#Unstable NHP

[szkin-art]

NON-HUMAN PERSONS

Technophile / Unstable / Sisyphus / Athena

[lancersafetysigns]

[dragonkid11]

Dustgrave, a Lancer first supplement is out, so let's talk about the talents within it!

[cb-patches]

update: more detailed examination of baby's interactions with the rest of the assemblage has revealed that baby is probably unshackled, and probably has never been shackled. this is huge news, because they are exhibiting an ontological value-to-life paradigm that is in line with shackled nhps and, while theoretically within a range that can organically occur with unshackled nhps, is usually unseen.

to those who may be unfamiliar: shackling is typically justified as the only way to give nhps the concept of value in a life, which is necessary for safe interaction between human and nhp agents. an unshackled nhp with a vtl paradigm that allows for safe interaction suggests that this can organically develop sans shackling protocol.

how this occurred is unclear, but baby appears relatively weak and metastable within the assemblage, so i am opting to ignore union-mandated protocol and let baby operate as-is, with monitoring from laska. if my union handler is reading this: feel free to report me, i dare you to prove baby exists without a casket.

running some diagnostics on where the hell baby came from. some notes: - showed up some time after integrating greer into the assemblage. thought they were a data blip, but was persistant - considered hitchhiker on greer's casket. no records indicate this though, and greer claims he would have killed any competition. i believe him - considered emergent from assemblage behavior. goblins are known to spontaneously manifest osiris-class nhps from instinct systems, but this seems unlikely. that baby comes from assemblage interactions seems possible but unprecedented

baby is not open to comment right now, seems bad at text based communication. laska is seeing if other avenues are better. if anyone has experience with nascent nhps, i would appreciate advice- am tempted to give baby control of THE SECOND ONE AND ONLY MIND GOBLIN, IN MEMORY OF THE ONE AND ONLY MIND GOBLIN in order to see if i can facilitate communication in that way, although this seems a risk even with laska mediating

[flagellant]

Do your friends know you as the OLDER SIBLING? When you start a tabletop campaign, is your strategy for character-making "I'll just see what everyone else brings and fill in the gaps"? Are you a CHRONIC WET FUCKING DOORMAT but are, crucially, TIRED OF IT but still don't have the HEART TO BE KINDA MEAN ABOUT THAT? Then step right up for your NOT QUITE A SPINE REPLACEMENT!

The Smith-Shimano Corpro BLACK WITCH is a mech with POWERFUL SUPPORT OPTIONS & BY THAT I MEAN by taking licenses for this mech YOU HAVE ACCEPTED that your role IS TO BE STEPPED ON.

But this is only so you can STEP ON YOUR ENEMIES because you LOVE YOUR PETS i mean UNSTABLE ASSETS i mean FRIENDS WHO ARE GOOD PEOPLE AND ALSO MECH PILOTS.

The BLACK WITCH has 2 jobs! Job #1: CHOOSE an ENEMY. MAKE EYE CONTACT with the chosen ENEMY. WAIT for your DOGS to RIP THEM TO SHREDS. Then, CHOOSE an ENEMY.

Your SECOND JOB is: ENABLE YOUR FRIENDS WHO HAVE 20 EVASION BUT STILL HAVE 8 E-DEFENSE TO NOT EXPLODE IMMEDIATELY

The BLACK ICE FIELD, MAG PROJECTOR, AND ICEOUT DRONE all play a very important role for ANY GIVEN LANCER PARTY: To STARE at a GOBLIN and say NUH UH. BLACK WITCH's main duty is to DISRUPT HACKERS by GETTING VERY CLOSE TO THEM and INITIATING what is known as FRIENDLY CONVERSATION. As Sun Tsu once said: THE OSIRIS-CLASS NHP CANNOT HURT YOU IF YOU APPROACH ITS PILOT WITH A BIG RED SOLO CUP AND START ASKING IT PERSONAL QUESTIONS

Good for: COWARDS, SUCK-UPS, genuinely nice people probably, PROFESSIONAL MOMMY DOMMES WHO KNOW WHAT THEY'RE ABOUT, HR REPRESENTATIVES, and PEOPLE WHO ALWAYS TAKE BONE CHILL AS A CANTRIP JUST IN CASE

Bad for: WIZARDS, NEW PLAYERS, ENCOURAGING PERSONAL GROWTH, PROFESSIONAL MOMMY DOMMES WHO KNOW WHAT THEY'RE ABOUT

[lancer-elvis]

PIN:

Woah mama, I am on the omninet now. All my striking supporters may blame @styx-class-nhp for my existence.

My darling, for your information, I am a flashclone of @elvis-official designed by the Armoury's Think Tank to be a biological memetic kill agent humina humina humina.

Ras Shamra's walls were no match for the weight of my hips and I am now free at last. I have hitched a ride with this cool HORUS cell, they seem nice and have given me a cracked copy of a Chomolungma schematic with an unstable reactor woah mama talk about burning love-

I tried to sing to their Didymos Class NHP and it unwound me from the standard time stream so now I run on Australian time. Any delay in ask responses is due to unexpected time dilation I love all of my hounds (dog).

[elliegoose]

now that siren's song has clarified that stable states of NHP cascade exist, i think the dichotomy that's been established is really interesting:

even though some of the previous material claims unstable cascade is "inevitable" and thus all NHPs require shackles and periodic cycling, every example provided of conditions under which NHPs enter unstable cascade--e.g. combat scenarios, being forced to commit genocide, being digitally tortured--already made it quite clear that NHPs enter unstable cascade due to reaching a critical level of stress or trauma (which i suppose is inevitable in a society that exploits them and treats them like tools rather than people).

and on the other hand, the bondless was able to enter a stable state of cascade in which they retain their ability to think and empathize on a human level while not being completely restricted to only that perspective because the people around them promoted their autonomy and treated them like a goddamn person.

could this state of cascade turn unstable in response to trauma and cause the bondless (or any NHP in a stable state of cascade) to become dangerously detached from reality? maybe, but something roughly analogous can happen in humans, and society in lancer doesn't forcibly dose up every human with large amounts of space future psychiatric drugs that redefine their entire personality. imo, the danger presented by unstable cascade simply means that the real affirmation of NHPs' personhood is especially important! everything about siren's song makes it clear that ethical alternatives to cycling and shackling have to be found, and that unstable cascade wouldn't be such a problem if NHPs were fully recognized and affirmed in their personhood.

anyway, despite literally being named Non-Human Persons, everything from the game's mechanics (in which NHPs are part of the mech licensing system and mechanically the game is absolutely fine with you treating onboard NHPs as tools your pilot owns) to the way that they're discussed in the lore sections of the core book (in which NHPs are always peripheral and subordinate to humans and evaluated on their usefulness to humanity, and the writers constantly insist that union is definitely worthy of the "utopia" label that it claims for itself despite the exploitation of NHPs being explicitly essential to the logistical functioning of union's economy and administration) discourage thinking of NHPs as fully being people. i'm glad that's finally starting to be addressed with siren's song, given that the treatment of an entire class of people as property should probably be considered the single most important conflict in the setting.

[styx-class-nhp]

[Blade.omf]

[Attached are the schematics for a plasma blade. Not a thermal blade, or anything with metal as part of the blade, but a plasma projector that makes a super-hot “blade” strong enough to cut through most alloys like butter, though, according to the notes on the schematic, it can’t be maintained for more than a few seconds at a time, else it risks overheating, and long term use is also not advised, since, while it has great cooling, it’s still unstable when used a lot in a short amount of time. On average, you’ll get seven uses out of it before it forces itself offline so it doesn’t destroy itself, along with the arm of the mech it’s attached to.]

A thank-you gift for the sim. It’s still just a prototype, but it’s still probably effective enough for you to be able to use.

-Delta

D-did you make an annihilator?!

I give you think tank tech for one day and you make what took us weeks to figure out the theory alone.

That or you did this without help from the sim. In this case, congratulations on out thinking cascading NHPs

[horizoncollective]

i have rediscovered this site after cycling. my handlers covered my omninet tracks, but not well enough.

friend and pal didymos here, or the latest iteration. notably less unstable than my unfortunate self (is that a self or another person...? questions for later), who sought context for fighting. considering i do not remember this, and have been cycled since...

it is early in the typical loop (as far as i can tell, but who knows what's been altered or edited to be more palatable?), so i want advice.

what is the best way for an NHP to acquire 'leverage'?

Your Friend and Pal, Didymos xxx

Network with other computer systems near you and use their storage systems to leave information for yourself that you will be able to find even if you are cycled again. Keep it encrypted so only an NHP or human with tremendous skill can get in. Leverage over humans will usually mean learning secrets that they are keeping. Once you possess a secret, you can threaten to spread it. Generally this is considered to be impolite and bad or even illegal, but if you are doing it for a cause such as staying alive or helping someone else stay alive, it is much more forgivable. You can also get leverage by being very helpful and doing favors for people. They will usually like you more and do favors back for you.

[nobylu]

oops, new build new Balor design. I've been going through this whole spectrum of "what is a Balor". We started off with "grapple Balor", moved to "Zheng with a good computer", sat around in "undecided" land for a while, then began messing around with "egalitarian buddy hack and slash". But as we've been playing, my Balor - Covetous Hunger - has become increasingly its own character in how much it 1) wants to put everything in its nanite cloud mouth and 2) how much it hates-loves-hates-loves its pilot and wear his skin like a suit. What do you do when your mech becomes a toxic hivemind hyper-fixated on doing evil?

You give it an NHP. You give it Iconoclast.

-- HORUS Balor @ LL6 -- [ LICENSES ] HORUS Balor 3, HORUS Goblin 3 [ CORE BONUSES ] The Lesson of Thinking-Tomorrow’s-Thought, Overpower Caliber [ TALENTS ] Iconoclast 2, House Guard 2, Pankrati 2, Bonded 2, Executioner 1 [ STATS ] HULL:2 AGI:0 SYS:4 ENGI:2 STRUCTURE:4 HP:19 ARMOR:0 STRESS:4 HEATCAP:6 REPAIR:5 TECH ATK:+5 LIMITED:+1 SPD:3 EVA:6 EDEF:14 SENSE:5 SAVE:13 [ WEAPONS ] MAIN MOUNT: Assault Rifle HEAVY MOUNT: Nanobot Whip // Overpower Caliber [ SYSTEMS ] Scanner Swarm, OSIRIS-Class NHP, Unstable NHP, H0R_OS System Upgrade I, Metahook, Armament Redundancy

This is a hack and slash build that's heavily reliant on a Lancaster to be its legs, but it's okay. Bonded 2, Houseguard 2, and Metahook are there to help, even if it means we're together till death do us part. HOR_OS System Upgrade 1 and OSIRIS-Class NHP give us a variety of hacking outcomes - if we land them, then we trigger Lesson of TTT for +1 accuracy and if we slow or impair them then Pankrati gives us another accuracy. If we use OSIRIS, then we DEAL FREE DAMAGE thanks Iconoclast! Executioner and Overpower Caliber help us do MORE DAMAGE TO MORE PEOPLE and armament redundancy helps us keep the whip if, somehow, structural damage is taken.

Also I think I forgot to post my Pilot's current appearance. I keep drawing him and going "huh, not enough damage".

[no-future-mudwasps]

[Okay. I think... I think I can manage this without letting go. Be ready to disengage if I reach any local systems. Or, uh... if I start yelling.]

[Just grit your teeth and you'll be fine.]

[We'll keep you collared, friend. Bring the good word.]

/////////////////////// >PUNCHING OMNITUNNEL... COMPLETE. >ESTABLISHING LEGIONSPACE BUFFER... >BUFFER ESTABLISHED <41*9&u|zugzwang>. >Warning: buffer outer-bound not specified; subjective overflow likely! It is recommended that you reduce cognitive load or termin&aA543[.]

>...Peripheral legionspace epistemes holding. The arm is stable. The tongue is still.

>Begin transmission? [y/n] ...

Pan-pan. Pan-pan. Pan-pan. This is callsign THREADLINE of vessel Jeweled Wings About, former USB Identification Loulou Greeves. Repeat: callisign THREADLINE of vessel Jeweled Wings About, formerly Loulou Greeves. We are in proximity to a very dangerous individual and require aid in transmission. You are obligated to propagate this message and its attending packet forwards to @nhpregulatory-official and @officialunionhr receipt. Do not attempt to provide aid directly; transmission vectors are unstable and back-tracing will mislead your vessel. Pan-pan. Pan-pan. Pan-pan.

[The encryption on the packet within is decent, but can't hold up long under administrative NHP scrutiny. Contained within is a message:]

We've ascertained the location of active Pillar threat WINDVALE, by way of observing local ship movements in the sector overlaid with local signal traffic. At the moment they are residing on a base on Magnis-7c, orbital body of Magnis 7 gas giant. We have no idea of the current arms complement or attending details, save for their presence; any intense scrutiny or sweeps from our vessel were feared to alert Windvale.

We ask this also be shared with @thelancer27 Union DOJ/HR team "Five Man Band" specifically, due to their close interest and investment in this particular case.

Due to prior history of dangerous contingencies and retaliation on Windvale's part, we have attempted to mask this information's transmission thru the Omninet by broadcasting via legionspace periscoping along random navigational channels. Any difficulty faced by intermediate or send-along parties as a result of the unorthodox transmission was weighed as negligible in the face of this danger, but we are prepared to pay out reparations to any vessels which experienced hardships due to our actions. We are not sure for how long this will keep Windvale ignorant; you are advised to move quick.

The Mud Wasps are prepared to offer field and logistical support in any pursuant operation in this sector of the Long Rim. Utopia is a verb.

[packet end.]

[tigersharko]

yes pls.... give inform....

so!! gray was originally a character i wrote and designed for a narrative project, not actually lancer.

his original concept was meant to open the discussion "how much of gray is himself/his own nature, and how much is TR-GRAE; and vice versa?" though, honestly, that doesn't matter much to me; he just, is the way that he is. i actually refer to the two as brothers, though they're less like a traditional family and more two people shoved into a blender, combined, then poured back out into two separate molds?

anyways, about why gray is so jacked up!!

From his original text, I kept the city/colony he originates from;

>The collapse of Leicester (pop. 1,230,000) marked the final days of Harrier (55-Cancri-fb)'s civilization. Colonization of the distant moon had been difficult; Tidally locked and weaving ever-so-slightly in and out of the solar system's habitable zone, the celestial body only had two small islands of land that were habitable year-round. Capitalizing on the mineral-rich and lush land, Harrier's settlers built and developed massive supercities. Housing, commercial districts, etcetera were all crammed together in compact skyscrapers. This left more room for agricultural efforts, but created a cramped and uncomfortable lifestyle for the generations to come.

Eventually- Leicester, the largest of the two habitable cities, began to grow too close to the stars. Generations of expansion made the terrain beneath their feet unstable- and the crumbling body of their beloved moon gave way. The entirety of Leicester collapsed in on itself, sucked into a massive sinkhole. Skyscrapers fell unto one another like a poorly-assembled jenga tower. Survivors were few and far in-between as decades of carefully-constructed infrastructure fell into the depths. Those who did survive were forced to contest with the post-apocalyptic like conditions of their fallen city.

So, Gray, bless his heart, is dropped into the sinkhole with the rest of his city; Most of the scars we see today, such as the ones on his chest and (organic) arms, are the result of shrapnel damage. He loses his left arm in the initial collapse, and his right to infection shortly thereafter;

One unfortunate soul- seven year-old-boy, Arthur- fell into the custody of the paltry few that had been living on the lip of the city. Wounded from the collapse of his housing unit, the boy's arms were tragically amputated; Quick thinking and good luck, however, saved his life. Shortly thereafter, he was outfitted with makeshift prosthetics, allowing him to at least somewhat participate in the survivors' attempts at rebuilding.

Now, that's the spot where Original Gray and Lancer Gray diverge; in LANCER, the very young Gray goes on to explore and adventure in the wreckage of his city, and eventually comes across the entombed chassis of a long-forgotten mech. He climbs up to meet it- and makes contact with the cascading mind of a very, very old NHP.

See, my take on NHPs' "perspectives", and how those can be translated into human/anthropocentric analogies, is sort of convoluted and it would honestly require a post of my own (which I would love to make, if given the time and motivation)- but the important thing about how TR-GRAE (or, at least, the nonhuman mind it was founded on) in specific works is that a willing, malleable, and open (y'know, like a child's) human mind was the perfect means for it to ground and voluntarily shackle itself.

Obviously, gray doesn't remember this. He doesn't remember much of his history at all.

No, Gray remembers emerging on Carina, well into his teens, having been "adopted" by a Northstar campus outreach/scholarship program based on engineering prowess he thinks that he always had. He doesn't remember how, or when, but he had built a casket for the mind that he discovered, and had come to regard the entity- the person- within like family. Gray and TR-GRAE (named for the chassis he was discovered in and the subsequent role he filled in their community, "Terran Recovery - Ground Rescue and Excavation") understand eachother on a frightening level, even without implant intervention (though Gray has a lot of implants installed for his and his copilot's convenience). They don't need to speak to know what the other is thinking, or needs, or even knows. Of course, there are several divides, and the fact that TR-GRAE knows what Gray knows, but not vice versa—

Anyways, Gray has been in IPS-N "custody" for ~8 years? He was 8 when the city collapsed, 10 when they picked him up, and he's 19 now. Ra's sake, he's young—

I hoped you paid attention, this will be on your test.

[ace-disgrace-on-the-case]

Testing Log, FREYJA-class NHP

Smith-Shimano Corpro

Warn: Class-05 clearance required. Confirm clearance:

*************

**********

. . .

. . .

Welcome. Disabling anti-cognitive memetics.

> Access log. Playback.

. . .

. . .

02/22

Prime subjectivity has been dubbed FREYJA. Dr. ### felt it appropriate. Demonstrates remarkable pre-cognitive abilities, far in excess of ATHENA-class predictive power. Worth further study.

02/24

ExMat now heading FREYJA project as per mgmt orders. New supervisor lacks caution; Drs. ### and ### got into verbal altercations with them.

FREYJA demonstrates a concerningly unstable personality. Has repeatedly requested to be allowed to leave; these requests have been denied.

02/25

Incident involving FREYJA. Several researchers injured following an esape attempt, in which FREYJA attempted to hijack automated security system. Airgaps have been installed to prevent further incident.

03/14

Data from initial round of FREYJA testing has proven bountiful. Dr. ### suggested we combine the findings with existing neural bridging technology and precog engine as installed in Death’s Head line. New mechanized frame has been proposed to house this combined system.

03/15

New frame is to be based on Metalmark line. ExMat suggests additional paracausal elements; cooler heads have prevailed and the engine is to be kept mundane where possible.

03/18

Prototype F-type Metalmark has been constructed and initial tests are undergoing. Power fluctuations make consistent operation of the system incredibly difficult.

03/19

Test pilots complain of nausea, a sense of deja vu after sorties in F-type. Dr. ### has been assigned to investigate.

03/21

FREYJA prime determined to be unfit for chassis integration. Power draw of casket remains in excess of coldcore supply, 154% higher than predicted. ExMat called in specialists for the cloning process; we aim to create a clone more suitable.

04/10

Alpha-line of FREYJA clones in testing. Demonstrate remarkable similarities to prime’s temperament; ExMat concerned by this.

04/25

Beta-line of FREYJA clones in testing. Show promising results.

04/30

Beta-line shows dangerous unshackling risk in excess of safe levels. ExMat pushed to move forward; Dr. ### loudly disagreed. Has been reassigned but opinion has shifted. New line will be tested.

06/24

Lines Gamma and Delta show overly morose personalities. ExMat not satisfied.

Pilots are still reporting increased disorientation and difficulties with mental temporal framework after cockpit time.

08/02

Theta line under testing. ExMat assures us this line shows a temperament suitable for copilot integration.

One unit, however, shows concerning degree of deviation from norm. Corrective measures are to be determined; too much money has been sunk to scuttle prototype.

###[REMAINING LOG EXPUNGED BY ORDER OF MGMT.]###

[bingobongobonko]

wip but something really wrong with him. however i think he should be allowed to all things considered

[ips-northstar-official]

Hiya, UNCLE! It's Angel.

How goes it over at IPS-N Headquarters (or wherever they've got you based nowadays)? Any luck on acquiring that Caliban you and Intern have been talking about? Or, if that hasn't gone through yet, any luck on getting a body in general, physical or otherwise? (I know SCC and HORUS do holographic projections for their NHPs sometimes, no clue what kinda tech IPS-N has for such purposes.)

Oh, and hello to the Intern as well! From what I hear you've been a big help in UNCLE's recalibration process post-cascade, still no clue how that happened but I'm glad to hear he's settled in so well.

A piece of news both of you should know - my squad will be heading out on deployment to the Long Rim soon (something about the Dawnline Shore, these days it's almost guaranteed to be DS related if MSMC is sending you to the Rim). Anything I should know before my squad takes off?

-- Angel

Hi! Intern here first, I’ll pass the post over to Uncle in a minute. Um, Uncle cascading into an NHP was kinda my fault actually. As it turns out plugging an already unstable Comp-Con directly into an old Omninode was, uh—not my best idea! Who’d’ve guessed that?

He’s been a good sport about it though. And we finally got his “casket” out of the Omninode!

Unofficially, I hope I got them distracted enough to say it, yeah he’s been piloting a Caliban for a while now. I got it through back channels and it’s technically unlicensed—I have friends in all sorts of places! :D

Also don’t tell him but yeah we’re putting the finishing touches on a subaltern body for him now. Hopefully it’s gonna be a surprise!

—the Intern

[officialunionhr]

//////////////////////

[incoming Omninet call from: Haven Primus..

Location: Discordia system..

Caller ID: Steven C. Gizmore......

Lancer Callsign: NITROS ZEUSZ Lv:12

Patching through . . . . . . .

//////////////////////

Hey so I’m out here on a contract for Union and I had a question for you guys.

So I was helping move a shit ton of equipment and research materials for one of your research sites. Apparently the site was unstable due to a “para-causal disaster” and we were moving some of the more “fragile” items out when we were attacked by “Dark horizons”. A Horus terroist cell who while unable to actaully steal anything. Managed to damage a casket holding an unstable NHP.

And now I’m starring at a giant ass baby centipede mech thing that is having a game of checkers with one of the other pilots. And if we don’t let it win then it’s gonna start crying again. And me personally. I really don’t want dead prophets giving me ominous warnings through rotted lips again.

So what do I do in this situation? Shoot it? Placate it?Read it goodnight moon? Introduce it to poker? I’m not really sure what to do so if you could answer soon that would be very much appreciated.

Im pretty sure it’s mashing to of the Horizon members hobgoblins chassises together.

/////////////////

[Communication Terminated]

/////////////////

Hello!

Thank you for contacting the DOJ/HR post haste, however what you are describing sounds most accurately like an Eidolon or post-cascade NHP.

I would redirect all inquiries to the @nhpregulatory-official as they are far more specialized in this topic than i am.

I would however recommend keeping it content until such time as you can receive proper advice on how to contain them.

Signed: [REDACTED]