On potentially being dragged to amatomnes

[subleader]

[Her arms are crossed and she does not look happy.]

From one trapped game to another, huh?

I don't have time for this.

Comments

[brandedrose]

Regardless, you're stuck where you are for awhile. You can rail against it as much as you want, but you'd be wasting breath.

[subleader]

[Being stuck...she's too used to that.] There has to be something that can be done.

So, her name is Atia, right? And she's got everyone playing by her rules? Has anyone been able to access any points of weakness? Who is the designated leader in fighting against her?

I will gladly offer my sword to the job.

[brandedrose]

There are people who've been on the island for four years and they've yet to find one. She hides in her temple, but it's surrounded by an impenetrable barrier. You try to leave the island, your collar tightens. You try to attack her or her priests, your collar tightens. If you die, you'll lose a memory or an item.

Basically, it's a simple but amazingly effective system.

[subleader]

Four...years? [She falters at those words. It doesn't sound pleasant at all.]

Those sound like really poor rules! Not a fair gaming system at all.

So what exactly is the game plan then? I don't want to sit around waiting to get back to a place where I'm waiting to get back home.

[brandedrose]

This isn't your usual kind of "game". There's nothing fair or right about it.

Right now, there isn't one. Most people just get by, waiting to get home. Some have settled down and started a life there.

[subleader]

Yeah. That sounds like many of the people where I am now. They have grown complacent and accept the reality around them, even if it is not real. That's why I have to fight harder, to find a way to return everyone back to their real lives. You have to fight harder for the people who are unwilling to fight. [But it makes it very exhausting for those who are fighting.]

[brandedrose]

...Careful. Not everyone wants to go home.

[The reality they face back home is worse for some than what they have on the island. Some don't even have anything to go back to.]

[subleader]

[This really confuses her. Not want to go home? Surely it's only that they have grown adjusted to being trapped.]

Why would they not want to go home?

[brandedrose]

Depends. For some, Atia's a better place than back home. A few people are even said to be dead back home, so they literally have nothing to go back to.

[subleader]

She thinks for a long moment, unsure of what to really say.] I wonder if it's like that for anyone where I come from.

No one ever talks about home.