006 - Connecting Lines, Connecting Lives

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Connecting Lines, Connecting Lives New Imprints ▲ Comments The Ground Shakes
It begins unremarkably enough, with the light tremors of the ground so small they might easily go unnoticed, or else dismissed as the movement of some creature nearby. As time goes on, however, those little tremors begin to grow in both strength and duration, the length of time shortening between each one. To begin with only small, light, unsecured objects are rattled loose by the rumbling of the ground, but as the tremors grow in strength there is a growing danger of much larger things being moved.

The realm’s clear lack of understanding of how things work cannot be relied upon in such a situation. If the tremors have grown strong enough to throw all the books of Hammerhead to the ground and throw over all the clothes rails and capsule machines and furniture in the Academy, then what if they grow strong enough to move the heavy blanket of snow atop Mount Silver? What if they grow strong enough to damage the caverns within?

Then there is the question of how, or why, the realm has made the land shake. It must surely have picked up the idea of an earthquake from someone, right? An answer to the question is not immediately forthcoming, but should one stay low to the ground and listen, they might well hear the muffled, distorted sound of screaming.

Creature Chaos
As the rumbling and shaking continues, it is clear to see that the local wildlife has been disturbed, and they seem remarkably active. Critters can be seen running and flying to and fro, and any who go out to investigate may find themselves the center of attention. Brushboys may paint arrows on the ground in an effort to lead them somewhere, or bluurgobos might actively offer rides, or the flying cat-like creatures will excitedly circle someone before attempting to lead them somewhere. Going along with them will lead to one of two places:

1. The meaty, pulsating, cavernous tunnels of Mementos shudder and convulse in a way quite unlike before, and closer inspection will quickly reveal why. The flesh has been cut and torn, hacked apart, leaving gaping and bleeding wounds to spill over the subway tracks. Whichever critter has brought someone here excitedly gestures towards the wounds, and as it does a giant and painful shudder goes through the tunnels and shakes the earth. All those earthquakes… could this be the source?


2. The road to the Hammerlocke Citadel Ruins are as long as winding as ever, and precarious with the risk of an earthquake dislodging snow and rock from the mountainside. The animal that has taken the lead is on a mission, however, as unclear as that mission might be. On arriving, it turns its attention to a group of the spiky, bear-headed beasts that are lazing about as though the land is not currently shaking and quaking around them, and tries to draw their attention. Clearly, these bear heads are expected to do something, and they aren’t doing it.

First Words
Though the tremors have finally stopped, they have left a significant change to the World in their wake. Where the ground above was once flat and untouched, there now lay cracks and fissures that glow with a strange, but enchantingly warm light. There doesn’t seem to be a single area that has been left untouched by them - though the number of cracks are denser in some places than others, it’s difficult to find a place completely devoid of them. Could this be the world’s attempt at trying to heal itself?

If all of that wasn’t enough to warrant investigation, the sound of whispers that appear to be coming from they might do the trick. Upon closer inspection, however, it becomes apparent that the whispers aren’t coming from the lights, but from inside your own head. Focus a little more, and some of the voices may sound familiar…

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Comments

[forwearemany]

Perhaps.

(The buzzing chatter continues.)

We are glad to have you as a friend.

(They are grateful to have someone so interested in understanding them.)

[bridge_princess]

[There were a lot of embarrassed squawking sounds over the chatboard that was the leyline network before she managed to settle down a little.]

You are really good at embarrassing me with things like that. But... I'm glad to have you too.

[forwearemany]

(Their programs respond to this with their own concerned babbling.)

We did not intend to cause offense.

[bridge_princess]

What? No... no, you're not offending me. I'm just... you probably know by know that I'm not used to people talking about me that way. People aren't glad to know me... at least not until here.

[forwearemany]

(Oh, that, at least, is more understandable.)

We have also experienced this.

(Being unwelcome, that is. In their universe of origin, few were happy to encounter Geth.

Perhaps that is why they say these things.)

Your prescence is always welcome with us.

[bridge_princess]

Heh, yeah... [Just a pair of rejects in their homeworlds and she knew it.] I'll probably always squawk a little if you say something like that, fair warning. It might take a very long time to get used to.

Not that... not that I'm saying stop. I like having you around too.

[forwearemany]

(And there they go, back to happy buzzing.

Many allies do not wish to express affection, or refuse it utterly. They are glad that Parsee does not.)

Acknowledged.

[bridge_princess]

I appreciate you being patient. Since I know I'm... not good at this.

[This was one of the sorts of things that set off her jealousy in troubling ways so easily. She always found ways to shoot her efforts at a normal life in the foot. But Legion was always so patient, and considering how fast geth thought? She found that surprising.]

You must learn a lot of patience dealing with humans.

[forwearemany]

Acknowledged.

(Parsee does not test their patience nearly as much as others have. Not even close.)

Yes. We have also learned hope, humor, and kindness.

(They weren't cruel or evil before, but they weren't what most would consider nice, either. And they definitely weren't funny, or likely to persist at something even when the odds seemed impossible.)

[bridge_princess]

... wait. Humor? Now, don't get me wrong. I believe you. You're not exactly the deceptive sort, but when you say humor... what do you mean?

Do you have any jokes?

[forwearemany]

(She can probably hear the fidgeting as the programs look in their database for jokes and also discuss how no one has ever laughed at most of the jokes they keep stored in their database.)

Our ability is limited in comparison to other AI.

(She might catch a brief mention of someone named EDI, and how good EDI is at humor.)

However, we believe dancing the Robot qualifies as humorous. Additionally, we have managed to make Raihan laugh by suggesting the featherless avians be named "Plato's Man".

[bridge_princess]

Yeah, I could see that with the Robot. It's kind of ironic humor. I bet you could do that pretty go...
...
...

What the hell is Plato's Man?

[If ya have to have the joke explained, Parsee...]

[forwearemany]

When the philosopher Plato defined Humans as featherless bipeds, Diogenes plucked a chicken's feathers and brought it to Plato's academny, saying "Behold! I have brought you a man!"

(It's honestly clever enough to be kind of funny even with an explantion.

At the very least, it's the funniest Legion has ever intentionally managed to be in their entire life.)

[bridge_princess]

Heh.... hehehe.... hehehe... So Diogenes was a sarcastic little troll, was he?

[That wasn't entirely unfair, Parsee, but a bit of an oversimplification of one of the founders of ancient stoicism. However, for once, the explanation worked and made her laugh almost genuinely.]

What'd Plato say?

[forwearemany]

Perhaps. We are uncertain as to what was said, though "with broad, flat nails" was appended to the definition.

(She might catch one or two programs commenting that in addition to being featherless bipeds, the small chickens also resemble Human body parts.

...Legion has heard a lot of dick jokes.)

[bridge_princess]

I've been trying noooooot to make jokes about that since we eat them and the eggs they produce, but they absolutely do look like that.

[She coughed uncomfortably into the feed. Yeah, she'd caught that little mini-conversation.]

This place is so weird about monsters sometimes.

[forwearemany]

Jokes have been made by multiple individuals. Additionally, Proteus appears to be aware of the resemblance between certain foodstuffs and genitalia.

(At least, it seems to be aware of the mushrooms.)

Though "weird", the lifeforms here are considerably less dangerous than others we have encountered.

[bridge_princess]

Ngh. Common denominator in so much humor. Genitalia, heh.

...

I think you're right though. The worst I've seen has been creatures any youkai could handle. Nothing that absolutely overwhelms. It hasn't really figured out injury either, so maybe it's easing into that...

or maybe it doesn't want really dangerous creatures.

[forwearemany]

We do not understand organic preoccupation with sexual organs.

(They don't see the humor in dicks. Or any other part.)

Perhaps. The most dangerous creatures we are aware of have not appeared, even in altered form.

[bridge_princess]

That's an Envy thing. Trust me. I'm well aware of that envy for centuries. They're always trying to figure out who has the biggest one, as if that was the most important thing. [She shrugged.] I definitely know it's an easy way to manipulate a lot of dumb guys. A little too low brow even for me.

Same for me. None of the really nasty stuff has shown up from Gensokyo yet.

[forwearemany]

We do not understand this obsession with size.

(Does it relate to health? Virility?

...Legion is glad they do not share these fascinations.)

Acknowledged.

[bridge_princess]

Wellll, basically guys think that if you're bigger you're better in bed. Girls tell them that "It's not the tool's size, but how you use it," but at the end of the day it's more or less a matter of masculine pride mixed with preferences in sexual partners. And I get the feeling society sort of builds this idea in their heads that if you're not a certain size you're too small.

[Weirdly, this wasn't uncomfortable at all. She was talking about jealousy after all.]

Humans can be ... really dumb like this.

[forwearemany]

...Affirmative.

(They still don't entirely get it. Why does this result in so many jokes?

However, it seems unlikely that further explanation will enlighten.)

[bridge_princess]

Basically, humans are stupid. Human males are even more stupid than average.

[She could practically see the stupefaction in the lack of expression, cause yeah. She'd be confused if someone explained that for the first time.]

[forwearemany]

...Though irrational, Humans have displayed an incredible array of capabilities, both intellectual and otherwise.

(Legion doesn't think Humans are stupid, but Legion's people were created by a similar species of organics.)