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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

more jojos for your jobro... ii!

[haircared]

[ Josuke's almost having the exact line of thought; who else would do something like this other than a really fucked up stand user? It's simple logic. Without a soul he recognizes around, he reminds himself that anyone could be the enemy, and that he can't let his guard down for even a second— needs to rely on his smarts to sniff out the stand user, shortly followed by beating the shit out of them.

Someone suspicious was bound to show up and try asking him something eventually. ]

Uhh... no.

[ He answers honestly, brow raising a little at that authoritative question. What is this guy, a teacher? He's way too old to be a student, and he certainly seems kinda bossy. The last thing Josuke needs right now is to get in trouble, so he's hoping he can play it cool and figure out more about this strange man while stalling for time. ]

I'm not trying to trespass, if that's what you're asking.

son boy!!!!

[unfastens]

[ Josuke stands out like a sore thumb with his chinpira haircut? If anyone in the JJBA universe could use deductive reasoning, he'd immediately pick Josuke out as a stand user, but sadly, like those who came before him, Bruno can't pick out suspiciously weird-looking dudes from a group; he's just fortunate enough to find another confused-looking "student."

He can't let his guard down yet, though it is admittedly refreshing to hear someone else say they're not from here. ]

If I were, we'd both be trespassers, and I'd be a hypocrite.

[ if this kid is the stand user, then he obviously already knows Bruno doesn't belong here; if not, then he at least knows they're on the same page. No harm in sharing that much. ]

The truth is that I've never been here in my life. In fact, I didn't attend high school in the first place, but everything here feels familiar to me. Wouldn't you say that's strange?

[haircared]

[ Maybe it's a rookie mistake, but Josuke's posture and expression visibly relax a bit at the admission; his brows raise, his head tilts a little. So, this person is in the same boat as him. It doesn't make them allies (or even make him worth trusting), but it's at least a sign that this isn't some targeted attack only applicable to him. That alone is a little reassuring. ]

Yeah, it's weird. It sorta feels like I've been here way more than once...?

[ His gut tells him that the man is telling the truth, so he takes him at his word (for now). There's bigger fish to fry, anyway, like all the people disappearing out of the room, for example. His eyes follow the "students" that are still exiting the auditorium, phasing out of reality this way and that— all like something out of a horror movie. It's unsettling, and the fact that he finds it so is plain on his face. So creepy!! He hates ghosts. ]

But I haven't been here before. There's no way this is a normal school, anyway. [ That much was obvious based on the creepy-ass speech, but it's worth noting considering all the ghost people. ] I mean, there's probably only a handful of us actually here to begin with.

i forgot josuke hates ghosts... baby...

[unfastens]

[ he's awfully casual, and not in a way that feels fake, either. Maybe it's not him. There's no way to be certain, of course, but considering that there were several people in the crowd Bruno had picked out as not quite fitting in, it's entirely possible that this guy is just unfortunate enough to be in the same trap as he is. That brings with it a slew of other questions - if he's also aware this isn't right, does that make him another Stand user? On top of that, does that mean he's "dead," too? - but none that matter as much as determining if he's friend or foe. ]

So you even noticed that something's wrong.

[ he folds his arms. ]

We should find a place to talk. It's probably not safe here.

he really is just baby.....

[haircared]

[ Kinda hard not to, dude, is what he wants to say, but he refrains from doing so out of being polite. Just LOOK at those ghosty beings Bruno... something is definitely fucked up!! But he should probably try to find allies, if he can, or at the very least, find people who have the same goal of wanting to get out of here. So being a smartass won't get him anywhere.

Anyhow, the vibes of this man tell him he's gonna go exploring or moving about the school no matter what Josuke does— and while he would really rather not go sticking his nose into haunted school business, he's also worried about the bad vibes this place gives off, and the potential that it'll end up with someone getting hurt. It's probably best he tags along, just to be safe. ]

Yeah, okay. Whole place seems kinda sketchy if you ask me, though.

[ So where are they supposed to talk? The auditorium is mostly emptied out now, but Josuke doesn't relax, his eyes darting to the exits of the room. ]

Maybe a classroom? Then we could at least watch all the doors at once.

[unfastens]

[ listen...... if this really is a stand then it's possible it might all look normal to him...! and considering he has no other explanation for what could be happening - save one rather outlandish idea - Bruno's running on that assumption. It's safe to assume he's another Stand user - but they can talk about that when they're not out in the open. ]

A classroom? [ he feels like there's a chance there'll still be students around, but maybe not?! That speech did seem pretty final. ] ... That should work. Let's go.

[ really, even if there aren't students around, the whole place is probably listening in on them... he has that feeling. Never heard of a power like that, but it's not impossible. In any case, he nods at Josuke to follow, turning towards the auditorium entrance like everyone else. Congrats on not getting dragged into the toilets like Trish.

Seeing the students phase directly through the door brings to mind his other suspicion, though, and as they walk, he looks over at Josuke again. ]

I've got an odd question for you. Do you mind?

[haircared]

[ unlike Bruno, Josuke is definitely Not thinking of that very obvious possibility... he just thinks this guy might think of him as some goofy kid who was oblivious to everything crazy going on. Too many haters in his main party at home!

Anyways, he follows obediently, pressing a clammy hand to the back of his neck as they walk— he's really just trying to calm his nerves, because this place is so freaking creepy, not to mention he's on edge from having to suspect every single person he talks to. It's not the first time he's had to handle something on his own, but this is certainly the strangest thing he's ever had to deal with. Bruno's question pulls him out of it, though, and he looks over, somewhat nervously. ]

Oh. Uh, sure? [ He pushes one of the auditorium doors open with his shoulder, his eyes staying trained on the hallway in front of them rather than at Bruno himself. Truth be told, he's still a little suspicious, and thinks to himself that he'll lie in his answer if the question is too weird. ] What's up?

[unfastens]

[ no need to worry, josuke, bruno is a notorious kid respecter ]

What's the last thing you remember from before you woke up here? -- No, more specifically... Was your life in danger?

[ this is Bruno trying to tactfully avoid straight-up asking him if he's dead or not. It's pertinent information, but there's also no way for him to say "hey, we might be in purgatory or something" without sounding like he's lost his marbles, so this will have to do. He's not nervous the way Josuke is, but he is obviously on edge, trying to be ready for when something inevitably goes wrong or someone attacks. Ghosts don't bother him. People, though, and especially Stand users - they cause trouble. ]

[haircared]

[ Damn... weird ass question, is what he's thinking. And also, probably the situation the other guy was in, if he's asking? Should he be more nervous about this guy? Maybe there's a mundane explanation, like getting in an accident or something, and not anything related to the world of Stands, and how Stand users are ~*magnetically drawn to each other*~, or whatever Jotaro used to say. ]

No? I was just getting ready for school, or something. [ Admittedly, the details are a little fuzzy, but he at least knows for certain that he wasn't fighting for his life or anything like that. Josuke shoves his hands in his pockets as he walks, expression growing more afraid. ] You're not trying to say...

[ Realization dawns on him, and he feels a shiver going down his spine. The ghosts, the feeling like they've been here for a long time, the unexplained familiarity with the school's layout. No, it couldn't be. That'd be crazy! ]

You're not trying to say we're dead, are you? C'mon man.

[unfastens]

[ tfw jotaro was right...

it's plain to see that Josuke's getting a little freaked out by all of this, and Bruno does feel badly for him, but, unfortunately, reality is freaky at the moment, and there's no point in sugarcoating it. It is what it is. There's some irony in this stranger asking him that question so directly when everyone on his team had dodged around it (or not noticed); it does feel oddly personal to reveal, so he deflects. ]

Let's say it's a possibility. [ there, that's vague enough. They're coming up on the first classroom in the row; Bruno tentatively reaches for the door handle, still wary that someone's watching him and waiting for the moment to strike. ] I'm sure you're no stranger to dangerous things happening around you.

[ but the handle is just a door handle - it doesn't turn into a snake and bite him or give him an electric shock or god knows what else - so he turns it without trouble, briefly poking his head into the room to confirm there aren't any lingering students before gesturing for Josuke to follow him inside. ]

[haircared]

And why do you say that?

[ Is he trying to say Josuke looks like a ruffian, or is he trying to imply something more than that... his expression pinches, a slight frown overriding his nervous features, because he really is the type to be suspicious first when made to cross paths with other Stand Users, probably because 9 out of 10 of them end up deciding to hate him. Shortly followed by trying to kill him. But for now, he'll just avoid confirming or denying it— not until he knows what this guy wants out of him from this "talk."

Nonetheless, he follows him on into the room, eyes darting about the four corners. What he would like to do is walk to the back of the room, keep distance from this man - but, without knowing what his aim is, it'd also be stupid to walk out of range. Against his will, he stays close. ]

[unfastens]

[ he does also look like a ruffian but that's just a coincidence... and also all of bruno's best friends are ruffians so it's irrelevant!! Once the door's shut - or at least mostly shut - Bruno turns where he's standing at the side of the teacher's desk, facing Josuke and lifting a finger to point at him. ]

Because you can see what's happening here. A "normal" student can't tell the difference. People like you and I can.

[ That's Bruno's impression, anyway. Either that, or they are dead for real, but he'll err on the side of relative probability here. He's more inclined to believe that he's somehow trapped in a Stand user's illusion than he is the afterlife being a Japanese high school. ]

Relax. I don't intend to fight you unless you give me a reason. [ he tilts his head slightly. ] Are you nervous because you don't know what's going on, or is it because I've found the Stand user behind this?

[ he WILL lick you to find out if he must. also, he's lucky josuke is actually a stand user and not some poor player character who has no idea what he's talking about . . . ]