npc contact.2

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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.

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[hanaban]

[ Like memories are things you can lock up in a box? ]

Well, it's not all that difficult to change a person's memories...

[ trailing off meaningfully... ]

[closewithnewintown]

You sound like you've done it before. [and she hopes it wasn't on nene, because honestly she's getting kind of tired of all these toxic relationships.]

Somebody here did something to us. I wanna find out who, and why, and for what reason - and how it can be fixed.

[hanaban]

[ Haha, yeah. He just sort of smiles at that first comment. ]

Hmm~ Y'know, this sort of thing is what Yashiro and I do back home. I'm still pinning down this school's Mysteries, but one of the first steps is keeping an ear out for rumors.

[ The whole "belief gives supernaturals power" thing, and rumors largely feed into that ]

What's everything you've heard about memories? Whether there's proof or not doesn't matter.

[closewithnewintown]

Well...

[counts off on her fingers]

We're missing some, obviously. You can experience other people's memories sometimes. The little piles of rocks they make for dead people have memories attached to them. You can trade them to the counselor for things. And some of the more dangerous things the shopkeeper sells have to do with them. So they must be very important.

[hanaban]

Well, memories do tend to be important!

[ Experiencing other people's memories isn't so direct most of the time, though, and trading memories like it's currency? ... ]

Tell me more about the "dangerous things" the shopkeeper sells.

[closewithnewintown]

They're little statues, shaped like animals. You get something useful if you buy it, but you have to trade away something very important. I think one of them even kills you, in the end.

... The others act like they don't really wanna sell them, but I don't believe it. Just don't stock them. You know what they do.

[hanaban]

[ ...He's quiet for a bit, because it's sort of like what Hanako does, granting wishes in exchange for a cost, except more limited in scope. It's dangerous business, and he strongly advises against it, but it's still an offer he leaves on the table because that's the entire point of his existence. ]

As long as the person is aware of the price, it's on them for buying it... I can understand that.

[ ... ]

But it sure is dangerous! Which one do you think I should get? The one that kills? I'm already dead, after all!

[closewithnewintown]

Of course you understand that. [...] I don't mean that in a mean way or anything. Doing stuff like that... That's just how Hidden Folk work, right? It doesn't make it right or wrong, or good or evil; they just live differently than humans do, and that's sometimes bad for the humans.

So, it leaves us with only a couple of options. Somebody here can't be human. And if it's not the shopkeeper, then it's whoever they're working for. And they gotta be working for somebody.

[hanaban]

[ That wasn't a theoretical question, but okay— ]

There's plenty here that's not human! Have you met the man-eating gardener? That counselor's room is a place I'm not able to see into as well. But if you're looking for somebody, finding the door to their domain is the first step!

[closewithnewintown]

[she's not enabling nene's second boyfriend into dark magic talisman buying okay.]

... I'm a little more suspicious of the second one, honestly. [okay cool so komaeda wanted her to go talk to somebody that eats people that's fun to know.] Are there ways to find doors? Ways somebody like me could use?

[hanaban]

[ I like that he's the second ]

Hmm... Normal people like you typically stumble upon them by accident. If they're too hard to find, the supernatural won't have anybody to feed off, after all. Surely you've seen places like that around here? Where people enter and never come back.

[closewithnewintown]

Where people enter and don't come back...

[thinks...]

... The void? That's the only one I can think of.

[hanaban]

"The void"? What's that like? Was there water on the ground?

[closewithnewintown]

Oh, you know how there's this whole other version of this place that's all sad and cold that you go to when you bleed? There's this endless void that's been growing in there since the start. There's shadows there that throw dying people into it.

[beat] I don't think there's any water. Is the water part important?

[hanaban]

Hm~

[ It doesn't seem like a place Hanako goes to often— or at all. He's too busy cutting down imps and threatening to use humans as bait to do any actual bloodletting, but that's just as well. Doesn't sound like a place he wants to be thrown into anyways. ]

Water spans the boundary between the Near Shore and the Far Shore: the land of the living and the land of the dead. If everybody here is supposed to be "dead," think of water on the ground as sign that there's a back door nearby.

[closewithnewintown]

Water on the ground... [maybe the others will have an idea. she does have quite a bit to tell them now...]

Does the pool count? But, that's not really the ground... It's more under the ground...

[hanaban]

Huh... Maybe! There's a ground at some point, after all, isn't there?

[ ...maybe not this pool, he doesn't know, he's never had any reason to go down there. ]

[closewithnewintown]

There's a giant monster in it, so if there's ground, it's really, really far down. Definitely farther than a human can go. So, it's probably not there...

[hanaban]

Don't hold everybody here up to human standards. Is it really big and really ugly with lots of sharp teeth?

[ Imagine that one Pokemon gif of Squirtle gnashing its teeth ]

If we get rid of a supernatural, its domain may change back to how it used to be.

[closewithnewintown]

Dunno. It's really big, everybody said, but I don't think anybody's actually seen it...

[hm...]

Have you seen any water?

[hanaban]

In the bathrooms? That's not exactly what I'm looking for, though.

[ Still, making a mental note of the pool building and maybe combing through all the bathrooms besides his favorite one ]

What other weird places can you think of?

[closewithnewintown]

The counselor's office, like you said before... The woods... The auditorium... But, none of these places have any water, that I can remember. They're just spooky.

[hanaban]

They wouldn't normally. You'd have to enter the boundary somehow— something transitional, like doors or mirrors or stairs. So keep an eye out for that sort of stuff, and tell me when you do!

[closewithnewintown]

Doors, mirrors, stairs-- Hold on, I should be writing this down. [reaches into her bag next to her, pulls out diary, starts taking down notes.] Can I check if it's a boundary or just a normal mirror by myself, or is that something only you could do?

[not that she's gonna go off to fight a monster by herself or anything except she's totally gonna.]

[hanaban]

You can check, but you might never be able to come back.

[ Most humans who get snared in boundaries don't go looking for them anyways— they stumble upon them by accident, or are lured inside. In Hanako's experience, he wouldn't think Stephanie to be wrong to say the school is gobbling everybody up. ]

So... come find me first, alright?