Link to article: T.K.O..
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[[>]] [[module Rate]] [[/>]] ++++ ##purple|Black Queen Empress attending## ++++ ##blue|Black Queen Rabathy signing on## ++++ ##green|Black Queen AC/LS “Little Sister” Sign M## ++++ ##red|Black Queen Alison Chao (No cool name yet, sorry)## ++++ ##d08000|Black Queen Kali reporting## ---- ++ Baseline ##purple|Material consists of matter from a previously infected spacetime construct. Typically inanimate object massing between 5 kg and 50 kg, occasionally living creature. If living creature, will be associated with the Foundation of the originating construct.## ##blue|I just want to be clear that “previously infected” is only a working assumption.## ##purple|The process appears to act as a virus. How can “infected” not be deemed appropriate?## ##blue|I’m saying “virus” is also a working assumption. We have no idea how this process works, and we have plenty of evidence that the objects highlighted in this entry are only part of the larger quasi-ritualistic process. We can’t afford to view this simplistically. More importantly, we don’t know that every instance of these objects/creatures came from a previously infected spacetime construct. We only know that many did.## ##red|Hey, can you relax a little bit? We’re all in this together in this cluster, you know. No need to jump down each others’ throats.## ##d08000|Relaxing is complacency. If this is an infection, we have to deal with it as such: quarantine and purging the disease.## ++ Prerequisites * ##purple|Existence of the Foundation as a unified trans-national entity## * ##purple|Existence of parauniversal technology## * ##purple|Restriction of said tech to the Foundation &/or the Global Occult Coalition## ##green|For what it’s worth, I’ve been finding many exceptions to this rule.## ##purple|Forward a list of such to us. We are greatly interested in these exceptions.## ##green|On it, but I’m still figuring out the pattern.## * ##purple|Existence of red-green colorblindness in at least 1% of the global population. We do not know why this is required, but we find it to hold true.## ##blue|You’re fixating on an irrelevant detail. This is coincidence, not an actual prerequisite. There just aren’t that many universes in this cluster that don’t have red-green colorblindness -- if any exist at all.## ##green|I don’t think it’s a problem to include irrelevant details. We never know what will turn out to be important, especially in a situation as strange as this. I’m still finding out more about this item as we speak -- it’s much more far-reaching than most things we’ve been dealing with. I think it’s tied into the Reality War mess some of the others are logging.## ##red|Maybe a link to the mirroring thing?## ##green|Maybe.## ##blue|Point taken, but can you please enter discussion into this log in an orderly fashion? This is the Prerequisites section, not Baseline.## ++ Utility ##purple|We believe this is acceptable as a weapon of last resort to destroy recalcitrant timelines.## ##blue|This is dangerous nonsense. We don’t even know how to use this weapon, or if it’s even a weapon, or even if it can be used without serious backlash on the user. For all we know, each timeline that was destroyed would have been destroyed anyway regardless of the presence of this apparent weapon.## ##green|You might be right about the timeline destruction -- I’ve seen evidence that the items here may be part of a ritual that acts as attraction, or ‘bait’ for something else. Possible outside entity, possibly a simple diversion of destruction to another target. Like… a deflection. Or maybe all the timelines in question would’ve been destroyed anyway, but this item/ritual serves to alter the order in which the destruction occurs. Or maybe not. But I can confirm this is a weapon, or at least part of a weapon. It’s described as such in documents that found their way into our wing of the Library.## ##blue|You can’t automatically trust a source just because it’s appeared in the Library. My point was that to try to use this apparent world-destruction mechanism would be a deeply foolish act on our part.## ##red|Can we… not… destroy timelines? Like, ever? Deliberately doing that is not what I signed up for.## ##green|I’m in agreement here, at least because I’m concerned about possible ritualistic backlash. We never know who or what is watching.## ##d08000|It would be idiotic for us to not at least keep the tool in our back pocket. I agree with Empress: a dangerous weapon is better than no weapon at all. If we’re caught with our backs against the wall, I’m pressing the nuke.## ##green|But we don’t really even know how to press it, and if we do press it, how can we be sure that we know what will really be happening? Even though we (theoretically) know how to extend this effect to a neighboring timeline, we have no idea how the effect was created in the first place. Why take this risk?## ##d08000|The same reason that Japanese pilots sacrificed themselves into American ships: If I fall, so shall you.## ++ Vulnerability ##purple|Unknown. Attempts to relocate the offending material seems to only taint the new timeline, rather than restoring the previously affected one. Removal of the offending material does seem to extend the period prior to dissolution, but the exact length is variable.## ##green|This makes sense with the “attraction” theory I’ve been examining. The offending material seems to be part of what the Hand in my timeline are calling a ritual focus. If the timeline is being destroyed directly, relocating the material should cause the ritual to fail, since there literally is no chance that the ritual itself has the “juice” to demolish two entire timeline for the price of one. But if the goal is to attract something else, which is demolishing timelines anyway… like bait, or a magnet, depending on the mechanism… then we’d expect to see this result, with the only theoretical limitation being dilution of the attraction mechanism without re-performing the actual ritual.## ##blue|I would advise against attachment to any particular theory before we have more concrete -- and less contradictory -- evidence.## ##green|It’s hard to test this further without one of us destroying more timelines, which I strongly recommend against.## ---- ++ Instance: Timeline M-37 ##green|Foundation Agent Melissa Hargrove (originating Timeline Q-17), along with personal tech. Timeline uses "steampunk" technology and Agent Hargrove's more developed tech allows her to perform as a cult leader in the southwestern United States of Europe. Fond of frequent and complicated cult rituals without appreciable thaumaturgical effect, mainly appear to be intended to impress her followers and reinforce their devotion.## ##blue|Please stop referring to rituals without more concrete proof.## ##green|Look, these are literal play-pretend rituals she's performing out in public and backing up with her tech. Not magic, but you can't deny that they're intended to //look// like magic.## ##blue|Very well.## ##purple|We find this personage tiresome and have no great desire to interact with her whatsoever. This timeline is of no use to us. Let it fall.## ##red|I met Hargrove once, or a version of her. She’s a real piece of work. I don’t want her dead, but yeah, better to knock her out and move her than try to reason with her.## ++ Instance: Timeline L-03 ##purple|There are far fewer paranatural organizations in this timeline, with the primary players being the Global Occult Foundation, MC&D Labs, and The Wonder Factory. Anomalous individuals are more openly accepted by the public and the GOF. Father has multiple cybernetic implants and we suspect may have neural enhancements. Do not approach. The offending material consists of an iron ingot currently under the control of MC&D Labs.## ##red|I snuck into the Labs to get a look at the ingot. They’re running a lot of tests on it, but it seems pretty normal, all things considered. If they weren’t devoting so much effort to it I would’ve just ignored it. Makes me wonder how many timelines are affected and we just haven’t IDed the material.## ++ Instance: Timeline P-99 ##purple|A very unstable timeline, there are more than 5000 anomalies known to the Black Queens located here, placing this universe in the 97th percentile of occurrences. All of its paranormal groups call themselves variations on chess-related terminology, with the Foundation equivalent called The Red Bishops, the Global Occult Commission called the White Knights, the Horizon Initiative called The Pawns of God, etc. The offending material is an anomalous, but harmless pizza box, currently in the possession of the Red Bishops. We suspect this was deliberate in order to put it under the protection of this timeline’s Foundation.## ##red|Wait, like ANOMALY anomalies, or stuff people arbitrarily consider anomalies?## ##green|I know about this one too, and I can confirm. We’re not talking magic, or misunderstood tech. Anomalies messing with the fabric of reality.## ##red|Okay, gotcha.## ##green|Honestly, I’m surprised this one hasn’t disintegrated on its own already. The instability is so severe that the Bishops actually devised a way to directly measure the degree of decay and created machinery to reinforce local reality. I’d avoid going to this one at all. Who knows when it’s finally going to give up the ghost?## ##d08000|Agreed. Let this ticking bomb go off and burn this whole place to the ground.## ##red|You don’t have to put it that way. They’re still people in there.## ##blue|Are you disagreeing?## ##red|No.## ##green|Here’s something that’s been worrying me: does the instability have anything to do with why the reality was infected, and why it’s collapsing? Or if it were completely stable, would it have died anyway?## ++ Instance: Timeline Q-165 ##red|This one’s kind of weird. The US government acknowledged the existence of anomalies, but also outlawed most anomalous groups as terrorist organizations. The UIU’s in charge of most things here, if you can believe it.## ##d08000|Dangerous. I don’t like this kind of hierarchy spreading.## ##green|Agreed. Public knowledge of anomalies, yet oppressing them? Really matches a lot of worst fears. By the way, I did some wandering here, and found that the trigger (ritual focus?) is a box of dirt.## ++ Instance: Timeline Z-24 --##purple|This timeline features a syncretic faith devoted to the worship of anomalies as divine gifts. We should tread lightly here, as the main temple of the United Church of the Chosen Heralds is built around a chest filled with infected dirt.##-- ##purple|All Ways to this reality have been sealed. Consider this timeline destroyed.## ##red|If we trace back the history of when that chest showed up, that’s just under ONE YEAR until the whole timeline got erased. That’s the fastest one yet. Definitely not ominous or anything...## ##green|I’m wondering if the box of dirt is a consistent trigger. Offhand, the obvious ritual association is gravedirt, which exists in every single timeline here where I was able to check. Gravedirt may be a universal magical/ritualistic element in every single one of the timelines that can be affected. Have we found anything consistent in the other triggers or possible ritual focuses yet? Besides association with the Foundation.## ##blue|Do we have any evidence for a gravedirt ritual association, or is it just a theory?## ##red|Possibly they’re using dirt because everyone’s got a lot of dirt. And it gets everywhere. Hard to un-taint a timeline if there’s dust in the air. Though that makes me think, why not just use an airborne bioweapon? Maybe there’s something special about dirt?## ##green|For what it’s worth, ritual magic (and similar powers) are much better performed on earth than on air. You can make earth barren, poison waters, but it’s much harder to poison air via ritual (as opposed to direct methods like poison gas). Humans historically haven’t intuited poisoned air as well, which affects how local powers work. But yes, this is all just a theory from my end.## ++ Instance: Timeline J-341 ##blue|This timeline doesn’t seem drastically atypical, but I added the entry because I’m fairly certain that the ritual focus in this case is a Pembroke Welsh Corgi living in Portland. It may be useful to see how this process proceeds with a living trigger.## ##d08000|Interesting. Does it need to be alive for the corruption to spread?## ##red|Oh god...please tell me you’re not thinking of killing this poor dog.## ##d08000|Better a dog than a whole timeline. Don’t be an idiot.## ##purple|We agree. Although it might be useful to see a case study of whether a living trigger produces a faster or slower countdown. We already have a rough estimate of how long inanimate triggers take. We believe this would also be useful in the case of M-37.## ##blue|Agreed. How is this even a question?## ##green|I agree. I’m sorry,## ##red|@Alison,## ##green|I understand where you’re coming from, but we’re going to have to kill the dog. I don’t think it will work, but we have to try, if billions could be saved. It’s also better to test on a non-sapient person (or animal, if you prefer) than a sapient person. I’ll do it if I have to.## ##d08000|I killed the dog. No appreciable change in the corpse’s properties or status as the focus of any potential ritual. Timeline destruction still in process. Possible coincidence, but the Way I had planned to use as my exit no longer functions.## ++ Instance: Timeline A-930 ##purple|Enough of this. It is past time we took action.## ##blue|Please elaborate.## ##green|Was this entry blanked? I’m just catching up. I see there were a few updates to this in the catalog, but I can’t find the full version of the entry.## ---- ++ Catalog Entry Update ##green|Hey, what happened here? My last set of updates didn’t go through. Entry seems to be reverted back to an earlier version. No one’s responded since J-341 updates, except the blank entry for A-930. Do we have any new updates? What happened to everyone? Hello? Checking in again, in case anyone’s here.## ##red|Oh, shit, you’re still here. I think I’m the last one around besides you. I figured it out. I’ll send you something in a minute.## ##green|What’s going on? This isn’t the typical way we operate.## ##red|Hahaha, you’re telling me. Look, not sure how to say this. The others are gone or dead. I’m not sure it matters which.## ##green|I don’t understand the context for these files you’ve sent me. What’s Project Palisade? RI Class event? What’s all this stuff about the mirror invasion? I remember you mentioning something about it, but we never followed up. What’s the mirror invasion have to do with any of this?## ##red|I don’t think this one’s ever getting resolved, Little Sister. I’ve sent you everything I have, but I don’t think you should bother with it. Just get out of this cluster while you still can. Wish I could. Probably gonna go get myself killed now. Better than cooperating with those pricks. Signing off now. Good luck, I mean it. <3## ##green|What are you talking about?## ##red|@Alison,## ##green|are you still there? Alison?## [[include :scp-wiki:component:license-box |author=thedeadlymoose, weizhong, and Drewbear]] [[include :scp-wiki:component:license-box-end]]