audience: reigen

[becomemod]

Comments

[spiritconsulting]

That's what Mouse said, too. That their personalities changed.

[...]

You haven't met them in person, right? Any chance the person you're speaking to now isn't the same person you've been speaking to?

[becomemod]

[ Hm. ]

Since they won't, or can't, tell us who's giving these orders, that's a possibility.

[spiritconsulting]

Either they were stringing you along until now or they've been replaced...either way, it's a bad thought.

[hmm.]

I'm not going to assume you haven't thought of this, but - all of you are pretty popular, right? If you spoke up that something fishy was going on, you might have a chance of getting listened to. So what's the downside?

[what made them decide not to risk that, he means.]

[becomemod]

I did try. They don't seem to listen. Something above them, orders that they can't change.

Something's wrong.

[spiritconsulting]

...Not to them. To the newspaper or something.

[becomemod]

So that's what you meant.

[ They frown lightly. ]

For whatever reason, the only thing the newspaper takes are Dear Addy's.

[spiritconsulting]

Dear Addy, the government has been taken over by psychopaths.

[becomemod]

We should both write in.

[spiritconsulting]

I may have already burned my bridges with Addy. I'll have to mail it from a different location.

[becomemod]

Oh? Was that letter in the paper yours?

It's not like they know who sends them in.

[spiritconsulting]

That one wasn't even the bad one.

...Anyway, the point is. We have to figure out what to do about this before something like this happens again.

[becomemod]

We'll have to use everything at our disposal. I don't want to see anyone else die.

[ They cross their arms over their chest as they consider. ]

[spiritconsulting]

Yeah. Me neither. But the rules update today sounds like it's their plan for it to keep happening.

[becomemod]

Permitted doesn't mean "must". [ Thoughtful. ]

I haven't spoken to everyone. Do you believe someone will take this as permission?

[spiritconsulting]

I haven't talked to everyone either, and there's some real weirdos here, but frankly, no. What's even the point? Maybe if they're worried about winning the competition, but...honestly, it seems the most likely result is you get caught and killed like Mika.

On the other hand, I'm a little worried that there will be a way of nudging us into doing something. [...] I didn't put in Mika's name, you know. No one said we had to. But something happened after that.

[becomemod]

That's what it seems like to me too.

[ They tilt their head. ]

What do you mean by "something"?

[spiritconsulting]

Just - not a big deal.

[waving his hand to show it's not a big deal at all.]

I noticed I have a weirdly fuzzy recollection of something that happened recently. Feels like maybe somebody tampered with my head just to make the point that they could? It doesn't bother me because it's not that important anyway and easy enough for me to just ask when I get back, hey, what happened again? Probably just a warning.

[becomemod]

[ Frowning. ]

The idea of anyone with the ability to tamper with memories is worrying. What's stopping them from doing more?

[spiritconsulting]

Yeah. [a sigh.] I don't want to alarm people when we don't know exactly what caused it. [no, bullshit, he just doesn't want to admit he fucked up and something really bad happened to him. he hates for people to worry about him or to admit he got in over his head.]

But - if someone can do that to try to push us into voting - no telling what they could do to try to push us in other ways.

[becomemod]

I can understand wanting to keep it quiet.

[ A hand goes up to their mouth, it looks like they're considering something. ]

Tell me if anything else happens to you.

[spiritconsulting]

...Sure. As long as you agree you'll keep me in the loop if you guys find out anything.

[...]

I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to be here. At least - well - hmm. It makes more sense to me if there was a mix-up or something. I don't think playing superhero is for me. But something like what happened to Mika, with all of these people here, all of these kids here, even - it just isn't something anybody could ignore.

[becomemod]

It's a deal.

[ Their hands drop down to the table as they listen to him speak. ] Nobody should be able to ignore it. [ And yet, here they are, with people in power deciding this should happen to people. ]

"Hero" isn't something I'd call myself either. While we're here, why not assist who we're able to?

[spiritconsulting]

I'd like to try.

[he's not sure he can manage to do anything that useful, but he's going to try.]

[becomemod]

Trying is the most I can ask anyone for. Nobody asked to be here.

[spiritconsulting]

...Hmm. What were you doing before you got dragged here, Snake?