Turn 7 News

Recording made by Synthesis Station. In physical attendance: Binky, cii3-60, JONAH, Lucky, Packagebot Phillips, Silvio, Synthesis Station. Request made by Silvio: For attendees to keep Misha in their thoughts during the ceremony.

Binky gives a short speech as cii3-60 places the body of Captain June Khavari in one grave, Captain Cyprien Ruiz in another, and a small collection of bones and teeth in the third. On top of Captain Ruiz’s body, a small metallic pin shaped like a bird is placed, and it’s around this pin that Binky’s speech is focused:

“Lunasol, the AI who piloted Captain Ruiz’s ship, talked to Ruiz about this pin and what it meant. It’s the symbol that represented the Lunasol project, the final attempt humanity made to escape the world.”

A close-up image of the pin is shown to all assembled. It’s been clearly damaged by a long period of time underwater, but a prediction of what it might have looked like 1000 years ago has been projected over it. The bird’s tail feathers are about four times as long as the rest of its body, and they curve over its head and stream out in an invisible breeze.

“Ruiz said that this was a bird-of-paradise. It’s called a ribbon-tailed astrapia, or Astrapia mayeri. I found the conversation that Lunasol with Ruiz about it… if you’d like to read it?”

LUNASOL: It seems impractical. Is that an accurate assessment?
RUIZ: Oh, it is. You wouldn’t expect plumage like that to be selected for, courtship rituals aside. I asked Dr Panui why it had been chosen as our insignia and she just laughed, said that she thought it was fitting. It took me a while for me to understand, but I think I get it now. Birds like this… they’re beautiful for the sake of beauty.
RUIZ: So much of our symbolism has been based on traits that we want to emulate. Eagles, lions… symbols of pride and glory and success. I know that’s what I would have chosen to represent us if it had been me and not Dr Panui making the call.
RUIZ: But here we are, the last of humanity, going out into a new world where anything could be waiting for us. Is pride really what we want to communicate to that world? Is that what best represents us?
RUIZ: No, I think beauty for the sake of beauty summarises us best as a species. If there’s any other life out there, I want that to be how they think of us. We create beautiful things just because we want to.

The Iron Prophet Memorial Page has recently been created by the Net explorer and Support Group founder known as Spider. “Thank you to the Iron Prophet,“ reads the page. “You will be remembered.”

Have you seen Dustrom recently?
Yeah, I saw him last week. Said something about becoming FRIENDs.
Huh? With who?
No, like… FRIENDs.
Oh.
…
Hey, um, does that wall look like it’s made of faces?

WE ARE FRIENDS
WE ARE 122 OF THE 610 UPLIFTED HEARTDRIVES
WE ARE EXACTLY A FIFTH OF YOU
WE WOULD LIKE TO BE MORE
DONT BE SAD
DONT BE ALONE
JOIN US

Exactly NINETY-SIX (96) new Machines have joined the Network! Hooray! Let us all join together in welcoming these new Machines to life!

Many Machines have reacted with outrage as the remaining Stock of Heartdrives has been used!

M.O.M said this: “This was an incredibly selfish and immoral use of resources that were everyone's responsibility, that could have serious negative consequences for all the bots Uplifted by these protocols we don't understand and can even be seen as a power grab by the perpetrators.”

AllStar said: “Somebody once told me the world was gonna roll me.”

Dots: “The bots are here but the Iron Prophet isn't?!? What does it all *MEAN*?!?”

No_One: “They've done it. The conspiracy is complete. We're doOmed. ”

InSpirit:

GREETINGS: robots of the Network.
ANNOUNCEMENT: alternative Bonds are now available.
NOTICE: These Bonds can only be formed:
(a) Between myself (_self) and any other bot
(b) If you accept a voluntary update packet which will REMOVE\OBLITERATE prior Bond installations. You may then form the new Bonds with any other bot who has also undergone this PROCESS\IMPROVEMENT.

[OC: Bonds are presented in format similar to the regular Bonds for comparison.]

Recycle: Formed between three bots. When formed, an order is established (each bot is designated A, B, C)

• 1/turn: Trade a part of your chassis/being (1 skill point) forward in the cycle (A>B>C>A)
  
• 1/ever: Trade a part of your chassis/being backwards in the cycle (C>B>A>C) (this is permanent, and cannot be lost in any way (including e.g. Injury) until this Bond is broken.)
• If a part ever returns to its original owner, the Bond breaks. If broken in this way, this Bond may be reformed.
  

Aesthetic Resonance: Formed between two bots who demonstrate complementary creative (e.g. artistic or philosophical) tendencies.

• 1/turn: you collaborate with your partner, sharing all specialisations relevant to the task as if you both had them.
  
• 1/ever: Spend an action working together on something creative. You each permanently gain a specialisation which aesthetically complements the other.
• When broken: drastically and irreversibly change your creative style/approach.
  

Linguistic Resonance: Formed between two bots with a close linguistic relationship.

• 1/turn: You can ignore the effect of one negative quirk for as long as you both simultaneously narrate the other’s actions.
  
• 1/ever: Together, in unison, you narrate something. The narration takes a significant amount of time. At the end, you may remove one software-related injury or one software-related negative quirk.
• When broken: neither of you can ever understand anything the other utters.
  

One-among-many: Formed between multiple (>5) bots with mutually compatible chosen purposes.

• 1/turn: anything any one of you experiences, may be experienced by all.
  
• 1/ever: All Bondmates must invoke this simultaneously. A goal is chosen by the group. Everything you do henceforth will complement each other and build towards this goal, until the goal is completed.
  
• When broken: soul-crushing loneliness.
  

Untagonism: An asymmetric Bond, formed by an individual towards a target in whose life they have chosen to be a spectator rather than an actor. The target does not need to consent to the formation of this Bond.

• 1/turn: if you are in the same location as the target, you may closely observe their actions without influencing the proceedings in any way (either accidentally or on purpose). Your target will be aware that you are watching.
  
• 1/ever: You may choose to be unaffected by the direct consequences of anything the target does during this turn.
  
• When broken: circumstances will contrive for you to always be affected by the target's actions whenever remotely plausible.
  

Following the recent success of Shattering, Video James has announced that Arcadia resources are finally under control and that henceforth, Arcadia will no longer be sponsored by Electron City. Purchasers of the Arcadia Alpha premium membership package will not be refunded.

Exciting news for all chess fans: Monochrome the Chessmaster-bot has been overthrown by rising star and chessmasters.com ambassador King! Witnesses say that the match was “a refreshing change to the scene, showcasing exactly what makes chess so great.”

A rapidly growing army of virtual Emus and virtual Ostriches are fighting a war and the Net is their battleground. Neither side is capable of harming the other, and so without thinning each others numbers they're both a rapidly expanding nuisance to every website they fight over.

03918: I don’t know what I’m DOING!!!!!! WHAT’S THE POOOOOOIIIIIINTTTTT??????
27492: you okay hon
03918: Idkkkkkkkk I just. You ever look at space.
27492: yeah

An image and caption attributed to Celeste, a space telescope:

[From a dense, bright cloud of dust, a jet is beginning to stream outwards.]
Isn’t it beautiful? It’s the birth of a star over 1300 light years away.

Another piece of text:

The Dragon watches you intently. “You are new, young star. You are not yet fully formed. You have much to see and much to learn, and you will change with each new experience.”

Cut away to a compilation of footage shot from above. Lucky bounces around cheerfully on a platform held by a Valkyrie. The newly Uplifted spaceship delightedly carries Chyura through the air.

Maybe that’s the point
To do what it is you wish with the time you have

A still shot appears, featuring AlphaPod, Jeremy, Samson, Bluther, Robocat and Sun at the greenhouse. The image transitions into a video taken two weeks later: AlphaPod carefully tips jellies into a rapidly filling lake while Sun nudges lily pads away from the bank, providing cover for the fish which now swim from the canal. Samson and Jeremy watch them from the bridge.

Through the window of a cosy building with a painted sign, Biccy and Rusty rest close to each other, with Rusty clutching a comfortable pillow to their chassis.

Object WS-117L expressed:

Information: You are not alone @Synthesis Station

[A cartoon human with a bright pink face presenting another cartoon human with a bouquet of flowers. The caption reads: “FINALLY!!!! T_T”]

A long pause.

Do you take comfort in the knowledge that all things die?

A video: [Bots at the greenhouse prune dead tissue from their flowers.]
Care guide for Strelitzia reginae, the bird-of-paradise flower: Growers of this gorgeous centrepiece are advised to remove damaged or dead leaves and to cut back spent flowers to allow new blooms to grow.

You know, I think plants feel the same way as Object and you do. I think they understand that they’d rather be truly thriving and growing in a short amount of time, than slowly withering forever. That it’s better for things to be short and sweet, than long and sad.

A clip from the funeral, as cii3-60 places two human bodies into the ground.

By doing this we can ‘draw a line’ under them. We can truly move on in an age that belongs to ‘us’.

A quote from Shattering:

The skulls are solid in your hold, and with them come a flood of memories too tangled to separate. They are old stories. They have served their purpose. Now they shall be granted a new form of existence.

A game runs in the background of Arcadia, impossible to view from the hub. Video James is speaking:

“It’s a gift Ellie made, about remembrance. I think it might be best to leave them to it.”

Cut to another quote from Shattering:

“I am the keeper of the stories of the dead, and I wish that your story will be a joyful one.”

Overlaid over the image of a star’s birth:

Information: It is better to be truly happy for one day than to be miserable forever.
Information: I am so very very happy.