https://seekwebserial.wordpress.com/2025/01/27/2-4-b-send/
created by Pteromys-Momonga on 28/01/2025 at 02:00 UTC
145 upvotes, 21 top-level comments (showing 21)
Comment by ZTYTHYZ at 28/01/2025 at 03:03 UTC
51 upvotes, 0 direct replies
“Do I even have friends anymore?” A asked.
I was unclear if this message was in the back channel or not. The thought of people watching A wake up from a restless sleep and then say that unprompted is really funny and depressing.
Comment by Pteromys-Momonga at 28/01/2025 at 03:47 UTC
45 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I really like Amber so far. She's perceptive and thoughtful about what's going on around her, even the parts that don't affect her directly, and she seems to have a measured perspective on the high society hype: not fooled by the smoke and mirrors, but also not looking to rebel without a goal.
Robert is scary, but not as much as A's audience; at least Robert is one person with an agenda, not millions of people operating off knee-jerk reactions and feeding into each other's outrage. Having that many obsessive fans who can pretty much watch A's every move sounds horrifying, and it's clearly giving her more trauma.
Of course, the steady stream of trauma isn't helping A and Basil mend their relationship. We didn't get to see as many of Basil's feelings and reactions this chapter, but it looks like A isn't ready to forgive him after the science center incident. I'm not sure what, if anything, could change that - especially when she can't get any sort of neutral party to weigh in. Speaking of which, I wonder how therapy works when everyone has onboards; is doctor-patient confidentiality just gone now?
Also wondering if the ripple effects from this event have anything to do with the riot that started in the last W chapter.
Comment by LowKeyJustMe at 28/01/2025 at 05:42 UTC
42 upvotes, 1 direct replies
As A forces Basil to break more rules, now even plotting to murder someone for the sake of her secret, I am wondering what levels of danger Basil might rise to. Completely erasing someone feels very significant. It brings to mind the congnitohazards in Orion's era, and makes me suspicious that Basil could bring them about as a covert way of killing. That's without much evidence to support, but it's where my mind is going. Very interesting chapter.
Comment by Dancing_Anatolia at 28/01/2025 at 06:03 UTC
33 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Gotta love them thematic parallels. Each protagonist is being slowly hunted down and cornered. Winnie by a Private Eye piecing together her crimes, A by a devious politician figuring out her secrets, and Orion by a giant Fox and it's Moth pals who want to drive him insane.
Comment by chosedemarais at 28/01/2025 at 02:58 UTC
55 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Meanwhile Orion just chilling out and eating floor moss.
Comment by sodo9987 at 28/01/2025 at 11:29 UTC
28 upvotes, 0 direct replies
There was an interesting interaction between Amber and A, where Amber is talking to A about all the kids that missed out being part of the colors. Amber talks about how many kids missed out by being .5% worse than someone similar to them. Yet it wasn’t A who responded but Basil did, which struck me as odd.
Thinking about it, this exact stuff is also about generative AI. Each AI constantly thrown out as soon as it is outdated. I think Basil has thought a ton about this subject.
Since we never see into Basil’s head, we instead have to inference his opinions and fears from what he chooses to interact with. I think that Basil fears about being replaced.
Comment by Chkef at 28/01/2025 at 03:30 UTC*
21 upvotes, 1 direct replies
A is genuinely impressive, but she has such low self esteem, and Bas is so overbearing, that the only thing anything she does can be is a farce.
And evidently the effect that is having on her is leading to some drastic motivation.
Comment by AE3T at 28/01/2025 at 04:20 UTC
22 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Hmm, basil will figure something out? I think this will have consequences. Still trying to work out how Orion's world comes about. We have extreme body modding, chip-brains and gene modifications, visual modifications... and now a deadly secret shared between two very powerful characters.
Anyway, how's Winnie doing?
Comment by Tempeljaeger at 28/01/2025 at 18:39 UTC
20 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Not quite an intrusion. A meeting at the wall. He’d placed his hand in the right spot, and nanotech at the fingers was transmitting to the sensors within the body.
Since people could watch the whole interaction from his eyes, his Onboard must have some privacy features to be able to send this message without getting detected. Is this another case of some people being more equal than others?
Hruby's fate was predictable in hindsight. What a shame. I wonder, if Wildbow channels his own experiences with his fandoms for writing A's rabid fanbase.
Comment by Successful-Shower678 at 28/01/2025 at 16:50 UTC
14 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Hm. Murder sure is a big leap. A's panicked child personality it really coming through. Though thebresponse to Hruby was well thought out, she seems to just be riding everyone else's waves
Comment by BavarianBarbarian_ at 28/01/2025 at 17:13 UTC
13 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Every new Basil chapter proves that his story line is the scariest, because it's so realistic.
Wonder how much of his own negative experiences with fandom Wildbow is putting into this.
Comment by centerwingbolt at 28/01/2025 at 12:46 UTC
10 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Fantastic chapter, but I’d like us to get a little more context about WHY it’s such a bad thing to have their back channel code discovered, so much so that A almost immediately considers murdering a powerful political figure in response.
I got the sense that the back channel is unusual, but is it illegal? Immoral? Just something no one else has done before?
Now that its existence has been exposed, people will certainly try to copy and / or hack into it, and that’s going to occur regardless of if Robert is still alive or not.
Comment by FranklinLundy at 28/01/2025 at 02:13 UTC
18 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Basil my beloved
Comment by silent_hillside at 28/01/2025 at 10:25 UTC
17 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Setting aside Basil the Beloved, this is by far my favorite A chapter. She's been so reactionary for pretty much her whole life it's really a breath of fresh air to see her stepping into her own agency. I still don't know if I like her or not but I enjoyed her greatly in this chapter.
Comment by 40i2 at 28/01/2025 at 17:27 UTC
16 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Reading B sometimes feels like two different stories on it’s own. When focusing on nanotech and onboards Basil’s PoV reads like a pure xenofiction.
But then there are chapters like this one which feels almost contemporary. Sure, there is still remote observation and perception manipulation, but otherwise it reads like a story about present day celebrity/reality tv culture, only exaggerated and scaled way up… A is a celebrity who got her status by chance and was bought by a company. Bas acts like her agent, Teegs try to retain control of her daughter, everyone wants to use her image and she has way too much influence through her rabid fans. And apparently Warner Brothers still want to make Cinematic Universe a thing…
Robert Simes is interesting. With enough scrutiny of onboards, the deep codes as described in this chapter are easily exposable - sooner or later someone will go through the first time they were used and I very much doubt kid A or Quin never spoke about them - and one mention is all it takes… (This is also why the fidelity trick over in W would get exposed the moment someone stumbles over the records of family kids first learning it.) But Robert managed to uncover the back channel even though it was fully constructed over unsupervised interface with no records - and even broadcast over it - when even Elabre seem to be in the dark. (Or are they aware but keep quiet?) I’m very interested ti learn more about him.
A this chapter managed to get one of her fans killed (unintentionally, at least) and demanded Basil to plan a murder to hide being a fraud… Yep, she is fitting into the celebrity culture, well…
So… are Orion and the others overzealous A fans who were stripped of memories of her by a court order and sent out to the furthest part of the belt?
Comment by pog_irl at 28/01/2025 at 04:12 UTC
6 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Everytime I see this it's motivation to finish Pale because I know I'm going to be so far behind
Comment by UncleThermoScales at 29/01/2025 at 03:12 UTC
7 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Hmmm. If A's setting a precedent to cull the parts of her audience doing the most harm like this by effectively erasing them from her view and her from their view, I wonder if Winnifred might get put into thay category. She's not a rabbid fan or motivated purely by A, but I could see some legal interpretation rid of her of A's music as punishment for her crimes in this dock war or even just for being a folk.
Comment by Shemetz at 28/01/2025 at 13:26 UTC
14 upvotes, 3 direct replies
I wish Wildbow went all the way with the special formatting in this story, rather than taking half measures.
Right now, we have:
Events happening anywhere
But then we also have:
[dog, Mechard's onboard]
**[Red, Te's onboard]**
*[Fly, Amber's onboard]*
and now
**[Robert loudly speaking into back channel]**
Now, I like this, but... clearly, this is unsustainable if he keeps introducing new characters, right?
The lack of speaker attribution is something that occasionally bugged me in previous WB serials -- sometimes a statement is said and it's not obvious who said it, even taking context into account. Sometimes he himself even makes a mistake and a character apparently replies to themselves halfway through a long conversation where lines aren't being attributed. I respect the attempt to use special formatting for this, but he isn't doing a perfect job there.
Comment by brian_mcgee17 at 28/01/2025 at 20:26 UTC
5 upvotes, 3 direct replies
Not sure I understand what Coordinated Canon is.
From his description, it sounds like normal, human [corporate boardroom]-made media franchises like we have today, instead of stuff that's daydreamed on the fly by AI, watched one time by one person, then deleted and forgotten forever.
But wouldn't that mean the six film series mentioned in 2.2 is coordinated cannon? Or if it refers specifically to MULTIMEDIA franchises, did that six film series never get a video game tie in? If that's all it is, it doesn't seem like much of a distinction to me.
Comment by tenth at 29/01/2025 at 02:12 UTC
7 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Don't get me wrong. I get that it's a story and characters are flawed and they may grow, etc. And she's a kid.
But holy hell is A getting on my nerves. "Make me look cool by playing songs for me and making me sing better.", "I wanna take credit for what you did at the science center so ppl think I'm amazing!" But then also "Don't help me in a literal emergency or crisis! How dare you calm my body down so I can be the most aware and helpful to myself possible"
Girl, STFU.
Comment by adaylateaburgershort at 31/01/2025 at 18:58 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Can somebody explain to me what the "backchannel" is exactly? I'm having a hard time remembering exactly where is was explained and why it's dangerous.