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

[mouflon]

I have a mission, too. If you think I don't know what it's like to have this thing the feels like it's the only part of you that matters, you're wrong. I don't even know who I would be without it. Not the person you're talking to right now, definitely.

The difference between me and her is that my mission isn't anything that was decided for me. I chose this life for myself.

[hardnosed]

[ In most ways that matter, so did she. But she can't admit that to Rin, or to herself, even now. ]

What happened.

[mouflon]

What do you want me to say? Nothing happened. Not all at once. I just... I saw how bad things are, for the average person the people in charge claim they're making life better for. I couldn't stand by and do nothing.

So, I didn't. I decided to fight back.

[hardnosed]

I want you to say what happened. If nothing did, that's the answer.

[ Though, truthfully, she did expect more. Nobody told her to do anything? Nobody destroyed anything she was supposed to care about? She just decided to do it?

Pink was in charge. Was that all it took for her? And if it was, if she had some change of heart almost 6,000 years ago, why does Jasper exist at all? ]

Anna didn't make that choice.

[mouflon]

[ yeah, Jasper, that part came later! ]

No, she didn't. Instead, she chose to be what we saw at the trial. I'm not trying to let her off easy, here. But she was told that she was weak and useless, and instead of rejecting the system that made that judgment for her, she decided it was the best she could hope for.

[ She could have chosen to reject that system altogether, and live by her own rules. Jasper could, too, though Rin doesn't voice that conclusion in as many words. ]

[hardnosed]

[ Even if all of this is six degrees of Kevin Bacon but for hard truths, it's not like a part of her doesn't get it. It's not like she doesn't bristle like an agitated cat at the thought of it all. ]

You didn't seriously expect something else.

[ It's one of those statement questions again. There's an entirely different direction she could go on this, ranting and raving about how the Gems that joined Rose were aberrations, the lowest of the low, and how what Rin calls rejecting a system is just another word for failure. But all of that hinges on the Diamond Authority's existence. It relies on them all being created to serve them. That doesn't taste the same in her mouth, anymore. ]

She decided what she wanted before she ever showed up here. You can divert someone like that from her purpose, but it never lasts, not as long as there's a fighting chance. The only way she was ever going to change was by following it to the end of the line — and failing.

[mouflon]

It's not about whether the hole she dug herself was too deep to climb out of. It's about whether she ever had to start digging in the first place.

But, whatever way you want it, every step forward we take is a choice. It doesn't stop being a choice just because the first time you made it was a long time ago. All you're doing is insulting yourself when you pretend otherwise.

[ Either you diminish your own strength, or you shirk responsibility. Neither one of those is a particularly good look, so far as Rin is concerned. ]

[hardnosed]

You think I don't know that?!

[ Yeah, it's not about Anna anymore. Or it is? ]

A decision is a choice. She decided her dream was more valuable than anything else in her life. She decided to chase it at every turn. She's not the only one who found out it destroyed her — but she and [ ugh, gross ] Rhea decided to change it by taking action.

But if she lived, after all that, then maybe Anna would have chosen something else to do with her life. Not like her.

[mouflon]

And look where that got her. She chose wrong. You can say they were making a choice to change things, but when you're shown that the path you're on is going to get you killed, maybe you should take the opportunity to reconsider a thing or two.

[ Rin is being something of a hypocrite about this, considering her own motive! But just because she's a hypocrite doesn't make her incorrect, okay. ]

[hardnosed]

Yeah?

[ There's no right and wrong about it, she thinks. There's just a choice that destroys you immediately and a choice that takes time. ]

What'd he show you?

[mouflon]

[ With the question, Rin flinches. She tries to set her jaw as she answers, but even so, her face colors. ]

What does it matter? We're talking about Anna, not me.

[hardnosed]

Maybe it doesn't.

[ She can't help it; even at this extreme personal low, with a million other things to think about and no conscious investment in this one, her insecure bully's heart kind of leaps when something she's said finally seems to hit some target. ]

But we're not just talking about Anna. Everyone who's still alive saw some kind of miserable future.

[ Yeah, that's who they're talking about!! ]

[mouflon]

Maybe, but not all of us met them chasing something pointless. Like... [ ugh ] Rhea had her problems, no doubt about that, but what happened to her was different.