Dear Linguist,

I come once again with a dream for interpreting.

The clouds are the earth of this place. An endless azure expanse extending further than the elusive horizon, this ethereal scenery is interrupted only by a single thing. On first inspection, it appears to be a land long forgotten. A dilapidated steampunk-esque utopia. Machinery and rust cover every inch of this place and yet rather than corrupting the beautifully pure landscape, the contrasting foreground makes it feel somewhat more complete.

This castle-in-the-sky aesthetic is what your next character finds themself in. This time your character is not alone. There are many beings on this land, to call them ‘humans’ would be far too big a stretch, yet the term ‘people’ suits them well. Their physical appearance mimics that of a normal person, but there is an eerie lifelessness to their eyes, yes, it would not be inappropriate to speculate that there indeed is no life to them at all. And such a creature is your character.

No movement or sound is observed on this land empirically, but your character seems to be communicating to others through a sophisticated transcendent network that leaves no physical trace of its existence. There is a content smile on their face, but not in the pure sense. It’s more of the face you make when you use a satisfactorily witty remark against an agitating opponent, but it’s not quite smug, as it does seem to showcase the smallest amount of true contentedness.

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That is the condition of the character at present.

There are only two other things you should know about the situation. Statements about the network that were written and recorded before the lands fell silent. Perhaps these will help with your interpretation.

One. The network is built upon memories, some genuine, some fabricated. Nothing else exists within the network. The people aren’t communicating per se but the interactions between the memories are so appropriate that it appears as if they truly are communicating.

Two. There are no new memories. It’s almost as if the content of the network was predetermined, and all that the people were doing now is synthesising them together to create or perhaps mimic an artificial simulation of a community. My only insight into this is that perhaps this means that whatever really created these memories is dead. Yet in their death, it seems they have attempted to leave a living legacy of sorts, if you could really call this life.

Now tell me Linguist, what does this mean? What happened on the island prior to this?

Best wishes, Dreamer.