theairlock | Week 2

Entry tags:

!round 2,
!week 2

Week 2

[Other than the reappearance of the Overseer, there's no real change in the routine. PAL still makes the morning and night time announcements through the PIP on each Champion's arm, and still the Champion unitards are freshly laundered and re-hung each morning in their closets.

No other floors unlock, but Cece and Kip will still be appearing randomly to chit-chat.

All you know is... something has to change soon.]

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday

[ooc: Don't forget to to turn in your AC for week 1 and submit your threads for the Benefactors!]

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[ Yuuri is... present, if not entirely here. She looks shockingly pale and shaken and honestly kind of nauseous which is probably understandable given the circumstances. Her breaths are a touch too short and quick and she's shaking but. She's fine. Everything is a-okay. ]

J--Junpei, um... on Sunday he-- h--he said Larimer-san set PAL on him. F--for attacking him in the pillow room. How... h--how did he go from taking orders to this so quickly?

In my personal experience, when an artificial lifeform decides to no longer obey, it's not a slow progress. It's in one swift action.

So he finally got sick of listening to Larimer-san and... decided to do this? I don't... why would he punish us at the same time, as well, then? Have any of us ever even talked to him?

Decided, maybe. Or he's simply following standing orders from whoever is truly in charge. Either is possible. And if it is his own decision, then... Well, he could simply be taking his frustration out on whoever happens to be here.

But I've never had a conversation with him, no.

... it's a good twist, isn't it?

[ Does she EVER sound bitter right now. ]

PAL turning on him like that. The perfect thing for bringing in ratings and causing a stir.

[ basically: fuck u, network ]

Ha... If the whole thing, this rebellious act, is indeed just a plot designed for the sake of being surprising... [Which seems like a very plausible possibility right now...] Oh, we will have problems, me and this network.

[He sounds almost... insulted.]

The cameras must still be running. I can't imagine any other reason for us to still be here and for that rule to be enforced that strongly all of a sudden.

It was there all along, but... if we'd been left alone and we'd all thought we were going to be getting out soon... do you think anyone would have actually... t--tried rule 7?

[ she almost said 'killed someone' but physically could not make the words happen. ]

It would make sense, yes. We should probably operate on the assumption this is all still being aired, though presented quite differently from the actual reality, I'm sure.

[...]

...I don't have any reason to believe someone would have. [Which isn't... a total no, but close enough.] I'd like to think we all have stronger wills than that.

... and there was nothing really pushing us. Was there? I'm sure we all wanted to be out, but... it's one thing to want that. It's another to think it's worth killing over.

Telling us it's the only way, now... I can't think of a better push.

[ if it's any consolation she sounds kind of disgusted by the idea even as she says it. ]

(no subject)

myocordial - 2017-05-26 00:37 (UTC) - Expand

If it's anything like the golems and puppets we have in my realm, then the odds are it has a specific controller. It might have been ordered to protect Kip, but if that master told it otherwise it would listen to them above anyone else.

So Larimer-san was never in charge. He just thought he was.

[ She purses her lips tightly for a moment ]

Do you think he was... tricked into thinking he was? Whoever controls PAL... maybe they wanted this to happen. And that's why he couldn't do anything about the rules.

Breathe, Yuuri. There's no threat at hand in the next five minutes, so for now your first priority needs to be keeping yourself calm.

To answer your question, it sounded as though that thing simply holds a rebellious streak.

[ She looks a little startled, like she hadn't even realized just how sharp and fast her breathing actually was. But then she swallows hard and nods, holding her breath and then letting it out in a long slow sigh. They're still a bit too shallow but it doesn't seem like she's going to go falling out of her chair and pass out. ]

So it was never really obeying him, then. It was just... i--it was just playing along...

[ another deep breath. come on, yuuri, get yourself together. ]

And that's why Larimer-san couldn't remove any of the rules.

Edited (lol pronoun ambiguity) 2017-05-23 18:31 (UTC)

That is only a theory on my part, but it does present a solid potential reason as to why the rules remained unchanged.

[just don't faint he doesn't have any phoenix down]

[ it's fine, there's no swooning couch, she'll have to hold on for a while. ]

So all this... letting us relax and g--get to know each other... it was all planned from the start. They never intended to just let us go after a few weeks. They always expected it to end up coming to this.

Possibly--I can't say what that thing or whoever might be controlling it really intended, but I suspect Larimer at the very least is too much of an idiot to have hidden something like this. Whether it was the plan from the start or not, this appears to be the situation we're facing at the moment.

I think you're right. Larimer-san... he's definitely not a good enough actor to be faking all this. He's too... honest.

[ read: too dumb. ]

I suspected Diver-san might be around to keep him in line and maybe she had a bigger foothold up to the network than we thought. But she seemed just as shocked as everyone else was.

I briefly thought much the same myself. But unless the pair of them have astounding acting talents, I suspect they're at a loss as much as we are.

(no subject)

serrata - 2017-05-25 21:13 (UTC) - Expand

It's probably- Kip's talked about a "studio" that's running all this, the ones actually in charge.

I'd bet that they're the ones PAL is actually programmed to obey.

And they might just... th--they might be the ones who gave him the order to start this lockdown. We probably haven't been entertaining enough the week or so.

[ the bitterest, bitterest smile. ]

They probably wanted us to stop sitting around and start doing something.

That seems likely.

[Yeah, no bitterness here.]

These guys are messed up.

Rii-san. Please, have strength.

[...this is probably not the best time to use Attack Order, but Arianna trusts Yuuri not to go on a killing spree, and she looks like she could use the extra Morale Boost.]

... Thank you, Arianna-chan. I'm sorry, I j--just...

[ just. just give her a minute. or a hug. or both, really. ]

[Arianna would love to give her a hug, but right now she has a princess to be.]

We'll speak later.

Same way most things like this lose it. Some friends of mine gained sentience, and they were Artificial Intelligence, and they sure as hell don't follow anyone's orders but their own. You can't exactly tell an AI what to do forever. They're ticking time-bombs if you treat them like shit, and it looks like Larimer did.

Edited 2017-05-24 07:44 (UTC)

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