argent_bury (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} argent_bury) wrote,@ 2008-02-23 20:41:00 |
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| Entry tags: | hiking, sansara |
Sansara Hiking - Land of Madness
The events in this entry take place during the period up to and including Day 3 of the hike. I was not to learn about them until later.
I am in Hell...
No other word suits this place...this prison. I've been here so long now I can barely remember my arrival. I just keep walking and walking, but the land never ends. I gave up seeking help a long time ago.
The only thing that keeps me sane here is the knowledge that it's not real, that somewhere out there someone is trying to break down my will. Trying to extract my secrets.
My jailors are clever. They never show themselves, never hide amongst the locals. God knows I've put enough of the natives here to the question, and they never turned out to be anything more than deluded "residents" of this place. As if anyone would actually want to live here.
It's like a testament to decadence. They take these old relics of a dead past and dress them up in new finery. Ancient buildings are filled with clothes and food and luxuries no one from my world would dream of partaking in. Maybe they think I'll be overawed by it all and submit. But I've studied their classics - never dine on the fruits of the Matrix, or you risk being trapped there forever.
Granted, some pleasures are more tempting than others...
But they haven't broken me yet. People's lives hang on the secrets entrusted to me, and I'm not about to whisper them in the ear of some woman in exchange for a night's pleasure. Can you hear me out there, wherever you are? Try again...try harder...
Ah...here and there the holes are showing in your little simulation, aren't they? Or is this just another kind of torture?
It does bother me to see the land so tortured and misused like this. Whoever you are out there, watching me, you know full well what my comrades and I would do if something like this was really perpetrated. We'd rain ice on you from the heavens for fourty days and fourty nights. Then, when every last sign of your existence had been wiped from the face of the land we'd rebuild. Things would be controlled, things would make sense, there would be ORDER!
But nothing like this...never like this.
Nature run riot, tearing up the roads, choking the cities. Things crawling in the underbrush. Poison and disease and thorns everywhere. Never...never. Our world would be a sane one. Chaos has no place there. Nature is obsolete.
I've thought of giving up hundreds of times, even thought of ending my life once or twice, but I never seem to get around to it. I just keep walking, searching, resisting.
But something changed today. Something that makes me think they're getting desperate. They have a new tactic.
Lock a man in prison for days, months, even years. Torture him, then ignore him, then torture again, with no sign of escape. Then, if he hasn't broken yet, introduce another prisoner into the cell with him.
It'll be someone sympathetic, maybe even an old acquaintance. Relieved to have a sympathetic ear after years of torture and abandonment, your target will spill everything to the new prisoner, never even daring to believe that their new confidante is a turncoat for the enemy.
Oh, you did good this time, whoever you are. You did your homework. You almost had me. I say almost, because you missed one crucial fact.
LCF Technical Specialist 1st Class Argent Bury is dead. I know because I saw her die. Years may have passed, but I'll never forget the things I saw in L.A. I saw it...
I saw it with my own two eyes.
That's right. Sleep, "Argent"...whatever you are. I'd say you need about 6 more hours sleeping in the tank, recovering from whatever manufactured mishap put you there, and you'll be out.
And when you get out, you and I are going to talk, alright. Only I'm not going to be the one giving up their secrets...
Kind of them to supply a regen tank. We may need it a few times before I'm doing getting you to tell me just how to escape from here...
WAIT!
It doesn't make sense. Why now?
The natives call them "Griefers". They're more like hyenas, stalking me, waiting for me to show some sign of weakness before they pounce. That ship has been tracking me for days.
No choice. Have to engage. Chase them off, away from the tanks. My rifle still has 5000meters of monowire in the spool. Should be enough for all of them...I hope. I'll circle back around once they've been driven off, and have our little chat. Wait here, Bury, I'll return soon enough. Although you may wish I hadn't...
When we woke, he was already gone. We didn't even know he existed, not until later...
The only thing that keeps me sane here is the knowledge that it's not real, that somewhere out there someone is trying to break down my will. Trying to extract my secrets.
My jailors are clever. They never show themselves, never hide amongst the locals. God knows I've put enough of the natives here to the question, and they never turned out to be anything more than deluded "residents" of this place. As if anyone would actually want to live here.
It's like a testament to decadence. They take these old relics of a dead past and dress them up in new finery. Ancient buildings are filled with clothes and food and luxuries no one from my world would dream of partaking in. Maybe they think I'll be overawed by it all and submit. But I've studied their classics - never dine on the fruits of the Matrix, or you risk being trapped there forever.
Granted, some pleasures are more tempting than others...
But they haven't broken me yet. People's lives hang on the secrets entrusted to me, and I'm not about to whisper them in the ear of some woman in exchange for a night's pleasure. Can you hear me out there, wherever you are? Try again...try harder...
Ah...here and there the holes are showing in your little simulation, aren't they? Or is this just another kind of torture?
It does bother me to see the land so tortured and misused like this. Whoever you are out there, watching me, you know full well what my comrades and I would do if something like this was really perpetrated. We'd rain ice on you from the heavens for fourty days and fourty nights. Then, when every last sign of your existence had been wiped from the face of the land we'd rebuild. Things would be controlled, things would make sense, there would be ORDER!
But nothing like this...never like this.
Nature run riot, tearing up the roads, choking the cities. Things crawling in the underbrush. Poison and disease and thorns everywhere. Never...never. Our world would be a sane one. Chaos has no place there. Nature is obsolete.
I've thought of giving up hundreds of times, even thought of ending my life once or twice, but I never seem to get around to it. I just keep walking, searching, resisting.
But something changed today. Something that makes me think they're getting desperate. They have a new tactic.
Lock a man in prison for days, months, even years. Torture him, then ignore him, then torture again, with no sign of escape. Then, if he hasn't broken yet, introduce another prisoner into the cell with him.
It'll be someone sympathetic, maybe even an old acquaintance. Relieved to have a sympathetic ear after years of torture and abandonment, your target will spill everything to the new prisoner, never even daring to believe that their new confidante is a turncoat for the enemy.
Oh, you did good this time, whoever you are. You did your homework. You almost had me. I say almost, because you missed one crucial fact.
LCF Technical Specialist 1st Class Argent Bury is dead. I know because I saw her die. Years may have passed, but I'll never forget the things I saw in L.A. I saw it...
I saw it with my own two eyes.
That's right. Sleep, "Argent"...whatever you are. I'd say you need about 6 more hours sleeping in the tank, recovering from whatever manufactured mishap put you there, and you'll be out.
And when you get out, you and I are going to talk, alright. Only I'm not going to be the one giving up their secrets...
Kind of them to supply a regen tank. We may need it a few times before I'm doing getting you to tell me just how to escape from here...
WAIT!
It doesn't make sense. Why now?
The natives call them "Griefers". They're more like hyenas, stalking me, waiting for me to show some sign of weakness before they pounce. That ship has been tracking me for days.
No choice. Have to engage. Chase them off, away from the tanks. My rifle still has 5000meters of monowire in the spool. Should be enough for all of them...I hope. I'll circle back around once they've been driven off, and have our little chat. Wait here, Bury, I'll return soon enough. Although you may wish I hadn't...
When we woke, he was already gone. We didn't even know he existed, not until later...
(This entry I'd like to send out special thanks to Natsumi and Caliburn for all their help and patience. Wouldn't have been able to do this without you)
