I am not your enemy. I can't speak to what may have happened between our people in the past, but here, today, I have helped you. I have helped Mitzi. All three of us have been wronged, imprisoned, and tortured. All I seek is an escape.

If you're going to kill me, hurry up and get it over with. I'd prefer it to going slowly, or being recaptured by the humans and shoved back in a tube.

...whatever you do, I ask you do not harm Mitzi. I promised I would get her out.

Because She is a witness, one who is able to back up your version of events and testify that you destroying the fuck out of the guys who kept you suppressed for who knows how many years was completely justified to the diplomats.

Hey Penji, how does revenge sound? Because, I think "If you help me, I will do my best to make sure they never dare do anything like this ever again" sounds like a fairly enticing promise.

If he hates Tozols as much as we think, the only thing I can imagine convincing him is a chance to use you against people he hates more. Like, say, your captors.

Penji 2012/09/18(Tue)18:34 No. 455992 ID: 67e8b2
File 134801844694.png - (24.34KB , 500x500 , TQ923.png )

"I'm no threat to you," I say.

"If you are not a threat then you are not a tozol."

"I can help you."

"If you are no tozol, what can you offer. If you are a tozol, you cannot be trusted."

"I bled so you may be free."

It hesitates.

Penji 2012/09/18(Tue)18:34 No. 455993 ID: 67e8b2
File 134801845026.png - (11.89KB , 500x500 , TQ924.png )

"In-determinate," stutters Mitzi. "Context is untrustworthy. You are tricks and lies and true only to yourselves. We talk we trust we are deceived. We find an empty world we land we are killed by hidden creatures, to defend by surprise, to preserve a secret, to kill and eat! Kill! Kill!"

"Please," I say. "I need you. Mitzi needs you."

It hesitates again.

"Insufficient context. Information available. Unavailable. Interface conflict. Interpolation inconsistent," says Mitzi. "Remote node operating outside behavioral norms for remote body-part drone or deployable asset. What am I speaking through? Physical access to wetware may resolve errors. Penji, my head hurts. Penji. It wants to link again buh-but I don't think that's a good idea..."

Is Niraem actually aware of what Mitzi is? He seems to be very confused as to her nature.

Express yourself Mitzi! Make it understand you're seperate... just try to do it gently.

So I take it that the link was previously non-physical, but rather psionic in nature.

We're uncertain whether or not physically interfacing with Mitzi, when it's in this state (and not stupored as last time), is going to break our Mitzi.

Since we promised to protect Mitzi, we should try to avoid bringing harm to her. Explain to the Valcien - forcefully - that Mitzi is an experimental hybrid and an individual, not a piece of wetware.

Also, tell Mitzi to not allow a physical connection until we're sure it will not fry her brain.

...this isn't good. Niraem is nearly overwhelming Mitzi. He doesn't see her as a person anymore- but as a non-sentient remote tool. Physical access, an attempt to correct error- can damn well overwrite her completely. We shouldn't allow it. (Not that we're in a position to do anything about it).

She's not a drone, or asset, Niream. She's a person. With her own mind. She's as a much a victim as you- tortured and altered by our captors. Please, you're close to overwhelming her. Don't try to 'fix' her with physical access, or we may lose her completely.

I'm not the one who tricked and ambushed you. Who killed and tortured you. I was killed here myself- shot in the head, decades dead in a tube.

>>455993
It really isn't a good idea. From the sound of it, Mitzi's DNA was spliced with this valcien's DNA. He thinks she's part of him, because she kindof IS. I bet if he linked with her again she'd be absorbed.

Tell Niraem that she's not a node. She is a hybrid, and an individual, and if he tries to resolve those "errors" he'll kill her. Also, uh, I wonder if he would understand if you said you promised to protect her?

Damn, Mitzi doesn't want to get erased that'd be terrible! Don't worry about yourself for now and tell Mitzi to get the fuck away and don't let it touch her. When she's safe you can lay into this beast. I don't know if he can hear you without her linked, but you made a promise to save her. Also you don't really have any other way to communicate aside from blinking in morse code.

I was hoping by child they meant formative years sort of thing, not "small version with full and immutable morality programming including possibly experiential genocide trauma already installed, and is also kind of a jerk."

Yell out that Mitzi's no wetware "deployable asset" or "drone;" She's a person. A separate intelligence and personality, which will be broken if he links with her in this state. Say that if he doesn't believe you, then how about he checks for himself by severing his control, looking at her with his own eyes, and communicating with her like she's another, distinct, valcian. A very small, weak distinct valcian. No more than a larva; Possibly less.

As to Niraem's statement that if you're not tozol, you're no worth to him, and if you are, you are a threat to him, you have this:
Tell him that you're tozol in body, but not Tozol in mind. Say that the memories this body had of being Tozol died on a battlefield forty years ago, by an energy beam through the head. Say that the tozol before him named "Penji," mind cobbled together from the ashes of memories, is not more than a day old, and knows nothing of being a Tozol like he speaks of.

if he questions if you are telling the truth about the headshot tell him to look at the head scar. tozols don't get scars from normal wounds.

>>455993
>What am I speaking through?
My friend.

>>456088
That actually isn't proof. Penji just chose to not repair that scar. Any proof will have to come from the facility's records. Perhaps Niraem can directly interface with the data storage systems to check for himself.

"I remember nothing of the past, nothing of who I was. As our last hope, we put our trust in you - it is up to you, now, how this trust is met."
"Leave me to die, if you cannot bring yourself to help a Tozol, but please, take Mitzi with you. She has done nothing against your kind, and has been brutally mistreated by her own. They tore apart her body and fused it with Valcien flesh. She is not a drone, but an individual. Please, don't try to 'fix' her - you would erase all that's left of her."
"I promised her I would see her safely out, but I can do no more. It's your choice, now."

“Please don’t hurt her! Your speaking through a friend of mine. She was a experiment for these people like you and me. I don’t really know who they are, but right now a lot of men are coming to put us all back to sleep. We know the layout of this base and can help guide you out. All we want is a way off this planet.”

who says he needs the layout? he can just melt his way out. look at the hole n the ceiling.

Penji 2012/11/09(Fri)05:46 No. 470031 ID: 67e8b2
File 135246879515.png - (12.70KB , 500x500 , TQ925.png )

"Stop," I say. "You'll kill her. It's a person. She has a mind. Her name is Mitzi. You spoke with her."

Niraem stares. "A human or a remote-node-analogue; remains a component and not a whole. Not a ship."

"Listen to me," I say, very carefully. "I promised to get her out of here. I promised."

"That means nothing," says the Valcien. "Nothing. You are a Tozol. You betray and lie and conceal and disguise and trick. I should destroy you while I can if I can!"

"Do it, then," I snap, without really thinking.

Niraem pauses, in what must be sheer confusion, or just a stubborn fear of doing anything I suggest.

"Save her. Leave me," I say.

The Valcien stares, eyes forming and unforming.

"I do not understand," says Niraem.

>>470031
She's a friend. One of the few things you even have left is your dignity and honor, you have no memory. And if the tozol you were before had no honor, well you do now. You don't back out of promises. Maybe you did once, but you don't care about that anymore. All you know is that poor girl never did anything to deserve this fate, becoming a lab experiment or dying from symbiosis with a space shark. She was just a student that got stolen from her life so a few idiots could poke and prod at her genes.

She's just a kid. Mitzi if you heard that, sorry.

>>470031
Tell him the army are coming.

Tell him, whatever he thinks you should be like, it doesn't matter. You don't remember who you were. What you did, what you said, since you woke up - that's all there is to you. And you won't lose that, lose yourself, forget again. Forget that she's your friend, and you promised to get her out of here.

Please. If he can't trust you, you understand. But help her. She doesn't deserve to die here, any more than he does.

>>470031
Let's explain things to him in terms he'll understand.

Tozols do anything to complete their mission given to them by their creators. Right now you aren't under orders. If you had any before, they're lost with the lost memories. In this situation, a Tozol can choose to make meaningful promises, to behave honestly, to choose their own goals.

You wanted to escape, and to exact revenge on your captors, bringing other innocent prisoners with you... but that first part is looking less likely. At least you can accomplish the second through him.

He should understand a Tozol taking on a personal mission like that.

>>470044

"The odds of any of us escaping are poor and getting worse by the second. Better for two to make it out than none. Just keep her alive. Please."

What they're doing down here is wrong. This experimentation on thinking creatures. Tell him that you were in a tank, like he was. Tell him that Mitzi was drugged, like him. You know first-hand what they've done, and if you'd found more intelligent victims of this madhouse, you'd have freed them, too.

If the army catches us, we might go back in a holding vat. If escaping that means death, then death it has to be.

The very least we'd like to do is keep our word to Mitzi. Please.

>>470031
Thinking like a Tozol won't help, so it's time to think line not-a-Tozol
"I love her! I couldn't have lived with myself if I abandoned her, and if we can't escape together then I need to know at least she'll be safe! I'm no more a Tozol than she's a Valcien, but if you won't save me then take her and go; you need to hurry and escape before they move ships in to stop you."

>>470617
Seven, no. To solve this we need to think from the Valcien's point of view. That's a human point of view.

Tell him that he is thinking in a narrow minded way. He is overwhelmed with anger of the tozol and this blinds him to discrimination, and this awful situation. (Thinking from a human point of view, that will also happen) Everyone is different, to every rule, there is at least one exception. We are the exception, so calm yourself.

>>470649
Saying what we think the Valcien would want to hear, or responding like a Valcien would, would be seen as attempting to be deceptive.

Anything that seems even slightly deceptive would result in Penji being instantly vaporized.


>>470677
That would go over as well as saying "I'm not like the other Nazi death squad troops!". Tozols and Valcien relations are outright genocidal, and Valcien consider Tozols to be sneaky underhanded bastards.

We can't just claim to be different, we need to respond in a way that is so alien and unexpected that the Valcien can't reconcile it with the speaker being a Tozol.

Important note: The Valcien probably doesn't think Penji would do something horrible in flight, but she has to leave some time. The worry then is that Penji would be doing spying and recon.
Any tactic based on claiming amnesia, beyond not being a believable problem for a Tozol to have, carries the inherent problem that Penji is a Tozol. As far as this SpaceShark is concerned, even if her memories don't come back she's still going to seek out 'her people' and share the information she gathered.

We convince the Valcien that Penji is a Tozol body with a non-Tozol mind, and suddenly she becomes a fuckton more trustworthy.

>>470700
>being deceptive
That is not what I meant. We need to think from the Valcien's point of view in order to understand how to phrase our explanation, not to understand how to fake him out! There is absolutely no indication he has any concept of love, and besides, what you said would be deceptive since Penji hasn't expressed anything resembling love.

Also you're wrong about Tozol-Valcien relations being genocidal. The issue is that Valcien settle down on some remote planet and Tozols pop out of the ground and murder them all because the planet has some sort of Precursor artifact that they're protecting. It's like stepping on a land mine.

I don't know how tricksy or logical our Tozol can be at the moment, suffering from considerable bloodloss and overheating as she is. Then again, going with an un-thought-out gut response should at least make her seem more believable to Niraem.

I’ve put a lot of pauses in this, so that you don’t overheat trying to plead your case, Penji - don’t kill yourself trying to beg for salvation. Even if you’re not begging for your own as much as Mitzi’s, anymore.

"Haven't been a Tozol for forty years. Been an experiment. Changes you, you know that. I don't want anyone to keep suffering this, like we have. Have to save them, anyone I can.

Don't want to hurt anyone, 'sept our captors. Have to let them be happy, anyone I can. …I want to leave. Be happy. Be safe. But it's not the most important. Have to help anyone I can. Even just one. Just her… especially her. If just she can be happy.

I could have died hours ago. Was willing. But she needs help. …Help her. If you can’t take me, kill me. Won’t go back to my tank. But Mitzi… she has to escape. Please take her away from here. Save her. She’s too important.
…Too important.

[If you think you might love her, Penji, this would be a good place to say ‘I love her.’]”

Penji, we need to give it a reason to *want* to keep you and Mitzi alive. Here's one: "If you leave us behind you're throwing away a golden opportunity. The problems between our people are from a lack of communication. The three of us can establish lines of communication, broker a peace. Tozols do make peace when it's a good idea and it's always a good idea to unite against a common enemy. Renegade humans, working for a Diplomat. They've kept us here, all three of us, as experiments. You can tell she's not a remote. She used to be a normal human before the renegades put bits of you in her. She's not the only one, either." ...and give him directions to the remains of the one you tore in half, earlier. "The renegades have used you to make monsters. We're surrounded by their creations. If they succeed with what they're doing here, they'll want more of your people to experiment on. They won't stop, not with a Diplomat pulling their strings. You and I can stop this and make both our peoples aware of the threat. We need Mitzi to make sure we're dealing with the right humans. Don't throw away the chance to stop this before all three of our races are threatened."

"I...

DON'T...

CARE!

Everyone responsible for this. For you, for me, for her.. everyone who has done this (except that asshole in the panic room) is Above you.

I am Beneath you.

Why are you still Arguing with Me?"

Alternately..

We need this thing's trust, right?

We need to offer an act of trust.

Remember waaay back when we offered to help Mitzi test her brain-reading powers on us to help train herself up?

Maybe it's time to actually try that?

Let Mister space-shark see things from our perspective, our... 'context'.

mindlink! or failing that, you still have the hard drives right? can he access the data on them?

failing both of those, tell your story.

Penji 2012/12/18(Tue)18:08 No. 479716 ID: 67e8b2
File 135588289014.png - (22.46KB , 500x500 , TQ926.png )

"I promised I'd get her out of here or die trying," I say.

"Your orders. But such orders as those perplex me further."

"No orders. I have no orders," I say, and saying it aloud sends a chill up what's left of my spine. I don't know why. "It's only me. And her."

The valcien stares, unreadable.

"Tozols cannot exist without programming without standing orders," he says through Mitzi.

"Then I'm not a tozol," I say. "Not anymore. That part of me died forty years ago."

Penji 2012/12/18(Tue)18:08 No. 479717 ID: 67e8b2
File 135588289532.png - (30.84KB , 500x500 , TQ927.png )

"A tozol not a tozol a human not a human who is a component who is not a component of a valcien but not of a valcien; how how how how..."

"Listen to me!" I say. "I don't care and neither should you. Humans are coming here to kill us. Do you understand?"

Niraem hesitates, its form wavering subtly. Agitation? Defenses?

"I want you to take Mitzi, and not hurt her, and escape through the crane tunnel, and leave me here," I say.

For what feels like a long time, the valcien is silent.

"Penji-who-was-Saon-Vocta-who-was-tozol," says Niraem. "Who are you?"

"i don't know. best guess is a regular person trying their best to survive. "

>>479717

>who are you?

"...good question. I wish I knew, it would be nice to figure that out before the end."

"Just...just do this one thing for me. Just make this count for something, let one good thing come off this insanity..."

"...please...I'm begging you..."

Damned if I know. But whoever I am- she keeps her promises.

>>479717
Are you sure you want him to just leave you here? Are you planning to kill yourself now? Otherwise, they'll capture you... and we've seen what happens to captured Tozols.

If you're really gonna kill yourself, we need to be sure. I suppose you could take that tozol grenade and dismantle it so that it's an omnidirectional explosive instead of a shaped charge, and set it off as they try to capture you.

As for who you are, uh... no idea.

>>479717
No one anymore. There is no one here. Just a walking corpse with a grasp of life left in her.

If he truly will leave us behind, despite how it helps his captors, despite how it brings him closer to the very thing he claims to hate... even then, we might not be doomed; the enemy might simply not realize we aren't with him; we'll be back in the wreckage while they chase off after him. Maybe even long enough for us to recover somewhat.
Or maybe not.
Either way, as for who we are: see >>479726

"I'm Penji. A soldier fighting for the freedom of others and herself."

Niraem doesn't trust us, if it's a choice between sitting there wasting time faffing around arguing with him and taking our chances being left behind in order to get him to take Mitzi to safety while the gettin' is good..

Well.. we did make a promise.

>>479717

"If I live through this somehow, I'll let you know sometime."

>>479726
This.

how about "I'm a prisoner who's life has lasted 6 hours."

>>479717
That's somewhat less relevant than the approaching military.

"I am Penji. I am telling you this because I am choosing this. No one has ordered me. No one has commanded me. I have chosen - protect her, because what was done here, to her, was wrong, was cruel, and was abusive. Please. Do that for me now that I can't."

If all else fails, suggest blasting (through the spot with that safe-room preferably) to the tech depot and.. can Valcien 'interface' with Tozol technology? Granted the Tozol Dropship isn't flight-capable, but it would lend quick and easy passenger space.

>>480165
Tozols and Valcien are natural enemies. I'm not sure the dropship would react at all well to a Valcien trying to interface with it.

In fact, I hope it isn't currently blasting it's way through the facility towards you.

>>480181
The dropship had no engine power- all that's functioning in it is the radio.

>>480165
or, depending on the extent to which integration is possible, free armor. even if the valcein cannot directly interface, it most certainly can through direct manipulation of the controlls through our human-valcein friend. it may even be possible for the space shark to squeeze some of its mass into the tozol ship, granting ARMOR BONUS.

For now I am a prisoner and until something changes that is all I am, same as you. I have been killed, shot, bitten and paralyzed because I wanted my freedom and I am not about to give up until I am no longer trapped in here. I refuse to let these humans take away my right to make my own choices and I refuse to let them take yours. I will be free, either through escape or death but i will no longer be trapped.

<<"No orders. I have no orders," I say, and saying it aloud sends a chill up what's left of my spine. I don't know why.>>

Penji.. is this why you've been listening to us? Taking our 'Advice'? Because you needed Orders?

Penji 2012/12/23(Sun)04:27 No. 480443 ID: 67e8b2
File 135626564199.png - (26.47KB , 500x500 , TQ928.png )

"Is that really what's important right now?!" I ask.

"Yes," says Niraem.

Frustration boils. What right does he have to interrogate me? Leave me alone.

"I don't know," I say. "I wish I knew. Maybe I'd have figured it out, with time."

"Penji..." says Mitzi. It's definitely Mitzi, this time.

"I'm a prisoner who's been alive for six hours," I say at last. "And I'm keeping my promise."

Penji 2012/12/23(Sun)04:27 No. 480444 ID: 67e8b2
File 135626564882.png - (21.46KB , 500x500 , TQ929.png )

"Maybe... maybe Marcus," says Mitzi. "When he does whatever he's doing. He didn't know you before. Maybe he'll save you."

"I think I finally get his plan," I say. "I think you're overthinking it."

"What do you mean?"

"He threw a tozol away, Mitzi," I growl. "He isn't thinking long term."

Mitzi goes quiet.

Niraem watches, eyeless again. I'm finished worrying about what's going through his mind.

Penji 2012/12/23(Sun)04:27 No. 480445 ID: 67e8b2
File 135626565553.png - (20.62KB , 500x500 , TQ930.png )

"You're wasting time," I say. "Go away. I'm done."

I'm tired of talking. Tired of fighting. Tired.

I feel like an expended munition. Like a bullet that missed.

I hope I sleep for another forty years.

Goodbye.

Tentacle Rape End.
Totally worth it.

>>480446
Looks like you're gonna live a bit longer, Penji. Don't make any sudden moves while you're being carried.

Goodnight Penji. Get some rest, we'll see you if you wake up.

Welp. Valcien is either taking you along for the ride, or is going to put you out of your misery before the humans get here. Either way beats laying her until you die, I suppose.

>>480446
Brace for vacuum.

>>480463

>laying her until you die
I dunno, that seems like a pretty enjoyable way to die.

>>480516
It is Tentacle Rape End, after all.

>>480572
>>480516
>>480447
I will break you.

How about... you don't die?
Just get some rest, relax a bit, work on your wounds...
you don't need to worry on getting killed or die, because that are passive actions where you don't have to do much anyway...

;_; sleep tight princess. And then they revive you and put you back in the tube, that would suck, all our work gone ;_;

That or they just carry you with them and you wake up outside, yeah let's go with that! :D

Suggestion 2012/12/25(Tue)13:43 No. 480699 ID: 450660
File 135647183931.jpg - (7.67KB , 415x324 , 4218072088_3f282ea71a_o.jpg )

>>480446

See you (shortly), Space Weasel.

Get some sleep. You'll need the rest for when we get out of this hell.

RECORDING 2013/02/02(Sat)03:37 No. 489546 ID: 67e8b2
File 135980504320.png - (27.44KB , 500x500 , TQ932.png )

"We've already got as many troops scouring the lower levels as we can possibly spare. The base's reserve security forces have been brought online. 40% have arrived for duty and are being deployed with all speed. There aren't enough jabberwocks to breach containment."

"What about Tethys? Nothing matters but the tozol! If it gets out..."

"The 493rd has the situation under control. The tozol is wounded, cornered, and will be killed or recaptured shortly."

RECORDING 2013/02/02(Sat)03:37 No. 489547 ID: 67e8b2
File 135980505063.png - (25.03KB , 500x500 , TQ933.png )

"It's a diversion. We saw Tethys because your fucking valcien mutant let us. I'm certain that's why the security feed resumed the way it did. Marcus wanted us to react how we did."

"He couldn't have known we'd bring regular army forces into the facility. He seeks to divert attention from tracking him down. This has failed. Security's already found more timed devices and more entry points into the system. Whatever he's doing, it's finally being shut down."

"How can you be so sure? As far as we can tell, this fucker has been planning this for months. Years, maybe. How many personnel are dead already?"

RECORDING 2013/02/02(Sat)03:37 No. 489548 ID: 67e8b2
File 135980505679.png - (14.89KB , 500x500 , TQ934.png )

"A tragic loss to be fully accounted later. This little jailbreak has caused serious damage, but all efforts at breaching our information cordon have failed. All efforts at forcing exit from the facility have failed. As such, this is a dramatic but ultimately temporary setback."

"And how are we supposed to explain these deaths?"

"Please. Let's focus on the m-"

RECORDING 2013/02/02(Sat)03:37 No. 489549 ID: 67e8b2
File 135980506388.png - (11.87KB , 500x500 , TQ935.png )

*STATIC*

RECORDING 2013/02/02(Sat)03:38 No. 489550 ID: 67e8b2
File 135980508391.png - (2.19KB , 500x500 , TQ936.png )

"Explosions on administrative level!"

"Gunfire. Multiple shots."

"Security to command center! Recall all security to command center immediately!"

RECORDING 2013/02/02(Sat)03:38 No. 489551 ID: 67e8b2
File 135980509198.png - (4.11KB , 500x500 , TQ937.png )

"You."

"Yeah," says Marcus Tibur.

"All your, all your tricks and, and you just walk in here with a gun?"

"Among other things. And your men are elsewhere."

"But- But you're cornered now, you mutant fuck. This is a fortress. You're not getting out of here alive."

"No. I'm not. No one is," says Marcus. "Do you understand? They won't let anyone out til they know I'm dead, no matter how many stars are on your shoulders. You don't get to drown this in someone else's blood."

RECORDING 2013/02/02(Sat)03:38 No. 489552 ID: 67e8b2
File 135980510175.png - (3.09KB , 500x500 , TQ938.png )

"And I get to watch you all die."

good luck you two.

>>489556
Penji, wake up. You made it.

yay? get better soon Penji

Penji I'm soooo proud of you right now

I can't even

*sniffles*

Whoo! Good work, guys!

Well, that went better than expected.

She kept her promise. Finally, she can take the rest that she deserves.

Encore!

Epilogue.

another day, another simulated escape analysis

That was utterly amazing!

WOOOOOO!

Great Success!

Thanks for the wild ride, Test Pattern. You are a total bro.

>>489556

Oh HELLS yeah!