[open] This Fire is outta control; gotta burn this city!

[npc_kun]

Characters: Open
Date/Time: Oct 24-26, anytime
Location: Park & elsewhere (please specify location in comments)
Rating: Varied
Summary: Ladies and Gentlemen, we are gathered here to memorize a great tragedy that befell our sphere one year ago today. With HOT DOGS! A-BOOYA! Who's gonna cut the Fugue cake?! Second Annual Edensphere BBQ is ON!

[ooc

Comments

i debated between being funny or cruel so I ended up being both. SORRY KRIS

[man_genius]

Well if it weren't for Youth forcing Genius to train with him twice a week, Genius would be in very real danger of rolling down a hill as a fat bloated ball of starch. His genes (no pun intended) were doing him a favor, as he seemed able to eat a lot of junk food and still maintain the appearance of a relatively skinny guy (actual weight? a different story).

He was taking full advantage of this as he reached for yet another bowl of potato chips that had a strange look to them. Some of them appeared to have a tiny face burned into them, almost impossible to see. Genius certainly didn't notice. In fact while one hand was reaching for the chips, his eyes spotted a hot dog nestled in a bun that looked equally appetizing. There was also a face on the hot dog, but it was difficult to see. Hm. Decisions

[man_genius]

Genius blushed. "Theoretical list! In fact it's less a list than a--never mind! Enough about me, back to the creepy food?"

Derrick's stomach growl made Genius smile but it disappeared once Gene started talking.

"Massive fir--The Fire?! You know, capital F Fire? I--we, heard about it but I didn't know--but of course you were around, we just celebrated your goo-day." Genius' hand went over his mouth. "Oh God. Then all this food is...DEAD people?!" Oh God now he really wanted to throw up.

"They taunted you and they're doing it again." Genius cast the entire spread with an suspicious eye. "Or maybe it's a warning? Wait. The food can't be dead people--that sausage had your face on it. ...Right?"

Ah oh. Gene. You have some 'splaining to do.

[bloody_pens]

Derrick very dearly wanted to prod further on who was on Genius' "theorerical" list, but he kept holding himself in. He could sense due to Gene's mood that now was not the time for joking around; as much as Derrick himself liked to use it as a defense mechanism and a way to deal with the weirdness they encountered every day, he had to pick his battles.

He carefully listened to Gene's words, catching on his hesitation. "Not long after you WHAT?" he prodded.

Derrick then glanced at Genius. "I seriously doubt this stuff is made OF people, somehow. I think someone would have noticed a bunch of people being turned into roast chicken and hot dogs."

He tapped his chin thoughtfully.

"Maybe it's just someone with a sick sense of humor."

[live_ringer]

Gene was a little at a loss for how to answer Genius's question. If he said that they had to look at more examples of food to be sure it wasn't all people who had died, it would imply that he had once been dead. But if he outright lied about it then the truth would come to light, quite likely through Bell.

Luckily, Derrick's take on the question freed him up to interpret it in a slightly different way. He too doubted that the food was made of people. So he simply stayed silent in a way that more or less agreed with the other man's sentiment.

However, Derrick was sharper than he had hoped and picked up on his little misstep. ...Hell, it was too much effort to dodge the question. He'd been open about it with others. Granted, the majority of those others were unlikely to care one way or the other about it, so he kept his answer clipped and vague. "Not long after I came back."

Aaaand on to a change of subject. "I suspect you're both right on some level. It might all be one bad joke."

[man_genius]

The food could be a simple psychological trick. An elaborate, cruel trick, although it seemed at odds with the sphere's usual MO. He vividly remembered Qi's explanation of what happened when she tried to host a funeral for the recently dead. A giant fish ate her--literally. So why memorialize people now? Then again, if they had controlled the fire, then they had a purpose for that. Maybe this was tied in into it

[bloody_pens]

Derrick winced, wishing he hadn't prodded now, especially after Genius quite predictably spazzed about it.

"Settle DOWN, Genius." He considered using his brother's real name to drive it in further, but decided against it. "So you died in the fire... you and how many others? And the Sphere is CELEBRATING THAT? Suppose it could be funny in a schadenfreude sort of way, especially to those of us who weren't here when it happened... and whoever writes those stupid creepy entries certainly loves to mock us."

He looked longingly at his place of food, still hungry but not feeling right about the prospect of eating it.

[live_ringer]

It took some will power not to roll his eyes when Genius went off. He knew his friend was concerned, in his own way. And sure, it was a big deal, but... Gene would rather leave it behind him and move on.

"Could you say it a little louder? I don't think they heard you over at the barbecue pit."

Granted, Genius's volume wasn't really that bad, but Gene was on edge with so many people milling about. He ran a hand through his hair and let out a puff of breath. "But... yeah. That's pretty much it."

Derrick got a grateful look for taking the whole 'death' thing more or less in stride. "Like I said, about half the Sphere from what I heard. Though, I think I was gone for about a week after, so I didn't really hear the exact number as it happened."

Gene caught Derrick's longing look and raised a brow. "You alright?"

[man_genius]

"How can I settle when I have a Gene dog in my stomach!" But he did sit back down on a bench, leaning as far away from the food as possible

[bloody_pens]

Derrick pouted briefly at Genius, then to Gene's question he said,

"Well, I'm hungry as hell, but I'm not about to sink my teeth into stuff with peoples' faces on it. Can't just ignore that and let- whoever engineered this think it's funny and that we'll just ignore it. So don't worry, man-twin. I won't touch it."

He blew a breath through his nose, hard, pondering the answer to Genius' question.

"It really doesn't make any sense," he agreed. "Didn't your star-friend's brother write about how he couldn't remember it happening? Why make some people forget and let others remember? Why make it happen in the first place? If the Sphere or whoever or whatever runs it wanted to kill people, why not wipe out EVERYONE?"

He felt himself shudder slightly, and his hand moved into his jacket pocket to touch Nikki's journal. He slid it out and opened it, just to make sure it was still working.

[live_ringer]

Gene pulled a face. Did Genius really have to keep saying Gene-dog? Aside from being a little twisted, it kind of sounded like a terrible nickname. Once the other man said he was sorry about what happened, Gene waved a dismissive hand. He didn't like what happened. Quite the opposite. But it was something he had moved past, to the point where he could almost pretend it didn't happen. It probably helped that he didn't really remember the moment of his death.

"Might make a statement if you cut off the parts with faces in order to eat? ...Of course, decapitated food would look that much more morbid." Okay, so that was... less than helpful. Moving on.

The big questions were the inconsistency of the whole thing. The over arching pattern (or lack thereof) of the memory and lack thereof. "Maybe the object is confusion and the lack of consistency is the point?" Gene shook his head and frowned. He didn't really buy that, not really. "Or... if the motives seem completely different, maybe there's more than force at play

[man_genius]

The disbelieving glare that Genius shot Gene spoke volumes about what he thought about the other man's decapitation plan. Although it was probably a bad thing when a man who worked with brains for a living thought you were being gross

[bloody_pens]

Derrick took his attention off the journal enough to listen to Genius and to wrinkle his nose at Gene's suggestion

[live_ringer]

Genius and Derrick's shared looks of disgust went ignored. Somehow, it was easier to switch into a mode of flippancy than to continue to let himself dwell on the implications of this little stunt

[man_genius]

"Simon forgets a traumatizing disaster, Gene can't remember the moment he died." Genius' face fell into a thoughtful frown. "How convenient. Remove the most traumatic memories from a person, the type that could possibly cripple said individual." His voice lowered, although that was mostly because he was thinking out loud than any fear of being heard. "Remove that which would prevent the subject from continuing in the experiment

[bloody_pens]

"VERY convenient," Derrick agreed, his expression turning dark. "Maybe it's not so much about traumatizing people as it is making them complacent. Slowly, one by one, they forget everything bad that happens to them. Or they're threatened with bodily harm, or with losing their loves ones. Makes them want to fight that little bit less, so we're kept here. Why? Who the fuck knows? Same goes for why people get each others' dreams. It doesn't make sense, but there you go."

He took a deep breath, then glanced at Gene.

"As long as we're being open and honest here, Nikki and I are from the same place. We were close. Don't know exactly HOW close, but we were."

He held himself back from mentioning the I think she's my wife bit. He still wasn't sure, and he didn't feel right mentioning it to anyone aside from his brother until he WAS.

[live_ringer]

Gene's frown was slowly morphing into a scowl of contempt. It was obvious that they were constantly at the mercy of something else. But having a specific instance pointed out where an outside force was trying to manipulate him into complacency really drove the point home. He liked to think he wasn't getting soft and letting the place take control, but the lack of successful or overt action against these unseen forces clearly showed otherwise. Damn it