02 December 2012 @ 12:41 am
event: the end  
[By the time Johnson's voice crackles over the radio, most of you have probably already evacuated your homes. Outside, the town appears to have gone to hell, with hazmats both glitched and "normal" ransacking the place and attacking anything that moves. Glitch holes litter the sky, buzzing and stretching, contorting the world into a nightmare horizon.

Johnson's voice doesn't sound angry anymore: it sounds afraid, and sad.]


You can't leave. I won't allow it... I control this place, I control you! I control everything! I... I get to be the one running the experiments, this time, not...

[There's a quiet sound that could be any number of things. Weeping? Laughing? It's hard to say.] Come back. Please come back. I won't hurt you, just- stay. You have to stay. Mayfield is perfect, I can fix this, I can... I can...

[her voice fades out; Annie's fades in.]

I don't know who's left, but whoever can hear this, don't listen to her. She's sorry now, but it won't be long before she's at your throats again.

This place, Mayfield, it's going under. The simulation won't last much longer at this rate. The one I'm sending you to should last for a while, a few years at least, but I don't know if it'll last forever. That's something for you to figure out, I suppose... [she coughs again- and it doesn't sound healthy.]

I'm sorry. I wish I could go with you, to show you how to work things, but I... I want to stay here, with her. I don't have much longer anyway, and I think it's best if the two of us are here, when Mayfield goes down. We're the last two left, so... it's kind of fitting, don't you think?

[silence for a moment, and then:] I know you probably won't believe me, but there was a time when we were actually happy here. Some of my best memories are from Mayfield, when things were good, before Zemekis went mad. I know a lot of you can't forgive him, and I don't blame you. But I really do believe that in the beginning, all he wanted was to save us from the wasteland. To give us a place we could call home.

I know that what he said... about you being copies... I know that it upset you. But if it means anything at all, I never knew the people you were copied from. But even before you saved me, I was watching you from the Library. I watched you live here, I watched you fight, I watched you laugh. So... to me, you're not copies. You're more real than any of us ever were. [you can only hear the words, but somehow you know: Annie smiles.] Good luck out there. Don't you forget about me! And... thank you, for everything.

...I'll miss you guys.

[And that's when the radio cuts out- for the last time.]
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30 November 2012 @ 10:47 pm
event update: the end  
You.

I have a quick question, darlings. Do you think I'm stupid? Do you think I didn't notice you corresponding with hER? Did you think I wWOuldn't do something about it?

I told you. I warnED you. You're not going anywhere. Ever. You're all mine, and I have no intention of...


[It happens again. Annie's voice overrides Johnson's, who can be heard furiously raving in the background.]

I... It's done. I may not be able to send you home, but at the very least, I can get you away from her.

Go to the highway. I took care of the bears. There shouldn't be anything stopping you from leaving now. It's going to seem like the highway stretches on forever, like it used to- but it doesn't. The road has a destination now. A place where Johnson can't touch you- a place where you'll be free.

You don't have much time. I can only keep the exit open for a few hours before it'll start stretching infinitely again. Grab your things and run for the highway. I don't think she'll let you leave without trouble, but... this is the only chance we'll have.

Good luck. And... thank you.

[Her voice fades out, leaving Johnson's back in control.] -are you LISTEnInG to ME!? You think you can escape from me? I outlasted the others, I took down Zemekis, and you think you can just walk away?

Not very likely, dARlINgs. I am going to throw everything this system has at stopping you. And in case you forgot, some of you are still under my cOntRol completely! Unless the rest of you are fine with leaving them behind- and I know you're not -you'll all stay in your homes nice and quiet until..


[Annie's voice takes over again.] I knew I forgot to do something. That... ought to do it.

[Johnson again- sounding very displeased.] Wait a minute, what? What just happened? Did she... oh, you are going to pay for that. You hear me? You're all going to PAY!

[Those characters who were under Johnson's control will find themselves free and moving independently once again. The town, however, is looking somewhat less than friendly- the skies have darkened with brown smog, and hazmats have flooded the streets, looking to attack anyone who isn't inside their homes with their usual weaponry.

The one safe spot seems to be the outskirts of town where the highway is located- the hazmats seem to be repelled by it as if by an invisible field. If you can make it to the edge of town, you'll be safe- but getting there is the problem. And by the way- from this point on, respawns have been turned off. Make it to the highway, and you'll supposedly be free of Mayfield... but die in the attempt, and you're gone for good.

Good luck.]
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29 November 2012 @ 08:31 pm
 
Do you want to know something? I found out what was causing the power shortages. A simple error to fix, really, I can't believe Zemekis couldn't solve it. That old lunatic didn't deserve this power. But fortunately for both of us, the problem has been solved. The error has been corrected. And now you're going to stay here, with me- forever.

Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that grand? I have so many plans for what we'll do. Let me share them with you, right now. First... )
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06 November 2012 @ 12:06 am
event: the beginning of the end  
somewhere cold and dark )
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28 October 2012 @ 01:30 pm
thirty-six | the end is the beginning  
 [726 ANDERSON LANE]

[Slugger's homework became suddenly more interesting when an unexplained voice pierced his thoughts. Whatever algebra problem he'd been stuck on at the time became a string of words that ran together across the page, un-seperated by spaces as he'd attempted to copy the gist of what was being said inside his own head. When the voice went silent, he straightened to squint at the scribbled mess.

What just happened? Had the voice been real? Had anyone else heard it? 'Zemekis', 'Annie': why were those names familiar and who were they? And his friends - Pokey, Ai, Charles, Johan - they were still here. How could they have been taken away? What did Annie mean? However, the words that stick out above the rest as being most disconcerting are 'tampered memories'. 

Having given up any further attempts to finish his homework, Slugger carefully sets down his pencil and begins folding up the page. He can't just throw it away, someone might find it. He's got to hide it. The first place that comes to mind is beneath his mattress where his Halloween candy is stored for safekeeping. But what he finds already hidden under the mattress is something even more surprising. A notebook - thick and worn and slightly crumpled, as if it had been used over a course of years - is wedged between the mattress and the bed frame. Removing it, he finds page after page of words inside written by his own hand, but the moment he starts to focus on a page his vision blurs with the onset of a painful headache. 

The notebook slips from his hand and as it lands, cards flutter out and lay scattered over the floor of his bedroom. Kneeling down to gather them into a small stack, Slugger finds that each card has a strange picture printed on it. The card on top portrays a figure placing its hand through a brick wall as if reaching through thin air. Slugger, after staring at the card in confusion, slips it and the rest of the cards into his pocket. His attention turns next to his own hand... and then to the nearest wall.

Moments later, a single thud rattles the floor. Inspection may find Slugger lying on the floor, half his body severed cleanly by a wall (or so it would appear). Depending on which side of the wall you're approaching from, he can be found with both hands clutching his head in pain.]



[ANYWHERE AROUND THE BLOCK; the homes of Pokey, Ai, Charles, Johan and family]

[Slugger has gone for a walk not only to make sure that his friends haven't been abducted but to further test his new-found (or re-found) ability. When he thinks no one is watching he'll try stepping through a variety of structures, such as walls made of brick or stone or cinder block and other tall things like fences and trees.

Each time he does it, he feels as if there is something more to recall. And each time he suffers the same consequence -- a crippling migraine that causes his knees to buckle and an invasion of thoughts about how wonderful Mayfield is.]

 
 
26 October 2012 @ 09:01 pm
event: the beginning of the end  
you're hearing voices again )
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21 October 2012 @ 08:34 am
event: the beginning of the end  
[It's early morning, still dark. The phone doesn't ring, the television doesn't blare, the radio doesn't suddenly turn itself on. When the voice speaks, it does so as if its source were standing right next to you- but there's no one there.

At times, it sounds like it belongs to a tired, bitter old man. At other times, it seems to sound like a little girl, though no less tired and bitter. And for just a few seconds, in flashes so brief you almost miss them, it sounds like another voice entirely.]


Gray was right.

God damn him, he was right.

I spent so long asleep. Trying to manage the system. Fix the holes. I thought if I did, I could prove him wrong. Prove that anybody and everybody would want to live here. Prove that Mayfield was perfect.

But I was only ignoring the real problem. It wasn't the Russians. It wasn't the holes.

It was you. All along, it was always you. Years have passed, but you're no more happy than the first ones were. I thought I could change your minds without changing your minds. But I was wrong.

Gray told me if I forced happiness upon you, it would never be true. That your real selves would not die, but remain buried, helpless but aware, beneath the personalities I implanted. But now, after all you've done, I have decided...

I can live with that.

Perhaps true perfection is still out of my reach. Perhaps Mayfield will never be the town it was meant to be. But if the system truly is failing... if we're all to die, no matter what happens...

Then your last years here will be happy, whether you want them to be or not. I will make sure of it.
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