WEEK 0 — ARRIVAL

[cartesio]

Week 0: Arrival

When you wake up you immediately feel something’s off. You sit on the bed and find it’s not your bed, and this isn’t your room either. You seem to be in a rather normal-looking motel room. To your side there’s a trunk, if you open it you’ll find a military uniform, the key to your room, a set of rules and a debit card. Don’t lose those items! Or do lose the rules, you'll find a brand new copy the next day under your pillow. There’s also a calendar on the wall, you can see today’s date. The year is unreadable, but the month and day are very clear:

March 28^th
There it says ‘Meet the Sergeant at the Lodge, 9:00 AM’. There’s also a circle around March 31st, with the word ‘END’ scrawled there.

For now leaving your motel room would be a good choice. When you reach the lobby, you see the receptionist’s desk— no one’s manning it. There’s a rack filled with maps, marking several locations in the town.

There are also many strangers here – and you’re one more. For now it may be a good idea to take a map and explore the town.

After all, looks like you’re stuck here in the boonies for a while.

Links

IC Rules
Room Assignments
Locations
Tasks (LOCKED currently)

March 28^th
March 29^th
March 30^th

Comments

[theserpentsmiles]

[When Nagisa stumbles out of his room, he's both very dazed and very focused at the same time, with no in-between, with his nose tucked in the rule booklet. He's already read it five times. He continues reading it repeatedly, stuck in his own little world, as he walks through the motel. Evidently he's aware enough of his surroundings to smoothly step around any obstacles and people.

He only stops once he's outside, looking up and giving his surroundings a careful once-over. One may be able to note his eyes are kind of red, too.]

Is this...America?

[clearities]

I don't know... but the words do look like it's in English, doesn't it? But are you okay? [She notices his slightly red eyes and she's concerned in spite of the fact that this is the first time they've spoken.]

[theserpentsmiles]

[Crying all night will do that, you know? But when he glances over, he smiles.]

It's definitely English. [Could be Britain, though, right? Or Australia. He doesn't know, he's more familiar with foreign cities than countryside...he's been out of Japan on a few rare occasions.] I'm alright. What about you? Do you know how we got here?

[clearities]

[Sakura's never been outside of her area, either-- she isn't all that familiar with foreign cities, either.]

I'm okay, too, but... I don't know how we got here. I'm sorry.

[theserpentsmiles]

It's alright. I didn't think they'd be that careless, but it never hurts to check. [She's younger than him, isn't she? He'll try to avoid saying anything too distressing, even if he's starting to put together an alarming picture.]

[clearities]

I didn't think so, either. [She's definitely younger. But she's a little concerned herself, but she's trying really hard not to be scared as she puts her hands together.] But you're right. We should at least check.

[theserpentsmiles]

Maybe someone else remembers something... I was pretty tired last night, so I could have slept through a lot. [A short pause.] My name is Nagisa Shiota. What's yours?

[agoreable]

[ Here's yet another Japanese teen with similar confusion. She nods slowly. ]

It looks extremely American. You're not supposed to be here either?

[theserpentsmiles]

No, I was... I was in my classroom, in Japan. [Which gets gears turning in his head. There aren't a lot of ways to cross the Pacific...] Do you remember anything about arriving here?

[agoreable]

[ She shakes her head. ]

No, I was on a bus - also in Japan, we were heading into the mountains. Maybe I fell asleep on the bus..? But nobody who was part of the same tour seems to be around here.

[theserpentsmiles]

None of my classmates are here, either... But it would've been pretty hard for anyone to get there, my classroom is kind of isolated.

[But why him? Out of all the students, why take the smallest guy? He's only been targeted once before, and that problem has been solved for a while now. The reasoning is a pretty unsettling feeling.]

[agoreable]

We were heading to an unknown destination ourselves and our plan was supposed to be secret. Unless the organizer lied. [ She shudders at that thought. ]

I don't understand why anyone would want to grab me at all.

[theserpentsmiles]

['Unknown destination'. 'Secret plan'. 'Organizer'. Those aren't phrases just anyone has cause to drop, but at the same time - why drop them to a stranger? He observes the other carefully - musculature, stance, clothing. He'll search for tells later. He's going to want to know exactly who he's surrounded by, here.]

I'm definitely not the most impressive of my classmates...and I'm not a big deal, like my teachers. [Unless their captors happen to know about his special skills. Hm. That's troubling.]

[streetwolf]

...How the fuck would we get to America?

[Don't swear around the tinys!]

[theserpentsmiles]

[It's fine, he calls one of his teachers Bitch-sensei. And she's said worse.]

I don't know... It depends. I can think of a couple ways.

[streetwolf]

What? Like they knocked us out and shoved us on a plane?

[theserpentsmiles]

That's one. It would take a lot of detailed advance planning, though...or at least a very private aircraft capable of crossing the Pacific. [Not the easiest feat.]

[streetwolf]

So we're probably dealing with some rich guys... Rich guys that are okay with picking up a load of randoms and kids and dumping them in the middle of nowhere.

[He tilts his head down to look. You okay kid?]

[theserpentsmiles]

Rich, or very well-connected...government-level, maybe. If this is America, possibly multinational. ...If we can figure out who, we'll have a better guess at why, and if we find out why, we'll have a good idea of who.

[A-okay! Already working on figuring out the situation. He is, if anything, difficult to rattle.]

[snailedit]

You're from out of the country, huh?

[Mira crosses her arms as she muses out loud.]

This could still be part of Nevada, where I was last... though it's almost weirder if that's the case, [she mutters the last bit.]

[theserpentsmiles]

Yeah, Japan.

[Nevada... He doesn't know the rural parts of America well. Only sort of, from a couple of pictures and books. This isn't good, getting back to Japan would be much easier from a city.]

Weirder how?

[snailedit]

Well, because the last I remember, it was New Years' Day, not towards the end of March. I was planning to go back home just then, so there's no reason to still be here if it's true. But randomly winding up in the US from Japan has to be even weirder.

[theserpentsmiles]

Huh...? New Years? It was the twelfth of March, last I knew...

[This. This paints a very foreboding image.]

[snailedit]

So I'm missing a lot more time than you, but you're still a bit off...

[If he had just said it was the 28th for him, she would think that there had just been more to the time tricks at the underground shelter than she was informed of. But this is rather strange now.]

[theserpentsmiles]

It seems so... [Karasuma-sensei and his classmates have to be trying to find him. Right? It's been less than a month, so it's alright that they haven't found him yet. Unless they've all been taken elsewhere, too.

It wouldn't surprise him a bit.]

We should see if anyone else has a discrepancy, and how much of one. Maybe we can figure something out based on that.