[Journal Post]

[tobeabducted]

As a reminder from the Empress' office:

A) Russia, the United States and Beijing are not viable locations for travel, except for authorized individuals.

Russia is due to the Theological Noosphere there being seemingly hostile.

The United States, especially the East Coast seems to be at the center of a time-space fracture.

Beijing is literally unapproachable, like you just skip to the other side.

B) The Imperial Government is teaming up with the New Chinese Communist Government to ensure the continued stability of the region.

C) Have You Found The Yellow Sign?

Comments

[daschillyone]

Oh god... I need to call home! Do you have any more information on this time-space fracture?

[tobeabducted]

As you are favored by The Princess, you're cleared for this:

It's centered at the White House.

[daschillyone]

What's the radius? That's close enough to home that I'm worried.

[tobeabducted]

It's got a decent chunk of the Northeastern Seaboard, but its effects only get worse the closer you get to the Oval Office. Despite the fractured time-space, Congress, or some force presenting as it, is still operating and responding enough that the United States is functioning as a country. And Agencies are following some sort of Executive input.

[daschillyone]

This doesn't fill me with hope. Hopefully Mom has got something cooking up to deal with it. Or dad is evacuating them somewhere. Or both.

[tobeabducted]

Of what I'm told by the Empress and Empress Consort, the basic issue is tied to a series of people whose existence keeps flickering in-and-out and reality basically is in a "cat box" scenario where it can't decide which way the cat should resolve.

[daschillyone]

Well someone needs to open that damn box and collapse the wave function so I don't have to worry about whether my parents exist in a superposition.

[tobeabducted]

And the Empress' court astrologers and psychics and tarot readers, along with the VRASH system, are saying that opening that catbox is extremely dangerous.

[daschillyone]

You'll forgive me if that doesn't inspire confidence.

[tobeabducted]

Shrug.

I'm basically just the Empress and Empress Consort's Press Secretary.

[becomeanwarrior]

Again with the Yellow Sign...

No, we haven't found it yet.

[tobeabducted]

The Empress is very nervous it hasn't been found.

[becomeanwarrior]

I am, unfortunately, well aware. I promise Sector Security is sparing all the resources it can to crack the riddle of the Yellow Sign.

[tobeabducted]

... So why is the Empress concerned with Robert W. Chambers?

[becomeanwarrior]

Robert W. Chambers...?

Oh. She must assume it's connected to that. I guess I should go visit the local library...

Sector Security unfortunately cannot comment on the suspicions of the Empress, however, we will be investigating this lead with all due scrutiny.

[tobeabducted]

Yeah, the famous rom-com writer who also wrote some ghost stories, according to what I'm looking up.

Man, you really do come off as kind of a lawyer.

[becomeanwarrior]

That's... one way of putting his success, yes.

When you've been in front of the press as often as I have, you kind of get a sense for what you should and shouldn't say to someone calling themselves a 'press secretary'... is it that bad?

[tobeabducted]

I do this as a part time gig and I'm more or less indifferent to politics, so. Yeah.

[becomeanwarrior]

I guess that's fair.

...Have you ever heard of 'The King In Yellow'? It's a rather famous western anthology. The first four stories were considered an explicit inspiration on H.P. Lovecraft.

[tobeabducted]

And the Empress is concerned about an anthology of ghosts stories and romantic comedies and ghostly romances why?

[becomeanwarrior]

Let me answer your question with a question.

"Have you found the Yellow Sign?"

[tobeabducted]

And what exactly is the Yellow Sign here.

It seems like in the book it's some sort of foreign seal or coin? That the dead man is seeking.

[becomeanwarrior]

[ Ah jeez, am I really going to explain my theories here... ah well, guess so. ]

There is said to be something known as the Silver Key. A specific artifact, or ability, that can open a 'gate' between worlds.

My theory's not exactly a 1:1 with the story - it's been a while since I read it in detail, but I believe the 'Yellow Sign' is a seal, yes, one that only reveals itself when the conditions are right. That seal can then be interacted with the Silver Key, breaching the seal, and leading one to a golden world - let's call this world 'Carcosa', for the sake of keeping with the themes.

But where is it, what is it, and how to reach it are all still mysteries under this theory.

[tobeabducted]

... Silver Key relates to Randolph Carter and the Dreamlands and something about becoming an alien wearing a really crudy Arab fortune-teller disguise.

Hrm.

Does the Sign have to be a physical thing?

[becomeanwarrior]

Yes, I should also read the Dreamlands, it never really crossed my periphery until recently...

I don't really think it does, but that makes pinning down the 'finding' of it all the harder, wouldn't you say?

[tobeabducted]

The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, I might put an audiobook on while doing work later.

Just a thought that came to me as my VRASHify playlist spat out to me:

The Sign - Ace of Base

The whole thing with the King in Yellow, skimming through it, is it's 'a revelation' reading the book or seeing "The King".

[becomeanwarrior]

Not sure if you're trying to help or hurt here, VRASH...

Yes, the way it's described in the anthology is that the first act of the titular play is typically very rote and almost banal, and the sudden switch to the undescribed second act of the play causes an immediate, unbreakable hold on you that forces you to read it to completion, which drives you mad - or forces a revelation on you, if you wish to put it that way, since revelation and madness are often seen as two sides of the same coin.

Something about the juxtaposition between the banality of the first half and the revelation of the second act is like a catalyst... or so I recall.

I'm still not sure if that's helpful, but it's a note.

[tobeabducted]

It's not like VRASH is alive. It's just a bunch of LLMs.

Yeah that sounds like it's more "You aren't seeing things as they really are" until you find the Yellow Sign.

But that's speculation.

[becomeanwarrior]

...Right. Fair enough.

Or put another way - your Insight score isn't high enough to see the world as it really is. ...Huh, there's a thought.

"The reason no one can see the Yellow Sign is because someone needs to have a certain amount of madness-inducing 'Insight' to see it at all."

[tobeabducted]

If the Yellow Sign itself isn't the "Madness-Inducing Insight". Though, the Empress and Empress Consort are pushing for "Madness" to be replaced with "Gnosis". The former is bigoted to people with mental wellness issues.

[becomeanwarrior]

Right, right, Gnosis. That's gonna be a hard adjustment to make.

But yes, assuming that. Though given the difficulty of finding the Yellow Sign thus far, I think that has to be a part of it... you need to be at a significant level of 'Gnosis' to see the world for what it actually is, and only then can you find the Yellow Sign.

[tobeabducted]

The question is who is supposed to see the world for what it actually is.

[becomeanwarrior]

Whoever holds the Silver Key, I would imagine, right?

[tobeabducted]

And they don't already?

[becomeanwarrior]

If they're still looking, then clearly not.

But then does that mean someone else probably needs to reach Gnosis instead, to guide whoever has the Silver Key?

[tobeabducted]

Maybe?

How annoying.

I hope this helped.

[becomeanwarrior]

Extremely annoying.

Trying to get my thoughts together to explain to someone else always helps. Rubber ducking is a proven tool in engineering, after all.

[tobeabducted]

Who in the what now?

[becomeanwarrior]

Rubber ducking. It's an engineering technique.

Basically you attempt to describe the problem you're having to an inanimate object - typically a rubber duck. You can describe it to someone else too, the point is to try and make someone else understand what you're trying to say helps you solve the problem better.

[tobeabducted]

Oh.

Huh.

That's interesting.