Thursday, September 9, 2021

Riley & Penelope: Chat Log 5

Marionettes changed again. The Upstaged Communications logo flickered in the side of my vision, and it turned into another chat log with Riley.


Marionettes is approaching unreadability. It must be decaying, given that it died; I'm not sure how Riley is communicating with me through it right now. This is the conversation I had with her.

[/begin_chat_thread]
2:28 [Riley] can you see this penelope
2:29 [Penelope] Yeah I can
2:29 [Penelope] How are you holding up?
2:29 [Riley] same as before
2:29 [Riley] everything is the same
2:29 [Riley] it's just constant stagnation
2:30 [Penelope] That's something I can understand
2:30 [Penelope] Look, I'm trying to figure out how to stabilize Station 85, but I don't know how
2:30 [Penelope] Do you know how to?
2:31 [Riley] yes
2:31 [Riley] it's going to be tricky, so you're going to have to be careful
2:31 [Riley] it might put you in danger
2:31 [Riley] but I might have a way to make it safer
2:32 [Penelope] What is it?
2:32 [Riley] you need to leave your home
2:32 [Riley] I know you don't want to do that because of the constant rain
2:32 [Penelope] It's too dangerous to go outside
2:32 [Riley] I might have a way to bring you to Station 85 without you going outside
2:33 [Penelope] What?
2:33 [Riley] station 85 is fluctuating
2:33 [Riley] right now, it's on the path, with the fence; however, doors started to appear in the fence
2:33 [Riley] it's a consistent set of maybe 10 different doors
2:34 [Riley] and I think one of the doors is yours
2:34 [Penelope] How do you know that
2:34 [Riley] I heard your voice behind it once
2:34 [Riley] I tried to reach it, but the receivers got too close for comfort, so I had to run with the other two
2:35 [Riley] they still haven't moved past the fence, but I can't risk it
2:35 [Riley] however, if I can reach it, then I might be able to open the door for you, and you can come through
2:35 [Riley] if you come through, you can stabilize 85
2:36 [Penelope] How would I stabilize it?
2:36 [Riley] it's too complicated to explain in detail right now, but in short: right now there are three receivers and three "errors" as the signal calls us
2:37 [Riley] those connected to the signal are what destabilize the station; "errors" are what can restabilize it
2:37 [Riley] so if you come, there will be more errors than receivers, and it'll tilt back to stability
2:38 [Penelope] I'm sorry, but that makes absolutely no sense
2:38 [Riley] I know, I'll explain how it actually works later; that's just the best explanation I can give now, since I have limited time 
2:38 [Penelope] How do you know that?
2:39 [Riley] I was cut off short last time against my will
2:39 [Riley] I don't know when it'll happen, but I'm guessing it'll happen again
2:39 [Penelope] Okay
2:39 [Penelope] Wait
2:40 [Riley] what?
2:40 [Penelope] What do you know about Edward?
2:40 [Riley] not a whole lot, honestly
2:40 [Riley] I have more permissions in marionettes than the average user, but I'm not the admin, so I can't see everything in it
2:40 [Riley] but I can see some stuff
2:41 [Riley] like the developer credits
2:41 [Riley] it was, apparently, developed entirely by ed
2:41 [Riley] and I can see some of what he's done
2:41 [Riley] like the messages he left for you before the signal took it over
2:42 [Penelope] I kind of already figured that he made it
2:42 [Penelope] Good to have it confirmed though
2:42 [Penelope] Do you know anything else about him?
2:43 [Riley] no, but I know rumors
2:44 [Riley] just scraps that I was able to hear about over the years, before upstaged closed
2:44 [Riley] he apparently abandoned everything in his life before coming to upstaged, and was working there for a long while
2:45 [Riley] he was one of the original employees
2:45 [Riley] and he was obsessed with marionettes
2:45 [Riley] he developed it by himself from scratch, and although he was hr, he focused on training people to work the system
2:46 [Riley] he trained you, I think
2:46 [Penelope] I don't remember that
2:46 [Penelope] I don't even remember him existing in the station
2:47 [Riley] there's a lot you don't remember
2:47 [Riley] he barely felt human in his time there
2:47 [Riley] and he kept obsessive notes on everything
2:47 [Riley] someone saw his office, and claimed that there was basically nothing but papers in there
2:48 [Riley] it was like he had the entire company's history
2:48 [Penelope] I wonder why?
2:48 [Riley] he seemed like the kind of guy that always needed to know things
2:49 [Riley] the kind of guy to always have a plan for things one couldn't even begin to understand
2:49 [Riley] I don't know how much I trust those plans
[/end_chat_thread]

Marionettes closed the chat thread by itself, and then went back to the normal screen. The broken logo. I wanted to ask more about what the plan was, but I got sidetracked by asking about Edward. Hopefully she'll be able to talk to me again before I do... well, whatever it is she's asking me to do. I can understand what she's saying, but it's hard to wrap my head around something like that actually happening.

It's good to know for sure that Edward developed Marionettes. It matches the third broadcast, which called it his child. But his obsession over it, his obsessive record keeping, and him completely abandoning his past life to join Upstaged and make the system...

Edward, what happened? What are you planning? I'm assuming he told Riley how to do this, since she asked me to reach out to him. 

No comments:

Post a Comment