madimpossibledreamer

Not sure what's going on, but judging by the upset stomach and headache, I might have had a panic attack earlier today. Or I'm just braindead from lack of sleep. Really, it's hard to tell these things.

Main Points:
Persona 4 Ghost in the Shell inspired au background
Summary: A lot of terms have been showing up in Blessings of Stardust, so here's some definitions. Will probably be added to as time goes by.
Word Count: 722
Rating: Gen

Patching in: seeing someone’s video feed, only possible if they have implants attached to brain. Authorized: someone grants you (temporary) passcodes. They expire automatically after a certain period of time. Some of the best security, though civilian models are more limited. Unauthorized access possible but requires a good hack. Even harder to make undetected.

Jacking in: Usually requires some sort of physical access, advanced patching in.

Rewrite: What Magicians do, taking parameters of the world and rewriting them. It’s safest to create a “backup” so changes can be undone but it takes longer.

Normies/Norms: experience some discrimination, issues connecting with the world, but they’re also isolated systems and therefore less vulnerable to some things, such as viruses. ‘Norm’ is the less derogatory term. Most like to term themselves as ‘unplugged’.

Hack banks: perform the same functions as Magicians, but like old computer systems require a whole room full of dedicated computers and are more limited in scope/ability.

Light scan: required in court, of all attendees to make things more impartial. Was optional until a normal trial turned into a gallery shoot-out. It’s a low level of scanning (don’t get someone’s video input like patching). Mostly gets emotions and potential indications of whether someone’s lying or nervous.

Hard scan/deep scan: Goes through a person’s memories, though due to the way they’re stored is highly unpredictable. Generally considered a violation of a person’s basic rights (privacy) and hardly ever used. Potentially (depending on what interest groups you talk to) discontinued not due to human rights, but due to a secondary problem. Also dangerous on the scanner’s side as it leaves your defenses down (firewall is operating at lower capacity). Another scandal, as a cop hardscanning a suspect was hit by a Scorched Earth Logic Bomb, which heavily damages both systems and essentially fries the brains of both involved. If necessary (assassins are generally subject to fewer rights), an isolated hack bank is best used. Magicians have better success, but they’re also more expensive than even hack banks.

Robots: Still second class citizens, but they’re citizens, so long as their AI mimics a humans (cyberized). It helps that they access the net, interact with the world, and are as hackable as any human’s (assuming they’re not a normie).

Temps/going temp: You can get temporary (nonsurgical) cybernetics that can mimic implants. If you’re a norm/normie in court, you’re required to wear one.

Hardware: The human body.

Software: Anything (including cyberization/implants) that you use to mod yourself.

Sandbox: The safest way to ‘cast’ as a Magician is to run a rewrite in sandbox mode (a simulation separate from the rest of the universe) and tweak parameters until no errors are detected. Given the nano, this can be done within a relatively short amount of time—2 to 20 minutes, usually. 2 minutes is average, but may also be a lot longer. Part of it depends on how stable the desired rewrite is.

Channel: A direct line of communication between you and anyone you choose to share it with. Comes at multiple encryptions, depending on ability and desire. As a backup, cell phones are used in case of cybernetic jamming.

Nanotats: Software specific to the Magician. The process is kept very secret, and is probably government-sanctioned, but the nanotats (silvery nanomachines forming a computer matrix in a tattoo-like pattern under the skin of the Magician, giving them connection to a powerful computer which, unlike a Link, cannot be broken) are implanted in those who are compatible to be Magicians. They allow incredibly fast calculations necessary for Rewrites and can allow direct hacking of the world itself.

Link: The implants usually allow a remote connection to a desktop. Most don’t physically touch their computers anymore, but the best hackers (like Narukami) don’t rely on this too much. For one thing, it removes a vulnerable step (and the possibility of a man in the middle attack).

Linkdead: Anything that causes interference between a computer and a person’s implants. Can show up in the future equivalent of Skype. Can also show up when tracking a suspect. If a suspect runs, it is within police authority to turn on a tracking program embedded in most commercial (i.e. legal) software. Can be innocuous (too many stations/signals around), but to a suspicious mind the most probable causes are a) intentional jamming or b) death.