a gentle groovy piano is playing, combined with a classic drum and a jazzy saxophone, while the bass accompanies all this with a rich but relaxed feel.
''As much as I've just.. been sitting here, damn.. this band is good.''
With a little swish of the whiskey glass cup, he hears the ice tingle and decides to take a sip.
''I'm usually not the biggest fan of alcohol, but in this atmosphere, I think I'm fine with it.''
It's neither too cold, nor too hot. It's like the feel of autumn leaves inside, with a hint of cigar smoke.
''I wonder why they.. put this suit on me. I haven't been in a suit for ages.. they even cleaned up my hair, I mean not trying to be shameless but.. even i would fall for myself with this type of look..''
He relaxes his arms, hands behind head, as if using them like a kind of head support. Looking at the empty podium, he wonders.
''Nobody has come and spoken to us yet. Wasn't this supposed to be a challenge? and speaking of ''us'', there's many other people here at different tables.. did they also receive a letter, calling its number?''
As he said that, a person started walking up to him. Focusing on the barely audible sound of rain falling on the nearest window, he did not notice them yet.
But now sitting on a chair at the same table, they decide to speak out.
"We're you also a recipient of the letter?"
"Uh huh? Who are you? But yes I did receive a letter."
But the moment he said that, a loud high pitched noise got released from the podium, and soon, the chattering between random participants came to a close.
"tap tap.. you all hear me?"
"WELCOME, welcome our dear challengers!"
"I am sure you've all been waiting for ages for the game to begin!"
With the music stopping, the atmosphere turns a bit odd.
"Well I'm sure the silence is your conse-"
A random passerby throws his glass cup onto the podium, and starts screaming.
"SHUT UP! I CANT EVEN SEE YOU! HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY BE TALKING INTO THE MICROPHONE! AND TAKE ME BACK TO MY FAMILY I NEVER SAID I WANTED TO BE TRANSPORTED TO THIS WEIRD ASS PLACE!"
"Oh, my bad. Let me reveal myself."
Out of nowhere, a hand, then the arm, upper torso, and then from the torso extending up and down, a body of elegant stature starts creating itself.
A fleshed out glistening suit, a handsome face of a middle aged man, and a spark of light from his teeth each time he opens it to smile.
"I'm sure everyone likes this appearance over me being invisible?"
The crowd stays silent, but one still persistent random.
"WELL I DON'T GIVE A SHIT! TAKE. ME. BACK!"
With this expression of emotion, the speaker's glistening smile quickly goes down.
"It seems as if one of us isn't too happy with our welcoming center."
They, or he steps down from the podium, and sits on a chair at the randoms table.
"Waiter, bring me 2 wine glasses and some expensive Prosecco."
As the speaker starts pouring each of them a glass, all you can hear is just the sparkling of the bubbles.
"Drink up, my dear."
Enraged by the request, the random man starts opening his mouth to scream again.
"Shhh."
"Let me do it for you."
The speaker goes from holding his finger at the man's mouth to forcefully opening it with two of them.
Taking the man's wine glass, he starts pouring it down his throat.
"Now that's a good boy."
Everyone is a bit shocked by the interaction, but weirdly relaxed. Meanwhile the man is expressionless, staring at the podium.
Standing, and walking back to the podium, he starts to speak again.
"The small problem was dealt with. Let's go back to the announcement!"
"As I was saying, I'm assuming the silence is everyone's agreement to participate in the challenge."
The crowd actually nods in agreement this time, except 2 people, though the speaker does not notice.
"Now, you'll all be given a paper and a pen! The paper will have 5 questions on it. Please write your answer to the questions using the pen onto the paper. I know, detailed description, but we need everyone to understand."
So the people at the tables all looked at their papers. The 2 special people whisper to each other.
"Are your questions the same as mine?"
Curious about their questions since they were also invited by a letter and asked about it, he wondered whether the questions were the same or different for everyone else.
So they showed him their paper.
"Uh huh?"
"Something wrong?"
"No, but your questions are entirely different from mine. Look at my paper."
As the stranger looks at his paper, they realize why it's so different.
{ Question I: Yes or No? }
{ Question II: Yes or No? }
{ Question III: Yes or No? }
{ Question IV: Yes or No? }
{ Question V: Yes or No? }
"I don't really know how to answer. I mean did they say to their employees "give him Yes or No questions" and they misunderstood? I guess I'll do it randomly."
In the meanwhile, the person starts answering their questionnaire.
"Question one: do you like strawberries.. I mean yeah I do.. a lot.. Question two: have you ever frolicked.. What? I mean if I think about it.. sure.
"Infact, let me tell you about it. One day, as a teen, it started raining when I was going back from school."
"I did have protection for the rain in case it happened, but I was honestly too lazy to take it out. So I just ran through it!"
"I was all giggly and happy, though my parents weren't when I came home wet. I believe the reason why I did is because there was also sunlight, resulting in a rainbow."
"That's an interesting story." He said with a small laugh.
"Regardless, my third question is "Do you like the rain?" which is also related to it.. even ignoring the rainbow, I did still love the rain."
"As for the fourth.. It says if I've ever painted with the color red? Who hasn't?" They said with a smile and a laugh.
Meanwhile, he was deciding on how to answer the 5 exact same questions. Thinking of doing it randomly, but he doesn't know how.
"I mean I'd do it randomly but since it's only 5 questions none of them feel random. I could go yes, yes, no, no, yes, or all yes, or all no, or just different combinations. But none feel random for some reason."
The other person thinking about it had an interesting preposition.
"All my questions are technically also Yes or No, just actual questions. What if you just go with the opposite of mine if you can't decide?"
"My fifth question is if I like rainbows, feels targeted, but it's also a yes from me."
"So that would mean I write a No on all of my questions?"
"Yeah I mean that's exactly what I meant!" They said with a small laugh.
"Since your questions aren't really questions, I feel like it does no harm doing that."
Thinking about it, he laughs.
"You're right. Whatever I guess!"
So he writes a no on all the questions. Now to just wait..
…
..
.
clap CLap CLAP
"So does that conclude everyone answering their questions?"
''...''
"Fantastic!"
''Now I will quickly take all of your paperss…''
Weirdly enough, everyone's papers just start flying into his hands. Quickly scrolling through the papers, there is no emotion that could have been seen on his face.
"These papers will come into use later. For the next part, I'll need you all to stand up."
A small pressure wave is felt from this occurrence, feeling almost unnatural.
"Hey, why do you think everyone stood up so quickly and instantly at the same time?"
"I don't know. It seems.. interesting."
While the 2 people at one specific table whispered, the speaker prepared to give the next task.
CLAP
"Alright! Let me just make all those tables and chairs dissappear.."
They just disintegrate. At this point the 2 would rather ignore it than question it even a little.
"Band. Start playing some waltz music."
1 ♩ 2 ♩ 3 1 ♩ 2 ♩ 3 1 ♩ 2 ♩ 3 1 ♩ 2 ♩ 3…
"Let's change the room a little too."
The room starts molding itself and changing its colours into a classical, noble ballroom like style.
"How are you relaxed? I mean I didn't care about all the other magical stuff before but this just seems a bit.."
"I don't really care. I went here for money but also just wanted to have fun, and this is pretty intriguing so far."
He thinks about the reality of this occurrence after the whispers though.
"What even is this place though?"
Regardless, soon the speaker starts clapping again.
"Alright! I'm sure everyone's in the mood for a dance?"
"Find a partner, the closest person next to you."
1 ♩ 2 ♩ 3 1 ♩ 2 ♩ 3 1 ♩ 2 ♩ 3 1 ♩ 2 ♩ 3…
"Done?"
"Choose one person to be a leader and one to be a follower. The leader should put their right hand on the followers left shoulder blade, while the follower puts their left hand onto the leader's right shoulder…"
"Then uhh.."
"You know what nevermind it's too complicated just stay in that pose or whatever and move your feet in sync!"
"Let me see you all dance!"
So everyone does, in fact, quite perfectly, suspiciously well.
"How the fuck do we do this?"
"Just keep pretending. I honestly don't know either."
Except two, though by good enough chemistry they managed to pretend well enough.
"Oh how elegant! It makes me want to join in too!"
"One! ♩ Two! ♩ Three! ♩ One! ♩ Two! ♩ Three! ♩"
"I haven't been to a ballroom party like this in ages!"
"Something feels off though.."
As the speaker looks through the crowd, he notices 2 peculiar fledglings.
"Those two seem to have.. talent? It's as if I'm getting reminded of something.. Maybe I'll keep a watch on them later down the line, for now I'll ignore them.."
As the played piece slowly seemed to be heading towards its coda, the speaker seemed to be preparing something..
"What's he rummaging through back there? Where did that.. cabinet? or wardrobe?.. Box? Even come from?"
"I don't know."
After a bit of time, he finally pulled something out.
''Is that.. cardboard?''
''Personally I also see.. scissors? and.. wooden skewers? .. liquid glue?''
"What's the speaker planning to make us do?"
The speaker snaps his fingers.
"Alright. Let's stop now!"
"I think that was enough evaluation. Let's get on the third game now!"
"These are all art supplies, and I'm sure you've all had art class when you were children.''
''The task is simple! Just create whatever you can until I feel like you can all stop!''
"Oh right, let me change the room to better fit such a task."
In all honesty, this time the entire room looked a bit questionably at the speaker, especially the two fledglings.
"So we're supposed to just create something from.. this? also if the speaker's gonna change the room why not change our clothing too, damn the suit is getting annoying."
While he thinks about what to make, the tableside companion has already finished deciding what to make.
"I'll probably make a sword. When I was a kid I made a lot of things out of wood and that was usually the main product, and I doubt cardboard is much different."
"Thats interesting, you don't really look like it. But in all fairness who doesn't like swords."
"In fact, I'll have to copy that idea. Reminiscing about my days with my grandma, I did it too. Though I also made spears and scythes inspired by some anime characters."
Laughing a bit after saying that, he starts working on his product, cutting arguably the most "swordlike-shape" out of the cardboard.
"..."
"What the fuck is that?"
The companion is dumbfounded. They have not seen someone make such a funny looking sword shape before.
"Is this from a cartoon?"
"No no listen listen I tried alright I mean just think about it!"
"Thinking about it, you're right. It's an Excalibur. Except not from the Lady of the Lake."
"It's from the local alcoholic."
"In fact, it's amazing."
"Amazingly bad."
"It curves 30 degrees."
"And by that, I mean to the left, not just the angle of the blade. How the FUCK did you even make that with cardboard."
One might say he was devastated, the other might say he enjoyed it. Regardless, he does not seem to have much cardboard-cutting talent.
"Look at mine. It's elegant. A straight blade. Like a beautiful daydream. I even layered it so it holds its shape."
One might say they were elated, the other knows it's just a brown piece of slightly tougher than usual paper. Regardless, they do seem to have cardboard-cutting talent.
Now that they're both finished, they check up on the other participants.
"You know, something feels.. wrong. They aren't talking much but most importantly the expressionless faces.."
"I see a few who have the slightest bit of expression on their faces though. One of them seems to be making a bow? We didn't get any strings so good luck to them…"
Some time passes, and the speaker still isn't doing anything, sitting on a chair in the corner.
"So what are we supposed to do.."
"Maybe make another object? Whatever the speaker wants to do with these it probably won't hurt to make more."
Thinking about what to make, he realizes that another sword would be pretty stupid, so he gets a different idea.
"Let's see who can make the better trinket."
".. a trinket?"
"Yeah like a ring or a necklace."
"out of.. cardboard?"
"Just work it out."
Intensively working on their own product, there's a clear distinction to be seen. Even though our tableside companion can make swords, they absolutely cannot make any sort of trinket.
"So you're telling me you can cut a straight long piece of cardboard, layer it, and make a good looking sword but can't cut.. smaller pieces of cardboard?"
"I could say the same thing! How are you unable to make a straight sword but can make intricate details! That makes ZERO sense!"
Both made fun of each other, though after the skirmish, they came to the same dilemma again.
"The speaker still hasn't said our time is up…"
"Also, how are the other participants still making their weapons?"
"Ah whatever I'm kinda bored and I want to sleep and this suit is still uncomfortable.."
Hearing this, his tableside companion realizes a very very brilliant idea.
"Then what about one last competition.."
"Who can make the better.."
"..."
"Bed."
"What the actual fuck are you on about?"
"How do you plan for us to make a bed out of cardboard? What's next? We'll sleep in them?"
"Exactly!"
Dropping his head into his hands, it's obvious how disappointed he is with the idea.
''Im in.''
The idea was simple. A mattress out of a single big piece of cardboard, a (not so soft) duvet, beautifully brown colored by the cardboard's iconic look, and for the finale, a rolled up piece of cardboard made into a pillow.
Getting to work, each made their own bed, with some slight differences like sizes of pillows. There was a simple goal in this, and that is, to sleep or relax on said cardboard beds. I mean there isn't really a goal but that's the suggested goal.
''This is.. absolutely fantastic.''
With now a proper place to relax on, even though only slightly more comfortable than the floor, they wait till the speaker finally ends this activity.
…
…
…
tap tap
''MY bad MY bad people I accidentally fell asleep. Lets end the activity now!''
Snapping his fingers, the speaker quickly deletes everything made and all the supplies. This also makes the heads of the two fall down to the floor..
''AU!!''
''Fuck, my head!''
Fortunately no concussion was received.
''AHEM AHEM! Let me change up the room again. Maybe.. ancient greek style?''
As the room magically changes again, the two quickly stand up to look more presentable.
''I hope the speaker changes our clothing too this time.''
''All your creations were fantastic! But I think it's time for the next activity.''
''How does he know if he just deleted them all and was asleep most of the time..''
''It will yet again be a simple activity! You'll actually get a paper and pen again, but the task will be vastly different.''
''Draw whatever you want on the paper! Random scribbles, shapes, or actual drawings are accepted.''
Hearing this task, they had an idea that (has) been technically thought of before.
''So if I wrote no 5 times on the previous paper and pen quest.. then what if like this time you color your entire paper black or just scribble it black coloring the entire paper with a pen would be annoying, and i leave it blank? Since you know no feels like black and the opposite of black is white and vice versa.''
''I didn't know I'd come across a genius when I came to your table. That is a fantastic idea.''
Luckily the tableside companion didn't realize he was just being lazy and didn't want to draw anything. Regardless, it works out as intended.
''That is.. the best scribble I've ever seen. Fantastic job. I'm sure the speaker will be happy seeing this fascinating creation.''
''Not sure if you're the right person to say that having a blank ass paper..''
Weirdly enough, according to the team's sights the other people actually could draw acceptable things onto their papers. I guess artistic desire does not disappear with silenced emotions.
Soon enough, the speaker starts yapping again.
''I'm assuming everyone is finished!''
''It's getting boring.''
The speaker blabbers and yaps again and mentions the next activity which will be hide and seek..
''...''
''Wait, hide and seek?! I'm IN!!''
''I didn't know you liked hide and seek!'' whispered his tableside companion.
''The rules will be simple! You'll get 10 minutes to hide with your tableside companion, and after the time runs out I will personally try to find you all! It never hurts for the gamemaster to participate, amirite?''
''Though I will be making some ''small'' adjustments first..''
''First, according to the collected data, our playing field shall be a forest in a roughly 1km² area.''
''Second, I'm not gonna force you all to hide in that official clothing! Simply imagine what clothing you want to wear and I'm sure it'll appear one way or another.''
''What?''
''And third, to get you excited, this is the before-last activity.''
''One minute to imagine your clothes, and then we'll begin!''
The speaker snaps his fingers, and the place really does turn into a forest, though he magically disappears along with the transformation.
''OK quick quick I guess personally a shirt and sweatpants, truly the fit of all time.''
''How did the other participants already imagine their outfit.. Regardless, I'm going with the same fit.''
Choosing their glorious, beautiful, fantastic noble attire, with 10 minutes to hide they run into the woods.
''Yeah nah just running is gonna lead us nowhere, how do we actually hide?''
''How am I supposed to know?!''
''Alright then. Hear me out. This is a mixed forest, and it seems to be autumn, therefore, see all those leaves on the ground?''
''Yes..''
''Exactly. I'm sure you get the idea. Let's go to a more leaf filled part of the forest though, it's a bit sparse here.''
After running a bit through the forest, the two find a fantastic area for this task.
''I believe we've got about 5 minutes to cover ourselves in leaves..''
Locating two suspiciously rake shaped sticks, they quickly gather up leaves into a single horde to then split it into two and cover themselves in it.
''What a master plan.''
''I think there's like, 30 seconds before the speaker starts seeking.''
''So be quiet! (Even though it doesn't change much…)''
A very loud sound suddenly came out of nowhere, proclaiming:
''THEY HAVE STARTED SEEKING.''
''Tsk tsk.. I'm not even allowed to use any detection abilities hell not even regular sensing these stupid rules!''
''I also forgot to tell them how long I'm gonna seek for.. well I'm sure they'll be fine hiding for 30 minutes.''
The speaker quickly finds half of the participants in the first 10 minutes.
Then half of the remaining half in the 10 minutes after that.
''Shhh.. I hear walking..''
''Then stay fucking silent..''
''This kinda looks like a spot someone would hide in.. all these bushes and trees..''
''Eh I don't think anyone's actually here though!''
Soon enough, the speaker's time ran out and the game ended.
''THE ACCOMPLISHED SHOULD RETURN TO THE CENTER OF THE FOREST.''
So they do.
''More people actually hid well enough than I thought..''
''You should've expected it. It's kinda hard finding people in a 1km² area, within a 30 minute timescale, maybe you can try it yourself sometime!''
The place changes yet again, back to the bar it was at the beginning. However, before the speaker can speak, a single person from the audience starts saying something.
"Where am I?"
The speaker quickly magically ties up said person and blocks their mouth with tape.
"The fuck was that? Isn't that the girl who tried to make the cardboard bow too?"
"I wonder why he hasn't done that to us.''
Regardless, the speaker tests the microphone again, coughs, and takes a deep breath.
"The last game is very simple and very short. I'm unsure if to even call it a game!"
"Actually, scrap that it's not even a game, just an announcement."
"You're not getting any money. Neither are you returning to earth."
"Yeah I honestly expected it."
But our tableside companion didn't take it too well.
…
"You know why I asked you why y-you're so r-relaxed-d?"
"B-Bec-hik-ause I-hik-I DONT KNOWWWW!"
Loudly sobbing, they blurted out words.
"I-hik-I s-still miss m-mfamilyyyy"
"An-hik-d t-that's while b-being FUCKING 22!"
"I-hik I want t-to go h-hik-omeeee"
"Silence. Soon you will all be transported to your respective chosen worlds based on your questionnaire answers."
"Shut the FUCK up!" he thought while thinking how to comfort his companion.
Our protagonist hugs them.
"I don't know if it'll be fine, really."
"But I know that regardless if it is or not, you'll be able to get through it, and people will love you regardless."
"Or maybe they won't. I don't know. But I know it's still possible to get through whatever's incoming."
"When you arrive in your world your current name shall be forgotten and a new one shall be forged."
"I g-guess…"
"3"
"You never answered my question on who you are, right?"
"2"
"Personally, my name is █████."
"1"
"I-I.. I'm Rosalyne. Or well t-that's kinda my name in English."
…
"I'm sure we'll meet again, Rose."