Dr. Robert "Rocket" Romano (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
badlydisarmed) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
etraya2025-03-07 09:16 pm
badlydisarmed) wrote in etraya2025-03-07 09:16 pm
text; un: romano
Hello Etraya, a few of the newest arrivals are originally from wherever we told you we're from, but before coming here we were in Etraya's sister city, Solmara. Solmara has overthrown their AI and is ruled by a woman named Alrys. She sent us here on a recon mission to steal supplies, and while some of us were considering it, upon arrival we decided not to.
I can't speak for the others, but I know for a fact if Alrys got wind of what this place is like, she'd start a war. I'm not interested, not because I'm kind and noble (I'm not) but because making two whole cities miserable would be stupid.
Aurora has been informed of everything, but in the interest of transparency I'm letting the rest of you know too.
We will be answering questions but only if they're not stupid and you're super nice about it. Keep in mind we're probably gonna get tortured then killed then tortured again for snitching. 😃❤️🥳👍🚀🦈
PS: Any magical healers out there?
(The PS is not included on the things we will be answering questions about)
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i see.
a couple follow-up questions, then, if you will:
1. is it safe to assume the residents of solmara have given up on the notion of saving or returning to their own worlds entirely?
2. how long do you have until alrys starts to become suspicious about your failure to return? that is to say, when and where were you expected to rendezvous with her?
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2. didn't have a fixed date, but probably a month or two. we weren't supposed to be in a hurry, things just happened that pushed us to move faster than we meant to.
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His tone switches on a dime to something friendlier, almost gentle:]
you all have been through quite an ordeal, mm?
i have a proposition that may be of interest to you. we could discuss it more comfortably over drinks, perhaps
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I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm not gonna be very useful in general.
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you may want to reserve judgment about your own capability until you hear out my suggestion, though! it's to do with potentially avoiding the torture and death or future armed escalation, but if you're not interested, i'll understand.
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let's not pretend we're doing each other any favors here, you want information. my potential torture, death, torture, and death is irrelevant.
why don't you want to ask on the network?
cw suicide reference/"joke", i'm sorry for him
you do like making assumptions, don't you? the death and torture and death are very relevant, actually, but i have ways i prefer to do things, just as you do.
you're free to leave your fate in aurora's hands, if you wish. she hasn't sent you back, which has earned some measure of your loyalty, while you have no reason to trust my intentions.
living in constant fear isn't something i would enjoy, though.
i'd rather just give myself up and die!
these two will be besties or sworn enemies in no time
i've seen what one of this cities looks like when the AI is stripped of control, so if that's anywhere near your line of thought we're not gonna want the same things.
if you're aiming higher though, i'm at the hospital. the bots will tell you which room.
i can't wait. onto action!
[Should he be bringing alcohol into a hospital? Probably not, but that's not going to stop him.
The man who enters Romano's hospital room looks young, in his early twenties at most. There's bandages wrapped around his throat and what's visible of his arms, and he pulls out a small bottle of vodka from his coat, twirling it in his fingers before offering it over.]
Helloooooo, how are we feeling today~? I wasn't sure what your drink of choice might be, so I took a guess!
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Robert's in his early forties and he looks like he hasn't slept in a few days. He's missing his left arm, and there's crutches nearby, suggesting there's something wrong with at least one of his legs. If Dazai's been looking at the network he'll know Connor shot him twice. ]
Wine, usually. But I'm on painkillers.
[ They're not nearly as strong as he'd like them to be though. He's really hoping a magic healer will volunteer to fix him before they're shipped off to murder world. ]
cw uhh "encouraging" irresponsible use of medication/reference to intended suicide attempt
[His expression is very much "don't @ me" as he says this. He knows. He Knows. Talk to him about that time he was going to mix hypertension and hypotension medication just to see if it would kill him. Unfortunately for Romano's own blood pressure, he did not get the opportunity to try it back in the day.]
At any rate, I won't keep you in suspense. What I'm proposing is a way to misdirect Alrys while installing a means to track her activities. Potentially reinstate the AI in the process, but you're right that my aims are higher, in the long run.
[He's going to t̸̢͔̫̠͍̱̽e̴̝̣͔̩͓̰͉̗̻͌a̵̛̻̜͍̼̓̃̄̏̐̑̋͊̊̃̓͂̑̐̚͝ŗ̴̡̧̬̺̠̻̻̼̜̹̳̯͓̲̙̓͋̋̕ ̷̡̧̜̦̻͎̳̟͌͒̂E̷̢͉̱̬͍̥̝̹̘͚̳͈̝͇̱̗͂͐̍͋̍̑͛͋͜͝c̴̖͗̇̾̌̓̍̈̀̕͘̚ḧ̴̟͎̙͕̬̱͖̪͖̝̖̮̳̝́̉͂͐͜ͅő̸̡̨̡̡̩̥͉̳͖̞̲͖̯̜̽̽̂͒̎̑͋̇͂͆̀̎̃̓͝ ̵̛̈́͊͒̏̊̅̈́͒̎͐̿̈́̾͘͜͝ȧ̶̢̛͙͇̯̬̜̥͈͓̤̗̫̻̥̔̊̈́p̶̡̹͚̜̮̹̹̺̫͉̞̮̣͇̘͐͛̚͜ä̶͕̮͚̦̠̼͙́̽̍̓̅̈͊̋̀͛͒̚̕͝r̵̢̞̠̥̘̞̠̦̊͂͌͂̄͛͋͊̒̈́̓̎̐̎͋̕͠t̵̺̟̭͍̖̮̬͕̃͆̒̆ someday. But he's a patient man, when he needs to be. So he keeps that to himself, for the moment.]
probably casual unsafe medication and suicide cws all the way down 😔
[And the painkillers are the only thing keeping him conversational at the moment. He's not about to jeopardize that.]
I'm all for cutting metaphorical heads off, but I don't get what you want from me, I'm both unimportant and powerless.
[But he's interested. Taking down Alrys wouldn't fix everything, maybe it wouldn't fix anything at all, but he doesn't think it could make things worse.]
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[He shrugs.]
That's exactly what makes you perfect, though. You'd be underestimated.
[If Romano's not going to drink, though, he'll take a sip from the bottle himself, before he settles himself down on the edge of the bed. He's putting his leggies up, not sorry.]
She's expecting you and your fellows back in a couple months, with a hard drive, correct? But Solmara still operates like Etraya otherwise, with individuals coming and going. Consider if you were to bring her a fake, loaded up with misinformation and spyware, claim your compatriots died in completing their mission, and then ... simply disappear? She would no longer have reason to hold a grudge, nor any reason to think you've returned here.
[He pauses for effect for a moment, to study Romano's expression for any initial reaction, before continuing:]
Your slate is cleaned, and we gain valuable information about her operations. It's certainly more efficient than any kind of blind assault the self-righteous have already begun proposing.
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Connor would never fucking go for it, for once, because Connor loves doing whatever Robert tells him not to. The others might, depending. The weird elf guy seems too committed to his own murder plot to agree to anything but that.
But that's too much information to give to a guy whose aim seems to have been to get him drunk and talking. ]
It's a suicide mission.
[ Though that's not even his main objection. ]
The people under Alrys are like the people here; they got super-powered people. I don't know who can do what, but one human lie detector and I'm fucked. And one off-network computer with an antivirus and we're all fucked. And how are their self-righteous gonna feel when they learn their kamikaze got blown up immediately?
[ Is that offensive? That's probably offensive. He's unfortunately like this. ]
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That doesn't mean he hasn't accounted for the points Romano brings up, though. He counts down on his fingers, starting with one.]
Aurora has access to information on every person living in Etraya. It's not outside the realm of possibility that she could fetch the records from other city bubbles and determine if that's something you need worry about.
[Two fingers, now.]
Assuming that it is, there's different tiers of concern, here. If someone is capable of full telepathy, that's a different situation than a simple lie detector. It's quite easy to be deceptive without ever speaking a single lie, after all.
[A third.]
If you're truly so unfortunate as all that, there's still options. Counterclaims of betrayal, for one. Who can detect the lie detector's lies? Someone like Alrys is bound to have a few paranoid delusions kicking around. An explosive with a dead man's switch makes for excellent insurance, as well.
[His tone hasn't changed one bit, that same lilting softness and calm. There's now four fingers raised.]
As for antivirus...if it were truly so simple to defend against malicious software, hackers would be an obsolete concept. A sophisticated enough virus will cover your tracks until you've long since disappeared, leaving plausible deniability that it was Aurora's own countermeasure for potential thieves.
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What if Alrys is the mind reader? Can't defend against that. And the more I think about it, the more I suspect she's got something.
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[He doesn't even hesitate, as though he anticipated the question already.]
See, when you take over a group of people by force, there's two options for how to establish yourself. You can either attempt to establish your legitimacy in doing so, or you can rule by fear. Alrys is a fool who's chosen the latter, which means she's well aware that her days are numbered. Fear alone can earn compliance, but it doesn't earn loyalty.
[So how does this make Romano's situation easier? He's coming to that in a moment.]
Think about how quickly your allegiance turned the moment the fear of reprisal went from an immediate to a potential future consequence. Now turn that reasoning on its head. If the people of Solmara remain in line out of fear...then what happens when there is no longer a line? If they believe they can be harmed at any time, for any reason?
[Dazai's expression is suddenly sharp, that of a predator that's cornered its prey.]
If the only evidence Alrys has of your treachery is within your own mind, and she is the only person able to verify that information, she won't be able to make an example of you in public, because all you'd need to do is loudly, desperately proclaim your innocence to set off a mass panic. She'll want to dispose of you quietly, privately, and then the advantage is wholly yours. Wave the dead man's switch in her face, and you own her.
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Sort of.]
Works like Etraya.
People come and go.
No way of telling if they accomplished what they needed to “save” any worlds.
Still have missions though.
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assigned by the AI? or by alrys?
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You don't follow through, you get punished.
But Echo and the AI still make us go on mandatory missions. Same as here.
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even she is still beholden to echo's missions, i take it?
[hmmm. there might still be an opportunity in here.]
do you think aurora would be able to communicate with this other AI?
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Think that just makes her more annoyed.
When I spoke to Aurora, she said she hasn't heard from her sister AI in a while.
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the AI is not under any distress, then.
alrys only maintains her authority because the AI doesn't enforce any consequences for her actions. that's similar to the situation here.
[He hasn't forgotten about the cannibalism dinner party, after all. And because the option exists now, he slides on a privacy filter, now that he's spoken with Romano in the hospital.]
can you speak on the matter of her abilities?
private.
... Didn't see any.
Would think someone with that much control would, though.