pc catchall for junpei (crashout)

[uncurtained]

IM PUTTING THE TIMON GIF IN HERE LATER YOU CANT BEAT ME

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[crashout]

[Sometimes you just say things without context and this happens. Junpei doesn't stop and it means Beck's arm is pulled a little as he keeps heading for the room.]

Not out here. [This needs to be said in private, as if it'd do any good, but also...now that Carlos is gone he's starting to think he should maybe be a little more open to people.]

[uncurtained]

[She doesn't resist, even if she doesn't respond, either. As they reach the door, she pulls her clamshell out of her pocket and presses it to the electronic lock, pulling the door closed behind her once they're both inside.

Once that's done:]

So...

[crashout]

[So...]

...I need to ask you something. What all did Carlos tell you about himself?

[uncurtained]

...Not a lot. He seemed more focused on other people.

[crashout]

Sounds like him. [He's just heading for the loveseat to have a seat on the arm of it.] That's how he is, some hero of justice who dedicates his lives to saving people at all costs. Including ours.

[His hand comes up to twist at his watch.] If you had a chance to obtain something you've been searching for for a long time, even if the risk was pretty big, would you take it?

[uncurtained]

[She hesitates for a second, but she's sure he's going somewhere with this. Still...]

It depends on what I was looking for, and what the risk was.

[crashout]

Something that would change your life for the better. The risk is just a five-day test of something that would impact space research and development. Simulation of life on another planet, for example. You're in confinement with a group of people you've never met, no contact to the outside world and isolated miles from all other civilization while undergoing rigorous physical and mental tests.

[uncurtained]

If it was just physical and mental tests, then... Yeah, I think I would, especially if it was just five days.

[crashout]

Alright. Now what would you do if you woke up on the fifth day and found out the whole thing was a trap? Kidnapped and taken to an underground bomb shelter with those same strangers with no way out except to follow someone else's rules? Would those things still be worth it?

[uncurtained]

It's not exactly something I've thought about before, it's not like I have the kind of life where I'm likely to get kidnapped and locked in a basement or a bunker or something.

[haha i'm funny

anyways.]

But - the obvious answer is no. Not a lot would be worth that.

[crashout]

[I hate you so much.

But anyway. Beck confirms what any sane person would say, and Junpei kicks his heel into the couch from his perch.]

When I told you I met Carlos because of a work thing, that was true...for me. He was here for a whole other reason. We met at Dcom...it was a Mars mission test site out in the middle of the Nevada desert. It was a special simulation test that only ten people were picked for. They offered us $500,000 to complete it, and that's why Carlos was there.

[He doesn't feel like he has to say that he wasn't there for the money.] We were there starting from Christmas Day until about five days later...turns out the whole thing was a trap. We were all kidnapped and locked in a bomb shelter on New Year's Eve and split into three teams. Carlos and I were on C-Team. There was also D-Team and Q-Team.

...the Decision Game was a game designed to determine the fate of humanity. If we didn't play, 75% of the earth's population would die. But in order to leave, we needed to obtain six X-Passes. To obtain an X-pass, a player had to die. We were split into teams in what we thought were separate wards, playing against each other and going through these insane puzzles designed to kill us. A lot of them did. Sometimes we died other ways. Sometimes we killed each other.

[He holds up his left wrist then, rotating his watch toward her.] But after ninety minutes, no matter what, our bracelets would inject us with a tranquilizer that would force us to sleep and erase our memories from the last ninety minutes. Time would pass, and when we woke up, we wouldn't remember what had happened.

...we learned how to SHIFT in the shelter so that we could escape the timelines where one or more of us died and get to the one history we all lived. [He's just. Gonna let that sink in.]

[uncurtained]

[That's... a lot, but she tries her best to listen and take it in as well as she can. She also looks fairly horrified as he gets into the more disturbing aspects of the situation, but!!]

So - I'm guessing SHIFTing was, like, going back in time somehow...?

[crashout]

It's not exactly going back in time, but more like moving fluidly through it to different points. In order to SHIFT, you have to be in a deadly amount of danger. While our consciences still live on, the bodies we leave behind end up dying and so do the other versions of ourselves. There have been timelines where we've been shot, poisoned, melted, exploded...[...not great!]

Carlos is the one who figured out SHIFTing first. Once we learned from him, the others started catching on and we were able to jump timelines to get to the one where we were all still alive. Or, at least, according to Carlos. I never made it that far...I was in the middle of the SHIFT when we woke up here.

[uncurtained]

...But you know that you made it okay, according to him.

[Which isn't to say the rest of that isn't awful.]

Seeing all that, though... I can't imagine how hard it must have been.

[crashout]

Yeah. It helps a little, even if I don't get why it happened that way. [But he stares straight ahead.]

...for a while, we didn't remember the other timelines because of the injections at the end of each round. But once we figured out a way to make it stop, they started coming back over time. I think I just...[He shrugs.]

I told you before, I think. My cases weren't exactly clean either. Maybe I'm finally more numb to it than I thought.

[uncurtained]

[Gently:]

I don't think anyone would blame you if you were tired of all of it by now.

[crashout]

Yeah. [...he just rubs a hand over his face, bringing more attention to the bags under his eyes.] But it doesn't really stop. This place kinda proves that.

[uncurtained]

Maybe we'll both get a break after we get out of here.

[Not that she was going through anything as intense as he was before she arrived.]

[crashout]

That'd be nice, wouldn't it? [Zero belief in his tone. He thinks about what's waiting for him.] We can call it something to look forward to.

[uncurtained]

[She glances his way.]

What's the first thing you're going to do?

[crashout]

Promise you won't laugh? [And without even waiting:] A final case report for me and resignation from my job.

[This isn't even a laughable thing.]

[uncurtained]

Right. You said you wanted to move onto something new, right...?

[crashout]

Yeah. I'm still in the interview process, but I should have an answer by the time we finish what we started at the shelter.

[He will just have to convince Akane to bring him along to Crash Keys. Simple.]

[uncurtained]

And what is it that you'll be doing after this?

[crashout]

We have a religious fanatic to catch. Someone who's going to start a nuclear war and kill 8 billion people. Because of the timeline we escaped to, that's the price we're paying.

[He's at least worked that much out based on what he remembers and Carlos telling him they made it to that history where they were all alive.]