⇨ MAINFRAME

[ringleaders]

Who: EVERYONE.
When: Day 92 - Day 105
Where: Mainframe, the city inside a computer.
What: The carnival stops at its next location, a computer world full of computer people. Except, this time it's not the Matrix, don't worry.
Warnings: Nothing inherently suspect here.

THIS PLACE, MAINFRAME↴ After the Nightrunners have done their search, you will be welcome to enter the tree portal into Mainframe. There is no loading room this time - instead, any alternations will occur as you pass through the portal. Remember to wear your icon buttons! If you aren't wearing one, you won't be able to pass through the portal, and during your stay you will not be able to remove it. The portal is currently opening into a forested area of Mainframe, filled with a bunch of sort of low res trees. A large section of a residential area has just been nullified by a Game Cube. A large quantity of former sprites and binomes are now wandering the city in the form of null worms, and the rest of the city is generally in a panic. You'll be able to learn about the details of what happened if you ask the locals, though they will act incredulous if you behave as if you don't know what a Game is. Just tell them you and the others just arrived from a different "system" in the "Net." Yeah, that seems to allay their suspicion. Nailed it. Here is a convenient map of the Mainframe from the original cartoon, which this setting is more or less based on. This Mainframe is larger and lacking areas dedicated to specific characters (no Megabyte or Dot's Diner), but is laid out basically the same, for reference's sake. ► LOW RES: Your glamour will come into affect as soon as you cross through the portal, and while you are here your body will function like a weird mixture of its original self and the formatting of a program. You can eat their food and use their amenities, but if one of them were to look at your coding it would be obviously foreign to them. Also, maybe your skin has turned blue, or green, and your clothes are suddenly way more 90's scifi? Maybe you look like a giant number 7 to other people. This place is weird, aesthetically speaking. ► RELIEF EFFORTS: For the altruist out there, you can offer help to the locals that are trying to recover from the recent Game loss. The buildings that were caught within the Cube's range are twisted and burnt out, as if the energy has been sucked right out of them, and it sounds like all the losers were transfigured into slugs. You might want to avoid Game Cubes if any show up. Just an FYI. (As if that will happen.) In the meantime, you can console the programs whose family members are now works, or help try to clean up the buildings that are now falling apart. Or, you can ignore all of this. That's cool, too. ► VIBRANT CULTURE: Despite being weird computer program people made of boxes and spheres, the people of Mainframe seem to live their lives much the same ways humans do. They have TV programs, restaurants, and other shops that you can buy weird 90's computer world bullshit from. There's even a Hollywood inspired area, where you can go to shows. They also have some neato hoverboard things you can fly around on. As usual, the Ringmaster will be giving people an allowance to buy any modest souvenirs or necessities during their stay. Feel free to be creative about fleshing out sections of the city! The mods barely remember the details of this show, either.

Comments

relief efforts!

[kingsroads]

This is the part of the area that Strange has been scoping out, partly because of his status as a Nightrunner, partly because of the fact that the burnt out buildings are at least quieter than the confusing nonsense of the Mainframe. He wasn't expecting anyone to actually show up here, due to the destruction, so hearing Elsa's voice is a pleasant surprise. He had been inspecting the remains of one of the buildings but now he's abandoned that as he walks over towards Elsa, giving the supervisor a small nod as he approaches.

"Awful certainly is one way of putting it. I honestly didn't think something like this could happen to begin with." Of course something could be set on fire. And of course buildings could be destroyed in war. But this level of destruction and, from what the locals have told him, this level of destruction happening that fast? It's something that Strange wasn't entirely sure even could exist in the first place.

"One thing's for certain. Whatever these game cubes are, they're as dangerous as people think."

[handwringing]

Elsa wasn't quite expecting anyone else to be there either, but Strange is familiar enough now that she gives him a nod in return, relaxed. If only the topic at hand weren't so grim.

"I didn't either... I've never seen anything happen on this scale, so quickly."

Fires and wars are one thing, but this is something else entirely. And how does one even defend against something that apparently just drops out of the sky onto people? It's like an act of god - a very uncaring, cruel god.

"I wonder what these people could even do to fend the game cubes off. Even if individuals escape, does it always destroy entire buildings this way?"

[kingsroads]

"I'm not entirely sure," Strange adds in, with a little bit of a frown. "All I've been asking about is the cube itself and what happens if you lose. This sort of destruction is seen as normal—and worse, it's a regular occurrence."

Welcome to the Mainframe, terribly sorry, once a week or so this giant cube will pop down from the sky and you'll have to try your hardest to actually survive! It's a little bit disconcerting and downright terrifying the more you think about it.

"If it does, then they've certainly got building technology better than anything my world has. There's more flourishing parts of the city than destroyed parts."

[handwringing]

"That is true... Destruction on this scale in my kingdom could take months or more to truly recover from."

Even if everyone threw their backs into it, there just wouldn't be enough manpower to rebuild everything quickly, especially as big as these buildings seem. There must be something very powerful at work here, to keep the city running with such efficiency after attacks like this.

She considers it.

"Is it because it's part of this... net?" Whatever that really means. "I don't understand it, though."

[kingsroads]

Strange just looks so damn relieved as Elsa admits that she doesn't understand the internet. Because thank god, he doesn't understand it either. He has a little bit of experience due to the Matrix, but he never understood that to begin with either.

"Oh thank God," he can't help but admit, with a sigh, before he continues on in a bit of a rant. "All of these programs keep looking at me like I'm an idiot when I ask a simple question. It's hardly my fault that I have no idea how the 'net' works!"

[handwringing]

Elsa herself looks a bit relieved, eyes widening in response. "You too? The way they've been talking to me, I was starting to think I was the only one."

She's a bit more used to being completely out of her element, though, having survived robot worlds before. But having someone around who shares her sentiments is very refreshing.

"It sounds interesting enough, but it's technology way beyond my time."

[kingsroads]

"And I've no idea how to start understanding this technology to begin with."

This is in a computer. Well, how do computers work? It's something involving processors and programs. Well, what keeps them alive? Electricity, but how does the electricity get to the computer, and so on and so forth. Strange is a naturally inquisitive sort, but he's managed to get tangled up in convoluted explanations and not get anywhere close to an answer.

"I wish that somehow there was a guide or a chart or something to explain all of this in a simple manner."

[handwringing]

"If I find anything like that, I'll let you know."

But she has a feeling she won't. The sense that she gets is that it's complicated even for the people who live with it to explain. More likely, she and Strange will be in the dark forever.

"Well, even if we don't understand, we can still learn what to do, if we encounter one of these games."

[kingsroads]

As she mentions the games, Strange brightens somewhat. This is what he's been focusing on, after all, what he asked about during the Nightrunners' first day to explore the city. "I've been asking around. These games are varied, in time, content, and arrival. The general rule of thumb of these games seems to be stop the Users no matter the cost—oh, and try not to die, of course."

The last sentence is said in a remarkably dry tone. Strange is joking, of course, but there's an air of seriousness underneath it. How horrible that the advice most people gave was simply 'try not to die'.

[handwringing]

"'Try not to die' is usually good advice," Elsa concedes, also a bit dry. As much as she would like that to be purely a joke, the destruction they've seen here makes that seem unlikely.

"If they're always different, that means it will be hard to come up with a strategy beforehand... is there anything the people can do if they're caught in one?"

[kingsroads]

"Like I said, the only constant is that once in a Game, people need to stop the Users. Once in the game, we can Reboot, whatever that means." Any explanations of 'reboot' that Strange received were all too digital and confusing for his tastes. Programs? Computers? He can barely understand these damn things as is, he doesn't need people adding more terms to begin with.

"One thing in our favor is that though the Users are stronger than the programs, the programs almost always outnumber the Users."

[handwringing]

"So it's strength in numbers, then. Alright."

She's not even going to touch on what "rebooting" is supposed to mean. It sounds too futuristic already. Instead, she focuses on the second part.

"People in the Carnival are..." she moves her hands up and down, parts of a scale, "...usually good at working together. It depends on the individual, but we band together in a pinch."

At least that was her experience during the first vampire attack, and what it sounds like happened during the second.

"So we should be fine." She's trying to sound optimistic.

[kingsroads]

Strange can't help but laugh a little at that, though it's a gentle laugh over anything particularly cruel. Usually good at working together is a pretty good descriptor of the Carnival's...everything.

"Hopefully the Game Cube would be close enough to a crisis that people would work together. That is, if we even encounter one in the first place."

Strange's expression doesn't match his words, though. They might not encounter a Game Cube but based on the Carnival's success rate? They totally will. Alola was the nicest place they had in ages and that was after the brainwashing agents, shiny-obsessed murder crab, literal vampires, and literal trip into hell. It's not pessimism if your track record honestly sucks that much.