[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

[strongroots]

[ Robby looks up from the papers, a notebook--that if Daniel looks--is rather spare in details. Have body, remembered memories in 41, notebook in hotel? set in their own lines. He doesn't know what kind of look to give the man, what to immediately say, even in the face of his concern; like a knot in him that's tied itself up to such a degree that he's lacking in anything constructive to add.

But that's the thing, isn't it? Penny for his thoughts--it's a shameful confession, so obvious, yet Robby offers them to Mister LaRusso eventually. ]

...Feels bad; everything going with this test, whatever's going on outside...

[ He pauses, searching for the right words. ]

What do you think's waiting for us? If we get out?

[ And he lands on a question, his own voice soft for their conversation. There's thoughts he doesn't want to give voice to, and maybe he's taking the cowards way out by asking a question close to his worries. ]

[miyagimagic]

[ ...

Yeah, this was going to be a heavy conversation no matter what, huh?

Still.. hearing those specific words Daniel just moves to sit down down with the boy, slowly exhaling as he does. Even though he's trying to be brave here for the kids, there is a certain tenseness to Daniel's body all the same. ]

Honestly? I'm.. really not sure.

[ None of them are, right? Saying anything else would be a lie. And though Daniel desperately wants to reassure Robby, he doesn't want to lie to him either. ]

I know that's got to be a scary thought. [ Maybe that's all he can do here, with the lack of answers, with the answers they do have only being.. increasingly more concerning.

Maybe all he can do is at least encourage Robby to talk about his feelings, to throw it out there. To help guide him through them. ]

[strongroots]

[ It is a scary thought, isn't it.

And yet--it's not one that Robby can't imagine as if it's reality. Because what is reality? When they find out something new each time, but never a full picture. Where they're stuck in a simulation, but real bodies are involved? Where people come from different lives, different realities, but they're all here. To achieve a goal that doesn't seem it should be so hard to have achieved by now. Or is it?

...he sure is having thought constipation here, and it's good for Robby to have time, silence, hearing Mister LaRusso beside him with a statement that has him thinking. It is a scary thought. And yet. ]

Each time we find out something new, I don't know how we can stop it, you know? How you fight against being in a simulation, or...waking up out of it. [ His voice is quiet, not wanting to be overheard, yet Robby looks at his sensei when speaks. Honestly. ] I know we have to try anyway, but... it's always a lot, when we do this. We don't know what we're up against, and...

[ He can't say, it's tough to remember, when he always knows. His expression dips, lips pinching tip. Words spoken just to speak. ]

It's like we're going up against an evil computer in a movie, and we're the background actors.

[ It's a dorky comparison, a tepid smile on his face, but it's close to what he's feeling right now. That reminder. ]

[miyagimagic]

[ Rather than remaining standing in front of the boy, Daniel instead moves to sit down next to him. Not even with much distance between them - instead it seems like he's hovering closely to Robby. Even if there's no direct danger in this current location, the man somehow can't resist a certain instinct, something protective deep within him, only growing stronger due to the revelations about their dire circumstances. ]

Yeah, we don't exactly seem like the main characters, huh?

[ It'd feel a little strange, having this hushed, half-dorky conversation in the middle of this group of people, but the fact that it's Robby he's talking to makes it all feel a little more normal. ]

The two of us don't even have special powers, nor do we come from some fantastical world. We're just.. us. [ For better or worse. ] It almost doesn't feel like we should be here, between all these people who at least have more experience with strange circumstances, even if said circumstances might not exactly have been these.

[ But Robby isn't alone in this. Maybe that's what he's trying to say. Daniel is here with him, feeling pretty much the same way. Having the same experience as him. ]