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It’s true that the rabbits aren’t real, and don’t feel pain. Their bones
aren’t made out of whatever real bones are made out of, and they don’t have
hearts. They don’t need them since blood doesn’t need to be pumped
throughout their bodies. Ronan thinks that breaks the immersion a little bit
since consuming organs is very much a part of this culture, but he lets it
go because understands it. Talus does not have that luxury. If he only
remembers one thing, it should be that he’s in a simulation. But it looks
like that hasn’t happened. This is an entirely new person. He has his own
personality and quirks, and more relevant today, character flaws. The
original Talus would never open up the animals to see what they looked like
inside. He just wouldn’t, memories or no.
Ronan remembers hearing about this in the historical texts. Before
hyperadvanced neuropsychological techniques were developed, some people were
born wrong, and there was nothing you could really do about it. Torturing
animals was a pretty significant sign that something was wrong with your
child. But that was only truly seen as a problem around the 20th century or
so. Before that, violence was simply more prevalent, so the early adoption
of it was seen as a moderate deviation from the norm, rather than a massive
red flag. Ronan doesn’t know if young Talus is showing signs of aberrant
behavior. This may be the result of the environment he’s living in. This is
precisely why Ronan chose to start his life as a farmer, rather than a
Viking. He wants the full experience of this dome network, but only
eventually. Before that, he wants to raise his kids, and he wants to teach
them that violence is not the answer. Because when he takes them out
of here one day, they’re going to find that it’s not tolerated anymore.
Ronan has already talked to him about the bunnies, but now he’s faced with a
new dilemma. Because while the violence lesson is sinking in—assuming it is,
of course—Ronan and Gia need to present Talus and Isavet with some
conflicting information. He needs to explain what this world is, which might
lead Talus to thinking that his actions don’t matter as long as he’s in
here. To be sure, a lot of people probably go into these simulations under
that belief. He can’t stop them, and won’t try. But his son is not going to
kill others for the fun of it. This is basically one big reenactment, and
the point of those is to learn and empathize; not to become a savage.
“Talus. Isavet. It’s time you understand the truth about where we are. Isa,
you once asked me what lies beyond the horizon. I told you that the world
curves away from us, and that it’s a sphere. If we were to sail all the way
in one direction, we could actually end up right back here. That’s still
true, but what I didn’t tell you is that the horizon you’re seeing is only
an illusion. There is a wall over there. It’s actually not even that far
from our location. If you were to sail in that direction, you would hit that
wall. There’s a passageway somewhere, and if we decide to go explore, we
would have to find it first. It is a relatively narrow tunnel from our dome
to the next. Perhaps I’m not explaining this right. Gia?”
Gia methodically removes her shawl, and lays it out on the table. She pulls
her shears out, and carefully lays them on the shawl. Looking at it from the
side, she begins to cut the fibers very carefully. Once she has sliced a
slit in the shawl, she reaches in and pulls out a piece of flexible display.
“Gia,” Ronan scolds. There is to be no technology under any of these domes.
She turns it on. A two-dimensional map of Castlebourne appears. She points.
“Okay, kids...this is where we are,” she begins.
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