snowblindrpg | Event: Consolidation Theory, Part Four and Five

It was like I said.

The.. bodies, if you can call them that, were in their cells. So, I guess,

[He waves his hand to point out the cells along the opposite wall that would be visible from his own.]

Them.

I couldn't make it go away. I could still hear everyone talking. I knew they had to be alive. But any time I looked, they were... they were just piles of meat...

[Thank god the smell hadn't been part of it. The rotting, the burning, among other things... No, he doesn't want to remember it.]

...

A while back, I'd suffered some side effects of a neurological medication and couldn't tell dreams and the real world apart. I'd have nightmares while I was wide awake, of everyone around me dying. ... I think what happened here was something like that again. Those static things stuck so many IVs into us... There had to be some really messed up interactions.

I knew it wasn't real, and I could talk with the others about it, but I was still trapped. There wasn't any "waking up" until this morning, if it even is morning.

[ Given everything he'd heard about, experienced and watched on the public data feeds, Will wasn't sure how the idea of an actual medical or drug induced reaction fit in to all this. He thought about the times he had felt paralyzed, then the bite of an injection so it wasn't outside the realm of possibility, that their bodies were somewhere, fitting into this whole nightmare.

He shelved those thoughts for the time being, since they were all conjecture at this point and focused on the rest of what Junpei had said. ]

Were you able to make out what anyone was saying? Recognize any of the voices?

Uh. Yeah, I guess.

[What was there...]

It was everyone with the red markings. Sounded like we all saw something different. Most of them were calling out to someone they missed. Mary, Valentina, Emily...

Then one guy wanted to drown someone in the toilet.

Not as much of a romantic.

[ Will tried to remember if he'd heard anything like that, but he couldn't recall any conversations. Even when he'd first become aware of being chained to the wall, seeing the others but being unable to interact with them.

What the hell had Miller been up too. ]

Doesn't sound it. [ He murmured, speaking to the toilet comment but unsure how to address the rest of it.

After a moment's thought, he lifted his hands, showing Junpei the way they were wrapped up like mittens. ]

People marked with red lines, did this. I don't know who, I just remember the red lines. But there was no malicious intent to it. It was almost clumsy and confused. Perhaps like they didn't see me but rather something else entirely.

[ Like a pile of broken bones and mangled flesh. ]

[Wait. Hold up. This is new.]

It.. wasn't?

Look, the whole time I was conscious, I was in my cell. Alone. We all were. There's no way through that barrier there. That's.. part of why I think the hallucinations really were a side effect. If they don't care about the side effects, that's less drugs being used to counteract the others, and more being used for something else.

Maybe... We were "something else entirely", as well...

That's been a working theory for awhile now. [ Will said, lowering his hands. ]

The data collective we contacted, that night you met us, spoke of brain mapping and it seemed like they were suggesting those maps had been stored and then bled together.

[ Looking around at their current confines, his eyes came back to Junpei. ]

Rather than thinking of it as drug induced hallucinations, think of it as ... glitches in computer code.

...

I.. don't think the town as a whole isn't.. computer stuff.

[Look, he's bad at computers. He'll figure out the words he wants eventually.]

It's not hard to transfer someone's consciousness. Bodies have electricity, computers have electricity, there's no reason to say they can't be thrown into some sorta server just as easy. We don't stay dead, we keep waking up in places we couldn't have gotten into to start with, and now they even managed to take away that bracelet I couldn't even melt off...

But this is different.

Someone picked that combination of drugs out intentionally.

[ Will listened attentively, letting Junpei work through his thoughts, but one comment jumped out at him. ]

Bracelet? [ This was the first he was hearing about bracelets. ]

Robert Miller. [ He answered, though Junpei really hadn't been asking a question. ] It was Miller's voice I heard, saying it hadn't worked.

It was his voice, but he isn't working alone. That "I'm going to fix it"... That wasn't a headcount. That was ego.

[That answer over with, Junpei raises his left hand.]

You probably never saw it with my jacket covering it up, but there used to be one that looked kind of like a watch. There's no way to remove it, short of breaking my thumb or chopping my wrist off... But they took it without doing either. Doesn't that sound like.. I dunno. Using a different "skin" in a video game..?

[While he looks at his own wrist, though... Right. He'll hold his hand further out for Will to take a better look at.]

This cheap hospital band's a gift from the static things, I'm guessing. Anisomycin does something to our memory. You got any idea what those other words are?

How do you figure he wasn't working alone? [ He asked, genuinely curious. ] I mean setting aside the ... whatever he used to collect us and medicate us, what makes you think there is anyone other than Miller directing this?

[ Leaning forward, Will read the words but aside from the Anisomycin, none of it rang any bells and he was forced to sit back, frustrated as he shook his head. ]

It's nothing I'm familiar with [ he admitted ] though I'm not a doctor. You should try to show it to House or Hannibal.

No, he probably is in charge. He wants the credit if it works. But I've got a feeling there's more going on with that static than we think.

[He pauses as Will checks the list. At the answer, he finally lowers his hand to his side.]

No dice? Yeah, if I see them, I'll--

[... Wait. If he's suggesting those two...]

... Th-they're here? Haven't they suffered enough?

They don't--

Even someone as defenseless as Han--

[Come on. Form a complete sentence here.]

Why do they- why do all of you have to go through this!?

[ Will had been following along and focused on what Junpei was saying, the serious tone of it all.

But when Junpei started to call Hannibal defenseless Will couldn't stop his eyebrows from rocketing towards his hairline as an incredulous look spread across his face. He was quick to correct his expression, but inwardly he was facepalming.

Shades of his solicitous concern for Hannibal after Tobias's attack, coming back to haunt him. ]

Dr. Lecter is tougher than he looks. [ He tried to be reassuring. ] As a consultant for the FBI, he has dealt with quite a lot of difficult subject matter.

[ Nothing there was a lie. However, moving right along. ]

I don't know what the motivation for all of this might be. [ Will answered honestly. ] There is a lot of speculation, but getting the pieces to fit together into any one view is difficult.

... Right. That kinda work.. It shows you an awful side of the world.

[Being reassured doesn't mean Junpei's going to stop caring.]

I.. I guess it makes this look tame. But involving so many people..?

All I know about Miller is he's got more clearance than he's supposed to. That's something anyone could guess, and the only thing it tells us is he's doing this for his own gain. Well, that or amusement. Solving it's gonna take someone who's been here longer. Who's got more pieces.

[ Deciding that Junpei could have the last say on the topic of the FBI and awful side of the world.

What the young man was saying dovetailed into Will's own thinking on the subject from what he'd experienced in this entire situation. He muttered quietly. ]

Amazing the lengths people will go to when money is involved.

Money...

[The lack of any use for it here had kept it off his mind. But...]

Right, I guess there's always the possibility that these sessions are.. more of a project or experiment, than pointless suffering. There's probably a goal in mind. A goal that depends on us succeeding, if the continued attempts are anything to go by.

Do we know anything about Miller's involvement with the people here before us?

I didn't mean to imply it had anything to do with us specifically. [ He felt the need to clarify. Remembering what he'd told Hannibal, Will repeated it to Junpei. ]

A man in employ of an American company in charge of Norfinbury who has proven to be dangerous and uncaring of causing suffering to people trapped here. He is apparently human and vocal against Winter.

That is the description in the guide for Robert Miller. If Norfinbury was a ... project of a company, corporation that almost always means what is the bottomline. Whatever happened here, back in the beginning? That had to have been a PR nightmare.

If Miller is a representative for the company, it would be his job to fix things.

[... His memory's pretty great, but it's not much use with things he never bothered to read. Ugh.]

If the company's in charge of the whole town, it has to be a project.

His idea of fixing may have changed. After all, he said it himself that he wants to fix us. Maintenance and repairs on the environment itself are one thing, but what if he intends to control the results? We need to know whether the previous sessions failed because he sabotaged them, or if he's new to this and only interfering with ours.

[ Will was forced to shrug, an action that pulled at aching muscles. ]

There is a lot of speculation and theories. I know I've got a laundry list of my own, but at the end of the day we don't have any concrete facts.

If anything we've got a lot of unreliable narrative; save what we were able to learn from the Data Collective.

... So we focus on finding some.

How did last night start? None of your group was with us during the morning or day. You weren't just sitting around passed out until it happened. Chances are if there's any answer to take away from all this, you guys were the ones who got it.

[ Will's expression suggested that he strongly doubted those who were unmarked had any appreciable answers. However, he was willing to share what he could recall.

Maybe it might jog something in Junpei's memories. ]

It was nighttime, we were all asleep. Couldn't see any person clearly, just a sense of twisting static. Then I lost time, woke up chained by my neck to a wall. That's when I first remembering seeing, some of your first group. But it was like those of you around me couldn't see me.

The static ... whatever returned and I was injected with something. Next thing I knew all hell was breaking loose.

But no stylish bracelet as a souvenir, huh.

I wonder if the same way your group can't see the barriers at the ends of our cells, there may have been something keeping our group from seeing into your cells at all. When everything happened, they were obviously down. That may have been the first we saw of you.

... Could you tell who was who before the injection?

I wasn't really focusing on that at the time. [ He said with a regretful shake of his head. Hindsight is twenty twenty after all.

But Junpei brought up an interesting point. ]

Perception ... what do you see right now, Junpei?

A cell block, but you knew that much. Nicer than some of the places I've woken up trapped, before-- no triple bunk to make me hit my head on the ceiling, for one.

[He's going to be bitter about that forever.]

It's pretty clean. Walls and floor are white. There's a bed there.. A bathroom over there...

[Junpei motions to each place as he speaks, eventually bringing his hand up to touch the barrier locking him in.]

And this thing.. It's this blue wall of.. energy, I guess. But it feels like glass?

[ Junpei's response earned him a bemused blink and then a pensive frown. ]

Interesting. [ Will mused, stepping back and looking around for a moment, before letting his eyes come back to Junpei. ]

I see a molding cell block and it appears to me as if you're just standing in a cell with an open door. Here, let me show you.

[ Will walks towards the blue wall of energy and passes through it without pause. He stands there for a moment, shrugs and then walks right back out. ]

There's a door? ... What happens if you try closing it?

Event: Consolidation Theory, Part Four and Five

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