2/4 Polo 2013/06/09(Sun)16:12 No. 515698 ID: d38f67
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The reason why I sm-

3/4 Polo 2013/06/09(Sun)16:12 No. 515699 ID: d38f67
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Shit!

That does not belong in my head. That is not my memory.

4/4 Polo 2013/06/09(Sun)16:13 No. 515700 ID: d38f67
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I am still asleep, but I am somewhere else, for the time being. In an old home. After the aliens came. Of course after the aliens came. I was born after that.

The blinds never did shut all the way.

>>515700
Whose home? Your parents'? Are they home? What jobs did your parents have? Are you in military school yet? How is your training going?

What's it like outside?

Hotwheels!
Play with toys because it reaffirms old identity.

Your situation seems unusual, Polo. I assume neumono normally sleep in groups, but you're alone. Are you more comfortable this way?

get to da surgeon. cut out any brains that have it.

So whats that poster above your bed? Also is that a ski over there? If so did you break it horribly somehow?

>>515713
this is obviously a dream battle between us and Rokoa.

Well, things are getting strange already. Fuckit, Let's just try to see if there's anything significant about these memories.

>>515721
Of COURSE there's something significant about these, we just have to find out what it is.

Look outside the window. If there's nothing interesting there, or on the fourth wall, peek into the hallway.

>>515700
>The blinds never did shut all the way.

I have that problem too.
The trick is to manually place your hand on the blinds, and forcefully swipe downwards.

Otherwise, just flip the blinds in reverse.

You're dreamwalking, Polo. Rokoa's in your head, and now you're dealing with it. You're going to have to confront her, or her memories, in this place.

Check the things in this room. Is everything here from your own past? Does anything stand out as part of hers?

Perhaps the symbol on the poster? The content of the book or note on the floor? The toys? Anything hidden in the drawers?

>>515707
Actually, Pilon said in questdis that it varies between neumono, and Giant's hive cuddles mainly to conserve warmth and energy.

OK tip to destroy Rokoa's brain: it's a sucker for little kids.

Remember too that just a few months ago you did a bunch of dream-sharing with Rokoa as you were both laying in that burn unit. You have some experience in walking her mindscape to draw on, and figuring out what comes from you and from her. Granted, it may be harder now that she's in your head instead of just getting in your head...

Idly consider the fact that if you survive this mission alive, and sane, you may have good reason to sign up as one of Three Stripe's patients. Ask him to rip her and her memories right out of you.

1/3 Polo 2013/06/09(Sun)20:00 No. 515760 ID: d38f67
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Yes, I should reinforce my own thoughts and memories.

>Who's home?
Mine. My parents. My hive's complex.

>Are they home, with what jobs?
They should be. They did manual labor around the complex. They do not move far.

>What's it like outside?
Sunny. It's always sunny here. It never snows, we are in the tropics. Specifically, a small clump of buildings all close together overlooking the sea. Though not part of an ultrahive, we did have dealings with aliens with an occasional invitation to join one.

Everything in my room is my own.

2/3 Polo 2013/06/09(Sun)20:03 No. 515764 ID: d38f67
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Judging by the toys and quality of my homework on the ground, this is when I was too young for military. Most supplies were given by humans who wished neumono to grow accustomed to aliens before aliens were commonplace. Hence the stuffed animals in the visage of a pomi and a belenosian. And a bear, for some reason. I think I lost my Heef when I threw it off a cliff, thinking it could fly. Not even real heef can fly. Then the toy cars and streets and all that to the side of my bed. The poster above my bed is my Hive's flag and icon.

Many of my hive sleep together. But we are all made accustomed to sleeping alone and made sure that we can without issue. This is so that we do appear 'normal' to aliens in some respect, or at least have the capability to. I was just learning to. I did not like it at all, but I did grow accustomed to not being too close to my hive. I am still in empathic range of several, anyways.

That smell. I remember today. It was the first time I was introduced to something. I remember what my mother said.

>"You're up early. We've got a special breakfast for you."

3/3 Polo 2013/06/09(Sun)20:03 No. 515765 ID: d38f67
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>"It's called coffee cake."

Rokoa why are you my mother?

>>515765
...Fuck it. Take the cake, and tell her it had better have Moton egg in it like the first one she gave you.

>>515765
I recommend asking her to leave. Possibly with bullets if she tries to get pushy. This is your brain. She can just bud off and get her own damn body.

Tell Rokoa to stop merging with you. Or doing this weird mental fight stuff, she knows the rest of her body will one day probably fight again according to her style. This is just a remnant of her DNA, and this battle of the minds thing totally isn't her style. I suppose it's a little existential, arguing with the mind of separate remains, does she think she means something like this as a separate entity? Even just as a tiny amount of blended Rokoa?

God, what if part of your body got detached, made into goo, and formed it's own mindset as distinct as your own (and very similar with small differences)?

>>515765
Rokoa is trying to barge in. Overwrite her with the proper memory of your mother. If it doesn't work, invade HER memory. She's lost children, obviously. Look at her, trying to adapt to the role of mother, and think of how she kept treating you during your time together. You could pose as her kid, most likely.

Alternatively, I wonder if we could switch to the memories surrounding that time, those memories you both share. There would be no conflicting memories, and we could talk to her and see exactly what the Salikai changed in the clone's personality.

Some good examples are any of the times where you "defeated" her.

(completely deadpan) ...damn it Rokoa, this is a special memory you're intruding on. And it was bad enough when I only worried you might be mothering me.

Size her up. Which Rokoa is this? That shapes how we respond. Is it the one with or without the smile? If she's herself, we can deal with her on those terms. But if she's like the clone we killed...

Also important is how she responds. Is this dream-Rokoa intelligent- does it know this is a dream?

This is getting weirder...

I LIKE IT

>>515771
>>515770
>>515769
I really think we need to asses first, before we shift into full on fight mode. If there's a conscious Rokoa in this dream, aware of what's happening, that's significant. And she may be trying to talk to us first- whether or not this is going to be a fight. She's been like that before. We should at least try. We may get somewhere.

>>515775
MAY get somewhere?
...
I honestly hope so..
No joke. Really.

Ask Rokoa if her kids ever tasted coffee cake.

"Where do you think you are right now"

Then explain what is going on to the best of your understanding. Ask if she remembers having her brains stuck in a syringe.

Coffee cake is delicious.

god damn I forgot how tall she was.

Anyways in a calm voice ask why she is here

and what does her empathy feel like, does it feel like her or does it feel like someone else in your hive?

While we will get some scattered memories from Rokoa the bigger threat is the memories that you have of her. Those are the ones that the clone will latch on to in a desperate attempt to live. Talking to her is fine but do not let her overwrite any of your memories she should not be in. If you can force where you are to a memory she should be in it might help.

1/3 Polo 2013/06/09(Sun)21:48 No. 515843 ID: d38f67
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"You are invading a precious memory. It better have moton egg."
>"Do you remember it having moton egg?"
"No."
>"Is it still good?"
"Yes. Why are you acting as my mother?"
>"Why do you think?"
"I'm not going to let you take over."
>"You're going to have to prove it."
"You're smiling. You remember, I assume through me. You are the Rokoa I know." That is not a lie. She is more Rokoa than the Rokoa clone.
>"Yes, I shaped up into the Rokoa past the duels. Might be almost the same, might be different. Depends how well you knew me. Thank you, for that. The difference between new me and old me is nice."
"Yet you would still assist the salikai by devouring me?"
>"Am I? Do you know what they had Four Stripes do to me? They've worked on both four stripes and me for awhile, now. They are awful at their game of playing commander, but they know how to weaken and torture an individual neumono. You don't know for certain that my allegiance has shifted blindly. Stupidly. Like what they had to do to that hunter hive. Their professionalism did not last through their conversion." From what I gather, she has memories now of the original Rokoa and the Rokoa that the salikai have custody of.

2/3 Polo 2013/06/09(Sun)21:52 No. 515847 ID: d38f67
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>Invade her memory.
It feels surprisingly easy to do so. Even while silent, which is alarming, as it may imply my silence does not help against Rokoa.

>"You..."

3/3 Polo 2013/06/09(Sun)21:52 No. 515848 ID: d38f67
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She picks me up.

"It's only fair." I will not ask if her kids have tasted coffee cake. What temptation I would have had is gone when I see her memories of her first child. Asking if this child, who was killed by wildlife because Rokoa overestimated him during a time of starvation and let him hunt at too young of an age, if he has ever had the pleasure of eating anything more refined than plainly cooked meat, would be by far the most fucked up thing I can think of to do. I already am starting to regret going this far, plus, I am supposed to be holding onto my own memories, regardless of her hitting soft spots. She holds her composure. Yet, if I wanted to, I could break it. That is a power I have over her. But she is also in the same position to attack my composure. And my face.
>".... Whether I'm with the Salikai or not doesn't matter. Doing it, either way. If I'm with 'em, then obviously I'd stop you. If I'm against, you should let me. I know you won't, and I hope you won't let me without a good fight, but you should."
"Laughable."
>"You know what I think? I think you need me."
"Vomitable."
>"With a little push from me, you infiltrated a warship of a warhive and killed a queen right in the open. Now, look at you. You are getting your shit kicked by incompetent salikai that have only read theory books on war."

>>515848
Awww, she thinks every other circumstance in those two situations were the same. That's so cuuuuuute.

In the first, the salikai had no time to prepare. In the second, they did, and they *are* masters of infiltrating and breaking neumono, individual and hive.

While you might not like her personally you do make a good team. Both soldiers willing to do most anything to protect there hive. If she can coexist in your head at least until the mission is over then it might be worth keeping her around.

Honestly not sure if its even possible. From what we know of neumono your cells cant coexist for long. But maybe she can live on in your memories for awhile.

And if you do get rid of her you will have to make that final step you never could before. Even if its only in your head. You will have to crush her personality completely.

Also have to consider if your silence would be broken if you keep her around. That's a big one.

Oh my god that is single-handily the worse thing that can to happen to a mother, when your child dies because of war or disease it's one thing but when it's your legit own miscalculations oh lord.

Is... is this a pep talk? This is a fucking pep talk.
Good job Rokoa. We got enough of you for this entire mission to start doing it well, but this is obviously going to keep going on until you get out of your coma which you've probably been in for days. So, Rokoa, what do you want to do? Fight the Queen again? Do our sniper battle? Square off in a dance competition?

Get her out of your head.

>>515848
Please, Rokoa, don't insult our skill. We didn't have to deal with invisible kamikaze attackers before, had a sensible map, much better terrain, and up until the very last confrontation we never got a single grenade chucked at us AND we could negotiate with the enemy.

The last mission was very light on combat, in fact. Here, it's a battle of attrition in an environment where there could be an ambush around every corner. The fact that we lasted this long is admirable. Plus, it was mostly that unavoidable cavein that did us in.

However, she's right. We do need an edge. Propose a truce. Can't she share this body? She can boost our physical attributes while you give her that silence ability and deadly aim. You'd become the ultimate soldier.

>>515852
Have sex? Because what with this being /quest/ and Rokoa already being attracted to Polo, there's no way we aren't going to try and make this happen.

I'm willing to bet that whenever Rokoa felt that strange emotion Polo couldn't quite understand back in the intermission she was getting a ladyboner for Polo.

Let's make this happen.

the first time around the salikai weren't actively gunning for you and now they are, the first time neither of you two where trying to bring down the salikai it just happened to end that way, and the first time she just wanted to dual you to see who was better now she want's to dual you to take over your body and mind.

there might be some similarities from the first time you fought the salikai and now but over all these two situations are different form each other.

To put it simply, no we are not going to let her take us over.

>>515856
We look like her son! No! And we thought of her motherly with the coffee cake. No!

Obviously we need to move things to the previous shared dream Between Polo and Rokoa.

>>515864
Not *right now*, genius. Shift to a different memory.

Drop out of her kid's shape- you made your point. Shift the dream somewhere neutral, if you can.

>it may imply my silence does not help against Rokoa
This is all taking place inside your head, anyways. Your real world silence shuts off your ability to broadcast. If you're silent in here, that's a different skill. You're refusing to share a part of your mind with the foreign Rokoa part of your mind.

>With a little push from me, you infiltrated a warship of a warhive and killed a queen right in the open. Now, look at you. You are getting your shit kicked by incompetent salikai that have only read theory books on war.
All I had to do was waste one QI and your hive opted to let me run free, sending others to face me in single combat, rather than crushing and containing me with superior numbers. And after that, I had the chaos of the salikai caused to hide behind. And then I had real help pulling it off.

Here there have been no opposing forces to play against one another. The salikai may be incompetent, but neither do they send opponents at me one by one. And my allies have had their own problems.

And as you proved yourself several times on the warship, no one can hold up to sustained enemy attack forever. If I needed anything, it was more of me. To have remained undiscovered.

And, as you should recall, I killed the you I encountered with little trouble.

>four stipes work on me, weaker
And I've had three stripes work on me. They may have tried to break your mind, make you weaker. I've trained myself to be stronger.

>also
You do realize you cannot win? Even if you defeat me here, it will not be a victory. There are those among my allies who know you (Korli, Niam). And there are those who would do what is necessary to deny you my body (Rokann will have recovered by now, and she knows just how terrible it is to lose yourself. She'd kill us before letting something permanent do the same to us. And I suspect Viln would rather see you die honestly in body before you could lose your mind).

>question
I know you will not, but out of curiosity, could you stop, if you even wanted to?

>>515856
No.

>>515848
You are far superior to her in all forms of warfare. But you are also superior to her in that you have a facet of existence that is NOT solely dedicated to warfare. In this manner, you achieve stability and sanity in a nightmarish and rapidly collapsing world.

>Heavy shadows

This feels... familiar. Also odd that she would adapt the real Rokoa's personality and memories so quickly. I think some Rokoa cells did get into you, when you ate some of her that one time. You fought it back, then, but maybe you incorporated some, and the new material is attaching to the leftovers. Try thinking back to that time; maybe the little part of her that's already subordinate to you will spread to the rest of her. Or your body will remember how to do what it did before.

While doing that, ask her, then, if she can advantage you so much, what would she have done differently? And remind her of the things you did that she couldn't have, that might be necessary to win. Evading danger instead of running full-face into it. Genuinely befriending people like Viln, Three Stripes, or her herself - I doubt Rokoa would have let Rokoa live if she'd been Polo. The times Rokoa let herself be bashed and shot up until she couldn't do any more, and you had to take the reins.

(By the way, is Rokoa shaking? And her ear looks a little squared off. Letting yourself be seen as her kid is dangerous, but I think part of her wants to see you that way. To do that, though, she needs to open up, to allow part of you into herself. Possibly the tactic we need?)

The Salikai are using completely different tactics here. Preferring overwhelming numbers. As well as the fact that there are multiple species in the mix. All with different mindsets, strategies. Strengths, weaknesses, etc.

How do we do this, then. Do you have rules for this duel, or do we just run rampant through each other's memories until until one of us fails?

>is Rokoa shaking
...she is. And she's bleeding- I think she's clenching her jaw enough to draw blood. She's barely holding her composure.

She's grasping at straws here. Look how desperate she is to make herself seem necessary!

>>516006

The question is, is she shaking from holding her composure against rage, that Polo's daring to look like her kid? Fear, that if Polo wins, what little life she has dies? Horror, remembering what it is that the salikai did to the part of her they have? Or straining to keep herself from letting this memory-image engulf her entirely? Maybe several of these at once.

Let's weigh what we have here. This Rokoa's trying to sell herself. What does she have to sell? Most of her advantages are bound up in her big meat shield body, which isn't on the table. She's fearless, but Polo doesn't have trouble with fear, and Rokoa's brand of reckless courage is a disadvantage for Polo-types. The only (currently applicable) psychological advantages Rokoa has are 1) Probably a bit better skill at managing people and leadership, if she actually makes the effort and 2) that she would have experience of hard-line survival scenarios that Polo doesn't. Strange sense of honor aside, she's probably more ruthless and better able to deal with hard decisions, having lived on the savage subsistence line. But the advantages and disadvantages of that are balanced against those of being raised in a more civilized environment.

That and the slight chance she has any info we could use.

Just thought of something though. The clones they have of her are all murderous brutes because they lack her sense of honor and family. But they seemed to come back the second she had access to Polo's memory of her. If we could somehow infect one of the clones with some of our memories we might have a ally. No idea how to do that though.

>>516044
Actually, the most useful thing she might be able to offer us is information. There would be an inherent danger in relieving memories of brainwashing, but first hand knowledge of what the salikai are up to might be useful. (Although, for that moment that will have to take backseat to staying in control of our own mind).

If we were able to pick and choose pieces of her biology, the increased bio-armor capacity and regeneration might be useful, but I doubt you can just lift some of her traits without rebuilding the whole body. There's strength too, but again, hard to do without getting bigger, and more muscle would just make us heavier and slower. And Polo doesn't exactly need anything that pushes her towards Rokoa's ravenous metabolism.

I'm also assuming Rokoa's not worried about dying, here. She's got the original mindset back, and she knows there are more of her out there. Also- she's made everything about Polo. She talks in terms of defeating or helping Polo, not in terms of getting a body or a life for herself.

She wants to fight? Then fight.
Pop a Rifle in and shoot her with it-no, better idea.
Ever watch any power-ranger like cartoons when you were little?
Use that kind of stuff! Drop an anvil on her! Trick her into charging into a room filled with explosives!
She's brute force, but your domain is the mind and THAT'S THE LANDSCAPE ITSELF!!!

>>516046
Would be nice were it possible.
Would it be?

>>516046
Doesn't sound that hard. In theory all we need to do is the brain dart thing in reverse. That's right suck out some of your brain and throw it at a berserk rokoa... There is a reason its called MAD science.

An army of friendly rokoa clones. what have we done?
For a less insane suggestion ask her if she knows anything that will help us save the other rokoa clones.

>>516139
Hm. Well, guess we should eat her memories before she can eat ours. We just found something even more fucked up.

Ask her if her son has ever tasted coffee cake. Then shift to another memory of hers and eat it, too.

1/2 Polo 2013/06/10(Mon)21:42 No. 516141 ID: d38f67
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I drop the facade of her child. She doesn't let me go, but she stops shaking,

"You're grasping at straws. The circumstances are completely different. The salikai are not under attack, unlike how the warhive was. The salikai are not sending one unit at me at a time like some kind of game. And none of those tried to suicide attack me. It is a miracle I have not been killed yet. What would you do different?"
>"Not let a little rock break my foot, for starters."
"I'll tell you what you would do. You would line up all the voklits you could find, and start trading blow for blow with the voklit in front. You'd get your head knocked off before you could see the end of the line, and they'd haul you back off to the salikai for shit I don't want to think about. I know you aren't some invincible meat wall. I had your help at the warhive ship, but you still collapsed on me at the last moment. I do not need you, I do not want you. What do you want? Another sniper battle? A dance off?"
>"Hey, why not. Cept we already know you can beat me at your own game, and neither of us know how to dance! How about this. You kill a healthy clone of me in a fair fight, either bare handed or with a knife, and I'll leave. No more Rokoa in your head."
"No. You don't have a choice. You can't beat me in here."
>"You know, I've heard that three times before. And I'm not talkin' about other clones, I mean me. I conquered three neumono personally like this, before the salikai said I was good enough and started extracting brain samples to condense 'em and stick 'em in a tube. So I remember. Yeah, let's skip fighting on your own terms and fight with our willpower next. It's as fair as it gets."
"That does not worry me. The only reason I would possibly entertain the notion of keeping you around is for information. That is your only bargaining chip. If I knew for a fact you would fight the salikai, and I let you take over... if I was not killed in the process, you would kill us with your idiotic tactics. So, information. Tell me how this works."

2/2 Polo 2013/06/10(Mon)21:42 No. 516142 ID: d38f67
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Rokoa pauses for a minute. She stares at me with that agitating grin.

>"We eat each other. Let me rephrase. I eat you. It starts with your brain, from the inside out. Doesn't take long. First your memories. They disappear, and are replaced by mine. First memories to last. Then your personality starts going. Reminded the salikai of a predator fucking around and reshaping some neumono for the fun of it. Your personality erodes in the process, and is eventually broken, replaced by me. And that's it. Then I spend the next weeks regrowing into my body. Salikai told me that if I don't completely eradicate the other person, then they might permanently imprint themselves onto me. But the tipping point when I've overtaken my opponent? That doesn't take weeks. The first person took 24 hours. Second person took 18. Third person took 43. After that, it's just busywork regrowing my body. They were a whole lot bigger than you, too. But you're good. I give you 72 hours before you forget your name. And you've been asleep for awhile, but hey, I'm only on the coffee cake episode, so I gotta get to work. This seems like a good place to start."

She dares me to form a gun out of thin air and shoot her. I have been thinking of doing it for awhile, and I am having difficulty coming up with a reason not to.

But then the real Rokoa will never get her rematch. Will this Polo body Rokoa clone suffice for her desires? What would the real Rokoa think of the aftermath if she was seeing this right now? Would you love the fight yourself? Would you love to fight a half Polo/half Rokoa? Do you want to deprave her of that? Or does this genetic sample only think about what this small piece of dying DNA wants and cares about?

Because there's multiple Rokoa's, when this whole Salikai thing is over, whichever way it does end, how does it end for the clones and the original if a clone or two lives?

Oh, Rokoa, do you think if you end up taking over the body that you can go silent? Do you want to destroy that part of Polo's brain and body too? Or would you be interested in having it? And I have to ask, if Rokoa wins, what's the first thing she's going to do with this new petite body of hers?

>>516140
Let's not be tasteless. However, a counterattack is probably a good idea.

Why don't we start by eating the memories of her being tortured by this new salikai. She would probably WANT to forget that, so it's an easy target.

>>516144
Really? We're fighting to stop our mind being devoured and you're worried about being tasteless?

Do it.

Yeah fuck being nice. The real Rokoa had more honor and pride and never would have gone along with the Salikai like this. Don't worry about using her precious memories against her because she certainly wont.

Change the surroundings to a area you are comfortable with and every-time she tries to intrude into your memories you hit her back twice as hard. This is not the honorable warrior you knew and she does not deserve your pity.

so what, if we do a dream battle it turns into who can replace the other memories first? like instead of her kind dying in a fire we make it so it would be him heading off to school instead of us and then slowly turn it into us or progress through all of her kids (a different one for each situation in your life) and then end at us or would it be more like just grab a gun out of thin air and start shooting?

If it's the latter remember that time you shared a dream with Rokoa and made yourself into a giant, that could be a good opening move to throw her off guard since she would most likely expect you to stay small.

...I have no idea why you would want this. It is sickening. It is one thing to hurt. Another to kill. But to rip away memories and self? I saw how you reacted when I dared invade your memories. I cannot comprehend why you would let yourself become this.

You may have the memory of three success. But I know for a fact you have failed. There have been other neumono to survive your darts, to overcome you. And while you may doubt I am better than you, you know I am better than any science hiver or hunter they dragged in for tests.

>This seems like a good place to start.
No.

You will not let her take this memory. Do two things- first apply the techniques you studied with three stripes. Deny her access, the ability to change anything. Before you would not let him make you drop the rock. Here, do not let her make you drop the memory of the cheesecake.

And then, if you can, push your silence out over the whole memory. Cut her off from it. Stop her brain from being able to get access to pieces of your mind. It's not exactly how you normally go silent but... it's similar. It's a kind of mediation. She may have spent months practicing for mental battle, but you spent ten years training to cut a part of yourself off from others. You can do this.

And then go on the offensive. If she's going to eat your memories? You eat hers first.

Don't bother with a gun. It's just a metaphor. She's daring you to do it because she's done this before. She knows dream fighting with actual weapons won't do anything. It's all about forcing things to happen with your mind.

The greatest memories are what define her. Her children dying. The moent hinted at about her smile. Those we target first. I think we should do her smile first. Replace it with our own strength. Perhaps the death of the Queen. Attack a moment when she betrayed her Hive. Something she was still unsure of.

Oh, and when you ask her if he ever tasted coffee cake?

Shift back to his form and try to make her forget his name.

>>516146

Well, the real Rokoa was a neurotically xenophobic bitch so would never have gone along with the Salikai. But close enough.

The gun would be counterproductive as it's "Rokoa"'s suggestion, and anything you do that she suggests gives her a stronger foothold. Brain..hold. Whatever.

The Salikai broke her once. You can break her again.

Do not fight against her with her strengths. Shooting her is something she would expect. This is not a physical fight. You beat her several times by thinking smarter and not rising to fighting her on her terms. Use your training and keep all your memories intact while destroying hers.

>...I have no idea why you would want this.
Expanding on this, for a sicker, twisted idea: (We're shifting back to her kid? I have a good idea for that).

Where do you think this will lead? Do you ever plan to stop? A whole world of you? Are you even capable of having children anymore, or will you kill the next one in the womb, replacing it with another empty copy of yourself?

>>516153
Yes. Do this and try to eat the memory of her child's name meanwhile.

In fact? Erase all the names you can and replace them with "Rokoa."

>>She holds her composure. Yet, if I wanted to, I could break it. That is a power I have over her.
Time to mind rape back.

Yeah... I'd say that we need to prove to Rokoa, yet again, that surgical strikes beat brute force anyday. She even gave us a perfect place to start. Remove her memories of overwhelming those three Neumono and/or the Salikai's lessons on how this battle of minds works. Move on from that up to the Salikai's brainwashing. They broke her, yes. But they also supplied the means to unbreak her.

"There's really only one place to start."

So she wants you to use a gun, eh? Well, you're not going to give her what she wants. Shift your position to the floor, and manifest the memory of the coffee cake and eat it again to reinforce your memories. Actually, if you can, also manifest a piece of coffee cake in Rokoa's mouth as well; Let her experience it too.

Since it is a battle to overwrite memories, then the sensible course of action to take is to overwrite whichever of Rokoa's memories you do with whichever memories she's trying to overwrite, while at the same time slipping fragments of that memory into other memories. That'll leave her stuck trying to stamp out a memory that you keep duplicating faster than she can remove it. Doesn't matter if it's disjointed or makes no sense in the stream of memories, it just has to be there to make sure it isn't destroyed for good.

>>516183
Yes, this would seem to be a good target, and flitting through her memories of how the other three fought and failed may give us insight into what to do and not to do here. Also, the pain of the memories of whatever methods the Salikai used might work to disrupt Rokoa's concentration as well, but it might break our concentration even more. We should be ready to jump out immediately if we can't take the pain, lest we lose ground.

go back to the memory you saw in the beginning, the reason she's smiling. devour it.

Don't eat her personal memories. At least, not those first.

Think tactically about this. Why is she doing this? Where is she getting her strength and motivation from? What memories do you want her to not have, if she wins? And don't try shift into any of your own memories, that gives her access to them. You need to go on the offensive. The first memory of hers to target is whatever the salikai did to her. If you eat the memories of her kids or of why she smiles or things like that, she's only going to get more voracious, because it's that most recent memory that's driving her, not the old ones. Her eating your oldest memories will help her because it will weaken and confuse you, but doing the same to her will only push her more into being a rabid slave to the salikai. Eliminate the parts of her that are most set on hurting you and leave the less harmful stuff for later. If any of her memories make her want to NOT hurt you, like the ones where she associates you with her children, leave them.

Don't pull your gun out. It may give her an opportunity to target your skills and your memories of gaining them. Hop on the opportunity she's giving you and ask her what exactly the salikai did to her, see if you can push into her memory of that. If that doesn't work, try to move back to the first memory, in the tent and smiling. You should be able to get there, having been before.

And don't fight her the way she wants to be fought. That's rule one. You can even tell her that. This is your mind and your body, and she needs to fight your way if she wants to win. Even if she did beat you by force, she would lose when your bioarmour rejected the confusion in your body, or when your allies killed her once your body started to change. If she can be sneaky, somehow take you over while leaving a shell of you to keep pretending your normal, then maybe she could win. But she would still lose, in the long run. The head salikai here is bent on vengeance on your whole species, and that includes her, her original self especially, and hers. Her hive needed to repopulate, so she probably has more children lined up already, out there, somewhere. The Rokoa you knew was a defender, at heart, someone who would take any pain, risk insanity herself, to protect her family. The best way for her to do that is submit to you and let you have whatever she can offer.

Besides, you fought this fight before. Not just beating her clone, or her original in a duel, but this here, in your mind. You struggled once before to stop yourself becoming like her, and you won. You can do it again.

>You can even tell her that.
...let's not. She's smart enough to fuck with us if we give her something obvious like "I'm not going to fight like you want or say".

FUCK NO, SHE AIN'T GETTIN' OUR MEMORIES
IT'S CHAINSAW TIME COMRADES

Rokoa methinks is taking this waaaay to far. Even within our own mind she can continue to exist, but erasing our own mind and memories? That's changing the mental dynamic in a bad, bad way. If she is hell bent on destroying us, then it is only fair she be destroyed in turn. She may be strong, but this is OUR playground. If she can destroy our mind, we can just as easily destroy hers. What's to say we cannot take apart everything she knows and loves? What she secretly cherishes? Because we KNOW her children are a weak point for her.

Cooperation or mutual annihilation. Your choice, Rokoa.

We cant coexist. Its kill or be killed. If she manages to subvert any of Polo's memories then she will have a foothold into the rest. We have to destroy her and do it fast. We might be able to salvage some info from her memories after the fact but the consciousness driving them has to die.

It not really Rokoa we are fighting. Its a thing our enemies made and it needs to be put out of its misery. The real Rokoa would rather die than let herself be used like this. A weapon that could be used against her own hive some day.

While I have no doubt that Polo can win this it will be a nasty horrible thing. She will have to be vicious, swift and not let up for a second. Lots of hugs will be needed afterwards.

Hmm, she is trying to make you feel like what it is to be her, thinking about the thing that makes her smile. Maybe think about what it is like to be silent, switched off from the world. Try and force the memories into her. Recall the flavor of coffee cake, and stuff some in her mouth. As for reasons not to shoot her? She wants you to. That's more than enough.

1/2 Polo 2013/06/11(Tue)22:06 No. 516379 ID: d38f67
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"I am going to consider you broken by the salikai. Rokoa would not let herself be used like this." I do not shoot her, but I say nothing about it. It is simply pointless and what she wants, although I have a feeling there was a motive, as though shooting her would not have been good for me.

I try to read her more recent memories. They are available, yet feel... distant. More like reading a book, less like reliving moments. But she has recent information I want. Salikai information. She even knows some info of the layout of their backup base. Yet trying to get that information is met with her treatment after growing a body. Finding out how much she can take without dying. And Four Stripes making sure she would not fall unconcious in the process. Even how distant it seems, I nearly vomit. The info I want will not be pleasant to get. I will wait on it when I feel like I am in a better position to try to tackle that fish.

I grasp the bulk of this memory of mine, and focus my silence around it. I do not know if that makes it entirely immune, but it is doing something. Rokoa does not appear to try to stop it, either, and it dissipates.

In its place, I recall the memory of Rokoa's that I first had while sleeping, the one in regards to her smile.

2/2 Polo 2013/06/11(Tue)22:06 No. 516381 ID: d38f67
File 137101358516.png - (297.68KB , 700x700 , 379.png )

Factually, it's all there. Her mind is fuzzy around this spot, and so the memory is as well. Whatever happened, happened the day before. This is the morning after. She can't remember what did happen, but it's on the tip of her mind.

Yet Rokoa, the clone herself, feels distant. Like she's back at the back of my head, not around me. No, rather, I'm in the place of Rokoa?. I am not sure what to do or how this works. It feels like if I tried something here, it would just be me imagining ruining the memory, not actually ruining it for her.

But, Rokoa gave me an example. I remember my first coffee cake. It was good. My mother was kind. But she looked scary.

That isn't right. She was supposed to look... well, not grinning like that. Yet, that is what my reconstructed memory tells me.

That's what I have to do. Sway the path of her memories. Make them false, and make her remember falsely. At least that is the only guess I have founded in any sort of evidence. But she isn't around for this memory, like she was in mine. Her conscious is busy elsewhere. I believe there is a reason why she starts at the first memories, and goes on later in life. First memories, perhaps, are more vulnerable to change and deletion. I may not be able to touch this one. Yet.

The memory of her first kid is fresh on my mind. But there is also her own childhood and her first kill. Those three are the memories that stand out as being both vulnerable and significant. That's where I can easily start, but I feel physically uncomfortable, still. I feel less fatigued as well, and like I will wake up soon. I don't know if I want to, but backing away and collecting my thoughts may have merit in of itself.

>>516381
She implanted herself as your mother, and so you should do the same. I believe that by planting yourself in her memories, it becomes easier to do so in future ones. As in, you put yourself into her mind and then spread. Become everyone she knows.

Become all her children, until she comes to believe that she is trying to eat her own child.

>>516142

Here's a question: why.

Insofar, she has nothing to prove. She has nothing to gain from it. The real Rokoa is still lying in a holding cell having brain matter extracted from her and duplicating herself. Killing us won't free her. It'll just mean she's doing exactly what the salikai want from her. Kind of like following a Queen that would rather kill the whole hive than move on.

Is this the rematch she's longed for? I don't think so. We've never fought to the death -- every time Polo won, we never finished her off, even when she demanded it.

Moreover, if Rokoa "fails" to assimilate us and her consciousness dies -- she won't be dead. Just like if she took over, she's still lying trapped somewhere.

All Rokoa gets by destroying us is saying that we are dead, and leaving no evidence behind. Our body will become hers, our memories won't exist, and likely our compatriots will be dead. Nothing left to even claim we existed save Rokoa's memories and the few members of a salikai-controlled hive who might not even be aware of us.

Engage Rokoa's first kill. You can corrupt the emotions Rokoa feels in combat with your calculated approach to combat.

>reconstructed memory
Dang. I hope your real memories are still buried under there, somewhere. And that if and when you defeat Rokoa, they'll reemerge, or repair. It would suck to win this battle, but come out of it with all your earliest memories destroyed.

>what do
Let's assess here.

Whoever loses their memories and self first, loses. Rokoa is older than you. She was alive before first contact. So she has more memories you need to destroy to win. Although this is somewhat evened out by decades of major injuries and the process of torture and dart extraction and concentration. There are holes.

Rokoa also has the advantage in having done this before. And having less to lose than you. She can afford to win this even with major holes punched in her past. You can't.

Conclusion: she has the advantage offensively. If you just make it a race to see who can outdamage the other's memories, she will win.

You need to stop, and set aside time to play to your own strengths. You've trained for a decade to learn how to cut yourself off from others. You trained with three stripes to make yourself more resistant to the mental manipulations of others. You need to stop, and take the same time to apply those same techniques. Set up your defenses. Make your memories hard to access, hard to change. Invest the time you need to to buy yourself time. To slow her down. Once you have a good defense? The advantage shifts to you. You'll have the room you need to figure out how to fight offensively in here, and to take the fight to her memories. And to take the lead.

Why is the simplest reason of all. Self preservation. Even though she knows she has become a monster her cells will still fight. Deep down she probably wants us to finish her off and take all the info she has. But its not in her nature to give it up easily.

I say start at the beginning. Go for her childhood or first kill as those will be the haziest. We have a advantage in the fact she is much older than you. Any early memories will be much more distant than yours.

But make sure that while you do this you keep reinforcing the memories she is trying to change. Use your training to block off the ones she is concentrating on and make it harder for her to do anything.

Its probably not just making her memories false but undermining her entire sense of being. Whoever can change the most important memories of the other fastest will be able to make them there own. She is trying to change you so you cant fight back. You need to find what makes her strong and turn them into a weakness.

Like instead of resolving to be stronger after her first child's death she becomes overcautious and never becomes the warrior she is now.

start with the first kill once you start trying to change thing a bit maybe try and change it into that hunting trip that got you into this whole mess or one of your earlier hunting trips. replace her memories with yours so to speak.

Way to go Rokoa! Poisoning someone in their sleep. The TRUE test of skill! I mean, with guns or rocket launchers, there's actual effort involved, but I mean, why would anyone do that? Let's just MINDDUEL instead, because as everyone knows, nothing beats an imaginary "who-would-win" argument in terms of sheer intensity and awe. In a thousand years, bards shall sing songs of Rokoa, who fought using reminiscences on her childhood, family photo albums, and slideshows about her vacation.

TRULY, THERE WAS NEVER A MORE PEERLESS WARRIOR!

Make her first kill feel fake. She probably would hate to believe that it was not "honorably won" or some such nonsense. Try and corrupt the memory to make it seem like she won by some underhanded method, and nobody else ever found out.

Bad idea! Corrupt it so others help her!
If we make her underhanded she'll start getting cheap with it!
We should try to make her as weak willed as possible! Change her life so she always needs someone to help her out, to save her when she gets into a jam!

Corrupting her memories seems to be the best decision, Tactical-wise, anyways.
Doing so would cripple her abilities.

Assorted thoughts:

If we can get to them (assuming she doesn't block us like when we tried to go after the salikai intel) Rokoa's memories of how this worked memory combat worked with her previous victims might help. We could skip having to trial and error what offensive tactics work, and we could see what defensive tactics don't work.

Would it make a difference if any of our allies were to fall asleep? The Rokoa clone's previous victories would have been in laboratory conditions- just her and her victim / host. Here, you are surrounded by allies. Who will have to sleep eventually. If one of them ends up in your dream, could they aid you at all? Normally, dream sharing wouldn't allow them to change anything, but these are hardly normal circumstances.

We also don't want to wake up, if we can help it. That will split our concentration- forcing us to deal with real world issues, and taking away resources from our inner battle. We're better off trusting our allies to take care of themselves and protect us while we try to fight this battle.

Granted, if and when we do wake up, there are things we need to tell them. We need to brief them on what we learned scouting the exits, tell them about Biles and approximately where he is, and we need to tell them what has happened to you. And to make them promise to kill you should Rokoa win. (Viln and Rokann seem the best targets for that. Viln would see this as a dishonorable death, and duty bound to carry out your last request. Rokann, after recovering from being bugged, will understand what losing yourself is like, and will understand what you're going through).

>Useful things to grab
If possible, if and when we win this, there is going to be information we don't want to annihilate even as we destroy Rokoa's memories and personality (remember- failing to completely destroy the other would leave an imprint. And Polo wants as much as possible to avoid that). Useful information may include:
* Anything related to the current salikai installation or enemy forces.
* Anything we can learn from her previous interactions with the salikai. While we were trapped under the spire, Rokoa worked closer with Rosotski than we did with Ohidi or Sigira (although probably less closely than we did with Kiiu?).
* Language skills, possibly. She would have spoke one of the neumono tribal or aboriginal languages before the arrival of the aliens and the introduction of English. Might be useful some day, to be able to understand a language others think you can't. (Not a high priority, but something to consider).
* Find out, just for your own curiosity, what her password was (before ruining the memory and changing it from something important to her to something demeaning, insulting, or painful, of course).

Ah! So maybe this is a little late, but I think I figured out why she wanted you to shoot her! What if she wasn't just replaying your memory, but actively rewriting it? The reason she wanted you to shoot her was to put inside your head the false memory of shooting your own mother! This is something I would keep firmly in mind: the best way to combat her might just be to ignore her completely, and replay the memory as accurately as possible, just saying what you said, feeling what you felt, and doing what you did as close to reality as possible.

Conversely, when fucking with Rokoa's memorys, try to provoke her! (although she has undoubtedly been briefed on this, there is always the hope that she is running off intuition, and that intuition is not as powerful as my reasoning.) If this fails, see if you can force her personally into doing something in-congruent, as this may be more powerful than just changing outside factors.

Good idea with the shooting idea. We need to make sure our tactics stay as true to Polo's way of doing things as possible. Tactics before brute force.

Polo 2013/06/13(Thu)14:54 No. 516672 ID: d38f67
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>Dream sharing with allies
It might help, it might not. But it takes more than just falling asleep together to share a dream. I rarely do it inside of my own hive, let alone people I have known for a few days.

>Learn Rokoa's tribal language
It is almost certainly a dead language. Tribes often made their own language, or made far different dialects at best. There is not just a single 'tribal' language.

I am partially wondering why she is doing this, myself, but I do not care right now what her motives are. She may not care that she is a clone, she may consider herself a full individual and simply want to live.

I recall her first kill. Rokoa had been going on a few solo hunting trips. More dangerous, but not uncommon for sake of covering more ground. She goes to the river. Fish are not coming by in any good quantity. Another neumono comes, one not of her hive. He is... I almost thought differently, but he is also alone, and starving. He is wielding a bone club, while Rokoa wields an axe. Both have hostile intentions.

The original outcome is plain, and only memorable because it was new. They swim out in the shallow waters, and Rokoa kills him with moderate damage. She drags the corpse back to her hive, which earns her a good deal of respect.

replace his face with the face of your first kill obviously.

>>516672
Here are some idea for different starts:
>Wave in greeting.
>Charge into water, double back when he jumps in, then engage via thrown rocks at the shoreline.

Here are some idea for different endings:
>Beat down into unconsciousness, eat ears, leave.
>Kill, then bury with respectful ceremony.
>Beat down, demand surrender, continue beating until morale improves, leash him to claim him as a slave.

could you make it that instead of killing him she takes a bit of a beating but before anything to serious can happen the other tribal looses his footing and is swept downstream, changing this from her first kill to the day she got her ass kicked and was only saved by luck.

What do you mean you almost thought differently? Could there be something else to the memory we are missing?

Well we could try to change the memory so he trips and drowns in his starvation induced weakness and Rokoa takes credit for the unearned kill.

Or maybe we could try to replace parts of the memory with your first kill. But you would never had engaged them in the river like that. We would have to set up a trap or something.

Still think you need to take a few minutes to try and consciously assemble your defenses. Your advantage her is your decade training for silence, and your time training with three stripes. Learning how to hide your mind from others, and resist outside influence. Her advantage is offensive, and having done this before. Blunting her offense with a good defense to buy time for your own offense is a good move.

>dream sharing unlikely
True, but it's possible, and you've encountered plenty more unlikely things on this mission. For all we know Katzati is a cuddly dream sharing prodigy!

Still, yeah, something that may happen, but not something to count on.

>dead language, not useful
Yeah, low priority anyways. We won't be considering what pieces of her memory we want to save until the battle is as good as won. Which may be hours, or days. Possibly longer, since time in dreams can seem much longer than the real world.

>not of her hive. He is... I almost thought differently
...which hive is Rokoa part of right now? The warhive, or the snow hive? She has a split ancestry, remember. Kidnapped twice- first by the snow hive, and then back by the war hive. Was her first kill a member of her other hive? (Ie, as part of the war hive she killed a snow hiver, or as part of the snow hive she killed a war hiver).

>>516613
>Wanted us to have the memory of attacking our mother
...yeah, that probably would have been more damaging than the scary face she managed to dump in there.

>what do
Change the outcome. Make Rokoa fight badly, take more damage. Force her to flee.

If it turns out he is a a member of her other hive? Associate that with her guilt over being responsible for the death of her children. For attacking one of her own in poor judgement.

>>516672
I'm thinking too small. Form is transmutable here!

Let's transform the first kill and killer into something else!

>Salikai
>Arkot
>Hive Queen
>Yich Eater
>Polo
>Polokoa

>>516688
Rokoa stays Rokoa. Other neumono becomes the son who died hunting. Other details, specifically her hive being proud of/respecting her for killing the attacked her son, remain the same.

>>516672
Take the place of the guy, and win.

Wait on the shore, let Rokoa approach from over the river. Attack using the wet rocks to your advantage- she will have poor footing so you can knock her over and beat the crap out of her.

>>516692
I'd rather not change perspectives. If Polo takes control of the opponent, that leaves Rokoa free to counter by taking control of herself in this memory.

Whereas, right now, even if she stepped in to control the opponent (so it becomes a battle of two people trying to throw a fight) we could mess up the battle by making memory-Rokoa flee or act shameful in some way. We'd be in a weaker position to make the changes we want if Rokoa steps into her own shoes.

We want to taint or change these memories so they weaken her personality. So instead of being the strong Rokoa we knew she is a wreck due to a lifetime of bad choices. Our ultimate goal is to destroy her personality so there is no driving force behind her cells and our brain can eat them without problem.

Once we destroy her personality we should be able to go through her memories for important info on the Salikai.

After the mission is over she should be able to eventually remove the ones left behind with help from her hive and Three stripes.

>>516675
This is the most logical approach. Turn this memory into your memory.

I say go down brutal on her mentality, everything she kills resembles her offspring, everything she eats tastes of her own kin (if possible) or simply has no taste at all, twist any lover she's had into the face of either yourself or somebody/thing she will hate the most, this isn't a battle of strength, bring ruination to her already damaged psyche

>>516718
>twist any lover she's had into the face of either yourself or somebody/thing she will hate the most
A salikai?

>>516675
Um. Wait. Who was Polo's first kill? She was green before the intermission, remember. Dead Stripes? ...or if we mean first neumono, Dead Stripe's zombies? Or if has to be a sapient neumono, Kara? Although she was kind of indirect collateral. I think the first neumono Polo was directly responsible for killing (and with intent) was the Red Queen, actually.

That doesn't work so well. I don't think Rokoa would feel particularly bad about killing any of them.

>>516719
Her dead son? I admit I suggest it for everything, but you have to admit replacing her lovers with the likeness of the son she indirectly killed is a good way to fuck her up.

>>516675

Yeah, this. Start altering more of her details to match yours. Subtly, at first. A face, here and there. A specific item. As you noticed replacing herself with your mother is less than effective.

I think I reasoned why sometimes clone Rokoa's are different, when the previous neumono consciousness was fighting, whatever that neumono changed in Rokoa's memory reflected in the new Rokoa personality. I also hypothesize that the death of the last clone and turning the corpse into dart goo restarted, restored or reconstructed the old memories. The dart goo may have even been in contact with the original clone brain consciousness to reinforce the Rokoa personality to reduce wear and tear.

Beware, whatever changes that you make here may effect Rokoa's own personality should she take over your body. If you make her own memories more violent or traumatic, you may transform into something WORSE than Rokoa, and memories that are sweeter, kinder, and cool may make a better Rokoa.

Should this be the case, changing memories into yours will minimize permanent changes to whoever ends up dominating. So I also vote for changing it into a kill in similar context but reflects your personality as well. I think this battle of the minds will scar you forever.

Some scaring will be inevitable. But unlike the clones Polo's hive and family are still alive. With them and three stripes help she should be able to fix much of the damage later. But we need to make sure she wins now so she has a later.

If we permanently scar ourself by doing this, we can always go to cuddle therapy. Or ask Three Stripes to scrape our brain. Or seek forgiveness or absolution or penance for what we've done from the real Rokoa. But those concerns are for later. The concern now is survival. We cannot afford to pull our punches. Rokoa certainly won't.

>worrying about what our changes may result in Rokoa being if she wins
Technically, she has backups. If victorious, she could restore anything we damaged with a fresh dart.

And really, we don't care who or what Rokoa will be if she wins. Because Polo will be dead, and our allies will (hopefully) execute her usurped body.

>>516718
Damn, son.
LET'S DO IT

>>516737
I care, because our allies might not be able to.
I never said to pull a punch, Polo. Just saying, make sure your punches have the color of knuckles on them. Don't want spiked if we want bronze, don't want bronze if we want silver, don't want silver if we want gold (for whatever godawful reason we would want impractical knuckles), don't want gold if we can get diamond, lazer, or plasma knuckles.

>>516742
...That doesn't even make any sense.

Go home, dirtbag. You are drunk.

Turn it into an uneventful, somewhat awkward fishing trip. Replace the pride from killing a hive enemy with the pride of providing for the hive.

Wow that's a simple yet awesome idea. Wonder how well it would work.

>>516845
Simple,might possibly work.
...
Let's do it!

>>516845
I like this idea. It'll allow Polo to insert some of her memories of her hive's pre-Contact fishing knowledge as well. But it could also include the hostile neumono, but with a nonviolent outcome.

Change up the memory so instead of it being her first kill, it's her first big haul of fish, using a new technique of netting and baiting instead of pole fishing she came up with. Increase the number of fish in the river slightly, but the number of fish caught greatly; Definitely enough to feed her hive.

Then the hostile starving neumono comes along. Rokoa still has her axe, is still hostile to him, and is pretty sure she could take him, but knows that she has enough to feed the hive right here and couldn't haul the fish and his body back together if she won, and any left behind would be eaten by the scavengers before she returned. So she'll take a fish in her hand, her axe in her other, and make it clear that the other neumono can either take the fish and leave, or fight her and lose. He'll stop in the shallows on his side and grudgingly accept. She'll throw the fish to him, he'll leave back into the forest while devouring it, and she'll haul her catch back to the hive.

So this memory becomes not just about providing for her hive, but also of making a calculated decision to not blindly fight.

1/2 Polo 2013/06/14(Fri)17:44 No. 516897 ID: d38f67
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> She has a split ancestry, remember.
Yes. This is early in her life, but after that event settled. This opponent is not of the other snow hive she was in.

>What do you mean you almost thought differently?
I thought someone else may have been around. I am uncertain why, but it is something at the back of my mind.

>Replace his face with the face of your first kill
That would change his face into a predator. Too absurd. The first neumono I killed was arguably Kara, or the red queen. Neither will have a good impact. Instead, I will simply turn this tribal's looks into that of her first child.

There are a lot of options. Beating Rokoa up instead, or throwing the fight so that her victory is hollow. I am tempted to beat her up, but then have him collapse from starvation, making it a completely anticlimactic battle for Rokoa's first.

But, while I do not intend on pulling punches against her, and am willing to do awful things to break her further for my own survival, I will try a different approach. Unfortunately, Rokoa's conscious is here, and she is attempting to keep the memory the same. She clings on with great focus to what actually happened, and has absolutely every intention of fighting this person.

I persist. The tribal man takes a change of heart. A fish comes by, so he snatches it out of the water and tosses it to Rokoa while she crosses the water to him. He broadcasts that he intends that fish to be an offering of goodwill. There will be more fish.

2/2 Polo 2013/06/14(Fri)17:44 No. 516898 ID: d38f67
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She takes it as an insult. The fish is tossed the fish back at the bank, with Rokoa's empathy that whoever kills the other wins both the corpse and the fish. The fact that he looks similar to her first child is something she is able to completely write off.

But, I can tell that what I did was not without an effect. Rokoa would not normally want to fight after that fish toss, but she is doing so to preserve the memory. It causes a conflict that she can't avoid, and has to either let her memory be changed significantly, or fight a man who just selflessly fed her.

The latter option is chosen. She is going to try to force a fight.

>>516898
Hang on. I think... she suppressed something in her memory. She wasn't alone. She fought alongside someone else, and that someone died during the fight, but she didn't let anyone know. Focus on that, bring her secret to light.

Make her remember the truth, so that you don't just change a false memory.

Make him bow on the ground profusely. No words, no language. Like the prostration gesture.

Yeah if something is bothering you then it must be important. Could be something she repressed about this memory. Maybe someone from her hive saved her after the fight or something else embarrassing.

While we are looking for that we should avoid letting her have a honorable fight at all costs. Make the other neumono throw more fish at her and look pathetic. Maybe trip her so he can grab some fish and escape. So if she forces a fight the memory will be of her murdering a non hostile who was to weak to fight back.

The fact that we got Rokoa here is good. If she is fighting us here then she cant be messing with our memories elsewhere.

Huh. Rokoa showed up to defend the memory. That's good, in a way. If she's using her concentration playing defense to resist your changes, she's not making changes to your memory (or at lest has less concentration to devote to it).

>I thought someone else may have been around.
Several possibilities. It could be another dreamer on the edge of joining in (I kind of think your current situation makes it more likely. Rokoa's already opened the door, as it were. That, and a body with two minds running around might be a bigger empathic 'target' to attract others). It might be an echo or remnant of Rokoa's previous three victims (you would think that they'd have made an effort to fight back, and this memory stands out as both vulnerable and significant). Or it might reflect a previous change to this memory (there was someone else here that a previous memory battle erased). Or there might be someone else here in the memory that Rokoa is actively working to conceal from you.

>What do
Let the fight happen. Make the victory hollow for her. Instead of a glorious first kill, make it a source of shame. She murdered a man who did not want to fight her- consumed someone who offered her aid. Let the praise she receives from her hive feel hollow and empty.

This should slightly weaken her resolve, and reflect directly on our current situation (she's choosing to cowardly consume someone who has been her ally in the past, refusing to consider other options).

1/2 Polo 2013/06/14(Fri)18:30 No. 516920 ID: d38f67
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>There's someone else
It's at the back of my head, and has been for awhile. I try to focus on that.

But I can't imagine how well she falsified this memory to have someone else originally, unless perhaps, in her earlier mind fights, this memory already got messed up.

I have the man grab another fish and throw it at Rokoa, desperately not wanting to fight. That just gets the memory of Rokoa to get angry at how pathetic he is.

Oh. I realize who that other person is. It's Katzati. I can sense Katzati.

2/2 Polo 2013/06/14(Fri)18:30 No. 516921 ID: d38f67
File 137125985893.png - (15.50KB , 700x700 , 384.png )

In the meantime, the man gets axed. I am sorry to report to myself that it turns out that pain feels convincing. A bit off, and I am sure not quite as bad as the real thing, but not as far away as I would like. I have a feeling that leaving his point of view will return him to his original self, however, so I let Rokoa axe me so that I can keep the pathetic facade up. I do not like it, but if I am willing to do horrid things for survival, I should expect to have to take some horrid things as well.

Katzati's conscience comes into the dream about now, soon after I realized she was around at all. I am not sure why it was so easy for her, but she came in just in time to be horrified.

Rokoa feels a little bad for me, but is not apologetic.

Let her know what is going on while you play this out. Not sure if we can affect much else here but maybe try to have Rokoa trip while she carries the corpse home and it gets washed away downstream. Or see if we can have her hive be disappointed in her when she comes back.

After we have done all we can in this memory might be a good idea to step back and survey the results and talk to Katzati. Maybe work on setting up some defenses before we go on to the next memory.

>>516921
Try to tell her to burst in on the scene as the distraught mother of the guy who just died.

>dreamer, Katzati
...I'm just going to take a minute to gloat about having guessed who was going to end up in our dream. :V

> I am not sure why it was so easy for her
I'd guess because she's cuddling your beaten and broken body in the real world. No offense, but with your stature and the state you were in, I think it would it would inspire a certain degree of sympathy.

That, and your mind is already pried open, as it were.

>What do.
As soon as you're done getting killed in this memory, shift locations, and try to talk to Katzati.

You need to tell her what is happening as quickly as possible, in case the horror or the realization she's in a lucid dream wakes her. Or in case Rokoa tries to attack and force her out.

Tell her you have been compromised by a dart. That you are fighting for control of her own mind. Tell her that in the event you lose, they will need to kill you. Use memory walking to show her where Biles and Moi are hiding, and what you scouted at the two entrances.

Oh god that mother idea is like icing on a giant cake.

get katz out of here before mind-rokoa turns to go for her, us(polo) dealing with this should be viable but for katz to help we need time to explain whats happening so she can at least get out if things go downhill

>>516926
A giant coffee cake, wouldn't you agree?

>>516924
Creative, but I don't think we can do anything like that before pulling her aside and explaining the situation.

>>516939
Why not? Just call out to her as if she were your mother. She'll get the idea.

Like "Mom, help!"

>>516941
Mostly because she has no idea what is going on, and if it gets / if we make it too fucked up for her before she understands (hey, play along with my murder dream, why don't ya!) she may leave before we get to explain important things.

And I think passing on information to her is slightly more important than messing this memory up slightly more.

...also, I'm not sure if Rokoa knows she's there yet or not (Polo had a hard time recognizing her, and she knows her. Rokoa may not have noticed her yet, or think she's another dream presence we introduced, not a real person). And if possible, I'd like to speak with her before exposing her directly to Rokoa.

Polo 2013/06/14(Fri)20:25 No. 516946 ID: d38f67
File 137126670019.png - (30.00KB , 700x700 , 385.png )

I have already alerted my allies to the fact I was compromised, but it is worth reiterating once I get the chance.

>Try to tell Katzati to burst in on the scene as the distraught mother of the guy who just died.
No need, she already does well before I have any chance to ponder how terrible of an idea it is to introduce Katzati to Rokoa. It is less of being the mother of the tribal bursting in to his rescue, but more Katzati herself bursting on the scene to rescue me. The idea still comes off the same.

She is understandably terrified of Rokoa, but she still gets in axe-swinging proximity to drag me away. Now I am in great pain and not about to die, but I can't fault Katzati for that.

>"Who's that?" Rokoa asks. She isn't outright hostile, but she is weighing her options of whether or not to attack Katzati right now. I do not like the way that she is gradually coming to the conclusion that it was a good thing Katzati showed up.

"Can you not wake up?!" Katzati asks me.

>>516946
Give Katzaki Rokoa's face. Then switch to a neutral memory.

Do not switch to another memory until Rokoa's victim dies. You cannot let her reassert the original memory.

As soon as he dies, pull Katzati somewhere safe. A recent memory, where Rokoa can't reach you yet. Someplace we can talk in peace for a few minutes.

>"Can you not wake up?!"
...I can't afford to. I'm fighting her for control of my mind. If I wake up, I won't be concentrating on the memory battle, but she will.

>"Who's that?"
Don't answer. She doesn't need to know. And this is a battle of memory- information is valuable. Don't give her something for free.

>she is gradually coming to the conclusion that it was a good thing Katzati showed up.
...can you tell why? Does she believe this gives her access to another mind? Or that Katzati punching in means your mind is more vulnerable than she thought.

>>516946
Tell her you might be able to now, but it might also be important to keep your memories uneaten. Tell her some important information to relay to the others- specifically, the Biles method of removing the bugs, and what we learned of the escape routes.

Also, fuck. I think Rokoa is going to try to infect Katzati's body. She's already big. That means she will be in fighting shape faster! Also, she probably feels that Katzati is an easier victim. Tell her to get out, and stop doing whatever she's doing that let her connect to you. It's dangerous!

>>516946
Tell her to play along.
"Mother! I am dying! Whoa is me! Whooooa is me! I had taken on a beast too strong and my sacrfice of surrender to pitiful. Do not avenge me mother for I deserve it for my foolishness! I beg thee forgive the snowbeast!"

Katzati showing up right now likely put your work on this memory at risk. You've got to get her out of here, without saying or feeling anything that'd break the alterations. If you're to speak to Katz, it'll have to be later, in your own later memories.

Stay in character as the dying neumono. As strongly, urgently and desperately as you can broadcast to Katzati to not do anything but drop you and run to save herself, and put a load of fear behind it. Don't say anything in your common language, since nobody on this world would know that at the time of this memory.

>>516947
Don't do this. Who's Rokoa in this memory is already set, and trying to change it will only work to break its solidity and revert the changes. And shifting before the memory is over will also cause it to revert back.

>>516951
Unless Katz has been injected with neural matter just taken from Polo, she's not in any danger of infection by Rokoa.

>>516958
No, because now is definitely not the time and place for hammy dialog.

>>516958
Rokoa has already figured out she's external. I'm not sure silly playacting will do anything else. The memory has already shifted to Rokoa attacking dishonorably and watching her opponent die in the arms of someone who cared. (Just like Polo's memory of the coffee cake scene shifted to her mother being scary, but without the historically OOC Polo and Rokoa dialog).

All we have to do is stick around until he dies so the changes stick.

(What Katzati probably doesn't realize is Polo getting her ass kicked her works to her advantage. From an outside perspective, it looks like she's loosing, not winning a painful partial victory. We may have to clarify that when we pull her away).

>>516958
Vomitable. That's nowhere near what Polo would ever be willing to do, it'd just piss Rokoa off, and I don't think it'd clarify anything for Katzati.



And your spelling is an atrocity unto itself.

I was going for a parallel between Rokoa letting her first child go off and hunt alone and get killed, and this one.

So, optimally we would have the dying guy tell his mother "I shouldn't have hunted alone. I am still too weak." or something like that.

As it is right now we will not die if Rokoa does not finish us off. If we change the memory so much it becomes completely alien it might not stick. Unfortunately the interruption gave Rokoa the time to think and realize that she was playing into our hands.

Is there any way to communicate what we are doing to Katzati without Rokoa hearing? If we could get her into the act we might be able to salvage it. Have her cry alot and drag us off to safety. Maybe a quick whisper to play along. If Rokoa decides to attack her then she could escape and let things run there course.

If not might need to just limp off into the jungle and then try to change the last bit of the memory to her hive praising her for showing mercy or something.

>pull Katzati somewhere safe. A recent memory, where Rokoa can't reach you yet.
If she tries to follow, block her the way she blocked you. Throw your own memories of pain and suffering in her way. Being eaten alive by the voklit, burning alive on the warship, immobilized in pain first time you tried on her bioarmor, the all consuming grief and horror and anger when you discovered that your entire hive was dead (the news was false, but your reaction was real).

I don't think there is any pain Polo has gone through that would stand up to the tortures the Salikai inflicted on this clone.

>>517008
I'm assuming perspective subjectivity matters. And we don't need to overwhelm her with pain- just to use it as a further advantage to wall off an already hard for Rokoa to influence / access recent memory.

1/4 Polo 2013/06/15(Sat)13:43 No. 517099 ID: d38f67
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>I think Rokoa is going to try to infect Katzati's body.
Implausible, as she should need a physical connection as well, one she has with me. As it is, Katzati should be nothing more than an audience participator.

"I can't afford to. She is trying to take control of me. I'll explain later, don't wake me up, and right now, play along with this scenario." I whisper to Katzati, which is good enough for Rokoa to not hear me. I speak louder, next. "I shouldn't have hunted alone. I'm still too weak." Katzati is still confused, of course, but Rokoa is approaching us.

"Run, run!" I shout, giving an appropriate level of fear in the tribal's empathy that Katzati can read.

Katzati tries to run, with far more hesitancy than she should have, while holding me in front. She is using herself as a shield in case Rokoa catches up. "Just get out of here, alone! She's goi-"

2/4 Polo 2013/06/15(Sat)13:43 No. 517100 ID: d38f67
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Rokoa lunges for us. She is faster than Katzati, and likely is faster than Katzati even without carrying me. The axe comes down. Katzati has somewhat of an idea of what is going on, now. At least, enough to get the impression that it might be better to stick around and play the memory out, even if she isn't sure. I am not sure either, but that is what she does. In terms of the how the history is remembered, the mother covers covers her son, who looks like Rokoa's son, as Rokoa keeps swinging the axe to kill her, then him, to feed her hive. As far as our real battle goes, Rokoa attempts to salvage the memory as close as she can. I expect that this level of fucked is what I am going to have to deal with on a constant basis. I might almost be glad to defend my own memories, if attacking Rokoa's is going to be like this.

>If she tries to follow, block her the way she blocked you. Throw your own memories of pain and suffering in her way.
Rokoa did not intentionally block me like that. It is simply that the information on the Salikai's base she has is so closely tied in with her treatment, that I cannot remember the important details without remembering the torment. They are a package deal by close association, but I will deal with that when it becomes relevant.

Even if I could throw in my own suffering at Rokoa, it would not stun her. What has been painful to me has been a mild discomfort to her, even if it might be new to her.

3/4 Polo 2013/06/15(Sat)13:45 No. 517101 ID: d38f67
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I now see where the memory was going. Now, she brings back the two corpses to provide for her hive. That earns her respect, as she knows her past hive far better than me. I cannot change their response to Rokoa so easily. Rokoa does not get as much respect though, as originally she proved that she could provide and fight. Now, all she has proved is that she can get lucky and find two neumono who assume the fetal position in front of her weapon. One of which was extremely well fed. It is not as much as I might have hoped for, but the memory has still been undermined, so I would not call it a failure by any stretch.

The hive, I now realize, didn't have a sense of honor. They fought to survive. That's it. That is what old Rokoa does. The Rokoa I know has some sense of twisted... I am reluctant to call it honor, but a twisted something. Whatever it is, she gained it later on, but at the time, Rokoa fit in... decently. Not perfectly, but decently.

The memory feels like it shifted permanently. There's a tingle, like a physical change in our brains to reflect it. That we 'changed' anything seems like a foreign concept that is becoming quickly hard to grasp. From our perspective, what just happened is what really happened. Old Rokoa killed two neumono that did no harm. New Rokoa does not like that one bit. It does create a sense of regret in her that she would do such a thing, but New Rokoa doesn't fit in with her hive nearly as well anyway.

Originally, Rokoa kept her streak of glorious combat going by hunting that tribal hive at a later time. Now, that memory is dissipating, and the rest of her life is turning to match it... she is going to do the same neumono hunting trip later, but now it's to prove that not just can she get food, but she can fight warrior neumono, not neumono that let themselves get killed.

4/4 Polo 2013/06/15(Sat)13:45 No. 517102 ID: d38f67
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I only get a moment. Rokoa is pondering which memory to attack. I can choose either the previous two, the new one in which she specifically hunts her enemy's hive, or defend my own.

For now, Katzati sticks by me and we simply share a dream the natural way. She could have woken up at any time, and the fact that she stuck around for my sake bewilders me. For someone who is in a constant state of looking like she's about to break down, she certainly does not hold many hesitations about going through rough patches. She's breathing hard, and clutching the back of her neck where she was first struck. Phantom pains, I assume. I explain the situation to her, or at least as much as she needs to know, plus what I know for Biles' bug removal technique, his location, and so on. It's a hasty explanation, but dream sharing helps with direct communication.

"And if I'm to lose to Rokoa, kill me before she gets the chance."
>"I... understand." She understands, but she clearly does not think she could do it.
"Tell Rokann and Viln to do the same."
>"Okay." That I can trust her to do, and killing me is something I believe I could trust Rokann and Viln to do. "So, um, you have to go through that? All the time?"
"Maybe. That was the first memory I ran through of hers. Given her past, I expect it might continue."
>"You... worked with her?"
"Sort of. I worked with the real Rokoa. This clone is almost the same. Almost. But where she is different is critical, and I could barely work with her as is. I do not believe I can work with this one."
"I'm still here, you know." Rokoa says.
"Ignore her."

Keep on the attack. As long as she's on the defensive, and you keep managing to change her memories, you're going to survive. What we really want to do is make a memory so objectionable to her that she erases it. Keep doing that, and she'll erase herself. That's probably how she won before.

Continue forward in time, with her fighting the other hive.

A small victory, but a victory nonetheless.
We have gained ground, but we can't let this turn into a godforsaken stalemate.

Keep onto the offense. Don't give her time to recuperate.
Once more unto the breach!
>>517106
Onwards to the fight with the other hive.

As important it is to defend your own memories we cant do that easily if she is not attacking one. We have some momentum now and are getting a better idea of how this works. I would say keep on the offensive for now if you can.

Might be best to go to the next mememory in the chain. When she goes to prove herself in combat we need to try our best to ruin that memory as well. We might even want to see if we can keep her children alive in later memories. Maybe we can make it so she is less a proven warrior and more a motherly caring type who was never hardened by loss.

But before you go to the next memory make sure you can stay asleep fine all the way through it. And decide if you want Katzati around for it. While she seemed weak at first the girl is willing to go through a lot to save you.

>we simply share a dream the natural way
Even in your dreams, you're still trapped in caves!

>you have to go through that? All the time?
...I'm sorry. This is a terrible thing I'm doing to survive. I would not wish it on anyone, even her. Though I have little choice. I'm sorry to have subjected you to it. Thank you for staying, as long as you did.

I am not sure if you will be able to help, or not, if you stay. (Maybe we could use her as a second set of eyes? Scouting out other memories, learning, while we fight Rokoa in the memories we're trying to change? Could give us a strategic edge, without dumping Katz into as much horror).

>I might almost be glad to defend my own memories, if attacking Rokoa's is going to be like this.
Seems kind of like a losing prospect. As Rokoa just proved, you can lessen the damage to memories, but you can't prevent the other person from changing them all together. I mean, sure, defending yourself is less sickening than trying to ruin someone else's past. But if we fight in your memory, it's your past that is going to take the damage. And that will be plenty disturbing. And I kind of suspect an unwillingness to endure the horror of waking war on another's memories may have undone her previous victims.

...that said though, if and when Rokoa is on the offensive, you can't exactly let her run roughshod over your past.

>Whatever it is, she gained [he honor] later on
If I had to guess? From little we know of her history, I assume it would be when she went to attack the tribals young and confident, and ended up defeated and tortured and their prisoner for months. She was wearing their markings when she came to your duel, remember. It might make sense that that experience was where she picked it up.

>I do not believe I can work with this one.
...there's also the fact that even if I could, she is not willing to consider options that do not involve consuming me.

>defend my own memories
I still think the best way to go about that is to try and deny her access all together. Use your silence and three stripes training to make your vulnerable memories inaccessible, or hard to change.

When Rokoa mentioned the other victories she had had they were all fairly fast. I think whoever gets a lead and keeps it going will have the best chance of winning. Every memory we manage to change the less powerful she will become.

Might even be worth it to have Katzati leave the dream if you are in danger of waking up and have your friends do what they have to in order to keep you asleep.

Oh, and ask the obvious question.

You entered my dream with... surprising ease.

Momentum WILL be the key to win this fight.
The more damage YOU do, the less damage SHE can do.

Polo needs to go on the offensive to have any chance of winning this but it will be a matter of luck who can hit the most important memories first. The problem with fighting inside your own memory is that every change you make is how the scene always was. Nobody remembers the original version of this memory anymore. Katzati is not fighting to the death inside your head and remembers everything that happened.

We need to have Katzati follow Rokoa into our memory. As an outsider Katzati will remember with crystal clarity what Rokoa has destroyed and simply retelling how the memory originally happened will do a great deal to mitigate the changes that it is possible to make. Any change that is too large will ring false against the testimony of our friend.

...the only reason I could think of not to keep pressing the advantage is if there's a mental stamina at play. Like, it's less taxing to defend than attack. (I mane, you had endure being murdered to change that memory- Rokoa just had to axe you up).

In that case, we might need to spend a portion of our time defending just to prevent us from burning out.

Rokoa fetishizes being defeated. That's why she acts so reckless and pushes herself so relentlessly. She's lived all her life with nothing less than absolute success demanded of her, so the only thing that thrills her anymore is the sting of an opponent's lash. The more difficult it is to defeat her, the greater an enemy who takes her down, the better she feels, but she still wants to be defeated. If you can exploit this I suspect she will be putty in your mental hands.

Find a memory where she succeeded at something, a fight maybe, and alter it so that that something instead trounces her thoroughly. Make it so the better man wins. I doubt she'll be able to put up with much resistence before such a suppressed desire, so you might have an easier time doing that than trying to make her falsely remember not feeding her kids or not suffering harsh environments.

Reach up and offer a hug to Katzati, since she feels like she needs one, and thank her for sticking around when she could have woken up. It means much that she suffered through that grisly memory with you. Though you don't know why she can share a lucid dream with you, nonetheless you're glad she's here.

Now, whisper to Katzati, so Rokoa might not hear, and say you need her to stay in here; That her help is likely the difference between keeping your memories and mind nearly intact or coming out of this a mental wreck. In addition to backing you up in defending your memories or changing Rokoa's, since her memory can't be altered, she can remember any changes made to your memories, and recount them later so you can fix them.

It'd be a good time to find out if Katzati is stuck to wherever your consciousness goes in here, or if she can leave to other memories, or perhaps stay with other memories you lead her to. It'd be great if she could glue herself to the Rokoa consciousness so she can remember all the changes it makes. Even stationing herself in link in the chain of your memory would be good. Also, finding out soon if wrapping your silence around a memory would stop or impede Rokoa's effects would be a good idea.

Ask Katzati if she can shift her appearance to anything else, such as a younger version of herself or someone she knew well. It'll be helpful if she can choose a form that fits better than her modern appearance in these memories.

Next target should be the next link in the chain of Rokoa's memory: The hunting of the enemy hive. Dunno how to handle this, since it's unclear whether she's hunting individuals or small groups that are away from the hive's village, or if she's going in as part of a raiding party from her hive on the enemy hive's village.

Just remember: If Rokoa chooses to abandon this memory and instead attack yours, immediately abort and defend your own so Katz'll be there to see what changes Rokoa makes, and so you might be able to test wrapping silence around that memory.

>>517187
One caveat. I don't think we can bring Katz to a memory and try to protect said memory with silence at the same time. If selectively silencing specific memories works, it would force Katz out as well as Rokoa! Might even knock her out of our head altogether, and who knows if or when she'd dream-sync again.

>>517190
Yes, good point. Definitely don't throw silence around a memory Katz is in. In this case try silencing the memory first to see if that even impedes Rokoa's progress, then decide from there to enter it or not.

1/3 Polo 2013/06/15(Sat)23:21 No. 517204 ID: d38f67
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"I am wondering how you entered my dream with such ease, Katzati."
>"I usually dreamwalk with my hive a lot. All the time. I'm surprised too, in this case, since you're not in my hive, but it sometimes happens... uh..."
"I may be pried open...... Katzati. You are willing to help, right?"
>"Of course."
"I will not ask it of you, and will not hold any ill will if you back out at any time, but Rokoa is going to attack my memory. I am going to attack hers. I am not going to defend my memory as well when my attention is split, but you should be able to help defend my memories. I would say that my memories are much... calmer, but Rokoa will attempt to change that. I will spare the concentration to tell you how things should go, and if you choose to do so, please attempt to keep Rokoa from changing it as much as you can."
>"Okay. Of course I'm going to do that. I mean, even if it wasn't the right thing to do, you're important to us and our survival."
"Alright. Then please shift your form appropriately. You should be able to. Please remember all changes that Rokoa makes."

She is going to see the timeline of my past, so it would be silly to hold reservations against a hug. I will admit that I do not hate either of Katzati's hugs, since in a sense, she is doing it twice to me right now. Rokoa has that damnable excitement for a challenge, and equally damnable confidence she'll win regardless. It might get to Katzati, but she's proven to act despite that. As for my silence, trying to wrap my memory, in the case of the coffee cake, I believe helps. Not impervious, but does make it a bit more difficult for Rokoa to influence it. With Katzati defending my memory, however, putting silence on would likely kick her out. Meanwhile, I don't believe I can put silence on my memory and on myself at the same time inside of Rokoa's memory, which may be handy should I attempt to beat Rokoa in combat directly this time.

2/3 Polo 2013/06/15(Sat)23:21 No. 517205 ID: d38f67
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>Go to the next memory in line
Rokoa is going alone to fight the other hive, about two weeks after the previous memory. She knows where their territory is, and she expects that she will fight anywhere between one neumono, to a hunting group of about three. It is not a large hive, and there is only so much wildlife, so it is unlikely to find more at once short of going to their home.

Rokoa will find two neumono hunting a snowbeast. She challenges each one to one on one combat. They come at her one at a time, not because of some honor, but simply pride, thinking that they don't need to gang up on her. Rokoa does not kill them, but she does knock them unconscious and take their ears as trophies, which, Rokoa's hive takes as a sign of great offense, as to say they are not worth killing.

Things are more malleable without Rokoa, although my senses tell me that taking direct control of Rokoa will greatly increase how falsified the memory will be, so I should avoid doing so if possible. But, it is possible. I start off during the morning. Rokoa is eating and taking a great deal of food, as is customary for someone about to do something of significance. If I come up with any idea for some reason, I can have there be something of significance happen that morning, otherwise skip ahead and act when Rokoa confronts the two enemies.

3/3 Polo 2013/06/15(Sat)23:21 No. 517206 ID: d38f67
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On the other front, Rokoa has realized just how uneventful my childhood was in comparison. I explain to Katzati what I believe is going on.

"The aliens set up schools that were not directly part of an ultrahive, but would teach neumono about alien customs, and teach them to get along with other hives. I am with 2 others of my hives, and we know no one else. I have barely even been in empathic range of another hive, so seeing a building full of crossing hives was intimidating. We get bullied into giving our belongings away about an hour in, books and all. Most of our things were retrieved and given back in the following hour by the staff."

Katzati understood how rough some of these elementary schools could be. Serious injury was extremely rare, but there was immense amounts of bullying. Each hive had 3 to 5 children participating, and bullying was on a hive to hive basis, not individuals, as the children from a single hive would never go far from each other. Staff couldn't stop all of it, they merely made it clear that if a hive inflicted any significant injuries, they would be found out and be punished greatly, along with their hive being ostracized. They had to show us just how much surveillance they had, since many of us had never seen a recording before, even if it was a few decades from contact.

My college experience was far better, but this was a rather unpleasant year for me. Not traumatizing, but ironically, it taught me the significance of sticking to your hive just as much as it taught me that not all hives were horrible people.

>>517205
Have her take a bit more food than she should. A minor change, but important for when we make her fail the hunt by double-teaming her. Then she will come back with no success AND have taken too much food, to her hive's detriment.

>>517206
Hmm. Rokoa probably can't make you act out of character and seriously injure someone so that you'd get in major trouble, because that would falsify the memory... She'll probably take control of someone you grew to trust and betray you instead, making you feel less trusting of other hives.

Asking Katzati to make Rokoa overeat might be insulting so let's not do that, and do it yourself. Have Katzati take the place of someone outside your hive in your memory, so that she can act especially kind to you and thus Rokoa will have no chance of ruining your trust in other hives.

>>517216
Hilarious. Amplifying Rokoa's pride to cause a greater fall. Render Rokoa's entire life one hollow victory and prideful calamity after another!

And I expect Rokoa will make the Staff unsympathetic, attempting to generate Conflict and Resentment. Thus the Staff must be preserved, to make sure that history follows its' intended course.

Ok for defending our memory Rokoa probably does not have a unsubtle bone in her body so guessing she will try to turn the bullying into something far worse or Make one of the staff do something horrible. But watch for other stuff just in case. If she tries to be tricky she might take over one of your hive mates and betray you somehow.

As for attacking her memory start by taking more food than needed. Will make sure that after she limps home in shame she also hurt her tribe by losing food. As for the fight itself we should have the two Neumono fight together as a team using better tactics. Then beat her half to death take her food and her ears. She goes home beaten and wastes valuable resources.

>>517205
Can we skip ahead to right before she fought the two hunters and have her encounter a wild beast that injures her but she prides herself to keep going so when she does face the hunters she's a bit handicapped. Once the actual fight starts we can morph it form there.

>>517206
ok all the ways I can see Rokoa trying to ruin this memory is by
- having you hivemates ditch you when you need them
- have your hivemates join in with the bullies so they get teased less themselves
- have the other hive children that where nice to you be complete pricks
- have it that your havemates get into a fight with another hive that normally you would have been friendly with (to stop you from learning to trust other hives)
- have it that one of your havemates seriously hurts another hive so you get punished for it
- Having the staff not help you out
- by having you or one of your hivemates get seriously hurt in an attempt to scare you

in the case of the staff being dicks have Katzati become a staff member that IS helpful to us
in the even of another hive is picking on you have Katzati be a 3rd hive that tries and helps you
and in the even that Rokoa tries to use one of your own hivemates against you have Katzati take control of the other one to try and counter/stop whatever Rokoa is trying to do.

>taking direct control of Rokoa will greatly increase how falsified the memory will be, so I should avoid doing so if possible.
...wait, what? Don't we want to falsify the memory as much as possible? Or are you saying if we go too far off the rails that the damaged memory won't have influence on her? Or if we go too far it will be more likely to get Rokoa to respond and defend?

>Katz help
Good. Although we don't know how long we'll have her- she'll wake (or be woken) eventually, and time passes oddly in dreams.

>What Rokoa may do
I can see several logical approaches to mess with this memory. If this experience both helped to make your ties with your own hive stronger, and to teach you that some neumono from other hives can be good, it seems logical she would want to break of lessen those lessons.

Especially the later. You're currently relying on outside help in your own mind. It would be to Rokoa's advantage if she could make you lest trusting of outsiders and more xenophobic.

I expect she's going to get you bullied harder. Or prevent the staff from stepping in the way they should have. Or make you into a bully.

Not sure how Katz could counter that, except by stepping into your role (if available) and helping you roll with it, or by stepping into the role of one of your hivemates or teachers or the other students to offer the necessary support (so even if overall worse things happened to you, it has the same effect).

>what do
An obvious course of action to me would seem to be making the hunt go badly. Don't let her return with anything.

The one important thing to remember when altering this memory of her fight is we can try all the clever stuff we want but it all comes down to being able to beat her in hand to hand combat for the best result.

She will be challenging them to one on one combat and even with a big fake memory body and Polo's new training its not a sure thing. This young Rokoa would normally have less fighting skills but I am sure the second we try to ruin this fight she will abandon our memories to fight in person.

Polo 2013/06/16(Sun)10:13 No. 517275 ID: d38f67
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>Don't we want to falsify the memory as much as possible [by taking control of Rokoa]?
A bad choice of a word. I meant falsifying the memory so blatantly it becomes obviously falsified, and Rokoa can easily reject the changes. Much like if I attempted to have Rokoa die. Obviously, she would not have died.

So, I am reluctant to have Rokoa take more food directly, but I do have her hive trust her enough to give her a good helping of food, more than she normally would take. After she puts on her markings, which Rokoa did not know at the time, but they are markings resembling that of the pattern on a predator. I get the impression that that is the markings to broadcast the fact that they are hunting other neumono specifically.

She heads out, and takes a good portion of the day to find those couple of people. Meanwhile, Rokoa is not touching me or my hivemates, but is getting some of the friendlier hives to bully me as well, and have the staff turn a blind eye, even when the bullying gets to more than just a shove. Bloody noses are handed out throughout the day, but given Katzati just went through an axing, she handles it well for the few times Rokoa targets her. Katzati is make sure to cancel out Rokoa's actions by having others be friends with me, or make sure the staff does something at times. The few friends I had in that school are going to be remembered as enemies, while others I barely knew will be friends. I am going to remember lies, and I hope Katzati has a good memory to tell me every detail that changed. Either way, I am going to owe her more than a lot of hugs.

But Rokoa has found the couple of enemy tribes people, and is challenging them to one on one combat, dropping the weapons entirely and fighting each other barehanded. I am leaning on overriding the tribes' pride and ganging up on Rokoa, weapons and all, but this will be the time to have second thoughts if I have any.

>am going to remember lies, and I hope Katzati has a good memory to tell me every detail that changed. Either way, I am going to owe her more than a lot of hugs.
Yeah. You're going to owe Katz big time. Damn glad she came along on this trip.

...I do hope though if you win this, that your memory will eventually recover. Things are being overwritten, but if you win out, maybe your mind will dig the truth out from underneath. Computers can do it, why can't a mind? Especially one built to be regenerative.

I don't suppose you kept journals or logs as a child? Those might help you reconstruct memories, later, if we survive this mission. ...although that kind of thing might not exactly have been a high priority to grab when your hive was evacuating. Unless they were electronic and Sealock had time to grab the main hard drives.

>I am leaning on overriding the tribes' pride and ganging up on Rokoa, weapons and all
Sounds good. Give them a reason. They know she attacked and killed two of their own (You and Katz) instead of giving them a fair shot. So now pride be damned, they're not giving her a fair fight.

A loss undermines her confidence and competence as a warrior. And their reason rubs in the fact that there are consequences to her violence. Painful ones.

>>517275
obviously you need to get rokoa to lose as spectacularly as you can without her rejecting the memory.

>>517275
>I meant falsifying the memory so blatantly it becomes obviously falsified, and Rokoa can easily reject the changes.
OH thank god that means she can't find that one time you experimented in college and make you get pregnant at any point with her son...
right?

I suggest getting Rokoa and this other tribe to start the fight off with a dance off. If not, okay a loss here will suffice. IF you can find her first love somewhere in here mind, make the first time they meet her in battle to make this a spicy romance novel/musical about star crossed lovers.

>>517284
>dance off
>spicy romance novel/musical
Dirtbag, you're drunk.

>Give them a reason. They know she attacked and killed two of their own (You and Katz) instead of giving them a fair shot. So now pride be damned, they're not giving her a fair fight.
Seconding this. The language barrier is still there but empathy can probably convey the anger and accusation of knowing what she did earlier.

Ok personal hand to hand combat is definitely out of the question. Even with your new training and this being a mental battle its a risk we don't want to take just yet.

We can have them team up with weapons to take her down and that would help. Or we could have them reject her challenge entirely and leave and if she chases after they would have a good reason to attack at the same time.

Also you said they were out hunting a snowbeast. Could we conjure up one of those for the memory? Not sure how big or dangerous they are but if we could get a huge one to show up and attack we could move the memory other directions. Like have it attack Rokoa and the other tribe saves her. Or have it attack in the middle of the battle if need be.

Just noticed that one of the pair she is challenging is female with a bow. If we wanted to go darker we could make her very pregnant. Change the memory to a mated pair out to find food for there about to be laid egg. Would give them a strong reason to not fight solo and if Rokoa hurt her to much then we could add in the shame of killing someones unborn child.

If we want a realistic memory that will hurt and undermine her. Make it so she has to be save by her hive mates and have the other neumono escape. That way she fails and is an embarrassing liability after the food she just ate.

1/5 Polo 2013/06/16(Sun)13:04 No. 517314 ID: d38f67
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>Maybe your mind will repair its memories
I hope so. The fact that Rokoa's memories seem more or less intact after three fights is evidence in favor of this, so I have some leeway. As long as Rokoa doesn't dig too deep, I should be fine in the long run.

>Did you keep journals or logs as a child?
Not many, but it is not as though everyone from my childhood is dead. They will be able to set things straight after this, if Katzati can't.

>How dangerous is a snowbeast?
From Rokoa's memory, not very dangerous at all.

I will decide to beat Rokoa. The factors indicate I should be able to accomplish this. The two enemies will have no intention to give a fair fight. I figure that the hive must have found signs of Rokoa's previous fight, and by the looks of footprints and blood, their two hivemates did not even fight back. With that in place, they don't care for fair combat, they are going to get some revenge.

Rokoa catches this, and brings her axe as she charges forward. The one with the bow and arrow manages to land an arrow in Rokoa, and it's about then that Rokoa's conscience comes to take over for herself. She's at an advantage for swapping memories since her critical points take mere seconds, while mine are large pictures over the course of lengthy periods.

2/5 Polo 2013/06/16(Sun)13:04 No. 517315 ID: d38f67
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I do the same trick as before, and let the tribespeople broadcast their normal empathy while I keep their specific attacks a secret. While a defeat with perfectly normal empathy would be more believable and crushing, I do not want to take chances.

The benefit of silence while fighting other neumono proves itself again. Rokoa is experienced with broadcasting her own actions, and tends to make lunges that are difficult to avoid even if seen coming, opting to trade blows for blows. It works well for her with one on ones, but when she tackles one, the other stabs at her, and both are strong enough to prevent Rokoa from using one as a meatshield against the other. Rokoa is not fighting smart, but she knows it. After a few moments of this, I am coming to the conclusion that Rokoa did not even care about winning, she just wanted to have a casual physical fight with me. Not just that, she doesn't even care about this memory, it would seem.

These weapons are crude, and hardly pierce well, but we end up as bloody messes again. Rokoa prevented herself from losing as spectacularly as I aimed for, but it's still a loss.

3/5 Polo 2013/06/16(Sun)13:05 No. 517316 ID: d38f67
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Rokoa's conscience isn't amazed that she lost, and neither am I. She remembers these two being tough anyways. Between her recognition of that, and that she thought herself comparatively weak as a kid, it is not hard.

So I'm left with the arduous task of having one restrain Rokoa and the other proceed to beat her half to death, rip off her ears, and take the food she has. I have to remind myself that this is the best possible course of action I believe I can take for my own survival.

Given that Rokoa must survive this, and the enemy hive would want her dead, it is easy to have one of Rokoa's hivemates stumble into empathic range and rush to Rokoa's aid before she's killed. The enemies will consider their accomplishment to be good enough and run away.

4/5 Polo 2013/06/16(Sun)13:05 No. 517317 ID: d38f67
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Memory-Rokoa is unsurprisingly ashamed and enraged at herself, and the hive ashamed and enraged at her, as she is part of their hive, so it is considered a failure of the hive as well. It's a great failure on her part, but it isn't the first time Rokoa has failed at something.

The hive makes Rokoa train and fight more between hunting trips. Perhaps that is why Rokoa did not mind letting her memory fail this time, it was merely replaced with her hive training her more. I am unable to change that, as that is solid, and there are a great deal of gaps between memories I can access in a physical way to change. The same must go for Rokoa to me, as well.

I end up back up with Katzati, as our memories are altered. There is overlap between the new and the old for just a moment, in which I can tell that while the people I was friendly with swapped signifantly, the experience was largely the same. I got punched more often, but there was nothing traumatizing.

>"She's... so violent." Katzati tells me.
"Yes." I do not know how else I would respond to that.

The next memory... I have a feeling some of her memories were shifted out of order to fit her 'new' experiences. She is going to fight a particularly strong member of her own hive next before she is allowed to hunt the enemy again. That neumono is her first lover. I will have to do this one caref-

5/5 Polo 2013/06/16(Sun)13:05 No. 517318 ID: d38f67
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Something jabs my foot.

>"Wake up."

Kort. I can't move, I am hot, and feel like I am being crushed for reasons that only take me a moment to remember why. Katzati grunts as she is woken up as well. Kort sounds like he is in a bad mood, but it's hard to tell inside the jammer. Not as bad as mine. Not as bad as Katzati's is about to be, if I am reading her correctly.

Find out what is going on and let them know whats happening. If a patrol stumbles over us while we sleep we will be dead faster than if Rokoa gets us. Also is there any way to induce sleep other than stomach stabbing? Do not want to injure yourself more but worse case could be a option.

...feel momentary relief we aren't having to delve into interfering with Rokoa's first sexual experience, for the moment. As if things weren't fucked up enough without getting literal.

Rough estimate: how much time has passed in the real world? How badly injured are you still? Hard to know if the inner battle means resources diverted away from regeneration, or if Rokoa working on your body at the same time means you'll heal faster.

Importantly, you need to know if you're in any condition to move or fight, if that's what is required. ...although I'm not sure if you can trust yourself with a weapon right now. And if you do need to move, thankfully you are the lightest person here.

>Rokoa came to defend
Damn it, we didn't work quickly enough. You should have been able to make changes while she was busy fighting Katz over your school days.

>Kort
...tell me what is happening, quickly.

>Inner battle, on hold
Try and turn your silence inward. Assume the same mindset as when resisting commands from three stripes. While you and Katz are conscious and unable to play defense, you need to try and block Rokoa from making changes.

>>517318
What the hell do you want Kort, I'm fighting for my fucking life here.

Ah well, Katz should debrief him on what we told her while we try to get back to sleep, if he doesn't want anything that Katz can't handle.

Aw, what the fucknuggets Kort.
We better fuckin' be under attack.
Or We'll rip your dick off.
Seriously, this is important.
YES KORT, us sleeping is REALLY FUCKING IMPORTANT.

Try not to bite Kort's head off, Polo. He doesn't really know what's going on. And there's a chance you may actually need to be awake.

Even if you don't need to be awake though, there are a few useful things you could do before returning to sleep.

You could check if Niam and Korli have any advice on surviving this, since apparently their hive has been studying this kind of thing (Niam has some direct knowledge of the Rokoa experiments, and Korli discussed previous person-fusion experiments in ITQ). You can talk to Rokann and Viln personally, and spare Katzati that one task, at least. You can take the chance to eat- the last time you had anything was raw voklit, while underwater and on the run. (And you're not going to have much chance to eat if you need to keep sleeping through this). You could brief the others on your findings about the exits, and the discovery of Biles.

Polo 2013/06/16(Sun)14:55 No. 517350 ID: d38f67
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>You should have been able to make changes while she was busy fighting Katz over your school days.
It only takes a moment to flip between memories. The issue is that Rokoa only defended for a few moments, which did not take much out of what was seen as days of attacking for her, memory wise.

I turn my silence on towards my memories, since we are in a jammer anyways. Again, it will simply make Rokoa have a tougher and slower time changing much. She is continuing to do so in the back of my head. I quickly feel like I remember something, first off. It... is not my own memories. I recall how I've changed Rokoa's memories. Mine still feel unchanged, although I assume that they are. I will assume Rokoa remembers how she changed mine, while her memories appear unaffected to her.

>"Ack, sorry." Katzati whispers to me as she rolls off and stops smothering me.
"What is the emergency, Kort? I am struggling to maintain myself, here, as I am sure I told you about the dart. It is far easier to concentrate on that while sleeping." I check the time. I have only been asleep for a few hours.
>"Yeah, we've been keeping an eye on you. We only have about 10 hours left of food. That's including stretching it thin, which is why I'm hungry and telling you."
>"You woke us up for that?!" Katzati says in a shouted whisper.
>"... you are the last person who should be complaining to me about complaining about our food problems. You fucking tub of lard."

...
Oh, HELLS-TO-THE-NO HE DID NOT JUST INSULT KATZATI'S WEIGHT.
HELL
FUCKING
NO

This is not good. If Polo goes down then there is a good chance everyone dies. And having Kort being a surly asshole jeopardizes the whole mission. Also personal attacks on other team members is really pushing it.

We need to get him to back down so we can get on with surviving Rokoa's attack. I know this is going to sound horrible but worse case scenario you might have to kill and eat Kort.

You can not afford to go out on hunting trips right now and are the only person who can sneak around safely. If Kort or Katzati went out to hunt they have a good chance of running into a patrol and getting everyone killed.

If you have to get Viln to keep the peace do so. Because as bad as the situation is if you cant kill the Rokoa in your head in the next few hours its going to get a lot worse.

WE'RE FIGHTING TO KEEP MY MEMORIES AND PERSONALITY INTACT.

GET YOUR OWN DAMN FOOD. OH WHAT, YOU'RE NOT SILENT AND AWESOME?

YOU HAVE EARS. YOU DON'T GET TO COMPLAIN ABOUT BEING HUNGRY WHILE YOU STILL HAVE PERFECTLY EDIBLE EARS ON YOUR HEAD. IF YOU WEREN'T SUCH A PRICK, KATZATI MIGHT HAVE BEEN WILLING TO SHARE HER PLUMP, DELICIOUS EARS, BUT GOOD LUCK WITH THAT NOW.

>>517350
Tell Kort that if he wakes you again for something like this we will assume he is working for the Salikai and he will get his ass shot. If he wants food I'm sure someone else is willing to go out with the spare jammer, because you're NOT AVAILABLE. You're not the leader of this expedition, he doesn't need to come to you for every little thing.

That said, we will help briefly with the planning. How much longer would everyone last if ears were added to the rations? Optimally you would want to hunt silently, so Viln and I suppose Rokann could go out to engage in melee combat with some creatures to get food.

...what?

All right. This doesn't make sense. Two possibilities here. Either something is really wrong (for instance, you're still sleeping, and this is Rokoa trying to fuck with and distract you. Or you're awake and the room is being gassed, making stupid here act stupid. Or he's been bugged). Or Kort has just cracked under the pressure and is making an ass of himself.

The first thing to do is check for situation a. Is this a dream? Can you exert any influence or move your location? Do you smell gas, or is there anything wrong with Kort's empathy?

If this is real, where the hell is everyone else? If you've been compromised, you'd think there would be someone armed nearby.

If this is real, and nothing else is wrong, it's time to chew out Kort. You will not speak to Katzati in that way. She has proved her worth to this expedition and to me many times over. You could barely do your job. If we need food, you will need to discuss it with Lucera. Or Rokann, or Viln, or Marra. Or eat your ears. I am in no condition to hunt. And even if I were, I would not trust myself with a weapon in this condition.

Do not wake me again without good reason. Or you will be injured. By me, or Rokoa.

So, to review, Kort.
GET YOUR OWN FUCKING FOOD.
...
NO YOU CANNOT HAVE HER EARS
YOU HAVE YOUR OWN ASSHOLE.
...
NO FUCK YOU. KORT.

...K, Polo? How dire is this, and how much longer, in this plane, do you think it will be before Rokoa is toast?
Either way, inform him that if he continues to distract you from the combat, they will have to deal with an angry and starved Rokoa, which will be a far worse drain on their food supplies, disregarding if she turns traitor and tries to eat them.
It's good to know though, that hunting will need to be done soon...I wonder if Biles possibly can go hunting on his own?

Oh wait, I got it.

Then take that stick (I don't know where you found a stick down here), stop poking me with it, and start fishing.

...now if you will excuse me, I have a madwoman eating my mind from the inside out. Your huger is not my concern!

Kort is probably just cracking under pressure. We need someone else to take charge of him and make sure we are left alone to fight Rokoa. Be careful about getting too angry or acting like Rokoa in any way. It might help her compromise you faster.

Wait a minute. I just had an idea. If Polo's dreamscape is wide open and easy to enter, maybe we could have EVERYONE help us out in the dream. Get the dream-combat over with faster, and we can help with hunting faster. Though, I suppose, Polo's still severely wounded.

Viln can stand guard.

1/3 Polo 2013/06/16(Sun)17:03 No. 517401 ID: d38f67
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Art Error: Polo's bioarmor is still put on.

I am not too inclined to believe that our room is being gassed or something similar. Kort has not acted this extreme to this point, but he has acted exceptionally stupid for no good reason in the past.

Nor do I have much reason to believe there is something special about Kort's actions. Everyone else is nearby, just not in our immediate vicinity.

2/3 Polo 2013/06/16(Sun)17:03 No. 517402 ID: d38f67
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"If you wake me up for no good reason again, I am going to assume you are working for the salikai, and you will be injured."
>"Are you threatening me?"
"We still have our ears. That will add hours. Otherwise, we have a spare jammer. Rokann or Marra can go hunting. Did you bring it up with anyone else first?"
>"Everyone else is awake and on duty."
"Meaning their ears are open. Secondly, you will not speak to Katzati like that. I still would not care even if she did eat more than us. She is still useful, and she has earned her share. So far, we are throwing your share of food at you, and what we are getting in return is disrespect and getting woken up."
>"Don't lecture me. It's not like you brought anything back, and now you can't even hunt." My foot is still broken, so that is true. "Katzati's ears come first then, if no one's going to hunt."

3/3 Polo 2013/06/16(Sun)17:03 No. 517403 ID: d38f67
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He says that while leaving to avoid us having the chance to retort. I doubt it is much good talking to him, his eyes glaze over when I said anything longer than five words.

Katzati can debrief everyone, since she knows what I have learned from my trip in full. For now, I would like to head to sleep, as there is a lot of work to be done. I have a feeling that beating Rokoa will take more than a few hours, but so will healing my foot.

On the other hand, I may wish to do something about Kort, first. I do not know if he has always had those feelings of hostility and just now had to let him out or if it is new, but either way, I do not expect our situation to get much better, and the same goes for his mood.

>Get everyone to dreamshare
Inside of our jammer, that would mean everyone would have to huddle around me and have a sufficient amount of surface area contact to share empathy. I do not believe logistics will be realistically friendly to that.

Kort, why are you such an ass?
K-Kort?
Where are you going?
H-Hey, dont you walk away from m-
The fuck did you sa-
ASFDSA
DON'T YOU FUCKING IGNORE ME
KORT
KOOOORT >:C

>not as if you brought anything back
...you damn near got yourself killed trying to bring back intel, and more explosives, and he complains you didn't stop for snacks?

This guy really isn't cutout for this kind of operation.

>Do anything about Kort
I wouldn't object to trying to keep the situation stable, but he doesn't seem to want to listen to you. Is there anyone he does respect we could ask to speak with him? (Not sure if Viln would work. Does he respect voklit, or does he look down on them?).

>Rokann or Marra can go hunting
Don't forget Viln. The guy who's hunted here most of his life, and is most likely to know where to find food that is likely hiding with the whole cave system being searched. And who knows what might be taken down quietly.

>Anything else to do while you're awake
Maybe make your suicide requests in person? That is kind of a personal thing, and it might be the last time you see them. (...although time spent being sentimental is time wasted not spent fighting).

Might also be worth spending a few minutes checking if the science hivers have any insight that might help. Could be a dead end, but presumably their hive had to have studied this kind of thing.

>I do not believe logistics will be realistically friendly to that.
Even assuming they would be able to dreamshare. It's not exactly common, even between people who are close. You're lucky Katzati is good at it, or your condition has made you especially susceptible.

>>517402
>if no one's going to hunt
What? He assumed that since you couldn't, nobody would? Also, he said you didn't bring back anything, but you did bring back the bazooka round? Kort is so irrational right now, what the hecko. Just get in physical contact with him to get some empathy going to find out what's wrong with him. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes. Or just ask Katz to have Lucera find out what's going on with him.

Kort is cracking under the strain. Let Viln know whats going on and what to do if he breaks. Make sure he knows to watch for Kort getting a hold of any weapons or doing anything that might reveal our location. He might be fine but prepare for it just in case.

Logistics be damned! Start by lying on top of Katzati and then stack everyone else around like a pyramid.

>>517416
Well I dunno about a pyramid, but having just one other person in the dream helping out alongside Katzati would be a real boon. A Neumono sandwich would be simple to set up.

>>517418
Then let's hope none of the males get a boner.
...
(icouldntresist)
(bysheogorathsnipplesimsorry)

We should probably ask Katz to fill the others in for us. It'll affect their planning to know Biles and his group are out there, and the fighters can start thinking about what exit they'd prefer to approach (if we ever make it that far).

She's welcome to join us again when she's able, and thank you for what you've done. And don't let him get to you- he's not taking the stress well.

>>517421
Pff. They're all neumono. They know how to cuddle-pile professionally. They don't have any human hangups about thinking sleeping together only happens for sex.

Polo 2013/06/16(Sun)20:33 No. 517436 ID: d38f67
File 137143998922.png - (13.92KB , 700x700 , 403.png )

I let Katzati rest and go speak personally to various people, but I keep my talks short. To Viln and Rokann, I say that if I believe that me turning into Rokoa will not be a sudden thing. I will keep them updated if things are going badly, but otherwise, if it appears that Rokoa has won, then they are to kill me. To Viln specifically, I say to keep an eye on Kort for when he is not on shift at the front area.

I mention to those two and Lucera that some hunting will likely have to be done before long. I will leave it to them to sort out who goes hunting. I make Kort let my hand rest on him and be X-rayed. He is clean, and his empathy is simply erratic and panicked. He is just cracking and leaking his idiocy. Nonetheless, I alert Lucera to his actions, and he tells me that he will keep an eye on Kort. I ask Marra that, if she has free time and wishes to sleep, it would assist me to attempt dreamsharing. I tell her to sandwich me between Katzati with the straightest face I can muster. Her face is also straight. I do add that if she does not think she can get in position without waking me up, to not bother.

And to Niam, I ask if he has any insight. He explains that someone named Mirim was the neumono most closely associated with the brain darts, and will have the documents and knowledge.

With that, I go back to Katzati. Rokoa is still working away at my next memory, but has not gotten far with it. It does not take long for me to get to sleep, but Katzati is not there waiting for me. I will not wait, as I have no control or knowledge of when or if Katzati will show up.

Three memories are available.

http://www.tgchan.org/wiki/Polo_Quest_Statistics#Rokoa_Infestation

Dad's run sounds fun
And it's father's day for 20 more minutes
go for it.

>I have no control or knowledge of when or if Katzati will show up.
Dangit, Kort. That's the worst thing he may have done. We can afford to lose the minutes, but we have no idea if, or when, we'll be able to get anyone else in here to help.

...remember that we put our silence up to slow down Rokoa. You'll have to leave a 'safe' memory unshielded for Katz to be able to enter at all, maybe.

>Mirim
Well gee, that would help if we were able to infiltrate the salikai base for information. But seeing as we can't attempt that till after our foot is done healing, by which time this Rokoa battle will be mostly settled one way or the other. That, and you kind of need Rokoa's intel to break in.

>Rokoa is still working away at my next memory, but has not gotten far with it
Can you tell what memory she is working on? The silence may be slowing her down, but without Katzati playing defense for you, it may prove necessary to dart back to try and minimize the damage at crucial moments, the same as Rokoa has been doing against you.

>needs to beat someone, lovers
...oh gods, it's not Pilon is it? This is going to be awkward.

In the interest of your own sanity, I vote for doing the awkward sexy times episode before Katz gets back. I mean, the way your day is going, she'll probably show up in the middle, but let's at least try.

>>517436
I'm not sure what we could even change with the first child memory, but it IS a weak spot for Rokoa, and might distract her heavily. We could make the kid be extra-rude, and that might bother Rokoa.

The lovers memory is right out. She'd be able to easily psyche Polo out by getting too lovey-dovey.

The raid could be changed to outright fail, but would that be too falsified? They would just need to make a second raid, I guess.

I think we should change the first child memory, make her kid be super rude.

lets go for Rokoa's lover for now since that is the furthest in the past we can work our way up from there.

I think going with the lovers fight might be best while we are alone. Should help avoid embarrassment. One problem that might come up though. Has Polo had any lovers? It might make it difficult to relate if she has never felt like that before.

On the other hand it might come in handy if she has not. Could make what used to be a important touching moment into a awkward mess.

Go with the lovers, there is a bit of a trend with our attacks of making her more dependent on others and the lovers memory seems like the best target to continue that.

lovers sounds the most interesting, though if we pull it off the child one would probably be the most damaging

Actually, entering any of Rokoa's memories right now is risky. With when and where Katzati will enter your dreamscape an unknown, the risk of her coming in like she did the first time while you're working on those memories is too great. In none of those three memories will you be able to fit a foreign neumono suddenly appearing out of nowhere and make it stick. The validity of the memory will fall down, and your work will be lost while Rokoa gains ground.

So instead of attempting to alter Rokoa's memories right now, take this time to enter and defend whichever of yours she's attacking at the moment. Go in, assess the situation, then drop your silence completely so Katzati might enter.

>>517542
...but if you follow that logic, we can't attack Rokoa at all for fear Katzati's entrance would mess up our work!

Which seems crazy to me. We can't take no action for as long as it takes help to arrive (especially when we have no idea when, or even if, she will do so again). If Katz messes up what we're doing, that's a small setback. If we can do nothing, that's a big one.

Besides, now that she knows what is going on, there's a good chance Katzati won't mess anything up entering.

I think we need to get more ruthless. Can we go to the memory of Rokoa's child, and alter them so that they look more like Polo? Not that they ARE polo, just close enough that they remind rokoa of her, and thus vice versa. Then, Rokoa should find it harder to do anything that harms Polo, emotionally speaking.

We need to think on the long term. Rokoa is smarter than she comes off, i think, and so far she's been allowing changes to her memories that still leave her as strong as ever, if worse in other ways that matter less.

Altering the memory of Rokoa's child would be a turning point in this fight, as it makes up a large part of her past.

>>517603
At least, the effects of it, anyways.

>>517604
>>517603
Well, the problem with that is we can't fundamentally change something a lot of subsequent memory hinges on and expect to just win. Unlike with time travel, where changing a critical moment equals a cascade of change, here changing a critical moment too much means it clashes with the memories of what is casually dependent on it, allowing rejection.

This is the problem Polo alluded to earlier.

We're changing things for a few reasons. The way I see it, the process works like this:
(1) Every change we make gets us access to more memories we can change.
(2) Every change we make removes evidence (or provides false evidence) for cross referencing. The more changes we make, the harder it will be to reject further changes as false.
(3) This allows bigger, more significant, changes to be made.
(4) Eventually this snowballs past a tipping point. We move beyond being able to change more memories and to a better extent, and reach the point where outright deletion is possible.
(5) Deletion continues until the mind is destroyed.

There's also kind of a meta-game, where before consciousness is destroyed, changes in memory may effect how the mind behaves. This may allow us to chose changes such that it alters Rokoa's actions or style of play during the battle, but ultimately, rewiring Rokoa is not the end goal.

The rewiring is practice, and a means to an end. We rewire in order to gain root access to all memory sectors, and in order to expand our read/write privileges to include deletion.

Polo 2013/06/17(Mon)19:44 No. 517701 ID: d38f67
File 137152348768.png - (49.79KB , 700x700 , 404.png )

>What memory is Rokoa attacking?
When it rained and I oscillated myself dry in front of the principal.

>Have you had any lovers?
There has not been anyone that I have paired with specifically for purposes of intimate relations. I have, however, had casual intimacy in the past. A few times.

The child is tempting, but I have a feeling I must deal with the lover's memory, and I may as well do this while the chances of Katzati being around are at a minimum.

I recall the details. Rokoa fights someone named Maro. Originally, she was doing so to simply fight the best of the best of her hive because she is Rokoa. And Maro is one of them. The queen is also spectating, along with several others that have hung around camp for the day. With the new array of memories, she has added motivation - and desperation - to do so to not be considered weak, as her track record for fighting other neumono has not been impressive.

Once again, originally, she beat Maro and... I am reluctant to call them 'lovers'. Mates might be a better word. Rokoa was simply impressed by his strength and dragged him off to the nearest tent, they got in the mood, and then Rokoa went at it and decided halfway through it was going to be for procreation. There was little more chemistry than what is already hivemate love, but to be fair, that is usually good enough for things like this.

>"It's good you're serious about this." the neumono who is loosening Rokoa's shoulders tells her. "But no one's going to think less of you if you lose this one."

>Polo's only had casual romantic encounters
...well, that means they're not not going to be big seminal moments in your life. Which mercifully means literally fucking with you isn't going to be a priority of Rokoa's.

>No one's going to think less of you if you lose this one
I will. (Well, Rokoa will think less of herself if you lose in her place but... semantics).

Hmm. This one is delicate. We can't prevent Rokoa's son from being conceived - that would be too big a change. She's reject the memory as false. They still have to end up in bed, but we still have to make the day go worse for her.

Making her lose is one obvious way to change things. Or... just do a lot worse, if we can't swing that. Basically, end result, we don't want her getting as much respect out of this as she originally did.

>>517701
>oscillating
The truth comes out!

If we make her lose, could she take control of the memory-Rokoa and intentionally not Get Busay in order to falsify the memory? Or would she just wind up having her first kid from someone else or just at a later date?

Well, regardless, we should make her lose. Strengthen that history of losing important fights.

Actually this time I think we should make her go beyond the bounds for an inter-hive bout. I'd say maim him enough that he needs help to live, draining resources. We want to undo the good done by that last memory.

Again, thank god she can't change that much like convince you one of your casual intimate moments were with Maro and turn of the blue you tried getting pregnant for the hell of it... you don't think she can do that right? Right? Like, for serious, that would hit for high damage. Even if she can't change that you've never gotten pregnant, tapping Maro in any way would be a major hit. So protect the shit out of any of your friend's with benefits identities.

This is brutal, but maybe have the reproduction in front of everyone, the fight just gets out of hand and they just stop thinking and turn into beasts of instinct and only instinct. When it ends everyone will either cheer or she'll be mega embarrassed.

We cant stop her first child from being conceived because that would change to much to soon. A few possible options I can see are.

1. Have her lose badly and still mate with Maro but its him who drags her off and she feels like she has to have a child to redeem herself or something.

2. Have her lose and Maro rejects her and she ends up having a child with a weaker male.

3. She wins but we corrupt it so its a dishonorable win somehow. Continue the chain of her being a lucky brute rather than a skilled fighter.

4. Make her hive seem much more judgmental than usual and try to goad her into a berserk fury and have her accidentally kill Maro. Then have her queen force her to have a kid with some asshole so that there numbers are not compromised.

>oscillated myself dry in front of the principal
...so, she's either going to try and make the shame of that day worse, or she's going to make you handle it worse? I could see her stepping into the principal's shoes and giving you way more of a dressing down than you got the first time, or stepping into your shoes and having you, uh, refuse to be shamed and punch him in the face or something. Trying to break you by traumatizing you with an authority figure, or by undermining your discipline and control?

Either way, the critical moment will probably be when you're in front of the principal. The rest of the day can mostly slide, that's when you may need to snap back and try and defend against and mitigate changes.

>what do
So... our choices really boil down to make Rokoa not go far enough or go too far.

And I guess we want to try and sour things from triumphant celebration of awesomeness victory-sex to well... consolation sex. An act of self-loathing and desperation to prove herself, and make up for it. Less "let's make an awesome baby because we're both really strong" more "if I can't be worthwhile as a fighter, at least I can make myself useful this way".

...which is really twisted and I kind of feel awful trying to explain. But it's really the worst blow I think we can strike under the circumstances.

Rokoa losing is not itself devastating but we have damaged her self confidence before this. If we can make her lose and the guy shows no interest in her because she is not strong enough that might be the most damaging thing we can do. The child has to come from somewhere obviously but it doesn't have to be a direct result of this fight. It might require more input from Polo but it should be plausible. Rokoa's intervention is almost assured at this point but I think we can pull this one off even with her interference.

>>517712
Come on Team TOO FAR! Whoo! Murder is always the optimal solution.

>>517712
The Consolation-sex-thing seems really...
...
Damaging.
Let's do it.

I kind of feel like if these changed memories become real to the other person, maybe we should be thinking more about what the effect of those changes will be. Changing her successes into lackluster failures seems to be turning Rokoa from a violent sociopath eager to prove herself against every foe into a violent sociopath desperate to prove herself against every foe. I have some doubts that is going to have a sufficient effect on her psyche to achieve any real progress.

Lets try something different. Without concerning ourselves with the fight results, how about if he came on to her instead, plied her with whatever passes for romance for this tribe. Either he comes on too strong and she rejects him or they end up with a longer lasting relationship, both could be substantial changes.

Actually what we want is for her to become more Polo-Like. Part of that is to make her past self see rushing in and doing as much damage as possible is a bad thing. Her going beserk and earning the ire of her tribe for lack of self-control could have that effect.

>>517727
This guy gets it, we need to change Rokoas personality away from a violent sociopath into a loving, caring, compassionate figure. Hell we might even make her a queen.

Ignore the fight and change Rokoa and Maro into actual lovers with a deep long lasting relationship. We will probably have to change memories about her first child, and possibly Maro if he ends up dying.

>>517737
Bonus: we already dug some huge chinks into Rokoa's psyche! Those issues could make this easier AND more effective.

I do not think we can change it to not have some sort of fight just yet. The central junction behind this memory is Rokoa proving herself in combat. Too many of her future memories still hinge on this one to change it that much. Once we change those we might be able to come back and remove the fight.

>>517737

If nothing else tweak Maro into a position where Rokoa had an opportunity to kill him, but shows him mercy instead. Either her memory gets fucked up by him dying and she got nobody to fuck, or her memory gets fucked up by an honest to god show of compassion on her behalf.

>>517701
you should turn the after sex into a very hauntingly embarrassing, cringe-worthy experience.

I don't think the tactic of trying to weaken Rokoa is viable in the long term. Remember, her ultimate motivation is the torture and other motivations that the salikai inflicted on her, and making her a worse or weaker person will, in all likelihood, just make her MORE motivated to destroy Polo. What we need to capitalize on is the more virtuous traits she's shown - honour and compassion - which have hints of holding her back. If we enhance those, endowing Rokoa with more strength, more determination, more sanity and reason, more overall virtue, then the more likely she'll stop doing what the salikai want and try to help Polo instead.

Polo is, after all, in the right. We already went ahead and talked about all the ways that Rokoa can't win and how her winning even if it was possible will only hurt her family and her species as well as making her a pathetic slave-tool. The only reasons she's not capitulating to Polo already is 1) Salikai influence and 2) Sheer Rokoa bloody-mindedness. What we need to do is to engineer Rokoa's memories so that she becomes a better person. Keep the honour, loyalty, courage and determination, add on Polo virtues like pragmatism and sanity and general-purpose practical compassion. The new Rokoa will be strong enough to overcome her conditioning and smart enough to let Polo have her. And, if she doesn't, and somehow Polo isn't killed once she starts changing, then at least Polo will turn into someone worth turning into. Always have a backup plan!

So what we need to do is, change this guy so he's super amazing. Have Rokoa give a good fight, one that impresses everyone watching, but that she still loses because this guy isn't just as strong and fierce as her, but smart and disciplined as well. And then, as well as being her lover, make him her mentor. Give her something to admire and live up to. A memory of someone who'd be ashamed of what she's doing.

>make her more like Polo
>she'll stop doing what the salikai want and try to help Polo instead.
In the terms I used here >>517613, you're putting the meta-game above the game. It's more important we do damage that undermines her and grants us further access than it is we try to specifically change her behavior.

This is because major changes in personality and behavior won't happen until we've gotten most the way through her memories. If we ever get the in position where we can make her think what we want her to think, we would already be in a position to kill her.

And I'm not sure that's a desired outcome. I don't think Polo wants to be a predator- keeping a mind broken pet she can tell how to think around. This whole memory combat is pretty fucked up, but I'd consider making her some kind of mind-broken pet to be more horrific than just ending her. There's also the problem that Polo doesn't want to keep a friendly Rokoa in her head. She wants her gone.

>The only reasons she's not capitulating to Polo already is 1) Salikai influence and 2) Sheer Rokoa bloody-mindedness.
That's assuming she expects to win, and that she's currently broken by or loyal to the Salikai.

There's another interpretation. If we assume contact with Polo's memories really did fix Rokoa, the outlook could be very different. Remember: real-Rokoa isn't afraid of death, and wants to go down in combat. And she almost certainly believes that bit about Polo needing her. So what's she doing here? Fighting as hard as she can, knowing there's a reasonable chance she's going to die, but doing it anyways because that's how she'd prefer to go, and she wants to push Polo to the edge to make her better. She's trying to win, but hoping she'll lose, and make Polo stronger than ever in the process.

>>517822

You don't want her to be a mind-broken pet, but you're pushing for deletion when the process you propose for getting to deletion is to mind-break her! And I don't want her to be a mind-broken pet either. What I want to do is enable Rokoa to break whatever mind-breaking is already in place on her from the salikai. I think her being salikai-broken is much more plausible and likely than the idea that she was fixed and is somehow still making the attempt to brain damage to "make Polo stronger than ever". Rokoa wasn't that stupid or bull-headed, she knew Polo was strong already and that they were different people with different styles. This Rokoa is trying to justify her actions to herself; where the real Rokoa would answer back challenging questions, this Rokoa avoided the issues we presented her with and pushed on with exactly what the salikai want her to do. If she is mind-broken, torturewise, she won't admit it, she'd never admit it. Prideful people don't do that when their spirit's been broken, they try to rebuild themselves and pretend that they're doing what they want to do, lying to themselves as much as anyone else. "No no, I'm doing this to make you stronger! Whoops, you weren't strong enough, guess this was inevitable, I'll take over. And then I'll go back to the salikai and pretend I'm with them, yeah, so I can betray them at the right time. Yeah. The right time." I wonder what sort of thoughts the other Rokoa clones had about their lot in life? Do you think they went around thinking "well here I am a slave to the salikai forever, better just deal with it while they plot to torment my species (including my still-alive family)"? I'd lay a bet that they told themselves they were going to fight back somehow, too.

The path I propose won't force, manipulate or fool her into capitulating; it'll give her the chance to make that decision herself, and I think the real Rokoa, much less a psychologically reinforced one, would choose to give herself up to Polo - not to be a pet, but to die, which as you say she's not afraid of - so that Polo is informed and also gets whatever life lessons Rokoa might want to give her by giving access to her memories. Rokoa as we knew her, never really cared about herself; she cared about other people. Not everyone, but those who were close to her. She was willing not only do die for them but to suffer potential madness and humiliations for them. Remember, though she complained about it later, when the decision was on her she asked Polo to do what she would rather have done herself, because she knew Polo could do it better, because it was for the best. Giving up is the best thing she can do for her family and we just have to put her in a position where she knows that, admits it and is strong enough to act on it.

And right now I think the best way to do that is to make this guy great. Stick some vaseline on the lens, there, Polo. Make him all powerful and fierce and savage but also like, masterful. As much as you can without breaking the memory of him. And have someone who doesn't like her try to sabotage her and him not take advantage and her ask why and then he can be all "this isn't a real fight so we should fight full strength so we can become stronger long term" and that can start her on being honorable and stuff sooner than before. Actually that sounds sort of cheesy so you can use your discretion, Polo, you seem like someone who knows how to make things believable (but really, get some tribal romance novel fabio stuff in there).

>has to be doing this because the salikai broke her
She flat out said she would try to do this whether she was for the salikai or against them.

Breaking her free of their control (if she's even under it) won't do anything by itself. Nor will making her more stable or rational or more happy. A fight to the death with her greatest opponent, in terms of pure will? There's no way any Rokoa would turn that down. Even in her clearest frame of mind, she would choose it. You aren't getting an outcome where she backs down of her own will. (...unless we get to the point where we are manipulating her will. At which point we've as good as killed her, and it would be kinder to just do so than continue).

The only path to victory is to break and kill her.

And whether she's doing it for herself or for Polo, with the expectation she'll live or die is really besides the point. She's doing it, and will not stop unless we can stop her first.

>You don't want her to be a mind-broken pet, but you're pushing for deletion when the process you propose for getting to deletion is to mind-break her!
Yes. There's a distinction between injuring someone and keeping them in that state indefinitely, and in injuring them as part of killing them.

It's the difference between killing someone in a fight out of necessity, or capturing them and torturing them indefinitely. Both involve doing the same kind of harm- one is considerably crueler than the other.

>>517843
>She flat out said she would try to do this whether she was for the salikai or against them.

And I think she's lying! If she is for the salikai, she would say that as a way to deceive Polo and to make herself feel better at the same time. Furthermore:

>A fight to the death with her greatest opponent, in terms of pure will? There's no way any Rokoa would turn that down. Even in her clearest frame of mind, she would choose it

I disagree! The real Rokoa demonstrated the capacity to swallow her pride and her bloodlust if it was in the cause of things she considered more important. The first time Polo had her captured and tortured, she came back with an offer to take out someone she thought was hurting her hive. The next time, when Polo came to talk to her and then shot her in the face, Rokoa jumped on her and started beating her up - then stopped and entirely lost interest when she realized a hivemate of hers was nearby and needed help. And when they arranged a duel, she didn't try to angle for anything advantageous or even fair to herself: she gladly accepted conditions that put her at a huge disadvantage. Why? Fighting in a way she isn't used to makes her stronger, but this was a sniper battle, it has no honor or glory to it, 95% of the time it's just getting the drop on people and picking them off while they're entirely helpless. She wouldn't want that for it's own sake, she'd only want it so it could serve her duty. When she and Polo went into action together, Rokoa took every shot she could herself, risked death, let herself be puppeted around as a fake corpse, reduced herself to a meat shield and, on top of it all, never stopped smiling no matter what indignity happened to her. It was only things happening to other people, to her hive, her family, that ever took the grin off her face. Even when she said:

>"I'll tell you why I'm ticked. I wanted you to kill my queen. I asked you to. I, allegedly the oh so might QI Rokoa who doesn't take any shit, asked you, someone half my size, to beat up someone I wanted beat up like I'm some kind of paper pushing dispatcher. And now that I realize I was acting like a fucking coward, I'm too crippled to do much more than flip you off and get a pistol the size of my finger, pinch the queen with it and then get hauled back into the brig."

She was still smiling, if with difficulty. And, despite her complaining about it, she still did it. When the chips are down, the real Rokoa admits what needs to be done over what she would like to be done.

I think that, if it was to ultimately help whoever she cared for, she would gladly turn down any fight, no matter how attractive. She likes fighting her enemies and she likes glory and getting strong and all that, but it's all secondary. At heart, Rokoa does not live to fight. She lives so that others may live. This heart may be what has been taken from these clones, and if so, we should give it back.

So she would not do this if she was against the salikai, in all likelihood. It's possible, sure, but improbable compared to the alternatives.

>There's a distinction between injuring someone and keeping them in that state indefinitely, and in injuring them as part of killing them.

Read more closely, I'm not proposing we keep her in that state at all. And, as I said, I'm not proposing we mind-break her. We free her, inform and strengthen her, and then she'll decide to do what's best of her own free will. After which she will die.

But we're probably arguing from different interpretations of Rokoa as a character.

>I think she lied
Our fights have always been fairly straightforward. And if she were going to lie for advantage, she would have been much better off to lie to us about how this works.

>>517847
That interpretation of her character is actually why I suggested Rokoa is doing this for Polo's betterment. Look at her possible reasons for fighting:

On her personal selfish ego level? She wants to fight Polo. If she's compromised by the Salikai? She wants to fight Polo. If she wants to sacrifice herself for what's important? Fine- but she's going to go down fighting and at least get to enjoy Polo killing her in the best fight possible, and try to toughen her up in the process.

Remember the one way Rokoa doesn't want to die. Helpless. Impotent. With nothing to do but wait for the end. What would have awaited her in that pipe if we had left her, or what did happen to the Rokoa-dart. And what will happen to her, if she chose to step aside and let Polo live.

She can choose to set aside her pride and ego for bigger things. She can break free of the salikai, if she hasn't already. But there is no escaping the fact she wants to go out fighting.

>We free her, inform and strengthen her, and then she'll decide to do what's best of her own free will. After which she will die.
Which is why this will not work. If she's already free and informed, all you've done is waste time and strengthen her. And even if she does need freeing and informing, she will not chose to go quietly.

(My personal suspicion is she is free- that our memories gave her back enough of herself, and that she's fighting Polo to force her to kill her and toughen her up. But which case we're in really doesn't matter. Either way the outcome is the same. Rokoa is attacking, and we need to kill her).

This Rokoa wants Polo to kill her. She went out of her way to tell us how things worked and that she had info we needed. But she would never go out without a fight. She knows Polo is the best chance she has to fight against her captors. But she will not go easy on us and if she thinks Polo is to weak to do the job then she will steal our body and try to do it herself.

>>517793
Personally, I got nothin'. So I'll jus' second this.

Polo 2013/06/18(Tue)21:32 No. 517988 ID: d38f67
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Many other ideas still cross my mind. Unfortunately, many have issues. It is still difficult to directly take control of Rokoa herself unless she is undecided about something. But she feels exceptionally strong about needing to fight Maro. Moreso than having a strong relationship. Nonetheless, I can still attempt to make Maro into an honorable individual and attempt for a deep relation with Rokoa, while simultaneously making her lose and have the sex be a consolation act, and likely be terribly embarrasing for the circumstances. Awful, but I am attempting to weaken Rokoa's resolve as much as possible.

I take control of Maro to fight Rokoa. Rokoa-Consciousness does not show up to fight as herself or at all. She seems oddly apathetic about defending her memories right now, and while interested, she is opting to not get in another fight with me despite the fight being so even. I don't get the impression she thinks I'm doing the wrong thing, either, so I am simply puzzled. So Maro fights with the aid of my silence, using discipline and intelligence over raw strength and fierceness. I let Rokoa fight almost as well, but Maro manages to beat Rokoa sufficiently enough for the Queen to declare the fight over.

With that, I push for Maro to be impressed by Rokoa almost beating him. As awful as it seems to me, it is perfectly acceptable in this hive for a winner of a fight, who takes a liking to the loser, to drag them off to copulate. Similar to how Rokoa did to him. Except here, Maro took his loss better than Rokoa will, given how important winning was to her. Hence, I do not need to force Rokoa to feel like the sex is just an act that came about from her failure. Except, Maro suddenly seems hard to manipulate. Rokoa's conscience is actively denying the plausibility of this herself. She is not even paying attention to my memory anymore.

"Hey, I knew Maro well. He wasn't like that. He only liked people who did beat him up. He hated failure." Rokoa tells me. She isn't lying, but she doesn't go on to say what she is thinking. That I have to continue controlling Maro directly to force his hand, as I can't just will him on externally with that deniability.
"You are unbelievable. Are you serious? You are actually making me do this?" She is serious. She is, as usual, difficult to read accurately. This is why I do not like attempting to make sense of what goes on in her head. It makes none.

She knew that Maro would be like this and she is testing your resolve. She does not think you have the guts to go through with it.

She did not bother defending because she figured you would quit in disgust once you realized what you would have to do.

So you have to drop the memory and start over or fuck Rokoa in his body. Not the most pleasant thought but it beats losing all progress on this memory. Would be a huge change if you can pull it off though.

>"You are unbelievable. Are you serious? You are actually making me do this?"
Can you answer without disengaging what we're doing? If yes, go ahead. If not, ignore her and my dialog suggestions and keep going.

You challenged me to a battle to eat each other's minds to survive, Rokoa. I wasn't aware that left any lines not to be crossed.

Do not pretend you didn't do as bad, or worse, to your previous victims. And that you did not intend the same for me.

I will do what I have to survive, distasteful as it is.

Aw come on, it'll feel great!

>>517988
Hmm. I don't think Rokoa's gonna let herself conceive from this, in this context.

Change the context. She said Maro hated failure, right? Well she's had some serious failures. Make it be something Maro does to her as a punishment. Not rape, exactly- have it be an agreement between the two. That her carrying his child will make up for her failures.

>>517988
Clever girl

Goddamn. Maybe start making Mado a little more sadistic? Start wanting more fights right now, have him stop thinking. He becomes a rogue for some reason right, does Rokoa know that reason, you can read all that? Manipulate it, use that somehow. Make it key through right here. I recall that first guy she loved was killed by her hive, and second guy killed by her. You have the second guy on file in her brain? Start mixing them a little too. Her memories are changeable in the earlier years because of their distance causing the vagueness of accuracy, different people blending some parts together is another thing that happens with memory. If you can merge a personality factor from the second that will get him to sleep with Rokoa automatically in this situation, you won't have to have sex with her yourself.

Or wait, was he killed by the war hive and not the snow hive for going rogue? Fuck this memory and the wording.