persona_uni | (no subject)

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(no subject)

a. A day in the life

Welcome to yet another day at Vanderhall University. The sun is up, the trees are green, and it’s a little cold but not all that bad. Go to class, or don’t! It’s your day, to do as you want on this perfectly normal college campus that has nothing wrong with it. Clearly.

b. When the clock strikes twelve...

It’s college. Almost no one is in bed by 10, 11, or even midnight. Currently it’s 11:59, and many students (and non-students) are out and about. Some are at the library, working on late night projects or cramming for a test (or several). Some are probably a little, or more than a little, drunk, wandering around with friends or alone. A few might be in their dorms, watching Netflix or just trolling the internet.

But then the clock strikes midnight...

...and suddenly, everything changes.

That computer you were working on, or that phone midtext? Shuts off. It looks like it’s died, but looking around... no technology around is working. Worse, any people you were talking to, or who were even nearby, are now replaced by coffins according to their height. The moon hangs pale and large in the sky, and the entire world is cast in an eerie green light.

Anyone who’s left awake will have maybe a few minutes to take in their surroundings and panic as a result before something else appears. No matter where they are, they will attract creatures like nothing they will have seen before. Even though they’re completely foreign, anyone with a work sense of self-preservation will have their instincts screaming one thing at them.

Run.

[ooc: The game is open! Please feel free to make a top level for one or both prompts; tag around and have fun!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Naoto's actually not entirely sure herself why that's a better question than 'when'- the theory was the Dark Hour around Iwatodai had been due to the incident that occurred there. But this was so sudden... what had changed here? "I've never seen the true thing before now," she says, a bit carefully, "But I have witnessed a facsimile of it in my hometown."

“A facsimile?” That all sounds like a little much to Alec, like this is all. “What, are they in the habit of playing dress-up and creepy mood music?” Because why else would there be a facsimile? If this is the ‘true thing’, and it’s impossible enough to understand, then how much less sense does it make to have not a true thing? “Or like training?”

Naoto pauses, trying to think of the best explanation. While most of the questions about Minazuki and everything surrounding him had been answered, she can't say she knows definitively why that pseudo-dark hour appeared. "No," she says carefully, "It was more of a... call back, I suppose." To remind the Shadow Operatives of what had come before, what had led to that incident.

“Huh?” It does occur to Alec that this probably isn’t the best time for this conversation. Whatever Naoto’s past experience, Alec doesn’t have any, and the other boy at least has an idea of what he’s doing. What’s the worst that can happen — Alec can be gruesomely and painfully murdered? That might happen without Naoto’s help. “Should we head inside?”

Naoto is rather glad he dropped that- this isn't the time to explain, and she doesn't really want to in general. Not without knowing what of this he'll remember. "We could, but they'll still follow," she says, sighing, "Right now what we want to focus on is not getting cornered."

"Great." His voice is already dipping heavily back into sarcasm, but that shouldn't be surprising. "So we just stand here." And make casual chit-chat. Clearly.

"No," Naoto corrected, looking back at him. (She is not going to sit around and chit-chat with Alec, of all people.) "We go and see if anyone else needs help?"

He frowned at Naoto. No, chit-chatting is definitely more useful than helping other people. And he really shouldn't have phrased that as a question if he wanted any chance of cooperation from Alec. "I think I'll have a cigarette." And yes, that is what he's pulling from his pocket, along with a light.

~~it wasn't supposed to be a question Bookie just typoed whoops.~~

Naoto is not taking that. She doesn't care for cigarettes, but she at least won't pluck the thing from his hand so long as he follows. "You can walk and smoke at the same time," she says dryly, starting off.

"Ah, but which direction?" And that is a question, even if it is one that Alec os planning on answering himself, or at least leaving implied. "Having you done enough bad deeds already today, saving me?"

Naoto sighs, walking back to Alec and giving him a look. Well aware that she is not tall enough for this to not look ridiculous, she reaches up and grabs the back of his collar, pulling him along. "Come on, Alec."

He reacts like a cat, not in the going limp and compliant, but in wriggling and hissing. "You're being ridiculous. If there are others to save you're better off without me."

Naoto does not think she is the one being ridiculous here. She is not dignifying it with a response, continuing to pull him along. She's not very big, but she has a feeling that even for her lack of strength she has more practice than Alec.

Her lack of response just irritates him all the more. "Surely people who need rescuing are in the path of these things, and you're therefore bringing me into danger."

"And here I thought that was what you wanted," Naoto responds dryly, "It's safer if we stick together. Are you going to stop arguing, or shall I drag you the entire hour?"

"An hour of this?" He's moving with her now, at least, but he's not going to stop talking. "Why that interval?" And what happens after?

"I'm not sure why it is an hour, but that's how long it lasts." As long as he moves, she doesn't care as much about the talking. Until he starts being a pain. "Everything will go back to normal at the end."

"Unless we die? Or even if we do?" These are very important questions. There is absolutely no point in dying if he's just going to be brought back to life.

Naoto pauses, having to think of a way to explain that. "You won't go back to normal if you die," she opts for saying, "But not everyone dies in the... traditional sense." The Lost definitely come to mind, even if she never saw examples herself.

"You've gone back to not making sense." As though this is her fault rather than the situation's, but for all Alec knows it very well may be.

Naoto sighs. "I'm aware. If you remember all of this, I'll see if I can come up with a better explanation later."

"If I remember this." He's stopping in his tracks, again, voice getting louder. "What do you mean by that?"

Naoto looks back at him, expression deadpan. "Exactly what I said. Some people don't remember the effects of the Dark Hour. We'll find out which you are when it ends."

"Then you have to tell me. If I don't remember. I can't not remember." This is his life and his mind that they're talking about.

Naoto... understands that. She really does. She would hate that knowledge herself, that she was forgetting something as big as this. "I... can try," she says, sighing, "But I have a feeling if you chose not to believe, you would make it very difficult." Don't lie, Alec.