smash_logs | DORM LOGS: Now with EVENTS!

DORM LOGS: Now with EVENTS!

Who: All of Smash.
What: Dorm log! January edition.
Where: Student and Teacher dorms, and quite possibly beyond campus.
When: Approximately the latter half of January to the earliest of Februaries (15th - 5th)
Warnings: YOU KNOW YOURSELVES

We all know our characters experience downtime after classes and their busy schedules, and this is a good venue for those kinds of miscellaneous dorm-shenanigans to take place. Not only does it give your characters the easy chance to meet new people in a laid-back environment, but it's a good mechanism for strengthening CR. It's easy!

Feel free to begin in any way you please! Plan with (a) fellow player(s) if you'd like! Or, set up a thread and wait for characters to bite! Just add a thread with the room number (and date/time, if it matters) and the characters that reside there (just for reference!). You do not have to use one character's thread as a dual-purpose for both characters if you do not want to. Doesn't have to be a dorm room, either, if you have something else in mind. It could be the common room or the student science lab or wherever.

BUT WAIT!!!!!!

This time, we're shaking things up. On certain days, there will be an event going on that might help if you can't think of a good scenario to kick off a thread with. Here is the list!*

1/18: Hypno's Naptime. Much like the anime episode of the same name, there are mysterious sleep waves pulsing through town. No one is sure where they're coming from- it could be a rowdy Hypno that took over a broadcasting station one day, or maybe it's the local Disco Drowzee club that opened up just recently and their collective moves are enough to make you snooze. Well, these sleep waves might make you catch onto some unexpected z's, but more likely they can give you strange effects. Don't limit it to thinking you're a Pokemon, either. They can trick you into believing you're something else entirely, or just give you the urge to slip on a chicken costume and table dance in front of a crowd without finding it socially inappropriate. Just. WEIRD STUFF, MAN. Anything is possible.
1/19 - 1/25: Nancy's going on vacation. That's right, you sorry saps aren't gonna know what to do with yourselves now that no one's cooking for you. There was gonna be a substitute lunch bear/lady/alien space creature, but for whatever reason, they never showed up. So now, everyone must FEND FOR THEMSELVES. How will you fare if you don't even know how to flip a spatula?
1/25 - 1/27: Ice Cream Blizzard. Oh, you poor, starving Smashers. Not only are you bereft of nutrition, but it's cold and snowing and you can barely get out of the building without freezing solid! You might just perish, but wait- if you step outside and try to catch snowflakes with your tongue, you might just realize that it's... snowing ICE CREAM?!
1/29-1/31: Goomba Infestation. Everything is Goombas for 2 days in the boys dorms. Bowser is dicking around with "Itchymarbles" again, and it just spills out across the entire dorms. This prank has the unfortunate side effect of, well, affecting everyone on campus, and not just Scratchy McMarbles, so you might wanna be careful opening that fridge, since the wrong kinds of mushrooms might start pouring out. Jumping on them might work, but it's gonna take a lot of hopscotch to decimate an entire roomful!

This is a bit of an experiment, so... we'll see what comes of this.

*Note: These were determined by rng. Any other suggestions will be recycled for next time if the event aspect is successful.

Also, if you want easy access to the dorm living arrangements, here is the link.

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The meaning of the ominous rattling was lost on him. He was far too focused on studying her face. Fear was a look he'd unfortunately become too familiar with, and seeing it on her was heartbreaking. But there was something off that he couldn't put his finger on...

"Of course! I'm right here! ...Can't you see me?"

Her eyebrows furrowed as she took further steps back. She could feel someone there but... Her red eye wasn't focusing. Her heart was beating too fast and rendering it almost ineffective. Vivian had been afraid for some time now, her sight the only thing she ever counted on as both a human and a turret and now it had been ripped away from her.

"I can hear you..."

Hearing Ishimaru so close made her more anxious. She wanted to reach him but she kept trying to see him. The glow in her chest kept flickering with the panic. Vivian kept shuffling her feet backward, his body starting to outline in front of him the more she was able to see, but he was fading fast.

"Partner, that's - " It was definitely him, that shape she could sort of make out but when she backed into a garbage bin -

"Aah!" She turned around and immediately shot it. And froze. "A...ah.."

Everything happened too quickly. He had moved to take a step closer to her, opened his mouth to warn her of the bin behind her, but he was far too slow. The echoing gunshot was closely followed by the sound of a lunch box hitting the ground, contents spilling out across the floor.

She wasn't supposed to have that.

She'd been reprogrammed not to want one in the first place.

Panic gripped him, tightening around his chest and all but crushing his heart and lungs. If Vivian had somehow managed to revert to her old ways... If even a reprogramming wasn't enough, did that mean that the only other option was...

No, no! There was definitely a perfectly good reason for her to have the gun in her possession. A fluke. A mistake. Something that could be remedied immediately and never worried about again.

"Vivian..." His feet were rooted to the spot. "Where did you get that gun?"

Vivian was looking around for his voice, slowly turning her body toward him until she brought his static outline into view again. She still couldn't see him very well, but she replied.

"I found it..."

Vivian had once upon a time hid guns all over the school and though they had found many when she was being scrutinized by the courts, it was just her luck they missed some. During the memory sift, it was one of the things she happened to find herself recalling, and much as her past self had been guided, though the voice telling her was vague at best, she knew when she felt threatened, she had a right to protect herself. She also had an obligation to protect others, though now she was trained now to avoid killing anyone.

"Partner..." A whimper. A sad, throat clenched whimper of what was practically his name to her. Her armed hand swung low at her side and she finally just held her empty hand out for him.

He wondered briefly if he should run, put some distance between himself and this gunslinging girl who had killed before. But even with murder in her past, they were partners, and he had sworn to be at her side no matter what.

Or was it better to run after all, and make sure he didn't once again fail her?

There was no telling which way was better, and no matter how he turned the options over in his head both of them came with their fair share of horrific possibilities. Loyalty won out by a landslide, and he approached slowly, taking her hand in his.

"Give it to me. I'm with you, so I'll keep you safe!"

He hoped.

The touch of his skin... She knew it anywhere. Vivian's chest began to emit a soft glow, her heart steadying as a calm settled in, an electricity between their fingers a signature of peace she counted on. Though her hands were ice cold from the fear, they melted in his grip, and without hesitation for his instruction, she immediately turned the gun so the handle was toward him when she surrendered it.

He was here. She had no need to feel threatened anymore.

She was safe.

He took it without hesitation, though once he felt the cold metal in his hand he realized he had no idea what he was going to even do with it. Turn it in to the Hands, he supposed, and keep it tucked into his back pocket in the meantime. A pity he had never really studied gun safety, though he made a mental note that it might be time to start.

"There... You really can't see anything, can you?" He kept his grip on her hand, squeezing lightly just to prove to her that he was there. Now that the immediate threat of the gun was taken care of, he could focus his worries on her sudden apparent blindness. Could she have just been malfunctioning all over? The very thought made Kiyotaka's heart sink.

She would be inclined to agree she was malfunctioning, though Vivian wouldn't know that was what she had to convey. All she could offer was a head shake, keeping her hold on his hand while trying to step back to get more of him into view. The light once struggling to breathe was now pulsing with the serenity imbued by his presence.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't see you... I couldn't see you so I couldn't tell you."

As she was able to pull more of him into view, she found herself smiling. He looked so clear to her now. How could she have ever missed him?

"But I can see you now."

He gazed into the glowing red jewel for a moment, wondering when it had started being so bright. It was one of the mechanical parts that remained during the shift from turret to human, wasn't it? He didn't know its function, but could only assume it was some kind of camera.

If it was on now, were her human eyes not working? Those were supposed to be more than decorative, he knew that much from the way he'd noticed them looking right back at him in the past. He waved his free hand in front of her face. "Can you see this?"

Her head turned left, right, looking around to try and give him the right answer rather than help him diagnose her. What she could catch was his arm moving, but not much more.

Just to be sure, she reached her newly unoccupied hand forward to touch the moving elbow in front of her.

"Uhm...? Your arm?" That might answer that.

That was enough of an answer for him.

"No. My hand in front of your face. Just how long has this been going on...?"

Vivian fidgeted where she stood, tapping her fingers against his hand, counting off silently, but...

"What day is it?" Oh lord.

"Monday, January 20th..." He freed his hand just long enough to expose his watch. "11:37 AM."

"Six days, one hour, thirty-two minutes," Vivian replied. If there was one thing she was able to keep track of, it was dates. She had to always be aware of when she dragged someone off to the office or caught them doing something wrong, after all. "I'm sorry, I don't know the..." One knee snapped from under her, but she caught herself before she fell. "Seconds..."

Maybe something in her head was really broken. It felt too heavy to carry, the weight of darkness aside. But overall she looked very tired and not very clean. She had managed to find water fountains around the school, but that was about all that was keeping her going.

"That long?! This entire time..."

How did he fuck it up that badly?! He should have been paying better attention, should have been at her side a lot sooner, should have, should have...! Guilt gnawed away at him, but he remained standing tall, if only so that he could be something for her to lean on. He reached out to steady her, just in case she began to fall again, brow furrowed in frustration.

"First things first, you need to eat something! I had prepared you some food, but..." He cast a glance behind him, making a note to come back later and clean it up or else offer to help the janitor with another task or two later on to make up for it. Right now, Vivian was his top priority. "...well, it will have to be redone now! Here, I'll guide you to the kitchens!"

Walking without the wall to guide her wasn't exactly a new scenario, since she had to eventually wander around outside to get between the buildings, but somehow with a person being her eyes, she couldn't seem to grasp the concept. Vivian clung to his arm as their journey began, and though he was blaming himself for her condition, she could only smile on her end of the table.

"Thank you," she said rather suddenly, tired head tipping into his arm. "For taking me with you... mm.. Resting..." She might be sleepwalking there for a bit.

He was pretty quiet on their journey, pausing every now and then just enough to make sure she was still holding up alright. His heart was consumed with guilt over her condition, but his mind raced with worries about what it meant that she had begun to arm herself once again. Someone would find out, sooner or later... and wasn't it safer if he made it known as soon as possible? Safer for everyone else, perhaps, but what about her? Should he or should he not treat it as the same situation as Mondo? Why was everyone he loved a terrible murderer.

His once black and white world was now nothing but a shifting mess of gray and it troubled him to no end.

When they finally arrived at the kitchens, he nudged her a little to make sure she was fully awake. The smell of curry still lingered in the air, though any trace of the food was long gone. He'd have to start from scratch.

"Can you stand on your own?"

Though it didn't mean much, she opened her eyes and leaned away from him with a wobble, but she remained on her feet.

"Yes," she said after a few seconds of testing her balance. She looked toward the weak red outline of his figure and as much as she wanted to lean against a wall or a table - anything that could support her tired limbs - she took his question as more of an instruction than a concern. She was determined to stand on her own, so she carried her weight carefully and tried to keep track of him.

As much as she had the intense desire to help him, she refrained. It wasn't so much related to the fact she couldn't see, because she kind of could (but one of them would probably lose a hand), but she just didn't have the energy to make that thought connect to a physical action. While she let idle thoughts wander about to the idea of him helping her, it had her thinking of what she now knew. Silence was all she had in hand, even when he finally had food ready for them to eat. She sat next to him and ate quietly.

She couldn't get much down but she did her best. What she really wanted to do was sleep, so she looked at Kiyotaka, unable to turn her chest to actually see him, and reached out to her side to get his attention. One swing, miss, second swing, nope, third, right into the side of his head. There we go.

"Nap time...?"

Smack. Right in the head. He would allow it this time, since she couldn't see, but the second her eyes were repaired there would be no tolerance for those kinds of shenanigans. They... would surely be repaired soon. He just wondered if he should see the nurse or a mechanic or a programmer about it first. And while he did want to track one down immediately, it was understandable that Vivian was too exhausted to be dragged back and forth across the campus more than she already had been. So he stood and brought what was left on her plate to the fridge - knowing it would be gone soon, but at least it wouldn't go to waste at all - before returning to help her to her feet.

"I'll return you to your dorm at once. You may rest in there!"

He couldn't help but wonder if she would be alright on her own. What if something else malfunctioned after he left her? Perhaps it would be best if he stayed with her for just a little while, then hunted down someone who could be of any help - Chihiro was the first to come to mind, being the brilliant programmer that he was, and also someone Kiyotaka knew he could entrust with Vivian's well being. Maybe Rhys too, being more suitable for healing organic ills.

Alright. Sounded like a plan.

"Just stay awake until we get there!"

"Okay..!" If she could stand on her own that whole time he was cooking, then she can do this, too! After all, he was asking her to do it, so she wanted to make sure she complied.

"I live beneath us," Vivian reminded him in her haze. "I live with - "

She felt like she didn't live at all.

No, that was a strange thought. She shook her head because she was using the wrong words.

"I live with... I live there."

That was it. She didn't live with anything or anyone. She just lived there. Small feet dragged themselves along the pavement, the shuffle of her own movements all she could keep track of to make sure she was still working. Having food helped the worst of her corruptions, but human bodies, she recalled, can often times need more than that to recover.

Tugging on his arm to get him going in what she believed to be the right direction, Vivian increased her pace to make sure she could match his despite being the lead. Now that she wasn't so afraid, her infrared vision was a bit more forgiving, though she wouldn't be able to explain why. It just seemed to work around Kiyotaka, so... he must just make her work correctly. That must be it.

It took a little longer than if Ishimaru had just known where the underground entrance was located, but she got them there and descending as quickly as she could manage.

And it didn't take long for a darkness that didn't faze her or a cold that no longer bit her to linger over their heads, broken and sprawled out like spiders waiting to fall. And they would fall as they descended deeper into her neglected home, surrounded by steel and a hollow essence only made known by echoed footsteps.

Edited 2014-01-21 06:40 (UTC)

He followed her patiently, just relieved that she was a lot calmer and able to slowly navigate her surroundings than she'd seemed when he first found her. It was fortunate that eye on her chest worked at all, though he didn't know how well it was or if her human brain even processed the information correctly. Technology was complicated enough, but when there was such an impossible hybrid as Vivian, he was completely lost in even beginning to comprehend which side she leaned more toward.

He would always think of her as more of a human, though. In heart and spirit, that was what she was; the mechanical aspect only came into play when it came to her physical well being.

Speaking of her well being...

The cold, stark bunkers were hardly a fitting habitat for any human being. He'd never invaded her dorm out of respect for personal privacy, but if he'd had any idea of what kind of squalor she'd been living in, he would have demanded she be moved to a better room immediately. After he saw someone about repairing her vision, he would ask the Headmasters about finding her a dorm, and if they refused...

He'd have to think on that one. It wasn't like he could allow an innocent young girl to live in the BRO CAVE.

For now he led her down, his stomach churning a bit, because he knew only despair could ever lurk in the bowels of a school. But there was no circle of podiums, no gaudy eve-changing wallpaper, and no ursine judge to be seen. It still didn't put him at ease at all.

"You have a bed at least, don't you?"

His question bounced off the walls and hit Vivian several times, but when the sounds faded and she could focus once more, she lifted her arm to point.

Well, at first she aimed it at an empty corner, which unknown to her, is where she used to sleep until GLaDOS had retrieved her a real bed to sleep on. It took a few twists and points to see it, but eventually she was able to target the child's bed tucked away in the bleakest corner of the room. Whatever lights were in here were permanently on, which wasn't an issue for her in general (especially now), but in an effort to give her some semblance of a bedtime, she stayed under that night's veil unique to that corner.

The rest of the chamber had little to say for itself. It was clear that something else used to be here with her, something considerably large if one just assumed by the size of the room and the mechanics constructed into the ceiling, but it hadn't taken up much space before. Vivian and GLaDOS had plenty of room back then, as she does now, even if that room was littered with lost memories.

Loose clothing was scattered amidst a few unloaded guns, Christmas gifts unwrapped, opened and viewed but still in their boxes on the floor, and empty packages of food that must've been months old. It looked like chaos to the untrained eye, but no! She had it organized. In her own special way.

She let go of his hand and began to stagger toward her bed, not even bothering with taking off any of her wardrobe along the way. Not even her shoes.

It was probably for the best that she didn't start stripping. Even if Kiyotaka wanted to make sure she was comfortable enough, he probably would have panicked a little. Besides, it was chilly down in the bunker, so the more layers the better.

His eyes roamed over the mess while Vivian made her way over to the bed, pausing over each and every firearm in sight. He didn't know they weren't loaded, but whether they were or not, he was going to have to take them to the Headmasters' Office along with the one in his pocket. He made a note to tide up a bit after she was asleep, too-- stack the boxes neatly somewhere and fold the clothes, at the very least.

Actually, screw waiting. It was kind of driving him nuts, knowing she'd lived like that for so long. He set himself to the task immediately.

The noises behind her were familiar from her own scrounging around, so she spun on her heel in attention, a second wind hitting her just for the moment.

"Stop!" Energy out. She took a couple steps back and fell right onto her bed, sitting up with her light starting to flicker out. It was all that suggested she was in those shadows, only a struggling red glow to say something - someone - was there and alive.

At any rate, she stayed awake, because she had to make sure that red blob in the distance wasn't going to make her lose track of everything while her eyeballs were borked.

It lead to other thought processes, though... ones she couldn't escape with her inhibition faulty due to exhaustion.

He was trying to help, she knew that, but help, help, helping and saving were the same, right?

Edited (words) 2014-01-21 14:49 (UTC)

"I'm only tidying! Everything will be in a neat pile here... you're more likely to trip over things while you can't see them if they're all over the floor like this."

He straightened the pile as it was to make sure it wasn't in danger of toppling over.

"You just rest. I won't break anything, I promise."

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