tdm

[adsum]

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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

QUESTIONS

[adsum]

Please leave any questions here.

[dereban]

A few questions -

- Are there any history textbooks in the library? If so: is there any information that can be gleaned from them?
- Also: are the books written in any particular language?
- Given that the school rules note 'magic', are there any textbooks on magic? If so, is there any particular magic that can be found in those textbooks?
- And do any of the books overall have any sort of publication date on them? If so, what is the most recent year? Earliest?
- Is there anything to find in the classrooms in terms of supplies? Also, do the desks in the classrooms have anything in them at the moment?

[adsum]

There are history textbooks! Most of them refer to Earth and its countries and follows rl world history up until the 1990s, but there are also mentions of other inhabited planets and universes. Characters not from Earth will NOT find mention of their home anywhere in these books, however. Strangely (or perhaps on purpose) the history books are somewhat intermixed with the fiction section instead of the other reference books.

The books are all written in a language similar to jindai moji, as is all the other writing seen around the school, but it understandable to all characters with a bit of squinting.

There are no textbooks on magic currently on the shelves, but asking the librarian about it will reveal that the books to exist, but are being kept elsewhere at the moment. The shelves only hold so many books, and you're here to learn physics and economics, not set the library on fire.

The books overall have publication dates ranging from the 1500s to the 1990s, but appear to be curated by the librarian. Fiction novels tend to be dated much earlier, as classics are classics, while textbooks and reference books tend towards the more recent years as they need to be up to date.

Classrooms contain the typical school supplies of papers, writing material, etc. Most of the desks are empty, since it's the end of the school year, but characters doing a thorough search may find things left behind by other students, like snacks getting real close to their expiration date, failed exams that can never ever be shown to their parents, a handheld game console whose game cartridge was unfortunately confiscated and never returned, etc. Normal high school student belongings are all fair game!

WHOOPS

[tempingforatlas]

What happens if Ritsuka tries to get to know the NPC students a bit better and learn their names? Not just casual repartee while cleaning, but a concerted effort to be friendly?

[adsum]

Depending on how she goes about it, they might give her weird looks for trying to reintroduce herself and ask their names outright, but she can learn their names by listening to them talk to each other. If she makes a concentrated effort to be friendly, they'll be friendly back to her and will joke around and act as if they've always been close friends.

Re: QUESTIONS

[tempingforatlas]

Another important question: are there yearbooks in the library, or at least the most recent yearbook? Ritsuka wants to know the names of a few more people before the semester starts. Failing that, is there a club registry anywhere that she can access?

[adsum]

There are no yearbooks in the library or a club registry anywhere, but in the locker area where the bulletin board is, she can find a list of all the students in the school sorted by what class they're in, which will include both npcs and pcs (class assignments will be re-assigned after the game starts for the new year, so players can choose whatever classroom they want for the tdm). It's not much to match names to faces, but it's something, at least.

Re: QUESTIONS

[pillory]

So. When you say "From midnight until 6AM, all sound disappears from the world," just so I understand clearly... Do you mean that the characters are essentially deaf from 12 AM-6 AM? They can't hear each other talk, hear items crashing off of shelves, etc?

[adsum]

In a nutshell, yes! They can't hear other people or objects or the wind outside or any of that. The most they can manage is imagining their own voice in their heads, as that's imagination and not actual hearing.

I'll tack this on here too since it's easily missed, but the same phenomenon is experienced inside the library 24/7, with characters essentially being deaf when they're inside the library. As an extension of that, a character inside the library cannot hear anything happening inside or outside the library, and a character outside the library cannot hear anything happening inside. It's like a little pocket void of silence, where nothing can receive or produce sound.

[dereban]

Coming up with more questions, I guess:

Are there any books on sign language in the library, and if so: would it be all types of sign languages or just one particular one?

[adsum]

There is exactly one book on sign language to be found in the library, and consists of illustrated signs for letters, numbers, and the most basic of words and prepositions with little to no grammatical structure. Two-three word sentences are all you really need to get by, anyways, right?

Re: QUESTIONS

[piercinggaze]

Is it possible to change the color of your text on the school network or is Auditi going to have to type in black like some kind of barbarian?

[adsum]

Students can change text colors to any color! They can type in rainbow if they really want.

White text on white background is also possible and will need to be revealed by highlighting the text, if they want to send """secret""" messages that are not at all secret because it'll always have their username in front. Hidden at a glance, in any case, until someone takes a closer look.

[comburst]

So, windows and doors can't be opened - presumably like, throwing a chair at a window will just result in the chair doing nothing, then? Asking for a friend, who is me.

[adsum]

Yes, that's right! The chair can still break, though, so please tell your friend, who is you, to be careful of shrapnel O: The door/window does shake and can be heard rattling on its hinges/frame, though, giving the sense that there's space behind it outside that isn't just a void!

[commences]

since i got cat treats am i allowed to tag the comment with the cat right now, im trying to learn some secrets and make a friend

[adsum]

Yes, absolutely! Komeowda is always happy to eat treats and make friends.

[unsurely]

Hello! First off, I wanna say I'm enjoying how carefully this all feels laid out, you nailed the mystery feeling SO well with the game. I have two small questions and I'm sorry in advance, they just feel like the sort of nitpicky stuff my character would notice:

1. The prompts specifically mention cleaning the classrooms. Aside from the footsteps of people refusing to clean and walking around, were there any stains originally in the hallways and other places too? Or is it really just limited to the classrooms / specific areas?

2. Does the name of the school mean anything and, if yes, would the characters even be able to notice or understand that?

[adsum]

Thank you!! I love writing mysteries... spinning webs is my favorite part of modding, haha. I also love it when players nitpick for details bc that's what fleshes out the game and I'm always happy to provide!

1) There are old, dry stains in other places besides footsteps tracked by the students, which appear fresh and wet, and while these are mostly in the hallways (think corners and edges and crevices between flooring that are pain to properly scrub out, so they've been left until equinox cleaning day), he may also notice the occasional spots on the walls and ceiling. Basically everywhere, but still concentrated in places of heavy traffic like the hallways and classrooms.

2) The connotation characters may get from seeing "YOGEN" written around the school is that of "prophecy," but this meaning will mostly go unnoticed unless the character is specifically focusing on the word to think of other meanings, and it's easier if they understand Japanese. While it's not on the uniform emblem or anything, on some places around the school like posters, etc, they may find the image of a two headed bird and make the connection between the school name and the yogen no tori bird of prophecy.

peeks in

[mermaidcursed]

if someone were to try and search a janitor's closet, would they find anything?

HI I'M BACK SORRY

[mermaidcursed]

DO OUR CHARACTERS HAVE MEMORIES OF LEAVING THE SCHOOL AND HAVING A FAMILY HERE DURING THE HIGH SCHOOL LIFE DAZE ASKING FOR A FRIEND

[unsurely]

I crawl back in with one more question because a few of us were talking, and we were wondering how much of the fake school days memories and CR characters would get to keep!

The TDM notes seem to imply it's only bits and pieces, would they amount more to vague feelings or would they remember the actual scenes they experienced together too? (I'm wondering about this part basically: "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.")

[futurebullets]

sorry for coming back in here with questions when the event's already up, but!! Hinata's currently exploring around the first floor with Ishimaru and the second with Norton, so I was wondering if there might be anything for them to glean about the school! for the second floor I'm assuming that it'll just be the things answered in an earlier question re: what's inside the desks, and in the case of the first floor I'm guessing there won't be anything but locked doors on the left side, but would there be any information about the school's history in the library?

[kingofscience]

Hey there!! I was wondering, would there be anything literature-wise in the library about the unusual coins? Senku practically lives there when he doesn't have any pressing matters to attend to, and with his memory he can go through quite a few books in a matter of hours.

I ask because he's gonna be in a thread soon involving these coins, and I'm also quite curious too!

Re: QUESTIONS

[cousins]

hi! this is really late i'm sorry, but i'm interested in hitting up the tdm anyway to voice test and i just wanted to know if any of the locked doors or vending machines could be picked or broken into? isaac is an engineer and has worked with more advanced tech/machinery, so he would def. try to see if he could get things open. just wanted to make sure if this was doable/what the consequences would be before i post! thanks in advance ♥