animus_network | 3. Knowledge [Video]

[[OOC: This is backdated to the 16th, after the Nyx Avatar battle. I meant to make this post earlier, but so it goes. Better late than never!]]

The video opens up on Jade Curtiss, picking up and slipping on his glasses, then looking at the camera while smiling his usual unconcerned smile and wearing his usual military uniform.

"Forgive me my abruptness, but I'd like to conduct a little survey," he says pleasantly. "My name is Jade Curtiss, and I had the fascinating experience of my first death yesterday--at, apparently, the hands of Death itself, no less. When I awoke this morning, I couldn't help but wonder, what sorts of deaths have you all experienced thus far? If you wouldn't mind indulging my curiosity, please leave a response in whatever format you prefer with as much detail as you feel comfortable with giving.

"Please be aware that I will likely ask follow-up questions. This is, of course, completely optional. For those of you who do participate, thank you in advance for your cooperation."

He nods his head politely, then reaches forward for something off-screen. The video cuts there. ...Morbid much?

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You'd appreciate his mindset, I think. He's very much interested in the acquisition of knowledge. All kinds. And since death isn't an issue here, he's used it as a means to an end with those studies. He's also fond of invisible, intangible candy.

[Lorelei could accept that maybe the candy was actually there but he was sticking to his first assumption; it's not real!]

Well, as you know there's monsters.

[He sits down. There's a distinct squelch from the mud.]

And they like to rampage. And sometimes that means when they're rampaging they break something I'm working on. It's annoying, but that's how it goes. I just have to start over.

[That last bit takes a bit more thought, brow furrowing. How to put this?]

I can't get precise. I'll do my best. It's like going to sleep, but when you wake up you're different. You remember everything you did before you went to sleep, and all your wants and desires and plans, but now they're a bit different. Maybe you liked strawberries the most before you went to sleep, but now you like pears more, or now you want to make Rugnica into a nice smooth bowl shaped crater instead of a plain. You're still you, but you're not the same you that you were before. It doesn't matter if I'm the way I am now or different, I'm still me. My song is the same.

[That might also explain a bit why he has trouble accepting Luke and Asch aren't still part of him somehow.]

[Death as a means to an end. That raises several flags.]

Exactly how does he utilize death for his studies?

[The matter of candy goes unremarked upon. Jade gets what Lorelei means; most of the food here is just a glamour.]

Ahh, I see what you mean now. I imagine there's no lack of human interference as well. Urban development and so on.

[As for the explanation, Jade listens closely. He's aware that this is not something the aggregate sentience can translate well into human terms. What he does describe is... curious, to say the least. The remark on making Rugnica into a nice crater is downright chilling. This does explain why he doesn't differentiate strongly between himself, Asch and Luke, though.]

I see. I'll have to consider this further. For now, may I ask how those 'deaths' compare to the deaths you've experienced here, in terms of character shift? I haven't noticed anything different myself, but...

For example, a few ... a month or more ago, to Tower calendar, he wanted to know what was below the cloud line you can see about midway up. So he planned to jump off. I don't know if he ever did but the idea of dying just doesn't bother him much. He knows it's not going to stick.

[Not the sacrificing of others sort, it seems. Just willing to kill himself for his own curiosity. Lorelei didn't think it was a big deal.]

Humans tend to poke at things a lot more, as opposed to randomly destroy it, at least. It's worse here though. Nothing stays for long. [There's a brief pause.] The deaths here in the tower aren't the same as losing back home. They're not killing me, just my vessel, so everything remains as it was before. The dissolution of my being into its component fonons never occurs.

I see. That's acceptable, then.

[It also sounds like something Jade himself would do, which doesn't recommend Xehanort very highly, but at least he's not getting anyone else involved in his experiments.]

That is true. Strictly speaking, assuming my understanding isn't incomplete, we aren't truly dying in this place; our vessels are merely being broken and swapped out. I'd love to find out how exactly the administrators do it.

The physical trauma sounds like it's about the same, and if memory serves the pain is similar.

[Not Lorelei's memories. But those particles got everywhere.]

I'd like to know how they do it too. It could revolutionize a whole lot of things if I could figure out how to reproduce it. Terminal illnesses wouldn't be anymore. Then people like the little Fon Master won't have to die so young.

Yes... That alone probably keeps most people from making too hard a distinction.

...The original Fon Master Ion, hm. Somehow, I have mixed feelings about that. It's a strange sensation.

Both of them. It is the same affliction that weakens the younger of the two. If he had his full strength, then what is to occur would not. Were the elder not afflicted as he was, then the seeds of his nature would not have been poisoned by hatred.

Edited 2014-01-28 02:31 (UTC)

That's precisely what I mean. Had the original Fon Master's early death not been foretold in the Score, no replicas of him would have been made--or at least, there wouldn't have been so convenient an excuse.

There would have been other reasons. Across multiple possibilities, there are usually more than one. Not in all cases, of course, but often. Sometimes simply for a 'test run' of H- Vandesdelca's plans, and an agreeable, willing child as the subject.

I suppose so. I doubt it would have stopped Van from coming up with his plan, but it might not have taken the form that it had--not that such speculations are all that useful.

Not useful, but interesting. The tantalizing thought experiments of what if can be quite a lot of fun. Out of the countless alternative Scores, you don't ever wonder what might have been had Yulia asked for a different song? Not every moment of a day need be spent usefully.

I never said it wasn't interesting or that it wasn't an amusing thought experiment. Actually, I find the concept of alternate Auldrants fascinating.

Ahh, but with you, interesting and useful usually go hand in hand!

[He looks amused. He LIKES thinking about futures he doesn't know! Or alternate realities he doesn't know. Possibilities, things that aren't already set in stone..]

I've heard it called the 'butterfly effect'. I spend a lot of time thinking about it. Of course I have a lot of time on my hands, but I imagine you're much busier.

Why, thank you.

[Looks like he took that as a compliment. Or perhaps he's just acting like he took it as a compliment. You can never tell with Jade.]

Not particularly. I find things with which to occupy my time, but how much of that is useful, I can't say. Speculating about alternate worlds and what-ifs seems as good a pasttime as any, and it doesn't surprise me that you do a lot of it. It simply doesn't affect our current situation any.

3. Knowledge [Video]

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[please assume this has been ICly filtered since my last tag]

[obedient filters]

[filtertastic!!]

[delicious filtering filler]

[tales of filteria]

[filter the return]

[final filtery xxiv]