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

Natsumi Hikari ⚔ Saleos

[summerorange]

[Well, Niko's been feeling a mix of relief and puzzlement once the app fades away. How strange...and just when she was starting to get used to it... But she still shrugs and moves on in her life, making sure that she still gets the jobs she needs to meet her self-appointed weekly quota of photos commissioned.

That is...until the night before the flower festival. She's already feeling down because the weather's calling for rain on the actual festival day itself. The splitting headache certainly doesn't help. Thankfully, a simple confession to her mother results in her being gently shooshed up the stairs and towards her bedroom, with the promise that Mother will check on her once dessert is ready.

Only...she never woke up, once her head hit the pillow. Not for several hours...

There's the faint sound of tiny bat wings fluttering, and a mischievous, high-pitched, female voice giggling. "I am thou~! Thou art I~ Your chains...they will soon break..."

Niko bolts awake, and looks at the time on her digital clock - 2AM, on the dot. She sighs and rubs her eyes...and then does a double-take at everything around her. Dead silence. No faint sound of sirens in the distance. No crickets chirping. Just...nothing.

Except the phone. The app seems to have returned...and is also much more gentler in its design and...new 'Contract'? Huh...what an odd form of Terms and Conditions. Still, part of her is curious enough to go ahead and agree to it - just so she can get back in touch with everyone else...]

What is your name?
Natsumi Hikari

Do your think the future is unavoidable?
No - it's never set in stone, and can always be changed for the better.

Do you consider yourself to be a bad person?
No.

Have you ever killed someone/something?
Yes, but it was the save all the worlds from Destruction.

Did you enjoy it?
No.

Now share one or two of your darkest secrets with the rest of the group! It's like team bonding, we promise!
My grandfather's alternate self is an evil leader of an evil inter-dimensional organization.
I had to kill that Special Someone in order to save the worlds from destruction.

[The memory is much clearer this time - and not as sad. Just a brief moment of embarrassment as she bows to the grumbling trio of customers. "Ummm...I'm sorry to interrupt!" She then stands up straight and glares at the last person in question - the young man wearing a pink, double-lens camera around his neck. "Tsukasa-kun...Hikari Secret Technique..."

Her raised hand curls into a fist, and then her thumb juts out as she finishes, "Laughing Pressure point!" She marches forward to the guy, who is now very wary - almost fearful - of her approach...until she puts her hand in front of his face in order to move out of his view. Once his guard is down, Niko--Natsumi jams her thumb into a certain spot on his neck.

The effect was instantaneous. He starts laughing uncontrollably, even as he brings a photo-carrying hand up to cover the pressure point. "N-Natsumi, You...you got me!" He laughs some more as he lunges at her...

And she merely side-steps him, feeling somewhat satisfied at his punishment being in full effect.]


Natsumi - Saleos: So
Natsumi - Saleos: Does anyone else know what this Velvet Room is?

Kiriya Kujo ⚔ Baalberith

[truthkills]

sounds like a strip club

[summerorange]

Somehow I'm more irritated than surprised to hear your say that
Unless you're the other Baalberith? The one whose phone got very hot?

[truthkills]

i'm not the Baalberith whose phone got hot

I am the Baalberith who is hot

[summerorange]

Oh, please, not that again!

Pics or it's never happened

[truthkills]

sadly i cannot post a pic
so you'll just have to take my word on the hotness

Ankh ☸ Andrealphus

[connivingbird]

Sounds like a seedy night club to me.

[summerorange]

Seedy? I thought it'd be more like one of those classic jazz bars or something.

Ankh, huh?

[connivingbird]

I haven't seen any of those that also doesn't look like a bunch of mob goombas are going to pop out and start throwing things.

[summerorange]

[Okay, the mention of goombas makes her laugh for a probably wrong reason - but she quickly stops in fear of waking up her parents.]

Well, if we have a certain pair of plumbers with us, I'm sure it'll be okay.

[connivingbird]

I refuse to be anywhere near them.
They spend their lives crawling through sewers no telling what they got on their clothing.

Jaune Arc ⚔ Eligor

[sociallyarcward]

I got distracted by all the other stuff. That was mentioned in the contract, right?

[summerorange]

Yeah, several times. I think whoever's running this app may be connected to that kind of place

Only I've never heard of it before.

[sociallyarcward]

Probably...though it still isn't much to go on.

I don't recognize it either. It could be, like, a private chat room or group? I mean, it doesn't have to be an actual place right?

[summerorange]

Almost sounds like a jazz club to me

Elizabeth Bathory ⚔ Baal

[umbral_idol]

No idea.

The contract said the services won't kick in until the 28th, though.

We'll probably get more information a few days before then.

[summerorange]

I hope so. It would be nice to hear from or meet these Velvet Room folks.
Whoever they are

Lenka Utsugi ⚔ Eligor

[probablynoteren]

your answers are stranger than mine.

[... It's good to know he isn't the only one with strange, exaggerated answers to some questions. And also death in various places. He kind of wants to ask what the hell is going on with her grandfather, but it seems better to answer the question, first.]

if it has residents, and there's an hr with it, then it's probably a place. we were being hired for something. this is probably connected.

[It does sound kind of like a bar or something, though.]

[summerorange]

[She's wondering about that herself, considering that her grandfather has been dead for years]

Well, at least they gave us an option to get out by not signing that contract.
I think.

Still hope the pay is good.

[probablynoteren]

was it possible to not sign it? it felt like it was possible, the way not answering the questions was possible.

[Which is a bit alarmist, but this isn't exactly new anymore; which makes it kind of worse.]

so you'd work for an organization like this?

[Whatever 'this' is supposed to be.]

[summerorange]

No, but Mom used to, before she married Dad. She always insists upon reading everything, and tried to get me to read that kind of stuff as well.

Even if it's rather boring sometimes

[And then she double-takes on his question]

Oh! You mean, would I? Maybe? I mean, so long as they're not evil, I'll give them a try

Pharos ☸ Ronove

[seasonsofdeath]

It sounds kind of familiar, but I don't know why.

Sorry. Maybe we can google it?

[summerorange]

It does?
I mean, it's familiar to you? Is it something from your hometown?

[seasonsofdeath]

I'm from here.

I can't remember anything in particular about why it's familiar...

[summerorange]

How odd. You're the first person I know who thinks that it's familiar. Everyone else that I've talked to seems just as clueless as I am.