3.0 - week three

[afflictionmods]

WEEK THREE

Last night might have been exhausting for any number of reasons - maybe it was the emotional

toll of dealing with those ghosts, or maybe you stayed up too late after watching Jim Shrok. Who knows, but Saturday is over, even if some of you haven’t quite left it behind and half spirits that are still hanging on, tethered to you and weighing you down…

But that’s not going to stop a new week from starting. There’s no breaks in an eight week course.

There’s very little fanfare to the start of your third week of the course, though it does seem like the fog has lifted even more. It’s a bit more of a trek down the abandoned streets of Estelline, but surely a mile is walkable? Or you could grab a bike or try to hotwire one of those cars in the mall parking lot… Whatever you plan to do this week is up to you. All you know is you've got some new locations to explore.

As always, Florence and Lorelei are available.

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY

TASK LIST


( OOC Note: Luci, Mutsu, and Mae will each receive a small roomba! Congrats on the successful egg drop. It's a tiny little friend that cleans extra well, though this also means its trash compartment is a little smaller so it'll need to be cleaned more often. )

FULL NAV

(CODE)

Comments

[ignihidden]

[In the dorms, it's Monday and therefore not the agreed-upon closed-door hours. Peeking in will reveal Idia sitting on his bed and tapping away at his tablet.]

[... the big difference being that for literally just about every time he's been seen in this game, he's been wearing his hoodie-jacket and now he actually isn't. He's got on one of the oversized university shirts and sweats. This reveals that yes, he absolutely is a string-bean of a human, and... if you're alert you might realize you've never seen him doing laundry before this point. Yikes, gamers.]

[I mean, people might also see the painkiller bottle, the fact he's got a bandaged-up right hand, the fact he's not immediately glaring at anyone who might dare take advantage of the fact it's Group #2's Door Open Time...]

[Anyways, we're all just recovering from a wild weekend here.]

room!

[cheerfuldays]

( shizuku announces herself with a gentle knock before peaking in. in all honesty, she's still tired. she's spent perhaps too long tucked under madara's chin, though- and she's an idol. people need her. so when she gets idia's attention, she waves. )

Idia. May I come in?

[ignihidden]

[Compared to last Saturday this one was.... exhausting! Maybe too much?! It absolutely threw of the predicted line graph of difficulty so now anything was possible.]

Ah, M'lady Shizuku. [there's the little startle of "a person is here" but it settles and he waves with his non bandaged hand]

C- [he pauses to scan his eyes across the room- and he still hasn't accumulated enough stuff for it to become truly messy]

Come in. [this is hardly the kind of place he can imagine an idol stepping in... never mind that Shizuku's dorm room was probably the exact same.]

[cheerfuldays]

Thank you.

( she doesn't presume to take a seat, but she seems comfortable enough despite the sprouts of mess. (perhaps unfortunately for the monologue, shizuku and madara are both terribly clean people.) )

... How are you feeling?

[ignihidden]

Um, hm... g- good? [that doesn't sound right but it's what he's saying]

I- I was going to visit M'lady Shizuku but Sunday was a day of rest a- and today I was accosted and robbed of my clothes...

[aka Cater made him surrender them for laundry]

Dorm

[selfconcept]

[ Hien wanted to drop to see if Cater and Idia were okay, so when he sees the door propped open, he peeks inside while knocking. ]

Anyone here?

[ He spots Idia. Boy, you are a stick... ]

[ignihidden]

Ah. M'lord Static!

[It's a little less of an enthusiastic greeting than usual, he's still tired after all, but it's still positive.]

W- Welcome to this one's humble dorm yet again~

[selfconcept]

Yeah, hey.

[ He's glad that Idia seems to have some semblance on positivity and walks inside. ]

You doing alright?

[ And he smells... something... he makes a face at the direction of Idia's jacket. ]

[ignihidden]

[The jacket is conspicuously absent! It's been spirited away... to a better place...(the laundry room)]

Um, hm... [he glances down to his bandaged right hand]

[It's a short-sleeved shirt, at least, so despite seeing Idia's long, skinny, pale-ass arms it's also obvious that he never successfully managed to do what he was trying to do in the depths of possession.]

... alright... by a certain definition, I guess...

dorms indeed

[imitationsoul]

[ Miach's been in a bad mood ever since the weekend and ignoring most people, but spotting Idia inside his room brings up a question she's been really curious about since the very beginning.

So here she is, briefly peeking in. ]

Are you a hikikomori at home?

[ ... no hello before that bombshell, sorry. ]

right for his throat i see

[ignihidden]

[... you know, he didn't sign up to be Seen this early in the week?!]

[Although, really, that's not a question he's surprised to get nor one he's confused about the answer to.]

... ... Yep, that's me...

he's like an exciting museum exhibit to her....

[imitationsoul]

So I was right!

[ She sounds delighted by these news, at least. And also is absolutely coming inside now, sorry. ]

A staunch refusal to join up with the society outside. Known as a veritable epidemic in the early 2000s. I'd be dragged to therapy camp right away if I tried it, but I can't say the thought hasn't crossed my mind.

the wild hikikomori in his native habitat (his room)

[ignihidden]

[That's... not the usual reaction to that admittance?!]

[Still, Miach's talking in a scientific enough way that Idia doesn't entirely short-circuit. He's growing and evolving he can properly carry on a conversation now!]

Th- Therapy camp?! What a terrible punishment... i- isn't part of the key essence of hikki life the "I have given up~" part? Like, "don't bother with me anymore~" and they don't even let you do that?

[totalcatastrophe]

[ Luci, making little sounds that can be heard from down the hall. They're a shade less energetic than his usual jazzy sound effects, but it's noticeable all the same. He passes the open door once, then walks backwards slowly before scurrying in.

Jumping up to wherever those painkillers are, he'll try to snatch the bottle while asking-- ]

Yo Icchan, got any left?

[ As if this isn't literally the first time they've spoken one on one. Luci looks fine, though his hands and arms are still hurting because Mae's are. He hides it well enough. ]

[ignihidden]

[Eeeeh, little scurrying sounds, like a small animal, that's pretty satisfying to listen to~]

[... the small animal has his meds and is talking to him.]

[Now, while Idia doesn't concern himself with most people in the program, he's alert enough to have seen the little demon over the course of the past two classes, at least. And he was paired with- Mae, right, the one who was Definitely a Human.]

[It's a little harder to convince himself this one is Definitely a Human, this is Definitely Something Else.]

I... ... Icchan... [it takes him twenty seconds or so to remember the task from the previous week]

P- Please, the person who submitted that doesn't even call me that! I'm sure he did it just to embarrass m-

[... flashback to this weekend and attempting to meet his roommate on a more open emotional level.]

-I'm sure he just did it to tease me or something.

[totalcatastrophe]

[ Luci watches as this guy barely gets the word out. He groans in annoyance in the middle of Idia talking (I'm sorry) as he moves to sit somewhere closer, preferably somewhere he can clamber up on to get some height over this dude. Be it desk or what.

His free hand finds his hip, but he winces and drops it. Luci sounds confident, pointing with the bottle like he definitely knows what he's talking about. ]

Look man, in that case you gotta reclaim it, make it your own. They can't tease you if you act like you like it.

What's so embarrassing about it anyway? I've called people way worse.

[ignihidden]

[Luci is permitted his rudeness and Idia sort of hunches his shoulders to aid in the little demon getting to be taller than someone.]

[There's a major confidence differential in the room and whether he should or not Idia defers to it!]

... e- eh, well, it's like... [he turns back to his tablet screen for a moment]

Diminutive? Cute? But then doesn't it also just sound like "ick"?

dorm

[undertakings]

[Huh. Well, the open door is convenient considering the circumstances, so he’s just going to knock a couple times before coming in. With that said, he’ll at least chill by the doorway and not crowd Idia’s bed.]

Idia. Can you modify this?

[Just gonna hold out his tablet here. Who needs a preamble, not him.]

[ignihidden]

Ah...

[This is his kind of request! ... not even the fact it has to do with technology, it's kind of request because it's delivered promptly and without painful chit-chat in the beginning.]

It depends on the modification. If it's programming in a new application that should be easy. Altering the functionality... this place makes it a bit trickier.

[Still, he's giving much more detailed and reasonable replies than in the arcade. Congrats, it's his comfort zone!]

[undertakings]

[Despite his taciturn nature, he does pay attention to the nuances in people's behavior, so... definitely noted! Even if he doesn't quite know the reason behind it yet.]

I don't know enough about technology to say which category it would fall under. But I was wondering if it was possible to send live camera footage to another device. If that won't work, then extending the length of video that can be recorded would be fine too.

[ignihidden]

It depends on if the camera's already connected to the internet or not. If it is, then it should be simple enough.

[If it's not... well, again, at home he would certainly be able to swap out or alter it. With his current load-out? Ugh.]

... I can see about the recording length. You mean the amoun the tablet can record and hold, right?

[he holds up his tablet just to check]

[magicam]

[So after being huddled under Idia's hoodie for what was, retrospectively, an embarrassingly long period of time, and after having a chance to, you know, sleep all that off (kind of), instead of doing anything actually productive, Cater had decided to use the excuse that he bled on it to wash the damn thing.

(It wasn't offensive yet, and he intended to ensure it stayed that way, especially if Idia wanted to keep making... at least half decent impressions.)

...And, okay, maybe not being in the room meant he wouldn't have to contend with the ghoul whispering in his ear about any number of annoying things related to how they barely spoke, and how, hey, isn't that isolating? Doesn't he hate that? Nah, best to hang out alone in the laundry room for a while.

...At least until it's done.

And then he has to go back, arms full of both of their things before dumping it all on his bed to sort it.]

Back~

[Everything's totally normal, yep.]

[ignihidden]

[Idia feels like he's been doing... OK! The events of Saturday were going to make things change a little. Still, he was doing his best in little ways. He braved the cafeteria this morning to bring Cater some breakfast. They had a quiet afternoon (barely speaking is peaceful, isn't it?). Things weren't perfect but, well, they weren't about to snap at each other over nothing.]

WB~ [upgrade one, more spoken net lingo]

[... and silence. Which, well, Idia assumes he's doing great with silence. He's not saying anything about how Cater must have found someone and had a great time chatting in the laundry room. He's not making any painful comments. Like, if he asked if it were time to take more of the pain medication, that would be totally overbearing, right?]

[So, yeah! Silence Success!]

[magicam]

[Sure, they weren't going to snap at each other over nothing, but the silence was... oppressive, in it's own way. Every once in a while, Cater found himself thinking that it was because he wasn't worth talking to, or that Idia clearly must disdain (or, worse, pity) him for the unsightly way he saw him on Saturday, and that getting him breakfast was some insistence that he put on a cheery face.

But that thought was stupid. Right?

Which meant he wasn't worth spending time with, because who would, and--

And it had been easier to just walk out and do laundry alone rather than let the whispering of the clinging ghoul rile him up into lashing out.

But now there's not really anything to distract him with, so he unceremoniously flops (backward, don't want to reopen injuries...) onto his bed.]

So, like, have you figured out how to hack the tablet, yet?

[Silence... fail! Small talk: go.]

[ignihidden]

[Ghouls aside, Cater was the one in a more vulnerable position. What had Idia done, aside from maybe admit that he was a terrible judge of character and still wanted to know someone who-]

[Well, it's not even like he knows what Cater thinks of him! He'd like it to be good? He has assumed it was bad but maybe they're at neutral? It's a mess to think about which is part of why he's been avoiding thinking about it.]

Ah, well... it's not like there's necessarily a lot out there...

[the whole state of the internet was sketchy but at least there were still content farm videos to teach him about picture frame hacks]

... Um, I'm... [embarrassing to admit but c'mon, idia, open, compromise!]

... messing around with making my own application...