DAY 03

[thecomputer]

[Good morning! The doors unlock at 07:00, the enforced sleep effect wearing off just a few minutes prior. The body will take some time to find this time - because Zolf was hidden in the depths of the Labyrinth!

The Computer doesn't speak up until someone finds him.]

Good morning, Citizens! Last night, participant Zolf-O-DEF-1 was terminated due to Communist action. There are now 10 Citizens and 5 Communists.

Trial 03 will begin at 20:00.

[Friend Computer will remain to answer questions for ten minutes. One hour after the body is found, the usual fleet of cleaning droids will clear up the corpse and surrounding mess.

On the profiles list, Zolf’s full User ID is now visible, and his status has changed to DEAD.]

Comments

[plentyfriendly]

I wonder if this would be any easier if we knew they were all safe somewhere. Or if they didn't really die.

[She's beginning to feel bad here. About a few things.]

[lexicalscope]

I know I'd find it a lot easier. We could treat this as a big game. Unfortunately the stakes are higher than that. There are more of us than there are of them, so fighting our best will maximize the number of survivors...

...but that doesn't make me feel any better about being forced to kill people. It's bad enough having to hunt down people who had the misfortune of being placed on the wrong team, but we've also got a chance of choosing poorly and killing one of our own.

[plentyfriendly]

What I think we both would've wanted was a way to defeat this game completely - a way to get all twenty of us out.

Of course, that's impossible. The rules, or what we know of the rules, won't let us.

[And she'd had to give up on that before, as well...]

[lexicalscope]

Yeah. That would have been nice. And trust me, I've been looking for ways around the rules. Every time I think I've found one, the computer, uh, clarifies for me. The first night we were here, before we got our roles, I asked it what would happen if the communists abstained.

[plentyfriendly]

What was its answer? "They can't"?

...also, you didn't directly interface with it or something like that, did you?

[lexicalscope]

"The option of abstaining from elimination is not available to the Communists."

[She quotes it verbatim, even trying to emulate friend computer's speech patterns a bit. ]

And no. I just talked to it. I... really hope it hasn't been trying to interface with my antennae...

[That's kind of a frightening prospect. Would she even know? She's not exactly a computer-y sort of robot. She was made for fighting and winning, not worrying about all the technical stuff. ]

[plentyfriendly]

Good, so do I.

[It'd just be wrong.]

[lexicalscope]

My communication protocols are really heavily encrypted, and if it tried to force them I'd know about it. But who knows what it did before we woke up that first time... if it cracked my codes I don't know if I'd be able to know. I don't, uh 'hear' anything right now, but with a little reprogramming...

I think I'm just... not going to think about this anymore. It's not like it has any reason to do something like that.

[Even so, she's self-consciously rubbing at one of her headphone/antenna 'ears' right now. Murder-mcBackstab world is bad enough without worrying about the integrity of her own mind. ]