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as life gets longer, awful feels softer
Who: Shin & You!
What: April Catchall... also Shin's birthday
When: April 2nd onwards
Where: Gaming, Robotics & Programming and Gardening Clubs, Shin's room, the Student Store at night, the kitchen, the library... anywhere really.
Warnings: None as yet!
It’s April 2nd! Always a kind of weird time for Shin. The timing of it - just when getting back to school - always left him the youngest in his class and made the two events indelibly linked, such that during his first and only disastrous year of university it was another thing adding to the cocktail of strangeness, isolation, loss and relief that colors what he remembers of that time.
This year is extra weird, because he’d not really thought about it until the day arrived with unexpected speed, but the death game had killed him just before it. And if he’d chosen to graduate, he’d not have reached it either… somehow, despite all the odds… he’s actually become 22 in a way he remembers. Despite all the times he’s almost died, and all the times he actually has died… he’s still here. He’s made it this far.
It’s a heady feeling that’s hard to identify, with strange shadows of giddy euphoria and listless mourning to it. It’s a time of new beginnings, so it’s said…
He’s not going to be shouting it from the rooftops, and he’s completely not expecting anything. He’s celebrated the last two alone beyond a phone call with his parents and maybe some treating of himself with a snack. He’s planning on spending the day as he normally would; checking in on the clubs he’s connected to, working or napping in his nice warm room, or in the kitchen keeping his stock of tupperware soups topped up and the like. But there’s a quiet contentedness clinging to him, like just for the day something’s been lifted from him, and you can catch him humming or whistling to himself while doing any of these things.
There’s ways to find out if you want to surprise him; at least one of his friends is the sort to look it up in a school file or know it from those vague Yogen memories and then tell others about it.
[Since this is also April's catchall, feel free to have interactions outside of birthday or event stuff here as well!]
What: April Catchall... also Shin's birthday
When: April 2nd onwards
Where: Gaming, Robotics & Programming and Gardening Clubs, Shin's room, the Student Store at night, the kitchen, the library... anywhere really.
Warnings: None as yet!
It’s April 2nd! Always a kind of weird time for Shin. The timing of it - just when getting back to school - always left him the youngest in his class and made the two events indelibly linked, such that during his first and only disastrous year of university it was another thing adding to the cocktail of strangeness, isolation, loss and relief that colors what he remembers of that time.
This year is extra weird, because he’d not really thought about it until the day arrived with unexpected speed, but the death game had killed him just before it. And if he’d chosen to graduate, he’d not have reached it either… somehow, despite all the odds… he’s actually become 22 in a way he remembers. Despite all the times he’s almost died, and all the times he actually has died… he’s still here. He’s made it this far.
It’s a heady feeling that’s hard to identify, with strange shadows of giddy euphoria and listless mourning to it. It’s a time of new beginnings, so it’s said…
He’s not going to be shouting it from the rooftops, and he’s completely not expecting anything. He’s celebrated the last two alone beyond a phone call with his parents and maybe some treating of himself with a snack. He’s planning on spending the day as he normally would; checking in on the clubs he’s connected to, working or napping in his nice warm room, or in the kitchen keeping his stock of tupperware soups topped up and the like. But there’s a quiet contentedness clinging to him, like just for the day something’s been lifted from him, and you can catch him humming or whistling to himself while doing any of these things.
There’s ways to find out if you want to surprise him; at least one of his friends is the sort to look it up in a school file or know it from those vague Yogen memories and then tell others about it.
[Since this is also April's catchall, feel free to have interactions outside of birthday or event stuff here as well!]
april 3?
Though it's kind of Helena to welcome his presence, won't handing over the soup himself interfere with the atmosphere? It's weird, isn't it? Even if it proves to be unforgettably delicious soup, and the safest option at such short notice, he knew all along that it would be one soup among many, and it's absolutely weird to receive it from someone like him when there are people like Helena or Chiaki Nanami or Nene Yashiro around! The recipient might become reluctant to try it at all...
At least the likely assumption that he's merely providing another pair of hands to carry each item could work in the soup's favor, and he holds the container steady. Nevertheless, he has one last thing to say to Helena before they reach their destination: ]
...Should the two of you wish to be alone, after we've made our delivery, simply state it directly.
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[he's thinking too negatively about himself in this. Shin trusts him, and this is a kind gesture, to do it later and privately instead of overwhelming him with something on the day of in public. this will be received well, because they're his friends, and they understand him.
since one hand is holding the small cake plate against her, the other has her cane, and she uses that to knock on the door.]
Are you ready?
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As it's now the third, the danger of being birthday-ambushed seems to have passed for Shin, so the knock doesn't instantly strike fear into his heart; after a momentary ? he turns from his customary position at the kotatsu.]
Coming!
[There's the shuffling sound of him getting up and making his way over. They've known each other long enough he knows that's Helena from the way she knocks, so he already has an at-ease pleased air as he opens the door and lets some of the heat out, blinking when his gaze travels to Alice (sorry Alice, Helena is simply too short to hide behind) and then to the pot he's holding, and then back to the cake in Helena's possession, and understanding dawns.
It's... unexpected, but it's... not unwelcome, he finds.]
Hi, you two. Err, you can just put those down about... here.
[He's hurriedly pushing homework and a couple of used bowls and cups out of the way to clear a space on the kotatsu; for the soup and cake and for them both. Alice will be able to see that at least some of the paper is covered in the same style of pattern of lines and circles as his blue scarf, with the addition of little notes and arrows in Shin's neat engineer's scratch covering them, some having been scribbled out.]
Sorry, didn't know you were coming or I'd have tidied more, ahaha....
[So far, those fears are unfounded. Shin's happy to spend time with them, even as his birthday feels like it should be more of a plausible excuse to him.]
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Shin Tsukimi appears to be in a good mood, in any case, greeting them both and inviting them in, rather than looking on the verge of wanting to bolt, so perhaps it would be silly for Alice to insist on excusing himself immediately. He relaxes, waiting for Helena to enter before following her inside to find a free spot for the soup as instructed. Setting it down, he does steal a glance at the pages of work left out atop the kotatsu — those markings don't look computer science-related, as far as he can tell, matching that scarf instead. How intriguing!
Much like visiting Helena's dorm room, this one has been an interesting change of scenery compared to Star 4's unusual collection of decorations and possessions. It's a cozy space. ]
Just as planned...! Our surprise is a success. Naturally, we took measures to make sure of that...
[ This, Alice declares with a laugh of his own upon straightening up, folding his arms now that his hands are free. Mwahaha... ]
And thus, even though it's no longer the second of April, it's time to wish you a happy birthday... [ Shin Tsukimi? Sou Hiyori? ] ...you.
late 4/2, also school store
...yeah, okay, she's going to have to at least prepare something, although it's more of a placeholder than an actual present. (For now.)
Which is why he'll hear a rather steady knock on the door--the sound of morse code hello. Does he go to open it?]
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Ahaha, we're not locked, you know.
[But there's no bite to it. He's been starting to look forward to her store visits... it's nice, to just pass the time this way.
Although given how hectic the day has been... should he be worried?]
no subject
[She takes out a paper that's made into an envelope, clearly folded neatly like you would for origami.]
Well. If it really isn't your birthday today, then you can just consider this an IOU for the actual date. And if it is, let's just say that this is an IOU for a belated thing anyway, since it's kind of hard to come up with something on short notice.
sorry about this icon :' )
Ahaha, wasn't expecting that sort of enthusiasm for sure...
[He's still half sure everyone was just taking it as an excuse to mess with him... thanks guys. For a second he contemplates saying that Sara did get it wrong and it was a completely different date, but he's not sure a) how well that would fly or b) if Inaba would then insist on knowing the 'actual' date and he'd end up repeating the experience two times a year... Speaking of delayed effect...]
Do I want to guess...?
[What she could have planned for the future, short notice aside? (He understands that sense of being put on the spot himself.) But it's mostly a dry rhetorical musing as he steps backward into the shop room a little more, leaning against the counter while he carefully if quickly unfolds the little envelope, leaning in that way equidistant between looking closely curiosity and not wanting to be glitter ground zero.]
The secret's already out at this point... Can't say it really isn't my birthday today... It kinda sneaks up, doesn't it?
[He's got his closed-eyed smile lifted up at her. Maybe it's because he'd still been subconsciously thinking that he had a full year before his next one... Yogen time sure does some strange things.]
no subject
[She's not sure if trying to make a birthday a surprise and failing and also subsequently saying that he'll get awful gifts is...
...something, alright...]
Although if you don't want it, we can just pretend this conversation never happened because you know, getting a bad gift on your birthday? Kind of groan-worthy.
[When he unfolds the envelope he-- does not, in fact get glittered, you're welcome, apparently glitter bombings is saved exclusively for people who are not Shin.
The paper then reads:
Happy birthday.
I couldn't really get you something good on such an extremely short notice, so here's an IOU.
This IOU can only be used once, but is valid for one year. (Expires: 4/2/2001)
This IOU can be used by anyone if the recepient chooses to hand over the IOU to another person, but must be confirmed with both the recepient and giver. However, making photocopies of this IOU is prohibited. If any copies are found, this IOU, along with its copies will be considered null and void.
This IOU can be exchanged for one (1) of the following:
- One mechanical build of any sort, given that is feasible.
- One free fix for any broken mechanical item.
- A reasonable favor of sorts.*
* Note: this favor DOES NOT include murder assistance, romance/dating assistance (romance advice is OK) and can be vetoed at the favoree's expense.]
They really do. Well, not that I did anything special for mine last year.
no subject
It's a recurring feeling when interacting with Inaba; the validation that he isn't going insane. That he's not overreacting when, say, he isn't fond of a roll call to gang up on him on his birthday going out on the network. Even giving Sara the absolute most charitable benefit of the doubt... it's really not his thing.
Thanks for sparing him and giving him glitter immunity... with it opened up he takes a little time to read it, a skim, and then making sure before looking up over it.]
...Haha, that would need me to get a bad gift in the first place, right?
[Translation: he likes it. It's an IOU, something last minute... but in a way it's heavier than something physical, than the paper it's written on, because it's a gift of a contract of trust. Even with the statement that Inaba can nix favours she doesn't want to give (which is a relief to see, honestly), there's still that uncertainty of what he could ask for which he knows they both know the power of; he almost wants to ask if she's sure, but... she's not the sort to give it if she wasn't, so he can only hold it, a little touched. Maybe he's being a little internally poetic about it, but it's a good gift.
He's almost tempted to cash it in now, ask her what she could do with one of the broken clocks the student store sells so that she doesn't have to worry about it (and also because he's genuinely curious about them), but the ability to use it on behalf of others gives him a little pause. That's... what if someone he knows needed something she could help with? It wouldn't be his first time calling in a favour on behalf of someone else... that's how he got Haruka her hopefully happy ending. It was the least Narumi could do for shooting him...
He's got some time to think about it at least, judging by the written date... He has the thought, that he immediately tries to put back, of if they'll both be around by the time the IOU expires... but they've made it this far. Even if Inaba's come back from the dead already, she's still that herself that died.]
Huh. Well, I might as well know when that was... since you know mine.
[He wants to return the favor in turn... it only seems fair (and fitting).]
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[Which is fucked?? Did she have sad birthdays herself or something when she was a child???
But she doesn't linger on it too much before letting out a sigh.]
Ah, it's November 30th, so it passed actually a while ago. Not that it matters. Being dead means you don't age, and there's a non-zero chance that if you get reincarnated or whatever that you'll either not care about your birthday at all in the off chance that you somehow reincarnate as like... an animal, or something, or it'd be different altogether.
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[It's somewhat unusual, the way his hand closes over the cloth of the front of his jacket instead of fully his scarf here... he lets go and returns it to it's normal place. Midori's gifts are... inventive, often in ways only fully appreciated long after the fact.]
Exactly, you'd have a new birthday. Not that you'd remember the old... probably.
[Unless something isekai was going on. Supplanting the old... now Shin's not only wondering again about what he'd reincarnate into (his brain always presents the worst options, thanks brain) but what he was before he was many shades of Shin Tsukimi with an April birthday. Were they human? How much of him is from them, that he doesn't know about? What would they think of who he is now... would they regret becoming him...? This is a depressing line of thought.]
Guess it is pretty pointless... [Says guy having had a lot of thoughts about it as a marker of survival.] Your secret's safe with me, though.
[It's a lightly joking tone. He's not broadcasting it to all and sundry, that's for sure. He carefully folds up the piece of paper along it's lines and tucks it into his pants pocket so it doesn't get crumpled up in the tumbledryers of objects that are his jacket pockets right now. Hopefully he remembers to take it out before he does the laundry.]
...Thanks, Inaba.
[For the present, but also just... their friendship (are they friends?) in general, much as there's that cagematch in the back of Shin's brain between 'you need friends to survive' and 'you're going to get them killed'. It's been stirred up, lately...]
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And don't worry, he's not the only one who's thought of the worst--it's a bad habit of hers, to only think about the negative possibilities in life rather than the positive.]
Yeah -- ah, sorry to say something that's so much of a downer.
[That's followed with a bit of sheepish laughter, rubbing at the nape of her neck.]
It's nothing, really. Besides, if we somehow exist to November again--eh. It won't be a big thing.
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I'm surprised we still exist now, honestly... I thought my memories would be wiped after Graduation, ahaha...
[Looking down the barrel of one kind of death as opposed to the other... so... he's still a bit shocked to still be here.]
Not complaining, though... it's more time to figure out a solution, isn't it?
[...Somehow. It's a bit of a wakeup call, realising how little progress he's made in that over the time he's been here and awake... he knows how Noah feels. It feels like they keep discovering things but getting no closer.]
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[Memory wiping is one thing--and it is something that Inaba is afraid of, although that's something that she doesn't show on her expression. In fact, she remains placid.]
But yeah--we can't just stay still. Although it's hard to figure out the 'how' when it comes to finding things out.
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[And also that one student who possessed Clamor trying to graduate... one of the events that had made Shin very very worried about what it might entail.]
Feels like the more we know, the less far we get... There's the new student contract but we probably shouldn't pin everything on that...
[Should he tell her about the co-ordinates Alice found? It might be useful to have someone who's not going to know just in case...]
If we could tell what some version of us has already discovered and what's new...
[If they keep getting reset every time... it's hard to make progress. She's seen the PDA logs, she knows... the crushing weight of repeating this over and over and over. He hopes the USB he left in the box will remedy that a little, but that only helps their future selves right now... it depends on if and when they discover it, too.]
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[That's her two cents on it.]
I wish I could have had some physical evidence of what a past iteration of 'me' has done -- kind of pisses me off when I'm normally so careful of documenting things.
[She has experience, after all.
Of forgetting the important things. Of forgetting an entire timeline, outside of this place. It's why she takes so many notes: on her notebooks, on her laptop.]
...or a way to restore those lost memories, too...
4/2, robotics
I'm not interrupting anything, am I?
[like what do you check in robotics, that no one's moved something two inches to the left]
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Ah, I was just... working on something. It's very important, so...
[It's not important, he's just currently in the grip of package paranoia at the moment, his eyes falling on the small black box. Hopefully nothing's been shifted those two inches to add to this general unease.]
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[poor guy must be expecting to be caked or something. she doesn't blame him for being wary, but to hopefully... make more at ease... she'll shut the door behind her before she approaches.]
It really isn't much — the only thing I'm good at is playing piano, but I've been trying my hand at a few different things, so... Sorry if it doesn't taste very good. Happy birthday, Sou-kun.
[holds out the box... please take it. inside are six onigiri balls, with various softer fruits like strawberries and such inside them. you can see like, a kiwi piece sort of poking through the rice. they are far from perfect, but clearly someone tried their best to make them at least not as lumpy as they could be. "sorry if it doesn't taste good" they're rice balls they'll be fine the fruit choice might be questionable though there's probably banana slices in one.]
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...I guess I can take a break from this for now.
[Which is Shinese for you've appealed to his sense of curiosity, he's opening the door a crack. He takes the box in both hands, levering up the lid with one palm not sure what to expect and... oh, it's onigiri. She clearly made it herself, too...]
Fruit's an interesting choice... [He catches himself.] I-I mean, it does look tasty.
[If he was a judge in the Your Turn To Shine Cooking Minigame, he'd definitely grade more on flavour than looks. He puts the box down on the workbench facing her, taking the one with the sticking out kiwi piece and shuffling over so she has room to sit down. Despite fumbling the accepting of it, he does seem pleased by the gift.]
Ahaha, it's a bit rude to just eat in front of someone, right? Let's chat while having it.
[He's not even thinking about poison or anything of the like right now; this is purely just his penchant for sharing food.]
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...
fruit and rice is a little weird, though, when it's like this. regardless, she'll take the offered seat with a pleased smile, taking one of them herself. it doesn't seem too misshapen... she knows it has a grape in it.]
I'm glad you seem to like it, Sou-kun. When I think of "fruity", you're definitely the first person that comes to mind.
[sweet and well-liked... healthy... refreshing. green on top. the rice is actually perfectly made, for the record. she has had practice there.]
What were you working on? If it's not a secret, I mean, being important and all.
PEACE YOU'VE KILLED ME INSTANTLY
Ah, I suppose I can tell you... Not sure how interesting it'll be but... You know Clamor's magic circles?
[There's a spark of animation coming to his eyes. This is the Shin that gets up in front of class and lectures (often getting sidetracked).]
Well... it's a hassle to have to sketch everything out perfectly all the time... especially if you're making a lot of little changes and need to erase things... and then you've got a lot of half-done magic circles everywhere, which is just a fire hazard... Because if you forget that it's not a working circle and you put magic in it that energy wants to go somewhere, it's like a short circuit, ahaha.
[Has he found this out from personal experience? Noooooo, shh.]
So I was thinking, what if I could just make a code shorthand for it? It still has to be drawn out to test it but... it's a lot easier to edit, that's for sure. Maybe I can make something that'll print it out, later...
[He's curious about if a magic circle on a screen is functional but also... he doesn't want to set his laptop on fire finding out either, especially given how irreplaceable it is. He gestures to the lines on screen - a lot of numbers, jumbled letters (each one corresponding to a magic script counterpart, maybe he'll make a font for it at some point) and semicolons, grouped into little labelled paragraph chunks - with one hand while he takes a small bite with the other. Huh, it's odd... but not bad at all. This rice is really good... he'll take another bite yes please.]
This one is umm... trying to make things stop in place if they go above a certain speed. That one's really easy it turns out. ['Easy' being he's needed a lot of Clamor coaching but at it's core... it's just 'if x then y'.] Ahaha, it's all the safety features that are the hard part...
[Because even with the binding spell he's tweaking being a prefab he doesn't have to make from scratch, editing it instantly creates a lot of unknown factors. There are a lot of potential horror scenarios here, like 'wrenching off whatever suddenly stops' and 'accidentally setting the limit too low', which is a problem where flesh gets involved, not to mention what happens at the circle boundary or how the deceleration affects things. You know, normal stuff. Glitches are kind of terrifying when they can actually affect you in real life... he has to wonder about those simulations sometimes.]
Testing this is gonna be interesting, that's for sure...
PERISH!!!!
she listens avidly anyway, because this is something shin is clearly passionate about and she likes that, likes learning about what her friends are into and is eager to try her hand at it too. not that this, um, sounds particularly easy to get into, but it's something she couldn't even imagine before hearing about it now. a code? that acts as a magical conduit, in a way? kaede wonders if yumeno-san would've considered it valid, or just a cheap trick in the face of Real Magic.]
You can really do that? That's amazing! I didn't really believe too much in stuff like that before I saw it here, honestly, so even hearing about it is sort of weird...
[munch... oh she outdid herself with the rice at least... when is she gonna get to the grape... it's in the center, hopefully...]
But I'd love to see it in action! Your code, and what the circle does too. I have a friend back in the school Amami-kun and I came from that was a self-professed mage, but she was more like a magician with her skillset. I think she'd probably appreciate you a lot.
[less work for her. kaede would at least agree with the girl that whatever she is looking at on the screen is gibberish, but then again a particularly hard piece would be the same way to shin. thinking about it that way, maybe she can connect the dots and understand what part goes well...]
How do you plan to test it, anyway? Is there anything I can do to help?
THIS IS REVENGE ISN'T IT
Let me guess, the Ultimate Magician?
[He's seen the pattern... he's alternating between taking bites and speaking so he's not talking with his mouth full.]
I didn't either... Weird's an understatement. Technology can do some amazing things, but magic's something else entirely, isn't it? Ahaha, I didn't even know I could do it...
[Maybe it's because he's a ghost, technically? Who knows. It was a one-two punch; Asunaro's humanlike dolls, and Yogen's magic.]
Err, that's the idea, at least.
[Sometimes projects just... hit a wall and stall. There's still that Asunaro-like AI he took a stab at making interred in it's digital grave, never born. The program for dreams he was working on for Ranger before things got complicated lies here as well. He occasionally still picks at that one... because sudden thoughts of inspiration in the shower don't care about the state of an alliance, apparently.
Help... well he does teach a class, but it's probably a lot to catch someone up on this much coding on the spot given the sense that Kaede probably hasn't dabbled in it herself much, so...]
Well... how good are you at drawing? The auditorium's basically empty in the weekend, right? Probably nobody would notice if we cleaned up the circles before leaving... then it's just a matter of tossing things in and seeing what happens.
[And standing near the doors Just In Case. Shin can stop supplying a circle that's going wrong with his own magic easily enough just by taking his hand off it, but if anything's sent zooming around by accident, that's not going to help there.]
4/2, anywhere it doesn't matter because--