one ♎ video;

[unplug]

[ When the network is finally rebooted and online, there is a message waiting for all. It is a digital rendering of video footage, although to the naked eye, it may as well be video in high definition. The background is completely white but without glow, and there is a man in view -- his hair is a distinguished shade of silver, and he is well dressed.

He speaks calmly and at a cool remove. ]

I am the Architect.

Your city was involved in a battle against a quantity identified as the Reapers. Subsequently, many of you will have questions about the nature of this enemy. I am not here to provide them for you. I am here to tell you what it was not.

The deplorably fractious nature of your leadership and human alliances should make you familiar with the concept of division. Plainly put, I honour the Treaty struck between Machine and mankind and so too do the machines affiliated in that alliance. There are groups that would see the Treaty dissolved completely, and ergo, are a threat to all that uphold it.

Do not compromise our peace because you can't tell the difference.

If you, as a species, wish to build a future upon this planet, you will need to look first into the past. A fact of life my contemporary is prone to neglecting.

[ ooc ; please note the architect may not reply to everyone or may terminate conversation suddenly. he's not into baking. ]

Comments

video;

[mightyfallen]

[ That turning on his communicator at all is a mistake is obvious to the few who know him, from the flick of muscle at his temple, but then, Jack is blessed with neither patience nor foresight so much as a temper. And so: ]

Do not come here in the wake of our loss, asking a show of our good faith and offer none in return.

If this threat is to both of us, where are your dead? What action have you taken against it?

video;

[algoritmi]

This was my good faith.

[ He is unmoved. ]

Make no mistake; they directly oppose me but they do not directly threaten me. You have seen for yourself their choice of harvest. Human flesh and human sin. My interest lies in upholding balance.

[dissent]

Aren't you in charge? Are you trying to say there are rebel machines?

[ It's not that he disbelieves in the possibility — his Matrix lacked the indoctrination that robots can't have feelings, for instance, but given the seeming hive-minded unity that they've presented so far the possibility of division and dissent (which yes, he is very familiar with) still comes as a surprise. ]

[algoritmi]

I am not trying to say anything. You are trying to comprehend what I am telling you.

[dissent]

Because it goes against everything else I've been told. How can machines go against their ... what's the word? Programming? Unless they've been programmed to dissent.

Besides, if one human broke the treaty, every human would have to take responsibility for the consequences, so I don't think you can just claim Olympus wasn't your fault and leave it at that.

[algoritmi]

This is not counter to their programming, but a system that is older than the Treaty. Older than the Matrix. Older than the war.

[alsohawkeye]

Go on. What's still around from before that? What is its agenda?

[blind]

What are you going to do about it then? How are you going to prevent this from happening in the future?

[algoritmi]

[ A long stare. Long for the Architect, anyway. He doesn't usually indulge in affectation. Just a second of silence before he decides to reply; ]

Do you see a future wherein machine services man?

[ He isn't a sarcastic programme. The question sounds real, if flat. ]

[blind]

[ the lack of tone is jarring. unsurprising, but all the same, it makes the conversation just that much more difficult to navigate. ]

No. But you have factions who see man serving machines. What are you doing about it?

video.

[jomi]

Heeeeey.

[ He's had a bad week, looks it, etc. But he's smiling! ]

Fuck you, too.