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00:00 01/01

✽ At the stoke of midnight, something shatters on the ground floor in front of the bulletin board, and the entire school goes dark: all electricity gets shut off, all flames are snuffed out, and the sky is heavily overcast to hide the moon and the stars. The only source of light are the suncatchers purchased from the student store, but even those fully charged will start to dim and go out over the next three days.
✽ Nene, Hinata, Noah, Amami, and Komaeda will smell something burning, and if they pull out their PDAs, it is hot to the touch and the casing is cracked, like something had blown from the inside, and their PDAs will not be working. For everybody else, the screen flickers when they press their thumb to their PDAs, and then goes dark again. ...
✽ If anybody was inside the main school building at midnight, I am so sorry, and for everybody else who enters the building afterwards, please watch your step. The appearance and atmosphere of the school has changed to that of the "void school" and can not be reverted upon breaking a mirror. Please refer to the aforementioned link for details about the school.
✽ As of midnight, no npcs can be found inside the school, including the library ghost, the gardener, and the cats. If a character were near an npc at midnight, it would appear as if they'd disappeared into the shadows the moment the world went dark.

??? whenever you guys solve the void

✽ 01/10 marks the beginning of the final semester, and when npc students and faculty will return to school. Of the ~260 npc students enrolled at the start of December, only ~40 npc students return to school, with the other three quarters having their names crossed off the class roster in the locker area. In light of the rapidly shrinking student body, homerooms will be consolidated by year, creating a single class for each of the first, second, and third years.
✽ The countdown in front of the bulletin board has reached zero, and the glass tube appears to have shattered and bled out onto the floor, to nobody's surprise. The mess will be cleaned up by the end of the week, and in its place is a notice for the school trip taking place next month. Please see the toplevel below for more details.
✽ The science lab is now open. Add will probably elbow people out of the way getting here, but he gets dibs on the anatomical model: it is warm to the touch, and rather than being made of plastic, the skin, muscle, bones, other organs feel very much real. He thinks they might be. The rest of the room is set up like a typical research lab, with all the basic chemicals and equipment: a refrigerator, liquid nitrogen storage tank, sonicator, incubator, autoclave, laminar flow cabinet, mass spectrometer, and a high performance liquid chromatography system.
✽ It snows on and off and the sky remains overcast with no sign of the sun all month.

OOC

✽ Please give the temporary locations page a thorough read! The most noticeable changes aside from the usual void school appearance is the scattered void, lack of electricity in both the school and the dorm, and the ability to walk off campus. The setting will remain as is until the characters figure out how to revert the change, or on 01/10, whichever comes first.
✽ PDAs will be inoperable until fixed. Tech-savvy characters may realize that the PDAs are powered through inductive charging, and the first step to getting them (also electrical appliances and hot water) to work again is to locate the generator.
✽ All npcs will be ICly unavailable until we unvoid the school.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

☽ NΘ ਮ op⦑

[He's awake when the world turns dark, when the flickering candle he was using for light suddenly snuffs out as if a cold breeze had blown over it, and at once does Noah get the feeling that something is very, very wrong. His pencil stops scrawling across the page, all sound coming to a screeching halt as it normally does, but—

Instinct tells him that this sudden bout of darkness is unnatural. Unprecedented, unwanted; Noah stands and tucks his sketchbook underneath his arm, moving toward his dorm room's door, when the smell of something burning catches his attention. In a panic, he looks around the room, only to realise moments later that what's burning isn't a fire, but rather his PDA. Touching it from where he'd left it on his desk slightly burns his hand, enough to get him to pull it back in shock with a silent hiss.

He doesn't understand the thing enough to say what's wrong with it, other than it's so hot that he imagines the parts inside must be melted, and since it won't turn on when he tries... well, he'll pocket it for now and make his way out to see if anyone else is awake.

If Noah catches sight of you in the dorms — outside of your room, of course, he's not going to go barging in this late at night to wake anyone — he'll approach swiftly, with an anxious air about him, indicating that he wants to talk with a wave of his notebook and the pencil in his opposite hand. In Noah's only semi-legible handwriting, he writes out,]

Do you know what's going on? My PDA smells like it caught fire and it won't turn on anymore, plus... I feel like something is wrong. Really wrong.

[and then he passes the notebook over for you, with the pencil.]

☽ 几⊙ ℏ oᛖ ǝ

[That same night, Noah sets foot into the school proper, and he recognizes the pitch-black, dilapidated environment almost immediately. He's spent too much time within the alternate school to mistake it for anything else.

Somehow, this is so much worse than usual. The moment he sets foot into the building, anxiety flares up in his chest, though he can't say for certain if it's because of his own complicated emotions or because of the school itself. Regardless, shaking it off as he always does when the going gets tough, Noah presses onwards — hooking a sharp left past the lockers and parkouring over the pieces of the floor that are gradually falling away into the void.

As he expects, there's nothing on this side of the school besides more void, and gentle, sweet whispers compelling him to step into the auditorium—

Wait.]

You don't hear that, do you?

[Who really knows if someone's actually there with him, or if he's just talking to the ever-whispering voices telling him that just one more step will lead him to a final, dreamless sleep?]

☽ ∏o ꅐ hε r Σ

[The forest stretches on with no end in sight, and though Noah follows the river, there's simply nothing out here.

Hours pass, and he's beginning to give up. Where does this lead? Is there an escape? When he turns back, he can't even see the school anymore, but he knows he's not free. How could anyone be?

Noah packed enough water and remaining vending machine snacks to prepare for a day's journey. Perhaps that was idealistic of him, to think that there would be an end to this madness in sight, only a day away. Even then, he doesn't plan to eat any of the food or drink any of the water, just in case. He knows his limits. He's done this more times than he can possibly count, exploring the wilderness with nary a thing on his person.

He'd much rather you eat what he's packed, after all. Most people aren't equipped to deal with surviving out in the forest for a day or two on end, let alone the weeks at a time Noah used to do back home. He won't make you stay for that long, of course, and you're free to head back early if you want.

In the many hours you've both been here, though, there hasn't been a single animal in sight. Nothing to forage, either. It's a labyrinth, dark and imposing and twisting, with the only marker for where you are being the babbling river. Bitterly, Noah thinks that this might be a good source of water if anyone could verify how safe it is to drink. Sure, surviving here means boiling water every time before imbibing it, but his paranoia makes him think something is horribly wrong with the river water. Something that simply boiling the water can't fix.]

It really is never-ending. ...do you want to take a break?

[He's determined to press on, to not turn back, not yet, but he's not stupid enough to think that walking on and on without cessation is a fantastic idea.]

☽ ѡ į? Ŀᚦ c¿Ⱥ rᗫ?

[If you can't see the special characters because you don't have certain things installed on your computer or w/e the prompt names are "No Hope", "No Home", and "No Where", also

wolfchan add me on plurk for crimes]

[ Noah's one of the people in the school well-acquainted with Riku's aversion to the cold temperatures, and things as of late haven't gotten much better. He's awake, sitting outside of his dorm room and covered in blankets, tinkering with something in his lap when he sees someone lingering at the corner of his eye.

He's startled, but when he sees Noah's face come into view -- just barely -- Riku relaxes. It looks like he has something he wants to say, so Riku waits for him to approach and reads the writing on the notebook.

Yeah. Riku's been feeling like a lot of things aren't right, too. He takes the notebook and the pencil and writes back hurriedly: ]

Something's definitely wrong. I don't know what it is but it feels really, really dark.

I hope you can read this. I can barely see what I'm writing ><

[Noah feels more comfortable in the dark, something-something his family kinned the entire moon, and it only occurs to him when he reads Riku's reply that he's the only one who might be this way. Lifting his left hand, a small ball of light appears in it, and he launches it into the air relatively above both of their heads so that they can see.

It hasn't occurred to Noah yet that they're in the void and that's why everything feels wrong, nor has it occurred to him that the boundless silence isn't enforced here on account of the first thing. Given a couple minutes, he might figure it out.]

I was in my room when the clock hit midnight drawing. The candle I was using for light suddenly blew out, but it's not like Senku and I had any windows open.

That, and I think my PDA might catch fire?

[ Ah - Riku watches as Noah summons the little ball of light and his eyes, too, light up in amazement. He'd smile if he weren't frightened, so instead, Noah just gets that brief glimmer of something wonderous before it morphs into something of concern when he sees that response.

Hm. He writes back: ]

Mine hasn't been working, so I've been trying to figure it out. I've never felt like my PDA was going to catch on fire though... Can I see yours?

Yeah. Hold on.

[Noah fishes around in his pocket for his PDA and hands it over. The casing is cracked and, while not burning to the touch now, it certainly feels like it's been overheating. Noah scrawls down in the notebook,]

It smelled like fire earlier, and when I picked it up, it burned my hand a bit. [Don't ask why he put it in his pocket.] The screen won't turn on at all. I'm guessing something in it melted...?

[Yukio had been awake when the world turned dark, having a candlelit beside him as he absentmindedly skimmed his book. He hadn't been reading the lines, so much as being so lost in thought that it had taken him three seconds to realize that the words were no longer lit by the flame of the candle. He turned to look at it, then up at where Rin was currently sleeping, thinking that perhaps he had woken up and had blown out the candle.

Rin was still asleep.

Setting his book aside, he got out of bed and made his way to the door. There was something wrong. Something about this didn't feel right, so the moment he opened the door and stepped outside, he knew that he was right. Everything was dark, and it felt cold...

And Noah?

He reached out for the notebook, squinting a little to read the words before taking the pencil to respond.]

I'm not sure. Something doesn't feel right. Are you okay?

Edited 2022-01-03 04:49 (UTC)

[Noah remembers in that moment that he can in fact make a little ball of light with magic to help make reading easier, since the silence is annoyingly reinforced here. A small orb of golden-glowing celestial magic gets launched into the air by their heads to just hover there — probably a good thing that he picked this trick up.]

I'm fine. Relatively. Can you look at this?

[Noah not only passes the notebook and pencil back, but his PDA as well. It's still hot to the touch, and he cautiously says aloud "be careful" and hopes Yukio can read lips...

...before he registers that he can hear himself, and looks bewilderedly up at Yukio like, that's not supposed to happen. And then, he frowns and scrunches his face up, closing his eyes.]

...we're in the void. That's what it is.

[Because, fun facts, the silence-is-enforced thing doesn't count if you're in the time-stopped void!]

Someone must've spilled blood somewhere and launched us all in here. [But the radius for the launch is bigger than he remembers.] A-anyway, one thing at a time...

[Gestures to the PDA... he can't post a PA network post about bloodshed if his PDA doesn't work after all.]

[His eyes widened a little the moment he hears Noah's voice. He looks around the area for a second before letting out an audible sigh.

That would explain what happened, but it still felt... Different then the last time he had been here.]

Let me see.

[He hands the notebook back to Noah and takes his PDA. He was warned it was going to be hot, yet he didn't expect it to be as hot as it was. He turned it over in his hands, using only his fingertips to touch the PDA.

So not only had they been sent to the Void, but technology had also been affected by it.

It would explain the sudden lack of light, the sudden unfunctioning PDA...

Was his also not working? He hadn't smelled anything strange with it...

He reached info his pocket and pulled it out, turning it over a couple times in his hand before letting out a soft sigh.]

Only thing I can think of is an EMP took out all technology when we got sent here, your PDA being affected more than mine.

[It wouldn't explain why his candle had gone out, though. Nothing in this place made any damn sense.]

[Different indeed. Noah makes a mental note to poke around later. He knows the void like the back of his hand, so if there are differences, he'll spot them.]

...an EMP?

[Sorry, Yukio. If you were speaking to Add, this conversation would be easier. Unfortunately, Noah has no idea what that word means, so he just stares blankly ahead.]

S-sorry, what's that?

Ah...

An electromagnetic pulse. It's basically a burst of electromagnetic energy that destroys all nearby non-shielded electronic devices... such as cellphones, PDAs, refrigerators, generators, TVs, radios, cards... and so on within the area of effect.

[That would be the logical explanation, of course. There was nothing logical about this place.]

00:00 01/01

??? whenever you guys solve the void

OOC

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first prompt!

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NΘ ਮ op⦑

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∏o ꅐ hε r Σ

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no home

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☽ NΘ ਮ op⦑ (... kinda)

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