[text]

[giveuponyourself]

It seems we're all stuck here together like one big happy family, aren't we? Since that's the case... how about we play a little game to get to know each other?

What is most important to you in your entire life? What would you be willing to do anything for? And I do mean anything~

And please, nothing like 'friendship' or 'world peace.' Really dig down deep; we should all be honest with each other, don't you think? ❤

[feel free to answer the question or not, Joshua seems to just be very bored. what a chatty nerd!]

Comments

[eyeofassault]

idk bout humanity, just they read like humans...1st time being around so many w/o killing them or getting orders

im assuming thats a no to the dead ais bit & "did for myself" sounds like suicide i mean whatever floats ur boat but haha that wont make sense 2 me

[fairysong]

I'm afraid you just missed the last one!
Turns out the mermaids in the lake like music. So I thought I'd get on their good side.

Probably won't be the last.

[chromatized]

oh, thanks!

... do we get any membership benefits out of this?

JUST GO WITH THE FLOW

[reeliable]

Yeah, I'm not really going with intentions to pick fights, but learning a few good moves by watching isn't all that bad either. There's also placing bets. [He says this as a joke from first world shenanigans and yet-]

I've spent my hours in an arcade, I'd like to think I'm pretty quick on the uptake. It sounds more fun than chasing a beast down to make a perfect cup of noodles anyway.

[pidgeypidge]

I'd make sure to frame it, as well!

Wait. What's wrong with seafood?

[infailtration]

it's not, but still seems pretty sketchy.

i guess if you were trying to trick people you would've phrased it less sketchily though.

or maybe you'd know that we'd think that and it's a layered trick.

[spaceforged]

There was no revolution on Struxta. According to their history a plague struck. They couldn't cure it. They uploaded their minds into robotic bodies and connected them into a grand network. A glitch or a false program was erasing their history.

Some disconnected from the vast network. But the thing we had to face was a giant electrical storm. We had to divert its power away from the city. Or everyone would have been wiped out. Unfortunately, that plague came with us back to this realm.

We only recently recovered from it.

[activatingcombatmode]

Oh, I know. Assholes be assholes.

Like I said, there's no real answer to it all.

[giveuponyourself]

Hm... nah. I don't feel like it.

And I don't really need to justify myself to you.

[giveuponyourself]

Oh really?

[Well now, this was interesting. Maybe a bit concerning, given that sort of confession right there, but it's not like Joshua was going to lose a family to a godly sacrifice. He didn't even have a family to lose!]

I'd love to hear that story some time~

[giveuponyourself]

[Oh.

Joshua... hadn't actually... thought about that? Before?

His entire life had been in Shibuya. Born, raised and died there, and because of his choices he'd always been bound within the confines of the Shibuya district. He'd grown so complacent of Shibuya being a fact of life that he'd grown resentful of it-- and tried to destroy it. He'd changed his mind, obviously, for reasons he himself wasn't even entirely sure of. Shibuya still Was, and it was pretty much always going to be. He didn't even imagine what he would do when Shibuya was gone, despite his vehemence in destroying it.

But now he was here, in a place that was definitely not Shibuya, and was possibly another realm or place of existence altogether. He'd already seen all the trouble that his absence had caused for the the higher ups during his game with Megumi, so-- what was happening if he was gone period? The game couldn't run. The dead couldn't be judged. The Reapers would be directionless, and in certain aspects, powerless.

The realization that this was a thing-- that the world didn't just stop because Joshua wasn't around to attend to comings and goings-- was enough to visibly surprise him, and he didn't even bother to cover up his moment of silence or the frank expression on his face.]

I... I don't know. I've never left the city before. [Even when he was in an alternate universe, he'd still been in Shibuya!]

[giveuponyourself]

[.................

...

...

...

...

...


...

...

...]

Well, if we're going on purely practical evidence, probably mozzarella. It would still receive its illumination from the sun, and the color it casts is never yellow enough to truly resemble a wheel of cheddar.

[This was stupid.]

[petrifying]

You can have white cheddar though!

[giveuponyourself]

Regrettably, no, in regards to dead AIs. I'm not sure what would happen to them in my world's little afterlife. That brings up all sorts of questions about souls and personhood that we haven't had to deal with yet. [Unfortunate, because he'd love to see an AI somehow show up in a Game.]

So, am I to understand you're some sort of military android?

[Who said anything about suicide??? no one.]

[explosivo]

I mean
I literally fucking just said choosing one over the other isn't a sacrifice
And it literally can't be collateral fucking damage if I'm not the one dealing the damage
You can make all the wild ass what-if choices if you want to bullshit all you want without making a decent argument
Guess you'd be envious of me if you literally can't fucking read and I can

[eyeofassault]

[Welp, he never actually confirmed nor deny. Not that G11 has much thought on it.]

too bad but if afterlife stuff happens here look out for an AR15 model

& HECK NO. military r shit, im part of an independent merc unit

1/

[soundsurfing]

[ You know what's not confidence inducing? When the guy who proclaims himself Near Omnipotent and All Important to Shibuya as Shibuya Is To Him, has a moment of pure silence with the most shocked looked on his face Beat has probably ever seen on someone.

And then says I dont know. ]

Bro....

2/

[soundsurfing]

[ Oh god what if Shibuya is GONE, what if Shibuya just ceased to exist the moment Joshua popped out of it!?

A slightly more panicked: ]

Bro..

3/3

[soundsurfing]

[ Worse, what if every bad thing to ever happen is now happening and it can't be stopped because Joshua isn't there to stop it?!

Full-blown panicked: ]

Bro!! We gotta get home like right now, yo!

[invasif]

Certainly not, nor would you succeed in it.

[giveuponyourself]

Well I wouldn't still be here if I knew how! [Joshua was hardly one to get caught up in the moment, but, admittedly, he was kind of caught up in the moment with Beat panicking and his own existential dread. So he was a little worked up.]

I can't exactly travel to another universe without any of my powers.

[soundsurfing]

We gotta find Astrology girl, yo, we gotta find her an' then maybe we can punch her into sendin' us back.

[ Huh, this sounds suspiciously like the plan Beat had in punching the Composer to take over and bring everyone back to life. ]

[giveuponyourself]

Ugh, is that your answer to everything...? [Oh, he remembers Beat's original plan all too well. It was funny! When he had god-like powers still.]

Loathe as I am to admit it, I don't think this is as simple as finding her and taking her seat at the top... Although... [Oh no. He's thinking about it.]

...Perhaps not as different as we thought.

[giveuponyourself]

Then it would seem we're at an impasse. Why ask me to tell you, if you weren't going to believe whatever I say anyway?

[invasif]

"Even if what they say isn't true, there's still some insight to be gained just by what lie people will choose."

[ She didn't even retype it, she just copypasta'd it. ]