see it to believe it

[whattaprick]

Who: Lambert, Carly, YOU???
What: A basic safety lesson on what to expect in the Mainframe. Don't get derezzed deleted, kids!
When: Early morning, the day after Lambert's post about the Mainframe.
Where: Center Stage
Warnings: Carly being Carly, Lambert's potty mouth, probably.

Were you hoping to sleep in today? Tough shit. Because it's early in the morning, probably right before breakfast, that Carly's voice comes bawling over the public channel of the radio.

"Hello everyone!! We've borrowed Center Stage for an important demonstration! Earlier you may have heard something from our Nightrider Lambert that there's something really dangerous about the coming location ... so we've put together something to help display what to do in the event of the worst! So come to the Center Stage quick!"

Less enthusiastically, Lambert's rejoinder follows, drawled lazily: "Yeah, you definitely don't want to miss this show."

[ ooc: A show, ask, and mingle sort of log -- Lambert and Carly will be doing a short 'presentation' and then open up for Q&A, but feel free to start your own threads to interact with each other? Other nightrunners feel free to butt in. o7 ]

Comments

ASK HER ANYTHING

[insidescoop]

[Indeed it does-] So that's that, everyone! You'll be 'rebooting' into NPCs, and given everything you need from these badges...

But no matter what, most important is that you can't lose! Whatever you do, or else all the people stuck in there with you will turn into slugs!

[....]

Ah...Or 'Nulls', I guess...

[YEAH.]

Any questions?

[kingsroads]

[ THE PEANUT GALLERY RAISES HIS HAND and let's be real, Strange totally snuck in late to this as he got distracted from something else before realizing oh damn, Carly and Lambert had that presentation, he had better attend it. Did they cover this part already? Fuck if Strange knows! ]

I'm still not entirely sure what a 'computer' is to begin with.

[ this is gonna suck ]

[insidescoop]

Ummmm...

[HMMM.]

Oh! I know~

Imagine the inside of a radio, but if the radio did even more things~ Like show pictures, or let you look for information in an instant~

[kingsroads]

So it's a radio mixed with a book?

[ Show pictures = book. Look for information = also book. ]

[insidescoop]

Sort of.

E-Books are like computers~

You can also listen to music, or watch videos- [Ah. She pauses on the stage, staring down.] ...You've seen a VHS here right..?

[The trailers do have TVs with VHS...]

[kingsroads]

[ Considering Strange's awful standard of living, it's probably buried beneath some clothes or currently holding cups that desperately need to be washed. ]

I believe so? Those are the things with the televisions, correct?

[ At least he knows what a television is, even if Strange can count on one hand the amount of times he's actually used one. ]

So it's a radio mixed with a television mixed with a book—or more specifically, a radio mixed with a television mixed with an encyclopedia. And when we visit the Mainframe, we're somehow inside of it.

[ sure, jan. ]

[insidescoop]

Yeah, those are them!

So if you imagined the insides as their own little town and city, that's where we're going~

Or, well, not in ours. It's in someone else's computer, obviously.

[JAN INSISTS]

[stillwinningthehardway]

[Scout waves her big white tail.]

Is it true if anyone's turned into a slug we could bring them back and the Ringmaster could do a thing, but that'd add another year and they'd have dramatic slug changes? So don't lose anyway?

[Scout that's. That's not a question, that's conjecture.]

[insidescoop]

Well, the thing is, they seem to lose all their semblance of self as well.

So, you'd be all mindless and irrecoverable, apparently! [She pauses.] It's really best not to risk it!! Especially since if one loses, EVERYONE loses!

And that includes the people who live there already, so let's not be mean to them.

[stillwinningthehardway]

[Scout's not sure if nothing could be done. This is exactly the kind of really knotty problem smart people contract the Ringmaster for. But it's certainly beyond what ordinary workers could help with, and Scout may not have the enmity others do for their leader but that doesn't mean she really trusts her to see what the problem is and act accordingly. So she shrugs.]

Lots of damage left, yeah.

Do you want to talk about non-Game dangers or should I?

[insidescoop]

[Honestly if Scout asks her about it later when there isn't an audience, she'll point out that mostly it's to deter the guys that really...Don't care too much about the state of the world they're visiting.

Sometimes that extra YOU WILL DIE is super important!] Well, the presentation was more for the Game stuff, but I guess you could talk about those again... ...I'd sort of hoped we got those points across on the radio already...

[stillwinningthehardway]

We mostly did? I just want to say even aside from what they are, don't play with Nulls, they drain you.

I hadn't figured that out before.

[walkonedge]

[ So he's slid in the middle of the presentation, but enough to catch the thing about being trapped in the Game in a computer mainframe.

YEAH, OKAY THIS IS STARTING TO SOUND FAMILIAR. Basically it's the thing with Diaboromon all over again except that he's not going to be as disadvantaged as the last time he was forced to do something inside the Internet. ]

So how will we know when the game ends like. If we end up killing all the Users we'll all go back to normal? Or is it only for those of us who are still alive when the users die?

[ CAN THEY RESPAWN, OR ARE THEY DOOMED TO SLUGS FOREVER, is the question that he's actually asking, but he has no idea how to ask properly. ]

[insidescoop]

Well, when the Game ends, it leaves, so we'll be back in the mainframe~

It's only after the game is over that people become slugs-and that's only if EVERYONE loses! [she insists.] Eh...but kill really isn't the best word for it!!

These are people playing computer games-in reality, they're all probably sitting on chairs with doritos, or mountain dew....or both....

[Anyway.] Plus, the game might not be something where you have to kill each other!

You could just be playing tennis for all we know!

[walkonedge]

Right. I just assumed, sorry. [ Since you mentioned villains and all, Carly... he still doesn't sound convinced that they're not going to end up in an RPG of some sort. ]

Okay, so, there's no set timing as to how long we can get stuck in a Game for? [ he's just... also assuming that they're not gong to have to beat the clock like the last time he and Taichi had to somehow try and wipe out Diaboromon in 10 minutes or less. ]

[fortuneglass]

It's alright~ We were sort of focusing on games that have that sort of thing, I'll admit...when it comes to the others after all, it'll be a test of skill, and there's not much we can do to defend against that other than trust in how we 'reboot' in.

Oh!! But as for timing..! [She beams.] After some asking around, we managed to determine that time in the game should move a lot faster than inside the Mainframe..! It's a bit like how we can all be working here while time doesn't pass at home!

Time will still pass in the Mainframe of course, but a lot slower..! Or at least, depending on what the game is of course.

[walkonedge]

[ He nods. That makes sense. And he's also secretly relieved, because no race against the clock. That makes everything so much more straightforward. ]

So, it means for example, if we stay in the Game for like, an hour, maybe ten minutes has passed in the Mainframe? Or is it less of a gap than that?

[ Fell free to correct him if he's wrong? ]

[showmystar]

Wait, so . . . we're the villains???

[THAT IS THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT HE WANTS]

[insidescoop]

Only to the player!

To the people of Mainframe, WE ARE HEROES!!

[showmystar]

Oh. Okay . . . [He really doesn't get it, but he can accept that.

He's been listening to some of the other questions--thanks, Strange!--so he's going to try to make sense of what he's heard.]

So we go inside this . . . television-book, and we fight to protect everyone. If we fail, we lose ourselves and become . . . slugs. [This sounds so stupid.] That's temporary, correct . . . ?

[fortuneglass]

It's a lot more than a television-book! And it's not just us!

There are people living there! If we fail, they lose too! Anyone who got stuck in there with us, regardless of if we can go back to normal! [Her feathers fluff, the fires around the area spiking a bit in their intensity.]

There's a reason these things are so devastating to them...and as it is, would you really just let this happen if you got caught in there, knowing what'll happen to the natives?

[showmystar]

[Well howdy there. With a winding up noise akin to an old TV turning on, two spinning, silver gears appear over Allen's left eye, the sclera of which turns black and the pupil a red pentagram. And just like that, to him, half the world is black and white, and there is some sort of...man in her shadow?]

Ah. [He glances at the fires, then back to staring at the girl's shadow. Well, that's not normal, so she's no Akuma. But still, what is happening...?

Excuse him as he tries to recall what they were talking about again?] I thought they would be similar to . . . robots? Of course I want to protect people.

[spaghettimonster]

[Heroic gasping]

[spaghettimonster]

Wow, a real life computer game...

[As if they didn't go to the Matrix just a few months ago, and like he didn't spend most of his time messing around in the White Room, indecisively playing with his appearance. Maybe the game part is more important than the computer part.]

But what if the users have coins?? I've seen arcade games! 'Insert coin to continue'... Defeating them a lot of times could be a real hassle.

[fortuneglass]

That would be an arcade console and not a computer, so we're safe~

But! You do have a point. If the user has multiple chances, then it could be tricky, so be on your guard for that!