theafflicted | 05 - week five

05 - week five

WEEK FIVE

Come Sunday morning, the portals around Estelline fade away, but not all of the oddities hanging around disappear so quickly. The recreations of your dreams and memories are still around, ever changing and shifting. Whatever it is that brought these things here hasn’t ended, not yet.

You don’t have time to worry about all of that, though, even if you know you should exercise caution once two of you found yourselves on the bad end of a monster’s claws. The course still isn’t over, though, even if the portals changed lesson plans. Everything continues on, with new places to explore as the fog pushes back once again. This week still feels a little more like what you’re familiar with, though, after Saturday’s lack of lessons.

...For now.

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This is the first time we get to interact with a flesh and blood employee and... this is what's happening? This could be a test too, you know.

[ he definitely doesn't agree with what goes on around here but he still wouldn't have made this his first option. ]

You are actually concerned with getting a passing grade here, even when the benefit of it is largely unclear to us?

[ LAME.

Like, in her world Miach was best in her class, but she at least liked learning... ]

Not really. I'm more concerned with retaliation. They're watching us go from simple talk to—... well, this.

Frankly, I'd rather deal with retaliation than have to complete any more of this course.

I'd agree with you if we weren't all connected to someone else. I don't care what happens to me, but not if it meant something happened to Mutsu. I'll endure whatever I have to if means we both come out of this together.

[ a pause. ]

I'd do that for anyone here, really.

I wouldn't.

[ Prompt reply from Miss Violence-is-a-Human-Right. ]

You were all strangers to me - and the majority of you remain just that.

[ She likes a few people at least...? ]

Well, clearly more people agree with you than me. I hope you're right.

[ he's not kidding. he would really love it if he's wrong this time. ]

These people put our memories out there on display like an amusement park, so let's hope they don't get any more creative, mm?

Even if it were a test, I'm not sure what they could do to us at this point. We're getting results for the Instructor, and this person isn't covered by the university's rules.

Torture us? Kill us? Show us whatever that vague threat they've been holding over our heads since the beginning actually is? What makes you think what's happened is the only thing that can happen? The only thing that person's done is their job and I've never seen anyone respond to force with anything other than more force.

Torturing and killing us at this point would defeat the point of the exercise, and I doubt they value this man's life enough to do that. If they cared that about that, they wouldn't have him in with no protection or back-up.

[ he sighs because he's tired. but he's patient enough to explain. ]

These people can get into our heads. They can make you do things whether or not you want to and they've bound us together so we can feel what happens to other people. They don't have to kill us or torture us for real, they only have to make us believe that that's what's happening. Why would you want to keep giving them ideas and ammunition to use?

[ he could also shut up himself but whatever. ]

I think you're giving them too much credit. [...] May I ask what you think the purpose of this exercise is?

[This probably sounds like a non sequitur, but.]

I would rather think about it too hard and have wasted my time than have not thought it through enough and made a mistake. I'm not sure what this exercise is for. Maybe they're only telling us it has one because they need us to believe something. Maybe they thought they had to do it like this because we wouldn't agree otherwise.

It could be they're actually telling us the truth and genuinely believe that what they're doing is right. He did say that they like the organic reactions they get by dropping people into this without giving them a choice.

I see.

I don't think you're wrong to want a more cautious approach. But I don't think the Instructor or her assistant control what happens to us when we're drawn into those phenomena. I think they are actually trying to get rid of them, using us.

[Hm.]

R-really?

[He definitely seems surprised by that.]

Has it... been successful?

[Huh.]

If I tell you, what do you intend to do with that information?

I'm... supposed to report any of my findings to Dr. Juniper... and this could be important information...

[......so you know that tag before where i said he's letting him fly free

welp guess not]

I see.

[He doesn't follow up with anything.]

[sweats......]

So you... won't tell me, then.

[That's to be expected ig... They're a very sus lot, here!!]

[it's nothing personal buddy but.]

I don't know who Dr. Juniper is, and I don't have a reason to trust them either.

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Maybe. But it's a risk. This guy works for Camellia or whoever is really running this place and they're supposed to be updating them on what's going on here and they haven't been. Doesn't exactly endear us to whoever's really in charge either.

Even so, I don't think we can resolve this without accepting some risk. And it's not as if we aren't already incurring a risk every week by following their instructions.

Oh, I take more risks than most people. But this in particular? It should be a last resort, not the first option. Honestly, I'm surprised I even have to try this hard to convince people to not to gang up on a random guy and force weird drinks down his throat...

[He does pause here for a moment.]

Then what would you have done?

Well, kept talking to him, for a start? It pays to watch how people act and the things that they say. He didn't have answers to my questions but it sounded less like he was refusing to tell me as much as it just wasn't something he could control. I would have exhausted whatever else I could think of first, basically.

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