tornheart | APPLE ORCHARDS AND TORN DREAMS [OPEN]

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APPLE ORCHARDS AND TORN DREAMS [OPEN]

Who: Open Log (All)
Where: Around the city (one prompt at the Green Valley school
Summary: Welcome Ceremonies, Dreams, Stirring a shadow hornet's nest. No big deal.
Warnings: N/A

"Are you ready my black lambs? Let's get to work..."

Apple Picking (General Prompt)

As September begins, the apple orchards of Greenfield Valley school are bursting with thousands of apples of various flavors and colors. There's even an experimental breed that's blue!

Those who have been attending the school know that this means a few important things. The first (and most important of course) is that it means that fall vacation is coming in just a few weeks (despite school having started just a few weeks ago), the second is that the school's menu is going to have a high number of apple-themed dishes until winter, and finally, the opening ceremonies.

The opening ceremonies are - well - one would consider them mostly boring for typical schools. And truth be told, Green Valley is not an exception. A single camera posed at the school's main gymnasium, a large podium in the center. For those who can't be physically there, the school's televisions all synchronized to a live broadcast as does the audio feeds. You can't quite escape it. Yet most people don't - after all it's one of the rare times of the year where the principal appears to wish students good fortune.

The person who stands in the front, Ms Michelle Andersen, is the very definition of an ice queen. Her face is perhaps locked forever into an emotionless stare. Bright blonde hair with blue eyes, both contract to her orange and black outfit.

Behind her, three men, the vice principals, who tend to play the good cops to her bad cop routine and insist that most students call them by their first names unless something really bad has happened; Norman (the most average man on campus that no one would know who he was if it wasn't for his name tag), Jeremy (the tallest staff member standing at over 195cm, thin, a bit of a lisp but he always means well), and Felix (possibly the hairiest man on campus as far as the rumors go, muscular, and a black beard that matches his scowling face when he isn't laughing - which is usually all the time. In fact, he's holding back himself from doing so when Ms. Andersen speaks.)

The presentation is short, as the Principal wishes all the students a great year, gives a bit of data on the number of students (they are up 300 new students from last year), the number of important guests that have passed, then as quickly as she was there, she leaves, explaining that there are additional meetings and events she will explain in greatest detail in the upcoming months.

Afterwards the students are treated to the vice principals singing a welcome song (it goes as well as one would expect it to go), telling the students that they are free to pick as many apples as they want as long as they all get eaten, but everyone is limited to two of the new apples and report to the hospital wards if any of them feel anything unusual after eating them. Just in case.

When the ceremonies are done, students and staff can return to their day...although some of the staff can be heard commenting that the Principal seemed even more...cold this year. Of course asking them for details would just cause them to shoo anyone away and pretend they didn't say anything.

[OOC: Players are welcome to speak to themselves or go have some apples. It's a general school mingling prompt! Additionally, it will be possible to email the vice principals during that week should the characters want to talk with them or ask school questions. Typical school stuff.]

Sound the Rebellion

(Special Prompt for the Unawakened, Monday the 4th)
The school's opening ceremonies aside, the Unawakened’s Monday was rather...strange. The night was plagued with restlessness as they heard the voice of someone laughing. Waking up feeling 'odd', although that differed between all of then - some would feel sick, others have a headache, or some just deciding that wearing a piece of clothing they haven't wanted to worn would look great right now. Perhaps they got a few comments from their relatives about how strange they were acting that day, or a worried glance if they felt sick. It might get dismissed with a wave of a hand.

After all, how can you explain that when they sometimes look upwards, they hear the sound of a child laughing and briefly see a symbol above their heads? Or that this somehow feels...fine?

Maybe in their new state of mind, they might not even notice the people that keep following them around...

Better than a GPS

(Awakened prompt, Monday 4th, day and night.)
"Alright Lambs, time to get to work."

Luci's voice echoed in their phone, laughing. Was he doing a peace sign?

"There's only a few but they'll be useful. I want you to find them and see what you can do. Who knows! Maybe you might be better at this than me, although I doubt it heh heh heh…Now remember what I said! You have to get them to fall asleep...but there's no real rules for that!"

For the Awakened, the symbols above the Unawakeneds’ heads will be as clear as day - Luci will even go so far as play little musical tunes when the characters are close by or distract them using electronics. "Come on! Stop wasting time and do something!"

For the Unawakened who have a relative, it will be somewhat easy. It is the others that will be a pain. Maybe that's why Luci asked for help. Or maybe he just wanted to see his 'lambs' struggle. "Get them to bed! It's not that hard! If you have trouble, just show them the program I've put into your phone and toaster! Or knock them with your toaster first if you want, I don't care! Just go in teams when you go after them, got it?"

It's obvious that 'sleeping' as far as Luci is concerned, is when someone is unconscious - he seems to almost want someone to knock an Unawakened out and then drag him into a room and let themselves go to sleep.

Once the task is done, and the place is secure, the characters will have to do the same. While the hypnotic wheel from the program is the easiest way, there's no hard rule about knocking oneself out either.

MINDJACK
Once the characters get inside, they'll be in the person's mind and dreams. Eddan's memories are predominant, and the unawakened will be standing there wandering around. It will be up to the Awakened to peel back the fabric of reality, much like curtains and show them the true memories of their past...

But beware. Shadows lurk here, and transforming will be necessarily. And if a character dies in someone else's dream...they might never wake up. So be careful...

The main mission is to showcase the person a few memories. Give them an idea that something might be amiss...it can be a little or a lot. Just be careful that the more memories, the stronger the shadows become... When both are done and awaken, ten minutes will have passed. Perhaps it will be time for question afterwards.

[OOC:The Unawakened characters need to be isolated for the program to run, and so do the players, so half the 'fun' will be setting up the traps so that the characters will be alone.

Awakened might decide to have someone stand on guard while the others go to sleep with the Unawakened, or just all stupidly go together, or find an area where they won't be disturbed - everything is up to you.

The dreamscape can be anything the Unawakened desires! It could be good memories of their time in Eddan or bad memories, a mixture of both, or just silly dreams. Whatever it is, the Awakened will need to 'peel' those memories away - for example showing them that their mother was someone else in their other life, or even directing the person to a mirror so that they can see their true selves. But for each memory - both good or bad, shadows will start to attack both the Unawakened and Awakened. Be careful and let the mods know if a mission goes REALLY bad.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[rich only children with attitudes, that's who. he'd had his reasons for waiting as long as he had to run, none of which he reveals even in his inebriated state. might need to save those for a future factoid.

pulling apart the next challenge was far more interesting, anyway. he takes a surprising length of time before responding, seemingly giving it a serious amount of thought. eventually, however, he shakes his head.]

Nah. You're afraid that you don't want to change.

[Kit's confirmation this time was a solemn nod of his head. He hadn't expected Vincent to pick up on that fact so effortlessly, but after spending so much time together, perhaps it was only natural.]

I keep trying. And I keep falling back into old habits.

[He forced a smile and took the first deep swallow of beer he'd had for a while.]

But the kind of person I used to be...

[He shook his head and, with a wave of his free hand, dismissed that train of thought.]

Anyway, it's your go.

[in his buzzed state, Vincent hadn't even realized that the question he'd answered was meant to be challenging. his companion was someone who excelled at adaptation - change was nothing new for him. it could only be the fear of his own flagging motivation that would trouble him so much.]

Stop half-assing it, then.

[even though the advice was simple, he knew how difficult that could be. but it was the only way to smash through the thick walls of one's own psyche to become what you actually wanted from yourself. no success without heartache.]

You know who I am.

[it's sort of an oblique statement, but in his addled state he doesn't so much as doubt that Kit will figure out he's referring to his name.]

[Kit laughed softly, but the sound was wanting for genuine mirth. For the time being, no further comment was made about change. He decided that he would let that be the next thing he shared. Right after he figured out how to respond to Vincent's new question.

Was the other boy subtly indicating that he knew that Kit knew his name? Was this a test? Or did he genuinely think that he'd managed to keep his identity a secret from him all this time?

Already this game was getting more complicated than he anticipated, but there was no backing out now.]

How can I?

[Kit shook his head. He'd been careful. He'd told no one.]

You never told me your name...and I never asked.

I know.

[just the thought of his own caginess makes Vincent laugh, the sort of smug pleasure that a small child receives from being intentionally difficult. he'd done it at first out of wariness, but with the way their relationship progressed it was now simply to hassle his companion some more. knowledge was incredibly powerful between the two of them.]

But I've got a dead one, too. [he cants his head in Kit's direction.] It's Yuki.

[no one had used that name since moving to Eddan but his parents. for all intents and purposes it was dead - both to him and to the rest of the world. there was no harm in sharing that.]

[Yuki...]

I never would have guessed.

[Truth be told, the more Kit thought about it, the more he felt that Vincent's dead name didn't seem to suit him at all. He wondered as he took a deep swallow of beer, was it his parents or him that chose the American name? Had that been how Vincent had disappeared and was it the reason they thought he was dead? With a new name he would be harder to find. Especially if he steered clear of schools or other places that might demand legal documents from him.]

I'm not a good person.

That's the point.

[to this game and to burying his life with a family and in Japan. his parents had wanted reason but they'd gotten snow. he wonders idly if it was even a surprise to them when he'd run off, with the way he'd been his entire life. even his name had been a fight.]

Of course you're not. But that's not much of a secret; nobody is.

[he punctuates this matter-of-fact statement with another swig of beer, already halfway through the fourth one. it was getting harder and harder to focus on speaking clearly, but he was determined to see this through to the end.]

There are good people in the world.

[His foster family was one such example. Unlike so many of the other families he'd been a part of in the past, his adoptive parents were genuine and kind. They had no reason to trust him. Quite the opposite, really. But they nevertheless put their faith in him and gave him room to breathe. They weren't overbearing. They weren't disrespectful or discriminatory. They looked at his past and had told him in no uncertain terms that it did not define him.

They deserved better than someone like him. Someone who wasn't even human. Who had even killed...

What would they think if they knew?

Kit went to take another drink but stopped, remembering to pace himself. Especially now, with such heavy thoughts dancing through his mind.]

There are monsters, too. I'm one of them. The things I've done...I want to change. I want to be better. But I don't know if I can. I don't know if I deserve that chance. And because I don't know if I deserve it, I'm afraid sometimes I really don't want it as much as I think I do...

There's no such thing as good people. Just cowards.

[people who were too afraid of being ostracized or the darkness in their own souls to act according to their nature. it wasn't goodness, it was self-serving and spineless. to title it otherwise was celebrating falsehoods.

it was a bleak way to look at things, but it was also very freeing. with no one any better or worse than the rest of their brethren, there was no point in concerning yourself with morality. just do whatever you felt was right.]

Don't be so damn overdramatic. You're an asshole but you're no child molester or serial killer. Stop being so damned concerned with abstract bullshit and just take the change.

[Take the change?

...that was what he'd intended to do all along, wasn't it? Ever since he'd discovered that there was more to him than this life and the memories that had been forced on him. He wanted to take back his real self, to become the youko called Kurama. But that was part of the problem.

After what he'd seen in those visions and his dream, he knew he was an awful person in that life, too.

Expectantly, Vincent didn't understand any of that, and Kit wasn't about to explain. It was his problem and something he would sort out on his own, without anyone's help or interference.

So instead, with a blank look and frosty tone, Kit redirected their conversation.]

It's your turn.

[...heh. he couldn't know the entirety of Kit's thoughts, of course, but they wouldn't have altered much if he had. 'Hiei' had been a hideous person as well, from the moment of his wretched birth, but that meant nothing. the past was unalterable. all that mattered was the future.

but he doesn't expect Kit to understand any of that.]

Of course it is.

[hmm, what now, what now...]

...I'm probably going to die before I hit twenty-five.

[That was something of a trick question. Kit didn't know who Vincent was on AppleNET, but he was undoubtedly one of the Unawakened. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, that meant that the person he was now, like the person Kit was now, would 'die' when their true self was fully realized.

It didn't seem likely that Vincent was referring to the app, however. And that left only three other options if the statement was true.

Either Vincent was sick, he planned to commit suicide, or he was convinced his lifestyle would do him in...]

I believe that's incorrect. You appear to have a great fascination with death, but your fascination with challenging the world is far greater.

[He paused to take a sip of beer and blinked at Vincent as he lowered the can.]

Clinical death is a possibility, however. You're reckless.

[he nods, the gesture dipping him into another swig of liquor before answering more concretely.]

Mm. Think it's gonna be closer to twenty.

[while he made no apologies for the way he lived his life, Vincent wasn't blind. he knew that he was antagonistic and careless, completely unable to take heed of his own well-being in his blind rush to attack every piece of the world. between that and the company he kept...he knew he was in a spiral. the only question was how much he could accomplish before he hit the bottom.]

I suppose time will tell.

[Though certainly Kit was convinced the other boy would live much longer. For one, he was far too resilient to keel over, and for another, he considered anything else to be cowardly surrender. It wasn't his style to give up and die, and he certainly wasn't the type to do so on anyone's terms but his own.

Even if all Kit knew about Vincent had been what he'd learned at the Leviathan Habitat, he would still believe Vincent's will to live was indomitable.]

I started my own gang when I was fourteen.

[Vincent, it seems, was less certain despite his typical bravado. or, more exactly, he wasn't certain that one day he wouldn't destroy himself just to spite someone else. he was as petty as he was determined to survive, after all.

but that's a question for the future, as Kit had said. instead he turns his mind towards the fact at hand, swirling his beer around thoughtfully.]

Fourteen sounds a little old for you. But I'll still go with true, I guess.

You should learn to trust your instincts.

[Polishing off his fourth beer, Kit sat a moment in silence and waited for the lightness of his head to fade away. When it finally did, he was careful not to announce Vincent's incorrect answer with a shake of his head, but rather a softly spoken amendment...]

I was thirteen, although I had already begun amassing a following before then.

Just trying to give you the benefit of the doubt.

[or as much as one can when their comments are are sardonic as Vincent's. seeing his companion finish his fourth before him, he proceeded to chug the remainder of his can. he doesn't wait until the fresh wave of intoxication to ebb away before he continues speaking, shameless.]

Might want to phrase it differently next time, though. It makes you sound like a beauty queen.

It does, doesn't it.

[Kit chuckled, glad for the introduction of a little humor into their conversation again. Things had been rather heavy a few moments ago, but the lightness of Vincent's observation allowed Kit to feel less burdened by his meager intoxication and to be able to enjoy it instead. Though, after finishing his last beverage as quickly as he had, he had to remember going forward to be more careful.]

I think that might be the nicest thing anyone has ever called me.

Don't let it go to your head. It's only because you condition.

[he points an idle finger over at Kit as he leans forward to capture his fifth can of poor decisions. even as buzzed as he was getting, there was no way that Vincent would ever allow anything he said to be construed as a compliment. that just wasn't allowed.]

[Was he referring to his hair?

Kit didn't have the strength to restrain his amusement as it erupted from him, shoulders shaking even though his hand fought valiantly to stifle the sound.]

That's...you can't be...

[He could barely breathe through his own dulcet laughter, nearly doubling over on the sofa.]

What?

[Vincent casts a sharp glance over at his hysterical partner, eyebrows furrowing deep enough to find gold. he had no idea why there was any cause for laughter, but he never cared to amuse others at his own expense.]

[After a few more moments of uncontrolled chuckling, Kit finally sat back up and combed one of his bandaged hands back through his hair. When he withdrew it again, it was with a bobby pin whose ends had been filed to better work as a lock pick. In the event he was ever without his actual set of tools, it seemed.]

I take good care of my hair, but it's certainly not pageant material. Especially not when it's used to hide things like this.

[Or the majority of the seeds he'd used to grow his living wall or produce half (if not all) the plants in his apartment.]

[well, son of a bitch.

if he was a bit more sober then Vincent would easily be able to control his impulses and simply give the magic act a properly snippy rejoinder before prodding around for further details. unfortunately, such a thing isn't currently possible.

so instead he acts on his first instinct and, after making a thoughtful noise in the back of his throat, reaches out to grab Kit by one of his hair tassles and pull him closer to inspect the rest of his scalp safe.]

[A small sound of discomfort was the only indication Kit wasn't completely alright with being tugged around by his hair, but after a moment, the subtle cringe was replaced again with a smile. He couldn't help his amusement at Vincent's obvious surprise, and he remained relatively still so the other teen could investigate his hair.

There wasn't much in it now, of course. Just a few more pins like the first, and one which seemed a little more like an antique, custom designed with a small container or locket at one end. Inside was a powder substance. Homemade of course.]

Is it really so alarming? I was sent to juvenile detention for theft...moving things is sort of a specialty.

They check hair in a juvenile facility.

[he murmurs his response as a sort of afterthought, completely absorbed in his current makeshift quest. one hand is draped over Kit's shoulder to stabilize him while he engaged in his hand, the other deftly searching through crimson locks for the hidden prizes.

even with the amount of liquor floating through his body, his fingers are gentle and his gaze surprisingly sharp. each pin is systematically discovered and removed, placed in a wavering long on the coffee table. once he's satisfied himself that there's no further secrets to pull from the hair at the moment he leans back slightly, reaching over to inspect the most intriguing of the spoils.

was it drugs or poison? he was curious. a little taste ought to be able to tell him, even like this.]

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