THE PASSENGER CAR

[thetapes]

All around you is the sound of squeaking, desperately pushing metal. It's like the whole world has forced itself forward, leaving you in a state of drug-induced vertigo. Before long, the seats will become familiar to you, but for now the fluorescent lights are blinding.

--

Welcome to the start of A Bullet in the Dark, everyone! This will be your catchall mingle for any thread taking place in the Passenger Car. Because of the short run of the game, instead of individual mingles being posted for different times or events, there will instead be mingles posted by location. Please note the ic hour in which your thread takes place in your header, and make sure you don't have your character in two places at once (once new locations become available).

For now, this mingle will serve as your intro log, but you'll likely find yourselves coming back around to it for other purposes in the future. As always, feel free to contact me on plurk or discord with any questions you have!

Comments

Jake Peralta; OTA

[dieharding]

001; closed to Hazama;

[This is not the first time Jake has woken up handcuffed to someone else.

It'd be really great to say the other time was because of some sex shenanigans. Like, maybe he woke up handcuffed to some hot chick because of their night of extreme consenting debauchery, and now they have to have a wacky and fun-filled adventure to find they key, over the course of which they learn they have so much more than just mere intense sexual compatibility in common, and fall in love . . .

But no. That is not it. Instead: it was a prank after a party in the police academy, and he'd seriously jacked up his wrist because his partner had kept yanking it and panicking. It still clicks on stormy nights. And regular nights. It's really, really jacked up, man.

That will not happen here, he thinks muzzily, and squints at the man sitting next to him.]

Hey . . .

[Hey? Hey. Hey, this isn't Amy, and what's happening, as he blinks and sits up, frowning--]

Hey. Are you okay?

002; open to literally everyone still in their seats because he's gonna just sit up and twist his head back and yell;

HEY! How many people are in here and you didn't, like, board or anything?

[Panic inducing? Maybe, but he can also see another duo handcuffed, so this is definitely a Saw-like situation, probably.]

003; so that was weird, again, open to all;

[Deals are made. Arrangements have happened. Shit got real.

Point is! He's free, Hazama is free, everyone's free and happy and his wrist hurts only a little, so good job Peralta, you genius. Now: to escape the train.

Which is harder than it looks, actually. No windows, and a locked door. Jake spends a long time looking at the tape recorder, poking and prodding it, before moving on to the box. Give him this: there seems to be a real method to the way he's observing things, before he goes and patrols around, slipping down the aisle (and maybe bumping into you?) to check out the seats.

Investigating! Part of which, of course, includes interviewing the witnesses, so--]

Hey, you mind if I ask you a few questions?

yousuke yoneya | ota | also hour 1 oops

[yolosuke]

closed to ozaki toshio

[well, this is new and just somewhat alarming. which is to say that as soon as yoneya notices the handcuffs, he immediately yanks his arm away in the opposite direction.]

Wha—

[HEY OZAKI IF YOU WEREN'T ALREADY AWAKE SURE HOPE YOU ARE NOW]

open to all

[at some point after (relative) freedom has been obtained, yoneya is checking out his briefcase.]

Hey, think I could just try every combination, or would it blow up in my face or something...?

003

[yolosuke]

[all things considered, yoneya looks pretty chill, despite the weirdass situation.]

Yeah, sure. Hit me, man.

[dieharding]

Let's start with the basics-- name, age, where you're from, stuff like that.

[yolosuke]

Yoneya Yosuke, seventeen years old, aaaand I'm from Mikado City!

[dieharding]

Which is from what country?

[Geography is . . . hard.]

[yolosuke]

[rip]

Japan, dude.

[dieharding]

It doesn't pay to assume, man. Anyway! You still in school or something else? Involved in anything weird? Anything dangerous happen lately, any crimes, stuff like that?

[yolosuke]

Second year of high school, yeah. Uh... not that I can think of? I bombed a test recently, if that counts.

Goro Akechi | OTA | HOUR ONE

[rightminded]

( i. closed to greg )

[ Honestly, it's pure instinct. As Akechi wakes up and all the stimulus starts to filter into his fuzzy head, he goes to move his hands and finds one of them stuck. Reflexively he yanks at it, harder than he intended to, only to get roughly yanked in return.

Well, THAT wakes him up in a hurry. He swallows a sound and looks sharply to his side, taking in the man he's apparently handcuffed to with a blink. ]

... ah. I see. My apologies, I didn't realize... [ A beat. He glances all around them, eyes flicking from place to place. Their chairs, the handcuffs, the briefcase, the windows... ]

... it seems we've landed ourselves in a fairly serious situation. [ But Greg will get a faint smile. ] Looks like we'll need to work together, then. Please, call me Akechi. Can I ask your name?

( ii. i want to be free )

[ Whenever he and Greg manage to get free from their handcuffs, Akechi starts investigating pretty much immediately. One of the first things he does is find an empty seat and plant a foot on it; reaching up for the luggage rack, he'll pull himself upwards so he can get a good look into the overhead storage. He'll do this pretty much anywhere ... uh, even if you're still sitting in the seat. Though if you are he'll at least pause first to smile and say: ]

Please excuse me. I'm just going to have a look above you, if that's alright.

[ He won't actually wait for your permission, though... help him, or tell this weird gremlin to get the fuck down? ]

( iii. free from this maze )

[ The car isn't terribly large, so that whole process doesn't take too long. Whenever he's done with it, he'll find a seat again and spend some time intently looking over the briefcase he found beneath the seat in front of him. It is emblazoned with a 2. ]

Interesting... I suppose we need to find the codes to unlock these. Have you seen any three-digit numbers in your searching so far?

[ A pleasant smile in your direction. ]

i

[ificared]

[Getting handcuffed to anybody wasn't in any of his plans, but now here he is. It's actually so much worse than he imagined, wincing at the pain that lances down his wrist.

Looking around and taking in the sights, yeah. This teenager(?) is definitely right. He'd even upgrade it to "serious situation" minus the fairly, but they're here now and if they want to get out he has to cooperate with the stranger, Akechi.]

Greg. You remember anything before waking here?

[rightminded]

... unfortunately I don't. [ He looks sincerely regretful. ] I'll take it by your question that you share my condition.

[ He glances down at his handcuffed wrist. ]

For now, let's focus on getting these off. Once we've done that, we can begin to look around. Perhaps we'll find some answers. I don't suppose you know how to pick a lock...? [ ... it seems to be a joke. ]

003

[rightminded]

[ Well, Jake will find that someone has joined him at the table. Akechi is here to take a look as well, though unlike the other man, he doesn't poke and prod; he simply observes as Jake takes care of that for him, a hand on his chin. ]

How mysterious. Clearly this was set up for us to discover. Does the tape recorder seem to be working?

[ and, as for the question, Akechi will smile pleasantly. ] As for your question, of course you may. Ask away.

[rightminded]

[ .......... ]

I believe doing so would be ... inadvisable. [ Said sort of. Carefully. ] We don't what consequences such wild guessing could have. Not to mention, a three digit lock yields just shy of a thousand different possible combinations. You'd be guessing for quite a while before you happened on the correct one. I'd suggest trying another method.

[dieharding]

Mm, yeah, no, that's pretty normal. Good thought, though! Can you think of any reason somebody might want to, you know, kidnap you and bring you to a mysterious train with a bunch of other random strangers?

[dieharding]

Uhh, I think so? Maybe? Kinda hard to tell.

[But he's prodding away at it, so. Buttons are being clicked!]

Let's start with the basics, huh? Name, age, country of origin, what you do, so on and so forth.

[yolosuke]

Aw, man. Well, it was worth a shot.

[but he perks up anyway because he is obviously in the presence of someone smarter than he is—]

What do you think we should do, then?

[yolosuke]

I dunno, ransom? My family ain't rich, though...

[dieharding]

Hmm.

All right! I think that's about enough for now, but--

[Actually, wait.]

What's your favorite movie?

[yolosuke]

[please do not make me come up with a favourite movie

anyway yoneya has no idea how this is relevant to anything but you know what, he's happy to answer. what are priorities.]

Anything with some good action! Sci-fi's a plus, too.

[dieharding]

[SAY DIE HARD, DON'T BE A COWARD]

Nice! Okay, cool. Good choice.

[A beat, and belatedly, he sticks out his hand. His wrist looks . . . reddened. God, how hard was he yanking on that handcuff?]

Detective Jake Peralta, NYPD.

[rightminded]

Have a look around, of course. [ A slight smile. ] I assume you also found the keys to your handcuffs by doing so? Strange as it is, this train seems to contain a number of puzzles, the answers to which are somewhere in the environment.

May I ask what number your briefcase is? You see, mine was marked with the number two. I can only assume that's important. [ with the barest hint of dryness. ]

[yolosuke]

[he blinks, before understanding dawns on him! it's an american thing!! and so he shakes his hand.]

Detective, huh? I dunno whether it's awesome that you're here with us... or less awesome that you're not solving this for us on the outside.

[also, uh.]

... Your wrist okay?

[yolosuke]

Puzzles? Oh man, oh man. I'm not great at those.

[yoneya's not good at anything that involves thinking!!!]

I'm number seven.

[rightminded]

[ WHILE WE FIGURE OUT WHAT'S UP WITH THE MYSTERY TAPE RECORDER: ]

Certainly. My name is Goro Akechi. I'm seventeen years old and a high school student. I was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. As for what I do, well. Aside from being a student, you could say I'm a bit of a detective, I suppose. [ /sparkle. ]