Week 1

[linkupmods]

WEEK 1

AWAKENING.

You were taken. That much is obvious when you come to your senses and see the world around you. You feel a little groggy – just how long were you asleep for? – but you should otherwise be alert, enough to realize that the surrounding area is unfamiliar to you. You are in front of what appears to be a modern dormitory (or, well, just a large building, for anyone who's never quite seen anything like it before). The area is decorated with balloons, streamers and other miscellaneous decorations with a giant "WELCOME" banner spanning across the front entrance.

You have a moment to look at the people around you. Strangers. No one here looks familiar to you whatsoever. Furthermore, it feels like there is something stirring in your heart, waiting to be brought to light, waiting to speak your truth...

You might need more time to let that sink in, but that time is interrupted by a voice.

"Oh wow it actually worked- Um, I mean! Hello!"

The speaker is a short, plain-looking young woman with dark hair in a bob cut, her hand raised to catch everyone’s attention.


"Welcome to Sunset City! The goddess Braphine needs your help, so she’s called all of you here to fix this place. Fortunately, it should only take about three months of cooperation, I think? Probably. So...

Welcome to your new home away from home!"

The young woman - Mina - goes on to explain the current situation: everyone here has been summoned by the goddess of community and connection, Braphine, in order to rebuild the connections of the people of Sunset City. Lately, the people have become more and more isolated from each other, getting into fights and arguments over the pettiest of details.

While Mina doesn’t know the details, exactly, what she does know is that the goddess instructed her to prepare these dorms for residents ("that’s you!") and to more or less act as her representative. Mina will also note that everyone’s dorm rooms have already been labeled with their names, and that the goddess has deigned to gift some in particular with the means to defend themselves - which is to say, when characters do eventually make it to their dorm rooms, those who did not arrive with one will find their gifted weapon waiting for them with their name handwritten on a tag attached to the item.

For now, people can use their phones to access an app that will allow them to see any currently open commissions - complete the commissions, and they will not only help the community, but also earn money and rewards! And if your character doesn’t know how to operate a phone, well... Mina will patiently guide them through the process, don’t you worry.

If your character has any other questions, they may talk to her at the party, or otherwise contact her via phone!

WELCOME PARTY.

After speaking with Mina, you may have an idea of what you're supposed to be doing here. Things don't have to be all work, though, because despite the state of the city, you are allowed to have fun and get to know one another.

Mina has graciously set up a welcome party for everyone, which will have refreshments inside and outside the dorm, and games available for people to partake in throughout the day at their own leisure! Indoors, there are a variety of board games for you to mess around with. Outside, there's a pool, basketball and tennis court set up with appropriate equipment. Of course, you aren't limited to just those, as there's a small open field at the dormitory where you can play ball in other ways, too. Interestingly enough, there are also some training dummies available for you to use...maybe to put your weapons to use?

Don't forget about the arts and crafts section inside, either, where nametags are laid out for you to create your own (or others')! You can also use this section to create decorations for the dormitory, your room, or even something to give to a fellow dorm mate.

EXPLORE.

You're free to explore the town, too, at your own leisure, to get used to your new home. The city is bustling with people, but for some reason, many of the residents don't have good vibes. They seem unsettled, unhappy for whatever reason. It's not pleasant, but nobody will go out of their way to bother you, unless you trip into them or initiate pvp yourself.…The random trash scattered around various parts of town might make it hard to avoid the former, though. Be careful not to trip on a banana peel, a stray canister, or even something as large as a throwaway tire on the side of the street. The residents will not react positively if you try to interact with them in any capacity.

That being said, for all that the city seems gloomy at a first glance, there is surprisingly an advertisement for a go-kart racing contest coming up in three weeks, and the go-karts are two seaters! The flyers posted around town read that this is a competition for pairs; the driver's seat (left) has a gas pedal, and the passenger's seat (right) has the brake. Looks like the events are being hosted by one of the popular arcades in town, too. Even so, there are prizes for first, second, and third place; the grand prize consists of a good amount of cash, a trophy, and one (1) free night at one of the hotels in Carnation Court for both people. Why not team up with someone and enter the competition, or just find some people to practice with?

(OOC: Please see our OOC section for sign up details.)

NETWORK.

So, about those phones...there's a non-zero chance that you may post your live thoughts onto the network without meaning to. Likewise, you may also unwillingly comment on someone's post with your thoughts while reading it. Yes, this phone grabs from your psyche, for better or worse! Well, mostly worse, but oh well. There isn't a fix for this "bug" just yet, but you can still use the network intentionally! Just don't be surprised if you get a bunch of notifications for a post you didn't even know you made.

COMMISSIONS

TOP MODELS

A local boutique is looking for people to model their clothing, but they plan on taking group photos instead of single shots. This will be a summer-themed photoshoot with summer outfits (not necessarily swimsuits!), and the photographer (who is cranky, sorry) plans on encouraging all kinds of interactions between their subjects for some unique photos. Participants will be able to keep the outfits they wore for the photoshoot! How nice.

CLEANUP

You've seen the questionable state of the city streets. Should you feel like doing your part by cleaning up some of the trash, you may find something valuable hidden in all the rubble. And who knows? Maybe some of the residents might actually respond kindly to your efforts... (Cleaning up can unearth things like jewelry; collector's items; small, old electronics -- just to give you an idea! Go wild.)

PVP ENABLED

Basketball, volleyball, soccer match anyone? Monopoly? Uno? Or, better yet, a sparring match with your fellow dorm mates…? Whatever you feel up for, Mina would like residents to get some friendly ("friendly") competition going in the spirit of getting to know one another.

LEAVE YOUR MARK

The arts and crafts area has a large paper canvas taped to one of the walls with a "DRAW ON ME!" post-it stuck to it. There's a lot of room to be creative with this, and yes, you will get paid for just decorating the dorms a little bit through this commission!

OOC

READ ME!!!!

• Welcome to your event log! Currently, Personas and Elements are NOT in play but you have your weapons with you regardless. These things will be unlocked when we introduce the Nekyia in Week 2.
  
• Please use the OOC PLOTTING POST for all plotting purposes. Please do not plot in Discord.
  
• If you would like to sign up for the Go-Kart Contest, please fill out the form and submit it here! There will be a follow up to this in a Week 4 mini event. :)
  
• Furthermore, we have a very big series of events we are planning to do in later weeks. We will OOCly give details and open signups early in Week 2, with the introduction of the Nekyia. Keep an eye out for that as well!
  

ic comm | inboxes | ooc comm | full nav

code

Comments

[goei]

Top Model
[Izou had only wanted to go into the boutique to see if they had any cool clothes. He either didn't read the relevant commission or forgot about it, but through some sort of miscommunication, he's been conscripted. While he's clearly confused and visibly irritated, the fact that hair trigger Izou hasn't threatened to murder any of the involved staff suggests he might secretly like this attention.

While one of the staff involved wrangles Izou into some sort of resort wear, the cranky photographer spots another victim for his vision and shouts;

"You! Get over here! I can't enact my vision with just this disheveled ruffian alone!"]

Aah!? Who you callin' disheveled??

Leave Your Mark
[While he'd seemed disinterested in the arts and crafts for most of the party, later, after a lot of people have already covered the paper with decorations, someone has scrawled in huge black characters 剣の天才岡田以蔵 (SWORD GENIUS OKADA IZOU). The culprit is obvious even if he wasn't still standing there proudly regarding his work.

This has covered up several other drawings. Maybe one of them is yours?]

Rec Room
[After people have filtered out of the party, they will surely arrive at the dorms and poke around. Anyone might find Izou in the rec room, curled up in one of the bean bags with a bottle of sake late into the night, which isn't especially odd.

What might strike some people as actively odd is the fact that he's still there the next morning, curled up half asleep. Any attempts to wake him will be met with a;]

Shaddup... Let me sleep s'more.
[Izou lives here now. This beanbag is his home. It seems (smells) like he was drinking here all night and is now grievously hung over.]

Wildcard
[Just let me know on discord if you have another idea/want something else!]

Rec Room

[cleansewithfire]

[ Sunrise had tried to wake up Izou, if only because even she can tell curling up in a beanbag to sleep doesn't seem very comfortable, but...well, the man wants to sleep. She sniffs the air, recognises the smell of alcohol, and thinks to herself that oh, he must be having one of those "hangovers" she's seen some of the others back home have before on occasion.

Never did quite get why it's called "hangover" specifically, but it's happened enough that she remembers how they dealt with it. So Sunrise disappears for a bit to head to the kitchen, and a while later she returns with a glass of water and a plate of (very plain, outright bland) crackers she found in one of the cupboards. ]

Here.

[ ...Is she holding them out to the guy with a hangover, yes she is. ]

NO SHE'S SO KIND....

[goei]

Mrmph...
[He would have shooed her away, but apparently it's not simply telling him to move or get up or some more pejorative version of that, so he actually turns his head to look at what he's being assaulted with.]

Wh-
[But he doesn't actually ask what this is for because he has been hungover so, so many times. After giving her a skeptical squint, he takes the offered water, sniffing it, taking a tentative small sip, and then after a pause, downing half of it in one go.]

'F yer tryna poison me you aughta do better'n that.
[Apparently he's too suspicious of the crackers.]

[cleansewithfire]

[ At first she wonders if maybe the crackers simply weren't to his liking, but then there's the assumption of a poisoning attempt. Sunrise looks down at the plate of crackers, and despite her expression not changing at all there's this vague air of someone thinking, "These are poison???"

(Well, she did take them out from a clean if sort of musty-smelling cupboard, but they don't seem spoiled...)

After a moment, she takes a cracker and pops it into her mouth. Whether it's to check for poison or prove a point that they aren't poisoned is a mystery. ]

[goei]

[Ah. Well. He observes her for 30 seconds just to make sure she swallows it and it doesn't immediately kill her, and only then will he take the rest of the crackers and start eating them.

Between crackers, he bothers to ask;]

Whaddya want?
[Surely this isn't an unmotivated act of kindness.]

[cleansewithfire]

[ So Izou, bad news: ]

Nothing.

[ A straightforward, blunt answer, because...yeah, she doesn't want anything in particular at the moment? Simple as that. Helping someone with their hangover is an automatic process when she's been living with someone who has an iron liver back home.]

...Is sleeping on a sack comfortable? [ She doesn't know that this is called a beanbag, so "sack" it is. ]

[goei]

[That's absurd, but he doesn't have the energy right now to question it further, especially since she asked him a question to distract him.]

Course it ain't. Not sleepin' here cause I want to.

[cleansewithfire]

You cannot stay in your room?

[ Assuming everyone here has a room, anyway. ]

[goei]

Hell no. How's a guy like me gonna share a room with some little girl?

[Trying to frame it as if he's not being chivalrous in letting her have it but rather he's too cool and masculine to hang with some GIRL!!!]

leave your mark

[skypsalms]

[ (naru voice) would kururu be able to read that kanji...

which i've decided to be "no" solely based on the fact that he wrote it over other drawings so it might have slightly distorted how it could be read. maybe. probably not given his bravado but give a girl a bone. either way, she's going to give a small applause for his work first and foremost before adding her two cents. ]

You know...there was plenty of space right next to what you wrote over.

[ she's not insulting what he wrote—not even remotely—but location. why did it have to be there? her poor little doodle covered up completely by black ink. ]

[goei]

[WHY WOULD SHE NOT BE ABLE TO READ THE KANJI??? His handwriting isnt THAT bad.]

I know that. But I wrote it over the other shit on purpose.

[It's part of the MESSAGE. Very modern art of him.]

[skypsalms]

[ HIS NAME?? SHE MIGHT NOT KNOW THE KANJI FOR HIS NAME!!! it works differently than it does in english you know but that doesn't matter as much as what she's about to do. probably.

bet he didn't see this coming from someone like her. ]

So...

[ uncaps a pink marker. ]

Does that mean I can write over your's as well?

[goei]

[OH RIGHT THATS TRUE. Well. She could read the bragging part then maybe at least.]

If you wanna die, sure.
[What a needlessly extreme escalation.]

[skypsalms]

[ probably definitely that at the very least not that it's going to change the events that are about to occur because wow! that sure did escalate and sadly i wish i could say that he would intimidate her because she's going to go right ahead and start drawing over what he wrote.

is he all bark and no bite? is she going to regret this? who knows! regardless of how fast or slow he reacts, it won't take her long to draw little sparkles around "genius". but if he takes his time to react then she'll definitely have the time to have drawn a sword that goes right through what he had written.

all in a lovely pink. ]

There!

[goei]

[Well. You know, he was fully ready to actually make good on his threat but... color choice aside, he isn't sure if he hates this. Gotta check.]

... You makin' fun of me? You think I'm some kinda joke?
[He is on the fucking edge of flipping the hell out.]

[skypsalms]

Huh? Oh no! I wouldn't.

[ she likes a joke but not like this. ]

You wrote that you were a sword genius, right? [ don't ask her for his name because i've decided she can't read his name. i'll eat a shoe later if i kind out that it's probably not that hard of a kanji to read. ] And if you were going to write over other's on purpose then I thought that I should add to your's!

It's supposed to something we worked on together but that can come across in all sorts of different ways.

[goei]

[Bad news Naru, I looked into it and the surname Okada with those kanji is the 34th most common surname in Japan, so she probably should know it. Izou I'm less sure of. Maybe she's not sure about the reading for that.

Anyway! Izou squints at her, still suspecting she's messing with him.]

... Well. You coulda picked a better color but I suppose it does look kinda cool.
[He is as we know a great judge or what is and isn't cool. (no)]

top model

[umurice]

[Hiiro had gotten dragged into this earlier, mostly because he could never say no to someone who needed help if he was able to extend it. So he had been in the middle of being checked over once more in his new summer outfit (very bright yellow, like a lemon, and for some reason with ribbons), when he hears the commotion with the photographer and Izou.

Wow, he sure has a dangerous vibe.

He tenses up for a moment, looking like he's deciding if he should be fighting him or not, but when the lady helping him reassures him it's fine, he slowly approaches, tilting his head. Hmmm...]

Are you my partner for this shoot? It's nice to meet you! I am Amagi Hiiro.

[goei]

[Dangerous vibe is right. He's already been cleaned up a little, with his wild hair somewhat more under control, but it can't do much to lessen the general way he carries himself and the look in his eyes.

Izou is distracted from yelling at the photographer when he's approached, and sizes Hiiro up a moment before;]

Okada Izou. How the hell'm I supposed ta look cool if they put me next to some pretty boy?
[He's not happy about this arrangement it seems.]

[umurice]

Ah.

[That's new. He usually isn't someone addressed as a pretty boy.]

You look very cool indeed, Okada-san. Your name itself sounds really cool too! It is a very strong-sounding name.

[This doesn't address his issue though?]

[goei]

[Why not! He's pretty and he's a boy as far as Izou can tell!!! Anyway, the praise is doing a good job at deruffling his feathers.]

... Yeah! Yeah it is, ain't it??
[Heh, heh...

The photographer has had enough, and starts barking orders;

"Alright! For this shoot, first off the scruffy guy is the beach bully and he's stealing the cuties girl! Gimme some poses to show that, yeah??"]

Looks like you better get down on the ground though, kiddo.
[Brandishing his fist, clearly unaware that this is definitely going to turn on him.]

[umurice]

Eh?

[What does that even mean? He looks a bit confused, but he does get that there is meant to be a fight?]

Should we be fighting?

[goei]

I mean if ya want me ta put you down there by natural means I can but I figure you'd rather avoid a black eye.

[He really seems gung ho to actually do punching. Meanwhile the photographer is already agitated;

"What're you standing around for!? Get in position we're wasting daylight!!"]

[umurice]

Ah, my bad! All right, then I will simply have to perform, right?

[He isn't sure what he means by stealing his girl, but he supposed he'd need to protect that person right?

So yes, he's in defensive mode already, stance changing in a defensive stance as he stares at him, trying to see any openings in his stance.]

[goei]

[Izou reels back and aims to just cold cock Hiiro because he's supposed to be the overpowering bully, right??

That said he's more a swordfighter so his punch shouldn't be that hard to see coming (10)]