15strangers | LET THE GAME BEGIN

Entry tags:

*mock week

LET THE GAME BEGIN

KOPARA AIR FLIGHT 15
(SYD -> HNL)

[Well, good going, Yurick and Vita. You dun fucked up. Now it's a murdergame. Still, could be worse. It could be a certain screechy female commander in charge, right?

In any case, you are stuck here. It's frustrating, and as time goes by, being here is going to wear everyone down. Not to mention the scent of those damn leis just won't go away, even after you've tossed them aside. The air permeates with it, and combine that with recycled air that only makes things more irritating and pungent, the limited supply of essentials, the limited space even on this large plane, the horrible electricity situation, *and* the threat of the murdergame now ever-present over everyone's heads?

Things are not fun right now. And as time goes by, it's going to only get worse. It's just a question of how - and whether there's any escape before it becomes too much to bear.]

((OOC: Welcome to the week! We'll be doing things a little differently here - we will have a sub-heading for investigations to happen, where players can send their characters of to find clues. Just head over there and use the OoC map to help guide your characters to major clues if you so wish!

Of course, you can always court disaster for your character, courtesy of the RNG, if you so wish! As a result, there will also be a sub-heading revealing everyone's level of injury, which will start at a default number for everyone (except those already injured coming in, or injuries inflicted before the pilot's call!) at the beginning of the week! This can be raised as you see fit to inflict pain on your character - just remember to TAG ANY COMMENT THREAD FOR THE MODS if you want injury rolls! Just don't go too high - your character may not survive if you do!

GOOD LUCK! And remember - have a nice flight!))

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[Hiyori has returned to room 5. There was evidence that he wasn't the only passenger who really wanted a shower, and he was not about to fight with Yurick for soap. For this reason, Hiyori is stretched out on his sofa wearing just pants, as he continues drying his hair and bare upper body with one of the fifteen luxury towels.

On the vanity is a foamy drink, a clear syrupy soda with gelatinous cubes that are mostly colored seawater blue. Hiyori occasionally reaches over with one hand to steady the saucer amidst the turbulence. He looks at the rising bubbles with great existential sadness like a portrait of Oscar Wilde.

The door is open. Hiyori must be telling the truth about trusting the others.]

[There's a flash of red past the door... twice... and a few moments later, it becomes clear why. Jonathan is still wearing that ridiculous tailcoat, but now over a dressed-down version of the steward's uniform Hiyori probably has in his own closet. Even with no tie and the shirt's collar unbuttoned, the vest and slacks combined with the coat and tall boots give an impression of nothing so much as some kind of parody of a man at a fox hunt.

It's a good thing he's used to looking ridiculous, that's what all those words add up to. Because he does, and not just ridiculous but awkward.]

Hey. You okay with company, or... should I leave you alone with the drink?

[Hiyori shifts up, weight on his elbow (being a swimmer has its perks) as he rubs the towel over his ears, reacting to just Jonathan's voice with brightness only slightly dried out.]

Oh, hey; Jonathan?

[When the towel moves down and Hiyori's eyes light upon that suspiciously positioned collar, his face twists into a vicious glare. He's outright snarling for only an instinctive moment, but he doesn't bother to school his expression into a smile afterwards, just looks kind of annoyed and done.]

Well, it's not alcoholic, I'll have you know, so don't you worry about that angle. But I'd rather you stay than not, sure. [It's not a sarcastic sure? Really, it isn't. Jonathan shouldn't leave.]

Edited (decided to turn a typo into a cutesyism) 2018-12-21 02:25 (UTC)

[Well, that glare didn't escape his notice, though it not staying put is encouraging. He should have worn the tie. Should've just put up with feeling like he was being strangled.

He sits down just inside the door, and runs his hands back through his hair in what's pretty obviously a habitual nervous gesture.]

I... you seem smarter than that. Than to start drinking at a time like this, I mean. I -

[He cuts himself off, visibly unsure. Words have never been his thing - he's always had Charlotte to take care of that, up until recently. Learning to explain his actions himself has been an interesting experience, to say the least.]

Look, I'm pretty bad at this, but... my wife thinks you're a lost cause, but I don't agree. You seem like you're not used to life and death stakes, but you're probably the smartest guy here, and... I just want you to know you can trust me at your back if it comes down to a fight.

[So bad at this.]

...The smartest?

[Hiyori looks like nothing more than a starved child given a sweet and suspicious of the unfamiliar taste. After swallowing it, his eyes shift into a resigned skepticism.]

Well, of course I know I can trust you. That's why I'd let you enter in the first place. Hey, would you shut the door?

[His eyes narrow.]

Though your wife completely disapproves of this exact action. Did she really give you permission to make an exception?

She's my wife, not my mother.

[His ears are burning, that's how vivid the blush at those last few words is. It's a lost cause, of course, but he's still glad he's busy with the door as he responds with that. But once that's done, he's still pink.

He's known the gap in their ages is visible, but that felt pointed. He deserves it, though. Being one half of a united front in a situation like this....]

And yeah. The smartest. Yurick might hit me, but... you seem like you know enough about the way crisis situations work to keep your head, on top of "book smarts".

[ Why does he keep meeting men who remind him of his best friend? She's girly as hell, for Pete's sake, and yet... and yet.]

[Well, Hiyori is effeminate to the point of weird by his own description, so it works out.]

She's not my mother either, thank goodness.

[Hiyori sounds happy that he doesn't have Vita as a mother... Or is it that Vita isn't like Hiyori's own mother? In any case, Jonathan has buttered him up out of paranoid tension into amicable predation.]

You're flattering me, but when you put it that way, I can see where you're coming from, sure. When someone goes under in the swimming pool, the one who thinks to dive in and bring them to the surface is always me. That's the most violent experience I ever had in my precious little life. [He gives a teasing smirk.] Yes, you don't have to worry about me too much. Though lack of discrimination against Asian Americans is a myth, it really is quite rare for most upper middle class Japanese professionals to get wrapped up in violent crime too much these days. Furthermore, the Japan-America military alliance is very cozy after the occupation... Oh, but I don't want the details to distress or distract you!

Trust me, I had my crisis of faith over that months ago. I know the shit that we're about to pull, and I wish to God I could stop it. Two cities that aren't even military targets unless you're determined to find a reason for slaughtering innocents... Naoya saw one of them destroyed, Nagisa grew up in the third, maybe the fourth generation removed from it all. I was raised to think humans fighting other humans was the most idiotic waste of time ever, but this war is...

[He smiles, tense and full of self-recrimination.]

There I go getting distracted anyway. There's a hell of a lot I never had to think about before that I do now.

[And he pauses, grimacing, staring stubbornly at the wall. This wasn't supposed to turn out like this. He wasn't supposed to be trading barbs.

But the apparent assumption that he doesn't really know how fucked up his country is stings. It stings because until very recently he didn't, it's true. And he isn't touching the comment about Vita right now - he doesn't trust himself with it, right this instant.]

You seem like you're willing to save lives even if it means getting your hands dirty. Is that fair to assume?

Dirty???

[Hiyori is downright scandalized by this word. His face scrunches up as if Jonathan crushed it in his fist. A desperate impulse pulls his eyes to the gap over the walls of the compartments. ...No. That's crazy. He can swallow his panicked thought. The foamy drink should help him do it... Hiyori scoops a gelatinous cube up with the spoon, careful not to pop too many foamy bubbles on the way, his other hand white knuckle gripping the saucer, and chews it. Afterwards speech comes out only a little rushed.]

Oh, you mean, in a sense like, working hard. In that case, yes, sure. Absolutely!!!

[You know what. He needs a scoop of syrup as well. The good stuff that pooled in the bottom of the glass.]

[Holy overreaction, Batman.

That was... really a sight to behold. He isn't sure where to start asking, but Jonathan is at least familiar with that level of hair-trigger overreaction from his own experiences. If they're actually going to talk, he does need to feel out where the line he can't cross is.]

Yeah. Working hard, putting someone else's life and safety above your own... or even just above your reputation.

[He sighs, rolling his shoulders to chase off the tension of the last moments. This is a shot in the dark, and it's a cheap shot to boot, but it'll point out the general vicinity of the line well enough....]

Or protecting somebody no one thinks you ought to care about.

Oh...

[It's never been more obvious to him that Jonathan doesn't understand what it's like to be him, to be someone like him. The identity of the person, the protection, the "caring" isn't the problem. Forbidden love of witches or protestants is a totally different beast. Hiyori just cares too much.]

Oh, no...

[On top of everything else that's happened, he has to get this figured out about him...? While he's a mess with a towel and a drink and, oh, yeah, no shirt on, why did he let anyone in here, it's not something he deserves to do. Salvaging the situation by re-donning a shirt isn't even possible, not in a timely manner. Hiyori just sits up, pulls his legs close, and puts his face in his knees.]

You must have read the lists critically and realized what a disgusting person I am...

[That's not the kind of reaction he expected. If anything that makes the situation more confusing.

But he's confused, not stupid. A few moments to turn the pieces around in his head, and things fall into place.

If he mentions the way things went and mentions Yurick by name, things will spiral downhill even faster, he knows. Bringing up Eric is less of a risk, but he has to be sure of things before he does that. He can't fix anything, but... he can, at least, be someone safe. Maybe. There's too much he doesn't know, but he knows enough about people in general to put things together, and what this adds up to is - ]

So... I'm still not great at this, but if what neither of us is saying is what I think it is, that's not "disgusting".

[He has to be gentle. He knows this much. People who've been taught that they're fundamentally wrong - not just different from the others, but somehow wrong, somehow bad - just for falling in love like anyone does are people already hurt. Put too much pressure on a heart already so battered and it'll just go to splinters.

He has suspicions that this already happened to his white-haired brother's heart, that he's got the pieces in a tightly sealed coffin deep in his soul. He doesn't want to be the reason someone else hurts like that. Not now, not ever.]

You lived in America - I swear there's a point I'm getting to here. Do they still teach Whitman?

[He doesn't want to think about an America so far gone into biblical literalism and guilt built of mistranslations and political convenience that her most adoring son is shuffled off to the back of the library... but it's certainly a possible place. It's the kind of place that'd leave Hiyori so panicked.]

You seriously think I'm that naive?

[Hiyori is in fact obviously that naive on some level, and raising his chin all haughty like this is transparently a wounded teenager's attempt to regain control of the situation.]

I'm private because I know how most people would unfortunately react; that's totally different from believing they're morally right about something so arbitrary. "Two tuxes on top of the cake instead of a tux and a dress, they're hurting the children, set 'em on fire", come ON.

[He waves his hand.]

Ikuya isn't even straight, turns out, I get to not hate myself for that part at least. He's still literally starry eyed over that waterlogged asshat Nanase!

[His chin rests on his knees again and he frowns in concentration as the manic energy fades a little.]

Yeah, though, we read him, Whitman. I had to go to the library to find out he was also gay [he clearly had to push himself to throw that on in a cutting tone and get a rise out of Jonathan instead of feel immense shame for saying the word out loud about himself, and even now still just indirectly, for the first time in his life] though. Why.

Because... because it's easier to hide history than it is to admit it's real.

[The slang is a little on the unfamiliar side still - but that's really just because he doesn't know anyone in his own time who didn't come from somewhen else. He gets the gist of it. Gets that there's a broken heart behind all this and wants to fix something with extreme prejudice so it isn't broken or never was in the first place.

And he knows he can't, and it's that which twists his face into a crestfallen almost-scowl.]

"Hurting the children", huh? God, what a crock - and I didn't say you were naive, or you thought it was right. I was just... trying to be discreet, that's all.

[This is so much heavier of a conversation than he expected he'd be having. This is... this is the kind of conversation you're supposed to have at night on your front porch in late summer, watching fireflies and slowly drinking iced tea with something firey poured into it, not the kind of conversation you have when you're starting to forget what it's like to not be nauseous and there's a death sentence hanging over someone's head, maybe even your own... this is a conversation he's pretty sure he'd be better at if he were a better man, never mind about just feeling better.]

Edited (missing bracket) 2018-12-23 23:06 (UTC)

[ It's after a few moments that Atsushi peeks in, still giving a light, cursory knock in case the other teen hadn't noticed him. He looks a bit exhausted but there's a light within his dichromatic eyes along with a small smile on his face. ]

...Tono-kun? I... Do you have a moment?

[ He'd come from being with Link and Yurick, so there's a half-finished bottle of water clutched in his one hand. Nothing nearly as fancy as Hiyori's foamy drink by any means. ]

[Hiyori has the towel pressed into this hair at the moment Atsushi arrives. To be honest he's carding the fabric between his locks more from comforting repetitive motion at this point than any realistic chance of getting more dry.

When Atsushi appears in the doorframe, knocking and calling his name, Hiyori stares at him like this is a foreign language. Not the manners per se, to the contrary it's quite Japanese politeness that puts him at ease. What's so not immediately comprehensible to Hiyori is the fact that someone checked on him. That he was remembered at all, let alone fondly. He's been such a dick, and he wasn't in immediate danger from the snake bites or anything. Just here, feeling depressed. Let alone Yurick's condition - Hiyori had only heard vague shrieking from his place cleaning up the bar and discovering his personal item in the process, but hadn't Atsushi gone to care for that man?

Hiyori nudges the towel to fall down behind him in a heap on the arm of the sofa. His arms are at his sides then, open instead of crossed. A smile twitches onto his lips and doesn't stay there, like he was trying to blow a soap bubble that didn't form.]

Oh, sure. A moment's exactly what I have.

[Because any minute now he might get killed.]

[ Blinking a little at the way Hiyori had looked at him when he'd first shown up, he'd been halfway to asking if he'd come at the wrong time. The accompanying smile that came and went was a bit worrying, too. ]

It is? I... Is something wrong? I... came to see how you were doing after everything that's gone on.

[ Atsushi's just too good a kid and worries about people, even before himself most times. So there's definitely concern and worry written on his face. He didn't think Hiyori was a dick, just a little stressed out because of what was going on with so many people dying. People lashed out due to stress, after all. ]

I see. Well. Um...

[At least he's not suspicious of Atsushi. The other young guy really must have good intentions. Hiyori is just not sure what to say, because pretending everything's alright is so integral to his personality. Underneath that smiling facade is a thick layer of spite that he's . He knows intellectually there's an even deeper core of his wounded inner child or whatever but now is not the time for that, is it?]

I just feel kind of like... [A wry smirk twitches on his lips.] No Longer Human. Weird, isn't it? [He really did feel that way, like he didn't have the right to call himself human, and the specific phrase came to mind ever since he heard his friend's unusual surname, so he ended up not even phrasing it as "I'm no longer human".]

[ Atsushi stopped short at that phrasing, his chest aching a little as it reminded him of Dazai and what his ability had been. His gaze raked over the other teen briefly, exhaling a heavy breath he hadn't even been aware of holding until now. ]

A little... but... why do you say that?

[ That concern deepens visibly and he really does want to know what's wrong here. Did something actually happen to Hiyori that he doesn't know of? ]

[Atsushi really was a good listener. It seemed like he was sincerely worried for Hiyori, or at least wanted to resolve his current needling concern, and wouldn't be brushed off easily. Hiyori gave a bittersweet smile.]

Well, I've always been weird. Ikuya was the only one who really accepted me... And I should have been fine with that, but I meddled with his affairs so much that he had to push me away. Now he's in mortal danger because of how much I care about him... And on top of that, being such a busybody could practically get me killed by someone here? I'm trying to keep a cool head and get everyone out of this, because I know we can, but with Vita saying someone in the group will definitely kill and Yurick saying if someone gets killed it'll definitely be me... I'm just really having trouble keeping it together, you know? Any second now I might just float away... Like this.

[He sweeps his eyes and fingertips over to the drink's rising foam.]

Edited (Used now twice) 2018-12-22 03:43 (UTC)

[ The more he listened, the more his expression drew into something inherently sad. His hands tensing up, one into a fist and the other tightening around his water bottle slightly. Of course he'd overheard that argument of theirs; mostly since it hadn't been quiet and he'd also been just a couple steps behind Hiyori when it'd happened.

Everyone was stressed out and unable to really get away from it all. So it meant lashing out and saying things that could come across as abrasive. Whether or not they were seriously meant was left to be seen, but it was obvious to him that Hiyori had a lot on his mind and while he himself wasn't the greatest people person out there?

He had to try. Do something. Anything. ]

You're trying to do all of that on your own and... it's taking a toll on you.

[ Hopefully Hiyori won't get mad at him for saying something like this. He still knew the other had actually seen Dazai's death before it happened and that couldn't have been an easy thing to experience when the situation still happened and hadn't been prevented. Then there was everything else that had happened so far on top of that to consider as well. ]

Rely on someone else and let them help you. I... know it's probably stupid of me to even suggest it but... if you need someone else on your side? I'll try and do what I can to help you, even if I can't protect other people as I might have been able to normally.

[ Exhaling a small breath, Atsushi stood taller and it was a far cry from the broken kid he'd been after that motive announcement. Almost like he'd rediscovered his purpose and knew who he had to fight for. ]

We can definitely get out of this. Please don't float away, Tono-kun. I don't know what I can do to help ground you... but if there's anything I can do? Let me know.

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LET THE GAME BEGIN

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Racial hate crime mention; drowning

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ongoing cw for unhealthy gay thoughts

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