GRADUATION

[descentinto]

[ There’s a spark in the darkness outside the dome, somewhere. The pale rainbow of some kind of bio-luminescent jellyfish. Then another. Then two more. Then ten more.

Within moments, the seafloor around you is illuminated by jellyfish, shining brighter than nature should allow, and you find your surroundings changed. Statues, piles of gold, paintings, all of them lie scattered around for as far as the eye can see in any direction. Just a disgusting amount of wealth.

The frosted glass box in front of all of you just… vanishes. And standing at a podium that doesn’t at all match the previous silhouette, you finally get to see The Professor, in all his slightly ghoulish glory.

Honestly? This might be exactly the kind of man you pictured he would be. ]

Allow me to introduce myself properly, boys and girls. I am Professor Gunnar Maelstrom, one of the five sitting members of the Faculty here at VILE. I suppose, one way or another, this is where it ends.

[ You’re getting close, gumshoes! Don’t give up! ]

Comments

FINAL CHOICE...?

[descentinto]

Alright, all of you, let's get down to business.

[ He steeples his fingers, looking around the room. ]

I offer you a choice. While I have administrative privileges, you cannot kill me, so that option is off the table.

I give you this choice here and now: either you may join up with VILE, with or without a wipe of your mind, or you can all be returned home, with or without your memory of the last two months.

[fivestagegod]

[......]

How unanimous does this choice have to be.

[descentinto]

I'll put it up to a majority vote. It's how we do things around here.

[fivestagegod]

You know that most people here aren't going to take one of those options, much less five of us. There's no chance of it happening, but you know that.

Don't start asking me to think you're stupid now. You're like me. You only want people to think that if it benefits you.

What's the catch.

[mouflon]

...Okay, as much as I hate to stick up for the guy at this point, why don't you just keep Birkin while you let the rest of us go? You win, he wins, his wife and kid win because they don't end up, you know, dead.

With this weird... insistence on doing things the way you are, I have to agree with everyone else. What's the catch here?

[fivestagegod]

[he's not sure whether he appreciates this or not

he'll eventually work around to the notion that he does, but moreso for the. whole. annette and sherry thing. shut up he doesn't know how feelings work and he's not going to figure it out within the next like hour either]

[hardnosed]

[ yeah okay birkin and rin............. have made points AND NOW THIS IS IN THE RIGHT PLACE ]

And if there's a tie?

[bolderfell]

And what's the catch.

[nothingcanstop]

Yeah, how do we know you'll keep your word? You seem pretty fond of just wiping people's minds, after all.

[descentinto]

No catch, no strings. We all move on. It's more than I offered those who came before you, after all.

[nothingcanstop]

Wonder who's fault that is?

You can't seriously think we're going to be okay with just brushing this all under the rug.

[bolderfell]

That's why I ask. I wonder... you've always emphasized our making choices in this room. You wouldn't give us a choice like that now unless it was still part of your damned experiment.

[philoxenia]

[ ... she crosses her arms, if just to hide the fact that her hands are shaking. ]

This seems like a very clear-cut choice.

[bolderfell]

That's why I don't trust it.

[...]

Also... what's administrator... the thing he said.

[ladygeryon]

It means he can control all the systems here, and also choose how much anyone else can access it.

[philoxenia]

Administrative privileges. He has more control than any of us here, I assume.

[bolderfell]

...Maybe more than any of us here.

[Ah. He's next to her, so he notices her hands now. After a pause, he takes his hand off the hilt of the sword he has buckled on and carefully rests it on her arm instead.]

But maybe not more than the facility itself.

[descentinto]

It's the options you have.

[philoxenia]

No. It's the options you're giving us.

[bogwife]

...and what happens to the others after we make our choices? And with the facility?

[descentinto]

Is it really your concern at this point?

[bogwife]

Yes, it is.

What. Happens. To. Them?

[philoxenia]

You've been watching us for weeks and you really ask this question?

[ladygeryon]

What I'm hearing is that we need to disable those privileges of yours.

[hardnosed]

[ yeah, she's not dignifying the choice itself with an answer, but: ]

While you have administrative privileges.