EVENT - AWAKENING

[harmonizemods]

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!

Comments

[harmonizefaculty]

(OOC: I apologize to those who didn't get in--we're assuming everyone's in, and we won't be moving along too far just yet, so please feel free to jump in where you can!)

"Pardon me."

Someone had just stepped into the room from an opening in the wall on the opposite side, next to the stage--one that quite clearly had not been there a few seconds ago. Her voice was sharp and carried well across the wide hall, helped along by exceptionally good acoustics.

It was also quite familiar to the first-years: Yachiyo-sensei, head of homeroom 1-ho and history teacher for that grade.

[phantomcloud]

Miyume debated whether or not it would be better to separate from Mirai when her history teacher appeared then decided against it. Yachiyo-sensei saw her in class, knew she walked with a cane even if she might not have known why. Some of her earlier defiance during her text conversation with Mirai lingered. He was the only one keeping her from collapsing with exhaustion right then, even after her trip to the the nurse's office. She'd still been there when she received the call to the grand hall.

Whoever had called here knew she was coming; they could have prepared a chair for her, at least. So Miyume clung openly to Mirai, gazing coldly at the teacher.

[OOC: This text conversation occurred between the time Miyume and Mirai arrived and Yachiyo-sensei's arrival.]

[heirofkobe]

Shinichiro saw the teacher walk into the room from...somewhere. Where exactly he didn't know, but he wanted to find out. He took a step forward, ahead of the other assembled students, and leveled his gaze upon the older woman. A quick glance back at Mirai holding up Mizume gave him a second line of questioning.

"Two questions," he began, not skipping a beat or seemingly intimidated at not knowing the reason for her presence.

"Number one, you just walked out of a wall. How?"

And then...

"Number two, can we get a seat for the young lady back there who looks like she's going to pass out?"

[harmonizefaculty]

Yachiyo gave the group an appraising once-over, then nodded to herself, seemingly ignoring their initial reactions. "Good, you're all here." Something about the woman had definitely changed: her eyes were sharper, she'd dropped her typical polite language, and even her body language was subtly different--just a little more alert, drawn just a little more taut.

It was only after that that she seemed to actually notice Taue, and regarded him coolly for a moment before turning back to the opening she'd come from. "Follow me. I'll explain when we've arrived. Someone assist Hazama-san along the way."

Without another word, she turned and stepped inside, proceeding in only a little way to allow the students to follow. Now that she was no longer blocking the way, the students could see that it led to a corridor only dimly lit by pale blue running lights along the walls, near the floor.

[rulebook]

Ryuta stood against the back wall of the room, leaning against it for support. He quietly read a book to himself while the others talked amongst themselves.

Once Yachiyo made her appearance and motioned for the group to follow, he folded a corner in his book to mark his place, placed it in his pocket, and promptly followed behind the others.

With a quick adjustment of his glasses, he examined the corridor around them. Speaking aloud his thoughts, he addressed no one in particular. "It appears this corridor was left out of the school directory." He should know, since he spent a few hours studying it the day before school started. "I doubt that was a mistake. I'm curious to see where this path takes us."

Continuing to follow Yachiyo down the dark path, Ryuta makes a quick sigh after realizing his mistake. "My apologies. I forgot that we've all never met face-to-face before. Ryuta Tanemoto. A pleasure." He quickly returns his gaze back to the walls, expecting to find some telltale sign of what is down this path.

[hoshikage_himeko]

Himeko had arrived a little later than the rest of the group.
She did hear the teacher's instructions, but she hadn't been able to talk with anyone else yet.
Honestly, she had tried to avoid the meeting she got notice of after classes as long as she could, assuming it had to do with her school uniform.
She knew that it was against the rules wearing it the way she did. But it was simply boring without ribbons and frills and she wanted to keep it that way.
Additional to that, there had been a discount on cocoa packages at a store near the school today and since she had been running short on her beloved drink again, it had been a priority to get some first.

Placing herself near the door, she had listened carefully to the teachers' words.
Nothing about some kind of punishment...
Did that mean she hasn't been called because of her rule violation, after all?

While catching up with the others as they were about to leave through the corridor, she looked around curiously.
"Did I miss something important here? What kind of place is this?", she mumbled, not really talking to anyone in particular.
Her eyes, however, sparkled a little with excitement.

[burningbow]

Mirai's emotions became highly unreadable on his face and he was more curious about this journey than the teacher's appearance. Most of his fascination came from the darkened corridor, which glowed with technology - which as he glanced around looked out of place from the school.

His head tipped at the things his fellow students said. There was no mistaking a cross-section of those the school was built for didn't know about what was here. He kept his attention ponderously on Yachiyo-sensei, his fingers clutching a little tighter at Miyume's back the deeper they went. There his arm kept her standing, keeping her up when she wanted to give in.

[heirofkobe]

Taue didn't speak to anyone else as he followed the teacher, and indeed, most other conversation was mere chatter to him right now.

SOMETHING was happening. Something important, that only they were supposed to know. What school had a hidden passageway?

Focusing on Mirai and Miyume was depressing; focusing on Himeko-chan was too...cheerful for the moment, and the rules lawyer was...rules lawyery. Better to be quiet. Better to wait.

Better to see where the rabbit hole would lead. His heart rate had increased. He would never have admitted it if he was pressed, but this whole thing was...exciting.

[waterholdmedown]

Shizuru was ambling along, actually near the head of the group, her curiosity piqued as well. She glanced back at Miyume, but Mirai seemed to have that... well in hand, so to speak, so she stayed in her particular spot in the marching order.

Which put her near Taue. Could be worse. "What d'you think?" she inquired as the corridor took a turn and turned into stairs.

[heirofkobe]

"The shit is about to smack into the fan at 100 kilometers per hour," he replied, amusedly, to Shizuru's question.

In what form that would take, he didn't know, but...

"This is suspicious as Hell," he continued. "I thought it was detention at first, but no way that moe-blob would have gotten it."

[allisnothing]

Haruka, meanwhile, was relatively close to Kasubata and the guy she wasn't familiar with. She kept her cane's movements to a minimum for now, since the path seemed linear enough (and she lightly dragged her fingers along the wall as she walked, trying to get a sense of what the corridor was like) and she had a general idea where everyone else was. Her attention briefly turned to Hazama but it sounded like she was alright for now.

"Sounds right," Haruka commented. "There's probably a checklist for all this. Mysterious summons, area no one really knows about and wouldn't know about till too late, and a rag tag group there doesn't seem to be much similarities between them.

"But this isn't a story so the pleasant surprises from the universe would be welcome." She ended with slight shrug.

[rulebook]

Ryuta followed along with the others, briefly looking at his watch for the time. Letting out a small sigh, he pulled out a small book from his pocket, a black pen on the side.

A few moments pass as he scribbled out a few words and immediately replaced them with fresh ink. Keeping the book open for a moment to dry, he turned towards Haruka. "About that student handbook I left for you.... I realize now that you can't read it in its current format. If you give me a day or two, I can make an audio copy. Unfortunately, the school board has yet to make a braille version." He closed the book quickly, making a loud plop in the stairway. It jolted some of the others, but Ryuta didn't seem to notice and placed the book back in his pocket.

[allisnothing]

The sudden change in topic drew a tilted glance and a slightly bemused look. She'd already matched the voice to the person before but the topic probably would have been enough now.

"Generous," Haruka said. "No biggie though?" She tilted her head upwards slightly as she seemed to think. "Unless the reason we're all here is because there was some obscure rule we all broke like that one movie. 'Those who do not read to the end of this rule book will suffer a horrible punishment involving a loss of hair and much humiliation. Ahahahahaha!'"