Page 209: Damn bugs and their chatter! Putting Alex to sleep!

[Dan Wyatt]

Alex is probably not getting enough Oxygen, the Umiak environment is low on oxygen and has lower air pressure. He might black out at this rate.

[Cthulhu]

Alex is probably not getting enough Oxygen, the Umiak environment is low on oxygen and has lower air pressure. He might black out at this rate.

1. Alex has a space suit on.
2. He couldn't get much sleep, because a certain redhead keeps sending her robo-bug PTSD nightmares to everyone.
3. That Umiak shanty? Hymn? Whatever, it is lulling him to sleep.


Now, he is close to achieving the state of CHIM! With that, he shall reshape the cosmos and achieve divinity. But wait, it's the wrong universe!
Instead, he shall either develop telepathy or he falls asleep and summons ME!

It would be pretty funny if that Lotai was not to keep others out, but something in. Maybe that's how they will overwhelm the crew and hijack the ship?

[MBehave]

If that was the case they would have read his mind when 3 of them attempted it, caused him extreme pain and suffocated him by denying his brain oxygen though constricting his breathing...

Since we already have Alex sleeping and seeing Fireblades memories and the fact in this instance Fireblade is light while the others are dull.
It could very well be Alex has formed a connection to Fireblade and is sensing everyone else though her.

SpoilerShow

Yep, the damn chittering is turning Alex into a telepath

Seriously, I have a working theory (that I planned to use in a story) that certain states of mind would allow the Lotai to be pierced/lowered a little.

There are more than a few rituals throughout the world that bring one's mind into a state that is best described as hyperactive mania, those who experience it describing it as a 'transcendence of the mind' allowing them to experience the world differently.

Looks like I got extremely close to the mark.

[Werra]

I wouldn't be so hasty and read a special connection between Alex and Fireblade out of this yet. This is the longest period of time Alex has been in a room with some Loroi. Continued exposure could be a contributing factor to his newfound awareness. Which he's only experienced when he had an empty mind. Once when he was unconscious, once when he really tried with Beryl, when he was dreaming and now as he's in the process of falling asleep.
If he truly were receiving what Fireblade senses, shouldn't he also perceive the Umiak through her?

[MBehave]

Possible, yet none of the other Loroi but Fireblade is burning bright and Fireblade is not the one controlling the Umiak.
If its general sense I would think Alex would see 2 bright Loroi not just one and that all the other Loroi are a different colour.

I wouldn't be so hasty and read a special connection between Alex and Fireblade out of this yet. This is the longest period of time Alex has been in a room with some Loroi. Continued exposure could be a contributing factor to his newfound awareness. Which he's only experienced when he had an empty mind. Once when he was unconscious, once when he really tried with Beryl, when he was dreaming and now as he's in the process of falling asleep.
If he truly were receiving what Fireblade senses, shouldn't he also perceive the Umiak through her?

[CrimsonFALKE]

I saw the hard trooper where is its jaw so it can make all the clicks and ticks?

[boldilocks]

One the one hand alex looks like he's achieved the state of CHIM.

On the other...
...

LOL!
Imagine what will happen if some Loroi enters a Human mind during the CHIM state!

Oh, I know exactly what'll happen.

[Arent]

Possible, yet none of the other Loroi but Fireblade is burning bright and Fireblade is not the one controlling the Umiak.
If its general sense I would think Alex would see 2 bright Loroi not just one and that all the other Loroi are a different colour.

It's her amplifier that burns bright. It's quite obvious in the image.

[gaerzi]

I saw the hard trooper where is its jaw so it can make all the clicks and ticks?

They don't have jaws, they have two pairs of mandibles.

[Arioch]

A full-replacement cyborg probably doesn't have its original mouthparts, so the sound would be synthesized.

[Jagged]

Imagine what will happen if some Loroi enters a Human mind during the CHIM state!

I doubt it is dissimilar from Loroi males

[CrimsonFALKE]

A full-replacement cyborg probably doesn't have its original mouthparts, so the sound would be synthesized.

Okay thanks, hard troopers are really hard core if they can tolerate having their mandibles removed

[GeoModder]

A full-replacement cyborg probably doesn't have its original mouthparts, so the sound would be synthesized.

Okay thanks, hard troopers are really hard core if they can tolerate having their mandibles removed

As far as I understand it, there's only the brain in a hardtrooper 'body'.

[Dan Wyatt]

Oh, I know exactly what'll happen.

I have become CHIM!
What a sweet and intoxicating innocence!

[CrimsonFALKE]

A full-replacement cyborg probably doesn't have its original mouthparts, so the sound would be synthesized.

Okay thanks, hard troopers are really hard core if they can tolerate having their mandibles removed

As far as I understand it, there's only the brain in a hardtrooper 'body'.

I actually thought it was a brain and enough of a system to deliver the brain with nutrients and energy. They do eat baby food like paste.

[koliup]

It seems that the implication is that sleep-adjacent brain activity activates or enhances the properties of consciousness that allow humans to perceive psychic emanations and or phenomena.
This has some interesting implications, given that the history of humanity in Outsider is seemingly "as reality except where noted".
The most notable is that humans ought to have noticed nearby living things when dozing off. Like pets, assuming humans are genuinely invisible psychically. Or more mentions of people sharing a dream with a nearby orangutan or goat. This stuff seemingly being absent suggest some sort of precursor level mucking about somewhere to me, absent other information.
A psi dampening field light years (or multiple but merely a solar system in diameter each) across? An entire planet's worth of lifeforms GE'd to be psychically invisible somehow? Or something in human food to dampen psychic potential (GE'd by aliens, obviously) when metabolized?

[gaerzi]

Well, remember that at this point Alex has been repeatedly pumped full of psionitrons by Fireblade and friends several times as they tried to break through what they thought was a shield, and then by experimenting with Beryl, and by being in the center of a Loroi cuddlepile during the space shuttle sleepover. It's not really an experience humans on Earth have ever had.

[GeoModder]

Okay thanks, hard troopers are really hard core if they can tolerate having their mandibles removed

As far as I understand it, there's only the brain in a hardtrooper 'body'.

I actually thought it was a brain and enough of a system to deliver the brain with nutrients and energy. They do eat baby food like paste.

Now that you mention it, I believe you're right.

[Arioch]

A "brain in a jar" requires all kinds of chemicals to keep it functioning that are much more expensive to produce artificially than simply including its natural digestive, endocrine, neural and cardiovascular systems.

It seems that the implication is that sleep-adjacent brain activity activates or enhances the properties of consciousness that allow humans to perceive psychic emanations and or phenomena.
This has some interesting implications, given that the history of humanity in Outsider is seemingly "as reality except where noted".
The most notable is that humans ought to have noticed nearby living things when dozing off.

Right. So it ought to be clear (if we are to assume that the author is not a moron) that this is not what's happening.

[Arent]

The only question right now is whether Alex' ability to sense the Loroi is a special trait of himself or of humans in general.

And AFAIK we also don't know yet, whether all humans are shielded from the Loroi telepathy or only Alex.