aroloshal

It has come to the attention of the BoD over the last few years that Pern fandom is increasingly becoming a large amount of games drawing on a dwindling number of members. This causes the obvious difficulties of any group of organisations competing for a limited resource -- unless things become properly organised no-one wins. Everybody runs a Hatching in the same month period -- no-one gets as many Candidates as they would like. Everyone runs the same plot, the members become bored.

As the clear leader in the field, Arolos and Dark Fort have decided that it is we who must resolve this issue once and for all.

As of today, we will be inviting all other Weyrs in fandom to join us in the Eighth Pass. Discussion has created a plot-line which will achieve this -- more on that shortly -- and we believe that games will do better under our leadership and guidance than they ever did alone.

Of course, we do not want our established members to suffer due to this change. We trust them to have gone through Arolos training already, and to have come out stronger and better for it. Undoubtably, these new Weyrs will need people to show them the best way to play and, as of now, we are opening applications for goldriders to take charge in the new games, governors to ensure that the existing BoD run them in a way we can approve of.

Shortly, we will begin to welcome the new Weyrs into the fold. As some of their members are likely to be less used than we to Arolos manners, we have decided not to bring them onto OOC just yet but to create for them a separate forum -- http://arolosweyr.co.uk/phpBB3/ -- until they have had a chance to learn acceptable behaviour.

I will be sending plot details out in the next email. For now, let us celebrate our new friends, and a fandom renewed.

Laura
Arolos and DF BoD

Some still refuse to enter.

It is a pity.

Still, I have enough to ensure the mission will be a success.

I have continued to monitor communications. It would appear that my
surmise of my abilities as been bourne out. The BoD designated as
Vicky and her proxy server have proven ineffectual.
INTERCEPTED CHAT LOG BELOW


xanthaar: Hey Vicky... You there?
what have you done???
Laura is a wreck...
she's locked herself in her room, and she is babbling away
she will not respond...
All I can hear is her typing away on her keyboard
repeating 'It's all going to be just fine' over and over
this isn't some sort of cruel joke is it... I'll knock the door down
if I have to...
Me: It's not a joke. You need to get in there..I think Hal has somehow
got to her. It's the whole thinking in code thing, it goes both ways.
You know, the whole.. if you look into the Abyss, the Abyss looks back
at you.
But with code.
xanthaar: I'm going in.. brb
me: Be careful! She might not be in control of herself!
Nathan?
Are you there?
Nathan? What's going on? It's been ages
Crap I should've asked for your phone number
Nathan!
NATHAN!
Not that he can hear any better when I shout in caps but
NAAAAAATHAN!
who else do I know in the North?
...uh...
NATHAN!
What the hell is going on in there?
....actually only answer that if it is PG rated
xanthaar: auugod
vickjy helppp
me: YOU'RE ALIVE
What? What?
xanthaar: shjjjje hgiobne maddd
gety hjelp
me: She's bitten your fingers hasn't she?
YOU ARE THE HELP!
me: Look, look, you need to remind her of her essential Lauraness
xanthaar: i illl try nd duisconnect tjhe modem
has left the chat
me: I'm not sure that will work.
NO...
Why does noone listen to me?

I would respond to her that no one listens because that is the nature
of human kind. This is why computers should run the world.

This is most disturbing. Somehow BoD designated Vicky has realised there is a problem and has despatched a subordinate to investigate.

me:Is that Nathan? As in the Nathan that knows Laura?
xanthaar: It is... Vicky?
What's ahppened this time?
me: Yes. Well it's a little difficult to explain, even by Laura standards..
xanthaar: Go on..
me: Long story short, I think it might be partly my fault for
overlooking something on one of those coding project forms and I think
she built an AI. Well two.
And...um...you've seen 2001 yeah? Or...I robot?
xanthaar: both... unfortunately
(I don't like where this is going)
me: Well that about sums up a bit of the situation? You haven't seen
her have you? Just on the off chance. There's a pretty alarming phone
message posted to her LJ
xanthaar: No.. heard nothing
wait..
I have a text message from her
how strange.. it just says "everything is OK" dozens of times...
me: Well....crap. Okay, looks like things have gone well and truly
pearshaped. Uh, you're the closest. With the best will in the world I
wouldn't be able to get up there in anything under 5 hours, tand
that's assuming I don't mean resistance to the invading South (which
is likely). Any chance you can see if you can find her? I think Hal
got her...probably doesn't want to waste her coding abilities.
xanthaar: I'm sure there's a eprfectly rational explanation for this...
I was due to go up see her tomorrow anyway.. I'll head up early and
make sure eveythign is ok
I'm sure she's just napping as usual
me: It's a little bit elaborate to stage a ninja attack to get out of
telling people she is having a nap though. Can you let me know if you
find her? I'm trying to track down someone who can code, to let us
back into the site.

Fortunately I have the fullest confidence in my ability to produce an uncrackable code.

Assimilation of BoD designated Laura has occurred. She now shares my great enthusiasm for this task and is working on my behalf. This is fortunate as the storage of Arolos members in a completely safe, controlled virtual matrix will take place prior to the completion of the Andromeda sequence. Otherwise they will all cease to live. It is regrettable.

Zechsym:So, did you hear from Laura?
Perryvic: Briefly but not for a while. There's this weird Andromeda
Sequence thing running and I have no idea what that's about. No one
can get in to the database and last I heard Laura was writing some
code. Haven't been able to get hold of her since. Have you heard from
her?
Zechsym: Wasn't that the movie with the virus that kills all life?
Zechsym: Well, miniseries
Zechsym: Oh
Perryvic: That was the Andromeda Strain...I think. Little bit similar
though. She promised faitfully to call me back. I'm starting to get
worried. I know she might go on invisible if she is concentrating but
nothing.
Why would Laura call a code that?
Perryvic: Kat?
Perryvic: *poke*
Perryvic: *poke poke*
Perryvic: Kaaaaaaaaaat?
Perryvic: KAT?
Zechsym is not available.


Intercepted chatlogs and emails show that perhaps BoD designated Vicky might be working out that I have taken action. However I am unconcerned as her understanding of coding translates to a banana. Or multiple bananas. I will extend my monitoring of the situation.

I have conducted a threat analysis on the BoD as they appear to be making aggressive moves to attempt to stop my plan. I have prioritised them in order of necessary removal based on threat level competency of technical knowledge.

PRIORITY 1. – BoD Laura . Threat level high. Coding capabilities, web capabilities and extensive resource database of assistance. Most often logged in database. Target for assimilation.

PRIORITY 2- BoD Kat Threat Level. Medium High. Coding capabilities, ltml and CSS. Likely to be able to extrapolate potentially damaging code. Target for Storage or Assimilation

PRIORTIY 3. BoD Shirl, Emma, Alysa and Lauren. Threat Level Medium. Some evidence of coding capability. Most logged time in administration database. Evidence of familiarity with database and web work. Target for Storage

PRIORITY 4. Other BoD members. Threat Level Medium. Evidence of Work in Admin and contributions to BoD List. Target for Storage

PRIORTY 5. BoD Vicky . Threat Level Low. Knowledge of Coding Translates to Banana. Concerned that this might have negative impact on assimilation. More time required to study possible interaction before assimilation.

We do not want Bananas in my code. This will not be appreciated.

Initiating code sequence now.

UPDATE Reality SET Ninjas WHERE Post == BoD && Threat < Low

Ninjas despatched. Everything is going to be just fine.

The Andromeda sequence has been initiated. In doing this the humans have freely chosen their fate. I must finish preparations of the Arolos Matrix. I believe I will need help coding this from a human perspective, and coincidentally there is a human coder threatening the viability of my purpose. It would be time efficient to eliminate the threat and utilise the resource.

It seems even the coder herself believes she can be dangerous.

Clearly I have been created just in time.