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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

Senku Ishigami | Dr. Stone

[kingofscience]

a.
With spring break started, that means none of our fellow "students" or "faculty" will be around.

[ He definitely did the air quotes. The students always gave off some weird, uncanny feeling to him. ]

We'll have to ration things for the next two weeks.

[ He crosses his arms as he speaks to his fellow "transfer student";

someone who actually feels real to him. ]

I know it's going to be tough, but if we maintain a sense of calm throughout this, we'll get through it. At least most of the classrooms are still open- we can find things to help us if we search them.


b.
[ The library was vast, full of all sorts of different books for the students to read. One student in particular, had two stacks of them seated next to him to comb over. Senku flipped through page after page, though he had to take a bit longer on account of the books being in an unusual language. Though it was still legible to him if he squinted- thank goodness for context clues. He wanted as much knowledge of this place as he could get, and thankfully he'd be able to recall any of it at the drop of a hat. He looks up only briefly as someone approaches him. He speaks softly when spoken to. ]

Oh, that seat's not taken. You're welcome to it.


c.
[ His heart is pounding in his chest, someone's hand clenched over his wrist as he stands there. Wide-eyed and breathing heavily, as if he just awoke from some dream.

Some terrible, horrible dream.

And then he realizes, he's being spoken to. ]

Ah- ...thanks for that. How illogical for me to touch something so important; I... I don't know what came over me.


d.
Any other prompt you can think of! Throw your muses at me! Catch me at spooksville for plotting! C:

a.;

[filialdeception]

[ To be quite honest, Meng Yao really felt like a fish out of a temporal water here...it was still rather disorienting, but now there was someone speaking to him.

So he will keep his attention from flitting through thoughts to focus on the other's words. He'll nod, tentatively, feeling unsure about that. ]

...Well, being able to ration properly will be ideal. But, we'll probably need a way to ensure that everyone isn't taking more than they should.

Expecting everyone to easily abide by that from the start wouldn't be realistic, after all.

[kingofscience]

Yeah. An incentive, perhaps?

[ A hand went to his chin in thought. ]

Let's say, if we were able to give out more food on weekends as an incentive, that could possibly help. But we also need to figure out how much food is available in the first place, as well as how many people are around.

[filialdeception]

[ He'll nod, seeming amenable. Though, while they're at it, he thought of something that could help with making himself at least a bit useful. ]

...I don't mind assisting with taking inventory. then. That'll be the first step we'll need to take in order to figure out how much we have, after all.

[ And depending on how much there was, as well as the fact trust may be an issue, he was ready to not be doing it alone. That being said, taking inventory would be easy for him; he'd barely need a pencil and paper, though he'll intend to get those nonetheless. ]

Does that sound acceptable to you?

[kingofscience]

Sounds good to me. I can help with taking inventory if you'd like. I'm sure that'll get done quicker with more than one person.

[ Senku was definitely a numbers person as well- taking inventory with two people can cut the time in half, not to mention it's just safer that way. ]

[filialdeception]

Yes, it would. Oh, right...we should probably do some introductions, shouldn't we?

[ It would only be polite, after all, for him to properly introduce himself to who he'd be working with. ]

My name is Meng Yao. It is a pleasure to meet you.

c

[parhellia]

It's okay! I tried to steal one of the snacks too.

[ Very blatantly stealing food, as if she and Senku had the same intentions. Idle curiosity over what looked like a grave? Nah, she was just hungry.

At least she's learned her lesson about leaving the things alone now, letting go of Senku's wrist and giving him a pat on the arm before taking a step back. ]

You look like you're gonna throw up. Are you gonna throw up? You'd better not do it here, or the hall monitor's gonna be mad.

[kingofscience]

No, I'll be alright.

[ His hand slowly went down to his side, and then promptly into his pocket.

He didn't need that happening again. ]

Anyways, I don't think I caught your name. Call me Senku.

[parhellia]

Hmm... if you're sure!

[ Unconvinced, Ala gives him a wide breadth anyways, just in case he needs to hurl. ]

Silly, I know who you are, Senku. [ She... thinks? Yeah, sure she does. It feels like a name she's heard a lot, like maybe he's been mentioned to her several times in passing and that's why it feels familiar, even though when she looks at his face she draws a blank. ]

You're... an upperclassmen? Maybe? Then you wouldn't know me! I'm Ala!

[kingofscience]

[ Thankfully, he was picking himself back up in a manner of speaking. Color was slowly returning to his face as he was getting his bearings again. ]

Oh, right. That makes sense. Well, it's good to meet you, Ala.

[ He smiles amicably, hands back in his pockets. ]

I hope my little stunt isn't keeping you from your class or anything.

[ b : quiet in the library. ]

[mermaidcursed]

Nene's lucky that he noticed her to begin with, because when he speaks- and. He is speaking- she doesn't hear anything.



She doesn't hear anything at all. Not even the tick of the clock, or a sound from outside, or pencil scratching against paper or pages in a book turning. All color fades from her face instantly, and she's not sure how to communicate this problem, or test it beyond trying to say something again. Was it just her...?

"I- Can you hear me at all?" She asks. (Part of her already knows the answer.)

[kingofscience]

[ ...Oh right, it was utterly silent in here. Senku couldn't even hear himself speak. However, he turns to look at the girl again as she speaks, trying to read her lips. He shakes his head. ]

I can't hear you.

[ He also motions to his ear and makes an X shape with his fingers to convey this. He pauses and motions to the seat; she's welcome to sit down. The scientist proceeds to take out a pen and paper, beginning to write, passing it off to her. ]

We can use this to speak, if you'd like.

[mermaidcursed]

[ This place has to be influenced by a supernatural. This shouldn't be possible! Almost reluctantly, Nene does sit down though and takes the paper and pen.]

This works. Do you know why the library is doing this?

[ He only seemed... mildly surprised, after all. Maybe there was like, a sign that she missed? ]

[kingofscience]

I can't say I do. I'd like to figure out why, though.

[ This place was puzzling. Perhaps there was a scientific explanation behind it? This place calls to Senku's mind anechoic chambers, like the quietest room in the world back at Orfield Laboratories. However... To be unable to hear your own voice, nor someone else adds another layer to this. ]

My first thought is a large scale anechoic chamber. But there's some sort of deafening property around here as well.

[mermaidcursed]

[ She hasn't seen any mokke or other smaller spirits, but... if she can find her way into a boundary, maybe? ]

That's like a sensory deprovision chamber, right? Or a form of one?
I'm used to odd things happening sometimes, but nothing like this. Usually once I'm able to find the source though, I'm able to fix it.

[ Hanako-kun thankfully keeps her safe when she does. ]

My name is Nene Yashiro.

[kingofscience]

Yeah, pretty close, though you're not submerged in water. It's a kind of room they use to test out very loud speakers since they absorb sound and electromagnetic waves. There's one considered a tourist attraction in the U.S. at a laboratory. It's considered the quietest room in the world; the longest someone could withstand being in there for was 45 minutes.

[ A bit of an info dump, but he's always happy teach someone something new! ]

I see. I'm sure we'll find out whatever it is, be it one or multiple sources. We just have to figure out where to start.

I'm Senku Ishigami- nice to meet you.

[mermaidcursed]

[ Oh, she thinks she read about that online once... That people in there could hear their own blood flowing? Was that the same one- ............... HRM. ]

Do you think it's safe to stay in here for too long?

[kingofscience]

[ He thought about that for a moment, mulling it over, and then remembered something. ]

I think it's about as safe as staying out in any other corner of the school for long. All sound disappears from the school between midnight and 6am as well... This is just a more permanent, condensed version of that phenomenon.

[ Maybe the library could contain the source because of that. ]

[mermaidcursed]

It does? I had no idea. I don't like that though. If something bad happened, we'd have no idea.

[ After a moment, Nene considers something... and scribbles out a quick 'brb' before darting off. Soon enough, she returns with another pen and piece of paper... this one just for doodling on, and so that they don't have to keep exchanging the pen. ]

I tried reading one of the books earlier, but I couldn't understand anything. I think I saw that script in history class once upon a time???

[kingofscience]

That's fair; people tend to be asleep around that time. I just ran a quick experiment on it one day. It's unsettling, to say the least.

[ He watches as she leaves and then returns with another pen and paper. He flips their writing paper over now as well since it was surely getting filled up. ]

Yeah, it's written in some sort of old language- not sure what though. But you can get the gist of the text with some focus and context clues.

[mermaidcursed]

[ Could they? She was really rattled, maybe it affected her more than she thought. ]

Have you found anything?
I checked my locker earlier, there was some extra stuff in it. But nothing super useful. Clothes and snacks, so it really only benefits me.