[MoM] Snippetathon, part 2

[Standing-Storm]

Summary

Mods "Mind Over Matter Snippetathon, part 2"

Purpose of change

Need more lore snippets, especially in telepathy and clairsentience testing since I'm working on a themed lab location for those branches of psionics.

Describe the solution

Add the snippets.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Testing

Additional context

The goal is to have one themed lab dedicated to studying clairsentience and telepathy, one themed lab dedicated to studying biokinesis and vitakinesis, one themed lab dedicated to studying telekinesis and pyrokinesis, and outposts in the main microlabs dedicated to studying teleportation, and then the Research Facility as a general Project PHAVIAN headquarters.

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• As my initial report indicated, COBALT RAIN has passed all the tests we've performed. In fact, it exceeded our production predictions by over 15%. It's not actually a perpetual motion machine but it might as well be from the end-user's point of view. It produces energy with no fuel required, at a constant rate, with no waste byproducts and very little heat.\n\nHowever--there's always a however in this line of work--it has the significant disadvantage that prevents me from recommending it for deployment at this time. COBALT RAIN works through a microportal to the Netherum, siphoning energy through without the possibility of hostile incursions. During normal operation, this remains true, but if the device is damaged it can destabilize containment and the portal can rapidly expand without warning. Just last week we had an incident during testing, and while the engineers were able to get the device shut down quickly, something still came through the portal. We're lucky that it doesn't seem hostile or really even interested in us. Despite its appearance (see attached), XE843 is indifferent to the presence or absence of others, light levels, food, or noise. It just wanders around its containment cell. We've contacted XEDRA-40 to ask them if they want to take a look at it. I'll forward the reply to you when we get it.\n\nWork to overcome this significant drawback is ongoing. At the moment, however, COBALT RAIN should remain in the prototype stage.\n\nAnita Morales\nSenior Researcher
• Colleagues,\n\nI'd like to take a moment to address the recent rumors. I know that stress levels are high with the quarantine and the XE037 news, but there is no need to engage in unwarranted speculation. In these unprecedented times, it's important to remember that we're all in this together and we will solve the problems before us, as we have so many others.\n\nI will be perfectly clear. There is no "Project GASPAR." Trained mathematicians are the most important resource that we have, and it would be the height of folly to waste them on replicating a resource that already exists simply because the current state of emergency has placed us out of contact. Furthermore, it is important to remember that Netherum mathematics are not magic. They obey a consistent set of rules and we are capable of determining those rules empirically. We can test how much a JUNIPER GOLD mathematician can lift to the milligram. We can determine the effective communication range for a GRAY DAWN candidate down to the decimeter. We would never simply "throw things at the wall and see what sticks." Science requires rigor.\n\nThese are troubling times, but we will get through them together.\n\nSincerely,\nHarold Liu\nDirector, Project PHAVIAN
• Human-portable laser weapons suffer from three major problems--high power draw preventing them from easily being transportable or usable in skirmish combat, long dwell times meaning that the operator must remain exposed to return fire in order to do anything more than blind the target, and common atmospheric conditions like dust or haze severely reducing the effectiveness of the beam. The LV-429 solves all three of these problems. Before the primary laser is fired, a secondary netherum mathemathical beam clears the path of the laser, removing atmospheric contaminants without affecting the target. The laser is fired in a series of short pulses, each much higher intensity than a standard laser, eliminating the need for extensive dwell time. Finally, the power source contains a small ND-cell, capable of powering the weapon effectively indefinitely.\n\nOne problem remains to be solved. While the weapon is capable of providing enough power for every shot in succession, matrix technology has not yet provided us with more efficient battery storage. This means that the ND-cell must charge existing batteries, allowing the LV-429 to be fired only once every few seconds, obviously too low a rate of fire for any live engagement. An attempt to overcome this limitation by including processed matrix crystals for additional energy production led to unacceptable heat levels, rendering the weapon unusable after less than a minute of sustained fire and, in one case, leading to the detonation of the prototype and the death of the tester. Further enhancements in power storage technology will be necessary before proper deployment.
• I'm looking up at the sky. I can see the same constellations on Earth, but they're shimmering somehow, like there's a haze or a fog or something between us. Then, the stars start to slowly go out. Not in a wave, but randomly--one here, one there, faster and faster until the entire sky was dark. Then the moon disappeared as well and everything went black.\n\nI'm standing on the edge of a cliff. Below me is the churning sea, the waters black under the stormclouds. The sea rises slowly as rain falls in sheets, lightning striking the waters. They break over the edge of the cliff, then over my head. I drown.\n\nI am standing in a forest. The trees rustle all around me and the birds sing, and then clouds pass over the sun. The sun dims and then starts to go black. It's an eclipse. The light fades and all the birdsong dies. I stand in pitch blackness with the rustle of leaves around me.
• In the interests of testing Dr. Al-Masri's hypothesis, we assembled a group of NOBLE HORIZON and GRAY DAWN mathematicians and had them both attempt to conduct a simple number guessing game. Melchior provided a six-digit number and both teams attempted to guess it. GRAY DAWN were competitive when the number was overseen by a third party, as expected, but when both teams were provided with a terminal interface and instructed to enter their guesses, GRAY DAWN scored no better than chance. On the other hand, NOBLE HORIZON consistently managed to guess at least three digits and successfully guessed the entire six-digit sequence twice (out of ten total sequences). This disparity was maintained when both groups were placed in empty rooms, instructed to write down their guesses on a sheet of paper, and place it into a box before leaving the room. Finally, NOBLE HORIZON attained a better than chance score on the final test, when both groups were instructed to guess the sequence before Melchior was asked to provide a sequence.\n\nThis leads to two conclusions. The first is that the alarmists are wrong; Melchior is not secretly harboring a genius intellect and plotting to control XEDRA from within, it is a computer, capable of processing vast amounts of data and using netherum mathematics to process that data much faster than would otherwise be possible. The second is that while GRAY DAWN requires a specific source from which to attain new information, NOBLE HORIZON does not. Even in situations where no information transfer would be possible, such as the final two testing scenarios, NOBLE HORIZON still had a better-than-chance rate of correctly determining the sequence.
• Sarah,\nI read your email and you're right--it's not a law anymore if we have such an easily-demonstrable counterexample. "Newton's Third Conjecture" doesn't have the same ring to it but seems more accurate. We've done a lot of experiments to find some sort of consequences for the TKs and so far there's nothing other than the standard metabolic cost. Netherum mathematics is work, but the mechanism of the force is unclear. We've already tried both a scale and water displacement and neither of them showed any measurable counterforce. That leaves a few possibilities:/n1)There is no counterforce. That breaks classical mechanics in half but frankly we're already at that point anyway.\n2)The counterforce is exerted elsewhere, such as the Netherum. This is basically just handwavium, "well, we can't see it but it must be out there." Must it? Plus then the counterforce isn't actually acting on the origin point anyway unless you buy Dr. Ho's ridiculous "The soul is a Nether construct" theory.\n3)The counterforce applies in some way we aren't looking for, like, I don't know, DNA damage or other microscopic-level areas. We already had comprehensive checkups and didn't find anything, but we're not entirely sure what we're looking for.\n\n"we're not entirely sure what we're looking for" is basically the theme of this whole project, honestly. It's amazing we've discovered as much as we have.\n\n-Neha
• She hurled a quarter 45.8 smoots
• They demanded that I include that title on this report even though it's pretentious as hell. This isn't some superweapon that will change the face of modern warfare, it's just a better form of hand-to-hand combat. They can't dodge bullets. They can't punch through brick walls. They can't do that movie thing where the hero hits a bad guy and the bad guy goes flying twenty feet. They're just faster and stronger and hit harder, all good things, but they aren't going to beat someone with a gun. There's a reason we invented guns and why functional martial arts training is about defending yourself and getting away, not about going on the offense.\n\nSo is it worth training people? That's the wrong question. This isn't a codified martial art, it's just using dimensional metaphysics to enhance existing methods of combat. A VERDANT HAND candidate will be better at Muay Thai than anyone who hasn't gone through BURNT NOVEMBER but they still need the actual martial arts training. This is just another tool. I'm not sure why there's so much focus on this, to be honest. With the cost of retrieving materials, surely we could spend that money better elsewhere. Modern warfare does not rely on single superheroes winning battles.
• They wanted me to keep a logbook of my daily exercise but I don't understand the point. I run, I lift, I sleep, that's about all these have me do here. What, they want "5:40 a.m.: 30 reps 250 lbs, run 20 minutes, 100 burpees (10 sets)" blah blah who cares? That shit doesn't matter. We're all trapped here and things are going to hell and we got some kind of poison in our bodies that's going to bring us back when we die so we can eat brains.\n\nWell, fine, here's my log: 6:05 a.m.: 50 reps 400 lbs, sprint 10 minutes, 200 pull-ups, triple somersault from a standing start. Put me in the Olympics right now.
• Why is there a distinction between pyrokinesis and telekinesis at all? Fire isn't a fundamental element, it's the result of heat which is the result of molecular motion. There's no conceptual reason why a pyrokinetic couldn't make all the molecules of an object move in a particular direction, producing motion of the entire object, or a telekinetic couldn't produce a more chaotic motion that resulted in the object's energy increasing. Furthermore, in no test has a telekinetic been able to move part of an object unless that part is designed for motion; pulling a lever is possible, but breaking a plate in half is not. And a pyrokinetic cannot apply the reverse and slow down an object's molecules to reduce heat unless that object is on fire.\n\nMy theory is that it's all psychological. We've all grown up with modern culture and stories about what psychics are "supposed" to be capable of, and so the matrix crystals and Netherum mathematics shape the candidates' abilities toward those pre-determined pathways. If we could get a SMOKE USHER mathematician from an uncontacted tribe, maybe they'd be able to induce diseases in their targets or steal their soul, in accordance with that tribe's beliefs and practices about supernatural powers. But since our candidates come from a culture where pyrokinesis and telekinesis are separate things and geokinesis or osteokinesis are very rare to nonexistant in fiction, the former result from awakenings and the latter do not.\n\nI would like to formally request a wider variety of cultural backgrounds for our project candidates to test this theory.

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