---

---

The world had survived the calamity. The outbreak of global unrest that brought so many to their knees is at an end. It had been for nearly a decade. Though the organization known as Ultimate Despair will likely never be forgotten, they are only words that show up together in the pages of a history book. Few know why they were causing so much terror, fewer still know why they wore those masks. Those masks with the black and white bear on them. Well, it's not really a secret though, is it? I mean, It's not a secret to me, everyone's favorite monotone bodied, rainbow colored personality, Monokuma!

You're all fans, aren't you? Maybe you've played the games, or watched the anime? Maybe you read the book? Read the manga? Maybe you played the other video game that wasn't really like the other games? Maybe you watched the stage play? How about sleep with the body pillow? Any of these can make you a fan.

But that's the problem.

You see, fans tend to blow things around a lot, and even out of proportion. Hot air, cool air, steam, smoke, and they come in different sizes too! Nobody is a fan of fans, everyone has their preferences. Like what was up with the despair arc in Danganronpa 3? I got bearly any screen time!

But fans don't have to fight each other. They can unite for a common goal. One type can heat during the winter, and another cool during the summer. Apart they are simple fans, but together they are part of a climate control system!

You're all fans, the mastermind is a fan, the infinites are fans, who knows how this could play out? Will the house stay at just the right temperature, or will it be uncomfortable all year round? I'm hoping for a house fire myself. That shack is way over insured!

---

The elevator came grinding to a halt. The inertia felt even less pleasant with both occupants' trying to wake from a chemically induced sleep. When their eyes fully opened, they were both propped up against the wall of the elevator.

Shona Moffett groaned and brushed a strand of her aqua colored hair out of her face. She was having difficulty remembering exactly what happened prior to her nap. Shona remembered reenacting a joust duel, she lost just like she was suppose to, but then what? Surely the knight should be in a hospital bed instead of on the floor of a cold elevator.

“Shit!” The words came from a rugged looking man in fancy clothes. His hair was dark and messy, while his shirt was unbuttoned enough that you could see his chest hair. After blinking himself awake, he adjusted his tie. He left it loose enough that Shona wondered if it might come off. The man looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “See something you like?”

The knight was quick to look away. “I did not mean to stare. It's just your appearance is very strange to me.”

“MY appearance?” The man raised his hand as if to offer her an invisible loaf of bread. “You're the one in a fuckin' tuna can!”

Shona came to the realization that she was still in costume, which was a bit strange. The knight was quite sure she had suffered some kind of injury. The medical staff should have removed the armor at some point, even if it was just to clean her or put her in bed. “I'm sorry, I believe introductions are in order.” Shona turned to face the man and extended her gauntlet clad hand. “Shona Moffett.”

“The Infinite Knight huh? I thought you would have been taller.” The man took her hand and gave it a single shake. “Davis Gallo.”

“That name is not familiar to me.”

Davis grinned. “I typically go by 'Perfection.' I'm Infinite Conquest.”

While the Despair that gripped the world started to dissipate, an organization known as Infinity Initiative emerged. Infinity Initiative's announced its goal as “To infinitely improve the human race!” The part of their mission they don't speak of is making a ton of money on sponsorship and treating the wealthy. But being scouted to join the ranks of Infinites is a still a boon. Infinity Initiative is very generous about assisting its scouted talent with bills and travel expenses that could hinder their ability to grow. The only thing one really needs to be scouted is to show infinite potential in a particular field. There are no age restrictions, and their members are located all over the world.

Shona slowly pulled back her hand. “I'm sorry, I don't recall an infinite with a conquest talent.”

“You're pretty direct, aren't you?” Davis shook his head, but he was smiling. “Well, I don't blame you. There are thousands of us now. I'd be surprised if you could remember every Infinite.” He groaned. “So, are we going to talk about the elephant in the room?”

“The elephant? In the room?”

Perfection lifted his hand and pointed at the elevator doors. Not only were they still closed, but the words “ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE” were written on the door in what looked like blood.

“Abandon hope all ye...”

“The” Shona corrected.

“What?”

“Originally in old English, there use to be a now unused letter called thorn (þ), which is pronounced like 'th-' but over time, they gradually changed how it was written until it looked like the letter wynn (ƿ). eventually it became indistinguishable from the letter 'Y.' So 'ye' is properly pronounced as 'the.'”

Davis blinked a few times. “I guess I'm suppose to take your word for it because you're the Infinite Knight?”

The two stood up and looked around the elevator. “There's no way to open the doors.” Shona felt around the walls. “Is there another way out?”

Davis rolled up his sleeves. “Your talent is based around cosplaying and spouting useless trivia. Lucky for you, I have an infinitely more useful talent.” He took a step back and ducked down to sprint. “And that talent is winning. I always achieve my goal regardless of how hopeless it seems.” He pointed at the sides of his head. “That's why this door is going down.” He pointed at the door and back at his head. “I've just got to visualize it... and realize it!” Perfection jumped into the air and kicked the door with both feet. While the door didn't move, Davis did manage to throw himself away from the door with amazing force. His head slammed into the opposing wall full force. Thankfully, Shona was there to catch him before he could hurt himself further.

“Are you alright?!” The door to the elevator slid open, momentarily snatching away Shona's attention. When she looked back at Davis, he was still recovering from his state of vertigo.

“C-conquest is m-mine!” He squinted his eyes in pain before flashing a brave smile. “Told you I could do it!”

The knight raised an eyebrow before lowering Davis back onto his feet. Together they walked out of the elevator before it closed again. “Does any of this look familiar to you?”

It almost felt like they had stepped into a labyrinth. The room had a very cold feeling. The floor was concrete, and the overhead florescent lighting showed all the imperfections on the concrete block walls. While there was a coat of white paint on everything, it was starting to chip in spots. The only thing that prevented the two from feeling completely lost was all the colorful signage. To their right was a bridge that lead to the main hospital, and to their left was a chamber filled with even more elevators. The path straight ahead had a sign that said “To resort” with a little girl holding a giant arrow. This room was definitely worth exploring, but it felt like it would be easy to get lost.

“The layout is definitely familiar.” Davis folded his arms. “Just about every floor in the patient's quarters has this layout. If we head down that corridor we should see all the patients' rooms.”

“So are we in Axis Mundi then?”

Perfection laughed. “The hell kind of question is that?”

“Well.” Shona lifted a hand up to her chin. “I only assumed I was in Axis Mundi because that is Infinity Initiative's finest hospital. I actually don't remember anything after hitting my head.”

“So you have amnesia?”

“I'm not sure I'd go that far...”

“Either way, we do appear to be in Axis Mundi. At least I hope. That was the last place I remember being.”

The knight placed a hand on her head. “I don't feel any wounds. Does that mean I was asleep the entire time this was healing?”

“Let's not forget the elephant in the room.” Davis unfolded his arms. “Someone's playing a prank on us.”

Shona started to pull her sword out of her sheath. “It's a rather elaborate prank.”

“You Cunt!” Davis jumped backwards and started shouting. “Put that fuckin' thing away before I kick you into next week!”

The knight raised a single eyebrow. “I was just looking at the blade. This is not the armor I was injured in, and this sword isn't real either.”

Davis gave Shona a sideways glance. “How can you be so sure!?”

The knight sighed. “For one, this sword is made out of wood.” she allowed the blade to slide back into its sheath.

“Really?” Davis calmed down and folded his arms nonchalantly. “That's a pretty good paint job.”

“This costume hardly qualifies as real either.” Shona rapped on it with her knuckles. “Real medieval armor like I wear is heavy and worn over a chain mail tunic, which is then worn over a leather suit. This feels like tin with a felt backing. Also...” She ran her hand over her chest. “Real armor isn't gender specific. These sculpted breasts will not deflect a blow like armor should. If you swung a sword at me, the blade would be guided towards my center mass, and possibly my head. That is exactly the opposite of what armor should do.”

“Still looks good on you.”

Shona groaned and looked away from Davis. “To think of what you just called me a few seconds ago.”

“I'm a passionate guy.”

The static on a wall mounted TV snatched the duo's attention. They recalled seeing a smaller TV in the elevator they were in and wondered if that was displaying the same thing. Not much time passed before the screen was filled with a black and white bear sitting in a hospital bed.

“Wakey wakey eggs-and-bakey!” The bear said before tossing off his sheets. The bear's voice was cute, but the situation made it come across as a bit creepy. “You should all be waking up from your beary restful sleep now! Well, most of you. I guess a few of you were a bit too exited and had to rush downstairs to open those gifts Santa got you! Phu phu phu phu!” The bear kicked his feet in excitement. “Any who, I'm just going to introduce myself now. I'm Dr. Killgood! But if you're feeling less formal, you can just call me Monokuma. Yup, my full name is Monokuma Killgood. My secret full name has been revealed. Ohhh, this is going to really tick off the fans. Carelessly revealing a secret designed to keep the audience guessing after the play has concluded... Too bad!”

Davis grit his teeth. “What the hell am I watching?”

Monokuma only giggled in delight. “I've seen a lot of hellos, and some really interesting farewells. You humans are REALLY good at saying goodbye, but I haven't been very impressed with your introductions. Let's just bypass all that angst by having a star, me, take care of all that for you!” The screen changed to an image of Shona's face.

“That's me.” The knight said to herself.

“This muscle bound amazon is Shona Moffett. Because she's the Infinite knight, she's a little stuck in the dark ages. You won't find her on twitter or anything because she's a total square.”

Davis smiled. “That was actually kinda funny.”

“Next on my list of honored guests is Davis Gallo, or 'Perfection' as he'd prefer you call him. Davis is the Infinite Conquest. While that sounds like a really cool title it just means he's really good at cheating the system. That's right, his talent is not playing the game fair and square. He's what people in modern society call a roll model.”

Perfection turned to look at Shona. “I hate that fucking bear.”

“Then there's Mason Brady. He's a total stud muffin in case you can't tell by his picture, but pays for it by being the Infinite Barista. Don't worry Mr Brady, you don't need caffeine to keep me up. Or whatever it is that they keep flooding my spam folder with.”

Davis scoffed. “I'm prettier.”

“I don't have a picture of the Infinite Monk, only the suit of armor he wears. So you can't see Tekhartha Mondatta. Though that's probably a good thing because he'd never be able to compete with Mason anyway. But It's kind of poetic isn't it? Our monk is sworn to a life of solitude so deep, that we can't even see him when he's next to us. So let's open our third eye together with him.”

Shona felt her face again. “I wish I still had my helmet.”

“Isaiah 'Ice-Ice-Baby' Matthews, but we call him 'Ice' for short. He's kind of a mix between the last two I introduced, only he actually has a worthwhile Infinite talent. He gives blood, and lots of it. Our generous hero can give and give and give! But you know that old proverb goes: One who give everything to others leaves nothing for himself.”

Shona folded her arms. “Is there a point to this?”

“Krista Müller, the first girl on our lineup, is also the Infinite Violinist. Seriously, everything that defines a girl as a girl can be found in this woman, from her desire for companionship to her inability to operate a remote. Keep her in the house, Keep her in the kitchen, but do not let her drive the car any further than she has to.”

Shona looked to Davis. “I thought I was the first girl?”

“Next is Felix Garfield, who's name would have been a lot cooler if it was Yogi Berenstain. Not to be racist, but I'm really surprised the Infinite Free Runner isn't black. The irony goes a step further when a man who's name is composed of two cats enjoys playing with his two dogs.”

Davis cracked his neck. “How many more are there?”

“I was wrong, Kara O'hara is our first girl. Krista is a woman, despite being younger. The Infinite Desert Chef can fit in the palm of your hand or in the toy bin where all the other dolls are kept.

“Was that the right picture?” Davis stood at attention.

“Quill Kennedy is the Infinite model, not to be confused with the infinite doll you were just exposed to. What you might not realize by the title is that she comes assembled. But you likely know she can hold a pose for any length of time, has mostly plastic parts, and looks good on a mantle. Sadly, she talks.”

“Look who's talking.” Shona groaned to herself.

“Aleecia Marvic, Infinite Dice Master. She knows how many fingers I'm holding up behind my back, because I don't have any fingers. What she doesn't know is how adorable I look on a TV screen. I think I'm going to give Aleeecia a cute little nickname. I'm going to call her Friendship: Because she's blind.”

Davis and Shonah sighed in unison.

“Cyrus Brandon, also a contender for Bishi of the year, is the Infinite Politician. Basically he's really good at lying. His most famous lies include crowd pleasers like 'everything is going to be okay' and 'I'm interested in more than just your vote.' Unlike Mason Brady, I will need a cup of joe to sit through one of this guy's speeches.”

Shona raised an eyebrow. “He seemed a little more spiteful than normal when introducing Cyrus, or was that just me?”

“Daimyon Londe, is not a blond, but he's an Infinite poet.

Some would say, that when he'd play, you were sure to know it.

His words are smooth, and tend to sooth, with every spoken letter.

Of course I see, and say with glee, that I am surely better.”

The monochromatic bear erupted into laughter.

“I'm really getting sick of this little shit.” Davis balled his hands into fists.

“Shaun Ellan is a web designer, I guess? I mean we don't have internet here, so I'm a little fuzzy on the details. I guess he's a spider? Expanding the web and eating all the bugs that fly into it?” The bear scratched it's head. “I'm sorry Shaun, I'm not very familiar with arachnids. Only insects like mosquitoes and humans.”

Again, Shona and Davis shared a glance between each other before looking back up at the screen.

“O'rly? Ya'rly! Ermaghered! Mary Hanson is the Infinite Streamer, and she's here. Me Gusta! Problem other girls? Are you worried someone will take an arrow to the knee and no longer pay attention to their overly attached girlfriend? I'll always be here for you bae.”

“That was horrible.”

“Indeed.”

“And now we have our terror of the cosmos, Caora Artzain! Don't let the Infinite Trap's appearance surprise you. I'm pretty sure this dude needs to take a peak down the ol' leg shoot just to remember what his bear essentials look like. Someone please keep him away from the woman's dressing room. It's not good for him.”

Davis scratched his chin. “Is it me, or are they actually getting stranger somehow?”

There was a brief moment where the telivision showed Monokuma placing a cassette tape inside a cassette player and hitting the play button before showing an image of a bandaged up girl. The voice that played was not Monokumas, but that of someone using a synthesizer. “Rika Roux, Infinite Firebug.” The image cut back to Monokuma, who flipped the tape over and resumed playing it. Which spout out a bunch of boring facts about fire ants.

Davis was pacing back and forth. “This damn bear, this damn bear, THIS DAMN BEAR!”

“I think this is the last one.”

“Lastly, Calvin Ibbott is your Infinite Smith! I'm not going to make fun of little Ibbs because I respect people who make things with their own hands. little Ibbs, he takes his hammer...Hammer...” The bear shrugged. “Well, I guess he doesn't use his hands after all. Come to think about it, doesn't everyone come out of the womb knowing how to swing a hammer? I'm sorry little Ibbs, I guess I can make fun of you after all.”

“I wonder if he can make me a helmet?” Shona wondered out loud.

“I think that's everyone. If I forgot someone, they probably weren't that important.” Monokuma settled back down in his bed and pulled up the sheets. “Oh, and a little theater therapy is going to start in a bit. So use this time to get bright eyed and bushy-tailed, because an escort will be there for you all shortly. And you do NOT want to keep them waiting. Dr Killgood, out!”

Static...

Shona looked around the room. “Strange.”

Davis chuckled. “I'll say. Who were those people?”

All of the elevator doors started to slide open at once. Shona looked back at Davis. “I get the feeling we're about to find out.”

Something seemed strange, foreign, she didn't seem to be in the hospital bed she was usually in. The air had a strange scent and the entire room was moving. Aleecia tried to feel for a wall, but it was a weird, chippy white texture... concrete. She was in an elevator, to where? Everything stopped moving at once and a weird gasp slipped from someone near her, there was someone else there that seemed to have just woken up... like her.

Ice's body felt weird, he couldn't move very well. His throat was too dry and somewhat numb, just like some kind of sedative. He had been reading in the lounge just before this, so why did he feel concrete against his back through the bandages and clothes? Isaiah opened his eyes to see that he and one other girl was in an elevator. Her hair was rumpled and she kept her hair closed as she felt around the walls. He remembered hearing about her in the hospital... Something about her being blind.

Feeling was starting to come back into his limbs, he stood up and gave a quick, "Hey," before holding a hand to help her get up. Aleecia pushed away his hand and got up by herself, still a bit unsteady from the chemicals going around and messing with her head. Ice frowned and let his hand fall to his side, searching for a button to open the elevator.

But there wasn't a button, all that could be seen was the words 'ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE.' Ice murmured the words and Aleecia flinched slightly, the words seemed rather unsettling, to say the least. They both stood in silence, waiting for the doors to open. Ice hadn't really had much muscle for the past few years and he wasn't about to kick an elevator door down.

Finally, the doors opened and Ice slipped into the labyrinth-ish area, it was somewhat familiar to the two of them. Usually the walls weren't made of concrete, and usually the area was full of nurses and doctors, patients and visitors. As they came into the elevator, they were confronted by two different elevators facing them and one to the left. There was a way out of the are to the left, but it seemed a little too unknown to venture forth that way.

"It's like Axis Mundi...?" Ice said aloud, maybe to Aleecia, maybe to no one in particular. Aleecia didn't say anything, she wasn't ready to start thinking about the circumstances they were in.

There was some mounted TV in the corner of the concrete wall. A strange video came up after a bout of static. And there was some kind of... stuffed animal coming on, talking and rambling. Dr. Killgood, that name was just lame in it of itself. All Ice could tell was that he was in charge of running whatever the hell they were in.

"W-What's on the television?" Aleecia finally asked, concerned on whatever was making that 'cutesy' voice. Ice didn't reply, and the video continued to play. It started to show off people's faces and stuff about them, which was useless for Aleecia and seemingly made Isaiah continually swear, running his hands through his hair.

“Isaiah 'Ice-Ice-Baby' Matthews, but we call him 'Ice' for short. He's kind of a mix between the last two I introduced, only he actually has a worthwhile Infinite talent. He gives blood, and lots of it. Our generous hero can give and give and give! But you know that old proverb goes: One who give everything to others leaves nothing for himself.

The last comment made a chill run down Ice's spine, did the bear somehow know more about him? He looked down at his arm, covered in bandages and slipped them loose to look at the bruised skin where needles had pricked his flesh over and over again. He did not like other people talking about him.

“Aleecia Marvic, Infinite Dice Master. She knows how many fingers I'm holding up behind my back, because I don't have any fingers. What she doesn't know is how adorable I look on a TV screen. I think I'm going to give Aleeecia a cute little nickname. I'm going to call her Friendship: Because she's blind.”

Her eyes still closed and her mouth half opened in surprise, she listened as the monitor spouted out facts about her. She grabbed for the wall, a frown slipping over her face and wanting just to get back to a bed.

Neither wanted them to know what the 'theater therapy' was and continued to stand there. Eventually they would have to find out what was around the corner, but the other elevator doors were opening and there was a more pressing matter at hand.

"Ugh, my head...Was I doing a 24 again...Wat?" Mary groaned out as she held her head, finding herself in an elevator slumped up in the corner. "Wait wait wait, recap: Axis Mundi...And...uhh..." Mary tried to remember, but it was foggy. She looked around the room, and froze in fear as her eyes widened in shock: right next to her was what looked like a robot wearing a monk's robe, staring blankly forward with his head propped against the wall, and Mary held her breath in utter terror. Oh god no, am I trapped with a killer robot? When I said surprise guest I didn't mean this!

After a short moment of waiting if the robot activated or not, Mary slowly got up. It was then that she noticed the bloody writing on the wall. Couldn't find a pen, huh? She thought, referencing a catch phrase she always used whenever a similar situation happened in horror games she was streaming. But this wasn't any old game, it was reality. Once that hit Mary, she put her hands to her mouth, and tried to muffle a gasp. The robot twitched, and Mary jumped, startled. The robot-looking entity's eye-lenses opened and shut, and they moved towards Mary. The robotic man attempted to stand up, but Mary shoved him back down; Mary screamed so loud the entire floor could hear it, and banged on the door a couple of times, screaming: "KILLER ROBOTS! AHHHHHH!"
A distorted, digital voice came from the robotic man: "Do not panic. I won't hurt you." The robotic man made a peace sign with his fingers, and then crouched down into a meditating position.

Mary held her back against the elevator door, breathing heavily, as she stared at the strange sight. She realized if the robot wanted to hurt her he would have done so already, and managed to calm herself a bit, though she was still tense. "Ok, what the hell are you? Some kind of robot monk? You don't look like an Omnic." The robot man shook his head slowly. "My name is Tekhartha Mondatta, and this," he said gesturing to his suit, "Is Axis Mundi's gift of life, for which I am thankful." Mary's jaw dropped as her brains made a quick search through the countless Youtubers she had stored in her memory banks. "Mondatta The Buddhist? I'm subscribed to your Youtube channel." Mary then put a finger to her cheek. "So that's just a suit? This...is too weird for me, and I do weird as a living..."

"I understand your doubts. But what truly worries me is the writing on the wall. It is written in blood, and carries an ominous message."
Mary puffed her cheeks. "Well duh, Tinman, we're probably stuck in some messed up death game. In fact, a bloody message and us waking up in an elevator has already been done in Nil Jailbreak 2. Though there don't seem to be any puzzles for us to solve..." Mary then mumbled to herself as she made a quick search. Then, as if on cue, Monokuma showed up. "A mascot..." Mary said, and grimaced as her fears were starting to become more and more true.

“I don't have a picture of the Infinite Monk, only the suit of armor he wears. So you can't see Tekhartha Mondatta. Though that's probably a good thing because he'd never be able to compete with Mason anyway. But It's kind of poetic isn't it? Our monk is sworn to a life of solitude so deep, that we can't even see him when he's next to us. So let's open our third eye together with him.”

"So how did you end up in...uhh...that?" Mary asked when she noticed that Mondatta hasn't spoke much, and as an entertainer she found dead silence worse than any kind of banter. "I was in an...unfortunate incident. I do not wish to speak of it, but I may tell you later."
"Uh-huh," Mary answered, lifting an eyebrow. This guy was the same one who made those interesting videos? Mary didn't know what to think.

“O'rly? Ya'rly! Ermaghered! Mary Hanson is the Infinite Streamer, and she's here. Me Gusta! Problem other girls? Are you worried someone will take an arrow to the knee and no longer pay attention to their overly attached girlfriend? I'll always be here for you bae.”

Mary's eyes squinted at the screen, angry at how the bear mocked her. She was used to flaming from haters, so something like this usually didn't bother her at all, but somehow Monokuma managed to get on her nerves. Mondatta chuckled, and Mary's face turned red. "Hey, what's so funny?" Mondatta shook his head again. "Forgive me, I did not mean to insult you. I just find this situation we're in ridiculous."
"Well, yeah, you could say that..." Mary sighed. How could this guy stay so calm? They were kidnapped and forced to participate in something most likely deadly, and all he does is laugh. Was it because of the suit? No way: Monokuma would have taken it from him if it granted him that much protection.

Mary didn't think much of it though, when next was the Infinite Trap; Mary's eyes shone with a perverted glint. "A cute trap? I gotta get a pic of him, where's my...OH GO NO!" Mary screamed again, and Mondatta's eyes switched angles. [b]"Is there something wrong?" Mary replied: "My phone! I can't find it! The bear must have stolen it! Goddammit, what will I do now? I need my selfies! I can't live without selfies!" Mondatta gently placed a cold, metallic hand on her shoulder, and Mary tensed up. "Clear your thoughts of unnecessary obsession, and you will find inner peace."
"Well I-Huh?" Mary was about to angrily answer back, but she instead shut up. Something about Mondatta's voice, even if it was all creepy and robotic due to the sound modulator installed in his helmet, evoked a sense of calm in her, and she hesitantly nodded. "Well, I'll just have to wait till I get out of here. Note to self: Kidnap Caora and bring him to my basement." Mondatta's eyes once again shifted, mimicking confusion, but Mary just giggled. "Just kidding...Maybe."

Once everyone's introduction were made, and the elevator doors opened, Mondatta immedaitely stood up.
"It seems we are free to explore this area. We should carefully look for a possible route of escape." The monk took a step outside, and looked back to see Mary with a hand on the wall, looking at it. "I guess...you ain't called the Infinite Monk for nothing, huh? You sure got a cool head. Hey, I didn't mean to push you down like that, ok? It was...an accident?"
Mondatta simply nodded, and continued on his way. "In troubled times we all hold on to our fears, but through accepting those fears will we succeed past them."
Mary smiled: As weird as he now looked, Mondatta seemed like an alright guy. "Hey, if we get into any trouble...Unleash a Can of Whoop-ass!" She comedically blurted out, and after Mondatta chuckled again, a cute smile grew on her cheeks after such a glorious pun; even if the situation was scary, Mary was going to make the best of it as the two ventured forth to explore the first floor, and meet with other Infinites.

The fluorescent lights of the elevator lightly flickered as the mechanism slowly came to a stop, oddly not accompanied by a "ding" as was generally accepted to be the universal way for a machine, such as a microwave, to alert those around that it had finished the task it had been instructed to do - though varieties had come about throughout the ages. The boy inside, one Shaun Ellen of infinite talent, began to open his eyes, but quickly shut them again as the light filled his vision.

As feeling returned to his body and the light induced headache faded, he quickly became aware of his environment; noticing the metalic doors and painted letters reading "ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE". A groan escaped his lips as he repositioned himself on the cold floor, noticing all the small pains from being seated in the elevator. Taking note of the surroundings while the pins and needles of the awkward position faded, voices from outside drew his attentions. It sounded like two others were on the other side of the door.

A slight static shifted his gaze upwards to a small TV screen mounted in a corner of the chamber. It flickered to life, revealing a black and white bear with an odd red mark where an eye would have been. It began to talk, and revealed itself as "Monokuma".

He began to stand, and as he did the bear began listing off names and strangely comical introductions along with them; almost how a video game producer might introduce their characters in a trailer. Each were rattled through in turn, listing their "Infinite Talent" and other miscellaneous information, eventually coming to his own.

“Shaun Ellan is a web designer, I guess? I mean we don't have internet here, so I'm a little fuzzy on the details. I guess he's a spider? Expanding the web and eating all the bugs that fly into it?” The bear scratched it's head. “I'm sorry Shaun, I'm not very familiar with arachnids. Only insects like mosquitoes and humans.”

Strange... As he thought about it further, it became apparent that he had no memory of entering an elevator. There was the restaurant - that one that had a kind of street magician performing as entertainment for waiting diners - and then the food... And that was more or less all he remembered. What made it more distressing was that the elevator itself had no obvious escape; no buttons, no levers, no service hatch. He was sealed in, and the doors didn't appear to be opening any time soon. Shaun stepped up to them, banging the metal a couple times with his fist, but to no avail.

Or at least that was how it seemed. The transmission faded with a crackle and the screen returned to black, leaving the boy once again alone. Making a guess, he took a small step back, and watched as the doors to the elevator slid open. The brightness of the lights hit him at once, not helped by the white paint that coated the walls, despite it being old and worn and peeling in small areas periodically.

Taking a step out, Shaun was immediately greeted with the sight of others - two to be exact, with a male dressed seemingly normally, and a female fully dressed in armour. From down the hall to his right, he could hear other voices - one oddly robotic, and another feminine - and from all around the sliding open of metallic doors sounded. The boy took a step forwards, slightly lowering his face so his mouth was covered by his scarf, and approached the two.

"Um... H-hi..." his voice was a tad lightly than one might have expected, as well as more unsteady. His normally ragged hair was looking even more dishevelled than usual, and his eyes were constantly trained on the floor just past the two he was talking to. But despite that, there didn't seem to be any worry on his face past that of having to talk to people, and his fixed eyes never betrayed any kind of fear.

"I'm, uh... Shaun..." pulling his face up out of the scarf a tad, he attempted to get a better look at the two's faces, "N-nice to meet you..."

“Kkkkkkkkkkkk…” A strange noise emanates from somewhere nearby. Felix was still numb from his operation and he felt a bit light headed. “Kkkkkkkkkkkk…” it didn’t stop and annoyed him.

"Nurse! Please turn off the TV, it’s irritating!" He squeamishly yelled at an elevator, not even realizing he was on an ice cold floor. After laying there for a good few minutes, he decided to try again with a frown on his face.

“Nur…” his scream got interrupted by the opening of his eyes facing the ceiling. He was not in a bed at all, nor was he in a patient room. The first thing he noticed was a static TV.

“What?” one word was all that he could manage to convey while being so dumbfounded and confused. He tried to get up, nearly losing his balance and started observing his surroundings. Why am I in an elevator with no buttons? he thought to himself as he swiped his hands across the closed doors. ‘ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE’, If this was supposed to be a joke than there’d better be a damn good punch line at the end.

He figured that sitting here wasn’t gonna help him so he started yelling through the crack in the elevator door. “Heeee! Is anybody there!? I’m kinda stuck in this box, and I’d like to get out!” The shouting made him dizzy for a second, he hadn’t regained his senses completely yet. No response, maybe this elevator is insulated. After some time the TV’s static turned to the sight of a black-white teddybear. It’s words and voice unsettled Felix as the bear spoke of some game and different infinites. This is definitely a joke.

“Next is Felix Garfield, who's name would have been a lot cooler if it was Yogi Berenstain. Not to be racist, but I'm really surprised the Infinite Free Runner isn't black. The irony goes a step further when a man who's name is composed of two cats enjoys playing with his two dogs.”

Felix figured that maybe a fan was behind this whole game, that also explains his knowledge of him and other infinites, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. After the TV turned to static once more, Felix turned to his next idea.

Continuing with plan B, he put his fingers between the cracks of the door and pulled with the all of the might he could muster. He screamed and groaned as he tried to open the doors with his bare hands, but the elevator didn’t seem to budge. And just as he was going to surrender to it, the doors creaked and opened, and Felix went tumbling down face first on the ground.

“Wham!” The ground shook as he face planted In front of any who were already in the room and the sound he made when his lungs were being squeezed can only be described as “pfluuh.”

“Well, I guess there are worse ways of entering a room…”He said, wiping his clothes and putting a smile on his face. He recognized the room; the doctors showed him where he would wake up after the surgery and this place looked identical, only somehow decayed. Felix looked around a bit more before facing the presumed residents of Axis Mundi.

“Why hello there! I was hoping someone could tell me why I was stuck in that elevator…” he said while throwing his arm over his shoulder and pointing behind him. “And why nobody deemed it necessary to check out the shouting that came out of it?” He laughed at the second question before grinning. The smile on his face seemed sincere as if he tried to put everyone at ease.

So said Daimyon Londe who stood entranced by the sight of a beautiful white bird fluttering its wings ahead of him, a heavenly glow around it. It heard the poet's words and took flight, gliding through the clouds with grace. Daimyon leapt after it, off the mountaintop and into the air, carried forward by a gale of wind as if he was weightless. He kept the swallow in sight and flew behind it, inching closer but unable to ever catch up. He did not mind that too much, though. Being here in this magical place filled him with bliss and elation in itself. He floated in the air for a good while before he was satiated with the sight. After which he took a glance downwards from the dizzying height and—

—woke up.

---

Rough awakening, it was. The endless mountains were replaced by suffocating steely-grey walls; gone was the smooth wind as well, instead he felt a bit of sweat trickling down his brow. In the moment he opened his eyes he desperately sought the swallow, the last but brightest memory of the dream, but that too had disappeared, perhaps flying to greener pastures. The only source of light in the dim place was a shining screen which displayed nothing else.
Once the last vestiges of his wonderful adventure in dreamland were kicked out of his mind by the harsh reality, Daimyon instinctively reached for his vest pocket. What followed was a relieved sigh as he fumbled—limbs still feeling kind of numb—to pull out the notebook that laid inside. His focus was now all on the pad which he held delicately in his hands: with an unassuming, plain brown exterior and small size for a notebook, it was a question why the poet regarded it with almost feverish attachment. The pen that was neatly affixed to it was quite stylish with its black cylinder and golden roller ball, sure, but that alone was not satisfactory explanation.

Daimyon wasted little time in opening it up and flipping through the numerous pages in the thick journal. He allowed himself another sigh and a reassured smile upon seeing writing, his own handwriting in fact, on the papers. This notebook was his safe, his diary and his treasure trove all at once: filled with poetry, thoughts, musings and even the occasional mundane reminder. Without it he felt lost—with it he was ready to take on any of life's challenges.

Such as this one.

He stood up and assessed the situation. There was not much to investigate, even for a groggy poet—a minute later most things were clear as day. He was in an elevator of normal size and interior, except for the slight inconvenience that the apparent lack of buttons meant. Oh, and the somewhat bigger inconvenience of not being able to open the door which, as icing on a lousy cake, also had a scary blood-painted message on it.

Another minute later Daimyon had to realise that nothing at all was clear: he did not know where he was, how he got there and how he was going to get out. His problems encompassed past, present and future. The orderly man he was—in that situation, not many would agree he was particularly organised in general—, he was going to tackle them in that order and reopened his notebook to do just that. He skipped to the last entry:



It was not like him to leave works unfinished, so the fact perturbed him a great deal. Still, his memory got the refreshment it needed and he now remembered spending his last day in the hospital after a successful treatment of his pneumonia—the process of which was outlined in previous poems—and getting ready to return to the normal world. These facts answered fewer questions than he would have liked to, but it was all he had to work with. Figuring it was useless to slam the iron door, cry for help or just generally panic, he slumped back down on the floor to read some more from his notebook.

Before he sank too deep into the realm of words however, the screen which until now was only bright whiteness came alive with a different picture: that of a black-and-white bear. A talking black-and-white bear. With a name and a doctorate.

Daimyon Londe listened intently.

Listened intently and scribbled furiously, to be precise. As the bear listed people one by one, he took the sudden inspiration and wrote a few lines for everyone with commendable speed. He only looked up from his work when he himself was presented—with a poem no less. His smile widened at the gesture.

By the time he was done with everyone, the impenetrable-seeming door had already slid open smoothly.

“That's two out of three,” he noted to himself casually, putting away his pen. All but one of his immediate problems were dealt with and that was without him allowing his blood pressure to spike in even the slightest. All right, he conceded, perhaps the beginning was a bit disconcerting. Uncertainty, after all, was often worse than a brick wall right in a man's face. Once he was equipped with his notebook and his carefree attitude though, the troubles started melting away. He ran a hand through his grey hair and found it more unkempt than usual...but that really was just a poor attempt from life to aggravate him.

Stepping outside the confines of the elevator was an all-around exhilarating experience. The freedom to move, to explore, to breathe without hearing your breaths were entirely fantastic. Daimyon placed an emphasis on these small joys instead of letting the heavy presence of white concrete walls weigh him down. The last push he needed to ignore these material worries was the sight of another human being in the flesh: ahead of him walked a man, younger than the poet at first glance, wearing a proper black suit that suited his dark hair. Despite his earlier decision, he could not disregard the similar-looking elevator that stood next to his either. Though he had a sinking feeling that this man had been in the same exact situation as him, locked inside the transporter, but he did not give up the small glimmer of hope that he was actually some kind of official or staff member who could tell him something about the situation.

“Hello!” He approached him cheerfully. “My friend, I am in quite a bind. Could you help me with my plight?”

While he quickly stepped up to the accosted, he noticed other things vying for his attention: more elevators ahead of him and to the left, a long hallway to the right just begging to be explored, and most importantly, a host of other voices bringing the cold, concrete-walled area slowly to life.

“Oh, excuse me for being blunt. I'm Daimyon Londe.” He continued talking to the man, neglecting any outside influence for now. “Rhymes with bond and fond; not with blondie, sorry. And you would be...the politician, right-y?”

Okay, that last one was a bit forced. He blamed it on the circumstances.

Mason Brady let out a soft groan as his eyes fluttered open as they attempted to adjust to the harsh artificial lighting of the room. Mason felt aches and shakes in his joints, neck, and the right side of his body from sleeping on the hard floor. Why was he on the floor? Did he fell off his bed while sleeping? Why did his throat felt so dry and numb? Was he put under? Ugh, he really needs caffeine right about now. He just woke up but he wanted to go back to sleep.

So Mason finally lifted his chest off the hard floor with a groan and huff as he did so, and he finally gotten a good look of the room he was sleeping in and it wasn't what he was expecting. He was expecting his hospital room with his bed a few feet away from him, proving his falling off it theory, but nope it's much more stranger than that. Mason found himself in a cramp elevator with all the button gone a T.V screen overlooking the elevator and a message on the elevator doors that say “ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE” with what looks like to be written in blood. For a moment Mason stared at it with a flurry of thoughts and emotions and finally he let out a defeated "...fuck."

After staring at the message for a few more seconds and letting out his only coherent thought, Mason got off the floor than onto his feet he dusted off the imaginary dust off his clothes, the only good thing he can say about his imprisonment in the elevator is that its clean of dust. Mason stood up fully and did a few stretches to try and get rid of the aches and stiffness all over his body. Once he was done his stretches and he felt physically better his thoughts were still a mess of anxiety and confusion. Was he still at Axis Mundi? Was he to starve here and die a slow and painful death by starvation? While normally he say that's a good thing but at the moment he didn't feel like making one of his joke. He'll wait for a few more hours before he makes death jokes, when he's bored out of his mind waiting for death.

Then, all of a sudden the T.V turned on showing a monochromatic bear, Mason could only let out a confused "what the fuck..." The bear, who apparently is named Monokuma Killgood, Great, he's trapped by some person's demonic fursona, but the bear than started to introduce people, other infinates like Mason himself but all of them were rather insulting or joking which made this whole thing all the more serreal.

The first two were Shona Moffet and Davis Gallo, the Infinite Knight and Infinite Conquest, Monokuma wasn't flattering to either of them but he was especially harsh with Davis which was admittedly rather funny.

Next up was Mason himself, in an oddly flirty introduction, which caused Mason to shift around awkwardly, god he needed caffeine, he can't handle a furry hitting on him this soon after waking up. Next was the Infinite Monk, Tekhartha Mondatta. Wait... THE Monk Mondatta? Mason loves that guy's videos, he liked each and every one of his videos! Mason let out a cough as soon as he realized he was getting too excited at being trapped in this hell hole with Tekhartha Mondatta, since they could all die very soon.

The next two were Isaiah Matthews and Krista Müller, or Infinite Blood giver? Mason wasn't sure since Monokuma didn't say the guy's infinite title only giving fake praise, but the girl was the Infinite Violinist, and she got a very dismissive introduction by Monokuma, the harshest introduction so far.

The two after them was Felix Garfield and Kara O'hara, the Infinite Free Runner and The Infinite Desert Chef respectively. What kind of parents name their kid's after two cats? Mason had to agree internally with Monokuma. Mason couldn't help but smile at the thought of having a treat from an infinite Chef, hopefully they have food here.

The rest after those two were Quill Kennedy, Aleecia Marvic, Cyrus Brandon, Daimyon Londe, Shaun Ellan, Mary Hanson, Caora Artzain, Rika Roux, and finally Calvin Ibbott. There were so many people and so many introductions Mason just kind of faded out of existence and dissociated from the universe until suddenly the doors to the elevators open. Mason let out a short mumble and collected his scattered thoughts and walked out of the now open doors. Mason looked around his new surroundings it does look like Axis Mundi, admittedly it looked like the basement but he didn't mind as he was finally out of the damn elevator.

The nearest people were the very first people introduced by Monokuma, Shona Moffet and Davis Gallo. Mason walked up to them, and he looked like he wanted to say something important to them but all that came out was "So...You two seen that furry fuck too, right?" Not the most eloquent of questions but its still a valid question.

Cyrus woke up to the soft, humming sound of the elevator’s descend just before it stopped. His body felt groggy, as if he had one of those uncomfortable three-hour sleeping sessions that he had to schedule way too often as of late. But that was the weirdest part; He did remember scheduling that sleep. The only differences were that it was supposed to only last ten minutes, not to mention it should’ve been located in his hospital bed. He was rather certain resting ten minutes felt very different from this. But waking up in an elevator definitely was a lot stranger. Moving away from this currently pointless line of thought, he stood up and inspected himself thoroughly.

He wore one of his finest suits. Had he been wearing that in the hospital? His memory was too shaken at this moment, too unreliable. He then checked his pockets to find his wallet left untouched and a tiny book in his chest pocket that he had intended to read during his hospital visit. However, even during his stay he had still been occupied by ministers and policy makers calling him every moment. And that was when he noticed that his cell phone had vanished. Cyrus never went anywhere without his cell phone. Had it been taken from him during his nap? He couldn’t contact the outside, nor check the time and date to see how long he had been out of it. Lastly, he checked his stomach, which bore only a scar of the wound he had suffered. This was as it should be, he was supposed to leave the hospital rather soon.

He was in an elevator, that much was his initial assessment. But he definitely had noted how the door still hadn’t opened despite reaching what seems to be its final destination. The words written on the door: ”ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE” were simply ignored by him. Obviously someone wanted him to feel despair. They wouldn’t succeed. Not even the blood fazed him. He had been abducted from a hospital. If they could do that, then surely they could’ve snatched a few blood bags. This was likely just someone’s elaborate prank. Maybe they recruited an infinite prankster recently? Whoever it was would be very sorry when he found them out.

Probably the most odd feature of this elevator was its lack of buttons, which had been entirely replaced with a monitor. The static faded about the moment he noticed the device to show what seemed like a teddy bear. Everyone knew nothing good was going to come from a teddy bear making puns through a monitor. After listening through the initial blabber, he got onto introductions.

Cyrus couldn’t remember ever meeting any of these people, though some names and talents seemed familiar. Cyrus had been with the initiative for quite some time now. Perhaps he had heard of them through mention, or maybe perhaps his groggy mind was still failing him? But then his screen time had come.

“Cyrus Brandon, also a contender for Bishi of the year, is the Infinite Politician. Basically he's really good at lying. His most famous lies include crowd pleasers like 'everything is going to be okay' and 'I'm interested in more than just your vote.' Unlike Mason Brady, I will need a cup of joe to sit through one of this guy's speeches.”

”You lying ursine piece of shit.” The politician hissed, his normally downwardly slanted hair seemingly curling upward accompanied by the grit of his teeth and a bit of fiddling with his glasses. ”I’ll knock you into eternal hibernation should I ever find you.” He had no clue what a bishi was supposed to be, but he doubted it was a good thing. It was probably a lie, just like the rest of it. He had said that first line before, famously so, but never the second one. Until now he had simply worked as a political advisor and policy maker. He had actually never ran in an official election before.

By the time the broadcast finished he had committed most of those introductions to memory. Without a doubt these people were likely involved in a way similar to his own, that was a logical conclusion. But he didn’t have any more time to ponder as the door opened, allowing Cyrus to escape the stuffy elevator.

Hardly even outside he was approached by a familiar face, if you can count a face you’ve seen two minutes ago on a monitor as familiar. The man was taller than him, and his grey hair gave Cyrus the impression this man was at the very least past his mid-thirties. ”Well met, Mr. Londe, it’s a pleasure. You’re the infinite poet, correct?” He asked, as if the rhyming didn’t give that obvious fact away. ”Yes, I’m Cyrus Brandon, infinite politician. But please ignore whatever you’ve heard about me on that monitor.

He then shook his head at the poet.”Unfortunately I seem to be just as lost as you are. Let us walk, shall we? Cyrus proposed. ”Perhaps one of the others we saw know anything more about our current predicament. Something told him that hope was a rather shallow one. But there were only that few options. ”And otherwise, maybe this ‘theatre therapy’ business might help us further. He still had no clue what that bear had been going on about. And he figured they had no other option than to be subjected further to this creature’s mad antics.

Uguu...

Caora yawned and stretched sleepily. Another beautiful morning for another beautiful day. What would he do today, he wondered? Chase the butterflies in the garden? Play with Fang? Oh, oh, or maybe it was the Church day and he could listem to the priest!

Wait... Something wasnt right.

He wasn't in his bed like he should have been. He wasnt in his blue polkka dotty pyjamas like he should have been. There wasnt even a nurse or doctor nearby, like there should have been.
Yeas, there was nothing there that there should have been. Instead of being where he was supposed to be, he was in a little room. There was no doctors or nurses, there was nobody at all. Someone had even taken his blue pyjamas and replaced them with his pink ones.

There was only one conclusion he could possibly come to. The evidence all pointed to the same place! It was all so simple!

He was on an adventure!

Oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh! This was so exciting! He had always dreamed abput going on an adventure but he had never been on one - well, not a proper adventure - and it was something that had just happened out of the blue! His little heart started beating at a million miles an hour. He was going exploring! Discovering someplace hidden away, all secret! Who woulr he meet? What would he discover? How exciting!

Its a shame Fang wasn't here to see this. He would have loved to go exploring and it would have been nice to have the company. Oh well, he'd tell him all about it when he got back! For now, it was time for EXPLORING!

First thing he explored was the door. It was much to heavy to prise open by himself and there wasn't a button to open it. There was a clue on the door, though.

"Abandon Hope all ye who enter here?" he questioned aloud. Who was Hope and why wasn't she allowed in the door?

The other thing was the big white screen. It looked like a TV, but it wasn't showing a picture. Just plain old whiteness. Maybe there was a film on soon and he had to watch it before the door opened! Or maybe he had missed the film and would have to wait for the next one... He hoped it wasn't going to take too long.

Oh! Maybe that's why the door wasn't open! Maybe it thought he was Hope! And if Hope wasn't allowed in, then it wouldn't open! All he had to do was convince the door he wasn't Hope and it would open, right?

"Excuse me, Mister Door sir!" He chirruped in his politest voice. "I know that Miss Hope isn't allowed in, but I'm not Miss Hope. I'm Caora! So if you could please let me in so I could keep adventuring, that would be very sweet of you."

The door responded in a way. For no sooner than he had finished his sentence, the white screen changed. Instead of boring old whiteness, there was a teddy bear! Caora waved to it happily.

The teddy called itself "Doctor Killgood". Caora didn't really understand what it was trying to tell him, but he did try. Something about introducing people?
GASP! Did that mean there were other adventurers!? There were people to talk to and friends to make!? And the Teddy was gonna introduce them all? What a nice Teddy Bear the doctor was.

The picture changed from the Teddy to a strong-looking lady.
"This muscle-bound Amazon is Shona Moffat..." was as far as the Bea got, before little Caora interrupted.
"Hiya, Shona!" he yelled at. She looked nice! And did Doctor Killgood say she was from the Amazon? It really was an adventure!

He did it with every image that popped up. Monokuma would say something mildly important, and he'd try and say hello to the TV as if they could hear him.

"Hiya Mr Gallo!"
"Hiya, Mr Banister!"
"Hiya, Death Robot!"
"Hiya, Ice Baby!"
"Hiya, Pretty girl!"
"Hiya, Cat person!"
"Hiya, Pretty Girl number two!"
"Hiya, Feather Pen!"
"Hiya, Friendship!"
"Hiya, Mr Clinton!"
"Hiya, Poem guy!"
"Hiya, Mr Spider!"
"Hiya, Boobie Lady!"
"Hiya, guy who looks like me!"
"Hiya, Mummy!"
"And hello, Hammer Guy!"

Being introduced to everyone, Caora gave the TV screen a big smile and wave. What a lovely bunch of people. They looked so nice and friendly and smart! He'd be happy to go adventuring with them!

But... Where was Hope? Caora couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor girl. Banned from exploring whilst all these guys got to go out and adventure. Its a shame. Maybe he would bump into her and they could invite her along? That would be nice.

The bear was going? Oh well, it was nice of him to introduce them. See ya, bear!
Since he'd watched the film, the doors had opened up. He skipped out merrily, whistling a happy tune.

It didn't look like much of a place to be adventuring in. It was dingy and cold and there weren't any windows. But that was the point! It would encourage them to get out and check out the surrounding landscape! Who would want to spend time in a dirty old basement place for any longer than they had to? Or maybe this was the place that needed to be explored and he had to group up as soon as he could.

The first people he would have seen would have been the politician and the poet. An interesting duo, no doubt, but hardly the most exciting. He needed to be were the action was, not debating social policy and the works of Chaucer with two grey old men!

Still... He hardly had a choice...

"Mr Politician! Mr Poet! Hiya!" He squeaked happily, skipping over to them. Without a second thought, he had grabbed both their hands and was shaking them vigorously. "Its very nice to meet you both!"

@Melo@Mateotis

Quill awoke on a hard floor. It took her a brief second to realize she was no longer in the examination room, but she was, in fact, in an elevator. Did she wander here in her sleep? Was she given a drug she wasn't aware of? Needless to say, the hospital administration would be hearing from her about this. Surely a nurse or an orderly would have seen her and stopped her? I mean, she was a famous model. It's not like she wasn't well known.

As she stood up and got her bearings, she looked around her in her confined space. The elevator looked familiar. She was definitely still in Axis Mundi, but there was something different. Something...off. She looked at the door and got her answer.

Abandon Hope all ye who enter here

Not the most polite of messages given, but it still threw her a bit. Who would write that? Was it some young punk tagging the elevator? She wasn't sure. Either way, she needed to get out and find some answers. Find someone to nag. She was not a happy camper.

Before she could let out another huff of contempt, the screen changed. Suddenly, a teddy bear appeared on screen. Normally, teddy bears would have broguth her some joy, but this one felt off as well. Everything just felt off. She watched as the bear spoke and talked.

"Monokuma?" the fair model finally spoke. Introductions were apparently about to start and Quill watched as images appeared on screen along with a brief synopsis. She recognized a few that showed up. Part of her was excited to see what they said about her, but part also worried. Finally, her image appeared.

“Quill Kennedy is the Infinite model, not to be confused with the infinite doll you were just exposed to. What you might not realize by the title is that she comes assembled. But you likely know she can hold a pose for any length of time, has mostly plastic parts, and looks good on a mantle. Sadly, she talks.”

"P...plastic? I am all natural you overstuffed piece of trash! she screamed. The nerve! Who did this bear think it was talking to? Or rather, whoever was controlling the bear. They would be getting theirs. That's for sure.

Finally, the elevator doors opened when the screen clicked off. She stormed out, still huffy about the description of her. "Ok, what was that?" she hollered. However, the hospital was different than she remembered. She looked around and the faces in front of her were the same as on the screen. She brushed herself off and smiled. Appearances, Quill reminded herself, mattered.

"Oh, sorry! Hello everyone! Mind telling me what this is all about?"

It's okay, it's okay.. Kara sat against the wall, face planted between her knees as she mumbled to herself in the dark. Her soft voiced bounced off the dark walls back to her.

P-please... Let me out.. I don't like the dark... For whatever reason, Kara found herself in a cramp, dark room, feeling the walls she couldn't make out very much. It felt as if there was a set of buttons, only, they did nothing as Kara frantically pressed them. Her small fingers touched something... Disgusting, frantic, she quickly scrambled back, with a yelp she backed herself into another wall. Shaking with fear, no matter what, she couldn't escape the darkness, lowering her head, Karas' long braids fell in front of her. She could feel them touching the ground.

Mumbling to herself, suddenly, as if a ladder from god, the light turned on. It revealed to her the room she was trapped in. To her surprise, it wasn't a room but an elevator. A large, menacing message was plastered against the door in a... Red substance.
ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE

Pressing her hands against her chest she could feel her beat. I need to... Calm down. Atleast the lights are on.
As if a sick joke the lights turned off. The elevator doors opened.
Maybe it was luck? Perhaps bad luck? But seeing the light Kara made a small dash for the light, unknowingly into a smallish group of people. Confused and scared, she clinging to the tallest person she could see. Please! Please don't make me go back in the dark! Small tears began running down her face.

Heavy breathing, it was the only thing Rika was able to do when she awoke in her elevator her stomach felt as if someone played football with it. But it wasn't just her stomach her mouth felt drier than a bowl filled with cotton balls and salt, the saliva in her mouth oddly felt like it didn't belong, the mummy took a breath of air before getting to her feet using the elevator's hand rail. Slowly but surely Rika was standing on her feet, and that's when she noticed the elevator door had some writing on it "ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE."

Rika figured that someone must've been playing on the elevators, either this morning or before she climbed into it, Rika knew she'd have to tell someone about it later so they could clean it, as her stomach began feeling better, the mummy began wondering what she was doing in an elevator. Riding up and down all day seemed like a good way for other girls to have fun, but the mummy girl knew that elevators weren't something she would usually jump on, the eyes of everyone in a small room and that one guy who usually lets out a fart before he leaves. Nope hanging around an elevator wasn't her can of liquid energy,

Before her thoughts could linger on for any longer, the small television mounted in the elevator started playing static before it cut to a cartoonish black and white bear. The cartoon bear called himself doctor killgood or Monokuma. The bear began showing pictures and giving them names, whether they were real people or just characters to a television show was anyone's guess, then the bear showed a tape recorder similar to the mummy's and her heart began to race. Rika started to feel around her bandaged body, and once her hand ran over the rectangular above her chest, the firebug began calming down and pulled the cassette player from her bandages as the final picture was named.

Rika examined her tape recorder and held it close to herself, images of a mouthless slug filled her head, a creature that burned itself into her mind after reading one to many depressing books in her spare time she breathed easy knowing that she had a mouth she could use to scream. After the bear flickered off the screen, Rika almost began to miss it and thought that the little thing looked a bit cute and cuddly, then the thought of if the hospital stocked them in the gift shop came to the front of her mind just as the elevator doors opened before her.

The very second Rika stepped foot into the narrow hallway the cold feeling of the floor connected with her feet the mummy had a sensation of deja vu run through her, everything in this hallway felt the same, yet it all felt different. On pure instinct, she loaded a cassette into her tape recorder and played."Jamais vu? Or deja vu?" A processed male voice spoke with a thick French accent. As the elevator closed behind the mummy, they soon noticed they weren't alone.

The two elevators across the narrow hallway had opened, revealing people that Rika would consider odd, a Machine man donning monks robes accompanied a slender young woman that looked familiar. Emerging from the elevator next to them was an older looking woman with odd looking eyes, and the person with her was a man wearing bandages around his arms and face. If the mummy didn't feel curious about exploring this place, she'd probably help the man and teach him how to properly apply bandages that would last longer than the ones he wears now.

Rika's only reaction to seeing the four people was to remove the current tape in her cassette player and reload it with a different tape she aimed the hand sized machine at the four she pressed the play button with her thumb." Hello, my name is..Rika" A processed voice spoke from the cassette player." Thank you for not disturbing the passengers in the quiet zone." It continued till Rika hit the stop button, then the rewind button. The loud sound of the recorder rewinding felt muted to Rika due to how often she used it.

Calvin woke up with a with a start in elevator 14. Before his eyes were even open, he knew something was off. He had grown used to sleeping in a comfy bed in Axis Mundi, and his current arrangement reminded him of his many long naps on the hard floor of his forge. For a few moments, while he lay there, lazily trying to start up his body as he did every morning, he thought he was back there, where he was happiest. He could almost feel his sister prodding at him, asking him to get up to start a new day. It was the lack of comforting heat from his many furnaces that made him realize something was wrong, as he rolled over and opened his eyes.

It didn’t take more than a second before he was up on his feet, shocked. His eyes settled on the doors, and the words drawn across it.

“ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE.” It was written in blood, or something resembling it. Calvin swore under his breath as he read the words, but after a moment, a grin creeped across his face. It was dramatic, and although he had been moved, he could almost see his sister’s face giggling as she mixed the corn syrup and food dye that would create such a substance. What was more troubling was that the doors didn’t seem to open. There was no indication of any device that would open the door, so instead, he examined the door itself. A standard alloy, common in the high-grade machinery that furnished Axis Mundi. He tested the doors with his hands, planning to try and pull them apart. He was shocked then to notice that he still had on his large gauntlets that he normally wore at the forge. Something or someone had been to his home, found these gauntlets, and placed them on him. Once again, the only subject to come to Calvin’s mind was his sister, and he swore under his breath as he began to reach for the doors again.

Then the video began. A… bear-thing was on the screen, running through a comedy routine that reminded Calvin of a high schooler who had a bit too much enthusiasm. Still he watched intently, and was shocked when introductions opened with Shona Davis’, the Infinite Knight.

“She’s really here? The rumours were true. Fuck me, that’s sweet.” Calvin had always admired the Infinite knight, and had even made a few pieces for her back when he was first starting. He had become embarrassed at his infatuation and the incessant teasing from his sister as they grew, so he had left it behind, but still, the opportunity to meet a celebrity (at least in his field) was quite exciting.

The bear – Dr. Killgood – continued to rattle through introduction. He swore he had met some of these people before, back when he had been visiting Axis Mundi almost daily, but he couldn’t quite place who. Suddenly, there was a picture of Calvin, and Monokuma began to rattle off yet another terrible introduction.

“Lastly, Calvin Ibbott is your Infinite Smith! I'm not going to make fun of little Ibbs because I respect people who make things with their own hands. little Ibbs, he takes his hammer...Hammer...” The bear shrugged. “Well, I guess he doesn't use his hands after all. Come to think about it, doesn't everyone come out of the womb knowing how to swing a hammer? I'm sorry little Ibbs, I guess I can make fun of you after all.”

Calvin had to catch his breath. The introduction, compared to the others, had been somewhat light, but it was the name Monokuma had used. “Ibbs.” A chill ran down Calvin’s spine. No one should know that. The few who did knew that it was extremely personal to Calvin, and he was suddenly made aware of just how bizarre – and potentially dangerous – his situation was. Luckily, at that moment, the doors slid open.

Calvin didn’t wait a moment. He was out of the cube and looking at the small group who had formed, people who had emerged from elevators similar to his. Immediately, he began to recognize faces from the video, and tried to put them to names.

Ice. Mary. Aleecia. Rika. Mondatta. He went up to them, and felt his blood begin to boil.

“Anyone know what the hell we're doing here?” It came out as a bit of a bark, and Calvin took a deep breath. “Sorry. This is just some royal bullshit and I want to know who left it.” He cracked his neck as he took another look around, seeing that their small hallway fed into something larger. “Aren’t half of us sick? Is anyone going to die just from being out of their beds?”

@AimeChambers @Spriggs27 @Ariamis

It was a troublesome scene to be sure. Shona and Davis were starting to become surrounded by people just as confused as they were. The knight continued to observe, not wishing to make the situation worse by opening her mouth. She could see Davis's hateful gaze was focused on Mason Brady. Clearly the bear's words had struck a nerve. Kara looked like she was about to latch onto the Mason, the tallest person in the immediate area. The knight could only pray this wouldn't cause Davis to do something reckless. Felix seemed to be trying to lighten the mood, or were jokes how he dealt with stress? Quill was a bit more straight forward with stating her confusion, asking for an explanation.

“We don't know any more than you do.” Davis didn't take his eyes off of Mason when he spoke, though it was clear he was talking to The infinite Model and the Infinite Free Runner. “And if you're that worried about the screaming, how about you check it out yourself?”

He clearly wasn't trying to make friends, or was his anger just a device to deal with stress? While the knight was use to being surrounded by people she didn't know, they usually weren't this on edge. Everyone needed to calm down, everyone needed...

"Um... H-hi..."

Shona was snapped out of her trance by the quiet greeting. While the owner of the voice sounded shy, his body didn't show a hint of concern. Almost like he was above what was going on around them. Shona found herself relax around such an individual. He was a reminder that cool heads prevailed in these types of situations. The knight stood up a bit straighter.

"I'm, uh... Shaun..." He pulled his face up out of the scarf a tad. "N-nice to meet you..."

“Well met Shaun.” Shona kept her shoulders square. “I wish we could meet under better circumstances. This is the most Infinites I've seen in one location, and it's a shame we're so disorganized.” Shona looked around herself. The chaos that surrounded her seemed less intense now. It was amazing what being next to the right people can do. “I think we should do our best to calm down the others... Davis.”

Perfection broke his stare. He still didn't look happy. “Yes?”

“Take care of things here. I saw a room with a bunch of elevators inside it, I'm going to make sure they're okay.”

Davis chuckled. “And I guess I'm suppose to just obey you?”

“Yes.”

Davis was taken back by Shona's words. “Huh? Why is she so active all of a sudden?” He turned to look at Shaun. “What the hell did you do?!”

Aleecia stood with her back against the wall, fingers scratched at the chipped paint in an effort to calm down. She had been staying in the first few floors of Axis Mundi for many years already and she had been calmly shown the entire area she would reside in, top to bottom when she came. The girl was trembling as she slowly opened her eyes. It wasn't like she was completely blind so that all she saw was black. What Aleecia saw was so blurring that she couldn't make heads of tails of what was in front of her, just a cloudy white mess. The bright light reflected off the walls and made the room too bright for her sensitive eyes, making her flinch and slip a little lower against the wall. Oh dear, oh no... this place was getting too much for her already.

Ice watched Aleecia from a distance, a bit worried about the blind girl, but after thinking back to how she slapped his hand away, thought better than to offer help. Before the others came from their elevators, Ice went ahead and spoke aloud of their surroundings, giving Aleecia at least a small rundown of where they were, "The walls and floors are made of concrete. There is an elevator to our left and two facing us across the room. The elevator to the left says '5' and the ones across from us are '13' and '14.' There's an open space exit a little bit forward to the left as well, I hear voices that way as well."

After finishing this, Aleecia nodded and offered a small smile, still trembling, but moving back so she was standing up straight against the wall. There was a blurt of voices coming from the elevator to the left before two people walked out. Mary Handson and Tekhartha Mondatta, the Infinite Streamer and the Infinite Monk, Ice didn't really feel like chitchatting or introducing himself at the moment, but was still feeling like he needed to give Aleecia a little help. "What's with the mecha suit?" He asked, elbows crossed.

Aleecia looked up at the sounds of the voices, a plastered fake smile slipping onto her face automatically, but she was still trembling, "H-Hello there, um... patients?" She held out a hand in greeting as well. Her eyes were shut again from the light, so she must have looked a little awkward.

Someone else appeared, a strange... girl? Covered in bandages and holding cassette tape recorder. Instead of going through the effort of saying hi with her piehole, she used the tape recorder to play, a weird, inhuman voice slipping through the speakers. The sound of the rewind got on Ice's nerves a little bit, he gritted his teeth to not make a nasty comment.

Aleecia was about to again introduce herself when-

Some hotshot slipped out of the last elevator and started racing over, he didn't look too steady, physically or emotionally, or that's what Ice thought. Then again, they had all been chemically drugged and that might have had something to do with it. He started barking questions that everyone else obviously didn't know the answers to... which of course pissed Ice off even more. "Maybe try to cut it out with the frickin' language? Any day now? We're all ready to piss and haul ass, but that doesn't call for making our ears bleeding with your dogged whining. I doubt anyone's going to keel over so just be a good boy and keep your trap shut." It had been a while since Isaiah had gotten to take his anger out on someone and the stress of situation didn't help one bit.

@ThatCharacter@Spriggs27@Ariamis

As the patients slowly congregated into a single mass, Mary's demeanor turned more and more positive. She was truly in her element in a crowd, basking in the most vain of earthly desires: attention. "HAII! I'm MaryPie!" She bombastically announced, happy to have eyes other than Mondatta on her. She headed straight to where the biggest group was, and shouted obnoxiously: "AAAHHH, SHAUN~" She went straight to him and took his hand with hers. "I first didn't realize it, but it's actually you! Why in the world are you here?" Mary has a talent for remembering people she has socialized with, and Shaun was the very person who Mary hired to design her website. "You're sick? Or wait...You broke up with your girlfriend! Aaahh, how terrible! I gotta get you a new one! It's the least I could do!" She said, referring to the time when Mary hired Shaun to make her website. To this day she has been grateful to him, but despite all her invitations to her shows and podcasts he always declined, causing her to feel guilt over it.

As Mary buzzed around the crowd like a bumblebee, Mondatta simply stood there with his arms tucked to his sleeves. It was difficult to read his facial expressions, even with the reactive eyes, but one could tell he was content.
"Greetings to you as well, mister Matthews," he said to the bandaged man, lifting his palm. "I don't know of this 'mecha', but this is a second chance given to one who was once in mortal peril." Mondatta then felt something cling to his leg, and he looked down. It was Kara, who sought refuge from the largest person in the group. "Well hello there, young one. Do not be afraid. Nobody will hurt you any more." Mondatta then gently patted her head, attempting to calm her down, though the cold touch of the metal didn't help.

Mary greeted everyone she could see by shaking their hands or giving them a quick hug, but when she met Caora she breathed heavily, her eyes once again glinting intensely. The voice she made could be described as a squee. "SOO CUUUUTEEE! AAAAHHHHH!~" She embraced Caora, stuffing his face in her ample cleavage as she swung him around in her arms like a doll. "I'm taking him home with meeee!~" When she noticed that he stopped resisting she put him back down, not noticing she nearly suffocated him. "D'aww, he's embarrassed~".

Mondatta turned to greet Calvin, and put a hand to his chin in a thinking fashion. "I don't believe any person present can answer that question. As for the sick...None seem in grave danger. Perhaps whoever is behind this kidnapping purposefully chose people who have a certain degree of healthiness. But there certainly are people, including me, who are more afflicted.
Realizing this, Mondatta took Cara's hand like a protective parent would take a child's hand. Then he approached Aleecia and Rika, and spoke to them:
"Miss Marvic, Miss Roux, I understand the difficulty your conditions bring to your lives, and wish my condolences. I, too, have faced calamity, my entire body broken and left to die. Were it not for this gift, I would have surely perished. That is why I hope that we get to understand each other."

@AimeChambers@Vocab@Brithwyr@Pudding@Spriggs27@ThatCharacter

As Rika walked a little further from the new group of people she just met, the mummy began noticing the hospital's changes the place seemed more lively than it usually did it was like someone had fun when they were making the place. If they were doing construction, she would've received an email about the changes, or be annoyed about getting routine checkups and coming in to try new skin regeneration creams or soaps. Suddenly Rika was taken out of her train of thought by the man wearing bandages over his bare arms when he brought up that the elevators to their left said five she let him finish before she played her tape. A man's voice came out of the cassette tape yelling " Wrong!"

Rika loaded a new tape into her cassette player." The elevator is on your right." She corrected him before fast-forwarding to explaining why he's wrong." From your perspective, it would be on your right, and on my left. Please do not be confusing with your directions." The voice explained to Ice. Rika popped the tape out and placed it into her bandages, she retrieved another one and dropped it into her tape recorder as she began to play the tape it answered the new guy's question for her." The average time for second-degree burns to heal stands at three weeks, while third-degree burns require skin grafts." The tape's voice was one of a soft-spoken woman's voice.

When Isaiah began taking his anger out upon Calvin, Rika exhaled loudly before pulling out a new cassette tape she stood in between the two men holding her tape with her finger on the play button."Please be advised, the following presentation, has been approved for a mature audience only." The recorder spoke before being fast forward to another line." Please retain an air of calm control during public speaking."

Rika hoped that the two men got the gist of the tape she played and hoped she didn't confuse either of them, her eyes soon looked back to the woman now examine the mummy, and unfortunately for once, she didn't have a tape to tell people to stop looking at her. Rika walked away from the group too soon join up with the gathering group. When she heard Marypie and a memory flashed to the front of her head, it was some woman that streamed games a lot. As the lady began her boisterous assault upon some other girl, Rika got close to the two and played a different tape." Put your shoe on your head!" The cassette player yelled at the two." Show me your keyboard!" It yelled again in a heavily processed voice.

@Ariamis@AimeChambers@ThatCharacter@Brithwyr

Patient’s Quarters F1

Felix asked his question before actually getting a good look at everyone in front of him, but when he did, his eyes widened and jaws dropped. All of the people that were just shown on the monitor were here with him, and they looked like they were just as clueless as him. Most are scared or concerned, others excited and some don’t even seem to care. To be honest, if he wasn’t involved in it, he would have probably belonged to the latter.

“Haha, I’m sorry, I think you misunderstood, I meant my…owh never mind.” ‘Perfection’ he liked to be called, at least this Davis had the common courtesy to reply to his question albeit misinterpreting it. To Felix it looked like Davis wasn’t in the mood for small talk, and actually, neither was Felix. He wants to have a better grasp of his current position before anything else and none of the people here seem to have a clue. With that idea and a frowned smile, he turned his eyes to his surroundings.

This is definitely Axis Mundi; there was no doubt about it. He remembered the elevator positions and if the break room was still in the same place then he’d know for sure. Despite that, everything felt strange, the whole place was in a bad shape as if nobody bothered to keep this place in good condition, just how much time has passed? Putting that thought aside, he scratched his back while heading for what should be a break room; Felix could use some food about now anyway.

His suspicions were confirmed when he put his hands against the double doors and pushed. The creaking of the doors echoed through the halls like a teacher scratching her nails on a school board, and everyone with good hearing probably heard it. Standing closest to it, he didn’t enjoy the sound very much, as his face cramped up while his eardrums felt like they were being pierced.

“Hehe…” he awkwardly laughed while putting his pinky in his ear. “Sorry about that, I don’t think these doors like to be opened.” Hoping that nobody felt annoyed by the screaming doors, he turned around and entered the room, and just like he thought the break room is still here. This confirms it, as far as he knew, they were in Axis Mundi. That only answers one question though, where is the staff? Why is this place so rundown? Why are there only infinites here? And what is the bear’s role in this whole fiasco?

Felix looked at his stomach as it rumbled, hunger defeats even the toughest opponents so getting some food in that belly is his first priority. Giving the break room a quick glance shows a few devices that are gonna be appreciated a lot, one of which was a mini fridge. Making his way to a it he noticed another door, he made a mental note to check it out later. The fridge softly roared indicating that it still works, Although it could be empty. He bowed down to open the door and check if there was actually food in it, luckily there was plenty. Before grabbing a plate, he looked up over the fridge and facing the hallway and shouted towards it.

“Heeey! If anyone needs a snack to process our situation, there is plenty over here!” Feeling like he completed his daily act of kindness, he grabbed a sandwich and proceeded to sit down at the nearest chair with a table. And after finding a good pose to sit in, he started to eat.

The possibility of meeting an insider right off the bat was slim even in optimistic calculations and thus Daimyon was neither too surprised nor dismayed when it turned out that the man—Cyrus Brandon, the Infinite Politician himself—was pretty much walking in his shoes. Which would not have been that bad—Daimyon led a good life and wore comfortable shoes—were it not for all the questions and uncertainties that currently plagued him and everyone else. Everyone else, for there were many people in the general vicinity, a fact that aside from the steadily growing sound level the various figures coming into view also confirmed. The first one to approach the two men with certain direction was a girl, for a change.

Actually, no he was not. Daimyon knew exactly who he was from the picture displayed in the elevator, yet was still fooled from the distance. The boy hopped, skipped and jumped over to them with glee like a child to his parents. The poet felt inspired to record the occasion with a few lines but his hand was taken by the arriving boy before he could have reached for his notebook.

“Hi!” Daimyon said with a bright smile, answering the passionate handshake. “You're Caora, right? The pleasure is mine!”
He considered being able to relax in a stressful situation a vital trait and Caora seemed to have exactly zero worries about what happened so far and what was going to unfold in the near future. They would get along well, he was sure of that. Nevertheless, he made a mental note—to be recorded in writing later, for it was very important—to never fall for the trap again.

“I think we should find more people.” He turned back to Cyrus. “It's better together, especially if we're in trouble.”
He looked around to find an actual direction and give some merit to his words. Caora was long gone, he noticed, no doubt enjoying the adoration of others by now. They could have followed her, perhaps...
“That-a-way, if we may.”
He eventually decided against it and instead pointed to the left where he saw a smaller congregation.

“So, how did you get here?” He threw a question at his newfound partner while they walked. “Aside from waking in an elevator after sleep...”

Once they were there, in front of some elevators and a couple locked rooms, it became apparent that there were four people gathered around—hardly a ‘congregation’ but a good company regardless. Full of exciting personalities, no doubt!

Taking a peek in his notebook beforehand, Daimyon then cleared his throat to make his grand entrance:



Things like syllable count had long stopped bothering and limiting the Infinite Poet. Sometimes he even let go of rhyme, though in this case he found it easier to stick to a well-established form.

“Hello, people!” He clapped his hands together. “I hope you found this little verse to your liking. I'm Daimyon, at your service!”