Language-Oriented Vectored Ecstasy – Google Docs
So many possible bad jokes, here. So many.
Language-Oriented Vectored Ecstasy
(L.O.V.E.)
Yes, before anything is said: they came up with the acronym first. But it’s a fair one. The goal was to come up with a way to overload the pleasure centers of the human brain via the use of particular phonemes, and the researchers succeeded. ‘Vectored’ is maybe a bit of a stretch, but LOVE is not indiscriminate in its effects, so it’s a fair enough use of the word. At least from the point of view of the acronym writers.
You see, the proper use of LOVE does require that you know something about the target you’re trying to affect. Roughly eighty percent of LOVE’s semantic and linguistic principles apply to all human beings, but you need to get to 90% in order to reliably get even a generalized effect, and it can be almost infinitely fine-tuned for individuals, ultimately allowing anything from mild pleasure and contentment to instant unconsciousness from sheer overstimulation. As a practical matter this means that anyone using LOVE on someone must spend at least a week researching their target, including video and audio recordings; and full command of LOVE requires daily personal contact with the target.
If this all sounds rather horrible, that’s because it is: the techniques used to put together LOVE were designed by Mad Social Scientists who had both an enviable grasp of psychology and neurolinguistics (one at least one century beyond our current state of the art), and absolutely no scruples or human decency. The only reason why their techniques are not more widespread is because LOVE adepts tend to die young, usually via kinetic energy poisoning. The Great Game has always been leery of anything that smells of mind control, popular conspiracy theories to the contrary.
Why is that? It’s not out of altruism — well, it’s not completely out of altruism. The ban is there for good, practical reasons. The person that you sent to dominate somebody’s mind yesterday will be the person who tries to dominate your mind today. Megalomania is already enough of a workplace hazard for the various factions of the Conspiracy; we don’t take risks when we don’t have to.
So. Here’s your target LOVE adept. Acquire the adept, exfiltrate the adept, and bring the adept back for debriefing and memory-scrubbing. Also, here’s a gag and some earplugs. We’re sure that you don’t need that bit explained.