update from sparkleup

writing/soot.html

@@ -62,15 +62,23 @@
 <p>It was just that <em>now,</em> ey was Soot. Soot had work to do. Soot was the one who got a job at Nanotrasen, had studied hard and passed all the qualifications, had wormed their way into the ranks of command.</p>
 <p>Abby had her own work to do, and that was work of comfort and processing.</p>
 <p>Thankfully, today, epistemics was well-staffed, and by some very bright researchers at that. Of note, the mystagogue was someone Soot trusted would be nearly as paranoid about glimmer as they were.</p>
+<p>Such was not always the case, as they had found out so long ago.</p>
+<p>Epistemics was itself a curious department. These two universes, slip-sliding against each other did so differently across space. When, it turns out, you are a corporation spanning the larger part of an arm of the galaxy, that has real, knock-on effects, for what worked in one location may not in another. Worse, this changed over time, rendering some research moot even from one shift to the next. You learn less about how best to make a universal micro-reactor fusion cell and more about how to most efficiently <em>research</em> micro-reactor fusion cells.</p>
+<p>Other sectors even named it the science department rather than epistemics. They named the lead the Research Director rather than Mystagogue. They named the person in charge of investigating psionics users something far more plain that the Psionic Mantis.</p>
+<p>The Delta sector, however, was something else. Here, the veil was far thinner. Here, whole religions sprung up around this very fact, to the point where many stations had a chaplain, as well.</p>
+<p>Here, glimmer was a problem.</p>
+<p>That simple measurement of the friction between planes, a number that started at zero and yet which had no upper bound, became a way to tell just how bad things might get because of that friction. At 500Ψ, auditory hallucinations became possible, as did seeing spectres of the dead. As glimmer climbed, so too did the effects. Those with psionics would succumb to headaches and nosebleeds, new psionics users would appear, and, as Soot had witnessed firsthand, wide-spread psionic chaos might ensue, such as the mass swapping of consciousnesses.</p>
+<p>Several things might raise glimmer. Using psionics. Researching anomalies or artifacts. Glimmer mites and wisps, pests that they were. Even just running the glimmer prober, a device which conducted small-scale research within its shell, generating some of the knowledge required to accomplish tasks around the station, would up glimmer.</p>
+<p>Soot, conservative as they were, instructed that the prober to be turned off at 300Ψ and that psionics users stop relying on their &ldquo;powers&rdquo; at 350Ψ except in case of an emergency.</p>
 <p>(Command ethos: older sibling, wants to support the station)</p>
 <p>(Glimmer keeps rising)</p>
 <p>(Mantis critted, but revived, talks of hearing lots of mites)</p>
 <p>(Throughout, memories of Abby, plurality becoming more evident)</p>
-<p>(Finally, near the end of the shift, botanist caught trying to anchor a second prober)</p>
+<p>(Finally, near the end of the shift, botanist caught trying to anchor a second prober, found by telegnosis)</p>
 <p>(After shift, on shuttle, sits out in the common area rather than bridge to talk, Abby starts to take front, the usual moment of confusion, then talking with Dr. R) </p>
             </article>
             <footer>
-                <p>Page generated on 2024-10-03</p>
+                <p>Page generated on 2024-10-06</p>
             </footer>
         </main>
         <script type="text/javascript">