05 - week five

[afflictionmods]

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.


SETTING TRACKER

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY

SAGE / FLORENCE / LORELEI

CYOA SIGNUPS
Due Saturday at 8pm EST

FULL NAV

(CODE)

Comments

[partymagician]

The moons are... a bit unsettling.

[ To say the very least. ]

[selfconcept]

I'd shoot one of them down for you.

[ Is that romantic??

He even lets go of Fai's hand to mimic drawing back a bowstring. ]

[partymagician]

[ Romantic or not, it does make him smile. ]

Do you have good aim?

[selfconcept]

Yeah.

[ You know. Evidence to the contrary like Hien's huge sniping failure that accidentally killed Owen and failing to stab the same guy the next day. ]

If you couldn't tell by the gun I brought out that time.

[partymagician]

So you're pretty good without all that chaos?

[ Because. Well. He sure hasn't had good luck so far. ]

[selfconcept]

Yeah. Guns are more my thing than archery though, but this person—I guess he's kinda like a mentor—uses bow and arrows. He makes it look so graceful with power.

[ So watching archery happen was always nice for Hien. ]

[partymagician]

I'm good at archery too, but I think you know that already.

[ Still. He smiles. ]

Want to see me do it sometime?

[selfconcept]

Yeah. Up close and personal.

[ Anyway, they're here at the electronics store now and Hien takes a look around. It's the usual display of mobile devices and the bundle of wires and whatnot. ]

... I'm no electrician, but maybe I could use some of this to cause power outages.

[partymagician]

[ He worries about the optics on shooting arrows up close and personal, but whatever Hien wants... ]

And you want to cause power outages for what reason...?

[selfconcept]

To piss people off at Camellia for thinking they know anything about humanoids.

[ The survey questions still annoy him. ]

[partymagician]

Did something they do touch a nerve with you?

[ It certainly seems like it... ]

[selfconcept]

They had the audacity to say relationships don't matter with the bonding process. They're making those suppression chips too. They don't know anything.

[partymagician]

I thought the whole point of the bonds were to foster relationships to better ourselves.

[ Huh. And those chips too... Hien is right that they don't know anything. ]

[selfconcept]

They don't give two shits about relationships, but they care about emotion... or at least that's the feeling I'm getting from what I saw in that weird... cyber room thing.

[ That he ruined, because of course. ]

Emotions happen because of the relationships that are made. They're so stupid. I don't like it. People can't control emotions just because they're connected to someone else. They're their own person.

[ Anyway, that's why he wants to cause a black out the Camellia facilities and fuck them up. ]

[partymagician]

Perhaps they hope that knowing someone else can feel your rage or sadness might temper those emotions.

[ He hums thoughtfully. ]

But if you dislike your partner or don’t want to actively try to curb those emotions… that defeats the entire purpose. [ He sighs. ] It all goes back to the relationship you have with them.

It really is shocking they don’t care.

[selfconcept]

Exactly.

[ He sighs, nabbing some wires and cords. Maybe he'll make the blackout an actual thing. ]

At first I didn't mind doing this experiment thing, but if the people who oversee this project doesn't know jack shit about how people work, I'll change my mind.

[partymagician]

You didn’t mind it?

[ He supposes that makes sense… ]

[selfconcept]

Yeah.

[ He didn't really care either way. ]

Are you surprised?

[partymagician]

Hmm.

[ He gives it a second or two of thought. ]

No. I think, especially at that point in time, you didn’t care about a single thing.

[selfconcept]

Bingo.

[ Anyway, he walks over to the handheld devices. ]

Is there any product you're interested in? I can walk you through them.

[partymagician]

This.

[ He points to a Walkman. Looks like it’s here for Retro Vibes. Or something. ]

[selfconcept]

... This is ancient compared to the other stuff here.

[ Hien takes a look. ]

It plays music when it has battery life and you can listen after you plug in the headphones. You need to get a set of stuff though, like CDs or cassette tapes, depending on what Walkman you're using.

[partymagician]

[ Fai nods as he picks it up. It's pink and sleek, much sleeker than the older models Hien knows. ]

I see...

[ But does he. ]

[selfconcept]

... You don't get it, huh?

[partymagician]

Ah... now is your chance to call me an old man...