WEEK 13

[al2955]

the pygmalion. . . ONLINE CAPTAIN'S LOG: WEEK (13)

monday - thursday (10) survivors Sunday's trial was only mere hours ago, but you find yourself faced with a new week on The Pygmalion. When you awaken, you will find that the ship is still in disarray; there is no robot prepared breakfast, nor has any of the damage been repaired. The ship bears power in the rooms you have decided should have power, though the lights are dim. Without Alice, you are all on your own. The ominous pressure of the Queen Mother still looms, though you no longer feel Her presence. taken list profiles private conversations setting rulebook ENTER COMMAND_

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TUESDAY

[al2955]

[Tuesday afternoon, a chime will ring on the ship and clouds will roll out of the alcove in the conference room to form the silhouette of a woman.]

All right, Pygmalion. I promised you answers, and now that you're clean of infection, we can finally cut the bullshit. Let's start with the basics first.

[She raises a hand to her lips and blows out a long stream of clouds as she takes a seat on the table, revealing a sunny sky.]

As you've heard plenty of times before, the Cradle was never supposed to be about murder. The game you've been playing was a last-ditch effort by Perkins to design a program that could weed out the Souvlaki without triggering a shipwide purge by River. She couldn't come up with a detection program in time, so she created something that would hopefully force the aliens to act and reveal themselves so River could eliminate them. Obviously it was buggy and full of flaws, but what the hell do you expect from a meathead AI?

Perkins also remotely uploaded the program to my servers just in case the Nuwa was also infiltrated. I ran the game for a few weeks, but when it became clear no one on board was infected, I ended it. Everyone you saw two weeks ago on that video? They're the survivors. They've all been granted immunity, so don't worry too much about them.

Now on to the shit you actually give a damn about. You wanna know if you can revive the dead, yeah? Well...it's a bit more complicated than that. You have a few options at your hands here, but you might not be satisfied with any of them.

[tacklefordwhimsy]

Tell me reviving us won't involve the heavy use of necromancy and the dark arts.

[Because Shelley doesn't want to go through her brain-eating phase again]

[breakshot]

Just tell us. Please. It can't be any worse than the hell we've already went through to get here.

[ SOMEONE IS TIRED OF BEING DEAD and Kazuma. ]

[antietam]

[ He's sure people will ask about how to revive the dead but there's something that's been bugging him: ]

So... is what the Nuwa is doing right now our fate too? I mean, just remaining on the ship for an indefinite period of time? Won't we all be able to go home?

[deformity]

You've already revived us once, haven't you? At the start of this "game." And the captain mentioned that we've got one body left a piece.

Is it complicated because we might lose our memories again?

[chiseler]

[He's just staring because Sunny you are the worst AI….the actual worst.]

So can you tell us what the Cradle was actually supposed to do? And you already know I want to ask about the options. [So pick your poison, really.]

[erythristic]

You spoke of a "second phase", Dr. Lin. What's that going to be about, if the murder's been done with?

[how they're going to not die from the lack of power is also a question she has, but first things first.]

[al2955]

No, because it's based on actual science that actual people put actual research into, and not magic imaginary fairy-tale bullshit.

[baptizer]

If you plan on playing God, I promise you it's lot harder than you think. Does this "revival" include those dead on the Nuwa?

[al2955]

Ah, Machias Regnitz. [Lin actually sounds pleased here.] And here I thought we'd never have the pleasure of speaking again.

Do you remember what we talked about the last time we met? About the nature of reality, and the spirit, and the soul? What did you think of your cradle?

[al2955]

Not exactly. We've been waiting on you guys to catch up. The Nuwa and Pygmalion's fates have always been intertwined - they can't start the second stage until you did too.

As for home...you saw the interdimensional map and descriptions, didn't you? Tell me, Adam Parrish, did you ever wonder why the identifications were numbered...and why the numbers were so damn large?

[al2955]

Think of that less as a revival and more as a transfer.

And that's not the problem. The problem is that as it stands now, the Pygmalion simply does not have the power to permanently transfer the dead back into their bodies.

[breakshot]

It's hard to forget after you spirited us all away on a field trip. How is everyone on board, if you don't mind me asking?

[ He deliberately doesn't answer the next part immediately, pausing instead. Seeing the festival, memories of his family, memories of being with those he called his friends... it felt like the real deal. Like an escape. But it's hard to say he appreciates the sudden attention drawn to the subject, given what topics are involved. ]

... And why are you asking about that all of a sudden?

[antietam]

Because... there are almost an infinite amount of realities and possibilities in each world?

[ There's a pause. ] But you could still get us back to ours, right? And... even two people who aren't from the same world could go back to one?

[al2955]

The Cradle was about preserving life in its purest form. Call it brain waves, the spirit, the soul, whatever. Those egg-shaped pods you found in the electric sheep room? They're not just for housing bodies - those are your actual cradles. They'll create the ideal reality for you - one where you won't remember anything that's happened on this ship. You can see your loved ones again, succeed at everything you ever dreamed of, write your own reality where everything goes your way.

Feel free to get into yours, though you should have someone outside to pull you out unless you want to be trapped in there forever. Which is one of the options, incidentally.

[al2955]

The second stage was always supposed to be the only stage until the damn aliens interfered. Resurrection and preservation of life...though which form it takes will be up to you.

[chiseler]

Like a personal Elysium. [This is more mumbled to himself than directed at her.] I've heard a little about the cradles and how they operate, how people perceive reality. On the one hand that sounds almost a little too good to be true.

I've got a couple of questions about them though just based off of that. How are the cradles designed? You said it was brain waves but that means it's based off of our own creations...could we in theory then take things that've happened on this ship and apply them to our cradle? Or is that somehow off limits? What're the pros and cons of staying in our cradles forever? And what happens to our bodies because right now all of this makes it sound more like a dream coffin than anything else.

...and what about the Nuwa? Are they getting these options, too?

[al2955]

Ha! Spare me the lecture - that sort of philosophical crap might appeal to River and Perkins, but I couldn't care less. I'm not here to play God, I'm just here to preserve life - and if that oversteps boundaries, then stick a beard on me and start offering the virgin sacrifices.

Sure does. I wouldn't have bothered indulging Perkins' paranoia if I had to permanently get rid of valuable resources.

[deformity]

And if we don't have the power to do that, I suppose there isn't enough power either for that possible way back home you were promising. Or at least, not both things? Don't tell me we'll have to choose between one or the other...

Can we help at all?

[al2955]

Well, they didn't just go ten rounds with an alien general, so they're doing a lot better than you guys. Probably helps that the robots are still around and keeping the alcohol supply steady.

Because that's one of your options. The easiest one, actually. All of you could simply get into your cradles and live out the rest of your lives that way. Your perfect world, and you'll never know the difference. Your bodies might decay, but inside your cradle, you'll spend an entire lifetime - maybe even longer than what you would have had outside of it.

[baptizer]

Then how will you preserve life? Will we be returned from which we came?

I hate to sound snarky, but I read the profiles when I was alive - our worlds noted with the utmost detail. If you brought us here, that has to mean you can take us back.

[tacklefordwhimsy]

Oh, I wish I could say it was just magic imaginary fairy-tale bullshit.

[But she's not here to discuss the mechanics of necromancy and all, after all, there are more important topics. There's a specific one that has been in her mind for a while already...]

Will we see the Nuwa people face-to-face someday?

[al2955]

Bingo. Every dimension spirals off into billions and billions of alternate universes based on an infinite number of possibilities. Most of the differences between timelines and realities are too imperceptible to tell, but for some...a decision here, a butterfly flaps its wings there, and suddenly everything changes.

And for everyone on this ship...well, it might be easier just to show you. Take a look at your datapad. I've unlocked some of my notes about your worlds.

[On everyone's datapad, a list of world blurbs will be unlocked.]

[breakshot]

What? That's it? Live out the rest of our lives in our own personal "paradise"? You honestly believe some of us would be okay in being trapped in something clearly fake.

[ Were this not text, the incredulous, disbelieving look on Machias's face would say it all. ]

... This is a joke, right?! You said there was a way to send us all home!

[al2955]

You can. Whether you want to is a different question entirely.

That's option three. If you want to get back into a physical body, you're going to have to take a huge risk. You might all end up dying anyway...or worse. And you definitely won't be able to enter your cradles ever again.