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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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Yesssss their money now, they're going to take that because it's cash, the skull chain because it's shiny, they leave the cat treats, and take the hope fragments because they're shiny—-

They have their fist clutched around a hope fragment when Komaeda speaks up, and they yelp, skittering back and flinging the fragment as hard as they can at Komaeda's face, like there was some involuntary thought process that went "I thought you were dead" --> "I am never wrong" --> "stay dead" ]

( at least it's the hope fragments so he got hit by hope, and there's another audible "ah" that leaves past his lips. he blinks, reaching out for it so that he can hold it up like a shooting star above his head. )

Sorry, sorry... I understand I'd be better off dead.

( it's like he knows, but he turns his head towards where npc-kun skittered off to. )

Should I kill myself, is that what you want?

( and he asks that so easily, like he doesn't mind it. )

[ Oh. He's alive. Oh. Okay.

It's hard to tell because they've dropped the suncatcher, only able to see the side of Komaeda's shoulder and existing arm, but the fact that it moves is enough to relieve them of the thought of disembodied voices aka Komaeda's ghost.

So they pick themselves up and trot back to Komaeda, going ahead and sitting on his stomach and leaning towards his face because it's so hard to see through the mask that they do still have on and can't figure out how to take it off but that's okay, they're not crying if nobody can see their tears. ]

No... don't do that. I thought a ghost ate you.

( are they sitting on his stomach? literally insane, komaeda exhales a puff of air, and he's going to try and survive this. his breathing is slow and deliberate. that way, he doesn't die from something semi-heavy on him, and he looks up to seeing the glare of the gas mask's eyes looking down at him. isn't it going to get hot and foggy in there? not the team on the goggle part of it. )

I wouldn't be a ghost's favorite meal.

( he dangles the hope fragment still, and then brings it down to his chest as he looks up at them again. it's glowing a little, because that's what they are... fragments that glow and sparkle like the sun shining down against the surface of the sea. it's a comforting item, so at least npc-kun can use that as a small light source. )

I believe they're more interested in youths your age, actually...

[ Yeah, being in a gas mask for so long, especially having run up and down the hall, is kind of miserable. But they can't take the mask off so both of them will have to deal with the plastic between them. ]

No way. I'm... [ not allowed to announce their age on the account of Japan's national labor laws ]

It's okay! I scared it away, so it'll go haunt somebody else! You should have seen me! I was very cool.

[ Didn't scream or cry at all. ]

( when they say their age and it's like static on the tv, so komaeda just thinks his head is glitching or something. )

...Is that so. You did put your all into getting rid of that ghost, huh?

( his head still hurts, and his arm, and his nub... maybe he will be looking into that totem that makes the body numb. )

All that screaming that you did really showed them!

[ maybe it is ]

-—I wasn't screaming! I was yelling! Those are two different things!

[ Yelling was... a calculated action done to scare the ghost away, yes. ]

I did my best, so you need to praise me now.

What's the difference when fear was evident.

( he's not making this any better, but of course, he'll lift his nub arm up — realize that his mechanical arm is gone, and he raises the other instead to pat their head. )

Like this?

[ Thank god for the darkness and the mask so npc-kun doesn't have to see Komaeda wave his nub in the air, and it doesn't stop them from starting either when they first feel that touch on their head.

... ]

Maybe... you can use your words?

( saying something nice... why, this is a little difficult because what did npc-kun do aside from hit komaeda with his arm, and then run off yelling? )

...Try out for baseball, you have pretty great swings!

( does that pass? he's silent, trying to listen for if there's a grunt of disapproval. )

[ ...

It does get a pass, in the form of a huff, then a laugh, and npc-kun leans back again without getting off of Komaeda. ]

Yeah, they're great, huh? I bet I can hit so many home runs, I don't have to worry about anybody tackling me at the bases!

You actually liked that? ...Then you should look into it, I feel like I don't want to get up after you almost brutally murdered me with my own arm!

( he'll praise them for that, they did such a good job with every swing, and maybe komaeda could have lost a tooth if he didn't hold up his other hand to deflect it from coming close to his face. )

Keep up the good work!

Wha- no I didn't! I saved you from being brutally murdered!

[ They're a hero!! Don't do this to them. ]

It was dark and you couldn't see and I was wearing the mask, so I forgive you for being wrong. Here, help me get it off.

[ By "help" they mean they sit there expectantly and wait for Komaeda to take it off. ]

( truth is kryptonite!!

komaeda has to try and muffle his laughter, which he does by raising one hand over his lips, and give him a moment. )

I couldn't see... but you did see me, as long as you know where the threat is... you felt safe, didn't you? To think you were close to ending my life with such strong swings! Don't feel bad, there was hope behind the amount of strength you put in every aim...

( besides, that arm was created by two hopeful individuals. )

...Why?

[ He's wrong but... it's okay. Maybe the ghost hit him in the head and got him all confused. ]

Why... what?

[ Why did they fight off the ghost? Why did they come back? Why literally anything feels safer than pitch black darkness? Good questions. ]

( aratas sure do love saying people are wrong. )

You know... ( like he's waiting for them to answer it.

and komaeda only has one arm which he's shifting from npc-kun's head to messing with one of the straps, it'd be easier if he had two. they're in the dark so that no one can see him, but his voice is low anyway so no one knows that the other asked for help. )

If you tilt your head to the side, it'll be easier.

[ Gotta call people out when they're wrong.

But, oh. Maybe they'll be able to think better without the oxygen deprivation this masks threatens, so they tilt their head... thinking... not sure whether it would be easier for Komaeda if they were facing him or away from him, so they compromise by flopping down again on Komaeda's stomach and hugging him around the middle so that their head is just

there. tilted to the side.

... ]

Can I ask you why?

You may...

( close enough, he uses his right arm to pick at the straps, trying to undo them, which is tedious without a second arm. the worst part is that he can't even get his mechanical hand on without help, so he'll have to make do. he can feel how soft npc-kun's hair is, making sure that he doesn't pull as he slips the belt of the gas mask under the buckle, but they can feel the mask becoming loose around their face. )

It was meant to provide paranoia and mental deterioration, that's why.

That's not what I'm asking...

[ And they don't really understand what he's talking about anyways, because they weren't paranoid or losing their mind. The past is behind them and right now, lying against somebody, fingers combing through their hair, they feel safe, even when the mask falls away and they can see better how badly the ghost had beaten Komaeda up and they hug him all the harder for it. ]

Why weren't you scared?

What was there to be scared of? Dying? Being beat to death?

( he remembers that npc-kun wanted to know what komaeda was scared of, and his response was ugly people. as to why he's not afraid of what he went through, he stares at the other, feeling them hold him tighter. as the mask falls onto his chest, komaeda removes his hand from their hair, pushing the item off so that it clatters onto the floor next to them. )

This is my life...

( which isn't a good thing, but whirlwind instances that go both up and down, not knowing what the end result it is... komaeda always has hope waiting at the end, so he's able to stay positive, happy, and laidback no matter the circumstances. )

[ It really isn't a good thing, and being beaten to death shouldn't be anything anybody is used to. That in particular, and also...

...

npc-kun huffs a sigh, settling once more against Komaeda with their head turned so that their ear is pressed against his chest but they can barely hear anything. No tell tale drumming like their own heart is still doing, how slow it always takes to calm down. ]

Tell me about your life.

( he doesn't push npc-kun off, he only has one arm, so he tries to find a place to position it so that he doesn't get a cramp. there's nowhere comfortable on the floor, and so he rests his hand back against the youth's head, fingers slipping between locks of black hair as komaeda listens.

tell me about your life.

...

it's odd to hear something like that, people interested in his tumultuous rollercoaster of a life that he doesn't know whether to laugh or stay quiet. to talk about the reason why he's like this, the addendum would be that it's because he's lucky, so he's grateful for all his losses, the chances that he was able to obtain.

... )

Hm? It's pretty boring, just like me... do you think you have customers now?

( he's trying... )

No. We'd hear them talking about the dark.

[ Nobody in their right mind would walk down a dark corridor like it's nothing just to go to the student store and buy rocks without at least questioning it. That, and... they don't quite feel like being in customer service mode right now. ]

I'm interested in your boring life, so tell me. Who you grew up with... if you cried on your first day of school... when you learned how to ride a bike, or to swim, or to jump rope... I want to hear those things.

[ Boring. Mundane. But it's things they didn't have, so, they're interested. ]

( they would hear a few students, especially if they thought that the shopkeeper was gone from their post — and they wouldn't be able to get far with their bones cracking, not like komaeda knows that right now, but he'd figure out if that was the case. )

...That sounds like a normal life, I don't have anything like that.

( being normal, having the chance to go to school and cry, or to learn how to ride a bike... having people that even want to be around you to have have things like that. it doesn't fit in komaeda's lifestyle, but he can answer only a few of them. )

Do people cry on their first day of school?

[ Is normal not synonymous to boring? They would have thought so, but they don't have the best baseline to be able to tell. All they have to go off of is books and movies where little kids have both parents and dog and maybe a horse and it's always sunny and bright and warm because nobody writes children books with little cabins in a desolate forest in the wintertime as a setting. ]

I guess... I think I would have.

Please let August be better than July I'm begging

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