Prisoners' Round 1890 [Akemi, Vincent]

Emmy | Akemi

Akemi had spent some time sulking in her cell (and being bothered by Ellie whilst in her cell), ultimately decided that she had little intention to simply rot away in this space. So, with a sigh, she pulls herself to her feet and steps out into the main area.

She is greeted by perhaps the tallest man she has ever met face-to-face. She cranes her neck a little at him, he had been the one to outwardly admit to guilt during that presentation. Moreover, he seemed firmly in the camp that he did not deserve to be forgiven for what he had done. To her, that notion felt almost impossible short of an accidental murder. Perhaps he, at least, isn't someone she has to worry will decide to set someone's cell on fire or something.

"None of this feels quite real, does it?"

That thought interested her. A person fully willing to admit guilt, and to accept punishment for said guilt. She pondered if whatever he had done were intentional, or what could have led him to carry such a grim demeanor over it. Given how grim he seemed, something in Akemi felt surprisingly compelled to at least be a little more polite than usual.

"…I do not believe I caught your name before, Mr…?"

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

Rotting away, coincidently, HAD been Vincent's plan here in all honesty- Though that would have been far easier to quietly do in solitary confinement than it turned out it was with this chatty lot of people, so he'd inevitably resigned himself to the cruel fate of occasionally having to talk to people. Just sitting around his cell wouldn't help that either, so… Standing Around the cells and leaning against whatever solid surfaces there were had been what he was currently doing instead when Akemi had decided to speak to him.

"…It doesn't, no. But it still feels real enough that I don't think it's all just a nightmare," he replies, at first not even looking at Akemi. Once she asks for his name, though, he turns his head finally and takes in her appearance.

"Vincent Churchwell. And yourself…?" Honestly, having learned that everyone around him was also a murderer (or at least, that they were claimed as such by this system) hadn't made too much difference to Vincent right now, given his own status.

Emmy | Akemi

"Akemi Kuro." She replies.

She had wanted to get a better idea of who she was sharing this space with. If nothing else, to ensure she can avoid the most dangerous or irritating of people. She hardly cared to be anyone's friend, or even particularly liked, but not provoking retaliation seemed wise.

"You had mentioned a Milgram experiment, and I am unfamiliar with that line of study. If it can indicate anything about our situation, I would like to hear what you know of it."

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

A valid reasoning, or at least Vincent would think so if he knew why Akemi wanted to get to interact with him. As was her wanting to know more about the Milgram experiment, in all honesty. It WAS indeed strange that this place was seemingly named after it, after all.

"Yes, it was… a psychological experiment performed quite some time ago in the United States, in the 1960s I believe. I was taught about it in college, so it's been a fair few years since it's been relevant to me, but in essence: The setup of the experiment was under false pretenses of 'a test of the effects of pain on learning' or something similar, where the actual research subjects were brought in to 'help' with the experiment as a 'teacher' and overseen by a researcher. They were told to administer electric shocks to who they thought were the actual subjects from a room away any time they got a question wrong, with increasing voltage every time it happened."

Vincent pauses in his largely monotone explanation, both making sure Akemi was following along and also thinking of how to word the next part of this.

"…The voltage was labeled for them, including danger signs for what voltage would be harmful or even lethal, and they were also able to hear the audio of the 'learning subject' they were administering the shocks, which started as normal 'ows' and on higher voltages began to be screams and pleas for them to stop the experiment. And many of the true subjects administering the shocks DID want to stop, kept turning to the authority figure in the room and asking if it was really alright to continue. And yet, the majority of them did continue to administer the punishments for missed questions despite their clear stress at the urging of the researches telling them to continue, many of them all the way up to what they thought was lethal consequence as the 'learner' fell silent. Many of them truly thought that they might have just killed a person."

Another pause.

"…No one was actually physically harmed, of course. The 'learner' was a paid actor only pretending to have heart problems, and the actual goal of the experiment was to test how obedient to authority the 'teachers' would be, if they would go beyond their normal moral compass just because someone with perceived authority told them to. Which… is why it's a bit alarming to have our 'Wardens' have seemingly been assigned as such by chance, and we on our end are certainly not just paid actors. Why they named this system after Milgram is a mystery."

Emmy | Akemi

Akemi listened attentively, brows knit as the details grew more and more grim.

"That is a horrid thing to invoke so directly."

"It leaves me to wonder who these wardens truly are. If our situation relates to its namesake at all, then perhaps we are less of the focus than we thought. The one running this prefers seeing if punishments will be doled out, and is using what we've done as a 'motivator' for the wardens."

Akemi nods in agreement to Vincent's worries.

"It leads me further to wonder what is to happen to those who are not forgiven, at the end of this. And if what we feel about our crime will truly matter at all to them."

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

These were quite valid questions indeed, and Vincent hums along in place of nodding.

"Yes, I was also wondering if we're only being used as set-pieces and they're the actual ones being analyzed here, though I suppose there's no reason both sides of us couldn't be in that position at the same time." The idea of this all being an experiment of some sort either way put a foul taste in his mouth, though more-so because it felt far too flippant for the severity of actual murders than anything. "…Actually, though, if not for the name of this place being MILGRAM, I would have thought it to be more similar to a different infamous experiment. The Stanford Prison Experiment, specifically."

~~This conversation is quickly starting to feel like something out of the Zero Escape series- /j~~

As for the fate of those not forgiven… Vincent pauses for a moment before he answers, mulling it over in his head. At the end of this, huh?

"…I could see it going either way as either no difference of substance if it is only an experiment, or perhaps something like much harsher sentencing if it's actually sanctioned by the justice system." …Justice systems plural, maybe? Unclear right now what was going on there in terms of there being people from different countries here. Vincent sighs. "I would… personally prefer the latter, though that's only thinking of my own situation."

Emmy | Akemi

Akemi considers those answers with a frown.

"What I find most concerning is the lack of knowledge or memories on anyone's part. If it is an experiment, I do not recall signing a consent form to participate in anything like this. Not that I believe something this horrifically unethical cares about the notion of consent. But, with none of us recalling our arrival here, perhaps our memories of the 'lead up' as it were have been tampered with. Perhaps we all, somehow, consented to be here."

Even that notion leaves her feeling a little sick.

"The main reason I do not believe this to simply be random is that our outfits are clearly designed differently, almost made to suit us as individuals. The knowledge of our crimes notwithstanding, it seems as though our captors know us very well. Unless they have somehow anticipated we would do something and stalked us leading up to our crime, it does not make sense for them to be so familiar with who we are and what we did."

Akemi's hand touches her throat. She knew punishment would be a possibility when she did what she did. Facing the notion of it now, though, was unpleasant at best.

"Perhaps informing us of their plans would sully their precious test results."

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

Vincent looks like he's in thought about that bit.

"Yes, that's… what I've heard from others as well, about not remembering events leading up to now. I had assumed my own arrest's missing memory might have been more of a personal blackout of some sort, but… Memory being tampered with is sounding possible, despite the medical concern that too brings." Messing with the brain like that was typically pretty ill advised and also imprecise, after all.

The outfits, too… Vincent is quiet for a longer moment, before ultimately sighing, looking just a touch more tired than he already did.

"I… highly doubt that they knew our crimes would occur ahead of time and waited until after something had happened to intervene. I also find it… unlikely that it wasn't ordinary police that were responsible for initially arresting me. But… regardless of the specifics, whatever group is behind this clearly holds a lot of power and perhaps authority to be capable of running this. It's… not uncommon for prisoners to be subjected to things the public wouldn't be."

He did kind of feel like this might be what he deserved personally, but that couldn't be said for the others he had no proper context for yet.

Emmy | Akemi

"Regardless, it is discomforting to imagine how our memories may have been altered. You are likely correct that whoever is behind it wields immense power and technology."

"It is odd, that such a powerful group can remain utterly secret to the world at large…the larger the technical undertaking, I imagine the more difficult it would be to keep it hidden. Furthermore, why spend the resources on such an eclectic collection of, frankly, nobodies? The data they are gathering must be valuable, for them to gather and cater to this kind of array."

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

Vincent hums in affirmation again rather than nodding, but the vibe is the same. It was very discomforting, and the idea of not being able to trust his own recollection of things certainly brought a unique kind of unease to the back of his mind, but that wasn't necessarily something he wanted to get into.

"I… am not sure if it's a matter of a secret group, or of a known group's secret project, since… At least in the United States, that's actually relatively common. Our government's organizations only sometimes have their private projects shed light on years later. …Though I would prefer to not get too conspiratorial about such things without proper evidence, here." Vincent kind of felt a little too exhausted by everything happening to really put too much thought or care into it in the first place, even if he had finally tried to use his brain about it with Akemi directly asking him.

"…I had initially also assumed that this was still in the state of Texas, since others here had also come from there, but… am I correct in assuming you're not from there?" If Akemi has actually just been speaking japanese this whole time like Suzune had, he'd still ask to be polite regardless HIUDSUI

Emmy | Akemi

"I suppose you're right, such thinking is too conspiratorial without concrete evidence. I am merely irritated by the absolute lack of any evidence to guide any theories. If anyone had a memory to latch onto, or if the wardens knew anything of use, perhaps I might feel differently. Though, I doubt it."

She shakes her head a bit.

"I come from somewhere about as far away from Texas as humanly possible. Tokyo. And I have met several others from Tokyo, as well as one man from Australia. Truly the only thing we seem to have in common, that I can gather, is each of us having a hand in someone's death, and even that has little commonality. You seemed to believe you are undeserving of forgiveness, I refuse to apologize for my choices, and some are convinced what occurred was either an accident or not their fault. The intentionality of it has no consistency."

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

"Yes, it's understandable to be irritated. I hope then for your and the other's sakes that answers do manage to come to us sooner than later." Leaving himself out of that, notably. "…There's also still the matter of that strange… jackalope? That was seen walking here." …Ugh, thinking about all the oddities was really starting to make his head hurt.

"I see… I wonder why Tokyo specifically and Texas have been the most frequent commonalities there, then, since that seems like an odd collaboration. …But yes, you're right that the claims to murder or other related deaths seem to indeed be why we were chosen. I see you're another here of the mindset that you don't regret whatever it is that you did?" He doesn't say this with judgement, but he does raise an eyebrow at that. Akemi already knows his own stance on himself as she'd already said, even if he hadn't discussed the details of that matter. "…It's… more troubling that some here were not intentional deaths, though."

Emmy | Akemi

Even if the answers are that they will never get to leave, she would prefer knowing to ignorance.

"I have tried to avoid thinking about that creature. When I first saw it, I was convinced we had all been drugged. Given how nonsensical everything up to this point has already been, I'm still not convinced otherwise."

Akemi shrugs.

"Perhaps they are densely populated enough that it is simply luck of the draw, it we can call it that. You're correct, and at least one other I have spoken with feels similarly. Given the commentary during the wardens' initial announcement, we all carry different feelings and different amounts of culpability in what we've done. Ms. Carter believes that we were chosen because enough ambiguity exists in our motivation, or circumstances, that we could be considered for forgiveness. How they determined that when lined up against any other murderer out there is anyone's guess."

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

"I… admittedly thought similarly as well, though more-so that this all felt a bit like a nightmare or a psychotic break. It's… I'm becoming more certain that this is really happening by the minute, though, with how consistent it's been. What that thing really is though, be it science experiment, hologram, or animatronic, I have no solid guess as it stands." And that would Continue to be a mystery for the next few weeks, it would seem- Maybe they'd know more once the projections were all finished?

"Yes, it may just be coincidence geographically." The theory Ellie had given though mentioned gives Vincent pause. "…I don't know if I personally could ever be forgiven by most people. But if nothing else, I imagine that if they hand picked us for this, it might have been intentional for their experiment to have as wide a spread of motivation and circumstances as possible to see what the Wardens will decide for each of us," Vincent adds with a sigh. He did NOT think his own case was sympathetic in the least, personally.

Emmy | Akemi

"It has all remained somewhat consistently strange, I admit. They have taken care to maintain a certain level of demonstrating their technological prowess, likely to deter dissent."

She sighs.

"I will not ask why you feel unforgivable. I find it odd, however, if such a possibility for forgiveness exists for each of us. Especially given the wardens' cluelessness on the matter, they will be judging our deeds rather blindly beyond those 'projections' by the sounds of it. And yet, someone who decided to send us here must know the intricacies enough to have selected us."

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

"…Yes, I did notice that," Vincent says with a frown. Actually he'd been trying to not to think about whatever Other mind fuckery technology this place seemed to be capable of with the whole unable to harm the wardens thing Kaoru had inadvertently demonstrated there, certainly. Ugh, better to continue ignoring it.

As for the other bit… Yeah, the wardens themselves did seem to not know much about them, even if other forces beyond them Did.

"That… is why I warned them in advance for myself and what my verdict should be, yes. I don't know what they will see, and if what I've done will be made clear or not by these 'projections'." In essence, he didn't want them to mistakenly think he was somehow sympathetic when he certainly wasn't.

Emmy | Akemi

Akemi sighed a little, rubbing her brow in frustration.

"I suppose speculating too much will simply frustrate me, after all. No matter what conclusions we reach, we will have little choice but to see what these wardens deem appropriate, and what our host decides to do following those verdicts. I am curious if they will go against your wishes and forgive you anyways…or if they will punish me for refusing to apologize altogether. The metrics by which they intend to judge worthiness are a mystery to me."

She looks squarely at Vincent again, the sheer guilt he exudes utterly foreign to her.

"Well, Mr. Churchwell, I appreciate your willingness to share information while indulging in some light conspiratorial thinking. You seem as though you'd prefer some time in your cell, so I will take my leave."

She gives a slight nod and turns to walk off, unsure if she feels more or less informed after all of that.

Erin | Vincent Churchwell

Vincent gives a small sigh. "I suppose I'll have to wait and see for both of us. I've sure they'll have their individual thoughts and biases too, so I really can't begin to guess their metrics either."

Vincent's guilt aura is strong, yeah- At the very least, he doesn't flinch away when studied, though.

He offers a nod back in turn instinctively, though awkwardly stops halfway with the slightest twitch to his face, apparently deciding again he wasn't ready for that. Something to do with the bandages around his neck, maybe? Regardless, he his expression stays composed.

"It's no problem, and very well. …Take care, Ms. Kuro."

Indeed, ending things here was likely for the best- And he certainly can't deny that being alone in his cell was both fitting for him and probably something he'd choose to do often here.