And with the sweat of your brow...

[bathymetric]

Fun Fact: Did you know that if the multiverse is real, there could be an almost infinite square mileage of completely unexplored ocean out there?

No reason.

...

You wake in one of 25 rooms with a sense of unease that doesn't quite track with how nice the accommodations are. Maybe it has something to do with the giant window leading out to the sea. The temperature is low, which might make you wish you had woken up under the luxurious covers instead of atop them. The lights, too, are low. But next to your bed is a small personal radio, and it's playing a song for you. There's also a small note printed on folded cardstock next to it.

Dear Prospective Citizen,

Welcome to the Helios Suites at New Rapture. The time should currently be 12:00 PM. Please take a moment to get your bearings and become acquainted with your new environment, then meet in the hotel lobby at 1:30 PM sharp for an orientation with Mayor Fontaine.

With only that for guidance, there's only the one thing to do: get out there and start exploring... well, it's hardly a full city, but it's something! And in the halls (or on the wall of your suite or the lobby), you very well may find up to 24 other captives.

What you do until your meeting with Mayor Fontaine, well... that's up to you. Every room certainly gives you something to talk about.

Comments

[pairtner]

It's not Lemuria either!

[This guy immediately gets to the top of Aiba's 'please don't make me talk to him for long' list.]

I find likelier a criminal took advantage of this place being abandoned and decided to hold us imprisoned here. Criminals using abandoned locations happens often, and sometimes without needing that much money.

[sixthnonsense]

[Hagakure's skeptical of that theory at first, but he does give it some thought...]

How'd they even find it, though? If this is an abandoned secret lair, the previous owner probably pulled out all the stops to keep it from bein' found.

...Maybe it was a rival evil billionaire. They've got that kinda power.

[pairtner]

If it's abandoned you wouldn't need to assign it much protection. Haven't you heard about squatters and urban explorers? People finding abandoned complexes is nothing new.

[Although...]

But that doesn't negate that it could be a billionaire.

[Billionaires can go exploring and taking over places too, after all]

[sixthnonsense]

'course I have. I've been a squatter before, I know the whole song and dance. I dunno, this just doesn't seem like your ordinary abandoned complex though?

[These rooms sure look nicely kept, for one thing.]

[pairtner]

True enough, I suppose.

[Oh well. Enough playing around, she figures. There's something she has to wonderrrrr...]

Is being in this underwater city what concerns you the most?

[Maybe this man hasn't seen the rules and how they encourage murder. She doesn't plan to tell him about them, but hey, seeing how he answers to this may hint what his priorities and thoughts are, she supposes]

[sixthnonsense]

I mean...no? The "how" and "why" is pretty concerning too, obviously. I'm getting a real sense of deja vu and I don't like it one bit.

[pairtner]

[Oh, good. A somewhat sensible response, Aiba seems relieved for a moment]

What part of it brings you deja vu? Is it something you can talk about?

[sixthnonsense]

'cause this is the second time I've woken up in an unfamiliar spot with a bunch of other people. That note in my room, too... I got a real bad feeling about it but I don't wanna be right.

[pairtner]

That's very alarming.

[But...it's a precedent! Aiba is very interested, looking at him with intensity]

How did the first time turn out?

[There's no guarantee this is the same situation than whatever happened to Yasuhiro, but having a frame of reference could help, she thinks. It's a starting point and she urgently needs some direction besides 'yeah this is all pretty bad probably']

[sixthnonsense]

Uhh... Well, not great?

[An understatement.]

I was trapped in a killing game with my classmates, and only six of us got out alive.

[For all of the nonsense he has spouted before this, there's a sense that he's being seriously genuine here. It's...not exactly something anyone would just make up.]

[pairtner]

[...given the rules, things already may be going in this direction. Oh, the potential scenarios she can foresee hint nothing good -- very few that could end with everyone surviving. Not good, not good]

...at the risk of bringing up painful memories for you, how did you manage to escape such a situation?

[sixthnonsense]

It's okay, it's all still kinda fresh honestly...

[So it could be worse! Aiba's not reopening any wounds. They haven't even had a chance to heal.]

We survived long enough to force the mastermind into revealing herself, and beat her at her own game.

[Note: Hagakure was not this smart, but he gave moral support(?) okay.]

[pairtner]

[He's the heart of the team, that was his role in the survivor party. The tales about hamburger abduction were pivotal in keeping morale up]

Looks like that, unless there's a twist up ahead, the mastermind will reveal himself in one hour and nineteen minutes. What's the next step?

[How do you defeat the mastermind at her own game? At least Aiba is listening to him seriously -- she has already taken decisions about his reliability because she's judgmental like that, leave the man and his Atlantis/Lemuria beliefs alone, Aiba -- but this seems to apply to their current situation. Of course she would take him seriously now, yup]

[sixthnonsense]

[Thank you Nick, you absolutely get it.

Hagakure blinks in surprise as he remembers what the slip of paper said, and thinks hard about it...]

I guess it depends on if he reveals himself in person or not? 'cause the Mastermind used a creepy bear AI to deal with us until we got her to show herself in front of us.