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

[superstructure]

[ When he comes to, it takes absolutely no time for Julius to bolt right out of the lecture room, looking a little unnerved as he moves out into the courtyard. It takes a second for his eyes to adjust to the light outside, but it quickly becomes clear that this doesn't seem to be related to what he's been worrying about up to this point. In a way, it's a relief, but mostly it just brings up a flurry of other concerns.

At the immediate moment, however, it's enough for him to settle down a bit (though not the pit in his stomach), enough for him to turn his attention to the burn on his right hand, pulling the sleeve of his coat back with his gloved hand to get a better look at it. The light just happens to catch the lenses of his glasses as they go white, and the expression in his eyes is obscured.

... Eventually, though, he realizes that sinking feeling feels like more than just nerves, which leads him into the health room, scanning through the cabinets of medication, reading the labels to make sure he knows what he's getting his hands on. ]

I suppose it'd be too easy if there were any gels here.

[ When that inevitably goes nowhere, the next course of action is to survey the area and try to figure out more about the area and anything that would point to what'd be considered the catalyst here. So that naturally leads him to the bookstore, as he thumbs through some of what he can only assume are textbooks based on the diagrams. It's a little clunky, trying to navigate it with the translation app on the tablet he eventually remembered was there in the lecture room with him, but it's better than nothing at this point.

When he catches glance of someone else, he'll motion to whatever book either one of them is currently looking at. ]

Does any of this make any sense to you?

[ Eventually, he gets to the dormitory, going through the nameplates before finding the one at Dorm 4, the one with his name listed on it.

And Rideaux's.

...

There's an extremely audible sigh as he lifts up his glasses to pinch the bridge of his nose. ]

Perfect.

dorm 4

[escardos]

[ not noticing the very obvious signs of frustration, flat can't help but add some very necessary commentary.

it seems he's carrying water bottles in his arms. ]

I know, isn't it interesting? I've never had a roommate before! Whoever forced us here is at least nice enough to give us someone to talk to.

[superstructure]

[ There's kind of a slight blink at the earnestness and the water bottles (mostly the water bottles though), but it's gone as Julius replies. ]

Well, you're free to have mine, if you want. I think I'm too used to having my own room to adjust. [ not necessarily a lie, but. that's Clearly Not the Problem Here. ]

Is your roommate someone you're familiar with?

[escardos]

Not at all! I've never met this person in my life, actually!

[ but that doesn't seem to deter him. if anything, it only makes flat even more excited. ]

But you should consider trying new things out. It'll definitely be fun...um... [ let's see who's in this room... ] Rideux? Or Julius?

bookstore

[selfconcept]

[ Julius sure is catching Hien placing a math textbook in the fiction section... anyway, when he asks that question, Hien looks a little off to the side at first. This guy better not snitch on him.

Anyway, he walks over to him and looks at the book. ]

Yeah.

[ Does he expand on his answer. No. ]

[superstructure]

[ Eh, if he notices, he doesn't comment on it. Live your truth Hien. ]

You haven't seen anything here that explains what's going on here, have you? This writing isn't familiar to me.

[ He just points to a random paragraph, electing to take Hien's affirmative at face value. ]

[selfconcept]

Nothing like that. I doubt it would be in here.

[ When he sees Julius point to a paragraph, he assumes he wants Hien to read it out loud, so here goes: ]

"When an object is dropped, it accelerates toward the center of Earth. Newton’s second law states that a net force on an object is responsible for its acceleration. If air resistance is negligible, the net force on a falling object is the gravitational force, commonly called its weight w. Weight can be denoted as a vector w because it has a direction; down is, by definition, the direction of gravity, and hence weight is a downward force. The magnitude of weight is denoted as w. Galileo was instrumental in showing that, in the absence of air resistance, all objects fall with the same acceleration g. Using Galileo’s result and Newton’s second law, we can derive an equation for weight."

[ ... ]

Please never ask me to do that again.

[ Julius didn't ask!! ]

bookstore

[partymagician]

[ Fai waves his hands in front of him, shaking his head. ]

Not at all! I don't understand the numbers and the diagrams they're presenting...

[ If those numbers had to do with magic, he'd have no problem, but alas. ]

[superstructure]

[ Oh, he was pretty vague with that question, huh. Let's reframe it. ]

I see. And are you able to read it at all? I'm afraid I'm not familiar with this writing system.

[ Which raises the question about how they're all able to talk to each other, but. Y'know, maybe it's better not to right now. ]

[partymagician]

Nope!

[ He... doesn't seem bothered by it whatsoever, almost like he's used to it. ]

I haven't seen a writing system like this one before.

bookstore

[catarou]

[ Well, Gentaro is here, so it would be rude to ignore him. He peers over, and he has literally no idea what all of this means, but he's not going to admit that.

It would be a missed opportunity if he did. ]

Oh, yes. [ He tilts his head slightly. ] Does it not for you?

[superstructure]

[ He gives Gentaro a quick glance. ]

Not especially. Not being able to read it makes it a bit harder to infer what it is.

[ Like, it's probably some kind of science or whatever, but beyond that... who knows. Anyway, he's going to continue like he didn't just basically say he can't read. ]

Is there anything you recognize here?

[catarou]

Oh, yes. I recognize everything, you see. If I did not, I would be a disgrace of a warden, would I not?

[ Said with a 100% straight face. ]

It is my duty to know this place and its tomes as well as I know my own mind.

room 4

[pr159]

[ Looks at julius, looks at the nameplates on the door next to him, and just gives a little derisive snort of laughter. ]

Well, I had been leaning toward this not being some sort of hell, but it looks like I may have been mistaken.

[ pushes past him and gets out his card key ]

If there are bunk beds in here, you're taking the top.

[superstructure]

[ flatly: ]

Rideaux.

[ Great. Just what he needs, more of a pain to deal with. ]

With any luck, that won't even be an option.

[ And if it is, he's very seriously tempted to just go sleep elsewhere and not deal with this at all. ]

[pr159]

What, you'd rather share one? Sorry, not really in the mood.

[ The door unlocks and he steps inside and takes a look around. It's nothing impressive, but it's doesn't look bad, and no bunk beds is a positive.

He shrugs. ]

Could be worse. [ And he goes over to one of the beds, pulls off his boa, and drops it on top of the covers to claim it. ] I'm taking this side.

health room

[teidaisei]

[ Julius has company in the health room, though it's only when he speaks up that Kawase deigns to acknowledge his presence. He seems to be doing much the same thing, taking stock of what's here and what's not, stopping every so often when he comes across a compound that seems familiar even if it's form is not (medicine has come a long way since the 1920's, you know). ]

Gels? Could you be any less specific? [ A Look that could make a sunflower wither, as he's in a particularly terrible mood. ]

[superstructure]

[ He seems to ignore Kawase's Look™, giving him a cursory glance before putting back a bottle of what seems to be some kind of antihistamine. ]

Apple or lemon.

[ He's not really expecting him to understand that. ]

They're used medicinally where I'm from. I don't see anything similar, so I'm not exactly holding out hopes for one to turn up.

[teidaisei]

For what? To get kids to take their medicine?

[ Gels are just gels by him but also dies in 1920's tech. ]

bookstore!

[cheerfuldays]

Oh, goodness, no. ( said with an airy bluntness that most definitely doesn't have an edge of anxiety to it, nope! ) I mean, I've been trying to rationalize it- I know this is a university, for instance, but that doesn't mean anything when I don't know how I got here at all...

( and it's not like a SEKAI, if only because a virtual singer hasn't manifested to explain what's happening- and if it is, she doesn't want this one. she likes her normal one. )

[superstructure]

[ this is an ~anxiety free zone~

He nods. ]

At the very least, it's a start. It makes getting bearings on your surroundings a little easier, if only somewhat. I imagine it'd be all the more disorienting if it wasn't something familiar.

[ There's a slight pause, before his tone softens slightly. ]

Do you remember what happened last before you woke up here?

[cheerfuldays]

I had just gotten home after school and dance practice. After I finished changing, my wrist started hurting- and then this mark appeared. After that... I woke up here.

( did her family hear her screaming in pain? did anyone try to find her? what did they see if they did? ... how was she taken, if her parents and little sister were all home- were they alright?

countless questions she probably can't get an answer to. or will forget to ask when orientation comes, unfortunately. )

What about you?

health room!

[cloudalike]

Jelly? I think you can probably find some in the cafeteria.

[superstructure]

[ He glances up at Chongyun from the bottle he has in hand. Hmm. ]

I suppose it's possible, but the ones I'm looking for are more for medicinal purposes. [ He puts the bottle back. ] Though it doesn't seem likely there are any around.

[ not even a stray panacea bottle....... smh. ]

100 years later

[cloudalike]

Oh, you mean a sort of salve? [ If he squints, he can see why it could be called "jelly"... Still. Why not just call it a salve?? ] I'm sorry for misunderstanding. Do you need the item urgently? Perhaps we could find the healer in charge and ask...?