week 4

[airlockedmods]

[Just like the previous week the status quo is restored with frighteningly quick efficiency. PAL still makes the morning and night time announcements through the PIP on each Champion's arm, and still the Champion unitards are freshly laundered and re-hung each morning in their closets. Even the glass roses Choromatsu and Takumi broke after the trial in their fit of anger have been replaced with fresh ones. All signs that there was anything amiss this weekend are completely gone.

There's a new floor to explore, their "reward" for a job well done.]

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday



[ooc: Don't forget to to turn in your AC for week 3, submit your memory regains and put in your threads for the Benefactors!]

Comments

Hallway

[misanthropicprinciple]

...Nice shot.

[Junpei comes around the corner to pick up and inspect the Nerf dart, turning it over in his hands. After a moment, he offers it back to Takumi.]

Kawasumi's powers, huh?

[tacomeme]

[The bow returns to it's cheap toy self, and Takumi curls his lip at it before taking the dart back]

Yeah. If I can keep their numbers down for a few days at least, hopefully PAL will lose interest in this set up.

[misanthropicprinciple]

It did only last a few days last time. And the money incentive was a limited two-day deal. Hm. You'd think the latter might be something they'd at least think of extending; I can't think of how it might cost anything to leave the offer standing.

[tacomeme]

If someone managed to contact it and ask I wouldn't be surprised if it'd still honor it, honestly.

[misanthropicprinciple]

If it's a genuine promise, anyway. "More money than you can imagine" isn't the most realistic bounty I've ever heard. This powers thing, though...

[tacomeme]

...

You can promise anything if you never plan on letting the winner leave in the first place.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Yeah. Which is why Wisniewski was an idiot. Well, one of the reasons.

[tacomeme]

One of them.

As for the powers, I have no idea how it was even able to do it. Maybe it's something to do with why the dead are kept in such good condition. In case they need anything 'from' them.

[misanthropicprinciple]

...Could be something to do with the nanites...

[tacomeme]

Nanites?

[misanthropicprinciple]

They're little... uh, machines. So small you can't see them with the naked eye, doing invisible work on our bodies. I'm told we've all been injected with them, and I think this power-shifting play may be further proof of that.

[tacomeme]

...

[He looks away, lips pursed like he's debating saying something. Finally:]

I think I can can confirm that.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Yeah?

[He's all ears, Takumi.]

[tacomeme]

When I woke up here, I noticed that all the scars I had over my entire life time were gone. Not just scars, but EVERYTHING. Callouses, discolorations. Everything. I might has well have been a newborn baby.

I had no idea why until my most recent memory. I dreamed... I died. Or came as close to it as a man can possibly survive. I jum-

-I fell off a rampart. Everything... everything was destroyed. I FELT it happen.

When I asked Kip about how I could still be alive, let alone in such perfect shape he said that they have the technology to basically rebuild an entire body. And he tried to correct himself but he let slip that they did the same for Church.

[misanthropicprinciple]

...I can also confirm... that one of the purposes of the nanites is to repair the damage done to our bodies if we die here. After we die here.

A pretty powerful combination, creation and repair, don't you think? But it still leaves one thing out.

[tacomeme]

I have an idea what you might mean, but-

[He makes a 'go on' gesture]

[misanthropicprinciple]

Our consciousnesses. Right?

[tacomeme]

Our souls, our 'I'. Minds, whatever you want to call it.

[He nods, it was what he feared]

If I died before coming here, and... I'm not really sure if I did or not, but if I did they might have away of restoring that too.

...and they can manipulate our memories, we already know that. Gods... if they can restore us and erase our minds then they can play this game over and over as long as they want. Practice the play until they have the perfect show.

[He laughs, and it's not a very... there... sound]

We could be the second, third, fourth of us and not even know it. Kip already said we are the 'third' of these shows.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Junpei's quiet for a moment, then nods and looks away.]

It's possible.

[All of it. If they can store and control that invisible thing of a person's identity, then it explains how their memories can be parceled out. How people like Takumi can 'come back' from the dead. How powers that should be intrinsically tied to one's life force can be transferred to another.

It's not unimaginable.]

We probably shouldn't tell the others, huh.

[tacomeme]

Gods no. Half of us would kill themselves in grief and the other half would drink themselves to death. The game would end with Ardyn living alone in space for the rest of time.

[His lips peel back in distaste... but he does lean in close, enough where it's only in Junpei's ear, one hand on the other man's arm- to keep his PIP as far away as possible]

But if they can do that, our dead might not be so dead. In the last game they kept their losers alive for some unknown reason- they were in a computer. Asleep. It wouldn't be impossible to think they might keep to old patterns. If we can wrestle control away, we might be able to play gods instead of pawns.

...the last group did it. We can too.

[misanthropicprinciple]

In a--?

[Takumi may not know what virtual reality is, but Junpei sure does. Even in his current Ardyfied state, his eyes widen.

A beat, and he lowers his voice to an urgent whisper, too.]

Are we in... someone brought up that it might be a simulation earlier, do you know if that's true?

[tacomeme]

Kip said WE weren't, but I can't say if he'd know the difference if he was in it too. And Kip saw all this as part of the audience, not one of the one's running this damned thing. So how much he knows and how much of it is TRUE? Who knows. But it's a possibility.

It's... it's hope, isn't it? More then we've had in a long time. If you ask him yourself I'm sure he'd tell you the same thing.

[misanthropicprinciple]

No, you're right. This... it's something the others should know. Something we can work with, something we can change...

[But he glances down at his PIP, and then up at the nearest camera.]

...Though I guess it's not something we want to share with everyone. We should find a way to let everyone know--discreetly.

[tacomeme]

... I don't know. A secret's only safe if one of the people that has it is dead. Be careful who you tell. I... I only told you because if something happens-

- well, like I said. Dead people keep good secrets. But if everyone knows then it might get out that we know even this much. I'll... I guess I'll trust your discretion.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Nngh... that's true...

[Junpei runs a hand through his hair as he thinks about it.]

...But I don't think they'd have let him say anything--or put him in with us knowing he could say something--if it wasn't something we were supposed to find out eventually. It's probably a matter of time, and time's something we want on our side.