Drifting Out to Sea || Erika L Epilogue (ft. Nils)
Nils Falk is not having a good month. And it’s about to get worse.
If the senseless destruction of his precious collection wasn’t enough, in the coming weeks, he will learn of the death of his best friend. He will be spared the gory details, but it won’t soften the blow any. He will lambast himself for not checking his email sooner, for missing the last communique she ever sent until it was far too late. He will drive out into the wilderness she loved, scream at the sky, and try unsuccessfully to find closure among the chilly trees. He will cry into Linnea Ljunggren’s shoulder at the funeral, watching the burial of an empty casket (for it will not be viable to transport her broken body back home).
After the funeral, however, Nils will receive a check in the mail. A silver lining in this pitch-black stormcloud. In a somewhat curtly written letter, its sender (one Jae-min Jun) will explain that he was partly, indirectly responsible for the horrible misfortune that befell Nils’ collection. This, he says, serves as his apology. Nils won’t be sure how to feel about this initially, worrying it might be some kind of scam. He will repeatedly Google the exchange rate between won and kronor to make sure the considerable amount isn’t some mistake. But, exhausted by all the grappling he’s had to do with his insurance to squeeze even a fraction of the cost out of them, he will eventually cash the check and get to work rebuilding his collection.
Not too long after that, Nils will receive another check in the mail, and a couple packages of obsolete pro-grade video production electronics along with it. Akito Mikage will be the name listed on the return address, and he will introduce himself as another subject of that horrible experiment. One of Erika L’s new friends… as short as the time they had together was. Nils will accept his gift too, and send him a short, grateful reply in his scribbly handwriting.
Then, in a final unexpected twist, he will discover that Erika Ljunggren still exists.
Well, “exists” is one way to put it. And the ethical and philosophical debate over that may never see a satisfactory resolution. A digital ghost - an AI trained on her brain, and not even flawlessly. To some, an abhorrent prospect. But Nils will become obsessed with the idea. If he could speak to her again, say his goodbyes properly, maybe the ragged hole she left in his life will stop bleeding.
As soon as he is permitted to, Nils Falk will travel to Austria.
[music]
He will wade with the copied Erika L through the streets of the underwater city (because he is not the strongest swimmer). He will tour her new apartment. He will marvel at the modifications she’s had done to her digital form. Cosmetic patches of scales. Webbed hands and feet to swim easier in her preferred environment. Other minor tweaks to her body shape. Nils will wryly remark on the fact that they both opted to get top surgery, and Erika will just grin and shrug.
He will smile with her, because even if she sometimes struggles to speak, her smile remains as infectious as it always was. He will snap a picture of her, using a digital simulacrum of an antique camera that Weiss generates out of thin air for him, and he will later put the resulting photo in a frame on his real-world wall.
Nils will travel with Erika from the sunken city to an autumnal forest. There, he will meet her new girlfriend, another AI copy of a deceased human. Nils will fail to resist the urge to joke about cats having interest in fish. This will make Erika dissolve into uncontrollable laughter, but Greta (or Trouble, as she will introduce herself to him initially) will just glance aside in bemused exasperation and flick her tail.
He will meet some of the people who died alongside Erika in this cruel experiment. But not all of them. Erika is not on good terms with all of them, and not all of them chose to remain. A fact Nils will have to infer, given that this truth will choke out her ability to communicate again for a good half hour. He will give her a long, firm hug to help ground her (and the sensory authenticity in this virtual interaction will surprise him).
Nils will find himself comforted by the knowledge that Erika is thriving, despite her fatal accident (she will insist it was an accident, and he will pretend he does not know better). The weight of grief will begin to lift from his shoulders. He will bid her a fond farewell as their time together nears its end.
Erika L will beam and entreat him to visit again. And Nils will find himself unable to say no to that smile. Seems he still has some mourning to do.
Nils will visit Erika L in Austria again and again. It will become a tradition for him to visit just after her birthday and sometime in June each year, and they will message each other frequently via the Internet. He will bring tidings from her parents, who will find VR to be a disorienting and overstimulating experience and only visit once.
One visit, Nils will encounter a flamboyant brunette man in the halls of the Austria facility. Erik A will recognize Nils immediately, and stop him for a quick chat. He, too, was a subject, Erik A will explain. He, too, bonded with Erika L, as much due to the similar tragedies in their respective lives as it was to their shared gregariousness. Now that all is said and done, he lends his expertise to tending her afterlife. Nils will exhibit the characteristic monosyllabic shyness he greets new people with in this interaction, thoroughly failing to match Erik A’s own exuberance, but he will manage to express his gratitude nonetheless.
Another time, Nils will pass a nondescript brown-haired woman as he enters. Her dark eyes will widen a bit as she warily looks him over, and she will hurry to make her exit. Nils will innocently assume social anxiety on her part - he frequently responds to new people like that himself, after all.
Eventually, as he ages and matures, Nils will notice that Erika does not. She will remain 28 forever, frozen in time. He will start to struggle with that reality.
One day, just after Erika L would’ve turned 36 had she survived, Nils will confess his emotional quandary to Erika. His fishy friend will fall silent for a long time, laboring to find words. But eventually, ever understanding, Erika will smile and tell him he doesn’t have to keep visiting if he’s no longer comfortable.
He will come back a few more times in the subsequent years, even so, but eventually Nils will find it within him to move on. He will start to message her less, and eventually not at all. He will take the photograph of the digital Erika from his wall, and place it on her empty grave. He will go camping again, and this time the scenery will feel less hostile. He will, on a whim, take a picture of the sky and put that in the frame instead.
When robotics technology eventually advances to the point where humanoid robots can be piloted by these AIs, well into his fifth decade, Nils will brace himself to be visited by Erika’s copy. But that day will never arrive. Eventually, his curiosity will overwhelm him and he’ll contact her again. She will inform him that she prefers the digital playground, and that she doesn’t want to return to the mundane regular world. Nils will admit he understands the sentiment.
Though neither realize it at the time, this will be the last time the longtime best friends ever talk to each other.
The phantom of Erika Ljunggren will outlive her parents. She will outlive Nils, and everyone else who survived the experiment. She will outlive the digital realm’s custodian, Erick Weiss. She will continue to enjoy a robust simulation of fantastical life until outside circumstances preclude it, however many generations in the future that may be. Because no matter how bored or lonely she may find herself, she will never find it within herself to choose oblivion. She will staunchly refuse to succumb to ennui. There’s something good on the horizon, she will keep promising herself. Keep going.
Victim - Erika Ljunggren
Body location - Library
Time of death - 8:09 AM
Cause of death - Blunt Force Trauma
Time of discovery - 9:54 AM
Body discoverers - Erik A, Adrik, Byrne
It was still pretty early morning, but this motive had already left most feeling exhausted. Thus far, despite what one might expect, it seemed like this one had been the hardest hitter for the group as a whole. That small handful of sunshine people were likely to shrink in number the longer things went on, and those already feeling bad would likely grow to feel worse.
It almost felt inevitable at this point that someone would wind up dead in one way or another, what with all the conversations that had been going down. The mood had grown darker the longer time seemed to pass. Surely enough, come 9:54 AM, the PA goes off to the tune of one Analalava’s voice.
"Woooow! Somebody found a body! Awfully bloodthirsty out here this motive. Anyway, get your butts to the library ASAP."
CW: Implication of Broken Bones
Ah… Oh, inevitability. How it caught up with everyone. By now, everyone had awoken, for better or for worse. The trek to the library was an unfortunately down one, filled with tension as some did an internal role call of who was present in the hallways, or out into the open, or… You passed through the door to the library, the mess IMMEDIATELY visible from the doorway. A toppled shelf, spurts of blood soaking into the carpet….
…And a single hand, reaching out from beneath, towards the safety it was not fast enough to reach. The color of the sleeve left no doubt as to who the hand belonged to. Erika Ljunggren. One of the only people not left more miserable than before by this motive - but now that irrepressible cheer lay crushed under a bookcase.
For those already at the scene… Well. Adrik was attempting to lift the bookshelf over Erika L’s body, finding little luck with it thus far. Erik A stands by, taking a dazed look at it, whereas Byrne’s kneeled next to her with a glazed-over gaze.
With your tablets buzzing, updating with the case details, there was little time left to sit still. Two hours. That’s how long it usually was, no? … Ah. Were your memories not being returned for this? Were you… Investigating without them? In your sorry states?
… It almost seemed unfair to Erika L, even. To be without the ability to use your full mental capacity to honor her memory?
Sure enough, a second announcement sounds off with Calluna’s voice after a moment.
“Congratulations on the end of your motive- However, you will not be receiving your memories right away, as I imagine it to be be better to investigate now before even more time has passed, and we can hardly get to you all at once. Rest assured, after the investigation has concluded, your memories will be returned to you. You have two hours, starting now.”
...Best split into groups to get started once more.
See You Cowgirl, Someday, Somewhere || Erika L || Trial 3.2 || RE/ATTN: Eureka
Erika L leans forward, taking a deep breath. She has a rebuttal all prepared for Erisu's last defense. And before she can voice it...
Eureka caves under the pressure.
That, she's not expecting at all. Erika L blinks in naked surprise. "What?" It's not like Eureka to roll over and surrender.
So unlike Eureka, in fact, that she can't simply take it at face value. She narrows her eyes doubtfully, rolling the confession over in her head. Something in particular sticks out to her.
"That's quite a story," she exhales, after a moment. "But I don't buy it. You're still hiding something." She points at Eureka. "The version of events you just presented doesn't explain how the cushion with Ae-ra's makeup smeared on it got wet on the other side, or even how her makeup ended up on it in the first place. Did you prop her against the couch facedown against the cushion? Why the hell would you do it that way, even if you were -- no, especially if you were in a hurry. Unless she fell a really specific way, that would be more work than a more believable pose."
At that revelation, Erika L scowls deeply at Eureka. Of course Eureka's the one who gets their internet privileges shitcanned, on top of publicly outing the codebreaking efforts. Sheesh. She's even dating one of their captors, despite how gung-ho she was about escaping when they first met. Erika L is a forgiving gal by nature, but she's starting to get a bit suspicious.
Whatever. Not the time to unpack all that.
"I was in my room for most of the day. I don't check the group chat much, as you all know, so I saw Erik's message a little late, at 6:17. I rushed out to the garden area to see the rain, but I didn't get much time in it before it ended at 6:30. No thanks to the elevator taking extra long that time for some reason." She shrugs.
"I saw Byrne and Kenshin setting up the tent after the rain stopped, and decided to go grab dinner and give them some privacy. By 6:35 I was at the eatery, and KOKONE was there, also hungry. Guess even AIs gotta eat." She's still 'yes-and'ing the vtuber bit. "So I fried up some fish for both of us. Arakiel was there too, eating his own food.
"We were all done in there by 7:27, and I went back to the garden with KOKONE while Arakiel went back towards his room. I saw END heading to the doghouse at this point, and Eureka was there too. But I wasn't paying much attention to them, cause KOKONE immediately started teasing Kenshin and Byrne. I didn't really wanna be a part of that, so I took a little bit of a walk. I did notice the skunk smell wafting over right before 8."
Where Angels Fear To Fly || Erika L || Trial 2.5 || RE: Eri, Erika, END
Erika continues to make her warped point of view known, serene and unflappable the whole way through. Erika L balls her hands into fists, which she sinks into her vest pockets. “Yikes,” she disgustedly mutters, but others say it louder and more forcefully, and she can gently fade into the background.
Erika L turns her face upwards, gazing upwards through closed eyes. She imagines she’s staring at a midnight sky, does her best to remember what solace she found in it before. It feels so cold in the trial room suddenly. She exhales, on reflex, expecting to see her breath as a cloud of vapor before her face. But there’s nothing, even when she opens her eyes again.
What a day to dress for summer, Erika L thinks. She wishes she had her jacket.
Lowering her head, she puts in her vote on her tablet. She resists the urge to offset how painful it is to do so by saying something hurtful to the two that have put them in this situation - though she views Eri as more of a victim here than anything else. But she does sigh as she slips it back into her pocket. “You tell ‘em, END,” she mumbles.
Hands-On Examination | Trial 2 | Erik A + Erika L | Re: Just Erika, Eri, Byrne | ATTN: Everyone
All of this happening is a blur, and Erik A is hit with one hard hitting reveal after another, blow after blow. Both of them. First, Erika’s horrible opinions, then Eri’s heavy accusations of manipulation and trickery on Erika’s part, spinning their own story… It’s a lot to take in. At the very least though, with Just Erika asking to come over to Erika L, Erik A knows that this will be right next to him, so he offers right away to help.
“Let’s do it together, yeah? It’s more secure if it’s more than one person looking at someone, or easier to believe for everyone else at least,” Erik A says. He didn’t doubt Erika L’s authenticity here, but some other people here could, basically.
Well, it looks like she's gotta follow through now. Erika L rubs her hands together, looking a little nervous. "Okay. Uh, let's get started." She takes Just Erika's hand, bringing her arm forward to get a good look at it. Her other hand, she drags lightly across the skin of the arm and hand, feeling for any telltale textures. After she's spent a while doing that, she switches to using her fingernails (lightly) to try and disturb anything that might be more smoothly applied than she can feel or see.
Furrowing her brow, she moves from one arm to the other, going over it with the same gentle thoroughness. Minutes pass and still no obvious result. Erika L's starting to feel intensely awkward. "Sorry, I'm just gonna..." With a thumb, she smudges at the makeup on Just Erika's face, trying not to get too close to her eye. Despite squinting, and getting real close...
"...Nothing," she finally exhales, turning away. "It doesn't look like she's injured at all." She glances to Erik A. "You can go ahead and check my work, though. It'd probably be best to have a second opinion." She sure was defending Just Erika earlier... a move she now feels a little foolish for.
Erik A gives a nod to Erika L’s assessment, having been watching it closely and quietly muttering advice for things to check, and reaches out to confirm for himself too since he’s standing right there anyways.
But his expression darkens though as Jerika continues to talk. Jerika is right there, in font of him, saying those things and he has to take a moment to calm himself just enough to not lash out before he speaks and before he continues to help check her too. And when he does speak, as calmly as he can manage, there’s still a somewhat icy edge to it for a moment, eyes flicking between Erika and Eri.
“Lyrica wasn’t dying there, not definitely. And Byrne is right. Her injury and her possible concussion, as debilitating as it was to her leg, wouldn’t have killed her if she’d gotten medical help. The trap clearly fucked up, and didn't hit her somewhere vital. This isn’t about being in denial of her death, this is about a death being caused that never had to happen in the first place.
Whichever one of you force fed her the gummies, or BOTH of you even since you seem to have been covering for each other and apparently allowed this regardless of who did the fucking did, you chose to kill her instead of helping her. It wasn’t a mercy, it was selfish. Lyrica might have had a terminal illness, she told me her life expectancy unless she managed to get a transplant was only two years, but she still wanted to live out the rest of that time how she wanted to, and you both robbed her of that. You didn’t let her go out on HER terms at all, and if anyone had denial here, it was you in denial of their wishes.”
That off of his chest, he takes a deep break and allows his expression to fall blank as he goes over what Erika L has already done. Arms, hands, face, rubbing where needed, anything he can. Thorough, because he really doesn’t want this to be missed her. He even pokes at her legs for a moment just in case that was the answer. In the end though, he gives a nod, looking to the group at large more neutrally.
“Erika L was right, Erika doesn’t have any kinds of injuries as far as we can tell, bruises or scratches alike. Her arms don’t have any evidence of makeup, and the face makeup she has on isn’t hiding anything under it. Whatever happened, and whichever of them are telling the truth here, Erika wasn’t the one getting scratched.”
And with that, he gives a sigh, and a nod towards Erika that she’s free to go if she likes, a murmured apology for at least having to be a little rougher here to make sure.
Garden of Earthling DeLights || Erika L || Trial 2.3 || RE; Eri || ATTN: Just Erika
Erika L's heart drops into her stomach. Well, there it is. The scheme laid bare - even if its climax is still shrouded in mystery.
"I remember that too," she puts in, voice soft and solemn. "While we were looking around at the start of the premotive period." Eyes aimed down at nothing rise to meet Just Erika's. "You went straight for those gummies, no hesitation. You were convinced they were yours on sight, without even reading what they were."
Still, her tone isn't accusatory. More... weakly incredulous. At the time, she merely attributed it to the woman's eccentricity and memory loss - but Just Erika's words in the brief debate afterwards planted some insidious seeds in her mind that she's been trying not to water this whole trial. No success there. They're now in full bloom.
"Eri doesn't remember, and Just Erika denies administering the gummies... but I don't know if I can believe that anymore. So it could have been either of them. We gotta stick the landing here, cause that's probably what counts as the actual murder." It's more nuanced than that... but is it really, in this case? Forced euthanasia is just murder. Right?
She holds her hand in front of her face, staring at her palm, then clenches it into a fist. "Let's go over the facts. Lyrica apparently struggled with whoever gave them to her. She was fed three, which is more than necessary. Anything else that seems relevant?"
She glances over at Just Erika. "Long shot, but... you wouldn't happen to still be up for that makeup check, would you?" Before, it felt like an unnecessary imposition to Erika L, but now... it might be the only way they get the truth.
