[OPEN MINGLE]

[justscribing]

WHO: Everyone! It's a mingle!
WHAT: Discussing recent reveals about the simulation
WHERE: Pairidaeza Architectural Studio
WHEN: Feb 3rd morning to evening
WARNINGS: Potential existential crises, discussions of death, memory manipulation, basically everything to do with their actual situation in a simulated environment.




[The actual setup within the garage-turned-studio is away from all the actual workbenches.

On one folding table are copies of multiple documents available around the X: The main document is a summary of a resident from a prior iteration that's clearly been redacted via scanning copies with stuff blocked out. Additionally are copies of the most recent newsletter with the memo on the back and photos of the hotel journal printed in black and white.

Lined up on another folding table away from the one with the documents is an array of finger foods: hummus, chutneys, and yoghurt dips with a variety of sliced vegetables, cheeses, cold cuts, and fresh pita bread. cardamom cookies, panipuri, and both vegetable and chicken samosas take up the other side. Mint water and fresh juice are in pitchers to the center. It's actually a little crowded.

Chairs are set up in small grounds and around the document table. And finally, a whiteboard has been rolled in for people to make use of in group discussions.]



((This is a mingle, so everyone is encouraged to threadjack, make toplevels, etc prior plot mingles have been done. Alhaitham and Kaveh will be around and participating but not taking the lead beyond making sure people stay orderly in the studio and have enough papers.

If you character has discussed the simulation with either Kaveh or Alhaitham, you can also handwave they texted them directly about it.))

Comments

[immortalpoet]

...

[Wiping memories...he's silent at that, but grimaces with the question.]

More often than not. Corporations do like to experiment on people where they can.

[justscribing]

[Alhaitham hums in agreement. He knows some of those people, even.]

Hold onto that. Having focus on your end goal will give you the clear mind needed to actualize it regardless what obstacles occur. We have a group of people with diverse talents here.

[strongroots]

Didn't the diary say they try holding out on an experiment as long as possible? They haven't stopped so far. Doesn't sound like they think they can.

[ Or by the time that diary was written. ]

But something or someone's helping us. If we're finding files by mistake--maybe it means something. Maybe there's something we can do.

[ Maybe. That's all it can be, if a someone can't help them. The most hopeful of positions, but Robby knows it's a reaching one, desperate. But isn't all that they have? The hope of there being a way out of this despite all reason: people trapped inside a program escaping from it.

What kind of sense does that make? But they need it. He has to remember that, too. ]

[justscribing]

No. [Straight up.] It's a waste of time and resources that could have been better spent managing or averting their crisis at hand. The kind of data this file suggests they're looking at hardly needed this excessive setup.

[fauned]

( lmao. that's cold. cold enough to fix their global warming issue, even. but true. )

If you don't think they can make people shake hands and get along you really think they can figure out how to stop whatever crisis they're having?

( maybe they're being realistic. )

And I did kinda hear someone ask why they didn't just grab someone from like.. I dunno, a world or a timeline that had someone that could just help them figure that out.

( ... )

Do you think it'd be easier to get to where they are, somehow? I mean, we keep getting bits of theirs. Maybe there's a way to sneak that way?

[limbical]

...Admittedly, I have no idea. I'm out of my depth completely with this. I don't know hell of a lot about this kind of thing.

[There's a helpless, angry sigh.] Junpei tried describing the effects as maybe like... the simulation reacting the way we think it would to magic. I sort of get what he'd been trying to say at the time.

Yet, what we experience is very real. The mind is truly impressive if we're really not here, convinced that this is reality. I'm sure if I was a more disciplined man, I might have a better suggestion.

[limbical]

Can you try to elaborate what that means? The state you're in?

Are you ill or something from this magical girl business?

[justscribing]

"Cloud storage". [There's a new term.] But you're right. Whatever physical device is used for this will probably be in the same area as the actual experiment. Since they've decided to put everything else on their servers, perhaps there's a way to cause a leak of some sort of manual or program we can use from the inside.

[aceslow]

Anal prolapse?

[ It's really hard to tell that he's joking from his tone alone -- and from his expression, for that matter, as unmoving as stone. But he's probably kidding. ]

Not it.

[ He leans further over her to fish one of the papers out of the pile, placing it beside Fearne's. ]

In all seriousness, they did choose one of our more... colourful members. I don't doubt that they're monitoring us all 24/7, but I doubt they're paying close attention when we're not doing anything of note.

[justscribing]

[Alhaitham hums. He has half a thought of whether this City is actually where they've been brought to and used, from everything he's heard. But it can't be proven until they're out, and thus the answer won't be important until then. How many hellholes with apocalyptic crises are generically calling themselves The City anyway?]

Personally, I'd rather try whatever option will let me keep my memories intact than continue to be manipulated for their goals. [Even if it's a long shot.] Do you recognize the first four names?

[fussiest]

[ that's the issue, kaveh thinks, of tools that are beyond the scope of what humanity is capable of comprehending. the use-cases for them never fall within imagined limits. sumeru has a list of taboos. there has always been a reason for lines to be drawn in the sand. ]

That doesn't discount the possibility of information overload. If we truly are planning on finding and returning to our real bodies, the safest way is to figure out what might be the ramifications of the largest possible sum of memories being returned. [ a beat. ] There is also the possibility that the oldest residents, the ones who have been used for the most number of iterations, have bodies that are no longer in usable condition, or those with too many memories should not return to their bodies because of overload. We have to be careful. That's all I'm saying.

late and ota!

[cupperty]

[ Muriel is sitting off to one side, writing all of this information down in a little spiral-bound notebook. They're looking pretty shellshocked, and frequently stop jotting down notes to stare off into space. If none of this is real, then on some faraway level, they think they should feel glad. It means that they won't get in trouble for acting like a human, sullying their human corporation with food and drink, fraternizing with the enemy. Instead... they just feel sick.

After a moment, they tentatively raise a hand, as if they're asking a question in a school assembly. ]

Um... d'you think that if they've been observing us so closely, they've realized that we know what's going on?

[cupperty]

Surely they'd get bored, at some point! Most of the time, it's just day to day living, here!

[ apart from the occasional monthly horrors, anyway! ]

[abit_ofboth]

Well, I know of an autonomous AI. It was created by a… [he pauses as he almost says enemy and corrects] by a friend of my brother. When I last encountered it, it was just a voice in the ceiling that operated much of the technology used by him, but I am to understand it later got a body and was a fully functioning person, for lack of a better term. I believe Thor said he was even in a relationship with a woman.

[Loki shrugs as if this is a completely normal thing. For all he knows it is. He never was well versed in life on Midgard.]

[fanstheflames]

No, it's...

[ She hesitates. ]

The older you get, the weaker your magic gets. If I've technically been aging or if I've been going through this over and over without my Soul Gem getting purified, that would be a pretty big problem.

Especially now that the ability's been unsealed here.

[fanstheflames]

Yeah... well, that's about how it always goes.

[ With a huff that's half-amused and half-tired. ]

I don't want to be a liability, in the end.

[limbical]

[Maybe he's the last person to be fretting over something like this. After all, Daan is familiar with the heavy toll of magic, but there's a sense of dread in his chest.]

...How does your Soul Gem get purified, exactly? Maybe it's... something that I could try to do.

[It's doubtful. Sylvian's healing magic has almost always been for physical wounds. This probably would be no different, but that wouldn't stop him from trying everything.]

[justscribing]

You're the last person I'm worried about being a liability. [He's ranking a teenager above literally everybody except himself.]

[fanstheflames]

Yeah, I'm not giving up or anything like that. There's information we're getting still... and we're all still alive.

[ She takes a breath, letting the sound of the rain calm her thoughts to the best of the rain's ability. ]

So I just--need to focus on that, I think. One thing at a time. It'd be kind of embarrassing if I became a problem in the middle of trying to solve one.

[fanstheflames]

One way won't work... I don't have access to it here. The other way is to get a Grief Seed, though that's something Witches drop when you defeat them, and thankfully, they're not here.

[ She says it with an apologetic smile, because she knows that isn't something he'd want to hear. ]

Grief Seeds draw out the impurities.

[fanstheflames]

[ Wow everyone else should be really embarrassed-- ]

Not in the way you're probably thinking. But I appreciate it! You don't say nice things for the heck of it.

[limbical]

[It isn't fair. But then, when is life ever fair? He's known that since he was a boy. The world doesn't stop turning for anything, not for a single person or their plight. Daan's fingers curl into his checkered pants, grip tight and uneasy.]

...Let me try to think of something. There... has to be something I can manage to do.

[Daan has never been good at giving up on other people.]

[justscribing]

[They should be, but this is also Tsuruno they're talking about.]

There's no value in praise that isn't earned. [A beat. Alhaitham lifts his hand and looks, momentarily, unsure what to do with it.]

Tsuruno. [He settles for lowering it atop her head.] Right now, we have no evidence that you're any closer to becoming a monster than you were before. I'm not ignoring the risk, but I intend to see you out of here too.

[fanstheflames]

...

[ Her head lowers a little, though it's not as though his hand is heavy.

It feels... warm. ]

I'm really... lucky, to know you. [ With a quieter smile. ]

For now, I'll just keep going and see if there's anything I need to change up, going forward. I know you guys wouldn't let me hurt anyone, if I messed up.

[fanstheflames]

Don't push yourself, okay? I may have... um, freaked out for a second there, but I think I'm okay? [ Probably. She nudges him with her shoulder, lightly. ]

At the very least, there's no real indicator that I'm not okay right now.