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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

i am not okay with this

[exequte]

[Akane walks in on her after she's had a good little while to fiddle with her watch and is Alarmed by this sight. Why is she Alarmed? Excellent question, maybe she'll eventually explain.]

B-be careful!

[threwabone]

[Freezing for a moment as she looks up for moment, more confused at the alarm.]

It's...a watch?

[Even if it's stuck, it's not really doing much.]

[exequte]

It's a watch that Zero put on all of us. And if we're already supposed to die, then... if we break the rules...

[She bites her lip.]

I think... I think maybe they only come off if your heart stops. That's how it was before, anyway... but... if- if you tried to force it off it... penalized you. So it might not be smart to try. I don't know what these ones do, yet, but if it's the same....

[threwabone]

...huh?

[That's the most Akane is getting for a response immediately. Both because that's a lot of information to digest, and that type of info is...stressful, to put it lightly.]

[exequte]

[IT SURE HECKIN IS]

That's how it was where I was... um... before I woke up.

[threwabone]

Ah.

[...wait-]

YOU WERE IN SOMETHING LIKE THIS BEFORE?!

[exequte]

Yes...

[Oh hey look she has a red bracelet that's almost identical to the grey one.]

It... I woke up there earlier... today... but then I woke up here instead.

[threwabone]

That's...

[Terrible? Awful? Horrible? No good? Very bad? A day?]

That's pretty much the second worst thing I've ever heard.

Are...you okay? Do you need to sit down?

[How does one broach this sort of topic, she has no idea.]

[exequte]

[That statement surprises her, then makes her smile, just a little, partially because- well, what else can you do in this sort of situation, right?]

Do I even want to know what the worst thing is?

[threwabone]

Depends on if you can suspend your disbelief.

[exequte]

Are you really sure I'd need to? After all, look at everything that's happened today.

[threwabone]

I mean like...

[No getting around it, is there.]

Supernatural stuff? Ghosts and things like that.

[exequte]

I'm still not sure that would require a suspension of disbelief. There have been thousands of people who have believed in various paranormal phenomenon over the years, after all. It seems arrogant to assume that mankind understands everything in the universe, and even moreso to assume that anyone who did believe in the supernatural were wrong.

And I do believe in ghosts, anyway.

[threwabone]

I...guess? It's still weird to think about.

Anyway, you get to be validated, because I actually know one. A girl named Emily, who saw her parents murdered before getting chased by their murderer and falling to her death into a hole.

[It's kind of hard to beat that, in terms of worst things to happen to a person.]

[exequte]

That's terrible. A lot of the stories say that ghosts get created by traumatic events... No wonder she became a ghost.

[There is a long, long pause.]

There was-

A girl who I... used to know, once, died in an incinerator. I wonder if she became a ghost, too?

[threwabone]

...

[One, how fucking awful, dear lord.

Two, how do you respond to that.]

I...I'm sorry to hear about that.

I...guess it's possible? With how Emily worked, though, I'm not entirely sure.

[exequte]

[She shakes her head a little as she pulls away from old memories, takes a deep breath, and then makes herself smile, just a little.]

Sorry. I guess that's not very relevant at the moment. I'm...

It's been a... long day?

[The last words are almost with a little laugh because how inadequate the words are, in the end, but she has none that she can think of that seem better suited to this moment.]

I, um...

Before I came here one of the other people who was with me said it might not be wise to give out our real information just... in case. I don't know if you already have, but... call me Violet? For now, anyway.

[threwabone]

That's...fair, I guess.

[Finding yourself in a situation like this, only to wake up in an entirely different one? It's not a situation she envies, to say the least.]

I think we might be fine there? Might be the least of our problems, really.

But in case it's not, I guess...it's nice to meet you Violet. I'm...

[Uh, what's something cool off the top of her head, she has the watch, the light is pink, kind of a certain shade, makes her think of a book character almost-]

Madge. For now.

[exequte]

I know.

[She sighs, just a little.]

It's probably useless, because Zero probably already knows all about every one of us, given... given what happened, but if it ever turns out that we were random victims and that would have given them information they didn't already have I'd feel pretty stupid for not trying. I don't think it can hurt, anyway.

[threwabone]

It's possible. At the very least, I don't see why I would get picked to go through this.

[She is like, the most normal person here.

Apart from the ghost thing.

Even then though, it's not as notable as robots and demons and death game survivors and vampire hunting church officials and whatever could be interesting about the purple haired guy.]

[exequte]

I'm not even sure how I got taken. The ship that we were on before... it was like this one, but it was already sinking.

[threwabone]

...do you think we're going to have to worry about that?

[exequte]

We weren't told about a time limit, so I hope not. Zero--the person who did this there called themselves Zero too--told us we had nine hours before, um. Before I woke up here.

[threwabone]

Well, let's hope this creep isn't like that one. We haven't heard anything, but this ship seems stable.

[She thinks it is. This is more or less the first time she's ever been on a boat.]

[exequte]

I really hope so too, because at the moment I'm not really sure what we could do about it if they decided to do something. There's... not very many places we can go on here.