Conversation · Noid

"Something tells me Ms. Messier would be less than thrilled to hear you'd like to commandeer her boat so you can talk to a Coalition warship."

"No way I'm getting on a boat owned by the Wild Pines. Everything about them gives off a real shadowy sine."

"Here's an idea: Maybe there's an antenna in the harbour we could use?"

"You want to get the Union in on this plan?" He gives you an incredulous look. "Is that a good idea?"

"Hmmm, maybe not."

"Didn't think so. You gotta watch out for those guys. Give off a real hostile sine, if you ask me."

"One-hundred percent. Evrart's an old friend of mine."

"Yes, you two have grown quite close over the last few days. Always doing little errands for each other."

"I don't trust the fat man. Gives off a hard core würm sine, real manipulative, if you ask me."

"I'm not sure I'd use the word 'friendly' to describe Mr. Claire's attitude toward us."

This is easy. Antennas are basically just tall things, right?

"We could use the steeple of this church." (Point up.)

The young man looks straight up, following the line of your finger. A frown comes over his face.

"Not likely to work. This whole church is made from pinewood. They don't make too many pinewood antennas."

He's being uncharacteristically polite. He means they don't make any pinewood antennas. Because it's such an obviously bad idea, you see.

"Hmm, that's a good point, now that you mention it."

He shrugs, as though the point were rather obvious.

"Ours will be the first!"

"No, it won't be. There can't be a first of something that can't be."

"The radio relay tower is in bad shape. I don't think we can use it to reach Archer."

"This is a major setback. We're going to have to find some other way to generate those mega-long waves."

"Build it ourselves! We built this nightclub, we can build anything!"

"Wait, could we build a radio transmitter ourselves?"

"Yeah, maybe?" The young man shrugs. "Tech-wise, radio's not the spookiest thing around. Hard part's finding an antenna big enough to align with those mega-low frequencies..."

"An antenna hard core enough to shake the whole world!"

"Maybe not that big, but pretty big."

"Egg is right. There's no other way."

"Now that our sines are synced, can you help me contact the Coalition?"

"You sure that's a good idea? Those are some serious frequencies you want to mess with..."

"Come on, Noid. I think we owe him."

"Acele's right. He's one of us now."

"Guess it would be pretty soft core for me to say no, wouldn't it?" He gnaws a screw thoughtfully.

"Yeah, alright. But if you're going to sync up with them, you're gonna need a serious wave-generator of your own. You understand what I'm saying?"

"What about the radio relay tower at Land's End? Is that serious enough?"

"Not likely. Scoped that spot a while back. It's short-wave stuff, mostly commercial. Plus it's all rusted out."

"Not really, no."

"MEGA-LOW FREQUENCY! Waves so long the ionosphere can't hold them!"

"Not even the RCM has access to that kind of equipment. The Coalition is extremely possessive of its frequency bands."

"There's an old radio relay tower at the edge of the peninsula, right where the air waves meet the sea waves..."

"TWO WAVES, ONE SHORE. WAVE LOVE. YEAAAGH!"

"You should go scope it out, see what kind of condition it's in."

"Wait, before I go -- where is this relay tower exactly?"

"It's like, up from here. You just go outside, and then turn up."

"Turn 'up'? You mean, like, north?"

"Yeah, up. Do they not teach you about maps in cop school?"

"Alright, I'll check out the tower and report back." (Conclude.)

"You do that. And let us know what you discover."

"Take care, Noid." [Leave.]

"Okay, now I'm ready. Let's contact Archer."

"You mentioned true life. What would that be like?"

"A life is true if it's free from fear and internal division among oneself. And others -- mankind has seeds of greatness in it. A germinal will come, a return to trueness. It will be hard core."

"How would you go about returning to this true life?"

"Beats and bright lights to shatter falsehoods. Nerve impulses for the collective body. We are very much alike in basic structure. A hard enough beat would awaken everyone to a truer calling -- in unity!"

Just like that the speedfreak is right in your face, his eyes burning. His comrades look on worriedly.

The young man is dead serious about this.

Rejection of the right-left axis, emphasis on unity, appreciation of some primordial mode of being -- what does that remind you of?

"Sort of like fascism then?"

"Nationalism, militarism, racism, and emphasis on a leader character are totally absent in hard core." The words echo through the church majestically.

"Fair enough. Just making an observation."

He picks up a wrench and scratches his head with it, unaroused by fascism.