moonmoonacademy | TEST DRIVE MEME

Entry tags:

*tdm

TEST DRIVE MEME - DECEMBER

TEST DRIVE MEME - DECEMBER
IC Comm | Network Comm | OOC Comm | Navigation

It’s December, and therefore winter - a time for celebration and, especially for Daybreak given the events of recent months, a time of rest and recovery. Out of respect to the Academy’s students and staff, who come from all walks of life and all sorts of different faiths, the decorations have been kept relatively low-key and non-denominational, with plenty of room for customization.

A. FROSTY THE SNOW... SOMETHING?
Snow is a fantastic medium for artistic expression if one doesn’t mind the cold, snowmen of all kinds popped up all over from the basic to creatures so elaborate it would win official snow building contests. Unfortunately, someone decided, after a bit too much eggnog, to enchant these snowy sculptures to a simulation of life, without any parameters to their behavior. Now terrible Snow goons roam the grounds, building more of their kind - now it’s up to you to put a stop before they make the area completely impassable until spring!

B. WINTER WONDERLAND
Winter has well and truly descended, and that means the various water features across campus have frozen solid. Of particular note is the now-frozen Cross of Life - as long as winter lasts and the ice holds, it’s a proud Academy tradition to turn it into a 24/7 ice skating rink. Whether you’re just there to take your first, wobbly steps, or you’re already a skating enthusiast, the makeshift rink is open to all comers and all skill levels.
However, it’s not just the students and faculty who will be joining in with the fun, if you dare the rink in the late hours of the night and early hours of the morning. The benign spirits and fae that haunt the surroundings of the Academy like to dance on the ice, you see, and they’re more than happy to give you a few tips - or to cajole you into skating with them until the sun comes up.

If skating isn’t to your preferences, you might want to try ice fishing. Soleil’s larger bodies of water are where you’d go if you’d like your catches to yield actual fish, but on the Academy’s grounds, allowance has been made for unfortunate students trying to get back something they lost in the water when the weather was warmer. Items that have soaked in magical ambience for at least a season, however, are likely to be a challenging task to actually fish out - though they may retain supernatural properties they didn’t have before.

C. DECORATIVE EFFORTS
For those who enjoy decorations, the Academy has once again provided workshops suitable for the season. Paint, paper and other crafting materials have been provided for the express purpose of students and staff getting to express themselves for whatever December means to them; they are encouraged to spice up their dormitories and common rooms in particular, but the Academy will also accept ‘donations’ to their more general hall decorations.

D. IRIS NETWORK
UN: pumpkin_spice
do u agree christmas sucks

asking for a friend y/y/y

code bases by tricklet

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

B.
Fun out in the cold is a great time, but some people seem less prepared for the cold than others, particularly one young man in a pink pantsuit, it's shirt stylized to have the top half form a heart, exposing from his clavicle to just above his abs to the cold air. The pink outfit has a trio of overly large ladybug pins attached to it, one each on the outer bottom area of the heart, and the third seeming to line up with his pants waist band. His hair is a bright shade of blond, with three large curls of hair somehow secured to the front of his hairline, in short, doughnut shapes, the rest is secured at the back of his head in a short braid that reaches the top of his shoulders, with the end looped back up to secure even the the flyaway's there.

He seems to be just watching others go about enjoying the cold and the snow, watching figures slide across the ice with contemplative turquoise eyes. While he normally seems prone to a small smile, even when he's not thinking of it, there is an almost pensive and dreary expression to his face at the moment. By his feet are a pair of ice skates, left to sit there unused for the moment.

C.
Decorating around his room and even out in the dorm larger seems like a simple thing to do, to Giorno, and since so many people appear to appreciate it, he figured it would reflect better on him, if he participated.

"Go up the wall, to that spot." He said, pointing to an area that was lacking decoration, and holding the small gecko up to the wall, from where it sat on his hand. The small thing made an equally small noise and seemed content to curl up in his hand instead, ignoring the frustrated sigh he gave in response. "Come now, it's not that far, go on up." He encouraged, wishing that the animal would listen to his instruction.

Wildcard
(Other ideas welcome, he's likely to be in the quad, or library, if not in his classes, he actually doesn't spend much time in his dorm room proper. Feel free to PM if you want to clarify.)

Skating is a pretty typical winter sport- certainly not in Naples, where it would probably be a shock of all horrors if snow actually appeared, but for this particular end of France at least it very much is. Students, wearing some variation of the school uniform and winter clothing, are passing constantly on the ice- the dusky dark hours of the yet early evening bringing an even deeper chill.

Also that's a bear that just passed this particular time.

The bear is wearing pants.

He is also somehow on ice skates, and a trail of white rose petals drift lazily behind him as he goes.

And boy, he does 'go'! At least until...

Hm

HM!

The bear appears to have noticed Giorno, and is now walking in his direction, on skates.

There is a bear, ice skating. He has seen a lot of the cruel ways that shows can get bears to do things they don't normally do, but this... doesn't have the stilted, almost painful appearance to it. But that only makes him more curious about the bear, recognizing the species.

Oh, he's been noticed, and the bear is approaching him. He can't hide the surprise in his expression and posture, shoulders throwing back a bit in alarm, as he realizes what's happening. He'd been told the students and staff here were... well safe enough, so he didn't think this was something dangerous, but that didn't exactly stop his worry.

Hey Giorno

hey

the bear is talking-

Specifically, the bear starts speaking French- it's the most fluent language he has here after Japanese, and...well, it being a French school, he assumes that one will be the one people speak! ~~His English, on the other hand, is Atrocious~~

"Auhhh..." This bear has a very deep voice, but that's probably expected right? If a bear's going to talk, it's Gotta be deep. "Pardon me, but I couldn't help but notice what you are wearing..." The bear scratches behind his head, expression oddly human-like in its concern. "...Are you alright? It's fairly cold out here after all, and it would be no good to fall ill at this time of year..."

"Ah, oh... scuse" Giorno says, realizing he needs a moment to translate the French to his Italian before he can really comprehend the other, and then work the same backwards for his answer. Which is not easy with the idea of THE BEAR IS TALKING OT ME bouncing around in his head.

"N-no, it's not th-that bad, I always wear such." he said, offering an almost awkward smile in return, as if he was trying to remember if that was the right answer he'd meant to say. This was certainly putting him off his game, but how was one supposed to react to being talked to by a bear. "Are you veramente a bear?" He asks, daring to risk sounding rude, even as he blinks in a bit of shock.

"Hmm? 'Verame...' Oh, from italia, perhaps..." he mutters briefly in Japanese, before coughing and returning to the French. "Aaaah...Sorry, sorry..!" he laughs nervously, shaking his head. "I'm used to most of the people on campus knowing... ...I'm a 'Lycanthrope'!" Gongenzaka answers. "A 'werebear', by natural birth! So during the evenings this is how I am, that's all."

Anyway, uh-

"Auhhh...not to be rude then, but where are you from? That word you said, it was Italian right? So then...isn't it warmer there this time of year?" Oh- "OH! Unless you are from the north then?"

He is getting ahead of himself,

"Ah... ovviamente I was told of Lycanthropes, I did not realize-" He says, looking a bit embarrassed as he realizes his mistake. "My apologies, I had not yet encountered any here, or at the least none that I have known." He explains, before settling a bit more. It was somehow much easier for him to accept a werebear speaking to him than a regular bear.

"Si, I am from Italia, specifically I grew up in Napoli." he explained, naturally using the familiar language pronunciations for his home. "It is much warmer than here, but I feel I should, ah... acclimate myself." He offers, having to pause as he searched for the right word in French to mean what he wanted to say. "Much like animals, humans can grow accustom to changes like these, if they do not rely too heavily on things to aid them."

Hohhh! Evidently told the better stories about them, if he's not getting nervous about this. Or. Well. More nervous than he probably was...

"Napol...AUH-!" BUDDY. Gongenzaka, suffice to say, does not calm down. "A-Acclimatizing is one thing yes, but that's just a little much..! For that matter even those from here are wearing coats..!" GIORNO THIS ISN'T HOW ADJUSTING WORKS!

The other surprised him again with that response, especially as impassioned as he sounded, which had the blond tensing a bit again, though he tried not to be too surprised. "I figured... that this was the best way?" He offered, trying to think of how else to explain himself. "I figured... that the people here are wearing coats because they simply don't want to worry about the weather." He added, frowning slightly. Too bad he couldn't give himself a natural immunity to the cold, but unlike toxic environments that didn't pass so easily from one being to another.

"If we were in a place even farther north, where the people native are also wearing thick clothing, would you say the same?" Giorno's excuse, suffice to say, sounds quite lame to him. "You can definitely adjust to certain temperatures over time...but that doesn't mean that there isn't a limit..! It can be dangerous if you test that too much- for example, have you heard of the symptoms for 'hypothermia'?"

He sure looks ready to list them off, at the very least.

"Yes?" Giorno isn't sure if he's talking himself into a trap here, and it's kind of worrying. Should he be more worried about this? "I would assume that it would be obvious when I reached a limit to the ability to adjust."

"Hypothermia, isn't that about the condition when your body temperature drops too low?" He asks, figuring he'd be best to confirm what he's talking about before he actually answers, though if that's right, his answer to if he has heard the symptoms is no, he hasn't.

Maybe yes. Probably not! Gongenzaka kinda gets HyperWorried about things!

"Mnh, not necessarily...one of the symptoms of Hypothermia after all, is feeling abruptly warm instead of cold- so you can see why it would suddenly be a problem..." Frankly, Giorno does not likely have hypothermia.

(He should still get a coat.) "Either way, you probably shouldn't be pushing to the limit of your tolerance either! You could seriously injure yourself that way..!" Or at least risk some kinda frostbite, wow,

He's starting to understand this man, and that is helping him find his balance a bit better. "Oh, thank you for telling me about that, I can assure you I'm not feeling warm at all." He offers, to hopefully put the other at ease.

"I did not bring any coats with me, I honestly did not know what to expect of the weather here." He adds, since the other is so adamant on the subject. The fact that he'd need to lighten others pockets go afford a coat goes unmentioned.

He can understand him for at least as long as it takes to see him in class.

And then things will probably be odd again because, um, sir??? You should not sound like this at 14??

But maybe it's the bear in him. Anyway, he's cooling down (hah) significantly now. "Hmmn, well, at least there is that I suppose...if you do not have a coat though, you should speak with one of the faculty however- whether it can be afforded personally or not, there are at least resources for those sorts of necessities...so one way or another, you should be able to get one. Personally, I'm surprised no one checked this over to begin with..!!" Ah...a pause.

"Though perhaps not, with what happened recently... ...well!" He declares, not bothering to clarify. "As one of this school's seneschals then, it becomes my responsibility to correct this..!" Or, well- "Mnh- u- unless you would rather speak to student services at your own time, of course..." He coughs into a paw, as if caught on some sort of mistake.

Probably the mistake of being Too Eager.

Giorno caught that though, and while the other isn't bothering to clarify, it does pique his interest. "I suppose the holidays do tend to make things rather disorganized in their own way." he said, wondering if the other might not slip something in response, since it certainly didn't sound like a 'with the holidays' kind of mention. Still he isn't about to go interrogating the other just yet.

"Actually, I haven't even been aware of the best place to ask, if you have time... and don't mind, I would greatly appreciate the help." He offers the bear a smile in response, head tipping slightly to the side in a friendly looking display. There was no harm in getting a coat for free, even if he did decide to get himself something better in the long run. Not to mention this allowed him to get a better idea of this person, including just how much of a mark they might be... though that made him wonder, did the other carry a wallet on him? Did he need to?

On the one hand yes, there's a wallet! On the other, maybe don't consider lifting it from a thing with a bear's sense of smell.

And a bear's hearing for that matter.

Said bear looks quite relieved though, and is eager to show Giorno the way. "Wonderful then! I'll take you there now in that case- My name is 'Noboru Gongenzaka' on that note," he adds with a nodding 'bow' of sorts. "What about you?"

The bear did indeed have a wallet, but that got him considering... bears really did have good senses of smell, and hearing... it would be an interesting challenge, if done for fun, but... he didn't particularly want to end up on this person's bad side so early, even if he would have returned everything. Oh well, maybe another person would be worth lifting off of, though he should wait until he was away from the bear, since he didn't know how this person looked on that, but he could guess that it would not be a welcome past time.

"Oh, yes, it's a pleasure to meet you, I am Giorno Giovanna." He answered, he may have moved from Japan as a young child but part of him still remembered some of the customs there, which prompted him to ask. "Noboru Gongenzaka, how would you like me to call you? Noboru is the family name, yes?"

A Japanese habit, but the language is yet French- Giorno's knowledge has perhaps betrayed him, albeit not too much. All that Gongenzaka responds with is a short confused sound, before beaming with realization. "Auh- You recognize the name as Japanese?" He exclaims excitedly. "Noboru is my first, and Gongenzaka is my family, as a matter of fact...when speaking a language, I should introduce myself as one would in that language right? But...Giorno, right? I didn't expect someone from Italy to be familiar with that! It's a nice surprise! Do you speak the language then?"

"Oh!" he says in response, a bit surprised, last he'd know of many Japanese, they would insist on their names in native order, though in fairness much of that had been in Japan, an years ago so memory was a bit hazy. "I see, I'm sorry for the poor assumption on my part. As for Japanese..." He pauses a moment, and what he says comes out sounding not unlike a toddler still learning how to speak their own language. "I speak very small from time long ago. " He offers in Japanese, though even he seems to realize how lackluster the show was with a slight wince. "I was born there, but moved when I was young." he adds with a slight raise of one shoulder. "Italian is my most comfortable language."

"How would you prefer I refer to you then, I do not want to be rude, and I have vague memories of being lectured that calling someone too familiar a name was... wrong. Giorno is fine for me, of course." He offers, gesturing with a relaxed roll of one wrist as if to say 'there you go'.

"Hmmnnn!" Oh! Well. "Hmmmm...unfortunately, I don't know any Italian...but at the very least it does seem like French is the best choice between us both..!" he laughs. "...It's nothing to be upset about though- truthfully...it's rare that I find anyone who knows any Japanese at all, and I grew up learning French as it is- so I'm fluent in both!"

Which is to say, he can use the French fine, and they should probably stick to it. "Though, I suppose if you ever wanted some lessons..." He trails off- best not to make that kind of suggestion yet. "Auh...normally yes, I would say 'Gongenzaka' is preferred, but..." Ah, well. "...truthfully, every time I suggest that, people have so much trouble with the name that they shorten it..." Or just. Butcher it. "So really, whichever is easiest to say would probably be best..."

"It is no bother, I am-" he pauses before considering his words a moment before speaking again. "I'm not fully fluent in French but I am able to work my way through it in the least. It does seem like the best neutral ground for us both." He offers, differing to the other's prior statement with a show of some respect.

"If you prefer Gongenzaka then I will call you that. Perhaps it's knowing just enough Japanese, but it seems rude to ignore your preference for the sake of ease." He says with a bit of a nod as if that decided it. "It would be exceptionally rude for me to do so when you are already being so kind." he adds tipping his head slightly in thanks, not about to be rude and attempt a bow he remembers even less than the choppy children's shows he got to see once in a very rare while.

Fortunately for Giorno, a head-nod/tip is...probably the socially acceptable 'bow' in this situation anyway.

At any rate they should be getting inside in a moment or so, which will probably make walking far more tolerable. "Auhh..." Other than the misty-eyed bear. "Are you really sure about that? It isn't too hard to say, or remember then..?"

Why does the bear look like he's about to cry-

He frowns slightly at the question, a bit disturbed at the idea he would use the other's proper name, as he preferred was such a big thing. "Of course it isn't. I can't say I won't have to focus to remember it, but it is your name, and it should not be hard to say, not with the names people have in general." He states, feeling a bit embarrassed? Seeing the way the other looked like he was about to cry made him feel a little bad, that he had not that long ago been wondering if he could take this person's wallet.. now that just felt... terrible. He didn't like the feeling.

"If people can remember a name like Giorno Giovanna, then Gonganzaka is not as difficult as they try to make it seem." he affirms.

A few tears are definitely leaking out. Fortunately, Gongenzaka has enough restraint to not immediately crush someone in a bearhug and cry everywhere.

At least not someone he doesn't really know yet. "Mnh...I'm glad then!" he proclaims instead. "I'm more than glad to hear that..!" He's had so many Gon-chans and Gons, Giorno....

"I'm getting ahead of myself though...I'm sorry for that outburst, truly," he insists, shaking his head. At the very least they haven't entirely stopped moving toward student services so...he's still doing his work? "Fortunately for you, Student Services tends to remain open at all hours here- there's a lot that happens in the evenings, classwise and otherwise with who attends, so there shouldn't be any trouble for you there... ...If it's alright to ask, what year are you in?"

Giorno would be grateful to know he's escaped a possibly painful hug, if he knew.

"It is quite alright, I am sure it's been a bit challenging, if most don't bother to use your full name, at least without it being offered." He counters, smiling and nodding.

He listens to the information about Student Services, and gives a slight nod at the information, it was best to learn these things right away, repetition wasn't something he enjoyed.

"Oh, yes, of course. I've been placed in the Freshman year, 9th grade, year." he answered with a slight smile. Even though he'd be turning sixteen this coming April, he hadn't fought for the next year up. Having school ignored until he was technically a year behind was not something he wanted to discuss with people, so instead he'd accepted the year without argument.

Giorno Giovanna | JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo

B........................for BEAR....

oh Bear....

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject