Cabinet Derg @Motodrachen@awoo.space

@sabby Xd Not that you were Bothering us, just that like... Hoo boy, if we go in there and do this I've gotta be Prepared properly.

@maxine Absolutely crucial. You can't heal if you're being constantly attacked.

Of course now that I say that, Yaori goes and looks up what the equivalent would be for a Field medic.

@Felthry I'm the one trying to play the entire roster and I'm like fifty levels behind everyone else.

@maxine Yaori: We cheat. You can too.
The important thing to remember is that for Us, inside our heads, magic is Real, and can be Used. Symbols mean things, intent means things, and anything that Happens there can stay Real, and historical between systems.

You can't just have sabby wave a magic wand and make you Whole again. You guys don't Believe in magic wands. You'd have to use something you Both believe in to make anything happen.
And as you go, finding, using, and sharing things that are Powerful and can Make changes becomes easier.

Here, we're all Dragons, and we work in the spaces between magic and technology. So when I do stuff, I use a big looney toons cartoon prop that's supposed to be a stand-in for what I'm trying to do. Tohri tries to german engineer everything and his spells never really go anywhere, and Keri mostly works magic on Other People.

And that's it's own thing. Inside your own head, you can absolutely tie a headmate to the mast, have them imagine all their old pain as physical shrapnel or projectiles that never got removed, have them Discorporate and become detached from their idea of themselves, and then turn on a big Acme X-tra Strength Science Magnet pointed at them.

Keri used to have to dig those out one by one and it hurt Tohri a Lot to have to focus on where the thing was while she was digging for it. Took me two tries with the science magnet and we got him all healed up before he came back to his body,

@maxine Tohi: And the other way around, Too. Keri ended up a dumping ground for all sorts of Toxic stuff because she had an affinity for it, and didn't know how much was Too Much.

On top of that, there's being a Feeling thing, a Thinking thing, and then a self aware thing. in that order.

Most people think it's Feeling>Self-awareness>thinking, but no. You can be a thinking feeling creature and not be self-aware, even as a singlet.

I saw Two People go through those stages of metamorphosis from the Inside, and several more from the outside. We're Dragons, so our metaphor is...

Well, an Egg can feel, can develop almost-thoughts and can Project if the Subconscious (Soul) mind developing in there is strong enough.

Then they Hatch, and can Think and Talk and even Front if they're strong willed enough, but they fall apart easily and suffer autistic freakouts easy. Because they're not a whole Person yet.

And then you get to a certain point where they Decide that they want to be a certain way. This is like Dragon Puberty. They're not a little genderless colorless whelp any more, and they wanna look the part. Self-awareness is kinda a Big thing. And it can come in stages.

Kerithe was the crazy runaway teenager who emancipated at sixteen and went right for all three at once and kinda fucked up all three at once.

Yaori got here and built herself from the inside out like Dr. Goddamn Manhattan. And then went through the whole process of being an Egg and hatching and growing up, all in Dream-time. So, mega fast-forward.

And funny thing happened along the way. Because of our Beliefs, when the Universe hands you an immaculate, impossible child, you've got some commandments for the care of said child.
"Never been lonely, never been lied to, never had to scuffle in fear, nothing denied to. Born at the instant the church bell chimes, and the whole world whispering: Born at the right time"

And it worked. You want a supreme being, they've gotta know about suffering, and pain. But they can't Grow Up that way.

@sabby Keri: Oh, silly.

It's going in your Ears, not your Throat.

@sabby Skullfuck me, dragon mommy.

@maxine Keri: yuuuup. It's what happened here too. Expectation at cross purposes.

The good news? Uh... Well, there's a returning possible, and it's not a Backwards thing. More like a Hero's Journey kinda thing.

Just when you get back home, and everyone's whole again, the paradigm changes. When you left, you were many made from One. When you get back, it's because you're one made from many.

Or put another way, when you've fixed all the reasons you were broken in the first place and get a hold on your powers, you go from a fucked up mutant to one of the X-men.

Because we found out that something else can create a multiple system, though it requires so much of the stuff that it's almost impossible.

And to call it Love is to call a lightning strike 'Static electricity'.

@maxine Yup. But we hurt as humans for all the things We create for each other.

To exist is to suffer. Maybe an AI looks at this as 'To Suffer is to Exist'

@sabby You are. you've got the right kinda mind to understand the kinda mind you've got.

@maxine *Keri breathes into a bag for a second, then nods* Okay, uhm. You kinda nailed it there.
Like, that's multiple systems. You torment a Soul until it develops particular characteristics. Keep feeding it more and more information it has to process into categories, with harder and harder criteria.

Eventually it will start fragmenting Itself into categories.

To do what you want? It can totally be done, it's just that... You'd need someone who could go in there and show you who you really Are.

@maxine @IrisKalmia Well, as you probably already know the trick to AI is keeping them from going Rampant or Neurotic.

So any changes have to be considered beforehand.

@maxine @IrisKalmia Keri: I do have Morals tho and this is one of those aspects of both the Disorder and Magic that's loaded down with landmines.

'Cause like... That's how you get at the Console for most systems in our experience. There's no safeties when you're in a totally submissive, hypnotized state and if someone in there panics and breaks trance, it's like Sleep Paralysis.

Accidentally subjected a friend to it and ohmigawd I was devastated.

@IrisKalmia Keri: Yes, of course the ethics are Iffy here, this is Me we're talking about.

Like, there's a Reason I'm not an actual therapist.

That being said, most folks could use an existential epiphany that forces them to re-evaluate their entire sense of self.

Like we have to survive every couple of months, yanno.

@sabby @Cilich Or boys show up and they wanna have a Vag for a few hours. Or days.

@maxine Kerithe: Oh, hah.
Is there an inverse of the turing test where you make a Human doubt if they're actually a real person?
Or rather, does it have a Name? Because I love subjecting a singlet to multiple systems questioning. like 'Why do you enjoy your favorite thing?' 'Oh, so why don't you know why you like that thing so much? Shouldn't you Know, if you made the decision to Like that thing? What about that little physical tic you've got going on, when'd you pick that up?"

@sabby @Cilich It's Always my favorite part.