chapter 1: playing parts, broken hearts - start
surprisingly, i was able to sleep last night. unfortunately, that confirms that this is not a dream.
though, knowing the people here, i should be safe. everybody here should be. we all want to escape, but none of us would go that far. except for maybe vee.
i check my clock. 7am. perfect timing. i get ready for the day. physically. mentally i cannot say the same.
i make my way over to the main cabin. if i am lucky, there will be food already. if i am not, i can just make some myself. come to think of it... didn't rea make salad yesterday? i suppose she didn't realize we wouldn't be eating last night.
a good amount of people were already there. luckily for me, rea was one of them. she seemed to be cooking something. i should probably offer to help, but she's a chef. she probably has it all covered.
"oh, finn?" birdi calls, noticing my entrance.
"yeah?"
"we're gonna be having a camper meeting over breakfast, just letting you know."
"cool," i say. i don't really know what kind of meeting could be taking place, but whatever. "when do we start?"
"we're waiting for like, five more people," she responds.
"four, actually," robin adds, noting luna's entrance. "do you guys know the deal with her ultimate? i think it's kind of suspicious."
"i don't know. i mean, with a situation like this, i'm not too keen on having an arsonist on the premise," i explain.
"we should at least give her a chance. after all, she can't be that bad," birdi chides. rea interrupts our conversation with a few plates of hot food, bakie helping as a waitress as well, carrying several dishes.
"breakfast is ready," she says, as if it were not already obvious.
vee and nights enter at just the right time, followed closely by wari.
"...where's mech?" cj asks.
"he's probably just late. i'm sure he'll be fine," rea consoles.
ten minutes later, mech still had not arrived. birdi sent robin to go find him while she started the meeting. no point in delaying it anymore.
"so, i think we should investigate," she starts. there's a series of nods. "there has to be some way out of here. some way... moral. we could partner up and go visit different parts of the island. after we eat. because we need to have energy for this."
"and because rea worked hard, tee hee!" bakie pipes in.
we begin to eat when robin comes back in with mech.
"what took you so long?" birdi asks curiously.
"personal reasons," mech explains.
"personal reasons being sleeping in," robin sighs.
"it's fine. we were just worried," birdi says.
"great, so what were we doing?" mech asks.
"splitting into partners. i can accompany mech since he missed the announcement. the rest of you can go with anybody you would like."
i immediately seek out daisy. simple reasoning: dög. i walk up to her and ask if she would like to be my partner. luckily, she accepts.
"so, where do you want to go?" i ask. she shrugs.
"daisy the dog can decide for us, i guess," she replies. the dog perks up at her mention. she begins to sniff around, as a dog usually does. she ends up taking us in a direction that i had not even noticed on my original search of the premise.
"a store?"
"i guess! good job, daisy," daisy pats the golden retriever on her head. "let's go inside to find out."
when we enter, i am immediately disappointed. while the store itself is cool, monoforg is inside. and that is just not to my taste.
"is this store, like, free, or...?" i inquire.
"yeah, i honestly could not care less. i don't know who the owner of this store is, but he's clearly not here right now," monoforg says.
"oh. ok. can you leave now?" daisy asks.
“what!? why does everyone mistreat me here. it's so mean! robots have feelings too, y'know!”
“ok but here's the thing i don't really care.”
“fine, i'll leave, but only to spite you,” monoforg huffs, storming out of the store.
“i don't feel spited,” daisy shrugs. i don't either, but i am certainly grateful for the break from that… thing.
“so, we found something. it's probably too early to go back. so why don't we talk?” i suggest.
“sounds good to me.”
“okay, so can you tell me about daisy, as in the dog? she's very cute and i would love to learn all about her.”
“oh, you can pet her if you want. anyways, i got daisy as a rescue dog.”
“oh? how old was she?”
“she was only a year old. she grew up in a pretty bad family, so i wanted to make sure she had a loving and caring owner. she was very aggressive, but they don't call me the ultimate animal trainer for nothing.”
“oh, i'm so sorry for her! how'd you end up getting her trained? dogs like that tend to be very wary of humans.”
“well, i believe the secret to good training is mutual trust. you can't try to train the dog before she is ready. i waited a few weeks while she got accustomed to my house, letting her approach me instead of vice versa. i would leave out food and water for her to get on her own time. she started by only approaching me for walks — which i gave her. she eventually got comfortable with me. when she began to show that comfort, i showed her love. that a human being could be better than her past family. and now she trusts me, yay!"
"wow, that's a beautiful story. do you have any other animals?"
"i do, actually! i left them with my friends because i didn't want to bring too many animals here. but i have a snake, a cat, some fish, some hampsters, a turtle, a frog, and a hedgehog."
"do they not want to eat each other?"
"nope, they're good with each other. i taught them to be nice to each other."
"sounds like a pretty useful talent you have."
"yeah, i wouldn't give up my animals for the world."
"hopefully i can get to learn more about daisy and your other animals soon. i think for know we should head back and tell the others what we saw."
"i agree, nice talking."
daisy and i grew a little closer today.
the two of us head back to the main cabin, and i don't even realize how long the walk was until i learn that it is now lunch time. the others are presenting their finds. i take a seat next to birdi and robin and serve myself a small plate of salad.
"...and that is why i think no cabin in this camp is safe from arson," luna concludes, standing next to her partner, vee. the audience claps.
"finn and daisy, you guys just got back. what did you find?" birdi inquires.
"we found a store thing," i reply.
"where?" nights asks.
"like southeast from the main cabin," daisy clarifies. daisy is very good at doing that.
"okay, well i think that would be all of our findings for the day. nothing about an escape, but i do believe we made good progress. i'll give you guys the rest of the day to just relax. we can resume our investigation tomorrow," birdi says. so i continue to eat my salad as the table casually gets into a debate about pineapples on pizza. just a casual conversation, the way i wish things could be. there's been a slight edge ever since monoforg's announcement, but i've come to be certain that none of us would kill. that's not what we would do.
by the time lunch is over, an hour has passed. maybe i could spend one more part of the day with a certain person. then i would go back to my cabin and relax. after all, i'm pretty tired.
cass. cass would be fun to spend time with. at least, that's what i'm guessing.
while the others stepped away from the main cabin to go do... whatever they wanted to do, i approached cass.
"hey, how's it going?" i ask.
"i'm doing fine, thanks! why do you ask?" they reply.
"i'm just bored. i thought you would be fun to talk to."
"that's flattering."
"thanks. so, i'm assuming you don't usually go around participating in death traps. what do you do as a hobby?"
"other than writing, i like to draw. i think a lot of people here like to do that."
"oh, yeah. i think you might get along with cj then. i've seen them carry a sketchbook around."
"i'll go see them at some point, then."
"what do you like to draw?"
"it really depends on the day. i like to draw sort of angsty things sometimes."
"that's cool. i don't think i could ever do that?"
"why not?"
"well other than the fact that i'm not an artist, i can't ever come up with good angst ideas. i think it's cool when others do it, though."
"you just have to be in the right mindset at the moment, i guess."
"i guess. that doesn't change the fact that i'm not an artist."
"well, technically, anybody can be an artist. you don't have to be good, especially starting out."
"alright. i might give drawing a try. at some point."
"yeah, you'll be fine. it's a good pastime."
"okay, well, going off topic, how was the so-called 'death trap' that you survived to get your title?"
"that's a very sudden topic change, but it's a pretty simple answer. it was a logic puzzle mixed with physical abilities that ranged from swinging axes, to spikes, to lava flooding. it was kinda fun."
"that's an interesting idea of fun."
"hey, i survived. so i can say it was fun."
"i guess. i don't think i'd survive. how did you manage?"
"pure luck."
"so your talent is accurate?"
"yeah! i guess that's true."
"well, i bet that means none of us are gonna die."
"yeah, hopefully."
"i'm sure we will. if not from your talent alone, we have birdi leading us. and mech could probably hack the monoforg thing."
"oh! right, mech! sorry, i promised i would do something with mech. i have to go, but it was nice talking to you!"
"alright, bye, have fun!" i call. i might as well head back to my cabin in that case.
cass and i grew a little closer today.
i walk back to my cabin, where my suitcase finally appears. i don't know where it came from, but i'm super glad to finally have it here. that's when i get an idea. i reach into my suitcase for my phone. i could call or text somebody i know.
but my phone isn't in there. hopefully, at the very least, monoforg pays me back for that. if he's gonna trap us on an island, it's the least he can do.
i check the clock. it's nowhere near dinner time. i don't know why i expected it to be, seeing as my conversation with cass didn't take /that/ long. i grab my journal, the one i expected to be writing in. i might as well do this to pass the time.
i start to write some kind of document of what's been happening here. when we escape, i need to warn others of the danger of this camp.
i scribble away on the pages, and before i know it, it's finally dinner time. i go to the main cabin to eat dinner, but i don't really pay much attention to what's happening. i eat as quickly as i can and go back to my cabin to sleep.
•••
in the morning, i finally feel refreshed, ready to tackle another investigation. i think birdi said something about switching up partners last night at dinner. so who should i pick...?
i head over to the main cabin. today, rea did not cook. which is fine with me, because she deserves a break. besides, birdi and luna picked up some food from the store. including cereal. cereal is good enough of a breakfast for me.
"when do you think we're gonna escape?" cj asks when i start to eat.
"it could be a while. we'll find a way out though! a safe one," katie promises.
"yeah, we can do this," sun agrees.
"i wouldn't be so sure. monoforg wouldn't just make this something we can just... escape. i doubt we're even in washington right now," nights counters.
"but the police will get us at least, right?" kenna asks.
"we can give them a day or so, i guess. there's a small chance they can actually find us though," wari remarks.
"we can do it, though! don't be a pessimist!" bakie cheers.
at that moment, mech comes in.
"late again?" robin says.
"i'm just working on something, okay?" he reasons.
"fair enough," robin replies.
we finish up our breakfast, yet again discussing the possibility of escape. once we're all done, birdi suggests we split up. cj walks up to me.
"want to help me with something?" they suggest.
"sure, what is it?"
"here, let's go investigate my cabin," they say. i'm not too sure why we would need to investigate their own cabin, but i accept anyways.
cj's cabin is only two away from mine.
"so, why exactly are we here?"
"i'm working on a project. i think you would be good to help," they respond. i'm not too sure what kind of project i would be good for, but hey, i'll take it.
"sure. what is it?"
"well, my idea of helping out would be everything-proof. bulletproof, fireproof, waterproof... even maybe knifeproof? and it would come with a helmet to be bludgeonproof. if that's even a word. but my problem is i need to make it stylish. i thought you could help me with some designs."
"i can do that. do you need anything specific with the design?"
"no, it can be anything, as long as it goes with a helmet. i can work on the material myself," cj assures, handing me their sketchbook. again, not so sure why i'm being trusted, but i'll try. cj rambles to me about the different ways they can go about making this the best possible outfit so that everyone is safe.
maybe an hour or two of designing later, there's a knock on the door. cj hesitates to open it, but they do.
robin stands at the door, hands on her knees, catching her breath.
"guys... you need to come to the main cabin... it's urgent."