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[alpha_phi_omega]

VLR SPOILERS BEYOND THE CUT

Player Information

Player name: Anne

Contact: Messaging me through through Dreamwidth or through Skype would be best. Raven.nevar2 (Skype)

Are you over 18: yes

Characters in The Box Already: N/A

Character Information
Character Name: Phi (fi, not fee)

Canon: Virtue’s Last Reward (sequel to 999 in the Zero Escape video game series)

Canon Point: I’m going to be writing Phi just before she enters the cold sleep in the treatment pod. She’s already played the Nonary game, but has time jumped back to 45 years in the past, before she played. From the perspective of the person playing the physical game, I will be playing her from immediately after the events of Virtue’s Last Reward.

 A brief note!  The Zero Escape series is essentially a mystery story-based game. In both 999 and it’s successor, as you progress through the different endings in the game, you piece together the explanation of the game and the primary story line. In both, there is some time traveling.

Virtue’s Last Reward contains 24 different endings, depending on what you do in the game.

In almost each ending, you learn different things about the main storyline. To account for this, the explanation of a sort of time travel is given. Under duress and in dangerous situations, Sigma and Phi learn that they can “jump”, meaning they can go back or forward in different timelines. The idea of the third Nonary game is to force them to jump and to force them to go back to just before Radical-6, a fatal virus that has ultimately led to the ending of humanity and the earth, was released from the lab. More information will be released with the next game in the series. I’m going to reference the Wiki page, as it explains the idea much better and more succinctly than I can.

The page on the Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition.

What the timeline of "jumps" ultimately looks like; I'll explain what this means later on.

Is your character Dead, Undead or Alive: Alive.

History:

In canon, there isn’t much currently known about Phi’s background. Her position in VLR is as “the mystery girl” who knows more than she seemingly should. It is know that her mother died shortly after her birth, and that she was raised by foster parents (not much about her father is known). One day, she was ambushed with a cloud of white smoke, which caused her to pass out and be taken by Zero (according to her story). However, the reality is that in 2029, she went to Sigma (the old version) and agreed to participate in the third Nonary game, which would occur 45 years later, in 2074. She is 20 years old in appearance during the third Nonary game, as she was put into cold sleep for 45 years prior to being sent to Rhizome-9 on the moon to play it, and thusly didn’t age during that time.

As soon as she is let out of the cold sleep in the treatment pod on the moon, she is given Soporil (an anesthetic to keep her sleeping) and locked inside an enclosure that appears to be an elevator before she wakes. Upon opening her eyes for the first time in 45 years, she is trapped inside an “elevator” (which is later revealed to be one of the AB game rooms) with a boy that she somehow knows is named Sigma. They must work together to escape the room, which is the first of many escapes they must make.

There are other people in the other “elevators”, though. In all, there are nine people. Clover, Tenmyouji, Dio, Alice, Luna, K (a man in an electronic suit), Quark, Sigma, and Phi. They are all players in the third Nonary Game: Ambidex Edition. The entire concept of the Ambidex Game takes advantage of the “Prisoner’s Dilemma”, where one must either trust or trick another person to survive. With each portion of the building that the players investigate, they must work together to find the escapes in every room, then play the Ambidex Game, where they can either Ally or Betray their teammates. Those that earn 9 BP through this game can escape the building for good. Those that reach 0? They die.

More info on the Nonary Game and the AB Game can be found here.

In all off the endings, she is both betrayed and trusted by many people. In the true ending, however, she manages to escape with most of the other players, and finally realizes that she was thrown into the Nonary game because, like Sigma, she can send her consciousness through time.

During the game, her ability to “jump” allows both Sigma and herself to eventually deactivate four nuclear bombs that were placed by Dio, a terrorist sent by the organization “Myrmidons”, a part of “Free the Soul”. In certain endings, they may find one or two passwords to deactivate the bombs, and must use these to go to the final timeline and deactivate the bombs, saving all of players once and for all.

Personality: 

In short, Phi is snarky, sarcastic, and appears to be cold. Many statements made by the other characters are met with a curt or sarcastic reply, one that makes the original speaker feel a bit awkward. Much of what she says comes off as arrogant, as if she’s trying to say, “duh, are you always this stupid?” With the sort of situation she’s in, however, it’s no wonder she’s trying to be serious. She understands the severity of the situation that the nine of them are in, and is always one of the first to tell the others to “cut the crap” and make firm decisions. In her eyes, the Nonary game, where their lives are on the line, is not the time for petty arguments and backstabbers.

But she’s certainly not always serious. She finds Sigma’s cat pun habit quite amusing, though I can’t guarantee that she’ll openly admit to that. Despite the horrible situation she’s in, she keeps her head to the best of her ability, as she believes that doing so is going to yield much better results than losing it. However, though extremely rare, there are times where things just overwhelm her and her cool exterior will falter. Is this because of the Radical-6 virus that the Nonary game players (and the earth) were infected with? Is it a moment where she fails to hide what she’s truly feeling? One can assume that she’s scared shitless. Being thrown into the Nonary game and finding out that you can send your consciousness through time and space? There’s no doubt in my mind that her excessively snarky and cold attitude is a result of trying to fake an air of calmness and coolness to the rest of the players and, ultimately, to herself.

Phi is an extremely intelligent woman. She is clever and strategic, which comes into great use during the game, as it obviously has throughout her life. It is pretty clear that her curt responses, sarcastic and superior attitude, and policy of zero tolerance for people’s shit are the result of her intelligence. She has a large quantity of random tidbits of information stored in her mind, but seems to know a considerable amount about Latin and Schrödinger’s cat. When describing the idea of “time jumping”, she loves using Schrödinger’s cat as an example, where she states that a person’s consciousness, like the state of the cat, can be in multiple places at once. She tends to associate Schrödinger’s cat to philosophical topics, rather than to the sciences (where the concept originally was used to describe the location of electrons in orbit).

As for her knowledge of Latin, she is by no means fluent. She can, however, translate simple phrases and words, which comes in handy while unlocking the meanings of some of the puzzles during the third Nonary game. Her favorite phrase: Elapsam semel occasionem non ipse potest luppiter reprehendere, which means “Not even Jupiter [the god of gods] can find a lost opportunity”. This was inscribed on the back of a brooch given to her by her mother, which happens to be all Phi has to remember her by. This phrase comes into great meaning during the tests of trust during the Nonary game. She’s almost a bit hypocritical, in that she’s more than willing to throw someone under the bus to save herself, but takes a vote of “Betray” as a deep, personal slight. In a way, the saying is her promise of revenge for those who wrong her. She’s determined as all get out, and willing to go to far lengths for those she cares about (including herself).

For the most part, Phi has an extremely low tolerance for people’s shit, and she prefers to work as a lone wolf, seemingly having the opinion that others’ stupidity and errors will hinder her own abilities. In her defense, Phi is extremely capable and independent. Though she will lie that she doesn’t need others and can do everything perfectly fine on her own, it’s not the complete truth. She is, after all, human.

Though she can only recall knowing him for a short time, Phi has a deep connection with Sigma. Upon his waking in the elevator, she somehow immediately knows his name, and knows that they must escape. As the game progresses and they both realize the idea of jumping, that connection only deepens. The two of them are connected at the beginning, physically (they are paired together for the first round), then spiritually (when she realizes that they can both jump), by time (when they use their information from other time lines to help deactivate the bombs), and finally, emotionally (when she breaks down and embraces him when neither one of them know the deactivation passwords and they are waiting for the countdown to end and for their physical beings to be blown to smithereens). She acts as a sister to him; she gives him grief and sometimes acts to annoy him, but will do everything in her power to save him and do anything to make sure he’s safe.

She’s somewhat sympathetic to the other players in the Nonary game who can’t jump. They were put into cold sleep for 45 years. The worlds as they knew it, their friends, family, lives, are all gone. And earth has been mostly destroyed, so there’s no where for them to go after they escape the building on the moon (which they don’t realize until after they escape). Though Phi and Sigma are going to attempt to save the world from Radical-6 and its release in the past, the others are stuck where they are. She acknowledges that it is a very unfair situation to be in, but knows (as they surely do) that it is necessary. If injustice can reach 7 people in order to save billions, she feels it’s a fair trade.

Items on your character at canon point: In the Nonary game, all she had was her bracelet (which told her what her pair and color assignments were, as everyone’s did). Once she escaped Rhizome-9 (the building where they were being held for the game), the bracelet fell off, as per the Nonary game (Ambidex Edition) rules. At this point, she likely wouldn’t have anything.

Abilities, Strengths and Weaknesses:

Abilities: Like Sigma, Phi is able to send her consciousness through time in what are referred to as “jumps”. In comparison to Sigma, Phi is not nearly as skilled at jumping successfully as he is, nor can she retain her memories from previous timelines/jumps as well as he can. However, it is very unlikely that this “talent” would do her much good in the Box, as she’d still be trapped. Also, like Sigma, it generally takes a great danger to spur a jump. She might try, and might be able to jump an hour or two, but it wouldn’t do her too too much good.

Strengths: She is a very intelligent girl, who has a knack for solving puzzles and making difficult split-second decisions. She can keep her calm in almost all situations. For the most part, she takes pride in her independence and determination. Phi can generally handle just about anything on her own (or at least, that’s what she tells herself).

Weaknesses: As mentioned before, though she can jump, she is not nearly as good at it as Sigma is. Despite her emotional and mental strength in tough situations, the stress eventually catches up to her. At times, it will overwhelm her and she’ll become nearly hysterical, though this is extremely rare, and usually requires a considerably severe catalyst.

Phi, like the others in the third Nonary game and on earth, has been infected with Radical-6 at the start of the game. In short, Radical-6 is a virus that slows down one’s brain and can trigger suicidality. In the canon point, it is after the third Nonary game, but before she left (timeline-wise). She isn’t currently infected with Radical-6, though she tends to shiver at the thought of its tendencies to slow her fast-paced brain.

If you'd like, you can read about Radical-6 here.

Samples
Network/Action Spam Sample: 

((I am actually very unfamiliar with this style, and I am much more comfortable and familiar with prose/para RP writing, but I’m always up for learning new forms and expanding my writing, so I welcome the change, and I’m always willing to learn!))

[She wakes up, glancing around the room, almost nervously.]

Fuck, my head…….[A flicker of pain is the only indication that she seems to have a splitting headache.]

Did I just jump….? I certainly didn’t mean to do so…..

[It suddenly occurs to her that she rarely retains all of her memories right after she jumps.]

But I remember breakfast….[She trails off a bit again, muttering incomprehensibly to herself]

(Shit. Another Nonary Game? No, it better not be. She doesn't have TIME for this. No fucking way she's going through that again. Not unless she absolutely has to jump. But she was relatively sure she and Sigma did everything that was needed of them during their time in Rhizome-9. Wait. Shit. Sigma!)

Sigma? Sigma!?

[She calls out, frantically scanning the area for any trace of him. No luck. How long had they been separated? She was just about to enter the Nevada test site lab and stop the release of Radical-6, hopefully saving earth. This was NOT a mission that she could just be abducted from!]

Prose Log Sample:

A low, guttural groan resonated throughout the steel-padded room as a young woman with snow white hair came to. Blurry shapes moved into her vision before becoming objects, which soon gained their colors. Grey. Lots of grey. Where was she? Phi stumbled to her feet, a difficult task due to the grogginess, an effect of god-knows-what.

Left. A sign. Were those….babies and old people? Pictures? What the hell was that supposed to mean? A bar….metal? She touched it to be sure. Yes. A metal bar with colored handles at the ends.

Right. A fire extinguisher and a sign depicting its operational mechanisms just above. Another metal bar with colored ends.

In front of her…..A panel and a door that obviously opened from the middle. It appeared to be an elevator door.

Behind her…..Some peculiar red machine? There was a touch screen, but nothing happened when she touched it. There was a steel safe in a compartment underneath it as well, but, just like the touch screen, she couldn’t get it to respond to her taps.

After making her observations, Phi began to make her way over to the intimidating steel-washed door in front of her, grasping for the brooch around her neck, very relieved to feel that it was still where she was used to it.

Umph.

Her shoe made contact with something. Something heavy.

“GAH!” Phi nearly jumped backwards. A….A man!? A man with wild ebony hair clad in a blue jumpsuit was lying motionless on the floor. How hadn’t she realized it? She assumed that her observational skills had been lacking due to whatever had knocked her out a few….hours? Getting momentarily distracted from the body at her feet, Phi tried to straighten out her perception of time. Just how long had she been unconscious, and why?

Shaking some more of the peculiarity out of her mind with a flick of her head, Phi knelt down next to the body and laid two fingers to the man’s neck. Thump……Thump……Thump…..She let out a quiet sigh of relief for the vain and momentary fear of waking him. His heart beat slowly, but irregularly. But he was alive.

With that terror working its way out of her mind, the severity of her situation dawned on the girl further. She was dizzy, tired, and confused. How long had she been asleep? Why did her body feel so much…..lighter, as if it wasn’t her own? As if it belonged to some unfamiliar entity. Who had locked her inside this…..elevator? If that was even was “it” was? And more importantly, why? She booked it to the door about ten feet away, sliding her hands into the crevice where the two halves met in the center and tried to force them apart. But it was no use. No matter how much strength she applied, the door wasn’t going to open by force alone.

A way out……The door won’t open, but whoever put us here wouldn’t just leave us to die. No…Not somewhere they couldn’t watch. Could whoever it is be watching us right now? Regardless. There must be a way out of here. Just look for it. Phi followed her intuition and her eyes darted from corner to corner. That’s it! There was a hatch on the top of the “elevator”. Now she just had to figure out a way to open it….

Phi tried to make sense of all the questions and clues swirling around in her exhausted mind and fell to her knees. Her head bowed in silence, but she maintained her deep train of thoughts.

In the corner of the enclosure, she remained like this for an unknown length of time. She couldn’t have been able to tell how long it had been even if she tried, as she seemed to hold a skewed view of the passing of time at the current moment.

As she threatened to further lose herself in thought, she sensed a rustling from the floor. With quite a start, the man woke from his induced-sleep and jumped to his feet. “Where am I?! What’s going on!?”

She took that as her cue. Looking up, she locked eyes with the man that…..that…..

“Sigma?” I’ve never seen him before in my life.