#ds chapter start

Sunday night, and you sleep. Sunday night and perhaps you didn’t mean to sleep, or didn’t expect to, thought that whatever work you dedicated yourself to or the excitement (or anxiety) of the looming first day of school would keep you awake. And it may well have, for some hours. But eventually you gave in to the siren call of your bed (or a chair or desk rendered deceptively comfortable by exhaustion) and slipped off into the sweet embrace of sleep… peaceful, deep, restful sleep…

…

You wake up.

It is not a comfortable awakening. Your body aches in the way one does from sleeping on a hard surface. Regardless of where you ended your night, you find that your morning is starting on a concrete floor surrounded by more concrete and metal walls. There’s a giant set of metal doors on one side of the room - hall? - and at the other end an entrance into a hallway of the same monotonous gray, running left or right into places you can’t see from your current positions. If there’s any comfort to be found in this jarring situation it’s that at least you aren’t alone. The faces around you are familiar, whether because you’d had a chance to interact with them or only seen them in passing - at the orientation, at least? Yes, these are your university yearmates. The rest of the class of 20XX, or at least a good chunk of it. All of them in states of freshly waking, the same foggy confusion in their bleary gazes as you feel.

There’s little time for more than dragging yourself fully back to consciousness. Some grumbling likely breaks out, a few alarmed reactions or sluggish questions may be started, but before any real conversation or panic can break out a new figure steps into view, coming around one of the turns into the hall.

The woman is beautiful, in a wholesome way that gives you an automatic sense of ease for a moment. She can’t be too much older than those in your group - perhaps thirty at the most - and she’s fairly tall, though not inordinately so. Something about her demeanor is so calm and assured that it draws the gaze immediately. This is someone who knows what’s going on, someone who radiates confidence and competence. Someone with answers. You find yourself instinctively looking to her with expectancy, even before she speaks, which she does, quickly enough to cut off any outbursts.

“I see everyone’s lookin’ bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Good, right on time.” Her voice is a smooth drawl that belongs to somewhere in the Southern U.S. It keeps her words from sounding rushed despite the brisk pace of her speech. “Welcome to the WonderDome, chickadees! Now don’t get too worked up just yet, y’hear? No fuss no muss.” She reaches up with her left hand and taps lightly on one of the walls, producing a light metallic tang that draws your attention to the fact that her left forearm is also metal - a prosthetic, though a very convincing synthetic skin covers it from elbow to wrist, at which point it ends and leaves the pale grey of her robotic hand exposed.

“Wouldn’t want t’have to get rough with anyone.” Her smile, though bright and sweet as sunshine and lemonade, gives you the opposite impression. “Leastways not this early on. Besides, I’m sure y’all want some answers, so let’s get right to it. First things first, my name’s Jamie Crowley, some of you mighta heard’ve me before, but we ain’t here to talk about me. I’m simply a… facilitator, you could say. Or like a proctor, of sorts. You know, like with tests? My job is to monitor you lovely folks an’ deliver information as is seen fit. Don’t worry too much about that either, though. I know it must be frustratin’ not to have all the answers you’re surely chompin’ at the bit for, but frankly, the fact is, there’s a lot about your situation that you really just don’t need to know. Here’s what you do.”

“In your pockets or purse or what have you, you’ll find a cute little tablet called an ElectroID. Looks and works a bit like a PDA, if you know what those are. If not, well, y’all’re the best and the brightest, I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Those are gonna be real important, so hang on to ‘em. They got maps of the buildin’, some basic information on y’all, and they’ll serve as the keys for your dorm rooms, too. They’ve also got the Rules on ‘em, in case you ever need a memory refresh, but I’ll go ahead and spell out the real pertinent bit: You’re trapped here. You’ve all been selected to be part of a great undertakin’, and it’s mandatory. Non-negotiable, sorry. The only way out is through, lil darlin’s, so I suggest you save us all some time an’ get used to that real quick. The good news is there is a way out. All you gotta do is play a game, so don’t go panickin’ or whatnot. There, that’s everythin’ you need to know for now. We’re not gonna start playin’ right off the bat, don’t you fret, the rest will be explained as it comes up. For now, why don’t y’all take a chance to process, adjust all nice like, and take a look around. You’re free to go anywhere that ain’t behind a locked door.”

She turns, gives you all a little wave with her robotic hand, and starts trotting out of sight without further ado or any pause for questions or responses, ignoring any reactions any of you may have already begun. “See y’all later! You be good, now~!”

--

[Please submit reaction posts to the blog! There will be another Event Post tomorrow, Sunday June 16th, at 1pm PST! This will have plot impact and will occur roughly 3 hours after game start In-Character, so please keep that in mind while planning/starting threads. Maps are now available as well! Have fun!]

On the following morning your ElectroIDs beep with an update to the maps. Once again, a new ring has become accessible. How many more are there? Is it too much to hope for this to be the last?

A message alert accompanies it. When tapped it reads:

[You all probably guessed as much anyway but since Kazuya forgot to mention it, the motive ended the moment Mariko Tomomi died. All the explosives were disarmed and the nanos should be flushed from your system within the next few days. Anyway, enjoy the new areas.]

It disappears again after having been read.

If you’re not too tired to be interested, perhaps you might wonder who sent this message. Who is keeping you here? What is this all for? Why is it happening? Or maybe you no longer care about the answers. After three rings of horror, maybe all you care about is when it will be over.

In any case, perhaps you could spend some time looking around these new areas?

----

Just as before, when you wake the day after the fourth Suffering Game, it’s to discover the door to the next Ring has opened. Should you check the maps on your ElectroIDs or wander through the gate between rooms F and G in the Second Ring, you’ll see the Third. You’ll also see the trolley tracks, with the cute little carts running back and forth along it. That should be handy for anyone injured or disabled or just not interested in walking a long distance from one side of the Dome to the other.

How many more Rings are left? Surely the WonderDome can’t get much bigger than this? Although by now it’s hard to trust in any realistic assumptions. Your entire situation is so outlandish that many of you probably wouldn’t believe it if you weren’t living through it. At least your gilded cage has gotten a bit bigger, and the new selection of rooms may help to assuage some of the boredom and the oppressive feeling of being trapped.

As your world expands, though, so does the danger. You’re in the Third Ring now… that means a minimum of three people will have to spin the Wheel for each Suffering Game. Even if there are no Passes next time, or the time after, that’s still at least six people who will risk life and limb to reach the next Ring… The numbers are getting bigger, and the odds are getting worse. How long until another person dies as a result of the Wheel? And what motive will be inflicted upon you next? Only time will tell…

Five days until the next Suffering Game.

Use them wisely.

-

The morning after the Suffering Game you all wake feeling better - physically, at least. It’s as if a haze has lifted. Your vision is clear, there are no sudden unpleasant smells calling up horrible memories, no voices or screams in your ears, no movements in your peripheral vision or sudden pains without cause. The last of the hallucinogen has left your system, just as promised, and all you need to contend with now is reality. Which is bad enough.

Those of you not woken by the early morning buzz of your ElectroIDs will find the alert on it later, an update to the Maps app. It would appear that the doors between Rooms E and F have opened, and the second ring of the WonderDome has been made available to you at last.

It looks huge, and there - on the map you see Room 2H marked clearly as an Infirmary. That must be where Romeo was taken!

While the lack of any kind of announcement or ceremony makes the whole thing feel less exciting, perhaps you can take heart from the thought that you’re one step closer to the outside… though that might be more comforting if you knew how many steps were left to go.

--