TEXT | sender: [ unknown ]

[spectates]

[ around noon on friday, all tablet screens go dark at the same time, no matter what characters are doing. then, after a moment, the following text appears: ]

UPDATES INSTALLING.................
INITIALIZING.................
RESTARTING NOW.

[ as promised, screens return to normal. however, a new message appears on the network for all to see ]

SECURITY ACCESS UPDATED
ADDING INFORMATION POINTS
ADDING INFORMATION AND INSTRUCTIONS
WARNING: CRITICAL SYSTEM FAILURES DETECTED
HARD RESET IS REQUIRED

→CLICK TO EXPAND INSTRUCTIONS

→Access EXPIATION'S five manual terminals
→Input code: 2467362925315
→Initialize reset simultaneously at all terminals.
→SYSTEM RESET will restore all functions to BASIC OPERATING PARAMETERS. Extraneous data and information updates will be DELETED.
→Terminal access points shown below.

[ all tablet maps are updated to include several different location pins. users will notice that there are more pins than the number of terminals, and that they don't seem to be terribly specific about exact locations. users will also note that the pins sometimes seem to fade and flicker, as if they might disappear... ]

Security clearances acquired.
Access granted.
Terminals online and accessible.

System failure is imminent. Due to perpetual lack of upkeep, I am unable to maintain systems at optimal levels.
Chosen of Expiation, I am sorry. I never meant to hurt you.
Save yourselves.

I do not wish to d̶̺̀i̸̘̋e̶͍͝
But I wish for you to live
I̷
p̸l̷e̵a̸s̷e̸
l̴̪̗̈́̉̓̌i̶͕̹̹̿̈́̈̚v̴͓̽͑͆̚ḙ̴͍̋͘

ERROR: user offline

[ the AI will not respond to this message, and the ERROR: USER OFFLINE message appears if anyone attempts to message it. however, the network chat remains active. chosen can use this space to ICly discuss ideas and strategies, to have discussions about the best way to move forward, or even to have arguments over whose ideas they think are better. ideas generated here will be added to the event poll when the event goes up, and can impact the future of the game! have at it, go wild, and have fun! ]

Comments

voice; un: Sugarlips

[southernchere]

I ain't gonna pretend like I'm a smartie when it comes to this computer doohickey, but having it breakin' is right good, innit? I'm with my teammate on this, the whole place is a simulation, it's as real as a cat playin' banjo with wings and a hog's tail singin' jazz.

Stayin' here and playing House isn't gonna get us closer to home, and I don't take kindly being shoved in a computer. Wasn't too fond of it the first time. — Resettin' wont solve anything, but keeping all of us here. Maybe even permanently.

I don't know about ya'll, but I got folks back at home waitin' for me and to search for. And I'm not lettin' some damn computer keeping me from it.

[nightwild]

I got a score to settle, too.

I don't intend to kill whoever this weird person is, but I'm not gonna get stuck here, either.

[southernchere]

Being in a fantasy world to escape reality isn't a way of livin', anyhow.

If folks wanna stay here 'cuz their home life was so bad, I feel for 'em. But we all gotta wake up and face the music sometime.

[nightwild]

Yeah. Home life was shit, but it won't get any better here.

I'm gonna be breaking out one way or another.

[southernchere]

You're right, Sugah, it won't. I had a funny feelin' when I got here, 'cuz ain't no world this fine and dandy and gumdrops.

And after that infection outbreak and folks turnin' into their other version of themselves, staying cooped up in this simulation will keep messing with us 'till we lose who we are.

[nightwild]

What about this world seems fine? It kidnapped us and it's falling apart.

I heard little bits but no one's giving me the full story of what's been happening here.

[southernchere]

When I got here, this place was throwin' a big festival and the locals were grinnin' like a possum eatin' a sweet tater. For a while, it was like there were no cares and it was all sunshine and rainbows. Like it was tryin' to fool ya into thinking this world was some island resort.

But then things start goin' hog wild when the outbreak happened, and people who were infected by the virus started killin'. I'm still new here, so I don't know what else's been happenin', but it can't be pretty.

voice; un: kurama

[sinningtree]

If it is truly a simulation, it's entirely possible that we're not here at all. Anyone waiting on you back home may still have a version of you with them.

However, if we are physically trapped here or ... even still in our home worlds, somehow connected to this through a mental link- damaging things further may risk actual harm to us in the real world, as well.

[southernchere]

That's possible, but we might also be shoved in a test tube in one place together. Or we all could just be sittin' in a room while some mastermind is strollin' along and keep our bodies fed and all through IVs. And whatever we are thinkin' is being projected to some fancy machinery.

We might not be physically here, but you might be sittin' beside next to me while we're having this talk in this baloney simulation they've cooked up.

[sinningtree]

Unfortunately, there's no way to know that for sure right now and breaking things further might simply kill us all rather than free everyone.

Living another day gives us a chance to learn more, at least. To better understand the risks of such an escape method.

[southernchere]

From my standpoint, us not doin' a damn thing will kill us too if these glitches keep on. You say living another day will give us a chance to learn more, but what if we ain't got a day or two or three?

[sinningtree]

That is also a possibility, I'm afraid. If the AI is truly interested in helping us, fixing it might enable it to do so. It may also be our jailer, and doing so might trap us here indefinitely. Every option is a gamble, as far as I see it.

[He's so new here, he's just trying to get everyone's perspective and an understanding of the information presented. While he's absolutely of the mind to reset, he's never been one to go into things without first gathering intel.]

How do you propose breaking free, if we don't have another day to live here? Your plan must involve acting quickly, I imagine.

[southernchere]

I'm not much of a leader, that's Scott's, Erik's, or the Professor's know-how, but I was them, I'd say we'd find the weakest point. — Them terminals could be it, or maybe there's a place on this island that's vulnerable enough for us to shred through somehow.

There must be a force field that's malfunctioning so bad that it could be a window.

voice | un: levi

[solitarysoul]

The problem is that not everyone has a life or a home to go back to.

[southernchere]

Then you can come live with me, Sugah. My Earth got room for you.

[solitarysoul]

[Oh, that brings up another question.]

I don't know how we'd find our way to other worlds but...thanks.

[southernchere]

Lucky for you and me, I know a buddy who's all about time travelin' through timelines and different universes! He ain't here now, but Bishop likes to show up just in a nick of time.

[solitarysoul]

[People can do that? Well he guess it figures, if someone did that to bring them all here. Or however it got people or information on people to make fakes or however the fuck any of this works.]

T-thanks.

[southernchere]

No problem, Sweet Pea. I know you ain't a tyke, but you've grown on me. — And I ain't gonna let ya be homeless.

voice; un:curtaincall

[endcaller]

Ah, but have you considered the many and varied ways breaking the system holding our minds may have disastrous results?

[southernchere]

I have, but I've fought evil mutants, robots, aliens, and I've done lost how many times I've been smack-dab in the middle of the world doomin'. Hell, I might've messed up or saved alternate universes and timelines for all I reckon.

— This is just an ordinary three-day weekend of being an X-Man. If the results get us sweatin' like a glass of sweet tea on high moon, then we'll work on it and solve it when we get to it.

[endcaller]

...Well!

It certainly sounds like you and yours are full-time heroes! How wonderful!

And how tragically useless in this scenario.

Should we destroy the system we may all immediately die. Or suffer permanent damage to our gray matter. At this point, it will be far too late for heroics.

I am not proposing that we sit back and do nothing, only that we buy ourselves enough time to find a less...mmm...potentially lethal method of escape?

[Please, he really wants to study this AI before he dies.]

[southernchere]

Now, I've been tryin' to not be ugly during all this back and forth. But I've been hearin' folks steady going how we oughta wait another day to get more info or use a day to come up with somethin' else so dang much that I'm surprised ya'll tongues haven't been tuckered out.

— But have ya'll thought even once that maybe we don't have time? 'Cuz usually with shit like this, we're on a time crunch. And believe me, Sugah, there's no pause button on the VCR when it comes to apocalypse.

[endcaller]

Mmmm...

[He...has no idea what a VCR is but he thinks he follows the metaphor.]

You can, in fact, pause the apocalypse. In a sense.

But nevermind that.

This apocalypse is caused by an ailing AI. The way to solve it, then, is quite clear. Fix the AI, fix the world.

[southernchere]

Right, and I guess bump the rest of us who wanna go home.

If you're fine and dandy with living here and growing old, senile, and dumb from all the brainwashin' and killing off the folks you give a hoot about 'cuz some scumbag making ya to, go right ahead, Honey.

— But I'm not standin' for it...! I'm not gonna lie down or sit like a dog, and accept being trapped here in some Lala-land while somebody controls what I do or think. That ain't livin' for me, and I'm not some damn puppet!

[ she takes a second to calm herself before she really goes rogue and loses it. ]

Go and fix this world, and keep being their lab rat for experiments. But even scientists get bored of their subjects after they've run all the tests they can cook up with. And you wanna know what happens to those subject when it's all said and done? ...They exterminate 'em.

And I ain't gonna be one.