Afterliving

Did anyone else get a cell phone this week? Mine's got some kind of really weird game.

[ Despite getting the phone, Yuri figures it's better to make things clear by doing a post from the laptop she obtained. After all, no one should be subjected to text speak when she was trying to make things clear.

She holds up her phone, a bright red model. ]

Anyone from the land of the technologically impaired, this is a cell phone. You can talk and text and play games. I can't seem to download any new ones so it's probably just whatever it comes with.

[ Well, hers came with it preset so she didn't get to choose. Yuri lowers the phone, leaning forward a little. ]

Well, it looks like there were instructions so I probably don't have to worry. Does anyone know where they came from?

Hi everyone! This is Yuri Nakamura, sometimes called Yurippe, of the SSS. [ That sounded pretty cheerful, actually. Though not as peppy as before, the confident tone continues as Yuri explains. ] The SSS is an afterlife-based battlefront formerly dedicated to taking down God, presently dedicated to the investigation and defense against the shadows and other unfortunate accidents. I guess glitches would probably be the best thing to call them... Not all jobs require combat experience or intelligence if you're interested in helping out.

Anyway, there are a lot of new people here so I figured I'd both introduce myself and go over a few things, especially after the Angel Player AI posted something and I happen to.. have experience with him. Not a lot, since the last time I saw him I shot him. He's not at his former location, so there's no point in investigating there. There aren't any clues. Instead, I'm going to tell you all what I know about what this place is and how it works and if a damn one of you says anything weird I'll find you and kick your ass myself, got it?

Those of you who just got here: You're dead. This is the afterlife. Sorry for your loss. If you don't believe me, head up to the principal's office where the sign says "SSS HQ" at 11am tomorrow. The door's unlocked, but in polite society's we knock, so don't forget. [ Or else they'll become an example. ]

Second of all, pretty much everyone here has experienced some kind of tragedy or uncontrollable event in their life that made it unfair. Most people are young, but not everyone anymore. Some people may have some memory loss. Usually it will come back with time, since a lot of times the memory loss is related to head injuries when you died. Most of us died with a feeling of being unfulfilled or still wanting to hold on and keep fighting even after we died, however that may have been. The only way to get out of this place is to become fulfilled, accept your life, and move on but I'm not entirely sure that's going to work anymore.. though I can't really give details as to why on that yet. Either way, the key to staying here is to not live an entirely normal life. You can go to classes as long as you do something else that keeps you from being considered a "normal" student. It's really not that difficult as long as you want to stay, but just remember as long as you do whatever pain you feel is going to stay with you too.

That said, it's possible to manipulate the environment through a process called Atomic Restructuring. I've taught it to a couple of you, so those who learned please teach it to other people because I don't want to be stuck teaching it to however many people are here since it's a pain in the ass, but you can get pretty much anything you need that you have a good enough memory of to both know the parts and how to piece it together. The same capability to do that lead to an individual developing software known as "Angel Player." This software has the ability to manipulate the environment in ways that shouldn't be humanly possible, but unfortunately also is the reason for the shadows' appearances as well as, likely, the NPCs' strange behavior lately-- the NPCs are all of the regular students who aren't actually real. Think of them like really fleshy robots that are programmed pretty well to act like "normal" people, so much so that it'd be impossible for them to be human. They're basically like NPCs in a video game with limited lines who won't remember if you kicked their chicken or not. They're well programmed though, so if you kancho a girl, she'll still slap you across the face. Try it if you don't believe me.

Anyway, the Angel Player software essentially is something of a "God program" in this world. You can do anything you want with it, even make this world an eternal paradise if you want. [ She sounds a little amused at that, just because that was the offer given to her. ] That's not what this world is for and I personally refused that offer when it was given to me. The current programming, however, states that this is not intended to be an eternal paradise and posits that there is a single way to get you stuck in this world.

Essentially, the emotion of love is a dangerous thing in this world. Not by itself, but when love is felt strongly enough, then it gets taken away, it can hurt enough to get a person stuck here forever. That's why the programmer created the Angel Player program, because he was that kind of person. He fell in love, but she disappeared before he did and he loved her so much that he waited for her for years and years until it started to drive him insane. So he programmed Angel Player and those shadows to turn people into NPCs if they detect the presence of active love within this afterlife that's strained to the point of breaking because of how much pain it's causing. Either because you lost the one person you fell in love with or you knew that all of your friends were going to be taken away one by one until you were the only one left.

Since it's incapable of detecting the source of said love or whether or not that person would want to give that up, the shadows just go after everyone until the emotion stops because the person has been cut off from their emotions and turned into an NPC. That wasn't fair, so I completely destroyed the system and its watcher, that weird NPC with the flippy blue hair who kind of seems like a stalker, instead of accepting the offer I got to become God. Even if it was really tempting, but that'd be unfair to other people.. --Anyway! I kind of suspect that the programming's changed a little bit, especially since there are different types of people here than before, and there's been all kinds of weird crap happening too, but that's what I know about it.

In summary: hi, you're dead, watch out for the shadows because that's what they're doing, and don't get obliterated. If you have more questions, reply to this or if you think you'd rather strategize in person, consider joining the SSS. The headquarters is located on the third floor of the administration building where the principal's office should be. And don't forget: A demonstration for anyone who doesn't believe that we're dead at 11:00am tomorrow at the SSS. I don't bite and I'm not going to do anything crazy violent unless you forget to knock. Promise!

[ OOC: Meeting at 11AM to prove 'hey we're all dead!' Otherwise, just comment with how your character is responding-- text, video, voice, action if they went to find her. Whatever. ]