Comic 1192 - Perceive through Mom's red
Posted on 16th Jul 2019, 7:41 PM
in Like a Bullet from Behind
Average Rating: 5 (2 votes) /
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Author Notes:
"I do not suspect so," says the giant mouth. From, uh, both ends. "Not as of yet. That much may take some time to process through."
You ask if they have any idea what syncing with them will be like.
"I have not the faintest hint," the mouths reply. "Your mother never did much resembling syncing, as far as I am aware--certainly not while I was a part of her. I have only second-hand knowledge from you all of what it's like normally, I can only deduce that it will not be the same syncing with me."
You ask if it's okay to try syncing now--just a regular one, not a forced sync.
"Of course."
You take a moment to talk to Dr. Finch. If you're no longer bound by the rules of blood quantity, maybe some of the other rules can be bent, as well. You request that Dr. Finch try to manipulate Willard--maybe you're not the only one with blood powers anymore.
"Not a bad idea," Dr. Finch replies. He nods, his smile building steadily. "Yes. Hm. I'll give it a whirl."
And then... you sync with Mom's red. Just the act of doing a regular sync feels a bit strange--it takes you just a little more effort, like you're trying to... find them, like their mind isn't where it would usually be in uh, theoretical not-space.
As soon as you connect, you feel a slight pressure inside your head--as if too much is squeezing into your skull. You check, quickly, and it's not a tangible physical difference... it's just a sensation, something in your thoughts, not really interacting with your body.
You try to perceive through Mom's red. At first, you get... a lot. Accidentally feeling the outside of them, the way you would normally sense through an object, you're a bit overwhelmed simply due to the creature's size--spanning a portion of the inside of the planet and ending in two entirely different rooms on two separate continents. Adjusting to perceive through Mom's red, the way you can look through the eyes of others... well, it doesn't help much.
Mom's red's perceptions are very different. You can see... you, and the meat room, and the bunker, and... the entire ship. Everything the entity is, inside and out, but the way they see is... off, like it's a wrong angle or there's another dimension involved. You can... sense that the bug in the basement is you, through the red, even if you hadn't known prior--Mom's red can perceive the connection itself, faintly. You actually get a little lightheaded trying to focus on so much at once from such an odd perspective, and have to snap back to your own perception.
Next, you focus a little more and, with the sync intact, you attempt bloodspeech.
It, too, is a strange sensation--as though your blood is moving, signalling, inside your veins. You can feel your connection to the red proper tighten, like pulling a rope taut. It makes you... aware of your physical link to your red in a way you don't normally get. Like you feel... attached, to yourself, tethered to something deeper in you.
It feels natural, somehow. Just... different.
You greet Mom's red.
They greet you back.
You... experience the response. You don't hear it, you just... know it in the surface of your red. Your brain actually lags a little behind.
Everyone in the bunker visibly shudders, winces, grimaces. Liz actually throws up her hands and leaves the room. You look around at everyone, about to suggest maybe stopping, but--
"Nah, keep goin'," Michelle says. "You need to do this."
"Not like we ain't been through worse, anyway," Caius adds. "We can take it."
Pierce looks up from his work to give a quick nod.
"It's, uh--" Fuse hesitates, "it's not that bad when YOU do it, just kinda weird feeling."
"Yeah," Michelle affirms, "no offense, big guy, but you gotta learn how to... talk softer? I dunno how that stuff works. Blondie's isn't painful, though."
You and Mom's red make small talk as you acclimate yourself to this method of communication. Words aren't... explicit, ideas are conveyed wholesale in a moment, fully grasped in an instant. There's no misunderstanding, no waiting for a full explanation before grasping the entire context, it all just... hits, and is.
It's also almost entirely devoid of emotion. Nothing stated in the blood feels proud, or satisfied, or smug, or... anything. It simply is. For how otherworldly and organic and natural it is, it also feels strangely mechanical. Things just... are. Information is simply delivered, more complete and detailed than you imagined possible but with no accent, no personality.
No humanity.
Less than a minute of it and you feel almost... frustrated. It's like eating food with no taste, or holding your breath, like you're subjecting yourself willingly to something so... hollow.
You strain... and use the bloodspeech to convey a hug. The idea of it. The emotion, the sensation that's supposed to be attached with it. You have to almost describe the emotion in one delivery but you do it, sending the perfect idea of a hug in a blood-contained informational system.
The mouth on the wall pauses.
Then tightens.
"I am beginning to understand more now," the mouth states in your normal language. "Your usual manner of speaking--the vocalization, the audio. It has always been different from the voices of those you ally yourself with. Your bloodspeech, too, has the fringes of something else... something foreign. Human. I think you cannot help but mix the two. You speak with humans with a tint of the blood, and you speak in blood with a tint of mankind."
The mouth considers for a moment.
"Your mother, notably, did not share these qualities. You have achieved... more, in terms of being human, than I believe she thought herself capable. Given what others have said, I suspect you may be more human than the majority of other humans. Your greatest strength is not your mixed biology nor your origins--those alone would not allow you to do all that you have done. Your emotions--your 'compassion', your 'trust', your 'hope'..."
The mouth... hesitates? Even with the sync, even with your current, temporary grasp of bloodspeech, you can't really read their emotion.
"They are elements I once disregarded. Evolutionary leverage for a weaker species at best, fictional concepts at worst. Holding onto them has given you more potential than even your mother could have dreamed. The amount that you care, against all reason, and how much you believe has given you incomprehensible power. Even in something as insignificant as the way you communicate, the person that you are is palpable."
Dr. Finch shakes his head, turning to you after a while of squinting at the walls. "I've been attempting to do anything blood-wise, but alas, nothing has come of it. I... almost felt like I had something for a moment, but it certainly wasn't control. I'm not sure what it was."
Fuse shrugs. "Might've just been the bloodspeak freaking you out."
* I'd like to push this feeling further, switching between brain and blood to get a better feel for both, and to see if there's a middle ground we can find in the switch.
* Take a second to let Zine's family know things are fine. They're probably panicking right now.
* We didn't finish trading up all our foil hats, someone should keep doing that, though not the same number as before.
I suppose that includes Macland, just to be safe?
If she can manage to translate a hug into bloodspeak, there may be hope that she could even find a way to add emotion/humanity to her blood so when she's being the blood, it's more like being just her.
Interacting with Mom's Red in this manner more may also help convey human emotion and thoughts more precisely, and make the eventual forced sync less alien.
Perhaps he should try something with the blood in Wilard that better aligns with his personality, wants, beliefs and feelings. Given the way the red works, this would probably get him closer to whatever he felt than continuing to try to control things.
Aside from that, maybe try to feed Mom's Red some sync data from the others, using Mine as a filter. Though, I woudn't recommend doing this right away, it's just something I want to keep in the back of the mind.
We should also have her materialize and boost her spirit with the ritual (at least) so that she can interact with the team more and get a stronger sense of self.
Externalizing her may offer just as many difficulties- and it leaves me wanting to know more about what Externalizing a Red actually means.
It's a good thing we have an Externalized Red to actually ask that question.
But now that I think about it, isn't synching basically instantaneous sharing of information, just like Bloodspeak? Is it possible to load a synch with information instantly in this method?
Then again, rereading the passage doesn't seem to suggest it works instantaneously. /But!/, if the current experimentation with Finch pans out (which it seems to be having some effect) it's entirely possible that the team could convey their expressions /much/ more clearly.
1) Finch wasn't 100% sure he could do it, but thought there could be a chance thus resulting in an initial, incomplete success. He should be encouraged to try again, as this sounds like an impressive first step.
2) Perhaps he picked up some idea of blood speech due to the current conversation and how much of the blood he has. Then he subconsciously managed a really quiet whisper to Willard. We could try to bloodspeak to Finch gently/quietly to see if he gets a similar sensation. This could end up being a less brain warping alternative to syncing for transferring information if it works. Maybe send him a hug packet to see if it works. :D
I don't usually post much (or... at all) but I just wanted to say that this is by far my favorite webcomic (and I read a lot!) Thank you MM for making such a great story!
Since bloosspeaking transfer data can it be done to super celphone(am i wrighting it korekt) like sending sms after blooding it and the idea strike me what will com out after trading bateris or toy lasers will it be litle fission reactor and laser cannon or what?
Ask Big Red if it can let you go through its memories of changing its shape, or of your mother's memories of using her abilities. Seeing their process could help us a lot.
Assuming she wants to, that is.