KAPPU! KAPPU! KAPPU!

[inutwins-blog]

You would not believe your eyes | Hibiki + Kasumi | Prologue / Open

“…It smells gross in here.” Hibiki murmured as they lifted their head a little, running their fingers through their coiled hair. They had a pounding headache, and they could already tell from the weight on their side that Kasumi was still passed out. They were about to try and shake their sister awake when the cold voice came over the speaker. As they listened in silence, Kasumi began to come to as well.

“…We need to investigate. Are you okay to stand, Hibi?” Kasumi asked, making sure Hibiki was alright first. Hibiki nodded slightly.

“This can’t be real, right? It’s gotta be some kind of prank!” Hibiki protested as the two slowly got to their feet.

“I don’t know. But we need to investigate just in case. Better safe than sorry - and we’re gonna stay safe. Okay?” Kasumi smiled a little before turning their attention to the nearest person. “…Hello. Would you happen to have any information on our situation, or are you as clueless as us?”

[ikou-iki]

It was hard to notice anyone in particular with so many people in the room. But the bright pink hair did the trick. Also the whole part with one person being two people. Iki couldn’t help but stare.

“They’re talking to each other,” she whispered to herself. They turned towards her suddenly, and she jumped.

“Hi! Hi! I don’t know what’s going on! You’re both clueless? You’re both—both. Cool!!” She bounced on her feet. “So since nobody knows what’s going on I guess there’s no reason to talk about what’s going on since we don’t know so! Let’s talk about us! I’m Iki Kadou!! I’m a competitive cup stacker, SHSL actually, and I’m not sure who you are but I like you.”

[inutwins-blog]

“Whoa!! I like this gal!!” Hibiki giggled as they and Kasumi jumped back a little at Iki’s burst of energy in response to them. “Yeah, intros are a good place to start! I’m Fujiota Hibiki! I’m an SHSL Dog Walker!”

“Of course you like her. She’s got almost twice your energy.” Kasumi snorted. “I’m Fujiota Kasumi. Dog Groomer. It seems everyone here’s an SHSL - that must be what’s connecting us. That zanswers one question, but asks a lot more … makes the kidnapping theory scarily more likely, though.”

“Well!! I’m sure it’s gonna be fine!! There’s no way someone could nab us all and not get caught!! You agree, right, Iki?”

People have gotten away with bigger groups, Kasumi thought, but decided not to voice that.

[ikou-iki]

“Cool! Dogs are cool. You must be a really fast walker if you can keep up with dogs, especially if they’re the tiny yappy ones! Those are my favorite. Well, my favorite are cats but that’s not really something you should say to a dog person.”

She swayed from side to side. “Kidnapping, huh? Do people really kidnap that many people? And I mean if wee’re all famous people it would be really really hard to get us all, right? I dunno what else coulda happened but yeah, I agree! How do you think we’re gonna get out of here? I mean probably the door, duh, but! Since that one girl was attacking it it must be locked up tight so how do you think we’re supposed to unlock it? Is there a SHSL Lock-picker here (better than a SHSL Nose-picker!)? Not that I see a lock but it wouldn’t be a very good door if it never opened. Do you think the button unlocks it? Why else would it have a time thingy on it?”

[healingfumes]

Another minute here || Nimat || Prologue

[healingfumes]

ikou-iki:

She pouted. “I don’t see how not caring means you suddenly forget what a popsicle is. Unless you’ve really never had a popsicle, which would be pretty sad so once we get out I’ll get you one, okay?” SHe grinned. “Vanilla flavour?”

She squinted at the general direction of the door. “But if I die I would still bei n here, wouldn’t I? Duh! That’s no way to leave. We gotta get out through there, or through a wall, or the ceiling, or the floor, except I don’t know anything about buildings or safes or bomb shelters so I dunno which would be easiest to get through. Probably the door, though, since, you know, it’s made for people to go through. What do you think that button does anyway?”

He wondered if he could like switch her off. Because he really had never met someone this talkative and annoying in his entire life. He let out a sigh and approached her, soon enough pocking her. The poking revenge of doom!

[ikou-iki]

She squawked. Well, if that was how it was gonna be, she guessed this was gonna have to be a tickle fight! She pounced.

[shslfakeout]

More Than Us | Sphyraena, Prologue, Open

It was often rare that Sphyraena would be thrown off so much. If anything, it had just felt very confused, maybe even in shock for a moment. But to find itself slowly waking up in a different kind of environment… Surrounded by familiar, yet very unfamiliar people…

… Other people?

In an instant, Sphyraena jumps off of the ground. It felt for its hood, securing it over its head, pulling sleeves of its dress over its hands… Everything was in place, though this outfit even seemed new. Having nearly no memory of anything surrounding this situation certainly did not help. This is absolutely not something Sphyraena would get itself into willingly. When thinking, it had guessed this was some odd kind of prison. Small space, but were these others prisoners?

“… Okay,” it clears its throat. “Hello?”

It didn’t get a response right away… Not a direct one. It heard a voice from outside and quietly listened closely to it. This… Wasn’t prison? Sphyraena felt relieved, almost too relieved… It wasn’t concerned about any killing game. This was all a joke. It chuckles quietly, however couldn’t help but feel annoyed. The amount of people in here made everything feel incredibly uncomfortable. Made that offer a bit tempting.

“Ah… We certainly will have fun. Do not worry.”

[ikou-iki]

“Hey, you’re kinda creepy, you know that?” She frowned. Her arms tapped at the sides of her legs. “I mean it has to be pretty hard to make having fun sound creepy, but I guess you’re really good at it. There’s not a very good way to have fun in here, anyway, I guess is what i”m saying. So how are you gonna have so much fun? Are you a storyteller or something?”

[shslfakeout]

That felt as if 3 thousand words were said to Sphyraena in only a minute. How could someone be so… Chatty? It wasn’t very pleased ant it showed that. Slowly, it turned its head to face this person, glaring.

“Be quiet.”

It spoke sharply and in a rude way. Really, not much had happened and it was already annoyed. But… Maybe it could have done that a little better.

“We are not a storyteller. Why do you ask?”

[ikou-iki]

Iki frowned. "Well which is it? Do you want me to be quiet or answer your auestion? You're kinda contradicting yourself. Yourselves?" She attempted to look over the other's shoulder. "Who's the rest of the 'we'? Or is this just like the royal we thing because otherwise that's pretty weird, except I guess the royal we thing is weird, too. Are you sure you're not a storyteller be ause then at least that would make sense since you'd probably act like a bunch of different people. Anyway the reason i thiught you might be one is because I mean how else are you gonna have so much fun in a room that doesn't have anything but people? I mean, I like talking to people, but it's usually not as fun as actually doing things with them, you know?"

[the-bittersweet-hub]

Warm Awakening

[ikou-iki]

“But if it doesnt’ taste good, why would you bake it? Isn’t that the whole point of baking things? Unless it’s clay or something and you’re just making sculptures but is that even still called baking or just putting it in the oven?”

SHe kept talking as Ai started talking again, but it took long enough to count the students it wasn’t much of an interruption.

“Zero Time Dilemma? Excplosions? Oooh, is that like that one game where you have a disarm a bomb except you can’t see anything? I love that game except my friends say it just stresses them otu so we don’t really play it much but I like fast-paced games except I bet you already knew that since I stack cups.” She paused. “Dying in an explosion doesn’t sound very relaxing though. BUt we’re not gonna die, Ai-chan!”

She seized the other girl’s hands. “Don’t worry so much!! Even if it’s not just a joke there has to be a way to get out. Maybe we can explode the place and just protect our heads and then walk out once the walls are toast! I dunno, I guess it would depend on what blew up and how hot it was and where it was but it coudl totally work! And you know what I think? I bet that button unlocks the door!! Why else would we have to wait to push it, you know? And it is right next to the door. Which is usually where you’d put a doorbell except we’re on the wrong side of the door for that but I don’t see anything else keeping the door locked so I bet it would work out.”

[the-bittersweet-hub]

Ai looked at the girl, this girl  is on somthing… she must be.. she’s too perky… Ai slowly sighed and held her hands. “Getting Baked is slang for using drugs like smoking it.. but some people put drugs into baked food to get high off something…” She added on to talk to the girl as she continued to speak. 

“Uh… no… it’s a book series I like… Zero escape, a book about 4 girls trying to run from a killer… in the third book they talk about Shifting, Where your mental state is teleported to another body of yours in another universe… but it’s a fictional thing.. I bet Shifting doesn’t even exists…” She sighed but continued to talk. “The 4 girls are trapped in a relaxation room and then after a few minutes and other things they did…. They found a button and Alice presses the button but they all explode… but luckily they all shift to another timeline where they stop Alice from doing it again…” She continued to speak about her favorite book series.

“Or if we press it, our collars unloads 6 shot gun shells into our head and kills us all…. But to be honest… This is vaguely familiar… Eitherway… lets not press it until we know more about the button, there is a chance the people who locked us in is gonna get bored if we just wait, and then they’ll tell us more about the button because of the reason…” She said looking at the girl after hearing about the most idiotic plan she ever heard of since she woke up. 

“But… it’s good to hear something nice to help ease my fear… so it’s not all in vain..” She said towards the other as she looked at her hands. “Also… m-mind asking first before grabbing my hand…”

[ikou-iki]

"Ooooh, okay!! That's still kinda weird because why would you wanna use drugs when you already have sugary baked goods because wouldn't that ruin the taste? You should be grateful you get to eat that ata ll!"

Iki zoned out during the explanation. What, it was taking a while, okay! "I mean that sounds cool for people who like books! But things explode a lot less often in real life, you know? I don't think we're gonna blow up. And why would you even need that many bullets in each collar and these don't even have any triggers so I don't see how they could be guns."

She grinned and stuck her tongue out. "Ask what?" But she did let go of Ai's hands, for now. "Glad to help!! We're friends now, right? So that's what we do!"

[shslfakeout]

More Than Us | Sphyraena, Prologue, Open

It was often rare that Sphyraena would be thrown off so much. If anything, it had just felt very confused, maybe even in shock for a moment. But to find itself slowly waking up in a different kind of environment… Surrounded by familiar, yet very unfamiliar people…

… Other people?

In an instant, Sphyraena jumps off of the ground. It felt for its hood, securing it over its head, pulling sleeves of its dress over its hands… Everything was in place, though this outfit even seemed new. Having nearly no memory of anything surrounding this situation certainly did not help. This is absolutely not something Sphyraena would get itself into willingly. When thinking, it had guessed this was some odd kind of prison. Small space, but were these others prisoners?

“… Okay,” it clears its throat. “Hello?”

It didn’t get a response right away… Not a direct one. It heard a voice from outside and quietly listened closely to it. This… Wasn’t prison? Sphyraena felt relieved, almost too relieved… It wasn’t concerned about any killing game. This was all a joke. It chuckles quietly, however couldn’t help but feel annoyed. The amount of people in here made everything feel incredibly uncomfortable. Made that offer a bit tempting.

“Ah… We certainly will have fun. Do not worry.”

[ikou-iki]

“Hey, you’re kinda creepy, you know that?” She frowned. Her arms tapped at the sides of her legs. “I mean it has to be pretty hard to make having fun sound creepy, but I guess you’re really good at it. There’s not a very good way to have fun in here, anyway, I guess is what i”m saying. So how are you gonna have so much fun? Are you a storyteller or something?”

[shslspooks]

Woke /Michi/ Prolouge/

[shslspooks]

ikou-iki

She grinned and flashed a peace sign. “I dunno if i’m big big, but I’m definitely on there! Like, suggested a lot, too! Most of it is just footage from competitions, except for that one where I was with this orchestra and like doing the cussion part kinda stuff but with cup stacking? That was cool, but it’s funner to just go as fast as i can and not worry about any beats because I’m really not that good at keeping a beat, anyway.”

Iki bowed rather abruptly, narrowly not bonking her chin into the other student’s head. “Nice to meet you! I don’t know any ghosts so I can’t really say that I like them but I mean they used to be people, right? So if I like people I’d probably like ghosts, and I do like people.”

Michi listened without wanting to interrupt for a bit, who knew cups could be this exciting. Well, actually Michi didn’t find the topic particularly interesting, but Iki looked happy. That, and it was better spending the whole time staring at the walls of their new prison. Cups and orchestra’s sounded pretty out there.

“Wait. Cups can be used to play music? I’ve heard of using wine glasses to do that, that whole glass harmonica thing, but cups just do that clattery thing, and that’s only when you drop them-”

Iki’s bowing catches her slightly off guard. If the situation hadn’t meant she was already tense, Michi probably wouldn’t have managed to hold herself together long enough to avoid colliding with whoever might be standing behind her. Her feet stay in place for the time being,

“Hmm, ghosts are a bit different from regular people. Being dead ‘n all. But there are some cool ones that still know how to hold a conversation, yeah.”

[ikou-iki]

“I mean it wasn’t really music-music, just the beat-y stuff. Like tap dancing or something! There’s a tap dancer in here, too. She seems nice. You seem nice, too!”

She grinned. “But when you collapse cup stacks it makes this nice flip-clap kinda sound, you know? I mean if you dont’ stack cups then I guess you wouldn’t but I guess it would sound kinda like dropping them, since it is dropping them, jsut very very precisely.”

She clapped her hands together. “Ooh! Ooh! I’ve never talkedd to a ghost before!! I guess you have, then? Whose ghost?”

[aichiume]

Iki stepped back, but she just ended up running into a wall. This room was stupid small.

“Well I wanted to say hi, but maybe I don’t now,” she sniffed. “Well anyway this is all really weird so I thought I’d do something normal like introduce myself!! I’m Iki Kadou!! You’ve probably heard about me because I’ve won a ton of competitions or something except really most people only know me from my Youtube and stuff and you look kinda familiar too but I’m not sure why? A lot of these people look familiar and it’s weird. Literally everything is weird. Weird, right?”

Ume’s eye twitched as she kept an otherwise steady glare on the girl. She had so much energy, Ume could feel herself physically getting drained just by listening to her. She rubs her temples, taking a deep breath.

“….A voice tells ya yer stuck in a room with a bunch of strangers, then says one of ya has gotta die, and y’think the normal thing is t’introduce yer fuckin’ self?”

Ume asks rhetorically, annoyance in her tone.

[ikou-iki]

“Well, yeah. That’s kinda a pretty normal thing to do anytime there are strangers around? I mean anything responding to a weird thing is usually gonna be weird so I thought I’d at least do something normal for this because I mean the only time introducing yourself isn’t normal is if you already know the person. Why, what do you think is normal right now? Being grumpy, apparently. I guess that’s normaly for you, at least.”

[gotodetectiveagency]

Neck Pain/Prologue/Open

Goto’s very first thought upon waking was not, “where am I”, or, “what is this” it was a lot more simple and direct. “Ow my neck” The first thing that rushed through his head, even as he saw himself in some small, dimly lit room with a bunch of random people, was that his neck hurt. Of course like most odd thoughts he had, this one was useful as it led him to the quick discovery of the odd collar around his neck.

Hmm………I feel like a cat

What an amazing statement. Goto quickly pulled himself up and looked at the others in the room.

Too many cats in one carrier.

[ikou-iki]

“What about cats?” Iki threw glances over her shoulders, but there weren’t any cats in the room as far as she could tell. Darn. “Anyway, hi! I don’t know you! Well, I don’t think I knwo you and I’d say my memroy’s pretty good so I probably actually don’t know you but I like your hair. I’m Iki! You might know me from YouTube! Or TV I guess but nobody really watches cup stacking on TV unless it’s by accident. I mean, that’s how I found it when i was like three. We watched a looooot of TV when I was little.”

[shslspooks]

Woke /Michi/ Prolouge/

[shslspooks]

ikou-iki

Iki looked down at the other girl—well, that was unusual.

“I dunno! The person did say it was a game. What’s an escape room? I think I’ve heard of it but I guess it never sounded especially fun so I never looked into it, but if it involves escaping that’s probably good since there’s no food and I’m kinda hungry and it’s really way too cramped in here, don’t you think?”

She bounced on her feet. “But hi!! I’m Iki Kadou! I stack cups. You’ve probably seen me on YouTube and stuff if you watch YouTube which I mean who doesn’t but I guess you might be on the weirder side of it in which case you wouldn’t have seen me, but Im not hard to find!”

Woa, someone else is talking about escape rooms now. Michi guesses this means they’re talking to her. The girl speaking seems friendly, perhaps overly so, you won’t hear this kid complaining about it though.

“You’ve… never been to a… Ah I guess they are kind of hard to find. Uh, yes! An escape room does involve escaping, although, the puzzle mechanisms are usually more obvious, and the groups are..”

They pause. It’s difficult to come up with an exact figure with the players being so closely packed, Michi can barely see over a half of their heads, but there has to be at last a class’s worth of them here,

 "..much smaller. So, YouTube huh? I hear it’s kind of hard to make it big on there, ‘specialy with.. stacking… cups. I mean, I’m not big into cups but that seems real cool Kadou.“

Their tone doesn’t quite match up to the enthusiasm Iki is giving off, but she’s trying. Upon realising she hasn’t actually introduced herself before starting her rambling, Michi jumps a little, quickly straightening her posture and meeting her new acquaintances eyes.

"Right! They call me Michi Tanaka, I like ghosts.”

[ikou-iki]

“Mechanisms? So it’s liek a machine? A big machine room? That sounds super cool! We should do one sometime! And yeah it’s definitely easier to run around when the groups are small because you can barely even walk around in here! It’s kinda dumb, isn’t it?”

She grinned and flashed a peace sign. “I dunno if i’m big big, but I’m definitely on there! Like, suggested a lot, too! Most of it is just footage from competitions, except for that one where I was with this orchestra and like doing the cussion part kinda stuff but with cup stacking? That was cool, but it’s funner to just go as fast as i can and not worry about any beats because I’m really not that good at keeping a beat, anyway.”

Iki bowed rather abruptly, narrowly not bonking her chin into the other student’s head. “Nice to meet you! I don’t know any ghosts so I can’t really say that I like them but I mean they used to be people, right? So if I like people I’d probably like ghosts, and I do like people.”

[healingfumes]

Another minute here || Nimat || Prologue

[healingfumes]

ikou-iki:

“Craft? Like arts and crafts? How do yu craft something like that because I’m pretty sure you can’t just light a popsicle stick on fire and have it smell good, unless it was from an actual popsicle I guess, but that would be a weird way to make incense!”

She blinked. “But what am I supposed to do if I stop talking? There’s not really anything else to do in here: no TVs or games or even books and no cups in sight! This really isn’t a very good place, is it? We’ve gotta get out of here.”

“…Wow,….I don’t even know what you’re even talking about that’s how little I care right now…I mean, if you wanna get out dying seems like a valid option now. “

Nimat chill. There was no reason to be this rude now. On the other hand, yes…for Nimat being rude was always a good reaction.

[ikou-iki]

She pouted. “I don’t see how not caring means you suddenly forget what a popsicle is. Unless you’ve really never had a popsicle, which would be pretty sad so once we get out I’ll get you one, okay?” SHe grinned. “Vanilla flavour?”

She squinted at the general direction of the door. “But if I die I would still bei n here, wouldn’t I? Duh! That’s no way to leave. We gotta get out through there, or through a wall, or the ceiling, or the floor, except I don’t know anything about buildings or safes or bomb shelters so I dunno which would be easiest to get through. Probably the door, though, since, you know, it’s made for people to go through. What do you think that button does anyway?”

[ikou-iki]

Iki Kadou Prologue Open

Okay well this was kinda weird.

Iki was one of the first to hop to her feet. Somehow she even managed to do that without stomping on someone else’s feet. That was something.

In a wild dash, she darted around the room. Wall to wall. Floor. She tried to jump up and touch the lightbulb, but she wasn’t tall enough for that.

At some point she realized all that had required a lot of pushing people out of the way.

“Oops, sorry!” She turned around, but with so many people in so little space it was hard to tell who was glaring at her. “I just got kinda excited, which is normal because this is all really weird? Also my neck kinda hurts—does your collar feel too tight? Mien feels too tight. Except I also dont’ know what it’s for so if I don’t know that then it’s kinda hard to know if it’s too tight for whatever it’s supposed to do, but even if it’s supposed to choke me it’s too tight for me, you know?”

She tapped her cheek. “I dunno, that came out kinda weird, but you know what I mean, right?”

[shsl-tapdancer]

Honoka narrowly dodged Iki as she rocketed around the room, and wondered if it would be possible to siphon some of this girl’s energy to a few of the kids in her tap dancing class– they sure could use it!

“Ehehe, you’re an energetic one, aren’t you? What’s your name, sweetie?”

When the girl mentioned her collar, she moved her hand up to her own, scratching at the base of her neck.

“I guess my collar is a little tight? I do wonder what they’re for. The voice said not to mess with them…”

[ikou-iki]

“Yup!! I get that a lot, actually!” She clapped ehr hands quietly. “Iki Kadou!! Maybe you recognize me? You look like a tap dancer are you a tap dancer because I bet we could do something together! I do speed stacking more than rhythm kinda stuff but it’s kinda clacking too, you know?”

She nodded. “They are kinda weird and all. Ooh! Ooh! I bet I know what it is! So you know like those ankle things they put on you when you can’t leave the house? My dad had one of those a while ago when he would still come over to try to see my mom. Anyway, I bet these are the same thing! Just on our necks instead of ankles. I guess if we really wanted to we could cut our ankles off but not our heads, you know? Okay, that’s kinda gross. But I mean if they really want us to stay in here that’s a thing they would give us, I think!”

[shslspooks]

Woke /Michi/ Prolouge/

Michi’s eyes open, scrambling to put herself on her feet. The rush of blood it caused to the kids head only helped the pounding sensation behind her temples to feel even worse. Despite Michi’s vision having the time to adjust to it’s new lighting, her world remained blobs of shifting colours, presumably these were the scources of the voices that had come after the announcement. The other players in this game or something.

“Yee..ow..ch”

Moving to rub her eyes the kid realizes that her glasses aren’t on her face. Not good. Very cautiously Michi shifts her feet, something tells her she’ll be in trouble if they get stepped on now, that is if one of the other players hasn’t done so already. A feeling of relief flares up when her sneakers hit the spectacles. They were there, and intact as far as she could tell, back on her face they went. Within moments the relief she’d felt was gone. Now with her surroundings in focus, Michi’s eyelids feel even heavier. The room comes across like something out of a low-budget horror movie, was it someplace she’d been investigating? The thought is quickly dismissed, too many people for any self-respecting ghosts to be haunting this place.

On top of the unfamiliarity of the room, fact she can’t put any names to the other waking faces made her a little nervous, but she was too distracted trying to piece things together in her mind to add to the voices just then. Then her eyes settled on one of the other students collars. Yeah.. that announcer had said something about collars… and sacrifices. Michi’s own hands flew to her neck, she hadn’t noticed it before, but the light feeling of the scarf she usually wore had been replaced with the far colder texture of metal. Still looking at the other students collars her hands worked their way around the metal,

“What in the world is going on? Like, are we some high tech escape room game? I don’t remember signing up for any escape rooms.”

[ikou-iki]

Iki looked down at the other girl—well, that was unusual.

“I dunno! The person did say it was a game. What’s an escape room? I think I’ve heard of it but I guess it never sounded especially fun so I never looked into it, but if it involves escaping that’s probably good since there’s no food and I’m kinda hungry and it’s really way too cramped in here, don’t you think?”

She bounced on her feet. “But hi!! I’m Iki Kadou! I stack cups. You’ve probably seen me on YouTube and stuff if you watch YouTube which I mean who doesn’t but I guess you might be on the weirder side of it in which case you wouldn’t have seen me, but Im not hard to find!”

[inutwins-blog]

You would not believe your eyes | Hibiki + Kasumi | Prologue / Open

“…It smells gross in here.” Hibiki murmured as they lifted their head a little, running their fingers through their coiled hair. They had a pounding headache, and they could already tell from the weight on their side that Kasumi was still passed out. They were about to try and shake their sister awake when the cold voice came over the speaker. As they listened in silence, Kasumi began to come to as well.

“…We need to investigate. Are you okay to stand, Hibi?” Kasumi asked, making sure Hibiki was alright first. Hibiki nodded slightly.

“This can’t be real, right? It’s gotta be some kind of prank!” Hibiki protested as the two slowly got to their feet.

“I don’t know. But we need to investigate just in case. Better safe than sorry - and we’re gonna stay safe. Okay?” Kasumi smiled a little before turning their attention to the nearest person. “…Hello. Would you happen to have any information on our situation, or are you as clueless as us?”

[ikou-iki]

It was hard to notice anyone in particular with so many people in the room. But the bright pink hair did the trick. Also the whole part with one person being two people. Iki couldn’t help but stare.

“They’re talking to each other,” she whispered to herself. They turned towards her suddenly, and she jumped.

“Hi! Hi! I don’t know what’s going on! You’re both clueless? You’re both—both. Cool!!” She bounced on her feet. “So since nobody knows what’s going on I guess there’s no reason to talk about what’s going on since we don’t know so! Let’s talk about us! I’m Iki Kadou!! I’m a competitive cup stacker, SHSL actually, and I’m not sure who you are but I like you.”

[the-bittersweet-hub]

Warm Awakening

[ikou-iki]

“But if it doesnt’ taste good, why would you bake it? Isn’t that the whole point of baking things? Unless it’s clay or something and you’re just making sculptures but is that even still called baking or just putting it in the oven?”

SHe kept talking as Ai started talking again, but it took long enough to count the students it wasn’t much of an interruption.

“Zero Time Dilemma? Excplosions? Oooh, is that like that one game where you have a disarm a bomb except you can’t see anything? I love that game except my friends say it just stresses them otu so we don’t really play it much but I like fast-paced games except I bet you already knew that since I stack cups.” She paused. “Dying in an explosion doesn’t sound very relaxing though. BUt we’re not gonna die, Ai-chan!”

She seized the other girl’s hands. “Don’t worry so much!! Even if it’s not just a joke there has to be a way to get out. Maybe we can explode the place and just protect our heads and then walk out once the walls are toast! I dunno, I guess it would depend on what blew up and how hot it was and where it was but it coudl totally work! And you know what I think? I bet that button unlocks the door!! Why else would we have to wait to push it, you know? And it is right next to the door. Which is usually where you’d put a doorbell except we’re on the wrong side of the door for that but I don’t see anything else keeping the door locked so I bet it would work out.”

[menoetius-muse]

PROLOUGE : THE LION’S ROAR. | Khal | OPEN.

The woman with what seems like a leather green-ish jacket awakens, immediately jumping to her feet. With sharp eyes and harsh look on her face, the student begins to evaluate her situation. Harsh breaths dribbled out of her mouth as she moved, feeling uneasy yet outward seemingly calm.

“ What the fuck … “

Her words seem to run-down her mouth, falling to the floor like tears on a weeping widow. They dissipated easily, shredding into nothingness as she continued to move and glance around. She could feel it was a hostage situation, and that thought almost made her shudder in anger. Khal’s hand silently moved to her neck as felt something on it. That itself was the most unsettling of it all – the collar she deemed heavily unfit. The entire idea of it made her a bit sick to her stomach, anger starting to bubble in it.This feeling was only made worse by the whisper that erupted into her mind. This stuck a needle in her throat, mixing the anger and confusion into one big mess. Then, out of her mouth poured what seemed like a roar.

Her fists were clenched, and this woman clearly didn’t look happy.

“ WHAT THE FUCK ?! “

[ikou-iki]

The girl in green was more than a little intimidating (how tall was she?!). Noramlly Iki was ready to run up and talk to anyone, but this girl? If she hadn’t yelled standing so close to her, Iki probably never would’ve said a thing.

“Whoa! Whoa!” She hopped back. “That was kinda loud. Kinda really loud. Maybe you should calm down? Not that I’m very calm right now, or there’s really anything to be calm about, that’s just kinda scary and I think we’re all scared enough so maybe I’m just gonna go over there now bye.”

She made for the other side of the room, but a lot of people were in the way. She tried jumping a couple times, but that didn’t help. Why did everybody have to be so stupid tall?

[menoetius-muse]

“ Calm down ? CALM DOWN ? Do you SEE, what’s on our NECKS gringo ?! “

She grits her teeth, a fire blazing and swirling in her mind powerfully. Her firsts were digging her own nails into her skin, sinking in simply and almost drawing blood. Khal seemed in her own anger, steaming and fuming to herself. It was abnormal or others to run away from her, So Khal didn’t mind it.

“ … Eugh … I don’t like feeling like a dog … “

[ikou-iki]

“I mean, no, I can’t really see what’s on my own neck? I can feel it fine, and it’s probably just like yours, but what’s so panicky about having some collars? It’s tight but it’s nto like it’s literally choking me so I would say the being trapped n a room thing is the one to panic about?”

At least the green girl didn’t try to hit her. Encouraged, she tapped her cheek.

“Okay, I guess there’s that, but I like dogs, though? I mean, I wear a collar normally, so I guess if you’r enot used to it it would feel like that but really it’s not like anyone’s trying to feed us dog food or make us fetch so I don’t think you should feel that much like one.”

[healingfumes]

Another minute here || Nimat || Prologue

[healingfumes]

ikou-iki:

It was kinda hard to not be concenred when a guy was literally clawing at the walls. He’d given up on that by now, but Iki had already walked over. Any worries were quickly forgotten at the appearance of the incense.

“Ooh! Ooh! What’s that? It smells nice and sweet and I’m kinda hungry but apparently there’s no food in here, but if you could bring that in maybe someone brought food in? Not that I can’t go without for a little while, but anyway why are you carrying around incense, anyway? You just really like it? I mean, I really like my cup mat, but that doesn’t mean I carry it around all the time!”

What? Nimat felt rather overwhelmed now. This person just kept on talking and talking which just made him feel annoyed. How could this happen to him? Did he really deserve this?

“…..I craft these….now just stop talking! “

[ikou-iki]

“Craft? Like arts and crafts? How do yu craft something like that because I’m pretty sure you can’t just light a popsicle stick on fire and have it smell good, unless it was from an actual popsicle I guess, but that would be a weird way to make incense!”

She blinked. “But what am I supposed to do if I stop talking? There’s not really anything else to do in here: no TVs or games or even books and no cups in sight! This really isn’t a very good place, is it? We’ve gotta get out of here.”

[the-bittersweet-hub]

Warm Awakening

Ai laid in the corner like a cold slowly depleting body running cold in her spot. She couldn’t move, her legs laid together as she hung her head down looking over her body like she was already gone from the place she was in until something in her awoke and her eyes slowly opening to life as she had little care and lifted her head.

Her bones ached in pain as she slowly lifted her head that was trying to regain her sight. her eyes adjusted quickly and everything was clear, her hands moved to her face slowly and rubbed her face to find out she wasn’t wearing any glasses, “Weird…” The young girl said as she slowly took in her surroundings, people were here but they felt like they had no faces, everything just looked blurry to her, the floor and room weren’t, just the other people.

Her heart pounded. and her head felt like it was gonna split open in two, she tried to regain herself as she sat there but she felt like nothing, she lost hope in trying to do anything but there are people here and they might need her, so… she’ll stay and get herself up soon from her spot of amnesia. Slowly her eyes looked at the other students and yelped as she held her head, seeing the group brought her sadness and pain as she looked at them, like an old memory.

Slowly the baker stood up and held her heart while her other hand helped her up to her feet.”Oh my….” The girl said somewhat calmly as she stood with her head hung low as she shook her head awake and looked at the group with something taking her gaze, it was a small red button behind a plastic guard with some people near it. “what..?” She asked softly as she watched.

“H-Hey… uh you guys… uh.. w-where are we.. I-If I may ask..” The girl asked as she still felt un easy and moved her hand to the back of her back, and slowly rubbed the metal, instantly shoving an emotion of shock to show on her face. “W-What the hell!?” The girl panicked as she rubbed around the collar with her hand and dread came over her.

“Oh my oh my…” She said as she kept holding onto the metal collar around her neck with the sense of panic she looked at everyone and slowly backed up, but before she could move she looked at the speakers and listened to the dreadful voice, her eyes looking at the group with her heart-pounding as everyone looks like a murderer in here, for all she knows one of them might be a serial killer.

The silence in the room was awkward and terrifying as she just slowly backed up and continued to keep her eyes on the group, she knew how two faced people could be and everyone might want to escape… someone will die… or they all will for them to escape. Thi is the start of nothing but hell for the small little baker.

[ikou-iki]

Iki ha

d probably noticed the faint, worried voice before, but only now did she notice Ai herself. There was only so much wall space, and that much hair was taking up a lot of it now. Not that that really concenred her. The fear in her eyes seemed a lot more important.

She scurried over, having to duck under a few elbows to get there.

“Hey! Hi! I’m Iki Kadou! Maybe you’ve heard of me? I dunno, you don’t really look like you would watch much cup stacking but anyway you’re cute and it’s gonna be okay!!” Her hands formed fists as she bounched on her feet. “I know that weird person said some dumb stuff about people dying, but there’s gotta be a normal way out of here! I mean, they had to bring us in here in the first place, so they probably used that door which looks pretty tough but that does still mean we know it can be opened, right?!”

[the-bittersweet-hub]

Ai just held herself and looked at her own collar as it confused her, there had to a way to take it off, some how… The girl started to try to pry it off but to no avail, slowly something caught her attention of a small girl coming closer, her body quickly pressing against the wall as the other got closer and then introduced herself. 

“I-I… I’m Ai.. Amaikawa I-I bake, not like drugs but I-I do make cakes and other such items…” she said towards the other. “O-Oh I do not.. sorry…” she said as she looked down at the floor. “I-I don’t think y-you understand. I-I look around a bit and…. well.. there’s only a light, a button, and the door. If anything they had to bring us in through the door… If I’d have to say… I-I think we’re in a safe or something like the sort… maybe a bomb shelter..” The girl looked at the other. “Oh… or maybe they locked us in here or welded it shut….. but there’s some… hope I guess..”

[ikou-iki]

“Drugs? Do people bake drugs? I wouldn’t really know anything about drugs but I didn’t know that was what people did with them! I wonder if they taste good. Probably not as good as your real baking, though!! So like cakes and cookies and everything? You’ll have to me something for me sometime!! I love sugar, even though I’m not technically supposed to have it but I live my own life!”

Iki finally paused for breath. Good, since she wouldn’t have heard Ai otherwise.

“A safe? That would be cool. It doesn’t really smell like money, though, does it? Does it? I don’t think so. And it’s kinda small for a bomb shelter except I guess there are like twenty of us in here so that would be a decent bomb shelter except then wouldn’t there be food,a nd wouldn’t the door have to be on the ceiling or something? I dunno!! I’ve never been in a bomb shelter! But, I mean, either way both of those are supposed to keep people out, not in, right? Im’ sure it can’t be that hard! If we just go at the door long enough I bet we can get it down!! We’ve got a ton of people to throw at it, after all!”