elnysa | video | un: Crash Keys

Hey. This isn't one of those 'let's all get to know each other and be best friends' posts. I wanna know what you guys know about telepathy.

[Aoi holds a picture up to the camera. 'Picture' is probably a generous description.]

First, anyone know what this picture is?

Snake, before you even start, I fuckin' KNOW you can't see it, so I'm not asking you.

Don't cheat, just tell me what you think it's supposed to be.

If you're not into pictures, tell me about Archetypes from your world. There was a psychologist on Earth who noticed the same ideas pop up in various cultures that had no contact with one another. I want to see if that collective unconscious spans worlds too. So, I dunno, talk to each other about the legends and fairy tales and holidays and shit from your worlds and lemme know what common threads you find

The Follow-Up Video

[A couple of days later, when it seems like the majority of the people who are gonna weigh in have done so, Aoi makes a follow-up post.]

Alright, I know you all think I was tryin' to psychoanalyze you with the picture I showed you the other day, but trust me, you guys aren't that interesting. There's a right answer to the picture. I'll show you.

[He holds up the original picture and the solution to the screen.]

Some crackpot psychologist did an experiment to test the transference of knowledge through unseen means. He showed a picture like this to a population of people, and the distribution of answers was pretty random, same as you guys'. Then he broadcast the answer to that population. When he went to a to a remote location that had no contact with anyone from Population A. When he showed the same picture, there was a statistically significant increase in the percentage of people who knew the answer.

Even though nobody had consciously shared the information, because more people knew it, the answer was somehow transmitted. So that's the theory of Morphic Resonance.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ they're all nerds, deep down. some just hide it better than others. ]

But this was to prove a point, wasn't it? Something having to do with telepathy? Am I supposed to try to read someone's mind now to get the answer?

This test is about unconsciously accessing of the field, and you didn't. You guessed wrong, which is about what I expected. You don't need to try to pull the answer from anyone else.

[Aoi's not willing to recreate the conditions needed to do that again. Once was enough. He folds his arms around himself.]

It was a long shot, anyways. I wasn't expecting much from this.

Ah, that's right. The morphogenetic field, was it?

[ alright, he was supposed to pretend he forgot that conversation, but it's okay to remember some tidbits, right? ]

If it was something so easily accessed, your past experiments wouldn't have been necessary. But something like that does exist, of that I have no doubt.

[Aoi's cheeks go a little pink. So Archer was actually paying attention before...]

Yeah, you got it. This isn't the kinda stuff I'd need to do to purposefully access the field. I... I'm just trying to make sure the Morphogenetic Field is a thing here, you know? I haven't been able to pick up anything so far, so I wanna see if it works the same way.

[ he listens, even if he pretends not to. ]

I suppose it would be good to know. An ability like that could come in handy. Are there any other ways to test it? Other than... pictures. [ a pause. ] Preferably something short of death trap puzzles as well. Somewhere in between those two extremes.

[Um. Aoi's not used to people taking him seriously.]

Um, I mean, Sheldrake did other experiments, but there was never anything conclusive. As far as I know, it's kind of all or nothing. Unless you're willing to risk your life, you can only do half-assed experiments like this.

...what an inconvenient ability then.

Can it do anything else? Other than transmitting and receiving information? That hardly seems worth risking your life for.

[Um, WOW. Tell him how you really feel.]

I mean, there are theories about SHIFTing to different points in times, but then you start running into paradoxes and the idea of alternate universes. I'm hoping to avoid messing with all that shit again.

[ he's a magical ghost that exists outside the bounds of time to protect all of humanity from existential threats... sadly, this really doesn't seem like a big deal to him. ]

Shifting? Ah right, there was an element of time travel as well. If that's the case, would it be possible to access these fields to go back to a point before the Storm destroyed our worlds? The idea of alternate universes hardly seems like only an "idea" anymore... we've essentially had that confirmed for us already.

[Is Aoi gonna have to explain the plot of an 80s sci-fi classic in vague terms to avoid copyright infringement or royalty payments? Cause he will, and then he'll look like even more of a nerd. Please just kill him now.]

I'm not the expert on it. [Apparently that role belongs to Junpei 'Talks to Himself' Tenmyouji, in a shocking turn of events. Aoi sure has seen those movies and lived with Akane for years, though, so it's not like he's never had to listen to her theories.]

But even if it was possible, it would involve getting a bunch of people together and doing the life-threatening danger thing to trigger it. And it wouldn't actually change this version of events. This timeline would still have to exist in order to act as a catalyst. We might save a universe, but we wouldn't save this universe.

[ he probably hasn't seen back to the future, so at least he won't understand what you're cribbing... ]

Fortunately, life-threatening danger really isn't in short supply here. Things have calmed down since we arrived, but I imagine this is a temporary state of being, not a permanent one. [ though ugh... the talk of timelines draws an audible grimace from him. ] Yes, I'm familiar with that concept as well. Still, even if it means saving a universe that isn't our own, that doesn't necessarily mean its not worth doing.

[Hey, his world's treated Aoi like shit. Maybe he'd be motivated to save his own universe, but another one? That's way too abstract for him. He'd rather focus on keeping the handful of people he thinks are important safe and happy.]

Why? Wouldn't it be better to focus on making our lives suck less where we are? A bunch of people survived, and we've got this weird planet to hang out on. All we need to do is figure out how to get the people left in the pods to wake up, and then we're set.

Are we? Even if we managed to awaken all those sleeping, there's no guarantee the same fate won't befall this world as befell our own.

For all we know, we're merely delaying the inevitable right now.

Life is just one long game of delaying the inevitable, man. We don't know if there's anything we can do to stop the storm, and if we can't, there's no point in wasting the time we've got left.

[Maybe Aoi'll change his tune when Akane wakes up and tells him her big universe-saving plan, but until then, there's really no point.]

You can fuck with other timelines all you want. I'm gonna make sure my sister's got a halfway decent life to wake up to here.

[ though it's a bit small in scope, he can't say he dislikes that plan. it's at least something more... definite than anything he himself has been able to come up with. ]

Then I wish you luck with that. I'm sure she'll be happy to find out how hard her brother has been working for her sake when that day comes.

[ the mere fact that he didn't just shoot that down saying there's a possibility akane will never wake up should say a lot. ]

[Ok, hot or not, giving Aoi that 'Akane might be gone for good' bullshit would've gotten Archer a punch in the face. Or, an attempted punch in the face. Aoi's no fighter. It probably wouldn't have gone as planned.

Instead, he rubs the back of his neck. He went and said more than he should've again. Crap.]

There's not gonna be any luck about it. It's happening 'cause I'm making it happen.

[And the verdict is still out on whether Akane will be happy or pissed that Aoi's not trying to pull the timeline-hopping, endgame world-saving stuff Archer's talking about. The two siblings have always been selfish in different ways.]

video | un: Crash Keys

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