No updates on the experimental front necessarily, but I did have one other bit worth mentioning I guess. Wouldn't really call it an experiment, more just like... me being a dick I guess. Sort of.
So I caught sight of this operator symbol spray painted on a wall in an alley I was passing through and I kind of had to stop and stare at it for a bit. What was it even there for? A warning? A calling card? A ward? A summons? A what? A fucking WHAT??
....so I went into a hardware store and found myself from harlequin purple spray paint. And now the thing's been replaced by a fleur-de-lis so beautiful that I'm sure Dave Strider would be giving me a nice pat on the back for an artistic job well done. Which for those of you who aren't ironically cool enough to get that reference, means that it Sucked. But whatever, I covered it up. Why a purple fleur-de-lis? Because "Saints Row, Bitches!" But really, it didn't matter what it was. I could have drawn a great big penis or a huge set of tits. The point is that I covered it up.
And why? Because it's HIS Symbol. And Fuck Him.
Why are we putting these things everywhere? It doesn't matter what they do or do not do. I don't care if they are "eyes" and they freeze/ward him or some shit. It's still the Construct's symbol and we're branding it on everything. Regardless of whether Tulpa is a thing or not, this thing spreads its influence memetically. Exposure to Marble Hornets, exposure to the blogs, exposure to the SomethingAwful posts. Whatever. That's the hook and you bleed yourself out from there. And hey, guess what? He's doing all that shit pretty well without our help, so lets oh, I dunno, saaaaay maybe NOT spread his freaking propaganda around?
I don't need an operator symbol in the area to tell me that there are fellow runners nearby. I'm not going to find them. If I could find them, they wouldn't be very good runners now would they? Which also means they'd be Dead. I don't need an operator symbol to tell me the Construct has been sighted in the area. Because it's the fucking Construct and it can pop up Anywhere and Anytime. Anywhere. Anytime. Already aware of the danger there buddy. Thanks.
So yeah. I find any more, I'm covering them up. Suggest you do the same. All we're accomplishing otherwise is the infection of more people and this ain't the time for that.
so the pathogen passes along, ear-to-ear, touch-to-touch, spark-to-binary spark.
ReplyDeleteI've never understood the appeal of drawing the operator symbol. I knew people at some point who were so into it they had it carved into their skin but there isn't any real advantage to broadcasting youself like that.
ReplyDeleteBonus points for referencing Homestuck. 8^y
ReplyDeleteNow I kind of want to know what kind of shitty comic Dave would make about Slenderman...
*Manic's responses are monitored under section 12 of our detainee procedure*
ReplyDeleteWell drawing the symbol is seen as part of the compulsion and as we have observed that people are affected differently by the Slender Man so don't admonish those that draw them. But your reasoning still stands in covering them up.
-Manic
I love the fact that you covered the symbol, it's very ballsy and it takes courage. I just hope it doesn't backfire on you.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't we make a runner symbol system? A symbol for "danger", a symbol for "runners nearby", a symbol for "Slendy-activity hot-spot"? That would make thing SO MUCH easier.
ReplyDeleteThat would definitely help a lot. Just knowing at a glance whether an area is safe or dangerous would be so useful.
DeleteThat's not a bad idea actually... the only trouble is that you'd really have to keep it an underground system. Something you pass on by word of mouth to trusted individuals... Because if you made the knowledge of such symbols public on a blog... well, how many proxy bloggers do we have listening in again? XP That'd be a pretty easy system for them to manipulate.
DeleteThough there are probably also some existing symbols you could use unofficially in the meantime as indicators of safehouses or item caches.
It won't kill us to try. Trough secure networks, of course. Posting them on a blog would be downside stupid.
DeleteAs long as you keep to shadows and only share it with people you can trust this could work. However, it only takes one traitor or spy to turn it into another operator's symbol. The best sucess against someone with lots of eyes is working in darkness and scilence. Perheapes organizing groups into small, seperate cells. You can not create a unified front as well this way, but that seems unlikely anyways.
DeleteS
Honestly, there's already the hobo code system, if anyone wants to look it up. The general public tends not to know the meanings of the symbols. Maybe that's a bit loose, but it's a start.
DeleteUnified fronts also seem to get bigger targets painted on their backs. So smaller shadow operations, keeping clear of the public blogging front, would probably be more effective, one would assume.
Delete...So are we making this shit happen?
DeleteI don't see any reason why not.
DeleteBefore I forget again, the following was left here by FidgetyLissie... I found it in my email, but apparently blogger ate the post(Twice). Seems like it was doing that a lot a few days ago.
Delete"Honestly, there's already the hobo code system, if anyone wants to look it up. The general public tends not to know the meanings of the symbols. Maybe that's a bit loose, but it's a start. "
Check your spam box under the comments tag, if it went there you can unmark it and it will show up in the comments again.
DeleteSee you around
-Free
Seems you were correct.
DeleteWait, so your blog thinks I'm spam? How rude.
Delete*points at his neck* It doesn't have to belong to them, of course I suppose until summer I could wear a scarf :P
ReplyDeleteI suppose turning the meaning of the symbol on its head and making it your own is probably the most damaging thing you can do with it. So that works too.
DeleteIt's always terrified me that he might start following people just because they know about him.
ReplyDeleteI think there's always been a little more to it though. I mean... Ben's still here. XP
Delete