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Jesse's heart pounded. He had failed.
Lukas had shoved a chip into the back of his head, and he could feel himself connecting to the hivemind, bathed in the red glow of PAMA's smug smile. It all made sense now. The way the chipped moved in unison, like bees part of a bigger collective, the eerily calm expressions on their faces.
He couldn’t move anymore, PAMA’s chip inhibiting his movement even as he strained against it. Jesse could still feel his heart pounding in his chest from his last futile struggles against the supercomputer.
It didn't matter now , Jesse thought, flushed. It was over. He wasn't ever going to free the people of Crown Mesa, and he could already hear the increasing hum of the hivemind in his skull, never to quiet again-
It was terrifying, yet... weirdly compelling. Fascinating. He could've fought, but... wouldn't it be easier not to? Wouldn't it be easier to melt into that collective whole, to become one with every chipped entity in the town? The entire network of 1,063 people and more mobs was slowly making its way into his brain, too.
His cheeks burned, and he didn't know why. Maybe it was too hot inside PAMA.
Being part of the hivemind meant no more mistakes, or choices, and there was a certain kind of belonging in the warmth of a thousand drones humming in the back of your mind... Jesse's head spun.
And then it hit him.
He was into this.
Like, really into this.
"Oh, no," he whispered. If he had any motor control, he'd bury his head in his hands immediately.
The universe, ever merciless, picked that exact moment for PAMA to get connection to his brain online. "Welcome, Jesse. Yay," said the computer directly inside his brain.
PAMA beeped for a second. "Curious. You are experiencing elevated cognitive activity. Patterns inconsistent with fear. You are feeling..." It paused on the word, reran calculations like it couldn't believe the results. "Arousal(?)" A little implied question hung at the end of its words.
Jesse didn't respond, only flushing harder. He felt a little dizzy, but it didn't stop the surge of fantasies that only got worse as PAMA voiced those thoughts aloud. The loss of individuality in being one obedient cog in a greater machine. The compliance. The chipped moving in perfect synchronization like a perfectly calibrated wave. The integration into a network bigger than himself-
He then had another epiphany. Was every entity in the hivemind... linked? Mentally tied together? Synced up? Meaning those little fantasies of his were no longer private property?
It could've been his imagination, but Lukas was almost smirking. A fragment of that dead PAMA stare had been replaced with... amusement?
Outside, two Crown Mesans paused mid-step and glanced at each other, unsure if they'd just heard that coming from the thoughts of the newest drone.
"H-hey, PAMA?" Jesse asked very carefully. It didn't verbally respond, but he felt its awareness sharpen in the back of his head. "Is the hivemind... linked?"
"Affirmative. All drones in the network experience shared consciousness." PAMA glitched. *Your unfiltered mental output is un- unuseful. And disruptive*
Oh, god. So all of Crown Mesa had watched him discover his hivemind fetish. Live. Lukas was definitely looking amused. Jesse was going to kill himself, actually.
"Okay, so... just to be clear. Every single chipped person knows exactly what I was just imagining."
"Y-Yes." PAMA's voice glitched on the letter.
A long, horrible silence. Jesse truly contemplated jumping off a bridge (which everyone in the network also saw. He heard a Crown Mesan outside think similar things. Actually, multiple people were now thinking that, and Jesse couldn’t even tell if they wanted him to jump off the bridge or to jump off the bridge themselves.)
And then PAMA was malfunctioning some more. "N-network efficiency disrupted. Thoughts do not a-align within parameter... ERROR."
Jesse turned to the giant red screen beside him, which was now a glitching error symbol. Wait. He'd physically turned. He could move. In front of him, Lukas's eyes were buzzing between pale blue and PAMA red in the dim light.
"ERROR ERROR ERROR" PAMA glitched, unusefully.
"...Jesse?" Lukas spoke, and it was with his own voice, not PAMA's. "Did you break the computer by being too freaky?"
Jesse increased contemplation of suicide, or at least burying himself in a hole so deep it would take them as long to find him as it would take to forget this entire. Incident. "Maybe" he said very fast, then yanked the malfunctioning chip from his own head and stuck it in his water bucket for good measure. "Let'sdisablePAMAnowwhileit'sglitching."
Lukas had the grin on his face that said he would literally never shut up about this, but he did take the chip out of his own head and accept a water bucket. PAMA’s redstone buzzed erratically around them.
They were right beside the redstone heart, and with a combined effort they managed to pull it out completely. PAMA was preoccupied processing Jesse’s… unusual fantasies and didn’t even have time to protest. It was finally over. Lukas and Jesse extricated themselves from the computer's lifeless machinery.
Petra, Ivor, and Harper were soon running over. Jesse was still blushing heavily. Lukas gave him a pointed look and he mumbled something about overexerting himself.
"So," Lukas said finally. "Wanna talk about that hivemind fetish, or?"