WEEK 1

[strangerpeople]

WEEK 1

[You now know why you're here, Titled. The question now is, is there a way to get out of here without invoking the rules? What will those who brought you here do to get you to kill?

Time will tell.

There are fifteen strangers in this place.]

Comments

Joey

[incrediblystressedout]

[Now that the initial shock has worn off, there's no immediately obvious danger, and going back to sleep hasn't caused her to bolt awake from a nightmare, it's time to get serious about exploring this place.]

[First, there's clothes and other supplies. The GREEN STAR T is obviously her favorite piece of non-dance-shoe clothing ever, and it's paired quite fashionably and practically with her overshirt, skirt, and legwarmers, but she can't wear that every day. Not when she actually has to interact with people, anyway. Therefore she can be found wandering 1E window-shopping at the clothing stores.]

I don't think I've ever had this many options before. The only thing that'd be better is like...a machine that changed your look whenever you wanted it to. I mean, that's impossible, but it's the only way I could get through everything I wanted to look at here...

[Unless someone interrupts her, though, she's just going to settle on something boring from Basic Brown's Ms. rack for now. She has no idea how long this money is going to need to last, after all.]


[For lunch, Joey will head to the food court and immediately get distracted by the video games in Barcade before she has a chance to eat.]

Oh wow, they have everything here. Pac-man, racing games...ugh, gun games, ninja games...wait, what's that? It's...it's beautiful...

[Someone has found Dance Dance Revolution, or some equivalent, and may now need to be force-fed lunch.]


[Once that's over with, though, she's going to put some extra thought into getting out of here before anyone decides to get their stab on. Not that she doesn't trust these random people she met yesterday, but obviously, everyone wants to leave, and she should do her part, right? She decides that Mosaic in the food court looks mightly suspicious, and starts poking around the tarp. She's not quite gutsy enough to poke around too much in an Under Construction area without a buddy or a pursuing monster, though.]

Barcade

[foolishjustice]

[Akechi didn't so much get distracted, as wander into the Barcade while looking around the food court. It's not as though he intends to actually play anything...not while anyone's around to see, anyway. But he can look around...and spot someone staring at the DDR machine like it's God's gift from Heaven.]

Is this the first time you've seen a dancing rhythm game?

[incrediblystressedout]

Trust me, if they had something like this where I come from, I'd have traded my consoles in for quarters in a second. It doesn't look like it's 100% "legit" dancing or whatever, but still, this is a solid two out of three of my main interests in one thing.

[foolishjustice]

They're common fixtures of malls, where I'm from. Not that I've ever played, myself...I'm far too busy with school and work for such distractions when I'm out shopping.

[incrediblystressedout]

You're um...sorry if I'm assuming, but you're Japanese, right? I've heard the arcades over there are incredible! Which makes sense when you consider that all the major video game companies are...sorry. I'm rambling about stuff you know better than me.

Hi, I'm Joey.

Barcade

[thegreenhornet]

...what? It's just the DDR machine. You never saw one in person before?

[incrediblystressedout]

I've never even heard of it. But it looks like a dream come true.

[Just four positions but it's a video game. She's not expecting Full Tap Consequences here.]

[thegreenhornet]

[Right. Britt looks between Joey and the machine]

Give it a try, see if you're good at that. Shouldn't be too hard.

[incrediblystressedout]

I guess...yeah. Trying to find tap shoes first would probably just break it, so...

[brb wandering over to the machine now to try it out. She's never heard of these songs, but that shouldn't matter, right?]

Mosaic

[byanyother_name]

I take it you think there's something odd about this area, as well.

[If she's looked at it, his profile says he is Shuuichi Minamino. He seems friendly enough, and fairly calm despite their situation. He offers her a small, pleasant smile as he approaches her.]

I've wondered, when everything else is so thorough, why this space is unfinished.

[incrediblystressedout]

[She's looked at his profile and is now internally cursing the lack of a gender indicator on it when she hears his voice. Wow, that's a pretty man.]

Um. Yeah. The whole place kinda looks like it was redone recently, I think? Maybe this was the last thing they were working on.

[byanyother_name]

[Unfair! 'Being mistaken for a girl' is listed in the dislikes. Though that might not be the first place anyone looks for a gender indicator.]

It does. Many things seem new. That this was the last thing they worked on makes sense, but why leave it like this until our arrival? It seems suspicious.

[incrediblystressedout]

Well, I'm used to artwork just kinda being piled haphazardly around the place, but that's probably just me. And like, statues, not big installation art like this thing, either. Maybe they ran out of money?

barcade

[theirmagic]

[ ... Yeah, she's looking at them too, and-- ]

... I understand how you feel, the gun games are always so visceral and violent. It'd be much better to just have magical training...

[ She sighs. ]

I think that one is a Dancing Game. I've played them once or twice when I used to go to malls like this back home. My parents always used to complain it ate up all my allowance, h-ha...

[incrediblystressedout]

I won't even touch the things. Even toy ones. There's just...too many of them.

This dancing game, though...it does look like it has space for two players...

[She's not the master of the suggestive eyebrow waggle, but Joey can manage a pretty good single eyebrow raised in interest.]

[theirmagic]

[ On the one hand, rhythm is actually kind of her thing. On the other: revealing she's actually really talented at this kind of thing and really athletic would be bad. ]

Ohhh, I don't know, I would probably hold you back.

Barcade

[katsufemmefatale]

[Yuuri only emerges from his bedroom cubicle because he's starving. After the shock of waking up here yesterday and talking to the Life Coach, he'd promptly gone back to his space and curled up in bed for the rest of the day. He might have also cried himself out, because today he looks pale and worn out with dark bags under his eyes.

The fast food doesn't appeal to him, and he almost goes to the sushi place except he sees people are already gathering there. He doesn't want to deal with strangers right now, he can barely tolerate the idea of being near the few people he met yesterday. So he wanders into the barcade, figuring maybe he can get a salad or a decent sandwich.

And that's a child staring at the DDR machine. She can't be more than thirteen or fourteen and why did they drag someone that young into this mess?]

Um... are you okay? I mean, you're staring at that pretty hard, but you're really young and why are you here?

[Okay, that was a little muddled, but he's flustered because tiny kid in murder mall.]

[incrediblystressedout]

[Joey's attention is broken after a moment, and she turns to look at this guy, who's asking her if she's okay when he looks like she does after a long string of parent-less holidays and no Jude around the house to not cry for.]

Me? I'm fine, yeah. I was just looking at the dancing video games and wondering why I never thought of one myself.

...are you okay?

[It's a natural question to ask in return, right?]

[katsufemmefatale]

Me? Aha... um... yeah, I'm fine....

[He's gotta be ten years her senior. She doesn't need to be worrying about him, no matter how bad he looks. Taking a deep breath, he turns his attention to the arcade machine.]

They have these in most arcades where I'm from, though it's not really like the dancing I know.

Mosaic

[strangerpeople]

[As Joey is poking around the tarp, and looks at the strangely abstract painting beneath, a thought comes to her head...an amazing interpretation of what she's seeing, one which feels as natural as any thought she may have come by. Even if she's not seeing much of it at the moment.

The colors and style, frenetic and yet uneven, somehow seem like the person who's working on this was drinking. Maybe still drinking. Heck, like if she went back to, for example, the Barcade right now she'd surely find someone there, passed out in a pile of booze, behind the counter. Indeed, the painting feels representative of a Bacchanalia of some sort, one that is still ongoing, much like the creation of this artwork.

It's weird, but it absolutely makes sense now that the idea's in her head! How subversive, especially in this setting, right?]

[incrediblystressedout]

[That's artistically brilliant, using the medium and the piece itself to complement each other, and definitely the sort of abstract thought Joey's used to having randomly pop into her head when regarding random crap around her house. Yep. Definitely a highly evocative work of art here.]

[She has no idea if it's a clue or not, but Joey's going to follow her instincts and go back to the Barcade. Just for a minute, to follow this hunch that is definitely coming from her noted appreciation for fine artwork and not anything fishier.]

[Maybe her babysitter's here, or something.]

>Enter Barcade.

[strangerpeople]

[So far, there seems to be no one else here. But then again, that doesn't mean anything, because obviously no one's looked behind the counter yet.

Worst case scenario, maybe she can help herself to a cola!]

[steelmagnolias]

[ Ren doesn't seem to notice Joey when she first arrives, having come to look at those crane games out of boredom. Then he plays one, and... actually manages to snag something? It looks like a Wooper to him, just...with arms.

He eyes it contemplatively before turning around. ]

Didn't see you there, Joey-chan.

[incrediblystressedout]

There's a tap-dancing game, and someone actually won a crane game. I'm starting to worry the monsters got me and I went to that one Twilight Zone episode where you can't tell which afterlife you're in.

[steelmagnolias]

[ It takes him a while to parse what the hell Joey's even saying, but. ]

...dancing game?

[ He's still got that Wooper with arms in one hand. It's awfully cute. ]