schoolisin | (no subject)

(no subject)

Who: Everyone
When: Day 1 – noon
Where: The Auditorium
What: ROUND 1 BEGINS

[Some hours have passed, leaving you time to mingle and explore to your hearts content. However, as the clocks tick over to noon … the bell rings again. And this time, it's followed by the hissing static of an intercom system.]

Ahem! Ahem, is this thing on? Ahh, yes … If all Students and Instructors could kindly make their way to the Auditorium, our first class can begin.

[Those people who are understandably reluctant to follow that instruction may just find their feet moving for them, plodding them into the massive assembly hall. Once they're there, the door slams shut and locks behind them.

… There's nobody there, but the intercom is still on.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Anything you're willing to share, really. But most of all, I'm interested in hearing how you ended up there and who is behind the place.

Ah, that's easy enough. It doesn't exist anymore, but I was in a place called Sabra La Tau; it was run by the gods of that world, who we called Judges . . . and they'd offer people wishes in exchange for their memories.

We could win them back, but we'd have to play in games like - this one and others to do so.

... When you say it doesn't exist anymore... what does that mean, exactly?

It was destroyed.

How?

Also, how long ago was that?

Almost two years ago . . . ? Or somewhere around that, for me.

And it . . . [he frowns, thinking] we rebelled against the gods, and we even had some gods on our side - but in the end, it was the Old Woman who consumed everything. Ahh - think of her as the sun god, or something like that.

It wasn't . . . a great end, though.

Why...?

. . . not a lot of people actually made it out, at the end.

What? W-Why?

They were killed. It was a rebellion, remember - it wasn't as though the gods weren't going to fight back.

That's...

That's awful, I'm sorry.

[he just nods, because what else is there to say about it?]

... The reason I asked is because I've been to a similar place myself, it was a library. And there's other places like too...

Sabra La Tau, the library, Aather, and Kyriakos.

[wryly, if a little pained] I've heard.

[nods]

Do you have any thoughts on that...?

. . . I think it's a lot of bullshit, if you want my honest opinion.

Yeah, well, other than the obvious.

The only one I know about in detail is Kyriakos, but . . . I haven't really given it a lot of thought.

[he does look apologetic] I've had other things on my mind. What do you think about it all?

[pauses for a moment, thinking of how to phrase this]

It's way too suspicious, for there to be this many different places full of people who've lost their memories and-or skills, and who can only regain them by playing in sadistic competitions like the one right now...

[pauses again, then sighs]

The only theory that makes sense, so far, is that it could be some sort of massive experiment. All of that, and this, too.

[he frowns, thoughtful for a moment. He scowls, but it isn't directed at Swift. He lets out a slow breath]

It's a possibility, but . . . why didn't they take our memories this time? Those of us who have gone through this before - strictly speaking, we could have a lot of influence over how this plays out.

Maybe that's also part of the experiment.

[but KEEPING THE CONTROLS AND VARIABLES SEPARATE, SWIFT]

It . . . could be. But it'll be one hell of a mess to analyze later.

[NO U DON'T UNDERSTAND]

Not necessarily. Not if they're not looking to analyze anything.

This could be simply out of entertainment.

[THE DATA WOULD GET SKEWED U DON'T UNDERSTAND]

I think that goes without saying.

[pinches the bridge of his nose, then sighs again, somewhat resigned]

A few years ago I was involved in a nation-wide incident where ten thousand people ended up trapped in a VRMMORPG. We were literally stuck in the game, with no way to log out, and letting our HP drop to zero would not only result in our character's dying—we would die in reality as well.

The only way to escape that place was to beat the game itself.