dreamsland | day one

dreamland day one

41 players remaining.

As the voting period comes to an end, a bell goes off from the ticket machine, and the metal bars blocking the tunnel at the end of the Hall of Mirrors lifts. A voice speaks over the loudspeaker:

"Attention, guests! Please make your way onto the ride! For your safety, keep your hands and arms inside and do not attempt to leave your seat!"

Through the tunnel, single cars on a track stop and wait for each remaining player to step on. Don't dawdle, or your bracelet will begin to beep a warning. Once in a car, the safety bar locks you tightly inside, unable to move.

The car trundles along a dark, twisting track, nearly veering into cartoonish obstacles, but veering away at the last moment. Music and cackling laughter echoes loudly through the ride as you drive faster and faster. Suddenly, your car seems about to veer off to the left, through a set of tall doors, before abruptly spinning off to the right.

With a powerful jerk, each car comes to the end of the ride. The safety bar lifts, and you can leave. It seems no one was executed tonight, but a list of votes has been pinned to the wall for your perusal.

You now have the rest of the evening to explore the park, before night comes again.

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This is a general post-vote mingle encompassing the time from the end of the trial (about 5 PM until the fireworks at 11 PM). You are encouraged and welcome to backtag discussions in this post until the next day post, or to have afternoon private conversations.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I have no intention of dying, but that doesn't mean it won't happen. Even as a detective, there's only so much I can do.

But I will do everything in my power to survive and to end this game with as few casualties as possible. That's the only thing I can promise.

Yeah, maybe, but you're not in this alone.

[ I scratch my neck. 'Not much', huh? And where does that leave the even more normal guests without any roles? Man...

...]

I want to ask you something. Everything you've said, from the reveal of the results up until now. Are you telling it like a playing detective, or as a fighting soldier?

[I remember when the army set up booths during high school and college. They always told me I had the build for it, and I've briefly considered.

In the end, I never enrolled. I wanted to focus on my studies, and USA's military was impressive enough as is. Still, I can imagine what an active one must have to deal with... A little, anyway. Not going to pretend I know much about what REALLY happens to a soldier on the battlefield, but I respect what they do. Simply being in the military fosters discipline and a sense of duty, so...

I think I understand the nuance, and I want to know.]

[Discipline he has. Duty, too, in spades. Before he joined the Survey Corps, he was nothing. Dirt. Scum. A thug and a crook doing whatever he could to scrape a living and to protect his friends. It took him joining the military, and loosing those friends in the field, to see the bigger picture.

To most, "duty" is a nebulous word — it could mean many different things. But to Levi, it's simply the willingness to sacrifice anything and to do whatever is necessary for humanity to survive and prosper. The circumstances in his world are so dire that every soldier enlisted must swear by this creed. Their salute, a fist over the heart, is a constant reminder of this commitment.

These are things Levi would never tell a stranger. But it's all there somewhere in the set of his steely grey eyes.]

I've made my decisions as a soldier who's been forced to play detective, and I already told you why. There's nothing worse than watching people die for a shitty cause. I'm going to stop it, or go straight to hell trying.

[ It's just like I though. I don't know what a soldier really faces. They wouldn't be keen to talk about their experiences either, for obvious reasons.

But one look in Levi's eyes was enough. The harsh metallic glint of his ash gray pupils not only reflect a resolve I'd expect of decorated veteran generals, they also carry something frightening and old that his appearance understates. It makes the blood in my veins run cold. Not a fear of him, but a fear of what he must have seen to be able to stare like this now. The natural fear encoded in the genetics of every human being honed by generations of evolution, an ingrained need to get away when one is faced against something incomprehensible that they cannot hope to stand against.

...

I swallow, but his words bring me back to reality.

...]

...That's true, yeah.

Do you think executing the VIPs is the quickest way to end this with as little lives lost as possible? The could be buddies with regular guests, too. That, and we still don't know why they've chosen to play to begin with.

[That question hits on another grim reality: just as a commanding officer never knows for certain whether he's sending his soldiers to die for a cause worthy of the sacrifice, there are too many unknown variables at play for Levi to offer him a good, straight answer when it comes to this somewhat similar situation.]

We can only hope the asshole behind this wouldn't stoop low enough to stick an innocent person with a VIP buddy. It pisses me off, but playing the game as it's designed does seem like the quickest way to end it. We still outnumber them by a lot, and until the killings stop, negotiation is off the table. Whatever their motive, we have lives to protect.

The biggest break we could get is if the people running everything slip up somehow and we have a chance to overthrow them. But as far as I'm aware, that hasn't happened yet.

You sound so sure.

[ I'm almost envious. Actually, I might really be. How hard is it to be sure of anything here? ] You really believe there's no way we and the VIPs can talk, despite all you've heard during the voting?

I'm still interested to hear that. When you say them slipping up, are you thinking of a way in particular?

The only way it could happen is if they approach us. I'm not holding my fucking breath.

[To answer his other question, Levi holds up his wrist.]

These things. These are what they use to control us. Anything we learn about them could be priceless. If we could get them to stop working for just a few minutes, we could escape. If we stopped them for good we could tear this place to the ground.

I don't know the first thing about how they work. There's nothing like them where I came from. How the hell does it even keep running?

[ Well, he's right. ]

I've been hearing two possibilities. Either they were here from the start, 'plants', or... Something happened to them, that's making them play along.

[ I shake my head once, in part to clear it. ]

Which one of the two, you think the VIPs are?

[ At the mention of the watch, I lift my wrist to look at mine again. ]

Really? They're pretty common, where I'm from. Tacky animal watches, that is. They usually just tell you the time of the day, though. No bombs or tracking chips, except maybe in movies. Some can contain a micro data chip, but that just stores information. They usually run on electric battery, and a solid one won't need to be changed for several years. It could be solar-powered too, in which case as long as it gets light, it'll keep running...

[ I haven't thought about this at all until now, but giving mine a closer look for the umpteenth time, I still don't really notice anything out of the ordinary from it otherwise... ]

I just know it's waterproof. Watches aren't guaranteed to be, but this one is. The more fucked up fact is how the bracelet seem to be attached to the skin...

Unless we've got a lot of really good actors, I don't think enough people here are the type to murder unless they're being forced to. My guess is that the ones who brought us here have something huge to use as leverage.

[Aaand Siggey sort of loses him once he starts talking about 'tracking chips,' — but you wouldn't know it from Levi's face.]

Tch. They're a damn nuisance. You think I could chop my wrist off fast enough to get rid of it? I'd have to toss my hand away, too, before it blew up.

[Yes. Yes, he is joking.]

...Yeah, there has to be serious blackmail involved.

[ It may be a detail, but I still feel relieved to hear someone else actively agreeing. ]

...

It doesn't work that way. If the bomb is remote controlled, then whoever's responsible may not even need the bracelet to set it off.

day one - aftermath

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warning: levi gaiden spoilers in the brackets woop woop

ngl i'm aot canonblind but just knowing the premise makes nothing surprising here

it wouldn't be my first fictional vacation destination

is it actually on the list tho

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