Published 2023-08-02 12:00:03
“Than I think Pulse might be at the center of it all, we should focus on her,” you say. “But at the same time, we can’t afford to let our guard down. We should keep our attentions equally divided between the three in the coming days...”
“Hmm, okay, we’ll try our best to do both of those things,” Synth says. “Akiko might know more about Pulse, them being the same year and all.”
“I could ask,” you say.
“Alright. But it’s not safe for us to all keep meeting in person so much.” They open their Faraday bag.
“Right.” You pull out the two identical terminals. “Uhh which one is...”
“Put your collar on and you’ll know its signal. It’s part of you,” Synth says.
“Right.” You reconnect yourself to your extended system and to the local network. Just as they said, you immediately feel the familiar signature of your device. You hand Zeta’s back to it.
“Just keep it vague,” Synth says.
2254-08-24 14:36:03 Aydan > hey Akiko, do you know a girl named Pulse?
2254-08-24 14:36:09 明子 > Pulse? it seems familiar...
2254-08-24 14:36:12 Aydan > also called Luka, a second year girl, a music autistic
2254-08-24 14:36:18 明子 > OH! Luka Pulse, she’s also called Ryouko, I...sort of know of her?
2254-08-24 14:36:25 Aydan > technopaths and their names. Ryouko, huh, would she happen to be from AtaraChiba, then?
2254-08-24 14:36:34 明子 > no, I think she’s from Oboshi, probably, or at least if we were both from AtaraChiba we weren’t aware of each other. we’ve technically met I guess? I think we’ve been in a bunch of classes together?
2254-08-24 14:36:45 Aydan > that’s fair, I know you don’t talk to many people
2254-08-24 14:36:50 明子 > it’s not just that, it’s like, she’s blind
2254-08-24 14:36:54 Aydan > oh, yeah?
2254-08-24 14:37:02 明子 > but not Deaf, you know?
2254-08-24 14:37:10 明子 > maybe you wouldn’t get it... sound is basically her entire personality, as a music person, not to mention entire mode of communication as a hearing person. I can’t sign to her, she can’t talk to me. plus she’s really touch averse like most people on this colony, so we couldn’t communicate tactilely either. basically, we’re kind of invisible to each other?
2254-08-24 14:37:18 Aydan > okay, that does seem like it would be awkward
2254-08-24 14:37:29 明子 > electronic messages would translate fine, like, it gives me the meaning in texture, it gives it to you as visual words I assume, she probably interprets it as sound, that’s the wonder of the neural interface and machine translation. only, we never even got far enough to exchange keys, so
2254-08-24 14:37:34 明子 > someone could go between us and interpret, sure, but, there’s just never been a reason for us to have to talk to each other that badly
2254-08-24 14:37:38 明子 > so that’s just how it is. no big loss I guess, we probably don’t even have much in common
2254-08-24 14:37:43 明子 > it’s just a little frustrating as a specialist in Communication is all. not a big deal or anything
2254-08-24 14:37:49 Aydan > understandable, yeah
“Yeah Akiko doesn’t know anything except that she’s also known as Ryouko and possibly from Oboshi colony,” you say.
“Oh well. We’ll work with what we’ve got,” Synth says.
“We’ll keep you safe, Aydan!”
“I’ll see you in two days, then...”