voice testing; looking at destinystrings

[catstate]

You're actually looking at a place for me? Don't you have other muses to be bothering instead?

...Whatever. It wouldn't be the first time I was stuck somewhere that I didn't want to be in. It doesn't really matter if there are other players there, even if they're from The World too...but it would have been nice if Sakuya was there too...

Do what you want, but you better be serious about this. I won't be happy if you start something without seeing it through, like taking me somewhere to make friends only to quit and leaving me all alone again.

Also, the "Schrodinger's Cat" jokes aren't as funny as you seem to think they are.

Comments

[beautifulmemory]

It's not so bad a place. It's a very interesting place.

[Why hello there mini-me.]

[catstate]

Is it really? [he sounds skeptical] Just what makes it so interesting?

[But then Hermit has to do a double-take when he notices who he's speaking to...hello, taller-me? He can't help but stare a little now.]

[beautifulmemory]

Several things... but it's mostly the people. And seeing how they act in a place like that.

[catstate]

[As Hermit listens to her talk, he's trying to recall if he ever saw another player with a cat avatar like his, familiar as it is, but he can't. This avatar is normally considered to be one of a kind. (And illegal, for that matter.)]

Who are you? I don't remember seeing anyone like you before in The World.

[beautifulmemory]

I haven't seen you either. It's rather funny how much you look like me.

[catstate]

I could say the same--I thought I was the only who looked like this in that place.

[beautifulmemory]

Where were you born?

[catstate]

[It actually takes a moment before he can answer. As "Touha Tonagami", he thinks he was born...somewhere in Japan, and then he had to go to America to stay at a hospital. As "Hermit", on the other hand, would it be counted as that strange place he always respawned in whenever he was killed...]

...I don't really know.

[beautifulmemory]

Do you belong to The World?

[catstate]

[Belong to the World? As in...asking if we're an AI?]

No--I don't know how, but I woke up one day with this avatar in The World, and have been this way ever since.

[beautifulmemory]

Hmm...

[That sounds... familiar, even if she can't exactly think of why.]

So you aren't an AI.

[catstate]

No...what about you? Are you an AI?

[beautifulmemory]

I was born of The World, yes.

[catstate]

Really? [this is kind of strange, that we never noticed an AI that looked so similar to us sooner...]

What areas of The World do you live in? [Maybe she's delegated to some part of The World that we haven't been to (or can't access) and that's why we never saw her until now?]

[beautifulmemory]

I can go wherever I like. And I do. There are a lot of places to explore.

[catstate]

Oh yeah? Have you ever been to the gray area where the tree is?

[...That's a terrible description but we don't know the area name for it, sorry.]

[beautifulmemory]

There are many places like that. But they're boring... there's nothing in them.

[She's misinterpreting his words as a description of some broken or scrapped areas. Mia's seen them all.]

[catstate]

[Oh...] ...You get used to it after a while.

[The emptyness of those places, he means. Though that doesn't stop him from hating it a little every time he wakes up there.]

[beautifulmemory]

I only go there to rest. There are better places to explore than those.

[catstate]

Such as?

[beautifulmemory]

The locked areas. Those are the most fun to explore. But my favorite areas are still the areas where I can collect Aromatic Grass.

[catstate]

[Hm...normally he doesn't talk this much with other people, if he can help it, but he finds what this bigger lookalike of him has to say to be at least a little interesting.]

Aromatic Grass? What's that?

[beautifulmemory]

You've never found any?

[She chuckles, and pulls out a sprig of grass. She passes it to him!]

This is what it is.

[catstate]

[He takes the offered sprig and looks it over...but he doesn't get the appeal of it. To him, it just looks like a piece of grass.]

Does it do anything?

[beautifulmemory]

No. And it only sells for 2 GP.

[catstate]

...Then what's so special about it?

[beautifulmemory]

[Mia just grins.]

Do you think it's pointless? Futile?

But futility is necessary. A system needs futility in it, or else it is very vulnerable. Just because there is no use for it, is it futile? Sometimes the existence itself is enough.

[catstate]

Even though it's just a piece of grass?

[That's really strange. Although, it does feel a little fuzzy and does seem to smell a little nice, hence the name, but otherwise he can't see why you'd collect pieces of grass that don't do anything.]

[beautifulmemory]

Even a little piece of grass.

[catstate]

[That almost sounds...rather optimistic, over a piece of grass. He'll hold it up for her to take back again if she wants, since it seems important to her.]

You still haven't told me who you are. [He's pretty sure that, even for an AI, she has a name, right?]

[beautifulmemory]

[She will certainly take it back!]

My name is Mia. And you?

[catstate]

[He actually manages a smile this time as he introduces himself in return.]

I'm Hermit.

[beautifulmemory]

Hermit. Alright, I'll remember that.

[Mia offers her Member Address!]

[catstate]

[Member Address?] ...Oh. I didn't know an AI could have one of those too.

[Come to think of it, other than sneakily obtaining Sakuya's, he didn't have anyone else's Member Address. Nor had he ever cared about that sort of thing, but this time he'll go ahead and accept it and offer his in return...before noting something. Is it just him, or does her Member Address seem...a little old and out of date in comparison to the ones from the R:X version of The World...?]

[beautifulmemory]

They're useful, after all.

[Mia takes his, too! And if she had eyebrows, one would be raised.]

Interesting! This data is very strange.

[catstate]

I could say that same about this data here--it looks like an older model than the member addresses used in The World now.

[Does Mia even know about different versions of The World? Maybe she's from R:2, or even R:1...]

[beautifulmemory]

It shouldn't be old. It's no different than anyone else's.

[catstate]

[Hermit checks his...very small list of collected Member Addresses that consists of just Sakuya, and now Mia.]

But it looks different from Sakuya's member address...

[beautifulmemory]

Let me see.

[She'll peer over his shoulder! ...Well then.]

Oh! What a strange menu.

[catstate]

[...Oh that's right, as an AI Mia might not even need to use a menu like this to do whatever she wanted.]

It helps me keep track of things while in The World. [There's a list for Member Addresses, inventory, stuff like that...oddly though, unlike a normal player's menu might have, it's smaller and there isn't an options menu like adjusting one's controls, or a quit option like many would do for logging out. It seems like it's only purpose in Hermit's case is for organizational purposes.]

[beautifulmemory]

It's very streamlined, in comparison.

[Mia can pull up her menu, and.... yeaaaaah it is ooooold. That is a tedious and terribly designed menu.]

[catstate]

[Looking at it, Hermit can't help but snicker a little.]

Wow, that's pretty old-looking... [He's actually a little surprised that it even works with how tedious it looks...]

[beautifulmemory]

It's not old at all. This is the standard for The World.

[catstate]

I don't think I've heard of anyone using that kind of model for the menus in The World anymore. [Then again, he hasn't really...talked enough with other people to know that.] Maybe yours just needs an update done for it?