The Simulacrum
~Chapter 169~ Part 2

So… While I didn't plan or even intend it, I somehow ended up infiltrating the inner circle of the Emergents. Here I was, in the lion's den. Behind enemy lines. In the jaws of the beast.

"Fritters?"

"Yes, thank you," I said and picked up a pastry. Now, where was I?

Ah, right. I was in deep, but I never forgot to maintain my lifeline, ready to bail at a moment's notice. The knowledge that I had an emergency exit naturally emboldened me, and so I didn't hesitate to brave these dangerous uncharted waters. To venture where no Leonard S. Dunning ventured before. To ask the hard-hitting questions and to get some well-deserved answers. Such as…

"Seriously, what's with the Italian accents in the Abyss?"

The Man blinked at me, not expecting the sudden inquiry, and he put aside the seafood-filled fritter at the end of his toothpick. They were conjured up by The Girl, seemingly out of thin air, and while at first I was a bit worried about them suddenly changing into something else depending on her mood, the Emergents around the table were happy to eat them without a hint of reservation, so I followed suit. It was a somewhat plain dish, but not bad by any means.

Anyhow, The Man let out a low huff and used his food to point at me, which was a bit rude, but I was already used to it due to Angie sharing the same bad habit.

"Now, listen. When you think of the Abyssals, they should have an aura of menace. A mien that says 'I'm a dangerous individual with connections to even more dangerous people, so don't get on my bad side'. That's why they're given traits to evoke the imagery of organized crime."

"So how come only some of them have the accent?" I pressed on, but he remained silent. "Also, it's not like all the Abyssals are scary and dangerous. Some of them are quite nice and endearing."

"That's just Free Actors mucking things up," The Man grumbled and finally ate his pastry… only to then immediately use the bare toothpick to point at me again. "That's something out of our control, unfortunately, but it's the setting and lore that counts."

"It's not 'unfortunately'. It's by design," The Boy chimed in while holding a large paper cup of soda in his hands, and his comment earned him a literally thundering squint from the other Emergent.

"We all know that, and we all know what I meant!"

"R-Right…"

The Boy shrunk back, The Man huffed and puffed, while The Girl only rolled her eyes in mild annoyance. Very human behaviours and responses, which only made the whole scene more incongruous in my eyes.

While our meta-discussion with The Man was a bit all over the place, it made me draw a bunch of troubling conclusions. For example, the thundering barren moon masquerading as a middle-class academic in front of me was, based on his stray comments, single-handedly responsible for the basic setting and scenario of the Simulacrum.

I repeat: he made the current scenario. With the plot and the terminology and character traits and everything. I was currently talking with a world-scale reality-warping entity, the closest thing to a literal eldritch god I could imagine… and we were sitting at a table and having a jovial discussion about tropes while eating off-brand Takoyaki.

This wasn't just run-of-the-mill weirdness, the kind that was common within the Simulacrum. Oh, nooo. This was advanced weirdness, and the other two Emergents only added to it with their presence.

I mean, let's look at this objectively: these three, plus The Woman (wherever she was at the moment), were literally responsible for the existence of everyone and everything I knew. Maybe not quite literally on the 'conjured out of thin air' level, as they would've had to adhere to the already existing bits and bobs of the Simulacrum's previous scenarios, but close. Heck, they were responsible for my existence! It wasn't a pleasant thought by the least, and it made me a bit unnerved, and… was this how others felt around me in the Simulacrum, I wondered.

After all, while I wasn't exactly some omnipotent stellar consciousness or whatever, I routinely broke common sense, could rewrite parts of the Simulacrum (read: reality, for anyone else concerned), and could even retcon things out of existence. Was I… was I actually really scary?

A thought for later. For now, I figured it was best to keep the conversation rolling and try to tease out more meta-information from them. For example…

"Okay, I get that. Free Actors mess things up by their very presence, but how is that related to the Abyssals being all over the place?"

"Are you still going on about that…?" The Girl muttered, none too pleased by our discussion continuing unabated, but I ignored her and looked The Man in the eye. Which was kind of a bad idea, because I was suddenly hit by the sensation that I was about to be struck by the mother of all thunderbolts.

Funnily enough, it was the Emergent who averted his eyes first and lightly cleared his throat.

"What do you mean by 'all over the place'? I thought we already discussed the phenotypes."

"I'm not talking about that, but the mafioso aesthetic. Why do they have that outside while they've got more of a gothic vampire nobility thing going on inside the Abyss?"

"Oh, you mean that?" The Man absently picked up another fritter and made a vague, circling motion with it. "The Abyss was already an established element of the current iteration of the Simulacrum. One of my previous works, by the way, and I'm quite proud of it. In any case, since the current scenario already involves an archetype of modern-day nobility in the form of the Draconians, I figured I could take some… hm… let's say 'creative liberties' to make the Abyssals more distinct."

So, he just off-handedly confirmed that the current scenario was indeed built on an existing Simulacrum framework. Note taken. I'd have to tell Judy about it first thing in the morning, but first…

"But won't that cause incongruity once the plot moves into the Abyss?"

My entirely reasonable question made the Emergents around the table freeze up for a moment, as I just said something preposterous.

"That's…" The Man started, sounding completely flabbergasted. "Why would they go to the Abyss?"

"Isn't that the next logical step in the scenario's progression?"

"N-No?" The Boy tried to argue, and when I glanced his way, he immediately shrunk back.

"What he's trying to say is that the current scenario was never meant to move into the Abyss."

"Exactly. That's why I could take creative liberties with the major Abyssal actors."

My confusion was palpable, but I tried to keep it under the surface. Were they not paying any attention to how the plot was going right now, I wondered.

"You already said that the Free Actors have mixed up the original scenario, didn't they?"

"Yes, but having multiple Free Actors is already an anomalous situation."

"We didn't plan that," The Boy chimed in a touch hesitantly. "It was supposed to be a simple scenario."

"Not that simple," The Man scoffed, and The Boy hurriedly raised his palms.

"I-I mean, simple in terms of execution. The only reason things got a little out of hand was because the—" His eyes abruptly opened wide as saucers and he put both hands on his mouth. I didn't know what to make of that, but then he unsubtly glanced at The Girl and whispered, "Does he… you know… know?"

"If you mean about the Crowned Coalescence, then yes," she confirmed, earning her a thunderous glare from The Man.

"What!? Consulting an outsider is already bad enough, even if he's a man of culture, but you even told him about him?!"

I was momentarily taken aback by that 'man of culture' phrase, but before I could ask what he meant, The Boy muttered, "Uuuh… ********** isn't going to like this…"

And here it was again. Fortunately, it didn't take much effort to figure out that he was talking about The Woman. Her ruby oceans were quite distinct.

"She didn't need to tell me," I cut in before an argument could start, and that drew all attention to me.

"Then how did you know?" The Man asked with a squint, and after hesitating for a second, I decided to go with an evasive answer.

"I just had to look at the Simulacrum, and I saw his fingerprints everywhere."

"Right! I told you he's a Simulacrum expert, right?" The Girl followed me up with gusto. "It would've been strange if he didn't notice."

"Yes, he's well-versed in the current scenario, but…" The Man began to object, but then he suddenly switched tracks and asked something else entirely. "Which reminds me: what did you consult him about?"

"It was about the ************* within the **** of the internal framework," The Boy answered, making me sneakily frown at him. I still had no idea what that meant, so if I was going to be asked about it in the open here, I reckoned I'd be in trouble.

"The thing you talked about during the last meeting?" The Man addressed The Boy instead, and The Girl used the opportunity to interject.

"Yes, that one! We figured out that it's caused by the multiple Free Actors, right?"

"A-As she says," The Boy nodded and put down his drink in preparation for launching into a full-on explanation. "It turns out that the Simulacrum's natural self-correcting mechanisms, designed to adapt and develop in response to stimuli caused by the Free Actors, are simply over-compensating due to having two of them. This causes a kind of domino-like effect that spreads and reinforces these alterations in a cascade that reaches beyond the immediate range of a single Free Actor's effective influence."

"In other words, there's nothing wrong with the Simulacrum, and we have nothing to worry about," The Girl concluded.

"Hm." The Man's hum sounded more disinterested than anything, and after a long beat, he looked at me. "Is that why you thought the scenario could move into the Abyss? Because of the multiple Free Actors?"

"Among other things," I responded, trying not to sound too evasive.

"Even if we presume that this… what did you call it? Cascade? So, kind of like a *******…" He didn't even wait for The Boy to respond and poked the table with his finger for emphasis. "Yes, we've seen some major deviations from the original scenario, but the Abyss getting involved is still nonsense. It's still an internal divergence, right?"

The question was aimed at me, but once again, The Girl came to the rescue.

"Yes. There was absolutely no sign of external influence or manipulation. None. Zero. Nada."

"That's it then," The Man concluded with a shrug. "The scenario can bend to a certain degree, but the Abyss was never meant to be a setting for it, so no matter how much they tangle it up, the Free Actors can't just move the plot there."

"It's impossible without external alteration, and we could see that," The Boy pointed out, and then sheepishly added. "That… was the entire point of this scenario. To catch the Crowned Coalescence in the act…"

"Not the entire point," The Man objected indignantly and poked the table again. "I was taking this project seriously from the very beginning, unlike some of you, who were just messing around."

Those last words were aimed at The Girl, but she pretended to didn't notice. Meanwhile, I tried my best to absorb whatever fragmentary information I could gleam from this conversation. From the sound of it, the Emergents weren't clear on what was going on in the Simulacrum. Otherwise, they would've realized where the whole Bel plot was heading ages ago. There was no reason why they wouldn't want to keep a close eye on the events, and I could distinctly remember them discussing recent developments when I sneaked into some of their meetings in the past.

This led me to an extremely important conclusion: despite all the talk about how they viewed time differently and whatnot, the Emergents could apparently only see the past of the Simulacrum, not the present, and certainly not the future. Maybe it was related to The Girl's whole 'no retro-causality' mantra, or maybe some other restriction I was unaware of, but either way, this was valuable information.

I hesitated for a moment, but I couldn't help myself and asked, "You said there was no sign of external manipulation. What about internal ones?"

"Internal?" The Man echoed me, once again sounding so baffled that it completely erased his previous indignation. "How would that work?"

"I mean… couldn't someone do it from the inside? Alter things to allow the scenario to completely change?"

"What rubbish!" The Man scoffed at me, and even The Boy looked skeptical of my claim.

"W-Well, the Crowned Coalescence is… technically inside the Simulacrum. Somehow. We don't know how it happened, but even still, it's impossible."

"That's right!" Even The Girl agreed with them, and she defiantly folded her arms. "The Simulacrum is effectively one reeeally big Domain, right? You can't just alter someone else's Domain without express permission, and in this case, that would mean any such requests would have to go through us. There's no reason to even entertain this idea!"

Was it just me, or was the way she glared at me practically screaming 'Shut up, you're giving them clues!' to anyone else? If we were in a crime procedural drama, this would've been the point where the investigator would raise a brow to show he noticed something, followed by a music sting and an ad break, but fortunately, neither of the other Emergents around the table had the right disposition. Or they were just used to ignoring The Girl's odd body language. One or the other.

"Actually… didn't the Crowned Coalescence insert a second Free Actor into the scenario without our notice?" The Boy spoke up in a mousy voice, but she quickly shot him down.

"That doesn't matter! Didn't we conclude he did it before the scenario started?"

"N-No, we just figured it was the only time he could've done so, but…"

"So at the end of the day, no one should be able to alter the Simulacrum from the inside," I cut in, re-railing the discussion. "Meaning, it's impossible to forcefully change the scenario by, say, removing plot elements that would lead to things completely going off-course. That's what you're saying?"

"I mean… yes?" The Man was taken aback by my sudden vehemence, but I pushed on.

"And you're saying that not even the Free Actors could do it."

"Free Actors can ignore and deviate from certain elements of the scenario," The Boy interjected. "That's what makes them Free Actors, and it's necessary for the Simulacrum's function, but completely ignoring or rewriting the scenario…"

"That should be plain impossible," The Man concluded. "Not even with two Free Actors."

"Right! Let's talk about something else," The Girl insisted, but before that, I raised a finger at her and focused on the man.

"But let's say it happened. Theoretically speaking. What then?"

"Then…" he began, but The Girl cut in again.

"Then we learn from this and won't have multiple Free Actors so that it won't happen again, am I right?"

"I… suppose," The Boy agreed, while The Man only shrugged and continued to eye me.

"You seem very invested in the idea," he spoke in a low voice, sounding rather contemplative. "Is it maybe your pet theory?"

I didn't expect those words from his mouth, so it was my turn to shrug.

"Maybe?"

"It's still not going to happen. Let's move on," The Girl insisted. "What were you talking about before this? The demons and their accents?"

"Abyssals!"/"You mean the Abyssals?" The Man and I spoke at the same time, and after a long beat, he shook his head.

"Fine. I abhor these technical discussions anyway. Let's get back to…"

"Excuse me?"

The atmosphere in the room immediately froze up as a new voice joined the fray, and The Girl even whispered a dejected 'Oh, poop,' just as the room around us wavered, momentarily overlaid by the image of a huge, vibrant planet of countless crimson hues. It only lasted for a blink of an eye, only to be replaced by an equally stunning sight.

"What are you all doing here?"

The Woman was… how should I put this? It wasn't my first time seeing her, by a long shot, but I was still momentarily dazed by her appearance. It wasn't that she was especially pretty, but she just had a kind of presence that was different from the other Emergents in the room. She was tall and slim, with an attractive face framed by tidy locks of dazzling wavy red hair. The kind that looked like it was glowing from within.

Her matching red eyes scanned everyone one by one, ultimately settling on me, and she was… surprised? No, more than that. She looked about as stunned as I felt a moment ago, and it took her considerably longer to recover.

"Who are you?"

She wasn't angry, or accusative. If anything, she sounded utterly bamboozled by my presence, as if she just met a long-dead relative and couldn't believe her eyes.

"He's a…" The Girl started, but she cut her off.

"Do I know you?" she asked, sounding more confused by the second.

"No, I don't think we've met."

I almost wanted to add 'You make a strong impression, so I would've remembered', but I figured I shouldn't overplay my hand.

"You still feel familiar…" she whispered, and to be fair, I also felt a vague sense of familiarity towards her, but before I could examine it further, The Girl finally asserted herself and clarified the situation to her.

So, one short but entirely redundant explanation later…

"I don't like this," The Woman stated, and The Boy was giving me an 'I told you so' kind of look. "And the ********** **************** won't like it either."

She was using the hyper-complex thought-salad way to refer to the Predator Moon, but The Girl already had a response in talon.

"No, he won't! We already found the Crowned Coalescence, and he's too busy chasing him! There's nothing wrong with asking for a third party's advice at this point, right?"

"He did help…" The Boy agreed on the spot.

"And he's a man of culture," The Man insisted, and I once again felt a bit incredulous about his choice of words.

The Woman listened to them all, her eyes glued to me with a complicated look on her face.

"It appears you've already made an impression on everyone present," she stated in a low, contemplative voice. "I would also like to get to know you better, but first…" She paused and looked around the wavering room. "It's a little crowded in here. How about we first move to a better location?"

And that was how I got officially invited to the not-dark not-room for the first time. Out of the frying pan, and into the fire, eh?