castle_whims | WEEK 0

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r2,
r2 week 0

WEEK 0

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[What bumps into you in the halls is some kind of horrifying, golden monstrosity, covered in a gnarled golden mane, with shattered plastic embedded in its grisly mats-]

U- Um- Oh no, did I-

[wait that's just yasu with her hair an awful mess

Yasu tries to perform her usual apology-bow but nearly trips over herself again in the process, barely regaining her balance in time. She gulps, looking away.]

I'm sorry to ask, b- b- b- but I need some... help...

[Or you could find her in the school store, browsing through the variety of beige-to-dark-brown utilitarian satchels that can be purchased with her forehead furrowed like she's in deep thought. On occasion, she pulls one out and compares it against her school uniform, looking down and... squinting, probably? through her thick bangs. Noticing someone else's presence, she turns around and takes some initiative of her own for once, asking,]

Er, what do you think? D- Does it look good?

Good lord, you certainly do!

[ Valmont recoils, just barely dodging contact with the mass of mats and tangles that is, apparently, Yasu. Two conflicting desire grapple within him. On the one hand, the desire to absolutely not touch a commoner (a servant!) under any circumstances. On the other, the desire to not live his life surrounded by horrors of personal grooming.

Sigh. You want something done right... ]

You owe me. Come on.

[ He grabs the sleeve of Yasu's uniform and starts tugging her briskly towards the dorm area. ]

I- I- I'm s- so sorry, I'm, just, um, not used to my hair being this long, and, and, m- my apologies, [That was two different ways to apologize and judging by what little Valmont can see of her face, Yasu is currently trying to brainstorm a third.

If Valmont is mortified, Sayo's bones are already bleaching in the sun at the thought of someone so obviously high-class attending to her. It's a wonder that she hasn't fainted from embarrassment already. But with how dire the situation is, she can't refuse to help.]

I just, um, wanted to look good f- for once for the, er, dance, but my hair got super messy and I broke two brushes and... [Oh, no, she's sniffling.]

Oh, for heaven's sake, quit blubbering. This is already going to be enough of a production without you crying all over my clean uniform.

[ He drags Yasu onward into his dorm room, shutting the door hastily as soon as they're inside. This is not particularly something he wants anyone here to observe. ]

Sit here.

[ He gestures impatiently toward the room's one unassuming chair, then ducks into the bathroom without paying attention to whether or not Yasu obeys. ]

[Yasu can't quite get herself to stop crying on command, but she's good at stifling her tears if nothing else. She quiets down and obediently sits still, gaze fixed firmly on the floor.]

M- My apologies for, um, that display, Mister Valmont... I should r- really be more professional than this...

[Valmont's... Valmont-ness has kicked Yasu into higher-gear servant mode than normal.]

[ Mister Valmont, he likes that. At least this one has an idea of how to talk to her superiors. He thinks he really ought to be a "Master", age-wise, but he sure won't fault her for the upgrade. ]

Well, yes, you should, but I don't believe you've been performing any of your professional duties since we've been at this school, have you? No reason to start now.

[ This bit spoken as he returns, comb in one hand, brush in the other, bottle of conditioner tucked under his arm. This is going to take all the tools at their accomodations' limited disposal. ]

All right, pay attention, because I am very much not going to do this ever again. Take this -

[ He presses the bottle into Yasu's hands. ]

- put some of it in your hair, and see if you can loosen some of the bigger knots with your fingers. Let me know when you're done.

[ He plunks his butt down on the bed to observe. He's not actually touching that mess if he can help it. ]

Y- You're right, it's just, um, hard to get out of the habit. [Especially with someone as imperious as Valmont strutting about, even though he's lending her a hand rather than ordering her around. Well, lending her a hand and ordering her around, but it's still an improvement over the way the madam treated her.

Yasu nods, listening intently as Valmont rattles off his instructions. Taking the offered conditioner and spreading it across her hands, she does as he says, lips set in a thin line at the occasional twinge of pain from pulling at the knots but refusing to part to let out an audible complaint. Whatever else you can say about Yasu, she's a fast learner (after three years of being a slow one, at any rate), and soon her hair is in slightly better condition.]

T- There. Thank you very much, Mister Valmont. Um... is there any particular brushing technique I- I should follow up with?

[Fashion conscious Fret to the scene!]

Hmm.... not bad, let me see the other one again though?

[Time for a slightly different shade of brown! Yasu turns around slowly so that Fret can check it from multiple angles, trusting his judgment over hers.]

I don't really have experience with this kind of thing... I, um, never got to buy my own clothes, so...

[They really have to stop meeting like this.

He ends up trying to catch her by the shoulders to keep her steady enough to hopefully prevent yet another stumble, though.]

Are you okay?

I- I- I'm f- fine... [she sniffles, indicating that she is not, in fact, fine, even though Yuta can't actually see her eyes.]

Um...

[This is awkward. Can he like... tip his head a little to try to see her face under all that or,]

You don't sound fine. What happened?

[He can see a glimpse of teary blue eyes, but she shrinks back.]

I just... i- it really is stupid. [She wipes her nose.] I was h- having a hard time brushing my hair, and I started thinking about home, and how we're all s- stuck here while the Principal is planning who knows w- what, and... the stress, um. Got to me I guess...

[Oh geeze she's seriously crying isn't she. He looks away so she can have like, mildly more privacy with that.]

Oh. Um, I think that's pretty normal? ...Getting stressed, I mean.

B- But I need to be professional... [she says, as if that isn't a deeply concerning thing for a nine year-old child to think,]

[Ma'am???]

You're at school right now. This is like the last place you need to be professional.

B- But I still feel like I need to, with, um, all the classes and s- stuff.

[Considering the oppressive atmosphere of Ira Academy, this probably doesn't come as much of a surprise.]

Trust me, you definitely don't need to worry that much about it. I mean, you probably aren't going to look any weirder than a talking dog or bat in a class taught by sheep.

You're... probably right. [She looks down, clutching her arm out of nervous habit.] S- Still, whenever I went to school, the madam always s- said that I should, um, present myself with decorum since I was accompanying milady...

Well, your lady isn't here, so... you can probably just relax for now.

When it comes to classes, anyway.

[Yasu slowly nods. With any luck, between Yuta and everyone else, the message of, "you can relax for once" will eventually get through her thick skull.]

...

Soo... do you need help getting to class now, or-?

I'll be, um, fine. I think. Just need to s- sort out the hair. Maybe the next brush won't break...

Wait, it broke?!

The handle, um... snapped when I tried to work out the tangles...

My hair's longer than usual s- so I don't really know how to handle it.

WEEK 0

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