text; un: aragaki

[petsthedog]

[It's been a long time since this username has been seen on the network. Shinjiro's rarely one for idle chitchat, but he does pay attention. He was at the diner the day that iteration debrief went around, and he's been quietly stewing in it since.]

so if all this shit is really a simulation, what's it supposed to mean when people disappear from here, anyway
if they could just delete us they wouldn't need to make us kill each other to end a round, would they

[Or maybe they're simply that twisted? He doesn't know. But Amada's gone, and until this latest development he would've thought that was for the best -- but now he's not so sure. It's been bothering him, despite himself.]

dunno if these are even our real bodies or if is this some matrix shit
or even if those documents were planted for us to find or any of it's true

Comments

text; anonymous

[keepgodwaiting]

[ There's probably no reason for her to be anonymous on a conversation like this, but lingering, undirected paranoia makes her set her reply to that anyway. ]

Seems like they don't always make us all kill each other. Sometimes it's disasters.

They introduce new people pretty regularly, and if their goal was "see how long it takes to reach population zero" that'd be stupid. Maybe they're trying to find some kind of perfect mix.

[petsthedog]

[Shinjiro trusts nothing in this place, but he also doesn't really care about himself enough to bother hiding his identity, honestly.]

either way, seems more complicated than just pulling the plug when they figure a group's done
why even bother
i mean i guess they could just be getting off on making us suffer but it seems like its gotta be more complicated than that

[keepgodwaiting]

I think they tell themselves it's more complicated than that, yeah

I don't know that it actually is

Text | UN: Loki

[abit_ofboth]

It seems to me that the events in which they have everyone kill each other is a means to take everyone out quickly. I’m wondering if removing one or two here or there is more manageable? Perhaps they are capable of that, but not of doing everyone at once?

Or it is just another test. See how we react to people going missing. It seems either are possible.

[petsthedog]

that's the part i don't get
if this whole thing ain't real and they can turn off shit like coming back from death, shouldn't it be possible to just shut down the whole thing?
seems kind of weird the test subjects in your simulation gotta experience dying before you can get rid of em, is all

[abit_ofboth]

I think maybe all of this is very real, at least for us. Even if everything here is contrived, do we not still have to live it? Are we not still meeting people, making friends and even new family? No, I’m afraid that for all intents and purposes, this is very real.

Still, you make a good point. You would think that they could just turn it off. What worries me is the idea that maybe once they take us, they cannot return us and they need to… get rid of everything. Now, why that must be in some sort of catastrophe, I am uncertain. Maybe they just like to see us suffer. Maybe it is part of the experiment. How does one deal with death?

The one thing I can say is it at least seems that they are rather methodical about all of this. I’m starting to think there is a method to their madness, though I do not appreciate it either way.

text. un: caster

[excaliburden]

[.... this post feels... sad.]

sorry i dont really know any of those answers

but are you okay?

[petsthedog]

[Can a mental record-scratch be audible through text. Shinjiro blinks at the message a couple times, stares at it, then at length:]

i'm fine
this place is just bullshit

[Shinjiro's not fine at all. But then, that's not exactly news for him, either.]

[excaliburden]

[Hmmmm... that sounds like an "I'm fine, but" if she's ever heard one. And she's heard many.]

it seems like it kind of really is!!

is there anything any of us can do to help out?

text, un: netzach

[abstractart]

makes it seem kinda like that's not the case, right? if it could just happen that way, it'd be way easier in general. there'd be no real reason not to use a simpler function.

[petsthedog]

exactly
i mean, they could just be that fucked up, but that doesn't seem right
especially considering that group actually stopped killing each other but the guys in charge decided it was too late for em
there's gotta be some reason they couldn't just pull the plug

text. @hong lu ☆

[yyds]

Hm~ Does being in a simulation bother you? Why?

[petsthedog]

just aint into bein jerked around, that's all

[yyds]

Would you rather be jerked into a single direction? Or is the tugging the part that you don't like?

un: rosseland

[hatinacat]

[technology from Teyvat isn't so advanced that Lyney understands some of those words, but. . .]

Those are quite the existential questions. . .

Can I offer you a bit of a distraction?

[petsthedog]

what'd you have in mind?

[hatinacat]

I'm a magician by trade, and I find myself sorely lacking in an audience right now.

Do you like magic?

text, un: displayname

[strongroots]

[ He only vaguely skimmed replies, so. ]

could be anything going on

could be a reason they dont pull the plug before they end a test or bc they dont need to. people would pick to end their city life sim in a dinosaur rampage in a videogame if they had a choice

and they could be removing people to fuck with the rest of us in here. see what we do

its all guesses in the end

[petsthedog]

that how you'd end it?
seems messy to me

[He's always been the sort to prefer to fade away quietly, though.]

but yeah doesn't seem like we can be sure of anything
even whether we can believe what we find out

[strongroots]

no. just stuck on the dinosaurs

would you do anything differently
didnt you just want to hang around anyway
how's that going

text; un: yesod

[wordchain]

One hypothesis has posited that the people who disappear are removed for reuse in other iterations as needed, not necessarily deleted altogether. The photographs found in the university dorm rooms and the exhibit depicting past dissolution events appear to support this possibility.

[petsthedog]

like a clean reboot huh
guess that makes more sense than kidnapping us over and over
still not sure what the point of the dissolution events even are if they can do that though

text, un: Hat Guy

[featheradrift]

[ Now here's a guy on a similar wavelength as him. There isn't anything to proof if the documents are true or false, or if they're not just virtual duplicates, or if anything they do actually matters. It's a tough question to grapple with, he gets it. But: ]

Are you planning on giving up then? Going to sit obediently and wag your tail when they ask like some dog?

[petsthedog]

wasn't planning on doing anything much
not like i've got anywhere to go aside from here
just been wondering what that new info's supposed to mean for us or if it's all bullshit i guess

[featheradrift]

If we believe every document we find is bullshit, we're never going to get any closer to figuring out what's going on here. There's been a lot of evidence pointing to this world being simulated. The documents only confirm that theory.

As for what it means for those who disappear from here, I couldn't say. We do know that they can't kill us at the push of a button though. So they might have just been moved elsewhere.