010; (VIDEO) forward-dated to late on the 25th

[andblockbuster]

 [What you are seeing is Topher. Topher looks a little like hell. Someone may or may not have been avoiding dealing with one of his empathy links for SCIENCE (the first one worked out fine- that's how he knows enough to figure this out, but the second one...) ... Also, it's possible he's been occupied running scans and trying to figure out if he's wrong, which... he's still not convinced he's not.]

I've been working.... [He pauses, plants a palm on his forehead, and sucks in a breath.] I've been working on a theory. It's not entirely sound yet, but I was trying to run through every logical possibility before entertaining the notion that it might actually be... that, and... no dice. None. And it was bad enough when it was just memories, but now- now. Oh, it's much worse. 

Whatever this is, it's on a synaptic level- whatever one person feels, the other person feels too. Observe. [He picks up something sharp and pricks himself, which makes him hiss in pain.] Now someone out there felt that. That means that we are doing some serious groupthink weirdness without the whole "all of us are Borg" BS- SO FAR. Who knows what it'll be in a few weeks. Or days. And what was the last thing 90% of us experienced that involved groupthink? Anyone?

[YEAH, TOPHER'S HAVING A BAD DAY. HOW ARE YOU?] I think we might be in trouble.

[He rubs his face.] And is anyone who was fully assimilated on Strela even still around? 'Cause that'd be a start to maybe possibly proving me wrong. Or right. But let's err on the side of blind optimism and assume my fancy medical degrees in neurology mean nothing and I'm just talking out of my... bottom area. Whatever.

[Maybe you should deal with your link first, Topher. MAYBE. There's science to do, okay.]

Comments

Video

[dino_zarf]

[Wash, of course, has no idea what he's about to do just by opting for the video feed]

Whoah, whoah, lot of information there, but some of us need to go back a step or two. What's a Borg and a Strela?

Video 1/2

[andblockbuster]

[Crickets chirping in the distance.]

2/2

[andblockbuster]

[OH WAIT. Maybe he should... not be staring.]

Can, uh... Sorry. What was the question?

[HE'S GONNA DIE. HE'S GONNA DIE SO HARD...]

voice, TOP GUN ENCRYPTIONS 95%

[leaps]

Did you say Strela?

voice, TOP GUN ENCRYPTIONS 95%

[andblockbuster]

Were you here for that? 'Cause we have lost and gained a ton of people since then, dude.

[voice]

[testgasm]

Topher, you are my very best friend and I value that a lot, but it also gives me the right, as your best friend, to step in when I deem it--when I deem it necessary.

Can you not?

[voice]

[andblockbuster]

I didn't want to say it, but someone had to. I don't wanna be that guy, but... brain science. It's my thing. I didn't really come to the decision to be Data over this without a lot of trepidation.

[HE HAS NEVER FORGIVEN DATA FOR THE CLONE THING.]

[voice]

[doc_pompous]

Generally, I try not to induce panic.

[voice]

[andblockbuster]

I like to call it "spreading awareness." And maybe investing in good psychic shielding. We've got guys who can do that here, right?

[tinytactician]

[He flicks on the communicator and just launches right into the rambling.]

Initially I theorized this was the result of some sort of focused medical tampering -- if a ship can take people from a myriad of varied environments and even varied realities, it seems possible to insert another's memories via some sort of...tissue transfer, perhaps? The actual reproduction of neurons or brain matter? Or perhaps it's based electrically, with a reproduction of the actual synapses firing, which seems possible as well.

But now that there's a physical and even an emotional link, I'm starting to suspect there's been an agent introduced in the food or atmosphere that's causing shared hallucinations, because short of actually connecting nerve endings, this seems absolutely impossible.

[Pause.]

I'm Armin, by the way.

[andblockbuster]

[THAT IS A LOT OF WORDS, DUDE.]

That is... really impressive. [Topher steeples his fingers.] But doesn't quite win you the giant stuffed panda, my friend. Imprinting memories, emotions, and... sensations into another person's brain is a very real possibility, but the problem is you can't do that to a functioning brain. You gotta wipe the slate clean first. Putting even one memory into someone else's head would set off a neurological event that could shut the whole system down or... make your head implode.

But linking a bunch of minds into one singular mind is... a little less tricky if you have the right equipment. The hard part is the whole individual consciousness thing. If that's what this is, then maybe they're linking gradually- a little of this guy, a little of that chick, and then slowly they remove everything that's us and we're left with a bunch of mindless drones thinking together as one. It'd be cool if it weren't happening to us. [Or had never happened to anyone he knew.]

I'm Topher. I'm the... ship neurologist.

voice

[humanistic]

Oh, so now we're in trouble. Because we weren't before. Thanks, for the warning.

[Except your disjointed warning seriously sucks, pal, and this is so not the day for that shit.]

Just what exactly are you suggesting we're going t' be dealing with in a few weeks?

voice

[andblockbuster]

[Yeah, well.

So's your face, Mitchell.]

A... total loss of our individual selves. It's like... like cake, okay. You start with a bunch of different ingredients, all of them separate and individual, and then you put them all in a mixer, and suddenly you don't know what's what anymore. Right now, we're all still eggs and milk and whatever, but the more the ship starts mixing other things into our brains, the more we start to lose what we were and become one big cake collective.

[A beat.] And now I'm hungry.

[enforced]

Empathy like this can have other causes.

[Not that the Master/Padawan bond is quite this intense, but then Anakin gets flashes of the future so who knows all that the Unifying Force is capable of?]

[andblockbuster]

If you've got a another explanation, I'm all ears. You're my...

[....] only... hope.

[CRINGE.]

voice;

[20mentholkools]

This ain't Strela.

voice;

[andblockbuster]

Yeah, I can tell because of the cozy decor.

[yes. smart off to riddick. that'll get you so far.]

I know it's not Strela, but this is how it starts.

t e x t »

[rixatus]

you're always in trouble, christopher. :)

voice »

[andblockbuster]

[Terrified squeaky voice] Can we not?

[OH MY GOD, HE DOESN'T EVEN WANT TO PRETEND TO TALK TO YOU FOR SCIENCE.]

video;

[reticencies]

[between all the memories that she has been getting from other people since this started, the first thing sarah realizes from seeing this on the network is that his voice sounds familiar. she isn't entirely sure yet though so she holds back on mentioning that it for now]

You think they're related?

video;

[andblockbuster]

[That voice feels familiar to him too and gives him pause.] I- yeah. I think they could be.

text;

[puppydogeyes]

The headaches are getting worse.

[Like that's the part that's the most inconvenient about this whole thing.]

voice;

[andblockbuster]

And so are the nosebleeds. Pretty sure I'm gonna get my first brain implosion ever if this keeps up.

[That is not a good thing, Topher...]

visual »

[unparental]

...'when I hurt myself, someone else hurts. See?'

Topher.

[ ferguson what. WHAT. ]

visual »

[andblockbuster]

It was a pinprick! And I'm pretty sure they slammed their hand in a drawer earlier.

voice;

[2leftfeet]

What exactly happened on the Strela? [Because she's done some back reading ala Ianto's guide, but its a lot of information to keep straight. A beat, then:] And is there any kind of equipment on the ship you could use to track the exchange? This isn't my field of expertise, but I'd think any degradation the links might be causing would show on a medscan.

video;

[andblockbuster]

We could check out in anytime we liked, but we could never leave? [He laughs and then... decides maybe he shouldn't make reference jokes, because most people don't get them. He clears his throat.] Uh... In a nutshell, we stopped to get supplies and the locals tried to kidnap us and force us to join their freaky hivemind collective.

[As for the rest...] Working on it. So far, it's mostly just a lot of extra activity in the temporal lobe and phantom tinglies in the synapses whenever a link is active. I've only done comparison scans on myself, but... Here. [He turns the device to show where he has two brain scans- one which is pretty much exploding with color and the other a little bit more normal.] It's all just a bunch of extra activity. Nothing concrete- nothing you can really track. It's like it's a part of your brain, but... not.

[northerner]

Topher.

[ yo dude your leigelord is here. ]

Have you a moment to speak with me?

[andblockbuster]

Unless it involves you being the morality police. [He holds up his hand to keep him from... saying anything.] It's a joke. Don't... yeah. [COUGH] I've got a moment.