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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Don't be a cheater, 9S.

"That's right!" Yuya selects one of the songs and quickly bounces back to his pad. The guideline arrows appear at the top of the screens, amidst a colorful background, and the designated steps slowly scroll up to them.

The song is on easy, so neither of them should have a lot of trouble. Yuya matches the steps closely, obviously having experience with a game like this before, though he glances aside to see how 9S is faring.

9S is faring pretty okay. The first few arrows, he scores Good! and Great!, but as he figures out the timing of it, then it's basically maths to him. Though the music is audible, he isn't using the music to assist his steps, going purely off what he's seeing on the screen.

But... something he's noticed is that the animated character dancing in the background of the screen is using a different technique to Yuya. Where the character stands in the centre, Yuya is standing on the arrows. Why? He doesn't see why Yuya would use a different technique to what's being dictated on the screen...

When the song finishes, 9S has scored reasonably well; after the initial learning phase of Goods and Greats, the rest of his score is filled with Perfects. The song was easy, after all.

"Let's try something harder. That was too easy!"

Yuya, meanwhile, is keeping pace with the rhythm of the song. For the most part he watches the top of the screen rather than the space between each step, absently bobbing to the beat. He's not terribly rushed, because it is an easy song.

Yuya laughs, stepping down to flip through the songs again as it flashes their scores. They both managed to get an 'A'. "Sure, sure! Maybe... this one?"

The sample immediately blasts some sort of hard electro-rock song, and Yuya presses play without a confirmation. It's rated an 8/10, and maybe that's a bit of a jump from the previous song--but it is just a game.

Yuya bounces back into positioned, looking determined as it starts up.

"Alright. Let's do it!" This song sounds more like his speed! 9S nods along to the music as it starts.

But it isn't the processing of the sheer number of arrows on the screen and the speed they're flying across the screen that's tripping 9S up. Oh no, that part is fine. It's getting his feet in the right position. How do people do this? Especially since now this song has introduced two notes on the same beat.

Obviously, the previous way he was standing isn't much help here, so the entire song, 9S surreptitiously glances over at Yuya, observing how he's handling it while 9S himself struggles. But now he understands why Yuya stands on the arrows and not the centre. The game must not register the arrows while you're standing on them unless there is a note.

By the time they finish, there's quite a number of Bad, Misses, and Goods on 9S' score.

...It's pretty obvious who's the winner here.

"I want a rematch!" 9S immediately demands.

The bouncing around is invigorating for Yuya. For the duration of the song he's completely into it with a wide grin, occasionally grabbing the rail to catch himself when he moves too quickly. It's certainly not a perfect score, but it's high and Yuya's satisfied with it. When 9S re-challenges him he laughs, bright and joyful, and glances to the screen at his score.

"Okay, okay!" He's already fishing through his pocket for more quarters, approaching the slot. "The same song, or something else?"

Even though he's suffered the bitter taste of defeat, 9S isn't sore about it. It's nice, just hanging out with Yuya and having fun with these human created devices.

"Wait, hang on to your coins." Yuya shouldn't need to pay (more) for their playtime!

A ring of light appears around 9S' wrist shortly before he shoots what appears to be a ball of energy that moves so fast it looks more like a rapidly disappearing beam of light. A few seconds later, an extra 2 credits appear on the DDR machine's screens.

Casually, 9S comments, "Let's do the same song. It's not a rematch if it's different."

There's that beam again. Yuya stops as commanded, and when the game automatically registers more money without any coins put inside, he does a double take.

"Wait, what was that?" He points to the machine for emphasis. "I saw it when you were watching the roomba, too."

"Huh?" 9S thinks back to the roomba. "Oh! You mean the hacking? That's something I can do as a Scanner model."

It's kind of his thing.

"Not to brag or anything," he's absolutely bragging, "but I'm the best at it."

Yuya frowns.

"I could have paid for it." It's only change, Yuya's not exactly hurting for it. More importantly... "You shouldn't cheat the games like that. It's wrong!"

It's basically stealing, except there's nothing to return. That's somehow only more annoying than just being able to tell 9S to return a hat. So he just leans forward to press the start button.

This is having the opposite effect of what he intended!!

"What? How am I cheating?" The song starts up, but he's genuinely bewildered by this. This time, he takes a leaf from Yuya's book and stands on the arrows instead of the centre. "I didn't change the game or anything."

He could have, but he didn't.

Yuya jumps back onto the pad as the song starts, focusing on the screen with a furrowed brow.

"It's--cheating the arcade." Which he as least doesn't yell about, to not draw attention to it. "Like stealing."

He grabs the rail for support as he tries to talk through playing the game, pausing and fumbling some steps. "The arcade costs money to maintain, and all of it comes from the games. If they don't make money, it won't be here for everyone else to enjoy."

And so 9S gets a crash course in capitalism. "Stealing hurts other people, even if it's small things."

9S thinks about that really hard. Like really, really hard. Androids engaged in trade with each other, but that's because they were disparate groups with different needs. But more importantly, Yuya seems to be saying that by not paying the money, other humans wouldn't be able to enjoy the arcade.

And that would be bad!

He'd only been thinking about how Yuya, a human, shouldn't need to spend money on his behalf, not about how the human run arcade needs that money!

Oh no. Oh no. He'd taken that trip with Childermass, and...

"Oh no." The distress distracts 9S enough that he messes up the next few notes. "I went with the Aquisitioner to one of the electronics stores..."

Yuya turns his focus back to the game while 9S is dwelling on that, making up for his fumble. His expression is tight in concentration, and when 9S first starts confessing Yuya doesn't seem to respond.

But 9S doesn't need to finish that sentence for Yuya to pick up on what exactly they did.

"... How much did you take?" He's going to regret asking this.

He kind of doesn't want to say, but...

9S mumbles while he stomps on another set of arrows, "All the external storage on display."

"9S!" Yuya doesn't even look at him. "Just because the people in acquisitions can steal doesn't mean you should! Especially not from innocent people!"

He knows his opinion won't change the Ringmaster's or the way that department operates, but can't there be at least a little bit more moral jurisdiction? Like only stealing from evil people who deserve it!

9S looks away, which of course he misses the next few arrows on account of not looking at the screen. "Why are Aquisitions allowed to steal if it's bad then?"

What's he supposed to do with all the external harddrives then? Put them back!? How's he supposed to do that?

"Because the Ringmaster allows it." Probably encourages it since 'thief' is a designated job description. Granted, one handed out to seven year olds so jury's out on how seriously anyone should actually take it.

He stomps on the pads a little more forcefully with a frown. "Fae probably don't care." Hell, Childermass probably doesn't care. "But it's dishonest and you hurt the person you're stealing from, so even if you can, you shouldn't! The carnival's not even free, so we have to have money..."

"Oh..."

But Childermass had no problem with it. Who's right then? Yuya or Childermass? 9S remains silent for the rest of the song.

As the song winds down to a close, 9S turns to Yuya, shifting uncomfortably on his feet. "I can pay for this. Then I'll... find some way to give the rest of my money to the shop." He sighs. "It won't cover everything. Storage here is expensive and inefficient, but I don't know when the next time we'll be in a world that has the technology for it."

Welcome to humans, they're complex and often disagree on things like 'morality'.

Yuya leans back against the rail. That's more than he was expecting to be done. Since they were already stolen he figured it was just going to be a 'better next time' situation. 9S's small allowance definitely won't cover all of it, but...

"What do you even need all of it for?"

The guilt would be eating away at him if he didn't do something that was actually within his power to alleviate.

9S' DDR score is much improved from what it was the first time, but it wouldn't be what you'd call Great. It was all the broken chains from the Misses that really did him in, despite having a much improved number of Greats and Perfects.

"...In case something happens to me."

Yuya stares blankly at 9S for a minute, before remembering. Right, 9S is an android--he's a computer AI, basically, all digital inside.

"Oh! You mean so you have a back up of yourself?" He's seen movies with something like that! of course, coming from a world full of squishy humans and not robots, he has no personal experience with something like that. "That's a pretty good idea... it's like having an egg."

"An... egg?" he asks, saying it carefully, like a person who has been told something that sounds completely stupid but doesn't actually want to say that.

He understands that avian eggs are calcium carbinate casings that house their embryotic forms when they reproduce. He also understands they're also delicious to eat.

But what does that have to do with backing himself up? He has to be missing something, here.

"...Like the eggs used in the cookhouse?"

"Not a chicken egg." His mouth quirks up in a small, amused smile. "It's a spell the Ringmaster can do so you come back to life if you die. Once. Because usually when people die that's... it."

He gestures vaguely. That explanation flopped quickly. "But I don't think it's easy, otherwise she'd probably use it for everyone."

They get in too much damn trouble, after all. It's incredible it isn't more fatal.

"Right... She had to prepare a spell for the people under the Prince's thrall at the Manor..."

Magic isn't really his area of expertise.

But based on the results of what happened to Rita when she came back, her body was injured. And she remembered the circumstances of her death... which he hadn't realised until he discovered Lambert had lied to him.

"I guess it's kind of like that. But it's more complicated without the infrastructure for it." 9S steps off the dance machine. Wouldn't want to hog it when they're not using it right now. "And because the storage is inefficient, I won't be able to backup everything. If I was successfully restored," which he has doubts about, "I'll probably be missing a lot of memories."

Really, he'd have more luck if he could make a server, but...

Yuya follows him off the game, leaving the second song for whoever else decides to jump on.

He'll never be happy when he hears the hunt mentioned, but at least this time his expression doesn't sour quite so much--although his gaze drifts away for a moment. "Yeah, like that. Since its magic, it'd probably still work on you! And then you wouldn't lose any memories, but, uh--"

He rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. "Obviously it's a lot better if you don't die." But he knows that's not always a choice for them.

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