Sutoratosu

crap, I can't cheat by using the Hanged Man Arcana then... dayum. What? No, no... disregard that above sentence, I would never consider such a thing as that... Well, regardless, looks like the only way through is the old fashioned way folks; walking and stumbling your way through corridor after corridor, holding onto a dim hope that the path you chose just happened to be the right one...

I'm a fan of both real world scientific advancement as wel as sci-fi, but... the idea of transhumanism honestly seems a bit silly to me, to be honest, at least from the current standing point of the human race. Our global environment is deteriorating more and more, we're getting to the point where in the relative-near future, large scale shortages of basic resources such as water is likely to become very real, far more worse and extensive than they are now, and a host of various other issues that are honestly far more pressing, and, In my personal opinion, far more deserving of devoting valuable manpower and intellect into developing the solutions for, over simply pimping out the human body with enhancements that, from a pure logical stand point, are not necessarily needed to ensure the general survival of the species. Evolution and nature itself have already done enough work to ensure humans can technically function just fine independent of any advancements, as much as certain aspects of the modern world make that hard to believe. In biology, if something don't work, it dies off. and we're still here I'm not against it now, don't get me wrong... I think it would be great to have a bit more control over one's body and being, whether that be achieved through classic cybernetics, nano technology, etc... but at the same time, there are wants, and then there are needs; necessities and desires. Devoting more time and effort towards trying to resolve the current issues in front of us is a necessity, being able to pimp out your body with some sweet, sweet enhancements is a Desire. There's really no way around that simple fact that I can see. It would be far wiser and better for the future of the human race if we prioritize. TL;DR- I'm not against it, but I seriously think that not a whole lot of effort should be spent on it until more pressing matters have been resolved. EDIT: And this just covers the Priority section of my stance and reasoning, not the other issues such as basic human nature which will inevitably lead to people, organizations, and probably whole nations abusing this new technology in some way shape or form, which also leads directly into the issues of Ethics and laws being necessary, just as they were when it was proven cloning was possible with the current level of technology.

"..." Arya had no comment on what had just occurred. She simply rushed and knelt beside her partner as the other girl once more was unconscious on the floor, sighing briefly when she still saw some breathing at least. "First the blackout last night, then me getting burned by...something. Then this whole fire alarm deal and... this?" She could feel the effects of whatever supernatural mojo had just gone down even as she thought it. It was strange... like something surging through you, water flowing through a channel without resistance... almost like a miniature sun or something had lit in the core of her being. But... why was Lillith apparently able to conjure up lightning storms? And just who were these others and why did it seem like they knew each other so familiarly and...hmmmm... "What the hell is going on here?" She demanded, glaring up at Alexus from where she knelt. Her voice was far more forceful and blunt than she had meant the question to come out, but... at the moment, she didn't give a damn. Getting Answers was a bit more important than acting polite.

Ethic paused for a minute as the faintest trace of a voice sounded in the far distance. It was strange... he couldn't make out anything of what it was saying, but... it almost sounded familiar. That same type of rusty recognition you get when you know a song rather well, but end up not hearing it for years and years and then when you finally listen to the beat again it seems as though you should know the lyrics, but all you can come up with for a lot of the tune is an unceremoniously dull and pathetic few verses of 'Something-something-something'. And Ghalen had gotten used it, to be honest. Whenever he thought back on where he and the others once were, and where they were now, Certain parts he thought he should've known well, where merely massive, blank canvases; completely devoid of sensory information. What made it even stranger in his eyes was the fact that for the most part, they seemed to have been scattered at completely random intervals. He could remember everything clearly up until one of those points came, and everything that came directly after. Situations like in his memories of the Second Circle. He could remember sitting in a tree top, looking up at the bloody moon as the loving dead swarmed below. And he could remember someone had been beside him... someone he had trusted. But he didn't know who. All he knew was that, somehow, someone else had been there with him... and for some reason, it had felt like they were familiar to him... like they had been a friend. And even then, later on, he could remember that he'd felt...anxious. Scared, angry. Down on the stones of the plaza. But no reason why. Just that it had been a single individual he had been focused on... everything after was black. Then afterwards, he knew he had acquired some type of sword, a black one... and in most of the memories that followed, he could recall the thing either being on his belt or in his hands. but he couldn't remember why he didn't have it now. Or when he had lost it, or even how. It was just another blank spot, and the next memory, he simply no longer possessed. And it didn't even stop there. Somehow his memories of the Arcana's effects and his abilities had gotten muddled in much the same manner. He knew that the cards, all of them, had possessed a different power when he had first entered the hill. He could remember the fires of the magician in the library, the time he had used Death and sliced up his nemisis and left the rat bastard dead beneath a tree, and again in order to cling to a wall and kill a giant not long after- so many times and different applications... but again, there were blank spots. After a certain point... the cards had just changed. and so too did his method of using them. "Tch," He scoffed bitterly, so low it would've been impossible to have been audible "Maybe I should make my desire to fill in the damn blind spots..." He was already scolding himself mentally for the very sentence though. All this time he had spent thinking on what possible catch or unknown conditions might be attached to the promise at the end of this literal hellhole, this was no place to start joking about it. He already knew what he would do if he made it to the goal first... and little was going to change that now. "Damn it, how long have I been standing here?" He glanced around the area, not letting himself relax even after he confirmed no stranger had snuck up while he'd been gazing off. Whoever the voice belonged to, they were too far away to concern himself with... He had to move. Because god help them all if someone else made it first. what would happen to the rest of them? Working together was obviously discouraged here; the taunt on the plaque made that clear enough... "Christ, if the ending of all this mess is like one of the Hunger Games...multiple people enter but only one can win and leave the arena..." He pushed the thought away. It was just more of a reason to get moving again... if his deduction was true. His mind and soul were again readied as he started off further into the confusing mess of walls.

Arya has survived... somehow.

Old friends, you say? Coolbeans... Can't wait to see who might be making a return. having a few more members of the old group will probably make our last hurrah in hell even more interesting

You mistook me... for kenny? Well... don't know how, but this is certainly a first time anyone's done that, I think... by the by, I found something I think would be great to help with the "potential failure" mechanic of this circle: http://wheeldecide.com/ It's a nice little thing some of the folks in the PA RP used for certain things. Pretty self explainatory how to use it if you just click the link.

"Damn summer fatigues..." Ethic muttered beneath his breath, tugging the camo-jacket he'd worn through so much of this long journey tighter around himself. The last time he had felt anything like this type of cold was the last winter he had spent at home... something he would rather push out of his mind at the moment. "Well, here we are... the ninth circle... both Satan's throne room and his prison cell. Everything we've seen, everything we've done... all of it was leading up to this. This one last challenge...and I have the sneaking suspicion that people are going to start losing their shit and going solo from here onward." He took a moment to look down at the plaque one last time. The warning- or taunt; whichever it really was, he didn't know -only served to further the suspicions he had been putting together for a while. "Trust no one and nothing...that probably means don't trust this plaque either, let alone the others anymore. Probably can't even trust the promise that lured people down here in the first..." He didn't bother dwelling on it any longer. Sitting there theorizing on how there would likely be no real winners here wasn't going to get him anywhere. No... the only thing to do now was to go forward. To see this to the end. Otherwise he might as well have never entered in the first place. And even if he was on to something here, and it all did end that way, it nevertheless had to end, one way... or another. Without another moment, he walked through the door way and into the maze, silent as he kept a hand to his deck, eyes scanning the surrounding area more and more with every step he took...

Eh, yeah, I guess that could work...

just finished skimming over everyone's characters. Huh, desires, eh...? oh well... I honestly don't really know what the hell Ethic's desire is( or was when he entered) at this point given that I decided to go ahead and have certain elements of the original backstory and subplot scrapped. plus even if I did, they likely would've changed heavily over the course of the journey. Though I have a few theories... Oh well...guess I'm a wild card then in a way... Good luck, folks. may the best individual make it back to the surface.

"Well, I guess you wouldn't..." Arya sighed. "After we agreed on being partners, you... looked a bit hesitant for a minute and sat beside me. After that, the lights shorted or... something, and... just a few seconds after they did, something flashed." she stopped for a moment, letting her eyes drift to the alternating colors of the carpet. The fact still remained that as much as time as she had spent trying to piece it all together, she probably only had precious little more memory after that point than the other girl. "I don't what it was, or where it came from, but... I think it was close by. When the lights came back on though, You were out cold beside me- and somehow I'd gotten this" She jabbed a thumb indignantly at the burn stretching across her cheek, not taking her eyes off the floor the whole time. She was still able to feel it, even with the meds and the lie to Lillith about it, and It was hard for her to keep some of the bitterness about that end of the stick from seeping into her tone "Anyway, it looked like we were the only ones that anything happened to. I got some help from this other girl, Rein- I think her name was -and... we wheeled you to the nurse's office. And that's about all of it..."

If pokemon has taught me anything, it's that beings that literally spend their entire lives in and around, and even controlling, water must be taught how to swim, dive, and scale waterfalls by a little computer disk made by humans. If pokemon has taught me anything, it's that people are very accepting of strange names- ex: a young boy related to prof. oak who was for some reason named "Asshole", may yet walk around in society and garner no strange looks for it. If pokemon has taught me anything, it's that no matter how young, how neglectful and apathetic the parents are, or how incompetent the local and international police departments are, a single child may take down an entire terrorist organization.