[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

[keepgodwaiting]

Yeah, Alhaitham, I can do the maths.

In that diary they say something about how there are reserves running out. Something was happening out in the world where they're running this -- it could be whatever crisis they were trying to solve with all this shit caught up to them.

What exactly that means for us ... I'm not sure. If it's just running on autopilot, maybe we just live here now.

[justscribing]

It could be. It could also be that the crisis was already there, and this researcher is among many dying to it because they personally failed to obtain the resources to weather it. We know too little about what's actually happening outside of this place.

[keepgodwaiting]

So we're back to trying to communicate with them. Or else looking for more leftover data, more of the ghosts in the machine.

[justscribing]

So far the data we've found is documentation, but do you think they'd keep the manuals for the upkeep of this simulation on the same servers?

[keepgodwaiting]

[ Her eyes light up in interest. That's an angle she hadn't thought about. ]

Maybe. Why not? Whatever-- [ She waves a hand in the air. ] --cloud storage bollocks or whatever they've got in 3064, why wouldn't they store it all in the same place? The people who collect the data and the people who fix the problems are all going to be working in the same place, right?

[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.

[keepgodwaiting]

Right, what all do we know about ways things have gone wrong for them in the past? Data that's leaked?

[ Time for her to pull out her notebook! ]

There's the photo of the research team someone in 47 found in the science museum ... and the dissolution photos, those weren't originally supposed to take you -- take you inside them. That was some kind of glitch. Maybe that whole place is a little fucked up.

[justscribing]

It does seem like the errors have been in the same category of a data leak. The only exception might be this Ishmael retaining memories that should have been erased. If the issue so deep it's actively altering their experiments, they've already lost some control of this simulation.

[That's an opening, he thinks.] I think it's worth going through the science center again to see if there's any way we can force it to glitch.