npc contact.2

[adsum]

full navigation

As the game progresses, different npc faculty and students will become available for threading. To request a thread, please comment below with the name of the npc and the ic date in the subject header. Threads may be cut short due to mod availability, so please have a reason in mind for the interaction.

✽ index
✽ post 1
✽ post 2
✽ post 3
✽ post 4

Comments

10/20, kazuki bc full moon

[decrypter]

[until someone tells her that Kazuki can only be interacted with on the full moon if they don't have Sight, she'll continue her trend of trying every week, picking different days to see if she might encounter him again.

she's been giving her love to the flowers in the courtyard, a clumsy sort of care but heartfelt, looking to them on afternoons when she doesn't have her club meetings and she can get away with borrowing tools from the gardening club. hopefully, they appreciate it - hopefully, they are doing better, but she can't know on her own merits.

this time, she hears someone, and her calling out is hopeful.]

Mr. Kazuki? Is that you?

[adsum]

Yes, it is me.

[ There's that touch of surprise— welcome, though— when he hears his name and turns to regard it, slow steps through the field of flowers so that they're nudged aside rather than trampled on. ]

How have you been, lass?

[decrypter]

It's been somewhat chaotic lately, but I'm still here.

[which is a good enough barometer for how she is. her ankle's been mending and should be fully fine by next month, her friends are back from their exchange program, and she's still alive.]

What about you, though? I haven't noticed you around lately - I thought I must have missed the full moon.

[adsum]

[ Still alive is a very good thing to be. ]

I am here every night without fail, even as winter approaches and there is less to tend to. Perhaps we have just missed one another.

[decrypter]

That's likely it. I wanted to ask you, though - are the flowers starting to feel happier now? You mentioned last time they would appreciate care in the daytime, and so I was hoping it would be an improvement.

[so far, she doesn't think anything died under her attempts, but she can't tell.]

[adsum]

[ ...

okay, so it's fall and the plants are getting ready to die ]

I can tell they are being tended to. It certainly makes my job a lot easier, come nightfall, and I may spend more of my time just being around the plants.

[decrypter]

I know it's autumn, and it's closer to harvest than to new growth, but even so...they'll still benefit from care, won't they?

[things that are dead can be removed, to let the plants slumber more peacefully, to let new growth become uninhibited when it emerges.]

[adsum]

They will. As with people, the type of care needed changes in time, but that does not mean the need is not there.

[ He leans down, feeling the ground for a moment before straightening and approaching; when he stops in front of Helena, she'll feel a leaf brush against her hand and then held there. ]

The tree will start to drop its leaves, and we may use it to provide bedding for the other plants before winter comes. If you come across any lying on the ground, it would do well to collect them.

[decrypter]

[oh!! she can do this sort of task, easily - there's probably going to be a lot of leaves falling, but maybe someone has a rake to make them into a pile.]

Do you want them in just a pile, or should I try to find some sort of sack for them?

[adsum]

Whichever is easiest for you, lass. There is no right or wrong way to garden.

[ Yes there is, actually. But presumably mulch isn't very hard, I've never done it before ]

Eventually they will be laid around the base of the tree and other bushes in the courtyard, to keep the frost out.

[decrypter]

[we're going to pretend they know how to mulch, I live where we don't get snow so waves my hands]

Like their own kind of blanket. Does it get terribly cold here?

[adsum]

Some winters are harsher than others. Some years we get warm winters with much snow. Other years, it is cold enough to bite at your nose and ears upon moments of being outside.

[ and the school building has no central heating so RIP ]

[decrypter]

Can you tell, before it begins? Like you can with the rain - I want to make sure all my friends stay warm.

[the leaf he's given her goes in her pocket....just because.]

And you as well, of course.

[adsum]

You needn't worry about me, lass. The cold will not hit for few more weeks. You will be able to tell because the air is crisp, and it is quiet. You would be able to stand where you are and hear the leaves rustling in the forest out yonder.

[ you can tell it's going to be very cold when it gets colder, or something. I usually expect first snow around mid-November. ]

[decrypter]

[thank you, I don't get snow where I live so now we can just expect everyone to freeze in November.]

The forest...from all I know about it, sometimes it's easier to think of it like a sort of wall, to shield us from what's outside.

[or to cage them, but she won't say that part aloud.]

[adsum]

[ looks at the calendar, it can freeze on keigo's birthday, so sneak peak for the log I'm penning in the first snow on the 23rd ]

...the forest is a dangerous place, so it is not surprising that students refrain from wandering within. There have been many unfortunate deaths amongst the trees, and it can be difficult to find one's way, for all the smells and sounds.

[decrypter]

And here I thought we simply weren't allowed to go in. No one wants yet another death on their hands.

[they have enough of that without the forest to contend with. still, she wants to press just a touch more.]

Is that where you go, when you're not here? Hidden in the forest?

[adsum]

[ It's kind of complicated when he also doesn't want another death on his hands but also he's hungry ]

That is where I return to, but not to hide. The forest is my home.

[ He is the dangerous thing in the forest ]

[decrypter]

Then you're the only one who could probably navigate it safely. Only...please be careful, Kazuki. If it's that dangerous, then even if it is your home...

[her words trail off, but her implication is clear. the danger shouldn't swallow him in the bargain. brief as their encounters have been, she'd like to think of him as something of a friend,

[adsum]

...I will be careful.

[ It's like warning someone there's a shark in the water except they're the shark. But there's always something that hunts something else, and someday, like in August, and again way back then, somebody will come out to hunt him. ]

One day, peace will return to this school and my presence will no longer be needed to look after the dead. When that time comes, and if you are still here, I hope you will be able to walk out the woods without worry. It is a place full of life, as if wind were breath and rivers were veins and the sound all around were whispers of the soul.

[decrypter]

I'd like that. Very, very much.

[if they hadn't been running for their lives back then, actually, she would have wanted to walk in the forest with her friends, to experience it and enjoy the moment. of course, it had all gone to hell far too fast, but there was a moment where it had been interesting, new. where the air had been fresh.]

But...it's not very likely, is it.

[kneeling on the ground, she reaches around, starting to gather some of the fallen leaves into a small pile.]

Not when people talk about graduation as though it's breathing on their neck.

[adsum]

...graduation means different things to different people, yes. Some look forward to it, and strive towards it. Others dread it, and are reluctant, if only because it means parting ways with everybody here.

[decrypter]

And some don't know what it actually means for them. Where exactly they'll go, who exactly they'll be afterwards. A friend said that he didn't wish to hurry towards it - he didn't want to give up on the person he is now, and all he still has to fight for.

[she's paraphrasing, but it's alright.]

There's so much unknown, that all we do know is like water. There, but without shape.