tdm

[adsum]

full navigation

wake up

You open your eyes. And then immediately squeeze them shut as a cloud of chalk dust gets clapped in your face, the student next to you looking surprised— but the sort of surprised as if they're faking it, barely suppressing a laugh. "What're you dozing off for, transfer student?" they ask, going back to wiping clean the chalkboard you two are standing in front of. "The sooner we get everything cleaned up, the sooner we can go home!" Another classmate tosses a wet rag at the side of your face, laughing as if a joke— if it weren't strangely warm to the touch, with dark red stains smelling strongly of iron.

All characters open their eyes and wake up in one of the classrooms around school. Whatever they remember last, it's lost in a thick, sleepy fog, the drowsiness still wearing off and making it difficult to reconcile the fact that they've never seen this classroom or these people in their lives, but somehow, it feels like they've been here forever. The other students all act familiar towards you, calling you by name and encouraging you to help clean the classrooms as part of observing the Vernal Equinox. Buckets of soapy water are set on the desks around the classrooms, light pink suds spilling over the sides, and both students and faculty can be seen hard of work scrubbing dark, stubborn stains out of the walls and floors. "It must be absolutely spotless," they murmur under their breaths. "All evidence must be erased."

You don't have to stay and clean. You could throw the rag back into a bucket and flip these strangers the bird and exit the classroom. But those who don't help clean even a little will find that they leave sticky red footprints wherever they walk, creating more work for everybody else and becoming very easy to track down and """accidentally""" knock over the backside of the head with a mop handle. Besides, it's not like you can walk out of the school and get back to whatever you were doing before. Your feet may bring you to the front door on autopilot, but the doors do not open for you, and neither do any of the windows no matter how hard you try to pry them open or kick them in.

Careful, though. On some windowsills, particularly on the third and fourth floors, rests a stack of five flat stones one on top of another: a gorinto to those who recognize such a thing, a pile of rocks to those who do not. The stones are all damp with water, topped with a scattering of wisteria flowers, and flanked by cheap packaged snacks. Whether on accident or on purpose, the moment you touch any of it—-

wake up

You open your eyes. The last thing you remember is touching a wet stone or trying to swipe the rice cracker beside it, and in the next moment, you're somewhere else inside the school. Characters who touch the gorinto or its offerings will find themselves pulled into a memory of high school life, one that feels like theirs, although they recognize that that's impossible. There's the feeling of being classmates with the other characters- perhaps two characters are seat partners, or best friends, or rivals, or club members- but despite the familiarity, do not know each other's names or recall ever seeing their faces before. Essentially, live your pre-established cr high school au dreams.

The memories fade in and out of different scenarios, but they all start off the same: You open your eyes.

You open your eyes and the inside of your left wrist is stinging; you stop scratching, pulling your other hand away before the angry red lines on your skin splits and bleeds. Somebody calls your name, just as you see a pan slide off the stovetop out of the corner of your eye, and the stinging on your wrist flares to a searing burn, hot oil splattering you and the person next to you.

You open your eyes. You're flat on your back in a room that smells of paint thinner, your chest is heavy, and it's so hard to breathe. Something is crushing your throat- a fluffy white cat with golden eyes, purring and kneading away, but then somebody calls your name and its fluff puffs twice its size in surprise, claws sinking into your throat, hooking and tearing as the cat scampers away.

You open your eyes. A kendo shinai comes down hard on your head, the one in your hand failing to come up quick enough to guard, your classmates groaning in sympathy all around you. Your head is spinning, you feel sick.

You open your eyes. You and a friend are seated side by side in the clock tower, back to the walls and feeling the resounding toll of the bell fill your entire being as the count reaches ten, eleven, twelve. The world turns to silence. Your friend opens their mouth to speak, but you cannot hear them. You cannot hear anything.

(tw: implied suicide) You open your eyes. Your classmate sits on the other side of your desk, a spread of sandwiches and juice boxes between you and the window to your side providing a clear view of the upper branches of the wisteria tree in full bloom. And the strangled look on an upperclassman's face as they fall headfirst from the sky on the other side of the glass, hurtling towards the pavement of the courtyard below.

You open your eyes—-

You're standing in front of a window, cold fingers wrapped around your wrist and pulling it away from the pile of stones. Perhaps another character has come to your rescue, or else one student in particular who shakes his head, whispers "don't," and walks away.

wake up

You open your eyes and wipe a bit of drool off the corner of your mouth. There's really no shame, when half the students sitting around you in the auditorium are half asleep as well. As if coming out of a dream, the characters don't remember getting here, just that they are now- sitting in uncomfortably hard plastic chairs in the back rows in the auditorium, the school principal's flat, droning voice reverberating oddly off the walls of the large room. No matter how hard you try, you cannot get up out of your seat.

"...and now, let us congratulate the graduating class," the principal says, stepping back from the podium. A single student rises to her feet and meets the principal at the center of the stage, her long dark hair falling across her face as she bows and receives her diploma. "Congratulations, graduate. May your life be full and prosperous. Please, if you would say a few words..."

The girl straightens and pushes her hair out of her face with one hand— she has no other hand, the entire sleeve of her right rolled all the way up to the shoulder and pinned flat. She forgoes the podium and the microphone, but somehow, her voice rings out clearly and reaches all the way to the back of the room: "Keep your eyes open."

With that parting message, she steps off the stage, disappearing into the mass of students who stand and fill the room with applause, drawing the graduation ceremony to a close. Characters find that they can now get up and move, which is a good thing because the other students are all pushing and shoving to get out of the auditorium and out the front doors, phasing right through the closed doors. Like a sieve, the school empties out, leaving behind the dregs.

wake up

Your eyes are open and the school is quiet. None of the students or faculty remain in the school, and all the staff— the principal, faculty, nurse, and counselor's— offices are locked. A skinny black cat flicks its tail from where it sits on top one of the lockers, where characters can find a copy of the school calendar showing the next two weeks to be spring vacation, with the school being closed for the holiday.

At least, with school vacated, it's clear from those left who's in the same boat and allows the chance for exploration away from prying eyes of the other students and staff. Introductions are probably in order, a discussion of what the fuck is going on, maybe also a plan of attack— or a plan for survival, at the very least, because there is no way out of this school. What ingredients are left in the home economics kitchen is going to have to last everybody the next two weeks. The student store is already empty. The water runs pink. The vending machines don't respond to jostling or being kicked over and brought to the ground, only the last dozen "merit points" on your PDA that you can't earn any more of, with class out of session. The snack you've been hiding in your locker should probably be saved as a last resort. The cats are starting to look tasty.

Hang in there. School will be starting again real soon.

OOC

✽ Characters experience the recurring feeling of drifting in (school life) and out (canon life) of sleep up until the graduation ceremony, after which they will have full awareness and come to their senses. Pre-established cr is possible to some extent, as a varying degree of familiarity may remain, but all characters will be strangers to one another unless they know each other in canon. All npcs will know the characters' names, but characters will not know each other's names until introduced.

✽ The second prompt occurs upon a character touching a gorinto or any of the offerings surrounding it. While touching it, characters fall into a trance and experience different scenes of high school life, with examples given in the prompt but players are free to play out any aspect of normal school life taking place at any time during the school year.

✽ stopit is an npc and will be available for threading in his toplevel during the vernal equinox and graduation day, but not during spring break. After the game opens, he will be available as a student for threading on the npc contact page. The graduating student will not be available for threading in this TDM.

✽ During spring break, all npc students and faculty will be absent from the school, with exception of one white cat and one black cat. For this TDM, in addition to the areas greyed out and inaccessible on the locations page, the faculty office and nurse's office are locked and unavailable, as there is no staff. The library and club rooms remain open, but supplies will not replenish themselves.

✽ As a reminder, all doors and windows leading outside are locked and cannot be broken. From midnight until 6AM, all sound disappears from the world. Characters are free to use their PDA as a network, but it is text (and shitty touchpad art) only and all threads are public.

✽ TDM threads may be used for bonus activity after April AC is submitted.

Comments

B. also hello i had to... i'm here for protag solidarity

[unsurely]

[ There are a few other people still scattered around the hallways, most likely inspecting things just like them, but Saihara so happens to be the closest at the time, a couple of fingers idly pressed to his chin as he's lost in thought. He's already been through about the same motions as Naegi, so of course, he knows exactly what he's talking about before he even looks. And it does pull him from his survey, at least. ]

They don't... read like school rules.

[ More like cryptic notes in an escape room game that are supposed to give hints of some sort. But... this clearly isn't a game. Or is it? Damn it, he has too little information to go off; for the first time in a while, he kind of misses his hat. But it can't hurt to get someone else's input... ]

I'm concerned about what they mean by lair... Do you think it refers to the lockers?

[ They're the only thing he's found that seems like personal space in any way, but... you can't exactly go inside them so that still makes no sense. ]

grips ur hands.... thank you for tagging, saihara is my fav

[optimistical]

[ Naegi turns his head to look at Saihara before he focuses back on the board. The rule about the lairs. That's also what concerned him. ]

I don't think so... I mean, a lair is more like a secret room, right? I can't imagine that a locker can be... one...

[ He trails off. No, that's not right. There was a time when a locker was a secret room. Well, it was an entrance to one, but are these lockers the same? He looks at them with suspicion. ]

... the lockers don't have a back or bottom panel, do they?

OH NO i'll do my best for u... i ran so fast for this cr i need it in my life

[unsurely]

[ It's a good question, but... ]

I don't think so, or at the very least... mine didn't seem to. I also watched a few students store their belongings before they left. No one did anything strange.

[ Hopefully, Naegi doesn't think he's too weird for doing that (and confessing to it when they just met, too). Look, they're in a bizarre situation, sometimes that calls for desperate measures. He can't afford to be picky on sentimental reasons like personal discomfort, and it's not as if... just looking hurts anyone.

Sure, Saihara, keep making excuses in your head. ]

Ah, but... in the end, they're still private, so it's not like we're able to check them all. It's possible some of them might.

[ The brief look he gives Naegi seems to say it: has he checked his own yet? Just in case. ]

god same. now if we can just weasel in a hinata and/or kaede........

[optimistical]

[ Naegi doesn't think twice about the observation. He assumes that Saihara was mingling in with the crowd of students, looking around, and not hiding around a corner. Besides, Kirigiri has done far stranger things and he's just got used to everything so... ]

Hmm, let me check mine.

[ It'll take a bit of circling before Naegi can locate his locker. There's a lock on it and he frowns. He doesn't know any combination... but he tugs on it anyway, to just see what happens, and to his luck, it opens. Oh, is this one of those locks that let you set your own combination? Or is it just broken? No idea! It's not a priority for him to figure out, so the locker is swung open and he stares at the back wall. It... looks normal, but the other locker did as well. With a nervous gulp, he slowly reaches out and presses his hand against the back and............. ]

[ ... nothing. ]

[ He bends down and checks the bottom. Again, nothing. With a sigh, he stands back up. Boy, he sure feels foolish now. This detective stuff sure was a lot easier when Kirigiri was holding his hand throughout everything. ]

... sorry. I thought this would have turned out like what happened in a similar situation, but I should have known that it wouldn't be that easy.

[ He apologizes as he feels as if he might have gotten Saihara's hopes up or wasted his time. ]

THERE'S OUR HINATA I'M SO HAPPY now we rly just need kaede

[unsurely]

[ Ah... does Naegi not... know how to open his locker? Well, he supposes it might not have been everyone's priority to check the devices they've gotten; a lot of people are more action-oriented, and not everyone looks for the security of ascertaining every detail first like Saihara. He's about to start explaining, when the door just... swings open on its own.

Wait. What?? ]

...

[ He's pretty sure that's the first time he's seen that. Every other student had used their code... Should he advise the other to keep it locked from now on? But he'd sounded like he hadn't been here before.

The Mystery Deepens™ and Saihara just ends up looking more and more distressed and confused behind Naegi. At least, until-- ]

A similar situation...?

[ He almost gives a start at the question, his eyes drawn from his own little search of the area. He'd been ascertaining that the lockers weren't tall enough to reach the ceiling -- so the possibility of them leading to some kind of hidden room up there seem zero too -- but what Naegi just said feels more important. He doesn't press him with more words though, just that carefully observant gaze. ]

i will stop at nothing to get a kaede and also a kaito because saihara deserves to be happy ヽ( `д

[optimistical]

[ i'm fucking laughing SAIHARA SEEMS SO DISTRESSED and naegi is not sure why (asides from the whole murder school thing). ]

Yeah... the last time that I was locked in a school, there was a locker with a back panel. It led to a secret room that the mastermind used.

[ He knows that this probably sounds insane, but there's no point in hiding anything or being vague. ]

i'm laughing bc my best friend plays kaito tbh (she's busy rn but... if she unbusies, it's on-sight)

[unsurely]

[ Except the part where it sounds way less insane than you'd think because... you know. ]

You've been locked in a school before...?

[ Hold on, it feels like his head is spinning so all he can manage for now is these brain-dead questions, though at least this second one only comes after a visible start of surprise. Did he die without realizing and what circle of hell is this in which people repeat the hyper-specific experience of being trapped in schools? Help. ]

emp just went up so i will lurk and see who we can enable (･ω<)☆

[optimistical]

[ He nods. There are a lot of details to the whole story, such as the fact that his class locked themselves up but they didn't know because they had a memory wipe, but Saihara doesn't have time to hear all that. Naegi will just give the sparknotes version. ]

Did... you see the broadcast? For Hope's Peak?

[ He's on the assumption that Saihara is from the same world because other worlds?? other dimensions?? But anyway, asking about the broadcast is the easiest way to determine how much Naegi has to share. ]

not you ready to wrangle people down for our goals

[unsurely]

...Ah!? Hope's Peak?

[ It's those words that jolt him instantly from his hesitant state, powerful enough for Saihara to echo them before he knows it. For a second, it feels like the world started spinning around him and he can't make heads or ends of anything; it's not like the things he remembers are... reliable but... ]

Then... you're part of... the 78th class?

[ He stands there for the longest moment, his mind in overdrive. That's the only reason someone would talk to him about being trapped in a school before and then mention Hope's Peak... right? But if he's here with someone from there, then does that mean he made it out of his own killing game? But... how? And what is this place...?

He doesn't remember making it out. He doesn't remember anything. But at least, there's only one truth that could make sense for the person in front of him, no matter how you think about it -- and so, with nearly breathless hesitation, he-- ]

A-Are you... Naegi Makoto?

[ That's his deduction. It feels absurd, but-- no. He needs to trust his own thoughts; he needs to trust himself. ]

worse comes to worse, i'll just app kaede and kaito myself under new handles like nii and san

[optimistical]

[ So, he did see it... ]

... yeah.

[ Naegi always gets mixed feelings when he meets with someone who watched him over the broadcast. There's that sense of embarrassment, knowing that people all across the world saw everything, from his obvious flustering over Maizono to being knocked unconscious from a punch for eleven hours; and the awkwardness, coming from those who speak to him as if he was some character on a TV show, referring scenes and actions. Like, how is he supposed to react to that? Yeah, um, thanks, he did try his best while trying not to die? No, he really wasn't lying when he said that he forgave everyone? Then there are those who choose to praise him when he really didn't do anything special... ]

[ It's just an all-around difficult interaction because he never knows how to properly react. He's hoping that Saihara just treats him normally. ]

I don't know how much you saw and I don't want to say that this is exactly like what happened... but the similarities are kind of unnerving.

thanks, i'll agree with you with my lie bullet that says i knew nii and san from like 5 other games

[unsurely]

No... I understand.

[ He's been so shocked by that discovery that he kind of just stood there, but now he shakes his head with the closest thing to reassurance that he can. In part, his attitude towards Naegi does change a little, just maybe not for the reasons Naegi imagined. Instead, what he gets is a bit of fidgeting, as if Saihara's kind of struggling with... his words? His tone? He's trying to respect his principal, ok. ]

Sorry. The truth is... I didn't even remember it until recently, so I can't say for certain if my memory is reliable. But I... I'm also an Ultimate.

[ Don't mind that even now, after he's come this far, he hesitates to say it. It just doesn't ring like he deserves it in his mind. ]

But if the principal of Hope's Peak is here, then--

[ how this isn't gonna dawn on naegi yet ]

i like that saihara is the only dangan protag who was smart enough to lie in a trial

[optimistical]

You're an ultimate as w--

[ Naegi doesn't even get to finish his sentence, much less his train of thought. Saihara is throwing so much at him that he can't even focus on one topic. He puts up his hands as if that'd actually stop his head from exploding. ]

Wait, the principal? Do you mean Jin Kirigiri?

[ But he's dead... does Saihara mean his bones???? ]