Societal Solipsism - Prologue B: Sunk Cost Fallacy

Synergetics Dormitory, Rata Sum
83 Scion, 1329 AE

"Look, all I'm saying is—"

"I know what you're saying, you've said it a hundred times."

"And clearly, you haven't heard me. So for the hundred and first—"

"Come on Ruulit, we graduated! Let's just enjoy this for the night."

The taller of the two asura shrugged and smiled, setting the issue aside for now. Unlike Suna, who was carrying her box of immediately-important possessions by hand, the miniature golem beside him held his. Together, the three of them marched up the stairs leading to the rest of Rata Sum. Behind them, they could hear the elated sounds of newly-graduated alumni enjoying their last night before joining their krewes and heading out to face the world.

Or they could anyway, until they reached the top of the stairs, and the silencing field activated. For a brief moment they could hear both beyond the external door, and down the stairs, before the audio switched. In theory, the fields had been installed to keep outside noise from disrupting the students, but they conveniently doubled as methods of quieting excessive celebration from the dorms. With excited cheering and overly-buzzed philosophical rambling muted, Suna found the sliding doors before her to be far more ominous. It was sinking in that she would never be at home here again after stepping through them, and the weight of that cognitive shift felt like it was about to press her into the floor.

It dawned on her that this realization, not the act of walking through the door, was the true moment of outgrowing this time in her life. The physical act of leaving was just the byproduct of the much deeper understanding that she no longer belonged here. Somehow, this second realization wasn't comforting.

Ruulit placed a hand upon her shoulder. "Everything alright?"

"Just a bit emotional, that's all. Besides, even if everything weren't alright, I can't just stay here." Suna breathed in and stepped towards the doors, trying not to assign finality to the hum they emitted while sliding open or closed. "It's a silly thing to be emotional over, anyway."

Ruulit nodded and gave her an appraising look. "You're growing up already."

Suna wasn't sure how to take that.

As they walked along the recessed corridor of Skibo Hall, moonlight pouring in from the angled windows, Suna shook her head. Her ears bounced across her shoulders in a way that always helped to clear her mind. Leaving college was a good thing, she thought to herself. Sure, the future was uncertain and scary, but now she would be free to put her theories into practise. With renewed confidence, she followed Ruulit and his golem up to the Auxiliary Study Rooms.

Their path led them passed the Inquest Recruiting Station, whose immense light barrier was painting the corner of the study rooms a neon scarlet.

"Hello alumni!" one of the recruiters called, voice clear and practiced, "if you are interested in post-graduate opportunities and pathways for advancement, come speak with us."

Ruulit kept walking, but Suna at least felt compelled to turn them down. "No, thank you, I-"

"Our organization is large enough that we're certain we can find you something you'll enjoy," the recruiter continued, glad to have roped her in, "and that same organizational mass allows us to guarantee you far more certainty than you'll find working on any of these more antiquated, ephemeral, krewes. That stability will free up time to work on your own projects in your spare time."

Suna opened her mouth to reply, closed it while she considered what that might enable her to do with her personal research, and opened it again to repeat her answer. Ruulit placed his hand upon her shoulder and preempted both her and the recruiter's inevitable rebuttal. "We've got our future all figured out, thank you," he said it in a way that left little room for response, and guided Suna to the furthest corner of the hall where he had found a free desk. She put her box down and breathed in her first breaths as a Synergetics alumnus.

"Thanks for that. They're pretty…"

"Persistent."

"That's one word for it." Suna cleared her throat, before asking, "So, how are you celebrating your graduation?" hoping Ruulit would understand her meaning. He had never been one for partying, even as a progeny.

Ruulit rolled his emerald eyes exaggeratedly, in a way Suna couldn't possibly take as sincere. "Again, that's classified. I thought you didn't want to talk about the future, anyhow."

"The future isn't the issue, so long as I decide what I'm doing with mine. Maybe if you told me something about this 'classified' project of yours, you would actually be able to convince me to join you." Suna limited her teasing to a pair of air quotes, in an attempt to deflate some of Ruulit's pretension.

Ruulit sighed, leaned back in his chair, and looked around. There was a fairly steady stream of young asura moving through the open hall even at this time of night, and the nearby Inquest could scarcely be trusted. He kept his voice low and whispered, "You know as well as I do that the smaller pieces of the machine get overlooked. You've talked about it, rambled late at night, tried to address it with your…writing, and I think you're on the right track, I really do."

Suna nodded even though she could feel the other half of this point coming.

"I think you're…" Ruulit fumbled for an analogy, "targeting the right part of the system, with the wrong tool. Like using a diametric stabilizer on-"

Another nod. "I know what you mean," Suna said with crossed arms. Try as she might to avoid it, this conversation seemed insistent upon happening.

Unfortunately, Ruulit seemed to take this as acknowledgement that she understood the point he was trying to make, not simply the analogy. "Exactly! You're a genius for thinking of the little people, your methods just need some work. I've seen your projects, the more…magically-inclined ones mandated by the coursework. If you just stop letting this hobby of yours rule your designs, then you'll be able to do great things." Energized, Ruulit leaned in across the table. Seeing him like this made it harder to respond the way she had to.

"It's not just a hobby. I know my ways are unorthodox, but the experiments I ran in my free time showed that they're effective! It's not like I won't be using magic anyway, my printing—" Suna tried to defend herself, but Ruulit cut her off.

"Have you been spending too much time around charr? Did someone magically assault you? I just don't understand why you aren't focusing on it. We're asura, it's what we do." Ruulit's tone was curious, but there was a cruel undercurrent of impatience leaking through his apparently-concerned words.

"If everyone follows the same blueprints, we will never innovate. I'm trying to follow in the footsteps of our people's innovators, find my own direction, and enhance our understanding of the Eternal Alchemy by doing so. I don't know why you have so much trouble seeing that." Suna's voice was tired. This was just the latest version of an argument that had been bubbling for years, as her methods had become increasingly unusual.

Ruulit nodded along. "I see that you're passionate about this. Look, I really like working with you, I think we make a good team. You even helped to set me down this path."

Suna relaxed: he truly seemed to care about working with her and was trying to make that a reality.

"I'll open up about what I'm working on, I promise. I know you don't have a krewe," Suna winced, and Ruulit took this as his chance to swoop in and help her, "but you're smart enough, dedicated enough, driven enough, that if there were a place that recognized you for what you can do, you could rise so high. I know exactly where that is."

Suna chewed her lower lip. The instability of her future had been getting to her, and even if she joined Ruulit, she could continue to work on her personal projects in her own time. Eventually they would gain enough traction to build a krewe around. Ruulit looked into her eyes, seeming to communicate the years they had spent together since they were progeny. After several minutes of internal consideration—true to her nature as a Synergetics alumnus—she put her hand on the table, ready to shake.

Her friend pounced on this like a tiger, grin spreading wide to the corners of his face. "Fantastic, I knew you'd see sense eventually! I can't tell you everything just yet, we'll have to get you clearance first, but I've already spoken of your merits, my people know who you are, this should go smoothly." Suna smiled. She hadn't been expecting her graduation to go this way, but found the reshuffling of her future to be exciting. Ruulit may have been guiding this portion, but she would be certain to make her impact, both with him and on her own.

"And I'll even let you continue your hobby, if you still want to after you see what we're working on."

Her smile faded, and her hand, clasped firmly within his, went limp. She stopped just short of clearing her throat. "Let me?"

"You know what I mean. I doubt you'll be interested in continuing on with your material methods, anyway, when you see our magical equivalent." His demeanor was easy, casual.

"Let go of my hand."

"You're not getting cold feet already, are you? You saw my way once, just come with me and you'll come back to your senses."

Suna took a deep breath, grabbed her box of belongings in one hand, and stood up. Ruulit was still holding her hand, expression growing cold. "Suna, this is what's best for both of us, and for Tyria."

She yanked her hand away from him and took a few steps back. "I'm not your lackey, that's not what this is."

"Then we can figure out some other arrangement, you'll see."

"You keep saying that: I'll see, I'll come to my senses. I think you're right. I see that you just want me to be your assistant." Suna tried to keep her voice low, but couldn't help but raise the attentions of a few nearby passersby who were impolite enough to stop and stare.

"When you finally put away your toys and grow up, you'll see that my way is right, and has always been right." Ruulit stayed seated, and crossed his arms. Suna felt like she was being dismissed, and hated the feeling of doing what he expected of her, but she wasn't just about to stay near him while he was being like this. She stormed off up one of Rata Sum's main staircases, wanting to find fresh air.

Leaving college had been a big enough change, but it was one she had been anticipating. Much less expected was the question of whether her closest relationship during that time had been true friendship, or if Ruulit had just been waiting for the day when she would become his lab assistant. Suna pressed the box into her chest and tried to pour over any hint that might have given it away. He was often fairly cold, but he was like that with everyone. He spent more time with her than with almost anyone else, but that could go either way.

With nothing else to do, she wandered the Creator's Commons, tracing an aimless path across the triangle. Golems would ship out her more significant belongings from the dorms in a few days, and for the next few nights she could probably find an inn somewhere.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a pair of distorted whooshes. Normally, the sounds of asura gate travel would have blended in with the ambiance, but the unusual absence of them from this area tonight made these two stand out. Wanting to distract from her own problems for a moment, Suna spied on the charr and a human who had come through the gate. They were both smoke-tinged, and the human was breathing heavily. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but seeing the charr lean forwards to kiss the human gave her the bulk of the interesting info.

Thoughts of Ruulit started to slip from her mind as she focused. If he wanted to be so condescendingly certain that her methods would fail, then she would just have to ensure that she beat him. Slowly, so as not to draw undue attention to herself, Suna pulled out a holographic tablet and began to write.

~~~

Interlude: Benefactor

Dawnside Quay, Rata Sum
83 Scion, 1329 AE

The dock would have to be paid for, but that was a trivial matter. The materials and information being transported were worth far more than the gold used to safeguard the whole affair, exacerbated though that may be after this little debacle.

A pair of shoes walked casually across the smoke-blasted rubble, barely slowing to take in the destruction. It was irrelevant, so long as it had not damaged the object the figure was looking for.

Their eyes settled upon it moments later: a black cylinder with a rune upon its end, sitting perilously close to the outskirts of the explosive debris and the water. The figure stooped to pocket it and left.

In the future, they would have to be better about not relying solely upon a single agent.