synopsychic | (no subject)

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[Sera sounded a little awkward as she spoke, still not used to using the psychic connection she shared with the other Travelers. The fact that finding herself in an awkward situation is what prompted her to reach out for advice in the first place probably didn't help.]

I knew the Trumps could make people believe they're someone else, but I didn't think it would be like that. I mean, I didn't think they could make us feel differently about things than we normally do. Especially not about other people... Um, does anyone know what you're supposed to do if you thought you were good friends with someone, and then remembered you've never even talked with them before? I want to go talk to them, but I'm not sure how to do it.

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[he hadn't meant to upset her. His choice of words could have been better, he thinks.]

Surprisingly not. I also managed to avoid setting off any of the Stricken, but that was probably luck more than anything.

[He hopes the Stricken members of their school - ex-members of their ex-school? - aren't still infected now that they've returned to themselves. Would the Trumps be that cruel?]

Luck, or exhaustion on their part. Even the cruelest plague can only push a person so far before they're bound to collapse.

[Something that will be proven horrifically inaccurate not at all long from now, no doubt.]

...And the school had already been pushed a great deal even before that night.

[It has not escaped his notice that she hasn't answered his question about her health, but he doesn't know her well enough to feel comfortable pressing the point.]

It had.

[Amusement flares, brief and sharp and gallows-grey.]

It seems a recurring theme. Perhaps our hosts want to see just how far we need to be pushed before we all crack.

One very long scientific experiment?

[He wonders idly if Victor would approve of their process, if that turns out to be the case. Then again, Victor experiments on himself on a semi-regular basis and is rumored to have built a man out of cadaver parts at some point, so he probably isn't the greatest exemplar of scientific ethics to begin with.]

Edited 2014-10-15 01:06 (UTC)

It's as good a theory as any, and more likely than some.

[She pauses a moment before adding, the legacy of the Tower:]

I do wonder where a control group might be kept, if it's the case.

Assuming they care enough to have one.

[Raidou isn't sure which possibility is more likely at this point. He rather hopes they don't, though, because it would mean fewer people in their hands... He stops as another thought occurs to him.]

If they could have a control group, would anything really stop them from having more than one group of Travelers as well?

Nothing at all. We may be better off if we assume we aren't the only ones caught up in this - that there were either others before even the oldest of us, or there are others now.

...And more after us, if we ultimately don't prove useful enough.

I'm sure that will be hauled out as an incentive eventually.

[There's a thread of anger there, thin and sharp like the taste of copper on the back of the tongue.]

It wouldn't surprise me.

[The flash of anger he feels at the thought is hot and bright, like the filament in a lightbulb.]

Good. I have the feeling that's not an entirely common line of reasoning.

[Whether she means the possibility of their being future groups, or the anger at the inevitability of that being a threat is up in the air.]

[There is a pause as Raidou mulls another thought over. When he "speaks" again, his words come slowly, as if he's thinking "aloud." Or at least "aloud" as defined everywhere but the psychic network.]

So far, all the Jaunts I've been on have seemingly had benevolent goals, although we're never there to see the long-term results. Have they ever asked for something less benevolent?

[Although what's benevolent for some may not be for others; Raidou's seen that enough in his dealings with the demons in the Capital.]

I'd say 'not obviously malicious', if I had to classify them. For all we know of what happens after we leave, we're being used to pull out a pin that will assure disaster a decade on. Anything that can engineer this must be capable of a long game.

That's what worries me. Or one of the things that worries me, at any rate.

The potential consequences of our actions? Or the fact that we don't know what they're meant to be?

Both of those, truthfully.

It does make deciding how to navigate the Jaunts more difficult, that's for certain.

At least, when we have the luxury of choice.

Or the luxury of time.

Time, at least, is a little easier to steal.

True.

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