snowblindrpg | Event: Consolidation Theory, Part One and Two

Well, we could always say "magic," if that would make you any more comfortable.

I sincerely doubt we've been teleported. Not for this, at least.

What happened to magic doesn't work here?

[Or anywhere. It's not real...]

Right. Moving our bodies would've been easy enough. The building looks normal, at least compared to earlier.

Our magic doesn't work here. Same principle as not giving us access to most of the technology in this place. And we're almost certainly underground, going off of what the Joker found under that funeral home. But we knew Miller lived in a bunker.

It's another network of tunnels, right? That much is pretty obvious. I don't think where we are right now is gonna turn out to be connected to anything we'll manage to unlock on our own, though. This area's probably a lot further down.

That's what I thought until I saw the video. It is a separate system from the maintenance tunnels, though, I think we can be pretty sure of that.

[... Wait. So a video.. disproves part of that? ... Which part?

Junpei's silent for a moment as he considers it, but then..]

So you think this system connects with the one in the funeral home. If there's only two, that'd be pretty convenient, but something still tells me we're not gonna catch a break that easily.

It's the same kind of materials, the same kind of style. Why would they go to the trouble of constructing three underground networks?

I dunno. Why would they go to the trouble of taking us all from different timelines?

"Robert Miller's card" doesn't open that network up. Sounds kinda inconvenient for him to use a place he doesn't have clearance for. Plus the tablets still worked, over there. They didn't at that pit. We don't even have them, here. This might be something that's even off the admin's radar.

Kind of inconvenient for him to access anything without his key card, and yet there he is.

[Junpei makes some good points, though. Stephen mulls them over for a moment.]

I still stand by my assertion that we're almost certainly underground.

If he can capture all of us this easily, tracking down Brian alone would be nothing. That's some pretty strong evidence that he's got a spare.

But yeah, I'm not arguing on that one.

Or that he's another ghost in the machine. Who needs a spare when you have direct access?

Either way, he's in. If we're gonna talk about him instead of us, it's more important that we figure out what he's trying to do.

Mmm.

The others, the ones without the lines...they thought they could figure it out if they took enough from the ones who'd jumped in.

That's probably a clue. I don't think anyone really thought that. If they did, it would've started sooner. It would've continued, even until now.

So what caused that spike in paranoia? And why right then?

I know. Believe me, I know it wasn't real curiosity, it was something driving them. Some glitch in the programming...unless it was something deliberately done to them. We can't eliminate that possibility.

Programming...

No, let's say it was a mistake. Could whatever happened in that pit have affected the nanomachines? Not.. doing anything weird to ours, but maybe like.. a patch? Like someone knew there'd be some instability, and gave us the chance to try correcting it. ... Well, "try" is the key word. It was only those of us without red eyes who were immune.

That doesn't give us a motive for the second incident, but I think those two give us one for this: Miller didn't like what happened any more than we did.

So either he was behind it from the start, and things didn't go the way he'd planned-- He wants to "fix" us, right? That makes sense if he made us this way. Or, maybe there's something else going on, too. The thing is, I don't know how this guy thinks. If he fucked up, would he really admit something's wrong?

I shouldn't have dismissed it just because following the lead on my own didn't work. Something was trying to guide us. It's possible Miller wants to cut us off from it before it can help.

[Stephen snorts.]

Unless there are two beings of immense horror and too many teeth, that was the thing under the town--the thing that wants us to free it when we get to the center. If it wants to help us, it's so we'll let it out. Miller....

[Stephen frowns, pausing to think about it.]

The last time Miller interfered this directly, he was using people to fix the broken machinery of this place. Seemed like he just wanted to keep it going. And take the opportunity to be a dick, but that goes without saying.

Tell me what's so unreasonable about him and that.. monster being on opposite sides. If it's part of this "center" thing, too, then maybe letting it out isn't the wrong idea.

Nothing, that's what. But just because it's his enemy doesn't mean it's our friend.

We just don't have a lot of better options right now than trying to get to it.

So what if it is our enemy? I dunno about you, but I'd still take a free-for-all over those two tag-teaming us, any day. We need someone he's scared of. Someone who can reach him.

I'm not saying we shouldn't. It's still the best option we have right now if only because it's the only thing we're reasonably sure we can actually accomplish if we manage to reach the town center. The end game...our end game may look more like breaking the system beyond repair to prevent further sessions than like getting out ourselves.

You sure it can't be both? Once it's broken, it'll probably lose its hold on us and send us all back home.

... Or explode and kill us all. Same thing, right?

If you assume it's actively holding us here. One-way interdimensional travel is more likely...if we're really ourselves to begin.

Our minds are here, at any rate.

... These are our bodies, only they're not our bodies. Yeah, I've been thinking something like that, too. My consciousness wasn't in mine, when I was taken.

But isn't it holding us? Why do we keep coming back when we die? That's supposed to be a one-way ticket of its own, and it's not leading anywhere.

They have our brains mapped; if we're only our minds there's nothing stopping them--wait, what?

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