"Hey... Ya know how Andross was doin' that work on brains? Studyin'... Uhhhneurological implants? Yeah, he had a pretty keen interest in shovin' hardware in his... ... He was very particular in referrin' to them as volunteers. ... Anyway. This was a specific interest of his, an open secret. At least it was for us, workin' so close to him. Ya see, bein' his hired gun, his last line of defense, Star Wolf ended up seein' a lot.
I remember he had a lot of different subjects that he'd distract himself with, especially on bad days. It was like his own personal gym routine but for his brain; when he was stuck in his actual work, like the biotechnologies of some super-soldier he had been designing or when he'd try to make sense of the political fuckin' circus he'd been navigatin'. It'd always get to the point where he'd just take a couple of days and re-direct his attention and efforts to his other interests.
There was a couple of months when he had grown attached to this idea of being the guy that was gonna restore quality-of-life for quadriplegics. He was gonna be the guy whose studies gave some level of, uh... function back. I remember he worked on couple of... I guess.... experiments on a couple of patients by installin' a bunch of hardware that I'm not even gonna pretend like I understand how they work. I do remember some of it--recognize it--it because he was insane in enough to repurpose a buncha this shit in our plans to give me my eye back.
So workin' on this implant stuff, he ends up creatin' this kind of manufactured... uh, telekinesis, I guess is the best way to describe it. Which is really fuckin' brilliant, this man was terrifying in what he could accomplish. So he effectively discovered this alternative means of... I guess... participatin' for folks that have this device grafted into their actual, physical gray matter. Yeah, they can't move their bodies, but by using this bizarre amplifier threaded through their brain, they could think their way through accomplishin' simple, physical tasks.
Which FINALLY brings me to what I can't help but question and think about. A lot of the experiments he had done were hidden behind closed doors. It was very much on a need-to-know basis and as far as Andross was concerned, Star Wolf didn't need-to-know shit. So, a lot of the questions that are bouncin' around in your head like a Bingo number cage? Same shit goin' on here...
One thing I do know about these... "volunteers" he was workin' on, is that some of 'em were non-verbal due to the extent of their injury, or their degeneration, or their genetics, and I know a couple of 'em were usin' one of those computer talk boxes... But instead of just usin' nuanced muscle movement and twitching or eye-tracking to type out what they wanted to communicate, they were usin' Andross's new brain-toy to simulate the rattling and vibrations of our vocal chords. Really makin' it this, uh... this authentic experience-kinda situation.
SO I got this question that's hauntin' me. Seems like Andross's biggest goal was tryin' to make the experience as natural and familiar as possible for the end-user; to really mimic the real processes involved in this as he could: chemical, hormonal, physical... Whatever. So if he's tryin' to trick these guys' brains into thinkin' they're really workin' like they're supposed to then, how exactly do ya account for shit like... sleep walkin'? Or snorin'? Ya supposed to get out the device and start thinkin' about a string of Zs floatin' through the air? How would that present to the rest of us? Would the volunteer just start making this awkward, long-Z sound? Just kinda zuzzing out loud? Would he be sayin' zee-zee-zee-zee each time he starts to snore? Would he be able to see the letter Z starting to fade from his field of vision when he opens his eyes and begins to wake up?"
"If the point of the design is to think your body into workin' the way its supposed to, then that's gotta also include all of the imperfect behaviors and weird side-effects that comes from bein' alive?... Like, say... Accidentally inhaling your own spit and choking from your saliva smacking the back of your throat so suddenly? Or what about when you're walking when all outta nowhere, for zero fuckin' reason at all, ya take a simple step--y'know, cuz you've been walkin' for almost as long as long as ya've been alive--and ya somehow manage to roll your ankle and just about snap it all the way fuckin' off..."
"...This is the kind of shit that keeps me awake at night. Andross wasn't tryin' to help people, he was in the middle of designing his own fuckin' torture camp!"
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