Conductor Network, week 2

[powersthatbe]

(Including but not limited to Nightmare battle coordination.)

Comments

(After Titan's speech)

[whatspringislike]

Forget the doppleganger! Nightmares on the Traveler islands!

I'm counting twelve - nineteen - twenty-five...

Lost count.

We can cut them off at the two bridges - last one there is a space whale!

Run!!

this is responding with a warsong; the lyrics to the kuuga theme.

[lightnovelexperiences]

A new era begins as we start again from zero; on this empty world, legends need to be reborn...

[lightnovelexperiences]

These are fears drawn from every world the Travellers have ever visited, including their homes.

Coordinate with the Travellers. Prepare to Bolster their Champions and Adversaries. Ask them what from the Travels they dread.

They've helped us. Time to repay them in spades.

[stupidhelmet]

Okay, between meeting Casper, Nabiki, Bismuth (who let me have TWO Bidents), fucking Allura, Thace, Eren, Anafiel, and Shiro -

I'm actually glad Grant pulled this stunt.

Don't you dare fucking tell him, though. Punk.

muncest but I had to

[lightnovelexperiences]

Oh, trust me, I am very happy to have met them - ESPECIALLY Anafiel, who the myths did NOT do justice to, WOW - but he did kind of, hmn, do some really terrible things and imply that we should all fuck off and die?

That said, meeting Anafiel and having him flirt with me makes it aaaalmost worth it. I can think of a few Oaths I'd like to swear at that man.

Extremely important message.

[lightnovelexperiences]

So. Given some important context by Choices, I have a theory. A Grant-ass theory, but hold your comments or questions to the end, cause if you thought Illuminati was, in fact, Confirmed before wait till you get a load of this.

Say, for the sake of argument, that you're some unscrupulous and possibly crystalline motherfucker working for Doofenschmirtz Evil Incorporated, Aratta Branch. Looking for some poor schlub to test out your Conductorator on. You made the damn thing; you know more or less exactly what it does. No fear, no pain, right? No sorrow or shame, either.

So, you go through medical records, because you're a shadowy asshole with power that can do that. You go through the medical records of everyone on Aratta, if you have to. Looking for people who are seeking counseling. For anxiety. For depression.

For dysphoria.

...no, I hatched because my own thinking wasn't distorted by fear and sorrow anymore, an unforseen circumstance. Still.

Looking for someone who's first reaction to getting hit by the Conductorator would be palpable relief. Because they don't have to be depressed in the Wake anymore. Cause, as per the song, I couldn't lift a finger~ feelin like I can't move forward/cause I was weak, but now I wanna be much stronger, yeah? Give me every reason to share my new Role, ensuring that after it hit I'd be happier than I'd ever been in my entire life. Share my experiences, and share the Role, with you all. Spread that meme! Make it go viral.

Because sharing the good news about the Role is how the Role spreads. With ONE exception, one I've been careful not to replicate, I've been conscientious about making sure I don't induct new people into the Silver without them knowing exactly what they're getting into - but of course, all of my loving fans want to spread the fandom, why wouldn't they? It doesn't work for everyone, but it sure worked for us!

Except, as per the Oracle Thereof, a lot of us don't have a Choice. We wake up this way. Cause of actions in the Waking World. The more of us there are, the faster we spread.

Grant was exactly correct. We are, literally, a plague on the Dreaming.

So. Let's talk about vaccination, shall we?

Re: Extremely important message.

[thornsofmalkav]

Oh by all the diabolin hells—you know how often I tell people all the good that Conducting has done for me. I've made more people take the silver than anyone.

We need to unhook me. I know it's helped me. I hate to be alone without you. I might just go Pillar once we do, but.

Shacklebreaker. Do you think Allura the Liberator knows where it is?

Re: Extremely important message.

[levelthreehooligan]

Uh.

[There's a new voice on the conductor network.]

Alright.

Well this explains why I'm suddenly sporting a lot more silver than usual.

Which one of y'all pulled the metaphorical trigger?

Some nebulous time

[helborn]

Hey guys, I have about twenty minutes, but I have some information I want to share with you all. Who's around?

Re: Some nebulous time

[thornsofmalkav]

What in all the diabolin hells?

[lightnovelexperiences]

...You can jump Networks? Shit.

Limit your time in contact with us and put up what defenses you can. Hell, teach us those defenses. I now think that Conducting is a virulent meme; there's a chance that you are already Silver just by doing this.

But tell us what else you've found out, and thank God and the Buddha you're here, Casper.

Before the Ugly Revelation comes to light

[letsgetdowntobismuth]

Hey kids. Wanna learn a fun party trick?

[Then, there's the sense of something being uploaded to the Conductor's Network - something physical. Bismuth just literally uploaded an actual item: one of her better class of bidents. And it is tantalisingly close for people to access - everyone can see it, at least, but it's almost behind a glass wall.]

Bidents in my network? It's more likely than you think!

[...ugh it feels weird using memes.]

[lightnovelexperiences]

Who SAYS you wouldn't download a car? Or a Bident.

How the hell - I mean, it's Questing Country, that's psychic energy anyway. But I didn't know that you could even do that.

[lightnovelexperiences]

[accompanying a picture of the “snowflake” under Aratta, a picture of Leah’s Hackintosh motherboard, and a black man in a lawyer’s suit who looks scandalized:]

Thaaat’s a processor!

I’m beginning to think my thoughts it was more electrical conductivity than conducting an orchestra to Doctor Doofenschmirtz is right on the money.

[helborn]

Motherfucker, no wonder I had that dream!

[Attached is effectively a short video file of a giant snowflake falling towards the viewer in a silver sky, accompanied by the shrieks of an old dial-up modem. It is, for everyone's ears, mercifully short.]

Uh. Some of us get nightmares of bad futures that could happen if we fuck up. A dubious 'benefit' of having looked too far into the Lovecraftian abyss in another world.

[whatspringislike]

Any pulsars nearby? I don't think a fridge magnet's going to do the trick.

[helborn]

... Hey, uh. So normally when we use this ability to contact another mental network, it's not a long term thing.

It's been... I know time is fucky here but at least an hour. That... shouldn't be happening.

[lightnovelexperiences]

You’re part of the network but not a Conductor proper...

And if you can teach us that trick, it’ll be a considerable help.

[letsgetdowntobismuth]

Oh, aren't you a little smart-ass?

[She sounds amused more than annoyed. Here's her going and getting silvered and he's just jacking in.]

[lightnovelexperiences]

...Grant's willing to help. Doesn't think he can, but he's willing to help.

He told me I'm the first person in QC to bother believing him.

[whatspringislike]

Yikes.

I'm just going based on comparison, but that's the kind of thing most people get sad about, right?

[lightnovelexperiences]

Okay: survey time, for everyone who spontaneously took on the Silver and didn't hang out with the Cool Kids in the dreaming:

Where do you live?

Where have you been in the last few weeks before changing?

[whatspringislike]

I'm on a long-haul medenrail about five-sixths of the way to Zavier from the Sol system. Have been for almost a year.

wrt a Grant-ass theory from Grant

[stupidhelmet]

MOTHERFUCKINOOKPUNCHINIMPIEHEILINGSONOVABITCH, Illuminati got FUCKING confirmed, AGAIN!

Grant's right. Our meme bullshit turning people IS like Bleeding Out!

[whatspringislike]

Can I ask Grant for lottery tips?

[lightnovelexperiences]

...please welcome a new member of the Cool Kids Club, who asked me to join, and who I determined to be Willing, Suitable, and Worthy. And who has a lot of knowledge that will make our situation clearer.

Casper, take notes. And relay these, using your words and not your thoughts, to the Travellers at your soonest possible convenience.

Welcome to our Network, Titan.




And, Ace, if it's not an imposition, I'd like to spar. There's Rage I need to work off, none of which Titan or any of you deserve.

[protect_and_serve]

Thank you.

It is my honor to join you.

I have reason to believe, as strange as it may seem, that whatever blasphemous force shaped your creation - our creation, now, its intention was the coercive spread of Orthopraxy.

Highly Important Broadcast

[helborn]

[The image of a large exclamation point is shoved onto the network, along with the brief noise of a siren. Just for a few seconds, not long enough to be severely annoying but enough to get attention.]

Hey! All of you need to listen to this!

The Snowflake they're building? It's broadcasting stuff. Not that unusual, yeah?

Wrong.

It's broadcasting signals, let me just -

[He just relays the raw data that Kanji sent over, before continuing.]

Those frequencies? They're the frequencies your brain sends out when it's dreaming.

And the Skyhook is an antenna. Snowflake's what makes up the collective unconscious of the dreaming Synthetics, but it's affecting others too, in all likelyhood. The dreaming software also hard-wires Orthopraxy principles into it, and those have been showing up in unexpected places like ship's computer.

There's a discussion among the Travelers going right now, me and Bismuth can relay stuff but I can hand over any questions or comments you've got so we can talk. We're going to have to IRL talk, but not every Traveler can hop over.

Re: Highly Important Broadcast

[lightnovelexperiences]

...the hardwiring has got to go. What do you need to identify what in that signal makes our memes Conductive, and to hack in means to make me, us, semi-Conductive Resistors who only spread the Role on purpose? How about inoculating the rest of you, making Insulators?

I would have Chosen it, given the Choice. But fuck them. They made me a vector for taking away the choice, and these Spanish Inquisition-ass marranos need to pay for it.

[lightnovelexperiences]

Okay. Casper wasn’t harmed and didn’t pick up anything from lying doggo. But Aratta banned dogs and I want to know why.

[extrasaltypotato]

Hahahaha oh, bless you, child. You had expected some subliminal ultrasonic signal further warping us towards the Axioms, yes?

The truth is far less sinister:

Dogs shed.

And Hecatites have murderous static cling.

It’s the same reason all cats for sale on station are horrible little hairless gremlins, and I love them so.