A tiny dust tornado whips up and spins along the ground, tossing dried leaves. The soil here is dry and empty of nutrients from over-farming in the desperate times before. At some point it was declared useless for crops and the town sprouted up. Looking at the dead earth below makes you wonder how long the town, and the people, can survive.

“It took a long time to find this place.”

“We wandered for years, hiding, struggling, being alone. But we heard tales of a place where there weren’t brands. Where they were working on a cure. There was hope here”

He pulls at the hem of his shirt idly as the sun starts to set.


“Now that we’re here, I get to wondering,” he says in an almost whisper, “if in the end it won’t be the brands that end us.”

He’s looking off to the west. You look in that direction, parsing his meaning. Off that way there are more towns. Towns where there are rumors of riots and bandit parties attacking other towns.

It dawns on you, and your mind completes his thought.

“I get to wondering if in the end it’ll be us that end ourselves”

@tcql Dude, I know this started as a glib joke, but I think you have something here on the level of Pattern Recognition. Like a Gibsonian/Peckinpaw/Romero mashup masterpiece.

@SuzanEraslan 🤗 omg thaaanks

The Hive enforced these directives with troll armies and abusive abuse policies. Meanwhile, the Federation learned to recognize malicious thoughtware as damage and route around it.

@emdeesee omg we are actually homestuck now
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=006053

@DialMforMara 😬 I know of Homestuck, but I don't know much about Homestuck.

Braced for unfollow.

@emdeesee it's just that the way the Alternian Empress takes over post-Scratch Earth was very CONSUME AND CONFORM

@emdeesee also I keep feeling like the author predicted last year's US election

@DialMforMara It looks interesting, but there's so intimidatingly much of it.

@emdeesee @DialMforMara "there's so intimidatingly much of it" is my exact feeling on it.

looks pretty neat, started in but haven't gone very far yet and it's just... a lot 😯

@emdeesee it starts small. I like to think that it prepares you before each step up in scope. If you'd like a taste of the early humor before jumping in, I recommend Problem Sleuth, also on MSPA.

@DialMforMara Thanks!

@plsburydoughboy it was a not _entirely_ unintentional implication