In which Thorne gives a long lecture on liminal science that could have been even longer

[thornsofmalkav]

Hey! This psychic message is definitely not safe for Matthews, Altairs, or babies, so if any of them can see this please alert Alcuin right away, because he’s my cameraman. Or if you don’t want to hear more about goo science, let him know then too.

[All that is said by a Latina woman with pink-tipped hair, dressed in a tie-dyed lab coat, with pink-lensed protective eyewear balanced on her forehead. She waves to everyone and then holds up a vial with some sort of gooey-looking substance in it.]

Anyway. Hi everybody! I’m Thorne and I’m here to talk about liminal goo. I figured people could use something to take their minds off the impending Harrogate and what better time to talk about goo again? Or, as I’ve decided to call it officially, ectoplasm.

For those of you who weren’t around for Emperor Emperor’s pizza animatronics when I first talked about liminal goo-slash-ectoplasm, let me just explain. You all know by now that liminal space changes around all the time, right? Well, there’s still an underlying substance to it, which, like, gives us something to stand on, and that’s ectoplasm. In its base state it’s just, well, goo, but our wills--and also the wills of the Arcana in a much larger scale--turn it into… well, pretty much anything we can conceptualize.

It’s hard to catch ectoplasm in its natural gooey state, because it’s either being shaped by the Arcana or by Travelers most of the time, but when you get very good at manipulating liminal space, so that you can change the clothes that are on other people’s bodies or make actually edible food, you can learn how to pause at the right time in creating things so that instead of getting the liminally manipulated item, you instead get raw goo like what I have in my test tube here. [She wiggles the vial she’s holding up, before sending it to Hammerspace. She then holds up a… well, it looks like a handheld video game console sculpted from jello.] You can also learn how to pause at the right time so that the ectoplasm is in a gel state and then you’ve got what I call a liminal template. These things are super useful, because you can give them to someone else and if they can manipulate the substance of liminal space at all, the person you give it to can use the template to make the object, even if they don’t understand how it works.

I’m serious, you guys. My second liminal template allowed my medieval boyfriend to make himself a 3DS and his working knowledge of computers and electronics basically amounts to them being full of tiny people. Speaking of which, if any of you guys want to borrow the 3DS template to make your own, let me know. They’ve got some digital games already on--first gen remake Pokemon and New Leaf and Paper Mario--and me and the liminal video game team are working on reproducing cartridges too. We’re almost ready to start templating those.

[Thorne puts away the liminal template and looks earnestly at the ‘camera.’]

But this isn’t about video games, fun as those are. This is about the other use for ectoplasm, the one that’s quite possibly more important. I call it liminal healing.

And this is where things might get a little gross because of medical bullshit, so if you want to not hear it, this is probably a good time to tell Alcuin to stop broadcasting to you. I'll give you some time to do that.

[Fifteen seconds pass with Thorne making silly faces in front of the ‘camera’ before she lets her face assume a more normal expression and gets on with it.]

So here’s the thing. The way I first discovered ectoplasm is that way back about, oh, eight or nine months or so, during the super long liminal space in which the Arcana basically played a dodgeball game of claiming us for their own, two Travelers accidentally sent each other to the Floor. Ah, for all you newbies, the ‘Floor’ is some level of liminal space that’s more or less ‘under’ the one we inhabit and it’s where you go if you die here. The Arcana patch you up there and spit you back out and by eye-witness accounts it’s really fucking freaky in there. Don’t send people to the Floor, okay?

But, okay, it happened back then and since I’ve got first aid certification I was one of the people on-hand when the people who’d been in the floor all week came out. I was there to mostly see it and also to do some first-aiding on one of them and I found that goo-state ectoplasm had been packed into his wounds. I took a sample of it for analysis. By the way, everybody, don’t be like me. Get permission before your patient passes out to take goo samples. Because when you have to explain later what you did after the fact, it’s awkward for everyone involved.

[There is, in fact, an awkward pause.]

Oh right, there were also a few arms and legs that got spat up with the guys who’d been in the Floor and they were made of gel-state ectoplasm and they were totally what gave me the idea for the liminal template, but anyway.

So. For a long while I wondered why the goo-state ectoplasm that I took the sample of was in his wounds. I figured it probably had something to do with the way the Arcana restore us to life in the Floor, but I wasn’t sure how. The breakthrough I need came from Souji after he volunteered to test if goo is edible. Show them the memory, mi luna.

[Suddenly the ‘camera’ is in a movie theatre lobby, where Thorne--wearing a different labcoat (white with a lot of patches) over a flapper dress--hands a petri dish full of ectoplasm and a spoon to Souji Seta. Souji takes the spoon and starts tasting the goo in a thoughtful, slow manner, as if he were a celebrity food judge, but then he makes a face and spits it out--only it’s not goo anymore. “Oh my god,” the Thorne in the memory says. “I think it turned into some kind of meat.”

The memory fades and we’re back to the Thorne in the tie-dyed lab coat, staring at the ‘camera’ with a sappy expression. After a moment she straightens herself and starts talking again.]

As it turned out, it wasn’t just meat that the ectoplasm had turned into. It was human tissue, albeit extremely generic human tissue like you might grow in a lab. And that’s how I learned another property of ectoplasm that I’d missed out before because I keep my samples in Hammerspace to take advantage of the stasis effect: if you put ectoplasm inside something, given enough time it will grow to take on the substance of the thing you put it inside. Including Souji’s mouth.

I would super love to go over all the other experiments I’ve been doing since then, but this is getting to be pretty fucking long already, so I’ll mostly sum up what I’ve learned since Souji ate the goo.

As noted, ectoplasm will take on the substance and characteristics of the stuff it’s placed inside or in between or even adjacent to, although the amount of time it takes to do that on its own varies. If you just place it in and walk away, what results will always be a very generic version of whatever the substance is. For instance, you could mend a cracked plate, but you won’t be able to reproduce its old pattern. However, if you place the ectoplasm in something broken or missing and willfully direct it to mend that thing, as if you’re liminally manipulating it, the ectoplasm will instead perfectly fill in what is missing.

This is much more important than fixing just objects, though. You can use it to fix people too. I’ve performed experiments by giving myself small injuries, applying ectoplasm, and directing it to heal me and it does it super fucking well, with nary a scar. This is a kind of healing you don’t need magic for and I am very much willing to teach people how to work with ectoplasm in order to do it.

Anyway. Thanks everyone who’s stuck around to the end. This is where I have Alcuin stop the live stream and you guys psychic message me, privately or publicly, with questions.

Thorne out!

Comments

[naturaltwohands]

... It is very strange to think that goo could be so versatile.

[He's still wrapping his head around that knowledge.]

[thornsofmalkav]

I know, right? But, like, this is special stuff. Which is why I'm going with the ectoplasm terminology these days.

[fridgeninja]

Just in case anyone was wondering: when we checked, it was definitely a tongue.

[failgoyle]

[So sorry, this has grossed Jules out so badly, he cannot help but scream.]

[thornsofmalkav]

Yeah. But hey, at least you didn't swallow it?

[Please say you didn't get to the point of swallowing any of it.]

[naturaltwohands]

... I am afraid I have been around Davesprite too much, as my mind immediately wondered about how to make that into a joke.

[Like a joke about wagging off your tongue. Or about biting your tongue. Or there's so many choices, really.]

My sympathies.

[fearinahandfulof]

So that's why it does that...

[thornsofmalkav]

... wait. You knew about this already?

[tookashirototheknee]

Hey! I want to learn things too! Why can't I hear this?

[And then he listens anyway.]

... could that be used to regrow a limb?

[thornsofmalkav]

... wait, are you named Matthew too? Oops. Or, wait, maybe you're another Altair. Or you're named Babies for some reason.

Anyway. Yeah. I think theoretically it could? Practically, I don't know yet. It might take more willpower and direction than we as Travelers can muster. I haven't tried it on anything so big yet.

[vrepit_no]

Matt.....

[helborn]

[He's not saying anything but he's here for this.]

[crouching_sin]

... So you're telling me this goo is basically stem cells that aren't limited to organic tissue.

[thornsofmalkav]

Sort of, yeah. Ectoplasm is really fascinating stuff.

[papacerberus]

[Lupa's mental voice sounds pretty exhausted, but that's probably because he only just got out of his mini-dungeon very recently.]

Do you know if the meat was like the food that we can create with enough practice? If not, would you be willing to test that with me?

[If he has another option, he'll take it. One can never have too many backup plans and alternative sources.]

Also, if you're willing to teach the healing to me, I would be very grateful. My usual method of healing forces me to stand out.

[Cerberus is not at all subtle, and Lupa knows it.]

[thornsofmalkav]

I dunno if it's nutritious and filling, but I'm totally happy to feed you goo until we find out. And I'd love to teach the healing, but first we'll have to teach you how to work with ectoplasm in general. Unless you already can?

[awitchdidit]

Okay, I know I'm the last person who should be asking this, but why did he eat it?

[shiroganeheir]

Souji eats everything. That is... just how he is.

[There's a fond, exasperated sigh in her tone.]

[helborn]

That's... huh. I can already heal myself, but healing others would be useful if that's something I can even do.

... Also I want to play Pokemon. I never got to play Pokemon, I just watched it on TV.

[thornsofmalkav]

You'll definitely enjoy playing Blue, then. And we're working on making cartridges for a sixth gen game too!

Private, protection x1

[fruitknife]

[There might be a sense of someone being pointedly quiet for a long, long time before Shinji says anything to Thorne. When he finally does pipe up, the words themselves are almost callous, but that's not the tone behind them at all. The tone is very much one of curiosity he doesn't want to admit to and hope he's desperately trying not to allow himself, because it will inevitably be squashed and that will hurt more than not having it in the first place.

At least Thorne has some context as to why.]

Some people'll eat damn near anything, won't they.

Re: Private, protection x1

[thornsofmalkav]

Yeah. That's Souji, for you. It's kinda funny to listen to him and Naoto, though.

[otomechapilot]

So that stuff can be anything it wants to - or that we want it to be - but it needs to be anchored to a... I dunno, a pattern that already exists?

[thornsofmalkav]

More or less, yeah. You could have just made up the pattern, but it needs something to work with.

[truerevelation]

So this is the thing you were talkin' about? Do you ... still want me to give you a call about ... y'know, stuff?

[thornsofmalkav]

Yeah, totally. I need to see how much it can heal. I've only tried it on minor, self-inflicted stuff. The kind of things where I can still maintain concentration on directing the ectoplasm.

[breakaleginhalf]

[Have a sort of tentative mental putting-his-hand-up.]

For what it's worth, I can eat human flesh without getting fucked up by it. Or bones, or ligaments, or-- you know what, people. Basically I can eat people. And also pretty much everything else you wanna put in front of me. Mould, ceramics, like-- those shitty little toy cars from China that use lead paint. I got the stomach for it.

So, goop sounds like it'd be a cool snack.

[thornsofmalkav]

Cool. You and Souji can be the radical omnivores club.

How good are you at your Liminal skills? This is pretty high level stuff to learn. I'll totally teach you when you're ready, though.

[runs]

Do you have that in short?

[She really tried to listen, she really did, because it sounds important, but... Distractions happen when it's boring.]

[thornsofmalkav]

Um. Okay. Teal deer version is as follows:

Everything in liminal space is really made of goo that I've named ectoplasm. People and Arcana just use it to make everything else out of, but it was really goo first. I've figured how to make the goo itself before it turns into other things. I can teach people how to do stuff with it, like make templates for making other things. I have also found out how to use it to heal or repair things. Souji ate some ectoplasm goo once and it turned into human tissue in his mouth.

[photonicfighter]

That's very interesting... have you had the chance to test the ectoplasm on artificial beings? It seems to me that it should work the same way, but I'd like to confirm it.

...what's this about a 'Pokemon' game?

[Sounds a little like Pogemon to her, Thorne. How interesting!]

[thornsofmalkav]

Not yet! Do you want to be my test subject?



... Pokemon is a videogame that's a lot like Pogemon.

[reallymean]

You've worked out how to use Liminal Space as a healing chamber without needing the actual chamber? That's remarkable.

[thornsofmalkav]

Thanks! It took a while, but I'm pretty pleased with myself.