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]

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?

[theundertaker]

[It is picture of a giant jellyfish.]

I- one of us can try to get up there but I-I don't think we c-can. [Oh god, here they come. Her back is still to them but the floodgates are opening.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

I still think we might be able to make a decent lockpick out of some of the stuff in the tat room, but I also think these are not doors that can be just picked open. I even looked for panels in the walls nearby, something that might hide a console, nothing. Doesn't mean we shouldn't try. We--

[Oh. Oh wait no is she crying? Fuuuuuck, he's not gonna hug her like he did Queenie, okay. He's met her all of once. That'd be awkward.]

Uh. We. ...Um. So if the network guys said--y'know, if they said to leave things to PAL and not worry about it, it's...possible they're the ones manipulating all this. For ratings, man. Sweeps week or something. [He's saying it out loud but he's definitely looking at Junpei because what do with a crying woman. He mentally asks. As if Junpei would know.]

[misanthropicprinciple]

[Don't look at him, he's a cool, hard-boiled dick who doesn't care about no one! Also, what the fuck, Church, how is that supposed to help? She trusted those assholes, you asshole.]

We'll figure something out. There has to be a way to get up there before one of us snaps. Can you tell us anything else?

[theundertaker]

[She rubs her face with her hands, hugging her tablet to her chest before she turns around. Her eye make-up is smeared and running down her face and her shoulders won't stop shaking. All she can do is shake her head. She'd like to be of more use but Everything Happens So Much.]