[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

[fanstheflames]

Energy generation, maybe? That's kind of what I'm used to as being a driving force, at least.

[strongroots]

[ Hmmm- ] Wouldn't it come up in one of the reports? 'Community building showing an up-tick in power', or something.

[ He's not outright dismissing the idea, but wondering how it would work with the City... ]

[fanstheflames]

I mean, maybe it's in a report we haven't found yet... or maybe they're testing out the feasibility of living in a simulation for longer than a few years?

We still don't have a whole lot to go off on... [ With a sigh. ]

It could even be testing things like memory manipulation or a revival method, just with people they aren't personally attached to.

[strongroots]

[ Hmm. ] We dunno what happened to stop most of the iterations. A bunch of them were weird. [ To say the least... ]

But if they're trying to keep things running for a long time, this isn't working--I mean, they keep resetting everyone, and they're starting to get mistakes showing up. But they're still using the same simulation instead of building a new one.

[ ... ] If we find what happened in the later iterations... see why they ended them--find out what problem they think they have after this long.

[ It's a bit of thinking out loud, but he's remembering that message--look behind the apocalypses. They know why iteration 9 ended, but no one's going out and murdering everyone here--so what's the problem still? ]

[fanstheflames]

So we do more digging, maybe? There's not really a way to get in contact with them and not really a pattern on the information we're getting, beyond the stuff that's just lying around every other month or something like that...

... I guess willingly going to the places that open up, too. Just in case.

[ Unfortunately. ]

[strongroots]

[ ... ] Yeah.

[ That's a reluctant Yeah, a small nod to go along with it. Even with all that said, there's still the scope of what they're trying to do that Robby can't put aside, or not see how much it is. He rolls his lips together, tight for a moment. ]

Wish we had more people helping. [ He ghosts up something like a smile, not quite there--not quite what he means to say. But he'll stick to it. ]

[fanstheflames]

Yeah, me too...

[ It really doesn't feel like that's what he wanted to say, gazing at him now, but it's still an understandable sentiment. ]

Well, I'll see what I can find out. We can keep touching base if it's things we're not already witnessing together.

[strongroots]

Sure. [ Another tug of his lips, since that's all they can do, can't they? Search. ] I'll keep looking, too. We could be missing more clues if we don't look.

semi-here...

[wordchain]

[ Energy generation... Overhearing this, Yesod might be paying closer attention to Tsuruno for a while. ]

[fanstheflames]

[ She is just full of theories!! ]

[wordchain]

[ Yesod eventually speaks up once he perceives an opening so as not to interrupt Tsuruno's conversations. The fact that she named that particular possibility as her immediate guess — as a common occurrence — continues to pique his curiosity. ]

Have you heard of similar experiments?

[fanstheflames]

Something like that? Well, not exactly with this kind of setting, though...

[ She's grimacing, lightly. ]