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

[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.

[endcaller]

Mercy me, have I struck a nerve?

Nobody wants to go home more than I!

[Even if his world is gone now.]

I've so much work to do, after all.

But this rat is content to scurry a while longer to find a safer way out of the maze. I could tell you more, but why bother? My best-laid plans would be for naught if we all die.

cw: spoilers of x-men '97

[southernchere]

I rather die tryin' to get to the people I care about than to spend the rest of my life here and be a coward. 'Cuz fixing up this world will just close off any future openin' for all of us leaving.

[ ... ]

Somebody had died for me, so I could live the way I wanna live. — And I ain't letting his death be for nothing. So if you wanna stop me, stop me. But I'd suggest you bring a jacket, 'cuz the concrete gets cold if ya lie there for too long.

[endcaller]

You say this is our only chance with such certainty but I rather doubt it is. If there is but one thing I've learned to appreciate about my fellow Chosen it is their sheer destructive potential. A potential that, with proper guidance, could blast through our cage. We simply need to learn how to do this without dying in the process.

Buu~uuut...

[His voice lilts playfully.]

I can see that my advice falls on deaf ears. Just consider whether or not your little trip home is worth the very real possibility of killing every last person on this star, hmm? Don't be selfish, now.

[southernchere]

Good gusty, do you come with brakes? You're pretty darn obsessed that we might die if we bust out, when escapin' from something hardly ends when someone killin' over.

— You're worse than Jubilee when she first joined the team with the overdramatics.

[endcaller]

I may have a penchant for dramatics, 'tis true!

However, you'll find that in matters such as this, if one option has a much higher risk of omnicidal disaster, a man may become "obsessed", as you put it.

[southernchere]

Obsessing over the wrong thing, but to each their own.

[endcaller]

What would you have me obsess about, then? Slaying the AI? Destroying the world? Would that be more palatable?

[southernchere]

I don't know, Sugah, this ping-pong conversation has gotten me plumb tired. So, I'm just gonna get dressed and fly over to one of the locations the map's givin' me.