The Tower (XVI): disaster, cataclysmic change, a harbinger of unexpected destruction. You cannot control your fate. So why even bother to die trying? Welcome to The Acer Tournament. Everything will become clear...soon. But for now, just listen, okay?
“What is there to hope for anymore? Everyone you trust will lie. And in the end, everything you know will die. When it all comes to it, a few billion deaths don’t matter, do they?”
“…You still want to fight?”
“You are a fool.”
Reaching Despair: Heaven and Earth is a CLOSED, submission-based group. In the year 2120, a new round of students have been admitted to be the next class of Hope’s Peak Academy…unaware that the end is nigh.
Apps are now open until November 22nd, 11:59 PM EST!
1F: Main Building: Lounge: A place for you to hang out with your fellow classmates! There is a large round table in the center of the lounge, with twenty chairs around it for everyone in your class. Not only that, it looks like each chair was custom-made for each person’s talent! In the very center
Since we won’t be returning to this setting, here’s the doc me and Britt used to plan out the school areas! Plus some miscellaneous comments from me.
Azami: “I mean, maybe not now, but one day, maybe.”
Mana (main blog): “Wait, hold on!”
Mana (Yuki and Ryouichi private thread): "...Thank you."
Seung-eun: “Where are they?! Where’s Koro, or-or their concious, or whatever the fuck it’s called. I…I have to-to protect them, keep them safe. F-fuck, where are they?!“
Toshiro: “Why did you even follow his orders?”
Tsukumo: “Ugh…”
Yuki (main blog): “Okay, yeah, this works.”
Yuki (Mana and Ryouichi private thread): "Yuuto? What're ya doin'?"
Reposting this on here because blades on Kriska’s blog.
Sho (Tsukumo thread): “I, uh, don’t want ya to get hurt or somethin.’”
Aki: “She isn’t hard to find. I promise… Thanks… for everything…”
Akebi (event reaction): “… Library…”
Kriska (pre-execution): “H-himeko-chan!”
Kriska (execution): “D-Doctor Yazawa?”
Sumire (Yuki thread): “Then again, now that I think about it, I can’t say I’ve really…ever seen more than one or two birds before. In person, that is. So that could also be the reason.”
Hibiki (pre-execution): “… I didn’t mean it…”
Hibiki (execution): “I– ICHIROU–”
Sri (Prema thread): “I’m not used to anyone seeing someone like me as even remotely worthy, much less caring.”
Himeko: “Stop it…p-please, I h-hate this game, stop it, st-stop l-l-laughing at meeee…”
Jiro (on main blog, motive reaction): “H… Hah- eugh- ggnnn-… H-Haaa–aaaah…”
Jiro (Mana Thread): “G-Gotta breath deeply, Mana. In and out, r-remember?”
Michio (pre-execution): “Not a smart idea huh~?”
Michio (execution): “I will dance with you, but promise me-”
Taka: “Minasaki-san…you are special, and you definitely aren’t a monster. You’re really nice and great.”
Izumi: “…?! Why aren’t you–? Are you…already that far off the deep end?“
Prema: “You should be quiet, don’t draw attention to us.”
Sigourney: “Have you gotten anything from the Monomachine that would be helpful?”
Koro: “You’ve won, congratulations! Every game has a winner and you’ve conquered the final boss~ After all this adversity, please don’t lose h-hope! Go on living for the lives I wasted here; mmmm… goodbye~”
You think you're safe? You think everything is going to end up okay in the end, and we'll all live...
Hello all! This blog is going to become the archive for Reaching Despair 1. Do not submit your apps here. Of course, this means that you have to submit your apps somewhere, so we made a main hub blog where you can do that! Click the link and have fun!
It had been a while since Takamitsu brought his kids to work with him. The two kids were a playful bunch, but well-behaved–they knew when it was appropriate to mess around and when it wasn’t–and so the staff didn’t really mind. They spoke and played around with the students when they were on their breaks from class, and some of them would get mad at little five-year-old Yuuto for his occasional mischievous tendencies, only to have Izumi apologize for him.
But this time, Yuuto was here by himself, and he dared not to leave his father’s side.
He had shrunk behind his father, lightly tugging on the scorched yellow scarf around his neck. He hid away from the staff and even the students when they offered to play with him, instead opting to cling tightly to his father, hiding his frightened face. He wanted to go back home, but he didn’t want to be alone there. All he could do was wait for the day to end so they could go home together.
It was near the end of the day when his father silently picked him up and carried him to the elevator. He looked sad, and Yuuto gave him a worried look. “Why aren’t we leaving yet?”
“There’s somebody that I want you to meet.”
He pressed a button, and they began to descend–Yuuto didn’t know that there was anything below the ground floor–and soon enough, they were there.
It was a massive, open room filled with various mechanical doodads. It looked like something straight out of a sci-fi movie with machines buzzing and holograms flickering. But Yuuto didn’t have a chance to check them out, as his father took him straight to a locked door on the other side of the room. After fiddling with his keys for a bit, the door opened and Yuuto was in.
It looked just like the infirmary upstairs. White, clean walls, complemented by the smell of chemicals and medicines. There was a desk where an old man sat, and, seeing his father, stood up greeted him. He began talking about various medical terms Yuuto didn’t really understand nor cared about. His attention was grabbed by something else–a curtain blocking off the other side of the room.
He wandered off, away from the old man, and hesitantly peeked at what was behind there. For a second, his heart stopped. He gasped and bolted away from the curtain and towards his father, tugging at his pants leg in distress. “What did you do?!”
His father gave him a look of pity and sighed. He picked Yuuto up again and they went back behind the curtain. There was a girl there, a face they both knew very well. She sat up in her bed, scribbling something in a notepad. When she heard the curtain rustle, she looked curiously at Yuuto, who looked as if he was…afraid of her. She turned her gaze to Takamitsu, hoping for an explanation.
“Has the doctor been treating you well?”
She nodded.
“That’s good. There’s someone I want you to meet.” He set Yuuto down so he was sitting at the edge of her bed.
“What is there to hope for anymore? Everyone you trust will lie. And in the end, everything you know will die. When it all comes to it, a few billion deaths don’t matter, do they?”
“…You still want to fight?”
“You are a fool.”
Reaching Despair: Heaven and Earth is a CLOSED, submission-based group. In the year 2120, a new round of students have been admitted to be the next class of Hope’s Peak Academy…unaware that the end is nigh.
After the execution… after returning to her old body, Mana was not in fit health. In fact, her life had been shortened by the stasis… Although it might have kept her old body alive, the damage from not using it… to suddenly using it was too great. She was very aware that her life… may only last a few more years. Especially since it sounded like there was a lack of health care out… out there.
That scared Mana. To live through the game, only to have her life shortened and possibly die in 2 or 3 years. 4 if she was lucky. She didn’t want to suffer all that and then just die. She didn’t want to miss out on life. After the hell they went through, she wanted to live.
She had been too weak to move, unable to do much for herself. Instead she remained in the pod room until Yuki came back. Mana was not really herself. Between her fear of dying, and Koro’s execution… She wasn’t really sure she could move forward. She was in a lot of pain too. Relying on Yuki wasn’t so bad, but everything just made her feel worse as she had to let Yuki do almost everything for her. Drinking water, taking some pain relief, eating, changing. She couldn’t do a single thing for herself and she hated it.
But Yuki… was Mana’s hero. Yuki risked their own life… their own health to save Mana. Yes, Mana was beyond scared and worried for Yuki. She could barely breathe as she waited, but… Yuki was okay. They came back okay. Before Mana knew it, Ryouichi had helped set up the machine from the second motive and helped set Mana’s illness back… by at least a decade. Mana didn’t know this yet. She only felt a difference in the pain but her muscles were still stiff, resulting in a lack of grip still…
But her life had been extended. She was going to live a longer life.
[Note: There’s probably more to come, but this is the first bit, the next bit is probably going to come later!]
And that’s it for The Acer Tournament! It’s been a fun game, filled with ups, downs, and a load of chairs. Thank you for sticking with us to the end!
Before I continue, for the muns of the surviving students: You may write a short story/drabble about what becomes of your character after the game and submit it under the “supplementary material“ tag! Please note that any and all supplementary material will be considered canon. These posts should not be used as starters for threads.
Now that we’re at the end, we have unlocked all the blogs for your viewing pleasure. This is the part where I dump a bunch of links here.
Read The Acer Tournament From The Beginning
Deadblog
Takamitsu’s Notebook
Supplementary Material
Thank you guys so much for playing and reading along! Stay tuned for more supplementary material and announcements on RD2!
“...I’m no longer receiving life signs from Kashiwagi-san. The Monobear AI has confirmed their death.”
“Really? What a shame. They were an interesting kid, to say the least. What about the remaining students and Takamitsu-kun?”
“They’re heading for our location. The Monobear AI is currently guiding them here. It would take them a few weeks’ time to arrive at the bridge, I think.”
“Excellent. You’ve done well. Continue to keep tabs on the other four.”
“Understood.”
“...One more thing.”
“Yes?”
“The progress on that little project of yours. How close are we to watching it in action?”
“...The project is essentially done. We can launch it at any time, but we still require an Overseer.”
“I see. That’s still an issue, isn’t it? All I can ask of you is to work on it for now.”
“Alright! We’ll leave the same way Kashiwagi came here. Pops, I need you to open the front gate. There’s an armored van in the street just beyond the school gate. I’ll be your GPS on the way there!”
Or you can just use the compass, but whatever.
“The land has changed a lot since the Storm, so a normal map will be useless in getting there. Plus, we need to stop by somewhere else first.”
“Get your stuff! We’re leaving right away! And it would be bad if you got left behind!”
“...Are you implying this may turn into some sort of war? Have you seen the state of these kids?”
“That’s why we’re gonna take a little pit stop before we get there. Just trust me on this, okay? I know what I’m doing here. I have a plan, and I know it’s gonna work--but I need your help.”
“...”
“Daaaaaaaad...”
Ryouichi sighed and shook his head. That seemed to do the job.
“Alright, alright.”
He turns to face your group of students.
“But you don’t have to come with us. You can go off on your own, if you like--”
“But keep in mind you actually have nowhere else left to go.”
...It seems as if you actually don’t really have a choice in the matter.
“...Are you sure that’s a good idea? Urashima’s there. Going there would probably be more trouble than it’s worth--”
“Do you honestly think he’s trying to build an utopia, of all things? He’s planning something nefarious. Plus...she’s still there. That AI may have been destroyed, but she’s still alive over there.”
“...Alright. I get it.”
Despite the fact that he gave in pretty quickly, he sounded rather reluctant. He shoots a glance over to the group of students.
“...Should we really be taking them with us, though? This place is probably the safest place they can be.”
“We can’t leave them here by themselves. And they’ll probably run out of resources eventually. Plus, the more manpower we have, the better!”
It wasn’t until a night and most of a day passed that you saw Yuuto again. He was back inside the Monomi bot, but you couldn’t help but notice the strange device sticking out of the back of it. You couldn’t really see it if he faced you directly, but as he turned his back to you to talk to Ryouichi, it appeared to be some sort of strange, black device sticking onto the robot like a parasite. It had several thick wires and a small monitor on it. Having a proper look at it, you see that it was vaguely similar to the device you saw in the pod room.
But he doesn’t even give you a chance to ask about it. He goes straight into yelling right in your faces, like the scrube he is.
“Are we ready? I hope you’re ready.”
It sounded as if he cleared his throat, before shouting at the top of his tiny rabbit bot lungs.
“GET YOUR STUFF, LOSERS! We’re going to Kameshima!”
And back they were/Azami/body switch and execution reaction
Azami was horrified at Koro's execution, especially when it hit her that maybe they wouldnt come back. They had done something terrible, but she had no idea what she would have done in their position. The singer tried hard not to cry, as not to bother or worry those already distressed. Only she was starting to suspect she was terrible at that.
And then the body switch happened. The singer was actually stronger in her actual body, which said a lot about her previous body's state. Yet she still needed some rest. Not that it mattered, since she also needed some answers. With plenty difficult, the singer (whose hair was longer than she'd like) got out of bed. Rather than switching to her previous school's uniform, she switched to what she wore most often when she wasn't working - a purple iromuji.
She'd worry about possibly having forgotten or even missed her change of collar, except she eas trying not to think about how the okiya was probably no longer a thing. But it was hard and she knew she had to think about that, and most importantly, Komaki, Kosen and her family. Was it wrong worrying about than more so than worrying about other people? Probably. But for some reason, she was starting to think it was okay.
An attempt was made || Tsukumo || Execution and everything else reaction
So there did come an explanation.
Her eyes blinked quickly as she tried tot take in this information. It didn't quite connect very well from her point of view, perhaps she wasn't connecting all the dots though. Not like it was surprising, but she did at least collect what she needed.
That didn't prepare her for the actual execution.
In a silent shock she watched her once friend get rather brutally crushed. Just like that Koro was completely out of their lives.
Her expression was blank, unsurprising as that was just about what she was like, but it felt almost forced to look at it. With this thought she followed through the rest, almost seeming to say something before Yuuto finally swapped them out.
It was unsettling to feel weak. As she pulled herself up from the pod she felt her limbs shake beneath her weight, she took a moment after standing to just collect her head about things. Yes, this would be difficult. She reached up and rubbed at her face, as she pulled her hands back thought she noticed her hair, almost completely blank now. Really is 3 years huh.
"Ugh..."
She had felt like saying something moments before but the words were now pretty much lost to her. he reached up again, rubbing her head. First she had to get out of this hospital gown, that much was for sure. Whatever would be next... They would get there. Eventually anyways.
Not quite stumbling but not exactly in her most graceful state, she left the room to find her own clothing. It seemed to take a while, seeing as she felt honestly like sleeping many things away at this moment. People don't move quickly when they are sleepy, or perhaps that was simply her.
But, as she excited she seemed to simply be wandering about. Not looking for anything, but just taking the time to process everything.
She doesn't actually seem to be that talkative for once, the only notable thing is a sigh it seems.
