trust you've got a game plan

[isawallflower]

[ At noon on Wednesday, Riley's standing ready in the dining hall, with a clipboard and a big smile to anyone who shows up. She's set blank stacks of paper on the table, but we'll get to that. As promised, there's some basic snacks as well as some tasty banana bread. Snacks for everyone! ]

Welcome everyoooone~! Thank you so much for showing up. This is a new and confusing experience for all of us, but I'm sure if we strive to stick together and cooperate, it'll help us foster the most productive environment that we can. [ Bright, bright smile. ] So! I've gathered all of you so we can share any discoveries and compare basic information that might give us any idea of why we've been brought here. Good? Okaaaay!

[ That smile never leaves her face. She sets something down from her clipboard and starts passing out that blank paper. ]

Sooo, following my example, if you could fill this out, that...can be a good starting discussion!

[ Her example is essentially a survey. Wonderful penmanship, again. ]

Comments

sorry everyone's hijacking this thread but

[madgiganticfeelings]

Jeremy?

[Hello Jeremiah, there is now a tiny girl sliding in beside you to grab your hands. Something is off and she may not know what, but she can't let a friend of hers panic so badly!]

Jeremy, what's wrong...?

[justmeheere]

N-nothing! [Everything.] I mean. It's just. It's just soda. But you shouldn't drink it.

[He sounds dead serious when he says the last bit. Please don't drink the Mountain Dew, Christine.]

[madgiganticfeelings]

Okay. I won't. I'd like to know why I shouldn't, though... if you can tell me?

[He sounds serious enough, though, that she isn't even going to argue with him.]

[justmeheere]

[He hesitates, but then he gently squeezes her hands.]

I might just, uh. This might be paranoia, but there might also be a, a potentially evil supercomputer. In your brain. And I - it's not fun when it's real, you know? The zombies, I mean.

[madgiganticfeelings]

...Are you talking about that piece of trivia on the programs? It, um... it sounds a bit like a SQUIP.

[Yep, surprise! She knows about those! Her eyes go wide as she realizes what she's implied.]

But I never had one, Jeremy, I promise you. One of the kids in my drama camp had one, and it was really bad, bad enough that I wouldn't ever choose to take one.

[justmeheere]

You know about SQUIPs? [He blinks then narrows his eyes.] Did Rich corner you in the bathroom and try to sell you one too? I mean. Well. It probably wasn't the bathroom, but. Just. You know!

[madgiganticfeelings]

Rich? No, no, I didn't even know he had one! That would explain some things, though...

[Her eyes narrow right back at him when she processes the rest of what Jeremy said.]

Wait, he sold you one? Jeremy, you don't have one, do you?

[justmeheere]

What? Me? No! I thought it was a scam, he was asking for like $600 and he bullies me all the time, why would I believe him?

[🙃🙃🙃]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Christine stares at Jeremy long and hard, before slowly reaching into the pocket of her jean jacket. Inside is the rolled up playbill, which she unfurls, flipping to the correct page, holding the book up under her nose, and reading aloud.]

'One time, Jeremy paid a shady guy at Payless $400 for a wintergreen Tic Tac.'

[She watches him over the book very carefully.]

[justmeheere]

M-michael's the one who said we should check it out! W-we were gonna test it out, but then he went to go see the shady guy in the back room of Spencer's Gifts because there was, like. Eka, ecta, ectoplasm? Some weird 90s soda that's expired and past its due date.

[The horrible thing about Jeremy is that he always talks like this so he doesn't look noticeably more or less uncomfortable saying this. He's just always like this.]

[madgiganticfeelings]

That still means you bought one, Jeremy!

[She rolls up the pamphlet to give Jeremy a swat on the top of the head.]

You still went out to buy a SQUIP, even if it was to investigate!

[justmeheere]

Yeah, but only in the technical sense that I, personally handed the guy the money! I wasn't gonna just, like. Put it in my mouth without doing research or whatever.

[He totally put it in his mouth without doing research or whatever.]

[madgiganticfeelings]

...Are you sure you didn't take it, Jeremy? I'm not going to be mad if you did, I just... I mean, if Mountain Dew does something to it, then you should only drink it if you know for sure you don't have one.

[She only got part of the story here, but she thinks that's what Jeremy is freaking out about? Mountain Dew = bad for humans with SQUIPs?]

[justmeheere]

I mean, I don't. I don't even like Mountain Dew? It's, it's gross. Do you, like. Do you know how much caffeine is in it? I don't, uh. I don't need that kind of energy. In my life.

[Is he talking around a point? It feels like he's talking around a point.]

[madgiganticfeelings]

...Jeremy. You're not really giving me an answer here, you know. It's kind of, I don't want to say it, but it's kind of suspicious.

[And she's trying to laugh it off but she's definitely not a fan of the possibilities here!]

[justmeheere]

................. Mountain Dew activates them. [He says this with a kind of, like sigh. Because he was hoping she would just believe him!! But obviously not.] So, um. You know. Please don't, uh. Don't drink any? Just to. To be safe. And I won't drink any either!

[madgiganticfeelings]

Hmm...

[Christine gives Jeremy a searching look for a moment, but whether she sees what she wants to or not, she eventually beams and holds out a hand, pinky stuck out.]

It's a promise, then.

[justmeheere]

[He breathes out, tension releasing from his shoulders as he hooks his pinkie around hers.]

Promise. Cross, uh. Not that I actually, you know. Want to die? I'm not. It's just. You know. Cross my heart and hope to die, but just. Yeah.

[Smooth, Jeremy. Very coherent.]

[madgiganticfeelings]

[Christine just gives him a sideways smile over their connected fingers.]

Cross my heart and hope to die. So long as we don't break that promise, we don't have to worry about dying!

[It's... something to hold on to, she thinks. She's read plenty of tales about people beating the odds to fulfill a promise. Obviously, it will work the same way here.]

[justmeheere]

Y-yeah. Definitely.

[He's pretty sure that it doesn't work like that and also that if Christine dies he's going to have some kind of breakdown? But it's fine. It's definitely fine to make this promise week 1 that neither of us will regret later.]

[madgiganticfeelings]

Good!

[She gives him a gentle pat on his shoulder and smiles sideways at him.]

You going to be okay now?