[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

OTA

[nomoresharks]

[Ever wary of delving too deeply into something dangerous when other, far more capable individuals are perfectly ready and willing to do so, Hythlodaeus has avoided attending these meetings until recently. "Until recently" being the operative words.

He would have come regardless, considering his newfound desire to escape with all memories intact, but the information on the back of the newsletter (even redacted as it is) cannot be ignored.]

That these were simulated environs I suspected, but to think that even we were reused.

[A plate of samosas, taken to be polite, sits untouched beside him as he finishes jotting down another note to himself on the notepad he'd grabbed on his way out the door.]

I imagine they must use something similar to that device within the Science Discovery Center to recreate our bodies should anything happen to us or at the start of a new iteration. But to what end? Both the report and all previous actions taken if someone commits some sort of crime imply that the heads of this experiment seek cooperation above all else, but the pressures upon us seem designed to test the limits of this cooperation and trust.

It could be but simple curiosity. And yet there are fifty iterations.

[abstractart]

Whatever it is, the experiment's probably pointless if we know it... so maybe it's something harder to guess? If they were only studying the limits of our cooperation with each other, that'd be easy for us to catch on to and sway their results one way or the other. Not a great experiment.

[he settles lazily into his seat.]

They're doing something. Just don't know what. Maybe even seeing if we can make this place sustainable and just... live in here, instead of wherever they're having problems outside.

[nomoresharks]

Testing the merits of sustainability does seem somewhat plausible--and difficult considering their habitat of choice.

[It feels strange, calling it that, even though the term fits more and more with all they manage to uncover.]

Urban centers aren't exactly known for their arable land. Mayhap a lack of such contributed to their own lack of supplies.

[abstractart]

Maybe...? I'd say maybe they're looking for ideas too, but I don't think we were ever gonna figure anything out that they couldn't, if they can manage... all of this.

[nomoresharks]

Not necessarily. Why else bring in individuals from entirely different worlds than the expectation that one person may have access to a solution they may not? They would hardly be the first to look to the unknown for answers.

[yyds]

Hmm... well, what if they want to see real cooperation and trust? [ hong lu considers this. ] How would they see it without testing it?

[nomoresharks]

A fair point. Without some sort of pressure, 'twould be easy to dismiss it all as a matter of politeness or the environment making it so that cooperation was never necessary in the first place.

Even so, to bring us here in order to run these tests... If there was need to worry about this sort of situation and their own supplies were so limited, why not leave their world altogether? A desire to remain home is one thing, but if the choice is between homesickness and survival...