WEEK 3: April 15th - April 19th

[cartesio]

Third Week

The peaceful times are over. Moloch von Zinzer was murdered, and Nine was sentenced as his murderer. Everyone in Cartesio knows that.

Although life goes on, it seems the town of Cartesio isn't going to forget the tourists' transgressions. Not only they commited larceny in the cinema, they also murdered and executed in their town! It's no surprise their hospitality towards the visitors has cooled down considerably.

Not only they're maintaining a tense cordiality with them, they also have started talking behind the visitors' backs. All kinds of rumors are starting to sprout, yet nobody seems to be willing to say it to the tourists' faces. Talking directly to most passerby makes them distrustful, and nobody seems to want to be in close quarters alone with them.

It's only matter of time before the relationship between tourists and Cartesio starts degrading even further.

In the lobby of the motel there's a few more brochures, and the maps have been updated once again.

Links

IC Rules
Guestbook
Room Assignments
Events
Locations
NPCs
Activity Check

Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday

[Welcome to the third week! If you want to contact the Sergeant, please post here!. Also please remember to submit your activity check!]

Comments

[integratedsoul]

My normal respiratory rate is 15 breaths per minute. WatchMe alerts me if I start getting too agitated and breathing much too fast, but it hardly happens.

[ Take that??? ]

[marmoron]

[....?????]

Why the hell do you have a device that tells you how fast you're breathing? Are you dying?

[integratedsoul]

Oh, no no! Opposite of it!

WatchMe is a software installed onto me that pretty much prevents me from ever getting sick. I'm from... well, does your world have science fiction novels about very controlled peaceful utopias? It's that.

[marmoron]

[Okay. So he's probably not in any position to judge here, but what the quiznack.]

...And that's why you didn't know what a hallucination was.

[Pieces slowly falling into place.]

Because WatchMe keeps you and everyone else from getting sick.

[Feels like that time he freaking stepped into an alternate universe where the Alteans were brainwashing people. Ha. Funny how that keeps being relevant somehow.]

[integratedsoul]

[ She nods. It's actually amazing how late she's having this conversation with Keith as compared to everyone else. ]

I've been told it is a pretty terrifying world for people from other times. I'm public property and my existence is a resource to my society. All that kind of stuff.

Though now I'm here anyway.

[marmoron]

[Raised eyebrow??????]

...So what's your society doing with all of you then?

[integratedsoul]

Existing. Living for the sake of life itself.

Most of humanity died in a nuclear war starting 2019. What's happening now is the response. A desperate attempt at self-preservation.

[ With a tilt of her head, Cian laughs a little. ]

For a world that tries to eliminate all negative emotions, it sure is based on fear.

[marmoron]

[She;s getting a flat stare and eventually:]

Don't most people already just live for the sake of living.

[...Does he know why he's arguing this? No, not really. He just doesn't understand why the heck the forces behind Cian's society thinks everyone would be offing themselves if they weren't specifically told not to do that....]

[integratedsoul]

I've never lived anywhere but there, so I wouldn't really know? The way Miach explains it, in other times people would live for the sake living but only for themselves? And they'd hurt others in the process. This kind of self-interest is what caused the Maelstrom too, I guess.

In my world, you're everyone's property. You live for everyone, not for yourself. 'Everyone's hostage', Miach would say.

I really don't know, I'm not as smart as her.

[marmoron]

[There's a bit of a silence that follows this explanation. This isn't the first time Cian's brought up Miach, but going two for two times, he's associated her name with the most asinine ideas....]

What the hell is your friend talking about? Of course there are selfish assholes around, but not everyone's like that, alright? I know a lot of good people who've sacrificed everything to protect others because that was the right thing to do. Your friend's an idiot. You shouldn't listen to her

[integratedsoul]

She died when I was 15, it's been a while since I listened to her. Or... well, she seemed to have died anyway. I certainly thought she died.

[ ... uh, this is a tangent, back to the point. ]

I'm meeting some genuinely good people right here, I can tell. But please don't speak of Miach that way. She's... she's more than I can convey.

[marmoron]

[JUST. THE FLATTEST STARE EVER.]

You think she wants you to kill people.

[HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN THIS PART, CIAN. WHY ARE YOU DEFENDING THIS AGAIN?????[

suicide implications and mentions cw from this point on

[integratedsoul]

I think she wants me to die, actually.

[ .... now that is, uh, a correction. ]

I'm now pretty sure she's not involved with the Sergeant, after all.

[marmoron]

So you call people who want you dead your friend.

[He's just going to repeat that. He knows it won't sink into Cian's head that this is beyond stupid, but he's going to say it because he needs to hear at least one rational voice in the room.]

You make no sense.

[integratedsoul]

It's more complicated than that. And I don't think you want to hear that story.

[ A big plastic smile accompanies these words, as is Cian's habit. ]

[marmoron]

Do you want to tell the story?

[integratedsoul]

I haven't told it for 13 years but since coming here I've been saying bits and pieces a lot, so I don't really mind. Floodgates have been opened, I suppose?

It's just a sad story and not particularly useful to anyone.

[marmoron]

[He's thrown for a moment b/c he genuinely expected her answer to be "no" and he had commentary laid out in his head in anticipation of that answer.]

Then I only want to hear it over food.

[While he's doing something legitimately productive. You know how that goes.]

[integratedsoul]

I'm going to need your reassurance that you'll take it as a story from my life and not an over-all moral statement and thus... not yell at me about it.

[ She's still smiling, but she already knows Keith will judge everything she is about to say harshly, so.... better to make this clear. ]

1/2

[marmoron]

[Quick and punchy, but not snapped:]

You don't have to tell me about it if the thought alone is making you upset, Cian.

[SHEESH he's not actually all that curious.]

[marmoron]

[But then there's a beat and Keith sighs, looking more contemplative.]

I'm not going to yell. That was... [Trailing off, glancing down.] I was in a bad place that day.

[integratedsoul]

That's all I wanted to hear.

[ She seems immediately more light-hearted again. ]

And getting something to eat is not a bad idea, regardless of what we talk about.

[marmoron]

[Meanwhile Keith just seems to have gone from annoyed to gloomy and got stuck there.]

...Yeah.

[Such excitement!!!!!]

Let's go.

suicide cw intensifies you've all been warned for this thread

[integratedsoul]

[ Well, Keith is the one who made this meal suggestion and now he gets to live with the consequences. Cian accepts his gloomy mood, but it doesn't stop her from meaningless chit-chat on the way to the diner. It feels a little like she's back at the airport with Tuan. That was only three weeks ago but it feels like it's been an eternity.

It doesn't take too long until they're settled at a table with meals in front of them. Cian's still opting primarily to live off salads that don't upset her stomach too much. ]

Alright. Uhm, there's no good way to say this, so I'll just sum it up flat-out: I promised Miach to die with her and that is the promise I broke when I was 15. We had a suicide pact.

[marmoron]

[Keith meanwhile is opting for some chicken and fries -- nothing particularly special. He's said on multiple occasions that he's terrible at small talk, but frankly after she got him thinking about them again, he could use the distraction.

Suicide pacts sound... frankly, silly to him. Even during that time between his dad's death and Shiro's presence in his life, he'd never really wanted to die. He'd wanted to prove everyone who judged him wrong. Can't stick it to the man if you're dead. He glances up and across the table.]

Just because?