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October Event
10/02 06:12
✽ Silence lifts at six in the morning, and there is still quite a bit of time before classes start. Early risers who decide to return to school from the dorms cross the courtyard and open the double doors and—- something cold and wet drips down onto their head: old blood from the torso of a student(?) bound by rope and strung up above the doors to the courtyard, body burned black and cut in half at the waist.
The air is heavy, and the entire school smells of blood.
Hope... month...
✽ A large poster advertising the student store has been tacked up on the bulletin board. For October, store hours are now 6AM to 8PM Monday to Saturday, and noon to 4PM on Sundays. Outside of those hours, the shopkeeper is occasionally in the shop and will leave the door propped open if they are, but more often than not, the door is closed and there is no answer when knocking on the door. Laundry tokens can now be purchased at a reasonable price. The rock gacha machine is now located just outside the door so it can be played at any time. Please continue to spend your hard-eared points on plain boring normal rocks.
✽ In the dormitory, the construction paper covering the oil paintings start to soak through with blood, causing the papers to grow heavy and fall. The distorted faces in the paintings seem to be bleeding from their open wounds, the canvas wet to the touch and smelling of blood. Blood dripping down the walls and on the floor do not cause the dorms to change, nor do the splatters of blood seen on the glass over the star dormitory rooms occasionally throughout the month, as if it had rained blood in the darkness and silence of night, although no other evidence is seen elsewhere in the courtyard.
✽ The wisteria tree slowly continues to lose its petals, and the area roughly ten feet around the trunk of the tree has become completely dead and barren, leaving dry dirt underneath. Despite shedding its petals, new buds are becoming noticeable now too. The spider lilies that bloomed during the autumnal equinox remain, still covering the rest of the courtyard and extending into the forest surrounding the school. Outside, the air smells faintly metallic at all times.
✽ Occasionally throughout the month and increasing in frequency and intensity towards the end of the month, characters with 13 or more tallies will find themselves sensitive to sunlight and loud noises, prone to vertigo upon standing or turning too quickly, and suffering ice pick headaches throughout the day.
✽ Characters with 5 or less tallies will hear faint white noise during the normally silent hours of midnight to 6AM, but no other sound.
✽ The class roster on the bulletin board acknowledges class 1-D for leading the rest of the classes in rank, being the first to reach 100. All characters in first year classes and #-D classes will receive 500 merit points and will be able to exit out the front door to the school. They will be able to make it up to the front gate, but will find themselves growing lightheaded and about to pass out if they try to squeeze through the bars or climb over the gate itself. Please contact me privately if they would try to get out anyways.
✽ The void in the auditorium continues to grow, and (pending character interaction) by the end of the month will encompass the entire right wing of the first floor past the lockers, the home ec cooking room on the second floor, as well as the art club room on the third floor.
✽ In the dormitory, the construction paper covering the oil paintings start to soak through with blood, causing the papers to grow heavy and fall. The distorted faces in the paintings seem to be bleeding from their open wounds, the canvas wet to the touch and smelling of blood. Blood dripping down the walls and on the floor do not cause the dorms to change, nor do the splatters of blood seen on the glass over the star dormitory rooms occasionally throughout the month, as if it had rained blood in the darkness and silence of night, although no other evidence is seen elsewhere in the courtyard.
✽ The wisteria tree slowly continues to lose its petals, and the area roughly ten feet around the trunk of the tree has become completely dead and barren, leaving dry dirt underneath. Despite shedding its petals, new buds are becoming noticeable now too. The spider lilies that bloomed during the autumnal equinox remain, still covering the rest of the courtyard and extending into the forest surrounding the school. Outside, the air smells faintly metallic at all times.
✽ Occasionally throughout the month and increasing in frequency and intensity towards the end of the month, characters with 13 or more tallies will find themselves sensitive to sunlight and loud noises, prone to vertigo upon standing or turning too quickly, and suffering ice pick headaches throughout the day.
✽ Characters with 5 or less tallies will hear faint white noise during the normally silent hours of midnight to 6AM, but no other sound.
✽ The class roster on the bulletin board acknowledges class 1-D for leading the rest of the classes in rank, being the first to reach 100. All characters in first year classes and #-D classes will receive 500 merit points and will be able to exit out the front door to the school. They will be able to make it up to the front gate, but will find themselves growing lightheaded and about to pass out if they try to squeeze through the bars or climb over the gate itself. Please contact me privately if they would try to get out anyways.
✽ The void in the auditorium continues to grow, and (pending character interaction) by the end of the month will encompass the entire right wing of the first floor past the lockers, the home ec cooking room on the second floor, as well as the art club room on the third floor.
Exchange Program
✽ On October 11, students participating in the exchange program are given one pocket knife each and sent out the front doors, upon which they will find themselves in that canon location as if they had stepped out of any normal door in the area. For characters who visit their own canon's location, they will find all their friends and family alive and happy— except for the one person they are closest to, who will be absent. Nobody there will recognize your character or the person they are closest to, regarding both as complete strangers, as if neither have ever existed in the first place. But otherwise... think of it as canon good end, in contrast to elevator bad end.
✽ There is no bus to take them back to Yogen and they can stay as long as they'd like, even forever if they feel like it. If they wish to return to their real home, though, they would have to first return to Yogen and figure things out from there. The first time they open the pocket knife, they will find a piece of paper tucked between the blade and the handle reading "Use to return." If they use it on other people, that's the local law enforcement's business. In order to return to Yogen, perhaps remembering Natsume's presentation mentioning how they got there in the first place, they will have to use the knife on themselves, or otherwise die by happenstance or, eventually, old age. Two weeks after their return to school, they will find one additional tally on the inside of their wrist.
✽ In return, Yogen receives three exchange students: two familiar and one not.
✽ There is no bus to take them back to Yogen and they can stay as long as they'd like, even forever if they feel like it. If they wish to return to their real home, though, they would have to first return to Yogen and figure things out from there. The first time they open the pocket knife, they will find a piece of paper tucked between the blade and the handle reading "Use to return." If they use it on other people, that's the local law enforcement's business. In order to return to Yogen, perhaps remembering Natsume's presentation mentioning how they got there in the first place, they will have to use the knife on themselves, or otherwise die by happenstance or, eventually, old age. Two weeks after their return to school, they will find one additional tally on the inside of their wrist.
✽ In return, Yogen receives three exchange students: two familiar and one not.
OOC
✽ The first prompt leads into this month's mini-event, which is becoming a misnomer, maybe they should be called murder events instead.
✽ All students leaving on the exchange program will icly be gone for at least 10/11 - 10/17, although they will be able to return at any later date in October, at the player's discretion, regardless of how much time they experienced on their trip. Just like in the bad end elevator and the void school, nothing physical can be taken back from the exchange trip, but characters can at least drain their bank accounts eating good food and exploring town before coming back.
✽ The new exchange students are former npcs Kouji Seki and Chiaki Kudo, as well as a new student ???. They can be interacted with in their corresponding toplevels below, after 10/11.
✽ All students leaving on the exchange program will icly be gone for at least 10/11 - 10/17, although they will be able to return at any later date in October, at the player's discretion, regardless of how much time they experienced on their trip. Just like in the bad end elevator and the void school, nothing physical can be taken back from the exchange trip, but characters can at least drain their bank accounts eating good food and exploring town before coming back.
✽ The new exchange students are former npcs Kouji Seki and Chiaki Kudo, as well as a new student ???. They can be interacted with in their corresponding toplevels below, after 10/11.
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even if she has a contract or something with the powers that be that is detrimental to them, not everything she does has to be for that. for her brother. )
Then that goes for her, TOO. Whatever she might be NOW, Maya-chan's been a student at this school before either of US. She's been subjected to the same things we have BEEN, be it grades or the risk of dyING, or having to kill to defend herself or her own broTHER.
When I said we're all DEAD, Little Bunny, I meant all of US. Even if any of the students here worked with whatever or whoever is masterminding THIS, it wouldn't be—couldn't be—entirely of their own chooSING. ( he still doesn't think anyone is, but just dismissing her out of hand won't help anyone, so he'll work with what he has.
natsume's quiet for just a moment, but. ) Do you want to know why I think she's not such a bad perSON?
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[she looks up at him, peering at him curiously.]
If you could save Subaru from this place, and send him home safe and sound, and all it would cost is [places hand over heart] me. Just me, given to this place, for whatever it wants us for. Would you do it? Don't lie.
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and........ that question is a doozy, with surprise flashing across his face before it sinks to irritation and slight hurt; he looks away, unable to meet her eyes. )
...That isn't FAIR. ( it isn't. it really, really isn't.
because it's something he should say yes to, but it's something he should say no to, too. he'll give her an honest answer though, staring off just past her shoulder, before his gaze settles back on her. ) I'd find another option that'd allow for both of you to be SAVED. I'm not a child any longer; I won't step on other people just to ensure mine and my own's happiNESS, at the cost of someone ELSE.
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[she looks almost... vaguely disappointed, by the answer. she just shakes her head, a small, rueful smile on her face.]
That's the nice answer. The "I'd save you both" answer. No hurt feelings. No reason to think too hard on it. [pause] It's why it's the child answer. 'Cause there's only two options, I think. You sell out somebody to save them, or you both are gone.
... You don't have to lie. I already know you'd pick him. And... It's sad, but, I can't blame you for it. Because I'd do it, too. [in a heartbeat. without a moment's hesitation. but with anguish for however much longer she would exist.] It's just that I don't have anybody to save.
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( his voice is firm and steady, and he straightens a little bit. )
...There's always another opTION. To think there isn't is to just play into whatever schemes you think are going ON. ( ... ) The cost is always higher for a choice that goes against what you're supposed to DO, but that doesn't make it completely impossible—and even if it WERE, so WHAT? I'm a magician—it's the age-old duty of those given the title to make miracles ocCUR.
I'd do IT, ( he repeats, softer. ) Baru-kun might be one of my friends from HOME, but you are someone I wouldn't have ever met if we hadn't been here togeTHER. You're just as special of an existence as he IS.
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There's only two options, going a certain way. Going Maya's way. Going Keigo's way. That way, you have two choices, and nothing else.
But, there's always a way. And there is a way. [a pause, a slight grimace] And I hate to say it, but it's Rokuro's way. There's no making deals with this place. There's only tearing it down.
I'm not graduating. I'm not graduating because I'm gonna make sure there's nowhere to graduate from, ever again.
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( ..........just saying. score well on your tests or repeat second year again. )
I don't know what the little shopkeeper's ever done to YOU, or what you think their way IS... but I don't know them well-enough to defend THEM, so I won't TRY. The only time I ever knew them was when they were three years OLD, in a memory that wasn't even the real ONE. ( because they were there, making changes that didn't matter. ) Maya-chan's only goal is to ensure the third years survive to graduaTION, so that they have another chance to better themselVES.
Presumably so they don't end up here in particular aGAIN, but the nature of this school—if it's really just a holding PLACE, or if it's a certain level of Hell, or if it's just one stop on the way through the natural cycle of life and death—still eludes ME, and as far as I know very few of the other students know anything ELSE. ( isn't like anyone makes it easy, either. natsume rubs his arm, but... he's thinking about it, still. at least stephanie doesn't think maya is a bad person. not entirely. ) It's still entirely childish of you to suggest we take down a system without knowing any solid information of how it funcTIONS, or having a plan on how to do that without hurting anyone more than we have to in the proCESS.
( he isn't— against, entirely, the idea. he doesn't think going back and being able to make different choices, even if he won't remember his experiences here except perhaps by his heart, is such a bad thing, but at least a different type of purgatory would be better.
...mm. )
Though I heard from Fujioka-senpai—he's the TALL, skittish glasses-wearing one—that he felt like he was here for a reaSON. That rather than just an ordinary purgatoRY, he feels as if he's here because there's something he needs to DO, though he doesn't know WHAT.
( ... )
That we're here because of who we ARE.
( but maybe that'll just be another of the school's tricks, and it's not like they have evidence to refute that no more than there's evidence to support it. that's kind of what it comes down to. )
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... I think Maya has a Deal. I think she's going to trade some, or all, of us, in exchange for freeing Hiro... and maybe herself, or maybe not. I think Keigo is, too, but whoever they want to save is... more valuable to this place, than Hiro is. They need to pay a higher price.
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Maya-chan pit Ishimaru-kun and the rest of the student council hopefuls against one another and against those possessed in a gladiatorial death match to make sure she was picking someone who wouldn't be easy to KILL, that wanted to live bad enough they could be trusted to fight their way out of a bad situation—to make certain she could rely on them even a little BIT. Considering the way Okane-senpai WENT, I don't necessarily blame HER, though she could have figured out something else—but she wants to see acTIONS, not fluffed up words and promiSES.
Nagito-kun killed Okane-senpai because he wanted to see our "HOPE," and I killed three people while possessed by a very scared soul fragment that was corrupted by improper release; I killed a fourth person because I knew she would kill me first if I didn't get HER. Saihara-kun got hurt protecting me for a selfish iDEAL. The list goes on and on and ON.
( ... )
The school didn't make any of us do most of THAT. We made those choiCES, even if it was because we didn't think we had another ONE. I won't argue that there might be some type of contract in the line of what you're thinking THOUGH, because I can't say for sure that there's NOT. Contracts are private agreements between those who make it; if they aren't allowed to divulge what's part of IT, or they don't want TO, then it's difficult to say one way or the other what it actually IS.
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Who filled the school with gas that made us hallucinate our loved ones? Who built an elevator that showed us horrible futures? You can't find a person to blame for that. [pause] Maya making people fight to the death is exactly what I'm talking about, even if you don't see it. What's the difference between your dumb murders and what she did? You did what this place likes, and then you tried to cover it up, to hide it. Maya put on a show for them.
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( ...but yeah, it isn't like any of them caused any of those horrors, not really. it's been a while since then though, or it feels like it—distressingly, he doesn't know if he prefers the murders or the hallucinations.
he never went to the elevator, not after hearing other people's stories. )
Find out who or what "they" ARE, and what this school actually IS, and I'll agree to help you destroy IT. But I'm not going to needlessly sacrifice a thousand innocent souls who might end up caught in the blast without a good reaSON, Little Bunny. ( because— he looks off, then back at her. ) Who knows where any of us will go once this realm has been torn aPART. The dead can't simply go back to where they were exactLY. That isn't how it WORKS.
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[she smiles, looking up at him with unabashed hope in her eyes.]
This isn't a normal place, with normal death. It's magic. And the wonderful, and terrible, thing about magic is that it makes everything possible. Impossible things. We just need to... figure it out. Figure out what kind of story we're in. What kind of heroes we have to be.
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he rests a hand on her head briefly, then pulls away. )
Even magic has internally consistent LAWS, but there's a lot that can be done with it, TRUE. But we're not in a stoRY, and we might not even be heroes even if we are in ONE.
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Everything comes with a sacriFICE, Little Bunny. Don't forget THAT. Even in stories where the heroes WIN.
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I know.
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natsume doesn't usually do hugs for people, but stephanie gets one, cheek resting against the top of her head; it lasts just long enough to mean something but he'll move away again since he doesn't know if she wants a hug from him actually— )
But that doesn't mean they can't be miniMIZED. You just have to trust peoPLE. ( sometimes people you don't want to trust. ...but he can trust them for her, and she can trust him. he'd still take revenge on anyone who hurt her, after all, even if she told him not to, and even if shuichi doesn't want anyone else to die because of someone else. ) Everything in time THOUGH. What's your first STEP?
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I don't know. [pause] I just need to figure stuff out first. Just... a direction. Anything.
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The cards might KNOW. They helped Helena-chan last MONTH. ( ... ) But I don't think you need to ask them anyTHING. Regardless of what they SAY, I know what you'll ultimately listen TO.
( like all great heroes. he closes his eyes, petting her hair. )
Your HEART.
( whatever help that is with figuring out a direction or a start, anyway. )
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... I can do this. [whatever "this" is.
she falls quiet, for a moment.]
Natsume... I'm really glad we're friends. [for all it hurts, sometimes.] ... And I'm sorry for being mean sometimes. I'm trying to be stronger, and I think I get the two mixed up when I'm upset.
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You haven't had very good role models HERE, so I forgive YOU. I'm the type that gets meaner when I'm mad, TOO.
( he knows that. when he's upset, his already sharp tongue turns worse; he's said awful things to people that he didn't always mean. puffing himself up like an invincible little chihuahua, pretending like he doesn't need anyone else, driving them off with some well-placed barbs...
natsume sighs. )
No one will blame you for getting a little mean when you're upset eiTHER. Humans have a tendency to lash out and say what they know will hurt the MOST, no matter who it is they're speaking TO... Even if—or especially if—they care about that perSON.
( ...he squeezes her, hug-hug. and softer, as if anyone else is here to hear: )
I'm glad we're friends TOO, Little Bunny. You're one of the brightest parts of this school for me; if anything happened to YOU... ( ... ) I already said I wouldn't take reVENGE, but I'll be extremely CROSS.
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Well, I'll be very cross if you're mean about it. And then I'll come back and I'll shake my finger at you for it. So, keep that in mind!
[fun fact the reason she is so deadset on insisting on mercy for her killer is that she has an inkling of the most likely candidate.]
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Oh, you'll come back, will YOU? Perhaps I'll be extra mean THEN.
( a guarantee to see her again. )
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[there's a non-zero chance she still doesn't fully understand what "being dead" actually entails.]