Into the Dark

[overlord stick]

Just now, AonEne said:

Myriad glanced back long enough to say, “Getting impaled by a spike wouldn’t stop me from showing up,” and smiled at her fellow guild member before turning back to the woman. 

Kendul blinked, taken aback by her friendly response. He frowned at her as she turned back to the other Lady.

[MacThorstenson]

1 hour ago, AonEne said:

Myriad glanced back long enough to say, “Getting impaled by a spike wouldn’t stop me from showing up,” and smiled at her fellow guild member before turning back to the woman. 

Quote

That is interesting, what would happen to a poltergeist with an essence spike? Or just with a regular spike? Because their soul doesn’t pass onto the beyond would they exist as a broken CS? With a part of them always trapped in the spike?

 

[AonEne]

Quote

Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that. I’m not sure if a regular spike would do anything - what does sDNA look like when a spirit is possessing you?  Would it even be possible to get the spike to work on them and not the host, whose bindpoints would be the ones being used? And if it did work and they died, the only thing that you could really spike out of them is a mental attribute or of course their poltergeistiness (official word, folks), so what would that leave? 

 

[MacThorstenson]

5 minutes ago, AonEne said:

 

Quote

I mean the spike would still work. I imagine that the sDNA would be the same, but parts of it would be yours and parts would be the hosts.

The essence spike would probably spike out the poltergeists sDNA, and then they would be attached to the spike, which I imagine would be incredibly uncomfortable as the spike began to decay.

 

[AonEne]

Quote

Yeah let’s never do that. Or at least, not now. 

 

[+Invocation]

34 minutes ago, AonEne said:

 

Quote

You say that, but you have piqued my curiosity.

 

[AonEne]

Quote

How about if I ever want this character to die, I’ll let you guys know. 

 

[Voidus]

Whisper watched calmly and silently, watched the flicker of conflict in Wes' expression. He seemed to almost lose himself in some kind of memory or imagining for a moment before coming back to reality with a slightly bitter look. She watched quietly, allowing him to finish talking and then for a few moments longer before clearing the board once more and beginning to write upon its surface.

Maybe. She began. But some people will know that it wasn't just the high ranks, the important people. The people you help will know who you are, know what you did. You'll know that you made a difference. I'll know.

She turned the board back around so that he could see, clear blue eyes staring back into his, wandering from one to the other as though seeking for something.

[+ZincAboutIt]

7 hours ago, AonEne said:

Trotting up to the pretty woman who looked like she was in charge and born for the job, she said quickly, “I’m sorry, I know I’m late, but I was hoping to join ACE - this is the right room, right? It has to be, this is where everyone said it was. Anyway, I wanted to go down in the tunnels with the groups you’re sending.” 

Deb pursed her lips at the newcomer, though she slid a questionnaire and a pen from a nearby table and held them out to her anyway.

"Please fill out this form," she said, "and deliver it to either myself or Farren." Deb gestured to her assistant, who was nearly done collecting all the completed questionnaires from the other attendants. "My name is Director Stancel, and I will be the Expedition Leader on this mission. The final list of chosen applicants will be posted later, at which point you will assemble tomorrow morning at the tunnel entrance and prepare for the expedition. I'm sure you have questions - questions which would have likely been answered had you arrived on time. It seems as though you know someone else here; feel free to direct your questions to them, or to Farren."

She smiled coldly, nodded, and then walked over to her assistant. "Handle the rest of this," she said to him, taking the completed questionnaires. "I need to send these to the Executive Committee as soon as possible for review."

Farren nodded. "Of course, Ma'am."

Deb felt her smile warm a touch, and she gave her assistant one more nod before giving the back doors a sustain Steelpush and striding back into the ACE headquarters. Her smile widened just a bit. I do love two-way hinges.

[+ElephantEarwax]

On 9/22/2019 at 11:43 PM, Sorana said:

Awakened objects then. Interesting. Despite the high amount of investiture in the Alleyverse, these were rare. That he spoke so open about them made her wonder if he was telling the truth, or playing some kind of game. Judging his tone, it was possible, but the way he easily included some facts, a more detailed description made her lean towards the fact, that he was telling the truth. Add to that the fact how he mentioned experiments as if they were something usual, daily task. Another member of the DA? Maybe. If he continued to be as openhanded with his information she would most likely find out.

"Were you able to influence their personalities?"

She asked carefully hiding her curiosity.

@ElephantEarwax

"We tried. But the commands given were too ambiguous. 

He chuckled again. 

"Mercy. She began as such a simple idea. A living coppermind. One that could remember and speak for itself. 'Remember' without thinking it seemed good. But the memories in the coppermind did something. Jethro is himself. 'Cleave'. 

"I like stories also. Not just killing "

"I like them too, you have to tell her that." 

"They want me to mention that they like stories as well." Adren added on, "A trait they share." Adren leans on a nearby chair, holding on to keep balanced and fit fully coughs.

Standing up again "That is why they are my burden. They are slightly unpredictable. And I was a factor in their making, so I am sticking with them."

[kenod]

13 hours ago, AonEne said:

Quote

How about if I ever want this character to die, I’ll let you guys know. 

 

Quote

On the subject of Poltergeists, I am quite curious about what would happen if the person being possessed is aware of the ability and prepared for it. Could they actually fight back if they knew what was coming, or could they prevent themselves from fighting it and sharing the body instead, staying conscious during the whole thing?

On a similar note, I am quite curious as to what would happen if Myriad tried possessing Karin, especially in the situation outlined above.

 

[AonEne]

1 hour ago, kenod said:

 

Quote

I suspect that both are possible, though it wasn’t really touched on in the story. If she tried to possess Karin, my guess is that Aylitha would have the mental strength to kick her out - I don’t know if it would take a fight or not, I’m not positive how strong Aylitha is in comparison. It’s said that poltergeists are stronger in their primal form than when they’re Bolting straight from one body to another. 

Myriad watched the director leave with interest, then sat in the closest chair and began to fill out the questionnaire. 

[kenod]

22 minutes ago, AonEne said:

  Quote

I suspect that both are possible, though it wasn’t really touched on in the story. If she tried to possess Karin, my guess is that Aylitha would have the mental strength to kick her out - I don’t know if it would take a fight or not, I’m not positive how strong Aylitha is in comparison. It’s said that poltergeists are stronger in their primal form than when they’re Bolting straight from one body to another. 

Quote

Honestly, I'd think Myriad would probably share the body as an additional personality/mind, probably the one in control. Aylitha herself doesn't actually have direct control over Karin, so it would come between the two of them, but her mind-space is adapted to allow for the existence of multiple minds/threads of thought, so as long as they wouldn't try to fight they could probably be conscious at the same time.

 

[AonEne]

Quote

Huh, interesting. When you say ‘the two of them’, you mean Myriad and Karin, right? 

 

[kenod]

23 minutes ago, AonEne said:

Quote

Huh, interesting. When you say ‘the two of them’, you mean Myriad and Karin, right? 

 

Quote

Yup. The exact way all the mental stuff is structured and how the Karin and Aylitha personalities interact is a bit complicated/weird, though I'll explain if you're curious. If Aylitha is in the prequel thread it'll come up in more detail anyway.

 

Edited September 24, 2019 by kenod

[AonEne]

Quote

If you’re okay with sharing it with me, I’m interested in reading it. 

 

[+Sorana]

11 hours ago, ElephantEarwax said:

"We tried. But the commands given were too ambiguous. 

He chuckled again. 

"Mercy. She began as such a simple idea. A living coppermind. One that could remember and speak for itself. 'Remember' without thinking it seemed good. But the memories in the coppermind did something. Jethro is himself. 'Cleave'. 

"I like stories also. Not just killing "

"I like them too, you have to tell her that." 

"They want me to mention that they like stories as well." Adren added on, "A trait they share." Adren leans on a nearby chair, holding on to keep balanced and fit fully coughs.

Standing up again "That is why they are my burden. They are slightly unpredictable. And I was a factor in their making, so I am sticking with them."

"If you need medical treatment, there is a hospital not too far away. They should be able to do something about your cough." Althea suggested to him, although her voice of her face didn't really change. It was a fact, the hospital was there. And she would be surprised if he hadn't heard them.

"The idea of a living coppermind is interesting. Did you meassure how long it took until something happened, or did the effect manifest itself immediatly?" She asked curiously, glad to have found someone to talk to about investiture. That his weapon also had a mind of his own, that it liked stories. Maybe the interactions between the three of them, had also done something to develop the cleaver's personality further. She'd have to look into that at one point or the other.

[That Violin Guy]

Quote

Sorry I dont know whats going on but...

@Rushu42

[Rushu42]

On 9/23/2019 at 11:23 AM, That Violin Guy said:

Fasi quickly dismissed her Line of Forbidance. She then drew and intricate dragon chalkling telling it to go over to Sarah and to climb her leg and go to her shoulder.  @Rushu42

Quote

Sorry! I forgot about this post.

Sarah yelped as Fasi's drawing suddenly came to life and shot toward her. She stood reflexively as it speedily climbed onto her shoulder, where it stopped. Sarah stared at in in fascination. "Is it... alive?" she asked hesitantly.

[That Violin Guy]

32 minutes ago, Rushu42 said:

Sarah yelped as Fasi's drawing suddenly came to life and shot toward her. She stood reflexively as it speedily climbed onto her shoulder, where it stopped. Sarah stared at in in fascination. "Is it... alive?" she asked hesitantly.

Fasi laughed. "Not in the regular sense. Do you know what awakining is? It's kind of like that." 

Quote

Dont worry about it.

 

[kenod]

5 hours ago, AonEne said:

Quote

If you’re okay with sharing it with me, I’m interested in reading it. 

 

Quote

Sure! Here is the general gist of it:

How the their mental structuring works (spoilered for brevity):

Spoiler

The way their mental structure works is through the alternate space they pull mass from or store it in. One of the functions of this space is that it also accommodates their minds, which is what prevents them from going amnesiac when getting their head destroyed. With this their consciousness and order of control uses the following tiers (as a quick side-note, Karin doesn't have much experience with her abilities, so she can't use most of the tricks mentioned here, mostly for balancing reasons):

• The physical brain. Each body that Aylitha creates has it's own brain which can function on its own without a connection to the alternate space that normally controls cognition. For most bodies Aylitha lets them move on their own, only issuing commands to them. This allows her to control more of them since she isn't directly controlling the limbs and processing sensory input.
• Mind. A Mind exists in the alternate space and is normally linked to a collection of cells existing in the real world. A Mind can both exercise direct control and supervision. Normally a Mind will control one body directly. This body is the primary Aylitha/Karin body of that Mind, or at least is considered so by it, and said body will normally have their own appearance (12 year old Aylitha or large fox for Aylitha Minds, or 14/15 year old Aylitha for Karin Minds), while other bodies that aren't directly controlled will have different appearances. Of importance is that a Mind can exist without controlling any biomatter, as long as a different Mind exists inside the same mindspace that does control biomatter. Different Minds in the same Mindspace are capable of communicating as well as directly sending information, including the sharing of memories. If one Mind was spun off from another Mind they can be merged again as well, though this isn't possible anymore if they diverged too much, though in that case they can simply send over all their memories and go dormant instead.
• Mindspace. A Mindspace is the alternate space Aylitha's cells (or an Offshoot's cells) are connected to and where they pull additional biomatter from, or send it to to store/destroy it. This is also where Minds exist in. For a good analogy, the Mindspace is the CPU and the Minds are processes running on that CPU. Two sorts of Mindspaces exist, an Offshoot Mindspace and the Primary Mindspace.
  The Offshoot versions have a limited amount of space, which not only manifests in the limited amount of biomass they have available but also the amount of Minds that these Mindspaces can support.
• Primary mindspace. This is the Mindspace used by Aylitha's main body. This Mindspace is capable of splitting off additional offshoot mindspaces, but can't exercise any direct control over them, though indirect control is still possible, though with the commands being filtered through the different offshoot Minds' personalities. Offshoot Minds can be adjusted when the offshoot is first created. For example, the original Karin Mind that exists inside the primary Mindspace is somewhat different from the current Karin in the story, having most of her memories removed as well as some of her backstory rewritten, partly to avoid drawing attention and partially to avoid the issues that caused the original Mind to go dormant in the first place.

How Aylitha and Karin relate to each other (spoilered because of spoilers):

Spoiler

Originally Aylitha was an interdimensional being that arrived on an unspecified earth together with a large number of similar beings, though most of these weren't sapient (or even sentient). These beings then possessed humans, granting them special abilities (with the ability depending on the type of being). Aylitha possessed Karin, with the two sharing the body, though Karin was the one in actual control (side-note: The Mind that doesn't have control over the body has to be given it, it can't be taken. Trying to would just result in the body being paralysed. This means Myriad would actually be able to supplant Karin/Aylitha as the primary Mind of an offshoot, though since they likely won't go dormant they could continuously fight back).
After a whole bunch of stuff happened Karin essentially had enough of everything and handed control to Aylitha, going dormant herself. After this Aylitha's mind continued to expand while Karin's lost its presence. Karin's dormancy was also what allowed Aylitha to make an offshoot of a modified version of their mind.
On that note, as said earlier, a few years ago Aylitha came across the dormant personality again and decided to create offshoot!Karin because of nostalgia/guilt for before she came to the alleyverse. Offshoot!Karin had her memories from after meeting Aylitha removed and some of her earlier memories tweaked in order to make them fit in better and to prevent them from immediately going dormant again, which is why she thinks she's an Epic. Some parts couldn't be removed completely though, which is why Karin is still missing Aylitha's presence at some level. Similarly, she also has much more independence from Aylitha than normal offshoots, partially due to the different personality and partially because of actions from Aylitha when making her.

Edited September 24, 2019 by kenod

[Rushu42]

2 hours ago, That Violin Guy said:

Fasi laughed. "Not in the regular sense. Do you know what awakining is? It's kind of like that." 

 

"I, um, I've heard of it." Despite these words, her expression showed how lost she was. 

[AonEne]

1 hour ago, kenod said:

*much complicated stuff* 

Quote

I understood half of that, but if that’s a book you’re writing I would absolutely read it. 

 

[That Violin Guy]

3 hours ago, Rushu42 said:

"I, um, I've heard of it." Despite these words, her expression showed how lost she was. 

Fasi looked at her. "Sorry I can't explain thing really well. I have no people skill."

[+ElephantEarwax]

10 hours ago, Sorana said:

"If you need medical treatment, there is a hospital not too far away. They should be able to do something about your cough." Althea suggested to him, although her voice of her face didn't really change. It was a fact, the hospital was there. And she would be surprised if he hadn't heard them.

"The idea of a living coppermind is interesting. Did you meassure how long it took until something happened, or did the effect manifest itself immediatly?" She asked curiously, glad to have found someone to talk to about investiture. That his weapon also had a mind of his own, that it liked stories. Maybe the interactions between the three of them, had also done something to develop the cleaver's personality further. She'd have to look into that at one point or the other.

Straightening his back, Adren chucked. "It's nice to see someone who cares, but I'll avoid the hospital, I'll live. It happens every year around this time."

"You liar, you always cough like this."

Mumbling under his breath, "I always cough, not always like this."

"I didn't keep track, but it was soon after she was awakened. She couldn't access the memories, and they couldn't be accessed by our archivist after either. So is seems like they were taken and integrated into her innate investiture."

Pauaing for a moment, Adren stares at Althea's features, committing them to memory. "What type of investiture do you keep around Althea?"

Quote

I'm half ignoring this. Oh well.

https://wob.coppermind.net/adv_search/?query=Awakened%2Bcoppermind+