[video]

[scratchitti]

How's everyone holding up? This time was way worse then the last couple attacks, that's for sure.

Did anyone else get one of these?

[He holds up a charm with a blue symbol in the middle]

Cam got one and said it help evolve our partners to the next level.

[Terriermon pops up, grinning at the camera]

Neku's is the Crest of Friendsh-

[Neku pushes her off camera with an annoyed expression]

AS I WAS SAYING- does anyone know how they work or where they came from? Mine just poofed into existence. Let's compare notes.

Comments

[scratchitti]

She called you rude earlier.

[greatwork]

Oh.

Congratulations, you have reached a tenuous grip on the obvious.

[scratchitti]

[he rolls his eyes and huffs in almost amusement]

Yeah, you are probably the second most annoying person I know here now.

[greatwork]

Unfortunately for you, I am also the smartest by a wide margin.

Now, as I actually mentioned early on, are you going to give me the bloody details on your crest past 'appeared out of nowhere'? Current price for information is 20 bit and 30 more if it actually helps me figure anything out.

[scratchitti]

You don't have to bribe me. I was talking to my friend Cam about some.... personal stuff. I guess you could say it was getting kinda heavy, then it appeared.

[greatwork]

I'm offering pay because I need way more detail than that. Also because it's not proper scientific procedure to not compensate for help.

[scratchitti]

[He shakes his head]

I'm not telling you my personal business, but from what Cam said it seems the crests appear and activate if you're acting out what they represent. His is Courage and it showed up when he was defending someone. I was helping a friend, so...

[greatwork]

Too vague. "Desire" could literally be anything. I've gotten hungry and gotten a snack since I got here, so why not then?

[scratchitti]

And I've made friends since I've been here and it never appeared. There has to be more to it. Maybe a certain level of intensity or focus?

[greatwork]

[Thinking back.]

The only difference I can think of in my experimentation in that fight is that I was using another person to gather data, and that was the first actual kill we've made here.

[Notably, she doesn't seem to be particularly upset or shaken up by that.]

[scratchitti]

Maybe a mix of a 'desire' for knowledge and a risk to your safety?

[greatwork]

There was no risk to my safety. There was another Chosen there, and I was about to safely determine why we are here.

[scratchitti]

Hmmm... I don't know then. I don't think it's the wrong track though. You're right, 'desire' is a hard one to nail down.

[greatwork]

They all are. They can't be quantified so easily- Trust me, I make a living of working with the soul, being able to nail something like a vague trait down and make a crest out of it? We're being jerked around.

[scratchitti]

It's possible. Until I know more there's no way to argue it. Isn't it, erm, like that cat in the box? Until we have proof either way it being a trick or not a trick are both equally right?

[greatwork]

... "Cat in a box"? What?

[scratchitti]

[He ponders for a second, trying to remember the experiment]

I'm probably remembering this wrong, but basically there's this experiment where a cat sealed in a box is exposed to a poison of some sort. I think it was radioactive or something? Anyway, there is no way to observe the cat while it's in the box, and the poison may or may no activate. If it does the cat will die. If it doesn't the cat will live. Until the box is opened there's no way to know if it activated.

So basically until observed the cat is both equally alive and dead. Kinda like if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it does it make a sound. I think. I'm probably mis-remembering it though.

[greatwork]

Oh, an experiment about probability and potentiality... Did whoever do that just hate cats? Your comparison falls apart on one very important level, though. There is no "may or may not", the goals of the force that brought us here have already been decided, as well as the prior Chosen. It's that we don't know, not that it has yet to be defined.

[scratchitti]

Fair enough, but so far your only proof of wrong doing is that they haven't told us everything. Or at least haven't told us everything that eventually became relevant, even if it wasn't originally. Not all the Chosen that were already here have Crests.

[greatwork]

No, they have completely different digivices that allow them to be infinitely more useful.

Remember, my main theory is that the primary potentially malevolent force here is the one that brought us here, the same force that gave us these Digivices. It says it wants us to save it, then doesn't give us the tools that would be the most help, even though we can plainly see it has them? Pretty fucking suspicious.

[scratchitti]

Like I said, I can't really argue with you. I'm just saying... shit, don't get too caught up in being suspicious that you assume things are any one way.

Though knowing my luck you're probably right and we're playing right into some bigger plot.

[greatwork]

I usually am right, yes.

Just keep your eyes peeled, don't trust the shit we're given too easily. If they do what they're advertised to do, all well and good, but I know something about invisible omniscient forces, and that is to never fucking deal with them if you can avoid it.

[scratchitti]

[He barks in bitter laughter]

Yeah, I learned that one too. I'll keep it in mind.

[greatwork]

You too?

Angels or demons, then?

[scratchitti]

A little of both, honestly.

Did you have to die first too, or was it just chaos across the earth style?