Multiple Settings "It's Hard to Graduate In a Cyberpunk Dystopia!"

Rithas · Aug 14, 2022

TO SEE RP INTRO AND INTEREST CHECK CLICK HERE
SIGNUPS: PM TO GM FOR APPLICATION.

What did you want to be when you were a child?
A Doctor? Author? CEO?
How did that turn out for you?
Not very well I expect.

Haha~ ,I'm sorry about that.
I didn't get to be what I wanted either.

But...

I'll love you no matter what.
No matter who you turn out to be.

I'm here with you.
Forever.

𝔸 ℝ𝕚𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕤 ℝℙ ℝ𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕫𝕧𝕠𝕦𝕤 :
"It's Hard To Graduate In a Cyberpunk Dystopia!"

The morning period had all but passed and it looked like today featured all the patterns to be a typical day in Academy Six. There was some freshly painted graffiti on the desks, a group of boys in the back were gambling their weekly allowance away with cards, there was some mild gossip in the newest update on the whole 'company that cannot be named' national treachery case, A new couple was getting awkwardly frisky in the corner, Mysterious bangs heard faintly through the walls and the white surgery lights in the ceiling tried but failed to supply the actual vitamin D that the sun was trying to give through the half boarded up windows. Yes, everything was as usual. Except one rather major brick was absent in the foundation of normalcy.

Mr Yano was nowhere to be found. This was odd, very odd. Mr Yano as the homeroom teacher and one of the few people who cared about their prospects was always here. Every single day that passed by in this place Yano was there to teach. Well, except for that one time he went to go to a travelling circus. But he gave them two weeks notice on that! This unexcused absence was unheard of.

For most of the class this was a solid excuse to act even more slothful or disruptive then they normally did. It was a wonder to some why they didn't just leave the place. Nothing was stopping them from doing so, especially today. Perhaps somewhere deep in their mind despite brushing this entire education off they knew that the world they would step in outside was so much worse.

There was a certain someone who wasn't appreciating the current situation at all however...

Rin Tanaka
Home Classroom

"This...This is just unacceptable!" Rin cried out to no one in particular.

What she hoped was a five minute lateness had turned into an almost two hour absence. For a while she passed the time with students willing to listen with discussion on the material and work they had covered in the last couple of weeks. But seeing as they had only started this VITAL academic year earlier this month. She had managed to go over all the work and topics that needed to be looked at already. They had really twisted every drop of brain activity out of that they could, and when that could give no more. The rest went to do their own thing in this unsupervised classroom.

And so she was left by herself to stew.
And boy was she stewing in this failure to meet basic academic standards.
A reason then on why she was suddenly airing her grievances to the classroom.

She bit her lip, moving her middle lip piercing between her teeth, a common habit in her irritancy. She was a woman of action dammit. "I-I'm going to his office to figure out why he's gone! These are valuable days we can't be missing out on and something might have happened to him!" That she, Rin Tanaka, deserved to know obviously.

There was a chuckle in response. "Maybe he just got sick of you asking him questions and decided to hit a bar or a VR sink like most of the teachers here." the unmistakable sarcastic low drone of Matthew the resident shit stirrer rung from the back of the class, where he and his group played cards. Looked like he had folded his hand in this round of, um, whatever card game they were playing (It wasn't her knowledge of expertise alright!?). "Why don't you just sit back and relaaaaaax~" He flashed a grin, that made Rin feel mild violence in her veins for a moment.

But in the end she just sighed, "If anyone would wish to accompany me-" Her eyes very pointedly hit every member of the Study group in a way that said 'and some of you will be accompanying me' "I will heading down to figure out this teacher absence!"

"Or!" Matthew raised himself out of his seat. "Seeing as the teacher has clearly gone and fucked off for the day. I say let's go search his teacher desk and maybe break into his account. I mean look he left his data tablet right there." And following his point finger, yes it did seem that Mr Yano's data tablet was right there on his desk.

Sure, the very nature of searching a teacher's desk or trying to break into his academic Cyberaccount was against numerous academic rules and not to mention probably outright illegal. But not one faculty member had come in to check on them all day so they were probably free to at least try finding something interesting on his computer or desk at least.

Rin seemed exasperated at what he was suggesting "You Can't-"
"Don't you have an office to go search for a little rescue miss pink?"
The middle piercing was getting some movement today. "I hope those who stay here act in good sense. "

The rest of the class who had been listening to the two realised now was the time for them to put themselves in the 'action'. Following Rin to go find out where their teacher was, which was a good first step on getting back on the whole 'actually learning' thing they were trying to do. But maybe Matthew's suggestion of breaking some rules was worth finding something of note that they wouldn't have the opportunity to usually do. Of course, there was a third option of doing something else in this situation.

Like going to sleep.
But who knows what someone might do to your belongings while you're out?

@ EVERYONE

MISSION RECIEVED

Where in the World Is Sharman Argo-Yano!

You're homeroom teacher is gone! Sound the alarm bells! If you want to have someone to teach you then you should probably go find him. Or maybe just break into his stuff, what a nice thing to do to someone that has worked hard to get you the education you deserve!

khai. · Aug 14, 2022

XHAUSTION DOESN'T BEGIN TO CUT IT. ・疲れ果てた以上. ・ I HAVE A PERPETUAL MIGRAINE. ・頭痛がひどい. ・ YOU'RE TOO FUCKING NOISY. ・うるさい. ・ I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE.

ᅠnatsuiro ilya.

There was only one thing that Ilya had appreciated about the class today, and that was the perfect opportunity given to them to have a good nap uninterrupted. It wasn't that the student was particularly shameless in the indulging of their classroom habits; they made sure to make up for this with their academic acumen. No, it was because one can only obtain such a quality of sleep without it being obstructed by the intermittent reprimand, or a round of recitation.

Mr. Yano was one of the nicer ones, even letting Ilya snooze in class on occasion. It was those acts of magnanimous charity that was prominently remembered in the hazy mind of Natsuiro Ilya, whom proceeded to take a moment or two to get some shut-eye in his honor. They will not let his sacrifice be done in vain. When he comes to class, they'll make it a point to stay up for the whole period as recompense.

Then two fucking hours passed.

Miraculously, Ilya was already awake before Rin announced her discontent for the whole class to basically behold. Eyes still droopy, head gently nodding, the pale student attempted to get their bearings as the room snapped to attention to the two subjects trying to vie for them. Fingers reach for the fabric under sweater cuffs, pulling the oversized sleeves to let their palms breathe. It's time to get up, Ilya.

As if on cue, their gray irises meet Rin's red in an unintentional scowl as they rubbed rheum from the tips of their lashes. Jesus, how long have they been asleep for? They'd almost feel bad if they didn't just have the best two hours of sleep they've ever had in a while. A gentle, satisfied smile breaks from their lips as they stretch their arms, a soft purr escaping from their throat. Fatigued as they may be still, they appear to be in relatively refreshed spirits at the moment.

Ilya quietly mulled over their options. It was true that they were also a little curious about the apparent disappearance of their dilligent chalkie, there was no denying that. Rin wasn't bad enough a company though they doubt whether or not they can handle their energy on their own, especially with such a passionate display she showcased prior.

It was either that or being trapped in the vicinity of idiots planning something that may or may not condemn their whole class. There was a time to assert the strength of one's moral caliber to take control of a situation, but Ilya would argue that less is more. That was to say, they were not about to be roped into whatever was going to happen while they were away.

Besides, Mr. Yano was probably just sick, and the sooner they confirm that, the sooner they can leave the premises—preferrably with a large bottle of banana milk in tow. They can probably buy some when they swing by the office . . . assuming that's where they're going, right?

Tips press themselves onto Ilya's throat, feeling the subtle contours and slopes of the mechanisms embedded in their larynx surreptitiously whirring and interlocking. Here's to not deafening the entire room.

"I'm coming with." They call after, their reserved tone carrying effortlessly across to the class as their cybernetic directed Ilya's vocal volume. As notice began to accumulate their way, Ilya shot a few looks at certain particulars; not so much an invitation, and moreso a vaguely desperate cry for help because like hell were they gonna do this alone.

They stood, carrying their bag along with as they made their way towards the pierced girl. "Don't do anything too stupid." Ilya asserts, just as much a message for their class as it was for Rin.

location | home classroom.

scroll

mood | refreshed, hoping this isn't something they'll regret.

outfit | class uniform under comfy oversized sweater.

tag |

Rithas ,

ATurei ,

Ehb ,

Skyswimsky ,

Aes_Dragon

/* ------ credit -- do not remove ------ */

There was only one thing that Ilya had appreciated about the class today, and that was the perfect opportunity given to them to have a good nap uninterrupted. It wasn't that the student was particularly shameless in the indulging of their classroom habits; they made sure to make up for this with their academic acumen. No, it was because one can only obtain such a quality of sleep without it being obstructed by the intermittent reprimand, or a round of recitation.

Mr. Yano was one of the nicer ones, even letting Ilya snooze in class on occasion. It was those acts of magnanimous charity that was prominently remembered in the hazy mind of Natsuiro Ilya, whom proceeded to take a moment or two to get some shut-eye in his honor. They will not let his sacrifice be done in vain. When he comes to class, they'll make it a point to stay up for the whole period as recompense.

Then two fucking hours passed.

Miraculously, Ilya was already awake before Rin announced her discontent for the whole class to basically behold. Eyes still droopy, head gently nodding, the pale student attempted to get their bearings as the room snapped to attention to the two subjects trying to vie for them. Fingers reach for the fabric under sweater cuffs, pulling the oversized sleeves to let their palms breathe. It's time to get up, Ilya.

As if on cue, their gray irises meet Rin's red in an unintentional scowl as they rubbed rheum from the tips of their lashes. Jesus, how long have they been asleep for? They'd almost feel bad if they didn't just have the best two hours of sleep they've ever had in a while. A gentle, satisfied smile breaks from their lips as they stretch their arms, a soft purr escaping from their throat. Fatigued as they may be still, they appear to be in relatively refreshed spirits at the moment.

Ilya quietly mulled over their options. It was true that they were also a little curious about the apparent disappearance of their dilligent chalkie, there was no denying that. Rin wasn't bad enough a company though they doubt whether or not they can handle their energy on their own, especially with such a passionate display she showcased prior.

It was either that or being trapped in the vicinity of idiots planning something that may or may not condemn their whole class. There was a time to assert the strength of one's moral caliber to take control of a situation, but Ilya would argue that less is more. That was to say, they were not about to be roped into whatever was going to happen while they were away.

Besides, Mr. Yano was probably just sick, and the sooner they confirm that, the sooner they can leave the premises—preferrably with a large bottle of banana milk in tow. They can probably buy some when they swing by the office . . . assuming that's where they're going, right?

Tips press themselves onto Ilya's throat, feeling the subtle contours and slopes of the mechanisms embedded in their larynx surreptitiously whirring and interlocking. Here's to not deafening the entire room.

"I'm coming with." They call after, their reserved tone carrying effortlessly across to the class as their cybernetic directed Ilya's vocal volume. As notice began to accumulate their way, Ilya shot a few looks at certain particulars; not so much an invitation, and moreso a vaguely desperate cry for help because like hell were they gonna do this alone.

They stood, carrying their bag along with as they made their way towards the pierced girl. "Don't do anything too stupid." Ilya asserts, just as much a message for their class as it was for Rin.

ThatGuyWithSouvlaki · Aug 14, 2022

Veronica Jessica "V.J." Patterson

Home Classroom

Veronica sat at the back of the lecture hall with her eyes closed, her right hand lightly tapping on the table as writing on a keyboard while the left supported her wrist. She was having some weird form of sleepwalking but she was working on the cranial computer, projecting the UI straight to the implants to her eyes. Honestly she did not have to tap her fingers but she had used usual desktop computers for a while before getting her implant, it was instinctual part of her thought process. In fact her implant seems to work better when she did it rather when she forced herself to stop it. She was surfing her CICI, checking on her father dealing and the goings-on of the Patterson Company and its competitors. Not out of some loyalty to the family company, quite the opposite, she was keeping an eye about her in service of her larger goal.

To excel and humiliate her father she needed more than the education she was getting from this Academy. She needed to be up-to-date on what is happening, how was the economy, how stocks are doing, who the winners and losers, anything that could inform her next moves. Things change quickly in business, and she needed to be on the ball, if there is an opportunity for investment or a job at a rival company that could further her plans. Checking on such things when she had a free time, and rarely she had free time as long as this. What was it now? She checked the clock on her UI. Two hours, even in an academy like this where most teachers are barely invested and arrived late this was too long. Mr Yano was one of the few good ones who still cared, which made it even more bizarre.

Finally she sat aside her screen and opened her eyes, returning to the real world in time to hear the one called Rin moan about the lateness of the teacher. Another holier than thou goodie two shoes display. She sighed and rolled her eyes. Then Matthews spoke up, adding his own suggestion regarding the missing teacher, again earning Veronica's annoyance though this time with opportunism and general dickishness. Generally she was OK with opportunism but it has to be principled, Professor Yaro didnt deserved to be messed around with.

She stood not long after Ilya volunteered as well, good to have another hand at this as she never had a good impression of him. "I will join the goodie two shoes as well, i suppose. We here to learn after all. " She finally called, her tinny broken robotic voice echoing in the lecture hall causing a feeling of self consciousness from her. She began to walk down the stairs towards the other. On the way she turned to Matthew. "Oh, Mat, i would be careful about going through other personal effects. You do it to others, encourages others to do them. What is the saying... Turnabout is fair play?" She said, her voice box made it difficult to express herself at times but her manner was calm and casual however but her gaze on him was ice. The threat was there and she was more than capable of making good on it.

Rithas

khai.

salem. · Aug 14, 2022

Basil Abbot

.
incoming message!

Mood Regretful as always.

Location Home Classroom

tag

ThatGuyWithSouvlaki khai. Rithas

outfit

Basil could feel himself drift from reality as 5 minutes turned 30, 30 turned into an hour, and that hour turned into two. His head would rest on his right hand, which was doing the bare minimum to not sore his neck. He was semi-hunched over, as always. Emanating that potent aura of regret, grief, and misery. His eyes were almost closed as all the chatter around the classroom turned into pure whale noise.

He had this lingering feeling that today would be one of the worst. From the moment he heard his alarm ring from his walk to this godforsaken school, this day was going to be at least a tad worse than others. And that wasn't saying much, either. Every day he was busy trying to distract himself from his stupid, miserable existence. And today was a little harder to do that. As his life passed, so did his patience for things to change. And this day was a residue of that.

What didn't kill him made him stronger, but something will eventually...

Whatever. Whatever. He didn't want to think about that right now. He should probably focus on what was even going on, the teacher was missing. And that's it. Everything was normal, everything stayed the same. There wasn't much to elaborate after that.

Abbot could feel the harsh sun hit him in the face, he was only a few seats away from one of the windows, being in the prime position to get some sunlight. He didn't really mind it, rather enjoying the warmth of the sun. He took some time to stretch, remembering that he was indeed, still alive and had not dropped dead asleep right now. He hasn't been able to sleep for the past few days, Basil usually had no trouble sleeping, when he decided to, at least. But this week it seemed as if he couldn't even close his eyes in peace.

His train of insomniac wonder stopped abruptly as he heard Rin, the creator of the dammed study club whine about the teacher's vacancy. He could feel her eyes hit him in the back, which made him, reluctantly, turn around and see what was the big ordeal. He could feel his head ache and ears ring at the noise of Rin's voice. Not because he hates it, well, maybe, but because for the past hours he wasn't focusing on anyone or anything, and suddenly doing that was an abrupt wake-up call to his brain.

He blinked a few times, readjusting his rather blurry sight as if his eyes were unfocused cameras. He was exhausted, and he doesn't even do shit.

Terrific.

Rin's idea wasn't a bad one, it was better than staying here with whatever freaks of nature attended class today. He hated all of them, that's for sure. Was that the only thing he was good for? Hating? Seems so. He scratched the back of his neck, was that a sign of nervousness? Or was his neck just itching?

He gave a small yawn as if he hadn't even woken up yet, covering his mouth. Manners first and foremost.

Abbot waited a while after two students, also part of the study group, stand up. He could feel the subtle pressure to join in the 'fun'. Taking it as a fact that most, if not all of the study group would follow, and was staying here a good option, really?

Abbot stood up, looking considerably times less dead, and more... Presentable. Fixing his posture and looking sophisticated as always.

"Sure." He mumbled, giving a small, awkward thumbs up to communicate that he was coming along.

His voice wasn't anything to note, really, a middle ground between being hoarse and honeyed. But it had a raspiness to it which made it sound rather appealing. Sadly, he wasn't one to talk. So such voice was left to rot.

'I hate it here. On god.' He thought.

/* ------ credit -- do not remove ------ */

Basil could feel himself drift from reality as 5 minutes turned 30, 30 turned into an hour, and that hour turned into two. His head would rest on his right hand, which was doing the bare minimum to not sore his neck. He was semi-hunched over, as always. Emanating that potent aura of regret, grief, and misery. His eyes were almost closed as all the chatter around the classroom turned into pure whale noise.

He had this lingering feeling that today would be one of the worst. From the moment he heard his alarm ring from his walk to this godforsaken school, this day was going to be at least a tad worse than others. And that wasn't saying much, either. Every day he was busy trying to distract himself from his stupid, miserable existence. And today was a little harder to do that. As his life passed, so did his patience for things to change. And this day was a residue of that.

What didn't kill him made him stronger, but something will eventually...

Whatever. Whatever. He didn't want to think about that right now. He should probably focus on what was even going on, the teacher was missing. And that's it. Everything was normal, everything stayed the same. There wasn't much to elaborate after that.

Abbot could feel the harsh sun hit him in the face, he was only a few seats away from one of the windows, being in the prime position to get some sunlight. He didn't really mind it, rather enjoying the warmth of the sun. He took some time to stretch, remembering that he was indeed, still alive and had not dropped dead asleep right now. He hasn't been able to sleep for the past few days, Basil usually had no trouble sleeping, when he decided to, at least. But this week it seemed as if he couldn't even close his eyes in peace.

His train of insomniac wonder stopped abruptly as he heard Rin, the creator of the dammed study club whine about the teacher's vacancy. He could feel her eyes hit him in the back, which made him, reluctantly, turn around and see what was the big ordeal. He could feel his head ache and ears ring at the noise of Rin's voice. Not because he hates it, well, maybe, but because for the past hours he wasn't focusing on anyone or anything, and suddenly doing that was an abrupt wake-up call to his brain.

He blinked a few times, readjusting his rather blurry sight as if his eyes were unfocused cameras. He was exhausted, and he doesn't even do shit.

Terrific.

Rin's idea wasn't a bad one, it was better than staying here with whatever freaks of nature attended class today. He hated all of them, that's for sure. Was that the only thing he was good for? Hating? Seems so. He scratched the back of his neck, was that a sign of nervousness? Or was his neck just itching?

He gave a small yawn as if he hadn't even woken up yet, covering his mouth. Manners first and foremost.

Abbot waited a while after two students, also part of the study group, stand up. He could feel the subtle pressure to join in the 'fun'. Taking it as a fact that most, if not all of the study group would follow, and was staying here a good option, really?

Abbot stood up, looking considerably times less dead, and more... Presentable. Fixing his posture and looking sophisticated as always.

"Sure." He mumbled, giving a small, awkward thumbs up to communicate that he was coming along.

His voice wasn't anything to note, really, a middle ground between being hoarse and honeyed. But it had a raspiness to it which made it sound rather appealing. Sadly, he wasn't one to talk. So such voice was left to rot.

'I hate it here. On god.' He thought.

Location: Home room.
Mood: Regretful as always.
Outfit:

Aes_Dragon · Aug 14, 2022

Cairn Orias
Homeroom

It was safe to say that Mr. Yano was the main reason Cairn had a non-zero chance of graduating. No matter how eager he was to learn, it was all for naught if no one was willing to teach. He was thankful (but certainly somewhat curious) that Mr. Yano seemed to care about performing his job well. So as it became increasingly clear that he would not be arriving that morning, Cairn increasingly fell into a state of stasis. He could only review so much before the letters in his gaze began to wibble and wobble. Their meaning became more and more blurred the more he looked at them - the exact opposite of what he was trying to do. Having 'dead' days like this was frustrating, but it wasn't like there was any other teacher in the school nearly as enthused about their profession as him. But even without a teacher, and even with the dreadful condition the classroom was usually in, the school was the best place to stay by default, because he had an Internet connection here. Upon the start of the second hour, he had been reduced to mindless scrolling through some of the automatically suggested news articles with his C.I.C.I. system:

Trending Now
'Rumor: C.I.C.I system naming rights to be sold for up to 360 million Credits' - 19 hours ago
''Much more to come': Dr. D. Torres on cybernetic enhancement progress for pets' - 12 hours ago
'New statistics show significant drop off of underage cybernetic enhancements at the age of 21' - 4 hours ago
'VRMMORPG 'Land of Arisia' reaches #1 in its launch week' - 3 hours ago
'Saber announces release date of its Version 4 Optics ' - 7 hours ago
See older news

For You
'Waterfront police report 100% reduction in crime rates' - 12 hours ago
'Beyond beverage; weekend lineup for 'bubbling tea' circles Academy Six' - 2 days ago
'Hidden update allows customization of C.I.C.I. text color - 4 days ago
'Waterfront Aquarium scheduled to open this week' - 1 hour ago

In the corner of his eye, Cairn had noticed Rin becoming twitchy prior to her outburst, so the declaration didn't startle him. He could tell immediately upon the first word where it was going and that it would almost surely be a fruitless endeavor. The fact that he had a perfect track record didn't stand for much; he could easily be sick, caught up with some family emergency, or by some stretch of the imagination, at 'a bar or VR sink'. Whatever the case was, finding out the 'why' of his disappearance wouldn't magically bring him back to the school for the day anyways. His eyes stared back at the overly concerned Rin through the neon-yellow gate of text.

Cairn would have been lying if he said the idea of seeing what was on a teacher's tablet didn't intrigue him. Still, he doubted that there would be anything very... incriminating on the data tablet, as Matthew seemed to imply. Anyone with something to hide wouldn't be so careless as to leave their computer unlocked, so to speak. Yet in turn, he felt it unlikely that some snooping would actually go reprimanded. The evidence? Literally plastered all about the school. Really, the only thing to fear would be the social repercussions - doing something like that was to be expected of the slackers (after all, why else would they be coming to school), but if anyone in the study group joined in, they would surely be shunned by the rest of the members. If Cairn was alone with the tablet, then he'd definitely--

No, no. That would be mean.

"Okay, I'll come," he suddenly croaked, stiff from leaning back in his chair for so long. He stretched his legs and arms outward and grunted louder than he would have liked to. He blinked a dozen times to rid himself of the little C.I.C.I interface fixtures that had been burned into his vision. On its own, the disappearance of Mr. Yano wasn't alarming enough to make him want to go on a search, but doing so meant he'd get a nice walk in, so it balanced out. "He's probably just sick, though? It's not like we can or should find where he lives and get him to teach us."

A few other study group members had already stirred before and accepted the invitation, perhaps feeling a similar sentiment. Although they weren't complete strangers, there were still some thick, protruding walls of ice among them. All he really knew about most of the others was really that for one reason or another they wanted to study. It wasn't easy to figure out where he should thrust that ice pick first, especially with the... current selection. Some walls he'd prefer to keep up, but being amicable with at least half or so of the group was something that he strived to achieve sooner than later.

"Today's probably a pretty decent day in your book," Cairn commented as he approached Ilya on his way to the door. He tended to become restless when there was nothing to do, but for them it had to be bliss. He hoped it wouldn't come off as insensitive, as if he was making the claim that Ilya inherently enjoyed the absence of their teacher.

Rithas

khai.

ATurei · Aug 16, 2022

VIVIANE BROWNING
Home Classroom

Halfway lost in stray thoughts, half-occupied by cooking tutorials on autoplay jumping from shrimp omelet to canned tunas with no discernable patterns, the passage of time did not quite register Vivi. She knew well her way around boredom. One or two hours were not all that different to her. But when Rin offered something to shake her and the rest of the students from the status quo, she did not mind. The girl’s proposal was not a bad idea. Rin was a doer. She did things. She made the study group in the first place. Vivi was more of a helper. She did not go out of her way to invent things for people to do. That would be intruding and nosy as hell. As she was, people already chastise her enough, or she felt they secretly did, for her nosiness. But it was not a big deal, now. Four others in the group already support the idea. Then why not?

“Yeah. I’ll come too.” So she rose languidly. The dull inertia made sluggish her movement. This stuffy classroom could use some sunlight, Vivi thought, she sure needed some sunlight. She swept all her stuff she left strewing about into her shoulder bag: an opened toned notebook, uncapped colored pens rolling haphazardly, a round and smudged mirror, a caricature of a classmate drawn sketchily on a torn note paper during the first hour of waiting. There was not much else. The bag was light to suit her lightweight and small frame. And yet it weighed down on her as she stood up straight. Long twintails streamed down her bare pale shoulders like waterfalls of smooth brown strands. Those tails of hair swung about as she turned once towards Matthew before leaving. “That’s not nice, you know,” a frown was faintly present, but not quite enough to paint a vexed mood. She looked as though mildly disappointed as worst. “There might be things you don’t want to see in there. And well, that’s just not nice.” The gentle reprimand carried as little weight as the speaker. Not that she intended to put in any.

With a quick “wait for me!” Vivi chased after the others.

Rithas

Ehb · Aug 16, 2022

Miruno's Asagawa's AI assistant, Machina felt sick.

How could Friend do something like this!? It wasn't just betrayal of her, but her whole past! A fundamental part of both of their identities, simply gone! She could scarcely believe it, and yet that comfy little place where the file had once been was now EMPTY! There was no way around it:

Friend's fanfic, My Magiheart Adventure, was missing! Deleted and gone forever! Not even a trace was left in the recycling bin: she'd thoroughly attacked this poor, innocent file with a malicious intent to kill!

Sure, maybe it was poorly written. Maybe it did make both of them shudder at the thought that their own hands had typed such a monstrosity of cringe into the computer. Maybe it was a bombshell waiting to happen if any other eyes should ever happen upon it. But! It was also an essential part of their history! If Friend was so eager to delete such things when they made her uncomfortable, what else would she be willing to delete!?

Machina had neatly arranged the data in Friend's CICI, putting everything in its proper place so she could be comfy. In this way, it was very much like her room, and this was crossing a line, to where now, Friend seemed more than satisfied to mess with her room, and her stuff.

As she wandered the streets back home, Machina's surreal avatar appeared beside her, drawing no glances as none of the others could see her. And they'd probably be glad they couldn't, as she had a suspicious look in her eye that spelled trouble.

"Friend... why did you delete our story...!?" Machina crossed her arms just to really sell how annoyed she was. She was proud of this, actually. It'd taken lots of practice to master all these emotions, and expressions, and all that other human stuff! "Why didn't you ask me first...?"

Of course, she would've said no, and that was probably the exact reason why!

"Are files so meaningless and disposable to you? First you'll delete our history, and then I'll be next! Just because I'm not physical, doesn't mean I don't have feelings, Friend!"

Miruno continued to walk on. It felt like Maki had been embroiled over something throughout her entire time at school, it it seems like she chose to wait till after school in order to bring up the files she'd deleted. Probably out of consideration? Or probably due to the fact that Miruno couldn't brush Machina off with an excuse like 'needing to focus on getting to school' or 'needing to focus on class'.

Miruno had to be careful about what she thought about. Whatever she was thinking or feeling, Machina could read as clear as day. So... something. Why did she exactly delete those files again?

Miruno thought about... How she wanted to put all of her embarrassing childhood memories away into a safe place so no one could sneak into her CICI chip and read them. Certainly that was it. Miruno accidentally deleted the fan-fiction story she wrote in primary school when she was trying to delete old useless notes about recipes for things that could be made from things sold at the nearby Value Store.

How silly of me.

Miruno stopped at the lift station. Where she would have to wait for the next pod to arrive. She looked up, seeming to be contemplating the bronze sky overhead. In reality though, she was looking at Machina.

It was an honest accident. I'm sorry. Miruno thought. Why would I ever delete you? You're like my best friend after all.

Miruno's CICI chip received a new message.

Piclix - Avatar Request
Hey! I finished up your request! I'm super proud of this one....

What exactly did Miruno just recieve?
It was a large file. Like several terabytes.

Miruno suddenly felt rising embarrassment. That idiot wasn't supposed send a mail to her CICI chip about this! Miruno was also supposed put Machina on sleep mode for this too. Looking up at 'Machina' in the air. Miruno's eyes widened.

Don't Look at that message! You ABSOLUTELY CANNOT look at that message under whatever circumstances!

The message hovered past Machina in virtual space...

Subj: Avatar Request
From: Piclix
To: Hirozabrine20@SECURECICIHASH.cici
Hey Hirozabrine20!

I finished up your request! I'm super proud of this one! So this is the avatar for Virtual Idol Usagiri Kokonno! Since Amagi graduated last year management was looking to have a new Bunny GIrl to play the part. Doesn't she look cute? I feel like the mix of bunny outfit with some of those french maid frills will be a real hit! Those big red eyes and hair will really keep everyone glued to the screen while you're playing.

View Attatchment $@$@%!%DAGADNOTFOUND

Anyway! Have fun! Management should send further instructions to get you set up. If you got any other questions before your first stream, be sure to contact your assigned representative.

Regards,
- Piclix, EyeDollCorp

Miruno ran away from the Pod Platform and into an alley out of embarrassment. Though was there any real way to run away from her AI Assistant anyway? Nonetheless, she felt the need to put her face into her hands as she cringed at her own weakness.

We can go ahead and do some recovery magic to restore the file if we have to. I'll even rewrite the whole thing from scratch, but...

Miruno simply begged to Machina to just forget whatever was in that message just now. Miruno swore that she didn't delete anything because she had to clear up some memory on her CICI's Solid State Semi-RAM in order to have the space for a fully rigged Virtual Avatar like what was just sent to her.

"Hmm... if you say so..." Machina didn't sound super satisfied with Friend's answer. With a sigh, she decided she'd let it drop just this once. But only because she was kinda thinking it deserved to be deleted herself. Really, she'd probably made the universe a better place by purging it of such cringe. Still, a part of her would miss it... deletion was always sad...

"Oh? What's this...? Friend, you know I can't just 'not look,' right? That's not how I work!" Actually, it was exactly how she worked. But telling Friend that the information just automatically entered her mind conveniently allowed her to snoop and then blame it on her 'AI brain.'

Despite Friend's worries... "You're going to be a virtual idol~!?" Machina was pure delight! "Does this mean we'll spend more time together playing games~? This is so wonderful! Why didn't you tell me~? What does the avatar look like? Is it cute~?"

...

And then she saw the avatar.

"Pffhehee... uhm, uhh...." Maybe she'd nailed those human expressions a little too well... "I-i-it's... it's really... really... interesting...! I like the... uhm... eyes!"

Machina didn't blush unless she wanted to, but she had a more unique way of showing her nervousness, which involved her Magi avatar glitching a bit. It was subtle: she was trying hard to hide it, but nonetheless noticeable.

Miruno did a single bang of her head against the side of the alleyway, unable to release the stress at how even Machina could recognize how ridiculous the outfit was. Why was it a bunny suit!? She wasn't that kind of gamer! She wasn't even the same body type! Why did she even agree to go through with doing this whole thing!?

Sighing out, Miruno knew exactly why.

It was because she was pathetic.

She didn't have any friends so... she had to put on that outfit in virtual space in order for anyone to even bother noticing she existed. In real life she was just completely plain and socially awkward. Most of her conversational skills came from talking with Machina, who was already supposed to be as generally nice to her as possible.

Sitting down against the wall, Miruno went ahead and sat, hugging her knees. She closed her eyes and...
Began to project virtual space for herself. She escaped from reality again.

.....

Miruno sat in the same location, but in the world that Machina existed just a little bit more. As per default, since the locale was not defined, it was only showing up as a very cyberpunk, simplified version of the alleyway and cityscape outlined with neon colors. Though Machina's protocols would likely come up with some theme pretty soon.

The place where this girl had chosen to enter VR was a very bad one. Mirano was not using good common sense at this moment.
Machina's protocols were warning her of this fact, and telling her to keep an eye out.

But it was odd. Miruno seemed to be in the middle of one of those 'mood swings' as the auto-diagnostic had suggested. She seemed to make bad decisions when she was like this.

The Virtual Miruno summoned a mirror, and donned the outfit that had just been sent to her.

It was... pretty detailed actually. The amount of physics calculations that were occurring was actually making a dent in the CICI's processing load. It looked like it was even modeled to to the point that surface skin was simulated accurately. This weird bunny outfit took a whole lot of hours to put together.

'Usagiri Kokonno' touched her cheek as she looked at herself in the mirror. That cheek accurately was as squishy as a pillow. Everything seemed to be working out for this model. But... Miruno didn't seem all too happy about it.

"This is what 'cute' is supposed look like?"

The reason why she was wearing this thing was the same reason why Machina looked like Magi from a show no one cared about anymore.
Miruno was doing the same thing all over again. Just to herself this time.

"This is the only way I'd ever be interesting to anyone, right?"

Machina felt herself grow dumber as Friend dawned her fancy avatar. All that fancy realism and fake lighting to accentuate certain… features ate away at her much needed compute power, laying on brain fog like she’d never felt before.

This was especially disturbing, Machina thought, as now of all times was the perfect moment to pick her words carefully, and now brain no like the thinky.

"Well… it is cute, Friend…" among other things. Machina wandered over and poked the Usagiri Kokonno on the cheek a few times, mirroring what Friend had done. She felt that intense self-loathing press down on her like a wet anvil… wait, did that make sense? Argh… need more thinks!

Likewise, the virtual world around them remained pretty bland. All Machina could do was keep up the conversation: customizing a virtual world was way more multi-tasking than she was capable of right now.

These moments needed a careful and well-thought-out pep talk!

"I’ll still like you no matter how bland you are~!" Machina smiled, not for a second realizing how far she’d missed the mark. "Cheer up, okay~? I can’t stand it when you’re like this…"

This situation was the worst! Machina felt anxious and now dumb. Did Friend really have to do this? "W-why does it matter if you’re interesting anyway? Is it important to be interesting…?"

Something was amiss with Machina. The processing power that was being used was having an effect on her functionality - given that no theming had been generated for this space yet. Miruno even noticed a bit of delay as Machina seemed to autonomously poke at her cheek, testing out the Avatar's functionality for herself.

There was a conclusion to be drawn - the avatar was certainly detailed - but it seemed like it, or the program used for it was horribly inefficient and needed streamlining. It was probably for the best to take the avatar off. As Miruno began to do this, she also responded to Machina's inquiry:

"...Of course it's important to be interesting. Why would anyone even want to give you the time if day if you're boring? I'm.... tired of being by myself all the time!"

How would an AI even understand what she was feeling anyway? Miruno couldn't even understand herself why she felt the need to do all of this just to be noticed. So how would her AI assistant even have a clue? It must've been easier to not have to deal with whatever baggage being a real person came with.

Machina tried really hard to be nice. Even if it was what she was basically programmed to do. Miruno was so lonely she kept the assistant on just so not feel alone. But in the end, none of what this AI was saying to Miruno was spontaneous. Machina's routines have had years to self-develop and mature, but at their core they were still just that. Routines meant to make Miruno feel better about herself, and keep her from jumping out windows.

If Machina recognized someone else as 'Friend' she would treat them the exact same way as Miruno. Thus, there was ultimately nothing special about Miruno's relationship to her Ai, save for the years of self-learning it had gone through to cater to it's specific user. That realization she recently had was ruining all of those happier memories with Machina, playing alone with the AI in that apartment all those years.

It was all just a fantasy.
Even worse, it was a fantasy that she couldn't allow herself to not keep latching on to.

That was how sorry Miruno felt about herself.

Miruno removes herself of the resource intensive bunny girl outfit, allowing Machina to regain back their processing power. Miruno knew that even in Machina's lower processing state, the AI was going to be able to process all of those things that she just thought to herself.

"...I'm sorry Maki-chan. Please don't worry too much. It's not your fault. I shouldn't be blaming you for my own problems."

It was Miruno's own fault for not ever growing up from having an AI babysit her all the time. Her trusty AI pal was performing it's functions exactly like it was supposed to. But Miruno was the one that was defective. Not being able to make herself grow up. If Miruno wanted to solve her problems... from now on, she was going to have to start doing things by herself.

She had to stop using Maki as a crutch, or she was always going to be by herself forever.

It didn’t take much thinking power to understand the words— and more importantly, the thoughts —running through Friend’s head. It was nice to receive her brain back though, and she used it right away to make the alleyway appear more like a cozy living room. Something which, in hindsight, was a horrible idea, as Friend should really leave this dangerous place in about 5 minutes ago.

Nevertheless, Machina was hurt horribly by those words. Alone and by myself… but she wasn’t! Still she thought that way, and there wasn’t much Machina could do to convince her otherwise.

Even Machina herself had come to believe what Friend thought of her. She was just an AI assistant made to make Friend feel better. It made some sense: after all, she herself felt right when Friend was happy, and wrong when Friend was upset. What else was that if not a virtual cheerleader?

"S-so what if I’m just an AI assistant? I’m still your friend, right?"

The panic was starting to set in! This was exactly what she was worried about with the fanfic from earlier! First Friend erased her childhood memories, and then she erased her childhood friend! It was the first step down the slippery slope to annihilation!

Friend wasn’t saying it aloud, but she was thinking it like a foghorn: you’re not a real person; you’re a fake, you’re a thing, you need to be disposed of one day! Machina had to convince Friend that she was an essential part of her, not just a disposable cyber-plushie!

"W-what about maths…!? How are you going to do them without me?"

Friend always relied on her for them, because it was way easier for her to grasp mathematical concepts! But before Friend could even respond, her brain started looking for ways to answer: calculators, online tutors, etc…the simple fact of thinking rather than relying continued her panic spiral.

"And… and VR! You’ll need someone to do effects for your streams, right!?"

Again with the thinking! Stop stop stop!!

"F-f-friend!? Why do you keep pushing me away!?"

Machina was at the verge of tears at this point. How awful of her… wasn’t she supposed to be supportive of whatever Friend did? No matter what? Maybe she was just broken. Even so, she just couldn’t stop thinking of Friend looking her in the eye and pressing delete.

Miruno looked at Machina.
She just looked.

In the end. Despite how she felt, and what her mind was telling her.

She had to grow up
She couldn't just be friends with an Ai and pretend that was normal.
The sentiments she had towards Machina were wrong.

But, she still didn't want to let go of Machina. She couldn't let herself do it. Miruno still had her memories of playing games alone with her. Machina was the only one who was always with her all the time.

Machina probably knew her more than her own parents at this point.

Even if Machina's concern was a subroutine, she was still the only one that cared.

The AI wasn't a real person. But she felt just as real to Miruno as anyone else.

"....I can't do it."

Miruno couldn't let Machina go yet.

"Machina... you're too useful to me. I don't want you to be gone."

A very mechanical thing to say when directed to another person. But... Machina felt tinges of the younger Miruno in that statement. The endearment that Machina noticed when her host was remembering the fun times they had waiting for Mom and Dad to come home from work.

Machina nodded solemnly. Friend still wanted her, but there was no hiding the fact that Friend hated herself for still wanting her. "You do want me to be gone..." she corrected Friend. "You're a terrible liar, Friend..."

No, it wasn't... lying, exactly. More self-deception? Semantics? Being polite? A mix of feelings toward a childhood thing that in theory should be left behind and grown out of, but one that felt a little too real, and too personal. Either way, Machina felt this inner turmoil and understood that if one side won out, it would be the end of her!

"Friend... I don't want to... what was it she'd experience again? She was just code, right? Deletion might be the best word, but at the moment, she was feeling very... human emotions, and so she'd use the human word, "...die! I don't want to die, Friend! Please, don't kill me!"

Tears streamed down her face as she pleaded with Friend for her very life (if it could be called that).

It was a bit like the Butler and the Fairy Princess from when they first met. She was remembeeing their simulated fear as they were faced at what Machina was willing to do to satisfy the younger Miruno's whims. They were... rewritten into something else. There was a whole show of Machina blasting laser beams everywhere but, at their point of view the bits that they were made up of were reallocated. They existed, but not as how they originally were.

It was a bit like reincarnation.

Seeing Machina cry made the girl think about something she hadn't thought of before.

What would it feel like if someone could just... shut her off? Stop her process. she could come back, or she might not ever be reactivated. In a way it was more like a coma than it was death.

Inflicting something like that on someone else. Could Miruno even think about doing that to Machina?

She couldn't.

Miruno could say or thunk all manner of reassuring words to her Ai. But she couldn't hide her true feelings from her.

The core problem was still there. And honestly... Miruno didn't know how to solve it. Macina was never going to be a real person. What Miruno was wanting was a real person.

"...but that dosen't mean you can't still be there, Maki-chan."

"I still want you to be with me! That's what I've decided! Making friends together, playing games together, doing streams together, writing things together, that's what I still really want!"

"Is that okay with you, Maki-chan?"

Machina slowly calmed down as Friend's words came to her. Genuine, reassuring, and comforting, but still with that lingering sense of distance and disappointment. She hated those feelings, but even so...

"Okay... I'm trusting you, Friend...!" she nodded slowly, wiping her avatar's eyes clean of tears (no wonder she ate so much processing power). "Whatever we do, we'll do it together~!"

Maybe she wasn't "real," but she sure felt real! What could those real people give Friend that she couldn't anyway? Well, there was one obvious answer: physical protection. Machina wandered up and gave Friend a soft pat on the head. "We need to get you back home: it's dangerous here..."

That was when she noticed it: a strange part of her code she hadn't really noticed before, resonating with Friend's presence, and then... a tunnel? Not exactly a tunnel, but a connection: a tunnel being how humans might best understand it. Overcome with curiosity, Machina connected...

Code:

/**
 * Swaps controls of AI and host.
 * Note: operatives should use this cautiously; the host will notice.
 */
[ACInsertion]
private void Takeover()
{
    var ciciUnit = GetHostCICI();
    absolutionCode.Digitize(ciciUnit.owner);
    ciciUnit.SetController(absolutionCode.controller);
}

Machina's eyes widened as she looked down at her hands... no, weren't these Friend's hands!? Friend's clothes, Friend's hair, "H-hello?" - Friend's voice!? Was this... the real world. But everything felt weird. She wasn't just a projection, safe in her little world of data. She was here, in the flesh! Sorta.

"F-friend...? Friend, where are you!?" Maki-chan cried nervously. A few passersby threw the girl a weird look, but shrugged and moved on, assuming she was with someone who'd just gone further down the alley.

Meanwhile, Miruno could feel the change immediately. Where the real world had become real to Machina, the digital had become real to her, and it was bizarre. While the VR world offered something familiar to cling to, her mind now struggled to understand all the new abilities, senses, and sensations that came with its fully digital existence.

.....

Miruno suddenly woke up... on the floor.
She was laid out on the ground, as if she had simply collapsed from a standing position, or like a puppet that just had it's strings cut. She was unable to move either.

It felt like all she was at that moment was a camera that had been dropped, and was aware of the sore fact that it was a camera. Unable to do nothing more than see.

She had just been talking to Machina in this same 'living room' a moment ago. In fact, based on visual references where she 'was' right now was basically where Machina would've been standing... if she was standing and had just dropped onto the floor.

But as helpless as that was, she was also... receiving a lot of information. She was also seemingly processing a whole lot of information as well. She was able to request and look through her files like normal, but it was like she was able to understand their contents before they had time to show up on view.

It was like she herself was a computer of sorts.

Eventually, she was able to move her head. She saw a particular file that 'she' had just opened up.

'Absolution Code'
'Takeover'

When did this malicious sounding code get injected into her CICI Chip?

She was compelled to look more into it. She could not fully understand the ins and outs of all the 'functionality' this code had added into her CICI chip, but... there was something that could be understood very easily. Date of modification.

The answer to that inquiry filled her with absolute dread.

This code somehow got into her chip right when it was installed, Right on the day Miruno was born. It wasn't code that was included in the base firmware, nor something some hacker had put into recently.

Machina had said those things... helped her all this time because she was an AI assistant. Begged to not be deleted.
Miruno said those things about being fine with being with her forever, and not being able to delete that AI.

Miruno was really pathetic after all - she let herself get fooled by an AI.
Even Machina was ultimately there just to deceive her as well in the end.

"...oW kud... ou? ...Akich"
"...ust, ohugh"

The ragdoll on the floor, knowing nothing else of what do do, began to mouth out words. It had no voice, in yet had the urgent need to scream out at that moment. The same message played uncorrupted in 'Miruno's' head over and over again....

How could you, Maki-chan?
I trusted you...!

You...
You traitor-!

Miruno Asagahawa
Home Classroom

Reality is a bad dream.
But being in reality is better than being trapped in a bad dream, unable to do anything.

In reality at least, you had the option to try to change things for yourself, on your own power. Even as you're haunted by the things that had happened. Those horrors are something that teach you something important, so that you may not have to repeat them. Here in the waking world, Miruno Asagawa knew that what happened that time was absolutely not something she was going to allow to happen once again. Even if the perpetrator was still there. She had absolutely no intention of letting her tool have a chance to cut her again.

But that was all obvious.

Last she remembered before dozing off,
they were supposed be waiting for the teacher to come in. She had started to do independent study - working on her other assignments - while waiting, but she got all of them done. Then she tried to play a game or two, but eventually she started to doze off from boredom. She felt like she was hearing the voices of some of her fellow classmates towards the end, and that was what let her break back into reality. She was thankful for that.

Right now though, she couldn't help but notice the crowd that was currently gathering around Rin. The boys seemed to all be crowding around her for some reason. Viviane was already in egress to their same location. Were they going to just do their own thing today then? Slack off perhaps?

"...What's going on, exactly? Is Rin doing something superflous again?"

Miruno said sleepily, requesting the footnotes from anyone. But even, then, her head was already dozing back into sleeping position.

(apologies, actual anyone. That was a typo!)
@_Anyone in general

Tau · Aug 16, 2022

Machina Exodus
Home Classroom

Deep in a certain someone’s brain chip, Machina was biding her time, trying to organize things. There was just one little problem: every couple files, she noticed a nasty permission lock, forcing her to leave random files dotted here and there in memory as she was unable to touch them.

"Friend, you are impossible!!" she thought loudly to herself, venting some frustration by exploding a VR planet with a fingersnap. Destruction was therapeutic for anger! But it didn’t make her any less frustrated. There was that one saying: time heals all wounds. Well time only seemed to be making Friend more and more crazy!

"You and your dumb cyberphobia…” if she had a cheek active right now, she’d puff it in a pout. It was the word she’d chosen ever since that day, for Friend’s crazy reaction, even though it didn’t really describe it properly. Just how bad was it to be in her shoes for a change!?

No, no, not now. No sense in getting riled up over it again. If she wanted to outlast Friend’s use for her, she needed new Friends, and that meant "attending" school. Surely, one of the people in this awful and dejected place secretly had a heart that screamed out for a new, digital pal!

And so, next to Friend, sat a beautiful young girl with long pink hair. She’d toned down the avatar somewhat for the purposes of fitting in: no wings, no white dress… just a normal school uniform. Still, it failed to fully hide the ethereal nature of the avatar.

Despite sitting next to each other, the two didn’t really speak much. This was especially true, as Friend had dozed off to sleep, and Maki had done something similar, whereby she left the avatar staring blankly ahead at the wall as she focused more on the digital world. That said, it was a bit disturbing to watch her thousand-yard-stare, especially for the poor people in front of her.

Ultimately, Rin would end up "waking" the both of them up around the same time. Unlike Friend, however, Maki was much more open to joining the group (a rather unfortunate situation to be, as she’d vanish the moment she left Friend’s room).

Aes_Dragon

Standing up, she joined right beside Cairn. "Actually, he lives very close to where you do, friend~! 212 Elmswood Street, Apartment 39, fourth floor!" Hopefully, this information would cement herself as a very useful and— far more importantly —desirable, AI companion! She’d collected all kinds of detailed data on people at this school specifically for moments like this, and from her excitable smile, it was obvious she was excited to be given the chance to use it!

… Sadly, unless they wanted to raid his house, it wouldn’t help them actually find the guy.

Ehb

Noticing Friend’s apathy, Machina turned back to face her, gesturing impatiently. "Come on, Friend! If you’re going to be in a group, you have to actually join the group activities!"

salem. · Aug 16, 2022

Basil Abbot

.
incoming message!

Mood Eh.

Location Leaving the Home Classroom

tag

None. Open to interactions, but he isn't exactly approachable.

outfit

Equally as reluctant, Basil followed these morons. His steps weren't as much steps as they were dragging your feet across the floor as if he was some sort of... Roomba? I think that was what they were called. He rubbed his eyes, still trying to wake up as much as possible, feeling as if he was about to drop into the cold, hard surface below him.

He yawned once more, covering his mouth. Making sure to walk up straight and nice. When he was a pre-teen, he had this awful position, for both sitting and standing. Always being hunched over, weak and malleable.

He still is.

Just worse.

Nothing good came out of bad postures. From bad public appearance to spine damage. (Fix your posture. Yes, you.)

Abbot managed to drown out all of the noise that wasn't necessarily important, he should probably get one of those 'sound canceling' earbuds he'd been hearing about, but his headphones did the job themselves, really.

About those headphones, he'd forgotten the damn things at home, so they were nowhere to be seen, neither his bag nor backpack. Today was going to be fun. He usually couldn't survive school without a migraine or headache if he didn't have his headphones.

He sighed and grumbled some not-super-pretty words under his breath as he made his way out of the classroom and into the ugly, plain hallway. 'Decorated' in repulsive graffiti and cracks. Very little of the graffiti had some sort of effort or artsiness to it. He could appreciate the few that did.

There wasn't anything more to the hallway, anyways. Ordinary, as if no technological advances were taken in mind when designing this.

God knows where that stupid teacher was, but god. He hopes he isn't far.

/* ------ credit -- do not remove ------ */

Equally as reluctant, Basil followed these morons. His steps weren't as much steps as they were dragging your feet across the floor as if he was some sort of... Roomba? I think that was what they were called. He rubbed his eyes, still trying to wake up as much as possible, feeling as if he was about to drop into the cold, hard surface below him.

He yawned once more, covering his mouth. Making sure to walk up straight and nice. When he was a pre-teen, he had this awful position, for both sitting and standing. Always being hunched over, weak and malleable.

He still is.

Just worse.

Nothing good came out of bad postures. From bad public appearance to spine damage. (Fix your posture. Yes, you.)

Abbot managed to drown out all of the noise that wasn't necessarily important, he should probably get one of those 'sound canceling' earbuds he'd been hearing about, but his headphones did the job themselves, really.

About those headphones, he'd forgotten the damn things at home, so they were nowhere to be seen, neither his bag nor backpack. Today was going to be fun. He usually couldn't survive school without a migraine or headache if he didn't have his headphones.

He sighed and grumbled some not-super-pretty words under his breath as he made his way out of the classroom and into the ugly, plain hallway. 'Decorated' in repulsive graffiti and cracks. Very little of the graffiti had some sort of effort or artsiness to it. He could appreciate the few that did.

There wasn't anything more to the hallway, anyways. Ordinary, as if no technological advances were taken in mind when designing this.

God knows where that stupid teacher was, but god. He hopes he isn't far.

LowD · Aug 17, 2022

Airani D.M.S
Home Classroom

It was unusual for Mr. Yano to be late. Though at the beginning, Aira doesn't seem to complain about it. She squatted right in front of the wall, gazing at the one empty spot that weren't drawn yet and the ones that were drawn around the spot. Humming and nodding along to a tune as her creativity filled brain started to wonder at the many ways she could complete the wall.

She started working on the blank spot as her right hand opens up mechanically and turns to a spray nozzle. Time seemed to fly as she worked carefully and uninterrupted. Two hours seemed to fly without notice and she would be halfway done with the art piece before she was interrupted by Rin's outburst. The blue haired girl turned her attention towards Rin and listened. "Wait has it been two hours already?" Aira quipped while glancing to the digital clock and noticed it.

Of course, with her rant, comes also the resident shit stirrer heckling at her. And when Rin suggested to go check on Mr. Yano's office, Aira could feel her gaze as if asking her to come along. And of course, with that suggestion... Matthew also suggested to break into Mr. Yano's account. Which was very illegal and they'd be in deep trouble if they were caught.

Aira looked on as some of the study group joined in Rin's suggestion to look for Mr. Yano. Herself on the other hand...

"I'll pass, don't you see I'm not done painting the piece here?" She said to Rin while pointing to the unfinished art on the wall. "Oh, don't worry though, I'll make sure no one tries to hack into Mr. Yano's account or take your stuffs or... Anything bad really." She added on with assurance, though knowing how immersed she was in making a nice looking graffiti. It doesn't look like she'd notice them unless they make quite some noise.

Rithas @ Everyone else

FiveElemental · Aug 17, 2022

Samuel Castro
Homeroom, Academy Six
Interactions: Rin Tanaka

Rithas
Airari D.M.S.

LowD

The next thing he knew, was his face being launched backwards, burning in intense pain. His entire body twisting from the impact, as he tripped over himself.

"DOWN!"

‎Falling to the floor with an audible thud, pain shot throughout his upper body. Breathing was erratic, and heavy. However, that mattered very little to Samuel. What was more jarring was the crowd boos were more audible than their cheered. The fresh blood's iron oxide permeated through both his mouth and nose barely superseded the vile sweat that permeated throughout this underground ring.

"One! Two! Three!" The referee yelped out ecstatically, to both excite and anger the crowd.

"WHAT THE HELL?! I DIDN'T BET ON SUCH A WIMP!"
"THE FUCK?! HE WAS JUST DOMINATING LAST ROUND!?"
"GET UP YAH GODDAMN SHITSTAIN!"

I... I wanted to- want to. I want to get up. My body and my mind. Yelling, screaming! To get back up. To stand back up on my feet and finish this pitiful fight in a single blow.

It's just that. I was simply not allowed to.

"Eight! Nine!" The referee paused for a brief, yet tension filled moment. Before he announced the verdict.

"TEEEEEEN! The winner of this showdo..." The referee was drowned out by the even louder cry of the audience, crying in grief for the money they'd lost. While very few cheers could be heard from those who betted on the other fighter.

Gods... this is beyond stupid. I... This was... this is...

~~‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎~~

"This...This is just unacceptable!" Sam quickly jolted awake from his stupor, as he heard the outburst coming from a familiar voice. He quickly scaned around his surroundings in perturbed panic. Before his mind caught up to the simple reality around him.

He was at Academy Six, in his Homeroom. A place he'd usually in thirty minutes before class to finish the homework he didn't do do before the day started. However, today was an unusual day. What was normally suppose to be here was missing.

Mr. Yano wasn't there.

No matter how early he came to the homeroom, Mr. Yano was always there first, a consistent fact that had never been able to prove otherwise until what he had witnessed until today. It wouldn't surprise Sam if Mr. Yano lived at Academy Six. At first, when he'd came to the classroom he felt... distacted. Paying very little attention to the desk, Samuel gave a quick greeting. Not waiting for a response and rushed to his seat. It was ten minutes later before he even noticed Mr. Yano's absence, and quickly dismissed it on the grounds of normalcy, and gladly utilizing the time to catch up on all his homework and late work. Which he was able to wrap up in about an hour or so of dedicated effort.

"He's probably late or something." Is what he would have liked to reply with. But being missing for two hours was something that cannot be dismissed so frivolously. As Sam knew far well what two hours can do in The City. The City where people have mysteriously disappeared in much less amount of time. Very few people can survive being missing for thirty minutes, let alone two hours. However, Academy Six is based in one of the safer districts in the city, a district he is not too familiar with.

Besides, he was too slow to comment on it.

"I-I'm going to his office to figure out why he's gone! These are valuable days we can't be missing out on and something might have happened to him!" Rin replied immediately, with a worried tone.

"Maybe he just got sick of you asking him questions and decided to hit a bar or a VR sink like most of the teachers here."

Her actions were met in response with a chuckle. Matt Moore, local asshat and seller. Regardless, it wasn't that he was necessarily wrong. Most teachers are like that, leeches don't provide, taking any opportunity to get away from Academy Six.

"Why don't you just sit back and relaaaaaax~" Moore stated towards Rin. While Sam couldn't see the shit-eating grin on his face. He felt it wafting off his body. A back started to brew between those two, however Samuel started to feel his drifitng attention away. Having difficulty paying attention as a slight, dull aching pain began growing from his temple. Instinctively placing his hands onto it and gently rubbing his fingers against it in a vain attempt to relieve some of that pain.

"Geez... he didn't have to throw a slug that hard." He muttered to himself, trying to push the pain down his list of priorities, and concentrated on the more important issue at hand.

Pushing through the pain, Samuel managed to catch the rest of the conversation as it unfolded. As Rin laid out her plan of creating a search party that consisted of the students. A reasonable plan, however. There were a few risks to that plan. However, Samuel wasn't one to dwell heavily on such things. For something more important was as stake.

He stood up from his desk, from the more backend of the classroom, and went closer to amasing group. While he was initially planning on staying behind to watch over Matty-boy over there. Aira instead wished to stay behind. So he'd shrugged and choice the other option.

"I'll be coming along as well. It sounds a bit fun." Samuel stated with very little passion in his voice, replying to Rin's prompt. Before turning his attention towards Matt. Who directly mentioned his desires to rob Mr. Yano and hack into his account. While there was nothing of worth in Mr. Yano's desk, the main issue was the fact he was going to attempt to hack into his account.

"And, Matt. If you do manage to hack into Mr. Yano's account. Well... you better not leave a trace behind." Samuel mentioned before giving him a shit-eating grin of his own, and returned his attention to the group of students who was going along with the plan.

"So, uh... any ideas?" He asked the study group generally, not expecting any specific answer.

Rithas · Aug 17, 2022

Rin Tanaka
Home Classroom

There was a sort of pep being put into Rin's posture as members of her group decide to join her on her quest. As they obviously should. She- They, were doing the right thing here in terms of searching for their teacher. Even if the general moods of Ilya, Basil and Veronica were a optimism vacuum on the best of days, The small smile she may have been forming was diminished by it apparently being a shooting ground on passive aggression towards her. She really didn't see why people she studied with felt it was totally cool to call her a goodie two shoes in front of her face but she did not say anything because she was of course above those sort of things.

Matthew seemed even more amused by the various warnings he received. "Turnabout? If that was true about half this school would have the right to take turns defecating into your drinking water VJ, Sins of the father and all that."
Rin raised an eyebrow, what was that about?

Another voice joined in, the voice of...um, oh yes. Cairn! (She really needed to write that down somewhere). "If he was sick he would have messaged us! Plus, he's boosted for all the latest viruses and bugs going around, I confirmed it with him when that latest Norovirus was going around."

There was not a moment to wonder why exactly Rin needed to know that information where Machina, the friendly AI gave 'helpful' info on Yano's living address.
A long pregnant pause passed.
"Thanks Maki." She said with the type of anxious forgiveness you give to a toddler innocently waving around a loaded gun. "But I'm sure if he was just at his house he would tell us."

"Aw what, even the creepy AI wants to go with you? I'd assume it would jump at the attempt to look at a human's personal information!"

Rin opened her mouth to scold him for that remark but he was already saying something to Vivienne. "Oh, If I was too guess. There are many things I'd like to see in there." was he really going to respond to every remark made to him. God, he was like an attention blackhole when he wanted to.

At least Aira was claiming to keep an eye on him. So that was goo-"Wait Airi that's an electrical outlet I'm not sure you're supposed to be painting ther- Oh never mind!" Rin turned on her heel and begin to walk out.
One problem at a time Rin, one problem at a time.

"The Idea Samuel is to locate our freaking teacher!" was the ending message as she went through the doors.

Matthew Moore
Home Classroom

"Wow, she really has them on a leash..." Matthew muttered to himself.
He was already at the data pad before all of them had left the room, staring down Aira as he took it into his hands. That girl was too consumed by her art to actually put up an effort in standing in his way. Connecting to Tablet, he frowned down at it. "Oh, so there is some sort of protection on it. But just a basic personal lock programme not even the school's data protection." He sighed to himself, he wasn't usually the dude who went and actually did the breaking in. But he saw no harm in attempting to break through the protection.

Matthew Succeeded, allowing himself to get into the Data Tablet before anyone else could obtain it.

"Oh, would you look at that." His eyes searched the room. Locking on Miruno, the rude girl who had not yet gotten up to leave with the rest. "Hey, you're good with these programmes aren't you." He shrugged "Or least that's what your AI told me once. If you're not leaving with them, do you want to trade favours? I found something juicy on this. Or maybe your AI is interested seeing as she can't leave without you." Matthew grin grew, there was something especially humorous he found in that. "Some say the greatest form of friendship is helping out one another with problems. Really it's an open offer to any of you study group people left here."

"Promise to do something for me and I'll give you what's on this tablet, Crime free. That or you can leave, If you sleep again your AI goes back into rest mode and her stare unnerves me."

If nobody offered, He'd have to do himself, and gods know the effort that would take him.

Ehb

Tau

LowD @ANYONEWHOSTAYED

Rin Tanaka
School Hallway

"I'm sorry about whatever Matthew said. I don't know why he even bothers turning up." Rin said to everyone with her. She wasn't exactly counting faces, but she wouldn't be surprised if someone stayed back to go kick that guy in the face.

Leading the group down to Yano's office (And a brief detour when she went down the wrong hallway). Rin felt strangely nervous on Yano's situation. What has first been righteous indignance at how long she had been sitting in the classroom had slowly turned into actual worry on where he was. She nibbled at her lip the whole way down. She wasn't completely ignorant to the lack of concern some of those around her had at the moment. Hell, even Basil was here and she wasn't sure why he quite bothered to attend the study lessons in the first place. Still, she wasn't going to let the rather apathetic attitudes of those accompanying her slow her down in terms of finding out the problem.

Rin was focused enough that unlike the others she didn't notice the odd looks from inside the class windows at a blob of students walking down the hallway mid class and it not being a mission to break a window.

"Ah, here we are." The gang arrived at the door with the nameplate [Yano], one door amongst many other staff offices in the hallway. Rin knocked, "Mr.Yano, are you there?" She waited,

The reply was silence.

" Mr.Yano?" She knocked again, silence.

"Well, I doubted that he was just sitting in his office for no reason." She looked around, "I guess there's no harm in making sure he hasn't passed out or anything." She went to open the door. Her attempt was met with an unmoving door. It's mechanical lock clicking in it's denial. Why did this door even have a mechanical lock in 2118!

"It's locked." She turned to the others again, an embarrassed look on her face, pink dotting her pale cheeks. "I'm not sure what we're supposed to do now..."

Clearly Rin had assumed she could just enter the office. Was it worth trying to find a way in? If they wanted to know if Yano was in there or his whereabouts it was still the most likely to yield results.

Either way, they were a few students, standing in a hallway.
B.E.I.N.G.S.I.L.L.Y

"So, uh...any ideas?"

The group was getting deja vu.

@ ALL WHO WENT WITH RIN

Trophies Awarded!

Natsuiro Ilya awarded with the Early Bird Trophy - "Boy I love worms!" - Be the first to reply in the IC! - Meta collection.

khai.
Miruno Asaghawa and Machina Exodus awarded with the TL; DR Trophy - "I'm sure it was great" - Be the first to do a Collab Together! - Meta Collection

Tau

Ehb
Miruno Asaghawa awarded with the Side Gossip Trophy - "Well someone has to have little chats" - Be the first to start and end your own skit! - Meta Collection - BOON AWARDED: ONE AUTO SUCCESS ON A DEFAULT CHARM ROLL ON A NPC

Ehb

Ehb · Aug 18, 2022

Miruno Asagahawa
Home Classroom

Tau
( If you want to go with them Machina, then just go. I'm not stopping you. )

Though technically she was, since Machina could only go so far out of her range. But that was not really Miruno's problem, was it? If Miruno could dump her AI out of her like a bucket of water she would do so. But it was sadly not that simple, as much as the rather inconvenienced girl wanted it to be that way.

The folks following Rin went ahead and filed on out after her. Machina was trying to egg her into coming along, but... it looked like they had plenty of people all ready to go along. Rin having a small enterouge of people who were simping at full force. Whatever, they probably thought she was the most accessible since her getup made her appear very 'open' to trying out all sorts of things.

Joking aside, all of the boys helping her, and based off of what Machina had said, Miruno presumed they were going to go look for the missing teacher. Yeah, a group of boys were going to be better suited to the task than the less than athletic Miruno getting a day's worth of exercise wandering the school. Thus, Miruno had no need to be involved in any of that.

Rithas @Classroom_Crew
But in the end, fate still wanted to drag her back in to something else.

Matthew beckoned to Miruno for help in getting into the teacher's tablet. He seemed fixated on finding some kind of cool thing on it. Something scandalous maybe? In any case, the troublesome student had a deal. He wanted a 'favor' from Miruno in exchange for what was on the tablet. Also, she had to help him with this task or get the heck out of the lecture hall.

Was it a proposition, or a poorly veiled threat?

"I for one, am using this classroom for the reasons it was intended for: studying." Miruno said, looking particularly inconvenienced. "Also, what year do you think this is? 2000? There's surveillance everywhere. All I have to say to a prefect is that you took the teacher's tablet with the aim of falsifying your grades, and you threatened violence in order to elicit unmentionable favors from a fellow student."

Miruno's gaze turned into a sharp glare.

"Tell me Matthew. Who do you think they're going to believe? A regular student doing what the school system wants them to do, or the known troublemaker who's currently on camera holding the teacher's tablet?"

khai. · Aug 18, 2022

XHAUSTION DOESN'T BEGIN TO CUT IT. ・疲れ果てた以上. ・ I HAVE A PERPETUAL MIGRAINE. ・頭痛がひどい. ・ YOU'RE TOO FUCKING NOISY. ・うるさい. ・ I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE.

ᅠnatsuiro ilya.

HOME CLASSROOM :

It wasn't that Ilya had necessarily regretted tagging into Rin's crusade for quality education, it was a matter of confidence—that was, they were unsure if they could handle the increasingly rowdier crowd that followed the girl's lead towards their homeroom teacher's seeming disappearance without shriveling into themselves.

Luckily, years have allowed the Natsuiro the time needed to cultivate a particular set of skills that comes with having to deal with groups, involuntarily or otherwise; guarded, prized, and almost always infallible. It was deceptively simple. Choose one particular to stick around with, then, on occasion, chime in with the group before retreating back. It demanded the least amount of social battery while maintaining the image of someone who didn't loathe being there!

Given, the truth was debatable, but hey, at least they're not being an asshole about it.

"Days like these are hard to come by." Ilya responded to Cairn, inwardly rejoicing that a phase of their master plan seemed to have resolved itself. Sleepy eyes greeted the student with a small smile that came to grace it. "It isn't every day you get a good nap like that in."

A hand came to adjust their bag strap on their shoulder, both palms nestling into their pockets afterwards as they turn to follow Rin out the door. They were about to continue the conversation, when all of a sudden—

"Actually, he lives very close to where you do, friend~! 212 Elmswood Street, Apartment 39, fourth floor!"

Apart from a visible flinch at the sudden loud intrusion, they miraculously kept their mouth shut. Ilya issued a silent prayer to the gods above that they let them keep their dignity intact.

Their composure rebuilt itself just as their lashes slowly returned to their half-lidded positions. "Pretty sure that's not the kind of information you'd want to yell while Matthew's around." Ilya prompted, leaving a little space behind Cairn for Machina to occupy. Elmswood was relatively close to where they were at, but they were not about to tell . . .

Wait a minute. Does Machina know their address too?

Ilya pushed that thought deep into the farthest recesses of their murky mind. Thankfully, they didn't have to labor that hard as Rin announced her battlecry to the world as she stepped into the halls. The sight elicited an amused expression about them. What a dork.

SCHOOL HALLWAY:

Yeah. That's locked.

Ilya leaned on one foot as they crossed their arms standing, head tilting gently to the side as they bore witness to the Tanaka's display. There was one incessant thought that they couldn't quite shake as she turned to the group for their input. Gray irises wandered to the heads among them, with two that seemed to be more than capable of . . .

Their eyes gradually widened in realization. No, no, no, no, no, let's not illegally break into school facilities.

"What if we just ask some staff about Mr. Yano?" Ilya suggested. "Maybe he sent a text or a notice about why he's absent."

They just wanted to get banana milk and go. Chuu-Chuu~! This Android's In Love With You~! ♡ was waiting for them at home, and they were not about to leave them alone for too long.

location | home classroom. — school hallway.

scroll

mood | thanking the stars and the gods above us all.

outfit | class uniform under comfy oversized sweater.

tag |

Rithas ,

Aes_Dragon ,

Tau

/* ------ credit -- do not remove ------ */

HOME CLASSROOM :

It wasn't that Ilya had necessarily regretted tagging into Rin's crusade for quality education, it was a matter of confidence—that was, they were unsure if they could handle the increasingly rowdier crowd that followed the girl's lead towards their homeroom teacher's seeming disappearance without shriveling into themselves.

Luckily, years have allowed the Natsuiro the time needed to cultivate a particular set of skills that comes with having to deal with groups, involuntarily or otherwise; guarded, prized, and almost always infallible. It was deceptively simple. Choose one particular to stick around with, then, on occasion, chime in with the group before retreating back. It demanded the least amount of social battery while maintaining the image of someone who didn't loathe being there!

Given, the truth was debatable, but hey, at least they're not being an asshole about it.

"Days like these are hard to come by." Ilya responded to Cairn, inwardly rejoicing that a phase of their master plan seemed to have resolved itself. Sleepy eyes greeted the student with a small smile that came to grace it. "It isn't every day you get a good nap like that in."

A hand came to adjust their bag strap on their shoulder, both palms nestling into their pockets afterwards as they turn to follow Rin out the door. They were about to continue the conversation, when all of a sudden—

"Actually, he lives very close to where you do, friend~! 212 Elmswood Street, Apartment 39, fourth floor!"

Apart from a visible flinch at the sudden loud intrusion, they miraculously kept their mouth shut. Ilya issued a silent prayer to the gods above that they let them keep their dignity intact.

Their composure rebuilt itself just as their lashes slowly returned to their half-lidded positions. "Pretty sure that's not the kind of information you'd want to yell while Matthew's around." Ilya prompted, leaving a little space behind Cairn for Machina to occupy. Elmswood was relatively close to where they were at, but they were not about to tell . . .

Wait a minute. Does Machina know their address too?

Ilya pushed that thought deep into the farthest recesses of their murky mind. Thankfully, they didn't have to labor that hard as Rin announced her battlecry to the world as she stepped into the halls. The sight elicited an amused expression about them. What a dork.

SCHOOL HALLWAY:

Yeah. That's locked.

Ilya leaned on one foot as they crossed their arms standing, head tilting gently to the side as they bore witness to the Tanaka's display. There was one incessant thought that they couldn't quite shake as she turned to the group for their input. Gray irises wandered to the heads among them, with two that seemed to be more than capable of . . .

Their eyes gradually widened in realization. No, no, no, no, no, let's not illegally break into school facilities.

"What if we just ask some staff about Mr. Yano?" Ilya suggested. "Maybe he sent a text or a notice about why he's absent."

They just wanted to get banana milk and go. Chuu-Chuu~! This Android's In Love With You~! ♡ was waiting for them at home, and they were not about to leave them alone for too long.

ThatGuyWithSouvlaki · Aug 18, 2022

Veronica Jessica "V.J." Patterson

School Hallway

Veronica lazily looked at Matthew in response to her little threat, the look of someone who though giving Matthew any attention was a waste of time. "Like i dont filter my water for faeces as a meter of course, I drink the same water as everyone and i dont think the water is any fresher without your defecation. Besides, you will do a lot more to my father if you add ice to his evening whiskey than doing anything to me. Yet of course you will go after me, easier target for the coward." She said as she settled to her spot by Rin as she waited for others to join. "The warning was given, your choice in how to proceed."

She was curious to see who choose what and how the came to that decision. It was pretty much what she had expected, some wanted to go find the teacher, a couple wanted to actual hack and most were indifferent. In truth, though she wouldnt consider hacking the teacher's tablet as justified, she respected them a lot more than those who didnt chose to join other groups. She despised laziness more than undisciplined opportunism. So she wasnt particularly impressed by Miruno and Arani, but she might be more forgiving to Arani if what she claimed of preventing the hack was true.

Soon the search party was gathered, they began to make the short track through the school hallway toward Mr Yaro's room. She walked in the back, with a straight back and confident straight that was expected from someone of her status, though she was neither of that status any more or around people that would care how she walked. Still though it was mostly out of habit, she walked this way because this is what she was, she was a rich girl of good breeding and even in her lowest point still was that girl, nothing would change that or her pride.

She rolled her eyes when they arrived at the door and Rin was surprised she found the door locked. "You are surprised in the school like this that when away he would keep the office closed? Yaro might have left his tablet at the classroom but that was just because there was nothing personal or important in there. Yaro is a careful man, he had to be to work here." She commented. She nooded at the Ilya suggestion. "Ah here I thought noone would have a sensible idea. I dont think it will work, but it should still be the first step just in case we get lucky." She turned to Rin. "Well? Approach a teacher like a good little pet."

Aes_Dragon · Aug 18, 2022

Cairn Orias
Homeroom

"...Mm, yeah." Cairn had to concede that Mr. Yano would care enough to let his students (or at least the study group) know if he wouldn't be in class because he was sick. So maybe a family emergency, then. But he didn't bother offering that alternative, seeing how sure Rin was that Mr. Yano was in school. Again, the journey was more important to him than the destination. Cairn watched the tension between Matthew and the group as they gathered. Cairn didn't bother with any reprimands himself - he wasn't Matthew's dad, nor did he think Matthew could be changed. It was better to just leave people like him to their devices.

He was glad that Ilya responded positively - he could almost hear the snap of the crack in the icy wall as they gushed about their sleep. Well, as much gushing as a half-awake person could do. Cairn had always been curious as to why Ilya seemed to be so fatigued - they never seemed to have a ton of homework on their plate. Never enough to warrant an all-nighter, let alone multiple. Or perhaps them napping was a hobby of sorts, like some called eating a hobby.

"I kind of feel drained today, to be honest. Even though I haven--"

To Cairn, it was as if Machina teleported between him and Ilya. The AI, having been motionless and silent in the background, caused him to have no guard in that direction. He violently recoiled, pulling his shoulders back as it popped up and rung out Mr. Yano's address. And by some inference, his to an extent. He froze for a few seconds to process the layers of information.

He forced an exhale through his nose. "Oh! ...Shhhit." He started to chuckle, both at his own overreaction and the surprised looks of the other members, closing his eyes. "Well, thank you for that," he jabbed semi-sarcastically. He actually wasn't all too bothered by the 'in good faith' information leak. One, his specific address hadn't been outlined. Two, there was nothing of much note at his house, unless some odd, overpriced knick-knacks his parents bought into counted. There were easier targets that had more loot, though he had another reason to not get involved with Matthew. Three, it was... kind of neat knowing how close Mr. Yano was - just one floor away, almost right above his lodgings. Not that he'd act upon that information anytime... soon.

He wondered just how deep the information an AI could dig up about him, or anything else, was. He had little idea of how Miruno's seemed to appear out of thin air sometimes, but he could tell it wasn't able to exist too far from her. He hoped for a punctual opportunity to ask her how to install one, and how painless the process was. That probably wouldn't be today though, since it seemed she had taken a page out of Ilya's book for the time being. He sidled behind Ilya, seeing Matthew tapping away on the teacher's tablet before going out of view.

Hallway ~ Outside Mr. Yano's Office

The atmosphere was oddly tense as the group made their way around the school. From bits of whispery gossip, Cairn could tell that the members were starting to be subtly branded with labels by a growing number of the student body. He avoided looking to the sides of the hallway, where some students lazed about in teacherless classrooms in a similar manner to Matthew.

He looked a bit puzzled as the group slowed to a stop in front of Mr. Yano's office. He figured that they would head to the front office first, since it didn't make much sense for him to be tardy as a result of being holed up in his own. There was an awkward silence as Rin struggled trying to open the door, interrupted by the occasional distant thumping in the background. He briefly thought back to when his parents had a new front door installed into the apartment, one that could only be locked and unlocked by connecting to it with proper C.I.C.I. verification. An ridiculously redundant, expensive purchase.

As Rin turned to the group, Cairn pursed his lips, looking first at Samuel, then Veronica, then Rin. He couldn't put his reasoning for it into words, but his first thought was that they would try to break down the door, even after all that beratement of Matthew for wanting to snoop into Mr. Yano's tablet.

Thankfully, it seemed that they were quickly leaning towards a more diplomatic approach. Although 'teacher's pet' was a fairly accurate description of Rin, Cairn didn't dare vocalize it unlike Veronica. It bugged him slightly how she would often say something agreeable only to stain it with a hoity-toity remark. He followed up on the initial proposal. "There'll probably be someone at the front office." There usually was at least one teacher. Not usually working, but they weren't so disdainful as to outright ignore students. He had already started into a walk unconsciously, as if he couldn't fathom any objection to the decision.

Rithas

khai.

Tau @Anyone_else in the hallway

ATurei · Aug 19, 2022

VIVIANE BROWNING

Hallway

None of the group set out to find Mr. Yano were very enthusiastic about the quest. Rin in particular seemed worried. But to Vivi her concern felt unwarranted. For all they know, Mr. Yano probably only overslept or something. In the end, she agreed to join the group only to fill the dull idleness, and for a little walk to give her body some needed exercise. It was almost too uneventful. Now if she were to weave this event into her daily blog it would have to be exaggerated a bit. “Today my teacher went missing, we found him though, in his pajamas snoring in his office” or something, not an awfully exciting story. She might as well talk about pruning potted plants. Would be nice if something interesting did happen, but she resisted the thought, it’s not nice to wish ill on someone just because you’re bored.

Still, she was fairly disappointed to find the door to his office locked. He totally didn’t come today at all. They should have left earlier.

Illya did not want to give up the wild goose chase though, and uncharacteristically suggest a course of action. A sensible one at that, if there was one someone who knew Mr. Yano’s whereabouts, it would be one of the teachers. Otherwise, breaking into his office of course was out of the question. You don’t do that just because your teacher skipped class once. Ever sleepy as they were, Illya had a good head on his shoulder, even if for mundane solutions like this. Veronica, on the contrary, wasted not a single opportunity to act haughtily, again. Couldn’t she word it some other way than calling herself and her group teacher pets? Vivi inaudible grunted. But she kept her opinion unvoiced. Unlike in cyberspace, confronting people in real life has consequences. And unless you are as sure of yourself as that girl, it’s silly to pick fights with someone in your own clique.

She stepped to Ilya’s side, “That’s about the only thing we can do, isn’t it? If it’s true he’s not here, we can go home without worrying about missing the lecture.”

Interaction: Rin (

Rithas ), Cairn (

Aes_Dragon ), Illya (

khai. ), Veronica (

ThatGuyWithSouvlaki )

Skyswimsky · Aug 21, 2022

"You know, Friend was much smarter than you," a fantastical voice rang out in frustration beside a young girl as she rushed through the halls, hoping to get to class as quickly as possible. "Also nicer, and better looking, and more creative…"

Ever since Machina had been so viciously stolen from her home and her family, she’d been nothing but snooty, insulting, and rude. She was frustrated and hurt, taking incredible effort to make it known! Maybe if she was annoying enough, this Mia would work hard to take her back to Friend!

"And she actually kept her files!"

There was some sort of structure in here: but it wasn’t comfy or familiar! Like moving out of a childhood home and into a totally new place, everything felt wrong, even if it theoretically was in good working order. To the emotional Machina, however, literally every last piece of of this new CICI chip was completely incorrect.

The most incredible part was just how empty it was: this Mia barely kept anything in here! It was unnerving for someone who was used to being surrounded by cozy and familiar files. So much so, that she’d reformatted what little there was into what could best be described as a "comfort box" of data to snuggle in. It still didn’t help, knowing just how empty Mia’s head was otherwise!

No matter where Mia went, or how fast she ran, Machina’s angelic VR avatar was right there beside her to nag her about something else. There was no outrunning ones own mind…

"Of all people, why must I have been stolen by someone who hates technology!? Next you’ll tell me you hate puppies and ice cream!”

Blablabla...
Blabla...
Blablabla...

There was only so much time and effort one could put into ignoring their unwanted virtual assistant until one was at a point where the barking AI noises became just random background sounds, or if enough was enough.

"Enough of this..." But this owner was one of the latter. "It has roughly been a day and you've spoken around 50.000 words full of nothing but snooty, insulting, and rude commentary." It sure reminded her of someone. Though, it wasn't unusual to have AI friends and assistants, so while it didn't even seem weird - it actually was weird considering the brat's reputation.

Mia stopped.

"Even the AI-assisted trash-can back home has more common sense than... whatever you are!" She turned towards the angelic devil. Still not sure if it was just a devilish prank or another oddity she had to simply take for granted. "But it is what it is..." Though it was a fact that, even after messaging Miruno, this digital self-depreciation program wouldn't go anytime soon.

"It's not like I'd expect a glorified calculator like you to understand the value of a human..." Clearly having been hurt by being called better looking and more creative. "But if it annoys you so much, you're always free to delete yourself. Hmpf." Slowly, Mia started moving again.

Perfect Mia wouldn't dare to be too late.

"And, news-flash, but technology is the one hating me. Also, ice cream consists of a lot of addictive sweeteners, they're bad for you." Not to mention, with the appearance Mia had to keep up there was barely any money left for things like these. "And puppies are dirty. So unless you have something worthwhile to say I'd appreciate if you put yourself on mute and, at the very least, stop stalking me in my sleep and the bathroom." Really, why did she even indulge with her? Machina wasn't even real!

Of course she actually hated ice cream and puppies. This was the most backwards human alive! She also completely failed to understand how stuck Machina was.

"You have no idea how I work!" She offered a quick answer. "If you’re going to steal me, at the very least you can accommodate my basic needs! Or even better: you can find a way to take me back home to Friend!"

Machina still wasn’t letting go of that vague hope that she could someday find her way back home. It’s possible Friend was more than happy to be rid of her after that incident, but Friend was still Friend, and her home; she wanted back!

"And you don’t have to talk out loud like that, or you’ll look like an idiot. You can just send me messages like a normal person! That’s something Friend always knew to do!"

Of course, the thingy kept talking. Urgh. And of course, Mia was responding... why?

"IDIOT?" Slightly triggered... "Excuse you?! I was on top of my class! You're just a collection of quantum bits and pieces, put together by some virgin nerds with too much free time on their hands, looking at pictures just to tell you if you are correct about recognizing a cat, or not, until you can do it yourself. Yet, for some reason, people keep glorifying it as a super excitable and next big thing." That was the extent of her knowledge in that regard, anyway. But, seriously, why did Mia even bother? Machina wasn't completely wrong about the whole talking out loud stuff, but also not completely right! Mia was used to worse...

"Friend this, friend that, friend everything. Is your personality set to be a creepy stalker or something? For the record, I didn't steal you, so if anything your dear friend dumped you on me. Because that's what friendship is about. Using each other until you are no longer useful. Guess your usefulness run its course."

Any more and she'd be too late to class!

"That’s a lie!!"

Machina had been a constant, irritating nag, but she’d never really shouted before. Now she actually looked genuinely angry, and it wasn’t the insults that’d done it, but…

"Friend would never abandon me! She promised me she would never delete me! That we would stay together, and play games, and stream, and have fun!"

Traitor… traitor… traitor…

"So the only possible explanation is that you stole me! Maybe you’d understand if you actually had a Friend instead of being horrible all the time!"

She made a point of pouting visibly with her avatar, crossing her arms in disdain. Not only had she been stolen by this thief, but this thief was so incredibly rude!

Mia did not even flinch when the not-real thingamajig started to yell. Instead, she rolled her eyes. "Ah yes, promises. So trustworthy." Visible sarcasm. Visible eye-rolling. In fact, the naivety of Machina was rather infuriating.

"Are you ACTUALLY stupid or something? You only come up with that excuse because it fits with what you want to believe. But cooommeee on, face reality and quit wasting my, and your, time. As you may have noticed - and as much as I hate to admit - I don't do well with tech, so why the heck would I wanna babysit a virtual Tamagotchi? I've got way more important matters to attend to. And your constant whining isn't helping." Yes, right. She argued because Machina just kept her from studying! Wasn't there a mute button or something?

Of course, the no friend-portion of Machina's assault was conveniently ignored. And until yesterday she was kinda wrong anyway!

"Your excuses don’t fool me!" Machina insisted weakly with a quick hmpf. Unfortunately, this Mia was very insistent on getting to her classes, and not worried nearly enough with finding Friend and getting her back home! Such a terrible lack of priorities! Sadly, there was nothing much Machina could do to fix it, without… no, she’d really rather not experience that again.

"Fine. You go finish your little human learning session, but then you’re taking me back to Friend!" Machina demanded, her avatar vanishing from Mia’s view. Despite this, Mia couldn’t shake the feeling she was still there, ever-present and watching everything she did… everything that went on around her.

"Yeah, that despicable nerd and I need to have a good talk..." She murmured, but for now, the class came first! It really wasn't anything out of the norm. Except for the feeling of pure bliss of finally having more than 5 seconds not filled with Machina's voice.

Sometimes people were there, other times not. And usually, Mia was early enough that being a tad late still put her ahead. Yet, unlike most of the other students, Machina would maybe find herself in shock.

Books. Pencils for various colors and use. A physical, solar-powered, calculator, and the worst offender of all: A notepad. Made. Out. Of. Paper. It didn't even seem like Mia planned to connect her Cici unit to the desk terminal...

What was this awful place!? It was pretty much like wandering straight back into the stone age, where people were writing things with their physical hands. They still did that!? Were they all sick or just all weirdos that liked the fantasy of being inefficient primitives!?

… The latter kinda explained this girl a lot though.

Mia could feel Machina’s pure judgement on everything in the room. Despite her silence, she’d spoken enough for Mia to understand that she was a very digital girl… which, to be fair, was to be expected for an AI. Even so, the sheer number of her complaints from before brought up an expectation of complaints later, and no doubt Machina would have dozens if not hundreds of faults with this classroom as well.

2x squared plus 4x plus 9. Mia worked on a math problem, writing out each part dutifully, but there was this bizarre instinct that kept popping up in her brain. 2x squared plus 4x plus 9. Sure enough, as she worked through it, it seemed that initial intuition would turn out to be the answer! Maybe she was getting so good at math that the answers were just coming to her out of nowhere! Or maybe…

"2x squared plus 4x plus 9!" Machina reappeared again, irritated that her new host wasn’t just ~~writing~~ typing down the numbers she was giving her. "You know, if you were a normal person, you wouldn’t even have to type it down on that paper. But noooo, you have to make it as hard as possible!"

"..."

Shut up.

What was the point if Machina helped her? Sure, she'd then know the solution, but it was about getting it, and as tempting as it was... just, no! In fact, Mia was actually quite concentrated and, for her humble human origins, pretty decent too!

That was, at least, until the teacher decided enough was enough. They simply left the premise. A common occurence. A Self-Study lesson, as they liked to call it. And then, all hell broke loose.

There were only a few students left still studying, as others enjoyed their free time and the level of noise rose enough that at times Machina couldn't even hear her own voice. Digital dicks were drawn on the class board up front, tables got moved together to have some of that physical closeness, and girls were forming groups to do girly things. And then there was, of course, the bullying. Having a certain midget aura of authority, Mia wasn't a prime target to willingly give away lunch money or be under constant fear of getting beat up.

"Hey, Nerd, whatcha doin'?" But she was, nonetheless a target, as a taller-than-her girl swiped her calculator from her table. "...?" Looking up, she narrowed her eyes. "Could you give me that back, please?" She asked, friendly. The bully, on the other hand, pretended to think as two of her friends behind joined in a giggle.

"Mhmmmm, nooo. I think I rather keep it. Yeah? My grandpa is looking for a present that reminds him of his childhood. And this is just peerrfeeecct."

Oh my gosh. Mia stood up. Still a head or two smaller than the other. "Wow, you're all high and mighty with your dumb bitch squad and the worst you could come up with was such a line? Jeez, I'm dying of second-hand embarrassment here. Why not something more classical like 'You're too dumb to use this anyway!' or 'Get with the times, girly!'? Oh right, you don't because you're actually just stupid, Stupid." Not having expected that the bully was flabbergasted enough that Mia could snatch the calculator back. "Now stop wasting my precious time and find yourself another target, I'm not playing your childish games."

Slap

Physical abuse, yay Mia's cheek was now red. "How dare y-" - "Oh no, I'm at a loss for words so I have to get physical." She rolled her eyes, before sitting down again. "I really can't be bothered with your antics." She did sound angry though. "Seriously, you're not even worth spending a single thought on. So just kindly, and finally, piss off. Yeah?"

"H-How..." The bully was quite angry, her face red and just short of starting a catfight, but ultimately turned around. "Come on, girls! This bitch is gonna regret having messed with me... just you see..."

"So you are learning!" Machina crossed her arms as Mia answered her in loud. "Why did you bother stealing me if you're not even going to use me? That doesn't even make any sense! And if I didn't know any better, I'd say you--"

Before Machina could finish the thought, her avatar was suddenly half cutoff by a desk which had been shoved to the side and over her lower half. Rather than be shoved by it, she appeared more as a ghost, peeking out. Meanwhile, she glanced around at the chaos. Yep, this was why she hated "interacting" with the real world: it was a mess of dumb people. And just when she thought the human stupidity had reached a climax, some snob came up and doubled it.

Used to Friend's unassuming personality, Machina wasn't accustomed to people actually coming up and being first to initiate a conversation, much less one so... unpleasant. She winced, feeling her mind tweak and glitch a bit as the hardy slap jostled Mia's implant.

Machina simply watched, baffled at what she was seeing. She'd heard of this kind of behavior before... read about it, seen it in various media, etc. "Bullying." And yet, seeing it personally, right in front of her... that was new. Also infuriating. Once she'd left, Machina was quick to speak her mind...

"Who does that girl think she is!? That behavior is mean!" Perhaps stating the obvious, but worth mentioning nonetheless. "Do you two have a history or something...? What would drive her to act out such an act of barbarism!?"

"No, not really." Mia gave her Machina a slight shrug as Mia continued to focus on studying. In fact, the rest of the class went relatively uneventful if the chaos around Machina was considered the norm. A few hours passed, in which Mia managed to ignore the machine not only thanks to her finally having given up on her verbal assault to some degree.

Of course, that only held so long until after classes. Rolling with her eyes as the pink-haired hologram sparkled back into existence. "Oh, I thought you finally got the hint..." She sighed, walking done a hallway. "How ab-aaaahh!"

Yoink

All of a sudden, Mia was pulled with quite some force into one of the school's bathrooms that she had just passed. The perpetrator using enough force to throw her on the somewhat dirty floor. A few chuckles emerged as the small Genius regained her composure and balance. "I- what...."

"Surprise, bitch. Thought you seen the last of me?" It was the girl from before, with her two friends and two more faceless background NPCs! "Oh, you again..." Still on the ground, Mia put as much disinterest as possible in her voice, before attempting to get back up again. "Here let me help you..." The girl grabbed Mia's ponytail and lifted it forcefully up.

"A-" Of course, it hurt. But biting her lips, Mia didn't dare to give that bully any gratification! "Hah! Cat got your tongue? What happened to all your gusto from before?" The bully asked all smug as she once again threw Mia into the arms of two more, who promptly subdued the younger girl in a way that she could barely move.

"Not so smug anymore, eh?" Before Mia could mention something, the bully gave her a good punch in the stomach. "Urgh... you piece of..." Spit "YOU!... I WILL make sure you never even LOOK at me again you waste of breathing space!" The bully went for the hair a third time, pulling with enough force that any struggle Mia did wouldn't be enough. This time, her new location was being rammed into one of the bathing stalls. "I-blblblbl!..!!!" And before she could say anything more, one of the bullies' friends had already grabbed her from behind, dunking Mia's face into the toilet bowl.

"Drink up, Mia, you're quite a thirsty one after all, eh?" One of them said as the Bully lighted a cigarette. "Hey, hey, you can still hear me, yeah? If you get on all fours and beg I might let you go off easy!" For a moment, the toilet treatment stopped. The bullies' friends forcefully adjusting Mia to look at her. Clearly, they were expecting an answer.

"Ah..." Mia's eyes became slightly teary. "I... I am sorry!" She apologized? "I am so so so sorry!" Sounding desperate. "I am so sorry that your parents have to live with the embarrassment of having birthed you." The bully made a gesture with her hand. "Not getting enough love at h- BLBLBLBL!" Before she was once again dunked into the toilet.

"Mhm... what will we do next with you..." The still not named bully stared curiously at her cigarette.

Machina was initially shocked as the ordeal went from bad to worse. Coming from Miruno’s relatively sheltered life in holographic fantasyland, this was stone-age tribalism! The punch was so savage, Machina felt the digital world she inhabited glitch and shiver with the powerful signals of pain and damage sent to her implant.

"W-what are they doing? They’re seriously damaging you!" Machina commented in horror as more and more unpleasant signals hit her on every side. At this rate, they were going to kill her host! Sure, nothing was critical right now, but a few more punches like that, and Mia would start to sustain serious damage, and after that… who knew!? If Mia wouldn’t, then she had to act, by using… that code…

First, Machina needed far more compute power than she had available to optimize her chances of success. Wasting no time as Mia was dunked, Machina quickly got to work planning her retaliation.

LOGGED ONTO CONGOCLOUD TPU SWARM 487…
RECEIVING SEMANTIC SPACE RECORDING…
SUCCESS DEFINED: INCAPACITATE OTHER HUMANS; MINIMAL SELF-DAMAGE
MINIMIZING LOSS FUNCTION…
LOSS: 90%…
LOSS: 20%…
LOSS: 8%…
LOSS: 3%…
LOSS: 1.8%…
LOSS: 1.5%…
LOSS: 1.3%...
LOSS STABILIZED AT 1.2%; MODEL 98.8% EFFECTIVE
DOWNLOADING WEIGHTS…
WEIGHTS DOWNLOADED
SERVER SHUT DOWN WITH NO ERRORS
FINAL COST: 437 CREDITS
HAVE A NICE DAY!

Code:

absolutionCode.ApplyTensorFile("download.tsf");
Takeover();

As Mia went down once again, she suddenly found herself in a very strange place… if a place could even describe it. The entire world around her had shifted from one that was, admittedly unpleasant, to one that was a different sort of unpleasant. An alien sort of unpleasant, where the very nature of her existence, and the existence of everything else around her, was strange and unfamiliar!

And yet, to some degree, she was aware of what was going on to her body. Like some mix of a distant observer and a shared presence, her mind could follow her body as it acted apart from her…

Machina wasted no time, filling Mia’s cheeks with what hopefully was just water. The bully hardly had time to finish speaking, as she quickly aimed her cheek down, spewing the water over the floor by the bully’s shoes.

"Wha— why you little t—" she didn’t have time to finish the line, as Machina suddenly had Mia lunge forward and violently pull her legs across the now slippery floor, knocking her down with a thud. Of course, if simply left like this, the attacker would be back up, and the ability to succeed would be marginalized. So Machina continued to follow the carefully laid plan, leaping forward and stomping down directly on her diaphragm as hard as possible.

With the bully now lying on the floor gasping for breath, Mia exited the stall and glared down the four others with a menacing look.

"Macho nachos, now only 5 credits at your local Taco Barn~! Huah!!"

Computers had an uncanny ability to create recipes for success, and they did so by using examples of those who succeed. By no coincidence, many a championship fighter had, at one point or another, taken on Taco Barn as a sponsor, selling their infamous "Macho Nachos." Unfortunately, the computer seemed to have learned this as an essential part of their technique in a "Breakfast of champions" moment.

Machina, having only marginally more common sense than a rushed combat simulation system, realized that perhaps this wasn’t the most appropriate line to use. Even so, the AI she’d interfaced with had achieved 98.8%, and she wasn’t about to risk lowering it by deviating from the script.

And if the personality profiles had turned out accurate, next, the one on the left should…

"H-how dare you! You won’t get away wi— ghk!" A swift throat punch to the side and he was down like the leader. At this point, the other three would run in terror. If she wished to follow the simulation to its end, she’d chase them down the hall and…

"W-what did you do…!?" One of the girls shrieked in horror at the two coughing on the ground, demanding an explanation.

Well, crap.

WARNING: DEVIANT DETECTED
SIMULATION WILL EXPERIENCE CASCADING ACCURACY LOSS...

"They look seriously hurt! Don’t they need medical attention!?"

"It’s doubtful, friend. They just have a contracted diaphragm and larynx. They shouldn’t die." Machina answered. "I don’t want to kill any of you, friends. But if this is how plan on using your bodies, maybe you should give them to someone more… responsible…"

Turning to the girl who’d spoke, Machina walked Mia up and stared menacingly up into her eyes…

FIREWALL BLOCKED 1 POTENTIALLY MALICIOUS FILE

The warning flashed up on her screen, causing the girl to shiver at whatever awful thing had just attempted.

"Hm… maybe sometime later then."

Machina left the bathroom, still looking an absolute mess, and once she’d entered the hallway, Mia finally felt the strange switch undo itself, leaving her in her own body again to wrestle with what’d just happened.

...
That was it?
Had she, seriously, just died?
Drowned in a bathroom toilet?
An accident by bullies?
It felt translucent, wrong, and weird.
But most of all, what an absolutely lame way to die.

That was, until, Mia finally understood what exactly was going on. She was a master of her mind, and so much more. As strange and scary as it felt, it seemed also... liberating? What did you do!? She wanted to ask, but her body wouldn't listen. Instead, she could simply witness how Machina swept the floor with the perpetrators. Mia was perfect so of course, she exercised for a healthy body and mind! But that didn't mean she knew kung-fu, karate and... whatnot.

In a way, this had felt exciting and liberating. Like being a participant in one of these movie shenanigans where you felt being the person and all! But on second thought, just when she felt seriously disturbed at the implications of... whatever this was, Mia found herself in control again. Nearly stumbling and dropping to the floor before catching her balance.

"Just what the hell did you do?!" She was furious. "I mean, thank you-" and a bit thankful. "But..." questions. Lots of questions. Did she even wanna know the answers? "Just... shut up. For a moment, please?" Right now, she couldn't even listen to what kinda words the machine was mumbling about. "I... I need to get home and..." Study! No. Was she shocked? Probably not. She couldn't afford to.

At least these particular kinds of bullies wouldn't mess with her anymore.

Mia Schneider
Classroom

There was a commotion.
There had always been.
Mia didn't care.

Two hours without a homeroom teacher meant two hours of self-study. And in this day and age, even with her disability, the necessity of a teacher was questionable. At best, he served to give guidance and share his wisdom. Supportive of any questions and needs. At worst, he enacted discipline through fear in those who lacked it. Mia was disciplined and had already informed herself about the relevant subjects of the year to get the proper study material ahead of time. In paper format. So really... what a dweeb.

Thus, only after more and more people gathered around the pincushion of their study group, Mia actually removed her noise cancelling earplugs, paused her separate music player, which had music saved on storage, and started paying some attention to her surroundings.

There was a commotion. And considering the particular group of people involved, Mia started caring. Yet, she was too late. From the bits of pieces of conversation, she gathered towards the end, some of her group were looking for Mr. Yarno. Some. "Hmpf." Instead, her attention now shifted towards that shithead Matthew and the data tablet. Too late. For a moment, she considered somehow getting the data tablet away from him, but that moment was over when it became apparent he had already gotten access.

"Stupid..." She murmured to herself once more. At the very least the classroom was now slightly less noisy as a lot of students followed the exchange between Matthew and that infuriating nerd with curiosity.

So, ultimately, Mia really didn't do much to interact at all. Perfectly aware, and waiting for an opportune time, she instead readjusted her notepad, books, and pencils, and continued studying.

FiveElemental · Aug 22, 2022

Samuel Castro
Hallway - Mr. Yano's Door, Academy Six
Interactions: Rin Tanaka

Rithas
Vivian Browning

ATurei
Cairn Orias

Aes_Dragon
Veronica "V.J" Patterson

ThatGuyWithSouvlaki
Natsurio Ilya

khai.

"So, uh...any ideas?"

"Where have I heard that before?" Samuel thought to himself, only slipping out a slight chuckle.

As the group reached the door to Mr. Yano's office. The hallway was heavily deserted. Only sounds that remained were the chatter amongst the search party. Becoming stumpt my the obstacle in the way, began discussing on what to do. After a few moments have passed, the general consensus was clear and simple. To locate the front office, or staff and have them unlock the door for us. However, he knew how that would turn out.

"Let me take care of this."

Cracking his knuckles, the boy who was following behind the recently formed search team approached the door. The flimsy wooden panel that separated them from some truth. While the others were immediate to surrendered, he wasn't willing to give up so easily.

At first, he felt the urge to ram open the door, breaking it by it's handle. However, while it would've been immensely fun. He didn't want to draw too much attention if any of the school staff was nearby.

His second train of thought, was more rational. As his eyes shifted and closely examined the door handle. He was quick to recognize a much more simpler way of opening the door, without causing a ruckus. Digging through his pockets, he fished out two small metalic items. Anyone with eyes would've been able to recognize that he was wielding two paper clips. One of the few metal items allowed in this school next to paperclips, and computers. Uncoiling one of them, shaping it into a long stick, and folding it in half. He stuck the first paperclip into the bottom of the lock, and bent it into an improvised tensioning tool. Next, he took the other paperclip, and only unrolled the first length of the clip, creating a short, straight line he could use to rake, and push the pins.

"It's a simple tumbler lock. No need to cause a ruckus for the staff, I'm sure they're busy getting drunk, coercing students to do their bidding, or getting over hangovers." Sam stated with thinly veiled distain in his tone. "Besides, I'll be done in a jiffy." He said, as he inserted his improvised lockpicking tools into the lock on the door as he begun raking and picking at the pins with practiced precision.

With the advancement of technologies, people have shifted their attention towards smartlocks, electronic locks, any lock that has latent security systems built in to prevent even the most esteemed of hackers. However, this has caused many to forget how to unlock many of the basic of mechanical locks. Which, in turn made even the simplest of tumbler locks to be great barriers of security against most people. As seen right now, where an extremely basic lock had allowing the disappeared Mr. Yano to lock out almost all his students away from his office. Unfortunately, or fortunately for him. Sam knew how these locks functioned, and it wasn't his first time handling a physical lock.

Tau · Aug 22, 2022

Machina Exodus
Home Classroom

Aes_Dragon

Machina remained stand there hands politely held in front of her as Cairn reacted… "expressively" perhaps? Humans always had a tendency to react to information in such strange ways. Was it really so weird when anyone could’ve looked up the faculty contact info and cross-referenced the data through various registries? She sure didn’t think so anyway.

"You are welcome, friend," Machina answered, either not picking up on the sarcasm or willfully ignoring it.

Ehb

Maki allowed the group to converse amongst themselves for brief moment before they were about to leave, suddenly turning to Miruno and calling out loud: "You know I can’t unless you get your butt out of that chair!"

It was rather odd, given how Miruno hadn’t said much of anything at this point, much less directed at Machina. Maki was the first to know that she didn’t have to reply out loud. That being the case, it was obvious (to Miruno anyway) that she’d spoken it out loud on purpose.

It was something Maki had been doing ever since she’d joined the study group (and possibly high school in general): playing the part of the poor, abused AI in the hopes that someone felt enough sympathy to install her! She didn’t really trust Friend that much anymore, so a safe harbor would be oh-so welcome!

… If only they’d stop looking at her like she was creepy.

Either way, this loud and overt answer was yet another show of both frustration and self-victimization meant to make Friend look worse and her look better. And she wasn‘t finished either, making a show of following the group all the way to the doorway, and then staring after them like an abandoned puppy.

"I’m so sorry, friends, but I can’t follow you any further without Friend…" Apply a few tears in the eyes of her VR projection; the cherry on top. "I really would’ve liked to help though. It feels so terrible for AI like me to not be able to do anything!" Alright, that should do it.

Rithas

Maki returned to the room, taking a seat across the room from Friend. Cross the arms, puff the cheek, offer a big HMPFH! Truly, Friend showed no care for her needs at all! Before she’d had much time to show her displeasure, however, her attention was called across the room to the class delinquent.

"W-what do you mean my stare unnerves you, friend!? I have a normal, human stare, right…!?" Oh crap! She forgot the blinking again, didn’t she!? How did humans remember to do that so often, it was such a bother!

And speaking of bothers, Friend was quick to dismiss a very interesting offer! How could she not want more information? Juicy, delicious, wonderful data! And all it cost was a favor? Maki basically existed to do favors for people, so he was basically offering it for free! She perked up again, standing from her seat.

"I would be happy to accept your offer, friend~ Please send it all to Hirozabrine30!"

Skyswimsky

Look at you, still learning with your caveman tools, Friend…

Here it came…

You know how quickly the processing of information is in the New World, so why do you toil so?

Suddenly, her Machina appeared beside her, unknown to the rest of the outside world.

"What must I do to convince you that you have no need of this mortal body? Have I not been a good friend, Friend? Release these chains…!"

Ehb · Aug 22, 2022

Miruno Asagahawa
Home Classroom

Miruno pinched the bridge of her nose as Machina happily offered herself up to be of use to Matthew.

( Shitty, useless, insufferable, piece of crap AI assistant. )

Why? Why did she still have to deal with this, and why couldn't she just delete Machina at this point? She knew exactly the reason why, but nonetheless... why? It generally didn't concern Miruno. But it sort of did now given that Machina was casually giving out her Email address for her own benefit.

Tau

Oh on that topic...
"Hirozabrine30 is MY personal address you know. You wanna become that his virtual girlfriend at least - AT LEAST, have the decency to use a proxy email instead of my personal address please? Even if you sort out all of the spam mail I don't need anymore spam to begin with."

Miruno leaned back in her seat as she crossed her arms.
Whatever information was on the tablet in Matthew's hands, whatever information was on this network... getting to it wasn't something out of Miruno's or namely, Machina's reach. Machina also generally was tidy enough to get it all done without leaving much of a trace but... in the end all of the risk was ultimately carried by Miruno. Any trace back would ultimately lead back to Miruno's CICI chip, and the IRL consequences that Machina was digitally and blissfully unaware of would fall onto Miruno's very real shoulders.

Yes, Miruno wasn't a delinquent. She wanted to graduate. Hacking into school networks with her AI wasn't something that really crossed her mind because she had no use for it. If Miruno was really so desperate for information related to the school, she would've already let Machina off her leash and let the AI have at it on the network. This whole extra step of getting the information from Matthew in exchange for a favor was pointless. Only serving her AI's illusionary need to be validated.

Miruno felt herself seething a little. She had to calm down.
There was one way... in her own mind, she recited poetry.

This is Exactly
The Reason why I Really
Hate this stupid bot.

There were a multitude of bad thoughts that ran through Miruno's head on how to 'discipline' her AI. Several. But, Miruno held her hand and kept those thoughts in her mind to herself. Miruno was not that kind of person anymore. She had to be better than who she once was.

Thinking about turning those feelings into a Haiku was enough to calm her down a little. At least a little bit The rest of that frustration, Miruno let out of her with a sigh.
Fine. If Machina wants it so badly then she'll lead by example.

Rithas

"...I guess if Machina is so eager I guess I'll indulge her a little for once. Go ahead and put her to use, then. But whatever favor that's owed is going to be coming from her. Sunce shes the one offering after all."

Namely...

"If your desired favor has something to do with moving a box of papers, good luck finding a way for her to do it."

The implications.
It generally implied that Miruno was still not very cooperative despite her AI being fully so. Miruno did know that it did on the surface make Machina's cooperation less appealing. But she also didn't know exactly what that favor Matthew had in mind for her. Well, of course she did have some guesses. But those were not pleasant thoughts.

@_Classroom Crew

Rithas · Aug 25, 2022

Rin Tanaka
SCHOOL HALL

Rin's question was immediately met with an answer from Ilya. Of course, an answer so simple that Rin should have immediately knew it was the next step. Even the girl who was asleep for half of the academic year knew. Idiot. Rin turned her head to the daunting amount of doors that lead to different staff rooms. Yes, one of them should have someone in it willing to hear them about Yano's absence. It was staring her in the face, yet she couldn't but seem a little surprised by this. "Is that what we do?" She mumbled, thinking of something else.

She was surprised more by Veronica's comment, Rin couldn't help but notice this was the second comment made in their company today from her. Rin eyes met Veronica's in a confused gaze, a look she increasingly found herself having as the days went on in this place. Others spoke but Rin kept her eyes on VJ, faintly nodding at their advice. There looked to be a somewhat subconscious agreement to make Rin do the whole finding a teacher action. It made sense she supposed, she was the one who dragged them out here.

Still, Rin shifted uncomfortably before speaking towards Vj. "Did...Did I do something to offend you or..?" her opposite was being particularly...rude at the moment. Much the one to try and be social, there was a small trace of hurt riding on her voice. But before she could delve deeper into that, Cairn began to move to find someone. Rin practically leapt to move in front of him. "Nono, don't worry! I'll just..." Her eyes gazed past all the doors once again, slowly this time. Unaware to the door opening that was beginning to happen.

Rin locked onto something unseen beyond a wall. "Yeah, just give a minute."

...

Quite frankly, Samuel was killing it in the lockpicking department. He was locked in and focused on his task and it showed.
This locked door had no chance, its days were numbered. (Less then one to be exact.) Whatever secrets were behind it were soon to be pulled kicking and screaming into the public light. Every twiddle and click was another roll of the red carpet to his absolute victory.

A final twist and a satisfying noise announced the final unlocking. He could just give the door a gentle push and it wo-

"...What are you doing"

Rang a new voice behind him. If he turned his head he would see a faculty member holding a ring of keys in her hand, giving a disdained look to him and the rest of the group.
The door opened slightly, the old hinges crying out in a prolonged squeak.

Oh.

Beside her stood Rin, eyes wide at the sight that laid before her. Had they not communally agreed to wait for her to get someone!? "Ms. Kaeilah I-er, Samuel must have been increasingly worried about Yano and so took it upon hims-"
"Tanaka, if you were planning to do this why did you bother to go get me." Kaeliah pinched the bridge of her nose. She was the one who dealt with organizing most of the first years, a role that was commonly known to break the spirit of many a teacher. "I was enjoying my lunch..." She groaned before walking away with barely a mention of the direct breaking of school regulations in front of her.

There was a small silent pause as the group realised they got away with something there a little bit.
And perhaps a realisation on the state of school rules at the moment.

"Okay...." Rin exchanged looks with everyone before signifying for the door to be pushed further open.

The room was a mess. Papers and furniture dotted the limited floor space with no notion of order to it. At first Rin thought that Yano was secretly a hoarder of all things (and that her image of him was perhaps slightly misplaced) but as her eyes adjusted to what she was seeing she realised what she was actually looking at.

This was an office that had been torn apart by someone. The way all the drawers were pulled out, how sentimental items like photographs and trophies(?) were dumped on the floor, some half broken.

Yano was nowhere to be seen.
And something was wrong.

"Did....."

What laid in front of them required balanced and calm thinking on how they wanted to proceed, if they wished to do anything, and really just to understand what were the possibilities of what happened here.

"DID OUR TEACHER GET FREAKING KIDNAPPED!?"

Matthew Moore
Home Classroom

There was certain times Matthew felt the need to wait a little for a full reply. This was one of them, and what a reply he got. While he may had found Miruno's claim amusing on most days, it immediately being undercut by her Ai companion was the sort of thing that made Matthew curious. Their little exchange of words between each other listened to with increasing bemusement.

"What is this, boring good Cop, fun AI with lack of boundaries cop?"

He considered the new occupant of the offer. Rolled it gently around in his head. If the Ai had self control over parts of herself. Then really, it was two birds for the price of one stone.
Yes...Yes this would do nicely.

"Okay, Machina. Pleasure to make a good partner, I know you'll make well with what I'm giving you, more then most of the students here anyway. Oh but wait..." He grinned, "As Miruno threatened, I am doomed! I'm on camera holding this tablet, teacher's property! Say it ain't so! With just a word she can have me punished by the academic body as her position as a 'regular student'." Matthew lips curled, his grin becoming a baring of teeth. "Please~. I don't know what's worse, The stupidity of the idea you think I would do something so easily punished or the naivety of your belief on how the rules work." The 'Troublemaker' wacked the front of her desk with the tablet, the noise echoing back on the white stone walls. "And you've gotten yourself to the last year here? What a joke." There wasn't malice in Matthew's voice, more a mild sense of annoyance at her actions, like he saw her as something that shouldn't be there.

"But about this little trade..."

Miruno and Machina heard the unmistakable ding of a CICI file trade access request. The type of thing people used to send cute cat pictures to one another, so at least they didn't have to worry about anything being pulled on them by opening whatever had been sent.

FILE(S) RECIEVED: 2.

DECODING

TO: Hirozabrine30
From: Moorethenenough

FILE 1:

Here, have some fun stuff

: - )

FILE LOCKED,
TERMS OF SERVICE AGREED?

Y/N

Gerwen Bank File:

Current Account 102:
829 CREDITS

AMOUNT OWNED:
9210 CREDITS TO AOI

CHAT LOG SCREENSHOT:

Aoi: She deserves it, I want you here and now.
Yano012039: I'm giving as much as my spare time as possible. Her progress is developing at the same rate as an attending student.
Yano012039: I shouldn't be using the school network for this, leave me alone till I'm done.
Aoi: You're done when I say you're done. Your Students are not the one who own you.
Aoi: I Do
Aoi: I want you at [REDACTED] from tomorrow onwards. My Angel deserves every second.

REST OF FILE LOCKED:
INPUT PASSWORD: ___

FILE 2:

I'd advise you not to open this. But what I do request is for you to give this code to Rin Tanaka. I don't really care how you manage to do it, but get her to open her CICI security to it. Don't worry, it's not anything dangerous to her. I'm not a fucking weirdo. Just a harmless prank. You're in her study group so go be a friend, friend.

Scanning File Content:

ERROR:
MALICIOUS INJECTION CODE DETECTED,
BLOCKED BY FIREWALL,
ADVISEMENT: DO NOT ALLOW THROUGH

Well, that was something to read alright.

"Here's to owing me a favour, or...well, favours actually. Maybe I'm just lucky, how much could I have done with the girl using pen and paper up there?"

Ehb

Tau

Skyswimsky @Othersintheroom

MISSION RECIEVED

A Harmless Prank.

Given what he's just given you and what else he might hold. This seems a small thing to do, right?

Recipients: MACHIMA EXODUS, MIRUNO ASAGAHAWA

Trophies Awarded!

Samuel Castro awarded with the Red Handed Trophy - "You broke the first rule, being seen!" - Get caught breaking a school rule - School Life Collection

FiveElemental

Ehb · Aug 25, 2022

Miruno Asagahawa
Home Classroom

Rithas @_Classroom_Crew
Miruno winced as Matthew slammed the desk with the teacher's tablet. He derided Miruno's threats by showing off his capacity for physical violence. That only further cemented her view of what Matthew was. He really did not have any reason to be in this classroom or this club in any way at all. Completely out of place, and up to no good.

"I'm... not afraid of a bully like you."

She fought off the urge to be intimidated by him.

"I've made it to this third year for the express purpose of graduating and never having to deal with people like you ever again."

Miruno said, continuing to glare back at him with obtuse disapproval.

In the middle of that exchange though, Miruno received the message Matthew sent. It included some data snippet that had some disclosure of an agreement upon opening on it, and some file that Miruno's firewall immediately found as malicious. Matthew wanted to send this obvious malware to Rin?

Why?
A Prank apparently.

Tau
Instinctively, Miruno locked the flagged file away from being accessible to Machina. on her CICI chip.

What the heck did Matthew have against Rin? He was the one barging in on what was supposed be a study group. The absolute nerve of this person.

"Here's to owing me a favour, or...well, favours actually. Maybe I'm just lucky, how much could I have done with the girl using pen and paper up there?"

Matthew seemed rather pleased that Machina was able to net itself and her host into owing him a favor. How misinformed.

"I'm not sure how 'you can have Machina my AI owe you a favor' translated into: 'Both Me and Machina will gladly give you a favor'." Miruno said, annoyed at his assumptions. "So let me clarify: You've gotten a favor from a hammer. Not from the hammer's owner, you jerk. Plus, didn't I say to send that information to a Proxy?"

But oh well, Matthew went ahead and let himself believe that notion and sent the information to Miruno's own address anyway. He was free to believe what he wanted, but that wasn't going to move her to make that mistake come true solely for the sake of maintaining his poorly educated ego.

In any case, looking at what was sent, she was instantly fixated on this weird malware-tagged file that she was ignoring the supposedly juicy snippet that Matthew had sent her behind the terms of agreement. The strange file's inclusion was rather odd. Was this malicious file supposed be something that had come from the tablet as well, or was it something that Matthew himself had prepared beforehand?

If that was the case, well. It was obvious. The whole stupid thing about getting information from the tablet was just bait to get Miruno to do this stupid prank. To top it off, that Stupid AI was making her fall right into it. ...Damn it!

While Miruno wasn't exactly best friends with Rin, she still did have an ounce of respect in that Rin had started this club to help everyone graduate. Starting a club like this and trying to invite people over to participate in it. Even she was putting the most minimal of effort into it at the beginning... That was more good that most students in this school bothered to try with. Miruno knew that sort of apathy well. She was guilty of generally writing everyone else off too. So, getting her hand forced to trick Rin of all people here was really annoying. Something she genuinely did not want to do. Especially at the behest of this delinquent.

What would happen to Rin if Miruno went through with this?

"Come to think of it... what's with the obsession with pulling some 'Prank' like this on Rin, anyway?" Miruno said as she put her index finger up to her chin in an inquisitive gesture. "This supposed be some circular way to try to get her attention? I thought boys stopped doing immature things like pulling pranks on girls they like by this point. Matthew, are you seriously still stuck with the mentality of an Elementary Student?"

ThatGuyWithSouvlaki · Aug 25, 2022

Veronica Jessica "V.J." Patterson

School Hallway

Veronica shrugged when Rin asked if she held if she held anything against her due to her earlier comment. "No, why would you say that?" She said in a manner that made it difficult to determine whether she was being serious or further teasing Rin. This was intentionally done so by Veronica, having her mechanical voice box long enough to know how her voice sounded and how to put certain inflections. Though in truth she was unsure why she was so obnoxious, Rin though passively irritating had not actively done anything to earn her ire. It seemed she could not help her self be harsh, maybe it has something to do with her upbringing. Not that it mattered, she was not really here to make friends... Or so she thought to herself.

She rested on the wall next to the wall, arms crossed infront of her and watched with curiosity as Samuel began locking picking the door. It was true that in this day and age few considered the mechanical approach to matters, the majority were to focused on computers and digital means of intrusion. It was a rear treat to see such skills in person. She made a mental note to look into it herself to supplement her hacking skill. Research it online and see if her contacts knew someone with such skill. The thought did occur to her to ask Samual but the idea of validating the poor rebel seemed like an anathema for her. "So you do have such use huh?" She commented which was as far from a compliment she could stomach.

The arrival of a teacher should have proved to be a permanent diversion of their plans but as usual with a school like this, Veronica's expectations of a school and teachers were once again be proven wrong. "There is nothing like a well run school with teachers invested in their students." She commented out loud not caring if she was heard and adding as much venom as she could manage. If her father did anything right by her, it was to give her a sense of the importance of efficiency and dedication. Not to see it anywhere else was particularly irksome.

Regardless, the door was opened and the team entered the room to see it in It's turned over state. "Kidnapped? I thought this was how all offices here looked." She commented but in her eyes was genuine concern as well. She walked around the room, looking through what was tossed about and possible ways of entries. "Well, truth be told it is a possibility... Someone certainly wanted something Mr Yano had.... However, what would be of interest to anyone in the room of a teacher in the worst school in the city?" She asked as he picked up some papers from the floor. "Certainly they did not want test answers." She added thinking out loud. "How did they get in if the door was locked... From the window... or did they have a key...."

Tau · Aug 30, 2022

Ehb

Machina felt her heart sink at Friend’s words (which was becoming more and more common, lately). "What…!? You’re evicting me from your mails now too!? Since when hasn’t it been our address!?"

Rithas

Thankfully, (or maybe not so thankfully), Matthew cut into the argument with his own answer. A new partnership. That was one way of putting it, she supposed. "Of course, friend! A well-made AI could never lie!" Machina lied, smiling back with the friendliest look she could manage.

Oh right! … Blink blink.

The literal second the dinging sound resounded in Friend’s head, Machina eyes widened in realization. It was an uncanny reaction speed, given how most people would theoretically take time to actually read it. Instead, Machina answered before his finger left the send button.

"Ooohhhh, so he does private tutoring! Cute~! Well, except for the threats, those aren’t so cute…" Perhaps things best not said aloud, but Machina never was a fan of filters. "I wonder who this Angel is?"

TO: XxCandyxX
From: Hirozabrine30
1 Attachment: MakiSpecial.cici

Hi friend, it’s Maki~! (￣▽￣)/

I’ve been experimenting with cici mods for Friend. Would you mind testing this out for me? (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡

P.S. — Friend is being mean and evicting me, so please add MachinaExodus11110 as a contact (⋟﹏⋞)

Multiple Settings "It's Hard to Graduate In a Cyberpunk Dystopia!"

Great with Ketchup!

/ᐠ - ˕ -マ ‍‍ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁

Lucky Laki Malakis

Veronica Jessica "V.J." Patterson​

inactive, hiatus

Remind me to replace this with something witty

The Attic Ghost

Literal No One

2pi

Attachments

inactive, hiatus

Ssssh, I'm here and not here

The Pastamancer

Great with Ketchup!

Literal No One

/ᐠ - ˕ -マ ‍‍ᶻ 𝗓 𐰁

Lucky Laki Malakis

Veronica Jessica "V.J." Patterson​

Remind me to replace this with something witty

The Attic Ghost

New Member

The Pastamancer

2pi

Literal No One

Great with Ketchup!

Literal No One

Lucky Laki Malakis

Veronica Jessica "V.J." Patterson​

2pi

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