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.

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( 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

[unsinksyourship]

[Well, he's used to people with poker faces of various kinds, so he's not particularly offended even though he was the one who crashed the party anyways. Tamamori is here to take advantage of others' homework, in part, of course.

He doesn't do anything like avoiding Shin in the fog, because who thinks that far ahead in a stupid situation like this; bumbling is as bumbling does. Sorry if he steps on your foot in the gloom at any point. At least he's probably lighter than most people.

At any rate: Tamamori doesn't feel like detecting any judgment, so he doesn't.]

Isn't it just natural to try anything and everything in a crisis? Especially when nothing makes sense! [it's not like he got bored in the middle or anything] Well? What have you learned?

[undertakings]

[Normally, he'd be better about avoiding people who are bumbling around, but the fog is thick and part of the point of the exercise was to test if going in different directions changed where he exited. So at some point Tamamori probably did get him in his blind spot and landed them on a collision course to stupidity. I don't know!! Either way it'd probably be worse for Tamamori and all of his 5'3" of height, because Shin has 6 inches on him.

Anyway. Not going to dignify the first question with an answer, but he will talk about the second one.]

That the direction you move in doesn't seem to affect where you end up. I don't have a way of confirming my position when I'm in the fog, but it doesn't seem as simple as going around in circles.

[unsinksyourship]

[Shin is so thorough...! And also this was probably like the misfortunate encounter of a monster truck and a tiny Beetle, but Tamamori doesn't know what those are, so instead you're probably left with an analogy involving a rhinoceros beetle and like, a ladybug or whatever.

Nobody knows where this analogy is going anymore.]

Ooh. There's no way for one person to do that alone... but if the fog is really that powerful, can't we just tie a rope around one of us or something...?

[undertakings]

[This analogy is out of control?? And possibly would result in Kawase attempting to shank Shin because I feel like totally crushing his boyfriend crush best friend like a bug would not leave a favorable impression.

Either way, this sure is a suggestion. It's... honestly, he doesn't think it'll accomplish much but there's not really any harm in using it as a means to leave a trail of sorts. Or something. He's not sure if that's what Tamamori is getting at or if he's using the same logic that led him to tasting the fog.]

I don't think it'll be necessary to tie it, but we could use it as a marker. Are you volunteering?

[Or is this a purely hypothetical scenario...]

[unsinksyourship]

[Kawase is way too shank-happy, maybe the real solution is to debug everything with bug analogies and slowly desensitize him to the murder-happy urges. Nothing could go wrong with this. ☆

Honestly, Tamamori right now is in What-Would-Hanazawa-Do?? mode, except it's more like What-Would-Hanazaawa-Do-As-I-Steal-The-Credit-Because-He-Doesn't-Get-Any; it's not important, and their lack of flashlights and all other tools is also unimportant. They'll figure something out(??).]

Why would I volunteer? You seem far more at home in the fog, and besides, someone must hold the other end of the rope. [do they even have rope] I have a keen eye for people getting lost.

[is he reassuring yet]

[undertakings]

[I too, am ready to see Kawase turn this into a murdergame because someone decided to put spiders in his hair ☆

Hanazawa isn’t here right now anyways so fair, Tamamori can get all the credit anyways!! It’s a win-win situation, except I don’t really know what being won here. But that’s all right.

In any case, it certainly isn’t reassuring in any sense of the word, but Shin is also used to people passing the buck so the most Tamamori gets is a dispassionate stare in return before he shifts his gaze to where the gift shop is located.]

I don’t think getting lost is much of a concern. There’s string at the store though.

[String is just wimpy rope so it should work well enough here, probably??]

[unsinksyourship]

[I'd say just put tiny glasses on the spider but it would be the same outcome so never mind. ☆ 🔪🕷️

It's about winning the skirmish, not the war, or some nonsense like that. Uh. Honor and mayhem. Imaginary points. God only knows what's going on in Tamamori's mental calculus half the time, apart from the fact that it's probably not called calculus and is allergic to STEM (period-accurate).

The stare does absolutely nada, it slides off him smoothly enough to make the most practiced tsukkomi cry. Tamamori cheerfully starts leading the way to the gift shop, occasionally poking a hand into the fog; he's seriously just bored.]

String it is, then. You're pretty prepared, aren't you, Fog Boy?

[Also it's Shin's funeral if the string is too wimpy, so it's fine??]

[undertakings]

[Baby glasses for spiderbabies—wait

Anyhow, if Tamamori is leading the way then Shin will trail after him so they can test out their own version of string theory (and also it’s not like Shin has much else to do either). If Tamamori’s hand gets eaten by anything in the fog though, he’s not helping.

Fog Boy is a new one though!! He kinda gets it, but doesn’t the wording imply he’s made of fog or something... the real mystery of this game.]

It’s just something I noticed as I was looking around. I don’t think it merits the word “prepared”.