it’s a nice awakening, because you feel as though you’ve had a good night’s worth of rest. you feel refreshed and as you blink awake, you may be able to catch a glimpse of the wall clock hanging on the wall directly in front of your bed. the time appears to be 2:30pm. surveying the rest of your surroundings will show you that you are in one of the dorm rooms. this one, however, most likely won’t seem familiar to you due to how it looks incredibly lived in – posters on the walls, a few pieces of clothing that may or may not be in your size scattered about on the floor, a backpack that certainly isn’t yours leaning up against one of the dressers. also, kawase is nowhere to be seen (probably for the best, given that it’s not super tidy in here) and the stuff on what would be his half of the room doesn’t appear to be his.
you are also surrounded on your bed: an open textbook in estelline’s native language that you actually recognize, the subject appears to be something about finance; an open notebook with handwriting that is not yours; a pen; a pencil; highlighters. so on and so forth.
before you can properly get out of bed, however, there’s something that buzzes right next to your pillow. it makes a weird noise and looks something like this. it lights up and some kind of alert appears on this strange, tablet-like device. you have several alerts, actually.
1. That sounds like something out of a horror movie, Tamamori is only used to Extreme Default Ringtones on account of being from the Stone Age (or just the Taisho era, leave him alone) and while he doesn't mind small children HE DOES NOT WANT TO DEAL WITH WEIRD SMALL CHILDREN-SOUNDING NOISES THANKS -- that device is getting yeeted onto the floor. Goodbye!!!!!!!!
2. Wait, he has no idea how it's already 2:30 PM. Has his amazing internal alarm clock failed him -- it's not unusual for him to sleep in, even with Kawase being a stupid early bird at all times, but 2:30 PM really is late even for him most of the time, and especially here. Hm. Squint.]
Oh? Ohh? I see! This must be a dream about waking up, inside a dream! That would be why I'm dreaming about being in the same university, in the same situation, but with a more cluttered room than usual. [yes, he's fucking narrating, what about it] Now. Let's see... This better be a dream where I don't have to go to class, I haven't even been to real class here yet...
[He's pretty sure their Weird Saturday Activity was not. Traditional class. That said, Tamamori isn't traditional for anything, so at the moment he's going to half fall out of bed and then go to poke at the posters on the walls. Does dream him have Taste, inquiring minds need to know.]
[ the device gets yeeted onto the floor. it's not broken by any means, but it's still lit up. rip phone.
dream tamamori has...some sort of taste, alright! good taste if i say so myself, but he may disagree. there are posters that look like they came from video games and action movies, and also the estelline university's flag. there are a polaroids taped to the wall, too. ]
[The real miracle is that he remembers not to fall on it when he yeets out of bed after it. Or step on it. Tamamori regards it suspiciously, but he does move it to the side with one foot. He'll deal with it later...
The posters are intriguing. Some, like the movie posters, he can at least guess at what they're all about -- it's a strange feeling -- others, like the video game posters, he just mistakes for movie posters. It's fine. Tamamori will check the polaroids.
Is his dream self there, or is he now just a ghost in the background of some dramatic tale of student woe?]
Mm, isn't a week a bit short for this sort of dream...
[ his dream self is sure in one of the polaroids, smiling pretty brightly, though tamamori's cameo is kind of strange. it's a little wavy, quite literally, like his portrait is infused in water or something with the way it ripples.
the other person in that particular polaroid seems happy to be there, too, at least. ]
............ I see. It's certainly not Meiko, so my imagination must have made up a girl acquaintance. You know, this is what happens when you provoke a fellow's imagination and then don't give him just desserts for his efforts.
[Tamamori tells this to the Polaroids, though it's more of an aside and he isn't particularly serious about it -- even he can tell that there's a lot of things here he might want to pay attention to, and while he's used to wandering alien landscapes of his own making (and sometimes those of others), this isn't any story he's familiar with at all.
He's going to retrieve the thingamajigger on the floor, haphazardly poking at it without any real idea of how to open it or find more information on it.
He's also going to retrieve the notebook, reflexively, because written information is generally more reliable to him than visual or even auditory information. Which of these things in his hands is easier to process first?]
[ maybe someone out there is listening to tamamori...
anyway, the phone lights up when he turns it over. a minute or so's passed but he can also see a notification from sage.
the notebook is a bunch of notes about finance that tamamori may not be able to make sense of. it's just a lot of shorthand and abbreviations; clearly meant for the owner to understand and quite possibly not anyone else. ]
[They better be, but he'd be complaining and going on even if nobody was listening -- he really is used to just talking to himself sometimes, sorting things out when he's by himself in some space.
Ah, this thing is encased in some weird picture, too -- it's whimsical and kind of a great way to decorate, he thinks? better than the generic tablet he's got so far -- so Tamamori turns it over and over just to get a good look at it. Being able to read all of this is... a relief, we'll be real. A novelist being unable to read really is the pits even if he can get by with what few Japanese books were available outside dreamland.]
A sage, and a dream of a banker? I could have done better than this, myself. A man with money may be able to buy all sorts of luxuries, and amazing meals, and more books and paper and ink, but he cannot simply buy more time... [this is just nonsense muttering, he's going to lunge for the bag next, is there a wallet in it] But nevertheless, he may be a useful alter ego.
[ tamamori lunges for the bag and discovers...a wallet! congratulations. a sloth wallet. why does this person (tamamori? who knows) like sloths so much, we will never know. maybe. anyway, while there may not be cryptocurrency, there is some regular currency as well as some credit cards, and an ID.
the ID photo is the same as the polaroid; it has tamamori's picture with the same distortion. ]
[..... animal themes...... technically he can't say anything about this but since when has Tamamori ever shut up due to lack of standing. He continues muttering about the unworthiness of whatever his dream self has decided to be, or might be in the future, or is thinking about being, as he pockets the wallet and settles the bag next to him.
Is there anything else interesting in the bag? Snacks? Other devices? Small animals? Secret compartments?? This bag is probably a bit more fancy and elaborate than he is used to, also, but at some point you just go with the flow when the flow is Money From Random Containers.
Okay, a couple more checks: IS HE ACTUALLY DRESSED? I know there's clothes on the floor, are there even clothes on his person. Also, what are the notifications visible on the phone, he'll finally bother to pay attention.]
no, i'm kidding. tamamori is thankfully dressed in whatever he was wearing when he dozed off before this!
in regards to the bag: the large pouch has text books, a water flask, maybe some old receipts or something. and in the small pouch, there's a dorm key and some sort of spray. it's pepper spray, to be exact. ]
[The good news is that he doesn't go to bed in his skivvies.
The other good news is that he is probably wearing something,, though he might not necessarily be wearing pants. Are there pants here he can pull on, some people might hesitate to grab other people's random floor clothes but nah. First of all this is a dream and second of all Tamamori has things to do, places to go--
Once he's dressed he'll finish his look-through of the bag. Double-checking the phone again for notifications!! And!! Okay, the phone may save us from him playing with pepper spray. The jury is out.]
[Successfully pulling on these pants without falling over or falling off the bed: achievement acquired. He ends up flopped sideways. Thinks about going back to sleep. But he has a wallet and he has a mystery device with mystery messages on it, so he should at least take a look outside the room and spend some money...
Also, before I forget, is there any sign he has a roommate?
Other than that, he is going to poke the phone, yes. Can he. Unlock the phone with wild mass guessing or is he stuck reading notifs.]
Hmm. These are smaller, but they still come with no instructions. Terrible design.
[You know what. He's going to rummage through the roommate's side, too, distractedly while he's bullying this poor phone -- since this is a Dream™ then there is no logic saying he has to stay on his side of the room. Similar to his own? Any bags? Pictures? Signs of who the heck he's sharing space with?
I'm also going to assume that he has Incredible Luck™ and manages to get the password, though even Tamamori has to give the thing a suspicious look when it's that simple.]
A banker with no sense of security... What kind of banker are you, Tamamori!!
[He is not a banker. At all. But more importantly: what treasure troves of incredibly unsecured information has he gained access to. Is there a phone wallpaper. Can he wildly misfire e-mails by hitting the screen too much.]
[ actually, yes, there are signs of who he's sharing this space with. and while there isn't a bag around, there sure is a calculus textbook on the bed, and there's a single polaroid taped to their side of the wall.
and yes, he can misfire emails, 100%. time to accidentally send memes to your professors, tamamori. the phone wallpaper looks like this. feel free to play with the phone however you'd like, tama. ]
[Does it look like anyone he knows. The polaroid, I mean, he wouldn't know a calculus textbook if it whacked him over the noggin at twenty thousand paces.
You say accidentally send memes, but Tamamori is just that meme where you can take a picture of your soul (obviously) if you press the home button and the power button at the same time. He manages this. He takes a screenshot of the HOMESCREEN LLAMA. He sends it to three professors, two contacts, and whoever was messaging him. RIP Sage!]
I wonder...
[I'm going to force him to check the actual messages before he's distracted again. Please. What has been sent to him before the llamapocalypse.]
[ first, the phone. after the start of llamapocalypse, tamamori looks at the text. the message reads: ]
😄 party after finals be there, alright? your drinks are on me also lol? llama?
[ reading that, though, doesn't really make him feel appreciated at all. in fact, something about it just makes him feel kinda...hollow?
but now, the polaroid. tamamori absolutely recognizes who's in the polaroid; they have the same ripple effect as the one on his side. but before he can do anymore phone shenanigans or rip off the polaroid or what have you, someone enters. the same someone he recognizes in that very polaroid. ]
[ ryouma just stands in the doorway with the keycard in one hand and his bag dangling off of one shoulder. sure didn't expect to find anyone in here. ]
Surely this unsatisfied feeling is from receiving an entirely typed message, with no handwriting nor flourishes to identify the owner except an alarmingly round face. Though it looks fairly happy. Or maybe he's just hungry??? Or maybe it's just that he's being offered alcohol instead of Calspi. This person has no taste.
Tamamori is still processing all of this, and very slowly pecking out a reply:]
L L A M A
[Yes, that's all he sends. Good luck, Sage.
Then Ryouma comes gallivanting in and he squawks and drops the phone. He is still on Ryouma's(???) side of the room, but Tamamori looks very suspiciously between the Polaroid and the non-Polaroid. And:]
Of course I know. This is nothing but a very strange dream, and you are invading it by suddenly being my roommate. I was just off to try out my dream money in this dream university. Why are you here?
[ it's a fair question? he also holds up the keycard in his hand. ]
Apparently, I live here?
[ he doesn't seem to care that someone is rummaging around on his side of the room because that's technically not his stuff. he heads right in and kicks the door shut behind him, tossing his bag down on the bed after pocketing his phone (and the knife). ]
The tests they've given us so far come with instructions! And, this isn't the room I went to sleep in (this would be the second time, but that's not important)! AND, there are people here in these pictures I don't recognize at all, possessions I don't recognize, and in fact, you are the only thing I've recognized since I've falsely woken up.
Therefore -- this must be a dream. The course wasn't a dream, so there is no reason this one couldn't be.
[This isn't how logic, deductive reasoning, or anything else works. But possibly it is how dream logic works. Why not. Tamamori huffs and picks up the phone and goes to stuff it in his bag, and then holds up his own keycard like?? EQUAL AUTHORITY UNDER THE DREAM LAW.]
... Hmm? Are you planning to go to sleep to try to wake up?
[Tamamori re-opens the door, I guess, because he was planning on going out anyway.]
No, I came here to see if anything in here would give me any clues about what's going on. I woke up in the middle of the lecture hall about to take a test on something called "calculus"? Never heard of it, so I left. I'm supposed to go eat pizza now, I think?
[ is there anything around in this room, he wonders? ]
Maybe the test is to see how well you think on your feet?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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[ you wake up.
it’s a nice awakening, because you feel as though you’ve had a good night’s worth of rest. you feel refreshed and as you blink awake, you may be able to catch a glimpse of the wall clock hanging on the wall directly in front of your bed. the time appears to be 2:30pm. surveying the rest of your surroundings will show you that you are in one of the dorm rooms. this one, however, most likely won’t seem familiar to you due to how it looks incredibly lived in – posters on the walls, a few pieces of clothing that may or may not be in your size scattered about on the floor, a backpack that certainly isn’t yours leaning up against one of the dressers. also, kawase is nowhere to be seen (probably for the best, given that it’s not super tidy in here) and the stuff on what would be his half of the room doesn’t appear to be his.
you are also surrounded on your bed: an open textbook in estelline’s native language that you actually recognize, the subject appears to be something about finance; an open notebook with handwriting that is not yours; a pen; a pencil; highlighters. so on and so forth.
before you can properly get out of bed, however, there’s something that buzzes right next to your pillow. it makes a weird noise and looks something like this. it lights up and some kind of alert appears on this strange, tablet-like device. you have several alerts, actually.
what would you like to do? ]
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1. That sounds like something out of a horror movie, Tamamori is only used to Extreme Default Ringtones on account of being from the Stone Age (or just the Taisho era, leave him alone) and while he doesn't mind small children HE DOES NOT WANT TO DEAL WITH WEIRD SMALL CHILDREN-SOUNDING NOISES THANKS -- that device is getting yeeted onto the floor. Goodbye!!!!!!!!
2. Wait, he has no idea how it's already 2:30 PM. Has his amazing internal alarm clock failed him -- it's not unusual for him to sleep in, even with Kawase being a stupid early bird at all times, but 2:30 PM really is late even for him most of the time, and especially here. Hm. Squint.]
Oh? Ohh? I see! This must be a dream about waking up, inside a dream! That would be why I'm dreaming about being in the same university, in the same situation, but with a more cluttered room than usual. [yes, he's fucking narrating, what about it] Now. Let's see... This better be a dream where I don't have to go to class, I haven't even been to real class here yet...
[He's pretty sure their Weird Saturday Activity was not. Traditional class. That said, Tamamori isn't traditional for anything, so at the moment he's going to half fall out of bed and then go to poke at the posters on the walls. Does dream him have Taste, inquiring minds need to know.]
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dream tamamori has...some sort of taste, alright! good taste if i say so myself, but he may disagree. there are posters that look like they came from video games and action movies, and also the estelline university's flag. there are a polaroids taped to the wall, too. ]
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The posters are intriguing. Some, like the movie posters, he can at least guess at what they're all about -- it's a strange feeling -- others, like the video game posters, he just mistakes for movie posters. It's fine. Tamamori will check the polaroids.
Is his dream self there, or is he now just a ghost in the background of some dramatic tale of student woe?]
Mm, isn't a week a bit short for this sort of dream...
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the other person in that particular polaroid seems happy to be there, too, at least. ]
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[Tamamori tells this to the Polaroids, though it's more of an aside and he isn't particularly serious about it -- even he can tell that there's a lot of things here he might want to pay attention to, and while he's used to wandering alien landscapes of his own making (and sometimes those of others), this isn't any story he's familiar with at all.
He's going to retrieve the thingamajigger on the floor, haphazardly poking at it without any real idea of how to open it or find more information on it.
He's also going to retrieve the notebook, reflexively, because written information is generally more reliable to him than visual or even auditory information. Which of these things in his hands is easier to process first?]
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anyway, the phone lights up when he turns it over. a minute or so's passed but he can also see a notification from sage.
the notebook is a bunch of notes about finance that tamamori may not be able to make sense of. it's just a lot of shorthand and abbreviations; clearly meant for the owner to understand and quite possibly not anyone else. ]
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Ah, this thing is encased in some weird picture, too -- it's whimsical and kind of a great way to decorate, he thinks? better than the generic tablet he's got so far -- so Tamamori turns it over and over just to get a good look at it. Being able to read all of this is... a relief, we'll be real. A novelist being unable to read really is the pits even if he can get by with what few Japanese books were available outside dreamland.]
A sage, and a dream of a banker? I could have done better than this, myself. A man with money may be able to buy all sorts of luxuries, and amazing meals, and more books and paper and ink, but he cannot simply buy more time... [this is just nonsense muttering, he's going to lunge for the bag next, is there a wallet in it] But nevertheless, he may be a useful alter ego.
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the ID photo is the same as the polaroid; it has tamamori's picture with the same distortion. ]
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Is there anything else interesting in the bag? Snacks? Other devices? Small animals? Secret compartments?? This bag is probably a bit more fancy and elaborate than he is used to, also, but at some point you just go with the flow when the flow is Money From Random Containers.
Okay, a couple more checks: IS HE ACTUALLY DRESSED? I know there's clothes on the floor, are there even clothes on his person. Also, what are the notifications visible on the phone, he'll finally bother to pay attention.]
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no, i'm kidding. tamamori is thankfully dressed in whatever he was wearing when he dozed off before this!
in regards to the bag: the large pouch has text books, a water flask, maybe some old receipts or something. and in the small pouch, there's a dorm key and some sort of spray. it's pepper spray, to be exact. ]
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The other good news is that he is probably wearing something,, though he might not necessarily be wearing pants. Are there pants here he can pull on, some people might hesitate to grab other people's random floor clothes but nah. First of all this is a dream and second of all Tamamori has things to do, places to go--
Once he's dressed he'll finish his look-through of the bag. Double-checking the phone again for notifications!! And!! Okay, the phone may save us from him playing with pepper spray. The jury is out.]
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the message from sage is still there! would he like to read it? ]
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Also, before I forget, is there any sign he has a roommate?
Other than that, he is going to poke the phone, yes. Can he. Unlock the phone with wild mass guessing or is he stuck reading notifs.]
Hmm. These are smaller, but they still come with no instructions. Terrible design.
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and honestly? he can honestly probably figure out the code through guessing. the password is literally 1234. ]
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I'm also going to assume that he has Incredible Luck™ and manages to get the password, though even Tamamori has to give the thing a suspicious look when it's that simple.]
A banker with no sense of security... What kind of banker are you, Tamamori!!
[He is not a banker. At all. But more importantly: what treasure troves of incredibly unsecured information has he gained access to. Is there a phone wallpaper. Can he wildly misfire e-mails by hitting the screen too much.]
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and yes, he can misfire emails, 100%. time to accidentally send memes to your professors, tamamori. the phone wallpaper looks like this. feel free to play with the phone however you'd like, tama. ]
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[Does it look like anyone he knows. The polaroid, I mean, he wouldn't know a calculus textbook if it whacked him over the noggin at twenty thousand paces.
You say accidentally send memes, but Tamamori is just that meme where you can take a picture of your soul (obviously) if you press the home button and the power button at the same time. He manages this. He takes a screenshot of the HOMESCREEN LLAMA. He sends it to three professors, two contacts, and whoever was messaging him. RIP Sage!]
I wonder...
[I'm going to force him to check the actual messages before he's distracted again. Please. What has been sent to him before the llamapocalypse.]
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😄 party after finals
be there, alright? your drinks are on me
also lol? llama?
[ reading that, though, doesn't really make him feel appreciated at all. in fact, something about it just makes him feel kinda...hollow?
but now, the polaroid. tamamori absolutely recognizes who's in the polaroid; they have the same ripple effect as the one on his side. but before he can do anymore phone shenanigans or rip off the polaroid or what have you, someone enters. the same someone he recognizes in that very polaroid. ]
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Oh. I didn't think anyone was in here!
[ wait. ]
Do you know what's going on right now?
[ perfectly normal question right. ]
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Surely this unsatisfied feeling is from receiving an entirely typed message, with no handwriting nor flourishes to identify the owner except an alarmingly round face. Though it looks fairly happy. Or maybe he's just hungry??? Or maybe it's just that he's being offered alcohol instead of Calspi. This person has no taste.
Tamamori is still processing all of this, and very slowly pecking out a reply:]
L L A M A
[Yes, that's all he sends. Good luck, Sage.
Then Ryouma comes gallivanting in and he squawks and drops the phone. He is still on Ryouma's(???) side of the room, but Tamamori looks very suspiciously between the Polaroid and the non-Polaroid. And:]
Of course I know. This is nothing but a very strange dream, and you are invading it by suddenly being my roommate. I was just off to try out my dream money in this dream university. Why are you here?
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[ that's the response. nothing more, nothing less. L L A M A times are upon us, clearly.
the time now is a little after 3:00pm. ]
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[ it's a fair question? he also holds up the keycard in his hand. ]
Apparently, I live here?
[ he doesn't seem to care that someone is rummaging around on his side of the room because that's technically not his stuff. he heads right in and kicks the door shut behind him, tossing his bag down on the bed after pocketing his phone (and the knife). ]
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Therefore -- this must be a dream. The course wasn't a dream, so there is no reason this one couldn't be.
[This isn't how logic, deductive reasoning, or anything else works. But possibly it is how dream logic works. Why not. Tamamori huffs and picks up the phone and goes to stuff it in his bag, and then holds up his own keycard like?? EQUAL AUTHORITY UNDER THE DREAM LAW.]
... Hmm? Are you planning to go to sleep to try to wake up?
[Tamamori re-opens the door, I guess, because he was planning on going out anyway.]
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[ is there anything around in this room, he wonders? ]
Maybe the test is to see how well you think on your feet?
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redirecting + time skip!
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