The parting gift for a new voyage

[srwu_mods]

"This... oh my goodness."

Even after we parted ways with Balmarians, it turned out the visit to their now-destroyed home planet was not entirely fruitless (not counting the part about saving Armana and her kind from certain doom). As promised, one of the Balmarian ships deposited an ancient artifact in Project Unification's care. A strange crystalline device, or perhaps it'd be more accurate to say - a chamber, with a device in the center.

"Ahem. Yes, this is very good." Inspector Jou removes and rubs his glasses, a strange gravity to his move.
"What you see is a device similar to the ones that, ages ago, created a weapon against the Lady. If the Discovery of Self was our finest soldier, then this is the forge that hammered out its sword. How it worked is: it took a mental imprint of a person, and gave it physical form. The Lady's mind operates in ways of stories, archetypes. With this, we can force her to realize people aren't just actors with roles to play. In that realization, her powers will be stripped away. And the more individuals the device takes an imprint of, the more powerful the resulting weapon will be."

"There is just one side effect."

"It's a machine that reads a person's mind, their feelings, impressions and memories: All of them. And the one operating the device - which would be me, would learn it all. I can keep a secret and won't repeat what I learn this way, no matter how noble, vile, crucial or insignificant the memories. But, I realize not everyone would be comfortable with this. My home planet aeons ago thought nothing of it and forced all of its people to submit to the imprint regardless. We believed some peoples' discomfort was a small price to pay for the greater good. I agree, but somehow... I don't think that's how you run things."


"Then there's no time to lose, is it? As soon as Commander Huffman and the others make sure the relic works as advertised and won't backfire on us, we'll start processing volunteers. Volunteers from within Project Unification for now - but I'll petition ESUN to allow access for outside people. Civilians, too. I'm not happy about the security risks involved, but..."


"Commander, please." Lee Linjun was hiding his face in his hand for the whole time, and now that he speaks up his voice is extremely strained.
"Is this a joke? I can't believe it! You're going to let outsiders sit in a queue next to this... device, and for what? To make the Lady realize we're all people? You'd think as an ancient, nigh omnipotent god being she'd figure it out already!"


"I assure you, I'm in no joking mood, Captain."


"Hmph, maybe." Lee stands up.
"But let's believe what you said is all true Inspector. Then I ask: if you know that much, if you used this 'weapon' to defeat the Lady... why is she still alive, then?!"


"..."

"I didn't say I managed to use it. The weapon was... lost. This means its effect is purely hypothetical, and we'll only get one shot at it. But I believe it will work."

Linjun mutters under his breath, obviously unhappy with the answer provided.

Do you wish to talk to the commanders gathered? Help with the plan in question - by volunteering or otherwise? Or perhaps: question it?

Comments

[empress_without_a_throne]

[A weapon to prove someone was more than just some cheap archetype?]

Count me in. I don't have any secrets that so horrible I can't go keeping them forever.

My life might make for a decent "story"... but it wasn't the only one going on around me.

[Plus, her predecessors had all lost their lives fighting against the Lady. What was showing everything she was to just one man compared to that?]

[srwu_mods]

"I'm glad to hear that. We'll begin shortly, and don't have any doubts: anyone's life works here."

"Consider two human beings who both lived very similar, unremarkable lives. Yet their own personal experiences and impressions make them wildly different. Unique. An exact anathema to the Lady's point of view."

[empress_without_a_throne]

Our experiences shape us at least to some degree. But that's not all there is to us either, because two people can experience the same things, and yet come out virtually as opposites...

[Wasn't that right, Sara?]

Whenever you're ready.

[actuallyselfish]

"It makes a certain amount of sense," Dido muses. "When you're fighting an entity that reshapes reality with their thoughts, the first thing you do is attack their thoughts."

She frowns. "But how does it create and express these mental imprints?" She asks Inspector Jou. "Through holographs, psychic signals, basilisk memes, or what?"

[srwu_mods]

"All your memories are copied and gathered in a crystal. The crystal's capacity is infinite as it grows and changes shape the more imprints it contains - the one from before was too large for anyone but a giant machine to lift."

"And when the time comes, the crystal can be shattered, all contained within let loose at your target. A human won't feel more than temporary confusion and perhaps overload of senses. But the Lady is no human."

[an_emulated_mind]

...Doomstar got to see all that and then some, so I'm fine with doing it.

Are you sure you'd want me, though? I'm...kind of a bitch.

[srwu_mods]

"It doesn't matter. We're not trying to show the Lady that people are nice, or even that people are good."

"What we're aiming for is to show her that people are unique. Everyone has a lifetime of experience and memories to them. She simplifies that into archetypes, roles in her stories. We'll make her realize how wrong she is."

[an_emulated_mind]

Well, if you say so. You're the expert here.

Oh-Though I should make a note. If this is some kind of trick, and you're going to be torturing this recording of me like Roko's Basilisk or something, I'm going to skin you alive.

Just so you know.

[srwu_mods]

"If I wanted to torture anyone, I'd have far more practical ways of doing that." The Inspector states dryly.

[majestic_keiki]

I'm in. The more people who do, the more effective it will be right?

[srwu_mods]

"That's correct. Hypothetically, it's not impossible that only a handful of peoples' memories would be enough. But the truth is, I'm not sure how many will it take. No one can be. Obviously there wasn't a chance to test this in action."

[majestic_keiki]

Right. You have mine as well. Or will after copying them, at least.