definingfuture | IC inbox for duplicity

Mm. What I mean is, if you want to see something you can always make a specific request. I'm not going to let you raid my private files.

[He can feel the defenses fail and retaliates. It takes some time, with Tony stalling as he chats with Q, but he creates a loop that begins guiding the queries toward repeated false channels, reporting back successes that, if actually read, form book quotes in fragmented pieces but mostly waste time.]

Maybe I just don't like people taking my stuff. There's nothing wrong with that, is there?

I'm not planning on taking a thing. But there's not much of a challenge to it if all I have to do is make a request, is there?

[Interesting. It takes six false successes before Q notes that the results being returned look like they're full of dummy text and aren't really getting anywhere. Still, he leaves that line of attack caught in its loop and tries a different mode of entry, hoping that the first will distract from the second.]

But no, nothing wrong with it at all. I'd have a rather different career if everyone gave their data out willy nilly.

I guess not. But you won't necessarily like what you find if you keep trying to force your way through my data.

[It sounds like a threat, but he's pretty sure Q wouldn't appreciate some of the stuff Tony has information on. The knowledge of what he is, what he's been doing, and how extreme his experiments went tend to turn most people off. He's not sure what to make of the invader yet. Q seems mild enough, despite the hacking attempt, but that doesn't mean anything.]

What is your career?

I don't really do this hoping to find romantic poetry and cat memes. But I will stop, if you'd prefer.

[There may be few people who'd appreciate that information more then Q - or who would, at least, be able to stomach it without too great an effort. Still, he's trying things out of interest in the capacities of this system now, rather than an attempt to uncover someone's secrets.]

Tech support. Small insurance office. Terribly dull.

I work for an accounting firm. It's always a little unnerving to find someone coming in through the back door. I get touchy.

Q from tech support. Were you hired to find the source of the hacking attempts or is this just a personal hobby?

[He continues to play the game, locking Q out of his system when he notices his attempts at getting around the security he keeps updating. It's less about the files and more about seeing if he can keep the outsider from looking into his system and changing it. That turns out to be harder than he expected and Tony ends up smiling.]

Insurance, huh?

Ah, accounting. A little too glamorous for me.

I've barely been here a week, no time to be hired by anybody. This is... well. Call it a distraction, if you like. There's something deeply puzzling about this city's network and I'm lacking for a crossword. One finds what substitutes one can.

[This could be an incredibly frustrating game, were it not that - while keeping 'T' busy updating the breaches already made, one quiet line of coding has been plucking a hole somewhere else.

Not so much a back door as a broken window.

Q presses >>ACCESS

It's accepted.

He hovers over >>RUN.

(In his own world, there are perhaps four people who'd be able to get this far into 'T's coding. Two of them have been trained by Q.]

Tech support. For an insurance company, yes. Did you need some?

Ah, incidentally - I suspect my Queen's about to take your Rook. Am I likely to fry my hard drive if I let her try?

Edited 2019-02-10 18:27 (UTC)

[Part of him is tense, ready to fight because he's not used to people getting that close to him. Usually he can block off most hackers without trying. But there are some that are actually that adept at their skill and part of Tony admires Q for being able to distract him and route his efforts to prevent the breach. He wants to cut their connection completely, but he also wants to see the man work. He's torn.]

If you're working with normal memory capacity I wouldn't advise it. I have some reserve security programs that are connected through an external system.

[But what if he can handle it? What then? It might be worth finding out.]

Memory won't be a problem, but this old girl's the one friend from home I have in this place and I'm not keen on losing her.

[That said, he's wiring her into two cheap throwaway drives he's managed to obtain and upgrade since arriving here, letting them take the strain along with (hopefully) any booby traps they may stumble over.

Can't get this far without giving it a go, anyway. Lets see what falls through the cracks once they're widened just a little.

>>RUN]

[The device Tony has is slightly upgraded, but it's not really able to process as much as the armor's computer. Or, it turns out, Tony's mind itself. He feels the system give way, allowing Q access to his phone's data and some relatively sensitive conversations that mention SHIELD and the Avengers and Iron Man. He's not relaxed enough to put vital details on something like his phone, but he does have photos of his armor and a few choice notes made while he was observing people's conversations on the network. There are people he recognizes and just hasn't spoken to and people he's watching idly because they seem to have some kind of power. That information slips through easily, right before Tony starts flooding Q with random commands, trying to flood him with a series of redundant requests that come through like a computer's stream of consciousness, if it was capable of such a thing. Offering to send files and data through to Q's drives without being prompted.]

[Perhaps not too far away, behind a series of screens now all registering various levels of hardware overload, Q's feeling just a little like he might fancy a post-coital cigarette. No time of course - he neatly removes his laptop from home from the circuit before she can give up on him, and lets the other two drives take as much of the forced feedback as they can before they shut down.

He can look back through and analyse Tony's methods later. For now there's nothing but a quick skim through the initial flurry of information sent across. His own processors being slower than a computer, SHIELD and the Avengers will be looked into later.

What catches the eye most are the photos, of course. And if Q hadn't already spent significant time crawling the network he might take them for models, or prototypes, something imaginary if impressive in scope.

But he has spent time doing that. So, after a few minutes, a simple text direct to Tony Stark, rather than through the backroutes of his security system.

This message comes with his own ID tag, naming him again as simply Q. His username (a joke) is: classified, and there's a photo.]

T. What a coincidence.

Here I'd had plans to look you up all along.

[link.attachment:*stark]

You were looking for me? I'm flattered.

[After having to more or less push Q away from his files by sending him too much data at once and exposing some actual information in the process, Tony has to be impressed. It's no easy task to corner him like that. Even the limited phone system should be enough with his control to keep hackers out of private files. And the fact that Q can communicate through the system directly is another thing to watch out for.]

Were you looking to hire a consultant? Because you could have emailed me.

[But at this point Tony would accept him at his door.]

I was, although I had no idea you'd switched fields from security to accounting.

I liked the sentiment. [We should work together - god knows Q's well aware he's remarkably limited on what he can accomplish alone. Granted, limited on a relatively grand scale. Still.] And intrigued by the tech. I assume it's a little more than a hand warmer on these chilly days.

Hah. Okay, okay, you got me. I did do data entry for awhile, actually.

[For like a week, Tony.]

I meant it. I believe that the more we work together, the less power they'll have to enforce control over us. No matter what they're using.

It's assistive technology. I need it for personal use. But yes it does more than keep me warm.

It sounds a little Sesame Street, but I can't disagree. We have a similar policy in Insurance. The work's done better if done with a team.

I'd love the chance to take a look, at some point.

There's nothing wrong with team work. That's what saves the world where I'm from.

Literally. I know it sounds corny, but it works.

I guess I could let you look. If you promise not to take anything home with you.

Given the general structure of democratic governance, the UN, Allied forces, G8, AMU, 9Eyes &etc I rather imagine it saves the world at least occasionally in most iterations of earth.

And I've no problem promising that. Though it would make a fascinating coffee table piece.

Edited 2019-02-28 02:12 (UTC)

We're pretty good for what we do. Started out as an independent venture that turned into a group effort.

Yeah, no, you don't want to do that. The security is touchy.

[He's skimming files but can't consider himself briefed yet. Still.]

SHIELD? Thats one I don't recognise, although I suspect it may be a universal truth that defence agencies can't resist an acronym.

I'll bear it in mind.

That... was actually something else.

[Sellout. He can hear it. Feel the resentment across dimensions.]

Sorry. You probably know how particular people can be over their personal inventions. This one is important to me.

I wasn't actually suggesting taking it for my coffee table.

Haven't bought one yet, for a start.

You'd be surprised. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing someone wanted it for.

I mean, usually it's something like world domination or beating me over the head with, but we get some weird types in my world. Sometimes they just like collecting things.

What I really need is a work place.

I'm afraid I'm not certain if you're talking about terrorist organisations or a disgruntled girlfriend. At least when it comes to beating you over the head.

Perhaps both.

And yes, working on that myself. Potentially ahead of the coffee table. I've been using the empty apartment across from me, but if there's a new wave of residents someone's likely to have questions about the car.

You know, sometimes it's both.

You have a car in the apartment across from you?

Where the couch used to be.

And two couches in mine, it's remarkably cosy.

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