AWKWARD ZOMBIE

So what do we do now? Add dialogue where we want?

Soon enough.

(I hit submit early on that post so cliffhanger, ffffffffffffffffff-) Next post should get things rolling.

When I awoke, I was on pavement. I looked around a bit, but the train wasn't in sight. It was daytime, that much was for sure, and the cicadas gently buzzed in the distance.

"Well well... it seems you bastards finally are awake..." a voice says calmly.

I looked to see where the voice came from, but all I could see was a tree in the center of this plaza. Wait, did he say "bastards?"

I looked around and only then noticed 10 other people around me.

"Wha- what's going on?"

"Isn't it obvious?" the same voice said coyly.

At that moment, from out of the tree came a horrible figure. The curator of our despair in this Town of Hope.



"You're in Hope Town, the place where dreams come true. For the next year, you'll live in the lap of luxury, and when it's time to leave, you'll be prepared for whatever life throws at you... sound like a pretty sweet deal?"

"Who are you?"

"I was asking a question..." he says through gritted teeth, but then sighs. "Maybe I should have said this sooner so you impudent welps would know proper respect. I am Tom Nook, the Super High Villager Level Realtor. I'll be in charge of your debt."

"Debt? There was nothing about debt in the paperwork for moving here!"

"You didn't think moving to a town with as good a deal as this would be free did you, but no matter, you have the full year to pay back the debt, or else you'll live here the rest of your life."

"I never agreed to this!"

"Are you saying you... won't pay your debt?"

"Why would I, shit-for-brains!"

"U...Upupu... Upupupupupupu... Well then... I guess you'll get to work in the shop right away... Boys, take him away."

"Yes Uncle! Yes Uncle!"

"What? Get your hands off of me. Let go! LET GO!!!"

As I struggled, the two raccoons dragged me away. I broke free for an instant and ran at that bastard Tom Nook. I landed a punch, but that was my biggest mistake.

"U.pu.pu..." he said in a deeper disjointed voice. "It seems you don't want to play by the rules. And all good villagers must follow The Mayor's rules..."

"The Mayor?"

But he didn't answer my question. Instead, the twins ambushed me, grabbing me from behind as Tom Nook bit deeply into my arm. And the next instant was my last on this earth.



Out of the tree came yet another Tom Nook, even though the previous one had self-destructed.

"I hate losing clients like that, but he didn't follow the rules. And I expect the rest of you to not make the same mistake, or else, upupu..."

I can think of nothing worse than death by stock photography

Are we allowed to talk now?

"Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzz!"
Joe the bird was awestruck by the explosion.
"Hey, raccoon guy, what's up with this place and why'd you explode that guy?"

The white doe watched in horror as the two little raccoons dragged out the stranger. Before she could raise her voice in protest, she shielded her face as the explosion went off. It was a little too close for comfort, and she was knocked onto her backside from the aftershock.

Slowly getting back to her feet, she opened her eyes again, glancing over at the explosion site. The ground was blackened, and in the middle lay a charred lump, with smoke still rising from the side. Wait--that was--oh dear. Diana took a step back, looking at the site, transfixed in horror. "You...you just..." She prided herself on the type to keep her composure, but this was surely not a normal event. The larger raccoon was there, seemingly unharmed by the explosion, or so it seemed to her.

Her mouth was dry as he spoke to the rest of them. Mind racing, she avoided any eye contact with their host. One question showed up in her mind, and she dared to voice it:
"What exactly...is this debt?" She looked back at him nervously.

"Allowed to talk? What are you talking about, you bastard?"

Yes, you are allowed to talk starting now. My bad;;



"Weren't you listening earlier? This is Hope Town, where all of your dreams come true! That is, if you can pay off your debt to me in a year. Otherwise, you'll be stuck working here forever, which isn't that bad a deal either, upupu..."



"The debt is what you owe in exchange for living expenses for a year. Think of it as your loan needed for a year's worth of rent, facility memberships, utilities, etc. everything in Hope Town is free because the costs are rolled into your debt."

Tom turns away from the group, smirking to himself darkly.

"though, because of this sweet deal, things are a bit... pricey... after all, the Stalk Market recently crashed and the economy hasn't fully recovered in The City yet... but you can't put a price on this kind of opportunity, can you? Clearly a debt of 999,800 bells can be paid off easily, compared to what you'll make once you leave Hope Town, yes?"

The two young raccoons reappear from another place and start prodding the charred carcass of the unknown figure.

"Timmy! Tommy! Go dispose of that thing right away. It has no place in Hope Town any longer, upupu."

"Yes Uncle! I love this part of the job..."

They drag the remains away, letting the body scrape over the rocks as they went along their merry way.

"Now, I'm sure you're curious about what you can do to pay off your debt, am I right?"

Tom still had that grim smirk on his face. Obviously this won't be as easy as he implies.

Whitney folded her arms, letting her nose hover in the air as she looked at Tom with a hint of disdain. "I assume that you're going to have a way for us to make cheddar somehow, to pay off our debts. What do you expect us to do?"

The smirk on his face took an even more sinister turn, and a visible chill went down all of your spines.

"Well, normally, you'd expect to be able to pay off such a debt by doing work, or maybe catching and selling something like fruits, fish, or bugs, yes?"

"But sadly my business is thriving on it's own, and I don't need such goods cluttering my shelves, and with the high rate of unemployment, there's more people who need jobs than jobs available, so I wouldn't get my hopes up on that..."

"Should I tell them... upupu..."

"Alright you bastards, you want to know the best (And only) way to pay off your debt? You can commit murder!"

Tom looks absolutely jovial as he says this. You can practically see brightly colored flowers and sunshine coming out of his head.

"But you can't just murder anyone. You have to murder one of your fellow villagers. In other words, one of the other 9 that are moving in. If you can do that, and get away with it without people pointing the finger at you, I'll absolve all of your debts! Wow! If only I could have paid off my debts that easily years ago!"

Could this really happen? Could someone be driven to murder for such a petty reason?

"Murder?!" Diana became indignant, a red angry blush rising from her cheeks. "That's insane, no doy!" She stood tall, looking unafraid.

"Well, if you don't commit murder, you'll be stuck here forever... or you might end up murdered yourself, upupu..."

"Besides which, if you don't catch a murderer once they kill someone, you'll be executed along with the other innocents."

"So, it's your choice. Kill or die, you bastards."

Kill or die? You really expect one of us to do that just to get out? How do you know we won't just escape?

"Oh my, I'm glad you asked~♪"

Tom points out along the train tracks, where two lookout stations with guard dogs are standing. One the sides of each lookout, there are what look like machine guns.

"Have you ever seen what happens to an animal when 30,000 bullets rip through them at once? And don't think you can get by when the guards are sleeping (Not that they sleep). Those machine guns are motion activated and have a range of half a mile, more than enough to cover any potential place you can try to flee to."

"Oh, and the ocean is patrolled by our own Sea Dog, Kapp'n. If you go outside the bounds of this town, you will die."

"Which reminds me, I have a gift for each of you!"

With that, he throws a small card at each of you.

"These are your villager cards. They're electronic and display all of the information on them that you'll need. Including the rules. I've updated them just now to include that latest rule."

TOM NOOK'S TOWN RULES

Failure to follow these rules will result in horrific murder for your character.

1. No editing. I don't think I need to emphasize this, but I will say that this could be the one that screws you over if you don't remember it. Etch it in your brain for your sake. I don't want drama and I don't want to kill someone for something stupid like this. I want to kill you because you killed a little girl in cold blood or something.

2. Follow forum rules. About the only rule that can be disregarded kinda is the double/triple post rule, since it conflicts with rule one, but do try to keep this to a minimum. I don't necessarily want to see three posts of "Lol, tis is dumb" "this*" "daisies, I can't believe I typo'd that."

3. No personal attacks or nastiness. People are going to accuse you of murder. Of which you may or may not be guilty of. If you aren't and they're going to "ruin the game" by ganging up on you, getting mad isn't the option. If you're the murderer and someone figured you out for a completely bullshit reason and you've just lost the game because of it, getting mad isn't going to make the game more enjoyable for everyone else. I don't foresee this being a problem, but if proletariats need to step into this thread, I'm going to kill the guilty party.

4. Only 1 after-death post. And it can't be directly related to the game. No "the Mayor is X" (though you can say "The Mayor is..." and end the post there).

5. No leaving the boundaries of the town. You will be killed for attempting to do so, and there is no escape before the game is over.

6. In game rules can be added at any time.

"You'll also need these." he says as he throws a letter at each of you.

Inside the letter you find a map of the town along with a key.

"That key leads to each of your houses. It's the only way into your house besides taking off the locks and breaking in (The windows are unbreakable and soundproof). You'll find in your houses a simple bed, desk, poster of myself, and some basic tools for survival, such as a watering can, fishing pole, bug net, murdering axe, and shovel for... disposing of things."



The Map of Hope Town

"Now, do you bastards have anything else to ask me?"

"Yeah," Whitney sniffed. "What's going to stop us from just...not playing along? What will you do if the year ends and we still have our 'debts'?"

"Then that's the best option. You'll live the rest of your lives in this town, cut off from the outside world. This will be your Garden of Eden, except, you know, without the gross hormones and "breeding" and such."

"But... can you say that everyone among you will be content to live out their lives here? There's always the possibility that one of you bastards will snap and decide to kill someone in order to escape, even if you've resigned to staying here."