00 - prologue

[afflictionmods]

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

(CODE)

Comments

[ignihidden]

[Going from one's comfortable, darkened room lit only by the blue-light of screens into a lecture hall with bright fluorescent lighting? Terrible. Absolutely terrible!]

Iiiiiiie!

[An immediate, loud outburst from the tall boy with flaming blue hair in the front row! Getting a lot of attention is the last thing he wants but he's also so startled that, for the first few minutes, he's effectively in his own world. He hunches over in his seat, mumbling and muttering to himself while gnawing on his thumbnail,]

No way, no way, there's an order to these kind of things, you know? It's not as simple as "I've made it to another world" something dramatic has to happen first! The kind of series that runs with "you were just minding your own business when it happens" is so creatively dead it makes me wanna gag. At least getting hit by a truck would be a classic, you know, a respectful reference, and make it abundantly clear to any well-read person what was going on...!

[he's doing great, gamers]

[If you avoid him during that initial outburst (no one blames you), he can later be found in a few places. If you stop by the health room Idia has taken to whittling down tongue depressors and pens from the student store to try and make some facsimile of tools to use to open up his tablet and get a look at the inner workings. It's not going so well but, damn it, he's trying.]

[Otherwise, he does make at least one stop to the dorm's convenience store and appears to be loading up on as many junk food snacks as he can. He's literally stretching out his hoodie to use as a makeshift basket to carry them all with.]

[... in both cases, he seems pretty sketchy, trying to avoid eye contact with anyone he passes by anywhere on campus. After the initial lecture hall meeting he's put his hood up but there are still wisps of that flaming blue hair spilling out. He hunches his shoulders to try and look less distinct than his 6'/183cm usually makes him but... yeah, he just looks more suspicious!]

lecture hall

[selfconcept]

[ Since he's hunched over, Hien is curious and goes behind Idia's seat with his tablet, standing and looming over him. There's a long shadow overtaking his curled up body-- ]

But getting hit by a truck hurts.

[ His voice sounds distorted and full of static, but at least it's a quiet voice. If that helps any. ]

[ignihidden]

[With having an actual response rather than mumbling to himself, Idia's voice picks up to something a little less mumbly,]

Duh! Still, if the basic premise is being reincarnated in another world then in order to reincarnate you have to die! Then again, I guess we could be in more of a worldslip situation, in which case,

[his shoulders unhunch a little]

if it's a slip then it's wholly possible this could end at any minute! Or, well, it'll happen at the most inopportune time when the protagonist realizes their feelings. You know? Eh, say, your mic quality is pretty bad, you should upgra-

[That's when he turns around and realizes, no, that's not a mic, that's a human person. The manic hope that was building on his face plummet back to nervousness.]

Eep!

[selfconcept]

[ Oh. He's used to that reaction, so he tries not to look too menacing despite his dark appearance. What else can he do with his own weird checkerboard-patterned eyes and the fact that his t-shirt and pants are black? Though he has a very looming back and stomach pain right now. He's very good at not letting it show on his face. ]

Sorry, my voice is forever shit quality.

[ He doesn't have an off button for it anymore... ]

I guess that means you gotta realize your love pretty fast, mister protag.

[ignihidden]

[Spoilers, the eep would have been his reaction to any person! Although the menace does add to it. It's a cool kind of menace, though, just goth enough to make a teenage boy go "woah...!" inside instead of "WOAH."]

That- it- [the flow of words immediately ends up in more of a pathetic drip]

This one, n- .... no, I'm surely not the protagonist here. [his tone becoming much more dull]

I'll gladly accept role of Villager C and leave that to other people.

health room

[totaltrashfire]

[Mae initially intended to walk right by this place (anything that reminds her of a doctor's office is a big No Thanks), but she can't help but notice the weird sketchy guy with blue hair and pronouns using what looks like tongue depressors to break into his tablet like some kind of MacGyver.

Don't mind is she just comes on in.]

Whoa. You have a whole operation going here.

[ignihidden]

[Idia's definitely turning a corner of this place into something less doctory and more mad scientist-y. He's taken over the desk with the computer and really made a mess of it all! Right now he's trying to undo a screw with a repurposed pen.]

If they want to hide their digital systems from me, that's fine, that's fine, but there's always a backdoor to these kinds of things. I'll open them up and expose their secrets!

[... what a weirdo. He doesn't look up while he's saying it and then sticks his hand out expectantly,]

"E" pen. [he's apparently asking to be handed a university pen with a big, novelty "E" attached to one end. The other end has been pounded straight to resemble a flat-head screwdriver.]

[totaltrashfire]

[Mad scientist-y is rad, though. She'll take it.

It takes her a second to realize what's happening, but- oh. Oh! She's being asked to help! She can totally help! Take that, Beatrice!]

"E" pen, got it!

[Which one is the E pen... it takes her another second to realize he literally means the pen with the big E attached. But she did figure it out! Score one for Mae!]

Here you go.

convenience store

[goodfaiths]

[ Sir??? SIR, EXCUSE ME!! Riku sees the theft (?!?!) and runs over to him with a very big concern: ]

H-hey! Don't take all of it, save some for the rest of us!

[ignihidden]

[Online Idia would certainly say: there's no one here to police it and he needs all the calories he can to engineer a solution, n00b!]

[but he's not online]

[There's a small "eep" at Riku coming over and yelling at him and he seems to freeze up in considering his options. He stops, looks down at his pouch full of snacks, looks at the one he was about to add to it, looks to Riku, back to the pouch, back to his hand,]

[then slllllllowly returns the one he was holding to the shelf before glancing back at Riku]

[better?]

[goodfaiths]

[ BETTER. Except... ]

...Ah...now I feel a little bad for scolding you. Did you really want that one? As long as you don't take all of them, it's okay if you want that one back!

[ they're winning son ]

Convenience store

[mirrite]

[Marcus stares at this for a moment and then just sort of sighs.]

I'd ask if you need a hand, but I'm getting the feeling the answer is gonna be 'no.'

[This guy definitely seems like he is trying not to be perceived...]

[ignihidden]

[Idia jumps so dramatically at being called out that several snack bags fall out from his hoodie pouch. Now he extra wishes he could not be perceived, thanks!!]

Eh, uh... n- ... no, I can handle it myself...

[he says in the gloomiest tone achievable by man]

[mirrite]

[The next sigh is definitely louder, but Marcus isn't so much of a jerk that he isn't going to lean down to pick up those fallen bags. He'd offer to hand them back, but... hmm.]

Yeah, that's what I thought. Where're you headed?

[As entertaining as it might be to watch Idia just sort of shedding snacks on his way to wherever he's going...]

lecture hall.........

[sicklysweet]

[Idia is loud, which was his first mistake. His second mistake(?) was the eye-catching hair, because that's immediately caught Owen's interest.

The final nail in the coffin is the way he's mumbling to himself.]

Oh?

[At least with Idia curled up, Owen can loom properly. Can't see that he's shorter than this nerd like this...!]

Are you saying you want to die? [he does not know what a truck is but getting hit by one is probably??? fatal] It's not too late for that, if you want to try.

[ignihidden]

[Idia's greatest flaw is how obvious a target he paints on himself. He plays into it. He curls up his shoulders and lets the height "gap" between them be firmly established. Even with all that intimidation and harshness, there's a surprising,]

N- No, of course I don't want to die!

[he can say that with confidence before shrinking back down]

Besides, it's never as easy as "just die again" to get back in one of these stories. It isn't a solution.

[sicklysweet]

That's a pity. It can be kind of fun, you know.

[That is not true, but he wants to see how Idia reacts.]

Perhaps if you die you'd be stuck rotting in oblivion, but is that worse than being in a place like this? It's a peace you can't feel any other way.

health room

[superstructure]

[ He was coming in here for something else, but it doesn't take a lot of inferring for Julius to figure out what he's (trying) to work on. ]

I suppose it'd be too easy if whatever's behind this was fine with letting us open those things up.

[ Meaning he's probably tried to crack his open, too, to just about as much success. ]

[ignihidden]

As far as I've been able to tell, it's standard-issue.

[He mumbles, but it's not the kind of mumble that he was giving earlier in the lecture hall. It's more slow-paced, deliberate, and showing his professionalism for once.]

And of course they don't want to "let" me~ I haven't gotten this far by just accepting when a system wants to keep me out~

[Even if he's now trying to cobble together tools made out of shitty pens.]

convenience store

[cheerfuldays]

(


that sure is a snack gremlin. and there's so many! oh goodness. after a moment of staring, shizuku looks at the pile, looks up again- )

Do you need help with the doors?

[ignihidden]

[Eep! Idia doesn't jump as much as he would for a stricter voice, so he doesn't end up dropping any bags. When he turns, though, he's confronted with,]

[The most dangerous thing an otaku, or a student from an all-boy's school could encounter- and he's both of those things! It's! A girl!!!!!]

[omg she must think i'm so gross with all these snacks and hunched over so weird and she's so cute and dainty omg omg]

Ah... ... eh... ... um...

[If he was thinking he might manage to pull off some hail mary cool guy play, he definitely didn't...]

[cheerfuldays]

Oh- did I startle you? I'm sorry.

( girl that is not it at all.

or maybe she's playing it cool, given that she gets spotted and recognized all of the time- it doesn't do to make a fuss or let others start the fuss for you. that's one thing she's learned over her time as an idol and model. )

I just thought that might be difficult to move properly- maybe there's some bags you could use?

Post-Orientation...............!!

[magicam]

[So. That sure was something! Throughout the orientation, Idia absolutely got little flashes of anxiety and panic, and could absolutely put two and two together and figure out where they were coming from........

If he wasn't also feeling his own feelings at the time, and creating a feedback loop of awful.

Cater's absolutely not going to be the one to bring that up, though, and in fact doesn't even wait for Idia before leaving the auditorium! And the door's even shut to their room when Idia inevitably returns!]

So... D'you think we'll remember all this when we go home?

[ignihidden]

[while they established a link of physical pain, it was a lot more difficult to track emotional pain. How was that quantifiable? And how could one pick out their own pains of anxiety from another? The very fact they'd noticed the shared pain didn't seem to be something that everyone in the group had managed. The explanation was... bad. It was the kind of video game tutorial where you look up a guide.]

[Well, he had established his questions, at least. Endure Saturdays.]

... if we take them at their word, that this is supposed to encourage growth of some kind, isn't wiping our memories counter-intuitive?

Although I guess you could wipe specific memories without the underlying changes, like a cache clear. That would require something more delicate than the magic back home, I think.

[magicam]

Hnn... I guess so.

[But isn't that going way too far? Encouraging growth through, what, trauma? Forced connections? In that case, why'd they have to pull someone from his world at all? Why couldn't he breeze through this like everything else?

It's worse that he's paired with someone from his own world, too?

So. He sighs. Ends up chewing on his thumbnail in a gesture not unlike one of Idia's own nervous tics.]

I think so, too... Maybe Azul's magic could do it, but then he'd have to hear about...

[Gestures!!! All this!!!]