[ota] 002 | we've come as far as we're ever gonna get

[3ofswords]

WHO: Kira Akiyama
WHERE: The Inn
WHEN: Early January
OPEN TO: All (up to 4)
WARNINGS: Very mild description of quarantine/emergency zones.

---

There had been electricity in Manhattan, the entire time. The supply companies ran all the way up into Canada, and apparently no one had the idea of shutting it all off for the quarantine. Kira hadn't really thought about the people left behind, because--well, they'd been left behind. He'd assumed it was for the sake of all the military sent in. He'd assumed it was so they could keep testing blood samples and getting a leg up on a cure, in case the river didn't contain the problem.

Some sections lost power--his apartment hadn't been able to run anything--but those were problems on the ground. Cut wires, downed poles. If you wandered all the way up to Times Square, there were shot-out billboards and flickering screens, but enough of them still ran. The Christmas lights in the streets had never gone out.

He hasn't been so long without it that he thinks anything of walking into the inn's kitchen at first, wandering past an antiquated fridge into the pantry. It's when he goes to start up the stove after a long, cold night, that he realizes the boxy thing's been replaced. There are more burners, odd little boxes on one side, and it stands on legs like a desk, a cord visible along the wall beneath. There are more dials than he can count things to heat up, and he turns them gingerly, as if it might simply explode.

It doesn't, but it takes some time to feel one of the burners heat up. Setting all the dials back, he pokes his head in the ovens, tries and fails to determine how far behind the counter the cord goes, and finally blinks a little more awake at the boxy fridge by the pantry.

That takes a little more poking. It isn't any colder than the room inside, and unlike the fridges at home, the doors don't span the entire length. There are overhead vents that sit silent while he examines it, until he finds the switch at the back, flipping it all the way around. They hiss and rattle to life, filling the kitchen with heavy white noise.

"What the fuck," he wonders softly. Hunting the space doesn't reveal any more new appliances, but he does find a switch near the door. When he flips it, the bulbs around the room fill the corners the morning sun doesn't reach with soft light, and he wonders how far it goes.

Abandoning breakfast, he starts wandering the rest of the inn, flipping switches in each room to watch the lights come on.

[The Inn has electricity! Lights, stove, fridge--come find Kira fussing with the appliances or flipping lights on and off like a child.]

Comments

[onlyeverdoubted]

Bodhi doesn't really have many reasons to go to the inn these days and usually just sticks his head in for the express purpose of running into people, lest he turn into the hermit he's been accused of being. That list doesn't really include his ostensible housemate (though he spends so much time at Jude's these days that he's something of a cryptid lately), but it's not like he has any better idea how to talk to Kira than to confused newcomers, so it's not that weird.

Besides, what drew him in today was the steady, cool light flickering inside. He's startled enough by the appearance of reasonable levels of technological achievement that the awkwardness that descends every time he tries to talk to his former friend becomes secondary. "Alright, so they could have done this any time, then?"

[3ofswords]

"From what I've heard, they can do whatever they want at any time," Kira replies, flipping the lights a couple more times just for the novelty, and the possible annoyance of anyone else in the room. He isn't actually a child, but he's starting to understand why they go through that phase. One day you just realize you can turn out all the lights in any place, public or private, that has a switch within reach.

Now they can do that at the inn. "I'm tempted to run back over to the house and try ours, but there wasn't anything new in the kitchen when I got up." Same wood burning stove, same patch of snow shoved under the back porch that they chilled things in.

Maybe it's for the best that house just remain--a waystation of sorts. A place they drift in and out of, exchanging short conversations around handing the dog back and forth.

Kira isn't unaware--things are not much better. But Mark had been right when he said the only fix for it would be time.

[onlyeverdoubted]

He doesn't remember spotting any changes when he was last in the house, though, admittedly, that was yesterday afternoon. Either way, doesn't seem worthwhile to check, since Jude's house wasn't changed. Though expecting consistency on this point is probably a good way to frustrate himself. Trying to talk to Kira is its own kind of stress, though, and he'd rather grapple with the questions they all know can't be answered.

"Whatever they want, I get. Just connect something underground to a generator. It's this stuff." He taps the switch on the wall. "There are ways to work fast, send in some droids, have the building rigged for quick alterations, but there are enough people here. No one ever catches them. Do they put us all to sleep for a day at a time?" Sounds facetious, but he's honestly contemplated that possibility before. How would they know, especially this time of year when the cold has the whole world in suspended animation? Whatever sedation, stasis, and transport they have is obviously good, and there'd be no real way to keep track.

[3ofswords]

Kira doesn't know if they've discussed this before--he's sat through Mark's theory twice, he understands that much. He may have even handled it better the second time around, in part because--because this time he's here at the end of a rope. He's entirely frayed, entirely bereft. He went into the underworld of one man or one organization's cruelty, and he got shot, and when he had some kind of rest and reward in his grasp--he woke up here.

Maybe his actions hadn't had such permanent reactions in Manhattan, either. But at least the powers that be would let him pretend. Here it's just out in the open: nothing means anything. Obstacles are decided at a whim. If you drag documents to sacrifice at a peach tree, they don't go anywhere.

He isn't sure why that upsets him. He's glad of the coat, the cards, the picture of Chiyo. But it feels like he got them for nothing. It feels like he was tricked. Turning the lights off again--in the morning light there feels like little use for them--he shrugs and settles in the doorway. "Mark thinks it's all simulated. They put in a new string of code and there are lights. They take one out and the sun stops setting. No one has to physically interact with us at all."

It explains a lot. It explains why he can't feel anything, from any of them. How could a computer simulate that?

[onlyeverdoubted]

Bodhi has a hard time with that idea himself, though it's more because he has very little context for what a simulation would be. He's considered a good practical computer tech at home, if not an expert, because the skill as he knows it mainly consists of math and knowing what to plug into what. He's heard that one. How could he not? But it doesn't make sense to him, and given the general population, the idea that anyone here could be technologically ahead of him doesn't occur.

But he doesn't want to be impolitic. "It's... the kind of explanation that doesn't explain much. You couldn't test that or do anything about it. Feels, um, too convenient." And makes some of the anomalies seem stranger. He can see reasons to construct environments the same way twice, but if you could program anything, why make one side of the canyon identical to the other? Laziness doesn't immediately come to mind, though he'd be willing to consider some kind of experimental control.

But it's a conversation, and with someone who, well, looks like his frien.

[3ofswords]

Kira's understanding of the whole thing was one part The Matrix, one part a basic grasp of html, and the rest a kind of apathy that simply accepts--Mark is smarter than he is, and has been here longer, and--

And it's in his stupid journal, from the last time he was here. He might not remember anything in those pages, but that other Kira, he'd taken notes. He'd thought about it a lot. Having been ground through a different hell already and shoved back into this place, Kira doesn't want to sit and think it through all over again. Acceptance is easier.

"Come on, help me figure out the new stove," he says, instead of immediately arguing. Having some dials to fuss with sounds like a Bodhi thing, so far as he understands them. Cooking while talking is at least a Kira thing.

"Where I'm from, we have a--" he doesn't want to call it a law, in case Bodhi misunderstands. "Kind of a theory, I guess. The simplest thing is usually the answer. You can't discount something for making too much sense, just because you want--more." Though he can understand the impulse--the desire for their trap to be complicated, but a thing they can affect and understand with enough trying. From what he's read and heard, though? They've tried. No one's scaled the walls to find any kind of world beyond, and Neo hasn't shown up to break them free.

[onlyeverdoubted]

He's not so easily tempted by dials, but he catches himself almost reaching for something to be unhappy about and tries to stop. Maybe he'll never be able to relax around this Kira. He doesn't want to stop looking for his friend in a stranger's face. It might be easier, but it feels like a betrayal. He decides to allow himself to be nudged toward the stove, if not very enthusiastically.

"Let's say you're right, and, um, this is all... imaginary," he says, trying to stay on an even keel. "So--so nothing we do will change it that it can't just change back. We try, well, things, I guess, and it doesn't matter. But if it's the other way, and there is a key or a hidden hatch or... If that's true, and we don't look for it--There are consequences, that's all." Bodhi might not know to look for Neo, but he can sure as hell apply clumsy philosophy to an elaborate science fiction premise.

[cleptes]

Bela was in the inn almost every day because it provided food and heat, as well as decent shelter for her. She still wasn't quite at the point where she was fully able to fend for herself and had to rely on other people - which seemed to be one of the main driving forces behind this place. Villagers supporting other villagers in whatever way they could. Bela was trying to be supportive. She really was. She just hadn't found the best way to contribute yet.

She enters the inn to find Kira switching the lights(?) on and off, almost as if it were a game to him. The most important thing to her right now was the fact that there was electricity and it seemed to be working. Bela blinks a few times to make sure it's not a dream.

But just to be sure...

"Please tell me I am not imagining this, Kira."

[3ofswords]

Grinning at her in response, he flicks the switch a couple more times. His teeth sink into the bottom of his smile, and eventually he flicks them on and leaves them. "At the very least, it's a mass hallucination," he promises.

"Come see the kitchen." Abandoning his place at the wall, he carries across the open room to the doorway, flipping the lights on in the kitchen as well, introducing her to the appliances with a sweeping hand. "There's some Gatsby-ass stove where the wood one used to be, and when things heat up outside, we'll have a fridge."

It's still humming away by the pantry, air blowing heavy through the large vents. "I guess you and I don't need to hurry so much on learning to chop wood."

[cleptes]

Intrigued by this new development (or a mass hallucination in Kira's words) Bela follows him into the kitchen with a lot of expectations. The lights work. So far so good. She looks at the appliances with interest, wondering when they were installed, but maybe it didn't matter.

"A fridge?" Her eyes light up at that and she's grinning widely- Bela has never been this excited by a fridge before in her life. Or electricity.

She takes a few steps towards one of the appliances, glancing back over her shoulder at him. "No, I suppose we don't." How convenient for the both of them. "Maybe we should though. In case this only lasts for a day and we're stuck back in the Dark Ages."

Bela is being facetious of course.

[3ofswords]

That's good, because Kira's response to the suggestion is a turn of his head, putting her in his sights, and giving several long blinks. From what he can tell, given a year to develop into a decent and helpful person in his new woodland home--he still hadn't gotten much use out of the hatchets and saws he found in his hoard of tools.

Not that he's bringing them back to the storeroom. In an emergency, he wants to know exactly where all the sharp and useful items are.

"I feel like we'd be undervaluing ourselves if we gave in to the impulse to do manual labor," he says, finally starting to give in to her smile with one of his own. "We have other skills, we just have to figure out how they benefit this--situation." He indicates the fridge like their exceptional personalities have any bearing on its future use.

[cleptes]

It's true that her contributions to the overall community have been much less than most people. Bela has tried and picked up a few things from some of the villagers, but they weren't all necessarily long term.

"Keeping it stocked is an idea." With what, Bela doesn't know. It's not like they had a convenience store around to purchase items ready made for a fridge. "But does that really lend itself to our skills?" She ponders after a moment. "I know we're both excellent at drinking and complaining. We're smart and we're funny."

Now it seemed like this was turning into a compliment session.

"Anyway, I am getting off the point. What are you good at when it comes to something like this?"

[3ofswords]

"No, no, I like your point much better," he says, head turning just-so with the curl of his smile, and his eyes sliding the other way to keep her gaze. "And I like the humility you show in not leading with our good looks."

It's certainly a small way to feel better, flirting in an empty kitchen like they don't have to figure out their new, outdated appliances to eat in it.

Thankfully, it's the kind of problem Kira can solve. "I know how to cook, and I've spent awhile improvising with rations. I wonder if it would kill our overlords to throw in a spice rack."

[chosenbytheocean]

Moana had never seen electricity before, nor had it been one of the topics that had come up when she spoke to people about their worlds. She had heard about hipsters, hot dogs and cities but not electricity. So when Kira stepped out into the main room and flicked on the light switch, Moana did what anyone would do when faced with a surprise.

She screamed and jumped back.

When she realized that it was only the soft glowing light around the walls she relaxed and her eyes widened in wonder. "What is this?" It looked like fire but somehow contained behind a piece of glass. Moana reached towards one of the lights on the walls and felt that it was warm though it wasn't too hot to touch.

Eventually her eyes moved back to Kira and the light switch. "What did you do?"

[3ofswords]

It wasn't the nicest reaction, but Kira never claimed to be the nicest person. He knew not everyone in the village was, so to speak, up to date. He knew some of them found the village itself to be some level of advanced. None of that prepared him to actually see someone jump and scream over interior lighting.

He laughed.

Leaning on the door frame--arm to beam, forehead to arm--he got it all out in a moment's time. When he stood back up, she was reaching up to touch one of the bulbs. That seemed--about right, and he wiped a bit of watering from his eyes, though he hadn't laughed for long enough to quite manage tears. "I didn't do anything, god, your face. Someone or something must have turned the power back on. Those bulbs, the thing that makes them glow, it hasn't worked until now."

[chosenbytheocean]

Moana looked over at Kira with puffed up, pout-y cheeks. "Hey. Don't laugh!" She didn't think that he was being particularly mean but no one liked being laughed at. She had never experienced power or electricity before and she hadn't realized it was so... bright.

Her arms dropped down to her sides and she looked absolutely offended.

"What is it? What's causing it?" Moana wondered what else had changed.

[3ofswords]

And there's the other side of it: now he has to try to explain electricity to someone from--what, the Bronze Age? History wasn't his strongest subject. Or geography, or--science. He'd done alright with science, but that was a long time ago.

Turning himself around, he leaned his back into the doorway, catching the hum coming off the antiquated bulbs. He has maybe a better idea of how electricity works than how well their new additions are going to hold up over time. They should use them to stockpile the candles they would be using otherwise, not cease production.

"If you just mean why do we have it now, I have no idea. The powers that be must have fixed the generator; everything I've read said attempts on our end failed. If you mean how does electricity work at all--we might as well get breakfast before we get into that."

[chosenbytheocean]

"What's electricity have to do with breakfast?" Moana asked as she stepped towards Kira. He was going to have to start on the ground floor with Moana. She didn't know how energy was transferred through wires or what a generator did. There was light, that was all she knew.

She was curious and open to learn more. Moana knew that her island wasn't technology advanced but now she had a bases of comparison to mark it against.

"Can you use electricity to make breakfast?" That made the most sense out of the context that Moana had currently been given. "And what's a generator?" She's going to have a lot of questions.

[3ofswords]

"You can, but it's less what it has to do with breakfast than the fact that I don't want to be starving by the time we get through it." He can't imagine how long it's going to take, or how far back he's going to have to start. She probably knows what lightning is?

Maybe he'll just make up something with that and call it good enough. He'd gone his whole life having it and not really knowing how it actually came to be.

"Have you ever seen lightning, during a storm? Like branches of light coming out of the sky, hitting the ground?"

[beallmysins]

Jax comes up to the inn at least once a day, mostly because in spite of Moana's help, he's no good at hunting and surviving and he depends on other people to feed him and make sure he doesn't die in the snow. It takes him a good minute to realize what's different when he walks in; he's gotten so used to natural light and the plain, tallow candles they have in this place that the idea of a regular overhead light is something he's completely forgotten about.

Fuck. He's assimilated to this shit now.

"When did we get the power turned on? Someone finally pay the bill or some shit?" he asks, watching as Kira flips on another switch and another light pops on. What the fuck is this shit?

[3ofswords]

"Yeah, with all the money we've got stuffed in our mattresses." Flicking it one last time, he sets them off--he's gotten used to daylight, and it's particularly bright out with the snow on the ground. "There's always been equipment for it, it seems like, but it didn't do anything."

He only tried it now because of the stove. Why replace the wood-burning one if it wasn't going to work? Then again, why do any of this, why assume the powers that be want them to do more than cook over fires in the woods?

"There are some new antiques in the kitchen, looks like we'll be able to keep some things cool without sticking it in the river, when the snow thaws."

[beallmysins]

"Nice shit. I might move out of my own house and come up here to live if there's going to be actual appliances," Jax says. He's forgotten what it's like when you can have light after dark and he's become a man who rises and sets with the sun. It's going to be weird to be able to adjust to a more normal schedule.

"Wonder how this happened, though? Why all of a sudden are they taking pity on our asses and giving us nice things? Feels like there's going to be a catch."

[3ofswords]

Actual appliances isn't how Kira would put it, considering what they've been given. With only the two, it's not like they can rely on either one long-term. Jax brings up the other shoe, and as they wander into the kitchen, Kira tries to imagine how it might drop.

"I don't know how much more likely an electric stove is to start a fire than one that literally has a fire inside of it," he thinks aloud, drifting first to the fridge, then the stove. Opening the drawers on each, he checks the changing temperatures--fridge is getting cold, oven got hot. They work, for now.

"Maybe the drawback is, if this thing breaks we can't just shove firewood into it."

[beallmysins]

"Exactly. Then we're gonna be outside trying to cook on a fire like girl scouts." Jax doesn't think he's going to do too well with that but he thinks Moana probably is more comfortable with shit like that. Yet again, he's going to have to depend on a teenage girl to keep himself alive.

"Makes it easier for more people to cook, though. I could probably figure some shit out on this," he says, gesturing toward the stove. "But I wasn't touching that wood-burning shit."

[3ofswords]

"I'd assume we'd just cook on one of the stoves in every single house outside of this building," Kira points out, voice drying out as his brows flattened over his gaze. Generous as he is, Kira does not rely on Jax to be the sharper tool in the drawer.

Following Jax's gesture with his gaze, it only pinches slightly: he did think him a little sharper than that. "Jax," he says slowly, punctuating with a look to the stove, then back to the man himself. "You do realize the stove in your house, and the stove in front of us right now--they both just heat things up. Like, the grate gets hot and cooks the food. I will teach you how to set a pan down on it and poke the contents with forks until they stop being pink inside."