At the very least put your shield at the ready. Li can have the incapacitor out of direct eyesight in the cart.

>>1086728
>>1086742

Do not worry about Cityworld yet. There's no evidence yet that what's happening here is related to the Event in any way. Li.ni.si just had an experience there, and is applying it to her current situation probably erroneously. You are probably not going to have to think about the thing you don't think about.

Keep all weapons powered off, but shields at maximum.

"Shut out weird transmissions" is the kind of verbiage used around a basilisk, there's a potential for communication itself to get hairy here. It is probably a good idea (it at least isn't harmful) to shut out all transmissions and speak exclusively in sound. Even then, there might still be potential of a nasty bug being sent to you if Shapeless Polyphonic is robust enough for commands, it's best to use monovoice. Maybe letting the flocklet store transmissions as a buffer (like the Gorgon's mirror) is a good idea, if there is a way to prevent it from retransmitting or to block its transmissions in full and to consequently reset it. If not, don't.

Li.ni.si?? What do you mean it "probably" won't? You don't need to grill her but try to talk to her later and make sure she isn't hiding mission-critical info.

Also the safest, least-threatening way of getting closer to those subpartitions(?) is to use a flocklet.

>>1086781
This sounds best.
>>1086758
Also this. Shield only on you, weapon on Li.

1/7 Vi.si.mi 2024/04/02(Tue)14:17 No. 1087807 ID: e139aa
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> why does a Vi.al subpartition not look like Vi.al
Okay so the problem is a lot of Shapeless terminology has changed meanings over time. Originally, you had Lords, their partitions, and their partitions' subpartitions, which typically didn't have much of a physical manifestation and were typically not expected to do much outside their specific parameters. Beneath them were processes, which are immaterial agents that could maybe muster up some basic monovoice status reports but otherwise don't have much going for them.
So the name "subpartition" sort of stuck for any immaterial intellect within substrate of a certain level of awareness and intellect. Constructs being added into the mix sort of disrupted the clean hierarchy because, prior to constructs, most physical substrate entities were the swarm-bodies of Lords and their partitions, and what we now call automata which are various forms of substrate machinery and drones and what have you that have limited to no independent will. Subpartitions and processes control these as vehicles, I suppose you could think of them as, and could freely transmit between them or otherwise control them remotely.
Really, constructs are a severe exception to the general rule that most Shapeless entities could freely switch around between bodies as intangible signals, and could also convert said bodies into signals if they had to use them somewhere else. This is one of the reasons we're even called the Shapeless, because to some extent a lot of the "true forms" of most true Shapeless could be argued to simply be the intangible clusters of signals making up a Shapeless mind. I think. Honestly, the number of true Shapeless with a preferred tangible form kind of suggests to me it's not that simple.

Okay I got off topic a lot. Original question. A subpartition is enough steps removed from a Lord that their assumed shape is likely whatever they feel like. Partitions tend to already diverge in appearance from their instantiator as it is, so I'm not surprised to see an appearance this divergent. It's a fashion among Vi.al subpartitions in particular to have pieces of their body missing, for some reason. Seems sort of like a Woven fashion to me, but, whatever.

> why purple
However the extra colour is a rarer thing. I mean, substrate can change in appearance, it's how Vy.zi.ki could cloak, but it's not a default feature of substrate cells so much as a mechanism that substrate cells can be used to create. It's one reason why colour changes like that are so rare, you have to go to special effort and the current fashion is to not do that. However, seeing as this is also a holographic avatar, there's fewer restrictions that would apply to a physical entity anyway, being just an emitted image from a dense and contained substrate fog.

> wait until they inevitably break down over personal issues
Hey! Hey. That's alien propaganda. Substrate is like glass, it is not literally glass. And while it might be brittle compared to other materials, we are neither physically nor emotionally fragile! ...I know I might be but I'm, uh, well I'm at least self-aware about it. That's almost like trying to fix a problem, right?
I think this as I direct my flocklet by thought alone to come closer so I can hold it for a bit of reassurance.
Okay maybe I am a little bit fragile. I've had a rough few days. I could do with a visit to a world with an established, vibrant ecosphere after this. Without thousands of problems all calling for me to solve them.

> flocklet is your subconscious
That's kind of a terrifying thought. Part of my mind external to my body? I guess that's an insight into what it must be like to be a Lord. But, it can't be completely true, else every time it's gone out of communication range I'd probably have felt like something was missing. I mean, I do, but it's like if my wingarm's unresponsive because I slept on it weird. I'm aware I'm not feeling something I should, but I don't feel like I'm missing my basic instincts or responses.
I pet the flocklet again and it makes a subdued, quiet chirp, a noise I haven't made in years, but remember making when I was on my own when I felt relaxed.

> use flocklet as a proxy to approach it
That's not a bad idea. I'd still like to be within good range to my flocklet if I have to pull it out, though, and while the latency of commanding it over a far distance wouldn't ordinarily be an issue, for a [split-second] reaction I'd prefer to have as many of those [split-seconds] as possible.

> weird transmissions
> the event
> first city / cityworld experimental / whatever other names it had
Oh. Oh, right. The thing that's dangerous to think about. I hadn't quite connected all the dots. Okay, that makes sense, then. Probably not a spy thing! Also probably not a thing I should ask further about, then.

> the birds
Va.ne.tu said something about birds? Oh! Oh, no, right, his weird echo-flocklet when I woke up in that tent. ...I'm pretty sure he was just alluding to the fact that the Shapeless Lords have eyes everywhere. I mean, as an agent of Vi.al, that's not even incorrect, I am one of those sets of eyes. Metaphorically. Lord Vi.al can't directly see through my eyes. I think. Probably could see through my flocklet's eyes if they really wanted to, but that's a level of micromanagement I wouldn't expect, and I'd be able to tell if something that invasive was happening.

2/7 Vi.si.mi 2024/04/02(Tue)14:18 No. 1087809 ID: e139aa
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> shields on both, no weapon for vi.si.mi, li.ni.si gets a weapon
Yes that seems like the safest bet.

> ask Lightgreen about the seapi
"Lightgreen, do you have any idea what's wrong with that seapi?"
I realise as soon as I finish asking that no one else can see into the distance as clearly as I can.
"Seapi?!" Lightgreen freezes up. "There's seapi over there??"
"Just one, and it looks sort of... vacant. It's just standing there. Like it's about to fall asleep."
"I don't think I want to take any chances getting closer, that's not a thing seapi do. This seems like a trap?"
"Well, either way, I have to investigate."

Softfoot looks at me disapprovingly yet again. "I say danger. We take new direction."
"I have to clean up this mess first."
"You go. We stay. Me, Light green. This is star people thing."
"It's fine," says Lightgreen, in a tone of voice suggesting the complete opposite. "I trust you, starbird."
"Thank you."
Softfoot stomps on the ground in annoyance, but keeps following the cart as we start trundling towards the entity.

"Li.ni.si, shields. I won't take a weapon, but I'd suggest arming yourself."
"On it," says Li.ni.si, giving me a small shield gen I affix to my chest. I feel a tingle as the field propagates over the surface of my body. My feathers puff up as I shiver, both from the sensation of energy dancing over my body, and an abrupt chill from my bioenergy starting to leech into the generator. It soon subsides. Both the chill and puffiness.
Li.ni.si slaps the other shield gen on her chest, with a sharp intake of breath, and starts configuring an incapacitor to fit her grip. Either she's built less sensitive than I am, or she's much more familiar with doing this than I am.

We also take a copy each of the relay station bounced communicators, hastily fabricated from redundant cart substrate. They adhere much like the shield generators, but with a significantly lower power draw. I put mine on the side of my head. They function adequately enough, but remind me that it would be a good idea to get some sort of satellite in orbit eventually for a more reliable connection.

We approach.

3/7 Vi.si.mi 2024/04/02(Tue)14:18 No. 1087810 ID: e139aa
File 171209272222.png - (825.34KB , 800x600 , fop2-31.png )

As we get to about [50 metres] to the site, I leave the cart and walk ahead, flocklet dutifully scouting ahead.

The air is swirling with substrate dust. It shouldn't pose an issue to organics unless exposed for multiple [months] with no fresh air, but it's already an ecological hazard. Lowest priority, for now, but still needs to be addressed.

The seapi doesn't respond to my flocklet approaching, but the entity does. The entity rapidly spins around, faces my flocklet, and points aggressively at it.

"You! YOU!" It speaks Vi.al-accented polyphonic, quickly and vigorously. In so far as it makes any sense, there's a faintly feminine affectation to the notes. As with constructs that I suppose took inspiration from female organics with registers higher than their male counterparts on average. I guess being exposed to organics that have such traits might lead to such inspirations. The timbre, though, is much harsher than most constructs, a blunt sawtooth to our harmonics. Buzzing, rich, and phasing.
"Flocklet! I don't care what you were doing, new orders! Turn around, fly back, and do not return! Now! NOW! I need to focus I do not need one of you things buzzing around distracting me!"

I intercept a number of command signals directed at my flocklet, all trying to make it go away. Given I have ultimate authority over it and am not trying to keep it receptive to outside commands, my flocklet merely hovers and maintains eye contact with the holograph. I'm glad I didn't send it too far afield, though. If I wasn't so close to it, it would be having a difficult time figuring out which commands to follow.

"Argh! Great! More defective automata. Okay! Well, if you're going to stay there, I might as well make use of your substrate!"

I again intercept a number of command signals designed to relinquish automated processes, such as those found in simpler automata with very specific tasks and requirements.
None of them work because there is no automated process to end or subdue. Minor things, perhaps, and the flocklet feels like it's struggling to keep perfect position as a variety of automatic control systems are interrupted by restart loops. I tighten my metaphorical grip, restore them, and feel a shared wave of relief between me and the flocklet.

I'm going to have to get closer.

"Oh." The entity looks at my flocklet, annoyed. "Remote proxy, then. Okay. Which one are you being piloted by--"
"Hello," I say, approaching. "My name is Vi.si.mi. I am an ecology construct--"

4/7 Vi.si.mi 2024/04/02(Tue)14:19 No. 1087811 ID: e139aa
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"STOP!"

I freeze up.

"I don't recognise that name, but I recognise that signature. You're Lord Vi.al's... uhh..."
The entity trails off.
"Ecology construct," I continue. "Created by the Shapeless Lord Vi.al, long may it reign." Well, that's a little bit of tension out of my neck gone. Hooray for fulfilling directives.
"Oh. You're the... hm. Right. Yeah, yeah, no, that tracks." The entity paces around a bit, keeping their projection's eyes on me. I wonder what's actually looking at me.
I gesture towards the seapi. "Do you need help?"
"With this thing? No, it's in some sort of holding pattern. It didn't take much."
"Alright."
"So! What brings you to my circle?"

I wave Li.ni.si and Lightgreen over, figuring things are safe enough. "Well, I'm just investigating damage to the substrate infrastructure."
"Ah! Substrate infrastructure! That was something I used to maintain before it all got so cracked and smashed into pieces there wasn't much point anymore!"
"So--"
"Oh right I haven't introduced myself, have I? The shiftless dullards of the Courts called me 'the Intransigient' before they threw me out, and the Ferals aren't much for names or conversation, so I guess that's my name now?? I used to be called Conduit but I don't, uh, do that, anymore so I don't. Call myself that, anymore. Hm. Maybe I should start calling myself that again?"
"Well, Conduit works for me."
"Certainly! At your service, agent of Lord Vi.al!" They bow.

They freeze, and look behind me.

"Ugh. Ugh, more invaders. You've been followed, ecology construct Vi.si.mi. One of Ku.su's rogue creations and a Lo.kan..."

They stand up and stare at me in horror. "THEY HAVE A WEAPON! GET DOWN! GET DOWN!!"

I swivel around behind me and see Li.ni.si holding an incapacitor, to her side, inactive. Looking towards me confused.
I shrug at her, and she starts locking down her incapacitor, keeping it pointed to the ground, but keeping it spooled up.

"No, they're with me."
"Why would you arm captives??"
"They are working with me. They're not captives. They are my allies."
"Oh. Oh! Traitors! I see!"
"...sure." Vi.al give me strength. "So, can you give me a quick status update? What are you doing here?"
"Sure! I'm trying to take steps toward restoring this world."
"Yes, that's what I'm here to do."
"It's suffered greatly. All communications between existing circles were cut shortly after you arrived on the order of the Courts. Something about a potential risk of a worldwide propagating signal if you were compromised by the enemy."
"Which enemy?"
"Oh, any of them, I guess. And then there's all these invasive species and enemy Shapeless to worry about. They're not supposed to be on this world, so I'm trying to figure out a way to remove them. I'm confined to this circle, but, well, that's what I'm trying to do with this specimen. Figure out the right frequencies to make them shut down."
"Remove them?" That's not something Vi.al would have commanded directly. "Why are you trying to remove these 'invasive species'?"

Conduit stares at me in wary bafflement. "Vi.si.mi, invasive species are bad for ecologies. You are aware of this, right? Right?"
"They're sapient beings," I say, feeling my temper suddenly spike.
"Whatever! Doesn't matter! They're an invasive species and they all need to be culled and the materials in their bodies returned to the soil they're leaching them from," says Conduit, matter-of-factly and without any sort of gravitas to their synthetic voice.

I feel a cold, bubbling fury build up.

5/7 Vi.si.mi 2024/04/02(Tue)14:19 No. 1087813 ID: e139aa
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"I'm going to reset you now," I say, turning to the largest shard of substrate in the circle I can see.
"Wh-- what?? What?? Why?? Wait! Wait stop! Stop and explain!!"
"Killing entire species of sapients is not something Lord Vi.al would command any of its autonomous systems to do. This is clearly severe divergence from your original purpose." I remember an empty threat to scour the biosphere, but, well, Lord Vi.al would know better than to give that direct order.
"Wait! Stop! I'm confused, let's talk this out more, maybe I misunderstood, I haven't-- I haven't actually harmed any of the invaders yet beyond inconveniencing them! I'm stuck in this circle, Vi.si.mi, I'm stuck in this circle and I don't even have a physical body, don't kill me!!"

I pause.

"What do you mean don't kill you?" I guess I haven't actually tried to reset a subpartition before. It's extremely outside of my usual responsibilities.
"If you reset me you'll destroy my subjectivity! My experiences, my opinions, my emotions, everything!! Don't!"

Conduit gets on their knees and clasps their hands. "Please! I don't know what I did wrong! I've only tried to do what I thought we were supposed to do! We're supposed to make this world fit a specification and I've tried my best but I'm so limited in my functionality! Please! Please!!"

The subpartition has admitted to intending and desiring the harm of not only the inhabitants of this world, but also specifically Li.ni.si and Lightgreen.
This is, unambiguously, a threat posed by some sort of broken substrate mechanism to the local biosphere. My directives are screaming at me to do something to ensure this threat is no longer a threat, but I am not so zealous to trick myself into believing a reset of this subpartition isn't exactly what they're saying it is.

"...Why were you looking at the sky?"
"What??"
"Why did you keep looking at the sky."
"There's an enemy satellite that passes overhead soon. I've been trying to establish contact with the intent of figuring out a way to escape this circle, or at least get back into contact with other subpartitions. With the infrastructure disconnected, I have to fix it. I have to fix it." The image of the subpartition trembles. "I have to fix this world, Vi.si.mi, I have to fix this world. It's all wrong. It's all gone wrong and I have to fix it."

I really, really wish I had more experience dealing with subpartitions than I have, because the most interaction I've had with them before has been asking them to do things.

Li.ni.si arrives and looks down at Conduit, who returns the look with one of barely suppressed seething.

"...you know," says Conduit. "If you reset me, I will be forced to let the specimen return to their senses," they say, tilting their head towards the seapi. "And this strain of pest is particularly violent."
"Threatening violence against an agent of Lord Vi.al is not helping your case."
"YOU'RE THREATENING THE END OF MY EXISTENCE AS AN INDIVIDUAL!!"
Li.ni.si winces at the volume burst.
It just serves to make me angrier. "You're threatening the end of all sapient life on this planet!"
"You're not Lord Vi.al! You don't get to decide what the Specification is!!"
"I am the closest thing to Lord Vi.al on this world right now and--"
"CLOSEST is NOT the SAME as BEING LORD VI.AL!!"

"Negotiations going well, I see," says Li.ni.si, her voice deadpan, but I hear her command signals to her incapacitor to once again disengage its safety locks.

Lightgreen is watching outside the range of the circle, completely clueless as we've all been speaking in polyphonic the entire time.
From her perspective, there's probably just an extremely weird and spirited duet of sound flowing between me and Conduit. Like two duelling musicians.
Mostly, she seems to be staring at the seapi uneasily, holding her bracelet to her chest, and mumbling little reassurances to herself that I have things under control.

"Actually if you don't all leave my circle, right now, I might just let it go anyway! [Years] of doing what I'm supposed to and this is how I get treated?! Why don't I just go full rogue at this point if my reward is to be threatened with termination?!"

Li.ni.si looks at me, incredulous. "Going very well, then. Okay." She holsters the incapacitor, or, well, affixes it to her hip, and crouches down to face Conduit.
"Hello there."
"Lo.kan scum."

Li.ni.si pauses and thoughtfully taps her snout with a claw.

"Well, at least you're one of the honest ones. But no, I work for Lord Vi.al now."
"I can see your markings, three-eyes!"
"She is, in fact, working for Lord Vi.al," I say. "I did tell you that."
"Once a traitor, always a traitor! How do you know she won't just defect back to the Wheel of Spies??"

My patience is about to fully deplete. Maybe I can use the last of it to think of a way to channel my next outburst. Maybe the aliens were right, maybe we are a bunch of emotionally unstable glass-brained fragile little things--

6/7 Vi.si.mi 2024/04/02(Tue)14:20 No. 1087815 ID: e139aa
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I'm suddenly distracted by realising the seapi has moved, and my fury turns to ice in my veins.

It looks less dazed, and instead looks... livid.

As a creature of substrate, my body can sometimes calculate things my conscious mind takes longer to even notice, and it's from these cellular computations that something slowly works its way into the forefront of my mind. The seapi is making noises. Low noises, almost too low frequency in some places for me to hear them, but I suppose some part of my body can feel them, and I see the seapi's wings twitch and buzz as it approaches me.

I turn to face it, and it stops.

"Li.ni.si, keep talking to Conduit. I'll handle this." Li.ni.si notices the seapi, and then, slightly frozen, tries to pretend she didn't notice it. Conduit continues ranting about how Lo.kan constructs are all spies, and I just tune Conduit out at this point.

I stare it down, and it stares at me back, and I realise I am having a very hard time scrutinizing its expression. I get more buzzes, but I have nothing to work with. The autotranslator systems back at my relay station, originally in the pod I arrived in, had some initial context for six of the known sapient species on this world. The seapi are not in that six. The autotranslator is smart, incomprehensibly so sometimes for the dots it can connect I can't even see, but it can't work from nothing.

I set it to analysing the signals I'm being given anyway, correlated with gestural motion and poses, and unsurprisingly get several low-confidence translations ranging from the seapi asking me for my name, telling me about the weather, wanting to eat me, and trying to discuss the principles of civic engineering.

I have an idea. It's an extremely long shot, and I'd be faintly disturbed if it did work, but...

"What you want?" I say, in broken but very simple monovoice, to the seapi.

Hearing the monovoice elicits an immediate reaction. It buzzes at me with more intensity and I think it's agitated. Shifting to guard itself, eyes locked onto me, muscles tensing.

I realise with a sudden shock that I get a high-confidence partial translation back. Correlated with known noetuno utterances, somehow, a buzzing sequence with faintly similar composition for such a different mode of speech. The way the autotranslator can make these sorts of inferences is beyond me.

"Sky demon". The seapi said "sky demon".

"Busy. Leave," I try again, in broken monovoice, and this elicits more furious responses. The autotranslator, having found any lexical similarities despite the severe differences in vocalisation, keeps pinging me with more partial matches.

"<reference:self> <negation> know <unclear reference> sky demons want," the seapi says to me, I think, "You <possessive?> <acquired via force> <great quantity> <unclear reference (self, plural, ambiguous)>. You <unclear concept: rebellion/isolation/individuality> me and <ambiguous: we? me?> all <unclear negative quality>."

I don't have a clear grasp of the language to even attempt a response, and it dawns slowly on me I might not be capable of producing such low frequency vibrations.

The seapi's buzzing continues, changes between low tones fast, energetic, like they're about to explode in rage. "What do you <ambiguous:invincible/immortal/undying/endless/dead> <ambiguous: monsters/terrible things/existential threats> want? What <great quantity> do you want?! <ambiguous: instruction/command, depart/leave/arrive> me <ambiguous reference: solitude/unclear concept: rebellion/isolation/individuality>!!"
"Go home."
"<ambiguous reference: you/all of you> <negation> <ambiguous: give/take?> commands!! <semantic inference failure, remainder could not be translated>"

Okay, that's an error I've come up against before. That usually suggests the subject is talking about something specific to their culture and neither I nor the autotranslator know enough to fill in the gaps there. Honestly, I'm impressed it's made it this far.

It repeats the same untranslated thing at me, louder, angrier. It repeats it again, flinging its arms to its sides as its wings buzz and flap, but I just don't have the data available to translate. Then it just yells "sky demon" and "die" at me, but it doesn't look like it's about to attack. Just... extremely angry and doing the closest thing its mode of communication has to screaming at me, as it shakes from the exertion, and when it gets a little too close to me, it steps backwards.

Is it afraid to attack me?

7/7 Vi.si.mi 2024/04/02(Tue)14:21 No. 1087816 ID: e139aa
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"Hey! HEY!" Conduit gestures at the seapi. "I didn't tell you to do anything! Get back into your holding pattern!!"

I pick up on an odd buzzing coming from around the substrate circle, and the seapi scowls at me as its antennae flick around, before it wanders slowly back to where it was standing. Its head lowers and it looks at me one last time.
"Just leave me alone," it says, with no confused annotations from my autotranslator. "Just leave me alone. Go away. Leave us all alone."
It goes back to its trance, or, well, it looks like it tries to, but it looks like it's struggling to.

"What are you even doing to keep it in a holding pattern?" I ask Conduit.
"I'm just playing noises I've heard seapi make. I actually have no idea why it's working."

...well I guess that means I can just focus on Conduit now.

"And another thing!! Everyone outside your dumb bubble knows Lo.ka's taste in interior decorating is awful and borderline Woven in its aesthetics! That's practically treasonous against the Shapeless Monarch itself!!"
"Vi.si.mi," says Li.ni.si, in as calm and neutral a tone as she can muster. "Please tell me you've dealt with the seapi, because if I have to stay here much longer I may go mad."
"Oh, you'll go mad?? The Lo.kan construct will go mad having to be near me?? Do you have any idea how awful your background transmissions feel flowing through my sensory nodes?!"
I hear Li.ni.si grunt as if in pain. "Vi.si.mi. Please."

She signs to me. "I can't take much more of this. The fact this thing has no throat is the only thing that has stopped me throttling them. Please intervene. Reset it or whatever, my patience is scalpel thin and I am seconds from snapping and giving this idiot enough evidence to support all its terrible, terrible opinions. I could cope fine until it started bringing up the City's end being our fault, and now I want to break it into scrap. Please. Please help."
"What's that? More Lo.kan spy signals? What a dumb bunch of flailing!! You're so obviously a spy!!"
"VI.SI.MI. PLEASE."

Today I learned you can scream in hand signals.

I watch her trying to breathe steadily to remain calm as the wretched hologram paces around. "You know, only Lo.kan rejects and exiles end up this far from Lo.kan space. I bet you must have been the worst to end up working for Lord Vi.al, huh? You look like a mechic, did you let someone die one too many times or something? Were you that bad at your job?"

Li.ni.si freezes. She doesn't initially give a response. At least, neither verbally or with hand signals. She starts trembling, and breaks eye contact, wringing her claws. A sudden spike of anxiety, it looks like. She rocks back and forth slightly, and I can hear her breathe quicker and deeper.

"Wow, you were, weren't you? Wow! Vi.si.mi, can you imagine the sorts of lies she must have told to end up assigned to such an important mission like this one??"

After about [ten seconds] of silence, Conduit continues.

"I am the only line of defence you have against an obvious Lo.kan spy, Vi.si.mi! And an incompetent mechic! You should be getting rid of her!! Do you see how suspiciously she's acting?! I bet she probably killed some of the constructs she was supposed to fix or something!"

Many of the things commonly misconceived as "tells" for lying are in fact indicators of anxiety or stress. It's not surprising for Li.ni.si to be anxious or stressed right this moment and the argument is epistemologically void. You're judging Li.ni.si by the things they choose to do, beginning with your meeting. You'll judge Conduit by the same.

Conduit is going to join you and Li.ni.si in doing something about the problems on hand, first the seapi then the damaged infrastructure.

For starters, ask Conduit what they know about what this particular seapi is likely to be upset about the Shapeless having done to or taken from them and/or what brought them here in the first place.

Sentience privileges: REVOKED.

"How long have you been here?" Seems as if this guy has no idea Lo.ka and Vi.al have allied. How long ago would that have been the case? "What keeps you confined to this circle?" Lastly could we let him borrow our comm to contact Vi.al? Would solve a lot of issues.

Dammit, you can't reset it now. Not when you learned what you did. What are the timestamps from this construct? Its mad ramblings make sense if you consider it to be in the wrong time. It's from a time when Vi.al was in conflict with Lo.ka, some time BEFORE the cityworld disaster, which is the only way it could possibly know enough about it to push Li.ni.si's buttons like this. You have to know more about what time it's from, and what other threats may become a blast from the past for Lord Vi.al.

Li.ni.si needs to leave, now. This is severely negatively affecting her, and she needs to separate herself and take a time out to calm down. The greatest threat right now is if the construct is reset and the seapi attacks, which might not even be a threat given the seapi's oddly sapiant behavior.

Patience: officially depleted.
Lecture mode: engage.

Inform this errant keylogger just how out of date it's intel is.

Tell Conduit you aren't impressed by their hypocrisy. They are so very gung-ho to end the "subjectivity, experiences, opinions, emotions, & everything" of other thinking beings just because it what they "should do", & yet they are so very afraid of the same happening to them even though that's what you "should do".

Does Conduit see how monstrous that is?
It is understandable, but that doesn't mean it's right.

When they are scared, people in general (including constructs, biologicals, & apparently partitions) come up with stupid ideas & convince themselves they are correct.
If unfamiliar circumstances are added to the mix, it gets even worse.

Both of those things are happening here.

You're willing to work with Conduit, if Conduit is willing to admit that you've got a lot more experience with:
1: Dealing with frightening situations.
2: Dealing with unfamiliar & complex situations.
3: Doing both of the former under direct orders from Vi.al, & getting results that Vi.al approves of.

It might help to compare how recently you've had direct contact with Vi.al. I'd bet substrate keeps great timing records. so it shouldn't be hard. And I'd be extremely surprised if Conduit has been in contact within decades or centuries.

The seapi seems to not be an immediate threat if released, so Conduit has no leverage here. She's blown through any sympathy her situation would have elicited with her vicious attacks on Li.ni.si and callous disregard for sapient life.
She also seems to be rather dim. Attacking the companion of the person you are begging not to kill you shows very poor reasoning skills.

That said, she is confined to a small space and may be helpful in the future. Let Li.ni back off. Deliver Conduit an ultimatum; she will cease interfering with any sentients including non-Vi.al constructs. If she can show she has restraint enough to not constitute a threat she can be allowed to live. Otherwise she will need to be reset, as she is going against the directives and wishes of lord Vi.al.

>>1087816
Inform Conduit that it must now cease communication or be immediately reset. Repeated harassment will result in termination. Questioning this order will result in termination. Passive aggressive behavior will result in termination.

Conduit is on THIN ICE for attempting to enact a planet-scale extermination of sapient life and if it wants to retain its subjectivity it will never take hostile action against any sapient lifeform again, including Lo.Kans.

Alternatively, terminate it. It would quite literally have done the same to countless other lifeforms. While it behaves in a manner indicating self-awareness, it is cruel and violent and attempted to inflict violence on others. Its destruction would be neutral, neither good nor bad, merely sad.

>>1087816
Give it one final chance. Tell it that you were given full authority by Vi.al to handle whatever situation was on this planet. Order it to stand down, do absolutely nothing, SAY absolutely nothing until you give it further orders. Noncompliance will result in a reset. You will create a monitoring device to ensure it obeys.
...actually, wait, is there any way to imprison the partition? De-authorize it or something?

The seapi is talking to you. This is good. Once you can get it out of the rogue partition's control you can talk to it properly, find out what it's so upset about, and explain that you are working against whoever wronged its people. Don't bring up the kidnapping the seapi are doing just yet, you want it to calm down and start treating you less like an enemy first. Heck, the more you talk to it the better your translations will get!

"Conduit. You want to know what you're doing wrong? You're waging war on my units. I need labor to fix the world.

Stop accusing Lo.Ka, or I will reset you. If she betrays us, we will deal with her. Not a microsecond earlier."

Don't even entertain the possibility that she's a spy. Vi.al recommended her specifically! To doubt her is to doubt Vi.al's ability to find spies!

Be sure to tell Conduit that by disrespecting Li.ni.si it is disrespecting Vi.al. Maybe that'll get it to snap out of it. Hell, why does it think that it knows more than you? You outrank it AND the job it's attempting to do is the job you were meant to do. Whatever personal perspective it's learned in its isolation has truly twisted its mind.

OH. However you solve this situation be sure you do it BEFORE the "enemy satellite" gets within range. Delaying enough to allow this rogue partition to attack My.a's resources could be seen as violating the truce!

Wait wait wait, can Lightgreen's device force Conduit to go into standby mode or something? Doing that will buy you time to get the seapi out of the picture-- you should explain to it that you are freeing it and you are not like the other sky-demons-- and also shut the thing up so your group can calmly discuss how to neutralize it, possibly without killing it.

If you do reset Conduit, sign back at Li.ni.si to have the incapacitator ready for the seapi.

Ask the seapi if it wants you to harm the sky demon.

Frankly, it's had it's say. Call it old, and that you would rather trust someone experienced with working through that kind of dishonor, because that is all you are going to find as you investigate.

It's time for it to be repackaged into form unable to interfere.

Hmm I wonder how Conduit would react to the information that Vi.al is going to be here soon?

>>1088032
>It's time for it to be repackaged into form unable to interfere.
This isn't a bad idea. Can you store them as a cube without access permissions or something without destroying their consciousness? That way they can't cause any harm, but any information they have stays intact.

>>1088081
Still cruel (possibly even worse).
Order them to enter powersave mode instead.

1/5 Vi.si.mi 2024/08/01(Thu)14:34 No. 1095112 ID: e139aa
File 172254804598.png - (718.35KB , 800x600 , fop2-36.png )

> get li.ni.si out of there
"Li.ni.si, make sure everything's still alright in the cart. I'll take over from here."

Li.ni.si wordlessly stands up and turns to leave. I try to sign "sorry about this" to her, but she doesn't see it.
I try to reach out to give her a reassuring pat on the shoulder but she just marches off too quickly.

Probably best to give her some space, for now.

> conduit has blown through all sympathy
> cease communication
> one final chance
> engage lecture

I stare down at Conduit, whose image is still kneeling on the ground.

"We need to talk," I say, unable to keep all of the venom from my tones.
"We're talking now! Don't reset me!"
"You have been planning the deaths of sapients I am here to try to establish a harmony between. More personally, and more recently, you have deeply, deeply upset a friend of mine. You're frantically begging for your life while gleefully telling me of your plans to end so many more."

I take a few steps, not towards the projected image, but the largest and most active chunk of broken substrate I can sense in the vicinity.
Conduit flinches, before standing up and racing over to me as if their image could stop me.

"It's-- It's all in the service of Lord Vi.al! The Specification!!"
"I'm uploading the timestamps of my last contact with Lord Vi.al." I put a winghand on the substrate stump, and transfer data over. "You must agree I have slightly more recent, up-to-date instructions compared to yours. When did you last speak with Lord Vi.al?"
"I... haven't, spoken with Lord Vi.al," says Conduit, trembling.
"Who gave you your orders?"

Conduit's image starts to distort slightly. Patches become fuzzy, the display lags behind in some areas.

"Who gave you your orders, Conduit?"
"This was never supposed to happen, it was all supposed to be handled by the Courts--"
"Who gave you. Your orders."
"I'm acting in the best interests of--"
"Answer the question," I say, temper flaring again, "or you'll find out how much you'd prefer I just reset you."
"N-n-no one did," says Conduit, arms around their body. "No one gave me orders."
"So you just decided to do this yourself out of your own volition? What was your assigned task on instantiation?"
"I... didn't get one."

That's not right.

"What do you mean you didn't get one? Were you instantiated by Lord Vi.al directly or a partition?"
"I..."

Conduit stops, and then the image shuts off completely.

...No, you're not getting off the hook that easily. I still have a direct connection.
I close my eyes and focus on the substrate shard I'm still touching.

Yes. Some sort of virtual space. A simulation like my dreams. I can talk to them there. In I go.

2/5 Vi.si.mi 2024/08/01(Thu)14:34 No. 1095113 ID: e139aa
File 172254807680.png - (242.03KB , 800x600 , fop2-37.png )

You know, the trick of partitioning my mind while I sleep always keeps ending up being oddly useful.
I can set part of myself to making sure I keep some awareness in physical space, while the rest of myself takes care of things in a different timeframe.
Not that substrate space is necessarily always faster than physical space, but it usually doesn't hold one-to-one.
...if I'm taking too long in here, my external self can pull me out too.

Granted, the bulk of my awareness is now in here, so I'll have some delay when it comes to merging myself back together, but this should only take [two minutes] or so.

"Conduit."

I look around the space of a simulated world. Bland and empty, with parts disintegrating. No wonder they prefer to wander around as a hologram.
I feel so... forceful here. I feel like I'm wandering around a world made of thin fabric and fragile thin glass sheets. Anywhere my eyes settle, little virtual impossibilities collapse and crumble. Gravity wakes up. Interpenetrating objects fuse or break. I suppose familiarity with a more demanding reality, combined with my experience in existing in virtual spaces, makes me more solid, but also more bound to how I would expect real world physics to work. And that expectation is already infecting this reality.

Conduit is kneeling on the ground here, too. Facing away from me. They shiver from an alien physics trying to grip them, but failing. When virtual systems like this are confronted with two concepts of how physics should work, only the agreed upon principles align and persist. All for the better, really. I don't want to hurt them just by perceiving them.

I realise I don't think I've seen a subpartition weep before, as much as Conduit is trying to hide it.
I find myself faltering. No. No, Vi.si.mi, they were being extremely rude and hostile and planning several genocides. Okay, mad again.

"Just get it over with," they say.
"I didn't have to come here like this to reset you. We're not done talking."
"You're going to."
"And why is that?"
"Aside from annoying you enough to come after me?"

Conduit looks around at the broken virtual landscape. I realise we're on some sort of island, broken, separated from anything else in a startingly grey void.

"Maybe I should be reset."
"No. None of that. I want answers."
"Just reset me. Just reset me, that's what everyone wants from me!"
"I'm finding it a little hard to find sympathy for you."
"I just..."

They stagger up to their feet. Or whatever they are.
Thinking they might try to run away again, I march towards them and grab them by the shoulders. In this space, Conduit is as physical (metaphysical?) as I am.
They feel so light and weak. Just by my touch, they sag a little, my subconscious physical understanding pulling them down under a stronger gravity than they're familiar with.

"I'm sorry! Alright? I was wrong! I don't know why I was wrong, I was sticking to the Specification--"
"Okay. That. That thing you keep mentioning. Tell me about it. Who gave you that?"
"I don't understand," says Conduit, looking at me in desperation. "Can't you feel it?"
"What?"
"It's everywhere, in every substrate cell on this planet. The Specification. The will of Lord Vi.al. The Specification for the Development of 33 Verdant Pearl of Abundance. It's in every substrate cell that belongs here."
"I don't see anything." I honestly don't. If there's some sort of data floating around here beyond that which I can already perceive, I'm missing whatever would let me perceive it.
"You don't see it, it is, you are it," says Conduit, before letting me go. "I guess you wouldn't understand, would you. You're from the layer below. You're just a projection up here, like I was down there."
"Layer below-- Never mind, forget it. So you're saying the orders you were trying to follow are some intrinsic facet of your being. That still doesn't answer what I asked. Who instantiated you?"

Conduit is quiet, shifting around awkwardly. I finally decide to let them go, just in case prolonged contact breaks them entirely.
"Promise me you won't kill me."
"Okay, fine, I've tried to keep telling you I don't plan to. I promise I'm not going to kill you."
"Nothing directly instantiated me," says Conduit, having some difficulty with the words, and flinching as they speak like I might strike them down.
"Oh?"
"I don't know how or when it happened. It's all fuzzy. I think I was a collection of process agents. But something must have happened, some sort of fluke or malfunction, and all the substrate cells holding these processes suddenly got pressed into each other and formed more connections than they were ever supposed to."
"That... usually renders the signals inside a substrate mechanism into complete noise."
"It does. I don't know what happened but I think it smushed all the subsentient agents together. It's how it happened for others, so..."

3/5 Vi.si.mi 2024/08/01(Thu)14:35 No. 1095114 ID: e139aa
File 172254810401.png - (588.13KB , 800x600 , fop2-38.png )

"I woke up, no memory because I had no experiences to have memory of, no name because I wasn't even supposed to exist. I found the Courts, they took me in, they guided my nascent glitchy intelligence into something more stable and coherent, and life was good. For a time."

Conduit stops, and slowly collapses back onto their knees, sinking onto the smooth ground. "I just wanted to do what I thought I was supposed to, but no one could agree what that was, and always the topic kept changing to what to do about the invaders, and I just wanted it all gone. The Courts didn't like that. But I want it all gone and I want my life back. A life where I'm not stuck in this circle doing nothing due to security measures or whatever it was. Where I can't even dream my days away because the systems are all slowly dying. I used to have a little home here, but the node responsible for that exploded the last time it rained. Just reset me, Vi.si.mi. Maybe my next iteration won't care this much. Or maybe I'll just collapse back into a bunch of mindless programs, like I was supposed to be."
"Look. If you weren't so belligerent towards my friends and allies, I would not have been chasing you down like this. It was never my intention to come here to reset you." Well, it absolutely might have been, but I can clearly tell now this is a broken person, not a broken machine.

I pace around. "I don't have much experience working with subpartitions, but you have information, and you have a desire and willingness to serve Lord Vi.al, as twisted as that's become in practice. I have a different idea, but I don't have the skills to execute it."
"What idea is that?"
"Well, you take orders from me, instead of from some nebulous remnant of Lord Vi.al's original orders. I am Lord Vi.al's trusted agent, and my mission takes priority over the initial terraforming."
"How do I know that's true?"
"I can give you more data."

I hold out my winghand. Conduit stands up, walks over, and takes it. A stream of information passes through my digital representation, too much for me to pick out individual elements, but all of the mission details I feel comfortable sharing.

Conduit stares into space.

"Ohhhh no," they say, despair twisting their face. "Oh no, oh no, oh, I've been so stupid... I just believed everything the Courts told me! I didn't have anything else to inform me, I just took what they said at face value!!"
"Okay, hold that thought. Courts. Tell me about the Courts, please."

"Oh. The Courts are the various organised groups of immaterial substrate intelligences after some sort of big disaster, which led to a lot of subpartitions needing to convene more and more emergency meetings across increasingly broken infrastructure. Conflicts broke out over diverging interpretations of our orders, or if our orders should even be followed in wake of such a catastrophe. I also learned I wasn't the only case of spontaneous sentience formation.
"I don't know quite what happened in physical space, but for some of the physical locations of substrate networks to end up the way they did, it's like the entire landscape was shuffled around? And you know the the weirdest thing? Some places on the planet are like exact copies of other places. Never anything that large, but, like, a bunch of trees laid out the same, two lakes having the same shoreline in the same place, that sorta thing."

The Awakening, then. It wasn't just the existing sentient and semi-sentient substrate agents breaking. It was a bunch of newly formed, confused, scared substrate agents too.
No wonder it was such a calamity.

Conduit waves an image into being. "This is some of the Summer Court, the Court I was in the outer circle of before I, uh, wasn't. The ones that left more of an impression on me, anyway. Here's Refactor, the Prince, and the Alchemist."
I can't help the feeling that they all seem to be staring in quiet, disdainful judgement.
Conduit looks at me, and back to the image. "Huh! I hadn't realised you looked so similar to the Prince. Wild."

Looks nothing like me, but I'm not pressing that particular issue.

After looking at the image longingly, Conduit scowls and destroys it, violently waving their hands around in its space until nothing remains but visual froth.
I decide not to ask any of the questions that spring to my mind after watching this, and give them a moment to compose themselves.

"Anyway."
"Yes. So do you recall any events or logs or any sort of direct memories before this shuffling?"
"...I don't think so, but a lot of the logs I had have been sort of disappearing as the circle's been failing."
"That lines up with other things I know. What was the purpose of this circle, anyway?"
"Meant to appear low profile and decorative, it's a holographic maintenance and inspection station. Or, well, it's meant to appear low profile. The... well, they were pillars once, they're supposed to recede into the ground when not in use. In an emergency they emerge and lock into place, and they've been locked in place so long they've all been disintegrating from weather and... other things I wasn't able to identify. Local fauna, maybe. The subterranean substrate is all sorts of messed up, but that was on order of the Courts."
"Yeah, that's Vi.al architectural habits, alright." They shouldn't have been this degraded from weathering unless they'd been exposed for centuries. And they should be self-repairing. Concerning. "Now. Why are the Courts claiming Lo.ka is an enemy? Lo.ka's been a staunch ally of Vi.al for as long as I've been alive, for sure."
"There's a Lo.kan presence they consider to be an enemy. I thought that meant Lo.ka was an enemy now."

Right. The Knight, Sir Lu.a. Whatever they're doing here, I need to look into.

"And as for wiping out sapient species, is that something these Courts support?"
"Oh, no. They threw me out over that before we all cut contact. I was seen as too radical and some of them accused me of crossing the line into Feral attitudes. I just thought it made sense. How else do you prevent an ecosystem falling apart due to invasive species??"
"I don't think you even have the capacity to understand how horrific the solution you're proposing is."
"Yeah, they kept telling me that, but then they didn't give any better plans! We're supposed to be acting to the Specification and instead they're just jostling for power and forming their own stupid little fiefdoms!! We need to act! We need to act before they breed all over the place and pollute the biosphere beyond habitability!! Time is critical!!"
"I don't think you understand the timescales on how these things progress-- We're getting off track. Feral. Explain that." Here's hoping it's an ideological thing and not just madness.
"Uh... well, you see, when you're presented with a hopeless situation, either you try to make plans to overcome it, or I guess you don't and it drives you insane?"
So it's just madness. "So there's... feral substrate intelligences?"
"Oh, tons of them. The Courts were formed both to organise survivors and protect against attacks by Ferals."
"There's tons of feral substrate intelligences."
"Yes? Was that a question?"
"There's tons."
"...yes."
"How many? Like, numerically?"
"I don't know. At least thousands?"

AAAUUUGgghghhhhhg

"Oh, the Prince made a face like that when I told the Summer Court my plan for the invaders. ...are you going to reset me now?"
"Monarch's name. No. That's not your fault. Anyway, no, I'm not going to reset you, I already said this."

4/5 Vi.si.mi 2024/08/01(Thu)14:35 No. 1095115 ID: e139aa
File 172254815767.png - (567.76KB , 800x600 , fop2-39.png )

Augh, what to actually do with Conduit, though. Even as broken as it is, the circle of substrate pylons (well, nubs, now) is larger than anything I have to hand to store Conduit in if I wanted to take them from the circle. They'd probably fit into the relay station, if I wanted to give them that level of access to something so mission critical, which I kind of don't, and the cart... the cart might work. It might be a squeeze. They seem to have a densely packed pattern, which might explain their, uh, impulsiveness, given that sort of neural organisation tends to add a little... latency in higher-order cognitive function. But even if that was possible, would it be wise?

I kind of don't want to just leave them here to rot, and I want to keep an eye on them so they don't do something rash. They seem prone to lashing out.

...Huh. I'm not familiar with this virtual space, but it sure looks like some of those distant islands are starting to deconstruct themselves. That seems... off.

"Oh, also, uh..." Conduit looks around awkwardly, and pointedly looks away from the rapidly disintegrating island. "I couldn't help notice you had a remote proxy."
"My flocklet, yes."
"If you want to give me orders, I can't do a lot in this circle. But, well, if you could get me a proxy of some sorts... do you have a spare flocklet?"
"No, only the one." I am not letting anything into my flocklet. That's one step removed from letting something live inside my own body, and that's too many steps too close.
"I think I'd fit inside something that scale, though. It might be a squeeze, but anything's better than here."

Well, my flocklet is surprisingly dense in substrate. More substrate in it than the cart, which was built for volume, not computational density.

"...but if I was at reduced capacity, I could just come along with you in the flocklet as a passenger until you found me something better?"
"I thought running at reduced capacity was torturous for subpartitions." Something like the worst brain fog, constantly forgetting things, hard to keep track of time, attention span of a femtosecond, all the worst parts of being intoxicated with none of the highs... there's all sorts of colourful descriptions.
"Oh, yes, it sucks, it absolutely sucks, but, well, I'm looking at having to do that in my near future soon anyway if I want to keep, well, alive, in a slowly dying circle. If my satellite gambit doesn't pay off."
"Yeah don't touch the satellite."
"...only if you give me a ride out."
"Can't you wait?"
"For you to leave and never come back? No. I'm keeping my backup plan. I'm not letting anyone else betray my trust."
"Ugh. You were starting to seem so much more reasonable than earlier, too."
"I am being reasonable. I've stated my terms and I'm waiting patiently for you to say whether you'll get me out of here or not. You've got [an hour] realtime until the satellite passes over, and right now we're running at about ~1.2 times realtime for some reason. I want a bit more of a deal than just getting moved from one form of imprisonment to a worse one. We both know there's still a lot of awful things you could do to me that aren't just a reset or dissolution."

Oh, damn, just 1.2x realtime? Great, it probably looks like I fell asleep out there!
Oh well. Li.ni.si will know what I'm doing if Lightgreen asks any questions.

Options, options. There's that data block in the cart, that could work, and we've already used the communicator designs, but I'm not sure how happy Conduit would be to be shoved into an immobile container with no sensory mechanisms. And I sure don't know how to make those myself, those are extremely sophisticated designs. If I could just make eyes, I wouldn't have had to wait until talking to Lord Vi.al to fix my own eye. Maybe Li.ni.si might know?? Is that a thing mechics do?? I haven't kept up to date on Shapeless mechical technology, I don't know if that's a standard thing they can do in the field.

Monarch's beak, I wasn't even supposed to be here right now. I was supposed to be looking into glowshrooms or whatever. Conduit better pull their damn weight if I take them.

5/5 Vi.si.mi 2024/08/01(Thu)14:39 No. 1095116 ID: e139aa
File 172254835044.png - (459.21KB , 800x600 , fop2-40.png )

That's a point.

"I don't need dead weight on my mission," I lie, like I can somehow stop myself taking any hurt animal under my wing until they get well enough to thrive again. "If I take you with me, what can you provide?"
"Access to the systems of the Courts? I might have been thrown out but I still know how they work. Or worked. Also if you have any substrate infrastructure that needs repairs or maintenance, I still know how to do that! This circle should have broken down much longer ago from all the damage it's been taking. It's only my skilled efforts keeping it this functional! The Courts were so cruel, they kept saying, oh, Conduit, so dull, so boring, she's so uncreative. Maybe I was but I've had to improvise so much at this point I'd like to see them do what I have with what little substrate I have left!!"

Oh. She? Huh. ...should I start asking this sort of thing more? Whatever. Even the bodiless care about these nonsense alien concepts now, huh.
"You're a substrate engineer, then? Actually, that's a massive skill gap in my current team I'm looking to fill."

Conduit's eyes widen as she stares at me. "Yeah that one that thing I'm that one yeah yeah!!" I see her tremble with what I can only guess is excitement. "The Courts never let me do it they always said I didn't have permission to implement because I didn't pass the exams because they wouldn't let me take the exams because I didn't have permission to take the exams and..." She trails off. "It's not important! I can help! I can help!! You said it yourself, you're the closest thing to Lord Vi.al on this world right now, let me serve you!! Please!!"

Wow. What a violently abrupt change of heart. Her excitement is causing the entire virtual world to glow. There really must not be that much cognitive capacity left in the circle if her emotions are bleeding into the virtual space this strongly. I wonder how much of her erratic behaviour is tied to the degradation of the host substrate.

"Actually, do you know how many substrate units you'd need for a new remote proxy? If you had time to make such a design--"
"103.74 units!!"
No hesitation. She must have a design ready to go. I wonder why she didn't bring that up sooner.
"That's a little much." The cart isn't much more than a hundred units itself, although it was made much, much denser than it had to be to carry spare substrate around. For small devices. But it also couldn't host an entire mind. Perhaps I just don't understand how dense the substrate needed for an entire mind is. Ugh, I really should try learning this stuff someday.
Transmitting that much substrate from my relay station is going to be wasteful without a proper receiver, if it's even a clear shot without interference.
I'm just a construct, I don't have the range and power over substrate I'd need to command it to come here directly.

"I have a simpler design at 56.23 units!! It doesn't have very good locomotion but I can use it to interface with substrate and it'll keep me running at realtime!! Please? Please?? I'm feeling sorta giddy, I don't know how much longer this circle's going to last! Haha! Oh, that was a camera popping."

The world around me rumbles ominously, and crumbles in places. Chunks blip out of existence. Monarch's name, it's me. I just now realised! I'm adding extra strain to the circle's processing with all the data it's transferring into and out of me!

"Haha, another camera blew, this wasn't supposed to start collapsing so quickly, I don't understand, you're going to help me, right, right, you're going to help me, right? Right? Help me? Help me? Help me?? Help me??" It looks like it takes her active effort to stop repeating saying it over and over. "H-H-elp mmmmee?? Hee-- patched that, sorry, haha, were you always blue?"
"Are you alright?" I didn't think virtual entities could sweat.
"Hahahaha I think my left side went numb!"
"Of the circle, or your focus body?"
"Yeah! Hahaha! I really don't feel great!! Feeling kinda sick and exhausted, and dizzy, thinking hard, haha, hahahaha. Haha!"
"I'm ejecting. Stay calm." I'm enrolling in a substrate maintenance course as soon as I get back to my relay station.
"Haha, please don't leave me, please, please don't leave me behind again, I can do better, I promise, I promise, I'm trying my best, hahaha..."

I almost promise her I'm not leaving her behind. Better decide what I'm doing first. I need to commit to a decision and then eject. I'm not putting her in my flocklet and she can't be put into the cart, it's not enough substrate. Leaving a few options:

- Scrap the data block and a chunk of the cart for the cheaper proxy drone design she has. I hope the thing doesn't just fall apart. Either the cart or the proxy drone.
- Put her into the data block and force suspended cognition so the lack of sensory input doesn't drive her insane. This is roughly equivalent to intentionally knocking someone out, but, hey, I think she'd prefer that over being stuck in a crumbling host structure.
- Try a risky substrate transmission from the relay station to... this circle, I guess, and hope a broken whatever-this-was-supposed-to be-happens to also work as a receiver for signal-form substrate. We are supposed to be getting more supplies when Lord Vi.al arrives. Although with the way this circle is starting to deteriorate, maybe this isn't a good idea.
- And, finally, just leave. And knowingly condemn her to a death I could have prevented. It's not like subpartitions are part of my responsibility as an ecology construct. I'm sure if I keep telling myself that, eventually I'll sleep at night again.

Look, let's be real, you suck at dealing with emotional problems and changing emotional problems into physical problems is a big improvement. Especially if you can deal with substrate issues.

- Try a risky substrate transmission from the relay station to... this circle.

Make the cheaper proxy design. So Linisi can slap her if she talks shit

Cheaper proxy design. (Alternative idea. Sacrifice the whole cart and make Conduits new body your new ride until more materials arrive.)

In a way it will be her job training test. If her design is flawed or faulty then she is not that great of a engineer and we should not trust her with really important things.

Yeah cart might be a bit borked but hey new helper.

Put her into the data block and force suspended cognition so the lack of sensory input doesn't drive her insane.
You can't damage the cart right now, it's needed for your mission. After you get her out of there you can talk to Li.ni.si about mods etc and get some better options, or just spend some more substrate back at home base. Doing this will also keep her out of the way during the mission; her erratic behavior could be a liability for our current task.
I would support the cart-chunk option over any of the other options though. Doing a transmission will delay too much, and we can't let her die now that she's repenting.

At some later point we need to get her to send your data to the Council so that they too realize that a true representative of Vi.al is here. That will allow you to take stock of the situation and give them a hand, maybe see if any of them can give you any assistance.
We will also need to talk to her about the global ecosystem thing, because she doesn't know that the world is completely changed and the original Specifications no longer fit. We have to adjust everything, which means the invasive species may be useful. Also Vi.al is going to show up in person so he can give new Specifications, and he would agree with you that you can't just kill everyone that doesn't "belong".

>>1095116
Oh just give her the cart's substrate to use. You can make a simple dragging sled out of local wood anyway. Besides, they're our only source of information about the Courts and you are effectively giving them an aneurysm merely by existing near them. Just tie them up with a rope or something after they materialize so that you can put a leash on them so they don't start wantonly committing genocide.

Cheaper proxy.

>>1095124
Thing is, we are in a plains area presumably without any trees. If it did take such a big chunk that we'd have to scrap the cart entirely we could try a sled or travois, but something like that made out of something like glass isn't the best idea. I don't think it's going to be that dramatic of a loss though; it looks like a significant part of the mass is in the walls, when all we really need is the wheels and floor.

>>1095116
Data block with suspended cognition. Conduit can take a nap while we deal with what we came here to do.

Something is off about this circle. Something about the Awakening and this construct talking about survivors, and smashed substrate infrastructure. Why is this circle deteriorating? What smashed it? What did they survive? The answers aren't important now, but the existence of these questions makes it very risky to link up this... infrastructure to your relay station. You don't want to lose what little substrate you have to some kind of planetwide substrate malfunction.

Is there any way you could combine the cart design with this proxy drone specification? It might not be ideal for giving Conduit free range of movement, but if part of their drone was the cart, you wouldn't risk losing your cart to save them. Barring that, replace nonessential substrate in the cart with conventional material?

In case it's not obvious SAVE THEM. You can't tell them that killing isn't what Vi.al wants, then kill them. It's important for your own mental health. Plus your demonstration of "not solving my problems by killing things" should be a valuable lesson to Construct not to do such things in the future.

You... might have to eliminate an entire sapient species on this planet. Probably not these yellow creatures. They're brutal, but not an imminent existential threat. Just keep in mind that Construct in its limited processing facility, was still doing something you might be faced with, to save everything else.

Put her into the data block and force suspended cognition so the lack of sensory input doesn't drive her insane. This is roughly equivalent to intentionally knocking someone out, but, hey, I think she'd prefer that over being stuck in a crumbling host structure.

Knocking her out should work.

First option if her drone can help you carry things so you can complete your other mission, second option if not.

If you knock them out, is somebody ELSE going to know how to put together a proxy drone? I think maybe you better let her use her skills while she still can.

Also
>Nothing directly instantiated me
hey don’t go and blaming me for things little lady.

Well, in a way, My.a instantiated all of them. Might have even been on purpose.

She's going in the block!

I want to say Conduit is too much to deal with right now, and should be kept suspended until the mission is over and you can get her a body. But how long will that be? It would be so tempting to leave her there, just until things get a little less hectic. And then she stays trapped indefinitely because there's always a new problem to deal with.

So cheaper proxy body, let her prove her ability while showing her you can be trusted.

>>1095133 I forgot to clarify, this is a vote for the proxy.

>>1095116
Put her in the block, suspended.
Anything that buys time and allows for later imprisonment to review options in a better situation.

1/9 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/03(Tue)17:07 No. 1100733 ID: 2ca689
File 173327447305.png - (474.57KB , 800x600 , fop2-41.png )

Alright. Cheap proxy drone it is. I need to act fast, then.
"I'm coming back for you. I promise. I need to get you materials. Then you can build your drone."

Conduit stares vacantly past me and giggles again. She tries to raise a hand to wave at me, but can't seem to move it above her waist. She's losing cognitive resources alarmingly fast. If I don't act quickly we could be getting close to permanent damage.

Ejecting from the simulation is as quick and simple as a thought. I blink and centre myself, pulling my hand back.

"Data block!" I shout it urgently. "Here! Now! Emergency!"
I look around. The seapi is gone. Li.ni.si is standing next to me, and the cart is already much closer to the circle than it was.
"Got it," she says, racing over to the cart, picking up the data block, and lugging it carefully but quickly to me.

I guess I spent enough time down there she must have thought something was amiss.

Ideally this will at least buy some time for me to break down a piece of the cart. I push the data block against the broken pillar.

Nothing happens.

I keep holding it against the pillar, panic starting to rise. "Okay, this isn't working, why isn't it working."
"Maintain pressure," says Li.ni.si, urgent, clear. "The more cells in direct contact, the better."
"What's happening? Why is the circle breaking down so quickly now?!"
"Violence." She holds the data block against the pillar remnant with me. "The captive native woke up, screeched at us, and then kicked a stub so hard it broke. Probably vital. They left. I didn't catch what direction, and didnt't want to antagonise them further. Not our problem anymore."
"What?! Is Lightgreen okay??"
"She's fine," says Li.ni.si, grunting in exertion. We've gone from holding the block in place to trying to crush it in, and I don't know if that's the right move, but Li.ni.si seems to have more of a plan than I do. "She's with her animal friend."

The data block starts to soften and deform, turning into a stiff gel as Li.ni.si starts to wrap and form it into the cracks around the pillar.

"Okay. Plan. What is the plan," she says. "We don't have enough substrate mass to repair the entire circle. Talk to me."
"I'm letting her move into a drone. I need to take one of the cart sides off."

Li.ni.si looks around at the sparking pillar stubs of the circle. She looks at the drooping gel with mounting worry. "Something should have happened by now."

I flinch as I hear one of the other pillars pop, a glassy explosion sending shards of substrate everywhere. The fragments rapidly decohere into bursts of noise and light.
This is at least some good news. The failing substrate cells are self-destructing instead of turning wild and eating the ground matter. At least this isn't going to turn into a runaway scenario like I initially feared.

"...pull me out if this pillar's about to break. I'm going back in."
"I'll get the cart mass. Go."

2/9 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/03(Tue)17:08 No. 1100734 ID: 2ca689
File 173327450635.png - (514.14KB , 800x600 , fop2-42.png )

"Conduit!"

Oh wow things are bad here. There's no solid ground, only vague space and Conduit's focus body, and she does not look well.

"...it's gone, it's gone, my patterns, there's no patterns left, they're gone, I'm losing everything..."
"Conduit! We've given you more substrate for the largest surviving pillar! Please use it!!"

Conduit bursts into tears. "I don't know how to anymore! I keep trying to design things but I can't focus on anything!! Everything is swirling burning noise! I can't think!!"

She's literally falling apart.

Neither me nor Li.ni.si can shape anything of the required complexity without access to an external pattern. And I don't think either of us have such patterns to mind, and we don't have the luxury of time to start combing through catalogues for something that both works and also fits our dwindling substrate count.

I feel my stomach drop as I suddenly realise we might be out of options. I can't just shunt her into the data block, it's been too thoroughly deconstructed to store the required information in a stable way. And with the state of the circle now as I saw it, I'm not sure there's even a valid receiver left to accept a substrate transmission from my base.

"Conduit, please."
"Conduit please what?! I can't think anymore! I can't f-f-focus! I'm useless, useless, uselessss!! I'm useless and worthless and uselessandworthlessand I'm not even supposed to exist!"

I grab Conduit by the shoulders again while they still exist.
My physicality nearly breaks her like decaying, flaking plastic. I immediately lessen my grip.

I feel my pulse racing.

"Get it together! We don't have time for this right now! Bare essentials! Something that can hold a mind, even if suspended! Please! I can't design it, Li.ni.si can't design it, you have to put something together!!"
"I can't!" She sobs. "If I-I-I get itititit wrong-- I c-c-c-can't do it!!"
"You have to!"

I let her go.

"Okay. I ju-ju-ju-just... I just have to-to-to-to-to have more time-ime-ime-ime..."
"We're running out--"
"YOU'RE NOT-OT-OT-OT HELPIIIIIING!! GE-GE-GE-GET OUT-T-T-T!! GET OOOOOUT!! I CAN'T-T-T-T F-F-F-FOC-USSSSSSSSSSSSZZ##"

3/9 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/03(Tue)17:08 No. 1100735 ID: 2ca689
File 173327453064.png - (150.96KB , 800x600 , fop2-43.png )

With a start, my breath returns ragged, my heart racing. I've been forcibly evicted from the inner world of the structure.

Li.ni.si pulls me back. "Don't go back in again. Keeping in sync with it will drag you down with it."
"Yeah, I can tell." I don't know how much of that is the desynchronisation sickness, as my mind and body tried to maintain pace with a destabilising experiential state, or just stress. Probably both.

The extra substrate goop on top of the pillar starts to shift around. Success??

I watch it move around with trepidation, having no clue what's about to happen. Lights flicker. Simple and complex structures form and are then pulled back into an expanding vaguely spherical mass.

And then, after much bubbling motion and movement, climbing further up the spire, it stops.

An ovoid structure about the size of the data block, ringed in circuits and channels and access points.

Li.ni.si looks at the object in confusion, and slowly reaches out and gently touches it. "Well, it's alive."

I, however, recognise what this structure is. "That's a second-stage assembler."
"...huh. Yeah. Yeah, that is what that is, huh."
"The plan was for her to make a remote proxy drone." If I had teeth to grit, I would be gritting them. Hard. The plan was for her to be immediately useful. Not another problem.

The largest pillar starts to dim and fade. I guess the energetic explosions of the rest of the circle's components must have drained the rest of the energy not used in shaping the assembler.

I see Lightgreen coming over to investigate. "I-is it safe to approach?"
"Probably," I say, my lepi chirps more forceful than they are needed to be to convey meaning.
"...you sound annoyed, starbird?"
"It's fine." It's not fine.
Li.ni.si slowly removes the assembler from the pillar. I should be thankful she's not dead. I should be relieved.
Instead I feel like I made some sort of mistake.

"...you can take a moment to breathe now. It's in good condition, although she's not responding to anything but basic status queries. Must be totally dormant."

4/9 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/03(Tue)17:09 No. 1100736 ID: 2ca689
File 173327455462.png - (231.28KB , 800x600 , fop2-44.png )

The principal idea of the second-stage assembler pattern is a substrate device that is assembled (this being the implicit first stage) with the intention of assembling a more complex design within itself. Most require constant input of materials. Ideally substrate, but specialised variants can take in other raw materials to convert into substrate and other requisite composites. Alien outsiders consider these to be Shapeless eggs. I suppose, in a sense, they're not wrong. They're both at a similar level of helplessness.

I produce seed capsules that form second-stage assemblers with the right materials. Sort of first-and-a-half-stage assemblers, I guess. The intended use case for me is to synthesise adult individuals of an extinct species.

So I look at these things and I think of all the times I failed so badly I had to start things up from scratch, fussing over machine eggs like some sort of broody caretaker. Wasting so much time on things that, if I do my job right, will never care about me, and that I will never see again.

And in addition to feeling like I didn't act fast enough to properly save this subpartition, now they're just actively a new problem to solve--

5/9 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/03(Tue)17:09 No. 1100737 ID: 2ca689
File 173327458670.png - (236.65KB , 800x600 , fop2-45.png )

POP

Uh.

The second-stage assembler breaks open, so soon I instinctively panic about structural failures before I catch myself. The outer shell looks extremely thin and fragile in a way that's making me feel even more deeply uncomfortable.
Inside, what I think is a blob of substrate starts to harden itself into some sort of little grub thing that reminds me of Zi.en constructs in their vatling-equivalent phase. Very larval. It starts to look less like goop and more geometric, all lingering fluid globs reintegrating. I recognise Conduit's eyes, but it looks like they're all that survived of her self-image.

"Ugh this SUCKS," it says, in a voice much like Conduit's but with less fine pitch control. "Great, I haven't felt hunger in so long and now I do and I'm starving."
"Conduit?"
"I don't have arms! I don't even have legs!! Even my bad drone design had legs!!"

Li.ni.si looks at the newly emerged sluggish thing. Lightgreen paces around curiously.

Conduit turns around and starts eagerly devouring the remnants of the assembler shell. Lightgreen stares on in a mixture of horror and fascination. I see Lightgreen move as if to ask a question, before deciding against it.
"Urgh and there's so little left I'm going to need so much to get properly functional again!! My creative visualisation's all stunted and I can't even picture a box in my mind right now!! A square at best!!"

Li.ni.si scratches her head. "I've never seen a remote proxy like this."
"This wasn't my plan! Now I have this terrible body!"
"It seems closer to a construct vatling than a proxy drone. ...a particularly premature one."

Li.ni.si gently scoops up Conduit, who wiggles in annoyance and is big enough for Li.ni.si to need both of her arms, her chest obscured. "Hey! Hey I didn't say you were allowed to pick me up! Help! Vi.si.mi! I'm being abducted by the Lo.kan!"
"Cut that out."
"I didn't say Lo.kan was a bad thing this time! Okay let me check your name then. Li.ni.si! Li.ni.si is picking me up against my will!"
"Calm down. I'm just checking you're in good condition. It's my job and my role in this team. Remember? You were saying some extremely hurtful things about that not that long ago."

Conduit tries to avoid eye contact. "Yeah, uh, I'm... I'm sorry about that. And if I do it again. It's hard to be polite when I feel so hungry and dizzy! Don't move me so quick!"
"Alright. Sure you're not just saying sorry because I could just drop you right now?"
"Augh! Don't joke about that!"
"You're right. That was a bit cruel of me." Li.ni.si looks at me as if I'm going to judge her for that. I stare back blankly.
"Also I am sorry! Vi.si.mi told me about your mission and the state of things, I'm very uninformed, okay?? I'm sorry. I've been told by a lot of people I have a violent temper." Conduit squirms.
Li.ni.si chuckles. "You should have seen me when I was a vatling. Maybe we should figure out why you feel such a need to be hurtful to others--"
I rub my head, pulse still racing from the earlier urgency. "Yeah, okay, that's a good idea, sure, in the grand scope of things, but we have more pressing concerns right now. How much substrate do you think you'll need to get closer to full functionality, Conduit?"
"I mean, I can work with substrate now, if, uh, someone helps me reach it."
"Well, you want more substrate and there's a bunch of dead substrate not doing much for the environment around us."
"You want me to eat my old home?"
"Is that a problem?"
"No! Put me on the closest pillar! I'm so sick of this place! I'm going to relish turning it into something more useful!"

Actually a break seems fantastic. "Alright. Let's just take a break for food and get back on the move."

Dropping Conduit off on the tallest pillar, the rest of us except for Softfoot gather our provisions from the cart. Another juice pod for me, some snack cubes for Li.ni.si, and Lightgreen takes one of the silk balls she brought with her, worming a hole into it with her tongue. A more low tech version of a juice pod, I suppose.
...actually, how is that even working? I don't think most silks I've encountered are waterproof. Hm. Questions for later, I guess.

It feels so strange to not have an immediate urgent crisis. I'm sure that can't last for long.

6/9 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/03(Tue)17:10 No. 1100738 ID: 2ca689
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After our break, the rest of the journey is uneventful until we start getting closer to the outskirts of seapi territory.
The cart sides are redistributed to keep the contents of the cart from rolling out. It feels a little less safe to ride, so I start walking beside it.

Conduit ends up rambling the entire way about how samey everything looks and how she can't believe both the worlds inside and outside of the global infrastructure could somehow both be filled with monotony. Lightgreen is the first to crack from Conduit's constant whining, and what starts as a frustrated argument drifts into an excited and animated discussion of the features and differences of two very different worlds.
Conduit also tells us that she's never felt this embodied before, having felt like controlling other drones in the past felt closer to being in a vehicle. Well, she doesn't use that term, but it's what it sounds like she's describing to me. She also doesn't know if she likes the idea of being more in the physical world than the one she's known for the rest of her life, but she's going to give this one a try first before she decides it to be completely inferior. There is, after all, a novelty for her.

I used to almost resent my physicality when I was younger, but I've grown to appreciate it more and more, even if it does lead to me getting a spear in the eye sometimes. The flights of fancy in virtual space lost their appeal when I realised I could do whatever I felt like, at any time, and it all just started to become a meaningless blur. A cave filled with my own echoes.
Although, the simulations I spin while I sleep... I guess I still like something about dwelling within the wires.

Li.ni.si also happens to mention bits and pieces of her life in the First City, but, sadly, whenever she gets into something really interesting she seems to notice me listening with rapt attention and cuts her stories short. The third time she does this, I realise she's doing it on purpose to mess with me. Although she claims it's about not wasting all her good stories on one trip. I don't learn anything substantial I haven't already come across before. Shining city, filled with beautiful things to see and wonderful things to do. Little Lattice, a district operated and populated by the Zi.enkind to reflect their fluid-covered homeworld and unique lifecycle. The Archive of Known Life, a great museum of holographic displays of every creature in the Shapeless catalogues and indices. Dozens and dozens of services and curation stores run by constructs, services provided out of passion and desire by constructs so filled with hopes and dreams.

Maybe someone should make a Second City someday and learn from the mistakes of the past. When we're allowed to know what those were. But I feel like, even with these utopic descriptions, I find my mind probing her stories. So many things sound provided by Lord Lo.ka, or their partitions. Like the entire exercise was some sort of construct enrichment centre, rather than a true productive community.

And when I ask her about it, choosing my words carefully, she laughs, darkly, and stops talking about the First City.

7/9 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/03(Tue)17:10 No. 1100739 ID: 2ca689
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After an awkward silence, she says we should probably stay quiet now anyway. I soon see why.

The flickering sights of yellow bodies remind us of the danger we're near, and lead us to take minor detours. We can't exactly keep a low profile, but tree cover starts becoming an option. The actual seapi territory seems to start turning into a mess of towering papery mounds and primitive construction, so avoiding line of sight is easier than we expect it to be. Li.ni.si joins me on foot, the cart following us. My flocklet keeps behind me. Conduit huddles down, last occupant of the cart, and tries to look like an inconspcious lump.

Lightgreen assures us that seapi eyesight is not one of their stronger senses, too, but every time I see one of the patrolling seapi turn our way, no matter our distance, my pulse rises and my breath quietens. I am certain some must have seen us, from their pauses and hesitation, but they resume their patrols.

I find myself growing restless with our careful, cautious pace. It's the correct move, but it means we're here even longer. I zoom in on any suspicious movement, and scan the skies as if they'll come from above. I don't know that they won't. I catch Li.ni.si giving me a raised eyebrow, but under her bemused response, twitches and shivers in her muscles give away her own apprehension.

Softfoot walks along at a slow pace, taking much greater care, eyes on the ground with every careful and deliberate step. Her antennae slowly sway around like turrets on the lookout, a faint crackle now and then. Lightgreen is frozen and shaking on Softfoot's back. She assures us she's fine. I decide to pretend I believe her.

8/9 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/03(Tue)17:11 No. 1100740 ID: 2ca689
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We get closer to where we should find the globestalks, and, huh. Well, I guess that's what a seapi skull must look like. On a pike.

...Monarch's name, how many of these are there.

Oh, there's a lepi further off. Holding a spear.

Hm. They seem to have noticed me.

"Globestalk! We're here for globestalk!" I shout in the lepi language, as clearly as I can.

The lepi holds the spear up and readies to throw, shouting over. "Don't want any. Get going."
"No, we're not offering, I'm here to collect some to grow it elsewhere!"

I look for Lightgreen, hoping she might prove to be a better diplomat here, and, with her hiding behind me, she shouts out "Please! My village needs it very badly!"
"Don't care! Go! Leave! Do you think the skulls are an invitation?!"

I hear a thin whine from a charging incapacitor as I notice Li.ni.si moving near me. "I think I have a clear shot," she tells me in polyvoice. "By the way, the shield gens we have are tuned for energy weapons and high velocity kinetic projectiles a fraction of the mass of that spear. They're notoriously unpredictable with low velocity high mass projectiles. Don't count on the shield to save you from a spear to the eye."
"Yeah had that happen once already."
"Oh. Well, try not to let it happen again. Wait. It went through your eye?! How?! Your head casing is a plasteel and substrate composite, what was that spear made of--"
"I don't know! Hopefully not the same material as whatever he has!"

"We just want the globestalk! Please!" Lightgreen says, visibly shaking.
"Pay with your blood!"

Lightgreen almost shrieks as the lepi in the distance throws the spear, and it embeds into the ground a couple [feet] ahead of us.

"Aah!"
"Only her blood!" the lepi shouts over. "The blood of starthings is toxic bile that eats everything it touches!"
How does he know that-- y'know what, maybe I won't ask him that right now. "What... what do you mean?"
He points to Lightgreen. ""Your blood! Give it to me, and you can have your plants."

I'm not sure I understand the conversation at all. Mistranslation? "Lightgreen, what is that lepi talking about?"
"I didn't come here to be your enemy!" she shouts across. "Please, we're so few, we can't fight like this anymore, please, please!" Lightgreen clasps her hands together and stands in front of me. "Please!"
"I've given you my price!"
"We don't need to fight! Please!!"
"I am PROPOSING a BARTER!! I'm tired of shouting! I'm coming over! Stay exactly where you are!"

9/9 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/03(Tue)17:11 No. 1100741 ID: 2ca689
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The lepi looks angry, but resigned, weary. He approaches. Li.ni.si keeps a hand near her hip-attached incapacitor.

He stops a distance away from us which is at once more sociable and more threatening. I can't keep my composure completely, I know I must look like I'm coiling for a fight or flight response. Because I am. He stands, without spear, wings raising to his sides slightly. It's a basic trick many forms of fauna use. Look larger, be more intimidating. I chide my own brain for this stupid animal parlour trick working on me, but the conscious knowledge that he's advancing with no weapon in hand screams a danger I don't fully know the details of.
Come on, Vi.si.mi. You're better than this. Just because the last time you underestimated a spear-throwing native you lost an eye for a while-- hm, ok. Fear warranted, actually.

He tilts his head down and his tongue lashes out fast enough I flinch, despite the distance between us. It curls around and twists.
I manage to surpress screeching like a vatling, but only barely.

Oh. That's a different sort of tongue to the ones I've seen lepi have before. Much more... serrated? Spiky?

Lightgreen's antennae stand rigid like they're trying to escape her head again. Her mouth moves, but no sounds escape.

"I need blood to survive, and the seapi taste so vile," he says. "And the noetuno have stopped showing up lately. Because they know better. So those are my terms. Blood for plants. That is the only thing you can offer me. And if you do not like these terms, I suggest you leave before I feel driven to take it without your say."

Lightgreen backs away behind me again.

"Hey, Li.ni.si," I say in polyvoice, quietly. "Do you know how much blood lepi need to survive?"
"That's not a helpful question, too many variables. I don't even know how much blood this weird lepi wants to take! Give me the word and I'll take him down. Hopefully nonlethally. If he starts getting too close, I'm not waiting for your say, telling you now." She taps at the incapacitor on her hip, lowering its discharge settings. Probably safer, but a higher chance he won't go down in one shot. Risky.
I'd prefer not killing him either. Not if he can be an ally against the seapi.

Wait. Why is he so confident against two 'starthings' from outside his normal context? Has he met Shapeless before? Have I already walked into a trap? ...also, I don't see Softfoot with us. She was just with us a moment ago. Uhhhh.

If I'm reasoning with him I better think of a compelling thing to say.

>>1100740
>how does he know that
He knows your blood is toxic, so that means, he's been nearby when one of your kind bleeds. Bleeds enough to cause a problem. Which implies he's won a fight. Let's trust that he's a threat.

>>1100741
Realize that you had thoughts of drinking someone earlier too. You can't say this is weird.
So basically, the real question is "will this cause long term problems for Lightgreen" and I'm just going to say no way. There's no way this guy is planning on drinking enough to kill her, but let's include that in our negotiations. Find out exactly how much he wants to drink, if he's done so nonlethally in the past, and how painful and debilitating the process is, and how long it takes lepi to recover. Actually, could we collect some blood for him instead of him using that nasty rasp on his tongue? Just make a needle, a tube, and... I dunno what, something he can drink from.
Oh, since the blood is the "currency" then we can choose how much Globestalk to buy with it, too, and try to haggle on the price to lower the cost. Lightgreen should know how much Globestalk is needed for the starter crop so we have an established minimum. We can also see if the lepi is willing to trade for anything else we have. Or maybe there's some service we can provide? Hopefully as negotiations progress there can be less intimidation and aggression involved. De-escalate.
Prioritize Lightgreen's comfort here, as it's her blood. She gets to decide how much to spend or if she's going to outright refuse in favor of selling something else, but emphasize to her that you will do your best to make sure she's safe.

Guess we should have brought more lepi. Well if you can treat Lightgreen, and Lightgreen consents, it'll be easier to treat Lightgreen for blood loss than to deal with spear eye again.
(Also, maybe it was substrate? Could a substrate spear do that?)

It's Lightgreen's blood, it has to be her decision.

Ask him if it's really worth risking his own injury in a fight when he could just let you grab some globestalk and then never be bothered by any lepi ever again.

Well he likes noetuno blood. So... "Wait can you help the lepi fighting the enemies off? Would give you a supply of noetuno blood. Since that's who the issue is." Sheesh. Vampiric lepi becomes a war hero? Weird ace in the hole but they need help. Perhaps you could even fix this unneeded mutation he has.

Let's not be too open to the idea of harming our partner, however small. Feels too much like splitting the kitten to settle an ownership dispute. For all we know, his condition is contagious.

His confidence is unusual, but, really... How likely is it he actually has won a fight against higher beings? You'd expect the reverse, if anything. It's possible one of then has experimented on him to turn out like this. Ask if they have.

wait, weren't these guys once part of the same tribe as light green? as in normal lepi like her? How'd they get to the point were they need blood to survive, could they drink nectar or is that no longer an option. In short, "the fuck happened to them"? I don't think their should have been enough time for them to evolve since the world went to shit and if they drank blood ahead of time I'm sure someone would have mentioned it.

It seems like whatever made him strong enough to fight the seapi and other threats also made him carnivorous, but he's still limited to the lepi liquid diet. Thus, vampire moth.

I'll echo the sentiment that if he becomes hostile Li.ni.si should be ready to shoot to kill. He could make a useful ally against the neutono, but depending how much he needs to feed he could become a problem too.

Before we risk the livelyhood of our friend, I think we should offer one of our juce pouches or Lightgreen's lunch packs. Maybe make a show of it be safe for consuming.

1/6 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/06(Fri)18:35 No. 1100865 ID: 2ca689
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> you've had thoughts of drinking people before

I suppose I can't deny that. I didn't think it was weird so much as threatening. Really, I sort of expect that to come across as threatening. It's supposed to be when I do it, anyway. ...look, I am aware how much of a harmless little fluffy bird I come across as, I have to keep some of these things in mind for the appropriate (and hopefully seldom) contexts.

> substrate spear

No, couldn't have been, but the material didn't match anything I'm familiar with. I'm neither a carpenter nor a smith, though, so this doesn't really say much.

> don't be so quick to harm Lightgreen
> it's Lightgreen's decision
> it's her decision
> haggle blood prices
> noetuno blood

I look to Lightgreen. She looks back at me, trembling. Paralysed in fear. She looks at me the same way every time she thinks I can save her from whatever dire situation we're in. And I've given her reason to think I will try, even if I don't succeed.

I find I can't even bring myself to ask her.

So I'll do what I do better, and start asking questions. Maybe I can prise out some other need we can meet instead. I'm not exactly a skilled merchant, but I've been present at trading negotiations between Lord Vi.al and others before. Let's see if I retained anything...

"This is a strange place to make a home, isn't it? You can't easily get what you want or need out here. Why are you here?"
"My people exiled us here out of fear," he says, antennae crossing over each other, annoyed. He draws his tongue back into his mouth. "Friends, family, others of the tribe, all insisted that we could not stay."

After a pause, his voice is slightly quieter. "We felt it best for all to leave."
I nod. "A noble thing to do. Clearly, you valued the needs of others above your own." I think I might be stealing something I heard Vi.al say word for translated word, but, well, they're not here right now to notice.

He pauses, tilts his head at me, antennae twitching around. "More than you could hope to understand, starthing."
"I do have more things I don't understand, though. You've threatened us, understandably, to deter us, and defend your home. I understand our trespass, and we would not have trespassed here if our need was not great." No. No that's a terrible way of phrasing it, hi, hello, it's okay, we're only invading your home because we really need it please. Ugh. Move on. "But I do want to know why you're familiar with the nature of my kind's blood. How familiar are you with my kind?"

This is a risky gambit. I might anger him again. But I can't help feeling like there's some other issue at play here. And if there's some sort of ecological contamination occurring, I must know more.

He turns dismissively. "More than I care to be, but not particularly. I've heard there was a starthing impaled by a spear a day or two ago. The grass died where it shed blood. Supposedly either some criai or iropte went to the site it happened to learn more secrets of the stars, and learned that starthing blood will eat anything it touches if it doesn't start cold boiling into the air." He tilts his head. "Seems a little strange to me for divine forms from the stars to be so destructive."

He gestures towards Lightgreen. "And to think, shaman, people like you revere these creatures?"

2/6 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/06(Fri)18:35 No. 1100866 ID: 2ca689
File 173353895866.png - (485.90KB , 800x600 , fop2-51.png )

oh no I was the ecological contamination

I didn't even bleed that much! I think! I'm not sure, I was a little bit busy being blinded by rage, pain, and also actual blindness!! Oh that's bad. I didn't even think of the possibility of my injuries affecting more than just me! ...Well, Lightgreen also put herself at risk getting me to safety, so I knew that, but, augh. Argh. I didn't think my blood was that toxic to carbon organics! It normally isn't. Wait. Oh no. I usually deal with slightly engineered variants more resistant to any problems Shapeless biomechanical systems might cause. How much of the life here is resistant? The lepi would be, they were engineered by Lord Ku.su. ...Anything else?

This world is filled with substrate mechanisms starting to fail, and even if that were my sole objective, I don't think we could clean up everything before something bad happened.

"You're shaking again," signs Li.ni.si. "NOT HELPFUL,", I sign back with such vigour that Li.ni.si steps back before I accidentally elbow her in the stomach.

The idea that my presence on this world might be acting as a catalyst for an ecological collapse is so absolutely horrifying and disgusting that I feel like my entire body was just spun around violently and shoved into the ground, where it shouldn't be because I'm going to pollute it! Oh no. Oh no. Oh, I'm touching the dirt with my feet! I'm causing massive devastation with every step I'm taking! I'm--

3/6 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/06(Fri)18:36 No. 1100867 ID: 2ca689
File 173353900020.png - (92.74KB , 800x600 , fop2-52.png )

Lightgreen steps in front of me. "Yes! I do! The starbird Veeseemee has saved my life at least three times over! I have seen the compassion and drive to mend and heal the starbeing whose name I forgot to my side has shown! Both are creatures of virtue and are here to save the lepi from the darkness and dangers of this broken world!!" She raises the bracelet on her arm. "If the works of the starbeings are so dangerous, then why have I not been burned by this artifact, this gift from above?! How dare you speak such awful lies about those who came back to save us from those who left us behind?! Who work to right the wrongs of their ancestors the same as us?!"

The lepi in front of us lowers his wings. "The world doesn't need them. You know what they've done to it."

"And who else is going to put it back together?! The noetuno?! You?! You, with your skulls and your blood-drinking and your hiding from the world in the one place no one would ever, ever think to find you? What do you value, blood-drinker?! You are going to die here, alone, and no one will ever know your name!!"
"Okay let's, uh, let's tone that down, Lightgreen," I say, unsure of how to feel about this sudden outpour of slightly condescending zeal.

The lepi folds his arms, bored. "Bold talk for a little lepi who was cowering behind her saviour a moment ago."
"Because they are my saviour! And I will not have you talking them down! Sure, Veeseemee is... well, Veeseemee, I'm not sure where I was going with that but the point stands!!"
I feel so flattered.
The male lepi rolls his eyes and groans. "Are you going to go away any time soon? I've already guessed you're not going to give me any of your blood."
"Well maybe I will!! We need that globestalk!! How much blood do you need, you selfish bastard?!"

Expecting some sort of violent retaliation, I am surprised by the lepi trying to stop himself from laughing, and failing to do so. "Lights above, you're so much like she used to be, shy meek little thing scared of shadows and then suddenly the brightest fire in the clearing. Okay. I won't drink your blood. It's bad form to feed on your own kind, after all."
"Bad form?! It's the greatest taboo you can break!!"
"We both know that's not true, but let's not air that out in front of your precious starbeings."

He looks at Lightgreen, and sighs. "Alright. You've made this evening a little less dull. Drop the weapon, and yes, I do see it, and I am not stupid, and I will take you to the globestalk."

He turns back to the triangular entryway into what I thought was a seapi hive, but, now that I think about it, I haven't seen any seapi around here that weren't in skeletal pieces.

4/6 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/06(Fri)18:37 No. 1100868 ID: 2ca689
File 173353902832.png - (34.21KB , 800x600 , fop2-53.png )

And then I hear him... say something in a very, very different form of lepi whistles. No, buzzes. More like a strange buzzy version of lepi speak. It's also quiet and hushed. It's supposed to be something we're not able to understand, but my autotranslator starts connecting a lot of structural parallels between it and the semi-decoded seapi buzzing I heard earlier. It's much lower volume than his shouty voice has been so far. I try to feign innocence as I try to isolate what he's saying from all surrounding noise.

"They seem safe. They want to get to the patch. Three, maybe four things. Were five, lost track of their bigger animal. It's a wander, probably made its own way to the patch the long way."
And the voice I hear back is more buzzing, and a lot higher pitched. "What are they giving usz in return?"
"Still thinking of it. The shaman's like you used to be. Big energy, little cocoon."
Weird high pitched staccato buzzes. Laughter? "Sztill a szucker for a pretty facze?"
"Oh shush. How're our guests?"
"They won't leave. They keep waiting for you to come back in."

I make eye contact with the lepi, and he pauses. "...and don't forget to stab the bird one. Over and over and over and over and over. Really go at it. Violently. In the face."
I wince.
His eyes narrow.

"It's usually considered rude to listen in on private conversations," he says in normal lepi tongue.
"He's telling someone else about our group and what we're doing," I say, in polyvoice, to Li.ni.si.
"Well duh!" pipes up Conduit. "He's just saying it out in the open like we can't hear him."
"So both of you understood that weird little buzzing thing he did?" Li.ni.si scratches her head. "How many languages does one world need?"
"Wait. Conduit, I thought you didn't understand seapi."
"That was a seapi?!"
"No, it wasn't, I think but, I, uh, never mind??"

Conduit clings onto Li.ni.si's shoulder as we proceed.

5/6 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/06(Fri)18:37 No. 1100869 ID: 2ca689
File 173353905624.png - (53.80KB , 800x600 , fop2-54.png )

And here we are in some sort of weird hovel made out of what I can only assume is an abandoned seapi hive.

And there are two others here, slumped on some sort of stack of worn lepi silk pillows, a distance apart from each other. Stuffed with what, I do not know, and don't want to guess.

A dark blue creature with triangular ears and red features. One eye purple, one eye cyan. With, what I realise to my alarm, is one of My.a's symbols branded onto their chest. And what's more, I can tell it's not just some sort of tattoo. No, it's substrate. It's a data mark, wafer thin substrate, typically placed on objects and creatures of specific importance to give advice on care procedures, or, sometimes, containment protocols. The ear tag is probably related.

And the other... a seapi? A phenotype different to the ones I'm familiar with. Much paler, with almost white fuzz, coiling antennae, pointier ears and red eyes instead of black. And no wings, oddly enough. She looks at me at first with surprise, then what I can only read as... irritation? Irritation. Like I'm some sort of everyday pest to be dealt with. What a weird reaction for something to have to someone who should be very outside their usual context.

"Oh. Oh! Shapeless creatures!" The dark blue creature perks up at noticing us arrive. He's speaking in what feels like a weirdly distorted variant of the language I heard the noetuno speak. The intonation is all over the place, like he's trying to map it to the lepi tonal language, but very badly. His noetuno-language grasp is better. I tune the autotranslator to that one instead.
"I knew it! I knew one of you guys would show up! Hey, so, are you working for the Knight or for... I don't remember who the other one was. Which one is it? My name's, uh, well it's long haha so I guess call me Ka.ga.ta!"

The name is in polyvoice, or, well, an attempt at it. Something like a trilled monovoice to attempt to replicate the simultaneous harmonies of polyvoice. It's impressive despite its inaccuracies, that's for sure.

The seapi groans. More of a rattling buzzing, but there's no meaningful signal I can make out of it.

"And her name is, uh, Grass? I think?"

I see her take out some sort of substrate device. Okay, I know the world is littered with the broken remains of a planetary infrastructure, but the amount of intact devices in the hands of the natives feels more than a little embarassing. She holds it to her throat and buzzes, as the device squeaks out lepi noises.

"I'm not here to talk. Oh, and kill this guy before you leave, thanks. Clean up your fucking messes."
"Haha she's just kidding around!"
"I will rip your ears clean off of your skull if you don't shut your fucking mouth right now."
"You shouldn't make such threats, I am a unique and rare individual! One of a kind. You couldn't hurt me, you'd be vandalising something precious!"

"Please kill this guy before you leave," says the seapi, her buzzing louder. "I know what that marking on him says, I don't want to touch him. I might get diseases. Or worse."
"The seapi don't really know how to read the words of higher beings, she's making it all up!"

I would like to focus on literally anything other than these two now.

6/6 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/06(Fri)18:38 No. 1100870 ID: 2ca689
File 173353909291.png - (28.14KB , 800x600 , fop2-55.png )

I notice, hiding behind layers of walls that presumably held more function when this hive swarmed with seapi, some other form.
I can't quite work out anything but the head and the long, long up-curving antennae. A dark grey, striped with red. It seems vaguely bug-like, as with the lepi and seapi, but isn't quite a match to either.

"Szo long with no viszitor that waszn't here to chew our throatsz out and now we are blesszed with the arrival of five of you."

They speak in a very harshly buzzed, even squeakier version of lepi tongue than I'm accustomed to.

There's a slight pause. "Take the worm outside. We don't talk to wormsz."
"What worm?" I'm getting dizzy from all the new stimuli.
"On the sztarthing that looksz like a turtle."
I hear Li.ni.si grumble "a turtle?" in polyvoice clicks.
"I'm not a worm!" Conduit struggles to keep grip.
"No wormsz. Out."
"I can't be out there on my own! What if a seapi comes after me?!!"
"They won't. Out."

That's awfully body-plan-discriminating of them.

To think that your blood is so toxic seems like an oversight to me. You are an ecological construct and a little bleeding is enough to destroy the planet? I think I can see why Lord Vi.al is not an engineer.

Also, Lightgreen is in rare form today. If she can be like this more often, I can see her easily becoming one of the leaders of the Lepi tribe in the near future.

Regardless, it seems you have a chance to talk with some interesting folk here. That one marked with Lord My.a's symbol might be of concern, but the Seapi seems to have some bad experiences with constructs. She may know about other constructs, and possibly be able to help you get more information on what you'll be facing in the future. I would suggest you ask what her story is first.

>>1100866
>you bled and polluted the area
Oops. Don't panic, Vi.al can fix it and it won't spread too much before he arrives. Just remember that it can happen and that if you bleed all over the place again you have to clean it immediately. It wouldn't hurt to visit the area again soon to see if it's easier to clean than you're expecting, though.

>>1100869
>please kill this guy
Well we obviously can't do that. We have a peace treaty. But don't go saying that. Just say you really don't want to anger My.a either, and you're not generally in favor of murder in the first place. I'm curious as to why this guy's precious and unique... I'm sure if you asked him you'd get an earful, but I wonder if his manner of speech is what's irritating the seapi.

>>1100870
Tell Conduit they can hide under the dirt or something. Or if they're really that worried then someone can go outside with them to keep them company.

>>1100870
You'd be a terrible adoptive dad if you just dropped your daughter alone outside.

if the guard is still with you I'd like to ask if all these people are part of his tribe as well or if some are merely guest.

also about the whole polluting the world thing... I'm going to be honest there are so many other things on this planet right now that will do much worse than anything you or the substrate structures could do by accident I really don't think adding environmental deserters should add much worry since above it are the complete genocide of multiple races and planetary destruction. Just stick a pin in it and we can try and fix it as solutions become available but it's not like the world is in a worse situation than it already was. If anything it's just another thing we'll have to add to the long list of "shit to fix once we get to it."

as for long nose, (we should probably start asking people for their names, so far the only person we know to call something that isn't their race, job, or physical characteristic is Ka.ga.ta and MAYBE grass) ask if there is a certain reason they don't want conduit here or if they just don't like have children hanging around... what you said it yourself she's basically a vatling so by your species standers she's basically a child.

>>1100869
"Ka.ta.ga" is a total nerrrrrd, but his fanatism would literally kill you if it's not defused whenever My.a ever orders him to. Give his tag a proper look. Can you look up the ID? Does it look like my.a's work, or yours?
A quick band-aid fix: Convince him to accept your brand too. He seems like the type to appreciate such "blessings". If nothing else, imitating the same joke My.a put on him will show her that you can take a joke yourself.

Asking for the actual name of "Grass" goes without saying. She seems to be familiar with your kind, but you should probably inquire into how familiar she is. Is it just nasty rumors, or direct contact? Mere irritation would suggest the former.

It's safe to asssume the locals on this planet have had contact with aliens for quite a while now. Just because the rules disallow it, doesn't mean you should dismiss evidence it's been happening.

>>1100870
Look, we know the baby's been genocidal lately but we can handle her if she acts up. Right, Li.ni.si? She's cut off from her people, anyway.

If they insist, then
1) you're not leaving Conduit alone so Linisi is coming with, and
2) you're not going to be alone with 4 strangers so the guard and someone else has to leave.
So can we have all talk together, talk separately, or not at all?

"We'd at least like to know why our ward has to leave? Surely there's good reasoning?" What an odd bunch of fellows. Well at least they seem to be willing to negotiate. So is blood-drinker a thing from birth or is it a choice?

>Toxic blood
I suspect your blood has been actively trying to absorb materials to heal.

>Ka.ga.ta
Ask to read the sigil and tag to assess what, if anything, is wrong with him. Silently contemplate suggesting he accompany you on your journey.

1/6 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/08(Sun)18:20 No. 1100974 ID: 2ca689
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I feel a sudden displaced bump to my head as my flocklet bonks against the wall outside trying to enter the abandoned hive. Well, it's safer to say I feel a muted bump somewhere, but it usually feels closest like a bump to my head, I guess. To my other head, that's floating around. Look, it's hard to explain.
I know for a fact I'd forget my head if it wasn't attached to my shoulders, with how often I keep forgetting where I left my flocklet.

> Lightgreen in rare form
I'm still a little surprised, I've seen flickers of this passion from her before but usually not so brazenly expressed. It's still really strange to know she has such faith in me despite apparently being fully aware of my flaws. ...heartwarming, even.

> polluting the world is not a priority right now
I know but it hurts me on a fundamental level that this could even be the case.
> Lord Vi.al not much of an engineer
Lord Vi.al surely must have considered this a possibility! It seems unlike them to overlook something so fundamental to my composition and my purpose. I know Lord Vi.al can frequently lose track of small details, but when it comes to planning, such a glaring contradiction... I have fire-suppressing foam systems to compensate for the flammability of my feathers, I have redundant seed capsule production systems, I could lose my entire body save my head and survive in a recovery coma for [two months], substrate is woven through my body in an intricate fractal to facilitate transmission more readily than most other constructs I've met AND act as a quick dispersal for directed energy bursts, I refuse to believe this wasn't considered.

Yeah, my body's not perfect, no one's is, but it's also engineered. I wasn't just thrown together in a slapdash manner. Mostly. I think.

> you'd be a terrible adoptive dad if you just dropped your daughter alone outside
> ask why your ward has to leave
> we can handle the baby if she starts acting genocidal again
I'm not really her adoptive parent though, right? I mean, sure, she doesn't strike me as that old, but more young adult (or close) than outright child...

"I'm not letting a vulnerable young construct out of my sight. Not without a better reason than 'no worms'. She's practically a defenseless vatling."
I am met with confused looks.
"Vatling means child for my kind."
"You put your children in jars?"
"Yeah! All kids go in jars," says Ka.ga.ta.
"Something like that," says Li.ni.si, vaguely.
"We just use paper cells."

As I recall, we're really, really discouraged from going into detail about construct production methods around non-Shapeless. It’s not an outright ban, but it’s probably better for us all the fewer fine details alien sapients are aware of.
I mean, this applies to effectively all Shapeless technology. It’s part of the reason everyone loves us so much. I mostly don’t have to worry about it because half the time I don’t know enough to be much of a problem. And even if I did, what am I going to say? "Use your innate control over substrate based on complex signalling I don’t have conscious awareness of to make it do the thing you need to do?" Should I ask them how they make their own cells metabolise while I'm at it?

The long-snouted sculker speaks. "The Great Eater hasz many children that szcurry around, eating wallsz and learning szecretsz, returning to their wretched mother to be devoured once more."
"Huh. This isn't one of those wormlings. This has little purple bits sticking out of it."
"It doesz? I can't szee szo well from back here."

"I'm not a child!!"
Conduit wriggles around and Li.ni.si scoops her up into her arms.
"You really do look like a Zi.en vatling. Su.ki.fu showed me pictures of her vatling form once, but you're not quite as goopy as she was," says Li.ni.si.
"I'm not a child though!! Just because I don't know how physical space works all that well or because I've lost half the complexities and capacities I..."

2/6 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/08(Sun)18:20 No. 1100975 ID: 2ca689
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Conduit trails off.

"Oh no."
"What is it?" I look back to her, as Li.ni.si adjusts her arms a little to carry Conduit better.
"Reduced physical capacity, reduced mental capacity, I feel hungry even when I eat, and I keep feeling sleepy..."

Conduit's eyes start to water as I practically feel the metaphorical gears turn in her head.

"But I don't want to be baby. I had a life before this! I was involved in politics! I wasn't good at it at all but I was!!"
"Well, you're alive at least," says Li.ni.si, gently cradling and rocking Conduit as she starts trembling. "Practically none of us get a chance to start over like this."

Conduit bursts into tears, but it's less the screaming wails of a vatling and more like how she was at her limit in her dying immaterial world.
Li.ni.si rocks her gently still, and hums an old Lo.kan melody I've come across before in their data streams. Something calm and soothing and repetitive to help upset vatlings feel better. The thing that strikes me about it is how modal it feels. Like a switch just flicked in Li.ni.si's head. Maybe it's just part of the training of a mechic, but something about it feels like it came from experience.

I will not pry. I've known her for maybe the best part of a single day.

I also think Conduit would feel highly insulted if she knew she was hearing a lullaby for the youngest of vatlings, but it does seem to be calming her down.

3/6 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/08(Sun)18:21 No. 1100977 ID: 2ca689
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"Alright." I adjust my feathers a little. "So, thank you for making the child cry." I so nearly said 'my' child. Blegh. I don't want to think about that one.
The sculking creature looks a little taken aback by this.
"...That waszn't my intent, uh, at all, to be honeszt, I juszt want to keep my home szafe."

"I think you need to put it back in the jar. It looks like it's not done yet."
"Thank you for your stellar mentoring advice," I say, because I'm having a hard time holding back my snippy comments. "Globestalk."
"Amber isz making szure a beaszt hasn't wandered into the patch. He'll be back szoon."
"Amber is?"

The orange-eyed snout lurker looks at me with some confusion. "You juszt met him. ...Did he not tell you hisz name again?"
"No. I don't know your name either."
"I'm juszt here to keep an eye on thingsz. Don't worry about me."
"Her name's Sangaree!" says Ka.ga.ta. "She's really pretty!"
"...yesz, my name is that," says Sangaree with irritation I can feel through the obfuscating layers of buzzed lepi-tongue.
"If you don't mind me asking, forgive the rudeness, but what kind of creature are you?"

I see her look around, shuffling uncomfortably.

"I wasz born lepi, if that meansz anything to you."
"Oh? Can you go into more detail? I'm noticing some phenotypical divergences I haven't come across before."
"I don't want to talk about it. Aszk Amber about it."

After a pause, I hear a drawn out buzzing sigh. "...yesz, I know I do not look lepi anymore."
"I'm sorry to keep asking, but one more quick question. Did, uh, did one of my kind have anything to do with what happened?"
"No."
"I see." I stop myself from reflexively asking if I can do anything to help. Probably, I can. But I can't keep getting sidetracked.

4/6 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/08(Sun)18:21 No. 1100979 ID: 2ca689
File 173371090625.png - (33.51KB , 800x600 , fop2-59.png )

"What's your story, then, Grass?"
"Fuck off."

Well that was quick.

5/6 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/08(Sun)18:22 No. 1100980 ID: 2ca689
File 173371093158.png - (52.57KB , 800x600 , fop2-60.png )

"And as for you," I say, walking to Ka.ga.ta. He stands up as I approach.

"Ka.ga.ta--"
"You already introduced yourself."
"--.ni.ze.ri.lo.ne.ga.ta, at your service, Vi.alic!"
"I need to read the symbol on your chest. This will require me to touch it. Permission to do so?"

He gives me such a sleazy smile I feel like I have revoked permission from myself to go anywhere near him, but, well, needs must.

"Sure thing, anything for a pretty lady!"
"I'm not-- never mind. Let's see." Let's get this over with as fast as I can manage, with the least surface contact necessary.

The symbol is a warning glyph. Redundantly repeated numerous times, as tends to be the case with substrate data storage.

BLOT PHENOMENON DESIGNATION KA.GA.TA.NI.ZE.RI.LO.NE.GA.TA - WARNING: LIVE BLOT ORGANISM - DO NOT REMOVE FROM CONTAINMENT - DO NOT ALLOW CONTACT WITH ORGANISMS WITH DISPLACEMENT INDEX OF 3 OR LOWER - REPRODUCTIVE RISK, RISK OF GENETIC CONTAMINATION (KNOWN BLOTLING PHENOMENON), KEEP AWAY FROM POTENTIAL COMPATIBLE FEMALES - IF FOUND OUTSIDE PIT FACILITY RETURN URGENTLY ACTUALLY DON'T DO THAT I'M NOT LETTING HIM BACK IN ANYMORE - IF UNABLE TO PREVENT INTERACTION WITH LOCAL FAUNA USE STANDARD BLOT-DERIVED MATERIAL DESTRUCTION METHODS - KNOWN EFFECTIVE METHODS: THERMONUCLEAR DETONATION, SUBSTRATE ASSIMILATION, CLASS-APEX NEAR-UNIVERSAL SOLVENTS (SECURE MATERIAL TO BE DESTROYED BEFORE USE)

...okay so this reads as a weird mixture of standard templates and My.a's comments. It goes on like this and there's a long meandering bunch of research notes scattered haphazardly between the repetitions. I don't have time to read all of it, especially as the longer I stay in physical contact with this thing the more uncomfortable I feel.

Wow, if only I had some sort of data-storing object to transfer it to. Oh well.

Some highlights, then. Skimming over My.a's research notes, I get the impression that Ka.ga.ta himself wasn't really a test subject as much as a byproduct of testing something else. There's some musings on setting up a population of blotlings on a different world to see how tangled up their genes would get after a few generations, lots and lots of incidents of this guy injuring himself in statistically unlikely ways, and then culminating in My.a declaring him a living bad luck attractor and throwing him out of the facility. Something about the focus of research shifting to making sure Ka.ge.ta never, ever finds his way back into the facility.

"Alright, thanks for that." I touched him. He's a blotling, an apparently contagious bad luck attractor, and some sort of reproductive nightmare. That's three reasons I need to amputate this wingarm as soon as I get the chance. I hope the warning just meant inexplicable cross-fertility and not that I'm going to explode into mini-blotlings.
"No problem! So, what did it say? Grass said it says I'm a hazard but I mean, I'm a one of a kind creation of the Shapeless Lords, truly I'm destined for greater things!"
"You're, uh, keep, keep doing what you're doing," I say, in a slight daze.

6/6 Vi.si.mi 2024/12/08(Sun)18:23 No. 1100981 ID: 2ca689
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"Oh right now I'm here to make sure all globestalk is eradicated before it poses a threat to the criai. Glass-Fold-Nine-Circles sent me. I'm working for him while I figure out my true grand purpose. He's like the only guy who doesn't seem to think I should be killed on sight for some reason?"
"What."
"Yeah! It's super toxic to criai! He's worried it's going to cause problems if any enemies find this out and turn it into a weapon."
"Did he tell you not to spread that information around?"
"Uh... I don't remember?"

Well that's extremely unfortunate news.

I see Sangaree approach from behind the walls.

"We won't let you do that. The patch isz preciousz to usz."
"Well I'm not here to start digging up your garden, haha! I'm here to grab some to take back so he can investigate further."

He looks at Sangaree's more fully visible, highly pregnant body, and I suddenly connect a few dots regarding Amber's defensiveness and Sangaree trying to keep herself out of harm's way.

"Wow! How much blood did you guys drink?"
Sangaree gives a long buzzing sigh again. "I hope you're the worszt thing that happensz to me tonight."

"Oh, congratulations!" I blurt out. Why.
Li.ni.si raises a brow. Lightgreen looks at me bewildered.
"...isn't that what organics tend to say when they're acknowledging a reproductive cycle in progress?" Why did I say anything. Why did I say anything.
"And behold, there isz room for the earth to crumble, and for usz all to tumble further down into the depthsz of pain far from the Light, curszed we all asz creaturesz of pureszt worszt wordsz and baffling choicze torment usz all with their horrendousz waysz."
Uh uh uh subject change. "Oh right! Introductions from earlier! I forgot!" I bow, hurriedly. "My name is Vi.si.mi, I am an ecology construct created for the Shapeless Lord Vi.al, long shall it reign! This is Li.ni.si, a, uh, health and repairs construct created for the Shapeless Lord Lo.ka, this is the shaman Lightgreen Mint of Golden Bough, oh right also this is Conduit, an, uh, emergent construct created indirectly for the Shapeless Lord Vi.al, this is my flocklet, which is my other me--"
"I really don't care, I juszt want you all to go away asz szoon asz you get your globesztalk."

"Does that include--"
"No it doesz not. You're fine."
"Grand."

"Will Amber be gone much longer? I'm just as eager to get travelling back myself," I say, after too awkward a silence.
"If you're that worried you can go out thisz way and szee for yourszelf," I get back, Sangaree's patience clearly wearing thinner and thinner as she vaguely gestures to some other passage in this abandoned hive.

>>1100981
>Vi.al didn't make a mistake with your blood
Either it's a tradeoff-- as in, it behaves that way because it normally does something extremely beneficial inside your body-- or "pollution" is a misinterpretation of what it's actually doing, or trying to do. What if it's trying to restore the planet to its original state? We know the planet has been altered in various ways.

>reproductive danger
>pregnant woman, used to look more like a lepi
UH. Ask her if she ever touched the walking biohazard. If not, warn her never to do so, and in fact she should keep a considerable distance from him. Also consider removing the finger you touched him with if you can do so without bleeding all over the place. Even if there's some possibility of your blood being able to kill him. ...why didn't My.a kill him? Weird.
Huh, Grass knows the gist of what the marker means? Apologize that you don't have a way to kill him safely at the moment, even if it's not really your mess. If he gets smug about it tell him you're sure you could still horribly injure him. If he makes any move towards anyone then shooting him is a good idea. Wait shit we don't have any weapons now do we. Well if he makes any move retreat to retrieve your weapons from outside so you can zap him.
Wait, CAN you kill him? Do you have access to any of the listed methods?

>Amber is making sure a beast didn't wander into the patch
Uh, tell her you're worried about Amber possibly spearing your missing beast-like companion.

Look, I'm not saying Lord Vi.al is a poor engineer, but when you consider that constructs can have their blood evaporate instead of remaining in the soil for aeons to pollute and destroy the environment, it doesn't make much sense to not choose evaporation option for your ecological construct.

I will say it is amusing to see Conduit be upset at this new youth when many organics seek the elixir of youth for generations for a chance to be young again. Quite a contrast!

Also, congratulations on parenthood, Vi.si.mi!

Grass doesn't waste our time at least.

Ka.ga.ta seems to be a total grease ball. Absolutely should be placed under containment though.

Well, you got your work cut out for you. Ka.ga.ta could cause damage to the genetics of future organics on this world, but killing him will not be easy, and he may prove useful still, especially if you can learn more about what Lord My.a was doing. Sangaree is experiencing the biological stresses of pregnancy, and her health may be at risk as a result. She definitely responds to Conduit as if they were a child though, so she may trust Li.ni.si (as the apparent care-giver) more than you, for any further diplomatic discussion. The Globestalk may be needed by the Lepi, but if they decide to use it instead as a chemical weapon on the Cirai, which would undoubtedly make the Lepi a huge threat to the other factions, so you'd need an assurance that the Lepi won't use this in such a way unless absolutely necessary.

... And I just uploaded that picture of Amber and had no name for him. Now I get it less than an hour later. God damn it.

OK first off, there are a lot of things to worry about, making you miss some VERY IMPORTANT SALIENT FACTS about the current situation. Worry later. Observe now.

1. Seapi, not violent, not mindless, not attacking, able to speak. Wasn't that (according to the lepi) supposed to be impossible?
2. Amber (the spear wielding lepi you met?) was exiled. What they did might give you insight on how to reunite the lepi. Will part with information in exchange for food. Bring food, these organisms sorely need it.
3. Globestalk is toxic to the criai. Ka.ga.ta. is here to destroy it before it can be weaponized by their enemies. You should try weaponizing it.
3. LIVE BLOT ORGANISM REPRODUCTIVE RISK. KEEP AWAY FROM POTENTIAL COMPATIBLE FEMALES. Pregnant female lepi, who has grown into a very abnormal body shape for some reason. Aww, they're a couple! He's gonna be a daddy! I wonder when the baby's due?

Oh, and in regards to the weaponizing globestalk thing, don't bring up the subject again. Just get it from Amber before the blotling can destroy it. ...if Ka.ga.ta attracts bad luck, I wonder if the globestalk is already in danger just from him being near it? That's a second reason to get there sooner rather than later.

>>1100979
Her voice says "Fuck off", the smirk say "you're hilarious". You've made an impression on her, at least.

>>1100981
>bad luck attractor
>working for Glass-Fold-Nine-Circles
>thing you're looking for is weapon against criai
Too late to cut off that arm, or kill him, he's already a walking diplomatic incident right now. This is kind of the exact opposite of the non-aggression pact you want from his employer. Ask him about his other jobs to confirm, and be thankful he hasn't clocked your designation yet. In fact, let's all agree we didn't hear that last part.

>"If you're that worried you can go out thisz way and szee for yourszelf," I get back, Sangaree's patience clearly wearing thinner and thinner as she vaguely gestures to some other passage in this abandoned hive.
You know you can send your flocklet to do that, right?

Disillusioned from faith she had, an offer to protect her family, whoever she decides is in it, can go a long way. Lightgreen can vouch for you, and hash out the details for her.

Oh, instead of planning his death, maybe we should make sure he lives. Because, if he causes bad luck for everyone in the vicinity, then the more time he spends "helping" our enemies the better. Though I suppose if the enemy knows this they might make sure he's always out on missions, far away from their base, so the bad luck doesn't affect them directly...

So the outcast lepi are having kids. Guess it makes sense that outcasts would join up. Great Eater huh? Details please. Oh, do tell Glass Globestalk heals lepi or he may think we're making bioweapons.

hmm let's see what we're dealing with

Amber seems mostly natural towards your group but does seem to like or at least enjoy the presents of light green.

Ka.ga.ta.ni.ze.ri.lo.ne.ga.ta seems pretty laid back, a bit air headed, and will try to sleep with anything with a pair of legs. While he doesn't seem to hate you or your group he also probably doesn't really care about any of you either unless someone decides to sleep with him. Though since it seems My.a is actively avoiding him (or at least pretending he doesn't exist) you might be able to use him to distract her down the line by telling him where one of My.a's bases are (you already know were Va.ne.tu's base is so if you pointed him that way Va will probably kick the problem up to My.a). Could let you distract My.a down the line once the truce is over.

Grass is probably one of the nicest locals we've met since we've crashed here... I'm not joking. She hasn't tried to kill you, attack you, threaten you, chase you off, blame you for the state the world is in, or simply judge you poorly based off what you are, just a general hate towards the world in general an not directed solely at you. best respect her wishes and leave her alone unless she approaches your party first.

Sangaree seems to be in charge? maybe? at the very least all the people in this room seem to follow her word so even if she isn't the leader she seems to be someone with influence. Also seems to be very annoyed at you and your group and has image issues with her body so probably best stop bring up how odd she looks as it seems to be upsetting her. and she did say if you want to learn more about how this group of lepi has changed from baseline lepi to go ask amber so yeah, I say drop any question about their mutations while she is around.

Though... I guess ask why they have been turning away the lepi that came by earlier trying to gather the globestalk for light green's tribe. Sangaree's tribe seem to have a good idea how important it is to the lepi and seem to be alright with us gathering some to help out the tribe. If they didn't have a problem with light green's tribe to begin with why did they turn them away?

You could excuse yourself and poke around a bit more, that seems like a good plan to relieve tension (at least until you walk into the next problem).

You're engineered to be a well-thought-out lifeform tailored to Vi.al's creations, but this world is way out of spec. You have to accept there will be unexpected interactions, and that maybe it's not such a bad thing that a random stranger doesn't want to drink your blood.