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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

[parhellia]

[ It's stupid and it's not going to work. Instead of finding her own hiding spot, Ala goes ahead and crouches next to Kai, close enough to bump shoulders because she needs to huddle close to stay hidden as she peers over his shoulder to watch that same door.

Surely more than one student sees them as they walk by, but nobody says anything. Reaching the door, though... all Ala can see is their backs, students raising a hand to push open a door that never opens, the edges of their form blurring as they walk through the door that shouldn't let them. If something's happening in front of them just before they exist, she can't make that out at all. ]

[phoenixhearted]

[ A visibly annoyed expression appears on Kai's face, but he doesn't say anything about it. After all, she is trying to hide, so she kind of has to get this close. That doesn't make it any less irritating, though.

He watches for a while, but... as expected, there doesn't seem to be any kind of trick to way that the students are leaving. They simply... walk through the door, as if it isn't there at all. ]

I don't think we'll be getting out that way. I wonder if they're even real...?

[ Though he remembers Team Shadows, who could also appear and disappear at will - and they were certainly real. Still, there's something... unsettling about these students in particular. Something that makes him wonder if they even belong in this reality at all...

[parhellia]

Huh? Of course they're real. One of them threw a washcloth at my face.

[ They're real enough to mess with her, at least, real enough to talk with her and laugh with her and treat her like a friend. They're people she's interacted with and feels like she knows and that makes them real to her... though the other part of her says that's not what Kai is talking about. ]

What if we were right there next to them? Like thiiiiiiiiis close? [ she leans against his shoulder demonstratively ] Maybe we'd be able to slip through?

[phoenixhearted]

...Oi. Get off me.

[ Kai himself steps away, bristling with irritation. Why is he even going along with this girl's suggestions again? ...Then again, as stupid as they are, it's not like he has any better ideas.

So with that, Kai walks over to one of the students who looks like they're about to leave the building. Reluctantly, he gets as close to them as possible - and they're solid, he's sure of it; he can feel their body pressing up against his. But when they walk towards the door... Kai once more finds himself unable to leave, where the student next to him shimmers and passes through the door unobstructed.

He turns back to Ala. ]

Nothing. Any more bright ideas?

[parhellia]

[ Ala quickly reconstructs her expression so it doesn't look like she was just laughing at him running into the door while the other students just stepped on through. ]

Mm... There are other doors. Only one door to exit the entire building's a fire hazard, right? And if we can't get any of the doors open, there's plenty of windows and plenty of floors. There's the roof.

[phoenixhearted]

The windows might be worth trying. And if we can get up to the roof...

[ ...Kai doesn't even spare Ala a glance before he turns and starts walking away, looking around for any windows he can spot. It seems like he's not particularly interested in teaming up with her, though it's not like he told her not to follow him, either.

Now, if he can just find a window... ]

[parhellia]

[ Not being shooed away is good enough for Ala, who tags along and is content to stay half a step behind Kai and let him take charge. She already put forth some ideas, after all, so it's his turn.

At least there's a lot of windows around, several inside each room they're able to get to but none of them open. Asking another student about it just gets them weird looks, a warning about leaving the windows alone because it's still cold out and it'll be bad to let a draft in while the school is closed and empty.

Nobody mentions avoiding the gorinto on the sills. Perhaps it's obvious not to touch them, and doesn't warrant a warning. ]

[phoenixhearted]

[ As they keep trying the windows, Kai can find himself growing more and more frustrated. It looks like getting out of here isn't going to be that easy - though he could've guessed that from the start. Somehow, he doubts there'll be easy access to the roof, either.

Of course, that doesn't mean that he intends on giving up. If the conventional methods don't work, then he'll have to focus on gathering information, first... Playing the long game, as it were.

He doesn't touch the gorinto. He touched it once before, before the graduation ceremony, and... he doesn't want his memories getting messed with like that again. ]

If we can't get to the roof, we'll have to focus on surviving for now. I'm sure the people who brought us here will show themselves eventually... there must be something they want. But what...?

[ ...Once more, Kai finds himself wishing that he had Dranzer with him. He doesn't know how it would help him in this situation, but... he's sure that with Suzaku by his side, he wouldn't be feeling nearly as uneasy as he's feeling now. ]

[parhellia]

[ Ala's quiet while she follows behind, that skip in her step never stopping no matter how many failed windows they've had to give up on, and when he finally speaks up and breaks the silence, she gives him a curious hum at the back of her throat. ]

Yeah, that's sorta what I was thinking too. We're good to nobody dead, so whatever it is they want, they're gonna tell us soon. Once all the food's gone, people don't live all that long, so it'll be soon!

[phoenixhearted]

[ This perky attitude of Ala's is starting to get ridiculous. At least, that's the way Kai feels. ]

...I certainly hope so.

[ Unless they were kidnapped by a bunch of sick freaks who wanted to watch a bunch of kids slowly starve to death in a school. Still, that doesn't seem right. They'd have put in an awful lot of work just for that, too...

Kai slowly becomes lost in thought as he tries to figure out what the people behind this could want. Could Borg be behind this? Somehow, that doesn't seem right, but even so... ]

Are you a Blader? [ Kai abruptly opens his eyes and looks at Ala directly as he asks. ]

[parhellia]

Eh? Um...

[ Her shoulders jolt a little and she takes half a step back, not expecting to be addressed directly all of the sudden when Kai had seemed so keen on pretending she doesn't exist. ]

I, uh. Sort of? Just a little bit? Like, with a little more practice, maybe...

[ Blader.......... ]

[phoenixhearted]

I see.

[ So she is. Though not exactly an experienced one, by the sounds of it - what would Borg want with a amateur Blader?

He'll need to ask a few more people before making any kinds of conclusions, but... The thought that Borg could be back - and responsible for all of this... it makes him feel a sick kind of dread in the bottom of his stomach.

Back to pretending that Ala doesn't exist, Kai turns away, lost in thought. He doesn't even consider the possibility that Ala isn't talking about Beyblading. To him, it should be obvious what he means. ]

[parhellia]

[ Oh noooooooooo... He's disappointed in her! She knows that look— as in, the complete lack of eye contact- and she shrinks a little, pouting and then straightening up again and running to move in front of him and make him look at her. ]

I'll get better! We'll find blades and, and, maybe you can help me practice? You're good, right? I learn best by watching!

[phoenixhearted]

[ As Ala suddenly jumps in front of him... Kai sighs. Great. Now he's got this to deal with. ]

Sorry, but I don't have the time to teach you. Especially not in this situation.

[ He doesn't sound particularly sorry, though. ]

[parhellia]

[ How's she supposed to get him to be less disappointed if he doesn't teach her!! ]

Then— [ one more step into his personal space, just so he can't ignore her ] When we get out of here! Will you teach me and play with me?

[phoenixhearted]

...No.

[ Really, it's not like he can go around teaching every amateur Blader who asks him for help. She can practice and get better on her own, can't she? ]

Besides, we've got more important things to be thinking about. Like figuring out who trapped us here, and how.