Kawaii Cataclysm (Inactive)

Game Master BastianQuinn

The scene opens on the city of Obusa at twilight. The swollen red-tinged moon casts an eerie light which glitters like diamonds in the placid bay. The sky is dotted with the first few stars. The silhouette of Kirakira bridge, bespangled with its titular glittering lights, fills the horizon from your vantage at the old abandoned Bay Street shopping mall. Chills run up and down your back as you feel eyes upon you. This mall is supposed to be abandoned, but you can't shake the feeling you're not alone tonight. It wouldn't be a problem, except you're here tonight to investigate a rumor. For the past three months, on the night of a full moon, a silver train has been passing through old Obusa town. They say that from the second floor of the mall, you can see that there are no passengers, and no conductor.

There are four entrances to the mall: The Grand foyer on the south side facing Bay Street, the Arcade on the west side, the bookstore on the east side, and the food court on the north side facing the tracks. Describe how you arrive, why you’re here, and what you’ve brought with you. Everyone may bring a bag or backpack containing three items that don’t have to be described until you use them; otherwise, if you don’t describe it now, then you won’t have it inside.

For my Final Project I was given the topic of highlighting local businesses that have or once were a major contributor to the city of Obusa. Being somewhat of a jaded person I chose to think outside of the box and examine the old abandoned mall as the focal point of the project. All of the rumors that had been buzzing around campus also helped justify my decision of picking the mall.

Bringing only my cell phone, a notebook and quill pen (a personal gift given to me by a previous mentor) and an emergency backpack just in case; I set out on foot to my destination travelling through the woods. Entering the Bay Street Mall through the west side entrance, cellphone in-hand, using it as a flashlight.

Yesterday was the start of Alex's leave.

Four months ago he'd started on the process, but between readiness drills, the commander of the squadron dropping by for a visit, other members of his department needing to take emergency family leave for any of a number of reasons he'd been pushed back... and back... and even further back until he'd almost forgotten that he'd actually gotten the time approved.

Yesterday the boatswain came to him with the papers in hand, grinning a bit. It'd been a long haul, but finally SN Alex Brooke had leave for a month.

Thankfully, the Navy wasn't going to just kick the sailor to the curb for that month, berthing was available with the standard clothing restrictions during duty hours, but nothing too onerous.

Originally, Alex had put in the leave request because he was a bit of a history buff. Local legend and rumor had it that the abandoned mall was the site of an old secret Japanese armory from the Second World War, that had long since been decommissioned and a mall built upon the site.

That the mall had suffered much the same fate as the purported military building was a bit of an irony, and one that wasn't lost on Alex. Especially not with the additional rumors of haunted silver trains that may or may not have passengers or crew.

He was planning to respectfully approach the place, playing up the role of 'American tourist', and if he could find a way inside, take plenty of notes with his notepad and pen, and take plenty of pictures with his digital camera. If there was signs to 'keep out' in Japanese, well, he's American, how was he supposed to know? Well, at least, that's the thought, at any rate.

He had those stashed in his pockets for easy access, along with wallet, dog tags around the neck (just in case), and was wearing a garish tropical shirt over khaki shorts, with white socks and tennis shoes. A cheap backpack rode over his right shoulder, with a water bottle in a side-pouch (important to remain hydrated), a couple of energy bars in the main pocket along with a sweater and a nice robust 'Maglite' style flashlight (the kind used by night watchmen everywhere).

He hadn't unpacked the backpack from a previous trip to the local equivalent of a comic store, so what else may still have been hiding in there was as much a guess to him as anyone else.

He approaches the Eastern entrance, it was the closest to his walk up, and why waste the effort walking halfway around the mall if the easiest access was open?

Kiyomi Shirakawa, eldest scion of the Shirakawa name, was at that time engaged in the silliest thing she had ever done.

Kiyomi was not one to chase rumors. Kiyomi was a serious, dignified woman. And yet here she was, looking for a train with no conductor and no passengers.

Was this story supposed to be frightening? Kiyomi did not think so, but the mannerisms in which the scholarship student had told the story implied it to be such.

Kiyomi sighed quietly to herself; the scholarship student had insulted her honor by accusing her of being... of being scared of this phenomenon. It was a foolish notion, of course, but as usual Kiyomi could not let go of what the girl had said. Kiyomi did not understand the effect the commoner had on her, but it spurred her on regardless.

The young lady, certain that she would be able to talk down anyone who dared oppose her movements, entered the front door to the south. Her heels clicked on the tile flooring as she walked briskly forward, hoping to get this over as soon as she could.

Miyako had absolutely no reason to go anywhere NEAR an abandoned building for any reason, let alone at night. Let alone the presence of a silver ghost train for that matter. Armed with that information, her thoughts ran a mile a minute, trying to parse why she was standing at the north door of the derelict mall with intent on going inside. She wanted nothing more than to sprint as fast as she could back home (not that she could sprint that far) and dive under her covers. But her feet didn't move.

For once in her life, she'd somehow found a reason to brave the dark of night, alone. That didn't make progressing any further easier, however, as her feet continued to not move. She'd found the rumors of the ghost train online completely by accident while researching her latest irrational fear, cleithrophobia. At least she assumed it was at the point of phobia, the thought of being trapped inside anything without the freedom to leave terrified her more than it seemed to bother anyone else. About twenty search paged in, she found the forum link discussing the silver train.

She would have dismissed it completely and returned to a less terrifying thread quickly if her curiosity didn't keep her reading to see what it had to do with cleithrophobia. As the forum goers posted, the rumors mutated, until one mentioned witnessing the train had absolved them of their cleithrophobia. She wasn't sure how, but the thought of losing a phobia somehow had gotten her to the doors of the mall.

She hefted her book bag, full of water bottles, lemon bread, paper bags, a pack of spare batteries, and a hard hat. She had wanted to bring more, but the hat took up a fair bit of space, and she was certain the mall ceiling would crumble away eventually, and she'd need it, so she could only stuff two or three more things in. She had a whistle dangling around her neck, in case she needed to signal for help, a can of mace in her hoodie pocket, in case someone tried to attack her in the dark, and her LED flashlight in hand, because she wasn't going anywhere near the building without a reliable source of light.

Taking a few deep, long breaths, she took her first step towards the doors. She hesitated on taking her second. She swallowed hard, breath quickening as she dashed the remaining distance and rushed through the door, panting in fright as she got the task done quickly like ripping off a band-aid.

Fleur doesn't know why she's here, no elevators, and while her crutches are strapped to the back of her chair, she's never been able to manage more than a handful or yards on them. How was she supposed to get up to the second floor. And if she ran into trouble... how long before someone could get here, how would she explain what she was doing?

She did of course know, in the deep recesses that she liked to challenge herself, what is the point in her life - so full of disappointment and difficulties , if she didn't take these risks. Maybe there was even a little bit of her that sought out danger, as a way to end it all, before her illness rendered her too weak to live at all.

And of course there were the rumours, one miraculous thing could lead to... no. She is who she is, no sense in getting her hopes up on foolish fantasies.

I am presuming the South side is easiest to access via wheelchair, she will have done a little research to work it out

She reached into her bag, takes out a flashlight and fastens it to the side of her chair with a velcro tag. She kept a few of the things hanging around, so she could tie things on within reach. Another tag had a cast with her mobile inside, an app with a panic button could call her parents instantly and send her position to them. Assuming this building didn't cut out all signal.

Okay, rolling on in then. Fleur whispered to herself as she pressed in through the doors.

In the distance, a clock tower begins to chime the hour. The scent of ozone permeates the air, like a storm is brewing, but the skies are crystal clear.

Miyako panned her flashlight around the food court slowly, carefully taking in every detail and concentrating on ignoring the darkness around her as best she can, trying to pretend that the area was properly illuminated by keeping her eyes glued to center of the arc of light. She took a long, deep breath, trying to calm down and muster another burst of courage to move deeper. She had to find a way upstairs if this was going to have even the slightest chance of working.

She didn't see any stairs and the idea of climbing the ivy entered her mind and was quickly thrown out as it produced the image of her laying broken on the floor. Doubting there would be any safe way to the second floor in either the bathroom or the ramen shop, she makes her way south towards the center of the mall in hopes of finding safe passage upward, trying to ignore the building dread.

Kiyomi groaned to herself as she realized how unprepared for this exhibition she had come; she had been in such a rush to sneak out before any of the servants noticed she was missing that she had not thought to ensure proper supplies were in her bag before departing. She rummaged around, not expecting to find anything, and sure enough there was no light source in her bag. Entirely unwilling to explain to anyone that she had to turn back because she forgot her flashlight, Kiyomi was about to press forward anyways when she heard the squeak of wheels nearby.

Kiyomi jumped slightly where she stood at the unexpected noise, but calmed a bit when she saw it was only another girl. She seemed bound to a wheelchair, but at that moment it was of little concern to Kiyomi, as she also saw the convenient flicker of a flashlight. She approached the young woman and held out her hand.

"You. I require your light. Give it to me." A more tactful person certainly would have phrased that differently, but Kiyomi was not accustomed to saying please.

Just to clarify, the up arrow to the right indicates the inaccessible overgrown staircase, correct?

Yes, I've put a green squiggle on the map to show the passage is blocked. The arrows are stairs or escalators, the circle with an X is the elevator. The map only shows the parts of the mall accessible to the public.

Fleur looks around at the demanding young woman
"Excuse me? you can't just demand things from someone like that - what are you, royalty?"
her face is flushed indignantly as she speaks.

Feeling that nothing happens out of coincidence, I stop to think on what I should do in this situation. Being somewhat analytical, I think that there must be some message or reason behind this arcade game, out of the blue starting up as I leave the arcade and find the escalator.

So hearing the machine crackle to life with my departure, I felt the need to let the journey ahead of me wait a little longer and go over to examine further.

I attempt to go back the way that I came to investigate this distorted noise coming from one of these rusty machines.

Sakura stared at the bookstore that used to be one of her favorite places to explore. The shutdown had been sudden. The rumor was that the shelves held many books still and she'd come hoping to take advantage of those shelves.

As she moved towards the mall she noted the large man half covered in shadows and made to duck behind a wall as she watched him, her doll clutched in her arms.

Kiyomi lets out a mocking ojou-laugh, raising the back of her hand to her mouth for emphasis. It is a highly practiced gesture.

"Are you blind as well as lame? You are speaking to a Shirakawa. Though I would not be surprised if one of your station were ignorant of even that name."

Kiyomi takes another step forward, towering over the seated stranger, and puts her hand out again. "I haven't the slightest idea why one such as yourself would be here, but while you are you might as well make yourself useful. Due to circumstances beyond even my control I am here to investigate that silly rumor about the train - surely you have heard about it, yes? - and it is of upmost importance that I complete the investigation swiftly. If you assist me, then I will ensure that you are appropriately rewarded."

Kiyomi tapped her foot against the tile, the sound echoing through the empty mall. She really did not have time to deal with this woman, but she was not about to wrestle with the handicapped over a flashlight. She waited for the woman to listen to reason.

At this point Miyako can hear the conversation between Kiyomi and Fleur, starting from the austere laughter. She may intervene, hide, or turn back. Fleur might have spotted Miyako's light, if she's not too focused on Kiyomi, but it would only have looked like a bobbing light out of the corner of her eye. The dialogue can continue at whatever pace you'd like. I'll hold off on responding to Hiro's action until more players have posted.

Miyako nearly leaped out of her skin at the sudden, eerie laugh, and dropped her flashlight. Luckily, it was made of a resilient plastic and sported rubber around the lens to help absorb the impact. It was a relatively soft clatter, but it sounded like a crash to the frightened Kurosawa. She quickly dove to scoop up the flash light and rolled behind a pillar out of sight.

She wasn't sure who else was in the mall, no one else should be in the mall! They could have been gangsters or delinquents or ghosts! She shook violently in panic, hoping she hadn't been noticed, a fairly probable outcome as she absolutely refused to turn her flashlight off to be left in the dark.

Sora moves towards the western entrance (on foot), dressed in a dark hoodie, pretty far from her usual style, and has one hand shoved into her hoodie's front pocket, a smaller backpack hanging over her shoulder's - a floppy pink cat - and a small box tied with string under the other arm, most likely a bento box stuffed with a small meal. Overall, she seems to be trying to be on the incognito side... and doesn't really know how to do that.

She's carrying a smartphone in her pocket, and a small led flashlight, likewise, she has a high-end nonprofessional film-based camera in her hoodie pocket. Finally, she's got a few pieces of pastels in her pocket that she'd forgotten to take out before she left their home.

Nearby, May is following along, her room mate for the last several weeks. "Mmmm, there used to be an arcade over on this end. I've never really been here, but the internet said it had plenty of attractions. Maybe some of the old machines still work, if they have any power. If the machines are even there. No real way to know until we get there!"

Fleur is momentarily lost for words. She has heard plenty of derogatory comments before - but this... this... girl.
"I've heard of the Shirakawa, but I didn't think they'd breed a degenerate so bad she didn't even think to bring a flashlight to explore an abandoned building."
For some reason, her own words strike her as hilarious and Fleur starts to laugh, only slightly hysterically.

"So, is it just me, or did we manage to get ourselves lost in the mall?" Jo said as she looked towards her friend as she drew her hood a bit tighter around herself. "I mean, with all the other times we've been in here, you'd think we'd be better at going through this place without any problems."

Jo gazed around for a bit before giving a shrug. There would be a moment of silence as the burned girl looked around

"Oh well, I guess. It's warm enough. And I mean, we're obviously the first ones here. Maybe we can find something interesting!" Jo went to the one-way mirror, trying to avoid staring at her burns. "If nothing else, we have a good place to sleep tonight, right?"

May lags slightly behind Hashimoto to the western entrance as she examines the unfamiliar environment, she'd only recently moved to Obusa and had quickly learned that being an American could make her stand out quite a bit depending on the area.

Her attire is rather contradictory to her room mates with a white zip up jacket in place of a hoodie and a simple black duffle bag to Hashimoto's near childish pack.

"Something new for both of us I guess."

Rumors or no, the mall provided the best opportunity for free-running training in Obusa, and even though she was a capable enough traceur for most days & most situations complacency was a greater danger than trepidation.

North or South, East or West... The choices run through her mind as she cinches her pack tightly to her frame. Having divested herself of all electronics before leaving her parent's apartment to insure no distractions, Tracy was down to a set of comfortable if snug exercise clothes in dark, neutral colors. Fingerless gloves, a Utilitool strapped to her right forearm, and an old D cell police baton-style Maglight snugged between her back & the pack completed the 'kit'.

Sighing in rueful anticipation, she jogs through the promenade to the food court. Noting the arc of a flashlight's beam, Tracy refrains from pulling out & turning on her own as she slows down enough that her footfalls no longer echo.

"!?" She coughs into her right hand as she holds the other up to show she is no threat.

The American sailor(Alex), civilian-clothes clad, peered at the door in front of him, oblivious to the presence of the diminutive girl with the doll in hand watching his actions.

"Seriously? Finally get leave and stopped by something holding the door shut? And why does it feel like something propped against the door rather than, I dunno, a lock, or chains, or something."

That does baffle him a bit as he watches a raven enter through a spot covered with a chunk of sheet metal. Sheet metal? Why use that when you could use plywood, or... hmmm.

The chiming does push the action, though. If pushing the door doesn't work, then what does *pulling* it do? No Midvale School for the Gifted here!. What Alex is referring to..

He doesn't linger long, though. If that doesn't seem immediately effective, he pulls out his sweatshirt and carefully places it around the rough edges of the sheet metal, so hopefully he won't cut his fingers or make too much noise pulling the metal piece free.

And hopefully the opening will be big enough with the removal of the metal, maybe?

Please don't make noise, please don't make noise...

Sora bobs her head a bit too enthusiastically, and then looks around to see if there was anything going on in the immediate vicinity. "Yup. I never did ask you if you liked spooky things. I know you've been all over the place... so have you ever been to any haunted houses? Does America have huge empty malls, too?"

Her footfalls are rhythmic, and slightly accentuated, her motions exaggerated, and though she occasionally double-checks her surroundings, she mostly alternates her attention between May and the mall up ahead. "Heh... even the moon is creepy, tonight."

The girl looks on watching as the man makes his move, wondering how she could get in with her diminutive size.

The spoiler tags are more for organization than anything else, you’re all welcome to read it all if you’d like.

"Well, that was... Was...." Jo broke out into a huge grin. As the 15-year-old continued to speak, her tone would get faster and faster, a common enough occurrence that signified that she was excited to her friend. "Absolutely AWESOME! Oh my god, there's so much cool stuff here! You gotta tell me you're seeing us there too, right?! I mean, what's a bird even doing in here? You'd think it'd be asleep by now, and besides, it's really kinda cramped in here for birdies. And I thought there wouldn't be any electricity here either since this place was abandoned, but boy did that computer prove me wrong! Ooooh, do you think that means there's a place where we could plug in a heater? I mean, sure we'd have to steal a heater first or something, but it'd be b~~*!in' to actually have some real heat for a while! Do you think the police come by here at all to move out squatters? I don't think they would, since this place is a dump. But it's a perfectly good dump that we can make like our secret base or something! Oh my god, I am so happy we got lost now! This is, like, the best night ever!!!!"

Leaving her question hanging for just a moment before reaching the front, Sora tilts her head slightly before saying "何? (Nani?)" The obvious source of her confusion being the rather large machine that was more than a little out of place. "I wasn't expecting things to be quite so... bad. I'd expected lots of arcade machines to just be sitting unused... not for there to be so much... vandalized." she says, searching for the right word, before peering past the shattered window, she notes the silver mirrors, and the moonlight playing on not only the water, but also the walls. She shivers slightly, even though she's dressed in more warm clothing than she would normally be.

"Do you see that light up ahead? I don't think it's coming from the moon." she notes, nodding her head towards the differently-colored light. "I guess maybe they do have power. Want to go check it out?" she continues, but doesn't make the move to actually press forward, showing a bit of hesitation, now that they were closer to their goal of reaching the haunted mall.

Sakura looks at the pipe at her feet then pulls her bag off her back and puts her doll in it. Absolutely determined not to go near the large man breaking into the mall she grabs the pipe and standing on her tiptoes she tries to work an end under the cable to pull it free.

...either a tactical choke point, or someone was doing damage control to keep something *inside* from getting *outside*. God, I hope this place isn't radioactive or something... they'd have to post that and notify people if it were, right? No superhero origin stories tonight, okay? No cancer, either, okay?

Alex is able to rationalize the covering well enough, though the muttered swearing as the chunk of metal shreds and shears his old Basic training hoodie might carry a bit. The horrible grinding sound, though, is mitigated through the sacrifice as he carefully attempts to poke his way in, using the backpack in front of him, rather than behind. Provided there's no drop-off on the other side of the door, he will regroup on the other side with the flashlight from his backpack, popping it out and turning it on.

His sweatshirt gets one last mournful glance. Yep, that's shredded cloth right now, probably nothing left to even identify it as a former clothing item...

Please tell me there isn't a headless corpse lying on the ground in front of me?..

"!!"

神聖ながらくた!

As the transmogrification flashes before her, Tracy staggers back, ending in a crouch as instinctively she pulls out both her Utilitool & Maglight, thrusting them defensively between herself & whatever just happened.

Dedric flipped another page of the small book he was reading, the faint sound of water filled th air as he slowly walked home. After a day teaching and grading at Obusa’s University this is how he loved to relax, a good book and the fresh sounds of running water. He enjoyed it so much that he usually took the longer route avoiding Kirakira Bridge. The only real problem was the abandoned mall on the way. Not that he particularly disliked the looming building himself, he simply thought it was an abrupt cut to his relaxation cycle every night.

There it was, the large vaguely threatening building just up ahead. It was obviously not a safe place to be for anyone.

Dedric swayed his head in a disappointed motion as he remembered all those rumours flying around about the mall. What do people want? To endanger others? It was just ridiculous. His attention was once again on his book but as he flipped another page a glimmer of light caught him right in the corner of his eye.

He stopped, it had come from the mall but surely no one was in there. Squatters perhaps… or children lured by the promises in the rumours. He closed his book briskly. What if it were students? As a teacher he had a responsibility to them.

He placed his book in his small over the shoulder brown bag where he was reunited with other such tomes of English literature and a small wallet. Dedric checked his smartphone and after making sure he had plenty of battery he wandered in to the mall from the main Southern entrance, it looked dark inside but the phone should provide enough light to guide him.

Whoever was inside was clearly in a dangerous situation, sane adults would never go in and if they were children he as a teacher had a responsibility to them. That’s what he thought as he approached the mall’s doors.

Fleur watches the Raven's flight, she unstraps the torch and holds it out to Kiyomi with a smile.
"Perhaps we should follow it together? It seems fairly portentous, and I have no idea where we're supposed to be going."

Kiyomi thinks for a moment before nodding in reply. Kiyomi has never been one for superstition and is fairly certain that the bird is just a bird, but if it is a good enough excuse for the other woman to hand over her flashlight then it is a worthwhile lead to follow. Certainly better than continuing to argue in the foyer.

Taking the flashlight for herself, Kiyomi proceeds towards the food court. She moves slowly, at least at first, unsure of how quickly her new companion can follow; Kiyomi had no intention of darting off as soon as she got the flashlight, that would just be rude.

Miyako, Kiyomi, Fleur and Tracy are now in full view of each other. Miyako is fine physically, but she might be a bit traumatized if she's not now convinced she's dreaming or delirious. She's pretty sure she's exhibiting early symptoms of schizophrenia or PTSD... or there's a gas leak.

Dedric can see small figures walking past the derelict carousel and into the food court beyond. You could shout out to them, or simply observe.

Sakura looks at the pipe and jams it between her back and her backpack intending to take it with her.

She looks up at it before looking at the easy entrance the large man made. She creeps to the opening and peers in.

Flashlight down to the right, away to the upper right, to the upper left, down to lower left, then center, slowly to not miss any details.

It wasn't the sort of thing that was really 'taught' to roving watch standers, more one of those things that one picked up over years of experience. Almost tedious in it's own way.

To give the alarm in case of fire or disorder... The bookstore is very much the epitome of 'disorder' as Alex walks through and to the display case, minding the step with the practiced ease of someone who's been through dozens if not hundreds of 'damage control' drills with the power out.

The case does get his attention.

In the theatre of the absurd, it'd be unlikely to expect to find such a thing so fittingly appropriate to his initial reason for being in here, but there it is, the second issue of a manga related to some sort of 'invasion of Earth' that was then repulsed by the brave and noble soldiers of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces.

Huh. Didn't know they'd made this into a manga yet. Score, though!

He approached the case carefully, slowly, to appraise the cover thoughtfully. While theft is not a good thing, arguably this whole place could fall into the 'abandoned' category, and when things are abandoned the law is pretty clear on 'salvage' rights. At least in the States, and most international law stood on the side of 'possession being nine-tenths of the law'.

Since he has a moment or two, he attempts to recover the manga carefully, so as not to tear it or rip the potentially fragile tome. If he's successful, he'll stow that in his backpack and continue on into the mall with care.

Fleur follows Kiyomi as quietly as she can.

Dedric rushed through the doors, if he wasn’t sure that there was someone in that mall before now he had no doubts.

The entrance to the mall looked worse than he thought it would. Overgrown and dark it was not an inviting place still he pressed on. As soon as he was in the large area before the derelict carousel he raised his voice to shout.

Excuse me.

Surprisingly only a meek sound escaped his throat. He took a step back shaking slightly.

What am I doing? I don’t know who is in here. I should think before engaging them. Excuse me but I don’t believe you should be in here. No, he shouldn’t be in there as well. Hey, this is a dangerous location. Please there is nothing to see here. That sounded better, a bit of concern might be accepted more readily than a brash confrontation.

Still he faltered. Who are these people? Was he even safe? Maybe he should just head back and leave them to whatever decisions they made. He took out his phone in one fluid motion. No, if these were students attracted by the rumours of a mysterious train they had to be warned for their own good. He had a responsibility.

As he moved forward with his phone’s light as guidance he repeated this mantra in his mind.

I have a responsibility. I have a…

He tensed up and raised his voice one more time, the sound that came out was barely above that of a normal conversation.

Excuse me. This is a dangerous location, please you must leave this place as soon as possible.

That was better, he noted, not good enough though.
He sighed and moved forward, he wasn’t sure if anyone heard him but whatever the case he had to reach them to be sure.

Seeing this arcade machine simulating what appears to be my adolescent years in secondary academy, I begin to quietly examine the workings of the game in its entirety(controls, monitor, coin deposit, etc.) Finding that it seemed to play like a game from my past, Mischief Makers.

As the head prefect in the school, I was commonly tasked with monitoring the main hall during class exchange. Most of the time I would have to stop kids from running or occasionally breakup a fight. So within the game I found myself doing the same as the main character would do within the game. Moving students from one place to the next to make achievements and answering various questions when purposed to me by the "Clanoid" students. I see that organization and analytical thinking seem to be the name of this game and not to brag but I tend to master such skill checks.

Getting to the boss battle with all its glory, like I've been waiting for this moment for years I sort of take a step back and think to myself that I now have gotten a little too engrossed in this game machine. Turning back to the game because of the music exuding begins to overwhelm my inward contemplation. With its final chime of terror she appears, my mother.

One look up at her and I freeze in terror as she lets out the words, "Why must you wear those pants and not a skirt Miku my daughter?" and at that moment I feel my heart begin to crumble with her disappointment. With this, the screen fades to black and I feel my conscientiousness being moved to a a familiar location. I open my eyes and I'm back to the starting point of which I begin, the main hall of my secondary academy.

Miyako jolted at the sudden cough, her attention turned from the south entrance where the eerie laugh had echoed from to the north. She whipped her flashlight about to find the origin, spotting the other girl a moment before the raven swooped passed her and the strange muttering fills her ears. She scrambles away from the bird, slamming her back into the wall as she swings her light about frantically between Tracy and where she last saw the raven, reaching into her pack to pull her hard hat free and covering her head.

As two more people moved into view, she aimed the light at them as well, shaking in terror as she's practically surrounded. She shoves her hand into her hoodie pocket, trying to pull the can of mace free, only to drop it on the floor. She snatches it back up as quickly as she can and brandishes it next to her light. "Why are th-there others here!? No one sh-should be here! Whoever's wh-whispering, it's n-not funny!"

I think I have a solution for this...

Sakura watches the man and thinks he's there for much the same reason as she is. Rather than go near him she elects to go back over to the cable and climb it.

Jo's smile froze on her face at the odd sight unfolding in front of her, and she would be quiet for a long moment.

"Uhhhhhh..... You know what, I think I maaaaaayyyy have to take back the good things I said about this place. Also, if this is a joke, it's really not funny. Impressive, because I have no idea how you set this up, but totally not funny. So if you're hiding somewhere, come out please?"

"Quite the crowd seems to have gathered tonight." Kiyomi had not planned for this; there were too many people here, and too many people have a habit of causing too many problems. She had lucked out on the fact that her parents were absent on business today and could not keep track of her, but if she stayed out too long even the most absentminded of her maids might become suspicious.

Unable to think of a good way of dealing with the stammering girl, Kiyomi decided to turn her attention to the older man. "My business is my business, and you shall have no part in it. The better question is why you would think to step out of the shadows and surprise a group of innocent young maidens. Awfully suspicious of you, creeping around like that. Are you some kind of pervert?" This line of questioning usually either sent men packing or proved them to actually be a pervert, in which case Kiyomi enjoyed the opportunity to tase them repeatedly. That was one tool she always had on her person, and she did not need to check to ensure it was there.

As these two begin their argument, Tracy eases back to assume a slightly more relaxed posture as she turns herself in a complete circle to further asses the immediate area. Relief at the realization that the impression of a girl's head exploding before her was simply a trick of perception turns to concern as the girl in question shows indications of severe emotional distress.

"Hey, HEY," she slides the Utilitool back into it's place on her forearm, "it's just some creepy birds. Creepy, not dangerous." Tracy murmurs as calmingly as she is able.

"何? (Nani?)"

May looks at her with a slight confusion, her Japanese wasn't quite on par with a native speaker yet.

"I wasn't expecting things to be quite so... bad. I'd expected lots of arcade machines to just be sitting unused... not for there to be so much... vandalized."

"Now that you see a lot of in America, Vandalism that is."

"Do you see that light up ahead? I don't think it's coming from the moon." she notes, nodding her head towards the differently-colored light. "I guess maybe they do have power. Want to go check it out?" she continues, but doesn't make the move to actually press forward, showing a bit of hesitation, now that they were closer to their goal of reaching the haunted mall.

May shrugs and starts to follow it."It' what we came here for isn't it?"

While she wasn't sure what was causing the strange light she wasn't a very superstitious person leaving her with little to fear.

"This is, like, the best night ever!!!!"

She agreed eagerly, nodding and pulling out her stolen dry erase board and writing quickly, drawing a raven to show she'd seen it too. "I think I know where we can get a heater, but I like being out of the wind the most!"

Then the world changed and Alaina didn't know what to do except run and run until she couldn't anymore. Seeing the strange face on the sign, smiling at her, she felt this weird desire to go in and explore. Never knew what could be in a place. Maybe Jo was there!

Arcade/Game Time

Sora didn't really understand the confusion in regards to what she'd said... as it had been mostly an automatic response, having simply said the equivalent of 'what?' in surprise.

Sora, on the other hand, was superstitious. Or at least enough to be afraid of the unknown. She started to move forward, quietly, trying to reach the light... and then realized that they were effectively inside of a fun house.

After a bit of effort, she finally discovered the young - or was he impossibly old? - man standing before the machine. She wasn't certain of what to do, and paused for a moment, before remembering May following behind her. She didn't want to act afraid in front of her, so she pressed onwards, slowly making her way through the the arcade. When her two paths diverged, she took the path that lead to the person... rather than up the stairs, at least for now.

And then the scene changes, once more, just as suddenly as the first.

Sora appears confused for a moment, the confusion not taking long to become no small amount of panic. A breeze on her legs makes her notice that she's no longer wearing pants which for her was the first indication that she was now in a schoolgirl uniform. Which was quite assuredly going to blow her cover. But... more importantly, how did her clothes simply change?

Then she notices the young man who's transformed as well into some sort of half-robot... thing, and takes an involuntary step back. Then she hears the flutter of wings and snaps her head in that direction, as the black bird flutters nearby. She didn't at all like what was going on.

She positions herself between May and the person Hiro, perhaps uselessly. "Ano... what's going on? Where have you taken us? Where'd you put our clothes?"

Sakura stares at the lights and disturbingly eyeless mannequins for a minute before running out of the store and onto the second floor walkway. Tell me about it.I watched my niece fall off a couch as a toddler onto her head and her neck just bent wrong. She got up to go play while I tried not to have a heart attack.