memshares

[engineers]

⭐️ PRE SERIES
- No wonder I'm different from everyone else. Everyone like me is here.
- In all the years I lived there, it only snowed once.

⭐️ BOOK ONE
- The destruction of Beijing Beta

⭐️ BOOK TWO
Encouraging HJS - "What makes you think you can decide what's defective and what's correct?" (CH 29) combine with her operating the mech ("My old man was humoring me. Here. A noise filter. Try it." CH 41) + ("Girl, clear out slowly. Slow down, don't be nervous. You're the most talented student I've ever seen.. JSH stops the mech, CH 41)

"Young man, can you fix that screen?" (CH32 -33)

Stopping the riot with the sight of Beijng-B. "Listen to me. Listen. To. Me."
"Sc...scan for me." (CH48) + "Stars can be reborn, but what about you?" (CH 49)

⭐️ BOOK THREE
Conversation with Foucalt - Don't try and fool me with those words of yours. (CH 61, P19 - P20)
The Space Station funeral (CH 65:57)

"Rescuing" LJH from the city ladies (Ch69:84) + Fortune Telling

"Are we just animals in your eyes?!" - William Yu, the Rainbow Virus (72:102)
"Zhanlu... give LBX full administrative access." (78:144)

"Lin Jingheng, did you know you're a heartless piece of garbage?" (79:154)

⭐️ BOOK FOUR
- Turan and the sedative / the death of Lin Jingheng

⭐️ BOOK FIVE

Comments

huang jiangshu | what's defective, and whats correct?

[engineers]

[ you find yourself in the simulations training of a spaceship, where a young girl, maybe sixteen or so, sits cross legged on the ground, staring into space. that, of course, is huang jiangshu, one of your students, and just from a precursory look, you know she's struggling.

you palm the drink you're holding - a beer - and then pop the tab to get her attention. she looks back at you, startled, says, "Headmaster Lu," and you come to sit beside her, taking out a paper cup and pouring half of the can into it as you explain it's from lin jingheng's previous stock, but it's definitely close to expiring. huang jiangshu's face shifts to a pout. "You're still so petty! If no one's going to drink it, and it's expired, can't you let me have the whole thing?"

it makes you fond, and you shake your head. ] Half a can is enough for you, kiddo. How much more do you want me to spoil you guys? If you're not going to drink it, you can give it back.

[ as you hold out your hand, predictably, she immediately takes the cup, and you sigh, breaking the silence as she drinks. ] The error rate of your homework yesterday was extremely high, and you copied the short answer question. It looks like you just puked out the whole thing in a rush, and that's never happened with you, before. Why?

[ she gets defensive, immediately - claims she didn't copy, but you point out the flaws and obvious places (source one: the fact that you know she couldn't read the book that she tried to copy from.) and then huang jiangshu sighs and gives up, downs the rest of her beer, and takes on the best popular girl poise she can manage.

"Headmaster Lu, some things can't just be achieved with hard work. Some people are just better than others. Some people are born without an arm, or a leg, some people are born to be nothing, and are destined to be nothing. For m-- for many of us, it's just like this. We were produced as defective products. I'm sorry, Headmaster Lu, teaching us to operate a mech - that's harder than teaching a hamster to jump through a ring of fire, right?"

you make a soft noise - it seems like she has more to say, and tilt your head, keeping your reaction off your face. she's referring, of course, to being vaccuocerebral. to having no ability to sync with a mech. instead, you say, placidly, ] There's no aesthetic value in watching a hamster jump through a ring of fire.

[ she gives you a look, but continues. "Since a war started, it's going to be hard for people who can't operate mechs to survive in space, right? We don't know what's going to happen, and we can't be useless and just rely on someone else for our entire lives. Operating a mech requires top-notch toughness mentally and physically, and you have to be smart enough, and have no genetic defects. No vaccuocerebrals. Don't you think this is a natural selection? To wipe out those of us that are defective, and only keeping those that are correct?"

hm. you must make a little bit of a face. she points at you with the cup. It's not talent you're lacking, you just have to work harder, and you have to study harder - that's what you wanted to say, right? Headmaster Lu, ugh, your teachers' speeches haven't changed for millions of years! I'm right, aren't I?"

you look at her for a moment, at the can of beer in your hand, and your mind reams with memories, before you reply. casually, relaxed. ] Nope. I just wanted to say I've thought only the more introverted types would reflect on society. Not you, considering your hobby's getting into fights with a broken off beer bottle.

[ huang jiangshu blushes, mouth hanging open and the fire temporarily extinguished, and you continue, calmly, turning your gaze to her face. ] Both human society and human evolution are too long, and too complicated. When you use even less than twenty years of life experience to judge it, it's like looking at one spot on a leopard to visualize the entire animal. I've already said this to you once before: the world is changing too fast, maybe once every even ten years. Can you precisely predict what the next decade is going to be like? Your whole life is going to be hundreds of years long, and if you can't even predict the next ten years, then what makes you think you can decide what's defective, and what's correct?

[ she looks - stunned. you take a slow sip of your beer, as you continue - as you think on the eight, as you think on these tiny little lives that have become your own, these four students who you still hold as close to you as you can. ] You're still little. From what I've studied, there's no proof that people who are vaccuocerebral can't actually feel a mental network. Once you've fully understood mechs and the way they work with your brain, then you can decide if you want to develop in a different direction, instead of running away like a coward when you struggle at the beginning.

[ you want to continue, but before you get the chance, lin jingheng's voice patches through the communication system in the room - it startles you enough that you choke on your beer, and it seems like with those words of wisdom, that's the end of that conversation. ]