Event: Consolidation Theory, Part One and Two

[snowblindmods]

Characters: red-marked characters
Location: ???
Date: Morning & Day 353
Summary: You wake up in a cell.
Warnings: general horror warnings; please note in subject lines for anything specific that comes up

Consolidation Theory OOC Post
Part Two OOC Post

Comments

[phaseshifter]

It's a nice thought, but I'd advise against it. I'd assume that anyone coming to get us would be armed - either with weapons, or with paralysing spiderbots.

Or with a weapon that shoots paralysing spiderbots.

[ Imagine. ]

[fiftheclipse]

So we just gotta throw the spiders back at em before they get a chance to bite us. Got it.

... We should at least pay attention to how they open the cells up.

[phaseshifter]

That sounds more sensible. Any obvious weaknesses on your end, by the by? There's none on mine. Not that I'd be able to exploit them. Twig arms.

[fiftheclipse]

Nothing I can find, unless someone's really flexible. The pipes look like the only way anything's getting in or out.

For the rest of us... I don't think I want to test whether flooding the room will make it unlock.

[phaseshifter]

Fair. Setting a fire isn't really an option either, huh? Since there isn't anything flammable around.

[ Or she'd be trying to make sparks with the metal in her head. RATS. ]

...I wonder if anyone would come running if one of us got really sick? Hypothetically.

[fiftheclipse]

It's the same answer to both, right? Giving up our clothes. I know I'm not going there.

... They might not. If "something's wrong" with us, maybe that kind of thing's expected. If we gotta wait here while it's being "fixed", they'll probably think they can solve it remotely. The bigger issue is making someone sick. We're all pretty well quarantined. Faking it might not be enough.

cw discussion of self harm

[phaseshifter]

I'd suggest one of the more self-destructive among us start banging their head on the walls, except I'm pretty sure that'd just get us all restrained or paralysed or... whatever.

And, um, it'd hurt.

[ why the eff does she sound like a sociopath so often when talking to junpei WHY IS THIS A THING, ]

Want to escalate that?

[fiftheclipse]

No, that doesn't leave anything treatable. They pass out, and it's on to somebody else's turn.

If we're going with injuries, we've got teeth and nails. Cutting something would be better. Open up your wrist, and if nobody interferes, you die. ... If they don't respond to that, we know they won't respond to anything.

gently screams,

[phaseshifter]

Oh. Dude.

[ ok she feels less sociopathic now thanks ]

I suppose that's one way out of here, but it does seem a little drastic. Maybe if things get especially desperate.

[fiftheclipse]

[He's here to help.]

It's no worse than starting a fire, is it? Just easier. Anything half-assed will get us nowhere.

[phaseshifter]

Mmmmh. Counterpoint: the guy on the speakers would probably just enjoy it. Last time he was in charge of fixing things, he made me cut off two of my own fingers. Asshole.

[ GASP. A SWEAR. ]

I had children with me - Quark and an alien kid called Tavros - and they had to cut pieces off themselves too. He's a freaking sicko.

[fiftheclipse]

...

That bastard hurt Quark?

[There hasn't been much noise beyond talking from Junpei's cell up until now, but there should be no mistake with the timing that he's the one who's just punched the wall.]

What the fuck would anyone need him to do that for!?

[phaseshifter]

Some people are just sick motherf-- douchebags who get their kicks from watching other people suffer. He broadcast what was happening on the network along with some nasty little comments - that's just the kind of guy we're dealing with. Freaking. Sicko.

[fiftheclipse]

That--

That wasn't on the network when I looked...

[Not that he's looked too hard, but he thought he'd made some progress the couple times he'd tried to learn about specific people.

...

He has to calm down. There's.. something more worrisome about this than just involving children.]

...

What's the point of the town?

If this Miller guy's getting off on making us suffer, and he's got places like this to confine us, what's he letting anyone back out for?

Just trying to get our hopes up so there's something left to crush? Or did you guys manage to escape on your own, last time?

[phaseshifter]

It's - it was pretty far back. Months and months ago. You'd have had to dig through a lot of irrelevant material to find it. As for Miller himself - Iunno.

[ She shrugs, not that he can see it. Oh well. ]

When he did his whole thing before, it was just his way of getting us to fix some errors with the nanomachines. He said he set it all up that way because competition is a powerful motivator. Asshole. When it was all done, we had to get ourselves out - there was a huge anomaly, and a lot of running.

But this time, it's... The admin hasn't checked in, for starters, so we dunno if he has her approval. He's supposed to answer to her, but this all feels pretty shady. Right?

[fiftheclipse]

Competition?

[... It is. He's used it. He's fallen for it. He's not going to argue the effectiveness as a whole, but,]

Don't we already have that? Us against him? I mean, I know I'm pretty motivated to go kick his ass as soon as he shows himself.

... What if this is another error? Or, more like an imagined one? Didn't those photographs a while back show us the admin can't see our markings? So what if he's working alone to "fix" it because she can't recognize it as a problem? I'm not trying to side with this guy-- It was everyone who didn't fall that was getting kinda crazy, thinking there was something wrong with us when everything was fine. He's probably messed up like that, too. But maybe what he wants to do really is get us back to normal.

That's where it's a problem. If the pictures are right, and we don't have any markings on us, it might be all in our heads. So trying to remove them when they're not really there...