006 ☾ voice

[playerkills]

[ Obon had already passed by the looks of the seasons, but that doesn't stop some people from celebrating it and doing something remotely related to the summer season. Normals always told their friends ghost stories around this time of the year, so some practice will do her good. It isn't often that this particular deep, spooky voice crops up on the network, but the time she chose was a particularly quiet one in the evening. Those who know her will be able to discern its owner - Yozora. This gloomy tone is the one she usually speaks with, but it sets the mood perfectly. ]

The end of summer, the start of fall. It is during these two seasons that the world pays its respects to the spirits of the afterlife. I wouldn't say that those of this ethereal plane are above us, figuratively speaking. Yet for many generations, haven't humans always been most afraid of what they don't know? Strange occurrences that cannot be explained, - it's almost laughable how these mysteries hold so much power over us.

[ She cackles, and she didn't even need to practice two hours to perfect it. There is nothing but silence that follows. ]

What if I told you they were true? Just because we cannot comprehend these happenings doesn't allow us to simply dismiss them. Although belief is waning, tradition remains strong. There must be a reason behind it all, don't you agree?

Well then, shall we revive that tradition tonight?

I heard this from a local in the Baldr district. It happened long before the disease spread, when the city still had its color...

The protagonist of this story is... let's call her K. She had a friend - we'll call her M. K and M were the best of friends ever since they met by the lake at Gefion Park. Since then, they would do everything together, and they easily got along because they liked the same things. However, there came a time when they also liked the same boy. Fron that point onward, it was clear that their friendship wasn't going to last forever. Now, K was an outgoing girl who had many friends. M, on the other hand, was very timid. K took advantage of this and bullied M without hesitation or remorse. Libel, slander, the looks of disgust on everyone's faces and jeering from the crowd as she walked by... it was enough to drive M to commit suicide. One summer night, she drowned herself in the lake. Her pallid, lifeless face on the surface of the lake would haunt the city for weeks.

K felt guilty for what she did, but as the seasons passed, she slowly forgot about M. But, ever since M's death, a string of unfortunate events began to occur. At first, they were nothing but lost items and gusts of wind, but soon, they progressed into looping labyrinths and cryptic messages that only K would understand.

Exactly a year had passed after M's death. It was a cold summer night just like that day she drowned. That day passed by with no strange occurrences, but when K got in bed just to find her own name on the ceiling written in blood, that did it for her. In the middle of the night, she ran to the lake to sob and beg for forgiveness. But the wind only grew stronger and stronger...

It forced the girl to get on her knees and break her fall with her hands. She happened to look at the lake, and there she saw the face of a friend she thought she'd never see again.

No one saw the girl after that, but they say that if you look into the lake at this hour, she might get you...

[ Another cackle and a strong gust of wind from the window closes Yozora's story. ]

Who wants to go next?

(ooc: People are welcome to post their own stories as well, be it in video, text or voice. Others are free to reply to the stories with their character's reactions and comments. In other words, treat this post like a mingle log!)

Comments

[playerkills]

[ itsuki she can't even handle you ]

I-Itsuki is banned from all storytelling activities henceforth!

[deputychief]

Ah, dear me, I'm sorry.

...If it's any consolation, afterwards M went to the hospital and recovered.

[corona]

Hey. [ yes she is legit going to flick the screen ]

Hey. Aren't... we supposed to worry about K the most? Everything was M's fault, really.

[playerkills]

No, K is largely irrelevant to the story. We can consider the trauma inflicted on her negligible.

[deputychief]

[RAPUNZEL THAT ICON...]

Ah... Well, K... K eventually escaped after a long while stuck in the basement. She was physically unharmed, but she lost her memory of having a friend like M, so that they never held sleepovers together again.

[SEE IT ALL ... TIES TOGETHER.]

[glistens]

So... they went from being close enough to sleep together to - completely forgetting they were even friends to begin with?!

[ THAT IS THE OPPOSITE OF NEGLIGIBLE!! ]

[playerkills]

She forgot? ... But M didn't mean to...

[ YOZORA IS REALLY EMOTIONALLY ATTACHED TO THIS STORY ]

[deputychief]

Well, ah... [shit, is the consequence of telling a good old cockroach-mind horror story having to assuage the consciences of two weirdo girls afterwards?]

Yes, she forgot, but one day ten years later they met again... but that's a different story.

[corona]

....





[ Her silence roughly translates to "LMAO GO ON???" ]

[playerkills]

...





[ Seriously, Itsuki, you can't just leave them hanging!! ]

1/2

[deputychief]

....







[ oh COME ON! ]

[deputychief]

Ah...

It was a blustery fall day and M was in a suburb of Tokyo, shopping for clothes alone. She had changed her appearance since the cockroach incident -- grown out her hair, primarily, and adopted different clothing. She was shopping for back-to-school clothes, when all of a sudden, outside the window, she caught sight of a familiar figure, her chin jutting in the air, and her mouth berating someone, of course.

It was K, and... M's heart leapt and her stomach turned. She had hoped never to see K again, aided by the fact that K didn't remember what happened in the basement that day, but it was not to be, as K came into the store, followed by a set of her followers. M felt a bitterness rise up in her. After the incident in the basement, neither she nor K had made other friends, as they were set in their ways. K's beauty, wealth, and talents had brought her much attention from men, while M was feared around the school for her ruthless disposal of her enemies.

Just then, a cockroach crawled across the floor, halfway between K and M, and K could not restrain a scream of horror and a flash of memory...

[glistens]

[ this is the part where she turns to Yozora in an aside and says LIKE A MASSIVE HYPOCRITE ]

I think he's getting a little into it.

[playerkills]

Frankly, it's starting to drag on longer than I expected...

[ THIS IS THE THANKS HE GETS FOR HIS EFFORTS ]

1/2

[deputychief]

[--longer than you expected?

longer than YOU expected???

yozora!!

--getting into it.

getting INTO it...

rapunzel!!!!]

2/2

[deputychief]

And standing in front of M in a single moment was the girl she had known for years, evidently remembering again who and what had happened.

M's first urge was to punch K again so that she might hopefully forget again, but much though she wanted to, she didn't do so.

"What?" she said brusquely instead. To her surprise, K's eyes filled with tears, and she dug frantically in her pockets and took out a letter, which she almost threw at M. Then she stamped on the cockroach and she ran out of the store.

[okay if you're bored he's introducing some AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION here at the end of all things.]

So, what do you think M did in the end?

[glistens]

[ Rapunzel is never bored, only kindly mocking. ]

Recycled?

[playerkills]

[ Yozora is always cruel, though. ]

M read what was on the paper first, of course. She didn't want to waste too much energy on someone who forgot her. [ She was about to call her a bitch but Rapunzel is E for everyone. ]

[deputychief]

Ah, yes, well, indeed. [ you two, always harshing his buzz... ]

On the paper was... an advertisement for a club, of course.

[corona]

[ HAHAHAHA

Don't be stupid of course she's not laughing that's absurd. ]

Y-Yeah? What kind of club?

[playerkills]

[ RUDE, RAPUNZEL. At the same time, it makes her feel a little embarrassed... Yozora's just going to be glaring daggers at her over the network. ]

[deputychief]

A club for people who wanted to learn how to make friends.

...I should remind you at this point that this is an entirely fictional story.

[corona]

[ Just then there's a boisterous crash.


Ah, seems it's Rapunzel's head falling onto the desk in front of her, overwhelmed by the weight of uprorious laughter as she struggles to keep it in her skull. Look here's some of it now. Loud and getting louder, what a treat. // Narration courtesy of that other character I play. ]

[playerkills]

[ oreki get out

Growing more and more ashamed of herself, Yozora tries to save a sliver of her dignity by defending this fictional club which the fictional M would have totally joined, mind you. ]

Oh, knock it off...!

[deputychief]

I'm sorry, Mikazuki-san. But if you were tired of it by the end, at least you can be glad that it's over now.

And even though Rapunzel is laughing at a very serious story, I'm sure she doesn't mean any offense either.