cartesianism | Week 4: April 22nd

Week 4: April 22nd - April 26th

Fourth Week

A second murder shook the town of Cartesio. Clarisse's ambush plan ended with Katsuki Bakugou's death. Now what?

Nothing to be done other than continuing their life and watch what happens. After two weeks, after the deaths they have seen, it's hard to think there's a way out. The only option is to wait for the right chance to turn the tables and see a weak point in the Sergeant's plans -- and hopefully not see any murders.

The townspeople's attitude towards the tourists soured even more. The destruction of the church was much worse than anything they had seen so far, and they ran out of patience. People who in the past were nice and wanted nothing more than to make the tourists happy now aren't afraid of saying to their faces what's what. Random pedestrians shout at the visitors, telling them to stop being criminals. Although there are a few who have more patience than the rest, general opinion is clear:

The tourists are nuisances, to say the least.

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

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[It takes some nudging, but she’s a fairly light sleeper, so she pushes herself up after a few kicks and blinks blearily.]

What, what’s going...

[She says, as one half of the bagel (which is stuck to her face by the liberal helping of cream cheese) slowly begins to slide down her cheek. Gingerly, she reaches up to pull it off. With a grimace:]

...Yeah, that seems about right.

[If Keith finds any of this funny, it's actually not showing on his face. He watches that bagel slow slide with a fairly deadpan expression and just sits down on the chair opposite her, plopping his food on the table.]

Late night last night?

You could say that.

[She says, reaching for a napkin holder to start getting some of the cream cheese off her face.]

I wanted to talk to you, actually. You have a few minutes?

[He'll slide her another napkin, eyebrow raised.]

Sure. What do you need to talk about?

So! I’m going to try and make a long story short, because this is messed up and I’m kind of freaking out.

[Which is absolutely a reassuring way to start. Regardless:]

Sometime last week, someone mentioned to me that they thought the Sergeant might have certain people he was more interested in. That seemed really weird to me, so I went to ask him, and he said that was right. He wouldn’t give me a full list of people, but he said I could give him three names and he’d tell me whether or not they were on the list of people he was more interested in. So, I asked him about three really different people, to see if I could narrow it down based on the answers. Me, because I have no weird superpowers or really unusual life experiences; you, because you have really intense stuff going on in your life but no crazy superpowers; and someone who has both, but they’re not important for this part, so let’s ignore that for a second. Anyways, he answered yes to the weird interest he has for me and you, not the third person.

[She drums her nails on the table as she finishes rubbing the food off her cheek.]

You with me so far? Because it’s about to get worse.

....

[Well shit just got real.]

He -- what?

[Keith isn't freaking out, but there's suddenly a lot of tension in his shoulders. It doesn't make sense, he wants to say, but he'll wait on that until the end of the story.]

Go on.

Edited 2018-10-24 23:47 (UTC)

Okay. So, obviously I wanted to know what interested in meant in this context, and he said, and I quote, "those who are vital for the completion of our plans". And when I immediately informed him how stupid that was, since neither of us are helping him, he said that didn't matter.

[A very, very stressed sigh.]

End quote. So. That's a thing. I'm assuming it's the same for you, and... However other many people there are, since I didn't get to ask about everyone.

[There's a lot to unpack here. Danish ad drink momentarily forgotten, Keith furrows his brow.]

It doesn't matter... because he can modify our memories to make us think he's the good guy in all this? Or is it because he has leverage on us that neither one of us can afford to compromise on.

[A bit of both, maybe. That's the easy part of that to figure out. Still leaves the other more obvious questions.]

Are you sure that he was more interested in us from the start or has he developed more interest in us because of what we've been up to since being here?

No, it doesn't have anything to do with modifying our memories. I asked him about whether he was planning on doing that right after we found Millium's friend, and he said he wasn't.

It's like... He said it doesn't matter if we think we aren't cooperating, he still considers us "vital" or whatever. The way he explained it was... He said even if we think we aren't helping his plans, we are. He wouldn't tell me what it was we had done, whether it was just by being here or something either of us have actively done while we're here.

[She sighs.]

That's the thing. I'm not sure, but he did say that there was some common ground between everyone he had an interest in. I think if we could find out what it was... That would help.

He also said he would send Rean's group home.

[Sarge's word means less than dirt to Keith right now. He goes quiet for a moment.]

It's possible that he's interested in our quintessence -- life force, essentially. It's a form of energy that's present in all living beings, though its qualities can differ from person to person.

[A beat.]

There was a guy we fought back home. He was harvesting the quintessence of Alteans in order to create powerful weapons and ships. The Alteans are a bit of a unique case though -- they're highly magical as a race. I wouldn't know exactly how much you could do with human quintessence. ...Or mine. But that might be it... and if so, that's not good at all.

Edited 2018-10-25 04:31 (UTC)

Whenever I ask him something that he doesn't want to answer, he tells me he can't say, even if that makes him look more suspicious. I don't think he's lying on this one. Trust me on this, okay?

[She sighs, though, listening to that. She can't claim she understands all of it, but...]

If that were the case, wouldn't he have already killed us? And... I'm, like, the least magical person here. I'm not sure that's it.

[Keith continues to just look dubious, but:] Alright, let's assume that's true.

Not necessarily. He might be working on something to refine the extraction process. If the last group was a test run, they might not have gotten the technology right just yet. Besides.. the guy I'm talking about? He kept thousands of Alteans alive in a facility, continuously depleting whatever quintessence they could generate instead of outright killing them.

[Fun shit, really. Keith looks grim for a moment.]

And not all the Alteans are inherently capable of alchemy and magic. With quintessence, quality is one thing, but quantity is another. You might have more of it than the average person. There's no correlation between quintessence and how cool or not you thin you are.

I would prefer to be wrong about this though.

And how did he do that? Was it by just letting them wander around and do whatever they wanted, including killing each other? Because it seems pretty counterproductive to me, unless I'm misunderstanding.

[She sighs.]

Yeah, I would also prefer that.

He... [There's a bit of a grimace here.] ... he gave them an entire planet to live on. To do whatever they wanted. Whatever the Alteans needed he provided.

[Keith's hands curl into fists. Just like the Sergeant really -- providing them with practically unlimited money,shelter, the freedom to wander around within a certain perimeter. Shit -- why didn't he think about this before?]

Lotor never told them to murder each other. [A beat.] But he did lie to all of them. When he wanted to harvest their quintessence, he simply told them he'd be taking a few of them.. to a new home. [We're going home in two months. It's all so laughable now in the worst possible way.] He took them to a secret facility instead to begin the extraction process.

I don't know. I don't know if that's what's happening here, I don't know how the killing each other factors into it, unless he thinks there's a correlation between those who survive and those who'll be most promising for harvesting. But this is all stuff that's happened before in my world. It could be happening here too.

Edited 2018-10-25 05:43 (UTC)

...I don’t think it matches up, and that’s not because I’m just hoping it’s not true. I mean... That can’t be the correlation, because that implies that he doesn’t know who has the potential for it or whatever, but he already singled us out. And - if he already knows who has it, he wouldn’t need to do the whole elaborate murder town with frequent property damage thing.

[She shakes her head.]

I get that it’s easier to connect it with stuff you’ve already experienced, but...

Maybe. Romelle did say that the Galra at least were using some kind of scanner to figure out how much quintessence each Altean on the colony had. There was selection process there. It's just not something we can see or tell about a person on sight.

[But again, he's quiet for a moment. Thinking.]

Like I said, I don't know. It's probably not exactly the same, but there may be a few parallels here and there.

[Or at least, he's going to keep that in mind as he rethinks this place. It'd been easier to assume it'd all been rather similar to what Bob had put the paladins through in the end -- albeit in a sicker, darker way.]

But let's say that there aren't any similarities at all between what I'm talking about and this. What do you think he's gotten so interested in us for? Do we have anything at all in common? I know we've talked about this before, but ... I don't think we do. Unless you are actually willing to kill under the right circumstances.

[She listens to everything that he says, but it’s only the last part that she responds to.]

Why is murder the first thing you jump to? No, I’m not willing to kill under the right circumstances. [A sigh.] That’s why I wanted to talk to you. I was hoping we could, like... Try to figure it out. The similarity.

Because that's what the Sergeant keeps demanding, isn't it? Kill someone or this will happen. Kill someone or that will happen. What else am I supposed to think?

[But he does pause and eventually sighs.]

How much do you want to live?

...What, you want a scale of one to ten or something?

[She tries to play it off as a joke, but it falls flat. After a moment, she sighs.]

Of course I don't want to die, but that's not... I mean, I don't know exactly how you want me to quantify that.

[He's stressed, she's stressed -- they're both stressed. Keith realizes he has to take a step back and explain himself properly, but it takes him another moment to get the patience together to do so.]

Badly phrased question. Sorry.

You're right, maybe I am focusing too much on the murder part of it. What the Sergeant really wants is for us to get away with murder. After sitting through trials, we know what that actually entails now. It means lying to everyone who trusts you. Getting an innocent person killed in your place. For someone to be able to do that they'd have to value their own life above everyone else's. That or they fear death above all else.

I don't know how you'd quantify that either, but that... could be it.

[For a long moment, she pauses, shaking her head.]

There's nothing that's so important to me it would make me do something like that.

So that's not it then.

[He frowns, considering further.]

Similarities at home, maybe? You probably don't want to talk about it, but what was so bad about home that you said any place would be better than this one?

[Not exactly a glowing review of home and all.]

[She pauses for another moment. 'Dislikes: vulnerability' aside, she's realistic enough to see the value in talking about it here. So, while she definitely looks uncomfortable...]

Okay, but anything I say here stays between us, got it? I mean, not that I think you'd go around telling people, but - you know.

[It's not a no, at least.]

[He nods.]

It all stays here. You got it.

Okay. I also don't want any, like... Just don't say you're sorry or anything, no matter what I tell you.

[She takes another moment, though; she's far from used to discussing this openly, and she's not sure where to start, or how much detail to go into immediately.]

I guess, like... My family life isn't the greatest, and it's kind of made everything else go downhill lately. That's probably the easiest way to explain it.

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