» TEST DRIVE #001

[reveriemod]

TEST DRIVE #001

( 0 0 1 ) » WAKE UP

Were you asleep or were you unconscious? It doesn't matter: when you come to, there's an odd taste in your mouth and there's a low-level mechanical hum in the air. Your head hurts and you feel nauseous. You aren't anywhere you know: everything around you is metal, from the floor you lie on all the way to the ceiling. You are dressed in a jumpsuit you definitely weren't wearing before.

"We tried to save the world. I think— I think we did the opposite."

The message repeats on a loop. If you look for its source, you find a comms device on the floor next to you. The logo on its wallpaper says REVERIE TERMINAL. Upon closer inspection, you find the same logo on your jumpsuit.

Welcome to your new home. What choice do you have but to explore your surroundings?

( 0 0 1 . 1 ) » WAKE UP WHERE?

When you wake up, you find that you're not alone. But more importantly, you find that you're in a closet. An empty closet, bar you and your new companion. It's small, cramped, and there is no door that you can see. The ceiling is low, there is barely any lights, only some coming from the tiny flashlight clipped to your suit's shoulder. You cannot be sure that there is any air coming in to the room.

Are these grooves in the wall supposed to mean something?

( 0 0 2 ) » OBSERVATION DECK

There were no windows in the corridor you woke up in and no windows in any of the crew quarters you might have checked for occupants — but there are plenty of windows on the uppermost level of the station, deck 1. In fact, there are windows from floor to ceiling all along the circumference of the station's circular deck, and it's possible to walk along it all. What it shows is a strange solar system you've never seen before and a planet that might resemble one you know, but certainly isn't the same.

You're in space. You don't know where you are. Neither does anyone else.

( 0 0 3 ) » BAR

On deck 3, you find the bar. Tucked away from the crew quarters, it's dimly lit, there are bar stools thrown down on the floor and what looks like some very old drink spills, crusty and dark against the bar top. But there is alcohol here, or at least, what you think is alcohol, in bottles with faded labels, most of them indecipherable. Take a drink, get drunk, start a fight, or start a party? You're stuck on this station, might as well make the most of it, right?

( 0 0 3 . 1 ) » VIRTUAL

But the alcohol isn't even the most interesting part of your discovery (depending on who you are, of course). No, what catches your interest is a second, smaller room off from the main bar room, which looks to be some kind of arcade. There are a few VR sets lined up against one of the walls, and surely, they can't be working, right? Nothing is on this rust bucket. And yet, if you put it on, the display comes to life.

It's a pretty simple HUD, and when you move around in reality, you move around in the virtual world you've just entered. It's a luxurious world, full of brightly, saturated colors, making it just a little obvious that it isn't real. Ahead, there is a jungle, a temple, and a city. You can play around, slay some monsters, have some fun, but you can feel yourself growing hot, like the VR helmet is burning your forehead.

And when you try to take it off, you find that you can't. The HUD glitches, the sound cuts off to a blaring alarm, and an error message appears, in glowing, blinking red letters: FINISH THE MISSION. Will you, despite not knowing what the mission even is, or will you fight to get the helmet off?

( 0 0 4 ) » MALFUNCTIONS

(cw: body horror, bodily functions, gore, blood, death)

The fabricators function well enough, until they don't. One day, one moment, everything's all right — the food doesn't generally taste amazing and sometimes downright awful, but it's nourishing and filling no matter what your dietary needs — and the next, things go a little haywire.

In short, the fabricators are malfunctioning.

Oh, they're still producing food that looks and tastes much the same as before, but now there are some unexpected side effects.

NB: Characters may experience any of the following side effects: nausea ranging from slight to debilitating, the sensation of being happily and affectionately — but not overwhelmingly — drunk, bone-deep exhaustion and weariness that makes it hard to move, or repeated hallucinations of loved ones screaming for help, reaching out to characters and leading them down abandoned corridors or being killed by unseen forces.

The extent to which characters are affected is up to players, as is whether you'd prefer to play this more lightheartedly or tackling more serious themes. If the latter, please provide warnings in subject lines where necessary.

( 0 0 5 ) » NETWORK

The comms device you found next to you when waking up connects to a station-wide network, REVERIE NET. You have the option to post video, voice or text messages.

What will you share?

( 0 0 5 . 1 ) » NETWORK USERNAME

When you first turn on your communication device, it requests for you to pick a username to identify you on the network. It can be anything you want. However, as you try to input a username in your wristband to access the network, you get the following message, along with a small, but irritating, warming sound:

this username is already in use.

What does this mean? Is there other people around? Were there other people around?

( 0 0 6 ) » WILDCARD

The station features a variety of locations, from sleeping quarters free for the claiming to a dirty swimming pool and a bar that still holds alcohol (though some of the bottles seem to have been opened a while ago).

Go wild, but don't wreck the place. It's your home for the foreseeable future, after all.

Comments

ryo asuka | devilman (crybaby)

[luciformis]

002.

[ Once, when he was young, Ryo had awoken alone in the dark.

He’d been washed ashore then, abandoned and unloved (though love did not exist), his hands reaching out for anyone — someone. But, this was not back then. This time, there had been no one to tell him that he no longer needed to be frightened, that everything was okay. This time, no one had pulled him to their chest and held them there – wet tears against his wet clothes, his damp hair. This time, he was alone – truly, and utterly.

At least, for he thought.

He’d woken first, a half-remembered dream both bright and white searing behind his eyelids. It’d been with a faint cough, the instinctual lifting of his arms against the dimness that had found him out of his confinement — and into something he could not recall. For most, fear would have been immediate. For Ryo, it was only a slow rise of his heart rate that indicated any such discomfort, his eyebrows furrowing just enough to say without uncertainty that they were at all.

Any such conversation he’d held with the one he’d been trapped had been brief. Cursory and impersonal, one could say, but Ryo had been cautious to reveal more about himself than what needed to be known. Until he understood more of what was occurring, it was better to be more reserved.

That, and he had more pressing things to worry about. He’d more pressing concerns, such as deducing if he’d been captured by himself or if he’d been taken with him – had, too, been shut up in the station somewhere. It was with that sort of single-mindedness that Ryo had set out, excusing himself after coupling his waking partner off with someone else, and went in search of something more familiar to him.

Anyone could find him up here, his eyes scanning the curvature of planet they circled, the heavy bodies of the paired satellites. With the initial nausea passing in moments for Ryo, it had left him more liberties to attempt to discern where it was they were, occasionally noting and checking the communications device for anything pressing.
If you join him, he’ll ask you a singular question: ]

Does any of it look familiar to you? [ Despite their circumstances his voice is level, calm. If you answer, he’ll glance up from the communications device beneath the dark of his lashes, eyes almost grey in the pale dark. ]

005.

>> R.ASUKA

Hello everyone.

By now, I'm sure you've determined we're aboard a space station. While this is alarming, working together to gather information on our surroundings and reporting our findings is more crucial now than ever. There have been several network posts that have gone up containing questionnaires (1, 2) which I encourage you to answer.

Current answers point out that many of us are from Japan and, more overwhelmingly, from Earth. Given outside responses, I'm no longer confident that these places are standard or consistent for each of us. It looks as though very few of our preceding events are consistent too.

That said, I have a few more questions for you all.

1. What was the last date you remember? If you're able, include the day and month.
2. If possible, what major world events can you remember occurring?
3. Are there others you know? If so, were you taken from the same place temporally or physically?
4. Did you wake up with someone? If no, could you describe the location you woke up?

Also, if you're taking to exploration, there's a mess hall on the second deck, a fitness center on the fourth deck, and an observation deck on the first. I determined that many areas are impassable, but please report here if you were able to access any of these.

Thank you for your cooperation.

WILDCARD.

[ Please feel free to contact me at rasasvada with requests or PM me! I'm more than happy to write a special scenario up. ]

005

[uragiru]

>> CROW

I admire your composure. As for the questions, let's see...

1. I believe it was December 10, 2016.
2. There were quite a few newsworthy international events, but the most unusual and closest to home would have been the emergence of a group known as the Phantom Thieves.
3. There are others I know here. However, we were most definitely taken from different places, both temporally and physically.
4. I did. In fact, it was with someone that I know.

[luciformis]

[ Interesting. ]

Thank you. But, this is a difficult situation. Remaining calm is challenging for most, so taking it upon myself to organize yours and the other's information is no burden, especially if it can prevent further problems in the future.

[ Not that he really cares about everyone else, but that's okay. But, he's just noting all these responses carefully. These all certainly don't match anything he knows. Right now, his world is on the cusp of a great war. ]

I appreciate your responses. If you could clarify further, it should be very helpful.

1. Were these temporal and locational differences significant in any way?
2. Was there any overlap between those you know, assuming there was more than one?

[uragiru]

1. I haven't confirmed it with them, but I suspect that there are only a few months between us at most, and that we were all taken from the same city...
2. ... And that they were all retrieved from the same point in time, while my last memory is earlier.

Since you're asking about things that pertain to our relocation, it might be relevant for me to mention that I was quite badly injured last I remember, and I seem to be just fine now.

[luciformis]

I see. So, you would be their only outlier.

[ That would be considered a significant difference, both temporally and the eyes of most people as it pertains to the injury. He just dutifully makes notes of this. ]

You were very fortunate to not have arrived here injured then. Have you checked to see if you have any residual marks or signs of trauma?

[ Not worried in the least, just curious. ]

oh if it isn't my old friend ryo | closed.

[luciformis]

[ In Ryo, there had always been something disquiet.

Like the long pull of a tide from shore, the sensation perpetual — dividing the rational from the irrational. He had felt it all his life, the quietude of his expressions belying something darker, stranger. It dragged its fingers into him like a stone across the shoreline, hopeless to the current. It was as though he'd left himself across the endless ocean and came into Akira's arms a hope for something else.

Someone else.

Ryo is accustomed to the taste of stale air on his tongue — familiar with it as he crosses through the station's open passages one more time, again. He does not wonder to himself if his search is pointless, but he'd given up checking the network religiously some time ago. If he were to appear, if he were to show up — that would not be his first point of interest, he knew. It would be something else.

His third trip to the observation deck leaves him to the silence. There had been many people, all of different origin and height who had collected here for a time. Ryo had not spoken to many at all, save for when it was advantageous — his sights set on information that might piece together for him a way to go back. A way to get back to what he had left, no matter the means. No matter the circumstance, if Akira was not here. There had been one thing, one person that that he had always trusted. And if, by chance —

Ryo told himself he had never feared anything, that fear was a title to place upon the rush of cortisol — adrenaline. He told himself that it would pass, that there was no time to ruminate on or consider such pointless and instinctual impulses. After all, it would not get Ryo back to him. It would not assist. It would not return to him what was taken, pried from his fingertips one-by-one.

It would not give him the familiar cut of a taller form, the shock of darker hair. It would not give him his name, in the voice of the one he'd sought out with the truth of everything. That had been with him through everything, up until now. Up until now where — for all Ryo knew — he was millions of miles from him.

His walk is slower now, more contemplative. There is no determined direction, no sense of purpose in how he treads the circumference of the deck, his eyes cast to the craters that speckled the two moons. There was nothing in their shapes there that he could gather, no pattern that had been traced out to him in youth — a pudgy finger pointing out the bend of ears, the curve down to a tail. For a long moment, he thinks of the sound of waves against the rocky outcroppings — a place that he came to live, but did not call home.

It is only when he makes a second pass of the perimeter, that his breath stops up in his throat. It's almost inaudible, quiet against the insurmountable welling of something from within his chest. It bubbles over, slowly — ripples through his body in warm, languid strokes. Like a glass piece thrown back to sea, not yet worn smooth — it aches as much as it soothes, his musculature unwinding from a tension he had not even known he had possessed. ]

Akira, [ he calls out, eventually. It comes more like an exhalation, something that sits strange in his ears. His expression opens, lips parting as if to say more, but nothing comes to him. If nothing else, if nothing else in this whole situation — Akira is here. Akira is fine. Akira is alive.

And he would protect him here, still, no matter the cost. ]

how the hell have you been keeping, then??

[dvmn]

[Akira's roving explorations of their prison had largely proceeded from the lower decks upwards, combing through nearly every available room and section, attempting to glean to his best ability as many clues as possible. Sadly, there weren't many to be had. Apart from the logo on the communication device strapped to his wrist and the coveralls he'd woken up in, there was nothing else to allude to what this place was called, what it was meant for, or who it was that once ran it. And, hell, even if there were, he's no fucking detective. He'd be better off reporting findings to someone with a keener mind; he's always been a bit more blunt of an instrument, too straight-forward for subtleties, far preferring a situation where there was a defined line from one point to another.

Though, really, how often was that even true? These days he's pretty sure it's all some sort of wishful thinking, all constructed by generations of dreamers who sought to design order from entropic chaos.

Or something like that.

Eventually he climbs to the observation deck, something which sprawls out across the vast majority of the first deck. The floor-to-ceiling windows confirm to him something he'd had a sneaking suspicion of, instilled in him by dozens of weekend nights crowded around the television, watching sci-fi flicks as the sunset bled red light into the room and then faded into black. Space. He approaches the windows slowly, jaw set and mouth pressed into a thin line, scanning the arrangements of stars. They didn't mean much to him; they were just meaningless static, a spatial Morse code he wouldn't be able to make heads or tails out of. It was always Ryo that calmly shot down his suggestions at new and wild constellations, correcting him to which ones were real and exactly where they were, inscribed upon the night sky by generations of storytelling and people using them to find their way home or otherwise. The thought was a churn in his stomach, already unsettled by a false sense of gravity that always left him feeling the tiniest bit off. He'd run into quite a few of the other suckers trapped in here with him, but he hadn't seen Ryo - not here, and not on what he'd been able to see on the network. It was pretty crazy to think he'd be here, though, right? This was all of space, and some of the people he'd seen were pretty fuckin' weird. It'd be an infinitesimal chance, just as microbial as they were when viewed in comparison to the space station, the planet, the strange solar system, the whole universe that encompassed it.

So he's trying not to think about it.

And then there was the planet. He'd been thinking he couldn't be surprised or shocked at this point, the sensations growing dulled as acceptance of their collective impossible situation set in, but his mouth drops open a degree regardless. At first glance one might mistake it for Earth. But then there was the additional moon, peeking out around the furthest extent of the atmosphere, bright with the reflected light of a distant sun. That, and how one would notice that, though much of the planet was a familiar blue and green and white, there were continents of colors he definitely wouldn't have anticipated: purples, yellow, black. What the fuck? The exasperated confusion exits him in a long, slow exhale, and he slowly leans forward as he does so, his forehead eventually resting against the heavy glass with a dull thud.

Time passes. He isn't sure how much, but then:

Akira!

A short while ago, the same call from the same voice had sliced down through the layers of aimlessness and mundanity in his life, cutting him clear to his core. A hand reached out to him after so long in a sequence of events that, even as they were happening, he had thought constantly must be some sort of dream, because it'd been too ideal otherwise. Akira's childhood after Ryo had left and after his parents had gone abroad had been treading water. At home, at school, during club; he did as best as he could without making too many waves, never too far away from barbed comments from practical strangers of his living situation and the tenuous state he seemed to exist in. Miki helped, but she wasn't always there. School and club took up time, but there was plenty left over, spent in a state that always felt like wandering, even when he felt he had a minor goal to set himself after. Ryo had changed that. He always had, giving him a clear and bright point to focus on back in those times when they were kids. A fog had rolled in over his life after he'd gone, and he'd swept it away in the moment he'd rolled back into his life, all with the strength and driven nature of a hurricane. He'd uprooted everything; he'd crashed through walls of his ignorance regarding what lived and breathed in the darkened corners of their society, enlisting him in a quest to bring all of that to light before it became too late for humanity. It was like something you'd read in a comic, and Akira had been all-too-willing to be swept away, less so for the novelty of that unbelievable narrative and more because Ryo had reached out to him once more and said that he needed him - him and only him. He still remembers the way his heart leapt in his chest at that, the same way it does now as a lightning-bolt of recognition lances down the full length of his spine, causing him to go ramrod straight and turn sharply towards the sound.

And he's there. Holy shit. A chance like one particular star out of a million billion, and he's here.]

Ryo! [As soon as he calls out he's moving, body easing into a loping run that carries him to his friend far faster than a human might've been able to make it; he slows to a halt, leaning to one side and then another to scan him from all angles. No visible injuries, all limbs attached. A secondary wave of relief washes over him, chasing after the one that'd flooded his entire mind when he'd ascertained that he's actually here. Of course, the sentiment isn't entirely unclouded - there's flotsam within the water, unresolved feelings of frustration and the faintest sting of something that verged on betrayal from what had (in his mind) just recently happened. He lets it rest for now, sinking to the bottom of his consciousness, ready to be dredged up later under less dire circumstances.

For now, his expression of momentary concern dissolves into an unmarred bright smile. A laugh shakes itself loose from the back of his throat, more out of a release of nerves and after-effect of relief than anything else, and when he speaks next his voice drops into a slightly lower register, warm with familiarity and affection.] You're here. I was so worried -

[There's a part of him that wants to wrap his arms around him, swing him around and hug him tight in a mirrored parallel of when he'd hunted him down there on the docks. He very nearly does. But - there's something that snags at him, a shred of something that trips him up and causes him to stall out. The feeling of despair as the screens encircled the track, lurid and pulsing, drawing the beast out of a Koda who could not in any circumstance fight it back. The sharp, harsh, alien feeling that'd sank its talons into his gut when he'd realized Ryo had had a contingency, overlooking Akira's decision to spare him that fate, to try to figure out another way.

No, no. There was time for it later. But for now, he remains standing where he is.]

[luciformis]

[ There's parallels. There always is.

Akira runs to him, like he's run to him once, twice, thrice before. He runs to Ryo like he ran to meet him on the docks, like he ran to him at the Sabbath. His voice, like Akira's voice to him, inspires in him action enough to discard all other thoughts. It'd always been that way. Since the time Ryo had recited to him answers to his every question, rote on all that surrounded them. But, Akira had all along given him something in return for it. His knuckles bruised and hooked into the backs of yellow shoes, the spray of bullets at the feet of others that lay between them, the elimination of those who could seek later to expose him — yes, Akira had taught something to Ryo as well. ]

I'm here, [ he confirms. There's a small smile that chances across his lips, brushes them upward with a warmer hint. It catches more at the corners of his eyes, the slight downward cast of his of his lashes. Still, this exchange brings a peculiar absence. There's no affirming gestures, the opening of arms. Part of him wonders after it, trails back the string of events that had occurred before arriving here. It would suit him to be upset, Ryo knows, but there had been no other choice — no other means to display to them all truth that lingered at the corners of humanity, that laid within their own communities — like snakes that awake to the promise of summer heat. Even if Koda had been someone who could temporarily contain his demon, who was to say such a thing could be permanent? To Ryo, there was no such possibility of anyone being quite like Akira. There no such potentiality that another could be trusted to stay their hands as Ryo now stayed his. Being aware of the distance did not bring him closer to Akira's perspective, but it prevented possible escalation they could not now afford.

Still, he inspects him ways more reserved then Akira does. The weight of his gaze travels slow, touching from his feet to shoulders, his shoulders to his fingertips. His eyes consider him openly as they trail up to his face, touch upon the softer points of temples — the crown of his unruly head. Like Ryo, Akira appeared in one piece. There appeared to be no blood, no wounds. No signs of fatigue, which had been dashed the moment Akira come to him as he had always come to him — as much as Ryo would seek him out, would extend back the hand Akira had once extended him so long ago. ] It's okay, [ his words skim fond, syllables sinking into a familiar rhythm that Ryo only shares with him. There's a tightness in his chest that comes around the immutable bright, something that Ryo quiets in the face of finding him, Akira, no matter the statistical improbabilities, the absolute and indeterminable means.

Yet, somehow, Ryo had always known their paths, so long ago met, would continue to entangle. No matter where Akira went, it seemed inconceivable that Ryo would not follow. They had been together this long, hadn't they? To journey past the ends of human comprehension, to a place without clear purpose or name — Ryo, though he would not acknowledge it directly, would have taken up the burden entirely on his own if it meant clawing his way back to where Ryo knew he'd be. ] I thought if you were anywhere, I'd find you here.

[ Human sentimentality and curiosity drove patterns across the outline of their lives. Even Ryo, who once thought he was above such things, found himself collecting old photographs taken in the morning of their friendship. To him, Akira was the one exception to his standard ruling, the one and only thing that Ryo would press importance upon. But, even if that had been known since the moment he'd been found washed ashore, Ryo had never articulated it in full. Like the empty chambers of a shell, he'd kept himself afloat amid the sediment of his thoughts, the defensiveness murkiness against what it all could mean.

But, even here, there we no rabbits on the moons. There was no grand or celestial animism, driven by human desire to attribute meaning to all that they could see. But, sometimes a satellite was a satellite. Sometimes, what was necessary was necessary, no matter what ugliness it reflected back toward the eyes of the one person Ryo cherished most. Whether it would be dealt with singularly or brought up with great gusto at a later date remains to be seen, but Ryo had experienced such concerns before. He'd handled them.

And he'd handle this too, with him. ]

[ There's a small pause, the minute retreat of the smile that had greeted Akira to begin with. It remains, subtle and slight, but no less perceptible. At least, to any that would know. ] How long have you been awake? [ How long have I missed seeing you? ]

[bunbiki]

[ for a second, the light places tricks on him and he swears those eyes are grey and those eyes are familiar and for the first time since he's woken up here, he feels like something makes sense and is familiar. but it's gone when he realizes that's just not the case. no, he hasn't seen this person before in any of his lives. he's pretty good with names and faces so if he had, even once, he's certain he'd recall. ]

Oh. Um. Sort of? I don't recognize any of the planets, no, but the stars and the atmosphere feel sort of familiar.

[ and isn't that quite the statement.

hibiki hugs his arms tightly against his chest and leans on the balls of his feet, peering out the glass and at the wide, wide expanse of nothing out there. it's terrifying and silent and he doesn't much like it.

had they messed up? was this all there was now? odd planets and this chunk of metal? ]

I've gotten used to this sort of thing, though. Waking up confused.

[ is that a -- bad joke? ]

[luciformis]

[ there's always been something about Ryo Asuka that many could not place. he was a though a shoe without a pair, a singular and solitary earring discarded at a station. he only made sense when placed within his context, against all that he lacked and all that gained. ]

Familiar? [ there's a slight twinge of curiosity that sneaks through at the end, in the lift of voice to form the question to begin with. he turns to rest his back against the glass, the effusion of light cast off the eternity beyond them catches at the pale of his hair — makes within a mockery of a halo.

he pauses, the slight downturn of his mouth one of contemplation rather than sympathy. ] Humans often have trouble waking up or forgetting where they've gone to sleep entirely. This is new. [ he glances over his shoulder. as he does so, it's easy note the material of the jumpsuit is just a little too large. ] Has this happened to you recently? [ before now, he means. ]

network; un: tokumei

[neuralnet]

1. January 5th, 2250

2. I'm not certain how far back you would like me to go, or what would classify as a "major world event"... There have been two so-called "World Wars," one from 1914-18 and one from 1939-45. There have been many wars since then, on a global scale, but none as big as those.

3. I have not found anyone I know. [ And he's rather relieved about that fact. ]

4. I woke up in a small, confined chamber with a man who I have never met before.

no worries!! often me too.

[luciformis]

Thank you.

[ this is the latest date he's seen yet. interesting. ]

Your answer for "major world events" is fine. It's very informative. Are there any wars currently ongoing?

[ no reason, really. ]

also hi this is Chris we met at brunch

[neuralnet]

There is fighting in the Middle East and some skirmishes in South America, but no large-scale wars, no.

[ Japan isn't at war with anybody, so he hasn't really been paying attention. ]

001 / did u call for me: a jackass?

[thieving]

[ he's eying that one planet this station seems to be revolving around, distant and strange-looking from anything peter has seen, really, but then again - all new planets are distant and strange at first, are they not? his arms loosely folded, eyes scanning the stars and their various patterns, he replies without taking his gaze off of what he's doing, mind running carefully over comparisons of constellations and starry guides back home.

it's a little disappointing, but he's never been one to give up, not when he remembers the urgent business he very much needs to get back to taking care of. his fingers flex instinctively. ]

No. None of it, unfortunately.

[ it hardly sounds distressed, if anything, it's rather neutrally cheery (can you manage that? peter can manage that.) in any case, he's arching his neck back just a little to follow one bright star to another, hoping that maybe that one? that one could be - no, no, that was too hopeful wasn't it?

he lets out a heavy sigh, sitting on one hip and finally taking his sight away from the glass to the young man beside him. ] I've been to many a planet and a number of systems, but none of them look like this.

i sure did u beautiful jackass

[luciformis]

[ it's the same for ryo, in the end. leaving the world on the cusp of a global war, where he was the one who provided them all with most of the information. it's difficult to grasp, to maintain still and quiet when even that did not concern him as much as a particular individual did. he'd promised to protect him, after all. he was the only individual he could trust.

still, the man that speaks up in response to his question is one who takes on a look quite similar to the one he'd been wearing for quite some time before his. tracing out locations, attempting to discern where they all now existed — a suspended and quiet prison in of itself. ]

I see, [ he says, his voice level, thoughtful. it carries nonetheless, his mouth dipping downward in faint degrees in contemplation. as he turns more to meet this man as he meets him, he presses his back to the glass of the observation deck's windows. the sparse light that is offered here and there illuminates his pale skin, his hair. still, there is a quiet and intense focus in him no matter the posture he adopts. it comes through in the way he adjusts the device at his wrist, briefly, his gaze steady. ] There's no similarities between any of these systems at all?

[ he figured that might be the answer, but it benefits him to ask after possible overlaps. for him, the sun of this solar system appears roughly the same size and color as his own. ]

loops arms with let's go to hell

[thieving]

I've been to quite a few. As far as the Outer Rim and no. I don't recognize much here from what I can see. Especially that.

[ he points a finger, pressing it up against the glass, gesturing in a lazy little circle at one of the planets in view. there's a mild dismay to it, a slight disappointment. if he knew where he would be going it'd be one thing - but peter tries not to make a break for it without his plans in place, numbers counted, assurances made on survival. so for now he digs in and he tries to take it what he can. as much information as possible, stowed away behind keen eyes.

where the other appears intense from the looks of it, starlight soft on him, it's the shadow that seems to latch onto peter, filling in and clinging close by contrast, when he speaks, a flash of teeth - sharper than most appear. ]

Not too much in the way of information left for us on these devices either, not to mention anyone who might be able to inform us about where we are on this station seems to have vacated the premises.

network; un: +prince+

[armigers]

[ Wait, what's 'Earth' and 'Japan'? Okay, obviously they're place names, but does that make Noctis an alien to everyone else? How does this work... he's giving himself a headache trying to wrap his mind around it, but he suddenly feels like more of an outlier than he is in his own home world. ]

1. M.E. 756
2. Nothing big really.
3. You mean taken from the same time and place? Yeah.
4. As if those things are big enough for two people.

[ Well, he tried to be somewhat helpful, but he can't say he was all that successful. ]

How is any of this supposed to help anyway?

[luciformis]

[ The truth is out there. For Ryo, this ask is much easier to digest. Demons? He deals with them. What are aliens, at this point? ]

Thank you. You're the first to report that dating system.

Also, for clarification: did you wake up alone then?

[ It is helpful. Kind of. ]

The shortest explanation is to determine patterns that could provide us an idea on why we've arrived here and, more importantly, why it was us. Finding out these facts are part of a greater picture.

[armigers]

No one else at all?

[ Then he wonders if he's the only person from his planet so far or if no one has checked in. He's not sure which would be the worse discovery at this point. He's not keen on being trapped here alone but wouldn't wish this on the others either. ]

Yeah, woke up alone. No welcome committee. Just the jump suit and the weird phone.

[ As for why it was him? Noctis has a few guesses, but he'd rather keep that to himself for now. ]

Any other patterns so far then? Aside from Earth and Japan.

005, because I want both

[dvmn]

[He notices this quite a bit later.

There's not an ounce of surprise in him. Oh, Ryo... You never change. (Well. Doesn't seem entirely true, but...)]

>> AKIRA
tldr

[Cue shit-eating grin.]

0:)

[luciformis]

[ Akira. Akira, please.

Cue inevitably glancing up from wherever they're situated, stare flat. Not that it helps him much, his eyes are almost always too bright whenever they rest on Akira. So, maybe it was moot to do that after all.

Watch him type this sucker without even looking. ]

Insightful. I'll take it under advisement.

[ He definitely will not. ]

[dvmn]

[Yeah, it doesn't really have much of an effect on him. He might always have a half-barbed criticism or a dry complaint ready for times like these, but Akira can see through the response; the words are always toothless, and he hadn't even bothered to fight him when he'd picked him up and thrown him in the pool back at his apartment either. If he had any indication whatsoever that Ryo genuinely got upset or didn't appreciate his teasing, he wouldn't do it.

But he doesn't really get that feeling about it, so he does it. And it's fun.

Akira's grin only notches a bit wider at the response. He's not nearly so economical with his typing - he's clearly having to backspace quite a bit.]

tbh it's as much as I expected from you, professor
anyone tell you anything interesting? notice any more trends?

eyes emoji...... NETWORK ID: @MOREORLESSA

[begetter]

1. I don't know, I was asleep on and off for a while.

2. Oppressed humans in the Hexagon have been emancipated with the purging of its demans and their leader.

(okay.)

3. No.

4. I woke up with a human man who is trapped in a picture box device...we were in a very small metal room.

(okay...)

👼

[luciformis]

[ Uh. Well, he's read stranger on the internet. ]

I see.

Your event seems more pivotal than most.

[ He guesses. Emancipation...? ]

Could you describe this "picture box"?

[ He has a feeling that this person means a terminal of some kind, but go on. Or maybe an interface unrelated to the devices? That'd be helpful. Or a text-to-voice feature of some kind. ]

[begetter]

Yes, it is pivotal.
Which may be an understatement, but it's a very good word nonetheless.

(yeah something about humans warring against "demans", the usual amirite)

His body is a square with a glowing screen on the front of it.
There's a small slate just below it with symbols and all the letters of the alphabet like the one we're using now.
I don't know what either's called but it is very similar to this device but larger!!!