video, un: gorgug (pre-mingle)

[tinflower]

[ The camera turns on and focuses in on a motley duo: Riz and Fabian, a Goblin and a Half-Elf respectively (and, it has to be said, the camera has to be considerably zoomed out to accommodate both of their heights) who wear matching expressions of distinct disgruntlement. Behind them is a clue board that Riz refers to every now and then while he talks, his speech quick and efficient, words stumbling over each other in his haste to get them out. ]

Uh, hey everyone. Welcome back to Etraya, I guess? I’m just going to cut straight to the chase: a team of us did some investigation of what was happening back at Moorecroft, and I think there are some things that everyone should know. We went ahead and tried to figure out what the whole curfew thing was about – in case some of you just decided to behave yourselves the whole time, our curfew was being maintained by robots that would straight up kill you if you decided to stay out.

First, some of us went to check out the hospital, which is where most of the suspicious activity was coming from. Something there had the ability to lock away people’s powers, and they were able to somehow mimic people we knew from home, which were sent out to attack us. Presumably, that was to get our guards down. Fabian and I managed to get into the underground, where… [ He frowns, rubbing the palms of his hand together. ] Honestly? Things there were pretty inconclusive. There were a bunch of hand-drawn pictures along the walls of the corridor, stuff from around town, and it looked like they were raising some sort of… kids down there? Some of the rooms were obviously for teens our age, and other rooms were for really little kids, and it all led to some sort of tracks that led somewhere else. Where and why, we don’t know. But something real fucked up is going on there. You don’t find empty hidden bunkers of kids stuff without it being super fucked up, you know?

The others ran into other stuff around the city – smoke that turned into these big monsters that tried to eat them, the things those robots were trying to protect us from. Others ran into these android kids, who we can pretty easily assume the rooms in the hospital were for. The monsters didn’t try to go after them; apparently they only went after people who didn’t belong. Namely, us. Now, we don’t know what the hell those monsters were, but Adaine could feel what sort of arcane energy they were giving off – it was some seriously powerful reality-shifting energy. Conjuration, but the sort you’d only get from really, really powerful wizards.

That energy isn’t restricted to Moorecroft. She felt it here too, once we got back. That doesn’t bode well for any of us.

[ Riz takes a deep breath, glancing up at Fabian. ]

Did I miss anything?

Yeah, maybe some more emphasis on how fucked up this all is? [ Riz may have sounded relatively composed. Just objectively trying to get information across. Fabian, on the other hand, sounds anything but. He’s not looking majorly upset - yet - but he’s definitely both looking and sounding annoyed as he speaks. It isn’t aimed at Riz, nor even really at the viewers, like it’s some sort of general annoyance at this place. ] We almost died back there. Someone actually did die! And it’s not even the first time, since the stuff with the maze and the stuff with the plushies was just as fucked up!

[ Riz grimaces, a row of sharp teeth on display as he tugs at Fabian’s arm, hissing in a far less officious whine: ] Dude, time and place, this is just the mission report—

[ Unfortunately, Fabian just keeps going, wildly gesturing with his hands at this point as he speaks, the smaller boy visibly giving up on stopping him beside him: ]

We can’t just act like this place is normal! If it really wanted to help us save our worlds or whatever, then it could at least stop constantly trying to kill all of us, right?! How are we supposed to trust anything in this place when clearly it does not have our best intentions in mind in any way? [ His hand gesture arm swing is so wild that he almost manages to accidentally hit Riz. Sorry bud. At least it’s a near miss. ] I mean, the least we can do is for people here to stop holding hands with the companion bots! They’re trying to kill us!

[ Wait, what is that weirdly specific mention—

And a deep sigh can be heard from the other side of the video, which then ends there. Wow, wonder who that could've been!!! ]

( ooc: responses can come from one of the three boys (riz, gorgug, or fabian) just as an fyi! )

Comments

@ 000

[decohere]

why would robots have children? it's not as if they grow or age. what purpose would that even serve.

un: gorgug, text

[tinflower]

she really liked the set up she had for everyone in moorecroft. she might have wanted the same too

so....personal reasons? or secret nefarious reasons.

[decohere]

she's a robot too, right? guess that makes sense. arranging forced family units for people, start wanting your own. maybe she's using the data gathered from the participants to model them after.

[tinflower]

maybe? i wonder if she needs it when they have access to a lot of data about us already and she's been doing it for years. but it could have started that way

i talked to her and it sounded like she found the way moorecroft ran was best for community building

[decohere]

or could be the opposite. realized people actually really suck and our worlds aren't worth saving and figured she could do it better.

eh. wasnt particularly a fan.

[tinflower]

i think she still has to put up with us even if she thinks that. but it would explain not telling people there's something out there trying to kill them that aren't her companion bots. i just figured she didn't feel she had to

me neither. but i liked having more buildings with actual stuff in them

[decohere]

how unfortunate for her.
honestly have no idea what they actually want. from us, or as an end goal.
but creating their own little robot populations makes more sense than picking universes to save.

don't need stuff to distract me from the fact i'm imprisoned against my will. getting comfortable is foolish.

[tinflower]

what would you do if you had to solve the universe problem
?

and you could learn new hobbies or skills that help you with getting out. or surviving

[decohere]

if i believed it existed at all? don't think i have enough information on the exact specifications of the problem to make that call. it'd depend on the scale and the timeline. apparently they have enough time to do all this, so it must not be a rush, or we're somehow within a simulated dimension removed from the regular flow of time itself.

if there's a set number of universes that must be eliminated for all others to survive, as i understand it. then roll a few dice and be done with it. i wouldn't interdimensionally kidnap a bunch of individuals and put the burden of the fate of their worlds upon them while forcing them to play games. no matter how well we perform or behave, there's still a certain number of us that will fail and be forced to reconcile that we are 'responsible' for the deaths of billions. that's just outright cruel.

but i wouldn't try to determine which universes are more deserving than others, because who am i to say. what metric is that even based upon? advanced societies versus ones only beginning to emerge? ones further along in invention and technology? better at maintaining peace? creations of meaningful art? genetic diversity of lifeforms? overall uniqueness? why should the survival of worlds be based upon what i personally find most valuable.

... don't worry about me, kid. all my hobbies and skills are survival.

[tinflower]

[ Do you ever ask a question half-heartedly and get an actual lengthy answer you were not expecting? Huh. ]

i don't think i disagree with you. the system doesn't make sense and everyone is deciding the fates of random universes. so we're just coming to the same conclusion of wiping out universes while making everyone play stupid games to get there, yeah

their metrics for picking people and the tasks assigned are really fucked up. even if this was really a fair way of doing things

i admit i said it because i liked the library and the stores around with materials for making things. it doesn't have to be getting comfortable i think

[stresstokens]

That's the big question, isn't it?

If you weren't here for it, a bunch of us were assigned robot babies to take care of too. I thought that was for that whole suburban bliss angle. But now that we know that there are robot kids running around too...

Maybe we were just tools to raise the robot babies? And once they've had enough data, developmentally speaking, their minds are transferred to older models, rinse and repeat? I'm just spitballing here.

[decohere]

i was there. nobody made the mistake of assigning me responsibility of a robot infant. just guarding fish tanks.

hm. well i'm not exactly a robotics expert. but i have read and watched a lot of sci-fi. and my world had a rogue killer robot incident. just based on my limited impressions and biased observations, most robots are created and programmed to be a set adult "age." while some might have interconnected networks, they'd have no need for traditional families because there is no childhood stage that makes them dependent upon parental figures for development. so the choice to deliberately create robotic infants to be raised is... interesting. i don't want to outright say creepy, because that really is dependent upon the intention behind it. perhaps it is that longing for family, to mimic the behaviors of other organic lifeforms...

hard to know. as long as they're being treated well, i suppose. not sure why they'd be kept segregated from the rest of the community. unless there was something wrong with them?

[stresstokens]

I'll go on ahead and say it. It creeps me out. If I knew the reasons behind it, or if they weren't just shoving their babies at random strangers for them to raise against their will, maybe I wouldn't. But as is? Creepy. Not really the robot babies' fault, but still.

There were tracks in the hospital leading to somewhere else. I wonder if beyond Moorecroft is... I don't know. Some place where the robots are meant to go when they "grow up"? Maybe we were being used as a socialization tool for them to make their own city. Maybe they're going to go full bodysnatchers?

I don't think that theory has legs, for the record. Not really. I just can't think of anything else yet. What's even the point?

[decohere]

bodysnatchers would at least be fun, for the record. i like that theory more than whatever it probably is. but i guess it's hard to put too much effort into worrying about it when we're here now, and they're there. unless they're invading us later i guess.

i both agree with and offended by the decision to pass me over as a socialization tool, though. hahahaha god that robot baby would grow up with so many issues.

[stresstokens]

I don't know if I'd call it fun... but it would follow at least some sort of logic, which means it's probably not the case. In any case, I figure if we were dumped there for a month, there's gotta be some way it's going to come back and bite us in the ass. That's always how it works. The bad shit comes back to haunt us, and the good shit doesn't.

[ optimism!!!!!!! ]

In fairness to you, I'm not sure many of us had much business raising babies. It was kinda creepy.

[decohere]

to be fair, most of you seem like children yourselves

if the robots come back looking for revenge for their childhood trauma or compensation for needing therapy, gotta say i draw the line at kicking babies so you're on your own.

[stresstokens]

Normally I'd resent that, but I'll give you this one. None of us have any business raising kids.

For the record, I am also anti-kicking babies.

[maximumlegend]

i know!!!!!!!

isn't it weird
it is as if absolutely nothing here makes sense

if they were not robot children i could at least say maybe they were raising some sort of army or whatever it is that nefarious people generally do but what is anyone going to do with an entire bunch of small robot children

[decohere]

nothing makes sense when you don't have the full story. hard to come to any actual conclusions without further understanding of what their actual goals are.

but if the premise is that there's too many universes that some must be purged to ensure the continuation of the rest... why would you create an additional population?

[maximumlegend]

unless the premise is wrong to begin with

[ Just saying. Not that Fabian has any proof of it - he does believe that maybe the story could still be real, but he also can't help but feel a little more skeptical after everything that's been going on in this place. ]

don't you think they could perhaps be lying to us?

[decohere]

of course they're lying to us. that 'if' is load bearing.

but it's what they gave us to work with. the evidence is examined to disprove it.

[maximumlegend]

well their true intentions here are very strange then
if this is the evidence we are working with

i mean all we know is that they are taking people from their original worlds and bringing them here
and they seem to be creating some sort of robot kids
or just robots in general

i have no idea how you could combine both those facts into one specific plan

unless they are attempting to replace us with robots?? but why would they ever even do that
it makes no sense

[decohere]

free willed creatures when plucked out of their natural environments, put into a box, and shaken up hoping to figure out who is somehow 'best' from those results is a failed approach anyway. maybe they weren't getting the results they wanted over in that population. if you're hoping to end up with your ideal society maybe it just seems easier to work with one that you designed and programmed specifically to fulfill such a delusional fantasy.

[maximumlegend]

[ .. Fabian considers the other's words for a moment.

Sure, they can't say with 100% certainty that that is what's going on here. But if he thinks about this, just as a hypothetical.. ]

then they won't need us anymore as soon as they have that population, right

maybe they will attempt to just get rid of it
it is not as if it has not felt before like they were attempting to do exactly that

[decohere]

eh, sure they can repurpose us. no use being wasteful.

what do you mean by that?