WEEK 1

[strangerpeople]

WEEK 1

[Awaken.

Fifteen strangers have been gathered to the Depths.

When the strangers awaken, they will feel nauseous in their stomachs. No doubt confused. Maybe a little sick, Perhaps, even terrified. And certainly, there is a good reason for it - they are not where they were before. If they had powers back where they came from, they seem to be all gone. And it appears that someone has left...guidelines for them. All of them addressed to a specific Title.

Their Title. Somehow, each person knows, upon seeing this, this is their Title, even if it seems to make no sense whatsoever. And its clear that whoever wrote these things knew it as well. Who was it?

Its uncertain. So far, there seems to be no one else save for them, and those who dare to venture out of their rooms - save, for some reason, the individuals in rooms 1, 8 and 7 - in this hot and stuffy place. No...'intercessor' to be seen yet, certainly. No outward signs that there's anyone else aside from the people with 'Titles'.


So, Titled: welcome.

There are fifteen strangers in this place.]

Comments

Study

[carries_war]

[Rubedo's always been told not to address people outside the Institute unless spoken to first, but...this young woman is speaking in a general sense and he's here, so that's sort of like speaking to him, right? So he approaches, with an oddly formal stiffness to his movements.]

I haven't seen anything here that runs on any sort of electricity or energy transfer. I think our enemy only plans on giving us access to technology that matches medieval Lost Jerusalem.

[socialhacktivist]

[...it makes sense from that aspect, but it doesn't stop her from dropping her head back against the arm of the couch hard. It's frustrating to be a hacker in a world of no electronics.]

What the heck?! That's just barbaric.

[No, literally. What kind of place has an armory-- but nothing remotely resembling electronics?]

...but you're probably right. They're probably afraid we'd rig up some sort of bombs to blast out of this place.

[...you know. That sounds really good. Dammit.]

[carries_war]

Or send out a distress message. That's probably why they seem to have nullified my powers, too. Otherwise, the rest of the URTV force would know exactly where to find me. And I don't think dad would take too kindly to someone stealing me from the Institute.

[socialhacktivist]

Even if we had them, I seriously have to question what kind of signal we'd get here, much less guaranteed network access.

[So she doubts there's really a lot they could do-- even if she'd love to be trying that right now instead of having no clue what to do...]

Wait-- they took your powers? Then what was all that stuff about "use your power wisely" or whatever?

[carries_war]

I don't know. I feel a little different in a way I can't really explain, but I definitely know my URTV powers and my Ethers are all shut down. I can't sense any of the other units at all.

[socialhacktivist]

[When he said they probably shut off his powers to avoid a distress signal, a bit of suspicion lodged itself in her brain. She seems to mutter to herself for a moment.]

Nah... but what if...

[The idea of him 'sensing other units too'...]

Wait a second. Are you some kind of Artificial Intelligence? Like... a robot?

[It sounds crazy but listen. She's already encountered her first pervert and a walking skeleton, so--]

[carries_war]

A robot? Nobody's used those for combat applications in over a century. I'm a URTV, a type of artificially created and genetically enhanced humanoid bioweapon.

[socialhacktivist]

[Okay, so, the idea of such a thing in practice is crazy but she understands the concept well enough.]

What the heck is something like that doing here? Walking, talking skeletons and now an artificially created bioweapon? It's more than just 'the timelines don't match up'... this is just downright insane.

[But she's definitely not the weirdest one here, that much is for sure. And that in and of itself is pretty amazing.]

So wait-- do you have some kind of control panel? Or is it all internal?

[....FUTABA DON'T THINK ABOUT TAMPERING WITH THE BIOWEAPON.]

[carries_war]

What? No, I'm not mechanical at all. Anatomically speaking, I'm very similar to a human, and I have the same level of independent thought.

[socialhacktivist]

Woaaaah. That's some pretty advanced stuff. There's no way Japan could pull of something like that at this stage. And we're pretty advanced ourselves.

[So whoever or whatever was responsible had to be pretty freakin' powerful. She sounds pretty interested honestly. But that brings up something a little less cool...]

...and yet our captors shut you down just like that. I guess the people who brought us here are even scarier.

[carries_war]

It's...not impossible that the same kinds of techniques that shut down Ethers could also block our powers that require activation. But the fact that they were able to break the spiritual link and reduce my physical abilities so much is pretty impressive.

[socialhacktivist]

I guess we'll have to figure out just how they managed to pull that off if we want to get those powers up and running. I have to figure out what those jerks did with my phone if I ever want to figure out if they messed with my powers too.

[Because she's pretty sure she can't just summon Necronomicon here even if they didn't mess with her abilities.]

[carries_war]

They probably did. The guy with blue and pink hair said his senses were messed up, just like mine. They probably got rid of all of our powers, so we can't use them to escape.

[socialhacktivist]

Yeah, I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure I'm missing something too.

Seems like teamwork is probably our best option if we want to get out of this mess.

[carries_war]

Yeah. We're not in a position with a lot of power, so none of us are likely to be able to solve this problem on our own. Unless someone tried to use Order 7, but I don't think it would be good to find out what happens if you do that and get caught.

[socialhacktivist]

Even if nothing happened, everyone would know what they did. It would be like putting a huge target on your back.

[carries_war]

I doubt it, unless they stopped counting for Orders Seven and Eight. Then it'd just turn into another Inquisition right away.