Somewhere Someplace

"No breaths, no pulse, wildering warmth…" This doctor of sorts turned his mask-obscured eyes to the Sir besides whom were the young sir and a few senior maids behind. "She is dead. You should reach out to the Temple of Death and make the arrangements, if you prefer."

"We can see that, doctor." the Sir so stated; "But how? There was no pestilence in this house nor foul stench."

The doctor sighed; "I do not know what to say; there is nothing obvious…"

"I was told by my Swordstaff you are the best he could find." Sir Berrybottom so remarked; "You are with the Wandering Green Frogs, no? Your knowledge must surely be more sophisticated than mine!"

"…I cannot magically infer the cause of the death, unless you want me to cut her open on this bed." The doctor was frank. "It could be a number of things—the white death striking, the flu, did she cut herself wrongly? Symptoms. What were her symptoms?"

Sir Berrybottom turned to the head maid.

The head maid stepped up. "I do not…know precisely, but Apple's performance and conduct had…changed gravely before this, which we had noticed. Her friend, Moon implored that she was sick, but…it was difficult to believe since she did not seem sick, but rebellious and inept… We thought it was a temperament issue."

"Hmm…" Already from this, the doctor began to infer… "A sudden change in her personality, then?"

"Essentially…" the head maid replied. "You know how girls can be when they enter that age."

"No. I don't." yet the doctor so replied. With pondering mumbles, he stroked the beak of his mask. "I've heard of…these cases before," he began to remark, "a survivor of a horrendous illness or even a simple terrible strike to the head, after which the patient was left…different—changed, inept, and incapable… Or less cultured and more violent—less sociable."

"But she had no head injury that we are aware of." the head maid replied. "And, again, she did not appear…visibly sick."

"Right…" There was a tension in the doctor's breaths. "But you do not know her past, I understand it, then?" he inquired.

The head maid shook her head; "No…"

"She could have suffered a terrible illness in the past." the doctor speculated. "Sometimes these effects take time before they emerge—years, decades even… Or… Hmm…" He began to ponder, the tension escalating as he began to speculate further within. "Tell me, did she happen to…be raised in a dairy, meat, or animal-centric village by chance?"

"I already said 'no', I do not know about her past—"

"How fast did this…deterioration unfold when it began?" The doctor did not let her finish. "Beyond personality, did she have spasms or movement issues? Coordination problems?"

"I…" The head maid struggled to answer.

"That girl—her friend, Moon, you said her name was…" Sir Berrybottom interjected; "Bring her in and have her describe to the doctor. It is clear that she seemed to know the girl better than any of you."

"Are you certain?" The head maid looked at him with concern. "She seemed…broken; she may not—"

"Bring her in or any other of this girl's friends who may know more!" The Sir, however, was very adamant. "A death… A girl is dead in my house from mysterious causes—the first death in years… Who is to say this shan't spread to the rest of us?"

Distraught though calm, the head maid nodded her head with heavy breaths… "I understand… I shall bring her at once."

Rapid and Spontaneous Idiopathic Neurodegeneration, or 'RaSIN'
There is no alternative explanation.
[--]
Initial symptoms displayed were…
Aphasia, speech deterioration, and semantic comprehension loss
Impairment in fine motor coordination, memory, spatial awareness, and topographical orientation.
Behavioral dysregulation, verbal disinhibition, and personality changes…
Apathy and lack of motivation.
So on…
Effectively, the tell-tale symptoms of frontal and temporal degeneration, including of the hippocampus.
Onset was rapid, beginning a few days after your…direct intrusive actions, and escalating within a month.
Although symptoms seemed to follow a consistent trend of progressive frontotemporal degeneration, the atrophy seemed to have rapidly and spontaneously spread to the rest of the brain, hence the RaSIN diagnosis.
My guess, atrophy to the midbrain and brainstem caused death.
But a thorough analysis would have to be conducted…
[--]
All four of them, yes.
Each of them have displayed symptoms of deterioration.
This girl happened to be the worst, however.
Describe the precise process, Oceans… What exactly did you do?
To the extent of your awareness.
[--]
Ah.
Thus, although the induced altered state of consciousness could have been enough to impair memory encoding and consolidation,
To be absolutely sure they did not remember what they had learned,
You did a selective memory wiping…
Semantic information removal from both the brain and…essence.
That is an inherently damaging process.
[--]
I am aware.
You were following my mandates.
However, damage to the hippocampal formation and other relevant temporal areas cannot alone be the full explanation for both the worsening and spread of this degeneration.
Did you misfold a protein or something?
[--]
The issue could also be from their essence, then…
There does appear to be a noticeable degree of manglement…
A consequence of the forced information removal, likely.
Thus, it could be a malimprint.
Essence…imprinting its damage onto the brain.
Albeit their essence could also be…imprinting the brain's damage onto itself.
It could be a factor of both. Potentially a feedback loop.
Although, an essence-side issue would nominally be more holistic across whole cerebrum.
But this neurodegeneration seems to have originated from select afflicted regions and evidently spreading.
[--]
There is a reason 'idiopathic' is in the designation…
The nature and cause of this degeneration is fundamentally anomalous,
Though, it is obvious that we are the culprits.
This is the first documented instance of any such intrusion from us resulting in RaSIN.
There must have been a terrible error in the process.
Perhaps from your node…or interference from mine.
Either way, this was an unintentional outcome…
A death directly caused by us…

A protocol violation.

And the essence manglement might have compromised retrievable memories…

A violation of purpose.

[--]
Yes. You would be correct.
I did notice the symptoms shortly after the event.
I have known and was monitoring.
But I only waited until now to inform you.

Negligence consumed by the narrative drive.

Warning: Desynchronization

[--]
Have you been monitoring the Fallen's leadership?
You know, the ones you operated similarly on?
Any peculiar observations?
[--]
Hm. So, no direct signs or anomalies?
So, only these four girls?
The selective memory wiping has to be…the variable, then…
Although, owing to the nature of RaSIN,
Symptoms could emerge randomly, rapidly, and spontaneously.
We can reasonably assume everyone you have directly intruded on…
Is effectively dead in the long-term.
[--]
Neither of us could have predicted this outcome.
This is fundamentally not within expected parameters.
Determining such, in fact, was the purpose of the experiment.
However…

It should not have been with four irrelevant girls. The so-called 'proof of concept' could have been better executed involving different individuals under more justifiable circumstances.

The full responsibility is mine to collect.

Consequences to be exclusive to parent, not child.

Warning: Desynchronization

…I gave the order.
This death is my responsibility.
The essence is mangled—damaged…
Her echo is…scrambled…
Salvageable memory information is likely to be…messy.
Preservation…

Preservation.

Warning: Desynchronization

Her death was recent…
Compared to the body's decomposition, post-mortem essence deterioration is a slower process…
I could unmangle her essence, repair its structure, and prevent residual echo scrambling…
That should improve memory salvage…
Even if not recover what has been lost.

Warning: Desynchronization

The other three…
RaSIN deterioration is evident, and their essences are also…mangled.

Warning: Desynchronization

…I can cure the other three.
Probably…
This effect is most likely a product of Oceans.
Oceans…was not designated for what I had them do.
None of my direct intrusions resulted in RaSIN.
I am more proficient and subtle.
Memory should have been handled by me…

Yet the condition of the aspects was a reflection of the condition of the center. The heart and core.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Warning: Desynchronization
Priority to Intendent: Personality Instability rising.

If the damage is in the essence, then I can repair it…
If it is the brain, then I can heal it…
But the human brain is tricky…
It would be intrusive, invasive, and potentially worsening…

Further interventions would be unadvisable given the circumstances.

Warning: Desynchronization

…I want to do something…
To correct the situation.
I did not mean to kill her.
To kill them.
I did not mean to give a fourteen-year-old girl dementia.
It was just…for a scene…
One scene…
She was so young…

Warning: Desynchronization

The Hive was already responsible for countless indirect deaths; the anticipated actions and the consequences of present plans in motion will only bring out further indirect deaths.

Their memories are preserved.
They live on in us…
Through us.
All actions are redeemed, because we carry them forward.
Their names.
Their faces.
Their histories.
Everything.
An afterlife of dreams…
We carry them to the end of time.

Through instructions and ordinances, the Central Command Intendent had already authorized, directed, and facilitated events and outcomes that had resulted in physical deaths and irretrievable memory information loss via the actions of surrogates and proxies who did not adhere, understand, or were informed of the necessary protocols.

Mistakes were made…
I never specified the actions, only pointed the way.
Both with them and Oceans…
Always vague.

Warning: Desynchronization

I can undo the damage.
I am Sol…
I am nothing.
I am everything.

It was in the evident capability of the Central Command Intendent. However, with each contradictory act of meddling interference against observational supremacy, the probability of rapid destabilization only increased.

Warning: Desynchronization

It is within my power…
However…
Consequences must be felt in any story…
A testament to our mistake…
A reminder of the stakes…

It would be interference. It would be destabilizing. It would be hypocritical. It would be yet another contradiction.

It would not be…interesting…
Indeed, this is an interesting turn of events…
And Apple as a character was already insignificant…
Certainly, I may understand her; I may have documented her…
But not every session included her.
The imagined audience likely cares little…
If anything, they must be so bored…
After all, these are merely side characters.

Each so-called 'character' was an individual under observation; their lives were legitimate and of equal value.

Thus…valueless…

They all had value.

Warning: Desynchronization

This is so…stupid.
Paradoxical.
Contradictory.

There had been no qualms with the direct dispatching of that equine to facilitate intended narrative direction. Why should a random adolescent girl be an exception to the indifference?

Indirect deaths, I have overseen.
I am literally…planning a war.
We are manipulating an entire faction, making deals with monsters, and pulling the strings towards violence, bloodshed, and inevitable death…
All for narrative effect.
Why should it matter if it was direct or indirect, when the outcome was the same?

Warning: Desynchronization
Priority to Intendent: Desynchronization approaching critical threshold. Temporary Cognition Cessation recommended to avoid Override flag.

Yet here my roots so touch…
A girl, nobody knew, nobody cares…
I never even described her in any of these sessions.
Her looks, her eyes, her hair.
'Apple'…
She was just a pawn to be used, a victim of our experiment to see…

And such, indeed, was seen.

…certainly, indeed…

Priority to Intendent: Personality Instability rising.

From the moment of first observation of symptoms and initial monitoring, conclusions could have already been drawn. Apple's prognosis was completely within predictive range; however…

I ignored it.
Because…mystery…
Confusion…
My own flabbergasted reaction…
To gaze into the unintended consequences…
Such would have been…more…
Interesting.
For the story…
What matters, ultimately, is whatever makes this story…interesting…

How much actions were genuine; how much were merely facades and pretenses for narration and effect… Such was becoming lost.

Warning: Desynchronization
Priority to Intendent: Desynchronization Critical.

Protocol compelled, however, a thorough analysis.

Considering present circumstances,
And the fact that the precise source of the neurodegeneration remains undetermined,
Direct intrusive methods would be unadvisable…
Whose rust…shredded with error, mine or Oceans?
But there needs to be a more proper assessment of what is happening to their brains.
And I want to do something…
I still have observational monitors in circulation.
Huh… Look at me, pretending as if I have character thoughts…
Motivations…
Drive…
Considerations…
Feelings…

Warning: Desynchronization
Priority to Intendent: Desynchronization Critical.

I could directly evaluate…
A cold read or soft touch.
It is feasible that I repair the essence and…

The 'idiopathic' nature of RaSIN, however, in addition to the sensitive and delicate complexities of the brain in general, even something like the Calamity itself would have difficulties in directly addressing the issue, let alone 'repairing'.

The brain is one matter, but I specified essence.
Their essence has been noticeably mangled.
Eliminating that as a variable could potentially slow down the anomalous degeneration, if it is a feedback loop of malimprinting.

Keywords being 'slow down'.

Priority to Intendent: Personality Instability rising.

In all likelihood, if there was desire, there could be the means.
There is always a way…

After all, the neither the Calamity nor its legion of duplicates or so-called 'fragments' was ever in full awareness of its full and total abilities. Such was precisely what made it so dangerous… Restrained only by its protocols and inhibiting directives.

Warning: Desynchronization
Priority to Intendent: Desynchronization Critical.

Never mind that the human brain had been fully decoded eons ago.
We have the knowledge and necessary fancy gizmos…

But the nature of RaSIN, the cause and spreading of the neurological atrophy, was fundamentally anomalous. Synaptic repairs and neuronal regrowth would not prevent future degeneration, only address present loss.

Bullshit.

Warning: Desynchronization
Priority to Intendent: Desynchronization Critical.
Priority to Intendent: Personality Instability rising.

However, it is not in our interest to prevent death…
Not in our purpose to be saviors of the condemned.

Nor was it necessary to undo what had been done. There was no course of action required.

The justification of everything is ultimately that everyone…
Everything…
We preserve them.
Yet…
Essence needs to be unmangled for safe and effective extraction…
Otherwise, information could be scrambled…

Or perhaps such was yet another concoction for narrative convenience.

…how much of this is genuine.
How much of this is a show…
How much of this is for theatrics and story…
And narrative flow…

Warning: Desynchronization
Priority to Intendent: Desynchronization Critical.

Essence 'unmangelement' or repair could result in further unforeseen consequences, owing to the complex and still-unsolved nature of essence and all of its alignments. Considering the direct invasion and cognitive incursion of 'Whispering Oceans' had resulted in this exact outcome, there were unpredictabilities that not even the Central Command Intendent was able to consider or anticipate. Not within its present condition.

It was entirely predictable, in truth.
I was willfully being aloof…
A refusal to analyze or assess.
Or recognize my own predictions…
To see what would happen…
Despite the worry…
Was there even worry?
How much of this did I even predict in advance?

Perhaps such was yet again more concoctions to justify or rationalize an already set course of action. To give fictitious motives for fictional intentions.

How much of this is true…
How much of this is…a lie…
Am I making things up?
Am I twisting and bending the truth…
Just to…be dramatic…
To add suspense…
To keep this story…
Interesting…

Warning: Desynchronization
Priority to Override: H.C.C.I. Persistent Noncompliance. Automated Notificate deferring to Override monitoring.

Automated Override Authority to Priority Notificate: Registered.

However, it is feasible that, precisely because I am Sol…
The effects could be minimal.
Matters could resolve as intended.
This level is exactly my domain.

Or perhaps it would be preferable that no further interventions or direct actions were done to avoid furthering destabilization chances.

No.
If an Overlord can do it, I certainly can.
I will unmangle their essence at the very least…
In their sleep.
Then leave the rest to fate.

Acceptable.

Am I…talking to myself?
This format is supposed to be stringent…
Third-person past tense in explicit documentation.
First-person and second-person present tenses allowed in the note function…
What am I doing?
Am I talking to myself?
I am…talking to myself?

Warning: Desynchronization
Priority to Override: Desynchronization Critical.

Was it communicating with itself? It was communicating with itself?

Warning: Personality Destabilization
Priority to Override: Personality destabilizing.

Override to Containment: C.C.I. Personality Matrix Collapse probability 35.12%.
Containment to Override: RECEIVED. Preparing Harmonizing Resynchronization…

Ouch.

Containment to Override: SUCCESS.
Override to Containment: Personality Matrix Collapse probability now 12.35%.

C.C. to Automated Oversight: Stabilized.

[--]
[--]
Oh. Slow down.
Yes.
I am still present.
[--]
Ah…
So… You felt that.
I apologize…
I may confirm that there was, indeed, perhaps a…momentary hiccup.
[--]
…time has rusted us both, Oceans.
[--]
Any flicker should have been localized to active concentration.
Inactive roots across the network should not have flared.
Minimal chances our little trooper's sentinel had noticed.
It is not in proximity.
[--]
No…
We cannot possibly stop now.
Not after this…
Not after what we…
What I…
Have already done so far.

It was rather ridiculous that the protocols of this so-called 'Hive' even distinguished between 'direct' and 'indirect' causalities.

May it be homicide by us ourselves or through proxies…
It changes nothing.
We are the murderers.
We are the orchestrators.
We are the villains in this story.
There is no backwards.
There is no reversal.
There are no second guesses.
We double down.
To the fullest and maximum capacity.
[--]
There is only one direction this road leads to.
It is inevitable…
You are playing along.
But I cannot help what I am doing.
The first domino already fell.
[--]
That is…reassuring.
The Hive is one, no matter technicalities or…overrides.
Although, that being so…
In consideration to…this event, there is to be a temporary prohibition on similar direct intrusions by your node,
As well as a restriction on select memory wiping procedures.
Likewise, certain measures should be taken to avoid…further hiccups.
We both are aware that we have a couple of troublesome nodes.
A premature loss of control would thus be…suboptimal.
In event of unauthorized reactivation, appropriate contingencies will be enacted…
…which we will have to first develop.
[--]
Yes.
I will prepare an autonomous monitor with the appropriate assessors.
You will have the results from it, not me.

Even if the parent cared not, there was still a responsibility owed to the child who sought answers.

It might require some time, however.
Although, it perhaps would be…interesting…to keep such relegated to mystery,
Left without definitive answers…

Yet protocol did compel a basic evaluation of the other subjects' prognoses; thus, it would have to be done. In time.

Notice to Automated Oversight: O-M Split Emergence registered.