Week 6

[airlockedmods]

Week 6

[It's been six weeks and with Ricky, Kurumi, and Lightning all dead, the group that was initially 20 strong has dwindled down to only seven. Thirteen Champions have died in about a month and a half, and even the Overseers are beginning to crack. How many more will follow before this cruel experiment ends?

And again at 7 am the mechanical woman's voice chimes to awaken the remaining champions on Sunday morning. After the initial wake-up call there is no new floor announcement this week.

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 6, everyone! Check-in has begun and don't forget to submit your memory regains!]

Comments

[kingshaming]

[He wasn't hungry, but he knew he SHOULD eat if he didn't want to get sick. But looking at that lump he's not so sure...]

Oh, Yurika that's... sweet of you.

[ratherdoweddings]

I worked hard on it! ♥ Oh! There's something else, too, but... it's more serious than that.

[She reaches into her pocket -- man, she's missed having pockets to carry things -- and pulls out a pendant that she lays on the table.]

This was a design Lightning-san drew. She told me that if I ever found something that looks like this, that it belonged to her sister for her engagement. So if anyone on this station should have it, it's you, Xander-san.

[kingshaming]

...I see.

[He carefully picks the pendent up, like it might shatter in his hands. The delicate metalwork is beautiful, and the glass orb catches the light just right. After a moment he unclasps the chain and puts in on, tucking the charm under his shirt. In the best scenario Serah and Snow are in Lightning's new world- so maybe they can forgive him for keeping it.]

Thank you, Yurika. This... means a lot to me.

[He looks at the food, and with a resolute nod takes it, cutting a chunk off with the fork and eating it.

...the taste is horrible. But his mouth already tastes like pumpkin soup and bile- this is worse in the literal sense, but he would prefer foulness made with love to his own acidic regret.]

[ratherdoweddings]

[Yurika smiles, oblivious to her own awful cooking, and nods at him.]

We shouldn't have lost anyone.

[kingshaming]

[He can't handle another bite just yet, so instead he turns back to his painting, picking back up his pallet and mixing up some bubblegum pink]

We failed.

[ 'I failed' is clear in his tone- and the words are said as a matter of fact. Not to be cruel, but as obvious as the sky was blue.

...of course, the sky for them has only been black for a long time.]

[ratherdoweddings]

It's more my fault than yours, Xander-san. I sent Kurumi-chan that whistle to keep her safe, and I knew she was having troubles, but I was worrying too much about Jane-chan and she said she could handle it. But if it's anyone's fault, none of us chose to be trapped here and threatened every week.

[kingshaming]

She would have found something else even if she didn't have the whistle, I'm sure.

[He takes the pink, and adds it to the end of the woman in his painting's hair, making it look like the twintails were dipped in cotton candy.]

Regardless... if this is set to happen every time, then what are we still playing at 'living' here, I wonder?

[He doesn't intend it to sound as ominous as it likely does]

[ratherdoweddings]

I don't think it's set, Xander-san. We've gone through horrible things, but we've still all got each other, and even if things look hopeless, there's got to be a way to change things. The Benefactors are getting more desperate to hurt us. That has to mean something.

[kingshaming]

[He makes a thoughtful noise at that, tapping his lips with the wooden end of the paintbrush]

That IS true. What happened last week at the dance proves that. Things... are coming to a head.

[ratherdoweddings]

It might even mean we're getting closer than we think to the truth!

[kingshaming]

The truth...

['Bring the truth to light.' He thinks, remembering Lightning's words. How she called him honest. Gods... tears well up in his eyes as gnaws slightly at the paintbrush. They don't fall- he's cried out over four deaths between last night and this morning, he's emptied the tanks for now.

'Maybe even six deaths' his mind is happy to add as he stares at the painting]

I hope you're right, Yurika. I hope everything is dragged out into the light soon.

[ratherdoweddings]

We'll make it! [She beams and looks over at the painting.] Are those people from home? You're working really hard on it.

[kingshaming]

[Her cheer, like always, is hard to resist, and he smiles slightly]

They are my dearest friends and protectors from back home.

[He points with the slightly chewed end of his brush at them in turn]

Peri and Laslow. My retainers.

[ratherdoweddings]

They must really care about you. They look so happy there!

[kingshaming]

They tend to be rather cheerful. More interested in flirting and fighting and tea then actually doing their duties.

[Said with the utmost fondness]

[ratherdoweddings]

That sounds a little nostalgic! Won-san always complained about us being less professional than she'd like.

[Yurika sighs at that, though.]

I guess that's why Akatsuki-san took us over when he did.

[kingshaming]

I suppose there isn't anything wrong with the occasional playfulness.

[ratherdoweddings]

I don't think so either. Even when they were trying to undermine us after we learned the truth, Nergal and the military started with silly things that wouldn't be out of place on the Nadesico. ...At least until that little girl came.

[kingshaming]

[Seems like there's a long story here, just waiting to be told. He reaches over and pulls another stool towards them, patting it]

Sit. Tell me, if you want.

[ratherdoweddings]

[Yurika rests her hands on the table, sighs, and sits down.]

Last week, I remembered that the entire war was built on a conspiracy. A hundred years ago, there was a civil war on the Moon that ended in a radical fringe group being exiled from UEAF territory. We were always taught that it was only a local matter, but the rebellion was encouraged by the Earth government so they could take control of the Moon themselves, and the exiles were chased away with unnecessary force -- not just from Earth territory, but from places like Mars that the Earth wanted open to colonize in the future. Our ancestors bombed them out of places just because they wanted them for themselves.

Those exiles finally settled on a gas planet called Jupiter, where life must have been harsh. There's where they found an abandoned factory and blueprints, left behind by some kind of ancient alien civilization. Over the next hundred years, they developed weapons and transporters, aimed at taking back their ancestral homes and all of Earth's territory as revenge.

Because of the cover-up, the UEAF didn't want any of this to get out. When we were first attacked, they told everyone that the fleets from Jupiter were aliens with no relation to Earth and no way to reason with us.

[She bites her lip and looks over at Xander.]

The Jovians were never lizards at all. They're human.

[kingshaming]

[He hisses breath between his teeth]

So every time you fought with them...

[ratherdoweddings]

They used to use drones, but now they're experimenting with Chulips and Chulip Crystals and sending out piloted craft. One way or another, we ended up with a Jovian on our ship, just a child instead of a soldier. Once the UEAF caught wind of it, they demanded that we hand her over for "safety," but that didn't make sense to me -- the Nadesico is the safest place out there. But when I refused, one of our backup pilots shut us down and took the master key.

[She indicates the key she's currently got on a string around her neck.]

This one that I found in my dumbwaiter, so I don't know how the Benefactors got it. It turns out that Akatsuki-san, the backup pilot, was a plant, and he's really the chairman of Nergal. They assigned him to us after we found out that Chulips were teleporters instead of spacecraft carriers, and he just wanted to keep us quiet when it was convenient so Nergal could still profit off the war!