come out of hiding, i'm right here beside you

[barehands]

[A while after the execution has ended, everyone will find a simple note slipped under their door.]

If you don't want to be alone after everything that's happening, some of us will be in the dining room. Even if you decide not to come, please remember that you aren't alone here.

[The note isn't signed, but the handwriting is feminine and neat.

For anyone who decides to come, there's a good array of food laid out on the table. There are some small and simple cakes, cookies, and pastries, a healthy amount of okonomiyaki, okayu, and other Japanese dishes (with a focus on rice and eggs), along with curry. In addition, there are pancakes, and a large pot of soup. It looks like a few people collaborated to make enough food for everyone here.

Just like the meal they shared together earlier in the week, the candles from the storage room lend a more peaceful light than the fluorescent lights above.]

Comments

[enhancements]

[Super-annoying.]

...I told Asgore before that emotions are a liability. I maintain that stance now, perhaps more than ever.

[armamenta]

Given what we've seen here today? Yeah, you're right to think that.

[Some people are never going to see it that way, though.]

[enhancements]

...It's appreciated, Krauser.

[And it...is, in some vague way.]

[armamenta]

Yeah, don't mention it.

[He's content to stare out the window in silence for a moment before moving over to the piano. He lifts the lid and looks around inside before shutting it. Huh.]

[enhancements]

There's nothing there.

[He doesn't even bother turning around.]

I checked earlier; the blood is gone as well. Everything - as though nothing happened.

[armamenta]

As though nothing happened...

[He repeats it quietly, even though he doesn't need to. He closes the lid to the piano and glances around at the rest of the crime scene, even though he doesn't need to do that either. It really is like nothing happened.]

Strange. I suppose I can see why they wouldn't want to leave a body lying around, but I didn't think they'd go to this much effort to clean up.

[enhancements]

Please. As though most of the people here would be able to handle being in this room otherwise?

[People like things like that sterilized and managed for them; out of sight, out of mind.]

I suppose someone like you or I would have been able to deal with the corpse if necessary, but I'm unsurprised that this was planned for.

[armamenta]

Fair enough. Some people will probably be too skittish to come in here even though everything's been cleaned up.

[Which is just plain stupid, as far as he's concerned.]

You seem to have a pretty good idea about how all of this is supposed to work. Have you heard of something like this happening before?

[enhancements]

[He's...quiet again for a moment; he shakes his head eventually.]

Not exactly like this, and not usually with actual people.

[armamenta]

[Krauser's quiet while he considers that.]

What do you mean by that?

[enhancements]

We've run tests on clones that veer close to this - sometimes it's a matter of putting them in an enclosed area and seeing how well they do at escaping it; other times we put something...a bit more dangerous than other people in with them for the sake of seeing how well they problem-solve.

They're blank slates, really, with only the most basic memories implanted in them. Enough to get them to function, very little else.

[He isn't breaking eye contact with the window.]

One of the places we do this is in Siberia, actually.

[You know. Someplace that gets constant snow.]

[armamenta]

...Oh.

[Ohhhhhh. That's definitely not good, is it.]

How do these things usually turn out?

[Everyone dies, don't they.]

[enhancements]

Well enough for Umbrella. Research and development in particular loves it as a data collection exercise.

[Everyone dies.]

[armamenta]

[How... fun...]

Do you think it's likely that this is the same sort of thing?

[enhancements]

[He actually has to think about it for a moment.]

...No. If you know enough to be concerned about the possibility, it's incredibly likely that you're not a blank slate. And besides, even if it were to be something like that, I don't recognize any of the templates here - and I know for a fact that I'm not one of them, besides.

[So we're probably not clones. At least, not ones that were created by Umbrella.]

Granted, there were a few experiments of a similar nature carried out years ago, closer to the corporation's conception, but those were discontinued and are therefore a moot point.

[armamenta]

[This is all very good to know, holy shit.]

And no one could pick those experiments back up again, right?

[enhancements]

...I can't imagine why they would, and perhaps more to the point I don't know why I would be involved.

[armamenta]

Maybe someone really has it out for you.

[But given the smirk, he's probably joking.]

[enhancements]

Oh, I know that several people do.

Do you really think I would have managed to get my position if I couldn't defeat them all?

[He sounds so proud of himself.]

[armamenta]

[look at you, you're so pleased...]

I'm not surprised by that at all. I can't see you leaving any loose ends that you couldn't handle on your own.

[enhancements]

Precisely.

[...]

Unfortunately, all that really resolves is the knowledge that this isn't Umbrella's doing.

[armamenta]

It's something, at least. Perhaps in time we'll learn more about the Transmitter and the people working with her.

[enhancements]

I won't be surprised if we don't, but I won't deny the possibility, either.

[He shrugs a bit.]

Optimism isn't particularly my strong suit, much to the chagrin of everyone here.

[...Why is he like this.]

[armamenta]

Hey, it's not like it bothers me any.

[But he's sort of smirking too because that is pretty damn funny.]

And the ones it does bother probably aren't worth talking to in the first place.

[they'll get their optimism all over everything and it'll be gross]

[enhancements]

[ew though.]

Good to know that you're so interested in my social well-being.