week 1

[airlockedmods]

Week 1

[After the reveal of their handsome and well-dressed but stern-looking Overseer on Sunday, the Champions were left to their own devices in investigating the mall to their hearts' content. At around 10 pm every night the lights in all the shops will go down and the sturdy metal grates over the doors of the restaurants will go down. The stores will remain unlocked, though.

On Monday morning, a buzzing alarm chirps at them again from their PIPs at 7 am on the dot. There's also a pop-up message waiting for them: a notice announcing Xander will be holding office hours

Enjoy your week, Champions.]

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

Comments

[misanthropicprinciple]

[After a slightly worried pause, Junpei bursts out laughing.]

Oh my god, it's plaid. Shit, it must be for me! Happy birthday to Junpei.

[Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The Champion Challenger picks up one half of the cupcake and takes a delicious bite.]

[misanthropicprinciple]

Did you piss off someone with their own personal space station or something?

[He crosses his arms, looking skeptical.]

[misanthropicprinciple]

Are you from a gag anime or something, man? Your life does not sound real.

[misanthropicprinciple]

I don't think we could bring all of you with us even if I did have some esper backup. None of the rest of you are SHIFTers, right?

[misanthropicprinciple]

Yeah.

[Junpei stretches, kind of like a cat.]

Anyway, Ardyn's lying about not being a supervillain. Badly. Seriously, he-- [Snicker.] --he started calling us mortals. Can you believe that?

[daughterofthemark]

[This is the first time Arianna has ever had occasion to think of books as "complicated," but she nods.]

And you simply touch it?

[She was paying attention after all.]

[misanthropicprinciple]

Do you believe in alternate histories, Natsuhi-san? Or, uh, let me make it more general. Do you believe there could be multiple worlds or timelines?

I'm coming at you with captcha

[cyan_maid]

I certainly wouldn't mind it, since you're willing to share.

[Then that one fourth left over is hers! For her little pad of bunny notes.]

I, ah...saw that you've pinned down a date for us.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Junpei's expression flickers a little as he absorbs all that. It's a lot to take in. Eventually, he sighs and lowers his hand, letting both of his lie open-palmed in his lap, looking at the difference between the right and left.]

Damn, Clarith. Heavy shit.

[He thinks about it a few seconds longer, then tilts his head to one side.]

Though it takes something else to have all that and still face people with kindness. Don't you think? No matter what you feel on the inside, there's good that comes of that, too, even if you're looking out for yourself.

[serrata]

You would've thought they'd at least consider it. They've tossed so much in this mall with us, I'm a little surprised they didn't give us a bar, too.

[ ... birthdays, though. Going by the look she's suddenly got on her face, it looks like someone's got an idea. ]

Oh, actually... it's not beer but, would you mind waiting here for a second? I've got something else you could have.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Yup. Okay, well, if the screen is black, then you have to press this button to turn it on first.

[He shows her the button, though of course his tablet's already on.]

Then, once the screen's lit up like this, you touch it to interact with it, yeah. I'm gonna take us back to the home screen, okay? That should be what you see when you turn one on for the first time.

[He presses the home button and points to the various icons. All of this has to be done with his left hand; his robot hand's no good for this kind of thing.]

These little pictures? They're symbols called icons. They represent the different programs--uhhh, the different tasks this tablet can perform. Follow so far?

[desperateprayer]

...It's... Hard to see it like that.

[ If her hair was still long, she'd have it over her shoulder, playing with it. But it's cut short. So she can't. ]

...For so long I've been called a "demon's child" that... I started to believe it. So it feels like the kindness I wear is... Just a mask to hide the ugliness beneath.

GOTTA CAPTCHA 'EM ALL

[misanthropicprinciple]

Mmmmm-hm.

[He watches her with a little bit of a glint in his eye, playing his pencil around his fingers.]

Can't be one hundred percent sure, of course, but it's an educated guess.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Christ, is it scotch? Please tell me it's scotch.

[Jumpy...]

[misanthropicprinciple]

Just saying. Things can serve multiple purposes. One man's mask is another man's... other mask. Okay, maybe masks don't really work for what I'm trying to say.

[He closes the fingers of his robotic hand.]

...One guy's disgusting broken arm is the proof a girl needs to know her brother isn't dead. Things like that. The stuff you do to protect yourself, other people get something else out of it.

I find you pretty nice, for example. I don't agree with everything you do, but I don't hate you for doing it.

[daughterofthemark]

[To what might be the surprise of some, Arianna nods.]

Like a hieroglyphic system.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Junpei considers this, then nods.]

Yeah, sure, like that. So, the basics: That one, that's your word processor, which is like opening a blank page for writing things down. That one's a calculator, this one's for drawing, and a lot of these won't work under these circumstances so don't worry about them too much. Oh, do you want some paper so you can write this stuff down?

[cyan_maid]

It's quite the guess, then.

[mmmmmmmmmm]

If it is the case, and we are missing...at least a year, then...sheesh, I guess I ought to make up a calendar and keep track of things.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Oh, I still think it's less than a year. Not that it matters much when apparently it's, what. 6973?

[Come on, Janey, you can figure out his deductions.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

Wait 'til I tell you about the robot Sarge built that can only speak Spanish. And nobody in the entire canyon speaks Spanish. Or the time we thought Donut got crushed by a falling plane, but it actually pushed him into a surprise underground cave none of us knew existed.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Nobody's real name is actually Donut, come on.

[daughterofthemark]

[It all seems simple enough in basic concept, but...]

Please.

...and what is a calculator?

[misanthropicprinciple]

[He slides some stationery over to her (blue with rabbits, for the curious) and a pencil.]

It's for, uh, performing calculations. Numerical ones. Addition, subtraction--depending on the calculator, it can sometimes handle some complex stuff. The one in here's best for arithmetic, though.

[He'll wait for her to write down what she wants before continuing with Millennial Tech 101.]

[imnotfat]

Xander's, of course. [Like, duh, who else's family can he be talking about? Heart's? As if it was this obvious, Togami] It seems that's his weak point. Unfortunately, that means I'm at a loss of how to proceed on pressing him.

It seems this'll require some...finesse I currently lack.

[The finesse to be sympathetic]

That's why I have come to talk with you. Tell me, how should I proceed to make Xander spill the beans, using his family as leverage?

[motherfucking_ghost]

Franklin. Delano. Donut.