Week 3

[bathymetric]

Good morning, New Rapture. A new day is dawning.

It's a strange sort of feeling, waking up on Sunday. Not the least because, well... you fell asleep on Friday, didn't you? Whether you sleep or not, none of you remember Saturday. Everything, by all accounts, seems to be Sunday. Weird.

It's not all bizarre feelings of lost time that you have to show for your efforts, though - it seems that another wing of New Rapture is ready for you. Perhaps there's more information to be found about your situation there... and maybe more about the history of this place, if that interests you.

There are still 23 of you left... Keep getting to know them. There's regains to get, after all!




SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[ ooc: Welcome to the second week of Unknown Seas Round 3! Please make sure to mark any investigation toplevels accordingly, post your ac, and you can reach either Mayor Fontaine or Eleanor for conversations! ]

Comments

[kninja]

It doesn't. Prolly 'cause it's not.

[After a heartbeat or two, Obi sighs gustily and sits on his haunches, putting his head in his hands. Man. He's so bummed out.]

I hate this. I really do.

[inaclearing]

...yeah.

[Brett lowers himself to the grass as well.]

I keep thinking...I should've done more. I knew how badly Hodaka was taking it. Both of them - I talked to both of them about it, in the meeting room. [He'd spent a decent amount of time in there too, after all.]

[kninja]

I...

[Oh no. His plan to get Brett to talk is backfiring. One should never go up unprepared in the conversational ring against a podcaster. His gaze sinks slowly to the water's surface.]

On the day we met, I told Li'l Daka the two of us should look out for each other. Y'know, so I could keep an eye on him without being an overbearing grownup about it.

[It's a moment before he finishes the thought.]

...He held up his end of the bargain.

[inaclearing]

...yeah. I guess he did. If he hadn't said anything...

[It's hard to imagine an outcome where he wouldn't. Not the way Hodaka was, not how he reacted to it all. But another person could have.]

[kninja]

[They would have figured it out, Obi thinks. There were only so many people it could have been. But Hodaka spared them that, more hours of protests and accusations, and damned himself.

He damned them, too, to bear the weight of his execution.]

...Gotta pay more attention. I let myself get distracted.

It won't happen again.

[inaclearing]

...hey. It's not your fault.

[He said somewhat hypocritically, but. That's how it works, right?]

[kninja]

I know. But there's a responsibility I took on when I told him I'd have his back, and I gotta bear that now.

[The truth is, two untrained boys brawling in the garden? He could have stopped it if he'd been there, and he wasn't. It's that simple.]

[inaclearing]

I'm sure I told him something similar, at one point. I'm sure a lot of us made some promises we couldn't keep here.

[Honestly, Brett thinks even he probably could've stopped it all, if he'd stumbled across it. Maybe he's no great warrior, but it sounds like it was a really stupid fight.]

[kninja]

...Uh-huh. We've all got some share in it. I won't argue that.

[inaclearing]

[Brett sighs, drawing a knee up towards his chest and draping an arm over it, leaning down to rest his chin on his forearm.]

...it'll get better. It won't be the way it was before, and it won't be better all the time, but...it'll be better, one day.

[also hey fuck you]

[kninja]

[ilu Lu]

...

[For us. Obi keeps the thought to himself. It'll only be better for them, not for Adaman or Hodaka, but Brett's saying what he thinks they both need to hear, and why should he gainsay him?

Without that, though, all he can think to say is:]

I know.

[inaclearing]

[Well, that much goes without saying. But Adaman and Hodaka are beyond that kind of thing now; [they're] the ones who have to cope with this somehow.]

...it always feels wrong when a young person dies. Like it's outside the natural order.

[Obi isn't even all that old.]

[kninja]

It's not so strange where I'm from. Tough ol' world out there.

[Gotta love that medieval child mortality rate.]

But I guess I've got a soft spot for kids. Li'l Daka was... he was only a little older than a boy I've been watching grow over the last couple years. I didn't talk to the young chief as much, but... I liked him, too.

[inaclearing]

I think my world's a lot safer than most peoples' here. We've made it so. We hold death at such a remove that we don't really know what to do when it touches our lives anyway.

[Ah. But he's getting philosophical.]

Adaman seemed really young for a position of power like that, to me. But he also did seem like he could handle it. They were both around the same ages as the kids I've been hanging out with lately - they're all pretty impressive.

[kninja]

Yeah, the stuff youngsters manage these days is unbelievable. The boy I just mentioned? He's a fully recognized court herbalist. Has been since he was twelve, maybe even younger. Makes medicine for the palace, writes research papers and everything.

[inaclearing]

At twelve? I didn't know how to research anything at twelve, much less do something with it.

[kninja]

I still don't know how to research anything, and I don't wanna! I'd rather climb trees and run around any day than be cooped up in some lab or library.

[inaclearing]

It isn't that bad! I like being in the field better, too, but you can't do anything if you don't research your piece first. I'd just ask a lot of really stupid questions.

[kninja]

Asking really stupid questions is just one of the many services I provide. Sometimes it even helps the actual researchers—like you, I guess.

[inaclearing]

[He chuckles.]

Well, I don't research anything all that useful. To people generally.

[kninja]

Ah, here's a really stupid question for you, then. What is it you actually... do? I never got a clear understanding.

[He just went along with everything Brett said about journalism and Luca's photography as if those are words that he knows...]

[inaclearing]

Oh! Well, I collect stories and write about them, I guess. Journalism is usually about news - current events and that kind of thing. But I usually do more...special interest topics.

[kninja]

Ahh. You told me about your most recent one. Is that usually the kind of thing you end up writing about?

[inaclearing]

Yeah, stuff like that. Human interest pieces, I guess. That one was...more personal than most of them.

[kninja]

[Obi shifts finally, moving from his feral anime character squat into a more comfortable seated position.]

Do you wanna talk about it?