August Event

[adsum]

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Please let August be better than July I'm begging

✽ Due to 10+ classes raising their ranks last month, ALL characters have access to the courtyard via the door in the locker area and the windows facing the courtyard.
✽ Characters with 1-10 tallies are not able to get any further past the end of the courtyard before they fall unconscious; characters with 10-20 can get halfway to the pool building before the same happens to them; characters with 20+ tallies can reach the pool building but unfortunately, the door is on the other side. There are no windows on the walls, but from the clocktower, characters can see that it has a glass ceiling, though they are unable to see inside.
✽ Outside, there is no breeze, and it occasionally rains ash.
✽ Characters going up to the 4th floor will feel that the door is warm to the touch, and will occasionally open (see: missions)
✽ The student store opens, with the door propped open with a doorstopper. The npc running the store is currently not interested in conversation, but may be available for threading in the future and is available for threading in the toplevel below. Please see the updated bonus activity page for more information.
✽ Posted on the bulletin board and also handed to each club president before break is the notice that proof of club activity is due at the end of break. Please submit these proofs in the toplevel below.
✽ There is another ad on the bulletin board advertising an exchange student program for the month of October. Applications will be taken until the end of August, and there is a 300 merit point fee. Sister cities include Death City, Devildom, Ishigami Village, Lanling, LazyTown, and Maiami City.

Comments

[adsum]

It is what it is.

[ Neither complement nor complaint, but the first thing that came to mind when they read that riddle. Their eyes glance over to the suncatchers hanging in the corner of the room, but that can't be it either, because if those could be found anywhere, under the moon or sun, they wouldn't be able to charge such exorbitant prices for them.

... ]

Me?

[ Look at them... practically glowing... not one to shy away from the spotlight but rather demands it. ]

[commences]

Remember what I said.

( don't take things too seriously, is what he said before, at the start before the other came to sit down with him here next to the footlocker. komaeda pulls out a key, undoing it so he can take a look inside for a few of his things... what does he want today? maybe he wants to mess with whatever the other has instead. )

Hm...

( he looks at npc-kun from their brown eyes, to their fluffy hair, the mochi cheeks... )

Glowing, but not the answer!

[adsum]

[ Komaeda's said so many things, help. npc-kun goes over the lines in their head again, "by moon or by sun, i shall be found. yet, i am undone if there's no light around"

... ]

Photons.

[commences]

( NOT PHOTONS. )

...It's hard to hide something in photons.

( he looks at the suncatchers, sighing... very hard to hide in photons. )

[adsum]

[ They also look up at the suncatchers... but that's the wrong answer, they already know, so they're sticking to their guns. ]

I'm right, though.

[commences]

( !?!??!?!?! komaeda can't believe this.... photons... he stares at the suncatchers... which could be an obvious answer. )

...Nothing can be hidden in photons, I don't have that talent, you know.

( he's ultimate luck, not ultimate... photon merger. )

[adsum]

[ That's true... photons are elementary particles; nowhere inside to hide anything. ]

Why is it something that can be hidden...?

[commences]

Using your sense of deduction to find the answer will show how far you're willing to go.

( but with npc-kun making their own answers, despite how far out they are... that's admirable. )

...You're very creative, I must admit. Why should it not be hidden, not everything is right before your eyes, sometimes... you must search.

[adsum]

[ "by moon or by sun, i shall be found. yet, i am undone if there's no light around"
"sometimes... you must search"
okok they can make use of that hint—- ]

Sight.

[commences]

( ... )

I can check, come here.

( what does that mean? )

[adsum]

[ YEAH WHAT DOES THAT MEAN

npc-kun scoots closer. closer, closer, no concept of personal space. ]

[commences]

( close enough for komaeda to cup their cheeks in his hands, soft skin... he's looking them over, mostly staring at one of their eyes. )

They've always told us to keep our eyes open... do you play by that rule, too?

( he'll lean in, keep their face in position... and drag his tongue along one of their eyes —

yeah... YEAH... THIS IS WHAT IT MEANT. )

[adsum]

[ me: crying as i gently lift lily off my laptop
lily: whaps me with her tail upon exit

ANYWAYS NPC-KUN IS GOING TO SQUEEZE THEIR EYES SHUT, THANK YOU, KOMAEDA CAN GET A TASTE OF THEIR EYELID

...

whaps Komaeda on the flesh arm with their hand ]

[commences]

( NOT LILY'S ACTIONS SHOWING IN THIS THREAD I'M LAUGHING.

ow! ow! komaeda retracts his hand from their face, and he's going to rub it like he's actually been hurt. )

Nice reaction, I didn't think you'd move so fast. ( chuckles softly. ) What did you see...?

( nothing, which means it wasn't hidden there either! )

[adsum]

The corneal reflex is involuntary and automatic...

[ Nothing is right, though. They didn't really see anything, other than the image of Komaeda's face leaning in so close towards them that's burned into their mind.

... ]

I saw you. But you said that's not the answer.

[commences]

I thought it was a pretty interesting answer, even though I knew it was wrong.

( because that's not where the item is, but it is kind of him to play with them like this. picking at their brain with their replies, and each and every response from them is unique. )

What catches both the sun and the moon? It has to be something specific, because I'm unable to do that... that's why it's not me.

[adsum]

You're specific. Every singular soul is unique.

[ It's a moot point, though, when it isn't the answer. npc-kun looks down at their hands, thinking.

...

...

looks back up at Komaeda ]

A camera with a solar filter.

[commences]

There's no hope inside of me, so it has to be hopeful in some way.

( like the... he looks at the suncatchers... )

Do you like taking pictures, I have a camera... maybe one wouldn't hurt...

( he mumbles, he'd have to fun and get it, but that sounds fun... unless npc-kun has one on hand. )

[adsum]

[ No, he can't trick them into guessing suncatchers, they're not going to fall for that, they're too smart ]

I've never really taken pictures much. But it'll hurt if you don't have a solar filter. The sun will burn your eyes.

[commences]

( komaeda is going to start thinking they're a little slow to the chase... when the obvious answer is... )

It's a different type of camera... digital so it won't harm your eyes... It'll even show us what we look like in a screen at the bottom.

( so once again, they're wrong, but komaeda's just humoring them at this point. )

You can save it for memories, like your essay on the manifolds.

[adsum]

[ LOOK it's 1999, digital cameras are still new and fancy and do they look rich enough to be able to afford and play around with one of those? ]

And you have one? A camera like that?

[ ... ]

I want to see. Take a picture of us, so you can remember me.

[commences]

( after all the money they got from every recently? they could! but buying a polaroid would be cuter, then they have to dip the film in water... isn't that how that works. )

Kawaii-san normally has it, but she lends it to me often... it's filled with many pics of Lily May.

I'll be back.

( npc-kun probably doesn't know who that is, but komaeda's going to get up from where he's sitting to run off somewhere—

...

five minutes.

...

ten minutes.

...

fifteen minutes.

...

twenty five minutes... )

[adsum]

[ ...

...

...

...

...

THEY'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS BULLSHIT PEOPLE TELLING THEM THEY'LL BE BACK AND THEN THEY DISAPPEAR AAAAAAAAAAAA

Half an hour and npc-kun slips out the door, closing it behind them and first goes up the stairwell all the way up to the fourth floor on the right side of the building, and then the stairwell down to the ground floor on the left, because what if something happened, what if he fell, nobody will find his corpse for days now that there's an elevator installed—- ]

[commences]

( is that how much faith they have in him, i'm literally crying. they'll find him on the ground floor with a camera in hand, along with a few snacks that he's got from... don't ask him, he just has them.

also there's maybe a bottle of pills from the nurse's office, but he's been walking around, nothing too bad! it's the pitter patter of shoes against the floor that makes komaeda turn around, and he blinks slow: )

Are you looking for something?

( as if he hasn't been gone for about thirty minutes and some change, but he's walking over to npc-kun to place a few of the canned food items into their hands. ) I wasn't sure what you liked, so I brought options...

( did he steal from the food drive? don't ask! there has to be a reason he's going the long way around. )

[adsum]

[ huff puff high school has too many stairs, and why was Komaeda out ??shopping when he could've gone to the student store, which doesn't sell food but it still feels like a mark of betrayal. ... They can forgive betrayal, though, when there's food and they're hungry. Canned peaches... Tuna. Corn.

... ]

I was looking for you. I thought you might have died.