WEEK 1

[strangerpeople]

WEEK 1

[Well, this is...happening. This is a thing. This is your life now. The Commander is expecting you to just up and kill one another, and then try to get away with it. No big deal, right? You guys can handle this. You won't fall for what she has. She's clearly an idiot. A loud idiot, but still an idiot. She's not going to get one over you.

...Right?

In any case, the Commander's quarters are now open for anyone who decides they can actually stand to be in the same room as her, but beware - any favor you might ask of her is going to come at a price, and who knows what she'll ask you to do if you decide to gain a boon from her. Unless you're a suck-up like Baku - then she'll apparently be flattered. Maybe that's a good tactic to use?


Whatever you do, try not to murder the bread again. The Bread Did Nothing Wrong.


There are fifteen strangers in this place.]



MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY | FRIDAY | SATURDAY

Comments

[earietale]

Um, sort of? I’m from America, but both my parents are from Norway. I think that still counts, though.

Are you...not from America, then?

[Part of her assumed most people were. Everyone else was from various other English speaking countries.]

[crouching_sin]

It's just the name, it sounded American. And you look like you're Western, at least.

I was living in Japan before this, though I've really lived all over.

[earietale]

Yeah, that’s fair. My mom and dad decided to just have more American names for their kids, like Molly or Calvin or Sam.

[She blinks in surprise. She wasn’t expecting that as an answer!]

Japan? Wow. I didn’t think we’d be from all over the world.

[crouching_sin]

Hm? Oh, yes. There's at least one other person here I know for sure is from Japan. At least, I'm reasonably sure.

[earietale]

Do you think you can translate for them then? Or can they speak English too?

[‘Cause clearly that’s what language is being said right now.]

[crouching_sin]

Well, I could. But I'm not speaking English right now. I assume you are?

[earietale]

[...blink...]

I’m...sorry? You’re...you are speaking English right now. You’re speaking in as much English as I am.

[crouching_sin]

And to me, you're speaking Japanese. It just seems to be a function of this place.

[earietale]

...okay, then I can at least say the normal future doesn't have...universal translators or anything.

[Even though that would be incredibly more helpful than lasers]

[crouching_sin]

Mine doesn't either. ... Well, somewhat. The internet is made of the same universal language no matter where you go, but that's a bit more of an abstract common language.

[earietale]

...okay, this might be sort of hard for you to explain, but I have to ask...what's the internet?

[She said, completely straight-faced.]

[crouching_sin]

[Oh boy.]

... What year are you from? That will help me break it down for you.

[earietale]

1960.

[Just soon enough to know about computers, but far enough away to have never heard of the internet.]

[crouching_sin]

Ah. All right. So... imagine a computer. You can see things on it, run programs, and all of that. Now hook it up to another computer, and you can get information from the second computer and run information back and forth between them. Now hook it up to a third, a fourth, and so on. Thousands of computers all together... and that makes up the internet. It's not a specific place so much as a concept of all of those computers interacting and talking together. You can look at websites with information, chat with people over long distances, and play games with other people, among other things.

[earietale]

...that's...wow.

[So the regular future seems nice. Good to know.]

So, basically...you could communicate with someone...all the way across the world...if you wanted.

[crouching_sin]

Extremely quickly, in most cases. And while you do generally have to pay for access, it's not as if each 'call' will cost you, no matter how far the data is traveling.

[earietale]

[Okay, she can't help but let out a small laugh at that. Not like she's insulting him, but like can barely believe this is really true.]

Okay, that-that's amazing. I really want to see this stuff now and try it out.

[crouching_sin]

Unfortunately we don't have access to it here, but I can show you some diagrams if you're curious as to how it works. The program I worked on most recently dealt heavily with the internet.

[earietale]

Really? Yes-thank you! I'd... really appreciate that.

[She sounds like a nerdy fan, but she doesn't care! She can't wait to hear more about the interwebs!]

[crouching_sin]

[That was more enthusiastic than he'd expected, but okay.]

It's no trouble. It's not as if I'm someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. I can... not dumb it down, but simplify it a bit for you, since I don't expect that you'll really want to know about the absolutely tiniest technical details like one of my students did...

[earietale]

Yeah, I guess not. If there's a lot of it then that would probably take forever, and there's a good chance that I wouldn't understand a lot of it.

[Cause that's the reason he shouldn't tell her all about the internet.]

[crouching_sin]

Well, you could work up to it, but I'm not sure how much time we have here.

[earietale]

Or I could try it myself if we ever get out of here.

[She's determined to see one future thing that's not deadly, and the internet sounds like a great example.]

[crouching_sin]

There's that, yes. It might be a little while until you see it at a reasonable pace, but it'll get there.