"As Fire mentioned," says Melitus, "the Death of Socrates was painted by Jacques-Louis David."
[NOTE- that is pronounced Da-veed]
"David was a fascinating member of your kind. Obviously he was a talented and famous painter who also achieved fame for several other reasons but this is of little interest to me. David painted during the Revolutionary period in France. It is said that when his friends were being taken to the guillotine, David calmly stood by and sketched them, for use in future paintings. See, David was a user. He saw tools for his own exploitation- even his friends being taken to their deaths were one more thing for him to make use of in the furtherance of his art. There was no taint of ethics or morals in what he did. That is a position I respect."
"I dont know about you guys but thats sickening. Our bonds are what bind us to this world. Without them we are significantly lessened as people. I dont think he reached a level of calm, I think he reached a level of close heartedness. He shut down part of what make him human. It somewhat disgusts me...."
"You should be less worried about Jericho now," says Melitus, "and more worried about your own predicament... because, you see..."
The rear wall, near the table, suddenly slides back to reveal another room. The room is furnished in the exact same way as this one- the sofas, the decor, sharing the table of the wine and wineglasses with this room, several doors, and also on the far side is the painting again.
And also in there is Fire, Rade, Azrael and Castor, turning and staring at you, as you are doing so at them.
"...whilst you were sleeping, I duplicated you."
NOTE:
2.6 rules are now up. Go take a look! I think it all looks quite good, and the system should be easily understood by all here:
Rade, when you spoke, your other half spoke at the same time, which was disconcerting.
"Well now," says Melitus, "you may regret saying that, 'Rade'. You see, half of you are the crew from the Shehazarard or the Persepolis, and you came here to confront me, before drinking the drugged wine and awaking on the sofa.
The other half of you are AIs based upon the originals. You have the exact same memories, personalities, motivations, morals nad thoughts of the original- the copy is exact, as I had considerable time to study your brain patterns being projected into the Matrix. In this case, you have only literally been alive since the moment you awoke on the sofa- but your memories are identical, having been pre-implanted.
But the thing is... I mixed you all up. So none of you know who is associating with whom- and whether you are the original or not..."
Game note- This is no joke. There is a 50/50 chance that you are, in fact, playing the AI.