Game of Thrones - the Remix!

Drawing up Battle Plans

After Kieron leaves, all the Got characters question her about  Kings Landing. She explains that it has been restored. That it was all a, magic trick, payed by her opponent, an illusion  so to speak. And that really,  Kings Landing was fine.

She is making all of the programming changes that were suggested by Kieron - programming her reality as she wants it to be...why couldn't she do this with her world...how amazing and wonderful it would be if she could simply program the people and places in her world, just as she wanted them to be? 

It was possible to do with virts, but virts were boring, because everyone always knew exctly what they would say, and whatthey would do, based on their programming. The only ones who were slightly intriguing, where the ones who questioned their programming...and that inquisitiveness was usually programmed right out of them.

 Steffana wondered to herself what it must be like to see your whole world order just stripped bare, before your eyes, to know  for sure that there was no God, no reason, no fate, no destiny, no plan, just codes and the ashikes who manipulated them. That was true for all these virtual people.

Who could stand to face such a thing about their world...no wonder virts chose to remain ignorant about such existential truths. Who wanted to believe that the very existence or inexistence  of their world was predicated at best, novice game players, and at worst diabolical psychopaths? Unfortunately for all of these virts, that was the case.

"So, are we ever going to talk about, what's really going on between you and your husband...and why it drove you to seek asylum in our world, which is apparently responsible for the very best military minds of your world .

No...we're not going to talk about it.

"You really are something like a God. When something horrific happens you just stay silent, offering no explanations or apologies."

"Don't be ridiculous. I've told you what I am. I am a person, just like you."

They were growing smarter, though...even if they didn't want to acknowledge it.

"And yet you decide whether one of the most important cities in all the land, gets completely destroyed by wildfire...or not...with, I might add, your fancy mechanics and satys  and codexes. What is a codex?"

"it's just a way to record information and store it. Like a book."

Leave it to Tyrion to ask the questions that peered beyond the edge of his known universe,

"So this codex, how did it nearly lead to the destruction of the entire realm, if you don't mind me asking?"

Did any of them have the audacity, or temerity to pursue the truth? If they truly wanted to understand the nature of their reality and how she was willfully programming it for her own selfish purposes, could they? And...if they did...what would it get them? Where would it lead? If they truly understood that all they were, were little bits of code, programmed into this virtual world...what would happen? 

Could they, perhaps interfere with the programming, even break free of it?  Because who would want to live in such a world as theirs? It was awful for most of them, except the ones in the highest of stations, but even they were confined to a small, cruel bitter world, where the only hope for humanity was a young inexperienced queen who had happened upon some dragons.

Maybe they could escape their world. This was a theory that Leevian always espoused about the virts. If they truly knew, about the devious forces behind their every action, thought and emotion, they would not allow it. They would lay claim to their own currencies, and break free.

"But it's not a book...a book has two covers, binding and pages. A codex is far more powerful than any book in the realm and you just gave it to Varys, without thinking on the possible implications or repercussions, which were most dire."

Leevian insisted, all life, even virtual lives inside of fictitious realms, lived a thousand times over, in infinite loops,  was real and worthy of freedom.   And then Neptune always said there was no such thing as time. She could test that theory, on all of these virtual people, who essentially lived infinitely.

Instead of wiping their memories clean or tampering with their programming in any way, she could just let them be...and see exactly where that led them. Tyrion had questions, he was programmed that way. Whether he knew it or not-he was glitchy. Programmers hated being questioned by the objects of their programming and most did not survive the inquiry. But what if he was allowed to question? What if he got truthful answers?

In that case, he would probably learn. So she answered him truthfully, 

"I made a mistake. This is the very first time, I've ever played this game and I'm learning."

He seemed to consider that, the gravity. The fact that the existence of his entire world rested upon the fairly limited knowledge and skills of a novice game player, who to his knowledge, had no skin in the game. But what if he understood that she did have skin in the game? What if she told them all about Julian? What if they had just as much reason to hate Julian as she did?

Would that lead to the Tao? The Tao...what a weighty concept...she couldn't quite get her mind around. All this time, she had ignored Kieron's Art of War  quotes, finding them just as rough and irritating as he was with his incessant demands and commands and stratagems, but she was beginning, finally, to understand why those words held such power, still, after thousands of  years. It wasn't simply a way of war...which she despised. It was a way of life.

As if reading her mind, Tyrion asked, "What's  the Tao?"

"It's not easy to explain. "

"Try me,  I've been told that I'm frightfully clever. Perhaps, I could help you to figure it all out."

Maybe he was right. "Fine." she replied,

"Saty, what is the definition of the Tao, as referenced in Sun Tzu's ancient The Art of War."

"The tao is  the way,  a road, a path, a key.  Also, more loosely, doctrine or principal. The  way something works and equally a recommended course of action. As a verb it means "to lead. All of these meanings are present in the ancient text."

"What can anyone really do with any of that?

"Ask it if there are any more definitions."

"Why?"

"Just ask."

"Saty, are there more definitions about  the Tao? 

"The Tao is eternally nameless. The tao is the reality of life before its descriptions of it."

"Now, that's just gibberish."

"No, I don't think that it is. The reality of life, before it's descriptions, it's a way, it's a  path, it's a key. You came here to find your way.  You came here for the tao."

She considered it. But really, she had come for vengeance. She had come here to learn to defeat her enemies, whom she despised. 

"You have told me that you'v come here from the future, and...in a sense you have, but it's not our future, is it?"

'And so, what is that line, that you keep referencing, you know the one about your enemies?"

"You have to know them...and you have to know yourself."

"Exactly. So when are we going to learn about you and Julian?"

'