Walkabout: [Shortly after their arrival]

[professorwolf]

Randolph Lyall here. Anybody else dropped into the noisy arcade? Or were most of us lucky enough to wind up in a hotel room or a lobby? Can we have a check-in?

Also, anybody else stuck with animal ears and a tail, or aged up or down? I've heard about a Jaunt much like this place, a while back, though I wasn't here for it: a school for anime magic, basically. Sparkles and animal ears and flowers coming out of nowhere. All the symptoms I'm seeing seem to be lining up for that world.

I'm still working out what's going on. It seems like some kind of multiple-school event, from the signs and the brochure handily in my pocket. I'm even wearing a badge for one of them, so I suppose I'm some kind of representative. The aging up doesn't go all the way up to adults, and I haven't changed any.

Comments

[seestheworld]

Well, I'm not an expert or anything. But a lot of people did it at my old school, for reasons that seemed to range from "I am asserting my individuality" to "I am expressing my poor opinion of this place," and probably some cases of "Everybody else is doing it so I am, too," which is... slightly self-contradictory.

[She files Beatrice's statement about not attending high school away for now; there could be any number of reasons for that, ranging from benign to... not benign... and she doesn't feel she knows Beatrice well enough to ask her something quite that personal yet.]

Dara was the head of the newspaper at Doki Doki no Gakuen. She also happened to be the one who set up the prank that seemed to have set off the entire Jaunt, although I don't think it caused anything close to the result she wanted. I don't remember seeing her on any other Jaunts since, so her popping up again now might mean she's a familiar face rather than a Traveler.

She is also not wearing a Doki Doki no Gakuen uniform here.

[awitchdidit]

Hm. Something changed as a result of the previous Jaunt here, then.

When you say "familiar face", you mean a common element between two Jaunts, yes? Someone who lives in the same world during two of the Trumps' little games?

[seestheworld]

Probably. I mean, she could have changed schools for any number of reasons, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was at least partially due to the fallout from the Valentine's Day prank.

And - yes and no. I don't think Dara's shown up outside of this world - not that I can remember, anyway - but some familiar faces do show up on different worlds, as entirely different people. I don't know if they're another group of Travelers or what they might be, but whenever we meet them, they're presented as natives of whatever world we're visiting.

[awitchdidit]

How very interesting. Just how many players does this game have?

Dara should be a focus of investigation, even if she has nothing to do with our "mission" here, whatever it is. Same with any other familiar faces.

[seestheworld]

I've been wondering that for a while, honestly.

Dara and I were on the newspaper together last time out - she recruited me, actually - so she knows me already. We got along fairly well back then, although judging by the hate-on she seems to have for Doki Doki now, I'm not sure if that still stands. But she's wearing the same uniform I am, so hopefully that'll be a point in my favor.

[awitchdidit]

If you're prepared to spin a story about a transfer, you should be able to learn a lot about her own, at the very least...

[seestheworld]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. And Dara tends to rant about things that upset her anyway, so there's a good chance she'll let something slip.