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! )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[One of those who insist that nobody is lost unless you drag the lifeless carcass of the person in question in front of them and drop it on their shoes like a cat does with a dead mouse. Which is kind of heartless to say, but in Douman's experiences such people tend to be more trouble than it's worth it when push comes to shove. It's always nice to save one or two lives that had been already thought lost, but if their faith is misguided it'll usually kill more than just them. How often has he seen humans that could otherwise have still been saved hem and haw over a lack of a body just to get swept away in the same tragedy, just because they wouldn't listen to him? All just because Abe no Seimei had had fun giving him an ill repute.]

An ayakashi. Or youkai, if you'd rather. It's a type of Japanese superstition.

[ It is a circumstantial judgment, in this case. When rangers die on the surface, anyone who would insist on returning their body to the Metro for the family to see would be a fool to do so. However, in this place where the concept of death is no more than a suggestion, it's difficult to believe that a person who disappears won't potentially reappear again later. It has provably happened before.

Though look, Miller knows he likely just said that for context and all, but ]

Seems like it's more than a superstition if that's really what you are.

[ But he'll take him at face value; he's past the point of disbelieving these things here. ]

I suppose you've observed humans for quite some time then.

Mh. Sometimes it's easier to be nothing but fiction and old tales in the minds of most. I generally prefer to coexist.

[There's a light note of amusement in his voice as he easily glosses over both his motivations and his way of living.]

Is that what you did before?

[ He can't say he understands what a youkai would desire out of life in general... but it is curious. ]

The selection process on who becomes a "chosen" is really all over the place.

I was never a youkai who preyed on humans directly anyway, so co-existence is fairly easy for me. All I want are what you too generally consider the good things in life.

[So booze, smokes, good food, willing partners, some gambling ventures for entertainment, maybe a little respect.... Give him those bare necessities and maybe a place to call home that's big enough for one + a spare room for potential guests, and he'll be happy. ~~Which is quite a jump from the overly grand ambitions Douman had held as a youth, and even further removed from what other peoples would have expected of such a "notorious" villain such as him.~~]

Do you have any hunch of what those criteria might be? My own guess right now is "either simply convenient or tasty for the one casting the net", but I might be thinking in too inhuman terms.

[ Were he not trying to make an effort to accept all of the strange circumstances of those sharing this space with him, he might have to question what "indirectly" preying on humans looked like.

But for now, it seems more helpful to simply bookmark that detail for a (potentially, if necessary) later date. ]

Doesn't sound like we are so different then.

[ Though if it gives him more of an insight into what inhuman terms might be like? That's probably a good thing. ]

Your guess is as good as mine. At first it seemed there was some element of choosing those with pasts subject to moral scrutiny... but that doesn't hold up in the slightest. [ There are literal children here. ] Maybe they're just looking to create variety.

[ Said with distaste, of course. It isn't pleasant to think of it as literal human experimentation. ]

Right?

....Variety, hmm? That'd fit with my thought of this being a feeding ground. Tell me, have you heard of those ominous graves as well? I was told that there were some that belonged to people who 'vanished' here before, but that they were lost during the ...rearrangement? Overhaul? Whatever changed this place into something more modern.

[ A feeding ground? ]

I heard about it, yes... I wasn't here to witness it myself. The fact that there were previous cycles of Chosen has been confirmed by multiple communications and visions from the AI. I have to assume that those graves belong to people from some previous failed cycle. As for the people who have vanished... I cannot say. There are people who have gone to their homes and then returned here. I would like to think that anyone who vanishes has simply gone home for good—but it can't be confirmed.

[Just his personal pet theory slash calling it by something that he's familiar with.]

No, they were from this cycle, according to my source. But that's the problem, isn't it? Finding out how much truth any information we get entails.

Is there a way to confirm that those who left and returned are really the same people?

[ He pauses for a moment. ]

No, I suppose not. Their memories align as if they were... but that is still not completely definitive.

[ And this is leading down the rabbit hole of wondering what constitutes being an individualized person in this place. It's deep and, frankly, it stresses him out. ]

How did your source know that? Did they see something?

It's a first-hand report, according to her. She said she found and interacted with them directly before Aldrip "renovated" itself into a more modern version of the town.

It might be insensitive of me, but the thought that somebody decided that there should be graves for the people who went missing seems more ominous to me than the sheer number of the people already lost.

It still isn't clear who decided that. They may have been just as in the dark as us. There's no guarantee there were any bodies buried there either.

[ Unless interacting with them means...? ]

But to be honest, I would almost prefer knowing there was some finality waiting for us than this endless dredge of forgetting and remembering, and cycling in and out of different realities. At least then there would be some way out.

Well, they probably didn't just grow out of the ground like mushrooms.

[He shrugs his shoulders, even though it can't be seen by his conversation partner.]

Oh? That's the first time that I hear anybody hear preferring death over countless what-if scenarios. What an unexpected draft of fresh air.

Look... it's not like I have a death wish, but we can't just go in circles here forever. That's not living.

[ At least not to him. If it meant saving Anna, would he just keep going like this forever? Maybe so, but there's no guarantee they are gaining anything from it at all. ]

We need to figure out some way to bring this to a conclusion and that may involve accepting some risks.

Very true. I wonder what would happen if this place were to 'lose' all of it's Chosen ones, by, say, group suicide.

.....Not that I'm encouraging that sort of idea, of course. [But maybe something that would make the system 'think' that that sort of thing'd happened- ]

[ The swiftness of his reply really shows how instinctively it comes out. ]

Some thoughts are best left inside your head. [ And then, with a little more consideration, ] Is something like that even possible?

Mmh. I know it's a little too bloodthirsty. But even I can't help thinking like a youkai sometimes.

[That has actually zero to do with him being a youkai, and all with Douman being Douman.]

Why wouldn't it? You can trick humans, gods and animals. Tricking a computer shouldn't be much different on a base level. [You just need some hackers whose skills are up to the task.]

[ Easily believable to someone who is none too familiar with either! At this point he feels he can assume youkai are generally flippant towards human life. That tracks for the concept of undying beings. ]

It sounds quite different to me, but who am I to know? I suppose the real question is what we might stand to gain from a stunt like that. Or are you just shooting the shit at this point?

[Well, considering that they are just the Japanses pendant to demons, monsters and fairies,.... That's not all that off to assume. Especially since eating others has long been a staple even among the different species of them. Douman's sense for what can and can't be said has just been worn down by ~~manga comedy violence~~ living so long among them and getting used to how much they can actually take without dying.

....and maaaaaybe he's also pulling Miller's leg a little by now.]

I'm thinking of unorthodox solutions. The best way to break a system is to confront it with scenarios it hasn't been prepared to deal with. Kind of like how there can't be a war if just everybody refuses to participate.

[ Yes, all assumptions made about youkai aside, he's quite suspicious of the possibility of that last bit! ]

So this is where the risk comes in, right? Because there's a very distinct possibility that we would be broken out of a broken system for real and there's no telling if we'd still be conscious to experience it. We already went through this dilemma when we decided to go through with this last mission of ours.

Yes. And we saw what the decision to play nice resulted in.

Are you implying this was a bad outcome?

Would you look at the situation we're currently in and call it fine? We're all still stuck here, exposed to the whims of whoever is running this simulation.

Being powerless to get a word in while others make the decisions for you has always been a Bad End in my book.

[Oops, he's getting a little too close to revealing personal information here. But really, being too weak to make any difference is the root of all of his worst memories.]

....it's better to have a fighting chance and struggle, than not to fight for yourself at all, 'is all.

There is a difference between "fine" and unsuccessful. Nothing about this is fine, but we were hardly presented with a better option. Being powerless to the whims of these creators... that's not new.

[ That was happening long before the AI went rogue, so it's really no consequence of that. ]

I'm not giving up. But it bought us the continued chance to keep fighting. That is how I see it.

Okay. Then you're being unsuccessful rather than "fine", and insisting that this is the way everybody should be.

You might be satisfied with a next time and then next time and then yet another "next time" again, but I say that's how you'll get yourself and everybody who believes in you eaten. Slowly. Like a life rabbit inside the stomach of a snake.

[He has seen it happen before. People, whole small villages and clans, who had gotten so stuck on the status quo that they had eventually failed to see the looming sides and had gotten buried by the landslide consequently. Arguing with them had never worked. But that doesn't make it less frustrating to him.]

Tally up how many people have already been here and gone and how many are currently around, and then tell me how well taking it slow and safe is holding up so far. What's the rate of "vanished" lives that you consider tolerable per month?

audio; un: spartan

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