theafflicted | 00

00 - prologue

PROLOGUE

It doesn't matter where you are or what you're doing – something strange begins to happen. There's a sudden burning sensation that wraps around your right wrist and part of your forearm. If you glance at the affected area, you'll find that it's...glowing. The glow is pale blue, and it's so bright that it hurts to look at. The burn itself isn't so painful that you feel like keeling over just yet, but it does hurt nevertheless.

But before you have time to try to soothe the pain, you start to feel lightheaded, dizzy. Perhaps some of you may attribute this to any injuries you may currently be sustaining. For those who were previously unscathed, however, there's quite possibly no explanation for this other than the sudden appearance of the mysterious burn on your arm.

There is no time to mull it over, though, because it is the last thing that you see before the world suddenly fades to black.

-----

When you regain your senses, your vision is blurry; but when it starts to even out and you survey your surroundings, you find yourself sitting in a rather uncomfortable chair. Looking around you’ll see rows and rows of chairs, all facing the same way towards a desk, a podium, and an empty wall. A projector hangs from the ceiling and the lighting is bright and artificial... For some of you, it might be reminiscent of a college lecture hall. For others, you might have never seen anything like this before.

Your wrist, by the way, feels perfectly fine...though there’s now some kind of strange marking on it. It looks like a scar of some sort, and if you choose to touch it, it doesn’t feel inflamed or damaged in any way...but that doesn’t mean you don’t experience any pain. Perhaps the last thing some of you remember is a hard-fought battle, and the aches from your injuries still linger; some of you might not even remember getting hurt, and yet, your body aches like it has; for the lucky ones who feel fine, well. Pray that it lasts for a little while longer.

Because the moment someone gets hurt – emotionally or physically – there’s a small chance you’ll feel it, too. Where and who and what it’s coming from, though, is on you to figure out.

In front of you on the desk is some kind of device – a tablet, for those of you who are familiar. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be capable of doing much of anything right now, other than take photos and videos with the Camera app. There's also a translating app for those of you who need help reading some of the text around campus, as it is all in English. (Verbally, however, you can understand everyone in your own language. Tablets are also in characters' native languages.) It seems to be incredibly durable and hard to break, but you may want to be careful with it regardless.

Something shifts in your pocket (or...in your socks/shoe/what have you, if pockets aren't a thing) as you move around. Should you reach in and feel for it, you’ll find some kind of card – those who are familiar with modern technology will recognize that this is some kind of card you need to swipe. It has your name and a photo of you on one side, and the back of the card has the word "KEYCARD" on it.

There are also other people here, scattered throughout this mysterious classroom you’re in. In fact, there’re a bunch of you — 29 others, to be exact.

And now... you’re free to do whatever you want. Mostly anything, at least, given that once you step outside and explore, you’ll notice an ominous fog behind the various buildings within view. Still, this is a good time to get your bearings, check on what you have - and don’t have - and talk to the people around you until orientation starts.

-----

( OOC: Welcome to your Intro Log! The partner system is in effect for the Intro Log, meaning that yes, pain share is happening! For some notes regarding the partner system, your character will not know who their partner is upon arrival. It’s entirely possible that they find out now if their partner gets or is already injured, or if they can pick up on their mood. Otherwise, they’ll find out later today...!

Anyone who tries to leave campus grounds will have to enter through the fog, but no matter what, they will mysteriously wind up back onto campus grounds. And for clarification, the keycards are what characters need to gain access to their dorms!

Finally, we will have an NPC Reveal at 6pm EST today! )

FULL NAV

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Unless he went on vacation right after doing this...

[And, honestly, them being yoinked into another world is a situation where he's needed... Probably sending Yuu off on a wild goose chase to bring them home as they speak.]

As someone who's worked with him, my personal opinion is...

[dramatic pause]

If he was the cause, he would have stopped by to comment about how magnanimous he was being. I say this with 98% certainty!

[... back to normal slouching posture]

So, it's likely he's not the cause. I agree, though, that we also can't rely on him to rescue us.

[You know what, hearing that assessment...

Idia sounds pretty dang spot-on.]

So... what do we do? Wait it out?

[And he'll promptly flop back on his bed with a heavy sigh. On the one hand, getting themselves out sounds like a whole heck of a lot of work - if it's even possible - but on the other hand... what else are they supposed to do?]

[Here's the part he's not good at. When there were clear solutions, he could execute them pretty quickly. When he knew what people should be doing, he could tell them. mostly. from behind a screen. In this situation, though, there was no obvious Main Quest to follow. Did they need to trip a flag? Maybe it was time-based.]

W- Well... [with a lot less certainty]

I looked into the tablets we were given... this is apparently some kind of university. It doesn't match the name of any big-name places. There's a network connection but right now I can't get outside the school network, otherwise I could have more ideas...

[And on his side, Cater's usually okay at thinking outside the box and coming up with solutions, but... he usually has to at least have some passing familiarity with what's going on. All this? Brand new. Unsettling. And he can't even use his magic to scour the whole place for some kind of clue.]

You're totes ahead of Cay in investigating all this, yanno? I didn't even know where to start, and you went and did all that with the tablet, good job, good job~

[Does that sound just the tiniest bit bitter? Probably. Is Idia emotionally competent enough to pick that up? ...He's hoping not.]

[Is Idia emotionally competent enough? The answer is no, gamers. He can understand his own feelings of powerlessness but not apply them to other people or realize how it might chafe against them. In terms of his own talents, that's also always just been a non-issue. He can't change how talented he is just in case people were upset about it.]

... I feel like I should have been able to crack the whole thing open. Whatever is isolating this place might be both magical and technological.

[also fog what fog you think idia dared to try and wander off campus? idia shroud?]

[You know what, that's fair! And expected! And if he was emotionally competent enough to notice - and say something, then Cater would probably just expire on the spot.]

But, like, you cracked it a little, right? That's waaaaaay better than Cay'd ever be able to do. Go, go, Idia~~

[So the cheering is a little bit sarcastic, but also a little bit genuine.

...Fog what fog, you mean that spooky shit around the campus? He definitely hasn't wandered off, either... yet.]

[Well, he can pick up on a little sarcasm there, he would probably perceive that as sarcastic even if it was 100% genuine! It's still not much of a salve for the fact he thinks he should be able to do better. He doesn't run into systems he can't crack. It's like an unwinnable boss fight.]

... we might just have to hunker down for a while. So...

[turning back to the deer-in-the-headlights Idia]

So, please, don't do anything reckless like just keeping our door open! People might think they're free to stop by whenever they like! That's going to make whatever amount of time we have to spend here even more torturous!

[See, that's why Idia is the best classmate he could have. He's hardly around, and he doesn't read too deeply into things he says! He probably won't even be clingy when they graduate, either! If they keep in touch at all, it can just be casual and pleasant.

...If they pass this unwinnable boss fight, anyway.]

Eh?

[Deer-in-headlights Idia, meet sunshine boy Cater once more!]

But then how are we supposed to get to know our neighbors? Cay totes doesn't mind people stopping by, unless they turn out to be, like, suuuuuuper unbearable, you know? You should let people meet you, too, just in case!

[An oblivious, self-centered nerd. Idia didn't consider making friends with anyone at school. He didn't really want to make any friends here either!]

Isn't that what the community lounge is for?! You could be that kind of guy!

[That was a great place to socialize. Hypothetically. He assumed it was. Meanwhile, he had one place to hide himself! And it was currently under attack from a "call me anytime~" kinda guy!]

I stand out like a sore thumb so I don't really want to do any side quests.

[Perfect! They should get along just fine, then, right? Right!]

Ehh? You think I'm the kind of guy to just go hang out in the lounge for fun? Isn't that kind of pathetic? Like you're just waiting for someone to come by so you can totes be like ~oh hey~~?

[Apparently the hypersocial normie even has meet-cute standards. Who knew?]

Well, you're like... not wrong about that, I guess...

[There's a little moment where something flickers over Idia's eyes. As someone who has completely ignored the IRL social systems, it's a weird spark of insight. Right, so there was a difference between posting in the LFG Channel and just hanging out around the quest area... still, having your door open all the time was like being in the channel so long that people start to doubt if you're actually helping anyone.]

[Just, like, huh, there's something even a popular guy finds pathetic.]

[He glances over at the closed door, then over to their beds and desks.]

... it's totally visible, too... maybe the student store has curtains...

[Was that Idia... relenting, somewhat? Huh. And here he thought they were about to get into the most stupid argument imaginable, even before any of the really terrible things started happening.

...So he guesses he can relent a little, too.]

Hm... Well, we don't have to have it open all the time. Cay likes having quiet time to himself sometimes, too, you know, and the vibe is totes different in the middle of the day and at, like, 2am, yanno?

[While some part of him wants to throw a tantrum, right now they're stuck together and need some sort of plan. He really doesn't care if there's hustle and bustle outside his space- as long as he has his space.He just needed a place to not be seen sometimes. If Cater's daytime hours were too much then well,]

[maybe he could go hide in a janitor's closet]

[It's not like his room is a fort with his PC and all his merch and games. It's just a room and all he's got right now is a tablet. Speaking of,]

... So,

[he pulls out his tablet and pulls up a date/time app with the hours of the day. He holds it up, partially over his face.]

... l- let's decide...

[Surprise of surprises, sometimes even Cater needs a place where he can't be seen... but he's back to sharing a room, and these dorms weren't all fancy like Heartslabuyl with curtained four-posters, so maybe they should take a joint shopping trip to the bookstore to find something they can macguyver into curtains...

Or maybe he'll just start taking longer showers. Who knows.]

Decide... a schedule? For the door being open?

[Why is that simultaneously pathetic and kind of endearing?]

[They're in surprising agreement. Maybe Cater can even make an excuse about how by partitioning the room off with makeshift curtains and towels it's like having a pillow fort, or something appropriately social.]

I'm leading negotiations with... twenty out of twenty-four hours closed.

[He shoves the tablet over into Cater's hands for him to start selecting hours he wants it open or closed. Despite hardly seeing Idia's fingers move, it's apparently already been quickly set up to toggle between a green CLOSED or red OPEN.]

[(... shouldn't those be opposite colors?)]

[You need more than a couple pillows to make a fort... unfortunately!!]

Hmm... Cay will counter-offer with eighteen of twenty-four hours, but you can close them whenever he's not here.

[Tap-tap-tapping away to select three two hour chunks on every day....... except, conspicuously, Saturdays, before handing it back.

(Definitely not questioning Idia's color coding system. It's his tablet.)]

[Well, maybe the fates will set them up with pillows! Idia's definitely feeling fidgety with how cookie cutter "dorm" their room is right now. It needs to be darker... he needs something up on the walls to look upon and smile...]

[While the absence of Saturdays was confusing, it was technically a boon. After all, wasn't Saturday the extrovert's paradise? Being confirmed that he'd have those hours 100% closed was a blessing!]

[(Or, well, will be... speaking of...)]

[Before he can comment on it further, there's a sound from some sort of intercom- which is a little spooky, considering there's no visible speakers in the room.]

H- Huh?! Orientation?!

[Let's be honest, this dorm is way too cookie-cutter for anyone from Night Raven to feel comfortable in it, with the amount of Disney Themed Clutter each one has.

But (for now) Idia's right - if Saturday is blocked out as extrovert socialization time, then it's only fair Idia gets a day all to himself inside, right? It makes sense to him, and, like, it's better than some random day in the middle of the week, right? Right.

Anyway. Speaking of. That announcement sure is spooky-loud, all things considered, and Cater jumps as it rings out.]

...I guess that makes sense...? C'mon, let's go.

[Hopping! Up! From the bed!]

What part of that makes sense?!

[... well, the part that they're at a school. That's about it and that is everything they have to work on. Besides, an orientation should be like a tutorial and explain the rules and controls. He's got no reason to refuse it. Although,]

... what do you mean, go? Th- They said... the tablet...

[It's the part that they're at school and have next to no idea what's going on. At least there's going to be an orientation? Some kind of explanation?

...Which rules out the Headmaster being behind things even more than before - he wouldn't have waited to extol his magnanimity, and definitely wouldn't be explaining anything.]

Yeah, go! [Don't make him drag you by the arm, Idia, he will.] You think anyone's really gonna be, like, quiet and organized enough in asking questions for you to catch everything through the tablet? Nuh uh. So c'mon, c'mon! Cay'll do a snack run for you later in exchange, or something?

W- Well, yeah, it can be hard to catch everything at a panel online but a good presenter repeats the question for the stream audience...

R-Really, I only survived being in a room with that many people before because I was so startled...

[He is absolutely hesitating, he probably needs to be dragged. What is that oversized hoodie for if not yoinking a nerd to where he needs to be?]

[Ignoring the Patented Idia Muttering, as one does... he sure does end up grabbing on to the floppy end of a sleeve and tuuuugs.]

And now you totally have time to prepare yourself for it! Hide in your hood or something on the way, Cay totes won't let you trip since he'll get hurt, too, if you do.

Iiie! [H- he's been grabbed! He tries to pull back a little but, well, feats of physical strength aren't his forefront.]

[How long could he fight this for? If he fought it long enough would Cater give up and go alone? Maybe it was an advantageous trade. After all, his last snack run had resulted in no less than THREE face-to-face conversations he couldn't escape. One major social event exchanged for all the possible one-on-ones.]

[His shoulders slump forward, and his free hand comes up to shove his hood over the flickering blue flames.]

I- I won't trip...

[idia has (reluctantly) joined the party!]

[Cater would definitely not give up and go alone for this one. Maybe for some future assemblies, if they're not forced into them, but the first one? The Orientation? No way. He doesn't want to have to relay any of the information to Idia secondhand, just in case the stream to the tablets wasn't HQ enough to convey everything.

And, you know, there's still the small comfort of the presence of someone familiar who is way more socially awkward. That helps, just a bit.]

If you feel like you're gonna, just grab Cay's arm, oka~aay~? His balance is totes good enough to catch you~!

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