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 Noriko // Friday EveningBlushing at the compliment, Noriko squeezes Akio's hand back and bumps him with her hip. "hehe... dummy. thank you..."
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Dec 15, 2017 07:40
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 Tsukiyo - Friday Night Apologizing about tact then doing this kind of shameless flirting in front of someone who just lost her boyfriend?! Tsukiyo approaches Akio from behind and gives a big pinch at his right arm.
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Dec 15, 2017 14:40
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 Akio // FridayAkio grins at Noriko and gives her a little a bump back. "Hehe... If I'm such a dummy, then why do you- OW!" He yelps and leaps around as he suddenly feels a sharp biting pain in the back of his right arm! "Tsukiyo?" He rubs the back of his arm where she pinched him and stares at her, completely baffled. "W-What was that about?"
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Dec 15, 2017 17:02
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Takashi's Text To Takano posted:--You pull up an unrelated text while you're surfing the web on Felix's behalf: Moon Social Link(Felix) posted:
Doomykins fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Sep 30, 2019 |
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Dec 21, 2017 02:03
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: "Why don't you tell me?"
: To Takano, "If your Study Council duties won't keep you, how about a cheat meal after the Rally on Friday? I think I know just the spot."
: Sharing texts with Felix, he tells you about a man named Kitamura Taro, who seems to have loaned money to his girlfriend Yuri under false pretenses, or an unusually strict interest rate. Felix can't help her anymore and he's worried something bad may happen if that money comes up short...
: After awhile, you get a reply from Kouta: "Never heard of him, not in anybody's crew."
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Moon Social Link(Continued) posted:
Doomykins fucked around with this message at 00:29 on Dec 23, 2017 |
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Dec 21, 2017 02:03
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: "Hey man. So you need a little help studying?" He shuffles one hand around in his coat pocket. Nobody gets into Tokyo U without a little brain boost, if you know what I'm sayin'."
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FridayFriday Morning posted:
---  : "I-I-It'd still.. be with the.. morgue..." Yuki is startled by Noriko's question, but keeps herself together at Takashi's kind suggestion. "I'd like that..." Your group picks up some quality teas and coffees on this find Friday evening! Yuki offers to lead you all to Takamura's apartment, though you have time to pick up anything you think you might need to conduct your investigation, including purchasing rituals from Jennifer. As you travel, Yuki chats with you all a bit more, innocently peering into your ah, training and credentials... if you have any? She seems to think, courtesy of Takashi, that you're not just high school kids? And at one point she walks with Tsukiyo and marvels at her hair. "It's natural? You're so pretty like that..."--- Takamura's Apartment Music Takamura's place matches the little tidbits you've heard about him. There's a few long-term oil spots staining the road alongside peel-out marks from tires and a noticeable empty space and dirt outline where some vehicles and heavy tool-boxes should be, yet are not. Yuki leads you to the front door and sighs deeply as she produces the key... she opens the door and you step into total darkness. A moment later the lights are flipped on. Takamura lived in a small yet comfortable space, a bit messy yet completely his own. Big piles of automotive manuals, part catalogs and bike magazines are set around a very comfortably patch-work reclining chair, pin-up posters of cars and models alike break up the flat monotone coloring of the cheap walls and there's still ice cold beer in the refrigerator. The middle of the room has a little flat screen and a tidy keyboard attached to a Playstation 6(a console warrior?!) with VR headset set atop the console. Set ominously between the recliner and the coffee table/console set up is a tape outline of a man who died kneeling, the shape small and compact, his body no doubt found upright somehow... despite being cleaned small flecks of blood and ash can be found if you peer closely. They're in the chair too. : Yuki is tearing up. Her voice is strained. "I... I found him, and I ran away and called the police, and they wouldn't let me see him again. But w-what I saw, in that one glimpse.. was his eyes were seared... p-p-pure white..." A tear crosses her cheek in a moment and she crosses her arms across her chest, hands to her shoulders, like she was cold.
Doomykins fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Jan 2, 2018 |
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Dec 23, 2017 00:44
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: Two days after your nightmare bento surprise from Noriko, you catch Itsumi and Madoka waiting at the school date for you, Akio. They exchange friendly greetings with you and Madoka steps up, holding a little lunch box with a graphic of a popular Hero Cat archetype from DDW. "You know, Akio, uhm, me and Sunny, we ah, we thought it was really awful what those girls did to you the other day. So we.. got you a gift!" Swallowing any fear, Madoka thrusts the offering towards you!
: "Oh?" Akio says, surprised. He accepts the lunch box and takes a peek under the lid. "Wow, it looks delicious. Thanks!" He says with genuine gratitude and smiles happily, just as he realizes that, wait... It looks home made. Which would mean that... Madoka and Itsumi had cooked lunch for him? They were probably just trying to be nice, but he couldn't help but feel a bit flustered! "D-Did you make this? I had no idea you could cook! Uh, not saying that I thought that you couldn't, either. Um..."
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 Tsukiyo "Hm? Yeah, it's from my mother's side of the family. Grandpa and Grandma weren't Japanese by birth." Tsukiyo answers somewhat bashfully, even though that kind of question was regularly asked from her. Apartment She gazes at the tape outline and puts her hand on her mouth. A grievous scene indeed... But is there any clue still after the police combed the whole place?
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Dec 26, 2017 18:18
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Akio // Friday - Takamura's Apartment Akio felt apprehensive as Yuki unlocked the door to Takamura's apartment, but he also felt a bit excited, he'd never witnessed a crime scene with his own eyes before! And it was the scene of a murder to boot! It was almost like those detective novels he used to read as a kid... A cold shiver runs down his spine as he spots the tape outline and the blood staining the floor right in front of Takamura's gaming rig. "His eyes were seared white?..." Yikes... If he'd been killed through DDW somehow... Ugh, best not to think too much about the implications of that too much for now. Although... Akio leans closer to Noriko and whispers in her ear, "I wonder if Takamura was wearing the VR headset when he was killed? We should do an object reading on it and see what we can find out about his death." After looking around the room a bit more, Akio notices some things that does not seem quite right, and turns to Yuki. "Um, Yuki, are you okay with answering some questions? It'd help us a lot, I think. Takamura was into motor stuff, right? Did he own a bike or something? I couldn't help but notice there were some empty spots outside where his wheels should be. Where did they go? Oh, and did you have to replace the locks and door to the apartment? I couldn't see any obvious damage on the outside, was there any signs of forced entry?"
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Dec 26, 2017 19:24
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Noriko // Friday - Takamura's Apartment Noriko nods to Akio. "right. i bet the headset has the most psychic energy of anything in the room... it should give us a good reading." Taking a moment to look around the room, she stops and crouches down by the tape outline on the floor, looking over the area around the outline carefully, noting the specs of blood that had still managed to evade any clean-up. Getting up for just a moment, she moves into the tape outline and kneels, placing her hands on her knees. "uncomfortable... did he play like this...?" after taking a moment to think, she looks over to Yuki. "hey... was he... um..." she tries to find a delicate way to put it but probably falls short. "...executed? the blood, and the position on the floor..."
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Dec 27, 2017 14:58
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Friday: "He loves bikes, he had two! But the police say his personal bike was stolen... uhm, he worked as a mechanic and had a "prize" bike he stored at the garage.." She seems surprised by Akio's attention to detail and looks from side to side for a bit, then ah-hahs and gestures to the bed-space. "They found it outside! If you go around back, the window was damaged!" Indeed, if you head outside and walk around to the back of the building, there is a window to Takamura's apartment overlooking his futon. Calling it forced entry might be a bit of a stretch. The window is wholly intact and undamaged! The frame of it is strangely charred the entire way around and upon closer inspection you can see strange, very tiny geometric grid, as though somebody had cut into the stone with some impossibly precise and overly complicated tool. Back inside Noriko asks a hard question and Yuki immediately begins to waver. "H-He was... t-there was clearly a r-robbery too... Ohhhhh... Takki..." Her voice cracks and she wipes at her eyes with her hands, further irritating them.
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Dec 27, 2017 16:18
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Noriko // Friday - Takamura's Apartment She takes a deep breath for a moment, trying to imagine what Takamura's last moments might have been like as she kneels in the imprint his corpse left behind, feeling a shiver run down her spine. "murder is pretty uncommon here... i don't know why a robber would go to these lengths... this seems really personal. we know he was on the bad side of some people in D-D-W... the very bad side... did he have any other enemies? Like, the... the... kind of people who could get a gun in japan?"
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Dec 27, 2017 17:40
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Friday: "No.. he was the sweetest guy..." Her smile and optimism: gone. Yuki is clearly miserable. "W-who cares about that game?! Nobody would kill him over that!" Bitter disgust rings through the last sentence.
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Dec 27, 2017 17:55
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Tsukiyo "If he was gaming when it happened, someone could have snuck from behind without him noticing. But if it was a gun the noise would have made the neighbors noticed, Noriko-san..." Tsukiyo approaches the window Yuki mentioned, examining it for any ways it was possibly damaged before returning to the others. "Maybe a sword or a knife...?" Perception: 1d20+10 20
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Dec 27, 2017 18:18
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Akio // Friday - Takamura's Apartment "There's no way this cut was made with some sort of tool from our world, it's way too... delicate," Akio comments as he runs his finger along the thin charred fracture around the window. "So what could've done it?" He furrows his brow as he thinks about it. He still thought this murder was likely related to the great game and DDW, was there a power or item or something from the game world that would be able to do something like this? Background Benefit: Arcana Reroll: 1d20+27 44
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Dec 28, 2017 00:03
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 Friday - Takamura's Pad (#beatthemidterms) Taking a moment to survey the damage, Takashi doesn't say anything while his friends conjecture. As he happens upon cold beer in the fridge, he cracks open a bottle against the countertop, collecting the cap and depositing it in the trash as though nothing were the matter. Sipping the brew as though it were the most ordinary thing ever, Takashi doesn't spend all of his time at any particular spot, instead making a circuit of all the spaces. Signs of a break-in, without the usual hallmarks but instead a weird cut window frame stands out, but then so too do the missing objects, and certainly the ashes and blood. "I don't think this was anything so mundane as a Gumi job, Noriko-chan. All the usual signs are missing," he takes a quick sip, "but its also strange that things were stolen, unless that was just a cover for the greater crime." Stealth: 1d20+12 31 - Expert knowledge of how to conceal things for a bonus to spotting concealed and deliberately misleading clues. Perception: 1d20+17 32 - the aforementioned spotting.
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Dec 28, 2017 22:31
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Noriko // Friday - Takamura's Apartment "ah... the expert opinion, huh?" Noriko cooly remarks. "i'll take your word for it. so... just weirdos left, ne?" Standing from her seat in the tape circle, she looks around the room for a moment, trying to get a grasp of the room's dimensions and how she imagined the energy in the room would flow. She considered the ritual she had performed with Akio and focused less on the specifics and more on the underlying principles... she could throw out the magic circles, the one the police had provided was more than enough to open the gate to the other side, and she knew the psychic connection between the headset and the events that took place here should be incredibly strong... She could use the headset as a looking glass, streaming the vision into the crystalline matrix of the OLED screen, and sync it up with the nearby TV for the rest of the group to see. Taking a step back from the circle, she looks over the area thoughtfully. "a circle sealed in blood by men of virtue, at the precise spot of a traumatic death... this place... it's perfect!" Noriko feels a thrill of excitement but does her best to cram it down, not wanting to upset Yuki any further. She could empathize, as much as she could empathize with anyone anymore. "if this works, what we could see could crush her... maybe i should talk to her first..." "hey, Yuki-san..." Noriko says, pushing aside her anxiety as she approaches. "i'm sorry if i've made you feel worse. i don't think before i talk sometimes... i know grief... i... i don't want to repeat anything you've already heard a lot from everyone... i can't bring takamura back or make it stop hurting, but... i know we can find out who did this and make them pay for it. i hope that's something, at least." she shrugs. "so, listen... i'm going to do something strange... let's call it... esoteric computer hacking. if it works, we can pull an image, sort of, of what happened from his VR goggles. it's something the police wouldn't have been able to do... I don't know how much we'll be able to see, but... um... seeing it happen is different. I... I don't know if you want that. you might want to step outside when we do this." Diplomacy: Reassure Yuki Diplomacy: 1d20+21 34 (i'll do the ritual post tomorrow)
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Dec 29, 2017 05:08
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Friday: "No! I want to see it! How can.. how can I rest not k-knowing who did this, or why?!" Yuki grips Noriko's shoulders and looks her eye to eye! Her eyes are wet, but she's resolute! Arcana: The window entry is intriguing in that it was forced, yet the window is fully intact and the frame is completely uncompromised. The perfect grid cutting reminds you of the miscellaneous matter conjuring or dispersing effects used to build Mindscapes in DDW. Did somebody apply literal terraforming to the real world?! The unmistakable presence of precise, powerful magic is here! The burn marks seem to be a byproduct of an impossible process of adjusting matter.. it's not paint, or scorching, the small black outline is literally new matter! Seems to be... obsidian?! Perception: There's no presence of matter or passage from the window through Takamura's bedroom or bed, further lending credit to how perfectly immaculate the window was moved. Examining the room with an eye for sneaky details, you notice that several items in private areas are disturbed: clothing is shoved to one side of dresser drawers, photo frames are undamaged yet stand empty on nightstands, and even the hard-drive of Takamura's Playstation 6 has been removed! You discover the barest bit of dried blood on the console, where plastic gives way to the hard metal of computer components... injured while removing it! The console still turns on, at least. Takamura's apartment has been cleaned of anything that might identify him. There's no wallet or IDs of any kind. There's also nothing related to friends or family, or even Yuki. He hardly seems like a private or solitary guy...
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Dec 29, 2017 05:45
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Takamura's apartment Itsumi notices the lack of any personal attachments and shakily notes, "There's... no picutres in here... I wonder if whoever did this is going to go after them next..." --- School Pulling Madoka aside before lunch, Itsumi asks a small, meaningful question relating to her situation with Ichiro, "What do you know about Chizuru and her relationship to Ichiro? And do we know anything about him at all? I can't keep doing all of his work. It's just not right!" --- (sorry for the short post and the silence for a while, i've been pretty ill since even before the holidays)
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Dec 29, 2017 20:05
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Akio // Friday - Takamura's Apartment Akio is shocked by his findings, but they seemed undeniable. Mindscaping, or a technique just like it, done in real life. To do something like that outside the virtual world probably required both a high level of mastery and large amounts of Fate. Akio really did not like where all the signs were suddenly pointing. He looks around him, feeling exposed and a bit scared standing alone outside in the cold light rain. He tries to shake it off, but nevertheless finds himself picking up the pace as he heads around the building and back inside the apartment to let the others know of his findings. Catching wind of the discussion inside as he enters, he chimes in. "I don't think so, Itsumi. I'm pretty sure whoever did this was after something in particular. Something only Takamura would have. The pictures could have disappeared as a result of the mindscaping, maybe?" He explains about his findings outside. "...But I guess the pictures could also have been taken along with the hard drive for whatever reason," he sighs. "We still have a few tricks up our sleeve, though." He nods to Noriko. "Let me know if you need any assistance with the reading."
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Dec 30, 2017 02:14
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Tsukiyo "An attempt to steal his identity? No, it wouldn't make sense, they wouldn't let his dead body inside if that was the case..."
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Dec 30, 2017 16:16
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Noriko // Friday - Takamura's Apartment \\ A Cybernetic Ritual! As the group wraps up their investigation Noriko enlists their help in clearing some space around the tape circle on the floor, having them move the recliner against the wall. While they move the recliner, she scoops up some of the stacks of books and magazines into her arms, rearranging them seemingly at random around the room; while there seems to be some method to the madness, Noriko doesn't waste time explaining herself. Grabbing a beer from the fridge, Noriko pops the top but doesn't take a drink, setting the open bottle in front of the tape circle on the floor. Noriko sets candles on the floor at five points around the tape circle, stopping just before lighting the candles to ask Yuki; "hey... did Takamura smoke? um.. if you have any of his cigarettes... and, uh, can you dim the lights, please? very low..." (If yes, Noriko lights the cigarette and sets it down in an ashtray, which she will then hold in her lap.) Kneeling in the middle of the tape square again, she lights the candles and sets the beer down between her knees. Donning the VR headset, she powers the unit on, and a moment later syncs it up to the TV, streaming the image of the system menu to the external display. The sorry state of the console hardware didn't matter, as she wasn't intending to even try to run a game, let alone DDW. Inputting a command sequence on the keyboard, Noriko calls a debug menu out of the background. Searching the menu, she smiles at what she sees. "oh! it's still here... good." she picks an odd option off the menu - "FM TUNER" "they used to put these tuners in just about everything but now it's a dead spectrum... instead of using a different chipset they just hide it behind a menu..." clicking the option on the menu, it takes her to a very simple screen, just showing a basic sound visualizer and the channel number. The hiss of static is all that can be heard on channel after channel. "hm... kind of mournful, huh?" Flipping the dial on the tuner to a random channel, it lands on (94.9), the growl of static as present and unchanging here as it is on the rest of the spectrum. Noriko takes a swig off the beer, before setting it to her right in a deliberate motion, placing it exactly 90 degrees to her side. (if she has Takamura's cigarette, she takes a long drag, sets it back down in the ashtray, and sets it to her left, in exactly the same fashion.) Placing her hands on her knees, she focuses intently on the static. There's a long moment of silence where nothing seems to happen, or like anything is going to happen - just a room full of teenagers and an adult who should know better wasting time on something ridiculous. Noriko mulls over the flavor of the beer, takes a deep breath, catching a whiff of the cigarette on the air. Gradually the static seems to change, waxing and waning in intensity, as Noriko begins to waver slightly in her place. Noriko slumps over slightly, remaining on her knees as she falls into a trance-like state as she focuses deeper and more intently on the white noise, searching for something else, a faint pattern in an ocean of formless sound. Despite the poor shape of the hardware and the lack of system intensive work going on, the indicator lights on the unit seem to be fully ablaze, as if it was receiving and processing a tremendous amount of data. The sound of the static is growing louder now, still waxing and waning in intensity, at it's peaks sounding like a gale of wind or vacuum that might pull you in. Noriko throws herself deeper inward. She sheds her ego, detaching her consciousness from reality long enough to grasp the unreal. In this unhallowed place she could confront it directly and steal it back to the waking world. Floating for an eternity in the endless sea of nothing she finds the needle in the haystack, diving towards it as fast as she can. The static on the screen begins to give way, pulling back like the sound of a receding tide. The static on the screen seems to lurch and twist, the beads of static whirling on an axis like a spiral galaxy. Noriko latches onto the sound and finds it's source, so close to her this whole time but so difficult to find. Grabbing onto it with her unconscious mind, she feels a thrill of pride as she lurches the tear Takamura's death had caused open. Bit by bit her ego returns and her grip on unreality begins to slip. She'd opened the gate a crack... She couldn't let go now! Reaching inwards, she fully embraces her ego anew, calling on Memento-Mori to boost her psychic presence just enough to rip the small tear wide open. The static returns with a tremendous roar, a howling gale that blares through the apartment, as Noriko is rejected from the space with an abrupt lurching jolt. The lights in the apartment brighten in intensity and the smell of ozone catches on the air as the screen flashes in a series of bright colors before crashing spectacularly; one of the lightbulbs in the room pops from the surge in power, before they all dim back to where they were before. The headset reboots and Noriko lets out a loud groan as she returns to her physical self, the sudden shock of her return and the jolt of psychic force leaving her feeling physically hung over and emotionally bruised. Her head pounding, she reaches up to her nose, wiping away a stream of blood, leaving behind a crimson smear. "ah... heh... i did it..." The system seems to have been rebooted, but instead of the normal system menu there is instead some sort of security camera interface. It seems to currently show five different feeds of the room, exactly as it is now, all from different angles. Underneath each is a set of menu options ; it seems to be waiting on input for each feed. Buttons and UI elements seem to be labeled in weird and creepy ways; "VOYEUR" instead of "Play", or a constantly present "TIME OF DEATH:" label next to the timestamp on the feed... "five things... we can see five things that happened relating to this object... let's make them count... that was... taxing." --Perform Object Reading Ritual Arcana: 1d20+23 24 TF Reroll: Arcana rerolls: 3#1d20+23 28 43 43 -1 Surge Mirthless fucked around with this message at 15:09 on Dec 31, 2017 |
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Dec 31, 2017 15:04
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Akio // Friday - Takamura's Apartment Knowing better than to disturb her while she is performing the ritual, Akio stands by and watches Noriko nervously as she reaches into the realm beyond, both with keen interest in her new take on the ritual proceedings, but also concerned that she may be delving too deep this time. As soon as the ritual terminates and she recoils back into consciousness, he's by her side and gives her support. "You're bleeding!" He says with clear worry. Always prepared for a heavy nosebleed, Akio quickly fishes up a pack of tissues from his bag and hands her one to staunch the blood flow. "Here, then pinch your nose like this and it'll clot faster..." He then gives her shoulder a little rub and smiles meekly at her. "Nice work, but you don't have to bear the burden alone, you know..." He looks up at the screen and reaches for the keyboard. "We should probably start with seeing what happened when Takamura used the headset for the last time..." He navigates the menu for one of the video feeds and enters the search query. "And let's see if we can find out who took the hard drive, too." He goes to the next feed and types in another query. "Three more... What do you all think?" Let's view: 1. The last time Takamura used the headset. 2. The person that took the hard drive.
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Jan 2, 2018 01:13
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(Catching up.) Thursday Thursday Night posted:
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Jan 3, 2018 17:40
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: Logging into DDW the same night as the Nekketsu caper, you're immediately greeted by your Velvet Room attendent offering you an armful of letters. Each is filled with a demand for explanation from Miyuki... and before you can even get settled in she's sending you an angry tell! "Chavez-san, I hope you have a real explanation for all of this now! You really hurt Yoshito today!"
: Looks like a ridiculously over the top badass devil vampire gangster!? "That's right. I heard it from the Vice Principal. Hey, Chavez... you really broke my back yesterday!" He laughs, his voice barely filtered aside from a popular echo reverb. Yoshito!?
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Thursday Night Tsukiyo's Rendezvous posted:---A decent way into the city, Owl Night Long would normally demand a trip by public transport, but the cover of darkness prompts you to move quickly of your own accord. You soon arrive outside the correctly named Owl Night Long, a coffee bar and cafe that picks up when the sun sets. You don't spot anything unusual, certainly no large groups of hooligans waiting for somebody. Even the small landscaped park across the street is empty save for passing couples heading home. The cafe smells divine... baked sweets...
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Jan 3, 2018 17:41
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: He's tall, but so are you, so he's just a few inches taller. He's muscular and even wider than usual, wearing a Nekketsu uniform jacket on his shoulders. He's ... waiting patiently beside the line with an order ticket.
: Uwooo! He samples the drink with great gusto! After that mighty sip, he looks over his shoulder and seems momentarily stunned to see you. He turns to face you and clears his throat. "Hrmm.. it's you, again. And you sound exactly like the girl that tore up Nekketsu this week.. three times you've crossed us."
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Thursday Night Tsukiyo's Rendezvous posted:
Doomykins fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Jun 20, 2018 |
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Jan 3, 2018 17:41
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Friday Passive Insight: Turning on the console and manipulating the headset and keyboard, you discover a floating bit of recorded data. It seems to have been saved in a passive "last recorded" quality of life feature intended to keep the absent-minded from forgetting to save gathered data. Looks like a streaming entry, dated April 5th 2026, very late at night. Later than the Zombiepalooza run? Without a harddrive the data can't be saved, but it remains in the "cloud" and can be viewed! : Yuki blushes, cupping her own cheek with grace. "Taki always said I was the only drug he needed..." No cigarettes!Ritual Results: The last time Takamura used the headset was the night he died. You see a shadowy outline standing before him in the apartment before everything is flooded out by an overwhelming red light. The person who took the hard drive... a different silhouette, using a fox-faced mask to hide their identity. They struggle with the hard drive for a second and clearly nick their finger wrenching it out, where metal meets plastic. You have three more images to call up!
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Jan 3, 2018 17:55
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Tsukiyo "Hm... How about the last time Takamura felt distressed or threatened when using it? That could serve as a clue if he was aware he was in danger..."
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Jan 4, 2018 15:46
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Noriko // Friday - Takamura's Apartment Noriko nods at Tsukiyo. "maybe... or it could just end up being a PVP match he got really wound up on..." She considers the last questions for a minute, deep in thought. She thought it might be a stretch within the confines of the ritual, but Takamura had been the headset's owner, and his death had been so close... The sensors and microphone would have registered his death even if it wasn't saved anywhere. If they knew how he was killed, maybe they'd better be able to identify his killer when they inevitably met. 4. How did Takamura die? Selecting the fifth text box, she hesitates for a moment. is this violating his memory? his privacy? she wonders, pausing for a brief moment before shrugging it off. The game took place in the VR space... If Takamura ever talked about it anywhere, it was in DDW. Maybe the goggles would have some memory of it? 5. What was Takamura's goal in The Great Game?
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Jan 4, 2018 21:15
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Akio // Friday - Takamura's Apartment "Hey, look, there's a recording! Maybe his hard drive had more, but we can at least see the last thing he did in game." Akio loads up the recording and lets it play.
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Jan 4, 2018 22:21
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Friday: "W-who's that?! And who's THAT!? And how'd they do that?! If it's fire, wouldn't the room be torched?!" Yuki indignantly yells at the TV! More images drift in. The last time Takamura was using the headset and felt threatened or distressed... the image warps to a distant time, the in-game calendar pointing to January. Takamura is wearing the headset and soundlessly yelling at somebody over it, very warped and artificial images of White Blade and the kobold sorcerer in ORDER, Thaddeus. It's clearly an arguement... Takamura's death is reexamined in closer detail. As this is an object reading, all you can perceive is a thin hand rising in a gesture emblematic of conjuring magical power in a RPG. The blinding white flash is generated and whatever it was, it ended Takamura's life and accounted for the condition his body was found in. You try for something broader, truly testing the limits of this simple ritual. It can't produce an accurate response... an image of the five elites of ORDER appear like a classic villain backdrop, presenting Thaddeus, Isabelle, Bishop, Fenrir and Charlotte. Considering the passage of time, Royal wouldn't be considered one of their elite, instead earning her accolades a week ago, after Takamura's death. Seems Takamura was standing against them, at least. VR Playback: Sunday, April 5th, 11:03 PM posted:
: "Ahh! Ahhhhh!" Yuki gapes and points at the screen, horrified! "H.. he.. he did it! That sick robot!" Her eyes are wide as she seems on the verge of panic! "W-w-w-w-w-w-why!? Who'd kill someone over this dumb game?!?!"Arcana, Passive: Something clearly happened that warps the boundaries between game and reality... even if Takamura was one-shot by that ridiculous boss in the game, it would just despawn his character briefly! Comparing the events of the stream to the images you've seen from the Object Reading Ritual, you can add a new piece to the scene... Takamura was standing in front of his console and TV with the headset on. He must have died and then dropped to a kneel, leaning forward against the coffee table the console is on. Doomykins fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Jun 20, 2018 |
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Jan 5, 2018 04:50
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: You're viewing things from Takamura's point of view and get an Overseer's tactical map view of the Zombiepalooza run. You've seen this all before, though now Akio and Itsumi are intimately familiar with the details as well. New footage begins with Takamura returning to his Velvet Room, notably more vibrant and radical with him being alive and in it and all. His Velvet Room attendant, on second look, is clearly Yuki in a deep blue short skirt and halter top, stomach exposed and classically pretty in a pin-up model sort of way. Takamura winks and gestures to her like a playboy and sorts through his inventory briefly, producing his loot token from looting Royal's Mindscape. "Hmm.. I hope she forgives me for this, eventually." He pens a quick in-game delivery to Itsumi and sends it off to her, the ethereal red strands of fate briefly shimmering from his heart to the mask. A neat eruption of brimstone catches his attention as he hands the gift off for delivery.
: A massive figure clad entirely in black iron plate sits atop a heavily muscled headless horse, carrying a heavy iron sickle, large enough to be a greatsword in a mere human's hands. A single eye glares out from the helmet at Takamura and the two are wrapped in an aura of red malice. This type of creature... it seems a bit unusual, like it isn't part of the usual design aesthetics for DDW. "I hath born witness to thine efforts. Your stay of execution is granted." 
: Red Charlotte's text dances across an unfurled scroll with military precision, matching the taciturn message: "You'll know humility the second you step into a neutral space, scum." Takamura chuckles and crumples it up, immolating it with a quick delete. He checks the next one.
: Polite prose with a flowery pink script. "Aren't you being a little reckless?" Takamura rolls his eyes and archives that one before opening the last letter.
: "We need to talk." Just a post-it with machine-printed type. Takamura pumps his fist and moves to exit the room, shouting "HELL YEAH WE DO!" He warps out as the Yuki-Attendant cheers.
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Noriko // Friday - Takamura's Apartment Noting the image Tsukiyo called up, Noriko points to white blade. "we can ask white blade what this was all about. it might be a clue." As the remaining images come through, Noriko feels herself left with more questions than she started with. "i guess we'll have to know what ORDER is planning if we're ever going to understand Takamura's motivation..." She hoped the video would shed some light on things... After they watch the video, Noriko speaks up. "...so, takamura made some kind of deal, too. looks like I wasn't the only one... I wonder who that was...?" Noriko digs deep into her occult lore, carefully considering the various demons, devils, angels, and other entities mentioned by name or inference in her texts. Arcana: 1d20+23 43 -- identify the strange rider "so... that's it, then. this game really can kill us, can't it?" Noriko frowns. Maybe getting Akane involved wasn't such a good idea. After a long moment of silence, she says something rather grim. "...we... we need to find Bishop and put him in the ground. i'm going to the morgue as soon as i can... i need to speak to Takamura himself." Mirthless fucked around with this message at 19:17 on Jan 5, 2018 |
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Jan 5, 2018 18:29
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Akio // Friday - Takamura's Apartment Holy poo poo... Akio's face drains of color as Takamura's last moments play out before his eyes. Even Yuki's outbrust barely registers, sounding muffled to his ears as he sits frozen, processing what he had just witnessed... gently caress... So that was it then, everything he had feared turned out to be true. Takamura had been killed through DDW. And the murderer was Bishop. He felt ready to throw up... "...Put him in the ground?" He looks at Noriko and gapes in disbelief. "I don't want to kill anyone... Not even someone like Bishop... And it's not like we would stand a chance, he's likely the most powerful player in the game! We need to stay off his radar as much as possible. We need to become much stronger and gather more information before we even think about fighting him." Akio gets up off the floor and turns his head to the window, staring out into the evening with an unusually determined expression on his face. "Joker will be at Nekketsu tonight, probably up to no good again. We should all go there and confront him. He stole Takamura's hard drive and he tried to use magic to curse Noriko. It's time he told us what he knows..."
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Jan 6, 2018 21:32
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Noriko // Friday - Takamura's Apartment "he'd do it to any of us. he'd do it to you..." Noriko says, letting a hint of concern slip into her voice. "this can't just be a game anymore... it's life or death. they're willing to kill to win, and we will be in their way at some point, if we aren't already. this is what they do to people who steal from them. or betray them... i'm not even sure it was Joker who cursed me... it could have been anyone. after this, i'm not convinced it wasn't somebody from ORDER."
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Jan 6, 2018 22:29
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Akio // Friday - Takamura's Apartment "...I know he would," Akio says, and sighs. "And we can't let him... I won't let him. But there's got to be another way... For what it's worth, I don't think most members of ORDER know about what Bishop did, if anyone at all. Maybe we can find some way to turn them against him? Without their support he'd lose a lot of Fate. Especially Royal's, from the sound of it." Feeling like he's on to something, but not having any clue of how to accomplish it, he frowns and moves on. "You don't think Joker was behind the ritual anymore? It had to be him we saw in our reading, right? The guy in a Naoki uniform who stood next to Shiokaze. I mean, who else could it be?"
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Jan 7, 2018 02:47
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Tsukiyo - Friday Night "We'll get the answers out of him." Tsukiyo answers grimly, her arms crossed. "One way or the other. Also, if we are to ambush him at Nekketsu... Should I ask for Fuji-I mean, for Heart's help?"
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Jan 7, 2018 03:04
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Noriko // Friday - Takamura's Apartment "hmm... i suppose that's true. i wonder what i did to draw his ire in the first place?" Noriko frowns. "i guess we'll find out soon enough. despite everything... i can't really view him as an enemy anymore. i'd rather have answers than revenge at this point. i hadn't planned to go to the rally... i'm really trying not to be a delinquent..." Noriko says as she takes a sip of the beer she'd opened for the ritual. "i'm gonna have to wear a mask... if mom found out what i was up to i'd be in real trouble."
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Jan 7, 2018 04:00
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Tsukiyo Tsuki's face sours and she gives Noriko a resentful glare as she hears about her concerns about being mistaken for a delinquent. "You know, when we went to do reconnaissance we could have really used your magic tricks. Would have saved me and Icchan a lot of grief."
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Jan 7, 2018 04:26
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Noriko // Friday - Takamura's Apartment "i stole a uniform from a club member. wasn't that enough?" Noriko returns Tsukiyo's glare. "if you want me to teach you, i'd be happy to... but i can't be everywhere at once."
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Jan 7, 2018 05:09
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Friday Astoundingly, you cannot identify the strange rider with occult knowledge! Your Arcana check does account for being a giant nerd(Alternative Use: Game Lore)... there exists old DDW beta youtubes of formidable guardian figures who prevent access to neutral Mindscapes designed by the Devs, like the old Blizzard Guardians of the ancient World of Warcraft beta. They were simply invincible monsters that obliterated anyone they aggro'd onto trying to enter the forbidden zone. Enterprising wallclimbers could of course get around this... but the popular buzz is that this guy is smart enough to patrol perimeters, using barbed arrows to pull down glitchers! Several references to the "terrible Yagyo-san" joke about this not being unexpected. Perhaps an actual History check would work? : "What are you talking about?! We know this guy did it! We call the police and.. and.. trace him!! He's a guy, playing this game! They can find him!"
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Jan 7, 2018 06:06
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Friday - Takamura's Pad (#beatthemidterms) After watching the awful death, Takashi takes a longer swig from the beer in his right hand, putting the other hand on Yuki's shoulder reassuringly, "We knew the Game was fatal already didn't we? Our scars? And how else do you explain the way the worlds have been bleeding together?" At Yuki's comment about the police, Takashi squeezes her shoulder gently to get her attention, "This is a little more complicated than the police, Yuki-san. Even if we could show them what we saw again, those old men aren't going to believe us," with sudden intensity in his eyes he looks into hers, "But you have my word we'll avenge Takamura... if its the last thing I do, I'll tear out Bishop's heart myself." To Akio and Noriko, "There is no staying off ORDER's radar. You heard Bishop. We're the pack of fools." he shrugs, "But I don't intend to die, and I won't let it happen to any of you. We may not be a match for them right now, but I for one don't intend to let that stop me. We have to get stronger, better, pull more threads together. I think subverting Royal is an excellent idea, if we can pull it off." When Tsukiyo lets Fujio/Heart slip, "You met Sir Heart!? Is he some old man or what? One of the teachers at Nekketsu?" Eyeing the place one last time, Takashi can't help but feel a kinship for Takamura, a boy he knew for days at best. Without another word to his friends, and a smile, he walks to the kitchen. Grabbing a nice glass from the cabinets he sets it on the countertop. Retrieving another beer from the fridge he pours it into the glass for Takamura's wayward spirit. Raising his remaining beer he says, "Wherever you've gone to, you won't be forgotten, Taka. Ganbatte!" and clinks his bottle against the glass before finishing the last of his beer and disposing of both bottles.
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Jan 7, 2018 06:40
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