Author Topic: The 1st Day  (Read 3625 times)

Offline Hanako Tachibana

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The 1st Day
« on: June 25, 2012, 12:21:08 AM »
After the strange dream you had last night, you aren't quite sure what to make of the newspaper lying beside your bed.  You feel... compelled to read it for some reason.  But it isn't so strong an urge that you couldn't put it off a bit.  Perhaps you'll read it over breakfast, or as you wait on the train to work or...

Well, the day is young, and I'm not about to tell you what to do.
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Offline DonQuixote

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Re: The 1st Day
« Reply #1 on: June 25, 2012, 01:29:36 AM »
I slide out of bed at around 9:00, blinking rapidly in the blinding light.  It's not like I have class any time soon, or anything.  Professor Mullins doesn't usually bother riding his motorcycle in until around noon, and class doesn't start until 1:30.

I spend a glorious fifteen minutes waking up in the shower, then head outside for a cigarette.  I figure I might as well peruse this "newspaper" while I'm at it.  Last year, I would have thought it was Lawrence playing a prank on me.  'Course, I don't have a roommate any more, so it's highly unlikely.  On the other hand, I wouldn't be terribly surprised if he had figured out a way into my apartment.  Engineering majors are cunning like that.  Though I'd be surprised if he bothered with the drive from Xshee just for something like this.

The paper's interesting, though I'm not sure exactly why it's called "horror."  It just lists some death that is supposedly going to occur today.  The horoscopes are fairly obtuse--though not that different from "real" horoscopes.  Not even a single usage of the word "squamous."  I should send these clowns a copy of "The Rats in the Walls."  Give 'em a taste of real horror.
« Last Edit: June 25, 2012, 01:34:40 AM by DonQuixote »
“Hast thou not felt in forest gloom, as gloaming falls on dark-some dells, when comes a whisper, hum and hiss; savage growling sounds a-near, dazzling flashes around thee flicker, whirring waxes and fills thine ears: has thou not felt then grisly horrors that grip thee and hold thee?”

Offline FelyxZephyr

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Re: The 1st Day
« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2012, 01:54:19 AM »
Sera wakes up, sweating, at 8AM.  Partially from fear and partially from the summer heat.  Reading the headline of the newspaper, she throws it down on the floor.  It falls on the floor, open, and the horoscope catches her eye.  Her fear and anxiousness consumes her and she reads not only the horoscope, but the main article.  It terrifies her and she throws it into the trash bin.  She takes a shower and eats breakfast, but before she can drive off, she picks the paper out of the trash and copies down the horoscope in its entirety.  By 8:30AM, she is biking to work.  She walks into Chi Inc. just before 9AM  She greets the front desk secretary and heads up to the 3rd floor to start her work on some reports on the financial status of the company.
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Offline FelyxZephyr

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Re: The 1st Day
« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2012, 09:09:19 PM »
Serako has a lot of trouble focusing on the numbers in front of her.  It is the end of month, so she should be catching other people's mistakes, but her mind and eyes wander to the clock on her computer's monitor.

"One pm... one pm..."  she mutters to herself. "one pm... one pm..."

At 10 AM and three times over the next hour she goes to the bathroom and has a panic attack.

Finally, at Noon, she is on her lunch break.  She can't help but think of the guy who is about to die.  A thousand faces appear in her mind of whoever he could be.  at 12:15 she snaps and leaves her salad untouched on her desk.  she grabs some 'soda change' from her desk and bikes towards the park. 

Upon reaching the park, I'll find a payphone and calls the cops, telling them that I know someone who left a suicide note that they were going to kill themselves in the middle of Shibakami park.

But she can't bring herself to do it.  She's too scared.  She gets to the park but she dawdles until 12:50 and finally calls the cops.  She says that there is someone that needs an ambulance in Shibakami park...  She gags a few times out of fear and hangs up.

She stumbles, terrified, into a bathroom and locks herself in as the clock hits 1PM.
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Offline DonQuixote

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Re: The 1st Day
« Reply #4 on: June 25, 2012, 10:11:28 PM »
Nothing much to do today.  I review my notes, go over the reading for class again, and pack everything up to head over to campus.

At around 12:00, I start walking.  Fifteen minutes later, as I pass the grocery store, I realize that I didn't eat breakfast.  I detour into the store, buying a peach, a cup of instant ramen, a bag of chips, and a container of salsa.  I never claimed to eat healthily, after all.

With my ill-gotten gains, I continue onwards to campus, arriving at 12:45.  I get some water from the drinking fountain for the ramen, then pop it into the microwave in the History department.  While I wait, I eat my peach.  The timer dings, the ramen comes out, and I lose myself in soupy goodness.

Having finished the ramen, I dig into my salsa with gusto.  Finally sated, I sit back happily.  The time is 1:00, and I am a happy man.
“Hast thou not felt in forest gloom, as gloaming falls on dark-some dells, when comes a whisper, hum and hiss; savage growling sounds a-near, dazzling flashes around thee flicker, whirring waxes and fills thine ears: has thou not felt then grisly horrors that grip thee and hold thee?”

Offline Hanako Tachibana

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Re: The 1st Day
« Reply #5 on: June 25, 2012, 10:27:03 PM »
The actions you have taken have brought you to this moment.  The clock strikes 1:00 and things begin.
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Offline FelyxZephyr

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Re: The 1st Day
« Reply #6 on: June 26, 2012, 05:00:31 PM »
Sera screams and clings to the officer.  After her initial reaction and her spurting out of apologies, she asks what happened.  She also says that she will answer any questions they needed answered.
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Offline Hanako Tachibana

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Re: The 1st Day
« Reply #7 on: June 26, 2012, 05:38:12 PM »
The officer explains to you that you were found passed out in a nearby bathroom with conditions that resembled heatstroke.  He also informs you that a man was found dead nearby, likely a victim of a wild animal attack.  He starts asking you if you heard anything strange or saw anything unusual.

After about an hour of questioning and making sure you are okay (heatstroke is no joke), the officer offers to take you home.  The culprit is probably still out there, after all.  The time is 3:00.
Girls do their best now and are preparing. Please wait warmly until it is ready.

Offline FelyxZephyr

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Re: The 1st Day
« Reply #8 on: June 26, 2012, 06:23:43 PM »
Serako calls back to the office and takes the rest of the day off.  Her heart is pounding and she rides back home.  she locks the door and checks every room of her apartment, then checks every room again, looking in all of the hidden spots where the newspaper lady could be hidden.  Then, after that, she becomes paranoid that the woman was just moving around the house, so she does a check, sealing every room once she has inspected each crevice multiple times with all the lights on.  She goes through the entire house like this so many times (taking short, panic-intensive breaks inbetween) that it is 8PM before she is finally convinced that there is nothing inside her house.

"A woman made of newspaper?"  She wonders aloud.  "That's impossible..."  Her eyes dart to the newspaper that she almost threw out this morning.

If only she hadn't meddled in that death...  then maybe things wouldn't have been so bad.  maybe she could have just had a normal work day...  She should have payed attention to her horoscope.  Why was she so concerned about that gemini guy anyways?

Now that she has sealed herself in her apartment with several pieces of tape and pieces of paper on every door from her making sure nothing went through doors except her, she was afraid to go out, or else something could sneak back in...  but...  that woman was made of paper...  Serako puts a towel on the floor in front of her doorway to make sure that even if that woman could turn into paper, she'd have something to try and block her from coming through the cracks in the door.

She doesn't want to leave and give that paper lady a way to get inside, but she is hungry.  She orders Chinese food and decides to tip the delivery guy moderately well, in case anyone was after her and contacted him, she wanted the delivery boy to not be angry at her for a small tip.

Before going to sleep, Serako locks the vile newspaper into one of the bottom drawers of her dresser, where she keeps things that she doesn't want to think about.  Old break-up letters, college rejection letters, pictures of things that she is afraid of, she locks them in there so she doesn't have to think about them.

she takes a cold shower at about 10 and dries her hair afterwards so that it isn't all tangled in the morning.  she starts falling asleep with her lamp and fan on at 11 PM.  She locks the door to her apartment and to her room, double checks them twice, then checks that the bottom drawer of her dresser is locked then goes to sleep at 11:15.
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Offline DonQuixote

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Re: The 1st Day
« Reply #9 on: June 26, 2012, 11:42:54 PM »
I start upright.  Professor Mullins isn't exactly strict, but I love the guy far too much to insult him by missing a class.

I hurry to the room and take my usual seat.  Back to the window, eyes on Mullins.  I give him my usual respectful nod when he comes in, then open my notebook and start writing.  Today's date, the time, the lesson plan, all the relevant information.

We're reviewing some of our old material, so my notes don't have to be as comprehensive as usual.  Maybe that's why my mind started to wander.

She really was attractive, that girl.  Sure, she was made of newspaper, but that didn't hamper her looks in any regard.  And a damn fine body, really.  I did get the chance to see all of it.  And that kiss, my God.  I felt so...connected to her.  Like something passed from me to her.

I have to see her again.

It was right before the seminar break that I realized that I had stopped taking notes and was drawing in the corner of the page.  I doodle sometimes, of course, to keep my hands occupied, but I rarely attempt to sketch a girl I've only ever seen once.  Thank God I have the window behind me.  It would have been embarrassing if anyone else saw this.

Though, looking at it, I guess I'm not half-bad at drawing.  Maybe I should work on that.  Might be a fun thing to do in my spare time.

Seminar ends at five, as usual.  Fortunately, I have good notes on every topic we reviewed today, so the fact that I was distracted for more or less the entire class period is wholly unimportant.  I consider hitting the library and doing some more research on my dissertation.  In the end, I decide against it.  I have plenty of time, and I'm really not at all focused enough for that tonight.

Saying good night to Professor Mullins and my fellow students, I start walking back home.  The usual evening crowd is out, though I find myself scanning the faces as I pass by.  Looking for her.

Of course, I fail.  I get home at roughly 5:30 and unpack my bags.  Remembering the newspaper, I stop.  Could she be related?  I find it and read over it again.  Nothing has changed.  Just as simple as before.  But no longer boring.  It could be the link to her.

Eventually, I tear myself away from the paper in order to make dinner.  Stouffer's, as usual.  Everything is a routine.  I like that.  But I also like her, and she's a complete disruption of my routine.  Strange.

After eating. I go over my research for a bit.  I really need to tie myself down to a topic.  I've been pretty bad about that--Professor Mullins asked me at one point if I planned to write a paper on the Victorian era that would take just as long to read as it did to live.  I'll find my topic, though.  I know I will.

I wrap up my work for the night and spend half an hour attempting sketches.  I'm not great, by any means, but I think I might be able to develop some skill here.  Certainly a relaxing way to spend my free time.

At 2:00am, I fall asleep, hugging the Newspaper of Horror to my chest.
“Hast thou not felt in forest gloom, as gloaming falls on dark-some dells, when comes a whisper, hum and hiss; savage growling sounds a-near, dazzling flashes around thee flicker, whirring waxes and fills thine ears: has thou not felt then grisly horrors that grip thee and hold thee?”

Offline Hanako Tachibana

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Re: The 1st Day
« Reply #10 on: June 27, 2012, 12:23:53 AM »
And so ends another day.  Some seemed to have enjoyed it more than others, but that is just fine.  The illusions cast by the summer heat tend to fool the senses...

Tomorrow is another day, and I hope you all have pleasant dreams...  Because your nightmare is just beginning...

Oh, and Angelo, I would recommend that you not advance the clock into the next day all on your own.  Who knows what you could have missed?
Girls do their best now and are preparing. Please wait warmly until it is ready.