(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

[foolmetwice]

I don't believe in good things and I'm only miserable 50% of the time.

[that's called desensitization, and that's bad]

[rollwillpowercheck]

And nothing good ever happens to you? How do you feel the rest of the time?

[foolmetwice]

[this backfired]

. . . frustrated. Angry. Irritated. Annoyed. Exasperated.

[rollwillpowercheck]

That sounds like varying flavors of miserable to me.

[foolmetwice]

Semantics.

[he's not wrong]

[rollwillpowercheck]

If I had a chart with feelings on it, they'd all go in the "not a great way to feel" section of it.

I think... it's hard to recognize the good things that already exist around you with that perspective. That's how it can feel to me, at least.

[foolmetwice]

[. . . . .]

[he's still not wrong]

I don't think there's such a thing as "good things" in hell.

[rollwillpowercheck]

Really...? What about spending time with someone you like? Managing to save up points and finally buying something you wanted? Preparing for the worst, but being pleasantly surprised that things played out differently?

[foolmetwice]

That last one has yet to actually happen.

[notably not addressing the first few]

[rollwillpowercheck]

[notably indeed.

raises his eyebrows.]

And the others?

[foolmetwice]

[nnnnno response]

. . . I think we're getting a little off track.

[rollwillpowercheck]

Are we? I thought we were just having a conversation.