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npc contact.4
As the game progresses, different npc faculty and students will become available for threading. To request a thread, please comment below with the name of the npc and the ic date in the subject header. Threads may be cut short due to mod availability, so please have a reason in mind for the interaction.
AVAILABLE
Students
✽ Yumemi Minazuki: A student in class 1-D. An earnest and straightforward girl who falls in love easily. She seems to attract odd occurrences. Computer Science is one of her electies, and it seems that she was one of the students who was saved by transfer students' efforts after failing her final.
AVAILABLE BY REQUEST
Faculty
✽ "Kazuki": The gardener is a spirit which appears in the courtyard during the night. He can not normally be seen, unless a character has the ability to see spirits, owns an adderstone through which they can see spirits, or visits the courtyard during nights of the full moon. Those who have spirit sight or see him during the full moon will see him in his human form; through an adderstone or within the "void" version of the school, the gardener appears in his true form as a man-eating monster. The gardener is blind, and only darkness can be seen in the eye holes of his mask. Rumor has it that the gardener has used to be employed as a teacher before becoming the gardener, and has been around almost as long as the counselor. He is patient and understanding, and is fond of the students.
✽ "Mizuki" Arata: The counselor is available during school hours, answering to a knock on the door with permission to enter. While the counselor typically sits on top of his desk, there are a variety of chairs in the office to choose from, and he will always offer to share his snack bowl. All supernatural powers are nullified within his office. Rumor has it that the counselor founded the school and is aware of everything that goes on in the school at any given moment. He can be difficult to talk with, but always seems to be having fun.
✽ "Mizuki" Arata: The counselor is available during school hours, answering to a knock on the door with permission to enter. While the counselor typically sits on top of his desk, there are a variety of chairs in the office to choose from, and he will always offer to share his snack bowl. All supernatural powers are nullified within his office. Rumor has it that the counselor founded the school and is aware of everything that goes on in the school at any given moment. He can be difficult to talk with, but always seems to be having fun.
Other
✽ "God": "God" can be visited at the shrine accessed from within the forest, and will introduce themselves as Jizo, the deity who guides souls through the afterlife, particularly those of children and travelers. They take on the appearance of a middle school child, and although their power is limited, they may grant a wish for a price, and otherwise seems to enjoy company.
UNAVAILABLE
Faculty
✽ Principal: There is currently no principal. The principal's office is unlocked, but until the sub-zero temperature condition in the room is dealt with, normal students will quickly freeze to death upon entering. Rumor has it that historically, the principal monitors the school but does not have active involvement.
✽ Vice principal: There is currently no vice principal. The vice principal has a desk in the faculty office with the rest of the staff, and takes on the responsibilities of the principal if the principal is unavailable. Rumor has it that the vice principal's job involves a LOT of paperwork.
✽ Teachers: Teachers hold office hours in the faculty office from 4 PM to 6 PM and supplemental lessons are handwaved. Students of any age can apply for a teaching position, provided competency.
✽ Librarian: The librarian is available during school hours, and can help locate or otherwise order new books on specific topics upon request. Requests for books on specific topics are handwaved, as long as the book is not canon specific. Library materials are not to be removed from the library.
✽ Janitor: The janitor cleans the school at the end of each school day, of everything from trash in the bins to bodies and blood following a murder. They are never seen, but most students assume they exist. The janitor's closet, located between the faculty office and the bathroom, can be freely accessed.
✽ Vice principal: There is currently no vice principal. The vice principal has a desk in the faculty office with the rest of the staff, and takes on the responsibilities of the principal if the principal is unavailable. Rumor has it that the vice principal's job involves a LOT of paperwork.
✽ Teachers: Teachers hold office hours in the faculty office from 4 PM to 6 PM and supplemental lessons are handwaved. Students of any age can apply for a teaching position, provided competency.
✽ Librarian: The librarian is available during school hours, and can help locate or otherwise order new books on specific topics upon request. Requests for books on specific topics are handwaved, as long as the book is not canon specific. Library materials are not to be removed from the library.
✽ Janitor: The janitor cleans the school at the end of each school day, of everything from trash in the bins to bodies and blood following a murder. They are never seen, but most students assume they exist. The janitor's closet, located between the faculty office and the bathroom, can be freely accessed.
Students
✽ Keigo Arata: The previous shopkeep of the student store. Unlike most students, they committed suicide to purposely arrive at the school, under contract with a "god." Through the efforts and sacrifice of their friends, this contract has since been nullified and they were killed in hopes of becoming an official student in the future.
Other
✽ A fluffy white cat: Very friendly and will come running seemingly out of nowhere when food is being offered. She can otherwise be found seeking out warm sunny spots within the school, and enjoys being kissed and petted but not held. She is called by many many names, including Lily Mayhemnaise, Lucy, Lucifer, Whitey, Yuki, Cygnus, Sweetheart, and Emerald Moon, but does not actually respond to any of them.
✽ A skinny black cat: Wary and skittish, and will occasionally come eat the leftovers after the fluffy white cat has eaten her share. He can otherwise be found perched up on high places out of reach, but will run away if approached. He appears to be small and skinny enough to squeeze through gaps underneath doors and other places, and is occasionally seen in the counselor's office or rooftop. He is called by many many names, including Beverage, Belphegor, Blacky, Yoru, Robbie, Crux, Sweetheart, and Citrine Blizzard, but does not actually respond to any of them.
✽ A skinny black cat: Wary and skittish, and will occasionally come eat the leftovers after the fluffy white cat has eaten her share. He can otherwise be found perched up on high places out of reach, but will run away if approached. He appears to be small and skinny enough to squeeze through gaps underneath doors and other places, and is occasionally seen in the counselor's office or rooftop. He is called by many many names, including Beverage, Belphegor, Blacky, Yoru, Robbie, Crux, Sweetheart, and Citrine Blizzard, but does not actually respond to any of them.
no subject
A pair of trees soon stand before her, fresh blood coating the bark and soaked dark on the ground. Like the boundary stone, it is also a bid to turn around, but pressing onwards she finds herself on a mountainside on the other side of the torii, climbing steps alongside a stream that flows from the very top of the mountain where she finds the shrine, quiet and still, little other sound than her own footsteps that bring her to the offertory box at the back of the shrine, the thick rope that hangs above it. ]
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Her pulse starts to quicken, the closer she gets to the shrine itself. It's been a while since she's been to one - and the last time she did, she was with-- well, anyway.
Foreboding omen after foreboding omen, silently urging her to turn back, is the best indication that she is going in the right direction. Before she knows it, she's arrived, before she expected to - like the right path had materialized out of thin air.
She carefully sets down her things, and goes to the stream to rinse her hands. Then she digs into her pack. Heart hammering, she pulls out one of her three remaining rocks from the gacha - a beautiful black and green speckled thing. She carefully places it in the box, and pulls the rope to ring the bell.
Then she kneels in front of the shrine. She bows her head. ] May they who dwell in this place accept my humble offering. [ Quietly, for a quiet place.
Still kneeling, she pulls her lunch out. There's two of everything. In front of her, she sets the lid, and begins serving - some cherry tomatoes, onigiri, a small cup of Sou's miso soup. ]
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I accept your humble offering.
[ A quiet voice, soft. They stare down at her and wait for the prayer. ]
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When the food is fully served, she places the god's portion on top of the box. Where does she even start? There's a million questions in her mind, and she knows she should take advantage of what little time she might have with an actual real-life god. It's a little nervewracking, actually! ]
Have you heard of Gala Omega? [ She takes the little handheld console out of her pocket and flips it on, going through the first stage without even really thinking about it, just to give herself something to do while she talks. Maybe calm herself down a bit. ] It's a really really good game. I got it back this week, somehow...
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The god slides forward off the edge of the roof, more floating than falling and when they hit the ground next to Nanami with a thump, it isn't nearly as loud or heavy as it should be. ]
No. Nobody has ever spoken to me about Gala Omega. What do you enjoy about the game?
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She tilts the screen towards the god so that they can see, but even at the odd angle she's able to keep playing with ease. A little spaceship at the bottom of the screen shoots towards an army of enemy bug-ships, tinny music emanating from the Game Girl Advance's speakers. ]
It's a lot of fun. And I know it really well. [ But that's not quite the right answer... why did she start liking it? She thinks for a while. ] Well, I guess I liked learning the patterns. It's pretty easy to get all the way through the game once you know where everything's going to be. And then after I've learned it...
[ This one's harder. She's played through Gala Omega millions of times and nobody's ever asked her this. ] It's familiar. It's kind of like coming home... I think.
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If you think so, then it is so.
[ It's her opinion that they asked for, after all, no need for an addendum. The way she explains it makes it easy to understand too. ]
It makes you feel safe.
[ At home, you know where everything is, you have a routine, and there are no surprises. It's where you belong. A god of your own little space, in a way. ]
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[ She finishes a level and pauses the game, gathering her thoughts a bit. She swallows. ]
It's nice when something does. It feels like there's always a lot that I'm still figuring out.
[ She doesn't usually tell people about this, either. She'll leave a game and the world is there waiting for her, new mysteries every moment that aren't so easily solved, new friends she cares for more than she can bear but doesn't know the right way to help them. There should be an answer, like in games. But there's not.
But then the rules all changed. ]
I'm still trying to figure out this place. [ Game back on, the next level begins. ] It's your place, right? This is your Gala Omega.
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[ They are not the One and Only Almighty God of this entire world, and this is not a place that makes them feel safe. Hell is not meant to be safe, and they are here because it is not— if anything, this place is the opposite of "home," but here they can make a difference, and so here they stay until they don't need to be. ]
I have watched over this place for a very long time, but I am the same as you, Chiaki Nanami: there are a great many things I am still figuring out, as many unknowns as there are souls in the sea.
[ Their eyes lift from the screen to glance up at her, briefly, before returning to the game. ]
There are games you find difficult. You lose much more often than you win, because you are still learning, and because the game gets harder the more you learn. Nevertheless, each of those infrequent wins steels your resolve, and you do not want to give up. If you have a game such as that, that is what this place is for me.
[ Like Demon's Souls, or something. ]
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Processing a lot. But this time the game is helping her think, too. ]
Hmm... back home, if there's a game you haven't figured out yet, you look up a guide. But maybe the game's really obscure and doesn't have one, or it's really new, or it's too big and complicated...
Then... you'd probably talk with your friends about it... maybe together you could figure out some things. [ She hesitates. That's very presumptuous of her, isn't it? But she wants to ask anyway. Something about the god... ] What you're trying to figure out... is any of it something that we can help you with?
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Yes.
[ Not directly, but yes. ]
My role is that of a protector, and a guide. For the weak and the helpless, I hide them and keep them safe in their journey from one life to the next. But you and all the students in the school are not weak nor helpless.
[ It isn't that they do not help the students, but the students there have strong wills, they struggle and they suffer but unlike Nanami's back home, they keep trying instead of looking up a guide— asking "god" for help— aside from the most dire of circumstances. Many of them spurn god, and rightly so. Rather than Jizo hiding them from demons, the students are often their own demons, and they hide from god.
In these present times, they are more like an elevator attendant, rendered unnecessary to those who know where they want to go and can push the button themselves. Nevertheless, ]
The fee has been paid in full. In order to move everybody's souls from this world to the next, what's left is for the soul to feel ready to let go, whether that is through friendship or accomplishment. What would it take for you to find fulfillment, Chiaki Nanami?
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[ Some feeling wells up in her heart that she can't describe. It's overwhelming. She has to put the console down. ]
I think... I came here today to ask you something like that.
[ It's not that she can't remember. But how do you begin to consider a thousand things that have happened in a month, and condense them down into a single question?
This really is like Nanami's given up enough on trying to work things out for herself, that she needs to use a hint system. And there's her hint, she thinks. ]
It's really that easy, huh? [ And hard, too. But to proceed in a game, you need to not avoid the question. She stares down at her console. ]
When I died... I just wanted to play games with everybody one more time. I was so sad I didn't get another chance to. What if all I need is a little bit more time?
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[ How much of a difference would that make in fulfillment? Does it have to be with those old friends she used to have, or would she be content with the new ones she has made? Most likely, she would want both— they are all her friends, after all, but the sentiment is the same. ]
Moving on is not meant to be easy, especially for those who care about the world and the lives within it. I will be there with you when you are ready, but you need not rush. Please understand that.