bus

[mgtropes]

BUS? A BUS???

The wheels on the bus (don't) go round and round...

You wake up on a bus.

It's a very nice bus, though. Luxurious, even! The seats are comfy and can be used as beds, with pajamas also available for you to change into. It's stocked with enough food and drink to last a week or so, along with a bathroom that also has a shower and free toiletries to use. The downside, however, is that apparently you have to share—as you're not alone when you awaken.

It seems like you're not where you should be, either. The bus comes equipped with TV screens, but rather than any movie or show, it's reality TV in the most literal sense. You might even recognize a few faces over there in the terminal, but either way, you can watch the participants go about their day. You're as equally confused as they are, after all, even if miles (?) separate you.

For that matter, that's pretty much all you can do. You're stuck on this bus. You can't access where the driver's controls would be, and there's no driver to begin with; in fact, the bus isn't even moving. The doors are shut, and any attempt to break the windows will send you bouncing back. Opening the shutters will treat you to the enticing sight of... outside airport scenery. You're on airport grounds somewhere, but you can't tell anything other than that. If you do some digging around, though, one compartment on the bus contains a random assortment of card games and board games for you to entertain yourselves with.

Better get cozy, because you might be here for a while.

RUNDOWN

• This will be your one mingle post until next Friday.
• You do not have any personal belongings on you. Unlike the other players, you also don't have a phone. Sad.
• The W0 weekly effect, once revealed, will apply to you as well.
• Your characters are able to see anything that takes place on the public mingles, including network posts, via the bus TV screens. You may also handwave them being able to see the initial notification that the players all received on their phones.
• We will have a small, pseudo-mini-event for you on W0 Wednesday at 12pm PST/3pm EST.

NAVIGATION; (FULL NAV)

INFO

PLAYER STATUSES IC PROFILES MURDER PROPOSALS CYOA SIGN-UPS

SETTING

NPC AUDIENCES LOCATIONS ROOMING CURFEW

REPORTING

PC TURN-IN MOD REPORTING EVENT TURN-IN VOTING

Comments

[feminitis]

[wakey wakey!

to sei, it's obvious pretty much instantly that she's not in kyoto anymore; the bus is far too different from the shinsengumi's headquarters for her to think for even a moment that perhaps she just fell asleep in a different place than usual. she sits up, frowning as she takes in their surroundings, her gaze flicking from one part of the bus, to the tv screens and the people on it, to the other three people similarly waking up.

she groans.]

Not this crap again. [and then, checking her immediate surroundings for any personal belongings, she scowls as she realizes something is missing...] Ugh, of course my swords are gone.

[frostfist]

[ hello, strange youth. but— ]

Again?

[ please ignore the way he has a fancy fur coat draped across his shoulders and a bunch of decorative chains that clink across his chest as he props himself into a more seated position nearby. it's Fine. ]

[feminitis]

Again, unfortunately. Though I wish I could say this was the first time something like this has happened.

[alas, it is not. there's a grimace, and she glances at the tv screens again, scanning the feed of the living mingle for familiar faces.]

[frostfist]

[ sei's gaze immediately beelines for the tv screens and wriothesley's takes a more leisurely path around the interior of the bus. he frowns. ]

You regularly wake up surrounded by strangers in [ actually he doesn't know what a bus is so ] unfamiliar locations?

[feminitis]

I wouldn't say regularly, but this is...

[hmm. she frowns, thinking back.]

Well, it is not the first or even the second time. [...] It's concerning that we're separated from the larger group already.

[frostfist]

[ girl (gender neutral), what have you been getting up to?

the casual admittance only serves to make his frown deeper. now that he's awake, he gets up to start inspecting their surroundings. ]

What exactly does that mean?

[feminitis]

[there's not really any point in beating around the bush here, so -]

Some time ago, a variety of people - that one included... [she indicates rupert on the screen] ...found themselves in a hotel for eight weeks, during which... many people were killed. All of them had previously been through at least one other experience where they found themselves waking up in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people. Some of them had experienced it more than once.

I hate to say it, but it seems likely to me that it's happening again, unless this is your first time experiencing something like this?

[frostfist]

[ —ah.

the explanation, while greatly appreciated, makes him grimace. ]

It isn't. [ unfortunately. ] But I'd been hoping the last time had been....a one-time occurrence, shall we say.

[ although: ]

Eight weeks?

[feminitis]

[that's such a mood, wrio.]

Yes, that would have been the ideal... [she gives a sigh, because alas, ideal situations are rarely meant to be.] And it was eight weeks in the hotel. The amount of time people had spent in the other places originally varied, but longer experienes were more common than shorter ones.

[frostfist]

[ a quick exhale through his nose. ]

Yeesh. And here I was thinking about how those two weeks felt like the longest two weeks of my life.

[ imagine. he could have been watching people die every day for eight weeks straight! hellish!! ]

So how do we get out? Or rather, how did people get out in all their previous encounters?

[feminitis]

It varied... but at the hotel, everyone participating was bound by the terms of a contract, where basically if they were present in the lobby at the end of that eight week period, they and the people close to them who had been taken hostage would be free to go. Problem is, the whole situation was rigged to get them killed so they'd be unable to make it back. But they found loopholes and managed to get back anyway... the entity that had brought them there was really mad about that, but he couldn't do anything about it.

The other ones all had different ways to escape. I imagine we'll have to figure out what's necessary here to do so, and that there will be some kind of condition unique to this place.

[frostfist]

[ that sounds exhausting. ]

Figures. We - the group I was with - had something similar as well.

[ again: hellish!!! ]

Guess there's not much we can do here then other than wait and take a look around.

[feminitis]

Right... it's frustrating not to be able to do much for now, but if the patterns hold, things will start to happen little by little and we'll have chances to make more meaningful progress.

[a beat, and then she smiles.]

In the meantime, we can also get to know each other. [a bow, then!] My name is Seizaburo Kamiya - [she has encountered enough white people in her games to give her given name first to wrio, sorry dude] - and while I'm sure we both wish this wasn't happening, I do look forward to working with you to find a way out of this.

[bladeward]

[ sitting across from her with his arms crossed. sulking. he shrugs. ]

Looks like it's not the first time for any of us.

[feminitis]

It seems so! I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps we're cursed.

[bladeward]

I think you're on to something there. [ looks up at the monitors ] Kinda weird we're the only four here.

[feminitis]

I don't remember anything that would have led to our being here, but in my experience, being in a place separate from the larger group in these situations usually doesn't mean anything good.

Not that being in the larger group is good either.

[bladeward]

Fantastic. [ his mind doesn't immediately go to being dead, because maybe they just got left behind or are on a different schedule. who knows! ]

Not sure if I want to find out how or why we're here and they're there. Either way neither is good.

[feminitis]

[her mind, unfortunately, jumps straight to being dead. and then it jumps to being hostages, but that seems less likely to her because the only person she can see on the living side that she's actually met is rupert and she's pretty sure he has other people who would be more effective hostages for him.]

The important part is figuring out how we're going to get out of this. Both the overall situation and ... well. [she gestures at the bus, its windows, and the unopendable door.] This small enclosed space.

[bladeward]

Well if it's going to be anything like what I experienced before... we're gonna have to work together. Both sides.

[ looks around ]

I imagine they'd have to move us somewhere bigger eventually? Especially if more people end up over here. [ he's moving towards the whole being dead thing. ]

[feminitis]

I would hope so, but I also wouldn't put it past anyone who would willingly put one of these experiences together not to simply crowd us all in here, either.

[bladeward]

Everything you say just makes sense, which I hate, but makes me wonder just how many times you've done this...

[ smash cut to when she shares her mg times with the class. ]

[feminitis]

[staring into the void...]

Even once is too many.

[bladeward]

Right again...

Wish we were not experiencing this again. [ sighs ]

[feminitis]

You and me both. But here we are, so we're going to have to figure out what to do about it.