theairlock | week 3

Week 3

[Come week 3 of the Champion Excellence Program the high-flying feelings that came with the dodgeball game last week has dissipated, especially after the...everything that was that trial. Satan Mask sure was a thing that happened.

Just like last week, right on the dot at 7 am, the mechanical woman's voice chimes to awaken the remaining champions on Sunday morning. After the initial wake-up call though there's a new message tacked on:]

Congratulations, Champions! By surviving your second trial, you have unlocked the third floor of the ship. A new mini map has been added to your P.I.P.! To access the second floor please stand on the teleporter and select the floor you wish to be teleported to.

[And again the Champions are awakened they have regained one new memory from the ones they've lost. Starting again on Sunday, as well, Jamie and Bolton will be back to their usual office hours in their usual locations.]

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

[ooc: welcome to week 3, everyone! Check-in has begun and don't forget to submit your memory regains!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sometimes you get attached to someone. Maybe you grew up with them. Maybe they showed you kindness when you thought you would get none. Maybe you need company, and they were companionable. I won't pretend to know why these attachments form.

You might find that not everything has to be about you all of the time.

[He puts the sheet back in place.] You remembered more of your time in the school I see.

[Togami listens. Yeah, he isn't exactly lacking in bonds, but he never felt the intention of sacrificing anything for them. The thought is alien to him for the moment.

In an attempt to stop talking about something that's frustrating him so much, he focuses on the other thing]

Yes. There has been four trials now. Only six of us remain, with two people missing. Nothing indicates we were any closer to ruining the game other than the fact we all renounced to the killing part. Some of them may not have been honest about it.

[...Togami remembers he did mean it, though? He changed his target to the mastermind, after all. It's unlikely he went back on his word and murdered someone]

Especially if the end of the game was so close. But the fewer people there are, the closer you become, in a way. The easier it might be to pick up on clues and cues. Even most of us thought to renounce the killing game, but obviously not everyone felt that way.

Obviously your survived, one way or another.

Yes. I did. I now am rather sure it wasn't by murdering anyone, though.

[Hmmm...all those memories have given him a lot to think about, really]

I never told you what's supposedly the reason the game happened, did I? The mastermind claimed it was simply to make us despair. I don't have any reasons to believe that's a lie, but their methods are ruthless. Their motives are all something they can conceivably do, but none of it matters because of the state of the world, and since none of us remembered that...anyone who murdered and got away with it would receive an empty reward and would find out nothing mattered anymore.

Makes me wonder if the Overseers' reason to do all this is because they want to do something with the winner, or lead them to do something outside.

...That doesn't even serve a practical purpose. It's just...despair. It's pain for the sake of pain. That just makes it the work of sadism, which...hn, which almost makes it better in that it can be more predictable. Just predictably awful.

But why put in so much effort and expense into something like this if not for a damned good reason? They must need something, even if it's just sick entertainment in the end.

[Togami smirks bitterly]

Despair is what supposedly killed the world. I'm starting to think the game is meant to be a way to eliminate a group of people that'd work to counter it, a way to ensure nothing would be rebuilt.

It's a senseless motivation, but it's a motivation nonetheless.

Whoever survives the game would not have killed anyone and would've been smart enough to figure out culprits through the weeks. To throw them back into a world where everything's gone to shit...might be enough to break them. Or spur them all the more on. It's a gamble, honestly.

[Hm, Togami, have a tilted head and lightly crossed arms.] Even easier to get by without breaking if you don't lose anyone you're close to.

[Yeah...Togami won't admit it, but he's kind of hoping that whenever they remember the world is over no one takes it too hard]

A few valuable partners have been killed already in that game. That's bad enough, despite the fact I didn't have any particular bond to them beyond mutual respect.

[Any good businessman knows good talent is difficult to find. The loss of their lives are going to be hard to deal with]

Do you have any few ideas of what the Overseers may be trying to do with this game?

Only based off what you told me. Trying to find the best of the best to...rebuild somewhere, sometime. It could even be as simple as sick entertainment, but this feels like more. More than a psychological experiment, too, even if it's framed like one.

Your class, your memories were taken so you didn't remember the despair of the outside world, that there wasn't anything to 'win' in the end. If we're all from different worlds and different times, then that's not the point of taking our memories. Maybe it's another way to manipulate us--change the constants and see what happens.

It doesn't matter for now.

The question should be how to defeat the Overseers and get out of here. Personally I couldn't care less of what their motive is, as long as this is stopped and the Overseers are dealt with.

I'd still like to break Rule 6 personally. Not being punished for getting Bolton's ankle twisted in dodgeball was a plus, but when it's suggested, there's a confidence that the consequences would be...immediate or severe.

I threatened breaking his arm, and he held it out and dared me to try it. That's enough to make it not worth the trouble. But even if it's just a ruse, what happens if our Overseers are dead? Jamie might be able to get swayed to our side, but...it doesn't seem like there's an easy way out. Or they'd take it. They're as stuck here as we are.

[You should have taken the chance to break his other ankle instead, Shadow]

Nobody should kill them. As much as I hate to admit it, they're necessary to know where we are and how to control these spaceships. They'll have to receive their punishments after those questions are solved.

[He inclines his head as grudging agreement. They don't even know how to get to where the Overseers stay, much less to any controls.]

We might have to draw straws, those of us left.

Would you have the necessary fortitude to punish them yourself?

[...somehow Togami has the feeling you do, Shadow]

Let me ask you this: have you ever killed someone before?

No.

[He has seen a lot of death, but he hasn't been directly responsible of any of that]

Then maybe you don't have the fortitude. Or maybe by the end of this, you'll decide you do. Let's just say that I know I do.

week 3

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