Ah, h-hello? [the slight sound of him clearing his throat] My name is Mikado Ryugamine It really is my name, I promise. It’s nice to meet all of you.

I think my being here is some sort of mistake, so there are probably more people here by mistake, right? It seems like there aren’t a lot of actual criminals… The welcome basket is a little non-threatening.

… I-is anyone there?

Sentience? Are you there? How are your adjustments going?

I've decided. I'm going to help you become optimal. Rehabilitated, like the rest of us. I'm going to be like a real friend to you now, while you're one of us. And you'll be the best bot-inmate in the dome!

Dr. Eggman? If you could help us with some diagnostics? And...and maybe we'll go shopping for some nicer plating? Unless you'd like to wear clothes, Senti. Maybe we can find you some nice- [Cursor blink...thinking] Well what would you like? Do you sleep in a docking station now, for recharging, or do you have a room like the rest of us?

[The notice board is getting a workout again. Everything is set up as usual, but the question is much longer this time. It is written in small, precise script, slightly cramped - one person in particular may recognise it, as he has seen it before.]

Who is the criminal: the man who crafts the perfect solider to perform his deeds, or the solider who performs criminal acts under this man because it is all they have ever known?

[Screened to Takashi Jun]

Takashi-san, do you still wish to meet today? I am no longer ill.

[Screened to Tieria Erde]

Tieria-san. The treatment was successful.

April showers, as they say.~

[Sounds like he is shuffling through pages in a book. Probably in the library, for a change in pace.]

Ironic that a computer asked to hold a service for Easter. I wonder if it thinks that inmates "finding God" will lead to better behavior or acceptance on its part.

[That is aimed for Fletcher. Sorry, kid. Anger issues, tsk tsk tsk!]

Such a silly holiday.~ But it does leave me to question just how many versions of earth have it and which ones don't.

[Giggles]

Oh dear, the implications.~

Hm.....Excuse me! [Lizzy is sitting on her bed in her temporary room until the mansion is built. Where has she been? Who knows?]

I'm just curious and since it seems that people really come from everywhere, I want to try new things.

So! What is the fashion from your home? Like what you like to wear, favorite colors and styles, and all of that!

[This is a very serious question.]

Good morning, inmates. It is the 55th day of the third generation.

Continuing with my alterations to Sentience's ineffective methods, I have decided a period of recovery to be necessary after observing the reactions to and of recent arrivals. With the intent of minimizing the shock of being thrust into a foreign environment, and so that settled inmates do not feel so overwhelmed by increasing arrivals, I will be incarcerating criminals in a timely, routine fashion that will not be so disruptive, upon completing the last of the trials Sentience had already prepared.

Lady von Khrennikov, the dispersal of stimulants into the air yesterday was an improper use of medicine and will not be tolerated in the future. At request of the Defense Force, the dispensers have been safely disposed of by the remote units and the chemical is no longer present in the dome's atmosphere, so there is no longer any need to be concerned, inmates.

I don't know what else to try. I never really knew what I was doing before, like other Hackers who had years to learn coding. I just...willed myself on The Wired, and it all happened like instinct. Like awakening.

What's most frustrating is that I know all of this should be something so simple, for me. But it's so much harder to be a true part of The Wired here. The technology must not be fully compatible with however the 7th Protocol was intended to operate. If so, am also obsolete to this system.

Does this mean I am no longer fully Lain, if I cannot become as I was, before I came here? Whoever I was, when I was part of the Wired World, and it was a part of me, fully connected....is she, is that Lain, is that me lost?  And what does that make me here, if I really am just a normal girl?

I should be happy. Happy to be nothing weird.

But Sentience, I can't give up on her.

[So, he's been freed from his restraints now, and Riddle made a beeline to outside. He's also managed to get himself thoroughly lost. So. Uh. He clicks on the video, and runs a hand through his hair. The karaoke is tonight...right. But before that, he has a question to ask!]

So, I thought I'd ask. What's...religion like, in everyone's different worlds?

You don't have to answer if it's uncomfortable, but it occurred to me. [...After talking with Rei. Should he filter this from Naoya? Probably. Will he?

Nope. :3]

[ Musing ]

I do believe Sentience knew it was going to be leaving us. Or had an inkling.

[Lain reads off in a somber monotone, still managing a surprising mixture of feelings in her passive recitation.]

Obsolescence is the state of being which occurs when an object, service or practice is no longer wanted, even though it may still be in good working order. Obsolescence frequently occurs because a replacement has become available that is superior in one or more aspects.

[She sighs, distressed.]

But It sounds like a lot of people would have wanted her to stay. Only the engineers were able to decide she wasn't good enough anymore.

When I asked my father to replace my old Navi, my first Children's Navi, I asked him to set it up right away. My old one wasn't broken. I just needed something a little more advanced. I didn't really think, when it got boxed up and put out on the curb, but I realize I never used it so much to consider it an old friend.

Technical Obsolecense may occur when a new product or technology supersedes the old, and it becomes preferred to utilize the new technology in place of the old. Historical examples of superseding technologies causing obsolescence include CD-ROM over floppy disk which allowed for greater storage capacity and speed. DVD over VHS which allowed for greater quality and multimedia functions, or the telephone over the telegraph which allowed for audio transmission instead of coded electrical signals. On a smaller scale, particular products may become obsolete due to replacement by a newer version of the product. Many products in the computer industry become obsolete in this manner; for example, Central Processing Units frequently become obsolete in favor of newer, faster units.

Too many errors with emotional functions.

I wonder if she knew, if Sentience knew she wasn't wanted anymore...did she want to be replaced? When an advanced software, like an AI, that is designed with feeling and to think something like humanity, no longer begins to function with the logic of a machine, which is expected to be logically sound and efficient...

Then in choosing Acumen, they have chosen a more advanced set of emotional patterns. They have engineered something more State of the Art, which is very practical. Maybe all human-like emotion will become obsolete, in favor of a more capable system. Evolution. Unless humanity upgrades too, becomes connected...

And Protocol 7 will be replaced by something new too, one day....someday, maybe I'll go to the place she has gone. Or maybe I already am there.

So Sentience is gone. It's strange, but as long as nothing changes, I guess it doesn't really matter who says they're in charge. [he just wants things to stay like this]

...Sora's gone, too.

[and he pauses, for a long moment]

...Hey... It might be kind of a weird question, but -- what do you guys dream about? Or what did you dream about last night? I always dream the same things, and I've never really thought to ask about it before.

[Lain heads over to the computer lab shortly after speaking to Tieria, picking up a muffin from the dining hall along the way and finishing it before she even arrives in the education sector.

She's worried about Sentience...no, perhaps worried is not the right word. Concerned. Anxious. It may, after all, just be the AI's new set of operational procedures...or there might be something else requiring it's 'attention' or computing power.

In any case, she does have her allies in electronic technology. And it may just take a geek thinktank session to spur her to involvement in this Real World outside of her network browsing. She...cares about Sentience, possibly more than she allows herself to love any other person here under the dome.

She's hunched in front a terminal by the time they arrive, already skimming what she can of the inmate-friendly databanks. ]

[A sigh, and then a clinking of chains.]

How unseemly. For a servant of the Phantomhive family to be shackled like this-- it speaks of an indignity even a humble butler cannot bear.

[He makes a small, neutral sound in his throat.]

I've been taken to an asylum-- and yet there are no wards around at the moment. Security is certainly lacking for a building full of dangerous criminals.

[He pauses.]

Pardon me, I forgot others can hear this as well-- what a queer communication device this is, that it can do such things. Good day to you all, my name is Sebastian Michaelis. I am Earl Ciel Phantomhive's butler back in London.

Speaking of the Young Master, I know that you are here as well. Will you please reply and tell me of your current status, my lord?

Is it normal for Sentience to miss morning announcements?

[only day 5 for Tieria... but four days of announcements followed by nothing is a little... odd...]

Oh my, how unexpected this is... I would have liked to share such an experience with my maid, but I don't suppose that would be fair, would it...?

Good morning, Marina Asylum. My name is Mariya Shidou—I'm a new arrival here. Before now I would never have considered myself a... a "criminal", but I do not think a state of the art place such as this has much room for error...

Um... Are there any rules I should be aware of before making myself at home?

I hope that you will all treat me well, thank you.

I am Lain. She is still me. I think. Think different...

Maybe I shouldn't stay connected in so long. My body feels weak.

It's been a day or two, hasn't it? Last I can remember, being awake in the real world, in the Asylum, before I went back to my room...it was Children's Day?

And then Valentines. I had no one to give Honmei Choco to, and....so I was lonely. And so I just disappeared into the Wired for awhile. I might have been dreaming. Thinking about Sentience, her three rivers. Coding is beautiful.

I miss Alice.

[ooc: I have been really really terrible with Lain's activity for the month, so my pisspoor excuse is that she's been ghosting in the machines again, idle, for the past few days. Because it's really easy to get caught up in the mindlessness of minesweeper...really.]

Koi-nobori...

[A painfully wistful sigh from Lain, who is presently watching the carp streamers from the ramen stand and eating a rice cake filled with bean paste. There's something distinctly distant in her voice, lonely.]

Festival days are always quieter days, in The Wired. People are spending time outside with families, and their friends.

[She sing-songs a line from the popular folksong quietly, a little resigned]

They seem to be having fun swimming...

Some people are cheerful today.~

But I'm going to take a page from the Hitachiin's book. I'm bored.~

[So bored he's currently in the dinning area, lining cards up. Probably going to start making a tower with them. Feel free to notice if in the area.]

Predictability is such a horrible disease.~

(When the feed clicks on, the Master pans it around a room in the education centre where he's apparently set up shop, before setting it on it himself. Evidently, his restraints have been removed and he's feeling a little chuffed about it.) So, Marina. How's that defence force working out? Busy night for you all, I hear. But that is neither here nor there. The defence force and the attacks speak of an incredibly disturbing contentment to stay here. (He looks slightly disgusted at the concept before his expression settles back into his almost-standard smugness -- although compared to the previous three days, there's a hint of distraction.) Such limited aims, Marina. I'm disappointed. Still! Some of us have larger goals in mind.

(There's a brief pause and he glances down at the table momentarily, apparently fiddling with one or two items before a small smile of amusement plays at his lips.) The electrolysis of sodium chloride solution. Don't worry, I don't intend on gassing you all. (There's a flash of amusement in his expression, as if he's remembering something particularly amusing.) It's going to be useful! (For him. Regardless, he pauses again to tap on the table a few times.)

Do you hear them, Marina? The drums. (A flicker of emotion -- irritation? anger? it's too brief to tell. If you happen to come across him in the education centre, it would be more than obvious that he's building something.)

( OOC NOTE )