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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

[stopit]

living off jerky =/= getting by
you can have my home ec leftovers once school starts again
can't promise it'll be good, but anything diff from jerky you can't complain about
break's been ok
boring but a good boring
wish it didn't have to end

[tempingforatlas]

hopefully things'll be stable by then, but... thanks. that seriously means a lot, kouji
and yeah. a lot of people want to "have adventures" over break or whatever but i'm personally just happy that everything isn't happening so much during them
peace and quiet might be boring but at least it's, yanno, peaceful and quiet

[stopit]

same
old geezers know what's up
sometimes a good day can be staring out the window and taking naps



sometimes it's playing baseball
you really can't play?
i'll spot you lunch if you're trying to
idk
conserve energy by doing nothing so you don't eat through all your jerky all at once or something

[tempingforatlas]

yeah, it's rough :( really sorry i can't hang out, it's just a lot to deal with. i don't think things are going to be quite as dire once the schoolyear starts, but i don't think i'll be able to chill outside of school then either

but hey, if i can survive a backpacking trip across the width of the u s of a, i can make it through this

at least we'll be able to, idk, shoot some hoops or something when school starts up again?

[stopit]

at least use that experience living off the land to forage stuff
are pinecones edible?
grass is green, it's prob edible
not dropping out of school is kinda amazing tho
if I were you, I'd get as far away from this place as I could, asap

poor kouji must think ritsuka's life is simultaneously harder and easier than it actually is

[tempingforatlas]

that's actually when i learned how to make jerky. robin and company trapped some rabbits and taught me how to preserve 'em properly over a campfire. at least now i have the luxury of actual spices, ha

pinecones sorta, grass no. unfortunately. that would've made things a lot easier

actually, i might be able to give you some cooking tips during home ec come to think of it. i'm not an expert but emiya is a cooking GOD and i've picked up some things from him

and yeah, ha. i wish. dropping out isn't really... an option for me right now, haha. i should probably be grateful that i'm getting to come to school at all tbh

she's prob living in a cardboard box in an alleyway, why is she still going to school!!! ):

[stopit]

grass not being edible sounds fake somehow
how bout you give me cooking tips and i trade you vegetables or something so you dont die of scurvy before graduation
imagine if that's how you go
youd never live it down

[tempingforatlas]

deal. you're 100% right, i had to live with someone with scurvy for a bit and trust me it's a LOT rougher than you think it is

[stopit]

how long have you guys been living like this???????????

[tempingforatlas]

two years and some change at this point

it's really not as bad as it sounds. the place's tolerable around... at least 50% of the time, it's only in the last few months that it's gotten really desperate, especially now

[stopit]

you say that but it sounds worse the more I hear about it
ig at school it's warm and you get fed and it takes your mind off things for a while?
ugh
still sucks tho

[tempingforatlas]

[You don't know, like, 5% of it, Kouji.]

haaaaaaaaa yeah, that's the thing

but legit, it's nice to hear someone who's not involved in all this insanity, like, cares

thanks for real

[stopit]

[ he doesn't want to know any of it TBQH ]

wow, low standards for humanity
anybody w a heart would care

[tempingforatlas]

it's not that really it's that, like

sometimes i forget that people who don't have to deal with this kind of situation exist

just for a few moments but when i remember i feel kinda bad

so being reminded that other people have, like, something resembling normal lives helps, because if i don't forget that in the first place, i don't feel as weird

if that makes sense

[stopit]

sort of?
not really
I get feeling bad-- I get feeling bitter or angry or jealous that other people have it easier
having to fight for survival from day to day is fucked up
living off jerky is fucked up Ritsuka

[tempingforatlas]

it is, yeah
and sometimes forgetting it isn't is what fucks me up the most

[stopit]

I'm kind of afraid to ask what *is*

[tempingforatlas]

i say this without a hint of irony

you really don't want to know

trust me on this one

[stopit]

yeah alright
do what you have to to get by
is basically the best rule to live by

[tempingforatlas]

i think it's a bit more complicated than that

even if you have to do horribly selfish things to survive you have to look at where you're standing and think "what can i do to be kind here?"

that's the only way to stay human, i think

[stopit]

human's human
but I get what you're saying