[OPEN MINGLE: SEPT 8-16]

[oneandmikleonly]

[So what are you up to as we pass out of the first hectic week of September and into the second? Calm strolls with alien elephants or fast swims with alien sealife? Flashing your sunglasses at crime scenes? Dreaming and building dreams? Waking and building...buildings? There's always a lot to do here, whether it's formal missions or just shenanigans with friends.

Zenning out is fine too!]

Comments

[soulfriend]

It's just a, like, a thought experiment! Yeah!

[Read: fantasy. A weird, weird fantasy.]

I've actually got a classmate who needs a prosthetic. It ain't really my specialty, but I'm seeing what I can come up with for him. Nothin's beyond me! It's just . . . it'd be a lot better if he needed some wheels instead of a hand.

[classwarfare]

A wheel and a hand would be completely different functions, wouldn't they...

[ It seems like that? But maybe he's missing something. For all he knows, maybe these wheels have fingers attached to them. When you're faced with the plans for a centank, anything seems really possible. ]

...what else are you making? [ QUICK, A DISTRACTION. ]

[soulfriend]

'Course they would. That's why I'm bummed out. Why couldn't he have lost a leg instead? He's just gotta be a pain in the ass no matter what he does.

[Because Nagito lost a limb just to spite Kazuichi, obviously.

(Not that the actual reason is much better.)]

Anyway, enough o' him, right? You've got your eye on my modified jet-skis! Good eye!

[classwarfare]

I don't really think anyone loses a limb on purpose...

[ SPEAKING OF THAT. But he mutters it under his breath before he nods a little. A distraction. Good. ]

How's that supposed to work? I thought a jet-ski would involve a boat or something like that.

[ On the other hand, that might be useful for long-distance underwater journeys... ]

[soulfriend]

[He doesn't hear the aside, which is for the best in this situation for a lot of reasons. He hears jet-ski, and that is way, way more interesting than Komaeda's unfortunate choices.]

Nope! Never been on one, huh? Neither have I . . . but I've worked on 'em before! This's my first underwater one, though. Anyway, either way they're totally self-propelled. Imagine a motorcycle you can ride on the water! Totally sweet, right? These're a modified design that you use underwater instead!

. . . By "you" I mean Rapplejack! For now.

[classwarfare]

[ It's the for now that worries me, but he's at least polite enough not to say that aloud. So he just nods. ]

No, the closest I've been is -- er, I've been on boats? Just ferries to go back and forth, though, nothing. Um. Nothing that went really fast. I have a classmate that's more into that stuff.

[soulfriend]

Riding or working on 'em? Boats are the absolute worst, man . . . it's just my luck I ended up in a place like this. I guess it hasn't been that bad so far, though.

[He looks down at his plans with a little shrug, sobering some.]

You ever find your teacher or class?

[classwarfare]

[ On the other hand, he brightens a little. ] Yes! Korosensei was here after all.

[ And then, a beat later, some of that fades. ] But not the rest of my class. We're not really sure about how or what happened, but for now, it looks like it's just the two of us. You'll know him if you see him, though.

[soulfriend]

It ain't just you. Some of my class's here too, but not everyone. No teacher or anything, but there's five of us now. Hey, when I got here it was just me and Hinata! So maybe yours'll show up soon too! You never know!

[He gives him an encouraging thumbs up. Never give up hope for canonmates, little bro.]

So are you saying your teacher's the only old guy here?

[classwarfare]

Ahhhhhh...

[ He makes a. A face. At that. ]

No -- I mean, he's old enough to be a teacher, but that's not what I meant. It's more that he's, ahhhh, well, he's--

What I mean is that he's not using his human disguise here.

[ Is he serious? He says it like it's some small embarrassing thing, like there's no deeper implication. ]

[soulfriend]

What?! Don't just leave it at that! Who drops that casually into conversation?! Wh . . . what is he?!

[Like he can talk. On the other hand, if Monokuma or Monomi ever did show up here, he definitely wouldn't be treating it with this kind of casualness, so it's hard for him to relate to when he hears it.]

[classwarfare]

Korosensei is Korosensei.

[ OBVIOUSLY?? He manages to keep a completely straight face for that, like he's actually being the tsukkomi in this pairing. (Anything to put off trying to figure out how to actually describe Korosensei to someone who hasn't met him yet. Some things are better off experienced in person for the first time.) ]

[soulfriend]

That ain't an answer! If I asked what kind o' pet you had, you wouldn't say, "Hana is Hana!" I'm askin' about the species here . . . I think . . .

[Though what kind of answer should he be expecting? Anything but bear. Please not that. Souda's expression is anything but neutral; the two of them do make a pretty great comedy duo right now.]

[classwarfare]

[ It is really tempting to straightface saying Hana is Hana after that, just for a moment. But he relents, shrugging and offering Souda a bit of an apologetic smile. ]

It's really hard to explain. If you meet him, you'll see what I mean, but Korosensei... was human, once. So remember that, okay?

[soulfriend]

You ain't makin' me feel any better when you put it like that! Just—just tell me he's not out for blood!

[He's trying so hard here not to freak out, but in this situation? It's kinda hard not to jump to come frightening conclusions. He was human once?!]

[classwarfare]

He likes pudding better than blood.

[ SURELY... SURELY THAT IS MORE COMFORTING.............. ]

No, it's just, Korosensei kind of looks like something out of a comic book? So it'll probably be a surprise to see him, but he does mean well.

[soulfriend]

That really don't narrow it down much . . .

[He sighs, rubbing at his forehead.]

But I'm startin' to get used to that here.

[classwarfare]

I... kind of am, kinda not. It's really--

[ Weird? Unsettling? Alien? All of the above? ]

--kind of unique.