player event: spring speed-dating festival

[socialize]

Speed-dating Spring Festival

Believe in your flyness, conquer your shyness.

breaking the ice

Lonely and looking for love? Friends, maybe? Well look no further—the ASUNARO-sponsored Spring Speed-dating Festival has begun. Join us in room 3-A, where participants will then be given an assignment of "even" or "odd" and seated at a numbered table. You only have so long to talk to your partner before the bell rings and it's time to move on, but not to worry, if you find someone you like, the two of you can step out together! At the end of each round, "even" players will stay at their tables, and "odd" will move to the next. This is mostly flavour, but there is one important piece to keep in mind: in the interest of nobody being left out, leaving before the end of the event is only allowed in pairs.

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!

getting to know each other

So you've found someone you vibe with—congratulations! The next step is getting to know each other a little more. Cementing the bond, y'know? But high school is maybe a little young for marriage, so let's stick to the dates.

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

together forever

At the end of the event, two lucky winners will receive a secret grand prize!

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.

Comments

[decrypter]

...Made you? What do you mean?

[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.]

[socialize]

I'm sorry, Helena, I must have forgotten to tell you... Actually, I'm a doll. Technically an obstructor doll.

( 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.

[decrypter]

...Hmm. That's a bit much to take in.

[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.

[socialize]

Is it?

( 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. )

[decrypter]

Why would I worry? I'm happy you were made, so that I could meet you.

[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?

[socialize]

...

( 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.

[decrypter]

And does he love you?

[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?]

[socialize]

Before we came here, his last words to me were that he always loved me.

( of course, she's not going to elaborate on the context, but it should be enough. )

[decrypter]

But loved isn't the same as loves. Does he love you now?

[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.

[socialize]

......

( 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. )

[decrypter]

Yes.

[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.

[socialize]

That's not true.

( 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.

[decrypter]

[it's like taking a hammer to porcelain, how her entire demeanor crumples, how she bows her head, tucks the book away, and waits for Maple to depart. submission, writ across her entirely. there is no anger, no offense taken - only a shattered self that is left in shards to cut one's unseeing hands on. she waits, until those footsteps leave, and then she carefully pushes herself down the hall, out the doors, until she's outside and away enough that maybe she feels like breathing again.

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.]