[IC] Digimon: Dawn's Glimmering (Dead)

[Letter Bee]

Hale Koa Hotel, Hawaii

A storm was coming over the horizon, but that did not stop the airport taxis from depositing their load of tourists in front of the hotel’s open-air lobby. It was shielded from the weather by a roof but otherwise lacked walls on the front end facing the hotel’s roundabout and connected streets, as well as the back end, where a stone staircase leads down to a small plaza surrounding a tall banyan tree. Further down from the plaza was a path towards the beach, but the weather made it a poor time to go swimming.

Wooden benches, decorative plants, and tasteful floral print chairs that are shockingly comfortable were scattered about the lobby, with the front desk at the far right end from the street, while a set of elevators leading up to the hotel rooms are nestled within the far left end of the area. Enough tourists and airport taxis are coming and going that you can’t really tell who else received a copy of the still unexplained invitation letter, though when you check in at the front desk and make your way up to your room, to drop off your luggage if nothing else, you find a strange note left on your bed:

GO TO THE BALLROOM

---

One Andrew Starling would find that weird, stalker-y even. He'd ask the staff where the ballroom was and was told it can be found down a hallway to the left of the front desk. He arrived to find the standard tables, chairs, and a bar one might expect of a modern party venue that offered catering, which had a buffet but no servers, with everything labeled 'Free'. That buffet had just about everything: pork, beef, lamb, fish, vegetables, fruits, ice cream that somehow melted slowly, and little cakes with small swirls of icing and a dot of cherry sauce on top.

Otherwise, there wasn’t much of note within the room save for the other invitees and a few random objects left behind on some of the tables. Every table had a white tablecloth, but only a few tables at the far end of the room had something other than an invitee’s food on them; a fire extinguisher, an empty clipboard, and an old computer.

The redheaded boy walked in wearing a chic hoodie with a black torso, white slightly puffy sleeves, a white hood, and a bowtie made of red leather that looked both cute and edgy (cuz leather). This was complemented by black jogging pants with two white vertical stripes and red and white sneakers with grey and black soles, but Andrew was ignoring the sheer wealth he wore right now as he glanced around at the ballroom and the random objects. "Maybe it's some surprise event?" He thought it a bit weird that the hotel staff would leave such things behind so carelessly, but then, none were around, so maybe the host told them to leave the ballroom preparations to them, and they forgot about it?

In any case, he was hungry, and it’s not like he could go down to the beach without getting rained on, so he went to get some food. As he did so, some retro chic digital music began playing from the walls; hidden speakers? Either way, time to socialize and pick up some girls or boys!

Walking over to a bashful-looking redhead who didn’t look much older than him (Joel), Andrew flashed him a smile with pristine clean teeth and said as awkwardly cool as a rich sixteen-year-old pop star can make it look, "Hey, you look glum, even if you're really not. Want me to show you how to enjoy Hawaii? I've been here before once or twice. By the way, you have no problem with boys, right? Or girls? Or boys who don't like girls?"

Blunt as a hammer, but Andrew had the money, and this guy didn't look like some nut who'd call him a 'Spawn of Satan'.

So he stepped back to give Joel some space...

@Ryik@Spydorking@Mike Dracopyra@Aku the Samurai@TopGrail@Rune_Alchemist@Letter Bee@Duthguy@Crimson Flame@The Jest@TheRealGhost

[The Jest]

While those who arrived at the call of the invitation would find themselves eventually in that ballroom, a select few may not get the chance to do so. There are still some that have yet to even reach the hotel let alone the ballroom inside, whether by not receiving their invitation in the first place for one reason or another, or declining their chance to partake in it.

It seems fate gets what it wants one way or another, by intended design or by a twisted sense of humor. Most may accept its guidance… while some are drafted to it.

Those select few inside the hotel, just after they enter their room and notice the note saying to go to the ballroom, would notice something strange to happen before they have the chance to heed the note. Those who were not at the hotel themselves, instead residing in the comfort of their own rooms, would notice much the same all of a sudden.

A monitor in their room - be it the TV of the Hotel room, or the screen of their computer or TV in their own room - would suddenly turn on without any action of their own, but there would be nothing upon it but a black screen. For those on the computer at the time, it would seem as if their computer just…restarted itself. However, rather than start up the way one would expect it in modern times, jumping straight to starting the OS, instead it’s the black screen with system information you see when first booting up the computer back in the 90s. In addition, it’s not quite the same information they’re used to seeing. …In fact, it wasn’t really information at all. It seemed to be a collection of bizarre symbols masquerading as letters all but parodying the 90s Start up screen. Whatever information was being shown here, it didn’t seem like much more than random gibberish. Was the computer broken? Was there a Virus on it perhaps?

But those in the hotel or without a computer of their own would find something even more bizarre: Their TVs were showing the exact same screen, as if they themselves were computers, and their room’s lights were blacked out as if there was an electrical malfunction.

Before any of them have a chance to ask what’s going on, the screen changed again, this time to a new black screen, some kind of grey translucent logo appeared of what looked like 12 white wings with a single blinking white rectangle to the center-left of the screen, typing down a message in an actual language this time, in a “Courier” font reminiscent of old 90s Computers.

DO YOU SEEK FREEDOM? DO YOU SEEK ESCAPE? (Y/N)

A single space afterwards and the blinking white rectangle would remain in its new position, as if waiting for user response.

Those on a computer could just type one of the corresponding Keys on their computer. For those on the TV, however, the white Rectangle highlights the “Y” and could be moved to either position with their remote.

For one reason or another, they chose “Y”. As a result, their screen became bombarded with those symbols again, filling the whole screen and moving downward at a rapid pace, making the screen hard on the eyes, as it started to distort in the center, the rapid symbols seeming to shape themselves into some kind of tunnel as it felt like the screen they were staring at got bigger and bigger, that they were getting closer and closer to it. They may panic, some may try to turn away or shut off their screen, only to find that, for some reason, they couldn’t move, completely paralyzed as the screen and its symbols got bigger and bigger until the screen became a black hole with the moving symbols along down the tunnel’s sides blotting out their vision. It continued like this for a few seconds, until they saw a quite literal light at the end of the tunnel. It started off small like a star in the night sky, but eventually it became blinding to the point that they may instinctively close or cover their eyes.

The light faded to black, and for a few seconds, there was nothing. One might assume they somehow died.

But slowly, they would hear something in the distance, faint at first, but gradually becoming clearer; the sound of a voice, then two voices as if talking to each other. It would be hard to make out what they were saying at first; like an imaginary echo with no source, it was a disorienting audial blur. However, eventually, all of their senses would slowly return to them. Their sense of touch felt that they were somehow laying down, and the texture of where they were laying was far softer and more dirt-like than it should be. Their sense of smell and taste gave them the impression of nature as the fresh scents of plants entered their noses. Their eyes as they open them would likely still be blurry, but it was far brighter and likely far more colorful than wherever they were before. Finally, what they were hearing was slowly clearing up, and it was becoming clear that some people were talking to each other over their dubiously conscious bodies.

It seems they were somehow knocked out after they stared at the screen. When they finally came to, however, the first thing they saw and heard was…

Morning, Sleepy heads!

A high-pitched boyish voice, seemingly belonging to the purple-haired child staring at them all as they wake.

The moment they fully awaken and find that their senses are in order will be the moment they realize something is very, very, wrong.

For one thing, they’re no longer where they were before. Be it the Hotel room, or their room, or wherever else they were at the time, this was far from any of that. They were now outside, a bright sunny day, in the middle of a forest. The area itself was open enough that they were all in one spot, but they were surrounded by trees on all sides but one sole path.

The boy who seemed to jumpscare them upon waking was already nowhere to be seen. It appears to be just them with naught but the sound of wind bristling through the trees and each other to keep them company.

Little do they seem to know that from beyond those very trees… They were being watched.

@Petulant @Spydorking @Mike Dracopyra @TopGrail @TheRealGhost

[Azure Bubbles]

Joel had been standing near the far wall, notebook pressed to his chest, sketching a bunch of doodles with his trusty mechanical pencil. The ballroom felt too big, and he was trying not to feel ridiculous for expecting something magical or meaningful after that cryptic note. It had probably been a joke, or a weird marketing stunt.

He hadn’t expected anyone to approach him at all, especially not someone like him. Joel blinked as the other redhead spoke, his voice a little too loud for Joel’s tastes. He was stylish, confident, and that smile was something else, in the best way.

Joel blinked, unsure if he’d heard him right. “I… um… no,” he said, very quietly, eyes flicking down and then back up. “I mean… yeah. I don’t have a problem. With, um… boys. Or anyone, really.” He hesitated. “I just don’t really… talk to people like this. Much.” There was a pause. He fidgeted with the corner of his sketchbook. “I’m Joel.” He paused, almost like he wanted to say thank you for noticing me. But it didn’t feel right, so he gave a shy smile. “I’ve never been here before,” he added, more to fill the silence than anything. “It’s… kind of overwhelming.”

@Letter Bee

[ReksewTrebla]

Go to the ballroom? Danny looked the note over. Nothing else was written on it. Why not? Danny thought to himself. He set most of his bags down, save for the small crossbody bag that had Abby and his sewing kit in it, and his duffle bag of training weapons, since he planned on going out afterwards to train.

After getting directions to the ballroom and making his way over there, he saw two redhead teen boys talking, one of whom looked vaguely familiar. Probably a celebrity. Danny thought to himself. He made his way over to the food after noticing it was all labled free, and gathered some fruit to eat.

Danny was wondering if he should join the two boys, but he noticed a blonde hair, blue eyed girl (Sashia) walk in. He wasn't certain, but he felt like she practiced martial arts. Some more muscle than would be expected, senses that seemed to take in every detail quickly, and precise movements. Not a guarantee she did martial arts, but decided it was worth a shot, so he walked over to her. "Hi. I'm Danny. Sorry if this is sudden, but do you practice any martial arts?" Danny smiled, and hoped he wasn't making a fool of himself.

@Mike Dracopyra

[Duthguy]

"Sorry, but I gotta go. Looks like there is a storm coming and I don't want to have my laptop plugged in if there is gonna any lightning."

While the part of the storm was true Nate didn't mention that his laptop was already fully charged and that he just wasn't in the mood to talk to his parents. To be honest he was curious about the note on his bed telling him to go to ballroom. He also wanted to check out the beach both the beach, both to swim and look at girls in swimsuits, not that that was really gonna be an option right now but maybe there was an indoor pool he could go to later.

It took him a bit to find his way but eventually Nate arrived at the ballroom and wasn't surprised to see that plenty of others had beaten him there. As he looked for a table with an empty seat he noticed two redheaded boys talking to each other and wondered if they were related. He didn't want to bother them so he kept looking.

[Ryik]

Dustin

Hawaii, or at least the parts he saw of it online, was a pretty nice place. Lots of greenery, beautiful hiking trails, and some nice beaches if he could find one that wasn't blanketed top to bottom in other tourists. He wasn't one for beaches anyway, he supposed, but it's not like he couldn't spend his time poking around the literal Jurassic Park, or figurative, he supposed, since he had his eye on a hiking trail that involved a waterfall you could swim in instead of a hiking trail that was actually in the background of a Jurassic Park film.

In any case, the flight and subsequent ride over to the hotel went smoothly, and after checking in and dropping his things off, he was left to consider what to do given that the weather wasn't cooperating. That's when he noticed a note left on his hotel bed with four simple words in all caps:

GO TO THE BALLROOM

It didn't have anything else on it, but when he took the note and confronted the staff at the front desk about it, they didn't seem to know anything, other than that he wasn't the first to bring it up. They even called over the worker who prepared the room, and he claimed there was a request to leave the notes there by the person who booked the room. The receptionist reluctantly dismissed the worker before revealing that his room and the ballroom was booked by someone simply named "Doru", which was odd given the lack of surname. That being said, besides a banquet, they declined any other services, and there was a strange lack of contact information in their system. She then told Dustin that if he happened to meet this Doru person, that he should tell them to talk to the staff in case he got locked out of their own room, assuming they were also staying at the hotel.

Dustin knew by now his trip to Hawaii had nothing to do with card games, but it was rather puzzling what someone would have to gain from inviting people on an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii. Worst case scenario he'd have to pay his own way, but he was prepared for that at least with an airbnb listing that was much cheaper than this fancy hotel.

In any case, he put his headphones in to listen to music while googling for eccentric millionaires that used the alias "Doru" and split-screening a mobile roguelike deckbuilder. He plugged his phone into the power bank in his pocket since he didn't know how much of his time his host would ask for, and his phone had a habit of tapping out on him when he starts to do too many things on it at once. Speaking of, his google searches, while not yielding any results related to a Doru person, did lead him down a greek mythology rabbit hole, and it was easier to 'read' it by tossing it into a text to speech program, thereby freeing up the split screen so he could pull up another game to play at the same time.

When he arrived at the ballroom, he found it mostly empty beyond some other people standing around, all roughly his own age, talking (if not outright flirting) with each other, and a largely untouched banquet with a big fat "FREE" label all over it. Not sure what to make of it, he stood at the entrance for a while, mainly trying to gauge the intentions of their host given the age range of the people involved, until another person walked in; a girl roughly his age with creamy blonde hair. He put his phone away, not because he couldn't have an active role in a conversation while playing two games and parsing two other streams of dialogue, but because most people considered it rude to do so.

"You get a note on your bed with only four words on it too?"

He let her reply before asking her the obvious question. "Any ideas why someone would invite a bunch of teenagers to Hawaii?"

@Rune_Alchemist

[Spydorking]

She hated her room, it was a prison.
She loved her room, it was safe.
She hated the world, where everything she loved could be lost in an instant, where no matter how much she tried, she would never truly be able to make her dreams come true.
She loved the world, where her sister once played, where her parents still sat besides the door and talked, where her smile still shone and her books showed her a path to making everyone happy.

But even if she loved it, even if she missed it, she hated it, she was afraid of it, and truly would she be any happier under the sun than gazing longingly at those beautiful pictures, remembering those happy memories, and studying for truths she would never need to truly use.

A pair of old gloves peaked out of her bag, shiny red, a gift from her sister who saw too many programs of doctors snapping gloves onto their hands and forgot they used disposable, sterile latex. They were pretty, they were precious, they were just like her - useless, perfect for going outside and showing off but when she was trapped within this prison of her own making, what use was that?

Eyes flickered over to the bed past the blank screen and covered windows, to the camera plastered with stickers hidden within her old school bag, an oversized furry thing she used to love. She'd hug it when going to bed, the weight of the books, of the knowledge guiding her to slumber, now it was just a way to keep precious things safe, and too full of those precious memories to cling tightly anymore.

A flash of light out of nowhere. Were her parents coming around again? Trying to guide her to walk out of this, to push her and care for her again, to show her the kindness she failed to deliver to the person who mattered most to all of them, but no sounds came forth, no lowered voices or passionate pleas, the light didn't widen like the door being opened, it didnt rattle like something knocking on the covered window, it simply was.

It simply was her computer, the screen lit up despite her not being near it, her eyes closed for a moment, a prank? Did someone really want to punish her more? To ruin her computer after she had ruined everything else. But no, she had to try, she might not be a genius with computers like some, but surely she could do something, even if she failed when it mattered, she couldn't fail all the time, right?

It was a simple box, a simple question, and truly if this was a joke, if this was a cruel prank - what did she have to lose?

DO YOU SEEK FREEDOM? Of course, but how can you be free of yourself?

DO YOU SEEK ESCAPE? How? How can I escape my own worthlessness?

A finger wavered, an arm reached out, grabbing her old bag, her old dreams and hopes and memories, it had been a while, but it seemed even now she couldn't escape that old habit. A bag no longer full of books, but full of memories, she could clutch it like a teddy bear regardless, she could cling tight and dream about one day being truly free.

Y.
E.
S.

And then the world went mad. The screen growing bigger and closer, that light at the end of the tunnel she dreamt of saving others from, was it coming for her? Perhaps it was time, perhaps with this her family could move on, they lost their children years ago, now they could bury them together. This may have been her fault, pressing that button, but maybe this was the kindest solution for everyone.

Her eyes refused to focus, the onrushing light becoming blinding, but she refused to look away, refused to close her eyes and reject what her worthlessness had sent her sister to. "Ah, sister. I'm coming..."

The light became everything, became blinding. And everything fell away, leaving a blank room, a hollow house, and an empty family.

Her eyes focused again as she heard a voice calling out, eyelids blinking open after they had shut at a point she simply didn't recall, the comforting weight of her bag on her chest. Had she fell asleep? Had all that been just a bad dream? But she felt the ground beneath her, it wasn't her bed, it wasn't even her floor or chair like she sometimes fell asleep in. It was the forest floor and a group of people were laying down around her. This was too elaborate for a prank, too cruel for some desperate attempt of her family. There was only one real option for what this could be, one reason she had seen that light and then found herself like this...

"Ah, is this hell? I suppose it makes sense. Maybe that was Lucifer here to take our souls for our sins..."

An arm reached down, a leg tensed beneath her, with a moment of difficulty, Melissa rose to stand, eyes open and gazing almost melancholy towards the canopy above them, bag clutched to her chest and hair hanging limply around her face.

"If any of you need any help, if you've been hurt... I'm here to help for what it may be worth, just don't. Just don't ask me to save you, I'm no-one special, not anymore."

[TheRealGhost]

"...This one?"

A soft voice whispered in one of the hallways of the resort. The figure once again glanced at the room number, and then her key and unlocked the door. The figure in Black and white enters the room and closes the door behind her. She looks around the room and she spots a note on the bed.

"What might that be?"

Just as she approaches the bed, the TV, which was quietly resting on a table facing the bed, suddenly turned on spouting strange nonsense, and her room's lights went out at the same time. She looked around the room, trying to find the fuse. If it was blown she could report it to the Staff, but a stranger sight awaited her as she turned back to the TV.

DO YOU SEEN FREEDOM? DO YOU SEEK ESCAPE? (Y/N)

"Enough of this tomfoolery."

Sufficiently weirded out, but also pretty angry, she did not take this 'prank' seriously, she spotted the TV remote and tried to turn it off, but accidentally selected the 'Y' option.

Immediately, those weird symbols filled up the screen again, but this time they kept getting bigger and bigger. She thought she was getting closer to the TV but it was the other way around. She tried to go grab her keys to get out of the room, but she can't move her legs or arms. She was completely unable to move as the screen closed in on her. Even with her best efforts to try to wiggle out of this, she couldn't do anything until a light came out the other end of the 'tunnel' and blinded her the very next moment.

After some time, which felt like half an eternity completely blacked out, she heard a few voices. It was Extremely hard to focus, she thought she was Hallucinating. That someone had slipped made her smell some weird drug and thats why everything felt so weird. She couldn't feel her legs, or arms, but she could breathe, and the breath felt that of fresh grass and flowers as if she was laying on or near a flower bed.

Her eyes finally opened to a scene of nature, transcendentally beautiful and serene but so bright her eyes can not fully open, giving her a mild headache. Then, she heard a voice as she was trying to adjust to her surroundings.

Morning Sleepy heads!

She couldn't even take a good look at the boy before he vanishes. Taking a few moments to finally feel her body, she gets up, adjusts her glasses and looks around the place She's in. Looking around there already were a few people sitting, standing or lying there. It seemed as though she had been a victim of a kidnapping, exactly who or why she had vague ideas of. Perhaps it was one of the people that she 'put in their places.' Although she didn't understand why they were here too if she was the only target.

"It seems as though we've been kidnapped by someone."

She was weirdly non-chalant, about this. Almost as if it had happened to her before.

"And no, aside from a mild headache, It doesn't feel like I'm hurt, neither do these people, there is no blood leaking from their bodies or weird injuries. Perhaps a concussion if they've been hit in the head but that can only be examined after they wake up."

She tried to observe every last bit of her surroundings. It looked as though the boy that she saw right after waking up was gone... or hiding somewhere. When she was done looking around, she would turn to the only person that was awake at the moment.

"Did you go through the same 'process' as Me? Complete with the Yes or No shenanigans? Perhaps it's a Cult ritual or something."

[Rune_Alchemist]

Klara Langston - Amateurs
@Ryik

---

"Bweeeh...so hoooot..." Honestly, she hated the heat. Just like her beloved computers, excessive heat was her mortal enemy. She would never have thought or even wanted to come to such a tropical place, yet any place was better than home right now. Her mother barely even seemed to care to allow her to go by herself. To say nothing of her brother who was off getting into trouble with who knows who else and doing what exactly.

Not that she could really comment about things of a strictly legal nature, but at least she had never gotten caught. Yet.

At least it looked like it was going to rain soon, too. Thank the digital gods, heh.

She had traveled light, so when she got up to her room the only thing she really had to put away were her clothes, a few toiletries, and a handful of computer gear, some of less than legal nature. Easy enough. Next thing would be to set up her access points and hubs and-

"Hm." She walked over to the bed, noticing the card in the middle of unpacking her things. Honestly, such a lame and beginner provocation. She could call and ask around. Social engineering was one of the best tools a hacker could use, but she ultimately decided against it. The hotel workers probably didn't know anything beyond who booked the room or anything beyond the basics on a need to know basis.

Klara, thus, crumpled the invite and tossed it into the bin. Might as well see what this was all about. She was already here, already bored and also hungry. Not before making sure her jacket and hood were up, so that she could keep that all important air of mystery about herself, though and making sure her laptop was good from the trip.

And of course, soon as she walked in she was immediately assaulted.

Well, spoken too. The difference was negligible.

"Yes." Came a quick and disinterested reply as she peered at him from under her hood. He didn't seem to be anyone important or connected to this scheme beyond someone else roped into it. "Whoever they are, they're amateurs." She started to walk, not caring too much whether he followed. "Seriously, a card on the bed? I mean, old school stuff always works best and all that if its possible, but I was hoping for something a little more juicy. I could come up with something better. Like, setting up a hub to hack the wireless TVS to display a cryptic message, or send a message to our specific mobile devices and lock them until we come."

Her laptop was sat down at a table, the device making a solid thunk due to its weight. She'd sit down and boot it up, tapping away at the keys as they made satisfying clicks those old school computers always did. If anyone looked, they'd see a few lines of code running as well as an interface for inputting code directly without much of a UI to speak of, aside from a list of various devices.

She may have setup an aforementioned hub on her way to the ballroom and was going through a list of wireless connections currently being intercepted by the hotels wifi.

"At least the food looks good."

[Ryik]

Dustin

The girl's reply had been curt and dismissive, albeit not dismissive to him so much as to their host, though the underlying sentiment was still one of distrust of the situation. She began walking away, and he didn't intend to follow her until she continued talking, so he did so out of politeness, though in hindsight he wasn't sure whether she was talking to him or herself. In any case, by the time she was done listing out the different ways she would have gone about kidnapping a bunch of teenagers, she had already put down her laptop and was rapidly typing out lines of code that caught his attention. Her computer's UI was, generously speaking, minimalist, and he could only parse the code itself by making heavy assumptions.

Watching her type away, he muttered to himself, "Hmm... I should work on my programming languages." He mainly learned coding for game modding, so while he knew a dozen programming languages, his knowledge of them tended to be spotty and incomplete. Several were also relatively obscure, but at least it made him better at picking up new ones no matter how backwards and unintuitive they were.

He took a seat at the same table, pulling his phone out again but leaving the earbuds out for now. "Personally, I found it a bit disappointing that they didn't go with random letters cut out of magazines or fake blood writing on the walls. It would have probably scared some people off and been ineffective at getting them here, but at least it would be more entertaining than 100-point bold Arial font."

As he began reaching for his earbuds, he paused, realizing he never got the girl's name or gave her his own. "My name is Dustin, by the way."

@Rune_Alchemist

[Duthguy]

It didn't take Nate long to find the table he was looking for and he sat down, wishing he had brought something to do. He didn't want to go back to his room and miss out on important information though so he just looked around hoping he wouldn't have to wait long to learn why he was called here.

"At least the food looks good."

Nate wasn't intentionally eavesdropping but he couldn't help but overhear that. Looking up he noticed a blonde girl sitting at a nearby table with her laptop and talking to someone. Since there were plenty of other empty tables where he wouldn't be privy to someone else's conversation he got up and walked towards the buffet as an excuse.

He looked over the options and choose a banana and two scoops of ice cream, planning to make himself an improvised banana split. "Now if only there was some chocolate syrup as well."

[TopGrail]

Dante

In the comfort of his hotel room, Dante had felt relief, it had been a somewhat turbulent experience, traveling, he meant. For someone who was as unused to crossing such large distances through air and sea, he had been fascinated as he watched the clouds in the sky, the land below becoming ever so tiny, and the ocean become a canvas of pure blue color, splashed with the occasional landmass here and there.

And yet, he briefly recalled getting into trouble due to his own clumsiness in communicating with people, and almost missing the flight because he got distracted and wandered around the place. Language hadn't been a trouble, since a few of the languages in their vast repertoire, though restricted to the most commonly ones, but he could manage with that.

Arriving to Hawai'i had been an experience in itself, but he enjoyed the journey from the airport towards the hotel, zoning off while watching the gorgeous scenery surrounding him. Regardless, once the hardest part of the journey was done, he found himself at relative ease while going towards the front desk, doing the registering process, and finally heading off towards his assigned room.

But... he felt wariness as he looked at the note in his hands. He hadn't initially noticed it, too excited to get some rest in a fluffy bed, and had only realized when he threw himself into the bed and felt an odd sensation on his abdomen upon landing. Still, he sighed and got up from the bed, intending on following through with what the note said, because maybe it was something that his parents had arranged for him to see?

As he went outside, however, he marveled while humming at the storm happening, the wind was relatively calm for the situation, but he could tell it would pick up soon, and he faintly heard the rumbling of thunder and brief flashes of light happening within the dark sky above. Still, he had to keep going and arrive at the ballroom as instructed, but as he did so, something strange happened.

The trees swayed violently, the wind howled, thunder clapped in the distance and a flash of lightning left him seeing white for a brief moment, and after a few seconds... he saw that further ahead in the hallway, a room remained with its door open, even when he briefly recalled that a minute ago it had been closed. Feeling a bit of curiosity, he peeked into the room from the doorway, but all he saw was the sole remaining source of light, the television, turned on and filled with static images, along with a faint buzzing noise.

Normally he wouldn't be so rude, but he felt something from within urge him to head inside, and thus, he did so. From what he could tell, the entire room was a mess, the sofa's cushions were strewn in the ground, the TV remote was in the sofa, appearing as if hastily thrown, but what caught his attention was a shining object left in the floor in front of the sofa.

He knelt, picked it up, and felt a sense of shock wash over him, but one quickly smothered by nostalgia and joy. A white compass with silver outlines and engravings of a clock and gears was what he held, and as he slid his finger over the center of the backside, he faintly felt it. Although faint, probably due to someone sanding it down and then covering it again, his sense of touch could tell that the initials B&D remained on the compass.

Dante had an inkling of what had happened, or rather, what could've happened, but quickly shook his head and stored it in his left pocket while briefly and lovingly caressing the lighter that was in his right pocket, which contained the initials D&B. He embarked on his journey once more and finally arrived at the ball room without much fanfare, initially glancing at the people chatting but decided that he really didn't want to interrupt in their conversation, so the somewhat tired, but still functioning boy opted towards going for one of the less crowded areas of the room, leaning against a wall and almost peacefully dozing off while doing so.

But a single thought remained inside of Dante's mind. Ah, this must be fate.

[TopGrail]

Beatrice

The colorless girl blanky stared at the wall, her mind still numb from the shock, still processing the events that had transpired and had ultimately led her here, in a hotel room in Hawai'i. She recounted the events in her memories once more, hoping that this loop would stop repeating once more, even if Beatrice knew why it wasn't happening.

It had been a betrayal, that she knew. Her parents, and even her grandmother! Had staged an intervention for her, they had dragged her out of her room into the living room, sat her down on a sofa and told her what was going on. They were worried, worried because ever since that day she had slowly spiraled into a mess, she had become closed off, unnecessarily cruel towards other people and started becoming colder even to her own parents.

Thus, they decided that she needed to spend her time in a more relaxed environment where she could take her mind off the stress generated from her daily life and the events that plagued her mind every day. You are going to Hawai'i, they said. This is the first and only time we will do this, if you come back and don't change your mind then we won't do it again, they promised. She had initially protested at this turn of events, but had calmed down because of that promise, Beatrice herself knew that she wouldn't change her mind so easily, that her life had been irrevocably changed ever since that day.

But she still agreed to it, because... maybe, just maybe, the hope that she would escape this nightmare, the wish to be free from these heavy shackles of her past was something that still remained deep within her. And so, she followed the process, going to the airport, flying to Hawai'i, arriving at the hotel and finally settling in her room. After she left her belongings carefully organized, Beatrice finally sat down in the sofa facing the television and arrived at this moment.

Intellectually, she knew that they were right, that it was abnormal for someone to change so much, and how unhealthy her own behaviour was becoming, to the point of feeling a rush of guilt flood her being after carefully analizing her past behaviour and understanding just how ungrateful she had acted against her own parents and her beloved grandma. But still, emotions don't care about all that rationale, and a small ember of hate and anger smoldered within her breast.

It was unfair, because they never would be able to understand how Beatrice felt since they hadn't gone through what she had. Because overwhelming fear used to consume her whenever she thought about the incident, but that fear had faded quickly and was instead filled with a raging wrath and hatred against the one at the center of it all. Even to this day, a small sense of nausea filled her head when reminiscing.

Regardless... maybe it was for the best that she simply turned her brain off and didn't think to deeply about anything to fully enjoy this impromptu vacation of hers. Plans formed inside her head, detailing she foods she wanted to taste, the drinks she wanted to savor and the activities she wanted to try out. But all of those flew outside of her head the moment Beatrice felt something in the air shift, followed by the television turning itself on.

Apprehension filled her being, further intensified by the random gibberish and strange symbols rapidly passing through the screen, and the room's lighting system turning off, essentially leaving the television as the only source of light within her hotel room heightened that apprehension into something bordering panic, or maybe fear.

The screen quickly changed itself again, with a new black screen, some kind of grey translucent logo appeared of what looked like 12 white wings with a single blinking white rectangle to the center-left of the screen, typing down a message in an actual language this time, in a “Courier” font reminiscent of old 90s Computers.

DO YOU SEEK FREEDOM? DO YOU SEEK ESCAPE? (Y/N)

Something within her surged, compelled her to grab the remote and press accept on the Y button. However, something extraordinary happened. She heard it. Beatrice heard it, footsteeps resounding in the hallway outside, a voice humming a familiar song entered her ears, and it all pieced itself in her own mind before any conscious thought could happen.

The beast was here, only he could have that gait, only he had tone, even if the voice had matured since the last time they saw each other, and only he would that sing that specific song with such familiarity and pitch. Beatrice was filled with nauseating feeling, but it was snuffed out and replaced with something worse, an all-encompassing feeling of hatred and rage mixed together.

A grin appeared on her face, the kind that only appeared on people that were on the edge of breaking, and she quickly threw the remote into the sofa, leapt out it, disregarding how the cushions were launched into the air, and ran towards the door, hoping to confront him once and for all, unaware of the symbols bombarding the TV screen, of how they were becoming faster and of how the edges of her vision were turning dark, mistaking it for something else, and also of something falling out of her pocket.

And as she slammed the door open, the world turned dark... and when she finally came to, she disregarded all that was happening around her, more focused on processing and reaffirming her beliefs on what happened during those briefs moments. Because she had seen his face, and the abnormal chain of events led her to believe that they would meet once again. So, she weakly giggled, the sound of someone who had broken apart.

But a single thought remained inside of Beatrice's mind. Ah, this must be destiny.

[Rune_Alchemist]

Klara Langston - Amateurs
@Ryik

---

"...hm." Would one give their name so easily out to a stranger? "That would turn this into a murder mystery. I guess it could still be anyways...?" She was mostly monitoring traffic for the moment more than anything, scanning the lines of code and system for anytime a new connection pinged the hotels wifi to see if any weird numbers stood out or any messages were being sent. ""And I guess, if you need a name, Klara." She'd glance over at the food. It had been awhile since she had eaten, but that would also require getting up from her seat and she couldn't decide if she was hungry enough to beat the lazy.

There wasn't much else to be said, though. She wasn't here to be friendly, or here to have a friendly conversation. She was bad at that. She'd instead take out her own phone, resting an elbow on the table, and her chin on an open palm as she'd start scrolling few a bit of current news and videos.

[Aku the Samurai]

Kai - Odd One One

Kai loved the smell of smoke.

It reminded him of home.

It irritated his eyes and burned his nose, but he found comfort in it all the same. It tried reminding him of things he wished he hadn’t forgotten, and yet he could never recall them. A face. A voice. A song. A promise. ᴬ ˡⁱᵉ.

All gone in the blink of an eye.

Now, Kai hated the smell of smoke.

It reminded him of home.

Home didn’t exist anymore. Only noise. Only chaos.

That, at least, he could relish.

---

A single eyelid cracked open, peering unblinkingly at the high wooden ceiling before falling shut. A pair of headphones hung loosely around his neck, playing quiet gibberish into the empty air. A light grey hooded sweater was discarded over a wooden nightstand beside the occupied bed, pooling slightly on the pristine wooden floor. Various pieces of (expensive) equipment and clothing were strewn across the rest of the room, some newer than others, and several with tags still attached....

Technically, none belonged to the room’s sole occupant, but that was just semantics. They were in his room, so they were his by definition. It was all quite logical, truly.

Amid all the mess, Kai lay with a hand draped across his face, blocking one of his silvery eyes, completely dead to the world....

.... He was so bored.

Sleeping the day away had seemed like a good idea at the time (it wasn’t), but even after waking up some hours later, he was still bored out of his mind. The whole plane ride to Hawaii was uneventful, even more so since he missed his chance to do something about it. Being on his best behaviour was always exhausting work. Sure, he spent most of that time asleep, but still.

Jail time was starting to sound marginally more appealing than usual right about now.

There had to be something he could do to stave off this boredom.

Almost as if on cue, the television sputtered on, the screen pitch black and emitting awful static interference.

DO YOU SEEK FREEDOM? That was a dumb question. Who doesn’t? Koalas, maybe. And pandas. Actually, did those two even count for anything?

Er.... what was he thinking about again?

DO YOU SEEK–

Hold that thought.

Kai dug around the TV's internal cables, pulling and twisting the wires this way and that to input his honest reaction until the screen fizzled out entirely in a burst of static. A jolt ran through his fingertips, widening the grin on his face ever so slightly, disturbingly, before dropping entirely.

He huffed in disappointment.

Even possessed TVs didn’t have a sense of humour these days. Almost made him regret coming here. Almost.

Somehow uneventful TV possession aside, his appetite for mischief was nowhere close to being satisfied, so he set about finding a way to make a mess of things, in a fun way, of course, only for a card on the bed to catch his scattered attention. His head tilted towards it in confusion.

Weird. He hadn’t noticed it before.

Then again, he had crashed immediately upon getting into the room, so it wasn’t too surprising he missed it. Speaking of crashing, he wondered if this hotel had a parking lot of any sort. He’d never driven a civilian car before.

Well, that was a plan. Kai nodded to himself cheerily, completely bypassing the note on his bed in favour of his new mission. He put on his headphones to the sound of static, pulling up his hoodie to cover his bedhead. How lovely! Electrical interference was his second favourite genre.

The first thing Kai noticed when he made his way to the ballroom—he thought that was a movie-only thing, honestly—was the buffet table. Even from where he was standing, he could hear it calling his name. Mai, Mai....

Wait, that wasn’t his name. Oh, well, he did–

Huh?

Would you look at that? There were already victims people there. Oh, he could already imagine how much fun they would have. Well, he would, in any case.

But, first! Sustenance.

[Ryik]

Dustin

Klara muttered some cryptic comments to herself, and despite only seeing it in his peripheral vision, he didn't miss the glance she sent towards the buffet. He wasn't that hungry, but after giving it a look himself, he decided that, given it's free, he might as well.

Eyes on his phone the whole time, he grabbed a large plate and loaded it up with more food than he actually cared to eat before grabbing two sets of forks and returning to his seat next to Klara. He paid her no mind as he set the plate down between them, with the second fork positioned on her side of the plate, and began slowly picking at some sliced beef in between rounds of an online RTS game.

Klara looked hungry but too lazy to get up, so he got some food. Whether she actually wanted anyone to get her food or if she didn't care to share a plate wasn't really any concern of his, and it wasn't like he got more than he could theoretically handle himself. As such, he didn't feel compelled to verbally offer her the food, thinking a second fork was self-explanatory enough, and less awkward if she didn't feel comfortable with it or wanted to get her own.

Rather, a completely unrelated question popped into his head. "If this is a murder mystery, what's the murder weapon?" A fork? A knife? Maybe that fire extinguisher over there, or perhaps that old computer was a digital death note given an introduction is what started that line of thought. He didn't bother to look directly at her as he completely obliterated another victim on his phone using a combination of a swarm of butterflies and a beached orca whale.

@Rune_Alchemist

[Mike Dracopyra]

Mike

Mike stretched out his back as he sat up from his laptop, a slight grumbling of pain as he mutter “Dam, I guess I overworked a bit today. Still, at least that’s another job done”. Mike stood up to stretch a little more before he checked his watch seeing the time. “Perfect, and still enough time to get ready before I go out with my friends” he said as he quickly got showered and dressed. He would not notice the message on his laptop until a few hours later when he got back.

“Do you seek Freedom? Do you seek escape?” Mike read the message aloud, thinking about it before saying “probably some cult trying to get money off me, I thought I had sorted that with my anti-virus. Thank god, everything saved and on back-up drives at least i suppose”. He went through his setting and reset his laptop hoping that would deal with the issue. He would switch it back on after a couple of minutes everything seemed to boot up correctly until once again the same message appeared. Mike mutter some curse words before sighing “I feel like this message isn’t leaving me anytime soon”

Mike debated with himself for a few more minutes before saying “I feel like I’m about to make a horrible mistake here but if I can get rid of this message before it destroys all my work, otherwise I’ll never hear the end of it from Navi since she brought me the laptop as a birthday gift”. Mike type Y and struggled to move as the bright lights and noise assaulted his vision and sense.

Mike slowly regained his sense as he heard two people talking, his muscle memory kicking in as he heard a young man yell about something which had Mike immediately roll backwards and get into defence position, though when he noticed it was a little kid he was silent as he took this moment to take in his surrounding and the fellow people who had appeared here. “I knew this was going to be a cult,” Mike said with a sigh.

—-----------------------------------------------
Sashia

Sashia had actually already been in the hotel for the past week, today was her last day in Hawaii before she was meant to leave tomorrow morning. She had needed this break to unwind, her V-tuber channel had been going from strength to strength and she had done non-stop recording last week so that her viewers had things to watch while she took a break. She was still somewhat active as she would reply to comment or advertise a few things on her bluesky Kitsuna account.

She had just finished a drawing of something she had seen in a dream, a humanoid looking fox with golden fur. She couldn’t really figure out why that image kept appearing in her mind when she slept, though she did compare it with another couple images she had draw as well that had appeared as well. A woman in a black fox looking armour, another woman with a golden fox mask and wearing a maids outfits. She had noticed that they were slightly different to her V-tube Avatar which was also a fox though it was more of a fox girl. She looked over at her necklace sitting next to her before she suddenly noticed a message on her bed.

“Go to the ballroom, hmm, maybe there’s an event going on?” Sashia wondered out loud before she shrugged and grab her necklace before getting dressed, despite the storm, it still felt quite hot so she wore a lit blue tube top and a long flowing traditional Hawaiien dress before making her way to the ballroom.

She was immediately met by a young man who she smiled at as he asked her if she did martial arts, “Indeed, myself and my two older brother decided to learn different style of martial arts as a way to keep ourselves fit, epically since one of my brother spends a lot of time infront of his computer as a software creator and I spend a lot of time sitting down doing my drawing and helping other with request and such” She said, before doing a curtsy to Danny. “My name is Sashia Fertar, may I ask your name?”

@ReksewTrebla

[Rune_Alchemist]

Klara Langston
@Ryik

---

Klara absentmindedly continued to scroll news and check her laptop occasionally. Her gaze only wandered when Dustin got up to go presumably get himself some food. He sure looked like he hate a lot, piling the plate up with food that was definitely big as his head was. She was just about to do the same when he came back, sat the plate suspiciously close between them along with a second set of silverware. Covered by her hood as her face was, it was very easy to tell from the back and forth her head was doing between the plate of food and the other teen that she definitely caught on.

"Uh..." Klara would thus, take the fork and help herself. "Ahem. Awfully generous for a murder victim to be." A jest as she'd take a slice of pork and potatoes. "But that, my dear Watson is definitely the question. The murder weapon...and the murder victim. Since we were all invited here, clearly whoever did so wants to show us something and for us to all be in the same place for some reason. Maybe the foods poisoned?" She'd say between bites, clearly not buying her own definite bullshit. "Naaah. I don't think its a murder mystery...whoever set this up went to too much trouble. And uh-_{thanks for the food}"

The last part was both said quietly and just as she'd stuff her face with a potato, muffling it just enough for it to be difficult to hear.

[ReksewTrebla]

Danny

Danny felt justified when Sashia confirmed she also did martial arts. "Nice to meet you Sashia Fertar. My name is Daniel Pender, but I go by Danny." Danny made sure to make a mental note of her name. "I also practice martial arts, but weapons based ones. I even compete." Danny said cheerfully. "In fact, I have my training weapons right here." Danny gestured to the duffle bag he was carrying.

Danny instinctively turned slightly to try and hide the crossbody bag. He hoped he wouldn't have to explain his crossbody bag, as he has had people harshly judge him for carrying a doll and sewing kit around. "Maybe we could train together while we're both here?" Danny said to distract from the movement.

"By the way, the food is free here." Danny gestured to the free signs next to the food.

@Mike Dracopyra