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LUNA-TERRA, EPISODE SEVEN: "Fuck space."/PLASTIC VS. METAL
Well, we failed to close the Observatory, and thus Cradle’s Graces has a bit of a lead in the struggle for space. Maybe not a dominant one though, depending on how the next day goes.
Hey, they actually gave us official free time! Gonna spend it in mails and comms, of course.
Day 7 Comms:
quote:
Yes, fights. Exactly.
You've really met your match.
In terms of troublesomeness, I think she has me beat.
Did you know her? Saturn? A generation three pilot.
I was only in charge of combat operations, and the third generation never saw combat, even against the Existential Threat.
Of course I knew her, though. She was one of Iapetus's top candidates.
He used a variety of methods to artificially jump-start extreme tidal sensitivity in otherwise unremarkable pilot candidates.
I thought none of it worked?
The first Ship-Selves had manual controls. To bridge the gap between your intentions and the energy of the Tidal Reactor is a complex language, a conversation between yourself and the machine with advanced mathematics. You use your hands, but it is a fundamentally mental approach.
Dr. Nix wanted to achieve communion through the soul.
Iapetus, however, felt that direct interface with the body would be the most efficient. Teach the body, and the mind and soul would follow.
It sounds dangerous. Also, made up.
It's all made up. There is nothing inherently wrong in using the body as a primary medium.
However, he inflicted the intentions of the Ship-Selves on the pilots, rather than teaching them to express their intentions outward.
He wanted subjects, not actors--it's impossible to read the rhetoric of his methodology any other way.
Was Saturn particularly resistant? Is that why she was downgraded from primary candidate?
No, she was intensely loyal. Like another pair of hands and eyes for Iapetus.
It was the opposite. She accepted all of those intentions perfectly. She was perfect.
You see the problem, don't you? A doll like that doesn't have the will to compete in tidal conflict.
...why are you telling me this?
He realized in the end, he had created someone as boring as he was.
Day 7 mail:
"B: Maybe they died because they were tired of us having the same fight over and over again forever?
A: Are you kidding? They lived for it.
B: Ahahaha. Man.
A: What a bitch.
B: I know, right?
B: I really miss them.
A: Me too. Wanna fight about it?
B: Man. Jeez. Sure. I get it."
Is this the long-awaited return of Pilot B?!
I kind of wish so many of these didn’t obfuscate who actually wrote them, but oh well.
Works out nicely that Saturn's mission is next on our particular schedule, since we just talked about her with Europa.
>LAUNCH
"No problem. I'm only worried about that trickster from Celestial Mechanics. No end of trouble."
"You don't sound too unhappy about that."
"I suppose that trouble will end soon, one way or another."
"It's simply recon this time. But it's on the near side of the Moon."
"And Earth military is there, with autonomous devices. They are in very high orbit, but they will descend rapidly if they notice gravitational variability."
"The Ship-Self is a shape intended for humans to exist in space, outside of Earth's pull. It isn't intended for war."
"The military is here with that most direct of intentions. So don't let them achieve it."
"Funny that the planetary sphere doesn't seem to think we're on the same side."
"We can't let it go as much as Cradle's Graces or Celestial mechanics can't."
"Earth has graciously allowed us considerable leeway in dealing with the closing of the space program on our terms."
"Broken and naive as they find us, Memorial Foundation International begged them to let us try to bring the wayward children back home bloodlessly."
"So we should be thankful that they are just watching, and not descending to rout us."
"Most of Earth would find any loss of human life to space unacceptable, but less and less of Earth considers us fully human."
"So the mission isn't just to protect any stragglers from getting themselves killed by the forces we're trying to save them from?"
"You don't think we can trust them."
"If I trusted them to handle it, I would not have led you, the children of space, to fight this conflict."
"There's a reason I am not having you interfere with the opening of the Gravity Well."
"Everyone will be in one place, at least. What Celestial Mechanics and Cradle's Graces hope will be their salvation could be ours too."
"We're on a tight deadline for something that might be that impossible."
"Win what's in front of you, and worry about that later."
We'll see exactly what "that machine" is soon, but I'm sure you can imagine. A very different robot from the ones we're used to.
EPISODE SEVEN CONCLUSION
I was a little surprised the thread decided not to go with the 
option, in a landslide no less! I guess a game like this attracts a different breed of goon than I'm used to. Or perhaps it just means Luna-Terra x Saturn is the real OTP?
Music - Electrotoxin (No Mercy)
"I get that a lot, but this time I'm not making any noise, so don't tell me to be quiet! You're the one flitting all over the place."
Even after nearly getting shot in the head, she can't help it.
"They're listening for gravity; vibrations are not the kind of noise that they care about. So keep moving and don't make noise in your heart."
"Don't make a sound in all possible senses. Don't make a sound physically, emotionally, or spiritually. Calm down. They don't like it if you're not calm."
"First of all, that makes no sense, and secondly I refuse."
"I don't think you should die, so think of something else to do instead, because they can kill you."
"Unlike me or any Ship-Self. So think about as little as you can, okay, and keep your Tidal Reactor's output to a minimum."
"You know, I'm absolutely super good at that. I have a lot of experience with it."
"So I'm absolutely not going to."
"Ha. Well, me too. That's why I suggested it."
"But you're right. I shouldn't have suggested it like that. How about this, instead:"
"Start by thinking about the Earth."
It doesn't look anything like a Ship-Self and bears no resemblance to a human shape, because there's no intention for its design to accommodate humans.
That's the opposite of what it does. It has nothing to express, only a function to perform.
"Probably thought too hard about Earth, but shh all the same."
"It's so creepy. That's supposed to represent Earth? It doesn't even look like humans made it."
"Really? I think it's rather appropriate it doesn't look human at all."
"They can detect an artificial gravity reactor, but they don't really know what to do unless they can lock a target and kill it, so if it can't verify what it is it won't do anything."
"It feels so heavy, suddenly. What is this?"
"I'm telling you, that's the Earth. Real gravity. It's very, very heavy. You can feel its authority? That's the gulf between us and a planet."
"I know that. I guess it feels really different to feel it in person."
"You were saying, a way to avoid it?"
"Do you remember being a normal kid, even for a little bit?"
"...Obviously. I was a really good kid, you know."
"It's checking your gravity against a script. And it thinks... sorry, it doesn't think. It just checks that variance."
"Aren't I pretty excessively varied by now?"
"Just wait there a second. It's hard to teach on the spot."
"It's not that I don't know the idea. Ugh. How are you so good at it?"
"It sounds like you kind of hate that I am."
"I promised I wouldn't die, but I'm mad I have to do this.”
It's easier to hide if their Ship-Selves are turned off, or as close to that as a Ship-Self can be. So they climb outside, to the cold lunar winter, to wait.
"I'm here."
"Are you doing okay?"
"No, obviously. I'm scared."
"Me too. So forget what I said. I hate doing that too."
"You warm, laying there?"
"You're not warm at all! But at least your boobs are soft."
"The autonomous unit doesn't like flirting, huh?"
"Okay. I can do that. That's not as bad."
"Is it that big a difference?"
"There is infinite difference between 'someday' and 'never.'
"I've extremely forgotten how to be patient but I know the difference."
"You're right. It really is important to never forget."
"It's still not going away."
"Yeah. It's a lot more patient than us, huh?"
"It's looking at you, too. Aren't you on their side?"
"So Memorial Foundation really is that stupid?"
"Maybe. In their eyes we're as bad as you."
"So why go back?"
"Because fuck them."
"They don't want anything to do with us. Memorial Foundation thinks it's optimal for humanity to return, but I think many humans think it would be just fine if we died."
"Aha! Spite I can understand."
"Ha. I can be petty too."
"I want back. Even if only for spite."
"We will bring them back a little taste of what it is like to be us."
"They're afraid that we might bring something back with us."
"And they should be, much more than they already are. That's what I want."
"Knowing that you're just as petulant and petty as me, and this weak too, makes me reconsider you."
"In a good way."
"It's wonderful."
"Oh. Huh."
"I said maybe."
"Don't get full of yourself."
"Sorry."
"There's no way we're getting any more than half of what we want, at best. You're only hoping for half of what you want, so I wonder if you'll even get that, if you get it."
"I don't expect things to go my way but, you know--"
"I hope you're coming along, wherever it is."
"Truer than you know, LT, whichever way we go, we're going together."
"You made me go upside down on purpose again."
"You're so good at evasion but scoring a direct hit is so easy."
"...You win."
"It'll be nice to see the end of every world but this one alongside you."
"Or not bored, but uncomprehending, and then it lost interest."
"But I'll stay here with you until it leaves for good."
"Because flight or fight, petty bitch to petty bitch, lab rat to upperclassman brat,"
(There appears to possibly be a missing line here, since it just ends with that comma. I had to double-check and the next line is indeed Saturn’s. She fills in the blank like only she can though.)
"Haha, what really? Do you maybe love me too?"
