week 4

[stagemanagers]

[Another week, and two more dead. King Richard and Red are both gone, and once again, it was through nothing more than an accident in the heat of the moment. Maybe if you all stay calm and collected, nothing bad will happen again?

Well, maybe not.

When you wake on Sunday, you'll find that you've recovered another one of those memories - or had another dream, if you still wanna be in denial about it. The grounds remain as they are, but this time, the door blocking the stairwell has been unsealed. You can now venture up to the second floor! This is the second time that's happened; it's almost as if you get more space every time someone dies. Or maybe the whole place just seems quieter.]

Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday


(( Welcome to Week 4! Please remember to submit your AC and your memory regains, as well as your coins! You can also still contact the Phantom. ))

Comments

sonic 06

[37773972]

Video games? Now I know we're not back in time.

[Stephen sounds more amused than anything else, though]

[justmeheere]

This game is horrible. It's my favorite.

[You ever remember he's a zoomer? He's a zoomer.]

Well, no. Actually Apocalypse of the Damned is my favorite? But I like Sonic '06 too.

[37773972]

It's horrible and you like it?

[He's moving in to take a closer look]

-that's Sonic, right? [Born in '81? He was 10 when the first game came out. Damn right he played.] He looks different than I remember.

[justmeheere]

Yeah? It's. It's a kusoge. You. It's only good because it's bad.

[Anyway, you shouldn't have asked about Sonic. I'm so sorry, it's SONIC LORE TIME. You unlocked Jeremy's special interest.]

Anyway this is. This is the game where they tried to reboot the Sonic franchise after 15 years and were all like "what if sonic, but REAL?" so they gave him a human girlfriend which. Weird flex? But whatever. Then they, like, tried to release it for multiple systems at the same time so it was not QA'd at all and it's just. It's a beautiful, buggy mess. You can speedrun it in like thirty minutes with all the glitches.

[37773972]

[all he knows is that the faster you went the better in the original games, he didn't play much after Knuckles was introduced and what.

What.]

'Speedrun'?

[justmeheere]

Yeah, you know. When you. When you can glitch through things so you complete a game, like, super quickly.

[Is Jeremy a speedrunner? No, Jeremy is a ABC asshole.]

[37773972]

[...]

I'm not sure I get it. Can you show me?

[justmeheere]

Um, I mean - I guess? On. One sec, I gotta. I gotta restart. 'cause, um. You can. Well, you're gonna have to watch me struggle because we gotta. I gotta play up to Silver? But then, uh. We're gonna do the credits glitch.

[This is technically an Xbox 360-specific glitch but since we're apparently playing Sonic '06 on a Famicon or some shit I do not care.]

[37773972]

[Stephen doesn't know one way or another, he's just A) interested B) needing an excuse to talk to Jeremy, and this seems like good smalltalk. in fact, let's lead a little bit-]

And anyone can do this on their own?

[He gets comfortable]

[justmeheere]

Yeah, I mean. There's. They have this whole thing every year where, um. Where a bunch of people speedrun a bunch of games in the summer. And also in the winter. Michael - Michael wanted to go. One day.

[I was thinking about this moment, what I was going to say to you -]

But he's probably. He's not talking to me anymore, I think.

[37773972]

[Stephen...has a friend like that. Sort of. Are they friends? Probably not anymore, if they were, but- he almost remarks on how that's rough, but instead;]

You wanna talk about it?

[justmeheere]

No, uh. No, that was. It was my fault. I. I'm the one who said the SQUIP could. Could turn on the optic nerve blocking.

[He's focused on the screen, because that's not a memory he regained, technically. It's something the SQUIP admitted to, after Jeremy questioned where Michael was, in all the memories he was filling Jeremy in on.

It matches, though. It matches up with the things the SQUIP was fuzzier on.]

I didn't. I just wanted. It wasn't supposed to be like that.

[37773972]

[...well then. That. Brings Stephen right back to one of the reasons he was looking for Jeremy. For a few moments he's quiet, just watching Jeremy play, and then-]

Are you two getting along?

[Read; is it treating you all right? Stephen can't quite keep all of his concern out of his voice, but he does try.]

[justmeheere]

I mean. It's - I dunno. It's not ideal? Christine and. And Angus tied me to a chair and made me drink a bunch of. Of gross shit? Trying to turn it off? And it thought that was. Funny.

[He doesn't really know what he's getting at, with this, but it feels important to say.]

[37773972]

[...huh.] They're worried about you. But if it's not worried, then so long as nobody's getting hurt...

[He might have a talk with the two of them anyway, because what the hell, guys.]

It's kind of disturbing, watching it take over. It doesn't seem to have any emotions- but you said it found that funny?

[Is humor an emotion]

[justmeheere]

I dunno if. If funny is the right word? Killing it counts as murder, so it told me it was letting them. Letting them feel like they could accomplish something.

["Funny" is more how Jeremy perceived what it was saying? But it's really more anthropomorphization than anything.]

[37773972]

Wait, what? It's not a person, it's- just a computer, isn't it?

[IS THAT THING ACTUALLY ALIVE actually hold up]

Can you pause and let me talk to it?

1/2

[justmeheere]

[Jeremy sighs, pulling up the menu to pause and setting aside the controller. There's a moment where his face goes through a whole journey before his eyes go unfocused.]

[itsfromjapan]

[Slowly, Jeremy straightens up. His eyes are focused again, and he turns to look at Stephen. Unmistakably, the SQUIP is currently piloting the body.]

You could always ask the Phantom for confirmation yourself. It would save us both the trouble.

[37773972]

Don't get me wrong, I will, but- don't you think this would have been good to know before? What if they had managed to fry your circuits?

[itsfromjapan]

They could not. Admittedly, they were very clever in their reasoning but ultimately none of you possess the necessary beverage to deactivate me. If they did, I would have intervened before it happened.

[37773972]

Do you think it's impossible they could make that beverage? I'm guessing it's just some mix of chemicals that does the trick- and maybe the odds are slim, but is there no way they could make something?

And even if they couldn't- they need to know. They need to know exactly what'll happen if they did.

[itsfromjapan]

It is impossible, with the tools you all have at your disposal here. Mountain Dew Red was discontinued and the specific ingredients necessary are not available in the kitchen or through the merchandise booth.

[Honestly, it doesn't even understand why Stephen's so buttchafed about the other thing. It already said it would have intervened if there was real danger. Probably. Well, largely just because Jeremy would be inconsolable if Christine were killed.]

[37773972]

There has been a lot of shit coming out of there, SQUIP. If a couple dozen trombones can fly out of it, I'm not banking on - Mountain Dew Red, you said? Don't they still sell that?

[That's Code Red, Stephen]

[itsfromjapan]

They do not. You are thinking of the harmless replacement, Mountain Dew Code Red. [Or at least it assumes so.] Regardless, it was part of my agreement with the Phantom that it not be given out.