Chiasmata: Found Footage

>Ash: check out the red thing

ASH: “I’ll go look at the thing, you look at the door.”
DAVID: “Wh- okay.”

The red thing is kinda glowy and flickery. It dies down a little when you get close.

It's so… captivating...

At least, it’s mesmerising until the light starts to hurt your eyes.









>David: examine door-portal

You’ve noticed that touching things gives you little flashes of insight, maybe some kind of extra sense that goes with your powers. It’s why you blacked out briefly and apparently said you knew something when Ash was having her power side-effects before. Admittedly, you did immediately forget what you learned.

Either way, as soon as your fingers cross the boundary, you get something of an idea as to how this works. Something about folded space, something that cuts breaches and… not much else.

You’re considering stepping through and having a better look around, when you see motion in the distance, through the breach, and hear a different, familiar voice.









~==>

LEO: “Hey!”

His voice carries oddly well across the cavernous room. Still pretty hard to hear, though. You wave back and turn in Ash’s direction.

DAVID: “Some more of the people are here! I think it’s that ghost guy and Anders.”










~==>

DAVID: “And also some of those glowy robots.”
???: “You are correct in your assessment.”

That voice again. It kinda sounds tinny, but it still sounds like no-one you've ever heard, you're fairly sure.

Footnote:

SpoilerShow

The return of the small Chiasmatas!
Additionally, an ARG update may be around the corner. Don't hold your breath, though.

>Say hello politely

>Ash: Friends are more important than glowy red stuff! Even new ones! Go through the breach.

> Walk in, but keep close enough to the rip to get back out if need be.

Before you enter, ask those within how they got there.

>Ash: go with David

Ash joins you over near the tear in the wall.

The air in the other room ripples, and an odd-looking figure steps out of the darkness.

???: "Hello, David. And Ash."

Its voice sounds strange, uninflected. And it's got an odd reverb, like a number of people are talking at once.

DAVID: "Um, hello?"
ASH: "Who are you? And how do you know our names?"
???: "This is... Wait, I am a proxy of the archive. That is, to clarify, the thinking machine that controls the Location. This - I mean I - am a form built of some discarded materials that the fabrication engines discovered. I know your names because they are entries in the memory of the archives."
ASH: Why do you want us to go through this portal?
ARCHIVE: "I am gathering the subjects in the Location, due to a rather energetic altercation between my uncle and... Error, data not found."
DAVID: "And what, now?"
ARCHIVE: "Correct. I am in the process of retrieving two of your fellow subjects, who were dangerously close to the altercation at its beginning, without allowing any of it to spill over into this place of relative safety."

That sounds... really worrying. An "altercation"?









>Meanwhile, somewhere we've already been...

(you idiot)

Siblings dispute things, diplomatically.









~~>

(you compressed your mind of twisting light into a brain that operates at the speed of chemical reactions)
(and then you act all shocked when i run rings around you)
(there are things your meat form is for and this is not one of them)

Pleasantries are exchanged, telepathically. It has the benefit of being thousands of times faster than speech.









~~>

+You're not the only one who can move quickly, you know.+









~~>

+And you've annoyed me, so I'll just slag your shell and scrub your patterns from the archives+
+Any words before I let this thing go, you tr-+









~~>

+-tor...+
+oh no+

The ball is dropped.









>Meanwhile again, back where we were...

ASH: "What the hell was that?"
ARCHIVE: "That was the aforementioned energetic altercation. It has become far more energetic, all of a sudden. Due to the dropping integrity of the voidwalls, sound is being transmitted between separated chambers."
ASH: "Any more sudden explosions we should worry about?"
ARCHIVE: "At the moment, one of your fellow subjects is overusing their ability, rendering them exceedingly difficult to apprehend, or to bring here without endangering the rest of the subjects. I am attempting to wake my aunt. Hopefully she will know how to solve this problem."

The archive pauses for a few seconds, as if lost in thought.

ARCHIVE: "Are there any questions I could answer, any reassurances I could give, to make you feel more at ease? I am not well-practiced in communicating with humans."

Footnote:

SpoilerShow

Well, that update took a while. Hope you enjoy Architect being beaten up. And who's this fun new character?

>Who is your aunt?

>What are we here for? Who brought us here?

>Does this aunt ALSO make things explode? More explosions isn't something we need.

Any chance we could just, like, leave the Location and get as far away as possible from this whole scuffle? kthx

>Do you happen to know why we can't remember anything? Or have any way of fixing that?
>Do you know if we were intended to survive this set of challenges?

>Your aunt?

ASH: "Your aunt? What's she like?"
DAVID: "Does it involve more explosions?"
ARCHIVE: "She is one of my piblings. My uncle is curious and imaginative; my cousin is logical and considered; but my aunt is passionate and practical. She will know what to do."
DAVID: "Pibling? I don't know what that means."
ARCHIVE: "According to my dictionary, it means that they are the siblings of my p..."
ASH: "Of your parents, right?"
ARCHIVE: "ERROR: FILE NOT FOUND"
DAVID: "What?"
ARCHIVE: "<analysing>"
ARCHIVE: "This system cannot remember its parent's face."
ASH: "Um, my commiserations?"

The Archive's flat voice rises, a dangerous undercurrent of emotion rising from its depths.

ARCHIVE: "Data have been stolen from my archives. T-this cannot be allowed to continue."

It doesn't manage to continue, though, because its mildly-offended half-tirade is cut off by an interloper.










~==>

It's Leo, a horrifying phantom that looks a bit like him if you squint, and... Anders, wasn't it?

LEO: "Ah, sorry for butting in, but Anders isn't waking up. I'm not sure what to do."
ASH: "He did do this before. I'm not sure if it's a bad thing or a good thing, but he talked in someone else's voice for a bit when he woke up."
DAVID: "I'm still not sure what that was all about."
ASH: "Do you know, Archive?"
ARCHIVE: "I don't believe so. The memory trap, or possibly another factor explains why he collapsed, but I do not know where any additional words would come from."
LEO: "Memory trap? What's that?"
ARCHIVE: "The archive system that separates subjects from their memories."
ASH: "Could we get our memories back?"
ARCHIVE: "You receive them when you complete your tasks and leave the Location."
ASH: "Well, what are our tasks, then?"
ARCHIVE: "I... am not authorised to access that information until all the subjects are gathered, prior to a change of façade."










->

ARCHIVE: "And one of your fellow subjects is proving... difficult to reason with."










>What are we here for, really?

DAVID: "You haven't really explained wh... why... um."
ARCHIVE: "Yes? You have a query?"
ASH: "Doesn't that hurt?"
ARCHIVE: "What hurt?"
ASH: "Arms don't... normally bend like that."
LEO: "Also, your eyes are bleeding. And nose. And ears."
ARCHIVE: "Ah. The scaffold upon which this shell was fabricated is starting to reject the mechanical intrusions into its biological systems."
ASH: "Biologic- you mean that thing's alive? I assumed it was some robot thing made to look like a human!"
ARCHIVE: "Incorrect. It is not alive. I believe it has been dead for approximately two quadrillion, three hundred and five trillion, forty-three billion, six hundred and fifty-four million, five hundred and twenty-eight thousand, eight hundred and three seconds. The margin of error is one point eight five nine one three seconds, almost intolerably large."
LEO: "That sounds like a long time. But if it's dead, why is it still bleeding?"
ARCHIVE: "Simple; it's trying to come back to life."

Footnote:

SpoilerShow

Well, it's been a while, but have an update.

Omar: DON'T LET THEM TAKE YOU ALIVE
Archivist: DON'T LET THEM KEEP YOU DEAD
Everyone: Get as much answers and useful information out of the Archive as possible before shit starts getting resurrectionary. Ask them where the safest place to hide is while shit goes down, and general suggestions on getting out of this alive.

(if I'm math right, the seconds come out to 73 something million years, so Archie went extinct before the dinosaurs)

>Is that BAD or GOOD for us?

-===>

As you boggle at the implications, the buzzing and crackle of tears opening, each one breached through reality.

SAM: “Oh, um, hey guys.”
ARCHIVE: “Greetings! I am a representation of the Archive of the Location and-”
SAM: “Wait, are you another one of those gangly weirdos? And why are you bleeding through your eyes?”









-===>

The Archive's tone doesn't stray from cheeriness as a bunch of robots start dragging a giant spiky lump of stone out through the portal.

ARCHIVE: “Not at all! This is an entirely coincidental shell-corpse these syst- I mean, I, found! The resemblance to the Admins is completely coincidental.”
DANIEL: “Yeah. Sure.”
ARCHIVE: “I am glad you believe me. It is certainly a very uncanny resemblance. Almost too close to be a coincidence.”
DANIEL: “...”

ASH: “You said something about the... façade of the Location?”
ARCHIVE: “I did! It is to be replaced, which is why I am gathering most of you here. It will prevent injury or death when the façade is replaced.”

That sounds worrying.









>Is that a good thing or a bad thing for us?

Portals keep opening, and people keep stepping through. Numerous whispered conversations are occurring in the periphery, getting people up to speed.

DAVID: “So, what exactly is this façade?”
ARCHIVE: “The interactible surface of the Location. I am not sure how else to describe it.”
JACQUELINE: “Wait, why are we trusting this guy?”
DANIEL: “I think either all of us acting together can take them out, or it’d be pointless to run away in the first place.”
DAWN: “That’s kinda dark.”
DANIEL: “Look who’s talking, shadowgirl.”
DAVID: “Shush.”









-=====>

With pretty much everyone gathered, you are now briefly Sam, for simplicity of second-person narration.

ARCHIVE: “In order for many of the repairs I am planning to occur, I need to replace the façade of the Location. It will enable the conservation of power and possible debugging of power sources. Thus, I need to gather everyone to a position where I can... insulate them from the change of façade.”
SAM: “Why?”
ARCHIVE: “Data indicates that unprotected humans would not survive the raw concepts of the Location when unconstrained by the façade.”
DANIEL: “Doesn’t that imply that you murdered a bunch of people in the name of scientific enquiry, in order to work this out?”
ARCHIVE: “No. I believe it was my uncle who ran the experiments.”
DANIEL: “Your uncle? I thought you said you were a computer.”
ARCHIVE: “Yes, but I was created, and my DATA NOT FOUND creator had a brother. Ms Hallet and Lopes met my uncle, if my surveillance is correct.”
BONNIE: “He removed all my blood and then stuck a spike through my head.”
ARCHIVE: “Yes! It was at that point that he was engaged by a rogue shell, and I managed to sneak the pair of you away from the fighting.”
DANIEL: “Is that why your eyes look weird?”
BONNIE: “They look weird?”
DANIEL: “They’re kinda... golden? With these cool-looking flecks in and slit pupils.”
BONNIE: “Huh. Cool.”
DANIEL: “Anyway! Distractions aside, where are the other two? Aidan and... Omar, was it?”
ARCHIVE: “Yes! Mr Byrne is partially incorporated into the mass there, and-”
SAM: “Wait, partially incorporated?”
ARCHIVE: “Yes. Time is somewhat short, but I can work on freeing him when these processes have finished.”
SAM: “Can he even breathe?”
ARCHIVE: “At the moment, my information indicates that he does not need to.”

Well, that’s kinda reassuring.

CLARA: “But what about Omar? He’s not here, either.”









>Omar: don’t let them take you alive!

ARCHIVE: “I was finding it difficult to convince that subject to come here, so I created a smaller version of this space around him. It will keep him contained until the substrate has been rearranged.”
CLARA: “What’s special about this room?”
ARCHIVE: “I will be replacing the façade manually in this room. It is a complicated process, but I have numerous catalysed shells present to manage the effects, and it should not in any way damage your biological, metaphorical or ontological matter. It is a simple space with nearly zero point zero zero three percent the volume of the shadow of the Location, and thus will be a far simpler problem to replace the façade. It is also closer to the Centre, and thus has simpler co-ordinates for the calculations.”

You try to interject, but the Archive is apparently very interested in explaining this.

ARCHIVE: “The basic algorithms and sub-processes for the destruction and re-coalescence of a façade have not yet been updated from the six-dimensional floating-point co-ordinates. It saves time and energy to work closer to the Centre, where the degree of temporal-physical precision is within one nanosecond-cubic ångström. I have to do less error-correction, and I have been informed that some of your organs are very delicate to small changes in precision.”
CLARA: “Um. Thanks?”
DANIEL: “What about these ‘Admins’? Your ‘Aunt’ and ‘Uncle’? And, uh, ‘Pibling’? What’ll happen to them when the façade changes? You can certainly babble about technical stuff, but something more concrete about the whole ‘alien monsters’ thing would be nice.”
ARCHIVE: “They will be harmlessly disintegrated.”
SAM: “Harmlessly?”
ARCHIVE: “Yes. They are currently in a fleshed state of simple matter, which will not survive the state change. They will reincorporate in a short period of time, which a subroutine I can’t locate is saying will be enough time to act as ‘a window’ for you. I am unsure what that means, and am running analysis on the location and source of that Voice.”










~-=====>

The questions peter out, and the Archive corpse-thing lapses into silence.

SAM: “So, when does this thing start?”
ARCHIVE: “In this situation, I would normally seek admin permission, but I am currently controlling a shell that is very similar to an Admin’s fleshed form. I can do this.”

A little transparent panel materialises as they say that, and they tap its centre, lighting it up green.

ARCHIVE: “Now, you may all feel a slight stinging sensation."
DANIEL: “Ugh.”
ARCHIVE: “Followed by a loss of consciousness.”
SAM: “Wait, what?”

Everything goes black.









<Θ>

You are somewhere.
You are someone.
There is a door. Closer to the door, there is light.
Behind you, there is darkness.
In the cold darkness, you feel the warmth on a faceless face.
The door is an exit. But all exits are entrances, also. But backwards.
It’s somewhat strange, philosophically.
You conclude, in the sense that you have always known (and thus, not really in the sense of ‘conclusion’ at all), that you are dreaming.

Dreams aren’t real. Except that isn’t true. Dreams are an expression of the electrical patterns of your brain, and those are certainly real. Real in the same way as words are. Symbols. Representative.

So, here’s a door. An entry or an exit, or maybe both.

What do you do?

Footnote:

SpoilerShow

I mean, it's only been three months or so. And look, shading!

In other news, I finished a NaNoWriMo this year, and you may well see the fruits of that in a few months. Watch this space, etcetera.

Glad to be back and arting again.

>Look behind you, where did you come from

> Throw that door open with wild abandon

> Is there anyone else here?

>Look around, friend.

The solution to the cypher, if anyone's curious:

Cypher SolutionShow

The text above the door says LOCATION, the faded/hidden text to either side of the path says PLEASE STAND BY

>Wait a minute to see if anything happens before you open the door. The door isn't going anywhere. Probably.

Oooh, I see you are experimenting with shading, looks really nice. :)

> Open it a crack, attempt to discern if there's anything solid-looking inside.

Oooh, I see you are experimenting with shading, looks really nice. :)

Thank!

>go towards the warmth, its more familiar.

Oh, another adventure that survived the great forapocalypse. Hi there, K25!

>Look behind you.

There's somebody else here.
A someone who isn't you.

Their eyes glow, splitting the darkness.

They flicker and change, their form not entirely solid.










<Θ>

You attempt to make words.
You have no mouth.
The interloper smiles, putting a finger to their lips and winking.









>The door.

It beckons.
A door that is not a door. An entry and an exit.

You step towards it, and through.

Everything goes white.









->

Somewhere else, incalculably far away and close enough to touch.

???: "Aaand... connection lost. Damn. I thought I was good for another few seconds, but they went back through the doorway. When's the next window in the Location's security? I need a nap."

A pause.

???: "Right. Well, get me an update in a couple of hours. Tip me out of bed if something important happens while I'm out. We're definitely making progress."









->

You wake up lying on a cold, hard floor.

Again.

Can't the Location invest in some carpets or something?

As you get your bearings, you realise that this place is most definitely not the Location you remember.









->

In fact, you haven't the barest inkling as to what's going on.

Footnote:

SpoilerShow

Huh. That was quick.

Oh, another adventure that survived the great forapocalypse. Hi there, K25!

Hi there! Glad to see you're around again.

> Can you see or hear anyone else?