this is a musical game, but this doesn't have lyrics for a title

[catliketread]

[It's been nearly a week since everyone was brought here, so you know what that means. It's time to share information and discuss strategy!! Or something. Anyway, the Pirate King has gone around and told everyone (yes, even you!!) about the plans for a lunchtime meeting in the dining hall. You don't have to come if you don't want to and the Pirate King will not drag you there, but if you want lunch and you try to sneak by the room, he might notice you and drag you into it.

Once everyone is gathered (or most people, if some of you aren't showing up), he'll stand up and slam a hand down on the table to get everyone's attention.]

Gentlemen! ...And ladies. We have been in this establishment for nearly a week now! It's time we discuss our situation and what we've learned here. From my own explorations, it seems as though escape is impossible. None of the doors or windows will open no matter how much physical force is used! I would like to hear any ideas you all have about escape, but any information or plans in general would be wonderful!

[Let's get started, shall we?]

Comments

On Certain...Resemblances and also the Playbill

[inforapenny]

[Billy is one of the ones who has to be hailed when he comes in for food, but he meekly sits down on the outskirts of the gathering, listening without much contribution.

But he chimes up eventually.]

I-is anyone else, um, bothered by the phrasing in this booklet? Like- like where it says, um.

Well, where it describes us like how somebody... somebody playing us should act.

[He blinks, hard.]

I-I wonder if we're here because of some kind of... experiment. To see if we're a product of our flawed backgrounds or if we have an innate nature that- that matches this observed description. If they're testing us to see if we're capable of- of murder when we get desperate, and maybe then they have a backup, um. A backup version of us to put through the same test.

...You know, now that I think of it, maybe it has something to do with our missing memories- maybe, maybe we're not actually who we think we are, maybe we're just copies that think that we're the originals. It's not impossible to copy people like that, all it would really take is a sample of our DNA and the right machinery. And they- they could have gotten the samples when we were all unconscious before we woke up here.

[His tone of voice has gotten more excitable as he turned the topic to science, real passion straightening his spine and bringing a fever-bright excitement to his eyes.]

[rockthistown]

What? There, there's no way! How would we still have our memories?

[inforapenny]

I don't know, they must have been, um, watching us somehow to write these- these profiles, on us.

[and to get our pictures, you know.]

But there's ways to do that, to make people remember things that they didn't actually experience. It's, it's one of the few really interesting things about people- our brains are like- like clay and most people end up with a kind of useless, formless lump, but what I'm saying is that maybe if you have the right sculptor they can make- you know, a practical, um, bowl.

..Not. I-I mean, it's not a perfect metaphor.

[rockthistown]

You mean he could even convince us that we're different people? That's way too scary to think about!

[dontfeedplants]

[What the hell Billy this is something he doesn't want to think about ever.]

Is... is that even possible?!

[inforapenny]

Of course it's possible, anything is possible!

[onthebusagain]

Oh! That would, like, explain your twin! [It doesn't really make sense to her, but neither does time traveling, so she's not completely ruling out the possibility]

[inforapenny]

He's not my twin. He's probably- probably a clone, or something.

[onthebusagain]

It's basically the same, isn't it?

[breakingbread]

[...well he's not gonna even pretend like he understood all of that, but]

If that is so, why do you suppose the Inspector and I remember each other looking differently? Did they imitate one of us that badly?

[inforapenny]

[Billy thinks about it for a minute, shrinking back into himself and drumming his fingers rhythmically.]

...I-I might have a guess, but first... You remember each other looking different - what about acting different?

[breakingbread]

[.......side-long glance at Javert, god this is awkward]

He seems much the same as ever, excepting the face.

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

Y- you've, ah, just said a bit of a horrifying thing, Harris-san. Clones? [She's sure if A-ya was here, he could rattle off five different cloning urban legends from the past several years.] Do...do you have any ah, proof of the fact, or is it a...theory?

[Rumor.]

[inforapenny]

It's- it's just a theory. I'd need access to some real equipment to be able to test the hypothesis in any way.

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

Make, ah... Make sure to speak carefully then. You don't want to panic anyone here.

[Like, poor Hime's already scared as it is.]

[allicareabout]

Okay, now you're talking about cooking people up wholesale - that's something they can actually do, where you're from?

[I MEAN he sounds a little incredulous, but it's not like it's something that he's entirely ruling out, either...look, at least one of these people here is from space and another threw "fucking magic" at him as an explanation for all this like it's a reasonable thing to say, so -

...Future people are weird. That's what this comes down to.]

[inforapenny]

Cooking people?

[Why you gotta go to cannibalism]

No- no, I mean- well, I guess whatever you want to call cloning people in a laboratory. It- it might've happened at least once, you know, I know a guy who claims he's the real David Bowie and that, um, all of Bowie's appearances since then were a really convincing double to cover up the fact that he was murdered in- in 1980. I'm not discounting the idea that that's a clone situation, either.

[blackstache]

I'll be honest, boy, and say that was mostly gibberish.

[inforapenny]

[Billy scoffs, showing perhaps more vigor than he has thus far.]

What a surprise.

[solomonjihad]

........we're missing memories?!

[WHAT.]

[inforapenny]

We-well, not all of us! At least, maybe, I don't think? My memories fit, but uh, some others have- have, you know, looks or injuries that they don't remember, um, getting. Plus, we- we don't know how we got here...

Re: On Certain...Resemblances and also the Playbill

[dechagny]

The phrasing is incredibly bothersome, I agree - but copying an entire person? I...I cannot be sure I can put full faith in such a thing, even with...certain circumstances.

[The Balladeer is creepy though, he concurs.]

[inforapenny]

It's- it's called cloning. They've done it with mice, cows, sheep, cats, deer, horses, ox, rabbits, rats- Probably at least one person.

[bestof]

[That was all greek to Eliza but here, Billy, have a mug of tea.]

How would it even be possible to make copies of us?

[inforapenny]

They- they take our blood - or hair, I guess, or... something with our genetic material, and then they can use it to create an identical, um, person.