WELCOME.

[lockdownmods]

[ You've had a long two weeks. Perhaps you've been pushed to your limit, perhaps not--either way, you all deserve a break. Jax is your driver, and he seems to be doing okay with the whole driving thing, despite braking a little too hard.

Aside from that, the ride to your new housing, is...interesting. You've gotten to see some of the outside world. The city is just as hi-tech as the university with buildings of varying sizes lining the streets. It definitely feels like a busy city, though there aren't many people out and about on the streets despite there being so much to do and so many things to see.

Weird, considering it's still daytime.

Around twenty minutes pass, and then you notice that you're travelling outside of the city. It's a long road that seems to go on and on. There are smaller houses now, farms and fields...

In any case, you have time to sing a handful of karaoke songs, talk to your neighbor, take a nap--whatever you feel like doing. After around an hour of travel, the bus approaches some sort of wall. It's high, and looks similar to the wall that surrounded Fayflower University. Jax rolls down his window, seems to scan something--and then the walls slowly open.

He drives in, and you're greeted with a colorful assortment of houses. They're also quite large. Jax parks the bus on the road in front of them before he lets you all out. ]

You're all assigned to the Magenta house, the one on the far left. You can do whatever you want from here on out; just don't mess with anything you shouldn't be messing with.

[ Interpret that however you'd like to. Maybe you'd like to talk to Jax. Maybe you'd like to settle in. Or...maybe you'd like to explore. ]

Comments

[lockdownmods]

[After Yoosung found that advertisement, on a device belonging to Vivienne no less, he’s been wondering what she was trying to tell them. Number One and Number Two were there, but not acting the way he remembered, and moreover, the difference in the campus size was suspicious. After staring out the window at the high wall that so resembled the one at the campus they’d all been to, he decided that there must be a connection between this place and that. Maybe this whole little area was a part of that campus that wasn’t there anymore!

But if that was the case… could Number One and Number Two have a connection to this place too? They disappeared when the power went back on before… Yoosung had been curious even then what would happen if the generator were to be turned off again. After what happened to Aiden, he’d really wanted to ask them more questions - they knew, they told him that bad things would happen, and if he had been able to talk to them again then maybe he would have been able to warn Sherlock and Mishima too. He still wants to know what else they knew… and with these puzzle pieces, he believes it may be possible to contact them again from here.

And thus, he’s spent the rest of the week lowkey obsessing over finding where the power comes from… keeping his head down, pretending he’s trying to boost the connection for LOLOL, doing whatever it takes. He couldn’t just spin his wheels. Eventually, he found it…in back of the bookstore in the mall. After that, all that was left was to find a time to mess with it where Jax couldn’t see it. That time is now, around 7pm - when he laid down his sleepy head for a nap. Your resident gamer made his way as fast as he could and turned it off, now the Magenta House is dark as fuck.

…

A few moments pass. Maybe you were in the game room playing cards, or watching tv in the living room, but whatever you were doing is interrupted by the sudden power outage. It’s certainly dark outside, too; the only lights that are still on are on the opposite end of the property, as if only half of the area’s lost power. It’s certainly possible that your first instinct is to tell Jax that the power went out so he can fix it.

Well...if you’re in the lucky part of the area that’s lost power--Magenta House, the bookstore, the bar, or the craft store--you’re in for a surprise. You’ll hear a gentle voice echo throughout whatever building you’re in.]

I think we may be trapped here forever.

[covertizer]

[ He'd been in the kitchen with a glass of water - not thinking about much in particular other than the mechanical action of raising the glass to his lips, and lowering it again.

Akira stops when he hears a soft voice, spinning in his seat as though the owner of the voice is behind him. ]

-- Hello?

[lockdownmods]

[ Indeed, he will get a reply: ]

...Huh? Hello?

[covertizer]

[ ... ]

HellllLLLLlllloooOOO?

[ He's... purposely raising and lowering the pitch of his voice because of course he is. ]

Friend or foe?

[lockdownmods]

[ The girl behind the voice suddenly shrieks, then: ]

GHOST! IT'S A GHOST!

[ FUEEEEE ]

[covertizer]

[ Excuse me. ]

I'm not the disembodied voice here. You're the one who started talking to me out of nowhere.

[lockdownmods]

Huh? Excuse me! I'm a human, and I'm very much alive!

...I think!

1/2

[covertizer]

You think.

So, I’m stuck in the dark with, what? A zombie ghost? Are those even a thing, I—

2/2

[covertizer]

[— wait.

He’s in the dark, during a power outage. ]

Number one? Number two?

[lockdownmods]

...Oh.

Ohhh, nono! That's not us, hehe. You're talking about Brynn and Yui, right? Well, they're out somewhere! My name's Kasumi.

So...you guys must be the people they talked to earlier, right?

[covertizer]

Brynn and Yui? [ Ah. ] So those are their names.

At the university, yeah. We spoke to them there, apparently. Except we never ran into them, even when we all claimed to be in the same place. [ Which begs the question... ]

So, where's this place you can't escape from?

[lockdownmods]

Yeah! Brynn's the angry one, Yui's always apologizing for him.

And they told us about that...how you guys are at Fayflower but never saw us. We never saw you, either... It's weird, right? Because we're in the university, too! And that's where we're trapped, just like you.

mall

[starswink]

[Yoosung ran away from the generator as soon as he successfully brought down the power, not wanting to be directly connected to the incident. But his heart beats faster when a voice comes through after all. He's thrilled that his shot in the dark (literally, as of this moment) actually worked, but... Is this a new voice he's hearing?]

[lockdownmods]

[ It is. And this time, Yoosung gets to hear another voice that's deeper, like Number One's, but far less aggressive and easier on the ears.

There's a loud sigh, then: ]

No, Kasumi. I don't believe these are ghosts--it's the same thing that happened earlier. ...Erm, hello? You can hear us, right?

[starswink]

[Huh, this is a different line than when she said they were stuck forever. Someone else must have said something to them, out of earshot from where he is... he'll just roll with it.]

Yes! This is Yoosung Kim. I talked to someone before just like this....

[But neither of these voices sound exactly like 1 and 2.]

How many of you are there?

[lockdownmods]

Four. You talked to the other two before, haven't you?

[starswink]

Yeah. For some reason we lost- [Well, he was about to say "signal" but this isn't a cell phone conversation, he actually has no idea how these conversations are happening] -uh, contact when the power came back on.

[He takes a moment to remember what they said, where to pick off. Something tightens in his throat, but he makes himself keep speaking.]

They were right. Things got so much worse...

[lockdownmods]

So...that's what happened? You turned the power back on, and we lost contact on our side.

...We heard everything you guys said, by the way. Kasumi and I, that is. Sorry that Brynn and Yui weren't exactly helpful.

[starswink]

Well they kept breaking up so it was hard to talk... but it sounds a lot clearer this time! I'm not sure why having no power lets us talk to you, but I'm glad this worked. We can pick up where we left off. '

So One and Two were Brynn and Yui, and Kasumi's with you... what's your name then?

[lockdownmods]

We aren't really sure why, but at least we're not breaking up this time. Good job on you guys, I guess?

Arden Garcia. You've probably heard of me.

[starswink]

...From Spanish soap operas? [No, Yoosung, that's Andre Garcia.] You sound really young!

1/2

[itwasfeyt]

[Maya, who is currently in the bookstore, replies without a second thought...]

Yeah, no kidding.

2/2

[itwasfeyt]

[...And immediately notices that she's still alone in here.]

Wait! Who said that?

[lockdownmods]

Eek! G-Ghost?! Ghooooost!

[ ....... ]

I'm so sorry about her. Uh...hello. You can hear us?

[itwasfeyt]

I'm not a ghost! You are!

[...] O-or you might as well be. Yes! I can hear this. It's kind of like you're everywhere.