COUNTDOWN: FACES OF FUTURE & PAST 2.0

[cordibus]

It's been 7 days since the first network post, and predictably for those who where here the first time, a second one makes it's appearance a week afterwards.

Some have tried to best the program, others have already tried to figure out more about it, but nothing has been working. Others might have warned the Unawakened, but ow they're finding out for themselves. Bringing the phone 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. Showing 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. Also possibly an asshole, from the way Luci has been taunting and abusing his posting privileges.

Saturday night rolls around and still nothing from the application. The news this Saturday is nothing special. The festival of the longest day went off without a hitch, although the population had trouble getting into nightly shelters due to too much partying. A higher amount of robberies during daylight hours than last year, but nothing to raise cause for alarm. The peace continues at night.

The warning bells of the nightly curfew ring across the city as a few people finish locking their doors for the night. Civilians are settling in for a late supper and preparing for work tomorrow.

Not you, however. The Unawakened have been victim to a damn headache building for the past hour and by now their ears are ringing. Food doesn't look appetizing and they feel an urge to go to bed early. Didn't the other people in the channel warn them it might happen?

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 now that your headache is gone andthe 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 it may happen in an instant, 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 it isn't. Yet as your hand moves to write your name, it gets replaced with other letters. Another name that tells you nothing. Somehow you feel like you should know it, 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! Two makes it more fun!
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: The network posts will now 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.

FOR THE AWAKENED: Awakened will be able to answer the questions again if they want. They'll also find themselves in their fancy new outfits and will able to summon their weapons during this time. Sweet indeed. ]

Comments

[kokuyoyo]

Interestingly enough, my memory did correlate with the first question when our round first started.

[kokuyoyo]

Haven't people said that about a lot of things in the past?

Koujirou Genda ⚔ Marchosias

[beastfang]

Anyone that has responded to the network, especially if they are identifiable either through writing quirks or other identifiers.


[They haven't even really gotten into it yet. This is just the prelim fact finding.]

Yes, though with several of us doing so it's much easier to make certain details are not missed as something irrelevant to myself may seem important to another set of eyes.

Shirou Fubuki ⚔ Marchosias

[touketsu]

At least you're being honest, lol.

[It doesn't help much. But it is still better than being lied to, he supposes.]

[touketsu]

No, I guess not...

[But how to find the truth at all, that's the question. Which life is the lie? Which is true? Or could they both be real, or both false somehow? The more he thinks about it, the more he wants to curl into himself and disappear, but that won't solve anything, either.]

How do you plan to find out?

[It wasn't like Luci was the most reliable source to ask, after all.]

[kouteipenguin]

By seeing what happens.

[touketsu]

you don't know anything.

[He wishes that were true, but it sounds like they know a lot more than he does. Except that what they know isn't something he wants to be true at all...and isn't ready to accept despite all the signs pointing him in its direction.

What kind of person would he be if he just buckled and believed whatever he was told? Especially if that meant writing off his family and friends? This life he remembers, this wonderful life...]

i'll be just fine.

[He won't be. But...he can keep telling himself he will, at least.]

Jaune Arc ⚔ Eligor

[sociallyarcward]

That's...a lot of work.

Jirou Sakuma ⚔ Dantalion (woof woof motherfucker)

[forsteri]

[An angry guy, who was hurt on a different occasion... that could be anyone. Sakuma considers what he knows of Raimon and settles on Someoka as a likely candidate among their number -- he can't think of anyone else who, on first impression, comes across as a 'really angry guy' -- but then, what does he know? Maybe someone from Hakuren. One of those two are his guesses. But without consulting Kidou on this theory, he decides not to hazard a guess at all.]

No, he isn't. You're linked, but you're not the same.

[There's a part of him that's Sakuma Jirou, and a part of him that's Yoshio Koutarou. While it's easy to slip between the two, there's still a divide there -- when he feels more like Sakuma, he can't say he's Yoshio at all. Just someone living Yoshio's life. But sometimes, when he isn't thinking about soccer or Kidou or Genda or appleNET, it's then that he feels the most like Yoshio again. They're two sides of a coin in the most literal sense -- separate from each other, but inextricably linked no matter what. It's the same for this Fubuki-to-be -- though the Fubuki half has yet to open his eyes fully. Sakuma won't insist on the contrary, because he thinks this is the truth. Fubuki isn't Fubuki. Not yet.]

We're getting closer to the countdown's end. When it ends, you'll understand.

[touketsu]

You're just going to watch?

[kouteipenguin]

As an active participant, yes.

[This concept seems completely simple and ordinary to Kidou.]

Shirou Fubuki ⚔ Marchosias

[touketsu]

[They're linked...but not the same. Like the earth and the sky, then? Connected by the horizon, but forever separate and unto themselves. That should be a comfort. He should take solace in the knowledge that he was still himself. But he's stopped by the lingering question: which of them is real, and which of them is the illusion?

And why is any of this happening, and why is it happening now of all times? He'd gone fourteen years without any "glimpses" of another life. Why did Shirou Fubuki have to come along now and mess all of that up? He was happy...before all of this.]

There's no choice, is there? All I can do is watch. And wait.

[For the end...]

[touketsu]

[Kouyuki understands that they don't really have much of a choice in the matter, but accepting that is still difficult. He's never been one to sit idly by and watch things unfold. He's always been one to take action. Except now...there isn't any action to take. It isn't like doing something can make the truth, whatever it may be, untrue.]

so you don't really know at all, do you. you don't have any kind of real plan.

you're just playing it by ear...because that's the only choice you have.

[kouteipenguin]

[Well, sort of, but it sounds a lot more hopeless when put into such bleak terms.]

Only for now. I have the start of a plan, but nothing I can do yet.