ᴙ 01 [Voice]

[titango]

[Robin has already been here long enough to know what's going on as far as the village mythos is concerned. There'd been alleged kidnappings from multiple dimensions, and all sorts of superpowered types are supposedly stuck here to act as an army for some omnipresent Big Brother figure. It would have been a transparent enough illusion if not for

Comments

[Voice]

[titango]

I'm familiar with that story, 023. [Or did she prefer Daisy? Her transmissions made it difficult to tell what was her training and what was personal preference.] But what about the physical remnants? If you leave tomorrow, the communications you've left here today will stay. It seems like a messy move by a group that makes a habit out of tying up loose ends.

[Voice]

[titango]

But rewriting reality is exactly what gets done here on a regular basis, isn't it? [There's also all that gossip that went around about a recent reality-shift that was scheduled to last a great deal longer than it did, but Robin's gotten the impression that correspondence at that level is too classified to discuss over the network at all.]

[ voice ]

[touchofrogue]

[Ping.

And not because of what you said. The way you said it. Who you say you are. You see, she had a little green housemate, once upon a time, and not only has he mentioned you, Robin, but she's had the chance to see you from his eyes.

...she'll try answering the question first, though, since going off 'are you my friend's friend' doesn't always go so well right off the bat.]

Ya might as well ask why they don't erase our memories of 'em too.

[...]

Robin, huh? That's a familiar name...

[So she didn't wait long. It was still waiting.]

[ voice ]

[titango]

[OOC: Oh man THANK you for the link. xD ACTUALLY stalking characters as much as Robin would is more work than it has any right to be. XD]

The thought's occurred to me. I figured that kind of thing might be a touchy subject, though.

[Familiar? Familiar how? Whether or not it's warranted, this is suddenly filtered.]

It's a common name too. There's a chance you've got me mistaken, Miss Rogue.

[ voice ]

[touchofrogue]

[OOC: I believe it! Unfortunately, all of Rogue and BB's interaction seems to have been action, but at least if Robin went back far enough he'll see that BB was here. Actually... here is where she announced his home-going, so he'll at least gather some familiarity if he went back that far?

She's a little startled at the use of her name. That, plus the security of the filter he put up increases the assurance of her guess.]

Considerin' the kind of messin' with our mind they like ta do... yeah, it's a bit touchy. But I don't think they care enough ta make the ones of us who are here forget about the ones who go home.

[ Filtered ]

It's just Rogue. I don't go by 'miss' any more than you'd go by 'Mr. Robin.' An' I don't think I'm mistaken. Ya sound just like a friend of mine described. He's home now, though.

[ voice, filtered ]

[titango]

[OOC: Yeah, that's where I was gathering the link between them before -- most of BB's threads with *everyone* involved action tags. xD]

They don't care about those details, but they care about removing anything the departed's hands have physically touched? It doesn't make sense.

That might depend who this friend of yours is. [And also what exactly 'Beast Boy' has said about him. Assuming Beast Boy was ever really here at all and the little snippets of him and Cyborg aren't just someone's stock footage tossed into a VR environment for flavor.]

voice;

[chronica]

I don't think the purpose is to erase the identity. It's simply to remove them from the enclosure. Not like we have any established contact outside even this enclosure.

voice;

[titango]

Then why bother eliminating the person's belongings at all? It would take less effort to just pluck the person without clearing out their apartments as well.

[His tone is softer than it might have been, though. The Homura girl seemed to have more than enough on her plate already without being antagonized by some stranger.]

voice;

[chronica]

That person may have something from home that needed to be removed from the enclosure. This journal [she says, pointing to the camera] is their system, not ours. They have it under moderation. Having a previous record of their subjects is beneficial to them, so erasing all recordings is pointless.

voice;

[titango]

Even when those subjects are failed examples? One could also argue that the people who've left have simply outlived their usefulness.

[lookslikeajob]

Interesting question. Maybe they just don't care. Maybe it takes more resources than they're willing to commit, or than they have, given the situation they're in. Maybe they're leaving them as evidence that people can, in fact, leave. Given the story they give us I'd place highest odds on the last one.

[Filtered 99%]

If I were a betting man, anyway. Hello, Dick.

[He's not entirely certain he's got the correct Robin, but he knows them all pretty well, well enough that he's willing to guess.]

[titango]

[Well. This is suddenly awkward a lot sooner than Robin was planning.]

It probably goes without saying that they don't care. But if you're right and it's a PR move, then why don't more people question it? If it's staged, that makes it a more likely lie.

[Filtered]

I don't use that name anymore. Hello, Superman.

[Even if it's kind of cool that Clark remembers all the little details like that. He's always been a little like Alfred when it came to the little things.

If it even is Clark. Robin's not going to go around dropping anyone else's secret identity just in case.]

[lookslikeajob]

[Clark's good at not wasting time when he wants to be.]

I'm not so certain people don't question it, in their own minds at least. It's just that no one wants to be the person who brings it up out loud.

[Filtered]

I see... guess I'll have to get used to calling you "Robin" again. It's been a while, at least from my point of view.

[Clark would say that remembering everyone's "real" names in addition to their superhero ones is exactly the opposite of a little detail... but then, he's Clark. His civilian identity has always been more important to him than Bruce or Dick's were to them.]

[titango]

Why not? People should want to be prepared for everything.

[Filtered]

How long of a while?

[Sometimes, Robin misses Dick. It's just that Robin has more of a purpose. There's no sense in trying to juggle.]

[Voice]

[semper_cogitans]

[A deep question to ask, especially from an apparent New Feather. It's a question that gets his attention, especially in Robert's recent mood.]

S-Salutations, Robin.

... I would... s-suppose that doing so takes... t-too much collective effort and resources. The sheer energy expenditure a-alone that the Shifting technology must take even to do temporary Shifts seems to... render a full-scale erasure of i-individuals... unsatisfactory.

[The Malnosso left Vivi's letter, and the hat she wished to give him, behind, even after she'd been sent home.. But to truly destroy all traces of her presence, they'd have to destroy the memories of anybody who'd ever witnessed her, too. And the last time they were able to do that, it was temporary.

... The fact it could have been longer, however, is not reassuring.]

[Voice]

[titango]

[Most of the shallower questions are already answered on the network, if one cared enough to read. Particularly if one had any interest in believing any of it at face value.]

Greetings, Professor Hastings.

If that's the case, then what is there to gain from erasing evidence of the same individuals' physical presence? Why do anything only part of the way?

[Voice]

[semper_cogitans]

[... Whelp. Robert's still getting over the fact that people can look at older posts at their leisure. Even though he's done it himself.]

The Malnosso do a... significant amount of things "part of the way". For example, the... e-environment of this enclosure is absolutely preposterously put-together... Not like a r-real biome at all. I suppose it is simply a... facsimile, and as they can control all aspects of the e-enclosure at all times, there... is no need for anything more effectual.

... But I could... h-hardly tell you why this is. It all seems so... dreadfully inconsistent. Were they to be... anything like proper scientists, this would all have a rationale.

[Voice]

[titango]

[It's probably easy to forget that Big Brother's everywhere in this enclosure. Too easy.]

I'm curious about any theories you have about the inconsistencies. One would think the natural shifts would influence their capability to create any sort of a stable environment, but do you mean to say there are additional factors involved?