Pasted

[Venturelust / RYQ-31'S Quarters]
[CLASSIFICATION(S): PARADOXON]
//STATUS: DOCKED AT ORBITAL FABRICATOR No.02...
//LOCATION: GALACTIC SUBSECTOR: FORMIDINE RIFT, LUVONA SYSTEM, LUVONA PRIME, LUVONA ORBIT. 
//OPERATIONAL DATA...
-Operated by RYQ CLONE-31...
-Lilim Foundation Tyocraft-Class Vessel Exploration & Pioneering. [ADDITONAL INFORMATION CLASSIFIED]
-Crew Manifest: [SUPPRESSED]
-Conversation Participants: [Ryquo-31 [RYQ], Dillan [DIL]]
 RYQ: "Forty-Four has decided that the conversation you three had will not be resulting in a mind-wipe. He has his reasons, that's all I can say about that, really."
DIL: "I'm not sure I understand if that's supposed to make me feel better, or not..."
RYQ: "Lets say it is. Just for the sake of it."
DIL: "Right..."
[...] 
DIL: "Can I ask you something?"
RYQ: "That depends entirely on the level of clearance you're likely about to breach."
DIL: "Forty-Four already gave me clearance to ask this question to a few of the numbers-" 
RYQ: "I'm sure he did." *Sighing* "Venturelust, activate Stronghold Protocol for my quarters."
V-Ai: [Stronghold Protocol activating... Sealing doors... Sealing viewports... Sealing ventilation... Stonewalling external and internal communications... Stronghold Protocol active!]
DIL: "..." - "There's four-hundred of you, right?"
RYQ: "At any given time."
DIL: "Why four-hundred? And why all the "fours"? There are so many fours in this- frankly mind-boggling Institution. If you can even call the Foundation an Institution..."
RYQ: "Finally, a mostly reasonable set of questions from you... I can only *simply* explain the four-hundred. Say you have a team of four, and a goal. Of course your team of four all have different ways to solve a problem preventing the group at large from progressing. So, each individual "cycles" from leadership to find the most pragmatic way of dealing with the problem at hand."
DIL: "So, figure out which hammer will break the wall down the most efficiently."
RYQ: "Precisely."
DIL: "What about the fours? What's with that?"
RYQ: "I'll admit, this is something I think about frequently, others as well. And nobody seems to have a concrete answer. It's likely just coincidence."
DIL: "...Right. ...What about Forty-Four?"
RYQ: "Ah... I should have guessed you'd ask about him sooner or later."
DIL: "..."
RYQ: "The one and only "High-Marshal" Ryquo Fourty-Four... Paramount. Alpha and Omega of all four-hundred of us. He is probably the only one of us that actually understands how to do this job... While the rest of us stumble in the dark..."
DIL: "..."
RYQ: "We lost him once. He was declared MIA for... What felt like centuries. But on his side of coin only two years had passed. We don't know what he did, who he was with. We don't even know where he went. Some speculate that he went to the "Skylight" as your lax conversations touched on."
DIL: "People within the Foundation speculate he was in a Skylight Universe for a Paradoxal amount of time?"
RYQ: "It's the only fitting piece of exposition anyone's come up with. Even Sargon."
DIL: "...Huh. -But that was only two years for him? What could he have possibly learned or experienced that made him the best of four-hundred of you all?"
RYQ: "Now that, is something you'll have to ask him."