lights, camera, action

lights, camera, action

[shslcriticism]

This Is The Happiness And Peace Of Mind Film Studios Committee [Akira]

[shslseitokaichou-blog]

Okay, now she knew for sure he wasn’t alright. But what could she do? Surely this was his way of coping with the situation.

"M… Mikami-kun…" Seeing Minoru’s turmoil was almost too much to bear. She shut her eyes for a few seconds, trying to sort out her thoughts. It’d be a bad idea to attempt to snap him out of his delusions if he was already suffering enough with them. Who would know the consequences? Slowly, Akira inched closer and…

Wrapped her arms around the boy. It felt strange. Physical contact with people she didn’t know well still wasn’t something she usually enjoyed, but that was all she could think to do. Uneasy, she gently stroked his head and whispered.

"…Nade nade. If thinking me a fake makes you feel better, then… Go right ahead.”

[shslcriticism]

Minoru's grin didn't falter as Akira wrapped her arms around him, the manic glint of his eyes, unchanging, but the change in his body language was instantly noticeable. He nearly collapsed, leaning a large portion of his body weight on her as tears poured down his cheeks. 

Why tears? This was all a dream, a fiction, a fantasy, why cry when he was feeling fine, great, okay? Why did Narita-san feel the need to comfort him when he felt brilliant, swimming, elated? It was all beyond him, but he couldn't stop himself from crying. 

"D-don't worry about me, Narita-san! I feel fine. It's not my fault that none of this is real, after all, I only just realized it, anyway. Perhaps when I w-wake up I will meet the real Akira Narita. That would probably be a pleasant experience." 

[shslcriticism]

This Is The Happiness And Peace Of Mind Film Studios Committee [Akira]

[shslseitokaichou-blog]

The majority of the new floor had already been explored by Akira and Tsunami, though there were still a few places Akira had basically ignored. Only the arcade and the sports books room were left, and as is reasonable, she went to the former first. It was a little shocking to see Minoru. She hadn’t talked with him in a while.

"Oh, Mikami…-kun." It didn’t take that long for her to see that Minoru’s crying aftermath and her eyes filled with worry. She shut the door behind her and moved close. He was smiling yes, which would have put her at ease, but… His hands. There was no explanation other than that he had caused those scrapes himself somehow.

"…Are you okay?" She couldn’t really tell. He very well could have been alright with that smile despite looking cruddy everywhere else.

[shslcriticism]

Minoru grinned, an expression that would probably have looked more reassuring if it didn't look as insane as it did elated. With a somewhat unnerving giggle, he replied, waving a hand around his head absent-mindedly. "I'm fine, Narita-san! I couldn't be better." 

He chuckled again, a tear welling up in one of his desperately hopeless-looking eyes. "Seems you've had a haircut! This sure is an interesting dream. Perhaps this is symbolic. Perhaps Akira Narita has also had a haircut, wherever she is, and you changed to reflect that. Who knows?" 

Minoru shrugged, light gleaming off his glasses as he let out another giggle. "Not that it matters, anyway. I'll find out how you are when I wake up, anyway, won't I?"

[shslcriticism]

This Is The Happiness And Peace Of Mind Film Studios Committee [ open rp ]

Minoru was feeling great! Brilliant! The fact that his eyes were visibly red from crying didn't really make him look all that great, and neither did his grazed and skinned knuckles, but hey, can't have everything. 

The reason he was feeling great was because of what he had figured out. Nothing was real. None of it, nothing in front of him, nothing around him, none of the nonsense he remembered happening, how oh how could any of it be real? 

Of course it wasn't. And that was why he knew that things would be just fine, lounging around in the arcade with a chipper smile on his face, ready to chat with the first person to come in. 

[shslwordnerd]

all paths lead where (open)

[shslwordnerd]

Arashi didn’t need a similar evaluation of Minoru’s character; that ship had sailed, a bottle had been traditionally broken on its bow and it took off into the sunset presumably to get swallowed by a whirlpool the size of Texas. No, he was not trying too hard, he always metaphored this aggressively, what are you talking about.

"Unthinkable indeed. You severely underestimate the power of my disdain, Mikami-san. My expectations will dig a chasm by hand just for the express purpose of having a longer fall, and in the event of even a light fall they will complain about head trauma and call their lawyers." …Cheap nature set? Surrounded by all the books? Odd. He’d have to investigate that later. Perhaps with some decent material rather than actually curling up in some dusty stacks.

"Considering the previous floor, though, it wouldn’t be too hard to think of it all as some elaborate farce. Anything so inadequately stocked doesn’t deserve the title. Perhaps the next floor up will be even more reassuring. Government secrets. Case files. The bear’s diary."

[shslcriticism]

Minoru raised a jocular eyebrow. "Luckily for me, I've got expectations low enough from this shitty bear that they're considering competing in a world limbo competition. My expectations for the rest of our time here are so damn low they'd make a double bass retire in shame. The movie room was the high point of this painfully poor set design." 

He put a hand to his chin, thinking about the library. "But in all seriousness, this library is... strange, to say the least. He's renovated the place, evidently. Set up the cameras. Destroyed the computers, probably disconnected TV and phone signals. Why keep it a library? Is it symbolic? Is he trying to prove something by using a library? The futility of knowledge? The meaninglessness of philosophy? How much he hates books? And reading? And words?" 

[shslplumbing-deactivated2014091]

After the Execution/Map Reveal Starter

[shslplumbing-deactivated2014091]

Oh, the movie critic. After the incident with Eisuke, he hadn’t had the chance to hold a conversation with him. He was relieved that it was a familiar face that had come to visit him during this time rather than a stranger. It made him feel a bit more comfortable.

"You don’t say? I suppose this courtyard suits your needs." He motioned towards the clearly fake paintings on the wall. All the ambiance of nature without the hassle of insects or overly harsh sunlight. He supposed he would have appreciated a room like this around his house when he wasn’t given permission to leave, but in this situation, it was highly disturbing.

Akihiko glanced over at the critic, noting his disheveled appearance. Perhaps he, too, was in a condition similar to his own. "…forgive me if I am intruding, but how are you feeling, Mikami-san?"

[shslcriticism]

Minoru nodded. In truth, he found this area very comforting, for the simple reason that it reminded him of a film set, not this disgusting slaughterhouse that had been set up with cameras as the stage for a lunatic's sick game. It was comforting to think of this as a film set, as movie trickery and stage fakery, but it was real, and he couldn't change that. "It's pretty nice." 

When Shinohara asked him how he was feeling, he sighed. Did he really feel so terrible that it was visible? Averting his eyes and adjusting his tie, he responded. "I'm not feeling too great. I'm sure you can imagine why." 

He reached out a hand, and, very awkwardly and probably ineffectually, patted the plumber on the shoulder. "I-I guess it must have been worse for you. Being set up by your friend... I'm so sorry." 

[shslwordnerd]

all paths lead where (open)

[shslwordnerd]

By now he’s at least unfocused enough, with annoyance replacing it, to not end up jumping out of his skin at the sudden arrival. Instead he swivels neatly on one heel, looking just as relaxed and above all this as he had been meaning to from the beginning. (And he would have been better at it if certain people didn’t keep alluding to marriages and blood pacts and insinuating he was ogling them, grumble grumble…)

"Mikami-san." He nodded stolidly and withdrew his notebook, flipped to a clean sheet, and started recording the relevant information about the scroll. Which just seemed to be the weird dates and nothing else at this point. But he was going to keep a record of all this if it killed him because it seemed important.

"I can’t say one way or the other. At this point I’m interested certainly, but I haven’t gone anywhere but here and I can feel my expectations poised on the precipice above a gaping chasm of disappointment. They’re limbering up and preparing for their diving position, even.” Overly extended metaphors had recently become his most favorite thing. “I might even just hole myself up with the decent pleasure-reading books and never come out.” 

[shslcriticism]

Minoru gave a genuine smile at the metaphor. Worth of applause almost, except that clapping at a metaphor would be dumb. Come on Minoru. Don't entertain dumb thoughts. Like entertaining a dumb audience, it was easy, but unlike entertaining a dumb audience, entertaining dumb thoughts very rarely led to making large amounts of money. 

He'd decided that, although as everyone did, Tsuji had his faults, being aggravating, rude, and slightly pretentious, he definitely enjoyed the poet's company. "Well, in the incredibly unthinkable scenario that a poet likes to read, I doubt you'll be disappointed too badly. Perhaps more of a valley than a chasm, more of a light tumble than a plunge. Spoiler alert, it's mostly books. Also maps. And the cheapest fucking 'nature' set I've ever seen in any production, live or otherwise. But mostly, books." 

He pushed his glasses up his nose with a playful smirk on his face. "It's almost as if this were a library or something. Who would have thought?" 

[shslcriticism]

Set Critique [- Open RP -]

[eisukehanae]

As luck would have it, Eisuke was heading to the biography room that day. All of Kiyomitsu’s talk about samurai had gotten him thinking. He liked history, but he had never really studied anything before, say, the Meiji restoration. He had long since given up finding any famous Hanae in history, but now he was just interested in learning about some famous samurai.

…He was hanging around Kiyomitsu way too much. He’d have to tell Yasu to punch him if he ever started wearing haori or hakama.

He didn’t notice Minoru at first. He was in the O section - Oda Nobunaga was probably a good place to start - but when he did see his roommate there he paused. With a slight frown he asked, “Hey, Mikami, you okay?”

[shslcriticism]

Minoru looked up at his roommate with an irritable scowl, one born of strain and stress and devoid of any real hatred or anger. His voice was strained, not quite on the verge of tears but not anything that could be considered collected either. 

"Yes, I'm feeling brilliant. On top of the world. Nothing like a pair of horrible deaths to cheer one up. Oh, but I forgot, we got somewhere new to explore! Brilliant, isn't it, why the gild on this fucking cage couldn't be finer!" 

His irritable, pained mind suddenly had the delayed realization that perhaps being rude to the boy who had previously knocked out a person and punched two more was a bad idea. He put his hands up defensively, sighing. "Sorry. It's been a rough week. Little bit stressful." 

[shslwordnerd]

all paths lead where (open)

After the trial, when—even in his mind, the sentence fragment felt undeniably callous and cruel—all the threads were tied up and everything had fallen back into an easy understandable meter of quiet, Arashi had entertained the thought that the bear might shower them in praise for their efforts before scuttling off again to who knows where. As it happened, something like that came to pass, but only subtly.

The stairs to the second floor had opened up.

By the time he’d gotten up and poked around the films section absentmindedly, the main area was quiet and deserted, and whether that meant he was early or late he wasn’t entirely sure, but the opened stairs caught his eye nonetheless and he was ascending to the second floor before the thought of informing someone else of this crossed his mind. According to his (newly returned) ID and (newly updated) map there were far more informative reading materials in store, now actually things worthy of a library label. So much so that he actually didn’t know where to begin.

Well, he had time. The Literary History room seemed like it held more investigative promise than the rest, and when he entered it was peaceful and empty. Arashi allowed himself a second to pause and just stand there, taking in the quiet gravity of the place and the pleasant smell of old books. There really was no better place than a good library. However, his attention was soon captured by the giant scroll and he moved closer to get a better look. So intent was he in poring over his new discovery, it would take some kind of localized explosion to get him to notice a new arrival.

[shslcriticism]

Minoru had calmed down a touch since the trial, but thinking about the incident still left a disgusting taste in his mouth. Walking around and investigating their new surroundings was a way of distracting from the horror of their situation, like a film might use overblown drama and dialogue to distract from poor plot and characters. 

As he ambled into the literary history room, he became aware that there was already someone in there. Tsuji Arashi, to be precise, one of the few people in this hellhole that he could consider, in all honesty, a friend. It wasn't often that Minoru  encountered someone with the same predilection as him towards overly extended metaphors and dry humour, especially not one who did it so well. 

Casually adjusting his tie and jacket, he walked up to the poet, who seemed to be interested in the giant scroll that was the focus of the room. "Tsuji-kun. This new floor is interesting, isn't it?"

[shslcriticism]

Set Critique [- Open RP -]

Minoru was glad that there had been a change of scenery, a new set that could be visited without having to recall the gory scenes that had been acted out. A refreshing new area to explore, new scenery. Thinking of it all in film terms was the only thing keeping him from losing his sanity at this point, so think of it in movie terms he did. 

Of all the places to go to, he ended up in the biographies section, his fingers resting on the spine of biographies about Stephen Spielberg, Hayayo Miyazaki, Orson Welles, Tim Burton, Stanley Kubrick. He smiled to himself, before sighing heavily. 

It was a nice change of scene and setting, but it wasn't worth what had happened for them to get it. Sitting down heavily in a chair, he elected not to read, merely massaging his temples with a weary expression .

[shslplumbing-deactivated2014091]

After the Execution/Map Reveal Starter

Akihiko shuffled onto the new floor, his expression blank and his movements almost robotic in nature. The last trial had taken an immense toll on him and he was struggling to snap out of his daze. It was almost as though the rest of the world didn’t exist to him.

He wandered past the new rooms, cringing as he noticed the financial room. He desperately needed to get some fresh air to try and clear out his head, but the only thing that was relatively close to that was the fake courtyard. Still, it was better than nothing, so he slowly pushed open the door leading “outside” and staggered out.

The artificial nature track did little to soothe his nerves and when the faint buzzing of bees played on it he nearly bolted out of the room. But his body was heavy and he could barely keep it upright, much less make an escape like that. Slowly, he succumbed to his tiredness and crumpled onto the ground, burying his face in his hands.

Where had he gone wrong? He had thought of Himiko as someone he could trust and had even gone so far as to consider her a friend. He thought the party was her way of trying to cheer everyone up and to reinforce the sense of hope in each of the students. He thought he was helping, but the entire time he was mindlessly falling into each trap that she had set for him. But why him? What had he done to make her choose him?

Through the storm of thoughts raging in his head, Akihiko faintly heard someone else enter the courtyard. His head shot up in surprise and he feigned a smile, hoping that perhaps they hadn’t noticed him just yet.

"Oh, h-hello. It’s quite the place here, isn’t it?"

[shslcriticism]

Minoru had been exploring the second floor, and he still hadn't gone into this room. As he walked in, he smiled a little. He'd never been one for nature, or going outside, but he'd seen several movies with nice shots of natural landscapes, and found them very pleasant. 

The entire ordeal of the trial was the most horrendous experience he'd ever been through, and he was worried that it would keep happening, worried that this would only be the first in a series of gory murders as the cast continues to dwindle. 

But he decided to put those thoughts out of his mind for the moment, not really wanting to vomit again. Of course, he was aware that avoiding your problems was very poor as a permanent solution. That was something an awful lot of people needed to keep in mind, and he was quick to remind them of the fact. But, he thought, doing it for only a little bit to calm down, like a movie cutting from an action scene to a touching scene to relax the tension a bit, would be fine. 

Adjusting his glasses, he smiled, a nervous, shaky smile, at the garbage boy. "H-hello, Shinohara-kun. I guess it's pretty nice. I was never a big fan of going outside myself." 

[shslcriticism]

gruesome effects

As he saw the sickening sight unfold before him, the colour drained from Minoru's face, until he eventually looked away. However, even with is eyes close, he couldn't help but hear the sickening crunch. 

The critic turned around suddenly and vomited on the floor before running off, out of the trial room, away from this sick twisted real-life horror movie. 

[shslcriticism]

a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal

[shslcriticism]

i look like 10 years old fuck 

[archiveofdespair-blog]

MONOBEAR FILE NO.1

Your Student IDs flash. Information on the body fills the screen.

Victim: Yasu Chieko

Place of Death: Kitchen

Time of Death: 12:32 AM

Cause of Death: Blood Loss

State of Body: Very cold, having been in the fridge. Various cuts and clothes are semi-torn. Throat is slit. Is sloppily shoved in the fridge, curled in a little ball. Head injury.

[shslcriticism]

"O-oh god, no, it's a prop, right? Th-that's a prop! I... It's real, fuck, fuck, it's real, oh God, someone's dead, oh my fucking God, no. F-f-fuck, I..."

His face drained of any colour as he hurried off to be sick. No matter how much he hated himself for it, he couldn't get the thought 'I told you so' out of his head. 

[shsltoofortunate]

i like doing the shiny glasses thing ok

[shslcriticism]

As he heard the announcement from his room, Minoru paled, sweat beading on his face as he scowled with rage, shaking. 

"I-I told them! I t-told that stupid insect fetishist! F-fuck this! I knew this was a bad idea, I fucking knew it! Someone's g-going to fucking die for this stupid fucking party, I just know it. I hope it's f-fucking worth it!"

His rage exhausted, the short film critic allowed tears to fall into his eyes, collapsing face-down onto his bed to muffle his sobs.