expiationnet | audio; un: spartan

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audio; un: spartan

[ It has been a couple of weeks now since the successful reset of the terminals. Now, the same voice that was heard trying to rally them all to that task, tired and thick with a Slavic accent, has come to speak over the network once again. ]

Greetings, my friends. Miller here. First of all, I wanted to thank everyone who assisted in our efforts to restore this place to its former self. If it was not for all your cooperation, I am certain things would have gone very differently. It is thanks to all of you that we are still alive.

[ He's proud, really. The change from when he first arrived in this place has been immense. ]

Which is why it is my hope that we can keep this spirit of camaraderie going. There has already been a lively discussion of the visions we encountered at the terminals. Now that it has become clear that there is truly no safe space to hide from the prying eyes of the "Council," I wish to propose a forum for us all to continue sharing information.

[ The creation of the Dark Web was an innovation, to say the least... but can one even really call that secure when the entire world they live in is simulated? Where he's concerned, it's time to be forthright. ]

Allow me to begin with this. I was summoned to the courtroom. Yes – the courtroom. I only recall the inside of the building, but I presume it's one and the same as the new structure in the city center. I have been part of this experiment for eight months now and it is my first time seeing this Jerry face to face. But I can't be the only one who, up until now, seemed to have forgotten that he even existed? So, please... I would like to hear all of your thoughts.

I don't know about all of you, but I didn't try to save that artificial intelligence because I wanted to go back to putting my head in the sand!

( ooc: so long as it's cool with both parties, feel free to threadjack to discuss amongst yourselves! )

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I see sentencing has begun again. After it was skipped during the previous monthly rotation, I wondered what might happen going forward. Seems the reset put everything back into motion.

[It had been a consistent pattern for so long!! It worried her when the pattern was altered, and she had been right to worry. Getting mindfucked again, the AI failing, as well as the reset? A lot happened afterwards.]

This isn't the first time minds have been messed with here, and I doubt it will be the last. What was interesting was I had notes about Jerry and the Council that still exist, but it was like I couldn't read them in that period where we all forgot about them. It's very unnerving, what they can do to us here.

[ Yeah, he supposes they should have known that was coming when doing a literal "reset"... but it seems incredibly anticlimactic. And expected as their inclinations to alter their memories may be, he finds it hard not to get incensed by this extra bit of info she's offered. ]

What the hell? They really went to great lengths. And what was the purpose behind it, I wonder? Did it further the AI's goal in some way to make us forget about the Council? It would seem they have the ability to make us think whatever they want, and yet time and time again, we're given the opportunity to come to our senses again. I don't get it.

[ Actually, he's not even sure which "they" he's talking about anymore. ]

I'm not sure it was intentional. City Hall was destroyed again, so it's possible it was a glitch based on that. The AI wasn't in a position to be able to recreate it, so the data just got deleted? The last time City Hall was destroyed was when Aldrip changed and all our memories were changed to have us believing we had always lived here.

[It's a common link there, that City Hall had something to do with it. But given the state of things recently, it made sense that the system couldn't do a big overhaul like it had in the past. She barely understands some of this computer stuff sometimes, but that made sense to her, at least.]

I think...in it's own, incorrect way, it wants us to learn to be "better." It's a completely flawed line of thinking, but it falls in line with the idea of "rehabilitation" that keeps being spouted. It puts us through challenges. Changes our memories. Has us face problems and situations to force us to reflected and improve. That doesn't work if we don't eventually remember.

[ It's a decent supposition. Up until now, he hadn't considered the physical space that City Hall was occupying to actually be important, but it's very much true that its removal previously made a huge impact on them. It would only make sense that there was some repercussion caused by the second explosion there, too...

The very logical way she approaches this, in any case, does manage to calm his ire somewhat. ]

Maybe you're right... but if so, it is unlikely that anyone will learn from these events in the way that they're hoping. Especially if new people continue to be brought here who haven't undergone the same trials as the rest of us. With as little information as we've been given, it's no wonder it's everyone's first instinct to think of some way to try to break out.

But they do seem to be changing their strategy now... what with that dream courtroom. My question now is just who or what is upholding this place now that the AI is offline?

I did say it was flawed thinking. Because you're exactly right. Each time we have a new set of arrivals, it's just a fresh set of people ready to rebel.

[Which explains why City Hall was even attacked again. Anyone that remembered what happened last time wouldn't have attempted such a thing.]

I've been trying to think of a better way to make what we know as a collective more widely accessible. I might reach out to STEM, maybe work on something we can send out to new arrivals with a summary of what the rest of us have witnessed.

[It...would certainly take a lot of time and effort, but given how often new people arrive, and just how much shit they've all been through, it might be something worth considering. She's sure she's not the only one that would see the value of such a resource.

But she'll get back to that in a second, Miller just said something interesting--]

-- What do you mean by "dream courtroom"?

[ A summary, huh? Not a half bad idea. Although it likely wouldn't put a stop to all of the kneejerk rebellion, it couldn't hurt. One thing that's started to become abundantly clear to him is that the difficulty to keep a collective opinion on how to handle themselves is not just because people outright refuse to. It's that they're intrinsically disconnected.

However, his consideration of this goes unsaid as she gets stuck on a specific detail. ]

The summoning happened while I was sleeping. I know how it sounds, but I've spent enough time here to know that I didn't just imagine all of that.

[ After all, how many times now has he experienced hallucinations on par with radiation sickness? It's part and parcel with living in a world that doesn't seem to have any real physical boundaries. ]

That isn't how these sentencings were playing out before, was it?

[Maybe it wouldn't completely get rid of the reactions of the new arrivals, but it would at least make it possible for them to learn what everyone else knew in a quick and concise way. It's something she's going to put more thought into, for sure.]

No, it's not. In the past, those being sentenced were sent a summons to City Hall, and would meet Jerry there, in person.

[Curious. Very curious. What changed? Obviously something happened, since sentencing skipped past it's usual time in the rotation. Maybe it was the glitches preventing Jerry from fulfilling his usual task, or the fact that City Hall was destroyed again. Clearly the AI reset had fixed him, too.]

That's what I thought.

[ It may all have been hearsay up until this point, but he's heard several different accounts by now. The obvious question remains. ]

What do you think it means? None of this really fits any definition of "reset" that I can understand.

I don't know. It could be a safety protocol? Given that the City Hall has been attacked multiple times by now, maybe the system decided that rather than inviting people inside, they would pull them in their dreams.

[From a strategic mindset, that made sense. It would avoid internal risks. It was easier to ensure that City Hall was protected from the outside, and now this protected them from the inside. Not that any damage to it or Jerry seemed to even matter, but still.]

That would be logical, but it isn't as though they have to expend any real effort towards rebuilding.

[ At least, not if whatever mechanism they are using to completely restructure the place could be applied so liberally. Granted, it was clear that the attacks on City Hall were not taken so kindly regardless, so she may have a point. ]

I wonder what it is in there they're trying so hard to protect.

[ Not that it's necessarily a physical thing... ]

I don't know. It was somewhat assumed the Council resided inside, since we went in to see them, but even before we knew this was a simulation, I questioned this. After my sentencing, I received a strange image on my tablet that looked like the inside of the Chambers. It showed frames on the walls with images that looked like screens, but they were...wrong. Almost like they were glimpses at this Council, but it was impossible to see who or what they were. It made me wonder, way back then, if they were somewhere else, watching us. It could be their way to connect to the simulation, or control what happens here. Obviously they were able to reestablish it after the building was destroyed, but it had to be an annoyance.

[Sorry, she's rambling her thoughts. She really does need to sit down and write this all out, one of these days.]

[ He definitely doesn't just take it as rambling. This is new information and it seems quite significant, to boot. ]

That is... truly fascinating. I must admit, I've believed for a long time that this "Council" does not exist. At least not in any form that we can choose to interact with. It would not be much of a stretch to take that one step further and assume it is simply a shorthand for the decision-making process of this simulation. But if that process happens to be actual people out in real world...

[ There's a trailing off for a moment there, as though considering the gravity. "Real world" is, of course... also relative. ]

I guess it would explain some things, but I'm really not sure if that would be better or worse than being governed purely by a computer.

That's still a real possibility. We can't know for sure, and getting more proof that we are residing in a simulation makes that still a reasonable possibility. They might not be people, but other AI programs, designed to judge our actions. We still don't know the full scope of whoever made this and put us here.

[Considering the idea of a simulation was more like magic in her eyes, from a world without such advanced technology, it hadn't been among her top ideas in the beginning, but now, it was impossible to refute that theory, with all the glitches and changes happening in this reality.]

Exactly. [ Though he doesn't love to think about that and it shows by the teeth clenching way it comes out. ]

I can't fucking believe it's been this long and we're still no closer to the truth.

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