[ Ryou shows this sort of contraption (duel disk thingy) to the screen. After last week of facing horrible terrors, a duel disk is a welcomed thing. ]

I've finally found one. A working duel disk! There's a store within Nostalgia Nook that's strangely similar to Yugi-kun's grampa's shop back at home. Getting starfish tokens was hardly difficult either. The locals simply asked me to run a few errands and to deliver things. I'll have to do more errands so I can get some more cards.

Bianca, I can show you the holograms I was talking about now. It'll be great when I can get a second one and we can have a real duel.

[Who's glad that the curse is over with? This guy right here. It's much easier to do damage control on something intangible like fear after the fact than to try and defend people from it and, honestly, it made him feel totally useless.]

Yo, Vatheon's been pullin' some nasty tricks. First yours truly here slept through a friend's birthday, then this whole...shit [that's about all he can say to describe it] with the...fairies? Had to happen too. Now I'm just noticin' a good chunk of pals from my world are gone! I'm sick of this, man, who wants to go hit up the arcade? Or get some comics? Maybe hit a few balls in the park, seriously, somethin' needs to happen besides all this doom and gloom over here.

[There's a pause as he looks for a way to filter the broadcast before becoming too impatient to do so and sighs.]

Hey, Yukari, happy birthday. Left you somethin' in your room, didn't wrap it though, sorry.

[And it's kind of weird, too. Hey, giving girls bunnies is Akihiko's thing in another universe.

Either way he switches off the feed.]

[The view's fixed, set somewhere to allow sight of what look like red feathers scattered here and there. Occasionally, Atem steps into the frame, and now and again his voice lifts high enough to actually hear the miniature tirade he's on--feathers are messy, and why would the coral do this, and it was such a pain in the ass and--until finally he's got a pile of the things on the bed, hands on his hips. Hmph!

With that done, he turns to the SFC and while it's a bit late to be asking, he'd been reorganizing things during the curse to keep him from wanting to leave the apartment (he was not going to be seen looking like that--or cawing, for that matter), so he'd had to, well. Re-find them all. He's perfectly made up now, though. As if he wouldn't be. He doesn't bother hiding his annoyance, though; why? He doesn't have any reason to put on airs.]

Who in their right mind came up with birds as a good thing to be turned into?

[Ignoring, you know. His personal association with falcons. That's different.]

That was just the oddest week. I kept feeling like the locals were talking about me right before I walked into a room. It was just so awkward. I'm glad it's over. I've had enough of it.

On to less oddness, would anyone be up for a card game? Or even a board game?

[ Bakura Ryou, fluffy hacker extraordinaire. Or something. ]

I am beginning to believe that this information I'm decrypting is just a very large diversion. Why are Solitaire scores encrypted?

[ he offers up the data ]
d͏9̸͟ b͝0̸̷ ̧0̸4͠͏ ̀͜1̀2̨̛mployeedata/bin/solitaire/highscores.png

The names are matching up with other data.

Head Nurse is very good at this game, impossibly good. I'm not sure Solitaire scores go that high.

[ ooc: hacked information ]

[Hayner decided it was perfect to go swimming especially since people were no longer acting major odd. That was when he had discovered the man, the boats, and the sand dollars.
After their conversation he decided to go along with it. A boat ride could be awesome!

The first sand dollar he came across surprised him as he picked it up.
He promptly dropped it and his SFC, turning it on.]

Hot! Ouch. [He let out a hiss as he shook his hand. His eyes connected with the SFC and he realized the light was on. Picking it up as he walked closer to the water.]

Did you guys see? There is some guy with boats up here. He’ll let you take it out if you give him a sand dollar. There are some major issues with that. They are –

[BOOM!

That sure was an explosion. The feed is abruptly cut off.]

... So, I found something in that lab upstairs.

Something that, frankly, might explain quite a few things.

It... Looks like an employee handbook for a "Silas Enegery". The data's fairly corrupted, but some bits I was able to pick up is... Well, to say the least, it's scary.

This entire place is a sort of experiment... And one bad enough that no involved 'employees' are officially involved, if you know what I mean.

Something about an "Alpha Incident"... And the fact that they'll kill employees for so much as being late, if I'm reading this right.

The whole island and city are artificial, but we were already getting that idea. Controlled weather, and barriers controlled by tattoos. Employee tattoos allow for accessing areas locked to us - if we could find one of those, it might let us get to more useful places in time?

Then there's this "Object #325". I think that's the coral... And we're the test subjects, linked to it by the tattoos. Never mind that they're using drugs to induce memory loss and docility in the locals... And comas, for us.

To call this worrisome is... Uh, an understatement. And it convinces me that there's more work to do. The document was incomplete.

[ Hey look, it's a blondie on the communicator, looking rather gleeful and optimistic. All round happy mood for the blond looking to bounce on some time. She takes a deep breath and smiles even wider, if that's possible, and takes a bow. Seems like all this is rather staged, and she might or might not have been practicing her lines for this very moment. Probably not. ]

Hello, residents of Vatheon. I thank you for taking care of me when I arrived here a while ago. It's a pleasure to be here and so far, everyone's been nothing but kind to me. I'm lucky to have people around who are generous and welcoming. I think it's a great place to be, second to home, but it's just been wonderful, these few days. I really do enjoy the setting of Vatheon!

[ She does, however, put on a more serious face after the earlier proclamation. Is she going to talk about something unrelated? ] Does anyone know what kind of power the coral holds? I'm kind of curious, but I can't seem to put a finger on what kind of energy it radiates. I've been there, but the mysterious nature of the power is...unsettling? Has anyone actually gone to check it out or dig deeper? The locals aren't saying much about it.

[ She takes on a rather sheepish look now, her face lowering a bit, although her eyes are still focused on the communicator, gazing through her eyelashes, mostly. She dismisses the look immediately, though, and gives her one hundred watt smile, yet again. What's she up to? She quickly rubs the back of her head, like she does regularly, and laughing. ]

A-anyway! Does anyone know a place to eat ice cream sundaes or cake? Pastries, I think is a better name for them. [ She chuckles a bit. ] And if there is one, does anyone want to join me in glorious cake-eating? Eating with friends is always nice! [ She giggles a bit, this is making her feel like a little girl again. ] Thank you for your time, everyone!

[ it's late night and Ryou is sitting on the floor of his living room surrounded by snack wrappers, empty bowls, and the like, as well as some sort of computer (whatever the fishbowl has to offer) ]

I think I've eaten the entire grocery store and just now I feel full. How odd. I know I can eat quite a bit but this is a bit ridiculous.

I've also come across some.... interesting information. That lab on the island. I think it was researching fish diseases.


[ ooc notes:
this is what he found (so I don't forget):
Bacterial diseases are the most common affliction of saltwater fish and can damage organs or cause the skin and gills to rot. There are also many parasites that can be deadly, including fish lice, which attache to the fish near its fins; flukes, which are microscopic parasites that clamp onto the body of the fish; and Ich, a parasite that multiplies on the fish very rapidly, causing the fish to isolate itself. Some of these afflictions can be treated with conditioners such as malachite and formalin. ]