WEEK 1

[strangerpeople]

WEEK 1


[So, once Zero has said his peace, everything is quiet as the week dawns. A new Game. Nonary, Decision, Murder. All three. It doesn't matter. Everyone is here to kill or die. The coin has been tossed, the die is cast. The rules are set; the watches are active.

The question now is, why? Why is this happening? Why you? Surely no one is so desperate to kill on this ship, right? Not when the people onboard are so interesting and varied. Perhaps everyone can get along; perhaps there's a way off the ship without bloodshed. Of course, if there is, it might be be best to be prepared for a long stay-there's no doubt Zero won't make it that easy to escape. Then there's the matter that-apparently-people have new powers they did not possess before, while those the strangers once had are gone. Perhaps it's time to test those out and see what they can do if you're not Kira.

So, let's see what happens this week. Hopefully it will be a peaceful one.

There are currently 19 strangers on this ship.]

Comments

[godspiousjasper]

[ There's a pause as he looks between them, very clearly confused. ]

Hm? Patch job? I get the feeling I have missed something.

[autonomousthought]

[Distress, as she feels around her throat. It really is...leaking....that. Certainly implies...

Ritsu thinks what she's feeling now must be horror.]

I...didn't... This really is a corpse, isn't it?

[That's why it's cold. That's why the bruises she's gotten from crashing into things haven't healed at all. That's why...her head has been...]

[superstylishsquid]

Deep breaths. You think your body is already dead?

[godspiousjasper]

[ What Ritsu says absolutely does not match what he can see of her, and that has his expression shifting a little to something a little more grim. ]

Miss Ritsu... could you perhaps explain why it is you believe your body is... a corpse? To me you look perfectly healthy.

[ He's having a slight realization of sorts himself here. ]

[autonomousthought]

[Deep breaths. She can do deep breaths. She doesn't know if they're helping, but she can do them.]

This is not my body. None of this should be possible, but Zero said it was to give me a greater level of autonomy for the purpose of the game - I assume this means it was because the closest I have to a real body is almost completely immobile. This does confirm we're in reality and not any kind of simulation, I think.

I've been told that I'm cold. Injuries I received shortly after waking up haven't healed at all. And...this. [She brushes the stitches around her neck.] This...suggests how he died, doesn't it?

[...

She looks at Roland.]

But, you referred to me as a girl right away, didn't you? So what...are you seeing?

[superstylishsquid]

It...probably does. You don't heal at all?

[godspiousjasper]

[ A lot of it didn't entirely make sense, not until he thought about it.

When he remembered that she'd said that she needed help with walking, he hadn't thought it was something like this. He didn't admittedly understand what she meant by how her 'real body' was almost completely immobile, but focusing on the rest was absolutely important here.

Her wounds didn't heal, and Roland had been aware of her cold but hadn't tied it to this until they were talking now. If this body was truly a corpse? It just meant Zero was crueler than he truly had first suspected. ]

The... you I see right now? A young, petite teenage girl with bright blue eyes and vibrant purple hair. Reminds me a lot of freshly bloomed lilacs.

[ As it stands? Roland truly had started putting the pieces together of how his power was working, even if a lot still could be learnt about it. ]

[autonomousthought]

Not to my knowledge, anyway. I might be more certain if I had anything other than bruises, but I've been a little reluctant to test it. I only have half a week's worth of experience with pain.

[And then. Roland. That's...a lot to take in, and she feels some type of way about it but she can't identify or untangle what that way is. Maybe Keith will help her later.]

That sounds like you're seeing my avatar...but not the rest? [No primary unit. No screen. Oh, the emotions are complex.]

[superstylishsquid]

Not something you'd wanna test with an open wound, anyway.

[He knows of many kinds of spirits that inhabit non-living matter, but corpses...are only really suitable if you can re-start biological processes. She'd have been better off in a mannequin...]

I'm seeing what's generally considered a male body, with stitches around the neck. Like the head's been cut off and re-attached.

[godspiousjasper]

[ Half a week's worth of experience with pain? Oh Lord above, he wants to ask about that, but is more interested in her response to what he'd said in regards to her appearance. ]

Your avatar? Is there supposed to be more that i'm not seeing?

[ Roland glanced over to Alastor with surprise briefly flashing across his face. So Ritsu's body here was a male's and her reaction earlier with touching her neck would indeed fit with what the Devil was telling him.

He breathed out a stuttering laugh, going a touch pale. When coupled with the incident earlier on this week? ]

I can only surmise me seeing her differently is due to the power I have been given on this ship. There could be no other explanation for it.

[autonomousthought]

It's a little bit difficult to explain... My avatar is a human appearance I display on my screen. Initially I was given one just so I'd have a face for documentation reasons, but now it's very useful for ease of communication. I think of my avatar more as me than my main computational unit.

Maybe that's why you're seeing only the avatar, and not the whole machine...

I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm not human and never have been. I'm an AI - a technology developed by humans to mimic intelligence as humans understand it. Specifically, I'm a weapon designed to seek and analyze patterns and use them to kill efficiently. I am the first and only one of my kind. There are a lot of aspects of human life that my parents considered unnecessary for my mission, so they were entirely impossible for me.

[She will...stop there. That might be a lot to take in, but it does cover all the basics. Most of them.]

[superstylishsquid]

A killer AI? Sounds like something Charles would think up...but I can imagine why they didn't want to leave you with that body. Not exactly conductive to playing their twisted games.

Putting you in a corpse, though...that's just insulting.

[autonomousthought]

That's right. A killer AI, and a student of assassination.

...It also begs the question...why only me? [Her gaze falls on Hermes. And his distinctly robotty appearance.]

[godspiousjasper]

[ Just like discovering Televisions, this sure was a thing he was learning. It took a second for even a modicum of understanding all settled in, so it let the two continue their conversation for a moment. ]

So your original body was some kind of large machine and you exist as some kind of artificial being that mimics human intelligence who learns how to kill more efficiently as a student assassin. I think I understand that correctly.

[ He exhaled a breath, then put some thought into things for another couple seconds. Ritsu had brought up a good point about why it was that she was being given this treatment and not Hermes. ]

That I am not quite sure of, but it just seems unnecessarily cruel to have done this to you alone.

[superstylishsquid]

Maybe it has something to do with how easily you can each get around? Hermes doesn't seem to be having any trouble being a nuisance.

thank you for rolling with my dumb mistake /o\

[autonomousthought]

[She nods, Roland has a good understanding. ...And Alastor has a good point.]

It's true my primary unit is bolted to the floor, and is only mobile underwater. And otherwise I inhabit my classmates' phones and the cloud. None of those options would let me move freely onboard a ship.

np!

[godspiousjasper]

[ For half a second he truly wants to ask what a 'cloud' is as he doubted it was something like one of the many in the sky. Though he pushed that aside, humming a little. ]

I do imagine it would be hard to power such a device like the one that housed you, even if they had found a way to make it mobile.

[ Roland shook his head, brows knit into a frown. ]

That said? I... believe they wanted YOU at the same level as the rest of us, in a body that could be easily killed. [ A scoff. ] I still find it distasteful that they put you into a corpse, which... shouldn't be possible.