TDM: NOVEMBER 2023

[citycenter]

TEST DRIVE MEME

JUMP TO MONTHLY PROMPT ↓ A TRAIN COMES INTO THE STATION. You wake up on a train. Your phone is buzzing. It's in your pocket, in your hand, on the seat next to you. It's a normal phone, and you're on a normal train car. One of the lights flickers, a little further down. The world is very quiet. It feels like you're right where you're meant to be. On the phone's surface is a white screen and the words— WELCOME TO THE CITY. BEGIN ORIENTATION? ▶ YES ▶ NO Please take a moment to complete your orientation. Once you're finished, the subway doors slide open to let you out onto the train platform. To your right, the platform continues on and eventually ends; to the left is a set of stairs that will lead you up into the station itself. The platform is quiet, clean, empty—there's no one else around, and the only sounds you can hear are your own footsteps, your own breaths, and the occasional faraway sound of a creaking pipe or rush of air. The train you disembarked will stay there as long as you do, its doors still open, until you finally decide to venture up into this new locale. As you make your way up the stairs to your left, you find yourself in the belly of City Hall station. The station is large, a sprawling underground mini-metropolis of corridors and storefronts. Here, you may find others like you, freshly-arrived city residents from other realms (or even your own). There is also a subway map, which will give you an idea of the layout of the neighborhood, and ticketing machines, which can currently only be used to buy tickets to a handful of stations located on lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 9. If you're hungry or in need of any kind of supplies, there are plenty of storefronts inside the subway station as well—snack stands, convenience stores, restaurants, clothing stores, a pharmacy, and a variety of empty shops that may or may not have ever been in use. Everything is unlocked, and you can take whatever you need. Characters may stay on the train platform indefinitely, and may re-board and re-disembark from the subway as many times as they like, but the train will not depart nor will the doors close. Once they go up the stairs into the train station, they may hear the train doors closing and the train departing. Another train will not arrive, no matter how long the character waits. Only once they come up the stairs into the station itself may characters encounter their fellow newly-arrived residents and take advantage of what the city has to offer. JUMP TO TOP ↑ | ↓ JUMP TO COMMENTS WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD. The station is located in the city center. It has three major exits that lead to areas of interest in the district, but there are several other smaller exits that lead in other directions around the neighborhood. You are welcome to use any of them, but may find the north, southwest, and east exits to be the most welcoming. TO THE NORTH The northern entrance to the station leads up into the sunlight and puts you out in a brickwork plaza. There's a modest building in front of you, three or four stories of stone with a welcoming facade. There's a sign above the entryway—it says City Hall. You may be tempted to explore, if you're interested in learning more about the city and how it functions, but prepare to find yourself disappointed—the folders in the records rooms are full of empty, blank sheets of paper, and the logbooks and balance sheets are similarly devoid of information. Immediately to the southwest of City Hall, you will find a small building that houses the tourist information center. It looks welcoming, with an inviting glass facade and a sign above the entryway announcing it as the "TOURIST CENTER." It's a humble building with a receptionist's desk on the back wall opposite the entrance, empty magazine shelves lining the side walls, and a few spinning brochure racks full of blank pamphlets. Anyone is welcome to peruse the tourist literature, though they won't offer much information, being primarily filled with pictures of the surrounding area—City Hall, the park, a statue garden, and the surprisingly heavily-featured cemetery. There are a few sentences sprinkled throughout about basic offerings of the city, such as apartment complexes and office buildings, as well as a few maps with the same limited scope as the larger version on the wall behind the receptionist's desk. TO THE SOUTHWEST The western exit of the station takes you up into a city park, lush and green with a very light fog still hanging about the trees. There are lampposts on the walkways and benches where you could rest, and plenty of flora, although you can neither see nor hear any signs of animal life. You walk the paths that meander idly through the verdant grass and you feel a sense of peace, some of your unease about this place easing into a pleasant calm. The air smells fresh, like it's recently rained, and you'll find the grass ever so slightly damp should you decide to take a seat. As you make your way deeper into the park, the trees grow denser and the smell of soil and plant life grows stronger. This is the older part of the park, very nearly a forest, with ivy climbing the trunks of the trees and plants and shrubs growing riotously around their bases. As you turn a corner, you find yourself first in the statue garden, although the statues are harder to see now, choked as they are with ivy. There are many statues, some partially obscured, some fully—very few of them still stand free of the vines and clinging roots. (It doesn't feel quite as peaceful here.) If a statue's face looks a little bit familiar, you may not want to look at it too long. Continue down the path and you will find yourself in a graveyard, one that seems centuries old. Most of the headstones are worn away by time and covered in moss, rendering them impossible to read. The few that are free of moss are blank, or bear only suggestions of names too faint to be understood. (Was that the name of—no, it couldn't have been. Could it?) Many of the headstones stand at an angle or are toppled over completely, having been subjected to either strong winds or the roots of the trees that grow up from some of the graves, spreading branches toward the sky. TO THE EAST The final exit of the station, to the east, puts you out on a quiet surface street. Are you hungry? Or are you paralyzed by choice? There are plenty of restaurants, offering options of almost any food you can imagine. You could try a convenience store—it's well stocked, and the items there seem free for the taking. How about a restaurant? There's no one to take your order, but when you look in the kitchen, there's something on the stove, and it's just what you've been craving. Imagine that. A few blocks down, you come in through the lobby of a tall building and find yourself in a corporate office. The fluorescent lights are steady and unforgiving, and the cubicles and offices are empty. There are a few pieces of paper on desks, a few folders left in organizers, but everything is perfectly blank. Despite how empty and quiet the office is, it nonetheless gives you the feeling that just a few minutes ago, this place was bustling with workers going about their daily business. You enter another building and find yourself in the lobby of an apartment complex—finally, a place to rest. The first door you try opens easily into a completely empty living room, freshly vacuumed but without a single piece of furniture. It's a nice apartment, quiet, but with a little too much echo for your taste, maybe. Still, and perhaps oddly, you have no trouble envisioning what life here would be like. The second door you open leads to an apartment that feels lived-in. Why does it feel lived-in? It's fully furnished with items that seem to go together perfectly, true, but the feeling is more than that—the room feels like someone was just here, maybe standing right in the kitchen only moments before you swung the door open. The air is a perfectly comfortable temperature, and it somehow smells like home despite that you've never once set foot here before. The refrigerator is stocked, and the cabinets are full of spices and flatware and kitchen utensils. As you look around the living room, you find that there are pictures in frames on the walls and some of the flat surfaces—a seascape, a field, a shot of a city park bench. In each of the photos there's something just slightly wrong with the angle, as though the photographer were aiming for a subject that can no longer be seen. Characters are welcome to explore the district around the City Hall subway station to their heart's content. The City Hall building itself contains several floors of offices and file rooms, but none of them contain any particularly interesting information. Nonetheless, characters may wish to team up with other newcomers and try to find some hints about the nature of the city. They can also spend a while in the park, the statue garden, or the graveyard. In the blocks surrounding the station there are plenty of options for food and housing, as well as office buildings, storefronts, and alleyways to look around. There are no workers in any of the buildings, and there does not seem to be an honor system for payment, nor any consequences for taking food from the stores or setting up camp in an apartment or office building. JUMP TO TOP ↑ | ↓ JUMP TO COMMENTS IT IS THE ULTIMATE SHADOW, THE DEFEAT OF CREATION. In one section of the newly accessible portion of the city, nestled in among normal looking residential and commercial buildings, is a wide and relatively short and industrial-looking building with no windows and only one grand set of black glass doors set into one side. Above the entrance is a neon sign that plainly states ART. with smaller letters sm added to the front in metallic paint. Hopefully, this simple signage will give passersby the impression that this is an art exhibit of some kind, with a twist. DO NOT TOUCH THE ART… Once stepping through the front doors, guests will be greeted with a lobby with walls covered in vertical neon lighting that pulses in a rotating rainbow, and mirrored ceilings that make the space feel surprisingly small. To one side is a bar where various cocktails await pickup. They don't have any special effects, but being a bit tipsy might help enhance the experiences waiting for you beyond. There's also a rack of bottles behind it, stocked with the typical liquors and mixers, if you'd like to play bartender for a while. Thanks to the disorienting amount of colored lighting and dark corners, it may be easy to get lost and turned around in the large building, and guests may be surprised to find that they're unable to locate the exit (or entrance) while alone. After leaving behind the lobby and stepping into the exhibit proper, you'll find yourself walking through a central winding hallway with large rooms branching off from it in both directions at regular intervals. Some of them are more interactive than others, but all of them are dimly lit except for the "art" that guests will find themselves in the middle of, encouraged to touch and participate in creative collaboration. A few of the simpler rooms include: Hanging ropes that will light up where touched, changing color with the amount of kinetic force applied: purple for a brush of the fingers, red for a crushing grip. These pulses of light will travel out to either end of the ropes the longer touch is applied, and considering that the room is pitch black and seemingly endless thanks to the mirrored walls, you may want to find some help in lighting up the dark. A sunken floor filled to the brim with translucent plastic balls. This ball pit is a literal bath of color with every-changing light shining up from the floor of the ball pit and diffusing through the balls. A wall of cubbies at the room's entrance awaits belongings and shoes that are asked to be removed by a polite sign at the top of the stairs that descend into the ball pit. Be careful, for the pit is deep and it's easy to sink beneath the surface if you sit or lie down; you may see some shadows of people a ways away from you, but if you wade through the balls to their rescue, you won't find anyone tangible there. A small theater of benches all facing the back wall that is a single large screen. The display is a moving series of lines on a black background that give the audience the sensation that the room is moving, or they themselves are traveling through the space. Atmospheric music—mostly heavy bass and noise that's been timed with the movement on the screen—hums through the room and adds to the sense of immersion. ... IT MIGHT TOUCH BACK. One of the more interesting rooms is actually divided into three smaller rooms, each with a heavy, sound-dampening door that only has a small square window set into the top of it. Through the window, you can see that there is a red room, a green room, and a blue room. Stepping into any of them will be a different experience where guests will be entirely immersed in the color—even the window is a one-way mirror from the inside, blocking out any sights from beyond. The longer guests stay in these isolating rooms, the more disoriented they'll become, and it's entirely possible that moods will shift from the experience. Be careful stepping back out into the exhibit itself, your eyes and ears may need time to adjust. In the green room, guests may feel like they've stepped into a concentrated and unfiltered essence of nature. The speakers play a variety of animal noises layered with leaves rustling and branches creaking as they move as well as wind, rain, and other kinds of weather. Looking at yourself, or your companions if someone stepped inside with you, you see their eyes and teeth pop clearly in the bath of green, somehow more obviously animal than ever. In the red room, the temperature is higher than the rest of the exhibit, not uncomfortably so but noticeable all the same. Looking down at your skin, you can see more of the blemishes, the dark spots or pale scar tissue that contrasts much more starkly. From hidden speakers in the ceiling comes a mixture of sounds that are hard to place as they're so layered over one another, but the overall noise is inorganic, discordant, unsettling. It's hard to focus, let alone look at anyone else you might be sharing the room with. In the blue room, there is almost an absence of experience. The only sound is a low, steady hum that vibrates through you as you stand and close your eyes almost on instinct. Everything gets erased in the layer of blue that covers everyone and everything in the room, skin looking almost gray from the lack of any other colors that are so often associated with life. The last room of note is completely black and empty except for three massive umbrellas of flowers and other plants that are suspended from the tall ceiling, illuminated by lights shining on them from above. Each umbrella is about as high off the ground as the average human and varying by a few feet or so, so that it's possible to stand or crouch beneath them. Once standing in their shadows below, guests will be able to hear whispers coming from above… These whispers tell real secrets of city residents—past, present, and future—though names are never included. The secrets are told in their own voices, though, almost like confessionals to a confidant or their pillow in the dark of night. These secrets can be positive, negative, or simple fact. Some may be shocking revelations of guilt, or shy mutterings of love, or secrets spilled as if the speaker has never thought of this part of themselves before. There is a hush throughout the room, and if guests were to whisper to each other beneath the umbrellas, conversations would not be easily overheard. Residents are encouraged to meet up in the bar with friends, grab some drinks, and then head into the art exhibit. It's also a great place to meet someone new as there will be plenty of interactions happening as everyone hopefully discovers a bit of their inner child. There's no right or wrong order to exploring the rooms, but residents will not be able to find the exit without the presence of another with them—even if you came alone, you're leaving with a friend! For the Secret Garden whispers, players are encouraged to make up something scandalous to discuss with others or even have their own character's voices whisper to them from the flowers. Please remember to discuss with other players before including any information about existing and potential characters that may affect their gameplay. Inspiration for this location includes 9 Lights in 9 Rooms as well as Hopscotch. Title is from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. JUMP TO TOP ↑ | ↓ JUMP TO COMMENTS WILDCARD. The city is by no means small, and there are plenty of things for you to see. There are even some places that other residents have created! There's no rush in exploring, so feel free to take your time looking around and peering into various nooks and crannies and alleyways—and don't worry, you're not very likely to find anything peering back. If none of the above prompts appeal, feel free to check out the Locations and Maps pages and write your own freestyle prompt using one or many of the available locations. We highly recommend checking out the Character-Run Locations as well - they might be great places for new characters to get started! JUMP TO TOP ↑

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akihiko sanada | persona 3

[mazios]

one — city hall.

[ Okay, so. He woke up on a train. There was a phone next to him that required him to answer some questions and now he's — he's here. And trying his best to figure out where exactly that is.

It's why his footsteps lead him to City Hall, searching for some kind of answer to where he is and what he's doing there. He doesn't know what this could possibly mean but, well, here he is.

After digging around to try and look for some answers, he hasn't found much of anything that isn't obvious so Akihiko will be found standing outside of City Hall after his rummaging and looking conflicted. This is probably not an unusual sight for those already living in the City so, hey, come say hi to the newbie? ]

two — the welcome diner.

[ Eventually, a boy needs food (and information). So he's ended up at the corner diner, looking around for a hot meal and discovering exactly what he's looking for here. He's going to be at one of the booths, eating a plate of mapo tofu and looking through the pamphlets so helpfully provided by the residents.

But he's still feeling a little uneasy so as you pass by his table, he's going to reach out to get your attention. ]

Hey! Uhm, have you seen a boy around? Quiet, blue hair, wearing headphones? Or — or a girl, strict looking, long red hair that goes over her one of her eyes? Just... just wondering.

three — green room.

[ He doesn't know what leads him there but eventually, Akihiko finds himself at the museum. The place is surreal and unsettling and Akihiko isn't quite happy being here. He passes through the initial rooms with hesitation and discomfort until eventually landing in the green room.

It... doesn't help with the discomfort. The noises feel like they're ramping up, the more he lingers in there and when he spots someone nearby with sharp teeth and beady eyes, he startles, jumping back.

Possibly jumping back into you and when he touches you, he's immediately swinging around and launching his fist in a punch. Better duck out of the way! ]

four — wildcard.

[ Up for anything else as well! Akihiko will be around, feel free to make something up or shoot me a pm. Thank you! ♥ ]

Winter Diner

[whatsamada]

[Here, Ken knew better than to eat some strange and mysterious food from this place. Not after dealing with eating ice cream and knowing how it was tampered with. And yet, he also knew better than to just starve. Walking around the area, he was going to grab something quick before heading back home until he heard someone.

As he turned his head toward the sound of that voice, he just stared before blinking to himself It certainly was Akihiko and it was him from the past. If it was anything like Shinjiro's meeting, just his presence alone was probably enough to freak him out.

That said, he just tilted his head to the side as he wondered just how he should approach his senpai...]

Uh...

ken :'D

[mazios]

[ It takes a moment or so but eventually, Akihiko does sense someone staring at him which is... confusing, because he just got here. Why in the world would anyone be paying him any attention?

So that's what has him turning in his seat and meeting Ken's gaze — with a complete lack of recognition. He furrows his brow, wondering why this young man is looking at him and wondering a little bit of why the young man seems familiar. But he just can't place it.

So, awkwardly, he does lift a hand and gives a short little wave. Hello? ]

And the awkward continues

[whatsamada]

[Well, it looks like he has been spotted. With no other choice, he just had to make his way toward him. As he gave a slight cough, he was fully prepared for whatever might happen.]

...No I'm afraid I haven't seen the people you are looking for but there are some here that you know. Are you familiar with a boy with brown hair that wears a beanie?

[Pause]

Or perhaps a boy with brown hair who acts older than he is? [Which he still does!]

perfection

[mazios]

[ A boy with brown hair that wears a beanie? Yeah. That's someone he could never forget but how — how is he here? For a while now, Akihiko has been thinking he might be dead, that this might be the afterlife and being told by this stranger that someone he knows to be dead is here...

No, no, get it together, Akihiko. He's caught off guard by the description and it almost sends him spiraling (Shinji is here, Shinji is here, he has to find him...!), he focuses on the rest of what the young man says and that startles him even more.

Ken...? No way. ]

Yes, of course. Those are two of my most important friends. Why — no, how — do you know where they are?

green room.

[excaliburden]

[He jumps back, right into her, and she barely has a chance to give off a startled little noise before he's swinging around to punch.

Thankfully (???) for her, this is more normal territory. She tries to duck out of the way, and while she's not quite quick enough to avoid it completely--it clips her shoulder rather painfully--she's immediately retaliating with a fierce swing of her own.]

[mazios]

[ This is completely stupid.

Because yeah, as he realizes his punch missed, he's about to apologize because maybe that was a bit hasty of a reaction — he's getting responded to with a sharp swing that has him ducking back but not before she gets him across the chin. ]

— Hey!

[ He's the one who started this but now he's wondering if they're... actually in a fight?? He readies himself, pulling up his arms to block any incoming attacks but doesn't retaliate just yet. ]

[excaliburden]

[Absolutely it is. Because he ducks back and says that, but Altria absolutely has both of her hands up in a stance that is all scrappy street fighter and no technique.

She's ready!

She'll go!!

She'll fight you!!]

Don't think I'll be an easy target just because I'm small and also really lost...!

[mazios]

[ He feels like he should be able to pick this girl up by the scruff of her neck and shake her a little. Just. Yeah. He watches as she braces herself for another hit, ready to fight, ready to go, and he frowns. ]

I didn't mean to hit you! I was just... kind of spooked.

[ . . . ]

Please calm down.

green room;

[cashewlater]

[ hey there fella -

if it weren't for cyno's incredibly extensive matra training, he might have just taken a fist to the face right now, but while the city might have stripped him of his electro power, it couldn't strip him of his years of work spent building his skill and speed. cyno quickly hops back, leaning away from that punch, and one hand instinctively reaches for the wooden polearm at his back, though he grasps it, but does not draw it.

his free hand raises, palm out, in a gesture of peace. ]

I'm not your enemy.

[mazios]

[ Akihiko is breathing hard, fists raised and at the ready. It's only after the initial shock and adrenaline pumping through his system that he refocuses and realizes he's staring at... a regular man, not a wolf. He feels kind of ridiculous for a moment, lowering his arms and swallowing. ]

I — I'm sorry. This room is just... it feels... strange? Doesn't it?

[ He looks a little helpless for a moment. How could he attack a random stranger like that? ]

[cashewlater]

[ to be fair, this man is more wolf than you might expect..

nevertheless, cyno shakes his head; he doesn't seem hurt, nor does he seem offended by the attack. this city has a way of bringing out strange things in people. ]

It's all right. This place is odd.. and not only this room.

[ the entire city. cyno watches carefully for a few moments, to be sure he isn't about to be attacked again, before he sighs softly and begins to relax. ]

But perhaps we should move on from here nonetheless.

[mazios]

[ Akihiko definitely feels the urge to attack again, feels his adrenaline pump and his fight or flight reflex be triggered but. This man is not a threat. He's not. And that's what he's reminding himself right now in this moment. ]

Y-Yes, let's...

[ He goes quiet for a moment, brooding a little on his situation before quietly admitting — ]

I don't remember how to leave this room, unfortunately. I'm a bit lost.

diner time

[petsthedog]

[The welcome diner is something he's heard people talk about on the network and has passed by, occasionally. He's considered lending a hand, too, but up to now he's found himself too uncomfortable with the notion of settling into this city enough to reach out to newcomers. It had taken him months and a set of truly unfortunate circumstances even to live in one of the apartments rather than the streets, after all.

So when Aki calls out to someone to ask after his friends, it just so happens to be the case that Shinjiro had been walking past the diner, and ... despite himself, he freezes. The voice or the description of either individual might have been something he could write off as a coincidence, but all three at once? There was no way. And when Shinjiro chances a look in the diner...ah. There he is.

He only has precious moments before Aki turns his way and meets eyes with him, and suddenly his mind's a blank. He has nothing to say for himself, really, no apologies to offer for his choices. He never actually expected to have to confront anyone left behind after his death, and even having gone through it once with Amada, he feels no better prepared to handle it with Aki. Maybe less prepared, even. His past with Amada is complicated and mutually awkward, a distance between them neither knows how to cross, each reticent to disturb the thin ice they rest on.

Aki, though ... Aki doesn't hesitate. He'll barrel onward, charging forward through any distance Shinjiro tries to hold, tearing down any and all carefully constructed barriers in his path, and there will be nowhere to run anymore. He's not sure he's ready for that, honestly.

(He's going to hurt him again, just by being here, on time he knows is borrowed but Aki could never accept)

Shinjiro steels himself, and then steps inside, taking a page out of his old friend's book and jumping right in to answer his question with no preamble:]

They ain't here. S'just you, me, and Amada.

[mazios]

[ Since the moment Akihiko stepped off the train, he's been worried he was dead. It was a mild worry at first, just a quiet what if that popped up in his mind and he couldn't quite let go. From his trip to City Hall to wandering around the City in general to even now, sitting and eating warm food in a place clearly inhabited by something other than a ghost, he has wondered — am I dead?

It's what got him asking after Minato, even while fully knowing the boy was dead himself. Maybe... maybe he was here too. Maybe this place is a type of afterlife and they could reunite. He felt guilty asking after Mitsuru too in the same breath, not wanting her to be here if this was truly the afterlife but. Those are his two leaders, and in this state of confusion he finds himself in now, some sort of direction would be helpful.

He couldn't, he wouldn't, think about the possibility of Shinji being here.

Which, of course, means that when he turns to look towards the window, those are the eyes he meets. He's frozen for a moment, trying to process what exactly that means — he must really, truly be dead then if Shinji is here. But then there's this... elation suddenly, at seeing his familiar shaggy haired best friend. It catches him off guard, has his breath caught in his throat, and suddenly the rest of the world seems to fall away.

Instead, he watches as Shinji makes the first move, entering the diner and approaching Akihiko with a single minded determination. It has Akihiko feeling a little dumbfounded. Should he stand? Should he keep sitting? What should he do during a reunion this... revered?

He finds himself unable to move and so he sits there, looking up at Shinji with wide eyes, just fixed upon the other boy and unable to look away. It takes him a minute to process what he says, too focused on the sound of it instead. That's Shinji's voice...! ]

Oh.

[ . . . ]

Are you real?

[petsthedog]

[Ah.

Some part of him had almost hoped Aki would accept his presence at face value, jump into the practicalities right away, but that had perhaps been foolish of him. After all, the first dumb thing out of his mouth upon seeing Amada had been a quip about how it would probably be in poor taste to say that he looked like he'd seen a ghost. Truly, Aki is doing him a favor getting this part out of the way first.

(He tries to ignore the way the look in his best friend's eyes twists in his gut, tries to forget the whispering flowers of the greenhouse that had taunted him only weeks ago with jeers about how he'd hurt Aki, hurt SEES, even Amada with his choices)

Shinjiro's expression softens after long moment, and he just -- lets go. Things can't go back to the way they used to be, and it's going to be complicated, and difficult, and painful soon enough. Why not just pretend for a moment, like they could?

He punches Akihiko lightly in the shoulder.]

Dumbass. You think a ghost or hallucination of me woulda skipped pointin' out there ain't any vegetables in that meal right out the gate?

[A gently amused huff, and he shakes his head.]

...S'really me, yeah. And no, this ain't the afterlife. We don't know what it is, exactly, but someone's out there behind this shit.

2

[fanstheflames]

[ Good man, eating the mapo tofu. Said person who made it, who is currently checking on people with a bit of care with her movements, looks over at him and then pauses to consider the question. ]

Sorry, neither one's really ringing a bell... I can ask around for you, though? I've been here for a... while. [ Way longer than she'd like to be, for sure. ]

[mazios]

[ He's been grateful for her obvious care, the way she's attending to everyone from new to old, which is part of why he's asked her in the first place. He felt like this was a woman he'd get real answers from.

So, he's a little disappointed at her reply (but also relieved, if he's honest) but it's nothing to do with her actual words. ]

That's okay. If they haven't passed through, I ... I understand.

[ . . . ]

How long is a while?

[fanstheflames]

Five months!

[ Promptly. ]

Also, this place isn't exactly great, so please don't feel offended if I say I really hope they're not here at all!!

iii

[cranekin]

(Centuries of experience on the battlefield really should have prepared him for this but frankly? He is not ready for Akihiko to come swinging. He'd been trying to sneak up on the other and give him a little bit of a jump scare but before he could even yell surprise, he finds a fist flying right him and him and-- )

Ow!

(He stumbles back and holds his face.

And you know what? He deserved it.)

[mazios]

[ THAT'S SO MEAN.... WHY WOULD YOU TRY AND JUMPSCARE THIS POOR, INNOCENT BOY..........

Akihiko is truly feeling a little out of it in this room, especially with the things he feels he keeps seeing in the dark. And after he pops the other person in the face, he still holds his fists up in defense, ready to go again. Are you a threat or not?! ]

Don't test me!

[cranekin]

(Because Tsurumaru Kuninaga is a menace and must be stopped.

Muffled, through his hands over his face,)

You passed, you passed!

(The test is over. There is no more test. Wow. He pulls his hands back and well... it wasn't a direct hit to the face so his nose is fine but wow, his jaw?? He touches his lips with his fingers to see if they're bleeding. Nothing. Yet.)

two

[miyagimagic]

[ At least Daniel does seem like the sort of person to ask these things about here - considering he's been moving around the diner pretty much the entire time Akihiko has already been sitting there with some food, doing all sorts of little chores around the place, perhaps even helping out some other new people to get settled in with food.

And indeed, the man doesn't seem to mind the question in the slightest. He instead just moves to sit down on the opposite side of the table from Akihiko, a very slightly smile on his face and sympathy in his eyes. ]

Looking for people you know, huh?

[ It's obvious enough, but even without that, Daniel recognizes the tone in the other's voice enough to realise that is what's going on.

He can understand what it's like to wish for the presence of those you know, after all. ]

I'm sorry. Neither of those descriptions remind me of anyone I know. Unfortunately it seems completely random as to who does and who doesn't show up in this place.

[mazios]

[ An... adult...! Akihiko isn't one to trust adults generally but he can understand that they're helpful in certain situations. Daniel especially strikes him as helpful and in charge just by the nature of the tasks he was doing. His presence helped to make this diner feel a little more lived in, a little less empty like the rest of the city.

So, that's part of why he stopped him to ask about his friends. He's surprised the man chooses to sit across from him, seeming to genuinely want to talk to Akihiko.

His answer is... disappointing but unsurprising. One of those people he asked after was dead, after all. ]

Random, huh? That's... not great. It's like this place just wants to dump people here without any direction, what's even the point of that?

[miyagimagic]

That's what all of us have been wondering.

[ Daniel still smiles as he says that, though now it's more wry than sad. It's a bit of a despairing point, he knows, especially when you consider just how long some of them have been here without answers.. ]

Whoever threw us in here doesn't exactly seem keen on providing us with many answers to our questions, even though we've been trying to ask. So far it almost seems like.. [ .. the man's voice trails off for a moment.

Sure, Akihiko doesn't seem like a young kid, but in Daniel's eyes, he's still a kid. And it's not exactly like he likes discussing this stuff with young people who shouldn't have to deal with any of this crap. They should just be able to live their lives freely, without worrying about this stuff.

But that's hard here. So.. ]

It seems like a big experiment.