tabularasa_rp | open to all; just ren things

(The plan here is to enjoy the coffee and keep company - perhaps when the time is right get some information from Damien himself. Ren hums after he swallows his drink, nodding.)

I enjoyed sleep. I'm not on board with the lack of it.

(Just let Ren nap, universe. He needs to pass the time.)

[Damien hums, agreeing. yeah, he's getting a little bored, too, particularly when there's only so far he can physically explore, his phone isn't working and all the written material here seems either absent or wrong. sleep would be nice to break up the monotony and recharge a little, emotionally and mentally]

[though, speaking of, he stops just short of taking another sip of his coffee as something seems to occur to him, then lowers the cup entirely] I wonder if we'll all go mad. [the human brain needs sleep -- you start hallucinating, worse without it] If this is all a simulation, like a few of us have concluded it might be, they can spoof the body's need for food and water -- [they can feed them through IVs, tubes, if they're all just hooked up to a bunch of machines, somewhere, a la The Matrix] -- but not sleep. [he touches a hand to his temple, in the dark] The mind would deteriorate eventually.

[and for someone who's mind is his greatest asset, his greatest weapon, well, that's fucking sobering]

Edited 2020-07-30 19:52 (UTC)

(What a pleasant... Optimistic... Person... Not...

But he does have a point. Ren, on the other hand, can't believe this to be a simulation. It lacks a very specific thing - pattern or motive. He can see no general rule of thumb in the selection of the people they've brought and never has he ever heard of anything that could bring completely different alien dimensions together.

Would definitely be a first. Why go through all the trouble?)

Find ways to keep yourself occupied but not overwhelmed, I guess.

(Which is what he is doing. Kind of.)

[he hasn't been able to put together pattern or motive, either, and he's very good at both, between his day job and his more illicit activities. there has to be a point of commonality somewhere, though, across worlds and realities. he just needs to keep at it. there has to be a thread, somewhere, that he can tug at and the whole thing will unravel for him]

[in time, though. right now, yes, he needs a distraction from that singular, horrifying thought, and so he smiles wryly, offers:] In that case, what I wouldn't give for a chess board. [and, preferably, someone to play with, though that wouldn't be a deal breaker. he could always just arrange the pieces into logic puzzles and then have other people try and solve them. that'd be entertaining]

(He and Akechi will get along just fine, Ren notes silently. Unfortunately, none of the entertainment actually works as of now - the pinball machine is dead and there is only the dartboard available, which he figures to not be a good idea at the moment.)

We used to have a crossword puzzle magazine, but it came through blank.

[Akechi is his favorite. he's a good boy, a clever boy. he'll like him even better if and when he finds out Akechi is just as morally bankrupt as he is, and in a lot of the same ways]

[(also, yes, darts would be a terrible idea, right now)]

I'd noticed that. [well, not specifically Ren's crossword magazine, but] Everything but the sign outside, your menu, here, it's -- empty or wrong. It's like whoever brought us here didn't know if the signage should be in English or Japanese or whatever other languages are represented here. [point for simulation? maybe] Though, speaking of ... I know they teach English in Japanese schools, but funnily enough, I don't speak Japanese.

[not fluently, anyway. he could probably put in an order at a Japanese restaurant, to impress a date, say hi and bye, and ask where the bathroom is, but -- well, the point he's making is that he's not speaking Japanese and he's not sure Ren is speaking English, for all that he doesn't have that awkwardness that people who learn a language from a textbook seem to have. make of that what you will]

(Ren is definitely not speaking English whatsoever. He has expected that others, aside from this fellow countrymen, were not speaking the same language either. A few had never heard about Japan, how could they?

At least they could understand each other.)

I don't speak English. Not well, anyways.

[he hums, drumming his fingers against his cup before taking another sip. yeah, that's what he thought] I suppose we should be grateful we can all understand each other. [but that's a little unsettling, somehow, too]

It would make information exchange difficult, for one.

(Ren removes the apron, putting at the designated place before he can move from behind the bar, finding the seat next to Damien. If he does wish for another coffee, he is welcome to ask!)

There has to be an explanation, though.

For all this? [he shifts a little, trying to face Ren a little better, and makes a sweeping gesture with his cup before taking another sip] Or the -- nonexistent language barrier in specific? [it's an important distinction]

Nonexistent language barrier does come into "all this".

(It's just a note. Ren holds his chin in his hand.)

I don't think it's a simulation.

Fair enough.

[yes, it does, but -- well, it's the difference between talking about Chicago and the United States as a whole. a finer point over broad strokes. it's also semantics, at this point, though, and so he's not going to argue it. particularly when he's more interested in what Ren continues with]

But, if not a simulation, then what?

[what's your take on this?]

I can't tell yet.

(The universe hasn't exactly provided any steering into any conclusion, after all.)

I just don't see what purpose this simulation would have, and how exactly could it pick us up from all different places as is.

[Damien hums, flashes him a wry smile]

Clearly, you've never seen The Source, have you? [or, you know, The Matrix, but the narration is trying hard not to break the fourth wall, despite the fact that there's no one from The Matrix here. it's pretty on brand for the series, though. what Damien knows as the Mad Mile, in Chicago, is actually the Mag Mile, for example]

... No.

(Is that a new release?? Do they have the same movies?? New questions coming into his mind...)

[yeah, it occurs to him, belatedly, that he and Ren's realities might not have the same movies. still, though] Long story short? Man creates AI, AI realizes Man is dangerous and a war breaks out. Man blacks out the sky, because the machines run on solar power; machines start using people as power, and stick them into a simulacrum of every day life, to keep them from fighting back.

[he shrugs. surely, Ren can see where he's going with this? that that would be the purpose of all of this] I feel like something went horribly wrong, though. Some catastrophic system failure. [he doesn't think things were meant to be as they are]

I don't think AI can perform multi-dimensional kidnapping.

(He does see the why, but to him, it's a stretch on the how. On top of that, how could AIs literally block Personas or his other abilities, but replicate their feeling with such precision? He can feel it, Satanael just contained in his soul, unable to come out, the Third Eye just feels broken... Like it activated but highlighted nothing at all... Not that he is sharing any of that. Sorry, Damien!)

Time, space and biology?

[and that earns Ren another shrug]

Before we arrived here, multiverse theory was just theory, as far as my world was concerned. [he has no abilities; his leg still hurts. for him, nothing is different, nothing has changed] For all I know, this is possible.

[a beat]

It also means I'm willing to entertain alternate theories, though. [if not a simulation, then what, Ren?]

I'd like to hear more about the multiverse theory first, if you don't mind.

(It's rather relevant, after all. Ren doesn't mind going back and forth on theories, but the more he knows, the better.)

There's -- several.

[and this is not really his area of expertise. oh, sure, he's read his share of things dedicated to trying to make it fathomable for a layman, because he finds the concept, concepts fascinating but he'd be lying if he said he had enough expertise to explain them all effectively. all he can offer Ren is the scientific equivalent of a game of Whisper Down the Lane]

There's the idea that multiple realities exist, fracturing off of a single choice, no matter how substantial or inconsequential. Which means there are worlds that exist because maybe you took the long way to school, one day, and got hit by a bus. [thus removing Ren from the equation, thus changing everything] Or another where, say, humanity's distant ancestors never pulled themselves out of the primordial soup, but something else did. [a much bigger 'choice', there, and suddenly the world is populated by elves, maybe]

And then there's ...

[please pretend the physics of Wikipedia's article on multiverse theory isn't hurting the narration's head, and that Damien has explained some of what he understands of it, beyond the Butterfly Effect, here. either way, he shrugs vaguely, as he finishes]

Edited 2020-08-11 18:51 (UTC)

(Attentively, Ren tries to absorb all the info-dump Damien just gave him. He's intelligent and seems to know quite a lot of interesting pieces to share. Maybe he should give the simulation idea a second review with Akechi some other time.)

You and Akechi will get along well.

(Nerds.)

[proudly]

He's a smart boy. A good boy. [and he really hopes Akechi never finds out what he really does, back home, because it might put them at odds, and he likes Akechi. he'll be so relieved, if and when it ever comes out that he and Akechi are a similar kind of dirty]

(Smart? Absolutely. Good? Debatable.

Either way, Ren stands up to refill their cups.)

Where did you say you were from?

[he blinks, arching his eyebrows then lowering them in rapid succession] Chicago. The United States. [a beat] Why?

[because he's really not following the subject change there, for how abrupt it was. what does where he's from have to do with the price of tea in China? what does it have to do with him or Akechi or his opinions on him?]

Checking if it was a place I know.

(After all, there are many others whose home locations seem off the map for him, anyways. Also...)

We're not from the same world, are we?

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