Toxoglossa 2014/05/08(Thu)17:04 No. 573656 ID: 0b90a3
File 139959387769.jpg - (43.45KB , 800x504 , 1-4.jpg )

Good Morning.

You are Nathan Springer.

Awake, well rested, and almost ready for another day at work.
The last thing you want to do is be late.
You've worked too hard to get this position to get fired now.

What is your position at work?
Why did you file off your fingerprints?
You appear to be a NERD.

Why do you have deep cut marks everywhere along your back and arms, you don't self-harm do you?

What kind of work is this, now? Is it dangerous? Why do your fingers need tape? And what the heck are you?

Remember to burn your clothes after every hit.

>>573656
Don't forget your phone.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/08(Thu)18:51 No. 573668 ID: 0b90a3
File 139960031317.jpg - (36.80KB , 600x500 , 1-5.jpg )

>What is your position at work? You appear to be a NERD.

You are an ENGINEER.
So its safe to say, you're quite the NERD.
Like many of your fellow nerds, you have something that you care deeply about. Some would call it an obsession.

You fucking love space.

Which is why you've applied yourself towards a career in the aerospace industry, and wound up working at APEX COMMUNICATIONS.

Your job involves assembling the absurdly expensive and highly sensitive communication satellites that control the flow of information around the world. Without their network of instantaneous communication, modern society would collapse, or at least would find itself incredibly inconvenienced.

>Why did you file off your fingerprints?
>Why do your fingers need tape?
>Why do you have deep cut marks everywhere along your back and arms, you don't self-harm do you?

Unfortunately, part of your daily routine involves filing your nails back and taping them up. Its uncomfortable, but it helps with the SCRATCHES. Its something you've been working to control for most of your life, but...

Toxoglossa 2014/05/08(Thu)18:53 No. 573671 ID: 0b90a3
File 139960038321.jpg - (43.45KB , 800x504 , 1-6.jpg )

Oh hey! Someone's at the door!

>Don't forget your phone.

Good call!
Looks like you just got a text too!

>what the heck are you?
Nate is a Gazelle

>>573671
Check the text first.

>>573671
Consider changing color of dress pants
You look like you're not wearing pants at all

Check text while walking to door, check who's on other side through fishhole thingy.

grab your phone and see who's at the door.

>>573671
Check text, then answer door. I hope it's not the local debt collector or something.

>works in a cleanroom
>covered in fur

Man, you must have to bunny-suit it up 24/7.

>>573671
Pick up your phone and check it while you head to the door. It's probably somebody from work or something.

When you have a chance, could you elaborate on this problem with the scratches? Do you just subconsciously scratch or is it like a self-harming issue?

Change pants to something less... fur-colored, then wonder who the hell knocks on the door in space (besides perhaps some VERY dedicated Jehovah's Witnesses). Unless you already know the answer, in which case kindly inform the voices in your head.

Also, first ever participation in a quest! Yay, I guess.

Put marshmallows on fingers, call it a day

Have you ever been checked for parasites? How did you get this far tearing yourself up?

>>573671
grab phone on way to door, answer door while answering it. Usher person in to wait while you finish the call.
This is usually standard procedure, to my understanding

Ask whoever sent the text to help you get a sandwich, I don't care who it is.

All right then, get your phone first on the way to the door, and tell them you'll be there in just a second. Check whatever message you got on the off chance it's relevant to whoever is here.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/09(Fri)17:58 No. 573775 ID: 0b90a3
File 139968353865.jpg - (48.22KB , 536x600 , 1-7.jpg )

You pick up your phone and, since your fingers don't work very well on a touch-pad with tape all over them, you check it using your stylus.

Looks like Kim from work just sent you a link from an astronomy blog she follows. Skimming the headline, it seems a huge chunk of the Andromeda galaxy blue-shifted last night. You're not sure what to make of this, since Andromeda has always been blue-shifting. As all astronomy nerds know: it will eventually collide with the Milky Way and as it gets closer the wavelengths of light coming off of it are shortened and look more blue.

Of course a galactic collision could spell devastating and world ending consequences for anyone still around 4 billion years from now when its due to happen.

That's the thing about space, its full of amazing things that make for great sensationalist news, but the distances and time-scales involved make it hard to get worked up about. You'll have to remember to read the full thing later.

>Do you just subconsciously scratch or is it like a self-harming issue?

It's something you've had to deal with for as long as you can remember, but you've made a lot of progress over the years. Most of the scars are pretty old by now, but you've never wanted to hurt yourself.
Your THERAPIST speaks very highly of you and thinks that you've shown enough independence to live on your own. You both agree that you're much more comfortable this way, but you know that you can call her any time you feel that you need help.

>Have you ever been checked for parasites? How did you get this far tearing yourself up?

Oh absolutely, you're probably the cleanest person you know: and that's something considering most of your co-workers spend their day in a clean room.

>Change pants

You consider changing out of you khakis, but that will cost you valuable time before heading to work.

>Ask whoever sent the text to help you get a sandwich, I don't care who it is.
You don't think that Kim would appreciate that and you don't want to end up having to talk to HR.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/09(Fri)17:59 No. 573778 ID: 0b90a3
File 139968358212.jpg - (33.64KB , 600x417 , 1-8.jpg )

You look through the peephole into the hallway and see the distorted but familiar face of your neighbor Zeke.

As far as neighbors go he's a pretty nice guy. He was a little too friendly when you first moved in, and would invite you over all the time, which you would always decline. After hearing about your condition, hes been pretty understanding and every once in a while you'll play video games with him from your respective apartments.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/09(Fri)18:00 No. 573780 ID: 0b90a3
File 139968361132.jpg - (54.46KB , 800x459 , 1-9.jpg )

He senses you're behind the door and addresses you, but its hard to make out since his mouth is full of bees.

Zeke
>"Hey Nate, zzzzyou in there? You don't have tobzzz open the door or nothin'."

They roll off of his tongue like little fuzzy jellybeans and take flight to form a small droning cloud around his head.

>>573780
What? WHAT? Um, do you regularly have hallucinations? Do you need to take a pill or something? If not, then go "Why is your mouth full of bees?"

Don't open the door, obviously.

Um is that a usual occurrence with him?

>>573780

Holy shit. Keep that door closed, and ask why this guy has bees all over himself.

>>573780
Holy shit. Don't answer, make sure he can't see you from a window or something. Unless you've been dealing with hallucinations along with those scratches, something really creepy is going on.

I take it from both your (and his) complete lack of distress that this is normal. Somehow. I'll take a stab in the dark and say schizophrenia.

Anyway, Just tell him you're getting ready for work.

What other fun things have you had to deal with?

so you are a complete nutter.

Ah.
Well then.
I'm going to take a flying leap off the limits of my ability to sensibly comprehend reality and tentatively assume you have no fucking clue why he has bees crawling out of his facial orifices.
Or you don't, and it's a perfecly normal, inexplicable piece of surreal bullshit. If of course, this is a symptom of some diagnosed disorder or mania you possess, I would normally suggest you immediately pop prescription but I.... have a feeling you should hold on and just slip a few pills in your pocket for later.
Either way, it's fine now. Everyone's fine, in here, how are you?

>>573780
So.... is this... normal?

Oh, is Zeke here a honeybadger? If the bees are a completely normal thing, or some symptom of an as of yet undiagnosed mental disorder, say hi and that you are going to work.

If the bees are not a normal thing, retreat back into the bathroom and lock the door.

>>573780
The level, unsurprised tone of that statement combined with the whole thing with the bees in the guy's mouth is giving me flashbacks to the SCP Foundation journal about bees.

This does not bode well for the previously presumed sanity of Nathan.

>>573780

"I'm here all good how are the bees?"

Toxoglossa 2014/05/10(Sat)13:58 No. 573867 ID: 0b90a3
File 139975548039.png - (60.07KB , 600x617 , 1-10.png )

>Um is that a usual occurrence with him?

Zeke doesn't even take notice of the swarm surrounding him. No one ever does.

>I'll take a stab in the dark and say schizophrenia.

The official diagnosis is "delusional parasitosis", the belief that you and others around you are infested with insects. Its hypothesized that the reason for the hallucinations is tied to you having schizophrenia, but its been difficult to pin down exactly the nature of your issues.

> Do you need to take a pill or something?

Over the years you've tried a number of treatments to reduce or eliminate the insects, but nothing ever seemed to work. The most you've been able to accomplish is coping with the condition and you take an antidepressant daily to at least help with the anxiety. Like most people with psychological disorders, managing the problem is your goal, not "curing" it.

>so you are a complete nutter.

Well, not completely. As a rational individual, you've tried to tell yourself that they aren't real, but its hard to believe when they're buzzing around you and prickling your skin with their tiny claws. Almost everyone seems to have some kind of infestation, so being around people can be incredibly stressful.

You respond to Zeke, but don't open the door.

>"I'm here all good how are the bees?"

Nate
"Hey, what's up Zeke? How are the bees?"

Zeke
>"ZzzzZPretty good, I guesszzzzz? I dunno, you tell me. I waszzzz just wondering if you'vvvvvve seen Lester at all today."

>Oh, is Zeke here a honeybadger?
Zeke is a Ferret.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/10(Sat)13:58 No. 573868 ID: 0b90a3
File 139975548446.png - (132.55KB , 600x482 , 1-11.png )

Lester lives down the hall from you. He knows you make satellites, and you're pretty sure he thinks you work for the government. You haven't seen him in a while though.

"No, why?"

Zeke points towards Lester's apartment.
>"Its just that he'sbbzzzz left a bunch of hiszzzzzzshit in the hall. I was juszzzzztt wondering if he said anything about it. Bzzzzzyou know how he can be about hiszzz stuff."

You both suspect Lester to be a bit of a hoarder. You remember finding a bag of what looked like trash in the hall and was accused of theft after throwing it away. He's avoided you for the most part since then, which has worked out okay for you; even if it means being on his list of "agents".

Almost everyone? Does anyone NOT have an infection? Have you tried to find out why? Either your mind is excluding them from the hallucination for some reason, or...

Do we have time to check on Lester? If so, tell Zeke you'll check on Lester, then ask him to move on so we can knock on Lester's door.

Okay, sooo what's it mean to be one of Lester's 'agents'?

Oh, is this a special building for crazies? What's Zeke's problem?

In any case, apologize and ask him to step out of sight for a moment before you're late for work.

>>573868
So Lester's paranoid, you hallucinate... does Zeke have any mental issues you know of?

>>573868
THose bees aren't buzzing they're sleeping... they're just looking for a place to nap

purple ferrets are adorbs

Silly you... you should have told lester that the "agents" were always looking through his things when he left it in the hall, bet he'd stop leaving messes then =D

What are we doing now?

Promise to check on Lester, then ask Zeke to move away from the door so you won't flip out trying to head outside.

Also, a bit more info on where you live would be nice. I'm guessing this area is for people like yourself? People with some sort of mental condition deemed safe enough to live by themselves? If so, what's Zeke's thing?

And speaking mental conditions, are you sure this delusional parasitosis is the only issue you've been diagnosed with? You seem to be hearing voices in your head, as well.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/10(Sat)21:21 No. 573917 ID: 0b90a3
File 139978209606.png - (96.20KB , 800x351 , 1-12.png )

>And speaking mental conditions, are you sure this delusional parasitosis is the only issue you've been diagnosed with? You seem to be hearing voices in your head, as well.

You've been told that, since the condition also involves visual, auditory and tactile hallucinations, its likely a symptom of something else which has so far eluded diagnosis.

>Oh, is this a special building for crazies?

You hadn't considered that your neighbors might also be in the same living situation as yourself. Your therapist helped set you up with this apartment, it would make sense to have multiple patients living here and be able to check up on them. You'll have to ask next time you talk to her.

>What's Zeke's problem? Does Zeke have any mental issues you know of?

Not that you're aware of but a little more than 1/4 of all Americans have some kind of mental disorder, so its entirely possible. If so, Zeke hasn't been forthcoming about it.

>Almost everyone? Does anyone NOT have an infection? Have you tried to find out why? Either your mind is excluding them from the hallucination for some reason, or...

It can be hard to tell since the creatures aren't always visible. There are a few people who you've never seen with insects, but unfortunately that doesn't mean that they aren't there. You know that you shouldn't make judgements about people based off of things that probably aren't even real, but you generally find it safer to assume they are infested. You wish you could figure out why certain people have them and others don't, but you haven't been able to find any correlation yet.

>Promise to check on Lester, then ask Zeke to move away from the door so you won't flip out trying to head outside.

Nathan
"I'll be sure to let him know if I see him, but I gotta get to work, man."

Zeke
>"Oh right, sorry zzzzzz. Let me know when you get home, I want to try zzzzout that new DLC."

With that, Zeke moves out of your field of vision followed by his swarm. After a moment, you hear his door open and close.

You still have a few minutes before you have to leave for work, it might pay to double check that you aren't forgetting anything.

>>573917
Got your lunch? Favorite mug for your coffee break? Wallet, keys, ID badge or other security clearance?

Make sure to turn off your computer before you leave.

Do you love your job?

mask to keep the bugs out of your mouth?

>>573917
Have you eaten something yet? A good day's work starts with some breakfast. Do you have a lunch or lunch money, and whatever clearance things your job needs? Do you need to turn off your computer before heading out? Are all lights, faucets and stoves off?

Also, while you have a minute check that fancy phone of yours for when you can see your therapist again.

>>573917
Who's that in the photo-frame next to your desk?

>followed by his swarm
Do the insects ever show up before you see someone? Also, do they sting you or whatever if you get close or just buzz around being creepy?

>>573918
This should be everything you need, I think, unless you take your meds during the day, then you need to bring those too. Something you can eat on the go for breakfast might also be nice. Maybe a bus pass or something if you don't drive.

Any e-mails or messages you should be aware of before you head to work?

Toxoglossa 2014/05/11(Sun)16:20 No. 574023 ID: 0b90a3
File 139985043167.png - (190.90KB , 600x692 , 1-13.png )

>Got your lunch? Favorite mug for your coffee break? Wallet, keys, ID badge or other security clearance?

You grab a sandwich out of the fridge for lunch, and pull your favorite mug out of the drying rack by the sink. You stuff your wallet, keycard and keys in your pockets and clip your ID to your shirt pocket.

>mask to keep the bugs out of your mouth?

Good call! You grab one from your bathroom.

>Have you eaten something yet?

You've already had some cereal before you took your medication this morning, that usually holds you over till lunch.

>Also, while you have a minute check that fancy phone of yours for when you can see your therapist again.

Looks like you aren't due to see Dr. Cooper for another two weeks, but you have her cell number if you ever need her help. You also note that you should probably charge your phone tonight.

Actually, now that you think about it, if your neighbors are seeing her it might be better to ask them about it directly. She probably isn't allowed to discuss other patients with you.

>Who's that in the photo-frame next to your desk?

That's a box of disposable rubber gloves, you grab a pair in case you need them.

>Any e-mails or messages you should be aware of before you head to work?

You take a look at your e-mail and see that Hiro sent you a message last night.

Nate,
Need to talk to you about #18.
Hiro

Well that's nebulous.
#18 probably refers to Midas18, one of the first satellites you helped build: designed to as a way to capitalize on the new global cryptocurrency market. You quickly open up a tracker and note that all of the systems that have been using Midas are sharply down since last night.

"Shit..."

Hiro probably doesn't want to talk about it over unsecured e-mail, you don't want to be the one to leak inside info accidentally and start a market crash.
You power down your computer and get ready to head out.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/11(Sun)16:20 No. 574024 ID: 0b90a3
File 139985043823.png - (116.48KB , 681x500 , 1-14.png )

>Do you love your job?

Probably the only thing you'd rather be doing is actually working in space, but you doubt that will ever be a possibility. Work is challenging, even stressful at times, but they've been pretty accommodating and you're able to do a fair amount of work from home. However you get the feeling that today is going to be kind of rough.

>Do the insects ever show up before you see someone? Also, do they sting you or whatever if you get close or just buzz around being creepy?

That's where it gets tricky. The insects seem to be semi-independent, but sometimes it can be hard to tell what's real and what's just a hallucination. You don't think you've ever been stung or attacked by them, but you've received bug bites in the past and you don't always know where or when you got them. Even without being attacked, the constant flitting across your vision and droning of their wings can be enough to send you into a panic; making you retreat into your SAFE PLACE.

You check the peephole again; seeing that the hallway is clear, you step out of your apartment and lock the door.

Okay off to work...okay what the hell is this?

Is someone cleaning out a apartment?

>>574024
Argh, Lester's stuff. Use dem gazelle(?) legs and jump past the bags if you can--no need for him to be any more upset than he already is about you touching his bags.

Another thought as long as we're getting a mask to cover the mouth, might be goggles to shield your eyes...
And as a wild and crazy poke, does Radula mean anything to you?

>>574024
It's Lester's shit that he left out in the hallway. You got time to carry one or two bags? Move them in front of his door. Otherwise, ignore it; you've got things you have to do.

>>574024
Bang on his door and tell him to get his stuff out of the way before someone trips and sues him for personal injury.

Yeah, uh, just jump over it for now. If he's touchy about his bags of stuff we can deal with it later, when we're not going to be late for work.

Clumisly trip over the trashbags thereby revealing something freaky/weird

Toxoglossa 2014/05/12(Mon)17:22 No. 574165 ID: 0b90a3
File 139994053883.png - (213.53KB , 624x800 , 1-15.png )

>Argh, Lester's stuff. Use dem gazelle(?) legs and jump past the bags if you can--no need for him to be any more upset than he already is about you touching his bags.
>Yeah, uh, just jump over it for now.

Right, no sense in risking Lester's anger by touching his belongings.
You get a running start and try vaulting over the pile.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/12(Mon)17:22 No. 574166 ID: 0b90a3
File 139994054241.png - (187.14KB , 647x600 , 1-16.png )

>Clumsily trip over the trashbags thereby revealing something freaky/weird

To be honest, you really aren't the most coordinated person. You muse on this as you feel your foot catch on one of the bags and tumble forward into a face-plant. The plastic stretches and tears , spilling grocery bags, empty burger wrappers and crumpled receipts around you like the dead leaves of a greasy autumn.

"FFFFFFuuuuuuuuuuccckkkkkk-"

Toxoglossa 2014/05/12(Mon)17:22 No. 574167 ID: 0b90a3
File 139994054823.png - (387.64KB , 800x800 , 1-17.png )

You roll over to get up and you feel the blood drain from your face. Clinging to the leg of your pants are oily black shapes, wings stuttering as they hang onto your thrashing calf. Your hands instinctively curl themselves into hook-like claws and you rake desperately at the bristly roaches.

"FuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuckFUCKFUCKFUCK!"

You slap madly at the cloth, rolling up the legs of your pants; checking and double checking for any hidden insects. FUCK you can still FEEL them on you, even if you can't SEE them, prickling your flesh with tiny claws.

>>574167
Sue Lester for personal injury.

Calm down, take a deep breath and take stock of things- Where do you feel the bugs crawling on you?
If you FEEL them, but do not SEE them, they may not be there-your hallucinations can take on a tactile form when they begin.
And if ALL your sense do agree that there are bugs on you, don't scratch- the bugs might not be real but the damage you do is garunteed to be, instead, quickly and throughly press all of your availible surface against something else-lie flat on the floor and then roll over, rub your hands against your face, curl up into the fetal position then uncurl, and be on your way-anything that could hang on through that probably isn't real, and you should ignore it.

>>574167
Quickly get up and hurry past while brushing at yourself, the farther you get from them the easier it will be to calm yourself down.

Also, for future note--if Lester tries to get an attitude about the bags when you see him, seriously consider that suing suggestion. You could've seriously hurt yourself because of his garbage, especially with your condition.

remove pants

>>574167
THERE'S ONE ON YOUR OTHER LEG!

HEY IS THAT A TICKLE ON YOUR LEFT NIPPLE?

>>574167

They're in your underwear

Something to know about insects: They carry with them a sort of feral intelligence. They can't recognize all the things a person can, but they are capable of reacting in a huge variety of ways to specific things they do recognize. Back away from the location a bit, rest against the wall, close your eyes, and focus. Clear your mind, and will a ripple outward. You are a pebble, and this is a pond. Push the water skippers out from your point. An empathetic wave of confidence, not anger or fear, but of sure certainty that nothing will remain close to you anymore, they will sense this and move away.
Only if this doesn't work should you start to really panic, because this should be a powerful trick of the mind and anything that's immune to it has a more powerful will than yourself and that's not at all safe. (That, or your willpower just sucks.)

take deep breaths

whenever you see bugs try to put them in people clothes or make them pink. try really hard and see if it works and if it does they're probably not real because your ~imagination~ affects them.

or just stop horsin around because youre going to be late to work buster brown

The proper response to stepping into a nest of insects and getting them all over you is to run away FIRST, and only then try to get them off of you. Otherwise more will just climb onto you. Also uh I guess we can't rule out that these aren't a hallucination considering where they're coming from so it's a good thing that cockroaches can't hurt you. Just get out of there first.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/13(Tue)20:15 No. 574294 ID: 0b90a3
File 140003730896.png - (208.15KB , 504x600 , 1-18.png )

>remove pants
>They're in your underwear
>THERE'S ONE ON YOUR OTHER LEG! HEY IS THAT A TICKLE ON YOUR LEFT NIPPLE?

You do a dance of panic in the hallway and peek into your clothes, but resist the urge to strip yourself naked.

>Calm down, take a deep breath and take stock of things- Where do you feel the bugs crawling on you?
If you FEEL them, but do not SEE them, they may not be there-your hallucinations can take on a tactile form when they begin.

You... you...think you got them all. You can't find any more on you, but the sensation of being infested remains.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/13(Tue)20:15 No. 574295 ID: 0b90a3
File 140003731322.png - (93.90KB , 287x800 , 1-19.png )

>take deep breaths
>Back away from the location a bit, rest against the wall, close your eyes, and focus.

You try to remember what Dr. Cooper told you. Taking a deep breath you close your eyes.

You leave the garbage strewn hallway behind.
You empty your mind.
You ignore all senses.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/13(Tue)20:15 No. 574296 ID: 0b90a3
File 140003731898.png - (72.11KB , 800x769 , 1-20.png )

You open your eyes and find yourself in your SAFE PLACE.

You find yourself at Earth-Moon Lagrange point 1.

In front of you lies the Earth, glowing with the gentle blue halo of scattered sunlight. Behind you is the Moon, a seriene, sterile monolith.

You are floating in orbit, gravitationally balanced bewteen the two: dancing an elegant three body celestial waltz.

Your only sensation is the sound of your breath, ragged and gasping at first but slowly stabilizing. Around you is nothing: no insects, no people, only miles of void between yourself and the nearest object.

>>574296
do a flip

>>574296
Out of curiosity, how do you justify your breathing in this place, if at all? I'm aware it helps calming down, but have you given some thought to how to breathe in space?

If not, I suggest you do so, since it might make a decent distraction.

Check to see if you can see that blue shift from here.

>>574296
Admire the little blue marble

>>574296
hey aren't both Lagrange points absolutely packed full of debris? aren't you worried you're gonna get hit by a space rock or ship part or something?

>>574314
Points L1, L2, and L3 are not stable.
Only L4 and L5 are stable.

Stop trying to mess with his happy place, guys. Rude. Alright dude you look real serene right now but you better get a move on cus getting chewed out by the boss man is totally not serene.

>>574318
L1 is stable enough, he isn't gonna spend years here.

don't think about that episode of Dr. Who where the space station got invaded by giant space bugs.

>>574318
L4 and L5 are only semi-stable, you need to be in a Lissojou orbit about them. Anything just sitting at a Lagrangian point without station-keeping will float off in short order.

Regardless, be in your Safe Place. Look for the fake glittering of the Kordylewski clouds (shut up, they can exist if you want!). Watch the slight twinking of the Earth's limb as mountains rise and fall as the planet rotates. You're about 58000km from the surface of the moon so you probably won't be able to spot your shadow, but you can look out for the flashes of meteorite impacts.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/14(Wed)18:53 No. 574453 ID: 0b90a3
File 140011883632.png - (127.11KB , 366x750 , 1-21.png )

>Out of curiosity, how do you justify your breathing in this place, if at all? I'm aware it helps calming down, but have you given some thought to how to breathe in space?

When you first started doing this relaxation exercise you'd imagine yourself in a space suit with EVA gear, but you found that to be too embarrassingly nerdy, even for you.

>Admire the little blue marble

It gleams in the dark like a jewel, the day facing side a colorful opalescent vista while the the night facing side is a delicate spider web of lights. You watch as the light ripples across mountain ranges and washes Up here the sheer distance between everything is enough to calm you down.

>Check to see if you can see that blue shift from here.
>do a flip

You flip yourself around and reorient yourself to face the Andromeda Galaxy. Even though this is just a mental construct you decide to check it out.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/14(Wed)18:53 No. 574454 ID: 0b90a3
File 140011883919.png - (223.37KB , 600x691 , 1-22.png )

Its not like anything would be visible to the.. woah.

One of the arms of the beautiful spiral galaxy has a dark, violet bruise that must be thousands of light years across. Stars are being distorted and bent as if warped by some incredible mass.

As you watch, an unsettling feeling develops in your stomach which slowly builds until you feel as if your whole body is falling. Something is moving out there, pulling you out of balance and dragging you towards it into the irresistible grasp of its gravity well.

You feel yourself being spiraling, accelerating, beings stretched out into an impossibly long filament. The nothingness swallows you and....

Toxoglossa 2014/05/14(Wed)18:54 No. 574455 ID: 0b90a3
File 140011884335.png - (155.52KB , 800x494 , 1-23.png )

You open your eyes.
You're back in the hallway.
Garbage litters the floor.
The roaches, if they were even real, have scuttled off into secret places out of sight.

Zeke peeks at you from his doorway, a few errant bees perching on his shoulder.

>"Hey... you okay? I heard you fall."

That was... just your imagination, right?

Say there were roaches in the garbage, but you're okay and have to go now. I think we'd better get to work and get as much information about Andromeda as possible.

>>574455
Tell Zeke what happened, ask him if he could check the bags for bugs for you since you have to go to work. After that you should probably get a move on. This episode has probably put you behind schedule for work.

Roaches. They're gone now.

And... So are the bees?

That was the Andromeda thing from the article. Maybe you subconsciously picked up more of it than you realized.
But your real reason for knowing is totally space magic.

>>574455
Just... freaking out over Roaches.
Okay Zeke, put "talking to Lester about the garbage" on the schedule, because this has gone a little too far.

Your Therapist taught you to do that? How long have you know this 'Therapist'? Did you see others before coming to her, or was she/he the first one?

You're intuiting that the additional blue-shift of part of Andromeda is due to a supermassive object passing between you. The news report didn't mention "Holy crap, we found a free-roaming black hole!", so if you happen know anyone in the Astronomy sector you can call in a favour with to grab some telescope time, you might be able to discover it first.

>Hey... you okay? I heard you fall.
Default lame excuse go: I fell. (It's actually true for once!)

if you're okay, tell him you're okay.

"I tripped over the bags, and there may, or may not, have been roaches. Nothin' broken. Gotta get to work - peace."

"I tripped on all this trash."

It's okay to sound upset. This is ridiculous.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/16(Fri)17:35 No. 574760 ID: 0b90a3
File 140028693502.png - (107.96KB , 447x650 , 1-24.png )

You shake yourself off, still reeling a little bit.

"Yeah, I'm fine... just freaking out over some roaches."

Zeke hesitates, obviously thinking about giving you a hand, but decides to give you your space.

>"Sorry about that. I'll try and move some of that crap over later. I don't care what he thinks of me, its too dangerous to leave that crap blocking the hall."

"Thanks, Zeke. Sorry, but I have to run or I'll be late."

Toxoglossa 2014/05/16(Fri)17:41 No. 574762 ID: 0b90a3
File 140028730774.png - (187.20KB , 700x659 , 1-25.png )

>That was... just your imagination, right?

You... think so. You shouldn't be able to pick up on anything like that in your mind. You aren't psychic or anything, at least you don't think you are.

>You're intuiting that the additional blue-shift of part of Andromeda is due to a super-massive object passing between you.

If something huge is hurtling in your direction, any stars dragged along for the ride would probably be blue-shifted. But nothing should be able to affect an area of space that big overnight, not even a super-massive black hole. Still, the encounter was enough to leave you shaken.

>Your Therapist taught you to do that? How long have you know this 'Therapist'? Did you see others before coming to her, or was she/he the first one?

You've been seeing different therapists and psychologists in one form or another since first grade. Apparently you didn't always mind the insects, until the day you tried playing in an anthill, not realizing it was real. You started seeing Dr. Cooper several years ago when things were.... bad. She helped ease you off of a lot of medications that clearly weren't doing anything and let you reclaim a lot of your independence.

You rush downstairs and into the parking lot.
As head to your car, you notice a shabby figure approaching you.

Lester
>"Hey, hey! Wanna ask you something! Hold up spaceman!"

"What."

Don't actually stop moving for your car, but don't speed up either.

ask not to get too close, you have a uhh.. germ thing.

>>574762
You don't want to totally blow someone off that calls you a spaceman, ask him to make it quick since you need to head to work.

>>574762
That's lester. Glare at him and say you tripped over his bags of trash so this better be good.

*Sigh* There's no point in antagonizing him. That'll just make your morning worse. Resign yourself to talking to him, briefly.

Yes, Lester? I'm sorry but I'm kind of in a hurry here...

>>574295
Wait, that actually worked? Cool. Strong willpower you got there, Nathan!
>>574762
"I accidentally tripped over one of your bags, but didn't otherwise touch them, if that's what it's about. If it's something else, please be quick, I don't want to upset my superiors by being late." Try and word it politely, while bringing up that you did accidentally touch his stuff, but also be willing to hear what he has to say... if he can keep it short and to the point.

What's our time situation anyway, you're a nerd, so you must be the type to always leave fairly early. No sense being rude he looks like he might be bad to get on the wrong side of. But he might get mad anyway when he sees his garbage torn up.

>>574762
Ugh, Lester. Acknowledge him but don't stop moving toward your car. This guy's made you late enough already with those stupid bags, so if it looks like what he wants to say will take a bit just tell him you'll have to hear about it later.

that faggy little box better not be what you call your car.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/17(Sat)12:47 No. 574823 ID: 0b90a3
File 140035607480.png - (151.84KB , 600x572 , 1-26.png )

You don't stop moving, but he shuffles after you prompting you to sigh.

Nate
"What do you want Lester? I'm going to be late for work."

Lester
>"Work, right... um.. Listen, has anyone you know been acting... strange?"

In spite of yourself you stop and stare for a moment. A cockroach scurries across his face and you supress a shudder before continuing towards your car.

>"Hey, I know what people think of me: I'm a nut right? Well,I'm the only person in this godforsaken city that still uses his eyes. I've seen things and I've made the connections, but I don't know if they've gotten to you yet."

"-The hell are you talking about?"

>"People who are not who they seem. Agents in disguise, preparing the way for what's coming. They're everywhere, but hard to see unless you pay attention."

Ask him how he can tell they're in disguise.

Have the people you've seen that don't seem to be infested been strange or off in some way? Maybe there is a connection to be found here between the uninfested and the "agents" he is talking about.

what if only people have bus? that would be... kinda ironic. only people full if insects are real.

It might not help to get angry at him over his stuff in the hall, I mean you said yourself he is struggling with mental problems. Still should bring up the bags and how that's not ok to pile them up in everyones hallway.

Tell him honestly, that if there were people acting strangely, you might have other things distracting you from noticing.

>>574825
Hmm. Isn't almost everyone infested from Nate's point of view? Lester's description of their being everywhere makes these supposed agents sound more common than Nate's observations of uninfested.

>>574830
Maybe Nate just doesn't pay enough attention to notice most of the non-infested people.

Hey, crazy theory time: What if Lester's roaches are real, not hallucinations, and he's trained them to crawl on his body as a disguise so he can fit in with those that have bugs?

>>574823
Well, even if there are agents, why is it a concern? The strangest thing I see typically is roaches and a lot of bugs. But no one gets to see those Lester. I've love to ignore them but I can't. I'd trade being pursued by agents then all these insects.

Do you think I'M crazy, Lester?

>>574823
"Nate, you know I'm schizophrenic. I may not be the best barometer for telling if someone is acting strange".

>>574844

This. But ask him how anyway.

ask him if he owns any tinfoil hats. he seems like the type.

>>574844

^^^^^^


also "And could you atleast leave a path to walk in the hallway? I know you don't want me touching your things but I have to go to work most days and your bags are in the way,"

Toxoglossa 2014/05/18(Sun)14:39 No. 574941 ID: 0b90a3
File 140044918938.png - (182.47KB , 600x486 , 1-27.png )

>Have the people you've seen that don't seem to be infested been strange or off in some way? Maybe there is a connection to be found here between the uninfested and the "agents" he is talking about.

Hard to say, you certainly do work with some odd characters; but they're a bunch of engineers and programmers. If there really are "agents" out there you may just have to keep your eyes open.

Nate
"To be honest, I may not be the best at gauging if people are acting strange or not, Lester."

Lester
>"True, but you don't let anyone get close to you, and you're always watching. Which is why I don't think they've gotten to you yet."

Nate
"Well do you have anything else to go on besides 'strange behavior'? How do you know when someone is in disguise?"

Lester
>"I'm not ready to name names yet, spaceman, but I've noticed people changing. People with nothing in common and who have never met, all in communication with the same few individuals. There's something going on around here."

Nate
"Well, if I see anything strange, I'll let you know, but I have to get going. Oh, could you move some of those bags in the hall? I don't want to mess with your stuff but there's no room for me to get by in the morning."

Lester looks lost in thought for a moment as if tracing his way through a maze in his head.
>"Sure, sure. Just remember, keep your eyes open."

You push the unlock button on your car key and the door clunks in acknowledgement. You check the clock on the dashboard as the tiny engine fires itself up: not doing too bad. As long as traffic isn't too heavy you should be able to make it to work with time to spare.

As you drive off Lester remembers one last piece of advice.
>"And don't let them get to you!"

>>574941
Wait, get to you how?

>And don't let them get to you!
I'll do my best. You too, Lester.

Anyways, switch the radio on to to your favorite nrp channel, musical genre, and/or crazy AM radio conspiracy talk show and listen on your commute.

>>574941
My name's Nate, Lester. Not Spaceman.
But, yeah, stay safe too.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/19(Mon)19:56 No. 575065 ID: 0b90a3
File 140055461758.png - (250.71KB , 700x700 , 1-28.png )

You head out for your morning commute and switch on the radio.

>Anyways, switch the radio on to to your favorite nrp channel, musical genre, and/or crazy AM radio conspiracy talk show and listen on your commute.

Unlike certain individuals you try get your news from sources not prone to screaming and accusation. A sedate, inoffensive instrumental riff plays as you turn to the local NPR affiliate.

"And welcome back to your morning markets with David Brassaca. Cryptocurrencies. You've been hearing a lot about them in the news lately even if a lot of people don't understand them. Well as of this morning several cryptocurrency markets are trailing significantly downward, here to explain is Walter Byrne, an expert on these small, distributed economies."

>"Good morning David"

"Well, first off, this isn't the first time cryptocurrencies have taken sudden dives, what's happened?"

>"Like you said, these markets have always been volatile, so this shouldn't be a huge surprise. Because they still aren't easily exchanged for traditional currency, crashes in the past have happened when holders suddenly found themselves unable to trade or unload their cryptocurrency."

"So, what? They can't turn them into a buck, and get worried they're going to be left holding a bag of worthless cyber-cash, right?"

>"Essentially, yes. Additionally, these new systems have had a host of security issues linked to major value drops. However, ever since Apex stepped into the game, the large scale security breaches of the past have been all but eliminated."

"Apex, being Apex Communications. Just last year they opened up a service that they claimed would finally make cryptocurrency stable enough to be part of the world economy. They haven't released any comment on this morning's events but crypto advocates are already calling for blood."

You groan and turn off the radio. Sounds like today will be all about damage control.

Fortunately your car is able to slip through traffic pretty easily, even if you have to worry about larger vehicles being able to see you.
You pull up to the security checkpoint with a few minutes to spare.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/19(Mon)19:57 No. 575066 ID: 0b90a3
File 140055462017.png - (159.26KB , 600x444 , 1-29.png )

You flash your ID card in front of the scanner and the guard waves at you. As usual, an enormous locust snaps its wings robotically from its perch on his shoulder.

Morgan
>"Mornin', Nate. Suppose you heard about last night?"

Nathan
"Not really. Just got an e-mail from Hiro. What's going on?"

Morgan
>"PR is going to make a statement. Orders are to keep everyone back till then. Some of these guys are... intense."

Toxoglossa 2014/05/19(Mon)19:57 No. 575067 ID: 0b90a3
File 140055462510.png - (111.04KB , 700x442 , 1-30.png )

He moves his head to indicate behind you and you look into the rear-view mirror. Across the street a surly looking man in a trench coat is lounging against a van with a pump action shotgun openly slung over his shoulder.

>>575067
...he doesn't have any bugs on him, does he? Interesting...

Ask the guard what you're supposed to do, then.

Ask Morgan about open carry gun laws, if he asks why just mention the intense looking guy with the shotgun. Check your cellphone for a signal in case you need to call the cops.

...definitely intense. Stay safe, Morgan. I'll see what we can do indoors to get shit calmed down.

Oh dear, that looks like a worryingly short barrel for a shotgun. Means lots of scatter. This guy doesn't seem particularly discriminating about his targets.

Shit's about to get Deus Ex. Nate from this point on keep an eye open for ANYTHING,even if you don't think it's real

>>575067
oh god it's Richard Stallman

run

Toxoglossa 2014/05/20(Tue)19:55 No. 575162 ID: 0b90a3
File 140064091869.png - (186.65KB , 600x600 , 1-31.png )

>Ask Morgan about open carry gun laws, if he asks why just mention the intense looking guy with the shotgun. Check your cellphone for a signal in case you need to call the cops.

Nate
"Shouldn't you call the cops?"

Morgan
>"Already called them. We're in an open carry state though; he's not on company property and hasn't explicitly threatened anyone, so there isn't a lot they can do. Still, they said that they'd come by, talk to him and be in the area."

>Ask the guard what you're supposed to do, then.

Nate
"So what should I do?"

Morgan
>"You remember those active shooter drills they did a couple months ago?"

Nate
"Yeah, that's a code silver right?"

Morgan
>"Yeah: stay down, lock yourself and others somewhere safe, wait for the all clear. Other than that, don't be a hero unless you have to."

He smiles at the look of panic that you give him.

>"Relax, man. He's not getting past me. Just get in there and help clean all this mess up."

Toxoglossa 2014/05/20(Tue)19:55 No. 575163 ID: 0b90a3
File 140064092301.png - (149.57KB , 600x784 , 1-32.png )

The barrier in front of you raises and you drive into the Apex Communications compound. After a quick browse of the parking lot, you find a spot for your diminutive car and park.

The compound is separated into several buildings. Before doing anything, you should probably clock in on the first floor of the Administration building (A). Most of your work gets done in a clean room on the third floor of the fabrication building (C) or in the Assembly building (D) which requires special clearance. You also have an office in admin and your department usually holds a brief meeting there every morning.

Hiro is a programmer and engineer in the communications building (B), which you have limited access to, but have worked with him there from time to time. However, if he's has been up all night working, as you suspect he has, you may be able to find him at the cafe on the first floor of A.

>>575163
Clock in at A and see if you can find Hiro there as well.

>>575162

=( I don't want adorable blue lizard guy to die.

Go to A, so you can clock in and check for Hiro. Admin will likely also have the front office, and other people passing through to clock in and stuff. So even if he's not there, there should be enough people about and talking that we might get something of a better idea what's going on.

Yeah, best to check in and try to get a handle on what's going on. Also unconsciously fret over Morgan's safety.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/22(Thu)17:39 No. 575400 ID: 0b90a3
File 140080558675.png - (108.06KB , 600x499 , 1-33.png )

>Clock in at A and see if you can find Hiro there as well.

You head for the administration building and start your day by clocking in, narrowly avoiding a write up from HR.

Moments later Diego dashes up to the hand scanner and breathes a sigh of relief when he see's the time. He works on the floor below you fabricating the framework of the satellites, electroplating, printing circuit boards and assembling the outer covering. A lot of what he does gets passed along to you to finish in the clean room.

You exchange a wave with him.

Diego
>"See you at the meeting this morning?"

Nate
"I gotta go talk to Hiro first, let them know I'm here though."

Toxoglossa 2014/05/22(Thu)17:39 No. 575401 ID: 0b90a3
File 140080559806.png - (152.52KB , 800x465 , 1-34.png )

You take a deep breath and cross the lobby to check the Cafe. Sure enough, Hiro is waiting in line with a mug in his hand and the slightly concussed look of someone who was called in to pull an all-nighter. Around him the early morning caffeine junkies are muttering worriedly to each other; the air buzzes and clicks as various invertebrates flutter, scuttle and zip through the dining area.

Did you forget your mug in the car?

Go talk to him, find out what's up.

>>575401
What in th--Does Hiro have urchins rather than insects? That's a bit unusual. Unless that's a part of is actual attire, in which case it's very unusual.

>>575413
Urchins are like sea insects.

I think he's just going for invertebrates, though.

The bugs seem to be a bit related to the type of person they are,(or how you perceive them at least) who are the butterflies coming from? Talk to Hiro and offer to buy him his coffee; with how rough he looks he probably deserves it.

>>575413
Perhaps because he's a dolphin dude, hence his 'bugs' would be those of an aquatic variety?

Toxoglossa 2014/05/23(Fri)15:43 No. 575528 ID: 0b90a3
File 140088499959.png - (96.11KB , 600x518 , 1-35.png )

> Talk to Hiro and offer to buy him his coffee; with how rough he looks he probably deserves it.

Nate
"Hiro, hey, let me get that for you."

Hiro
>"Mornin' Nate. You get that e-mail?"

Nate
"Yeah, what's going on? They mentioned Apex on the news earlier."

Hiro
>"Sheeeeeeeit. Tell you in a minute. Coffee first."

Toxoglossa 2014/05/23(Fri)15:43 No. 575529 ID: 0b90a3
File 140088500612.png - (175.24KB , 700x558 , 1-36.png )

Heather
>"Hey guys, what can we get you?"

Looks like Heather's working at the cafe today. Heather is one of those few people you've never seen with any creatures on her. She's pretty bubbly, which helps when you want to forget all the crazy bullshit you see every day.

Her co-worker, on the other hand, hardly ever talks. You're not sure what his name is, so mentally you just refer to him as "that guy" or "the kid". Makes some damn good coffee though.

Hiro
>"I'm just gonna get a double cappuccino, what about you Nate?"

Cappucino sounds great about now.

don't swat at them or grab fast but try grabbing a bug and putting it on heather when you get your stuff.

>>575529
Are the infestations always different? I mean, have you ever seen someone with the same bugs as someone else? Just get a cappuccino for now.

Have you tried flirting with Heather?

>>575529
Just get some form of coffee. Trying to reach for her across a counter is not something you're going to manage to do subtly.

The fuck is wrong with you people, you're just here for your goddamn morning coffee. GIT CAFFEINATED, SCRUB.

Huh. She certainly doesn't match the earlier description of suspicious agents. I'm not sure our idea of a connection between them and non-infestation works. Although we could use more data.

...maybe she has something that you just can't see? I mean, if you hallucinated something like bot-flies or a tapeworm, they'd be inside the body. Although the realness of a hallucination you can't see is perhaps a little too meta considering your existing grip on reality.

>>575556
Yeah, a coffee. Nothing fancy. Maybe grab a bagel or a scone or something if you didn't eat earlier.

>>575572
Could also be water bears (Tardigrades). They're tiny, and only "wake up" when exposed to moisture, particularly pure water. At a standard length of less than a millimeter, you'd pretty much need a magnifying glass to see them when they're awake, and a microscope to see them when they're hibernating.

Of course, she could also be a sleeper agent, appearing to be on your side while secretly leaking bits of intel to the agents Lester mentioned. Assuming the agents are real, of course.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/25(Sun)16:38 No. 575878 ID: 0b90a3
File 140106111117.png - (122.40KB , 600x411 , 1-37.png )

>Have you tried flirting with Heather?
Flirting... really isn't your strong suit; its something that takes self confidence and social skills. Heather will flirt with people, yourself included, from time to time but that's just her way of being friendly. The one or two times you tried to flirt back have been extremely groan worthy and left you feeling incredibly embarrassed later. For the most part, just being able to talk to someone like a normal person is enough for you.

>...maybe she has something that you just can't see? I mean, if you hallucinated something like bot-flies or a tapeworm, they'd be inside the body. Although the realness of a hallucination you can't see is perhaps a little too meta considering your existing grip on reality.

It is possible that she has some kind of creatures on her that you haven't seen before, but technically everyone has a whole ecosystem of tiny organisms living on or inside them. You try not to think about that too much; its the kind of thing that makes you feel anxious.

Nate
"Yeah Cappuccino sounds good, let's go with that."

"The kid" nods, takes your mugs and wordlessly gets to work. He turns around to steam some milk and that thing on his back gives you a glare.

Heather
>"So what's going on you guys? Everybody's looking worried today but they won't say anything about it."

Hiro
>"Its just some bullshit with a bunch of nerds and their pretend money: they're pissed because our system that makes internet money for them is down. Now they're all trying to threaten us, despite the fact that they've been making shitloads of cash off us for over a year now."

Heather
>"Oh, well that's dumb. Should we be worried?"

Hiro
>"Probably not, most of them just like to talk shit. Once we get everything back up and running they'll pretend that none of this ever happened."

The Kid hands your mugs back to you full of piping hot espresso and foam.

Kid
>"that'llbesixseventyfive."

You pay for the drinks, drop a buck in the tip jar and go sit down at a table.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/25(Sun)16:38 No. 575879 ID: 0b90a3
File 140106111608.png - (130.47KB , 600x459 , 1-38.png )

Nate
"So is it true then? Midas is down?"

Hiro
>"To tell you the truth, Midas is only part of the problem; apparently it received a string of information from somewhere and sent it straight through to Cobalt. Now, Cobalt's stopped responding to our input and is working on whatever Midas sent it. I was up all night working on a framework just to get the damn thing to talk to me. "

Your eyebrows shoot up at the mention of Cobalt.

Several years ago Hiro and Diego were working at an experimental tech company in Detroit that was starting to fall apart. When checks stopped coming and the CEO vanished, they took what they were working on and approached Apex with the task of finishing it. You aren't cleared to work directly with it but Hiro has implied that the project, named Cobalt, is a working quantum computer.

Quantum computers are hard to work with but the raw processing power can easily crunch through the enormous calculations required for generating, processing, and transferring cryptocurrency. The Midas satellite on the other hand, was built to pump all of those absurdly complex calculations directly into Cobalt while at the same time remaining absolutely secure. The company uses Midas to essentially lease out Cobalt's absurd computing power to a number of groups; the most recent being the crypto-currency advocates.

Early on, they were able to generate their own currencies with home built rigs. As the calculations required to unlock new coins became ever more complex, more processing power was required until the only economical way to mine was to borrow a mining system from someone else. They've always been frustrated by this corporate intrusion into their famously self-reliant economy, but hey, "rules of the free market" and all that.

Oh, geeze. So we've been hijacked, then? That's... absurdly bad and complicated. No one outside should know enough about your systems to have gotten a signal through Midas to get Cobalt to behave differently.

...so what's it saying now that you got a framework in place? (And how are we supposed to help if you aren't even cleared to work where the real problem is? Does he want you starting on the other end- how or what got through Midas?).

>>575879
Well, hopefully it's cool whatever Cobalt's working on now. I mean, what if it's more profitable than the cryptocurrency bullshit we're doing now? It's apparently large enough to be complex as the economics of cryptocurrency, which I don't understand at all but don't really need to if a fancy computer does it all.

Unless it's AI programming that Midas sent and it's going to make Cobalt sentient. Quantum Computers are the ones powerful enough to become sentient, right? Or at least handle to computations of sentience?
I know it sounds stupid to mention something like that to Hiro, who probably understands Cobalt more than you, but anything sent to Cobalt may become a huge threat if we don't know what it is, up to and including Skynet, if it's as powerful as advertised. Cobalt sounds like it might even be able to decrypt advanced encryption, like nuclear codes, for example. Just make sure Cobalt can't actually output anything meaningful until what was sent is identified. I think you should totally ask Hiro about Cobalt Skynet though, just so he can confirm it's impossible.

Ok, so lets consider or ask about the first two things you consider when your megacomputer does mysterious things: What modes of conveying output does it have, and what overrides do you have?
I suppose they can't simply cut the power for fear of damaging it, but physically disabling its connections to other part of the system or the net would avoid damaging the important bits and should keep it from causing much trouble unless it is a wizard. (If the computer is indeed a wizard, retreat to the nearest bomb shelter for the next few hundred years.)

>>575879
This... this is related to the blue-shift isn't it? We have to investigate that as soon as possible. Like, right now. Excuse yourself.

You need to shut it down now. Someone sent it a program to work on and it could be stealing every bit of data you have right now. At the very least you need to cut it off from all outside lines. And not just turn off a few routers I mean unplug everything.

Of course they won't do that and something horrible will happen. But at least get the idea out there so you can say I told you so when horrible things go down.

Guys no, Midas sent Cobalt some data to analyze and Cobalt has been analyzing it. Hacking a computer via a satellite is ridiculous.

>>575906
This is probably the closest understanding we can have right now. The problem is, whatever Cobalt is analyzing, it took nearly all of its computing power to do so, and as a result it cannot compute our digital coin thingamajigger.
Need I remind you that this is a quantum computer? The amount of data analyzed would be huge. I suspect it exceeds the bandwidth of the Midas-Cobalt comm.

This is very interesting.

>>575906
There are three possible explanations I can think of:
>somebody just sent Cobalt a massive program that's taking up all of our processing power and bandwidth
>somebody sent us a corrupted or badly glitched program, now Cobalt is spitting out a stream of garbage
>somebody just sent a program designed to lock us out while they use Cobalt for malicious purposes (perhaps tampering with the bitcoin data)
If it's the first or second scenario, our best bet is to shut down satellite communications while we try to fix Cobalt. If it's the last scenario, then we need to shut it down NOW.

So the Midas series are essentially relay nodes that appear to be doing the processing themselves, while actually farming out the complex parts to Cobalt. And they communicate directly with Cobalt, rather than just relaying back to a ground station. Presumably to obscure the existence of Cobalt by not having a direct ground-based uplink to it (which anyone with a photograph of the antenna could use to locate Cobalt).
But Cobalt must still be registered with UNOOSA and be tracked by USSPACECOM/NORAD. First thing to check is that Cobalt is actually still in the correct orbit. If the data sent to Cobalt was malicious, and has the sort of low-level access it seems to in order to deny other inputs, sending it a retro-burn would be a sure-fire way to permanently deny service.

>>575936

For a lower key apocalypse, you could be seeing an attempt to disable the cryptocurrency supply in order to drive up the exchange rate of existing cryptocurrency.

Either way you need to make sure it's not stealing data off itself, and figure out what exactly it is doing.

Do we have a copy of whatever program it was sent?

It interests me that the satellite also locked down. Surely they don't have particularly similar operating systems? Does the satellite actually process the data that passes through it?

In before someones using it to decrypt something truly monstrously complicated, (Message from andromeda?) Digital Fortress style.
-- or theyve already cracked it, but now whatever was inside it was malicious and causing it to act like its processing something monstrous, also Digital Fortress style.

But yeah, immediately recommend disconnecting everything except the power cable.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/26(Mon)18:31 No. 576083 ID: 0b90a3
File 140115430028.png - (121.12KB , 600x599 , 1-39.png )

>Oh, geeze. So we've been hijacked, then? That's... absurdly bad and complicated. No one outside should know enough about your systems to have gotten a signal through Midas to get Cobalt to behave differently.

Nate
"So what happened? Was Midas hijacked?"

Hiro
>"Shouldn't be possible, the crypto-key for control over Midas is generated by Cobalt itself; it would take decades to crack with any other computer."

Nate
"You realize that's kind of a dumb system, right?: either machine fails and the whole system breaks down."

Hiro
>"Well, I'm sorry. Here, show me another computer with nigh-infinite processing power and I'll get right to work patching it through to make codes for us."

>Unless it's AI programming that Midas sent and it's going to make Cobalt sentient. Quantum Computers are the ones powerful enough to become sentient, right? Cobalt sounds like it might even be able to decrypt advanced encryption, like nuclear codes, for example.

Nate
"What about its output? Is someone using it to crack a bunch of launch codes and send them to a malicious source? Or.. I know how this sounds, but what about some kind of... AI?"

Hiro
>"Well, the good news is that it hasn't been able, or really even tried to send anything yet. All of its output has to go through us and we cut it off from the outside world as soon as we realized it had shit itself."

>"As for an AI... There's only a couple people on earth that know how to get Cobalt to do anything, and even then its fairly simple stuff. The way we've been using it, its basically a glorified adding machine, but only because we're working on how to get it to do anything else. Theoretically it would be able to handle it but our methods of programming for it are in their infancy."

>somebody just sent Cobalt a massive program that's taking up all of our processing power and bandwidth
>somebody sent us a corrupted or badly glitched program, now Cobalt is spitting out a stream of garbage
>somebody just sent a program designed to lock us out while they use Cobalt for malicious purposes (perhaps tampering with the bitcoin data)

Nate
"So, what is it doing now? Is it still processing or is it just dumping out a bunch of nonsense?"

Hiro
>"That's the weird thing. So I got all set up on a secure, isolated server to check on what the hell it was working on and I try talking to it. Normally some kind of malicious program would be asking for permissions and trying to find its way into the server. Instead it gives me shit about an 'integer fault'. Then, it starts counting off a string of numbers... hang on, I have them here.

He fishes around in his pocket and pulls out his phone.
>"1,2,3,5,7,13,15,21,23,27,35,37,45,51,53,57,65,73,75. It starts off with regular primes, then just a bunch of ascending numbers. If this was just something malicious, then whats with the number puzzle? "

Nate
"So, what do you need from me?"

Hiro
>"Welllll.... like you so astutely pointed out..."
He gives you an exhausted glare.
>"...the system has broken down. Since Cobalt generates the crypt-keys and we've lost control of Cobalt; that means we've also lost access to Midas as well. I need your help to get us back in touch with Midas so we can figure out where that information came from. We need to know If its just some black hat douche-bag showing off or some kind of orchestrated attack.

Well time to get cracking then. Take your coffee with you and get to work.

Do you have any mathematicians on staff? They might be able to shed some light on that prime number array. Make sure you get permission to talk about it first though. We can speculate all we want about where this info came from but until you track it down its just guesswork.

>"1,2,3,5,7,13,15,21,23,27,35,37,45,51,53,57,65,73,75. It starts off with regular primes, then just a bunch of ascending numbers. If this was just something malicious, then whats with the number puzzle? "
+1, +1, +2, +2, +6, +2, +6, +2, +4, +8, +2, +8, +6, +2... Yeah okay I'm not seeing a pattern there.

Let's leave figuring out the code to Hiro's team, you should get to work on contacting Midas. Can Midas be "spoken" with like Cobalt can?

Huh. No primes after 13, but they're all still odd. All the deltas are positive, less then ten, and except for the first few, even. Not... seeing a pattern though. Is that it, does it keep going?

>try to get in touch with midas, find out where this came from
Now that, you can hopefully do.

It could be turning it into a Numbers Station, transmitting a series of numbers that can be decoded by a special one time use codebook.

According to wolfram alpha it is the primes written in base 8. That's kinda weird. Fits perfect though. (I left out the first couple numbers and it gave them as a possible continuation of it)

With p standing for prime,
1,2,3,5,7,13, 15, 21, 23, 27, 35, 37, 45, 51, 53, 57, 65, 73, 75
initial p bit 3*5, 3*7, p 3*9 5*7 p 5*9 3*17 p 3*19 5*13 p 5*15
Discounting the initial primes, the points consistently have a prime every three numbers, and they fit a pattern that makes sense through 45 (n * increasing odd numbers > n while <10), but after that I can't figure out the progression though it keeps the general format.

Anyway, does Cobalt have a log of use history you can access?
What a realistically simulated mug :V

>>576108
((sorry if that is kinda cheating by the way, I didn't figure it would just tell me that))

>>576083
Whose bug is that? Look around, someone probably walked up.

>>576108
In that case the next two numbers in the sequence are 103,107.

...maybe that's what the integer fault is. It can't use three-digit numbers?

>>576108
>>576113
Hah. Yup, that works.

And no, that's not cheating. Both characters should have access to wolfram on their phones, anyways. Hiro's just too sleep deprived to have thought of it.

...obvious thing to try is to provide the computer with the next number in the sequence. If it is a puzzle, maybe giving the answer does something.

Okay, so it looks like the sequence is the first 19 prime numbers written in base 8 (octal.) Continuing the sequence in octal is 103, then 107, which might mean the "integer fault" is that somewhere the system can't handle three digits. But converting the octals to binary and crossing from octal 75 to octal 103 also goes from using six bits to seven. If this was a normal computer you wouldn't need to ask this, but could there be any possibility that Cobalt is choking on that transition to seven bits and throwing an error?

As for Midas, well, if it was built to be as secure as it's made out to be then every way to communicate with it is encrypted with keys generated by Cobalt. Without Cobalt there's no way to get the data we want out of Midas short of sending a rocket with a 'bot up there to interface with it, and that ain't happening any time soon.

However, there might be other sources that could tell us where that data string that bounced off Midas and took over Cobalt came from. A certain three letter intelligence agency almost certainly has been recording all the radio traffic going up to and down from Midas and where it's coming from. Unfortunately they'd never admit to doing that, much less share the data with us, so that's a bust. And it'd be the same for any intelligence agency outside the country, so don't bother going to them. Is there any other organization out there that might have recorded the radio traffic to Midas at that time who'd be more amicable to sharing it?

HEY!
Stop scratching.
Bad gizelle.

>>576174
>Is there any other organization out there that might have recorded the radio traffic to Midas at that time who'd be more amicable to sharing it?
Try conspiracy theorists or criminal organizations. I bet some independent hackers could have stumbled upon it as well. Maybe there could be some astronomers who picked up stuff by accident?

Toxoglossa 2014/05/27(Tue)19:15 No. 576289 ID: 0b90a3
File 140124334354.png - (107.08KB , 600x522 , 1-40.png )

>According to wolfram alpha it is the primes written in base 8. That's kinda weird. Fits perfect though.

You think for a minute and come up with a theory. You pull out your phone and plug a few numbers into an online converter.

Nate
"Wait, if you work with a base 8 number system then those are primes, all the way up to our number 61."

Hiro
>"Are they? I guess I was too exhausted to realize. Okay, so suddenly its running on octal, that's...weird? I guess that must be why we were having trouble connecting to it; from its point of view, we're speaking complete gibberish. I wonder if changing the system over to base 8 would help. Converting the whole thing from hex to octal is going to be a pain in the ass though."

>"Anyway, here's what I was thinking: we make another satellite."

Nate
"Wait...What?"

Hiro
>"I mean, not a real one. Midas has a transponder in it that we hooked up to Cobalt in order to synch them up. What we do is make a fake transponder, synch it with Cobalt, and then hook that up to a computer. We should be able to use it to trick Cobalt into thinking that we're another Midas satellite so that we can send it commands. Hopefully we can convince Cobalt to go back to base 10 and tell us what the hell is going on."

Toxoglossa 2014/05/27(Tue)19:15 No. 576290 ID: 0b90a3
File 140124334868.png - (98.46KB , 600x462 , 1-41.png )

Hiro
>"That's what I need you for. You put together Midas's communications array. you should be able to-"

>Stop scratching!

Gah! Damnit!

>Whose bug is that? Look around, someone probably walked up.

What bug? Where?

Hiro
>"Hey, earth to Nathan, you listening?"

>>576290
Uh. Bug in your coffee. Stare at it, don't drink any more. Maybe get a fresh cup, and use a lid from now on.

Tell him yeah you're listening, go on.

>>576291
Yup, this.

It was some kind of blue bottomed fly, I think, if you've got all your coworker's bugs memorized.

>>576309
Uh, I don't think the fly belonged to somebody if it actually made a splash. That's the first instance of them actually causing something to move that we've seen.

Glare at your mug if you need to, but make sure you're paying attention to Hiro and that he knows you are.

"Sorry, got distracted erm, stopping myself...And a bug got into my coffee just now."
The less it's minded, the less it actually affects you, it seems.

Look, it's not important. Just don't drink any more coffee, you're not tired, right?

Please, please don't panic about the coffeebug situation.

Seems like a good plan; lets get to it.

Out of curiosity, what are you infested with?

>>576346
I'd guess lice, given his tendencies to scratch.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/29(Thu)17:23 No. 576451 ID: 0b90a3
File 140140942927.png - (120.27KB , 700x334 , 1-42.png )

>Uh. Bug in your coffee. Stare at it, don't drink any more. Maybe get a fresh cup, and use a lid from now on.Tell him yeah you're listening, go on.

Nate
"Uh.. yeah, yeah. Sorry... distracted for a minute."

You look into your cappuccino, your stomach turns at the sight of the tiny creature struggling to escape the foam.

Hiro
>"Something wrong with your coffee?"

>Look, it's not important. Just don't drink any more coffee, you're not tired, right?

Nate
"No, I Just- er I don't think I'm thirsty anymore."

Hiro wordlessly reaches across the table, takes your mug and empties it into his own.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/29(Thu)17:23 No. 576452 ID: 0b90a3
File 140140943311.png - (115.74KB , 700x336 , 1-43.png )

He knocks back the cappuccino, and you try not to look too disgusted, unsure if it was even real or not. Hiro clearly doesn't care one way or the other: he's always been the master of not giving a shit
Nate
"So... You want me to make a new transponder for you?"

Hiro
>"Yeah, Kim should be able to get you a copy of the schematic we use, its kept in secure file storage for obvious reasons. Diego will probably be able to help you with some of the parts you'll need; it doesn't have to be fancy, as long as we can hook it up to something."

>>576452
Alright let's get to work. You can get more coffee later if you need it.

>>576452

everything in this pic is great.....pinky up! XD

off to work you go

>AEIOU
>JOHN MADDEN
Are those coffee mugs what I think they are?

>>576452
Alright. I'll see what we can get set up. Hopefully we can get this thing talking, soon.

I'm now wondering how he wears a t-shirt, I mean how does he get his head in?

Also we really need to figure out where this signal originated.

I like this guy, let's head off.

...Er... Ah, well. Maybe it's for the best Hiro took your cappuccino; The caffeine might have aggravated your anxiety issues. In fact, perhaps you should skip the caffeine for now in case you end up having to stay late, that way it'll be more effective then than if you'd been having it all day.

Okay, while you're eager to get this transponder knocked together, don't you have a morning department meeting to attend? You should go to it since Diego will be there, and possibly Kim, and they're not going to be able to do what you need them to do until they're out of the meeting anyway. Then you can talk to them both afterwards and tell them what you're looking to do.

However, if you know Kim isn't going to be at the meeting then you should phone her (or him) while you're on the way to the meeting and ask that the schematics for the Midas 18 transponder be pulled right away so they're immediately ready for you to sign out when you arrive.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/31(Sat)13:17 No. 576644 ID: 0b90a3
File 140156742962.png - (89.67KB , 600x385 , 1-44.png )

>Alright let's get to work. You can get more coffee later if you need it.

You take your mug back.

Nate
"Right, I'll go get started. Good luck with the coding, Hiro."

He groans in anticipation of another looooong day. You take that as your cue to leave and wave goodbye to the baristas.

>Are those coffee mugs what I think they are?
Confirmed for NERD.

Toxoglossa 2014/05/31(Sat)13:17 No. 576645 ID: 0b90a3
File 140156743601.png - (113.25KB , 700x468 , 1-45.png )

Okay, while you're eager to get this transponder knocked together, don't you have a morning department meeting to attend? You should go to it since Diego will be there, and possibly Kim, and they're not going to be able to do what you need them to do until they're out of the meeting anyway. Then you can talk to them both afterwards and tell them what you're looking to do.

You head upstairs only to find that the meeting has already finished and most of your co-workers have dispersed to their various tasks.

Nate
"Aw, crap."

You turn around to go find Kim and very nearly bump into the head of your department, Doug.

Doug
>"Heyyyy Nathan, glad you make it today. Too bad you missed the meeting this morning, I wasn't sure if you're aware about last night."

>Too bad you missed the meeting this morning, I wasn't sure if you're aware about last night
Hiro filled me in, unless there's another crisis you're talking about.

>>576645
Is he lacking an infestation as well?

...don't tell him about the base 8 thing.

>>576645
Huh, nothing on this person either.
Weird.

>>576645
Best thing to do is focus on the task at hand. Tell him the things you know, and your idea for a solution. Hopefully he's more interested in getting everyone on task than chewing you out for missing the meeting.

>>576647
You know, Nate, trusting people that are infested but liking the non-infested people more is going to be confusing as hell.
Like, if all the non-infested people are actually spies, that means Heather is a spy too. Or, at least, all of these people have connections in some way. It's weird. We gotta figure out if infestation actually means something to your mindset, what your subconscious is trying to tell you.

Is your therapist infested?

You know, something about Doug makes me think he's a creep. It's probably just the fact he speaks like Lumberg from Office Space. Then there's the other creepy non-infested guy with the gun outside. Lester CAN'T be right, right?

Have you considered that if the infestation or lack thereof really does indicate which people are spies (as brought up by a crazy hobo-looking guy), how do you know whether the infestation is a good or bad thing? Perhaps they are natural feature of all people living on Earth, and those without are foreign impostors. Hell, maybe it's all actually just completely unconnected. Either way, just tell him Hiro caught you up and then go on to find Kim and Diego.

>>576647
>>576649
we might just not be able to see whatever's on him, barista kid had something on his back - ergo we couldn't see whatever was on him from the front, you feel me?

Infestations might just show a sort of psychological/mental deficiency, y'know. Like Hiro was all prickly, Kid was very maneuverable but silent, Lester always seemed to be dealing with garbage... Heather and Doug could just simply be sane persons, and that's all there is to it.

Whether or not the doctors diagnose it, most individuals do have something going on with their mind, and while an agent would be trained to work around that and seem to have nothing, some people are just naturally well built where the mind is concerned.

>>576645
no bugs. then again, you don't have any bugs either. also hiro swallowed a bug, if that's not "bugging" then i don't know what is.

>>576645
Apologize and go get a summary of what you missed from your teammates.

Toxoglossa 2014/06/01(Sun)18:27 No. 576808 ID: 0b90a3
File 140167244268.png - (88.47KB , 376x600 , 1-46.png )

Doug is another one of those people you've never seen with any insects, though something about him still makes your skin crawl. He's never deliberately done anything to antagonize or harass you, unlike people at your previous jobs; in fact he's one of the better managers you've ever had. He's just, well, kind of a creep. Honestly, some people just can't help it.

Nate
"Yeah, sorry I'm late. If you're talking about the problem with Midas, Hiro actually sent me an e-mail last night saying he needed to talk to me about it. We met this morning and think we have a way to regain control of the system. His idea is that if I put together a new Satellite transponder, then we can synch it with Cobalt and trick it into thinking we're a new Midas-sat."

Doug
>"Hmmm, have you talked to anyone else about it?"

Nate
"Uh... not yet, why?"

Doug
>"Good, one of the things we went over this morning was how we go forward addressing this issue publicly. The PR department will be handling the fallout, but I just want to make sure everyone is on the same page. I'll make sure you get a copy of our official statement before lunch."

>"Now about this plan, you'd need my authorization before Kim will give you the plans for a transponder. Hmm, I hope you realize how sensitive information on Midas is; we've already clearly had one breach of security, the last thing we need is to compound it. I like the idea though, very novel, shows initiative."

>"We also have sat#20 to finish up in the assembly hangar. I know this is very exciting and strange, but we don't want to fall behind schedule now do we? We also have to face the possibility that there may be security flaws built into our design itself. Once you help Hiro, I'd like for you to take a look at the comm's array we've been working on and give me an assessment by Friday."

>>576808
Erm. Is he going to give you authorization? If so then I suppose our next stop is Kim.

>He's just, well, kind of a creep.
Maybe its because he never opens his eyes!

>>576827
From the sound of it, he wants us to finish the latest real copy of Midas first. Tell him you'll go work on it, but ask if it would be possible for authorization to go through while you do so. Even if it's only for after you finish up.

Toxoglossa 2014/06/03(Tue)16:36 No. 577000 ID: 0b90a3
File 140183857487.png - (149.62KB , 600x435 , 1-47.png )

>Erm. Is he going to give you authorization? If so then I suppose our next stop is Kim.

Nate
"So... are you going to give me authorization for the schematics?"

There's a pause that goes on for a bit too long, and then a grin a bit too wide.
>"Sure, sure. I'll let Kim know you're coming. Just make sure you get them back to her by the end of the day. I don't think I need to tell you what kind of damage someone could do with one of those transponders."

He claps you on the back, the sudden contact causes you to jump as if you were just shocked.
>"Good to see you already hard at work on this little snafu. I'm sure you'll have this all sorted out in no time."

Toxoglossa 2014/06/03(Tue)16:36 No. 577001 ID: 0b90a3
File 140183858479.png - (84.12KB , 600x444 , 1-48.png )

You take your leave of Doug and head upstairs.
You get to Kim's desk and she's on the phone, presumably with Doug.
>"Okay, sure. Looks like he's here now. Okay, thanks, bye."

She hangs up and sighs.
>"Morning Nathan. That was just Doug; I dunno how you can stand working with him."

huh, spiders...
you ever see the bugs fight eachother?

>>577001
Spider-lady, huh? Tell her it is pretty difficult, but this job is very important to you.

Doug's nice, a little touchy feely, but nice. Why Kim? We haven't noticed anything. I mean, yeah, he talks like that manager Lumberg guy from Office Space, but he doesn't act like him.
You guys DO have Office Space in your world right?
The world wouldn't be a good place if you don't have any Mike Judge media.

Almost a relief to see someone covered in bugs. Makes her seem normal, after Doug.

Morning, Kim.

>I dunno how you can stand working with him
Well, you do what you gotta do.

>>576808
>"Hmmm, have you talked to anyone else about it?"
for future reference, the only valid answer to that question is "well, only to my dead man switch info dump".
saying "no" is saying "if you kill me now no one else will know this secret".

>>577234
Anybody who came from a meeting entirely about the situation is probably safe to say "no" to though. No need to make them upset with you. After all, "Dead man info switch" implies "Yes, everybody will know about it if I'm killed by anything, even a person dedicated to learning all the information enough to kill me for it."

Toxoglossa 2014/06/05(Thu)18:38 No. 577292 ID: 0b90a3
File 140201873581.png - (124.41KB , 700x485 , 1-49.png )

>you ever see the bugs fight each other?
Can't say you've ever noticed them directly interacting, mostly they just swarm around.

>Tell her it is pretty difficult, but this job is very important to you.

Nate
"Its tough but this job is really important to me. The only real problem is that he's kind of touchy, but I've worked with worse. Why?"

Mel
>"He's... one of those guys that's just used to getting his way, you know? After a while, its hard to deal with."

Nate
"Ah, well I guess its different because he's my boss."

Kim
>"Hmm, well just don't let him think he can do anything he wants to. Hey, you get that article I sent you last night?"

Kim is a pretty big space NERD herself, possibly a bigger than you. She follows a lot of the big, dumb, space nerd arguments online and likes to send you articles about all the weird and amazing things people discover in space. She's also responsible for a lot of the design work that goes on around here.

Nate
"I saw it, but haven't had a chance to read it yet, sounded bizarre though. What did they find?"

Kim
>"Um, well... They're not sure. It looks like a huge chunk of the Andromeda galaxy suddenly accelerated towards us but they can't explain why. One theory they put forward is that there's something between us and Andromeda that is making it look like its blue-shifted, but somehow we can't see it."

tell her about your zen vision. black hole maybe?

Maybe it's just me but for some reason I feel like I can't rule out the idea of aliens, silly as that might sound.

Buuut onto business- For whatever reason Cobalt got flipped over to Octal from Hex, soo the idea was I'd make a new transponder so that we could basically 'fake' being Midas and communicate with Cobalt. I've come to you for a copy of the schematics.

>>577295
Nnnnoo, maybe don't tell her about your zen vision. I can't easily imagine that being met with anything but skepticism. You could ask, like, "Would a black hole do that?" or something, or otherwise speculate on the cause.

>>577298
>to octal from hex
... ...wait a minute, computers don't actually operate in hex; they operate exclusively in binary - printing stuff in octal or decimal or hex is only done for our benefit. Though I suppose instructions and memory are typically divided into fixed-length groups of bits (like how you do memory access by the address of a byte). Mmmmaybe it's a Cobalt thing, though.

Sorry if I'm poking the Man Behind the Curtain.

>>577298
Do NOT tell her about the idea you and Hiro came up with. Doug doesn't want you mentioning that to anybody. If he wants her to know about it, he'd have told her in that call just now.

Something vague like, "Hiro and I came up with a potential solution to the problem, but we'll need the blueprints to see it through." If she asks you why, look at her like she's crazy and respond, "I know you don't exactly see eye-to-eye with him, but if Doug didn't clue you in then I don't think we should discuss it.

It wasn't hex before. It was base 10.

See if you can spare some time to look over the article while you work.

>>577328
I don't think we told Doug.

>>577324
>... ...wait a minute, computers don't actually operate in hex; they operate exclusively in binary - printing stuff in octal or decimal or hex is only done for our benefit. Though I suppose instructions and memory are typically divided into fixed-length groups of bits (like how you do memory access by the address of a byte). Mmmmaybe it's a Cobalt thing, though.

Number base (and word length; who knows, Cobalt bay be an 8-bit entangled quantum computer) is still important for actually getting the correct numbers into and results out of calculations. Some parallelised bitwise logic (and even some specialised processors) also need inputs in a certain base.

>>577292
wait, is he sexually harassing her? it sounds like he's used to get things, and people, his way. ask her, be a friend to someone who maybe has no one else to talk to about this.

Toxoglossa 2014/06/07(Sat)19:28 No. 577660 ID: 0b90a3
File 140219452424.png - (134.47KB , 700x487 , 1-50.png )

>Nnnnoo, maybe don't tell her about your zen vision. I can't easily imagine that being met with anything but skepticism. You could ask, like, "Would a black hole do that?" or something, or otherwise speculate on the cause.

Nate
"Something we can't see? Do you think it could be like a black hole? Like a super-massive one?"

Kim
>"Maybe, they picked up evidence of gravitational lensing at least. But... the scale of the area effected was so enormous, it still should have taken hundreds if not thousands of years to see. Its like someone clicked and dragged a bundle of stars the size of the Small Magellanic Cloud in our direction. There's a bunch of people online arguing about what could possibly have done it."

Nate
"Heh, maybe aliens did it."

She shrugs
>"Wouldn't be the first person to suggest it. Whatever it was, I doubt we'll get an answer anytime soon."

Nate
"Yeah, I guess..."
You kind of trail off, thinking about the vision you had earlier. Not a lot of people here know about your condition, so you're pretty self conscious about appearing normal. Best not to tell her.

>Wait, is he sexually harassing her? it sounds like he's used to get things, and people, his way. ask her, be a friend to someone who maybe has no one else to talk to about this.

Nate
"About Doug... he isn't, like, harassing you or anything like that?"

She blushes and her spiders start to scuttle in a panic.
>"Oh! No, I... no, I didn't mean it like that. Um, here, Doug said you needed transponder schematics, right?"

Nate
"You can tell me you know; I want to help if he is."

Kim
>"No... we...okay, we've been kind of seeing each other for a while. I don't know... he just came up one day and asked if I wanted to do something together: it was weird, like no pressure, no pick up lines or anything. And... he's been pretty nice, nicer than you'd think, but sometimes I just don't know about him. Like, something's...off, Like hes hiding something."

>"Listen, you don't need to tell anyone, okay? Its nothing."

"Oh, of course, I just thought I'd make sure."

Also, upon closer inspection, I find it of interesting note that her spiders apparently reacted to her feelings.

If he wasn't already set in the belief that the insects are hallucinations, I'd totally be giving him like 7 experiments to try to determine their reality. If it comes into question at any point, I will probably actually do so.

>She blushes and her spiders start to scuttle in a panic.
Huh, wait, the bugs respond with people's emotional state? Which means... your brain might be latching onto emotional tells, and incorporating them into your hallucinations. Possibly, the bugs might react to or show things you may not even be consciously aware you're seeing.

Huh. That could be... useful, actually. As unsettling as the bugs are for you, if you pay attention to them, you might be able to read people better than you could otherwise. Something to look out for.

...have you ever tried playing poker, or other games where hidden information is key?

>seeing him
Wow, uh, and she wonders how you put up with him?

Sounds like it's nothing for us to worry about, for now. Thank her for the drawings, and reassure her a little. Yeah, he can be kind of weird, at times.

>>577660
Wait, how do we know it didn't take hundreds or thousands of years to see? How do we know it just happened?

Ask her if she knows anything about the lady in the cafeteria. (You know, the bugless one)

>>577672
>Ask her if she knows anything about the lady in the cafeteria.
Kind of a sharp change in subject, no?

Yeah, Doug might be hiding something, but let her know that if that's all she's worried about, you've got no reason to carry this forward--with her or to somebody else. >>577666
>Huh. That could be... useful, actually. As unsettling as the bugs are for you, if you pay attention to them, you might be able to read people better than you could otherwise. Something to look out for.
Probably, you only even caught on to push for this because of this little trick.

>>577705
It's not a sharp change in subject. She was just talking about dating an employee.

>>577660
Every dude has something a little off about them. But then again, intuition is a powerful thing (especially in the fictional world) and we suppose it isn't our business at that point.

He is a superior or coworker though and I personally think a date that might be a bad career move for the both of you. If it doesn't work out, it can make things very bad for you and him around work, and same if it DOES work out in some ways. Then the gossip and ugh. Just bad mojo.
Really, coworkers engaging in a relationship with one another typically only works out when they're already successfully married couples. Which is typically the case with scientists, who probably met one another when working on their degrees in college.

>>577660
well, it is an employer-employee thing. kinda creepy on its own, what with her freedom to refuse his advances being restricted because he can fire her.
anyhow, of course you'd never tell she wants to keep it a secret.

Ok, no matter what you say, you've got to admit that it's adorable how responsive the spiders were to her embarrassment. Also, while this might just be the power of suggestion, I can't help but recall what your crazy neighbor said as we hear that this guy acts like he's hiding something.

>>577811
From what I got, Doug is more a coworker of hers than her superior. In terms of family, that would make her an aunt to Nate, rather than a sister, cousin, or mother, whereas Doug is a direct superior, as in a father. (That's just a metaphor, I'm not saying they actually are family, that would definitely make it awkward) Dating an equal-level/unrelated-field coworker is nowhere near as awkward as dating a superior.

Toxoglossa 2014/06/09(Mon)17:46 No. 577935 ID: 0b90a3
File 140236118970.png - (141.84KB , 800x449 , 1-51.png )

>Wait, how do we know it didn't take hundreds or thousands of years to see? How do we know it just happened?

Well, technically whatever happened, did so roughly 2.5 million light years ago and the light from it is only reaching us now. But whatever it was, it affected an incredibly vast area of space all at once. Theoretically, a strong gravitational source moving through the area would to it, but the affect would propogate outwards at the speed of light and not become visible in one night. In order for it to affect an area that large, you would have to...suddenly pull a gravity well 7,000 light years across literally out of nowhere.

>Wow, uh, and she wonders how you put up with him?
Nate
"Just, curious, but how do you put up with him? I have to deal with Doug on a daily basis, I can't really imagine... well."

Kim unlocks the door and steps into the secure stacks. Inside are shelves of bound technical manuals, tubes of blueprints, a computer and a couple of servers whirring away next to a large plotter.

>"Well, that's just it, you see him every day. We've only gone out a couple times, sometimes only once every couple months. And when we do see each other, he's pretty sweet, if a little weird. Its just... he always gets what he wants, and sometimes you don't even realize it until later, it can be so damn aggravating."

Nate
"Hah, yeah... I bet."

>Yeah, Doug might be hiding something, but let her know that if that's all she's worried about, you've got no reason to carry this forward--with her or to somebody else.

>Every dude has something a little off about them. But then again, intuition is a powerful thing (especially in the fictional world) and we suppose it isn't our business at that point.

Something is making your skin prickle and your stomach feels knotted up.
"If you think there's something off about him, you should trust your intuition; not that its any of my business. I don't want to see you get hurt, but I won't tell anyone if that's what you want."

She picks through the shelves and hands you a binder, modestly sized as far as these things go.
>"I'd appreciate it, Nate. Here, I need it back before you leave."

>Huh, wait, the bugs respond with people's emotional state?
Yeah, in fact...
Shit, you might want to get out of here.

>>577935
Then rush off, after brushing the wasps away.

Who do the wasps belong to?

mentally command wasps to settle down.

>>577935
Is your neighbor nearby? Does he work here? Or are non-unique infestations possible? Then again, this could be a different species of bee/wasp thing so some other person's infected with Asian Wasps or some shit. But the thing is you've also come up with fictional bugs if that coffee guy with the squid thing is anything to judge by.
Or maybe your subconscious is trying to tell you something about your neighbor. Are these the same bees as before, the one that went in your coffee?
Are you being followed by a guy infested with Nicholas Cage's greatest line's subject?

>>577948
neighbor is bees, these are clearly THE wasps.

>Who do the wasps belong to?
Yeah, have you seen them before?

>Shit, you might want to get out of here.
Well, then say your goodbyes and thank yous without just rushing out of here like a crazy(er) person.

Those are the titular wasps, as in, A Conspiracy of. I'm pretty sure they're ours. Make your hasty excuses, grab the book if you can do so without taking too much time, and get to your special place ASAP.

Toxoglossa 2014/06/10(Tue)20:11 No. 578112 ID: 0b90a3
File 140245628674.png - (98.75KB , 600x505 , 1-52.png )

>Then rush off, after brushing the wasps away.

Nate
"No problem, I better get going. See you later."

>Yeah, have you seen them before?

Unfortunately... yes, you have...

ZZZZZzzzZZzzzZZZZZ

Toxoglossa 2014/06/10(Tue)20:11 No. 578113 ID: 0b90a3
File 140245629256.png - (178.01KB , 700x438 , 1-53.png )

You back out of the room and sweep the insects off of your shoulder, but more are swarming in from somewhere.

The swarm starts to envelop you, overwhelm you.
ZZZzzzzzzclosezzzzZZZ

You mutter under your breath, trying to remain calm.
"No, please, stop-"

ZZzzzZZNozzzzONezzzclosezzzzyouzzzNEverrrzzzCLose

"Shut up, SHUT UP."

ZZzzzzzZZZNeverrrrrzZAszzclozezzzaszzzZzzzZZZUssszzzzz


"I'm NOT hearing this, FUCKING shut up!"

>get to your special place ASAP.
Need to concentrate, need to get out of here...

>>578113
"no one is close to you, never close, never as close as us"
Seems like this attack has been brought on by a reminder that you've never been in a relationship with anyone.

Yes, I would say the insects/whatever are definitely just a hallucination based upon an intuitive sense of other peoples' emotions and character.

Have a seat somewhere out of the way and meditate. Clear your head. Don't look at Andromeda this time.