TO994M | day 4 | morning | audio

[cactusy]

[There's the sound of footsteps on sand; she's walking as she talks, heading away from the beach and up towards the scrubby jungle.]

So I got got by what I think was a crossbow bolt. Kinda hard to tell for sure; it all came at me pretty fast. Got an arrow to the leg not long before that, but the one that came for my head seemed bigger in the point-two seconds of reaction time I had before it hit. And it did hit. Should've been difficult-to-impossible to survive, but here I am. Which tells me some things.

[She relays the news of her almost-certain death matter-of-factly, in the same flat-ish tone as her previous radio contributions. If anything, she sounds a little more upbeat here: it's not by much, but having (what she thinks are) answers is a relief. At least now she (thinks she!!) knows what she's dealing with.]

Look, guys; this isn't real. Fifty-fifty odds whether you're a part of it or not - maybe you're all artificial constructs and I'm the only real sentient person here, or maybe we're all hooked up to machines in a lab and we've been tossed into this simulated... thing together. Gonna be nice and assume the latter, for now. Point is, signs have been pointing to this for a while, and this proves it. But this is good news, kind of. It means that whatever happens here doesn't really matter. We die, we screw up, we do something our monitor overlord doesn't like - we just reset. I fired off three bullets, and they're back now, because the gun and the bullets are just lines of computer code that can be rewritten in whatever way the people running this want.

Priority number one shouldn't be escaping the island or long-term survival or whatever. It should be figuring out how to get out of the simulation. Then the party can really get started.

Comments

[aluminumandash]

[ Here's the thing. While Kokichi—this kid, this dumbass teenager in their midst, at their mercy—isn't ever far from Rust's thoughts, and while Rust cares more about his safety than any other fucking thing on this island, actually talking to him is like sticking a fork in an electric outlet. ]

Certain strains of thought, you shouldn't be exposed to young.

[trialbyliar]

[Honestly? Fair.]

Well, it's waaaay too late for that. I already offed myself once before ever even waking up here!

[He snickers, like this is just more of his standard bullshit.]

[aluminumandash]

[ The room—the cell—doesn't tense or pulse. The cracks in the floor stay where they are. His internal landscape has no bearing on what he sees: good. ] Why? [ Flat as ever. ]

[trialbyliar]

To win the last death game I got stuck in!

[His tone is as cheery as ever, but there's a subtle cold edge to it. It's barely noticeable, especially only through the crackling of the walkie-talkies, but it's there.]

But I'm lying. I was actually murdered.

[aluminumandash]

[ He's listening intently but he doesn't know this kid, can't sort pain from mockery from whatever the hell else is going on. ] That ain't funny.

[trialbyliar]

What makes you think I'm joking?

[Y'know, besides the fact that he lies constantly.]

I mean, this lady's saying she got shot in the face and walked it off. I'm just backing up her theory! Aren't detectives supposed to be all about evidence or whatever?

[aluminumandash]

I love evidence. You got any?

[trialbyliar]

Sure! Not that you can see it like this. But I can show you some sick scars if we manage to meet up!

[aluminumandash]

[ A hard pause. Worst case, he tells himself, the kid moons him and laughs his ass off.

But that isn't the worst case at all. ] Okay. [ It feels like he's got the word in his teeth, clamped down. ] You thinking you'll stick with Jet?

[trialbyliar]

Hmmm...maybe! We'll see how I feel. Maybe I'll get tired of these guys and just ditch.

[He wouldn't, not really. He knows perfectly well that surviving in this kind of environment would be difficult on his own. But he has a good sense of where he stands with these people, and he knows they're all babying him. It doesn't really matter what kind of nasty bullshit he spews.]