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

un: principal

[nuraridouman]

I can connect places in a way that would allow any of you to travel from one of those designated spots to another as fast and easily as walking through the next best door, as long as a few key conditions are met.

If anybody wants to hire my services, let me know.

[Douman isn't going to sway people's opinion in either direction. The way he sees it ALL of the available options are potentially fatal, so he's going to hold back and let somebody else push the big red button. ]

voice; un: goo

[mightymorphin]

Uhhhh. If this place is going to disappear in one way or another, what makes you think we're going to get to keep any of our belongings?

-> also voice

[nuraridouman]

[Since he recognizes that voice Douman switches to voice-chat as well. If Morph has an ear for it they might notice that he sounds just a tad bit too chipper and calm right now, which means that he's actually still pretty worked up and pissed, albeit not over this particular thing.]

Nothing. But I can always take favors instead of cash if only the physical things disappear, and if they don't my empty coffers will cry a little less.

Besides.... No, I'd rather not say that here.

[mightymorphin]

[Yeah that... does sound pretty off to them. It's almost like Nura's using a customer service voice instead of his usual tone.]

Fair enough, just as long as you know what you're getting into. I'd hate to see what happens to whoever tries to skip out on their tab.

[nuraridouman]

[That's because he very much is. Let's just say that Abe no Seimei and Ashiya Douman being unable to co-exist in the same space is the one thing that all those legends and stories about them got right. ....and that his Seimei-induced foul moods tend to last for a good while.]

I tend to think of it as those people paying me back by becoming good examples for why you don't want to cross me.

By the way, I saw your post. How are you holding up?

private;

[mightymorphin]

Could be better.

The only reason I'm not sitting around drinking and waiting for everything to end is because Scott wanted my help preserving the AI. So... I'm helping.

private;

[nuraridouman]

What a good friend.

I'm not surprised that your suggestion was shouted down, though. It's extraordinarily reckless.

private;

[mightymorphin]

No matter what's going on, it's better for mutants to stick together.

C'mon Nura, do you think we're ever going to get out of here without being a little reckless?

private;

[nuraridouman]

Bullshit. It's the who, not what, that's important. Being of a certain species says absolutely nothing about a person's character.

[One thing's sure: these mutants seem to be a lot more romantic bunch than youkai ever will be. He wonders if that's because they are all humans deep down?]

I have no doubts that the way out will be extremely reckless and contain more than a few 'well that was dumb' actions. But yours --- hmmm, how should I say it? It's either too forward-thinking or just too old-fashioned from my point of view? Maybe both.

un; anon

[florescu]

Oh? What conditions?

un; principal

[nuraridouman]

Since it's a simple trick of connecting doors, I'd need something that's at least resembling a doorway in both spots in order to ensure a stable and easy to use connection. The quality of the doorway doesn't matter, though. Stick some branches or stones together and hang your jacket or some big leaves in front of it and we're good to go.

[That's downplaying what would actually go into creating such a portal, but Douman prefers to have people simply assume that it's part of his magics as a nurarihyon. No need to tell them that there's actual high-level Onmyodo with a dash of Divine Magic involved. As long as it works it works.]

[florescu]

So eager to give out information about what you can or cannot do.

[nuraridouman]

Answering FAQs as honestly and concise as possible is just good customer service where I come from.

Besides, all I shared is already common knowledge anyway. It's hardly a big secret if I say that I have opposable thumbs.

[florescu]

Where must you even use these?

How so? Did you post all your capabilities, and has anyone else?

[nuraridouman]

Pardon?

What I shared is on the level of "car, does best on streets". That's hardly a big spoiler. Besides, a man's got to eat. I can't just fall back on my devious ways forever.

[florescu]

Explain your devious ways.

[nuraridouman]

They're evil. The End.


[Hey, Mihai wanted less info before.]

text; un: ushiromiya

[entreats]

Do you really think this is the time to talk about 'hiring'?

That's like people who profit off war.

[nuraridouman]

Oh, absolutely. Blame my youkai sensibilities if you want, but the threat of an upcoming war is exactly WHEN you should shore up on as many resources as one can. You can't share what you don't have. That counts double when I have others who rely on me.

Besides, don't you think that unquestioningly fulfilling the wish of our main suspect for the culprit who's keeping us all here is the same as a WAR?

[entreats]

Well, technically a war has more to do with direct combat between different factions.

But I know you don't mean those sorts of semantics. I would agree that this entire situation is as drastic as a war, sure. [ Because every time things here revolve around stuff like this, it feels just as dangerous as one.. ] I don't trust that thing that writes to us on here either, you know.

I just want something to change here.

[nuraridouman]

Which makes you a prime tool for them to use. ul

I know that you probably don't want to hear it and are even less likely to heed my words, but please be very careful. Getting one-sided worked up will only turn against you.

[entreats]

Worked up against what? Whatever is in charge of this place?

I've already been worked up about them for months. It feels impossible not to be.

[ It's admitting a touch more than she usually would, considering that Ange likes to pretend to be someone who isn't so easily affected. But maybe she trusts him with this nugget of information, at the very least. Especially when he's bringing it up. ]

[nuraridouman]

Pardon that typo.

Anyway, there is no saying that it isn't exactly those feelings that our unseen "enemy" is feeding on. And you could easily be lured into being reckless actions and assumptions by being given the impression that you might finally get the answers you so desperately seek.

[entreats]

[ ... dang.

If that isn't the most valid of callouts when it comes to Ange specifically. The sheer number of things she has done back home that were totally reckless and stupid just to try and get some answers..

For a moment she almost wonders if he can read her mind. He is a youkai, after all. But even if he could, surely he couldn't do so over text, right? It's much more likely that he's speaking generally, that he doesn't even know how badly this applies to her. ]

Then what are we supposed to do?

[nuraridouman]

First off we can begin with you teaching me how to disable this autocorrect, or whatever's wrong with my device. This is starting to get vexing.

[Priorities. Douman has them.]