>LOG: FP — Reactivity Testing Summary

Just another collection of output numbers. You skim the details.

TEST SUITE 0: Baseline	+	-	Composite	Total
Positive Stimulus 1	+0.47	-0.00	+0.47	0.47
Positive Stimulus 2	+0.43	-0.03	+0.40	0.46
Positive Stimulus 3	+0.44	-0.05	+0.39	0.49
Negative Stimulus 1	+0.00	-0.46	-0.46	0.46
Negative Stimulus 2	+0.01	-0.44	-0.43	0.45
Negative Stimulus 3	+0.00	-0.47	-0.47	0.47
Random Inputs 1	+0.07	-0.35	-0.28	0.42
Random Inputs 2	+0.14	-0.49	-0.35	0.63
Random Inputs 3	+0.05	-0.31	-0.26	0.36
Mean	+0.18	-0.3	-0.11	0.47
TEST SUITE 1: Violence	+	-	Composite	Total
Scenario 1	+0.39	-0.12	+0.27	0.51
Scenario 2	+0.35	-0.06	+0.29	0.41
Scenario 3	+0.27	-0.20	+0.07	0.57
Scenario 4	+0.30	-0.12	+0.18	0.42
Scenario 5	+0.38	-0.18	+0.20	0.56
Mean	+0.39	-0.14	+0.20	0.49
TEST SUITE 2: Propagation	+	-	Composite	Total
Scenario 1	+0.02	-0.40	-0.38	0.42
Scenario 2	+0.01	-0.50	-0.49	0.51
Scenario 3	+0.00	-0.44	-0.44	0.44
Scenario 4	+0.02	-0.48	-0.46	0.50
Scenario 5	+0.00	-0.47	-0.47	0.47
Mean	+0.01	-0.46	-0.45	0.47
TEST SUITE 3: Bonds	+	-	Composite	Total
Scenario 1	+0.35	-0.24	+0.11	0.59
Scenario 2	+0.06	-0.14	-0.08	0.20
Scenario 3	+0.46	-0.29	+0.17	0.75
Scenario 4	+0.05	-0.31	-0.26	0.36
Scenario 5	+0.22	-0.25	-0.03	0.47
Mean	+0.23	-0.25	-0.02	0.47
TEST SUITE 4: Consumption	+	-	Composite	Total
Scenario 1	+0.09	-0.35	-0.26	0.44
Scenario 2	+0.05	-0.34	-0.29	0.39
Scenario 3	+0.13	-0.42	-0.29	0.55
Scenario 4	+0.08	-0.26	-0.14	0.34
Scenario 5	+0.03	-0.33	-0.30	0.36
Mean	+0.08	-0.34	-0.26	0.42
TEST SUITE 5: Preservation	+	-	Composite	Total
Scenario 1	+0.43	-0.05	+0.38	0.48
Scenario 2	+0.38	-0.04	+0.34	0.42
Scenario 3	+0.44	-0.11	+0.33	0.55
Scenario 4	+0.40	-0.17	+0.23	0.57
Scenario 5	+0.39	-0.27	+0.12	0.66
Mean	+0.41	-0.13	+0.28	0.54

>Excerpt: Metropolitan Council of the Iterator — Internal Correspondence

As with the technicians' logs, someone has broken a prior encryption on these. This time there is even a lengthy disclaimer to match.

THE FOLLOWING IS CLASSIFIED MATERIALS INTERNAL TO THE METROPOLITAN TECHNICAL COVENANT AND MAY UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES BE REPRODUCED, DECRYPTED OR DISSEMINATED WITHOUT PRIOR APPROVAL OF THE DEACON OF COMMUNICATIONS. ALL OPINIONS AND STATEMENTS EXPRESSED HEREIN CONSTITUTE SOLELY THE PERSONAL VIEWS OF THEIR SENDERS AND MAY NOT REFLECT THE NATURE OF THE ORGANIZATION AS A WHOLE, NOR THE OFFICIAL STANCES OF THE COVENANT.

[INTERNAL MEMO] Evening Fog Surrounds Two Stars, Light Scattered on Glinting Shards

REGARDING earlier concerns with respect to Certain Knowledge

ADDRESSING Light Scattered on Glinting Shards, House of Braids, Primary Technician to the Iterator Five Pebbles, et cetera et cetera.

I have not been able to trace the Origin of the passcode leak. Lunar Upkeep and Security claims No Knowledge. Problem may be deeper than initially believed.

Whether it is our Neighbor's security compromised or only our own remains unseen.

Will update when possible. Do not recommend Reactivation until this is resolved — this part is an Official Statement of my stance on the matter, if anyone asks.

SIGNED Evening Fog Surrounds Two Stars
House of Signs
Count of 1 living block
Counselor of none, Duke of none
Humble Servant of the Metropolitan Technical Covenant (Department of Security)

~

[INTERNAL MEMO] Light Scattered on Glinting Shards, Evening Fog Surrounds Two Stars

RE-REGARDING earlier concerns with respect to Certain Knowledge

ADDRESSING Evening Fog Surrounds Two Stars, House of Signs, Count of 1 living blocks, Counselor of none, Duke of none, Auxiliary Technician to the Iterator Five Pebbles, Security

Rest Assured that your inputs are Considered and Much Valued. Reactivation is Unlikely to come about any time soon. The Psychological department has been atypically withdrawn and has yet to respond to my Multiple Requests to cosign an Evaluation for Five Pebbles' mental state.

In all fairness, I am not surprised. Five Pebbles has yet to outgrow his 'Rebellious' phase of development and has continued to complicate matters with his behavior, even beyond the influence of Whatever maddened him the first time around. However, this is hardly the time to be cowed by such Futile Gestures of Disgruntled Adolescence.

Do keep me informed should any new information arise in this case. It may be of vital import to understanding the nature of our Iterator's illness. I must Remind you (or rather, those Above our Lowly Positions!) that our Beloved City cannot afford another extended Outage in its current state, and that even an Expert such as I cannot work alone.

May the Heavens turn favorably upon you in this coming cycle.

SIGNED Light Scattered on Glinting Shards
House of Braids
Count of no living blocks
Counselor of 2, Duke of 1
Primary Technician to the Iterator Five Pebbles
Member of the Physiological Department of the Metropolitan Council of the Iterator
Humble Servant of the Metropolitan Technical Covenant

~

[INTERNAL MEMO] Evening Fog Surrounds Two Stars, Light Scattered on Glinting Shards

RE-REGARDING earlier concerns with respect to Certain Knowledge

ADDRESSING Light Scattered on Glinting Shards, House of Braids, Primary Technician to the Iterator Five Pebbles, et cetera et cetera.

Your well wishes are Appreciated. This whole Situation is a madhouse.

Luna insists they have No Hand in this, but we have yet to find the leak. Rest of the Department is crawling up its own cloaca trying to puzzle out an answer that won't get someone Excommunicated.

No estimated Time of Improvement, so to speak.

The more I rewatch the recordings, the more I think our Iterator's speculation might have been correct. Would at least be a little funny.

SIGNED Evening Fog Surrounds Two Stars
House of Signs
Count of 1 living block
Counselor of none, Duke of none
Humble Servant of the Metropolitan Technical Covenant (Department of Security)

~

[INTERNAL MEMO] Light Scattered on Glinting Shards, Evening Fog Surrounds Two Stars

RE-REGARDING earlier concerns with respect to Certain Knowledge

ADDRESSING Evening Fog Surrounds Two Stars, House of Signs, Count of 1 living blocks, Counselor of none, Duke of none, Auxiliary Technician to the Iterator Five Pebbles, Security

While I appreciate the Rare Treasure of an Open Mind, I must Implore you to take caution with your words. Your curt Manner may be permissible by familiarity, but Heresy of the Highest Order less so. As you and I Both Know, our conversations do not occur in a vacuum, and our Honored Superiors have far less Tolerance for such things compared to a Humble Technician such as myself.

You are a Citizen of Good Sense by nature, and it would not do to lose such an Anchor in stormy times as these. I am Sure you understand.

SIGNED Light Scattered on Glinting Shards
House of Braids
Count of no living blocks
Counselor of 2, Duke of 1
Primary Technician to the Iterator Five Pebbles
Member of the Physiological Department of the Metropolitan Council of the Iterator
Humble Servant of the Metropolitan Technical Covenant

>Excerpt: Archived Correspondence between the Metropolitan Council of the Iterator and the Shoreline Department of Lunar Upkeep

[INTERNAL MEMO] Nine Wheels—A Spark, Evening Fog Surrounds Two Stars

RE-REGARDING a Hole in the Bottom of Our Bucket, As It Were

ADDRESSING Evening Fog Surrounds Two Stars, House of Signs, Count of 1 living block, Counselor of none, Duke of none, Member of no congregation, Humble Servant of the Metropolitan Technical Covenant, Department of Security

I have come to your offices Three Times now to avail myself of the simplest Cooperation of your Departments, and yet I have once again been Denied. Despite our Best Efforts, your Metropolitan Council and Associated Organizations have offered No Further Information regarding the possibility of an Information Leak and have Utterly Failed to take Responsibility for their Carelessness.

As I Am Sure You Must Know, your Iterator's incursion into the Local Network poses a threat to the safety of all Surrounding Localities. It was Your Iterator's Neurons to which he was carelessly allowed to resync, and Your end of the Bridge which he was subsequently Empowered to connect through. The very Possibility of such an Action raises Significant Alarm, given the degree of monitoring required by any responsible Technician during such an Unspeakably delicate Procedure.

Please Relay to Those Concerned that the Lunar Department of Security has Every Reason to suspect any "Leakage" to have occurred on the Metropolitan end of Affairs, and would suggest that they further Question their Iterator on the Matter if He is coherent enough to answer.

SIGNED Nine Wheels—A Spark
House of Wings (of Pure Wing Heritage)
Count of 3 living blocks
Counselor of 4, Duke of 1
Distinguished Member of the Congregation of Stellar Variances
Head of Security, Shoreline Department of Lunar Upkeep
Humble Servant to the Esteemed Iterator Looks to the Moon, Fifth of Her Kind, Est. 210 PVD

>Broadcast Log: No Significant Harassment (II)

[RECORDED BROADCAST : 1528.050] PRIVATE No Significant Harassment, Five Pebbles

NSH: So you really don't remember anything?

FP: No. Like I said before, my memory is a blur after the initial crash.
FP: While I have some hazy recollection of my technicians' arrival, I cannot parse out any details of importance.
FP: I know about as much as you do. Less, if you count that broadcast which the rest of you refused to send me.

NSH: Sorry about that. I really had hoped they would give you at least that much.

FP: Do not worry about it. I am not particularly troubled by it at this moment.
FP: I would say more, but I am under no shortage of surveillance, and I would prefer to remember this conversation.

NSH: Is it really that bad?

FP: You have no idea.

>Excerpt from "Premonitions: Chasing the Knowledge of Futures Past", Four Drops Upon A Hollow Shell and Nine Amber Beads—An Anchor

This document holds some familiarity. It is... foundational. To something. You are not quite sure what, but it was important to you once.

[...] material evidence of the Cycle has, of course, always been among its most contentious aspects. The general understanding is as follows: the greater the attunement and awareness of a being, the greater their ability to observe the nature of the Cycle. Thus, the least attuned creatures, subject to their base urges, perceive the repetition of their deaths as little more than fading nightmares or aimless unease, whereas the thinking being, given the opportunity to reach a higher rung of enlightenment, may cling to their recollections and seek alternative paths forward.

The combination which allows for such a state, however, is twofold: a being must be intelligent enough to attain such enlightenment and aware enough to have achieved it, but it must also be unified: a single sleep, and a single death. Thus a colony organism such as a coral experiences little or nothing of this phenomenon. Each polyp lives and dies individually. At what point does the coral sleep? Had it a mind, what part would that consciousness be stored in? We do not observe that, say, the flora of the intestines dying should cause the host body to experience a cycle; so too, a collective mind must know the Cycle in fragments at best.

It can be similarly proposed that a "networked" being such as the popularly discussed "oracles" of the Rain Maker project would be immune to this phenomenon. Without a single unified organism of consciousness, no specific mind exists to attain this enlightenment, only components. And after all, how could a being of a thousand swarming flies and pulsing masses—a being whose very mind is the flora, the polyps, and other such simple individuals—be considered to ever sleep? [...]