WEEK 1

[strangerpeople]

WEEK 1

[You now know why you're here, Titled. The question now is, is there a way to get out of here without invoking the rules? What will those who brought you here do to get you to kill?

Time will tell.

There are fifteen strangers in this place.]

Comments

[eyesofdespair]

So by new development you mean the pandering to greed?

[foolishjustice]

More the evidence that they are willing to make attempts to incentivize us toward murder, beyond hoping for our desperation to escape. They didn't wait very long, either, so they're clearly quite impatient.

[eyesofdespair]

It's plain as day that desperation to escape isn't going to work. Not as long as our needs are taken care of here, at least.

[foolishjustice]

Assuming nobody was taken from something vitally important...or believes that they were. If someone were in a position where their absence would spell disaster, it would put an entirely different sort of pressure on them to escape as soon as possible.

[eyesofdespair]

If that were true, then why wait this long?

[foolishjustice]

If their principles and desperation were at war, it could cause them to hesitate somewhat. Of course, our captors may not be able to conceive of a person who would wait in hopes of another way out under such pressure, and may believe that if they didn't kill someone immediately, it was simply because they weren't desperate enough...

[eyesofdespair]

Exactly. So what they are doing is adding something to either remove that hesitation or to make them more desperate.

[foolishjustice]

That's only one possible explanation for their impatience, however. That...girl from the day before yesterday made it seem as though our presence here is to serve a greater purpose. I wonder if they might be operating under a time limit.

[eyesofdespair]

Who knows? I personally found her annoying. What I wonder about is that punishment if the killer is caught or the punishment for everyone if they aren't caught.

[foolishjustice]

...Where I'm from, punishment for murder is either imprisonment or execution. Seeing as we're already imprisoned, and it would be pointless to restrict us further...

[eyesofdespair]

Same where I'm from, but we don't have a punishment for failing to catch a criminal. That's the question, is the punishment for the rest of us different or is execution the form of punishment for anything here?

[foolishjustice]

Considering the Life Coach spoke as if it's only possible for one of us to escape in such a manner, I expect so. Otherwise, it could become a cycle of repeated escapes and punishments for the innocent survivors.

[eyesofdespair]

Though it's more likely to become a cycle of repeated attempts at escape and innocent victims.

[theirmagic]

That's exactly what it is.

[ HUFFHUFF. ]

And what a rude text, to boot! You'd think our supposed "offer" would be nicer-sounding.

[eyesofdespair]

And yet there must be a reason why this was offered. They know enough to make profiles, perhaps they also know what will motivate us to kill.

[theirmagic]

...

[ That has her fall silent for a long moment. ]

... Unless they can mysteriously change the past... a magic that's ultimately forbidden in the best of circles... I doubt they know me as well as they seem to think.

[eyesofdespair]

You think something being forbidden matters much to a person willing to pay for someone to kill?

[theirmagic]

I would hope that it does, considering changing the past can have absolutely dire consequences on the future. There's a reason such magic is forbidden in practice.

[eyesofdespair]

You might give them ideas if you say things like that.

[theirmagic]

A-ahhh... n-no, certainly not! No one would be that foolish, as I said!

[ Nervous? Her? Never. ]

[eyesofdespair]

[Well, it certainly is easy to rile her up.]

So tell me, what happens if someone does something "forbidden"?

[It may sound unrelated, but the rules did state that the killer would be punished if caught and if not caught everyone else would be. Whoever decides to kill is also going to have to decide that the potential risk of punishment if they fail is worth making the attempt on top of not caring about taking a life.]

[theirmagic]

Well, aside from suffering changing fate itself and the domino affect that could have, I... don't know. I just know it's a punishment even worse than the one for raising the dead, and the one for that is so unimaginably painful and terrible you'll wish YOU were dead, or so they say.

[ ... So... ]

[eyesofdespair]

Assuming they are caught, of course. Whether they are or not, seems like everyone else also is punished for having to deal with the effects. Sounds a bit like our rules here, doesn't it?

[theirmagic]

... They would be caught. Altering things on that scale is always traceable.

[eyesofdespair]

But it is also foolish to think someone won't think themselves above that possibility or that even if they are traced that they can evade capture. Something being forbidden can actually be a strong temptation by itself.