milliways_bar | (no subject)

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The door slides open, briefly revealing the interior of the UNSC heavy cruiser Spark In Darkness. A Huragok floats idly through, and the door closes. As the creature approaches the Bar a note pops up.

Well, it was only a matter of time, really. Vergil floats over the Bar, dips down behind it, and comes up with a slate and several pieces of chalk.

Hello
I am called Vergil
I am a Huragok
I understand English, but communicate in sign language
And tonight I am tending the Bar.

Specials

Pink Beaner
Pink Heart
Purple Heart
Blue Moon
Golden Glow Punch (non-alcoholic)

Enjoy!

It eyes the sign, twitters to itself in satisfaction, and floats to one side to wait for orders.

[Tinytag: Valentine's Day Plot]

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The intelligences used by the Forerunners are difficult to describe properly to one who has never seen them; a Huragok mostly knows them from within. Still, Vergil tries. As far as the ones the humans make, they have learned to copy the brains of humans- first producing new ones of flesh, swiftly and without bodies, and then sending pulses of electricity through them one path at a time and copying every last transmission pathway in materials of silicon and superconductors. Some of the intelligences they make in this way are built only to perform a specific set of tasks, and they work very well and for very long. Others are set the job of learning and developing, and they do not live for so long- they cannot add new pathways to their structure, only find new ways of using old ones, and eventually they run out.

Death wonders out loud - for want of a better phrase - at what point these artifical intelligences reached the level at which they'd start believing in things - like himself, for instance.

Which is a good point; does Vergil believe in gods and other such belief-based organisms like Death?

It's a good question. Vergil notes that the surviving machines built by the Forerunners are all a little strange by now, and hold their makers in the same kind of esteem that humans seem to have for their gods. But then, the organic races of the Covenant believed that the Forerunners were gods, too- or that the Forerunners became gods. This was not so, that much has been learned for certain- but that was believed.

As far as whether Vergil believes... it does not believe in gods, no. It does not believe against gods, either. It simply does not have that concept, or much need of it. The Forerunners created its species long ago and implanted them with directives to study and learn and care for machines. That does not make them gods, it only makes them makers. It supposes that it believes in ideas. Most particularly, that life, all life, is vastly important. And that whatever other races may do, Huragok should not end the lives of other beings.

Those are parameters for living not unlike other beings' religions, Death would agree, but it's not quite belief. Although he wouldn't be surprised if the Forerunners did aquire god like staus with all that belief.

Vergil considers this; it ventures, after a bit, that it does not know how such things work. It knows that the Forerunners moved to protect all life that they could from the possessing, devouring enemy, and that when they could fight no more they destroyed themselves, all but for two, to starve that enemy as far as possible. Those two restored the hidden life to other worlds, and then died themselves. The Covenant did not know of that destruction, and believed that the means by which the Forerunners destroyed themselves would instead make the Covenant races gods, if activated. It... would be a very strange sort of god, that could make a lie become true.

If enough believed that lie, Death tells it, it wouldn't requier gods to make it true. At least, in his universe.

That part is interesting. Vergil will have to think about that, and perhaps see if it is so-

A question, now that the idea has arisen. Does it work in the other direction? Does enough belief that someone, one figure, is a demon or some other horror make them so?

Well, demons are creatures of belief as much as gods and anthropomorphic personifications such as Death himself, he explains in confirmation.

Vergil dips its head in acknowledgment. It had wondered, because one human warrior in particular committed an act that all the Covenant considered the grossest of sacrilege- and proved himself such a dangerous warrior that the Prophets, and all the other races of the Covenant, took to calling him The Demon.

That might work, Death opins. It tends to take a lot of belief, and he will admit he doesn't know what the ambient magic is in Vergil's universe. It's probably much lower than in Death's own.

Magic is, again, a thing with which Vergil is not familiar. It will defer to the superior knowledge of one who has lived with it more.

This is going to be hard to explain.

The best Death can do is liken it to a force such as gravity, or magnetism, or narrativium. It's not visible, but it is detectable by the effects it has on the physical world. Some worlds have more of it that others.

That, at least, Vergil can comprehend. It doesn't recall ever hearing of the force in question, but that doesn't necessarily mean much. The Huragok twitters in acknowledgment, considering the prospect.

Death suggests a wizard might be able to explain it better, should there be any iin the bar.

It will remember that for next time, then. Although Vergil does not know how one recognizes a wizard.

They have hats. Pointed ones, which Death demonstrates with his fingerbones.

All right. Vergil will look for that, then, and try to find a way to communicate with them. There is much to learn here.

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