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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

Ritsuka "Gudako" Fujimaru | Fate/Grand Order (Cosmos in the Lostbelt) | Open

[tempingforatlas]

a. i know that sweet warm taste, and the bitter trace (cleaning)
Hey! [Ritsuka barely flinches as the chalk dust creeps into her air ducts, her cough quickly turning into a snort-giggle. She lightly tosses a chalk-laden eraser at the back of her assailant's head, says,] Alright, alright. I'm on it, jeez, [catches the washcloth lobbed her way, and-

The sharp iron odor hits her nose, bombarding her with grisly and very, very real memories in the process. Ritsuka freezes for a moment, considering the wet rag, before shaking her head and attacking the board with the washcloth. She crawls back through her dream-addled memories as she works, trying and failing to pin down when, exactly, she arrived at whatever this place was from... the Border? Novum Chaldea? She wasn't exactly new to waking up in unfamiliar places with only a hazy recollection of how she got there, but usually- okay, there have been a few times when Ritsuka's memory was scrambled in the process, but at least there was almost always someone else there who could explain what was going on.

Still, though. It wasn't exactly an extraordinary occurrence. Although she can't help but let out a rueful sigh, Ritsuka continues her task with vigor.] Just another Tuesday, I guess.

...or Wednesday. Saturday?

Yeah, Saturday.

Oh, here you go. [She passes her bucket over to the next student over who needs it.]

b. it never hurts to give thanks to the local gods (shrines)
[Traveling the world left Ritsuka with odd habits. She picked up a taste for just about anything that's edible, for one, although that isn't to say Ritsuka didn't have an appreciation for fine cuisine. Learning how to sleep standing up was an important talent, too (although several people back home would argue that peculiar habit had a different cause entirely).

Picking up the customs of places that she stayed in for more than a few days was bound to happen, too. This is especially true with Uruk—the fact that she can speak Ancient Sumerian semi-intelligibly was a testament to that. She also gained an appreciation for small acts of devotion, thanks to Siduri. An offering to the local gods, whatever she could spare. A short prayer, if she could at least fumble her way through pronouncing it. Having a few friends who were literal divinities made it easier to swallow... and seeing Ishtar's face light up when Ritsuka had left some bread for her at a shrine definitely made it worth it, if nothing else.

So when she sees a gorinto shrine near a windowsill, already surrounded by small offerings, it's only natural for Ritsuka to hit up the nearby vending machine to leave a protein bar by the-

-her eyes go completely glassy as the false(?) memories(?) flood her mind, battering down its doors with a rapid-fire barrage of images and friendships she never got the chance to have over the past two and a half years. Someone is going to need to rescue her, and it's probably not going to be one of the native students.

Once Ritsuka is freed, she considers a different vending machine thoughtfully. On the one hand, her stomach's growling, and she's already regretting leaving that offering at the shrine. On the other hand... who knows where else she'll find food here. She'll probably regret it if she blows all of her "merit points" before the first day ends.

Ritsuka slumps.] Mannnn. Now I'm really regretting not studying harder for that- [before she can catch herself falling into another dream, something else catches her eye: a different student going for the shrine. Leaping off the carriage of her train of thought, she dashes over, grabbing them by the shoulder with a surprisingly tight grip.] Trust me, you do not want to touch that thing.

[Her voice is deathly serious.]

c. it never hurts to give thanks to the navigator (cooking)
[Three things became readily apparent to Ritsuka after the graduation ceremony.

One, wherever she was, she couldn't contact Chaldea or the Shadow Border.

Two, she was stuck here for the foreseeable future.

Three, until "spring break" ended, Ritsuka and everybody else stuck at Yogen had very, very limited resources to work with.

There weren't any Servants summoned by the Counter Force nearby, nor any indication of what caused this distortion and how to resolve it. So Ritsuka only had one course of action to take: survive until she could figure out what the Hell was going on here.

To that end, after meeting up with the rest of the students, her first destination was the kitchen. She was no Emiya, or Boudica, or Cat, or Raikou, but she could at least warm up some cup ramen and knew approximately how to make a variety of practical dishes for the road, so she should be able to make do. Hopefully.

Wrenching open the fridge, Ritsuka peers inside, narrowing her eyes at the meat.] We need to preserve all this before it goes bad... Jerky should work, I think?

I'll start cutting the meat. Could you do me a favor and look for some spices and some kind of sauce? Just because we have to eat trail rations doesn't mean we have to eat disgusting trail rations.

d. wildcard
[Hit me up at TheDoomkitten for plotting, or The Doomkitten#8383 on Discord. I'm also good with AU memories.]

a

[parhellia]

It's Thursday.

[ Ala says this as a matter of fact, taking the bucket and... just holding onto it, really, both hands on the handles as she holds it in front of her lap as if this is enough participation to count.

She yawns, mouth wide without the hands to cover it, and would honestly love to be able to fall asleep standing up because she could do it right here if she could. ]

The school's just gonna get dusty again over break... Isn't this good enough?

[tempingforatlas]

I am 99% sure it's Saturday. [Ritsuka cups her chin in her hand.] Unless it's Friday. Then I'm 99% sure it's Friday.

[If a situation is strange, confusing, scary, and potentially dangerous, just do a bit! Instantly makes everything funnier, if not any less strange, confusing, scary, and potentially dangerous.]

Trust me, it's at least worth it to put in a good effort. Take a whiff of your rag; you'll see what I mean.

[It looks like whoever this is, she's another transfer student. And if Ritsuka can get her to come to her senses, then she'll at least have one ally in this place. She needs to start somewhere.]

[parhellia]

Ew, no way!

[ Ala laughs and shakes her head, the heavy bucket being the only thing keeping her from running away from having to sniff a smelly old rag. Who knows where that thing's been? Actually, she does: it's been wiping up muck from all around the school, and has got to be gross. ]

I don't need to sniff it to know that it's gross!

[tempingforatlas]

And if the rags are this gross, then we obviously need to clean. [Ritsuka rolls her eyes, but she's still smiling wide at Ala as she scrubs at the washing board with renewed vigor.

So much for that tactic, although it's really no surprise that her classmate refused to get a lungful of a smelly rag. What else, then?]

This is awkward, but... can you remind me of your name? Everybody else calling us "transfer student" all the time makes it hard to memorize anybody's names.

Oh, mine's Ritsuka Fujimaru. Some of my friends call me Gudako, though.

[parhellia]

I'm Ala!

[ And apparently just Ala, thought she does shift her weight from one foot to another, fidgety after just a minute or two of carrying this bucket. It's like how misbehaving students are sent to the hall carrying a bucket of water... she's read about this in books. She gets it. This is awful. She wants to set it down but she also wants to help, and this is helping, or something. ]

How do you get "Gudako" from "Ritsuka Fujimaru"?

tldr "gudaguda" is an onomatopeia for "dragging"

[tempingforatlas]

When I was a kid, I used to be a really heavy sleeper. Still am, kinda. ["Gudako" laughs sheepishly as she dunks her rag in more of the pinkish water, grimacing at the smell hits her once again. Nothing to do but keep cleaning, though. Going with the flow helped her more than it hurt her on balance, and judging by the rest of the students' reactions, trying to break away now was asking for trouble.]

It took me almost half an hour to properly wake up once I was out of bed back then, so everyone kept on having to dragon me around. You know, like "gudaguda?" So they kept on calling me "gudaguda kid," which got shortened to "Gudako" after a bit. The name stuck even after I learned how to be more functional in the mornings, ha.

[parhellia]

[ It's such a silly mental image that Ala can't help but laugh, shoulders shaking and water spilling over the edge of the bucket and onto her shoes but she doesn't seem to mind, outside of giving a little squeak of surprise. ]

I know somebody like that! I'm pretty sure I've seen him being hauled around like a potato sack 'cause he wouldn't wake up too! I'm usually a light sleeper, but, I dunno, today...

[ Mmmmmm... she tries to hold back a yawn, squeezing her lips together tight but it's a losing battle and she has to let that yawn out in the end. ]

...sleepy... Y'know like when you're reading a boring textbook or listening to somebody lecture you and you don't wanna hear it, so your mind shuts off and you nod off? It feels like that!

Shrine Rescue

[galalass]

Senpai!

[Yeah, the glassy-eyed look is never good? Hardly ever, anyway.]

[And stealing snacks from a memorial shrine is just disrespectful, really.]

[The teal deer here, as the youths say, is that Mash is grabbing Ritsuka's hand and pulling it away from the gorinto.]

Are you okay?

[tempingforatlas]

[Hey, Ritsuka wasn't stealing, she was giving an offering! That's literally the opposite of stealing, Mash.

She snaps back to reality as soon as Mash takes her hand, whipping her head back and forth as she shakes off the fogginess. With how shaggy Ritsuka's 'do is, she looks like a dog trying to fling rain out of its hair. But soon enough, Ritsuka stops, and locks eyes with her rescuer.]

Mash!

[That one syllable contains every ounce of Ritsuka's heart.]

[galalass]

[Look maybe she saw Ritsuka touching the shrine and made some assumptions that were incorrect, how many folktales do you hear where people are cursed for leaving blessings versus stealing them.]

[Or the player misread the tag, whichever, shh.]

It's me, Senpai, Mash Kyrielight.

[Yeah, she hears that. That's definitely Ritsuka, and not some weird dream-Rayshift-whatever-this-is doppelganger.]

Really though, are you all right?

[tempingforatlas]

My brain feels like someone forced it through a strainer, but that's basically normal, so I'm fine.

[It's not, in fact, normal, but Ritsuka takes whatever definition of "normality" that she can get.]

Ugh, I wish I studied harder, wasting a merit point for that stupid ungrateful shrine... wait, no, that doesn't- [Right. Brain. Pasta strainer. Scrambled. Ritsuka shakes her head.] Okay, I might be a bit more... wonky than I thought.

Have you been able to contact Chaldea? I lost my communicator somewhere so I doubt you had better luck, but...

K.Seki, 3/29

[stopit]

@ R.Fujimaru
are you winning?

[tempingforatlas]

@ K.Seki

kill me kouji

i am

SO TIRED

of the smell taste texture and sight of jerky

[stopit]

...
have you tried soaking it in water?

[tempingforatlas]

yes

and rebaking it in new sauces

and chopping it up into little pieces

and whatever else you can think of

[stopit]

i can think of plenty of other things
like:
not eating the jerky
it'll last for YEARS you don't have to eat it all right away

[tempingforatlas]

that's WHY i'm eating it

for real, the reason why i said i'd be "swamped" over break is that stuff is, uh, bad, where i am right now

there's a food shortage and we don't really know if the electricity is going to go too or not, so i turned all the meat we had in our fridge into jerky

good news is that we still have plenty of protein

bad news is that it's all jerky

[stopit]

dude
is everything okay at home?
wtf
nvm electricity bills, are you going to be okay on rent???

c. time 4 fun

[loyalbreed]

[ Ever so casually and with such seeming excitement, Gawain hands the other the Vinegar. A straight face feeling no oddity of it. ] Vinegar works with everything, as do salt. I would query for some ale, but as it were I do not think we will find such an item within the walls of this school.

[tempingforatlas]

[Ritsuka rolls her eyes as she rolls up her sleeves, getting ready to slice the meat into fine strips.] Gawain, I've seen the kinds of atrocities you do to potatoes. No offense, but I'll stick to getting tactical advice from you, not cooking tips.

[Beat.]

Wait, Gawain?! [Ritsuka turns on a heel to look up at her personal dumb blond beefcake, eyes sparkling.] It's really you!

[loyalbreed]

[ The way she spoke was so - casual? The sound of his name left her lips, and he all but froze. Certain that he had not said who he were - was she also from the Tsukumihara Academy? That was not the name of this school, but perhaps she was a master from the Moon Cell wars. ] It is, forgive my insolence but I have not the faintest idea who it is you are. Might you hail to me your name?

[tempingforatlas]

[The chances of him being her Gawain were astronomically low, now that she was thinking of it, but hope springs eternal. Especially when you're Ritsuka Fujimaru.]

Figures you don't remember me. I'm Ritsuka Fujimaru, a... nother master of yours, I guess? [She holds up her hand with the command seal as proof.]

[loyalbreed]

[ The command seals were indeed a sight for sore eyes, he is delighted to see another master within the confinements. When as it were, no one seemed adjusted to the fact that someone from the past were now living amongst them. Or that, he unlike the rest of them - held little need for food less he need to fill his mana supplies.

Yet with a master before him! That mean't he could just take from her of course and *BLEEPBLEEPBLEPE*- ] Pray tell! I hope I have been of great service to you in the Grail War you were in. As it is, I have no understanding of who is my master of current, perhaps you have summoned me then? Although that will not answer why I recall the last and further moments of my last summoning.

[tempingforatlas]

It wasn't exactly a Grail War. It's... a very, very, very long story. [And one that started when Gawain tried to kill her on several occasions over a protracted period of time during the second most stressful Singularity Ritsuka has ever had the misfortune of resolving, but bygones have been bygones for over a year now.] But yeah, you were a huge help! And don't worry about having weird memories from the last time you were summoned. A lot of my Servants dealt with the same thing. There was even a support group for the ones who remembered three different versions of the same Holy Grail War.

Like I said, my circumstances are pretty weird.

I don't think I summoned you, though. Usually, whenever I stumble on someone in a Singularity like this, it's because- wait. [Ritsuka's grin widens.] Oh, man, I thought I screwed the ritual up! I can't believe it actually worked! [She pumps her fist up and down. At last, competence! Kinda. Sorta. He showed up a few hours later than he should've, but still, Ritsuka did something magic on her own! That was something to be proud of.]