WEEK 7

[bathymetric]

Another Saturday gone and just like that you wake on Sunday, down five of your number. The largest dent taken out of you at once so far - it's surely noticeable, the head count being cut by a third. Almost enough to make you wonder how many of you will even be left by the next motive or two. Surely this isn't a sustainable rate for body counts to increase... right?

There's a new and, it looks like, final wing of the building to explore, bringing everything full circle. Maybe you'll get some more answers to some of the questions and mysteries of this place there - or at least, you can certainly hope for them. Time to turn your investigative eyes towards one last batch of rooms, who knows what you might find?

Angel remains around at night, her appearances much more common now that... well, she's certainly seen a downtick in necessary surveillance work, hasn't she? The app giving you a line to The Professor remains open, and well... whatever's going on with that ouija in the library continues to happen! You're not suffering from a shortage of leads, at least, even as things get more bizarre.

Something's going to have to give here, eventually. Right?



SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[ ooc: Welcome to your last player case week! AC is over here, regains as always are over here, and... well, enjoy! After this we get to take our big turn towards the Serious. ]

Comments

[hardnosed]

[ Okay, they might not go up to 23, but there is inexplicably whatever the size Jasper or Rose would be, so like, 26 or 27 or some unimaginable shit. When she sees what Therion is doing, she checks the her-sized pair out similarly. ]

What are you getting at?

[bolderfell]

Nothing really. [He looks over the lanes, trying to put it all together.] If these shoes are part of the game, maybe you're supposed to slide? Maybe you slide alongside an opponent's throw and try to knock it off-course.

[hardnosed]

Sounds like an easy way to get yourself hurt. [ Well, Therion's self, anyway. She hears "throw" and pictures, despite the fact that he's just said the ball is supposed to roll on the ground, someone throwing it through the air, probably hitting the goalie in the stomach. ] But that's probably the idea.

[ i almost wrote the line "these balls could do some damage" but LOOK... ]

[bolderfell]

Not all human games were made for humans to play safely.

[hardnosed]

[ ... yeah, that checks out. ]

What kind of humans play this one? In your experience.

[bolderfell]

The version I know? Wealthy types with the time and land to waste setting up the game. The rest of us are unlucky enough to have to work for our livelihood.

[hardnosed]

Guess that's the same everywhere. [ Everyone has their part to play in the order of things, and nobody can ever stop playing it, but rare and aristocratic Gems have always had more leeway and more room to own things. That's simply how it's supposed to be. ] But you're all so fragile, I didn't figure your elites would be ready to endanger themselves.

[ She pauses. It's been pretty clear Therion didn't come from a place that was kind to him, but suddenly she sees the way he's always combing over the facility to learn things, constantly doing, in a slightly different light than the quasi-teleological explanation she's always gone with, which is "he's just a thief whose purpose is to steal and thus has to get his grabby little hands on everything." ]

Does it feel wrong? Just existing here.

[bolderfell]

Hmm? [With a blink, he looks up at her, and then he puts the question together with working for our livelihood and gives a small, thoughtful nod.] Guess so. That's one of the reasons it feels wrong, anyway.

[Therion sits on a plastic chair to loosen and remove his boots and replace them with the bowling shoes. He frowns as he laces them up.]

I enjoy my trade. It's risky and immoral, and I'm good at it. Showing up those who think they're bigger, stronger, more valuable... [He tilts his head in Jasper's direction, acknowledging, yeah, he's aware of his audience.] Obviously that goes against your worldview, but it's a barrel of laughs for me. For everything those people have, I still got the better of them. I still took what I wanted.

[He stands, taps the toes of his shoes against the floor to test the fit, then goes to hop up on a lane divider.]

I don't like to be kept.

[hardnosed]

[ She watches Therion's actions, chewing his words over (metaphorically though, ew, gross.) It does, obviously, go against her worldview — and not even the hierarchical and regimented part, but the part that refracts everything through the prism of battle. When you face off against an enemy, they should give you all they've got, not best you through deception and trickery.

But it's not like Jasper has ever been honorable in her dumbass lifeTherion is challenging anyone to honorable combat, one on one, and only then pulling a fast one on them. It's not like what he wants is victory, in the sense she knows and accepts it. He's just trying to continue his short existence and do what he's good at, whether or not he was literally made for it.

After he says the last part, though... ]

... It's like he stole you.

[bolderfell]

He did.

[He turns to flash her an entirely mirthless grin and just a glimpse of the shackle on his wrist.]

I don't like to be kept, and I don't like to be used. And knowing it's just another thief who brought me to this... well. Even a lowlife's pride can be pricked.