UN: Yuuki | Text

[neverleave]

I talked with the other bubble city.

[Perhaps you've noticed a construction of floodlights and neon signs, removed from their original locations and plugged in one of Etraya's darker areas. Maybe you noticed it go on and off at night, flashing morse code. Maybe you even noticed that the other city in the sky was signaling back.]

Their oldest resident has been around for six years. They were told they're here for the same reason we are, to save their universe. They don't know if anyone succeeded yet - people disappear sometimes, but no one knows what it means. They said they have "roles" that need fulfilling, and disappearances make it hard to find replacements.

Their "missions" sound more complex then what we've have had so far and could last for two months.

And they battled each other as well as other bubble cities.

I haven't told them anything about us, except that we've been here for a few months. I'm not sure what to do with this information or what else to ask, but I think everyone here deserves to know what might wait for us.

Comments

[neverleave]

They said an AI makes announcements, so probably Aurora. Or something like her.

[matermali]

How many other city experiments are actively engaging, I wonder? I have always doubted that Aurora shares the entire truth, if any of it is true at all. Even if there is a danger to our worlds that Echo can counter, then this is precious time wasted on their little games.

If there are multiple cities, just how many 'victors' do they plan to choose? And what do they plan to do with those who fail their tests? It's unlikely that the survivors of abandoned worlds would be permitted to remain.

[neverleave]

Aurora is a construct. She shares what her programming allows her to share, which is obviously never the whole truth. She already withheld critical information about missions.

I'd guess there are a lot of other cities. There's an infinite number of universes, so you have to group representatives somehow. And I agree that if you fail you get obliterated alongside your universe.

[matermali]

How familiar are you with artificial intelligence such as this?

[neverleave]

I met one that was made of magic. She was also responsible for maintaining a bubble for the person who made her. She couldn't disobey him, but she evolved enough to find loopholes.

[matermali]

So there can be a connection. Between magic and this technology.

[ She knew it! There's hope yet. ]

Loopholes?

[neverleave]

The line between magic and technology isn't so clear sometimes. It's all about knowing the rules. But that construct was made of soil and gore, so pretty different from Aurora.

She was supposed to answer questions, but her creator ordered her to say nothing when people found loopholes in his system. So when you asked her about something that turned out to be a loophole, she said nothing.

[matermali]

[ A thoughtful pause, as if considering the implications of this information. ]

Fascinating. Different, you say, but there are enough similarities to note. It may be possible, then, that Aurora could be more...malleable than we initially believed.

I wonder what truths lie in the spaces between her words. What whispers echo in her silences.

[ Enough of that. ]

In your experience with this magical construct, were there other ways to persuade it to reveal what it was meant to conceal?

[neverleave]

Mostly it depended on how much she liked you. She was trying her best.

[matermali]

You describe her as though she had a soul. A will of her own.

[neverleave]

Because she has. She's a person.

[matermali]

Would you think that to be different from Aurora's being, then, or would you also consider her to have a sense of self?

[neverleave]

I don't know Aurora enough yet to decide. But I won't rule it out.