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]

So that's your way of cheating death? Going to bed at night saying "I think I can, I think I can"? Forgive me if I don't buy that anyone could live as long as you if they just had the right force of will.

[matchbreaker]

Okay, I can forgive you for that.

[ I mean you're human so that's way more unforgivable? But... eh, she manages. ]

... But yeah, the thousand plus club is just absurd.

[gorira]

Isn't it?! So we agree on that much, at least. Wouldn't you get, like...I dunno, I think if I lived that long, I'd be bored as hell. Right now, it still feels like living to a hundred is a damn long time to be alive. Ten times that, and then some? What the hell do you do at that point?

[matchbreaker]

.. Clearly you need to live a more interesting life, then. I'd be looking forward to meeting my great-great-however many great grandchildren.

[gorira]

Way too early for me to even start thinking about kids. I haven't even graduated high school yet, and I'm definitely not looking forward to dealing with babies.

My life is definitely interesting enough, though. But anything'll get stale when you run it into the ground for too long. Everything has its season.

[matchbreaker]

Well of course it is, but it sure wouldn't by the time you're my age, let alone the "age" of that Monomania girl.

[ Everything has its season... huh.

... Do humans really look at things like that? ]

[gorira]

...That's kind of interesting, though, that you say that.

[ She doesn't quite know how the topic got here, but it's better than dwelling too hard on their situation, or the nonsense of the writing on the wall. She presses her back against the wall, and runs both hands through the back of her hair; the red ribbon on top of her head bobs along with it. ]

If I knew I could live that long, I wonder if I'd even really care about kids to begin with. Sure, it's important to keep the bloodline going, just as a family thing. The whole reason people have kids to begin with is to carry on the family name, right? But if you're living to over a thousand, you're doing a perfectly good job of that on your own, aren't you?

[ She'd be head of the Bee Hive for the next thousand years, and that'd be that. ]

I mean, it's definitely not because they like having babies so much.

[matchbreaker]

.. Well gosh, no one likes having the damn things, but once they're out and you're raising them, they're one of the most rewarding things you'll ever do!

[ Like. Come on girl. ]

[gorira]

[ Rewarding, huh...she wonders what her own mom would say about that. Bonding with her again has been slow going, but, would she feel the same way..?

She probably would. ]

You sound like you're very proud of your family.

[ Not to say she isn't, too, despite their...eccentricities? But her family isn't related to her by blood. ]

[matchbreaker]

Of course I am!

[ She claps her hands together, he eyes widening with undisguised pleasure to have this chance to talk about them. ]

My James was the most wonderful man I could have ever asked for, and then we had a beautiful son named Henry! Sure he ended up marrying a shrew, but he's given me three grandchildren. Three! One of them even looks a lot like me!

[gorira]

A...shrew?

[ So she doesn't get along with her daughter-in-law? ]

But they clearly love each other, then, don't they? If they had three children together...

[matchbreaker]

Yeah, somehow. She's always bossing him around and being too rough on him...

[ SOUND FaMILIaR??? ]

[gorira]

[ A-ah. That...makes her gulp. ]

You...don't say...

[ Why does this feel like a direct attack, even if it's coming from a total stranger? ]

But maybe it's a give and take sort of thing? Maybe he finds it endearing somehow?

[ Yikes. ]

[matchbreaker]

I don't know why he would! [ :T

:T

:T ]

[gorira]

Sometimes it can be a charm point to be a little on the pushy side!

[ C-can't it? ]

[matchbreaker]

[ See the joke here is that Elda is pushy......... but you'll discover that over time.

That said, she smirks and...

Presses a finger towards the other's cheek. ]

Oh, I get it.

[gorira]

G-get what?! What are you getting?! What am I missing?!

[ She goes a little red, as she gets poked in the cheek-- ]

[matchbreaker]

Oh come on, don't make me spell it out.

[ Poke, poke.... ]

[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.