futurology | voice; un: eliasainsworth

I believe I have some information that might be of use, or at least to consider.

[The voice is low and very even, having only the barest hint of a conversational cadence.]

My companion, Shuyi, and I managed to locate and capture Miz Poppy. We captured her and two of her Deemer companions, and as we began to take them back to Perdition's Rest, she had some very interesting things to say.

She reaffirmed that there was no way to safely separate a Taraxa from its host without the destruction of the latter. What is more troubling, however, was that she insisted that hers and her compatriots' mission of destruction was something which the TIMELINE.EXE asked of them.

Before we could deliver her back here, one of the other captured Deemers sacrificed himself so that she may escape in the confusion.

It is not my intention to offer this information in order to incite mass confusion or doubt, as it is quite possible she was lying. But I do not think we can completely discount that she might be telling the truth—or that she and her fellows are somehow deluded enough to believe that they are. It is, as I originally said, something to at the very least keep in mind.

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[ there's a sigh and off camera, Loki scratches the place behind his ear in exasperation. ]

One that has been forgotten, even by ALASTAIR members, themselves. They seem to have taken up the task with ensuring the survival of the multiverse post-cataclysm from whomever, or whatever, programmed Timeline.exe.

Mm. If the origin is so obfuscated, it is not outside of the realm of reason that the program itself could have more branches of which we, attached to ALASTAIR as we are, are unaware of.

[In the end, it was all conjecture. But the Taraxa were apparently previously used by ALASTAIR, and that they would show up again in a rival faction meant that they were either being deceived, controlled, or they knew something that the Audentes faction did not.]

Possibly.

[ but Loki doesn't sound entirely displeased. it's a step in a direction that has quite a few options. ]

Though it could be someone running a copy of the same program to achieve a different objective.

Now there's an interesting thought.

[For someone who usually sounds so dispassionate, he actually does sound interested.]

And a dangerous one. There could be some kind of conflict between them, if there were multiple.

You know what happens in these kinds of ordeals: someone's wrong, someone's right ...

[ he says it all to wistfully. there's a long history of Asgardia (lost or no) of taking place in wars of their own making. ]

That's usually how one views it, yes.

[Elias has a skewed perception of morality. Being set apart from humans, and having observed them externally for such a long time, it was easy for him to think he could see things like this as an impartial observer.]

I suppose I am only apprehensive of being caught in the middle of this conflict, should it be the truth of what is happening.

Despite the obvious push-and-pull, it's quite the place to be.

[ someone wants to save the multiverse, despite it slowly dying, someone else wants to expedite the process. there is opportunity here, as Loki sees it, his own timeline already skewed.

sometimes things need to go, sometimes things need to be new. ]

But the calculations, I suppose that's all they are. There's nothing attached but what someone means to give it.

[Elias still struggles to solidify how he truly views the mission that ALASTAIR has undertaken. In his own world, though mages had the ability to utilize magic's power to do nearly anything, there were strict and understood codes which prevented anyone from trying to alter anything too overarching, too extreme. Time, gravity, all of the things that comprised the fabric of reality itself. They were off-limits.

So what ALASTAIR claimed to want to do made him apprehensive, though he recognized their prowess, having summoned all of them there. But it was difficult to fully absolve himself of doubts and worry.]

It seems odd to place something of such importance upon the calculations of a program we know not the origins of.

So, if there were two separate instances of this process, and they arrived at two different conclusions on what would be better for the overall Timeline. How are we supposed to reconcile this?

[Blind faith? Luck? They had a fifty-fifty chance.]

I wonder if there are one or more instances, or if it's the same instance with different opinions on how to handle the outcome. Measure how much energy is in the multiverse then come up with a plan to best handle it toward the most preferable outcome.

[ one to destroy, one to save.

it was a game of who was wrong and who was right—both the groups (or one side of it, anyway) seemed to have little idea of where the calculations had once come from. ]

Calculations generally don't come with biases.

But this is just all talk, of course.

One program coming up with two conflicting methods towards an optimal outcome seems unlikely to me, but... I suppose it is possible.

If that's the case, then the situation on this planet must be more delicate and capricious than we originally thought.

[At least in how it related to the overall Timeline itself]

Yes, of course, though it's a dialogue I find important to take place. Our actions are limited, considering our situation, [it wasn't like Elias was thinking they should just drop their current goal,] but we will have a lot to consider, moving forward from this point.

Conflicting for now, perhaps. Optimal is really in the eye of the beholder.

[ or only two groups fighting for what they thought was better. ]

Most of the time dichotomies come up short, I suppose we'll have to see with this one.

[It is just strange to him, as these types of conflicts typically seemed to be that of human bias or error rather than something attributed to a machine.

But the programs were made by someone, so perhaps that is where the fault lie.]

Yes, I believe that is the case.

voice; un: eliasainsworth

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