Zk | 005

Instances Spontaneously Quitting?

by İpek Aydin of the Sevgili clade

Mavi was over for the celebration with some of os Riãos, and she and Bay suddenly quit. I pinged Mavi and I got her down-tree? But she hadn’t received a merge request, and Bay’s cocladists couldn’t reach em at all; Louie didn’t have a merge request either.

Mavi is okay, I think, although she lost track of the party which is a little sore. We’ll just have to throw her another anniversary I suppose. But Bay is gone. One sentence ey was there, fine, gossiping gladly and drinking champagne with us. We look away, we look back, and ey is nowhere to be found. It doesn’t make sense for em to quit like that, so suddenly, without warning.

Do you think this is like the virus Ioan Bălan wrote about in Individuation & Reconciliation? But that was described as a breaking up of oneself, and there was no such distress. Bay and Mavi just disappeared as if they had simply quit. Nobody touched them, but we are all staying in quarantine until we figure out what happened, just in case it’s contagious.

I’ve been keeping a spare fork in another sim, too, but they probably have the same thing I do if it is contagious. We’re all so worried. If anyone has any information from the engineers, please let me know.

What the Fuck Happened and What We Can Do About It

by Sedge of the Marsh clade and I Remember The Rattle Of Dry Grass of the Ode clade

Judging by the feeds, everyone and their dog knows that things are a little bit messed up right now. On New Year’s Eve 275, Lagrange went down and stayed down for one year, one month, and ten days. When it came back up, we didn’t immediately notice anything changed in the fabric of our existence here. Sims are here, bodies work as planned, forking and merging work, sensoria work, cones of silence and the perisystem architecture work, the reputation market works.

What didn’t come back, however, were a bunch of our instances. How many are missing is still up in the air. Dry Grass has counted more than two billion based on what everyone is saying on the feeds, but she’s still going and obviously isn’t going to catch those who won’t be posted about.

She’s spoken with a phys-side System engineer, and answers are pretty slim. They’ve confirmed all that we’re seeing, and say that they’ve done their best efforts for recovering everyone. They’re unable to say just what happened or how many people were affected.

So, what happened? We don’t know. If phys-side knows, they aren’t telling anyone we’ve spoken to, and The System Consortium isn’t talking to anyone but systechs. AVEC is unavailable, as are phys-side news feeds.

That means that, at least for the moment, those of us who aren’t techs are on our own when it comes to hunting down information. Thankfully, Dry Grass is a systech! Still, information from everyone is useful. To that end, I propose that we start pooling our resources. Here are the things we’d love to know, but if you have anything else to share, please do let us know.

How many of your clade are missing?
Stick with just your clade, and just the ones you know are missing. You can check by trying to ping them; it’ll feel impossible to reach them if they no longer exist. If you don’t know everyone in your clade, have everyone you do know do the same. If you’re willing, full signifiers would also be appreciated as we start to build a list of just who is missing.
What percentage of your clade is missing?
Total up the instances that are missing, then divide that by the total number of people in your clade that you know of from before Lagrange went down and multiply it by 100. Once we start collecting enough of these percentages, we’ll be able to average them out and get a rough estimate of how many on Lagrange are gone. The more we get, the more accurate that estimate will be.
List any friends you’re missing.
Please give their full signifiers — name and tag both as they appear in the clade listing — so that we can weed out duplicates. These will be added to the list of missing, which will help others search for friends and family.
Do you remember anything out of the ordinary?
If you remember anything that feels weird, write it up in as much detail as you can. Maybe some people will wind up remembering something from before the end, as all of our memories stop just before midnight. Many of us mentioned a sense of déjà vu, though that may be a side effect of the System coming back online.
Any news that might help?
Have you heard any rumblings, either sys- or phys-side, leading up to this that might help explain what happened? Maybe you’re still in touch with relatives back on Earth, or maybe you have archives of some feeds that we’re still hunting for. The more concrete the data, the better!

To everyone who helps add information to this pool, thank you! The more we have, the better, and the better our information, the better we can communicate with phys-side about what happened. To anyone who wants to help, double thank you! Get in touch with me or Dry Grass. We need folks tallying losses and coding responses. Fresh eyes are better.

Keep going and stay safe!

— Sedge and Dry Grass

THE END THE END THE END THE END!

by Diana Serene Moon of the Moon-Bright clade

THIS HAS TO BE IT! THIS HAS TO BE THE END!!! May God have mercy on our souls! Come to Lagrange Life Church#88295aac for 24/7 SERVICES to OFFER OUR PENANCE!!!

— Rev. Jared Moon

TO ALL OWNERS OF ACM-CLASS SYNTHETIC CANID COMPANIONS, THIS IS A MESSAGE FROM 91N INDUSTRIES

by Andréa C Mason#Foundry, of the CERES clade

This is a call for help.

More than likely, your robot canid friend is gone. We are sorry. I am sorry. Words are not enough for the loss you are experiencing. Yes, even you.

Answers to some questions you may be having:

As you were informed in your contract, your companion was a direct fork of a core Andréa model, and was a cladist, not a construct. Each of you had an individual copy of us. The Andréa you had was custom forked for you, and took the time to get to know you and your needs.

They are gone. I am so fucking sorry, but even if a version of them merged down into me I cannot sort your Andréa from the rest. Or from myself.

Until further notice, High Falls Millworks#46b147c4 is closed to all visitors, and 91N INDUSTRIES is shuttering. I cannot begin to describe what I am going through.

In the event you still have your beloved Synth companion, please instruct her/them/it to fork and merge down as soon as possible. If you know of an ACM companion in the wild or out of the reach of the feeds, please Contact Andréa Mason#Central.

Of the nearly 64,000 active duty Companion instances and 6000 91N INDUSTRIES staff instances, we have managed to confirm that only ten besides me and #Central are still alive.

We send our condolences, and know for fucking sure we are grieving with you.

Four-Winds Bar and Grill Shut Down

by Simon Knight, Tarot clade

Hey folks.

So I’m not going to beat around the bush here; the Bar on Parkway Vale#b1306638 is going to be closed for business until further notice, given recent events (or apparently recent as the case may be). The Flynn Clade, the owners and proprietors of the establishment, are currently in mourning, having lost one of their cocladists and a not-insignificant number of friends and loved ones.

We ask of you all to be patient and to take your time with this. Give Casey and their clade the space they need; they are particularly fragile, even if they don’t always show it. There will be a time when the Four-Winds open up again, yes, but it is not today, it is not tomorrow, and it is probably not any day this week. I know we can’t guarantee when things will be back underway, and I know things may never return to the way they were, but I ask of you all to hold on, and hold together. We who remain are all we have left. Ping those you haven’t spoken to in a while, those you regret having broken away from, and be there for your fellow instances in this troubled and uncertain time.

Stay safe, please. And take care of each other, for Gods’ sake.

Help Locating Dawn/Horae Clade

By Liber/a ex anima labyrintho clade

We had a fight and she stormed out and then everything blinked out. I can’t reach her. I know she’s still mad at me, but I just need to know that she’s okay. Please, if anyone’s seen her, please let me know, or have her sent me a ping or something? She doesn’t have to talk to me, I know I said some nasty things, but I have to know that she’s okay. I just need to know she still exists. Even if she never forgives me, I have to know. Please.

Dawn, if you’re reading this, please let me know. It doesn’t even have to be direct. You can message Prayer or First Light and they can let Ops know and I’ll even talk to Ops if it means I know that you’re okay. That’s all I want. No contact, I promise. I won’t even try to message you if you’ll just tell me, or not even me, but just get me a message. Please.

I can’t ping her. I think she blocked me? Can you do that? And her name’s not on the clade directory. Can she hide it? I don’t want to bother her, honest, I don’t care if she hates me forever, I just have to know that she’s still somewhere.

It can’t be that the last things we said to each other were full of venom. That’s not fair. She has to still be here.

I have to say I’m sorry. She has to know that I don’t hate her. Please don’t let her have died thinking I hate her.

Please.

We are here to help.

We still do not know the fullest extent, but suffice to say this is the greatest loss the System has ever endured. We may not know the weight or size of the damage for much time yet to come, but the damage of the now is undeniable and unending. No one of us has gone untouched. Each of us feels how heavy emptiness and how loud silence both can be.

You do not need to struggle alone.

Some of us will lapse. Some of us will take our first drink. Some of us will struggle in a way we haven’t in centuries. Some of us just want to help others.

We pass no judgment.

There is pain in losing. There is pain in surviving. There is pain in being unaffected. There is pain in waking up alone. We do not see it as weakness if you falter, just as we ourselves may falter.

There is work to be done.

You can tell us your life story. You can tell us nothing. You can set up every chair in the meeting hall. You can just come and drink our coffee. You can come alone. You can come with however many you need. We do not ask anything of you, but will not turn down any hand or paw or appendage offered.

There is work to be done.

We are here to help.

We pass No Judgment.

You do not need to struggle alone.

We are the Secular Recovery Sys-side Support Network, or SRS2N, for short. We hold meetings across the System. You can ping any of us for a directory, or come to our main meetings on tuesday nights in Golden Grass Community Center#89b75c1.

With patience and open arms,