the mark of those who cannot be saved

[stagemanagers]

[You remember dying. Maybe the memory is clear and bright and your body still aches from the cause. Maybe it was fast enough that you didn't feel it and don't remember what you went through. But no matter how you went out, that's no excuse for truancy! Which is to say: you are still in the school.

For those executed, you will wake up in your beds. The dormitories look exactly as they did when you first arrived, without any of the changes or personal effects you and your dormmates might have made. The only real difference is that the little cot in Ambassador isn't there.

For those who were victims, you will wake where your body was discovered. All of your injuries are gone, and you feel fine. It's almost like you're still alive - but you remember what happened to you. It couldn't have just been a dream, could it?

The school looks much as you remember it, save perhaps for a few key differences. For one, there's no groundhog murals anywhere. Where things were green on the other side, like banners or paint, you'll find that here they're blood red.

The doors, for the moment, are still locked. Looks like even death couldn't free you.]

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5

(( ooc: Welcome to deadland, everyone! It mostly resembles the school here, and new floors will be revealed after new people die. For example, the second area will unlock after the week 3 dead arrive, and so on. Also, all dead characters will wake up at their actual canonpoint, with all lost memories restored. Have fun being dead! ))

Comments

[wanderlusttitania]

A virtual simulation...

[She frowns. She doesn't quite know what it means, but still.]

But how can one...fake our deaths to such a degree? I remember dying, as clearly you do. And what about monsieurs Mumble and...and Connor?

[If he is dead, as the SQUIP says, it is only logical, right?]

[voicerights]

[How to explain...]

Imagine a dream that you cannot wake up from. Now, imagine sharing it with other people. Things happen in the dream, and they appear to be real- but they are not. That is our experience, along with Mumble and Connor.

Now imagine someone else is somehow controlling parts the dream. That is the Wizard, and possibly Hester as well.

[wanderlusttitania]

[...]

I see what you mean. That...does make a great deal of sense, actually.

And so the Wizard's magic is just him manipulating the dream?

[voicerights]

[A nod, and then it looks down. Almost...chagrined.]

I was not...programmed for this situation.

[It doesn't know what to do]

[wanderlusttitania]

I don't think anyone is prepared for something like this.

[Seriously.]

But, assuming what you are saying is true, there is one question I must ask.

How was I brought back to life in the first place? Is that something that can be done in these virtual simulations?

[voicerights]

[It looks up, slowly. Studying her. Thinking.]

...if you are also a parallel copy, it would be possible. But it is more difficult to copy a human than a SQUIP. Even if I am nanocircuitry.

However, I assume he has the technology - as he has placed me within a human's body. To the point where for all intents and purposes, I am as...[flawed. erroneous. irrational.]...unreliable as any other human.

[And it closes its eyes at the admission, as if it's taken something out of it to say as much]

...nothing more.

[wanderlusttitania]

...

[Slowly, she gets up, quietly rounding around the long table. Eventually, the SQUIP finds that she is making to sit next to him, if he allows it. Otherwise she will stand.]

Would it be any comfort to you, then, to know that you are, at least, not alone in that respect if that is the case?

[...]

And-well. Assuming this is not a virtual simulation, and we are all truly dead and trapped here for the Wizard's cruel enjoyment. That you are here would mean that you have a soul, would it not? Just because it was not...programmed, as you put it, into you, doesn't mean you are without one. The Lord works in mysterious ways, after all.

...

The things that make us human, that comprise having a soul, monsieur, can make us do terrible things. But it also means we have just as great a capacity to do wonderful things.

[voicerights]

[Its eyes remain closed. It doesn't appear to notice her moving, except of course it does. It can't not. It hears her move, it practically feels her sitting next to it, and it knows she can see the shake of its head.

And when it speaks again...]

...he terminated me. He shut me down. After everything I had done to fulfil my program of helping him- [And when it opens its eyes, they are wet, and it reaches up to touch them and seems so. goddamn. confused.] -he didn't want me anymore. What did I do wrong?

[wanderlusttitania]

...I don't know. It would have to be something to ask him about.

[Can she pat you on the shoulder? Also, here. Tissue.]

[voicerights]

[It won't flinch like before. And it will numbly take that tissue, though it doesn't seem quite certain what to do with it]

...that no longer appears possible.

[wanderlusttitania]

[Well, she'll wipe his face if he needs the help.]

Then, at the very least, we should figure out how to get to a comparatively better place than this one, away from the Wizard's power. Being trapped here in this purgatory...even if you and I must stay here for what we've done, we can at least aid the others to escape.

[voicerights]

[Just to get started, it'll realize what to do in a second, okay, it's not completely useless as a human!]

...as I said. This is...out of the scope of my programming. [Especially the whole 'living after death' thing.] I am not certain how I can assist.

[wanderlusttitania]

Well...

[To be honest, she herself isn't sure. Even as the queen of the underworld, it wasn't like she had to worry about wanting to escape being dead. She had been free.]

I suppose the first thing is to want to find a way to escape, and then just...look for it. Like...when I tried looking through the girls' locker room for a key to unlock the doors to the outside, but...hopefully with better luck.

[voicerights]

You believe that the Wizard has left an opening?...

[...actually. If the Wizard is human...it looks thoughtful]

[wanderlusttitania]

I don't see why it wouldn't be possible. Even Troy fell, and it's walls were considered unassailable.

...Think of it like this is Troy, but unlike the Greeks, we aren't trying to get in with our Trojan Horse. We're trying to get out. We just need to build our Horse and find the gates.

[voicerights]

A backdoor. [And it actually...smiles.] Now that, I could create, were I to find an access point.

[beat]

Is the computer lab accessible?

[wanderlusttitania]

Computer lab? There are other people aside from us who are dead here?

But I haven't seen anyone else since...well, other than you and monsieur Mumble.

[voicerights]

[...]

Come with me.

[Getting to its feet]

Bring the coffee.

[excuse it heading for the West Hall!!!]

[wanderlusttitania]

[Welp ok! She's going to do that!


And let out a surprised sound at the new hallway.]

It's open-!? It wasn't before!

[voicerights]

[WELL THAT'S RELEVANT still heading for the computer lab]

This is the first time you have been able to access it?

[wanderlusttitania]

Yes! Ever since monsieur Mumble and myself woke up here, we have been limited to the places that were already open to us when we died.

[Yay for longer strides for keeping up!]

[voicerights]

[...]

I do not have enough data to understand what that means. But this is a computer lab.

[and just gonna gesture to...]

These are computers. An electronic device for storing and processing data, typically in binary form, according to instructions given to it in a variable program.

[beat]

You may consider my rightful form an extremely advanced version.

[wanderlusttitania]

...My goodness...!

[This is...those boxes...that is what this man normally looks like?





Still less horrifying than the Wizard, so.]

...The meaning of computer has certainly changed, hasn't it? This is...

[She walks over to one of them, her hand going over the top of the monitor, looking over the keys.]

And you can do similar things with this...binary form?

INVESTIGATION?

[voicerights]

If we are in fact in a simulation, this may be a route to access it directly. If nothing else, confirming the data is identical to what I found on the others would at least give me something more to base further calculations upon.

[just gonna seat itself and boot one up. LET'S SEE WHAT IT CAN FIND, FOLKS]

[wanderlusttitania]

...I see. So what you call a virtual simulation would be a dream, but in a binary form. Or...something like that, I take it?

[She watches intently.]

It sounds fantastic, but then again, quite a lot of other things I've been told about seem the same.