WEEK 0

[whimsicalism]

Week Zero

Despite everything that made yesterday feel like a particularly spectacular dream, everyone will wake up today back in their dorm rooms and their academy pajamas (providing they changed before bed). The artificial light is still bright and happy, but the reality of the school year is truly beginning to set in. This is the true first day of classes.

This week, the ground floor of the Academy is open to explore. All of the rooms that were inaccessible on Monday are open for the rest of the week, though students will still be kept firmly on the ground floor while remodeling continues on the upper levels.

Classes are also in session, with a basic schedule advertised on the board outside the cafeteria. In addition to basic academic subjects, the courses offered have a slight bent towards soft skills: home economics, etiquette, and public conduct are peppered in with math and science. The textbooks available for classes are handed out at the beginning of every sheep-taught lesson, and they encompass several levels of learning on the same subject to account for the different levels of students in attendance, as if someone created a series of textbooks in the nature of this video series. Strangely enough, there usually seems to be one fewer book than there are students, as if someone wasn't accounted for when books were ordered. The Lady Prefect can often be found in attendance at these classes, though she tends to disappear right after each session for her office hours. All in all, she's a distracted, even daydreamy student, and she may occasionally ask for someone else's notes. But she's quick to take roll and remind others of deadlines.

Regardless, classes only last a few hours a day, and students are otherwise encouraged to pursue their own extracurriculars and self-improvement, including via gym and music room activities. There's time to eat and train on your own schedule...or maybe you want to try making a dent in the large collection of Zoobooks in the reception area, feeding the strange vending machine in the school store some of your red coins, or convincing a Little Brother robot to tell you what really happened when one of them started getting mouthy yesterday at orientation.

Two future dates linger on the horizon, both fresh from the discussions on Monday: The Little Brother that was behaving so strangely promised a game of hide-and-seek on Wednesday, and the first main school event, the spelling bee and dance, is slated to take place on Saturday.

How will you prepare?

Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday

OOC Notes

Welcome to Week 0 proper! Events will unlock on the relevant day. Effective immediately, students are able to explore the week's locations for some more information about the school. If you'd like mod input on an investigation, please tag in the mods by writing (INVESTIGATION) in the subject line of your comment. If you'd like to speak with a Little Brother, please put (SHEEP) in your comment header. They're pretty wary of talking to students in secluded places, unfortunately, so while you can talk to them one-on-one, they don't offer a private contact post of their own.

The Prefect, however, will be available for her office hours. Nanami herself can be contacted in private via screened threads there. Given the general off-the-rails beginning of the semester, she is a bit distracted this week, but there's never any harm in reaching out!

Don't forget your regains!

Comments

top level/INVESTIGATION

[bellabellabella]

[He had come here by waking up, and so Edward, for the first time in almost a century, had decided the night before that he may as well try to sleep, just to see if anything changed. He did not feel any more tired than usual, and it felt awkward and unfamiliar to put on the pajamas, but he was determined to do this right.

He did not sleep. He did not feel tired. He stayed in bed all night, and felt ridiculous. Eventually he spent the time remembering, attempting to envision every detail of Bella as he had seen her last, Bella, who had been going to bed, who would have been curled under her blankets with damp hair framing her face, perfect and ever changing. How much would have changed by now? The pain of the thought was like swallowing hot coals and feeling them burn, and it only felt appropriate.

He does not wake in the morning, but does stand up and dresses in his second uniform after showering, adding the pajamas to the first uniform in the basket in the corner. After, and until class, he wanders the halls, exploring the school. Early risers may run into him. He completely skips breakfast.

He had almost been curious about what the classes in what may or may not be hell would be like, but if this was hell, it had been a mistake to expect any end to the tedium that normal school presented. A place of punishment would hardly be offering anything that might make passing the time even slightly more pleasant. However, after suffering through a morning of math and science, he found that things could get worse. The form this took was Home Economics, where apparently he was expected to learn to cook. And, presumably, eat what had been created.

Well, he supposed he could follow the recipe, and perhaps he could simply avoid sampling the results by claiming he was allergic. Still, his apparent mood had shifted from 'bored' to almost depressed as this class released.

Later in the day, after some careful experimentation around windows and studying the environment outside, Edward left the school building entirely and began to explore the playground.

He does not spend a whole lot of time around or in playgrounds, but is there anything obviously strange in this one? It does seem bizarrely new, and so his first order of business is to check if everything here seems equally new, and if there's any indication as to how new it is, such as any fresh scents of asphalt or mason work.]

[whimsicalism]

[The area doesn't look new. There's no fresh scents or recently dried cement. Yet, compared to the classroom or cafeteria this area looks relatively unused. There's no fresh sheen but the equipment doesn't have the tell-tale wear that most playgrounds have. There's no creak yet to the bars, no cracks in the asphalt.]

[bellabellabella]

[So the area does not seem new so much as preserved! Weird. Is the equipment in the sheds in the same state of disuse?]

[whimsicalism]

[That would be correct! Though, since a lot of your fellow students have been through the playground the equipment seems to have been used.]

[bellabellabella]

[Signs of use all very recent, check. Is there anything around here that doesn't seem like it was just locked away and never touched until recently?]

[whimsicalism]

[There is something that looks used, actually. The door to the shed. The handles are clean but there's a slight creak to the door.]

[bellabellabella]

[... h u h.

Does it seem like the equipment has been in more or less the same place for a while? Are there any dust or dirt patterns or something else on the floor? Are there any traces of something that was there but is no longer?]

[whimsicalism]

[Unfortunately for Edward, it does look rearranged fairly recently but that probably makes sense due to the activity around the first floor today. Combined with that, this area is clear.]

[bellabellabella]

[Well, after a while spent fruitlessly poking around the interior of the shed and bitterly regretting whatever it was that had led to his senses being so dulled, Edward files what he learned away and exits, walking to the fence and leaning against it before becoming almost unnaturally still as he tries to figure out wtf is going on.]

Home Economics

[canreallymove]

[Oh hey, he's awake enough to see that Edward is claiming allergies.]

Man, that sounds like a bummer! You're allergic?

[bellabellabella]

[you know what at this point he has seen enough here that a large blue anthropomorphic hedgehog speaking to him doesn't even seem weird.]

Nothing that will kill me, but it may make all of this rather unpleasant. Hopefully they'll let me get out of it.

[canreallymove]

Knowing this place they're be all "No! Incorrect etiquette! You don't serve without TASTING!"

[Is he imitating the prefect with a high-pitched screechy voice? Yes. And it's accompanied with an eyeroll.]

What are you makin', anyways?

[bellabellabella]

Pancakes. Ostensibly.

[He seems to have gotten something in the temperature wrong, or perhaps just the balance of ingredients. He had followed the recipe as it had been handed out, but was wondering what he had managed to get wrong. The batter was not so much browning as blackening, and he suspected something seemed off with the texture, but honestly who knew]

[canreallymove]

-Woah! You got the temperature way past high!

[Mind if he turns that down? Also, while he's at it.]

Uh, how'd you mix the batter, man? Did you, like, mix everything and just dump it in right after?

[bellabellabella]

I added things in the order they were listed. It seemed the most reasonable way to handle things.

[The recipe had seemed a little bare bones in terms of actual directions, however, but how exactly is one to know that the flour should not have been dumped into the buttermilk? If that is the issue. He certainly doesn't know.]

[canreallymove]

Yeah, that's fine and all, but those dumb directions make you overmix the batter! Like, you shouldn't worry if there's, like, some small lumps of flour still visible and stuff in the mix after like twenty seconds. If you mix it too much it'll taste gross like rubber.

[Goes to flip the pancake, frowning.]

Yeah, and putting it on too high a heat'll just blacken the outside while the inside tastes like the batter 'cuz it's raw and stuff.

[bellabellabella]

[This had not seemed like it would be this complicated. Edward managed to say that he doubted he would notice a difference, either in texture or flavor--the only thing this would ever be was universally unpleasant, at least from his perspective. But perhaps he should learn. Maybe.... if Bella knew what he was, and yet didn't mind, maybe he could try to cook her sometime. At some point. Eventually. It was probably grossly overstepping to even think she would consider allowing it, but that had been his pattern so far.

So he sighed instead, the sound quiet but heartfelt.]

It's not something I've had to consider before.

[keyringwitness]

[Some time after Edward is done investigating the shed, he might notice an odd... presence. Like being watched. It isn't anything like what Dewey experienced when he tried to hop the fence though, it's much more benign. Curious, almost.

...there's also a hint of movement accompanied by a creak as someone else peeks out of the shed from where she had apparently followed in his footsteps in investigating, betraying her presence. Damn, can that girl hide. Yasu squeaks when she realizes she's blown her cover and quickly darts back inside.

Does Edward dare pursue? Especially as it dawns on him that he felt a similar strange presence for a few brief moments inside the music room...]

[bellabellabella]

[... it's a very odd sensation, this. Normally he would know if someone was watching him. Normally he would be able to watch himself through their eyes, if he had any inclination to. So that silent feeling of being observed without knowing from where or by whom is unfamiliar, and perhaps that is why it takes him so long to cotton onto the sensation.

Still, he catches it eventually, and around when he does, also catches the moment and soft sound of the door.

He frowns slightly at that. Off to investigate the shed again he goes!]

[keyringwitness]

[Inside is Yasu, doing her best to hide from Edward. And, to her credit, she would be pretty unnoticeable... if Edward wasn't a predator in human skin. She'd only seen him from a distance before, watching him cease all signs of life except for slow breathing, but up close, hiding from him? That sensation makes her shiver with fright, making her even more obvious to his eyes.]

[bellabellabella]

[He found her easily enough, and the tiny chamber filled with the scent of her fear, and the warm scent of her blood--but he was familiar with the dry ache that it brought to his throat, dull burning like fire. He was not thirsty, however, which made that tiny response even easier to ignore than normal, for all that some part of his instincts was reacting to the whole situation. Weak prey, separated from the herd. Her obvious terror fed into that, but this, too, he was more than used to controlling. And he couldn't see any reason for it. Nobody here had even been unnerved by him, despite what he'd assumed when he'd woken up. Still.

He did not approach her, yet, though he was in the same tiny, enclosed space, and no more did he leave. Was it him, that frightened her so? But what could she possibly have seen that would provoke it? He had not been careful, but he hadn't been that flagrant. When he spoke his voice was quiet and warm and polite, perfectly pleasant, slightly confused.]

Is something wrong?

[There was a pause as he considered that and decided it was bad wording.]

Apart from the obvious, I mean.

[keyringwitness]

Um- Um- I- Uh- S- S- S- Sorry, I-

[Yasu's heart is beating loud in her chest; partially from Edward's presence, partially from memories of all the times the madam scolded her whenever she was caught hiding and "slacking off."

So, of course, she defaults to what she'd say in that situation.]

How, um, how can I help you, s- sir?

[bellabellabella]

[His hearing, like his sense of smell, had been dulled ever since arriving here, but he could hear the thumping of her heart, and knew that her wet, hot blood would be rushing through her veins, soft skin so little guard-

With a practiced bit of effort, Edward redirected his thoughts. No use dwelling on things like that: his control was good, but there was still no sense in inviting temptation.

Her answer confused him. His expression had not flickered, but now became slightly puzzled.]

Were you following me?

[keyringwitness]

[On the one hand, Yasu really doesn't want to admit it, but on the other, she has the feeling lying about it is futile. So she meekly nods, hoping he'll drop it there.]

[bellabellabella]

[Well, drop it he does not, but he at least doesn't seem angry about it. If anything, he just looks... wary.]

Why?