un: Accelerator | text

[levelshift]

According to Aurora, Echo loses something every time they bring someone in.

And don't bother asking her if there's a way to get back whatever the fuck you lose if you die. She said revival breaks the natural order of the world, so that's why there's a cost.

[There, important information disseminated. He needs a coffee.]

Comments

[decohere]

so nobody bothers to document basic death records, guess i'm not surprised. this is the only mention i've seen of it.

were you one?

[waytodie]

Very strange...

[She doesn't like it.]

Oh, awhile ago now. [If 3 months ago, in the first mission she had been here for, was "awhile ago", at least...] In that room with all of the drills. Did you see it? In the maze.

[levelshift]

They aren't, especially when you come back from being dead.

[levelshift]

Not sure how many people around here would want to take on the paperwork, especially if people don't want to talk about having died.

Yeah, back in Moorcroft. Apparently it's the same process here as it is there.

[levelshift]

No, I missed out on that part of the fucking labyrinth. Someone else told me about it, though. She compared it to some movie franchise I've never heard of.

If it was that long ago you must've lost a memory or a skill, since something physical would have been really obvious.

[decohere]

i'm certainly not volunteering.

hm. and what sort of thing did you lose?

[levelshift]

Neither am I. I've got other shit going on.

[Kid wrangling, boring paperwork for his city. Fun stuff.]

A couple of memories.

[He's being vague on purpose, he doesn't want to get into specifics about missing his moms.]

[decohere]

i dont. but community organizing is antithetical to my being.

[she prefers the lack of specifics, honestly. his personal memories aren't her business nor her interest. it's just good to know what the stakes are.]

how did you identify them as missing? was it immediately obvious, or something that snuck up on you later? and how did you know it was a direct consequence of death?

[redheadcarrier]

it's happened to me too, you know.

[ She hates this. ]

[levelshift]

I know how that is. Organizing people is a huge pain in the ass.

It was really fucking obvious to me to me right away. [How to describe without saying "I was thinking about how my two guardians would be upset I died and realized I couldn't remember what they look like."] I was thinking about the subject, then noticed there were holes in my memory. I don't forget things easily, my brain doesn't work that way, so I knew something was wrong.

[levelshift]

Yeah, so I don't know why you're arguing with me about this crap.

[Maybe it's because he's being a stubborn ass who doesn't want to acknowledge dying sucks and is terrible, maybe it's that.]

[redheadcarrier]

so why are you pretending it's EASY?

[decohere]

i want as little to do with people as possible, but unfortunately they tend to be the most accessible source of information.

ah, and so somehow that satisfies whatever... energy requirements there are for the revival process? wonder if they choose what goes.

[she'll be sure to write everything important to herself down, just in case. though she certainly won't admit that either. she doesn't want anyone else getting their grubby hands on such.]

[waytodie]

It was not fun.

If they take memories, how will we know they are ever missing?
How much of us can they take before we are not who we are?

[This is... terrifying, actually. Thanks for the existential crisis, buddy.]

[levelshift]

I'm not pretending. It just is for me.

[levelshift]

Yeah, you're out of luck. The only real ways to get information here are to talk to Aurora or anyone else who's been dragged here.

It satisfies something, not sure what. Aurora said it's breaking natural laws, so I'm not sure if Echo is having to follow the goddamned law of conservation of energy when they do it.

[levelshift]

Sounds like it wasn't.

[No problem!! He's always here to make life miserable for everyone.]

No idea. Frankly, I think the longer we're stuck here the more fucked we are. The only way to maintain your sense of self is to not die, and not let the reality of the situation cause a breakdown. I don't know if the people around here can manage both of those the more time goes on.

[decohere]

i rather not resort to less polite methods.

breaking the laws of physical reality does tend to have consequences. none of this feels right. wouldn't this be causing more problems with whatever multiversal balance than they're supposedly trying to solve?

[levelshift]

It could be that shit like resurrection, and whatever Echo loses by bringing us here is nothing compared to the potential disasters they're trying to prevent. They're picking the lesser of two evils.

... It could also be that all of this is total bullshit. I know there are people who are skeptical about everything we've been told.

[decohere]

seems inefficient to me. time and energy wise.

which is why i too am skeptical of the actual end goal, as it's been presented.

[waytodie]

I agree. It would be best for everyone if we could get the hell out of here. I am still not sure how much I believe everything we were told about why we are here. None of these "missions" feel like them, really... they feel more like social experiments, to me. And I also do not understand what metrics they think any of these antics judge the worthiness of a world to be saved anyway. None of it makes sense.

[redheadcarrier]

you're lying.

[levelshift]

Yeah, accepting everything at face value is really fucking stupid. I'm not going to discount what Aurora has told us is true, but we don't have any real proof. It pisses me off.

[levelshift]

I want nothing more than to go back to my fucking city, but I also want some answers. More importantly, I want evidence that those answers are truthful. If my universe is actually in danger then I want the details on how and why. I need data, not just a claim from someone I've never met.

I'm not going to argue about the social experiment thing. You're right, that's what it feels like.

[It kind of makes his skin crawl, now that he's thinking about it.]

[levelshift]

I'm not.