anonymous ‣

[covertness]

what do you remember from before the crash?

Comments

[strove]

How do you prove that something isn't a simulation?

[covertness]

i'm not sure
that's not exactly my area of expertise

[ but you bet she's going to ask fitz about it. ]

[strove]

Well, in my experience there was a killswitch, but I imagine that if we're in a simulation, we're pretty far from it.

And that was ... more simplistic than this somehow.

[covertness]

it's probably too early to draw any firm conclusions yet
but it's good to consider the options

what's your experience with simulations?

[strove]

An AI created a world called the "City of Light" where all of humanity would be able to live out the rest of their lives without any pain or suffering. As you can imagine, that also meant that anything good connected to the bad would also be wiped away. It gave the AI access to everyone's thoughts, feelings, pain receptors, and more. In real time.

The idea was that nobody could die in the City of Light.

I went there to get my people out. It was a city, but it felt unreal. Almost hazy in a way. I could feel pain there because of the circumstances that sent me there.

To get to the City of Light, you had to swallow a piece of technology that would then become embedded in the back of our heads. Given what we have there now, you can guess that I'm understandably concerned. El promised some kind of tutorial about the neural implants we all have.

[covertness]

who programmed the ai?

[ a short reply to a long answer, but it's the main question bobbi has. ]

as if the invasion of our bodily autonomy and the abduction and keeping us drugged wasn't enough yet
a tutorial would be good

[strove]

A woman named Becca. For reasons I still don't totally understand, it wasn't possible to just delete what she had created. I didn't get to talk to her for long. She was in the simulation, too. It's a long story.

[Determining how much she's willing to share is what's stopping her. But Clarke doesn't see any reason to keep this a secret for now. Sharing what she knows can help them determine what happened.]

Well, don't try to rush El. Apparently that's a bad idea.

[covertness]

speaking from experience?

[strove]

Unfortunately. Apparently helping us become comfortable with just one of the many aspects of the violation of our bodies isn't as important as us breaching their security when one of their own men led us here.

[covertness]

i understand prioritizing and that different people might have different priorities, but i'm not sure i agree with those

[strove]

I don't get the sense that El really grasps that we don't know what's going on. Just a hunch.

[covertness]

i'm sure it'll become apparent sooner rather than later

[strove]

If only I could more artfully and creatively embellish how weird it is that this many people are even alive and around me. But I'm sure Morningstar will figure it out once I'm outside.

[covertness]

how many people survived? in your world

[strove]

I don't have a hard number for the first time. It was in the thousands. Definitely a major departure from the millions that were there before.

The second time: 1,208. Give or take a few.

[covertness]

well, shit
i'm sorry

[strove]

Thanks.

[Because, really, what else does she say? The Hundies Life is Hard.]