#the scientist

[erratic-dragon-fruit]

February 3, 2284 / The Scientist / Monasterio, Argentina

VIEWED: FEBRUARY 5, 2284 / SOL NOVUS / NEW ADELAIDE, ANTARCTICA

...

 I found it! A concentrated population! I explored old Buenos Aires this morning, and on the way back my mapping system went on break and I learned a valuable lesson- don’t try to drive through a jungle with no road. I crashed through a wall of foliage and went straight over in a lake. I checked the ATRV’s diagnostics and it seemed like everything was fine, so I activated the floatation loops to get to the surface (the vehicle’s airtight). As I started floating upward, a paddleclaw pack appeared out of nowhere and tore straight through the loops! Thankfully the ATRVs are made from bulletproof material (still not sure what a bullet is, maybe an acronym?) or they might have breached the hull. 

After they swam away, I exited through the airlock and pushed the vehicle upwards to the surface, and found sheer cliff walls in all directions. I discovered a cenote! Eventually I found a gradual enough slope to winch the ATRV out of the hole, but not before sending some automatic pingers down into the caves. I need to know if anything can come and attack through them. Those results should come in about three hours. The cenotes are large sinkholes that fill with water and are connected to underwater cave systems. Since paddleclaws normally nest in dark areas, I need to check for evidence of them or they could get to me while I’m sleeping (or awake, for that matter).

I’m planning to anchor the ATRV on the northern edge of the cenote, on a small cliff bordering the river that feeds into the lake. Then I can just hit the button, and voila! Instant campsite. In the four hours I’ve been here I’ve already seen more splicers than my entire life down in Adelaide. That probably means their original containment was in this area, rather than up closer to the old United States (which are really like the united dust bunnies now- I’ve heard of deserts that stretch between oceans that far north). 

I’m doing some research into who, exactly, designed the splicers. I know that before they built the sphere, genetics research was becoming a bigger deal all over the world. I wonder what that many people would even be like, all communicating at once. It sounds efficient but not at the same time. Back to the point- I know from my archive searching that the splicers were genetically engineered for a variety of purposes. 

NOTE FROM VIEWER: osah, please investigate which ‘archives’ they could have been looking through. i’m getting very tired of them knowing so many things that they shouldn’t.

Quickstrikes were supposed to be showy, flashy symbols of status. Apparently, they were all engineered to be male so they couldn’t breed- but there’s females now, and they’re the dangerous ones. Paddleclaws were supposed to be, according to the archive I found, “the new dolphins”. I’ve never seen a dolphin, but it’s apparently a sort of fish mammal that breathes air. It doesn’t seem like a great strategy to be an ocean mammal that can’t breathe water, but every organism has a purpose I guess.

NOTE FROM VIEWER: what the hell is a dolphin? please investigate.

Speaking of old-world life, they seem rarer than splicers in this forest. I rarely see old macaws and parrots anymore, it’s always quickstrikes and other splicer birds. I think the splicers are slowly driving all native life to extinction through competition. The splicers are better equipped to handle all facets of this world in a way that native life can’t. Although the splicers do seem to have some pretty coincidental adaptations…

Out here I’ll see two splicers fight one day and nearly kill each other, but be back at it again the next day with barely a scratch! And each splicer individual seems to be wildly different, with only a few shared characteristics. It’s easy enough to tell what species they are, but their colors, sizes, and even behaviors are never uniform like they were closer to Adelaide. It’s like their genetic codes change from day to day, but that can’t be right.

I’ve found all I can from the archives. They’re broken down and I don’t even have some sort of signal from where I am to access them anymore. If I want to learn more about these creatures, I’m going to have to get a blood sample. I’m going to target a leapgrazer- they seem more tame than the other splicers so far (although for the aforementioned reasons it’s hard to tell).

Goodbye, carbon fiber square!

FILE DELETED.

[erratic-dragon-fruit]

January 27, 2284 / The Scientist / Dunbar, Falkland Islands

VIEWED: JANUARY 31, 2284 / SOL NOVUS / NEW ADELAIDE, ANTARCTICA REMOTE ACCESSING IN PROGRESS… ARCHIVAL RECORDS PROCESSED. VIEW? VIEWING MODE ACTIVATED. RECORDS WILL BE TERMINATED AFTER VIEWING. PROCEED ANYWAY? PROCEEDING… SET-UP COMPLETE.

…

WELCOME, USER SOL NOVUS.

If you’re reading this journal, it’s too late to change things. 

I don’t know why anybody would write a secret log like this, meant to help everyone, and start it like that. It kind of ruins the whole ‘last hope’ vibe. So I’m writing this in the hopes that it will help somebody someday, no matter what I end up discovering. 

A week ago I left New Adelaide on the Antarctic peninsula, and as of this morning I have reached the old-world Falkland Islands. The quickstrikes gave me some trouble leaving but I was able to drive them off with the headlights of the ATRV I stole to cross the Southern Ocean. The trip took about four days, and I’m very hungry as my idiot self did not think to take some food out of the storage compartment for the ride. I’m writing this as I sit in the ATRV waiting for the sun to rise. I’m going to head northwest towards old Buenos Aires in the morning, as I’ve heard of increased quickstrike and featherspin activity in the area.

Speaking of which, on the way here I saw such huge swarms of avians, both native and spliced. And they were intermingling with each other! I wonder if the splicers’ aggression genes (which they definitely possess, I don’t care what Sol Ignis says!) are recessive enough to be bred out. Just another thing to study when I finally find a population.

NOTE FROM VIEWER: osah, would you please look into their recorded interactions with splicers? i can’t figure out how they would have seen enough splicer behavior to figure this out.

I need to find a concentrated community of splicers in order to really study their genes. Any intermingled population won’t work because I’ve found that they have an abundance of recessive genes. Their edited genetics are quickly diluted in any setting in which they inbreed- a failsafe from their creators? They also appear to avoid mixing with native species, so if I can find a pure population it should stay that way.

I should probably also start out this journal by listing what we know so far about the splicers. It’s common knowledge that they weren’t around before the collapse, but it’s unclear whether the collapse’s resulting radiation created them or they just escaped from some genetics organization. During my research I’ve also discovered that they seem to adapt to new environments faster than native wildlife, and that’s how they spread across the globe so quickly. In the years after the collapse when the world began to heat up, the splicers appeared in more places than ever- and the few DNA tests I’ve performed on them make it seem like they evolved that way. It should be impossible, the time span was way too short for evolution. But every sign pointed to it.

Looking at splicers next to native life, the splicers always seem to have the clear advantage- they’re larger and designed to survive. I need to observe how the native organisms up north are even still surviving after all this time.

Tomorrow I’m going to find a settlement and ask around for any splicer sightings. They’re not exactly easy to miss, so I should have some luck. I wonder if the Adelaide Sols are hunting for me yet. I can’t say for sure whether what I’ve discovered so far about the splicers is enough for them to kill me, or just imprison me for life. 

…

I’m going to make some sketches of quickstrikes and paddleclaws, as they seem to be the most common splicers out here. Maybe I can gain some insight on their anatomy that way.

Anyways, goodnight little bundle of carbon fiber!

FILE DELETED.

[maybesamwinchester]

tell me you love me, come back and haunt me

[postcardsfromyesterday]

[haveyouseenthiscommercial]

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I have no idea what this is

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[monsterthingwrites]

I want you.

Not just your body - that,

definitely -

but also

I want your sideways smile

and your crinkled eyes

and the smell of your skin heated in the summertime

and your fingers twining through mine as we walk down the street of a city that holds too many ghosts for each of us.

I want you to sink your teeth into my thighs

so I wear your marks when I meet your friends

and

I want you to fall asleep in the car next to me, on the long drive to see my mother.

I want to kiss you over your birthday cupcake

I want to taste the frosting on your tongue.

I want to you to get annoyed at me because I stole the blankets (again).

I want to swallow your gasp when I touch you the way you don’t expect but have come to love.

I want to learn you, and to keep learning, as you change.

I want your eyes to never stop looking at me

just

like

that.

I want smiles

I want sadness

I want your hands on the small of my back,

Your lips pressed to my temple.

but most of all, I want years

with you.

[postcardsfromyesterday]