lastcompact

[lastcompact]

More like the game that's become my life is passively encouraging me to murder things for experience and only lets me earn exp in that way.

What kind of demons you got collected?

I'll think about it. Thanks.

Counterpoint- It's a good warmup for more deserving targets lmao.

Besides targets, if you're clever, who in your family would even know? Except that one in military custody anyway seems like a knower.

[lastcompact]

True. But I already have a entity trying to convert me into a mass murderer. Don't need to go down that slippery slope unless I have to.

Yeah. Lils's random Clairvoyance tends not to become random when you really don't want her to know something. At least that's how it feels like.

Figures you'd know Lils. Explains how you're contacting me. I'm Lev, yada yada introductions yada.

Counterpoint- It's a good warmup for more deserving targets lmao.

Besides targets, if you're clever, who in your family would even know? Except that one in military custody anyway seems like a knower.

[lastcompact]

@resentingme

No. Probably not. Something something, body count.

Not to mention that if I start trying to go full lethal on things, there's a lot more deserving targets than some upstart organization.

[lastcompact]

The superheroes are starting to become as bad as the villains. Apparently, a bunch of them have started to establish a Justice League of sorts. Don't ask me why they picked a corny name. I'm not one of them, but they're recruiting other heroes in the name of restoring order since the state government is ineffectual.

Anyway, if you're not with them, you're against them.

They've been taking over neighborhoods south of the city, opposite of the Blackgate Autonomous Zone. They're shaking down people whose territory they're in.

I only learned about them because I was craving good pizza on the mainland. And then they appeared and tried to shakedown the pizza place despite the fact I was magical girl costume (gag) and everything.

Thinking they were just assholes disregarding my presence, I naturally made myself know.

Remarks were made. They got touchy. So I showed them why the flowers bloom red.

And then they told me everything they could just to get me to stop beating them, like namedropping their Justice League while saying that I'll be sorry.

Naturally, that just got them more beatings.

I don't even know their names. One has a weird mana ability to manipulate earth, the other more classic super strength meta-gene.

I'm still deciding what to do with them, since police are useless. And I might've let them go, but they're still threatening me out of all things. So clearly they haven't learned their lesson.

[lastcompact]

Hmm. Former would be best. I might be able to figure something out to get a signal here. Or at least Sato can.

Should be soon. I'll let you know.

@pyxisastronautica

Echo, change in plans. With all the large animals around, we're going to scare them out of the fort. Create a big problem that convinced them that the last few remaining forts aren't safe from the animals.

Problem is that I suspect our choice of summoned large animal might be very distinctive.

Not sure if you're capable of changing camera feeds on the fly with your technology or barring that, knocking the cameras out altogether.

Sato's decided that Lils staying there has to happen sooner rather than later, especially since she's likely the source of most wild animals refusing to go near the place.

[lastcompact]

Sunweb

Sometimes the wings of fallen dragons refuse to give up the sky.

Artist: Greg Staples TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link

[lastcompact]

... It is always a little disconcerting to see the Liliums emulate humans in a group. Like I'm fairly sure they are a hivemind but at the same time not.

Right now, they're in the Inn sitting on the sofa with popcorn. Except it's unpopped and they're shoving the kernels in their mouth and crunching on them.

They're watching some streaming service show on TV - streaming service seems to be Poob. The guide on the bottom says [ Nuclear Annihilation - Will the Regressor be able to Prevent It. / Regressor #22: Alice ]. There's a stream chat to the side and everything, and the Liliums are

...

Did you just donate $250 dollars to some garbage slop that even Tumblr won't advertise?

Whose money are you spending anyway!

You.

YOU DID IT AG-

[lastcompact]

@pyxisastronautica

Echo, change in plans. With all the large animals around, we're going to scare them out of the fort. Create a big problem that convinced them that the last few remaining forts aren't safe from the animals.

Problem is that I suspect our choice of summoned large animal might be very distinctive.

Not sure if you're capable of changing camera feeds on the fly with your technology or barring that, knocking the cameras out altogether.

Sato's decided that Lils staying there has to happen sooner rather than later, especially since she's likely the source of most wild animals refusing to go near the place.

[lastcompact]

Probably. But only the stuff that will convince us to let Sato or Lils out of its prison. [ Bright Expanse ] is the Dream, i.e., the asshole that wrecked the world so bad last time that it practically reset.

I can tell you that its solution to the mana sensitivity is to let all the afflicted take up its Gift and become Dreamers. Its Gift practically grants people magical powers - they sorta become like me with their own System and all that turns their life more into a video game.

The mana levels in the world hasn't stopped increasing. I think Sato expected it to eventually level out, but it hasn't. More of it just keeps pouring in from the portals hidden underneath subway stations - and as we've recently discovered, they appear in caves in the wild. They aren't counted as Outside for purposes of the World Boundary which I guess means they're all technically in-universe, so Sato has no power over them.

I think the first signs of mana sensitivity is excess dizziness - some constitutional symptoms too, physical fitness starts to deteriorate. Maybe because you're too nauseous to eat or direct effects on the body.

I don't think there's anything in this world about balancing Aether. No one's found anything about it. The most they can do is detect it, which is how they detect portals in the wild. I think some people have started developing weapons with mana, but it requires crystallized mana - not ambient mana.

But yeah, some books would be nice. I'll try to help out with figuring how our world works, but I still don't get how it works. Sato either. Probably because the nature of both our powers is to effectively force our will onto something as opposed to working with it.

Well, shit.

Is this [ Bright Expanse ] person willing to share anything about how they know that? Or how things are going to get worse?

I'll have to grab some books on aether sensitivity and some notes on Lenar's personal experiences with it, but I can see about compiling that information and sending it your way. Coming up with a solution is likely also going to require figuring out some things about how your world works and what solutions are even possible on your end.

Off the top of my head, I know that the way being overloaded with aether tends to show up feels very similar to motion sickness. Your stomach gets all unsettled and you feel dizzy. That tends to be solved the same ways you'd deal with motion sickness: something to settle the stomach and lying down until the world stops spinning. But that strategy only works if your aether levels can balance themselves... which I suspect is probably part of why you'd even be seeing people struggling with it in the first place.

[lastcompact]

...Fuck.

@witchofthescions

Hey Erna. I need that potential method to deal with the growing mana levels sooner rather than later.

Because a certain asshole named [ Bright Expanse ] is in my private messages and is claiming the mana sensitivity many people are having is going to get a lot worse very quickly - and I need to confirm if that's true and if there's any way to remedy it.

[lastcompact]

That's good. I'll figure out how to get you nearby then. Maybe we can be in the same car or something, since we have a visit scheduled with Lils there. Pretend we get attacked by your dragonflies coming from the forest which later hit the fort.

Nah. Dog-sized isn't intimidating enough. I want them to put the fear of god in them, so they're scared of the damn mountain. So if they can do massive building damage so that stuff is unusable - that might convince them to give up. Can't exactly double-down against wild animals.

In any case, so long as you and your dragonflies are safe and won't be injured, we can go on with this plan?

That might be enough.

All we need to do is make them realize they are not safe as they think they are. The problem is how far they can be summoned away from you and how durable your dragonflies are.

Because my thought is just have them be small and then pop up within the compound itself giving everyone a scare. Cause some building damage and then just disappear.

Clean and effective and not immediately man-made.

[lastcompact]

That might be enough.

All we need to do is make them realize they are not safe as they think they are. The problem is how far they can be summoned away from you and how durable your dragonflies are.

Because my thought is just have them be small and then pop up within the compound itself giving everyone a scare. Cause some building damage and then just disappear.

Clean and effective and not immediately man-made.

@drcgcnfly

Hey. Your dragonflies. Any way you can disguise them to not look like your dragonflies?

We've recently gotten news that there's been animal attacks of the semi-magical kind in the mountains where all the boot camps are at. So I was thinking that we could convince them that the camps are not safe at all.

[lastcompact]

@drcgcnfly

Hey. Your dragonflies. Any way you can disguise them to not look like your dragonflies?

We've recently gotten news that there's been animal attacks of the semi-magical kind in the mountains where all the boot camps are at. So I was thinking that we could convince them that the camps are not safe at all.

[lastcompact]

Given that we're conversing pretty well, I'm pretty sure that said universe will accept you as a person for what it's worth.

Unfortunately the last time something tested the limits of reality, a big hole in the shape of a country named Italy happened.

Yeah, unfortunately they're not. They definitely are separate companies, but it seems they've at least decided to cooperate on this one thing - dismantling the government and remodeling it to their own ends.

We unfortunately don't quite have the clout yet to play in the big leagues company-wise. Sato recently reached billionaire-dom due to an interesting purchase that became big. We're hoping that'll get us at least the foot in the door, so to speak. She's in charge of the socializing and scheming, so I can't say much more about that. I just whack things with my bat until it screams uncle.

It's pretty screwed up that the army has the teenagers that scared of them. It's only been three or four days.

Aside from the frontal assault, we're currently thinking of a plan in light of new information about the dangerous wildlife that got agitated in the area. Convincing them that they can't hold their position in the mountains may help with getting this army conscription delayed or outright canceled.

E: Oh joy, I can't wait for an entire universe to weigh in on whether or not my crew and I are categorically people or objects, and which parts of us count as such. Solve the hard problem of consciousness with this one easy trick! Ha. Ha...

Unless you have access to God's source code, it sounds like conducting some testing on the limits of your reality's definitions is in order. Though, again, I can't commit much time at any given time to be physically present given everything else I'm juggling on my end. Maybe an hour or two a day. Assuming, again, I'm even allowed in.

...As for the rest, well. I guess it figures that this wouldn't be that easy. I wasn't counting on the goodness of the Free States hearts, but I did assume they were properly their own faction rather than part of the same cabal. Even corporations strongly vested in their own interests can sometimes be persuaded to play ball if it screws over their competition, and sabotaging their enemies' recruitment efforts would have been a decent start. Actually getting a foot in door enough to drive wedges in to make that happen, however, is well beyond the scope of what I can commit to.

If you know anyone who is in a better position to do that, I'd highly recommend it though. All social groups have fracture points, especially if self-interest is all that's holding them together.

Sounds like the issue with raising the alarm is exactly as I feared, though. It doesn't need to be a matter of ideological commitment (although it can be, boot camps explicitly exist to psychologically condition people to think and act as soldiers)- we're talking about teenagers stuck in a very literal prisoner's dilemma. As long as their fear of being punished or being hurt by an "other" is greater than their desire to cooperate to escape, of course they're going to side with the devil they know. Despite or even because it's the same devil that's using them.

[lastcompact]

Thanks Tunglr for the badge of dishonor.

[lastcompact]

Hello, Echo. Thanks for helping out. Sato can't respond because no one can use the Daydream aside from me and my sister right now. I've mostly seen your posts as an observer, and I'm glad you're doing what you're doing in your semi-home world.

It's literally Daydreaming that we're using a Phone or Computer that connects to Tunglr. Except what we're Daydreaming happens to actually reflect Tunglr. As for how sure with what we're seeing is actually Tunglr - feeling, I guess.

--

As for the access and understanding -

You can be here indefinitely with permission if you're from Outside.

You can't die for real if you're from Outside. But if you die here, you won't be able to enter this universe again.

You can't bring dangerous objects when you cross. Don't ask me what is considered a dangerous object. The World Boundary has a weird definition of what's dangerous. But in general, if it's more powerful than a grenade, it's probably not going to cross.

Teleportation doesn't really work here.

There's power restrictions, but you won't really be able to tell until you arrive. Things requiring magic tends to be a lot weaker here than in people's home universes - probably because of the low mana density here.

I guess those are the big ones.

---

Current plan is to wait and see unfortunately. Right now, Sato is lobbying to get better access for parents and guardians to their children - but trying to frame things in a way that it's the President and the federal government's merit - cause our President is an egotistic asshole. That's been taking up most of her time.

Per Sato, the risk of war is not imminent right now. Most of the companies operating across the United States - aka across seceded states - are still operating as usual. Even Jungle, whose HQ is in the Free States, still uses the U.S. Postal Service without any consequence. None of these groups have created a proper border patrol yet, which you'd expect with hostile countries.

We think that all of those groups are more focused on indoctrination than actually conscripting people and that all three states are ultimately puppets for the shadow corpocracy they have going.

This is unfortunately a small piece of a much bigger problem, which is the President declaring that we're on a war footing and declaring martial law to pass policies that shouldn't be passed.

We're making a rough plan to try and retrieve Lils and everyone through force just in case. Problem is we don't actually have the manpower or resources to transport roughly 300 kids all at once. It doesn't help that these camps are regularly scattered through the Appalachian mountains too. If we're caught, it will get very messy across all fronts very quickly.

A vigilante group has already attempted to save the kids in another compound. Over 15 kids have died, and several dozens wounded. Some of those kids actually sounded the alarm against the group trying to save them, which I'm afraid of what's going to happen here. Can't tell if indoctrination actually worked that fast or the kids were originally loyal to the army from the start.

@lastcompact @nameless-brand

E: Greetings Ms. Levant, Ms. Sato. This is Exploratory Unit Model: E, Designation: Echo. I have been in contact with Ms. Chi and am trying to sort out possible avenues for helping her and her fellow child conscripts escape the camp they are being held at. But I admittedly have a very limited understanding of how your world functions.

Can you give me a primer on how Dreaming/Daydreaming works? As well as how and how long we might be granted access to your world?

[lastcompact]

The "Everything is Normal" post-it? Sato mostly.

I don't think it's an option.

It doesn't last long after it's made anymore. The further away the post-it is from the Nameless City, the less the duration lasts. The post-it could last up to 24 hours in the Nameless City, but it only lasts 8 hours from the short distance between the City and the harbor you were at.

Duration would likely be nothing given Lils and the other kids are at the Appalachian mountain range.

We've been able to make those before with near indefinite duration, so I'm assuming it's the mana accumulating screwing around with things.

The Normal post-it note.

@nameless-brand @lastcompact

Who set that up and what are the rules on it? Is that an avenue we could potentially use?