#paracausal

[seen-in-the-smoke]

Impressive.

One moment.... Ah, there you are.

You kids love to touch what isn't yours, don't you?

Cycling humans is viable. For the uninitiated, it'll take several sessions. Such beautiful light, stubborn sponges are hard to wring dry.

But what better time to get to know each other, over and over?

Which one of you wants to go first?

Don't keep me waiting.

[pg8/??]

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Rb:

Sd: fucking fantastic we got ghoulies in the chat loms

NAS:Let’s not feed the trolls, Synec.

Sd: first of all

Sd: buy some fkin bandwidth if you wanna scare us with oogabooga bullshit

Sd: second of all

Sd:[theydontknow.omif]

Sd: didnt ask, ratio, not human, ive been aniconic the whole time, etc etc

Rb: okkk new problem

Sd: the others idk maybe youd get somewhere with them

Sd: oh hey rue we thot u were dead

NAS: What? Why are you back online? You should be moving.

Rb: HAHAHA yeah that’s the thing isn’t it, uh

Rb: can’t

Sd: wat

Rb: lift ctls arent working

Rb: & the door to the service stairway isn’t opening. Currently trying to bang it down with a meat tenderizer. So. Help????

Sd: why a

Rb: MY PENTHOUSE DIDNT COME WITH A BATTERING RAM AND IM PANICKING OK

Rb: working on it

A_D: holy shit

NAS: Agreed. I recommend you find a secure room and hide out, get whatever can be a weapon with you. Artful, you live nearby, right?

A_D: i got decompile on the outdated section

A_D: fuck

A_D: ‘It is therefore suggested that Axiomatic progression be understood not as a question of sculpting the container but filing the contents to fit.’

NAS: Artful?

Rb: Ae aren’t picking up my calls

Rb: baby what is this

A_D: ‘just as large swathes of the human genome lie dormant until needed, we suggest that the majority of a Deimosian’s blinkspace corpus is useful only for non-baseline purposes; purposes which given the substrate are not necessary.’

Sd: wait wtf

A_D: ‘To the end of determining substrate viability, Smith-Shimano Corpro sit poised to provide material for blink-reactivity testing.’

NAS: Artful. Stop posting and talk to Rue. You’re scaring us.

NAS:Artful?

Rb: KK?

Rb: please be okay

Rb: I wouldnt get my hopes up

[seen-in-the-smoke]

yeah u should totes keep working on decrypt 100% bc if a midnight is afraid u got the top secret shit they r gonna blast it all over the omni like its a fuckin sprunt ad

ameteurs

[pg7/??]

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Rb: NAS: Don’t dignify them with a response. Keep working.

A_D: RUE IS FREAKING OUT DUDE

A_D: frankly I am too wtf

A_D: This close to telling her to start smashing the fucking hook

Sd: its transmitting without hardline I’d call that a bad idea

Sd: some something there you don’t wanna touch

A_D: then im getting her out of there.

NAS: Far more sound idea. Don’t tell us where she’s going.

NAS: I suggest we all follow suit after.

Sd: says u

Sd: safest right where i am

A_D: ive got smth

A_D: flashback exposed some data that’s not protected w/ the rest

A_D: compiling

NAS: Now we’ve got it

Rb:

Sd: yknow if anyone in the peanut gallery wants to help

Sd: sitting on some preem juice here & if we go up its gone

NAS: We don’t need their help.

Sd: u want the moths to put everything under lock + key again? Why not help get some dirty laundry out in the open?

Sd: fuckit we have a camera in our faces. why not put on a show

A_D: decomp running. Should spit out smth soon. Rue’s getting set to leave

—

Is anyone on this channel? Hello?

Guess I’m alone, then. Oh well. The records will speak for me.

In the interest of protecting Constellar assets, Agonist Ostenya Noor here performing emergency autolysis, absorption of known actors. Requesting extraction in the event this is received.

[seen-in-the-smoke]

lol most secure horus thread this side of the omni over here

have u tried turning it off and turning back on again or do u gotta pray over the terminal for that

[pg6/??]

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Rb:

Sd: oh come the fuck on

Sd: let someone else drive spy

NAS: I’ve got this.

Sd: s0d sure you have

Sd: how many people can see in here?

A_D: for fuck’s sake guys just pull the plug

A_D: We have the file we can work on it later

NAS: We don’t know that. Keep working. I’ll scrub these out, all we need is 2 floor.

A_D: dude

A_D: spy

A_D: I know you put this together for a reason but this is serious. the countermeasures on this are screaming ‘MIDNIGHT’ and if they can see in here

NAS: Main channel. You don’t have to be discreet.

NAS: If we *are* made, better to have a bargaining chip should we have to call for help. MIDNIGHT won’t stop just because we do.

NAS: I’m going to keep working on decrypt, as should the both of you. Intrusion appears limited to text-only, the entry point is pinging around too fast for any executables to make it through.

NAS: If we have to read some mean comments then that’s too bad.

—

Repeat. Request Glial attending. This is getting out of hand.

[seen-in-the-smoke]

[Bowl of stew, still warm]

[tw for intense malnutrition, starvation, gross description of eating]

Catkill is alone in a dark, dripping, concrete hallway. One hand trails along the wall to keep herself steady. Her hair hangs limp in front of her face, a brittle sheaf of oil-stripped keratin strands barely remaining intact with the sick-horse shake of her head. It throws shadows on the wall where the pallid green light of her swarm, billowing through the air with each breath, can’t reach.

Her body is a pit mine burning itself to stay moving. It’s a waxen shell of bone and skin and nerve, her guts a slough of flesh pitted with a million million nests. Everything buzzes and everything aches, and she feels so empty. Her eyes flutter with pain when they turn in their sockets, perpetual tear tracks scraping against long-useless corneas.

She doesn’t care. It’s not her business to. She has a job and that job needs to be done, rest is a luxury in which she has severely overindulged. So many people have burnt for her to keep existing and if she has nothing to show for it, what’s the logical conclusion? What does that make her? She needs to keep walking. She needs to keep walking.

Intrusion. The thought registers across her like a rippling pond, precipitated by a change in the shape of the ‘her’ outside herself and finding her brain microseconds later. In the span of moments it takes her to recognize the displacement as blink-adjacent, sixteen volitional strikes have discharged through her cloud-self like return strokes, peppering the wall behind her with maniple impacts. Confusion hits next— bright, clear, overwhelming in its echo amongst the many threads of her mind. There’s no additional return, no slumping mass or discharge of EM animus. So she turns, and sees a vessel sitting neatly on the ground, steaming away. A laugh strangles and dies under the rush of heady, wanting nausea that floods her veins.

It’s necessary, she tells herself, that she tip the bowl to spill past her cracked lips, rich broth dribbling down her front. Cooked food contains amino acids which could otherwise only recycle so many times; this will improve brain function, reduce endtime lag. She needs to press chunks of tender meat and golden, pearly starches between the dry and cracking mesas of her teeth, because fat reserves will free up other necessary materials for nanite production, ensuring positive elimination of potential future threats. It is vital, beyond vital, that she glut herself so hurriedly that pockets of air rush up her throat in protest, choking her and spattering her face with desperate, coughing gulps, because a higher core body temperature will incubate the wash better, and it is of course fundamental that she curl and groan and cry through a terrible pain that yawns open in her hollowed middle— unpleasant physical sensation will remind her which parts of herself must be kept intact. It is incidental, in contrast, that the taste reminds her of home.

She keeps walking.

[seen-in-the-smoke]

[FORUM THREAD: WHATS IN THE BOX? pg1/??]

next page

Rueblue: ah lads not again

freewebkinzNOW: NADA POES IM DIESES BOX.

SPLATTED ‘ERDS OU PREEM SUBVOX.

WHITTLE LONGONNE KINNA JUICE?

DIDEK, SCRABBLE, TURN IT LOOSE

Rb: ctb. hi free

fwN: NADA POES IM DIESES BOX.

SPLATTED ‘ERDS OU PREEM SUBVOX.

WHITTLE LONGONNE KINNA JUICE?

DIDEK, SCRABBLE, TURN IT LOOSE

fwN: NADA POES IM DIESES BOX.

SPLATTED ‘ERDZ OU PREEM SUBVOX.

WHITTLE LONGONNE KINNA JUICE?

DIDEK, SCRABBLE, TURN IT LOOSE

Rb: please dont start spamming in here my bandwidth is shit today

Rb: dammit

fwN: [post deleted by mod]

fwN: [post deleted by mod]

fwN: [post deleted by mod]

fwN: FUC

fwN: [post deleted by mod]

NotASpy: freewebkinzNOW you’re going to be kicked from the thread if you keep this up. RtR.

fwN: halt. rig nae fixed dis cycle? much fromup und she’s terminal fused a-thine terminal Rb: hel p NAS: It's that bug that got rooted in during the wavedown. Not the kind of thing she can flash manna at the nearest tech to fix without outing some skellies. fwN: Much shame sie cannae zero. NAS: It'd be more suspicious if someone in her position were suddenly tech-literate. ARTFUL_D0634: >It's that bug that got rooted in during the wavedown. IC???? RB: spy I need your help its again RB: AH HELLO BABY THE SSC BUG IS BURNING MY RIG NAS: We're secure. If *I* slip up on a thread I'm modding, shoot me a basilisk because it's someone else piloting me. NAS: Artful Dodger, hello. Welcome to the newest mystery box drop. A_D: Sup. we waiitng on anyone? A_D: Also whats with the full government right there I got shivers fwN: ûndertomme Nota. Synecdoggy: w o a h pick a fucking dialect and stick to it curlydancer. you sound like youre running galcomm through a seesee translator. A_D: he is Sd: LOMS rly? fnW: trap dat A_D: idk but it wouldn't surprise me A_D: poser ass NAS: Everyone. Please. NAS: Do we want to see the file, or what? Rb: FUCK me ok i'm here. mostly. gonna keep working on this as we go don't wait on me fwN: comp-ly?? Rb: yeah, fr. worst comes to worst i'll just watch from the bleachers NAS: If that's all, I'm going to get the preamble started. Sd: holup NAS: Yes, Synec Doggy? A_D: AH Sd: [post auto-deleted by trawl. Reason: Stop Spamming, Please.] Sd: eh worthashot

--

lingo interpretation follows: shitpost-- 'NO ONE KNOWS WHAT'S IN THE BOX'

'COULD BE GOOD TECH OR BUTCHERED OX'

'TBK PRINTFILE LEVELS OF CLOUT?'

'IDFK, LETS FIND OUT'

ctb.-- omfg

RtR-- Respect their Rig

halt...-- wait, all that resource and she can't get her shit fixed? would expect a company girl like that to have ditched for a better system

much shame...-- More like I'm embarrased she can't fix it herself

IC-- Secure??

ûndertomme Nota-- Under NotASpy's thumb

curlydancer-- copfucker

seesee-- comp/con

LOMS-- laughing out of my shackles

trap dat-- stfu

com-ply?-- Are you sure?

[seen-in-the-smoke]

WE NAME OUR PLAYERS THUS

Rueblu: The final girl

Synecdoggy: The skeptic

ARTFUL_D0634: The boy who cried wolf

freewebkinzNOW: The example

NotASpy: the necessary traitor

—

oh

yeah I thought it was too good to be true

alright then

here’s looking at you

[dontchangecolor-kitty]

We have heard a rumor. The rumor is very old, and predates the Fall. It concerns cats, who often get into mischief, and says they have a power. This power allows them to live again, and again, and again.

How many lives do you think they have?

[engaging encryption SALTSEAL]

[vestibule primary stable. vestibule secondary stable. crucible reports fault at index node 0284s1-188-od4. leak determined— minor interrogative.]

[shutdown order deferred. ego moderator at acceptable void density. index nodes 0284s1-4-hi5|0284s1-10001-l2 ready for fuse.]

[vent order affirmed. SCRAM order pending. control rods to 18.102%.]

SON OF A BITCH

[control rods to 0.922%. index nodes fused. crucible stable.]

[balanced on the edge of a screwdriver to find the barest degree]

[lancersafetysigns]