Taking Responsibility.

[transmittable]

Despite the lack of a body this week, you've had more than enough to explore and investigate; some of it may have answered some questions, while the rest...well, the rest may have just raised more. However you feel about it, the fact remains that as soon as you all step out of that new section above the third and make your way back toward one of the primary hallways, the lights quite suddenly go out, casting the hospital into complete darkness. Several seconds pass before something seems to happen and what sound like backup generators kick back on; the lights struggle their way back to life, only to immediately flicker and die again. It happens twice more before the power seems to stay on for good - they're feeble, but they're on, and at least it's enough to see by. It seems the power is stronger in one place in particular, however, and it shouldn't be a surprise which it is; the courtroom remains just as illuminated as ever, the seats ringing the old operating theater remaining as starkly unoccupied as they always do, and the podium circle that awaits you seems to have been set up in its final configuration. Sakura Kashima's portrait has joined the ranks of the deceased, her podium draped in black cloth. A final reminder of all you've lost here. Perhaps it's upsetting. Perhaps it'll only serve to make you more determined. The public-address system remains eerily silent, even after you've found your places in the circle; once in a while the quiet is broken by soft bursts of static, by a heavy, electric-sounding humming noise. Occasionally, whispers can be heard; whatever they're saying, it's probably not for you. Regardless, however, one thing is obvious: this is the end of the line, wherever it may have taken you. Eight Patients remain. Good luck.

Comments

[cthulwho]

[...

Something about the lack of the Transmitter's voice to announce the beginning of a trial makes this all the more unsettling. Lovecraft warily glances around at every new whisper. Are the Risen here? Nothing's happening, though...

Well... They were obviously guided to the courtroom for a reason. The Risen's last game...the new corridor...]

I... I suppose we should discuss what we discovered in that corridor?

[Comparing notes. A good place to start as any, if nothing else is immediately happening.]

[georgeous]

[ George takes a deep breath. So this is it... finale. ]

We found the control panel yesterday. It's the place where all observations of the rooms were made as well as the place where the rooms were created.

All of the rooms we see were created specifically for this game, Ms Chalkboard confirmed as much for me. Whatever disasters seemed to have happened in them... those pasts are fabricated. They were made this way. You can create and customize as you please, I tested it. Even living creatures can be ordered.

[arebetter]

So were the keys and whatever just plants to make things more interesting for us, then?

[dangerousfool]

So this isn't even a hospital at all?

[journalname]

The room that Pizzazz and I were in...it looked like one of our dormitory rooms. Likely unoccupied for some time. But the mirror in the bathroom was broken, and behind it...it was only static. Like the computer screens when the Risen speak.

Did all of the rooms start off looking that way?

[dangerousfool]

We should. Lovecraft and I found a lot of stuff in the underwater section. The submarine had a blackboard and many documents. Look at these!

[Yeah, guys, there was a submarine and a lot of water somewhere around here]

I think the Transmitter is dying, she's weak now.

[ossifragant]

.....There's a submarine?

[cthulwho]

Ah... I should add something about the submarine.

Despite its dilapidated state, the dials inside the room we investigated were...acting erratically. I thought it strange that they were even operational considering the state of the machine.

[arebetter]

Sounds about right. Asgore and I found a dorm room, like one of ours? It was old, but I found these.

[ She drops some polaroids onto the podium. ]

I think they're from a previous participant, or... something.

[ossifragant]

I've found a lot of evidence that we're far from the first group to go through this. On the computer I looked at, there was a folder with three cases, including the culprit and victim, and then the remaining. Just the three, though. Don't know if that means the rest of them decided not to act or not.

There was also... a... test? It was labeled "test1" and apparently some fox-looking guy went and killed the entire group he was with. Apparently one person murdering the entire group wasn't what the Risen are after.

[There's more, but he'll save that for later.]

[dangerousfool]

Yes, we found documents that say at least four games would be needed!

[arebetter]

Do you think maybe the fox guy killed everyone else instead of a... real case 4?

[ossifragant]

Maybe? That's certainly possible, but he wasn't listed in the same folder as the rest.

There was another name listed separately, someone titled "Submerged" whose information was missing.

[positivespin]

All right, let's do this and skeddadle.

[ Despite her interesting choice of words, her tone of voice is now deeper. No trace of her usual halting speech patterns remain.]

Passing around a notebook now. QQ recorded this explanation on waves and its negative effects on the human body--found it on a blackboard. There's also a transcript of a transmission from the Transmitter after that. Won't be as neat since recording voices is harder than text, but the important parts of what she said is all there.

Any questions? QQ especially wants to hear opinions about the waves. The more QQ read it, the more... executions came to mind. This isn't exactly QQ's up alley, so any anything that can clarify this conveniently timed lesson would be really appreciated.

[preciousking]

[ Sorta just drops all the papers he found on his podium after QQ speaks. ] Most of these are blank. Page that has somethin' written says: the void, the waves, and nuclear reactor.

There was some code from a message QQ found which I wrote down. Neither of us knows what it means. [ He gestures to QQ's transcript. ]

[georgeous]

Some submarines are powered by nuclear reactors.

[journalname]

...oh, my poor child.

[nothing useful here, just transmitter feelings]

[dangerousfool]

Morse code again? What does it say, what does it say...Lovecraft knows how to interpret Morse.

goat herd

[journalname]

[Someone asked for a summary, so after a moment of thought, Asgore clears his throat.]

So. I believe this is what we know so far:

There is a submarine here, in an underwater room, which likely sank because of problems with its "nuclear reactor". They could have been caused by an attack during the second World War. There was also a memorial there for M.E.H., who we believe to be the Transmitter's brother Michael. She blames herself in part for his death, which was...probably not related to the submarine. I do not see how a child could find herself culpable for something like that...

[He pauses for a moment, seeming bothered, but forges on.]

The Transmitter is most likely Submerged, who won a previous game. It seems, then, that the room Pizzazz and I found belonged to her once. It looks unlived in now, but we found some of her things, including photographs that the Risen had probably altered. The Risen chose her to run this game because their previous attempts ended too quickly, before the participants had time to "soak". Her kindness was meant to help us last. They are ending the game now because she has grown weak - but also perhaps because we have soaked enough?

It appears that the Risen were once human, and died on October 25, 1943, in the submarine. They feel this was caused by a betrayal. Now, they have become ghosts, or something like it, and cannot experience emotions in the way they once did. Somehow they followed the Transmitter when she was brought here. She must have had contact with them in her own world - perhaps that transmission QQ found was meant to warn others about them?

Am I forgetting anything? Forgive me, there has been quite a lot discussed.

...in addition. The last time I spoke to the Risen, I asked them if there were a way that they could ever return to how they were before...what I suppose must have been their deaths. They said that there was, but that we would not like that alternative. Perhaps that is related to our soaking, and the purpose of all this?

[positivespin]

So... Maybe QQ's been reading too many horror novels from the library, buuut that sounds like a setup for possessing us all and using our bodies to do unholy things. Just saying.

[cthulwho]

[Lovecraft mulls over the recap.]

There is a remaining note from the blackboard in the submarine that I have not been able to place just yet. "Wave displacement" was the term. Perhaps...it has something to do with what QQ recorded?

[Since it was all about waves too.]

[preciousking]

[ Goin' back and thinking things over in his head. ]

All right. If the Transmitter brought the Risen or they followed her, how'd they get to her in the first place? Did it have somethin' to do with what happened to "Michael"?

[georgeous]

[ George pulls out Nachetanya's notebook at some point, reading quietly through it for a bit. ]

Nachetanya wrote that one story the Transmitter told her was about a boy and a global war - that might be her brother and this submarine then?

Some of the Risen were apparently once her friends.

She also had a male friend in childhood, but I am not sure how far this helps us.

I think we might want to focus on what happened to us and why the Transmitter wants us to stay here so badly as well.

[preciousking]

As far as the last point goes, I doubt it's more complicated than "the Risen wanted it." Judgin' from that transcript she had amnesia. Or somethin' like it.

[ A pause. ]

That or she wanted one of us to become their hew host.

[dangerousfool]

Maybe the Transmitter wants us to stay so the Risen don't have a chance to get out?