shiftybladesofcray (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shiftybladesofcray) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
e22021-08-16 07:38 pm
shiftybladesofcray) wrote in e22021-08-16 07:38 pm
SENDER: @ nefelibata | RECIPIENT: @ All
To Whom it May Concern;
Let's assume anyone capable of receiving this message is, like myself, a captive on board this train. While nothing can be determined unequivocally, I've come to some conclusions that bear weight enough to consider.
Thus far, we are only permitted to advance upon the completion of objectives as set by an unknown puppeteer. This "clownductor" assumes an affable but absent persona, and so their true nature cannot be ascertained. The motives are paraphrased below:
1. Read the Instructions
2. Message another Passenger
3. Request Friendship with Another Passenger*
4. Assist a Dog
5. Retrieve Part of Your Person
6. Collect Seeds in Exchange for Personal Information
While each appears innocuous on first blush, they aspire to two functions: fostering connections and gaining intelligence. There could be strength in numbers if we come together as one, true, and sharing secrets can bolster such bonds, but let's not be fooled.
There's a strong possibility we are being set up for darker purpose. If on a future car, the motive becomes:
7. Murder a Fellow Passenger
Will it not be all the more devastating after we've bonded? Without hope, there cannot be despair. Despair can breed subjugation, a loss of self and morality, a weakness of character that's easily exploited by those in power. It can breed violence.
I've seen such games put into action myself. Anyone may turn on their fellow man if the correct pressure is applied. If there are sensible people among you, these notions may have struck you as they have me. I'm sending this now as a warning.
Do not play into their hands. They control our passage through the train. They may be watching us. We cannot assume they have our best interests at heart.
Conversely, even if you are able to stay your course? Never assume your neighbor can do the same. We are each uniquely strong and uniquely weak. A miscalculation may cost you your life.
I cannot say whether this is a dream, a simulation, or an alternate reality, though the latter requires tremendous suspension of disbelief. Regardless, we cannot assume that our actions on the train are without consequence. Act with caution, but most urgently, act with hope.
I appreciate your time in perusing this missive. I understand some find reading difficult. If you're so encumbered by your illiteracy, ask another passenger to read it for you. I will not be providing summation.
Thank you.
- Fukawa Toko
****ADDENDUM: Should anyone be approached by or glimpse a half white, half black bear, DO NOT ENGAGE. Contact me immediately and I shall deal with it.
VOICE; un: ardbert
He's been manipulated by those watching from the shadows, treated like a piece on a chess board moved around to play to their will. Cylva had been caught in that trap as well. He knows much of despair, and the hope that follows if one is lucky enough to find it.
When he gets to the end and realizes who wrote the missive, he is a bit taken aback. The composed nature of this message doesn't quite match the harried girl he'd stumbled on in the forest.
His response comes as a voice call, because thus far that's still all he knows how to do. ]
Hello, Fukawa? My apologies if contacting you like this was not what you intended. Trying to compose messages on this device is still a bit daunting. I'm far more used to quill and parchment.
In any case, I did have a question. You mentioned you've seen something like this before. What did you mean by that?
Also Voice
At least there is one friendly face in a sea of traitors. Sort of. They've only just met.]
A-ardbert... [She sounds downright miserable. Stuffy nosed and sniffling, definitely on the tail end of pitching a fit. She snorts humourlessly.] I'm the same way...I thought I'd sound b-better if I wrote things down, but I'm d-destined to be a big joke no m-matter what I do...
[She'd worked So Hard on sounding eloquent, too. Alas.]
I just m-meant what I said. This isn't the first time people have b-been kidnapped and tricked into doing things.
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Fukawa, have you been crying? What's happened?
[ There is genuine concern in his voice, if also some confusion. It seems to him that this girl is the sort who experiences emotions suddenly and strongly, given how she'd handled the korogus. But it would be impossible not to feel for her when she's putting herself down like this. ]
Can you tell me about the last time? Was it also on a... a train, like this?
[ Ardbert finds it hard to believe there isn't heavy use of magicks at play here, given how each car warps into something much larger than it can or should be. ]
no subject
[aka, "Putting Any Opinion Online". It was doomed from the get go.]
Anyway....I just...No, no it wasn't on a train. It was in a s-school. There aren't any trains like this where I'm from.
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I imagine that for someone who hasn't seen the things you have, it would seem like madness or paranoia. It always sounds as if it's beyond the realm of possibility until it's happening to you.
[ He speaks from experience, but that's implied rather than confirmed. Ardbert isn't interested in making this about him. ]
As for the dog photo... it did seem as if that was a genuine mistake on his part. A good number of us have never used devices such as these before.
no subject
[She'd insisted to that other guy that she hadn't been directly involved. More by omission than by fibs. Toko's not sure where she is right now, or if it's a "where" in the first place — the simulation theory is the most sound one yet — but she took a huge risk mentioning the Killing Games. Yet there was no recognition at all. Not one person acknowledged what she was talking about, or even called her out personally. If they really are oblivious it's better they don't know who "Fukawa Toko" is. They'd never accept her otherwise.
Ardbert can think she was part of the games, that's fine. The devil's in the details though, and Toko wants to drive that devil out.
He mentions the photo and she gives a long groan. He's probably right, annoying as it is to say. Half the people seem to be obfuscating stupidity, or programmed to believe they're from some C.S. Lewis knock off. Again, leaning heavily on the simulation theory here, and her present company is among that number.]
Ugh...I know. Still. That girl d-didn't have to tell me to buzz off. It's still my post, not hers.
But I'm guessing that's n-not why you're calling. Was it just about the t-train, or?
no subject
Fukawa's taking care not to reveal too much, and that's understandable if she believes they're being watched from the shadows. Ardbert can't help but feel the same, even if their concept of who might be behind all this varies wildly.
(A half-white, half-black bear? What was that about?)
Either way, he does seem to have succeeded in calming her down. He'll take it as one small victory. ]
I suppose I was looking for similarities in each of our experiences. I doubt what we each went through was identical, but there was plenty of what you said that I could relate to. [ More so than a lot of the other passengers on this train, it would seem. ] "Act with hope." And how did you come to that conclusion?
no subject
[That no one recognizes her own past is disconcerting enough. That they allude to separate, possibly worse things? That's outright alarming.
What is going on here? Where did all these people come from? Can it really be a simulation with a bunch of fake memories fed into half the players, or...
She's getting ahead of herself.]
W-we...They...I won't lie. It didn't happen until after several people died. But the remainder s-swore to stop killing each other. That forced the m-mastermind to manipulate the situation, but they made fatal mistakes. The survivors were able to turn their own game against them, but only because they chose to b-believe in a future where they could all leave. Together.
That was their hope. The only reason they survived.
no subject
For now, he focuses on what Fukawa has to say. She's trying not to implicate herself in this "game" she was forced to play in where the players were encouraged to do fatal harm to each other, but she's not doing a very good job of it. He won't point it out, if only for her comfort. (And because he is in no place to judge.) ]
The only way to win was to not play by their rules at all, is that it? [ If that applies here, then none of them have done a particularly good job of it. Ardbert's followed all the instructions given up until now. On the other hand, they haven't been asked to do anything morally reprehensible. (Yet?) ] Was it ever discovered who was behind such a sinister plot?
Danganronpa Spoilers
And the less time spent thinking about her, the better.]
They were a stickler for the rules. But when th-they decided not to kill anymore, they tried to skirt around them. That's how they convicted an innocent person for a murder they had committed themselves. One participant called them out on it, and they h-had to agree to a do-over of the last trial to f-find the real culprit, because they were broadcasting the killings the whole time. The point was to prove that despair would overtake us all, and that couldn't be t-true if they were breaking their own rules on the way. The whole world was watching.
[What was left of it anyway.]
Yeah, they revealed the mastermind's identity. But it's...L-look, it's much too convoluted to explain over a ph-phone! There were many layers of deception and it's just...not all that relevant here. I haven't seen signs that the s-same people are behind this at all, outside of a fake replica in that creepy museum, but there was so m-much confusing stuff in there. I think it's just to m-mess with our heads.
no subject
As she starts to back off for the subject, however, Ardbert realizes that he can't blame her. ]
My apologies. I didn't mean to dredge up something that's no doubt difficult to relive. [ He'll need to be more careful in the future. He still isn't all that used to talking to anyone who isn't Aria. ] To return to the subject at hand... you believe that something similar, if not exactly the same, could be taking place here? Or it's at least a possibility worth considering.
no subject
Anyway, he's giving her an out and she'll gladly take it. There's a little grunt and a soft sniff.
There. That's the end of it. She's done, she's not gonna sit here whining and she's not going to rehash things that don't matter. Ardbert has more questions.]
I...I don't th-think it's exactly the same, no. Just similar enough. [Monokuma would have shown his ugly mug by now if it was the same.] And I don't think they'd have the power to do, um. This. Unless it is a s-simulation — that is, a sort of...invented place? A f-fabrication that our minds were brought into, wh-while our real bodies are asleep. Does that make sense?
[Heaven help her, explaining VR to someone who didn't know what a lightbulb was. What a joke.]
The biggest similarities are w-waking in an unusual place, some sort of memory gap about getting there, being locked in and having objectives set b-before you can move on. Though...in those games it was motivations. Incentives. Not j-just challenges. And there weren't these c-creepy numbers on anyone either...
no subject
Some sort of sense, yes. I have no way to prove that's not the case, so you may be on to something. This train is also called the Existential Express, isn't it? That may be a clue as well.
[ There are quite a lot of similarities that Fukawa cites, however. It's enough to make Ardbert suspicious, and when she brings up the numbers he can't hold back on a sigh. ]
Yes, I don't suppose anyone has sorted out what those mean? It's all rather cryptic thus far.
[ He also can't quite shake the idea that it's only a matter of time before the truth of this train comes to light in a most unpleasant fashion. ]
no subject
[Her fists clench, unseen over the phone. Why was she cursed with such a loathesome body....if only her breasts were a bit bigger, even just a sliver!]
No, as far as I know all we've got is theories. Whether it's b-branding, like livestock, or price tags, or just a headcount of people on the train...we'll have to look for answers in the next train car.
also wrapping!
As for the numbers, that's more or less what he expected. Thus far, he's found that his number seems to be on the higher end of things, and he doesn't know if that's good or bad. He's inclined to think it's bad, but there's truly no way of knowing. ]
In any case, I'll be sure to keep my wits about me. I appreciate the warning, Fukawa. Hopefully there are others who do as well.
[ With that sendoff, he ends the call, hopeful that he's made her feel at least a tad bit better. ]
no subject