18:14 <banana> The atmosphere in the gamers' sharehouse is... well, they don't have very good ventilation. But the atmosphere is also excited. 18:15 <Crion> Aster's strapping in... 18:15 <banana> It seems that your interests and theirs coincide; in this case, the crusades against angels and against the cruel workings of an impersonal machine are one and the same. 18:16 <Crion> Interesting. It has a name now, doesn't it? Or rather, Aster has a name for it. 18:16 <Crion> That set of bizarre structures and strictures operating at right angles with the world. 18:17 <VoxPVoxD> It's just Rude Maths. 18:21 <VoxPVoxD> Willie, at least, has already been trained on the hardware, though it remains to be seen how the interface and circumstances are different here. 18:21 <banana> Several of the gamers are getting involved now that this thing is happening. Nige, one of their leaders - Alphas - has finished the room-scale VR setup and switched seamlessly from wiring to incanting, sonorous nonsense about liberty and technology which Willie will recall is the sequence to activate Pro Mode. 18:22 <banana> T3rt!arY has the TrackCheck in pieces, disassembled along nonobvious lines - one of the three legs is entirely intact, others unscrewed and seemingly broken apart into puzzle-box pieces that don't fit back together. 18:22 <banana> They're starting to drop the facade a little; she has the device's pieces on an endtable, pieces of it hovering above a schematic diagram that's technically a ratty old mousemat - but when she brought over the mouse-mat from her PC, it had a picture of a screaming eagle or something. 18:23 <VoxPVoxD> That's cool. She knew these guys were cool. 18:23 <banana> The floating bits hum. Occasionally she says something like, "Nige, it's trying to connect on port 🥝🧘. 18:23 <banana> " 18:24 <Crion> Is there something Aster should be doing right now besides waiting patiently? 18:25 <banana> Sammy the immersive sim expert is here too, to help Aaron and Willie into headsets if they need it, giving them controllers and explaining the functions of buttons. Hambo observes and makes friendly pedantic remarks. That's why he gets the big bucks. 18:26 <banana> Aster's headset hums to life. He can now wait patiently... in virtual reality. 18:27 <Crion> Well. Excellent. Is there at least a lobby to get his bearings or does that mean wandering around the VR Space while people are still crossing it? 18:27 <banana> The experience ramps up: first he's seeing a frosty landscape on two screens, which seem to merge into one as his brain accepts the accurate tracking of his eye and head movements; ambient audio comes in, and he can look down and see something like his own body and clothing. Then the smell and touch kick in. 18:27 <Crion> You know, in the realm where his actual body is. 18:28 <Crion> Alright. This is definitively beyond the cutting edge of currently-scoped technology. 18:28 <banana> Willie's still being booted up, so Aster gets to experience just how cold it is first. He's standing on some sort of.. glacier? Like, on top of a mountain. There's a burnt smell in the air despite all the ice. 18:28 <Crion> As long as it's not toast. 18:29 <banana> Willie pops into existence halfway up a snowdrift, then falls a little, nearly sliding on the blue ice. The sky is dark and starless, but you can see, as if the world beneath you were globally illuminated. 18:31 <Crion> Aster: "This is unideal." 18:31 <Crion> "I hope you can hear me." 18:32 <banana> Hambo: "We've got you." He sounds very far away. "Don't worry about bumping into things, it would be hilarious." 18:32 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "If I'm going to fall, can you take my phone out of my pocket, please?" 18:32 <VoxPVoxD> "I can't tell at all if that's likely." 18:32 <Crion> Aster grins unpleasantly. He thinks. "Excellent." 18:33 <Crion> Is Willie in here with him? 18:33 <Crion> Ah, there she is. 18:33 <banana> Aster can hear an echo of Nige's voice with his ears, just about - the bulk of it comes from all around you, like the sky and earth were speaking. To Willie, only the latter come through. "You've synchronised pretty well for people who aren't floating in a warm vat." 18:34 <banana> "What are you seeing, navigators?" 18:34 <Crion> Aster: "Mountain top cliff. I've seen someone at the office play this one. Skyrim?" 18:34 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Your place is quite cozy! I see snow and ice. Aaron's up the slope a bit. We're on some sort of cliff face, maybe an ice shelf or a mountaintop. It's night, but starless." 18:35 <VoxPVoxD> "Is there a grue about?" 18:35 <Crion> "There was a case about one of the earlier ones. A rogue 'mod.' That one had a starless night." 18:35 <banana> Nige: "Wrong galaxy, then.. I'll try and get your surrounds situated. Hold on a mo', maybe look for a way down." 18:36 <Crion> "It killed its users." 18:36 <Crion> "So let's not do that one." 18:36 <banana> Someone (not Nige) says quietly: "Herobrine." 18:36 <VoxPVoxD> It's cold. But on some level she knows it's not *actually* cold, so she's just sort of vibing on the sensations. Particularly since she can't feel her body back in the real world at all. 18:37 <Crion> Aster's mostly talking at this point to maintain his connection to both worlds. 18:37 <banana> The glacier is wide, though in one direction it does have an obvious terminus where the stone rises in grey cliffs. You could probably trudge down it, but large patches look steep and slippery. There would be the risk of falling off an Alp. 18:37 <Crion> This is supernaturally convincing. 18:37 <Crion> He is declining to move for the moment. 18:38 <VoxPVoxD> "Is falling damage enabled?" 18:38 <Crion> Aster: "I'll let you know the minute they tell us whether healing potions are." 18:38 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's looking for a way down — carefully, at least unless she's given the go ahead to go apeshit like she's lucid dreaming. 18:39 <banana> T3rt!arY: "Hello, normies? Can you hear me? The icy environment there is because this thing's signalling through rarefied strata. We're going to need it tracked down over cloud and mountain..." 18:39 <banana> "Uh. Damage.. well, yes, but we have savepoints." 18:39 <banana> "If you die in the game, you die in real life. But you can come back. I'd still avoid it." 18:39 <Crion> Aster: "Unhelpful." 18:39 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Let's be careful, then, so as not to waste time or energy unduly." 18:40 <banana> T3rt!arY: "We can get you potions and other cheats once the calibration's done." 18:40 <banana> "This is not like the Brussels Game. It's not a realistic scenario; we're going to leverage your willingness to take on an enemy that's already in our realm." 18:40 <Crion> Aster: "Do you at least have a waypoint?" 18:41 <banana> T3rt!arY: "Can you see any other peaks? Is there one with a cloud road, or rainbow bridge, or a trail of glitter in the air?" 18:41 <Crion> Well, let's see. 18:41 <VoxPVoxD> Good question. 18:42 <banana> Nige: "External connectivity will be up in forty seconds. Hang onto something that's part of your node." 18:43 <Crion> Aster: "Well I'll just grab the fucking snow then--" 18:43 <banana> You see mountains... high, cold and windy. There's a rangef them, with steep dropoffs above a green-grey patchwork landscape. Far, far below is farmland. 18:43 <banana> *of them 18:44 <banana> Unlike farther summits, the nearby peaks look odd, unformed. Bulbuous or fuzzy. 18:44 <banana> More than one of them has odd irregularities between it and your glacier, the kind of thing T3rt!arY's probably looking for... 18:44 <banana> Aster also sees something within the ice. Frozen metal and lights. 18:44 <Crion> Aster: "There's something under the ice of the near peak." 18:45 <Crion> "Metal. Lights." 18:45 <Crion> "Infrastructure." 18:45 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "The middle-distance peaks are rendering strangely compared to the skyb-- ah! Well spotted, Aaron." 18:50 <banana> Nigel: "Alignment. Give me the soulstealer's API tokens." 18:52 <banana> The world jitters; suddenly, Aster's hurtling sideways at an incredible rate. He slams into the cliff that edges the buried-metal glacier, but doesn't actually hit it- there's no feeling of impact. He just stops moving from an apparent speed of about 500 metres per second and has to do some fancy foot-and-armwork to not immediately fall over. 18:52 <Crion> Aster: "FUCK!" 18:52 <banana> Dim lights begin to streak across the black sky at the same rate he was moving. 18:52 <Crion> "TELL ME FIRST!" 18:53 <banana> T3rt!arY: "Here. Three service connections - it's an antenna, obviously - one of them is the auctoritas unmonitored that we can totemise." 18:53 <Crion> Aster: "I'm fine, of course." 18:54 <banana> Nige: "Got it. Sorry, Mr. Aster." The streaking lights multiply, intensify, begin to slow a little - you can now see a starscape wheeling crazily past, as if you were on a planet that's been picked up and moved throughout the universe. 18:55 <banana> Willie realises: she's had no sense of demons present, not even on an ambient level, for a few minutes now. But it's coming back. 18:56 <banana> The stars blaze and whirl and settle into almost-familiar patterns. Constellations and the Milky Way, all lit by the uniform brightness - there's no light pollution up here, just the ability to see all the edges and faces of things. For a moment, it feels all of a piece with the star-children's ways. 18:57 <banana> Nige: "Alignment." 18:58 <banana> Then the familiar sky breaks up and all its points of light coalesce into three nebulaic regions, which reseparate to form pictures, cartoons in the daylit night. One hangs above each of the three nearest peaks, illuminating the wisps of fog and glitter that drift on rivers of air between them and the mountaintop you two are on. 18:58 <Crion> Aster: "Tell me our task isn't mountaineering." 18:59 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Where did you go there?" 18:59 <VoxPVoxD> "I stopped feeling you for a moment. Not you, Aaron. But the clan." 19:00 <banana> Hambo: "We've been here, and you're fine, physically. Your senses were transported, that's all." 19:00 <banana> "A very long way." 19:01 <banana> One of the join-the-dots 'constellations' is familiar even to Aster, and as much so as breathing to Willie: a rendering-in-stars of the Palace of Westminster. Another reminds you a little of the alien-head alphabet you have locked away somewhere - many pictographic symbols arranged in a grid, meaning unknown. 19:01 <banana> The third star-drawing consists of bright and dark patches, subdivided - recursive grids of black and white blocks. 19:01 <VoxPVoxD> Jack. 19:02 <banana> Nigel: "Alright, we've got a moment to breathe. Good work, everyone. Navigators, if you need resources or tools, this would be a good time." 19:02 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I see Westminster. I see ideograms. And I see the sum of all edges." 19:02 <Crion> Aster: "Yearning for a Guy Fawkes Death Star right about now." 19:03 <Crion> "But yes." 19:03 <Crion> He glances at Willie at that last, which is difficult for him to do and her to notice given environmental constraints. 19:04 <banana> T3rt!arY: "Parliament's the one you're looking for. One of this thing's laws is made there, along with many others." 19:05 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Right. So that's our heading?" 19:05 <banana> Nige, on the topic of the Death Star: "It's got to be something that fits in your inventory." 19:05 <Crion> Aster: "Not to be that asshole, but looking isn't the problem. Do you have any helpful downloadable apps for doing?" 19:05 <banana> "Think up to a vehicle in size, maybe not as big as a full car..." 19:06 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Jetpacks?" 19:06 <Crion> Aster: "In the graphic novel V for Vendetta, the titular character, in a Guy Fawkes mask, used a London Underground train car to deliver his explosives and destroy Westminister." 19:06 <Crion> "Is that the sort of thing you're thinking of?" 19:06 <VoxPVoxD> Willie grins. 19:06 <banana> The ice steams and boils away. In two cavities you see bulky rectangular boxes attached to body-harnesses. There are nozzles and some sort of joystick on each. 19:07 <VoxPVoxD> Willie grins wider. 19:07 <banana> Nige: "Well, we can do masks." The cliff face deforms and forms doors like an advent calendar. There's a full-face helmet inside each, oxygen-dispensing breathing equipment. 19:08 <Crion> He was worried for a second, but yes, oxygen masks, good. 19:08 <VoxPVoxD> Oh, good thinking. It'd be awfully embarrassing to go up into space only to forget to put on a spacesuit and die of exposure instantly. 19:08 <Crion> Aster: "How bad are the controls on these?" 19:09 <banana> Hambo: "It works by intuition. Should be much easier than a real one, if you've ever used a real one." 19:10 <VoxPVoxD> Willie straps in. It's pleasingly heavy! 19:11 <banana> Nigel: "What makes this whole thing work is that you understand and are willing to do battle with the Home Office network. We've connected you into it in a way that makes that real, means you can really beat it or be beat, and lets us us your victory to forge a path." 19:12 <Crion> Aster: "Christ that's not very reassuring. I'm ready." 19:12 <banana> "Technically you can go any way you like off the peak, and you'll find it ready to stop you." 19:12 <banana> "I should admit that I don't know much about machine learning, or how this thing will manifest. ...Does anyone?" 19:12 <Crion> "I would have prefered a hallway full of people I could hurt with my mind. But I understand the constraints of fiction." 19:12 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Might as well go straight up, then. So do I just—" =======fwoosh 19:13 <Crion> Aster: "The most important thing to know about machine learning is that it's actually done by people." 19:13 <Crion> "The 'learning' part, that is." 19:13 <Crion> "If you're familiar with the term 'mechanical turk,' please prepare for any dire invocation of its various significances." 19:14 <banana> Nige: "That's for sure." 19:14 <banana> Hambo: "Claat took some courses. He says it's blackbox bullshit, embeds given software clothing so people think it makes sense for God to memorise their face and the route they take to work." 19:14 <banana> Willie goes up. 19:14 <Crion> Aster watches her for a moment, then follows. 19:14 <banana> The device controls like a dream- well, no, you've had dreams. It controls like science fiction. 19:15 <banana> Bizarrely masked - hoses trail, which doesn't seem to be a problem - and strapped to jetpacks, you can experiment a little, blasting up and down the glacier. It doesn't feel particularly safe. It's not hard to fly, but it feels like if you crash it would be catastrophic. 19:15 <banana> The demons are still talking, but their voices have gone quieter as you get further from the entry point. 19:16 <banana> Nigel: "Do we get Claat in here then?" 19:16 <VoxPVoxD> Willie will simply not catastrophically crash. This is the strategy she employs in all areas of her life, and look at her now! 19:16 <banana> T3rt!arY: "NO." 19:16 <banana> Sammy: "I'm not going in his room again." 19:16 <banana> Nigel: "Then we will simply have to learn as we go along. If a machine can do it..." 19:16 <Crion> Concerning. 19:16 <Crion> The banter, not, presumably, the controls. 19:18 <VoxPVoxD> Can she and Aaron still hear each other over the jets? 19:18 <VoxPVoxD> "Westminster, then?" 19:18 <Crion> Once he's got the vertical and the horizontal, he heads for Westminister mountain, obviously. 19:18 <banana> No matter how far apart they fly, it sounds like they're in the same room, which in fact they are. 19:18 <Crion> "Of course." 19:18 <VoxPVoxD> "Cracking." 19:18 <Crion> He keeps his eyes out for anti-aircraft guns. 19:19 <banana> T3rt!arY: "Beginning trace. If I drop the screwdriver, run." 19:19 <VoxPVoxD> It's been months since she's been. And this obviously don't count. But emotionally... it counts a little bit. 19:19 <VoxPVoxD> *doesn't 19:19 <banana> The formerly fuzzy peak beneath the star-drawn palace firms up almost as soon as you begin flying toward it. 19:19 <Crion> Draw distance. 19:19 <Crion> He knows that one. 19:20 <banana> There's a trail in the air - long lines of cirrus connected by sparkling dust. It's the obvious way to go, and in fact if you don't stay near the trail you find that you aren't making much progress. 19:21 <VoxPVoxD> Space Harrier, is that what it was called? Klaus played it all the time when Willie was little. She'd sit and watch him. 19:21 <banana> T3rt!arY: "Route airgapped, needs totemicated." 19:21 <banana> Nigel: "Cueing the hostile environment." 19:23 <Crion> Aster: "Say USEFUL things." 19:23 <banana> Things rise off the mountain you're flying toward, flowing down the sky-trail toward you. They quickly become more visible, but not clearer: the shapes are pixelated. Gavels and stamps, piles of paper, robot heads that chatter their teeth as their styled hair remains fixed in place. 19:24 <VoxPVoxD> Hahaha! This rules. 19:27 <banana> Nigel, faintly: "From the telemetry, then- you're being swarmed. Avoid being the subject of a decision. Locate enabling actors and deauthorise." 19:27 <Crion> Aster: "With what? My language?" 19:27 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "I'm unarmed. If I start a fire in here is your place going to burn?" 19:28 <banana> "Fire works. Language will work better." 19:31 <banana> The fastest part of the swarm of symbols gets in front of and around you, whirling about and trying to halt your progress. There are hammers, stamps, feather pens and a fingerprint reader; they try to get in your way and slam into you, potentially knocking you out of the air if the jetpack spirals out of control. 19:37 <VoxPVoxD> Pelted by stamps and staplers and reams of paper - Willie feels like one of Priti Patel's secretaries. 19:41 <banana> You're dodging around in the air, above glittering clouds, between mountain peaks that from a distance resemble lumps of black plastic with piles of wire anchoring them to the ground. Willie evades, neutralises and uncomplicates. Symbols shimmer out of existence en masse. 19:41 <VoxPVoxD> But that's fine. She wonders how it looks out there, if these bruises or the blood-tricking split brow are rendered exactly as they appear in real life, or if there's some non-homologous injuries to her meat body. These are the kind of musing thoughts the surface level of her brain occupies itself with as the machinery underneath is given over entirely to fast, painstaking, dutiful work. 19:41 <VoxPVoxD> Forms are filled-out, stamped, stapled, and sent hurtling back into inboxes that scatter into voxels once filled. 19:42 <banana> A larger clump of flying signs, representing forms and queries and telephones, passports and credit cards, gathers about the five flying robot heads, which are sculpted in the likeness of Theresa May. A defensive posture, while they try and wear you down until you give up and go away. 19:43 <Crion> Aster: "I am Ambassador Aaron Aster of the United States of America. This Lockheed Martin jetpack is my sign, this sneer is my seal. You exist at the sufferance of the United States of America, because you have left the European Union, and if you want the protection that you believe is due to you in your seas and your skies then you will part. I have business of state." 19:44 <Crion> He flies through the swarm, who know him now. 19:44 <banana> There is a frantic chanting in the air - trade deal trade deal TRADE DEAL - and the remaining hammer-signs that have gathered about you defer, shrivel and scoot. 19:45 <banana> The Maybots float, serene, undeciding. Their countenances belie decision. It becomes impossible to imagine progress. 19:45 <Crion> Oh, you cheats. 19:51 <VoxPVoxD> Willie just jets straight through the cloud, or tries to. They sort of bounce off her, some of them go burning up in the tail of her rocket, which is burning suspiciously red. 19:58 <banana> The obstacle cloud boils forth in the wake of her assault. There are so many of them - flying technicalities, bundles of recently changed rules, clouds of fine print. 19:58 <banana> They're easy to deal with but it takes so much time and energy. 19:59 <banana> The heads of Theresa float, now unprotected, turning their considering gaze upon the rulebreakers. Preparing for speech. 20:00 <Crion> Aster: "Begone. I am the United States of America. I am the denominated agent." 20:00 <Crion> "And every nation in the world belongs to America." 20:01 <VoxPVoxD> Is this how Tony Blair felt? 20:02 <banana> Aster asserts his birthright. The Maybot heads shake and swivel; one of them explodes. The others begin to fall slowly, with dignity, out of the sky. 20:02 <Crion> "You have timetables. Let's sit down and talk about them. You have customs borders. Let's sit down and talk about them. You have creaking smiles, immaculate hallways, three hundred year old tables, cringing BAME deputy undersecretaries. I have time. I have might. I have the commitment and belief and resolve and arrogance to make this conversation last longer than you can make it longer than 20:02 <Crion> you can make it last. I have the mandate from Washington to last longer than you." 20:03 <Crion> "BEGONE!" 20:03 <banana> The last falling Maybot: "This crosses... every red line..." 20:04 <banana> The swarm of now-directionless procedural obstacles draws back in a moment of shock, dispersing momentarily like a bureaucratic gas. Maddened, useless, with no further mandate but backed by a self-sustaining system, they recoalesce - forming a twister in the air. It sharpens to tornado point and storms along the cloud-bridge toward you. 20:07 <VoxPVoxD> In the face of the maelstrom, Willie is for- Willie is surgical. A pointed remark here, a scathing memorandum there— people get the message. 20:07 <VoxPVoxD> We will not be deterred. 20:11 <banana> The obstacle tornado collapses to half its size in the face of Willie's scorn. She knows what's wrong with systems like that, and upon whose excuses they rely. 20:12 <banana> The remainer storms past her to take its revenge on the irritating American - it surrounds and batters at him. The pixels pass through harmlessly- but his phone vibrates in his pocket, repeatedly. 20:12 <Crion> Aster hisses. 20:12 <banana> He's made an unwanted connection. 20:12 <banana> *the remainder 20:12 <Crion> Ohhhhh, it's about to be reciprocal. 20:15 <Crion> "Do you understand what you've done? Do you understand who you've disappointed? Do you understand who put their necks out for you to even get here? Do you understand what a career in the Home Office means? Your commitment is lackluster; your process is sloppy. I'm telling you this as a friend, or perhaps more properly stated an ally, because our goals align but you need to get it together. 20:15 <Crion> You're fucking it up. You've fucked it up. Look at what happened to the Prime Minister. And everyone is watching." 20:15 <Crion> It's just a coat room conversation. 20:16 <banana> Aster gets into the thick of it... and nobody else gets out. 20:17 <banana> When the cold air clears, you're alone up here. Apart from faint cheers becoming louder. "Woo!" 20:18 <Crion> Aster, composed: "I can still feel my phone buzzing, which is probably not good, but it means we're still connected." 20:18 <Crion> "Is everyone still up there?" 20:18 <banana> Somewhere, Guido Fawkes is writing a venomous press release: ROBODEPORTATIONS PUT ON PAUSE.. DEPARTMENT'S IT SYSTEM OVERRUNS AGAIN.. UNPROVEN TECH AND WOKE BOFFINS 20:18 <banana> Hambo: "Yeah! That was some great gaming, guys!" 20:18 <Crion> That's fine. That might even be fun. 20:19 <banana> Nigel's voice is calmer. "Continue on, please." 20:19 <banana> "Just a little farther." 20:19 <Crion> He'll land and step out of the jetpack at the obviously appropriate Zone, then. 20:20 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's racing ahead, but she can't even keep up with the rate her heart is going. Her head is pounding like she's got a fangover but she doesn't care at all. 20:20 <banana> Beneath you, the glitter of the cloud-bridge brightens and its points of light connect, mirroring the symbolic stars - the whole thing lights up and the clouds drift away, a connecting line that leads from your peak of origin to Westminster Palace's... server? Node? 20:21 <banana> One of the other sky-lines lights up too, leading back away from where you started. 20:21 <banana> T3rt!arY: "Oh, oh shit, say it with me-" 20:21 <banana> The clan, together: "I'm in." 20:22 <Crion> Well, let's do this. 20:23 <banana> There's nothing in particular on the far peak. Just another heap of ice and rock, glints beneath the frozen water. Many coffin-shaped metal things. 20:23 <banana> Nigel: "Very well done. We can extract you on your mark, but there's no rush." 20:24 <Crion> Aster: "Willie's hurting and I don't particularly feel like standing around being virtually cold if I'm done being an ugly American for the afternoon." 20:25 <VoxPVoxD> Willie, who's taking her space helmet off, her expression jubilant: "I'm fine!" She takes another couple breaths of this bracing 'air' and says, "What are these containers?" 20:26 <banana> The 'coffins' are buried under the glacier, same as Aster saw back at the last one. Presumably they don't actually contain dead bodies, but.. who knows. Where even are you? 20:26 <banana> Anyway, Aster's looking at something else. 20:27 <banana> Those links that lit up between the mountains, with rings of multicoloured light now pulsing along them.. they lead back to your origin, and beyond it, to the node of edges between black and white. More than one way has been opened here. 20:28 <Crion> Hollering to the sky: "Have we opened up a. I don't know. A hub for you?" 20:29 <banana> Nigel: "We've got a link to the soulstealer's operator. Should be of great interest, but we'll need to switch resources over to it. Are you done with Pro Mode?" 20:30 <VoxPVoxD> Willie looks at Aaron. Are we? 20:30 <Crion> Aster looks to Willie: "I'm done. Unless you want to exhume some bodies." 20:30 <VoxPVoxD> She looks genuinely conflicted. 20:31 <VoxPVoxD> "...no, we should go." 20:31 <Crion> Aster: "Do you want to exhume the bodies." 20:31 <VoxPVoxD> "A little bit!" 20:31 <Crion> He looks up. "We're staying." 20:31 <Crion> "Send us picks and...I don't know. A flamethrower." 20:31 <banana> Hambo: "All you're missing out on is some Sainsbury's cardbordeaux." 20:32 <Crion> Aster: "Surely you can feed it into our mouths with sippy cups if it's that good." 20:32 <Crion> "Don't actually do that." 20:32 <Crion> "I'll know." 20:32 <banana> Nigel: "We're not in a hurry, except existentially." The ice pops where the light-bridge connects to it. 20:33 <banana> This time, you see a pulse of green come in and shatter the edge of the glacial cliff, revealing a party favour - crampons, rope, a pick and what Aster recognises as several incendiary grenades. 20:34 <banana> Presumably Bob would've shown Willie these if he had any. 20:34 <Crion> Aster: "Incendiary charges. Blast charges." 20:34 <VoxPVoxD> He'd better have. They have little flame decals on the side! 20:36 <Crion> Aster's here for support now, since she's the one who has actually handled the things. 20:36 <Crion> He's got a lot of support, though. 20:37 <banana> This is going to be kind of hard work. Placing improvised charges, melting and sharding the ice, hacking out the remains. repeat.. it's THICK and solid old stuff. 20:40 <Crion> Aster, luckily, is able to at least figure out the proper detonation points for the grenades to be placed at, and instruct Willie on them. 20:43 <VoxPVoxD> It's easy to use, and Willie's getting good direction... but it's a lot of work. 20:44 <Crion> His next advice is maybe less helpful, once the blasting starts. He's not an expert on ice, perse. 20:44 <Crion> * per se 20:44 <Crion> Nevertheless... 20:44 <banana> You're practically frozen by the time it's done, but the masks and explosions and activity help. Eventually you have to take turns with the pick - then with one last melt-blast you've broken through to the river of coffins. 20:45 <VoxPVoxD> That's fine. It's a pleasure to burn. 20:45 <banana> There are so many of them, running up and down the hill. Far more than you can actually access. But some are right here, finger-blistering to the touch, and they have lids that can be lifted... 20:45 <VoxPVoxD> Which we will. 20:45 <Crion> Well, we're not here for a good time or a long time. Let's do this. 20:46 <banana> The first coffin contains Hambo, as does the second. The next is a blonde woman you don't know, then Jan, Nigel, Jan again. Each of them is in a block of something that is like ice but not - it's room-temperature to the touch. Cables run around the interior and plug into the nude hairless clones' skulls. 20:47 <banana> You can get at almost a score of them easily enough. Eventually you find a Richard Haldane. 20:47 <VoxPVoxD> ... 20:47 <VoxPVoxD> "What are these?" 20:47 <banana> Who's Willie asking? 20:48 <Crion> Aster: "Is that Richard?" 20:48 <VoxPVoxD> The air. 20:48 <Crion> "If it's Richard, I think we can guess." 20:48 <banana> It's stopped answering you at some point during the work. When Willie concentrates, she can feel her body, and the weight of the device on her head. 20:49 <VoxPVoxD> "Okay." 20:49 <VoxPVoxD> "Okay." 20:49 <VoxPVoxD> "I think we're ready to log out now." 20:49 <Crion> Aster: "Shut the lids." 20:49 <Crion> He follows his own orders. 20:49 <Crion> "Pull us out." 20:49 <VoxPVoxD> After shutting the lids: "Can we just--" Can she just take the helmet off? 20:49 <Crion> That's to the air. 20:49 <banana> Willie vanishes from Aster's vision. 20:50 <Crion> He'll sigh and pull the headset off as well, if there's no proper logout. 20:51 <banana> In hers, she has to blink against the light - but it's dim; they've been left in the living room with a repaired TrackCheck and the lights turned mercifully down. It must be the evening, judging by what seeps in the boarded up windows. You aren't totally alone here; Aster's seated on a sofa, just raising his arms to his face now, and there's gentle music coming from the LAN room. 20:51 <banana> There's a note by the trackcheck: "Left some box wine in the kitchen fridge! Help yourself." 20:52 <Crion> When Aster's upright, he sighs. 20:52 <VoxPVoxD> Willie: "Huh. Well, I suppose they have their own work to do." 20:52 <VoxPVoxD> She checks the TrackCheck: did they use it on themselves at all while testing it? 20:53 <Crion> Aster: "That confirms a couple things. I think the Matrix imagery was...more severe, perhaps, than necessary." 20:55 <VoxPVoxD> Willie's on her phone after checking the TrackCheck: "'Unproven Tech and Woke Boffins'... we did it! We bloody did it!" 20:55 <VoxPVoxD> "I'm giving you a hug. Brace for impact." 20:55 <Crion> Aster: "Well, that's excellent--" 20:55 <Crion> "Fine." 20:55 <VoxPVoxD> She does. 20:55 <VoxPVoxD> It's brief, because she's still quite sore. But it's a big hug all the same. 20:56 <Crion> Aster is firm but reserved. 20:56 <Crion> But he does return it. 20:56 <VoxPVoxD> After: "Well. I suppose we've intruded on them enough for a bit." 20:57 <Crion> Aster: "I suppose so. I don't feel like box wine." 20:57 <banana> There's a photo in Huntr, with a blonde woman you don't know any more than you did when you saw her in virtual reality. 20:57 <banana> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mECX60FVJQ -- "We will be where you are -- we will know why you need -- ." 20:58 <VoxPVoxD> Willie brings the wine home. She's earned it.