anon text.

[iceboxed]

everyone here gets warned not to go out in to the hallways
it's part of the welcome package or something
but it doesn't stop everyone from going looking

so how many of you have been out in to the hallways before?
what did you see?
or hear?
how do you know what happened was real?

how do you know any of this is real?

Comments

[brainsqueeze]

Faith. I don't always believe it but it could be better than some of the alternatives.

[iceboxed]

what alternatives

[brainsqueeze]

That we're dead, or there's something bigger than being on the ship.

[iceboxed]

so you don't buy in to the hallucinations idea
or experimentation

[brainsqueeze]

Not unless they've perfected making us see the same thing.
It could be an experiment. But what for?

[circumitus]

if it isn't real, it isn't real. would it change anything if it wasn't?

been out in the hallways on many occasions, regardless of the caveats. got lost sometimes. other times found someplace else that shouldn't be real, though if it was not then would not alone in experiencing it.

[iceboxed]

if it's not real
if this is a dream or something it means we can wake up and get the hell out of here
it changes things

somewhere that shouldn't be real?

[circumitus]

wishful thinking. don't get your hopes up.

yes. a few times when the hallways change, it makes it look like you're somewhere else other than the ship.

[last_ofthe_jedi]

I've been out there a couple of times. We went after a recon group that went missing. Some of them were confirmed dead. We still don't know what killed them. While we were out there we mostly saw illusions.

It depends on what you mean by 'real' though. The illusions were trying to imitate certain things to mess with us psychologically so they weren't what they seemed but they were really there, taking up physical space. One of them even managed to injure me. I have the scars to prove it.

[iceboxed]

you said they were illusions
illusions can't hurt you so were they real or not
how do you know you didn't imagine them and something else scarred you

[last_ofthe_jedi]

Illusions are just things that are disguised as something else. Even if it looks like something it's not it's still real and can absolutely hurt you. You're thinking of hallucinations which aren't physical but I'd argue that they can still hurt you in a sense.

There's no way of knowing if anything here is "real" or imagined but I don't think it matters. An imagined hell can be just as bad as a real one.

[iceboxed]

so they're making themselves look like something else?

if you don't know what's real or not how are you meant to fight it

[last_ofthe_jedi]

I don't think anybody meant for us to fight at all. It seems like there's a lot that went very wrong here, even beyond what the original crew had in mind. So far I've been treating everything as if it's real and I'm still alive, at least as far as I can tell. That's all we can really do. And if we only think we're alive then I guess none of it matters.

[uncurse]

I saw things I couldn't have imagined. People I've never seen before. The same things other people who were with me saw. It has to be real.

[iceboxed]

i don't know much about them but mass hallucinations are a thing
or who says there wasn't someone or something out there that made you all see the same stuff

[uncurse]

It was as real on anything on this ship. If you want to carry on pretending we're all just curled up in our beds and perfectly safe, be my guest. I'd rather focus on trying to survive what feels real.

[iceboxed]

i never said we're safe
but if you don't know what's real or not you'll never get to stop

[uncurse]

stop what

text; -- voice;

[songburdened]

JPUF g

[ okay nope still no good with the text ]

What kinds of things would-- Why can't we be in the hallway? Is it... dangerous?

perma-anontext.

[iceboxed]

no one's warned you yet?

voice;

[songburdened]

Well... no, not really. Not about this, anyway. What are they?

[iceboxed]

i'm not the right person to ask about that

[ironic, given the amount of time he's spent out there. but if he says too much, he knows he'll get identified by certain more nosy occupants]

let's just go with monsters ghosts and a whole heap more that we don't know about yet

[songburdened]

Monsters? Ghosts? [ Well. For everything that she's seen in her strange and confined life, Elizabeth is surprised. ] Does anyone know? Do they--... Can we protect ourselves?

[skjalf]

I have never ventured there alone. But I have observed that those who do are punished.

Either they are harmed mentally or physically, or out-right slain as with Commander Shepard and her companion. Real or not, there is somewhat out there that we are being discouraged from finding.

[iceboxed]

so doesn't that mean we should be heading out there even more
if there's something being hidden from us we should know

[skjalf]

Carefully—yes, I would agree. But with no small amount of preparation and strategy.

I would lose no more of us to the whims of this place. I would have us locate whatever it is we are being forcibly kept from discovering without any loss of life.

[iceboxed]

you realize the ship doesn't care how many of us are out there
if it wants us gone it'll get rid of us

[skjalf]

You speak of the ship as though it is a living thing. That cannot be.

anon ∞

[lostsoldier]

we don't

but everything comes from somewhere
even hallucinations

[iceboxed]

so how do you plan on finding the source

[lostsoldier]

analyze the output
work backwards
think

[spellmight]

The weirder things are, the more real they are. It's like some sort of unspoken rule.

( but she's seen enough in thedas during and since the blight to know it's the truth. )

I was wondering about those warnings. What are they warning us of, specifically?

[iceboxed]

i'm guessing you've never had a dream before
or a nightmare

the warnings are about everything out there
in the hallways
they say you're safer in the occupied areas

[spellmight]

Actually, I'll tell you a secret: I've had them all my life! But the past two years have been especially busy with regard to those. And what I saw was real. And not just because I have a spectacular imagination, because I do.

Shall we compare notes and see whose dreams and nightmares are more interesting? ( a beat, as some blank space follows. )




Well! All the more reason to venture out.

anon right back at you

[de_void]

you don't.

[iceboxed]

so what
you just ignore it and go about your regular day?

[de_void]

what else can you do.
it's better than spending every waking moment doubting everything when there's nothing you can do about it either way.

[wiped]

I went out with the exploration teams.

[ and no answers to the other questions, not yet. ]

[iceboxed]

did you find any answers

[him specifically. not the teams]

[wiped]

Not the ones I was looking for. That wasn't out there.

Why don't you think this is real?