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

[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.

[ichoosefight]

I'm going to take the word "probably" as a good sign. And it's not anyone's fault except for the people that actually did the thing, so don't even start.

Yes or no. Are you willing to discuss the possibility that you might be wrong?

[cactusy]

Depends. Do you seriously think parallel universes or time travel or-- aliens or whatever is a valid explanation?

[ichoosefight]

Yes. Does that matter? I'm not offering up my own theories.

[cactusy]

It says a lot, yeah.

[ichoosefight]

So does you assuming that all of this is about you. Answer the question.

[cactusy]

VL1 is right; it's the explanation that makes the most sense.

[ichoosefight]

That is not a yes or a no. I'm a little busy to be listening to you talk at me.

[cactusy]

Your question wasn't exactly non-rhetorical.

[ichoosefight]

Alright, I have stuff to do. You can keep talking if you want, but I'm gonna get moving before the sun gets too high.