COUNTDOWN: FUTURE & PAST

[cordibus]

It's been a week since the first network post. Upon waking up early Saturday morning, you notice that the app is not responding. Is it finally over, as strangely as it began?

Which makes explaining what happened impossible. Others have already tried to figure out more about it, but nothing has been working. Bringing it to a repair shop to get it looked at? No programs found. Even getting the phone completely wiped did nothing, as the icon just showed up a few minutes after they walked out of the store. Showed it to a family member? The minute you blinked or turned it around to show them, it simply wasn't there.

It's taunting you. Whoever programmed this is really good. Frighteningly so.

Saturday night rolls and still nothing from the application. The news this Saturday is nothing special. There's been another fire at night that was put out by the firemen and an instance of someone being outside. According to both departments, neither of the incidents are connected. It's just a case of someone who wasn't back home in time and unfortunate damage to a building that occurred with some of the habitats still sleeping inside. It is a tragedy, but no city can survive without any loss of life. It's simply mathematically impossible. It's notable enough that it gets second page billing and a blurb in the morning news, but nothing too huge.

At least you had assumed.

The warning bells of the Nightly Curfew ring across the city as a few people finish locking their doors for the night. As the last bits of light fade from the city, the night lights take over. Civilians are settling in for a late supper and preparations for school or work tomorrow.

Not you, however. There's been a damn headache building for the past hour and by now your ears are ringing. Food doesn't look appetizing and you feel an urge to go to bed early. Maybe you caught the flu or maybe it's just pre-Monday blues a day early, which makes it all the more frustrating. The flower festival is tomorrow!

Either way, a little shut-eye would be welcome at this point. You don't even think too hard about it, and the headache fades into blissful sleep.

...I am thou...thou art I...your chains will soon break away....
2AM and you snap awake. The strange foreboding voice of...something echos in your head. It's the only thing you can hear, with your headache gone, and the quietness of the city is fast asleep. You're not sure why, but the voice makes you get up and grab your phone.

It's humming softly. The icon is glowing again. Before you do, you take a look around and suddenly notice...nothing's moving. Nothing but you. Almost as if time was frozen.

Is that even possible?

You can't back down now. Pressing the button reveals another terms of agreement, but it looks quite different. It's almost...gentle?


It may take a while or near instantly, but you eventually take your finger and trace your name over the signature area to continue. You've gotten this far in any case and this one isn't trying to kill you...at least you think. Yet as your hand moves to write your name, it gets replaced into other letters. Another name that tells you nothing. Somehow you feel like you should, but it's...it's...

It stays there for a few more seconds, leaving you with your thoughts before the contract disappears.

You're back into that chatroom again. Questions pop up in rapid succession before you're even permitted to type anything else. Once more, it seems that you find yourself typing things that aren't matching up with what you really want to say.

At least...you think...

What is your name?
Write it here.

Do you think the future is unavoidable?
Yes | No

Do you consider yourself a bad person?
Yes | No

Have you ever killed someone/something?
Yes | No | Yes, but (insert your reason here)

Did you enjoy it?
Yes | No | It's complicated (but yes) | It's complicated (but no) | It's just complicated

Now share one or two of your darkest secrets with the rest of the group! It's like team bonding, we promise!
Write it down here.

With questions like that and nothing around you moving, you feel like it's going to be a very, very, very long night.

[OOC: Starting from now on, the network posts will allow users to post their names, but they will show up as their CANON ones. The user's persona can be added at the end, or not show up at all. Additionally, the occupations will still be censored.

MEMORY REGAIN: Right before their answers are posted, they will also get a longer flash of someone calling them by this name. The memory HAS to be someone calling them by their name. It could be both a good or a bad memory, that is up to you.]

Comments

Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor

[kouteipenguin]

Michi sits back, rubbing at his face. The headache is long gone, but it doesn't make him feel any less weird. It feels like his thoughts have been wiped out, almost, replaced with a thick fog. He could have sworn that he wrote down 'Michi Yamashita' there, for instance. Instead, what's written before him feels right, but he's sure it's a name he's sure he's never heard before in his life.



"Are you satisfied after what you've done to Sakuma?!"

The wind whips at his clothing, lashing his cape out behind him. In his fury, he doesn't even notice it. Instead, he stands tall and ready to fight the purple-suited man who's pinpointed at the exact dead center of his tunnel vision. His throat is already raw from screaming, his nerves shot, and fear fuels the horrified despair hiding behind his anger.

The man is somewhere far higher up than he is. So distant. So far above him that he couldn't touch him even if he tried. All he has is words, but the man's words are harsher.

"Satisfied? As if! Not until I create the strongest team that can guarantee victory!"

His fists are balled so tightly that his nails dig painfully into the skin. The pain just fuels him, giving fire to the raging ball of emotions and the need to do something. But it, just like everything else, is useless. He can do nothing. And that man keeps talking.

"I'll tell you the greatest creation I've ever made! That is..." The man's voice raises with his finger, pointing accusingly straight at him. "...you, Kidou!"



Even after the memory is gone, Michi's still shaking with the raw emotion from it. He only remembers he has a phone when he feels the edge of its case biting into his balled fists. He can still feel it when he unclenches his hand and stares at it. Numbly, his fingers type for him.

-----


What is your name?
Yuuto Kidou

Do you think the future is unavoidable?
No

Do you consider yourself a bad person?
No

Have you ever killed someone/something?
No

Did you enjoy it?
N/A

Now share one or two of your darkest secrets with the rest of the group! It's like team bonding, we promise!

I said I'm not a bad person. I refuse to be. But... I don't think I'll ever be out from under that man's shadow.
I don't remember what my original family name was, even when I try.


Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor: 10: I don't understand a thing that's going on. I didn't type any of that and yet...
Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor: 10: Who else here feels like they're losing their mind?
Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor: ...
Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor: At least the username problem is solved...

Gladion ⚔ Camio

[lovelledup]

I doubt this many people are actually losing it, but whatever's going on is definitely crazy.

Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor

[kouteipenguin]

I thought at first this was the doing of people who knew way too much about us. I refused to believe that there could be anything supernatural at work. But after this.... I don't know if I can say that anymore.

All of this feels too insane.

Gladion ⚔ Camio

[lovelledup]

I'm guessing you had another one of those fake memory things, too.

Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor

[kouteipenguin]

Yeah. I saw something just now that happened to someone else, but I can't stop shaking from it. I don't even understand why I'm so upset. None of that should mean anything!

Gladion ⚔ Camio

[lovelledup]

Was it something bad?

Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor

[kouteipenguin]

It was. Though it's too weird. I don't even know what happened to make it so bad.

Or what's up with the tunnel vision.

Jirou Sakuma ⚔ Dantalion

[forsteri]

Jirou Sakuma ⚔ Dantalion: >11 here.
Jirou Sakuma ⚔ Dantalion: I feel the same.
Jirou Sakuma ⚔ Dantalion: It's really hard to feel like something good might come out of the end of that countdown.

Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor

[kouteipenguin]

I agree. That ominous feeling only increases every day. Whatever's coming ... I want to know what this awakening is before it happens.

[forsteri]

I wonder if we'll get any sort of heads up past 'it's happening'.

[kouteipenguin]

If we take the pattern already set, I doubt that. I'm willing to bet that all answers we'll get come after it's happened.

Any answers, I mean. All and any answers.



What's the likelihood that even then they'll be willing to explain what's going on?

[forsteri]

I don't know if it's very likely. Maybe when it happens we'll be able to figure out those answers on our own. But I'm not really banking on having anything handed to us.

[kouteipenguin]

Neither do I. That contract mentioned something about information, but...

I realized I'm assuming you got a contract too. Did you?

Lenka Utsugi ⚔ Eligor

[probablynoteren]

you're here. we were looking.

[And they were a little worried, probably, both of them. It feels better to have all three here somehow, even under the circumstances. He wouldn't really wish these circumstances on anyone, even if to him personally it's somehow a bit better than last week.

Or he's just getting too used to how crazy this app is, even when it ups the ante like this.]

it's the same as last week. like a dream in a dream.

i don't think it's insanity. there's too many of us, and it keeps happening. i still think it's something in the app.

Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor

[kouteipenguin]

[He's a little touched at that. It feels somehow comforting to know that the other Eligors out there were waiting for him. All of this is deeply unsettling, and he's still shaking from the memory. But that helps a little, knowing he's got friends here.]

Sorry that I kept you waiting. We don't need that system now, but which number were you?

It has to be, I know it. Although it feels.... It's hard to describe it, (do I even need to?) but can something be true on a level that's deeper than the truth? I never had to wonder that kind of thing before. That I have to ask questions like that alone makes me sound crazy.

[probablynoteren]

it's fine. i'm 01, and jaune is 1001.

[That's still the extent of them so far, so they hadn't needed to think up additional measures in case the binary started scrolling off the screen. Good thing, even if the custom(?) usernames are quite conspicuously late.]

i... understand, even if it still doesn't feel right. like i said, if you're crazy, we're all crazy.

[He's trying to hold on to this week's vision, even if it and the horror from last week have the same level of resonance. This one feels worth it, somehow.]

[kouteipenguin]

Yeah. You put that well. The weird part is, I don't know if I'm hoping we're all crazy at this point. I don't like to admit this, but I'm scared about what this all means if it's ... you know. If we're really not. What is this app doing to us?

...

Anyway. Sorry, I shouldn't ask questions I don't think anyone can answer.

So, have you ever heard of this velvet room?

[probablynoteren]

[There's a longer pause before his answer. He doesn't like to consider the things he's seen and said through the app, even if the majority of what he's sent is inconsequential, and nearly everything else is nonsensical. It sends a chill down his spine that feels a lot like last week. The visions still sneak into his dreams sometimes.]

i think we all are. scared, confused, angry. the app is asking us questions that nobody wants to answer, but... the answers also don't make sense.

[He wonders, vaguely, if it wants them to start thinking they make sense. To start considering them seriously, like they're not crazy. He doesn't say that, though.]

the velvet room? i've never heard of that. but i think it's hiring us.

[kouteipenguin]

But for what reason? I get the feeling it's more like it's telling us that we work for it... I really don't like any of this.

It said that contract was of my own free will, but I felt like I had as much of a choice as I did agreeing to the terms and conditions of the app.

Jaune Arc ⚔ Eligor

[sociallyarcward]

10! You're okay! Eligor 01 and I were just talking about how we hadn't seen you.

...

But yeah, it seems like things are even more messed up.

Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor

[kouteipenguin]

Yeah, I'm okay.

[He types, though he's not as convinced. And continues with an attempt at energy he doesn't feel at all.]

It's good to see you, 1001. ...I'm glad that with me in this nightmare, I have friends.

Jaune Arc ⚔ Eligor

[sociallyarcward]

Good.

[He actually is relieved. It's strange to feel that way with someone he only knows only and only for a week...but it's there. He types more.]

Well, you know, if we have to suffer through this, might as well do it together.

Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor

[kouteipenguin]

Might as well. Who knows why we all got the same starting name, but ... is it strange to say I'm kind of glad we did?

Jaune Arc ⚔ Eligor

[sociallyarcward]

not at all. it gave us something in common when everything was weird.

and now things are still weird, maybe weirder, so we know who we can turn to still.

I guess basically I'm saying I'm glad too. :)

Yuuto Kidou ☸ Eligor

[kouteipenguin]

(•ᴗ•)و

Right. If we stay together we can do this. Whatever this even is.