[EVENT] The Simulation Ends

[sixthiteration]

WHERE: 6I Fountain Park & Elsewhere
WHEN: April 1
OPEN TO: ALL - Mingle
WARNINGS: N/A

---

In the snug circle of an old park, a fountain sits burbling beneath a broad, midday sky.

Once-neat paving stones have buckled and cracked from the slow nudge of wayward roots. Benches stand covered in lichen and rust. Three paths push into the underbrush like the spokes on a wheel, the encroaching forest creating lush tunnels through the dark.

But the fountain stands singular and pristine, brightly splashing in open rebellion of the deep, muffled sounds of a place long ago gone to seed. A vibration hums through the ground, there and quickly gone, and the water in the fountain trembles, lapping against the high walls of its cool, pale reservoir.

Far, far away, in a place that isn't really there, people begin to blink out of existance.

It is the first of April.

It is precisely ten o'clock in the morning.



[Please see event details and guidelines here.]

Comments

[markwatney]

"Major was a zombie?" This isn't something Ravi's ever mentioned, but then again, I never asked either. He'd always seemed so worried that I wouldn't believe that he was telling the truth about zombies in general, I'd just gone with it after our first round of questions about the cause. I probably should have thought to ask if anybody he'd known had gotten the disease, and I'm kicking myself now that I didn't.

"That's..." I pull in a slow breath and decide I don't know what the fuck that is. "I'm just going to have to put that one on the shelf for now. One screwed-up thing at a time."

And the question of dietary needs was a simpler problem, a potentially solvable problem unless it required human brains.

"Did Nerys say she needs some kind of special food or supplement?"

[3ofswords]

"You'll have to ask him for the context on that one," Kira assures Mark--back burners and shelves are all they have right now. "It's just a fun anecdote from the post-apocalyptic RPG journal I left for myself. Apparently you guys had a party when he dumped Helen for his hetero-life partner and moved out?"

The mild, hind-sight judgment of them all is punctuated by the long, crisp sound of scissors shaping the hair behind and over Mark's ear.

"She didn't, but I didn't think to ask, and there were some overwhelming facts to contend with at the time." Staring at the top of Mark's head--he'll figure that out after he's cropped the back and sides. "Which in my experience, if she's not inserting her gluten allergy into every conversation that's still on the table."

Enough biting commentary to ease them off the possibility of zombies? Probably. "Let me get you something to write with," he decides, before they have to have this conversation twice.

[markwatney]

"I should have thought to bring something myself," I say as I turn to watch Kira step away. The fact that I forgot when the obvious place for us to start is in writing down what we know just goes to show how thrown for a loop I am. I'm managing, putting one foot in front of the other, but I know this numb forward motion well enough to recognize it.

"You're right about needing another census. That's going to have to be a priority. And we might have to ask people some uncomfortable questions. If things have changed for them physiologically." If they are now, to their knowledge, fucking zombies.

[3ofswords]

"Of course I'm right," he answers, briefly imperious, posed. One more joke to see them through this insanity. When he breaks, dropping his chin, he also drops a pad and pen at Mark's elbow. Writing will help Mark as much as cutting hair helps Kira. Then, cooking, eating. Have a glass of water and chill the fuck out.

Then: zombies.

Kira gives it another few beats before he picks up the scissors. All that's really left is the top, to trim down and mess up to his satisfaction. "It can't be any worse than your doctor starting in on how sexuality active you are," he says, working out from the crown of Mark's head. "Which, maybe also worth asking, considering how Ravi said the zombie plague was spread." What a wonderful world, having to worry if his dick is going to rot off in the literal sense.

"Mark," he says after another beat, "please put scream-into-a-pillow on the list."

[markwatney]

"I assumed you'd already done that," I shoot back, pulling the pad forward across the table. A deep breath in and then sighed out. This could be worse. So much worse. At least, that we're aware of.

"We're not on Mars," I sound out as I write the words across the top of the pad, a sort of directive to keep my shit together. Now: Everything else on the to-do list.

"We need to get over to the Inn sooner rather than later, before everybody scatters again. But we need to know what we intend to do there first. What we need to know to actually start properly assessing how deep we're in the shit. Dietary needs we've already said." I write it onto the paper. "Physical changes— You know, we really should start thinking about having some kind of accountability system in place for when people go off exploring. Like when you register with the park service before heading out camping; when you're going, when you expect to be back. You know these people. Some of them will be out tomorrow. Hell, some of them might be out there tonight."

[3ofswords]

"I've been busy." A little more effective than screaming, but he'd still like to block out the time. Somewhere after managing Bodhi's own need to scream and unwillingness to do so, if the boy-toy across the way doesn't take care of it. Probably not, Kira's about eighty percent sure the entire relationship is predicated on being human disasters who don't express actual emotion.

Pot, kettles; even the Observers know black is his color.

"Small miracles," he agrees. "There's air, yes." He takes a nice, long breath of it, and blusters it out. There's only so much hair he can take off of Mark's head to make himself feel better, before he'll hate to look at the man, so he moves around the chair to finish off the hairline and call it quits. "Close your eyes for a second," he says.

"Maybe we can impress upon them the implication of Nerys being an alien," he adds. "It's not Mars, but it might not be anywhere on Earth, either. Not if it's at all real this time around."

[markwatney]

"Earth seems unlikely, or at least the versions we know, but it's not impossible," I say, eyes obediently if impatiently closed; I've been doing a pretty damn good job of sitting still this entire time, and I'm really ready to be done with with my visit to the salon.

"Just in the sense of it seeming counter-intuitive to what we've already experienced," I add, brushing away tiny bits of hair from my cheeks and nose and eyelashes when I feel Kira finally step away. "And trust me when I say I'm not crazy about the idea. But you're right. Logic follows that if we were in a simulation the first time, we could be right back in another one. A more advanced one." We passed the fucking test, whatever it was. Whoopie.

"And gathering the data to try and figure out if it's at least an Earth-like simulation if not actually Earth is high on the priority list. I have to assume everybody here is wanting answers. But accounting for everyone and any changes in the people has to be the first thing."