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Entry tags:
player event: spring speed-dating festival
Speed-dating Spring Festival
Believe in your flyness, conquer your shyness.
breaking the ice
Better hope you find someone you click with!
Icebreakers:
1. Do you have a party trick?
2. Exploring or lazing on the beach?
3. If you could be granted three wishes, what would they be?
4. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
5. If your friends compared you to an animal, which animal would it be?
6. A human hand extends out of the toilet! What do you do?
7. What would be the title of your biography?
Or anything else you can think of!
2. Exploring or lazing on the beach?
3. If you could be granted three wishes, what would they be?
4. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
5. If your friends compared you to an animal, which animal would it be?
6. A human hand extends out of the toilet! What do you do?
7. What would be the title of your biography?
Or anything else you can think of!
getting to know each other
For the duration of the festival, classroom 3-E has been transformed into a makeshift movie theatre. Stop in with your date to watch one of these heart-racing movies, guaranteed to bring you and your date closer together! For the more romantic of the bunch, classroom 3-B will be home to dance lessons. Find a partner and get to know a Waltz, Argentine Tango, or request another, and try not to step on each other's feet as you get up-close and personal.
Movie showings: (CW: They're all horror)
April 25: Other Side of the Box
April 26: My Best Friend's Wedding
April 27: The Ballerina
April 28: Don't Look Away
April 29: The Mandela Catalogue Part.1
April 26: My Best Friend's Wedding
April 27: The Ballerina
April 28: Don't Look Away
April 29: The Mandela Catalogue Part.1
together forever
Anyone else who finds someone willing to pair up with them can write both of their names for entry into a raffle for a runner-up prize. Winners of the raffle will be given the choice between riches, quality of life, or valuable information as a thanks for participating and a congratulations on their new life together.
three.
There you are, Helena! I was wondering where you went.
( bright and warm, maple sounds awfully glad to see her friend. of course she would be; this isn't an opportunity she wanted for helena to miss, after all, and she just can't help but want to check in. even if... it does mean leaving some of her duties overseeing the event to come visit. listen. we're not worrying too much about that right now. hiyori can handle it! )
Are you enjoying yourself so far?
no subject
[she's tucked the notebook under her blanket, only the corner peeking out for now, but her hands are folded on her lap, and she makes herself smile. surely, no one can know how much she's been eavesdropping...]
It's been wonderful - I was just getting some air, and thinking about what to do next. And of course, I'm so happy for the people who seem to be finding partners...
no subject
Heehee, I'm so glad! But what about you, Helena? You haven't found anybody who you like?
no subject
[her expression dims a little, and her hands shift. it's not as though she expects Maple to understand without her saying it, but there's no easy way to put it. she's just...not the sort of girl that gets chosen in that respect. even if she did have her feelings, it suits her better to ignore them, to focus more on her writing and her words.
already, she does much, letting herself daydream and take records for inspiration. that's all she can really aspire to.]
There are many nice people here.
[it sounds pathetic, when she says it like that. but she has to say something to fill the silence.]
no subject
( maple finishes for her—a generous assessment of the words. hopeful. though she's no mindreader, she can sense the change in helena's demeanour, can see the way the energy seems to leave her, and she can't help but feel a little guilty for the fact. even so, even so, it's not something she wants to leave on such a note. hosting this event, it's meant to be positive, after all. )
That's alright. These things, they can take time, right?
no subject
[her words come quicker, as though she's trying to speed past something, to desperately shut a window before cold breezes can come in. it's not Maple's fault, it's no one's fault. it's just how things are. surely, most everyone here will at least have someone they want to spend time with, to find little things to do with, to perhaps have something bloom between them.
ah, it was a mistake to come, maybe. she should have asked someone to simply bring her the news. but hoping...yet she knows, she should have spent the time catching up on her missed classwork, improving her mind, staying busy. it was foolish, in the end. that particular seed isn't ever meant to grow, so to give it water, to put it in the sun...just gestures, in the end. in this, she is certain. it will be clipped before it even buds.]
You'll no doubt be getting gratitude for days to come.
no subject
( there's something in the way she speaks. the separation. the way helena peels herself apart from those who are special, and away from the success. the deflection as she compliments the many thanks that maple will receive. even so, however, maple frowns. can't help the unease that bubbles under the surface of her skin. )
But we didn't do it for the gratitude.
( they did it for the people, and to encourage them to build their bonds, their relationships, and to be happy together. to be happy like maple is happy. it's an artificial feeling, to be sure, but even so... even so, it's something precious to her. to encourage such flowers to bloom in the school, pushing through the ashes of tragedy, of death, to bring new hope and life to them.
she can't help but feel bad, if it's had such an opposite effect on such a dear friend to her. )
You're avoiding it... What's wrong...? Do you hate it, Helena?
no subject
[no, this is all wrong. things falling out of her hands, uncontrollable - it's not a lie, to say she's been having a good time. not a lie, to say she doesn't hate it. but what's wrong is a question too complicated to answer. difficult, to bring into a place like this. she should have just agreed, and said that this took time. and now she's worried, because will Maple turn away from her too, for how the words stick in her throat?
foolish. she's so foolish. this is meant to be a happy event. but girls like her don't become brides, so it's all pretend, in the end.]
I promise you, I don't hate it. I like it, very, very much.
[she needs to change the subject, or she might end up making this all worse.]
...How did you and your Hiyori meet, Maple?
no subject
( maple watches helena for a long moment. it isn't an answer she particularly likes, because it doesn't feel like an answer at all. she can tell. she can tell that helena is unhappy, so why won't she be honest? has maple done something to upset her? is that why she's building a wall between the two of them, with such urgency in her insistence that it's fine, and such deflective questions to draw maple away from the topic of what's really wrong?
...
maple frowns, looking down at her hands as she rests them in her lap. )
Hiyori made me. I've known him my entire life.
( and been in love with him for the duration of it as well. )
no subject
[in her heart, she promises she'll explain it later. when Maple might be able to hear the words girls like me don't get that love and not be made distraught by it. it's tactless, to say this festival was never meant for her. but instead, she'll ask the simplest question there is.]
no subject
( which, the name should speak for itself in that sense; an obstructor, meant to pose an obstacle to someone. if helena gives it some thought, perhaps her earlier violence will slot together with this information. either way though, the truth of the matter remains the same: )
Hiyori was the one who programmed me.
no subject
[her fingers lace together on her lap, before she shrugs a little. they have Miss Rei, and her circumstances were peculiar, but no one would say she isn't a girl and a member of their class.]
But you're you, that doesn't change that. It doesn't matter how you were made - if someone programmed you or if you're flesh and blood.
no subject
( that much, she means. for maple, such a thing is simply a fact; it's as troubling as saying that flowers bloom in the spring, or that the day of the week is tuesday today. so strange... so strange... and so maple seems to pause here, as if giving some extra thought as she processes how she'd like to respond. they're kind words, after all—very much so. the fact that they needed to be said, however, is a little bit telling, and maple would like to be sensitive to her feelings as well. especially when she's already made helena unhappy once today. )
Thank you, Helena, but don't worry. If I weren't, then I wouldn't be here.
( maybe that... it's simple logic, after all; personhood is prerequisite to a soul, and it's those souls that have found themselves here now. if it's maple, she may have reservations, but the validity of her personhood isn't something that concerns her too deeply when such rationale is available to her. )
no subject
[as simply said that rain eventually clears, or that the summer sun is strong. there's no reason to be upset. someone made Maple, but she's come and met so many new people. it's hardly something to be mixed up about in this kind of place - where spirits and nonhumans and the robotic all are shown to have so much life.]
Do you love him because he made you?
no subject
( maple pauses, and for an instant, her expression falters. it takes a long moment before she decides how to answer. )
I love Hiyori because he's kind. He's always treated me well, and he even gave me a letter before.
no subject
[she has to wonder. there's the joy of creation, but...now that Maple was her own person, with her own soul, does he love her at least enough?]
no subject
( of course, she's not going to elaborate on the context, but it should be enough. )
no subject
[and before the minigame starts:]
I believe you, I do...I just always have questions about this sort of thing, trying to understand it properly.
no subject
( it's a thin thread by which this interaction hangs, propped up only by helena's kindness prior to learning the truth. maple won't lose her temper... she won't. but that doesn't mean she can't sigh at the reality of the situation—that she can't be disappointed by it. )
Do you think there's a reason why he shouldn't, Helena?
( you can be honest with her, you know. your words are speaking volumes about the kinds of thoughts that turn inside of your head, and even if you don't voice them so explicitly, maple isn't so naive that she can't tell.
... )
I wonder... If I were a human, would you still feel the need to ask a question like that?
( your true feelings have been showing for a while now. )
no subject
[the word comes without hesitation, and she pauses after it, before she slides the notebook out from under her blanket. it's something Maple might have seen her jotting in, between activities.]
All I know about that kind of love...it comes from the words of others. From books, and what they tell me, and what I observe and record. And so I ask, because I want to know, with all of my heart. Because...
[her hand strokes the cover, the note in her voice turning a little wistful.]
It's the closest that I'll ever get to happiness like that.
no subject
( simple. matter-of-fact and forthright, but not a topic for her to linger on. if maple wanted, she could bite. she could sink teeth into the tenderness that helena has chosen to expose to her. she doesn't, of course; she's better than that. still, it can't be helped that her patience at this point is far too strained to have much sympathy for self-inflicted hopelessness, particularly coming from the environment that she has.
the only thing preventing helena from finding happiness is a refusal to take it in her own hands; it's a choice that she makes of her own accord. the same can't be said for what she's implied about maple. )
And even if you like the stories, it's a cruel thing to say. I thought you were kind, Helena...
( but what a selfish pattern, to subtly assert what she has, and then to make it about herself when maple decides to stand up for herself instead.
still... situations like this, they don't tend to end well for maple. it's something she's learning about this place. and so: )
...I should get back to the event. It wouldn't do to leave Hiyori to handle things alone.
no subject
she's a wicked person, and the consequences are coming to haunt her. one by one, all her friendships will shatter, like this one probably has, without a steadier ground to come back and rely on. I thought you were kind. she's not, really - her hands are only causing harm. they will only cause more harm, likely before she can even walk again. she can't behave properly. oh, she should have never come. for this, she doesn't even deserve to feel anything other than shame.
if she throws this notebook away, there is no Keigo to pick it up, keep it safe, bring it back to her. but what's the use of keeping it? if it's just a cruelty to others? what if that's what she's been trying to write, all along, just cruel words? Helena doesn't know, but she can't part with it yet.
the most she can do, she thinks, is something useful. when she feels as though she can hide her feelings again, she'll propel herself back to the nurse's office, to her homework and texts. the least she can do, being awake, is try to finish catching up on classes. it will improve her mind far more than trying to write about things she knows nothing about.]