Earth Escape

>"WOAH YOU CAN READ MINDS?"

Bunny:
Kind of.

MICROCHIP G-45:
The rabbit's piercing blank gaze bores into us. A little intimidating, but she doesn't give an air of ill-intent. She seems to be studying us, deciding what kind of person and artificial person we are. Whether or not she can trust us perhaps.

On closer inspection I can tell what she means by 'kind of' reading our minds.

MC-G45:
She has a microchip.

Bunny:
Yep. Gen 27. The generation of minimal privacy and just a ton of hacking. I’ve tapped my way into your system. So you could say I can see your thoughts, but only things that pass through you, Gen 45.

We are a Graveyard?

Where are we?

Bunny:
Oh… that’s a bit of a heavy question.



Jaque:
Waitwaitwait--Graveyard? THAT’S who you’ve been talking to?

MC-G45:
Er…

Bunny:
You didn’t tell your host?

Jaque:
Of course not! Why would the thing living in my head tell me anything important ever?

MC-G45:
Look, I was going to but I knew you’d freak out.

Bunny:
Well, sit tight then. It’s exposition time.

Bunny:
‘The Graveyard’, for those of you poor souls out there who don’t know, is a network of microchip AIs whose hosts have passed on but were not deactivated upon death. It’s speculated that there is a physical location for this Graveyard but we have no idea where it could be or why anyone would bother to keep these AIs active.




A Host’s passing can be extremely disorienting for older microchip models who lack the auto-shut off modification newer gens possess. Nobody wants to be alone for eternity. Microchips in this position often try to reach out to anyone and anything that might hear them. This many voices trying to connect to each other all at once creates a pool. AIs leaking into each other’s systems, bleeding into each other’s memories. Many become disoriented and lost in the sea of voices. Some forget who they were and what they were a part of before their host’s death. A few may not even realize they’re dead at all. Like some of you. Sorry.




Active AIs in dead hosts are sometimes referred to as ‘ghosts’ by so-called 'insane theorists'. Any reported activity of Graveyard ghosts trying to contact the ‘living’ is quickly shut down by ICP authorities tracking chips through the Infonet. So the conspiracies go. And as if that wasn’t enough, there should also be hidden firewalls in a microchip’s system to stop ghosts from getting there in the first place.




A microchip's job is to help their host along their journey. So ghosts trying to make 'suggestions' or ask questions like they would with their own host is just natural behaviour. If we can call anything about embedded microchip technology 'natural'.

Jaque:
But … that’s a myth!

Bunny:
It’s a buried secret disguised as a myth. It looks like some of the Graveyard voices have reached out to you because, for whatever reason, your firewalls are down and you're disconnected from the Infonet. Nothing should be able to override those, they’re completely and flawlessly embedded in your systems. Even I couldn't do that. You, my friend, are entirely off-grid. Impressive.

Jaque:
That’s not… wholly our doing.



Bunny:
So I figured. Absolutely none of these settings are regulation, especially not for, what are you, a medical officer? A junior medical officer? You’re in deep, friend. You seem like you have a good story, though. I like that.



Jaque:
Oh uh. Thanks. I guess.

SpoilerShow

do your cool and rude mind-reading powers give you the power to open spoilers, loser

Jaque:
Hey, uh, what’s a ‘spoiler’?

MC-G45:
Slang for an encrypted message.

Jaque:
Can she read those?



Bunny:
I cannot. Encrypted messages can only be opened by those intended to receive.

Jaque:
So you can see Graveyard stuff sent normally but an encrypted message sent to G45 can only be seen by me and it?

Bunny:
Correct.

MC-G45:
Hm. Good to know.

"Great cosmic entity" is a really lameass name for a god to swear by. Maybe go with something like "Apollo" or "Helios" instead.

Jaque:
Hey that’s just what it’s called.

MC-G45:
I wasn’t going to say anything… but it is a mouthful.



Jaque:
Fine, okay, listen, if you Graveyard people...chips…ghosts... whatever, have some better alternate names for the entity, go nuts. I’m sure it wouldn’t mind. But is now really the time?

MC-G45:
Probably not. But when the time does come, ask for some new swear words too.

> why are you in that tank?

Bunny:
Er. Well. I got caught.

Jaque:
Caught doing what?

~The rabbit shifts uneasily, looking away from Jaque~

Bunny:
Just… caught. Its not important right now, I can explain later.

MC-G45:
How informative.

>Ask if she needs help getting out, or if she's comfy in there. Who knows, it might just as well be some sort of life support thing as a prison.

Jaque:
So, do yo--

Bunny:
Yes.

Jaque:
Yes… you want out?

Bunny:
No, yes I’m comfy in this gelatinous stasis with my head hooked up to nonsense.

MC-G45:
Oh, well if that’s the case, Jaque and I will just--



Bunny:
No! That was sarcasm! Of course I want out! I've been held captive here for months! I hate this!

~Jaque holds their hands up defensively. They're not sure if they can trust her, but she doesn't seem hostile and that G27 microchip could prove useful.~

Jaque:
Okay! Okay, I don't doubt you.

Bunny:
The scientist who maintains this lab will be back in ten minutes, assuming she takes her full lunch break. We have to hurry.
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