144.98750 Public Channel [Day 63]

[amusicaladventure]

Hey, guys? Anyone -- I hope you still have your radios...

[Ash sounds worried to the point of frantic, barely keeping her alarm and panic covered under a veneer of anxiety.]

Listen, something's really wrong here. Have you guys actually talked with anyone else? It's scary as hell, guys, they're hollow, it's like their brains have just shut down -- they're running for kicks and thrills like they're the only thing that matters. I mean I know all the drugs and stuff here can have that effect, but it's not just the junkies. And some of you all are scaring the hell out of me too just from what I've seen...

This place isn't safe. We're not safe here. It's too much pleasure and it might even be more than that. Pull out, guys. Please, now.

Comments

[spaghettimonster]

Hey, having fun is the whole reason we're here!

[Speaking of people who are a little too into it, Papyrus is only a little bothered by the fun police in their midst.]

We're leaving, um... eventually. Worry about it then! And don't be such a worrywart in the meantime.

[amusicaladventure]

Yeah, but there's having responsible and good fun. And then there's the fun where you wake up permanently scarred. Or knocked up. Or don't wake up. And this is getting way, way too close to THAT kind of fun.

[spaghettimonster]

Psssh, yeah right. Have you seen anybody here hurt?

[amusicaladventure]

Me.

I'm hurt.

It's not physical, but I'm hurt.

[Physical wounds are so much easier to heal than mental ones. A cut is easy to stitch up with magic, but she couldn't just sing away the knowledge of the lines she'd crossed and the ones she might have if she hadn't realized.]

[spaghettimonster]

Oh.

[She sounds so certain, so worried, and it's troubling... for a minute. But her pain seems less and less real, and it's so easy to just shrug it off.]

Well! I hope you're taking your own advice. If you need any ideas, hmmm... The spa's relaxing.

[kingsroads]

The Celebration itself is odd as well...have you seen the actual sky at all during the past few days?

[ because he hasn't and it's WEIRD (greenspace don't count) ]

[amusicaladventure]

I think I've been indoors, mostly... but this may just be a closed dimension? Like entirely inside?

[kingsroads]

Perhaps? There's a green area on top of one of the buildings but even that doesn't have the sky.

[ Strange sighs, a brief little siiiiigh. ] This might be something where my being from the past has thrown me for a loop, but you're right. This place...it's worrying.

[amusicaladventure]

Look, worrying is underselling it. I -- there are things that matter to me and they are starting to not matter to me here. [Things like personal space, like consent issues. She doesn't want to explain why those matter to her, there's no gentle way to explain that her species was pretty much literally created to satisfy a fetish.] And this isn't just 'I'm loosening up and enjoying myself', these are things that matter as much to me as my name and my magic.

It's wrong.

[thevictoriandetective]

[The sound of raucous laughter.]

Nah.

[amusicaladventure]

[A small part of Ash really, really wants to sing Master Exploder right now. Which is a testament to how worried and on-edge she really is: on a normal day, the desire to pop someone's head with the power of rock and magic never even surfaces.]

Okay. Why not?

[If nothing else, she's going to get one epic 'I told you so' out of this... she hopes.]

[thevictoriandetective]

Because. Why would anyone leave this place?

[He sounded groggy, but there was an inane kind of laugh at the end of his words.]

[amusicaladventure]

Is there literally nothing else in the world that matters to you besides pleasure? No family? No friends? No hopes, no dreams? No purpose, no passion?

[osteothropy]

You're not alone there, bud. I haven't been able to find the Ringmaster, either, and I've been lookin.

[amusicaladventure]

She's fae, she's probably...

[Ash trails off, and Sans can't see her hand motions as she waves vaguely at the air. But they're there, honest!]

Fae, according to the legends, aren't historically big on things like consent. Hell, we might be in one big faerie circle, sucked into their realm where our constant delight slowly burns our souls out. Because that sure kinda looks like what's happening.

[Ash hums a little chord which sounds briefly like a symphonic swell of an entire orchestra. Music focuses her, any music will do.]

[osteothropy]

[Well that's sort of weird to hear contextlessly on the other side of a radio, but whatever, that's fine. Weird stuff happens and he's used to it.]

Yeah, sure, but if she was going to steal our souls she woulda done it herself already. Why involve a middle man?

You haven't known her as long as I have, but for all the crap she deals out, this isn't really her MO.

[amusicaladventure]

Dude, think about it -- she won this for us on a bet, right? Well, what if they guy she was betting with was playing the long game? Win his bet, he gets her killed. Lose his bet, he gives her a 'gift' that ends up benefiting him by hurting us? I mean the whole bet was about whether or not we'd kill her, so it's not like either of them have anything we'd consider normal standards of morality and sanctity of life and stuff!

I'm not saying she's doing it on purpose, but screwing up by not thinking of the consequences for us is just VR-computer-world all over again.

[destiny_key]

What d'you mean? I haven't noticed anything too off...

[Granted, he also hasn't been looking.]

[amusicaladventure]

Look around. The people who've been here longer than us are fried. Just -- just go look into their eyes for ten seconds and tell me your spine doesn't crawl.

[She'd written that off to drugs the first day, considering how liberally she'd seen pills and pipes and needles passed around without any sign of restraint. But not everyone could be using them, right? And if they were, that would raise so many issues about dependence, tolerance, and physical limits.]

Even some of our guys are starting to go crazy.

[destiny_key]

I... I mean...

[He looks around, and actually looks this time. There were definitely a few who looked a bit... creepy.]

I mean... I guess they do look kinda out of it...

[amusicaladventure]

Damn straight. And be honest with me, what have YOU been up to this entire time? [Though she might be better off not knowing she has to ask nonetheless.]

[sunflowerfields]

Oh, dear, do you really think it's that bad?

[She wasn't the biggest fan of this place, but it hadn't occurred to her that there could be something sinister happening in its midst.]

[amusicaladventure]

Go look into the eyes of someone who's been here a while. Give 'em one good long look, and tell me you don't get goosebumps the size of goose eggs.

[That's half of what had clued her in, after all. Stopping to look, really look, into someone's eyes.]

[sunflowerfields]

Do you think they've watched too many of those boxes- the tele-visions? I started feeling strange after watching one...

[amusicaladventure]

Near as I can tell EVERYTHING here is just wearing our minds and our resolve down. Some of it is just faster and less subtle than others.