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]

That's the problem. [ sigh ] For the most part, what I want to do is get into that elevator while everything is still working the way it should. I'm not an explosives expert, though, so trying would be... risky.

[ She can make something that explodes! But, uh, the environment requires a certain degree of expertise. ]

[bolderfell]

[He sighs, too.]

Should've stolen Angel's card while I had the chance. Though it probably wouldn't work now.

[mouflon]

It wouldn't hurt if we were able to at least try, but honestly? Yeah. It's not worth kicking yourself over. Let's just put a pin in the idea for now.

[ Maybe the explosives will be a surprise that helps them later! Or maybe it will continue to be a terrible idea, who knows. ]

[bolderfell]

What would you want to check out in there, anyway? I looked around last time, but I didn't find anything of use.

[mouflon]

Spirit hacker, remember? I want to see what I can do with the podiums.

Plus, I'm pretty sure there's some sort of teleport pad under the floor. If we can take control of it, we should be able to get ourselves somewhere—maybe even to the main machine!

[bolderfell]

Huh. Do you think it's just in there? Maybe it's not teleporting, but there's what happened to Damien, too.

[mouflon]

The idea I kicked around with Nira is that all of us have been tagged, and the podiums just act like a beacon. Damien was just washed out, wasn't he? That's different than what happens after we vote.

If you asked me to guess, I'd say that the "courtroom" is the only place we can be teleported from, and the rest of the facility has other systems in place for punishment.

[bolderfell]

I see. I was wondering if those... systems might all be connected. Since they all use the same power in the walls, right?

[mouflon]

That's harder for me to say. They're all presumably hooked up to the same electrical grid, yeah, but that doesn't mean the systems themselves are connected. Especially since the courtroom is on a totally different level of the facility...

Plus, think about it. Delta supposedly designed this place for peaceful cohabitation, right? What purpose would the lower levels serve, in that case? Again, this is just a guess, but I think that part of the facility was probably added on to the plans later.

[bolderfell]

You've put a lot of thought into this, huh.

Doubt the new Assistant will let me anywhere near where she keeps her key, but I'll keep my eyes open. Getting you to technology you can use might be our best bet out of here at this point.

[mouflon]

Do you think so? I don't feel like I've been dwelling on it that much, but then again, what else do we have to think about in this place?

[ So maybe she has been thinking about it more than she realized, now that he mentions it. ]

Either way, I appreciate the thought. There's something in the systems here that... fights against me, so I can't make any promises, but...

[ This still might be the best opportunity they've been handed. ]

[bolderfell]

Something in the systems... like a guard?

['There's always a few guards,' said the agent in that recording. Therion knows, as they say, that feel.]

[mouflon]

I'm not totally sure, actually. Every time I connected with the elevator lock, it was like something stopped anything from actually going through. There must be some kind of counter-hacking protocol in place, and it's a really robust one.

[ sigh ]

It kind of reminds me of the Moon Cell, actually... The security there was almost impossible to get through, and if you did manage, it'd just send attack programs after you anyway.

[bolderfell]

At least you probably don't have to worry about that here, unless these systems aren't covered under our freedom to investigate. If they're not, the Professor should've let you know by now.

[mouflon]

Attack programs shouldn't be something I have to worry about regardless. If this place was virtual reality, I'd know about it by now.

[ It's Happening ]

[bolderfell]

[Oh, Rin. Oh, no. What have you done.]

...If it was what kind of reality?

[mouflon]

Oh. Right. I'm kind of surprised it hasn't come up yet, actually...

VR — virtual reality — is a simulated environment. Instead of existing in the physical world, it exists in a digital space, created by technology. This might be a little high concept for you, but... If this were VR, what that would mean is that only our minds are really here. Our physical bodies would be somewhere else, on the "outside," and the bodies we have now are just a digital recreation created so that we can interact with our surroundings.

[bolderfell]

...

[He opens his mouth. Closes it. Knits his brows. Does the math lady gif.]

...What?

[No, no, he doesn't want her to explain it again. He shakes his head and rubs at the inner corners of his eyes, trying to make some sense of that.]

So a kind of... illusion? Or a dream we're all having, made by the Professor's technology?

[mouflon]

Yeah, I figured it would be a little hard for you to grasp.

[ She doesn't mean that as an insult, despite how it might sound. Like she said, she knows this topic might be... a little high concept for someone who barely knows what a video game is. ]

Again, I'm just speaking hypothetically. I don't think it's the case here. But... A dream might be a better way to think of it than an illusion. The space would be real, the same way any building humans have built is real, it just only exists in a intangible space.