CH2 - The Dazzling Sands of Despair [MOTIVE] [MANDATORY]

Irene frowned slightly. Vacation was not a word in her vocabulary. It was a word she knew of, but not one she made use of, and for what reason, really? There was always work to be done, and in order to remain the best, one must continue to practice their craft. Short respites throughout the day were necessary, of course, in order to maintain productivity and keep the mind in ideal condition to continue the task at hand. While this competition was a vacation of a sort, Irene had continued her work, even without customers to sell them to, and the mansion had proven a satisfactory change in environment. It was not her workshop, but it was a comfortable alternative for the time. Perhaps the change in environment was the reason for vacations, in which case, there was some merit to be found.

However, this new environment was an unfamiliar one, and an unwelcome one. The harsh light of the sun was nowhere to be found in her workshop, nor nor was it something she wished to seek out. The sun, likewise, did not seem especially interested in searching for her, and so this arrangement had kept their relationship a happy one up to this point in her life. It was questionable how the odious homunculus had even made such a thing possible to access with a single elevator, which was certainly an interesting feat of engineering in its own right, but she could not put her mind to that at the moment. There was some ulterior motive behind this for certain, whether to simply inconvenience them or to have the wildlife slaughter them all, and it would reveal itself in time. For now, all that Irene could do was wait.

She fell to the floor upon the shake of the elevator, but after a few seconds on the ground, sat up, stood, and dusted herself off, moving as mechanically as she'd done since they arrived. "I am uninjured, but unhappy. The introduction of this island cannot mean well."

After the entire bloody fiasco that was Ren and Excrest, Apollo didn't want to go through anymore of Monokuma's despair-inducing antics. He had desperately wanted absolutely nothing more than for everything to go back to the way it was supposed to be, when everyone was hopeful and everything made sense. But, of course, that was all before Apollo heard that dreaded bear's voice once more.

"Oh God..." Apollo said before getting up from his bed and tying up his hair into its usual ponytail. After that, he carefully made his way to the living room, knowing full well that he had no other choice, and that he would probably be punished if he refused to show up. This definitely wasn't the first killing game that had ever happened, and he knew damn well that the mastermind always had far more power than the unwilling participants could ever hope to have. So, their best bet would be to just go along with whatever they ordered and just hoped they would survive until the end.

Anyways, Apollo entered the living room and greeted the other contestants with his usual smile and wave, then watched as the TV turned on. Apollo suddenly found himself smiling happily as he found himself witness to a beautiful and breathtaking island paradise. And strangely enough, it didn't even appear to be one of those artificial islands that corporations usually create for the sake of tourism. No, it seemed completely natural, which certainly couldn't be possible after the Tragedy. Oh, but Apollo didn't really care about that right now. He was willing to believe anything.

"Oh, this is so exciting! A lovely island getaway! Just for us!" Apollo said as he rushed onto the elevator. "I didn't think any of this would be real after the Tragedy, but still! This is so amazing!"