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trash bin PART TWO
| the pygmalion. . . ???  OPENING PROGRAM . . . . . . . . . _PROGRAM CRASHED _PROGRAM REBOOT? >N >SCAN PROGRAM . . . _PROGRAM CRASHED . . . >EMERGENCY LEVEL . . . >EMERGENCY LEVEL . . . _EMERGENCY LEVEL LOADING LOADING. . . LOADING. . . LOADING TEXTURE-NIGHT-SKY, TEXTURE-FULL-MOON, TEXTURE-DIRT-PATH, TEXTURE-CAMPFIRE LOADING SOUND-CRICKETS, SOUND-GRAVEL, SOUND-WIND, SOUND-FIRE-CRACKLING UPLOADING USER UPLOADING USER UPLOADING USER UPLOAD SUCCESSFUL TRASH BIN It feels more like an electrical zap than dying. Dying might feel a little bit more like falling asleep, but this is harder, more painful. If you've ever been electrocuted, the feeling might seem familiar; the discovery you make when you open your eyes, too, is likely very familiar. It's the night sky. Stars twinkle, a fire cracks warmly. You sit up and observe the surrounding area, and it's like you've woken up in some sort of canyon. The fire burns brightly, the moon shines beautifully, the crickets sing, and it is ... peaceful. Mostly. You know you're dead. This must be, then, the after life? Or something like it, at least. The horizon stretches on forever, the dirt and gravel seemingly endless. The moon is so big and bright, it's like you could reach out and touch her. There's a shed not too far from the fire, only but a stone's throw away, as if someone else might have made it, and then went inside it. Approaching it, you can see the light glowing inside it through the dusty windows that are littered with fingerprints. A computer screen, so large and wide that it's baffling, sits, waiting. Turning knob reveals that the shed is unlocked, and stepping inside... it doesn't feel any different from the outside. A chair sits in the center of the room, a strange contraption strapped to the head of it. It looks like it would lower itself upon the head of whoever dares to sit on it, and wires from it's bottom curl up towards the machines attached to the screen. Several smaller desktop screens sit beneath the giant monitor. They, too, are hooked up to the machines scattered around the room, to the ominous one perched on top of the medical chair, and they blink, as if fighting to stay alive without use. Pressing the giant monitor on, it lights up, and displays, strangely enough... a security camera feed. You push the button. It switches to another room. Again, another room. Again, another room. So on and forth. You peeping tom! But no one can blame you, in the end. You might as well digitally haunt the rest of the ship until the game ends, and AL-2955 can clean out the trash bin. ...Right? rule book taken characters information cards |
no subject
...I hate this.
[a quiet admission, a moment of weakness. she's done what she needs to do again, and she'll be prepared to do it again when trouble appears next. she feels like she's been slowly cracking for weeks, though, and perhaps it was only a matter of time before something weak and lonely came through.]
no subject
[He is a very good hugger, because of his weirdly natural Dad instincts. He holds it for a few seconds longer, then lets her go, with a solid pat on the shoulder. She is a soldier, and deserves that too.]
It pays off or it doesn't. They're not any worse off than they were before: they've just got an easier choice to make now.
no subject
[but she doesn't elaborate on that. instead:]
You think the choice we've given them is easy? Easy to make, perhaps, but...
[she can hardly fathom the emotional weight of what they've presented for anyone who chooses to believe it.]
no subject
It isn't going to go smoothly, but they've got a good shot at doing something to move forward. We're at the turning point of the game here. One wrong move and they could lose the whole thing, not just be upset about some falsehoods for now. We'll deal with that when the time comes.
no subject
Several weeks before I arrived here, I was traveling on my own. There was a task only I could fulfill. During these travels, I had been given a magic object that could produce food on demand. I was miles from shelter and hungry, so I used it in the open. That was a mistake. A dragon came and found me, attracted by the food. She was large and powerful - she dragged me away, forced me to stay in her lair. Every day, she told me how she was going to kill me eventually. I forced myself not to care.
[a pause.]
I began to care when one day, she left the cave to hunt. She moved a boulder into the mouth of the cave, one I could never hope to move due to it's weight. I was forced to stay there and wait until she came back. It took days, and the mission I was on had a strict time limit. I've faced many dangers, but I don't know that I've ever been that terrified. Waiting there every day, not certain if the people I cared for would be alive when I emerged, not certain that I would succeed... It was torture.
[she sighs. having such little power and influence, only able to pass along a sentence... she never wanted to feel this trapped again.]
They've killed so many. If an alien remains, how do we know they won't...
no subject
There's a difference this time: you're not alone in this. When we're through with those damn aliens, there won't be enough left of them to roll a cigarette with. You lot busted right out of fucking death to pass that message on, to try and help them. That's something to be proud of. We will do it again if we have to, no matter what warnings they have about danger.
no subject
but he's right. she's not alone. she smiles.]
And when we come out of here again, we will make them suffer such that they will regret the day they ever laid a hand on one of our number.