WEEK 1 - Online

[al2955]

the pygmalion. . . ONLINE CAPTAIN'S LOG: WEEK (1)

monday (41) survivors It had been three days since you had awoken. The ship was still quiet, except for the low hums of enigmatic machines with no apparent purpose. You awake, like usual, to dim lighting and poor rations. Perhaps being on the ship had grown monotonous — it was, perhaps, amazing how little anything seemed to happen in space, a final frontier of malaise. That monotony is crushed by a voice echoing through the narrow hallways. Reformatting . . . Reformatting . . . Reformatting complete. The Pygmalion is online. Welcome, travelers. Please assemble in the meeting room. Your presence is mandatory. Silence falls once again. A minute or so passes, and the lights around the ship finally brighten, the walls looking more alive and more unfamiliar — as if you must relearn the ship's interior once again. The robots on deck begin to make rounds, nudging and pushing at the ship's passengers to make their way to the meeting room. You hear the doors behind you lock. It seems there is only one path to take. ENTER COMMAND_

Comments

[probings]

If they scanned our data, I'd have a hard time believing they could make that many mistakes. Unless their equipment is really junk.

...Which is kind of is. [in her opinion, at least.]

[chiseler]

So I heard. [Yes Harold you've made your opinion pretty loud and clear.] What makes you think that all data can be scanned and picked up by machines? Science can't explain everything.

[probings]

Just because you don't understand it, that doesn't mean it isn't how it works. Science can explain most things! If their equipment can pick up on things like memory, there's no reason that they wouldn't be able to decipher someone's skills and abilities, their strengths and weaknesses, and just about anything else.

I've already worked with equipment that can do just that, so I think you need to cool it with assuming I'm the one who's wrong here. [did you not read her info, bro? she got this.]

[chiseler]

[Wow did he. Just. Get schooled. He does nothing but blink at first, trying to absorb all of that before he upturns his lips into a half-smile.]

Just because a profile says it doesn't mean we should believe it. Can you prove it?

[probings]

Are you going to conjure my equipment out of thin air? Do you even have a brain in that head of yours, or does your mouth just never stop in your efforts to be right?

[seriously, luke. what kind of stupid as hell proposition is that? sure, she could prove a lot of things with the right materials on hand, but they're kind of boned and she's been doing the best with what she's got.]

[chiseler]

[...well she's not wrong. He does hate being wrong and will spin words until his point's proven, shouting and generally doing his worst just to get people to pay attention to what he has to say.

But instead of admitting it, he smiles just a little despite the expression being completely void of happiness.]

You really don't think it's possible to conjure something like that? Or even just...take it? We've all got one possession on this ship but you really think there isn't more?

[probings]

Someone can probably conjure it, but it's not me. I'm not that kind of mage, and someone being able to do that it going to need a pretty good idea of what they're taking if we're talking poking through dimensional fabric here.

[to his other question, she shrugs. he's full of a lot of things she can't answer definitively, but things that probably don't even need answering, either.]

That's a lot of speculation, you know. There might be more, but there's not a single thing here that gives us evidence that there is. We should worry about what's in front of us already, don't you think?

[chiseler]

[He's...sidestepping the first part because okay he doesn't have a solid argument for that. YOU WIN THAT ROUND, HAROLD...but it's the rest that he has a strong opinion on.]

There wasn't a single thing that was evidence our rooms would contain any of our stuff either. All I'm saying is that I'd rather be ahead than worry about what's only in front of me and get hit from the front before it's too late.

[probings]

Can you really think that far ahead at a time like this? Nobody really has their bearings on the situation yet. It's fine if you want to think ahead, but leaping to conclusions without evidence is a good way to make trouble for yourself.

[the "evidence" those items would be in their rooms is the fact that everything else is largely accurate, if not a little skewed for one reason or another. but if the vitals and basics are real, it seems ridiculous to lie about a single, tangible item.

that's just how her brain sorts the information.]

[chiseler]

[And his brain's kicked into overdrive not to trust anything and take matters into his own hands immediately.] I don't know if you've looked around yet but this is kind of already a good set-up for trouble. I'm used to thinking of things on a bigger scale.

[probings]

Oh, there's trouble all right. But do you really want to go inviting more of it? Can you really handle getting in that far over your head?

[chiseler]

[No, probably not.]

You really don't trust me to think this through do you? [There's a shrug.] I've been in over my head before. ["And I've learned from it" goes unsaid.]

[probings]

You didn't trust me enough to believe my capabilities, so isn't it only fair?

[why should she place that much trust in him when he keeps doubting her? duh. in any case...] Either way... mm, I could see that. You seem like that kind of guy.

[chiseler]

[...okay fair. He makes a face that basically says "okay we're even" before he blinks carefully.]

Oh yeah? What's that supposed to mean? [Probably related to his "not thinking" thing she seems to think he has...but doesn't hurt to ask.]

[probings]

The kind of guy that gets in over his head because he didn't think too hard about the consequences.

[stated pretty plainly.]

[chiseler]

And if I said that the circumstances changed so the consequences changed, would that mean anything?