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Action: I finish the story.
Anomaly Classification Program, object #3197: The Hive Cult
Object Classification: Contained
Containment Procedures: ACP-3197 is currently being contained inside Annabelle Lee's mind. She is not to utilize the cognitohazard under any circumstances. In the event that this cognitohazard is released, an information quarantine is to be established in any affected area, followed by federation-wide scans over a period of at least 1 month to ensure that the cognitohazard has not spread.
Description: ACP-3197-A is an anomalous and variable group of sentient creatures that share a singular mind. To be precise, their brains are physically merged into one, developing a substructure in the brain that is quantum-entangled with a similar substructure in all other affected individuals.
ACP-3197-B is a word, Noctis 32:28, when said by an entity affected by ACP-3197-A. ACP-3197-B can always be identified as having a text color of green, regardless of the context of how the word is transmitted (i.e. if the word is spoken aloud, the listener will somehow know that ACP-3197-B is green). A subject (ACP-3197-C) that hears this word will, after a short incubation period (note: the length of this period appears to be decided by ACP-3197-A, and the longest known incubation period is 1 hour), become added to ACP-3197-A.
Individuals not affected by ACP-3197-A that say Noctis 32:28 are not transmitting ACP-3197-B, and will not spread its effects.
When this occurs, ACP-3197-C's mind will become directly linked to ACP-3197-A. Any mind exposed to ACP-3197-A is overwhelmed by the other minds in the collective and assimilated. ACP-3197-A will thus, over time, assimilate all affected individuals into one singular hive-mind entity.
Incident Report 3197-1: ACP-3197-A was first discovered as a cult inhabiting the remote colony of {REDACTED}. They expanded by kidnapping individuals in the colony, then exposing them to ACP-3197-A until they were assimilated. After growing sufficiently large, they became able to convert larger groups, including several militia groups sent after them. Then, they were able to exploit telepathic command links on a larger invasion force to assimilate the force's commanding officers and begin expanding exponentially. They were only stopped when Annabelle, leader of Team Omega, was able to {REDACTED}, to shatter the hive-mind.
"Whatever this Anomaly was, it was turning individuals into single-minded drones. Now, it was possible for this to be the result of an incredibly powerful psion, if not for the fact that it had been transmitted not only through telepathic contact, but also through a written word."
"With a hive-mind of this scale, our only other hope would be to kill every individual in it, something that would be complicated by the fact that they were spreading on other worlds. I had to engage them directly if I wanted to stand a chance."
"I initiated a focused assault against one of them, pushing against their hive-mind with everything in my power. I did so much, in fact, that the particular individual I targeted had a mental overload, and their head exploded."
"It seemed that each individual in this hive-mind had a limited mental capacity, and was being bolstered by the rest of the collective intelligence. That wasn't very helpful, however, given that detonating someone's head from mental overload was actually really taxing on my energy. In fact, given how it prevented me from assaulting them, it was actually a bad thing."
"I attempted to blitz one of the individual's brains before the rest of the hivemind could support, but was unsuccesssful. It was almost like it was a single mind physically spread across multiple bodies.
The rest of my team managed to secure the area against attackers, and captured one of them for me to experiment on. At this point, out of desperation, I attempted one last move. I let them win."
"I cut contact with the rest of my team, then initiated an offensive telepathic contact on the captured drone, then switched defensively, The hive-mind, seeing their chance, used the telepathic link to deploy their cognitohazard, managing to transmit the message Noctic 32:28 through the telepathic link. Oddly the message was somehow green, despite not taking place on a visual realm. I still can't figure out how that worked, other than the obvious factor that this was an Anomaly."
"To an outside observer, nothing unusual occured. But inside my brain, a connection began to open, linking my mind to the rest of the hive-cult, a development that would be nearly undetectable for someone without my level of mental fortitude. It took almost a minute for this connection to develop fully, before it was utilized."
"Almost instantly, a barrage of mental assault came in, from what appeared to be the entire hivemind. Much of it was the psychic equivalent of a brute-force attack, but with the hivemind having gained control of members of the Ethereal Legion, it was augmented by trained psychic attacks. Had the hivemind actually looked into the memories or knowledge of said Ethereal Legion members, it would've realized that it was making a fool's mistake."
"Well, they almost weren't making a mistake. With how this Anomaly operated, defending against it was less like blocking an intruder and more like trying to suppress thousands of unified alternate personalities, the situation that normally occurs after the enemy's breached your first mental barriers and actually gotten control of parts of your mind, a situation that I had almost never dealt with. Still, though my initial barriers couldn't hold, I was still able to stabilize here."
"Then, I initiated the counterattack. One of my greatest abilities the ability to not just block almost any mental attack, but reflect it, returning the attack to its source with some modification (at least, when I don't just absorb the spent energy for other purposes). I reflected the effort they had spent on their initial assault back into the rest of the hive, in what amounted to a denial of service attack.
I didn't fight the hivemind directly, instead I disrupted the links between each member of the hive, overwhelming them for an instant with a sudden surge of energy into the entire hivemind that almost caused my own head to explode from handling all of it. The individual drones of the hivemind began to shudder, before slowly recovering."
"So, the link between minds in this anomaly was the weak point. Maybe, if I could sever the links, I could free individuals from the hive, reducing the hive's power in the process. As the hive initiated a counterattack (which I easily blocked, again), I searched through the hive, picked out individuals, and sent a small, calculated burst of energy into them, just enough to fry the portion of their brain where the anomalous brain-link occured with only negligible damage to the rest of their brain. The targets of this were shocked out of the hive, their bodies falling into a coma due to having no will left (their individuality having already been eliminated by the hive cult)."
"I continued this for almost ten minutes, freeing a few hundred individuals from the hive. I attempted to focus on those individuals who were outside the colony and attempting to spread it further, but with mixed success. The hive continued to attach new membbers to it through the anomaly, and I was just barely keeping pace."
"Then, in their mad race to spread and assimilate, the hive connected a member of the Ethereal Legion, along with a separate telepathic network of at least a hundred psions. They thought they were making a last stand, but with my aid, they would be able to turn the tide of this assimilation battle. I disrupted the hive and forced most of their assimilation efforts back onto me, while also managing to send a message to the Ethereal Legion instructing them in how to cut out members of the hive cult. They responded with a more optimal method of this psychic attack, capable of cutting out sections of the brain in a far more calculated manner that used as little energy as possible. They also launched these assaults themselves, along with me, and the hive quickly began to lose members faster than it could expand. Over the next hour, the hive was all but obliterated."
"In the end, I became the last member of the hive-cult, but only in the technical sense (given how it was no longer a hive or a cult, but rather an anomaly limited to inside my head). The incident also sparked reforms in the ACP organization, to detect anomalies sprouting up before they could almost grow out of control and take humanity with them. This incident proved that even with a massive amount of technological advancement from the old days, the universe was never completely safe from anomalies."
Now, under normal circumstances I would not distribute this anomaly, even in combat. It's not the most efficient means of initiating psychic combat, and it's dangerous to spread. However, I have made two exceptions. The first was to distribute this effect to the rest of my team for the sole purpose of allowing them to be recognized as a single individual for the purpose of gaining Player powers (making an elaborate setup just to do so).
It may have also affected the other players, but that's less of an issue, given that we've already linked minds to form a singular mental defense. If anything, it would just force you to go up against all of us at once, instead of just me. (Don't worry guys, as soon as this is over I should be able to disentagle everyone)
(ACP-3197 cannot affect Game Masters such as Moniker, due to reasons).
ES mentally summons the Engage-class War Robot in the Dungeonscape. It only has moderate health and minor defences, but packs a very respectable offensive punch in return.
I translate the note using my universal translator which I definitely now have.
5 dollars says the chest is a mimic.
A truly inspiring story from Urist helps me keep high spirits in these dank depths.
Action:
Eyowe continues work on the Supersonic Shooter, settling for improving its offensive capabilities. He wants it to be able to punch through tough metal with no problem.
...at this point, it looks like Eyowe's just trying to turn this thing into a laser gun except the laser is actually concentrated and narrowed really loud sound.
Hope:
Eyowe hopes to turn the device into a laser gun except the laser is actually concentrated and narrowed really loud sound.
[1] I make a Compressed Scratchy Paper Spearhead. Since it's stronger then a flamethrower but one-shot only, and flamethrowers kill things, the spearhead must be like, really deadly... and maybe it goes boom.
then, I chuck the Compressed Scratchy Paper Spearhead at the wall between B3 and B4, and hopefully break a hole in it. Wham?
[0] Hey, I explicitly said it wasn't Hope! Just for that, instead of HOPE or RAGE, I spend this free action to AGE and HOP. Why? Why NOT?
The man crouches down, waiting around for the Eevee to climb onto the bench he put on his back. He then lifts it up, giving Eevee the boost he needs out. If Eevee doesn't get on, he instead picks up the player, putting him on the bench, before lifting it, followed by shoving it upwards to force Eevee to actually catch the vent and start climbing in. He appears fine with this. He then puts the water bucket on the bench then, offering it to Eevee. He finishes by picking up the bread and soap, and deciding to simplify things, puts it into his captchatory. All the extension of a captcha deck, none of the modus issues. He then places the Bench into his Benchkind Strife Specibar slot. Anyone confused suddenly comes to the realization he just combined his minecraft inventory system with the captcha system for ease of use. He then simply moves to the bars, before staring at the area he knows C1 and C2 should be, trying to see what is there.
"Oh, man going by the name Random-Guy, Could you pass the wood planks the bench shattered into to me. We could use crafting materials. Just set them in a stack, and get ready to get them to me once I think of a plan to translate it to me."
Suddenly the dungeonscape sees a new entity appears. It appears to be like an angel made out of ink, but upon looking at its face, they can see it is full of RAGE and yet, full of HOPE. The mans clothes had shown a quick flash of Purple, and Yellow as it appeared in the Dungeonscape.
Hello comrades! It is good to see you! I'll work on opening up A4, the bars there are slightly weaker than here!
Free: HOPE!
1) I create a pickaxe, and start hammering away at the wall to A4
Oi Arsenical! Help me out over ere!
Clearly you haven't gone on any toilet diving adventures. Overkill is but a lie!
Fear not though glorious being that writes these high quality updates, I'll be diving into the toilet this turn. One last thing and then I'm off!
Grabbing a bunch of bread I craft myself a small propeller with a hand crank. Propeller, short bit of bread, and then the hand crank on the side. Sadly I had to use my power to get some wire, thatch won't let the crank move the propeller. (x1)
Then I dive headfirst into the toilet, my underwater mobility device (bread propeller) in front of me as I head into the watery depths of the toilet...OW! Gah I probably should have entered the toilet with less passion, I wouldn't have slammed my head. Oh well, forwards into the piping!
(Damn, wasted my action)
Action: break the bottom off of the hand sanitizer so the slime pours endlessly down across the floor, no better yet I use my weak player powers to augument the hand sanitiser pump with a small two stroke motor to pump the hand sanitiser out at huge speeds, it'll run on a bit of the hand sanitiser flow.
Hope action: it seems like there's little point to putting physical defences in a metaphysical realm aside from the attached emotional and mental value, which I suppose is fairly usefull, anyway I begin encrypting my own mind and soul to make it harder for others to understand, modify or take anything comprehensible from but still making sense from it's own perspective. Prolly take a few actings to complete.
Free action: I continue to hope ("I have a major hand in this by the way")
Action 1: I realize that my mind may not be enough, so I concentrate my power into my arms. I take hold of the bars and I try to pull it apart.
Free Action Focus - HOPE: I continue hoping with all my faith!
Action Focus - Pray: I continue to pray. I expend my point on 2 dimensional form! Now I can do Paper M*rio stuff! Coooool.
As the walls of nearby cells come tumbling down I look happily at all the players now teamed up. Though, it seems that we're about to split. One half fallowing CaptainNZZZ down the drain, and the other following Otherguy into the dirt passageway. Being that my equipment won't function well when wet, I'll be exploring the passage.
I tear cell A3's oil lamp down as an extra lightsource, before deciding to improve it a bit first. I grab a big chunk of stale bread and cut it open. I hollow it out with a cavity that's roughly shaped like a parabola, then use a combination of player powers and soaked wall rubble to solidify the cavity's walls and bring them to an almost mirror-like reflectivity. I place the oil lamp inside this parabolic reflector at its focus to create the Bright Beamlantern! It focuses all of the lantern's light in a beam more or less going in a single direction, allowing it to light up things (such as traps and intersections) from greater distance than a normal lantern. With this creation in hand and my scratch rope over my shoulder, I descend down into the dirty passage!
I stop to to think about our situation. We've just been here for a few hours and are already tearing this jailhouse apart. This rate of progress really fills you with HOPE and DETERMINATION.
Free action: I beam funny jokes into people's heads, helping them keep up HOPE.
Action: I try the right path.
I upgrade my Blood starved beast's attack.
I hope we can get out of this cell!
(x1) I use the scorcher to heat up thee bars,making them more malleable,and then with Dragon Scales protecting me from the heat,i gingerly push them to form a hole
(x0) HOPE!! which i use to patch up the sun in the dreamscape
I grab two floor tiles and some bread binding them together using toilet paper to create a sort of crued clothes pin like thing thing
After knocking a big enough hole in the wall to get through into Cell A-2 and A-3 I decide to take knee on on of the benches and listen passively to the others as the came up with their own ideas. Looking down at the red hammer I can tell it's still in good shape at this time. A few nicks and scrapes marred the hammer but nothing that would negatively effect it's performance.
Action:
Soon I hear Ranger_Strider calling out for Arsenical to help him as he starts to batter the wall separating us from the others in Cell A-4. 'It will likely go faster with two or more of us going at the wall together. Might as well help out as the others seem to want to explore the pipping or the room beneath us. Besides the faster we are all together the better off we will be.' Standing up from the bench I wall over to the wall beside Ranger_Strider and I start hammering away at the wall with him in tandem, Together we assault the wall with our tools. When Ranger_Strider strikes the wall with his pickax I wait for him to pull back and then I strike at the wall at the same spot Ranger_Strider did then after I pull back he strikes the wall again. lather, rinse, repeat until the job is done.
Free/Hope action:
'The DUNGEONSCAPE seems to be going well, Few enemies and lots of defenders. Things in the prison and going well enough, Already knocked down two walls and we have 2 comrades exploring the vents.' With my mental evaluation of things at the moment I feel somewhat hopeful for our escape succeeding.
Action: I give the HOPE Ballista sharper bolts, allowing it to deal more damage!
This is working out well.
Alright, let's do this. I harness my hope powers. All of the HOPEing, all of that, surges through me. I then turn to the shadows, flickering with energy. So many shadows, from past players. Even if they are gone, they still live a bit. And everything hopes. Hell, fucking rocks provide hope. And the Godmodder still harnesses energy from these guys right? We can use that. I stretch my hand out, hope surging through me. I then separate myself from the dungeonscape. What I'm about to do, is dangerous. I then drop my mental defenses, and surge all my hope to my head. Then I force as many shadows as I can in. My mind goes black. I look around.
...well, that's interesting. In front of me lies a giant sphere, representing my mindscape. It appears to have taken the form of a ying yang, one side yellow, hope, and the other the shadows.
How this works:
With the energy of the shadows, I begin raising my fellow player's powers, slowly, with the shadows' energy. Unfortunately, the shadows have a lot of negative energy attacking me, so I have to hold them off.
In the depths of the Dungeonscape, the sphere appears, contained, so players can send some help.
TL;DR: I harness the shadows, and begin powering up my fellow player's powers, but have to fight off the shadows, separate from the dungeonscape
Shadow Dominance: 0% (looking for ways to raise Dominance!)
Me Dominance: 100%
1action: I grant the Blood-Starved Beast adaptive regeneration, which increases its defense slightly whenever it takes damage.
HOPE ACTION: If the way to improve stuff on the is to improve the Barricade, then that's what I'll do. I combine more Hopes of technological advancement (and magical ascent) with similar such hopes from my efforts last turn (and probably hopes from Redrover's current efforts to directly sharpen the bolts) to give the HOPE Castle Wall a Optimism Overcharge Aura, which gives a evenly-split damage bonus to all Player-Aligned entities on the Hope Castle Wall.
Free action: I set the broken bench halves in a stack off to the side.
Action: I compress thatch and coat it with water and combine with leftover bits of metal from the chains (and a liberal dose of Player Power) to create Temporarily FireProof Gloves, which I then give to ParadoxDragonPaci to bend bars without having to touch them directly. (Did you know newspaper + water is used by glassblowers to touch glass near-directly?)
[A] Improve Sanitary Scorcher.
[FREE?] Hopehopehopehopehope
[x1] Leah seems more focused on her impromptu flamethrower than anything else. Adding more bread to the mix to ensure further reinforcement, Leah concentrates, Omniglot hovering above.
"Operator, considering data of previously defragmented memory, I find it mildly ironic that you're opting to wield and improve upon a flamethrower," Omniglot quips. "Nevertheless, it is likely one of the few offensive weapons we have available to us, and one of the most potent in our situation."
Leah shrugs as she throws in some of the scratchy toilet paper onto the end, folding it again and again and again-she continues this process until its shaped like a bayonet and with roughly the same edge. She then takes some breadcrust and gingerly player-powers her way into somehow rubbing it into the paper without destroying it, granting the paper some of its hardness. Its scratchy nature, many folds, additional staleness-induced toughness and a little player power ought to make up for the fact it is literally made of paper, here.
With the 'bayonet' done, Leah uses the infinite bread to add additional fuel tanks (filled with the infinite hand sanitizer), more framework (to better hold its internal components), smoother tubes to better let the sanitizer flow into the flame, and in general toughen up and imrpove upon the initial design, hopefully acquiring a little something called the Reinforced Sanitary Scorcher. Now with 100% more bayonet. She finishes the product with her mild player powers, scrubbing away a few quibbles in physics and other such things.
"Operator, time is of the essence; the more we waste time here, the more time we have to lose our mental faculties," Omniglot says. "We must find a way to destroy these bars. Suggestion: Bars are magical, but not without melting point. Use Thatch as burning material and incinerate bars to point where they either break or melt."
Leah nods at this suggestion for next turn (not this one, Moniker!), testing out her newest creation in a non-actiony way just to ensure it works. Satisfied with the results, hopefully, her action is done for the turn.
[x0?]: Leah's hope rises as she sees her new creation, a fierce weapon to combat the dangers of this weird prison-dungeon-whateveritis place that she is now stuck in, that will doubtlessly assail and torment her and her allies as they press onwards. And she very well hopes that she gets to see that Godmodder fellow again, who to Leah just appears as an indeterminate, boring blur, and she hopes that she gets to maim them for good. And she hopes that she gets her memories back in full before then so she gets to understand what's going on, while she's at it-a book to the face of a dog as her last memory of note doesn't really segway into how she got stuck to a flaming meteor with two artificial limbs and an apparently artificial spine, crashing into the Hexagonafield with Omniglot and an Extinguishinator Mark Infinity, among a lot of other weird things. She hopes, though, most of all, that all of this weirdness starts making sense once she remembers everything.