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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.
no subject
...I'd be happy. [And that, that right there, is the genuine answer.] I always regretted existing, so in a world where I could never burden others with my problems... I don't know. It sounds better that way. I still exist here, but maybe others would be happier in that world.
...
It's something I think about a lot.
no subject
something in his chest aches. he sits down on the floor, slouching forward lazily, legs crossed.]
They were kind to me... but I didn't belong there. Not in that time.
[his voice is quiet, barely audible... but it's there. an explanation, perhaps, for what truths Noah has already seen. an acknowledgement that they have the same wish, deep down.]
no subject
Are they... not kind to you in your own time? ...did you hate them for being kind to you?
[From where he's sitting, Noah crawls onto the floor to sit across from Add, mirroring his posture. More than anything, he's concerned, and it feels wrong to him to try to talk to Add like this while he's sitting all high and mighty in a chair.]
no subject
[it's a difficult thing for him to put into words. wanting to belong, wanting to be treated with kindness, but also knowing that such things didn't align with his goals. he had to leave everything behind, destroy every trace of that world that once welcomed him... so maybe, in a way, he did hate them for being kind. it was that kindness that made him drag his feet for so long. too much hesitation. ignoring the obvious shortcuts even when he knew the consequences wouldn't matter.
but that's a little too much for him to say, so he sighs instead, scritching behind the ears of the little shadow cat in his lap.]
I didn't belong. And I couldn't stay. So if there's a world where we never met... it would've been the better outcome for them. [no goodbyes, no betrayals.]
no subject
[It's a sentiment Noah shares, but he wouldn't wish that feeling upon anyone. To feel as though you don't belong, that you don't have worth or anything else, that someone knowing you exist at all is a burden... it's not a fantastic thing. Noah knows firsthand.]
...I don't think meeting you was the worst possible outcome. I don't think Senku thinks that, or that anyone else here thinks that either.
[No goodbyes, no betrayals, but Noah's learnt that sometimes he has to say goodbye so that he can meet people again. Goodbyes don't have to be permanent, do they?]
no subject
[if they knew what he was really like, they'd all probably hate him here, too. so he's just making the same mistakes all over again. trying to fit where he doesn't belong, trying to pretend he's a better person...
he knows he's being selfish. when he succeeds, will his existence be erased from this reality, too? maybe remaining here is crueller than he thought. good or bad, memories of him could only bring despair once he's gone.]
I could walk into the void and disappear if I wanted to... existence like mine is fleeting. Don't get so attached.
no subject
[A lot of other people would be sad, too, and maybe Noah doesn't need to say that. No, actually, he knows he doesn't need to say that. He won't speak for others — Add strikes him as the type to say "how do you know?" should Noah even try it — but perhaps hearing that at least one person undoubtedly cares about him will help.
Or maybe it won't, and it'll piss Add off more.]
I'm a curse and a burden to others. That's just... that's just how I see myself and how I think it'll always be. But I don't really see you in that light... I think you should stick around. That's all.
cw: a.....nimal abuse???? sure, okay, its fine everyone's fine
Add's hands stop, still touching the shadowy feline, but... it takes a lot of willpower not to make a fist. or worse than that. he imagines it might be satisfying, to take this tiny magical construct and see what it takes to break it. strangle it, crush it, tear it to pieces, like he should to the ignorant boy sitting across from him, spouting off words that echo tauntingly through his mind because he knows he's heard something just like that before, spoken just as arrogantly with cautious smiles and worried looks—
his hands are shaking. he pets the cat roughly instead, letting his fingers dig into the cool darkness of its nebulous physicality. it would probably protest, if it were a real cat.]
So I should stay so I won't make you sad? Pathetic. That's not my problem.
How stupid are you, really? Curse, burden... kukuku, anyone with eyes can see how precious you are to everyone here. Someone like you will always be welcomed back with open arms. Other people aren't so lucky.
What do you think it would take to make them despise you? Murder...? No, it would have to be someone more valuable in their eyes, or they'd just forgive you like they did last time. Nene would be a good target. She trusts you too easily, and she's lacking in physical strength. You could drive your weapon through her chest and watch her tearfully beg for a reason. She'd probably still try to forgive someone like you even as she utters her final words... kekekekeke, would even that not be enough? Don't you want to find out?
1/2
Noah stands up, making the little celestial cat explode like a flashbang — a little mix of Polaris and Dream Eater, see, that cat isn't just for pets — and when Add's stunned, Noah drives his fist directly into his nose.
Honestly, he hopes he knocked Add's fucking lights out.]
2/2
[In his ire, Noah's admittedly at a loss for words. What does he say to all of that?]
You've acted like a friend this entire time, you listened to me when I was worried if you'd been replaced or not, you came with me into that elevator hellscape when I dragged your ass out of there because you were upset! And now you want to act like you don't give a damn?
[...okay, maybe some of that punch was for himself, too, not just for Nene.]
You think no one here cares about you, is that it? You think that Stephanie and Komaeda and Senku and Sara and Nene — and a whole bunch of people — don't want you around? It's not just me who'd be sad, and I don't care if you don't care about me, but maybe you could try thinking of someone other than yourself for once!
closes my fucking eyes, cw: voidperson body horror and also suicidal ideation for the rest of this
The fist connects with a resounding crack, fragments and dust scattering as Add is clocked straight into the floor. The rebound is no less painful, and the splintering cracks across his face only grow wider when he slams it against the dorm room floor, a piece of his nose actually coming off completely before crumbling like sand. It hurts—he doesn't make a sound, but it still hurts, and for a moment he feels like a child again, slowly picking himself up off the floor before the second blow can come, harsh words ringing in his ears.
He picks himself up, and that hollow smile is still carved into his broken face. Drops of pink run down his chin. It's about as much as you'd expect from a nosebleed, except there's a glowing gash on Add's face that's unsettling to look at, like a bleeding hole filled with glass pieces too numerous to comprehend. He touches it with a hand, feeling the slickness on his gloves... and simply allows it to drip onto the floor anyway, because who cares? The void may as well happen, too. Why not take this there, where they can both scream and lash out as much as they want?
He lets Noah yell at him, but he's not listening. The words are meaningless. Why should he listen to someone who claims to care, when he knows nothing about the person Add truly is? Ridiculous. He just stands there, swaying slightly, wiping the mutated blood from his face and staring at the stains it leaves on his hands, waiting for the meaningless noise to end.
It does, eventually. Maybe Noah expects a response. He's probably that stupid, thinking Add had any intention of listening.
A low, unsteady chuckle escapes his throat, slowly rising into a broken laugh. It echoes through the small room, growing louder and louder in a dissonant crescendo.]
Kukukukukuku... you really are just like them, aren't you?! Soft-hearted, weak. Why do you think I left, Noah? Do you really think I'm that stupid?!
[He finally peels his hand from his face, staring back up at Noah with an unflinching gaze. His eyes are wide and black and glowing with unsettling energy, as empty as the smile still spread across his face... yet it's an emptiness that warns of danger below the surface.
Dark, uncharted waters. What monsters might lurk within Add's heart, waiting for prey to wander too close?]
I thought things might be different here... kekek, I guess I was wrong. Humans are so pathetic... that day we met, you should've killed me when you still had the chance.
no subject
That clearly isn't the case, but Noah also isn't the sort of kid who gives up. He sees it, that self-destructiveness masquerading as hatred. He sees it because it's him, it's always been him, the first to push others away when he thinks too deeply about everything he is and isn't. Noah won't go as far as to say they're the same, because they're no where close to that — but he sees through the charade.
Maybe he shouldn't have punched Add right in the nose, but also, he deserved it. That much is certain. Sometimes, in the course of human events, people get punched in the face.]
You know... [He puts his closed fist down; after a moment, it unclenches, sort of hanging there, and what pink blood drips down his fingertips goes unnoticed.] I don't think you don't care about people, actually. I think you care too much about certain people, and I think you care about them so much that you're willing to leave them because you see yourself in a negative light.
[Noah does the same thing. Coercing Crona into punching him during a meeting was the tip of the iceberg; now he's in a suicide pact with Nene only because she was too willful to let him die and maybe that's for the best, but it's still a fucking shitty way to cope with anything. Somewhere in his head, Noah is aware of this. It's a thought he'd rather not touch on, like with everything else that pertains to his existence and how not worth it life seems to him.
Had he walked away from people sooner, he still thinks some of them might have lived, bad omen as he is. Sometimes, he thinks back to Nanami and how she held him and told him that his mere existence doesn't influence the deaths of others. Maybe Add could've used something like that.]
I think... [He thinks back to what Yuria told him an eternity ago now,] I think you're scared of yourself.
[Because he is, too.]
no subject
But now he's listening, and now he has to think about it, his expression contorting into an ugly scowl. Caring too much, scared of himself... he hates every stupid word that comes out of Noah's mouth. He hates how wrong it is, all the ways it's right—]
Shut up. You don't know me—you don't know anything about me, what makes you think you can tell me how to feel?!
[He's scared of himself—no, everyone else should be scared of him. That's the only logical answer. His mistake was pretending he could be normal, trying to a live a life he doesn't deserve. Worming his way into the hearts of these idiots who don't realize what they're dealing with...
It was his mistake. Now he has to be the one to fix it.]
... Fine. Let me rephrase my question.
What would I have to do to make you hate me? Killing, torture... a devil like me is capable of many things. So, do you want me to kill Nene for you, or should we lower the bar? How many innocent lives before you're willing to accept defeat? A few dozen? A hundred? Does it only matter if they're people you know? Why don't we just raze this whole timeline to dust, how many would you count that for?