Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:39 No. 1124403 ID: a4a832
File 177527756924.gif - (25.48KB , 650x450 , 345.gif )

: Her membership gets recruited.
: At some point, , , and are all members. They each have responsibilities for her.
: creates ritual sites, we have a map and timeline for those activities.
: isn't a main player, but at a certain point he gets tapped to make "liquid stasis". Is that relevant?
: Your gut says it's a key part, keep it involved.
: Right.



: handles organization. She accounts for 's brief but apparently intense memory issues, she does personal organization, she's the second lieutenant.
: At that point she's not making it all run, but it would fall apart without her.
: Broke my arm and my nose once, when we were trying to shut down a ritual.
: Yes. She is an essential, ruthless part of the later combat.
: She also handles surgeries performed on herself.
: With the data disk she let us see, only a few procedures were exclusive to .
: That was a "channel weave" on her skull. Based on that, I think it was something to do with her metacommunication?



: And obviously, that...
: The decapitation, near the end.
: Not near enough, looks like.
: Mm.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:40 No. 1124404 ID: a4a832
File 177527762902.gif - (25.28KB , 650x450 , 346.gif )

: Right. At some point in the conflict, it heats up enough that she decides to... "enter the beyond".
: Mmph-- this burger is terrible, but I do feel a lot better.
: Anyway, it didn't sound like the despair of hopelessness.
: She was delusional--
: --I say, talking to myself and someone who says he's a ghost--
: --Or, she had a plan to leverage Hiveist bioengineering or something like that.



: It's mental exercises, not gonna call you a nut over keeping your head on straight in a way that looks funny.
: But you're right. That was planned.
: Shouldn't say she's a nut either. Maybe she's being unconventional, like you.
: I looked over the procedure, though. Nothing there helps keep the brain or body alive...
: It definitely kills her on separation. Unquestionably.
: We must know that as fact. She died there, on that operating table.
: Why would she do that? What does that achieve?
: Maybe she had Hiveist mutation before she got here.
: So, her head, once it was brought back to her body, would mean she was alive again?

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:41 No. 1124405 ID: a4a832
File 177527769019.gif - (25.04KB , 650x450 , 347.gif )

: Her head was placed by into a tank, full of liquid stasis made by .
: The tank was derived from braincases used for station intelligences.
: This could slow every possible process imaginable, utterly prevent decay.
: Because it prevents doing anything. Including, I don't know, growing little legs and leaving, going back to her body. Hiveists do that, right?
: At least in some reports and stories. Her mind probably wasn't moved into her body either, because would have found anomalies in the recovered part of the body.
: Anomalies besides the apparent regular regeneration with no chemical sustainance.
: But... how does that explain the situation with the decapitation?
: Right. The head chamber that had was still hidden, and still sealed.
: And 's head was missing from it. How did someone get it out without breaking the seal...?



: And even if taking her head out and bringing it back to her body would bring her back to life, she'd be right back where she started anyway.
: Still in the horrible position she maneuvered to avoid.
: If she wanted to come back now, this is a really bad time to do it.
: Maybe there's a way forward for her that we don't see?
: No. A Bloodletter ritual is part of what ends the loop, killing the station and its inhabitants.
: Right. So whatever her plan was... it hasn't reached the next step. Or it's disrupted.
: Her plans would give us an idea of where she goes in the loop. But I can't estimate her plans without knowing what she had!

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:42 No. 1124406 ID: a4a832
File 177527774866.gif - (23.00KB , 650x450 , 348.gif )

: ...I just don't see how it adds up. How could a Hiveist or a Bloodletter do this?
: Bioengineering would explain the healing, but it can't get around the stasis... "blood magic" couldn't make her whole and living again, even if it bypassed the stasis.
: And neither case is one where she would act now.
: Were any of my testimonies just... lies, maybe?
: Mmm. No. Gave them a hard look, all testimonies honest. My gut's never been wrong once in all my life.
: They might sincerely believe something's true that isn't. Confabulate things, or have been lied to.
: Good thinking. Keep it in mind.
: Anything that's not solid verifiables might throw you off.
: Never know when my gut's gonna be wrong for the first time. It's phantom stuff now anyway.



: ...Well my gut says I have all the clues I need. The three testimonies, and all the evidence I gathered before.
: And if I have these, I have enough to get the solution.
: So why doesn't it add up? What am I missing?
: There's an assumption here that's locking me out, or a clue I've overlooked somewhere.
: Something to close the circuit...

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:43 No. 1124408 ID: a4a832
File 177527782770.gif - (29.54KB , 650x450 , 349.gif )

: I almost have it. It's right here. It's right here.
: How does it happen? How does it happen?
: She dies. She dies on the operating table, she's rendered unrecoverable, preserved for a plan.
: Might not--
: Shh. Just a second. Don't... answer until I ask my question.



I quiet down. I know that look. When you're compressing it all in your head. Trying to make the weak link break.



: She dies. We know that. Is it possible for her to come back to life?
: No. Can't have come back to life. Doesn't make sense.
: Right. A separated head, a body that couldn't have Hiveist mods like that.
: Is it possible that she couldn't have kicked her way out and started another ritual?
: No. Someone in that morgue tray kicked their way out, and they had all the same crud on her that she had the whole time.
: So she woke up on the morgue tray, broke out, and started doing what she does. That's a fact, even though it was impossible.
: Have we ever seen something like that?
: Nope. Never seen any Syndie pull something like that.
: It's impossible for it to have happened after she--

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:44 No. 1124409 ID: a4a832
File 177527786844.gif - (17.60KB , 650x450 , 350.gif )

:
:
: No. No.



That's the ticket. Bought, paid, and punched.



: Kid?
: I know where 's body is.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:45 No. 1124410 ID: a4a832
File 177527791021.gif - (13.09KB , 650x450 , 351.gif )

You book it. Fast. Silent. I holler to slow down for me, like I won't just wind up where you are anyway. Sprinting, like the truth you just found's gonna duck aside somewhere, lose the tail it just picked up. But you're following it. Hot on the heels.

To medbay. Case isn't closed until you give it to the client, huh?

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:46 No. 1124412 ID: a4a832
File 177527800499.gif - (18.75KB , 650x450 , 353.gif )

: IT WAS TWO SHIFTS!!
: Augh!! What?!
: They sent her back after two shifts!!
: I figured it out! I know where she is!!

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:49 No. 1124414 ID: a4a832
File 177527814468.gif - (22.87KB , 650x450 , 354.gif )

: For the longest time, I just, we all just overlooked it.
: Why wait two shifts, take her away, return her after two shifts? Probably doesn't matter!
: Why assign it to whoever got stuck replacing her, back at her station? They're just weird!
: Isn't that just the Company being the Company? Who knows why they do anything!
: Big corporation, decisions by committee, nobody knows why!
: Right, they're... not always rational.
: You're saying they did it for a reason? Why?



: Got that one...
: They did send the corpse (the one that was acting suspiciously) to central command, for study?
: (Like they should if it has Hiveist augmentation?)
: Sure did. Shipped right to Centcom, about two shifts after the cult got put down.
: Sent it right back here from Centcom two shifts later, records say.



: Because something got found out about her!
: Something that only happens in the gap between shifts.
: They put her body in the morgue. Something happens in the off-shift. Then they use the next shift to send her to Central.
: Right. They found the anomaly, the regeneration.
: They study her at Central. Something different happens again in the off-shift, they use the next shift to send her back.
: ...?
: We know her anomaly was working here. It's what they wanted to study.
: So her anomaly must have stopped working at Central!

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:51 No. 1124415 ID: a4a832
File 177527829499.gif - (21.72KB , 650x450 , 355.gif )

: Her body doesn't self-preserve off-station?
: But, but, then, back on the station, it goes right back to self-preserving.
: That's why she's here, that's why you have to be the one to study her, because--
: Because it's the only place she can be studied! And she knew that!
: She knew she'd be studied and she knew her body would be kept here!
: And that she could take advantage of an anomaly that exists here, only here, on this one station!
: And it's been right in front of me the entire time!



: So she died like that and got studied like this on purpose.
: She had a plan! Maybe in a hundred more shifts, maybe in a dozen years, she'd pop back up at a perfect time.
: I don't know! A rigged seal, a specific formulation of stasis! Could be anything.
: It doesn't even matter now, because her plan got messed up! She set something in motion that she couldn't have predicted.
: I'm going to tell you exactly what happened. Exactly who and what moved that corpse out of that morgue.
: Exactly as experienced by the one Bloodletter witness whose testimony I haven't gotten.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:54 No. 1124416 ID: a4a832
File 177527846539.gif - (25.73KB , 650x450 , 356.gif )

The station thought her anomaly had to be Bloodletter magic, her cult thought it was personal virtue and blessings, the Company thought they were clever enough to figure out it was Hiveist biology. What was the anomaly? We don't have the evidence yet to say. It's a key-shaped gap (and we all know how much those obstruct forward motion). But I've figured out at least one core part of it, (we'll get to that in a minute). I know now, without a doubt, that it means the world to me.

And I know it meant the world to the Company, because that's how he bargained his way off the station, later. How else would he just vanish, just leave, besides a high-value, unique thing to wipe his debt out in an instant? He's got to be the one that found it, the "anomaly" you were having to study. A staff assistant leaving the station meant an ultra-high-value item was in play, and in his hands, or at least his knowledge.

We don't need to know what it was. We only need to know all of the details of its effect.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:56 No. 1124417 ID: a4a832
File 177527856228.gif - (24.64KB , 650x450 , 357.gif )

Because when he found it, he was 's right hand. The first one he would have given it to, at the time, was her. He shared it with her. And the minute he did, her "memory problems" started. Her need for an organizer, her need for someone to plan everything out. to keep her names and intentions in mind, to keep her planned and built ritual sites.

: gave us that list.

As if memory was the issue! When she "forgot" the planned rituals, the current state of the Bloodletter sect, she might as well have been right! It was factual! It was true, for her, true and real for just for the matter in her body alone. Her body, it was reverting! Reverting at the end of every shift, the start of the new one, to that beautiful, healthy, happy moment when he shared it with her. "Always so beautiful", when there's barely a minute to take care of yourself? "Well-fed" after a year of decay? It was like pulling up an old version of a file!

: Here, and here.

And that state-change, that re-instancing, it included her memory! It wasn't able to just reset her blood and her bones, it was resetting the connections and configurations of her neurons!

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:57 No. 1124418 ID: a4a832
File 177527867627.gif - (15.72KB , 650x450 , 385.gif )

And that was where the universal stasis comes in. "Channel weave" on her skull, I thought that meant something for prohibited metacommunication! But it also means the bed of something fluid moves through! She softened the anomaly up in her head, tested it by embedding the liquid in her body, in her skull. With one person to know her secret, she could research it across loops, orchestrate something to keep her memories. It only took a chemical miracle that I mistook for the anomaly itself. None of us realized, it was what was limiting the anomaly!

: The channel weave, and the universal stasis...

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:59 No. 1124419 ID: a4a832
File 177527878114.gif - (12.42KB , 650x450 , 386.gif )

It makes her practically immune to harm. Not obviously. Not clearly. The cult is enough of a problem that she can fly under the radar if she stays in the back row when fists are swinging. She could be a little hurt, she can get treated like normal, but she'll never die, she's a perpetual pillar.

And that doesn't stop .

: Some of her cultists eventually thought blasted her head off. But either she didn't, or she only beat her hard in a fight.

A powerhouse like her can still stall out. Her people are running themselves ragged to keep a Bloodletter sect alive, with a dozen tries at rituals that don't go anywhere when fights break out with security. And, if the Company finds out what she's doing, they'll tear every one of them apart to get at her secret. Her people, the ones she cares about. Because she sincerely cares for them. So she has to throw them off, the Company, the DVSD, everyone. She has to stop what she set in motion. But she can't. She can't make her sect abandon the truth. She's just iterating over and over.

Just because she remembers her iteration doesn't mean she can change it.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:00 No. 1124420 ID: a4a832
File 177527885062.gif - (17.85KB , 650x450 , 360.gif )

She has her most loyal, most bloodied left hand undo what the right hand did. Store the outcome in a sealed container, the kind you'd use for a station intelligence, fill it up with universal stasis, hide it somewhere. The neck down? As far as the Company's concerned, it's trash from the cult. Process like any corpse.

Next shift, the anomaly works the sequence. Rewind the injection of toxic embalming fluids, then flash-back to state.

: The regular toxin purge we noted, indicating regeneration.

Fresh blood, fresh body, ready to live. Just one problem: the head is missing, the universal stasis stops the "re-load". Instantly, the body dies again. Cleanup crew realizes something's happening, the next shift, and they send it to Central. Then the study crew at Central realizes it isn't happening on the offshift anymore, it's not working anymore, and Central Command sends her back. Two shifts each!

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:02 No. 1124421 ID: a4a832
File 177527892816.gif - (111.52KB , 650x450 , 361.gif )

And my fourth witness? The one who could have broken the case wide open? The one who had all the key knowledge, the missing piece I have to reconstruct the silhouette of from pieces and traces? He exits the frame of reference! The minute the Company checks enough video records, he trades his secret and clears his debt.

: The Company can review all camera records on-station, but we can't, so they know who to target for the source of the revival anomaly, once it's known.

Can I even blame him? Would literally any of us not do that? Did he have any reason not to? Maybe he lost faith, maybe he never had it. Maybe told him to do it! But now he's gone. And the case, the case would be unsolvable.

Which is why what happened next was so stupid!

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:03 No. 1124422 ID: a4a832
File 177527900231.gif - (77.10KB , 650x450 , 362.gif )

One day, after you've settled in, they give you a job: Study the body. Figure out the mystery. Bring them a useful truth, something they can-- I don't know. Farm, for spare organs? But they don't tell you nearly enough. Do they? Otherwise you'd catch on. Some tiny chance you'd fulfill her plan, bring her back all the way in some advantage state. And you can't even tell ! No, they'd rather just make you work in circles forever, alone, with incomplete data. Figure out the truth for them, but never hold it in your own hands, right?

: They kept the body's properties discovered off-station a trade secret. And her body was still fresh after a year.

I know what would say about this. Truth is, yeah, truth is just something they think you can manufacture in the Back on an assembly line, and hand up to the Front pristine, untouched! Canned and boiled and preserved and sanctified, not a trace of blood left!

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:05 No. 1124423 ID: a4a832
File 177527911510.gif - (35.32KB , 650x450 , 363.gif )

Now you're the one in the loop. Autopsy the same corpse, the same way, every day, over and over and over and over and over! Again, again, again, cut her open and find nothing worth the effort. But you have to because it's your job, even though the medbay's understaffed and anyone sane in your position would rather focus on helping the crew!

This next part, it's conjecture. Close to guessing. No detective that's good at their job would do this. But someone who cares about you would. Someone who cares about you would know what someone does when they're stuck in that!

Because now we have to answer the unspoken question: Why is there someone solving the mystery at all?

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:06 No. 1124424 ID: a4a832
File 177527919164.gif - (22.71KB , 650x450 , 364.gif )

At some point, you do the only thing that explains why you'd call in someone to investigate. Because if you believed the anomaly came from Hiveist bioengineering, you'd have just believed she grew a new head and walked out on her own. But you couldn't tell me why you didn't. You said to me: A Hiveist explanation will "match up with most of the data Central Command's got."

That stuck with me. It's still stuck with me.

This morgue is next door to the chapel. There's funerary facilities in a chapel.

: There's a simple one-door passage for privacy of the relevant rites.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:07 No. 1124426 ID: a4a832
File 177527926477.gif - (15.51KB , 650x450 , 365.gif )

You stop me where I go wrong, if I do. We're deep in guessing and estimates.

Someone so focused but so frustrated, you'd rather take on more debt than spend another day on this horrible little problem going nowhere fast. At least you'd have the time to focus on living people who need medical aid. Even if it meant you never leave this station, you'd rather just do something, anything that helps people instead of this, every single day.

There's options to easily get rid of a body there in the chapel. But if my theory is right, if the patterns I saw in the way this all works are correct... The method you tried and failed to break the repetition with, the method that made a strong argument it wasn't "unholy cult blood magic", the method that accidentally proved beyond a doubt that it wasn't bioengineering in a way that the Company wouldn't have risked...

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:08 No. 1124427 ID: a4a832
File 177527929801.gif - (11.29KB , 650x450 , 366.gif )

You already tried cremating her. Ages and ages ago.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:09 No. 1124428 ID: a4a832
File 177527934409.gif - (15.67KB , 650x450 , 367.gif )

And the next day, there she was. Like you hadn't done anything at all. You tried to smash the cycle apart, and all you saw was how little it seemed like that mattered.

You could have just believed the Hiveist hypothesis. Why else would you want a detective involved at all? Why would you be looking this deep for answers? Why, if you hadn't seen it first-hand, that awful "beautiful" thing restored from nothing but ash by the start of the next shift?

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:11 No. 1124430 ID: a4a832
File 177527946020.gif - (22.02KB , 650x450 , 368.gif )

: ...I...
: Hhh... I just-- I didn't mean to--
: I'm conjecturing. I'm guessing. Okay? That's all I did.
: Don't under any circumstances even start confessing anything that could even remotely be prosecuted as 'destruction of Company property' if the Company suddenly starts caring about things for some reason.
: I don't want anything to happen to you. To anyone. Nobody deserves to be punished for all this.



: That-- but--
: But even if that happened-- Even-- Even assuming that could have happened.
: There's still-- you-- there's a huge--
: Calm. Deep breaths. You're not at risk and there's plenty of time left to speak.
:
:
: ...There's still a huge problem with this explanation.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:11 No. 1124431 ID: a4a832
File 177527950217.gif - (20.78KB , 650x450 , 369.gif )

: They wrote mystery books about you, didn't they?
: You're talking about the 'silhouette' of something.
: Something-shaped-gap in the story that you're solving for, backwards.
: This is the equivalent of, I don't know, introducing a magical cursed orb that does precisely everything you need to call the mystery solved.
: Not exactly.
: You said yourself, this is conjecture.
: I said my theories about what you did were guesses. I didn't say that this anomaly isn't something more than conjecture.
: What? We've never seen anything like that theory before. 'Restoring from state'.



: You have.
: What?
: You have.
: You've seen it nine times.
: You just don't remember.



: Are you sure?
: Beyond a doubt.
...Here.



: Any second now, you're going to get the call.
: The one about .

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:12 No. 1124432 ID: a4a832
File 177527952814.gif - (31.86KB , 650x450 , 370.gif )

: ...
: Her remote medical monitor says it's really bad.
: Not as bad as it gets in a second.
: It's signs of combat, probably against someone with exotic contraband.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:12 No. 1124433 ID: a4a832
File 177527955994.gif - (20.98KB , 650x450 , 371.gif )

: This sucks, boss.
: It's the only way we make a convincing case.
: Fine.



: By the time you're done relaying it to , she's getting into critical condition.
: He asks for the wound types. Then, whatever he's doing, he drops and runs.
: He'll get there fast and gets back fast. She'll be here soon.
: is the only other staffer on-hand. You have her prep the OR and the medical cryonics.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:13 No. 1124434 ID: a4a832
File 177527958619.gif - (22.46KB , 650x450 , 372.gif )

: , alert on the monitor. .
: ...
: Heavy bruises or cuts, some burn, some toxic.
: Some uncategorized, likely exotics. Combat situation.
: Rising O2-loss, now. Probably critical condition.
: ...
: Understood.
: , prep OR and the cryo intensives.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:13 No. 1124435 ID: a4a832
File 177527963961.gif - (21.24KB , 650x450 , 373.gif )

: I don't like doing this.



: He'll get her here, but she won't be stable.
: You'll have to treat her immediately. Straight to the OR, top priority.
: This can't be real. You're--
: But something happens after she gets to your table.
: You're guessing, or trying to--
: Every loop you do your best to save her, but--
: Stop. Stop.



: Heart racing. Breathing Heavy.
: He's driven enough that he won't accept that part.
: We shouldn't hurt him.
: ...He needs to know the next part, or he won't believe this.
: He knows what you're implying and why you're here.



: Okay. I'm sorry.
: I'll let you focus for this next part.
:
: Do you want me to wait out here, or outside the OR?
: ...Come into medbay. And wait outside the OR.
: We'll finish your explanation there.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:16 No. 1124438 ID: a4a832
File 177527976665.gif - (20.08KB , 650x450 , 376.gif )

: So, she's alive again.
: Yeah. Reloaded from the saved state
: You know how House Mortil are, so I guess she was "actually never dead", otherwise they'd...
: I get it. Couple details I didn't exactly follow.
: Where is she now?
: You know the map we got, of the sites, from ?
: Mm.
: For her, the subjectively latest site made. For us, the one made right before her "memory problems" start, the one she used after.
: Since that's the one she planned to use at the time.
: That one's over near R&D maintenance.
: Right. She'll be finishing it up there soon.



: What re-started her looping?
: I think whatever is looping everything now just... overloaded the universal stasis. Restored her loop.
: More weight to hit her looping with, zipped her head out the case. Alright.
: What about how she got out of the morgue tray?
: Right. I was wondering about that too (it didn't look like she kicked it open).
: That's why I asked if had cremated her, as opposed to burial-at-sea out the chapel mass driver.
: I think the way it works is, it moves obstructions to the matter, then averages the position.
: So, just, it flashed all the embalming fluid out of her way harder than normal.
: Then it, uh, I guess her body's averaged position intersected the door, so it...
: Got smashed open to make room for her. Makes sense.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:19 No. 1124439 ID: a4a832
File 177527994077.gif - (19.94KB , 650x450 , 377.gif )

🔊: Ansibite crystal delamination imminent !
🔊: Begins in thirty seconds !
🔊: Twenty-nine !
🔊: Twenty-eight !

: It's the usual.
: We'll brace like we always do.
: I really hate this part.
: It will do nothing good for the treatment. Or for its patient.

🔊: Twen--

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:20 No. 1124441 ID: a4a832
File 177528004447.gif - (279.74KB , 650x450 , 379.gif )

: Attention crew. There's been a major breach in engineering. Don't enter the area under any circumstances. Administration has elevated the station to blue alert.
: All the SMES-type relay power cells...



: He's done with the operation.
: And now she's...
: Close the case, kid.
: I know.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:22 No. 1124442 ID: a4a832
File 177528012519.gif - (58.89KB , 650x450 , 381.gif )

That sound again. That horrible ripping noise. Fabric tearing.



: Additional compounded crisis event... An illegal imaginary space incursion is in progress...
: You remember the rest.



: 's gone again.
: ...
: She's gone. Like you were saying.
: What happened?
: She's so strong, she should have lived through that easily.
: But she just... gave up.
: Like she succumbed to her wounds deliberately.

: I know where she is. . She's at the subjectively-most-recent site. R&D Maintenance.
: But that doesn't matter now.
: I've lived through work shift B-4381 ten times now.
: And I've failed to solve it every single time.
: You're better, though. You don't lose patients. Except right at the end of this...
: Time loop.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:23 No. 1124443 ID: a4a832
File 177528019250.gif - (23.21KB , 650x450 , 382.gif )

His teeth grit behind the surgeon's mask, and another kind of grit forms behind another kind of surgeon's mask. There's a treatment plan taking the wheel. No time in an emergency room for a doctor's despair. Station hits red alert, and so does this man.

: I've lost a patient before.
: What? I thought your record--
: No. A perfect record is an amateur's record.
: When I was a beginner, better doctors saved my patients at followups.
: And I'm here, on this station, in your "loop", because a patient of mine died.
: A fresh amateur who's solved one hundred percent of ten problems is nothing.
: Depend on an expert who's solved most of a thousand problems.
: Where are you going with this?



: We're looping. The whole station.
: Yeah. I'm trying to stop it, but...
: I'll help you. And you'll make sure lives.
: But you're not going to remember this. Nobody ever remembers it (besides and he can't help much).
: You're right. I won't.
: There's a way around that.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:24 No. 1124444 ID: a4a832
File 177528025323.gif - (22.89KB , 650x450 , 383.gif )

: There's something you'd only know, if you were looping time like this.
: And if I trust you. Because you solved my case.
: So it's something I can use something as a sort of password?
: Yeah. Find me next loop.



: When you do, tell me you want "'s old version 1.21 Company psychoparadigm reader, with the--"
: Are you getting this? Are you remembering it? We don't have much time.
: Huh? But how do I--
: Repeat back to me. "Psychoparadigm reader v1.21 with cerebral VV and remote C-Key link, kept in my kit."
: But--
: You have to remember it. Don't mess around.
: I'll remember! Psychoparadigm reader 1.21, VV-op, C-key link, but--
: How will you know to trust me?
: Because you'll know...

He doesn't know I'm listening. If he knew a man like me was even thinking about being near, guarantee he wouldn't break Mitadake Protocol like he does now. When they take the collateral, they take it everywhere, to stop a man like me from doing what a man like me does. He'd be right to prefer dying to trusting.

Sometimes you're better off dead. Guess I'm your best show of that being true.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:24 No. 1124445 ID: a4a832
File 177528028361.gif - (19.57KB , 650x450 , 384.gif )

: You'll know my debt collateral. Only thing nobody else knows now.
: ...!

He takes the last full breath he'll get before the Tressels kick in. And a man like that, he uses it to endure. He tells you something important, kid. So listen close.

: My name is...

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:32 No. 1124450 ID: a4a832
File 177528063176.gif - (1.52MB , 650x450 , 385 (1).gif )

He gives you his real name.

Case closed.

Now, let's go remember it the right way.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:33 No. 1124451 ID: a4a832
File 177528079133.gif - (255.40KB , 650x450 , 386 (1).gif )

: Good morning, Debtors.
: The current time is zero degrees LLO, marking the beginning of work shift B-4381.
: The station's status is currently at green alert, on-track to meet quotas.
: You're now allowed to begin payable labor, and you need to be at your workstations, if applicable.
: As always, remember: All wireless personal medical monitors must be worn and fully active.

You hit your feet again. Somehow, coming out of that dark, into this rain-drenched sunrise, you've got a fire in you this time. The kind a man like me doesn't expect on a day like this, no matter how many times we go around it.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:35 No. 1124452 ID: a4a832
File 177528091267.gif - (22.57KB , 650x450 , 387.gif )

: Finally!
: Huh? Kid, you got so heavy there, I--
: No. No! I didn't get heavy, I got traction!
: There was forward movement! I got a grip!
: A case made sense! With a denouement, and everything!

"Like the good old days!" I can hear your heart say. It's what we settle for, when we get this age. When we become adults. But I can't help agreeing a little. You were back in your element.

: One handhold is infinitely better than nothing.
: How's that?
: One person affected the loop phenomenon before.
: Another person made plans to, now (and they just might work).
: Mmm... You know, I can imagine it.
: Just gotta see it instead.
: Let's see the doc.

>>1124446
>>1124447
>>1124448
>>1124450
You okay okay okay okay there kidddd?

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:36 No. 1124454 ID: a4a832
File 177528098779.gif - (32.31KB , 650x450 , 388.gif )

>: Commune. Where do we go from here?

: While we're on the way there, let's figure out where we go after that.
: , bring up our motivators.
: You mean, which case next?
: I guess we should carry our momentum, yeah.
: One of four down.
: Right you are, chief. But, three more to get through.
: We'll head to the next one after we see .



: I am satisfied. 's case has given me what I want to know.
: I think we should look into 's thefts. Especially now that we know physical things might be in play for the loop.
: Remember, boss, we were partway through 's traitor case. We should get back to that before we let it get cold.
: I feel like 's quota situation might be better. It's a failure-to-achieve, which is easier, and we might get the anomaly studied.

You've got a lot on your mind. Problem's not going anywhere fast, kid, think it out while you head over to the doc.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:37 No. 1124455 ID: a4a832
File 177528105066.gif - (30.19KB , 650x450 , 389.gif )

>: Cola. Or water.

It's like a whole crowd of your impulses all kicked in again, all at once. Been a while since I saw you hydrate, even with some of the sugary crap. Only people with hope have the kind of sense to take good care of themselves on impulse. The rest need someone else to push them. You do too.

But just for a minute, you don't need that right now.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:38 No. 1124456 ID: a4a832
File 177528108411.gif - (236.89KB , 650x450 , 390.gif )

>: With a pep-to-your-step, go see and crack this baby wide open.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:39 No. 1124457 ID: a4a832
File 177528116666.gif - (21.63KB , 650x450 , 391.gif )

>: Get ready to info blast .

What's your approach now, detective? Whole monologue again?

: Ready?
: I've shortened up the memory-prompts as much as I can.
: Should make sure we're re-aligned quick.

: ! Hey.
: Detective. Are you here about the body?
: Yeah. She restores-from-state rather than using magic or bioengineering.
: She--
: Her body was doing it already, but the anomaly started accessing her head again.
: That--
: got up normally with a wiped memory and left the morgue, she's in R&D maintenance now.
: How--?! That explains-- Wait, that explains everything, how her body came back after--!!
: Hold on! Hold on, there's something else about that we need to talk about.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:40 No. 1124458 ID: a4a832
File 177528122437.gif - (21.46KB , 650x450 , 392.gif )

: Very complicated request to follow-up on the case--
: Hm.
: --But quick, won't block medbay work for more than a few minutes.
: Alright.
: I need 's version 1.21 Company psychoparadigm reader, I need the "C-key" functions? Or the "vee-vee" functions?
: That's, uh, no, that's not here. And it's restricted.
: Ah, really, it's fine, you said to ask for it, you said it's in your kit.
: You don't remember telling me to ask, and you knew you wouldn't remember it (for some complicated reasons).
: So you gave me proof.

Smart. Don't get into the weeds. "Time loop" is complicated. "You don't remember" is a good bare minimum.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:41 No. 1124459 ID: a4a832
File 177528128135.gif - (21.55KB , 650x450 , 393.gif )

>: Become more awake than coffee could ever achieve.

: Uh. Wild story, detective. The proof is...?
: You gave me a way to know to trust me.
: Uh-huh?

You lean in and whisper a name.

: ...
: Come through, back here.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:42 No. 1124460 ID: a4a832
File 177528134040.gif - (233.92KB , 650x450 , 394.gif )

: Wait, so what is this thing?
: Well, Company handles loyalty rating through, they call it "Psychoparadigms".
: Brain-readings.
: Seen your file. Acute Space Sleep Disorder, from the big Dreamseeker crash. You remember using that, way back?
: Psychoparadigms, just a cut down version of the original Dreamseeker's out-of-cranium wireless metacommunication systems.
: This reader, they shipped some firmware that lets you into the old functions if you use it through cerebral keying.
: If you've got someone's real name, you get the extra functions. Understand?



: What kind of functions?
: You said this had something to do with memory.
: You remember something that I don't.
: Well, if I was thinking straight when I told you to get this and told you my goddamn name, then it was because I think whatever's messing up memories might not be able to mess up metaknowledge.
: Which means--
: Sharing memories?
: No.



: Or, yes. You're skipping ahead.
: Every brain encrypts memories differently. But when you're metacommunicating with someone, brain to brain, you both store new memories in both brains.
: So, reconnect, get the memories back for as long as you're connected. That's "metaknowledge". Get it?
: Sort of.



: "Sort of" is the best you're gonna get. I don't know the science.
: I can demonstrate, if you think I'm going to forget something again.
: You will.
: Then hook this into me now, and then again, next time.
: Do we have anyone who knows this technology in-depth?
: .
: I was already thinking of heading to see him.