snowblindrpg | [network] @hotstud_xxx, Late Night 190, audio [open]

Skip to Main Content

[network] @hotstud_xxx, Late Night 190, audio [open]

[It's almost midnight when House's message goes out. He sounds honestly terrified. His hands are shaking too much to type, and he's too frantic to think of voice-to-text. There's also the music. He can hear it. He can't tell where it's coming from, but it's there and it's fading in and out with the static and a whisper that he can just make out.

It would probably be better to see to his wounds first, but that's secondary at the moment.]

The music. Who's hearing the music and the static? Have anyone's eyes changed? Who can hear it?

[He sings the first few lines.]

Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green...

It's Andromeda's song for Winter. It's the song in the apartment with the knives. The Jedi heard it, too. His eyes or his hand set it off.

Who can hear it?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[There's a pause as the song picks up again all around him.]

If I die first, dilly dilly, and that may be,
You must live on, dilly dilly, thinking of me.

What if Andromeda knew she was gonna die? What would you do if you knew you were gonna die? If you were an AI. One of the most advanced AIs in the world.

Upload myself into another system.

Ya think Winter might be Andromeda?

No. They're definitely different people.

[House tries to push aside the fear and anxiety and just focus. Focus.]

I think Eve might be Andromeda.

WERE two different people. Miss Winter doesn't remember much and she's not advanced anymore. She could be a wossname...dual booting system. Crazier things have happened.

You think Andromeda's sharing server space with Winter? When one's active, the other can't be. Poetic.

Problem 1: Winter's gotten screwed up and over by the perception hijacker in the middle of conversations with us. If that's Andromeda, how's that work?

I'm saying the only one we've ever spoken to is Winter. Andromeda, for all we know, could be locked away in her noggin somewhere. Maybe Andromeda gave her a disk containing her mind before she went off back home to Russia.

Winter told me she was a partial backup in her current state. A backup of an AI meant to interface with other computers. Computers like Andromeda.

Maybe we're both right.

Maybe if Eve is Andromeda, and Andromeda is somewhere else on her little diskie-poo that'd explain why Annie feels the need to jump in and tell us to dig deep. And why Winter still can't sense any AIs out there other than herself.

People spoke to Andromeda in dreams. England was possessed by her. People keep finding crap in her house. At least some part of her is a ghost in the system.

The cat was dead. It's the message we got when we found Sung's death tape. His house is empty now, like he got wiped out. But people still met him in dreams. All these cards we're finding lately are leading up to Andromeda's death. We'll probably find out how she and Winter died soon.

Maybe it was in the apartment with the knives.

Oh some part of her is undoubtedly still here. Her memories.

You think she was murdered?

I think most people here were murdered.

I think most people here were nuked.

Well, if you're getting technical. I meant after the nukes.

After the nukes they kakked each other off. Probably over this Prophet dame.

But we won't know for sure until we get further into the Spiral, will we?

[No. They won't.]

Thomas has all the dolls. Where are you? Freamon's tunnels?

[It's an off-hand question more because House wants to know where everyone is at the moment than anything directed to locate the psycho clown.]

If I uncover a new part of this burg will folks name if after me? Joker's Path? Crazy Clown Caves?

...Boulevard of Broken Dreams?

I'm guessing no, you won't.

Jerks.

[It clicks that the Joker is hiding, then. Also Watson's announcement from earlier in the day.]

No one names things after villains.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only