Week 5

[airlockedmods]

[As with the weeks before, life in the Fantasy Sweet returns to something resembling normalcy with shocking efficiency. The second floor rest area and Adventure Zone Death Orb Room are spotless again, the demon glitter has been vacuumed, the deflated orbs have been replaced. It's like none of it ever happened, like three more friends aren't dead and stored away in the guest house morgue.

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 activity for week 4, submit your memory regains and put in your threads for the Benefactors!]

Comments

[serrata]

I want to say something like... "well, nothing will happen this time" or "no one's stupid enough to try anything again" but... I think relying on that is what's stupid.

[ once is a tragedy. twice, a coincidence. three times and you just accept that a pattern is starting to emerge. ]

Wouldn't you think... someone would've done something by now? This is all edited, I know but... doesn't anyone suspect something's going on? Or the people running all this... don't any of them feel the slightest bit bad about what's happening to us?

[myocordial]

...This isn't the first time they have done this. I think if anyone involved in running this had any objections, they probably already took care of that. I doubt anyone with the slightest shred of decency or empathy could have even made it through the planning phase of this.

[Anyone involved with this willingly is scum, plain and simple.]

As for the people watching... What reason do they have for thinking any of this is real? It's presented as fiction, anything damning is removed, and... we have all been taken from vastly different times and places, which means no one watching will know we're missing from anywhere. And even if someone did realize what's actually happening, it's likely their opinion would be dismissed. It would sound crazy if you didn't already know the truth, wouldn't it...

So for all intents and purposes, we're alone in this.

[None of this is even a little optimistic. But then, he's never had a lot of faith in anyone else fixing this. And he's really... not in the right state of mind to make anyone feel better, anyway.]

[serrata]

... it's a nice thought though, isn't it?

[ Her voice is distant. Like she's barely even there for the conversation. ]

Maybe... we'll wake up one day to someone deactivating PAL. Taking over all the controls and telling us it's okay, they're here to save us. They'd have our friends, they'd have somewhere we could go and they'd say... "Are you all okay? You did well in there, by yourselves".

[ She goes quiet for a second before she starts going at the dirt with a trowel again. ]

But I suppose it's not that easy. If sitting around and waiting for a hero did us any good then we wouldn't be having this conversation now.

[myocordial]

Thoughts like those are only natural. Wanting someone to save you... hoping for it... It's a very human thing. [He doesn't say that as if it's a bad thing, there's no judgement there.] It would be nice. Someone else fixing this.

[...]

Personally... I would like to end this myself. With my own hands.

Both getting out of here and ending those who did this.

[It should sound angry, that statement. But there's no real fire to it. Just quiet determination and... exhaustion, maybe.]

[serrata]

That'd be the right thing to do, wouldn't it? If we can get out of here and stop whoever made it happen... it means no one else would have to go through another one of these. It'd all just... stop.

[ have this talk again when round five comes around, honey. ]

No one else is going to help us. We'll have to do it ourselves.

[myocordial]

It would be, but whether or not it's right isn't the main reason. It's despicable, what they're doing, treating lives as expendable things to toss away for entertainment. But mainly... I just want to make them pay.

[He doesn't consider himself much of a vengeful person, but he's all too happy to make exceptions for scum like this.]

Yes. We simply have to keep fighting. No matter how difficult things get, all we can do is keep fighting. In that respect, it's nothing I'm not used to.

[serrata]

[ Yuuri glances up at him and for the first time she really, really looks at him. Her gaze is probing but it's not hard or unkind. Just curious. ]

... Because giving up isn't an option, is it? You fight or you die.

And dying... it's not something you can even consider.

[myocordial]

You fight or you submit. That could be death. Or something else.

[Even here, who knows. Because they don't know what the intended end might be.]

And fighting might lead to death just as much. But it's the one real choice there is. Because if you don't fight, then... what sort of person are you really...

[serrata]

I don't intend to die, fighting or otherwise.

[ It's not defiant. Just a simple statement of fact. ]

I made a promise to Mai-chan. I told her I was going to live. I don't intend on breaking it any time soon. After what I did to her and what I've carried on doing every week, I need to. Giving up now and letting myself die would be as good as throwing away their lives. Like they weren't worth a thing.

[myocordial]

Good. That's the mindset you'll need.

[Intending to die fighting... it's not something he can't see the merit of. But in this situation, it'd be pointless. Because...]

The one goal we have is survival, after all. [The one goal that truly matters right now.] Mai Kawasumi... I know we didn't know her for that long. But I'd like to think that she'll be happy with your resolve to keep that promise.

We all have promises to keep, don't we...

[serrata]

[ A little quickly: ]

Not survival. Living.

[ the distinction is important. ]

Just 'surviving' by itself is what we're doing now. All that means is not dying. I... I want all of us to be able to leave here in one piece and find something for ourselves after it. I want us to be able to live again.