IV.

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

[Video]

Hey...sorry if anyone was looking for me for the last couple of weeks. I only meant that to be like a three hour trip, but I'm back now.

So, those robots on the island are pretty friendly, and I see some managed to get over here. Has anyone been able to communicate? I can't make heads or tails, personally.

Comments

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

Hm. I guess that would work best. Do you think they process sound, even?

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Most of them seem to, they just have a completely different language. It's like trying to talk to a fax machine.

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

...I wonder if my phone...well, it's been out of charge for months now...

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

I'd assume that'd be like trying to talk to someone from another country or something. Then again, maybe the super-translation here would compensate... although that wouldn't explain why it doesn't work on the robots themselves...

[Wait wait we are getting distracted here!]

Uh, anyway, I'm not sure that'd work either, since I'm pretty sure the most they'd get from a cell phone would be like "I am here, are there any messages?" or something.

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

Probably. Electronics aren't really my strong suit...

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

I'm okay with them, but, y'know, I'm not exactly building my own groundbreaking robotics technology or anything.

Though these guys are kind of... not quite electronics. They LOOK like robots, but once you get past the surface, they don't make a lot of sense.

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

Hm. So they're in the shape of machines without really being machines?

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Yup. Just like everything mechanical here. I don't think the Queen (or whoever it is actually runs this stuff) really cares about making things that could actually work. [Ignoring the fact that, in the Gardens, they DO work. Jessica refuses to go happily along with the total breakdown of physics.]

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

I guess stuff just works here because someone wants it to. That explains the magic construction dirt, too.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, pretty much. It's annoying.

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't know. I've been in a world like that before and this one is way less trouble.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Wait, seriously?

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

Seriously. I'll take the Queen's rules over Ame-no-Sagiri and Izanami's any day.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

I... have no idea what those are.

How'd you get out?

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

Well, in that place, there was a door, and a friendly native to show us how to use it.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Well, I guess that's not helping us much...

So... how similar was that place to here? Like, do you think it's the same, um, setup?

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

It's close enough this place really could be part of the same dimension, after we got rid of the fog and the Shadows. We can change parts of it to our desires, there's weird creatures running around, and it's run by a crazy lady with godlike powers. The glimpse of it without fog I got before even looked nice and rural, like most of the Gardens.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Hmm... so it's possible that, beyond the borders, there's similar areas run by other people?

Oh yeah! You were... physically there, right?

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

Individual humans could sort of unconsciously stake out bounded territories, as did Izanami, so probably...

And yep. Jumped through a TV, wound up inside a different world. Don't ask why a TV, it's a really long and allegorical story.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Unconsciously?

Ugh, allegory. I don't think I'd get it even if you did explain. But the important thing is, that's more almost-evidence for the "we're here physically" theory. Unless there was also a way for people to be, uh, cloned or astral projected or whatever.

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

It was all sort of subconscious...mostly. People's fears and insecurities and repressed emotions and that kind of thing.

...and it actually never occurred to me we weren't here physically.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Huh. So Her Highness here might not have total influence over the place?

The hypotheses so far seem to be "actually kidnapped physically," "puppets cloned from some supernatural 'essence,'" "puppets made up entirely with false memories," and "virtual reality."

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

Well, she doesn't seem to be able to undo anything she does, her subordinates can overpower her, and we can alter this place without her approval as long as we stay within some rules. That's probably a good explanation.

And you might as well tag on "dreaming" to that, I guess.

[notvitiligo.livejournal.com]

Good point.

Wouldn't we have woken up sooner? I mean, my dreams are usually... a lot different.

[sistagonist.livejournal.com]

It really depends.

...you don't know anything about Carl Jung, do you?