applenet | COUNTDOWN: FACES OF FUTURE & PAST 2.0

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. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

When she sees the little boy's face she knows the truth immediately . . . even before he says anything at all. But she asks the question anyway -- maybe it's just pure, bare hope: "Where's Shinichi?"

The boy does his best to keep it light. He's just the messenger as usual. "Mm . . . he got a call on his cell phone. He's having trouble with his case, and he had to leave."

She knew that would be the answer, and still it hurts, rippling through her frame like the sudden strike of a mallet. "Oh." Her lips seem to move of their own volition.

The boy reads the shift in her immediately and pulls his tone higher in anxiety, scoffing as though it will help: "Shinichi-niichan is stupid! To leave Ran-neechan behind."

It isn't the first time. He's always going, always slipping away -- like a wraith or a phantom that can't be held, he slides away through her fingers, always with a tossed off, enigmatic excuse that says nothing about how or why, and certainly not sorry.

Maybe he isn't.

Maybe she's stupid. He asked her out to this place, out to this fancy restaurant that overlooks the city that two teenagers should never be able to afford . . . Maybe she thought it meant something.

She can't help it. Maybe it's self-pity, maybe it's anger, maybe it's grief -- for a moment it surges over her, all-consuming, and she can't look at the little boy beside her.

"H-Hey." He's still watching her, still trying. "Shinichi-niichan said --"

"Stop it." The words snap out before she can hold them back. She claps her hands over her ears like a child, pulling inward on herself, eyes pressing shut. She can feel tears burn in her lashes. "I don't want to hear it. I don't want any more excuses."

Her eyes are still burning as she yanks back into the present. As before, she gasps again softly as her head stabs with sudden pain, the withheld tears spilling down her cheeks. Her hands are shaking a little.

Looking down at her phone, she finds she's once again made selections in spite of herself:

What is your name?
Ran Mouri

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?
No

Now share one or two of your darkest secrets with the rest of the group! Two makes it more fun!
Sometimes I'm sure he's lying. I want to trust him and believe he wouldn't. But sometimes . . . I'm sure he is, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to forgive him.

Heiji Hattori ☸ Vassago: Ran, are you okay?

[ There was a curfew in place. He couldn't exactly leave...and he couldn't really leave Conan either. ]

Heiji Hattori ☸ Vassago: Are you there?

Edited 2017-06-27 15:57 (UTC)

[The emotional impact of that memory is strong, and her head throbs. Ran withdraws into herself for a few minutes, shutting out the world as she attempts to sort through it. It's like being a small boat bobbing on an ocean during a squall; there's no choice but to batten down and ride through it.]

[When she dares open her eyes again, there's still pain pulsing through her head, but it's at least not quite as strong. She brings the knuckle of her thumb to her her cheek. It comes away warm and wet. She's been crying.]

[Dazed, still not quite feeling like she's fully connected to time and place, she glances at her phone in abstraction -- though the message that pops up catches her attention.]

[That name . . . The name in front is wrong, but she knows the last one. And there's no mistaking that this person knows her. Harley.]

[She'd better respond. She knows how he is. (Unfortunately, he likewise knows her as well, or they wouldn't have the conversation in the first place.)]

I'm here. I'm okay.

[She scrubs at the wetness on her face with the back of her hand and is glad for once that he isn't here.]

[ He wasn't completely at ease, but at least she was responding. ]

Heiji Hattori ☸ Vassago: We experienced another episode from the application.
Heiji Hattori ☸ Vassago: I think this one was worse between nausea and headaches.

You've been getting them too?

Heiji Hattori ☸ Vassago: It lasted all night.
Heiji Hattori ☸ Vassago: I only just started to feel better a little while after the messages being posted here.

[Something about this feels vaguely familiar..but he can't quite pinpoint what or why.]

I can sympathize...that sounds like a rather difficult situation. Though, my own answers to the same question weren't ones I could fully understand. Are you having a similar experience?

[Ran had withdrawn into herself for some time after those images, riding out the wave of emotion they'd brought with them. She wipes tears from her cheeks with her knuckles as she glances back at the app.]

[She might not have replied to someone else, but . . . that way of talking. And that name.]

Yusuke?

[The chat blocks a lot of personal information; she doubts he'll be able to confirm unless they work around it somehow. And she has to know.]

Sorry, I'll answer, but . . . What exhibition did you last see?

[She would have seen it with him, so maybe this will get through any censors.]

COUNTDOWN: FACES OF FUTURE & PAST 2.0

Ran Mouri ⚔ Zepar

Heiji Hattori ☸ Vassago

Ran Mouri ⚔ Zepar

Heiji Hattori ☸ Vassago

Ran Mouri ⚔ Zepar

Heiji Hattori ☸ Vassago

Yusuke Kitagawa ⚔ Paimon

Ran Mouri ⚔ Zepar