lostcarnival | ⇨ WISMUTH

Entry tags:

⇨ WISMUTH

Who: Everyone!
When: S2:D6-D11
Where: Wismuth and the Carnival Grounds
What: The carnival enjoys a few days in Wismuth, a coastal city on this planet's version of the American east. However, there are a few things very unique about this version of the planet...
Warnings: The usual, wholesome fun.

PILLAR OF CREATION↴

Upon arriving, things in Wismuth will seem pretty peaceful. It's a massive city, with no shortage of things going on, but things like violent crime and homelessness are at an all time low. You can wander the streets without much scrutiny, presumed to just be tourists, and most people here come across as helpful and friendly.

► VIBRANCY: The main thing that sets this planet apart is its vibrancy - AKA, the raw creative energy its filled with, flowing from its status as a Pillar of Creation. There is no literal pillar, but Wismuth and its planet is a place where Creation's energy comes through strongest. As a result, everything here feels somehow more real, more intense in a way that's hard to put a finger on. Life is abundant, and its bleeds through in every sensation.

► ATTRACTIONS: There are plenty of things to see while going around the city. First and foremost, there is a lovely beach area bordering the ocean, and a number of tourist aimed attractions built around it. There are giant malls, movie theaters, live stage performances, museums and all kinds of other points of cultural interest. Anything you can do in a big city you can do here, but better.

► ALLOWANCES: The Ringmaster will be giving everyone a reasonable amount of local currency for a few days on the town. You can't make any massive acquisitions with it, but it's more than enough to eat out, see some shows, go to the beach, and whatever you like. You can feel free to pick up some casual supplies, like mundane clothing and souvenirs. There will be more given out later, after the performance week.

► PERFORMANCE: Performance week is starting early this time, after only a couple days of exploration. When the carnival has already been on vacation for a month, the Ringmaster figures they may as well get right to it, and then do more touring afterwards. Members of the local populace will find themselves in the carnival once performances begin, dazzled by the other worldly sights. Magic doesn't seem to exist here, despite the fact that it will flow easier for people bringing it from other worlds.

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When Cole whirls around, 9S jerks back, holding his hands up to show he isn't an assailant, grinning. "Hey, you sneak up on people all the time. It's only fair!"

That Cole gets snuck up on himself some time.

"Anyway, what's wrong?" 9S steps forward so he can stand beside Cole. "You know it's not real, right?"

"It isn't?" No, he didn't know it wasn't real. Cole had no idea that this wasn't real and also still has no idea how it was showing on the screen to begin with. He gives 9S a confused frown before looking back at the television.

Tom has just gotten hit in the head with a frying pan. Cole's frown only deepens.

"Then why show it? This is cruel!"

"Umm..." Well, 9S doesn't really know, either. But if he had to guess... "Well, humans seem to enjoy watching things that aren't real. I guess it's okay to them because no one's actually getting hurt. If they were real animals, I think humans would be upset, too."

He didn't understand their enjoyment of stories before -- he prefers things that are real -- but after reading Connie's book, he thinks he understands, a little.

"Here, let me turn it off."

Well, someone will probably turn the TVs back on later, but for a brief moment in time, there will be no more cat and mouse slapstick to bother Cole. A ring of light expands around 9S' wrist as a fires what appears to be a small ball of energy -- fast enough for it to look like a beam of light -- at the televisions. An instant later and all the televisions on display go dark.

Cole really doesn't know how 9S did what he did (magic? probably magic) but he's certainly thankful. As soon as the televisions are turned off and cartoon violence fades from the screen, Cole seems much more relaxed than he was before. Good. The cat and mouse might not have been real but it still bothered Cole and still made him wish he could help.

"Thank you," he says, with a little nod. Though...now what. He doesn't really know what to do in the city. Well, he knows what he would do (search, explore, find a hurt and help to heal) but 9S is here. 9S might not want to do that.

"Have you been somewhere like here before?" Cole asks, frowning slightly at the cars and sidewalks and everything of this place.

There we go. 9S hums before shaking his head. "No. Cities like this are just a bunch of ruins in my time. There aren't any humans living on Earth, after all."

But they'll fix that. Eventually. Even if he's cutting himself off from YoRHa, he still believes in their mission. He's... had some time to come to terms with never seeing his people again. What had been a painful hurt on the moon, wrapped up into a dense ball of pain, is now just a dull ache instead.

"But they kept all kinds of records. A lot of it was lost, but I know a little about the things here."

Actually, he thinks there's something Cole will like seeing. He passed by it yesterday and had sat down and watched in wonder. Hopefully there's still people there now!

"A little is more than nothing," Cole responds, with a shrug. Because yeah, for him, right now, in this situation? It's borderline nothing what he knows. Cole doesn't know a damn thing about cars or electronics or large cities and it shows.

Though, 9S's question has him frown a little. No humans? That's...weird. "If there aren't any humans, what about the others? Fish, dragons, birds, dwarves, elves. Where are they?"

It doesn't occur to Cole that 9S's world might not have some of those species to begin with.

9S starts walking, assuming Cole will follow along with him. There's a park not too far from here. A park with a small water playground where kids play, squeals of laughter ringing in the air.

"Oh, there's plenty of fish. They're one of the few animals that flourished after Earth became tidal locked. Birds, too. As for the rest... there's no records of dwarves or elves as far as I know. So they might not have existed."

You could even say... they're mere fantasy.

Cole follows, keeping pretty good time and pretty close watch behind 9S as they walk towards the park. Though, as 9S mentions that he's not certain elves existed, Cole can't help but frown a little. Well, they existed in Thedas. Why wouldn't they exist in 9S's world?

"How can something exist in one place but not another?"

9S answers the question with one of his own. "Do androids exist in your world?"

He's rapidly come to realize that androids aren't common to worlds at all. For some, androids are mere fiction.

Not real.

"What's an android?"

Well, that answers that question.

Oh. For some reason he thought Cole would know because of the way he would reach into his mind, but... He supposes that's not the case.

"I'm an android. A mechanical lifeform modelled after my human creators."

That's the short version.

Oh! Cole understands that much. Not the mechanical bit, but something that isn't human but was created to look human? He can think of an example of that.

"Like a golem!" he explains, confident and hoping that he got the description right.

9S looks skeptical at that description. "I'm not a magical construct. And androids aren't always built for brute force."

Lambert had given a one sentence summary of golems, and they sound nothing like androids! If anything, they sound more like machines.

"We have feelings and emotions and... free will." Though that last one is debatable these days. "It's what separates us from other mechanical lifeforms."

But golems aren't mechanical...still, Cole has a feeling that isn't the point 9S is trying to make. He can think and feel and do more than just 'be a magical rock construct to guard things.'

Though that does lead to a different question. "What other mechanical lifeforms are there?"

"Mostly machine lifeforms."

That definitely sours 9S' mood.

"They're networked lifeforms that have incredible adaptive behaviours and evolve rapidly to maintain combat strength. But outside of combat, they're simple. They just... mimic data recovered from humanity. There's no meaning to their words."

Except maybe there is. Maybe not the common grunts still hooked up to the machine network, but the machines in Pascal's village certainly exhibit human-like behaviour that seems almost beyond mere mimicry. The dying echoes of the singing machine in the amusement park... he doubts.

But if he acknowledges them as living beings, then it would make destroying them harder.

And Cole picks up on the hurts and confusion. He doesn't understand most of them and has no idea about the context, but 9S is worried that what he destroyed might be alive and might be more human.

Well. He can see why that would make 9S doubt. Cole wants to help, of course, but there's just a few things he's missing from the memory.

"Why did you have to destroy the machines?"

9S is starting to get used to Cole asking about things he hasn't told the spirit about.

"Because it was our mission. The machines attacked and took over Earth, leaving our human creators to flee to the moon. I was created to fight in the war to eradicate the machines so humans could return to their home."

9S shoves his hands into his pockets, looking at the pavement.

"If you had your home taken away from you, you'd want to take it back, right?" That would be the normal reaction, right? "But... I don't know. Thinking about it, humanity doesn't seem very interested in what we did."

Cole understands. He makes a little noise of assent before he starts talking.

"Soldiers stationed afar, lost, lonely, why are we still here? If they cared about us, then they'd send someone, right? Fearful and forgotten." It was the same for people back in Thedas as it was for 9S. It's easy to forget about the war, forget about the soldiers if they aren't right in front of you and challenging your day to day life. That is, it's easy to forget about the soldiers if you weren't one yourself.

"I'm sorry. It isn't right, but it happens." 9S deserved someone to remember him. 9S deserved someone to care about what he did. But it's easy to forget when things are so far away.

It isn't Cole who should be apologising to him. But it does make him feel a little better hearing the words of sympathy.

"Anyway, it doesn't matter. I'm not going back to that life."

It shouldn't matter. He's come to accept that he won't be going back to Earth -- mostly accept -- but he wonders how things will go after the virus is purged. He'll never know. Not unless he asked the Ringmaster to check up on them.

But he shouldn't care about things won't be his life once he's done saving them all. It's only a little easier to accept, knowing there will be another 9S to replace him. Another 9S to be sacrificed by YoRHa.

"By the way, I heard Solas joined the Carnival." More like, encountered him by complete accident. "Did you get to talk to him?"

At the conversation of Solas, Cole perks up, giving 9S a small little smile. He did get to talk to Solas! And the Inquisitor! And then Cole learned all about Trespasser and how his future is going to be kind of absolutely awful and the Inquisitor's gonna lose an arm and metaphorical mom & dad are fighting but he is not gonna tell 9S about any of that.

What will happen in Thedas isn't anyone else's problem but theirs. It's best not to burden.

"I did. It's nice to see him again. I didn't know when I would." There's a pause, before Cole continues. "Lavellan is here also. She's another who helped me become me."

9S brightens at the mention of Lavellan. "Oh! I met her."

Then he remembers their actual conversation and he huffs.

"She seemed to think I'm a child." He turns to Cole. "Do I really look that young to people?"

"It's not look. It's act," he says in a very matter of fact tone.

After all, 9S was short but dwarves were short. 9S was skinny but elves were skinny. A qunari child was probably bigger than 9S but still a child. So yes, part of it might be look. But part of it is also because 9S is an excitable teenager who runs headfirst into things, metaphorically pokes things with a stick, and asks so many questions.

This all makes sense to Cole, at least.

What!? Oh come on, Cole!

9S sounds deeply offended when he responds. "How is behaviour associated with age? That makes no sense!"

After all, androids' personalities are based on what's in programmed in their core. The only difference is their experiences. But if age dictated behaviour, then wouldn't all androids of the same age behave in roughly the same manner? But it's clear just comparing and contrasting 2B and 6O that it isn't the case.

2B... The thoughts of her these days aren't so painful.

"It just is," Cole responds, with a little shrug. "Wise beyond their years, you're acting like a child, complaining like an old woman."

He doesn't really know who started associating behavior with age, just that it is definitely a thing and definitely something people do. Cole's been around people long enough and picked up on enough bits and pieces to figure out that much. Children act different from adults, no matter what race or species they are. But androids? Were they even children to begin with?

"It might not work with androids. But Lavellan and I never knew an android. Not before you, that is."

"That's so weird," 9S insists, hardly mollified by the response. "I thought personality is something people are born with. That's sort of how it works for us."

And androids are modelled after humans, with so many of their traits mimicking their human creators, even down to the synaptic responses in their mechanical brains to mirror the synaptic responses in the humans' biological ones.

"I was created with the Number 9 personality type, so that's why I'm the way I am. Not because I'm 'young'. 2B isn't much older," he thinks, anyway; she can only be a few years older than him at most, "but she's toootally different. Sometimes she's ice cold!"

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