[network] @Mnemosyne; video; the light we cannot see [open] Night 165

[bookofnope]

I can't sleep.

[The tablet is on the floor, lighting its own patch of paleness on the ceiling above. Beckett is lying next to it, prone on his back - that's what the angle of his arm, raised half-heartedly into the frame, suggests. He pulls more clearly into view for a moment, rising to a sitting position, to squint at the camera. His glasses are off, and his eyes glow a faint red in an ashen face.]

For all I know, I imagined it - the girl, the eyes. I'm certain the red pen was real, though, and the choice that came with it.

[He falls back again. Too tired to sit up. The tablet records to show nothing but light and shadow as he speaks.]

It may have been just me. Doubtful, but possible... but it was not just me who saw things. Perhaps we all did. I'd like to know what. Piece of some whole, or just another attack on what's left of our collective sanity... either way. For the sake of the record, if not any kind of answer.

[His relationship with answers isn't getting any less complicated. His voice drops low, dreamlike as he speaks on.] I saw a girl wearing a cloak. She was drawing the eyes, all around me... around me... until I was surrounded. She climbed on my back and drew her eyes on mine, and I knew there was no leaving. There has never been, not for me. Perhaps we are all...

[Too much. He stops abruptly, and rises again, grabbing for the tablet.]

It's all in my notes.

[The recording ends. In its place he sends his notes file out again.]

Comments

[rubikscomplex]

[Way to forestall a pointless debate they've had a dozen times in favor of more productive conversation, Beckett. God!]

i'm willing
the rest of these n00bs might be too scared
some are on board, at least

[bookofnope]

Indeed. But we've already established that you have a death wish.

[Yes it's snark, but it's said with an oddly neutral tone.]

The ghosts have so far consistently rewarded us with information for our help. I'm willing to continue the trade-off. But this... was very different in scale than any previous incidents. I'd like to know why.

[rubikscomplex]

yet, somehow
i haven't died in a month
i must suck at this wishing thing

[Just... going to deflect away from that now, thank you.]

it's likely there are different players here
data ghosts are the ones actually playing nice
and the rogue ai is the one that's manipulating some to be dicks or our perceptions to do who the hell knows what else
i helped shelley derricks realize she'd lost her memory and was lying
my beacon got switched on permanently as a "reward"

[bookofnope]

[There is a faint sound as Beckett almost comments. But he realises, then, that anything he might say would in some way or another be encouraging House in his death wish. Daring him. And he does not want to do that.

So, stunningly, the deflection works. For now.]

If it can manipulate them, or us, why does it let some slip through the cracks and have their own way? Just to keep us guessing, toy with us? I imagine you'd say yes, but - it doesn't feel right.

[rubikscomplex]

no
it's because it doesn't have full control, yet
"yet" being the operative word here
i've been listening to the walls
it's static
not little spider robots scuttling
just static

i think we need to start experimenting with sticking tablets down the vents
test if response times for the spiders has gotten noticeably slower from earlier incidences
i'd guess yes as evie and miller put more of their robots to work trying to make repairs and fight off whatever's in the system

[bookofnope]

Your impressionable young assistant has also been listening to the walls. She's told you what she heard there.

[Call it a gentle reminder. The range of what they don't know is still so much vaster than what they do.]

So let us review the playing field. The Admin controls the operation of the town, but not the ghosts. The ghosts are attempting to help us, without interference from the Admin, but are subverted by the Entity. The Entity and the Admin are struggling for control over the network - you suppose that it is the Entity that is responsible for the occasional network-borne hallucinations. The ghosts want us to solve the town's mystery and escape, the Admin wants to preserve the town status quo, and the Entity, as we have so picturesquely been informed, wants to eat us.

[It's a lot to muse on, especially out loud. He pauses, coughing briefly, lets out a long breath before picking up his train of thoughts.]

Something is still missing here. I've had one of those dream encounters with the thing below myself. It was bound, powerless. It needed my help.

[rubikscomplex]

i think the admin wants out, actually
but she's bound by some convoluted rules and procedures
whether it's because she's a weak-willed idiot or an ai in disguise, it doesn't matter
the eyeball monster in my dreams was evie
at least i'm pretty sure it was
terrible self-image issues

i don't know how it all fits together, yet
this whole prophet bullshit might be a wild goose chase
or it might be something that's actually relevant

[bookofnope]

You think the Admin is the eyeball creature?

[That throws him but good. He does not sound convinced, though he gives the idea a long moment's thought.]

Why are you so sure? Intuition, or evidence? The encounter I had clearly followed the - symbolism, shall we call it, of the ocean and the being beneath it that has characterised our other communications with the Entity. The conclusion seemed logical...

[But this is Norfinbury and logic doesn't live here, his uncertain trailing off implies.]

[rubikscomplex]

"long ago, something went wrong
i don't know what, but i keep checking
i am trapped here and can't see or know far enough
i am trapped in the center of the spiral
send someone to put the pieces back together"

that's what it told me in the dream
wouldn't answer if it was the admin
but i'm willing to bet she's as much a prisoner here as us
and probably an ai that doesn't realize it
she's still treating us like lab rats
no sympathy for her
but i wouldn't be surprised if she's trying to get out, too

whatever contacted us in those dreams was scared and wanted help
dunno about you
but all the other times the Beast has screwed around with the network or our perceptions
it seems pretty damn malicious
you think it was playing possum in the dreams?

[bookofnope]

[That sounds like evidence. There is a faint fumbling sound as Beckett, who has been sitting up a little - stupidly - drops down on his back again. It's a considerable reconfiguration of what he thought he knew. Which makes him a bit dizzy.]

Perhaps the beast is not trapped under the ocean. Perhaps it is the ocean.

[Okay, that... doesn't sound very lucid. Try again, Beckett.]

She is human, Miller claimed as much. But he could well have been lying, or unaware. an AI, to administer Andromeda's town? No... it seems unlikely, but I admit this technology is really beyond my understanding. We don't really know when it was the Beast that meddled with the network and when it was some other force, whichever force is behind dig deep. Andromeda spoke of keeping the stars inside her, but after this Prophet affair, I'm not sure, I don't know if we should be so quick to attribute malice or benevolence to either of these forces...

[Nope, still rambling. Ugh.]

I'm so bloody tired.

[rubikscomplex]

[It might not sound lucid, but House considers it and the potential metaphor.]

a more limited ai
one that has difficulty breaking out of its written programming
and adapting beyond defined fully parameters
different levels of tech are bound to coexist with andromeda and winter being some of the most advanced

eve
doesn't that strike you as a very biblical name
the mother
the one watching over this new little town they created
if we've got a prophet, let's go full religious symbolism here

[He doesn't care that you're tired, Beckett. Theorize with him, anyway.]

[bookofnope]

[Theorise with him anyway. Aww. It's almost like they share something.]

I have been thinking that the name is an interesting coincidence. Does this seem plausible to you, as someone more immersed in human technology? An AI that can pass for human, even in its own mind, and yet be limited in this way?

[He's just going to go full tilt at the tech angle for a moment there. If only so he can say he thought it through.]

So Eve is the prototype, and Andromeda the cutting edge, and the Beast - the experimental next generation? Gone rogue when the town was destroyed, lurking in the depths ever since, consuming the souls - I'm sorry, the minds of residents as it gradually grows towards - what, exactly?

[rubikscomplex]

sure
you've got sci-fi novels based around that kind of crap

taking over the full town system seems like the end goal here
it's already taken hold of us once
remember when we got shuffled to different locations?
the admin said she wasn't controlling that
and some people managed to survive a trip across town in the middle of the night when doors should've been locked
i dreamed about walking
that was right before the maintenance, too
like she was trying to deal with a bug in the town's system

where did we come up with the name "beast"?
was that given to us?
did one of us come up with it?
it feeds into out religious symbolism if it was given
the beast
satan
corrupting eve

[bookofnope]

[Where did the name come from? It's the kind of thing he'd remember, under normal circumstances. He's been at so much less than his best for so long...]

I can't recall exactly when... the Prophet used it in some of the dreamed encounters we have had. If that was indeed the Prophet - I wonder if those who have encountered them are still as certain of their identity, after recent happenings. It's all a patchwork, of course, the reports. I wish there was a way to carry recording devices into dreams.

[His poor poor methodology.]

But a takeover of the system - why? What does it stand to gain? What will it do once it takes hold of us? Are we to serve as physical bodies for its mind to utilise? That is not what seems to have happened to any previous residents, local or otherwise.

[rubikscomplex]

[He hates what he has to write next, but it's a legitimate theory given what they know.]

seems like some of you have powers worth exploiting
the rest of us who don't are probably just expendables

[bookofnope]

[There's a pause. Even tired, and lost, and reeling from the past few days, Beckett feels the most delightful urge to gloat.

He doesn't want to end the conversation, though. Maybe he can gloat subtly.]

That is possible. It has been aware of our abilities from the start. [Unlike certain doctors in deep denial.] Though I'm not sure what it would do with them. Take revenge on humankind? We're not even sure there is a humankind left.

[rubikscomplex]

[He sees what you're doing there, Beckett. Powers are not superpowers. They're just... like Dorian's abilities. They have a logical explanations. That means they're not magic. SO THERE.]

maybe not in this universe
doesn't seem like that's a limiting factor for it
maybe it's bringing us in to test out what it can suppress
we're the ones at a disadvantage on its home turf
if it's running out of whatever it's using for fuel
it might be looking to expand its reach into other neighborhoods

[bookofnope]

Follow you back to your own worlds, you mean? [Perhaps this is when Beckett should sound horrified. But that second person means he just sounds mildly curious. Nothing for the big bad Beast to find, back where he comes from.]

Miller claimed that the Admin brought us here, for the population quota. But I find that hard to believe. It's so... mundane, as a use for impossible technology. [Look, he said technology! He's being so nice today.]

That still does not explain what it means by "devouring" us.

[rubikscomplex]

needs to get its energy from somewhere
if you run out of wood to burn for your fire
you try to find substitutes
even if our bodies aren't real
it might be something to do with the way our neural pathways have been mapped

or maybe the admin's fighting against the beast to keep us from just devolving into fleshy meat piles screaming "fix me"
and in prefers us that way for consumption purposes

we're hitting the incomplete info wall here

[And it's preventing them from really narrowing things down.]

[bookofnope]

[Aren't they always hitting it. Beckett lets out a faint frustrated growl, which peters out into a cough. Sad noises. Has he mentioned being tired yet?]

You'd think after three hundred years in my line of inquiry I'd be used to being fed cryptic half-truths and told I'm not ready for true knowledge. Or is it that none of us know to ask the right questions when we meet mysterious dream entities and tight-lipped bastards on the network?

[rubikscomplex]

romanov and i were getting somewhere with winter last time she turned up
we got her devolving into eye gibberish, anyway

[bookofnope]

Not her, then, but one of our hacking ghosts. The prophet in the machine. I wonder if we could try to message their account if we had a name for it... the Stevens girl, perhaps?

[rubikscomplex]

we could try asking miller who else is in the pods down there who hasn't woken up, too
maybe some of our ghosts aren't really ghosts
they're just asleep underground

[bookofnope]

I believe he already claimed to be aware of no others. Which could be as much ignorance, or deception, as anything else. You'd think, since he is no doubt following all that happens in our network, that he would be warning us against those rogue agents as much as he did about Winter...

[rubikscomplex]

unless he's one of them in disguise~

[He's making light, but it is actually a possibility that's crossed his mind.]

people saw him in their dreams, right?
seemed like the fist group was getting the general data ghosts
then they sank down to the prophet and andromeda
then we got admin eyeball