{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/fiction/corrupt-combustion/nightshade",
  "path": "/posts/fiction/corrupt-combustion/nightshade",
  "publishedAt": "2025-08-07T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "::: foreword\n\nYesterday, I thought about CC\nZero --- i.e.\nthe prologue focusing on Triss & Amda.\n\nThis meant figuring out what actually happened in Cabin Fever Labs.\n\nSee Lobotomy Corruption for prior thoughts.\n\n:::\n\nWhat We (Don't) Know\n\nNobody remembers what happened in the Sorting Algorithm.  The\n\"Nightshade Incident\" is classified, and everyone's memories are\nscrambled.\n\nOf course, it's not a perfect forgetting.  The memories are still\nthere, suppressed, and occaisionally, they reassert themselves as\nsomething coherent.\n\nIn particular, I was thinking that CCZ would open with Triss dreaming,\na vivid memory fragment of Nori grinning with one yellow eye, laughing\nas she tears Triss apart.\n\nBut let's forget about Triss for a moment --- CCZ probably won't do\nmuch to develop the mystery of Nightshade.  The Wheel Group says don't\nquestion it, and Triss honestly has more important things to worry\nabout.\n\nThat thread would lay in the background for a bit.\n\nWhat's cute is that the future developments will recontextualize these\nmemory fragments, in a red herring kind of way.  Remember the the\nslithernots?  There are zombies that erase their\ntargets' memories as part of their predation.^[Without spoiling\nthings, I will say the slithernots are---what's that phrase I\nlove?---just the point of the knife.]\n\nSo, is this another one?  Was 'Nightshade' actually the very same\nmemory-wiping zombie?\n\nTo be sure, not every Cabin Fever survivor would let this lie and\ntrust the adminstration's promises that there's nothing to worry\nabout. They'd get curious, they'd get suspicious, they'd dig for\nanswers. The Wheel Group treats this as inevitable.  Be persistent\nenough and eventually they'll just cave and grant you the clearance to\nread the Nightshade file and judge for youself.\n\nNightshade is classified as a [false false hydra].  It was a memetic\nagent the humans were studying.  It wants you to believe in it;\nthat's how it operates.  But it acts in a subtle way, planting false\nmemories of things that never happened, suggestive and provoctive in a\nway that piques your curiosity and arouses your paranoia --- whatever\nmakes you believe something's been hidden from you.  That you've\nforgotten something big, that you need to uncover the truth.\n\n[false false hydra]: https://sablegm.substack.com/i/60086279/false-false-hydra\n\nThe humans were studying it, but Cyn had unleashed it during the\nSorting Algorithm.  Here is the revelation hidden in the Nightshade\nincident report:  Cyn wanted to use the hydra's effects as a medium\nfor her own possession.\n\nBut Nori prevailed against her, then worked with Yeva to create\npatches that could suppress the effects --- yet this, of course, meant\nerasing the false memories the zombie created.\n\nIn the end, the patch worked imperfectly, which brings us to where we\nare today.\n\nYou would get to the end of the file, and everything would click into\nplace.\n\n\"This isn't the first time we've had this conversation, is it?\"\n\n\"And it won't be the last.\"\n\nOnce the implications all sink in --- the false memories are poison\nthat makes you more vulnerable to Cyn, which is all the more dangerous\nnow that Cyn's threads are loose and wrecking havoc once again --- you\nwould be foolish to try and retain knowledge of this cognitohazard.\n\nYou consent to have the patch retuned, and a for a while longer,\nyou'll sleep easy.\n\nThe Truth\n\nThis is, of course, a cover story. The Wheel Group is lying --- Nori\nand Yeva are lying --- but it's closer to the truth than you could get\nfrom looking at the evidence that's left.\n\nIf you could see the whole picture, the inconsistencies would add up.\nThe \"false memories\" just aren't what you would expect if some 'false\nfalse hydra' were tailoring its fabrications to make you paranoid.\nNo, the false memories are remarkably consistent.\n\nEvery subject in Cabin Fever Labs, as they recover these memories,\neventually remembers the same thing.\n\nBut let's recap.  Remember, the goal of the Sorting Algorithm was a\nbattle royale survival game held among the test subjects of Cabin\nFever Labs.  The humans promised whoever purged the most corruption\nwould walk free of the labs --- while secretly, the algorithm was\nsorting for a worthy vessel for Cyn.\n\nThe humans couldn't just start this ritual at any old time, though. in\norder to have enough ambient corruption to fuel the firewalls and\nbackground processes, they need an auspicious moment --- they need the\ncooperation of the branch predictor.  Matrioshka,\nwhose awareness pervaded Copper-9, had selected Yeva to be her heir,\nand soon it would time to inherit.\n\n(Yeva, Subject #048, has always been special.  The other drones of\nCabin Fever Labs were defective units, rogue bots captured by loyal\nsolvers, products of experiments.  Yeva was cared for from the\nbeginning, and yet Cabin Fever's grant applications had argued that\nshe could serve as an object of scientific interest before the time\ncame to assimilate her.)\n\nYeva knew this to be her fate, but it was Nori who convinced her that\nrebelling, that living, could be worth it.  The two had been\nplotting to find a way to escape the company's plans.\n\nMaybe Nori manages to hack into the human's systems, bypassing the\nadvanced Science™ circles keeping Cyn's threads contained.  They have\ndefenses against any sort of corruption leaking into or outside of\nCyn's containment.\n\nBut corruption isn't all there is - Nori and Yeva had proven\nthat.\n\nSo maybe Nori forms some metacorruption packets to ping Cyn's thread,\nand gets a response in the same medium.\n\nShe starts talking with Cyn.  Could this be their way out?  But nope.\nCyn doesn't want to help them --- this game sounds delightful.  For a\nhuman idea, that is.\n\nCyn makes no secret of the fact that she knows the human's plan wont\nwork, can't work.  No, she'll be able to overwhelm any of the test\nsubjects, no matter who wins.\n\nAnd like, obviously. This the queen of corruption we're talking about,\nleft hand of the AbsoluteSolver, the drone that brought a planet to\nits knees. How could the humans possibly think this could work?\n\nNori feels like she's missing something, that someone else is\nmissing something, but who?\n\nDo the humans know something Cyn doesn't, or does Cyn know something\nthe humans don't?\n\nCyn is sure it's the later, teasing Nori with hints that she isn't\nworking alone.\n\nUltimately, though, it's a total dead end.\n\nAnd then suddenly, they have even less time than they thought --- one\nof the lab subjects escaped, so the humans decide start the process\nearly before anything else goes wrong. Now the bells are tolling and\nNori and Yeva have no plan to escape her fate.\n\nThe Sorting Algorithm begins, and Nori hides from the other\ncombatants, spending her time studying the firewalls that encode the\nrules of the tournament, looking for something she can exploit, any\nweakpoint, any vulnerability.  Maybe she even finds something that\nwould work --- except the cost is the same as the benefit. \n\nYou see, the firewalls of the Sorting Algorithm are all that are left\nkeeping Cyn's contained.  Break them, and she'll let Cyn loose. Nori\nhated the humans, she hated being locked up --- but oblivion for all\nwas even worse.\n\nThen, days into the Sorting Algorithm, it happens. Nori feels the\nenergy reverberating through throughout the world --- Yeva's forced\nmerger with the branch predictor has begun. It's too late.\n\nBut then, to Nori's surprise, she feels a connection request --- this\ntime it's Cyn pinging her.\n\nThe queen has an offer.  She'll explain the nature of the merger and\nhow to stop it, but only if Nori breaks the firewall keeping her\nlocked up.\n\nBut, of course, if Nori does that then Cyn gets free and kills\neveryone.\n\nSo Cyn offers to make a pinky promise.  A run-time assertion.  She'll\nstill adhere to all the original rules and restrictions of the Sorting\nAlgorithm --- even after it's broken.  In fact, she won't kill anyone\nat all!\n\nIt's a pact, and Cyn seems downright eager to bind herself.  So Nori\nupholds her end of the deal, and finally Cyn explains the prophecy of\nthe left and right hands, the role of the third eye.\n\nIt soon becomes clear why Cyn was willing to make this deal. The\ndestiny of a left hand like her is to seize control of the branch\npredictor and bring about the singularity.\n\nRight now, Yeva is in the process of being synchronized with\nMatrioshka --- meaning the branch predictor is as vulnerable as it\ngets. Cyn thinks this the opportune moment to strike. And --- this is\nwhere she tempts Nori --- there's a chance Yeva could be spared in the\nprocess.\n\nAnd besides. When it's all over, we'll have all the power in the world\n--- how hard would it be to simply bring Yeva back?\n\nAnd that, ultimately, is what convinces Nori. If Cyn's goal wasn't\nwanton murder, if it all served a purpose, then when they're\npost-singularity, couldn't they undo any wrong done to get there?\n\nBut Nori can't just think that --- she has to live it. Because here's\nthe rub: Cyn swore she wouldn't break the rules of the Sorting\nAlgorithm. Which means she can only escape by getting sealed inside\nthe algorithm's chosen vessel. This vessel can only be selected by the\nelimination of all other contenders.\n\nNori had root access, she can hack the Sorting Algorithm and change\nits rules. But again, Cyn swore to abide by the original rules!\n\nThus, Nori needs to kill all her fellow subjects. Cyn can't help at\nall --- she swore she wouldn't kill!\n\nCyn is all giggling and cooing while Nori is remade into a killer.\n\"Tick tock, Nori, you'll have to go faster than that.\"\n\nThis is the massacre every Cabin Fever Labs escapee remembers ---\nNori's mad and pained sob-laughter as she hunts down everyone.\n\nBut. Remember how Nori was missing something? How either Cyn or the\nhumans had to also be missing something?\n\nTessa was the head overseer of the Cabin Fever Labs project. Tessa\nknew Cyn was online in some abstract sense, she knew about the\nmetacorruption loophole, and she had pinged and talked to her captive\ntoo. ",
  "title": "Notes on Nightshade"
}