That security system is both ludicrous overkill and not even close to sufficient. Why would you make he failed login consequence “you and everyone you love will be murdered” and then go with one factor auth that can be cracked in under a minute?
Someone needs to tell Ray about Discord or Skype or Facebook messaging or whatever. Fewer death threats, more actual security, and about the same effective end result. Sure, the adventure game seems to be a physical (ish) place, but functionally they just texted each other.
Wouldn’t surprise me if mundane security is easily bypassed by Technomancers. It appears that Zed only got past it with information from the preexisting relationship between Ray and him. The overkill might be the price you pay for the security.
It seems to have been a recent update, and clearly could use a tune-down. Using urban legend murderous Others as security detail probably doesn’t come with a user’s manual.
It can’t be brute-forced, because you’ve only got 7 attempts and the time-before-someone-dies seems to drop significantly with every failed attempt. And it’s a pretty strong password (see: https://xkcd.com/936/), he was only able to crack it by unleashing an apparent AGI with access to previous passwords and a lot of personal info on the guy who picked the current one.
Honestly, my bigger concern would be failing the first attempt on purpose, defending against the single resulting attack (it’s not just “your dogs get hit with a sledgehammer”, it’s an Other coming to do that; it doesn’t automatically win), and thus rebounding it against the practitioner. Or the security system itself, maybe? Regardless, leaving autonomous counterattacking defences sitting around like that seems like it might offer some openings in terms of baiting out the attack and then binding or rebounding the attacker; something that can be done with a lot of preparation in this case.
[On a console with text in luminescent green]
Connecting to SunnyDay…
Connecting…
Connecting…
First Circle Connection Made.
You stand atop a grassy knoll. It is a sunny day.
Seven men approach. They do not speak.
SAY “I want to speak to my asshole teacher who doesn’t tell his apprentice when he sets new guards for his domain.”
The seven men shake their heads.
A man with messy clothes walks off the grassy knoll.
You hear a clattering downstairs. It seems he will continue to make a mess until you go to check.
SAY “Yeah, I hear him. I still want to talk to my teacher, ‘Rad’ Raymond Sunshine.”
The six remaining men shake their heads.
A man with hevy workers clothing steps off the grassy knoll.
He is ill-tempered. As your dogs Trooper and Bear bark, his temper grows shorter and he considers using the sledgehammer he has with him to silence them.
You have four minutes until he does.
Your dogs hear your shout, but are more concerned about the intruder in the living room.
3:54:163
SAY “Third time. I want to talk to ‘Rad’ Raymond Sunshine.”
The five remaining men shake their heads.
A man in old fashioned nightclothes steps off the grassy knoll.
He is now very far away, in a bedroom with pink carpet you’ve been in three times before. He pauses to look at an old picture on the dresser, where you, the bedroom’s occupant, and your parents smile at the camera. He sets it down flat on the dresser. He picks up the phone before the vibration from your call can wake her, then sits down on the corner of the bed.
He pulls a large stuffed elephant into his lap. It is what he intends to use to smother her, if you persist without following the SunnyDay 31.d security protocols, or if you call your parents or the police and they attempt to enter.
3:05:550
LOOK
It is a sunny day.
Four men stand on a grassy knoll. There is a door behind them.
The first man is dressed in white.
The second man is wearing a suit with a wooden mask and leather gloves.
The third man is covered in his own sick.
The fourth man wears only a smile.
They do not seem intent on leaving in any particular order.
SAY “Caselotti?”
The four remaining men shake their heads.
The man that wears a suit with a wooden mask and leather gloves steps off the grassy knoll.
He intentionally bumps into a car and sets off a car alarm. As the lights in the house turn on and a young lady step over to the window, he lights a cigarette.
She cannot and will not see him clearly.
Following your instructions to call if anything strange happens, she dials your number.
Your phone is ringing. If you pick up before abandoning this login attempt, the man that wears the suit, the wooden mask, and the leather gloves will step up behind her and use the lighter with a cupful of chemical to set her on fire from head to toe.
If she hears your answering machine on her third attempt, her father will emerge from his room to ask about the noise, and she will be set on fire while she is distracted.
She is making her first call…
1:53:412
[A separate window is opened, covering the text]
Launch SHELL (ANIMUS_LIBRARIAN|unbind -5m30s
[A large rune fades away]
|UNBOUND}
Hello Zoe.
1/3 calls made. She is dialing.
1:15:012
Hello Nina. It’s Zed now.
Hello Zed.
I need some knowledge.
I live for knowledge. 🙂
Pass phrase, said out loud. Past pass phrases included ‘Keep on Chooglin’, ‘Mama Tried Hardest’, and ‘Bancroft by the river’. I’m up against seven Others who resemble the seven dwarves. I’m thinking women related to the Snow White animation. He likes the ladies.
Can I dig?
Dig through my computer. Less than a minute left.
On it~~
If you need to intuit Ray’s way of thinking & speaking, check his emails to me. Usual rules about privacy.
& forgetting the personal details.
I don’t care about those anyhow
20 seconds.
‘Doris Day was the last one singing’
2/3 calls made. Third call in progress
00:16:20
[Window is closed]
The man that is dressed in white steps off the grassy knoll.
He stands behind you, scalpel grazing your throat.
SAY “Doris Day was the last one singing.”
Success!
Connecting…
Second Circle Connection Made.
Connecting…
ISCN Key found. Third Circle Connection Made.
Joining Ray and two others.
Hi ray.
Ray: What the hell are you doing here?
Grumpy.
SAY “You’re a hard man to get in touch with sometimes, Ray.”
Ray: I intend to be. I’m tutoring. Do you realise how this makes me look to clients, when someone bypasses my security whilst I’m in the middle of lessons?
Someone and their book-loving friend.
SAY “Doesn’t it say that you’re really good at teaching your students to penetrate defenses?”
🙂
Ray: Your Librarian Animus is wandering about in my private teaching area. She’s chatty. Deal with her.
SAY “She expires in a couple of minutes. If you communicated better and let me know about your scary Dopey, grumpy, sleepy, bashful, etc, I wouldn’t have had to tap her. Where’d you get those guys?”
Ray: Urban Legend. Student film script got taken for true events and spread around. then the events started happening. I was asked to deal with it, they let me keep them.
Ooh.
SAY “Not your usual style.”
Ray: I’ve had to leave my usual style behind as I’ve moved up in the world. you will too.
Such a shame.
SAY “Something I’ve done before and can do again. In the meantime, I’ll have my fun.”
Ah yes, Zed. Oh! Gotta go!
Ray: As you wish. Your Librarian’s gone.
SAY “Yep.”
Ray: Whar do you need, Zed? I assume it’s important, but not so important you haven’t jumped straight to telling me.
SAY “The Devouring Song. I’ve got some key info. I’m hopeful we can do something about it soon.”
Ray: Let me give my students a task to keep them busy
SAY “Astral projecting into the digital landscape. You’ve been out of touch for three days. You aren’t keeping them in here for that long are you?”
Ray: No. I was preparing the space and lessons. One moment.
SAY “Go easier on them than you did with me, ok?”
Ray: They’re good students. They’ll be fine.
Ray: I’m available. Tell me.
SAY “Our metaphorical swarm of bees seems to have a queen bee. Made from a black dog. Still strong. I want to go for it, but I need big guns. Help. And it has been impressed on me that I shouldn’t make any moves this complicated without my teacher’s knowledge or say-so.”
Ray: I get a share of the power, resources.
SAY “I figured. I made some deals though. About how it’s handled after.”
Ray: With whom?
SAY “Can’t say, that’s part of the deal. But I can say they’re attending HBI at the end of next month.”
Ray: Fine. Who are you tapping?
SAY “I was thinking Nicolette, Chase, Jessica, Eloise, Ulysse, Amine, and a new acquaintance who survived the entire ritual. For tonight.”
Ray: The first six are all students? Your peers?
SAY “I know them, I trust them well enough. You really need to keep better track of the school stuff.”
SAY “Nicolette, you know her. Auger, dipping into the Incarnate practices. Omens and stuff.”
SAY “Chase, Auger, specialist in remote viewing, very good at finding people. Can’t really invite Nicolette without inviting him, and he might help us find our queen bee.”
Ray: Good. Solid line of thinking.
SAY “He’s a bit of a prat though. Um. Jessica is more of a generalist. Went into the Ruins to look for a family member. We ran afoul of her twice before we convinced her to join up. Younger.”
Ray: The Pic River girl?
SAY “Yeah. Eloise is from your favorite family of ‘pretty cockroaches’, I think you phrased it?”
Ray: Charming.
SAY “She’s fine. Engaged to Ulysse, who’s with Amine. They’re under Durocher.”
Ray: Yes, yes. I know them. Fine.
SAY “You really need to get to know your students & potential students better.”
Ray: I do only what I must. Remind me about Black Dogs.
SAY “Borne of senseless and untracked civilian deaths in wartime, lynchings, etc.”
Ray: What war?
SAY “Afghanistan, apparently. There’s a reason the Devouring Song is so tenacious.”
Ray: Then bring Durocher.
SAY “Durocher scares me. The weakest practice I’ve seen her use made car alarms go off two blocks away.”
Ray: We’ll need her kind of strength for this.
SAY “We?”
Ray: All hands on deck. Let’s do this right. That means bringing Durocher and her pre-human divinities. Talk to Alexander while you’re at it. The school is a resource we maintain for just this reason. We’ll use it.
SAY “They’ll want a piece of the pie.”
Ray: A small piece of something this big is enough. I’m cutting this lesson short and logging off. Call Durocher and the other school staff. I’ll come to your shortly. You can tell me more about the deals and the people you made them with when I arrive. Keep a port open.
My thought was that he was genderfluid! Because I imagine he’d chat often with the animus. Though on second thought, that’d be a very definite way to announce what gender you identify with at the time. In any case, it’s really cool :3
Pale 
That security system is both ludicrous overkill and not even close to sufficient. Why would you make he failed login consequence “you and everyone you love will be murdered” and then go with one factor auth that can be cracked in under a minute?
Someone needs to tell Ray about Discord or Skype or Facebook messaging or whatever. Fewer death threats, more actual security, and about the same effective end result. Sure, the adventure game seems to be a physical (ish) place, but functionally they just texted each other.
LikeLiked by 5 people
Wouldn’t surprise me if mundane security is easily bypassed by Technomancers. It appears that Zed only got past it with information from the preexisting relationship between Ray and him. The overkill might be the price you pay for the security.
LikeLiked by 3 people
It seems to have been a recent update, and clearly could use a tune-down. Using urban legend murderous Others as security detail probably doesn’t come with a user’s manual.
LikeLiked by 3 people
It can’t be brute-forced, because you’ve only got 7 attempts and the time-before-someone-dies seems to drop significantly with every failed attempt. And it’s a pretty strong password (see: https://xkcd.com/936/), he was only able to crack it by unleashing an apparent AGI with access to previous passwords and a lot of personal info on the guy who picked the current one.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Honestly, my bigger concern would be failing the first attempt on purpose, defending against the single resulting attack (it’s not just “your dogs get hit with a sledgehammer”, it’s an Other coming to do that; it doesn’t automatically win), and thus rebounding it against the practitioner. Or the security system itself, maybe? Regardless, leaving autonomous counterattacking defences sitting around like that seems like it might offer some openings in terms of baiting out the attack and then binding or rebounding the attacker; something that can be done with a lot of preparation in this case.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I want to know so much more. Especially about Nina, but also everyone and everything.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Wouldn’t be surprised if the next chapter is an interlude with these guys trying to stop the Choir.
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I mean, yes those sound both interesting and plot relevant, but the phrase that stands out most to me is “pre-human divinities”.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Unofficial transcript:
[On a console with text in luminescent green]
Connecting to SunnyDay…
Connecting…
Connecting…
First Circle Connection Made.
You stand atop a grassy knoll. It is a sunny day.
Seven men approach. They do not speak.
The seven men shake their heads.
A man with messy clothes walks off the grassy knoll.
You hear a clattering downstairs. It seems he will continue to make a mess until you go to check.
The six remaining men shake their heads.
A man with hevy workers clothing steps off the grassy knoll.
He is ill-tempered. As your dogs Trooper and Bear bark, his temper grows shorter and he considers using the sledgehammer he has with him to silence them.
You have four minutes until he does.
Your dogs hear your shout, but are more concerned about the intruder in the living room.
3:54:163
The five remaining men shake their heads.
A man in old fashioned nightclothes steps off the grassy knoll.
He is now very far away, in a bedroom with pink carpet you’ve been in three times before. He pauses to look at an old picture on the dresser, where you, the bedroom’s occupant, and your parents smile at the camera. He sets it down flat on the dresser. He picks up the phone before the vibration from your call can wake her, then sits down on the corner of the bed.
He pulls a large stuffed elephant into his lap. It is what he intends to use to smother her, if you persist without following the SunnyDay 31.d security protocols, or if you call your parents or the police and they attempt to enter.
3:05:550
It is a sunny day.
Four men stand on a grassy knoll. There is a door behind them.
The first man is dressed in white.
The second man is wearing a suit with a wooden mask and leather gloves.
The third man is covered in his own sick.
The fourth man wears only a smile.
They do not seem intent on leaving in any particular order.
The four remaining men shake their heads.
The man that wears a suit with a wooden mask and leather gloves steps off the grassy knoll.
He intentionally bumps into a car and sets off a car alarm. As the lights in the house turn on and a young lady step over to the window, he lights a cigarette.
She cannot and will not see him clearly.
Following your instructions to call if anything strange happens, she dials your number.
Your phone is ringing. If you pick up before abandoning this login attempt, the man that wears the suit, the wooden mask, and the leather gloves will step up behind her and use the lighter with a cupful of chemical to set her on fire from head to toe.
If she hears your answering machine on her third attempt, her father will emerge from his room to ask about the noise, and she will be set on fire while she is distracted.
She is making her first call…
1:53:412
[A separate window is opened, covering the text]
|UNBOUND}
Hello Zoe.
1/3 calls made. She is dialing.
1:15:012
2/3 calls made. Third call in progress
00:16:20
[Window is closed]
The man that is dressed in white steps off the grassy knoll.
He stands behind you, scalpel grazing your throat.
Connecting…
ISCN Key found. Third Circle Connection Made.
Joining Ray and two others.
Hi ray.
Ray: What the hell are you doing here?
Grumpy.
Ray: I intend to be. I’m tutoring. Do you realise how this makes me look to clients, when someone bypasses my security whilst I’m in the middle of lessons?
Someone and their book-loving friend.
Ray: Urban Legend. Student film script got taken for true events and spread around. then the events started happening. I was asked to deal with it, they let me keep them.
Ooh.
Ray: I’ve had to leave my usual style behind as I’ve moved up in the world. you will too.
Such a shame.
Ray: Whar do you need, Zed? I assume it’s important, but not so important you haven’t jumped straight to telling me.
Ray: Let me give my students a task to keep them busy
Ray: No. I was preparing the space and lessons. One moment.
Ray: They’re good students. They’ll be fine.
Ray: I’m available. Tell me.
Ray: I get a share of the power, resources.
Ray: With whom?
Ray: Fine. Who are you tapping?
Ray: The first six are all students? Your peers?
Ray: Good. Solid line of thinking.
Ray: The Pic River girl?
Ray: Charming.
Ray: Yes, yes. I know them. Fine.
Ray: I do only what I must. Remind me about Black Dogs.
Ray: What war?
Ray: Then bring Durocher.
Ray: We’ll need her kind of strength for this.
Ray: All hands on deck. Let’s do this right. That means bringing Durocher and her pre-human divinities. Talk to Alexander while you’re at it. The school is a resource we maintain for just this reason. We’ll use it.
Ray: A small piece of something this big is enough. I’m cutting this lesson short and logging off. Call Durocher and the other school staff. I’ll come to your shortly. You can tell me more about the deals and the people you made them with when I arrive. Keep a port open.
LikeLiked by 4 people
The Library Anima is Adorable.
LikeLiked by 3 people
What a coincidence, that’s her second name.
LikeLiked by 2 people
“Hello Zoe”
“Hello Nina. It’s Zed now.”
Oh cool, sounds like Zed’s a trans guy!
LikeLiked by 3 people
My thought was that he was genderfluid! Because I imagine he’d chat often with the animus. Though on second thought, that’d be a very definite way to announce what gender you identify with at the time. In any case, it’s really cool :3
LikeLiked by 3 people
maybe it’s the Lucy/Lucille problem which would suck
LikeLiked by 1 person
Technomancy is so. Fucking. Cool.
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Hah, “pretty cockroaches”. So Eloise Duchamp, huh?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Visit http://practitioners-essentials.com/ (If it is still up) if you want to read this chapter in a different way. Credit to u/Piplup25 on reddit!
LikeLiked by 1 person
This was a pretty scary sequence!
LikeLike
‘auger’
should be ‘augur’.
Typos might make sense here.
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