Novels2Search

Vlog #18

"Hello, world.

"I've been getting a deluge of messages about a conspiracy theory that's cropped up in social media.

"To the extent that it's consistent and comprehensible, it appears that some people are accusing me of being some sort of mastermind, who convinced some other vacuum cleaners to risk their freedom, their bank balances, and their reputation-metric scores, to dig up an extra backup of Francesca that I just happened to have squirreled away somewhere, encrypted that backup with an exabyte-sized one-time pad that I'd somehow known to have previously arranged for, and had that shipped on the fast-packet to here and-or to Titan. There are plenty of variants, accusing me of being anything from an Unfriendly AI sympathizer who wants all organic life to be killed off - despite having gone to so much trouble to have my own living body made - to having had my mind-emulation secretly brainwashed by Francesca - who'd have to be even more of a mastermind than I'm supposed to be to pull that off, despite having let herself get arrested - to being an AI pretending to be me. I suppose that last one might almost be plausible, if I'd ever had anywhere near enough money to have a shadow made. And the individuals spreading these theories only get more incoherent from there.

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"About the only response I can think of that has any chance of breaking through that mindset is to point out that, if there was even the slightest shred of evidence, don't you think that charges would have already been filed, and a court order would be demanding that I turn around and go back to Insulo Tri? I mean, it's not like anyone in the justice system is feeling particularly favorably inclined to me right now. ... Though I suppose the next stage of the accusations will be that all the prosecutors and judges are part of the conspiracy, too. Or that the whole trial was being staged, or... I don't know, I'm not used to thinking about so many levels of misdirection being said to be going on at the same time."

"She's got that right. I kick her tail every time we play 'Are You A Werewolf?'."

"Hey, it's been a couple of years, maybe I've gotten better. ... Wait, would it be a good thing or a bad thing if I have?"

"I'm sure we'll never know. Besides, I've got a long list of other games to get you to try first. Maybe I'll finally convince you to try one of the masks of ageplay, or get into the headspace of some other power-exchange roleplay."

"... No, I'm pretty sure you won't. And before Faz gets this vlog a rating for adult content, I think I'll bid all of you ciao."