inbox

[mrngstr]

@el.21396518 | ■ ▲ ◌ ▼

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Comments

[mrngstr]

It's been interesting around here. Or maybe more like very, very boring. Some mix of the two.

I'll answer yours if you answer mine.

[wittingly]

It seems like it swings wildly back and forth between the two, with very little time in between.

Sure. You wanna go first?

[mrngstr]

Sure.

I've seen a lot of chatter about it already, but a quick rundown of where you all went would be helpful. Piecing together details from people who all experienced the same thing can be tasking.

[wittingly]

I'll give you the quick version, but if you want more detail on any of it, let me know.

I'm pretty sure we all just lived an entire second life. I mean, me and everybody I know from here, we were all in this
It was a completely different world, a different year, a different version of earth
It was a place called the Aerie, it was essentially a city beneath a dome - the dome being the only thing keeping everyone alive, beyond it was uninhabitable
Overpopulation was rampant, so the upper hierarchy that basically acted as the government enforced a recurring event called the Quarry
It was used as a system of punishment for anybody perceived to have committed a crime, wherein all criminal offenders were made to fight to the death over a period of weeks, and only the last one alive got to
Well
Stay alive
It helped cull the herd and keep population under control, but it was dystopian to say the least

A lot of us were subjected to it
A few of us were in the hierarchy that enforced it
Partyway through the most recent quarry, a rebel group started setting off bombs
Things went into chaos
I died, and I woke up here. Everybody that I've seen from here so far has also died in some way or another

You're probably gonna see a shitload of crabby people taking their pain out on one another, I'd imagine

[mrngstr]

And this happened not to just the Displaced, but everyone in this world? You all vanished as if you'd never existed.

[wittingly]

Yeah, it seems like it. Non-displaced have been recognizing the displaced who had to participate in the quarry. The aftermath has been a little chaotic.

[mrngstr]

Something like this happened once before. I'm sure you've heard.

[wittingly]

Did non-displaced remember it then as well?

[mrngstr]

It was only the Displaced who were whisked away that time.

[wittingly]

So this time it's gonna be, like, fifty times crazier in the aftermath. I'm sorry in advance for the ripple effects you're probably going to have to deal with from interpersonal displaced drama, on top of whatever else. I'm seriously predicting some peak high school status conflict.

[mrngstr]

I have no way of conceptualizing what it is you're all experiencing. A whole other life, layered onto the one you already have, correct?

I guess the closest comparison I could make was if my AI core was somehow overwritten with another. Even then, though, that would more or less replace me with a different entity. In this case, you were still the same person, but living a completely different life. Or at least that's my understanding of what you've explained.

[wittingly]

You know what, man.

Honestly, it's going to be hard for even us to figure out how to perceive it, let alone explain it. I personally feel like I was similar in that life to the one before it — this one. Same interests, same taste, similar history. But the differences there made a huge impact on some of what I'd say defines me.

But I've been going on like an existential crisis over-analyzing it so if I start going around in weird loops please ignore me.

I guess it might be like

If you duplicated your AI core and then separated, and the two of you spent several decades on different planets with different people. Then, eventually, re-integrating both cores, equivalently assimilating them somehow.

Granted, I have no idea what it's like as an AI or if your perception of time would be as fucked up as mine feels.

Have AIs ever merged before?

[mrngstr]

No, not as far as I'm aware. But you've seen what happens when an AI lives inside the brain of a human, so I can't imagine that it would be any better to layer two AIs on top of each other.

[wittingly]

Yeah, I don't think this would be fun for anybody. AI, human, alien. Whatever some of us are.

Do you have any other questions before I switch topics?

[mrngstr]

Go ahead.

[wittingly]

I'm trying to figure out how people know who the displaced are. I mean, obviously not the loud visible ones who own it or glow blue in public, but there have been incidents in the past that made it seem like somebody has a comprehensive list. Displaced who haven't made themselves known and don't even really associate with Rd Wings have been identified.

Clarke suggested I ask you if you're aware of any way it could be getting leaked, or to whom. It would have to be at some point after Morningstar intervention, right? Just a guess, because we don't have established identities or officially documented names until then. It seems like something that could potentially royally

screw us, later.

[mrngstr]

It would definitely be after Morningstar intervention, yes. The Displaced as a group didn't exist as far as I'm aware until that first bus crash when we got saddled with you all.

That being said, the Displaced were able to exist under the radar for a long time. It's only within the past two or three months that you've become more known as a group, and I'd say the simulation you were drawn into and the global monster attack are most to blame for it.

[wittingly]

Can you think of any specific way somebody might be getting an exact list of names that somehow includes new displaced, or ones who have been flying under the radar?

[mrngstr]

Are you referring to the incident where a good number of you were kidnapped?

[wittingly]

That's definitely one of the examples that come to mind, yeah.

[mrngstr]

I can speculate, if that's what you want me to do.

[wittingly]

I would love it if you'd speculate. Couldn't hurt.

[mrngstr]

As much effort as I put in to creating identities for you all and covering any tracks, you're still more or less "created" out of nowhere. Someone (that is, Johann Grey) likely was able to track that, with Cassius' unwilling assistance at the time.

Surveillance could play a part in this as well. You all had to be transported from somewhere for those drop-offs.

Having a public place where you all gather in the Red Wings, as you mentioned, likely also contributed. Even if not everyone goes there, many of you follow each other on social media as well. Someone could put it all together with enough time and effort, I assume.

[wittingly]

Thank you, this is helpful insight.

[mrngstr]

You're welcome. Was there anything else?