SOLITAIRE || AIB || OC

Sachihiro Aito - Three of Diamonds

“Welcome players! Night is upon us, and the game must begin! The name of tonight’s game is: Escape room! Ranking: Three of diamonds! Players participating: Two!”

Sachihiro turned to look at a blank-faced Valentine, who appeared at least a little confused, though Sachihiro couldn’t make up his mind on whether it was due to the fact Valentine was unable to translate what had been said, or whether, like himself, the contents of the statement confused him. Valentine grimaced, running a hand through his hair as he leant back on his heels, grimacing as the pair heard the speaker buzz with noise yet again, cheerful as ever.

“The name of the game is Escape room! The rules are as follows;” The speaker paused for a moment, almost as though to give them time to process, “The game will be completed when the safe has been opened, and the door will unlock.. The code to the safe is hidden around this bathroom! Every five minutes, the temperature in this room will decrease. Indefinitely.”

The speaker crackled off once again, as Sachihiro looked bewilderedly around the room, looking for the safe. He’d reacted much faster than Valentine, who was standing stock still in the middle of the bathroom, furrowing his brows in confusion whilst Sachihiro scrambled around the room. This day was just getting weirder and weirder - Sachihiro knew he shouldn’t take the announcement at face value, and there was absolutely nothing to prove that anything was true, but he’d seen the laser with his own eyes, he could still see Valentine’s burnt shoe on the ground. He wasn't sure how hot it was in the room - maybe twenty, no, fifteen degrees? And… the coldest a human could survive, that must be around minus thirty? He didn’t quite know how much the temperature would decrease by, but five degrees seemed to be a safe bet. So that meant him and Valentine only had about  fifty minutes. He could do that. He’d done actual escape rooms in less time. He could do this.

Sachihiro quickly began to tear up the room. He checked all the obvious “not-so-obvious” spaces. He gently unpicked the signs that were arranged in a square on the wall, leaving not a single “wash your hands” reminder remaining on the wall, furling them up, leaving them neatly curled up on the sink. Valentine was slower to start, but much more reckless in his approach, checking every obvious nook and cranny he could think of. Neither of them knew what they were looking for, but they both knew that everything was on the line.
“Safe!” Valentine called out to Sachihiro, who turned back to him, watching as valentine pulled out this locked box from under the sink. He’d hardly call it a safe - Sachihiro had been expecting a hefty black box, something high tech. But no. It was small, and grey, and had this flimsy sort of look to it. The padlock on the front had four number options. 1-9, as standard. Six thousand, five hundred, and sixty one options. The voice came from the speaker again, still with its antagonisingly painful, playful lilt. 

“A player has located the safe! The code to the safe is hidden around this bathroom!” Valentine scoffed. Like he didn't know that already. The voice was just repeating itself. “As a precaution against any foul play in this escape room, each player has three attempts at the code, before it is game over!”

Sachihiro squinted, looking at the box with a wary gaze. He couldn’t - absolutely couldn’t- touch the box unless he was absolutely sure of what the code was. But valentine had this gleeful sparkle in his eye, as he looked over at Sachihiro.
“Game over!”
“What?” Sachihiro looked up at Valentine, tearing his gaze away from the signs he’d been analysing.
“The game will be over if we get three wrong attempts.” Valentine grinned, looking at Sachihiro.
“That’s what the speaker said, yes.”  He furrowed his eyebrows, as he tried to work out exactly what Valentine meant. Was there some sort of secret code he couldn’t notice? But, it clicked soon enough as Valentine began to fiddle with the dials on the lock. 

“Player: ‘Valentine Sylvaine’ has guessed incorrectly! Two attempts remain for this player!” 

“What on earth are you doing? Don’t waste your attempts.” Sachihiro spoke harshly, stepping over to wrench the safe out of Valentine’s hands, taking a breath to prevent him from coming across as too snide. “Game over doesn’t mean we can leave- It’s probably something worse.”
“Oh. Oh, Oh my god. I’m so sorry!” Valentine apologised, waving his hands around “I was misunderstanding that. Oh my god. Yes,  please, be keeping that away from me. Oh my god.” He rambled, before shoving his hands in the pockets of his trousers.
“Don’t touch it until you know for sure what the code is.” Sachihiro glared at Valentine, remembering just how much he hated working as a team, hated when people wouldn’t follow his plan. But he pressed that down, softening his gaze in an attempt to seem amicable. “And if there's anything you don’t understand from now on, tell me.”
“You’re the boss, Hiro.”
Sachihiro sighed at the nickname. “Hiro?”
“Mhm. Sachihiro is a..lot to be saying. Are you not having short names?”
“Nicknames?” Sachihiro half corrected. Now was not the time to be having this conversation. It was getting cold, It must have dropped at least fifteen degrees during their search. He shivered. “We have nicknames, yes. But most people go for ‘Sachi’. If they must try.” He spoke with some distaste, going back to the signs, set on the idea that something, anything must be hidden on them.