daybreakacademy

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Who: Nana... and everyone!
What: Banana Stand, training, and dorm hijinks!
Where: The ubiquitous banana stand, out on campus, and Lumiere.
When: First half of August!
Warnings: There's going to be some screaming and panic in prompt three.

I. BANANA STAND

[August begins, classes are ready to start anew, and Nana Daiba is on hand.

The Banana Stand is back. It didn't make an appearance during July, between the Herald and people being gone. Now, though, the snack station is out on the Quad: a large, wooden stand with "BANANICE" painted across the top. Nana is working it -- possibly with help, if you're so inclined -- and handing out free cookies, muffins, slices of banana bread, and more. All of it is flavored, too, with bananas.

She's beaming brightly, waving at everyone -- especially the newer students -- and trying to get them to come over.]

II. WHEN BAKED GOODS GO WRONG

[Nana does a lot of her baking in Lumiere.

But baking at a school with as much magic and strangeness as Daybreak carries... risks. Such as when Nana finds ingredients for sale, which she thought were mundane but high quality, and are actually magical. In this case, it means that there is a rumble from the first floor kitchen -- then the door bursts open, and Nana goes running ahead of... something.]

I DON'T UNDERSTAAAAAAND!

[The something is about a baker's dozen giant banana muffins. They have grown arms and legs; they are groaning audibly, and one hurls a baking tray that Nana just ducks under, before they start to rush forward down the hall and roar.]

Why have my muffins turned against me!?

III. WAKING UP IS THE WORST PART

[Even after the Herald, the dreams don't stop.

Nana hasn't been sleeping so well since June. There's people she can turn to -- the few who know -- but she hides the fact that she is a Seer. Her visions come from the Giraffe; her visions are dreams, and less accurate and have a different cost. Unfortunately, they come more and more often now. Nana is falling asleep, periodically. Maybe it's in class.

Maybe it's out on campus, on a bench or at the side of a building. Maybe it's in a dorm common room. Either way, sometimes, she dozes off...

And then wakes up with a jolt and a start. Sometimes a gasp; occasionally a shout. Nightmares. It might not be the firs time.

ooc: If you'd like this prompt, feel free to set exact circumstances! Ask me if you have any questions.]

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Before she left, Tatsumaki said something like that. That how you think or process things might affect how it's shown to you. I didn't really get it at that point, but I think it makes more sense now.

[Trying to imagine Nana's visions is strange. To be that removed from it, but not distanced. Just watching it all.]

Can you ever... look away?

[He nods, and there's a small smile at her last question.]

Painting helps a lot, because sometimes I can't describe things right with words and there's somehow more feeling in it than words and sketches in my notebooks. It's... alive. I don't show them to people like intentionally, because that probably still counts as "inciting panic" and "spreading impending doom" or something, but they're down in one of the art rooms in Theatre Lenormand if you ever want to look at them. And I keep pictures of them for reference.

That... that makes sense, actually. I wish I'd talked to her, but... I haven't told any teachers, yet. [She hesitates.] Are there any you trust, with your visions?

[Then, Nana shakes her head 'no.']

I never do, in the dreams. They're not lucid -- sometimes, it feels like I'm being forced to watch. Like... a terrible car crash, that you can't look away from.

[She blinks, though; then, Nana smiles.]

I'll have a look at them. I'm glad they help. It sounds like... um... we cover it, in theater, sometimes. It's an idea that a play is more than the script -- that it's an experience, so you need the visuals, too.

Is it like that, sort of? Like... that describing them with words just loses so much of it?

[He has to think on that for moment. They all know about his visions, witnessed them, yet they're still dismissed quite often. He has a lingering distrust for most of the faculty after everything that's happened lately.]

I trust Professor Jailbreak.

[Nana understands, and he's grateful for that. It's very hard to explain to someone who doesn't.]

An experience. That's what it is, exactly. Like uh... just writing is like maybe reading a script in a classroom, with no stage and no props and no feeling in the lines?

[And there's something else he wants to ask; what Keith asked him. That he hadn't given much thought to before.]

Nana, do you... Are your visions ever about good things? Or is it just... death and tragedy and- do you ever see happy endings?

[Professor Jailbreak... she doesn't really know her. But she files that information away. She may need to come clean to a professor soon. Having an idea of who to talk to helps.

She puts her fingers to her lips, and she looks down for a moment.]

I think I see what you mean. It's... mm. It's never the same, just doing a script reading.

[That, though... that is a hell of a question. Nana hesitates a moment, and then she shakes her head.]

...no. I feel like... they're never really good.

[Toki expected that answer, and it doesn't give much hope.]

Mine aren't either. If they're not something terrible, they're so disconnected and weird and don't make any sense.

[He wants to see good things, even just once. But he can't voice that thought or he'll cry and Nana doesn't need that right now.]

You saw the Herald, but what else have you seen lately? The last thing I saw was some kind of lizard monster...

Mm... yes. Sometimes mine are--I don't understand them. They'll be abstract, or... it's a piece of a piece, and it only makes sense after the fact.

[She pauses, though. Then, there's a nod.]

I saw that. Chasing after people... students, I think.

I couldn't tell if they were students. But there were boats, like with fans on the back.

[Maybe they get different pieces of the same thing.]

Have you seen a... museum, I guess... where everything's frozen?

I think the fan got lost. I saw the boats, but...

[She shakes her head. Sometimes, her visions get a little weird -- sometimes the abstraction means those details are lost.

She nods, though.]

I saw that one. Do you hear singing in yours? A woman's singing.

Singing? No, I didn't hear singing... She was laughing in mine. She had red eyes, but was like... a shadow?

[He tries to recall other details; he's had two visions about this.]

There were paintings in a hallway, of this woman, and she came out of them? And I heard a man screaming... She had a crown!

[That, at least, seemed like an important detail.]

The paintings--I don't think I saw them. But... I did see the crown.

[She looks up, and her eyes widen a little.]

Do you think the crown's important?

I think it might be? It was the only thing about her that was clear really, besides the eyes. I saw the crown in both visions.

[There was something else, too. Something he'd thought of at the time, but is now having a hard time recalling.]

It reminded me of something, the atmosphere or the setting. What was it?... Oh! Before, like months ago, I had visions of like people frozen in ice, at a... an archaeology dig thing? I think there was a mission to it... that place, right? The ice place? I don't... I forgot a lot of things around that time and I might be mixing it up....

I--I didn't realize you were having memory problems. I... I didn't realize how hard things were for you, Toki.

[Hard in a similar, and yet completely different ways. Her visions pry at a sense of guilt and reinforce it; his attack his sense of reality, from what she can tell.

She swallows, but then she nods.]

There was an archaeological dig. It was... about an ancient daemon that was defeated, named Zarc, I think.

Maybe it's related...?

[He elects not to tell her he had issues with that before the daemon contract as well.]

It just got really bad for like a month, and it doesn't happen much anymore- well, forgetting like hours of things after visions anyway. But it's fine! I'm... dealing with it.

[Badly. He frowns in confusion, because it wasn't Zarc he was thinking of. That did happen though. He went to Poland, but there was a related dig. Yes.]

Maybe that's it~! For some reason I thought it was... before then... like when we, well you went to the daemon fortress that one time and Yuya got the phoenix? But that was a while ago... I'm probably confusing the two somehow! Anyway, yeah, maybe it's about Zarc?

[She nods along with it. She's not sure understands everything; she isn't sure that Toki is really dealing with it well, but...

Who is she to judge?]

Ah--ah, it could be. Sometimes... it bends together a little. If it was before then... I may need to look into it? I'm trying to do that when I find something out.

[She pauses, then adds:]

Toki, maybe we should compare notes on these more often? I--I haven't told a lot of people, yet. But... I feel like this could help. Is that okay?

Things aren't always linear.

[He definitely agrees with that.]

Yes! Notes! I have like three notebooks of stuff in my closet that you can look through, but they're like not always coherent because that was a bad time for me I couldn't like form accur-

[He stops mid-word and stares blankly, seeing not Nana, but a Florida swamp...

He's floating in the water, clinging to something. It's muddy and warm. Beside him is a student; he knows her, but it's not coming to him at the moment. There's an over-turned fanboat next to them. She's bleeding, a stream of rainbow colors spread out around her, coming from a wound on her temple. A weird hissing and loud clap comes from the reeds. He realizes they're in a swamp of some sort. The reeds part ahead and it's the alligator with extra eyes. Rainbow blood drips from its sharp teeth. It takes the girl in a quick snap and pulls her into the reeds. He tries to swim for her, but something yanks him back from behind. It's a second alligator. Pain spikes as the mutated creature bites into his shoulder and drags him under the water.

... When he can move, he's clawing at the air and gasping for breath like he's drowning. Marcel pulls the leash back, so Toki doesn't accidentally hit Nana in his flailing.]

[It takes Nana a second to realize what is happening.

She's witnessing one of his visions. The way he flails and spasms, that's terrifying. She looks at Marcel with wide eyes, like she isn't sure what to do, and then decides it'd be best to get close. As the vision calms, she reaches out with a hand and puts it on Toki's shoulder.]

H-Hey... it was one of the visions, right?

Yes...

[He nods while he catches his breath.]

It was the lizard thing again, more than one... I think a girl died and then one dragged me under the water and I... I was d-drowning.

[It felt so real. It felt like the pool.]

But it's uhh, it's over. I'll paint it later... What were we talking about?

[He's guessing, but he's got a 95% percent chance this is right.]

Bananas?

[Nana looks down, and then she nods. A lizard thing; she can guess what that must be. Her hesitation is clear, though--

She smiles, a little.]

...good guess. But no, we were talking about sharing notes, in the future.

[She looks down at him for a second, and then adds:] That... that sounds like it was pretty rough to experience.

Right! I uhh, have three notebook and the paintings.

[He gives her a smile, though it doesn't reach his eyes.]

It wasn't the worst one I felt~!

[Not the worst he's felt?

It's sad because it's right. She hesitates a second, then she smiles.]

...well, all right. But... we can start comparing notes, okay? I can write mine down, and come by.

Okay! Maybe we can figure things out better together! I'm glad you talked to me about this, Nana. You're not alone.

[It's a genuine smile this time.]

[There's still a little twinge in Nana, when someone says she isn't alone. Being alone is one of her biggest fears. She's hesitant, for a second, and then her smile is real instead of reassuring.]

I am, too. Thanks, Toki.

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Open!

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sorry for the delay! busy weekend!!

o7

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SPEAK OF THE DEVIL AND HE SHALL APPEAR

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guuuh sorry, work has been having some legal stuff and it's been a ride

It happens!

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