20:24 <banana> There are some suspicious things about these gamers. 20:24 <banana> It's not just that they're supernatural entities posing(?) as computer-game obsessed students, you know that. But how, and why, do they keep themselves so separate from the Manchester Underground? 20:25 <banana> Why is their house, despite its physical presence on the edge of the Gay Village, physically separate such that you can't actually remember passing through the doorway? Does this increase your risk of cancer? 20:25 <Crion> Aster doesn't trust any gamers, obviously. 20:26 <banana> They trust Willie, to an extent. Perhaps there's a certain kinship, or more likely it's her cooking. If she wants to bring over someone else who can help with their VR plans... and maybe an idea of her own about algorithms... apparently that's fine. 20:26 <VoxPVoxD> She promised them pizza. Hopefully that's enough for what Richard might charmingly term a little light treason. 20:27 <Crion> How many pizzas? On the drive over: "So. How bad does it smell, in there." 20:28 <banana> Richard Haldane... hasn't yet taken up Willie's offer of an introduction. Going by her sense of smell, these guys are the kind of demon he 'used to be'. But that's not an uncomplicated topic. 20:28 <Crion> Aster has dressed how he's gauged men his age who 'game' but have responsibilities should dress, which is sharp black shoes and socks, blue jeans, belt, cream Nirvana tee, black blazer. 20:28 <banana> It gives you to wonder: how real is Hambo? Are Jan and Nige people, or some kind of mask? 20:29 <Crion> Googling and press conference observation was involved. 20:29 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's made four, it looks like. Two rocket and parma ham and two margherita. That new oven is a dream. "Not as bad as you'd fear," she says, after some thought. "I've experienced far worse." 20:29 <banana> Once you're inside the building the question of Hambo's reality recedes. The big man is lying on a sofa with a Nintendo Switch in each hand, dextrously multi-boxing. 20:30 <banana> Nobody else is immediately visible, but you can hear fragging noises from the LAN room further inside. 20:30 <Crion> Aster makes a face. 20:30 <Crion> "Not the preferable heuristic, if we're being honest." 20:30 <VoxPVoxD> "Hello hello," calls Willie into the house as they enter. "Pizza delivery!" 20:30 <Crion> Aster will carry his share of pies. 20:30 <Crion> Oh, he's wearing his glasses today too. 20:30 <banana> Hambo: "Hey hey.. I'd help, but -" he barely moves. "Anyone? Pizza!" 20:31 <Crion> This doesn't seem like a contacts scene. 20:32 <banana> There's a clatter of chairs inside. Sammy and T3rt!arY - to Aster, that's a really young guy with fluffy hair and a girl in a thick hoodie - come hurriedly out of another sitting room into the front sitting room. T3rt!arY: "You never got back to me about the gizmo, dude." 20:32 <Crion> Unless the pizzas are truly neglected, Aster will pass on a slice. 20:33 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I'm sorry, I've been subject to a lot of gizmos lately, it's slipped my mind. Which one did you mean?" 20:34 <banana> Sammy: "Um, hello.. could we please take these through to the dining room? Nige'll kill me if he misses out." 20:35 <VoxPVoxD> Dude is fine. Dude shepherds the pizzas to their landing zone. 20:35 <Crion> Aster will set down his pies and step away, in case there's an airlock system for the dining room. 20:35 <banana> T3rt!arY moves out of the way if anyone's carrying pizza, but is less interested in it. "Your soul-stealing camera, right? I was going to take a look at for you... in trade for taking a look at it." 20:35 <Crion> They can carry them in themselves at this point. 20:37 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Oh, the TrackCheck! Yeah, actually, do you want have some pizza and walk Aaron through the setup - Aaron Aster, this is Sammy and T3rt!arY and Hambo on the sofa - while I run back to the office and get it?" 20:37 <banana> The 'dining room' does have a very long table (old wood, multi-slatted thing) but it's mostly covered in computers and network switches. Sammy resumes his seat; the others there are a tall black guy ("Nige") and a skinny guy Willie doesn't know who's surrounded by empties of Irn Bru. 20:37 <Crion> Ah. Already outflanked and cut off from reinforcements. How does Willie say that middle name? 20:37 <banana> T3rt!arY: "Cool, if you like, I mean." 20:38 <banana> Hambo: "YES!" 20:38 <banana> "I got the Skirrax. Tanking and DPS." 20:38 <VoxPVoxD> She says 'Tertiary' but in something like a lady version of the Unreal Tournament announcer voice. 20:39 <banana> Nigel glances at Aster for a moment; he's better groomed than most of them, as well as taller and more handsome. Good bones. But he's seemingly preoccupied with his screen, his keyboard and his mouse. 20:39 <Crion> For fuck's sake. "Thank you. Yes. Sammy, Hambo, T e r t i a r y...nice to meet you. I'm from Philadelphia." 20:39 <banana> Sammy: "Wow. Like in the movies." 20:39 <banana> Hambo: "What movies are you talking about, Sam?" 20:39 <Crion> Aster, firmly: "No." 20:39 <VoxPVoxD> "Good to see you, Nige! That's Nigel on the end, there, one of the clan leaders. I'll be back in a few. Ta!" 20:40 <Crion> "Hello, Nigel." 20:40 <banana> Hambo: "Good luck out there." 20:40 <Crion> She did this on purpose. 20:40 <banana> Sammy: "There's... Pretty Woman, right?" 20:40 <Crion> That's fine. She has the demon with her. The other demon. 20:40 <VoxPVoxD> She feels a big chagrined she forgot the thing, even though there's been a lot on her mind. On the other hand, if she gets back and Aaron's either Taloned them all or tried and been trapped in a haunted version of Pokemon from an internet horror story... well that's a damn sight better than having to watch it and still clean up the mess afterwards. 20:41 <banana> Hambo: "That's in New York, Sam." 20:41 <banana> Nigel: "Mr. Aster, is it? Come over here for a moment if you like." 20:42 <Crion> Aster: "The famous Philadelphia movies are about a boxer. They built a statue of him at the top of a bunch of stairs. The idea is that after climbing the stairs you'll be so -- yes, certainly." 20:42 <banana> T3rt!arY is temporarily bereft of purpose.. but she's got a screen to get back to too, so np. 20:42 <banana> Sammy: "Is that the same as the Joker stairs?" 20:43 <banana> Hambo: "I'm sorry, we've warned him about televsion. Sam, how's your K:D today?" 20:44 <banana> On Nigel's screen is the same game the others are playing - some 3D thing with his character jumping wildly about platforms in space, firing off shots that make a long line of light. The character continues to fight as Nigel takes his hands away and swivels to face Aster. 20:44 <Crion> Aster: "As far as I'm aware, you descend the Joker stairs. You climb the stairs to Rocky." 20:44 <banana> Hambo: "So that he can receive tribute." 20:44 <Crion> "Then there are ramps and whatnot if you're not in your fullness of purpose to go back the other way." 20:44 <Crion> "Factually so, yes." 20:44 <banana> Nigel: "It's certainly earned. Do you work with Willie?" 20:45 <VoxPVoxD> While Willie's back at the Greybox, does Richard a) have any objection to Willie unhooking the TrackCheck to show the demons b) have, privately, anything she'd like her to ask the Alpha Strikes on his clandestine behalf? 20:45 <Crion> Aster: "We're both part of the House's central workgroup. Which is a long yes." 20:46 <banana> Richard: "Nobody's been using the thing recently, you might as well see if they can figure it out. I did try turning it on myself again - same song, but it put me on the list. Hmm." 20:46 <banana> "One reading of the song they've assigned is sort of.. like my purpose is done and it doesn't matter what happens next." 20:46 <banana> Nigel: "Cool. And I'm guessing you don't game much?" 20:47 <VoxPVoxD> "Don't let it get inside your head, whoever's doing it is a prick," says Willie, hypocritically turning it on herself to see if her writeup has changed. 20:47 <Crion> Aster: "Not since college." 20:47 <Crion> "And then it was the NES and war games." 20:48 <Crion> He looks about. "You all do, of course, know about war games?" 20:48 <banana> Nigel has created a sort of conversational space at one end of the table, in which Hambo comes up to kind of hover as well. The other three... demons? Willie says they're not merely human, anyway- they've returning to their game. 20:48 <Crion> People are people. 20:48 <banana> Nigel: "Everything from Patton to Shadow Empire. ...but if you're talking about plastic army men, not really." 20:49 <banana> Hambo: "I've played Necromunda. Few years back." 20:49 <Crion> Aster nods. "Plastic men. Steel men. Resin men. Before them, cardboard squares. In simple terms, war games are board games taken far too seriously." 20:50 <Crion> "I have fought the Battle of Antietam some fifty times, and the Battle of Sharpsburg some one hundred times, across various systems." 20:51 <banana> Nigel: "The thesis we've got around here is that the joy in games and the effectuality outside them are things you can transmute, substitute. Antietam can be a metaphor for more than a fumbling first attempt at modern battle, yes?" 20:51 <Crion> Aster: "Absolutely. Antietam and Sharpsburg are the same battle." 20:52 <Crion> "The difference between them is position and perspective." 20:52 <banana> Nigel: "I was going to audible into the VR setup, but now I'm curious to know what you mean." 20:54 <banana> According to the device, Willie's latest epithet is as follows: "Decant, descant, descent -- Melody follows the beat and it is on fire -- Burn away a life and what's left?" 20:54 <VoxPVoxD> "Descant?? Fuck you too." 20:54 <banana> Richard: "If these people can make sense of that, I'd like to hear about it." 20:55 <VoxPVoxD> "I as well. Thank you, Richard." 20:55 <banana> "Good luck out there, Willie. Especially if they're wearing whole other people as skins." 20:56 <Crion> Aster: "First, the factual sense: In the American Civil War, the Union Army, representing the North, industrial might, emerging capitalism and radical abolition, named both its armies and the battles it fought after nearby terrain formations; rivers, mountains, valleys. 'Antietam' is actually nothing more than the name of a creek. The Confederate Army, representing the South, plantation 20:56 <Crion> wealth, the old way, the whip hand, the brutal force and the slaver's grin named both its armies and the battles it fought after political formations: towns, states, regions. So you have Antietam and Sharpsburg, the same place, the same thing, approached with wild, violent distinction." 20:56 <VoxPVoxD> Willie, who some have claimed is wearing less and less of a whole other person as a skin: "Thank you, Richard. Let me know if you want me to pick anything up on the way back." 20:57 <banana> Hambo: "So it's literal. And people managed to preserve the southerners' name." 20:57 <banana> Nigel: "Second?" 20:59 <banana> The TrackCheck, removed from its automation housing, folds up like a tripod. Willie's holding three little green rods with a flexible central body, the activation tab and readout placed arbitrarily among them along with its branding. 20:59 <banana> Although this thing is at least fifty years old, the font it uses in the makers' mark and the one on the screen... aren't. 21:00 <banana> Nameless Gamer: "Trish, the quad damage is open." 21:01 <banana> T3rt!arY: "Not my name, fuck you." 21:01 <banana> Gamer: "You wish- ah, fuck." He's been fragged, possibly due to the quad damage. 21:01 <Crion> "Then, you have war gaming. You have a number of different boards, different army states, and different rules. The best of them model specifically Antietam itself; the north won the war and the south's naming regimen can go fuck itself. It's called the Battle of Antietam. The creek was christened and sworn in blood. Anyway. There are some games that let you purchase specific boards and use 21:01 <Crion> the same rulesets across them, but the best ones model one battle and invite you to get as persnickety with it as you like. Our favorite rendition was 'In Their Quiet Fields II.' The average playtime of a game was..." 21:02 <VoxPVoxD> How modern are they? Is it like the serif allergy everyone caught in the 2010s that turned the Google logo into a stack of refrigerator magnets? 21:02 <Crion> "Well, on Sundays, we watched the Philadelphia Eagles, and drank from noon to whenever the anger stopped." 21:02 <Crion> "On Saturdays, we did that with In Their Quiet Fields II." 21:06 <Crion> "Then you have the level above war gaming: the meta. A number of these games -- IQF2 not among them, thankfully -- liked to give sops to the Confederate forces for various reasons. One was to make things 'fair;' it's difficult to entice someone to take up the position against the first truly industrial army in the history of the modern West with out some tummyfeel help, in some places. But on 21:06 <Crion> the level above that was an essential drive, a mandate, to make the Union and Confederacy equal and opposing things. And indeed, to remove the shame of ever playing the Confederacy. Most war games did not engage directly in what we call the Lost Cause pseudohistorical negationist mythology, but some did, because they were made by men who wanted the past back and played war games to dream of 21:06 <Crion> getting it." 21:06 <banana> Willie will recognise the readout text as the kind you used to get on iPods, and the text etched into the inexplicably green metal as that one serif font every web page used to use, because it was available. Verdana? 21:06 <banana> *sans-serif font 21:07 <VoxPVoxD> So this could have come from Ikea and then got sent back in time. 21:07 <Crion> Aster pauses. "I, of course, played whichever side was optimal in the system presented. The evil of the Confederates and of chattel slavery could not be re-litigated through a mere boardgame at Temple University. And so I won a great deal." 21:08 <banana> Nigel: "Do these games always model a direct confrontation, massed face-to-face?" 21:08 <VoxPVoxD> This is the sort of thing you'd find there. It'd be called Pellevore or something-- ah, angry rumination passed the ride back in a trice; she's re-entering the Gamer House with a tripod under her arm. "I've returned with an accursed object!" 21:08 <Crion> 21:09 <Crion> Aster: "Yes. Supply lines, extraneous material concerns...sometimes they are modelled. But even in direct regimental combat, you're committing to some four hours of play." 21:10 <banana> Nigel: "Well, things do play out like that sometimes. As you say, it's a reenactment of the past. But modern warfare, if you'll pardon my actiblizz, is lost well before the formal confrontation." 21:11 <banana> Hambo... bowed out of the Antietam wargaming discussion at some point. He's at the door when Willie comes in. She's never actually seen him playing a PC game, though that seems to be the others' preferred medium. 21:11 <Crion> Aster: "I don't know what that is, so certainly. And to a degree, I think that's always been true. Which is a method of agreement." 21:11 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Hello, Hambo. Taking a break?" 21:12 <banana> "To be cursed, yes. Honestly, we get a lot of breaks around here. It's not all worldbuilding." 21:13 <banana> "If I was to rate the workplace... better than a Brood War teamhouse, but more slave-driven than the kind of NA teams you get for League." 21:13 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "So, you know what happened with Sam and Claat, right?" 21:13 <VoxPVoxD> "I don't want you cursing yourself blind." 21:13 <banana> Nigel: "I'm sorry, I haven't offered you a seat at all. Want to rest a moment while I get the cameras positioned?" 21:15 <banana> Hambo: "We're prepared this time. Hopefully T3rt can figure out how it works, and if not.. we can trace them back." 21:15 <Crion> Aster: "I'm sorry. Positioned for what?" 21:15 <VoxPVoxD> Willie holds up the TrackCheck. 21:17 <banana> Nigel: "Room-scale virtual reality uses a series of delta-positioned inputs to capture how you're located and oriented in the play area. At the scale on which we're operating, more axes are needed." He grins briefly and walks over to a set of cabinets, unlocking them with a tiny key to reveal varied black plastic equipment. 21:18 <Crion> Aster: "Oh." 21:18 <Crion> "Well. Let me take off my coat." 21:18 <banana> T3rt!arY hasn't got a lot of peripheral vision with the hoodie, but she does catch Willie's movement and pauses the game once more. 21:19 <banana> Sammy: "Hey... are you guys coming back?" 21:19 <banana> T3rt!arY: "Not for a while. Get on the fileshare or something." 21:20 <banana> The other guy grunts in, possibly, approval. 21:21 <banana> Hambo: "So this widget, and the games we play, and the things you've agreed about angels... what's your feeling on all this, Willie? Any idea what's going on?" 21:21 <banana> T3rt!arY joins them in one of the several becouched chambers, staring intensely at the TrackCheck. She's got a little box of screwdrivers in one hand, with many precise and custom heads. 21:22 <VoxPVoxD> Willie hands off the thing to Tersh and considers Hambo's question. "Do you know much about speedrunning?" 21:23 <Crion> Aster, as the setup continues to be set up: "So how likely am I to lose equilibrium and vomit everywhere?" 21:23 <banana> The gamer girl takes it gingerly. "Powerful. Self-powered, even though it shells out somewhere. Maybe microfusion?" 21:24 <banana> Nigel: "Ah, the soldier and the spy didn't tell you? If you haven't got serious motion problems, you're going to be fine.. our gear mitigates most of those kinds of issues. May I calibrate your glasses for a moment?" 21:25 <banana> Hambo: "I know about speedrunning. I don't know why they do it, but they're certainly heroes." 21:25 <banana> Nigel: "Maybe I should have clarified this with you and Willie. Are you looking to try out for the Brussels mission?" 21:26 <Crion> Aster sighs quietly. "What's the mission description?" 21:28 <banana> The Alpha stops his wiring for a moment and looks Aster up and down. "Probably not the same one we gave the soldier. ...You religious?" 21:28 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I had a-- a friend who would watch it a lot, and I would sit and watch it with him. Sometimes, and some games, you tend to play in an ordinary way but quickly, not making any mistakes and carefully finding the shortest route from A to B to Z. But sometimes you do things like move by jumping backwards constantly, because that's how the game decided acceleration should work, so that 21:28 <VoxPVoxD> backing up to slow down was responsive, not realising what would happen if people just did the stupid thing over and over again." 21:28 <Crion> Aster: "Not conventionally or denominationally." 21:28 <VoxPVoxD> "Or like... you stand in a corner and wiggle a bit and then you pop between the walls." 21:28 <VoxPVoxD> "It looks like magic but it's just a glitch in the code, or a situation that wasn't QA'd, or whatever." 21:29 <VoxPVoxD> "According to the research I've been doing and the experts I've consulted, Hell seems to operate on similar principles. An abuse of what we think of as the 'ordinary' laws of physics, rather than the superimposition of, I don't know, foreign code or whatever magic represents in this analogy." 21:30 <banana> Nigel: "Here's the short version." He pitches his voice to carry; might be talking to Aster and Willie at the same time. "We're refugees from a cult; you're familiar with magic, which I will define as operations upon reality that go beyond normal human understanding and affect the world directly, an alternative methodology to engineering which is a matter of plugging numbers into formulas." 21:30 <banana> Hambo: "Formulae." 21:30 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "And this is true of fire-and-brimstone Hell as well as of the Hell that electric sheep dream of." 21:31 <banana> T3rt!arY is sat down at this point, turning the device over in her hands, but she says: "It's actually 'formulæ'." 21:31 <VoxPVoxD> "Such that... they might be the same thing, ultimately?" 21:31 <VoxPVoxD> "I'm not sure. It's not fully formed analysis. But that's my idea of what's going on." 21:32 <Crion> Aster: "I have...modules that might apply here. I do not want to apply them and actually hurt someone monitoring this system, however." 21:32 <Crion> "Also, I might start bleeding all over -- you know what, I'll be right back." 21:32 <Crion> Aster will take a pause to go out to his Range Rover and exchange the vintage Nirvana tee for an undershirt. 21:33 <Crion> Aster, once reseated: "Alright. Let's pretend I never left." 21:33 <VoxPVoxD> The realisation that Aaron had a Nirvana shirt is upgraded to the realisation that Aaron has a Nirvana shirt he's protective of. 21:34 <banana> When he returns, Nigel's come out to the front room where the others are to continue. "It's true that the world has hidden rules, obfuscated like the kind of code an ad runs in your web browser. There is a hierarchy of access to these things; you can't stumble into them." 21:34 <banana> "Your musical camera is designed to be used by anyone, but most machines built on the cult's hidden rules are not like that. Find your way into one of its installations, and the switches or dials would do nothing for you. Unfair, of course." 21:34 <banana> T3rt!arY: "It's designed that way because it's meant to be sent out into the world, like. This thing feels like.. a drone, or a seed. Probably one of many." 21:34 <Crion> Aster: "Fairness. Difficult to purchase." 21:35 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I've also got some information that indicates that wire-and-diode demons can possess people, spin up whole lives from cloth, and then shed them like snakeskins." 21:35 <VoxPVoxD> "Another point of commonality with the aesthetically classic demon." 21:35 <banana> Nigel: "Yeah, and a bit irrelevant. To your earlier question, there is someone on the other side. In Brussels. We have, let's say, magical vengeful Scientologists." 21:35 <banana> "What information is that, exactly?" 21:36 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "My employer was attempting to puppeteer someone who survives, so the employer claims, as one of these cascara snakeskins." 21:36 <banana> Hambo: "Oh..." 21:36 <Crion> Aster: "So what you're asking me to do is...a skirmish, in a grand game. EVE Online." 21:36 <Crion> He's read about it. 21:36 <VoxPVoxD> "An analogy was made to a 'cover identity'." 21:44 <banana> Nigel, to Aster: "Our game is grand indeed, and the Brussels Game just a part of it. But it's an important part.. you'd really be helping us out, and the tinker is always forthcoming. Lemme share a bit with you two on the burning question." 21:45 <Crion> Aster: "I'm willing to help, if you're putting me in a position to succeed." 21:45 <banana> "Your Hell? I don't know it for sure. To my people, Hell is a thing we build together, an alternative to the false and constructed heaven from which we've fled. But I do have a take." 21:46 <banana> "Fire and brimstone? That's a coherent aesethetic. So are wires and diodes, which I'm guessing relate to your cast-off friend. You've got to have an aesthetic. None of them are integral." 21:47 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "But what is the character of the thing itself? What lies beneath the aesthetic?" 21:47 <banana> "I believe the monstrous devils and the circles of fire you're familiar with, Willie, are of our society. They might not be fellow escapees... it's possible. But they could be something else, creations. Or things that live on and around the hidden laws." 21:48 <banana> "What lies beneath... that's a tricky question." 21:48 <banana> Hambo: "Traditionally we'd ask for your security clearance." 21:48 <Crion> Aster observes the philosophical discussion without interfering. 21:49 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Who's the credentialing authority?" 21:50 <banana> Tertiary's flattened the TrackCheck onto a table in one corner of the room now. She's hunched over it, messing with her screwdrivers. Occasionally, she does something that makes Willie and Aaron's ears pop. 21:51 <banana> Hambo: "True gamers don't recognise any authority, so..." 21:51 <banana> Nigel: "There is a very large and awful machine." 21:51 <banana> "It didn't create everything. It doesn't control everything. But it acts like those things are true, and puts up a convincing facade." 21:52 <VoxPVoxD> The civil servant nods along, understanding intuitively. 21:52 <banana> "We aim to poke holes in the facade through which one can insert the barrel of a gun." 21:52 <banana> Hambo: "May insert." 21:52 <banana> "Er, no, sorry, it'd be 'can' alright." 21:53 <Crion> Aster: "If you're going to send me into a match, can Willie observe and support?" 21:53 <Crion> Aster: "My apologies. My concerns are operational, right now." 21:53 <banana> Nigel: "Yes, but you'd be better off working together directly." 21:53 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "And the character of the actions this machine takes are typically impersonal? Abstract? But inherently oppressive and degrading to the human spirit by dint of the control they seek? Somewhere between Kafka and Kefka?" 21:53 <banana> "You two aren't quite like the other guys.. we've got a different level of the game that might suit you." 21:53 <VoxPVoxD> 'between Kafka and Kefka' was an Emmentaler line about the Treasury. 21:53 <banana> To Willie: "Hey, you got it in one." 21:54 <Crion> Well, that's up to her. Out loud he says: "You are, of course, the subject matter experts." 21:54 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "So if I had a line on the sort of thing one might poke a hole in in this way... you'd be interested? For personal ideological reasons? A favour of mutual benefit?" 21:55 <banana> "Oh, yes. If it doesn't comport with our aesthetic we might not be able to operationalize... but we'd like to know." 21:56 <banana> "You don't get to be the #3 ranked clan on EU west servers across a dozen different games without an information edge." 21:56 <banana> Hambo's going to start helping with the VR setup, so it doesn't take all day. 21:56 <VoxPVoxD> Willie wishes she'd brought her laptop, but it's fine, she can pull up her email on her phone. "The Home Office has put together an algorithm that combs the immigration databases for legally-expellable people, people who've lived in this country for decades on grey-area visas, for as near as I can tell the in-principle satisfaction of deporting people." 21:56 <VoxPVoxD> "Tens of thousands of people." 21:57 <VoxPVoxD> "Can we break this?" 21:58 <banana> T3rt!arY, who currently has your complex and irreplaceable device in several pieces: "We can break anything." 21:58 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's grin would split a lesser face. "I am so fortunate to know you all." 21:59 <Crion> Aster: "Well. I'm glad I replaced my shirt. But at this point I think you need a headset too." 21:59 <banana> T3rt!arY: "Alpha. Running the Brussels Game on this algorithm wouldn't work, it's local... but so's the one behind this thing." 21:59 <VoxPVoxD> Willie looks over at Aaron. "Oh, yeah, suit me up." 21:59 <banana> Nigel: "Really? He's in range? Cherubim or Throne?" 22:00 <banana> T3rt!arY, witheringly: "IP-masked. But a government neural network is the right kind of totem for that." 22:01 <banana> Nigel: "Two headsets it is. If you're on the side of chaos, we're on yours." 22:01 <Crion> It's probably more nuanced than that. But Aster certainly isn't on the side of Brussells. And this connection is necessary. 22:04 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's response to 'are you on the side of Chaos' would be a lengthy 'my 'no' is misleading' situation. Descanting from such a height...!