un: romano | text

[badlydisarmed]

I have one question and one important announcement.

The question:

Do you pull the lever?

As for the announcement, the hospital now has a wing to treat magical maladies. Witch doctors and the like are welcome to come check it out. People with magical maladies also welcome to come get treated, I don't know how any of this shit works.

Comments

[thisisontherecord]

Is there any way Aurora knows of to make sure your time here continues uninterrupted?

[badlydisarmed]

Doubt it, if she did my Solmara teammates would still be around, and I think it's only me and Connor left now.

[thisisontherecord]

No chance they got swapped back to Solmara either?

[badlydisarmed]

Aurora would know if they had. She's in communication with her brother now.

[thisisontherecord]

As you say, she'd know with those communication lines open. So Echo, or whatever process, is still doing what Echo does, no input from the city-run side.

Would you say the unpredictability of people coming or going has remained the same from when you were in Solmara?

[badlydisarmed]

Solmara was worse because the dictator occasionally disappeared people.

[thisisontherecord]

Permanently? They didn't have a functional resurrection mechanic?

[badlydisarmed]

They did, but disappearances were for torture and brainwashing. It was hard to know if someone had left or if they would be back broken in a few weeks.

Also hard to tell if they were simply being kept locked up. I was only there for a couple months.

[thisisontherecord]

That's a whole other level of horror show.

( She does not want to think, hey this is a time where Mr. Terrific's terrible hobby of putting nanobots in everyone would be useful! Because sure. But also no. What the hell, sir. )

What even happened to the dictator?

[badlydisarmed]

Killed, and as far as I know, deliberately not revived.

[thisisontherecord]

Per Borealis's decision?

[badlydisarmed]

Yes, but she fully deserved it.

[thisisontherecord]

Oh, not contesting that. Dictators manipulating people and torturing them into compliance needs to be shut down. I was more wondering if those calls are ones the city AIs could make without needing it to come from anywhere else, but it sounds like it.

Which yes, I'm aware Aurora is probably reading this, or will at some point. Not worried about you on this count, Aurora, but I'm definitely curious that it can be done at all.

[badlydisarmed]

The AIs have a lot of free reign about how they handle their cities. It looks like Echo only get involved if there's issues with the missions, but Solmara missions happened just like they happen here.

[thisisontherecord]

Seems a little like they're storing something about us if the mechanism for resurrection isn't tied to our actual ongoing presence for Echo's stated purposes.

Glad to hear a confirmation that the mission system is the same in Solmara as it is here. Did you ever hear of people being brought in formally after being incidentally encountered during a mission outside the city?

[badlydisarmed]

No, your situation's a first. But I think you were supposed to be brought here, then sent off to the mission. You just happened to be pulled in while there was no one here.

[thisisontherecord]

So instead of arriving correctly, we got punted directly in. Not sure that explains anything about the barrier we kept running into. None of you who came from Etraya had that problem, did you? That you'd run into an invisible barrier when walking along. One that moved every few days?

[badlydisarmed]

No, but I'm guessing it was some sort of safety measure to keep the new people from wandering off? They didn't want you to be left behind, probably.

[thisisontherecord]

It also randomly teleported us across the city every few days. Worst invisible corn maze I've ever been in, I do not recommend.

[badlydisarmed]

Eh, I've seen worse.

Did you get a superpower while you were there?

[thisisontherecord]

Such reassuring things you say.

Sure. Flight. What about you?

[badlydisarmed]

Super-powered arm. The missing one. Absolutely not something that would make me re-live any trauma or anything.

[thisisontherecord]

Asshole move. Could have at least given you a high-functioning prosthetic attuned to your nervous system instead of the here and gone again. That sucks.

[badlydisarmed]

It WAS a high-functioning prosthetic. I don't miss it, I want a normal, working arm not one that can blow up buildings or whatever.

[thisisontherecord]

Is anything like that obtainable in this context? The normal arm. Not the building exploding one.