idolpro | Wednesday's Heart Game

Wednesday's Heart Game » Session Three

At first, there is nothing.

And then there’s a voice, saying:

I need your help.

… look, I don’t have time to explain. Hold this.

And something, ready or not, is thrust into your hand. Maybe it’s a pen, or a brooch, or a watch or a phone, or anything at all so long as it’s small enough to hold, and looks too important to lose.

Maybe you try to object, but a small, winged creature wreathed in iridescent sparkles darts into your view, and clasps your hands, and curls your fingers tight about the object in them.

You’re just, the creature says, going to have to trust me. Now: raise your hand, and say:

Power of a Dreaming Star – Metamorphose!!

Maybe you know these tropes, or maybe you don’t.
Maybe you’re about to protest that no, you couldn’t possibly, this is ridiculous and you’ve got the wrong person—

But you can’t resist the call. Nobody ever can.

And then?

Then? It’s not dark any more.

And an awful lot seems to be happening at once.

[ ♡ ooc information & combat rules ♡ ]

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So, you’re back in school.

Once the light show is over, once you’ve had a moment to acclimatize to your new look, you find yourself stood in a high-school classroom, dressed in unfamiliar clothes. The room is sunk into darkness, illuminated only by the white pillar candles burning at the teacher’s desk, and in clusters at the sides of the room. Outside, all is darkness: stand close enough to the windows and you may be able to make out the outlines of the quad, the high wall, the open gate. From a distance, however, the glass swims with reflections that don’t seem to be your own. Other than that, the room appears entirely ordinary – save the vase containing two small white flowers with drooping heads sat on one of the desks, and the winged bear (is it a bear?) fluttering by the blackboard, surrounded by a corona of light.

From here you can head down the corridors to the School Library, upstairs to the School Roof, or downstairs to the Courtyard… but you might want to talk to Michelle and get your bearings first.

Hey, before we start--

[She holds up a paw.]

When you get out there, you're gonna notice the sun shining in some places. If you see that, it means that one of your friends already went there and sorted out all the really bad stuff. I'm not gonna tell you not to go there, but it'd be kind of a waste of time, so... yeah, that's a thing to watch for.

Oh, and before you all run off into trouble, I got a few things here that might help you out, in a pinch.

You push open the door at the top of the stairs and walk onto the school roof. The moon soars high in the starry sky, line of predawn light is visible on the horizon, but the city laid out before you is still sunk in shadow. Vines of flowers are twined about the railings and spreading out across the flags. In the light of the moon, you can make out the silhouettes of buildings – the hunched roofs of family homes, the taller towers of the city center. Further off, you can make out the tops of towering trees, and, more distantly still, the line of the shore.

That’s not all, though. Far from it. The sky above you is torn – shafts of sunlight pierce the shadows, falling with pinpoint accuracy. Dazzling pools of brilliant light are scattered across the city, the forest. The School Gym, the Ruined Mansion, the Quiet Street; the Shopping Center and the Beach and H͟͏ę͢͝l̴̡̢͠l̷̵̛͟ơ̴̧͝,̴́̕͡ ͟͠H̀̀a̢̛̛͝pṕ̵̡̕y͟ Land! as well: you can see them all clearly. Stranger still, they make no difference at all to the surrounding areas, which still lie sunk in shadow.

From here, you can fly Downtown, to a Quiet Street, or to the Dark Forest. You can also return to the homeroom by retracing your steps down the stairs.

Mostly hidden behind a chicken-wire fence wrapped about with vines of flowers, the school swimming pool stands silent beneath the night skies, shadows casting a strange dance across the cool, dark waters. Numbered starting blocks stand in line at the near end of the pool, reels of lane markers, a pile of forgotten covers, shadowy heaps of are gathered beneath a lean-to near the changing-room doors. The air smells heavily of chlorine. There’s nothing to hear but the gentle lapping of water, the quiet gurgling of drains – and yet, carried on the wind, you can hear the faint chatter of youthful voices, the shrill of a whistle.

Head back across the grounds to find the Courtyard.

You find yourself in a forest clearing. Did you bring a lantern? It’s incredibly gloomy in here, a fairytale before the Happy-Ever-After makes everything better, the trees a tangled labyrinth of bough and branch, the canopy tight-woven, blotting out what little light there is. How much that is to do with the riotous overgrowth of flowers here, strangling the trunks of ancient trees and spreading in promiscuous tangles overhead, it’s impossible to tell. The air hangs heavy with the too-sweet smell of flowers. A slight break in the treeline to one side of the clearing suggests the presence of a narrow, mossy path, almost forgotten; another, slightly wider path lined with round cobblestones leads to a pair of iron gates, the grounds beyond basking in the summer sun.

A small campfire flickers up ahead, two cloaked figures huddled close about it for what pitiful scraps of warmth and light it can provide. The darkness eats away at it, the shadows clustered too close about and stealing away its brightness.

You can take the cobblestone path to the gates of the Ruined Mansion, or the overgrown footpath to the Forgotten Shrine. You can also fly back to the School Roof, the School Courtyard, or the Quiet Street.

You head up the path and through the torii gate to a lonely temple. Moss and lichen surrounds the fountains; vines twist around uprights covered in flaking scales of red paint. Ema hang on an aging wishing board, the wooden plaques strangely startling by their apparent newness. And flowers, flowers, flowers: springing from the cracks in the flagstones, winding over the fences, hung heavy over the sloping eaves of the roof, covering it as if with a carpet of snow.

Inside, candles burn inside red paper lanterns, casting the large, echoing room in a ruddy glow. The screens stand torn and open and the floor, once polished to a high sheen, is littered with petals and leaves and fallen twigs, and warped where rainwater might have washed it. The shrine itself stands empty save for a stray taiko drum, a few shide wands stood on a small table, their white pennants fluttering in the chill breeze, an old broom standing against one wall, a gong. Whatever might once have watched over this place, it seems it was chased away long ago. There’s nothing to see but a huddle of makeshift altars where the sanctuary might once have stood.

You can head back to the Dark Forest down the overgrown path.

...........magical girls?

[Listen, he's willing to listen to a strange creature Once to see what happen and so he went along with the transformation, but WOW, that all got real wild, real quick.]

[He's also now in some tight shorts, and plenty of frills ~~and I might poke at a doll maker for the full look while waiting my turn, shhhh~~ and he is almost as red as the clothes he's wearing.]

Um.

I think I missed....several steps.

... yeah, this wasn't really my idea. We've all got to work with what we're given, right?

Well, we can always go back over it all if you need to. It's kind of a lot to take in.

[As someone who has never set foot in a school in her life (though at least the pep dorms are aesthetically close enough) and doesn't know the cuddly sidekick magical girl trope--]

Whaaaaat even are ya, ya look like a child's toy.

[ also she's in this outfit. ]

At least the skirt's not too short. I'm too old for miniskirts.

However, if you would: elucidate on the nature of the problem, and the source.

... yeah, I don't know how it happened either. I'm not a bear all the time, you know.

...can we start with where my pants went?

Why would I know that? I just met ya.

Ah. Okay. Well, the problem is these flowers started showing up... and the only thing that'll get rid of them is shining light on them, but - well, you can see it's dark here, too. So I guess we need teenagers with attitude to help fix things up.

Oh. Yeah, the transformation will have taken care of that.

It's one of these things that just happens. At least you got shorts, that's not a guarantee... some of the other guys found that out the hard way.

It's a - whatever. Anyway, hi, hi, it's Michelle here, you've just made a contract with me to be a magical girl, or something.

...I'm a hundred and sixty-seven and I don't look a day under thirty, so I admit I'm not entirely sure what I'm supposed to do, then.

Yeah, in actuality we're not being that picky. If you're standing upright and look like you can help, that'll do.

...I do appreciate not having to do the kilt thing.

[I WILL]

What is this transformation?

Well, it's already happened? See, this entire - experience is Magical Girl themed... I wouldn't have picked it personally, but I guess it's just how her mind's framing all this.

Her mind?

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Wednesday's Heart Game » Session Three

♡ a girl's homeroom

♡ talk to michelle

♡ the school roof

♡ the competition pool

♡ a dark forest

♡ talk to hiryuu

♡ talk to leviathan

♡ a forgotten shrine

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