USH'S MATRIX GAME 2006 SECOND ASSIGNMENT- 'The Monastery'

It was a bright day, but the sun's rays only kept things tolerable, far from warm.

Wrapped in a warm winter, the lady was hurrying to finish her task. Around her eere may laden tables of food, beyond that, the fences of a small, non-descript garden in one of innumerable similar neighbourhoods.

It was interesting, she thought to herself, that no matter how prepared you were- and she was very prepared- things still never quite seemed to look right once you were actually there.

Right now, the task that consumed her mind more than anything else was mighty indeed- the accurate placing of chunks of cheese and pineapple, neatly, on the same cocktail stick, a task to try the most delicate of tools imaginable.

Still, it seemed to be done now. And just in time- there they all were. Two full crews of Zion ships, crowding into the garden.

"Well, hello there," says the Oracle, lighting up a cigarette. "Sorry we have to be outside, but my place isn't quite built for so many guests. Help yourselves to food," she says, gesturing around at the tables full of paper plates and party nibbles. "I'm pretty sure there's something for everyone. There are some hats, if you want to wear them..."

"Wait wait wait..." says Dallas, stepping forwards. "You KNOW if I want to wear one or not!"

"You got that right," says the Oracle. Dallas' eyes narrow.

"How did you know if I was going to wear one or not?"

"Because you already have a hat, Dallas," says the Oracle, gently. That one flummoxes Dallas, who was expecting to be able to complain about some garbled answer about destiny; he looks imploringly at you guys to help him out.

"Why don't you all get comfortable, and tell me why you'vr come to see me."

"A-ha!" says Dallas. "You already know why we are here!"

"I guess so," says the Oracle, "but if you don't tell me, how would I be able to know you were going to tell me."

"You... could have seen yourself telling me!" says Dallas, with a kind of 'hah!"' tone to his voice.

"Now, how would I have known that?"

"Because you saw it coming!"

"But how would I have known to see it coming?" The Oracale has a slight smile, in contrast to Dallas' raising voice.

"How the hell do I know? You're the freaking Oracle!" He picks up a cocktail sausage in frustration. "Can we just skip to the part where you tell us what we need to know?"

"Now, Dallas, we've been here before. What is it I always tell you."

"Awww, yeah," says Dallas, almost like a schoolboy. "The journey is more important than the destination, I've got to follow it through, blah blah blah. Damn thing always seems to end in a fight anyway, I don't see why you can't just send me straight there." He starts eating. "Well, I'm lost already. Someone want to get some answers here?"

"It's nice to see you again, Dallas," says the Oracle. "It's been a long time. For a while, I really thought you might come the last time, when you knew Jericho was out there. But then you knew he was dead, didn't you? Inside. From the moment you heard it was Medea at the airport, you knew you didn;t need to see me, but the others would."

"Yeah, well," says Dallas, kicking idly at a table leg.

"Marduk, you holding out ok?"

"I don't think Jericho hmself would have been impressed by me mourning him too much," says Marduk. "And I didn't want his job; I saw what it did to him."

"Now that's true," says the Oracle, gesturing with her lit cigarette. "And you might all want to think about that." She turns to look over the rest of you. "Well now," she says. "Quite a crowd, old and new. I only just met some of you, and you've signed up with Dallas already. Guess I can't blame you for being keen. So, which one of you wants to talk to me about this first?"

Cloud seeing the cocktail sausages and picks one up, wondering how long it's been since he last ate one.

"What were those things?"

"What things, Cloud?" she asks, evenly.

"Don't you already know?" Cloud asks, "These...."Exiles""

"Well, what you call Exiles," she says. "But it doesn't matter what I know. You already know what they are."

"Yeah....but I don't know why they exist....or why they were after some key...Do you know what the key opens?" Cloud asks rhetorically.

"Well now, that first question is very difficult for anyone. Why does anyone exist? What are they there for? A question that puzzles Machine and Man alike, though I can tell you, from what I know, Man can deal a lot better with not knowing.

"If you are asking what their purpose is... well, I am sure their purpose NOW you can work out. You know what they were there for.

"As for the key... well, that's what you are really here for, isn't it? Why don't you tell me about it?"

Berserker looks over at the various foods he knows they aren't "real" but they still look good.
He reached over and grabbed some various finger foods and decided to eat them before turning and looking at the Oracle it had been awhile since he had seen her and she looked as confusing then as now.

"My question isn't about WHAT WHEN WHERE the key goes but WHY would so many people want it and WHO would want it?"

"We really don't know anything about the key. Half of us never even saw it because we were outside when the swap took place. All we know about it is that it's old, it's apparently very important, since there was about four other groups there wanting it, Exiles wanted their hands on it, and it was being traded for a box. That's about all, though." San said, picking up a piece of pineapple.

Hawk grabs a plate, and fills with with all the most fat-filled, sugary food he can find, before dropping into a seat. "Boy, if only all those diet freaks knew..." he says to whoever is next to him before biting into a still-warm chocolate chip cookie.

He decides to let the others who actually dealt with the key to ask the questions, while he just listens.

Cloud will take a seat and rub the bridge of his nose with his index and forefingers, the philosophical talk on why anyone exists is enough to make his head hurt.

"I think a more important question to ask about the Exiles is not why, but HOW they exist," Mors adds. "One of them should not exist at all, while the others were simply inexplicable. The System would normally do away with such abnormalities to their coding, wouldn't they?"

Heph begins consuming the cheese.

"That's one thing I miss about the Matrix. Cheese."

Heph will show the Oracle the Key if they can have gotten it prior to the meeting.

Cloud looks at Mors, "That's what I was trying to say..." then at the oracle, "....you knew that though...didn't you?"

Burn Picks up several pieces of cheese, pineapple and other tasty items, Plops down in a chair near Ares, and listens...

Spades is standing there, absorbing all the information he can. He had heard about the last mission, but this information was a bit more in-depth. His right hand contains his dice, which he is currently twisting around within his palm. Since he hadn't been there to see what everyone was talking about, he decides to stay silent.

Helios picks up some cheese, takes a seat, and begins to eat it.

Berserker after asking his questions takes a seat waiting for his and everyone's answers.

Taking out one of his knives he stabs a block of cheese bringing it over and then begins to slice off pieces.

You're eating the seat?

---

The Oracle finds all of this very amusing.

"Ok," she says. "let's see if I can't keep you boys and girls at least a little bit happy before we come to the point of all this. Now, I don't always agree to see people. I'm a very busy person. Running a house these days takes a lot of time; shopping, rent, heating bills... it;s hard for a person. And anyway, you don't need my help," she says, waving a hand lazily as she does so, "to find out about other programmes in the Matrix. You're smart boys and girls, you can find it all out for yourself.

"The programmes you see have extraordinary abilities because they can alter their own code, if they are good enough, or if someone else does it for them, to push past the reality you see around you. All of you know that this reality only applies in as much as you perceive it. All of you push those limits, every day. They simply hardwire that into them. They have limits, like everyone else. Now... I don't think any of that I just said isn't something you could have come to a conclusion from yourselves.

"You are worried about why some of this extreme programming seems natural to the Matrix. Well, that's because pretty much all programmes were originally designed by the System, sometimes to do certain jobs which needed certain abilities. Sometimes, these were mistakes. No-one gets it right all the time, and even the System isn't arrogant enough to ignore that. Trouble is, once you've made a mistake, it's not always easy to get rid of it, depending on how you made it. Programmes that seem to work like that used to work for the System, now they find their own path and purpose.

"And if you are worried about something that shouldn't exist... well now. That can't be true, can it? It cannot both not exist and exist. So you have to be wrong in one of three ways. Either you are wrong to think it is what it is. Or it doesn't really exist. Or your knowledge about what should and should not exist is lacking. For the first two... well, odd as it may be to say in the Matrix, I would trust what you saw."

"Well, just TELL us then!" says Dallas. She smiles more widely and shakes her head.

"No," she says. "That really won't do it. The one you saw at the Museum is something very special, for certain. To understand how it is, and why it is, you'll have to understand how and why it was made- even if there doesn't seem to be a 'why'. And as ever, the best way to get that... is from the programme itself. Be very careful though. It is ruthless and it will not hesitate to kill you if it needs to. It is highly aware of its own... resilience. It will take advantage of that to kill you. But it won't just kill you on sight it it doesn't have top. Watch yourselves..

"We'll just kick its ass," says Dallas.

"Once, maybe," says the Oracle. "But how many times can you kill it? A dozen? A hundred? Even if all of you are there? All of you have your limits, but it will never stop. It's a battle you can never win."

"Then tell us HOW to kill it! I mean... there IS a way to kill it, yeah?"

"Perhaps, but I wouldn't help you much by saying anything."

"Huh?"

"Keep your eyes and ears open, and you might learn more about it. Now. Onto the real issue. The thing that, I guess, you DO need me to help you with. Hephaestus... may I?" she asks, with another smile, holding her hand out.

Originally posted by Ushgarak
You're eating the seat?

Of course, didn't you know that's Helios' favorite food?