DEAD 03

[thecomputer]

[Welcome, Zolf!]

[You regain consciousness in a waiting room of some sort. Something is clearly odd - your entire body is slightly transparent, and everything you were carrying with you aside from your clothes is gone. On the plus side, you seem to be impervious to all harm.]

[There is an end table with two stacks of papers. One is a large area to write in (there is a small assortment of pens next to this), and the other all bear the same message:]

Congratulations! You have died.

Please wait in this area until such time as the exercise is terminated. At that time, you will be transferred to your appropriate afterlife. If you were assigned a Communist role, rest easy knowing that any ultimatum given as part of your motivation was false.

If you have any questions, please shout them into the air, and a representative will get back to you within 5-100,000 business days. If you have any final messages for the living, please write them on form B and submit it into the slot in the south wall. Delivery is not guaranteed.

[Sure enough, there’s a slot. In addition, a hallway connects this room with a much larger room, not unlike a movie theatre. A large screen on the far wall shows various events back in the facility as they unfold in real time. A side alcove provides slightly transparent popcorn and a water cooler, although hunger, thirst and exhaustion don’t seem to exist here.]

Comments

[ossifragant]

I'm sure he's a grateful man right now.

He'll be next, but if he can drag one of them to hell with him at least our side will have accomplished something. The two of you got a confession out of that girl, after all.

[alchemicals]

...I don't know how much good it's going to do, but the night I died I set Knightley onto Fulbright.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he won't listen to me. But I did try to give them some sort of direction.

[ossifragant]

If my partner hadn't been useless, I wouldn't have been knocked out of the game so quickly. I would have killed, don't get me wrong, but it wouldn't have been immediately.

It does nothing for either of us, but if there's really someone behind this, maybe our remaining allies will find something out.

[alchemicals]

[He falls quiet again at that.]

You know, I still don't get why they kept going after me instead of Yomiel.

Role or not, they wasted a shot.

[ossifragant]

I don't know.

[Kimbley is pretty 'what you see is what you get,' that's what Greed liked about him before the whole backstabbing thing.

Maybe as a group they thought there was more to him than that.]

They're no better at this game than we are.

[alchemicals]

They really aren't, are they.

[He shifts a bit; this is...really awkward.]

...I'm not telling you to get out, but last night really fucked with me and was a great reminder of why I don't ever try to do anything decent for anybody that isn't myself. So I'm not going to be the greatest company, if you're looking for entertainment.

[ossifragant]

[He glances at Kimbley for a moment before turning his attention to the screen.]

I don't need the entertainment.

I'll sit here quietly if you'd prefer. There's not much left to say.

[alchemicals]

You know I don't tell you what to do - oh, hell, Yomiel, don't do that.

[Because for fuck's sake.]

Say what you want, but at least I didn't stand around talking to you.

[ossifragant]

[Greed lets out a soft, dark laugh.]

That's a little macabre, isn't it? Even for him.

He didn't do that for me.

[alchemicals]

In theory, I'd be flattered.

In practice, I'm just a little disturbed and sort of wanting to shake him.

[ossifragant]

I'm sure you'll get your chance.

[He stretches out his arms lazily.]

I wonder what his story is.

[alchemicals]

I doubt I'll ever hear it.

Maybe he'll tell you if you ask nicely enough.

[ossifragant]

Maybe I'll ask him.

[He has an idea, but it's not going to matter in the end.]

At least it's interesting watching them run around when it's not your life on the life. You have to give them that.

And props to whoever's desecrating our bodies.

[alchemicals]

Really, because that is disgusting. I'm actually impressed.

[ossifragant]

Whoever's running this has to make people take this game seriously somehow.

Making each death more and more violent gets the message across, I suppose. Even if the results are gross.

But I'll take dying in my sleep over being burned alive any time.

[It might look worse, but he didn't actually feel anything as far as he remembers so he'll take it.]

[alchemicals]

[Ah, that...that gets him to tighten up again, actually, though he keeps it out of his voice and for the most part off of his face.]

I would've taken the fire, personally.

[ossifragant]

Trust me-- you don't want to die slowly.

[It's a very been there done that sort of thing, but he isn't going to get into it more than that.]

I don't like not knowing my attacker, but the end results are a touch more pleasant.

[alchemicals]

Maybe you're right. After all, I spent almost half my life alone in a locked box waiting to die. What's one more night?

[Watch it, Greed.]

[ossifragant]

[He freezes up at that.]

....I'm....

[This is awkward.]

You're not alone.

[alchemicals]

I was last night, and that's why I don't try to do decent things for people.

[He's clearly trying to brush it off; it's nothing to be concerned about.]

I lasted years before this; half an hour wasn't so bad.

[ossifragant]

[Greed has no idea what to do with this. As far as he's concerned, Kimbley is a traitor who doesn't deserve his empathy, but there had been a time when Greed considered him something rather like a friend.]

You were trying to spare that kid from waking up to you gone.

[That's bizarrely selfless of Kimbley. He's not sure what to do with it.]

[alchemicals]

...It seemed like something that kid would be fucked up by, yeah, and absolutely nobody needs that - have you heard Newman yell?

[...]

I wouldn't gain anything from doing someone's head in like that, and if that kid was going to be fucked up over me anyway, there was no point in twisting the knife. I'm sadistic, sure, but it's hard to reap the benefits if you're dead.

[ossifragant]

He'll understand eventually.

[Hopefully. He'd hate to be made a liar because of something like this.]

If Yomiel's caught one of the other Communists, maybe Newman will be one of the lucky ones to make it out of here alive.

[It's not comforting, exactly, because they're both dead, but it's something.]

[alchemicals]

Oh, don't worry about trying to make me feel better - I set Knightley on Newman, too. That kid Paul had a point, that trial just wasn't the place to bring it up - not while we were closing in on someone else who couldn't refute our arguments any.

[He shrugs a bit once that's out there, though.]

I've calmed down a bit since you saw me last, but that doesn't mean I won't still put knives in backs, friends or otherwise. What did you tell Yomiel, anyway? I figure you had to have said something.

[dictator_ko]

The fire hurt! It hurt a lot!