2019-09-07 - Run Jemma Run

Summary:

More testing of the simulation engine has Jeriah in stitches

Log Info:

Storyteller: None
Date: Sat Sep 7 06:02:17 2019
Location: Lab Space

Related Logs

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Theme Song

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jemma-simmonsjeriah-london

Building the computer to handle this is, frankly, the easy part. Jeriah knows computers. It's a little bit tricky to figure out what kind of processing power is needed to induce what is essentially a very vivid hallucination but since the hacker-solider knows what kinds of processing power are needed to process human memories, he can extrapolate. So yeah, the computing hardware is expensive, but it's the easy part, and that's the part he's been working on.

The tricky part is the interface. It'd be easy enough to do this with himself, or Jemma, but the biochemist had insisted that it should work on unaugmented humans as well. Gaining access to their brains is a LOT more difficult. There might be a way to electrically manipulate, stimulate things on the neuron level, but IF that's possible it'll be an exceedingly delicate operation.

"Alright. Well, I've got that set up." Jeriah says as he closes the panel on a massive mainframe. The thing is really several severs worth of hardware all in one casing and it's the size of a large supply cabinet. And water cooled to boot. There just wasn't a way to air cool this beast.


Of course Jemma wants this to work with 'normal' humans. That was the whole intent of the project, to give unaugmented humans a place to safely test lethal, or potentially lethal, technology.

"That's good. I'm not sure about this interface. I've got it working on Alpha and Theta waves but I'm not sure it will be enough. Essentially, I need to send anyone using this into a coma like sleep."

This really is a miracle of engineering and biochemistry.


"And THEN you need to be able to give them a hallucination without drilling into their head." Jeriah nods. He knows this is going to be tricky and he steps over to the portable holo-design table that they brought in so as not to mess up the one Jemma uses for biochemistry. He turns it on and brings up some of the stuff they'd gone through, like headgear and a bio-bed table.

"If they're going to be in a coma I think a table is in the optimum design. What do you think about ways to stimulate their sensory centers, though? It's hard to do that without some kind of direct link but… I wonder if we couldn't do it by hijacking REM. The dream process is after all just a kind of hallucination. Full sensory too."

On the edge of the table Jemma may notice a picture of her. A still of her in fact, in that Jemma-of-Nine costume. Someone has 'signed it' XOXO in the corner.

Why would he have that? He's probably planning to place it somewhere IN this building.


"Well that's part of the idea of connecting to the brain waves." Jemma muses, not seeing the photo on the edge of the table just yet. "We can manipulate them to resemble REM, introduce a dose of acetylcholine and cause the histamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine levels to dip. That *should* work to induce REM and then channel it through the simulation device."

She's thought on this and now that she's stopped musing, she's looking around, eyes falling on the picture and then looking accusingly at Jeriah, that blush creeping up her cheeks. "Would you like an autographed version for yourself?"


As Jemma talks, Jeriah nods and brings up several nodes along the table to expand the view and look at the electronics inside. "I can build these but I've got NO idea how the biology works so I'm going to need some very specific specs from you." He notes.

Of course it is probably nice to have someone around who IS confident enough to try fabricating something like this. His specialty is more augementics but he's worked with cybernetics enough to have a solid grasp of manipulating data in the brain.

When she spots the picture he grins. "Oh sure. I'd love that. I was thinking of leaving this one on Roy's desk. Or maybe Clint's. Orrrr maybe Steve's…"

He pauses and snaps. "Kelly's. That might be fun."

Kelly's where someone - or several someones - will see it.


"As specific as I can make them, of course. We're going to need to do some tests though. As much as I can be specific, the body is the body and sometimes responds in ways we don't expect. But I can get to work on that, give you what you need."

She's already working on her tablet as she she finishes that statement, letting out a low sigh at Jeriah's next words.

"Clint would think I was cracked. Roy would just give it to you thinking you'd like a momento of our time together and Steve. He'd likely think it was cute. But leave it on Kelly's desk if you must."


"It's sort of less about how they'd react and more how folks who see it would react." Jeriah grins at Jemma as he pokes at one of the circuit designs. "If it makes you feel better it's a very fetching look for you. And you've got the eyes for it." Cough. Both of them.

"Hrm…" He murmurs as he works. "We're going to want a test subject who isn't augmented just to eliminate the possibility of our implants skewing the results. Any ideas on who to test?"


Jemma stares flatly at Jeriah for the moment. Deigning not to comment. Her physical looks aren't for comment and she's never dressed that revealing in her life. "Would it matter if I asked you not to? Or would it just make you want to do it more?" She says quietly.

Her eyes drop the tablet as she rotates the model on the screen.

"I've been thinking on that. Roy, maybe. Or Clint. Kelly could at least monitor Roy, though I'm not sure what that connection would do. Clint, at least, is totally unaugmented, and likely to give us valid feedback, ascerbic, but valid. There's a couple of meta humans we could try as well, but I'd rather baseline with a human mind first."


"I'd stop if you asked me not to but the temptation, ooooh…" Jeriah grins. Would he stop? Well he said he would. So… maybe?

He lets the matter drop for the moment though. Poor woman is beet red at this point. "What about Agent May? Is she in any way augmented? I couldn't tell from when she was giving flat emotionless stares everywhere. Wait. Let met guess. Prototype combat android." That's probably a joke but in terms of her rather serious personality it SORT of makes sense. May sometimes emotes like someone who is only passingly familiar with the basics of, well, emoting.

"Otherwise, Clint, Roy and Kelly in that order. I'm not entirely sure how human Kelly is. Though I've not seen her medical file… and it wouldn't do me any good if I did so there's that."


"Oh. May. It's hard to remember she's back permanently. Yes, May would be perfect." Jemma answers, the blush getting even worse at that gaffe. She'll just blame Jeriah's teasing for that. "Completely unaugmented, just very well trained. You should go a few rounds with her in the training hall."

Now the biochem looks up at the contractor "I'll put money on May to kick your but."

"Not Kelly, no. She'll be good to help me monitor and adjust the machine mind connections, that's her forte."


"Now that might be interesting. She's that good?" For a moment Jeriah wonders if Jemma would know but she has possibly trained with both so it's definitely not outside the bounds of reason that she could. "Good enough to take on a vet of twelve years. Now that's something I'll have to see. Or experience, as the case may be."

And if he gets his ass kicked, well maybe he's found a sparring partner who can keep up.

"We'll approach them, then, as soon as we're reasonably sure we've got something that works." He frowns slightly. "Speaking of that, some of these circuits are going to be a bit tough. Have you gotten SHIELD to approve these expenses or are we going to be scavenging a bit?" Jeriah's quite used to 'tactically acquiring' things that are needed. But it's so much easier if someone is willing to just write a check.


"Try her." The words are very quiet and firm. "May … has a unique set of skills. Like Coulson." Yes, Jemma knows what she did there, it shows by the small quirk of her lips. "Take May on hand to hand and if you want to test gunmanship, Coulson's your man when he's around."

Jeriah might have a found a sparring partner which would be better than her own pathetic attempts.

"Approval will take as long as it takes. There's some projects I know of though, that are winding down. My friend used to regularly rat those for bits being scrapped, given the hurry maybe we could go through them?"

The approval won't be withheld, it will just take time. Easier yes, just time consuming.


"Okay now that I'll have to see. I've been shooting things dead for twelve years." It's clear that Jeriah doesn't really believe anyone who didn't regularly engage in high stakes combat could be better than him but he MIGHT well be wrong. He's just confident. Maybe cocky but from what she's seen he's not entirely without reason for being so.

"I'm pretty good at cockaroaching things. I can probably get stuff from the trash bins. One man's trash is another man's treasure and all that." Also some projects may find things have been 'borrowed' or 'retasked'.

"Did you friend happen to mention which ones?"

In order to simulate a patient Jeirah loads a model into the hologram designer. Oops! There's Jemma-of-Nine again. How did that get there?


"If Coulson ever returns from mission, he might indulge you." Jemma answers. "Coulson isn't the type to brag or show off. At least, not that I've seen. He was the one that recruited me, you know. Me and my friend." Jeriah might remember that memory of an unaugmented, much much younger Jemma and how excited she'd been.

"No, my friend didn't. They're not here. I've been watching though and I know which ones, here …" Jemma's about to hand her tablet over when that model patient loads.

The blush is back and she turns away to fiddle with the console.


Jeriah glances down to note the tablet which gives Jemma ample time to avoid looking at herself in the biobed and the way that text scrolls up to highlight various features. After a few moments he hands the tablet back and smirks at the blush.

"What? It was the only 3D model I had conveniently available. I mean I could have just modeled you from recording you standing where you are but that would have taken cycles and I already had this one from earlier."

Probably from making that still though it's still a good question WHY he had that model.

"Shall I switch it out for Jeri Ryan?" He's incorrigible.

"Sounds like an interesting friend you've got here, by the way. Well, interesting set of friends."


"Do what you want, Mister London. It's just a model." Jemma says primly. Back to Mister London at the moment. At least it looks like she's checking the calibrations and settings while her backs to him. He can see the colour at the back of her neck, and see it creeping lower.

"My friend? He was, is. Gifted Engineer. We went through the academy together, neck and neck for first place honours. He transferred here with me and has now been seconded away for a while. I … miss him but it's good for him. To be doing that."

"May and Coulson, they became family when I transferred in. The only squints in a field team, but they needed us."

She doesn't take the tablet, because she won't turn to face him.

"Did you want to run a simulation?"


Jeriah smirks and changes the model. She's blushing enough for the moment though he can always change it back if he wants to make her worse. When she doesn't turn to face him he puts the tablet down and pulls up a couple of programs.

"Sure. I think that's in order. Did you want to be the volunteer again or shall we test it on someone else?"

Minecraft again? Probably the safest though there ARE a couple other options.


"Well, hopefully your friend will come back soon? There's been a lot of people transferring in and out lately. Makes me wonder." Yes. He's noticed the people moving around.


"I'll volunteer." Jemma doesn't comment on the changed model. The cherry red of her cheeks is enough to set her labcoat afire.

"Makes you wonder what, exactly? Missions finish and start all the time and we get people rotating through all the time." Now she does look at Jeriah, curiously, still flushed but the colour slowly draining from her face.


"Well if this were the army, I'd say that someone was spinning up for a major deployment." Jeriah says casually but in that very deliberate way. "For a spy agency? Hard to say but…"

Something is happening. People don't just move around like this. Not this many at this level.

"Okay. Loading up. This time you won't spawn in the water." Though he had half threatened to spawn a whale on her not too long ago. Is he still in a mood to do that or will he give her a wolf to follow her around and some fields to pick flowers in?

Okay, maybe not a wolf. Maybe a sheep or a pig.


A wolf? Jemma would like that but she's expecting more water and a whale as she lays out on the bed.

"Sometimes, Jeriah, paying too much attention might get you in trouble." She says quietly. "But you're not wrong. It might be related somewhat to what we're working on or maybe the powers that be have a whiff of something else. Either way, are you going to complain if you get more seasoned people to work with?"

It won't take a moment for Jeriah to get into the sim and she's holding her breath already.


Jemma does spawn into a field with a bunch of sheep. There's a sign near her that says 'welcome to Devon'. Ha ha ha. Someone is feeling witty.

"Paying attention is why I am still alive. And why I noticed things like your people compromising missions to investigate me." He points out.

"But you know. I might not complain. Will they have accents quite so nice, these new seasoned people? Or look as good in a blue and silver bodysuit?"


"Really, Jeriah?" Jemma let's her breath go slowly and looks around, checking her inventory as she does. "I don't need this manual…" it's get thrown and hits a sheep "Oooops." Pork chops, good he's not going to let her starve. Shovel. Pick Axe - stone one but still.

"Did you want to talk about that?" The change of process. Jemma hasn't discussed it with him since everything went down and it wouldn't surprise her if he wanted to tear strips off her.

Even in the sim she colours. It's good, the programming is. "I didn't end up in the silver bodysuit, Jeriah. Now you're just making things up."


The sheep looks reproachfully at her and she can hear Jeriah laugh but it seems to come from the landscape around her.

"I beg to differ but sure, it's your funeral." He's PROBABLY not going to let her die in the sim. He doesn't want to test yet what injury in minecraft does to Jemma, much less death.

"It's got silver sleeves." Jeriah protests. "But yes I kind of did. You've got a very competent security department and THEY cleared me. What on earth made you decide that maybe they hadn't done their jobs properly?"


"Do you use the manuals that come with minecraft, or do you just use the help function?" Jemma asks the landscape as she starts moving - it's disjointed, blocky - the way she moves across the field, pulling the help interface up and scrolling through it. "So, there's no sensory input at the moment. I assume that it's because it's minecraft. What did you want to test?"

She goes quiet though at his question, letting herself move across the field.

"Would you like to try and answer how that went down before I try and defend myself?" It's quiet and not at all comfortable.


"Movement. Sight. Basic orientation. Before we go adding on the bells and whistles I want to know that it's possible to actually act in this… thing we've built. And are running minecraft on. And yes, I do use them if I'm playing modded."

"No, I want to hear it from you. That's why I asked. No need if I already have the answers, is there, Jemma-Of-Nine?"

It's going to stay daylight and she's in creative mode so while she might get a bit of a shock, nothing's going to hurt her. Though that doesn't mean things won't spawn. They will. But in the open field she'll have plenty of chances to see them before they get to her.


"Alright. Movement feels jerky, blocky, but it's a matter of 'thinking' in the direction and speed I want to go and I can. Sight - anything you want to test there?"

If Jeriah is monitoring the sim, he'll see a slight spike associated with the name he calls her. It's not annoyance.

In an open field, she'll have plenty of time to punch anything that spawns on her - rightly or wrongly.

"I was given directives, Jeriah. Clint … was concerned and took his concerns to May. He … isolated me from the network and told me how it would be. I made the argument you were vetted and he was being paranoic. I sought May out and made my case."

She's quiet as moves through the field and Jeriah can see the anguish as it shows on her biorhythms.

"Initially they were going to give you entirely different locations and I told her they were playing with your life on whim and that if that was the case, she could reassign me to a new project because I wouldn't have anything to do with it."

Jemma hadn't said anything but she would have gone to the Director and risked being sworn at.


"Yeaaaaah, that would have probably resulted in me leaving the project…" Jeriah notes. "Well, it's done and over now and I trust we won't be dealing with that again?"

He spawns a bow and some arrows in. And then a few bales of hay. "Try some target practice. I want to see how good the movement translates. Is it more thinking of how to move and less actually moving like you're walking around?"

There's a pause and a smirk she can't see. "I could always put on a star trek skin and put you in the Medbay of the Voyager, Jemma of Nine."


"It was more than that for me, Jeriah, the risk that you'd leave." Interesting, Jemma hadn't wanted him to leave. "It was that I didn't want to be in charge of team that people didn't trust me to run or that I had to betray to prove their loyalty. I wasn't happy with the compromise but it was better and I wouldn't have left you alone."

"I don't know why they didn't just pull you in for questioning." She's sure that wouldn't have gone down much better but …

When the bow appears in her hand and the hay in front her, Jemma stops and considers the questions. "I … think of going in a direction and I do. Does that makes sense?"

The smirk comes through in the voice and the biochem snorts softly. "I you do that, you have to be Chekotay. Or, I'll make you a deal. I'll let you do that skin and you make a skin of your choice and join me in it…."


"Well whatever their reasons and I am sure they had them, it's done now." Jeriah's slightly disgruntled but he'll get over that.

"Yeah it makes sense. The software wasn't designed to actually accept neuro-muscular input. So it's taking your desire to go in a particular direction as the input. There are worse things for it to be doing but it's not ideal for a full sim. We want to emulate real life as much as possible."

The suggestion that he gets a skin and join her in a minecraft medbay gets a chuckle. "Maybe when we've got this working better. Right now you want someone on the outside to kill the sim if need be. I'd hate for us to get stuck in there and this is still very micky mouse kinds of engineering."


That's not what Jemma was suggesting but she chuckles anyway. "Well, the deal still stands. When you get this sorted out, you can make a sim of your choice and join me in here." Remembering she was supposed to be doing, the bow is raised.

"You want to test what with this, exactly?"

The biochem draws the bow and shoots the bales of hay. At least he hasn't dropped anything on her yet?


"I wanted to test general latency and the feel of it. I can't make heads or tails of the data but if we record your brain function while you're doing various tasks like this then it should be possible for me to better design software to make use of it after you interpret that data for me."

It's not too bad once she gets used to it. It's a little like doing something in VR since there's no physical feedback - the program isn't designed to give any - but it's not too bad.

And then Jeriah takes the hay bales away and replaces them with creepers.

"Oh no. How did that happen?" He smirks.


"Baseline data will help and I should be able to review it with you, crossmapping that to my biorhythms. This is fairly new territory and we're going to be working blind in a lot of cases but what you've got here is good." beat "As a start."

A few more arrows and things start to smooth out, Jemma putting 'marks' in the system as her mind adjusts.

"ACK! JERIAH!" Arrows are fired willy nilly before Jemma gives up, those things are closing on her … she's going to run.


"What? I need to get some endocrine system data." Jeriah laughs. It's hilarious from where he's standing. She may well not know that she's invincible. All they're going to do is knock her around a little and because the base system is still active she'll and on her feet. She can't do otherwise.

"Well you can run fast I'll give you that. Don't fall into a pit now." How far will these things chase her? Wait! There's a cottage up ahead!


"No, you didn't." Jemma huffs. If she thought on it, she might remember he'd said it was creative mode. But she doesn't and Jemma is hoofing it across the field. The sheep mill around her, slowing her at times and Jemma barely misses a hole in her headlong run.

"Could you not have created that a little closer? And please, please tell me that it's got torches in it…"


"Uh, I didn't create that." Jeriah says as she pelts into it. There is not a torch in there, though there is a door and that'll keep the creepers at bay. There's also a chest with some odds and ends, a crafting table and a cauldron.

Wait. There's a cauldron. Does Jemma know what that means?

"I mean I can give you a torch if you want it." Jeriah's voice sounds. He tilts a screen toward him so he can watch the proceedings. He's still highly amused. She can't be hurt so he's not worried but she can be scared and at the moment he's not inclined to try to mitigate that.

"Thaaaaaat looks like a witch's hut."

Was that cackling Jemma just heard?


"Then why didn't you create one!" Jemma's voice rises as she slams the door behind her and leans on it. It's lightish inside at least - no grues will spawn to get her. "Uh … oh shit."

Yes, Jemma knows what the cauldron is and her heartbeat ratchets up. Jeriah must be in stitches - it's hilarous.

Not.

"Shit shit shit." That's the most foul language Jeriah's heard from her. "Crafting table, right." She moves to it and searches the box next to it for materials. "Diamonds and sticks. Excellent. I'm going to make an axe to hit them with."

"Um… I don't suppose you want to stop this silliness, do you?"


"Why? You're brainwaves are jumping all over the place which will be good for your data later and besides, it's hilarious." Jeriah has actually pulled up a chair next to where Jemma is and is watching the whole thing with some amusement. He wonders if she'd know it was him if he started randomly setting her on fire.

"Do you want me to keep it light for you? Or shall I make it night?" By the sounds of things there's a witch and three creepers outside. Good thing she has that axe.


"Seriously Jeriah, that's enough." Jemma doesn't sound like she's having fun and he might wonder if the woman is going to brain him when she gets out of here.

"Wait. This is a sim and … " It takes her a moment but she 'thinks' hard into the system, trying to shape the environment around her. Can she? Has he programmed those hooks in? Can she use the creative mode through her own mind?


Well it sort of works. What she can do is bring up a menu - which must be odd since it appears right in front of her face - and select things from it. As in, select anything. She can have anything - in minecraft - that she wants.

The monsters keep milling around outside. After all they're not able to get in. However the breaking of glass against the wall tells her that the witch is throwing poison in her general direction.

There's a sound of thunder. Uh oh. One of the creepers got struck by lightning…

And now the roof is on fire.


"JERIAH!!!!" Jemma is going to kill him, when she gets out of here. "Please Jeriah, stop it. Please." Menu, right. Monsters. Where's the damn monsters … The menu scrolls up and down, obscuring Jemma's view of the hut.

There it is. Turn that off … no off. Off! "Really who designs these interfaces?" the biochem huffs.

With no smell, Jemma's not quite cognisant of the roof burning until the roar of the flames gets louder. "Oh shit shit shit." The menu scrolls again. Witches, where are they … oh, that's an add on, isn't it. Can she disable it?

"JERIAH!"


Enough of one of the walls has burned down that there's a hole and the witch hits her with a potion now. She's poisoned. And starts to take damage… that heals immediately. Wait. She's… completely invulnerable.

"Alright, alright." Jeriah's laughing. She can hear it. But she can also feel things start to shut down. The creepers are coming in the hole in the wall now. She's going to be here for a few more seconds. She can hear the hiss of one getting ready to explode…

Does she realize she can't be hurt?


"Jeriah, this isn't funn—— oh…" Jemma realises now as the potions drip from her eight bit skin. That's something else she's going to be grumpy at him for - that skin, the starfleet medical one. "… you knew that didn't you."

She can't help flinching as the creepers get closer, can't help backing up in a corner trying to avoid them. At least she's not panicking though.

"Will you please get me out of here?"


"You didn't think I'd let you get killed did you?" Jeriah is still laughing. "Hang on though I can't just pull the plug on this." There.

Jemma's vision goes black and then she can feel her own body again. She can hear Jeriah snickering more clearly as he moves things, he's probably putting equipment away.

"Well at least this time you didn't fall off the bed."


Jemma has worked up a sweat while she was doing that. When she finally sits up on the table though, she glares at Jeriah. "I wish my eye was a laser at the moment." She grouches. "I don't know, Jeriah. I wasn't thinking. Nature kicked in."

"If we're done? I think you've harrassed me enough for today."


"Oh I have only begun to harass you Jemma. Consider it payback for me having to spend a night in a cold shield detention cell." He offers a hand down to let her get up. At least Jeriah's being a bit nice about it.

"Come on. It's about lunch time and you look like you've burned some calories. I think they've got pork chops in the cafeteria today."

Isn't someone funny.


"I should point out that you weren't the only one who did that …" Jemma hesitates to take Jeriah's hand and then does, her eyes rising to meet his and then dropping again quickly, as she hops to the floor.

"We can come back and go through this data after that. We should, it will help us be ready for the next step."


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