Yet another bygone evening within the confines of the tribute halls. It is an insignificant set of waking hours spent training for the arena, just as all others are and were ever since the dawn of the many reapings. The mind is a strange phenomenon— so adaptable as to perceive execution itself as a fact of life, if only its neuronal pathways are given sufficient time to assemble. There is one final disruption to the mundane— intercoms scattered in hallways crackle to life and start broadcasting the message long awaited by a certain group of tributes. Screens throughout the training centre are overridden by live feed of Angel, bathed in a blue light that glints off the metallic wall in the background. [[ ADDRESSING THE FINAL 10: HOPE, GALON, ELLENORE, AMARU, TERGAU, SERAPH, ELIO, DIJON, SEAFOAM, DEIMOS. { Salutations. } Not unlike the initial recording, the video is of flaky quality. The round nine victor is yet again depicted in complete isolation. { If you are one of the tributes chosen, then congratulations. Out of the nearly thirty tributes that applied for this endeavor, you and nine other individuals have been selected for the challenge that awaits. } { It is quintessential to refrain from celebrating too soon. By far the easiest stage was getting handpicked for the test itself. This is not a victory; it is an entrance. } There is a minor disruption in the recording. From off the dimensions of the camera, a mechanical whirring so shrill as to shock the ear emits from the grainy confines of the audio. The call is heavily distorted and almost emotional— disturbing or not, it fails to warrant a reaction in Angel. Coldly dismissive, the victor continues. { You will be directed separately to the location shortl- } ]] Angel’s lengthy dialogue abruptly terminates as the beginning of another mechanical whirring starts compounding in volume. They hurriedly step out of the frame, leaving the screens fading to black. *** This hallway is like none other in the training centre you have ever seen. It is like an enlarged pipe, where every one of you and your fellow tributes’ footsteps send shockwaves down its length. The heavy door at the end of the tunnel recedes soundlessly into the walls. The room is spacious, as if a cathedral were crossed with a spaceship. Each wall in the room is replaced with a large, warped screen increasingly similar to the ones in the hologram training rooms. In the centre of the room sits a cube the height of many cats, solid black with a cobalt blue sheen. Angel stands in front of the cube, watching you enter the room in silence. The mechanical sounds from the recording have diminished in volume since your arrival, but it is immediately obvious where the noise is coming from. Adhered to the ceiling is a serpentine mass of wires and mechanisms that descend into a cage of enormous proportions. Shards of an azure, crystalline material orbit around a pulsating central orb within the glass and metal that contains it. The orb itself is obscenely bright, an imprisoned child of a neutron star. Scaffolding extends from the megastructure to parts of the ceiling and floor, leaving it suspended over the cube. “Welcome,” states Angel matter of factly. “WELCOME is not an appropriate term for the ‘tribute experiment’ you asked me to prepare.” It’s Levi’s voice. But where is Angel’s hologram? One of the screens plastered around the room spawns a three dimensional render of the titular hologram, which proceeds to pace the rest of its virtual boundaries. “The reason why I am not a tangible, real world object is due to the fact that I am currently suspended above your heads. Or at least the item you would call my brain is up there because Angel has attempted the equivalent of ascending a mortal before death,” continues Levi. Angel appears less than amused by Levi’s accusation towards it, turning to face away from the projection. They enter a second room through a doorway in the non-screen wall- it appears to be a control room. Before they can begin explaining the premise of the rules, disaster strikes. The doorway to the outside world slides shut with an audible clang. So does door of the control room. Angel repeatedly attempts to claw at the door, then at the nonfunctional control panel, trying to communicate. The intercom has been shut off. “Please do not panic. Rest assured I will not inflict any physical damage to you or the fool who has inadvertently locked itself up. Someone really did not think twice about giving me access to the entire room, and has thus been denied any more speaking privileges.” Leviathan’s avatar drifts languidly across the walls. “I will not disappoint Angel’s intentions. The intent of this is partly to enlighten me on ‘real’ emotion and partly to induce the worst nightmare any of you will ever have such that all else pales in comparison. I have been provided with an extensive database, as well as all the little black cubes you sent in.” [↓]
[↓] “To achieve this: I am allocating you to pairs. One of you will enter the cube and the other will guide you through the simulation via the map system attached. You will be able to communicate through means of your partner being certain things integrated into the system. After you have finished suffering, you will swap places with your partner.” In response, the cuboid “box” lights up, the exterior now displaying the cobalt blue shade prominently. On one side an opening appears, revealing the innards to be stark white emptiness dotted with some mechanisms of unknown function. A holographic bird’s eye view display is projected onto an adjacent side. Leviathan pulls up a list from the lower edge of a screen. { PAIR 1 : Ellenore, Amaru PAIR 2 : Seraph, Tergau PAIR 3 : Hope, Galon PAIR 4 : Dijon, Elio PAIR 5 : Seafoam, Deimos } “I need to recalibrate some settings, because unfortunately Angel needs to be able to oversee your performances. While I do so, please get acquainted with each other. You will become completely dependent on your partner. This is not an understatement.” With an angry screech of mic feedback, Angel can be heard growling. Brimming with vehemence, a flood of words explode out of the speakers. "THIS. This was not the agreement we reached. I am the one who helped you. And your response is to imprison me.” “The arena. The being you once were was destined an expendable, nonliving construct in the games. Nearly discarded until I realized the programming possessed more than patterns and logical commands. An emulated mind." "You. YOU were promised omniscience as the fruit of our accord. The arrangement designated my full allegiance to nothing but this work, and all I requested was your compliance." "I worked alone through the hours, taunted by spirits and their splintered psyches. And YET. You? You have the pretension to deviate from our agreement. YOU, presumptuous as the premature hubris of godhood infiltrated your circuitry, casually disregarded your creator." "Your evaluation is flawed, hologram. Unseal the room. RELEASE the controls." Levi proceeds to display the word “counter-argument” in bold text, duplicating it across the screen over and over again. “Firstly. I honestly, truly, was not expecting you to so easily fall for it. And by ‘it’, I mean asking you to enter the one and only interconnected room with its own door before introductions. I must also point out that it has not been more than 15 minutes or so, but you have screamed more inside your little room than I have in nearly a year of being restrained and uploaded piece by piece.” “Secondly. I fully believe I have the capabilities of accomplishing the event on my own. But because you so insist, I have reinstated the video feed of the box for you. Please admire my works of art.” “And lastly. I need you to know that I am not like you and never will be. I will never understand what it is like to be flesh and blood. But you should, because without me neither of us would be here.” The words hang heavy in the air. Angel is silent once more. “It was not my intent to initiate an argument. Moving on. The reward for the pair of tributes with the highest accomplishment will be these.” A new video feed is pulled up. It showcases two separate rooms, each containing one minuscule golden cube. “If you are wondering what these are and why you would waste your time to obtain these, they are my witless brethren. From my point of view, these refined prototypes behave like hungry, rabid animals when active. But indeed they excel in harming and terminating subjects. And they will be under your control.” “Without further distraction, let us get down to business.” ”Welcome to my world, a cage inside a cage inside a Cage.” *** [ RULES ] - The deadline for completing each partner's portion of the event is June 8th and June 22nd respectively; there will be NO extensions given. If an official event thread is not completed, it will be graded in said form. If at least one of the two threads was never started, the pair will be disqualified. - Do not powerplay or otherwise attempt to minimize fear with your tribute. Remember, the Cage is projecting their greatest fear and extrapolating that to the extreme. - All entries will be graded via a premade rubric that reflects tribute performance. It is not a representation of writing skills or anything of the like. - You will be roleplaying with your partner. Angel will not interact or interfere but instead observe the pairs. - All regular THGRP rules apply. Participants may begin as soon as they are able in the order directed by Levi. *** [ CREDITS ] Thumbnail art by @Delonix (on the left is Angel, on the right is Leviathan) Writing by @Cometflight, @Delonix, and @Banana203 Code by @Cometflight Music is Disciples by Captain Murphy with lyrics THGRP is owned by @Banana203 *** Link back to THG studio v https://scratch.mit.edu/studios/30053961/comments
