day zero

[guestcontrol]

dreamland day zero 42 players remaining. [You wake up in a temporary barracks set up behind an amusement park. The weather is chilly but pleasant, and there aren't any lines for the rides - in fact, it seems you have this place to yourself. The entire park appears to have been abandoned some years ago, and though everything is in working order, it is overgrown with plants and seems rusted and unsafe. As for you, something has happened, though you aren't sure what. There's a throbbing pain in your head, and you can't focus, as though you're coming off heavy pain medications. However you think you should look, you look like a human now. Under the bandages wrapped around your temple, old and smelling like blood, you'll find a recently stitched up scar wound and the inability to focus on your memories. You have no knowledge of how you came to be here; you may even have forgotten certain aspects of your life, or feel confused about them. The fact of your missing memories is obvious, a dark blank spot. Under the bandages around your wrist, you'll find a brightly colored bracelet, decorated with the face of the smiling cartoon animal on your wall, embedded into your flesh. It beeps a merry tune and welcomes you to DreamLand Fun Park. Just then, a voice comes over the loudspeaker.] "Good morning to all of our new guests! The park is now open! We'll get started later, but for now, have a magical day with your new friends! Oh, and there may be a few nasty side effects to your medical condition. If you meet someone having trouble adjusting to reality, please be polite!" [In your room, you'll find a small box containing several personal items - no weapons, magical items, or technology advanced beyond the early 21st century, and nothing dangerous, but otherwise anything you would ordinarily find on your person is there. Of course, nothing with cell reception or internet connectivity can manage to pick up a signal. If you swipe your bracelet against the steel door, it unlocks. You may now explore your accommodations, or venture out into the park.] profiles character statuses setting This is an IC mingle covering the first day! Night roles will go up Monday at 4 PM EST, but you are welcome to continue to thread here once that happens. Make sure to follow any updates on plurk!

Comments

[jingler]

[He peers at the lettuce and carrot with Sigma, making a small 'hm'.]

You know Sigma, there was something I forgot to mention earlier. Inside the warehouse we were kidnapped to before the person who trapped us communicated messages to us through a computerized AI that looked like a rabbit. It was...not a very pleasant rabbit.

[siggey]

[ I turn the carrot. The peels look a bit over-frozen, the top bushel doesn't look so good either. Otherwise, it's a pretty ordinary carrot. I could probably find something similar if I go grocery shopping to that one mart near my apartment. ]

What's wrong with rabbits? I thought you said they were cute, just now.

[jingler]

Well yes, real rabbits are cute. Not a computer generated rabbit programmed to mock us and talk gleefully about how we're all going to be killed. I don't think anyone would find that pleasant, Sigma.

[siggey]

...

A what?

[jingler]

...Oh dear, I fear as though I am confusing you again. Let us skip over the dramatics this time and continue on okay?

[shhhh sigma. it's okay, shhh...]

[siggey]

[ I stare at the lettuce in my right hand.

There's nothing weird about it.]

An AI with a messed up personality must still be a chore to program, but the hell...?

[jingler]

I don't understand it either. I suppose our captor, someone called Zero, has a very twisted sense of humor. But it isn't important now. We should continue our search.

[siggey]

Zero...

[ That sounds pretty pretentious.

Oh well. Time to do my best to not think about it, because I seriously do not need to consider a FUTURE kidnapping right now. Closing the fridge, I move on to the shelf next to it. ]

Sugar, dried apricots, prunes, condensed milk, oatmeal, noodles... It's pretty well-stocked.

[jingler]

Condensed milk? I don't understand. Why would anyone condense milk, especially when there's a working refrigerator?

[siggey]

Refrigerated milk still expires pretty quickly. Unopened condensed milk can stay on the shelf for a good year.

[ I pick up the can and turn it around to look for a date. Nothing... Although there's no calendar I've seen in this park either, so I guess we don't really have a date to reference anyhow. I just know it was December 25th, last I remember. ]

Hmm... Well, I can probably tell if it's still good or not once I open it. I have a pretty strong stomach, too.

[jingler]

If that's a risk you're willing to take, then by all means. I don't think our captors would put poisoned food here purposefully and it is sealed tight.

[siggey]

Depends on how it looks, alright? I'll know once I see the color and texture.

[ I wave K off as I put the can back on the shelf. Condensed milk's not a bad thing to have, but I'm not in a hurry to claim this one.

The kidney beans are staying with me, though. I'm going to head back to my room and put it in that box that's apparently supposed to contain our possessions, and mine had nothing in it. Then the beans will be safe, and that void will no longer mock me! ]

Yeah, if they wanted to kill us, they could've done so already.

...

How do you plan to eat, anyway?

[jingler]

I've already thought of that. The vent area of this suit's head near my mouth is wide enough that I can squeeze certain foods through it and eat them. This of course means I can't eat any large portions of food, so I'll mainly eat noodles and dried food, but if I cut the meat up into thin slices I should be able to get it through.

[He's been considering the mechanics of this for a while, because he doesn't exactly want to starve to death.]

[siggey]

What about semi-liquid/solids? Like apple sauce, mashed potatoes, that sorta thing.

[ That gets me to look around the mess hall once more. Is there a blender around? ]

[jingler]

I think that should work, but I'm troubled that I might make a mess of the suit. Like if some mashed potatoes didn't go through right and not all of it got into my mouth. I would have to be trapped in a suit with mashed potatoes inside of it too. I don't really think I would enjoy that.

[siggey]

[ I can't help but snort. The image is pretty funny! ]

Yeah I guess, better stick with a flat straw and bacon strips, huh? It looks pretty heavy, too. Were you actually wearing that before you got kidnapped?

[jingler]

No. I awoke in it, trapped inside. I suppose with my amnesia it's possible that I was wearing this suit of my own volition, but then why wouldn't I have the key to it? It seems incomprehensible to me that I would lock myself in a suit and not keep the key on my person.

[siggey]

Wait, but you got amnesia BEFORE this, in that warehouse, right? Otherwise you really shouldn't know who I am.

[jingler]

Correct. I was also trapped in this suit inside the warehouse. The person responsible for my amnesia and this armored suit isn't the one behind our current predicament.

[siggey]

You think the person who kidnapped you for that warehouse somehow magically wiped your memories, but you could still talk and act like a person?

[ I briefly look back at K, before shrugging and moving away from the shelf to go back at the cupboards area. ]

[jingler]

"Talk and act like a person"? Are you insinuating that I'm actually a robot who thinks they're a human? That's preposterous. I can feel bodily sensations like my head injury. Those aren't feelings a machine made of nuts and bolts can have.

[The notion alone feels horribly offensive to him, for reasons he can't quite explain. Nevertheless he follows Sigma to the cupboards.]

Is there something else you need in here?

[siggey]

[ I shrug. ]

How should I know? You could be anything beneath that mask. I'm just saying forgetting about yourself but not how to talk and think is pretty weird. And specific.

[ There might be a name for that sort of amnesia, but it's not my field of study. ]

Just looking through again to see if I missed anything. I'm gonna take some of these back to my room with me before we head back to the petting zoo.

[jingler]

It's called retrograde amnesia Sigma. I have control over my motor skills, I just cannot remember my old memories while being able to form new ones.

[He still feels angry but equally saddened. It isn't like he wants to hide his face from Sigma. He can't escape the suit at all.]

Very well then. But please, do not say such things again. I'm asking you to trust me in the same way I trust you.

[siggey]

Retrograde amnesia, huh?

[ Never heard of it, but guess it can't hurt for me to remember it. ]

Kinda hard to when we don't know anything about each other - or well, I don't anything about you, since you somehow already know me. But fine, it's not like it's a big deal anyway.

[ I get on my knees, remembering that I didn't check the bottom cupboards. ]

[jingler]

[It's a big deal to K, because Sigma is someone he wants to have trust in. But if Sigma doesn't trust him the same...

He will bench this topic for another time and look down as Sigma checks the bottom cupboards.]

I wonder what use a bottom cupboard even has? Why would someone want to lean down to fetch something, when they can reach up to grab it easier?