Final Trial

[cartesio]

Final Trial

It takes a few minutes after everyone talks with the generic mannequin. The easygoing conversation, the bragging from Gant, Keith's exasperation, it all stops when a very heavy and ominous presence fills the room.

"I think it's about time this circus stopped"

It's the Sergeant. He's standing on the doorway, arms crossed. The shadows on his face wriggle, he seems to be rather furious, but is restraining himself from lashing out

"I should have guessed you bunch would take advantage of all that noise and ruckus to sneak in here. I was careless, I admit. 'Oh, this is over in like four hours, it will be okay if I step away to deal with that'. Careless."

Slowly the Sergeant enters the workshop. Behind him, the door slowly disappears, fading away, until where the door was now there's only a smooth wall. The Sergeant raises an arm, the entire room shakes.

All the mannequins fly up to the ceiling, the one that was now Damon Gant turned back into the empty husk the mannequin was before. The one with a t-pose has the same fate. Once all the mannequins are up on the ceiling, the operation tables are uprooted, bolts and screws flying around. The tables are twisted in the air, formed into knots, disassembled and assembled all over again, until several rustic podiums are formed and deposited on the ground.

Seven podiums, with him at the center. The Sergeant crosses his arms and speaks:

"Get on those spots. Tell me... ...how much do you know?"

Is it a rhetorical question? Who knows. You still have to answer, though

Comments

[marmoron]

What did you do to them?

[Stated while nudging Cosmo back. No need to get the space wolf hurt here.]

[cartesio]

[In the center of the room, several screens appear. When they turn on, there's the town of Cartesio. The streets are completely empty, the pavement is dirty with residues of fireworks and other stuff.

For several seconds each screen shows different areas of the town]

They're all in timeout while I deal with you guys. I was about to make some...corrections when I noticed you guys were sticking your noses where they don't belong.

[marmoron]

[He's looking at these screens with an impassive expression.[

"Time out." That what you're calling processing now?

[There. That's an answer of sorts, isn't it? He's not moving any closer to a podium though.]

[cartesio]

Those who were granted the right to stay in Cartesio are on processing. The other hundreds of people are...

...let's say asleep and away, for the time being.

[Sergeant takes the word Keith used as an indication he's aware of the inner workings of what he does. Oh, darn it...this bunch have gotten deep into all this]

[marmoron]

[They're technically not real people -- only simulations of them. It shouldn't matter what their fates are and yet .... he's still ticked off by this.]

You afraid of them interfering? I thought you had this all under control. Why'd they turn on you in the first place?

[cartesio]

I'm a big fan of free will.

[marmoron]

[....]

Did you just make a joke?

[cartesio]

No. I mean it. Forcing people to do stuff would go against what I think -- and against the entire purpose of this exercise.

[It sure is weird how he can say that with a straight face, so to speak]

[marmoron]

[...]

This is all code on a computer program, what the fuck are you talking about?

[cartesio]

I made all those people, but to be frank, I limited the amount of reach I have on them. I needed this town to have free will so it could be perfect simulation of a small society in a normal town.

It was necessary for the exercise.

[Can you guess why, Keith?]

[marmoron]

You're talking about this enrichment crap aren't you.

Tell me about that.

[cartesio]

If you want to talk about that...