come_sailaway | Welcome To The Village

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Welcome To The Village

Who: Everyone who was signed-up for the excursion
What: The Village December Excursion
When: Dec 1st - Dec 23rd
Where: The Village
Warnings: Involuntary capture and confinement including immobilization and restraints, violence, injury, maiming, possibility of death, torture, coercion, gaslighting, mind control, drugging, scientific experiments, and extremely inaccurate depictions of mental health facilities/hospitals, among other potentially triggering themes. Please mark all threads appropriately.

"Good morning, good morning, good morning!" A voice that sounds very similar to Friday's chirps over a loudspeaker outside your character's home. Yes, their home.

Overnight, all the passengers who signed up for this excursion have been transported to their very own personal cottages. They will awake in a bed that is familiar to them. While this home of theirs does not necessarily have to resemble the place they were born or raised, it will be a perfect replica of a place they truly thought of as their home, down to the most minute details.

The cottages are self-contained, the size of a large studio apartment so, in some cases, they may only resemble the bedroom and living room of a person's home with a shrunken-down kitchenette and bathroom adjoined. But the heirlooms of their past are here. A favorite doll? A treasured family portrait? Trinkets you have long forgotten about? All of them will be here, somehow. (All except for weapons, that is.) They are indistinguishable from the real item, down to the molecule.

After that wake-up call, the voice continues on to express that the weather will be warm and sunny, with no rain forecasted. A brass band concert is announced, to start at noon on the lawn next to the living chess set. And once that bit of news is wrapped up, lively marching band music will begin to play. And it will continue to play. All day. From every speaker...including the ones hidden in their home.

Welcome to Your Village

It only gets stranger from here. Characters may be dismayed to find that they are without any of their original clothes or belongings. They awake in conservative button-up pajamas. The closet in their home is full of the latest Village Fashion to choose from. Everything is The Village label brand, including the tin cans of food that stock the kitchen and any of the groceries you could get at the General Store.

Your ship phone rings. When you answer it, you will be greeted, once again, by the voice of Friday. "Your number, please? Of course, you have a number. Look at your badge." If they look down at their chest, they will discover a small round number badge has been pinned to their pajamas. Was that there before? It bears the symbol of a Penny-farthing Bicycle, with a number in the spokes. This is their number.

"No names here," the voice of Friday chides, "Only numbers. Number 2 would like a word with you at the Green Dome. He requests you come for breakfast. Thank you!" Before they can protest further, the line goes dead.

Some Notes:

No matter how many times your character tries to take off and disregard their number badge, they will always find it re-attached to their clothes again the moment they look away and look back.

Your characters still have their phones but now they can only make calls instead of sending texts. They also do not take or store photographs anymore.

If your character destroys or damages anything in their home, or in The Village it will instantly repair the way things used to on the Serena Eterna.

The noise from the speakers can be muffled by covering it with pillows or other creative items, but cannot be stopped entirely. (Sorry Phil)

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Yes, she knows, but her own glower says YOU know we're in this together. Not that there's much their respective glares or protests can do about the goons; Natsuno might not resist, but Rita doesn't let the goons wrestle her onto the vehicle without at least one stomped foot each. It's the threatening hand near Natsuno that keeps her from going further. Maybe once the car is moving, she thinks, and they're out of sight of Number 2. She looks back at the smug guy and his stupid fake neighbour deal, sees that he's out of sight, and just as she faces forward again-

The mini moke comes to a sudden halt, and one of the goons loosens his grip enough in surprise that Rita wrenches an arm free and finally gives him a well-deserved smack. The other gets tackled by the now-hypnotized goon who climbs over the seats, and she uses her now-free arms to brace herself and kick them both out the side of the car. "Ha! Jerks."

And finally, the most important- She scrambles over to Natsuno, reaching for his cheek. Arguing through a few glares or not, she's still really worried about the sluggishness of his regeneration. "Hey! Are you okay? Did you-?" She glances back to the goon who's attacking his fellows.

"Yes," he says curtly. Sorry Rita, he knows you're worried but they need to get away right now.

"Don't hold back," he orders the hypnotized one, "none of you can follow us."

He grabs Rita's hand. C'mon babe, let's make like a banana and split -

Well--okay, she can have a proper Concern Session later when they're away from these guys. "Good thinking," she offers as he grabs her hand, though. She knows he's not too keen on using the hypnosis, but it's also not like they have any reason to care about some flunkies!

They jump off the car and start running across the grass. Maybe if they head towards the woods, she starts to think, but then she thinks she hears a distant roaring. "Do you hear someth--what's that thing supposed to be?" Her question turns incredulous at the white sphere that abruptly drops into their path. It doesn't even look all that solid, almost like a great big balloon. She clicks her tongue, because she's sure her magic would make quick work of it--if only she could use it here--but they can just go around a big dumb thing like this!

--Except that no matter what direction they run in, it rolls to cut off their route.

Rita is midly annoyed, but Natsuno is alarmed. He's had some experience with the rovers before, when they punted him away for trying to cross the Village border.

"It's a security feature. It'll shove us all the way to the hospital." His hand tightens around Rita's. "Pretend to go the right way, then run."

"This thing?" She eyes it incredulously, but if it has Natsuno worried, it must be capable of more than it looks. It does also make her a bit more annoyed, because it's delaying her from properly checking that Natsuno's okay! So she starts walking in the direction of the hospital with him, but not without shooting the big orb a glower.

"It's following," she announces flatly, though he probably already knows. But at least it's not cutting off their route anymore. "Okay--let's go!"

Time to start running! As soon as they take off, the roaring noise starts up again.

Damn it! The rover rolls relentlessly behind them. Natsuno considers suggesting they split, but Rita will never agree and even if she does, a second rover will surely show up. Still, they're not going down without a fight.

"Under these bushes! If it's too small for it, we might slow it down - "

But the rover is already upon them. The surface stretches like rubber and engulfs Natsuno's free arm. He yelps in surprise and anger - they can do THAT, too?!

Okay, now she's alarmed--don't go eating her boyfriend!!

"What the hell--they can do that?!" she shrieks, and steps forward to kick the rover--but it only absorbs her foot, and now they're both caught.

"Let go, you stupid - "

But no one will ever get to here the rest, because the rover swallows him whole, with Rita soon to follow.

It will bounce jauntily all the way back to the hospital, just to rub it in. It's gonna hurt before they pass out.

Rita's shrieking and threatening does nothing to stop the rover from gobbling them up, and then it's a jarring, nauseating ride. They knock heads at least once, probably more, a spinning tangle of limbs until they lose consciousness before even arriving at the hospital.

She wakes groggily but with no headache, strangely, since a splitting one is the last she remembers. The memory is almost enough to make her feel ill again--that was the worst ride she's ever had, damn that Number Jerk! Wait, speaking of which--she sits up quickly on the cot, starts to demand to a nurse, "where's Natsu-" but the demand is cut short as she spots him on the next cot.

"Natsuno! Are you awake?"

The last thing Natsuno remebers before passing out is terrible nausea. The next thing he knows, Rita's yelling and he's lying on a cot.

"Yeah," he grunts and sits up. He holds a hand to his throat, realizing it no longer hurts.

"...they fixed it," he says, staring at the nurse. No pain, no hoarse rasps. All this just to - actually heal him?? "Rita, are you okay?"

He looks better--he sounds better, too, when he speaks. She's relieved by that, but...

"Yeah...I am." Her skepticism and confusion is evident in her voice. "Not that I'm complaining, but why are we okay?"

The nurse gives them a placid smile, looking down at a clipboard. "Because you're in the hospital and we fixed you up, of course! That's our job. I think you ought to be a little less reckless...but you have a clean bill of health!"

Natsuno's face goes completely blank. He gets out of the cot the second the nurse says clean bill of health.

"Good, then we're leaving."

Rita can question the nurse if she wants, but Natsuno doesn't want to stay there for another second.

Rita blinks at his expression, but she has no desire to stay here either, so she nods and joins him. The nurse, unbothered, gives them a cheery "Be seeing you!" as they go.

Outside, it's morning. Rita rubs her temples--she doesn't have a headache, but there's something she doesn't like about it, either. She glances to Natsuno. "You okay? I wonder if we... Did that balloon thing seriously kill us?"

"I don't think it matters." Dead or just knocked out, they were at the Village's mercy. Natsuno rubs his throat again, frowning distantly like he's trying to figure out if anything's missing. Clarke, Jade, Tohru-chan, all the friends he lost - their faces are still intact in his memory.

"I feel okay," he says, "but that doesn't mean we didn't get 'taxed.'"

Rita immediately scowls. "As if that was in any way our fault! It was that stalker creep!"

The only remotely satisfying thing was that Number 2 guy telling her off. Rita hopes she got some deserved punishment. "What was she? 158? Hmph...she'd better finally take the hint and back off."

"Her name's Shimizu," he says, because he refuses to follow Kevin's stupid system no matter how awful Megumi is. "She's from Sotoba. Never thought I'd see her here, but - "

Natsuno scowls, angry at himself more than anything. "She hasn't changed a bit. I shouldn't have let her get to me like this."

Rita shakes her head immediately. "Hey, it's not your fault. We both heard them, right? She slimed her way into getting assigned as your observer just for an excuse to keep bothering you." Just saying the word makes her grimace in distaste.

She is going to commit both Shimizu's name and number to memory, though. Just in case.

He tsks in similar disgist when Rita says observer.. He should've still controlled himself better instead of taking the bait, but no point in muling over it now.

"Think we all have designated observers?"

"Hm, I wonder..." She glances around. The cameras might be semi-concealed, but they're hardly a secret. "You'd think we already have enough eyes on us, but it's possible."

She wouldn't put it past Shimizu to come up with the idea just to hassle Natsuno, either. She thinks back to that slimy jerk trying to blame Natsuno for being unmutual--what a convenient excuse that must've been for her.

"Well, if nothing else, that Number 2 guy will discipline her if she does it again. Though how he even let her talk him into it in the first place..." She tsks, then her gaze drops to the bloodstains down the front of his shirt, and she's abruptly reminded of him gurgling on the ground. She reaches for his hand. "Hey, I--you're sure you're okay? You want to get cleaned up at my place?"

Natsuno doubts Shimizu would learn her lessom, and he doesn't care what Number 2 does to her. She's not worth it, he reminds himself. Rita is what matters right now.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he replies, lacing his fingers in hers as he starts in the direction of the cottages. "Does your place have less dumb shirts?"

She squeezes his hand gratefully. She's just...really glad he's okay, and if Shimizu doesn't learn her lesson, then maybe Rita will just have to teach her a new one. Especially since she doubts this will be the last they see of her.

Anyway, she manages a small grin, because it's true that the style here is pretty boring. "Unfortunately not." After a beat, she adds ruefully, "Imagine, the one place with outfits where Jade wouldn't look out of place..."

And he's not even here. Rita wishes he was. Clarke...would've been pretty reckless here, Rita imagines.

"...This thing is lasting longer than we thought... I wonder what's happening back on the ship." What if someone left behind vanishes? Fio was there, and even that Max guy...

Natsuno cracks a smile at the mental image of Jade wearing the Village fashion, a silly blue cape and maybe even a hat...

"They'd be sending monster balloons after him anyway, with that big mouth of his," he says, similarly rueful. He wishes Jade was here, that he'd come through like an adult should.

The smile vanishes when Rita mentions the ship.

"I imagine it's the usual, back on the ship. That's why were here, right? To keep it that way." He frowns. "It is taking too long. better get that asshole a whole lot of energy."

Her tiny grin twitches in sad amusement. She can just picture Jade wearing that as easily as if he was here, and imagine him making plenty of snide comments...and lecturing them for doing something to get them taken to the hospital...

She can picture it so easily it hurts.

"Yeah," she answers, her own smile gone. "It's just...annoying that we're cut off from communicating when we're split up like this." But there's no helping it. They chose to come here, like Natsuno said, in the slim hope of keeping them all going just a little longer. "Wonder how long he plans to keep this one going..."

"Until he gets bored of a quiet ship, I guess."

Is the captain watching this one? Natsuno hopes not.

"To be honest, I'm not too worried. If Skulduggery, Ava and the like disappear while we stay... that'd be the time to worry."

Rita also hopes not, even though the possibility is what kept Skulduggery from cursing them all with his gross sex life details. The captain watching would actually be preferable to that fate. Hm, maybe that's why Skulduggery isn't going for the obvious plan of just seducing Number 2 like he did with the captain--he doesn't want to get caught two-timing. Coward.

Anyway, Natsuno's right, so she gives his hand a little squeeze as they approach her cottage. Once they're inside and she shuts the door--she can't help it anymore; even if there is surveillance in here and they're never really out of someone's sight, she turns to hug Natsuno.

"I know why we came here, but still, I just--I'm glad you're okay."

Edited 2023-12-22 18:25 (UTC)

(no subject)

neverleave - 2023-12-22 18:32 (UTC) - Expand

finally I can throw all subtlety to the wind

myagic - 2023-12-22 19:50 (UTC) - Expand

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