(no subject)

[opening_act]

Who: Exael and the Unlucky Contestants
Where: The Game Tower
When: 86, Evening

[ Between one step and the next the walls (or streets, or open air) around you changes. The sight before you is a room inside the game tower, a new pressure at your neck. Reaching up or looking at the people around you reveals it to be a collar, titanium with a small green blinking light set in the center. ]

[ the screen flickers on, on your cellphone. It's a half-second, blink and you miss it— Exael, chewing on a nail, looking uncharacteristically nervous— then the moment's gone and she waves both hands and smiles for the camera. ]

"Ladies, gentlemen, honored guests! Units of all stripes and sizes! I come offering you a game and a few familiar words, rearranged for the occasion!"

Her carnival barker demeanor shifts for a moment as she lowers her head to say: ] "Glory to the highest, and on earth peace—" [ her head snaps up, her pigtails bouncing with it, and she's grinning again, all pomp and energy ] "even if we're not getting much down here! So let's kick up a ruckus, put on a show, and see how much good goodwill alone can manage! If you wish to save your fellows, now is the time speak!"

[ The rules appear on your phones. ]

[ Rules ] [ Rooms ] [ Results ] [ Endgame, Revivals & Winners ]

Comments

[liftoft]

Well sure... 'cause you're unhappy, and I care about that. I can't help but get worked up about it!

[liarliarliar]

You're unhappy too, right?

[liftoft]

Ha, nn--

[ he's halfway through denying that almost before he realizes he's doing it, and noticing that brings him up short. Sure, he's not really comfortable sharing, but... Shouldn't he at least be deliberately choosing to not do it? He frowns at himself, awkwary quiet for a second. ]

... Nnnot. Not about the same thing. Not about your sister.

[liarliarliar]

The general state of the world where people die and there's nothing to be done for it?

[liftoft]

[ huffs.]

Ah, that's something most people are upset about most of the time, right?

... It's... Nit that exactly, but I don't really know how to say it, right now.

[liarliarliar]

Then think on it and tell me later!

[liftoft]

...Yeah, you got it! So you gotta come home soon and listen to me, 'kay?

[liarliarliar]

I'll try.

[liftoft]

That's all I want! For all of us--tryin'.

[ ...fluffs B's hair, and steps back a proper distance to signal conversation-can-be-over-now ]

[liarliarliar]

Mmm. See you later.

[gonna go. help hss. and duality. whew]