harmonize_rpg | EVENT

Entry tags:

EVENT - AWAKENING

Who: PCs, ???
Where: Classrooms, ???
When: Monday, April 17, immediately after normal classes.
What: It's time.

The call came abruptly at the end of the day, as the students were preparing to end their normal session and proceed to their specialty classes. It was a small thing, easily forgotten: a staff member at the entrance to a few particular homerooms, asking one or two students to meet in the main hall. It was a little peculiar, to be sure, but they were only two weeks into the school year, after all--most students just shrugged it off as one of Chitoku's oddities.

Taue Shinichiro. Hazama Miyume. Tanemoto Ryuta. Kasubata Shizuru. Imaizumi Mirai. Uehara Himeko. Shikata Haruka.

Those called couldn't have been more different. What common thread could possibly have them brought together, few could fathom.

OOC note: Please keep everything in the same thread. Also, I'd like to keep up a fairly brisk pace, but I'll do my best to accommodate everyone. And please feel free to come into the chat at http://webchat.freenode.net, channel #harmonizerpg, for discussion!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yachiyo watched, hands clasped behind her back, as the last of the shinmen faded away, and nodded silently to herself.

"Thank you all for your cooperation."

She was clearly speaking for the benefit of those who were still conscious, though the deadpan nurse and the two younger staffers were moving around to check on and rouse those who weren't. "Effective immediately, you will be transferred from your current specialty classes to Critical Thinking in the 1-ho homeroom."

(And suddenly, Shizuru, pulling herself to something resembling a sitting position, understood why the class had been just her.)

"You will not have training every day, but it will be frequent. First-years, I will be your main contact point. Second-years, Sawatari. Third-years, Horaoku. If you have any medical concerns, see Ishichi, Ihoji, and Maehigashi." The blank-faced woman now had a name. "For any stress or mental concerns, see Sekimiya. You will be given priority over the rest of the student body in both cases.

"This facility and the shinmen are matters of the highest secrecy; do not speak to anyone else about them. Leaks will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Your Evokers will only activate in these other worlds, so I would not recommend trying to show them off.

"You are excused from club activities today and all classes tomorrow. If you feel any lingering effects beyond that, see Ishichi for testing and an absence note."

The bizarre colors and energy in the air vanished as though they had never been, leaving only the clean, polished laboratory.

"If you wish, you may remain to ask questions. Otherwise, you are dismissed."

And, finally, her voice softened. "I accept your hatred now. But you will all soon understand why this is necessary."

Edited 2013-08-26 22:11 (UTC)

Mirai watched the colours swirl on the ceiling and he counted them - blue, black, red, blue, green - and ran a hand down the back of his head, clutching at his hair as they all turned to white. He was by now too tired and hurt to argue. He would have been content to lie there and listen to his breathing, his chest rising up and down, had not Yachiyo finished speaking and left him bored in the quiet.

He sat up to check his clothes and check this wasn't a figment of his imagination. It might have been any old dream - he was certain it wasn't, though. He was climbing to his feet. He would do this to prove he could, reject what his father wanted him to take from it, and talk down large obstacles that threatened his freedom.

He would have headed straight for the door had not Isora earned his ire. He headed over. It looked it was clear he would not leave till he had at least spat some of his venom at the woman who had made him feel so small. He brought a hand to his throat, and it still felt dry.

Haruka listened to all this, eyes turned blankly at the ceiling for the longest time.

Finally, she slowly closed her eyes. Her hand felt for her chest - physically uninjured, even if her head wouldn't stop spinning - before she pushed herself into a sitting stance but she had to stay still for a few moments to orient herself and get over the urge to puke. She felt area in front of her for where she had dropped her cane, her hand missing it several times before she found that it had rolled further than she expected. When she found it, she clutched it hard, relying on it to help her keep her balance as she tried standing. Her body screamed at her and her chest still burned for some reason but she was up.

Turning her head in Yachiyo's general direction, she sounded normal but that aura from earlier hadn't completely gone away,

"If this is a draft, when and how do we get a discharge?"

Slowly, Ryuta opened his eyes. His eyes moved over the medical staffer who he believed woke him. For a moment, he thought that it was all a bad dream. Too bad he still had a splitting headache from before. He could have at least believed he was still dreaming for a bit longer.

Standing up was a struggle in of itself. The pain in his chest subsided, but his head felt like it was cracked wide open. Great. Knowing he wouldn't be able to focus on his studies today, he made a mental note to make up for it later. But more pressing matters were at hand. He glanced toward Yachiyo, gathering his thoughts as best he could through the pain. Carefully adjusting his glasses, he spoke to her with an even tone. "Hating you at this point would not resolve the situation. I prefer we move things forward. Before I leave, I want to know something from you."

A moment passed as he thought about how he wanted to phrase his question. He realized that there was no way around it, so he took the straightforward approach. "Do you consider us disposable? With a school full of potential candidates to use at your discretion, I wonder how highly you value our lives?" The cold silence swept through the room, the question lingering in the air.

So many things being spoken about went in one ear and out the other with Miyume. She didn't understand military or state-related things or particularly care to know more about them. As far she was concerned there was no way out of this situation so she may as well begin learning how to be comfortable with her new role, whatever that might entail.

Though she'd been dismissed, Miyume made no attempt to rise from her chair and her gaze was fixed on one person and one person only: Mirai. She watched with great interest and more than a little concern when he went to confront the woman who had introduced herself as Sekimiya and taunted him about his father. Nothing else seemed to matter to her.

Edited 2013-08-27 06:57 (UTC)

Haruka's question actually got an amused half-smile from Yachiyo. "Your service will last through your tenure at Chitoku." Her glance flicked momentarily to Ishichi, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it action. "We will ensure that you are properly compensated, as we do anyone who serves our country."

Ryuta's, on the other hand, drew some very sharp reactions. It seemed to infuriate the female soldier, who was only stopped from storming over to the boy by a warning hand on her shoulder from her partner. Sawatari, looking stricken, chewed nervously on her thumbnail, drawing a sympathetic look from Horaoku, and the pair stepped away from the main group to have an inaudible conversation.

But, again, it was Yachiyo who answered. "If we didn't value human life, this project would not exist," she answered stonily. "None of you, nor anyone else, is disposable. I told you that we will provide you with the best protection we have to offer, and I meant it."

And Takaoka felt the need to interject. "The Potential exists in only approximately five percent of the student body, which translates to well under one percent of the population at large, by all accounts. Candidates are actually quite rare."

Haruka, on the other hand, looked fair less amused by the answer to her question. Or anything else she was hearing. She said,

"Sucky."

However, there was an underlying sharpness in that single word was reminiscent to her 'Perfect Prosecutor' voice that she might as well cracked a whip with it. She turned away from the Q and A, still leaning heavily on her cane for support. Instead of immediately going for the exit, however, she went over to Hazama. She asked, quietly and without that sharpness,

"Hazama-san? Aside from the obvious, you doing alright?"

Slowly Himeko came back to reality as well. Her head did hurt an awful lot, still, but aside from that she felt pretty normal. Normal enough to walk around without feeling overly exhausted or pained, at least.
Smiling weakly at the people who tried to help her getting up, she carefully listened to Yachiyo-sensei’s further instructions. Somehow, she got the feeling that all she was doing today was listening to people explaining a bunch of stuff she had to memorize at all costs.
She had to admit that everything went by a bit too fast for her. Being forced into all of this against her own will and even being transferred from her specialty class to become a part of that secret monster hunting brigade.

Above all, she came to this school to get more specialized training in order to become an idol and with that, convincing her whole family that she wasn’t some kind of talentless burden, who wasn’t able to keep the family tradition up. With that fighting role they forced up on her, finding time for proper training seemed to be getting a lot harder than before. What was she supposed to do when another important audition was coming up and she hadn’t had time to train properly?
Becoming an idol wasn’t just a family thing, after all. They played a certain role in it but it was also still her own biggest dream and there was nothing that could prevent her from fulfilling it.

“Sensei?”, Himeko decided to raise her voice this time just to make sure. She looked at Yachiyo with her normal cheerful and innocent expression; simply trying to get what she wanted the way she always did.
“I guess I have to do what you say. I realize that arguing or refusing to participate won’t take me anywhere but…Is it even possible to balance my training here with the idol training I have to absolve for auditions? I can’t imagine my family would want me to drop that. And I myself don’t plan to work as a monster hunter in the near future, either.”, she smiled ,naturally striking a cute pose to go along with her expression.

Yachiyo raised an eyebrow at this, but it was Horaoku who spoke up with a fatherly smile, now that Sawatari had calmed down.

"If you're willing to put in the extra time, Uehara-san, I can speak with the choir director about setting up solo practices for you. It may be a much more productive method for you in the end."

Miyume's gaze lingered on Mirai a moment before she turned her full attention to Haruka.

"Me? I'm fine. It's a good opportunity and there are people I want to protect so I don't mind," she said, tone completely pleasant and calm, as if being drafted into a super secret military task force and ordered to commit seppuku with a lightsaber was something that happened to her every day.

Rather than sound annoyed or put out like the others, Miyume sounded relieved and even a little happy at this development.

"It would be my pleasure to serve my country. I hope I can meet their expectations," she continued, this time sounding a good deal more sorrowful as her thoughts turned to her own health and limitations.

After taking in their reactions, Ryuta nodded to himself in confirmation. It appeared they do wish to keep them safe. And to top it off, he learned some new information he could use. Only a small margin of the populous has this potential. Very interesting. He realized his pain was starting to disappear as well, though his headache was still bothering him.

"I see. My apologies. I was only eliminating the worst case scenario."

Edited 2013-08-27 21:53 (UTC)

"Huh." Haruka let the sound linger there as she seemed to regard Miyume."Interesting."

The way she said it left ambiguous what sort of 'interesting' she meant.

"That's quick."

"What is?"

Though Haruka couldn't see it, Miyume tilted her head a little. The vague confusion in her voice was clear enough, however.

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean, senpai."

Haruka seemed to regard Hazama a bit longer, expression ambiguous, before ending lightly,

"Answering the Call of to Adventure. This case feels more like Got Volunteered to the Call but you look like you've passed Rejecting the Call and went straight to Resigned to the Call?"

"I prefer to think of myself as the Fettered," Miyume murmured with a chuckle. She was a writer, after all. "It's an easy call for me to answer."

She regarded Haruka thoughtfully.

"What does that make you, I wonder?"

"Self-aware," Haruka said, smiling slightly despite the circumstances and how she felt.

"The Deadpan Snarker? I think I'm too old to pull off Little Miss Snarker, despite relative adorbs levels."

"You certainly are cute," Miyume reassured her, gently patting her on the arm. "But if I'm too old to qualify for Little Miss Anything, you definitely are."

An image of her mother, her grandparents, and Ayana came to mind which spurred her into speech.

"And I am too old." Feeling a little bit more satisfied with that statement now, she continued.

"The Deadpan Snarker suits you well, senpai."

"Thanks," Haruka said. Her head idly drifted back towards where the rest of the conversations were before she continued, "Too many people for a Five Man Band so the extra titles balance things out."

"A few too many," Miyume said.

It was harder to keep the edge of bone deep weariness out of her voice. Her words were starting to slur slightly and to any nearby onlookers, she seemed to be having a hard time keeping her eyes open. She started a bit in her seat, eyes drifting to Mirai.

Miyume tried to sit up a bit straighter in her chair, looking oddly reminiscent of a little girl stubbornly refusing to go to bed. She wanted to keep waiting for Mirai but she suspected that if she didn't start heading back to the dorms, she'd fall asleep in this terrible room.

Haruka tilted her head as she caught the slurring and weariness. She asked,

"Heading back to the dorms soon?"

“Yes, please! That would help me lots!”, she fully turned her attention to Horaoku and bowed down deeply. Himeko couldn’t care less about Yachiyo’s reaction. Her cutesy act didn’t work as good on women as it did on men anyway and since she got what she wanted, she really felt no need to get her sympathy.

With a content smile she thanked Horaoku again, before turning around in order to observe what the rest of the group was up to and if anyone was maybe free to exchange a few words with her. Unfortunately, everyone seemed rather busy with their own matters, so Himeko decided to not stick around for too long. She also had an important appointment with her newly bought cocoa after this and she didn’t feel like waiting too much longer to finally consume some of it, to be honest.

Edited 2013-08-28 18:26 (UTC)

(no subject)

rulebook - 2013-08-28 19:13 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

phantomcloud - 2013-08-28 19:33 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

allisnothing - 2013-08-29 02:02 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

phantomcloud - 2013-08-29 05:50 (UTC) - Expand

Sekimiya was still standing a little apart from the group, listening to the students' questions but not expecting to participate in the Q&A session. But, nonetheless, she didn't seen surprised when Mirai approached her.

"I appreciate your cooperation earlier," she said with the same calm smile, adjusting her glasses as she peered up at him. "Can I help you?"

Mirai rubbed at his throat with the palm of his hand, now that the shock of the awakening had worn off his body which was catching up with his mind. He reckoned that there had to be a catch to Sekimiya's help. He was questioning without so much as taking his eyes off her.

"... Yeah. You say my father said he was proud. I wonder what he said to you about me."

"Enough. Little of it good. And not all of it accurate."

It seemed that, now that the two of them were able to have a semi-private conversation, Sekimiya felt able to speak more freely.

"I meant what I said about taking that chance to redeem yourself, but if that's not enough... well." She adjusted her glasses. "Just think, you're closer to his work than ever before. I'm sure a bright boy like you can figure out something to do with that."

Mirai took the advice with a grateful "thank you" and turned his head across his shoulder - looking at the people behind him who Sakimiya was trying to force him to care for. His attention went onto Miyume. He invited her to look into his eyes. Then turned back around.

There seemed to be a sad smile on his face.

"You think so?" A wider grin spread over his features. "Well, I shall do that never fear. I promise you I'll try my best, so please go and tell daddy I'm a good boy. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to hear such things."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only