citynet | un: junpei

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un: junpei | video

[The video opens on Junpei in an office chair - in his Secret Club Meeting Room (read: generic office building conference room) although this is not a secret meeting. This is Junpei spinning slowly in an office chair while he holds the camera up, tilting as far back as he can without tipping the chair over. So it's going great.]

So, city-zens, [.....ahem,] I've got some miscellaneous questions for you.

First, time travel: real? Let me know. [......,] I mean, you know— Before you got here, that is. Like how experienced are you in the realm of quantum... quantum-y goodness? I just thought that maybe it would be real for somebody else by now, but I dunno... Let me know that one instead.

[Cough. Anyway.]

Second, are we all just, uh... hanging out now, I guess? Um, like— who's trying to clip through the weird fog and get out still? Anybody? I'm looking for group, or whatever you call it. We can do code names.

[Junpei is not a gamer.... don't believe this... he's just cringe and thinking about half-press-A-ing through the universe, to wit as he spins faster in his chair:]

Third, whoooo's all in for simulation theory? [as dryly as possible, womp...] Eh? Woooo yeah... simulation theory...!

[The video tilts as he lets go with one hand to hold up... a pinched-fingers hand puppet 🤌... it's still fine, he's doing great. He pitches his voice up higher for the puppet, because of course he does:]

But Junpei, how is this a simulation? Well duh, why else would this place be like a city that doesn't know what a city is supposed to be like? And all the weird loading fog? C'mon! Buuuut Juuuunpei, are we all full of tubes and stuck in goo pods like in that movie?— [Ah, ahem, cough. He puts his hand down.] Maybe.

Or uh, whatever else is in the theory pile. Half the people I was messing around with about theories went and disappeared, soooo... Well, I'm gonna get serious cabin fever if I can't figure something oUT—

[Local Man Tips The Chair Over and Totally Wipes Out, stay tuned for updates. The video ends when the phone drops face down onto the floor, bye.......]

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( this is the time travel rep....... well. better than no one. )

Technically both. In order to keep the first facility I worked at in proper order, loops would occur periodically to hopefully prevent any severe production loss. ( ...well, that's an extremely thin version of it. ) As far as alternate histories go, I know only as much as I've been told by a certain member of a certain company when I pressed him or her for answers to satiate my own curiosity regarding his or her work.

( she won't name you don it's okay. she's nice. )

And what's your experience with it, exactly?

[can he be team captain]

Are you sure it's loops? [He is Just Saying, is it loops or is every loop actually another history, which would make more sense and have so many fewer logical problems, but he doesn't have to deal with anything Wack like time dilation...

So, is it loops,]

You uh, you don't have to name any names about anybody's company secrets. I probably don't know anything about all that. [said in the tones of someone who definitely knows,] I can just... do it. Move around the other histories. Or I could before I woke up here—trust me, I've tried. I'd be out of here by now, but there'd be another me taking my place.

I've got no idea what our local masterminds did to me, but it just doesn't work anymore.

( no. he can be vice-captain. )

I have met the same people, the same faults, the same trials, and spoken the same script ten thousand times, Junpei. It's loops.

( there shouldn't be alternate hers running around, that would be awful. his doesn't sound all that similar to don's, but he's familiar with her company secrets spilling from the tone of his voice--she would be surprised if anyone wasn't at this point, though. )

As for your powers... I couldn't say. The ones I did have were tied directly to a certain place and resource, neither of which are here, so I've been rendered effectively helpless. It's too bad. ( a small sigh. ) Some people deserve to be drawn and quartered at the snap of a finger.

[hell yes upward mobility from clerk]

Huh, I've had that same nightmare about going to office hours.

[....,

But alright, no, he'll believe in the loops. He waves a hand placatingly, like, please don't jump down his throat for his inability to not make it a bit; he believes in the loops. He's taking this seriously, for real.]

Sorry. It's loops. Don't draw and quarter me, uh, anytime soon. If you're cut off, and I'm cut off, and a bunch of people are mostly cut off... Maybe they didn't do anything to us, and it's this whole city that's got, uh...

[........]

An... aura?

( wow, he shaped up as quick as roland did when he realized she meant business (violence). point in his favor actually. )

...That isn't impossible. ( her library had a fog that obscured it and made it impossible for others to come in save under special conditions. well, until [redacted] happened. ) In theory, that means all we'd have to do is leave the city's area of effect.

( ..........

right, so easy. )

[Oh shit, for real? A whole not impossible idea by Junpei?? He's doing great. Or: he is emboldened by this, and so very confidently says as follow-up,]

Yeah, clipping through the fog, that's what I'm talking about. It just spun me around when I tried it, though.

( his boldness is rewarded with a blank stare. what are you On about. )

...I see. ( sort of the way you talk to a child telling you some fantastical story. ) How would you propose we clip through it? The only way someone accomplished... getting past a fog barrier back in the city I'm from is through teleportation.

Well, I tried falling into it, but that didn't work. Maybe a run-and-jump scenario?

[he is serious...... half-press A, angela...]

( she doesnt know your speedrun strats, junpei... )

Explain how that would change anything.

[angela we can use the hitboxes on city hall to fall through the universe]

Uh, we would... take it by surprise?

( and if we land in another parallel universe....??? )

Alright. Say that worked. What would you do once you were beyond the boundary?

Find the mastermind and hit 'em in the face, I guess.

[It's the perfect plan, what could go wrong.]

Then figure out how to stop the weird shit that happens here... Then go home.

No wonder you and Don Quixote get along.

( pos? neg? it is what it is. )

There's probably more than one person handling all of this, and they aren't going to make it as easy as "walk into their office and punch them". Furthermore...

( ... )

What are you going to do with the people who don't want to, or who can't, go back to their worlds?

[A shrug! That is probably among the reasons, yes, not that Junpei is as Thirsty to Fight or even remotely as competent at it... so it goes.]

I dunno, I've got a lot of free time. How many offices could there be?

[....., he'll get it later]

And— they can do whatever they want. I think taking out the mastermind will be better for everyone whether or not everybody hangs around afterwards, so... yeah. If this place is somebody's best shot at a decent life, that's fine by me.

( hmm. trolley problem time. )

Let's say your plan goes well, and the mastermind or minds agree to let us go. If it's an all-or-nothing choice--everyone has to go, or everyone has to leave--what then? We have items and papers either from another set of people like us left, or drawn from our memories. If it's the former, that means they all left, whether they wanted to or not.

( or they died. same difference: they're not around anymore. )

In order to go home, Junpei, are you willing to force someone who might have nothing but loneliness awaiting them to go back as well? Does your desire outweigh theirs?

[let's fucking go]

Well... no. [He doesn't think about it very long; maybe in different circumstances - fewer people, Akane in imminent danger and at his side, the immediate threat of The Mastermind - he would choose few over many, but...]

I mean, it's been a while here, you know? I've been here since the beginning, when our group started showing up, so I get it. Just because this place can be a real hellhole doesn't mean nothing here mattered to anyone— so, uh.

[A shrug, like, that's it. He lacks the punchy finish.]

No. [...] There are people I care about who'd leave this place behind, so... I guess I was trying to find that kind of determination. Uh, with the punching.

( for a moment, her expression doesn't change—she knows it was an unfair question, because she's had a similar one given to her before. in a different context, with a different situation... and that had been her first real fight with someone she considered a friend.

junpei is not a friend, and this isn't a fight. it shifts thoughtfully, and she sips tea from her big duck energy mug. when she lowers it, it's back to placid neutrality. )

...It was wrong of me to pose a question like that to you. My apologies. ( saying sorry is becoming easier and easier these days, with so much to apologize for. ) Maybe if we're all allowed one good punch, we'll find the determination to move forward and not turn away from our circumstances, whatever those might be back in our worlds.

( ...even she knows she can't run from it. everyone has to know that, too. dead or alive, the only way is forward. )

[Oh, so they're going to think about this, huh. Or at least Junpei is still thinking about it, even after she apologizes. He likes to think raw determination can carry him through to the end of whatever's coming, but he remembers those rare moments of being knocked off-kilter by a question; What about the people we're leaving to die? What about—and he's tried really, really hard not to think about this one—the people left behind in the histories he and his gaggle of SHIFTers have deemed too doomed to save?

So now he's thinking about it. The people who'd choose to stay here, for whatever reason...]

I— huh. I'm not sure it has to be go home happy or go home miserable. Like, uh... [mmm-] Loads of people I liked in this place are gone, but they were still here, and that still mattered to me. Even if I want to go home, that still mattered.

[He shakes his head. Maybe he should have sat up for this Real Conversation, but no, he is still on the dang floor. Too late now.]

I guess I just mean it doesn't have to be suffering all the way down. "Moving forward" and "suck it up and deal" aren't the same thing.

( even if they go back, if they remember, then it matters.

...it's a nice thought. )

Not for some people. ( not her experience, but she'll concede to him for the moment. maybe that one's more normal, and her experience is an outlier. ) I assume there was a first group to show up here. How many of you are still around?

[embrace going into the future kicking and screaming to get Positive Change, man]

Uh, well, we didn't exactly take a headcount... nobody was thinking we'd start disappearing. Or that we'd still be here after this long. Sooo, for people I actually know, hmm...

[One quick mental headcount later, with at least one pause to wonder Huh, is that one still here, actually?--]

Like a dozen, if I had to guess. Total, dunno, thirty? Probably not more than that.

( Quickly doing her own math, largely based on network posts or people at group gatherings— )

Then most of them have gone. Perhaps to their own worlds, or perhaps spirited away to another of these cities...

( Or... hmm... stored, maybe? If they're working with simulation theory... Their memories, downloaded into the city's structure itself... Angela taps her cup thoughtfully, leaning back in her chair. )

Or perhaps they're in storage somewhere, waiting to be re-uploaded into the City. Assuming simulation theory isn't a terrible one to chase, that is.

I think it's a good theory.

[It's fine, everyone knows that, he has to say it though.]

You think their memories of this place are on a disc or something, somewhere? In the cloud?

[He's not saying this is impossible, that would have to be part and parcel of simulation theory, but it makes him wonder about the more unpleasant existential questions, like again: how long have they really been here, all of them? Hmm.]

Maybe we don't even have real bodies anymore.

It's not impossible. With current levels of augmented reality technology... well, in my city, at least— it'd be perfectly capable of putting someone through a hyper-realistic simulation by stimulating certain nerve receptors in the brain to enable a non-corporeal body to feel anything from pain to hunger. Really, the human mind is the simplest thing to trick in this regard, and for anything distinctly non-humanoid—like, say, a robot or an AI—it would just be a matter of uploading and tweaking their existing coding once in the simulation.

( ..........okay, that was a lot. angela slowly sips her drink. )

But that's extremely costly, especially depending on their goals. Some corporations prefer just to clone a person a million times and let them all fight to the death for weeks at a time until the strongest emerges rather than running a simple simulation to figure that out. ( it's like, one of the top ten worst things she's learned about the city. ) "Efficient" and "inexpensive" tend to be the highest priorities for companies seeking to capitalize on their projects.

[this is the normal amount of weird science... junpei is fine with it.]

If we're cloned a thousand times, that explains why we can come back from the dead. With the same memories... I could see that. Yeah, I'd believe that.

[guy who died a bunch in other timelines: yeah clones would be normal actually]

Is it really cheaper to keep cloning people? Like, the materials... I don't know that much about cloning, but I guess all they have to worry about keeping safe and whole is our "data," huh? Instead of keeping the brains alive in a tub somewhere for the simulation.

( hey, junpei... you good? )

Depending on the type of technology they have access to, it might be cheaper, yes.

( she isn't 100% sure HOW r corp does it........ but she sure does know their company secrets. perhaps if she reads over the r corp entries again she might be able to figure out the precise nature of their singularity... well, that's later angela's problem. present angela gets to talk science shit with junpei. )

There's also the matter of... this isn't the first iteration of this type of thing. Assuming we've been part of the past ones too, it could've gone on for an uncountable number of years...

If not stored properly, human brains will begin to rot quite quickly—they're mostly made of soft tissue, after all. But even if they were properly handled, they'd begin to lose certain aspects of themselves... ( she goes quiet for a moment, considering it. ) That could be why there's some discrepancy in our memories, even. A few of my librarians remember different points of time than I do, but it doesn't account for larger discrepancies—such as the world ending for one person but not for another. As a hypothetical example, that is.

( ... ... ... )

...That's getting off-track though. ( a small shake of her head. ) In summary: probably, and if they have the capital to run an entire city like this, they also probably have the means to do whatever they need to in order to run their experiments with us.

(no subject)

coolerjunpei - 2023-12-08 03:57 (UTC) - Expand

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