i wanna be the very best like no one ever was

[extraordinarily]

WHO: Anyone and everyone!
WHAT: Meeting about housing + saving ones who turned into NPCs.
WHEN: April 8th, afternoon
WHERE: Student council office
WARNINGS: Cursing and possible violence.


[ Haruhi has decided to hold a meeting right after classes are done and over with and there are two topics she has in mind for everyone that is written on the whiteboard.

A. Housing ideas!

B. How do we save the NPCs?

C. Anything else?

Basically, discuss the two topics, mingle, and feel free to drag NPCs in as guinea pigs... or anything else, really! Feel free to bring in any other topics as well.

Though keep in mind that shadows might show up during the meeting... ]

( OOC: Feel free to mingle and threadjack in any thread! In fact, it's highly appreciated and will keep things together when it comes to order of events, haha.. )

Comments

[tsunball]

[ Leon's showed up to the meeting, at least. He doesn't look as good as he usually does though - there's dark circles beneath his eyes that even his punk rock eyeliner can't fully hide and he looks on edge, his eyes constantly darting around as if he expects a shadow to pop up any moment now. It's why he has his baseball bat with him, just in case. He wouldn't dare going around without that thing anymore by now, honestly.

He rubs the bridge of his nose, squinting at the whiteboard before sighing. ]

.. So, Suzumiya, gonna share your bright ideas now?

[extraordinarily]

Yeah, that's fine.

[ She'll flip the whiteboard over as she writes the first thing on it. The word "love", which is written in both Japanese kanji along with the English translation with the marker in her clear handwriting. Of course, Haruhi is just as wary of the shadows as anyone else here, but she's kept her gun in her holster, though the shinai is sitting right next to her leaning against the whiteboard.

Haruhi takes a deep breath.

She knows this topic is heavy, and she has to make sure people don't freak out about it. ]

So the first topic we'll talk about will be the hardest one. Just so you know, finding a place to stay is easy, so we'll actually leave that as the last topic for today since we need to get through the more difficult discussions.

< Saving the NPCs. >

[ Speaking in English isn't all that difficult for Haruhi, but it's a feat that she doesn't necessarily do all that often, before she tosses her hair aside, looking rather nonchalant about it all. ]

Now, the reason I wrote "love" on the board is because it's a pretty important topic. You see, the shadows originally appeared the first time because the Angel Player was programmed to delete - or rather, erase, by turning people into NPCs. By doing that, it removed all love from the equation. So I was thinking that there's a possibility that love would bring them back if it's strong enough.

[ She then folds her arms over her chest, narrowing her eyes for a bit. She's remembering that conversation she had earlier in the month. A deep sigh escapes her lips as she then picks up her shinai, slamming it lightly onto the the whiteboard before raising her voice. ]

However! I'm pretty sure that not everyone is in love, so we'll have to think up another plan. Which is what I have actually been doing for the last couple of days. I still think love and emotions are vital to reviving any of the NPCs, which is why I thought of this.

[ And she goes and writes more on the whiteboard. 'Friendship and Pain'. ]

Just for the record, I'm not grouping those two together. They're separate. Another form of 'love' is friendship. It's a lesser type of love, but it is just as significant. If you show that you really care, I'm sure they'll remember.

And another thing that gets erased when you're an NPC is any type of pain. I don't like suggesting this, but I believe if you make them relive any sort of pain, physical or emotional, they might remember. And the biggest thing I don't want you guys trying out is killing any of them. That's a last resort thing, got it?

... Anyway, does anybody have any questions or other suggestions so far?

[tsunball]

[ Leon briefly opens his mouth, planning on asking if that means they can just go ahead and kiss the girls-turned-npcs to turn them back to normal..

.. but then closes his mouth again just as quickly. Somehow he can't find it in himself to even ask any of his usual questions while he's still feeling entirely unlike himself because of this entire deal. Instead he just half-listens to Haruhi's speech. At first he pays quite a bit of attention, but when she rambles on, it becomes a little less and he nervously plays a little with the baseball bat, moving it from hand to hand under the table.

Once she finishes, he slowly speaks up again. ]

You sure you wanna take the risk of pain not working? I mean, I doubt we're talking about just standing on their toes here.

[afterlifer]

[ Ai, who had remained quiet while Haruhi spoke, sat in the back of the room quietly until that moment. As an NPC herself, she knew a little bit about what the human-type NPCs were capable of feeling. She raised her hand to offer this information to the conversation, but didn't wait to be called upon once Leon finished. ]

They can feel pain, especially physical pain. Their emotional centers are still there as well, buuuut anything from their past or present that causes emotional pain gets sealed within their memory. Even I can feel physical pain, though, and I would recommend against causing physical damage to any of them if you want to remain on good terms once you find a way to get them back. Plus, to make them relive physical pain wouldn't it require that you were present in the first place to know the nature of the injury?

I am not saying not to do it, and I don't know what will or won't work since I don't have the data for the shadows system accessible to me, but I believe that Kuwata has a point.

[tsunball]

[ Aaaawkward stare in Ai's direction since they did sort of get into this situation to begin with because of you, okay!!

But she's agreeing with him and he feels too bummed to start something like that right now anyway, so instead he just waits for Haruhi's reaction. ]

[extraordinarily]

That's why I'm going to say that it's something that I'm suggesting as a last resort, if anything. In fact, I'd rather not have any physical pain involved in bringing them back since they'll remember in either case. I just wanted to bring it up in case anybody else did.

I would rather not risk it after all. It's better not to deal with that sort of thing, so we'll have to pretty much try the the safer things on a trial and error basis for the time being. Though if anybody wants to raise any further points to my attention, you're free to tell me and we can take it into consideration.

[onewayroad]

[Accelerator's been leaning against the wall of the office listening in quietly, when the topic of causing pain comes up, piquing his interest more than before. He thinks back a moment to a couple of months earlier, when the NPCs had completely gone batshit, and he'd come across Kohaku after the guy had snapped.]

I don't know about making anyone relive actual injuries, but there's at least one idiot-turned-NPC here who's so disgusted by the NPCs that he ruthlessly massacred them once just because they pushed him over the edge. Killing or injuring him might actually be worth trying.

[extraordinarily]

You mean Kohaku-kun? I saw that. It's possible if you want to laugh maniacally while doing that. Or you could pretend to kill an NPC or something, though I'm not so sure how much of an impact it would have.

[onewayroad]

Yeah. That guy.

There's a few options, and I have no problem being the one to do the deed. The bastard already hates me and I couldn't give a shit. The issue is maximizing the impact, like you say.

[extraordinarily]

What options do you have? Since I don't want to actually resort to killing immediately.

[onewayroad]

They'd all fit into the category of making the guy relive old pain, physical or mental.

The way he snapped and went the knife version of being trigger-happy? [he folds his arms over his chest, trying not to let an uncomfortable look settle for too long on his face. the familiarity is eating away at him. he knows quite a bit about the mentally unhinged.] There has to be more to it than just disgust. Something that drove him to that extreme once the straw broke the camel's back. All I have to do is figure out the best way to tap into that.

...It's the details beyond that that I need more time to think on.

[extraordinarily]

That's fine by me, of course, but if you try anything and it works, make sure you tell me or the others as soon as possible. We want to have any good and working idea at everyone's disposal. Because if we can do this, then we'll definitely be ahead of the game!

[onewayroad]

I'll share whatever I deem worth sharing.

[he doesn't appear to care about confirming anything on his part beyond that. And if someone else wants to jump in after that, he sure as hell won't stop them. he's finished, as far as he's concerned.]