Week 2

[airlockedmods]

Week 2

[The Champions have now been here for one week, and while the dud of a first incentive didn't tempt anybody, the fact remains obvious: a lack of murder isn't going to be the thing that gets you out of here.

Blaze Dudely and Rox have not made a reappearance since Tuesday, leaving you to your own devices for the moment. That door they entered and exited through remains locked, and there is no new area to access this week. Are you sure they're even still back there? Despite their absence, you all wake up on Sunday morning from strange dreams. What to make of it?

You can only hope it's not a bad omen for the rest of the week.]

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday

(( Don't forget to turn in your AC for Week 1, submit your memory regain, and turn in your Benefactor threads! ))

Comments

[theundertaken]

...not even when you were younger?

[playthedamncard]

Not someone I haven't paid or was being paid to do so in the past several years, let's put it that way.

[theundertaken]

[.....hrmmmm. Max is not quite satisfied.]

So how'd you become a CEO, anyway?

[playthedamncard]

[Max you're getting dangerously close to Tragic Backstory and Kaiba does not like it]

By buying out the company from under the man that owned it before. By outwitting and outliving him.

[theundertaken]

.........sorry, outliving him? [did you murder your way up the corporate ladder?]

[playthedamncard]

He threw himself from the boardroom window. And since I owned the majority share of the company, it became mine.

[theundertaken]

.....jesus christ.

[Since you don't seem horrified by this horrifying event, Max will do it for you.]

[playthedamncard]

There must still have been some brain activity left in him by the time he was retrieved, but effectively he was dead. [Noa's virtual world sure was a fucking trip okay]

[theundertaken]

That's terrible.

[Spoken half in the manner of someone trying to sympathize, and half in the manner of someone who isn't sure you actually realize that this is a bad thing, Kaiba.]

....but, uh, I mean. You just come from a rich family or something, or were you making your own money before that? [you can't start the story of you becoming CEO at "I already owned most of the company even though I was probably a preteen or something"]

[playthedamncard]

Don't wast any sympathies on him. [That might have come out sharper than Max might have expected, but exactly as sharp as Kaiba intends.] He doesn't deserve a single ounce of it.

[He frowns and leans against the wall, gaze away, working out what to say, how much of it to say. It's not a thing he talks about, because the past is the past, and it needs to stay there. But apparently Max wants to needle it out of him bit by bit. So.]

Tell me something about yourself first. [Not that he cares, but let's look at it like a business transaction.]

[theundertaken]

Uh, okay?

[He was just trying to make conversation? He would've shared about himself too, eventually, that's how conversations work.]

The thing says I'm from Mason's Harbor, but I was actually living in Orlando until pretty recently. And I...might've adopted a dog? If those dreams we all had are for real.

[playthedamncard]

[One does not simply have a conversation with Seto Kaiba.]

I'm all for denial, apparently, but even I find it difficult to believe them to be mere dreams or false memories.

[theundertaken]

It's not really that. I mean, I don't mind if I adopted a dog? Just...I dunno, it's weird. Wouldn'tve thought anything of it if everyone else didn't have the same thing happen.

[playthedamncard]

Not much happens in your life, does it? [It could be an insult, or it could just be...we have witches and warriors and gunslingers and CEOs, and then we have a couple painters and a barista. It's an uncanny mix.]

[theundertaken]

I could do with a little less happening, honestly.

[His smile actually has a touch of ice this time; maybe this isn't a thing he wants to talk about.]

But, uh, guess it'd seem that way compared to "sixteen-year-old CEO".

[playthedamncard]

[how the turn tables!]

Something less happening than adopting a dog? Does that mean there's excitement in the life of a Champion Portrait Artist after all?

[theundertaken]

...I mean, I moved back 'cause my mother might be dying of cancer. Don't know if I'd call that exciting, but I could do with less of that.

[playthedamncard]

Not something anyone needs in their lives, certainly. [He'd apologize, but, y'know. He's Kaiba.]

[theundertaken]

Yeah.

[.......]

So, anyway. Where'd you get your start?

[playthedamncard]

I didn't start studying business practices in earnest until I came under the tutelage of the man who owned the company before me. Though as for money, my father was moderately well-off. I wouldn't have called him rich, but he did have a not-insignificant sum of money to inherit, so he must have known what he was doing on that front.

[theundertaken]

...I'm sorry. [Because that's a lot of past-tense regarding the father.] How'd former-CEO guy end up taking you under his wing?

[and why don't you care about him dying horribly?]

[playthedamncard]

I challenged him to a chess match and won. Mind you, he was a grand champion, and I had barely reached double digits in age. It was thoroughly embarrassing for him.

[theundertaken]

...yeah, I can definitely see that. You're a chess prodigy, too?

[Do those correlate? He knows there's chess prodigies in his world, but he can't recall if they were also business savants or whatever.]

[playthedamncard]

I studied his tactics, plays, moves. I knew everything I could about him, while also being naturally good at the game.

[theundertaken]

[so you creeped]

Right. I mean, that'd have to be impressive for a dude.