[ 7H ] catch-all prost

[cupidsammo]

you know how these go.

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[cupidsammo]

[ totally not late secrets thread!!!!!

Anyway. Koharu is scurrying back toward the dorms after raiding the cafeteria but oh no! Alack! The red strings got her!!!! And—another? Wowie. ]

—Waugh!

[praiseful]

[ To think they were so close to making it to safety! It seems Nei was on her way back to the dorms, too, but gets snagged in the strings right in the dormitory hallway. ]

—Ugh! Not again!

[ And then she turns to check who it is this time. ]

Dove-chan!

[cupidsammo]

[ She tries to free her arm from the strings, to no avail; Koharu only briefly struggles before resigning to her fate. ]

Ugh... Sorry, senpai. I thought I was being careful.

[praiseful]

[ Nei doesn't even bother trying; she just stands in place, watching Dove make a feeble attempt... ]

Hmph. It's not your fault. But you know how these work by now, right?

[cupidsammo]

[ ... ]

Unfortunately. Yes, I do...

[praiseful]

Well, then... you can go first!

[ senpai has decreed ]

[cupidsammo]

—Huh?! Wait, me? Really?

[praiseful]

That is what I said, isn't it? So yes, really!

[cupidsammo]

Oh.

... It's just hard to think of any good ones. I don't think I'm that secretive of a person or anything...

[cupidsammo]

[ On this fine afternoon Koharu can be found outside on the school grounds, not too far from the entrance. She sports a water bottle in one hand—given how miserably hot it still is outside—yanking at the collar of her button-up to fan herself out; naturally, the blazer of her uniform is tied around her waist. ]

It's times like this that I can't wait for summer to be over...

[poetaste]

[Cadence's hair is always wild, and the oppressive heat has made it worse, somehow as drenched as the oil-slicked feathers of a bird and ruffled at twice the volume. Her vest is absolutely plastered to her. She flops down into an available, if rickety seat, swinging one leg over the other. She fans herself with a stack of papers. The actual bird is nowhere to be found, right now. It was basically melting into an ink puddle anyway.]

So, you haven't loved the season passing well? [Heh.] Come summer's end... It'll be time to face how much time has really passed.

[The dizzying thing about a hazy summer day is that it sometimes feels like days have never passed at all.]

[cupidsammo]

[ Alas, Koharu isn't a poetry girlie. The response does give her pause, though, brow furrowing slightly in thought. ]

It has been about a month now, hasn't it. [ Yikes. ] And only another month until the fall season hits...

[poetaste]

[Nobody here is a poetry girl except for her, and for a normal person, that might be excruciating. For a normal person!

But, she nods in agreement, voicing the mood she thinks she catches in Dove's pensive expression--] Sheesh.

I wonder if "classes" will go back in session then. [And what that means...It's clear she's not talking about the half-pipe dream school she keeps talking about setting up with the kids here.]

[cupidsammo]

Oh, no.

[ Funny how attending actual classes here of all places is coming up again. ]

I really hope not! I don't want to think about trying to do homework on top of dodging all the yokai...

[poetaste]

You sound like you saw another ghost.

[Any desire to give the "students" her a good education that she might have, fanatical as it is alongside her infection, Cadence still... has to agree. The lingering spirits here like "games" and "punishments" too much.]

Back home, did school give you a hard time, too?

[cupidsammo]

...

[ An immediate response doesn't come; Koharu takes a notable moment to think, as if mulling over what words to choose carefully. Then: ]

I... don't attend school. Cupids don't live like humans do, so...

[poetaste]

Yeah? Where does your fear of homework come from, then?

[To Cadence, she just sounds like a regular high schooler. She's always struck her as someone who didn't much have to worry about survival when she wasn't sitting behind a school desk.]

[brokenlance]

[Offerings... offerings......

Dimitri was hovering over the cafeteria foods with a book, trying to decide what looked like an acceptable meal for a ghost. This was especially difficult when it was impossible for him to discern what actually tasted good or not!

Surely... meat, right? It was symbolic of the flesh they no longer had, so naturally they would crave it. Or did it have to cater to the foods they liked in life? In which case, which one of these dishes were native to Japan?

He spends so long pondering this, he probably sticks out. The boy is clueless.]

[cupidsammo]

[ And that's when Koharu wanders in. She's here simply to grab a bite, of course, but she slows her step when she notices him deep in thought with the pages open. So, curiously: ]

Sorry to interrupt... But are you trying to find something?

[brokenlance]

Ah— Dove, was it?

[he lowers the book, giving her his full attention. don’t worry about how sleep deprived and worn down he looks.]

I’ve been reading about the kind of offerings one leaves the dead. I’m not very familiar with the food of ‘Japan’, though…

[cupidsammo]

[ She will, politely, not point it out. It's been a rough few days. ]

... Oh! An offering? What for?

[brokenlance]

[thank u]

Well... with so many ghosts in this place, it seems like their afterlife must be unrestful.

Perhaps it would provide some alm to their spirits.

[cupidsammo]

[ She pauses briefly, thinking. ]

Like helping them move on? [ ... ] You know, I didn't even think about that... But it's an idea worth trying!

[brokenlance]

[the first tiny smile of hope he's felt in days tugs at his face]

So you really think it might work?

[cupidsammo]

It should help! ... I think. I'm not an expert on ghosts or anything, but I always hear the stories about appeasing them so that they can stop haunting things.