{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/fiction/corrupt-combustion/act-one",
  "description": "|",
  "path": "/posts/fiction/corrupt-combustion/act-one",
  "publishedAt": "2024-06-28T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "I. {#yap01}\n\nSo, a quick recap since it's been a while since I talked about Corrupt\nCombustion. Bear in mind that even when we cover the established\ntimeline, a bunch of things are going to be ~~retconned~~\nrecontextualized.\n\n(Now, I'm not taking it completely from the top, read the intro posts\nif you need that, but do note that specific details of how\ncorruption works and what disassembly drones are have been revised\nsince then.)\n\nThe story begins with Uzi and Doll giving a presentation on zombies.\nRather, it's Doll reading the slides from the presentation she made,\nonly for Uzi to interrupt and start ranting. You know how it goes; \"And\nwhat have our parents done for the past forever while the world's in a\nfrickin zombie apocalypse? Hide our powers behind this lame as hell\nmasquerade? Anyway, that's why my project is this totally game-changing\nerror blaster!\" Teacher rolls his eyes, and the class cringes, only for\nthe gun to glow ominously. Doll tries to save Uzi, which only amounts to\nthe blast hitting both of them.\n\nThey're sent to the repair ward. Along the way they meet Thad, who\nmentions that Nori and Yeva are out of the outpost on a mission to\ninvestigate a rootkit sighting. Uzi and Doll share a devious look, and\nbegin to plot sneaking out.\n\nNext chapter would be Nori's pov, proceeding about identically to her\nwrite up, where she saves the Teacher and the Detective from\na zombie bearing one of Cyn's corrupting threads. Yeva's\npseudo-disassembly drone prosthetics are busted in the fight, and\nAlice is charged to repair it --- in the process, Alice confirms that\nwhatever Nori & Yeva had seen, it has something to do with the\nNightshade Incident, something only the three of them know about; the\nNightshade document one of the Wheel Group's most deeply encrypted\nfiles.\n\nWhile all this is happening, Uzi and Doll manage to find a mid-level\nzombie and struggle to take it down. Uzi's error blasters still don't\nwork, but at the edge of defeat, Doll ignites her core, and avoids the\nzombie's killing blow, launching into a counter-attack. Her defense\nand offense is seemingly enabled by the environment (industrial ruins,\nperhaps?), which seemingly to conspire against the zombie and in favor\nof Doll. Either impossibly unlikely coincidence, or impossibly\nmeticulous planning, or, somehow, foresight?\n\nDoll's able to scramble to Uzi's error blaster, and her newfound\ncorruption is exactly what was missing to activate the gun. Doll defeats\nthe zombie, but they both take credit. (It's Uzi's gun, to be fair.)\n\n(In the midst of the fight, while she's at the zombie's mercy,\nsomething happens to Uzi, too, but not what's supposed to happen. Her\ncore doesn't ignite. But neither does nothing happen --- she gets a\nmessage on her inner console. Error: core driver not found. Uzi does her\nbest to repress this, ignoring its implications. It can't be true. Nori\nhas a driver, all her friends have drivers, why would she be any\ndifferent? Error means something's wrong, but it could be anything ---\nmaybe it's the error that's wrong, actually.)\n\nAt the outpost, Alice picks up Beau from where he was being babysat by\nMakarov. When they're back at Alice's cabin, she takes a harsh tone with\nBeau, half yelling, half whispering. It's not quite anger --- though\nthere're shades of frustration --- it's fear. These are awful omens. Bad\nthings are coming, things even Alice can't protect him from, and Beau\nneeds to man up or die, and Alice isn't going to let him die.\n\nThey spar, and things proceed along the lines of his\nwrite-up; Alice sets her captive sentinels to attack Beau,\nonly for both of them to be surprised that a zombie process has\npossessed one of the sentinels. Beau activates his disassembly drone arm\nto fend off beast, but he's ultimately overwhelmed. Nori arrives to save\nhim.\n\nAfter that, Nori makes Beau an effective member of the Wheel Group, and\nhe starts going to class with the rest of the Wheel Group cadets. In a\nway, the social dynamics are a splash of cold water. His sincere and\nkindhearted attitude immediately marks him as uncool among the high\nstatus boys --- Chad, Brad, and Darren --- and his disassembly drone arm\nsees him dismissed as freaky by the Lizzy, Rebecca and Doll clique.\n\nThe first drone who catches his eye is of course Nori's daughter, Uzi.\nBut as soon as he opens a conversation bringing up her mom, Uzi wants\nnothing to do with him. She's sick of people always comparing her,\ngetting disappointed that she's not living up to standard of the\ngreatest solver, the savior drone. It's a wound that's extra raw, in the\nwake of her failure to ignite a core.\n\nAnd if Uzi puts extra emphasis on her fiery dismissal of Beau, with\nlonging glances toward Doll, well, Beau can guess what's going on.\n\nThere's a bit more nuance to it, though. You see, two pretty big things\nhappened in the week or so before Beau joined class. Doll attracted\nattention and adoration for igniting her core, of course, with half a\ndozen drones batting eyes at her when just last week she was an\nunlikeable loner with Uzi.\n\nThe story changes, day by day, and soon in the version of events\neveryone's recounting, Doll's entirely responsible for saving the both\nof them from the zombie. (And how far is that from the truth?) Day by\nday, there's more people who want to hang out or train with Doll, and\ninstead of spending every evening with Uzi, it's less and less common.\n\nThen Lizzy's selfie goes viral. Specifically, she took a selfie in front\nof a defeated murder drone. A cadet, taking down a ring 1 threat? One\nday, everyone's talking about Doll, the next, everyone's talking about\nLizzy. But Doll's impressed too, and it's the kind of feat that lets\nLizzy skip the front of the line for Doll's attention.\n\nAnd then Lizzy posts another selfie --- this one is her and Doll hanging\nin front of a defeated murder drone, cementing them as an inseparable\npower duo no one wants to mess with.\n\nAnd --- she never sees it happens, but it's obvious from how they're\nacting --- Lizzy said something to Doll. Something that made her change\nhow her best friend looked at her. Something that drove a wedge,\nsomething that ruined everything.\n\nSo in midst of all of this, Uzi seethes. She rants in the halls, acts\nout in class, picks fights. She loudly insists it's not because she\nwants Doll to pay attention to her again, but every time Lizzy & Doll\nlook at her and blonde snickers while the russian lets her, you can see\nher expression break.\n\nWatching all of this from the outside, Beau keeps his head down. Nori\narranged for Thad to train him on how to fight after school. (He's the\nonly cadet ranked as high as semi-ring 1, though there's talk of\npromoting Lizzy given her latest stunt).\n\nDespite (or perhaps because) of his low status, Beau manages to form a\nkind of friendship with Sam and Emily. Together, the three of them are\nRing 4 solver drones (or an anomalous semi-disassembly drone in the case\nof Beau).\n\nSam's driver is \\[Substitution\\]. With the snap of his fingers, he can\nswap states with another drone. If either one is damaged, then the\ndamage is 'traded' from one to the other. The trade can be blocked, but\nin order to block it, the target must 'bid' more command output than Sam\ninvested in the function. One only needs to worry about this when\ninflicting damage with the technique, as few would try to block Sam\nremoving their injuries. For this reason, he sees his role as support;\nwhen his allies take a beating, he snaps his fingers and suffers for\nthem. (He's taken to using magnets to dull the pain.)\n\nEmily's driver is \\[Consecration\\]. By drawing a cross, Emily can\ncreate a 'ward', a partial firewall that corruption cannot pass\nthrough.  Emily's wards are special; they resist corruption\nperfectly, as if XORing their bits with themselves. There's a catch,\nof course --- they cancel all corruption, including her own.\n\nThis puts Emily in an odd position; her driver inadvertently makes her\nthe weakest solver drone. Corrupt combustion requires oil ignited with\ncorrupt data. Errors yield errors; using corruption creates more\ncorruption, and so most solvers are limited by the fact that too much\ncorruption will overload and crash their systems. Because Emily's\nbuiltin command destroys corruption, she struggles to maintain enough\ncorruption to even execute commands\n\nBeau, Sam, Emily... the three of them all think the same thing. I can't\ndo anything special, I'll never be a real solver, I'm worthless.\n\nThad thinks this is a bogus attitude. One day, on a lark, he teaches\nthem to play football, and their performance there is about as\ninspiring. It has nothing to do with their abilities, and everything\nto do with their attitude. \"For real? Are you even trying? You need to\nget your head in the game. Play to win!\"\n\nHe complains about it to Nori during one of his reports, and Nori rolls\nher eyes. She has a different idea. \"We just need to stop babying them.\nNo one ever learned how to survive on the playground. There's only one\nway to teach a drone to be a solver. Sink or swim.\"\n\nThad frowns. \"Seems a bit... cruel, doesn't it? Isn't that exactly what\nAlice did to him---\"\n\n\"No.\" Nori crosses her arms. If her voice had risen just then, it\nwould be wiser not to comment on it. \"There's one crucial difference.\"\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\"We'll ask. If they don't want to do it, they can stay in the kiddie\npool.\"\n\n\"A kiddie pool will still fry your circuits.\"\n\nNori shrugs.\n\nBut if the great Nori Doorman thinks it'll make them stronger, who would\nsay no? A coward who'll never save anyone? A washout who'll never amount\nto anything?\n\nStill, none of them say 'yes' immediately; they're all scared, but Nori\nlays it on thick. Fact is, if they aren't willing to put their lives on\nthe line, what use are they to the Wheel Group? Maybe they could keep\ntrying, maybe they'll be ready one day. But every zombie is a threat to\nsomeone, and to refuse this mission is to say they value the certainty\nof saving their own lives over the chance of saving some",
  "title": "Compression & Extraction"
}