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

[incrediblystressedout]

[Sorry if she's focusing on that instead of speaking directly to Ren. She has no idea what it is but it's adorable.]

Yeah! It looks like you just step on spots to a rhythm, so like...not professional dance training? But it beats the heck out of a joystick and four buttons, honestly.

[steelmagnolias]

[ He can't exactly figure out what the hell she's even saying, and he'd rather not look like an idiot by making assumptions, so instead he takes his cane and gives it a hearty tap into one of the arrows.

Then he'll study the attract mode screen on one of the machines a bit. ]

[incrediblystressedout]

[Well that's a little odd, but...hey why does he have a cane? He's not blind and she's pretty sure she hasn't spotted him limping. He seems to be the oldest person here, but her own Pa's like in his eighties or something and he still lugs around giant blunderbusses unaided.]

[She takes a step back out of his sight.]

Hey Mr. Sanzashi?

[steelmagnolias]

[ It takes a few seconds beore Ren registers that Joey's even there, but once he sees her, he calls out. ]

Joey-chan?

[incrediblystressedout]

[She looks directly at him.]

I'm going to be the big old clueless girl here, but...are you hard of hearing?

[steelmagnolias]

That's putting it lightly.

[ He taps at his left ear a bit before continuing. ]

Hard-of-hearing kind of suggests something's there in the first place.

[incrediblystressedout]

Wow, really? Are you reading my lips? Because you're really good at it. I didn't even notice...which is weird, because I'm not used to people looking at me when I talk.

[Maybe she was just enjoying the sensation.]

[steelmagnolias]

I've been like this since I was about your age.

[ So, he's had years of experience. ]

It was a little difficult at first; mostly I had to get by passing a notebook back and forth whenever I wanted to have a serious conversation. Sounds a little obvious, but they didn't have phones like the ones Coach-chan gave us back when I was a kid.

[ It was the 70s. I mean, from their last conversation, it's established that Ren would most likely have been born sometime in the early 60s.

Which is why he was honestly relieved that a feature like that existed someplace in the multiverse. ]

[incrediblystressedout]

They don't have phones like these when I'm a kid, but I guess you've gathered that.

Hm. You're from Japan, right? I guess you don't know American Sign Language?

[steelmagnolias]

[ Thankfully, his lipreading fails to pick up the "Japan" bit, but he looks just a little confused here. Although... ]

No, I really don't. I know how to sign a little, but...

...actually, what language are we speaking right now?

[ He seriously doubts Joey knows any Japanese. ]

[incrediblystressedout]

Uh...English? I don't know any other languages.

[There's probably a reference to be made here but I think this week's just about tapped out for the humor potential there by now.]

[steelmagnolias]

...sure as shit isn't what I'm speaking right now.

You think it's some psychic mumbo-jumbo?

[incrediblystressedout]

I'm not sure I believe any of that in the first place, but it's a good stand-in for an actual explanation, sure. This place makes my head hurt...

[steelmagnolias]

It's giving me a headache. I know it's possible in my world, though.

[incrediblystressedout]

In your world? So you just...have psychic people who can communicate with whoever around?

[At this point that still seems a bit duck-with-onion.]

[steelmagnolias]

Not a whole lot, but yes.

[incrediblystressedout]

That sounds like the kind of thing my brother makes up.

Then again so does everything that's happened lately, so.

[steelmagnolias]

I promise you, it's real thing.

Considering we're trapped in some kind of bizarro mall, is it so hard to believe?