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

lobby

[honeyedtea]

[ Mielle's been puttering about nearby but when he actually speaks up, she jumps clean out of her skin as though being addressed at all is a surprise. She blinks at him, half-expected a raised voice to follow and when it doesn't, she sort of... straightens herself up a bit, hands clasped over her chest. ]

... So it seems. No one I've spoken to has any idea why we're here, but... it would be strange for a kidnapper to bring us somewhere so...

[ She trails off, not quite sure what word she's looking for but – well, she thinks their surroundings speak for themselves. ]

[asymptotes]

Easy, easy.

[ She seems... distressed. Who wouldn't be? ]

Yeah, seems like it. Not that I've ever been kidnapped before, but I can kind of follow the logic.

[honeyedtea]

[ Easy, he says, like it's possible to be even remotely at ease in a situation like this. But letting herself wind up until she snaps won't help either, so she forces herself to at least try and relax a little. ]

... Nor have I. But it's something every girl my age has been warned about.

[ Given his appearance, she'll hazard a guess it's not something he's ever had to be overly concerned about. ]

If nothing else, it's reassuring that whoever's responsible hasn't shown their face to us yet.

[asymptotes]

[ Ah, yes. The sort of thing he needs to care about, if he's going to pretend Kira is his daughter and not a girl whose future he destroyed for the greater good. She exists again now, doesn't she? Odd to think about. ]

Sure is. Part of why I do what I do.

[ What every Tommy except him did. Wasted time teaching individual people how to throw a punch. There's no saving the world that way. ]

Must be one heck of a face, with all the trouble they've gone to not show it yet, huh?

[honeyedtea]

Perhaps. Or at the very least... distinctive enough that they're afraid we could identify them to the authorities. Should it come to that.

[ Not that she thinks it would do any good. She could tell the crown prince and his entourage that the sky was blue and they'd look outside the double check. If she came to them with a story this farfetched, the best case scenario would be them laughing in her face and turning her out on her ear. ]

To have brought so many of us here, though... they must want something quite badly.

[asymptotes]

Yeah. That or it's just intimidation, but...

[ He scoffs a little and shakes his head. Even wearing a helmet as he usually is, he has never been afraid to actually show his face. ]

Just wish I could figure out what it was before giving them the satisfaction of explaining.

[honeyedtea]

Usually when someone kidnaps the daughter of a noble family... what they're after is money. Or some sort of material payment in exchange for her safe return. But...

[ Her family doesn't exactly have anything left to give at this point. Not that she's going to just out and say that to a strange man she's just met. ]

Well. We're quite the ragtag group, so I can hardly imagine just one of us is being targeted.

[asymptotes]

Can't imagine how much they think they're going to get from a volunteer self-defense teacher with two kids in high school. Conner alone's eating me out of house and home and potential ransom money as it is.

[ He wonders how Conner would take knowing that his favorite teacher's killer is stuck in some sort of death game? Pretty well, probably. ]

Unless there's something secret we all have in common, but... maybe sometimes grabbing a bunch of very different people is the point.

[ "Teenager with attitude" meant a lot of different things back then, didn't it? When Zordon chose his sacrifices. ]