update from sparkleup

This commit is contained in:
Madison Scott-Clary 2023-11-17 22:45:12 -08:00
parent 0856ec4e7c
commit 058173a743
1 changed files with 17 additions and 1 deletions

View File

@ -140,7 +140,23 @@
<p>&ldquo;Come to think of it, I remember getting almost punched in the face with that, too,&rdquo; Sedge said, frowning.</p>
<p>Dry Grass sat still, looking down at the table as though tallying up these experiences. &ldquo;We did notice some of that in our experiments, yes; memories whose tails were left dangling trying their best to dovetail into the new ones being formed,&rdquo; she said slowly. &ldquo;But come, they are unmuting. We should be quiet. We should listen.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Sure enough, the mute symbol had begun to pulse, and a few seconds later, it disappeared and the small noises of rustling began to come through from phys-side once more.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Thank you for clarifying,&rdquo; Dry Grass said, offering a hint of a bow to the gathered System techs and administrators. &ldquo;We would like to ask if there has been a general memory modification that would have removed time leading up to </p>
<p>&ldquo;Thank you for clarifying,&rdquo; Dry Grass said, offering a hint of a bow to the gathered System techs and administrators. &ldquo;We would like to ask if there has been a general memory modification that would have removed time leading up to midnight. Nearly everyone within the room has reported a sense of <em>déjà vu,</em> which is a common side effect of such.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Oh! Y&rdquo; Günay began, but the feed was once more muted, this time with an angry swipe of the hand from Jakub.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I suppose that answers that,&rdquo; Jonas Fa said, laughing from up at the front of the room. &ldquo;They&rsquo;re really terrible at this.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Need An Answer swiped up a keyboard and started typing rapidly. A few seconds later, a message appeared superimposed on the AVEC projection, reading: &ldquo;Please unmute. Remember that we are communicating with Günay Sadık.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Another minute passed, and then the mute was lifted once more.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Apologies, Need An Answer,&rdquo; Jakub said, sounding as though he spoke through gritted teeth. &ldquo;I will let you question Günay as you&rsquo;ve suggested.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;This is not an interrogation,&rdquo; she replied calmly. &ldquo;Though perhaps I ought to say that it need not be.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The administrator bowed once more, more stiffly this time, and backed toward the rest of the techs sitting in the background.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Apologies, my dear,&rdquo; Dry Grass said, smiling to Günay. &ldquo;Please do continue. I believe we were talking about a potential memory trim.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Her expression far more subdued, the systech nodded. &ldquo;Yeah, we trimmed about fifteen minutes of memory from everyone we were able to recover.&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Why fifteen minutes?&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;A guess, mostly. We tried trimming it closer and there were some effects of the&hellip;of the crash that stuck around in everyone&rsquo;s memories.&rdquo; She hesitated, adding, &ldquo;It didn&rsquo;t seem pleasant. Everyone affected was in agony, and they all quit within seconds, minutes at most.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Selena lifted a hand and, when Dry Grass nodded to her, said, &ldquo;We seem to be talking around what <em>actually</em> happened. Jonas said we&rsquo;re talking about either an attack or gross incompetence. I&rsquo;d really love it if you&rsquo;d tell us what actually happened.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Günay looked nervously back to the audience of administration and technicians behind her — many of whom I suspected outranked her — and stammered, &ldquo;Uh&hellip;well, I mean&hellip;&rdquo;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Günay, please,&rdquo; Dry Grass said, her voice quiet, earnest.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Alright,&rdquo; she said after a moment of silence, during which none of the administration moved to stop her. &ldquo;What we think happened is that a broad-spectrum contraproprioceptive virus was released into the System environment, either destroying or inciting a crash in every instance it came into contact with. Since it propagated through the perisystem architecture, this was every instance on Lagrange.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Towards the end of her statement, she had to raise her voice to speak over the upwelling of murmurings and gasps that showed through sys-side. Holding myself separate from the whispered exclamations being shot around the table at which I was sitting, I watched as the representatives up near the AVEC stage scanned the audience.</p>
<hr />
</article>
<footer>