video; un: appleaday feat. rin & caitlyn! ( king info & discussion post )

[saudades]

[The video opens to a view of a young man and two young women. They might be recognizable to those who have been in Etraya a while as Dazai, Rin, and Caitlyn. The young man, Dazai, is the first to speak up, giving the camera a cheerful wave and wink.]

Good meowning, Etraya! [what the fuck] I hope we're all having a good revolution~

[No? We don't love a good riot in this house?]

I'm sure there's quite a lot of eating the rich left to do and we're all very busy, but there's some important information we've learned recently. If you'd do the honors, Cait-chan!

[Caitlyn, who’s been looking confused from the moment Dazai started talking, immediately jumps in with an unorganised sheaf of papers and immense enthusiasm for the information she’s about to share.]

Yes. Several of us were able to make our way into the sealed carriage at the back of the train. Inside, we found a significant number of star maps, along with a small robot, which is, apparently, malfunctioning. [She doesn’t know enough about robots to tell, but this is what others have said.] The robot, called Rex, claims to have been created by a woman who hoped to save the people on this train – or rather, their ancestors – from demise. It further claims to serve as a sort of fail-safe for the King, another robot, who is meant to keep the train on course. Rex’s purpose was to ensure the passengers’ standard of living. It was sealed away by the King as a result of a quarrel between them. The King believed that Rex’s actions would result in the deterioration of order and regulations aboard the train, causing the passengers to be less focused on keeping the train running and endangering everyone’s lives. The King sealed Rex away so that it – the King – would be able to continue driving the train without impediment.

[ Rin has been watching both of them with a little bit of apprehension, or perhaps simply surprise, for different reasons. She’s much more nervous than mischievous or enthusiastic, as her compatriots appear to be.

She clears her throat, delicately hiding her mouth with her fist, and looks at the camera with a serious expression. ]

Erm, yes. Furthermore, Rex told us that the King can be found in the locomotive. Getting inside requires a key and a passcode, neither of which King has access to. I know some of you have been working on other parts of this riddle – if one of you knows more, please share with everyone. [ But now, even Rin is taken by a sort of giddiness for a second, and she grins. ] Then we really could get somewhere with this!

[Caitlyn continues, just as enthusiastic as before:] If we can find the key and the passcode, we can access the King, but we ought to consider whether we actually should remove it as we’ve been instructed. Without the King, there is every possibility that the train could derail, or some other catastrophe could befall it.

On the other hand, it's equally possible that the premise has been faulty from the start, and the train is more of a prison than a life support! The removal of the King might allow these people to go on elsewhere, or live more comfortably aboard the train if they choose to. Moreover, it's worth asking why, exactly, Echo wants us to do this. What qualities is this task meant to demonstrate?

[Caitlyn’s response is directed almost entirely to Dazai, not to the network as a whole.] Is it even up to us to decide? This train is the only world these people have; they ought to have a say in whether the King is removed or not, especially given the risks it poses.

[ At this point, Rin clears her throat again, louder this time. ]

Hey, uhm… maybe you could discuss this later? Let’s let everyone else have a word, yeah?

[ She turns back toward the camera, trying her best to smile. ]

We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Right, right, we're getting off-track. We are effectively trapped on here ourselves until Echo sees fit to send us back, so we should get this out there as soon as we can, hm?

Comments

[ascarylady]

When it comes down to it, no one here should be willing to risk our worlds for these people.

[ Whether they really are in danger or not is in question, but she already told one person this, and she meant it: she won't do anything that risks Runeterra, and she won't let anyone else do it, either. ]

But I have to assume this train will pull back into Etraya once we get to that thing. It would be pretty pointless to build a whole rail otherwise, wouldn't it? So we'd be buying them time, anyway.

[saudades]

It might. If Echo and Aurora don't simply pull us back out specifically, that is, like they did to pluck us from our worlds to Etraya in the first place.

[They might not have the luxury of taking a third option, ultimately.]

The complication arises in that Echo is almost certainly watching, and may not retrieve us if we don't remove the King. However, we still don't know the criteria for these tests. So there's a layer of possibility that this is all a sham, and a willingness to strand ourselves might be counted in our favor...yet if we remain trapped on this train indefinitely, there's no way to know.

[Trolley problems upon trolley problems, honestly. It's infuriating how little evidence there is toward any theory. Any argument a person can make has an immediate counterargument, and then another counterargument to that.]

They might simply want to observe how we argue over the hypothetical, even. But ultimately, all we know is removing the King is the only guaranteed method of getting back to Etraya, at this point. All further points of debate are merely academic, beyond that.

[ascarylady]

I'm getting a distinct feeling that we'll never know their criteria, not unless we can finally corner this Echo thing and get it to talk to us, and even that sounds like a tall order when we have no idea how.

[ Sevika found it frustrating. To know they were being tested, or if not that, then toyed with at the whim of some mysterious being. No doubt she wasn't alone in that feeling, and that irritation creeps in through her words, in how she scoffs out that 'how.' ]

Cause a riot, stop a riot, free a train of people, leave them to their own devices. Never find out which action resulted in a better mark. Is this what schooling feels like? If so, maybe I'm glad I never had the opportunity after all.

[saudades]

[It is frustrating. Not enough seem willing to question it, either, which has stymied Dazai all the more as he seeks allies to seize the reins from Echo without drawing attention and painting the target on his own back.]

It's a devilishly clever setup, isn't it? Giving people just enough rope to hang themselves with, as it were. When there is too much ambiguity to determine the most advantageous actions, all one is left with is to act as comes naturally, and never knowing when we're being assessed allows almost perfectly naturalistic conditions to observe and evaluate.

[A light provocation of his own, a minor nudge. He won't express his intentions over a monitored network, but he can test the waters without revealing too much.]

All the more reason to refuse to give us access to Echo, I suppose. Aurora supposedly has a direct connection, but she's either unwilling or unable to patch us in, or even pass along a message.

[ascarylady]

It is... You can't fake being yourself as well as you might like to when you never know the real goal. Tell us what we're being evaluated on, and we adjust how we act, right? Because that's just how people are.

[ It isn't something Sevika would call dishonest. She would say they're adaptable instead, at least in this case. Most would actively try to be different if it meant saving their entire world. ]

Tch. Unwilling or unable... Well, no matter which it is with Aurora, there'll have to be some kind of reaction from Echo if people actually go through with hauling the Dregs out into Etraya. Guess we'll see.

[saudades]

That's probably part of the test, don't you think? It's as you've said. Anyone can act a certain way when the proverbial gun is to their head, after all.

[Most people would change their behavior to save their entire universe. But Echo wants to know how they behave without that pressure, in a variety of circumstances.]

Somewhat fitting this train is called the Quantum Rail, hm? Thought experiments like this are common in quantum physics ... a physicist named Heisenberg in my own world came up with the notion that observing a system inherently changes it, for instance.

[Leaving everything in a state of constant uncertainty and flux, observed or not observed, then, allows Echo to get a sense of both.]

As for bringing the train denizens to Etraya ... I'm not as certain that it would press Echo into action. It would be surprising if it wasn't a potential outcome they'd considered when we were given the mission, honestly--especially with how regularly the default assumption among us still seems to be that worthiness correlates with being a good person.

[ascarylady]

[ Dipping into the concept of quantum physics is a touch out of Sevika's wheelhouse. She is, at best, self-taught when it comes to science, and her focus there had, as always with her, been whatever was most immediately applicable: fixing what already existed, be it mechanics or chemtech. She wasn't even sure if quantum physics was something that anyone on Runeterra studied. Maybe? Over in Piltover? Hell, she had no clue.

But "thought experiments" made sense. She could grasp the concept. Observing a system inherently changes it... Yeah, like in prisons. Prison life would always be unnaturally different from real life on the outside. Just like on the train or in Etraya. Both were prisons, even if the latter offered far more leeway than the former. ]

You're right. It probably has considered that option, although bringing them to Etraya... I can't say I'm sold on it. It causes more problems on its own.

[ A large group of people seeking a permanent home versus those of them there to prove their still-existing homes are worth saving. They would clash. It could get messy. She hadn't gone that far into detail about her concern there when offering Jayce advice when he proposed the idea of bringing them back with them, not even that long ago now, but... ]

What's the saying? About good intentions leading to worse outcomes? Being a good person doesn't always fix the problem. All these people saying we need to let the people on the train decide don't get it. No matter what options present themselves, the King needs to be stopped. Then these people can consider what's left and decide what to do. Come to Etraya, work with this Rex character, kill the Elites, and take over. Whatever it ends up being.