CONNECTION FOUND!
(2) NETWORKS IDENTIFIED:
1 : KINGS BLOOD - CONNECTION\\STRONG
2 : KILL STOP - CONNECTION\\WEAK
Attempting connection with KINGS BLOOD…
Connection initialized!
pend_ulum.odp located
Opening…
“I think the devil doesn't exist,
but man has created him,
he has created him in his own image and likeness.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky
Several months go by without much information being released to the public, though many discoveries are made by a few core M.E.G. agents sent to explore the sea of the level. One such agent, of whom shows the most importance in this event, was Mariana Layne.
Mariana wasn't a stranger to the M.E.G. She had many experiences with them, but she was always on the outside. Despite her many attempts, she could never find her place there. So, she mainly served as one of the agents who solely handled the more mundane aspects of their operations. Whether that be delivering papers to other―more important―agents or simply cataloging a specific level's weather patterns over a couple of days. One may find it boring, but she was grateful to be of use.
Before she was sent to Level α, she found herself within Level 654. At this time, she was just sitting on a bench——her back leaning against the wall. She was exhausted, tasked with supplying her colleagues with coffee. She had been going all over the level, going from office to office, providing them the beverage without much acknowledgement on their part.
As she was slumped against the wall she tried her best to doze off for a second; her tiredness far outweighed how embarrassed she would feel if someone were to come in…
She looked up at the SPLIT(!)HEAD, a smile growing across her face, and says "why not?"
(4) ERRORS FOUND
SPLIT(!)HEAD encountered @[DATA LOST]
connection 'lost' : [KINGS BLOOD]
cannot display SPLIT(!)HEAD
SYSTEM SHUTDOWN WILL OCCUR IN (999) SECONDS IF CREDENTIALS ARE NOT INPUTTED.
Attempting to reinitialize…
…
…
…
KINGS BLOOD (network) has been identified
connection 'weak' : KINGS BLOOD
Hamilton's equations have another advantage over Lagrange's equations: if a system has a symmetry, so that some coordinate qqi does not occur in the Hamiltonian (i.e. a cyclic coordinate), the corresponding momentum coordinate pi is conserved along each trajectory, and that coordinate can be reduced to a constant in the other equations of the set.
This effectively reduces the problem from n coordinates to (n − 1) coordinates: this is the basis of symplectic reduction in geometry. In the Lagrangian framework, the conservation of momentum also follows immediately, however all the generalized velocities q*istill occur in the Lagrangian, and a system of equations in n coordinates still has to be solved.
Hamilton's equations usually do not reduce the difficulty of finding explicit solutions, but important theoretical results can be derived from them, because coordinates and momenta are independent variables with nearly symmetric roles.
― Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Mariana hates the ocean.
Above the surface, it's nothing less than chaotic; the waves pound against the coast as a devious storm brews overhead, threatening complete annihilation. Unfortunately, she was one of the divers in Level α. She's never been diving, however; never even been to the ocean. Her fellow M.E.G. agents found it annoying to try and teach her, she would start screaming and flailing around whenever she went into any body of water that was too deep to see the bottom of.
However, despite her fears, she was willing to learn. Flailing about was just part of her process…
CONNECTION COMPROMISED
FORCING ascension.odp LAUNCH
OPENING PAGE…
Individuals who have witnessed the following document have been known to perform metaphysical ascension upon coming into contact with another human.
By accessing the following document,
you acknowledge the possibility of your Ascension.
Ascension is a newly discovered phenomenon that occurs whenever written documentation of the washed up corpses present in Level α are viewed by a human. The exact causation of the phenomenon isn't currently a topic that is very well known due to how recently this was observed; until definite prevention for this phenomenon can be found, access to Level α has been restricted as of 07/21/19.
The process of Ascension, as its name suggests, involves an individual rapidly rising into the sky (if present) causing them to suffer high-altitude pulmonary edema, leading to their death. Once they have expired, their body will fall back to the ground at extreme speeds, splattering against the ground and being injury inducing for anyone close to the area of impact.
For Ascension to occur, information of the corpses in Level α must be recorded in some form, whether that be digitally or printed. This phenomenon will not take place on the individual who produces this text until after they have finished the document; however, leaving it purposely unfinished seems to trigger the phenomenon as well. Ascension will also have mild effects to the document that it is prompted by, such as, but not limited to:
- shifting characters into exclamation marks (!) causing the text to be unreadable;
- sudden font changes that may, at times, make the entry unreadable;
- degradation of its psychical host (present both digitally and printed);
- editing of any images to make them appear as though they were made in the 1800s;
- twisting of terms originally used to make the deceased individuals seem more welcoming.
When an individual views the document, the effects of Ascension will fully take hold; the afflicted person will first begin to act erratically and uncharacteristically of their normal self; typically emotionally closing themselves out from others and ceasing contact with the closest people in their lives.
Once this has taken place, the victims will then experience heavy mental manipulation which causes them to feel intense paranoia and experience temporary lapses of consciousness. They may act aggressively and lash out at any nearby objects within their place of dwelling, doing so with unnatural strength that will heighten the damage they cause. There is also a possibility that they will instead retreat mentally and consult the depths of their own mind, conversing with various religious figures that only exist in their own mind.
The next eventual stage will lead them to attempt to find any human beings they can. Whether this be out of anger with what's been done to them or purely out of necessity to preserve their own psyche, they will wander in silent determination until they find someone. Once they do manage to make contact with another individual, the previously mentioned steps will occur. Currently, no concrete methods of saving those fated for Ascension has been found; certain death awaits them.
As of now, (22,592) individuals have been subject to its effects due to a mass posting event of the M.E.G. entry with malicious intent; the page was only able to be taken down by a solitary M.E.G. agent approximately 84 hours after being posted.
[[/=]]
The ego is the organized part of the personality structure that includes defensive, perceptual, intellectual-cognitive, and executive functions. Conscious awareness resides in the ego, although not all of the operations of the ego are conscious.
Originally, Freud used the word ego to mean a sense of self, but later revised it to mean a set of psychic functions such as judgment, tolerance, reality testing, control, planning, defense, synthesis of information, intellectual functioning, and memory. The ego separates out what is real. It helps us to organize our thoughts and make sense of them and the world around us.
― Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
The seabed was in a silent, frozen state. There were no fish, no vegetation, not even any identifiable rocks; there was just the solemn colorless expanse of sand. Mariana found peace down here, it gave her a sense of knowledge in a way. She wasn't someone who has really previously made contact with the ocean; she was born in Level 205 before getting involved in all of this, only going to Level 654 relatively recently.
Under the surface of the ocean though, she gained insight on something she hadn't known before. It was hard to describe the emotion when she was down here——somewhere in the middle of tranquility and paranoia——but it was nonetheless welcoming. She felt as though she had been ignorant before coming here; how should one have knowledge of the heavenly things above, if one knows not what is beneath one’s feet?
She was wearing smooth and glossy diving gear, a little bit worn in but not enough to be bothersome; the tank on her back weighs her down, reminding her that she couldn't be down here forever. She checked the oxygen meter on her waist, it was an eighth of the way finished, she had fifteen minutes left——give or take.
She was just preparing her ascent when something caught her eye. A hole in the seabed. Not too big, just about four feet in diameter, but this was an exciting discovery. The only other thing she had found under water was a discarded piece of unidentifiable plastic, she would've never thought she would find an actual trench! So, her curiosity got the better of her, she figured it'd take maybe three minutes to check it out and she'd be able to successfully go back into her ship overhead with time to spare.
She swam over there quickly and stared into the pit; the abyss met her gaze. This was promising, her diving suit's light was broken, but she felt compelled to enter. What was going to stop her? She'd be able to go in for seven minutes, come back out with another seven minutes. A perfect, bite-sized adventure for her to go on.
She moved her hand over the rim of the chasm, gripping it and feeling hard rock beneath the top layer of sand. She moved her body over into it and allowed herself to fall into the hole. The bright surface above gives way to the ever growing black, inky void.
But then, once light is no longer visible, the scene around her shifts and changes; Mariana sees what looks like to be the cabin of an antique pirate ship. It's cluttered with stray pieces of metal, rickety wooden tables and chairs and the fur of random animals. In front of her, sitting on a barrel, is (what she can only assume to be) a pirate——a jug of ale in his right hand. His head was non-existent, instead replaced by a bright ball of energy.
With his left hand, he gestured slightly towards her, pointing from her head to his own. A silent voice was heard all around Mariana, not coming from a single point, it whispered:
In a single moment, Mariana felt the agony, the suffering, and the misery of a world without a psyche so intensely. These words brought onto her feelings of silent curiosity that pulled her towards this intriguing figure. Slowly walking towards him, she holds her hand out and rests it on the sphere of light, but to her surprise, it's not a solid object. As her hand makes her way into it her form sheds away; it begins at the finger tips――the point of first contact――slowly transforming her skin into beads of light falling upwards towards the ceiling; her bones disintegrating into ribbons of mist.
It spread rapidly up her arm and throughout the rest of her body. She attempts to scream but her voice box was eradicated before she could do so. Mariana felt no pain, only fear. As the transformation spread to her eyes, she found her surroundings around her change. The wood spiraled into white light and the furniture around her faded out of existence.
One by one, she saw pale, emancipated human bodies rise from the white light and stand in a uniform posture——standing up, body rigid, all facing behind her. She turned to look as well and saw a jellyfish pulsing with blue light as it extended its tentacles out to different specific figures. As the tentacles made contact with the bodies, they dropped to the ground, limp. Eventually, one by one, the jellyfish made their way through all the bodies and forced each one to fall to the ground.
Finally, the jellyfish made its way to Mariana, it wrapped a single tentacle around her figure, tightening its grip around her neck. All her knowledge was drained from her, in an instant. Her mind was completely obliterated and she was left as a hollow shell. She fell to the ground in silent anguish, not even being able to comprehend the despair that was bequeathed to her.
The ego is dead. The ego remains dead. And we have killed it. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was the holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves?