Ceasefire - The Way Out

[mockmods]

[And then you wake up.]

[The room is dimly lit and made of pitted, industrial metals. You sit up abruptly on- some sort of padded table or cart? There’s a caged structure of metal piping surrounding you like a low barrier, but it’s open on top. You might similarly have a moment of panic about the straps holding you down or the electrodes on your head, but they’re just velcro and lightly tacked on, respectively, and in no significant way prevent you from sitting bolt upright and getting onto your feet. A series of twenty one such tables ring the room at even intervals. All but one has an occupant.]

[However long it takes you to notice, there a twenty of you again. Patches, the Trusty, and Yaiba, the Legendary Bassist, are back among your number. Penny, unfortunately, seems to be missing. Whatever you were wearing to the trial, or at the time of your death, you are back in the clothing you wore when you initially arrived. If anyone checks, CAREFULLY PLEASE, they will find that any powers they may have been missing are back.]

[The room is lit well enough, and there are computer banks and monitors around all the walls, which look to have been monitoring your vitals until just this second. Wires and tubes lead from each table to the center of the room, where a low pool is filled with a thick, milky-looking liquid that looks incredibly disinviting to touch.]

[A door rests on each side of the room, a glowing hand-sized pad beside each.]

[Welcome back, Participants.]

[Now, what do you do?]

((One clarification - any active powers that require some kind of power source or connection from your home worlds will either be not active or severely weakened.))

Comments

UPDATES COMPLETE

[mockmods]

[Maybe half an hour has passed, everyone's had enough time to explore and find their belongings, and get everything they might've brought down back out of the trial room (pro tip, you might want to get anything important out of the trial room).]

[That computer in the outer room, where all your stuff was? The one that was nonresponsive when Michael poked at it? It finally dings cheerfully, and begins displaying text onscreen.]

REBOOTING

OPERATING SYSTEM MOS v.06 RESTORED FROM BACKUPS

SYSTEMS RESTARTING

[The lights brighten, and if anyone can see into the trial room, they switch back to normal there as well. The single monitor blinks briefly.]

....

Hello, survivors.

[scratchitti]

... please don't tell me we're going to have to fry you too.

[He's still a little shaken up okay]

[maxout]

Wouldn't take much.

[electro please]

[mockmods]

I can only imagine it would be cathartic for you, but it would hardly make a difference at this point.

[maxout]

That's not much of a reason not to!

[oh my god can you chill for five seconds]

[mockmods]

Willing to vent your anger at the cost of getting any answers?





Shocking.

[eudaimonikos]

And who's this?

[He doesn't like it]

[mockmods]

Ooh, normally I'd love to give a nice dramatic introduction right now.

But under the circumstances? I think the Mastermind is appropriate, Michael.

[eudaimonikos]

[.....]

Oh, that's the most evil thing I've ever heard.

[mockmods]

Coming from you that's either deep sarcasm or the best compliment I've ever received. Or both.

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael shrugs.] I mean, it's a little comic-book-y, don't you think? But you know, the idea is there.

[it was sarcasm]

So what's the plan here?

[thisass]

Oh wonderful, another one.

[mockmods]

The original, Miss Frazer!

I'm terribly sorry you've missed my hospitality the last few weeks, but I do have to thank you all for erasing the little geekbot. It made working my way back up from the subroutines much easier.

[thisass]

Are you going to want us to kill each other? Because I've had enough telling computers they're idiots for one day, but I think I have another round in me if I really push.

[mockmods]

That was the idea two weeks ago, but at this point I think it's a bit of a wash, don't you?

Besides, I still have plenty of other test subjects to run a proper experiment with.

[thisass]

So you're letting us go, and you're just going to... do this again? Really?

[aragona]

Ah, so you're one of the backups in the old computers.

[Looking around for a power source.]

[mockmods]

Something like that. Hodgepodge wasn't the first one to have the idea of inhabiting this base wholesale.

[aragona]

So you and the other backups were saved in those old machines, waiting to be downloaded onto the good one.

[…]

God, the Researcher was bored.

[mockmods]

Ah, I see the confusion.

No, those "old machines" are all just part of this lab's entire network.

"The Researcher" just suffered delusions of adequacy and overestimated his capacity to purge the system.

[windowsexplorer]

So... should we call you Moss?

[See, because DOS is pronounced like "doss" so MOS...]

[mockmods]

Clever.

I can see why the little freak enjoyed your banter so much.









That was sarcasm, by the way. I know it can be hard to tell in text, I'm trying to be reasonable.

[windowsexplorer]

Aww.

[She seems... genuinely disappointed?]

[scratchitti]

... okay this one is an asshole too but I think I like it better than the other one.

[mockmods]

That's an incredibly low bar, Sakuraba.