[OPEN; VOICE]

[boygodofneuro]

[The sound pops a few times, the microphone getting jostled all over because the guy holding this communicator? Yeah, he's flipping out something fierce.]

No, no, no, this is so-- Oh man. Oh man. Every kind of not good, it's--

[Awkward, nervous chuckle.]

Help destroy the mainframe, get sucked into it. It's like living The Matrix except I'm not Neo and I--

This is one hell of a mental sock, I mean, wacky space ship, big fancy dome that screams perfect, idealized society free of worry and then all the little people trapped on the outside. Sounds like the premise to a summer blockbuster! Or a B movie on SyFy. But it's not. It's gotta be part of the illusion my brain cooked up to constantly keep the adrenaline running.

So, if I'm gonna believe Echo, Priya and Anthony about their reports on what this whole Attic thing is like, where's the constant conflict, the puzzle I keep looping through, never able to solve no matter which way I think about it...?

Oh, oh! Can I take a guess? Because it's a pretty good guess. I'm gonna keep walking down this quaint little path and I'm gonna find Boyd and his little buddy Clyde in Saunders holding Bennett hostage or something. Save the girl, they get on with the thoughtpocalypse. Let them kill Bennett again and bam! Loop stars all over again and never get to know if it saved the world because I just get to agonize over the choice again! And again! Oh man, that sounds like so much fun! Bundles-o-fun like none other! I just can't wait to feel--

I, ah, Yeah. Gonna shut up now, I think.

Comments

[voice]

[destinytobehere]

[you actually made Rush laugh a little. why do you sound like Eli.]

I'm quite certain I am not. Quite frankly, it's far more likely you are a product of mine and this is a hallucination created by Destiny via the interface chair or some other means. It's not beyond its capabilities and has happened quite frequently in the past.

For the moment, I choose to believe you are real as is this situation and if it is not, the key to our release is likely hidden within the hallucination. I see no reason we cannot employ figments of our own mind in aiding in our release.

[boygodofneuro]

Oh yes, the moment my heart rate drops to a normal level I'll magically start seeing it.

[voice]

[boygodofneuro]

Wait, dude. Chair? That sounds suspiciously like the chair I've got back home that can rewire entire brains to do what I want them to so. Still a 50/50 chance there, dude. You could still be a product of mine.

Except if this is the Attic, we'll think we figure it out and then the entire situation will loop back to the start. Never ending cycle to keep our brains fresh and juicy for the mainframe.

This conversation is just getting weirder and weirder.

[voice]

[boygodofneuro]

Hi. Topher Brink, newest person to hatch out of a pod, I guess.

[boygodofneuro]

Sort of. No ones really been generous with the specifics yet.

[boygodofneuro]

[There's a long bit of silence and then,]

...Cool

Uh, I mean. Nice to meet you? And doctor of...a lot of stuff. I've got a lot of degrees that would qualify me for the doctor club. But neuroscience is the big one.

[how_i_tease]

Or you'll attract the wrong sort of attention and get shot before then.

Or you might not. Which would always be a tally in the 'bright side' category. You see? Count your blessings before you run out of them.

[voice]

[radars]

Congratulations on your hatching, then.

[timesbureaucrat]

"Bee"...movie? [Narvin knows enough of human society to know what a movie is, but not what makes one B.]

Only small dinosaurs have been reported so far. But all the same I wouldn't care wander too far from...well, I would say civilization, but the collection of ramshackle buildings they call the Old City hardly counts as that.

[voice]

[timesbureaucrat]

I'm not a professor, I'm a technician.

And "Big Bertha" is a ridiculous name for an alien ship of unknown origin.

[seesobserves]

What have they told you?

[Just so he doesn't go repeating anything.]

[femshep]

Neuroscience. You? [She doesn't mean it as an insult, honest. She just knows a few neurosurgeons and he doesn't fit the typical bill.]

[breakablegirl]

Oh. [She was expecting something else. Is relieved and maybe a tiny bit disappointed about that.] I'm sorry.

Also sorry to say that this place is real, and lots of us woke up on that spaceship, and we've all been in there for.. A while. No one knows how long, but long enough to build a city around it anyway. All of my theories are kind of constantly getting disproved, so if you've got any ideas..

[You seem smart. If not a little.. off. Think of a theory. Explain this. :|]

[boygodofneuro]

Wow, your unfailing optimism isn't annoying at all.

[how_i_tease]

Eh. Doomsaying and cowering in a corner isn't nearly as practical as you might think.

[boygodofneuro]

A crappy, low budget movie.

Small dinosaurs and post-apocalyptic civilization. Oh joy. I seriously just can't contain my excitement.

[voice]

[boygodofneuro]

Thanks. It's like being born all over again! Or something.

[boygodofneuro]

I already rambled on about my idea. Still not entirely convinced I'm wrong since, hey, I usually tend to be right.

[boygodofneuro]

What? Do I not sound like the smashing intellectual type? 'Cause I assure, you, I'm the brightest bulb in the pack. Had my first PhD when I was seventeen and everything.

[boygodofneuro]

I rather enjoy my corner of doomsaying and cowering, thank you very much.

[how_i_tease]

You do seem kind of attached.

[boygodofneuro]

I'm acutely agoraphobic, of course I'm attached.

[how_i_tease]

You're what now?

[boygodofneuro]

I...don't like wide open spaces. Crowds are kinda squicky and so is anything outside my comfort zone.

Which this most certainly is.

[how_i_tease]

I think 'kidnapping' defies everyone's comfort zone.