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

Mukuro Rokudo | ☸ Andras

[possedere]

[The first thing he was aware of was pain. As someone who was no stranger to it, this was a new sort of agony, one that seemed to persist down to the very atoms of every single one of his cells. It felt like someone had peeled back each layer of his skin, stabbed through his muscles, broken all his bones, and then set him on fire for good measure. It hurt just to breathe, and for a few moments he kept his eyes shut, like a child hiding under a blanket as if it might protect them from the monsters in the dark. How foolish.

The second was the sound of someone crying. Someone dear to him, and that knowledge was enough to make him open his eyes, as painful as it was. It was bright, so it took his eyes a few moments to focus, and every so slightly he let his gaze drift towards the sound. A girl was sitting next to him, so painfully familiar yet he couldn't place her name. Once she saw him roused to consciousness, she smiled, brighter than the sun.

"Mukuro-sama." Her hand was surprisingly calloused when she grasped his hand, putting it to her face tenderly. "Welcome home."

It hurt to speak, but it felt like it would be even more painful not to answer. Softly, voice raspy and weak, he let out a laugh. "I'm home."]



What is your name?
Mukuro Rokudo.

Do you think the future is unavoidable?
No.

Do you consider yourself a bad person?
No.

Have you ever killed someone/something?
Yes.

Did you enjoy it?
Yes.

Now share one or two of your darkest secrets with the rest of the group! Two makes it more fun!
- As an illusionist, I had no idea I could make illusionary clothing.

- There are people I care about more than myself. It's a weakness that's been exploited again and again, but despite this I can't deaden myself to their suffering. I'd take their place in hell in a heartbeat if it meant they would be safe.

Chikusa Kakimoto ☸ Astaroth

[kokuyoyo]

[Name after name, he flicks through listlessly. Apathetically. They're new names, to be sure, and their responses will be potentially valuable for the difficulties ahead... But he doesn't really care about them. Why should he? Even Ciro hadn't been concerned about them, he thinks, not really. He had thought he should be concerned, because that's how it was to be accepted, and so he had acted accordingly, but.... He couldn't really care for people he hadn't known.]

[Chikusa has even less reason to do so.]

[So he goes through them only out of a sense of duty, because it's his only idea of what to do, and he flicks dully down to the next name- ]

[Mukuro Rokudo]

[His heart stops in his throat.]

[Time doesn't stop, not like it has in the past, but it feel as though it has even though he's in a room full of people. That name- it's the one name he's been aching to hear, to read. For weeks, now, his psyche has been in a state of disarray with Ciro and Chikusa too close for comfort, and he's been dizzy trying to make sense of what he wants and who he is. The entire time, however, Chikusa has known this: seeing that name would make it all clear again.]

[And it does.]

[He has to turn away from everyone else, retreat into the hallway and then Ciro's bedroom as his breath quickens and his eyes hastily skim through the answers. It's right, it's all correct, even the silly part about illusionary clothing, and then he reads- ]

[His body isn't his own again. Somehow, his mind has detached completely and utterly, and he barely notices the way tears well up in his eyes. In all of Chikusa Kakimoto's memories, from that name and to all the aliases before, he's never once heard their leader show any value to them. All people were tools, and, for all that they had never been replaced, that included the two that had been with him the longest. Again and again, him and Ken had been told that, and they had accepted it just to stay by his side. If anyone was worth being a simple tool for, then it had been Mukuro.]

[There are people I care about more than myself. He takes a sharp breath, tasting salt distantly on his tongue. I'd take their place in hell in a heartbeat. In the back of his mind, that very first memory resurfaces again, being told they would hold him back and yet knowing- ]

[It's a miracle he can see at all past the tears gathered in his eyes, and doubly so that his fingers manage out any sort of response.]

I'm glad.

[Logically, he knows he can't say anymore than that, won't be allowed when the timer reaches zero, but....]

[He's glad. Head bowed, swallowing back tears, he couldn't be more glad for anything else, save perhaps one other person.]

[possedere]

[What an odd response.]

What for? That there's a murderer among you?

[kokuyoyo]

It's not a rare response.

[All he can really say, for now.]

[possedere]

How comforting. Then is that the true nature of this app? To bring would be murderers together?

[kokuyoyo]

That was a consideration, but some people don't fall into that category. Some of the answers here show that. So it's hard to say.

I'm sorry for not being able to give you a better answer.

[possedere]

Considering all the strange things this app can do, it doesn't seem out of the realm of reason that it might be used to brain wash people into doing or saying things they wouldn't normally.

Unless you're the person behind all of this, an apology isn't necessary. It seems like no one can really say what's going on.

[theserpentsmiles]

[You know what. Let's focus on things other than killing. And also other than vocabulary, seeing how poorly that went last time. Clothes are surely a safe topic, right?]

wasn't there a story like that?

the one about a king getting tricked into wearing nothing?

[possedere]

[This poor sweet summer child.]

Illusion and invisibility aren't necessarily the same thing.

Though I would hope whoever this individual was that they would know better than to be tricked like that.

[Especially since this individual seems to be connected to him somehow. Allegedly.]

Nakigitsune ⚔ Camio

[foxhands]

a good guardian

[possedere]

[That word rankles him, for some reason he can't rightly explain.]

In what way?

[foxhands]

protecting the people you care about

[possedere]

I suppose. It seems an odd secret to keep.

[Not that Faustino was particularly forthcoming either, mind.]

[foxhands]

maybe you're shy?

[He doesn't exactly talk much himself, though whether that's from shyness isn't something he'd really thought about before. Human traits are hard to categorize, sometimes.]

[possedere]

I have no real association with the answers to these questions, but if it is somehow connected to me, I find it doubtful.

I'm starting to believe this whole thing is a poor prank.

Lenka Utsugi ⚔ Eligor

[probablynoteren]

[Mukuro Rokudo. Certainly an odd name, not that he can talk, particularly.

More importantly, he wonders about the significance of the killing question now. Obviously it's relevant, but the line between civilian and non-civilian is ever more blurred in this world. Why ask it? What kind of preparation can it give them? A poor one, as far as he can tell.]

01: illusionary clothing seems dangerous too.

[Someone's immediately thinking in terms of armor. Not that he can talk, at all, but them's the breaks of form over function. He can't help his canon, okay.]

[possedere]

[The comment seems so innocuous that for some reason, Faustino can't help but laugh a little at it. This feels disconnected to him, so it seems like a joke.]

Perhaps that's how these murders were performed. Illusionairy ties or socks to suffocate and choke. Or someone tripping over an illusionary shoe and tripping down a flight of stairs.

[probablynoteren]

[Unfortunately, he's perfectly serious about it...]

01: oh. that's not what i meant, but...

[He can't tell him what he meant. Of course.]

01: that seems like a weird use of illusion powers.
01: but it's up to you.

[A little less serious, because trying to picture all of this is like trying to picture Luci's quiz answers from last week...]

[possedere]

[Unfortunately Faustino isn't. This seems too ludicrous to be true.]

Considering I don't possess these powers, it's not really up to me. Unless this app is capable of granting us super powers, though I would ask for something more useful than illusions.

[probablynoteren]

[Most backstories are. The fact that Lenka has to take all of these answers mostly seriously really makes him wonder about his life, even without the AU factored in.]

01: [INFORMATION LOCKED]
01: ... hmm.

[The fact that he's typing this while dressed in some kind of JRPG outfit and carrying swords is kind of funny even to him.]

01: if you had illusion powers.
01: it would be up to you. but i don't think illusions are useless.

Reimi Sugimoto ☸ Orias

[failedhandjob]

illusionary clothes? that's awfully specific.

[possedere]

It seems like an awful oversight, more like it. What good is being an illusionist if that doesn't even occur to you?

[failedhandjob]

i guess it'd depend on what kind of illusions you're making, wouldn't it? if you mostly do animals or something you'd never really have to think about outfits.

[possedere]

[It's not like these answers affect him in any way, and perhaps it's the linger headaches that make him less argumentative than normal.]

You may have a point. Specialties might exist.

Though if this is supposed to be tied to me, animals wouldn't have been my thirst thought.

[failedhandjob]

no? something a little more complicated in mind?