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

[entreats]

[ Douman. Douman, is this really the time!!

Then again, considering what he is, Ange isn't too surprised he doesn't know how to do this. She had to learn how to do it herself too.. ]

If it's autocorrect, then you should be able to find it when you press the settings icon. The one that looks like a gear.

Or maybe your device is your glitching? Are you sure it's not that? Pretty much everything in this place has been going wild lately.

[nuraridouman]

[Older generations against new technologies is just a trope that's way too rooted in actual happenings, no matter what age and culture. It probably has to do with how you just don't care to learn all the things about the latest fad once you have seen so many come and go as Douman did. Still, he's rather annoyed at his device and its seeming lack of cooperation right now.]

Devices can glitch here as well? That's the first time I've heard about that.

[entreats]

I think anything can glitch here.

I mean, even people have been glitching. Have you noticed that? People just randomly changing into different versions of themselves, or becoming wrong in some other way? It happened to some people I know.

[nuraridouman]

Oh, I'm aware.

It seems like it happened to me barely days after I arrived. Not to mention of the guy who rolled around my bed and made off with my pants thanks to one of those glitches.

[entreats]

[ ... ]

Why was there someone rolling around your bed?

Are you dating someone already?

[nuraridouman]

Because any and every iteration of Abe no Seimei apparently has to be a pain in the ass.

I sure as Hell ain't. [He has a guy who regularly sneaks into his bed back home, but that's merely because Ranmaru is a cheapskate and Douman owns a very fancy and comfortable bed. The moment he finds the crow tengu in there is the moment he's kicking him out. Except once, when he was too drunk and tired to care and just slept on top of the idiot.] Don't get me wrong, but creating that kind of bond with a fellow 'Chosen' sounds like an excellent way of jinxing yourself to me.

[entreats]

Don't get me wrong, I completely agree on that. I think the rate at which people seem to be turning into couples here is absolutely crazy.

But I can't really imagine any other reason for someone to be present in your bed. No one has ever been in my bed here, you know? Just me.

[nuraridouman]

Well. As they say, misery loves company, and there's also the so-called suspension bridge effect. Some might even consider it something like a holiday fling, or a chance that they might never get otherwise.

Which sadly doesn't make it any wiser to give into that temptation.

.....

I've started to explain that one to myself as Seimei just being Seimei. Trying to make any rhyme or reason from what that guy does will only give you a headache.

[entreats]

[ ...

Ange is thinking about that last part for a while. But, really - what does she know about Seimei? Practically nothing, which makes the entire situation even more difficult to figure out. And maybe she shouldn't be sticking her nose into other people's business, but she truly can't help it after Douman would bring up something like this. ]

Has he done that to you before?

[nuraridouman]

[He just barely manages to stop himself from typing "which one?" There have been entirely too many versions of the same man in his life lately: the original that he grew up knowing, that first one's reincanation who's currently working for him and causing trouble more often than not, and the weird fox one that he has met in Aldrip. It's almost as if the universe has it out to slap Douman in the face with a Seimei at every chance it gets.]

Been absurd? All the damn time.

Actually, that's an understatement. There was that one time where he asked me to come by his place ASAP, only to then reveal that he wanted my help with giving all the Bakeneko in the capital a flea bath. Have you ever tried to bathe even one bus-sized magical monster cat?

[Those fuckers hadn't had any intentions of cooperating either, even though they sure had profited from it in the end.]

[entreats]

[ Douman, you're giving Ange so much to think about here. At least it's a better thing to think about than the looming threat of a reset hanging above their heads..

So maybe it's actually for the better that Ange is now instead thinking about cat-busses getting a bath. ]

Is this what youkai life is supposed to be like?

I guess I'm only now realizing I had the wrong impression of it all along.

[nuraridouman]

Well, in the end youkai are just people too? The times where most of them were just brainless monsters ended a long time ago.

[majorly thanks to him wanting to outdo a man who had already died, but the results are the same]

Nowadays our society is a lot like that of humans, although there is no forgetting that we ultimately still are youkai, of course. We just took and copied the parts that were useful or that we liked, tossed them all at a wall and looked what stuck.

[Stuff like a working healthcare system, a police force that helped regulate living together between so many different youkai types with their various needs and powers, an educational system, traffic rules because getting bowled over by a bigger (or simply distracted) other youkai got quickly old, a monetary system, gambling dens,... It's a wild mix and match, but it works for them. Those who wanted more could go live in human places, those who wanted less could settle at the remaining old-lifestyle retreats, and the ones that were good with how it was could stay at his island or make their places anywhere else in between. Just thinking of how his handiwork had changed things makes Douman mellow out and smile again. He is very proud of his annoying nuisances and how far those 'lost cases' had come.]

[entreats]

I'm not sure how to feel about that.

I mean, obviously I can't understand what a youkai's life traditionally must have been like, but I can't exactly say that human is a shining example of a society to copy. There's way too much gross stuff going on in there.

Humans are way worse than youkai in a lot of ways, after all.

[ Maybe that's why Ange always seems relatively comfortable whenever she's talking to Douman. She isn't scared of him at all, despite knowing what he is - despite knowing that he has powers beyond what a regular human can do. ]

[nuraridouman]

They are. That's why I advocate the somewhat opportunistic approach of taking the bits that will serve us well and to leave all the rest to the humans and the gods. Being adorably honest in their savagery is one of the things I actually like about youkai. They'll always let you know whether they like you or not.

[entreats]

Always?

You included?

[nuraridouman]

Of course.

I might look rather human, but I am still an ayakashi.

[entreats]

So you're saying you don't dislike me.

Because you would've let me know if that was the case.

[ Most people might instead move towards asking if the other likes them after something like that - but really, Ange doesn't really expect anyone to like her. If anything, him not disliking her would already be kind of novel.

Though supernatural beings seem to have more fondness for her than humans ever have, going by past experience back home. ]

[nuraridouman]

Correct.

But keep in mind that I don't have any strong feelings on most of the people here.

[Don't make him appear kind, please. He has a mysterious and hard to get close to public persona to keep up. That said, Anga is right. She hasn't given him any reason to hate or dislike her and has even been willing to share her food with Douman - so why should she be on his bad side?]