Event: Day 336 [open]

[bastionpc]

Who: NPCs! and you guys
Open: Open
When: Day 336
Where: in the Bastion
What: A plan is made, a letter is mailed, an enemy is cracked, a thief is caught
Format: action
Warnings: none




[Lots of things are happening today. See the individual threads in the post to find out what is going on.]

Comments

[dontyoujustwish]

I thought the problem was that no one agreed on that point.

[He's going to make them all agree? Must be some magical coercion going on there.]

[darkshooter]

[Not saying anything yet, but nonetheless making it a point to be here for this discussion. It's quite relevant to her concerns.]

[freedom_engineer]

[Colin's shown up too, but he's only here for information. The odds of him speaking up are very low unless something monumentally bad is brought up.]

[bastionpc]

That's the problem I'm talking about, Anya. The two options we have now both have huge pros and cons, but nobody can agree on which of the two would be better. But I think I found something that might work.

Basically, we can't stay here in the Bastion forever. At some point we're going to run out of cores and shards, and this place will drop out of the sky. But I was looking into the various functions within the Bastion, and I had an idea. The Bastion has a function where it pulls in land from the surrounding Skyway to make the Bastion bigger, we've already been using that. But I think I can alter that function a bit, and if we dump a bunch of power into it at once, then with the right modifications I could probably get the Bastion to form a new planet. Maybe.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

So then the pieces of land would hold each other together without needing the Monument? How big of a planet are we talking about? The same size as this world originally was?

[bastionpc]

Ideally, yes. Ultimately we would be limited by how much power we could dump into the process, though. And, admittedly, I'm no expert on geology. If anyone knows anything about how planets are formed, I could definitely use their help, if we decide to go with this plan.

[freedom_engineer]

I've been on teams that planned planetoid construction on about five separate occasions.

I can give you plenty of pointers on the inner workings of it. I'd be interested in seeing if the Monument can pull this off...

[bastionpc]

I think it's the best bet we have. A lot of you don't like the thought of going back in time to try and stop all of this- [Which is what he wants to do, truthfully, but he won't go against the majority.] -and I'm not going to activate the evacuation function, so this is our best bet.

But as a warning, we only get one shot at it. It will use up all of the Bastion's power, and the Bastion itself will either end up as part of the planet or drop from the sky like a sack of bricks. If anything is wrong with the function or the designs, then it's wrong forever, and we won't get a chance to fix it.

[legendary_can_opener]

[Mitellux's rumbling voice suddenly cut through the conversation-]

"Going back in time to..."? I was not aware this Bastion was even capable of such a feat.

[Mitellux narrowed her eyes]

To prevent... all of this, why is this option no longer under consideration?!

[... she may sound a bit... upset]

[darkshooter]

[For her part, she's looking kinda uncomfortable too after that. An all-or-nothing shot? With everyone dying if it goes wrong?]

[To say nothing of the obliteration of their safe-haven. What was terrible about leaving everything the way it was?]

[freedom_engineer]

Because it's been done at least once already. Probably a couple of times.

It resets everything. Including memories, minus some deja vu, rippled remembrances, and other temporally bizarre things. Meaning that it doesn't stop the calamity from happening, it just goes back to before it happened and lets it happen again.

[And here he was trying to stay out of things...]

[bastionpc]

It doesn't always erase everyone's memories. Zulf remembers what happened the last time, which is how we know what the 'restore' function even does.

[Sorry Colin, he's got to say the truth here.]

[dontyoujustwish]

That kind of reset doesn't really prevent this universe from existing anyway. It just creates an alternate universe where events may go differently. I've been through it before.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

[Rob is still of the mindset that making every effort possible to save all the trillions of people who died in the Calamity (assuming that they did in fact die, which he still isn't sold on) is the only valid course of action, but the possibility of designing and creating an entire world is incredibly appealing to him personally. Anya's words are kind of distressing though.] But, uh, how would you be able to tell if that's what happened?

[dontyoujustwish]

[Anya gives the bunny-summoner Rob a distasteful look, but she can provide her expertise for the benefit of everyone else.]

I know a spell that would allow us to try pulling something from the universe where the Calamity happened the first time around. That would tell you for sure, if you don't trust my experience.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

That... would actually be really interesting to see. I imagine it's not an easy spell to cast, bridging worlds and timelines like that.

[dontyoujustwish]

I would need help, yes. And you wouldn't be invited.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

...Well if you do end up casting it I'd be interested in seeing whatever you manage to reel in.

[He has no idea why she's being like this with him.]

But, uh, Nathaniel? Why are you opposed to the evacuation function? What does it do that's a problem?

[Since the other two options presented apparently have giant issues he's assuming the evacuation function has some gaping hole in it too.]

[bastionpc]

[Anya's spell sounds promising, but that can be addressed in a moment.]

The evacuation function is exactly what it sounds like. It stabilizes the Bastion for long enough for us to escape to the Skyway. It's the worst use of the resources we have, since we would be effectively abandoning the Bastion entirely.

[dontyoujustwish]

That doesn't sound like it accomplishes anything at all. We can already just leave if we want to.

[bastionpc]

Exactly, which is why I say we don't do it.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Why would a function like that even require so many Cores? It sounds like some kind of joke or trap on the part of whoever built this place.

[freedom_engineer]

Sounds similar to a quantum detonator. It's probably not so much an evacuation function but rather an area denial function. If we're going to lose the Bastion anyway, we may as well deny it to anyone else. Useful in war, not so much in times of peace.

[He's fallen back into mostly observation mode, though he will speak up again if necessary...]