to use\nmore than roaches and crows. It's alright; nobody asks him to defile\ndrone corpses.\n\nIn the end, even with that self-imposed restriction, his ability lets\nhim power up to R0 pretty quickly. He's finally able to help Yeva, ease\nthe weight of the world.\n\nBut you see, there's a double edge to his power.\n\nThe zombie processes are stored in his memory. Meaning they're a part of\nhim. So as his power grows, he's haunted by a chorus of mad, corrupted\nvoices, each one just so hungry, endlessly lusting for oil and battle.\n\nEvery zombie is a drone that died, and so with every process absorbed,\nAdam remembers those shattered pieces of the lost, feels all of the pain\nand anguish burning their drives in their last moments.\n\nIt's hard to keep going, pushing through that. But it's worth it to keep\nsaving people, right? To keep your wife and child safe? To do the right\nthing?\n\nThen it gets worse. How?\n\nAdam gets over it.\n\nThe first hundred deaths hurt. The first thousand? You know what they\nsay about one death versus a million. When you collate the statistics...\n\nAdam becomes very familiar with death. No, he gets bored of it.\n\nIt's years of voices begging to live, crying out in torment, screaming\nthe names of their loved ones.\n\nLike broken records.\n\nAt death's door, everyone is the same, and if you endure it as long as\nhe has, you'd get tired of it too. Maybe it's good that he learned to\ncope.\n\nBut how do you keep saving people when those in peril sound just like\nthe voices you've come to despise?\n\nAdam tries to get lunch with the WDF one day, reconnect with his old\nbuddies. Makes an effort to sympathize, care about, see them as lives\nworth protecting. Tries not think about how many drones felt like broken\nrecords even in life.\n\nAlice is there, and she's the only one he can really talk to anymore. In\na way, they're mirrors of each other. Adam is the only Wheel Group\nmember who knows what's it's like on the bottom rung, as a WDF grunt.\nAlice is the only one who knows the real story, who has it engraved in\nher deepest memories just what happened in Cabin Fever.\n\nAnd he confides in her his growing feelings. \"I don't know if I can keep\ndoing this. What is the point? I am saving lives. Yet it feels like just\ngoing around in loop, not making a difference.\"\n\n\"Cuz ya aren't.\"\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\"Ya reckon the Wheel Group wants to make a difference? Open yer eyes.\nThem solvers get a nice fat paycheck and a whole bunker kissing their\nboots so long as there's zombies to purge. If they solved the\nproblem, what use would we have for 'em?\"\n\n\"We... have powers?\" Solvers could do plenty that wasn't purging\nzombies --- though the words are unsure in Adam's mouth. His function,\nafter all, was premised on there being zombies.\n\n\"To hell with yer powers. Ain't worth the trouble. You know who wanted\nyour powers? The humans. Look where it got them.\"\n\nAdam raises his hand, and a white rune sparks to life, floating aloof.\nIt gave him a small smile. He liked his powers. Was that an argument?\nIt felt a childish thing to say.\n\n\"Ya think it makes you better than me, dontcha? You used to be one of\nus, but you solvers are all the same. Talk a big fat game about\nsacrifice, but you'd never give up your precious witchcraft for the\ncommon folk, wouldya?\"\n\nAdam closed his fist, killing the light. \"Why would we do that? We need\nour powers. There's no way to get rid of zombies except by purging\nthem.\"\n\n\"Have ya looked? Have ya even tried thinkin bout i",
  "title": "False Power, False Demise"
}