Author Topic: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to  (Read 52366 times)

Offline oslecamo

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Re: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to
« Reply #100 on: November 08, 2018, 09:38:24 AM »
"Don't even know the guy. Not any more than the next person. Sorry, I may have missed several big moments in recent years..... Been, uh, busy and all. I don't feel like I'm treating this Dark Force thing with as much seriousness and the rest here."
:”Too few people do. Indeed there’s a lot of other problems in the galaxy, and Dark Force often bids its time behind the scenes, only showing itself when it believes it has no other option.”

He reaches to headpat Nei and give it some scritches for good measure, which actually looks kind of adorable, though it might be a little embarrassing for Nei since he's scary good at them.
Nei closes her eyes and purrs like a kitten once more.

:”…No wait, dark force!”

"Hang on, sweetie, daddy's doing a little math in his head.

I don't know why yet, but the way past and future are getting mixed up in our current timeline is starting to feel more and more intentional. Either someone is crazy enough to use Dark Force as a catalyst for something bigger, maybe as a trigger... or someone wants all that rage and conflict here. It could even be Dark Force itself trying to gather strength. We know for a fact it has resurfaced throughout history no matter how many times it has been defeated; maybe it's looking into a way to gather all of its strength from multiple timelines at once in order to crush us once and for all. But I don't think it could do that alone."

: “King Lashic and his forces. The entire earthling race thought they could control Dark Force through the Pandora’s box. The floating city of Lashute and their Rulakir king who lived for 1000 years on hatred. Zio’s cult. Kuran the possessed satellite. Mother Trinity’s rebellion. Kuhmhan the summoner. Dark Falz hosts Elder, Apprentice I, Apprentice II and Double to name a few. “

:”So, when did Dark Force ever act alone Master Hugo? It always had minions, some thinking they were the ones in charge.”

Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to
« Reply #101 on: November 08, 2018, 06:54:41 PM »
"People should learn to stop trying to control forces they can't understand."

Offline Kuroimaken

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Re: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to
« Reply #102 on: November 08, 2018, 07:26:00 PM »
"Murasaki, you just earned yourself a smack on the head for missing the point completely.

Here's the thing: Dark Force may have taken on new forms, but it was consistently the same entity throughout. The simple fact that it has changed depending on who it controlled and which methods it used each time suggests that it's learned from its mistakes. And yet it sees a consistent pattern of failure because each civilization adapts to fight it too. 

Now bear with me because we get a little bit hypothetical, but what if it is intentionally manipulating time so that it can analyze the exact reason for its defeat and immunize itself? If it can get everyone that ever defeated it at each other's throats, hey, bonus.

If that's how it goes, we have another item on our list besides stopping a potential future genocide war on all organickind.."
« Last Edit: November 08, 2018, 07:47:46 PM by Kuroimaken »
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Offline oslecamo

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Re: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to
« Reply #103 on: November 09, 2018, 03:45:45 AM »
"People should learn to stop trying to control forces they can't understand."
: “But wouldn’t that mean that people would’ve never started using fire and so still living in dark cold caves and neither me nor you would’ve been created?”

"Murasaki, you just earned yourself a smack on the head for missing the point completely.

Here's the thing: Dark Force may have taken on new forms, but it was consistently the same entity throughout. The simple fact that it has changed depending on who it controlled and which methods it used each time suggests that it's learned from its mistakes. And yet it sees a consistent pattern of failure because each civilization adapts to fight it too."
 
: “Dark Force may end defeated each cycle, but it still succeeds on leaving a long trail of ruined civilizations if not whole planets destroyed in its wake. There’s plenty of ruins in the galaxy to testify that.”

”Now bear with me because we get a little bit hypothetical, but what if it is intentionally manipulating time so that it can analyze the exact reason for its defeat and immunize itself? If it can get everyone that ever defeated it at each other's throats, hey, bonus.

If that's how it goes, we have another item on our list besides stopping a potential future genocide war on all organickind.."

:”An interesting thesis, which makes me question if this Dark Force in this scenario wouldn't be an ‘evolved’ version from many future cycles, and thus much more dangerous than its previous iterations, growing stronger with each defeat. In that case getting the ones that defeated it before to stop fighting each other and join our cause may be the best path to success. More important, this way I would be able to experience the pure bliss of serving queen Alis.”

:”Don’t you also need to help get the colonizers down on the planet? Word on the ship’s streets from my pirate contacts is that unrest is rising. This place wasn’t designed to hold so many people in orbit forever, they were supposed to have been dropped to the ground right away. And with Mao missing, the administration bots may turn on the culling protocols sooner than later.”

Offline Raineh Daze

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Re: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to
« Reply #104 on: November 09, 2018, 08:47:53 AM »
"That's like saying that every time someone tried to start a fire, they burned themselves and their whole family. How fire behaves is knowable. Ancient forces we only know about because they keep leaving ruins around don't seem that easily used."

Offline oslecamo

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Re: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to
« Reply #105 on: November 09, 2018, 09:37:41 AM »
:”There’s a reason why every civilized world teaches their children to not play with it. Before sentience existed there were millions of years of the living  being burned alive. Even in modern cities fire remains one of the top dangers, even in the most utopic worlds it is the one danger remaining and those that fight fires are considered the greatest heroes there."

:"Now some theories follow that analogy, claiming that Dark Force is the manifestation of building up of negative energy of the living, more in particular our dark emotions. Rage, sadness, anger, fear, hate. Many claim to understand them, yet many let their lifes be led by such negative emotions as well. Yet they have their uses. Rage can be a powerful weapon, fear is a powerful defense mechanism, sadness can help find happyness, hate can lead to motivation. Regardless, Dark Force itself always appear where such feelings are more intense."

:"So if those theories are correct, the only way to fully destroy Dark Force would be to fully supress said negative emotions. But if you eradicate all negative emotions from people… Would they still be people? Some civilizations tried to build AIs to find an answer to that question, and the only result were armies of rampaging robots intent of genociding or assimilating all living lifeforms.”

Offline Kuroimaken

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Re: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to
« Reply #106 on: November 09, 2018, 10:15:19 AM »
"Philosophy aside, the fact we've had to destroy Dark Force each time means we have devoted precious little time to understand how it works. Starving it of negative emotions to assemble from is certainly one method of dealing with it permanently, but then so would preventing its ability to assemble in the first place. For one thing, we don't know for a fact how many races contribute to its creation - it could be a galaxies-wide phenomenon for all we know.
My guess it that it doesn't come out all at once. It builds strength over time. That's why whenever we encounter it, it has already infiltrated each civilization's society one way or another. Which means there must be some place, or places, that it uses to gather its strength. If we can devise a way to find such places, we can find ways to prevent it from rising.

A naturalist might argue that Dark Force emerging each time is a part of a natural cycle we must see to, preventing civilizations from growing too big or somesuch nonsense. There are even those that theorize we created Dark Force intentionally as a way of getting rid of our ugliest energies. I call bullshit on both."
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Offline oslecamo

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Re: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to
« Reply #107 on: November 09, 2018, 07:31:59 PM »
:"Yeah I'm not buying any of those two last theories either. And even if they were true, then we should change things."

:"Considering what we've seen of Ragol and information gathered, it seems highly probable that Dark Force is using the planet as one of those places to gather its strength. Further on-site investigation is required."

Offline Kuroimaken

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Re: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to
« Reply #108 on: November 12, 2018, 03:59:21 PM »
"There is also a disturbing pattern of discovering ruins where Dark Force once slept...

Wait. Dark Force has destroyed a number of civilizations, correct? What if each one is a potential manifestation site? Each time he breaks some great civilization apart, he might become capable of reappearing in one of those. If that's the case, we need to check on each one to make sure he doesn't have a spot to 'jump' to. Gathering enough energy from the past and future to come back... Dark Force may be planning on using each of these manifestation sites all at once!

We don't have the sheer manpower necessary to cover all of them, though. We're going to need help... if at all possible, from someone who makes extra help.

Ladies, I think we should confer with Chalybus."
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Offline oslecamo

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Re: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to
« Reply #109 on: November 13, 2018, 09:21:22 PM »
:”I agree with any plan where somebody else does the hard and dangerous work.”

:”Sshhh, they haven’t noticed us yet!”

:”Yeah, but we still need to get old man Lotushand to remove those bombs he put in us.”

:”...Hugo, you can explain those three later and I don’t mind to keep doing business with Chalybuys, but you better not planning on making any more of my sisters. Already enough of those running around.”

:”There appear to be no ruins in Ragol’s surface. Shouldn’t you locate those first?”

Offline Kuroimaken

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Re: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to
« Reply #110 on: November 14, 2018, 08:55:08 AM »
Hugo sighs. "You know ladies, the SOP for turning enemies into assets at the academy was to wipe their memories clean, reprogram their minds, and then clone the resulting dolls. You should really count yourselves lucky that I find those methods particularly distasteful and that you're useful enough for me to keep you out of jail. Believe it or not, the bombs are there for your safety, not mine. Anyone who cares to look into why you're working for me will find that blackmail is a lot easier to overlook than actual loyalty. I may be older by newman standards, particularly first generation, but none of you are newmans.

So I suggest you think loooooong and hard about your life choices. Particularly within earshot.

Nei, I would never make more of your sisters. For one thing, I know your opinion on the matter, and I respect it. For another, after seeing how your head got turned around by that video footage, I'm afraid they could be manipulated against us... or worse.

As for the ruins on Ragol... not necessarily, Murasaki. There's enough attention on the planet's surface that someone else is bound to find them first. If previous patterns are any indication, by then the current incarnation of Dark Force will start moving in earnest. If anything, we should avoid touching Ragol as much as possible for the time being."
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Offline oslecamo

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Re: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to
« Reply #111 on: November 16, 2018, 10:38:00 AM »
"You know ladies, the SOP for turning enemies into assets at the academy was to wipe their memories clean, reprogram their minds, and then clone the resulting dolls. You should really count yourselves lucky that I find those methods particularly distasteful and that you're useful enough for me to keep you out of jail. Believe it or not, the bombs are there for your safety, not mine. Anyone who cares to look into why you're working for me will find that blackmail is a lot easier to overlook than actual loyalty. I may be older by newman standards, particularly first generation, but none of you are newmans.

So I suggest you think loooooong and hard about your life choices. Particularly within earshot."


:”But that’s the thing, with your bombs in our heads then it’s much harder for anybody else to blackmail us, and our value as prisioners becomes basically null.”

:”Plus we already were brainwashed and cloned. Multiple times. It’s not that bad. Got to glimpse some records of what I went through before and really glad I could get rid of all those old scars, both mental and physical.”

:”Honestly if you’re just keep us locked we would rather you just wipe our minds us and let us go to start from scratch. And every 5 brainwashes we get a 5% discount in our next photon gear purchase and a a shiny sticker! ”

:”Or give us a new mission!”

”C’mon docinho, let them help.”

"Nei, I would never make more of your sisters. For one thing, I know your opinion on the matter, and I respect it. For another, after seeing how your head got turned around by that video footage, I'm afraid they could be manipulated against us... or worse."


:”You may be surprised with how hard it’s for supposedly smart minds to learn that last bit, so hearing you say that up front is good.”

"As for the ruins on Ragol... not necessarily, Murasaki. There's enough attention on the planet's surface that someone else is bound to find them first. If previous patterns are any indication, by then the current incarnation of Dark Force will start moving in earnest. If anything, we should avoid touching Ragol as much as possible for the time being."

:” I’m afraid that is not up to you to decide. Maia 279 hired you to investigate Ragol’s surface. If you cancel or fail this contract by pursuing something else, then Maia 279 will take another course of action. Either less skilled mercenaries or launch a full bot assault force or just drop the colonists regardless of remaining risk, either scenario would not bode well. Similarly my mistress wants to colonize Ragol’s surface as well, and you have taken a contract from her too. Failing or canceling it will make her take more drastic measures, and by drastic measures I mean a full force einst drone assault.

Not to mention Red Ring Rica is confirmed to be down there too, and she may cause even more havoc than either Maia 279 or my mistress if left unsupervised.”

Offline Kuroimaken

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Re: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to
« Reply #112 on: November 16, 2018, 01:03:09 PM »
"That was SO not my point, but there is no use in pointing that out to you.

Alright. We have records of Red Ring Rico having met Dark Force before... possibly even being taken over. So if we're going looking for those ruins, we absolutely musn't let her get to them first. I want you guys to shadow her and report her movements to me. If it seems like she's close to finding the ruins, you're going to need to provide a distraction to throw her off-track."


He turns to Nei. "If you didn't care the least bit about me, you wouldn't have gotten as angry as you did by the acts you were shown. I'm not letting someone use your love to get at us through me ever again."

Smooth like a piledriver to the gut.

"Speaking of your mistress, Murasaki. How capable are her einst drones when searching for delicate intel? I need a survey of  the ruins left by Dark Force's previous incarnations. Seems like a job that could be done particularly well by a hivemind."
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Offline oslecamo

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Re: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to
« Reply #113 on: November 16, 2018, 09:45:26 PM »
"Alright. We have records of Red Ring Rico having met Dark Force before... possibly even being taken over. So if we're going looking for those ruins, we absolutely musn't let her get to them first. I want you guys to shadow her and report her movements to me. If it seems like she's close to finding the ruins, you're going to need to provide a distraction to throw her off-track."
:”Sure thing!”

:”Red Ring Rica was last seen at the central dome area, right?”

:”Being a distraction is our speciality.”

"If you didn't care the least bit about me, you wouldn't have gotten as angry as you did by the acts you were shown. I'm not letting someone use your love to get at us through me ever again."
:”That’s sweet, but I think I would’ve got pretty angry at somebody who was helping awaken Dark Force and all the other things shown in those videos. Red Ring Rica's gonna get an harsh scolding the next time I see her at least.”

"Speaking of your mistress, Murasaki. How capable are her einst drones when searching for delicate intel? I need a survey of  the ruins left by Dark Force's previous incarnations. Seems like a job that could be done particularly well by a hivemind."
:”Unless you want them to find delicate food, my mistress’s drones are pretty terrible at scouting by themselves.”

Offline SorO_Lost

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Re: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to
« Reply #114 on: November 23, 2018, 10:22:29 AM »
Having mostly hung out pulling exotic foods from a snatchal and eating it Baha listens to how the candyman Hugo is pretty much Miss Pandora (which would explain his soft skin and love of sweets). Working on her own theorycraft her mind extends to the universe and ponders the meaning of it all. Maybe there is another part of the story that wants to be told.

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Offline oslecamo

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Re: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to
« Reply #115 on: November 25, 2018, 02:48:18 AM »
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Offline oslecamo

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Re: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to
« Reply #116 on: November 26, 2018, 08:18:52 AM »
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« Last Edit: November 26, 2018, 08:20:45 AM by oslecamo »

Offline Kuroimaken

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Re: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to
« Reply #117 on: November 30, 2018, 02:11:37 PM »
"We're not hurting for lack of options. We clearly need more people in order to gather as much information as we can.

Katchan, how do you feel about hanging out with your likely future self for a little heart to heart about the future of the galaxy?"
Kami darou ga akuma darou ga, ore no michi ni tateru mono NASHI!!

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Offline ketaro

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Re: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to
« Reply #118 on: November 30, 2018, 10:53:43 PM »
Katherine cringes ever so slightly at what Hugo calls her by. "Ah, yeah, sounds good. A bit of self reflection, yeah?" she smirks.

Offline Kuroimaken

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Re: High End IC Episode II-At the End of the Time Which Can Never Be Returned to
« Reply #119 on: December 01, 2018, 12:51:43 AM »
Hugo smiles at that reaction from Katherine, and he can't help but smirk towards Murasaki.

His look clearly says "See how she feels? Get cheeky and that's gonna be you."
Kami darou ga akuma darou ga, ore no michi ni tateru mono NASHI!!

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