cradleproject | WEEK 11

[Listening to all of this quietly. He's actually growing a little angry, listening to this, for reasons he's not fully sure he understands himself.]

We've spoken a lot about whether or not they'll try not to kill. Do I need to be the one to point out we've got options, too? We're down to fourteen, and the longer this game continues, the more we'll lose. There are still souvlaki among our number. They've also lost half their number from this madness.

We could save all of them. End the game for them. If it's right that someone there will surely kill, then we have the chance to give this ship up for lost and let all of them go.

[His voice comes out a little more harshly than intended. He sighs for a second, massages at his temple.]

I'm not proposing we do it. Dying a martyr has been out of fashion for years; it will utterly ruin my appeal. But we ought to think of it. They'll be thinking of it. I should think we owe them and ourselves better than to pretend we don't have options.

I don't want to die, but they have James.

[Jessie is here being almost too quiet herself...at least inwardly. She looks absolutely pissed off the entire time she's sitting there.]

Why don't we just kill Alice, maybe that will count for something.

I think killing Alice may defeat the purpose of keeping ourselves alive. [Since, you know, they need her to breathe. And since, also, the other ship wants us purged.]

Personally, I think it unlikely that no one on the Nuwa will kill.

The only worry I have is whether they've been given the same choice as we have. What Alice is calling the prisoner's dilemma doesn't match the motive we've been given here. Her literary analysis has always been somewhat poor. But if the AI in charge of the Nuwa doesn't have a similarly shoddy grasp on reading comprehension, they may have been given a different choice.

At least entertain the idea for a few minutes. It's okay to dream about nice things.

[And she's extra pissed at Alice this week because Todomatsu isn't here. It's even worse to know that she saw one of his brothers dying in the video montage.]

Just like every week, it boils down to some sort of bizarre threat that shouldn't be possible. We might be overthinking it, but it's impossible to tell, which is even more annoying.

This one seems somewhat more plausible than most. The question is, whether Alice and the AI at Nuwa would actually follow through. Would they really purge either ship, both, on a whim of chance? Would they really end the game for someone?

I'm not sure how much to believe it.

It'd be nice if you shut up.

[it comes out as more of a snarl than she intended, a bit of an odd thing with the way she's looking not really at people.]

Lady Alice doesn't want us all to die based on some heartless protocol, and you repay her like this?

It's the AI's fault so many people already died. [Clover's pissed, but her fit from earlier has smothered her fire some. Even so, she's sharp, if quiet, and she won't call their host "Alice." It doesn't deserve that name.] And more people are going to. This wouldn't be a problem in the first place if it wasn't for her, we don't owe her shit.

So you'd rather we all die.

[sorry Clover, while your passion has gone down, Grell's is only rising.]

Alice didn't put weapons in those people's hands. They chose to go along with the motives. We could have had weeks where no one killed, if everyone chose not to. Don't blame her for everyone else's human failings.

I'd rather this never have happened in the first place! I'd rather we got to stay home where we belonged! [And now she's getting mad, struggling to keep her voice steady.] It's just as much her fault for putting us here in the first place! She did put weapons in our hands, she offered them from the start! There wouldn't be mines and turrets without her, we wouldn't be on a place filled with killer aliens without her—it's just as much her fault, it's her fault my brother is dead! Don't expect us to be grateful!

I expect people to be grateful Alice hasn't purged us!

[and it breaks through the deadness in her eyes, and when she looks at Clover there's nothing but ice, every word she chooses landing heavy and frigid.]

Alice was constructed. She was told what to do. If you want to blame someone, blame them! Blame those who sought to somehow subvert the laws of nature. The killers chose to kill - they're not innocent. They accepted the blood on their hands - and Alice is not the reason Light is dead! The Souvlaki are, and they weren't supposed to be here at all! If you want to do something with yourself instead of sitting in your misdirected grief and rage, if you want your brother's death to not be a simple fact of something that happened, help us find and exterminate the rest of them, for god's sake.

Shut up, shut up! Don't act like I'm not trying, don't act like there's anything that matters more to me than taking down everyone and everything responsible for my brother's death!

[And now she's utterly hysterical, maybe only half-listening to Grell if anything, standing and screaming and wobbling in place because it takes so much out of her to be this angry.]

But this is her fault too, I'm not going to be grateful that she's only deciding now we're worth refusing protocol over! Roxy and Emily are dead because she took her sweet ass time getting to the execution, my brother is dead because she brought us here in the first place and gave an alien a turret, Arumat is dead because she told someone to solve her problems for her but didn't tell him how, Machias is dead because she put a mine in Adelina's hands! It's her fault, too!

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My, there's no need to throw a tantrum, is there?

[She says this knowing full-well that she's the tantrum thrower around here. But maybe to Grell's surprise, she continues.]

...But you're right. Alice's motives are annoyingly complicated, she and I are just in the middle of something.

[Hence why she only wants to joke about leaving Alice and living happily ever after but can't suggest it seriously.]

[ooc; this became a serious conversation apparently while I was seeing the doctor so feel free to ignore this if you want Grell not to hear it! /o/;; Sorry!]

[Adrien's here. But Alya's there. A few weeks ago, Marinette would have flared up with Shounen Heroism, but she's just tired now.]

We don't know how many aliens are still left. One, or two, or even more than they said.

[Hesitating when she speaks up. This needs to be discussed, but it doesn't feel as though Adrien or Marinette ought to participate in the decision making. Speaking of children... But after a moment of weighing, the thought wins out that the two of them have earned the right not to be condescended to.

Carefully making sure Dave is not within earshot before replying.]

We lost three to the first souvlaki, but it could easily have been more. Four to the latest, and that's not counting injuries. Another four were lost between trials, though fortunately it's been some time since. There are ways to minimize casualties going forward, I think, but even so. If there's two or more left, that isn't much leeway. If we kill this week, we'll have twelve survivors. The truth of it is, we cannot last much longer.

But the other truth of it is, the dead may not be completely lost to us. They're still aware enough to be trying to help us. They've helped us more than most of you know.

[okay so Clover has firmly established that Fuck This Guy but that last bit catches her attention and she actually leans in, voice quiet and cold.]

What do you mean they've helped us more than we know?

[if the fact that she's actually talking to him isn't enough indication, the look on her face screams that he should probably be careful how he answers this; most people she cares about are dead and this is highly relevant to her interests.]

[Reakly obviously unsettled by the fact that she's talking to him at all. That wasn't what he was planning to happen he thought they'd had an arrangement. But yes. Okay. He'll just be very matter of fact and impersonal in his response.]

After the Furry Passing update a few weeks prior, some characters representing those who died here have been sending brief messages to a few individuals. At first it seemed an obvious hoax, but there have been a few potentially corroborating details. I don't know how many of us have been receiving messages; we've been told to keep the information close. But that hardly matters now. Dave was one of the ones they were speaking to.

Wait, what? What kind of information?

[and wow leave Dave alone that's not his fault smh]

[Listen it is absolutely not Dave's fault but also it's a huge disaster. The whole reason they were hiding these things was to keep the aliens from finding out.]

What little they can piece together from where they are. They have access to information sometimes. Much of it we've eventually learned here ourselves, but belatedly.

I'm sorry, I wish I could say more, but I can't tell you more than what Dave already knew. Still, I trust them. I trust the information comes from a helpful place, and I trust that at least in some sense, we really are communicating with them.

That's... Insane.

[he'd gotten the corrupted letter from Frankenstein but hadn't believed it, and even though he was ready to accept the potential "revival" through the project, the actual speaking with the dead part is a bit... much.]

How can... where are they?

[His lip twists slightly in concern at the question, remembering something.]

Somewhere else. I thought on the ship somewhere, but it turns out they may literally be inside the Furry Passing game. At any rate, it's nowhere we can get to.

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[listen as much as she enjoys (or like, as close to enjoying as she can do anymore) watching Dorian squirm because of her, she doesn't like breaking the status quo either? and apparently this answer disappoints her because she just flops back into her seat, arms crossed, frowning.]

That's nothing new. [mutter mutter harrumphs, she was expecting new information!!! but she's back to the usual furiously ignoring him now, things are back to the way they should be.]

[Internally rolling his eyes!!! They can talk to the dead, no big deal. Why couldn't he share something cool! But know, he assumes from her words she's received a message, too.

So, he'll add one more thing. He doesn't want to mention what he learned about the motive last week; it's too likely to upset her and then where will he be? But he does think she deserves to hear what he knows, so he'll take the risk just a little.]

Last week, the AI offered us something entirely impossible, as she does each week. For the first time, however, it was an impossible offer she would have been forced to prove. Think of what it would have meant, if someone had succeeded, and she wasn't able to do what she'd offered.

[He doesn't trust the motives, but that one, at least - he doesn't think it would have been a motive if it wasn't possible for her to make good on her word. And Alice privately confirmed to him that someone who died on the ship would have been revived right away.]

You must, and will, make up your own mind, I imagine. Just a thought.

I know. I wasn't fast enough -- I'm sorry. [He obviously wasn't accusing her, but she flinches anyway because she's blaming herself like an idiot.] But-- in future trials, I think we should subdue the suspects around voting time. That way, if we get an alien.... maybe... we have to protect whoever's left.

[Marinette listens to the rest of this explanation, but it seems just so surreal.]

The Furry Passing thing... I thought it was a joke. But-- Alice already has the power to revive the dead, doesn't she? Or--- perhaps they're not really dead after all.

Neither was I. Hard to be faster than someone who can run down a hallway in under five seconds. But I had the same thought. I've even just the spell for it. We'll do better next time.

[Trying to give her a reassuring smile even though that's very upsetting. Don't blame yourself, Marinette.]

I thought it was a cruel hoax at first, too. And I can't say how it's possible, but the motive last week convinced me. I don't think Alice would have offered something to us if we could easily prove she wasn't capable of it. I even took the opportunity to ask her, privately, to assure me that if I went, my chosen target would be resurrected and brought to the ship immediately, to see how she'd respond. [Don't get him wrong, he was never planning on it.] She said yes. Therefore, I believe that she believes it possible.

I also gave Adelina a message to convey before she died. They knew not only what I had told her to say, but what it meant, even though my grammar in Old Tevene is atrocious.

We will. [But it sounds hollow even to her own ears]

[On the other hand, being dead inside means she can't even bring herself to be mad at Dorian, so while ordinarily she'd get suspicious and snap at him, she doesn't have much of a reaction to this]

Communicating through the dead.... So, if they have access to Furry Passing, they must exist somewhere, right?