[KIN'UN]

[detentionroom]

[You needed an escape.

For a moment– however brief, or however not– you longed to get away. Perhaps you envisioned a vacation upon sunny, beachy shores, palm trees at your back and seagulls floating in the air. Perhaps you envisioned nothing at all, and merely accepted that anywhere but here would do. Either way. . .?

You blink. . . and you wake up slouched on a school desk, arms folded with head resting between. You lift your gaze and realize that you've woken up in the middle of a classroom, seated in one of the. . . uh, very few functional desks that remain. The others have been broken into pieces, with legs and splinters of wood scattered across the floor. Deep claw marks decorate the walls, having gouged the sheetrock with jagged, violent gashes. The window curtains are closed, but they too have been torn and ripped to shreds, with holes showing a dark and unidentifiable landscape beyond the four walls which trap you.

And written on the blackboard, in large, white letters that seem to glow in the midst of the dim room lighting, is a warning]

DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR NAME.

[. . . you are not alone]

[Each and every new arrival awakens dressed in a high school-issued track uniform. The design is up to the players, but each uniform is already color-coded to match the group at large. Somewhere on your body is a new marking: a mysterious floral design shaded the same color as your track uniform. It is glowing very gently. And in your pocket you feel. . . something warm. Further investigation reveals a tiny little omamri, tucked away in your outfit, for safe keeping. Huh! What a nice gift!]

[For now, the front door to the classroom is locked. No matter how hard you try– with physical prowess or otherwise– the door cannot be opened.]

[But hey! You can poke around the area, if you'd like! Maybe get to know your new classmates. . . ? Try not to panic. For now, everything is. . . calm]

Comments

[ROUND ONE]

[detentionroom]

[A mere few minutes after you awaken. . . a soft, sing-song voice suddenly wafts through the PA system, crooning at you in gentle, encouraging tones]

Oh dear. . . you must be so confused. So lost! Such wayward children. . . I would like to help you. I can help you, if you'd give me the chance! Would you not like to go home. . . ? To fall asleep and re-awaken in the comfort of your own bed?

I can help you. Won't you please tell me who you are? Won't you please give me your names?

[The speakers go quiet, and any attempt to address the voice with questions or inquiries will be met with silence. But you have been given a choice]

[Whom do you oblige. . .?]

[DECISION]

[detentionroom]

[This is a team decision! You either give all of your names, or none of them. No halfsies! Please bear in mind the consequences of divulging names to game NPCs and know that obliging the voice will result in future consequences.]

[Please have your decisions submitted by Sunday, July 20 at 8:00 a.m. MT. Timezone conversions are in discord!]

Re: [DECISION]

[ratiocinations]

The team will provide their aliases only, not their real names.

Holmes’ alias is Kieran Adair. The other members will reply with their aliases under this comment!

[demergo]

Toby!!!!


🐡🐡🐡🐡🐡

Re: [DECISION]

[velluminous]

Severine Fairplay.

Re: [DECISION]

[threadling]

Girl.

Re: [DECISION]

[bad_crowmance]

Rean Schwarzer.

Re: [DECISION]

[whaledforc6]

Eleven Toymaker.

Re: [ROUND ONE]

[velluminous]

[ tail tuft puffing up like a cat's. a bit of a sneer at "wayward children". not liking that one bit, thanks. ]

They speak like my mother.

Re: [ROUND ONE]

[ratiocinations]

[He doesn't need to be a [redacted] to know that's not a good thing in her estimation.]

A patronizing one. [Please, mysterious voice. He's forty.] And with a request that runs very counter to the warning skewered across the blackboard.

Re: [ROUND ONE]

[velluminous]

You are inclined to trust more in this journal, then, and its sister writing upon board?

[ good. so is she. ]

[demergo]

[ he's doing his best to not look at the blue skinned lady, but then she says the magic word and he can't help himself-

from a ways away: ]

Y-your mother must love you a lot...

[velluminous]

[ look at me 🥺 ]

Ha! As fishhook loves fish's eye.

Re: [ROUND ONE]

[threadling]

Your mother sounds like a bellend.

Re: [ROUND ONE]

[velluminous]

Oh, very good! I like this term, "bellend".

Re: [ROUND ONE]

[bad_crowmance]

If that's what mothers sound like, then I'm just gonna consider myself lucky I didn't have one.

[demergo]

[ hello random guy he hasn't spoken to yet- ]

Y-you don't have one? What do you mean?

Re: [ROUND ONE]

[velluminous]

Surely better ones exist, but Eunoia— [ don't use the surname, DON'T ] is not among their number. Bah! I barely had her at all. My grandfather was my family.

Re: [ROUND ONE]

[ratiocinations]

[Speaking up! Loudly! Pay attention!]

Now, then! I’m hardly one to subscribe to suspicion and myth, but I’m willing to make a stark exception in this case — this suspicion being that our names hold some manner of power, enough that we are told to protect them and give them away on the same day.

[And as far as he’s concerned? He’s not doing the latter lmao.]

I suggest that we give away aliases only, so that we can see how our mysterious voice intends to use them, but without the risk of putting ourselves at an immediate disadvantage. And we must be sure to pick something profoundly new, nothing that you might have used in the past, for the sake of consistency.

[whaledforc6]

Should we make a cool theme? Like superheroes?

[ratiocinations]

...why?

[demergo]

Ahh, umm, alia-esis? [ look, he tried. but he does kind of recognize the word after he sounds it out! ]

That's... nicknames, right?

Re: [ROUND ONE]

[threadling]

...I shouldn't be telling you this and you shouldn't be hearing it. You should just plug your ears right now and pretend I'm not saying anything.

But.

Hypothetically, anything that involves names holding power might hypothetically be really old and probably really strong.

Re: [ROUND ONE]

[velluminous]

[ she's still prowling the room, even through his speech, trying door on each pass, and otherwise frittering away chalk and crumpled paper from what remains of the desks.

while she does so: ] You first.

Re: [ROUND ONE]

[bad_crowmance]

Nothing new.... well, do you have anything in mind?