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Chorus of Whispers; Epitaph: Part I
Topic Started: Apr 8 2009, 07:23 PM (3,194 Views)
Cyphon
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Cyphon begins to tear violently into the walls, uncovering the mirrors. He aims his rifle at a mirror opposite of the wall he just uncleared. He fires and jumps to the side. (He fired at an angle where the reflected shot will stike the other mirror.) He procceds to do the reverse fireing at the mirror that just had something refleted at it so that it reflects it back at the original one.
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Kranford T. Butcher
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The Count
Kranford promptly got out of the way of any of the shots of the goons all around him, keeping as far from the angle of their shots as possible. now was as good a time as any to see if he could get out and have some fun. He waited for the fun to start...
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Chrome
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Felix had sat up, now that the initial pain of being cut had passed and the scabs had stopped the bleeding. He sat up and noticed that Kranford had taken his crowbar. He stood up and shook his head, ashamed that he had lost his cool like that. The cuts stopped that real quick though. He turned around and noticed that the other walls had been broken to reveal a mirror behind each. Cyphon shot at the mirrors from an angle, and Felix quickly dove out of the way of any possible cracking, trying to avoid being cut again. He was about to yell at Cyphon, but then decided against it. After that little display earlier his credibility was low. He made his way over to Kranford. "I don't mean to be a bother, but can I have that back?" Felix said, pointing at the crowbar.
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Themistocles
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OOC: As I stated on the Epitaph page, Puma will be away for a month or so, and has asked me to take over for his character. Pyro has requested the same thing. Mike will be away for a month, but I do not yet know what he wishes me to do with his character. I will be away for two or so three weeks as well later this summer. If not enough people are able to participate, I will temporarily put Epitaph on hold, to be revived when we have more people again. For now, however, it will continue on as planned.
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Themistocles
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OOC: Remember that I am currently in control of Puma and Pyro's characters (Oslo Thistes and Loida Gervin), as I will continue to be until they return.

IC: Loida watched as the small group of people frantically attacked the walls to expose the mirrors beneath. The room--a perfect cube--was made of six mirrors, exactly square. Five of the six were covered in a light coat of smooth plaster, painted white. Now the other mirrors were being exposed, slowly, crudely. And after watching what had happened when the first mirror was damaged, she was very concerned about what might happen when they reflected one another exactly.

Already, the room seemed to be changing, become much, much bigger; with every new square centimeter of mirrored surface exposed, the size of the room seemed to expand exponentially. It was no longer just a few meters across; it was the size of a cavern. And expanding.

Her gaze shifted to the huge splatters of dried blood on the walls, those great crimson arcs that were growing just as quickly as the room was. Then her mind made a horrible connection.

She sprinted a few yards to where the rest of the group stood--they were slowly becoming farther and farther away, and, her voice echoing, shouted, "Stop what you're doing, all of you!"

"Why?" Oslo asked, a large pickax in his hands, a pile of broken glass at his feet. "This must be how you escape the room! We got in here somehow, we can leave."

"Don't you understand?" Loida said, her voice rising sharply in pitch, becoming almost hysterical. "Don't you see the blood? We're not the first ones to be trapped in here! Whoever put us here wants us to use the weapons against the walls, to uncover the mirrors. This mirror," she said, pointing, "was already fully revealed when we got here. The people that were here last must have slowly uncovered every inch of that mirror. See the edges? The edges of the mirror are not perfectly flat or smooth; there are little spots where the plaster still covers it.

"Then something happened," she continued. "Something opened in that mirror, and that same something did something terrible to all of them. That's why there's so much blood. That's why there are no bodies. If we unlock more mirrors, they will reflect each other, and something even worse will happen!"

"You're overreacting," Oslo called back impatiently. "Whoever runs this place probably just removed the bodies after they died."

Loida looked at him with despair in her eyes. "If they removed the bodies, why not clean away the blood?"

Oslo had no answer.

Loida turned to face the others and spoke as audibly as she could. "Listen to me, everyone, please. You can all see that this room is at least ten times bigger than it was before! This room is alive, and its life is in those mirrors. If we uncover them... I know something will happen, I just know it... There must be some other way. They're experimenting on us, they want to see what we'll do next. But I know that if the mirrors reflect each other, it's going to be catastrophic. Stop what you're doing, please! STOP!"

Oslo glared at the assorted people in the room, then pointed at Loida with an accusatory finger. "She's clearly hysterical, maybe in shock or trauma or something. And if she's not, it doesn't fucking matter, because we're all going to die. The mirrors are the key. Evan was already 'talking' to one; maybe he has a solution. But the solution sure as hell isn't to sit on our asses and let time fly by while we rot away and slide further into dementia. You know why shit happened to the people here before? They went crazy and chopped each other up! That's what's gonna happen to us soon if we don't do something about it."

Loida and Oslo looked at each other with furious, calculating stares. Oslo was becoming more frantic, his voice was speeding up; Loida's eyes were now wide and watery. They were both afraid. And everyone else was too.

Something or someone behind the mirrors watched and listened, waiting patiently to see which side the others would pick. But there was no rush; the observer was patient.

And the Mirrors themselves were patiently watching too.
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Kranford T. Butcher
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The Count
Kranford ceased and listened to the mess that was going on between the woman and Oslo. He told the lot of the folks there to stop chipping away at the plaster and listen to her. Deciding that Oslo was a bit to frantic, Kranford promptly produced a blackjack from the pile and used it on the back of Oslo's head, promptly knocking him out cold.

"Either we can smash this mirror and risk a helluva lot of bad luck, not my favorite way to start the day off; or we can just sit down and think for a minute. Let's find out some more about one another first. Hell, we have plenty of time to do so. One of you cats start. Let's just sit down and talk with one another, and stop the stupid chiseling!" said the hitman as he removed the implements from everyone's grasp.
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FalloutJack
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Awesome to the Badass to the Chaotic Mastermind.
After his initial shout-out, Evan had withdrawn into himself, thinking very quickly and very carefully to himself. The first parts of this mess was just tricky, puzzling, requiring merely that his brain by put to it like a crowbar to a door. No pressure, no problems. Now, he was in the most danger he'd ever been in his life and it was getting to him. A bunch of panicky people in a mirror room with blood on the walls and weapons on the floor. So easy - to easy - to destroy each other... You don't get much close to mortality than that. One false move and you die a very stupid death. What a waste! So, he was low to the ground, almost sitting, thinking... He listened to what was being said and watched what was going on in a certain quiet shock, because unless he could psychically paralyze them all at once, he wasn't going to stop them unless something clicked and FAST.

Thus, the mirrors, then...

The room was literally full of these living freaky mirrors that either contained or transmitted an intelligence who was tempting them. No, sorry... Tempting him. The others hadn't even tried to reach out beyond the reflection. But then, they hadn't flown the cosmos at warp speed with their mind and known that there was so much out there. Still, all the room was a mirror, and behind those mirrors were...a light.

No, not a light.

The light was just the edge of the effect.

Effect of what?

The effect of physical space being breached. The mirrors contain the world they reflect and the world they reflect is HERE, in this room. That makes it the perfect killing jar. Make a crack and the universe divides you in half.

That's not what it's here for!

Why not? It was the perfect way to tear them apart. The blood on the walls...

The blood on the walls was from people going mad and getting themselves killed! Even if they were too afraid to touch the mirrors, they'd kill each other to keep from STARVING!

But then why breach space with the cracks and holes in the... Oh shit. Evan stood up in sudden realization.

"The mirrors! Of course!"

He looked around, watching Kranford take away people's various implements.

"Oh, are we talking now? Good. Excellent. There's a number of things I have to say."

He didn't sit because he had been sitting and needed to stretch his legs. For the first time since entering this room, he felt confident again, which was refreshing. Pushing up his glasses, Evan began.

"Folks, my name is Evan Ramsey. And if you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a psychic. There's any number of things I can do, but I use my power for the most difficult things in life. Living as more than a cog in a wheel is one of them. When I got here, I was with Jim and Cyphon in a place with some weird archways and no way out. I don't know about them, but I put my mind into those things and it showed me..."

Everything.

"...more than you can imagine. Just...take my word for it. I knew to talk to the mirrors because I saw a million portals like mirrors leading to other places, for starters. This place isn't a death-trap. Not on purpose. You just have to be careful. Someone put us here for a reason. Not to die. What kind of idiot goes to the trouble?"

A saturday morning cartoon villain, but that's not important right now.

"Right now, we're in a room surrounded by mirrors with no door, and that damaging the mirrors reveals a light - a crack in the world - that can be fatal. But the reason is that we couldn't have gotten here by normal means. If we're surrounded by 'killing lights', then there's only one way in."

Drumroll, please...

"We were transported. Somehow, we were moved, and I'm thinking it has entirely to do with what we did at the archway, if nothing else. These mirrors, though. They contain space, the space of the room. What happens to them happens to us. So, you have a breach going across the room because their damaged. This is all bullshit sci-fi, I know, but if these are a breach of space...then what happens if a breach from every mirror, just a small one to start, converges onto one point in the middle of the room?"

He made gestures pointing from each side of the room to center itself at a single spot in the middle.

"Think about it. A breach in dimensions. If they focus on each other, they might make a door. And if we keep it small enough, there's no danger of accidentally killing ourselves."

If the mirrors themselves might do something wrong by reflecting them for eternity if they let it, but Evan felt that there was a point to the weapons and tools as well as the mirrors. They were there to do something clever, not stupid. If they broke the barrier of space itself into a right and proper portal, they could get out of here.
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crazypyromaniac
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pyro's back.

ic

loida makes a visible effort to calm herself, and everyone else, down. that was her fault. oops. sheilds down. put sheilds back up. "thanks for helping out, kranford. i appreciate it." tiny hole in sheild, have him feel my gratitude, sheilds back up. "so, basically, if we create a small hole in the middle of each mirror, then we can get us a portal out of here. and if we make it to big, we all die. sounds like fun. so where do we make the holes, and when should we start. is there any sort of time ritual dance thing required?" that's how loida dealt with stress. she made really bad jokes.
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Chrome
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Felix looked at Evan. "I guess that makes sense, but keeping it small isn't exactly the whole issue either, I'd think. The catch is that we have to make it large enough for us to get through without maiming ourselves. Again." Felix said, gesturing to the scabs across his face. "So because of that, I'd say that the explosives are off limits, they're too unpredictable, and we don't want one of the mirrors gone completely. We need something for precision, something we can use to make a hole without hurting ourselves. Anyone have a diamond knife or something similar?"
Edited by Chrome, Jul 28 2009, 06:23 PM.
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S. Puma
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HOME DEPOT MAN!!!
(OOC) Thank Them for providing me a good weapon for this operation.

(IC) Oslo woke up quickly and looked to Lolida. He had not expected her to lash out as if she did not care for him. Passing out for a decent amout of time could do that, or maybe the Russian was right, and letting this girl loose from her bonds was a bad idea after all......
"No, keep committed, take responsibility for your actions. Go. GO!"
"How about a pickax? If we hit gently it may just chip off the mirrors slightly."
All he wanted to do was get out of here, at this point now, he had a slight feeling of claustrophobia with this growing party, and he'd rather finish his job than all of this.
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Themistocles
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The young woman on the ground stirred, after having been unconscious for several hours. The makeshift bandage Kranford had wrapped around her eyes was soaked through with red blood, so that almost none of its original white coloring remained, but the bleeding had stopped. She stood, her vision still obscured by the bandage, but she did not seem unsure or unbalanced; it was as if she could still see, through the red-soaked cloth, which was impossible. Or was it? She swayed slightly, but this was more likely from the medications she her bloodstream had clearly been filled with, and her lack of recent food. She moved steadily to the center of the group, turning her head to each of them in turn, even though she could not see them (at least not by normal means).

Then she spoke, her voice wavering slightly: "You're not going to be able to escape by yourselves. You... you think they put you here to imprison you? They are evaluating you, watching you. The mirrors watch you, and the weapons watch you, and my eyes watch you, even when I do not mean for them to. They're waiting to see what you do, so that they can decide on your intelligence and social ability.

"This isn't an experiment; they've been experimenting with the mirrors for years. I have lived here all my life. This isn't the first Test you've undergone. You've all been here for years, you just can't remember... because they don't want you to. They are rebuilding society, building new Families; when this final Test is over, you'll be Placed in society according to your Test results.

"You need to live through this Test. Whether you escape or not, they will soon Place you. They know that you understand, they'll Place you highly no matter what. But don't kill yourselveslves, please!"

Tears were now streaming from underneath her bandage.

"Everyone I ever meet dies, they... they die in the Tests. You can't die, because they'll keep me here if you don't. They need you to succeed, because if you don't, they'll have to start over, and I won't be allowed to leave until you do. They said they'd let me leave, escape. Please...."

She collapsed, unable to stand. She was still alive, breathing, but a large pool of blood was spreading from her gaunt body, soaking her hospital gown further.

There was no wound.
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Cyphon
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Cyphon walks over to the woman lying in a pool of her own blood. Observing nothing that may be of use he rearms himself and sits in a corner watching the others with narrowed eyes. He doesn't trust the woman named lolida and keeps a close watch on her to make sure she doesn't do anything dangerous. To Oslo he says, "If you can be careful with that pickaxe go ahead and try, but I suggest we all move to the least likely area that it would strike us. And somebody move her there to, if she is telling the truth then we give her the chance to escape.
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Themistocles
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OOC: Mike's been gone for the whole summer in Russia, and now he's somewhere else. So I'm taking control of his character.

IC: Gregory pointed an accusatory finger toward the woman on the floor, the one whose camera-eyes were still covered by a bloody bandage.

"Look at the monster! She looks the same as the tortured girl we saw days ago; we watched her literally torn apart by that mutated man! She's DEAD! But here she is, alive, whole, right in front of us. If she really is the person we saw before, then she isn't human; more likely it's a replica, created by the Capital's scientific sorcery! We can't trust her."

He turned to face the rest of the group. "I think we should kill her right now! Who agrees with me?"
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Chrome
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"I don't." Felix said. "For all we know that's what the Capital wants us to do, a way to "fail" I suppose, and an excuse to kill us. If we get out of here, somewhere where they AREN'T in full control, maybe. But here it would probably be a bad idea. She said we'd all been here for years, while that could be a lie there's equal probability it's the truth, I wouldn't put it past the Capital to do something like that, would you? There's no room for rash behavior, because the last time one of us did something rash they got their face chopped up." Felix gestured to the scabs once more. "It seems that unlike me, you haven't learned from my mistake. We have to plan things out first, so I'm with Evan."
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crazypyromaniac
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" I agree with felix, if for the sole reason that we might need her later,adn if we don't, or she becomes a problem, we can kill her then. but if we kill her now, and we need her later, the Capital might not ressurect her for us, and i don't know of anyone else here who can. basically, you can always unmake life, but you can't unmake death. as for the mirrors, i think we should do what evan says. he clearly knows the most about what's going on, what the mirrors do, and all that. but we should ask the lady what she knows, because she just might tell the truth. and if we have it, then we can discard it later, but if it helps, then we have it." loida frowns at herself internally. she doesn't like compromising her morals, but everyone just seems focusedon killing someone, so she has to use logical arguments, not just altruistic ones.
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Kranford T. Butcher
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The Count
Kranford looked at the Russian and glared. "I won't kill anyone here unless I have to. If we do that, then we're no better than the assholes that are testing us. As for you, Oslo, leave the damn mirror alone. You remember what happened when our friend over here when he tried it," spoke the hitman as he motioned to Felix's wounds from his encounter with the mirror. "Just sit down and talk. We're not going to get out of here by blasting our way out. The buffoons that are running this will have to let us out of their own accord. So talk." he said as he sat down, ready to listen.
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FalloutJack
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Awesome to the Badass to the Chaotic Mastermind.
The responses to his latest inundation of words had been...not fully encouraging. Some were in the right direction and listening to him, but equally...some were over-zealous or cautionary. What he really hated was the not knowing. It was all theory, some VERY ADVANCED and convincing theory, but there was always room for doubt, and that woman with the fake eyes was it, the one who doubted with...uncomfortably reasonable thought. It's not that she worried him. No no... It was what was behind her that did. Someone else was behind those eyes, as she implied, and that was not good.

Actually, everything she said wasn't good.

Not to make her sound like a doom prophet, but Evan's mind was racing at speeds never conceived of by man and had only recently slowed down to something more manageable. In doing so, he realized...that he'd been overlooking the obvious: Descartes. Descartes proved through his musings that everything can be a lie, and that only what we can prove for ourselves was the truth. Now, this made building himself back up from a nothing-nobody very very hard, but he did it. And he was about to work on a personal analysis of what he could prove was real and what wasn't when...a slight issue came up.

"I think we should kill her right now! Who agrees with me?"

The woman had collapsed and Gregory thought it was a good idea to just kill her. Sure, like that'll solve anything. To his own knowledge, she had no power, no real threat. So, what's the point of that? Fortunately, he wasn't the only one thinking along the same lines. And now, thanks to Felix, at least some of the others thought the same. They were caught between talking and acting. Alright, let's talk.

"Thank you, Felix. I needed that. Look, ummm...there's something I should say about all this, and the mirrors..."

He pushed up his glasses, and folded his hands while sitting.

"Everything I've said is a guess, nothing more. It fits together, but I have absolutely no way of knowing until it's actually tried. Our...friend here worries me. Not because she's a threat, but because I can believe her. There is alot here that's massively wrong. I could be overthinking everything and missing something important. As much as she could be, I dunno, speaking someone else's words via implant to throw us off, I have to believe there's tons more to it. As I said, I tapped into something earlier. It was so massive that my brain almost broke. All because I asked for a way out..."

Evan's eyes widened.

"Oh, you are shitting me..."

He suddenly stood up, and headed for the most-intact mirror, being swift but careful not to get lacerated by light. Overlooking the obvious... Dammit! Evan put his hand on the mirror, the mirror that had shown him false people and talked to him and shown him a MASSIVE metropolis of a sort. He said, both mentally and physically, these next words while reaching out with the fullness of his psychic being.

"I opened up the universe with a single thought. Now, there's a mirror that talks to me of a city, tempting me to go places. This room reflects forever, and reflects reality. Maybe breaching it isn't the way to go. We'll call that Plan B in case this is wrong. I want...the reflections to go forever, and for this room, this machine, to make a hole in the room that will take us out safely. Because if nothing else, this IS a machine. Either we're in one and everything is false, or we're standing in something that's really dimensional and psychic, and all I have to do is make it work right. Either way, I...will...our release!"

And he put his mind to that effect. Hey, at least the notion couldn't kill 'em, right?
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Chrome
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Felix listened to what Evan was saying, noting the bit of thanks he had just received. However, one bit of his speech piqued his interest. "As I said, I tapped into something earlier. It was so massive that my brain almost broke. All because I asked for a way out...". Though Evan said he had mentioned it, Felix obviously had not been paying attention. He heard this, and the healthy curiosity he was born with kicked in. He had to know exactly what Evan had... seen? Was that the right word? Felix didn't know but it was the best he could come up with. He felt a twinge of jealousy, then realizing what just happened quickly made it leave. Why was he thinking this? It wasn't the content but the when. He was thinking this in a room full of telapaths, and one empath? Him who had an open book for a mind. What if one of the others had been listening for anything suspicious? He'd have to find out what Evan had experienced later, but right now he had to push the thought out of his head, and be more careful about what he thought, no privacy there. He moved his thoughts into a different realm of thinking, specifically what Evan was trying to do. Evan may have had an idea of how to get out, but that's not what Felix wanted at this exact moment. He moved towards the mirror Evan was currently at, a few feet away to be safe. He put his hands on the mirror, and began to probe for a way in, he had a gut feeling that maybe that there were others who had escaped, passed the test, if these mirrors could do what Evan claimed they did to him, it was entirely possible they were similar to that of a person, and if they were, Felix would access their... memories and sift through the other tests until he found one that had worked, that the test subjects had escaped, passed, whatever. He braced himself for what was to come, if the blood that had been on the walls before being torn down, he wasn't in for very nice imagery, but he would look until he found something, if he didn't, maybe Evan was right and they would get out anyway.
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Themistocles
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Gregory was furious. His face contorted with anger, and his fists tightened. But there was fear in his eyes, and the skin of his face was becoming gray rather than red. "Don't you see what she is?" he shouted, his pupils swiveling madly around at each face individually. "We saw her die; we saw her fucking DIE! Ripped in FUCKING HALF!!! Don't you realize that this isn't something that our world doesn't allow? I don't know how you people can trust anything that can come back from the dead, in any way, shape or form. I still say we killer her.

The woman on the ground stared up at him, terrified and trembling, and she opened her mouth to respond, but whether to defend herself verbally or to beg for mercy, they would never know; as soon as she realized what Evan and Felix were up to, her train of thought switched tracks completely.

"NO!!!" she cried, looking positively horrified. "What do you think you're doing? The mirror is 'speaking' to you and you're LISTENING to it?! It's telling you about a city, THE City, the place where the Capital has set up base? Do you really think you'll ever find anything there but suffering and horror? The City is alive, and succumbing to it is to betray everything you've worked for! All the years you've spent here, all the pain you've gone through, to escape and then just walk into the hands of the people that put you through it all?"

"There can't be anywhere worse than here, you little freak!" Gregory said, a little louder than was necessary. "If there's an escape, I'm taking it. And if I can't kill you, then I guess you'll be coming with us. Maybe you'll be useful; if you're not, we can always trade you in for some cash at the slave market."

But Evan and Felix weren't paying attention; they were absorbed in the Mirror.

Evan's mind connected with the mirror once more, but it did not give him what he wanted; instead, it said in his mind, "Now we choose the other, the one called Felix, to be our prophet. You have spoken for us, now he will speak. Listen to his words. But you'll have another chance; everything is a Circle, and we will all be brought back to the beginning eventually."

In his mind's eye, Evan saw an image of the archways from before, this time surrounded by mirrors. And another gate, a torii gate, standing on its own in the darkness, separate from all the rest of reality.

Felix's mind also connected, but he received no words; instead, a vision, a mental video recording, foggy as if through misted glass.

Tiny saw blades whirred as they slid across long, spindly mechanized limbs, swiveling in order to gain proper position against its writhing prey. In a sense, the circular blades were beings in of themselves, but they were being used at the disposal of others. Grisly scenes unfolded even as the task was beginning, but of course it had no beginning, no end. Through bone and flesh the sharp metal instruments carved, so very neatly, precisely, so exact in their movements. In and out they surged and were extracted, their needle-thin apparatuses never stopping.

Blood spurted in great torrents from the carcasses of the men’s soft organic bodies below them, but they did not mind; humans were meant to suffer and never retaliate. It was not their place. Still the work went on, and the pain came in waves now to these miserable beings, so unfit to live. What were they without the blessings of their masters? And still they were slaughtered, massacred, mutilated, their organs splayed out before them. One mechanical arm reached across one barely recognizable body, looming over the man’s petrified gaze like a fleet of bomber planes over a city set ablaze, and the arm sliced open the man’s chest with a swift stroke of whirring knives. It watched as the man leaned up to gaze into his own insides, and It had played with the man’s mind so that felt an overwhelming urge to feast upon his own flesh. If this specimen were able to resist the hellish appetite bestowed on him, he would be the first.

It watched as the scientists of the Capital leaned over their displays and watched, no pity or repulsion on their faces, only scientific curiosity. They were monstrous by the terms of humanity, but then, they were not human. It only saw them for their fear and weakness, but it did not matter; the Capital was competent and brutal, and would stop at nothing to gain complete control. Yet the men it used were blind. And It saw what they were and what they would become, and It saw the way the man had wrenched out his own eyes and swallowed them to keep It from replacing them, and It tried to laugh but could not because It was not human, and the only sound they could hear was a terrible, expressionless grate of metal on rough metal.

Blood spurted once more, and the Mirrors were coated with yet another layer of blood. But here the mirrors formed a corridor, not a cube, and the laboratory equipment was in their center.

They would give in to their fear, yes, they would give in…


And then another:

A group of men and women, starving, naked, blood-soaked, looking more like walking corpses than living people. They were in the same room that Felix now stood in. They struggled to move, overcome with weakness. They spoke in low voices, so raspy and dry-sounding that they were unintelligible. They were heavily dehydrated; from the Mirrors came water in floods, because they wished it, but it flowed away and disappeared into the mirrors on the floor just before they could drink.

Days went by. They survived, but only because machines injected them with medicines as they slept, chemicals that kept them alive--just barely alive. Then their minds connected with the Mirrors once more, and a doorway opened, a doorway in reality. But it closed, because their minds were not united; the doorway was not given sufficient willpower to exist.

The City beckoned them, to join its great Machine.

Cameras watched them from the corners, from the walls where the Mirrors were still unrevealed. They had uncovered the first mirror, but now were too weak to do the same with the rest. And in the Mirror, a familiar pair of crystalline blue eyes were reflected, blue eyes tinged silver--the eyes of the mysterious woman in the room with them now. She was standing in the back of the room, seeming almost to blend in with the walls; she was part of the Machine, and an extension of the Mirrors. But was she human?

Felix saw the faces of the people in the room, and they were unfamiliar. Yet when he looked at their reflections in the Mirror... he saw himself, and the other people in the room with him now. But their familiar reflections were gaunt and pallid, with sunken eyes and forlorn expressions.

One by one, the prisoners fell asleep. Then a doorway opened in reality once more, and several men completely hidden by white, full-body environmental suits, took them and dragged them away.

They had failed to complete the Test in time. Maybe next time they would pass...


The connection broke.

Felix was thrown backward, as if by and explosion, and saw, only for an instant, a digital set of numbers appear on the Mirror's face. A timer. Counting down.

Three days remained.

OOC: By the way, that's three days in real time. If you don't pass, the RP will continue, but slightly differently.
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EmperorBobV
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(OOC: Huh...I guess that means I should post then...I'll post later today.)

~Bob
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Chrome
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Felix shot up, ignoring the pain he felt through will and adrenaline. "We already failed! We're on try number two and we only have 3 days to pass." Felix caught his breath, and looked around. "I watched, and now I know how to get out of here." Felix thought of the reflective images. "I don't know if how we see each other now is really what we are, I saw us, saw us fail, and we were... you know those pictures of people in German concentration camps? Yeah, that's what we looked like, may still look like." He thought of the city. "We can't go there, to the city I mean, they'll tear us apart and make us eat our own innards, it's only death. Or that's what it looked like. The mirrors can create things, specifically a door, a way out of here. We almost did it once I think, but we lacked the willpower to keep it up. We all have to will a door for our escape, all of us, and we have to do it before our time is up."
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Themistocles
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OOC: All roads lead to the City...
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FalloutJack
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Awesome to the Badass to the Chaotic Mastermind.
"Now we choose the other, the one called Felix, to be our prophet. You have spoken for us, now he will speak. Listen to his words. But you'll have another chance; everything is a Circle, and we will all be brought back to the beginning eventually."

And while Evan was being told and shown, he was learning for himself what the whole picture was, or close to it. He was almost certain of what the City, the Capital, was in reality. If he was right, then there was really only one course, but it was not the course that you might THINK he was taking, or that the City thought. Because his visionary quest was much shorter than Felix's, Evan heard the false-eyed woman cry out about the City and Capital. When she said it was alive, he believed her, because he knew in his heart what it had to be.

The city was a massive thinking machine.

It had to be. The only way for it to be 'alive' that he knew of was for it to be a conclave of machinery hooked up to a massive intelligence, directed to do whatever it is it was destined to do. The needs, the desires, and the plans of the City, Evan did not know. The City wanted THEM, though, and it was putting them through this to see what they were worthy for. How like a machine to catalog humanity like so many library books. If that were the case, then Evan was, right now, a cross between a few Stephen Hawking books and a Peter David novel set to the world of Babylon-5. Crazy, huh? But these notions gave way to an understanding which allowed him to answer that shouting woman.

He turned and faced the woman, pointing at her.

"You don't understand, because you're afraid. You've been put through so much that you forgot to show a little backbone. You think this is madness?"

Looking around, Evan found his own weapon in the pile, and pocketed it, expecting to go places soon that were largely unpleasant. He kept his glare on the woman-who-would-be-puppet-to-the-City.

"Sometimes, you have to face the madness in order to beat it. As it stands, though, it's actually Felix's turn."

As if on a cue, Felix was thrown from the mirror and slid past him. And when he started talking, it was a tad bit confusing. Did he mean he saw the future or the truth or...what? No, nevermind. It didn't matter, because it sounded like he had the plan, and the plan was good. It made sense. Evan immediately set his hand on the mirror like before. How comical. He was on the right track, but they all needed to take part. Ah well. No one can be a one-man-show.

"Well, you heard the man! Get to thinking!"

He did so himself.
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Kranford T. Butcher
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Kranford immediately got up from his seat. "If that's how we're getting out, then let's get to it, me boyo!" spoke the assassin as he holstered his pistol and put his hand to the mirror. He thought. Not just thoughts of the way out, but a way to Zoe, a way to his lost love. He had lost her once, he wasn't losing her again.
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S. Puma
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HOME DEPOT MAN!!!
(IC) Noting Cyphon, Oslo went to knocking at one of the more cracked mirrors. But as he looked at the mirrors, they seemed even more lethal, and everyone was talkign again. Why must theey all talk! God, this was all confusing. Maybe we are all mad, and maybe we can fail, how can you not fail something you cannot pass? Why is this all happening? And that woman speaking. Saying this was all a trap, all a test. And that we had to pass or else we will die. Of course the Russian wanted to kill the women, the beligerant, and he got some to support him. Why violence. Then he looked to a mirror, and got knocked back, and began to babble about things. And all this time there were mentions of a city, mentions of a city, the city of Babel.

The city. Cube, or city?

"City, we should go to the city."

"Guys, I think we should go to the city."
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Kranford T. Butcher
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"Then we shall go to the city," replied the hitman as his thoughts shifted.
Edited by Kranford T. Butcher, Aug 28 2009, 09:52 PM.
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Themistocles
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OOC: As you enter the City, the stuff entered in your profile description will become more and more important. Anyone who can think of something to add, please do. Yes, Bob, Shadow will be introduced soon. I'll throw in Zoe at some point too, Kranford, although I'll need you to tell me a bit about her first. Via PM is fine.

If you adjust your profile, please let me know, since that's the only way I'll be able to find that out. And Cyphon, you'll need to add a physical description. I believe you're the only one without one. I know I didn't originally ask for that, but things change.

Thank you.

IC: "WILLPOWER?!" shouted Gregory. "You think we need to WILL our way out? Are you really that stupid? We've been WILLING ourselves to leave for a long time; we've all been privately wishing, praying, lying to ourselves that we'd get out of this hellhole. It hasn't happened, has it? What you're doing, it's ALL WRONG!!!"

The young woman got unsteadily to her feet and nodded slowly at the assembled crowd, then nodded slowly. "He's... he's right. He must be right. We can't wish ourselves out; I've seen too many people waste away in front of the mirrors to think that it can be done. They will themselves out the whole time, convince themselves that it's all a hallucination.

"The City speaks to us, and it wants us to come," she continued hesitantly. "But we continue to fight against it. That's the Test: we turn on each other, we fight, we argue, we analyze, we judge... They--the people who are doing this to us--they're trying to see if we can break free of that. We need to break free of our will to fight. If we can submit to the City, just put our trust in it, I think it will take us there. We just need to stop resisting.

"But... but I'm scared... of what I'll find there. I'm scared of what they'll do to us when we get there. I've never been outside the lab, not that I can remember; this was where I was born. But people have told me about the world outside. Depending on what you look like, how you think, who your ancestors are, and where you come from, they put you in different levels of society. There are a few really rich people, organized in groups called Families--but they're not really related. And then there are millions of poor people. Lots of them aren't even considered Human, and they don't have basic human rights, like some of them can't eat proper food, or live in houses, or wear clothes... and everyone Human has slaves, and we could become slaves too... And everywhere there's chaos, and blood, and death... And the upperclassmen like to make people suffer, to torture them."

She took a great gulp of air, wiped tears from her eyes, and gestured to the part of her arm just below the shoulder, where a black bar code was imprinted. "And everyone who goes into the City gets a bar code on their arm. People with Human-status get it tattooed; everyone else's are branded onto them, or carved into them by machine. I've already had one done; maybe some of you already have one. And they'll tattoo other stuff too once we enter--ID numbers, Family symbols, status marks... The worst part is: They see us everywhere.

"I just want you to know, to understand. So that you can choose between whatever fate awaits you here if you fail, or the life I've described in the City. It's your call."

Gregory looked around and said loudly, "I've already made my decision. I'm going." And he fell to his knees, his muscles visibly relaxing, his mind submitting to the will of the higher forces at work.
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Cyphon
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Cyphon stands from his location in the corner of the room. "And just what good could come of submission to this thing. I mean honestly, the thing trapped us in a room that is full of trapped mirrors with no care if we made it out or not. They only reason we're here is to be tested because each of us has some unique ability that most do not. If we give up the will to fight, I'm fairly certain we won't be getting it back. I for one, have no desire to be a slave to some rich bastards. Even if that's not the fate we get if we went, do you honestly want to be a part of that fucked-up world?"

Cyphon looks at the woman that was bleeding all over the place."Altough, I would like to know, exactly how long did you think it would take before someone noticed that you go back an forth between what you say? If I remember correctly then you were saying nothing but blood and horror awaited us at the city not so long ago. Now you say we should submit to that city. And you know what else bothers me? You seem to know alot about what the more important people here have as their objectives and why. Now I find that just slightly odd. I don't think you're quite who you seem to be." With that he sits back down.
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Themistocles
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"You realize that you've lived in that fucked-up world your entire lives, before you came here, right?" said Gregory. "Your other option is to waste away in this lab, and be subject to whatever experiments they decide to put you through."
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S. Puma
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HOME DEPOT MAN!!!
(IC) "Yes, Kranford and the Russian are right. Look at us, we're assassins, hitmen, mercinaries, and many things beyond that. We're experts at hiding, at fading away. But we can't fade here, so it's better to go to some place that can. I'm just going wait here. I'll let them take me, I don't even know how I got here, but I would like to know how I got out. Wait for the inevitable, and prepare yourselves for what's next."

With Oslo's mind set, he sat back down and closed his eyes, trying to sleep.
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crazypyromaniac
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i know this sounds crazy, but there is a lot of crazy stuff happening. if we each imagine a doorway, or our own way out, we still might fail, or we could end up scattered. we might even have to join minds, add our thinking abilities (i guess gregory should stay out then, he thinks with the hair on his chest), but have one person do the thinking. that way, we can still be together. strength in numbers, or something like that.
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Cyphon
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Cyphon sighs. "It appears that I"m outnumbered. I suppose I'll go with you. Best not to get separated."
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Themistocles
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OOC: One day remaining.
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EmperorBobV
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(OOC: This is primarily a reintroduction post, since I haven't posted for so long)

Jack
 
"Actually, yes. Not...about Shadow, sorry. I thought I knew what I was doing before, but it didn't work. But...I think the point is to get to this city. I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Maybe both. We are definitely being manipulated, tweaked. It's not funny, and it's getting steadily worse."

Jim didn't even hear Evan. He just began staring at the mirror. There she was, only two feet from him. She was in a field. It looked so familiar, but why? Jim looked around. The mirror was gone. In fact, the room itself was gone. He was surrounded by tall grass. And there was Shadow, just out of his reach.

Jim stepped forward, but Shadow retreated. What's going on? Where am I? How did I get here? Jim started to run, but Shadow just got farther and farther away. Suddenly, Jim recognized the field. This was where he used to play with Shadow, about a half a mile from his old home. Jim stopped in his tracks. But that doesn't belong there... In the distance, there was a large building. That's the way Shadow was heading. Jim started running again.

As Jim approached the building, he realized what it was. But why would the his Family's home be here, in the middle of nowhere? Jim looked around again. The field was gone. He was standing in the middle of his neighborhood in the Capital. And there was Shadow again, just a few feet away.

Jim stepped toward Shadow, and she took off again. Jim ran after her. He ran across the street where he had first met Shadow. And then through the ally where he had been attacked by thieves. Jim turned another corner, and found himself in a hallway.

He spun around. The city was gone. In it's place was a a narrow hallway. There were doors on both sides, with Shadow standing in the middle of it. She looked at Jim and barked before heading through the only open door in sight. Where is she going? Jim sprinted down the hallway, turning into the room Shadow had went into. Shadow was in a cage, surrounded by the men from earlier (OOC: see post 39). They didn't even notice Jim enter the room.

Jim realized he was holding something. He looked down. In his hand, he found his gun. He aimed at the closest man, and fired.

The men disappeared. In fact, everything in the room disappeared. Shadow, the cage, the room. Jim found himself facing Evan, arm outstretched, gun in hand, trigger pulled.

Nothing happened. The gun was empty. Trembling, Jim lowered his arm, dropping the empty gun. He looked around. The room had changed, the walls gone, in their place, there were more mirrors. There were...beams of light stretching across the room.

Strangely, Jim knew everything that had happened while he was 'out'. It was like his mind was in both places, but he was only conscious of the one. (OOC: This is just for simplicities sake, so my character doesn't have to try to figure out what is going on.)

Jim thought about what Felix had said. We need to do something, but how can we be sure that we aren't being manipulated? Why is everyone assuming that whatever spoke to Evan and Felix is trying to help us? How do we even know that the memories of our previous lives are actually our memories at all? Jim didn't voice his concerns. Even if this was a trap, he wasn't going to be reunited with Shadow if something wasn't done.

"We don't really have a choice do we?" Jim said, finally speaking.

(OOC: Up until the point when Jim pointed his gun at Evan, he was (from the point of view of everyone in the room) just standing there, facing the mirror.)


~Bob
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Chrome
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Felix became frustrated at the resistance he was meeting, but he wasn't going to let that stop him. "Fine, all of you who DON'T FEEL LIKE ESCAPING, you know what? I'm gonna give you the finger, and do something proactive, like will that stupid door into being." Felix said, going through with his threat before approaching the mirror again. He pressed his hands against it and thought.

Door

Passageway

Arch

Anything, he filled his mind full of thoughts of the door, the way out. He was obsessed with the door, for it to be there, he'd never wanted anything more than that door, his life revolved around the door being there, there was no point in thinking about anything else because nothing else mattered, not the people in the room, not the Capital, not his friends or family, not even himself, the door was the be all end all, the only thing worth the precious commodity of conscious thought. It was a thing of beauty, the one thing he had to see before he died, if he could see this thing so fair, he might be able to die happy, no he WOULD die happy. This door was the most important thing that had ever happened to him, the people in this room, humanity, all sentient beings that had ever been or ever will be. The door was more important than any of them, the door would exist forever, it could, it WOULD, outlive the star with best longevity, the universe, all existence on all planes possible, and even those that were essentially impossible. It would outlast even that which he had once believed to always exist, God. The door would exist long after even God, after the universe ended infinity times over. The door is all that mattered, or ever would, or ever had.



OOC: If a door obsession like that doesn't even make the door partially visible, then nothing will. I'd think. :ermm:
Edited by Chrome, Aug 31 2009, 08:31 PM.
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Themistocles
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Every one of the mirrors suddenly changed, like television screens turning on. On each of them, the face of a man appeared. The man's face was slightly lined, but powerful, demanding. His hair and beard were cropped short, professional-looking, and a shade of metallic silver. His eyes were obscured entirely by shadow, making them impossible to see.

This was Aeschylus, the public representative--the public face--of the Capital.

"Very good," said the six giant projections of Aeschylus, one per mirror. "We are impressed. None of the other test groups--including the nine of you on your first try--did as well as you have done. We are pleased. Very much so."

His voice was authoritative and aristocratic, very crisp and precise. Slightly tinged with the accent of some European country. The voice echoed around the room, rebounding off the screens. From where it was coming, No one could be sure.

The young woman with the implants in her eyes was on her knees, trembling, staring at the six identical faces of Aeschylus with terror in her eyes.

"You came very close to escaping," Aeschylus continued swiftly, indifferent to the reactions of the people in the room. "In fact, you nearly opened doorways on several occasions. Incredible. You did not discover all the ways of opening them, but then, there are far too many ways for any group to think up. The Mirrors, you see, wanted to let you in.

"You see, the only reason you did not escape was because we did not let you escape."


Gregory gazed up at the projected images with a mixture of fury, horror, and awe.

"Why would we allow you to leave in the middle of our experiment?" the voice continued. "You were doing far better than any other group before you. We would not just let you go, surely you must have estimated that. No, we merely wished to see how many escape plans you could conceive of, how educated they were, how likely they were to work, and how the Mirrors responded to them. We have been analyzing the Mirrors' responses--they do feel emotions, even if not emotions that any human would understand. We have also been analyzing the workings of your minds. You are all hooked up to sensors and computers.

"We are now going to let you out. You will enter the City, or Social Complex IN-014. We will continue to observe you, but you may do as you please; you will not be graded on your actions during this time. You may be wondering about the nameless woman in the room with you. All we can say now is that she is known to us only by her identification number, 440211. You will each receive a similar identification number, as well as a bar code tattoo. Eventually, you will each receive a status indicator, which will consist of a pair of Greek letters. For now, however, you have no assigned status.

"When you pass through the door, you will be put to sleep, during which time we will conduct an operation on you. This is not optional. Then you will be sent through another door and enter the City. At an unspecified point in time, we will contact you and give you the objectives for your next Test, which will take place in the City.

"You will take subject 440211 with you. If she dies before the next Test, you will fail the Test automatically and be terminated. She will play an important role in the next stage of your Testing. As long as she is not permanently damaged, what happens to her does not matter; if you are unable to reach her when it is asked of you, we shall retrieve her for you, and your final score shall be lowered. She is, for now, under your possession; you have rights of ownership over her. Hopefully that will encourage you not to harm her. If you wish to free her from this bondage, that is acceptable as well. If you do not wish to refer to her as 440211, you may choose a proper name for her; her original name was Deleted long ago.

"If you have any more questions, please ask them now and we shall answer to the best of our ability. If you have none, we shall open the door, and you will go through. I have a feeling that is what you are longing to do now, is that not right, Felix Johnson?"
Edited by Themistocles, Aug 31 2009, 09:40 PM.
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crazypyromaniac
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"HA! There. See? I told you we shouldn't kill her," Loida says to gregory.
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Cyphon
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"I got a question. Why do you give so many fucking tests? What point do they serve?"
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Themistocles
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"My dear Cyphon," Aeschylus said, his face not changing position; his eyes' movements were still hidden utterly. "What would be the purpose of one test per group? We have collected the people in this group because each of you is a very unique individual, with mental, physical, and psionic abilities that others lack. We wish to see how you react to one another. When you failed your Test before, we wished to see if you could do the same thing again and succeed; you did not remember your first time running through the Test after all. Whenever you succeeded a Test, we moved you on to another. You are our cherry-picked collection; each of you has something different that we want, hidden in your genetic code. We wish to see the extent of your abilities, in a number of situations."
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S. Puma
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HOME DEPOT MAN!!!
(IC) "Well, I guess that's an answer. Not a good one, but something."

Oslo looked to the screen, then asked modestly, "Can we go now?"

Upon waiting for the answer or a response from his colleagues, Oslo began to whistle "Golden Hair Surprise".
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EmperorBobV
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Jim glared at the man in the mirror. "Where is she? If you truly wished to test my abilities, you wouldn't have separated us. Without her, I am nothing. My abilities, are nothing. Surely someone with your power couldn't be stupid enough to not realize that by now. Return her now, or I'll end these tests of yours right here." With the last few words, Jim dropped the empty gun, and returned his daggers to his hands.

~Bob
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Chrome
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Felix glared at Jim. "Let's not upset the omnipotent voice controlling when we live and die shall we? If we're being tested as a group that means you need to come with us, and I don't think you'll be able to end the tests so easily, we probably tried it before and we're still here. I don't know who you've lost, but if you rely on her to use your abilities to any extent you are gonna have to learn to do so without her someday, so you might as well start now. Speaking of now, let's focus on it." Felix said, and put his crowbar through one of his belt loops, and made sure his ruegers where holstered, and went over to the girl, subject 440211 or whatever. Felix helped her to her feet and threw one of her arms around his shoulders to help support her. "And right now we need to focus on keeping subject 440211 in our possession." Felix cleared his throat, "Hey testers, I'm ready to go, open the door please." Felix said in as nice a voice as possible, given his disgust for the situation he currently found himself in.
Edited by Chrome, Sep 4 2009, 07:08 AM.
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EmperorBobV
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Quote:
 
"Let's not upset the omnipotent voice controlling when we live and die shall we? If we're being tested as a group that means you need to come with us, and I don't think you'll be able to end the tests so easily, we probably tried it before and we're still here. I don't know who you've lost, but if you rely on her to use your abilities to any extent you are gonna have to learn to do so without her someday, so you might as well start now. Speaking of now, let's focus on it."

Jim barely glanced at Felix before returning his gaze to the man in the mirror. "They aren't interested in our individual skills. If they were, we wouldn't be in a group. So separating us seems to have no purpose. And if we really have been here as long as he says, then they already know the negative effects of separating us for long periods of time. Again, separation seems pointless. As for that day you refer to...when it comes, I'll no longer have any interest in living. But I'm sure our...friend already knows that as well. As for failing to halt the tests in the past...I believe a Mr. Palmer once said, 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.'"

~Bob
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Themistocles
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"We will open the door," said the voice of the man in the mirror, "as soon as everyone has had an opportunity to ask their questions. I know for a fact that they have some.

Each of the six projections of the face turned to face Jim. In other words, the face itself turned in six directions at once. "I will ask you not to concern yourself with this, Mr. Wood. I assure you that Shadow will be returned to you when you exit this facility."

Gregory's face worked dangerously for a moment, contorting itself into varying expressions of hatred and fear, but he said nothing.

OOC: Mike (MikeV37), a good friend of mine, has said that he might be leaving the forum, because he does not see himself receiving much free time during the school year. In the event that this happens, his character, Gregory Mikhailovich Rodovskyi, will remain permanently under my control.
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crazypyromaniac
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Loida looks at Aeschylus and asks "If we failed before, why have we suceeded now? why are you letting us go? In my experience, controlling delusional (maybe not in your case) males seem to never let anyone go once they have exerted control over them. What if we leave and then start a rebellion?". Loida tries to sense any sort of emotion coming from the man.


ooc--

i have a sense that this is what happened in the leet world, as in an omnipotent controlling voice (mr director).
Edited by crazypyromaniac, Sep 4 2009, 03:55 PM.
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Themistocles
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OOC: What the hell is a leet world? I've never heard of it. As I stated in the introduction, the world this RP takes place in is entirely of my own creation. It's actually a slightly modified version of the fictional universe I made up for the story/novel I have been writing.

IC: "But we have exerted control, Ms. Gervin," the face of Aeschylus replied. No emotion showed in his expression. "Countless rebellions have plagued our society, but none have ever succeeded; why should your small group surpass them? And I am hardly delusional, I assure you. Yet I am not the Capital; I am merely its face. We are not male; we surpass all the laws that bind human beings, gender included.

"To answer your first question, every test group receives multiple chances. We have carefully selected every member of your group; we would not dispose of you after just one failed Test. Besides, you did not fail them all, just the one your friend Felix saw in the Mirror. You are reusable."
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FalloutJack
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Awesome to the Badass to the Chaotic Mastermind.
There was a reasoning behind Evan's way of thinking on this matter of leaving. You see, he already knew the Capital was not a nice thing to be a part of, but - as he recalled - he was already a part of it. Not like neck-deep in how it worked, but rather that he understood the ways of the City and that he rejected them most heartedly. It was just that his way of dealing with things was that he dealt with them covertly. He didn't know what happened here or what exactly was going on, but now...as this FACE appeared here on all the screens, he knew welll what was going on. It was the Capital, telling them what to do and how to walk, left foot, right foot, shoulder arms, etc. To which, as Evan rejected the authority behind that face, you can understand how the wheels were turning around in his head right now with the guy talking. He did not like the City or the Capital, but ssince he almost certainly recognized that there was almost nowhere else to be led from this, well...

Sometimes, you have to face the madness.

The Capital, located in The City, where people have registration numbers gluing them to a state of being. Did this all sound a bit familiar? They were the prisoners. The Capital wanted information, and by hook or by crook, they'll get it. But Evan was not a number! He is a free man! He will go to the valley and speak to the dry bones to get them to rise up from the dead. Now, hear the word of the lord! Oh yes, they may not have a reliable way out because Number 2 over there decided to reign them in, but Evan had resigned from whatever position they had him in, and he would continue to reign against it. Evan will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered. His life is his own.

Why the hell did that pop into his head? Goddamn archway full of mirrors...

Evan sighed as the cube man of six started to answer questions. They were telling him nothing of any use at all. They were small and pointless. Why did we fail? How many times have we been here before? What's going to happen to us? This was not enough. There was much more going on here, bigger and badder than even the City, if you can believe it. Evan believed it. He had been shown. The only time he let his sympathy go for now was for Jim, who was perpetually worried for Shadow. If they didn't get her back to him, he'd do what he could to help. Animals were precious creatures in this world. Not like as in Blade Runner, per se, but still... Finally, it was his turn. He addressed the room, keeping his eyes and psychic senses keyed in for reactions.

"So, we're finally done here in your funhouse? Good. And hey, I'm so glad that you think we're recyclable. Good job. But, like the man says, questions. I have a billion questions, and I don't think you can answer them all."

He lifted his arms in a shrugging gesture there, and let them drop to his sides.

"We don't have all that time in the world, so I'll stick to what I call the most important ones. You say that the mirrors wanted to let us in and only your own power kept them from doing it, that our many attempts at escape were foiled by your hold. So...who is it that wants us out? What's behind the mirrors and beyond the archways? I have seen...but I'm not so sure that I know. It's all so jumbled up there in my head."

He had a suspicion in his head, as to why they were really putting teams of smart individuals up for testing in attempts to escape from incarceration, why they'd put them with a woman with fakes eyes and no identity, controlled by the city. Oh, he had SUCH an idea on that. It was very good. Very clever. But he wasn't even going to being it out of hindbrain for now. The walls have ears...and eyes, nose, and a mouth as well.

"You've been playing this very close to the vest, so close that we can't see the pocket lining. This thing you're testing for... Can't the Capital handle its own problems? If you're using some ragtag group of people to get things done instead of the City's best operatives, then you must be in alot of trouble. So, you're juicing your residents for the right kind of pulp to give you answers instead. Oh, but if you have to do that, then you already know what that means for the society you've created. Don't you?"

That was a question of which Evan already knew the answer. If the faces didn't answer to it, then they will have told him LOTS. In the meantime, Evan had one more question, moving around the room, looking at all the wall-faces.

"There is...one other thing, a personal curiosity, Mr. Face-Of-Our-Capital. You and I both know that you are just a face, the bone they throw at the City to speak the command line and maintain the status quo. You're the front-man, the representative."

He stopped, and looked at the ceiling face.

"You are Number 2, and your job is to make sure that City operations go smoothly. That's something I figured out on my own, because that is what you do. You are the face of the Capital, and the Capital assigns us all to our place. That is your place. So then, Number 2..."

Evan now faced the floor-projection of Aeschylus, standing over his nose and glaring into his eyes.)

"Who is Number One?"

OOC: It was something I had to do. I made a funny parallel between this and a show called The Prisoner. Them hasn't seen it, but I felt it funny to devote some of this post to it.
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Themistocles
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"We feel that you are stepping outside of your place, Evan Ramsey, the six faces of Aeschylus said calmly. "Not only your social status--which has little significance within our laboratories--but your place as a human being. What lies beyond those the Mirrors and the archways is not for you to know, nor to comprehend. And it is not our place to inform you either. What lies beyond them is beyond the scope of human understanding. You will only understand them if they allow it.

"Now for your next question: We do not need you to do anything. We are not turning to you for help. We are collecting data based on the reactions of various control groups extracted from society on different levels, in every sense of the term. We are evaluating you. You are an experiment.

"The time is drawing near when we will no longer require human beings to do our work; our machines will keep our society running. Before long, we will no longer need a human society at all; our machines will move on, as we cannot. Already we can use machines to do any job that you can. Our satellites see everyone, everywhere, with the means to obliterate enemies from orbit. People born within the Capital can be killed instantaneously, because of nanotechnology within their bloodstreams. The only reason we still have human soldiers is for the more delicate situations, and for the sake of psychological warfare. The satellites and their fellow machines will change everything.

"There are things, however, that machines cannot do. For this, we use you. We want to evaluate the efficiency of the human mind, and decide what needs to be modified, what needs to be deleted, what needs to be added. If you prove to be effective enough, you may be called upon for an important assignment... after you have undergone psychological tuning, of course. How do you think our Special Operations teams start out? About half begin like yourselves; the other half are specially bred. Sometimes, people are most effective when they are trained from birth; others, when they have lived life in the real world.

"Finally, I am not, as you say, Number Two. I am not I; I am We. Our society comes from We. We are the Capital, We are humanity. But We are more; We are what humanity has built. We are its cities. We are its machines. We are Civilization. We are Number Two.

"Number One is and are what has not been built by Man. Number One is and are the Machine, but not any machine of human design. Number One is and are both singular and plural, and many other things that we do not have words for. Number One is and are what lies beyond. Number One will be revealed to you when you pass through its and their Doorway.

"Any more questions?"
Edited by Themistocles, Sep 4 2009, 10:18 PM.
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Cyphon
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"You want some questions. Well, I have another one for you. How do we pass the rest of these tests and get out of you fucking bastards plans for the world?"

OOC: Why does this keep happening? My post was suppossed to be above Them's but he posted while I was reading all the other stuff.
Edited by Cyphon, Sep 4 2009, 10:22 PM.
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Themistocles
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"That was hardly a well-phrased question; we are not sure we understand what it is you said. But from what we could make of it, you want us to tell you how you pass the tests and escape our plans. Is that it?

"You can finish the Tests by doing exactly what we say, when we say. For now, simply walk through the door when it is ready, and do not allow subject 440211 to die.

"As for escaping our plans... dream on."

OOC: No, seriously, Cyphon: was I right about what you said? It wasn't very clear.
Edited by Themistocles, Sep 6 2009, 11:58 AM.
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Kranford T. Butcher
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"You'd be surprised how often dreams come true, you sparky little assmonkey." snapped Kranford, thinking of the capital burning with its satellite array in ruins. He looked at the subject with the special eyes. "Names, names, and more names. The wonders of what such a little thing can do for the human psyche, and amazing how much it can mean for someone to have a sense of who they are. We will need a name for her, so that she can get back in touch with that little slice of humanity she has left," he reflected to himself as his thoughts turned back to Zoe. Chopper had promised she'd be in a safe location, far from the reach of the Capital, far from the mess down below on earth. Perhaps that was the one thing that allowed Kranford to be somewhat at peace with himself; that his love still had her name, still had her humanity, and still had her life.
Edited by Kranford T. Butcher, Sep 7 2009, 08:11 PM.
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crazypyromaniac
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ok, that's great. so when do we get out of here?
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EmperorBobV
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(OOC: We can haz teleport? Or are we waiting for someone else to post?)

~Bob
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Chrome
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Felix heard Kranford "Names, names, and more names. The wonders of what such a little thing can do for the human psyche, and amazing how much it can mean for someone to have a sense of who they are. We will need a name for her, so that she can get back in touch with that little slice of humanity she has left." Felix rolled his eyes.
"You can call her Fuckface Mc'Gee for all I care at this moment in time. But how's about we do it when we have a little more room to breath? The only thing I want to do with this dead weight is make her less of a dead weight by getting her some food and water. Something other than these goddamn drugs. She's so malnourished- hell we probably all are- that she might die on us before the next test, and last I checked that meant failure and DEATH." Felix said. He didn't mean to sound heartless, but he was in survival mode at the moment. Though he had an idea. He looked to Loida. "You empath, start making her happy. I imagine she's overdue for some."
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crazypyromaniac
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"happy happy happy. how happy? happy enough, or so freaking escstatic she will do anythign and be happy about it? like cleaning the bathroom with her hair? but she's happy because i gave her too much? is that how happy you want her?" without waiting for an answer, she just generally broadcasts to the entire room a sense of happiness, but not too much. "sorry. it's just not been good for me in here. or any of us, but especially me. do you know what it's like to feel someone die? feel the agony of a drill going through their head? having all your bones broken, then being shot and carried like a sack of flower? it's been beating at me. there, i went on tirade again. sorry. let's just get the hell out of here."
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Chrome
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Since he didn't want the girl across his back to hear, he spoke to Loida telepathicly.

I've killed my fair share of people. I've gotten to savor their death, and I've never liked it, but I do it anyway. I'm well aware of how people are when they know you're the one who will kill them.
Felix flashed an image of a man he killed by slashing his Jugular. It's just the world we live in.
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crazypyromaniac
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Answering the same way, she said "But i'm not the one who killed them. i don't have anything to do with them, but i still feel their pain. that's what's bad about it. if it were me killing, i could take it, but i have to talke the pain for what other people do."
Edited by crazypyromaniac, Sep 16 2009, 04:45 AM.
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Themistocles
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OOC: Just to clarify: You guys often refer to the girl/woman (I haven't defined her age yet) as "the woman with cameras for eyes" or whatever. It is true that her eyes function as cameras. But just in case you didn't realize this, she doesn't have camera lenses sticking out of her eye sockets or anything. Her irises have nanotechnology implanted within them so that what she sees can be digitally recorded. But it's not like it's obvious when you look at her or anything.

IC: "NO!" the girl screamed, surprising them all. "Don't talk about death! Don't talk about it, just don't talk about killing people or being killed because it causes me PAIN--! Stop... it's doing things it... I don't know what you're saying but I know... know what you're talking about... It's going to happen, you know, it's going to manifest..."

She fell limp, though still conscious. A drop of blood squeezed through the makeshift bandage covering her eyes and fell onto the floor, seemingly in slow motion.

The room began to vibrate. Not a vibration of matter but a vibration of space and time, a rippling through the cosmic fabric. Space distorted itself in a convulsive, silvery mass. Next moment, a corpse was sprawled on the floor at the girl's feet. The dead body was bleeding profusely; someone had sliced his jugular vein...

The faces of Aeschylus faded away, but he was still watching.

The door had still not opened.
Edited by Themistocles, Sep 16 2009, 05:51 PM.
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Chrome
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"Yeah yeah yeah the mirrors reflect our thoughts and can make them appear before us whoop die fuckin' doo. Just because I see him again doesn't change the fact that the actual person is long dead. I've gotten over it. I may not have liked killing him, but I don't regret doing it either." Felix shifted her weight again to better hold the woman. "I'd say we're done here."
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Themistocles
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"I see them all..." whispered the nameless girl. "Not just him, dead people and death and death and dead people..."

Not one inch of the floor could be seen now, because it was covered by a layer of mutilated corpses, all sewn to one each other at grotesque angles. Bloody bootprints covered the bodies where a uniform line of men appeared to have trampled them.

"Oh my god..." Gregory whispered. "Stop it! Stop it now! Everything she thinks about becomes real!"
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