[b][i]Collaboration Post between Letter Bee and Rune[/i][/b] [b][i]Masuda High School[/i][/b] Rukana mostly kept to herself for the duration of it, when someone did inevitably sit next to her she would end up interjecting and making her presence very well known. After all, couldn't just let someone sit next to her without letting them enjoy her very clearly welcome presence, no? Not that they seemed to enjoy said presence too much, but what did she care in the end? Lunchtime would come and go, the throng of students crowding the cafeteria would soon dwindle as another bell chimed, signaling the end of leisure time and a start of classes once more. Rukana left her tray on the table, not bothering to clean it up as she'd stretch, send one more text to Minnie and head back to the class room. Maths, sciences. Literature. Whatever it was, Rukana barely listened. If anything, she just wanted to get the day over with so she could head out on a shopping spree. Maybe find some fancy establishment to eat at. Nah. Best just to shop and head home. Didn't want to deal with the hassle of her mother questioning where she had been. After Lunch was math. How people liked math, she didn't know. It was so boring. Too structured. Too many rules to follow and keep up with. Honestly tiring. Sciences? Well, she found plants interesting at least. Botany was the only really academic field she was into, if it even counted. Physical education came after that, something she was good enough at, if only because it was one of the few subjects she felt like actually trying in. Truthfully though, like always - school days were a blur except Science and her music electives. Ding Ding Ding Ding! "Bwueh?" Rukana shot straight up in her seat. "Jeez...way to bore me to death, teacher..." Rukana grumbled standing up. She had fallen asleep for whatever class was last, but she didn't care to stick around. Arguably the first gal out of the class room as she'd push past everyone else, lazily swinging her schoolbag over her shoulder as she'd head out. [hr] It'd be well into the evening by the time Rukana returned home. She spent most time after school out shopping, mostly for some new clothes, looking over some new guitars and checking out a nearby garden and flower store. Texting Minnie most of the time while doing so. After a quick shower, spending the rest of the night killing some raid bosses and otherwise doing things with Minnie and the guild, she'd log off, stretch...though couldn't help but to take a quick glance at herself in a nearby mirror eyes lingering on her own neck before inhaling, exhaling quietly and putting on her pajamas, throwing herself onto her bed and drifting off into sleep. [hr] [b][i]((Section Solely Written by Letter Bee))[/i][/b] Shotaro got some sandwiches, plus strawberry shortcake and iced tea for himself and Hidekichi, before going to the table that the latter had chosen. He liked the other boy even more. So after setting down the food, the young man was unable to speak much unless spoken to, not even picking up the dropped conversation topic. Then he mustered the courage to speak, “Hey, let’s exchange contact info; you’re okay with that, right?” Assuming that Hidekichi agreed to this, Shotaro let the day pass by in a blur before he returned to his and his uncle’s house, where, after a casual chat at dinner, the young man showered and then put on his pajamas and slept on the fluffy bed filled with plushies of various mythological creatures. Tomorrow promised to be another wonderful day. But tonight, he sank further down into sleep than was normally possible, plunging into the Sea of Dreams… [hr] [b][i]New Amakusa City, The Eleventh Hour[/i][/b] Ruhana Kikuhara found herself walking through a graveyard where the scent of upturned earth mixed with sea-salt mist that drifted in from some unknown ocean. She could not remember waking up, wandering off, or even getting out of bed. In fact, she could still feel the blanket and cushions on her body as an invisible presence, even though her mind was awake and her eyes were clear. She was wearing black and red; no shades of pink here, even as she saw a ghostly pier with a bone-white wooden ship, one favored by the piratical English a century or so after Amakusa’s time, with sails of frayed cloth that shimmered like spider silk. There was a ramp that led to the ship, and a steering wheel that glowed faintly with green-white ectoplasm. It was a call to her to sail the night sea, lit by a full moon that was just suddenly there. The promise was a key to the mystery if she did; rejection meant failure, and return to one’s mundane and normal life. A return to a life where she could not be certain that if she died, there was a soul to leave behind, a life where there was always the fear that her father, now dead, was gone forever. Here, however, she can seek out assurance that Death was not the end, and that bereavement isn’t eternal. [hr] Ariyoshi Nagase found himself in a cosplay convention; an oddly cheery and bright and perfect one where everyone was having fun and nothing seemed to go wrong. He ought to remember sleeping, and still felt whatever surface he had slept on, even as his mind cleared and registered where he was, which was in a convention hall that mixed elements of every venue he had been in; from windows to booths to the tilework used for the floors and the memorabilia being sold. It could almost be a dream come true. It [i]was[/i] a dream and it was also real… but something felt off. At the convention’s exit, which he could see from afar off; he could see his parents, in their finest business clothes, gesturing for him to leave and come back to them, where success and wealth waited, same for respectability. The next time he turned his head, he’d see a stage, advertising a real-time costume crafting competition; materials provided! There was a table and chair with a sewing kit and bundles of cloth and thread, all of which softly glowed with a pale pink aura. Will he choose what he belonged in? Or will he choose what others wanted him to be? [hr] Hidekichi Mamai was in a forest. Of candy. The road he walked was of yellow marzipan, with shrubs of peppermint powdered with fine sugar. The trees he passed by had trunks of biscuits filled with cream, and grew candied apples surrounded by leaves of spearmint, though unpowdered with anything right now. And the clouds were made of cotton candy… [i]Deki Deki Deki Ma, who is our Deki-Ma?[/i] It was a rhyming song, one that was sung by an unknown voice wherever he stopped for more than a few seconds. [i]We all strive for happiness, you do strive for happiness; we all strive for happiness, you do strive for happiness….[/i] The jingle grew louder, more insistent. [i]Deki Deki Deki Ma, who is our Deki-Ma? We all love our Deki-Ma, are we loved by Deki-Ma? We all strive for happiness; you do too, you do too! But are we not happy? Or are we sad? Do you hate us, Deki-Ma; do you love us, Deki-Ma? Deki Deki Deki Ma, we do love our Deki-Ma…[/i] But somehow, should Hidekichi turn his will to opposing the voice, or blocking it out, or even going along with it instead of being annoyed or terrified by it, the voice would comply with whatever he did. Then a small figure waddled up to him; one of his earliest creations, a cute and ugly thing he made for his sister. It held out a hand of sticks, even as it glowed with an aura that changed colors. If it was rejected, unlike with Ari and Runa, it would not be the end of all chances at a life beyond normal. For the Sea of Dreams respected true purity of heart, and it had a soft spot for those driven by love… [@Redking0380][@Rune_Alchemist][@Pz Waffel][@Auragreedia][@TruthHurts][@SilverPaw]