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

[photoning]

Oh. Oh... Haha... I guess it's a lot faster than me walking down to the beach through the building... Sure...

[She realizes that his reasoning derived from her concern. They're in the same situation. Sure. She listens thoughtfully to his words, though they raise a lot of questions.]

An ability?? Like what, a superpower?? ["Inou" versus "chounou" is not a large leap of logic considering the physical jumps that she's now seen.] I... I have to admit that being trapped makes sense to me too. [She hates the unrealistic idea of being stuck in a special environment, but it does strike her as plausible. She pipes up with additional evidence in favor of this:] They put me right here on the balcony. [That'd be a pretty weird choice for a normal kidnapping. Furthermore, someone as considerate as Mahiru probably wouldn't have decided to yell off the ledge, without that catalyst.]

[kurohato]

My thoughts exactly.

[He nods.] Well...superpower is the most basic way to put it, yes. That's it. [He thumbs back.] A little man [yes he's a crechure but he's also a little man. just a lil guy] named Sonic and I tried to get to the forest, and we could not. He tried to run through it, and it simply just spat him back out. And yes, the space they've designated us is quite open-ended....whoever is doing this has to be confident in their plan.

[photoning]

[Her eyes gaze into the ocean as she listens, its similar boundlessness, before politely returning to the man's general direction.]

...I'm Mahiru Koizumi, so you know. I'm a photographer, but it's not a special skill or anything. So it's not like I have some way to sense the type of place we're in for sure. I don't want to assume anything... We should definitely be careful here.

[She's got a very specific theory about their circumstances, but, heck, this guy's coat is all glowy and everything. It could still be mere technology, but might as well not offend him too much, nor assume she knows how it works.]

[kurohato]

Ryuunosuke Akutagawa of the Port Mafia. Akutagawa is fine. [he says that without thinking too hard about it. Most people at home know who he is. Most people know to avoid him. Or else.]

I cannot sense what's going on, either, apart from making educated guesses. But I suppose working together towards the goal of going home may make things slightly easier.

[slightly. cough cough.]

[photoning]

[Port Mafia? It doesn't ring a bell which is strange considering what a dark shadow the yakuza has cast over her life. Honestly, he's probably used to this barely repressed growl: "What the hell? A mafioso? Get that monster away from me!" She is in no place to judge, though. She's lucky no one recognizes her either, like Kurumi said...]

Akutagawa, then.

[The unusual nature of the name catches more clearly when spoken in her own mouth. But it's not worth dwelling on.]

I agree. We should all investigate, cover more ground, and then base our theories on whatever hard evidence we find. [A bit dry.] I hope we don't have to stay here long enough to work together on other things, but it might come to that.

[kurohato]

That's all we can do for now. Perhaps we should all gather to share our theories later somewhere, too. Could progress things faster. [Akutagawa muses.] At meal time or something, maybe.

[...he lets a barely repressed snort go at that last sentence.]

Your sentiment is shared, Miss Koizumi. But fate does what it must. The ire must be spent on our captors instead.

[photoning]

Something like breakfast tomorrow morning could make a lot of sense. [A surprisingly grounded idea from the gangster supervillain.] If we don't just stumble upon an exit today and holler until everyone finds it. Then might as well wait until tomorrow to give everyone time to be told about it.

[And reassure each other that they all made it through the night...]