15strangers | WAKE UP TIME

WAKE UP TIME

[The first thing you feel when you wake up is...nothing.

You don't feel much different at all when you wake up, no doubt from a very pleasant sleep, even if you may not remember what you dreamed of. If anything, you would have thought it was another normal day.

That thought would have vanished the moment you took in your surroundings. This is not your bed, this is definitely not your bedroom, and well, this is definitely not your home. In fact, this place isn't anywhere you've been before.

Before you can question anything much further, your cell phone starts beeping, flashing a message on the screen for a good several minutes, before flashing your profile, also for a few minutes. Yes, now you have a Title, and a power, even if you've never had one before. And yes, you have a cell phone. Even if you didn't have one, and don't know what the hell a cell phone is. You get the feeling you'll need to keep it on you.

The profile fades back to the home page of your phone - don't worry, you can still access your profile, and everyone else's, on that little lime icon if you really want - even though you have so many questions now. (The help button may... attempt to be helpful in that case.) Where the hell are you? Why do you have a Title? And can you get out?

Perhaps, if you're strong enough. But, in any case.

Welcome, Titled.

There are fifteen strangers in this place.]

((OOC: Welcome!

If you haven't filled out the resident profile or current residents information yet, please do so!))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

No, I'm afraid I'm from the U S of A. I travel for my work, but I've never been there. [He flaps his hands, dismissing his own point; it is kind of a shame.] I'd feel a lot better if some other Japanese guy backed you up on that, but whatever... Let's say I take your word for it. What makes this your jurisdiction, again? For one thing, this is apparently an international crime. Are we even in Japan?

That much, I have yet to ascertain. But even if this is outside of my jurisdiction, do you mean to suggest that I should simply sit back and allow events to unfold when I have skills that may be of use? Do you also intend to passively await rescue from whatever the local authorities may be, without even being certain if they're aware of the crime at all?

I didn't say any of that. But I'm sure jumping to conclusions is a great thing to do when you're a detective.

[He starts counting off arguments by pointing at each of his fingers, getting all the way to the thumb.]

First of all, my point is just that I don't think we need to reveal our private information to each other. That's it.
Second of all, isn't there so much other stuff you could do as a detective? I'm not telling you to not detect.
The third thing. Apparently we were either kidnapped one at a time and left in sedation to wake up at the same time, or else they kidnapped. If it was just a few people over a long time, we're already doing pretty bad on the local authorities finding out about it fast enough. If it's a larger organization that could do it all at once? They could probably bribe the authorities. My money's on that one given how much of their money went into renting or building this place.
Fourth, those people must have had some way of getting us in and out of here. It's not like they'd lock themselves up with us. What's so bad about looking for that before we try to solve big mysteries?
Finally? If it'll make you really happy to hear. No, I don't know any of these other people from before. Their faces, their names, jack shit. So forgive me if I think there's a low chance it'll help me to talk about myself with you guys.

It's hardly as though I intended to ask for personal secrets. My intention was simply to ascertain whether or not there might be some form of connection between us. It seems you were the one jumping to conclusions, assuming I was going to be asking for private details and being entirely uncooperative based off of that. I'm not certain what you expected me to believe your expectation was, with that behavior.

Your third point is precisely why I don't expect much outside assistance. If the local authorities weren't aware of the kidnapping in the first place, or if they were simply uninterested in acting, it's unlikely that situation will change now.

Fourth, that may work if we hoped to simply sneak out undetected. But how would we guarantee, in such a situation, that we wouldn't be pursued? If they were capable of abducting us in the first place, I expect they have the resources to hunt us down if they noticed our escape.

As for your last point, I hope you realize that us refusing to cooperate with one another is precisely what our captors want. The less familiar we are with each other, the easier it would be for someone unscrupulous to rationalize killing another to escape, don't you think? It takes a far worse person to kill a well-known acquaintance than to kill a complete stranger.

[Dio is kind of tilting his head along through most of Akechi's rebuttal. He might be pouting that it doesn't contradict what he said, or nodding that it's actually a good point, and so on. It's his last point that apparently irritates Dio, and he makes an ugly smirk, perhaps trying to get a rise out of Akechi on some level.]

A far worse person? I don't know what kind of well-known acquaintance you're going to be making in this place unless it's gonna take months for anyone to crack. If push comes to shove earlier, I don't see how there would be such a big difference. And hey, aren't a lot of people murdered by someone they know, anyway? This sounds a lot like your front to look better when you murder someone who thought they were your pal. Maybe our captors want that too. These people have to be hoping they snagged victims who let down their defenses, just as much as people who would pull the trigger.

Murders between those who are familiar with one another ordinarily have motives beyond convenience, unless the perpetrator is some form of sociopath. Greed, anger, jealousy...those emotions generally drive such breaches of trust. However, when you know nothing about someone else, it becomes easier to dehumanize them, and thus you see violent acts committed for far pettier reasons.

But if you're unwilling to share even the basics of yourself with others, I can see why you might consider it moot. It is rather difficult to learn enough of someone to regard them sympathetically if they deliberately close themselves off.

Oh, so you accept how we're in some heavily reinforced enclosure that we probably can't escape right away, but you don't think anyone's going to feel "jealous" or "angry"? When we're trapped away from our actual lives and families and friends? That doesn't sound like any human nature I ever heard of! [It's really making him slightly laugh.] So please, tell me why I would even want to try and get "regarded sympathetically" in a place like this.

Angry at our captors, certainly. But turning that anger against one another is senseless and entirely counterproductive. Unless you're of the opinion that this is somehow the fault of your fellow victims, or that the rest of us are any better off in this situation than you are, I don't see why you would consider it reasonable to want to kill one another for those reasons.

......

[Glancing away for a second, Dio heaves a long sigh. It's finally sinking in that he probably looks really bad to Akechi.]

I'm just saying when there's a murder it's not always about sense and reason. At all. And those are hard to come by when shit happens all of a sudden like it did to us. So if you're really serious about this murderer foiling business... you catch my drift, right?

["Then think like one" would sound a little too creepy out loud.]

[Yeah, kinda.]

I'm aware that some may lash out in a panicked state, but wouldn't you consider that another reason to speak to the people here? Either to calm those who may consider doing something foolish out of fear, or to gain an understanding of those who may be callous enough to attack someone while calm enough to make proper plans in order to predict what they might do. Ignoring one another beyond what interactions are necessary while trapped in a confined space would simply give a potential killer more opportunity, as well as make it more difficult to identify them in the worst case scenario.

Oho! Let's set aside the logistics of how much easier it is to kill someone who wanders out of their own locked bedroom; I'll let you have that one, nobody has got the time to case the joint yet. But what's your plan to make someone calm down? Read them a picture book? I'm all ears.

WAKE UP TIME

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