Investigate the contingency system. 45%
Spike wanted to go straight into Node and retrieve her, the way Rainbow seemed to want. In particular, this seemed like the pony he had the best chance of rescuing. There was no telling whether the Contingency would have any system in place for returning ponies to their bodies. For all they knew, they were dead forever. But Node was just a machine, and there was some solidarity there. Some paternal affection as well, for the system Spike had built? If so, he never would’ve admitted it.
“We can’t risk getting caught in whatever caught her,” Spike said. “But there are other ways to find information, safer ways. We don’t have to expose ourselves to the system until we’re ready to move.”
“Right,” Rainbow repeated, oblivious. “Is that gonna make sense, or…”
“No,” Spike said, focusing on the terminal. Any console in the whole system would be equally useful for his purposes. The question is, what would he find? He searched. Whoever had built this system saw the world in a familiar way—they had hierarchical file trees, each usefully named. They had functions and explanatory text where appropriate, though much of what he found waiting in the manual pages made no sense to him. Spike might be a “living” computer system now, but that did not imbue him with a magical knowledge of how computers work. He shrugged and floundered his way through systems that Twilight could’ve plumbed dry in minutes.
The process took subjective days. Rainbow Dash wandered away after a few minutes, returning with a large box: a massive, flat display. She brought furniture, snacks, and then alien entertainment. She lounged about, watching alien entertainment about creatures in fighters embroiled in some constant, inscrutable war. Spike wanted to take in the cultural details—but that too was outside his field, and so he left well enough alone.
“Alright!” Spike declared, finally turning away from the terminal. He hadn’t moved from the spot, hadn’t felt tired or hungry or the need to piss. But now that he thought about those things, they all came rushing up to meet him in a terrible wave. No. You’re not real. I don’t even have a body. Go away.
He dismissed his tiredness as easily as he might’ve removed a shirt. “I know what happened to Node.”
“Okay.” Rainbow flopped sideways from her alien couch, dislodging a mountain of popcorn. “Say it in a way that makes sense.”
“This place, the Contingency—it was made for people. Organic, living people. But it has security measures in place, in case artificial intelligence ever finds its way in here. A… honeypot, I guess. A system that’s so enticing, they can’t help but transfer there, and get stuck. We should be able to get Node out, or… you should.” He looked away awkwardly. “I’m, uh… kinda-sorta artificial intelligence myself.”
“Yeah?” Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Did you get a leg replaced or something after the fight?”
“N-no…” he hesitated. “I don’t feel like talking about it right now. I think I must be immune to it, because I found the system and didn’t go right in. But there’s at least some chance I won’t be able to leave when I get there.”
Rainbow hopped off the couch, shaking out her wings. “I don’t see how that’s different from what happened to any of us. We all found something we liked to do. This place… gave us what we wanted. You said Applejack didn’t want to leave period. I bet that’s what it does to…” she shook her head. “You sure? Artificial intelligence? That still weirds me out. I know we didn’t talk about it, but I think Node is just a pony. Maybe… converted. Digitized? Recorded? I don’t know. Nopony ever said what the Signalers did would make sense.”
“Then she’s still—” Spike froze. “Wait, you, have thought about it? Wouldn’t a recorded mind be… an AI? If you put a mind onto a ship’s computer, isn’t it just the ship? Not a creature anymore, no more soul or desires, or…”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “That’s stupid. I know pegasus ponies with all kinds of implants. Right before we left, there were some who got all shot full of implants, so they could fly around in the atmosphere of Jupiter to work the Hydrogen mine. They were basically more metal than pony at that point, but… what difference does it make?” She pushed Spike gently by the shoulder, over to the console. “We can’t waste time being existential. Twilight’s waiting for us. Vacation over. Let’s get Node and “Rarity, then bounce.”
Spike rested one claw on Rainbow’s shoulder, so she’d be part of the transfer—then invoked the command required.
They were standing in a city. Not the same city—there were thousands of occupants now. Ghostly transparent figures, just a little taller than Spike. They walked on two legs, wearing wispy cloaks and capes that covered most of their bodies. Ghostly vehicles rumbled along the roads. In the sky, a massive ring slowly rotated, like a metal ceiling high above.
But one figure wasn’t transparent like the rest. Spike saw her, sitting beside the pond, skipping rocks across its surface. It looked like the other ghostly figures, though only her face was visible through the wispy cloak. Fleshy, pale, with a white mane cascading down her back. One of her eyes was metallic in its socket.
Is this what the signalers looked like? Familiar in important ways a biologist would realize. Distinct in others. There was something childlike and helpless about the way the face was structured. “You’re here too?” she asked. Still in Starlight Glimmer’s voice, though there was an emotional depth to it that Spike had never heard from Node before. Strange tones and stresses that no pony would’ve used. This system is translating for us.
“We thought it was time to get some real work done,” Rainbow said, settling down on her haunches beside Spike. “No offence, but I liked your old look better. You’ll get a headache so high off the ground.”
Node laughed weakly. She picked up another stone, skipped it across the water. “They’re gone,” she said. “Into a device just like this, cast into the void to drift. My family… my friends. I agreed to stay behind and watch for you. Why would I do that?”
“Because… you had a good reason?” Spike suggested. “Why did you stay?”
“A good reason to get scrubbed down into an echo of myself, running out of a computer like a pocket calculator? A good reason to let a copy live my life, with my friends, in my…” she sighed, throwing another stone into the pond. It landed with a resounding splash, not skipping once. “You already know what you need to know. There’s nothing more I can tell you. The Hunger that’s coming—and the solutions. Join the Flotilla, or hide somewhere too small to find. We’ve tried every solution, tried all of them repeatedly. Thousands of years to try to make something better here, for nothing. You aren’t immune.”
“Maybe we aren’t,” Rainbow said. “But I know one thing—you’re not better off alone in here with these ghosts. We’re your friends, Node. We want you to be part of the crew.”
“What if I don’t?” she asked. “My civilization is gone—without me. I’ll never see them again. You can be my friends, but you can’t replace what was lost. That’s why my memories were locked away in here—I knew what they would do to me.”
Spike had never heard such hopelessness from any creature in his life. Starlight Glimmer had certainly never sounded that way. He had a grim choice to make.
1. Try to compel Node to leave against her will. [Dangerous]
2. Say goodbye.
(Certainty 205 required)
Nope, you don't get to die sad. Spike's a dragon, and he hoards his friends. You're going to come back kicking and screaming, hate us for a while, and then learn something about rebuilding your life.
"We can't force you to come, Node, but we hope you will."
Voted to leave.
Reminds me of a quote from a comic:
Scorpior: "Scorpior is lousy with computers and therefore requires your help."
Crow: "You ARE a computer!"
Scorpior: "Scorpior is a computer, NOT A NERD."
Interesting, I hope this goes well and they get everyone out.
Yeah... let's not provoke the digital alien being that probably knows the system better than anyone else there. Say I vote we goodbye for now and hope there's some chance to change Node's mind later.
I say leave her. She's done all she can, and since forcing to leave is dangerous, it's not worth the risk.
Time to smack some sense into Node.
....HOOO BOY.
Well... F*** this chois.
Huh. Node was an upload. One so heavily compressed it makes Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff look like the Sistine Chapel ceiling, but still. I never would've guessed. That along with Dash's take on the artificiality of consciousness should do a lot should do a lot to bolster Spike's self-image.
As for the question, at the very least, Node can provide some help in getting the others out of the Contingency. If figuring out the honeypot took subjective days, I can only imagine how long that could take. I just wish there was a "come back later" option.
I think we HAVE to try and convince here. There must be an attempt.
I don't see a terribly bad failure state here. Node probably won't hurt anyone for simply talking, but FORCE would be bad.
Now that is interesting... This and a few other comments have made me start to pondering something, have to see how wrong it is.
For me, that choice is the toughest call in the entirety of the story so far.
As a mind an order of magnitude more advanced, does she even feel pain in the same way?
We've got to at least try convincing Node. She's our friend after all. If she absolutely refuses to leave then it may be best to say goodbye, but I'd like to try getting her out.
Shouldn’t we be able to go in and out of the contingency at will later, now that we understand it better? Can’t we use node as a consultant until he wants to come out and be a real person?
OH MY WORD SHE WAS A REAL PERSON THIS WHOLE TIME. I wonder what that means about true A.I.s? Do they have the capacity to be as sentient as Node or Spike?
I don't like any of the options. She's clearly desperately sad here, so leaving her would only doom her to an eternity of loneliness, surrounded by the ghosts of those she lost, unable to move forward. She'd be trapped.
I don't like erasing her memories, either. That's a crude solution that destroys all of the good memories she has along with the sadness.
And while I don't particularly care for trying to MAKE her do anything... I think that's the best option.
One question remains: if Spike and Node are BOTH living minds transferred into machines, why ISN'T he affected like her? Is it because he still has full awareness of himself, while she didn't have her full faculties?
Let's put a rain check on Node, yeah? Let her be for now, and maybe in the future try again. I don't like that dangerous label. Her resisting and fighting Spike and Rainbow would not be helpful.
Erasing her memories... Like, all of them, or just the ones that were locked? The former doesn't sound helpful, and again, dangerous label so I'm hesitant
Friendship is magic and such.
I'm voting for trying to convince Node to leave.
Once again Starscribe biases the results by not providing sufficient information to make an informed vote. Forcing Node to leave is unethical, but the phrasing of the poll leads some people to believe that this choice is final and nobody can come back and speak to Node again in future which undoubtedly is influencing the votes. I enjoy Starscribe's writing, but constantly maliciously misleading the readers with this polling system is really unpleasant. Other authors doing interactive fiction have far better approaches.
Leave her be, if she wants to remain as a ghost for eternity, that's her choice, Node has already given up so much if this is the end she chooses, thenbler dead ghosts lay
We've tried convincing. That already failed. I don't see why we would want to force her out. We'đ be crippling her since the Node hardware apparently can't support her whole personality.
Better to leave her whole but alone than crippled and together, especially when she's already explicitly stated her preference for the former.
Yeah, there's no "convince her through the power of friendship" option, and that does not represent our ponies. And Rainbow would NOT leave Node behind. She's Loyalty, and Loyalty leaves no mare, sophont or digital backup behind!
Trying to force her to leave, and it backfiring, may mean that everyone will be trapped within the contingency. It will be just Twilight, fluttershy, and sunset trying to get home.
I don’t think that’s worth the risk, permanently losing so many characters. Leave Node behind.
I believe this calls for an intervention... yes, it has some risk, but by this point Node is part of the group. Leaving her to self-imposed exile is NOT what friends would do!
I'm abstaining on this one.
Interesting, so everyone is real, even Node.
Force her, I suppose. It's probably a bad idea, but I think leaving her alone and abandoned forever in the Contingency is worse.
Also, weird that Node's choice to stay was apparently made without any dice rolls.
Spike hoards as friends.
Rainbow Dash is the paradigm of loyalty.
And leaving your friends behind is just not a pony thing to do.
It's time for tough love.
Abstain, no force her, but try to persuade her.
it is really what you want? stay forever locked in your photo album brooding? At least you know your friends and family are safe somewhere and a version of you is with them (and really what is with you calling him a copy? I'm sure for him you are the copy). We don't even know what happened to Equestria. For all we know they are all gone, All the ponies we'd know are certainly dead after all this time. Should this mean that we should lay down and die, too? Buck that, no, we fight! And if the Hunger eat us we'll try to give it the biggest stomach ache we can.
At least help us finding our other friends? Or you think it would cut too much time in your eternity of self-pity?
p.s. and even if one would try to force her, first find the others, then come back with all of them so you'd have a better chance.)
WHERE IS THE LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP OPTION!??!?!
Clearly Node is still in stage three of immortality psychosis. At least she can't suicide here? Or can she?
Keep going! ;)
Neat.
That's the spirit, Rainbow! We always knew we could count on you!
(And there is one quotation mark too much.)
I voted to leave without forcing her.
For the same reasons 9702588 hat provided.
Ok seriously. You people need to start meta gaming this is an rpg before it's a story. Starscribd already said we are at chaos 7 of 10 which means EVERY negative outcome is way more likely. its not a 1to1 but being attacked by the contingency are HIGH risk no reward please don't fuck this up any more then u already have. Vote to fucking leave her be. Please. We have sunset and apple bloom and we can probably put spike in nodes body for a mobile platform. Please don't get spike and rainbow fucking trapped in the contingency we do not have time for this. Please vote to leave her. Please
If we fail the convince rolls we will not survive.
9703199
Your right but starscribe wants drama. Which is fair we have had crazy luck. And I'm sure our dm is annoyed. But we will fucking lose the run if we fail any of like next for action rolls