usedfeatherdance | Feather 17 [Video]

[ The video clicks on to a view of the ceiling in one of the rooms of the Blackthorn Inn. The fan is slowly circling, and the only other thing visible in the frame is an arm reaching straight up from slightly off screen, holding up a Rising Badge. ]

We've already figured out that collecting a whole set of badges doesn't actually get you anything of value, right? Or did that finally change while I wasn't looking?

[ Joshua sighs, and the arm lowers out of the feed. There's the sound of it hitting the bed, and the camera shakes just the slightest. ]

You'd think that after I spent this long collecting them, I'd feel prouder at finally winning the last one. Mmm, perhaps this isn't really for me after all.

[ After a pause, he giggles. Then he rolls over and leans over the Gear, his face finally entering the camera's view. ]

How about this? Tell me about the worst thing that happened to you at home that you're still willing to talk about. Even if it doesn't seem to compare to what others have been through. Tragedy is quite relative, after all.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

... So you really had no idea whatsoever? Were there any more rules to it?

[ There has to be something. ]

[Oh, gosh.] I don't know. I'm not old enough. [Even if he had been around since the beginning, time is a strange thing in the Digital World. Hard to measure.]

Well, I was trying to find out more... We found an old laptop in the library and I managed to fix it. I left it to remove the encryptions on the files...

The files said something about the "Worst, Most Despair-Inducing Incident in the History of Mankind" [gosh but that is a mouthful to say], and because of that the school was shut down... And there was a plan for us all to live there.

It sounded sort of like the school was responsible, but there's no way that the school would make us kill one another.

Perhaps they would, if we had handy electronic encyclopedias in the first place.

I actually have no idea what that one was, other than incredibly stupid on the organizer's part. I'm fairly expendable and I'm sure they knew it; if they were trying to destroy someone important they were aiming at the wrong target - all killing me would have done was brought attention to their little rebellion.

Edited (...jfc Lazarus can we not screw up my tags please and thank you) 2013-07-29 19:37 (UTC)

As a student at the Academy, it was my responsibility to investigate what made a sudden group of souls disappear. I'm assuming in that case, the person killed the group of people and fed their souls to their Weapon.

Ah, yes. How fares technology? My world is a good deal more advanced than here, but we didn't exactly have roving monsters to deal with.

Maybe it's a compliment. They thought you were dangerous enough to their movement that you had to be dispatched while awareness was still low.

Is that rare?

[ Asking about any part of the situation, really. ]

Well, how old are you?

Any reason why the school wouldn't in particular? Logically, there's no way anyone would make you kill one another, after all.

Mmm... But the school is so important, so many people were paying attention to it...so surely someone might've noticed the way that it was all sealed up.

We have the monsters, but not the electricity. It's a poor trade.

[...shrug.]

Young.

[Neither he nor the mun can even begin to guess, due to the Digital World lacking internal measurements of time longer than days.]

I'd take the electricity any day, myself. Not to mention cellphones.

[ Modern technology, how Joshua has embraced thee. ]

I take it you all are master wall builders, though. Hee hee.

... How young?

[ Can we at least get a ballpark? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? ]

How was that managed, out of curiosity?

I don't keep track. [He looks like a ten-year-old, though. Take that as you will?]

Yes.

[Ambiguous what part she's referring to, until--]

Anybody being able to kill and absorb the souls of a person in an instant must be absurdly powerful, and the fact that it was regular human souls, well...marks them as a person someone from the Academy must confront. Sort of like putting out a warrant for their arrest.

Um... There was iron bolted all over the windows, and sealing up the main doors out of the school, too... As hard as we tried, we couldn't find anywhere open where we had access...

I'd not call us masters. We merely use strong stone, rather than whatever the locals use for theirs.

No earthquakes?

[ Stone walls extremely discouraged in Japan... ]

So you had ample warning they'd be both strong and dangerous going into the fight.

[ Alright let's try this another way. ]

Was the host itself inside the world, or in a different one?

Was this something that had been done overnight, or was there a longer period of time involved?

Page 4 of 7

Feather 17 [Video]

video

[video]

video

[video]

[text]

[video]

[video]

[text]

[video]

[video]

video

video

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

video

[video]

[video]

video

[video]

[video]

[video]

[video]

video