M. Darusha Wehm

Episode Twenty-Three 01001 I am (two) living together in the same mind My body is my own and not my own { sometimes it breathes without me; } There are lights that flash in my memory { when I sleep, they light my way; } I do not control them = those lights in my mind they control me = like a puppet like a host they are my parasite == my saviour I see it all the time now the new world they created for me (and the compulsion it creates) why would anyone choose to live { in a world of death when there is more so much more; } hiding within The cost is so small { this life for another life control for purpose; } we would choose this freely if we still had choice just give us the lights { the guide, the statements, the direction; } and we will follow forever the leader == the follower we are one now [audio:] Direct download Music: low level format by Bjorn Fogelberg some sonics provided by The Freesound Project If you have feedback, I want to hear it! Leave a comment on the website, send me an email or call me w

Episode Twenty-Two >>It looks bad, Jack. There's enough evidence to convict you of a couple of major crimes, and sweet fuck all to prove your allegation against the Red. >But... >>Just don't, Jack. I tested my theory. I'm sending a log of some correspondence one of my aliases had with a couple of law enforcement branches. I'm going to have to abandon that identity now, since it has zero credibility left. I was laughed out of town, and you will be too. Only you'll be laughed right into court. I mean it Jack, you have to drop this. The post Episode Twenty-Two appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Episode Twenty-One "Do you know what we believe in," Lars started off by asking her. "What the core us of in the Red believe, what started it all?" "Well," Jack began, "it seems pretty obvious that you want to bring back the natural human being, reduce our reliance on technology, and question our place in society. I'd say that's a pretty good summary, don't you think?" She didn't want to get sucked into philosophical arguments, but knew he would have to tell her his story in his own way. "As Rackham would say, two out of three ain't bad for a noob."[audio:] Direct download Music: low level format by Bjorn Fogelberg some sonics provided by The Freesound ProjectIf you have feedback, I want to hear it! The post Episode Twenty-One appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Episode Twenty The system was different. At first Jack nearly panicked when she realized that her three D rendering engine couldn’t handle the configuration of the Red system and showed her nothing but an empty blue void. But, after backing out and viewing the system using her terminal emulator, Jack was able to navigate the system. She got a feel for the layout, finding her way through the hierarchical structure. Eventually, she banged up against the point where her dummy user's permissions ended. She breathed deeply, and turned away from her task for a moment. She had an assignment from the shift captain, and she guessed that if it didn't get done they might come checking up on her. She pulled out her bag of tricks and quickly modified a script to do her job for her. She got it running under her own user id and set it to notify her when it was done so she could check the work. She switched back to the dummy id, and held her breath. The post Episode Twenty appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Episode Nineteen Jack didn't know what to do. It was BlackEye for sure, chatting with some dour looking guy just two tables over. It was the first she had seen of him, and although she had imagined before she arrived that he would be leading the group in some kind of bizarre incantation three times a day, once she had been here for awhile the community nature of the group made her doubt even the existence of a leader. Of course, leaders aren't always of the "do it my way or get out" variety, and she noticed that everyone else in the bar deferred to BlackEye when they interacted with him. "Do you know who that guy is?" she asked Susanna, who was already starting to get an unfocussed look about her. "Which guy," she asked after a brief pause to understand the question. "The one-eyed man with the hair wings. Over there," Jack jerked her head in the direction of the table. Susanna looked over, and studied the two men carefully for some time before answering. The post Episode Nineteen appeared first on M. Darusha

Episode Eighteen The thought of Estella Rowan reminded Jack of her purpose at the compound and renewed her resolve to find out who was behind the consciousness programs. She had her first work shift after lunch and was hopeful that whatever they would have her doing as a programmer would shed some light on the situation. She agreed to meet Susanna for dinner at the middle sitting, and headed off to her room to find out where she was supposed to go for her work shift. The morning class had been interesting and compelling, but now as she walked all the way back to her room to find out a piece of information that would take just a second on the nets to retrieve, she was becoming less enamoured with the whole Red philosophy. It was nice to play historical and pretend not to have everywherenet or integrated systems, but there was a good reason everyone adopted those technologies in the first place. [audio:] Direct download Music: low level format by Bjorn Fogelberg some sonics provided by The Freesound Project

Episode Seventeen Jack stuck her key in the viewer's slot and when the friendly voice said, "Hello, b0xenjester, how can I help you?" she replied, "Show me the meal schedule for today." She saw that there was a late sitting that evening for dinner, and asked the viewer to remind her ten minutes before it was time to go. She then asked to see the schedule of classes for the next two days. There was a huge selection of programs available, and at first Jack had trouble believing that it was possible for even a large and well organized group to deliver this many courses and workshops over two days. Then, on closer inspection, she realized that only a small portion of the offerings were live, in-person events. Most of the programs were downloadable tutorials or immersive simulations. For a group that had a strong anti-progress component this seemed odd, but Jack suspected that few of the people involved in the beginner’s events fell into this category anyway.[audio:] Direct download Music: The post Episode Sevente

Episode Sixteen Jack woke up with a start, and for a moment didn't know where she was. The motion of the train was so even that it was as if the train were still. The seats were fairly wide and comfortable, so she wasn't even being jostled by other passengers. Her confusion was fleeting, though, and she checked the time. SleepingJuice was amazing - at that point the train would be arriving in about fifteen or twenty minutes. She stretched as best she could while staying seated, and cracked her neck. She quickly checked her system and found an acknowledgment from Gilles for her report. Good, she thought, at least if they turn me into one of those drooling monsters they'll both know who to blame. Jack had given both Adrian and Gilles encoded links to contact each other in case of emergency. She allowed them to talk to each other anonymously; she had no interested in dragging them into this any more than was necessary. The post Episode Sixteen appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Episode Fifteen After a beer and a contraband cigarette, Jack finally got over the frustration at her inability to do anything, then spent the rest of the night finishing her report for Gilles and Adrian. She would send it out to them before she left. With these new images from Bellis, as well as the information she had been gathering, she had a fairly complete report to send them. They had both been harassing her for updates, but she was afraid that one or both of them would try to stop her from going if she told them what was going on. She knew her fears about her friends were really her own sense of personal security trying to stop her from doing something foolish, but if she could keep anyone else from voicing those thoughts she would be able to ignore the voices in her head. [audio:] Direct download Music: low level format by Bjorn Fogelberg some sonics provided by The Freesound ProjectIf you have feedback, I want to hear it! Leave a comment on the website, send me an email or call me with your comments

Episode Fourteen Jack spent the evening going over the Brugges theft, comparing it to the incident in the Bellis server room. There was more information about the European crime by now, on the regular news boards as well as the specialized ones Jack has been paging through before. It seemed that the theft had been conducted by a pair of locals who had now gone missing. There didn't seem to be any link between the two prior to the incident; one was a service worker in a mid range upgrade salon and the other was an entertainment worker. Rowan, Jack thought. She was an entertainment worker from Brugges. Of course, that made as much sense as anything; more, really. Most of the analysis of the event had pointed out that the logic was quite poor, but only if the thieves cared about getting caught. If you had no thoughts of you own, why would you care about the logs, getting caught or having to disappear?[audio: The post Episode Fourteen appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Episode Thirteen The next day, Jack arrived a little early, hoping to catch a few minutes with Gilles. She rounded the corner to their shared cube, and smiled broadly when she saw his craggy face. "Morning, Gilles," she said, throwing her jacket on the rack. "Hey, yourself," Gilles said. "How was your weekend?" She could have sworn that he winked at her. "Pretty interesting," Jack said, "I'll be giving you a full written report later." He laughed, and Jack smiled and lowered her voice. "No, really, I'm not kidding. There have been a lot of developments since our little adventure and I want to fill you in. The post Episode Thirteen appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Episode Twelve Jack rode the ninety minute train home knowing she ought to use the time to get a quick nap, but was too wired to sleep. She really wasn't sure what to think about the things she had seen and heard. She was convinced that the Red were behind the attack on Estella Rowan, but she was equally convinced that the people she met could not have been involved. Not necessarily because they were inherently good people - Jack didn't trust her judgment that much - but because it just wasn't their style. It would offend their sense of esthetics. [audio:] Direct download Music: low level format by Bjorn Fogelberg some sonics provided by The Freesound ProjectIf you have feedback, I want to hear it! Leave a comment on the website, send me an email or call me with your comments at 206-984-2976. The post Episode Twelve appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Episode Eleven Jack felt as if her mind was truly clear for the first time since this ordeal began, though she was not sure that sneaking off for a quickie was the best decision she had made in the past few days. However, what was done was done and she sat with Phoenix, talking about art and the difficulties that people who do not fit into the system of working for a firm have when trying to do their work. Jack discovered that Phoenix was gainfully employed as a writer for a prominent board devoted to performance art. One of the large firms funded the board as well as many exhibitions every year. "I didn't know that even existed," Jack said. "It's very uncommon," Phoenix said, "I was extremely lucky to get the position. Of course, I worked for them to begin with and was active in the community anyway. I knew who to go to and what I had to do to get it." Phoenix smiled languidly, and Jack understood that there were probably not very many desires that Phoenix didn't get fulfilled. [audio: The post Episode Eleve

Episode Ten Jack found herself in a small vestibule before a locked metal grating at the bottom of a long, narrow, straight stairwell. A voice crackled from a speaker in the ceiling. "There's network here. Upload the map you were given so we can confirm the checksum." Jack drew a deep breath and turned her system on. She was, indeed, online, though the signal was weak. She found that an address had been sent to her, and she replied with a copy of the map. The upload seemed to take forever, but almost immediately as soon as it was done a buzzer sounded and the grating in front of her swung open. Jack walked up the stairs, jumping as the grate behind her clanged shut. She checked the monitor to discover the already weak signal getting weaker with each step she took. The post Episode Ten appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Episode Nine It was a ninety minute train ride, and Jack was having trouble filling the time. Her nerves were jangling and every few minutes she would decide to catch a return train as soon as they stopped. But, deep down, she knew that she'd end up following through with her plan. She had gone too far to stop now. And when she thought about it, this was the most exhilarating experience she'd had since she decided to play on the right side of the rules. Hell, she had never really been much of a cracker anyway; she was always more interested in how things worked than causing problems. Her break and enter career was entirely motivated by a need to see what was on the other side, and she was very good at making sure she wouldn't be caught. This was probably the most exciting thing she had ever done in her entire life. There was no way she was going to wimp out now. [audio: The post Episode Nine appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Episode Eight Jack woke on her own sometime near noon the next day. She felt like crap, and was sure she looked like it too. She fired up the coffee machine and dug out a breakfast bar. She stirred her coffee with the bar, trying to get some moisture and extra caffeine into the nutrient laden brick. She cracked her neck and picked up her clothes from where she had dropped them the previous night. She put them on, even though there were clean clothes in the autoclave. She just couldn't be bothered to open up the hatch and she didn't think she would be leaving the apartment any time soon. [audio:] Direct download Music: low level format by Bjorn Fogelberg some sonics provided by The Freesound Project If you have feedback, I want to hear it! The post Episode Eight appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Episode Seven Jack scanned a news report from the previous day. "Estella Rowan, a 63-year old adult entertainer, was reported missing yesterday by her employer after she failed to log in at work for her shift that evening." Jack felt a slight chill as she realized that the evening in question was the night of the Brugges robbery. The reports were not connecting the events - surely Brugges had its share of crime and what would a prostitute have to do with a theft of electronic parts? Jack connected the events, though. The theft had occurred only three quarters of an hour after Rowan's system had been accessed. Jack had to try and find Rowan, who might be able to lead her to the people who had contacted the missing woman just before the heist. [audio:] Direct download Music: low level format by Bjorn Fogelberg some sonics provided by The Freesound Project If you have feedback, I want to hear it! The post Episode Seven appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Episode Six Jack started walking back to her apartment, planning her next move. If she could trace the path of the unknown login back from the Bellis system, she may be able to find out where it originated. If she could find where it came from, she might be able to figure out what they were doing. She was pretty confident that whoever it was, and wherever it came from, the Bellis system was not the final destination. There were no flags raised by the security system and, as far as anyone could tell, no damage done aside from the downtime the other day. [audio:] Direct download Music: low level format by Bjorn Fogelberg some sonics provided by The Freesound Project If you have feedback, I want to hear it! Leave a comment on the website, send me an email or call me with your comments at 206-339-8577. The post Episode Six appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Episode Five "Well, that was fucking unnerving," Jack said, sitting at her table in her apartment, nursing a growing headache and a slight case of nausea. "What happened," Gilles asked, "are you okay?" "I'm fine," Jack replied, having a sip of water, "I just felt what it was like to be, I don't know, deleted, I guess. Weird. Did anything show up at your end?" "Not really," he said, "I caught a strange blip on the log but it didn't get flagged or anything so you're probably okay." "Cool," Jack said, rolling her neck and working out the kinks of being essentially away from her body for a couple of hours. [audio:] Direct download Music: low level format by Bjorn Fogelberg some sonics provided by The Freesound Project If you have feedback, I want to hear it! The post Episode Five appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.

Episode Four Jack woke again to the chirping birds, each peep sounding a bit like a tiny jackhammer to her aching head. The first morning of the weekend often started this way, though usually a few hours later. She silenced the birds, rubbed her eyes and banged her way through her tiny apartment to the water. She drank down a couple of glasses and tried to convince herself that she felt better. She grabbed a hot breakfast packet from the box and chucked it in the zapper. She turned on the coffee and while everything was heating up, she found some comfortable clothes. The zapper dinged and the coffee machine pinged, and Jack took her food and drink to the table. She ate and drank offline, becoming less aware of her headache, more aware of her surroundings and thinking subconsciously about the previous day's revelations. [audio:] Direct download Music: The post Episode Four appeared first on M. Darusha Wehm.