[Week 2] Early morning day 320

[desperate_times_right]

[Chloe’s mental voice sounds weak and disoriented, as if she’s in shock]

Can someone come to the caves? I need help.

I think Hana’s dead.

Comments

[lightnovelexperiences]

...if your overlay is dead why haven’t you resurrected, like Jules did?

[there are plenty of potential answers and Deedee likes none of them, thanks!]

[desperate_times_right]

Her body’s still alive, but I think I’m alone in here.

WHAT A WAY TO FIRST SHOW UP ONCE YOU'VE BEEN DEINFILTRATED

[youandyoualone]

[There's a sudden burst of very fluent medieval style swearing, naming any number of d'Angeline gods and their respective body parts.]

Re: WHAT A WAY TO FIRST SHOW UP ONCE YOU'VE BEEN DEINFILTRATED

[desperate_times_right]

Oh my. That doesn’t... sound physically possible.

Re: WHAT A WAY TO FIRST SHOW UP ONCE YOU'VE BEEN DEINFILTRATED

[youandyoualone]

You might be surprised. Elua's balls, Chloe--no one outside of Cabal should know how to make a cavosophia!

[desperate_times_right]

If it helps, I don’t think it worked. He didn’t seem happy with the results.

[youandyoualone]

Of course it wouldn't work. There is no longer any Overmind or rightthink to make them function.

[desperate_times_right]

Sounds like maybe it’s better that she died. Who woke me up?

[youandyoualone]

[There's a pensive silence.]

... I do not know if anyone did wake you, Chloe. Not as Naoki just did for me. It may be that once Hana's mind was scraped out, the mechanisms by which we Infiltrate realized that there was no one consciously piloting the body, and so you woke naturally.

[desperate_times_right]

Jesus. I feel like that ant fungus.

[youandyoualone]

Ant fungus?

[desperate_times_right]

Yeah there’s ... shit, I forget what it’s called. Some ants get this brain fungus that makes them climb up really high so the spores spread better.

[youandyoualone]

Ah yes. The overmind would have been that fungus.

[desperate_times_right]

And now it’s me.

[youandyoualone]

Yes. I am so very sorry, my dear.

[capital_asset]

Death used to be the most common way Infiltrators were restored.

[youandyoualone]

Cavosophic hollowing is a kind of death, yes, as Anaf is describing it to me. Just-- only the self dies. The body it inhabits persists on.

[capital_asset]

...And then the Overmind directed the body, or bodies?

[youandyoualone]

In a way, yes. That is to say that they acted accordingly to the Overmind's rightthink--to unconscious programmed responses based on societal expectations, which in essence is what rightthink was. Societal expectations psychically enforced.

[capital_asset]

How widespread was the practice?

[youandyoualone]

Rightthink or cavosophia? The former was... quite common. The latter, less so. I believe that many or even most were made from criminals.

Indeed, Anaf tells me there was some debate in Cabal when he was much younger if the practice ought to be revived for those who would betray their fellows by attempting to edit them during dreampushing.



It was not, thank the gods.

[lightnovelexperiences]

...there is no possible good explanation for that. None.

I'm sorry.

[desperate_times_right]

Magnators can ... enhance their power through batteries. She couldn’t fight back.

[lightnovelexperiences]

Useful to know. Countermeasures?

[Because at this point, Gil's overlay has been filed in her head as 'raid boss' and 'Ravager' rather than 'person.']

[desperate_times_right]

Well, I died, so...

[No idea, sorry kiddo]

Guess maybe you could smash it.