Dieter awoke with a jolt, the way one does when they've slept past the alarm and are aware of it from the moment they open their eyes. It was a familiar situation to him, sleeping past his designated waking hours. Except... this time, as the startled boy blinked his eyes clear from whatever sleep was left in them and looked around, he didn't see the familiar room he was used to, nor did he hear his uncle screaming profanities from the doorway at him for almost missing work. No, what he saw was a classroom, and it definitely wasn't one he recognized. For a moment the boy just sat and stared blankly, confused eyes jumping from the barred windows to the empty desks to the door and back. His heart rate fastened, and he felt a cold feeling of dread flow into his mind. Where... was he?

Oh. Wait, that was right, he'd come to Orion Academy, right? He'd decided to attend despite his adults' wishes... had that been a mistake? A quick look around would tell him yes, but maybe it was too early to decide yet. Orion Academy could have been a clever ruse for an opposing government aware of his title to kidnap him - or this could simply be a very, very peculiar hazing method for new students. It could be anything. Yeah. [i]Anything.[/i] So for now he should just... calm down and stop shaking long enough to be able to stand. Fear was poison to a human mind, one far more effective than other nature or human alike could produce. He'd tested it enough times to know.

He stood up, something flaring in the corner of vision and startling him to a near-fall. A... paper? Blinking, Dieter extended a trembling hand and peeled the note off of his forehead. Had he been sleeping on i- oh,[i] who cared.[/i] He flipped the thing and gave it a quick read-through, his worries easing a bit. Well, at least this definitely wasn't an enemy government's plot now. They had no reason to keep up the school ruse now that he was aware of it. Hazing, then? Well, there was probably only one way to find out, scary as it sounded.

He'd need to go to the entryway, huh. 

Gulping, afraid of what he'd find once there, the boy tiptoed to the classroom door and, drawing in a breath, pulled it open - only to let out a high-pitched scream the second he saw what waited behind it - the face of a fox, staring down at him from more than a dozen centimeters taller.

"Oh?" The face asked, and Dieter quickly realized the animal was just a mask. O-oh. Oh.. for God's... he had half the mind to just-

"So you're awake~?" The man continued in a singy-sangy tone, snapping Dieter from his darkening thoughts and bringing fear back into his eyes. "That's good. The first test subject is finally up and running! I've been sooo bored all alone here."

"... W-what?" Dieter blurter before he could help himself, taking an unconscious step away from the man. It didn't help that he was socially awkward and anxious to begin with; it just made him even more of an emotional wreck now. "Test- Who... who a-are you?!"

"Test, yes, you've been lucky enough to be chosen into a game. My name is Zero, and all you have to do is look for number nine to get out. Easy, huh?" Fyodor shrugged his shoulders, arms casually raised and one leg off the ground as if he was about to fall. "'Coooourse, if you can't get that to work out, the bomb inside your stomach will explode and blow you up into teeny tiny smithereens."

Dieter could have sworn he'd heard something like that before.

And to begin with, he, if anyone, knew that a bomb in the stomach wouldn't- 

No, wait, no, now wasn't the time. He was about to be blown up by this madman in a mask! Eyes wide and heart beating in his throat now, the boy stumbled backwards into the classroom, almost hitting a desk. The other man took a step closer, then another, and another, until he was right in front of him. Dieter held his shaky breath.

"Wh-wh-"

"Juust kidding!" Fyodor finally chuckled, lifting the fox mask- and revealing another equally fox-like face underneath, just this one actually human and decorated with a grin. "Got ya, didn't I? Sorry about that. This is actually a game made by the aliens, and I'm a victim too."

It took Dieter a while to recover, and even longer while to reset his mind state to normal. The boy shook his head, and then stared up at the other, still timid but voice more challenging than before.

"Th-that... is a lie, isn't it," he finally managed to ask, heart more steady now, even if his voice still carried a lingering suspicion. "Aliens... d-don't exist after all. Nothing higher than a human does."

"Oh, really?" Fyodor asked, eyes closed, head tilted, and mouth decorated by curiosity. "Hoo... Then, yes, it's a lie. My bad."

Dieter growled at this point, annoyed by the creepy guy's presence and words alike, enough to clear away his stutter for the time being. He never could be both angry and scared at the same time. 

"I've gotta go..." He mumbled, pushing past him to finally exit the classroom. "I got a note telling me to go to the entryway."

Fyodor's eyes lit up - or at least, they presumably did, since you couldn't really see them. And so, with few long-legged steps he was behind the shorter man as he walked, all smiles as he waved his own note. 

"What a coincidence!" He chirped. "So did I~! Seems like we share the way to go then."

"... Joy," Dieter grumbled as he kept walking towards the designated meeting spot, deciding that ignoring the guy was probably the way to go - at least, until he could steady himself enough to appear normal again.