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

[cartesio]

[......]

You're just as idealistic as you were two months ago. Unsurprising, I guess, but this is ridiculous.

[He doesn't sound happy to admit that]

Some things are better not to know about. Do you think anyone in the town would be happy if they knew the carnage they went through before living here?!

[The mock week people, he means. At least Lovepon's death is close enough to 'carnage']

[clearities]

Of course not! But it's all fake! It's all a lie--

[ she tears up, angry, frustrated; not at the Sergeant himself, but at the situation. ]

But not everything can be happy all the time, even if I want it to be! Even if bad things happen to them, they can power through it! That's what being alive is about...!

[cartesio]

Are you even alive? You know what you are right now?

[clearities]

[ she has to force herself to steady her breathing, wiping her tears with a sleeve. ] I do. That doesn't change my answer. [ she overheard that speech, after all. ] It doesn't matter if we're real or copies.

[cartesio]

I think it does matter. Exactly because of that, I hold all of your lives in my hands. If I desired, I could erase all of you immediately, as well as everyone else currently on the other plane of the town, and just obtain another thirty minds to start all over again. Time is something I have a lot of, after all.

[clearities]

If you desired to, right? You could have done that the moment you found out we were in here, though, Sergeant-san... [ she does, however, sigh. ] But that's not I meant when I said that, you know? I meant that even if we are copies, we still have thoughts and feelings. Emotions. We all felt something, during our time here. But I don't think that you're going to get what you want even if you start over. And over, and over again. This... isn't how you'll be able to fix things.

[cartesio]

I'm not afraid of erasing all of you if I so desire.

[Unless you have something that proves the opposite?]

I believe I can. With better selected minds, this can go better than it went now. True, there was success, and a lot of valuable information was gathered, but there's still field for improvement.

[Whooosh, that's the sound of Sakura's point flying over his head]

[clearities]

[ she probably does not, but: ] If you do erase us... all of us, I won't be able to help you, either. Even if everyone else probably doesn't want me to. [ ... ] Unless you lied to me about that. About wanting to see your friends again... but I still believe that it won't change.

[cartesio]

What I want doesn't matter, you know. Orders are orders.

[clearities]

[ she frowns. just a little bit. ] ... I think it does matter. At least, it matters to me, in spite of your orders.

[cartesio]

Look, my existence is directly tied to my orders. Without those orders, I pretty much don't exist. I don't even have the right to have one of those.

[He points upwards, at the mannequins]

You know what those are?

[clearities]

[ while Sakura may be listening, she's struggling, a little, to come up with a proper response. ] That's... kind of sad. [ and unfair, really? she thinks that people have the right to exist no matter what they are. she still earnestly wants to help him, in some way. she kind of wants to free him from those bonds to his orders. but she shakes her head at the question. ] I'm not sure, but were those... [ she swallows hard ] ... the townspeople?

[cartesio]

No. These here are the creation my superior made. They're special husks, made to be biologically identical to any human. By inputting your genetic code into them, they can be a perfect copy of the body the mind originally came from.

In other words, those up there are the bodies those who leave the simulation will have. You're all little more than minds right now, you know. You'll need a body if you truly want to exist.

[He waves a hand]

These are just a representation, the real deal is on the real world, of course.

[clearities]

[ you know what. she's relieved those weren't the townspeople because she would have been creeped out even more. ] So it wouldn't matter if we left or not... we wouldn't be able to go back home?

[cartesio]

[The Sergeant leans forward, lowering his voice almost threateningly]

Stings, doesn't it? [And then back aloud:] All of you are hopeless.

Look at yourselves. You're little more than a bunch of minds in a world that isn't even yours. You don't even have bodies. You have no future ahead of you other than a nice, peaceful life in this town. [Would sound much nicer if it wasn't a fake life] Only three of you will get to go outside, to the real world, to do whatever you want, and it'll always lead to the destruction of everything out there.

And none of you have a choice because you don't even exist. You're copies. You're not even the original version of yourselves! If one of you was erased right now, nobody nowhere would even notice! You all are completely worthless!

What home? What friends? What family? None of that is yours! Even if there was a way to return you in a new body back to your world, you'd have nothing, because the original version of yourself has it all! Do you really think two of the same person can have the same life and fate?

None of you have a past. All you have is the future I have defined for you all. And that's a hard fact.

[He calms down. He really is getting some bitterness in all that, that's for sure]

Do you see now? Sometimes the truth is better to be in the dark. But don't worry. Once we're done here, I'll erase everything about these truths. You'll live a happy life in this town, with that Syaoran kid. The both of you will live successful, fulfilling lives. What else can you ask for?

[quickpersuader]

[A slow blink.]

Sergeant, that's still completely untrue, you know.

[cartesio]

Is it?

[He spat that]

Tell me, then! How is it completely untrue?!

[quickpersuader]

Experiences.

[She gives a sigh. Sarge, you're... really slow.]

Even if we were clones, our experiences are completely different. That already means we have things that our originals don't.

That already makes us useful outside of whatever parameters you're trying to set. We've all seen things here that nobody else ever has or ever will experience exactly the same way we did.

[robitussin]

...You’re getting a little touchy about this, aren’t you?

[She says, even as she tries to move past how much it strikes a chord with her as well.]

Maybe it’s because you can relate, huh?

[cartesio]

R-Really now?!

[He sounds so taken aback]

[robitussin]

Yeah, I think so. See, I found something pretty interesting. It was a journal that belonged to someone named Sergei. Ring any bells?

[clearities]

[ she looks at the Sergeant, not even flinching in the slightest bit as she keeps her grip on her staff. it tightens slightly but her gaze isn't unwavering. she swallows hard. her memories aren't hers, they're Sakura's, but even so-- when he says those words, "Do you really think two of the same person can have the same life and fate?" fury seems to burn into her expression. cold and hard. ] We can't have the same fate. Or the same life. We're not the same person, after all, Sergeant-san. I've had... different experiences now. But even so. That doesn't matter. I think that isn't for you to decide. Maybe I wouldn't have family or friends at first and I'd have to start from zero. But I think I can- that we can turn that zero into something more. We can create our own futures. I still surely believe that everything will be alright. And even she, back home, she'd believe in that, too. [ her invincible spell. even if they're not the same. she trusts that judgment of hers. both her, and the real Sakura. ] I don't think that it's right to erase those truths. Even if I got to stay with Syaoran-kun... it'd be selfish of me to just forget everything that's happened here. It'd be way too sad to forget!

[cartesio]

Too sad? You'd really willingly remember all of this? The death and loss and chaos, and everyone hating you week after week?

[clearities]

[ she nods. ]

I would. I want to. Because... I learned a lot from it, that I didn't know before.

[marmoron]

Spare me the bad poetry.

[So fucking deadpan.]