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

[cactusy]

Will that actually get you off my ass about this?

[ichoosefight]

It might have 5 minutes ago. But you've made it clear that not only do you not care about people getting hurt, you have no interest in keeping them from getting hurt.

So no. I want you and your gun where I can see them.

[cactusy]

I want every person in here to understand the situation that they're in. I want every person in here out and back home where they belong. There's times when you lie to people to keep them safe, and times when people having the full context is important. This is the latter.

[ichoosefight]

That would be true, and relevant, if you had the full context. But we can have a nice long talk about parallel universes after I've punched you a few times.

[cactusy]

Parallel universes are also not real.

[ichoosefight]

Says the person who's died a thousand times.

[cactusy]

Seven thousand.

Those weren't parallel universes. They were psychological warfare done by some very bad people. The same people who have you in their custody now, and who I want to help you escape from.

[ichoosefight]

This is exactly what I'm talking about. Either you don't care about anything but being right, or you aren't thinking straight, and either one is dangerous.

If superheroes aren't real, and parallel universes aren't real, then I'm not real. But that's good news for you, right? That means me breaking your nose won't be real either.

[cactusy]

People from the ninth century still being alive isn't real, either. You've been brainwashed; you've had false memories implanted.

[ichoosefight]

I'm revising my opinion. I do think you're crazy.

[cactusy]

I know. But I'm not wrong.

[ichoosefight]

You're very wrong. Probably about everything. And you're not keeping that gun.

[cactusy]

I'm not going to shoot you with it.

[ichoosefight]

Good. I'm not a fan of getting shot.

[cactusy]

Good life choice. Glad we had this talk.

[ichoosefight]

I'm taking it as a promise. I'm gonna be mad if you shoot me out of a tree once I find you.

[cactusy]

Focus on something actually useful.

[ichoosefight]

You have no idea what's useful. You can't even decide if I exist or not.

[cactusy]

[Whatever, Steph! Not planning to respond, Shaw leaves this alone for a good while while she has a talk with Randvi. It's a hour or so before she pops back up to say--]

No, you probably do.

[ichoosefight]

What?

[ Steph has been spending the time making preparations, deciding what she has to leave behind for this mission. ]

I probably do what?

[cactusy]

Exist.

[ichoosefight]

[ ... ]

Does that mean you're ready to talk this through like two reasonable people, and not a couple of conspiracy nuts?

[cactusy]

Define "conspiracy nuts".

[ichoosefight]

You're really bad at this.

[ It's a yes or no question, Shaw! ]

[cactusy]

Then you're really gonna hate hearing that it's probably my fault that you're here.