Week 2

[airlockedmods]

[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!]

Comments

[misanthropicprinciple]

[That arm thing is super distracting, but, whatever. Church has been "Champion Ghost" for over a week now, Junpei can ask questions about it later. For now, he's pounding on the door with his much more corporeal fists.]

Open up! You two have to give us answers, now!

[theoverseen]

[Muffled, shrieking]

HOLD YOUR GODDAMN HORSES

[motherfucking_ghost]

Well at least they're not dead in there... WE'RE HOLDING THEM AS FAST AS WE CAN.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Muttered to Church:] Speak for yourself, dude.

[BANG BANG BANG.]

SOME OF US WOULDN'T KNOW HOW TO HOLD A HORSE IF IT CAME WITH AN INSTRUCTION MANUAL! HURRY UP!

[theundertaker]

[There's a brief stretch of silence before the door opens. Cece is there, nervously pulling her hair back into a low ponytail. Behind her is a short stretch of hallway with three doors, two on either side and one at the end of the hallway.]

S-Sorry, sorry.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Junpei, unlike Church, does not think they are going to be actually let in, so he just asks straight-up:]

The hell is going on?! What did you two do?

[motherfucking_ghost]

More like what the fuck is that place, what the fuck is happening, and who didn't vet the AI to make sure it wasn't actually one of the megalomaniacal ones? Seriously, I've got a little bit of history with that one. Should've called me.

[theundertaker]

We didn't do anything! [She snaps, panic spiking in her voice.] But we can't change any of the house's functions anymore. PAL has me locked out of fully accessing anything related to the house.

[misanthropicprinciple]

What do you still have access to? Actually--no. What does PAL have access to now?

[theundertaker]

The shutters, the lights, the doors to the upper floors... [Cece suddenly goes very quiet, her hands flying to her pendant and clutching it like her life depends on it.]

...The life support systems...

[motherfucking_ghost]

So then why hasn't he just spaced us or suffocated us already? If we can't get in contact with the network, then they probably aren't broadcasting anymore, right? Are the cameras still working?

Is this...someone else hacking in, you think?

[theundertaker]

I-I don't know, it could be? He's been acting fine lately, a little sassier than normal but it didn't seem out of character. [Her clenched hands start to shake and she glances around anxiously. She lifts a hand to run one of her eyes under her glasses, smearing her immaculate eye make-up but that's the least of her concerned right now.] My-my tablet is in my bedroom. I haven't gotten to check the cameras yet.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Go get it. It's fine, we can wait. Or--maybe we can help.

[Maybe Church was right, maybe they can get in. Junpei tries to slide his foot into the doorway, though he also elbows Church in the side a little.]

Church knows all about AI, right? Maybe he can ghost-whisper it or something.

[theundertaker]

[She's already walking away before Junpei finishes his statement, rubbing her wet eyes harder. She doesn't make a move to shut the door behind her.

Welcome to the guest house, boys.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

[...WELP, that was a lot easier than expected. Consider the opportunity taken as he casually steps in like he's totally supposed to be there, cuz like, obviously he's totally supposed to be there.]

'Ghost-whisper it', seriously? I mean, you have a point, I can...figure out some AI stuff, but Heart might be better. But psycho AI, I also have some know-how about that. [Not know-how how to beat Omalley, but still.]

Is it safe...here? From-- [THE ALL SEEING ALL KNOWING AI OVERSEER]

[theundertaker]

[Cece stops short of the second to last door, glancing back at them to nod quickly.]

There are no cameras in the guest house, we made sure of that.

[misanthropicprinciple]

Is this where you guys have been staying? Not upstairs?

[You can't just let Junpei walk past these doors, Cece, he's from a point-and-click exploration mystery-solving franchise. YOU CAN'T TAKE HIM ANYWHERE. As Cece and Church walk ahead, he's just gonna go ahead and see if he can peek into this first room here.]

[theundertaker]

There are other rooms upstairs and there's no room for other bedrooms. So they put us up in here.

[The door to the first room is closed.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

[Church could stop at the other door, but he keeps going to the door at the end of the hall, looking around cuz...this is wild shit.]

You're telling me this is a huge space mansion, and there's no room for other bedrooms? What the fuck else is there?

[theundertaker]

[The door at the end of the hall is a set of frosted glass double doors. You can't see through it and it's locked tight but the doors themselves are beautiful as hell.]

A bowling alley.

[She pushes open the door she was headed for and slips in, leaving it open if the boys want to follow.]

[misanthropicprinciple]

What? Seriously? Isn't that... a little ridiculous?

[Okay, looks like there's nothing to see here. Boo, locked doors, his worst enemy. He's totally going to poke his head into Cece's room, like a nosy noser detective.]

[theundertaker]

We're on a reality show and you were supposed to be living here a few weeks, remember? They wanted to make sure you guys had entertainment.

[Cece's voice sounds tight, like she's trying to keep herself calm. Her bedroom is on the small side but expectantly stylish. There's a single canopy bed pushed up against a wall, along with a vanity adorned with a few containers of make-up and at least one bottle of perfume (all with unreadable alien writing) and some kind of hologram picture frame. Against another wall is a fancy-looking glass wardrobe where one can see her various outfits and a small chest of drawers next to it. There's another door in there, presumably leading to a private washroom.

The walls themselves are painted in various hues of blue, all melding together into a classy-looking gradient. The ceiling is jet black but splattered with freckles of white and sprays of purples and oranges. It's like staring up at a nebula.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

[Listen look he's gonna at least press his face to the frosted glass and give the handle a jiggle before giving up and going into Cece's room and whoa look at those walls and that ceiling!]

Cozy.

I mean, makes sense to me. They built this place for this show. So long as everyone's got a place to sleep, they don't need more bedrooms. There's a fucking tat shot on the ground floor and no actual tattooist, go figure that one out.

So...so. Heart of the matter here. PAL. Our little Pally-wally. There has to be something we can do about him, right, like...he's physically stored somewhere.

[theundertaker]

[The tablet is sitting on her bed and her back is to Church and Junpei while she turns it on and urgently flicks through various screens.]

I still have access to the cameras but-but PAL's main servers are somewhere else in the mansion. [Her voice softens and starts to crack a little.] Mr. Larimer and I, we weren't allowed to know where it was. They told us it was because we weren't technicians. We were here to host and look pretty, they said we should-we should let PAL take care of everything else.

[misanthropicprinciple]

[JUNPEI CRUSH PUNY SYMPATHY UNDER UGLY SNEAKER!]

Yeah. We see that network loyalty's working out real well for you two.

[He's not even looking at her. The picture frame on the vanity's what's caught his attention, and he steps over to check that out. Friends and family, Diver?]

Good to know he's somewhere in the building with us, though. Too bad we're blocked off from jimmying the lock on the doors upstairs, huh?