snowblindrpg | Event: Consolidation Theory, Part One and Two

Entry tags:

Event: Consolidation Theory, Part One and Two

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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?

You don't think people normally revive...?

[... Nah, pretending to misunderstand sounds like a fun idea, but he's pretty sure he knows what really drew that reaction.]

... It's not a secret anymore. Before I got pulled in here, I was able to move between timelines. Not like that time travel you see in movies-- bodies stay where they started. It's more of a trade. One consciousness goes in, and the other gets kicked out.

I'd made the first jump just fine. The second... Well, I'm pretty sure Norfinbury's not where I was planning on.

Point is, my body didn't come with me. It couldn't have. But I'm in it. How does that make sense?

[Stephen narrows his eyes.]

You knock the consciousness out of yourself from another timeline? Where does it go?

[Yes, that's his first question. Others will follow.]

Well, probably where the first consciousness left from?

...And that doesn't bother you?

Of course it does. But those other versions of myself are still me. Shouldn't I be able to choose my own fate?

Seems kind of unfair that the you who made the right choice the first time is the one that gets shunted off to die.

How is it I keep meeting people with even shittier consequences for time travel than mine?

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