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[strangerpeople]

WELCOME ABOARD


[The first sensation you feel is a headache. It's brief, slicing, sharp. It passes soon after you wake up, but it is there nevertheless, and the pain is not easily forgotten. Perhaps your eyes also blur as if roused from a deep sleep; perhaps your tongue also feels off, like you swallowed a bug. It's not pleasant.

More unpleasant, though, is the second sensation that dawns on you all-this is not your bed. This, in fact, is unrecognizable. It is not anywhere you recall coming to, willingly or otherwise. It's a room with a bunk, and there is a strange smell in the air that is hard to ignore.

No, you are no longer home. Any possessions you may have had on you are gone, save your clothing and a strange watch you can't get off, no matter how hard you try. And when you run into the hallway, well-you might find yourself running into others who might be just as confused and scared as you are as the area around you slowly sways, up and down, left and right.

What is this place? Why are you here? Who are all these other people?


What is going on?]

Comments

[jinglebros]

Oh, I see. So you're moving onto the buffer guy.

[ Aoi snorts. ]

[onychomance]

[He is a bit of a lone wolf, not that he's a big fan of canines however]

Is that so? I'd hate to be a third wheel. [he says very dryly]

But I'd say yes. If nothing else, we all have those wrist pagers on.

[Kira is from the 90s and this is his best approximation]

[yesorwoof]

[Exquisitely neutral:] Funnier guy.

[She looks down at her own bracelet.]

I can't say I'm sure what this device is for. But my roommate actually had a second one. It seemed quite ominous to her.

[jinglebros]

A second one?

[ Now that attracts his attention. ]

[onychomance]

Does she have two different numbers as well?

[The number is what stands out the most about the pager anyway.]

[yesorwoof]

Six and fourteen.

Six is... The one that didn't match, if I recall correctly.

[onychomance]

Interesting.... I already met someone else with the number six on their pager. His number was yellow, too.

[A different color from Aoi and Makima.]

[jinglebros]

Ah, well.

That's. My sister.

[yesorwoof]

Oh.

[Makima turns to Aoi with a delicately poised version of slack-jawed shock.]

"My condolences" doesn't even begin to cover it.

[onychomance]

I take it that would mean you can shed some light on why she has two.

[Since just that was enough for him to recognize her. He hasn't heard Akane's story yet so he doesn't care to react with as much shock as Makima.]

[jinglebros]

....I take it you don't like her.

[ Aoi looks annoyed at this. ]

Yeah, she has two because she was in a game before this.

[yesorwoof]

The opposite. She seemed to be quite disconcerted by our predicament. To have first learned she was missing, then not been reunited with her under safer circumstances, must have been a great hardship for you.

[Expressing sympathy is very hard for Makima and this is what she gets? Okay. She and Kira can team up on glaring some "game" details out of Aoi.]

[onychomance]

The game before this... would that be the one that was referred to on the card?