Teabagging Lift him up and pull him back, with your blade against his throat, so his pals are more in front of you than around you. Make use of your excellent peripheral vision.

Tell them you'll be happy with the one lance, and they can all fuck off.

>>263871
Don't kill anyone unless you're forced to. You said you'd try not to kill him when you were "negotiating", as it were, so doing so now might be seen as a breach of your honor.

Self defense is fine, but being a douche ain't cool. :)

Just ask them if they accept the victory and are willing to honor the terms of the agreement now, or if you'll need to go to the extreme of defeating every one of them before they admit it.

>>263871
Put the blade away and help him to his feet.
"Sorry, but we're in dire need of metal."

Ask the others if they want the same deal.

32-N115-ADZJ - forest Lyan 2010/12/12(Sun)22:57 No. 264106 ID: f123de
File 129222342940.jpg - (70.89KB , 500x500 , 21516863.jpg )

A slight nod. Blood streaming down his face from a broken nose. Hate to do it like this, but...

"Say it."

"Yield." He turns his head and spits red. "Thought you weren't playing our game. Can I get up?"

"Do any of you wish to dispute?" Realize I'm baring my teeth and force my lips closed. "All right." I stand up and hold out a hand to help him to his feet. "I'm not playing games. We're in dire need of metal." A moment's thought, then, "here." I reverse my sword and hold the hilt toward him. "An apology."

[Very smart. Arm the people that were trying to kill you.]
"It's just carbon. Disposable. They wouldn't attack me now that I'm unarmed - it'd be dishonorable."
[You forgot that you're about to take his weapons?]
"You'd protect me."
[From your own stupidity? Ha.]

It flashes by in a moment while the knight stands there staring at my offer. Finally he takes it and turns away. The lances lower slightly as I collect my spoils. "Is there anything you can do to help us out? So this doesn't happen with everyone we run into?"

"I will let others know that you are off-limits, but I suggest you run fast and far. You will not be well-loved in the lands of Camberleigh, nor any of the Seleighe. Not sure if it's meant as a threat. He says it as a simple statement of fact.

Take the time to collect our things - Sal's optics, the cable, spear, and knife? Or just move?
Stop soon to fabricate and use this offline brain-scanner? Wait until night falls and do it then?
[Or I could just carry you all night.]
Or Sal could carry me.

>>264106
Take the optics, spear... wait how did Sal just respond to what you're thinking? Hacking as usual I see!

Yeah get the stuff. The cable could be left behind I guess since it's disposable and a little time-consuming and we need to run. Sal carrying you all night... interesting prospect. Not sure on that. Might want to build that backup device.

>>264106
Collect your things, and consider telling them that something destroyed your habitat.

>>264106
You certainly want to grab Sal's optics, unless they're replacable with surplus materials. The rest is all just carbon, isn't it?

>>264106
Collect all of your stuff. Might be needed again in the future. Fabricate the brainscanner when you stop for the night. Oh, and remember how these people smell. You have a very useful additional sense now, you need to learn how to use it, part of that is remembering what smells belong to a place and what doesn't.

>>264114
Do not tell them this. Get Sal's eye, and you need to use the brain scanner as soon as you can.

Clarifying: I want to work on the brain scanner when night falls.

Is the Sal-possessed thing yours now, or will they want Sal to undo its hoodoo to give it back?

32-N115-ADZJ - forest Lyan 2010/12/16(Thu)09:11 No. 264765 ID: f123de
File 129251946255.jpg - (49.22KB , 500x500 , 21517048.jpg )

"We need to keep the alicorn a bit longer. Is that going to be a problem?"

"On your heads be it." It's the answer I expected. Still, as we're turning to leave one of the riders turns to watch us leave and wishes us luck.

[Still can't believe this is what we're fighting to protect.] Sal sounds bitter as we backtrack to retrieve its eye. I'm not sure what to say. [You did all right back there. Thought we'd end up fighting them all.] It pauses. [It's what you would have done before.]

[...of course, if you had we'd be swimming in raw materials right now and I'd finally be up to spec again.]

The day passes uneventfully - both of us lost in thought, perhaps. I'm wondering how Sal ties into all of this. I'd like to know how it bypasses all the safeguards on my sword. I'd like some sort of ideas for stopping the basilisk beyond our "plan B."

We make camp a few Ks after darkness falls.

32-N115-ADZJ - 220km away Lyan 2010/12/16(Thu)09:12 No. 264766 ID: f123de
File 129251953771.jpg - (27.13KB , 500x500 , 21594031.jpg )

"So. It kills me, maps the physical structure of my brain, then attempts to revive me while reversing any other damage done by the process."

[Yep.]

"Sounds a bit primitive."

[It's what we've got.]

This might be the last good time time to try for answers for a while. Otherwise, we're ready to start with the backup.

>>264766
Answers to what? I can't think of anything obvious that Sal would (alternately, could) actually give you an answer for.

But perhaps someone else can?

I was just wondering... the Basilisk corrupts anything it's recorded onto, be it a Network node or a living brain. What will it do to the backup? Will it be safe to use? Or will it just preserve your Basilisk as-is along with the rest of your noggin?

Another question is if the basilisk will destroy the backup device.

Ask Sal if it likes you better now than... before. Also ask if there was any reason for you to have created the Basilisk. Did you hate the habitats?

That reminds me. Sal never did say how they knew us before. Now seems like a good time to press the issue.

>>264766
Guess you could ask Sal about the you of before and how well Sal knew you.

Alright Lyan listen up. When you can, make some more storage devices and send your brain cycling through them. If that keeps them from being destroyed, you may have a quick solution to the virus, if only a temporary one. Alternatively, what about hardwriting your brain? Inscribe it on something a bit bigger, like a sheet of practically invincible material.

32-N115-ADZJ Lyan 2010/12/30(Thu)03:09 No. 267795 ID: f123de
File 129370736970.jpg - (27.46KB , 500x500 , 21594045.jpg )

What will happen to the device? To the backup it creates? I can answer that one for myself.

The device itself will probably be damaged - not rendered unusable, but infected nonetheless. Nothing about that should keep it from capturing an image of my brain. The way it works is pretty primitive - it doesn't create a state vector that could be simulated on compatible hardware. It, well, basically creates a blueprint that could be used to rebuild and reconnect the neurons. The first test will be whether I wake up after using this thing.

"Sal. Before I use this thing..."

32-N115-ADZJ Lyan 2010/12/30(Thu)03:10 No. 267796 ID: f123de
File 129370743687.jpg - (24.72KB , 500x500 , 21594123.jpg )

"What exactly is going on here?"

[I'm not quite sure what you mean.]

"How did you know me before?"

[Not saying.]

"How well did you know me?"

[We were... close.]

"How close?"

[What exactly is this supposed to accomplish?]

"You're the only person I know of that could tell me what's going on. What I was like. Why I built the basilisk. Did I hate the habitats? Our culture? And instead of helping you're content to follow along occasionally giving cryptic answers like some broken oracle!"

[Hold on. I didn't say that you DID do it, just that you had the capacity. On a... very, very short list of intelligences that do. Why you might want to do it... Murphy, I'm missing more than a Gigasecond myself.]

"How did you know to track me down? What were you expecting to find?"

[What matters right now? The past, or the future? Do you want to save our civilization? Because that's what I'm here trying to help with.] Murphy. It's been like this every time, arguing in circles. But after a moment, it continues. [There was... a fire in you. I've been waiting to see if it would come back. There are sparks, but..]

32-N115-ADZJ Lyan 2010/12/30(Thu)03:11 No. 267797 ID: f123de
File 129370747818.jpg - (23.50KB , 500x500 , 21594167.jpg )

Sal sighs, and walks toward me. [You were... not necessarily a good person.] It looks down. [And maybe that's what we need right now. I'm sorry.]

[Almost forgot. You'll be needing this.]

"Hmm?"

Sal reaches into its chest and pulls loose a small cube of its mass, then offers it to me.

[Recording mass.]

Obviously that's as much as I'm going to get out of Sal.

"Um. Thanks."

32-N115-ADZJ (animated) Lyan 2010/12/30(Thu)03:12 No. 267798 ID: f123de
File 129370753175.gif - (340.26KB , 500x500 , 21598231.gif )

Slow my breathing. Lower my heart rate. Should help the machine work. Clear my mind.

Nervous. This tech hasn't been in use for at least 40 Gs, and for good reason.

Steel tendrils slip through my veins and things start... to... slow.

White light.

32-N115-ADZJ Lyan 2010/12/30(Thu)23:58 No. 267994 ID: f123de
File 129378228574.jpg - (24.81KB , 500x500 , 21654353.jpg )

My eyes feel like they've been glued shut.

[Welcome back.]

Well, I'm alive again. I have a feeling of deja vu.

Ask her how long you were out.



AND what she did to your body THIS time.

Lyan 2010/12/31(Fri)00:28 No. 268004 ID: f123de
File 129378408473.jpg - (35.63KB , 500x500 , 21654527.jpg )

"Oh... MURPHY." I gag. "Something died in my mouth."

[Technically, it was your mouth that died. System probably didn't clean up all the decay products very well.]

"How long was I - no, wait. 60Ks. That long?."

[Afraid so. While I was waiting I ate the leftovers.] What? An summary of our assembler block asserts itself - 3kg of Al missing. Also a few more kilos of organics in the form of rations and antiseptic rinse, which I take from Sal with thanks. It does look a little better. Slightly less emaciated than previously.

There's no part of me that doesn't feel awful. I dial down the pain but it doesn't change the fact that I'm still in the process of repairing catastrophic damage to most of my tissues. It'll be at least a diem before the autolysis is full reversed. I really hope I don't need to do that again soon. "I feel like I've still got rigor mortis."

[At least you can laugh about it, right?]

Unless there's something I'm forgetting, I'm ready to get this journey over with.

Oh god what now.

Yes, continue on.

Did dying accomplish what it was supposed to?

Let's go. Dammit, that took a shitload of time.

>>268004
You need to mod that thing so it'll keep the autonomics going while you're out. It's bad enough that it knocked you out for two thirds of a day, but being impaired afterward? That's just unacceptable!
You can work on those mods while you're traveling. It's not like you can't code and walk at the same time, right?

Still, there has to be a way to neuter the basilisk. Our best bets are probably going dumb, pigeonholing it, or abstracting it.
On the dumb end the basilisk can't damage a storage medium that's too simple for the basilisk to damage; it would not, for example, be possible for the basilisk to damage notches in a block of wood. By the same token it can't damage a read/write mechanism that lacks some minimum amount of internal storage.
Alternatively, we could exploit the Shannon limit by compressing (and possibly encrypting) the data until it no longer damages systems that store it. This results in a catch-22 situation for the worm; if it remains functional when archived then the archive will be corrupted and we can use that information to precisely identify what portions are the basilisk, at which point we can hose down those areas with random bit corruption and damage if beyond functioning. If the archive isn't infectious, then the problem of storing it is solved.
Working in the opposite direction, we can have a bit of code go through and verbosely describe the data well enough to reconstruct it without actually recording any of the data directly. If that remains infected then we can compare the original with the copy to find matching or similar strings.

If it's redundant or fractal then pattern matching will easily catch it. Beyond that there's little left besides superpolymorphism, and since that requires that the code be 'live' to adapt we can use dumb tools to exploit its inactive state to get a clean copy.

OR you could start work on a Weasel to hunt and kill the Basilisk and consume its remains.

>>268004
Ask Sal if you atleast found out anything useful from it. Would kind of suck to learn that this was a waste of time.

Also, Sal is very much evasive about your past. Which makes me think that this red thing is even more untrustworthy than it seems.

32-N115-ADZJ - forest's edge Lyan 2010/12/31(Fri)12:50 No. 268067 ID: f123de
File 129382862253.jpg - (37.85KB , 500x500 , 21663298.jpg )

How much further? Give me a map."

Sal obliges. [About 200 Km, and 3 vertical.]

"Vertical?"

-----

"Ok, I don't know much about planetary geography but I know this is ridiculous. You're SURE this is where it is?" I've long since switched to radio to save my breath.
[No. I'm sure that's where it was.]
"This is the only way to contact it?"
[It takes great stock in appearances.]

With a little luck we'll be there not long after sunrise.

32-N115-ADZJ - volcanic crater Lyan 2010/12/31(Fri)12:51 No. 268068 ID: f123de
File 129382866782.jpg - (39.04KB , 500x500 , 21710564.jpg )

"I'm not sure what I expected to find, but this wasn't it."

[Oh?] Sal squats down and stares into the magma.

"ARA! Visitors!"

32-N115-ADZJ - volcanic crater Lyan 2010/12/31(Fri)12:52 No. 268069 ID: f123de
File 12938287718.jpg - (41.45KB , 500x500 , 21710617.jpg )

A dark mass begins to slowly take shape within the crater.
Hmm. I thought Sal had a weird morphology.

I'd like to say it spoke with a voice reminiscent of tectonic plates grinding together or something equally poetic, but it's not.


"Lyan. It's been a long time."

...what kind of timescale does something that chills as a geological formation consider "long"?

>>268069
We've BEEN here before? How the hell does it even recognize us?

Say hello, ask how it recognized us so easily. Don't start of the conversation with blurting out your problems- lead into it gradually without being deceptive.

>>268078
This...is a good question, given our identity is sufficiently broken to lock us out of our own IP!

Also, sergal-meat shell.

"Hey. This is Tier 2, right? I locked myself out of my own memories and body and forgot my password again."

32-N115-ADZJ - volcanic crater Lyan 2010/12/31(Fri)20:07 No. 268141 ID: e5b41b
File 129385484457.jpg - (41.57KB , 500x500 , 21710624.jpg )

"Sorry. I don't remember."

"I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to the creature next to you."

What.

[Shit.]


End Chapter II.

Begin swearing. Do not stop until the next thread is underway.

>>268153

>>268141
"Well that explains a lot. Wait, no it doesn't.
Sal, did you hijack my identity again?"

"I thought I was Lyan. So which of us is the clone?"

Grab Sal Lyan II and coil him into a pretzel. "WHAT A TWIST."

Say "You've been Lyan to me all along!"

Of course, Lyan is Sam's xox. Makes sense why Sam stuck with Lyan so long, since Lyan is Sam, just a different branched instance.

Trapper!/KLERUSqLU 2011/01/04(Tue)19:31 No. 269249 ID: bd3722
File 129419829566.jpg - (78.66KB , 500x403 , mind-explosion-.jpg )

F*****G FUCK ....
I read this complete quest and the discussion thead in like a week ... AND I FUCKING DIDN'T SEE THIS "M Night Shyamalan-like" PLOT TWIST COMMING .-.

This is so fucking awesome.

I won't use the >"Myheadisfulloffuck.jpg"
i guess it was already used like twice.

"So, that was masturbation?"