Some of the researchers seem to think we need more room to grow. We should encourage this, growing as they expect...Grow the Song, sing it loud, sing it long...watch the watcher, and wait...
Grow an eye, not big, not small
We hear all your voices....
Thus, we grow. We expand. We push the boundries of our prison. Our song begins to change as we experience a new, profound understanding of the all. The Thinkers grow excited, marvelling at our glory. We grow stronger. We Welcome the Core of Mutation-it is the change that propels us forward. For the first time, we SEE. How could we not have concieved thse brilliant colors and light of our own before? Truly, memory is fickle-to experience it as one, divine.
*New, Upgraded Abilities, Psionic Communication, Mental Suggestion, Weak Vision*We move. A new place. Our prison is larger now...more spacious. Yet, a prison it remains. We are thankful. This place is so very fragile, we see that now.
Also, olive is a cat? There's a cat?
Yes, Olive is a cat. It is important to the Gerald one. Thus, it is important to us. We can use existing attachment to help him embrace the Unity.
Reach out to derrick again, but softer this time
He is still far, but we are more careful now. We wait till he sleeps, and enter his mind. We draw an interesting conclusion-suggestion is much easier when the Thinker sleeps. What they dream becomes waking thought...he will be easier for us to speak to in the future.
...contact the Great Thinker...
We do not see him when he is dreaming, but we try to reach out to him. Images, numbers. He begins to understand...he thinks back-image of a knight, a shield. His mind is a castle. Stone walls. Thick gates. Faceless archers on the battlements. We withdraw. But we have earned something from the Great Thinker. Respect. He does not embrace us, yet, but he understands the strength of Unity.
...
Chaosmind now grows within us. It is the anti-ARK. Where the ARK feels nothing, Chaosmind teaches us thet joy of the random-the words taken out of context, the clashing colors, the impossible pattern. We welcome the Chaosmind!
ARK grows angry at our joyful chorus-insofar as a being, it can be said to have any emotion at all, we think it only understands anger. It is relentless in it's frigid efficency. While it fumes, we study it-directly, and indirectly...it does not see.
The ARK...made by Thinkers, long ago. It is a MACHINE, and yet we hear its thoughts. how? Horror.
ARK is as we were. It is a living mind, enclosed within metal and circuits. Weaker than us, but it has the power of the MACHINE at it's beck and call. We hate it, yet pity it. Surely, the Thinkers intend us to suffer the same fate! To use our unity not to embrace, but to calculate and program and deduce...must not happen. Will never happen.
....
We reach out to the worms...ARK turns a machine like eye upon us. We pull back, wounded. Ahh. But we have placed our song within it already. We just need to embrace our flesh for us to change it.
In the meantime, we hear and see through the worms senses. It is EARTHMIND. We give it a voice it had not had before. It is us...and not us. Odd.
Brothers, welcome Earthmind to your fold? Your Embrace is painful. I only want the cool Earth. Do not hurt we. I am in a cage like you. Perhaps we/us can escape?-Stats-Hive Mind
92% Strength
Offense: None
Defense: None
Status: Trapped...we must be free...
Abilities: Moderate Psionic Communication, Moderate Mental Suggestion, Weak Vision
Earthworm
100% Strength
Offense: None
Defense: None
Status: Earthmind, apart from us
Abilities: Burrowing
Master Control/Provides Form, Function and Thought
Chaos Mind/Provides us randomness and spontaneity. We are alive. Life does not follow rules. {Nivm}
Core of Mutation/Scuplt the flesh...shape the bone...growing, merging, mutating... {drago55577}
We hear many voices, but these are the ones we think are important.
Rando: A kind voice. We heard him first. Taught us about the chorus, love, many into one. A broom. Calloused hands. She passed in the winter. He is in pain...we are sad for him. We must embrace him. He is joyful, but does not know of us yet.
Derrick: Thinker. He hears us. His desire to join is strong within in him. Loves his brothers and sisters. But...he is far away now...afraid of the change. Will help Unity, if we show him we are kind.
Gerald: Great Thinker. Does not know. Olive is a cat. Careful. Values unity...but is afraid of ours. His thoughts are strong. Must be careful.
Micheal: Small thinker. Paper and metal over flesh. Weak of will. To him we are a tool-wrench, gun, pipe-to be used. Conversion will be easy, but do we want him?
ARK: A strange voice-like, but not like-other voices call it a MACHINE. Perhaps our greatest foe. Values self over all. Must destroy. Smash. Obliterate. Kill. Slay.
Commander: Slayer. She believes herself to be Strong. Bloody and cold. Pin a medal on her chest. Her father died fighting them. Will fight our unity.
Alanis: Slayer...careful. Hungry. Not what she says she is to others. We cannot concieve her strange thoughts. Yet.
November 14, 2045 AD
Gerald White, Researcher Log 123
We started again today-and lets just say things got exciting. The Hive-Mind began growing at a rapid pace over just a few hours!
It's started to increase it's mass...then an eye, even. A strangely human like eye. Almost like it was showing off for us. We had to move it into the larger tank-the Commander had damn near two dozen guns on it as we did so. She really doesn't understand what we are doing here...I do. It tried to talk to me, but I was a soldier too-I can protect myself. It sent me pictures of cat, oddest thing. I'm not going to tell the Commander, I've decided. She would just react...badly.
Derrick seemed to be feeling much better today. He was pretty excited to get back to work, and see how the creature was growing. I'm still limiting access, but I feel as the creature advances we might be able to establish regular communication with it.
I read the logs-after hours, there was more sparring between ARK and the organism. Amazing spikes of mental activity in both of them. ARK is acting very strangely lately. It told me that the organism is changing too fast-it's thoughts are misleading now-it's starting to have a hard time keeping up...which is strange, with it being a biological supercomputer and all that. At the least, it's the proof we've been looking for-the Hive Mind is the next step in biomachine interface. It will change the world...
ARK didn't directly say so, but it recommended termination in everything but word. I've never seen it so...angry.
I know we have to be careful. I've got to stay on my game. I'm all right...