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

[deathroadtocanada]

It wouldn't be too hard for some of us...

[But she's thinking about all you normal Humans. All.... three of you?]

[eudaimonikos]

Wait, now it's talking about doing more...

[dammit, do we have some kind of moral obligation to not fuck off now?]

[aragona]

[no moral obligations we fuck off like men]

[eudaimonikos]

[that's NOT HOW YOU MAKE HUMAN FRIENDS SONIA]

[windowsexplorer]

We have to find them.

[god dammit first law she just got you to shut up]

[maxout]

Do we really?

[eudaimonikos]

God dammit, I think we might.

[Doing the right thing sucks sometimes actually???]

[maxout]

Really?

'Cause it's sounding like a whole lot of "not our problem".

[in4apounding]

....I'm not letting anyone else go through this.

[Hi, Penny's still here.]

[She found somewhere to change out of her gray outfit and into the brown and green one that was in her box of stuff. Also she's got a tiny backpack now?]

[But she's clutching her profile folder and looking determined.]

[maxout]

[Electro sparks a little in what can only be assumed must be frustration, though really, what else is new. And he just.

Crosses his arms.

And looks at her.]

Guess it's safe to say your mind's make up, huh?

[in4apounding]

It is. ...I thought what I was. Doing here, at the beginning. I thought it would help people.

I need to make up for that somehow. And I want to help people for real.

[maxout]

Sounds... real noble.

[in4apounding]

You think so?

[maxout]

You wanna help people. Pretty sure that's about the definition.

But I'm definitely not the noble type. Kind of the opposite, actually.

[eudaimonikos]

We're uniquely placed here to do something about this. No one else is gonna come and help them. Doesn't that give us some kind of obligation?

Besides, I'm not seeing any way to get home except using whatever that thing has. Living in some random world isn't my idea of a good time.

[mockmods]

Oh, yes. The temporal scooping equipment was moved offsite well before you were all plugged in.

[maxout]

Of course it was.

[mockmods]

; )

[maxout]

I'm not feeling very obligated to do anything right now.

[But Michael does make... a good point there. Yeah.]

...Goddammit.

It would be nice to have an actual choice in anything just once. [Fuck his life.] But I guess you're right about that, at least.

[eudaimonikos]

You can fry him when we find him?

1/2

[maxout]

[Electro goes quiet. And considers that carefully.]

2/2

[maxout]

...Yeah, alright, I'm in.

[in4apounding]

....Is this a good thing or a bad thing.

[windowsexplorer]

I won't be able to stop thinking about them anyway.

[stupid isaac asimov being a stupid influential writer]

[maxout]

What, guilt's gonna get to you?