[log] The Pit [open]

[snowblindmods]

Characters: Anyone participating in the Pit event.
Location: A room.
Date: Day 330
Summary: You wake up in a room.
Warnings: general warnings; potential for morbid/suicidal thoughts; note specific warnings in subject line, please!

Comments

[fiftheclipse]

... There. Now you're thinking.

[Which is probably a good thing.  At least one of them needs to be on the right track, here, and Junpei's not entirely sure that it's himself, anymore.]

So, we should...

[Something...

... Move. Right. They should move.]

[cahooted]

... Come on.

[In a brief, lucid moment, he grabs Junpei in return, pulling him further away from the pit. Maybe they can just start taking turns.]

We need to... focus. Think about something else. Get our minds off it.

[fiftheclipse]

R-right--

[He follows easily enough.

Now something else... Something else...

... The books had been his first attempt. But that's already over-- and they weren't even interesting.]

Sucks that the magazine wasn't porn. That would've made a good distraction.

Though, I guess then I wouldn't be giving it away...

[... Where is he even going with this.]

[cahooted]

This is a nice change of pace actually. People send me pornography all the time. [... That came out wrong and he immediately he looks rather pained about it.]

There's a magazine in the e-library, uh. Big Booty Babes. If you're interested. [Even more pained.]

Not that we can access it right now, so...

[SO MAYBE THEY CAN TALK ABOUT LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE.]

[fiftheclipse]

... Just one... Between everybody...

...

You know, it's good it's all on the tablets.. And not..

... I.. wouldn't wanna touch it, at this point.

[YEP changing topics sounds better. But to what?

There has to be something, but all that keeps coming to mind is, well, the whole inevitable dying if they can't focus on anything other than the pit. And it's kind of hard to not think about something while actively trying not to think about it.

...

Huh. Maybe,]

What's up with the tablets, anyway? I'd get it if the walls were too thick and just messed up the signals. But. They don't even power on...

[cahooted]

[Flynn pulls the biggest face. Why would you bring that up, Junpei. Why.]

Yes, well. It's all digitized and-- [he just. Cuts himself off before he can say stainless.

But the tablets are a good point, at least it's something to discuss and debate.]

Maybe we're... Could it be that we're beyond city perimeters? Outside the network?

[fiftheclipse]

[Look, Flynn didn't have to admit it existed. He brought that on himself.]

...

Then even though it kinda feels like that's the way out, over there... Maybe it just leads right back in.

If we keep waiting, you think we can get out? Like, out for real?

[cahooted]

It's worth a try, don't you think? We're cut off from whatever's powering the tablets, that must mean we're somewhere we haven't been before. ... I mean, obviously we're somewhere we haven't been before, yes, but I mean...

I think we're somewhere remote. Maybe in a new area, maybe outside the city walls, maybe deep underground already.

do you have any idea how often I get trapped in that pop-up too

[fiftheclipse]

... That feeling could be the same thing that pulled us into the town in the first place.

Not the same.. kind of "pull", obviously, but. ... I think it sounds more likely that we're outside of the limits. It wouldn't need to draw us back if we haven't left.

awkwardly shuffles to the side shh nothing to see here >>

[cahooted]

Yes, yes. [Snapping his fingers.]

That's good, that makes sense. And it wants us to go down, so maybe the right way is...

[He looks up, turning in a half-circle as he starts inspecting the ceiling.]

[fiftheclipse]

[He'd sort of ignored the ceiling up until now. Not to say he hadn't looked at it earlier. It was definitely a ceiling. Maybe a 4 of out 5 for the thought behind keeping it wide enough as the walls moved.

But drawing his attention back there now...]

... I guess another option is it might just fall and crush us if we don't jump while the walls are still in place.

[cahooted]

You know, funny you would say that, I was waiting for the walls to actually start moving...

[What? They usually do.]

[fiftheclipse]

...

They--

[What?]

They've been moving. When the hole gets bigger. You mean you didn't notice that we're not getting pushed in?

[cahooted]

Nonono, I mean, inwards? Like, you know. Death chambers, moving walls, pushing you towards the pit with the spikes or teeth or... whatever is down there...

[Muttering. Still focused on the ceiling. This is a very normal conversation.]

[fiftheclipse]

Well, then we ju--

Oh.

[That wouldn't work...]

...

If it were actively trying to kill us, it might be easier to solve...

[cahooted]

Right? [He throws his hands up in frustration.]

We'd have a mechanism, levers, secret chambers. This is all wrong, this is giving us nothing.

[fiftheclipse]

If it weren't for the whole.. powers being suppressed, I'd say I knew the way out, now. It'd be a pretty dumb joke, but...

[... Still, it doesn't help them. He shrugs.]

We could have all of that, but we don't. We're right back where we started.

[cahooted]

Which brings us back to not jumping. God, I want to jump, what is that, that is so wrong?

[He looks over at Junpei.] Powers being suppressed? The city took something away from you?

[fiftheclipse]

Well, yeah. Doesn't Steph keep posting something like that?

"We're in Norfinbury, Alaska, year 315X. Snow walls of around 15 meters enclose the residential area to the northwest. Weapons confiscated on arrival. Special abilities, for example magic, superpowers, not functioning. No living wildlife."

... I don't feel any different, but I take it I should believe her.

Thing is, if it weren't true, then the answer would be to jump. Only, not down there. To a different timeline.

[cahooted]

Yes, she does, but how exactly does that...

[Slow blink.]

You jump timelines?

[fiftheclipse]

I've.. only done it twice. I think.

I don't know if the second time worked, because before I could reach the point I wanted, I woke up here. ... Well, not this room, obviously.

[cahooted]

[Okay, Junpei, you have officially found something that holds his interest here.]

How does it work? What is it like? How do you manage to do it?

[fiftheclipse]

[How many times will he get stuck having to explain this..?

... Wait, though. Flynn's pretty smart. Or at least, he's studied a lot. So maybe...]

How much do you know about Sheldrake's theory of Morphic Resonance?

[cahooted]

[Morphic Resonance? He has heard of that. Flynn searches his memory, the facts popping up after a moment.]

Sheldrake, Sheldrake, I know that name, he... oh yes, he was a parapsychologist! ... Well, not really, he was a biochemist but his theory includes phenomena such as telepathy and precognition which didn't really make him a lot of friends in the scientific community? He argues that memory is inherent in nature and systems inherit a collective memory from all previous things of their kind.

[A light tilt of his head.] Is that how it works? Do you hand down memories into the different timelines?

[fiftheclipse]

Handing down...

[... Well, great. It sounds like Flynn knows more about it than Junpei does.]

Yeah, I guess that's one way to say it. You get the communication part, so I'll skip that. But when there's enough danger, it's not limited to just memories anymore. It's possible for some of us to send our entire consciousness into that.. collective, and come back out at any other point in time.

... Assuming we're alive in that time, anyway.