here they talked of revolution, here it was they lit the flame

[initiates]

Date: October 1st
Location: The Observatory.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: New Transports arrive and are shuffled into the Observatory for the show of the year. Initial briefings are very brief this time around, and that Greeter just won't stop crying.
Warnings: new confused people and old sad people??

Your arrival here has been very unceremonious. One second you were somewhere else, and now, very suddenly, your feet hit the glowing white of the Transporter pad, and you're here. You aren't alone, either. There's a crowd of others around you, each seeming just as bewildered, angry, or confused as you might feel. At the head of the group is a woman in purple robes, with eyes red as if she'd just finished crying. She hurries over a quick overview of your intended purpose here, and gives direct answers when asked for them, but to most things she simply shows you how to access the tablet you've just been given. There, you can find the history of this place and a record of what your new cohorts have experienced — although it won't have Network access for another 8 hours. Someone stands on hand to give you a weapon, and though the armory is now greatly reduced, you should be able to find something to suit you.

You're shepherded down a walkway tunnel and into the Observatory, where you will find screens mounted on three sides of the wide room. The only lighting comes from dull red emergency lights, and the scenes of a dreary, rainy city from various cameras up on the screens; the largest of the screens opens up to a view of Earth from a good distance away -- this one isn't a screen at all, you might realize, but a window. As you watch, all screens in the room fill with light, impossibly bright. It consumes the buildings, the people, everything. There is no sound played, perhaps mercifully, only that white light -- and then nothing.

Through the large window, there's a pinprick of light over one of the landmasses on the blue planet. It grows to a tiny blossom and then dies away, but a cloud begins to mushroom outward in the same spot. It pushes the natural clouds out of the way, claiming that small portion of the world and wrapping it in a uniform gray.

Strings of numbers begin to fill the blanked out screens as the base's AI begins collecting data and calculations, but the show seems to be over. You're free to explore the base, visit and use any of the VR rooms, or discover your new room and roommates, but try not to step out of any airlocks if oxygen is a requirement for your system.

Welcome to the moon base, with front row seats to the grave of Exsilium.

[[ooc; reminder! The Network will be down for 8 hours after the wave of new Transports.]]

Comments

[trickmyheart]

[ In all fairness, she wasn't expecting to see any of them again. Mostly because she's, you know, dead.

She's a little relieved -- dare she say, glad? To hear that Naegi is here. Kirigiri, she could care less about, but ... wait, what was that last bit there? ]

Pardon me?

[ Sakura doesn't strike her as the type to make something like that up, but surely she must be confused. After all, Enoshima was ... ]

[whiteblossom]

The Enoshima we knew was her twin sister, she murdered her in cold blood.

[Sakura winces. She knew Mukuro-as-Enoshima for such a small amount of time, but her death had impacted them all.]

The true Enoshima was the mastermind, and it was she who did all that we were subjected to...

[trickmyheart]

[ ... Well, that's ... wow. Not at all what she was expecting, that's for sure.

Even if she's not particularly fond of Sakura, she has no reason to lie about it -- nor would Celes expect it of her. She can't quite hide all of the confusion and anger that learning this stirs up in her, but she does her best, looking away briefly ]

How did you find this out?

[whiteblossom]

[She swallows.]

I heard from Naegi and Kirishima. They were taken from after the end of confinement in Hope's Peak.

[She closes her eyes for a moment.]

However, that is not all. It appears that Enoshima's atrocities did not extend only to the walls of Hope's Peak. The world we come from is in disarray, because of wars and chaos instituted by a campaign that she was at the forefront of. The likelihood that our loved ones remain alive is small.

[She clears her throat, sighing.]

It is to my great dismay that I must tell you this. I apologize for the suddenness.

[trickmyheart]

[ They made it out?

They fucking made it out.

There's so much about that that enrages her, she doesn't even know where to begin. How in the world could they have made it out when the situation was so completely hopeless? Had she really been wrong to accept her fate?

Still, like hell she's going to show Sakura just how livid she is ]

Hee hee ... I suppose if anyone could make it out, it would be them.

[whiteblossom]

They... They freed themselves without murder. The last to die was Enoshima herself.

[She looks down at Celes, aware of the malice radiating off her. Her sense for such things is heightened. Ah well. Sakura didn't much like Celes either.]

They freed others as well. It was not just them. Asahina survives as well... Among others.

[She gives a small smile at that. She'd been nothing but pleased and relieved to find that.]

I almost forgot, the photographs that Naegi found were real. Enoshima changed our memories, but we were classmates before the world changed. Friends.

[She looks at Celes through the corner of her eye, shaded by her eyelashes.]

What is the last thing that you recall, Celes?

[trickmyheart]

[ It's not fair. It's not fair it's not fair it's not fair it's not fair it's not fair.

Why did they get to go free when she couldn't? After everything she'd done, after all the work she'd put into manipulating Ishimaru and Yamada ... after killing them with her own hands ...

Why did they get to go free?

She has to put this out of her mind for now, lest she risk losing her composure. She'll deal with it later when she finds some time alone.]

I see.

[ For now ... she takes in a breath, and puts on a smile. Time to definitely not tell the truth about what she remembers last. ]

Well, Oowada had just been found guilty and executed ... and I remember returning to my room afterwards, to take a shower, and try to sleep.

[whiteblossom]

Then I'm sure you are aware of your future plans. They were quite meticulously arranged.

[She clears her throat, staring down at Celes with a steely glare.]

I come from the weeks after your plans come to fruition. There is no reason for you to continue on that path, not here. If you show yourself to be a murderer, I will not hesitate to stop you by any means necessary.

[She sighs.]

But please. Do not do that. We were all friends once. Perhaps we can be yet again.

[trickmyheart]

[ ... Well, a fat load of good lying did her there, huh? Boy, she did not ever want to have this conversation. And it bugs her that Sakura is lecturing her like she's a child.

But ... she also knows that what she did was wrong, and in many ways, she regrets it. But, as always, she puts on the smile, and even lets out a little giggle, even if Sakura can see right through it ]

Ehehe ... You needn't worry. After all, it would hardly benefit me to do such a thing here.

[ She doesn't want to do that again. ]

[whiteblossom]

[She nods.]

In the end, the responsibility is on Enoshima's head for trapping us in a situation like that.

[She hesitates. Should she tell Celes her own secrets? She's not sure that it would make any difference, but her own conscience is troubled by what she has done. She knows that Celes would not tell her, if their places were switched. She doesn't know if Naegi and Kirigiri would trust her enough to inform her of Sakura's secrets either. But...]

One last thing. Enoshima revealed that one of the students was a mole, who was working for her. I was that mole. She demanded I take a life or she would destroy my family's dojo. I took my own.

[She closes her eyes.]

Or will, when I am returned to our world. Mine was the last death before Enoshima was defeated. And that is all that remains for you to know, which I can tell you.

[She opens her eyes.]

We are classmates, Celes. If you need help, you have only to ask.

[trickmyheart]

[ Alright, now she's definitely starting to get uncomfortable. If Sakura knows what she's done, how in the world has she earned her trust, to learn this truth from her? ]

Why ... are you telling me this?