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Thankfully Shaun responded well to the poet's directness and the two soon joined forces to find the elusive Caora. Before they set off on the search though, the web designer handed Daimyon another book, his apparent personal ‘gift’ that the sneaky little trap was supposed to give him. [i]‘Untethered’[/i], the book was titled—an exciting choice as far as titles went; and it was not given without reason as Daimyon soon found out. The text contained within was an interesting mix of prose and poetry: longer sections of each interspersed by almost line-by-line switches of style and form. The brave experimenter he claimed himself to be, he was thoroughly intrigued by the premise and vowed that this would be the first thing he red as soon as they found Caora. In the latter's temporary absence he thanked Shaun profusely for the gift and engaged in some discussion with him as they went, mostly about their respective Infinite talents. He also told the out-of-the-loop Shaun that there would be a meeting held this evening, something he himself needed a reminder of and could only remember thanks to his diligent note-taking from earlier today.

After an elongated back-and-forth in all three areas—for there was a third, an actual hospital wing Daimyon has not visited before—and with the help of multiple...eyewitness accounts from fellow Infinites, they ultimately found Caora. He had some initial confusion about the whereabouts of the book he was supposed to carry with him, but once Daimyon assured him he had it—and thanked him for it—, everything was relatively normal once again. The poet found that Shaun and Caora had an amusing dynamic between them already, which surely were the first steps towards friendship. He only broke away from the two once he noticed the time and realised that he wanted to sink his teeth into [i]Untethered[/i] before there was time for meeting.

Back at his room, he did just that. He put the other book he picked up from the library, the amateur autobiography on the table so that he would remember to look into it later. He lay down on the bed and reflected a bit before getting to reading. This day, everything considered, has been great so far. He spent productive hours with his wonderful fellows, getting to know both them and the place they were confined in. Not to mention the variety of...surprising but pleasant experiences he got to be part of. From the Isaiah-carrying task force in the morning with Felix and Rika and the wordplays with Krista to the search in the study-themed library with Shona and Mondatta. Finding a piece written by the latter, only to be promptly called in a public announcement by Caora...

It was a lot and he enjoyed all of it in one way or another. A small frown ran over his face, but only for a moment. He put his notebook back into the suit pocket where it belonged, then opened up [i]Untethered.[/i]

[hr]
The time for the meeting came all too soon. Daimyon looked up from the book at an inopportune time and found that he was running a few minutes late already. He made sure that his pen and e-handbook were both at the ready as he headed back to where he started the day: to the break room.

He was not the last to arrive, thankfully, even though their numbers never actually filled up: two people, Quill Kennedy and Mason Brady, decided not to attend. Daimyon was yet to meet either of them, and hoped that their withdrawal from the group's very first official-ish gathering did not sign apathy or worse, distrust. The poet himself was quite eager to hear what the others have found. Before he could have settled down though, suddenly a wild Caora rushed right past him, followed by Shaun. Somewhat behind them came someone else...Mary, the streamer. He saw her bouncing around in the break room, but did not get to talk to her there. Now was the chance to remedy that.

[color=SeaGreen]“Hello there!”[/color] he addressed Mary, who tried to look over his shoulder even now to see where Caora went. The trap told Daimyon a bit about her—it was nothing positive. [color=SeaGreen]“I don't think I've had the pleasure yet. I'm Daimyon, the resident rhyme-wrangler,”[/color] he introduced himself, stressing the Rs a bit for effect. [color=SeaGreen]“How was your day?”[/color]

Once all was said and done, the meeting kicked off. There was no official order to it, people spoke up when they felt like it and shared what they learned about the place today. Mondatta covered the library well, Daimyon only added details every now and then. His main task here was to look at the bigger picture and note down the findings and what they meant for the group.

[b]KRISTA, CYRUS:[/b] cave
[i]Sidenote: ‘mustard the strength to ketchup’ - best one of the bunch[/i]

[color=SeaGreen]“You are...very creative,”[/color] was what he said to the violinist when most others were staring daggers at her.

[b]FELIX:[/b] music room
[i]Sidenote: check for lute![/i]

[color=SeaGreen]“You're ought to show me the place sometimes.”[/color] He smiled at Felix.

[b]CALVIN, KARA, DAVIS:[/b] Neurology, ER
[i]Sidenote: pictures of a red-haired girl?[/i]

[color=SeaGreen]“Was she...a patient here, perhaps?”[/color]

[b]SHONA:[/b] info on Ultimate Despair [i]--TBW--[/i]

He paused to listen to the knight present her findings on the group that was apparently behind their capture. It turned out that the ‘killing game’ concept, no matter how absurd and barbaric it sounded, was not something new either. A very similar situation once played out in America, for example. Its participants, though little was known about them, managed to beat the crazy game and defeat its mastermind. If they could do it, surely a group of Infinites would also manage...?
He realised he should try to find out more on the topic and wrote down the following: [i]‘Sidenote: ask Shona for despair magazine!’.[/i]

With that done, he scrolled back a page to find the notes he made earlier today when he tried to summarise the facts they had and the questions they were all asking. As it was to be expected, the list of the latter only grew larger while there were precious few answers to sate the flow.

————

[i][b]FACT:[/b] There is some sort of larger force behind all this
[b]OBSERVATIONS:[/b] This group could be Ultimate Despair, but also the Infinity Initiative; the killing game format has been done before; previous masterminds include Junko Enoshima and Neo Alexander, both supposedly dead
[b]QUESTIONS:[/b] Who are the true culprits? How have they managed to stay hidden for so long?

[b]FACT:[/b] The higher floors are locked down by metallic bars
[b]OBSERVATIONS:[/b] No visible way to open them, but there are stairs leading up—there has to be a way
[b]QUESTIONS:[/b] How can we open them? Can we find what we seek up there?[/i]

————

Whew. This was one hell of an information flow. Daimyon was prepared for short bursts of fast and readable writing when inspiration struck, but he was unsure if he could keep this up at every meeting. Already things were starting to look muddy again, the mystery was getting deeper. Could he stay on top of everything...?

Soon it turned out that his personal worries would have to take a backseat as Davis was about to reveal something big. Or he would have, were it not for...

...the Carnage Sisters appearing? Daimyon completely forgot about them. This time though, he was almost thankful: the atmosphere has grown tense these past few minutes and these four childlike robots yelling at them actually alleviated it slightly. The poet found the whole...kerfuffle more amusing than scary, mainly because the Sisters were not actually present and pointing weapons at him.

It ended quickly and relatively painlessly. Daimyon was about to look back at his notebook when the group's attention collectively turned towards an opening gap on the floor. Springing out of it with impossible agility was...[i]Monokuma.[/i]


[color=SeaGreen]“We are but caged birds,”[/color] he said when the bear went on about [i]‘equipping them with everything they needed to get out of here’[/i]. [color=SeaGreen]“Eyes on the possibility, yet kept from it with steel bars. Perhaps if you allowed us to...flutter our wings a bit?”[/color]

His plea, unsurprisingly, fell on deaf plush ears. Monokuma explained the next stage of his plan—if it was even a plan, and not a sudden development following the group's initial unity and determination to find their salvation. He announced that if no one wandered out of their room during the soon upcoming Night of Carnage, he himself would kill someone.

Before Daimyon could have reacted, the bear was already gone through the same gap he came from. Everyone stood in stunned silence. Shona was the first to speak up:
[i]“It's important that we don't panic.”[/i]
None of this seemed to have much of an effect on Davis who hurried out of the break room after a haphazard apology to Rika. Damn, just when he was going to talk...

Daimyon shook off the wave of despair that suddenly came to burden him. Indeed, it was important not to panic. There were a lot of unknowns still—because when has Monokuma ever given a concrete explanation?—, and he decided to turn to the one who seemed to have the most composure now: Shona.
[color=SeaGreen]“What do you think about this whole ordeal?”[/color] he asked the knight. [color=SeaGreen]“Will Monokuma actually...kill if we don't give him what he wants? And what does he want anyway?”[/color]

[center][@Vocab] [@Ariamis]

[@BrokenPromise][/center]