TO994M | day 4 | morning | audio

[cactusy]

[There's the sound of footsteps on sand; she's walking as she talks, heading away from the beach and up towards the scrubby jungle.]

So I got got by what I think was a crossbow bolt. Kinda hard to tell for sure; it all came at me pretty fast. Got an arrow to the leg not long before that, but the one that came for my head seemed bigger in the point-two seconds of reaction time I had before it hit. And it did hit. Should've been difficult-to-impossible to survive, but here I am. Which tells me some things.

[She relays the news of her almost-certain death matter-of-factly, in the same flat-ish tone as her previous radio contributions. If anything, she sounds a little more upbeat here: it's not by much, but having (what she thinks are) answers is a relief. At least now she (thinks she!!) knows what she's dealing with.]

Look, guys; this isn't real. Fifty-fifty odds whether you're a part of it or not - maybe you're all artificial constructs and I'm the only real sentient person here, or maybe we're all hooked up to machines in a lab and we've been tossed into this simulated... thing together. Gonna be nice and assume the latter, for now. Point is, signs have been pointing to this for a while, and this proves it. But this is good news, kind of. It means that whatever happens here doesn't really matter. We die, we screw up, we do something our monitor overlord doesn't like - we just reset. I fired off three bullets, and they're back now, because the gun and the bullets are just lines of computer code that can be rewritten in whatever way the people running this want.

Priority number one shouldn't be escaping the island or long-term survival or whatever. It should be figuring out how to get out of the simulation. Then the party can really get started.

Comments

BT612L; voice

[ichoosefight]

Um. Not to be a part of the Matrix or anything, but I think your perspective here is completely backwards.

[cactusy]

This isn't my first rodeo, I've been doing this for a while.

[ichoosefight]

Then I think you might've forgotten something important: Dying hurts. Pain is bad.

You remember what happened, right? That makes it real. That means it matters. It doesn't matter if it's just numbers on a screen somewhere. It happened, and you have that experience, and that's not nothing.

[cactusy]

Sure it was. Just one in over seven thousand.

[But.]

It did hurt; I won't lie to you. Can't blame you for not wanting to go through that yourself, no matter how fake. If I ever run into you in person, I'll protect you.

text | callsign: DI481O

[salamanca]

Thank you for trying to talk some sense into her. At least somebody around here is sane.

text

[ichoosefight]

THANK YOU.

You get my point here right? That even if she's right that's a terrible plan?

text

[salamanca]

I do, yes. There's no reason to encourage any more death or suffering. Trauma is trauma. "Real" or not. We should be taking care of each other.

You know. Helping each other not die. Right?

VL121R | voice

[meadqueen]

Is there anyone near you who can confirm this happened?

[Randvi doesn't understand half of what this message was about but she's seen some pretty severe head injuries in her time and this is concerning. A warrior that she’d sent on a mission had once encountered a man with an axe buried in his skull who, while having difficulties with movement and coordination, could speak quite coherently and had no idea he’d been injured.

Picturing this woman wandering around lost with a crossbow bolt in her head is upsetting enough that despite the fact that the other woman will definitely be angry she feels like she should reach out]

[cactusy]

[There is, surprisingly, no anger here: as far as Shaw's concerned, it's a valid question, albeit one with a disappointing answer.]

Honestly? No.

[meadqueen]

Are you still near where it happened?

audio; SH442K

[sharktrash]

Well shit, time to Steve Irwin that fucking crocodile.

[ He's joking. Probably. Or he's about to do something stupid. Anyone's guess really. ]

[cactusy]

You're going to freak out BT6 even more than she already is.

[sharktrash]

I mean, it was kinda fun listening to her tear you a new one. Little in the way of entertainment here, yeah?

[ more importantly though... ]

Do you know who attacked you?

RE419S | audio

[aluminumandash]

[ Toneless, detached: ] Shouldn't have said this in front of the kid.

[cactusy]

Which one?

[aluminumandash]

Bolognese boy. [ Still flat. His voice tightens a notch. ] Who else is there?

voice | HO125E

[trialbyliar]

Rude! Why shouldn't I get to know? What, worried I'll get all reckless if I think I can't die?

[If only you knew.]

[aluminumandash]

[ Here's the thing. While Kokichi—this kid, this dumbass teenager in their midst, at their mercy—isn't ever far from Rust's thoughts, and while Rust cares more about his safety than any other fucking thing on this island, actually talking to him is like sticking a fork in an electric outlet. ]

Certain strains of thought, you shouldn't be exposed to young.

audio | callsign TN811N

[hyakuoku]

[ He's already read or listened to everything else by the time he deigns to respond. He figures it's probably a waste of breath; Shaw believes what she's going to believe, and Senku ten billion percent doesn't agree with her.

Though it's fascinating to him, the death thing, he wouldn't encourage just ANYONE to try it. Only maybe one person. He just has to figure out who the best candidate for that is. Ideally it's himself, because why endanger another person like that, but he'd want the Medusa working, just to be on the safe side. The Medusa isn't working and as far as he knows no one in the group could get it fixed. So until then he'll keep his death experiment idea to himself.

Instead: ]

I don't think this is a simulation. If it is, it's pretty interesting, since there's no one where I'm from that could create such a thing, but you wouldn't believe me, since you think I'm either fake or have false memories.

I'm not going to waste my time or yours trying to argue circles around you about it. The only thing I care about is evidence and facts.

Guess you'll just have to take everything I say after this with a grain of salt.

So far, I've talked to people from various points in time, none of whom have experienced what I did at home. It points to multiverse theory being real, which is exciting, but also puts us in a troubling spot. Without whatever tech they used to get us here, we can't easily get back to when and where we came from.

Regardless of whether this island is "real" or not (and we all know reality is subjective, right, which makes events happening in a simulation "real" to a mind experiencing them), there are rules to the place we find ourselves in. If we figure out the rules, we figure out how to bend them or break them. Then we get out of here.

[cactusy]

Not too far off from what I'm thinking, even if we're starting at different places. You got any ideas?

[hyakuoku]

I think finding the limits -- without getting people killed repeatedly, preferably -- is a good starting place.

SH442K said he might try making a raft and sailing out, seeing if there's some limit in the ocean. It's not a bad idea, testing physical parameters, just how much geographical space we have. Once we know that, we can test ideas on how to break that limitation. Even physics can be pushed a little! We can defy gravity and launch things into space, after all, but technically the rules are all still in place. We're just using them differently when we do that.

We can pick any other rule we want to establish and do the same. Assume x is true, then work to prove it is or prove it isn't. Once we know, we figure out how to break the rules.

I wish we could start with the tech, the electricity, test the power limits or even how and if it works. But I can't get at the stuff here to even try to plug anything in, so that's out for now.

Other than mortal danger, you got anything?

JK002N; voice

[metalicarus]

I'm sorry you died. That sucks.

But while I've been in a simulation this real before, don't know how the rest of you would manage it with the technology that was available last I knew.

You sure they didn't stick something in you and jumpstart the rest to put you back on your feet?

[Sorry for the body horror, Shaw.]

[cactusy]

Positive. I'm completely uninjured.

[metalicarus]

Hmm...There'd be surgery scars more than likely.

Still worth it to keep careful. There's no telling what it might do to your head if you get hurt or die a bunch here.

voice | HO125E

[trialbyliar]

[He just listens to the debates for a while before finally chiming in himself brightly:]

Aww, don't worry about all the naysayers. I believe you!