expiationlogs | Everything into the dark

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Everything into the dark

Who: Visas Marr, You
Where: Around Aldrip
What: Visas is trapped on a planet full of false people and imitation life
Warnings: Visas being creepy and weird. Also check out her permissions post!

Happy to do prose/brackets, also happy to consider TDM things canon!

I. To see what can be seen
[So she is still here on this new planet full of falseness.

She is looking for vantage points. That's why she's looking for the tallest buildings so she can climb their stairs. She is climbing the stairs inside or the fire escapes on the exterior. Or maybe she is on the rooftop already, hands braced on the railing, leaning out and her face turned towards the horizon.]

How can there be so little? [...] What is the purpose for it?

II. Unwarranted observation
[The people of Aldrip give off nothing, nor do the animals, nor do even the plants. The only thing that carries the light of life at all are those known as the Chosen.

Which is why she is following them.

It doesn't matter who, and it doesn't matter when. It doesn't even matter where. But at some point in your daily routine, you may realize that you are being followed. Visas is stealthy by habit but she's not putting much conscientious effort into remaining unseen.

So you might just turn around and see her standing there. Watching you.]

III. Perchance to dream

[Visas does not want to talk to the... citizens of Aldrip, she supposes they could be called. They are everywhere, underfoot, like so much trash being blown about the streets. More than once she has collided with one of them.

She doesn't want to talk to them and she certainly doesn't want them telling her where she should sleep. So she isn't doing that. Instead she is prowling around the city streets, looking for somewhere that seems sufficiently untrodden.

When she finds it--a soccer ~~or football~~ net in one of the parks--she kneels and begins to meditate, trying to clear her mind and its anxieties, trying not to feel so lost and alone without the Exile's guidance. But it is a short-lived effort. She is weary of this place and trying to make sense of it... so she stretches herself out on the dewy grass and attempts to sleep.]

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[Visas considers that. It's been such a long time since she spoke at length with anyone who wasn't the Jedi Exile or one of her followers. That included an ex-torturer, two warriors of different races, a war veteran, a bounty hunter, an assassin droid...

Even among the real people she has met, not all of them line up exactly with the kind of violent life that had been daily to the crew of the Ebon Hawk.]

...I will keep that in mind.

So we are Chosen to be prisoners. [That is troublesome. Visas has work to do, restoring the Jedi. She hasn't worked out what the details of that, only that she must do it... it is what the Exile stood for.] I do not think I care to be... worshipped.

[Interesting, he didn't consider the correction to be someone many would actually take at face value. Finally, someone who might have both manners and the ability to learn to be more than an under-socialized heathen.]

That is an excellent way of putting it, yes. We cannot leave save on the whims of this place, and we must endure both each other and whatever socio-political events this place seems worthwhile to provoke a reaction. [This was all rather common knowledge, so he had no issue providing it without a fee or a favour in return. It was best to get the new ones situated well he had found then build on it from there.]

This place cares very little about your feelings or preferences. Some months you will be worshipped and others you will be reviled.

[This sounds very trialsome. Visas remembers having some vehement disagreements with the others over the various sociopolitical events they encountered on other planets, particularly the attempted coup on Onderon. Now she will have to do that among strangers, with no one who can unite them?]

If the atmosphere of this place changes by whim, it sounds as though it is difficult to predict how we will be treated by the... things... that populate this city.

But I understand this better, now. The masters of this world would not be able to change the behavior of real people month-by-month. They would need something programmable.

[He shrugged his shoulders.] We aren’t meant to be in control and predict the events of this place. I assume that it is by design, but as we gather more information while here, perhaps we can mount a directive that brings about real change.

[For now and for him, it was about gathering the power that he could. Once he had a solid base, he could begin a corruption of the system to suit his purposes. Until then, he would continue as he was right now.] This entire place is likely some type of simulation. What they want and what they need we do not know. Perhaps you’ll be the one to find out.

[This man speaks interestingly. Visas wonders who he is in this city--is he someone of influence? She will have to speak more with him, find out more about him.

Her mouth opens slightly in surprise when he suggests that Aldrip is simulated. That would account for much, especially why nothing that should appear alive, even the trees and insects, does.]

If it is a simulation, that explains why we are the only things that are truly alive here. [What they want, what they need.] Have they made any efforts to communicate with us, apart from the accusation?

[Technology wasn't his strong suit, unfortunately. He had to be educated on what a simulation was and the technology necessary to make it happen, but now that he knew, it seemed to be fit what he had been told about it. Everything here was fake, but what did that matter if they couldn't simply leave? They had to endure and shape it for themselves.

He observed her with curiosity, expecting that there was something about her that made her special for this place to bring her in. Everyone had something it seemed.]

There are occasional glitches and messages that appear, but it isn't often. However, there was an incident with a massive explosion at the proposed hub of their power, and this place changed drastically. You should have a communication device, so all the evidence of such an act and the mundaneness of daily life here will be on display.

[Indeed, Visas does have one of the communication tablets--far more advanced than a simple comlink, it is like an entire computer terminal that fits into the pocket of her robes.]

The communication device seems... suspiciously useful. [She is still carrying it because she doesn't have anywhere else to put it at the moment, and she likes the idea of some other person picking it up less than the idea of carrying it with her.] So this place has some sort of main computer that someone attempted to destroy.

It is meant to put people at ease, I expect. [He wasn't used to using a device like that, and he was dreadfully old fashioned at times. He preferred the pen and paper method, though he would be in the minority clearly.] Assume that everything you write, every word you speak and every video you show no matter how private can be observed by our captors.

[Any gifts from this place had a double-edge he figured. If she was smart, she'd moderate certain behaviors. Or she could act like his daughter and give no cares about the consequences of this place.] There was an attack, yes. What and if it actually destroyed anything is up for debate. There was a... ah reboot of the system? It altered memories for a time, provided us all with a pseudo-life where we fit into the fabric of this place.

[They essentially became natives in a sense. How drab.]

That is a sensible assumption. [She wouldn't have thought it was private anyway. She's spent too much time forcing her way into computer systems to trust that anything contained in them is safe from a sufficiently determined ~~hacker~~ slicer.] If this is a simulation, they may even be recording this conversation we are having now.

[A reboot of the system... and altered memories. Visas shivers at the thought, gripping at her elbows. Her memories have been ravaged enough without them being overwritten.]

So the control of the situation extends to our minds as well.

Oh they are absolutely aware of this conversation. We are doing nothing illegal nor morally questionable. [He was willing to follow the rules when it suited him to hide his other less scrupulous activities which he had so far been able to.get away with. How long that would last would depend on the number of crimes outwardly committed by others.]

They can employ their tricks, but their intention - or so they claim - is rehabilitation. They correct bad behavior but otherwise live out of ambitions. [He still intended control of course. He would once more play the long game.]

[Hm. Visas... does not like the idea of living under surveillance. She already has, once, her entire life controlled by her Master. But he was also a physical presence in that life. This sounds like their captors are watching them from some distant remove, as though on a holo screen somewhere.]

...How distasteful and cowardly of them.

[They correct 'bad behavior.' Hm.]

What is their limit on transgression?

[Silco was amused by her being affronted by the notion, but he had grown used to it. Now he was mostly brazen about his talk and subtle with his actions. So far, talk did not earn him sentencing, but that was unclear if it would remain that way.]

They know we would misbehave more without the mystery.

[Some people here were awful direct. There was a time and a place for a good old fashion coup and stabbing in the back.]

There doesn't appear to be one. Crimes most societies would instate hold true here, but I expect if the group runs low on actual crime, petty inconvenient ones will be used such as jaywalking.

[Oh. They're keeping themselves safe from their captives. That lowers Visas' opinion of them even more.

Nihilus kept himself hidden from the galaxy at large, but it was not out of fear that he would be killed. He simply didn't care to be known and feared as other Sith lords did. Azkul had shown himself to the settlers of Dantooine and fought openly. The admirable General Vaklu had publicly opposed his cousin and dueled her in the palace of Onderon. They had not shrouded themselves.]

Would we? Even when lawkeepers are fully visible, those who wish to trangress still do so.

So you would expect them to intervene if violence was committed, for example, or open theft.

[He had been sentenced once, and he couldn't recall his interaction with the Council. He knew that he had been, but the details, the people, and the remarks were something of a fog in his mind even now when he tried to recall it. Only Jerry seemed to be a fixture to the punishment of this place.]

And this lot does seem to be particularly amenable to causing trouble due their imprisonment. Others simply can't use their words to resolve differences.

[He waved a hand to dismiss the question.]

The Council and their minion don't intervene, no. They wait and sentence at the beginning of each month; of course, the natives and other Chosen may take issue with such trangressions.

[That, at least, is familiar enough. Visas has enough experience witnessing the arguments on the Ebon Hawk, never mind the lingering conflicts on the planets she visited with them, to know how little some people are interested in resolving conflicts in an effective way.]

Perhaps they are simply lashing out. In the absence of an enemy to hurt, people do turn on each other, even if they know those others have nothing to do with their unhappiness.

Of course. It's human nature to find conflict even when there is none for various reasons. I expect many showed up with their unhappiness intact as well.

[Of course, that begged the question of what kind of person that she was going to be now that she was here. Once her questions were answers, what would her purpose become? No doubt another survivor looking to escape.]

Do you have conflict and unhappiness to spread as well?

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Everything into the dark

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