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MARCH EVENT LOG
At midnight on March 1st, a rolling lightning storm hits Yogen. Thunder crackles, and strikes of Anvil Crawler lighting can be seen lighting up the sky; anyone paying attention to the courtyard may see the explosive strike of lightning hitting the wisteria tree. Petals scatter throughout the air and are carried off in every direction by the wind...
As the month goes on the school will start to look even more barren. As the month goes on, several students start to disappear, with rumors spreading here and there about students disappearing after entering the forest. Those rumors twist and warp, and within just a few days there are rumors of a witch in the forest. But it's not a witch, nor a ghost, or anything else, but a dream, and those who enter will find themselves reminded of such by a soothing voice, the voice of a person they're familiar with, speaking gently in their ears:
"You are dreaming... They have always led and will always lead you here... Remind yourself, this is a dream..."
The world shifts subtly. There are gravestones marking the pathway now, and before long the forest is replaced by a completely new scene. A voice reminds you once more that this is a dream, and that you have always been here. You have always been led to this place. But where is this place? It's the world of a player character. It's nothing more than a snapshot in time. It might be one that they wish to escape, or perhaps a warm memory of a time that they wish to return to, but it is always an important memory to the character.
Whichever it is, the only way is to move forward. As characters move through the memory, characters will soon notice a snake and holly tattoo that spreads over their body will be. It starts small, a clump on one's back, but will spread across all parts of a character's body. It will reach the neck and face last, killing them upon reaching the eyes. As the curse spreads, they will notice changes in the dream including hallucinations, hearing lullabies, and shades that pursue them. They will also notice increased exhaustion and lethargy.
Upon reaching the end of the memory, they will find a glowing ball of light representative of a lost student's soul. Finding the soul will lead to both characters awakening at the edge of the forest, and the character who had been dreaming will be covered with the tattoo for a brief moment before it disappears.
Those who entered the dream may hear that same voice from before that tugs at their mind as the dream fades away:
"Remind yourself, this is a dream, and soon you will awaken. But you are here, as you always have been, and as you always will be... Soon, you will wonder where you were, and each moment after, will bring you here..."
The world shifts subtly. There are gravestones marking the pathway now, and before long the forest is replaced by a completely new scene. A voice reminds you once more that this is a dream, and that you have always been here. You have always been led to this place. But where is this place? It's the world of a player character. It's nothing more than a snapshot in time. It might be one that they wish to escape, or perhaps a warm memory of a time that they wish to return to, but it is always an important memory to the character.
Whichever it is, the only way is to move forward. As characters move through the memory, characters will soon notice a snake and holly tattoo that spreads over their body will be. It starts small, a clump on one's back, but will spread across all parts of a character's body. It will reach the neck and face last, killing them upon reaching the eyes. As the curse spreads, they will notice changes in the dream including hallucinations, hearing lullabies, and shades that pursue them. They will also notice increased exhaustion and lethargy.
Upon reaching the end of the memory, they will find a glowing ball of light representative of a lost student's soul. Finding the soul will lead to both characters awakening at the edge of the forest, and the character who had been dreaming will be covered with the tattoo for a brief moment before it disappears.
Those who entered the dream may hear that same voice from before that tugs at their mind as the dream fades away:
✽ Dreams may be whoelsale memories, or they may be more akin to dreamscapes based on a person's memories or mental state.
✽ The holly pattern represents the pain of love and aches of the heart, while the snake represents the yearning for the dead that consume a person.
✽ The tattoos will be blue or red.
✽ Characters may be drawn into the forest more than once, or require multiple memories to be gone through before reappearing. In those cases, the character who had gone through the initial memory will simply wake up in the forest alone.
✽ Characters who hear the voice upon leaving the dream will be more susceptible to entering and being lost in the forest.
✽ Anyone who is not rescued by the end of the month will be found at the edge of the forest. The tattoo will cover their body and stop just short of their eyes. It will disappear within an hour, but they will be exhausted for the rest of the day.
✽ The holly pattern represents the pain of love and aches of the heart, while the snake represents the yearning for the dead that consume a person.
✽ The tattoos will be blue or red.
✽ Characters may be drawn into the forest more than once, or require multiple memories to be gone through before reappearing. In those cases, the character who had gone through the initial memory will simply wake up in the forest alone.
✽ Characters who hear the voice upon leaving the dream will be more susceptible to entering and being lost in the forest.
✽ Anyone who is not rescued by the end of the month will be found at the edge of the forest. The tattoo will cover their body and stop just short of their eyes. It will disappear within an hour, but they will be exhausted for the rest of the day.
no subject
The seconds are ticking down... each swing of the knife deceptively slower. It's so close. Way, way too close... wait.
...
Sweat is running down his face, salting his hair, but is it... that easy? It shouldn't be that easy, should it?
He huffs, and starts laughing a little anyway. His neck is held but his arms are free.
He reaches up... and grabs the knife, hissing as it bites him, warm blood starting to run down into his sleeve. Don't think about it. Better than your life...]
Agh...! I'm good, thanks. Show's over.
[He twists it so that the blade touches the string... it's gradual lowering only helping now, and slices at it. The thing is really sharp...!
Cut!]
no subject
The stage vanishes before Sou like it was never there. The audience flickers out like one bad projection. The arms at his neck scrabble, sharp nails dig in, but its to late to wrench him away. They vanish with the rest of the stage.
For a second there is darkness. Sou wouldn't even feel his body, only the stinging pain on his palm before there is a shaking all around him as the dream tries to right itself.
...
When Shin comes back to himself, the space is less defined then it was. There are the barest outlines of curtains, the slight impression of lightening equipment. A backstage shut down. But ahead of him, in full bloody red, rose petals drift around him. Driven by some invisible breeze, entire flowers and petals alike, slowly begin to settle on everything. ]
Great. [ It's the same not quite Sara voice... softer spoken, lacking leaderly aggression. She's leaning over him now, not hidden behind. At least the displeased look on her face is familiar enough. ]
I was trying to help...really... If you just played along everything would be easy. Why did you have to go do that... you're not supposed to be back here!
no subject
[It feels a little unfair, to only exist as a single point of pain in a sea of nothingness, and suddenly returning to shape and form is itself disorienting. He presses his uninjured hand through his returned scarves to make sure he's still alive and physically present, heartbeat racing, refusing to lean back as she leans forward over him. The other is firmly in his pocket where he doesn't have to look at it.]
Guess I just have a knack for going off the beaten path...
[You know him and dark, secret rooms and hallways... although the rose petals are weird. What is this, a shoujo manga? He takes his beanie off to shake it out and put it back on again, a little futilely as they once more begin to accumulate like red snow.]
Sure enough, that's what you are.
[Help to say the right thing to seize hearts and minds, people as easy to interact with as video game characters. Sara's strange ability to win the trust of others, standing in front of him... It's nauseatingly gratifying to be right, in multiple senses... especially given it's familiarity. It's too desiccated to be a revelation.]
Surprised you're extending it to me, too. How generous of you... considering.
[He'd be part of the 'audience', after all. Maybe a heckler. Someone she'd be saying the right things to, to make him fangless along with the others... the riffraff so to speak. He can't be that and on stage at the same time, because there's only one star allowed in that show; there's an inherent contradiction in her actions if taken at face value.
Just go along with it and it will be easy. The scratches on his neck itch.]
no subject
[ She reaches out a hand to catch a rose in her grasp, it melts between her fingers as she crushes it, the smell of blood warm and fetid. ]
I am a voice in the dark. I am the seed of a thought. I am what protects the heart. And I am telling you, Sou Hiyori, that if you want to protect yours you'll leave the backstage right away.
[ She offers a single hand, shining red. ]
...You don't want to see what's back here.
no subject
...Why should I believe you?
[It's suspicion rising like water, and he has nothing to tamp it down with. Not about what she says about what she is... because of what she says about what she is. The two sides of Shin are things that tear at each other. If he takes her hand and dies again, how much would he lose of himself this time, for what in particular? It didn't work in the end... or came to it's own breaking point, recreated in this place.]
I found my way here, didn't I? I think I'll make that judgement for myself...
[He found a third option to the jaws of the dilemma, blood still running from his hand in matchment of hers. Against her wishes and advice... he ran, and runs now, turning quick heel away from her in an attempt to vanish into the darkness, the ill-defined walkways and narrowspaces, leaving his own trail behind him.]
no subject
[ Even before Shin turns to run, the figure is already gone. The things that love you can't leave you alone, but they can't stop you either. If he won't take her hand, she can't follow him into the depths.
The rose petals pile higher, deeper around Shin's ankles. They stain the bottom of his shoes red as he walks, his footsteps leaving the same crunching imprint as snow. The smell is overpowering...
But what's before him down the walkways is worse. The walls become thorny, vined. There, like a dried fruit on the vine, a single hand hanging from a wall brushes against his forehead as he turns a corner. If he turns to look he'll see...
...It's awful. She doesn't really want to narrate what Kanna's dead face looked like. [
no subject
But there's something here that she doesn't want him to see, and the bulwark of willful ignorance has shattered.
He's still not prepared for it.
It's in slow-motion... turning the corner, the brush, turning his head on instinct, and skidding painfully into the thorned wall on the opposite side as his planned momentum is left to earth itself.
He falls down, the ends of his scarf curling in on the ground like tails as his gaze stays fixed on the form above. There's no blood in his hollow face. His pupils are pinpricks. He's not even breathing.]
no subject
Hands emerge, clap around his eyes till the horrible sight is blocked out. Even if he fights, no...no...that's enough There's someone at Shin's back, breathing, warm, a bit of hair tickling his ear. ]
You should forget this, Shin Tsukimi. Let us leave.
[ Are you happy, seeing this? Are you fulfilled, knowing what was never true for your time? ]
no subject
You...
[The sentence ends with the high thin choked and cut off keen of someone who wants to yell and scream and cry but can't afford to, can't get it out. Curls in on himself shaking. Some part of him has already fled and sought refuge in the surroundings like a flushed bird. This has to be a lie, a trick, a trap, a mental attack... but something bone deep knows it isn't, like sharing senses.]
Ahaha, fine... Got what I came for... didn't I? Ahahahaha... so that's what they had in store...
[What Ranger said he shouldn't know. The thing his brain had been tormenting him with nightmares of, and none of them even close to the real thing, burned on the inside of his eyelids. He gets to his feet with the slowness of someone knowing any limb could collapse without warning.
He won't look again.]
no subject
[ He stands and she follows, the hands drop, but a touch remains on his shoulder. Light, insisting. ]
Don't cry. Another you has long ago taken revenge for this sight...and it was never real for you. There is no point in you seeing it.
[ The cognitive thing sounds almost unsure. The knife of consequence already long descended on Sara Chidouin for this death. This was a necessary decision at the time, in her eyes, but it isn't one that Shin was supposed to see. Causing pain to the person you love is the worst part of difficult decisions. ]
I can take it away, like I took Joe Tazuna from Sara Chidouin. Just...tell me if you want that.
no subject
...Right. I did say we were even... Not that you liked the idea, ahaha.
[For some reason. He shifts his scarf a little further up around his neck.
Like she took Joe Tazuna... the way Sara couldn't remember him at all. Shin has the horrible thought; how many times has this already happened. How many times has there been a hand on his shoulder, tears sticky under his eyes, and a gentle, soothing offer to make it all go away. It's a horror he'd not thought of until now, the assumption it had been taken, worse if he'd given it. He can see why.]
I'm surprised you think I'd just hand my memories to you that easily.
[Even while saying this, even despite the glaring stinging red in his brain, some small part of it is spinning up. Because that... doesn't make any sense. It was Midori, wasn't it? It had to have been, it made the most sense. Midori clearly didn't like Joe... he even tried to drown him. He never did like anyone being friends with...
Joe's memories of his own death had needed unlocking, but Sara still knew who he was by her reaction to his prodding... he's tired, it's all kind of jangling together. He doesn't want to look at the lurking shadow pooling underneath it, underneath the thorns. He's had enough of an eyeful, even as he's clinging to it.]
Let's just go.
[He's not running this time... not even walking away. He doesn't want to go back onstage, but he doesn't want to stay here either, and it looks like she's the only exit, much as he doesn't like the power implicit in that.
Maybe this time he can try and get out through the audience itself.]