Editing Questions/Question 129

{{Question
	|QuestionFaqPage=Log - June 2025/Event FAQ
    |Link=https://enochlesis.dreamwidth.org/4871.html
    |Topics=
    |AskedBy=techrotten
	|DateAsked=2025-06-05
	|QuestionText=alright mods... rubs my hands together... eleanor is going to try to psychically communicate with Da Squid<br><br>Eleanor <i>is</i> able to peek into the minds of animals in canon, and the way it essentially works is inhabiting their point of view and their minds for the moment. So, even if it's not verbal communication, she should be able to understand it and get a general vibe of what's upsetting the poor thing. She won't connect for long (because it does tend to be a bit traumatic for the creature--though a squid might do better since it's more intelligent), but she's trying to see what has it so agitated and see if there's a way she can help.<br><br>EDIT THE SECOND: Set (<span lj:user="redsoil" style="white-space: nowrap;" class="ljuser"><a href="https://redsoil.dreamwidth.org/profile"><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png" alt="[personal profile] " width="17" height="17" style="vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;" class="ContextualPopup-trigger"></a><a href="https://redsoil.dreamwidth.org/"><b>redsoil</b></a></span>) will also be helping her out here actually! Since he can speak with animals, they’ll just do a fun n’ flirty little mind meld to assist with that. Surely nothing bad could happen! (we both welcome bad things happening)<br><br>And in case it's helpful, here's the snippet of her explanation about this process to give you an idea of how it works!<br><br><details><summary><b>below the cut!</b></summary><br><u>Salem</u> ; I tried to touch minds with one of Lettie’s rats, once, just to see what would happen.<br><u>Drifter</u> ; Okay, I have to ask how that went.<br><u>Salem</u> ; It was a dreadful three seconds for him.<br><u>Salem</u> ; Poor little thing. I’d failed to allow for what touching MY mind would seem like to HIM, you see. Imagine a child lost in an infinite department store, screaming for its mother at the top of its lungs over and over. Everything was enormous and incomprehensible and had NOISES and SHAPES instead of SMELLS.<br><u>Salem</u> ; I broke the link as fast as I could. He was a little dizzy for an hour or so, then he was fine. I doubt he even remembers what happened to him.<br><u>Drifter</u> ; And your side of it? What was it like being a rat?<br><u>Salem</u> ; I don’t know if you’ve ever had the kind of slump where all you want to do is lie in bed and breathe in and out and just exist without doing anything else, but it was a lot like that.<br><u>Salem</u> ; Very basic. Simple needs met in simple ways.<br><u>Salem</u> ; Childhood innocence has nothing on rat-consciousness.<br><u>Drifter</u> ; Sounds kind of pleasant, the way you talk about it.<br><u>Salem</u> ; Oh, it was. I’m sure being a rat has its bad side, like having to eat your dead brother so the predators won’t sniff him out, but that fleeting moment of simplicity was like a religious breakthrough, almost.<br><u>Salem</u> ; I guess being a rat is a lot like being a monk. Live off scraps, make your humble way in the world, never own a car or a house.</details><br><br>EDIT: and a secondary side question for a different prompt! I notice that the log says that the blood lake's waters are caustic, whereas this FAQ mentions that they're safe. Is the former more a rumor (or just find for Augmented because they're more resilient)? Or is it not actually safe for swimming?<div class="edittime"><em>Edited <span class="datetime"><span class="comment-date-text"> </span> <span title="">2025-06-05 12:11 pm (local)</span></span></em></div>
    |DateAnswered=2025-06-06
    |AnswerText=One of the strangest things about the squid-mind is that it's not only intelligent, its thoughts are structured in a way that is eerily similar to that of a human. It's not identical, but it's close. Something cephalopodic has been fitted with it, merged to a degree that it would be hard to even consider them as separate entities... with the result a consciousness that is a hybrid of the two. <br><br>So any trauma that comes about from being on wildly different levels of consciousness would be minimized- but it'll probably be overwhelming all the same. The squid might attempt to use human language, on connection with Elanor's mind- but it's likely to broken speech, reflective of questions, and relying on impressions of its emotional state to get its meaning across. It can't properly ask who she and Set are, or what they are, or express the pain it's in (even though it's survived Katalyth growing on it, it's not a comfortable experience). Frustration will flavor its attempts, a despair over its own clumsiness, but it will genuinely try to hold a conversation of sorts with Elanor and Set. It will deliver impressions of 'WHO' and 'WHY'. There's a lot of imagery in its head, flashes of the Augmented who've been around this portion of the bridge, paired with more repetitions of the same feeling of curiosity. <br><br>As for bad things happening: this might be very uncomfortable for all parties involved! The squid doesn't know how to think softly, to emote gently. In its desperation for company and this <i>hint</i> of someone talking <i>back</i> in a way that it understands, it might scream that much louder. All of this is likely to induce more migraines, even temporary blindness, deafness.<br><br>It's not trying to hurt them... it's just excited, and trying to understand. Between its questions are visions of deep water, of emptiness. You all are the first non-fish it's seen in years. (There are some other impressions it provides of non-Augmented humans, not on the bridge, but on streets and in cars. In homes, in offices, in labs underneath bright lights and sharp knives. ...And beyond that, a city, bustling with life. It looks a lot like Karteria.)<br><br>And that's a good catch about the Blood Lake, as some information has diverged accidentally over time... the locations page will be updated to clarify this, but: Blood Lake itself (<a href="https://alogos.dreamwidth.org/file/84765.jpg">red</a>) is uncomfortable to swim in. It's somewhat caustic, but not outright <i>dangerous</i>. It's just... very salt. Around it are <a href="https://alogos.dreamwidth.org/file/85415.jpg"><i>pink</i></a> lakes, which are safe, if not necessarily as medicinal as rumor would have it. They can be swam in freely. They are very nice to swim in!
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