The Human Game: A Shrine for a Fake God

>Kate: Notice his ring.

You awkwardly clear your throat, glancing down at his hand momentarily, and…wait, you really hadn’t noticed it before, but he’s wearing a ring. Which means:

KATE: Oh, Connor, you’re married?

He blinks in surprise at the change in topic, drawing up his hand to his chest.

CONNOR: Yes! Yes, I am.
KATE: How long have you been married?
CONNOR: Oh, well over ten years, now. We have two boys, Liam and Thomas.
CONNOR: They’re quite the rambunctious duo.
KATE: How old are they?
CONNOR: Twelve years old. Can’t believe it, though, seemed like yesterday they were only three…

There’s a change in Connor’s face. For the first time since you’ve met him, there’s a genuine smile on his face. This is certainly a loving father who really cares about his family.

A weird constricting feeling passes through your chest, and you ignore it. This isn’t the time to think about that.

KATE: You must really miss them.
CONNOR: Oh, certainly, but I wouldn’t want them to be here.
CONNOR: Anything but that…
CONNOR: Though I just want to see them again, you know?
CONNOR: I want to know they’re alright.
CONNOR: If they’ve been caught up in this terrible game like I have…
KATE: …
CONNOR: I…don’t want to think about that.
CONNOR: …
CONNOR: Well, the sooner we get out of here, the better.

You can definitely agree with that.

> Discuss the last things you both remember before being abducted, maybe?



It seems that Connor is more willing to talk, now – his discomfort seems to have passed for the moment, so this is the prime time to ask him some questions.

KATE: Hey, Connor, I was thinking…do you remember anything strange before you woke up here?
KATE: Like…anything that could be related to whatever brought us to this place?

Connor is silent for a moment, and he frowns.

CONNOR: You know…honestly, I don’t remember that much.
CONNOR: I was…
CONNOR: Leaving work? Maybe?
KATE: Where do you work?
CONNOR: A…laboratory.

You lift an eyebrow.

KATE: Do you, uh, know where you work, Connor?
KATE: Cause you kind of hesitated there.
CONNOR: I do know where I work! Don’t think I don’t!
CONNOR: What do you take me for, some kind of amnesiac?
KATE: Well we HAVE kind of lost our memories of how we got here…
CONNOR: Ugh, that’s not what I’m saying.
CONNOR: It’s just…
CONNOR: …

He glances to the side. His expression suddenly nervous. He bends forward, voice lowering into something slightly louder than a whisper.

CONNOR: Honestly, Kate, can I tell you something?
CONNOR: Please don’t laugh. I mean, it will sound ridiculous…
KATE: What is it?
CONNOR: …
CONNOR: I have a feeling that we’re missing more memories than we think we are.
KATE: What?
KATE: Like, yeah, we all don’t remember how we got here…
CONNOR: No, no, that’s not what I mean.
CONNOR: Of course, we don’t remember how we got here, but…
CONNOR: There are things that we should remember, but we don’t.

You don’t get it. You stare at him, perplexed.

CONNOR: Look, I don’t know how to explain it, alright?
CONNOR: But it feels someone has messed with my head more than just taking out a few memories.
CONNOR: I’m missing much more time…
CONNOR: I’m trying to remember something important, something I KNOW happened, but it’s not coming to me.
CONNOR: …
CONNOR: God, what did Cancel do to us?
CONNOR: What did he do to our memories…?
KATE: Wait, wait, wait. Let me get this straight.
KATE: You’re saying that Cancel may have done more than erased our memories?
CONNOR: Well, I’m saying that he or someone else might have erased a lot but…
CONNOR: …
CONNOR: God, now that you say that…
CONNOR: Maybe there’s also the possibility that our memories are not entirely our own.

No.

No, no, no, that can’t be true. Look, the doppelganger-being-masks theory thing, you can get that. But the idea that your own memories are unreliable? You have an eidetic memory. Your memories are nothing BUT reliable. There’s no way that they could ever lie to you. Manufactured memories, that’s nothing but science fiction. Amnesia is realistic, that’s a thing, yeah, sure! Going into someone’s head and just playing around with memories like they’re nothing but Lego pieces? That’s impossible.

It HAS to be impossible. If you can’t rely on your own memories…

KATE: No…

You feel very faint, all of a sudden.

CONNOR: Kate? Are you okay?
KATE: I…
KATE: Uh. Sorry, Connor. I just…
KATE: I need to think for a moment.

You can’t keep having this conversation. You step away, ignoring Connor’s concerned look. A part of you knows you should have stayed and tried to reassure Connor that he wasn’t right, but…honestly, now you can’t help but wonder if those ideas were true. Can you really trust yourself? Your memories? Did Cancel do something to them? It can’t be true, it isn’t true, it’s the furthest thing from the truth…



You make your way over to the statue in the middle of the room, happy to get any kind of distraction from the worried storm of thoughts you’re having. You had spotted something there earlier that had caught your eye, and sure enough, there’s a slip of paper tucked into one of the folds over the angel’s belt. Nobody seems to have touched it yet, and you look over your shoulder before reaching forward, plucking it and slowly unfolding it. Something round and smooth slips down into your hand from the inside of the paper.

It’s a medallion. The one that Cancel showed you all. It’s a bit surprising – you were thinking the thing would be smaller than it is. It bears that same star-like symbol you saw on the ceiling. Well, at least you passed Cancel’s little task. Now, onto the piece of paper.

It’s…a letter?

It’s written in neat handwriting, unlike the messy scrawls on the book you saw earlier.

My dearest A.

The days are long. And yet they seem so short, all the same. We haven’t seen sunlight, you and I, for quite a while. The light from the windows doesn’t count. These stone walls have been present in our lives for so long that it’s hard to imagine that there was anything else, before this. I know that even you are losing count of the amount of time we’ve been here. You haven’t updated your wall in quite a while, have you?

I’m tired, A. The monster outside is restless. Our captor is even more restless. I’m sure that they both want this over and done with. In their eyes, we’re wasting time. Delaying the inevitable. And now, I have to say that they might be right.

Could we survive for the rest of our lives like this? Possibly. I know you want to survive, beyond anything else. That’s what I like about you. I know you hate the term, but in the most positive way I can say it, you’re a weed. You persist, like a stain, impossible to remove. I know our captor hates that, but I feel quite the opposite.

I love you, you know.

But I’m sorry, A. I can’t do this anymore. This life is nothing but suffering. Some of these days, I think the monsters are more human than us. Did you know that I killed one of them, the other day? I thought that it was amazing that I only felt bad when I saw it lying there, twitching in its own black blood. It wanted to survive, too, just like you. It wanted to live.

But you want to live out of spite. The world has always told you that you shouldn’t exist, but you and your beautiful mind do, nevertheless. Do that for me, could you?

You do things I’d never dream of doing.

I’m sure you know what my monster looks like by now. You’ve seen it even before we saw it wandering the halls. Maybe I’ll say hello to your monster, that timid thing. I’m still shocked that it came from you. But you know yourself better than I ever will, even though we’ve known each other for a very, very long time.

You were so small back then. Even though you’ve grown, I still see that child in your eyes. We had each other, you and I. You’re probably angry at me. I don’t blame you. I’m angry, too. Angry that you had to be put in a situation like this. A hopeless chain of events. And I can’t help you, A. I’m tired, and I’m weak, and already I feel it growing inside of me. I don’t want you to see me like this. That’s the reason why I suggested we separate ways, you know. I didn’t want you to see that I was already succumbing to the thing in my chest.

Thank you for recommending the poetry to me, by the way. It was lovely, though I felt it reminded me of you more. I wonder what that poet was thinking, when he wrote it. I have a feeling he must have been a lot like you.

Anyways, my monster is already scratching at the door. I need to let it in.

-A

That’s…an interesting letter. It feels like a cool, dark stone has settled in the pit of your stomach. There were people like you and the rest, here. They also faced monsters.

And it seemed like most, if not all, lost against them.

What will happen to all of you, if you don’t make it out? Will you have to live the rest of your lives here, fighting monsters who used to be people, trying and failing to find a way out of this place? You feel so cold. You can’t imagine that. You think about Connor again, how he won’t see his family again, and you suddenly think of your sister and your mother. You’ll be here, forever, and they’ll be somewhere out there, not even knowing what had happened to you.

That is, if they haven’t been involved in this thing as well…

There’s movement out of the corner of your eye. You lift your head, seeing something vaguely human-shaped, white and grey and black, come into the room.

It’s a robot. It’s nothing like the minims- its tall, moves elegantly, seems much more refined in design and pose. But what draws your attention is its face. It’s a flat screen, and displayed on that screen, in all his smug golden glory, is none other than the masked man who trapped you all in this terrible game.

Cancel.

CANCEL: Achem. Hello hello hello!
CANCEL: It’s ever so lovely to see all my sweet little nothings once more.
CANCEL: Seems like a lifetime since I saw you last, honestly.

God, you wish he could just drop dead.

JOE: Y-you’re IN the robot?
CANCEL: Ah, certainly not, Mr. Verger.
CANCEL: I’m not inside the robot, I’m merely using it to project my image.
CANCEL: Not unlike a computer monitor, you know?
CANCEL: Anyways! Quite a lot has happened since last time I saw you.
THALIA: Weren’t you supposed to wait for us until we found the medallions and went back to the center?
CANCEL: Yes, indeed, but…well, I suppose I grew a bit impatient.
KATE: You were supposed to give us all the time we wanted. Didn’t you say that?
CANCEL: Hold on now, Ms. Greenwood, don’t give me that look!
CANCEL: I’m not trying to rush you, or send you to a new place.
CANCEL: I just want to check up on you.
KATE: Check up on us somewhere else, jerk.
CANCEL: Goodness! Tsk tsk, you remind me of my children. Always eager to fight…
KATE: What?
CANCEL: Hm? Anyways, I was here to tell you something. What was I here for…
CAMILLA: Say it and get it over with.
CANCEL: Hmm…oh, yes! Now I remember!

CANCEL: I am here to impart some good news to you all!
CANCEL: First of all, Seth Turner Sato has been eliminated from the game.
ABIGAIL: T-that’s not good news!
CANCEL: Oh, my dear Ms. Faust, but it is!
CANCEL: You see, this fact leads to another piece of good news.
CANCEL: You all had to get a medallion to pass onto the next part. That was my task.
CANCEL: But what I didn’t tell you was that only seven medallions were available in this room.
CANCEL: One of you would’ve been punished if you were the unlucky one that couldn’t find one.
CANCEL: So, you should all thank that man for becoming a monster when he did.
CANCEL: Because of him, I won’t punish a single one of you.
CANCEL: Aren’t you all so GRATEFUL?

Author's Note:

SpoilerShow

It's been....84 years.........................

Anyways HERE'S THE UPDATE, now we can start to move out of the library and onto OTHER THINGS. POSSIBLY TRAUMATIC THINGS. WHO KNOWS. It might be time for SOME VAGUE EXPOSITION ABOUT THE NATURE OF MASKS. HOW EXCITING.

Also, there are quite a few lies in this update. Don't believe your eyes, don't believe what you read...

(Cancel's Line, though, is 1000% true.)

There's more than one of everything.

huh. it seems that friday forgot about her shirt shop

ALSO I KIND OF DID FORGET ABOUT THE SHOP thank you for reminding me, I need to put up the rest of the symbols up there!!