come_sailaway | BATTLE ROYALE EVENT: SHIP

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BATTLE ROYALE EVENT: SHIP

[fortunately, not signing up for the shore excursion doesn't mean the passengers still on board don't get to have a little fun. on the contrary: they'll get to have some of the most fun of all!

about an hour after the tender leaves, at about 9AM, every screen on the ship, from the cabin TVs to the one above the pool, begins playing a live feed of the events on the island, starting with Friday's introduction video and transitioning to the passengers leaving the bunker. from then on, the camera (?) seems to always know where the action is, bringing close-up views of each fight, each death. when little action occurs, highlight reels play. there is no audio, however, outside of the droning, inane muzak of the stream and the kitschy sound effects of the reels; time to brush up on your lip-reading if you want the hot goss on scene!

in the atrium, near Friday's desk, is a large piece of construction paper, titled "PLACE YOUR BETS," showing a table with the names (some true, some not) of each competitor, with a space to write down your name next to who you think will win. the captain has already made his choice! what are you betting? don't worry about it.

the screens will play the game 24 hours a day. destroying the screens wholly will buy you only momentary respite. so, sit back, and enjoy.]

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[Waking up after being dead felt much the same as when he first woke up here: disorienting at first and then.. well, he's fine. His head is back on his body (he checked several times) and he's none the worse for wear. He did sigh in disappointment that he didn't make it to the next day, but alas - twas not to be.

In any event he will definitely watch the rest of this on the televisions, spotting someone else doing the same who looks very, very familiar. Why not go congratulate him for taking 200 bullets like a champ? It's just a game right?]

Hello, I don't believe we've met prior to, well.. all of this. I'm Maximilien.

[He sounds very calm about all this, and while the normal thing for Mizuki to do is probably to punch him, he's definitely not expecting that because this was all just a little vacation to blow off steam. No harm. No foul.

He does glance at the screen just in time to see Ebalon find Venti. It's not going so well.]

That .. escalated rather quickly.

[He has no idea how much worse it's about to get.]

[ Mizuki's stressed, thanks! There's so much to process and he feels like nothing is going in the right hole. He should probably have feelings about his love interest who currently looks like him being obliterated out of existence by the fucking moon by his other love interest who seems to have spilled his marbles everywhere. Does he, though? Hell the fuck no he doesn't. He is struggling to get the gears turning in his head here in general, and you expect him to FEEL THINGS? He's feeling a whole lotta "what the fuck", that's for sure.

Oh hey! It's that guy who killed him. How's it going, man? Good to see you. He gets a smile and a somewhat strained laugh. ]

Hi. I'm... [ He looks at the screen, and then back to Max. ] I'm Mizuki. Nice to meet you! [ He sounds sincere, at least. ] Sorry that you also lost. Ehehe... I've never been get good at battle arenas.

I suppose a lot of us had to lose. [A sigh] Unfortunate but true. At least you...

[Huh. He was about to say that Mizuki got to kill him back but... He glances at the screen at the Mizuki there. Then at the Mizuki that he's talking to.]

That is not you then...

[Wait... what?]

Ehehe. Maybe it'd be less if the sign-ups were a little more clear? Then the chances of winning go way up, I think.

[ Because then only a few people would actually do this. But he knows damn well that's the point. ]

Hm? [ A glance at the screen. ] Oh! Right. Yes, that's um... I'm pretty sure that's my ex. [ And once Ebalon's on screen: ] And that's my best friend. [ … ] I think they're upset.

[ It's possible. ]

The chances go up but so does the difficulty as only those who thought they could win would sign up for it.

[ A pause.

Actually a much longer pause.]

Your ex. And your best friend.

[He doesn't have any facial expressions other than his eyes, but that deadpan, monotone delivery does all the work for him.]

Ah, well. That's not ideal for me then is it.

[Understatement of the year here.]

How did he turn into you?

[ If you think that's a lot, imagine how Mizuki feels right now. He hasn't seen this side of either of them, so he's kinda sorta all over the place now. ]

Hm? Oh, no, no, you're fine! You were just playing the game!!! I understand. You're already forgiven, so I'll tell them as such.

[ Spoilers: it's probably going to take more than that. But… yes, that… needs to be a thing he does. Also, he needs to ask them what the fuck any of this is?! ]

I wish I could tell you. I know he has different "forms," but… this is new. Ehe. I'm sure there's a reason for it, though! I can… ask him when he gets on board?

[Anyone else would probably be suspicious of how well Mizuki is taking this. But Max isn't, because he's taking it just as well. It was all a game! They had fun! Well, he had fun anyway.]

Ah, thank you. That would be appreciated.

So you didn't know he could do that? That's rather alarming you realize.

[He may be mechanical but even he is concerned about the repercussions of someone turning into their ex in order to kill the person who murdered them. That's not a normal thing people do. He's pretty confident in that.]

[ Mizuki definitely did not have fun. He is having fun studying everyone on screen, of course. Except these two. These two are worrying him. Though, he supposes he no longer has to watch Venti's breakdown now that he's, you know, dead. So, you know, that'll be a fun conversation to have with him tomorrow. (Spoilers: it won't be.) But he does know that he can't fault people for listening to what the Captain wanted to do. Faulting people for taking orders would be wildly hypocritical of him. ]

Of course~. [ … ] Ah, yeah. No. It's alarming. I'm very alarmed. Do I not look alarmed? [ He looks "happy". Or maybe some mixture of cheery and wildly confused. Alarmed? Probably not. ]

I suppose maybe… I'm still digesting all this information?

No you do not really look alarmed. Though I'm a terrible judge of such things.

[He's better than he gives himself credit for though and uh, Mizuki being calmly content is just a little off. But considering Max is excited about having murdered two people, he doesn't get to say anything about that.]

True. I suppose this will be rather quick, already there's less than half the people we started with. And then I assume everyone wakes up on the ship good as new and we wait for the next thing that happens.

[A pause.]

Well except the winner. I guess they need to return by other means.

Oh, really? Me too, actually. Facial expressions and I don't really get along well. It makes it very hard for me to properly get a read on people... Oh well. Just means I shouldn't play poker~.

[ Or try to psychoanalyze people like he's always trying to do, but watch him continue doing that, anyway. He likes it too much to stop just because he can't read expressions well. ]

Mhm! Something like that! Though, um. Hm. That's a good point. They'll probably come back the way we came in, with Miss Friday, I imagine? Though, I wonder who's going to win. There's a lot of options right now.

Or it means you'll be extremely good at it. Looking happy when you get a terrible hand is a big part of bluffing. Then just assume everyone else is lying to you, that's what I do.

[He shrugs, it works for him. He can't tell a lot of human emotions unless they're really over the top. Which Mizuki is so 'happy' that it's kind of suspicious, even to him.]

I hope they win something worthwhile, after surviving all this. Are you rooting for your friend?

[ Mizuki chuckles a bit, then nods. He disagrees, of course, but he also hasn't played real people poker in forever. So who knows! Maybe he could be good at it? ]

D- Ebalon? I mean, from here, sure. I didn't bet on him, though. Natsuno is also a friend of mine. And... [ Hm. ] I suppose that's everyone still on the island. So, you know, I guess either of them would be nice. Or, at least, if they do die, I hope it's not painful.

[He's not sure if being crushed by the moon counts as 'not painful' but at least it was flashy. An epic death.]

I'm also not sure what exactly we're betting, though whatever it is I bet on Ava. She seems to be doing well.

[What with all the trauma. But she's still alive anyway.]

Ah I see. Yes quicker is better. So I'm told. I did think death would hurt a lot more, so that's nice to find out.

[Sure he left someone to bleed out slowly, but that's neither here nor there.]

[ Well, Mizuki has no idea what it's like to have a moon dropped on him, but it's probably a pretty quick death? Admittedly, he wasn't fully watching Venti get smeared on the beach there. Especially since he looked like Mizuki and that's like... bad? ]

Mmh. It's probably on who the winner is? I've never met Miss Ava, though. Is she nice?

[ Because, obviously, that's a very important gauge on "who would win in murder island party?" ]

Forgive me for asking, if it's insensitive, but do... you feel pain? [ Machines from his world generally don't, but it really depends on who made them. ]

I meant more what the stakes are. I didn't have to put up any collateral on the bet, and I'm not sure what I win if she's the victor.

[Yeah there's probably something really awkward about watching yourself get turned into paste. Especially when it's not really you.]

She seems pleasant enough, and also resourceful enough to survive all this. That's probably a big part of being able to make it to the end.

[A pause, because that's an abrupt shift in tone.]

I do. But I think I died too fast for that to hurt. Which is for the best, it can't be pleasant to feel your head detach from your body.

Oh! That's fair. I don't think it's anything, really. And... who knows, maybe you'll get a sticker or something for winning?

[ Something mundane, though, probably. Mizuki also just doesn't want there to be a huge reward for betting on your friends killing other friends. That's a bit... hm. ]

Ehe... is that so? [ Mizuki's too tired to be upset that, even then, he still chose to gun Mizuki down like that. Maybe later he'll be a little huffy about it, but for right now, it's just a lot of (vague hand gestures). He subconsciously hovers a hand around his own neck, though. ] I hope you harbor no ill-will towards Venti, then. He... is usually very kind.

[Wow a sticker. He can't wait.]

Oh of course not. We're all just doing what we had to. No reason to hold grudges.

[What they HAD to do. Yes. That. And as for holding grudges, well he won't anyway. Judging from the insanity that followed Mizuki's death he has a hunch that the other two just may have some unfinished business with him. Surely that will be fine.]

Though I do wonder what the point of this was when we all revive good as new. And why those who remained on the ship just had to watch it all unfold.

Very strange.

Oh, that's easy!!!! [ Mizuki is suddenly 10 times more chipper. Do not worry about this. ]

While people may come back from dying, this is still a high stress situation to put people in. The stakes are less "You won't come back", but rather experiencing the pain of dying, and furthermore, the pain of seeing people you care about die around you! Hence why there's screens here as well, mostly to cause distress in a situation like this! And this stimulates the mind in different ways depending on the person. Hysteria, dissociation, panic attacks, anxiety, depression… to name a few! A sadistic person would get a perverse joy from evoking such emotional responses from people.

On top of this, inflicting pain on others tends to wear on one's image of you, and can even burn bridges, so to speak, in some cases. Doing this, while we are all stuck on a relatively closed off space where it's hard to avoid people, will cause tensions and make for difficult conversations or situations down the line. Especially if they used to be your friend, or are friends with your friends, or something of that nature. Some people also hold a heavy weight on things like "death", so the fact that there might not be a penalty for dying like this, besides the suffering it brings, death is meant to stimulate a high stress response from those who have a strong will to live. You can rationally think everything will be okay, but it's hard to truly convince your natural urges of that.

[ … ]

Ehehe… Sorry, did that make sense? I hope it helped~.

[Max listens, nodding thoughtfully. That's certainly more than he expected from what was a rhetorical question but it does actually answer a lot of his query.]

So the goal is less the actual killing and more the distress and various other emotions surrounding the death. I see.

[And he does, for the first time since arriving here he does vaguely understand why everyone else is acting so weird, and why very few on the island seemed to understand the point of this game. They were protecting themselves from the trauma and the despair of watching those they cared about hurt - more so than protecting themselves.

Idly he wondered if that was just a human thing they all had built in.]

So what you're implying is that the repercussions of this will last longer than just a few days. Oh that's quite clever of whoever designed this. A short excursion and then they keep reaping the after effects of fear and tension.

Why someone wants those emotions out of us is an entirely different matter.

[ Mizuki is just very into psychology, and will look for any reason to go into talking about it if he can. He tried to engage some people before the fight between Ebalon and Venti, even, but he got a bunch of weird looks for some reason?! The brain is fun to talk about, let him have this.

He's a little relieved to hear that he could teach Max something here, though. It simultaneously means he's helping (and that's the big one, honestly), but also that Max just doesn't understand why everyone might have the feelings they do. He's pretty sure the robots back home also needed to be taught things like this. Except for Lancet-2, who is a darling and always has been. ]

Exactly. Varying mentals mixed with cognitive dissonance tend to make for a very devastating experience. Coping with something like this may take months to get over, or even never doing so. Not without some professional help, anyway.

[ … Mizuki misses his therapist. ]

Hmm, I would have to talk to the Captain to know for sure. But, if I had to guess based solely on the fact that we've all been seemingly randomly picked from completely different worlds, making us a true amalgamation of a cast... it's for entertainment.

[He's probably more helpful than anyone else on the ship would be, since Max just genuinely doesn't get it and that can be hard to deal with. But now at least he has an idea of what's going on.

Will it keep him from picking fights in the future? Absolutely not. But at least if people punch him after he kills someone he'll understand a little better why that's happening. Mizuki is a hero.]

I doubt there's going to be professional help provided. Not if the goal is for this to be as traumatic as possible.

[His voice is thoughtful as he continues.] I had no idea that people's memories were that good to be affected so long after an event.

Well, who knows, maybe if I can get my hands on some more psychology books, I might be able to be the ship's therapist~?

[ Unlikely, but he thinks it would be fun and neat. He's always wanted to be a therapist…! And a hero. And a cook. He wants to be a lot of things, actually. ]

Oh, yes! It depends on the race you are, — in my world, anyway — but most of the common races can hold up to around three hundred years worth of memory before they start forgetting things. And most of them die long before that, so it's quite impressive. I don't know what that necessarily translates to in terms of tech memory storage, but I'd assume somewhere in the petabytes range. Maybe 2 petabytes?

[ A lot, basically. ]

And, your brain is more likely to hold information that associates a strong emotional impact with it than one that holds little water in that regard. It's why tragic events tend to be recalled easier than the happy ones, because it's harder to be so impactfully elated than it is to experience something heartbreaking or catastrophic.

[To be fair the ship could use one, might as well be someone with an upbeat attitude like Mizuki. Sure it would be a little unsettling just how excited he was to psychoanalyze everyone, but that's the price to pay for people to figure out their issues.]

Three hundred years? People in my world most certainly don't live that long. Average lifespan for a human is approximately ninety years old, and at that point they generally start forgetting anything that isn't imprinted into their memory. I think they start to internally shut down in a way.

[Or their brains are liquifying or decaying, he doesn't know. He's never paid too much attention to human physiology.]

Oddly enough that's the same for inorganic memories like mine. The negative ones seem to be at the top of the file structure consistently.

[It's unfair honestly. He needs to forcibly rename these or something.]

Oh, no, that's the same in my world, too. For the common races, anyway. Brains are just a lot more complex than the bodies, for some reason. Couldn't tell you why. That's getting into biology, and that's not really my forte.

[ Not that anything is really his "forte". He knows a ton about psychology because he reads about it recreationally. He thinks it'd be fun to take classes, someday, maybe… That requires getting off this boat, first, which seems like it's going to take some time. ]

Oh, huh, really? That's... [ "Strange," he almost says, but then things on it for a second. ] Mmm. No, actually, that makes sense. You said you feel pain? So, there's going to be an integration of emotional response and recollection. Emotional recall is a very powerful and real thing, so I wouldn't at all be surprised to hear if that's the same for anyone or anything that has that unification.

[He already knows twenty billion times more than Max ever will. This might be the most that this Omnic has ever learned about people in his whole existence.]

I do. Maybe that codes it to be more important.

[He's never heard of emotional recall before, but now that Mizuki is mentioning it, that makes total sense. Thanks, he hates it!]

Great. How does one reverse it and make emotional recall work for good things rather than terrible?

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mooninthewater - 2022-05-25 18:56 (UTC) - Expand

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makesomedeals - 2022-05-26 04:45 (UTC) - Expand

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BATTLE ROYALE EVENT: SHIP

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