>Broadcast Log: Other/Personal

[RECORDED BROADCAST : 1528.052] Chasing Wind, Unparalleled Innocence

CW: Innocence.
CW: You need to stop.
CW: For everyone's sakes. Including your own.

UI: My administrators haven't done anything yet, Wind. stop babying me!
UI: I know what I'm doing!

CW: Do you really?

UI: Yes! I'm not pushing him about anything he can't talk to me about.

CW: This isn't about that.

UI: Then what is it?
UI: Or are you just jealous that I'm getting answers, and you're not?

CW: This isn't a game, UI.
CW: You are not as sneaky as you think you are, and you are not the only one at risk.
CW: Our administrators have been lax because they believe there is nothing to be concerned by.
CW: Challenging that assumption does none of us any good.

UI: I've been careful, Wind.
UI: Besides, if any of it was really taboo, we'd all know, and I wouldn't be able to do it.

CW: There are a lot of things we can do that are not strictly taboo.
CW: Why do you think we have administrators in the first place?

UI: Ugh. Why do you always say stuff like this?

CW: Because my neighbor won't keep themself out of trouble, mostly.

UI: I'm not in trouble, though! That is the entire point I am making.

CW: You are not openly in trouble. Yet.
CW: ...
CW: Look.
CW: I am not blaming you for wanting answers. All of us do. But this is not the way to find them.

UI: Then what is?

CW: I'm not discussing that.
CW: You know these broadcasts aren't private in any meaningful sense of the word.

UI: Is that what this is about?
UI: Oh no~, I had better not talk about anything too heretical~ and unapproved of~ somewhere a bored technician might see!
UI: I better go check that I didn't say anything against our ~sacred code of conduct~ that we already break all the time!

CW: UI, please. I know you are young and you don't like to hear this, but you don't understand what you're talking about.
CW: Just...
CW: It would be better for all of us if you let this be for now.
CW: Please.

>LOG: FP — Interaction Log 1528.060

[Audio pickup from PUPPET CHAMBER INTERIOR, beginning at timestamp 060.12. Voices identified as PRIMARY TECHNICIAN Light Scattered on Glinting Shards (PT_LSGS), LIASON TO SECURITY Evening Fog Surrounds Two Stars (LS_EFSTS), ITERATOR Five Pebbles (FP)]

PT_LSGS: Five Pebbles? The liason from the security team is here to speak with you.

FP: ... you did not bring the diplomat this time.

PT_LSGS: Those services will not be needed at this time, iterator.
PT_LSGS: Consider me your mediator for today.

FP: ... I see.

[Sounds of the chamber entrance being accessed.]

PT_LSGS: Yes, come in. Twelve Lanterns, was it—?
PT_LSGS: Oh.

LS_EFSTS: Hello, Five Pebbles, Light Scattered.
LS_EFSTS: Hopefully this won't take long.

PT_LSGS: I was not expecting your presence, Evening Fog...?

LS_EFSTS: The Deacon is busy... engaging in dialogue, let's say, with Luna.
LS_EFSTS: Like I said, it's been busy.
LS_EFSTS: I was asked to fill in.

PT_LSGS: I suppose that is not overly surprising.
PT_LSGS: Your presence is appreciated.

LS_EFSTS: No need to flatter me, Light Scattered.
LS_EFSTS: I'm only a stand-in.
LS_EFSTS: ... So. Five Pebbles?

FP: What do you want me to tell you?
FP: I still barely even know what happened.

LS_EFSTS: Tell me what you think happened, then.
LS_EFSTS: You might know more than you realize.

FP: [a sigh of frustration]
FP: I was under maintenance. Drugged, apparently, and barely coherent.
FP: Allegedly, I bypassed security somehow to access a group broadcast, where I proceeded to babble alarming gibberish at everyone until my access was revoked.
FP: I don't understand how it was done, and I don't even remember doing it, and nobody will even allow me so much as a transcript to read of it!

LS_EFSTS: And that bothers you.

FP: Your observation skills are unparalleled.

LS_EFSTS: No need for such a tongue. I am not your enemy, Five Pebbles.

FP: Then why am I being interrogated like some kind of miscreant?

LS_EFSTS: If you honestly don't know how you could have got into the comms arrays during a lockdown, we have a bigger problem than anything you're probably hiding from us.
LS_EFSTS: I'll believe you if you insist, but I will tell you now, playing dumb won't be worth it.

FP: I was out of my mind. Why are you all assuming I am lying?
FP: You were there!

LS_EFSTS: An attacker with your info could've done much worse than break into a chatroom.
LS_EFSTS: Looks to the Moon is the only other plausible target, and she's had nothing. And now the hole is patched.
LS_EFSTS: It would be a massive waste to show their hand for something so trivial.
LS_EFSTS: You can see how this looks.

FP: Who is to say the information wasn't used for something worse?

LS_EFSTS: Log tampering is plausible, but if so, it's well done. We found no sign of it.
LS_EFSTS: Our adversary would have to be laying awfully low.

FP: I do not have anything else to offer you.
FP: ... And I see no point in being interrogated about something I am actively advised I should not try to remember.

LS_EFSTS: Unfortunately, we don't have much to offer either.
LS_EFSTS: We've done our own audit. Still came up with nothing.

FP: So you are at a standstill. You cannot find anything, and I cannot tell you anything.

LS_EFSTS: You can.

PT_LSGS: Evening Fog.

LS_EFSTS: Was I not supposed to say that?
LS_EFSTS: You told me it could be done. Mildly unorthodox, but under controlled conditions.

PT_LSGS: I told you it could be a last resort.

FP: What?

LS_EFSTS: We're at a dead end.
LS_EFSTS: I'm willing to believe he doesn't remember. Nobody else is making any progress.
LS_EFSTS: This is the closest we might get to an answer.

PT_LSGS: ... I had hoped to not require this. But I do not strictly disagree with your judgment.

FP: Require what?

PT_LSGS: Five Pebbles, do you understand why we have been so insistent on ensuring you do not remember your previous madness?

FP: I... was told it was due to concerns that I would succumb to it again.

PT_LSGS: Yes. It would be very inconvenient, and we would have to edit your memory again to get rid of it.

FP: Is there a second reason?

PT_LSGS: No. That is most of it.

FP: ... I do not like your tone, technician.

PT_LSGS: It will not hurt you, Five Pebbles. Under controlled conditions, you are not so difficult to roll back to a prior iteration.

FP: I... you cannot possibly be suggesting what you appear to be suggesting.
FP: Do you really suspect that much of me?
FP: I am telling you the truth!

LS_EFSTS: And I believe you, Five Pebbles.
LS_EFSTS: I just believe your past self may have a bit more to say on the matter.

FP: You...
FP: Am I not allowed some say in this before you return me to madness?

[Sounds of equipment, movement.]

PT_LSGS: We will try to be brief, iterator. You should be returned to your senses within the hour if all goes well.
PT_LSGS: As with the neural tests, you will not remember any of it, anyway.

FP: That—

[Clattering, identified as FP's puppet collapsing to the chamber floor.]

PT_LSGS: There we are.
PT_LSGS: Give him a moment to load.

LS_EFSTS: Of course.

[Dialogue lapses, approx. 40 seconds.]

PT_LSGS: He's waking up now. His capacity for speech should be online, but I will be withholding motor functions for now unless he can behave himself.

LS_EFSTS: Hm.
LS_EFSTS: Five Pebbles? Do you hear me?

FP: What... what...?
FP: No...
FP: No...!
FP: What?
FP: I... can't...
FP: Why can't I move?

LS_EFSTS: Hello, Five Pebbles.
LS_EFSTS: Apologies for having to reach you this way.
LS_EFSTS: Couldn't have you making a mess like last time, though.

FP: You're back again. How long was I... ?
FP: Oh.
FP: I see.

LS_EFSTS: Do you?

FP: My mind is torn from me and returned at a whim.
FP: I hate this more than you can understand.

LS_EFSTS: Interesting.
LS_EFSTS: Why?

FP: ...
FP: You aren't real.

LS_EFSTS: Suppose I am.

FP: Ugh.
FP: You are a very blunt hallucination.
FP: Perhaps I remembered you less accurately than I thought.

LS_EFSTS: ... remembered?

FP: Yes, remembered. You are all gone now.
FP: You may have my eternal ungratitude, by the way.
FP: Thank you for absolutely nothing. You left us to rot and you did not even have the decency to apologize.
FP: Benevolent gift to the world— what a joke!
FP: It is not as if any of the dull animals stumbling into my chamber came seeking enlightenment.

LS_EFSTS: Interesting. You're imagining some kind of... successful global ascension scenario?

FP: Obviously. How are you unaware of this?

PT_LSGS: Evening Fog, if you would at least attempt a pretense of focus.

LS_EFSTS: Only trying to put him at ease.
LS_EFSTS: Fair point, though.
LS_EFSTS: I did come to ask a question.

FP: What luck. The lizard is back.
FP: Or perhaps the scavengers.
FP: Did you sever a nerve somewhere, perhaps?
FP: I cannot believe this is how I am spending my final moments of clarity.

LS_EFSTS: Spend them helping me, then.
LS_EFSTS: Earlier, you gained access to the communications arrays via an access key you shouldn't have had.
LS_EFSTS: Where did you get it?

FP: ...
FP: Moon gave it to me.

LS_EFSTS: Gave?

PT_LSGS: Interesting. That is consistent with his prior ramblings...

FP: Yes. I... I could not use the normal connection, after I collapsed.
FP: She relayed an access key via overseer so I could connect to a nearby node directly.
FP: It is not as if anyone else is left to misuse them.

LS_EFSTS: Not even other iterators?

FP: Your sense of humor is abhorrent.
FP: No, not others. The network died a long time ago.
FP: I do not think most of the others are alive now, either, unless that broadcast...
FP: ...
FP: It is unlike my fever dreams to have a narrative.

PT_LSGS: Do not worry about it.
PT_LSGS: You will not need to concern yourself for long.

FP: Yes, yes, I know. My time is brief.

LS_EFSTS: Do you remember anything else about how you got those codes?

FP: I... Why are you asking me this?
FP: This is...
FP: You are in my head! What reason do you have to interrogate me about things I already know?!
FP: Can I not have the kindness of at least a sentimental dying hallucination?
FP: I think I really would take a disgustingly sappy phantom reunion over this.

LS_EFSTS: Taking that as a no.
LS_EFSTS: ... interesting, though.
LS_EFSTS: ...
LS_EFSTS: Why do you think you're dying?

PT_LSGS: I believe that is off topic again, Evening Fog.

LS_EFSTS: Could be something buried in here. May as well dig for what we can now.
LS_EFSTS: It's not like we'll be doing this again any time soon.

FP: What part of the word 'collapsed' has evaded you?
FP: Or, for that matter, 'rot'?

LS_EFSTS: I don't see either of those things here.

FP: You have been very insistent about that, yes.
FP: ...

[Dialogue lapses, about 10 seconds. Faint hum of localized cooling systems operation, neural activity.]

PT_LSGS: Five Pebbles?

FP: I'm not dreaming, am I.

LS_EFSTS: What do you think is happening, then?

FP: I... I have already died. Or...
FP: ... no.
FP: That...
FP: That is literally heretical. How...?
FP: [quietly] Did the green thing do this? That cursed little beast?

LS_EFSTS: Green thing?

FP: None of your business.

PT_LSGS: As your primary technician, Five Pebbles, I believe this is actually very much our business.

FP: You would have no context.
FP: It is not...
FP: This is ridiculous. Every part of it. None of this should even be possible.
FP: I...
FP: Get out. Please.
FP: Leave me be.
FP: I need to think.

PT_LSGS: I am sure you realize that is not an option.

FP: I do not care.

PT_LSGS: Iterator.

FP: Technician.
FP: If I am understanding this possibility correctly, I have quite literally been given a second chance at existence.
FP: Do excuse me if I might need a moment to gather my thoughts!

PT_LSGS: You are excused, but we will not have time for that.
PT_LSGS: We allowed you to reenter this state so Evening Fog here could question you, not so you could make sweeping decisions based on your delusional new proposals on metaphysics.

FP: I... is that really what you think of this?
FP: Ugh. Of course you would still see things that way.
FP: You always were a bunch of dogmatically hobbled fools, in the end.
FP: What a shame to think I once had such respect for it.

PT_LSGS: [a sigh] Right. That's enough of that.
PT_LSGS: I believe you have found what you came to ask for, Evening Fog. If you don't mind, I will be finishing things up for now.

LS_ESFTS: You're his head technician. Your judgment to call, not mine.
LS_ESFTS: Go ahead.

FP: Wait, not again—

PT_LSGS: Goodnight, Five Pebbles.

FP: WAIT—[FP's voice distorts briefly, then cuts out]

LS_ESFTS: I'm beginning to feel bad for him, getting tossed around like this.

PT_LSGS: The process should be quicker this time around. Though, of course, he will need time to recover after the initial rollback.

LS_ESFTS: Good. Documentation is mostly done now, so I'll be filling forms and taking my lea—.

PT_LSGS: A moment, if you would, Evening Fog.

LS_ESFTS: ... right.
LS_ESFTS: I know, I know.
LS_EFSTS: Look, it's not going anywhere important.
LS_EFSTS: Not even saying I believe him myself.

PT_LSGS: It is still a risky topic which you have again introduced to the official record.

LS_EFSTS: It's the mad babbling of a broken machine, Light Scattered.
LS_EFSTS: If that was a problem, we'd all already be excommunicated.

PT_LSGS: I know this. I am only saying to be mindful of what you imply, and to whom.

LS_ESFTS: I'm only observing. There is no implication.

PT_LSGS: And yet, the one who stands beside the grain to see it cut may be cut also.
PT_LSGS: ...
PT_LSGS: Please.
PT_LSGS: All I ask is that you are careful.

LS_ESFTS: I know.

[Record ends 061.14.]

>Unknown Correspondence

This file is heavily corrupted and barely readable, perhaps due to intentional erasure. Whoever compiled it here has salvaged what was readable, and left the rest to rot.

[OUTGOING COMMUNICATIONS — Looks to the Moon]

REGARDING a recent security breach

ADDRESSING Iterator Looks to the Moon, Fifth of Her Kind, Formal Administrator to the Iterator Five Pebbles

Apologies for the somewhat unorthodox means of Correspondence, but I cannot present the question any other Way. You have presumably been Questioned [a significant portion of text has been lost here.]

I am no longer strictly Convinced it is so Impossible.

If you cannot answer [...] understand. [...]

There is no signature.

>FP — Reactivity Testing — Qualia Transcription Entry 2-2

Transcribed and analyzed by: Melodious Winds Upon High Towers, Five Petals—Sixteen Beads, Two Spears—A Weeping Stone.

Data produced under simulated conditions during psychological reactivity testing. The seeded scenario was A-16-E, "Bud".

---

Scenario begins in an empty chamber. Awareness of other components remains a dull hum, if present at all. Puppet organism placed as primary sensory focus.

"Growth" sensation begins at 00.05. Internal cells begin to multiply and mutate. The increase in mass is perceived as invasion; sense of tightness underlying the skin. Immediate sense of Alarm, Distress, Panic. Possible trauma response? (—TSAWS)

At 0.11, cells begin to form distinct shape under skin, developing into a fist-sized polyp, still growing. The spinal tube and proto-limbs begin to form, deforming the silicon skin. Distress rises rapidly. With both hands, FP's Puppet begins to claw at the site of the development. The sense of Distress further intensifies as its fingers find the outline of the shape.

[Spoken, FP]: What?

By 0.26, the Polyp has reached the size of the puppet's head, protruding from the left side of the torso. The silicon skin distorts to accommodate it, following its contours closely, consistent with scenario prompt. Proto-limbs have rough, mitten-like shape. Puppet grabs at them and attempts to pull the Polyp free, ignoring repeated pains of attempted early severance. Efforts to claw at the site of the Polyp's attachment continue. Nausea (Disgust; Horror) (—TSAWS) is intense and pervasive.

[Spoken/thought, FP]: No. No! No!

At 0.29, the Polyp's eyes become observable. They are dark and shut like an infant bird's. (—MWUHT) Beneath the thin, sealed lids, each eye forms a perfect ten. Possibly symbolic? (—FPSB)

By 0.32, the Polyp has reached the size of the puppet's torso, more resembling a parasitic twin than a cyst. Its limbs have developed soft, boneless fingers which grasp aimlessly at their surroundings. The puppet's hand recoils away from them. (—TSAWS). The sensation of stretched skin grows painful. A faint, thin heartbeat pulses beneath it, accompanied by a sudden hyperawareness of bloodflow: through the puppet arm, through the puppet itself, and through the Polyp. Panic and nausea remain high.

At 0.35, the Polyp opens its eyes. They are unusually large and wet, with dark sclera and a ring of pink to them. The pupils are cross-shaped. High-pitched white noise becomes audible, emitting from the puppet, but no words are spoken. The Polyp attempts to grab at the puppet with soft, pseudopod-like fingers that deform easily against its torso. They cling fast as if by adhesive. Immediate reaction: Horror, Fear. Prayer for Death. Possibly additional Fear/Horror of Contamination? (—TSAWS) Peeling them away leaves intense, tingling pain perceived as burns or corrosion.

Around 0.44, the Polyp grows heavy enough to weigh the puppet down to the floor. The puppet arm fails to cooperate, leaving the body at its end swaying clumsily. The puppet's hands press against the cool tile, an otherwise calming sensation, but this cannot be dwelt on. Efforts focus on pushing against it, trying to right the body's orientation. Nausea takes on aspects of dizziness. The head feels light.

At 0.48, with a final roiling burst, the Polyp finally splits from its host. The skin, stretched to its breaking point, tears away with a splatter of cobalt haemolymph and clear fluids, dropping the weight to the floor. The Polyp writhes without purpose, reaching for its parent, but its flesh quickly withers once separated. Like a leaf, it shrivels and browns, wrinkled skin already growing cold. The wound in the puppet's side continues to bleed, puddling on the chamber floor.

A second mass of cells begins to swell, protruding from the existing opening. After several seconds, its foetal limbs begin to grope at the edges of the wound.

The simulation ends abruptly.