[OPEN] She turned her tender eyes to me, as deep as any ocean, as sweet as any harmony

[looksfine]

Characters: Aya & OPEN
Date: First Week of April
Location: Common Room of the Hotel
Situation: SCIENCE THINGS. Specifically, Network Console lessons and/or discussions of potential experiments to come....

Warnings/Rating: None to start. Will update if necessary

After making her announcement on the local Network, Aya logged out of the public console and began heading back towards the Hotel. There were few signs of illness to her now; her normal coloring had returned, energy levels were holding steady at a solid 98.6%, even when she initiated flight procedures, and all scans indicated operating at near-maximum efficiency.

She chose to walk in. Metallic boots clicking softly against the hard floor, but steps nearly inaudible whenever they touched carpet. The same route as Sokka had shown her previously brought her to the vacant room. Decently sized. Perhaps a dozen occupants could reside comfortably.

While in wait, Aya chose to utilize the few low-tech options available. Notepads. Her writing was in Oan, of course, but much of her descriptions were in numeric form. They would be easily translatable, as Math was a multi-versal language.

Besides that, if anybody asked, she could simply dictate it all verbally. She had it memorized, because of course she did.

Comments

[gathersnomoss]

"You said something about lessons?" Zelgadis couldn't read the writing, but he was used to that.

[looksfine]

"Yes. I did." If nothing else, she seemed pleased that more and more individuals were expressing interest. "Specifically, I intend to focus on the instruction of basic-level encryptions to those who are unfamiliar with the security process. Is that what you intend to learn at this time?"

[gathersnomoss]

"I wouldn't mind learning more, but let's start with that. I only know how cryptography works via pen and paper."

A surprising number of wizards wrote in code or cipher. Or maybe not if you knew wizards.

[looksfine]

"May I see an example?"

Cryptography was slightly different than technological encryptions...but only just barely.

Besides that, Aya was curious.

[gathersnomoss]

"the most basic one is just a substitution."

Zelgadis took out paper and a pen. He printed the English alphabet once, then printed it beneath, one letter shifted, with B below A, C below B, and so on.

He then wrote ZELGADIS GRAYWORDS, and below it wrote AFMHBEJT HSBZXPSET.

"Shifting everything by one letter is pretty basic. You can randomize what letters go to what, but even then, you get stuck with statistics if the passage is long. Some letters and words are more common than others. Really, this one only discourages casual onlookers, and it's pretty obviously cyphered."

[looksfine]

The initial presentation of letters was...familiar, but only vaguely so. Samples of a written language known to those originating from Earth. She was able to recognize them from past memories, though she was not yet fluent in reading it.

Something which had proven a hindrance more than once; particularly as the majority of her colleagues seemed to speak either it, or kedanese. Languages which were easily translatable, if not by the local matrix, then by her own systems, but only aurally.

"I see. It is a means of obscuring written information, then. Though I would hesitate to call them identical, Encryptions use somewhat similar methods, although it is a series of commands that obscures not the information itself, but the broadcast with which you transmit it."

[gathersnomoss]

"To continue the analogy, it would be like... instead of changing the letters around, do something to the paper and ink. Like the trick with lemon juice -- if you write in lemon juice as ink, the ink won't show up until you heat the paper. If you write above an innocuous message, no one would know there was a second message on the paper."

[looksfine]

"A biochemical reaction to varying circumstantial stimuli."

She didn't sound so much surprised as she was...inspired. Already processing in her mind ways that this inspiration could be useful in the future.

"Yes, I do believe your current knowledge would be sufficient for learning encryptions. Shall we begin?"

[gathersnomoss]

"Please," Zelgadis said.

[looksfine]

She activated her holoscreen, and began displaying a series of numerical lines of code. It would be easier to stick with numbers. At least, to start.

Oan codes--or whatever language equivalent her students knew--could come later.

[gathersnomoss]

"How do the consoles do these?" Zelgadis asked.

[looksfine]

"Currently, they do not. However, before our return to Keelai post-battle, their software was compatible with these programs through a series of keystroke commands. I have yet to learn why this function was removed."

[gathersnomoss]

"i didn't think anyone could alter the consoles."

[looksfine]

"That was our previous impression as well."

[gathersnomoss]

"Wonder if it was related to Malicant being removed from the turtle." That didn't make sense, but it was the only change. Zelgadis shook his head. "Sorry for the tangent."

[looksfine]

"I do not mind. It is tangibly relevant to our current topic at hand, anyway."

Besides that, it would have been a lie to say that Aya had not been considering all these facts far longer than since he first walked into the room.

[gathersnomoss]

"The fact you can still put it in implies that it's not completely lost. If we could figure out how to tell the consoles to do it."

[looksfine]

"I am familiar with most protocols for such programming. It is the unique biotechnical nature that, thus far, has prevented the possibility of success."

[gathersnomoss]

"Why?" Zelgadis said.

[looksfine]

"Are you not familiar with what happens upon significant tampering?"

[gathersnomoss]

"There's no way to do it from the keyboard?" Zelgadis asked.

[looksfine]

"If the hardware is currently incompatible with the software, then it would render any and all attempted coding efforts moot."

[gathersnomoss]

Zelgadis tried to parse that. "So if it just can't do your instructions, there's nothing you can do without finding a way to open it up without it melting."

[looksfine]

"Until more information is presented to us...precisely."

Sucks, doesn't it?

[gathersnomoss]

Yep. "If we knew how they were built... or grown... could you put the parts in while that was going on?"