-
Info
SCP-CN-3000: Eternal Glory to All Nodes
Authors:DouglasLiu feat.
DrStse, Author's Page here
Translators:vxeov and
Sazanami
All character avatars are drawn by
The image of Mt. Qomolangma Broadcasting Node is created by Stse and Doug; the main part is made with Blender by Doug.
All other materials (icons, font for eigenvectors) are made by Doug.
Greetings, traveler. Welcome to the Memorial Hall of the Eastern Land Nodal Matrix.
We have compiled this file for your reading using the internal archives generously offered by the Eastern Land Command of SCP Foundation. As the current management organization of the Eastern Land Nodal Matrix, the Foundation's internal materials are undoubtedly informative and priceless, unveiling a great portion of all those hardships and sacrifices that went into the establishment of the Nodal Matrix. We wish you a rewarding reading experience.
Although we have endeavored to adapt the file to as many different models of reading terminals as possible, considering the sheer number of terminals available, parameters may not be optimized for some of the models. For your best reading experience, we recommend you read this file with a wide-screen terminal and try to update it to the latest version. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Eternal glory to all Nodes.
SCP-CN-3000
Broadcasting Node, Mount Qomolangma (Mt. Everest), Vacuole QM-LM
Object Class: Thaumiel
Special Containment Procedures: The Nodal Matrix is at present administered by the Eastern Land Command of SCP Foundation plus the fourteen Chiefs of Node. Node No. 15, located at Vacuole QM-LM, is to maintain surveillance of the current status of the Nodal Matrix and semantical flow rate, in the meantime broadcasting public keys of Nodes throughout the entirety of Eastern Land. The rest of the Nodes are to continue performing their duties of upholding semantical flows within territories of the Land.
All research regarding non-matters, rarusium and semantical flow that took place during the time of establishment of the Nodal Matrix has been archived. For the purpose of boosting the research progress, with approval from the Overseer Council, eligible third-party research organizations are permitted to request access to the documents of Nodal Matrix-related technology from the repository of the Eastern Land Command of SCP Foundation. Said organizations are required to regularly report their progress to the Eastern Land Command of SCP Foundation.
Selection and probation of new Nodes in non-Node vacuoles are encouraged.
Description: SCP-CN-3000 refers to an anomalous technology that is currently the only measure to effectively mitigate the litura diluviorum effect and achieve complete communication of semantical flow in the thick of non-matters.
Effective comprehension in non-matter and rarusium has not yet been claimed by academics, thus the concrete nature of SCP-CN-3000 remains unexplained. Due to the differences in physical properties caused by non-matters amongst vacuoles, the eigenvectors required to establish a Node in each vacuoles are variable, without apparent patterns, and generally contrary to common scientific beliefs of the consensus reality. For this reason, SCP-CN-3000 is still classified as an anomaly at present, although on the practical level, the use of rarusium for finding valid eigenvectors has been extensively implemented within the fourteen Nodes in the Eastern Land. The key technical practices for establishing a Node are as follows:
- Find certain eigenvector with the aid of rarusium precipitated from non-matters so that when a semantical flow holding this eigenvector traverses through non-matters from a specific angle (normally in the direction of another Node), the occurrence rate of litura diluviorum is no higher than 0.00001%.
- With rarusium leading the way, candidate of Node attains the valid eigenvector and broadcasts it (namely, the new public key of Node) in the form of semantical flows, consequently causing the candidate to become a Node.
- Upon accepting the public key of Node, nearby semantical flows can subsequently traverse backward through non-matters unharmed and reach the Node for transmitting public key.
- All Nodes link to one another, forming a Nodal Matrix, hence realizes free transmission of semantical flows on a global level.
Since the principle of the anomaly is unexplained, the current Node Matrix technology still relies on candidates of Node in each vacuole to search for the correct eigenvectors on and of their own. The Eastern Land Command of SCP Foundation herein express their appreciation for the dedications and sacrifices of the fourteen Chiefs of Node.
ADDENDUM I - LIST OF NODES WITHIN THE CURRENT NODAL MATRIX
Chief of Node No. 1
Xia Lan
Vacuole Designation
CR-KV
Node Codename
GLOW
Public Key
[539FCYRPHGB9VQG1SUI7SHMW0RX8K9]
Chief of Node No. 2
Kong Chengqi
Vacuole Designation
H5-BM
Node Codename
SPIKE
Public Key
[AZLSXDLVV3D2JYEUN3MOLS6T8SARV5]
Chief of Node No. 3
Shu Yongmo
Vacuole Designation
DV-S8
Node Codename
ANTHEM
Public Key
[FY1XWPSIY20G02SSY18GM0QF79SCWY]
Chief of Node No. 4
He Sanlei
Vacuole Designation
1K-ZZ
Node Codename
ETHANOL
Public Key
[J3CYQGQL8N58JZFX2IILGHDA9YBY2M]
Chief of Node No. 5
Shi Hengxin
Vacuole Designation
IL-G2
Node Codename
HEARTLESS
Public Key
[Y948GWELRDMAZD7VPFQ3SS8JUTPI61]
Chief of Node No. 6
Gao Miao
Vacuole Designation
AQ-9S
Node Codename
REFLECTION
Public Key
[RUGNSY927ZYG98V19H17KD1NVER7OE]
Chief of Node No. 7
An Ji
Vacuole Designation
VL-13
Node Codename
EARTH
Public Key
[FEKNT8SVUZSRSYSZ2G23ASTOVSRTHX]
Chief of Node No. 8
Zang Fen
Vacuole Designation
C0-BK
Node Codename
FIREWALL
Public Key
[D2SKD226JCLOAPEG7VQQP80M84XXZ4]
Chief of Node No. 9
Shan Yiyu
Vacuole Designation
RW-55
Node Codename
RESONANCE
Public Key
[ZNME1AGODP37ZBB6LDNQRZB06NDNJ9]
Chief of Node No. 10
Gegeen Tuyaa
Vacuole Designation
X0-BA
Node Codename
SUNHUNT
Public Key
[CHN2VTBCEUJX7ZY97KR75G13KT0UEZ]
Chief of Node No. 11
Wan Zhang
Vacuole Designation
OI-IO
Node Codename
RECURSION
Public Key
[AAA4A0W71K709H76E56ZY52AONWC8W]
Chief of Node No. 12
Xiang
Vacuole Designation
N0-FS
Node Codename
NEVERLAND
Public Key
[AEMZB344C9T8S6G002APPUVC6RJ551]
Chief of Node No. 13
Igor Kamenev
Vacuole Designation
TM-A4
Node Codename
CHRONOS
Public Key
[55LHUQHNXCXINCJPGDVL9KES5NAOLH]
Chief of Node No. 14
Ke Zeyan
Vacuole Designation
TK-3N
Node Codename
FILTER
Public Key
[L26WWGIJUVVBPCWENO2O1KT7F6TQWP]
Chief of Node No. 15
Basang Drolma
Vacuole Designation
QM-LM
Node Codename
BROADCAST
Public Key
N/A
ADDENDUM II - ARCHIVED RECORDS
Vacuole Designation: N/A
Sender: Interstellar Civilization Envoy from "Alpha Centauri"
Eigenvector: N/A
To the civilization in the faraway "Pangaea" Stellar System:
I fear this might be the last semantical flow transmission between your civilization and mine. Non-matters have come upon you, towering in front of your stellar system. We have done our utmost, but still, your civilization's fate of falling into non-matter is too late to be altered no matter taking what unprecedented and miraculous idea the scientific geniuses of yours or ours can project. Our communication has invariably been genuine and ardent since the first correspondence shortly forty-seven standard years ago. On behalf of my civilization, I would like to say that we are more than grateful for our meeting in the stars.
We believe you have made full preparations for this final moment. Your organization specialized in anomalous technology research is surely erudite and has made great achievements by which we are dwarfed. Your understanding of semantical flow is perfected within the premise of being outside non-matters, and the entirety of your civilization is unified and ready to brace for such matters as well. Your eyes shine with resplendent golden lights which can be seen even from the other side of the galaxy. None can predict what would life inside non-matters be like. Nevertheless, we have faith that you can get across the road however rugged lies ahead.
We will continue to observe the "Pangaea" Stellar System and preserve the entirety of communication materials between mine and your civilization. If possible, we hope for a reunion after you leave the non-matter barrier. What a pity it is that all predictions by far give more than four thousand years for you to traverse, which is far beyond the total sum of the time our modern civilizations have existed, therefore both you and I are not able to tell what path our civilizations will take by then. Notwithstanding everything, on behalf of my civilization, I sincerely wish we could meet again in the stars.
Best wishes, and farewell.
In the year 3000 of Old Calander, the Earth was officially submerged into an area of non-matters within the Milky Way Galaxy. A new normalcy has begun since; non-matters split our world into countless vacuoles and applied litura diluviorum to all semantical flows in between. From that time on, human civilization has been divided into solitary islands with no outside companions. This is exactly what the "Alpha Centauri" civilization had warned us upon the first contact, and it is a fate that even decades of joint efforts of two civilizations could not change.
However, without the genuine help from the "Alpha Centauri" civilization, we would not have been able to transition into non-matters and the new normalcy in such smooth progress. Our lives were decent and peaceful enough, despite the chaos and panic took place at the beginning of this new era. Human civilization could have met a fate far worse without the aid from a friend 4.37 light years away.
We the SCP Foundation hereby would like to appreciate the great contributions of the "Alpha Centauri" civilization. The most optimistic prediction at present shows that we still need 2952 standard years to leave the non-matter area. We have no idea whether our civilization can still exist by then, however, it is comforting to know that there is still a friend watching us from beyond the stars unreachable by semantical flows.
Vacuole Designation: A3-KT
Sender: Xiao Xiangming, broadcaster
Eigenvector: [NT3AUBNN7D2EU424IU9E]
Today we received a semantic flow broadcast believed to be from Vacuole A3-KA, with a litura diluviorum rate of 98.24%. Analyses barely gave us the following message:
"To [litura diluviorum] the broadcast [litura diluviorum] 3-KA, [litura diluviorum]'s food [litura diluviorum]-cient, but with huge problems of basic me-[litura diluviorum]. Currently the vacuole contains two [litura diluviorum] long-term repairing i-[litura diluviorum] how long, if it continues for [litura diluviorum] problem. We hope vacuoles with [litura diluviorum]-ed can help us [litura diluviorum]-dle. We [litura diluviorum] tons of sil-[litura diluviorum]0 tons [litura diluviorum]-ium. We aren't [litura diluviorum]-ergency status for now, so under [litura diluviorum] transportation can go on, but we still hope that it can [litura diluviorum]-rged, all is well. Following is the replay of this message —"
We assume Vacuole A3-KA requires a supplement of basic metals, but the exact amounts are lost due to litura diluviorum, and we have no idea how is the urgency of their situation. Anyway, we have enough storage of basic metals in our vacuole to bear the risk of litura diluviorum during the logistics. It's rightful of us to think about the worst scenario for our fellows and give them a helping hand in time.
We'll observe the non-matter environment of the next three standard months and transport 50 tons of each kind of basic metals to Vacuole A3-KA through semantical flow transportation, even if it was just a worry for nothing. We hope Vacuole A3-KA can be well and get through its troubles.
Vacuole Designation: 5D-19
Sender: Tian Yiqiu, broadcaster
Eigenvector: [Z0TD9G7965KFUO5XCWZ9]
All residents of the vacuole, ATTENTION! All residents of the vacuole, ATTENTION! High-density non-matter surges have emerged at the periphery of our current vacuole. Please immediately keep out from the edge for at least 400 meters. Tactical Response Forces of the Eastern Land Command of SCP Foundation have been deployed to the danger zones. If you live near the edge, please follow the orders and evacuate!
Latest prediction shows an extremely high chance of continuous non-matter surge in the following four weeks, so do not get close to places near the edge of the vacuole unless necessary. If you are caught in danger, please contact the local quarter of the Eastern Land Command of SCP Foundation at once.
Vacuole Designation: AW-9M
Sender: Zhang Zhen, broadcaster
Eigenvector: [VSJSFQ7298D8OT81CU7H]
The latest estimation of non-matter situation shows that the non-matter density surrounding our vacuole is likely to drop to 1100И/m⁴ in the following week, and there may be two to three windows available for semantical flow transmission. The current plan is as follows:
- The object vacuoles are AW-7Y, AW-AU and AW-I2.
- We have 208 files waiting to be transmitted, all archived and collated. If you have urgent messages to dispatch, please contact the broadcasting station as soon as you can.
- We also have about three tons of vegetables, including tomato, carrot, zucchini and maize, to send out to Vacuole AW-12 which seems to be suffering from food shortage. Since all replies from that vacuole are unrecognizable because of litura diluviorum, the Committee of Vacuole has decided to continue to aid them without considering the maximum limit.
Yesterday we had a routine test of semantical flow transmission with a nearby vacuole, AW-9U. In the end, we received around 5g of carbon and 2g of glucose. Compared to the scheduled 400g of carbon and 200g of glucose, we can calculate: the litura diluviorum rate this time is higher than 98%, provided AW-9U didn't misinterpret the meaning of our message. But as said before, we expect the situation to be alleviated in the next week and the litura diluviorum rate to drop to a number we can afford.
Meanwhile, it's worth noting that we also received about 12g of unknown metal from the semantical flow. They're generally attached to the surface of other objects with an appearance similar to gold, but unusual and bizarre in texture and luster. Field researchers from the SCP Foundation have stepped in the investigation.
Finally, unfortunate news to our listeners: according to records recovered from nearby closed-circuit television, we confirmed that Qiu Fan, a 15-year-old teenager previously deemed as missing, had stumbled into non-matters surrounding our vacuole alone and is believed to be lost in litura diluviorum. By the will of his family, we're no longer broadcasting information relating to this accident. Here, we wish all residents of the vacuole a safe and sound life.
See you next time.
Before the constitution of the Nodal Matrix, all transmission of semantical flows was incredibly difficult with the blockage of non-matters. Under our management, most of the vacuoles follow the same policy: maintain monitoring of non-matter conditions surrounding the vacuole and regularly conduct semantical flow broadcasting to the outside. The density of non-matter wrapping our planet has so far not changed much, in fact, and the litura diluviorum rate of semantical flows is stable at an average of above 95%. As one can imagine, semantical flow broadcasting during that period was almost merely a thing of luck: we could only pray that through constant high-intensity transmission attempts, a negligible portion of words, fragments of good wishes and assistance would be able to withstand the corruption of non-matters and reach the target vacuole.
Sometimes by miracle, we could successfully transmit a considerable amount of semantical flows — even those as complex as an individual human being — within a ridiculously narrow time window, to the target vacuole with no large losses. It was a dark age, a difficult time, but there were still a considerable number of people who risked their lives against litura diluviorum to deliver messages to various vacuoles. Though such opportunities were as sparse as dust in the air, it was through such trivial communications that we began to see the light of hope.
But what is most important, of course, is that we discovered an unidentified metal precipitated from non-matters which are known to us today as: rarusium.
Vacuole Designation: IN-SC
Sender: Unknown sender
Eigenvector: N/A
<BEGIN LOG>
Male: AIC, what's the density of non-matters around here?
brief electrical noises.
AIC: The estimated value is around 1482.472И/m⁴, 1.9% less than yesterday's value, but still extremely high. The possibility of any semantical flow entering non-matters of such density to be in litura diluviorum will surpass 98.5% after about 32s.
Male: What about the next few days?
AIC: I estimated that it will drop to around 1250И/m⁴ in the next week, but will rise to above 1600И/m⁴ afterward. I expect the non-matter density near the local vacuole will not go under 1000И/m⁴ in the next five to ten years, even with the most optimistic calculation.
short silence.
AIC: It seems to be necessary to remind you that all models in my storage for predicting non-matter density are far from optimal, and the accuracy of long-time estimation is less than 55%, which in a more general sense is "only slightly better than flipping a coin". In the field of non-matters, no model can predict if things unexpected will happen in the future.
Male: It's fine. We can't rely on miracles to do research. (pause) I've made up my mind. AIC, begin preparation.
AIC: Understood.
brief electrical noises.
Male: AIC, describe what you see.
AIC: I see a young man in front of me, that is you. Your right hand is holding a piece of unidentified metal, burning with golden flame, and the flame is spreading upward from your fingers to your arm. But I have not detected any damage, nor any pain, fear or discomfort shown on your body. Now the flame has completely engulfed you, but you are still standing on the ground in a peaceful posture. Being inside the golden flame, your appearance did not change to any extent; your skin did not blacken and crack; your muscles did not burn and crumble as if the flame were just an image layer linearly stacked upon you. This is an anomalous case.
Male: That's right, it's indeed an anomaly. (pause) It doesn't hurt at all. Hey, I knew I was right.
AIC: Does this mean the success of your experiment?
Male: Not at all. The experiment has just begun. Where's the nearest vacuole from here?
brief electrical noises.
AIC: Vacuole IN-SA, with an absolute space vectorial value … 73.16 … 10.39 … 65.76 … 14.69 … Sending it to your portable terminal … Done.
Male: I see it. I shall set off then … Go through the non-matters, reach IN-SA, and come back. If I really make it … (deep breath) do you know what that means?
AIC: It means that you have found a way to spike through non-matters.
Male: It means humans have found a way to spike through non-matters.
brief electrical noises.
AIC: Collected data do not support this deduction. According to past experiment logs, the method at hand — suppose it succeeds — will only be applicable to you. You have tried 573 times before, and it is already confirmed that the anomalous metal precipitated from non-matters behaves rather differently to different people.
Male: I know, AIC, I know … So I must experiment and confirm it by myself, in person. (pause) And I believe I am right.
short silence.
Male: I wonder, though, AIC, before setting out. (pause) What's the chance for other people … anyone from other vacuoles, to try it out like me after they also find out this method?
AIC: I do not have sufficient data to activate models to fit the situation.
Male: Guess, then.
AIC: Understood, beginning simulated calculation based on hypothetical logic with unknown accuracy … Your method requires an understanding of the properties of the anomalous metal, and the researcher needs to conduct prolonged trial and exploration based completely on personal characteristics, meanwhile the process is full of difficulties and uncertain conditions … The calculated result is that the possibility of a single human entity successfully using this method to spike through non-matters … is less than 0.1%.
Male: So that's the case … Then the chance for all people in our civilization to get in touch with one another again is …
AIC: To calculate this possibility accurately, I need to use sociological models to simulate millions of human beings' behavior, which requires a massive amount of process time. If we do this more simply, that is, to consider each entity's success as mathematically independent events and multiply the chance by itself millions of times, the possibility of human civilization reconnecting together is close to zero.
Male: … One can deem it as impossible. It would truly be a miracle if it happened.
AIC: Yes, it is legitimate to call it a miracle.
Male: But is successfully spiking through non-matters … really an independent event?
AIC: I am not sure about it. I need to utilize sociological models to conduct simulated calculations.
Male: You said that requires a lot of runtime. How much, exactly?
AIC: I am not sure.
Male: … I see. Nevertheless, do the math for me, AIC. I kinda want to know the result.
AIC: I observed that the flame on you has changed; it wiggles more intensely than before. Do you want to wait for the result here?
Male: … Hmgh, it's a little hot here. (pause) I'd better set off. You start your calculation now and I'll see the result when I'm back.
AIC: Understood. Simulation will begin soon.
Male: I'm leaving, AIC. Bid me godspeed, will you?
AIC: Godspeed.
<END LOG>
This is the earliest known record of the finding of eigenvector. To the best of our belief, this audio log describes an anonymous person who reached his eigenvector which allowed him to traverse non-matters using the method of burning rarusium, that is, burning himself. It was two standard years ahead of the Foundation that this anonymous person living in Vacuole IN-SC found the relationship between rarusium and eigenvector, which is truly an astonishing deed.
Unfortunately, we may never know the name of this comrade because his vacuole was out of the Foundation's administration at a time when the Nodal Matrix was not yet established, when the novel normalcy was just born, when organizations were not mature enough to orderly manage everything. These vacuoles were fairly common, and the distances between them were destined to become greater and greater with the increasingly wider barriers of non-matters. They were sparsely populated, and the vast majority of them had died early in silence before we got to construct the Nodal Matrix, so early that when we finally stepped onto their lands, there was little evidence of people living. Vacuole IN-SC was not an exception.
More regrettable is that we found our nameless comrade did not succeed; he did not show up in Vacuole IN-SA. Perhaps he burned himself out inside non-matters before he could reach his destination, or perhaps the eigenvecter he found was not accurate enough for him to not be drowned in litura diluviorum the moment he set out. His whereabouts are beyond our ken. When we arrived in Vacuole IN-SC, what we could find was merely an AIC device that had been conducting simulated calculations for nearly ten standard years; by the time we found it, no result was given.
Two years after the journey of our nameless comrade, more than ten researchers individually found the relationship between rarusium and eigenvector. Humanity started fathoming the way to send intact semantical flows through non-matters, hence the wheel of destiny began to spin.
Vacuole Designation: Y6-M3
Sender: Yang Jianian, Junior Researcher
Eigenvertor: [JXSK1SD8GLCOAFWKHQI6]
What an odd material … like gold, but isn't gold, with a form that never seems to stop changing. It can be as soft as mercury, or as hard as diamond; brown lines or shining fractures can show up upon it, even with patterns deep or flush, sometimes like a painting from some ancient civilization, sometimes like a fingerprint of a potter … It all depends on what semantical flow it touches. Hand it to a thousand people, and you will get a thousand kinds of patterns.
However, no matter how many times we put it on the same rock, its reaction wouldn't change in the slightest way. But it does show differences upon contact with human beings … we ourselves are like this metal, changing on the outside but not the inside, bearing differences not in the general aspect, but in details of how to react to others … Why is that?
What a rare and strange metal. I suggest we name it "rarusium" after the Latin for "rare", shall we?
Vacuole Designation: CH-21
Sender: Li Xiwen, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: [DK732MRODP58LG1PQVJJ]
The metal is revealing to us properties of semantical flows that we have never thought of, specifically properties about non-matter and its relationship with litura diluviorum. Certain semantical flows are more durable and have less chance of coming across litura diluviorum inside non-matters. Rarusium is telling us about that!
Maybe we can use it to choose what kind of semantical flows are more suitable for transmission through non-matters, find their characteristics, and utilize them for our benefit. This can only be done by a civilization operating inside the non-matters.
We need to broadcast this discovery to others, with our best efforts, to summon more vacuoles to join the research of this anomalous metal as soon as possible. After all, the SCP Foundation is born for researching unknown anomalies.
Vacuole Designation: FD-G9
Sender: Duan Wan, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: [KATKHL212GV8UEODVLDQ]
The reactions of rarusium to semantical flows are quantifiable. It's true that rarusium can have millions of different forms, but just like Fourier Transform can decompose a complex signal into limited frequencies, we can also find some fixed features from all those forms of rarusium. Our current calculation process is quite complicated, and I have no idea how to let others know it with a litura diluviorum rate above 95% … But I believe, any researcher of the SCP Foundation living in vacuoles is capable of discovering this independently.
What we're doing is not just a quantitative research of the forms of rarusium, but a quantitative research of the characteristics of semantical flows, since the forms of rarusium essentially represent what will happen when semantical flows go through non-matters. As the research continues, we shall eventually be able to extract a certain value from any semantical flow, from which we can pre-analyze what would happen when it goes through non-matters.
Such value may be called "eigenvector".
Vacuole Designation: H5-BM
Sender: Kong Chengqi, Fretting Goldsmith
Eigenvector: [BZ2A83S5F55EOGK281GX]
I'm just a smith. I don't give a crap about those anomaly research by SCP Foundation, but I know this stuff is very unusual, and for me, there can be no more perfect metal or material than it. I've never felt such a soft metal with my hands, almost like some kind of clay … no, not exactly, it can take my graver and hammer without breaking. I feel like it has a mind, a soul or something. Its softness or hardness is responding to all my expectations.
It's alive, man. In my eyes, it's alive.
How could such a thing happen … All my instincts became correct directly: mixing with appropriate carbon would make it hard, mixing with copper — appropriate amount of copper — would make it shiny, maxing with aluminum, with chromium … I'm still trying all kinds of formulas, but the process is … too smooth, you know. How so? How on Earth can such a docile metal exist? And not only that, the metal is exclusively owned by me, because it behaves in different ways on other researchers' hands. Is this somewhat a message from god?
It's a shame that the piece was too tiny … I got too few of these metals, I hadn't tried enough before they went out. I absolutely don't wanna get in the way of the Foundation, after all their research is also important, but I want more. I want more of these perfect metals. Maybe a kilogram? Two kilos? A hundred kilos? Don't know, I think I may never get enough of these.
The Guild of Fretting Goldsmiths has been expanding for some years, and to be fair, even if smiths today can compete with or even beat him in terms of techniques, few people have such a passionate heart as the founder of Guild, Master Kong Chengqi. His eyes always light up every time when we talk about rarusium. Perhaps only Pygmalion of ancient Greece can have the same feeling when he saw that piece of ivory. Rarusium is his Galatea.
Vacuole Designation: CR-KV
Sender: Xia Lan, Visiting Principal Investigator
Eigenvector: [P4WHR5I1JFKK9M060R5I]
I safely arrived in Vacuole CR-KV. The researchers there are very professional and have good control of the transmission window. Thanks to them, a sickly girl like me can go where I want without getting hurt in non-matters. I believe that I don't need to trouble them more for the foreseeable future. Best wishes to them.
The research team in Vacuole CR-KV is very enthusiastic, too. Hearing their introduction to the facility, I knew I didn't go to the wrong place. The anti-De Broglie waves here are indeed more active than in other vacuoles, and it's easier for me to observe microparticles as well, which are quite beneficial for the restart of my research of the Ninth Symmetry. If nothing else happens, this should be where I live the rest of my life.
I walked around their hadron collider today. It's big. So big. They really take advantage of their vacuole and make this place a dream for any researcher of anomalous physics. But there are two obvious problems, one is that there was some anomalous metal stuck on the interior components of the CMS Detector — something happened yesterday, I suppose — and they are working on it. They told me it was rarusium. I've heard of this name before, but it was the first time I actually saw it in person. It's clear that they are very nervous about it, but in my opinion, nothing can be too bad if they can do everything according to the plan, don't need to have compunction every time I come across a roadblock in research. They set too many restraints on themselves. Anyway, I need to familiarize myself with the environment first. There are many things to do before I officially start the experimentation.
The other problem is that I can see people following and silently watching me wherever I go. And they get quite nervous every time I use a radioactive apparatus … They're kind enough, I know they care about me, but this is downright unnecessary. Fibrosis can't be cured even after a thousand years in the Old Calander, so little progress can be made under such an environment, I'm afraid.
Vacuole Designation: X0-BA
Sender: Gegeen Tuyaa, Captain
Eigenvector: [1Y7UEE1VU3EMSUHM22E4]
Of all the vacuoles out there, our vacuole, X0-BA, is probably the brightest one literally. The elders in the vacuole always say: the day when non-matters arrived, they saw the sun high up in the sky breaking into ten orbs, then all fell into the vast forests on the north with non-matter billows consuming the horizon.
In theory, this should not be the case, because the sun was far from non-matters, and it was impossible for it to break into ten orbs and fall into our vacuole. But what happened is happened, and the west forests always shine dazzlingly with ten light beams shifting in the woods. They are brilliant, but not much heat comes from them for some reason, as if they were searchlights with legs that everyone can see on the watchtower. We don't know what exactly are those either, maybe some concrete thing symbolizing the light? … I can't give a better conclusion.
But no matter what we call them, those ten "suns" have brought us plenty of problems. The western forests became a forbidden area with abundant resources that can't be extracted. In addition, We have evidence that their anomalous cold lights is severely affecting the broadcasting of semantical flows from other vacuoles to ours. Litura diluviorum caused by non-matters is bad enough, and the ten suns make it even worse.
Vacuole Designation: DV-S8
Sender: Shu Yongmo, Lachrymose Chanter
Eigenvector: [UD1ROC1HAO4G0DBXPDO4]
I got the broadcast from Vacuole DV-SA and heard about the news: three infants passed away there because they were born with non-matters accompanying. What a tremendous tragedy. And currently, right in our vacuole, two more babies are sent to the intensive care unit for the same reason. That tiny piece of non-matter just sticks in their tender brains; brains that haven't got the chance to see the beauty of the world, so they are crying and weeping night after night. I'm not a physician, not trained to help them, but I sincerely wish that all residents in the vacuole can pray with me, pray for our two newborn souls so that they can weather the storm.
Most importantly, I would like to tell their parents to hold their hopes. Non-matter accompanied birth is not incurable, and your little lives can definitely get through it; I am the perfect example of this. I can feel that piece of non-matter sticking in my skull at this very moment, like a rock inside a snow globe, pummeling my thoughts at all times. But I survived, because my parents didn't give up; they raised me and let me become a strong person. The non-matter didn't stop me from composing my own story in this tiny vacuole, and it didn't hinder me from finding my voice is beautiful enough to make mom and dad proud.
Therefore, non-matter accompanying should not and will not be equal to death penalty for our kids. They will live on; I believe so, and I hope all of us can have the same faith as me. Our solidarity can make miracles!
Ms. Shu was right. Our faith in unity indeed created miracles. We survived and became Lachrymose Chanters, and under her guidance, our songs have resounded throughout the entire vacuole. If one says that every soul who survived the ravage of non-matter accompanying is a miracle, then Ms Shu Yongmo, the first ever Lachrymose Chanter, is the one true miracle of all miracles.
Vacuole Designation: 1K-ZZ
Sender: He Sanlei, winemaker
Eigenvector: [XECH2D07E6RDFJIA3NDV]
Drunkards from 1K-ZZ, listen up, I'm closin' the wine-selling business now. Two reasons: first, I hardly heard any genuine comments 'bout my wines; they're all blank and boring like tap water. Don't you blame it on non-matters, on litura dilu' or something, there's nothing blocking you and me, all words are clear! If you guys are the only people I can sell my work n' efforts to, who only want to grab some liquid and get a burning in your throat, then sorry, you'd better fuck off!
Sacrilege! You wasters, sacrilege!
Second, of course, my mom always tells me to find reason within myself in front of trouble. Her words are poisonous actually, like moldy yeasts causing diarrhea, but they're yeasts after all, not dry peels can't be juiced. I'd admit, I'm not very happy with what I have created, which perhaps is why they can't knock awake you bastards of terrible taste. I should practice my skills a little more.
If there's someone, anyone out of the chance of one in ten thousand, who regards my wine as his reason to live, I have to say, you are the true connoisseur. However, I'm afraid you have to wait for a while. Have some hope, guys! I need to retreat, I need to study. Wait for me, when I successfully brew the real Zhongshancheng,.Translators' note: "中山酲"，The appellation for the finest alcohol in China. According to legends, a person fell into a long sleep after drinking Zhongshancheng, so long that his family thought he was dead and buried him. When he came up from his coffin, he found that three years had passed since he drank the liquor. then you'll understand what it means to be drunk for a wonderful thousand days!
Vacuole Designation: 6M-MT
Sender: Ou Zhicheng, Junior Researcher
Eigenvector: [VZ730NPCUKHM88338DX7]
On today's broadcast: the research team considers it necessary to synchronize some new technical terms among vacuoles, so that all researchers from different vacuoles can communicate more or less accurately even under the influence of a high litura diluviorum rate. On this matter, the most traditional and ugliest way is in fact the most effective way. We hope vacuoles receiving our message can do like us and try to spread these unified terms outward. Following is the main content of our broadcast:
rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, rarusium, [REPETIVE INFORMATION OMITTED]
Eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, eigenvector, [REPETIVE INFORMATION OMITTED]
Vacuole Designation: Y0-D1
Sender: Jing Mu, broadcaster
Eigenvector: [781UVUUT0GRBAWJY106M]
I became a broadcaster three or four years ago, but I have never been to the locked room on top of the radio tower. It's believed that whenever new broadcasters in our neighboring vacuoles get appointed, some researchers from SCP Foundation will lead them to the room, for only once. And what's in that room is a man-made satellite from the past, faintly playing a very old song, called The East is Red.
To be honest, I don't quite believe it.
Vacuole Designation: TM-A4
Sender: Igor Kamenev, pilot
Eigenvector: [GCOCRH0LL155M9G9V0JJ]
[litura diluviorum] Igor Kamenev's fifty-seventh broadcast. My AIC on board was [litura diluviorum] malfunctioned when calculating and did not manage to dodge a piece of coming non-matter. Fortunately, litura diluviorum passed me by and [litura diluviorum] came into a vacuole on the near-Earth orbit in the end. Non-matters have blocked all [litura diluviorum] I may die in the dark as the vow said, but since I am still alive and breathing, I will continue to report [litura diluviorum] any order that the Eastern Land Command gave me.
Currently [litura diluviorum] the spaceship is in good shape. I have counted all storage on the ship and they should be able to hold me up for a couple of months. The AIC scanned the air around the vacuole for me, [litura diluviorum] to extract carbon and oxygen to print materials, for this, the AIC [litura diluviorum] transformed the standard surveying drone on the ship. I am also detecting the vacuole for [litura diluviorum] I will not miss any split seconds of window [litura diluviorum] I shall come back with my best efforts.
I am aware that I [litura diluviorum] after, still no miracle will happen and I cannot escape my fate of sacrifice. But I regret nothing. I have vowed to the Eastern Land Command of SCP Foundation [litura diluviorum] is the greatest honor for me. Pilot Igor Kamenev here, salute to the Eastern Land Command of SCP Foundation. Wish you all the best.
[litura diluviorum] will broadcast again one hour later.
Technically, comrade Igor Kamenev, Chief of Node No. 13, is not in Vacuole TM-A4 despite what he said. Vacuole TM-A4 is situated right below the Node No. 13, and the vacuole where Node No. 13 is does not have a designated name due to its location in the near-Earth orbit.
In the year 2995 of Old Calander, Commands of the SCP Foundation each dispatched aerospace fleets consisting of ten to twenty spaceships to observe the condition of the incoming non-matters. Their vessels were capable of enduring long-time space missions' tests, and everyone performed professionally and excellently in the next five standard years. But on the day of returning, an unexpected non-matter surge showed up above the Eastern Land, and a great number of mistakes were made when the crude AIC calculated the complex relationship between semantical flows and non-matters. At this critical moment, the fleet captain comrade Igor Kamenev gave up his precious evacuation chance for younger pilots, then disappeared in non-matters immediately. We once thought Igor Kamenev had sacrificed himself that day.
However, more than twenty standard years after the establishment of the new normalcy, the non-matter condition happened to be rather desirable near Vacuole TM-A4. In the consecutive time windows for broadcasting, Vacuole TM-A4 surprisingly received the broadcast from comrade Igor Kamenev from space. More surprisingly, judging from his tone of speech, Igor Kamenev was not only alive, but felt like the accidental non-matter surge merely took place yesterday.
Although things are very strange, Vacuole TM-A4 still decided to broadcast semantical flows to the space in return. We finally got a reply after a long time period, then we finally realized what truly happened to him.
Vacuole Designation: IL-G5
Sender: Yu Nuoda, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: N/A
To Hengxin, my dearest,
How is it going in your vacuole? The litura diluviorum rate of broadcasts has been severely high in recent days and we could hardly receive any semantical flows from your side, but I would try to search for your trace whenever some broken fragments of phrases got recorded. I was sure that some letters were definitely from your own hands from the first few weeks, however, my confidence has started to slip away… It has been so, so long, Hengxin, to the point that sometimes I'm afraid of forgetting what your semantical flow looks like.
Life in my vacuole is peaceful, though. Our research is going on slowly but sustainably; not many noticeable events happened, but things are still progressing nonetheless. Facilities in IL-G5 are much larger and more well-equipped, you know, and there's never a shortage of rarusium for research, which impressed me a lot when I first arrived and can still give me a strange sense of unrestraint after staying here for quite a while. But without you reminding me, my intractable habit of eating irregularly is happening again now. I miss your healthy appetite.
Hengxin, what I really want to say is… I regret. I regret having a fight with you. I regret coming to IL-G5. What if I fell into litura diluviorum in the non-matters on that day, I can't imagine how you would… I miss you. I do, Hengxin, I miss every moment of you staying by my side. You were like a tender duvet, gently containing all my impetuousness and stubbornness, but I tore it apart like a cutting knife just for my so-called "research opportunities" and "finding the truth". I was wrong, Hengxin, I was so wrong about everything. That knife has gone on a rampage without you, and I can only use scientific experiments as the vent for my temper. But things always have to stop at some time, and when it does, a feeling will dig into the deepest end of my heart, reminding me of how precious those moments were when you and I huddled up on the tiny and dirty sofa in the staff room, when I heard your breath and waiting for research results to print out.
Perhaps this can explain why rarusium reacts so unpredictably to me, like the impetuous knife representing me, even causing several injuries during experiments — no need to worry, only small scratches. I suppose the difficulty of pressing it into numerical equations is the same as that of stopping me on that day … Speaking of rarusium, it happens to be unstable only on me, not on any other people across the entire vacuole. I don't know if it is an admonition from non-matters, or some kind sign foreshadowing my fate. I have some guesses on its reaction to human beings. They're uncertified and probably can't fit into my broadcast this time, but I can say that I'm trying to think outside the box and listen to the guidance rarusium is giving to me. Maybe doing so can bring out new ideas … Then again, my thoughts will always drift back to you involuntarily.
I miss you so much, Hengxin. Hope the semantical flows can safely deliver this message to your vacuole so that you can know how much I cling to our home.
Best wishes to IL-G2.
Vacuole Designation: IL-G2
Sender: Shi Hengxin, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: [93ZM727PQCJXTCCT8BMQ]
Letter to Nuoda,
I dunno if you've received my message before, but I don't mind saying it again: I HAVE FORGIVEN YOU ALREADY! How could we ignore your dignity to force such a smart and talented researcher in such a small and tatty facility of IL-G2? Wait, why do my words sound so sarcastic here … but you should know, I really think it's okay for you to leave! I shouldn't speak so angrily on that day… My heart aches every time I realize you left while hearing these words.
How am I able to stop you? You're so adorably stubborn and won't allow yourself to give up any opportunities ahead of you. If not, why should I fall in love with you then?
Okay enough of cheesy words. How's it going with your rarusium? We've got bits and bobs of messages from other vacuoles. They seemed to mention a type of number named "eigen-" something; litura diluviorum has been very intense, so we don't know what exactly it is about. Since the time you left, with no exaggeration, our research progress has had an order of magnitude slower than before, slower than water dripping through a rock. Sometimes I even feel, like, my greatest contribution here is cooking instant noodles for my colleagues, though they are more or less the same — Shh, don't let them know this! Non-matter, you'd better throw that sentence into litura diluviorum.
Wish my voice can reach you. Wishes to you, and to everything in your Vacuole IL-G5.
Love you!
Being Hollowed Couriers, looking back at the records of times when Mr. Yu Nuoda and Mr. Shi Hengxin still spoke this way really brings up our emotions.
Vacuole Designation: T9-N8
Sender: Ari Tulanman, Junior Researcher
Eigenvector: [QX0LORTSGIC9874JW257]
Buggers, today I had my twentieth time attempting to get the report from a nearby institution. All I want is one single parameter in a middle-of-the-road formula. Everything will be fine once I get that number. But look! That's the twentieth! Twenty semantical flows got litura diluviorum at the exactly same spot!
Have you used those bloody correction tapes that always break in one place? Same shit!
Vacuole Designation: QM-LM
Sender: Yi Qianqin, Junior Researcher
Eigenvector: [6ONUZNSYQ24WVC299KFZ]
After four standard years of enormous efforts, we finally managed to isolate a piece of 3m × 1m × 3m non-matter in our containment chamber. This is probably the best result we can achieve as mortals, but it still means a lot to us because it will tremendously reinforce our research into rarusium and eigenvector.
A piece of non-matter that did not separate us means that we can send any semantical flows to the containment chamber as we wish and observe and record the relationship between eigenvectors and rate of litura diluviorum. Quite literally a universe sandbox!
We will try our best to broadcast our results. Hope the semantical flow can withstand the non-matters and let more vacuoles learn about our triumph.
Vacuole Designation: OR-R3
Sender: Wu He, broadcaster
Eigenvector: [USPYEGL24IYXM6Q5DPRS]
ATTENTION, all residents of Vacuole OR-R3, we have received an emergency message from research institute of SCP Foundation: please do not go to the isle-in-lake in the north of the vacuole. According to the incident report, a piece of non-matter broke out from the border and fell down, activating all non-matters suddounding it to the point of surge. The hazard level is inestimable.
The SCP Foundation has dispatched Tactical Response Forces in field to secure and contain the anomaly. All citizens keep off the scene immediately. I repeat, all citizens keep off the scene immediately.
Vacuole Designation: 1K-ZZ
Sender: He Sanlei, winemaker
Eigenvector: [XECH2D07E6RDFJIA3NDV]
I had a weird dream.
I crushed a piece of rarusium and sprinkled a bit onto my wine that day. Obviously, it wasn't an elixir for one's buds; the taste had little to no difference from before. Shame. However, I fell asleep after drinking the wind and then, I dreamed of getting up atop an unstainedly white mountain. Its color was eerie to the max, like limestones or bone meals; I assume perhaps pure snow would be livelier than that. I tottered down the hill and looked down, holy moly, what an absurd view it was! Layers upon layers of buildings stacked from the foothill to the cliff, extending from here to the very edge of the faraway lands inundated in rushing non-matters, with a color of lifeless white. I've never seen something like this before.
Feeling there was something behind me, I turned around immediately and saw a Père David's deer; it curled up in sleep and was dreaming of a white horse… It was nonsense, how could I know that was a Père David's deer dreaming of a white horse? And behind the deer, on the other side of the mountain and under the dome consisting of non-matters, I saw a giant eagle owl. Its head almost had the size of a hill, and there were three eyes staring at me with glimmering golden light. What's more, its back was carrying an unbelievably big blow with more eyeballs of different sizes, some as big as the head of the eagle owl… It spoke to me, as though it was trying to crush me with the tangible echos, but I couldn't understand a word… Then, I woke up.
Deer dreaming of a white horse… Eagle owl with numerous eyes… What the actual fuck are those!
Vacuole Designation: IL-G5
Sender: Yu Nuoda, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: N/A
Letter to Hengxin,
I think I got something. That quantified number based on reactions of rarusium, i.e. eigenvector, is fixated for most of the time. Most objects' eigenvectors are stable because their semantical flows — their essence of being — do not change. Humans are an exception. The research team of our vacuole has basically confirmed that a person's eigenvector can be split into two parts, one is fixed and unchangeable like ordinary objects, and the other… the longer part, changes as one changes in their own life. What does it mean? Why does one part change and the other doesn't? Because one is the outer representation and one is the inner characteristic? One is the body and one is the soul? I have no idea.
The team will try to broadcast their discovery, but it's not what I want to say to you, Hengxin. Mine is different, you know, both parts of my eigenvector are constantly changing, that's why rarusium can be so unstable in my hands. I don't understand why there is only one person who can have an eigenvector with two changing parts, and why said person is me.
And also, and … Hengxin, whenever I hold a piece of rarusium … I think of you; I will recall your face, your appearance, then a force will pull my beating heart toward the metal as if its gravity suddenly increased … At that moment, my eigenvector's value will be jumping up and down like crazy, almost feeling like it's trying to drag me into the non-matters, but to what place exactly? Without a window for transmission, wouldn't I fall into litura diluviorum if I just walked straight toward the non-matters? But I miss you so much, Hengxin, I want to see you … All my instincts are screaming at me, telling me that the rarusium can bring me to your side. And I would like to believe my instincts.
I can't understand it … for now. I believe I shouldn't keep researching the common properties of everyone's eigenvectors, because I am different — my eigenvector is different, so only I can obtain the one revelation from rarusium. I must discover myself. I must find the force, which pulls me in your direction. There is … There has to be something in it!
Wait for me! Hengxin, wait for me!
Vacuole Designation: QM-LM
Sender: Basang Drolma, Institute Director
Eigenvector: [U4HXIK93Z13N4RAT44C8]
With the help of the recently isolated piece of non-matter, our research group in Vacuole QM-LM has made some new discoveries on reactions of semantical flows with different eigenvectors when they traverse through non-matters.
First of all, we found that there are certain kinds of eigenvectors which enable their respective semantical flows to go through non-matters with an almost-perfect resistance to information loss. However, such an effect comes with a prerequisite; only semantical flows going into non-matters from a specific angle can avoid litura diluviorum. The Institute has found some objects with correct eigenvectors that can move freely in the aforesaid piece of non-matter on their specific tracks; said objects even include one of our researchers, who drew a pattern on her right arm based on Indian Mehndi Art and attained the effective eigenvector (although this method works only for herself and only for the small piece of non-matter isolated by us).
More precisely, human eigenvectors are slightly different. It seems that human can safely traverse non-matters safely in a specific angle once one finds the correct value for their changeable eigenvector.
On the other hand, eigenvectors themselves can be transmitted within semantical flows as a type of quantified value. If semantical flows on the other side of non-matters receive the eigenvector, they can reach the location where the eigenvector was broadcasted by going from the opposite direction. The rate of litura diluviorum during this process is negligible. What it means is that a person who has found the correct eigenvector can constantly broadcast their eigenvector and eventually, other people can use it and go backward so that they can reach the first person's location. Needless to say, the value of this discovery is immeasurable.
We began to find a way to spike through non-matters.
The only problem is, with the numerous possibilities for eigenvectors and changing properties of non-matters, plus the differences of each vacuole's physical laws, we have not yet summarized a general method for one to find the effective eigenvector. But there is one thing that all of us in the research team believe: human entities possess an exclusive eigenvector that can be altered as one changes their behaviors. In order to find the effective eigenvectors and constantly broadcast them to the outside world, human is the best choice.
Vacuole Designation: IL-G2
Sender: Shi Hengxin, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: [93ZM727PQCJXTCCT8BMQ]
My Nuoda …
Are you alright? Sleeping well? Eating well?
It's so hard to receive your semantical flow … I can only get a little of them, but even that little is so … I'm so worried. My feelings tell me you're getting upset and nervous about stuffs. What happened? Is there something about your research? Can I help? I, I just … I don't how to help. Non-matters have blocked everything.
Don't you ever get in any danger, Nuoda. I know you're not a guarded person, and you always want to dig the hell out of what you wanna find. Not being sentimental here, but … bu… Be careful, Nuoda, really be careful. Eat well, and sleep well, okay? Your body's health is above anything.
You should be there, you deserve to contribute your heat there. I … I can't even find what to say. We have zero idea of what's hapening on your side … I will always support you. Please be well, Nuoda.
Best wishes to Vacuole IL-G5.
Vacuole Designation: QM-LM
Sender: Yang Jin, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: [F734UA0EU67TPZTAPLTK]
Being the very researcher who attained the correct eigenvector through Mehndi Art, allow me to add a few comments. Your body will react to it when you get closer to the vector you're searching for. You can feel a force, like strings pulling you, especially when you're in the proximity of a piece of non-matter. I know this method isn't meticulous enough for a scientific experiment, but on matters of rarusium and non-matters, human instincts can be quite helpful, I think.
I'm sorry to not be able to give a more precise way of searching. My success is merely a matter of luck in my opinion, and there is little practical value in it. What can I say; just go and find it, my fellows, feel the reaction, and listen to the resonance from rarusium. It's genuinely the best way of doing it.
Vacuole Designation: O4-0U
Sender: Wei Qing, Junior Researcher
Eigenvector: [U1A5BN203C5MS9DT7BDE]
Believe it or not … Our vacuole has a tutelary. A statue, to be exact, with abstract-ish aesthetics that were once popular in the old ages. We often place fresh fruits and vegetables beneath him, and burn some incense sticks, etc., using these ways to consecrate our deity. We know doing so is effective because the more consecrations we make, the less rusty the tutelary statue will become, and vice versa.
Our tutelary has brought us … okay, to be fair, we're not really sure what he can do exactly. It just seems that … that the rate of litura diluviorum when listening to broadcasts is slightly lower in our vacuole than in other vacuoles? But then again, this may be just an illusion.
Perhaps for an ordinary and humble deity like him, it's too difficult to protect everyone from non-matters even with his best efforts.
Vacuole Designation: S0-NR
Sender: Fu Zong, Junior Researcher
Eigenvector: [4ZDZFTHMH2IQZ292VF5Y]
One's eigenvector will change as one changes himself … But there's still an unchangeable part, am I right? Though it's not helpful for traveling in non-matters, I'm sure there can be some practical value in it.
The unchangeable part seems kind of like a sequential representation of one's DNA … with correct arrangement, maybe we can use it as sort of a personal ID?
Vacuole Designation: CR-KV
Sender: Xia Lan, Visiting Principal Investigator
Eigenvector: [P4WHR5I1JFKK9M060R5I]
All researchers in Vacuole CR-KV, hear me out! I have your Director's permission and I ask you to halt all research activities at once! I've read every one of your medical examination reports; they are downright outrageous … Is my miserable appearance not enough to sound the alarm bells in your heads? You guys really think radiation-induced organ fibrosis is not that big a deal and can be easily cured with a cup of wolfberry tea?!
I'm telling you, all of you in the Institute: now, right now, you should stop all your work at hand, then have a good check for every detail of your experiment procedures and laboratory practices from top to bottom! High energy anomalous physics is perilous enough, adding in the special properties of our vacuole will only make it worse. I'm not a good model for you, so as long as I am still here — in which I probably will be for the rest of my life — I will not allow anyone of you to make the same mistake I made those years!
Just don't … kids, don't you learn from me. I have already taken this too far. I knew all along that I will eventually pass away in front of piles of research reports, and I don't mind if I continue to walk toward this destination. But you are different, there is still great lives ahead of you. You guys don't deserve to work for all you are worth as I did back then.
Vacuole Designation: RW-55
Sender: Shan Yiyu, Junior Researcher
Eigenvector: [PDARQ7TK4DICC0MD5WVE]
Emergency. I am Junior Researcher Shan Yiyu. I was confronted with an accidental non-matter surge on my way to Vacuole RW-5W through transmission windows. Currently I am stuck inside Vacuole RW-55 alone with my AIC attendant, which is damaged by litura diluviorum with only basic recording and broadcasting functions remaining. There is an abrasion on my right knee too … Can handle this on my own, I suppose. Nevertheless, any vacuole receiving this, please send help as soon as possible. Please.
I will now describe the overall environment of the vacuole. Vacuole RW-55 is a very small, desert-like place. In the center there is a huge piece of metal hovering at half a meter off the ground with a height of approximately two meters. Its appearance resembles gold, but is covered with grooves similar to nodules on a tree trunk. I will treat my wound first, then explore the vacuole for a little.
Further records will be made later when I come back.
Vacuole Designation: DV-S8
Sender: Shu Yongmo, Lachrymose Chanter
Eigenvector: [UD1ROC1HAO4G0DBXPDO4]
Ladies and gentlemen of Vacuole DV-S8, hello and welcome to the birthday party for our Gu Guiyue and our Zhan Chen! I know what you're thinking; you're wondering why I wear my makeup this way. Did you just cry? You may ask. Yes, I do have a tendency to cry; people often regard me as an emotional and sentimental being, and I know our little Gu and Zhan have the same "problem". In fact, I've been adopting a disguise for this in the past as sometimes I had to compose myself for a longer time before going outside. But as I watched these two kids, born with non-matters growing up — I made a decision. I've got to be an example, to tell you that such a thing is not a "problem". Instead, thanks to researchers on site from the SCP Foundation, we may find out that this is a miracle.
That piece of non-matter in my head, the thing that has been with me all the way since I was born, is the root of my tearing up. It makes me more sensitive to emotions, whether they're yours or mine, and when these thousands of currents of emotions conflow, tears will inescapably come out like so. However — shout-out to the researchers from the Foundation — it also affects me in the opposite direction. The overflow of emotions happens to be where my singing talent came from. Today, we can see that little Gu and little Zhan have shown their aptitudes for singing as well, and I believe such phenomenon is not a sporadic example. It is both a trouble and a gift for us children who are born with non-matter accompanying.
Non-matters are anomalous, I can't deny that, but anomalies can be wonderful too, as people from the SCP Foundation have taught me! Right now, right here, in front of our two kids who are growing stronger and better, I want to show you how marvelous this gift is. Vacuole DV-S8, listen! —
[A soprano chant without lyrics with anomalous memetic properties. The audience would have a direct sensation of tears streaming down their faces, a longing for a more beautiful world after overcoming the difficulties, and a sincere wish for the pure souls of two children.]
Thank you all!
The positive reviews from Vacuole DV-S8 for Ms. Shu Yongmo's singing that night were overwhelming. Thanks to her dedication, people began to provide non-matter accompanied babies with more love and care, and all of us is waiting for the birth of our next great Chanter. Beyond the borders of DV-S8, however, there was a more memorable discovery: the chant sung by Ms. Shu with anomalous memetic property was heard not only by everyone in Vacuole DV-S8, but also DV-SA, DV-AU, DV-KT… A great number of neighboring vacuoles had heard the voice of Ms. Shu — her complete voice, without any litura diluviorum.
Hence, this is the first singing ever by the first Lachrymose Chanter. On this day, we discovered that semantical flows sung by people who were born with non-matter accompanying can travel through non-matters freely and unaffected by litura diluviorum.
Vacuole Designation: H5-BM
Sender: Kong Chengqi, Fretting Goldsmith
Eigenvector: [BZ2A83S5F55EOGK281GX]
As an old saying goes, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." That's right, if you wanna make the finest wrought gold, you have to endure the heat of the stove. The metal, that rarusium, came from non-matters, right? Then I'll find it from the non-matters.
There isn't much rarusium on hand now, so I made a tiny compass, only the size of my fingertip. Mixing rarusium with carbon, chromium, nickel, cobalt… magnetizing it, and its tip would point at a place where non-matters are surging, just like I'd expected. I reached out there, grabbed, and sprinkles of rarusium stuck to my palm.
What would it be like if I encountered litura diluviorum in non-matters … I am concerned about this, but again, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." There are still so many ideas to implement, so many formulas to try … Can I just put my hand, like, an entire hand, inside non-matters? The downside is I may get litura'd, but the upside is I can get more rarusium particles that would otherwise go away in the blink of an eye. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." I need rarusium, and I think it needs me too.
Being a smith for so many years, I've never thought of risking my very life for a piece of metal. Then again, I started believing this had to be my ultimate destiny.
Vacuole Designation: 1K-ZZ
Sender: He Sanlei, winemaker
Eigenvector: [XECH2D07E6RDFJIA3NDV]
This isn't happening … I'm still thinkin' of that three-eyed eagle owl; even yeasts look like its eyes now.
I ground a little more rarusium — stuff seems to be quite magical, said people from other vacuoles — and poured it into my mouth with liquor. Tried this for a couple of times, and it always worked. I would definitely dream of the pale mountain, see Père David's deer dreaming of a white horse, and that three-eyed eagle owl carrying a ball full of eyes. It was saying something to me … Slowly I figured it out a bit, I suppose. Dreamland, subconscious connections, but there're non-matters all around. Do they cut off everyone's worlds of dream? What does it mean to me?
And that deer, that Père David's deer dreaming of a white horse. What the hell does that mean? To let me "point to a deer and call it a horse"?.Translators' Note: "指鹿为马", a Chinese idiom for "deliberately misinterpreting facts". But what exactly is the "deer", and what exactly is the "horse"?
Vacuole Designation: DV-S8
Sender: Shu Yongmo, Lachrymose Chanter
Eigenvector: [UD1ROC1HAO4G0DBXPDO4]
Researchers from the SCP Foundation did some more tests on me. I've never expected my voice to have such an impact … Guys from Vacuole DV-S8, do you have anything to send to other vacuoles? All messages, whether they're emergent or need to be delivered carefully, I'll welcome all. If you have some, come and find me at the broadcast station! I'll do my best to help you.
The principles of memetic anomalies are more than complicated … I can't guarantee the contents woven into my songs can really be that accurate. Emotions and feelings would be easier, but nonetheless, I accept all kinds of information no matter how tiny they are, even though they're just a word of faith or wish; I'm willing to do so, and I'm going to do so. Don't consider this a waste of resources and time, my friends, for there are too many dreams and hopes and wishes blocked by non-matters. I believe anything that is successfully sent out without litura diluviorum can have deep significance in it.
Come for me! Come to the broadcast station for me! Send your words to all other vacuoles with my voice!
Vacuole Designation: IL-G5
Sender: Yu Nuoda, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: N/A
Xinny, I am special.
I should get it now. It is the eigenvector that determines the occurrence of litura diluviorum when semantical flows go through non-matters, and because the two segments of my eigenvector are both constantly changing … The non-matters aren't able to parse my semantical flow. I can't just walk into them as easily as a stroll, of course. The non-matters will still eat me up in a bite for I'm not … knowing the rules well enough. And rarusium has already been telling me this via the pulling whenever I put the metal near where my heart is. It's not my heart reacting to the rarusium, but the rarusium reacting to my heart, which means my unpredictable eigenvector … Can be confined in a specific mode as well.
I've made a small blade with rarusium … Its revelation is getting clearer, at my heart's pulse, as the call of the faraway vacuole, as your very face … I'm still hesitating; can I stand the pain? … Xinny, but, I want you so … I miss you so much … I can't take it anymore … What the recent forecast for transmission windows gave? Three years? Five? Ten? I have to wait for TEN YEARS to even have the possibility to see you again? I can't, damn it, I cannot accept this … I cannot live without you. I shall not wait anymore.
You yelled at me that day, saying I'm a reckless idiot who got to leave for IL-G5 just because I saw a window. You were right about me … I'm always that kind of a person. Once I find my way, I can go this way all day and all night, upset at taking detours … Will you forgive me once more, Xinny? Forgive me alongside with all my previous mistakes? Because I have found my way this time, and its direction is leading to your side.
Xinny, I'm on my way.
Vacuole Designation: CR-KV
Sender: Xia Lan, Visiting Principal Investigator
Eigenvector: [P4WHR5I1JFKK9M060R5I]
Sorry to go back on my word, guys in Vacuole CR-KH, but I need your hands again.
Our non-matter prediction work gave us a few time windows and I want to use them to evacuate all researchers out of here except myself. In hindsight, maybe the incident that happened before … has nothing to do with the experiment procedures and laboratory practices; the microscopic particles of Vacuole CR-KV are just so active that our bodies will inevitably take damage even by merely staying in the facility, not to say doing research and stuff. And now, after my recent communication and integration of research outcomes, I am safe to say my research of the Ninth Symmetry is a total failure: the direction was wrong. Nothing valuable can come out no matter how much research we do, therefore there is no reason to keep everyone in this hazardous place.
However, I will continue to stay here per my wish. As I said before, this place shall be where I live the rest of my life, and it's unnecessary to waste the transmission window for a half-bedridden person like me. The amount of radiation and things like that make no difference to me, not like the other guys.
Just, don't worry for me, please, my time here is peaceful enough. I examined several other groups' research and found some novel projects for my amusement, specifically those about reactions between anomalous particles and rarusium. I remember the time when I touched rarusium for the first time, and they asked me to describe the feeling. I said, "Feels like it's emitting numerous rays to spike me through." It wasn't a lie. I did have such an intuition at the time, but upon hearing my words, they immediately muted themselves as if they were suddenly immersed in ice water … They are all good kids, so I have to get them out of there.
Vacuole Designation: WL-9I
Sender: Jiao Anlan, Junior Researcher
Eigenvector: [4SKJA8YGXK3AMIH2LJYI]
A lot of vacuoles, including ours, have begun to realize the relationships between rarusium, eigenvectors and non-matters, and all researchers in our vacuole are trying to find eigenvectors of their own. But no one has got a clue yet … It's like fishing in the air, quite literally. We're sure that everyone gets a different reaction when exposed to rarusium, but how can one turn that abstract reaction into a specific method of changing oneself? And what exactly counts for "changing oneself"?
Is that what we call an anomaly? How unreasonable! It seems to me that those examples of reaching the valid eigenvector are bona fide miracles.
Vacuole Designation: H5-BM
Sender: Kong Chengqi, Fretting Goldsmith
Eigenvector: [BZ2A83S5F55EOGK281GX]
The rarusium precipitates inside my hands, like a dagger stabbing my palms and fingers. I not only see it, but feel it, for those pieces just stuck at my finger bones and knuckles, and I can sense the friction every time I move my hand. The longer I put my hands in non-matters, the more rarusium can come out. Shit, there comes the litura diluviorum. Damn. My right hand's ring finger is lost … Whatever. I made myself a new one with rarusium; I can make anything as long as I got rarusium. The rarusium inside my hands doesn't bother my crafting to any extent either, because of course it won't! Rarusium is my material, and I am rarusium's smith. We are one.
My hands reach farther and farther, as though rarusium in the non-matters is calling me. Soon I might really step into non-matters with half of my body … I'm not sure if this is too fanatic, but I can't try it anyway; the SCP Foundation has come to my door. They're pretty curious too; those researchers in white got their minds blown when seeing my hands covered in rarusium, my techniques of crafting rarusium and the cooperation of me and rarusium. They want me to collaborate. They'll give me rarusium and watch me do whatever I want, with no intervention.
I'll certainly grasp such an opportunity.
Vacuole Designation: 1K-ZZ
Sender: He Sanlei, winemaker
Eigenvector: [XECH2D07E6RDFJIA3NDV]
I. Am. Crazy. I'm so nuts 'bout rarusium; how'd I think of using it as a stemware!? I think I'm still drunk … Or still in a dream? No idea man, I'm high on trance, can't tell reality from dreams. I'm actually a dream-a-lot person, with imaginations one after another; without logic and reason, just go wackily like wearing your left sock on your right hand. But, no such dreams for me now, ever since I touched the rarusium, that three-eyed eagle owl has kidnapped my nights, foreverly staring at me.
Zhongnan, Zhongnan, that mountain's Zhongnan, the "as aged as Zhongnan" Zhongnan, o it stands in my dream, o the eternal Zhongnan Mount!.Translators' Note: "终南山", a sacred mountain where daoists and Chinese gods recluse. Alas, h'w eternality equals to motionlessness, how motionlessness to boredom, how boredom to death. O the three-eyed eagle owl, ye lorde of dream, looking upon us, troubled, flummoxed. Wh're we shouldst've all beest, alack, gathering in this field of dreams; the eagle owl leadt us drunkards to thee! However how we stayeth in connection, with non-matters both in reality and dreams?
Non-matters in dreameth, o lorde, how the world is cutteth and connection splintereth, wh're the hills rise'd up! For nay links and collections, non-matter reduces all to beest bland as backwater, to swilc a broken world with out changes, in which how we'd wend into dumbness then drowneth to eternality in alias of death! I am dead! Ay how a dead man beest malt-worm again! How one brew ye Zhongshancheng for such a dead man!
Thou art upset, o thy wisheth to drinketh and to seeth us merge in a dead-drunk dreameth. Yet the world is dead, sire eagle ouwl, mine own wine can't beest sold and vacuolums can't connecteth. Ye non-matters wrapping us, nay confronteth thee! I only has't a deer dreaming of white horse, has't nay idea what to doth!
… What the fuck did I write?
Vacuole Designation: IL-G2
Sender: Yu Nuoda, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: N/A
<BEGIN LOG>
Yu Nuoda: I'm in.
The camera was at the head of the recorder who was holding a flashlight in the late hours of Vacuole IL-G2. An environment resembling the small Institute of the said vacuole can be seen directly at the front. Brief moments later, the lights of a room on the second floor of the institute were turned on and a vague male figure is visible walking out onto the balcony. He looked over toward the camera, rubbed his eyes, looked at it for some time longer, then rushed back into the building. All the lights of the facility were switched on seconds later. A voice can be heard yelling inside, "Medical team! I need a medical team here! First aid! First aid kit!"
Nuoda: I made it.
The Institute's gate was opened and a male in thin sleeping clothes holding a first aid kit and an excessive amount of bandages can be seen hurrying toward the camera. The person is recognized to be Senior Researcher Shi Hengxin; his face glistened with tears as he yelled to the recorder.
Shi Hengxin: Nuoda!
Nuoda: Hengxin, I made it —
Shi Hengxin dropped the kit onto the ground and started to put bandages on the recorder while sobbing. The camera moved lower, showing a large stain of blood on the left side of his blue shirt. Hengxin frantically tried to cover it up with bandages.
Hengxin: Nuoda … (chocks) you … You have to hold up, the medics are coming … Don't … don't … (chocks) Stay awake … Nuoda … Stay awake …
Nuoda: You need to listen to me first Hengxin —
The recorder tried to loosen the bandages, but stopped at Hengxin's resistance.
Hengxin: No … (chocks) No …
Nuoda: Hengxin, listen to me. Don't get too nervous.
The recorder grabbed Hengxin's shoulder, making him drop the bandages on his hands. Shi Hengxin looked up with his face fully stained in tears.
Hengxin: What?
Nuoda: I'm fine, Hengxin. I'm totally alright. (pause) See.
The recorder lowered his head, unbuttoned the upper part of his clothes and pulled the fabric apart. A huge hole is visible on his thoracic cavity where his heart should be, but most of the blood had stopped flowing out and wounds near the edge of the hold had even entered the initial stage of healing.
Hengxin: What … what is this …
Nuoda: This is how I managed to travel across the non-matters. (pause) I made it, Hengxin. I can walk freely in non-matters without getting drowned in litura diluviorum now.
Shi Hengxin looked into the eyes of the recorder for a while with a confused face. Then he wailed, cuddling the recorder with loud sounds of crying and hard breathing audible in the background, one after another.
Hengxin: Nuoda … Nuoda … (sobs) I … I miss you … I miss you so much!
Nuoda: I know. Your semantical flows were constantly disturbed at my side, but I can tell that you miss me very much from the fragments of those words.
Hengxin: I have … have so many things … (sobs) didn't share with you … You're here … You've come back … Waaahh …
Nuoda: Yes. I have succeeded. What an exciting discovery. Now with the non-matters not bothering me, we can start to synchronize our research and contact other vacuoles right now.
A short silence, and Shi Hengxin released the recorder from his hug and took a step back.
Hengxin: What … what did you say?
Nuoda: I say, we can start to synchronize our research and contact other vacuoles right now. Wouldn't it be nice?
Hengxin: Yes, it's nice … but … why … why're you like …
Shi Hengxin watched the empty hole on the recorder in silence, then trembled and screamed at the top of his lungs.
Hengxin: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Nuoda: Hengxin? What happened? I've made it, I got through the non-matters. This is a discovery of great significance.
Hengxin: But you … but you … (sobs) You can't feel it anymore?
Nuoda: I don't understand.
Shi Hengxin took the recorder's right hand and put it on his own chest.
Hengxin: You … Tell me, what you feel right now.
Nuoda: I can feel that your heart is beating intensely. You are stimulated, Hengxin, which is a normal behavior. Why are you acting like that?
Hengxin: Because I love you! Because I'm excited, that's why! I'm thinking … (sobs) I'm thinking we can be together again; we can cuddle together, cook together, watch movies … (sobs) together, waiting for experiment results on that couch together … together …
Nuoda: I can do those things now —
Hengxin: But you can't feel! You're … You'd just … So you'd say … (sobs) You will …
Nuoda: I don't understand.
Hengxin: Of course you don't! Because you … 'Cuz you …
The recorder looked up and saw a medical team running out of the facility, pushing a hospital stretcher. And in front of him, Shi Hengxin slowly fell to his knees.
Hengxin: BECAUSE YOU ARE HEARTLESS NOW!
<ENG LOG>
Vacuole Designation: Z4-F7
Sender: Yin Wenchang, broadcaster
Eigenvector: [9LGHMVR50IJF46KSF5QO]
Hello, residents of Vacuole Z4-F7, our regular broadcast is about to begin — Pardon me, what'd you say? A man came? But there's no transmission window recently! How'd that guy get here… WHAT?! I've got to see —
Err, ergh, today's broadcast will go on later, see ya!
Vacuole Designation: 5E-CI
Sender: Gong Yangyu, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: [Z8JL4QE85PZTRCSNM10M]
I heard the recent news that a friend of ours can walk inside non-matters with no consequences. What a great progress! It's a shame that all the other details are lost in litura diluviorum … It seems that there's nothing we can do besides wait for his arrival.
But judging from our current knowledge … He's a man whose eigenvector has two changing parts, right? I think such a person also exists in our vacuole. Can he also have the chance to traverse non-matters like that guy? Hope this ability doesn't come with great prices.
Vacuole Designation: 1K-ZZ
Sender: He Sanlei, winemaker
Eigenvector: [XECH2D07E6RDFJIA3NDV]
A man without heart came to our vacuole, what a headline. I heard it's rarusium that gives him such ability … Who would've thought rarusium can not only make people make weird dreams, but do this?
I wonder though, can a man without heart … get drunk?
Vacuole Designation: V1-UR
Sender: Gui Yun, broadcaster
Eigenvector: [Z8JL4QE85PZTRCSNM10M]
Attention, residents of Vacuole V1-UR, we are informed that the courier who can walk freely in non-matters will soon visit our vacuole for seven days to work with local researchers from the SCP Foundation, then set out for our neighboring vacuoles V1-UB, V1-CR and V1-J3. The broadcasting team has synchronized information with him. For those who are interested, the relevant documents are posted on the bulletin board in Vacuole Plaza.
In addition, the broadcasting team is still accepting emergency communication requests. If you have an urgent message that need to be sent to the neighboring vacuoles, please feel free to visit our station.
Vacuole Designation: H5-BM
Sender: Kong Chengqi, Fretting Goldsmith
Eigenvector: [BZ2A83S5F55EOGK281GX]
I made a walking stick with rarusium for Mr. Yu Nuoda. I watched him waving it around on his hand for a bit, then walked headlong into the non-matters. He returned about fifteen minutes later, and he said it was very useful. Of course I was right; I knew rarusium alloy of my formula could resonate with his eigenvector and amplify his semantical flows, so he won't so easily lose directions in non-matters then.
This is the first time I've forged something with rarusium for another man. Feels like a return to the good old days, but even more satisfying! Maybe I can make more stuff like this … Now I get a chance to perform my rarusium skills in front of more people, and perhaps … there's someone like me in faraway vacuoles, who's also crafting with rarusium? Then I'd share my techniques with them if mutual communication can enhance each other's techniques and mind. After all, I'm not that kind of stingy old bastard from the Middle Age's apprenticeship.
Vacuole Designation: RW-55
Sender: Shan Yiyu, Junior Researcher
Eigenvector: [PDARQ7TK4DICC0MD5WVE]
Emergency. I am Junior Researcher Shan Yiyu. I was confronted with an accidental non-matter surge on my way to Vacuole RW-5W through transmission windows. Currently I am stuck inside Vacuole RW-55 alone with my AIC attendant, which is damaged by litura diluviorum with only basic recording and broadcasting functions remaining. Any vacuole receiving this, please send help as soon as possible. Please.
I will now describe the overall environment of the vacuole. Vacuole RW-55 is a very small, desert-like place. In the center there is a huge piece of metal hovering at half a meter off the ground with a height of approximately two meters. Its appearance resembles gold, but is covered with grooves similar to nodules on a tree trunk. Touching it will produce a slight sense of vibration.
Also, I found there is an abrasion on my right knee, in addition to a small piece of scab … But I have no idea where they came from. Could it be someone hiding inside this vacuole … No, stop scaring yourself out, you dummy.
Vacuole Designation: IL-G2
Sender: Shi Hengxin, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: [93ZM727PQCJXTCCT8BMQ]
Vacuole neighbors, if you can hear my broadcasting, I wanna ask a question …
Do you have any advice on how to preserve an ex vitro heart still beating on its own?
Vacuole Designation: CR-KV
Sender: Xia Lan, Visiting Principal Investigator
Eigenvector: [P4WHR5I1JFKK9M060R5I]
All other researchers have left. I have faith in Vacuole CR-KH's techniques for controlling the transmission window. They are sure to have a good journey.
Thinking about it, it was ludicrous of me to imagine this vacuole would have made a miracle to save my research on the Ninth Symmetry destined to fail. Rarusium was behind all of these, in a way. Vacuole CR-KV didn't bring me here because of my research, but because I was the only person who had ceased to mind the radiation hazard, almost like I was the chosen one.
I have read all the documents they left behind about rarusium and eigenvector, and experimented on my own for a bit, too. That feeling rarusium is giving, that feeling of radioactivity, is an intimation. I felt it when I let a small cluster of β-ray pierce through my palm, as the rarusium was calling me, the entire vacuole rippling for the slightest bit, and a subtle force pulling at me … It's all fate, isn't it? The reason why I am the closest one to the valid eigenvector in this vacuole is precisely that my body has got so used to taking the bath of radiation.
I am currently inside the hadron collider. I will turn it on, and then, I will broadcast my valid eigenvector to the outside. I said many times: this place shall be where I live the rest of my life. This is not a result of obstinateness but of a clear vision of my future.
Everyone, stop coming to my vacuole anymore. This place is made for me. This is where I am meant to be.
While the name "Vacuole No. 1" sounds quite respectworthy, as per the current policy, transmission of semantical flows other than pure information using the Node No. 1's public key is not allowed; tourism and transportation uses of Vacuole No. 1 are forbidden. The reason behind this is rather simple: the entire Vacuole has submerged in an extremely high radiation dose of 1200mSv. Although … the scenery is indeed unforgettable if you somehow get a chance to enter it. Under the cerulean aura like Cherenkov radiation is the Vacuole itself, and in the center of its brilliance is the radiant hadron collider of the research institute.
We believe Chief of Vacuole No.1, comrade Xia Lan, is within the hadron collider, but nearly all communication attempts with her have failed. Even her status remains a mystery to us. Nonetheless, Vacuole No. 1 is always active; Xia Lan is always broadcasting her eigenvector.
She is always there.
Vacuole Designation: 1K-ZZ
Sender: He Sanlei, winemaker
Eigenvector: [XECH2D07E6RDFJIA3NDV]
Dead men can't brew, y' say? Well then, now I revive the deceased!
I finally figure 't out, wherefore I dreamt about yond three-eyed eagle owl. Ditch those rules of reality, mine own people, dream prevails in this world, and by witness of ye thousand eyes of three-eyed eagle owl, I decree: in my dreamland, upon Nanshan, everything is permitted!
Qu'est-ce que l'éternité ? We thought to be eternal is to not change, but to not change is to be dead. Now world is shredded by non-matters into gutter water, nothing to be runner, hence nay development can lodge if no barrier is broken, no beings can life if no change is risen. But why eternity equals to unchangingness? Why eternity is death? What made sloven sheds, shaggy shanties, sloppy stacked structures in Nanshan a representation of foreverness? Now even us, encaged in non-matters in dreamland, did stick in stereotypes and platitudes too? Vinegar for sauté, wine for biscuit? I REJECT THEM!
Dégage ! Counterfeit eternity! To wend the antithetical route, I'd say true foreverness is changing, is uncertainty! No recipe writes the exact amount of molecules, no two drams of liquor gust the same … Differentiation at each moment lies within ev'ry attempt, every exploration. We drink for what? For experencing this wild mad world in delusion! O how 't be the constituted truth of Universe; altering vortexes infiltrate every cosmic corners, when this non-matter thing tries to hide them from us, calling us to retreat! To relinquish! To wait for eternal death in this broken spacetime! FUCK YOU!
I know not if real world is like this. Mais voici le rêve ! I dominate this place! Whether this belongs to a madhouse, whether this is catalogued as dementia, I still say, under the barbed wire of non-matters, I shall seek change, I shall jump into vortex; I rather drunk amongst imps, daemons, ghosts and monsters, than sober amongst ennui, boredom, tedium and listlessness! In a dream nonmatterial, in the Nanshan dead, even though this is a deer dreaming of white horse, I will point at it and declare:
"IT IS NOT A DEER, BUT A HORSE!"
And then, rumbles like the falling of Earth came into my ears. Pitch blackness of sky dissipated rapidly in the dream, blinding sunlight encompassed the mountain dark as fertile yard. In front of me was a curled-up white horse, dreaming of a deer. Three-eyed eagle owl from afar glazed at me silently, then beat its wings. It soared.
I woke up. I found myself at the center of my cellar. I was holding wine glass made of rarusium, holding a gossamer liquid. I raised my head, drank all of it with one gulp.
People of Vacuole 1K-ZZ, I BREWED THE ZHONGSHANCHENG!
I'm to be drunk for thousand days.
Vacuole Designation: H5-BM
Sender: Kong Chengqi, Fretting Goldsmith
Eigenvector: [BZ2A83S5F55EOGK281GX]
I built up a workshop next to this vacuole's broadcasting station, then spent a whole month upgrading its antenna with rarusium. SCP Foundation thought of this idea first, to be fair. They said I can feel free to do my jobs, even at the cost of postponing months of broadcast. They even asked me to show personal styles in it — as much as possible — how strange, nobody had said something like this before. They claimed that rarusium could show special effects after my hammering. Now the work is done, and they have made their tests, which turns out to be … really effective. I have no idea what that effect thingy is about. I'm just a smith, how am I supposed to know that? Anyway, I'm glad to help them out.
Rarusium is plentiful now, but I already got used to walking to the edge of my vacuole and reaching out into the non-matters, feeling particles of rarusium fretting my hands. It feels like … a ritual? A ritual helping me to get in harmony with rarusium? And it is an essential ritual.
Yesterday I bumped into another guy; a lad, not young, but still had that kind of childish look on his face. He should know who I am, but he was curious about what I'm doing. So I put a lil' piece of rarusium on his left palm. He grabbed it with his right hand, and would you know that, the rarusium is so soft like dough. He played with it with a couple of fingers, and the piece of rarusium turned into a ball, a cube, then a … roughly crafted cog.
Oh man. I'm hiring apprentices now.
Vacuole Designation: H5-BM
Sender: Ba Hongjin, Fretting Goldsmith
Eigenvector: [KOZZ99O45ISKXDR02EQ9]
I am becoming an apprentice. So magical … You can use rarusium like that?!
Vacuole Designation: DV-S8
Sender: Shu Yongmo, Lachrymose Chanter
Eigenvector: [UD1ROC1HAO4G0DBXPDO4]
A researcher from the SCP Foundation gave me a piece of rarusium and asked me to "get a feeling of it". At first, I was not so sure about what it meant, but through time I did get a feeling of something inside the metal … There was a melody, a song. I try to chant it out by my intuition only — I have no guarantee of it being out of tune or not — when my voice matches the rarusium, it vibrates on my hand, then the vibration stretches outward to the point where all non-matters surrounding the vacuole are resonating together … Might not be happening though. That vibration thing could just be my subjective impression.
I hear news from vacuoles far away. I hear that the blockage of non-matters is relieving. More people have started to find where they should go now, and me too, I find my songs to be strong and powerful as well.
I'm working on a song based on the melody from rarusium … A song about connection, about our hope. I'll go to the radio station and sing it to everyone once it's done.
Vacuole Designation: QM-LM
Sender: Basang Drolma, Institute Director
Eigenvector: [U4HXIK93Z13N4RAT44C8]
Mount Qomolangma, the highest mountain peak in the Old World, is located in our vacuole. We are able to recover an ample amount of rarusium in the vacuole, which probably owes to this unique high-altitude geographic environment. Grounding on our past research into rarusium and non-matters, my team has devised an idea of building a massive signal tower for semantical flow transmission with rarusium on top of Mound Qomolangma. A structure of similar size should be capable of amplifying semantical flows to higher orders of magnitude. Furthermore, the signal tower can spread it to larger areas when someone broadcasts their valid eigenvector.
We had been conducting the plan steadily as scheduled, but after receiving messages brought by comrade Yu Nuoda from Vacuole IL-G2, we decided to speed up the construction. During the first run test of our tower, we were astonished to find that we successfully received the expected semantical flow signal, namely valid eigenvectors from other vacuoles — we got three in a row. We are not sure how much of our findings can be heard by others due to interference by non-matters. The semantical flow signals we received were sparse; even so, we are deeply affected by the news they brought.
For those vacuoles which are broadcasting valid eigenvectors, and for those who have attained their valid eigenvectors and broadcasted them, we may apply the designation, "Nodes".
Vacuole Designation: IL-G2
Sender: Shi Hengxin, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: [93ZM727PQCJXTCCT8BMQ]
We spent some good time on this, but I think we finally figured out what happened on Nuoda.
Special people like him, people with constantly shifting eigenvectors, exist. But such changes are not completely out of patterns. Just like others can change themselves to alter their own part of eigenvectors, ones like Nuoda can also fit their unstable eigenvectors into a specific pattern by changing themselves — to fixate it to a cycling numerical equation, one can say. Once this is achieved, then they can roam around free inside non-matters without worrying to drown in litura diluviorum. The shifting eigenvector is like an amulet keeping the evilness of non-matter away.
It's a shame that despite what Vacuole QM-LM had said, these people aren't suitable for broadcasting their eigenvectors just because there isn't any consistent eigenvector that can be broadcasted. It's a rule that only applies to them and not us. But this, after all, is a discovery of high value since Nuoda can bring a lot of research materials to other vacuoles, and what's more, we believe he isn't the sole instance of such property. Me and Nuoda are planning for a project: to find more people with this kind of speciality and strengthen our power of communication.
Of course, just like how everyone else finds their valid eigenvector, we're convinced they also need to make a change unique to each entity to be able to stabilize their eigenvectors' ways of shifting. For instance, Nuoda ripped his own heart out … Hope not all people are required to endure such brutal pain.
Speaking of which, I have something else to say here.
After synchronizing research materials from various vacuoles, we the people in Vacuole IL-G2 have also made a big progress in rarusium. It turns out … that I have the highest chance of attaining my valid eigenvector. Even rarusium is telling me to … Feels like Lady Fortuna is telling a joke on me, if I can say that. Anyhow, the rarusium tells me to rip out my heart too, in the same way as Nuoda.
I'm sitting in front of Nuoda's knife with which he cut himself. He shouldn't have brought it with him for a purpose … He won't remember or mind it today either, I think. How so … I'm actually a little happy? To know I have sort of a similarity to Nuoda? To be fair, I'm not gonna act like sacrificing for love or some other tragic shit, if someone, anyone in the future would like to know my story. Okay, things are getting embarrassing now, aren't they? I'm literally blushing right now. What I'm saying is: the thing I am about to do is meaningful, for which me and Nuoda sworn to join the SCP Foundation. Our mission is to bring light to the world. Even if Nuoda isn't my lo … my man, I'd have no regret to do the same thing as well.
But I love him. This is for sure. Nuoda, I love you.
Best wishes to all vacuoles.
Vacuole Designation: 1K-ZZ
Sender: He Sanlei, winemaker
Eigenvector: [XECH2D07E6RDFJIA3NDV]
Is the sun coming from the west now, 'cuz a researcher from SCPF came to me for a drink? What're the odds! And they wanted to talk with me … A winemaker like me can offer them what? Things're getting really peculiar.
They asked me a question. They asked, If I have a glass of wine / Would I share without asking for a dime / To sooth people's angsted mind.
I drank a shot, and said firstly, this can't be called a poem.
Secondly, they need to quit reading those crappy literature.
Vacuole Designation: 1K-ZZ
Sender: Jia Xingsheng, Junior Researcher
Eigenvector: [QX035WAX0NODDOEV3Y1T]
I don't think I have ever ingested so much alcohol in my whole life … But by the time I woke up, there wasn't any weariness in my mind. So this is the Zhongshancheng from the legends? Oh, never mind. I'm not recommending anyone come here. Getting drunk does no good to a researcher.
What's more, he agreed. That's the most important thing.
Vacuole Designation: DA-QX
Sender: Nagy Kovach, resident
Eigenvector: [G9LQOVH5CXRT4FGSZ5Z2]
Is anyone hearing voices from Vacuole DV-S8?
No no no, not from the radio, you can hear it with bare ears, in lossless sound.
That song … That song … That song was utter gorgeousness!
Vacuole No.： CR-KV
Sender: Yu Nuoda, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: N/A
I want to thank the neighbor vacuole, designated CR-KH, for preparing an anti-radiation suit for me. I won't be able to come to Vacuole CR-KV without their help.
I told comrade Xia Lan about the Nodes. To be more exact, I transmitted the related semantical flow to her from outside the hadron collider.
I wasn't sure whether she had received the message or not at the moment, as rumble sounds from the collider hardly changed. But someone told me later that the Node is working. Marvelous, now I know where to find other people to share the work of semantical flow transmission for me.
Vacuole Designation: IL-KT
Sender: Zhu Wenle, broadcaster
Eigenvector: [DJG68182DIT0ZU9FVL31]
Attention, residents of the local vacuole. The Eastern Land Command of SCP Foundation would like to hereby thank everyone for their support, and to remind everyone that for now they are not recruiting volunteers for transmission window tests of the Nodes. Due to the relative instability of current Nodes, the first round of test objects will mainly consist of employees of the SCP Foundation. More information about Nodes will be released gradually later. Thank you for your understanding.
Vacuole Designation: QM-LM
Sender: Basang Drolma, Institute Director
Eigenvector: [U4HXIK93Z13N4RAT44C8]
With the second phase test of the rarusium signal tower going on, we again received two new valid eigenvectors. Our concept of "Nodes" has already fledged within various vacuoles. This time, we would like to compile the information at hand in the following format:
Node No. 1 - Codename GLOW, located in Vacuole CR-KV, with comrade Xia Lan as the Chief, who attained her valid eigenvector through exposing herself to the radiation of high energy anomalous particles.
Node No. 2 - Codename SPIKE, located in Vacuole H5-BM, with comrade Kong Chengqi as the Chief, who attained his valid eigenvector through spiking his hands with rarusium.
Node No. 3 - Codename ANTHEM, located in Vacuole DV-S8, with comrade Shu Yongmo as the Chief, who attained her valid eigenvector through chanting songs resonating with rarusium.
Node No. 4 - Codename ETHANOL, located in Vacuole 1K-ZZ, with comrade He Sanlei as the Chief, who attained his valid eigenvector through drinking a glass of wine with rarusium out of a recipe from dreams.
Node No. 5 - Codename HEARTLESS, located in Vacuole IL-G2, with comrade Shi Hengxin as the Chief, who attained his valid eigenvector through ripping his own heart out.
Upon hearing this inspiring news, our team visioned an idea rather rapidly; an idea named "Nodal Matrix". If the number of Nodes reaches a certain level, and given that Nodes are able to aim and link to each other, then we can connect all of them into a reticulated structure. Semantical flows transmitted within the structure would be able to receive the eigenvectors broadcasted from the nearest Nodes, which would massively reduce the possibility of litura diluviorum. Moreover, when the signal tower at the top of Mount Qomolangma is constructed, it shall become a central hub for all eigenvectors from all Nodes and conduct broadcasts receivable within the entirety of the Eastern Land, which would significantly reinforce the resonance between semantical flows and the Nodes.
In conclusion, we assume the realization of the "Nodal Matrix" would allow us to reestablish connection under the new normalcy where non-matters have divided each and every one of us.
As can be expected, this grand concept is faced with numerous practical issues at the current stage. The signal tower for semantical flows on Mount Qomolangma has not yet constructed. The five Nodes from the beginning are still in isolation. Valid eigenvectors are directional and require finesse to align the Nodes for forming a matrix. Our number of Nodes is not enough, of course, since five is definitely not a quantity enough to cover all territories of the Eastern Land. We also need to adjust the errors cross-Nodally as transmission of error data between Nodes of a network is necessary for each Chiefs of Node to fine-tune their eigenvectors. It would be a Nodal backpropagation of errors throughout the Eastern Land.
However, with the premise of a low number of Node and great difficulty between vacuoles … the current situation is still excruciating.
Vacuole Designation: IL-G2
Sender: Shi Hengxin, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: [93ZM727PQCJXTCCT8BMQ]
Here I declare, that the Society of Hollowed Couriers is officially established today.
The name “Hollowed” originates from the founder as well as the first Courier of our Society, comrade Yu Nuoda. By taking out his own heart via Rarusium, he had his shifting eigenvector resided down at a specific mode of transformation, which enabled him to roam inside non-matters freely. After six standard months of investigation and inspection, our Society now has twelve serving Couriers that acquired such anomalous ability. They're to collaborate with each vacuole, carrying semantical flows with their flesh and blood and delivering them to every vacuole reachable.
The selection of Hollowed Couriers is tough. Not all individuals with a variable eigenvector are suitable to become a Hollowed Courier. Our discovery suggests candidates are required to sacrifice a part of their body in order to gain the ability to travel within non-matters. Our first Courier Yu Nuoda, as an illustration, afforded the price of losing his heart. Although not all Couriers have to become "heartless" like him, we still put "sacrificing" as a mandatory requirement for the Society's selection. This also signifies that every Hollowed Courier shall be embracing an unwavering determination. We solemnly pledge to dedicate ourselves to the career of tearing down the blockage named non-matter, to transmit semantical flows, and to establish a connection for our fragmented world once more. Today, the Society of Hollowed Couriers will set their sail.
May we build the Matrix one day.
Vacuole Designation: IL-03
Sender: Liao Hong, Hollowed Courier
Eigenvector: N/A
I sacrificed my left eye to become a Hollowed Courier. Frankly, I don't mind it that much. Didn't Odin from Norse Mythology also lose one of his eyes for a drink in Well of Mímir? Though I wasn't seeking "the ultimate wisdom" or something anyway, I'm able to walk freely in non-matters now. That's quite cool.
I'm looking forward to visiting other vacuoles. For local vacuole-born youngsters like me, marvelous legends out there in other numerous vacuoles were just fantasies. Well, in the past tense, because from now on, we the Hollow Couriers are about to witness those legends personally.
I can't wait any longer!
Vacuole Designation: DV-R8
Sender: Lü Hanshan, Lachrymose Chanter
Eigenvector: [DGDZACKM0ZOJ0WGJP6BU]
Not all children born with non-matter accompanying can grow up to become Lachrymose Chanters. In fact, not even every one of us is able to grow up. We lived healthily with just a bit more tears, but how about others? This fact always gives me a sense of sorrow. Non-matters can not only appear within your brain but also have the chance to show up on any places of your body. Some may grow up with permanent disability, with the rest of their life contemplating this predestined misfortune.
Well, I'm gonna say, you don't have to be a Lachrymose Chanter to be useful in our vacuole. You don't have to be like me; I will and always will admire you whatsoever, for it is just an arrangement made by heaven, that's all. Even if you live a mundane life, not being a Lachrymose Chanter, not being a Hollow Courier, not being a broadcaster or researcher … As long as you have your own life, and write your own lines, and make your own poems, you are a dazzling one.
For all of you that lived your own lives, you deserved to be chanted, whether you are accompanied by non-matters, or by other things, or by nothing …
Tell me! About your life, your desire, your words, your poems … I will compose them into my songs. I will belt out the tales of yours!
Vacuole Designation: DV-R8
Sender: Shu Yongmo, Lachrymose Chanter
Eigenvector: [UD1ROC1HAO4G0DBXPDO4]
To everybody in Vacuole DV-S8,
Today I announce that, after nearly one standard year's preparation, the Chorus of Lachrymose Chanters is founded officially. Hurray!
Taking Vacuole DV-S8 as our headquarters, we now have eight Lachrymose Chanters. They have all faced the threat of dying young because of non-matter accompanied birth, just like me. But we managed to survive it, grow up healthily and witness the overwhelming beauty and loveliness of this world. Thanks to the non-matter in our brains, we are indeed a bit too sensitive and tearful, yet it also offers us a sincere, exquisite capability of expressing our emotions. We excel at singing. Our carols are wordless, for we shall weave all sentiments and semantics directly within our melodies, to make every listener resonate with us upon their first hearing! So is how we, the Lachrymose Chanters, present ourselves!
The selection of Lachrymose Chanters is tough. To this day, non-matter accompanied birth is still an adversity that requires great struggle of the patient and medical practitioners to overcome. In addition, the talent of memetic singing is not granted for all of these individuals either; it is a skill that requires both inherent gifts and consistent efforts. A qualified candidate should bear a strong willingness towards hardships, which on the other hand signifies that every Lachrymose Chanter shall embrace an unwavering determination. We will deliver hope, deliver aspiration, deliver imagination, and deliver willingness, with our melodies and mastery of subtle emotions, to every vacuole that is ready to listen to our sounds! We now witness the dawn, under the pitch darkness in the wrapping of non-matters. Hope and aspiration shall be the fuel that keeps driving us forward.
Of course, if you will, we can also become the bards of a new age. We're ready to tell and spread your heart's contents in the form of music. The weaving of memetic singing may not always align with your thoughts but … Hey, who can say? Perhaps we can find out how brightly your emotion burns within the calmest words!
Today witnesses the birth of the Chorus of Lachrymose Chanters. Everyone in Vacuole DV-S8, lend an ear for my singing —
[A soprano piece without lyrics with anomalous memetic properties. The audience would find themselves in the vast wilderness after a rainy dusk, with a scent of grass in their noses, sweet and fresh. Numerous crystal balls shimmered on and off like light bulbs, as if they were echoing with neighbors, or weaving a resonating texture with each other. The audience would look up to see a golden bolide piercing through the dark sky of non-matters, leaving behind a dazzling trail.]
Thank you. Thank you all. May we build the Matrix one day.
Vacuole Designation: H5-BM
Sender: Kong Chengqi, Fretting Goldsmith
Eigenvector: [BZ2A83S5F55EOGK281GX]
My apprentice, Jin, had to drag me here and say, "You totally have to make a speech about this!" Well, I'm not quite adept at words, but the organization set up by him — the Guild of Fretting Goldsmith — excites me nonetheless. I don't mind accepting the title of "First Fretting Goldsmith".
Rarusium is such a marvelous kind of metal. So wonderful. Nobody can make it behave in the same way as others. We the Smiths have built an extraordinary connection with rarusium. To us, it is the most perfect kind of metal and the most perfect kind of material in general as well. Your craziest illustrations, most exquisite designs and ultimate techniques can all be realized with rarusium. And right now, there's something arising. Rarusium has become the essential weapon for the battle against non-matters. So, who will be better forgers for such a weapon than us?
The selection of Fretting Goldsmith is tough. I can't figure out a way to choose my next apprentice besides having everyone in this vacuole come and touch the rarusium. Me and Jin's meeting was totally an accident schemed by fate. But we the Guild of Fretting Goldsmiths should not be that kind of selfish and xenophobic organization. Now we've found a new way. Getting semantical flows out still is and will be hard, but we're making big progress. Share your skills, my smiths. The next Fretting Goldsmith may come up anytime anywhere in other vacuoles. They have the right to get their potential acknowledged.
May we build the Matrix one day.
Vacuole Designation: H5-BM
Sender: Ba Hongjin, Fretting Goldsmith
Eigenvector: [KOZZ99O45ISKXDR02EQ9]
I was worried that Master Kong might be unhappy with me … I had no idea how he thought of the Guild. Although I’m almost a mature artisan now, I just don't have the ability to literally grab rarusium out of non-matters as Master Kong. Nowadays we have more advanced methods for obtaining them, but you need money for it. We're artisans, yes, but we're also merchants at the same time. I actually had no idea … I mean, Master Kong is a pretty genuine person; I do believe he would like to forge rarusium items for anyone without charging anything. I just didn't know how he would think seeing us making sells and contracts.
Surprisingly, Master did not have any objections at all. "Don’t offer any discount on your talent, for they won’t be pleased and will leave you in the end if you do." That’s what he said.
But if you'd like to pay a visit to Master Kong’s studio in Vacuole H5-BM … He won’t charge you for anything. Not a single penny.
Vacuole Designation: N0-FS
Sender: Xiang, resident
Eigenvector: [OMK7DZ3H1EXQQITO2EW6]
Xiang hear other vacuoles talking about rarusium. What is rarusium thingy? If its the gold blocky coming from nonstuffs, then xiang no clue what to say. Its useless here. It wont make flowers redder. It wont make candies sweeter. But even Xiang can do that.
Why grownups always stick to these stiffy thingys? Xiang doesnt like it. Xiang like fluffy grass. Xiang like fluffy wood. Grass and wood in our vacuole is super nice. Xiang and friends often tie a tawny rope around them. And then grassie and woodie will follow us to where we want to go. We can munch candies together, sleep together, roll downhill together, and watch fluffy clouds in vacuole sky together.
Xiang love them. Xiang love rarusium not.
Vacuole Designation: 4H-12
Sender: Hao Ruizhi, Hollowed Courier
Eigenvector: N/A
Um, ergh, a little reminder here. Everyone had better think twice before deciding if you are traveling to Vacuole N0-FS. I'm not saying there are some random life-dangering things. It's that … not everyone can make friends with a bunch of reality-bending children.
The neighbor vacuole says that they've seen Couriers escaping from N0-FS in a very sorry state three times! Get PROFESSIONAL, guys!
Vacuole Designation: RW-55
Sender: San Yiyu, Junior Researcher
Eigenvector: [PDARQ7TK4DICC0MD5WVE]
Emergency. I am Junior Researcher Shan Yiyu. I was confronted with an accidental non-matter surge on my way to Vacuole RW-5W through transmission windows. Currently I am stuck inside Vacuole RW-55 alone with my AIC attendant, which is damaged by litura diluviorum with only basic recording and broadcasting functions remaining. Any vacuole receiving this, please send help as soon as possible. Please.
I will now describe the overall environment of the vacuole. Vacuole RW-55 is a very small, desert-like place. In the center there is a — Wait, why there are candidate words here? I remember I initialized it when I left — what's up with all these contents! Hold on a second …
Vacuole Designation: C0-BK
Sender: Zang Fen, Intranet Administrator
Eigenvector: [HBAE8A0X415OQSCHIFC1]
i finished reading ur ideas. u researchers in scpf always like to complicate things? took so much effort in telling only 1 thing, aka asymmetric encryption.
intranet dept got quite clear with this. non-matter clings and sticks like glue, attacking every semantical flow passing by. ur studies on eigen-s come down to two phrases: public key and private key. private is the unchanging part and public is the changing part. u won't get l-d'ed if u can find a suitable public key, and encrypt ur semantical flow so non-matter won't be able to crack u. meanwhile a private key decrypts ur semantical flow so u would arrive and could only arrive at one corresponding node. just type this! i saw u discussing 'bout public keys too. dude, u already come up with a workable wheel. why so much talks???
it's nice u r seeking new nodes. great idea. but we have no capability for this right now. i've mentioned before: non-matter's a persistent attacker. our own firewalls collapsed several times a day. last cyber atk/def war ended just 2h ago when non-matters launched ddos attack against us like a psychopath, almost burning out the ram of 2 of my keyboarders. i have to take the job for our local cluster while intranet's packed with vulnerabilities.
sent? ok 550z u take care of this. i need cooling before next wave comes ↲
Vacuole Designation: 4I-HD
Sender: Choi Gi-Seung, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: [ACXRF7Z0BT1WVFBCNABO]
Because I misjudged the time of the transmission window, I was teleported to a designation-less vacuole. The whole vacuole was an islet. There was an elder; he offered me a cup of water, which was the most flavourful one I have ever had. I don't know … as if that cup of water was an entire world itself, with all kinds of delightful flavors mingled inside. It was like honey, like wine; like sea, like spring, like light.
But soon I seized the next transmission window. I left for my mission. I wonder if I can find that vacuole again after the Matrix was built by any chance. Probably not I guess … Tell me. Each year, how many of these tiny vacuoles are to dissipate into non-matters by litura diluviorum? How many wonders are to remain unnoticed and lost before anyone gets a chance to have a look?
Vacuole Designation: QM-LM
Sender: Basang Drolma, Institure Director
Eigenvector: [U4HXIK93Z13N4RAT44C8]
The Institute has decided to name valid eigenvectors for Nodal broadcasting as "Public Keys". The term was originally provisional, but it seems … quite convenient, as it turns out.
Broadcast this term, comrades. Only with a precise nomenclature will we embark on the right path to reach it.
Vacuole Designation: RW-55
Sender: Shan Yiyu, Junior Researcher
Eigenvector: [PDARQ7TK4DICC0MD5WVE]
Emergency … I am Junior Researcher Shan Yiyu … I know it! Shit!
Message to myself: this is a time loop or antimeme … or a combination of them. I should've been here for a long time. This vacuole, or this floating metal here, wipes out my memory every so often! Audio records seem to be unaffected though … Notes in the AIC — all written by myself — I need to read them. Put priority on the organized catalog for broadcasting messages, especially parts about "rarusium" and "eigenvector" … Damn it, such a mess here. Gotta finish and organize them as soon and as clearly as much, so I can understand things faster this way.
When is the next initialization? I'm totally not trained for this, argh!
Node No.: TM-A4
Sender: Igor Kamenev, pilot
Eigenvector: [GCOCRH0LL155M9G9V0JJ]
The AIC and I have collated and archived all semantical flows received [litura diluviorum] so a couple or one more days [litura diluviorum] almost twenty standard years on Earth's vacuoles. I apologize for my mistake for I was busy with organizing [litura diluviorum] monitoring non-matters and forgot to check my four-dimensional coordinates. Data shows that I [litura diluviorum] near 72 [litura diluviorum] from standard temporal axis. I am trying my best to fix it, but this vacuole seems to be affecting my ship. Currently, I am still deviated with [litura diluviorum] the standard axis. For this I have turned up the frequency semantical flow processing of my AIC, so you have to spend more time communicating with me.
This also explains why [litura diluviorum] all transmission windows I found have gone in a blink, not allowing me and my spaceship's semantical flows to return to Earth. Anyway, I will continue [litura diluviorum] an unknown metal adhered to the shell. It is supposed to have anomalous and unique qualities, resembling gold but different. It is safe to touch, and when I [litura diluviorum] AIC shows my angle in relation to the standard axis started to fluctuate. [litura diluviorum] I am studying its potential use.
I assume when this message finally [litura diluviorum] reaches Earth's vacuoles, your time must have been several standard years later. [litura diluviorum] I have faith in the speed of research of the SCP Foundation and that you already have a decent understanding of this anomalous metal. Please share your findings with me, thank you very much.
Pilot Igor Kamenev salutes the Eastern Land Command of SCP Foundation.
Although the detailed cause is not distinguished, it is confirmed that non-matters can create diversity in physical principles among vacuoles. This has been common knowledge in the early stage of the establishment of current normalcy. Till now, lags between the rate of time flow still have to be considered during inter-vacuolic communications. However, even the most disparate pair of vacuoles would not exhibit such a dramatic deviation as where comrade Igor Gaminov is located. This is even considered to be a potentially unique physical property of this vacuole.
And it is the said physical property that enabled comrade Igor Kamenev to become the thirteenth Node.
Vacuole Designation: VL-13
Sender: An Ji, writer
Eigenvector: [C1ORTC1CAHXMMT413UZT]
Nights on Mount Zhurong are tranquil. Little attention is demanded for one to hear the bubbling, sizzling sound from sources of fervency underneath the volcano's abyssal maw. One bubble breaks, then two, then three, enough to be noticed but not to be irksome, as if they are soothing you to sleep with white noise. I often wonder if the Folks of Big Foot had been accompanied by such sounds when they told stories inherited from ancestors and engraved them onto clay tablets.
Even within chronicles dating back to the third millennium of the Old Calendar, pages where Folks of Big Foot are mercilessly scarce, which is not helped by the fact that they went as the shadows before the coming of non-matters. Someone says they concealed themselves inside the most lonesome delves and had stepped into non-matters upon the demise of old normalcy; with semantical flows in litura diluviorum as ramparts, they had rebuilt the kingdom of their own. However, I always hold a deep skepticism toward such a story. Turning eyes to the tablets remained in the foothills, and arcane writings would not share their mysteries even to the most erudite historians and culturologists. More than half of a century has passed, yet not a single of the characters can be deciphered.
Legends claim the Folks had written the profoundest wisdom of their nation on clays. Their consonants are fractured rubbles on Mount Zhurong, their vowels are turbid water in Mount Zhurong, and their numbers are hovering crows above Mount Zhurong, their punctuations are blazing lava out from Mount Zhurong. Impractical is the abstract and poetic description, but a message it indeed conveyed to me: one has to be on Mount Zhurong if they are to comprehend what are on the tablets by the Folks.
Squandering all transmission windows available to me, I finally reached the Vacuole VL-13 which upholds Mount Zhurong. What I could find was merely the vast devastation and nothingness; scorch temperature with desertic air roughened and cracked the surface of anything existing. However, to peruse the clay tablets of the Folks, I knew I had to endure, to fit myself in all this savageness and let them merge into my skin, blood and depth of my soul. I needed to become a true Folk of Big Foot with my best efforts to even seize a chance to gaze on their wisdom.
I so lived for some months on Mount Zhurong, but still unrewarded.
Author: An Ji
Written for Asagao Literature Gazette
Vacuole Designation: FE-NV
Sender: Liao Yiyi, resident
Eigenvector: [8JXHF6P9HKIWSH7VWD83]
Qian, I'm sinking into the trench. It's so deep, so dark here, thick and tangible darkness is engulfing me … I thought I could attain my eigenvector upon reaching this trench. But I didn't … I haven't …
I should surface myself by now. But I want to try a little bit harder, stay for a little longer … and longer … But I guess I'm about to fail, Qian, I'm on the verge of it …
Vacuole Designation: C0-BK
Sender: Zang Fen, Intranet Administrator
Eigenvector: [HBAE8A0X415OQSCHIFC1]
can coders from scpf make more effort than no effort at all?! ur rarusium extension crashes every time and just cant run, only because u parsed a null eigenvector at line 52. how're u not noticing a warning so big on your compiler? did u just use your optical prostheses as rgb bulbs?? so elementary … don't tell me u have sent the same extension to all 30 thousand vacuoles all 'round earth. im always disgusted by idiots.
fire ur ivvq director if u read this. im helping save ur electricity bill for real ↲
Vacuole Designation: N0-FS
Sender: Xiang, resident
Eigenvector: [OMK7DZ3H1EXQQITO2EW6]
Today two grownups go to our vacuole and say thingys Xiang doesnt understand. They ask how to be always young to Xiang. But Xiang doesnt know what is this. Youth sound like a blue stretchy mud sticking on yellow flower core. They ask why stuffs dont grow up at this place. They want to stay here forever. But they are so noisy and so useless. Xiang let stones to send them springs but they say ethanol with mud are more tasty than springs. Xiang ask butterflys to send them sweeties but they complain having too much will make bad tooth. Why they worry about this? Xiang and her friends always have bad tooths. You pull out them and new tooths will grow.
They seem to just stare at each others face all day. Xiang wants bring them out because Xiang's friends will make aurora show tonight. But they are like they want to sleep soundly in bed and angrily kick Xiang out. Xiang is confused!
Vacuole Designation: AQ-9S
Sender: Gao Miao, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: [66Z8UQZ8OY3H94RJS1FR]
We never came up with the thought of figuring out the essence of that transparent liquid covering the sky of Vacuole AQ-9S during a rather lengthy period of time. Perhaps it was because we were busy monitoring the non-matter conditions in the vicinity and searching transmission windows; perhaps it was because we were busy decoding stories from other vacuoles within bits and bobs of information coming out from semantical flows suffered from litura diluviorum; or perhaps we were merely too used to the irregular look of vacuoles and thought none could be surprising; or it was that we were afraid of adventures to that surface of glittering waves resembling surge of non-matters.
Or one can argue that we were tired in these long and changeless days. We were tired of researching. We chose to return to our families, our normal lives, without anomalies.
Yet changes have taken place in these days now. Rarusium, eigenvector, Nodes … New hopes reignited our curiosities, driving us to find an explanation for the properties of that liquid. It is a type of perfluoroalkyl compound. Clean, pure, near inexhaustible. Guo Zizhuo, a Junior Researcher from our institute, tied a cable around his waist and sketched a thaumatic anti-gravity sigil. Then he rose to the sky and got submerged into the liquid. He removed his helmet, confirming the nature of the liquid with the rising and falling of his chest.
My daughter often says, "Daddy, look! The water in the sky is so beautiful!" when I take her out for walks. Now I can tell her, "Rou, that liquid is greater than water. You can breathe inside it."
Vacuole Designation: X0-BA
Sender: Gegeen Tuyaa, Captain
Eigenvector: [1Y7UEE1VU3EMSUHM22E4]
We might not get a chance to know about Nodes if not a Hollowed Courier just came to our Vacuole before. His arrival proves one thing: those suns, those ten things blocking our path forward entire, shall perform their lawless conducts no more.
So I made a squad. Ten operatives, five men and five women, all elite archers. We wear badges made from rarusium to raise everyone's morale, which resembles a bow on top of a bundle of arrows. At midnight when the sunlight was at its weakest, we marched into the western forest and tracked down one of the suns from its remaining light. It floated motionlessly on a small pond. Even though its brightness had been whittled away by the night, marks would still appear and linger on one's eyeballs upon looking at it. I shot my arrow toward it without hesitation.
And it explodes, brilliance like tangible objects sprinkled all over us. Bayar closed his eyes not quickly enough and got near-blinded even till today. Raran and I hid between rocks and trunks, and with good cooperation with other teammates, we managed to make the sun retreat to a gravelly corner. Naran shot from the dark, hitting straight at its core. The sun had a rapid internal collapse before vanishing completely.
It is a shame that our victory was not an unalloyed one. Less than two minutes after we headed to our camp, my fellow at the watch tower reported that a new light beam had shown up in the forest.
That sun can revive.
Vacuole Designation: Q4-9W
Sender: Cang Miyun, Intranet Administrator
Eigenvector: [XFHY1PN5095B3URS7PTB]
i got the news coming from vacuole c0-bk. hope hollowed couriers can help bring this message to their admin.
our vacuole's intranet got non-matter attacks for a while some time ago. we literally got our ass kicked until we figured out … to stop expansion and divide the network into more tiny clusters, only keeping the most basic 443 port to communicate. go back to stone age, basically. attack rate dropped after we did it.
i know this sounds like yielding but …yeah this is the only way we know is effective. the algorighm of non-matters … it hates unity; it hates seeing us unite together and develop bigger. it will never stop biting ur asses unless u stop expanding.
good luck fellas … oh dont forget to check ur raid. we learned our lesson the hard way ↲
Vacuole Designation: 5Z-EG
Sender: Song Fangfei, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: [2TRZ94MGUT2IFRCZ2L79]
Our vacuole has heard those things about Nodes and the Nodal Matrix. Somehow magically, it seems that items contained in my institute also have received a semantical flow broadcasted to us. Said items are a set of anomalous shadow puppets able to do performance with no need of men controlling them. They had been inactive for quite a while and we just put them in boxes per the standard procedures, but now, they wake up.
We made a couple simple shows with them. Kids in our Vacuole like them very much. Maybe we can show them to more children out there once the Nodal Matrix is constructed.
Vacuole Designation: C0-BK
Sender: Si Haokong, Hollowed Courier
Eigenvector: N/A
Unfortunately, aliens to this Vacuole can only have access to the Intranet through using low-resolution virtual reality devices, and that four are broken out of the total five devices we have here … It makes sense, though, since even today it's unlikely to have more than five visitors to this Vacuole. All locals have their own ports so they don't need these devices either. Hell, non-matters are acting like crazy recently; even a Hollowed Courier like me has to carefully plan their routes …
Still it makes me yearn. Cyberspace is way larger than vacuoles in reality with endless possibilities in there. It's a shame that the alarm went off too soon and they kicked me out when I only got a little satisfied. They said it was non-matter attacking … or not? They spoke so fast that I could barely discern a word.
Could I make an application to the Society to specifically arrange me to this area? But wouldn't an intrusive operation affect my eigenvector? Damn it …
Vacuole Designation: C0-BK
Sender: Zang Fen, Intranet Administrator
Eigenvector: [HBAE8A0X415OQSCHIFC1]
sry but i refuse. we spent 3 whole years developing a new subnet and the latest patch just got updated last week. i dont accept handing our efforts to non-matters like this!
why everyone's telling us to 'divide' and 'break'? look, i know … a lot of our gates to cyberspace is opened under guidance of the broken GURU. fragmented information sea and decentralized universal connectivity r very appealing of course. but that age is long gone and now world is so broken as guru. whoever's still following them is fundamentalist imo. to yield only means non-matters will tear us down further until you become a flash disk, sitting on shelves with no internet connection. i do not accept this.
hell, even rarusium told me to do so. i just touched it and it broke down into 32 pieces and they floated next to me. scpf please explain this lol ↲
Vacuole Designation: AQ-9S
Sender: Gao Miao, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: [66Z8UQZ8OY3H94RJS1FR]
Whenever I hold a piece of rarusium, its top surface will turn to resemble a mirror reflecting the lake of perfluoroalkyl compound above my Vacuole. I am sure this phenomenon is anomalous because it is not affected by location; even if I enter a room and lock it up, with only the ceiling above, the mirror on top of the rarusium would nevertheless still reflect the rippling sky of Vacuole AQ-9S.
Out of instinct, I gently tossed the rarusium up, and I didn't think it would levitate straight to the sky and sink into the lake. Researchers in my institute told me don't ignore what hint rarusium had given me, so I tethered a rope on my and went up using a thaumaturgic sigil as Ziyao did before. To take off your helmet within perfluoroalkyl compound requires courage. I got quite uncomfortable at first when the liquid went in my lungs, but quickly I got used to that feeling of being drowned, as if a blurring filter was applied to the whole world.
However, things turned dangerous in just a few seconds. I raised my head and noticed a pitch-black sphere sitting right at the depth of the upside-down lake, to which my piece of rarusium was accelerating toward it. I immediately made a comparison and found it was strikingly similar to a black hole; colleagues on the ground surface confirmed my thought and said AIC had detected a red shift effect on my body, though very small. Meanwhile, I felt a stream of semantics — semantical flows from other vacuoles — slipping through my fingers shortly and soon they floated up into the black hole in the sky.
The black hole … Could it be the reason why there is a lake of perfluoroalkyl compound on our Vacuole? And those semantical flows broadcasted by other vacuoles … Would they be consumed by the black hole even though they have resisted the effect of litura diluviorum?
Vacuole Designation: VL-13
Sender: An Ji, writer
Eigenvector: [C1ORTC1CAHXMMT413UZT]
I was not a believer in rarusium; I didn't think it would provide any help to my work. However, as the clay tablets were tidied, I discovered thin rarusium adhering within the concaves from writings. I scraped it out with a stalk of milfoil. Upon making contact with the air, rarusium lit up to life like charms on pieces of paper burnt into flumes with the wind guiding dots of sparkling ashes to the volcanic crater of Mount Zhurong. I stayed prolonged at the low lands, as the caldera would be too searing for mankind; gazing beyond rushing heat waves, even non-matters in the background would turn into a spiral. But when all methods were exhausted, I must make try.
I climbed up the umber volcanic rocks arranged in hexagonal prisms with all tablets and my portable AIC. At where it became steep, I was amazed to find out that there always would be a neat stairway of stones leading upward. It made me think whether these structures were formed by nature itself or the elevated techniques of the Folks of Big Foot made them suit so flawlessly with the environment. I could not fathom the origin of the rarusium until I finally reached the edge of the volcanic crater — scraps of rarusium floated around the galloping air as though a giant was buried here half a fortnight ago and Folks had incinerated rarusium in memorial. Apparently, this is my own imagination as I am afraid they would not know about rarusium when the Folks wrote down their wisdom on the clay.
Right in this cruel land, I came to a revelation. Although I had been here, on the very Mount Zhurong and lived as the very Folks had lived, I never learned from the Folks to record, to write matters down. You have to become an engraver to understand the engravings. But in a place so devastated, whose story shall be worthwhile?
I turned on the reception function of my AIC and began reading semantical flows traversing to the local vacuole. Non-matters still ravaged the world and the majority of flows were sunk by litura diluviorum. But as long as there could be some fragments of language … There must be fragments of language to be understood. I hunkered down; I made tablets in accordance with the Folks' recipe out of the clay from Mount Zhurong; I grabbed a piece of shattered obsidian. Then, record.
I shall do what the Folks of Big Foot did.
Author: An Ji
Written for Asagao Literature Gazette
Vacuole Designation: RW-55
Sender: Shan Yiyu, Junior Researcher
Eigenvector: [PDARQ7TK4DICC0MD5WVE]
To whoever is listening to my broadcast: I am Junior Researcher Shan Yiyu, specializing in kinetoglyphs. I am currently trapped in Vacuole RW-55 which contains an antimeme, a time-loop phenomenon, or both. I subjectively consider myself to be under a cycle and constantly losing my memories. I am still looking for ways to leave this location. I need your rescue.
And the following message is for myself:
Shan Yiyu, when you wake up again, go to everything in the AIC records about "rarusium" and "eigenvector". The litura diluviorum near here is pretty severe, so the only way to get yourself out is to attain a valid eigenvector. You're alone here, so there's nobody you can bank on except yourself. I've set the AIC to actively evaluate the litura diluviorum rate of any semantical flow you broadcasted. When it's below 95% 84% 62%, it'll play Beethoven's Für Elise automatically. Use it as a marker.
Once you figure out what's going on, don't waste any seconds and just perform PMK-02; it's best to do it for over 30 minutes because that can bring you five to six hours of time dilation. Quite economical, right?
Kinetoglyphs are your only hope. Go mess around with that rarusium in the center to find kinetoglyphs that resonates with it. Note: if it resonates, you shall feel a slight sense of being pulled and weak echoes; yell if you can't hear the sound. All tried combinations are listed later in the message. Pick one that looks nice to you and trust your instinct and your professional sensitivity to kinetoglyphs. PS: please don't do Group C of PMK-53. It backfires in this vacuole. If you don't believe it, just make a remark here in case you get confused about why another bruise appeared on your body. PS: don't do PMK-207. It will upset the rarusium and cause the next cycle to begin immediately.
It seems that rarusium is likely to be what traps you in the loop. PS: don't get angry about it. PS: that's really what I said; check the signature if you wish. When you see it starting to vibrate, go switch on your AIC and record your moves. You have at least 12 minutes to do this. When you see it starting to glow, prepare for the next cycle.
Longest resonating sequence so far: PMK-160 ⇒ PMK-13 ⇒ PMK-437 ⇒ PMK-22 ⇒ PMK-72 (but the last move is pull, not push) ⇒ PMK-55 ⇒ PMK-217
Come on, Shan Yiyu. You can do this.
Vacuole Designation: N0-FS
Sender: Xiang, resident
Eigenvector: [OMK7DZ3H1EXQQITO2EW6]
That two grownups are so noisy so Xiang tells them not to talk any more. And they don't talk anymore. Xiang brings them to the hills and tell them to look at fluffy clouds in the sky. Fluffy clouds are amazing, some times you can see semantical flows go across them and they will turn into all kinds of shapes, but Xiang can't always under stand their shapes. Strange cartie, strange machinie. Xiang and Xiang's friends can shoot semantical flows to the sky if we make a cross with our arm, then fluffy clouds will turn into cute shapes and shapes we want, like robot man living in whale, super huge dragon fly and many many hot air balloons. Xiang and Xiang's friend like these shapes because fly to the sky is hard. Xiang tries couple times with friends but get stumples and get well after many sleepy days. But that two grownups can't do it either … why? They are so dumb.
That two grownups finally yells to go. Whoopie! Grownups are so annoying.
Vacuole Designation: X0-BA
Sender: Gegeen Tuyaa, Captain
Eigenvector: [1Y7UEE1VU3EMSUHM22E4]
Our best record so far is five suns. The more suns we kill, the longer they take to revive. Five makes a week and a couple days more, we counted. But they always come back … This is a game of hunt without end.
All my squad members are torn out, and six people still have their wounds unhealed. Additionally, we have realized that working in groups is not flexible enough, especially when multiple suns show up together and prevent us from covering each other … This is not the way to victory. Soon the ten suns will be shining again and claim their tyranny upon our lands.
I can say the conclusion is very clear now.
Tonight I will head into the forest, with my bow, and my arrows. Alone.
Vacuole Designation: OI-IO
Sender: Wan Zhang, tattoo artist
Eigenvector: [X98WICVBNOOP7UUPKDIA]
A familiar sting comes from my fingertips every time I touch rarusium. I recognized it immediately: that's exactly the pain when the needle of tattoo gun pins through our skin. Tears flowed from my eyes uncontrollably — tears of joy. I feel that the existence of rarusium in this barren vacuole represents the acknowledgment for me from the universe.
So I add rarusium into the needle of my tattoo gun and inks. The pain scales up; it lingers under my skin even after the tattoo is completed. But that also signifies the amplifying of the meaning. Every surge of pain is an injection of meaning. I have longed for such pain for so long.
Rarusium is helping me ascend to the zenith.
Vacuole Designation: VL-13
Sender: An Ji, writer
Eigenvector: [C1ORTC1CAHXMMT413UZT]
It is said that in the Old Age, there was a kind of people who were born with shrewdness but had more difficulties than normal ones when reading texts as letters would dance and dissipate in the dimension before their eyes. They were labeled with dyslexia by people of that age until we found the non-matters and realized their natural perceptiveness of semantical flows. I, in the present era, wondered if their feelings would be the same as mine when I read the tablets by Folks of Big Foot as such because through ages so elongated, I ultimately got the progress I had been desiring.
With the carving of semantical flows, letters by the Folks started shifting, floating, even overturning. I could already hear their verses coming from the gone times, more and faster as I sped up my hand. It was not enough … My fingers had distained and cracked, heat from the volcano had smoldered the tablets; I had reached the speed limit, but there still were hundreds of layers of mist between my eyes and their texts, there still were thousands of mountains of the distance between my ears and their voice.
I needed to go faster, with all efforts being made … and I wouldn't give up.
Sometimes I wrote on tablets through the entire night, so when I turned around, I would find a thick blanket of rarusium scraps covering me. I trembled for a bit, and they fell into the volcano, like ashes, like snow.
Author: An Ji
Written for Asagao Literature Gazette
Vacuole Designation: C0-BK
Sender: Zang Fen, Intranet Administrator
Eigenvector: [HBAE8A0X415OQSCHIFC1]
not gonna admit it but you've got a point.
i ain't saying we are to stop expanding. i won't compromise on this. im talking that idea itself, 'broken'. u know im a person care a lot about 'completeness' of cyberspace, like complete codes, complete functions, but completing means coupling, changing one part will change the whole. i care it much and that blew us up upon non-matter attacks. non-matters surround our entire cyberspace; its attack is from all ends and cooperating, which is eazy cuz non-matter is a whole itself. we r not fast enough even if keyboarders get the highest speed reachable in vacuole.
thats the idea rarusium piece gave me. we need complete defense, complete in a way while fragmented all over cyberspace. a broken completeness … GURU are you smiling at me?
of course other vacuoles cant think this. few of u know this algorithm, few of those know can achieve this algorithm, few of those can dont have good enough compilers for this algorithm. i can upload my brain's matrix in quantum state and partition it into 32 container sets, then deploy them to all ports in our vacuole's cyberspace. i will be the firewall against non-matters attack. sons of bitches get no chance to beat me like this. it shall not pass. pretty cool. the only problem is it's irreversible.
no need to argue, im the only one can do this. u know well whether u half-asses can stop it on that position. GURU said so many years ago: those who come to cyberspace shall not care too much about their complete body. get yourself ready if you understand cuz non-matters wont wait too long.
i will make myself broken. i will become the GURU ↲
Vacuole Designation: AQ-9S
Sender: Gao Miao, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: [66Z8UQZ8OY3H94RJS1FR]
To be frank, when I first joined the SCP Foundation, I was scared of the idea of getting connected to other people and making a family with them. I used to think they would eventually become encumbrances, and as a member of the Foundation, I should sacrifice my entire self to the organization and make a cut between me and the ordinary life. However, as the new normalcy has been established, and research and containment duties become mundane and boring, I have dropped this opinion. I met with my love; we got a daughter. Although I still work for the Foundation, I think I am now more of a normal person living peacefully in the vacuole.
And then the calling came upon me. Judging from how the rarusium acted and others' research, the conclusion is very simple. I am the one able to attain valid eigenvector through going up, through submerging myself in perfluoroalkyl compound in the sky, through guiding the semantical flows at a position near the event horizon. As such, I can become a Node. There is only one person who can do it and that person is me.
As a member of the SCP Foundation, I have pledged to take such a responsibility. It is literally a miracle for a vacuole to find a Node. It is wrong of me to not ditch all my concerns, not to say becoming a Node is not that dangerous in the first place. But I … Yes, I admit I hesitated. Being a Node means I would not be at home so much, and would not accompany my daughter so much.
I would not have such worries if I did not make a family. But … My family, my wife, my daughter, they have become the most wonderful things in my life. I cannot imagine a life withour them. I firmly believes that my encounter and life with them is destined. I have no choice on this, in effect.
I brought my daughter to the Institute and taught her how to use a telescope to observe the lake above us. Then, I told her the mission I was given. I said, "Daddy will miss you so much, but he is going to do what he should do anyway. Rou, what do you think daddy should do?"
Rou said, "If I allow daddy to be a Node, would it make my life happier?"
I smiled, "Probably won't. But it will make this world a better place. People can travel between different vacuoles freely, talk to each other freely, without worrying if one day they'll sink into litura diluviorum."
She said, "I'm already happy with mommy and daddy. I don't wanna travel to other vacuoles. I don't wanna talk to people from outside。"
"If that's the case," I replied, "then daddy may not be a Node then."
My daughter looked at me in silence, then she asked, "Are others looking for you to become a Node?"
"Yes," I said.
"Will they be happy if you do?" She asked.
"Yes."
Rou lowered her hand and thought for a while. Then she said, "Daddy should be a Node."
"What makes you think so now?" I asked.
And she answered, "Because, making others' dreams come true, is really cool."
Vacuole Designation: X0-BA
Sender: Gegeen Tuyaa, Captain
Eigenvector: [1Y7UEE1VU3EMSUHM22E4]
I advanced quietly from a distant path, then killed the first sun on the fifth crossing. The rarusium badge made its first vibration.
I climbed to the top of a tree, leaping from branch to branch, then killed the second lying in a bush. The rarusium badge made its second vibration.
I dived into a stream with only my nose above water, then killed the third sun after sneaking to under the waterfall. The rarusium badge made its third vibration.
Thousands of rays of sun chased me. The fourth and fifth suns surrounded me at the end of the valley, but they did not realize that was merely my phantom out of thaumatology. I hid in a cavern nearby and killed the two suns. The rarusium badge made its fourth and fifth vibrations.
The sixth and seventh suns were lazy and ruthless. I lured them out of the cave with gunpowder. Their lights brightened the whole cave as if the day had come, without knowing that I was waiting on the peak. After they were exhausted, I killed them with shots one by one. The rarusium badge made its sixth and seventh vibrations.
I killed the eighth sun on the canopy. The rarusium badge made its eighth vibration.
I killed the ninth sun in the dried well. The rarusium badge made its ninth vibration.
Finally, I chased the tenth sun to the end of the cliff. It was scared, it trembled, with the rarusium badge making its tenth vibration. I pulled my strings and aimed it, but got struck by hesitation. They were, after all, suns, the symbols of light. Maybe they were … just doing what they were made to do, with no real malice whatsoever. If I killed all the suns, would the vacuole fade into eternal cold? But if I did not kill all the suns, everything would be in vain when they revive …
But I had proven that I could conquer them. I was superior to them.
So I dropped my bow and let the tenth sun escape. It fell down the cliff, then were a million beams of light. The rarusium badge broke in front of me, meanwhile, I felt ripples coming from within and echoed through the entire vacuole.
I think I have done something more valuable.
Vacuole Designation: AQ-9S
Sender: Gao Anrou, resident
Eigenvector: [RB7XGO7ZQJ3LUR7U5B4Y]
Daddy twinkles when he goes up in the sky. I can see him reach out his right hand, then his left hand, then daddy glows like a star, like a light tower.
And he's better than a star! Because every two Tuesdays daddy will come down from the sky and play with me for a whole day.
Other stars can't do this!
Vacuole Designation: C0-BK
Sender: Zang Fen, Intranet Administrator
Eigenvector: [HBAE8A0X415OQSCHIFC1]
i am i am broken brok am br broken ken ↲
i am vac i am vacuole c i am 0-bk uole c0-b vacuole c0-bk 's fir k 's firewall 's firewall 's irewall wall ↲
non- non-matters have st have stopped to be a thre thre a threat to my vac my threat a threat to my vac vacuole ↲
i am also i am also i am also sure that this is my that is my this that at is my way to attain to way att valid eigen attain attain eigen ain to tain lid eigenvector ↲
i can be i can be can become i can become nod can me an can become node ↲
Vacuole Designation: OI-IO
Sender: Wan Zhang, tattoo artist
Eigenvector: [X98WICVBNOOP7UUPKDIA]
How pathetic, all those vacuoles with so many people, but no one is paying attention to what it truly means to feel pain. They avoid it, asking for anesthetics when making their tattoo, not knowing that a tattooing without pain is utter meaninglessness. And when I stare at my bodily canvas in front of a mirror, I recall each and every one experience of pain, even those that stay with me to this day and make me groan when I look at them. This is where meaning lies, where profound significance resides.
Maybe rarusium can help me find the most sincere meaning and pain of me. That should be a pattern, and I will tattoo it on my scalp; I will ascend to zenith upon the tide of pain in the process. I will be one with the meaning, the profound significance. I will reach nirvana.
I have confirmed that it will be my valid eigenvector.
Vacuole Designation: RW-55
Sender: Shan Yiyu, Junior Researcher
Eigenvector: [PDARQ7TK4DICC0MD5WVE]
I made it … I made it at last …
Someone has finally received my broadcast. He called himself a "Hollowed Courier", but he's just a guy with no right arm. Errrgh. I'm so tired … The complete resonating sequence requires three whole hours of nonstop dancing … But I made my success.
I can leave this vacuole now.
Vacuole Designation: VL-13
Sender: An Ji, writer
Eigenvector: [C1ORTC1CAHXMMT413UZT]
<BEGIN LOG>
This record was shot with the camera on the recorder's portable AIC. Mount Zhurong of Vacuole VL-13 can be seen on the screen. The recorder in silver heat insulation suit sat on the ground with numerous clay tablets roughly the size of books scattered next to her. Tiny rarusium particles can be seen sparkling in the air. One end of a data cable was connected to the recorder's wrist port and the other end extended toward the camera, presumably connected to the AIC.
An Ji: On the second day of February 2137 of the Old Calendar, the Chaos Runners revealed a large number of documents of the SCP Foundation to the general public. Those so-called battles of concepts are merely childish games not beyond a three-year-old's mental capacity from the perspective of today. Nonetheless, it did objectively promote the publication and advancement of many high-end technologies, which include this.
The recorder took out a light-gray box from her back. The box is identified to be a standard material printing box for AIC usage. The recorder opened the box and took an ampule holding with low amount of light-green-colored liquid from it.
An Ji: F-class Amnestics, codenamed "FUGUE", which used to be among the evidence the Chaos Runners provided to prove the incontrovertible crimes that the SCP Foundation had made. Nearly thousand years have passed and all the rights and wrongs have long gone with the old days. But the recipe for amnestics remains, and it develops and evolves through time. (pause) Elements on today's Mount Zhurong happen to be enough for me to print it out. I don't think it is a coincidence.
The recorder put the ampule on the ground and dusted the rarusium scraps on her body with her hands.
An Ji: My speed of engraving is still not fast enough — this is a sure thing as I don't understand what writing system the Folks of Big Foot were using. To break the impasse, I came up with a solution.
The AIC made an electronic beep. The recorder unplugged the cable and gently caressed the port on her wrist.
An Ji: I have constructed a language, using my own eigenvector as consonants, vowels, numbers and punctuations at the same time. Once I'm familiarized with it, I would be able to compress semantical flows coming through this vacuole at nearly the speed of light. To engrave on clay tablets as such, with this I believe I can be proximate enough to the Folks in the old days, who will allow me to pore over their tablets.
Brief silence.
An Ji: But I cannot make it for now. Even though it is a language created by me, it still isn't born with me as my native language. I am mother to it, and now I need it to become my mother tongue. To go even further, I need it to become the sole existence inside the depth of my soul.
The recorder looked silently at the ampule on the ground, then took it up. The noise of lava sprinkling can be heard from the background. The visual signal was distorted by the running of hot air.
An Ji: I just have compiled the entirety of my language to my portable AIC. It will be capable of decoding every record I make from here on. Now, I shall engulf this elixir to reconstruct my soul. I shall forget everything I knew from the past, with only the constructed language left, with only Mount Zhurong left, and with only the mission to finally decipher the clay tablets left by the Folks of Big Foot.
The recorder snapped the neck of the ampule. Bubbles started to emerge from the light-green liquid.
An Ji: I shall finish my writing.
The recorder raised her head and drank all of the liquid from the ampule in one gulp. A short silence later, the entire body of the recorder began to tremble violently meanwhile the sound of volcano eruption became clearer in the background. The recorder opened her mouth and yelled, but no voice had been recorded. After this, the recorder lowered her head and went into fetal position on the ground.
An Ji: … Ba …
With a splash, the recorder pushed all the tablets into the volcanic crater.
<END LOG>
Neighboring vacuoles received the eigenvector broadcast from Vacuole VL-13 after this record. Three standard months later, we assigned a Hollowed Courier passing by to head to the vacuole to investigate. Upon the volcanic crater, we found comrade An Ji who was persistently engraving on clay tablets and pushing them into the volcano. By the Courier's words, the language An Ji has been using since then was "dry, thick and just so hot as Mount Zhurong". All conversations with her could only be made with the translation service provided by her portable AIC. We asked if she was willing to become a Node. After finishing the engraving for fifty-seven tablets, the AIC made a confirmative answer.
It is true that comrade An Ji had managed to decipher the tablets of the Folks of Big Foot, and we had archived all source files of translation originally provided by the AIC. However, on the afternoon of the day when we logged them into our database, all the files were gone with only a short message with a signature of "Asagao Literature Gazette", and it asked us to express their gratitude to An Ji for them. No sign of an entity named "Asagao Literature Gazette" is found in all vacuoles within the Eastern Land.
If you are going to pay a visit to Vacuole VL-13, remember to prepare a heat insulation suit. We also suggest all visitors not bother her at the top of Mount Zhurong.
Vacuole Designation: X0-BA
Sender: Gegeen Tuyaa, Captain
Eigenvector: [1Y7UEE1VU3EMSUHM22E4]
As expected, those ten suns revived after around seven standard months. But this time no one is deflated to any extent. This time, I will not go alone, but not with teams either. We are independent hunters … No. Our goal is not to kill the ten suns. We are not hunters, but dancers, dancing at the side of those ten suns. We will repeat shooting nine of them to death, and let one live so that they can revive later and the circle can continue. I can attain my valid eigenvector via continuous participation in "sunhunting" like this.
Let it be a traditional festival of our vacuole, my fellows. We dance and dart, we feast and laugh. With the merry sound of gongs, we make our way; with the soundless tranquility, our arrows from the dark kill the suns. Then, we shall triumph.
Operation "Sunhunt" is enacted and will last forever in Vacuole X0-BA.
Vacuole Designation: H5-BM
Sender: Kong Chengqi, Fretting Goldsmith
Eigenvector: [BZ2A83S5F55EOGK281GX]
I crafted a rarusium recurve bow for Gegeen Tuyaa. It's flexible and light, and not like anything I made of rarusium before, its texture is black, not reflecting any light. Quite suitable for moving rapidly and secretly in the woods, isn't it? What's more, every pluck on the string will resonate with the rarusium and amplify the eigenvector of whoever using it. That's what I made to gift the Sunhunter.
And I made a patch of rarusium arrows, too. Same lightness, but sharp and fast at the same time. No need to save them, Madam. I heard that one of our Guild members lives near your vacuole and they can support you any time.
Happy "Sunhunt"!
Vacuole Designation: TK-3N
Sender: Ke Zeyan, archivist
Eigenvector: [3FUY0SAL7T2XDB5OMLMG]
To Senior Researcher Dong Miyu of the SCP Foundation,
Good day. I am sure you would be very welcome by all in my vacuole and I have heard about the idea that the SCP Foundation you are representing is attempting to construct the Nodal Matrix. I have no problem on this matter witnessing the sincerity and enthusiasm you and the Foundation behind you on your advertisement and lectures made for sharing knowledge about rarusium to my vacuole. It is a pity that I would like to decline your invitation to the entire population of this vacuole to attend the celebration at night. I beg your pardon on this.
I have already been accustomed to the peaceful and serene life in my vacuole before your arrival. The local archive holds a considerable number of books from the Old Age and in my humble opinion, they are good enough to keep me occupied for decades. I am not a person who is fond of interaction and connection with other people as I tend to act poorly at interpreting their emotions and organizing my words on those occasions. Other residents of my vacuole might enjoy socializing though, therefore to avoid having to repeatly reject others' invitations, I have made up my decision to inform you of my conditions in advance. Please forgive my disturbance.
I wish you a joyful life in Vacuole TK-3N.
Vacuole Designation: RW-55
Sender: Shan Yiyu, Junior Researcher
Eigenvector: [PDARQ7TK4DICC0MD5WVE]
I never thought I'd come back again … But the good news is, there won't be any time loops anymore.
Being an employee of the SCP Foundation, I know I must take the responsibility of becoming a Node — and it's sort of a promotion. Only in this vacuole can I do kinetoglyphs to resonate with that chunk of rarusium and attain my valid eigenvector. But I'm not going to be lonely here. New institutes are being set up, and many researchers as well as explorers yearning for new lands are coming too. This vacuole will get really heated soon.
I don't quite like the rarusium here even today … I just don't understand why it has to treat me like this. But, when I'm doing the movements, there will be a feeling … Maybe it's trying to enlighten me; it sees my potential so it forces me to go forward, meanwhile sneakily guiding me to the right direction, showing me a miracle that I can't be dared to imagine. Or maybe it's just because it just feels unaccompanied; it might not be a native to this vacuole, and like me it came here merely out of an accident. So it wants to make the world connected like everyone who's making efforts right now; so it stopped me from leaving, for it didn't want to fade into darkness again. Or maybe … You know, I shouldn't judge rarusium in the way I judge people.
All in all, here is not lonely, and the world is reconnecting.
May we build the Matrix one day.
Vacuole Designation: II-IY
Sender: Xiao Teng, Hollowed Courier
Eigenvector: N/A
I met Mr. Yu Nuoda in Vacuole II-IY! What an honor! It's just that … heck, should've shut my mouth before. Out of curiosity I asked about what was in the huge case he was holding. He said it was a delivery made for Mr. Shi Hengxin, then he … he just opened it ….
A glass jar filled with pale yellow liquid, and it … eh, there was a human heart, and it was pumping in the liquid.
Vacuole Designation: AQ-9S
Sender: Gao Miao, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: [66Z8UQZ8OY3H94RJS1FR]
Everyone seems to say that I can make lights when I guide semantical flows in the air.
It is not so complicated actually. I just reach out my hand, and then … listen to them. I am not going to understand them, but just … feel, feel them sincerely, and I can see them heading in the other direction pointed by my arm instead of being pulled toward the black hole.
So I really glow? That is interesting. To myself: next time don't forget to ask Rou to take a photo of me.
Vacuole Designation: DV-S8
Sender: Shu Yongmo, Lachrymose Chanter
Eigenvector: [UD1ROC1HAO4G0DBXPDO4]
[A soprano chant without lyrics with anomalous memetic properties. The audience would find themselves in a room lit up by millions of light beams and begin to watch a strong and vigorous female warrior shooting an arrow with a pitch-black bow. There was sweat and grime on her face, but her vision was sharp and full of resolution. The audience would feel a gust of passion running in their chest. Looking back, the audience would find more people standing next to them. They were equally determined as her and they shouted out toward the faraway brilliance.]
Vacuole Designation: QM-LM
Sender: Basang Drolma, Institute Director
Eigenvector: [U4HXIK93Z13N4RAT44C8]
Today marks the time of completion of the semantical flow signal tower on Mount Qomolangma. Meanwhile, we have received more broadcasting of valid eigenvectors. New Nodes have manifested, and we will record them as the following:
Node No. 6 - Codename REFLECTION, located in Vacuole AQ-9S, with comrade Gao Miao as the Chief, who attained his valid eigenvector through ascending into perfluoroalkyl compounds in the sky and guiding semantical flows.
Node No. 7 - Codename EARTH, located in Vacuole VL-13, with comrade An Ji as the Chief, who attained her valid eigenvector through compressing semantical flows with her self-constructed language.
Node No. 8 - Codename FIREWALL, located in Vacuole C0-BK, with comrade Zang Fen as the Chief, who attained her valid eigenvector through uploading her cyberquantum state into separated container sets.
Node No. 9 - Codename RESONANCE, located in Vacuole RW-55, with comrade Shan Yiyu as the Chief, who attained her valid eigenvector through resonating with a massive piece of rarusium with kinetoglyphs.
Node No. 10 - Codename SUNHUNT, located in Vacuole X0-BA, with comrade Gegeen Tuyaa as the Chief, who attained her valid eigenvector through continuously killing a type of self-reviving anomalous entities.
Our concept of the Nodal Matrix is slowly but steadily being realized. A new round of Nodal backpropagation of errors is pending. We still have many work to do. Besides, the coverage of currently available Nodes is not satisfying. If more — a few are enough — Nodes can be established, we may truly and utterly spike open the non-matters within territories of the Eastern Land.
Vacuole Designation: TM-A4
Sender: Igor Kamenev, pilot
Eigenvector: [GCOCRH0LL155M9G9V0JJ]
AIC had finished calculating the model for me, and I made adjustments accordingly. [litura diluviorum] more I deviate from the standard temporal axis, the more forces rarusium and non-matters are applied simultaneously to my vessel as if it is pulled by intangible strings. I can see the form of non-matters' vortices changing, and it is becoming easier to receive your semantical flows. However, for me [litura diluviorum] your time flow will accelerate as well.
Presently I am controlling my spaceship in a state of relatively low litura diluviorum rate and generally acceptable difference in time flow. Forgive me for being a late replier because years can pass on your Earth every time I blink. [litura diluviorum] hear about the concept of the Nodal Matrix. The AIC added a lot of rarusium equipment outside my ship. I made some calculations on eigenvector based on your research and I think I have found something worth mentioning.
But things are far from being done. I am still sorting the [litura diluviorum] in the process. I will tell you about it when I come to a more accurate result. AIC told me it would spend seven or eight hours on this, but that equals to another few years on your side. I wish all vacuoles can be well during my time of calculation.
Pilot Igor Kamenev salutes the Eastern Land Command of SCP Foundation.
Vacuole Designation: N0-FS
Sender: Xiang, resident
Eigenvector: [OMK7DZ3H1EXQQITO2EW6]
Today a brother comes to our vacuole. He is a good brother but he has no heart. Xiang finds this amazing though all fluffy clouds disappear when he come here … But brother is very good and Xiang can forgive him.
Good brother asks what Xiang and Xiang's friends do here. Xiang says playing games. Xiang and Xiang's friends are always playing games in here. Brother says other peoples are playing in other vacuole too, but non-matter is a big baddie and people cant find friends for play games. Xiang doesnt understand. Xiang said why they cant be friend with fluffy grass and fluffy wood. And brother say people no do this in other vacuole and they will be grownup and cant do it too even if they come.
How so! Xiang is sad! S-A-D!
Vacuole Designation: DV-S8
Sender: Shu Yongmo, Lachrymose Chanter
Eigenvector: [UD1ROC1HAO4G0DBXPDO4]
[A soprano chant without lyrics with anomalous memetic properties. The audience would find themselves sitting straight upon a glacier. They would raise their heads and see the crystal-clear lake in the sky. A figure glows as brightly as the full moon in the depth of the lake. The audience would think the light from the figure is sacred and warm with a sense of familiarity. The audience would find the glowing figure slowly approaching themselves until the chant ends.]
Vacuole Designation: OI-IO
Sender: Wan Zhang, tattoo artist
Eigenvector: [X98WICVBNOOP7UUPKDIA]
I tried all kinds of patterns. Spiraling Penrose Stairs, connected Möbius Strips, infinity symbol composed of infinity symbols composed of infinity symbols … Infinity, it seems to show up time after time, which is natural — what would be more profound than the pain infinitely looping? But infinity is unreachable; it's impossible for my finite life to draw infinite patterns till the infinite end.
Perhaps I should do it with simpler, more elemental shapes? Circles, triangles, curves, semiregular solids … Hardly any pain comes when I paint these patterns. Moans without pain make me sick. But I may paint them black; to fill a finite area with infinite points also resembles infinity. But it still won't be correct … Put them together, making thousands of millions of combinations. This could be the answer.
But there isn't enough space on my skin for me to tattoo. I have to wash away the failures again and again, which shamed me deeply as the process of washing is painful too. But it's merely a silhouette of meaningfulness because meaning is being taken away instead of being added. This is sacrilegious; I shouldn't find joyfulness from such vacant pain, but I just can't control myself. I shiver. I weep for my shame.
The only blank spot is at the top of my head. But I can't do anything with it, not until I find the true sincerely painful pattern. Even if it means to commit blasphemy on my remaining skins time after time, I shall keep its purity untouched.
Vacuole Designation: TK-3N
Sender: Ke Zeyan, archivist
Eigenvector: [3FUY0SAL7T2XDB5OMLMG]
To Senior Researcher Dong Miyu of the SCP Foundation,
Good day. There might be some mishap happening to my last letter to you but I am still getting invitations to activities that you send to me. I would like to clarify that I am afraid I have little to no interest in the events you are involved. I would be pleased if you could discontinue the care for my simple life at the archive. Common people might find this place and its easy work dull and boring, but I feel rather comfortable and cozy here in fact.
Please do not misunderstand my meaning. I appreciate your passion and professionalism very much. Residents of my vacuole have high remarks of you and I have known a small portion of your kind deeds. Your persistence impresses me deeply even though the research into Nodes has not progressed much since your arrival, and holding events such as crowd-listening to concerts of Lachrymose Chanters makes our vacuole much livelier.
I have absolutely no intention of refusing or opposing you and the SCP Foundation to find the next Node, but the thing is I am just not interested in it. With all due respect, I do not solely dislike interpersonal communication; I consider it as a thing that could do more harm than good. Looking into the not-too-distant past, I see countless tragedies caused by distrust and divergence between groups of people. The world had much greater connectivity back in that age, however, I did not see people becoming more relatable to each other; quite the opposite, opposing and extreme opinions raised wars all over the past world when we put themselves into different parties and factions with sharp languages piercing everyone's gore out. I feel lucky every time when I read these materials since the non-matters have divided us, to the point of even thinking if they came more lately, then the third World War might break out and you and I would perish after which.
Allow me to clarify my position again: I am not going to refuse or oppose your action on building the Nodal Matrix. I only do not want to get involved, and I will not make my life involved even if you manage to do the thing. I already have everything I need in this place. I do not care about everything else.
Cease your disturbance, please, and thank you.
Vacuole Designation: SR-47
Sender: Lü Feiang
Eigenvector: [3A2T5JJYP9OP6JX6E392]
I'm standing on the edge of a cliff. I'm waiting for the triple rainbow to show up, and when it shows up, I'll jump off and a hang glider will bring me to where the centers of rings overlap. I shall attain my eigenvector there and become a Node.
It's just that I don't know when it can show up … Vacuole SR-47 is a desert, dry as hell and has no precipitation in the whole year … But the only thing I can do is wait, and I will wait. If waiting is a trial rarusium put before me, then I'd like to wait 'til eternity.
Comrade Lü Feiang hasn't given up for once since then. Some people laugh at him for this, but it is a path he firmly chose by himself. It's a path chosen by him, therefore we believe his holding on is worths it.
So we wrote a song for him, about a man confronting non-matters at the end of time. We shall hymn his persistence, and we must hymn his persistence — we can't upset anyone like him! Because it's the same persistence that can make the Nodal Matrix come true.
Vacuole Designation: KM-M7
Sender: Thomas Weller, resident
Eigenvector: [204N8EGTWHCX4TFHM0YN]
Why'd you build the Nodal Matrix anyway? I can't even imagine … Our vacuole is tiny already, and packed with all kinds of thingumajigs … What if you let people meander around, those foreigners … those uncivilized, lawless, fucking cunts! How would they understand the customs and culture of our vacuole!? I swear they will turn our vacuole upside down within a few days if you let them in.
Who's gonna be responsible for that? Excuse me!? Chiefs of Node? The SCP Foundation? Where can we make complaints then!?
Vacuole Designation: 80-U8
Sender: Hong Xiangshan, resident
Eigenvector: [TL45ELONP7UFSFP6UP82]
My family always grows tangerines. I always trust that our tangerines are the best in our vacuole. They have a size larger than one's fist, their peel glister with golden light, and the pulp is so big, so juicy, sweet while not cloying. Everybody lines up with baskets at our field in every harvest season.
I very much want to gift our tangerines to other vacuoles. But the litura diluviorum rate these days is still awful … Hope the Nodal Matrix can be built soon, so we can make our tangerines known to more places.
Vacuole Designation: D3-RE
Sender: Wang Xin, resident
Eigenvector: [TY1TVP1RWLQ9XH6LBD3J]
I'd thought … I had thought I would really be this easy. Rarusium made purple light at my hand, and it got brighter and brighter when I put on more purple clothes. I thought I could become a Node as soon as I could wear enough clothes. But … but … I got twelve clothes, but the light dimmed down instead!
This doesn't make any sense! Help! Rarusium is bullying me!
Vacuole Designation: OI-IO
Sender: Wan Zhang, tattoo artist
Eigenvector: [X98WICVBNOOP7UUPKDIA]
It must be a pattern, a pattern of eternal infinity. I shall be as profound as the eyes of the universe, as painful as the fangs from hell. But I just can't … How should I paint infinity on my finite canvas? I can make the same circle once, twice, a thousand times, thousands of thousands of times, and my skin will eventually run out, not to say that even till the Heat Death of our world, the time consumed would not be comparable to one mere second of eternity.
Oh rarusium, you gave me the revelation, you gave me the start of the very sincere pain, yet you left me when I crave more. I see a path of infinity, but I can't find the doorway leading to it. I gave all my filthy skins to you! Alas, I beg your answers, rarusium! My head is pale and lifeless even now. I crave pain, I crave nirvana, so tell me! Tell me what should do! Rarusium!
Vacuole Designation: N0-FS
Sender: Xiang, resident
Eigenvector: [OMK7DZ3H1EXQQITO2EW6]
Xiang always thinks grownups dreams are hard. Grownups want gold stones. Grownups want other people lay down and look at them. Grownups want puppies woof around them but they dont let puppies eat. Xiang will let puppies in the vacuole eat. Xiang likes puppies no matter they woof or no woof. Xiang and Xiang's friends have no such dreams. Xiang thinks Xiang's dream is always stay in here, in this vacuole with fluffy grass and fluffy wood and fluffy clouds. Grownups things are too complex. Grownups semantical flow will make fluffy clouds complex too and Xiang can't undersand them.
But Xiang now knows many grownups have simple dreams. They want friends and they want to play games with friends, but non-matter make them can't find friends in vacuoles. Xiang is so upset. Xiang doesnt like non-matter too. Good brother says grownups are trying to ask non-matter leave. Xiang wants help them too! But grownups need to promise Xiang to make their dreams as simple as Xiang and Xiang's friends. They should find friends and play games with friends. Grownups always lying and Xiang wont help them if their dreams are not like this!
But, but … Xiang will help if theres 50 grownups dream is finding friends! No, Xiang will help if theres 40 grownups dream is finding friends! Wait … How about … 30 grownups … 20 grownups … 10! If theres 10 grownups dream is simple then Xiang will help them find friends!
Vacuole Designation: TK-3N
Sender: Ke Zeyan, archivist
Eigenvector: [3FUY0SAL7T2XDB5OMLMG]
To Senior Researcher Dong Miyu of the SCP Foundation,
I sincerely apologize for my arrogance. I did not know it was the mailbox of the house of your neighbor. The owner of that house has become a Hollowed Courier and often works without going home, so I thought … Now I realize that my behavior before was very abrupt and impolite. I am really sorry. And you did recognize me on that day; yes, I did take part in your research into rarusium and eigenvector, since on that day, I thought … Perhaps it would be better for both you and me to stop asking what I was thinking of on that day.
My opinion of the Nodal Matrix from my standpoint has not changed much frankly. However, I have to admit that your words make a point. The great number of books and documents in the archive which I love reading are all made possible to exist by the interpersonal connection in the Old Age. There will not be great philosophy and great art if there is no communication, clash of thoughts, and entanglement of love and hate. It may be true like you have said, that civilization cannot be born without the incubation of conflicts; development begets problems, and problems will ultimately be solved by further development.
But nonetheless, I still would not like to go too far on this matter … I do not think I should be a part of it. Maybe only in fierce conflicts can great achievements be made, but I do not think … With conflicts, there will be wins and losses. What if great achievements are defeated before they even have the chance to see the world? What if the loss refers to me? I believe any reasonable person should know the meaning of pursuing fortune and avoiding disaster and make choices accordingly. I accept being called a coward or a selfish person, but I admit that I am not born to be the hero who saves the day. I just want to spend the rest of my life peacefully and safely. I support nothing, and I oppose nothing; what matters wo me is the little piece of paradise of mine, a little piece of … where nothing could change no matter whether you had come to Vacuole TK-3N or not.
I am really sorry to bother you for so long.
Vacuole Designation: OG-CL
Sender: Xiang Yuetao, Junior Researcher
Eigenvector: [PJVXKEIP89QYFZBWOETP]
I'm tying ten thousand knots on a rope, each the size of a fist. I have thought making these knots will let me attain the eigenvector, but when I do the ten thousandth one, the first know break down. And every time I go back to tie the first knot again, another knot in the middle breaks down …
I don't know … Is it something with glue? That I should tie the knots with glue? But how can you call it a knot if you use glue to … Don't know what's missing, but … I can't do this anymore.
Vacuole Designation: ZI-V5
Sender: Chen Zuo, resident
Eigenvector: [7NVG0SAIW10AHPV6PTM0]
Are you guys from the SCP Foundation really doing good for us? The Nodal Matrix … How many people are obsessed with finding the valid eigenvector, to waste themselves in such a void and absurd pursuit? If nobody knows about this, they can still live their ordinary but meaningful life. Have you from the Foundation thought about it? You should clearly know not everyone is able to become a Node … Why you give them fake hope, to make them hurt, and bleed, and then find themselves to be "not qualified"?!
You the SCP Foundation have ruined their life! All of them!
Vacuole Designation: OI-IO
Sender: Wan Zhang, tattoo artist
Eigenvector: [X98WICVBNOOP7UUPKDIA]
Tattoo a tortoise. Let it crawl forward slowly.
Tattoo a runner. Let him run forward rapidly.
Halve the time. Halve. Halve. Halve to the eternity. The runner may never go beyond the tortoise.
I see it now. Infinity lies within finitude.
Vacuole Designation: H5-BM
Sender: Kong Chengqi, Fretting Goldsmith
Eigenvector: [BZ2A83S5F55EOGK281GX]
I'm readying for a new project. Think about it, when the Nodal Matrix is made, we should find the public key of the nearest Node when heading out for other vacuoles, right? Well, it might not be so easy to do … But it would be easy to resonate with public keys with the help of specially designed rarusium apparatus.
I wanna design a portable device, like a pocket watch, with tens of interlocking rarusium cogs. There will be a thin spring at the center working as an antenna as well as a receptor for Nodes' public keys, and also connected to the transmission system so that it can move the corresponding cog … I can add different chemical elements into the rarusium to match different Nodes … That's a resonator. A resonator of public key. So many ideas. I gotta speed up and try them all.
Vacuole Designation: Z1-ZF
Sender: Peng Yong, resident
Eigenvector: [LNFGOLH4UG1SU80CQGJQ]
I don't wanna get in touch with others at all … So many stories of people hurting other people, haven't you seen enough? This vacuole … Every person in this vacuole are disgusting dickheads. The human civilization is hopeless from the very beginning.
I don't care what you think. I just gonna stay at home. This is a mistake, period. I don't want the Nodal Matrix. I don't wanna go to other vacuoles.
Vacuole Designation: 3H-F9
Sender: Yong Kaige, Fretting Goldsmith
Eigenvector: [3D4HRGD8480GEKQVWMR1]
What little bastard leaked the information? Who told the public that we're making resonators for public keys? Show yourself! There are only two or three samples in the entire Guild!
It shows many people really want them though. We should really do good research on this and figure out how to realize Master Kong's design more conveniently.
Vacuole Designation: L5-BG
Sender: Xin Youer, resident
Eigenvector: [F1P8UFVC9A3FX31L9KKV]
I don't wanna get in touch with anyone from this vacuole … Why everybody's stitching up and hurting each other? I see it clearly now: my vacuole is a hellhole full of scum.
I am desperately looking for the completion of the Nodal Matrix. Once it's done, I'm gonna leave this place immediately without turning back.
Vacuole Designation: OI-IO
Sender: Wan Zhang, tattoo artist
Eigenvector: [X98WICVBNOOP7UUPKDIA]
I have designed a pattern. Its outmost part is a ring, a Möbius Strip, and what composes its contour is another Möbius Strip, and what composes its contour is another Möbius Strip, so on and so forth until reaching the infinity. The Möbius Strips encircle a Sierpinski Triangle, and what's inside it is other Sierpinski Triangles, so on and so forth until reaching the infinity.
This is a fractal pattern. I thought tattooing it would consume infinite time of mine, but I was wrong, because infinity lies within finitude. The area of shapes is shrinking, and the time it takes is diminishing. It's not a number adding up to infinity. It is bounded, and it is possible to paint a pattern of infinity on my body within a finite time. I can obtain infinitely formed, infinitely profound and infinitely meaningful pain. I shiver. I moan. Just thinking about the absolute meaning brought by such pain makes me extremely adrenalized.
I found the correct pattern. I will tattoo it on my head. I will reach nirvana. I will ascent. I will attain my valid eigenvector in this truest and most genuine pain.
Travelers from other places to Vacuole OI-IO tend to report that they feel an eerie sense of discomfort. The vacuole is not broad at all, but walking one step inside makes one feel like they are covering a distance of a thousand miles, even a temporal distance of thousands of years if they get delusive enough. In hindsight, they only took a second when making this step. We are not able to fully explain the anomalous physical attributes of this vacuole, but we are convinced that it was because of such attributes that enabled comrade Wan Zhang to tattoo a fractal on the head by performing a "supertask".
When residents of Vacuole OI-IO found Wan Zhang, he fainted on a chair in his studio with a smile on his face. Two robotic arms for tattooing were pointed at his gruesome head with flashing green lights showing their work was completed. The tattoo pattern on his head is confirmed to be infinitely precise, but it also contains a certain degree of cognitive hazard and long-time visual contact may cause mental disorders. We suggest everyone avoid looking at it, no matter how curious you are.
Comrade Wan Zhang is still in a coma, however, his vital signs have been stable and he is constantly broadcasting his valid eigenvector in an unconscious state. Node No. 11 functions normally as always.
Vacuole Designation: N5-1B
Sender: Chen Ting, resident
Eigenvector: [DM2E5YR6C4931OAQ50T6]
Wheat in my vacuole always has a low yield … We've worked on this from all different perspectives, from climate to fertilizer, we did everything well enough, but the outcome is still unsatisfying … Nobody's starving, though, but I still think … It shouldn't be like this. I hear some vacuoles have better agriculture technology, but we just can't receive their broadcasts … transmission windows are as sparse as trees in a desert, and we don't have enough manpower either.
If only the Nodal Matrix can be made a little earlier.
Vacuole Designation: TK-3N
Sender: Ke Zeyan, archivist
Eigenvector: [3FUY0SAL7T2XDB5OMLMG]
To Senior Researcher Dong Miyu of the SCP Foundation,
Fine, I promise you. I guess I have to delay my time of listening to the Chanters' broadcast.
Vacuole Designation: 1K-ZZ
Sender: He Sanlei, winemaker
Eigenvector: [XECH2D07E6RDFJIA3NDV]
Feelin' like I'm changing the formula almost a dozen times … for what, tweaking that public key? I don't get it either, but being the best of the best winemakers around all those vacuoles, perfection is what I should pursue. Otherwise what if drunkards come to me but can't get wasted as they wish? That'd be too disgraceful!
Vacuole Designation: RW-55
Sender: Shan Yiyu, Junior Researcher
Eigenvector: [PDARQ7TK4DICC0MD5WVE]
That rarusium chunk lit up suddenly when I was tweaking the public key. Almost scared me to death, though nothing else happened afterward. I checked later: our vacuole happened to have its one-hundredth inhabitant that day. It's getting really busy here, and maybe the rarusium … felt happy with it?
Vacuole Designation: N0-FS
Sender: Xiang, resident
Eigenvector: [OMK7DZ3H1EXQQITO2EW6]
Sister Xiang never seen comes! Sister says she have no heart. But Xiang can see her heart. She should say she dont have right ear. Or sisters real heart is on her ear?
Good sister brings ten grownup wishes and ten semantical flows of the wishes too. Xiang shoots them to the sky and in to those fluffy clouds. Xiang wants fluffy clouds to be just like grownups dreams but Xiang isnt very sure. So Xiang asks good sister. Sister says she dont know too, but Xiang sure can know and the fluffy clouds can know because we are the ones know best about what is dream.
So Xiang thinks for so long, so long, finally Xiang and Xiang's friends turn fluffy clouds into grownups dancing. Xiang maybe make it. Xiang sees semantical flows in the sky go through fluffy clouds, and fluffy clouds can glow, 100 times more pretty than Xiang's friends aurora. Sister says this is pretty too, like the drawings long long ago paint by a big uncle that is called Onri Matisse. Xiang never watches his drawings before. Good sister says she will bring them for Xiang next time.
Xiang is looking forward!
Vacuole Designation: TK-3N
Sender: Ke Zeyan, archivist
Eigenvector: [3FUY0SAL7T2XDB5OMLMG]
<BEGIN LOG>
Ke Zeyan: Hello?
Dong Miyu: [REDACTED BY THE SCP FOUNDATION]
Ke Zeyan: What? Ergh, I … Right now?
Dong Miyu: [REDACTED BY THE SCP FOUNDATION]
Ke Zeyan: … Yes, fine. Go ahead.
Dong Miyu: [REDACTED BY THE SCP FOUNDATION]
Brief silence.
Ke Zeyan: So you still think I am the most suitable person, am I right?
Dong Miyu: [REDACTED BY THE SCP FOUNDATION]
Ke Zeyan: But … I really do not think I am the one made for this. I am just a little archivist that knows nothing besides work related to texts. I do not consider myself a qualified person.
Dong Miyu: [REDACTED BY THE SCP FOUNDATION]
Ke Zeyan: Wait … What do you mean?
Dong Miyu: [REDACTED BY THE SCP FOUNDATION]
Ke Zeyan: Are you sure? This is really your plan?
Dong Miyu: [REDACTED BY THE SCP FOUNDATION]
Ke Zeyan: No no no, I am not saying that … Alright. But are you not concerned that letting me do this thing can damage your … reputation? I have a feeling that people in my vacuole will not be pleased. (pause) Even all people in all vacuoles, I dare to say.
Dong Miyu: [REDACTED BY THE SCP FOUNDATION]
Ke Zeyan: Sure. I do not care. They cannot tell me what to do.
Dong Miyu: [REDACTED BY THE SCP FOUNDATION]
Ke Zeyan: (laughs) You are right. No wonder why you say that I am the most suitable one.
Dong Miyu: [REDACTED BY THE SCP FOUNDATION]
Ke Zeyan: Okay.
Dong Miyu: [REDACTED BY THE SCP FOUNDATION]
Ke Zeyan: Meet at where we last met.
Dong Miyu: [REDACTED BY THE SCP FOUNDATION]
<END LOG>
Vacuole Designation: 3G-V0
Sender: Vincent Beratt, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: [0LIO1DFEX50Q57KEC1ZL]
There's one thing bad about our vacuole … is that it's really foggy here. You may lose yourself in blurry air if you lose direction for a second. But the vacuole has its unique beauty, not counting the foggy part, that is, because our institute sits right on the side of a vast sea. You can see the water connecting to the sky and stretching all the way to the end of the vacuole.
And we have good old friends in the sea too. A small number of Folks of Shark have been companying us all the time. Swimming in the sea with them on days without fog can erase all your worries.
Even when it's foggy, if you try to glare at the end of the vacuole — try harder — you can definitely see that some kind of giant and magical creatures are walking beyond the fog. They resemble a combination of octopus and tree. Through the thick fog, you can still feel the blossoming, majestic vital energy on them.
We can't wait to see the day when the Nodal Matrix is constructed. You must come to Vacuole 3G-V0 for a look.
Vacuole Designation: C0-BK
Sender: Ge Gang, keyboarder
Eigenvector: [6CF3ZUVSA2P4YEXGL0US]
non-matters have been away from intranet for 3 standard months. our admin is the best firewall. we r proud every time when traffic fluctuates and we see trajectory of the container set adjusting its position on the cyberfirmament.
we r preparing for new expansion lately. we made more hi-res vr devices too, so that every visitor to our vacuole can experience the wonder of cyberspace.
Vacuole Designation: DV-S8
Sender: Shu Yongmo, Lachrymose Chanter
Eigenvector: [UD1ROC1HAO4G0DBXPDO4]
[A soprano chant without lyrics with anomalous memetic properties. The audience would find themselves flying inside a looping tube-way filled with blue light at high speed, with glorious voices of singing echoing among the tubes and the audience. The audience would bump into each other in extreme speed. However, they would not feel pain, instead they produce dazzling sparkles with each bump and rush forward with great brilliance under the light of the blue aura.]
Vacuole Designation: N7-N1
Sender: Liang Ni, resident
Eigenvector: [UQGV5PBT5M3F7A6QWGHL]
I never thought I'd be so obsessed with … the Chanters' performances. They're oh-so breathtaking … I recorded every broadcast I can get from this vacuole, and listened to them again and again, for how many, 700 times? I just can't get enough of them!
I'm so excited to wait for the Nodal Matrix to be done, because then I can go to Vacuole DV-S8. They say Ms. Shu is a really nice person and won't refuse anyone to take photos and ask for signatures … Really? I want them I want them! And, and … OH MY GOD I COULD BE STANDING NEXT TO HER! I can't breathe just thinking of it!!!
Vacuole Designation: EP-FW
Sender: Xia Pengyun, Hollowed Courier
Eigenvector: N/A
I have been a Courier for a long time. I've seen many vacuoles to which I bring error reports; I've gone to many vacuoles to which I bring messages. But there's a feeling … that maybe I haven't seen one tenth of all the vacuoles existing. The vacuoles are so unique, so different from each other. There's so much I should see, yet there's so much I haven't seen …
The world is big, so big, too big, with so many people and things … I feel even if I spend my whole life traveling, what I can see would merely be a drop of water in this world as wide as the ocean.
Oh, the world wide as ocean! How could you be torn apart by non-matters! Every time I think of this, it adds a little more strength to my foot stepping into non-matter.
Vacuole Designation: TM-A4
Sender: Igor Kamenev, pilot
Eigenvector: [GCOCRH0LL155M9G9V0JJ]
Hahaha, how funny, as it turns out.
To the Eastern Land Command of SCP Foundation, this is pilot Igor Kamenev speaking. According to the calculation result based on the interaction between rarusium and non-matters, if I turn my ship away from the standard temporal axis for … 176.28 degrees, and fly toward the Earth, then my three-dimensional projection will form a spiral structure from your point of view with its tip pointing at Vacuole TM-A4. Such a structure shall help me attain the valid eigenvector. I will become one of your Nodes, and after approximately 30h of piloting, I will reach below the Earth's atmosphere and arrive home.
But with a deviation so drastic from the standard temporal axis, my AIC predicts that 2875 standard years would have passed when I finally return to Earth. Whoever welcomes me, if there still can be anyone to welcome, will sure be a creature I cannot imagine.
It also means that as long as I maintain a stable cruise for 30h toward you, then I shall be a Node valid for two thousand years. On the other hand, me as a Node will go offline for over a month even if the ship turns in a wrong direction for only ten seconds.
For this, I hope to say something to the Eastern Land Command of SCP Foundation: I, Igor Kamenev, pledge my loyalty to the SCP Foundation and unconditionally support the great project of building the Nodal Matrix. I have turned the calculation frequency of my AIC to its maximum, and it will receive and reply to all semantical flows while I am flying. I will focus on piloting the spaceship and go straight toward Vacuole TM-A4. Ha, merely thirty hours. Piece of cake.
I've got a bottle of vodka in my ship's refrigerator. Let's see, if it still exists then, how different vodka can be after two thousand years.
Leaving soon. Best wishes to all residents of all vacuoles. Pilot Igor Kamenev salutes you.
We will meet again two thousand years later.
We have an astronomical telescope in Vacuole TM-A4 built entirely out of rarusium. As the Guild of Fretting Goldsmiths said, this was the biggest contract they had ever made.
When adjusted to the correct position, you can see Node No. 13 in space with the telescope, which is a spiral that comrade Igor Kamenev's four-dimensional trajectory projects onto our three-dimensional space. The lights on the surface of his spaceship are stretched into thin lines, and in general, the Node looks like a vortex made of crystal. It would be impossible, but for some reason, all visitors claim that for a glimpse they can see a static image of Igor Kamenev sitting inside his ship.
Though the trajectory could have minor changes, Node No. 13 has not come into any dysfunction thus far.
Vacuole Designation: TK-3N
Sender: Ke Zeyan, archivist
Eigenvector: [3FUY0SAL7T2XDB5OMLMG]
To all residents of Vacuole TK-3N,
Under the permission of the SCP Foundation, I will become the successor of the broadcaster of this vacuole. And now I declare that I will examine every semantical flow passing through my vacuole and I will have an average of 20% to discard it unless it is an emergency message or is vital to one's life. This is not determined evenly by a randomization algorithm; the number 20% I said earlier is by no means accurate either. In effect, my discards are done completely at the discretion of my personal liking, even down to my mood on a certain day. My range of authority extends to all semantical flows waiting to be received and sent. The SCP Foundation has administered the position of supreme dominance on all matters related to the broadcast of semantical flows. I will not accept any objection. You can yell and moan as you wish, and your voices will not disturb me to any extent.
If you feel discontent, you are welcome to exit this vacuole and do not go anywhere proximate to my vacuole. The Nodal Matrix is close to its completion and I believe there will be plenty of chances for you to take your leave.
In this manner, I will attain my valid eigenvector. I will become the next Node.
A lot of people asked what Dong Miyu, Senior Researcher of the SCP Foundation, said to Node No. 14 at the first moment after knowing about his story. As a matter of fact, we did not redact her speech with intention, instead, it is not able to truthfully showcase her meaning through words. Comrade Dong Miyu was born with damaged vocal cords and linguistic impairments. However, through techniques similar to Lachrymose Chanters, she is able to send the semantical flows she wants to express directly to the selected listener with the help of kinetoglyphs and thaumaturgic sigils.
We in the SCP Foundation are aware of the rumors popular in the general public. Here we would like to clarify a few things on behalf of her. No, comrade Dong Miyu did not cast a jinx onto comrade Ke Zeyan. No, Dong Miyu did not affect Ke Zeyan's judgment via anomalous means. You can contact Zeyan or Miyu by yourself if you are willing to learn more.
Clean hands want no washing.
Vacuole Designation: PN-NC
Sender: Shindou Kenichi, resident
Eigenvector: [PTVZVKDSKALDPNWFGURP]
Who the hell thought of the idea of Node No. 14! Twenty percent! Twenty fucking percent! You guys really accept a wastage rate of 20%? I just don't get it, the Nodal Matrix could have been so perfect, why … Why must you make such a flaw?! Were we so desperate?! Couldn't we find another valid eigenvector?!
Node No. 14 is the very black sheep of the family, I tell you!
Vacuole Designation: 7E-07
Sender: Tu Yunying, Junior Researcher
Eigenvector: [N5Y2D8QC4C29PBQ066JK]
Hmm. I always think Node No. 14 is teaching us a good lesson. It reminds us that perfect and flawless things don't exist in our world. The truest state of being must have its defect: information may be dropped, semantics may be misunderstood, etc. It's like if we really want to create some kind of opus magnum, then we have to go in reverse and … keep some of the flaws, even actively add something bad and wrong on it, so that we can feel … nice.
Believe it or not, I am one hundred percent sure that if we build out Nodal Matrix too perfectly, then non-matters will bite us back more violently than any can imagine. But as of today … Who knows? This 20% of imperfection could be the savior of the day; it helps make a balance between us and the non-matters.
Hey, the world is forcing us to dance together with anomalies! We can't be overly perfect. We have to accept this … not so ideal world.
Vacuole Designation: QM-LM
Sender: Basang Drolma, Institute Director
Eigenvector: [U4HXIK93Z13N4RAT44C8]
Once again we received new eigenvectors from new Nodes:
Node No. 11 - Codename RECURSION, located in Vacuole OI-IO, with comrade Wan Zhang as the Chief, who attained his valid eigenvector through tattooing an infinitely precise pattern on his head via conducting a supertask.
Node No. 12 - Codename NEVERLAND, located in Vacuole N0-FS, with comrade Xiang as the Chief, who attained valid eigenvector through using reality-bending abilities to interact with an anomalous entity in the sky.
Node No. 13 - Codename CHRONOS, located in space and kept communication with Vacuole TM-A4, with comrade Igor Kamenev as the Chief, who attained his valid eigenvector through deviating from his temporal axis.
Node No. 14 - Codename FILTER, located in Vacuole TK-3N, with comrade Ke Zeyan as the chief, who attained his valid eigenvector through discarding semantical flows from other people subjectively.
We already have enough Nodes to cover the entirety of the Eastern Land. The completion of the Nodal Matrix is not far from us. Now, we will do the final round of Nodal backpropagation of errors. One last time, we adjust the direction of all Nodes to make them align with each other. After which, the blockage of non-matters shall become past tense.
Carry on, comrades!
Vacuole Designation: IL-G2
Sender: Shi Hengxin, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: [93ZM727PQCJXTCCT8BMQ]
Hollowed Couriers, you heard the news. Go. Gather those errors from all Nodes and tell others how to adjust them. You're not what you were when I first created the Society of Hollowed Couriers, so I wanna see your professionalism, get it?
It's not our first time hearing him talking like this, but we still feel excited every time when we think that a new great march is going to start.
Vacuole Designation: DV-S8
Sender: Shu Yongmo, Lachrymose Chanter
Eigenvector: [UD1ROC1HAO4G0DBXPDO4]
Onward, my children! Give your best farewell to all the heroes with songs! Don't let them feel lonely and sad on the long long journey! Lachrymose Chanters around the world, give courage and strength to everyone who's endeavoring!
With more and more Nodes showing up lately, I'd say … It would be a world tour of concerts for us the Chorus of Lachrymose Chanters!
Vacuole Designation: H5-BM
Sender: Kong Chengqi, Fretting Goldsmith
Eigenvector: [BZ2A83S5F55EOGK281GX]
Ugh, I'm sort of a geriatric now. The Guild belongs to you the youngsters. Just do your job and don't let your customers down. I have faith in your talents and techniques. I believe you're not gonna disgrace your brand of the Guild of Fretting Goldsmiths.
Don't have to worry, Master Kong, the Guild is wonderfully busy, after all every resident needs a resonator for public key — A never-ending work it is!
Vacuole Designation: 10-CA
Sender: Mu Zhen, Junior Researcher
Eigenvector: [YO0S2ZSS3MAY3IR0GAJ4]
I know, I know, anomalies are anomalies; anomalies don't make sense; you can't and needn't figure out "why" anomalies behave like this. But … I'm just curious, okay? What exactly is rarusium?
We all know that rarusium comes from non-matters, which explains why both us before the falling and the "Alpha Centauri" civilization didn't find it out in the first place. However. Why rarusium reacts with semantical flows in a specific way? Why rarusium can reveal our eigenvectors? Why everything? I know it's anomalous and a lot of stuff just does not yet have an explanation … But I still think it's somehow anti-logic. It makes little to no sense.
Vacuole Designation: OI-IO
Sender: Long Liangjun, Hollowed Courier
Eigenvector: N/A
They said the Chief of Node No. 11 was still in a coma and they didn't guarantee he could hear what I would say when I reached the vacuole. And I told them, no, he was absolutely able to hear my voice. I told them not to look down on anyone of the Chiefs of Node, because they had become persons completely different from us.
Therefore I read aloud the report on the current situation of the Node and how much he was not aligned with other parts of the Matrix. I swear, he made a faint smile upon hearing my words.
It turns out I was right. Just a couple minutes after leaving the room, I received a broadcast about the adjustments made to his public key.
Vacuole Designation: N0-FS
Sender: Chiara Alberti, Lachrymose Chanter
Eigenvector: [QUPH3PTKPAWSRX0BXOJX]
I went to Node No. 12, looking for inspiration.
A world of children is way different from the world of grown-ups. It's so pure and so simple, yet full of imagination and fantasies. How amazing are they to see countless imaginary beings in the sky! We the group of adults, on the other hand, have so few people that can … right? Perhaps there is a little child inside every one of us, waiting for us to wake them up and recollect our dreams of childhood that are lost. We can make miracles if we do that!
Maybe the child inside me is a singer too.
Vacuole Designation: HB-5N
Sender: Ran Pengtao, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: [L6DW75LF971AEG3AQVJ4]
My son once said to me about rarusium. He said rarusium is shit that non-matters pooped out.
I admit his metaphor is a little gross, but I'd argue that children's instincts are often good at reaching the essence of things. If we compare the act of non-matters applying litura diluviorum to semantical flows to the act of people swallowing food, then yes, maybe rarusium is equal to what food turns to in our stomach … no, it is equal to what we vomit; rarusium is semantical flows that non-matters can't digest. Maybe this can explain why rarusium can tell us the properties of a semantical flow. Because such properties determine whether it can be digested by non-matters.
Vacuole Designation: DT-2N
Sender: Xin Dong, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: [L6DW75LF971AEG3AQVJ4]
I am pretty familiar with the fourteen stories of the Nodes, and yet there is still a bit of confusion that condenses in my mind. Why do humans have bipartite eigenvectors, and why can we alter that one part?
Rarusium brings us revelation, I know pretty well of it. However, in my humble opinion, a lot of the so-called revelations are too esoteric from my perspective. If we examine every one of the Chiefs' methods of becoming Nodes … To be real, does anybody think those lines of revelation feel like "rituals" that are unjustifiable to you? What made the fourteen Chiefs unanimously agree that what rarusium had told them were the right way to attain valid eigenvectors?
Not to say they all succeeded. It is like, what, a miracle that occurred fourteen times in a row!
Vacuole Designation: TK-3N
Sender: Huang Yuxuan, Fretting Goldsmith
Eigenvector: [PPZQOF4645QFTVMG2EA4]
I know what I should do for Chief of Node No. 14. I'm gonna make him a set of dice with rarusium; a D4, a D6, a D8, a D12, and the biggest D20! Read about the idea from a very old gaming book. I think they're more than appropriate:
What could be better than dice at symbolizing randomness!
Vacuole Designation: F6-JN
Sender: Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Liếng, Senior Researcher
Eigenvector: [L6DW75LF971AEG3AQVJ4]
The Nodal Matrix is a stone's throw away … Having worked for the SCP Foundation for so long, I'd like to say that it's meaningless to work on questions anymore. Just feel it. It's unlikely for anomalies to give us opportunities to answer "why", and we should not answer "why" either. We only care about answering how to protect human civilization in a fickle and changeful world.
Who knows? Maybe all of these, the non-matters, the rarusium, and the eigenvectors — All of them can exist just because the universe thinks putting these elements on us can make an interesting story.
Vacuole Designation: F6-JN
Sender: Qian Kangping, Junior Researcher
Eigenvector: [6SCXJJNTMH6N4HKQ72PH]
On the fourteen Nodes … I actually want to think about them on the basis of "ritual". It is likely that they are effective because the fourteen Chiefs believe they are effective.
But to "believe", or to "have faith" in something, are words that carry a lot of weight. Obviously just by "thinking it's right" is not enough for you to become a Node. You have to have faith in something or somebody and fully put your heart and efforts into working for it. You have to stick to your Dao. The rarusium points out a path for us, but we can see it only if we have complete faith in ourselves.
And once we reach the starting point of that path, the non-matters can comprehend us not anymore. Non-matters abominate semantical flows; they devour, they attack, but they can never understand what makes us unique and to what extraordinary extent can hopes and faiths make us. Therefore, when enough people find their path and shine, the non-matters' blockage shall be merely a spook to us.
Perhaps one could say that human beings are born with the capacity to create miracles. We just need to believe we can.
But of course, this is just my own version of the story. In the future when more new Nodes show up — I know there are already a couple of candidates — maybe they can tell us more about it.
Vacuole Designation: 5N-1N
Sender: Geng Jia, Hollowed Courier
Eigenvector: N/A
Nodes No. 1 to 5 have been aligned. Confirmative.
Vacuole Designation: E8-OX
Sender: Wan Lengling, Hollowed Courier
Eigenvector: N/A
Nodes No. 6 to 10 have been aligned. Confirmative.
Vacuole Designation: XW-JA
Sender: Shi Qian, Hollowed Courier
Eigenvector: N/A
Nodes No. 11 to 14 have been aligned. Confirmative.
Vacuole Designation: QM-LM
Sender: Basang Drolma, Institute Director
Eigenvector: [U4HXIK93Z13N4RAT44C8]
The final round of Nodal backpropagation of errors is completed today. All Nodes have been aligned and connected to each other, forming the Nodal Matrix we are yearning for so long. Right here, right now, I believe my research team can finally announce our new project:
Node No. 15 - Codenamed BROADCAST, located in Vacuole QM-LM, with myself, Basang Drolma, as the Chief of Node.
The fifteenth Node for broadcasting is not a regular Node. We will utilize the rarusium signal tower at the peak of Mount Qomolangma to continuously broadcast the public keys of all fourteen Nodes to every location within the Eastern Land. As such, all residents of the Eastern Land shall be able to receive the public key nearest to the current vacuole at any time and overlap the public key upon the semantical flows of themselves with the help of rarusium-made resonators for public key. All residents will not be obstructed by non-matters anymore from this day on. All residents can walk freely between vacuoles from this day on.
We made it, comrades. We appreciate the efforts and sacrifices all fourteen Chiefs of Node have made. ETERNAL GLORY TO ALL NODES.
Of course, this does not mark the end of our work. We need to prepare for the unexpected, for one day the Chiefs of Node need to have their rest. We will continue to search for new Nodes to strengthen the robustness of the Nodal Matrix. We will send all of our research materials to the Western Realm Command, which as far as we know is still under the torment of non-matters. We need to lead them to freedom, to victory.
Across the non-matters, comrades, we can reach every corner in the world.
Three years after the completion of the Nodal Matrix, humans stepped onto Vacuole IN-SC once again. This time, the AIC that had been operating for almost twenty standard years has finally done its simulation. It calculated and worked out the possibility of human civilization achieving mutual connection through attaining valid eigenvectors. Naturally, we asked it how was the result.
The AIC answered: its simulation gave a result of 99.8724%. Within the range of error, one can consider it a certain event.
Naturally, we asked, why? Why results from the two calculations were so drastically different? Why the result was near zero, almost fitting the definition of miracle, if one considers a human being's success as an individual event? And why the result from the simulation showed that the success was near one, almost fitting the definition of destiny?
The AIC answered: because this is never an individual event. Even in the most pessimistic simulation where we are divided by harsher non-matters, as long as a tiny, infinitesimal connection can be made, then the single spark will ultimately start a prairie fire. As long as mankind has not given up their hope entirely, then the tiny bit of connection will ultimately link every one of us together.
At last, it was the AIC's turn for raising questions. How is the current situation? Can humans make connections after all?
And we answered it.