can_has_vodka | For can_has_vodka: Twenty-Eighth Vision [video+spam]

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For can_has_vodka: Twenty-Eighth Vision [video+spam]

[GODDAMN THAT IS A BIG CHICKEN.]

[Sir Bertie Rooster peers down at the camera from where he's towering over its wielder, tilting his head back and forth as he considers his now tiny Mom. Arkady for her part giggles threadily at his confusion, then squeaks,]

Well! Clearly there's only one way to handle this situation!

[There is a faint flash of purple light, and Bertie suddenly calms, and settles down into a roost. The image blurs as Arkady hooks her communicator to her belt, runs over and proceeds to climb the chicken-mountain with little grunts. Once settled gripping his ruff, she gets out the communicator again and shows the view from the rooster's back.]

Onward, my chikken!

[And off he goes, walking out the door (which had been fortunately ajar) and wandering out into the hallway, occasionally letting out a rumbly cluck.]

Touko dear? Are you all right? I'm coming to check on you.

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You're assuming that there is no connection between people. [The screen flickers white for a moment, then reveals several human outlines standing on a flat plane. A network of faintly purple energy interconnects them.]

Not only do I know from your file, but I can use the connection between us to communicate and know things. Right now you could do the same with me, if you so chose. Go ahead, if you want.

[She's skeptical, it's clear, and shrugs, not trying to communicate anything except that she doesn't get how this works.]

Don't believe my file. [She accidentally sends.]

The file is just paper. It has some useful facts and such, but in the end it's you and your restored memories and your potential to be great that I believe in.

[Arkady smiles comfortingly.]

Right, so...is there anywhere you'd prefer to look at first?

[This telepathy stuff is creepy. Playing with the occult's fun when it's just a game, but she doesn't want to get into it now that it's real.]

What got me here?

[Arkady considers the setup, wanting to give Touko a sense of control over the situation. She concentrates...and a purple television remote appears in her hand. She hands it over to her Inmate.]

It's on Channel Twenty. Here's the pause button if it gets too much.

[Touko gives the remote a skeptical look before switching channels, but Channel 20 is a view of the hallway of a school she knows well, the camera bobbing in what seems to her to be a clear imitation of someone running along as fast as they can. If it wasn't clear enough what this was supposed to be, the station identifier in the corner is an 8-bit portrait of a girl with glasses and braids that swing as she runs, the same girl as was on her door before she smashed it. There's a date and timer above it: the day she arrived at Hope's Peak.

She turns the sound up to hear the girl breathing hard and grumbling about how of course she was late on her first day, and bites her tongue, knowing what's coming next. Instead of her blacking out when she smacks into the pillar, though, a boy in white who's shouting at her for running helps her up and pushes her through a set of double doors. There are hundreds of people inside - mostly her age - and on the stage, a middle-aged man has started to drone about the flower of the new generation gathered here today.

Touko hits the pause button and turns to Arkady, still trying to look skeptical.]

It's like a dream. It's all made up of things I've seen before, people I know. What you see and what you've read all blend together to create dreams based on your subconscious fears and desires. That's all this is.

[That's what she wants to be true.]

You're terribly smart and imaginative, and I...it's a logical conclusion to draw. I'm not asking you to just swallow anything presented to you. Just look at the evidence, and make up your own mind.

[Arkady looks at the hall monitor and her eyes twinkle just a bit.]

[Touko shrugs with an irritated noise and starts to play the video again. The headmaster's speech is still on, but the other Touko is glancing up and down her row for anyone who might look interesting. She murmurs names as she starts to tick her fallen classmates off one by one, clearly not interested in any of them.]

Asahina, Kirigiri, that creep Yamada... Byakuya-sama should be here, where is he... Kuwata, Maizono... that's ironic enough... Ikusaba...

[One of these things is not like the others, and she stops.]

The girl with the black hair. Next to that trashy-looking couple. I've never seen her before, but I know her.

[Arkady leans forward and studies the girl in question.]

This is where it will start to get uncomfortable, I'm afraid. This girl...who does she look like to you? Look carefully.

[Her heart sinks, and one of the papers at the top of the basket shows a purple sadface.]

[Touko leans in closer and squints over her glasses.] If I had to grasp at a resemblance, she looks slightly like Enoshima, but that isn't her.

[Junko's arm is actually draped over the other girl's shoulder, like "aren't we best friends already", but the girl Touko's pointing out, a lean, straight-postured girl with a black bob, seems tense.]

But I gave her a name I shouldn't have. All any of us knew about "Mukuro Ikusaba" was to watch out for whoever they were. And I've seen her face, but...

[Before Touko can fill anything in, or Arkady can answer, the television starts to fast-forward, no matter how hard Touko slams the buttons to make it stop. After a moment, she gives up, and her eyes are transfixed to the screen.

How long it lasted, she'll never be able to say afterward, but when it stops, she's walking out of somewhere and Junko and the other girl are lingering in the hallway, hailing her over to them with Junko's exaggerated wave and a jerk of the other girl's head. "Toooouko-chan, are you staying?" Junko greets her. "You don't really want to go back out there, do you?"

"We have to wait," the other girl interjects.

But what Touko herself has to say surprises the her that's watching. "What else would I have done when the headmaster asked me? We have to stay here. Aren't we all any of us have left?"

On the side of the screen with her and Arkady, the parts that flashed forward are coming together.]

I never understood how those two were friends. [She looks down into her knees as the conversation plays out, Junko teasing the other two girls about how serious they were.] They were friends. We were all together every day for a year, in the same room. I had a window seat in that classroom, and it was the first time I'd gotten a view like that...

But none of this happened.

Are you sure, Touko? People's memories can be edited. Manipulated. You don't even have to be a psychic to do it. Hypnosis, drugs, exposure therapy, conditioning...all sorts of things.

[She grabs a passing purple chicken and scoops it onto her lap for security.] In your shoes I would want to know why these memories, and who did it. But perhaps we're not there yet.

You sound like you already know.

[She isn't about to ask yet. She doesn't feel like she can ask Arkady for anything. The need for knowledge, though, the search for the answer to that question, is pulsing out of her, and you wouldn't have to be psychic to pick up on it.]

Why would somebody bother to create all this?

Two major reasons, really. One is to manipulate you by manipulating your worldview. People's sense of self is heavily tied in to their memes--the memories they have created and their interpretation of them. With your memories altered, your opinions of your life, your whole personality, can be shifted in the way that the alterer wants.

The other is to cover their own tracks, so you don't suspect them of manipulating you or doing some other wrong.

[Sadness crosses her features.] Whatever the case, I really don't think this was done with your consent.

[Touko looks at Arkady like she thinks she's being called stupid. Arkady didn't see any of what Touko reeled through, but even so, people being nice to her? That should have said something to her.]

There's no chance I would have said yes. Not to losing that.

You know who did it. I know you do.

I know, but I needed to hear you say it.

And it was Monobear. Of course. She probably did everyone. It's a control thing, above and beyond furthering her goals.

[Arkady looks down at her bare feet.]

Believe me or not, but there it is.

None of us knew each other when the murders started. It had to have done all of us, whoever it is.

And they're here.

Yes. I tried to explain to you earlier but you were closed off. Can't say I blame you for that.

It's a terrible thing and scary. I worry about what she might try. To do to you, to lead you into...you don't need that horror in your life, especially not again.

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For can_has_vodka: Twenty-Eighth Vision [video+spam]

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