catchall rupert

[skyagain]

Comments

[agleam]

Yeah, I definitely agree. The alternative is... There's no way any of us would have accepted that.

[after a moment:]

Can I ask which one you were from?

[skyagain]

[ he kind of nods at that because. yeah. relatable. unfortunately. ]

Place called the Realm. It turned out to be a computer simulation. It's kind of hard to explain.

[ it was a kingdom hearts game and he suffered ]

[agleam]

Oh - actually, a few people have explained that to me... Are you from the same one as Sebastian, then?

[our multiple computer simulation mgs...]

[skyagain]

Uh... Don't think so? Never heard of a Sebastian.

[ cloud does not know a sebastian despite my misplaced moment of "sebastian stan is the marvel character and not the actor" ]

[agleam]

Oh. [huh.] I guess there was more than one computer simulation, then... That seems a little weird, but maybe they're more common than I thought.

[he still only has a basic idea of what computers are in the first place.]

[skyagain]

As far as getting people in and messing with their heads without them knowing, computer simulation is probably the easiest one. I guess.

[ he does look a little baffled there were TWO. whaaat. ]

Dunno about that Sebastian guy, but the Realm lasted about eight weeks.

[ give or take a few hundred cycles ]

[agleam]

That's... kind of terrifying to think about!

[so. moving right along.]

I don't think he mentioned how long it was where he came from, but mine lasted about that long, too. I heard about one that was only five days, but somehow I don't think we're going to get that lucky...

[since it's day four and the npcs he's assuming will be here still haven't appeared.]

[skyagain]

Jason's? Or did someone else get only five days too?

[ cloud also has 0 belief they'll get that lucky but like. you know. information or whatever ]

[agleam]

[he nods.]

Yeah, his. If there was another one that was that short, I haven't heard about it, but I also haven't asked anyone else how long they were stuck.

[skyagain]

I haven't kept full track, but I'm trying to see the patterns. [ while also only kind of paying attention. look. he's not social. ] Shorter stays are rarer for the most part. Doesn't say anything good about our time here.

[agleam]

[he nods.]

Lup said she was in hers for about eight months, I think, but I'm getting the idea that she's a bit of a different case, since she was - in charge, kind of.

[our npcs...]

[skyagain]

... Yeah. Circumstances from that side are pretty different. [ cloud wanna out yourself as being an npc? no? ok ] The way she tells it, it was more like one round that got extended into a second a few months down the line too. So it wasn't a continuous thing.

In the Realm, we went through the scenario over and over until we got the right ending. We didn't know we'd been resetting until nearer to the end of it, though.

[agleam]

...It sounds pretty awful.

[and speaking of things that sound awful!!]

Wait - how many times? And what do you mean by resetting?

[skyagain]

Like... starting over. I told you it was a simulation. We chose to keep going until everyone could make it out alive. But every time we started over, it shuffled some things, and no one could remember what happened in the previous round. Not in details.

We left ourselves some notes so we could figure it out eventually, but we have no clue how long it took us.

[ A MYSTERY ]

[agleam]

...I'm really sorry to hear that. Going through that over and over, even if you don't remember it, I mean.

[his face makes it clear he thinks that's Pretty Bad! after a second, though:]

Are you glad you don't remember the rest?

[skyagain]

From the little of them I do know... Yeah. It's probably for the best we forgot.

[ there was so much murder. ]

And it's not like anyone else remembers them either. I'm not missing out on anything.

[agleam]

It must be hard anyways...

[even just knowing they went through the same thing so many times.]

Sorry. I didn't mean to bring up something painful.

[skyagain]

I brought it up first. Don't apologize.

[ he looks around the hallway ]

Worst part of it is that it ended up with me in this hotel, anyway. Figure it's a similar deal for you.

[ you think you are free and THEN ]

[agleam]

...Yeah.

[he frowns.]

I'm not going to pretend to know why that was their criteria for the offer we all got, but I'm guessing we'll find out at some point.

[skyagain]

Could be they think it'll be more entertaining if we've done it all before. It sounds to me like they might've seen what happened to us the first time around. Or... the second, in some cases.

[ third timers rip ]

[agleam]

Yeah... If they think it's entertaining to see us deal with that kind of thing, you might have a point.

[gesturing towards the olive garden snake room they both just suffered in]

[skyagain]

[ he looks back at the snake door ]

... Seriously, why noodles?

[ do snakes eat noodles. ]

[agleam]

Apparently they gave it pasta for its birthday so it wouldn't kill them all?

[but, that being said,]

If we're going to move on to the logic behind the snake wanting and subsequently being appeased by pasta, though, I'm immediately coming up empty.

[skyagain]

... It seems like kind of a lousy birthday present to me.

[ and he hasn't had a birthday celebration in like 7 years ]

Maybe that's why it was so mad.

[agleam]

Ohhhh, like - it wanted us to eat it so it didn't have to? Maybe.