WEEK 11

[al2955]

the pygmalion. . . ONLINE CAPTAIN'S LOG: WEEK (11)

monday - thursday (14) survivors Sunday's trial was only mere hours ago, but you find yourself faced with a new week on The Pygmalion. When you awaken, you will find the ship restored to its previous state, all areas interfered with during the murder looking mostly the same as they did before. It seems you have more exploring to do. The robot in the cafeteria has prepared another breakfast of various foods. (OOC: Please submit your murder proposals by 9 PM EST Tuesday.) taken list profiles private conversations setting rulebook murder proposals ENTER COMMAND_

Comments

[antietam]

[ Internally screaming but ok he can deal with this. ]

The options that are presented are... letting us die or letting them die. So we need to find another way. A loophole. There has to be something.

[tevinteriscoming]

How do we test the loophole? And what do we do in the meanwhile? There's a fairly straightforward dichotomy of choices. [And since, for obvious reasons, this was already on his mind earlier in the week.] We don't have much time to figure something out before the souvlaki make the decision for us.

[antietam]

I mean, how can we prevent the souvlaki from doing anything in the first place?

And... I don't know if we can do anything individually, but River must be able to. We have to appeal to her somehow.

[tevinteriscoming]

Of course we can prevent the souvlaki from killing. [A little more snappish than he means, sorry Adam. And very resolute for a dude who has been doing pointless patrols the past two weeks, but.]

It's never mattered before because plainly we were never going to be given a fair shake to avoid Alice's trials no matter what we did. But there are only fourteen of us, and if we must do this, we can do this. We can make it impossible for the souvlaki to strike.

Appealing to River is a good idea. But in the meanwhile we must prevent the souvlaki from acting.

[antietam]

[ That's fine, he's not in a great mood either. He barely seems to notice. ]

Alright. How? It takes too many of us to even get close to killing them. You told me yourself, we're probably not going to survive them at this rate.

[tevinteriscoming]

Haven't you noticed they never use their alien form until after they're caught? I don't think that they can. Our real concern isn't fighting them, it's the proximity mine and the turret.

...We assign groups of three, with no member of the group who would be capable of subduing the others. We communicate with one another via text and don't sleep unless in shifts of one. We remain on the middle deck - the upper deck and lower deck are too spacious, and there are dangerous items there.

[douchemag]

Like...what, faking someone's death? Fool Ass Lice into thinking someone bit it?

[Surprisingly enough, he doesn't sound sarcastic here - he has no desire to die, but any option that doesn't involve just playing along with what Alice wants is something he's eager to hear.]

[antietam]

[ If Judar's sounding serious, he'll go along with it. He has no other ideas, honestly. ]

Sure, maybe. There are ways to get someone close to death. But what's going to stop River from communicating that someone's died over here, and then the Nuwa's gone?

[douchemag]

...tape her mouth shut? [LOOK HE STILL HAS NO IDEA HOW COMPUTERS WORK OKAY] There's gotta be some way of shutting her up. Hell, she barely tells us jackshit already, it shouldn't make that much of a difference.

[antietam]

[ ??? Judar do you think River is a real person. ]

So, what, do you think if we stop her from communicating with the Nuwa AI altogether, maybe nothing would happen? The Nuwa AI just assumes... I don't know, River went faulty again.

[douchemag]

[listen he's completely given up understanding just what the fuck Alice is other than TERRIBLE]

Not like the first time that's happened. And yeah, they can't purge either of us if they have no fucking clue what's going on, right? No idea how we'd be able to do that other than fuck Alice up though.

[bloodteller]

You know that won't work.

[ there's a hand on judar's arm, as yuno steadies herself. tears stain her cheeks, but she looks up toward him with conviction. ]

We need a body. A real body. [ and with a tight inhale, her voice comes with the barest hint of quake in it. ]

If we need that body, it can be me. By Sunday, if no one's killed, then I'll... you can use me.

[antagonize]

Not to rain on your self-sacrificial parade, but offering yourself up as a victim? Pretty damn sure it's the same as attempting suicide, according to our dear, ol' AI.

[bloodteller]

Jason, I--

[ an apology is actually on the tip of her tongue. she gets it, now. staying calm in the face of tragedy, after watching liz die... yuno inhales. ]

If I go home, I'm dying anyway. I might as well make it count here... are you sure the suicide clause will catch it?

[antagonize]

[He's raising an eyebrow when she says his name, but when she cuts herself off... he shakes his head.]

Where I come from, asking someone else to kill you is called "assisted suicide". Think someone might have asked Alice about it a couple weeks ago, too, actually. [But he's not sure, so. Whatever.] But why the hell would you be dying? You're supposed to be some kind of god, not a dead man walking like Luke and I.

[Never mind that he hasn't been dead in a while, but nobody has to know.]

[douchemag]

[Judar stares at her blankly for a moment - and then he rips his arm away, his face growing furious.]

The fuck are you trying to say? Don't be so eager to die, idiot! You're not being a hero, you're just being selfish!

[bloodteller]

[ the anger is noted, but she meets it with a sympathetic smile. ]

I'm not a hero. [ not by a long shot. in her eyes, jack's the hero of this tale. she's just an abandoned child. ] I know it's selfish. I don't want to live in a world where people I love are suffering.

[ that includes you, dummy. it's implied in her tone, the fondness in it. ] So if I can prevent, then I want to.

[douchemag]

[Ew no??? Get these feelings away from him?? He'd gag, but this topic actually makes him angry enough to overlook it and be serious for once.]

Everyone suffers. It's part of life. The people you care about will suffer whether you're around to see it or not. You don't have the determination to spit back in its face and see it through, then maybe you're right - maybe you're not strong enough to live after all.

[He laughs, a low and harsh sound.] Yeah? And then what? You die, everyone on Nuwa dies, and we're still stuck playing this shitty game with who knows how many aliens left - you think we'll be happy about that? You think death is an escape now, after we just saw them come back to life? Don't be a fucking coward.

[erythristic]

They most certainly will not.

[she says this in a tone that will tolerate no arguing.]

I won't let you die, Yuno. You're worth far too much.

[too much to me, is what she means.]

[bloodteller]

[ this -- this hurts yuno the most. the firm, motherly tone. it frightens her, at first, and she's afraid of the cage. nothing happens, though she puts up her arms, stepping away from grell, just in case she's about to grabbed and dragged away. she stands still, shocked, for a moment. ]

I...

[ don't matter much. as far as she is concerned, protecting people... that's what her life is best used for. ]

Is there a better solution?

[erythristic]

[what Yuno probably doesn't expect is the flash of concern that crosses Grell's face as she backs away from her, the way she too late realizes what probably did it. she didn't mean to frighten her.]

There has to be. Something else, some other way to get around things. Something that means you don't have to die.

[erythristic]

Unless we can cancel their immunity somehow and make it fair...

[it wasn't fair. the other AI was to blame for this - forcing the decision into their hands.]

[antietam]

So the best option, again, would be everyone killing? [ This is the Worst. ]

How would we even do that?

[erythristic]

I don't know. The other AI must have instated it to protect everyone, but it puts them at a disadvantage, being unable to choose their fate. Either they're assuming we'll go along with a self inflicted purge, or they're willing to sacrifice everyone. Which says some things about their personality, really, but that's neither here nor there.

[antietam]

I don't think they really care about our individual lives. But they do clearly care about the success of this program. It's much less successful if an entire ship has to be purged, so we have to appeal to that rationale.