#wibar

Anyways, one of the concepts I find endlessly fascinating is the Vidi, and I wanted to ask: if Virgil was very present in the current moment, could he give Logan (and maybe others) a live interpretation of the current situation? Let's say he'd sing an English song as they initiated the Vidi, could he give Logan al translation? And I think you once mentioned that the memories from the Vidi are only as sharp as you remember them. Could you technically stitch memories together then to show something? Like, let's say you remember the specific classroom where a biology teacher always gave lessons, but you don't remember their face or voice. Could you stitch the memory of sitting at your specific spot in that location together with the information you know about a biological process to explain that to an alien?

Anyways, hope you are doing well and thank you again for sharing your works with us!!❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

aww, nyn, i'm honored! it means so much to me that my silly guys could have such an impact... i love writing sci fi and i truly hope i get to keep doing it for a long time.

as for the vidi...

i think for the first question, "could a vidi provide something like real-time translation," the answer is probably not. the effect of a vidi isn't so much direct meaning as it is understanding, and this is accomplished through the same pathways we build memory on-- if virgil wanted to share the human lyrics of a song, he'd have an easier time focusing on a strongly formed memory of listening to that song, and even then, after the vidi ended, logan would still be left with more of an impression of the song than the exact lyrics. think about the way you process things while asleep: often the underlying feelings of a dream or nightmare are understood without clear details, and these impressions tend to fade upon waking. a vidi theoretically functions in a very similar way.

this sort of leads into the second question, which proposes exerting a certain level of control over one's recollections to present a scene. it might not be as clear cut as your example, but my answer is yes, you could accomplish this. i mean, our minds are already entirely capable of creating mismashed or unreal versions of events, either through extreme cases like confabulation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confabulation) or the more common false memories (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_memory). imagining things is also a skill that comes in handy for compiling brain stuff like this.

However! i do think that trying to construct a rigid scene rather than sharing a more general and loose-flowing stream of information can come with its own hazards. for example, falsely believing afterwards that your biology teacher was the one to teach you that fact, or later remembering the face of your teacher as closer to a completely different person who told you those facts. these risks likely wouldn't be as prominent for ulgorii, who are structured for vidi sharing without as much memory degradation or incorrect processing of information, but for humans and other species without those adaptations, it's a real hazard! its why interspecies vidi sharing is a learned skill that only some ulgorii have mastered.

Ahhh of course!! Both of those AUs originate from what I call the Deceitus Vortex, aka my friend @ghostkittypog and I got a little obsessed with an Alien!Janus au and since in WIBAR, Janus hasn't been introduced yet, we were like "What if WIBAR? But Deceitus!Janus?"

So essentially, Deceitus are a race of bug-like aliens operating under under a collective hive mind and have a similar structure to bees in that there is a "Queen Bee" that is viewed as a Leader of a Hive and all Deceitus underneath them are known as "Workers" and are seen as non-sentient, merely extensions of a Leader's will and might.

They tendency to invade and decimate other alien species due to an evolved hyper sense of distrust and aggression towards outsiders to their hive (stemming from centuries of generational trauma). They have the ability to absorb DNA and shapeshift, hence the moniker "Deceitus." In their true forms, they can range from 5-10 ft in size depending on if they are a worker or a leader, as well as some differences between hives. Workers use it/its pronouns, Leaders use they/them pronouns but generally as a whole Deceitus are very gender-neutral.

In terms of their involvement in the WIBAR verse, we decided they were supposedly wiped out of existence over a thousand years ago and are seen as a cosmic urban legend of sorts. Unbeknownst to the known universe, Deceitus hid away to less developed planets. Poor Earth not only has dealt with alien abductions, they also get invaded by giant alien bugs.

So the premise for Number 8 "WIBAR Except We Self Indulgently Place Deceitus Janus There" is that it takes place sometime after Making Adjustments and before Let My Mind Reset.

Janus is a worker Deceitus who is aware of humans/Earth through hive mind Deceitus shenanigans but hasn't actually visited Earth personally. Somehow, it gets stranded from the rest of its Hive, on a planet way off course from their usual routes, injured and alone.

It takes shelter into a space vessel that turns out to have a human inside and being the crafty critter it is...it decides to take on the form of a human and attempt to garner sympathy from the Human.

Simple, easy, solid plan except for one issue--it is unaware that humans are not like Deceitus and generally do not look exactly identical.

So, imagine being Virgil who hasn't seen another human for almost a whole year and once you do, it's something replicating your likeness to an unnerving degree and not only that, but it's speaking English to you.

Inspired by the fic “Watch It Burn and Rust” and all its AU spinoffs by @delimeful I just sat down one day and started drawing Ampen designs for the Sides, as you do!

Heh, good luck trying to be intimidating Janus when you’re just a fluffy little guy!

Inspired by this video