#ha;plot

You had all applied to the dating show “Heart Attack” for your own reasons: whether to find a soulmate or casual date, get the chance to be on television, or just out of sheer boredom. Shortly after you sent in your application, you received a letter in the mail that congratulated you on your acceptance, and gave you an address to report to on the date of the show’s beginning.

The twenty of you now sat in a speedboat, prepared to head to the set that you would be living in for at least the next month. Was this meant to be a resort vacation? How exciting! And at no expense to you whatsoever!

After what felt like hours of cruising out on the open sea, the boat finally came to a stop at the sight of shore, allowing you all to step off of the boat and onto solid ground (or sand).  What you found upon looking out...was twenty seaside cottages, cozily nested by the seaside!

And in front of them...a man you hadn’t seen before, definitely not looking dressed for the beach.

“Hello there! Let’s see, this is all twenty of you, I think...welcome to the Island Amour! I’m Harvey Roseblade, and I’ll be your host on Heart Attack! It’s great to see all your fresh faces here...now allow me to give you all a gift!”

The man gestures towards a table, where twenty electronic tablets sat, screens glowing slightly in the sunlight.

“These are your Dating-pads! With these, you’ll be able to receive direct messages from our staff about upcoming events, as well as being able to look up each other’s dating profiles and send private messages. This may seem a little complicated, but the interface is very easy to navigate, don’t worry!”

Harvey gave a light chuckle.

♪♪

After the speech ended, all of you sat in a stunned silence, including Harvey. The suited host seemed to pale for a brief moment, before returning to normal.

“So! Well, the game has started, huh, so you can officially start your dates now! If you need me with any questions, you can usually find me at the bar here. Otherwise, *ahem*...goodnight!”

With that, Harvey quickly leaves the scene, and the twenty of you are left to contemplate what had just happened. What does this mean for all of you? Does this even feel like a viable place for romance now that murdering each other has been brought into the equation? And who could you even trust?

Would someone here be your soulmate? Or your demise?

A few hours passed, and after you all had started to have your fill of mingling and experiencing the island, the Dating-pads you all received started to vibrate, revealing a message. The text was written...interestingly, to say the least.

[Hello hello!!! ♥ The show is about to start! Please report to the pool and bar in the next ten minutes! Thanks!! ♥✿♥✿]

Ok then. There wasn’t really a marked sender of the message, but it was probably some sort of staff notification. No matter! Regardless of how fishy you might find it, you all headed to the pool bar. 

Sure enough, Harvey was there waiting for you beside the bar. Behind you all, you can’t help but notice...a teleprompter? The words on the prompter began to scroll up once you all were settled, and Harvey started speaking. 

“Hello there, everyone, and once again welcome to Heart Attack! I wish you luck on your search for your soulmate, but first...allow me to explain how our show works. I’m sure you’re all aware of traditional wedding vows. ‘To have and to hold, for better or worse, etc. etc., ‘til death do us part.’ Well, you’ll find we take this expression of love very seriously.”

Harvey pauses, blinking in confusion at what he sees on the teleprompter for a moment. As he speaks again, it quickly becomes clear why.

“In order to get ahead on this show, you’ll be killing each other. If you’re lucky, you and sweetheart could be the last one standing.”

Hold on, what? The abrupt shift of tone catches you all off guard, making the evening air of the island feel much colder.

“Now, I know this sounds alarming, but isn’t it human nature to go to such extremes for true love? It won’t be a complete bloodbath, anyway: whenever one of you die, the remaining contestants will be given the chance to investigate what they think happened, then vote on who to eliminate for it. So try not to get caught in your crimes of passion, or your chance for love will be gone for good!” 

Wasn’t this supposed to be a dating show? What was all this talk about murder?

Around the same time, all of you get a message from your Dating-pads.

[????: Guess what guess what!! O_O A contestant has been murdered! ♥♥♥ Everybody, come to the dining hall right now!! XD]

The remaining seventeen of you all report to the dining room in varying states of confusion and disbelief to find Misa’s bloodied corpse. There’s no way for this to be a prank, no matter how long you wait for Misa to get back up and say it was all a joke. Even your apparent host, Harvey, seems shocked at this development.

“Oh my god...she really is dead--how is the network going to explain this?”

As if on cue, another message from the Dating-pad shows up. 

[????: Well ♥ well ♥ well! ♥ Looks like Momma Misa bit the dust! And guess what? Someone in this room was the one who killed her! >u<]

[????: Who, you ask? Well, that’s up to you to find out! ♥ I’ll be giving you a nice little autopsy to give you some clues to how Misa died, but finding whodunnit is your job!]

[????: Good luck! See you in a few hours for a heart-stopping Trial of Passion! ♥♥♥♥]

♫♫

And that was that. Regardless of whether you wanted it or not, the task of finding Misa’s killer was in your hands. It might have been tempting to just avoid it all, but...if you ended up choosing wrong, who knew what would happen? You had to at least do your best to figure out the truth.

After being given a motive, many of you dismissed the idea as not worth the price of someone’s life for some reason or another, and still not taking the whole murder gimmick seriously. However, soon enough things would change.

It’s 7pm the day after those strange messages about a cash reward, and the sun is low in the sky on Island Amour. Cherry Summers is seizing what’s left of the day, however, and is heading towards the kitchen to make smoothies, when she sees Imogen Dunbar heading in the same direction. They start to walk together into the kitchen, immediately they notice something is off.

♫♫

On entering the kitchen, Cherry and Imogen see what appears to be blood on the kitchen floor. Maybe it’s just ketchup or strawberry syrup, they think, but neither of those have the same consistency as what lays on the floor. A heart-pounding feeling of dread begins to set over the area, when at the same time, they can hear someone’s voice from the next room over—specifically, Annabelle Langeley screaming in shock. Something is in the dining hall, the two girls know, and when they open the door, they’re met with the same grisly sight that Annabelle was…

Kyuu beamed at Annabelle, as she watched the survivors load onto the boat.

“Wait, Auntie Annabelle, we get to hang out forever?! Yaaaay, I’m so exicted! ...well, bye lovebirds! We’ll send you postcards~!”

♫♫ 

Once goodbyes were said, and you all boarded the boat, the engine began to rumble and sputter, and the journey away from Island Amour began. All of you watched the waving figures of Kyuu and Annabelle grow smaller and smaller, until there was only water in sight. 

The sight of Island Amour was gone, but for many of you, the memories would never leave. So many lives lost crossed your mind.

Misa Nishimurya, Harvey Roseblade, Monty Belanger, Yuriko Sae, Gael Baez-Flores, Theodora Reed, Arisa Rie, Cherry Summers, Graham Rye, Holly Thorne, Rhett Marshall, Basilio Nangisit, Luther Umberlin. All of them were gone, likely with families and friends who would never know why they had disappeared.

And of course, Norman Person...the robot who had set this all up in a bid for freedom, in an attempt to understand human emotion. You all felt the effects of his deceit and what he had taken from all of you. 

The losses were painful, but perhaps...that pain was part of what it meant to be human. 

Annabelle Langley had wanted to avoid feeling because of all the negative possibilities, and Kyuu had called emotions nothing but trouble. Maybe they were right.

Loss had changed you all, taken things you would never get back, but despite it all...Mitsuki Hasegawa, Kai Toutsu, Minoru Usokami, Lily Amoretti, Imogen Dunbar, and Mizuo Suido were still alive. At least you had that.

Change, too, was a part of being human, for better or for worse. You still had the chance to move forward, to take on your new lives back home. 

Even in the worst pain, there was still something worth loving.

Annabelle stayed quiet as those who had anything left to say spoke their piece, and of the three, only two actually spoke to her (thank god.) There’s a flash of something on Annabelle’s face when Mitsuki says Eli’s name -- something that breaks through what is now clearly a facade -- but she regains her neutrality quickly enough. Almost as if she feels that she’s been slighted by it, she regards Minoru first.

“Go home, then. See your sons again. The only thing keeping you from ending your involvement is you. It’s not like one little man can take down a group capable of covering this up by asking to talk to their manager. Or asking anything, really. They’re --”

Annabelle’s lit eyes go dim for a moment -- nearby, the camera trained towards the dock flickers off, before her eyes return to normal.

“...only going to leave you alone if you leave them alone. It’s bullshit, but that’s life, lol.” 

Finally, she looks at Mitsuki. For a moment, she simply… Stares, which is incredibly uncomfortable with the whole inhumanly lacking a real expression thing, but -- after the moment passes, she smiles with her tongue out, and knocks her hand against her head, voice and demeanor suddenly returned to what it was in the beginning, very long ago.

“And I like, hate bullshit! Sooo, I’ll be in touch if that’s what’cha want, ‘kay~? Now get goin’, before I get bored and start shootin’, heheh! Say bye bye now to our BFFs, Kyuu!”

A pause, and the act dies away -- in its wake, the energy seems to drain from her as her shoulders and posture slump. There is an unmistakable look of genuine, drained exhaustion on her face when she motions off into the distance with the gun. Something in her voice is unmistakably melancholic, but it’s hardly worth sympathy -- not that she’d want yours anyway.