unknownseas | And with the sweat of your brow...

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

...Well, if your room was set up the same as mine, you'll find a dry change of clothes in there if you change your mind. They were strange, but not any stranger than what you're wearing now.

I saw 'em, but... [ He shuffles a little. ] These...aren't weird? A t-shirt and jeans're the most normal stuff a guy could wear.

Hmm. Let me put it this way.

[He spreads his arms so Hodaka can see.]

Do my clothes look weird to you? 'Cause they're what I'm used to. If the clothes in those rooms are more like what you're used to, maybe we're somewhere closer to where you live.

Ohh...

[ He...absolutely thought Obi was some kind of cosplayer. But he seems really earnest! ]

Uh, well... Wherever we are, it wouldn't be near where I live, people aren't... People don't live places like...under the ocean.

Oh, people don't do that where I'm from, either. At least, not as far as I know. Sure would be something if they could, buuuuut I think I'd only ever visit. Can't say I'm a fan of enclosed spaces like this.

[ Hodaka just shakes his head. He— ]

We don't know enough about it. The ocean. [ The sky. ] There's...bound to be too much to know. To mess with.

Eh? ...What do you mean?

[Obi is not up on the inextricability of human expansion and a planet's delicate ecology, if that's even Hodaka's concern.]

[ Hahahaha— ]

I mean— [ He glances away. ] I just mean what I said. There's always...a price. When meddling with things you don't understand.

[Hmmm. Seems like there's a story behind this, but he doesn't have nearly enough information to guess at what, and he's only known Hodaka for half a minute. Not really his place to pry.]

True enough. [And, blatantly changing the topic:] So where do people live, where you're from? Not underwater, not someplace cold...

[ Thank goodness. Thank goodness, he doesn't have to go into it. To think about it. Hina. Hina's what matters. Hina. Hina. Not any of that. Stop thinking— ]

Tokyo. [ Ah- ] I mean- that's where I was, before. It's...a big city. The biggest in all of Japan.

[ All of the world, he almost says. But, of course it would seem like that to a kid from a small island. ]

Oh! Japan... [He pronounces it carefully, like someone who's never said the word before.] Another guy mentioned that place earlier. Maybe you two know each other?

[ Ah... Um— ]

Well. There's...a lot of people in Japan... In Tokyo alone, so...probably not.

Aha. So Japan's more the size of a whole kingdom, and Tokyo's the big cheese city within it. I getcha, I getcha.

[Nod nod!]

Rains a lot there in the summer, huh?

[ Here's another person saying the word kingdom... Maybe Obi knows Forrest then? No. No, that's incredibly presumptuous, just as much as thinking anyone from Japan might know each other. ]

Mmhm. Lately, yeah.

[ And it's not going to stop... That discomfort in his stomach starts to rise again, but he ignores it. ]

[Obi trucks right on along.]

It's snow, where I've been living. Winter hasn't hit yet, but we had still had enough to make a big snowman the other day. Pretty weird that the seasons can be so different in different places.

[ Hodaka makes a bit of a face at the mention of snow, but nothing more. ]

Uh... Yeah- wait, hold on, you're...saying it was autumn? That's... How?

The cold seasons come sooner the further north you are, yeah?

[Surely nothing stranger is at play here than that!]

I...guess.

[ He's not sure. But, if he tries to share what he's thinking... No one believed. No one listened. ]

If...you're not from Japan, though, how do you...know Japanese?