001 | Introduction | Anonymous Text

[codeoracle]

[The post is headed with an icon, source unknown.]

Hello. It's nice to meet all of you. I am the one they call Alibaba. Or I would be if I wasn't dragged from home to a place where I have no reputation.

I'll make this simple. I'm looking to make a deal--information is what I need. Specifically, I want to know more about this porting process.

I don't expect anyone to be able to tell me how it works, but anything you might know would be...helpful. I would be especially interested in speaking with anyone that was able to go home before being brought back.

You can answer freely or we can see if we can reach a deal that works for both of us. I'll be waiting.

Comments

[codeoracle]

What--oh. Yeah, I liked it a lot too.

[One could likely blame her mother for that.]

If you weren't sent home, where did you go? This could actually prove to be of a lot of use!

[fistofthejoestar]

It would if it were a particularly useful answer, but I'm afraid it's nothing of the sort. I didn't seem to go anywhere; it was a bit like falling asleep, only when I 'woke' an entire week had passed.

[and of course no one had been able to find him, confirming that he'd physically vanished from the world. it was still a little unsettling to think about.]

[codeoracle]

So you...just disappeared? That doesn't add up.

And nothing seemed to trigger this event?

[fistofthejoestar]

It doesn't, no, but that's what appears to have happened. None of my friends who searched were able to find me, and I have no recollection of where I may have gone.

There was a bit of an incident occurring in Heropa around the time I was Ported out, but I don't believe it had anything to do with that. I was gone quite a bit past when that was all resolved.

[not that he doesn't still regret the Porter's cruel whims on that count. his inability to help Josuke during Pan's sick reign still nagged at his sensitive conscience.]

[codeoracle]

...It's interesting that something was happening at that time though. Maybe I'll keep a record of ports and see if those coincide with anything happening here.

Even if it wasn't the case for you being ported out there could be a connection to other instances, right?

[fistofthejoestar]

We certainly won't know until one of us tries, at the very least.

I don't know if the government keeps track of the specifics behind each time the Porter leaves someone in its facility, but departures and returns are frequently commented on in this network. It's a decent enough starting point if you're looking to collect past data.

[codeoracle]

Now that I know what to set a filter for, that's my next plan of action. Let's hope it's not completely random...

[fistofthejoestar]

At worse I'd imagine that you'll find only the Porter herself understands the logic behind the parameters she uses.

[which is...effectively random, for their purposes. it's frustrating.]

[codeoracle]

That would help if we could...communicate with the Porter in some way.

[fistofthejoestar]

If we had such a chance I don't think any of us would have to collect scraps of information to begin with.

[codeoracle]

Which is exactly why it isn't much help at all, right?

...I don't like this scraping for clues nonsense, but I guess it's our only choice.

[fistofthejoestar]

It's not ideal by a long shot, but if we don't pursue it then I doubt we'll ever have much more than that.