[ 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

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. ]

[knightime]

[Dave still doesn't do anything. He shifts slightly, but that's about it.

His expression hasn't changed at all. He's just waiting for Dirk until the other feels like he can get up without accidentally hitting the ground again.

It's not like Dave thinks any differently. He got hit by the penalty during class. That was pretty embarrassing. It was also jarring, considering the fact that he and Jade both also got penalized.]

[fracturedsoul]

[ He's a bit dizzy when he finally stands, but Dirk does manage it after a moment. Admittedly, all that stops him from reaching out to grab onto Dave's shoulder to steady himself is that he remembers the rule about physical contact with a Player other than one's own, and he can't take another one of those. Fuck, he kind of wishes Jake were here right now.

Once he's up, he glances over to Dave, glad his eyes are covered at the moment. ]

Hey.

[knightime]

[Dave gets to his feet, the sound of his PDA as he types into it.]

join the club
its like a fucking penalty party all up in this shit
we can bitch and moan about how it feels like shit to be on the receiving end for no reason
sup

[Dirk probably saw Dave falter and almost reach out. But he automatically stopped. It was hard to rely so much on physicality and not be able to actually act on it because of penalties and the such.]

[fracturedsoul]

[ He'd never admit it, but after that awkward encounter at the pool last Saturday Dirk's been hoping he might be able to get over the fact that he has no idea what to do when it comes to physical contact with other human beings. Too bad, so sad.

He stares blankly down at his PDA and has to turn the brightness down a couple notches before he can read Dave's message. ]

You'd think this would be a pretty effective way of keeping people in line, but anyone who'd let it go on this long's clearly a sociopath who doesn't give a single fuck if anyone else suffers.

[ Or it's America. But he hasn't met America. ]

[knightime]

or theyre a fucking moron
im probably going with moron though because we got a lot of those there

[He kept a good distance from Dirk. He didn't want to accidentally bump the other, but he didn't want to be too far either. It was really annoying. These rules.]

[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. ]

[goodboybestshot]

[Fuck. Fuck this is terrible look what its doing to Dirk. This is so wrong he couldn't even put it to words okay.]

[But Jake bit his tongue for now and just focused on trying to be comforting the best he could. He wasn't the best at this but at least he could reenact his movies and make a few guesses on what to do.

So that might be him rubbing his back or running his fingers through his hair, which ever one got the better reaction.]

[fracturedsoul]

[ They both help, if only because for some reason they make Dirk's brain go all staticky. He doesn't know how he should react to such a simple gesture and there's only pain and confusion and wow he looks like such a girly tool right now, in front of Dave too maybe and he just wants to go off and be alone and pretend none of this is happening. Oh, but he can't even do that because his other self is dead.

But he does at least breathe a bit more evenly with Jake there. Helping. "Helping". He relaxes for the most part, minus his hand gripping Jake's arm tightly enough to possibly leave a bruise. Once the five minutes are up, he lets up on that as well. ]

[goodboybestshot]

[There, was it over? Jake sort of pulled back his arms and looked at him worriedly to see if he was okay. His arm was kind of throbbing from the grip but he couldn't give fuck all more about that.]

...Dirk?

[fracturedsoul]

[ He nods dully, lifting his hand to hold up a finger as if to say Give me a minute.

Shit, that was intense. Sis's and Dave's reactions earlier suddenly seem a hell of a lot more justified.

He kind of doesn't want to move from this spot. The foggy confusion he's feeling from just sitting there with Jake feels oddly refreshing after all of that. But even through the disorientation, he knows he's got an image to uphold. So he tries to push himself up, but stumbles slightly and has to rest an arm on Jake's shoulder to keep from collapsing again. ]

[goodboybestshot]

[Gonna definitely help him stand straight and catch him if he stumbles like that again. Geez. But he has him, no worries.]

[But he is giving you such a face, right now.]

[fracturedsoul]

[ And he's up. Eyes closed behind his shades, keeping the rest of his face blank. ]

You came running all this way just for me? Shit, bro, I knew shacking up with you was a good idea. Match made in goddamn heaven right here.

[goodboybestshot]

Of course I did you great buffoon. You're my best bro, there was no way I would have left you here. [Best bro. Was that all? But no, he wasn't dredging up that right then. He had plans of talking to Dirk eventually but he would have liked to be able to consult someone else first. Argh, this city and its inconvenient timing.]

Are you alright?

[fracturedsoul]

Yeah, I'm good. [ He even manages a slight smile, just to keep Jake from worrying. ] That's some weak-ass torture. I can think of a dozen better ways to break a person right off the top of my head.

[goodboybestshot]

Let's not give them any ideas. [He gave a careful glance behind him. He wouldn't put it passed this place to have cameras everywhere.]

Come on, let's mosey on back to the dorm.

[fracturedsoul]

[ Deep breath, and he nods to Jake and starts walking. He doesn't really want to go to the library anymore anyway.

He's just way too confused for some inexplicable reason. ]

[goodboybestshot]

[Good because he is pretty sure Dirk needs to lay down.]

[Jake doesn't say much on the way back though. Its probably not long before they make it back to the dorms.]

Here we are.

[fracturedsoul]

Hallelujah. [ It's empty. Fuck yes. He loves when it's empty. He collapses into a chair -- he's pretty sure it's Dave's chair, oops, oh well.

Now that they're in private, it's okay to be a little uncool. ] Thanks, man. That shit felt like someone decided to pry my skull open with a jackhammer, cut my brain apart with a rusty kitchen knife, then staple-gun it all back together.

[goodboybestshot]

[Jake takes a seat at the end of one of the beds and just kind of watches him. He's still worried okay.]

It certainly didn't look pleasant. Is that what always happens when we run out of raks? Do we even know who it is?

[fracturedsoul]

S'only happened once before as far as I've seen, but yeah, that's what happens. And no. The prefect who announces the penalty doesn't even seem to know. Apparently it's supposed to be some kind of pity party for whoever's responsible, make them grow a pair and come forward. Last time there were only three victims.

[ He's good. He leans over, resting one elbow on a table and propping his head up in his hand. He might look a little tired, but he's otherwise fine. ]

[goodboybestshot]

Goodness gravy. [Ugh. He runs his hands through his hair for a second.]

This is absolute hogwash. Something needs to be done, who would let innocent people suffer like this?