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theredlamp · 04-02-2017, 04:22 AM

>Oh wow. So grateful for pretty much murdering one of the people stuck here by turning him into a creepmonster that's in eternal torment.

You quickly slip the note in your pocket, turning to face the Cancel-robot with a sneer.

KATE: Yeah, right!
KATE: Us, grateful?
KATE: For what, you basically allowing a guy to die by turning him into a monster?
CANCEL: I wasn’t the one who turned him into a monster, Ms. Greenwood.
CANCEL: If you’re looking for someone to blame, blame Mr. Sato himself.
CANCEL: His bad decisions led to his own downfall. Such a pity.
THALIA: And what, did his bad decisions bring him here, then?
CANCEL: I understand that is meant to be sarcastic…
CANCEL: But I have to say…yes, quite honestly, they did.

Cancel chuckles at that. The robot doesn’t move as a person would – it glides over the floor, probably using wheels you can’t see. It’s close enough to you that you step in front of it, aiming an accusing finger right towards the screen that the golden jerk is displayed on.

KATE: I don’t care about bad decisions or not.
KATE: YOU did this to us! Don’t you try to pin it on us!
KATE: This is YOUR fault!
CANCEL: Such confident words. And yet you say them with such little knowledge behind them.
KATE: “Little knowledge”, my ass!
KATE: At least stop being a coward and just say it!
KATE: Why can’t you ju-

You can’t say anything more, because suddenly, without any warning whatsoever, the robot has reached forward one of its hands to clamp it over your mouth.

[Image: lSmSxt4.png]

CANCEL: Now now, do be quiet for a moment.
CANCEL: Didn’t your mother teach you any manners, hm?

The robotic hand on your mouth is strong, cold, and you try to pull out of it – but the grip only tightens. You feel your face heating up as you struggle to get loose. You try to speak. It only comes out as an angry mumble. You can barely hear the words of protest coming out of the mouths of the people around you– you’re focused on one person, and one person alone. Cancel.

You can already start to hear a characteristic beeping noise…

CANCEL: Oh, goodness, Ms. Greenwood. Don’t embarrass me.
CANCEL: You can breathe out of your nose, you know.
CANCEL: And yet, here you’re flailing about without even stopping to think about how it’s futile to struggle!
CANCEL: That’s a common thing with you, isn’t it?
CANCEL: You do things, rush on in, and scarcely even have a single thought towards the contrary!
CANCEL: Ever so eager to get your teeth into whatever you see as an enemy…
CANCEL: …Haha, Mr. Nox, I can see what you see in her!
DANIEL: Please, please…l-let her go! She’ll get shocked!!
CANCEL: Ah, yes, your little punishment is about to activate, isn’t it, Ms. Greenwood?
CANCEL: Very well. I’ll be lenient this time.
CANCEL: But it’s only because I don’t want to damage my dear Major.

And so, he lets you go, only seconds away from certain electrocution.

>Kate: I mean, yeah, Cancel is totally terrible. If anyone deserves to be yelled at, it's him. But do you really want to antagonize him?

[Image: aaEGV9M.png]

You take a few steps back, coughing. He was right – you could’ve just breathed out your nose, took it calmly, but you saw red. And he knew you would do it. You feel a burning sense of shame rise in your chest, and you do your best to push it down.

This isn’t your fault. Cancel is a sadistic and pathetic man who just wants to see you suffer. You shouldn’t give him a chance to do exactly that. For now, you have to play nice, even though all your instincts are practically chomping at the bit, eager to teach him a lesson. You’re already at a disadvantage. He could just make it worse in the blink of an eye, and you can’t do a thing about it.

Camilla is suddenly at your side before any of the others can even move. She doesn’t say anything, but you can see by her look what she wants to ask.

You wave her away with a frown.

KATE: I’m fine, I’m fine…

>Control your temper for a second and ask a calm, reasonable question about say, your memories, or past groups.

KATE: So, Gold Face…
CANCEL: I do have a name, Ms. Greenwood, do be mature enough to use it.
KATE: Cancel. Fine.
KATE: We’re not the first people here, are we?
KATE: This stupid game has happened before.
CANCEL: Indeed, it has. Multiple times.
CAMILLA: How many times…?
CANCEL: That is for me to know and for you to find out.
CANCEL: But just know that you hardly are the first ones who have gone through this terrible chain of events.
CANCEL: I have seen so many of your kind through this process, all asking the same questions…
CANCEL: Why, it almost makes the mind blur…
CANCEL: Anyways, you are most certainly not the first ones to play The Human Game.
JOE: What happened to all of them…? The ones before us.
CANCEL: …
CANCEL: Why, they all turned into monsters, of course.

>So is this one of those games where only one can get out in the end? No, wait, the one survivor gets to be the next Cancel, right?

Not a single person. It’s so quiet you can almost hear your own blood rushing in your head. A pounding, over and over again. Nobody won. Everyone turned into monsters. Everyone.

KATE: Nobody has won? Not a single person?
CANCEL: Not a single one, no.
KATE: W-what happens if someone does win, then?
KATE: Does the winner gets to become the new you? Is that how it works?
CANCEL: Oh, goodness! No! Don’t make me laugh.
CANCEL: I wouldn’t trust any of you to do what I do.
CANCEL: This is my…well, ah, responsibility to bear.
CANCEL: No, the winner is not going to obtain my role here in this facility.
CANCEL: They will be able to claim victory, knowing that they are truly the best example of what humanity has to offer.
CANCEL: The one who wins shall never let the Null overtake them…
CANCEL: …Unlike your friend in turquoise, that pathetic man.
CONNOR: What? Null?
CANCEL: I’m referring to the masks, of course.
CANCEL: Those terrible things that are so eager to live in dark, moist, places…
CANCEL: They’re all coming for you, you know.

THALIA: Explain yourself.
THALIA: What are these Nulls? What do they want?
CANCEL: These monsters that roam the corridors of this facility…
CANCEL: Why, they are playing their own game, of sorts.
CANCEL: Not one I gave them, mind you. I can’t say they’re the type to follow directions and orders, but…
CANCEL: Hm. How to put this.
CANCEL: While you all are trying to retain whatever vestiges of humanity you have, the Null are doing their best to obtain it, I suppose?
CANCEL: Or renew it…hm.
CANCEL: I will say, their motivations are far more complicated than that, though.
CANCEL: Though I can certainly understand, to some extent, why they want what they want.
CANCEL: …
CANCEL: Either way, they’re desperate things.
CANCEL: Each one of them has a single target: one of you.
CANCEL: You each have your own personal Null. Your shadow.
CANCEL: The bane of your existence, ready to hunt you down by any means necessary.
CANCEL: You have something they desire, after all.
CANCEL: And for that, not a single thing shall stand in their way.
ABIGAIL: Is that what happened to Seth? His Null wanted what he had…?
CANCEL: Yes, indeed.
CANCEL: Dare I say, it went to him like a moth to the flame, haha!
CANCEL: But yes, his monster was rather eager.
CANCEL: That’s common with that type of Null, they are often the ones who like to overtake their counterparts first…
CANCEL: Other Nulls are far craftier, far less ready to, what’s the saying, “jump the gun”?
CANCEL: Don’t underestimate them, now.
JOE: Can we…can we cure Seth? Get that thing out of him?
CANCEL: You sound so hopeful, Mr. Verger!
CANCEL: I recommend that you murder that hope where it stands.
CANCEL: What’s done is done. His fate is sealed.
CANCEL: Seth’s Null, that wretched Insect, sits inside of him now. It’s made itself a home.
CANCEL: Do take care not to let that happen to you, hm?

KATE: You say that like we should know what we’re supposed to do, jerk.
KATE: You haven’t told us anything besides the fact that those things want to get inside of us.
CANCEL: Of course I’m not going to tell you much of anything else. That would be too easy.
CANCEL: This is a game, after all. If the players knew all the answers beforehand, what would be the point of it?
CANCEL: No, no. You must learn the nature of the Null on your own.
CANCEL: …Think of it as getting to know yourself a little better.
CANCEL: Now, before I begin to explain the next part of the game, let me ask you all a question.
CAMILLA: Is this really the time?
CANCEL: Of course it is. Allow me this, if you please.
CANCEL: You all ask me so many questions and yet I scarcely get the chance to return the favor?
CANCEL: How unfair! But anyways…
CANCEL: It’s a question I think on quite often. I’m so curious to see as what you think.
CANCEL: What do you believe drives a man’s life forward?
CANCEL: What is the thing that pushes a person to accomplish as much as they can in what little time they have on Earth?

Author's Note:

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