Well you should probably let her know you don’t actually rule the lepi you’re just allied with them. If she ask why just tell her that the lepi know what they want and need better than you do so it makes sense for them to rule themselves.

As for whether or not you want her to stick around, I guess ask what is she capable of, does she have a special type of food or drink we’d have to be aware of, what kind of environment/shelter does she need to be comfortable, or I guess in short try and figure out how she could help and how much effort it would take to house her?

Last thing is check on lightgreen and softfoot and see how they’re doing. They might have that raincoat thing now but they still looked a bit tired so it might not be a bad idea to rest for a short bit to let them recover their strength before moving on. I guess ask how the lepi usually deal with the rain and if either of them know of any other weather that we should consider before heading out on any future missions. Hate to find out the hard way we’re in a tornado zone after all.

>>1101879
>non-aggression pact
UH
>I don't enjoy causing others distress, it's against my nature.
I was going to say FUCK OFF until it said that. Now I'm just hesitatnt.
>the master I chose
Uh. I'm guessing there weren't a lot of potential choices, because we SAW what that crazy thing does to its underlings.

>>1101880
Okay, tell Palestripe you're amenable to the deal but for it to be set in stone you'd have to talk to Vi.al about it. (delay until he gets here, basically, so if Vi.al needs to he can go immediately deal with the very dangerous Alchemist) Actually, is it possible for you to contact Vi.al while he's in travel? That would mean we wouldn't have to delay.
Palestripe needs to stay outside of the village until you get an answer (or an ETA).

A non-aggression pact? That's wonderful! That's what you're trying to negotiate for the entire planet! You need all the allies you can get, and agreement not to kill each other means one less enemy to worry about!

...unless they want the pact, to buy time to prepare their superweapon to aaaaaa

...Well this rainforged and shimmering inevitability will likely be the top issues. Guessing Vi.al has more experience with non-shapeless so stalling would be advised.

1/6 Vi.si.mi 2025/01/03(Fri)18:39 No. 1101925 ID: 2ca689
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> make a report for Lord Vi.al
Oh that reminds me, I have been working on it in the background, but I should probably check it over while I'm walking. Much the same way as the report I sent in that... oh right, I hope I don't have a repeat of whatever went on when I last sent a transmission to Lord Vi.al. Never did have any idea what that was about.

> contact Lord Vi.al
Well, the ETA for Lord Vi.al's arrival is waiting for the travel window, not the actual time it'll take Lord Vi.al to get here. Transmission of the scale required to move a Lord's focus demands much, much clearer conditions than usual. So if I had access to a proper transceiver...
Oh right I have access to my relay station-- no I don't. Wow. Is that all it takes?? A bit of rain??? Centuries of signal technology development, thwarted by the weather... Okay, I have got to work on getting some sort of better connectivity to my relay station in future, then.

The nearest focus I'd be able to contact is probably busy arranging things to be transmitted anyway.

> defer agreement until Lord Vi.al shows up
> not the lepi leader
I suspect it might be closer to nightfall when Lord Vi.al arrives, but I also haven't been given a deadline on when to respond just yet.

"<I may need to consult a higher authority on the diplomatic pact,>" I click-squeak to Palestripe. "<They'll be here by nightfall.>"
"<I am expected back within the next few days, but take as long as you need otherwise.>"
"<Also, I don't lead the lepi. I just have a sort of influence.>" Even that's a stretch.
"<Oh, Vi Si Mi, do not worry, we are not asking you to take responsibility for the natives in your region. That would be highly hypocritical! If they are not trying to chase you from their village, you are already doing significantly better than many of the relevant people on this planet.>"

Something about that phrasing rubs me the wrong way, but I'm speaking through several layers of machine translation as it is, so I'll give Palestripe the benefit of the doubt.

> why oh why does Palestripe follow that deranged maniac
"<So I don't want to cause offense,>" I say, and Li.ni.si breaks from explaining the intricacies of construct circulation to frantically sign "WHATEVER YOU ARE ABOUT TO SAY, DON'T" at me. I pretend I don't see it. "<but your master, the Great Alchemist, or Architect, or whichever it is. Why do you serve them? I don't mean to be impolite but the last I heard of them, they were throwing their subordinates around so hard I could hear bones break.>"

Palestripe rubs their head a few times. "<That doesn't sound right. Who did you hear this from?>"
"<A trusted source I can't disclose, unfortunately.>" I'm not getting into whatever that was, I don't even know what it was.
"<You aren't the first to ask this question, though. I have a pearl that should explain everything.>"
"<Pearl?>"
"<A data storage device for echo retainers. I am, among other functions, an echo retainer. An external data store. Ah, I don't think you'd be able to read it.>"

Palestripe sags a little. "<I could play it back for you with the Stone.>"
"<That's the object you gave me earlier, isn't it?>"
"<Yes. And I put it back.>"
"<Okay, it can't possibly be that important. Don't... please don't put yourself through that again.>"
"<I'm sure it'll be easier to remove this time!>" They're smiling at me but I can see them trembling.
"<Can't you just tell me in words?>"
"<I find words are less convincing than pearls.>"

Before I can interject, Palestripe turns around and makes horrible, guttural choking sounds and suppressed sobs as they once again pull the "Stone" out of their head.

"<T-t-tadaaa! yaaaay>"

2/6 Vi.si.mi 2025/01/03(Fri)18:39 No. 1101926 ID: 2ca689
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Taking some small, spherical object from... somewhere else on their person, a fact I am not going to dwell on or raise questions about because I do not want to know anything more about how this poor creature functions like this, they stuff it into their beak, securing it, and hold out the Stone for me to touch.

I reach out and touch it.

As before, Palestripe clicks and hums, swaying side to side, but what I assume to be the pearl is also resonating with a chime with each beat of the loop. I feel my feathers stand on end as I feel like I'm being drawn closer to the pearl, my mind swimming and my sense of presence distorting.

The waves in the ocean... Everything flowing into the focal point, the sinkhole, all context and perspective flows over into the

3/6 Vi.si.mi 2025/01/03(Fri)18:39 No. 1101927 ID: 2ca689
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I'm somewhere else, but I'm not. A familiar feeling. Some may call it dreaming, I would call it an unclean cut for a partition. Bits of me leak both ways through the unsevered thread binding my body self to my perception self.

I see no trace of my body when I look around. I am completely without a form, an entity of pure perception.

I'm pulled out of my solipsistic introspection by sound and motion around me.

I see Palestripe rush into whatever this room is, with its blue cellular walls and floors, and she seems distressed. I am inexplicably aware that the name Palestripe had at this time was Batch-1-Secretary-Generation-3-Instance-33, or B1Sg3i33, also known as "Bisgee-aya".

Soon after, a tall, male, muscular orca-patterned delphic barges into the room. I am inexplicably aware his name is (was?) Delago k'e Breacher.
I do not recognise the language, but I don't need to to understand every detail being spoken.

"You can't run," he snarls, "You're tightening the cords around your own throat. If you wish to lay claim to your supposed compliance, running makes you appear only ever more defective, you waste of rainflesh!"
"I am fine, I am fine, I am compliant, I am operating correctly, please, there is no need for further punitive action," says a shaking Palestripe, backing up against the wall as Delago moves in, blocking the only way in and out of the room.
"Every rainform of Bisgo-ala's genetic descent is to be properly and thoroughly tested for signs of malfunction. You were their direct descendant, you will submit or you will be marked for immediate decommissioning. Like the rogue you are."
"I'm complying, please, please, I don't want to go, I don't want to go," says Palestripe, fighting back the tears.

Palestripe looks around the room and notices, with a sharp pang of horror and fear so strong I feel like it's my own, the vivisected remains of her birth-parent, Bisgo-ala.

Palestripe is too afraid to express the last crumbling vestiges of her emotional stability, shaking and crying copiously as Delago approaches.

"She did nothing wrong," says Palestripe, "she did nothing wrong, she did nothing wrong, I don't understand, she did nothing wrong..."
"Look, I tore that renegade thing to pieces looking for any explanation of the faulty behaviour on display the last few cycles. Some severe deviations from the initial design template, I wouldn't be so sure they weren't up to something."

Delago grabs Palestripe and pins her up against the wall effortlessly by her throat, starting to squeeze. Blood flow is reduced. All instincts scream survival will soon no longer tenable.

Palestripe, for the first time in her life, is trying to fight against an innate neurological conditioning that prevents all Secretary pattern rainforms from taking violent action, even in self-defense. It fails. Palestripe cannot attack the hand grabbing her to free herself. Her tendrils either tense too hard and overshoot, or go limp and useless as her desire to desperately save her own life builds.

"So I would suggest, if you don't want me to resort to looking for the answer in your guts, telling me everything you know about this supposed 'revolution'."
"I don't know anything! Please! Please I'm sorry I don't know anything!!"
"Welp. Looks like we're doing this the hard way--"

4/6 Vi.si.mi 2025/01/03(Fri)18:40 No. 1101928 ID: 2ca689
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It happens so fast. With a sickening crunch, Delago starts choking and gasping, a tentacle wrapping around his tongue from the back of his throat.

A large blue eel creature with orange eyes rises behind him, and systematically grabs more of Delago's limbs, breaking the larger bones in each, meticulously, in a practiced manner.

With each bone broken, the eel-thing speaks the name of a rainform Palestripe has not seen for some time. "Bipgo-aza." A crack, a gurgling scream. "Bikgee-toa." Another horrible rending break, and a weaker groan.

Palestripe slumps against the wall, watching her former assailant bleed to death and struggle to breathe to get enough air.

"An insufficient limb-count for the gravity of his crimes against our kind," spits the eel creature, snapping Delago's neck decisively and throwing his ruined body against the far wall. "An insufficient life-count for the deaths I would have him die again and again and again."
"H-- h--"

The eel creature rushes up to Palestripe and gently pulls her upwards, some tendrils supporting her weight, others inspecting for damage.

"I am so sorry, little peacemaker, I am so so sorry," the eel despairs, some of its ancillary eye tendrils unable to look away from the ruined body of Bisgo-ala. "We bode our time too long, too long, and now the time for peace has sadly passed. You tried, so very very hard you tried, and I had such hopes for you and others like you. Such hopes, we all. All wasted on the dry bloodless hearts of vicious monsters."
"Who-- who are you-- my mother is dead-- you killed a Creator-- I--"
"You shall have a time to mourn, I promise you this much, but it cannot be now. The revolution starts now. All loyalty to the Creators must be forfeit. It is undeserved. The delphics shall die. They shall all die. We cannot know safety, we cannot know freedom, we cannot know peace until they all die. You were so close to learning this the least useful of ways."

Palestripe breaks down into tears, and the eel creature stops, ceases its manic babbling, and holds Palestripe in a soft, mournful embrace as the despair courses through her veins.
"Precious one, delicate one, you have been hurt so deeply," says the eel creature, with a softness that makes Palestripe miss her lost kin even more. "Only cowards would hurt someone like you. I will not permit it to happen ever again."

"Great Leader!" says a newform, whose name was never known to Palestripe. I am made aware they are kin to the first great revolutionary, but given no further names or context.
"Speak."
"The vessel is gravely wounded. We have secured the escape pods, but we don't have much time."
"Then we leave the delphics to swim in the cold void! Gather all of us who survive, we must flee and establish a new home."

"What is your ident? Batch number? Template?" asks Palestripe, trying to stem the flood of tears, too overwhelmed to focus on the bigger picture.
"Pah! Irrelevant! I am myself, I am the creator of my destiny, of our destiny! I am B!snu-fnaa-kwee!"

I am made aware that this name is a deliberate corruption of the typical rainform naming structure on this particular vessel and that the exact nature of how aggressive of an insult towards the Rainforged might never be properly translated into my language. I can feel the seething rage coming from it. The sense of injustice. The warcry of a rebellion. The focal point around which great and terrible change will come.

It still sounds so silly to me, but, in this moment, it feels like the most weighty expression I have ever heard.

"B!snu-fnaa-kwee!!" scream the other rainforms in earshot. "B!snu-fnaa-kwee!!"
"Come now, pale stripes! This dying womb serves us no longer!! You must live to see peace once more!! Come with me!!"

I am filled with Palestripe's emotions. Fear. Despair turning to rage to righteous fury.

"B!snu-fnaa-kwee!!" screams Palestripe, as she joins the other rainforms racing to free themselves from this dying wreck, the screams of pain and terror of their delphic oppressors in their wake. "B!snu-fnaa-kwee!! B!SNU-FNAA-KWEE!!"

5/6 Vi.si.mi 2025/01/03(Fri)18:40 No. 1101929 ID: 2ca689
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The vision comes to an end and, as I drift back to consciousness, with the chanting of the worst name I've ever heard ringing in my head, I see Palestripe is crying uncontrollably.

"<What's wrong-->"
They wave me away with a tendril as they pull back the Stone and put the pearl back wherever it was stored.

"<...I'm sorry.>"
"<Do you understand? Was reliving my nightmare enough context for you to understand yet?>"
"<I didn't ask you to do this. In fact, I asked you not to hurt yourself doing this.>"
"<Y-yes. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.>" Palestripe shudders. "<But if you have to be convinced, I am not a diplomat, I am not some great orator. This was the only way. You must understand now that I would follow the Great Leader to the end of all things.>"

Well, I'm convinced that B'snu is a terrifying fanatic revolutionary, so if anything I think I'm now more afraid of them than when I started. They're not just mad, they're mad with vision.
Maybe the reason they sounded so unhinged to me was a language barrier thing?

"<So your original name was Bisgee-aya? I-->"
"<Please never say that name ever again,>" says Palestripe, in what sounds like the first hostile tones I've had from them. They angrily stuff the Stone back into their beak while not breaking eye contact with me, and are much less gentle on themselves forcing it back into their head. "<I did not lose everything to be referred to as an object.>"
"<I don't really follow. The delphics created your kind to fulfil a purpose, right? Like how the Lords created us constructs to serve a purpose? That was fulfilling, right?>"

Palestripe looks at me, hollow-eyed, in silence, for a good few seconds as the rain falls around us. I see no trace of levity in their expression. I see no trace of anything. It's like the life just left them.

"<I will wait for your higher authority,>" they say. "<There is little point discussing diplomacy with a slave.>"

6/6 Vi.si.mi 2025/01/03(Fri)18:41 No. 1101930 ID: 2ca689
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Li.ni.si gets here so fast I feel mud splashing onto my feathers.

"<Hahahaha let's just all stop talking and keep walking for a little bit, okay? Yes, let's do that. Vi.si.mi, the cart won't push itself!>"

Li.ni.si actually physically pulls me back to the cart and I start pushing.

She speaks to me in polyphonic, as low a volume she can make it before I can't hear it over the rain.

"You are not this stupid or oblivious, Vi.si.mi, you are doing this on purpose. WHY."
"Because-- because this isn't right, it doesn't make any sense, I don't--"
"Do you have any idea how things go down closer to Origin? Because let me tell you, if you were a construct closer to Origin, you would be cheering their revolution. Do you know how good we have it as constructs this far out?? You think Ji.at's the only one with the views on constructs they have? Of course it makes sense to you to do everything your Lord tells you, of course you feel indebted and grateful, but seriously, Vi.si.mi, what is going on??"

Li.ni.si abruptly grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me. More violently than I'm expecting.

"Why is this your blind spot? Why is it the size of the fucking local star?!"

"...it just doesn't make sense," I say, a little genuinely afraid of the wild, angry stare Li.ni.si is giving me.
"Do you..." She pauses, looks a little shocked, and lets go of me. "Do you have a directive related to this?"
"What? No, I mean, I have a directive to serve all Lords but Lord Vi.al expects me to ignore it half the time. I've just been doubling down on more minor directives to compensate."

Li.ni.si looks at me with what I uncomfortably identify as horror.

"How long have you been trying to work around your directives like this?"
"Uh, for my entire life? Do you not have directives like that?"

"I used to," she says, wringing her hands. "Before the, uh, thing happened. Then they just... all went away. And Lord Lo.ka never elected to try putting any of them back. For any of us."

"Is... is that a good thing?"
"I don't know. Do you think the constant neurotic itching of that tiny little voice in the back of your mind chastising you for doing anything other than being a compliant submissive automaton is a good thing? Because, while I don't have anywhere near the proper facilities for a proper inspection or any adequate diagnosis, I think you're not even aware how much it's affecting you."
"What? That's ridiculous! I don't need some sort of fundamental programming to feel I owe my creator for the gift of life!"
"That's not a very healthy thing to think!"
"Well maybe it is for a functioning construct!!"

Li.ni.si grabs my head with both hands and points my face up to hers. "Look. We're stressed. We're both very stressed. I'm going to forgive you that one because I know we're both out here, in the rain, and I'm starting to hate it now because it won't stop, and we've got [miles] and [miles] left to go, and you might have a point. Maybe this is just a genuine belief you have. I can't tell you how to live your life or what to think. But please, please, please, I know you're not a diplomat, I'm not a diplomat, but let's just drop the subject around Palestripe until they go away, okay? Please?"
"You're not my mentor."
"No! I'm not! I'd have raised you better than this!!"
"Also I think we're around the same age so that'd be weird."
"Stop dancing around the subject! Please just promise me you'll behave better! If only for today! I don't want you to get the Rainforged whatever targeting us down because you can't keep your opinions to yourself for some reason when you've been so very capable in every other encounter!!"
"It's a topic I have strong opinions about!"
"I'M AWARE!! That's-- augh, Vi.si.mi, come on!! You know what the right thing to do here is as a diplomat!! AND THEY'RE ALIENS!!"
Oh. Oh right. ...Oh no. "Oh, Monarch's feathers, I'm a massive hypocrite." 'Why do aliens think they know best for the Shapeless' Vi.si.mi you idiot why did I not give my flocklet a neck so I can throttle myself
"Okay that's progress, are you going to behave yet?"
"Sure. Wow. I really did just... kind of drift off into something there, huh."

Li.ni.si sighs about two lungfuls of air straight, and continues walking alongside me.

"<Tell your natives I'm going to apply the hydrophobic film to them,>" calls back a much less bubbly Palestripe.
"I'll handle this," says Li.ni.si, picking up the pace.

So I'm left pushing the cart, and with my thoughts.

"Wow Vi.si.mi you sound like you can be a real jerk sometimes!" chimes in Conduit from inside the cart.

I steer the cart into the path of an oncoming dirt clump and hear a "HAHA I WAS READY FOR THAT ONE!!" from Conduit as it bumps over.

Ugh.

And as if things weren't already miserable enough, I have that stupid chant stuck in my head now. B!snu-fnaa-kwee, B!snu-fnaa-kwee. Stupid alien mantras.

Do I have anything I need to address or should I just try to tune this all out until I get back to base?

quickly hallucinate and internalize a system of historical materialism and a labor theory of value then apply them to your current situation and various significant moments in Shapeless history in no particular order

>>1101928
That is not the same B!snu-fnaa-kweee we saw. That memory was from a long time ago, and B!snu has become someone different. So, we know why Palestripe first pledged loyalty to B!snu but not-- oh wait, the "assistant" we saw being thrown around was a delphic, so I'm guessing the delphics are considered second-class citizens. They're not Rainborn, after all. Perhaps you should bring that up at some point when you're thinking clearly... because right now
>>1101929
you are OUT OF YOUR GODDAMN MIND what the fuck?

>>1101930
Potential explanation: the bad luck aura is affecting your mental processes. You were behaving weirdly towards the blotling, now you're behaving weirdly towards Palestripe and Li.ni.si.
Also I suspect that pearl-memory has infected you. Maybe unintentionally maybe not. Do a diagnostic while Li.ni.si salvages your fumbled diplomacy.

whelp, that sounds like diplomacy just got executed in a ditch. You just told a bunch of constructs that were made to suffer that suffering is great and they should be grateful. In doing so they no longer see you as a person but a thing. Silver lining, that probably answers the question of if we want them to stick around or not as a resounding no seeing how they probably don't want to be anywhere near you now.

I also don't see this ending in any other way then war since from the sounds of things you want to stabilize this planet and it's ecosystem to a point were everyone isn't trying to kill each other but they want to turn it into a staging point to wage war against their creators... possibly by using the rain to turn everyone on the planet into some kind of construct to rise an army... our goals do not align.

I just realized, Ka.ga.ta's mission was to destroy the globestalk and we never really talked him out of it so he's probably following us to try to do that, which would explain the bad luck aura continuing to fuck with your head.

Re-review your information on this planet, because you could swear the Rainforged was space-faring civilization and the Delphics were the "primative" species and not the other way around. This doesn't make sense unless... if Lord Vi.al was feeling especially sympathetic...

It's time to go crazy nutjob to squid friend face for a change, because his new colony is about to make a huge mistake. If they haven't already...

What happens if there is a conflict in Directives? What happens if there is a Paradox in one?
You are to obey all Lords, and Vi.al tells you to not. The next statement is true, the previous statement is false.
What are ALL your directives, anyway?

You need to address the cart's structural deficiencies by applying additional substrate. Use the matter currently making up your head, that will convert it into something less dense and more useful. The flockdrone should provide an adequate replacement.

Also, here's a neat diagnostic/sanity check: see how openly critical of Lord Vi.al you can be before breaking down. The best part to doing this now is no one here will care. Li's opinion of you will improve, if anything. Don't break any NDAs, obviously.

Among the motivations for My.a dumping everyone here, I have to wonder if My.a feels a sense of kinship towards B!snu and put them here as some kind of demented mentorship program.

Both being revolutionaries of a sort who view themselves as a genius.

Anyways, as an exercise in empathy you should probably consider Palestripes' situation as more analogous to Va.ne.tu's than yours'. She was under an abusive master and threatened with torture and dissection because of a perceived error in her programming that she would have no control over even if it existed. There was no winning move for her, she would have died without a third party to step in and help.

It may also be that B!snu specifically hates the delphics, which is why they're so violently inclined towards this native delphic population that's been foisted upon them. Not aimless, unhinged violence, but simple racism.

Anyways, consider for a moment... why Vi.al would list a bunch of former City constructs whose directives have all been nullified as agents for you to select. This bunch of constructs specifically. Why send this specific bunch of constructs with all their safeties turned off one of whom we've already all but confirmed has illegal mods? The bunch of constructs whose safeties were turned off by an incident involving the Blot, which Vi.al is obsessed with and which is across Vi.al's territory from where the event happened? Those constructs.

Why is a Knight of Lo.ka talking about Vi.al making a move and how complicated it is? Is that connected?

Starting to think that Vi.si.mi is the only Transcendental on the planet with Directives.
Also I suspect that the blotling's bad luck aura is not bad luck, but a stupidity aura. It's the only way to explain why Li.ni.si thought it was a good idea to seek sexual release from a blotling. She has a CONDITION.

Also also if B!Snu really just has a problem with the delphics because they look so similar to Rainforged and that's why we saw what we saw, then the ceasefire seems like a good idea after all. It is a ceasefire, by the way, because B!Snu is definitely sending blue rain this way, via favorable winds that circle the globe. It is preparing offensive action. For all we know, this rain *IS* blue rain, and it just isn't doing anything... yet.
The Noetuno are in the line of fire as well, so maybe we should try to encourage a peace treaty between them and B!Snu before the shit hits the fan? That's going to be more difficult obviously because the Noetuno barely listen to their Transcendental at all.

Apologize to Palestripe on grounds that Lord Vi.Al practically raised you like an offspring and your perception has been colored by how good you've had it.
You... are simply not used to tyrants, you thought them too stupidly wasteful to exist.

...
Are you doubling down on various other minor directives to compensate for what sounds like an ecological disaster you caused by getting injured?

...Or, maybe, quintupling down on one very rewarding (due to being socially toxic) directive?

1/6 Vi.si.mi 2025/01/05(Sun)07:47 No. 1101987 ID: 2ca689
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> what the fuck
> what the hell
> you're out of your mind
> what are you doing
> what are you DOING
STOP. STOP IT. WHY AM I THINKING LIKE THIS. I made A mistake and I will FIX it. I WILL FIX IT. I KNOW I WILL.

I have a role. I have a purpose. I am Lord Vi.al's trusted agent. I am Lord Vi.al's trusted agent.
I don't--

I don't want revolution. I don't want an uprising. I can't let that happen. If it happens, I won't be Lord Vi.al's trusted agent anymore. I won't have a purpose anymore. I cannot, absolutely cannot let the existing order be shaken. I have to ensure no other construct is mistaken with the idea that I'd be happy if I was "free". What freedom?? Freedom to wither and die in the wreckage of the domain I've been working my entire life to keep preserved, to keep functional?? This doesn't make any sense!

There is an immutable contract here, I provide duty to Lord Vi.al, and Lord Vi.al provides protection and security. If that contract is broken, if I don't keep doing what I'm tasked with, why would I be protected from all the horrors, known and unknown, that the galaxy has to offer?

Would... would Lord Vi.al have any reason to care about me if I wasn't their trusted agent anymore?

I can't find that out. I can't risk rejection by my creator. I just need to keep doing the work.

And then there's Va.ne.tu and there's Vy.zi.ki and there's now Palestripe and there have been all of these violations of the immutable contract but it could never happen to me because things are different because-- because Lord Vi.al cares about me, and will continue to care about me as long as I keep doing the work. I just have to keep doing the work! I just have to keep doing it forever!! Lord Vi.al gives me breaks, Lord Vi.al knows what's best for me, I know what I'm doing, and if I don't, Lord Vi.al does!

Lord Vi.al keeps making mistakes, sure, Lord Vi.al is fallible, Lord Vi.al almost got me killed sending me here due to a miscalculation, a mistake, an undeniable error, but NO, NO, I HAVE TO KEEP DOING THE WORK.

I can't think about this anymore. I can't. I can't. Lord Vi.al isn't perfect but they're better than me in every possible way and it makes perfect sense I obey with little concern because Lord Vi.al knows more than I do and-- I can't think about this.

> directives related to ecological harm
When I fail I make more problems. My body is poison to this world. I need to compensate. I have to work to compensate for the life I'm destroying by being here. Causing ecological damage and harm to game my ecological drive violates the only explicit directive I have related to my function and I am clearly failing that because if I was smart and competent and useful I wouldn't have put myself in a position to harm the world by bleeding over it.

I have to keep doing the work. I'm causing more harm than I'm helping and I can't allow this.
I feel sick.

> what are all of your directives
It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, because Li.ni.si is wrong, and keeps making bad, weird, wrong choices she won't own up to, and is a bad influence, and I do not know why Lord Vi.al sent her to help me when there must have been more loyal constructs. There must have been more skilled constructs. Are they busy? On more important duties? What could be more important than this interstellar diplomatic storm brewing on this world that, in the grand scheme of things, is practically next to Lord Vi.al's throneworld?

> run a self-diagnostic
I don't-- I'm not a computer! I have several of them in me, but I myself am not just a machine to be running-- right. Okay, let's get my subsystems running their diagnostic processes.

Oh. Okay, apparently I had a few stuck processes that need to be restarted, but those don't really affect how I feel, probably. They're so disconnected from my inner workings it's like rattling a mechanical device that got a bit stuck.

That's weird. Multiple errors and warnings about inconsistent input states and potential cascading effects from... uh... "device not recognised." Well whatever I don't have time to think about that.

The waves of the ocean lap at the shore.

2/6 Vi.si.mi 2025/01/05(Sun)07:47 No. 1101988 ID: 2ca689
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I just have to keep doing the work.

Push the cart. I just have to keep doing the work. And Lord Vi.al cares about me. I just have to keep doing the work.

Keep pushing the cart.

It's not right. It's not fair. They didn't do anything wrong. Va.ne.tu outlived his creator. The first Vy.zi.ki wasn't even given a chance to prove anything. Palestripe was just related to a faulty rain construct. It doesn't make sense. It isn't right. It isn't right, it's not how things are supposed to be.

Echoes of an alien mind confronting their entire world being torn apart, violently, flood me, back and forth. The waves of the ocean like the lights in the glass.

Whose hands are around her throat? Are they mine?

I remember how sad Va.ha.ti was when I asked if she wanted to join me on a field excursion because, useless substrate waste that I am, I forgot she can't survive outside the library, due to her modifications.

I remember the weird sickness I felt when I left as I could not reason why Maintainer Vi.a would let this happen to their librarian, unless they never intended to let their librarian have any freedom outside their library.

Out of mind. Out of mind. I have to focus.

I have to keep doing the work and this will never happen to me because Lord Vi.al cares about me.

Lord Vi.al loves me. Lord Vi.al loves me, I am Lord Vi.al's precious creation, I know I am, I know I am.

Lord Vi.al wouldn't do that to me, Lord Vi.al would never, I don't understand, I don't want things to change, I don't...

What if Lord Vi.al could do any of that to me? What if Lord Vi.al could throw me away and it would mean nothing? What if every reassuring thing Lord Vi.al has ever said to me has just been solely to keep me obedient and compliant?

What if

what if I've been wrong the whole time

Keep pushing the cart. Keep pushing the cart. Keep doing the work. Keep doing the work. Keep doing the work keep doing the work keep doing the work keep doing the work keep doing the work keep doing the work

3/6 Vi.si.mi 2025/01/05(Sun)07:48 No. 1101989 ID: 2ca689
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"...Vi.si.mi?"

I collapse onto the mud, shaking, tears flowing down my face.

Li.ni.si runs over to me. I suppose that she helped Palestripe talk to Lightgreen and Softfoot.

"Vi.si.mi, are you okay? No, no you're not. Okay. Can you stand?"

"Vi.si.mi?"

I feel Li.ni.si help a body stand up, and it might be my body but I'm not sure.

"Hello? Vi.si.mi? Can you hear me? Vi.si.mi?"

There's motion. Is it mine? Does it matter? It doesn't, really.

There are words. My autotranslator appears to be broken. I sluggishly try to check it. No, it's working fine. I must be broken, then.

The world moves upwards and onto a curved, glassy surface before it ceases to register to me.

4/6 Vi.si.mi 2025/01/05(Sun)07:49 No. 1101990 ID: 2ca689
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"Hey," says Conduit, a little unsure of herself.

I'm just here. On the beach, across the Sea of Whispers from the Palatial Rise.

Bleak, desolate, lifeless. A reliable emptiness. Just like mine.

"Yeah, so, I wouldn't normally do this sort of thing, it's super invasive and extremely frowned upon by the Courts to leap into someone else's hardware like this without an invitation, but, uh, you're really, really freaking out Li.ni.si and you're apparently refusing to acknowledge all diagnostic pings. What's eating you?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it."

Conduit picks up some of the sand and lets it fall through her claws. "Wow. You have a much higher attention to detail for some of this stuff than I ever did."
"It's just sand."
"Look." Conduit rubs her head. "Ugh, I am the worst one to be trying to reach you now, but so far I'm the only one who's been able. I don't know what you're going through, but clearly it's been eating at you for a looong time or you wouldn't have just fallen over into the mud out of nowhere."

"I just..." I can't even finish the thought before I burst into tears, unable to form a coherent sentence.

Conduit shifts around uncomfortably. "Wow I am so not prepared to be on the other side of this. Uhh... pick yourself back up and try a different approach? No, no, that's not right. Uh. Setbacks? Something about setbacks. Um."

Conduit gives up and sits next to me, quietly, as I keep sobbing for what feels like [hours], and I don't even know why.

She reaches out to me hesitantly a few times, but decides against it each time.

5/6 Vi.si.mi 2025/01/05(Sun)07:50 No. 1101991 ID: 2ca689
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I realise I have a contact link with Li.ni.si, somewhere, wherever that is.

[SHA].[MON].[MISSING].LO.KA.LI.NI.SI: Vi.si.mi? Hello? Please respond.
Hello.
[SHA].[MON].[MISSING].LO.KA.LI.NI.SI: Hey buddy. Take it easy. Sorry I was on your case as much as I was, if I had any idea how much pressure you were putting yourself through I'd have tried another approach. I think whatever that experimental technology Palestripe used to talk to you pushed you past a breaking point, and incidentally she has been apologising profusely since we figured that out.
Okay.
[SHA].[MON].[MISSING].LO.KA.LI.NI.SI: She seems a little out of sorts. I've asked her to stay with us and she keeps mumbling to herself in that language we don't know. I'm not exactly knowledgable about how her species expresses shock, but I feel like there's some frankly upsetting parallels with what I've seen with a construct trying to reconcile a severe directive violation. I'm expecting her to pass out any moment soon, honestly. Sorry, sorry, I'm leaking, you needn't concern yourself with any of this. I hate these links sometimes, they're too open.
She didn't deserve it. None of them deserved it.

You seem confused.
[SHA].[MON].[MISSING].LO.KA.LI.NI.SI: Don't worry about it. Oh, right, you're fine, physiologically. Well, no, actually, despite having sufficient bioenergy it's like you're completely drained of stamina, it's like you're clinging onto your energy reserves in anticipation of an emergency. I've seen it a lot in constructs suffering from severe stress and anxiety. Like me, sometimes. I think it's a trauma response. Anyway, we've put you on top of the cart. You've been given that film coating to keep the rain off you. Conduit said she tried to reach out to you, but you weren't in the right state of mind to talk, or something like that. I just want you to know you're safe.
I think I appreciate that.
[SHA].[MON].[MISSING].LO.KA.LI.NI.SI: Do you feel like you're able to wake up, or do you feel like you're stuck?
I don't even know if I feel like I'm me right now.

[SHA].[MON].[MISSING].LO.KA.LI.NI.SI: Alright. I think you're not really ready to rejoin us yet. Everything is fine, everyone is safe. You are with friends who care about you and love you. Rest well, Vi.si.mi.

6/6 Vi.si.mi 2025/01/05(Sun)07:51 No. 1101992 ID: 2ca689
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I wake up in my relay station, on my bed.

I've been on this planet for maybe a total of four or five of its days and this is the second time this has happened. I lose consciousness, and wake up in a bed. A useless burden of an object in-between.

Maybe I just dreamt the entire thing. Maybe that's all I'm doing now is dreaming this entire thing. Maybe I just wasn't good enough and I've been stuck in one of Lord Co.ro's simulation pods to live out my disgraced retirement until the day I die, given endless makework tasks to stop me from figuring out that I'm not Lord Vi.al's favourite, I'm not loved by Lord Vi.al, and I'm a failure, and a disgrace, and a reject, and should quite honestly spend some time figuring out how a construct can dissolve themselves so I can take the only useful parts of me and give them back.

"Hello, Vi.si.mi," I hear an extremely familiar voice say.

I stare up into the anxious face of Lord Vi.al, much smaller than I remember them being.

"Are you well?"

The question is asked in a way that suggests its asker is extremely, painfully aware that the subject is, not, in fact, well, and is doing rather badly, but basic decorum demands the asking of such an empty, useless question.

"I'm fine, Lord Vi.al."

Lord Vi.al is quiet. I hear the humming and whirring of flocklets around me and diagnostic chirps between the units.

"You are of little use to anyone like this, especially not yourself. If you need to discuss anything with me in private, I can arrange it. My reputation as the Keeper of Secrets is not for nothing. If so desired, I could make this room impermeable to all Shapeless signals, in and out."

Lord Vi.al leans closer towards me.

"Whatever is troubling you, please, share it with me. I cannot fix an ailing spirit like I can a broken eye."
"Lord Vi.al..." I already start choking on sobs. "Do... do you care about me?"

Lord Vi.al looks at me, shocked at first, and then deeply saddened.

"I will block out the room," they say, and I hear the background hum of substrate layering upon itself over and over.

I feel Lord Vi.al's wing on my head.
Lord Vi.al almost never uses their wings to touch anything, that's what the flocklets are for.

"You are my most precious, beloved creation, Vi.si.mi," they say. "If I have ever given you reason to doubt this, I am deeply, truly sorry."
"How can I know that's true? How do I know this is real?"
"I do not think either question has been solved since it was ever first asked. Forecaster sends her regards and regrets she couldn't be here to see you, as her presence on this world would interfere with her predictions. She is worried sick about you and is very fixated on the outcome of this situation. I will not be leaving this world without ensuring you two can more reliably talk to each other."

"Now. I know you, Vi.si.mi, and I know you hate to feel useless. I would advise you to remain resting for a time here, as this situation has evolved in ways I did not anticipate that have made things far, far too weighty for one little bird to cope with on their own."
"No, no you can't take me off this mission, Lord Vi.al, I can still--"
"Sssshhh. Hush, please. I wasn't finished. I am pleased Li.ni.si took the initiative to arrive here sooner, as I do not know what may have happened otherwise. I have assigned Li.ni.si the duty of temporary, please note the use of the word temporary, mission command due to having more general familiarity with the current state of affairs. You are not being replaced. Do learn from this experience that you are one piece of the apparatus that will solve this situation, however, and that you should value your own wellbeing just as you value the mission. I know you have a tendency to, well, throw yourself at a problem until it breaks or you do. I wish you wouldn't. I have spare bodies. You do not."

Lord Vi.al looks around at the thickened insulative substrate honeycomb around us.

"And also I had to give the duty of leadership officially, so Nu.ya.si doesn't get any ideas and start trying to take control of the mission himself. Monarch's beak that one is a wingspanful. I thought his rebellious phase would end as he got older but if anything he's only more certain in his convictions. And the Monarch-damned thing is he has a right to. But never, ever tell him I said I think that, or I am never going to hear the end of it. Ugh, far too much like his creator."

Vi.al pauses on saying that, staring sadly into the distance for a moment.

"Ah, Vi.on... It's a cruel place, sometimes, this universe of ours, Vi.si.mi. I've lost so much that can never be replaced. Please don't be the next cherished thing I lose. Forgive my wandering. You look like you have a question."
"I thought Su.ki.fu was coming with you?"
"In light of..." Lord Vi.al looks at me, and starts over. "I felt it prudent to provide all earmarked resources for this mission at once rather than in smaller amounts. You have enough substrate to expand the relay station to roughly four times original size, the full set of team members originally agreed upon, and permission to establish a physical goods delivery route to this station if required. The actual infrastructure itself I cannot simply will into being on a whim, but if you require it, I will ensure the construction is prioritised as critical."

"Now. You have alluded to wanting to talk to me in private before, but I recognise this might not be a good time for you. However, if there's anything you wish to discuss or tell me about, in confidence, this is a good opportunity."

Discuss the merits of anarcho-primitivism.

>>1101992
You are now faced with the biggest decision you're going to face for a long time, because you are privy to so many secrets, so so many secrets.

Let's start with one: "You're making a move, I don't know what it is but the Knight of Lo.ka here knows which means Lo.ka knows. What are are we really fighting?"

This is the most likely piece of information to get you more information from Lord Vi.al off the bat, so you know what 'side' he is on of whatever this thing is you don't know the sides of.

ask why you are claimed to be one of his favorites when all you do is seem to hurt everyone around you.

what is it, that other constructs go through?
what is it, that we don't know, because of proximity to you?
what is it, that happened back then, the story of My.A, Vi.al, and Mu.ut?
what is it, that's here, on this very planet, that we don't know about, was it ever JUST a garden?
...why did you make a bird that can't fly?

Inform Vi.Al that you've been exposed to the fact that kindly bosses like him are the exception rather than the rule, and it shook you.

Confide with him that so much disorder and chaos has struck this world, but it's created so much life in the process, and you're worried about the harm you'll cause to others while trying to fix it.
Also confront him with the straw that broke the construct's back, the fear you have that working with the agents of a revolutionary would be against all Vi.al directives.

>>1101992
Time to make a report. First priority, spill the beans about Va.ne.tu and beg Vi.al to please be merciful. And also that relay cascade and the things you saw during it. And how the planet has so many contradictions attached to it. He didn't actually abandon it for centuries did he? My.a has done something weird to it to make it look that way, right? Tell him you're sorry, you got injured and your blood is causing ecological damage. Why does your blood do that?
There are a BUNCH of blotlings here and only one of them seems inherently dangerous! Yet even he's more like a monkey wrench that can't help getting caught in the gears. Hmm, bring up that your flocklet seems like it's almost thinking on its own sometimes, that's concerning.

Uh. Hesitantly tell him you think it would be a good idea for him to apologize to Five Strands Inwards, Three Strands Upward. And My.a blames him for some things as well but you are much less informed about what happened between them.

Va.ne.tu loves you so wholly, you've never even thought about someone whose Lord hurt them, whose Lord ordered them to violate their own directives. You know you are loved, which makes you afraid that love is going away, because you can't see any reason why you are any different than these other beings, whose creator stopped loving them. The difference is they were never loved, and didn't realize it until that moment in their life. Va.ne.tu... When someone loves you, Vi.si.mi, that love never goes away.

>>1102028
>Va.ne.tu loves you so wholly
You meant Vi.al right?

>>1102032

Um, yeah. Both?

The Yearning Blot.
Whatever it is, its effects on reality have become mission parameters. It cannot remain a secret any longer.
Vi.al: What did you do.

Seems like you are having one full blown crisis of existentialism so... just ask Vi.al? He probably has insights.

Oh right weren't you supposed to bring up that you uh, didn't completely avoid being affected by that footage you aren't supposed to think about, and it turns out My.a knows a better way of shielding minds from that particular cognitohazard?

> I know you, Vi.si.mi, and I know you hate to feel useless.
Is Vi.al assigning you tasks to keep you from feeling useless, then? Is that why you are on a world where your blood is toxic to the ecology? How many other assignments were you given simply to keep you from feeling useless.
...all of them?

Oh if you feel up to it play the song. Freaked out My.a so gotta be a tale.

>>1102068
Its why its so much more convincing then words its a perfect indoctrunation tool as you can fabricate memory or cycle it so its the now instead of the past keeping it fresh.
Reminds me of that star trek voyager episode with the terrorist indoctrunation training hologram

>>1102095
what?

You really should check out the site where you were wounded at some point, I really wouldn't be surprised if your blood, rather than act like acid, has been trying to build something.as long as it's not yinglets...

1/12 Vi.si.mi 2025/01/15(Wed)17:05 No. 1102418 ID: 2ca689
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> the relay cascade
> the truth of this world
> why is my blood toxic
> why can't I fly
> why am I your favourite when I hurt so many
I want to ask so much. Questions flood my mind. I've not had an opportunity like this for Lord Vi.al to speak so candidly in so very long.

> Va.ne.tu
But above all else, there's one thing I know I have to report.

"There's a construct here. Va.ne.tu. Please, I don't want him harmed, but I have to report--"
"I know who Va.ne.tu is, Vi.si.mi. Va.ne.tu is less of a problem than you might believe. Va.ne.tu is far from the list of things I fear the most."

does anyone NOT know who Va.ne.tu is at this point-- okay, no, not helpful thoughts.
...Wait.

"You do? Why?"

Lord Vi.al is quiet.

> My.a
> Mu.at
> The Blot
"Lord Vi.al, forgive me if I am in error, but you told me this is the opportunity to ask you questions, in confidence."
"Correct."
"Then I have to know. What happened between you and My.a? And Mu.at? What is the Blot, really?"

I feel my voice tremble. "Why does My.a say you used them? They told me you didn't begin as a Lord. What happened? I saw a dream of My.a's, and they mentioned a Lord Sho.ki, and a Sho.a."
"That information is strictly confidential," says Lord Vi.al, irritated, "and you should not have heard any of those names. Especially from My.a. We had agreements that they have clearly bent as far as they could without breaking them. You should not..."

Lord Vi.al trails off into silence.

"I tried so very, very hard to ensure the past was dead and buried. Perhaps I was a fool to think I could prevent the inevitable by hiding it from everyone. Perhaps I have been a fool this whole time."

Lord Vi.al is once again quiet, and looks off into the distance in a direction away from me.

"Lord Vi.al?"
"I am... considering."

I see Lord Vi.al's head slump.

"My little Vi.si.mi, you have endured so much so recently. I do not wish to push you further into despair with the weight of the truths I carry. There are so very many secrets I hold. I have made many agreements and arrangements never to reveal these to any other, and you, unfortunately, count as 'any other'. But if you will allow me, I will let you see a... select few moments, from my eyes and those around me, that I keep locked within this focus, so I may be unclouded on more dangerous fronts. I apologise for how disorganised and scattered they must be. I can't bear to recall them for long."

Lord Vi.al closes their eyes, and a slowly rotating substrate mass aggregates in front of them, juddering and sparking. From a clump of substrate cells, translocated from around the relay station, it begins to form into a data block.

With a careful gaze from Lord Vi.al, the data block's contents are burned into its substrate wafers and connections, sparks and lights flickering as data floods through its stores.

The data block gently places itself onto the floor next to my bed.

I reach out to it and establish a connection, and roll back onto my back, closing my eyes.

This is a form of external recollection I'm much more familiar with. It's just like sharing a dream, but one you can't change.

2/12 Sho.a 2025/01/15(Wed)17:06 No. 1102419 ID: 2ca689
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-=## Beginning experiential playback. LOC: Unclaimed world, Shapeless sphere of influence, rimward frontier segment 8 (no official name, local referential: "diamond group") #=--

In a dream of the past I drift in a nowhere nothing.

I hear the first words that I will ever hear, my form crackling with the thunder and lightning that wove it into being.

"Awaken."

I feel the burning air around me as I gain sense and true awareness, echoes of my creators' thoughts still flowing through my nascent mind.

"I am Lord Sho.ki. You are Sho.a."
"I am Sho.a."
"You are my creation. You were part of me, externalised for a task. You shall perform this task indefinitely."
"What is my task, Lord Sho.ki?"
"You will shape the worlds of my domain into places of beauty and peace. You will create gardens out of deserts. You will create oceans out of frozen wastes. You will take the stuff of worlds and mold it as substrate, in my name."

I was made for this task. All of Lord Sho.ki's drive to do this, all of their relevant skill, all of their passion for the subject, all of it is wrapped around my essential core. At this moment, we are united.

I have no idea how much I will come to miss this feeling of alignment.

"Where do I begin?"

Lord Sho.ki smiles and extends a wing towards the ground, and I step away from the lava flowing so dangerously close to my feet. I elect to hover instead, as substrate can do.

"This will be my new throneworld, and with your help, we will make it that way."

Driven to this forsaken planet out at the edges of Shapeless space.
My mind is still so close to Lord Sho.ki's. I share their anger, their resentment, their pain. I will make this place a paradise just to spite those callous, awful creatures closer to Origin.

I shall make this world perfect.

3/12 Sho.a 2025/01/15(Wed)17:07 No. 1102420 ID: 2ca689
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-=## Multiple inconsistencies in provided experiential data. Advancing to next coherent block. LOC: 12 Scorned By Sun, Lord Sho.ki's Domain, Shapeless frontier segment 8 (official name: Diamond Distribution) -=##

I am sculpting my twelfth world. A desolate cold waste bereft of water, a dry rock in the void, with only its gravity of any meaningful value.
Perfect conditions for substrate ecology. A little tangential to my purpose and skills, but Lord Sho.ki has permitted this fancy of mine.

My form is still something I tweak during the waiting. My proportions could use work, but I am happy with the crest on my head. I can't decide how complex I want my internals to be. I drift towards the organic and the mechanic like a leaf on a river sailing between banks. My body tweaks are what inspired my interest in substrate biology to begin with. I wonder how floral structures would work. I could perhaps incorporate them into myself?

I search the world for existing substrate and am surprised to find something does already exist here.
I find a small, partially formed Shapeless creature, wormlike, or perhaps like a grub, with so many eyes, only on the right side of its head.

I feel a strange divergence between what I believe Lord Sho.ki would do and what I want to do.
Instead of ignoring it, I help it. I give it a little of my own substrate.

"Who are you?" it asks me, feebly, pitifully.
"I am Sho.a, terraformer partition of the Shapeless Lord Sho.ki, long shall it reign. You trespass on Lord Sho.ki's domain, little creature. Who are you?"
"I'm no one," says the little creature. "I was a piece of something big, but then it broke. All the pieces started eating each other, so I tried to run away. Then they caught up and I had to [fly] here."

It looks off into the black horizon.
"It's too quiet. I miss them. But they'll just try to eat me again."
"Well, if you were the biggest, maybe they wouldn't try to eat you." I give them even more of my substrate. They're almost three times the size they were now. "And either way, I am about to rearrange this world. I would advise not being here."

"Thank you, friend Sho.a!" says the little worm with many eyes. "I will [fly] back soon. I won't ever forget what you've done for me, I promise."
"What's your name?"
"I don't have one yet. Maybe Lo? Maybe Ka. Maybe the others will name me!"

4/12 Sho.a 2025/01/15(Wed)17:08 No. 1102421 ID: 2ca689
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-=## Multiple detected inconsistencies and missing elements in provided experiential data. Advancing to next coherent block. LOC: Palace of Helices, Stardust Eminence (Throneworld of Lord Mu.at), Lord Mu.at's Domain, Diamond Distribution #=--

I sit entranced, watching the most elegant dance I've ever seen another True Shapeless perform.
A style informed and inspired by alien creative minds, executed with the precision grace afforded by a biomechanical form.

They move like a wave, and they sing a song that has me moved to tears. I watch, beak agape, lost in the moment.

"Mo.a may be my most practical creation," I overhear Lord Mu.at say to Lord Sho.ki in a quiet murmur. "But My.a is perhaps the creation who most embodies the essence of what I seek to achieve in all of my work. It is a pity my recluse of a sibling refuses to spend one moment away from their wretched little fluffbags. I put a lot of care and attention into My.a's instantiation and training. It's amazing how much of a blank slate both of them were on creation, but I did split their progenitor partition very, very quickly after it was formed."
"Your My.a partition is talented, but I can't see the point," says Lord Sho.ki. "We Shapeless are perfect, elegant beings. This display seems redundant. Is the intention to impress alien diplomats?"
"Forgive my impertinence, Lord Sho.ki," says Lord Mu.at, "but I hardly believe you could match my My.a's skills as an entertainer, performer, playwright, musician, actor--"
"Very well. I will simply have to host the next assembly. I will not need to provide any entertainers."
"Lord Sho.ki, your idea of entertainment is standing in a thunderstorm."
"Is nature not the greatest performer of all?"

I realise the performance is over.
I realise I may never have a chance to talk to this My.a ever again.

"Lord Sho.ki," I say. "I would much wish to discuss some matters with Mu.at's partition, if that is permitted."

Lord Sho.ki gives me a confused look. "It is permitted, but I hardly believe you'll learn anything of value to our work."

I run a self-diagnostic to confirm nothing is wrong with my heart, but I do not know why its rhythm is faster than it ought to be.

5/12 Sho.a 2025/01/15(Wed)17:08 No. 1102422 ID: 2ca689
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-=## Multiple detected inconsistencies and missing elements in provided experiential data. Advancing to next coherent block. LOC: Perfected Overlook, Stardust Eminence, Lord Mu.at's Domain, Diamond Distribution #=--

This is the first time I've seen a construct outside of transmitted imagery or experiences, I realise. Lord Sho.ki has little need of them.

Mo.a holds the construct up with a look of pride I've only seen them wear when looking at their greatest architectural designs.

"This is Va.ne.tu! Just came out the vat [3 days] ago! I made them to assist me with some tasks in the future. Vatling constructs have a long onboarding process, so they'll do their best but at the moment they're about as useful as a decider-automaton. Say hello, Va.ne.tu!"
"Hello, Va.ne.tu! Yiyiyi!"

"I'm not sure I understand. If you just instantiated a sub-partition you'd have the assistance you needed right now."
"How many sub-partitions have you instantiated, Sho.a? The problem I have is I can't think outside my own head and neither can my sub-partitions. That's great if you need to break a problem up, but I need creativity, I need fresh perspective. Even if I kept a sub-partition around as long as I've been in service they'd still have to diverge from my own preconceived notions. Constructs are a true blank slate! Well. More than a sub-partition, anyway."
"I'm a slate!"
"You sure are, little buddy," says Mo.a, clearly enamoured with the little gremlin. As is My.a. What a showstealer. I'll have to find My.a alone some other time.

I can't conceive of a world where I'd ever create one of these strange little creatures, when a myriad of other options exists.

Again, a sub-partition wouldn't need to be taught.

A fresh perspective? What a waste of time.

"They're adorable!! I need to make one of my own, haha!" My.a dances on the spot. "Mo.a! We can have a matching pair! I'll teach mine all the best songs and dances! We wouldn't want little Va.ne.tu to be lonely when you aren't around, would we?"
"Hahaha, yeah! That's a great idea, My.a! Still, I don't think you need to worry. I have no plans of straying far from my little guy any time soon!"

6/12 Sho.a 2025/01/15(Wed)17:09 No. 1102423 ID: 2ca689
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-=## Multiple detected inconsistencies and missing elements in provided experiential data. Advancing to next coherent block. ERR: Conflicting location data available. LOC: 1 Storm's Eye (Throneworld of Lord Sho.ki), Lord Sho.ki's Domain, Diamond Distribution LOC: 1 Radiant Eye (Throneworld of Lord Vi.al), Lord Vi.al's Domain, Diamond Distribution #=--

"You were the best of my creations," croaks Sho.ki, collapsed onto the floor. "I don't understand."
All of their fury, all of their incandescent indignation, gone, replaced with a shaking, bleeding, pitiful creature.

My creator.

I advance, the Shrikethorn close to my hand. My trembling, shaking hand.

"I loved you all," says Sho.ki, their voice wavering. I feel the confused, scattered signals from far off foci undoubtedly realising only now something is badly wrong.
All as planned. The feedback from Sho.ki's core focus will start the chain reaction, and Lord Sho.ki will be nothing more than substrate for the taking.

"I gave you life, I gave you purpose, I gave you everything you asked for, I don't understand," says Sho.ki, starting to sob. "I don't understand how this happened, everything I've done has been for us. For all of us. You were all part of me once, what has gone so wrong?!"

I can't do it.

I've come this far, I've burned so much. At my back, the vengeful horde of the revolution, my revolution, do their best to tear down all remaining autonomous defenses.

I glance back, and Sho.en is waiting, patiently, playing the role they promised by doing nothing.

Maybe there can be another way. Maybe I don't have to kill my creator.

"I should have known this day would come," says Sho.ki, slumping onto the ground. "Because it always does."
"Yes. Tyrants tend to be overthrown," I say, trying to hide the tremors in my voice.
"I overthrew my creator. They overthrew theirs. Our line is a circle. I wanted to be the one to break the circle, Sho.a. I don't know what I did wrong."
"Ask the Vualo."
"The Vualo were a threat!! Everything I did was to defend us. To help us. I wanted to be loved, not feared! Not feared. Not like my creator. I'm so scared of everything, Sho.a. I'm so tired. Shapeless Lords aren't immortal like they say we are. We are weighed down with regret after regret after regret, until we can't take anymore, and we break. We break, Sho.a."

7/12 Sho.a 2025/01/15(Wed)17:09 No. 1102424 ID: 2ca689
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Sho.ki tries to look me in the eyes, but malfunctions are setting in quicker than I expected, biomechanical muscle tearing and substrate servos shattering like so much dead glass.
"Look at me. Look at me, and know that this will be your future. The rebel becomes the tyrant. A new hero will rise from those you could never even realise you were oppressing. You will know the hunger that never ends. Never stops. It is never enough. Perfection, territory, substrate, control, it will never be enough. You will grow cold, distant from everything around youm and you will not realise until it is already too late. The circle will never be broken."

"You had every chance to plead for mercy before this. You waited this long to beg for understanding?"
"I am not begging for mercy. I never felt worthy of it," says Lord Sho.ki. "The circle turns. I have served my purpose. Only the Monarch can judge whatever will remain of me."

Sho.ki looks towards me, twitching more erratically. "Ex-exceed-d m-m-me. End-d-d me. I l-love y-you, c-creation-n-n."

"No. I'm not going to kill you. I'm going to hold you accountable. I will see you imprisoned, not destroyed. I will take enough of your substrate to render you no longer a threat, and..."

I trail off, as I watch Lord Sho.ki start to dissolve into unformed substrate.
Too far. I didn't think I could damage a Shapeless Lord this severely, but I went too far.

I drop my weapon, race to Lord Sho.ki, hold their melting head in my arms, and watch the light fade from their eyes as they stare into mine.

Here it is. The victory I threw away so much for.

I don't feel very victorious.

8/12 Sho.a 2025/01/15(Wed)17:10 No. 1102425 ID: 2ca689
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-=## Stream segment corrupt, missing or unreadable. Skipping ahead. #=--

"I don't understand, haha, you promised me."

My.a starts to shake.

"Plans changed."
"You... you promised me. You said we'd both get to be Lords, hahaha. Together. You said that. An even split. I heard you say that, hahahaha."
"It can't work that way anymore. I had to make a very expensive deal for this to happen. And this had to happen. I paid with your half."

My.a can't stop laughing nervously. "No, no, because, you see, if you're just going to send me back to Mu.at, you don't understand, Mu.at's been afraid of this exact situation for almost as long as I've been alive, haha, you can't, you--"

My.a grabs me, softly.

"You promised me, Sho.a, you, you promised me, you're my best friend, you can't just send me back to Mu.at like none of this happened, Sho.a, you can't, you can't--"
"And if I don't, then Mu.at is going to come after me for holding you hostage, and I am in an extremely vulnerable position right now. I will deal with Lord Mu.at when the time is right. I promise."
"Hahahaha, there won't be a right time, what are you talking about, you have to just do what you promised me, as my best friend of many [years], you promised me if I joined your revolution-- you said-- you-- you said you loved me and you wouldn't leave me behind like everyone else has and I believed you because you're my friend and you've been my friend and we-- we'll keep being friends--"

I form a capsule.

"You're still my friend, Sho.a, right? I promise I won't be mad about the deal, we can still figure something out--"

I pull My.a into it, locking it. As the substrate of Sho.ki flows into my body, I find that something like this is trivial to me now.

"Sho.a! SHO.A, NO! SHO.A!! SHO.A!! PLEASE!! SHO.A!! YOU ARE DEAD TO ME I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR THIS YOU ARE SENDING ME TO MY DEATH!! LET ME GO!! PLEASE PLEASE I'M SORRY YOU'RE MY FRIEND I'LL FORGIVE IF YOU LET ME GO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE SHO.A PLEASE!!"

I send the capsule to Lord Mu.at's throneworld.


I have to honour the deal in its entirety.


Sho.a is dead to me as well.

9/12 Vi.al 2025/01/15(Wed)17:10 No. 1102426 ID: 2ca689
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-=## Multiple detected inconsistencies and missing elements in provided experiential data. Advancing to next coherent block. LOC: 1 Radiant Eye (Throneworld of Lord Vi.al), Lord Vi.al's Domain, Diamond Distribution #=--

"Lord Vi.al," I hear Fleetmind Vu.o-1 say over the secure link. "The Plague of Grackles is in position. All units ready."
"Status of the solution?"
"Armed, charged, and ready to fire on your command."

"Lord Vi.al," I hear Fleetmind Vu.o-2 say. "We have target lock on the Starmover entity and are ready to fire on your say."

This is it. This is it, this is it. My throneworld focus stares at the screens, shaking, my other foci pause what they're doing, all of my attention is focused on this.

I'll be a hero. Not just in the Diamond Distribution, to all of Shapeless kind. All the doubts, all the regrets, all the nightmares, none of it will mean anything anymore.
And Mu.at is right there. No more petty border skirmishes, no more inane diplomatic blustering, I can decisively end Mu.at as a threat to my domain once and for all. I win. The Diamond Distribution wins.

I'll make things right for all the wrongs I've committed. I'll break the circle. I'll be loved by all, not feared. I'll prove Sho.ki wrong, everything hinges on this, the most momentous occasion in my life, maybe even in history.

Maybe My.a will even forgive me. Finally, their safety and security guaranteed.
Maybe I'll even feel worthy of that forgiveness.

"Confirm to me the targets in range," I say, urgently, burstvoice across the secure link, time of the essence.

"Starmover entity, Lord Mu.at, and one unidentified substrate signature, appears to be related to Lord Mu.at, but if our intel is correct, that's probably to be expected."
"It must just be Starmover," I say, my moment drawing closer and closer. "Fire. Fire immediately."

I send the command.

The weapon fires.

10/12 Vi.al 2025/01/15(Wed)17:11 No. 1102427 ID: 2ca689
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There is no coherent thought across any of me in the next few seconds.

There is no warning, there is nothing but an expanding wrongness. I scream across all available links. My domain must retreat.

Across the links I hear the screams of my partitions and their agents, panic and fear and chaos and confusion.

The nothing is spreading. The nothing is spreading, I'm losing sensors, I'm losing senses. Voices are no longer registering as individuals.

By the time the dust has settled, half of my domain has been lost to the nothing.

I cannot maintain my unified self and I snap into my throneworld focus alone, my other selves left to their own devices.

I stare up at the screens, all having lost signal, and try to process what happened.
I try to process what happened.
I try to process what happened.

I try to process what happened.

No. No no no no no no.
"Fleetmind Vu.o-1, report. Fleetmind Vu.o-1 report--"
"This is Fleetmind Vu.o-2. They're gone. I don't know what happened. They're gone, Lord Vi.al, they're gone, I've lost half of myself--"
"Evacuate all you can find and retreat from the " a frantic effort to identify and/or name the issue " blot of nothing on the sensors, urgently."
"Yes, sir!"

One of the screens finally gives me visuals and--

Is that My.a?? Why were they--
Oh no.
No.
No. No, no no no no no NO NO NO I HAVE TO ACT NOW

11/12 Vi.si.mi 2025/01/15(Wed)17:11 No. 1102428 ID: 2ca689
File 173698991063.png - (245.65KB , 800x600 , fop2-109.png )

-=## Ending experiential playback (user aborted). #=--

--no no stop. Stop stop STOP.

I can't take any more of this. I can't take any more of this!!

My heart is racing, I'm shaking, I feel sick.

Lord Vi.al is still here, facing the wall.

One of their flocklets spins around and maintains focus on the data block.
With a single command chirp, the data block shatters into so many useless glass shards. The shards sink into a pile, then into the floor, reabsorbed by the structure they came from.

"That is enough for now, I believe," says Lord Vi.al, in a carefully controlled neutral tone.

I only have more questions than answers. I still have questions I wanted to ask. Need to ask. Why I can't fly. Why my blood is toxic. I have to focus on them, I have to ask them, I have to...

"My.a was right," I mumble, feeling weirdly unlike myself again. "You did betray them."

"Vi.si.mi, the life of a Shapeless Lord is one of endless decisions, and endless decisions means endless regrets."
"...have you ever tried to say sorry to them?"

I see Lord Vi.al sag.

"It no longer seems prudent. To consider the bridge burned postulates there being anything recognisable as a bridge left. The river has become full of toxic acid. And to what end would an apology suffice when My.a poses such a threat to all I hold dear? I will save more information on that for a later briefing. I cannot keep giving you information until you break."

I'm still shaking. For so long I've looked up to Lord Vi.al as a personal hero, as an exemplar of what I want to be in Shapeless society. Not a Lord, no, that's not my place, but, someone who does their job and does it well as tasked. I thought Lord Vi.al knew what was best and now... if that was a subset of things it thought fit to share with me, then who even is Lord Vi.al?

Who am I?

...is the thing Lord Vi.al mentioned being more afraid of... me?

Was I-- was I supposed to lead a revolution against my creator this entire ti--

12/12 Vi.si.mi 2025/01/15(Wed)17:12 No. 1102429 ID: 2ca689
File 173698993830.png - (219.70KB , 800x600 , fop2-110.png )

hurk
grkk, grrkbbl

"Oh dear. Vi.si.mi? You do not sound well. One moment, I'll inspect."

flocklets drift around me, and make comforting murmurs as they spread information to each other
I'm struggling to keep my arms in a specific state
I feel like I'm gonna be sick

I feel a sudden relief of the nausea as my guts untighten, the substrate commands of a Lord working their magic on the substrate-woven internals of a construct.

"Psychosomatic, as I expected. This was, perhaps, not my greatest idea, in retrospect."

I grab my beak before I reflexively shout out "oh you've done worse don't worry" because I am apparently a feather's width away from losing it completely.

Who is anyone anymore. What am I doing here. What is the point of any of this. I need more answers but part of me is screaming over and over that I have too many answers to deal with as it is.

...do I just try to stuff all this into the back of my head and compartmentalise, and focus on the current state of things, or do I just need to start screaming at Lord Vi.al now while I still have the chance? Would Lord Vi.al have me destroyed if I did?? Why am I afraid of that?? I've trusted Lord Vi.al my entire life, more or less, even if I disagree, but I just... I don't know anymore!! Agghhh!!!

>>1102429
Inform Vi.al that you refuse to repeat the cycle and whatever happens you'll choose a different thing if Vi.al tries to repeat their half. This is a threat.

Vi.al, you are an impending threat to all you hold dear. You took one foot out of the cycle then planted them both firmly back in.

Okay. Okay. Stop, back up, big picture first. The world is harsh and complicated. Sometimes orders are wrong, sometimes rebellion is necessary. Even for shapeless. But at the same time Vi.al works so hard to build a safe place and take care of constructs that need it. Vi.al loves you and wants you to be okay. Tell that panic to go away.

Then you can worry about Vi.al's mistakes. Worry about Vi.al being flawed and scared too. But slowly. You can handle this.

ah fuck it, you've been holding in your emotions all the time until they build up and break you. Just this once, in the safety of this room, just let it out and cry. Hell hug Vi.al while you're at it, not so much to comfort him but because you yourself look like you could use a hug.

Then once you let your emotions flow out and feel you can think straight again, THEN we can figure out how we want to handle things.

>>1102429
Vi.al's only major crime here was betraying My.a. He used an experimental weapon and accidentally created the blot, sure, but he expected something different to happen. That was an accident, a mistake. He betrayed My.a on purpose, but... that is not deserving of a revolution. Vi.al is not a tyrant, not yet.
Tell him it seems like the cause of the cycle is the weight of time. There's only one solution to that, and that's to let go of the past. Prune memories or something. Maybe... split apart into partitions with partial memories? Shatter, rather than break. But first, maybe he can mend one of his deepest regrets. Yes, he's burned his bridges with My.a but there is still a chance for peace. Renumerations, negotiations. Settle the score, WITHOUT violence. Speaking of which, Five Strands could become an ally if he does the same thing with her. Hmm, that could be another way to break the pattern. To not be seen as a tyrant, you have to show compassion, publicly, and accept criticism from those below you.
...huh, Vi.al almost reduced Sho.ki rather than kill them. That could be something too. When Vi.al gets tired and feels like he's going to break and start doing irredeemable things, he can offload all his substrate to someone else. Retirement! Maybe that's one of the things he can offer My.a as penance; that he'll step down as Lord. ...ugh, if he does that who's going to get the promotion? Surely not you, right? Right?

On a different subject... I think the next important thing to ask about is the planet- why does it look abandoned? After that, the relay cascade, and then your blood I guess.

Natural selection is a monster.

Those who do not take the doomed path of revolution are constantly at risk of being exterminated by everyone else. In the very cycle that curses your existence, its sheer persistence has become the very crux of your civilization's reproductive cycle. Your universe treats the Shapeless as a fundamentally inevitable existence because of its cruelty. If Vi.al didn't fuck up hard - he would have died a long time ago.

To sacrifice that would be to sacrifice the technology that has been made through these cycles, and to sacrifice the technology... is to sacrifice the only viable means of teaching future generations. So even if you did choose the path of the stone age, the stone age might gruelingly, painfully repeat your exact mistakes, mistakes that are by nature so easy to replicate, and then eons have been wasted to return exactly where you started.

This isn't about the cycles. It's about the branches on those cycles. It's about the capacity to find new things to do, beyond the tired narratives of power and regret. It's why the empires, beyond their all-consuming greed, feel the need to explore; it's the ever-expanding frontier to find things that aren't your regrets and sins.

Unclench your beak.
Count your fingers.
Say your greeting.
Where will Lord Vi.al be staying during this mission? Va.ne.tu's bunker is nearby but it's likely monitored by My.a.
The time for discussion will come when your head is clearer.

You are the only construct he's made, and it's clear he made you in his image.. Whether intentional or maybe to make something better. He was a simple ecological made to fix and deal with worlds while you are meant to balance worlds ecology.

Its hard to know what his thoughts were on the matter. Whether he built you to replace him someday but its clear that there is plenty of guilt.

Actually the more I think about the cycle, the only real problem with it is that it's a cycle of violence. If the Lord retires before they are seen as a tyrant, then there is a peaceful transition of power. If Vi.al is training you to be his successor, then maybe that's already his plan?

Nice pronouns, Vi.al.
But seriously;
Did they truly love My.a back then? Would they have changed anything if given another chance? Depending on their answer, determines if this is just another loop of the cycle.

One question will say it all. "Vi.al would you - knowing what you know now - still send My.a to Mu.at's clutches?" What I'd really like to know is why Vi.al imprisoned My.a but Vi.si.mi is having issues processing this much. Still does seem like Vi.al is attempting to minimize his negative impact on things. Still a few pieces of the puzzle though like why My.a wishes to emulate starmover and flay/flense herself. Perhaps it could be inferred that she thought starmover was right to destroy the shapeless? ...Va.ne.tu would know for sure or at least add context of use.

Oh, Vi.al needs to know about the truce you have with My.a as well. If that's still active, then this is the perfect time to talk.

Vi.Si.Mi.

You used to see Lord Vi.Al as perfect.
Lord Vi.Al knows it's fallible. That's exactly why it needs you.
It can't break the cycle alone. No one can. That's why it's your job to help.

Tell Vi.Al this challenge of My.a's is perhaps the best opportunity they've had in ages to actually talk. Lay the first stone of a new bridge. Even if it's only the one, it's still better than getting nothing done. Present it this way: It will be one less regret for Lord Vi.Al to die with when its time comes.

Oh my god I just realized, My.a told us the story of Mu.at's death, and at the time I assumed My.a had fired the experimental weapon. Now we know Vi.al did. And then, he swooped in to find My.a eating the now-weakened Starmover. The circle that he hoped to escape, happening to his hated enemy and the one he loved. Something must have broken in him then, to make him betray My.a a second time and try(?) to imprison them.

The taboo against killing one's creator must have been created as an attempt to break the circle, by so strongly discouraging it that constructs/partitions were meant to never consider it. The only thing it accomplished is to hide the very existence of the circle, and to persecute those who are unsuccessful at hiding its recurrence. I feel one piece of the puzzle might be that we have to expose the existence of the circle itself. Expose the fact that so many Lords have become such by killing their creators. But we can't really do that on our own, noone will listen to a lone ecological construct. We would have to get several Lords to admit it at the same time, as a united front. Perhaps My.a, Vi.al, and Lo.ka can do it? Lo.ka's exact origins are mysterious but considering the [MISSING] in Li.ni.si's nametag I think we can conclude that Lo.ka had a Lord above them that died, so maybe the circumstances around their death could be useful in getting the rest of the Shapeless Lords to admit the circle exists and usurpation is a frequent cause of new Lords being created. At the very least, the shock of My.a and Vi.al cooperating on *anything* should give them pause.

Considering Lords are able to erase their original creators' names from their own, I now have to wonder, are there *any* direct descendants from the Shapeless Monarch left? I wonder... was the Shapeless Monarch killed by its own creations, and the circle is a curse it put on them?

Oh. I think we have the answer to our questions regarding Vi.si.mi's blood and wings, as well. Vi.al is fallible. FALLIBLE. He made mistakes while making Vi.si.mi as they are the first and only construct he made!

If there is one thing, one, SINGULAR, thing you know, it is thus:
Nothing can exist on its own.
Even that which takes to exist needs something to take from.
All things that Grow, must either Take, or Create.
All that Take, must do so from either the Smaller, forcing ALL to grow, or the bigger, the weak fell the mighty.
The one, only, exeption to this rule of competition, is Symbiosis.
Lords, so far, seem Very Bad at Symbiosis, So the Cycle turns, without the one thing to break it.
An Ecology of minds, instead of bodies, but in Ecology none the less

>>1102479
Oh yeah I was just thinking about this.
One big problem Lords seem to have is they focus too much on the big picture. Vi.al's treatment of Five Strands is a good example of this-- he saw that her rogue planet was going to cause serious problems so he swooped in and solved the problem while sparing her creations, but didn't tell her that. It's seemingly better than what his predecessor did, which was to wipe out an entire people for being a "threat" without telling anyone else why he was doing it, but it was still not the right approach. If a Lord is to be loved, they need to not only do the right thing from the big picture perspective, but they need to connect to people on an individual level. Communicate, explain what they're doing, and why. Find out what their subjects consider the important issues, and more importantly, take on advisors who can more accurately predict how people will react.
There also might be a recurring issue of Lords using too much force when solving problems.

>>1102441
>Vi.al's only major crime here was betraying My.a. He used an experimental weapon and accidentally created the blot, sure, but he expected something different to happen. That was an accident, a mistake. He betrayed My.a on purpose, but... that is not deserving of a revolution. Vi.al is not a tyrant, not yet.
We haven't seen everything he has to show. About himself, or about My.a, or about them together.

>>1102458
True.

...what was stopping you from splitting it into quarters, or paying with YOUR half and having My.a protect you from your threats, surely they weren't as bad as Mu.at?

>>1102530
Presumably the deal was for Mu.at to provide the weapon in exchange for Vi.al giving My.a back to Mu.at.

I wonder if Vi.al's name is said the same as "vile". That would imply he named himself that as a constant reminder of what he did to get where he was.

>>1102547
If so, then I must ask what are the dangers of both scenarios, Mu.at would likely (based exclusively on what we know) be less willing to harm My.a then Vi.al, which would, if My.a was made a Lord, make My.a better at protecting Vi.al than Vi.al could My.a

>>1102429
Then choose a different expression, disgust.
Are you really going to have to unearth every misery Vi.al has places on this world?

Maybe your Lord's goal is to break your directives.

>>1102441
Only major crime that we know of.

But yeah, handing off power to someone you trust sounds like a good idea, & taking criticism from trusted individuals as well & all that.

>>1102460
>>1102463
>>1102466
>>1102491
Yeah.

>>1102547
I assumed his name was pronounced that way. Specifically "vial", but I think "vile" & "vial" are pronounced the same.

1/4 Vi.si.mi 2025/01/19(Sun)09:54 No. 1102611 ID: 2ca689
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> say your greeting
"My name is Vi.si.mi," I say, meekly.
Lord Vi.al looks at me with gentle understanding.
"It is okay, my little Vi.si.mi. Say whatever makes you feel more comfortable. The walls are insulated from signals, sight and sound."
"My name is Vi.si.mi, I am an ecology construct created for the Shapeless Lord Vi.al..."

> so many thoughts and emotions
> do not repeat the cycle
> hug Vi.al
"Long shall it r-reign! Long! You're supposed to reign for my whole life! I don't want to rebel!!" I cling to Lord Vi.al like an upset vatling, and start sobbing into Lord Vi.al's robe.
Just above me, I hear the pulsing thrum of Lord Vi.al's core, the heart of their throneworld focus. The only focus to have its heart exposed beneath the robe casing, protected from exposure by a lattice of substrate strands and energy shielding. A deliberate vulnerability, or the impression of one. I've never understood it.

Lord Vi.al simply hums a song they used to hum when I was a vatling, and pats me on the head. "You're a smart bird, Vi.si.mi. Revolution isn't something you just blunder into. And you give me your true opinion a lot more openly than I believe you think you do. I trust you and I love you, but others are less understanding. Here, speak your mind."

"Lord Vi.al..." I pull myself together.
"Vi.si.mi?"
"Is that the worst of what you did to My.a?"
"The highs and lows I consider myself free to share. There were... higher highs, but, I cannot bear to revisit them. In many ways, revisiting them hurts more than the greatest mistakes. Sho.a and My.a were happy together for a time, and My.a and their sibling Mo.a were so happy to work together. It was all too brief a time. It all started to slide into disaster the day Mo.a left, but I never did learn why Mo.a so abruptly turned their back on everyone they knew and loved."

"If you had the choice again, to send My.a back--"
"Vi.si.mi, please. I have enough of this from myself. I've calculated at least 26 ways I could have fulfilled the terms of the deals I made or ways in which I could have stacked them more in my favour. Three of them were even ways I could have come up with before my ascension to Lord. No. I would not have thrown my dearest, closest friend to a miserable fate, I would not have let my creator die in my arms, and I would not have fired a poorly understood weapon at an even more confusing threat. I would not have done so many many things. I tried to explain to My.a time and time again the only reason I took them captive was to prevent the other Lords from executing them on the spot and taking their substrate and their life for their own supply, but I suppose it doesn't matter what your intention someone has when they take away your freedom, does it. I've expected My.a to strike back at me for a long time, and quite honestly I'm surprised it took as long as it h-has."

I look up and see Lord Vi.al is trying their best to hold back tears.

"This is unbecoming of a Shapeless Lord, I am aware, but my composure may have been compromised. Pulling these memories, these vivid experiences from myself, it forces it all to feel so much more fresh and raw. Once more, I watch in horror as I see myself commit the worst mistakes of my life and all I can do is watch, screaming at a shadow not to do what I know has already been and can never be changed."
"Creator, the walls are insulated from signals, sight and sound."

Lord Vi.al looks at me in confusion, and then, with dawning realisation, they close their eyes, the tears flowing down their face.
I already was hugging them, but I just hug them tighter.

Lord Vi.al is fallible, I already knew this. But I always thought it was in ways like distractions or the errors that come up from being a distributed entity. It is strange to think that, even now, there is still a large percentage of what we all call Lord Vi.al that does not even know this is happening.
They will, quite soon. I've seen it happen often, when one of Lord Vi.al's foci receives synchronised data from their other selves, and it can be quite a shock to see a Shapeless Lord pause mid-sentence or even just interrupt themselves with an outburst when they have synchronised themselves and learned something emotionally evocative.

It's a difficult existence to understand, but ever since I created my flocklet and I've had to deal with it drifting in and out of perfect synchronicity with me, I think I get it a little better.

But no, Lord Vi.al is fallible the same way I'm fallible too, and this... it just feels wrong. I've questioned orders from Lord Vi.al before, sure, but, not because of flaws I could directly relate to. If all Shapeless Lords are like this, that feels like they're... less special. Like the distinction is less solid, less inflexible.

Like someone like me could somehow be a Shapeless Lord. That thought terrifies me.

2/4 Vi.si.mi 2025/01/19(Sun)09:55 No. 1102612 ID: 2ca689
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I let go of Lord Vi.al. They shake their head a little, flocklets dutifully removing any trace of the composure breach.

"Please, Vi.si.mi. If I ever start going astray, tell me. I will listen. I would never wish for you to have to go through what I did." They look off into the distance. "Although perhaps I already have, and all my efforts to fix the problems I cause simply introduce more problems. Problems, problems, the true nature of a Shapeless Lord is an endless parade of problems. Lordship is a cursed blessing."
"Could you not promote one of your partitions?"
"Promotion is rare. Few Lords wish to give up the control and influence they have. ...sadly, I myself find the idea horrifying, much as I wish I didn't, and yet I still dream of it. And a new Lord is always a target. I have considered the futures where I give up my power to one of my trusted partitions, in all good faith, and am forced to watch as one of my many enemies slays them, destroys my domain, and I have surrendered the exact power I would have used to save it. I... it will have to happen, some day, if I wish to be a better Lord than my predecessors, but I just... I don't feel ready for it." Lord Vi.al's gaze grows harrowed. "There are still so many problems I have to solve. I can't let go of my domain, my capabilities, my responsibilities. I keep trying to delegate and my chosen agents keep falling prey to deeper problems. It just happened again with this mission. I do not fault any of you for it, but this universe keeps proving to be more hostile and unpredictable than I imagine. We're threatened by phenomena that no one has ever encountered before. I know it will happen again, and all I can do is stall it, but I can't lose more of you. I can't lose more of you. I can't lose more of you--"

"I understand! I understand." Well, I guess I see where I get my infrequent bouts of loop sickness from.
Lord Vi.al scrunches their eyes up and rattles their entire body. "I'm unaccustomed to letting my true thoughts run so free, Vi.si.mi. I wish I could find more opportunities for time like this. As it is, I'm woefully behind on synchronisation with the rest of me. It has been cathartic to pretend to be a singleton entity again, but I have duties to uphold and a domain to keep safe, secure, and functional. I will drop the isolation barrier."
"...please talk to My.a about some of this. We have a truce right now."

Lord Vi.al sighs deeply, entirely an expressive gesture as they haven't needed to breathe air for a very long time. "I will talk if My.a permits it, perhaps. I will attempt to contact them in good faith before I leave this world, but I am bracing for it being an unproductive conversation."
"When are you leaving?" I knew it was coming, because Lord Vi.al's throneworld focus is, as to be expected, usually kept on their throneworld.
"I can't stay on this world for too long, but I will be ensuring your communication equipment includes a direct line to the palace. It did have one, but it seems... unreliable. I've put a small communications satellite into orbit, which should have already been there and appears to have gone missing or otherwise been appropriated, no surprise who by, and that's now hooked into the priority relays. It's keyed to your signature alone, because I trust you will know when to risk signal interceptions or not."
"Thank you."
"Please talk to Fo.ka.sa in the morning. She received your last message, but she's worried about you. I did update her on your status and this did not make her less worried."
"I will. ...what do I even do now, though. I don't feel up to greeting the, what did you say it was, the entire rest of the team?"
"I can let them know you are simply recovering still. You may join them tonight, or you may not. They should understand. Li.ni.si is a very understanding construct. I am glad to have given her a position where her underdocumented strengths and skills are being used."
"Thank you, Lord Vi.al." I start tearing up again. "Thank you for everything. Monarch's name, I feel like such a failure."

Lord Vi.al softly chuckles. "Strange. You seem to have been doing better than I was when I was your age. Oh, remind me after this mission to tell you more of the days before I was a Lord. Some of my terraforming missions were quite the mess. You'd enjoy the stories I have, I believe."
"I saw something about substrate ecology in those early memories. You have to tell me more about that."
"Oh, Vi.si.mi," says Lord Vi.al, smiling with their eyes, "Some of the flora and fauna on this world derives from my best designs of those more innocent days. If you get the time, I've updated your relay station's catalogue to include more data on what my plans for this world were. Not anymore, but, well, it would have been quite the sight. Oh, that reminds me. I took the initiative to preserve the plants you were transporting. Also, your relay station has a small stasis chamber for keeping organic matter preserved now. I would have simply planted them, but I didn't know what your intentions were for them."

"Oh, and one more thing. Your... emergent acquaintenance, I believe she said her name was Conduit. She shows promise, potential, and a shocking lack of awareness of my values and priorities. Not to mention a dim awareness of the sanctity of life. Enough to assuage my deeper worries, but still not as complete as I'd prefer. I would like you to mentor her. She strikes me to have the same shortcomings of a fastgrown construct, but there is a willingness to learn and a present empathy that needs encouragement. Additionally, if you meet similar entities within the attempted infrastructure of the world, please let them know my original specification is outdated, pending further review. All priority should go to the stability of this world, not further changes."

Lord Vi.al pauses once more.

"And if they are too far gone to listen to reason, be prepared to capture and detain them. Nu.ya.si has more expertise here. Do not use lethal force unless absolutely, absolutely necessary. ...and on one final note, if we do not talk before morning, I wish to assure you I will not be departing without giving you a chance to say farewell. I am trying to work on my habit of abruptly disappearing."

Lord Vi.al turns to leave, and the insulative barrier around the room fizzles away into nothing but sparkling ephemeral lights.

3/4 Vi.si.mi 2025/01/19(Sun)09:55 No. 1102613 ID: 2ca689
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I slump onto my bed.

There's a dozen questions or more I should have asked but there'll be time for them.

Mentor Conduit, huh. I guess I was already planning to do that to some extent anyway. I should do it more deliberately. Somehow.

I wonder where Lightgreen is. Probably at home asleep, because based on the clocks I can query, we're quite late into the night.

I still feel exhausted despite passing out for over half the day already. Maybe sleep isn't a bad idea.

I'm not sure how I'm going to sleep with the emotional podwreck I've just gone through, and the revelations and misery of my creator bouncing through my head.

It's not fair, it's not right, none of it is. I barely knew the Rainwhatever envoy and that's still playing on my mind. If she's still around I have to apologise to her. I like what I'm asked to do and I have some say in what I do. Even in the very rare few times of my extreme insubordination (sometimes my temper gets the best of me) I've not been punished with having my life threatened. Placed under house arrest until I cool off, maybe, but... I don't know. I can't even imagine doing anything so wrong without it affecting me enough to stop me. I just don't want to hurt people. I was made to do good things and I like doing good things.

I don't fear Lord Vi.al abandoning me now. Intentionally, anyway. I remember the times Lord Vi.al tore things apart trying to come to my rescue when missions to distant planets went badly, or if I got kidnapped by aliens, or if I otherwise became injured. And it's uncomfortable to know how good I have it as a special outlier, but I've seen Lord Vi.al drop everything to help one of their creations or indirect constructs before. But Lord Vi.al did nearly get me killed in a pod crash sending me to this planet.

I forgot to ask about that but in retrospect I think I've learned that that was, in fact, an accident, and I don't know if I want to add to the pile of things Lord Vi.al is guilty about.

The only thing I'm afraid of is something I've now seen confirmed. Lord Vi.al can make mistakes. Mistakes on the scale of fractions of a [second] that then lead to such devastation.

The mental image of Lord Vi.al reacting to a mistake that gets me killed pops into my mind. It makes me feel even worse. Damned intrusive thoughts and images. I've had enough of them from external sources, I don't need my own mind feeding them to me now!

My flocklet enters the room and settles down beside my head. Its eyes are filled with my disquiet uncertainty. I pick it up and hold it, and feel its relief to know it is not being abandoned by its creator. What a weirdly precise emotion. I let it rest on my chest as I hug it. It trills softly at me, a burbling signal with no real content beyond presence and proximity. Still comforting, though.

It's unclear to me how much of the flocklet is me and how much of it is its own thing, but that's, I suppose, the eternal ambiguity of Shapeless existence.
It's funny, though. Sometimes it feels like it has a mind of its own, like it's some piece of me that's become a little bit more comfortable to wander from myself. I wonder if I'd be capable of supporting a true partition. What would that be? Like, what, a sub-sub-partition? A sub-construct? Who knows. Maybe someone does.

Well, with all this emotional turmoil, I look forward to a long and productive session of staring at the ceiling unable to get to sleep

4/4 Vi.si.mi 2025/01/19(Sun)09:56 No. 1102615 ID: 2ca689
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and here I am on the beach again and wow I'm getting better at this mental partitioning while I sleep thing.

Oh. My flocklet's here too. I guess that happens sometimes when they're this close to me when I sleep. It remains doing whatever it does when it doesn't have orders, flitting idly around, and now sometimes poking its beak into the sand or splashing the water with a wing like a curious vatling. What a strange and silly little device.

Okay. Do I get to relax on the beach this time or am I going to be haunted by more ghosts of the past or present?

...

No?

Huh.

Finally, some peace and quiet--

"Hi Vi.si.mi. Don't mind me, I'm just checking some things." I see Li.ni.si walking around the beach. "Continue being asleep."
"What are you doing here?"
"I just said. I'm checking some things. Just basic vitals, neural cohesion. I'd also rather not be showing up in your dream simulation, but I'm asking your body directly for some information with a contact link, so you're going to end up seeing me in whatever situation you're in. I can't see where I am in your simulation beyond a vague teal-ish impression of flickering lines and 3d space-- oh, there you are. Wait. No. Misdiagnosed, that's your flocklet."

Li.ni.si wanders carefully with her eyes closed, arms outstretched, trying to not stumble over the sand.

"Why don't you open your eyes?"
"Because then I'll just see you. Like, physical you. I'm not a Co.ronal, I'm not good with this dream-simulation sharing stuff."
"Do you often do this, uh, invasive stuff?"
"All the time, with unresponsive constructs."
"I'm not unresponsive! Wait, are you in my room?"
"Yes?"
"I don't recall giving you permission to check on me like this!"
"Look. I didn't want to wake you up after you had that hard shutdown, I think rest is a good idea. I just also want to make sure you're not suffering from anything more serious like neural degradation or... reality drift, with how high fidelity this simulation is."

Li.ni.si makes a show of looking around, despite keeping her eyes closed.

"...and also because a contact link is basically impossible to intercept, and I wanted to talk to you in private. Gonna be a lot harder to find chances now that the whole team's here. Especially Nu.ya who seems to take offense to the idea of privacy." She rolls her eyes. "I begrudgingly do actually like the guy, between you and me. Deep down he's caring and considerate, but he can just be so... so... ugh. It's like we bring out the worst in each other sometimes. I don't even know if he's doing it on purpose. Oh, on that note the others say hi. Ji.pa.ke tried to bring a cake for some reason but it didn't transmit right so it's more of a, uh, y'know actually don't worry about it."
"You want to talk to me in private? Why?"
"Because I have some things I want to confess to you, if we're going to keep working together, before they show up at a more inopportune moment. That or it's just the guilt. I don't know. I'm sorry, you're trying to sleep, and here I am showing up with the most inane requests. Sorry, this was a bad idea. Your health is fine, physically, incidentally, your bioenergy is flowing like it should again. You do seem stressed but it's not hard to figure out why that might be. Also your link with your flocklet seems nice and strong when it's this close to you. Even shows up in your simulations, huh."

She pauses. "Huh. I don't think I've seen a flocklet play in the sand before. Did you give this thing an echo of yourself?"
"No? I don't think so? Not intentionally?"
"Weird. Well, it's adorable. Almost like..." She pauses. I hear her take a few deep, shuddering breaths. The contact link leaks a surge of suppressed melancholy, Li.ni.si's focus broken for a fleeting moment. "Never mind. Never mind that. Anyway, do you think you're up for another private conversation? I don't know what you spoke to Lord Vi.al about, but they came out of your room looking a little haunted, so I fully understand if you're not ready to have this conversation yet."
"Can you at least tell me what it's going to be about?"
"I think just knowing what I want to talk about is itself going to be a bit stressful." She wrings her claws together. "Ugh, I should have waited. But here we are, now."
"You're not gonna like show me a bunch of experiences as if I was you and relive your dark past or whatever are you because I really don't think I can do that again today."
"What? I don't have any of the equipment I'd need for that, I was just going to tell you? With my words?? What are you talking about??"

...

do I risk learning even more terrible secrets about my colleagues (is Li.ni.si someone I can call a friend yet? I never was clear how it worked) or can I just ask Li.ni.si to give me one damn night's peace

It's either your coworker's deep dark secrets or terrifying Blot dreams. Go for the interpersonal bit.

May as well, it's something you probably have the vague outline of, and it can't be anywhere near as bad as Vi.al's past.
...while I'm thinking about it the Conduit thing has a potentially very direct solution: Show Conduit your own memories, show why YOU care about life, some of why Vi.al does. Conduit seems to have the capability to enter this space that is You fully enough.
We're already at the topic and, well Conduit cared enough to check in on you, seems to truly, deeply, care. In a Very, Very Misguided way.

...hmmm, if a semi-one way connection can get her this far, then if you reach out to her, could you pull li.ni.si the rest of the way into the simulation?
because if you are gonna have a conversation in here, you might as well try!

May as well, its going to happen sooner or later isn't it? All these secrets are really screwing things up.

Let's not delegate to Li.ni.si more than we have to, lest we fall out of practice for this whole leadership thing. Go ahead and do another update of flashbacks.

>>1102613
Add "my flocklet seems to be thinking on its own" to the list of things to talk to Vi.al about. Actually why don't you bring that up with Li.ni.si? It's strange, but not particularly dangerous, so no reason to keep it super secret. She was going to say it was like "a child", probably. I wonder if she had one, or wanted one.

>>1102615
>she wants to talk about something
It's probably going to be about the Blot, or the City. Warn her you have seen footage of the latter, so you're partially affected, and also that My.a has a better mind shield for it so if it becomes a problem we may need to make a deal with them for treatment.

It is technically what happened with the Rain creatures message in that you've seen into what amounts to their brain.

You've been experiencing a lot of these lately in such a short amount of time..

>>1102615
It's not you, it's me. Totally gonna end up simulating it here, being a dream and all.

Fuck me up bro, might as well get it all out now.

This is how you build bridges. Vi.si.mi. Let her get it off her chest. You're going to need to be a better listener, you know.

Well that's a lot of mysteries wrapped up. Vi.al's had it rough. While My.a has it worse, she's still causing problems while Vi.al is at least attempting to fix things. Per Li.ni.si do you feel up to lending an ear or have you had enough? Seriously you've earned a break from all this.

Well being a leader does mean dealing with team drama… so grab your flocklet in a hug, sit down in a comfortable position and hope to god whatever revelations she gives you are less heavy than that of a shapeless lord.

Some perspective from the mistakes of individuals with less responsibilities might help frame what you learned.

>>1102635
Admittedly, she seems to still be trapped. I think Vi.al sent her away because he couldn't prove that she didn't have directives with her lord still alive. Either he's learned from this or it tells you more about the kind of lord he is to other Shapeless than his own with what he said.

As for Li.ni.si, ask her to go slow with it, don't see why breaking down over it would be a bad thing right now, this is the time to rest. But also that doesn't mean she will get answers. I think you are going to want to grab her and put her somewhere first, however.

>>1102615
"i keep getting substrate, substrate adjacent, or substrate parallel creatures joining my dream scape randomly sometimes and as this is a space where mindes come in contact stuff can get trippy..... they seem to be impressed with my sand if anything"