[ video - thursday morning ] [ exaclan warning mini-event ]

[stoppedhiding]

[ He really doesn't want to do this. But if he doesn't, he knows it's not his head it will be on. There's really nothing he can do, and it will happen anyway -- all Golbez is doing is acting as a mouthpiece.

At 8AM on Thursday, the announcement happens. ]

Somebody in Rakuen has fallen below zero raks. The penalty will now commence.


[ The first victim is Sis Strider. From there, once every hour a different person will be selected for a five-minute warning penalty until America has zero or more raks. In order, the following victims include Dave Strider at 9AM, John Peixes at 10AM, Nunnally vi Britannia at 11AM, Jade Harley at noon, Dirk Strider at 1PM, Jake English at 2PM, and Bubblecup at 3PM.

As each victim is affected, they will appear on the Exaclan viewing screens and on computers connected to the network. Feel free to thread that out here, or in a new post if you would prefer.

There is no IC indication of who the culprit is unless he confesses to it himself. ]

Comments

[smupette]

[Sis falls first? Damn right she falls. But not a sound will leave her, she just drops to the ground clutching the sides of her head. Fuck this shit. Who made up warning penalties anyways?

Anyone crossing Sis will see she is in pain, but fighting to hide it.]

[fracturedsoul]

[ Dirk's already been up for hours when his PDA flashes and the announcement starts to play. He'd gone through the entire backlog of posts basically his first day there, so he already knew the punishment for going into negative raks -- who would be stupid enough to do that again?

Oh. Sis is getting penalized for whoever's idiocy. He knows she'll be fine, but it's instinct that propels him out of the dorm and down to the area by the lake where she is in the video. The penalty hasn't even ended by the time he arrives.

Maybe he just cares a little bit about these alternate-universe Striders for some reason. ]

[smupette]

[She isn't going to be moving, nope. Stop getting closer Dirk, your foot steps are really loud. She might have curled a little tighter.]

[heroiccia]

[Sis is in pain? Holy crap! His little buddy's in pain! What is he going to do!]

H-hey! What's wrong!

[smupette]

[You do know this buddy won't be pleased when she finds out you are behind the negative Raks thing. You might be cruising for a bruising.]

A penalty, for someone's stupidity.

[knightime]

[There's a crash. He kind of wish he was sitting at the time, but unfortunately he was on his way back to his seat. Dave is clutching his head and gritting his teeth. The sound of his knees hitting the floor painfully can probably be heard in the entire classroom and the sound of the chair scraping against the floor as he tries to steady himself once the pain finally subsides.

Who would think five minutes would feel that terrible for so long?]

[savedbyasong]

[Shion was out of his own seat in a moment rushing to Dave's side. He had seen the anouncement of course, and seen Sis fall over the network. But now Dave.

Dave hadn't done anything, nothing at all. Why were they punishing him? Shion wrapped his arms around him, since Dave was his Player and it wouldn't cause more pain. He couldn't think of anything else to do.]

[knightime]

[He let's out a shaky breath. Even with the actual penalty gone, the soreness lingers. And now he has to get through the rest of classes feeling like crap.

He glances at Shion before nudging him gently so he can get back to his feet properly.

Even if he was still shaking a bit.]

[greenspaces]

[ Jade's not far behind Shion, practically falling to the ground in order to try and soothe him in some way. ]

Dave!

[knightime]

[Dave is trying to sign that he's okay, but the pain makes it impossible to make out anything he's trying to do. So really, it looks like a load of gibberish or a hell lot of arm flailing. Weak arm flailing.]

1PM

[fracturedsoul]

[ Class has finally ended for the afternoon, and Dirk is heading to town to pick up some reading material at the library. Shit's hella boring when he's not fighting.

Out of curiosity, he takes his PDA out to see if that whole negative raks thing was ever resolved or, barring that, who the next victim is going to be. Huh, that's weird. The video that's popped up appears to be focused on... Shit.

In the next instant he goes down, and he's regretting having judged Sis earlier for not being able to handle it. He curls up into a ball right there on the sidewalk, one hand tugging at his hair and the other covering his mouth to keep himself from crying out. ]

[knightime]

[You might have heard the sounds of shoes scuffing the ground.

Dave is kneeling near the other. He can't help Dirk up or touch him at all. He remembers the Player and Weapon rules fairly well.

But he waits there with Dirk until the other can get up again.]

[fracturedsoul]

[ Oh god, someone else is there watching. He knows it's being shown online, but having someone there in person is infinitely worse. He chances a glance upward and-- Oh. Oh, fuck. It's Dave. He's completely lost his cool in front of Dave Strider.

Wasn't it only supposed to last five minutes? It feels like it's been going on so much longer. Just when Dirk starts to think he can't take any more, it finally lets up and he's left with a dull after-throbbing in his head and in the edges of his vision around his glasses the light is too bright. He stays there for a moment, finally putting his hands on the ground and bringing himself up to his knees.

He breathes heavily and doesn't trust himself to say anything just yet. ]

[goodboybestshot]

[Wow, this penalty thing had Jake pretty worried. Other people suffering because someone went under? That's awful and pretty low and he really didn't like it. He had half a mind to go to that mayor lady and protest. If he thought it would do any good of course. In all his movies, things like this were always at the hand of the tyrant in charge and no matter how nice she was, she was obviously evil.

The Dead Dirk incident was a good enough indication of that, at least.]


[When the monitor suddenly showed Dirk on screen and zoomed in on him when he dropped to the ground, Jake was up and out of his chair so fast that the thing went flying across the room. Luckily he could figure where he was by what was around him. Which was good because he was still pretty new to this city place.]

[That might be loud thunderous running footsteps coming your way, Dirk. Wouldn't be hard to guess who. Jake only hesitates about a second before he's pulling Dirk to him. Fuck his awkwardness with contact this is a really shitty situation and any one of his friends hurting is a big FUCK NO.]

[fracturedsoul]

[ oh god someone is grabbing him and-- he glances up and it's Jake. Okay. That's okay. This is humiliating, but he doesn't really care right now. His head is splitting and it apparently hurts so bad it's rending spacetime asunder, so he's okay with this right now.

He clenches his teeth and hesitates only a moment before clutching onto Jake's arm with one hand. Damn it. In the antiquated vernacular of a particularly ignorant era, this is so fucking gay. ]

Noon

[greenspaces]

[ Unlike the others, when it happens, she screams. And in the middle of the cafeteria, it's not likely that anyone in Fortitude is going to miss it.

It's like all her worst nightmares -- pain, black at the edge of her vision, just like dying she thinks, but worse because at least when she disappeared it didn't take long. The plate she was holding in her hands falls to the ground with a crash as she attempts to curl into a ball to wait it out. Tears leak down her face as she screams, something incoherent because she can't make real words right now.

Somewhere, about three minutes in, she falls to the ground, unable to stand. ]

[knightime]

[That's the sound of a tray either being knocked over or dropped.

Dave is already rushing to her side and she probably feels Dave's arms wrap around her gently, pulling her close. He doesn't seem to mind that they're on the floor, but just keeps her close, waiting for it to finally end before he tries doing anything else.]

[greenspaces]

[ It feels like forever but really, it's only a few more minutes until the pain subsides, leaving Jade with a throbbing in her head and sniffling, attempting to stop the small train of tears. She didn't even notice that it was Dave that pulled her close until the pain went away and she opened her eyes. They were sitting in a pile of peas, but he didn't even seem to care.

Words still aren't working, so she makes some sort of apologetic mumble half-sniffle and wipes her cheeks. She doesn't actually like crying. ]

2 pm | In his dorm but obvs still open to anyone

[goodboybestshot]

[He probably should have expected it to hit him eventually if it was hitting everyone else, if it already got Dirk. That didn't mean he was prepared for it. Imaginative and graphic descriptions didn't really hold a candle to what it felt like, and he was the one to arrive here with hair caked with blood and a concussion.

Jake was still in the dorm with Dirk when it slammed into him. Unlike Dirk who tried to keep it contained, Jake all but screamed as he doubled over, hands clawing at his hair.]

[fracturedsoul]

[ Fucking hell.

Dirk should've expected it to hit Jake, it sure seemed to be gunning for people from their little incestuous multiverse cluster. As soon as Jake doubles over, Dirk is standing in front of him, crouching slightly, hands on his shoulders. Shit. What does he do? He's got no goddamn idea. ]

[goodboybestshot]

[After that initial shout, he does try to contain himself, bitting down hard on his lip to keep himself quiet. He probably just scared the holy shit out of Dirk just then, great.]

[Its basically the worst five minutes of his life, and even with how hard he's biting down he still sounds pretty bad.

[forthward]

[on the way to class when the chair abruply stops and Nunnally suddenly lets out a pained scream, slumping forward in her seat and sliding out of the chair onto the ground, hands cluthing her head in a try to get rid of the pain, but failing.

she tries but can't stop the tears trickling down her face]

[swordofzero]

[Suzaku recognised that scream. He pushed through the small group of students heading for class until he was at her side. He tried to pick her up, he knew what was happening, he had been there when the orders had been given to Golbez.

Little had he guessed that it would hit Nunnally. He held her, not trying to lift her up yet, until the pain disappeared.]

10am - wow late

[kingdomsgambit]

[ There's nothing like walking over to your next class and doubling over in complete pain, hands pressed tightly against your forehead and trying so hard to keep some basic dignity as you try not to scream in pain ]

[theillbeatknight]

[David was in the hall for the same reason; seeing the king double over in apparent pain he runs over, falling to his knees in front of John.

He reaches up and places his hands gingerly against the sides of John's head, his thumbs overlapping with John's hands.]

John. Answer me.