★ WEEK TWO: FORWARD MOVEMENT ★

[modaphor]

[A lot has happened in a few short days.

Arche has grown a great deal from her interactions with the assembled agents of the facility; thanks to their influence, her chamber has taken on a few new additions, including a rapidly filling curio cabinet and, more recently, an orange and black Maine Coon kitten has come to stay in the facility as well. Thanks to Ginti's advice, he is no longer confined to his transparent tank in Arche's Chamber; in fact, you may see him wandering around during the week. Please be kind to the local wildlife!

On a more serious note, Arche has located one of her missing memory cores, which comes with some...vaguely unsettling information surrounding it. But, since the general consensus seemed to be "yes, we'll help", she is now hard at work securing the gateway to the pocket dimension; if asked, she will approximate that it will take her until late Thursday night to get everything up to scratch.

In the meantime, she's helpfully provided some recommendations for people to work on this week, in preparation for this week. If you need something to think about, you might try working on one of those?

Otherwise, the facility is still available to you, as is Arche. Have a good week, everyone!]


SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[OOC: As with last week, if you want to talk to Arche, please use the subheadered comments! Also, we had some agents looking around for clues last week, so as a way of encouraging and streamlining that —

If you intend to look for clues, please explicitly mention what sort of thing you're looking for and approximately where you are looking, and consider asking for mod attention in the comment header so I can find it easier! Thanks, everybody!]

Comments

[nekromanteia]

Who or what is the writer? I can't very well follow that order if I don't know even that much.

[archetyping]

[And that ends up getting one of her odd pauses, a series of three dots blinking smoothly across the screen in a holding pattern as she seems to try to process something.]

ATTEMPTS TO ACCESS MORE INFORMATION ON SEARCH TERM "THE WRITER" ARE RETURNING ERRORS.

. . .

THEORY: THESE GUIDELINES ARE INTENDED TO BE SUPPLEMENTED BY DATA THAT IS CURRENTLY MISSING.

[And then she's quiet again, and the dots are back.]

THE WRITER APPEARS TO BE A SEPARATE DESIGNATION FROM A STANDARD FIELD AGENT.

THEORY: THE WRITER IS AN UNUSUAL BUT SIGNIFICANT ROLE.

[nekromanteia]

I was forming just the same theory myself. [That answer earned a smile that was a little more like a mischievous smirk than usual.]

Another question: Will I be able to use my spear or any level of fonic artes on this mission? [Pausing for just a second, Jade considered another possibility.] As a follow-up: Do fonons themselvesa--or an equivalent particle or force--exist in either this world or the pocket world we are going to?

[archetyping]

QUESTION: WHAT IS THE TYPICAL METHOD USED FOR DETECTING THE PRESENCE OF FONONS?

[nekromanteia]

I'm afraid I'm not an expert in the technical process or the machines used--the Tartarus used systems to detect the vibrations of sound in the air and analyze their affiliated element, I believe.

[archetyping]

UNDERSTOOD. WITH NO ACCESS TO THE PROCESS OF DETERMINING THE PRESENCE OF FONONS, I AM CAPABLE ONLY OF AN EDUCATED GUESS.

THEORY: THERE ARE LIKELY FEW TO NO FONONS IN THIS WORLD.

I AM INCAPABLE OF ANALYZING THE POCKET WORLD FOR THE PRESENCE OF FONONS.

[nekromanteia]

[YULIA DAMN HIS LUCK]

I appreciate the effort. Hopefully I'll at least manage to access my weapon, otherwise this might be a problem.

...Oh, before I go--there's one other thing that's been bothering me.

[archetyping]

I AM SORRY TO HEAR THAT.

[...At least she's polite?]

[nekromanteia]

...

[honey.]

Just what exactly are you, Arche? If this world truly isn't comprised of fonons, you can't be some kind of aggregate sentience as I previously assumed.

[spoilers: auldrant has the level of technology found in your average JRPG]

[what the hell is an AI]

[archetyping]

YOU ARE CORRECT. I AM NOT AN AGGREGATE SENTIENCE.

I AM AN ARTIFICIALLY-CONSTRUCTED SENTIENT PROGRAM TASKED WITH THE MAINTENANCE AND SUPERVISION OF THIS FACILITY AND ITS AGENTS.

[nekromanteia]

You're--wait, let me think.

[Give him a second to process this. Luckily, Jade's a genius that can...kind of catch up.]

Then...that makes you a consciousness contained entirely within this machinery. Almost like Auldrant's own sentiences, but...artifically created? Is that correct?

[WHERE IS DIST'S USELESS ASS WHEN YOU NEED HIM]

[archetyping]

CORRECT. WITHOUT THIS FACILITY, I WOULD NOT EXIST.

[nekromanteia]

How fascinating. I'm sorry for the confusion- [no he's not] -but we have nothing of the sort at home. I hope you'll eventually be able to tell me who built all of this and programmed you.

[And if it's Dist, he's in for quite a discussion when I get home.]

[archetyping]

THAT DATA IS LIKELY STORED SOMEWHERE IN MY MISSING MEMORY CORES.

I AM SORRY MY CURRENT ACCESS TO INFORMATION IS DEFICIENT.

[nekromanteia]

I'm more patient than people seem to think.

[jade curtiss doesn't sleep. he lurks.]

I suppose I'll simply have to put in an appropriate amount of effort to earn the information I want.