DAY 00

[thecomputer]

[Good afternoon, Citizens!

Your consciousness blurrily returns as the transport tube your comatose body was stored in opens up, admitting you access to an unfamiliar room. One wall is covered by vertical tubes, one occasionally sliding open to admit another confused person. The wall across from you has a sign saying "PROCEED TO CENTRAL HUB", with an arrow pointing at a red doorway in the corner. The wall to your right contains an unlabeled, dusty, and poorly-lit hallway with blue walls, floor, and ceiling. You can't see the end from here.

Somewhere on your person, you will find a thin, smartphone-sized object that wasn't there before. One side of it is lit up with a red background and a number of disabled menu items. Most of the screen is taken up by another message saying "PROCEED TO CENTRAL HUB".

What is this place, anyway? And who are these people stumbling in through the transport tube array?]

[[Beyond the three prompts below, anyone may start their own prompts to mingle or go off and do their own thing or whatever else they want!]]

Comments

[respring]

[ there may or may not be a familiar figure skulking around the corner. She's glancing around, seemingly looking for someone, but she hasn't noticed Rin quite yet.... ]

[harshwords]

[ Someone's going to pay dearly for bringing her sister here. When she does see her, she realizes that this isn't the best place for them to have this sort of chat, and she honestly doesn't want to expose herself so easily when there's others around. That would be bad. ]

Are you looking for someone in particular, Sakura?

[ KEEP CALM

and talk on. Rin is speaking in her general neutral voice, as if somewhat disinterested. ]

[respring]

[ Sakura whirls around suddenly, surprised. But her hands clasp together in relief once she sees who it is. Her response is a little weird, but hey, the whole situation is weird. And it wouldn't be like Rin to visibly freak out, anyway.

When she speaks her, voice is small: ]

Neesan, there you are...thank goodness. [ as much as she doesn't want her family to have been kidnapped along with her, it's reassuring ] I suppose so. Have you seen senpai, or Rider?

[harshwords]

..."Neesan"?

[ She's never been referred like that before, so confusion is practically written all over her face. She knew that Sakura was her younger sister - was being in the past tense - but she was never referred to like that, ever.

But what's even strange is the next two sentences that come out of her mouth; she's not supposed to know about that-- ]

Ah, no. I haven't seen Shirou.

[ Nooot gonna talk about Rider because let's not talk about that right now. ]

[respring]

[ a slight tilt of the head. Why is Rin confused? She'd been calling her that in place of 'Tohsaka-senpai' for a while now. Is she upset that she's using it in this strange place? Maybe letting their captors know they're related is a bad thing? But oh well. ]

Oh. Well, I guess it's good he didn't get captured, either. But this is troublesome...I can't sense Rider anywhere. It's like she completely vanished off the face of the Earth.

[harshwords]

...

[ Sorry, Sakura, but it's going to take some time for Rin to think as she hums inquisitively, folding her arms over her chest. This is strange. She figured that if Rider was being used by Shinji, her real Master must have been someone who had a capability of doing magic.

Now it makes sense. But she seems worried about Rider. Even more so than she should be. There's only one explanation for this, but now's not the time to talk about it. ]

Then it's possible that this place isn't our world.

[respring]

[ THAT'S OKAY SHE'LL WAIT ]

Mmm, that seems to be the most logical explanation, but...is this some kind of Second Magic? This place doesn't feel like a Reality Marble.

[harshwords]

I can't be one hundred percent sure, but so far, it's just a theory. I'll figure things out as things go.

[ ... Like the fact that Sakura knows about magic that she wasn't supposed to learn. ]

By the way, Sakura, make sure you don't mention you-know-what in front of the others.

[ JUST IN CASE, YANNO.

Someone asks. Though she's certain that Sakura knows better than to do something stupid. ]

[respring]

[ a nod ]

--oh! Right. I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking. [ talking about it so openly with Rin, even if it was just the two of them in this little nook of the hallway and she was being quiet anyway. But then, they were kidnapped. To a dimension where she couldn't sense any Servants, let alone Rider. If their kidnapper was listening to their talk, it wouldn't matter, because they'd already known how to sever her connection with Rider. That would require knowledge of magic. Powerful magic, maybe even sorcery, if Second Magic was really being used here.

She lowers her voice even further. ] 'Proceed to central hub'--I guess they want us to keep walking. It sounds better than standing around here, and maybe we'll get some answers? Um, I'd hate for it to have to come to fighting, but... [ you never know ]

[harshwords]

It's not that big of a deal.

[ She folds her arms as her gaze wanders around. Although part of her wants to say that the possibility of this being the handiwork of a magus is high, though there is certainly something strange about it all to begin with.

Though she was the one who suggested that this place might not be "their world" to begin with. But it's hard to tell. Her eyes flicker up as she sees the signs; it's strange, how much technology was put into this. And it doesn't seem to be anything from their time. If it's not the Second Magic, then there's something strange going on, and that's not good. How the hell does the Magic Association not know about this?

But then again, they didn't know about the Holy Grail, either... ]

Mm. We'll most likely get some answers, considering they didn't just simply kidnap us for ransom.

[ She knows how Sakura doesn't want to fight. It's just in her nature. ... But if she has to fight herself, she will. Tohsaka Rin will not hesitate. ]

I'll protect you if anybody tries to do anything to you-- but I can't make promises if we end up becoming enemies.

[respring]

[ a shallow shrug. Huh, she's. Acting sort of odd. Granted, it might be the stress of the situation getting her, but Rin hadn't acted this standoffish in a long time. ]

I truly appreciate it, but you don't need to do that. [ ... ] I think, at this point, I should be defending myself.

[ she shudders at that second part, though ] I don't even want to think about that scenario.

[harshwords]

[ Rin is rather quiet for a good moment or two before she lets out a deep, exasperated sigh, calming herself down. If only just momentarily. ]

Well, I won't butt in on your choice, Sakura. It's not my role to decide things for you.

[respring]

[ tries....to give her a reassuring smile... ]

Thank you. Hopefully it won't even be necessary.

[harshwords]

[ In return, Sakura will get a weak smile. She knows that this isn't going to be easy, but she'd rather cooperate with Sakura than actually fight with her. ]

Let's just hope that it won't. But you always have to prepare for the worst.