First there was darkness. Then it gave way to light. My eyes fluttered open, then momentarily snapped back shut because of how bright it was. A thought crossed my mind. 'It must be morning now. I better get ready for the day.'

I pushed the blanket that covered me down towards the dark wooden bed frame. It was a light blue and it met the end of my bed frame, the blanket that once covered me now partially covering the dark wood of my bed frame. Looking up, it was my normal white ceiling coupled with pastel blue walls and cream colored carpet. Sunlight continued streaming through the two windows to my right as I pushed myself out of bed, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, followed by me opening the white door that led to the hallway. Nobody stirred except for me as light continued to pour out the large window overlooking the staircase and shining through the clear glass of the suspended light in the center of the entrance to where I lived. 'I guess Mommy and Daddy haven't woken up yet.' I figured, entering the bathroom door next to my room.

Upon opening the door, sunlight greeted me once again through the closed bathroom window; its soft lace curtain tied to the side. Closing the door behind me, I pressed the lock and opened the closet behind that door and pulled out a towel, tossing it onto the toilet. Afterwards, I turned the water on, accidentally pulling it past what I normally did, grabbing my toothbrush and going through with my morning ritual during summer vacation: wake up, brush my teeth, take a shower, and eat breakfast.

After a few moments of the toothbrush swishing through my mouth and the water gradually warming up, I finally finished and spit into the sink for the final time, I wiped my mouth with the sleeve of my shirt. 'Two of four done!' I mentally cheered myself on. I was so happy that I didn't even realize the shower was too hot, touching the scalding stream of water that flowed from the spout and jerked my hand back. It was way too hot. Because of that one brief action, my hand scraped against the rough edge of the spout, leaving a slight cut on my right hand. I immediately noticed it, rushing out of the bathroom and closing the door behind me, and down the stairs I went.

When I reached the foot of the stairs, I heard no sounds come from the kitchen. 'Nobody must be awake yet.' That was good. It made it easier to hide that cut. I quietly ran to the kitchen, hopping on a stool in the corner of the counters and opened the squeaky upper cabinet door, pulling a small box full of band-aids out and removing one. I quickly ripped it out of its package, snatching the paper from the counter and tossing them in the garbage bin that hid inside a lower cabinet, followed by me shutting the the cabinets and making a dash back upstairs, taking the stairs two at a time. I swung open the bathroom door, but caught it so I wouldn't wake my sister who slept across the hall from me. Instead of sunlight, I was greeted by a gust of warmth and steam that slowly entered the hallway and dissipated, but my eyes weren't on the bathtub; they were on the words written on the mirror in fog letters, their origin confusing me.

'Welcome to the Nonary Game!' Was the first line. In moments my mind was flooded with thoughts of dread, worry, and confusion. My mind was already an uproar of different thoughts that flew through my head, but one thought rung clear in the ocean of emotions that pounded through my head.

'What's the Nonary Game?'

That was when I realized it. There was a slight weight on my left wrist. My eyes instantly jumped down to whatever foreign object was there. It was a white, yellow, blue, and pink bracelet encircling my left wrist displaying a dark blue number. It was the number [8].

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Nonary Game: Project Arius. This is my own version of the Nonary Game! I will only be accepting eight other characters because the Nonary Game requires a total of nine participants, with the character in the introduction being one of them. However, I have a few rules for submitting a characters along with some information I want to communicate to you.

1. No perfect characters whatsoever. This takes the enjoyment out of being sadistic and watching nine people duke it out against each other if all of them or even one of them are perfect in any shape or form.

2. The participants must be humans. This is self-explanatory because robots don't make sense in this situation.

3. Only one submission per person until I say otherwise. You may submit multiple characters, but, as long as this rule stands, I will only accept one submission from each person who submits one. I would rather have as many different people as possible than have all of the submissions be from one or two people. Only if I believe it's impossible to receive the amount of characters required for the story, I will maintain this rule.

4. What I do with your character is my choice. This is my story and I don't want anybody attempting to make their characters survive just because. 999 is a game where death is always present and my story is no different.

5. Likewise to the games there will be multiple endings. It's up in the air whether your character dies or not or if their fate is unknown. It's really up to me. Keep in mind that just because someone dies in one ending, that doesn't mean they'll die in every ending.

6. Only one character can be Zero. Of course, there can be multiple characters behind the Nonary Game and assisting Zero, but only one participant can be Zero: the mastermind behind this game.

7. I can deny your character if the need arises or I feel I must do so. If I feel that your submission cannot be a participant, I will provide you constructive criticism on how to improve them. The same goes for numbers if that spot is already taken. I can also remove your character even if it seems I've accepted them. The same goes for removing characters already accepted when the story starts. If you're a jerk to people or leave reviews that bully others, I will not hesitate to give your character the same fate as a certain participant in the first game. However, constructive criticism is greatly appreciated and welcome as is pointing out if I portrayed your character incorrectly. After all, nobody can improve if they aren't open to constructive criticism. But, do not be afraid to post simple reviews not offering any sort of constructive criticism. I believe everyone communicates however they see fit! Thank you to Mortician No.66 for pointing out the flaws of this rule. Your review is greatly appreciated!

8. I will not accept any submissions that come to me through a review to this story even if they're resubmitted through a PM afterwards. This compromises your character altogether.

9. Please fill in all required fields of the form to have your character selected. If you don't fulfill this, I will notify you of this. Don't forget to say Funyarinpa as the header of your submission PM to let me know! Or not, I guess. Add whatever you want after that!

If you have any questions, simply ask me and I will try to give you an answer as soon as possible! Anyways, let's move on to the submission form!

Name: (Whatever your character's real name is. Whether this is revealed during the story is up to you.)

Bracelet Number: (Probably one of the most important aspects of your character. We should all know this. We should all also know they're numbered one through nine, and that eight is taken.)

Alias: (You can choose whether or not your character wants to keep their identity a secret from the others like in the first game, but, if they choose not to reveal their real name, they must at least have something else they go by. Heck, they can be from anywhere or have the most random name you can think of.)

Age: (How old your character is. They can be a little kid like the person in the introduction, or they can be old enough to be your great-grandma or something. Anything works as long as they're physically fit enough to get around on their own.)

Birthday: (C'mon, this is important. At least, it might be. Who knows? :D)

Gender: (Anything really works as long as I have a relatively balanced cast.)

Sexuality: (We might as well ship some people in here now that we're stuck.)

Occupation: (Could be a student, unemployed, or multiple things. Anything remotely legal can work.)

Personality: (Alright, I won't ask too much of you. I mostly want to know how they act overall, what might lead them to betray the others, what might lead them to kill the others, how they would act in the Nonary Game situation, and what kind of people would they trust?)

Backstory: (Pretty basic, too. I want at least something around five to ten sentences detailing what they've done with their life. Maybe how and why they ended up in the Nonary Game?)

Appearence: (Please tell me the overall appearance of your character. This includes physical features, skin color (ethnicity), height, and clothing. Please be as decent as Lotus. We can all strive for that, right?)

Manner of Speaking: (Give me a few quotes or at least tell me how they would talk with the others. You should also include languages because we might have fun with signs if there's ever a language barrier! Also, do they curse a lot? Does it depend on the situation, or do they just don't do it?)

Strengths: (At least two, and at most five.)

Weaknesses: (At least three, and at most five.)

Would Your Character Be Zero?: (Please give me a yes or no answer. If you do want your character to be Zero, please explain what their motivations are or at least why they would be a good fit as they mastermind of this Nonary Game.)

Other: (Put anything you feel that I should know here.)

The Participants

1. Alpha (Colton989)

2. Valentine (JamesBa63264050)

3. Chimera (SanityRequiem)

4. Moriarty (tobi-is-an-artist-too)

5. Pen (Sapptor)

6. Trickster (Alex The God Killer)

7. Ruby (Northern Knight)

8. Infinity (YellowTheWriter)

9. Caesar (The1AndOnlyYoursTruly)