Comic 1164 - Play with possession
Posted on 13th Jan 2019, 6:42 PM
in Like a Bullet from Behind
Average Rating: 5 (2 votes) /
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Author Notes:
You ask the girls if they might want to experiment with possession--you have a... vessel, of sorts, they could test it on.
"Sure!," Faraday replies. "It could be fun."
You walk the Mini Mine from Bunker A. It... takes a little effort to get the door open, but you manage it. You walk her to Bunker E.
"Oh!," Faraday exclaims. "It's that doll again!"
"Well..." Tesla pauses, "we thought it was a doll."
You explain that Mini Mine is... almost a person, but not quite. Normally, you have to control her with your mind.
"Like a doll made outta people stuff," Michelle says.
"That sounds delightful," Edison replies.
You suggest that if one of the girls wants to try possessing it, it... shouldn't be too bad.
Faraday steps up. She takes a deep breath (you're not sure she needs to breathe, but)
and she touches the golem.
You can perceive Faraday's energy beginning to pour into the body of the miniature you.
"So..." Faraday begins, "you said our touch... it's as if we're moving into people? So I suppose I just need... to..."
Faraday leans forward... and with a little effort, the electrical field that comprises her form follows the extension that had began to run into Mini Mine. A couple of small sparks jump across the air around the golem as Faraday... er... gets sorted.
Mini Mine, with Faraday inside, blinks.
"Oh, this is--"
Faraday pauses, her voice sounding like a much smaller version of yours.
"--this is so strange!," she giggles. "I'm so small now!"
She spends a few seconds toddling around, waving her tiny hands at the air.
"I'm rather heavy."
Michelle shrugs, smiling as she watches Faraday wander about in Mini Mine's body. "I mean... y'ain't used to havin' a body, it's gotta be different."
Mini Mine's lack of a... well, a fully functioning brain doesn't seem to be hindering Faraday any.
Which... sort of makes you think.
Are you just possessing your body, at this point? You know full well that your brain is damaged, but... you've gotten to a point where you can replicate, instinctively, the neurological impulses and other electrical brain activities whether your actual, physical brain can handle it or not.
You've fought yourself on who you are--the human body, or the alien blood therein. There... may be a third option, at this juncture. You're you because of your soul. Your astral form carries the same thoughts, memories, and feelings your normal, physical form does. It's the same impulses and signals going off, just under a different, more self sufficient mechanism.
You're not really sure what this means for you, potential wise. If you take a bullet to the brain, you'll still die--jettisoning your spirit requires a ritual. You can't just... hit the ejector button at a moment's notice. If your brain dies while you're inside, your brain activity--you, everything that makes you you--goes with it. You can't really escape to your ghost any faster than you can escape to the blood.
Not yet, at any rate.
Faraday slooowly pulls herself free of Mini Mine's body, kind of tumbling onto the floor as she spills out.
"We can possess people!," she concludes.
"I cannot believe we're just learning this," Edison replies.
"We... never really tried?," Tesla points out.
I wouldn't wager it to be an option against Nil though.
I suppose at any rate thinking about abstractions like this can only help with the upcoming encounter.
I think we might need to get her some ACTUAL counseling in the somewhat near future, so that she can maybe better weather anything in the future that would ordinarily cause her to flip out - I don't really want to think about what would happen if she lost Faraday or Tesla again. As an example, I suspect that Nil(penter) might be quite capable of doing permanent harm to a little ghost girl or two.
As far as Edison or one of the other girls possessing someone on our team - we could likely open a small portal to the red using what they are blooded with without killing them, worst comes to worst.
Guess the little thing is sturdier than I thought.
As long as Edison isn't bored, I think her sisters will be able to dissuade her from doing anything too disruptive. Let's see if we can get some toys, maybe magnetic building ones, and more reading material.
This seems like a good point to break off to begin practicing accelerating objects in the red.
We need a better understanding on what being the blood means before we can make use of this revelation I think, so let's shelve that for now.
Try to make mechs for our friends to pilot?
Or focus on spiritual training for everyone, hardcore?
Might want to warn Edison not to try that stuff against him so she won't do anything reckless.
Also, are we able to sync with a ghost that’s possessing mini-Mine? Because that IS a mind in a blooded body, technically.
Trading up a few big golems like the one we made to drive a car should result in a Big Mine.
Ghosts can possess Mini Mine, Red should be able to possess her and therefore a Big Mine too.
So the real question is just the same from a few days ago.
Red, do you want a body of your own?
I think blood noodles are better than golems, as they will be easier to produce given the limited timeframe than mechs and control systems. Even taking into account that Mine would need to control them herself, I think this is more likely to succeed. Constructing forms we can control remotely is the second highest priority, and only because accelerating lets us do it faster. Astral training could be powerful, but I think it's less likely to produce the results we need right now, so I'd rather not. Let's not get sidetracked. We do have an end of the world situation at hand.
Also, correct me if I'm wrong on this, but isn't there still a little bit of Nil inside Macland? I don't *think* we ever got around to completely fixing that. Supposedly Nil isn't able to do anything to Macland at the moment, but if we defeat Nilpenter he might be angry/upset enough to try to force it. Or maybe being linked with Carpenter let him realize a loophole to exploit or something. Either way, Nil might be able to attack Macland after we attack him and Carpenter, or maybe even during, which would probably be even worse.
In short, for a human body + blood combo, it means that the body has a constant backup. Body damage can be replaced by the red as long as the imprint continues to exist.
Further, in our fight with the worm, imprint was damaged, but body was not, and rest was all that was necessary to heal the imprint. This means that either backup can be restored from the other, assuming at least one exists.
It has shown to be able to be damaged (so the idea of an 'immortal soul' is just silly when that's seen), but they can outlive a body given the proper circumstances.
Further, in facing off against, Nil, we need to strengthen our "souls" aka our electrical impulses.
From this angle, we've ALREADY found a way to increase spirit power:
Project Odin. We've done it once. It may be worth it to try again. It's way more effective than just sitting around meditating as far as increasing the strength of a soul/spirit/imprint. Like forget that whole archaic spend months training a horse to get you there slightly faster, we have a private jet. Further, we can combine project Odin with the red. Move the project into a room in the red. Turn it on full blast. The imprint expands to fill available space, and the red is infinite. We wouldn't even need to compress down because we'd physically be wherever our imprint expands to. Mine's body/mind would still be the nexus, but we could leave Project Odin running forever powered by bio-electricity from the Red. This means that there's a reliable source of identity, the body going down doesn't mean we're down (it's more like losing a hand), especially if we move our brain (which SHOULD be mostly repaired by now) and main thinking processes into the red.
This means we still have a centralized point of identity, but it's constantly expanding with density instead of getting spread thin like Thale's; complete with a central point (focused on project Odin and our brain in the Red).
At this point, we're not "posessing" our body, but it's still completely part of us. But a regrowable part of us if lost, like a lizard that can regrow its tail.
First: I feel we should set a couple of ground rules for the ghost girls before we head out, rather than leave things to assumptions: First: experimenting with powers is cool and encouraged, but not on people with out consent, especially possession. Second: I believe we can safely let them roam about Bunker E (This one, which is the ghost bunker linked with Illworth) and, with somebody to go with them, Bunkers A and D. (Main and Mars respectively) If anyone else comes up with good rules to apply then feel free to add them in.
Then let's move on to our main projects for the day: begin experimenting with time shenanigans as described previously and by Limrix, starting out with affecting measurable thing inside the red while observing from out side, and progressing from there. Meanwhile, the rest of the team works on procuring watches, tinfoil hats, maybe magical music,
and surprise boxesfor trading via the Tradesman ritual and setting up a billboard message of Carpenter.