dinner with weirdos

[momingstar]

[Everyone will get a note under their door and be called for supper. If and when they arrive at the kitchen, Eimi's set some fish stew and rice out for everyone.]

Hello! I know we haven't had a lot to do here and we all want to get home, but there's no reason we can't make the best of things. This isn't just a group meal, though. I'd like anyone to share what they've found so far. I haven't seen any major clues yet, and I've been looking, but this shouldn't turn into a competition, you know! I've had quite enough of that.

Comments

[momingstar]

Oh, Mikami-san was helping! It's no trouble at all -- it's important to take care of everyone. Making up for trouble, like the fact that we're here.

[takethecake]

Even though the trouble isn't your fault. [He crawls on up into a chair, feet on the seat and everything.] You're a victim too.

[momingstar]

That's true, but we should at least be able to better deal with it if we... ah. Do you always sit like that?

[takethecake]

Yes.

[With no before dinner prayer or gesture, he reaches out to grab a spoon with just his thumb and index finger as if picking up something delicate and pulls one bowl closer to dip the spoon in.]

[momingstar]

...well, I'll excuse the lack of grace on the grounds of religious freedom, but really, you ought to express some table manners.

[takethecake]

Ah, I see. Excuse me. [He doesn't sound sorry at all. As if he'd been determining how much he could get away with, he changes from squatting to kneeling. It still looks funny in a chair. He then proceeds to take a spoon full of soup and slurp from it loudly even while holding the spoon so delicately.]

[momingstar]

[s i i i i g h. It's a good thing that table manners in Japan reverse it so that slurping is actually considered polite.]

I know I'm not your mother, but really.

[takethecake]

[For all that noise, it doesn't look like much or any has come off of the spoon when he stops to speak.] It seems you are the only female. At this rate, you are the house mother.

[momingstar]

I suppose I'm qualified if anything... I hope my real family's getting on without me.

[takethecake]

[He sets the spoon down.] What is your family like?

[momingstar]

Oh, they're amazing! You know, my Genichirou-san and I have been together since we were young. It's a very long story, but we met when I needed some help, ehe! Our daughter's in middle school, and Meimi-chan's got his stage magic talent and is as much of an athlete as I was, and she certainly helps people a lot more than I ever did. I couldn't ask for anything better! ...Well, except if people other than me would do the laundry once in a while.

[takethecake]

You don't seem unhelpful. Unless you've poisoned us. That would make calling us together and preparing a meal less helpful overall.

[momingstar]

Of course not! I'm eating this too, you know. Though I can understand being suspicious in this ridiculous place.

[takethecake]

If you were transported here by surprise, it'd be unlikely for you to have access to anything that could fatally poison us without effecting the taste. [Another slurp.] Your family must be worried.

[momingstar]

I'm sure they are... I'm afraid for them, too. They've got a lot to handle themselves.

[takethecake]

We should all do out best to find the one responsible quickly then, shouldn't we?

[momingstar]

I'll say. If our captor's done anything to the people back home...

[takethecake]

It may be that they've done the worst thing possible to them: taken their friends and family permanently. [All say he sounds flippant.] We have a Shinigami present. We may already be dead.

[momingstar]

[Eimi steps back with a small gasp, but quickly shakes her head.]

That would make sense if he knew what was going on, but he's as captive as we are and just as clueless. Aside from that, this doesn't look like any afterlife I hold stock in, and why would the dead be held under the fear of being murdered?

[takethecake]

At least that's how it looks, yes. But I don't think it's a mistake to assume that this situation is related to something similar to or connected to a Shinigami.