SO YOU'RE AN X-CLASS AKUDAMA

[akudamods]

[Eventually, you will find yourselves in the only place that is really big enough to hold all of you: the basement. And there, the glitches that have been plaguing you off and on all day stop. Perhaps they're simply outdone by the tacky Matrix lighting all over the place. The early birds see a shuffling white coat from behind the desk in the back; for all the size of the glasses on this woman's face, she picks you out in the darkness immediately.]

Oh boy, it's almost time to start the presentation! "Akudama", Akudama...

[She's pacing nervously, not engaging much with the others, until 6:45 PM, at which point she gets up and starts a terrible PowerPoint type of presentation projected on the wall.]

So, hiiiiii. I'm the Physicist, uh, former X-Class Akudama renowned throughout Kansai, and I'll be taking care of you here at the WS Research Hospital. Don't worry, I have doctorates in other things too. [Next slide.] And here's the layout upstairs for the rooms where you'll be staying—you'll find out which one is yours when my friend the Zealot brings in the seals and smartphones. Treatment is expected to take six weeks, and while accepting our therapies is completely opt-in, we will provide you with a little local currency in compensation for your participation in the experimental research. Then you'll be anchored in this reality, and that's one step closer to getting back towards your original dimension in one piece! And, oh, yeah, I know it's really tempting, but please don't kill each other just so killing an X-Class Akudama and living to tell the tale gets you to travel back in time and fix your greatest mistake, or something like that.

Any questions?

Comments

[osssuary]

... You can hardly face us, unless you're simply another faceless puppet with the rest of them.

Perhaps even more so. Without your own name nor home nor face -- worse than the animals your authorities use for their purposes.

[Poor Zealot....... put on a level below the mascots. Not cute enough.....]

[zeadrone]

...I guess you're not wrong. Without even my name to hold onto...I truly am nobody.

[Uf, to be reminded of that does hurt]

But that doesn't change I hold power here. Maybe not over you all because I can hardly face you-- [For a variety of reasons, goodness gracious] --but I'm the only one who can make things happen. The higher-ups know it.

[And as long as they know that, the Zealot holds some power over them. After all, someone indispensable can't be disposed of. In a world like this one, being guaranteed to live means you have enough sway you can use for your own ends -- and he will use it if/once he wants to.]

[osssuary]

[His eyes narrow at the self-deprecation; though he doesn't administer any follow-up blows. This type is good at marinating in their own inadequacy -- in between fits of delusions of grandeur, it seems.

What a pain.]

Power, and the ability to make things happen among the citizens. Is that what you're boasting about? [...] Either way, it seems to have little to do with us.

[Or rather, the Zealot's role here isn't 'indispensable', whatever it is elsewhere. From their information so far, anyway.]