The Final Investigation

[airlockedmods]

[There's a moment of utter blackness upon passing through the window, and then a sensation of great heaviness and an abrupt change in orientation.

But when the Champions open their eyes, they'll find themselves lying on their backs, staring up at the same ceiling they saw through the looking glass. Each one has an oxygen mask over their nose and mouth providing crisp air, and some kind of headband around their foreheads, and there's glass curved in front of them.

Luckily, they aren't trapped for long, as their PIP detaches from the life support system with a hiss, and the glass overhead lifts up to let the Champions sit up and take stock of their surroundings.

Welcome to the real world.

The room the Champions awake in is a large pentagon, and the reason it looked different becomes obvious - the pods were lined up four along each wall, plus one that's next to and plugged into a large center tower. Every Champion is wearing their Champion's unitard, with their PIP still attached to their arm, and no inventory.

However, anyone who got any items back (which everyone should have gotten something, including a special present for the Ultimate Champion) will find those items piled at the foot of their pod.

((OOC: For the investigation, we ask you split off into two teams: Red Team will be Xander, Thomasin, Yurika, and Natsuhi, and will investigate rooms A and B. Blue Team will be Jane, Togami, Jamie, and the Doctor, and will investigate rooms 1 and 2.]

Comments

[kingshaming]

[Waking up back in the unitard, Xander's first instinct is to grab at his throat.

The necklace is gone, and his heart sinks. Was... the last two months a dream? No, it couldn't be with the weird mask on his face. Tearing it off he tries to stand seeing if he feels off or like he's been asleep for two months a long time]

[ratherdoweddings]

What in the...

[Yurika sits up with some effort and looks around.]

Togami-san was right.

[kingshaming]

The machine based hallucination he suggested...? Gods...

[imnotfat]

So it seems.

[Togami was right about so many things, he's so damn proud of that]

[cyan_maid]

[She'd just grabbed her stuff, slung it over her back, joined the others through the weird looking glass, and -

- And it's lucky that they aren't going to be trapped for long because the sensation of something around Jane's forehead is enough to get her to scream and slam her hands against the glass before it rises. Once she can move, Jane lurches forward, tumbling awkwardly out of her pod and half onto her pile of stuff.

What the fuck is any of this?!?!!??!]

[airlockedmods]

[The headband is padded for comfort, and contains sensors. Other than being a padded weight, however, it doesn't interfere with her in any way or behave oddly when she throws it off.

If she looks back after her initial panic, she'll find it looks like some kind of trauma headband, or probably more likely a brainwave reader.]

[cyan_maid]

[Trauma headband as in A HEADBAND THAT CAN CAUSE TRAUMA TO JANE you mean

If she does look at it, she's going to glare at it.]

[ratherdoweddings]

Jane-chan! Are you hurt?

[Yurika jolts up at the scream.]

[cyan_maid]

I-

[She's got a hand on her chest, breathing hard. Everything in her is screaming to get away away away, but the more it screams the more it reminds her that if she was being controlled, there would be no screaming. Only obedience. It's not a Tiaratop.]

I'm...okay...?

[...But her clothes are gone. Her bag is gone. Light's knife is gone. She's safe...but feels so empty.]

[stitch_in_time]

[Okay. Well. That's a thing. The Doctor carefully climbs out of the pod, not quite trusting the environment. For all they know this is just another layer of VR- but no, no, that way lies madness. Focus. Treat everything as if it's real until evidence indicates otherwise.]

[...He can't believe his screwdriver's gone AGAIN.]

...At least I didn't try arguin' it, havin' to hear Togami say "I told you so" would just be insufferable.

[Okay, first things first -is that a water bottle?- take stock of the situation. Are there pods here for any of the victims and culprits, and does this headband thing come off?]

[airlockedmods]

[The headband/sensor comes off easily, which is a good thing because it's connected to wires inside the pod.

As for the pods... No, there are only 8 in the room. The 8 are scattered, however, in a way that would imply that there were once 20 arranged around the five walls of the room, plus Jamie's next to the power core.]

[stitch_in_time]

Hell.

[He takes a second to stretch -however long they were actually in those pods, it sure FEELS like a couple months.]

[Once he's settled, he'll probably approach as many people as possible with a simple question-]

You all right?

[curdle]

[ It is very good that mask is fastened securely to her face, because from the second she gains consciousness Thomasin is screaming her head off. She only stops when the glass lifts, at which point she attempts to stumble her dumbass way out of the pod, ripping all the connections save the PIP off of herself. ]

Our clothes...

[ It's not out of modesty that she's frightened now, but from not knowing why she's in the unitard again. The bottle of water at the foot of her pod goes totally ignored. ]

[stitch_in_time]

Whoa! Thomasin. It's okay. You're okay.

[Physically, anyway. He's gonna put a steadying hand on her shoulder, make sure she's not about to trip and hurt herself. More than she might have already, anyway.]

Just breath. It was a simulation- an artificial dream, like Togami thought it was. ...Don't remind him of that too much.

[refusedtoleave]

[Oh she's wearing this thing again. She's just going to pull the turtleneck and trousers on over the top of it, thanks for the clothes!

Now...what else is-

She sees her reflection first, in the silver, flower engraved mirror she's held so many times before. The she notices the shiny paper, the slight glint of gold.]

These are...

[ratherdoweddings]

Like the things they would send us in the dumbwaiter. Are any of them yours?

[imnotfat]

[And so once again Byakuya Togami confirmed he was right. Praise him, everyone.

Buuuuuut he'll brag later. This is the big time. Here's where things will get real, in more ways than one.

Oh, look, over there is Togami's Future Foundation pin. He's going to put it on his Champion unitard with some effort and get ready.]

So this is where we're at...interesting place.

RED TEAM

[airlockedmods]

[Xander, Yurika, Natsuhi, and Thomasin get rooms A and B]

[ratherdoweddings]

[Yurika gets up and picks up her stuff.]

We can't just sit here. Let's treat this like an investigation.

[kingshaming]

[While Yurika is investigating the other missing pods, Xander goes to see if Jamie has awoken.]

[refusedtoleave]

[Natsuhi's just going to stomp off in her huff and head to the door to room B. What can she see from the doorway. What is teamwork?

Actually if there's nothing too attention grabbing, she's going to go back to looking at her photos.]

ROOM A

[curdle]

[ She's not doing anything particularly interesting or revolutionary here, but once everyone else sets out on their searches Thomasin is just gonna case the room for anything of interest beyond the pods. She's looking at the floor and the walls and comparing them to what the rest of the space station looked like. And what does that center tower look like? ]

BLUE TEAM

[airlockedmods]

[The Doctor, Togami, Jane, and Jamie get rooms 1 and 2]

[imnotfat]

Since it has once again been confirmed this situation is closer to what I know, I'm taking control of the situation.

[Hello, Blue Team, since Xander is busy in the other group Togami declares himself leader. You're welcome]

We shall be given some time for investigating. Anything we find may point towards answers regarding where we are and what the masterminds' intentions are. Afterwards we'll be forced to go into one last trial, where we'll need to answer everything or risk death.

Any questions?

[So there are two rooms...]

We have two places to investigate. Let's separate in pairs.

ROOM ONE INVESTIGATION

[stitch_in_time]

[So once that's settled, the Doctor turns to Jamison.]

Looks like it's you and me, Jimmy. Stick close, try not to wander off, and try don't poke at anything dangerous looking. That part's my job, yeah?

[He's going to head in the general direction of... say room one? Can't let Togami have everything.]