after the Waking World log

[claudiometer]

Hoo boy. I realise this phrasing may be treading on thin ice right now, but strange things are afoot at the Aratta Skyhook.

First things first. Leah took the news that she was chosen to be the first Conductor deliberately... about as well as we figured she would. She has a theory as to why and asked me to run it by you guys. [And so she does, letting the memory play out from the linked point until Leah says she'd like to talk to the Oracle who uncovered this.]

So yeah, Thace, if she hasn't found you already, find her.

Second. I made sure to get a planetside view while I was out and about. Alexandra had never bothered before, and apparently wouldn't have understood what she was looking at anyway, and for an uninhabitable planet there's a shitton happening on the surface. And, uh, I found the source of the mysterious ticking noise, probably.

They're building a computer chip the size of fucking WYOMING.

Comments

[claudiometer]

Going off the conversation we had, I'm going with 'anxiety and depression.' Also if Delaunay's right about how it's spread, it could just as easily have been because she's a memelord.

[youandyoualone]

And if so, many of the Travelers from your cohort are in grave danger, Claudia. Especially you and Madoka.

[claudiometer]

You say that like I haven't been keeping my mental firewalls up since we got here.

Appreciate it, though.

[eldritchwheelies]

You'd think, but I have specific training about how to make my memes beat up your memes. This is what Occultar Academy teaches. This is what I do.

...and it's what the Shinigami Society did, too, when they trained me and pointed me at Occultar. No point in not presenting my bonafides here where they don't matter, and my dungeon earlier made it pretty clear. Casper, take note.

[eldritchwheelies]

Oh we are definitely dealing with a cognitohazard here. One hundred percent. Not as virulent as Shuizn, thankfully, but I was actually right about this being shaped like The Mother Of All Mary-Sues.

Avoid using their memes about it wherever possible: refer to specific numbers or "more than a hundred" when talking about how many of them exist instead of using the Buddhist number of sins as a meta-syntactic variable; avoid describing taking on particular colors, instead talking about "becoming a conductor;" maybe avoid whistling while you work, particularly singing anime and toku theme songs while fighting.

Walk without rhythm, and you won't attract the worm.

[youandyoualone]

[Mental squint.]

Is that not itself a meme? I have been shown the video of the flying man in the inn.

[eldritchwheelies]

It's not one of their memes. And having countermemes to talk over theirs in our heads will help a lot.

Also, really badly need to get you a copy of Dune, so you know the original context. That entire song is a reference to one of the finest blatant allegories for colonialism in the middle east ever written, and it has a place in your library.

[youandyoualone]

There is, in fact, a book entitled such in my library. I believe that Thorne placed it there. It looks like one of her contributions, being small, printed, and paperbound.

But yes, I really must read it.

[eldritchwheelies]

You know, I'm really not surprised that Thorne infiltrated as a Conductor. Being knee-deep in skiffy fandom to the point that she thinks Dune is a fine present to you - she's right, you know - made her, hmn, uniquely susceptible?

I can't believe I'm saying this, but you really should take advantage of Leah and Thorne being all "oo-"

-of them being all Kate Beacon at you and see what info you can get out of, ah, touching fluffy tail or pointy ear.

hope you don't mind me borrowing pez for that

[youandyoualone]

I do not know, actually, if it was meant as a present to me. I say 'my' library but in truth, the library room in our home is meant to hold the book collections of all of three of us. I am merely so used to be the default owner of my home and all that it in it, that I habitually say 'mine' instead of 'our.'

And yes I do intend to do so with Leah--but I've been warned by the fellow known as Pez--a most excellent man indeed, by the way, and a fascinating conversationalist--that Thorn the Elf is in love with another, so 'tis best I do not with her.

Not at all!

[eldritchwheelies]

Either way, worth reading.

Yeah, best not to homewreck. I assume Deedee has told you to go nuts?

Re: Not at all!

[youandyoualone]

Oh yes. Even when not in service of a Jaunt solution.

[okanetendo]

Why not both?

It's not like a dry sense of humor to deal with shitty life circumstances go together often - OH, WAIT.