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etrayamemes2024-11-11 03:04 pm
etrayamods) wrote in etrayamemes2024-11-11 03:04 pm
Entry tags:
TDM 005
 ⏵ arrival ⏴ Arrival goes as anticipated. Characters awaken in a sterile hospital bed in a clean, white room to the hum of machines under the unnatural lighting common to well-kept institutions. Every bit was designed to be comforting and calming, even with the jarring undercurrent of this situation. The first face they see is Aurora's: her smile appears to be warm, but it doesn't quite reach her eyes. She might offer a quick explanation, or leave characters to figure it out for themselves depending on their approach. The door to the room swings open, revealing a hallway that stretches out ahead of them. There’s noise from outside and strong pumpkin spice scents coming from the lobby. Ah, muffins and tea. Grab one and head into the crisp, sunny fall morning ahead.  ⏵ potluck ⏴ Cutthroat Iron Etrayan Bake-Off As you step out of the arrival holding area into the main thoroughfare, the entire street has been turned into tents and chef stations to accommodate the activities of thirty people at once. There’s seats, trailers, and robots bustling about to make sure everyone is ready. A couple of cheerful robots in aprons and colorful sweaters approach and redirect you as you step towards the cooking area. There’s gas ranges, ovens, grills, blast chillers, mixers, and set walk-ins and pantries with just about every ingredient you can imagine. There are cameramen (also robots) patrolling the area to capture all your best moments and to broadcast them directly to your fellow citizens’ devices. Your instruction? “Make your signature dish. You have one hour, chef.” It can’t just be straightforward, can it? The land itself is held together with pure chaotic energy. If you’re lucky, all goes as planned. If you aren’t… well…
* All kittens disappear at the end. ** These however, stay.  ⏵ share a meal ⏴ As all the cooking concludes, you will be invited to plate your meal into one of many casserole dishes, regardless of what was made. A ladle will be tucked into the corner and placed on the table with a folded bit of cardstock declaring the chef’s name and the name of the dish. A helper camerabot will come around to each participant and ask for their thinking and their process. Even if you got away without having to cook, even looking towards the table of dishes will spur a helper bot to start making you a plate with one of everything. The helperbot will insist that it is rude to not at least try what their peers have made. In fact, if you are to fill out the score card for each person, you really must taste everything! The robots can’t try the food, so it’s up to you. The cards look like so. The grading system is opaque. Is it meant to be numbers? Stars? Letter grades? Well, you’re the judge. You figure it out. Chef: ___________ Dish:_____________ Judge:___________ Overall Rating:_______
 ⏵ tummy ache survivor ⏴ No matter how well your compatriots cooked or baked their dishes, there are… factors. You see that carrot? It’s really just condensed chaos in the shape of a carrot. No matter how powerful you are, these particular ingredients may not mesh with your being. …And even if it is truly a carrot, do all the chefs know the proper cooking temperature of chicken? Even chickens are aliens to many. (Optional) Roll a Die
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no subject
Not only had he been quiet and morose, but there was something about his face, and the way he carried his shoulders, to suggest that quiet and morose was Will's default setting.
He certainly hadn't tried to introduce himself to his neighbor, or ask any questions, despite the fact that his appearance, particularly the scrub top he'd rummaged up, suggested he was a new arrival. Will had been keeping himself to his own damn self, and making sure his go away vibes were as clear and distinct as a neon sign.
Then, his pasta began to escape and ... kittens??
Will was first, and foremost a dog person, but in general he was an animal lover. People could go get stuffed; sometimes literally. As he hunkered down on his heels, a smile broke across his face as he scooped up one of the kittens not currently engaged in chasing pasta. Lifting the little one up, Will booped its nose against his own, laughing when a small paw -complete with claws- pressed against his cheek and tried to push his face away.
Accelerator words penetrated Will's kitten fog, and he looked towards the man. There was no way to hide the way his expression went from KITTEN!! to, ew ... person, before slipping back to neutrality.
"What are you doing with all these kittens?"
His response was two fold. He was avoiding Accelerator's question because it sounded rhetorical. The man had eyes, surely he could see what the noodles were trying to do. Second, if Accelerator had nefarious intent towards these kittens, Will was about to come out of his crouch and attempt to beat the other man's face through the back of his skull.
Nothing personal. But it was safer not to harm, or even joke about harming innocent, and all animals were innocent, animals in Will's presence.
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Thankfully, he isn't offended by the reaction he gets out of Will. Clearly the guy has an appreciation for animals over people, which is understandable. He personally prefers neither, but he's aware animals on the whole tend to be easier to manage compared to a fellow human being.
... In theory, anyways. Turns out when you have exactly zero experience with animals it's easy to get in over your head.
"I don't know, they keep coming out of the fucking cabinets. I think the robots put them in there," he answers exasperatedly, leaning more heavily on his crutch as he kittens he's holding start squirming. "What the hell am I supposed to do, keep them away from the fucking knives?"
In spite of his young age, Accelerator isn't reacting to the cats in a normal way a kid would. What little information he has on cats is that they're very finicky, especially when it comes to stuff like electromagnetic fields, and that they're independent. That's about it. Kittens are beyond him.
no subject
Reaching out his hands, he offers to take the squirming kittens from Accelerator, before anyone comes to grief.
"That would be a start," he agreed about the knives. "They appear engaged by the noodles, and given my lack of skill with the culinary arts, the noodles are no doubt better used as kitten toys, than as a food item."
Give him the kittens, Accelerator, and he'll fob them off on escapee noodles! Blah Blah, stones and birds.
"Is this," Will motions around at the stoves and cooking going on around them. "A usual activity around here?"
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Accelerator is happy to offload the kittens onto someone else more capable of dealing with them than he is, handing the two he's holding over very quickly. That still leaves the ones at his feet, but this is a good start.
From there he's going to try and start nudging the rest of the kittens towards Will's booth. Fortunately, it isn't hard to herd them in that direction thanks to the stray spaghetti noodles still wiggling around.
"Yeah," he replies, staring down at the cats and carefully trying not to step on any tails. "Sometimes. This is more ridiculous and less deadly, though, so I guess it's something of a break."
no subject
The first two set off to hunt 'prey', he stays in his crouch and helps encourage the other little ones on their own pursuits.
"Less deadly?" The question is asked in a mild, almost unconcerned voice, but he glances up with a quick sharp gaze before looking back towards the kittens. Will would like to be able to claim that it hard for him to imagine this reality being deadly when there are adorable kittens being ... well ... adorable.
Unfortunately for Will, his imagination is already off and running and he genuinely hopes Accelerator will put some more context around his statement.
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Accelerator leans back against his counter, trying to remain out of the way of them. The idea of picking any cooking back up seems dumb, so he just watches the felines. "You heard me," he says with a shrug. Thinking back on the missions he's experienced, danger has been a constant through line with all of them. He isn't sure what that says about Echo, if they're indifferent or sadistic.
"Though, it's mostly the missions that are like that," he adds. "The shit the companion bots put on is normally benign."
no subject
"Benign perhaps, but certainly aggravating," the older man mutters the words at a level that could suggest he was talking to himself, or to Accelerator.
Reaching out to nudge a tumbling baby fur ball towards a noodle, Will's next words are a distinct question to his neighbor.
"What sort of danger is on order for these missions?" He still doesn't look towards Accelerator's face, but he does turn his head towards him, just keeps his eyes cast towards the ground under the young man's feet.
no subject
"The first mission I went on was a labyrinth filled with death traps," he explains, listing each off on his fingers, still watching Will to gauge his reaction. "The next one was stuffed animals that turned deadly. Then a trip to a city run by Aurora's sister, whose bots would get deadly if you didn't follow curfew. Then some fucking Lovecraftian nightmare followed us back from there and infected people to try and feed off of their fears. So far it's a lot of physical danger, but sometimes it's psychological."
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"At least we don't have to worry about the achingly, tedious passing of time." His voice is still soft, but now laced with an unidentifiable emotion. Not bloodlust particularly, not the sort of professional lock and load of a solider, or law enforcement official. Rather an engaged curiosity for the dark, and horrific.
However Accelerator cares to interpret the emotion, there is a poetic turn to the words Will uses. Literally, he just used four more words to basically replace the phrase 'being bored'. The language might remind Accelerator of a certain doctor, or it might not.
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... Or maybe he's just a total weirdo? There's the lack of eye contact, the lack of shock, and now the flowery language. It's bringing to mind a certain psychiatrist, but he cautiously dismisses the comparison. He's talked to Will for all of two minutes and while he's pretty good at picking out the psychology of people after he's observed them for a bit, he doesn't want to be jumping to conclusions.
"... We get a lot of downtime in between missions," he replies, narrowing his eyes. "That's when it gets boring."
no subject
...
'Total weirdo' is also a label that has been applied to him in the past, so it could be said that Accelerator has hit the trifecta with his assumptions.
"We all get along here?" Will asks, eyes coming back to Accelerator's face. "I would have expected that at least some of us are more competitive in regards to saving their worlds?"
No infighting when there isn't a bigger threat to team up against? Does not compute. Even the BAU had it's share of inside baseball politicking, during the periods between serial killers.
no subject
".... There could be people like that, I don't know." He isn't the most sociable person, so it wouldn't be the least bit surprising to him if he simply hasn't run into someone like that. It also might not have come up due to his own lack of a competitive nature. "We haven't had to compete directly with each other yet, so people might not be feeling desperate enough to start shit. Plus, a lot of people are skeptical about the whole 'saving the universe' thing. No one's seeing or spoken to Echo, so we don't know anything about them."
It's probably the biggest issue they've run into here. Why believe something so insane when the person supposedly running things has been completely unavailable?
no subject
Cliff diving, post brutal murder activities will definitely trigger a bit of stress.
Luckily, before his conscious thoughts can go completely off the rails, one of the kittens decides they're tired of chasing noodles. The little ball of fur climbs up blooded trousers and starts to make itself at home on Will's thigh. The sensation of tiny claws leaving little pinpricks on his skin, helps Will anchor to the moment. Reaching up, he begins to run his hand over the warm, little body. The sensation of soft fur further anchoring his reality.
"How long have people been in this place?" He asks, after a few minutes of silence. If there are people who have been here for decades without explanation, he's willing to buy in to Accelerator's concerns. If we're talking months?
Things take time. If Will's learned nothing else from his relationship with Hannibal, it's the value of being patient.
no subject
Actually, all of the Sisters probably would. He's pretty sure that if they don't already like cats, Last Order's love of them would've infected the entire Network.
... It makes him feel a little homesick. He frowns, and abruptly looks away.
"Nine or ten months? I've been here for about eight, around for the second mission but not the first one," he replies bluntly. God, it's been over half a year. That's too long.
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Instead, his eyes remain focused on the kitten. The kitten is tucked up like a little dinner roll, to small to resemble a loaf of bread, and purring as it receives adoration.
Inwardly he thinks that while nine to ten months may feel like an eternity, it is often just a blink of an eye when one is pursuing a long game. He won't say this aloud, because he suspects the young man wouldn't appreciate the thought. Will hasn't quite determined whether everyone here is like himself, no better options, or if they have something/someone waiting for them back home.
"Has anyone fulfilled their purpose and been sent home on the merits of that success?"
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He huffs, shaking his head. "Not sure. People've left, but...."
But he remembers Laura disappearing, a little kid who deserves more than the crappy life she was given, and his posture subtly tenses before he continues.
"... But there's been no announcement or anything. It's possible all of that 'saving your universe' stuff is total bullshit and we're here for some other reason. No one's been able to communicate with Echo and there's been no way to confirm."
cw: Religious discussions
"The foundation stone upon which most religions are built." He said softly. "The idea that blind faith, in an ambiguous promise of a better existence. But you must follow a certain set of rules."
A pause as he strokes a finger along the kitten's spine.
"Rule one. Obey the decrees of the unseen maker of the rules, with no evidence to support their claim of a positive outcome. The key is that neither the maker, nor the final result, can ever be known to the population at large."
cw: Religious discussions
That's certainly a tangent. Accelerator is silent, listening and then for several long moments afterwards so he can process what he just heard. Religion doesn't come up all that often with him, and when it has it's been under specific circumstances, so at first it feels out of place to hear when they've been talking about Echo and Etraya's setup.
That said, what Will is saying makes a strange kind of sense. There's been outspoken skepticism about Echo, but at the end of the day, the majority of people here are doing their missions. They're obeying, himself included, all because of some nebulous claim.
Again, Accelerator doesn't have a lot of experience with religion outside of studying it for school and a few specific incidents - Russia, the United Kingdom - but he's finding himself really, really unsettled.
"Did you just get out of a cult or some shit?" It kind of sounds like it! But then, more seriously: "I don't believe Echo is completely unknowable, only out of reach right now. But that's just an opinion coming from an atheist."
cw: Religious discussions
"'Some shit' covers it," he agrees and finally looks up from the kitten to the younger man's face. "Someone I knew back home, liked to indulge in discussions about the wanton cruelty of God." And that's putting it lightly.
"Perhaps Echo is, the 'great and powerful, Oz', in which case we're all in for disappointment."
Will Graham, everybody's favorite little rain cloud on a sunny day.
cw: Religious discussions
".... I've never seen the movie," he says bluntly, despite understanding the point Will is getting at. Sometimes his age is very apparent.
At the very least, he continues, offering up some more pertinent information than his (lack of) opinion on a beloved book series and movie. "I don't think you're wrong. There's something else -- I was talking to Aurora about some stuff, and she told me Echo loses some of themselves every time they bring someone new in. Same deal that happens when we die and come back here. Who knows how much of Echo is still Echo."
cw: Religious discussions
Will decides that Accelerator's initial statement does not require a direct response, but his focus visibly sharpens when the younger man shares the information about Echo.
"Do you believe Aurora is reliable in this statement?" He asks the question without sarcasm, or any indication that Will does or does not believe what Accelerator has heard.
no subject
"Yes."
That's a simple answer, one a lot of people around here would not necessarily agree with. But Accelerator knows how hard it is for artificial beings to exist in the company of so-called natural beings. He knows she's been limited in what she can say and do, and he hopes the recent dive into the lower floors of the hospital have helped her expand beyond her programming.
He isn't sure, but he's willing to go to bat for her. Continuing, he clarifies. "She isn't the type to lie, and there wasn't any reason for her to do it when we talked. The only other option is that the information she was given is wrong, which is possible. I'm not gonna discount the possibility. In that case, it isn't her fault she's wrong.
It'd mean she was fed the wrong information, or something. He keeps going, kind of rambling but not really caring: "But I think it's unlikely, since we've got confirmation that being brought back requires losing something. Could be that a massive alteration of a person's state of being requires a hell of a lot of energy, and the most direct way to get it is somehow through a 'price.'"
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"Who loses something? The person being brought back?"
no subject