un: junpei | video

[coolerjunpei]

[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.......]

Comments

[androphobe]

Not exactly... [She has to think on it a minute to figure out how to describe it]

This is what I looked like back when I was in high school, sure. But I'm almost 30. In the real world, I definitely look older than I do now.

But Mobius was created to be like a permanent high school, hence, I look 17 again.

If this was the real world--Or, er, a real world, I guess? Whatever, the point is: I should look like my 27 year old self if it's not a simulation, right?

But if it is, then it'd make sense for the data to just be moved from one server to another. Or something like that...

[coolerjunpei]

[A permanent high school... nightmare scenario.]

Huh, so an avatar, but one that's still technically you... I get it. Yeah, "data transfer" would make the most sense for why you still look like this.

[Nodding, hastily jotting something down at a terrible angle for his shoulder, probably "high school Sims 4" because he's a millennial-- Point is that he believes this entirely without question. Simulation real.]

Before you woke up here, were you in that high school thing? Uh— Mobius? That'd be another point in the data transfer column if you went straight from there to here.

[androphobe]

Yeah! [She nods furiously] I was heading home from-- Uh, club, I guess, and got on the train. Next thing I knew it was dropping me off here...

But it doesn't look like Mu or anything is behind this one. There'd be a lot more music playing in the background. And no matter how many times I go on the train, it doesn't take me back.

[coolerjunpei]

You even had ambient music? That's cooler than this boring place, at least.

[He has BGM envy. What the hell, city.]

I don't think the train goes anywhere. Or, uh, anywhere outside. If we're not loading in, then someone's putting us there from somewhere else the first time we wake up.

[androphobe]

You always knew when you were about to be attacked because the music would kick up...

[So that was good, and honestly the music was pretty banging.] I didn't think I'd miss it, but I got so used to the background noise it's like my head's ringing now.

Whoever or whatever's making this place might not have enough power to make a bigger place? In Mobius there was the city and some other locations, but if you went too far you'd just loop back in or there might be a barrier up or something.

[coolerjunpei]

[tf he is so jealous, he wants constant danger-bangers]

Damn, you really know your stuff. I'm surprised they'd drag somebody like you in here, considering you know all the simulation tricks already. What's affecting the power the most, though? More of us turning up every couple weeks...?

[androphobe]

[She snorts, but she looks a bit pleased, shrugging] I was living in Mobius for years, I had to learn something. [Even if...the majority of that time was spent stil brainwashed and thinking it was a real world. But still.]

Well, every time more people show up, more places open up... Maybe we're actually the power source?

[coolerjunpei]

Maybe, but more of us keep disappearing, too. Not sure we're completely balanced every time, but it wouldn't make sense. Unless they're taking people away to be batteries... like in that movie.

[that's absolutely not what happens in the matrix but whatever, that movie is older than he is]