User:Icie/LinkQuery
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| #1
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-10-27 |
howdyyy dropping this here so I can link it around when it's through, it's about pal going to meet with "anon"-- basically, was wondering if we could do a little handwave of how that exchange will go! pal of course does not lie, so he will be incredibly up front about what he remembers from being in the horrors; he won't diminish to protect anyone's feelings, but he also won't embellish just for dramatic effect. while he wouldn't share anyone else's presence/experience by name, from his own jaunt in the horrors he will at least tell her: -the conditions and look of the place -the content of the imprinting experiment -the specialized power testing rooms, incl. about the angry augmented bone full of spite he got to touch -the inhumane treatment overall re: food and so on -the katalyth room/he will let her look at his corruption eyes if she keeps a polite distance so re: the handwave, things I would love to know are: -what's her vibe...how's her response -does she have any other illicit information she'd slip him, on purpose or otherwise -if he bothers her about who she's taking this to specifically, like for names, will she cough them up and because he will Insist she Put His Name On It -will there be any other npc response to pal about this, friendly or un. I'm going to slap the network thread on the reputation reporting eventually, so if that would come up then, please feel free to shuffle me off that way I FORGOT ALSO....... would she meet with him like, day of the network post, or Another Date-- Edited 2025-10-24 11:07 am (local)
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A handwave would be fantastic. It would keep things from getting messy..... especially since there will be Others Potentially Present. Celia will be by herself. There's very clearly an unease to her because welp this whole post was a lot, but she is not willing to relent due to discomfort. She's gotta know about Patho-Gen's crimes. That said, she will remain as polite and accommodating as possible. Pal's refusal for of her aid during their conversation has made her very wary of overstepping, so she won't ask to poke around unless sincerely offered. Even then, re: his special eyes, she will only look and jot down notes; she offers that her field of expertise isn't whatever this is, but that it should be accounted for as a side-effect of the way Patho-Gen's treated him. There's no desire on her part to hungrily Learn Science from his condition. ... All to say that she appreciates this digest. (Sorry for the length... Celia wants to be OPEN, as much as possible.) She dutifully takes notes. She needs to know these things, and will be presenting it to a collaborative group of government and Patho-Gen officials; she proposes further that an oversight must be made to see to the ethical concerns not only of Augmented Ones, but of Karterian citizens. If Augmented Ones have suffered so, what of their own citizens? She doesn't think that it's only the Augmented who have suffered, but rather, that they've been the only one who could survive to have a voice about it.
1. Celia has noticed a pattern amongst some of her colleagues. While most are focused on understanding the nature of Katalyth, or helping to cure arcane radiation poisoning, or doing literally anything of relevance to the city of Karteria's health and technology, she has noticed that about 1 of every 4 individuals has a weird slant towards focusing on other worlds, and sees the Augmented Ones as a mark of success in connecting to these other realms. She has had a colleague ask her once to survey the Augmented for details of their homeworlds, specifically to find out how habitable they might be. This colleague has been missing since the incident this month; probably died, and was probably involved in the Patho-Gen Holiday Hotel (TM). This is what compels Celia to believe there is a division in the intentions of Patho-Gen, wherein their public face is for the well-being of the world, but some of its members have a distorted view of what that might be. The recent events, performed under the nose of so many staff members, continue to justify her suspicions that not all people are of the same mind. She knows little else beyond this, and is incredibly hushed about it. 2. She will also be candid: nobody has seen Georges since before the Augmented showed up. He's been missing. Entirely. There were early transmissions from him, but nothing else. Celia knows that Georges and a small team of his closest cohorts were tasked with interacting directly with a tear in the fabric of reality... It's dangerous work. Somehow, more Augmented Ones keep coming, so this suggests that he's still alive. 3. Celia was put to sleep just like the rest of the Augmented, and experienced a strange version of Kelesis rather than the circus-like horror show the Augmented were subjected to. She's come to learn that this Kelesis she saw is the one the Augmented get to visit in Eparsis... To her, it doesn't seem quite right. Celia doesn't know what it is, but internally, Patho-Gen is very frustrated by the lack of control they have over Kelesis, and they've been struggling to explain why all attempts to take control of its bounty (underground) have been thwarted. She is aware that they currently have a special interest in the powers of Spectral-types... but what's weirder is that some force is influencing the government & Patho-Gen alike to consider forceful and even militaristic action on Kelesis. Someone is trying to sow the seeds of fear and discontent! Perhaps it's crucial that Spectral-types keep their guards up. If she learns anything else, she will try to disseminate it. 4. Lastly, of fun details she will try to divulge: Patho-Gen is a massive company. About a half of all of Karteria's people are somehow involved in it. But what's weird, is that nobody knows who the head of Patho-Gen is. Their name is obscured; attempts to find out more from highers-up are always thwarted. "We are our own guiding hand," highers-up always claim, saying that there's nobody at the tippy-top. As though Patho-Gen is "Employee-Owned And Operated!". Celia thinks that knowing more about who is in control of Patho-Gen may yield more information about it as a whole... These are questions she's only started trying to delve into since the appearance of that plant monster in the city who is, undeniably, augmented. Scary. As for other NPC interaction with Pal's name being slapped on things, throwing that on Reputation is the way to go. We're still assessing the general temperature from the government and Patho-Gen; if there are repercussions or other outcomes, that shall be the place they're mentioned. Re: When Celia would meet Pal: she would either meet with him that day, or later. If she meets with him after the post, she will immediately offer to him a complete copy of the post on a little SD card-like thing; she saw some Augmented were panicked about it being deleted, but it had to be done. She figures giving a copy to the Augmented is fair, if it helps to demonstrate her intentions. |
| #2
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-10-02 |
Hello modlies! Katalyth studies update: Following up on Bricks & Jayces' Katalyth studies; they figured out how to get Katalyth to reduce in size before Jayce went on Golem hiatus. Brickston continued the work while he hibernated, and figured out the other half of how to make it worsen/grow, especially using music. His goal is definitely not to just make things worse Madness suggestion?: I'd love to have Brickston have an arc of possibly taking inspiration from Georges andor slowly go crazy/self destruct over the next month or two, so I don't know if there's any segues that might come about with some Very Obsessive Katalyth research/communication, or experimenting with augmented as-possible-resources, or if there's another aspect of the setting that might facilitate a character going a little mad and sounds fun, please let me know. I'm very into that. đ edit: it will be my turn for a little hiatus next month as I'll be traveling, actually very open to having Patho-Gen call him in for experimentation or find out he's been experimenting on Katalyth or messing with the computer terminal or something of that vein if that might slide in nicely with a hiatus mechanic, too! Kelesian connection error: Feel free to shoot this down (or if risking it for the biscuit is a dice roll option, I'm game) but asking since Bricks saw the corresponding communication computer a while back would want to try something. It seems pretty busted and not much to traditionally tinker with so he'd be willing to try one of three things in increasingly desperate order; How would any of that potentially go? where Gojo gogo: UNRELATED TO THAT at some other point in the month he'll stop by Patho-Gen HQ and ask anyone where Gojo Satoru's body went. He'll phrase it like. What would they say? Edited 2025-09-26 06:56 am (local)
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Sorry about the delay and also sorry for these words: because this ended up long That's some good work Brickston, being a very responsible sort and definitely only working for the greater good/benefit of all. It's not as though Katalyth is exactly 'conscious', or can react as a living (or reasonably sane) person could to this demonstration of empathy towards it. Not... exactly. It's not thinking, at least not at this time. But Brickston is hitting on more 'chords' that it is reactive to, through his persistence (and willingness to suffer for it). The more he communes with this specific piece of Katalyth, the more reactive it specifically becomes to Brickston. When he causes it to grow, it really grows. When he causes it to shrink, it will diminish more than someone else could do. And a greater portion of that diminishing- that energy that's quietly released with it (in itself a spell of emotion)- will be absorbed right into Brickston. It could be worse. As a Spectral-type, he's naturally resistant to arcane radiation (which this emotion-energy is). And aligning himself so deliberately with it, reading this piece and 'talking' back to it in a way that it responds to- will earn him a few bonuses. His magics as a Spectral will be temporarily enhanced after each session with the Katalyth. He's absorbing this energy that would kill a normal human- and be likely to sicken a non-Spectral (or Golem). It would feel both exhilarating, and absolutely dreadful. It's still Katalyth. Of course, if he does this too much (diminishing the Katalyth and feeding off of it), his physical state will corrupt more, developing more (temporary) little features. More winglets, more eyes, teeth in the wrong places, etc., it could be whatever you'd like. But alongside it comes the more ongoing (or permanent, depending on how you'd like to play things) mental effects... so tying into the Madness Request more specifically now. Just as Brickston is tuning into Katalyth as a construction, he is also imprinting something of himself into this particular portion of it. Whether he's causing it to shrink or grow, it's aligning personally to him (Brickston being the only one really concentrating on it for these weeks is what causes this connection to grow by leaps and bounds; no one else's 'signals' were in the way.). He'll start to hear it talking to him more often, through the music it gives off. While it had always done this to some extent (once he and the Science Team were deep enough to start hearing it anyway) it will feel that much... personal. Sometimes it's in language he understands (the language of home); sometimes it's utter gibberish but he will feel the meaning. The only meaning is what Brickston ascribes to it. In truth, there is no mind to his Katalyth companion, no heart- at least not at this precise moment. This is all delusion. But it is a very real delusion, it's reacting to what he wants to hear from it. It 'wants' to talk to him, to learn from him, to share itself with him... Brickston could feel as though he were always at the edge of a breakthrough with it, that if he communed a little harder, fed it and diminished it in some beautiful cycle... that he'd find his answers at the end of all things. But it always, always trails dark. It can't help it; the emotions written into its melody, that are being rewritten to fit Brickston's own fears, judgements, traumas... it can't help but react to his heart and reflect it in itself. It 'sympathizes' with them, expands them; when he causes it to grow, it will be written with him in 'mind'. When he feeds off of it, it will compound everything he's already feeling. At this point it would be very, very easy to spiral into greater madness (as though he weren't already there, having done all this). Kelesian connection error: Brickston continuing his clever ideas in bringing his pet Katalyth shard with him on holiday into the hell pit. 1. ...Luckily for him (rolled an 18 btw) Brickston's first attempt nets him the success he's after, without him having to resort to more desperate means. Maybe all the time spent around his Katalyth has paid off? Because it responds handily to Brickston's intent, his channeling of its energy (at cost to his own health/sanity) forces the computer back into brief operation. It's not operating on its own sanity any more; the machine remains broken in practice, but Katalyth energy transcends sanity. Even so, there's not any sort of keyboard available, or other obvious way of telling it what to do now. Fortunately, this thread of connection has spurred it into doing something on its own. Connection lost. Please wait... ... Logged into: Arboretum Hub Error in sending last report. Abort/retry/fail? There's no way of telling it to do anything. Smacking the monitor (a tried and true method) causes it to flicker and hum, and after a few seconds (whether manhandled or not) lines of text and numbers proceed to fill the screen. It's enough that it's all soon scrolling out of sight. But it looks to be information on various aspects of the area. Soil qualities, air qualities. There's that nitrogen reading again. The radiation quantity in every category is "catastrophic". There's a lot of numerical codes complete with short abbreviations and yet more numbers. Each row ends with either "unknown" or "lost". Still, it's a lot to take in at once and it's all flying by very quickly. But it's at least an impression of a lot of scientific readings, and perhaps some kind of inventory. The screen ends on someone's typed notes- a clear addendum to all this data. The words of the last person to have ever used this machine. It's already too late for us. You knew this would happen. What happens now is blood on your hands. We've disabled the teleporters. Maybe this will strike you as spite, but it's not. Containment has failed. ... Please wait... pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseplease ...maybe the Katalyth is doing more to this poor machine than powering it. The screen is quickly filled with a repetition of the same word, before shutting off completely. It will not turn on again, no matter what anyone does. It's dead, its final message conveyed. Gojo hunting: Brickston has been on good enough behavior recently, so he's not just shown back out the door when he turns up asking questions. The staff will be surprised at his phrasing, but it won't change their answer: a confirmation that Gojo is being held in Patho-Gen HQ due to an Augmenter malfunction. They would say the same thing even if he asked it in a less weird way. They would be apologetic about the news, and wouldn't hide that this meant that it was exceedingly unlikely that he would be seen again. They've yet to find a cure for this error once it's already happened, but they would assure that their engineers are doing their utmost to get to the root of the underlying cause. Hopefully it can be fixed and prevent losses like these from happening in future. |
| #3
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-08-19 |
Hello, my darlings. So for Gojo and teams exploring outside of Karteria for the month, he'd like to push a bit farther-- Team Peachy (Momo, Chuuya, and Dazai), as the fastest-moving team, will be trying to reach Doxa. The discussed route was along the edge of the woods and the swamp, the route Gojo and his team previously took to the Blood Lake, and then pretty much a straight line from the north side of Blood Lake to Doxa. Team Sneeze Smash (Tartaglia, Izuku, and Blade) will be scouting the Kelesis Environs and Lake Telos. A few trips of, idk, 3 days each? Proposed routes. Team Boyfriends (Gojo, Felwinter, and Choso) will be following up (belatedly) on the Brickston Intel (specifically the version Gojo got from him and suggested strategy) and searching more thoroughly along that coast and near the creepy cabins they found on earlier explorations. Hereabouts. Please let me know if this is too much (i know this is a LOT to ask for, but it's on behalf of, uh, the nine of us?) or if you'd like more information about their strategy or approach to any region. Thank you wonderful mods â¤ď¸â¤ď¸â¤ď¸ |
Sorry about the delay this was a bit to pull together.... cw: animal remains, implied experimentation, bugs Doxa 1. The path to Doxa is a straightforward one. There's even some decaying evidence of roadwork having existed at some point in the past, but it's intermittent- suggesting that a connection to this corner of Orexis had never been completed, rather than it having only gone neglected and overgrown. Katalyth is present, in unremarkable amounts, and once they're past the edges of Asphodel Fields, the ground- while still moist- is nicely traversable. It should make for an uneventful journey to the borders of Doxa. Unfortunately, the explorers will not find any human, nor human-shaped-entity left alive in the town. There is no sign of any attempt to build a barrier, nor any kind of generator; this was not a place anyone tried to protect. Thankfully, there also aren't any signs of mass death, though there are certainly a few human-belonging bones here and there, lain in moldering beds, or dragged into the street. Many have visible signs of being chewed on. But there's not so many to suggest that the entire town had stricken and died; instead, the majority of the inhabitants chose to leave. The buildings haven't had time to collapse for the most part, but nature has begun its work on reclaiming them, turning green the skeleton of the town. Many of the buildings remain furnished, mostly with larger pieces that would have been difficult to transport across the island. Most small, personal belongings are gone- perhaps suggesting that the people who left here knew they weren't coming back. There are quite a few sailing ships in the harbor, in varying stages of decay. Doxa had once been a modest harbor town, with a sub-5000 population at its height. Being the closest point (relatively speaking) to the island of Ekklisis is why the settlement sprang up in the first place. People dreamed of regular (even easy) travel between the islands, and a properly connected, international Pathos, but even these early stages were never given the opportunity to see fruit. Sailing has been a dangerous profession for longer than living memory, and as arcane radiation made it utterly unfeasible for the indefinite future, what point is there in a harbor town? There are also plenty of signs of wildlife having taken over residence of Doxa, with the most notable being a pack of feral dogs. Or rather, the descendants of once domesticated canines, pets that were left behind when the town was abandoned. Karteria is rather strict with pet ownership, after all.... Several generations onward, these dogs have survived, and with some interbreeding with local wolves, are even thriving in their way. But it's not without some changes. Similar to what's happened around the cenote, the dogs are notably mutated, particularly around their faces- which are now equipped with numerous black tentacle-like growths. It doesn't seem to interfere with their lives too badly, though you'll sometimes catch a dog trying to scrape one of them off against the side of a tree, or some other hard surface. If the characters noticed bits of blackened dropped-off flesh and smears of blood against the lower parts of trees on their way into Doxa... well, that would be where it came from. The other animals in the area are largely normal, showing the occasional visible mutation, but nothing on the systemic level as the dogs. If there ever became a time where reaching Ekklisis was pressing, Doxa could become an important- or at least convenient- staging point. Until then, it is full of tentacled-dogs and rotting ships. Kelesis Environs 1. The most Northern route. The forests directly to the Northeast of Kelesis are quite nice. They're not as dark as the Woods outside Karteria, so there's plenty of light dappling through the leaves. There's no sign of people having been out this way in years, as might be expected, and most paths have been consumed by the forest around them. But there's always some sort of path, and it seems to always lead in the direction they want to go...? (Maybe it's nothing, and this had simply been the most popular route in the past, so it's faded the least.) If one were imagining an idyllic, peaceful slice of nature, the forests outside of Kelesis would match it exactly. The birds sound... odd, or rather, there's birdsong even when there's no birds around. Their music also doesn't match the kind of birds found on this part of the island either. But there's no denying it adds to the ambiance. Once they leave the treeline, they'll have a relatively easy path northward across grassy fields. As just about anywhere flat in Pathos, the ground is moist, but it hasn't yet given way entirely to proper marsh or bogland. It remains safe and reasonably traversable. There is no sign of any past travel past this point, or if something had been there, it was so irregularly trod that it's disappeared entirely. The next bout of woods is denser, though still lighter than the Karterian woods. It also functions more 'normally', in terms of ambient noise and ability to pick a way through it. There is no sign of any human-made path, though there's some places that deer seem to have trod something of their own. The deer are normal. There is nothing unusual out this way, no signs of human habitation or human remains. The levels of mutation in the wildlife is akin to that found in Orexis. This part of Eparsis, at least, has neither been spared the spread of arcane radiation, nor been harder hit. Overall, the amount of Katalyth in the environment is unremarkable. There is plenty of it around, but it's neither infesting anywhere in particular, nor failing to grow anywhere else. 2. Lake Telos. The land moistens to the point of turning back into proper wetlands on the approach to Lake Telos, and the region is absolutely teeming with wildlife. It's less of a dreary-feeling place than the Orexian equivalents, but it doesn't make it any easier going. Once they reach the lake, they'll see that it's not necessarily one made to swim in, but is quite beautiful in its own right. There's an immense amount of flora blooming across its surface, in bright shades to contrast the deep blue of the water. Colorful fish dart about underneath, hunted by a variety of birds and aquatic-lizards (just as colorful as the plants, as though designed to blend in). The insects are similarly dazzling, and give off an ever-present hum in these summer months. Telos is thriving. The majority of the lake's surrounds (including the lake itself) have the average concentrations of Katalyth. However, at the Southeast corner the exploration party will come across obvious signs of a past human presence. A camp, of sorts, rather than a town- but here, every structure has been absolutely consumed by Katalyth. It'll be very noticeable even from a distance, both visually and especially emotionally, as the sense of absolute dread coming from that corner of the lake is not a subtle thing. The buildings themselves look like they're beginning to collapse under the weight of the mineral (or maybe even inorganic structures can get depressed...?), which at least offers a glimpse of what's inside without getting too close. As it would be next-to-impossible for most characters to enter the habitations without losing themselves to the oppressive madness the Katalyth emanates. A Golem-type would have the best shot at it, especially if full-shifted, but even they shouldn't linger there. But it looks like someone had set up a laboratory space here. There's wrecked computers, books that have faded to illegibility (or otherwise ruined by water-damage). Lots of broken glass, with unknown substances dried in them- or in some cases, still oddly sticky, after all this time. Metal cages, large enough to contain something on par with a large dog (or average human), with various damage to the bars of them. Bite marks, claws, burns.... There's collections of bones, both inside and outside of the cages. Overturned tables, and even more chemical residue. Should they find some means to explore inside, there's nothing left in terms of usable equipment. If characters have the means to date anything in the area, it seems to have been abandoned in the early-to-pre-arcane radiation lockdown days. Where everywhere else in the wetland is full of activity, this place is avoided by the local wildlife. The few plants whose seeds have landed nearby have grown up into oddly twisted things, their colors and shapes distorted in comparison to their nearby kin. 3. Southern route, skirting the mountains, all the way to another lake. There is nothing particularly remarkable about this path, but the mountains will look quite lovely as they shuffle past them. That Southern lake is a bit like a smaller version of Telos in terms of appearance and wildlife presentation, but there's no record of humans having settled here, or done anything questionable. Hopefully the exploration crew can spend some time appreciating the sights along with just surveying them! Though it is still rather moist, so sticking around for too long might be uncomfortable in its own right.... Team Boyfriends Route The uncanny cabins are right where they had left them, looking... basically untouched, with barely any more leaf litter or dust or animal tracks or anything. It feels like everything has abandoned this place. The area around it is more normal, the forest becoming patchier as they close in on the coast. And with all their detailed searching, this team is rewarded by coming across signs of a shipwreck. At first it's fragments of wood, rotting and soft. Bits of planks, things too clearly made to be the result of a collapsed tree. There's pieces of metal too, rusted to uselessness, warped and occasionally gnawed. The further up the coast they go, the larger pieces they'll find, caught against the rocky shore (and the occasional spike of Katalyth, jutting up out of the water, uncomfortably smooth, suggesting its erosion into the ocean). The largest find is fabric: thick stretches of coarse wool, sturdy and water-repellant. It lays torn and tangled up amidst rocks, as an evidence of sails (though of a different style and quality to the sailing ships that rot in Karteria's and Doxa's harbors). Apart from being cut up in places, it's in fairly good condition, though if there had ever been any sort of marking upon it, it's long since been bleached away by the sun. There's fragments of wooden masts around it, in far worse condition, turned into the nests of sea-happy bugs and marine mice. There's nothing to suggest that the ship collided with the West coast of Orexis, and it seems far more likely that something caused it to sink further out to sea, and then washed up here. Given the condition of the materials, this probably took place within the past decade or so. There are no human remains (or non-human remains). Besides the materials of the ship itself, there's the remnants of luggage, or at least cargo. There's several wood-like chests strewn along the coast, and unlike the rotting remnants of the ship, these are surprisingly intact. Though there's signs of having been battered against rock, there's no record of anything alive having tried to open them. If anything, nature is giving them a wide berth. A couple have popped open, revealing insides that look like they've been gnawed away, scraped at in splinters at a time. There is no blood, no gore, nothing organic left at all. Three chests remain intact, and... are bulging, slightly. There is no sign of movement, but on approach it'll be impossible to miss that they smell awful. Absolutely wretched. It'll take a strong constitution (or no sense of smell) to even get close enough to try and open one without being sick. Not that you'd want to open one. Why would you? On their inevitable opening: a cloud of thick, hand-sized black flies will emerge. They emit no sound in their flight, and if the container had smelled bad before... it's worse now. It's real bad. The flies will immediately try and escape into the woods, in search of a better life than being trapped inside lost luggage.... (If the party manages to grab and kill any individual fly, it will explode into a mess of murky blood and foam. If they capture an individual fly without killing it, the same thing will happen once the escaping swarm is far enough away. The fly residue also smells terrible, clings to anything it touches, but is otherwise both harmless and useless.) All three chests contain the same fly-prize. Unfortunately, there's nothing in the area that suggests anything from Brickston's intel is around here. |
| #4
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-07-10 |
Hello! Just wanted to check in re: this as I make some plans for July â totally happy to wait, however I just wanted to throw out the option of setting it aside for the time being if the Wildness⢠persists. I completely understand that modding is a huge job and don't want to put further pressure on you if it's too much, especially considering the game is getting so big and the plot is so rich and complex. I imagine there are more and more plates to spin every month! Anyway thank you again for all you do, and I'm v much looking forward to July's TDM \o/ |
The wildness does persist......... I'm so sorry for how long this has taken. Regardless of how wild life gets, I feel I should at least be able to offer an ETA for things like this when matters get hectic on the RL side, and moving forward I hope to do better about this. But we've found a moment to collaborate some more on this while keeping it distinct. I hope this works for you, but if not please feel free to offer your thoughts! To Aemond's request, Patho-Gen will hear him out. You're free to say that he's started pitching it to those at the Wellness Centers, who promise they'll funnel the request upwards... It reaches somebody, but they've no need to specifically address Aemond until now. He's a volunteer, after all; his motivations don't matter as much to them. (Basically, you're free to have had Aemond approach Patho-Gen as many times as you prefer in the time it's taken us to get back to you on this! They'll keep pondering their options, while assuring him that they'll have something for him soon.) And that something comes now, in July. With the unveiling of Kelesis, Aemond offers something to them that Patho-Gen cannot refuse: he is a Spectral-type, and Spectral-types have proven to have some manner of... special traits in the face of Kelesis, haven't they? Patho-Gen will page Aemond via Syntrofos sometime in July, whenever it suits you with regards to planning. Either later this month, or in early August, they will invite Aemond to Patho-Gen HQ, where they will invite him into an office. In this office, they will outline the following to him: Patho-Gen wishes to obtain Aemond's consent to be a test subject to understand better the unknown qualities of the Spectral-type. They understand goats and bears and squids... but Spectral-types deserve some extra exploration, they claim. They say they must monitor him regularly; if he wishes to work with them, they insist gently that this is to be kept under wraps, as much as possible. What they intend to do to him, however, they cannot tell him at this time. Unlike with Viktor, however, this Patho-Gen scientist does not give Aemond time to think about it. They expect an answer then and there. If Aemond insists that he needs time to think over it, they'll only reluctantly grant him some time to think and remind him of the secret nature of this endeavor. If Aemond agrees, the scientist will nod and thank him for his willingness. It's then that Aemond will lose consciousness. Aemond will pass out, but he will have a couple moments of hazy awareness... cw: human experimentation, blood, hallucinations
Rise and shine! ... Dark room and shady figure? Huh? What dark room? Figure who? Oh, those scars? Those came from an unfortunate accident with some tech in Patho-Gen HQ, where Aemond is now. He's in a real nice bed, frankly. Well in hand and comfortable, he is told he can rest as long as he needs. Aemond's recollection of those two moments will be so lucid that they veer into fantastical, like something out of a drug-induced hallucination. Explaining them to Patho-Gen personnel will elicit truly shocked reactions: it's the first time they've heard of any of this, and they've had him here the entire time?? What has Patho-Gen done? First: Aemond will realize his neck's been cut open again. Thanks, Patho-Gen. They explain to Aemond that they fitted him with a device that should be able to gather feedback from him any time he taps into his Spectral powers. No, it's not another Augmenter or anything... But it has a sort of, ah, uninhibitor in it to help him tap into his greatest potentials. They want to understand the powers of Spectral-types, from their strengths and weaknesses; their ability to control wildlife... and their ability to tamper with dreams. Patho-Gen encourages Aemond to tap into his powers more often. A strange, nagging feeling will accompany this suggestion: Aemond will feel... strangely endeared to Patho-Gen, obedient and compliant. Intrinsically he feels his powers should not be used on anyone who is allied with Patho-Gen. Aemond won't notice much different for about a month, save for the fact that sleeping will always, always result in horrific nightmares. Those nightmares can be whatever would serve to haunt him the worst; he will feel an increasing sense of paranoia accompanying it. But after that... Aemond's nightmares will start to bleed with reality. He may be awake, but he'll hallucinate that which plagues him most, like a waking nightmare. Paranoia and rage, especially around fellow Augmented, will erratically haunt him; he may be more inclined to Shift against his will, his powers harder to control. He will become more likely to harm those who he doesn't wish to hurt, and find it difficult to distinguish between nightmares and reality. Being around Katalyth makes him even more volatile... which is strange, given that Patho-Gen surely wants him to be able to resist Katalyth, right? Does he gain anything from this? Aemond will find he has an increasing talent for interfacing with dreams in a meaningful way. Going to sleep at the same time as another Augmented One means he can invade their dreams; remotely, like this, he can actually visit harm upon them in real life. A cut in a dream translates to a cut on that person's body. And Patho-Gen will be intrigued all the while. Something about this is of great interest to them... |
| #5
Topics: Edit question: edit
Answer date: 2025-06-06 |
alright mods... rubs my hands together... eleanor is going to try to psychically communicate with Da Squid Eleanor is able to peek into the minds of animals in canon, and the way it essentially works is inhabiting their point of view and their minds for the moment. So, even if it's not verbal communication, she should be able to understand it and get a general vibe of what's upsetting the poor thing. She won't connect for long (because it does tend to be a bit traumatic for the creature--though a squid might do better since it's more intelligent), but she's trying to see what has it so agitated and see if there's a way she can help. EDIT THE SECOND: Set (  redsoil) will also be helping her out here actually! Since he can speak with animals, theyâll just do a fun nâ flirty little mind meld to assist with that. Surely nothing bad could happen! (we both welcome bad things happening)And in case it's helpful, here's the snippet of her explanation about this process to give you an idea of how it works! below the cut! Salem ; I tried to touch minds with one of Lettieâs rats, once, just to see what would happen. Drifter ; Okay, I have to ask how that went. Salem ; It was a dreadful three seconds for him. Salem ; Poor little thing. Iâd failed to allow for what touching MY mind would seem like to HIM, you see. Imagine a child lost in an infinite department store, screaming for its mother at the top of its lungs over and over. Everything was enormous and incomprehensible and had NOISES and SHAPES instead of SMELLS. Salem ; I broke the link as fast as I could. He was a little dizzy for an hour or so, then he was fine. I doubt he even remembers what happened to him. Drifter ; And your side of it? What was it like being a rat? Salem ; I donât know if youâve ever had the kind of slump where all you want to do is lie in bed and breathe in and out and just exist without doing anything else, but it was a lot like that. Salem ; Very basic. Simple needs met in simple ways. Salem ; Childhood innocence has nothing on rat-consciousness. Drifter ; Sounds kind of pleasant, the way you talk about it. Salem ; Oh, it was. Iâm sure being a rat has its bad side, like having to eat your dead brother so the predators wonât sniff him out, but that fleeting moment of simplicity was like a religious breakthrough, almost. Salem ; I guess being a rat is a lot like being a monk. Live off scraps, make your humble way in the world, never own a car or a house. EDIT: and a secondary side question for a different prompt! I notice that the log says that the blood lake's waters are caustic, whereas this FAQ mentions that they're safe. Is the former more a rumor (or just find for Augmented because they're more resilient)? Or is it not actually safe for swimming? Edited 2025-06-05 12:11 pm (local)
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One of the strangest things about the squid-mind is that it's not only intelligent, its thoughts are structured in a way that is eerily similar to that of a human. It's not identical, but it's close. Something cephalopodic has been fitted with it, merged to a degree that it would be hard to even consider them as separate entities... with the result a consciousness that is a hybrid of the two. So any trauma that comes about from being on wildly different levels of consciousness would be minimized- but it'll probably be overwhelming all the same. The squid might attempt to use human language, on connection with Elanor's mind- but it's likely to broken speech, reflective of questions, and relying on impressions of its emotional state to get its meaning across. It can't properly ask who she and Set are, or what they are, or express the pain it's in (even though it's survived Katalyth growing on it, it's not a comfortable experience). Frustration will flavor its attempts, a despair over its own clumsiness, but it will genuinely try to hold a conversation of sorts with Elanor and Set. It will deliver impressions of 'WHO' and 'WHY'. There's a lot of imagery in its head, flashes of the Augmented who've been around this portion of the bridge, paired with more repetitions of the same feeling of curiosity. As for bad things happening: this might be very uncomfortable for all parties involved! The squid doesn't know how to think softly, to emote gently. In its desperation for company and this hint of someone talking back in a way that it understands, it might scream that much louder. All of this is likely to induce more migraines, even temporary blindness, deafness. It's not trying to hurt them... it's just excited, and trying to understand. Between its questions are visions of deep water, of emptiness. You all are the first non-fish it's seen in years. (There are some other impressions it provides of non-Augmented humans, not on the bridge, but on streets and in cars. In homes, in offices, in labs underneath bright lights and sharp knives. ...And beyond that, a city, bustling with life. It looks a lot like Karteria.) And that's a good catch about the Blood Lake, as some information has diverged accidentally over time... the locations page will be updated to clarify this, but: Blood Lake itself (red) is uncomfortable to swim in. It's somewhat caustic, but not outright dangerous. It's just... very salt. Around it are pink lakes, which are safe, if not necessarily as medicinal as rumor would have it. They can be swam in freely. They are very nice to swim in! |
