annexednet | A N O N Y M O U S || text

Entry tags:

A N O N Y M O U S || text

[ No way would Felix ask this with his name attached, but once he notices the anonymous function for the network, he figures it is worth the risk. ]

Question for those of you who are already Tethered, or I guess anyone who knows...

I've been told that people who are Tethered to one another have access to each other's emotions. How specific is that access? Is it just the feeling or the cause of the feeling, too?

For instance, is it just "Harold is happy right now" or is it fully "Harold is happy right now because he noticed that I mended that rip in his jacket, and because I smiled at him when we said goodnight last night, and also because he's secretly in love with me."?

All Harolds in this example are purely hypothetical of course.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

I've been wondering about this too. But I've got no Tethers so I can't reply. :(

At least I'm not the only one wondering.

I understand that Tethering is necessary, I just want to know in advance if I'm completely saying goodbye to the privacy of my own thoughts.

Even if you ask the locals they say it depends on the people in the tether.

How well does Harold get along with his tether? Hypothetically speaking of course.

At the time it happened, I don't believe I felt anything specific through the bond. However, considering it was a shared stressful situation, that may have been unnecessary, or simply assumed.

That was the answer they gave when I asked around. I get that it's not the same for everyone, but I was hoping to get a sense of the scope of what's probable, I guess.

[ Damn, this guy saw through him pretty easily. Felix is annoyed at himself for being obvious, and also fairly desperate for advice. ]

Hypothetically speaking, Harold gets along very well with the person he might possibly tether with, but they haven't known each other very long.

Did you know each other before? If it's okay to ask.

Is the person you Tethered with not around anymore?

[ He doesn't want to ask 'did they die' but Felix's brain being what it is, that's his first assumption. ]

She's still here. We rarely feel any transmission, which is why I spoke of it in the past tense. We met here, and agreed to Tether based on mutual need and necessity. Up until that incident, it had been entirely beneficial and without consequence.

While I may not understand the full context of the emotions I receive from my partner, I feel those emotions in my body, and it is a shared experience. Sometimes the feeling comes attached to a specific thought or action, and at other times it is subtle and fleeting.

I would not Tether with someone I intended to keep deep secrets from, if that is your concern.

In my case I can sometimes get snippets of extreme emotions along with a rough pin point of where my tether partner is along with brief flashes of what they're experiencing. So to answer your question, it's not specific but you can probably decern a lot from it.

[ The Doctor will always take compliments to stroke that ego of his but in this case he only has a very small hunch that the person is actually talking about their own situation. ]

Ah. So it boils down to a comfort thing, then?

Edited 2022-10-22 23:40 (UTC)

I can't speak from personal experience, but from what I've observed of people who are Tethered, they're in sync, but they're not a hive mind. There's still some privacy.

But apparently it's possible to share dreams, so Harold might want to come clean before he's caught out that way.

There's something where I'm from known as a mind meld, something unique to a particular species. It's not the same as a tether but it has some similarities in that your minds become linked during it. Even with a linked mind, you can limit what the other knows with mental walls. You might be able to do the same here, to protect the why of your experiences and just leave it with a feeling.

Thank you. The specificity really helps. Most of that actually sounds really useful and great: being able to get a sense of their location and what is happening. I imagine in a place as dangerous as this, it comes in handy.

[ Felix is terrible at talking about himself, but it helps a little that this is anonymous and by text. It makes it easier to open up, even if it's only within a nonspecific hypothetical. ]

Maybe it a comfort thing. But also partly not. Let's say hypothetically Harold knows what he would bringing to the table would mostly be not-so-great emotions. Doesn't it seem kind of unfair to the other guy, if he suddenly gets saddled with Harold's internal bullshit that he could previously just keep to himself?

[ And even worse, if ~~Jesse~~ that person knew the thinking and reasoning behind the self-loathing and dark moods? ]

That's interesting. Do you know if that is common, for people who become Tethered to mostly-strangers?

[ Perhaps this would be a possibility, then - not to Tether to Jesse, who he knows and who would probably have more access to his emotions and thoughts because of it. Felix has an instinctive distrust of people he doesn't know, but perhaps... ]

Is it prying too much if I ask what kind of a shared stressful situation it was?

[ Well, damn. That is exactly his concern. ]

But Tethers are necessary, aren't they? So I guess it's just a matter of choosing the least bad option, when it comes to spilling deep secrets.

[ That's extremely frustrating to learn. But also, Felix knows, not this guy's fault. ]

Can I ask for an example of what you mean by the kinds of thoughts you are getting from your Tether, along with an emotion? I don't mean anything super personal, I'm just wondering what depth of complexity is at play.

Edited 2022-10-25 23:59 (UTC)

That's a relief, that there is some privacy.

[ Aaaaaand maybe he was not as subtle as he thought with his example. He should've come up with something else that wasn't secret affection. Too late now. ]

Good point. But coming clean isn't Harold's strong suit.

[ Then, because they are both anonymous and why the hell not, he asks: ]

So you're not Tethered yet? Is it because of the privacy thing, or something else?

That's very helpful, thank you, truly.

Do you happen to know if mental walls like that would limit the effectiveness of a Tether? Everyone keeps talking about how essential they are, and I don't want to undo all that.

Also, do you know if there's maybe anyone here who could teach a guy how to build one? Someone from you world, with experience in mind melds?

Yes, they are necessary. If you have much to hide it would be wise to choose your partner tactically. I have heard it is possible to control the connection to a degree, but I do not know how true that is.

My Tether Partner is always tinkering with technology. When he is being challenged mechanically I sometimes feel his frustration, and see his calculations in my mind, even if I do not understand them.

He has woken me in the middle of the night with how hard he is thinking, and I cannot sleep until he sleeps. It is extremely irritating.

That said, I trust him with my life and my secrets. Perhaps you simply need to find someone who will not think less of you for yours.

The previous mission, requiring magic at towers under heavy fire. I don't know how common it is for the Tether to remain mostly quiet, though. We might be an unusual case -- she's trained in maintaining mental barriers, and I'm not even certain how to describe my current consciousness considering it's been removed from my body and apparently no longer bound to a specific organ or circuit pattern.

It's possible, though even with mental walls there should be some degree of tether possible even if they can't access the full depths of your mind.

I've found meditation helps.

( she's not going to out spock to this guy as someone who can do them. as for how useful her information is after this point... eh. has she had a mind meld or just read about them? she's more going off her own illyrian mental conditioning and her reading )

It could be handy. Or inconvenient depends on the situation and your point of view.

Sounds like Harold or the other person should just get better at their mental walls then. It's possible even for normal pudding brains if they just apply themselves a little bit.

[ The Doctor is definitely up there with being awful at talking about himself so he can sympathize in some respects. But his first instinct to the texter's predicament is simply to meet it with some tough love that may or may not be an actual solution for their problem. ]

It's partly the privacy thing.

But most of it's the fact that it's a big choice to make, with potential serious repercussions when we find a way to get out of here, when we don't have solid proof that it's actually necessary for us.

[And ok, the headaches and fatigue of the last week or so have been a little bit concerning, but she's also been running herself a little bit ragged, so it's not necessarily proof.]

More importantly, one of the locals told me that if you don't end up tethering, apart from the insanity that eventually settles in you're likely to go bald.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

A N O N Y M O U S || text

text; anonymous

text | anonymous

text — un: doctor mysterio 🕶️

text; elma

text | anonymous

text | anonymous

no subject

text | un:2354Ssdfsdgs1

no subject

text; anonymous

text ► un: number one

no subject

no subject

text | anonymous

text | anonymous

text | anonymous

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

text; un:kirk