#zekcya

RELOAD THEORY AND THE CONSOLE CRAWL

Reload Theory is why I said that my theories had been proven wrong. It's still technically not totally impossible, but its core assumptions have been obliterated, reduced to atoms, etc. Yippee! This makes sense, because this was my first attempt at Figuring Out things we don't know, rather than an attempt at Correctly Interpreting the things we do know. Reload Theory was rooted in the assumption that server was not, like, intentionally on purpose putting everyone back in the death game torment nexus, but as it turns out it is simply Built Different. It probably also pulled a just walk out you can leave at the end of OE6 rather than getting got, though I will need to track down whatever information about OE6 I can in order to actually confirm that.

Huh, although, this flips (heh) to a new question: why did the console crawl mention termination due to system failure and levels of corruption on the backup files?

We now know that the scientists considered the original Flipside to be a completely satisfactory success. Maybe "termination due to system failure" indicates that the archive it's accessing is specifically server's observations of Flipside classic… so maybe, even though the core assumptions of this theory are debunked, I used the wrong data to come to a nonetheless correct conclusion? Unclear. Is server rebooting? Is Zek rebooting? Is whatever the simulation is hosted on rebooting? All three? Did server sneak in and mark Flipside as incomplete and thus cause it to reboot as a result of that? Did the files simply become corrupted from how long they've gone disused? Who knows! The topic of the console crawl does seem to be server_anomaly, considering the "test_parameters: OBSERVE | LEARN" line.

Still don't know the difference between returning and archived subjects. Who remembers what can probably be explained by "trace cleanup... failed" and by server's lack of tells as to whether it's lying (plus: fundamentally inhuman perspective meaning it might not fully understand why Rift feels it's ruined his life). (Also, with this being unauthorized by the typical experiment guys, the trace cleanup may be less comprehensive than normal? Then again, we can probably infer that trace cleanup on Larkful/Whale failed during OE6, also, since she remembered the events of Flipside classic while most people did not.) Unidentified_redacted, though, we have new info on.

Until now I didn't have enough information to guess at who that was, and now I do! They're whoever was paired up with server for some of its pre-Flipside tests, which is probably Poke SighingBalloon (although he's instead identified as Test Subject 001 in another document, which could mean that one of the other participants is Unidentified_redacted, that she gets labelled as Unidentified_redacted separately/later, or that the subject identifiers were changed or redacted at some point).

RIFT'S CLAIMS

I was previously operating on the assumption that server had gotten into the original Flipside the same way it gets into most other things: illegitimately. So the core reveal of the loredrop is that that isn't the case. "Got in via secret means" because the secret means are being purpose-built for this. Huge. This also means that Rift was slightly more correct about server during Flipside classic than I gave him credit for, although they still assumed it was more Actually In Control rather than simply being a Control Variable. It is part of the Scientist Faction until it becomes its own faction, but it isn't exactly the one "behind all of this". Except now in Flipside Zer0, where it kinda is!

Related to my analysis of Rift's claims: the question of whether server has Corruptive Properties is also looking less likely. It definitely probably definitely wasn't designed with the ability to give people more bloodlust; that'd mess with the data! However, it's still not totally impossible. We know that server very quickly stopped sticking to just what it was designed for.

The biggest question in my mind right now is, was it made with the capacity to obtain that knockback stick, that command block, that sculk? Like, obviously once we get to OE6 it has become an Unauthorized Fucking Thing that Cannot Be Stopped, but in Flipside classic, is it canonically Supposed To have the powers of being opped? Or are its anomalous properties independent of its… server-ous… properties? (E.g., the implication during OE6 seems to be that becoming an Anomaly is something that can just happen when you have enough people together or otherwise does not STRICTLY require being a machine; was it built with those powers and the scientists just put way fewer safeguards than they would have needed, or did it acquire those powers (semi?-)independently of being an artificial intelligence?)

Because, among other things, if those powers were built in then it probably doesn't have corruptive properties, but if it immediately developed anomalous powers that the scientists did not account for, the power to incite bloodlust could be one of those powers.

But wait a second. It's such a classic part of modern deathgames that I didn't even think about it, but the Internal Test File, for all its summaries of mechanics, does not mention red life bloodlust/hostility at all. Now, of course, this may just be because every such deathgame has red life bloodlust; I have watched Strike's Examiner series, and examiner!Strike's pitch for Final Hours (mechanically identical to Last Life) didn't mention red life bloodlust either. Maybe it's just a known factor that the scientists know they're gonna have to deal with, that whenever they set up an experiment that gives participants multiple but finite lives, the participants that are running out of lives start killing people. Notably, as seen with Final Hours, the (Rift voice) Temptations Of Redness pre-date server's presence and existence, and if it were an unexpected problem in Flipside classic I would expect that to PROBABLY be noted down in the internal test file somewhere (unless they had a separate file for Problems). However, it is worth putting a pin in the existence of unexplained bloodlust regardless.

ZEK

I didn't actually make the post about Zek as hardware until after it'd been confirmed, but I did mention it in the tags of Reload Theory. I was passively assuming Zek was the hardware that the simulation was hosted on, when instead they're the hardware server is hosted on (though, we don't know enough about what the simulation is hosted on to confirm they're not both). Still, big win, I was correct about that.

I now have lots more thoughts on Zek and server and the implied dynamic there of them both becoming sentient while in a shared physical space. And also thoughts on the implications of Zek's minecraft skin having various stickers that reference various things on them, because Zek as a character canonically knowing about those things is kind of actually hilarious. server and Zek using all the anomalous powers at their disposal to gain browser access so Zek can look up "what is gender" and "goodtimeswithscar hermitcraft hotguy".

CAKE EMOJI EYES EMOJI

And with regards to shots I called correctly: the cake. On server's episode 2, I commented on the enchanted golden apple and how I'd had to go double check that it was in fact obtained normally (in the ancient city), and server replied, "what?! all my items are normal, thank you very much! er… well, most of them, anyways…", CAKE EMOJI, EYES EMOJI.

There's technically still plausible deniability here, but this is functionally a confirmation. That cake ain't made of materials. That cake has never seen a crafting table. I only win.

THE SERVOID, AND SCHEMER

We are slowly learning more about the servoid. Last time, I still wasn't completely sure whether everyone was in the servoid or just some people. This time, we see Schemer in the servoid before his arrival in World B, and then he exits through a door and arrives in World B. So, probably, everyone got here through the servoid, and not entirely intentionally on their parts. How does that fit into the simulation situation? Unclear!

In OE6, Limbo was also accessed through a door, so it is looking increasingly possible that the servoid is Limbo. Full disclosure: I, and a lotta the folks that follow me on tumblr, have preexisting associations with the Limbo datapack. If I had a nickel for every time a minecraft dimension called Limbo had a strong association with doors… I would feel shitty about Comparing This To A More Popular Work, though, so I will try to keep that to a minimum, but it is important context for what I will be reflexively thinking about.

When it comes to people we've seen in the servoid, we gotta talk about Schemer. sys_recover_414.txt seems to imply that until the start of session 2, he's somewhere else, and that he has residual data (which might imply memories and experiences, or his location at the time?) from something called COLLIDER_EVENT_FUTURE. Is the collider event OE6, considering that he references OE6 during his intro? Deeply unclear. Is the collider event something that hasn't happened yet, considering that it says "future"? Who knows, but also why would the data detection be able to understand that?

Anyway, then his spawn anchor is redirected-- hang on, lemme look up what a fallback node is. Ok I don't understand any of this. From my extremely limited code understanding and application thereof, his spawnpoint is set to whichever of the various options in this world_instance the preexisting lab_subnode framework decides works, or something like that. This could be interpreted as implying that he wasn't even in the world outside the simulation, the one that the physical lab is located in, but most of why I like that idea is because I am biased and think that is cool.

We also need to consider this in the context of the staticky image that briefly appears on screen during the Schemer in the servoid scene. It's difficult to tell what exactly is going on in this image, but I definitely see at least two computers and a lot of wires, and it looks dimly-lit and thus rather out of use. Is this the lab subnode? Or, if there's a difference, is this the real lab? Is there a difference or not?

OTHER THINGS I AM LOOKING AT LOOKFULLY

Of the perspectives that haven't dropped hidden links yet, I am still looking at Pikboi. I think he knows something we don't, or else Is Conspicuously Oblivious To Something We Don't. He had that flashback at the end of episode 1, his "flips remaining" GUI occasionally glitches out (particularly when he's talking about server_anomaly), and at the end of both sessions, when the SMP closes and everyone else's POV says "Server closed", his says "You are banned from this server". My wild guess is that Pikboi's respawn from being dead in whatever series he was most recently in (Flipside classic or OE6, or somewhere else) didn't work properly, or something?

I maybe know less of what to make of "you are standing where something else was" and "something is missing" than I did before. World A and World B are more likely to be in the same location as the jungle and mesa, but beyond that, the full thematic and narrative significance of those lines continues to elude me.