Do you know what it is, or is that another thing Carlos experienced that you didn't?
[ she doesn't exactly get it - were they separated or something? - but she won't bother asking. it's probably related to how Junpei ended up with three arms ]
[This time he looks at the ceiling and just. Stares.]
Religious fanatic who's going to start a nuclear war to kill eight billion people. Our job is to find him and stop him before it's too late. Easy stuff.
Nope. [Which is frustrating, of course.] We have no leads or anything to follow other than the guy exists and we're working on borrowed time. We're not going with the other guy's solution though, so we're making our own.
Release a virus to bring on the apocalypse and kill six billion people, hoping that the fanatic will die that way. [No thanks.] As you can see, our options were limited.
[ hm. her first thought is that the odds seem pretty good that the fanatic would end up dead? but again, she can't quite fathom billions of people, so she'll just reduce everything to, oh, 6 out of 8. that's roughly equivalent. and then she'll apply her own situation to it, because that's something she genuinely cares about.
it still seems pretty good, but considering Zero has 5 sisters... what are the odds it would actually kill all of them? not very high, she'd guess. so it probably isn't as worth it as it sounds.
this has been your monthly Statistics and Probabilities with a Mass Murderer! ]
Yeah, if you're trying to kill one person, you shouldn't leave it up to chance. Can't be wrong about him being dead if you're the one stabbing him yourself.
[Congrats on your math, he'll wait for her to work that out before he nods in agreement.]
Exactly. And that's what we're hoping for. Doesn't even have to be a stab. We could shoot him. [Hm.] But to find him, we'll have to work a little backwards. We have some intel to go forward with, but it'll take time.
We don't know. [...] We don't even really know if Z--Delta is telling the truth, but we're not taking any chances. Carlos told me we got to the timeline we all lived, but that means Radical-6 wasn't released into the world. We don't have time to waste wondering if this is really going to happen or not when the whole point of the Decision Game was about humanity anyway.
...we knew him as Zero in the game before he told us his real name, Delta. The one in charge of the original game the year before was also named Zero.
[So. Haha. Anyway.]
It's a thing Carlos and I can do...a few of us learned when we were playing the game to get out of the bomb shelter. It's called SHIFTing. [He rolls his eyes a little.] To make it really simple? It's jumping timelines, leaving past selves behind and moving to switch places with other versions of ourselves while still being...ourselves.
[ hm... she rolls her eye at that little reveal. ]
If I want to kill someone, I wouldn't set up some stupid murder gauntlet - I'd just kill them.
[ is that supposed to be reassuring...? ]
So you're moving your souls to new bodies?
[ or maybe it's just the mind... seems like something straight out of Three's experiment book, or- ]
Sounds like something the Old World would cook up, but I've never seen it happen before. Too bad you can't do that here - we might actually be able to figure something out instead of relying on unfriendly ghosts.
Edited (zero has... one eye......) 2019-10-25 21:05 (UTC)
Yeah, figured that out pretty fast. But thanks for the reminder. [Wry. It's fine, he's happy to know Zero's up front about her murders. Nevertheless, that's an interesting way to put it and he nods along.]
Consciousness, but yeah more or less. There's a few things that have to happen to do that, and the body has to be yours and also alive, but it makes a swap between you and the other version of yourself. They're like branches of the same tree.
I suspect whoever brought us here thought I'd just try to SHIFT my way out. Carlos couldn't do it either while he was here. And accessing the morphogentic field itself wasn't working last time I checked.
Yeah, I've been hearing about what people can normally accomplish and it doesn't surprise me at all. It makes the whole thing even shittier knowing we were brought here on purpose and had our powers stripped.
It says a lot though. SHIFTing isn't even really a superpower or anything. It's just a mental thing. Sort of.
Point taken. And if you mean the guy who keeps leaving the audio diaries? Haven't heard shit, but I'm working on it. There's no way those things aren't on a timer and purposefully planted.
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Do you know what it is, or is that another thing Carlos experienced that you didn't?
[ she doesn't exactly get it - were they separated or something? - but she won't bother asking. it's probably related to how Junpei ended up with three arms ]
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Religious fanatic who's going to start a nuclear war to kill eight billion people. Our job is to find him and stop him before it's too late. Easy stuff.
[It's not easy, but it's fine. He'll take it.]
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[ judging from the context, it must be really nasty. not touching the 8 billion thing because she can't. fathom that many people existing. ]
I take it he didn't leave a handy map to his hideout or a clue, did he.
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And the other solution was...?
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Release a virus to bring on the apocalypse and kill six billion people, hoping that the fanatic will die that way. [No thanks.] As you can see, our options were limited.
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it still seems pretty good, but considering Zero has 5 sisters... what are the odds it would actually kill all of them? not very high, she'd guess. so it probably isn't as worth it as it sounds.
this has been your monthly Statistics and Probabilities with a Mass Murderer! ]
Yeah, if you're trying to kill one person, you shouldn't leave it up to chance. Can't be wrong about him being dead if you're the one stabbing him yourself.
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Exactly. And that's what we're hoping for. Doesn't even have to be a stab. We could shoot him. [Hm.] But to find him, we'll have to work a little backwards. We have some intel to go forward with, but it'll take time.
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And how much time do you have to find him?
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[ what the fuck is a Radical-6? ]
... And what do you mean, you "got to the timeline"?
[ are Carlos and Junpei like Accord? ]
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...we knew him as Zero in the game before he told us his real name, Delta. The one in charge of the original game the year before was also named Zero.
[So. Haha. Anyway.]
It's a thing Carlos and I can do...a few of us learned when we were playing the game to get out of the bomb shelter. It's called SHIFTing. [He rolls his eyes a little.] To make it really simple? It's jumping timelines, leaving past selves behind and moving to switch places with other versions of ourselves while still being...ourselves.
[Is that simple, Junpei? Is it.]
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If I want to kill someone, I wouldn't set up some stupid murder gauntlet - I'd just kill them.
[ is that supposed to be reassuring...? ]
So you're moving your souls to new bodies?
[ or maybe it's just the mind... seems like something straight out of Three's experiment book, or- ]
Sounds like something the Old World would cook up, but I've never seen it happen before. Too bad you can't do that here - we might actually be able to figure something out instead of relying on unfriendly ghosts.
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Consciousness, but yeah more or less. There's a few things that have to happen to do that, and the body has to be yours and also alive, but it makes a swap between you and the other version of yourself. They're like branches of the same tree.
I suspect whoever brought us here thought I'd just try to SHIFT my way out. Carlos couldn't do it either while he was here. And accessing the morphogentic field itself wasn't working last time I checked.
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[ except Nathan and Chuuya and the other dead folk that can use powers, but that topic just infuriates her so let's just do our best to ignore it. ]
It's too bad. I doubt the demons would've stood a chance if we were at full strength.
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It says a lot though. SHIFTing isn't even really a superpower or anything. It's just a mental thing. Sort of.
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[ censors? suck. as does not having a braincell. ]
I still haven't found out what happened to the asshole that leaves us trial messages, have you?
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[ she's not really sure how? that kind of magic would be kind of complicated, wouldn't it? ]
Well, I'll try asking around too. I'll let you know if I find anything.
[ looks back at this a week later and closes my eyes ]
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[EVERYTHING HAPPENS SO MUCH, AND YET.]
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See you around.
[ cries at time, why is it a thing ]