octavian howe「oc」 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
manifestering) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
expiationnet2025-04-18 08:47 am
manifestering) wrote in expiationnet2025-04-18 08:47 am
video, un: howe
Hello. Octavian here as ever.
[Octavian slightly too close to the camera, specifically, with glimpses of Rumpitur's streets behind him, beautiful springtime, all of it. He looks wildly out of place here, as always looking like a wasted Victorian in a sweater vest who's never seen daylight, but: here he is.]
Previously I shared with you all the visions shown to me by our previous AI iteration. The former Chosen turned into something else. I believe this is them.
Watch.
[And he moves, device still in hand and camera rolling, to approach one of the Naga. He asks them quite directly, "Do you remember what you were before?"— and the Naga blinks at him for a second before something changes in their expression, a clarity coupled with a strangeness of feeling, like they are seconds away from remembering exactly what he's talking about. It's there, definitely, under the surface—
And then it fades, and the Naga brushes him off with a dismissive wave and turns away.]
You see. They are nearly there. I have asked them many variations. "Do you remember being Chosen." "Were you human once." "Do you know where your people came from." All who react do so in this same way.
[A beat; he makes a little face, lips pursed.] The others have informed me I am either insane or rude. Belligerent. What did you all do.
[It can't have been him, he is a weird hermit who barely goes out. The rude questions and abruptly accosting the Naga totally unrelated.]
Somewhat unrelated. In her departure Root has left me with a small pile of her computers and other devices. I am not especially gifted with them. Will someone help.
[Octavian slightly too close to the camera, specifically, with glimpses of Rumpitur's streets behind him, beautiful springtime, all of it. He looks wildly out of place here, as always looking like a wasted Victorian in a sweater vest who's never seen daylight, but: here he is.]
Previously I shared with you all the visions shown to me by our previous AI iteration. The former Chosen turned into something else. I believe this is them.
Watch.
[And he moves, device still in hand and camera rolling, to approach one of the Naga. He asks them quite directly, "Do you remember what you were before?"— and the Naga blinks at him for a second before something changes in their expression, a clarity coupled with a strangeness of feeling, like they are seconds away from remembering exactly what he's talking about. It's there, definitely, under the surface—
And then it fades, and the Naga brushes him off with a dismissive wave and turns away.]
You see. They are nearly there. I have asked them many variations. "Do you remember being Chosen." "Were you human once." "Do you know where your people came from." All who react do so in this same way.
[A beat; he makes a little face, lips pursed.] The others have informed me I am either insane or rude. Belligerent. What did you all do.
[It can't have been him, he is a weird hermit who barely goes out. The rude questions and abruptly accosting the Naga totally unrelated.]
Somewhat unrelated. In her departure Root has left me with a small pile of her computers and other devices. I am not especially gifted with them. Will someone help.
no subject
Which is more or less what I said... but the answer was that the damage to the city would be fixed, and some excuse about us needing to learn to rely on each other and the AI's attempts to help being hampered due to being "indisposed."
no subject
Optimistic. We are not going to rely on each other. Some of us desire cooperation only insofar as doing many crimes at once.
[Silco. Octavian shakes his head.]
The arguments surrounding sustaining this place will resurface. From the prior excursion. Many of us would abandon the rest at the first opportunity.
no subject
[Several, that much is certain. There are doubtless a number of Chosen brought here who've earned some sort of imprisonment due to their hateful or violent natures.]
I agree that all of us working together is a pipe dream. But those who abandoned the rest would find themselves on the losing end of whatever conflict arose.
[It's not really optimism. It's simple math, in his mind.]
Whether that would be enough for our captors is another matter.
no subject
[Mathematically so, and everything.]
I believe most of our number would choose to leave this place. Even at the cost of those who cannot. Banding together to protect it... [He shrugs.] A harder sell.
no subject
He has no real intention of keeping that promise, when it comes down to it. He would absolutely abandon those who could not leave this simulation to their fates, even if he might not be happy about it; he has more important matters to return to.]
Some of us intent on escaping do seem particularly impatient—and eager for destruction without knowing how our survival is or isn't connected to this world. Personally, I can't afford to die.
[With an almost wistful tone that says he's not expecting the idea to be easy or even feasible:] Taking control of the system as a whole would be the ideal solution for all of us, I'm sure.
no subject
[Dying. Ha ha. Octavian remembers the way so many people had rallied against defending this world for the sake of those who cannot leave, remembers the sentiment of some that the wants of those who cannot leave are inherently less than those who can. He doubts, and has doubted, the Chosen's ability to see beyond their own wants ever since. And he doesn't even consider himself one of those who are stuck here— he was dead and spectral before Aldrip, after all.
Still. It doesn't build confidence in the Chosen's... teamwork? Something like that.]
Without Root. [just saying, she's like, the one who could have cracked control-] We have our work cut out for us. And most of us do not trust the rest.
no subject
[He would have had his doubts about any one person's capability to make that much of a difference... but certainly the more of those with knowledge of the system they lose, the worse off they are.
And unfortunately, Octavian is very right about trust. He lets out a sigh of mild frustration, shifting the crate in his arms as he steps around a busy stall.]
... Perhaps that was inevitable given all the accusations thrown at us.
no subject
[He shrugs, a little melancholy, but he's not going to linger in it. Root was dear and her loss is unfortunate: these things are true, and therefore nobody has to talk about them.
A pause, then, glancing thoughtfully aside. Hmm.]
Which accusations?
no subject
The ones given to us upon our arrival, along with those the system assigns to us despite circumstances beyond our control, apparently. [Bitter over his sentencing? Nahh.] The rumors flying about in this town and the treatment we've faced in Aldrip haven't helped either, I'm sure.
no subject
[He certainly has, but then again, he wasn't accused of an actual crime. He's still extended the "silly nonsense" courtesy to all of them, though. Some more than others, perhaps.]
Are we not speaking of trusting each other? I have yet to hear one of our number denounce another because of our "crimes" or because of... the locals.
no subject
[Perhaps he's biased because of the nature of what's written on his own parchment—and because of how carefully he takes others' actions into account.]