Welcome.

[trustfellows]

Rise and shine. There are a few things that matter right now - the fact that you're waking up in an unfamiliar but decently comfortable bed, the fact that you don't recognize the room you're in, the fact that you seem to have some sort of headache... Nothing severe, mind. Just the sort of odd, heavy fuzziness that comes with having slept far too long. You don't really remember where you were immediately before this, not upon waking. Something will come to you eventually if you think long enough, however - a couple of seconds of consideration will bring to mind a place, a memory, a recollection of where you were and what you were doing. It probably wasn't anything that would result in you being here, though. Welcome to Graceside Preparatory Academy. You may want to pick up the key to your room before you leave the room, but don't worry too much - your door won't lock automatically, so you won't be locked out if you've forgotten to pick it up. It seems you're not alone, either; the hallway outside your room is most likely full of other confused people by now, and should you turn around to look at the door of the room you just left, you'll find a nameplate with your name printed on it. There's a single word underneath it with no explanation. This is your title, but don't worry about that right now. Depending on when you left your room there may be a clock chiming in the foyer up ahead. It seems like it's seven, though it's difficult to tell if it's seven in the morning or seven at night. There aren't any windows, after all. Should you venture into the room with the clock, you'll find that the only exit is closed - there's absolutely no way to break down that steel bulkhead. It looks like you're not getting out of here anytime soon. The foyer also holds some very interesting information. There's a bulletin board with thirty-five pictures on it. Beside each picture is some very specific and very familiar information. Feel free to examine it. The bulletin board is large enough for plenty of you to gather around and gawk. Don't try to get at it though, that glass in front of it is very thick. If you try to break it, you'll find out the hard way that it's shatterproof. Sorry about that. Perhaps even more of a concern than the glass is the list beside the profiles. It looks like a set of rules. You might want to examine those, though they're not providing much of an explanation for why you're here or how you got here. So relax and get to know your fellow Participants. You might be stuck here for awhile.

Comments

[gorira]

I have no idea what you're talking about! Leave me alone!

[matchbreaker]

Well, whatever! Your maiden's heart and its failings aren't my bag anyway.

[ she'll back off though, laughing an evil old lady laugh. ]

[gorira]

I-it's nothing like that! You've got it all wrong! What the hell do you know about that, wasn't that the stone age for you or something?!

[matchbreaker]

Oh, I might've fallen for a man two centuries ago, but you never fall out of real love.

[ she cups a hand on her cheeks and she cooos a little at the memories. ]

[gorira]

...

[ It's honestly hard not to find it sort of cute, seeing her gush over her beloved like that. One good thing about living that long, she guesses, is spending as much time as she can with the person she's enamored with.

Assuming they lived just as long. But this feels kind of like watching a grandma get lost in "let's remember," in a way that gives away her true age, despite her youthful appearance.

It's her impulse to indulge it. Maybe it's just curiosity, but maybe she could use another love story. Just as a point of reference for her tangled web. ]

How'd you meet him? James, you said his name was?

[ An Englishman? ]

[matchbreaker]

Oh, he was a friend of my father's, always hanging around the manor in the old country for this and that... I suppose he actually got on better with my uncle. But when we really met was... [ . . . Well, she's not going to talk about the genocide. This is already bittersweet enough, despite her tone, given that he died. So she sort of waves a hand here. ] Well, things happen, and he and I were forced to move to Japan. Him, I, and several others. Were we really bonded was there.

But yes, James Edwards! He took my name when we were wed.

[gorira]

Rare to see that, in these days. I'd imagine it was even rarer back then. Typically that only happens because your last name has more of a pull behind it. Some kind of sway.

[ A beat. ]

That, or you had him on a leash.

[matchbreaker]

Oh please, it's the former. The Marker clan is much more prestigious than the Edwards. The Edwards is some smaller family from Germany. Well, originally.

[gorira]

[ Uh huh. ]

Prestigious for doing what, exactly? Living an absurdly long time?

[matchbreaker]

Mostly lineage...? Well, we also had some nobility titles in England and France.

[ Ain't no thing. ]

[gorira]

We have a lot of those in our ranks, don't we? Assuming that's accurate.

[ She motions to the profiles on the back walls. ]

Three princesses, a king, a queen, and a lord...and now, someone with noble heritage.

[matchbreaker]

Yeah, but in my case, there's no one who could claim those anymore! My family in Japan's the last of the markers, and we've been there for two hundred years. Even if we went back to France or England I doubt anyone remembers it.

[ So, see, she's humble ]

[gorira]

Quite a few people of Japanese descent, too, now that you mention it...

[ Probably a little under a third, if she had to guess, just going off the names alone. ]

[matchbreaker]

... Huh, you're right. I must've gotten too used to that backwater, I didn't even think of that as weird.

[ Maybe it's the non-Japanese who are weird though? Huh. She looks at the profiles again, studying the names. ]

[gorira]

As for me, I'm only half, but I was born there. We moved to America when I was maybe five or so? And we moved back three years ago.

Dad's American, Mom's Japanese. And Dad took my mom's name, too.

[ For the same reason she just mentioned. The name Kirisaki's got a lot of sway behind it, now, even if it didn't when they met. ]

[matchbreaker]

Oh really? You must stand out a lot now, then! I know my grandchildren took Japanese names to try to pass better.

[ She nods, running down the list of names again. ... Yeah, sure is a lot of Japanese people. ]

[gorira]

Oh, you don't know the half of it. People are used to it now, but back when I first transferred, I had a lot of people who would go nuts over my hair.

[ Not often you see a blonde in a Japanese high school, after all. Lots of people would call her hafu.

They've stopped doing that. ]

[matchbreaker]

Well it is pretty bright! You could even say that it's like the sun if you wanted to be tacky!

[ Evil old lady laugh...

As she reaches out to brush a hand in it... ]

I wouldn't be surprised if it burned me.

[gorira]

H-hey, watch the ribbon--

[ Even if it's done a bit haphazardly right now, it's a point of pride for her, so when Elda reaches out to touch her hair, her instinct is to try and jerk back a bit... ]

Geez, you really are an old lady. No sense of personal space or anything. You definitely have those mysterious fucking strawberry candies in your cookie tins and everything...

[matchbreaker]

Oh gosh no, you can't feed those to little kids!

[ Because that is totally... who you... feed... things to...

But all the same, she laughs, running through once (how well cared for is this hair is she going to judge her... ) and then pulls her hand back. ]

[gorira]

[ She's got a bit of bedhead, so it's a little frizzy; on top of that, it got a bit tousled around when she was yelling her guts out, so it's seen better days. She normally takes pretty good care of it, though, and in spite of how messy it looks in general, the ribbon in her hair looks pristine, despite its age. Very well taken care of. ]

Who the hell else would you give candy to?

[matchbreaker]

-Kids can choke on those hard candies.

[ A beat and- ]

Also, keep better care of your hair.

[ Like gurl please. ]

[gorira]

That's what they all said, but that never stopped anyone from giving me jawbreakers as a kid. Now, hot dogs, those are the real troublemaker...

[ Rude, though. She takes good care of her hair. Maybe today she didn't, but in general-- ]

My hair's fine, alright? I had better things to do than straighten it this morning, that's all!

[matchbreaker]

No, if you're going to take pride in it you ought to make sure you at least keep it brushed before you go out. Golly.

[ In fact, to show off, she'll pull forward a tail of her absurdly long hair!! ]

[gorira]

Forgive me, if my top priority when I woke up to an unfamiliar ceiling and an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar school, without my key or my phone or anything, wasn't to brush my goddamn hair! Don't you golly me!