adsum | npc contact.1

[ They want to talk to her but she doesn't want to talk to them, has never talked to them and why start now? With an inaudible huff, she takes the pen, hands passing through it the first time but the second time she's able to keep her grip, setting the paper down on the nearest easel and writing: ]

I'm busy

[ Busy... ]

...Trying to get back at Sakasaki-kun?

[ That's Shuichi's best guess, or more rather... he's hesitant to say "murder", as if saying it will cement it and make things worse. It's probably stupid, but there's a part of him that hopes even Chiaki would have something else more important she wants to do... Otherwise, it's just a little too sad. ]

[ Chiaki nods her yes, and really, what did they expect from raising a vengeful ghost? What were they expecting to accomplish by bringing back somebody who died filled with rage and grief and betrayal, whose murderer they already know, whose situation and process and everything about that murder they already know, who isn't the sort to cry about being dead or beg them of anything like Okane did, who has a single track mind and does what she wants and looks like if Shuichi or any of them asks her any more stupid questions she's going to stab them again.

Yes or no questions, as tolerated, may be their best bet here. ]

[subaru's thinking maybe this wasn't a great idea. he doesn't wanna leave his spot just in case, because breaking things Always fixes situations in horror movies, but he also can't see the paper??? he's stuck,

regardless he can see that this is probably not a great situation.]

Kudo-chan, Natsume... he didn't mean to kill Sena-senpai. I know that probably doesn't matter to you? But he didn't mean to! He's not that kind of guy, he wants to spread happiness to people, it goes against his whole thing as a magician! He was possessed, okay? You know about the haunted items, don't you? The ones with the initials on them?

[this is technically a yes or no question]

[ There is soooo much she wants to say about all of that, and the frustration of not being able to communicate this shows clearly on her face, along with a little nod at none of this mattering to her, a roll of the eyes about being possessed, and skepticism about haunted items because wtf is he even talking about? ]

[ What were they thinking when they summoned her... it's not like there's a convenient handbook for how to use the two-headed bird coins, so probably none of them expected it would bring Chiaki back... quite this physically. But now that they have... ]

...The student council election. You remember it, right?

[ That's also a yes or no question, thank you Subaru for setting the example so brilliantly. Shuichi's trying to complete the pieces for him, in the only way he can think of. ]

The people with yellow eyes in the courtyard... you have to have seen it too. They were clearly acting odd. You just can't notice it with Sakasaki-kun because his eyes are already that color, but that's what Akehoshi-kun is talking about.

[ Imagine if they set the coin down on the same side and were forced to listen to Chiaki's stream of curses against Natsume until her time runs out. And Shuichi may recall from before: the time the spirit is brought back is limited, and does he really want to use that time to convince Chiaki to let Natsume back into her good graces? Especially with the admittance that Natsume's eyes are gold and nobody would ever be able to tell the difference anyways, with nothing to go off of but his word.

All that aside... Chiaki brings that pen and paper back to her. ]

He's still dead. I'm still dead
Those facts don't change
I can forgive and still be mad

[ not... that she's going to forgive... but the heart of the matter is that none of this matters: facts and reasons and explanations do not invalidate a person's feelings. She's allowed to feel what she feels and nobody can take that from her. ]

[ To be fair... nobody's really telling her not to be angry. Or well, Subaru might have been hoping for that since he seems like a really bright, optimistic person, but Shuichi's more of a realist. It's more rather that... ]

...You're wrong. There's one thing that does change.

[ There's also actual, physical evidence of Natsume's possession. Granted, it's kind of circumstantial but it makes a little too much sense overall to just be ignored. So even if the color of his eyes can't prove it, there's little room to deny there's at least something going on. Something that he didn't orchestrate.

Anyway, Shuichi could spend the limited time trying to explain that, but he has a feeling Chiaki isn't interested. ]

We aren't telling you this to excuse what Sakasaki-kun did. But... if he was being controlled by something, making him the target of your revenge won't solve anything. You'd just be letting the real culprit responsible for all of it walk away.

[ That... at least, should be a language she understands... maybe. ]

[he is hoping that maybe natsume can be forgiven at least but he won't invalidate feelings,]

Right, right! You're already dead, so you can do something we can't! That's what you're getting at, right Sai-chan? That Kudo-chan can find the spirit who possessed Natsume and make sure it doesn't happen again?

[right? are they letting the ghost Take Care of ghosts?]

( oh god her fingies are so numb right now and it can be reasonably assumed she let go quite a bit ago, but s t i l l. ... she'll do it again in a heartbeat though. but there's something else- the entire reason she's here. )

Hey... I know you don't want to be here, talking to us. But there's something I need to know, and only you can answer this for me- the people who die here. What happens to them? What happened to you? I want to help you.

( all of them. every soul trapped here. she's... she's pretty sure she knows, but. she needs to ask. )

[ She is still 1000% sure slitting Natsume's throat will be satisfying, but the idea of somebody else who got the ball rolling... Maybe there will be two murders tonight.

God, she wishes they'd used the other side of the coin or at least had another so she isn't reduced to writing out her answers, gripping the pen as best as she can to write. ]

There's no way for me to learn who that would be. [ written and angled at Shuichi and Subaru, just long enough for them to read it, and then she turns the paper back to herself and addresses Nene's question. ]

This is just a memory forced to relive my death over and over again.
It matters how you die and what happens to your physical body that determines what happens after that.>

[ Which is why she was so hell bent on keeping Izumi for herself but nooooooooo he had to be desecrated. ]

( oh god that sounds horrible... it's hard not to think of chiaki's own death, izumi, the one in the elevator- the imps- every horrible thing she knows of, flashing in her head quietly.

at least it helps reaffirm her resolve. )

... Do you know where your soul is trapped? I- I have an idea of it, but. I can't confirm it on my own.

Hopefully with all the others.
I need to come back.

( the others... ori i'm screaming thank you for this )

... Do you mean the wisteria tree? Is that where the others are?

[ hope!! (: ]

Most of them. Not everyone.

[ It's a memory... forced to relive her death? But... why is that? He has something he wants to ask about that, but for now the current topic does seem more important. ]

Not everyone... Are you talking about the graduates?

[ Or is there some other exception too? ]

Then- if not everyone is there... where's the rest? Ah- I don't- I was speaking out loud.

( but also hello??? guess who wasn't aware of the coming back thing. )

What do you mean by come back, by the way? ... I'm really sorry. There's a lot about this place that we don't remember.

[ She looks up a little, thinking. Graduation... never really cared about that, unlike Rokuro. She was more than happy just being here, where Izumi was, content to keep pace with him for as long as possible. ]

Graduates and others.
Everybody else comes back. You have too.

( "i need to come back." "everybody else comes back. you have too." something about this... nene feels chills, even moreso than a ghostly presence would bring. there's a sinking in her stomach- )

From... the dead? But...

( but she hasn't. died. ... right? )

[ So the graduates don't come back... does that mean that's the point of graduation? To get out of some sort of cycle? Not to mention... ]

You said there are others... Yashiro-san and I don't remember. And... neither did Sena-kun, I'm sure of it. That's why he was confused about some things.

[ When he and Chiaki talked, that is -- it matches what he and Komaeda had said at the meeting, something like how she seemed to know Izumi for longer than he remembered knowing her. Why she was so obsessed with him when he's someone she's not supposed to be on those terms with... no matter how impossible it sounds, Shuichi hates to admit it but it makes sense. ]

I'm sorry, Kudo-san. Could you explain it for us a little? It doesn't have to be anything complex... even just the basics.

[ from... The dead! (:

Anyways, Chiaki gives him a look like are they all stupid? Why is Komaeda's dementia contagious, why don't they remember?

Furious scribbling: ]

What part is confusing?
Sometimes you die and your soul is reborn anew, given another chance at life. Sometimes you're beyond help and you cease to exist.
Sometimes you're stuck in a limbo like what you're making me be with those rocks and making me stay here and ~~talk~~write.

[ If this were any other situation -- if this were just banter and no one was dead, and they were all simply friends... he might have been unable to help it and laughed at that. Despite Chiaki's frustration, or perhaps because of it precisely, because it feels like something that makes her... her. It makes Shuichi remember with painful clarity she's a person... another student stuck in this school, no matter the differences between them and her.

And she might be annoyed, but even despite her limited time or how agitated she was at the start, she's still taking the time to tell them all this. She's someone they could have been actual friends with. No... some of them were already, like Rika and even Natsume.

Just a little, his voice seems to crack -- and it's not from the stab wound for once. Those souls "beyond help" that cease to exist... ]

The third years... who don't get to graduate. Are they... the others who don't come back?

[ Like Aiko. :) ]

[

me every time somebody makes smiley faces back at me

Chiaki, granted, can be a difficult person to get along with; a lot of the other students are like that too, fiercely independent with little interest in making friends perhaps as a product of the environment. To survive in this school you need a goal, the unrelenting drive to reach that goal, and the acceptance that not everybody is going to make it. Like when you first enter college and they're all "look to your left, look to your right, one of you will not be here next year" and plant the idea that you must murder a stranger to cull the competition. ]

That depends on the president's contract.
If they're very lucky, third years can repeat.

[ Lucky? Subjectively lucky, maybe. ]

[ also i realized we didn't link this end so (continued here) sorry ori u can ignore this alert it's just me being obsessed with oderliness ]

npc contact.1

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i got sniped but i deserved it tbh sfdakj;l

both of us like "i need to be in bed BUT"

fuck me up ori give me the nene death lore

y'all having to be in bed and me like i just woke up, i'm crying

4AM Ori: time to be wide awake

4AM ori no...

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