Wild Light / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page Wild Light.

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qntm 09 Dec 2019 22:00

Immense thanks to user Rimple for editorial services on this chapter, and to TheMightyMcB for the same. Hat tips to The_Ethicist and HisShad0w for their brief feedback on the draft.

Apologies for the immense delay. All things considered, this was a fairly straightforward chapter to write, the main cause of the delay was that ten percent of the way through I decided to read Don Quixote. Apologies also that this is yet another flashback chapter. I figured that the moment when Bart Hughes was consigned to the bunker was an interesting thing to explore.

This was on a knife edge between being called "Wild Light" and "The Wild Light". Another possible title was "The Contagious Murder of Bartholomew Hughes".

I estimate that there are roughly two chapters of Five Five Five Five Five remaining.

Last edited on 10 Dec 2019 11:24 by qntm Show more

The_Ethicist 17 Dec 2019 20:49

What is the meaning of Wild Light's title?

qntm 17 Dec 2019 22:42

"Wild Light" is a codename for the hypothetical countermeme which can defeat SCP-3125.

The_Ethicist 18 Dec 2019 02:59

Thank you

(account deleted) 09 Dec 2019 22:39

Another brilliant piece as usual. 100% worth the wait.

Freezeflare 10 Dec 2019 00:30

this terrified me as I read it. I think I actually started to shake in fear/anticipation … the sheer horror of 3125 is described /wonderfully/ even though it's literally indescribable. The tension at "a jumpscare in text form", and its subsequent escalation through "You say the same thing every time" and "nuke the entire world" is beautiful.

Is Hughes truly dead? or is this question intentionally left unanswered?

qntm 10 Dec 2019 00:38

To. Be. Continued.

xplkqlkcassia 12 Dec 2019 22:16

my reading was that he was mentally copied onto the germ, it seemed fairly unambiguous

qntm 15 Dec 2019 00:28

But did the germ survive the destruction of Site 167?

Dr_P35 28 Dec 2019 19:59

Maybe just a bit? Thou 3125 is already nomming him.

WinterShadow 10 Dec 2019 01:22

Phenomenal as always and absolutely worth the wait. Near-instant +1, keep on doing your thing with friendly facehugger Bart Hughes.

catalinacobalt 10 Dec 2019 01:51

Man, what a rollercoaster of emotion. This elicited a very physical reaction from me the whole way through. Can't wait for the continuation. +1

UnnaHuz 10 Dec 2019 03:09

Finally the work comes.

What a wonderful piece of story: after the peak at Case Hate Red, I finally see another exciting climax of 5-5-5-5-5!

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A question: how can I interpret the word “wild” in the title? Does that mean “crazy” in some ways?

Last edited on 10 Dec 2019 08:31 by UnnaHuz Show more

qntm 15 Dec 2019 00:29

The "wild light" is the countermeme Hughes is about to attempt to build/describe/isolate. I think in this context "wild" mostly means "uncontrollable".

A Random Day 10 Dec 2019 06:10

3125 is one of the most wonderfully implacable and omnipresent villains on the site. Far from being a barrel of radoactive waste, it's a T-1000 in an elementary school playground — and the most devilish thing of all is that we have never actually gotten a glimpse of it.

Last edited on 10 Dec 2019 06:10 by A Random Day Show more

abstruse 10 Dec 2019 09:20

Gloriously unnerving. Thank you.

stormbreath 10 Dec 2019 10:41

If the unit is a hermetically sealed Vegas Room, how does O5-8's transformer hear the gunshots? Shouldn't it be sound-proofed? Further, couldn't they try to use loud sounds to call off the security if sound gets through?

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can I get some nice "no signatures on my forum"
sigma-9 css machine broke
understandable have a nice day

aismallard 10 Dec 2019 16:51

Maybe something about the protective ward activating? Though presumably there aren't any known communication methods which can escape the hermetic seal.

genericdm 10 Dec 2019 21:33

A gunshot may be able to make it through even a hermetically sealed door if it's loud enough, but voices (even if you can tell there's something being said) might not be recognizable enough for vocal recognition or for keywords to be audible.
At least, that's my view.

qntm 15 Dec 2019 00:32

Correct. Events were moving rather too quickly for O5-8 and Wheeler to make this clear in dialogue, but they both understood one another. A gunshot — sure. O5-8 yelling — there is no way the limo is going to hear that until the door is open.

It's also an outside possibility that the skull is not truly hermetically sealed, but what exactly happened inside the skull in this chapter is intentionally unclear.

FaustoV 10 Dec 2019 13:44

Shit, you posted it and I lost my chance. Oh well, a few things to consider:

- Regarding the germs, I gather they work the same as if you swapped a computer's harddrive manually and took control of the body meanwhile. In that case, why would Wheeler utilize a chemical amnestic if the germ is there as a countermeasure? Wheeler and O8's actual brain have been dormant all this time, and it would make far more sense, if the point is to keep their germs relatively clean from 3125's influence so they can have that added layer of security, to amnesticize them directly and not injecting Wheeler and O8 on the wrist. Also, what are the odds such a human-use amnestic would work the same on a pseudo brain designed to simulate other brain models? Perhaps I'm second-guessing myself way too much at this point.

- I know you're done with Ará Orún but why did Bart Hughes didn't ascend? Was it because there was still a living, organic copy of his brain functions tying his conciousness to our plane? Moreover, Gurmes™ had been very directly exposed to 3125 concepts. I've no idea how he's gonna survive if the bomb's already inside of you.

Overall, it's great. You keep raising the stakes more and more, and Gurmes is a thing now.

Last edited on 10 Dec 2019 13:47 by FaustoV Show more

mavant 10 Dec 2019 16:43

Yeah, the implication that the germs don't trigger 3125 attacks is pretty interesting. How DOES that work…

aismallard 10 Dec 2019 16:53

They did trigger the attacks, the germs are described as changing color and bulging as the idea is infecting them. They just had more time since they were inside the SCP-2256 skull.

Wheeler and O5-8

David Dyer 12 Dec 2019 16:16

They don't know much about the properties of 3125, but they at least know that they themselves at some point decided the germs weren't enough, and since the Vegas room had been compromised, the amnestic was the next best thing.

Plus, Wheeler is a brilliant memeticist who knows her own abilities. If she put on the germ, and suddenly found herself two hours later, holding a dead germ and standing in the ruins of an anti-memetic containment unit, there's every chance she would put the pieces together and rediscover 3125 on the spot. Having an amnestic in her blood is a prophylactic against that possibility.

Re: Wheeler and O5-8

FaustoV 13 Dec 2019 03:11

Wheeler's main fleshbrain is dormant, and the intention was to erase their memories while the germ was still active. Yet, the fact that she was worried over sharing the amnestic dosis is very explicit; let alone half a dose for 2 brains. it doesn't make sense.

qntm 15 Dec 2019 00:43

The germs have some kind of natural resistance to SCP-3125 — it's something to do with their highly alien brain structure. We see this in Bart Hughes apparently still being able to think (albeit with difficulty), and the fact that O5-8 and Wheeler were not immediately taken over and in fact (as we know from prior chapters) escaped essentially mentally intact.

I think you're right, actually it would have made more sense if Wheeler had injected the germs with amnestic, not herself and O5-8. Good catch there. It might be a bit too late to change this detail but I will think about it. But on the other hand, yeah, maybe the biologies are incompatible. It doesn't change the basic premise of Wheeler's plan, which is to get herself and O5-8 to the escape pod and then discard the germs as they eject.

Hughes didn't ascend because he was able to move most/all of his consciousness into the germ and escape. Ascension is a complicated and not entirely deterministic science though.

Germs, by the way, are not a thing now — the entire stock was on Site 167, and wiped out.

pronte 16 Feb 2022 18:24

Very late to the party, but a possible reading is:

1) Wheeler and O5-8 don't inject the germs because they have no idea if the drug would work on them, and no idea how to go about it, the situation is dire, there is no time, and the best they can do is following procedure, so that check out

2) they "get lucky": as the germ interfaces with their minds, it could be reasonable that the amnestic they inject themselves with has some effect on the germ

which makes the chapter quite consistent as-is

…in any case, amazing work as always!

I thought the whole "oh this happened before and we're rediscovering it" would get old, but the mastery with which you make us stumble upon it makes it feel like a cold shower every time

Dr_P35 28 Dec 2019 20:03

Maybe Nobody remembers Bart and survives 3125 aT the same time.

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