intro

[pinkprismstaff]

You don't remember getting knocked out.

That's the best descriptor for the feeling you experience before you wake up. There's a glittering absence of color to your field of vision, and a sensation that you aren't yourself, you aren't anything in particular. Abruptly, unpleasantly, you wake up in a strange, sunny location. Where that is might vary--laying in a sun chair on the pool deck, draped over the skee-ball machine in the arcade, face down in a cart in the laundry room....or just stretched out in the long, long expanse of sand surrounding the island.

There doesn't seem to be anyone else here, aside from the others who have woken up and have as little clue where they might be as you do. It's a silent, empty island filled with a lot of questions and few clear answers. What you can conclude are a few things: that you don't get hungry or tired, that any wounds you have don't seem to either heal or worsen, and leaving the island doesn't seem to be possible.

Maybe it would be good to meet with the others who have woken up?

Comments

[compendiem]

[ He's... yeah. Okay. He'll nod very very slowly so none of the salt water drips off his bangs, and his hands get safely stowed away inside his pants pocket. ]

Ready.

[photoning]

...you know there's a lot of extra stuff in seawater, you'll need to rinse it with actual shampoo at some point.

[Sigh. Well, it's time for the slideshow. Mahiru does this patiently. There's not exactly special information in here, any more than anyone wandering around could find, but she's done a good job in the photography itself. The four corners of the rooms, where they are relative to the sun and sand, is clearly understood.]

[compendiem]

When I find some...

[ Here he thought he could just air dry and be good for now.

He looks intently at the photos though, both the content and the composition. ]

Are you documenting the entire building?

[photoning]

[Mahiru shrugs.]

It's not that big when you know what you're doing. [It makes her feel more confident to consider the arcade, bar, and restaurant to comprise a relatively small number of areas, three.] Though I have to admit I haven't looked into every nook and cranny.

[She... hopes... that passageways don't turn out to be important the way that they are in a certain genre of crime... but better to know and not need it than need it and not know.]

[compendiem]

It's a start. And it's a comfort, when somebody knows what their doing.

[ oh thank god nobody is going to look towards him for competence in this place ]

I could let you know if I come across anything interesting. Or would you rather find everything yourself? For fun. Or something.

[photoning]

Well, the truth is that I'm a photographer. I should tell you properly - my name is Mahiru Koizumi. I hope we can get along.

[She feels a little awkward admitting that...]

You can do the heavy lifting! If you like the idea of being a team.

[compendiem]

Minato Arisato. I'll... do my best.

[ "heavy lifting" please, he's the wrong protag for that ]

I do like the idea of being on a team, though. Probably for the best, in a place like this.

[photoning]

Yeah, pretty much everyone I've met here has been interested in working together.

[EVEN THE MAFIOSO COUGH COUGH.]

So you really don't happen to remember anything relevant z right?

[compendiem]

[ That's good. Better than his own team who, largely, fought together out of convenience. A common goal sure does wonders ]

I don't think so... I remember falling asleep at school, and then... here.

[photoning]

[Ah.

Haha.

Hahahahahahaha.]

I wasn't asleep exactly, but, yeah, it happened to me all at once too. No idea why.

[compendiem]

[ haha! yeah! school elicits that sort of reaction ]

What happened to you? If you remember anything.

[photoning]

[She spends some time unsure how to phrase this. But.]

It was like a loading screen for a second. Where I was stuck in the middle of space.

[compendiem]

Huh...

[ He's trying to imagine it, but it's difficult ]

Was it all black...? With a large glowing golden thing?

[photoning]

No. It wasn't that deep. It was more like a feeling.

[compendiem]

Like... where you're falling asleep, but you're still awake?

[photoning]

Sort of.

[Hm.]

Everything here being so quiet feels that way too. Like one of those dreams where you realize after you wake up that your subconscious didn't fill in all the details.

[compendiem]

I don't usually remember my dreams, but... I get what you're saying.

[photoning]

You should try it sometime! [She's gotten pretty animated in the conversation as they're walking around with their photos of whatever.] It might seem backwards, but remembering your dreams is a great way to avoid getting caught too bad in nightmares.

[compendiem]

What if all your dreams are nightmares?

[ his life's a nightmare, his dream's a nightmare, sometimes a guy wants to be wholly unconscious for 14 hours just to get away from it all ]

[photoning]

...then it's all the more important.

If you're having nightmares all the time, it might be because when you fall asleep, you feel like you're giving up control. When you realize the patterns, it's not as scary.

[The shadow fades away from Mahiru's face.]

Oh, I don't mean to meddle, though. It's just something my friends and I talk about a lot.