text, un: howe

[manifestering]

Hello
If we have not met my name is Octavian
I am an alchemist and as always I am accepting small amounts of blood for a personal project

But that is beside the point

[Just, you know, getting it out of the way that he's always on the hunt for blood samples to save, anyway—]

The point is during our mutual excursions to maintain the integrity of this world
In the ruins I was set upon by a manner of vision
Very abrupt
not entirely welcome
In the water I experienced memories that were not my own
Something about a breed of serpentine people
Where are they
?

The recollection suggested they were not always serpents but perhaps once like us
A group brought to this place and changed
Was this previously known
and
has anyone else experienced these visions
?

[ooc; totes encourage threadjacking for sharing purposes!!]

Comments

[manifestering]

Did you
I wonder if the entity attempted to contact us again in this way
What did you see
?

[laserguy]

probably?

it's hard to remember everything and the vision itself was pretty weird, but it was all about being created for a singular purpose, which is rehabilitation. it built homes, food, and pretty much everything, i think.

although, it was also upset that we like to fight.

[manifestering]

Fighting each other does seem counter productive to rehabilitation
as it were
So that is unsurprising
Changing the others into snakes seemed to disqualify them from rehabilitation
speaking of

[laserguy]

i'm glad we didn't become snakes after the reset.

do you remember why the others got changed like that?

[manifestering]

Agreed
I would make a terrible serpent

They were corrupted

[laserguy]

when you say 'corrupted,' what exactly do you mean by that? like something started to affect their bodies?

because i've dealt with that before.

[manifestering]

It
how to phrase
Infected them and their surroundings
Strange black marks
The entity identified it as corrupted data to be excised
Their remaining data merged with snakes

Different from the shifts in reality experienced recently if I understand correctly
If that is what you mean

[laserguy]

[Oh that's not alarming at all. If the corruption remains ongoing, would people be turned into snakes from the AI??]

i've seen that happen a couple of times now. the corruption.

when i was at the terminal. one of my teammates, she got infected and attacked us.

[Then she died. But Scott isn't sure if he wants to talk about all that right now.]

i was also infected. months ago. back around january.

[manifestering]

Truly
?

Including the marks
?

Perhaps we should all be inspecting ourselves periodically for infection

[laserguy]

yeah, including the marks. it was pretty awful.

sapped my energy, didn't feel like doing much of anything. eventually i... lost control, destroyed a building. luckily, some of the others managed to create a cure to get rid of the infection.

[manifestering]

Interesting
Lethargy is a new symptom
or
An old symptom unrepresented in the vision I encountered
Must wonder if that indicates a newer kind of corruption
Curable without snakes

What manner of cure
?

[laserguy]

i avoided turning into a snake the first time, so maybe the corruption was less powerful? or i just got cured in time.

you'll have to ask the people that work at the clinic. i was kind of out of it, but i remember drinking a nasty ass medicine to stop the symptoms and everything. hopefully they can make more?? especially if some others are hit by that again.

[manifestering]

Oh
Becoming a snake is not a symptom as I understand
It was a solution
Still could be right about the existence of a time limit

A medicine
Strange concept to combat a corruption of data
Very metaphorical

[laserguy]

like if the corruption persisted, the AI would've turned us into snakes? yeah hard pass. also kind of a weird solution to the problem.

[No offense to Dara or anything, she's cool.]

even if it's a corruption of data, it really felt like i was sick. or getting affected by some really bad disease.

[manifestering]

It seemed like desperation
Snakes happened to be there
May as well have been a bird or a rat

I believe you
It makes me wonder where this corruption originates
to have such effects

[laserguy]

i'll pass again. thanks. although, if we managed to make a cure last time, does that mean the AI was able to provide us the correct ingredients without being turned into an animal?

that i don't know. it was different from the glitches. or even the gnosia infection.

[manifestering]

No idea honestly
That is well outside of my wheelhouse
Perhaps Root would better understand the correlation between data and items we can perceive

The gnosia infection
?

[laserguy]

do you know of stem club then? those guys usually seem to figure out something.

happened around july. some people got infected by gnosia, causing them to kill others, even friends. a lot of them look disfigured after a while, transformed by it. different from the corruption though, not to mention that sha-ming said it's from his world and stuff.

[manifestering]

Yes
Root granted me access to their private channel
I trust she will have some insight

Plenty of people kill their friends
Still
strange
Hopefully no plagues of history will join us here

[laserguy]

uh, not normally? i don't go around killing my friends?????

[WHAT DO YOU MEAN.....]

[manifestering]

Not making accusations
Personal bias seeping through
I was killed by a friend

[laserguy]

[bruh.]

okay putting this out there

i think that person is disqualified from calling themselves your friend now.

[wait.] are you saying this happened before coming to aldrip??

[manifestering]

You would think so yes
And yet he has made me a martyr for his own career
How strange

And yes I am a spectre

[laserguy]

[just going to put another person in the 'everyone he knows is dead' category.]

dude tell me that you're haunting him forever.

[manifestering]

Oh fear not I will desolate him yet
Until then
Here
I am rather liberated