THE LAST WEEK

[bathymetric]

You wake up with Saturday gone, but... not entirely forgotten. In the same way things seem to be breaking down in the facility, things beyond what you know are starting to fail as well. You get flashes of an unfamiliar room, a groggy sense of timelessness... and then you're back to reality in your beds. It's Sunday.

There are no new locations to unlock this week. You actually find yourself down some - Area D has flooded completely, and the groaning on the doors to the other areas indicates that perhaps the flooding won't stop there. Someone, however, seems to have taken all the memorials (except for poor Zelos-David, god rest his soul) and moved them to the Lounge "overnight." There's a handwritten note on top of all of them, which simply reads "Thought you guys would rather have these than not. :)"

While you obviously won't run into Angel anywhere, use of the Ouija or pestering of the new Assistant are still more than permitted! Otherwise get your affairs in order, get ready, and brace for impact, because one way or another? The end is coming.



SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[ ooc: Welcome to your final week! Make sure to check in and read up on endgame here, and don't forget to turn in any and all remaining threads you can over here! The final pull for regains will be conducted Wednesday night, and then... well, endgame approaches! Arms and legs inside the vehicle, we're near the end of the ride! You've all gotten so close and done so well! ]

Comments

[fivestagegod]

[Birkin isn't really a lot of places right now, though that may be due to the everything going on - he's not accustomed to flooding, outside of that one...accident in the Arklay labs, but he is accustomed to the notion of collapse; when so much of one's work is done underground (in labs, in sewers, in subway tunnels to fucking nowhere) it's not an unfamiliar threat if something goes wrong. Or, well, if something goes right; he doubts this is any sort of intentional self-destruct, but it wouldn't exactly surprise him, either.

Anyway.

He can be found in the infirmary for large periods of time, double-checking what's there and trying to sort out what should be done with it; he's definitely wandering around with one of those clipboards and taking inventory, though. What he decides to do depends on what the next few days brings with it, he supposes.

Other than that...well. Oddly enough, he's in the chapel later in the evening; he doesn't usually go in there for any reason – not that he avoids it any, he just has no real use for it – but it seems like an acceptable place to be. It's quiet, it's reasonably secluded, it's...admittedly right next to the fucking death door if this place decides to flood as well but you know what, that's fine, it's not like he'll be here terribly late. It's just somewhere to be with his thoughts, and so that's where he is: just standing against the back wall, arms folded, looking like he's thinking about something but god only knows what.

Before he leaves, he takes a bunch of those candles that are around the place and sets them up on the altar. Seventeen of them. Lights them. Stares at them for a while like he's trying to figure out what he thinks of having done that. ...Decides that in the end, memorials are still a fucking stupid practice that he doesn't understand, and he's not sure that was worth the effort.

(Maybe it was worth the fire hazard, though. Make the Professor deal with it if the place goes up.)

Whether any of that was worth it or not, he seems calm about all of this, though abnormally so; he's usually a lot twitchier when things aren't going well, but for now he's keeping pretty even. It's a forced kind of evenness that doesn't seem all that natural, but it's better than nothing.]

chapel

[nothingcanstop]

[ She doesn't catch a lot of this. Just...mostly him staring at the candles. Maybe lighting one. But, Della's quiet in the doorway, letting him have his moment, before entering, slowly. ]

William?

[fivestagegod]

[Oh, hey. He'll at least turn to look at her, he's not that invested in what he's doing, but. Yeah.]

Della, hi. Did you need something?

[nothingcanstop]

[ She shakes her head. ]

I guess I'm just...a little surprised to see you in here.

[fivestagegod]

Oh... Yeah, that's fair. It's not one of the usual places, I guess.

[nothingcanstop]

What's the occasion? You're not, like...religious, are you? I feel like that would've come up, with...you know.

[ Kirei, Rhea. ]

[fivestagegod]

Hell no.

[That much is immediate.]

Never really had time or the inclination for religion. I was taught a few things when I was younger, and I guess some of it took - I named the virus I was working on after a thing that's pretty religiously prominent - but I'm pretty sure the stuff I do wouldn't be looked highly upon by people who are into it. It's looking at God's creations and claiming I can do better. Pretty sure that's...blasphemy? Heresy? One of those things.

[nothingcanstop]

...Eeh. Now that you mention it...

[ Yeah. Yeah, it probably sounds that much. ]

I'm not really either. This place is just...peaceful, I guess, and it's got a few things I recognize.

[fivestagegod]

...Yeah. That's mostly why I'm here. It's someplace to be and just...think about stuff, I guess.

[nothingcanstop]

[ She peers around him, just a little bit. ]

Did...you light all of those?

[fivestagegod]

...Yeah.

[della are we going to try to get him to talk about feelings again]

[nothingcanstop]

[ MAYBE

She easily walks down the aisle between the pews. ]

Good. Means I don't have to get a box or something to do some myself. I can just use these...if you don't mind?

[fivestagegod]

I don't mind.

[...]

I told Rin that I've always thought memorials are kind of stupid. I don't think this has changed that thought much.

[nothingcanstop]

Hm. So...why the candles, then?

[fivestagegod]

[......]

Wanted to see if it would, I guess.

[nothingcanstop]

[ Oh. ]

...Does it feel...empty, or something?

[fivestagegod]

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

[He does, at least, have the general decency to seem frustrated with that.]

I get that it's not supposed to feel like that. But it doesn't feel like a whole lot of anything. Al dying didn't feel like much either, though, so it's not like this is a surprise.

[nothingcanstop]

I mean...

[ Della takes a seat at one of the pews. ]

Memorials are more...for the living. Much as we want to say they're for them, it's...it's more for us. If this doesn't...do anything for you, you can't really force it.

[fivestagegod]

Oh, definitely. I know better than to think that Al cares about what I do for him after the fact. I've seen where...well, where they say he's buried once. Didn't really bother going back after that.

It's the same way with everyone here. I doubt they care, because they're kind of too dead for that. So I get that it's not really for them, in the end.

[nothingcanstop]

...Do you think they're still here? Like...like the board said. I've met ghosts--hell, someone who helped raise me is a ghost, but- ...Do you think there's a chance?

[fivestagegod]

...Maybe. I actually don't...

[Mnngh.]

This is going to sound weird coming from the guy who created the zombie apocalypse, I know, but supernatural stuff is kind of beyond me.

[nothingcanstop]

You're right. That does sound kinda weird.

[ Della. ]

But, that's sort of better, you know? I jump to that kinda conclusion, so someone who's more...inexperienced, that's a good perspective to have.

[fivestagegod]

Zombies have perfectly reasonable scientific explanations. Ghosts get into stuff like whether we have a soul or not. Purely metaphysical.

[So yeah.]

It's another one of those bridges we'll cross when we get to it, I guess.

[nothingcanstop]

Not any of the zombies I've met, but alright, I'll roll with it.

[ She's met... Of course she has. ]

We've got a lotta those bridges. ...And it looks like we'll be crossing them sooner rather than later.

[fivestagegod]

Maybe I'll explain it to you sometime. Just know that with ours, there's nobody actually piloting the body anymore. Reanimating a body is a lot easier when you're not having to worry about dragging the passenger back to life with it.

[...he really loves his work, okay]

I'm a bit concerned about all that, I'm not going to try to pretend that I'm not. But at this point, there's not a whole lot we can do about it. I think I've gone so far into stressed I've come out the other side.