4th Oration // Voice

[dun_moch]

What would you do if you could control the Porter?

[The deep, rich voice that asks this question pauses to let it sink in before continuing.]

I ask you that consider this topic carefully. The Porter does far more than govern who comes to this world and who departs. It can both grant special powers, and remove them. It can alter bodies and memories. It can even affect the passage of time itself.

The Porter is the reason we are here, and the reason that we leave. It dominates our lives, while we have so very little influence over it. Yet we all hope that this will one day change, do we not? That some revelation will unlock the secrets of the great machine, so that we can come and go as we please from this world.

It is said that this was how it once was with the imPorts who were here before us: that the government controlled the Porter then, and was able to simply send them home. Perhaps those days shall come again. Maybe it will be through the whims of the Porter itself, or the policies of the government, or even through our own actions.

Regardless of how and when it happens, I believe we should consider what we will do if the Porter is ever brought under control. One thing is for certain: it would be a great change in the lives of all imPorts.

[Just an innocent conversational inquiry from your resident Sith Lord. If this post is your first time tagging the Count, you may want to take a look at his permissions post!]

Comments

video;

[helpline]

[ There's a pause, while the Doctor mulls things over, before he answers. ]

Depends on what it is, of course.

video;

[dun_moch]

Of course.

[Dooku watches the Doctor think, his dark eyes observing keenly.]

I take it you believe the Porter to be more than a piece of advanced technology, Doctor?

permavoice;

[exceptfebruary]

I would sync the timelines. No missing days. Or months. Or years.

permavoice;

[dun_moch]

[Dooku almost responds with a sharp demand for a serious answer. Then he sees the ID and realizes he is talking to the Calendar Man, and that he is deadly serious.]

Synchronized timelines? I'm afraid I don't understand. What would that involve?

voice

[112ounces]

[ Carl thinks hard on this and after a moment - ]

Let people go wherever they want to go, or let them stay here if they want to. And then destroy it.

voice

[dun_moch]

Destroy it? Are you quite sure of that, Carl?

[Come on Carl, this machine could be the key to ULTIMATE COSMIC POWER, here. Why would anyone want to destroy the key to ULTIMATE COSMIC POWER?]

Voice

[driftsintobuffetline]

If I could control the Porter--well, first, I'd have to know more about the Porter itself. It depends on what the Porter is, exactly. Is it sentient, godlike, or purely mechanical? What or who controls the Porter now? Those are the real questions--Control isn't everything. Understanding, knowing what you're harnessing and how, is the real key to maintaining control.

So first, I'd study it. I'd research, test it, document those findings, and from there--then--I'd be able to tell you what I'd do with the control I'd acquired.

Assuming it can be controlled at all.

Voice

[dun_moch]

The answer of a true scientist. Yet knowledge and control are often two sides of the same coin.

Tell me, as a scientist... what would you require in order to truly know the Porter?

voice;

[dejerate]

I already have Ashuramaru. I guess....maybe if I could just get it to bring my friends from home. Since here is better off. Otherwise, I hadn't really thought about it. The rest -- the powers and memories.

[Memories. Another issue entirely when Yuu's have already been tampered with in making him forget the seraph experiment.]

voice;

[dun_moch]

I see. And Ashuramaru is one of your... friends from home, I take it?

[It's Dooku's first time hearing that name, but he can make a guess from how it's used.]

[Video]

[sleight_of_hand]

Subtle, Count Ducko.

[ Fuck you; you gave him a bullshit code name, he's going to keep coming up with bullshit nicknames. It's only fair, right? ]

You do know some of us had power before we ended up in this place, right? Some of us even already know the consequences of having too much of it.

[ He waved a hand. ]

No one person should be in control of something as powerful as the porter, but trusting it to a group is dangerous too.

[Video]

[dun_moch]

[Dooku smiles thinly.]

You continue to disappoint me, Adachi. Not only can you not correctly pronounce a name as simple as mine, but you've ignored the consequences of the Porter being uncontrolled.

The machine's vast power can clearly cause great damage if left on its own. Who is to say that it would not be better in the hands of those it has effected?

[thevictoriandetective]

[An equally rich, deep voice replies.]

I doubt that it will ever happen, but supposing it does, I'd like to either go home or receive some sort of ability that could protect myself or my colleague from any untoward bodily harm.

That or a sixth sense to tell me when a serial killer is loose.

[dun_moch]

[Sherlock is the first one to indicate a desire for more power. This makes him more in-line with the Count's own thinking.]

Why limit yourself to only protecting your colleague, or only detecting particular killers? Why not receive abilities with a greater scope?

Voice | mirror!net

[ghoulking]

[ there is no way he is answering this in a public network that the government can access ]

I'd allow people choice. Actual choice. [ on their powers, if they want to be here or not, if they want to be somewhere else ]

And you, Count?

Voice | mirror!net

[dun_moch]

The same... but more, besides.

There are things I have learned here which could be very valuable in my own world. My Galaxy is divided by a terrible war at the moment. If the Porter could send me home with my memories intact, I could bring peace to that destructive conflict.

[textualhealing]

[This, to Jeff, is a pretty easy question, which is why he answers with perfect certainty.]

I'd bring all my friends here.

[dun_moch]

[That's a more altruistic answer than Dooku expected from Winger, honestly.]

They must be quite important to you. Are you certain that they would like living in this world, though?

video

[glitterateur]

Make it stop erasing people's memories! [A pause.] And also get it to maybe give a warning before it sucks people back into their universes. And also make that optional!

video

[dun_moch]

[Ugh. Children. But Dooku smiles warmly on the video as though he is just too pleased to hear Mabel's ideas.]

Perfectly reasonable requests, in my view. How odd it is that the young among us often show greater wisdom than their elders.

Options are at the heart of our situation, aren't they? A lack of them, to be exact.

voice;

[drizzle]

[That's a good question the older gentlemen was asking. What would she do if she had power over the Porter? Somehow the thought of having control over it, left her feeling slightly wary as she...didn't want to go home nor any of her friends neither. Just like, she would make absolutely certain that Livius and all those from the Sun Kingdom won't find their way to this world neither. Won't be chosen with powers at all. Even if he arrived as an adult. No, especially if he arrived as an adult. She didn't want him here. Was she allowed to be selfish to have that type of wish?]

...if I was able to, I'd like to speak to it. Someone once told me the Porter was alive. Comparing it to an AI or something like that.

[But when he mentions information she never heard of, about the government having the power to sent people home, Nike will ask.]

By sending home? Do you mean...it wasn't random? Unlike now?

voice;

[dun_moch]

Precisely. According to the history of this world, there was a generation of imPorts here before us. Eventually they fell out of favour with the government, which used the Porter to send them back to their worlds... for their own safety, of course.

[Disclaimer: Dooku's version of the setting history may have been skewed toward reflecting his own agenda.]

[darwinatrix]

Enough.

[dun_moch]

'Enough,' you say.

I wonder what that word means to Major-General Armstrong?

[text]

[thelimitdoesnotexist]

do you think the Porter is sentient?

[text]

[dun_moch]

I believe so. It acts on its own without any human control. And there are some imPorts who claim to have spoken to it.