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COUNTDOWN: FACES OF FUTURE & PAST 2.0
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.
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. ]
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He stays there for a while longer. He can't even tell how long. Long enough to wonder if Kouyuki being up means that he's unfrozen, if everyone else in the world is like before. Long enough that he doesn't want to think about it anymore, but can't escape the question. Finally, he lets a soft acknowledging sound stand in for a reply, and forces himself to turn away. Given how he looks right now, and what he has, he has no alternative at all. He cannot force this.
His foosteps are a lot softer as he pads reluctantly away. He closes his own door softly enough that the latch barely clicks in place, then gently sinks back onto his bed. ... where the phone is still on, refusing to automatically shut off, and unanswered comments lie waiting for his return.]
Something like that.
[What he won't remark on is the 'real thing' comment. This person he's talking to can't possibly know the irony there, considering Awakening... this is all levels of a mess. It's hard to find what else he wants to say, too, but he has to find something if he wants to seem collected.
.. but there's nothing. Maybe in a minute. Just... give him a minute. He can be selfish enough to take that much.]
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Inching away from the door, he sinks slowly, softly, to the carpeted floor next to his phone. But he doesn't touch it. Not for a long time. It continues to flash at his side, an eye in the dark of his room watching, commanding, and earnestly ignored behind Kouyuki's drawn up knees and arms folded over his face.
Guilt rattles around his thoughts and in his heart. Sending Michi away like that isn't something he's ever done and, while he knows Michi will forgive him, he isn't certain he can forgive himself. There'd been no word from his brother as he'd gone. Just that soft noise and the sound of his footsteps as he got farther and farther away from the door. It had to hurt. And Kouyuki isn't sure how he can make up for that without explaining what's really going on...
The light from his phone will never go out that night. He'll remain awake. And at some point a message is sent in return to 10.]
I liked 9 better.
Were you...
[There were only a few Eligors, and 01 had revealed himself already. The other was nothing like the first he'd spoken to, and then there was the matter of those symbols. This one was...]
10?
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It's at least something that's easier to focus on than certain other things he's determined to not focus on right now.]
That's correct. As for the numbers... they are the names we got to choose for ourselves. I preferred 10 myself, not too long ago.
['I' of course is used loosely. It wasn't him. Still, no one gets to pick the names they're given, do they? Not Kidou, although he's immensely proud to carry that name. Certainly not Yamashita, which Kidou is way less fond of. There's something to be said in defense of usernames.]
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Thus, the words 'that's correct' bring Kouyuki a little bit of peace. But the same cannot be said for the words that follow...
Preferred. Past tense. He wants to believe he must be overthinking that statement, but no matter how he looks at it, he can see no other way to interpret what was said. The number 10 had may well be less important to them than one of their names now.]
That changed?
[Really, he's asking why that changed. But he's not sure that's a question that can be answered anytime soon.]
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I grew attached to this one.
[In a manner of speaking, that's exactly what happened.]
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Like we're forced to see those things...
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[While he couldn't begin to get into the details. this is the question that plagues him so often these days. He doesn't have a good answer to himself or to anyone else, especially someone who doesn't understand any of this. Having two sets of memories, and two sets of deep attachments and feelings, is the absolute worst thing.]
It's always a possibility what I feel deep down in my heart isn't what's actually true. That I've been forced to feel these things so deeply that I've come to believe them. But ... even if that's the case, I won't find the truth through simple denial.
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[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.]
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[This concept seems completely simple and ordinary to Kidou.]
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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.
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Only for now. I have the start of a plan, but nothing I can do yet.