02. the nonary game

[vivariummods]

the nonary game

rules ✖ faq ✖ profiles ✖ schedule ✖ nav 【 awakening. 】 It's difficult to say what you might notice first. It might be the discomfort of the cold and hard concrete floor that you find yourself on. It might be the old musky and damp air, riddled with something similar to the smell of mold. Or, if you woke up later, it might be the reactions from your fellow prisoners. Pushing yourself up from the dirty floor, you'll quickly find that you're no longer in your warm bed back in your cottage or wherever you were prior to this moment. Once again, you find yourself in a new area, but it's immediately clear that this is not as nice as your last awakening. Rather than the warm and bright sun shining down on you, half-functioning lights flicker on and off sporadically and instead of the vast openness of the island, you're in a cramped tiny cell with some of your fellow islanders. The cell just barely fits three people in it. Although a lack of a bed gives everyone more room for people to stand in, the sink and toilet will uncomfortably get in someone's way. It's highly likely that you might have been asleep on top of someone else or at least had a foot or hand in your face. It's difficult enough to stand in here without hitting someone when raising your arm halfway. There's no way you would have all been asleep on the floor without some limbs crossing over each other. You can try to shake the bars or the door but you'll find them much tougher than they look. Despite their aged appearance, no amount of kicking, punching, or shaking will get them to budge. With the bars wide open though, you can directly see the cell in front of you and diagonally from you. Perhaps it is at this moment that you realize that everyone is wearing a strange bangle around their left wrist. When you look down at your own wrist, you notice that you have one too. It's a thick black bracelet with a digital screen. Just like the cell bars, no amount of force will get it off and hitting it against a surface does nothing but activate a high-pitching beeping sound that does not stop until you do. It might be a good idea to heed to the beeping sound as it sounds... alarming and hopefully, someone will be able to stop you before it beeps faster and louder. Once you take the time to examine it, you will find the following details: ✖ There is no apparent clasp holding the bracelet together. ✖ On the face, there's a screen. Perhaps it's far more appropriate to call it a watch, but whatever it is, it displays a single number in red. ✖ On either side of the bracelet is a button. Pressing both at the same time will change the screen and give a timer that counts down from 27 minutes. Pressing either button once will allow you to go through the profiles of your fellow prisoners, starting with their name and the same pixel sprite that was displayed on their cottage door. Turning either button will scroll through the profiles and read the details. Well, that's that. Asides from fiddling with the buttons, there's nothing you can do about the bracelet itself. Maybe it's best to start getting used to your new cell. After all, who knows how long you'll be trapped here for. 【 greeting. 】 Once the timer counts down to 18 minutes, the monitors in each cell will flicker on. Immediately, a hooded figure with a gas mask appears on the low-quality screen. With the monitor tilted downwards, it almost appears as if they're watching you. "Life is simply unfair, don't you think?" The voice comes out cold, mechanical, and distorted. They're clearly using a voice changer. You can try to yell at the screen, question it, or do anything to interact with the figure, but you'll find out that this is just simply a recording. Nothing you do can get them to respond or stop. "I am 【 Zero 】. I am the one who summoned you here." You may notice that they used the word "summoned" rather than "kidnapped". "Consider this a privilege. You have been chosen. You are going to participate in an experiment. The 【 Nonary Game 】. This is a game where you will put your life on the line. Now, it is time. Let our game begin. I wish you all the best of luck." And with that, the screen goes blank... 【 arrival. 】 It's not until the timer hits nine minutes that something finally happens again. The door at the end of the hall slides open but, rather than a regular sized human, a white robotic mouse walks through. Like Zero, he also sports a gas mask. "Helloooooo, test subjects!" His voice is high-pitched and shrill. It's definitely not modified by a voice changer. "You can call me 【 Calhoun 】. Since my master is a busy person, I'll be taking over from here on out. Now, I see we have some old returning faces." He stops to wink at those particular characters. "But mostly new faces! Well, it doesn't matter if you're new or not because we're putting a twist on this Nonary Game, so make sure you listen carefully!"

Comments

[decipere]

( one. )

[ unlike kokichi's nice and warm awakening back on the island, he wakes up to his face being squished into the cold floor. someone is on top of him and he is unhappy so he just mumbles out: ]

G-Get off...

( two. )

[ and now that he's up and not dying under someone, he finds his own little space and starts to examine his bracelet. he fiddles around with the buttons and reads through all those profiles. even if there aren't a lot of details, it is slightly unnerving to have your info up like that for anyone to read. ]

They really don't care about privacy, do they?

( three. )

[ kokichi is surprisingly quiet as everything goes down. rather than making his usual dumb comments or jokes, he stays silent as he listens to every last word and watches the video on the screen. his face is blank and it's not only until the very end that he finds the energy to go back to his casual seemingly-carefree way of speaking. he places his hands behind his head and speaks with a small smile. ]

Wow, I was right? Man, killing games are really popular these days, aren't they? People need to start getting more creative!

one

[captainmarshmallow]

Mghhh...

[Towa's not sounding too great as she comes to. Where the heck...? At least there's something soft underneath her and it's not all floor, but—]

Eek! I'm so sorry!

[She scrambles of off Kokichi as soon as she realizes precisely what that soft thing was, mostly because it started talking. Uwaa, how embarrassing...]

W-where are we...?

[decipere]

[ oh thank god, she's off. kokichi literally lets out a big sigh of relief once the pressure is off his back and he can breathe again. he slowly begins to pick himself up, trying to stand up and dust the dirt off his clothes. ]

Phew! I thought for a moment that I was going to be crushed to death!

[ what a rude child... after he's done getting as much gunk off his clothes, he looks around. ]

This doesn't look like anywhere on the island.

[tosearch]

[Oh, Airi got stuck with the worst person out of the lot. She doesn't like Kokichi at all. She glares at his direction and then huffs.]

It's stupid Kokichi!! Towa, you two.

[ They've got themselves into a sticky situation here.]

I have a pair of eyes, I can see that for myself. We're in some kind of nasty place. What are we supposed to do here?

[decipere]

[ don't worry, airi, kokichi isn't a big fan of you either! ]

Maybe you got put away for being an obnoxious dummy?

[tosearch]

You really think that? It takes one to know one, asshole!!!!

[ They're locked away with towa arguing like 2 yolds.]

Don't try to scare us here.

[decipere]

[ the decision game hasn't even started yet and calhoun will probably have two murder victims already ]

Oh, don't worry. I know that anything I do won't scare you... no, sorry, that was a lie! I know you're a little scaredy-pants for absolutely anything.

[tosearch]

Say that to my face louder! I dare you.

[ she doesnt even care about the cell theyre in, keeps yelling at kokichi anyways ]

You're gonna eat those words.

[decipere]

I didn't know you were deaf as well. Okay--

[ he cups his hands around his mouth ]

I know you're a little scaredy-pants for absolutely anything!

[tosearch]

[ airi lets out the worlds biggest sigh. ]

I didn't mean it literally! Ugh, I'm gonna get no where with you. Kokichi is such a big moron.

How about you shut up for two minutes and we try to look for a way out?

three!

[spiritoso]

[ Kaede frowns. ]

Ouma-kun, this is so not the time to be thinking about creativity!

ndrv3 spoilers

[decipere]

Isn't it? This is now our second killing game. It was fun the first time, but now it's just getting dull.

[ kokichi never actually had fun in the first one. that was all just an act and it's an act that he'll most likely keep up here as well, trying to keep himself sane. ]

[spiritoso]

[ She crosses her arms. ]

There's no way you actually thought the first one was fun.

[decipere]

I got a pretty twisted personality, you know. I'm a Supreme Leader after all. My organization does assassination missions all the time!

[spiritoso]

[ Her frown just deepens. ]

Do you only do assassinations? How do I know you're not lying about that too?

[decipere]

You don't. I am a liar, after all. Who knows if anything I'm saying is true? Oh, but I wasn't lying about my organization! That part was true.

[ ... which part? ]

[spiritoso]

Wouldn't it be easier to just tell the truth?

[ Mostly because now she's confused. What part about his organization is even true? ]

[decipere]

Sure, but where's the fun in that? There's only one truth but a million different possibilities for lies. Some lies can be even kinder than the truth.

[ none of it. none of his organization stuff is true. he's a big fat liar and kaede deserves better ]

Two

[beheadal]

[She's browsing the details as well in her own cell, frowning at what little they listed down for her own. It's not much, but it's already more than anyone should know.]

They never show any hospitality to us. [So why bother with privacy. Even if she's uneasy by how they got her details. It's already had enough they got her name.]

[decipere]

[ kokichi is going through the details when he lands on miyako's and yep, he's going to be mature about this. ]

Wow, this says that you're 17. No way! You look waaaaay older than that!

[beheadal]

[Wow, what a mature kid./s]

I'm fine with that. It's easier to talk to adults like that.

[decipere]

But not kids your age, right?

[ very mature ]

[beheadal]

I don't often work with those around my age.

[Until a literal apocalypse happens.]

[decipere]

Probably because you scare off anyone else your age!

[ being super mean is a good way to handle a situation like this, right? ]

[beheadal]

There was no need for me to, when there's no one around.

[And there she is, continuing to be relatively straightforward.]