rakuen | On the platform: Meet the new characters

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On the platform: Meet the new characters

As you all crowd onto the platform, which is drenched with sunlight though the air is cool you are met by four girls and three boys. One of the girls is a somewhat humanoid grey-skinned, finned alien and one of the boys seems to be a blue Hedgehog; but the rest all seem human. All seven are in uniforms that would match if not for the colour differences - skirts and trousers, waistcoats, and light summer shirts that seem totally inappropriate for the chill. Some seem irritable while others look excited. Each has a beret with a crest pinned to the front - three depicting a shield on green, the other four a sword on red.

At the first lull in the chatter, the sword crested girl who is not a troll speaks up, looking annoyed.

"Listen up!"

She explains that the eleven of them are the current prefects of Rakuen, representing the two schools on the island. Santana (she gestures to herself), Feferi, Nephenee, and Suzaku of Conquest; and Lelouch, Jade, and Sonic of Fortitude.

The introductions are over fast and Santana seems impatient, "So come over when your name is called so we can all get inside." They all move to stand in two groups some distance away from each other and begin to read names from a clipboard.

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[ He facepalms briefly. Wow. Fuck you, Rakuen. ]

Don't worry about it. It'll come back to you.

[ In the meantime, isn't the elevator fun? Elevators are fun. ]

[Pretty much.]

Righto.

[Um. Sure. If by vaguely terrifying. He latches onto it again once he feels the thing coming to a stop.]

[ if by vaguely terrifying you mean AWESOME

Once it stops and the doors open, Dirk grabs hold of the top of the box again. ] It's 2-A, so it's right across the hall.

[He's a little wobbly because wow that was disorientating. But okay, back to business. He will bend down and heft up the bottom of the box as carefully as he can.]

Onwards, then!

[ And it's not long before they reach 2-A, which is, thankfully, empty. That would have been awkward. But it's easy to predict, since Sora's in a coma, Daenerys is never around, and Dave tries to avoid Dirk.

Dirk finds a bare spot of floor -- not easy, what with Dave's music stuff and the smuppets and a bunch of other random junk all lying around, but he does find one -- and gently starts to lower his end of the box. ] Here we go. It is absolutely fucking critical that you do not let it slip.

Aye, aye, captain.

[Easy does it. He lowers his side of the box down to the floor this time without fucking up.]

[ A brief sigh of relief. It's not that he doesn't trust Jake. This is just super, super important. ]

Behind door number one...

[ He opens it up, and d'aw, isn't that sweet? It's Dirk, sleeping sound as a baby. Man, has he missed that shirt with the hat on it. No shades, but bringing them along would have defeated the purpose. ]

[The look on his face is pretty comical. He goes from just looking on in curiosity, to confusion, to shock and then abject horror all in about four seconds.]

What the fuck!?

[WHAT. WHAT WERE THEY CARRYING THIS WHOLE TIME. DIRKS BODY??? WHAT.]

Whoa, chill out. [ He puts a hand on Jake's arm. ] It's my waking self. --Oh, right, I should've mentioned, this place yanked me here from Derse. No way anyone was gonna notice me missing that way, so I ordered this to -- well. [ Jake's forgotten AR, oops. ]

[ It takes him a moment, mainly due to Jake's freaking out, but... is his other body's chest not rising and falling? He doesn't look damaged from the one time Jake let him slip... Dirk reaches out to take one of his wrists and feel for a pulse, and he suddenly goes very quiet. ]

I dropped you! Are you okay?! I-- This is so very [He shuts up a second as he watches Dirk check the body's pulse. He sort of. Deflates upon seeing Dirk's reaction.]

Oh dear.

Shit. [ And he scrambles backward once he realizes-- ] That lying bitch, god fucking dammit--

[Wow, he has never seen Dirk lose it like that before. He looks over at the body and oh man. He just. He's dead isn't he. Not that he hasn't dealt with death before h-- no. Wait. When did-- Oh fuck this.]

[He spares a glance to the box before he's over at Dirks side, hand on his shoulder.]

What happened?

I'm-- He's-- [ Pronoun, Strider. Pick a pronoun. ] It's dead.

[ He puts two fingers to the side of his neck. Definitely still got a pulse... Since he hasn't been able to shift his attention out of this body since he arrived, it's probable that the connection has been completely severed. Meaning even if his waking self died, his Derse self could keep going.

For now, anyway.

What about when they leave?

Is this even his? What if they'd taken some other universe's Dirk instead? What if he'd killed another him? ]

Shit. English, I--

[ He has never had a reason to lose it like this before. ]

[Man, this is. He has no idea how to even begin. He doesn't know a lot about consoling someone, let alone face to face but. Well. He's seen enough movies, that would help, right?]

Why on earth did you order your-- [Oh wait no, he started to answer that already. To be noticed because he was snagged off of Derse?]

If waking Dirk had gone missing one of us would have noticed eventually, was that it?

[He frowned and ...Aaaa. Tentatively reached to put his arm around Dirks shoulders entirely.]

Hey chin up. You didn't know this would happen, right?

Yeah. [ If mentioning AR just confuses Jake, then... ] One of my bots would have, and they'd've gotten in touch with you.

[ Why is Jake... Oh. That's what you do when someone turns into a hopeless wreck. Which means Dirk is a hopeless wreck right now. Shit, he needs to get it together. Not only because he is massively uncool right now, but also because having Jake's arm around his shoulders is making it hard to think for some reason. ]

I'm... cool. It might not even be mine. [ Which would make him a murderer. ] It could be from some other universe. I just. [ Deep breaths. Deep breaths, Jake is here, calm down, pretend there's not a dead body that looks exactly like you right there in that box. ]

[Nods. That makes sense.] I suppose now, my disappearance should alert someone just as effectively as you vanishing as well. [Man, but that left the girls to fend for themselves in the session. Yikes. They needed to be a full team for this didn't they?]

It's still- [That sentence didn't need to be finished.]

What will you do with it?

I don't know what I'm gonna do with it. [ For now, he pulls away from Jake and goes to shove the lid back on. Fuck, he can't look at that anymore.

And he's quiet for a moment before he gets back to the other question. ] That's the thing. Time means jack-diddling-shit here. I was here for a week before you arrived. [ So this wasn't even necessary. There was no point to it. ]

[Takes a deep breath, sort of glad to not have to see the body anymore either. He knew Dirk was okay, he was right there, but it was just. Unsettling.]

Then perhaps when everything is said and done and we leave this place, we will be brought precisely back from whence we came.

That'd be convenient. Explain the whole temporal bullshit going on.

[ what if they go back and this is his body

he'll die

fuck he's going to die

not like he thought he was immortal but

this isn't how he's supposed to die

fuck fuck fuck

Dirk keeps his face blank. ]

And leave us so we can pick up right where we left off. [He's getting back to his feet now, dusting off his shorts.]

[He stands there a bit awkwardly. Dirk's gone awfully quiet.]

So, ah.

[What to even say. Should he try to be distracting?]

Now that you've shown me the dorms, are there any other points of interest I should know about in this place?

Shit, um.

[ He gets to his feet, pointedly looking at Jake rather than that box. ]

How about I show you the way to your dorm? I've got something to post online after that, but later I can take you out on the town, too. Help you learn your way around this place.

[ Right. The best way to deal with this is to not think about it. ]

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On the platform: Meet the new characters

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