WEEK 1 - Online

[al2955]

the pygmalion. . . ONLINE CAPTAIN'S LOG: WEEK (1)

monday (41) survivors It had been three days since you had awoken. The ship was still quiet, except for the low hums of enigmatic machines with no apparent purpose. You awake, like usual, to dim lighting and poor rations. Perhaps being on the ship had grown monotonous — it was, perhaps, amazing how little anything seemed to happen in space, a final frontier of malaise. That monotony is crushed by a voice echoing through the narrow hallways. Reformatting . . . Reformatting . . . Reformatting complete. The Pygmalion is online. Welcome, travelers. Please assemble in the meeting room. Your presence is mandatory. Silence falls once again. A minute or so passes, and the lights around the ship finally brighten, the walls looking more alive and more unfamiliar — as if you must relearn the ship's interior once again. The robots on deck begin to make rounds, nudging and pushing at the ship's passengers to make their way to the meeting room. You hear the doors behind you lock. It seems there is only one path to take. ENTER COMMAND_

Comments

[al2955]

I suppose it is time to explain why you are here.

All forty-one of you have been chosen to participate in the Cradle Project. [ As she says this, the holographic display showing the profiles is replaced with a list of rules. ] You have been summoned here for a single purpose: to survive. It should be no surprise to know now that you have been extracted from your independent contexts. If you wish to return, to see the people you consider friends and family again, and to live, you must kill another person and be found not guilty in a trial. You will be supplied with sufficient supplies to carry out any conspiracy you may want to enact, and motivations and incentives will be provided to create a setting in which you may feel compelled to kill another.

Many of you may be resistant to this initially, but this remains the only way for you to escape the Cradle Project. If you are found not guilty in a trial, you may resign from the project, and remain on the ship until the project is completed. If you are found guilty, you will become a retired player.

[jackhole]

[ ready to throw another tablet but -- ]

Hey, wait. What's a trial?

[qundercover]

Of course it's killing each other. It's always killing each other.

[allout]

[ and just when she was getting to the egg of her ramen... she stops to listen to the AI, and her expression drops.

she's had enough of death and murder for one lifetime. when she fought nyx back home, she had accepted her fate and sacrificed herself so that the rest of the world could live on. to be thrown into something like this felt as if everything that she and her friends had fought for had been spit on.

it takes a lot to get minako truly angry, but now she's furious. even if it all turns out to be some kind of prank, this is not something that she takes lightly. ]

You're sick. You and whoever is behind this.

[chiseler]

[Oh. Well this is fine.]

So what about if you don't care about returning exactly where you came from? What then? [Asking to be contradictory? ...yeah, partially but it's a real question here.]

[breakshot]

[ here it is here it comes it’s time to be free and do what he does best it's time to holler. machias STANDS UP AND BANGS BOTH HANDS ON THE TABLE ]

Is this some kind of sick joke?!

[ he didn't even wait for her to finish SORRY for your eardrums, everyone ]

[thatbites]

[Call the PTA because every stuck up soccer mom in America is about to get schooled in the ultimate 'can I speak to the manager?' voice. Emily has her arms crossed tight across her chest, fingers digging into her arms, after scanning that full charter of rules.]

You can't make me do any of this. I have rights and that includes my freedom of speech to tell you stick all that up your holographic ass.

[mnasthai]

So we're all supposed to kill each other...? [ Did he really hear that correctly.]

[bloodteller]

[ are you kidding rn ]

Are you participating, too?

[ how does she kill the ai ]

[parodeity]

Fuck that, I don't have twenty bucks to give to the J-man. Or ten bucks, since he owes me ten.

[ goddamnit ]

[brooches]

You trapped us for some sick experiment?!

[ The hollowness in her chest is filling... with anger. She seeths, her fists balling at her side. It can't be happening. She's helpless. She can't see any door - any possibility that would keep them from having to do this.

These monsters - they speak a blasphemy as if they're apologetic for being vague. They lie these rules out so cold, so calculative with no understanding for how she feels.

She's trapped again. ]

You can't do this - we're people! You can't cage us like animals and expect us to survive at any means necessary. Do you not understand that?! Do you -?

[ She's screaming at this point, ignoring anyone else in the room. Ripping from her back a vibrant blue ring circles around her. The static interiors showing the cafeteria, more clean than ever. Lining each table was an abundance of food. This was the tear Elizabeth looked for since arriving, to try and escape. A gateway to another world... but sadly, it only reveals the cafeteria. It flickers, growing increasingly weaker as time ticks on. It'll only last a short duration.

Through blinking eyes, she's gasping, trying not to pass out from the shock and pressure of the vision in front of her. ]

B-But how?! I can't - I can't see any other -

[ No doors, but the window was open. She can't feel it, pressing into nothing, she doesn't pass through. ]

[douchemag]

[Okaaaay...while Judar is totally down with mass murder, killing individual people sounds boring and lame? And he has to get away with it??? SINCE WHEN DOES MURDER INVOLVE THINKING WHAT IS THIS NERDLORD BULLSHIT]

What's the point? Sounds like a total waste of time to me. What do you get out of making everyone do this?

[probings]

...And people think I have a sick mind.

[yeah, she's not into this at all. she's still a soldier, protecting other people at the cost of her own life is something she's well-adjusted to the thought of.]

So what makes you so important that you get to decide how someone's life should be valued, anyway?

[thanatosincarnate]

... Bastards!

{ He grits his teeth, after reading anything else. This was beyond reprehensible -- out of habit he reaches for something and of course it's not there. Not right now.

Not like it would've proved the least bit effective if it had been, and he just sends a glare at the woman's image. He growls. }

As if that is the only way to escape this ship.

[bloodbiter]

[she listens and reads over every rule before speaking, a cold but potent fury in her voice.]

There are children here.

[a category she definitely doesn't fall into??]

[puzzlesss]

[ ah.

yes.

another game with murder and death and... he sighs. almost as if he expected it — which you might think, considering how calm he is. ]

Of course. This is how these things always play out, isn't it...

[ MURDER GAME NUMBER THREE WOOOHOOOO ]

[missmaladroite]

[Marinette's look of disbelief and 'are you fucking kidding me' start in the beginning of the speech and deepen as the AI keeps AIsplaining.]

[By the end of it, she looks pretty done with their shit. She claps sarcastically and then immediately mouths off]

If this isn't just a terrible attempt at a joke--- [can robots even make jokes] then nice try. But even by the so-called rules of your "project", it can't go on if no one kills.

And if you think for one moment than any of us will agree to these terms [Marinette you sweet summer child] and try to kill each other, just because you tell us to, your circuits are completely fried!

Whoever's behind this -- [Because she doubts it's the AI] we'll find you. And we'll stop you.

[

is this the same clumsy awkward mess of a girl from before]

[tacklefordwhimsy]

That is outrageous!

[Shelley is shouting, yes]

You can't seriously expect something like this to-to-you can't expect people to kill each other just because of a project!

[toprotecttheworld]

The only way to escape is to be killed? Then you've never dealt with someone like me before!

[No. No, no. That's way to PG-13 for her programming! James. Meowth. Wobbuffet, even Weezing. Pikachu. She won't die here, she won't let anyone kill her here. She doesn't care about any of these other people, only of her family.

She points her finger at the AI.]

You better prepare for trouble like you've never seen!

[But that's it. Only her personal declaration of challenge to the system, no motto.]

[erythristic]

...Why us? Why were we, specifically, selected for this?

[she's not questioning the murder - everyone else is. and so many of them, she thinks, already might find themselves backed in a corner. children, adults. it was a tragedy being written as they all spoke.]

[booklore]

[ ... That's too cruel.

Even so, he has nothing he wants to say right now. Lavi picks a spot as out of the way of everyone as he can and just... stands there. Watching everyone and listening to their reactions. ]

[socloverit]

...When does the game end?

[please don't let the answer be "when everyone is dead/resigned" tbh. how many BP do they have to get. what number is on the exit door]

[cherubize]

O—Oh my god..

[ Just when Alita thought she was off the hook, murder pulls her back in. Her mind is a whirlwind of chaos right now, just thinking about how she was going to survive.. Would she even survive the night? She pulls back from the table, hands pressed to her chest, withdrawing from everyone. Her paranoia is definitely pretty high right now, because she knows the petty reasons people will kill someone for. She's been there. ]

Nobody touch me. S—Stay away from me.

[todorable]

[w.................ell. that's pretty awful. he folds his arms tightly so no one can see them tremble]

Wh-what happens if no one feels "compelled" to kill?

[not that he's that naive, but he can't help but be curious what they'll do]

[tevinteriscoming]

Really? Didn't this sort of party go out of fashion about three years ago? You're being derivative.

[He's reviewing the rules with a nonchalant expression, sipping a glass of wine as he does. Obviously the problem with this situation is that it's tacky and there's no other reason to be concerned, right?]