Broadcast Dish

This elegant tower helps you communicate. You constructed it to hone your ability to visit other minds, but it helps you in day-to-day communication, too. When you're not sure how to phrase something, you reframe as something you'd want to send into someone else's mind, and that helps you figure out what to state first.

Spinach is rigging some sort of psychic payload to the base of the tower with steely determination.

sorry about this. i don't want to have to do it, but it's clear now why it's necessary. way too much at stake if i don't.

You know you can't let Spinach detonate this thing. You need to find a way to stop it.

Get the upper hand.

You dart up the tower and lean against the communications dish. Spinach glances up, and you can tell ze's bracing zemself for an amplified attempt to enter. It's tempting to take that route, but you push yourself to enter zer mind gently, quietly - aiming not for a clash, but simply for somewhere ze's dropped zer guard.

You're back near the broadcast tower. Spinach is also back here, standing off to the side with a look on her face that suggests a similar level of regret to yours. She might be open to speaking with you more directly now.

Do you want to talk to Spinach?

Why did this happen? Did somebody specifically want this, or did you decide it was best on your own?

this was contract work. just something to keep the bills paid in between secretarial stuff and my landmine detection/removal gig that's gonna start in the summer.

So it wasn't you that wanted me out of the picture, but someone else? Who would...?

don't think you've ever met them, but there's a social club here in portland (the city where soop takes place) that's dedicated to "preserving opportunities in an egalitarian manner". here, do you know tassy?

they, uhh, how do i put this, they have methods for looking at how the future branches or something. i dunno, they're kind of a classical libertarian.

I don't see how eating books correlates with needing to sabotage my mind in any way...

it's a complicated diversion. i don't really care about their weird social-darwinism-but-equitable schtick, i just needed the cash and the distraction. i can't be trusted around other people when i'm stir-crazy, ha ha.

Am I going to die?

the plan i was given detailed keeping you asleep and taking out your central communication mechanisms, thereby trapping you within your own mind without a way to call for help. it struck me as a really cruel maneuver, honestly. a fate worse than death.

so i altered it just to kill you.

i don't really have the conviction to follow through on that anymore, honestly. lemme disarm the payload, and you'll be able to...

Spinach places its hand over the payload and concentrates for a second. Nothing happens. It tries again, its eyes darting between its hand and the payload. Still nothing.
It turns back to you.

uh. so when i retooled this thing i didn't account for the deactivation mechanism.

one of tassy's guys designed it. i didn't think i was going to, uh, reconsider any of this.

W-Well, you're more accomplished at psychotechnics than I am! Surely, you could just destroy it yourself, right?!

if i apply more of my psychic energy to it, it's just going to detonate. it's designed for my energy type, which is extremely conductive- maybe yours would be fine, though?

It's too solid for me to pick apart on my own! If I could have, I would have, before this mess escalated to this point!!

i bet you can find something in here that's akin to a ton of your own energy, all in one place... you can find a lot of things you don't give yourself credit for in your own mind, helpful and harmful alike.

Press your heart to the payload.

You press your heart against the payload. It swathes itself around the payload and pulses, its hues shifting in fevered waves. To your relief, each throb washes away another element of the explosives' structure, until there isn't enough structure left to keep them together at all. Your heart releases its grip and you watch as the residue dissolves, a major pressure lifting from your shoulders.

Spinach watches and gives you a shaky thumbs up. Its eyes follow your heart curiously.

Present your heart to Spinach.

You gingerly hand Spinach your heart. She holds it as if it was made of eggshell, her hands slightly trembling but refusing to grasp it too hard. She sends an exploratory mental pulse through it.

good stuff. i wouldn't be able to destroy this without killing myself in the process.

Please don't kill yourself. Or destroy it, if that can be avoided.

the way you phrased that makes it sound like you wouldn't be opposed to the latter.

I... I don't want to be the reason the world gets worse for anybody. Especially not the land-folk. Potato Battery, Nozzle, ANYBODY. And if that requires-

it doesn't. jesus fucking christ, dude, where the hell did you get that idea?? actually, probably from the fact i tried to kill you, now that i think about it. uh. you don't have to die or stop being yourself i think. probably.

A bit late on that second one.

you're a smart guy. you care about doing well by other people. some of us can't even do well by ourselves, ha ha. some of us sell destruction to whoever wants to buy it, and all we need to do it is some cash and a little white lie that it's to build a better future. some of us become the scum of the earth without even a second thought.

I mean, if my death would have preserved many otherwise-lost lives in the future-

don't follow that path, gareth. i-i'm sure you can prevent a cataclysmic future by living more consciously. you shouldn't have to take yourself apart for that, right...?