Comic 1125 - Discuss minds
Posted on 19th Nov 2018, 6:43 PM
in Like a Bullet from Behind
Average Rating: 5 (3 votes) /
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Author Notes:
You tell him it's alright. You respect his privacy, and you won't do anything he's uncomfortable with. You also don't judge him--everyone's made mistakes. Everyone can change. You won't think less of him.
Dr. Finch nods quietly. "...Thank you."
Though, that does still leave the question of who you could practice a forced sync on. You ask Mom's red about it...?
"I do not believe that would work," states the giant mouth on the wall. "I do have a poor understanding of these syncs--they were not something I recall your mother performing. But, if I have gathered correctly... they require an independent mind. That is something I do not possess. I am a construct, an object. I have something resembling a brain in structure, not a proper mind."
"I... I don't think I agree," Dr. Finch says, looking up at the huge mouth. "You question, yes? You you you reason, you doubt, you wonder. Even in your short time here, you've displayed curiosity and anger and... and and hints of pride, even. I confess I'm likely as lost as you are in matters of self and souls and... and all that, but I don't believe you're any less of a person than anyone else that's wandered through this bunker. The nature of the mindscape is so imprecise and difficult to interpret from a purely scientific vantage point, I can't imagine the origin of one's brain having all that much to do with it."
The mouth... is silent for a moment, as though it's taking all this in. "...I have difficulty arguing with your logic, though that may well be due to the inexperience of us both in these things. I would not dub myself a 'person,' but I cannot speculate as to how this syncing process would classify my existence."
"Further," begins Dr. Finch, pushing up on his glasses, "if a forced sync with you DOES work the implications would be... well, they'd be tremendous. The nature of the syncable mind, untethered from the necessity of a technically human brain. It would suggest that syncs with other individuals--those with 'minds,' but not necessarily 'brains' in the strictest sense--could be synced as well, such as... as as androids or whatnot. The act of even attempting a sync like that would be an interesting test of Mine's abilities, at the very minimum."
"I do not mind," the mouth finally answers. "If you wish to try, I will allow it. I can alter my state of consciousness when required."
Dr. Finch turns back to you. "Though I AM quite intrigued to see how this turns out, I must suggest caution, as well--I believe your mother's red has a mind, just as valid and real as yours or my own... but it would certainly be a different place, and a very different experience. If you decide to go through with this, it will most assuredly be a stranger sync than you've had with previous minds."
"So what's tha plan?," Caius asks. "We gonna torch this stuff or what?"
"We probably could," Fuse replies. "That's a lot of burning in close quarters, though--I can make fire, I can't make more air. We could dissolve it, like... with bleach or something. Bleach has to eat through spider webs, right?"
"We could jus' go around," Michelle adds. "There IS a perfectly good door there."
Caius shrugs, throwing another glance at the webs. "Yeah, but I ain't gonna admit defeat to no freaky webs. I couldn't cut 'em, that makes it personal. Do we even got bleach?"
"YOU got the bag," Michelle says with a small laugh. "You oughta know. ...But nah, I don't think we do."
"Blondie might be able to make bleach," Fuse states, almost to himself. "It's... sodium hypo-something. No idea if that's a thing that shows up in the body."
Caius and Michelle both give Fuse a confused look. Michelle manages to speak first. "You almost know how to make bleach?"
"It's a drug thing," Fuse says, waving his free hand. "I know how to do a lot of bad shit. Sodium... hypochlorite, I think. That's the best I got."
Hydrochloric acid (gastric acid) IS something the body makes, though, but please do not attempt to mix this with bleach, you WILL end up with chlorine gas and that's bad. Besides this, I'm also not sure how long it would take to dissolve the webs with either chemical, especially since we don't even know if this has the same composition of spider webs.
The latter would not cause nasty reactions with the surroundings and probably be easier to manage/produce.
Dang it... I really wanted that to be a solution, too.
Oh well. Now we have an excuse to make a walking stomach golem, after we explore a bit, of course.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serratiopeptidase
The thing silkworms use to melt their own silk cocoon, effective in neutral pH @ room temp.
Of course, by the time we've hooked up a stomach with a pair of legs, we'll likely have already met the creature making the gigantic webbing, and have either deemed it friendly, unfriendly, or blood-able.
I think practicing a force sync on Mom's Red sounds like a really intriguing plan, but I would like to try practicing with modifying our form during astral projection first, since that can be done as a solitary endeavor. (For exactly how to do this, see my five-step plan outlined on the last page-- actually, I'll just copy-paste it here in a response to this comment.) Not now, though-- now, Mine should work on something that allows her to keep at least some attention on the power plant crew, should her assistance be required.
Meanwhile, peeking through the door first is prooooobably a good idea, yeah.
I propose we use changing our astrally projected form as a training program. Being limited in what we can use— not being able to visualize having certain items or powers, for example— has been a huge issue during force sync, and I suspect any kind of astral battle would manifest in a way that’s similar to force sync. So, let’s try training in steps:
Step 1: Change the clothing of our astral projection. Clothing is something that people change frequently and it’s part of how we present our identity but also not in any way inherent to it, so it’s an ideal place to start. I suggest changing our clothes to our nurse uniform, because that’s something we’re intimately familiar with. If we want to leverage emotional connections— which can be very powerful— we might try our bloody nurse uniform, because that’s what we were wearing when we met Michelle for the first time and brought Finch into the party. We could also try changing any items that we have on hand when we start the ritual into familiar items that we don’t have on hand, e.g. putting some bandages in our pocket before we start the ritual and then turning them into syringes.
Step 2: Add items that we didn’t have on hand at the start of the ritual. It could be very useful to have, for example, the blooded bandage-syringe-tentacles that we used in the hospital, and those are familiar enough to make a good thing to practice with.
Step 3: Change our astral body into something that we have physically experienced before. We could replicate an injury we’ve experienced, or maybe add the torso-ear back in. Or, we could try becoming Child!Mine, since we were a child once.
Step 4: Change our astrally projected form into something that we identify with, but have never physically experienced being. For example, Finch!Mine or Fuse!Mine or another Mine variant from Incident F.
Step 5: Modify our astrally projected form in an unusual/unfamiliar way. I suggest adding cat ears. (We don’t need to make them functional just yet, although if we get good at doing this, we could try.) Step 5b is, of course, showing off the cat ears to Tesla and Faraday ^w^
Step 6 would be to try all of this again in the context of a force sync.
I am 100% on board with this. +1.
I will also be unable to check the comic for some time, due to personal...trouble. Everyone, our beloved Mine and her friends are in your hands. I trust you to do what you have been thus far and keep her alive.
Bleach is a strong base. Lye is also a strong base. ( Alkaline )
Hydrochloric acid is a very strong acid, sulphuric acid is also very strong.
Spider web is protiens that like to exist close to neutral Ph, so either will damage the structure chemically. (Per google)
Don't mix acids and bases unless you know what you are going to get.
2.Go ahead and light the webs up. Spider webs don't burn they just shrivel.
What is Matter? Never mind.
The idea to sync with mom's red, something that is potentially far more dangerous, is considered immediately.
Strange world sometimes.
I would put mom's red at the end of the list, after syncing with everyone else this is the final test of our abilities.
Leave the web alone for now, there is a door we can go through.
Should we have no other choice then I recommend dissolving it in a way that doesn't harm the area(no fire for example).