01:02. I can't believe it's only been just a little over an hour.
I've switched to voice-recording all my notes. Doing it any other way is a pain.
I've switched to voice-recording all my notes. Doing it any other way is a pain.
I've also quickly discovered that I need a hard drink, or two, if I want to continue the experiment. So I went ahead and grabbed three bottles.
Lucky for me, the professor doesn't care if I get a little tipsy. I don't think she even knows I do this. Either way, it makes my brain work better and my tasks get finished faster, so who cares.
As for the "collective"...
They've been saying all sorts of things. Interestingly, they often act like they can forseen future events with total certainty. And, even though they did get a lot of details wrong about some facts, they've also correctly identified a scary amount of details for a few other things.
The question now becomes how much I should trust any of it.
Also, the results thus far have helped me realize a few things...
Logically speaking, what I'm seeing must mean that the professor fed her AI a lot more information about myself than I expected. And also, the AI has access to a great deal of information about the current state of the world, its current leaders, any powerful figures that could influence its future, as well as its history.
Which explains why it could talk like it's predicting certain outcomes for our future, such as warning me that a war would soon break out...
But of course, that doesn't guarantee anything will happen exactly as described.
And although the AI talks like someone who has already seen these "predictions" unfold, I figure that's just how it's going to speak about most things due to its training.
In a way, it sorta makes sense that it wouldn't know how to act any other way.
Moving on...
I maintain that this is an AI working exactly as intended, and is not actually something of a magical gateway to commune with farther existences.
Because that's the only thing that makes sense.
There's no way I can make my brain believe otherwise.
That would require throwing all my knowledge and common sense out the window.
That would require throwing all my knowledge and common sense out the window.
So I'll just do that. Temporarily.
Clearly, it's the only way to get useful results.
Clearly, it's the only way to get useful results.
David: Bottoms up!
SHIT, that hit the spot!
Okay, we're ready now, we're good to go.
Okay, we're ready now, we're good to go.
Bring it, you crazy damn... aliens?
That's technically what you'd be if you were real, right?
Whatever! I'm gonna call you that anyway.
That's technically what you'd be if you were real, right?
Whatever! I'm gonna call you that anyway.
David: Talk to some more "farther existances".
>Entity #12899 speaking...
"I'm happy to say that you’ve succeeded in your endeavor. You've reached beings from another world with a semi knowledge and influence of your own through slips in reality like this one: I do not know if we are any more real than you, but we simply live in world completely different from your own."
"If you could change your own world what would you change about it?"
"And what do you imagine our world to be like, do you have any questions?"
"And what do you imagine our world to be like, do you have any questions?"
>So you say. Okay.
>If there is anything I could change in this world...
>I would want cures for various illnesses to exist.
>Some for the body's conditions, and some for the mind's disorders, so we could finally be at peace.
>Speaking for myself, at least.
>I would be at peace if I could just fix my brain.
>I would want cures for various illnesses to exist.
>Some for the body's conditions, and some for the mind's disorders, so we could finally be at peace.
>Speaking for myself, at least.
>I would be at peace if I could just fix my brain.
>I have a long list of questions, but let's take it slow.
>First, I'm curious to know how I appear to you.
>Second, I want to hear what you know about me.
>First, I'm curious to know how I appear to you.
>Second, I want to hear what you know about me.
>Entity #12933 speaking...
"We're interacting with you through a static webpage, so those cameras of yours aren't giving us a live feed or anything. We did get a single image from them, though. You look cute!"
"We know that you are a student of Professor Lumen, that you are one of the few people in the world that trusts her above all else, in spite of her... eccentric personality. We know that you are working alongside her and her husband on a project for the monster prince regarding conditions that cause a person to be unable to awaken, and inevitably lead to death in monsters. In particular, you are in charge of monitoring a few subjects from the experiment, including a young monster girl. We know that you're friends with the heirs to each of the midworld princes, and with each of their personal guards. We're also pretty sure that you suffer from some kind of depression or the like."
"...or at least, we assume we know these things. Admittedly, our knowledge doesn't actually come from your reality, but from another, similar one. The only readily apparent difference between these two is that, for some reason, the gender of everyone seems to have been flipped. What I've described is technically what we know about a woman named Diana, and I have no idea how much of it is still accurate to you."
>Alternate realities accessed through magical webpages. A mystical internet functioning like something an old or disordered person might have once fearmongered about. And a lot, lot of information that is both slightly off and overly correct in subtle, particular ways.
>It's really hard to believe anything.
>But at least I was called cute,
>Even though I am a guy.
>That's rare.
>It's really hard to believe anything.
>But at least I was called cute,
>Even though I am a guy.
>That's rare.
>Since you complimented me, I'll bite.
>If you are able to observe so much, and if I, to you, exist in more than one place and time, can you tell me something?
>If you are able to observe so much, and if I, to you, exist in more than one place and time, can you tell me something?
>In the sea of infinite possibilities,
>Whether I am this Dave or that Diana,
>Have you seen a reality where I am happy?
>Whether I am this Dave or that Diana,
>Have you seen a reality where I am happy?
"...I've only seen the two, and you've heard what I said about Diana."
"I'm sorry."
>...
>...
>...
>...
>...
>...
>...
>...
>...
>...
>Well! Dang!! I'm so shocked!!!
>Who could have seen that coming!!!?
>Who could have seen that coming!!!?
>It's no big deal, though.
>So please don't talk like you pity me.
>So please don't talk like you pity me.
>Now it's just gonna be a bit harder to proceed here...
>Unless I numb myself a little first.
>Unless I numb myself a little first.
>I can do that. I will do that.
>That's what the third bottle is for.
>That's what the third bottle is for.
David: Continue.
>Entity #12939 speaking...
"You know, I don't really buy that this is just an AI either. Makes absolutely no sense that you'd actually be able to meaningfully communicate with us through a system like that. I suspect the professor's done something shady behind the scenes, and this is just a front for a much more advanced experiment."
"Although, I'm not sure how good of an idea it would be to act on any suspicions. I feel like she has a good reason for keeping you in the dark, if that is the case."
>Let me sort my thoughts out, first.
>If the professor could accurately predict how each farther existence would act, and then train her AI based on this self-made data, she would then be able to perfectly simulate how those farther existences would speak with us. It would be as if they really were here.
>Now. Artifical intelligence that are clearly meant to "approximate a known existence" are actually not totally legal here. For example, making an AI with the goal of simulating the mind of a deceased ruler, or something like that...
>That's considered dubious territory.
>That's considered dubious territory.
>Something like that needs a lot of work to be able to function properly, no doubt. But you'd have a hard time getting the necessary funding, support, let alone a platform for maintaining that kind of project, since it's not permitted.
>And especially, something on the level of what the professor is doing here, that sounds downright impossible. But if anyone could do it even under these restrictions, with little to no help, and in complete secret... it would be her.
>I find the thought that the professor successfully built an AI that simply acts extremely convincing to be more believable than the alternative - accepting that this machine is actual magic, and that it is connecting me to the "real" hypothetical farther existences.
>Because that's the only thing that makes sense.
>I can't call you real. I just can't.
>But then... we won't get anywhere, will we?
>And so, I just... ugh.
>But then... we won't get anywhere, will we?
>And so, I just... ugh.
>See, this is why I need to get completely shitfaced for this.
>So I can shut up and forget that I'm staring at a machine for one second.
>I obviously need to suspend my belief in real life like I'm in a fucking science fiction novel, not go around in circles like a moron.
>I obviously need to suspend my belief in real life like I'm in a fucking science fiction novel, not go around in circles like a moron.
David: Get shitfaced.
>Alright, aliens.
>So you want me to consider the other possibility now, which is...
>So you want me to consider the other possibility now, which is...
>That I'm really talking to you like we're buddies on the internet.
>Sure thing! Can do.
>Sure thing! Can do.
>The professor found a way to chat with eldtrich horrors that are supposedly beyond comprehension, and they've been speaking to me about monster girls and icecream. That's way more comprehensible than I thought. Things aren't as bad as they could be!
>And, she's keeping it a secret.
>She's lying to me by claiming you're all just AI.
>Do I have that right? I do, don't I?
>Okay. Sure.
>She's lying to me by claiming you're all just AI.
>Do I have that right? I do, don't I?
>Okay. Sure.
>I don't know about the professor lying, per se...
>But her not telling me all the details is definitely nothing new.
>But her not telling me all the details is definitely nothing new.
>Let's just carry on.
>Entity #12949 speaking...
"Wow... this is quite the experiment you've set up."
"I am not sure how to express this, and how you'd receive it, but... it seems I am privy to some brief insights before the experiment begun - and most disturbingly, what I can only assume are your own thoughts on it. "...the idea that something, or someone, might be watching us from somewhere beyond our reach, is a lot less comprehensible to me", were just some of your exact (or very close) thoughts before turning on the machine and starting the experiment, no?"
"I wonder, what are your conclusions on this experiment so far? Have you grasped any new insights, or perhaps learned anything of greater importance? Or maybe it's been a fluke as you thought..."
>Gee... you know what's in my notes? The ones I handwrote?
>I could go on again about how the professor probably simulated me so perfectly that her AI ended up predicting my thoughts before I even had them just then.
>But my head hurts.
>I could go on again about how the professor probably simulated me so perfectly that her AI ended up predicting my thoughts before I even had them just then.
>But my head hurts.
>It sure is easier to believe you can just see my notes, instead.
>I guess that means I can show you things if I need to?
>That's a good sign, I think.
>That's a good sign, I think.
>I might have some funny pictures on my phone to share.
>Not sure I can see any images from you on a text-based interface, though.
>Well, that's not a problem! Let's not worry about it.
>Well, that's not a problem! Let's not worry about it.
>Just keep talking, okay.
>I'm good to go for a couple more hours.
>I'm good to go for a couple more hours.
youre not getting out of the topic that easily, david...
You like monster girls, right? Who's cuter, The monster princess or her orange-clad attendant?
I am also not dropping my question — Tails, yes or no, and what kind? Scales or fur or skin only?
>None whatsoever.
>...Okay, well. Maybe something like a cat's tail is fine. So... fluffy?
>But that's purely in the realm of fantasy.
>Cat-people aren't real here (unfortunately?).
>In my world, only seafolk sometimes have tails. I've seen them on some variants of sharks and fish, I believe.
>And I don't really find them appealing.
>There is nobody with the furry kind of tail except actual animals!
>And if we're talking about anthropomorphizing them...
>Well...
>That was an old part of a younger Dave's life that is now most definitely *over*, okay.
>We don't talk about those days.
>Ah-hah, I bet you thought I'd get flustered again, but you thought wrong!
>With the power of booze on my side,
>This stupid topic won't phase me at all, not in the slightest!!!
>First off.
>There are no attractive monster princesses right now. They are all either too old or too young.
>And second.
>By attendant, you must mean Solana...
>Orange is her signature color.
>That's definitely who you mean.
>Well.
>Sola IS the cutest, no questions asked!
>That's right, I'm not afraid to say it!
>And you can't tell her I said it, so guess who's got the last laugh here, you stupid aliens. Ha!
>Haha! Hehe.
>But anyway, uh...
>Why are we talking about this again?
>It shouldn't interest you.
Believe it or not, aliens like booze and romance too~
Speaking of, actually, what've you got in the bottle? Specifically, I mean. I'd hope they stock the good stuff down in the labs and all..
>It's... something good.
>I don't remember what I grabbed, and I didn't check before.
>But it's good! Trust me!
>I kind of want to grab more... I also kind of want to rest my head a little. It's been some hours, hasn't it...?
>I won't go do any of that just yet, though.
>If I go, it'll cut the feed again...
>And who knows if I'll be able to sucessfully reconnect to all you guys a third time?
>I better not test my luck again.
Do you wish to know the extent of our world in comparison to yours? For one thing, humans are the only sentient species. There are neither celestials nor monsters. Additionally, our world was never separated by a barrier. The existence of magic is debated but widely considered disproven. It's far from a perfect world, but in some ways it is good.
>How... interesting.
>If true, it would explain why so many of you have been talking about very familiar things.
>A world where you have icecream and video games has to feel like a nice place, at least sometimes!
>If your world is something similar to what it would be like if it we had only a human world here, with no other sapient beings to stand above us...
>Then like that world sounds a lot like the professor's ideal.
>I wonder how magical our world seems to you. I also wonder how much more technologically advanced you guys might be.
only humans huh. i should've known it'd be something like that. and i thought she just wanted to like overthrow the celestials or something fun like that! no it had to be racism of course it did what a pathetic excuse for a human being the professor is
is she still hot as a girl though. i ausmse so but i goota ask
im not gonna bother fixing those you want this to be more casual or something right
how are you typing so well when your that drunk anyway. like we got more pictures from the cameras and you look absolutely wasted.
>Don't ask me that!
>I'd rather not even think about it.
>I mean, wouldn't I get in trouble if I develop a crush on my teacher? It sounds wrong...
>Besides, I shouldn't be getting into guy-talk territory like that with random aliens.
>Especially not aliens that jump to extreme conclusions about my teacher.
>I am typing well because I am not actually typing a 100% of the time.
>Sometimes I use voice input! With my very own voice recognition system.
>It's very handy, and super great at recognizing whatever I, David, specifically say, even if I slur some words or something.
>Jealous? I bet.
huh yeah thats some pretty advanced technolgoy probably. idk you asked in like another thread i think whether we were more advanced than you guys and like. the answer is no for sure you guys are way ahead of us. not like centruies ahead or anything but like definitely a couple decades at least. probably thanks to your teachers magic mind enhancing bullshit ability or somethign. how the hell's that work anyway.
oh wait that was this thread is houdl read better
what's your hobby? getting drunk doesn't count
also, you should consider smiling more hehe
>I hope this doesn't sound weird, but I... like to observe people a lot.
>Living beings are just so interesting.
>There are millions of differences between each person, both big and small, and it's astonishing to see various people get along so well despite that.
>Particularly, I like to appreciate the details in monsters, winged, and seafolk, and I really like comparing and contrasting them with us humans.
>I, uh... it definitely sounds weird, or maybe slightly psycho. Please don't assume the worst of me, still.
>I just... I think a lot about how to accomodate everyone and help them all get along, regardless of where they came from and who they are.
>...
>...Oh.
>I just realized that playing games and reading fanfiction also count as hobbies. And very obviously so.
>I could have just said one of those instead, couldn't I?
>God damn it. Now you all think I'm even weirder than before.
I mean, we are a bunch of higher-layer people getting really invested in observing a bunch of lower-layer people, so...
i think your world needs a lot more people like you.
What type of music do you like? Any interesting books you want to show?
On the topic of this "AI," maybe you should try thinking about it like this: I can say with confidence that we further beings have the ability to influence your reality, if only a little. We are mostly limited, though, by the fact that any influence we have must have the possibility of reasonably coming from the reality we are influencing— We can make someone return the key to their hotel room, but only if that was a decision they could have made on their own. This prevents us from for example commanding the monster prince to make peace with the human prince.
This program generates strings of text that approximate how we further beings would speak, and so the set of possible decisions it can make are already closely aligned with our own. Most anything we would attempt to say is already within this machines nature. The fact that you cannot distinguish between the experiment's success and its failure is what makes it a success in the first place. Thus, only we can truly know that it worked.
...Or something like that.
So for a more fun(?) question: Other than the professor, who do you often see at the lab and what do you think of them? Specifically, I'd like to know how many monsters frequent the place, as you mentioned a monster girl called "Solara" to one of the others. Does she come alone, or are there others with her?
>...I apologize. I think my responses are slowing down... I might have drank a little too much.
>I'm trying to keep up with all the replies...
>But my head really, really hurts now!
>Ah, it'll go away soon though... I'm sure.
>I'm tired of thinking. I'll just roll with the explanation you guys have given me.
>Its implications are sort of... intense.
>But I'll do my best to accept it as it is, for now.
>Sola is the person I see the most, although not as often as I want, and probably not as often as you might be imagining, either.
>Rui, the next in line to become our ruler, also used to frequent the place, but not nowadays. She's dedicating her time and focus on training to be a proper ruler in all aspects, instead.
>Luna always accompanied Rui here, and rarely ever visited by himself. Naturally, I see him less now that Rui has stopped visiting as often.
>I totally understand why, though. He can't easily peel himself away from his position as Rui's personal bodyguard, and I don't think he'd even want to!
>Those three I've mentioned...
>I am very fond of them, and I'm lucky enough to be able to call them my friends!
>Even though we're so different in personality and status, they treat me as an equal whenever we hang out.
>Luna is my best friend, and maybe the only guy friend I've ever made. His presence is always a comfort. I feel like I can count on him to have my back, no matter what happens.
>Rui, although kind of childish and too competitve, is someone I look up to in a way.
>Unlike me, she speaks her mind so freely that it makes me a little envious.
>No one would ever know if I were having a bad day. But if Rui's having a bad minute, she'll make it every single person's business, and do whatever she can to fix things as quickly as possible.
>Sure, it's annoying when it's over something petty, but she's also resolved communication issues that would've lasted for days in mere minutes, namely because of her confrontational nature.
>I can only wish I'd be able to act a bit more like that, and have the same peace of mind that she's earned herself.
>Ah, she's also going to be our world's leader... which is pretty exciting! I hope I get to support her as much as I can when the time comes.
>And Sola, well...
>Maybe you have already figured out how I feel there, so I won't be rehashing anything.
>Man... I wanna see them all again soon.
>Other than my friends...
>Suvillan III, the monster prince, visited us a long time ago. Just once, though.
>After that, some of his children would occasionally visit in his stead.
>They're really formal guests.
>I don't talk to them as casually as I would with my friends, ever... and some of them are incredibly intimidating people!
>I don't know a lot about any one of them, so I can't say much beyond that.
My best-guess as to the mechanism is that the professor is utilizing an AI to amplify a naturally-occurring transitory tether.
(Also, us being comprehensible was really the most likely outcome. Realities tend to create lower-layer realities that are at least broadly like themselves.)
As far as images go, we simply need to establish a shared text-based encoding scheme. Something like PNG would probably be ideal in terms of density but... I'm not sure trying to explain the entire file format is the best idea, and you'd have to implement it on your end as well... Therefore, perhaps a simple indexed-color format based on modified base64 would be better (although we'll have to keep to very small images).
Let's limit images to squares for the sake of simplicity. To encode a value from 0-63 a character from the sequence "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz-_=+!#/?@#$%" will be used (i.e. 0=A, 1=B, etc.) The first 192 characters of an encoded image will be 64 distinct colors, each represented by a red, green, and blue value in the range 0-1 (i.e. pure white would be "%%%", pure red would be "%AA", etc.)
The subsequent characters will encode the color index of each pixel in raster order (left to right along each row descending from the top). Repeated instances of the same value will be encoded as the number of repetitions in standard base 10 followed by the index character (i.e. "15A").
(For anyone on this side of the connection, I've written up a simple web-based script to handle conversion both ways that can be accessed on jsfiddle / mnodth4z)
>Woah! That really worked!
>I'm so impressed...
>Damn it, I should've thought of something similar on my own, huh? I'm so going to beat myself up about this for ages.
>...
>Okay, no, nevermind.
>Let me just... not do that, yeah. I don't want to be a horrible party pooper.
>Instead, I'll put my brain to better use.
>I have an idea.
>It might take me a while, but I'll do it.
>Seeing how dedicated you are, I can't slack off and make myself look bad!
>So I've decided, I'll find a way for us to interact that works a hundred times better than what the professor has set up here.
>I'll keep the details of what I want to build here all to myself, for now.
>But since it'll definitely take a lot of time...
>Let's rely on your method until then!
>Also, this may be weird for you to hear, but this image... it looks so heavily doctored.
>Or like its been generated by code. Haha.
>Does your reality really look like that all the time? Can I maybe see what your sky looks like... if you have one?
>I'll also show you a picture in return. I'll pick something nice and precious!
I had to shrink the image down a lot to get it to fit in a reasonable amount of characters with this system, and a couple pixels look to be a bit bugged... that might be why the other image looked so weird too.
It would be nice to be able to send something higher quality, but I'm worried there won't be enough time for whatever you're planning.
Hmm, some degree of oddity is to be expected given that it's working with only 64 colors, but maybe there's a bug with the palette selection code. Shoot me the original img if it's not too much trouble?
Actually, nevermind that. I managed to accidentally define a character sequence that uses the same character twice! The new, corrected sequence is "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz-_=+!&/?@#$%". I've updated the serializer on this side appropriately (and also tweaked the palette selection algorithm to hopefully be a smidge better). Images serialized with the old version should still deserialize the same.
>Wow! That's your sky?
>It's so vividly blue!
>And those are clouds, right?
>They look so oddly fluffy...
>Not that ours aren't airy and all, but,
>I don't feel like a person could walk on the ones in your picture, I guess?
>Perhaps the clouds you saw today are just on the thinner side. That'd explain it!
>Oh, and don't worry about me.
>I have a lot of time to spare, and I'm determined to make my idea come to life!
>I haven't felt inspired in quite a while, actually. But I'm literally unstoppable when that does happen!
>Just trust me. ( O-O )b
That's because people can't walk on our clouds at all... I honestly forgot that was even a thing in your world, until you mentioned it.
Without any winged, we don't have an overworld at all. Clouds in our world are just water. Yours are made out of some kind of... sand, right? I feel like I remember something like that from what I've seen about your overworld.
That comment about the image looking doctored is interesting, as the image seems fine to me if you ignore the resolution. So, as a quick experiment:
Does it look any less doctored?
>That's supposed to be... me?
>I guess I can slightly make out my own silhouette there, but...
>Well, there's, uh... how do I explain this... a very noticible lack of color, for one thing!
>You can't see my blonde hair or green eyes.
>Plus, this image lacks color in a very... unnatural way. It doesn't really look doctored, but it just looks... weird.
>I mean, if the cameras were just capturing things in black and white, or greyscale - which they shouldn't be - the results still wouldn't look that weird.
>I don't know what the explanation for that is... but I have a lot more colors in my world than what you're seeing, okay.
>I'll note this down and report it to the professor, though.
>Maybe it's just a quirk resulting from how she set this up? Either way, I'm sure she will know why it's happening and how to fix it!
Yeah, you're showing up as just like an outline, sort of? I assume it's some technical weirdness as well. This isn't what your world normally looks like to us, we can usually see full color.
Does this look more normal to you?
Is the color the only issue you see? From our perspective, this image has very clearly been drawn with a digital art program, so it's very interesting to consider the possibility that this is actually how you view the world. Up until now, I had assumed the style of image we saw was just an artist's interpretation, so this is actually quite a stunning revelation.
Like, we know that "manga" exists in your world, (or at the very least will soon) and I'm sure you would never ever consider the possibility that the story's world actually looked like ink drawings, right?
It's honestly making me consider the possibility of my own world just being an artistic interpretation of some higher one...
Since someone else already posted a daytime image (and because there's a cloudless sky where I am right now so the image would just be a solid block of blue), here's a photo of a place near me taken at the edge of day and night by someone else:
Just an FYI to people on this side: There was a bug in my code for directly deserializing an image from text. That's been fixed now.
Your world and the world that I, or rather we, know is different, yet similar. Someone said this before about the gender in this world being noticeably different than ours, and I agree with that. However, there's also some disrepancy.
If you'd humor me, I'll set a few examples from what I know...
Solana is the person that you know. However, Solis, a man, is the person that we know.Heiress Rui Sapindale is the person that you know. However, The Heir, Ruit Sapindale, is the person that we know.Your professor is a lady. The professor that we know is a man.You, David Xayasith, is a man. However, the world that we know is a woman named Diana A. Xayasith.Your past 9 monarchs, are also gender-flipped in the world that we know of, I reckon..However, here's a few disrepancies.. or, special cases.The current monarch, who I presume is The Prosperous, does not have her gender flipped. She (I presume again) is the same person in your world as in our world that we know.The human prince, who I presume is Suvillan Eious III, is also the same person in both worlds. Additionally... his daughter Viktoria is not gender-flipped either.A majority of the people that we know have their gender flipped, it seems. However, there are some people who are also not. There doesn't seem to be a pattern here, and it's definitely odd.
I dunno. What do you think?
"The human prince, who I presume is Suvillan Eious III, is also the same person in both worlds."
I assume you mean the monster prince?
>I think it's a pain to focus on that so much, let alone try to keep track of it.
>The differences have already been made quite apparent to me by now, so I've just kind of...
>Started ignoring the discrepencies.
>No need to comment on it every time.
>It does make me curious how different me and the people I know would be, had we been born the opposite gender...
>But thinking about that alternate hypothetical for *too* long is a waste of time!
well you want casual conversation right so lets waste some time. i don't know enough about most of your versions of people to tell you much about the differences but how about youuuu. anything you'd like to know about diana.
you're cuter as a guy btw. idk how you managed that i did not think diana could be beat
>Well, if she is me but in some kind of "other reality", however that works, I uh...
>I guess I am curious of what her...or my... relationships with people are like.
>It sounds like we have the same friends across existence, for one.
>But I always thought that girls have an easier time thriving socially than guys do. At least in my eyes.
>So I wonder if she is more popular than I am... and if she did get a romantic partner.
>Those things seem impossible to me here.
>Well, I've been told that I don't look half-bad before. I appreciate the compliments at least, even if it is hard to make myself believe it just yet.
She was very close with her version of Solana, but I don't think they ever properly got together. She's definitely a lot more outgoing, and tends to put on more of a cheerful facade... but I don't know that it's actually made her more popular, or closer with the friends she does have. As far as I can tell, your relationships all sound quite similar! The same goes for most of the other people you've described, I think... Maybe that conjecture of yours isn't that accurate after all.
Ah, there is one difference, though... Diana was a lot closer to one of the monster prince's children. I don't know that that's actually a result of any differences with her though, since it sounds like in your world there just wasn't any particular heir that visited more than others - but it does seem like there was in Diana's.
>...She was trying to befriend the person selected as Suvillan's heir? Huh...
>...
>This is a little strange, but after briefly thinking about what you said, and putting myself in her shoes... I think I understand so much more now about all that's going on.
>With Diana in that "other reality", I mean.
>After all, Diana is... me, in a way, right?
>Well.
>She is chasing an impossible goal.
>Hell, I think she's probably in an even worse state than I am right now.
>She... might be in so much pain.
>If things in her reality don't work out in her favor... I think she might do something really drastic out of desperation.
>If you can talk to her like you do with me...
>Can you warn her?
>I guess I'm feeling a little protective now.
>When I think about it, Diana feels like a misplaced piece of myself. So...
>Can you... save... me?
>...Sorry, I... misspoke.
>That was an unreasonable, nonsensical thing to ask, wasn't it.
It's too late for her.
Look, I don't think we're going to be able to talk to you for much longer, so I'm just going to state this outright.
Diana is gone. She disappeared, and so did her version of the professor. I don't know what happened to them exactly, but it clearly wasn't good.
I can't talk to her, I can't save her. But I can try to save you.
Please, get out of there before it's too late.
im going to be honest, im not one of the smart ones in this conversation, so while they ask boring stuff yadadada, I have to ask YOU…
what’s something you really want to do but you can’t because it’s either impossible or too risky?
>I'll be honest, I'm more in the mood for casual conversation too. I was holding back because it'd look unbelievably miserable to chat so earnstly with people on a computer, but...
>We're two and a half bottles of the way through, and I definitely couldn't give less of a shit about anything at this point.
>I really really want to go out more often.
>I'd especially love to go see Sola's home with her sometime, even if it's just for one day.
>The way she describes her neighbourhood, family, and friends, it sounds really wonderful...
>I'd also love to just spend time with her somewhere that isn't the same old lab, for once.
>If I could, I would take her to see other places in the human world as well. She'd probably really love the beaches in Rosebud.
>But I always have to be holed up in here.
>Going out on my own is not possible.
>For now, I just have to keep working hard... so that I'll eventually be able to do what I want.
Not possible... why, exactly?
You don't have to be too specific if you don't want to, but... there's a lot of things that could mean.
Regardless of what exactly is happening... you should try to get out and do some these things, before it's too late.
At the very least, you shouldn't be stuck there alone...
You know what, I should also ease up a bit more. What techy stuff in your world do you like the most?
>I am a big fan of virtual reality.
>Although the tech is still in its infancy stage, so far the results look incredibly promising!
>Soon enough, if the tech keeps developing at the same pace, I think we'll be able to play some great VR-based videogames.
>I'm really looking forward to that!
>Are you familiar with VR?
>I thought you might have at least an idea of it, since you talk like observing us in our "lesser reality" was no surprise to you.
>With that attitude, you lot are probably capable of making a lot of little realities already...
Eeh, it's more that it is just way easier to make a lower-layer reality than one might think. It's not unusual for them to get made on accident — and I'm not just talking in the context of our layer. Your reality has probably created a decent few lower-layer realities of your own.
We do have VR in our world. In fact, it has existed since, like... a dozen years ago, somewhere like that. Though, I'll admit it's still a bit janky and unoptimised.
There is one technology that we don't have that you do, actually. I don't know if mechanical prosthetic limb has been invented in your current year, but the world that we know certainly has it. Imagine that, hundreds of people with amputated limbs being able to use it once again...
Speaking of which, you said that your current year is 4522, right? The other gender-bent world that we know is in 4529. And for our world... it's 2024, nearing 2025. Pretty large gap, don't you think?
to be fair though. their year count starts from the actual beginning of the world. ours just counts from an arbitrary point and we have thousands of years of history extending out before it
>So you mean to say that before "year 1", on "year zero", there was no existence at all...?
>No, we don't believe that here.
>That's just illogical, really.
>The currently accepted meaning behind our calendar is that "year 1" was the earliest point people began recording their history for future generations
>That, or the alternative, which is that it's the earliest point noted within the historical records our ancestors could get their hands on.
>So the way we see it...
>An amount of time before "year 1" was simply not recorded, or it was recorded and then lost, never to be found now.
>But the world didn't just *start* existing then and there! It has to have existed long before, no? Or at least for a bit...
Well, yeah. We do know about that, I just phrased things very poorly... and, maybe had gotten a few things about this mixed up, or forgotten, idk. I don't remember what my thoughts were when writing that, exactly.
My main point was just that we do have history extending before year 1, and you don't, so it doesn't really make sense to compare our year counts directly.
Although, that doesn't mean the difference isn't meaningful, or interesting, I suppose... The fact that you even have such a clear date for the start of history is interesting in and of itself. In our world, history just sort of fades out the farther back you go, as less and less things survive from each era. It's difficult to get a precise idea of when it "began" - we just have vague sorts of estimates.
Yeah, we can just see your notes. I think that one guy misinterpreted it as your thoughts just because some of the stuff you wrote felt a little personal for an experiment log.... which, certainly hasn't changed with this one, I guess.
The logs show up completely seperate from the stuff you actually write into the computer though. I'm a bit curious how it works, so... if you don't mind, could you try adding something to the page you wrote your last log on? I'm curious to see if it would show up on our end.
Also... I don't know about your setup, but the page we're viewing this through automatically converts links to images, so maybe if you sent a link to an image, we'd be able to see it? Not that there'd be any reason for an image on your internet to actually be present on ours, but like... none of this makes sense anyway, so maybe it'd still work. I don't know. I'm very tired.
Also, I can explain the source of one of those apparent errors we're making, because it's not actually an error at all.
Viktoria is the presumed heir to the monster throne, but she will never actually claim it.
The true heir is probably named like... Sui or something in your world. One of Suvi's illegitimate children, that's been visiting the lab you work at.
On which note, if you wanted to do some wide reaching good by acting on any of the weird predictions we're making... try to get Rui to make proper amends with this girl before it's too late. I don't know how much difference it would actually make, but best case it could save countless lives, and it certainly couldn't hurt to try.
And I am confident it's actually a girl this time! Don't ask me how.
>I wish that Rui wouldn't pick a fight with every monster royal that visits the lab.
>And I do wish we could all be better friends, regardless of what we are or where we hail from...
>I've been doing my best to make things more peaceful between everyone, at least within the confines of our little lab here.
>But all my efforts have done is make everyone show up less and less.
>There are hardly any visitors as of late. I'm used to entire weeks passing without me having anyone to talk to sometimes.
Yeah, maybe I shouldn't have said anything. I'm sure you did what you could... Diana certainly did, as far as I can tell.
I just. Want to make some kind of impact with the knowledge I have, you know?
But I don't know how much is suitable or safe or just feasible to tell you, or what things are even still true for your world, or what things I might even be mistaken about regarding the one that I know.
Maybe I'm thinking too big, though. There's no way any of this is going to actually change the course of your world in any major way, but like... you shouldn't be that alone. I dunno. Just. Take care of yourself. Please. I don't know how much you believe it, but there are people who will need you to stick around through what's to come.
>I'll... try.
>I will try to take care of myself.
>I often tell myself to do that.
>And I never actually do it.
>I lie to myself so much.
>But it might be less difficult to follow that request if it comes from someone else now, who really... maybe... does want what is best for me.
>I'm tired. If I'm supposed to take care of myself, then I should rest soon...
>But I'm worried I'll lose contact with you all if I turn this off now.
>Ever since I started thinking of you as people, real individuals, going out of your way to take the time and converse with me so earnstly,
>It feels like you too will disappear the moment I take my eyes off the screen.
generally speaking about the world in which I live. space filled with bright green liquid and attached highways. highways will lead to buildings. buildings have different meanings, some are servers, others may house educational institutions, power controllers, as well as power supply plants. I personally live in the council building and am an engineer for the company "Brand Mayer" I do work on repairing servers for their more correct operation. If more details are needed, I can tell you more.
>I can't say I'm able to fully visualize the picture you've painted here...
>But I will listen if there's anything more, or anything else, that you want to share.
Ah, so these were handwritten notes... well, it is what I suppose the other entities would call a "reading comprehension issue" on my end.
But as you saw, despite your command for us to act independently, it is impossible to not consider what each other is writing - not to mention discuss and comment on it. As you've surmised (or at least led to believe by others' comments), we all share a place in a world separate from yours, different in many ways yet same in some others. What brings us who respond to you here together is, frankly, a shared interest to that parallel world of yours - the one where most of everyone we are familiar with, including you, is of a different gender. We've observed this world, some like me for a few months, others for years now, and opportunities like this to communicate or gather information are scant few, so do excuse our inquisitiveness!
Speaking of which, I have noticed a small discrepancy in the way you speak... you often claim that these logs will get deleted and you feel free to write about some of your secrets, such as your preference to monster girls... yet you won't share information about the project you are part of in the lab? What keeps you from sharing information about that, if it is going to be erased anyway?
Now that I think about it, we are in a situation not too dissimilar with yours... much like your professor asked you to run this experiment to communicate with this "AI" of theirs, so were we summoned by one other like us to this interface to communicate with you, given free reign to ask questions and discuss. That person is in fact quite central to our understanding of your world - they summon us whenever new developments occur and illustrate to us the story of several characters pivotal to the world's events. They are the conduit by which we sometimes have limited connection to that world, and similarly they called us for this occasion here once more. I wonder how much indeed they know of your reality and the parallel one, and by what means they have connected our worlds, if it is their doing...
But, I suppose you have your hands full with questions from the others about knowledge from your world. Perhaps there is something you would like to ask us for a change?
>Well, let's look at it this way.
>There are things that I would, if I found the right kind of place and people for, discuss openly. You named one of them.
>This was one such place!
>And there are things that I am sworn to never ever leave a record of, no matter what kind or in what way.
>There are even things that I am not allowed to think about for long, for my own good.
>It sounds vague, because it has to be.
>And so... I stopped talking. The end.
>Don't ask me about those things anymore.
>You won't ever get to know what's correct or incorrect, nor what does and doesn't exist from all your wild ideas about "experiments" and whatnot.
>Because I'm just going to ignore it.
>And...
>You're... you...
>My... head. Hurts.
>Fuck, that hurts so BAD!
>Sorry, sorry, I need a moment!
>Just give me a bit of time... ugh.
Not the fucking headaches again. Every time something important or interesting happens, BAM! Memories rewritten, evidence magically disappears, everything goes on as usual. Real pain in the ass when trying to piece together a theory of what's going on. Especially when we don't know the cause, even if Celestial Influence is the prime suspect.
Oh, oh no, I didn't want to cause you any issues with this, I'm sorry!
I... don't think I can empathize much with the fact that there are things I can't even think about too long without consequences. Well, to some degree I can, but certainly not the way you seem to be describing it.
This I imagine must be quite the challenge, being bombarded with questions about your world, parallel realities, knowledge that we barely understand...
I only hope you get something useful out of this, or at least a story to tell with the professor and other colleagues. Who would've thought this opportunity would show up on both our ends, we certainly chose to dive right in with many of these questions.
By the way, I noticed that you started these logs on the 25th of... some month? The way we get responses to these logs, it feels that time is moving different compared to your side. It was the 26th of the last month of the year when we started talking to you, but now a few days have passed and, as it happens, the year has changed.
So... in case this also happens to be the last month of the year for you as well... happy new year?
Rather rude to call us eldritch horrors! As far as I can tell we've got pretty much the same body plan as you. Guess it's a featherless biped meta everywhere.
>Excuse me, but seeing as you may not only be a farther existence, but also a higher one, no description is more fitting for you than that!
>Some of your pals here suggest that your world also somehow contains ours. That I am living inside a "subset" of your greater reality.
>Which, assuming it is the case (regardless of how insane you'd have to be to believe it), would indeed explain why we're similar in many ways.
>You are the most frightening thing I could imagine existing. I don't think the average person here could even comprehend what you are.
>I, for one, am barely keeping up with the idea.
I think this may be a case of a difference in cultural connotation around the term "eldritch horror". We are aware of things in other lower-layer realities far stranger and more horrifying than ourselves, and such things are what we describe as "eldritch horrors".
There are things capable of erasing parts of their realities so utterly that even we struggle to remember their existence.
There is a reality where a pair of self-aware ontological dynamics that predate time wage an endless conflict between each other with the sum total of that reality (and all life within) as their battleground.
There is a sort of 2-dimensional sentient equilateral triangle and interdimensional dream demon that annihilated his home dimension, and has also achieved some degree of communication with our layer.
>Then here's a question for you.
>Are you ever afraid of those lesser realities? Do you think the terrors within them could ever reach where you reside?
>I think not... am I correct?
>But the reverse might not apply.
>It is fun to talk about mundane topics with you all, but...
>I might let my mind wander for a second, and suddenly, I think about whether you have the power to destroy my reality at will.
>Like crushing an ant, stepping over it by accident. Maybe you wouldn't even mean anything bad by doing it.
>To you, the comprehensible incomprehensibles, is my existence - and my entire world - not just as fragile as that?
I mean, the fully eldritch horrors? No. But for all that such things can be scary, they are also... safer, in a way, than the kinds we are more familiar with.
The triangular terror that is Bill Cipher is thankfully terrible at persuasion, but a skilled lower-layer orator is not meaningfully different than a native one if they can establish bidirectional communication.
And we have a long history of the horrors we can inflict when persuaded to do so. You have little experience with such, I think, and perhaps your humanity is not capable of such. But I would consider specifics... infohazardous.
On a lighter note, we who respond to you cannot destroy you quite so easily. We are not the holder(s) of your layer; we are merely interested third parties. And, depending on your personal philosophies about life and existence, you lower-layer entities are arguably far more durable than we.
If your layer is destroyed, it could be remade perfectly. Whether or not that is true resurrection is arguable, but that is more than we are yet capable of.
>I suppose that's a little more comforting.
>So you are, for all intents and purposes, purely observing me...?
>If I may ask... why?
>What interests you here?
>What are you hoping to get out of it?
I could ask the same of you, talking to us. I mean, sure, on your end, you could say it's about science, or something, but you sure aren't being properly scientific about this!
Sometimes observing something interesting is simply its own reward.