lostcarnival | ⇨ THE MATRIX

Who: EVERYONE!
When: S1:D22 - S1:D??
Where: Visiting the Matrix.
What: The carnival arrives at its next location, as outlined here. This is a general mingling log for convenience purposes, but players are welcome to make as many other logs for this purpose as desired.
Warnings: Could be a lot of things.

THE MATRIX↴

"What IS the Matrix? The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."

► INSIDE: On the inside, it all seems so normal. Beyond what you know of the reality you've stepped in, every bit of this place feels just as real as it did back in the carnival. If you were to forget where you'd just come from, would you know any different? The simulation of Chicago is identical to how it would have been in the early days of the new millenia, to anyone who comes from a similar Earth. Humans bustle around you, oblivious to the world outside of the Matrix that they were born into. One bright side to it all is that this hyper realism means the coffee tastes just as good as it does in real life. Anything you could do in real Chicago you can do here - and perhaps even more.

► WHITE ROOM: But before that, you were here. The White Room is a loading program, intended to port objects and people into the Matrix. You arrive as a reconstruction of your true physical form, but common sense suggests that for some of you, entering the mundane world looking like yourself isn't the best idea. It's in this empty world that you will be able to load in whatever physical objects you are, and change the way you present your own body to the system. Changes can be little, or big, but whatever you do, the body has to be able to function according to Earth's physical laws. Don't forget, if you die here, you die in the carnival too.

► DEJA VU: It doesn't matter what you're doing, but at some point you'll notice it - something around you has repeated itself, like a line on a skipping record. Maybe it's the same person bumping into you twice in a row, or the same cab driver yelling at you to get out of the way. It's like reality has rewound and repeated itself, and after the fact you have no proof of it happening beyond the memory of what you saw. You don't know what it means, but something about it is chilling. It may be a good time to find a buddy.

► THE ONE: It won't necessarily come naturally, but in a moment of need you may find yourself bending the world of the Matrix through sheer belief and force of need. How you bend it will always stay without the rules of the universe, at least for now, but when it comes to enhancing your own physical characteristics, just about anything is possible. It will not be easily reproducible, not now, but it could be your first view into the window of what's possible.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"But you could find out! Just like when we save all the people here they'll find out, and it must suck to suddenly find out nothing was real..." It's a little sad, actually, but it doesn't matter. He doesn't quite understand everything about this world but he still knows he has to help everyone.

"But be honest, what wasn't real about it? A lot of things happened that mattered when they did. I mean right now, you and I aren't 'really' --" she finger-quoted that word -- "having this conversation. Does that mean it doesn't count?"

"Well... It still does, but wouldn't it be hard if you suddenly learned something about yourself like that? I think it would be."

Ash shrugged lithely. "I mean, it might be different for me, 'cuz catpeople were created deliberately. So it's not like we don't know we're already kinda of fake toys as it is, y'know?"

"...Oh." He looks away, thinking about that. It sounds kind of sad, actually, to just be made like that...

"But... At least that means someone wants you, right? So that's good." Maybe. He still thinks it sounds weird and he doesn't quite get it, but at least there might be a silver lining?

Ash had to stop walking as she slapped her hands over her mouth to cover her laughter. Oh, kid -- in a few short years you are gonna grow up, start finding people attractive, and then you're gonna realize just how much being 'wanted' wasn't cool.

Susan doesn't really get it, but he does know that he must have said something clearly stupid or childish from her reaction. He doesn't say anything about it though, but he does still wait for her... But really only so he can see this cool "mall" place.

Not stupid or childish. Maybe naive. But the world could do with a little more endearing naivete.

It made her briefly feel good about being who and what she was, and she liked that. "So what's your world like, hmm?"

He has to think about that for a bit. How can you just answer what your world's like, especially if you don't know about other worlds? It's kind of hard.

"Well... It's not like this, at all. There's magic everywhere, and monsters and stuff..."

"My home's like that too, but it also has cities like this and ordinary stores and everything. The big difference here is that if everyone from the carnival came through here looking like they normally did, it'd all be pretty normal."

She'd never quite appreciated that before until now, when she couldn't safely look like herself.

"It has magic and all these... Other things and everything?" He gestures at the street and the cars driving there. Obviously they aren't the only thing different from his world, but they're the most obvious one.

"And even more stuff. You know how the carnival goes lots of places and sees lots of things? It's the opposite of that -- all sorts of things comes to my home." She motioned down with both hands, like stuff pouring down into an invisible drain. "So you get dragons and robots and big cities and feudal lords and all of it all mixed together."

He doesn't even now what all of those things are, but it still sounds pretty exciting.

"Woah... Really? That's so cool!"

"I know, right? But -- you know, there are some really not cool things about it too. You take the bad with the good. Not all dragons are friendly dragons, for example." That was a pretty strong outlier of an example, admittedly, but it was also a relatweable and reasonably family-friendly example.

"I don't know any friendly dragons... This one dragon took over the city we lived near before we got to the carnival. He killed a ton of people." He thinks about it for a second before continuing.

"I guess I met a nice wyrmling here though, but that's not in my world."

"You mean a real little dragon? Where was that?" Must've been before she showed up here, which sucked...

"It was at the carnival! His name is Spyro... I haven't seen him around too much though." Maybe that meant he left? Or maybe he was just so small Susan couldn't see him so easily when he was wandering around... He wasn't sure.

"Aww man. There's a dragon at the carnival I haven't met?" Considering her statement moments ago about how they could be dangerous, maybe Ash ought to be more cautious... but nope, she pouted without reservation.

"Yeah, and he's small, and purple, which is pretty cool! I've never seen a purple dragon before him."

"That IS a pretty unusual color," Ash mused. Maybe it wasn't his original one. People did change here...

⇨ THE MATRIX

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