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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
No, of course you don't want to give up on all of that.
[give up. Rantarou's words, not hers. they still rub her the wrong way.]
There's more for you, things you have to carry with you.
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[... then, a little quieter, more distant-sounding. not because he's floating away from her, just far-off.]
But I don't like thinking it's not something good. Like, that's seriously depressing~. I dunno, there's still time for me to flunk if I wanna go another round.
[maybe he will... if he can pull it off, maybe he will... macchi will understa she won't understand but that's fine. he chooses to smile, even if she can't see it, tone brightening up.]
How 'bout you? Rock for your thoughts?
no subject
[in contrast to him, her tone is almost solemn, and she drifts on the water.]
I would like to still be the me I am now, of course. There's so much I haven't done - you'd be surprised at how much I haven't done. But in the end, I need to know where we're supposed to go.
no subject
... So you'd be okay with being someone entirely different as long as you got to choose where you went?
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[she doesn't want to stop being Helena, doesn't want to let go of all the dreams she hasn't even begun to start, but here's this place telling her that she died and it stuck before she even got to open the window and try to crawl out. and if the only way to get out is to sacrifice, over and over and to stand up again and keep going, keep giving, then that's what a survivor has to do.
die, over and over again, so you can keep fighting. no matter how hurt you are. no matter how useless or uncool you look. no matter what happens, you keep moving toward the exit gates.]
If I'm just going to go back to where I was, then I'd like to at least stay me. But if I can go somewhere else, and that's what has to happen for that chance, then it is what it is, right? I can't get too greedy in my wishes.
no subject
subaru wonders what sort of person he'd be if he didn't have that single-minded devotion to the dream a dead man left him, and wonders just how far "not being him" goes.]
I think... I wouldn't care where I went, as long as I was still me.
[because he can handle being someplace different. he knows that; yogen proves as much.
helena is the only one that gets to see just how much it pains him, though, this whole thing, all because she can't see at all. but there's a strain in his otherwise casual tone that belies that same frustration.]
I don't wanna forget everyone or how I was or anything like that -- as long I'm me, though, I can figure something out! Maybe I'll even meet the same people, y'know? Even if... I might never seen any of my other friends again, or sing with them, [which hurts, it does, but if he's dead then it's like that already, he hasn't thought too hard how trickstar is taking it because trickstar is five people and he's going to continue not thinking about it because he might break if he does,] or anything of that -- as long as I'm me then I'll be fine.
no subject
could she tell him why? open up that darker part of her heart and let him perceive it? it's a heavy burden to make anyone bear - she already still wrestles with wanting to apologize to Rantarou for placing it in his hands. Subaru might not be able to bear the weight, and given that they sleep in the same room, see each other every morning...she has to hold back. has to seal that back up. her pain and her doubts are her own, to hold close and keep hidden.]
...Sorry. I didn't mean to make you upset. We can talk about something else?
[she tries to make her voice sweet, tries to make it brush over things, but it doesn't quite land. it's almost nervous, like she doesn't know what minefield she'd be walking into to go further.]
no subject
only thinks, because subaru is a hypocrite and unless it's a sensitive subject and they've mentioned it before he'll bite down. bite down, brighten up -- reassuring]
Mm-mm, I'm not upset! Promise. It's sorta frustrating to talk about, but that's just because it's hard and something that like, is really soon for us.
[...]
But you know, [quieter, like he doesn't want anyone else to hear,] you can repeat the year. There's no guarantee Macchi'll be able to secure the same contract, but I don't think anyone'd blame you for it.
no subject
What do you mean by contract?
no subject
Macchi has a contract with someone that deals with the school, I think it is. Every student council president makes a deal, and it includes what happens to third years like us. It sounds like most of the time we don't get to repeat, but Macchi told me that if something happens [like dying] then we can repeat -- we won't just... not exist anymore.
[he'll let her take that in, a moment.]
She doesn't want any of us to fail just 'cause we know that, she wants us to do our best and graduate. But the option's there.
no subject
breathe. breathe. if her cane was in her hand, she'd be twisting it.]
And what about the others? Our friends who aren't third years...do we get a promise of what happens to them?
no subject
[it's an assurance, one months old. he kicks toward her and takes her hand, squeezing it.]
We're the only ones who've ever had to worry about "not existing" anymore.
[and now they don't even have to worry about that.]
It's still a school, so they'll come back and go up again.
no subject
[but the touch of a hand in hers gives her a little more bravery, and she squeezes back.]
...Subaru? What's it like, where you come from? What kind of place is it?
[where did her roommates come from? she knows they have the beach, that they go to a school where they have more freedom, that Subaru has a dog he adores. knows that they sang and performed and had others they cherished in groups - she'd have to not be paying attention to let the word Yumenosaki float by. but what kind of world, she wants to know.
is it kinder than what she knows?]
no subject
though even that's been harder these past few months.]
I dunno how to describe it... I'd say "just your every day city" but there's a lotta different people here, so someone's "every day city" is probably different than mine. I'd think theirs was cooler if it had robots, for example.
[...]
But I guess I can describe the sort of world I lived and breathed, the one I sought to stand in the way Dad did once.
[and he doesn't often talk about his dad, if ever. maybe a passing mention, but never anything concrete -- it's that way with everyone, though few know to pay it mind.]
The idol industry's a bright, sparkling place. It births dreams, holds them, and nurtures them into shining stars. [it squeezes them, kills them, leaves them for dead. it crushes them into the ground if will isn't strong enough and even if it is, because society is what rules them in the end.] Entertainment's pretty much the thing where I'm from, to the point that we've got a whole end of the year event dedicated to it, a huge competition inviting idols from all over Japan to try their hand at owning the champion's belt of the industry: the title of SS Victors.
[...]
It's really fun. There's no death, [in the public eye,] there's no scheming, [where someone can see it,] and everyone performs as best they can because they love what they do, and because they love to see the smiles on the faces of their audience.
[they need to see those smiles, so that way they aren't forgotten.]
Yumenosaki Academy was that sort of place, but on a smaller scale. It was fun, and I loved being there.
[after a point, anyway.]
no subject
It sounds like you really love that world as a whole.
[she sounds fond, calmer than before. weaving an entire story in her mind.]
no subject
[it's made him who he is, in a way. it's his entire being. born, raised, and then seeking after that same stage -- the industry itself has rarely been kind to him, but the people within... the dreams and the fun he had with everyone... those are the things he loves.]
Ever since I was little, I'd wanted to be on stage. Trickstar -- my friends, our unit -- made that possible. I miss 'em a lot.
[maybe he wouldn't feel two seconds from sinking into the pool if they were here. he squeezes her hand again, his one anchor of grounding in this moment, and sighs happily.]
But as long as I stand, I can sing, so I'm happy~. Macchi was kind enough to invite me to the Music Club [to get him off her back], see, so I'm still getting practice in~.
no subject
[because anything that makes the world better to listen to is something she wants to enjoy, to support and cheer on. the voice of her friends - that means a lot to her ears.]
no subject
I don't mind at all! As long as an idol has an audience of one person, he can sing anytime, anywhere~.
[not unlike gods of old; so long as they have one believer, while weak they may be they still will be alive and present in the world.]
Boss said I can still perform, too, even though I don't have a stage to do it on... [for them, but they didn't say that part out loud.] You don't have to stand at the door though, Lena, you're more than welcome to stop in and keep me company.
no subject
[after all, practice might be different than a performance. still, he had just said...]
no subject
[............]
Like, even if you can't see, I can feel you looking at me, so it counts. I'm sensitive to that sort of thing, the way you are to sounds.
[to tones in voices, and the like]
no subject
Then the next time, I'll come in and take a seat, and try to be a good audience for you. Even if it's only me, I can still cheer you on.
no subject
it's been a long time since he thought of that.]
I can't read... uh, braille? Boss said you were teaching them, which I think is pretty cool... Anyway, I can't read it, but I'd loooove to hear your stories, Lena! So I'll be a good audience for you too, and I won't fall asleep!
[even if it'd be so tempting to, he loves listening to people tell stories.]
no subject
[she'll need a whole page to dedicate to the ones who will have made it possible in the end, but she'll be happy to do so, and make sure they're accredited for their contributions.]
no subject
[sparkling and shiny... words he throws a lot, but they are special and meaningful to him.]
Are you gonna write about your time here?
no subject
[it should sparkle and shine, for people like Subaru.]