Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:07 No. 1124426 ID: a4a832
File 177527926477.gif - (15.51KB , 650x450 , 365.gif )

You stop me where I go wrong, if I do. We're deep in guessing and estimates.

Someone so focused but so frustrated, you'd rather take on more debt than spend another day on this horrible little problem going nowhere fast. At least you'd have the time to focus on living people who need medical aid. Even if it meant you never leave this station, you'd rather just do something, anything that helps people instead of this, every single day.

There's options to easily get rid of a body there in the chapel. But if my theory is right, if the patterns I saw in the way this all works are correct... The method you tried and failed to break the repetition with, the method that made a strong argument it wasn't "unholy cult blood magic", the method that accidentally proved beyond a doubt that it wasn't bioengineering in a way that the Company wouldn't have risked...

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:08 No. 1124427 ID: a4a832
File 177527929801.gif - (11.29KB , 650x450 , 366.gif )

You already tried cremating her. Ages and ages ago.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:09 No. 1124428 ID: a4a832
File 177527934409.gif - (15.67KB , 650x450 , 367.gif )

And the next day, there she was. Like you hadn't done anything at all. You tried to smash the cycle apart, and all you saw was how little it seemed like that mattered.

You could have just believed the Hiveist hypothesis. Why else would you want a detective involved at all? Why would you be looking this deep for answers? Why, if you hadn't seen it first-hand, that awful "beautiful" thing restored from nothing but ash by the start of the next shift?

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:11 No. 1124430 ID: a4a832
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: ...I...
: Hhh... I just-- I didn't mean to--
: I'm conjecturing. I'm guessing. Okay? That's all I did.
: Don't under any circumstances even start confessing anything that could even remotely be prosecuted as 'destruction of Company property' if the Company suddenly starts caring about things for some reason.
: I don't want anything to happen to you. To anyone. Nobody deserves to be punished for all this.



: That-- but--
: But even if that happened-- Even-- Even assuming that could have happened.
: There's still-- you-- there's a huge--
: Calm. Deep breaths. You're not at risk and there's plenty of time left to speak.
:
:
: ...There's still a huge problem with this explanation.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:11 No. 1124431 ID: a4a832
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: They wrote mystery books about you, didn't they?
: You're talking about the 'silhouette' of something.
: Something-shaped-gap in the story that you're solving for, backwards.
: This is the equivalent of, I don't know, introducing a magical cursed orb that does precisely everything you need to call the mystery solved.
: Not exactly.
: You said yourself, this is conjecture.
: I said my theories about what you did were guesses. I didn't say that this anomaly isn't something more than conjecture.
: What? We've never seen anything like that theory before. 'Restoring from state'.



: You have.
: What?
: You have.
: You've seen it nine times.
: You just don't remember.



: Are you sure?
: Beyond a doubt.
...Here.



: Any second now, you're going to get the call.
: The one about .

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:12 No. 1124432 ID: a4a832
File 177527952814.gif - (31.86KB , 650x450 , 370.gif )

: ...
: Her remote medical monitor says it's really bad.
: Not as bad as it gets in a second.
: It's signs of combat, probably against someone with exotic contraband.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:12 No. 1124433 ID: a4a832
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: This sucks, boss.
: It's the only way we make a convincing case.
: Fine.



: By the time you're done relaying it to , she's getting into critical condition.
: He asks for the wound types. Then, whatever he's doing, he drops and runs.
: He'll get there fast and gets back fast. She'll be here soon.
: is the only other staffer on-hand. You have her prep the OR and the medical cryonics.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:13 No. 1124434 ID: a4a832
File 177527958619.gif - (22.46KB , 650x450 , 372.gif )

: , alert on the monitor. .
: ...
: Heavy bruises or cuts, some burn, some toxic.
: Some uncategorized, likely exotics. Combat situation.
: Rising O2-loss, now. Probably critical condition.
: ...
: Understood.
: , prep OR and the cryo intensives.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:13 No. 1124435 ID: a4a832
File 177527963961.gif - (21.24KB , 650x450 , 373.gif )

: I don't like doing this.



: He'll get her here, but she won't be stable.
: You'll have to treat her immediately. Straight to the OR, top priority.
: This can't be real. You're--
: But something happens after she gets to your table.
: You're guessing, or trying to--
: Every loop you do your best to save her, but--
: Stop. Stop.



: Heart racing. Breathing Heavy.
: He's driven enough that he won't accept that part.
: We shouldn't hurt him.
: ...He needs to know the next part, or he won't believe this.
: He knows what you're implying and why you're here.



: Okay. I'm sorry.
: I'll let you focus for this next part.
:
: Do you want me to wait out here, or outside the OR?
: ...Come into medbay. And wait outside the OR.
: We'll finish your explanation there.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:16 No. 1124438 ID: a4a832
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: So, she's alive again.
: Yeah. Reloaded from the saved state
: You know how House Mortil are, so I guess she was "actually never dead", otherwise they'd...
: I get it. Couple details I didn't exactly follow.
: Where is she now?
: You know the map we got, of the sites, from ?
: Mm.
: For her, the subjectively latest site made. For us, the one made right before her "memory problems" start, the one she used after.
: Since that's the one she planned to use at the time.
: That one's over near R&D maintenance.
: Right. She'll be finishing it up there soon.



: What re-started her looping?
: I think whatever is looping everything now just... overloaded the universal stasis. Restored her loop.
: More weight to hit her looping with, zipped her head out the case. Alright.
: What about how she got out of the morgue tray?
: Right. I was wondering about that too (it didn't look like she kicked it open).
: That's why I asked if had cremated her, as opposed to burial-at-sea out the chapel mass driver.
: I think the way it works is, it moves obstructions to the matter, then averages the position.
: So, just, it flashed all the embalming fluid out of her way harder than normal.
: Then it, uh, I guess her body's averaged position intersected the door, so it...
: Got smashed open to make room for her. Makes sense.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:19 No. 1124439 ID: a4a832
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🔊: Ansibite crystal delamination imminent !
🔊: Begins in thirty seconds !
🔊: Twenty-nine !
🔊: Twenty-eight !

: It's the usual.
: We'll brace like we always do.
: I really hate this part.
: It will do nothing good for the treatment. Or for its patient.

🔊: Twen--

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:20 No. 1124441 ID: a4a832
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: Attention crew. There's been a major breach in engineering. Don't enter the area under any circumstances. Administration has elevated the station to blue alert.
: All the SMES-type relay power cells...



: He's done with the operation.
: And now she's...
: Close the case, kid.
: I know.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:22 No. 1124442 ID: a4a832
File 177528012519.gif - (58.89KB , 650x450 , 381.gif )

That sound again. That horrible ripping noise. Fabric tearing.



: Additional compounded crisis event... An illegal imaginary space incursion is in progress...
: You remember the rest.



: 's gone again.
: ...
: She's gone. Like you were saying.
: What happened?
: She's so strong, she should have lived through that easily.
: But she just... gave up.
: Like she succumbed to her wounds deliberately.

: I know where she is. . She's at the subjectively-most-recent site. R&D Maintenance.
: But that doesn't matter now.
: I've lived through work shift B-4381 ten times now.
: And I've failed to solve it every single time.
: You're better, though. You don't lose patients. Except right at the end of this...
: Time loop.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:23 No. 1124443 ID: a4a832
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His teeth grit behind the surgeon's mask, and another kind of grit forms behind another kind of surgeon's mask. There's a treatment plan taking the wheel. No time in an emergency room for a doctor's despair. Station hits red alert, and so does this man.

: I've lost a patient before.
: What? I thought your record--
: No. A perfect record is an amateur's record.
: When I was a beginner, better doctors saved my patients at followups.
: And I'm here, on this station, in your "loop", because a patient of mine died.
: A fresh amateur who's solved one hundred percent of ten problems is nothing.
: Depend on an expert who's solved most of a thousand problems.
: Where are you going with this?



: We're looping. The whole station.
: Yeah. I'm trying to stop it, but...
: I'll help you. And you'll make sure lives.
: But you're not going to remember this. Nobody ever remembers it (besides and he can't help much).
: You're right. I won't.
: There's a way around that.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:24 No. 1124444 ID: a4a832
File 177528025323.gif - (22.89KB , 650x450 , 383.gif )

: There's something you'd only know, if you were looping time like this.
: And if I trust you. Because you solved my case.
: So it's something I can use something as a sort of password?
: Yeah. Find me next loop.



: When you do, tell me you want "'s old version 1.21 Company psychoparadigm reader, with the--"
: Are you getting this? Are you remembering it? We don't have much time.
: Huh? But how do I--
: Repeat back to me. "Psychoparadigm reader v1.21 with cerebral VV and remote C-Key link, kept in my kit."
: But--
: You have to remember it. Don't mess around.
: I'll remember! Psychoparadigm reader 1.21, VV-op, C-key link, but--
: How will you know to trust me?
: Because you'll know...

He doesn't know I'm listening. If he knew a man like me was even thinking about being near, guarantee he wouldn't break Mitadake Protocol like he does now. When they take the collateral, they take it everywhere, to stop a man like me from doing what a man like me does. He'd be right to prefer dying to trusting.

Sometimes you're better off dead. Guess I'm your best show of that being true.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:24 No. 1124445 ID: a4a832
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: You'll know my debt collateral. Only thing nobody else knows now.
: ...!

He takes the last full breath he'll get before the Tressels kick in. And a man like that, he uses it to endure. He tells you something important, kid. So listen close.

: My name is...

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:32 No. 1124450 ID: a4a832
File 177528063176.gif - (1.52MB , 650x450 , 385 (1).gif )

He gives you his real name.

Case closed.

Now, let's go remember it the right way.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:33 No. 1124451 ID: a4a832
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: Good morning, Debtors.
: The current time is zero degrees LLO, marking the beginning of work shift B-4381.
: The station's status is currently at green alert, on-track to meet quotas.
: You're now allowed to begin payable labor, and you need to be at your workstations, if applicable.
: As always, remember: All wireless personal medical monitors must be worn and fully active.

You hit your feet again. Somehow, coming out of that dark, into this rain-drenched sunrise, you've got a fire in you this time. The kind a man like me doesn't expect on a day like this, no matter how many times we go around it.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:35 No. 1124452 ID: a4a832
File 177528091267.gif - (22.57KB , 650x450 , 387.gif )

: Finally!
: Huh? Kid, you got so heavy there, I--
: No. No! I didn't get heavy, I got traction!
: There was forward movement! I got a grip!
: A case made sense! With a denouement, and everything!

"Like the good old days!" I can hear your heart say. It's what we settle for, when we get this age. When we become adults. But I can't help agreeing a little. You were back in your element.

: One handhold is infinitely better than nothing.
: How's that?
: One person affected the loop phenomenon before.
: Another person made plans to, now (and they just might work).
: Mmm... You know, I can imagine it.
: Just gotta see it instead.
: Let's see the doc.

>>1124446
>>1124447
>>1124448
>>1124450
You okay okay okay okay there kidddd?

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:36 No. 1124454 ID: a4a832
File 177528098779.gif - (32.31KB , 650x450 , 388.gif )

>: Commune. Where do we go from here?

: While we're on the way there, let's figure out where we go after that.
: , bring up our motivators.
: You mean, which case next?
: I guess we should carry our momentum, yeah.
: One of four down.
: Right you are, chief. But, three more to get through.
: We'll head to the next one after we see .



: I am satisfied. 's case has given me what I want to know.
: I think we should look into 's thefts. Especially now that we know physical things might be in play for the loop.
: Remember, boss, we were partway through 's traitor case. We should get back to that before we let it get cold.
: I feel like 's quota situation might be better. It's a failure-to-achieve, which is easier, and we might get the anomaly studied.

You've got a lot on your mind. Problem's not going anywhere fast, kid, think it out while you head over to the doc.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:37 No. 1124455 ID: a4a832
File 177528105066.gif - (30.19KB , 650x450 , 389.gif )

>: Cola. Or water.

It's like a whole crowd of your impulses all kicked in again, all at once. Been a while since I saw you hydrate, even with some of the sugary crap. Only people with hope have the kind of sense to take good care of themselves on impulse. The rest need someone else to push them. You do too.

But just for a minute, you don't need that right now.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:38 No. 1124456 ID: a4a832
File 177528108411.gif - (236.89KB , 650x450 , 390.gif )

>: With a pep-to-your-step, go see and crack this baby wide open.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:39 No. 1124457 ID: a4a832
File 177528116666.gif - (21.63KB , 650x450 , 391.gif )

>: Get ready to info blast .

What's your approach now, detective? Whole monologue again?

: Ready?
: I've shortened up the memory-prompts as much as I can.
: Should make sure we're re-aligned quick.

: ! Hey.
: Detective. Are you here about the body?
: Yeah. She restores-from-state rather than using magic or bioengineering.
: She--
: Her body was doing it already, but the anomaly started accessing her head again.
: That--
: got up normally with a wiped memory and left the morgue, she's in R&D maintenance now.
: How--?! That explains-- Wait, that explains everything, how her body came back after--!!
: Hold on! Hold on, there's something else about that we need to talk about.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:40 No. 1124458 ID: a4a832
File 177528122437.gif - (21.46KB , 650x450 , 392.gif )

: Very complicated request to follow-up on the case--
: Hm.
: --But quick, won't block medbay work for more than a few minutes.
: Alright.
: I need 's version 1.21 Company psychoparadigm reader, I need the "C-key" functions? Or the "vee-vee" functions?
: That's, uh, no, that's not here. And it's restricted.
: Ah, really, it's fine, you said to ask for it, you said it's in your kit.
: You don't remember telling me to ask, and you knew you wouldn't remember it (for some complicated reasons).
: So you gave me proof.

Smart. Don't get into the weeds. "Time loop" is complicated. "You don't remember" is a good bare minimum.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:41 No. 1124459 ID: a4a832
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>: Become more awake than coffee could ever achieve.

: Uh. Wild story, detective. The proof is...?
: You gave me a way to know to trust me.
: Uh-huh?

You lean in and whisper a name.

: ...
: Come through, back here.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:42 No. 1124460 ID: a4a832
File 177528134040.gif - (233.92KB , 650x450 , 394.gif )

: Wait, so what is this thing?
: Well, Company handles loyalty rating through, they call it "Psychoparadigms".
: Brain-readings.
: Seen your file. Acute Space Sleep Disorder, from the big Dreamseeker crash. You remember using that, way back?
: Psychoparadigms, just a cut down version of the original Dreamseeker's out-of-cranium wireless metacommunication systems.
: This reader, they shipped some firmware that lets you into the old functions if you use it through cerebral keying.
: If you've got someone's real name, you get the extra functions. Understand?



: What kind of functions?
: You said this had something to do with memory.
: You remember something that I don't.
: Well, if I was thinking straight when I told you to get this and told you my goddamn name, then it was because I think whatever's messing up memories might not be able to mess up metaknowledge.
: Which means--
: Sharing memories?
: No.



: Or, yes. You're skipping ahead.
: Every brain encrypts memories differently. But when you're metacommunicating with someone, brain to brain, you both store new memories in both brains.
: So, reconnect, get the memories back for as long as you're connected. That's "metaknowledge". Get it?
: Sort of.



: "Sort of" is the best you're gonna get. I don't know the science.
: I can demonstrate, if you think I'm going to forget something again.
: You will.
: Then hook this into me now, and then again, next time.
: Do we have anyone who knows this technology in-depth?
: .
: I was already thinking of heading to see him.

So - you both store copies of the memories formed during metacommunication, and the memories are "signed" with both brains' keys, so if you connect later one brain can provide the other with the backup copy it can read?

Also, WOW that WAS a lot of update, haha.
Also, this splashscreen was weirdly wholesome:
>>1124357

Curt 2026/04/15(Wed)21:04 No. 1125448 ID: a4a832
File 177628706695.gif - (19.06KB , 650x450 , 395.gif )

: Alright, explain how this works.
: I authed my biometrics, now you punch in my name under "cerebral key".
: And then what?
: Open a link. This one's wireless, same as your usual checkup readings.
: You'll get my psychoparadigm, I'll get yours, but then, don't hit "OK" after.
: Link should stay open.
: That simple? Just your name?
: For debtors, yeah. Protections aren't implemented.



You live in the Back. Always remember, kid, the Front doesn't punish the Back on purpose. If it meant to be cruel, then it'd at least be efficient. No, it punishes it on ritual neglect. Still, you go through the process and you link up.



: Alright. Starting...

Curt 2026/04/15(Wed)21:05 No. 1125449 ID: a4a832
File 177628713096.gif - (33.70KB , 650x450 , 396.gif )

>: Sink, wake up, ascend, remember.

NAME: WITHHELD COLLATERAL UNDER MITADAKE PROTOCOL DEBTOR ID: 448918 PSYCHOPARADIGM: Dozens at the door, screaming for blood. Three in the room with me. Red all over. I can't hear the cries of pain over the cries for guidance. A symphony. I'm conducting. Left hand, knife. Right hand, saw. Cut. Carve. Slice. None of them will get past me. Left hand, needle. Right hand, fire. Stab. Burn. Seal. Three down. Six more arrive to take their place. I'm not moving. I tell the scouts to stop giving me backup. Go find more and guide them to me. I'm not done. I won't be done even after this is over. I'll never be done as long as anyone here draws breath. Let them come. Let them beat down my airlock with every consequence of their hazardous virulence, their irresponsible violence, their glorious valiance. Left hand, something metal, built to industrial spec. A sickening cracking noise from their bone. Right hand, something sizzling with fresh chemistry. They scream when I put it to their body. Let them come when I'm equipped with the fruits of all modern technology or when I've got a kitchen knife in one hand and a crowbar in the other. Let them come, shattering bones, pulverizing organs. High-caliber weapons fire. Radiation. Chemical warfare. Let them all come. Left hand, needle. Fill them with it. Right hand, fire. Burn them, seal. I don't care. I won't back down. I won't turn back. I won't run away. And I won't be beaten. Just let them try to die in my medbay. Left hand, defibrillator. Right hand, defibrillator. Clear. RANK: CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER AGE: 40 EMPLOYMENT PERIOD: 21 YEARS, 8 MONTHS LOYALTY RATING: 5

Curt 2026/04/15(Wed)21:08 No. 1125450 ID: a4a832
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NAME: WITHHELD COLLATERAL UNDER MITADAKE PROTOCOL DEBTOR ID: 438106 PSYCHOPARADIGM_READ_ERROR 0xFF3030 (HARM INTENT) INTENT DUMP: I am the Grit of a detective. When I knew nothing, and I was a small cluster of cells forming within a chemical-signal lathe, I was told that the world will protect and nurture me. By following simple rules and commands, I will be shaped, from something that cannot shape itself, into something that would never be shaped again until shattered. Clay, fired in a kiln. I will carry ten thousand things, and be marked by ten thousand symbols, and pass through ten thousand hands. I will last ten thousand years and more. Sink me into the soil in the life you live, and raise me to strike awe into hearts that I will still outlast. No word or bond or dream will outlive me. The promise was not kept. No firing kiln. No shaping hand. But the law is absolute. I will endure. Now that I am an unshaped and wretched thing, I will fire myself, in that kiln made by other unshaped and wretched things. I will emerge twisted and crooked. I will be fit for nothing. I will carry nothing, be marked by nothing, and held by no-one. I will wander the barren plains and savannas as a warning to others. My bones will be unearthed, and they will still be a warning, because what I am will last forever: There is no warmth in this world but fire. There is no awe in this world but love. Those who won't love you, will kill you. Or at least they will try. RANK: FORENSIC TECHNICIAN AGE: 27 EMPLOYMENT PERIOD: 2 YEARS, 3 MONTHS LOYALTY RATING: 7

Curt 2026/04/15(Wed)21:10 No. 1125451 ID: a4a832
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>: It’s only one intent of several - speculation ahoy.

: Mmh.
: Everything okay?
: That one's not like the one from your checkup. Something changed.
: What's "Grit"?
: I've, uh, I've been trying out Querying more (that's an "Aspect", so...)?
: Well, she's-- that's an "Intent" now. Don't know what that means, this old thing is weird.
: Any idea who would?
: Mind stuff, I don't know. Ask around.
: Any other "Aspects" in there?
: I mean, that's sort of personal.
: Figure out what makes them "Intents".



: We already feel intense every day.
: Shh.
: Sorry boss.

Curt 2026/04/15(Wed)21:10 No. 1125452 ID: a4a832
File 177628743761.gif - (19.36KB , 650x450 , 399.gif )

: Can I take this?
: Going to be doing this metacommunication with other crewmembers?
: Uh-- well, the circumstances with the memory affect everyone besides me.
: Maybe I could do it for each of the heads...?
: Alright. Followup appointment then. Put me in touch with whoever else you connect with.
: Though we'll be networking already.
: It'll be a good way to figure out "Intents."



: You're going to need to figure out a way to get trust with them though.
: What? Why? Can't I just hook into them like this?
: No. If one of these is used without medical department head auth, security alerts kick in.
: So I need the name?
: Yeah. Their trust too, though.
: Without biometric auth, it puts out an alert that'll make people not want to follow along.

Curt 2026/04/15(Wed)21:11 No. 1125453 ID: a4a832
File 177628747275.gif - (19.47KB , 650x450 , 400.gif )

: It can't be that bad.
: Give it a try yourself, you'll see what I mean.
: Alright.

Ask him if it's normal for military equipment to have the same warning.

Curt 2026/04/27(Mon)03:44 No. 1125960 ID: a4a832
File 177726146736.gif - (123.70KB , 650x450 , 402.gif )

>: replay traumatic memory where you saw a similar alert ( )

I can see it. Memories racing in your brainstem. But no matter how fast they run, your heart, kid, your breathing, your eyes, all steady, steadier than mine. It's like you're somewhere else, like you didn't just go through all that at all. I can tell your thoughts are something bad and your heart's somewhere that hurts. All of that, it's just walled out, locked out. Your breathing is on-beat. In, think, out, speak.

Makes me feel horrible. Can't say why. But eventually, you're breathing out.

Curt 2026/04/27(Mon)03:45 No. 1125961 ID: a4a832
File 177726152863.gif - (61.99KB , 650x450 , 403.gif )

: See? I know I wouldn't trust it.
: Detective? You okay?
: I'm fine.
: You're--
: Really. This is actually okay.
: Alright. This won't cause problems?
: I'll find a way to get the rest of them connected.
: Good luck.
: Thanks.

Curt 2026/04/27(Mon)03:47 No. 1125962 ID: a4a832
File 177726164201.gif - (235.39KB , 650x450 , 404.gif )

>: Is it normal for military equipment to have the same warning?

: Now we know is metacommunicating. I've never heard of anything with that specific warning.
: They've got another one of those. Hooked their brain up to keep memories cross-loop.
: Right. They don't have whatever condition is letting me see you, which is what's letting me keep my memories over loops.
: But now we know, 's storing their memories on someone or something else.



: So, now we know at least one method of the crime.
: ...What does this get us?
: Method, that tells you a lot about the motive.
: Says they knew enough to set up something before the loop. Premeditated.
: They put gear together. Gear to do all this contraband work too.
: And they said I can't stop it, or, they wanted to make sure I can't. So they started this loop.
: 'Least, they knew it was coming, didn't stop it, worked with it instead.

Curt 2026/04/27(Mon)03:48 No. 1125963 ID: a4a832
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: And you said that's the guy who killed you...
: Do you think you might have been trying to stop the loop?
: Sure hope I was.
: Wouldn't want you to have to go through something like this, detective.
: I mean, I've died a bit, but it's a loop (you could argue I retroactively haven't gone through anything).
: Besides being stuck in place, no harm, no foul, right?
: Thinking how you... evened everything out there with the doc when you saw 's lights.
: Like the reverse of what you did with .
: Soldier pulling a trigger. Young lady's not supposed to have a talent like that.
: Says something bad about the world when she does.



: No, I used to do that all the time, back in the day.
: Lost the knack, but...
: Huh?
: I had a kind of a knack. I actually didn't even need the breathing.
: Junior security director said he'd never seen anything like it.
: I could nail a guy's ankle at thirty meters with my slingshot, no panic, while they charged me with a knife.
: A knife--!!
: I mean-- wild, amazing work, kid, but, weren't you, what, nine? Ten?
: I picked it up when I was eight actually, but the talent for that focus-mode stuff atrophied hard when I was about, uh, twenty?
: Kinda... sad, I guess. They said I'd be the toughest detective in the sector when I grew up.
: Just how it goes.

Something in my gut twists. For once, I don't know how to put it to words.

Here's some thoughts, just recalling some information, maybe connecting them, seeing where this goes. There's missing parts, and of course there's a lot that's speculation. I can't guarantee any of this is correct.


's using metacommunication to keep their memories across loops. That's a fact we established. They seem to be using the same kind of technology as that psychoparadigm reader. In fact since the warning is so similar, it might be a repurposed one.
It's interesting to note they don't have it active at all time (the warning would give them away), if I had to guess they probably activate it when they're at risk of dying so as to make a "back up" of their memories up to that point.

You're keeping your memories too. I don't believe the condition that lets you see also just so happen to let your retain your memories.
What seems more likely, and simpler, is that you are using a form of metacommunication too. It allows you to keep your memories within someone else. Yours are apparently stored with .
For now we'll assume he's dead since that's the most likely outcome and fits with the rest of what we know. I have some suspicion about what's happening here, but that's not important for now.
In short, whatever makes you aware of allows you to metacommunicate with him, or I suspect it's more accurate to say it works through metacommunication.

Where things become interesting is the third person who keeps their memories. . Because he told us exactly how he's doing it. He Prays. That is, he communes with a higher power. I'd classify that as a form of metacommunication. He prays until the end of shift. And I bet he starts his shift with a prayer. Each time he refreshes the shared memories.

Both and the chaplain's god are not really on the same "plane of existence" which seems to prevent their mind from being reset. So the question is : who does metacommunicate with ? It's someone (or something) that's not affected by the reset effect.
From what I can tell we don't have enough information at the moment to solve that.
Deceased crewmembers are a good starting point. seems unlikely, but we did "feel" some of her memories at various points. It might be something more unexpected too, we don't know much about how this actually work.

To help with that we need to figure out what makes someone - or something - a valid target for the psychoparadigm reader.
We know the name of , I think asking her about trying the psychoparadigm reader on her at some point would be an interesting test of its limits.


Lastly, some extrapolation based on the fact metacommunication with the dead apparently has horrible results.
We've seen it allows to retain memories across resets. We've seen someone inexplicably come prepared for said resets.
I think at least one timeloop already happened before, and metacommunication with the dead caused people to obtain (and retain) knowledge of it (and maybe other horrific things too). Once the event ended metacommunication with the dead was identified (maybe wrongfully ?) as a cause of what happened.
Disinformation may have been involved, since the knowledge of the existence of timeloops is being used by to their advantage. Whoever knows about it would obviously benefit from others not knowing.

There's a silver lining here : if true this means this happened before and the world didn't end. So this can be solved. This whole situation can be salvaged.

Curt 2026/04/29(Wed)14:42 No. 1126057 ID: a4a832
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>: POSTERPOSTERPOSTERPOSTERPOSTER

: Sounds like they packed you up and stocked you on shelves, kid.
: I don't think the merch from my series sold much. I feel like you're seeing more consumerism in edutainment than there really is.
: The books were mostly in school book fairs. The little games were mostly at "museums" and "learn-nasiums".
: I guess I had a tie-in replica WO-1948 once. For sport shooting, I guess?
: But it's not like franchise tie-in objects are really successful with adults.
: And not many nine-year-olds have a twenty-kilo slingshot draw.
: Why did you?
: Hitting stuff far away.
: Christ. Well, doesn't matter.
: Don't gotta move you off the shelf to get the Specta they want from putting you on it.
: You always talk about that. "Specta." What is it?



: They sold you in a slingshot, kid. When they do that, their gut says, they own you, ten-years-old to the day you die.
: Huh? Like image contracts?
: Worse. Halfway between shamanism and a drug.
: They don't do anything. They sit. They touch computers. They send emails. They're not real.
: I mean, real enough. We follow their rules to live, right?
: When people move, when people change, when people gotta think about them or die, they get a hit.
: They feel a little more real. But they're not.
: So they go after another hit. A bigger one.

s-shut up im real.

Curt 2026/05/10(Sun)03:38 No. 1126569 ID: a4a832
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> : Specta sounds a lot like egregorism, the idea of an idea that lives without being living.

: So, materialist outcome for managers is a... drug?
: If you live without it long enough.
: Don't even need to be a manager, investor, whatever. Why do you think is the way he is?
: I can kind of see it. You're sort of lensing the normal way the world works into something that feels more visceral.
: Only way to react right to it. Drop the abstractions, see it as direct. A substance, a face, whatever it takes.
: I mean, maybe. You do it too much and you're posting Egregorist manifestos.
: You were reading that crap?
: It's important history stuff! I was an encyclopedia detective too, you know.
: But, actually, it came up in therapy.
: Yeah, how's that?



: actually read a little Egregorism stuff before the bombings even happened. She said it had a kernel of truth, sort of?
: That, sometimes you have to sort of massage and mold the truth of really complicated things, and give them a personified voice.
: Smart toaster. Or smart pack of animals.
: Yeah. She said...
: "It was more useful to give me a face and a voice, right?"
: "I might be a subsapient network, but even I can see having language is great for engagement as a peer!"
: "Ever thought of of treating your brainstem like that when it's turning your heart-rate up without your consent?"
: ...And honestly, it kind of works. Even if it looks weird.
: Like you talking to yourself at the cafeteria.
: Whatever works, right? It's my "smoking".
: Say it that way, I can't criticize.

How far can a metacommunicator reach, anyways? Could the reason the traitor can have consistent knowledge of the loop be that they're connected to someone outside of the station, outside of the loop?

Is the loop a local phenomenon? If you radio/visit another station, what day is it?