>>46817052
Waking up is difficult in the morning, but it is all the more so today. With annoyance, you turn off the alarm: it’s 6:30 in the morning.
‘Looks like it is THAT day, eh?’, you think, half-cynically half-resignedly. A day that will stain the rest of your existence. The anniversary of the death of your mother.

You take your time to climb down the stairs, and once you’re at the bottom, you notice no one else is there.
Your has ran away once again, just like last year and the year before that. You sigh. You probably won’t see him until tomorrow morning.

The loss of his wife left him devastated, and now he doesn’t want you to see him sad.
He puts on a strong mask on the outside to make everyone think he’s ok, and as a result, he feels lonely and misunderstood in his pain. Is all pain in human life really caused by misunderstanding?

It really is odd not having your father around, cooking breakfast with a wide smile on his face. This day of the year, you remember he does so feeling dead inside.
You change into your school uniform and head for the door. The sky outside is gray, so you brought an umbrella with you.

It’s not raining just yet, but an old saying goes ‘better safe than sorry’.
Your friend isn’t here: she usually waits for you and you leave for school together, but today’s an exception. An annual exception, so to say.

You’re pondering on what to do, and decide that going to school by bike isn’t half bad. You’ll be there faster and you might even dodge the rain before it comes.
But somebody clearly doesn’t agree with the idea: a white cat is sitting on the saddle of the bike and is staring at you with its feline hazel eyes.

Errata corrige :
Your DAD has ran away once again, just like last year and the year before that. You sigh. You probably won’t see him until tomorrow morning.

>>46817061
“Come on pussycat, today’s not the day”, you say, trying to persuade him.
But it’s a cat. He doesn’t understand you, or at least seems not to understand you.
“Can I just ride my bike?” Nothing.

You try to move an hand towards it, and it hisses dangerously.
“Somebody is territorial today, I see”.
Well, isn’t that a bother.

>Go by foot
>Attempt to remove the cat forcefully
>[…, …!]

>>46817089
>>[…, …!]
MYSTERY BOX, GO.

>>46817089
>[…, …!]

I could have sworn we were doing something else.

>>46817406
>>46817375
“…huh?”
You stare into the eyes of the cat, dumbfounded.
What was… that? You don’t know. It’s like a spark traversed your entire body and your mind.

It’s like you just woke up from some sort of a dream, and then fell asleep again, all in the span of some minutes. Surely this isn’t the case, but this sounds like the most ‘fitting’ explanation to you.
You shake away the dizziness.

You attempt to rationalize: You’re not exactly a morning person, and you tend to be a bit meteoropathic. That’s all there is to it.

“Alright… I guess…”
You move away from the bike and head for the school.
It’s not a long trip, but surely by bike it would have been funnier.

It starts to rain slightly, and you take out your umbrella.
Then the rain turns more intense, and despite being under cover, you can’t avoid getting wet.
“I could have probably been already in class”, you mutter regretfully.

Something quickly passes by you and you barely catch it out of the corner of your eye, but you’re not able to properly understand what it is.
An unpleasant sensation fills you, like you’re supposed to do something else entirely, like nothing that you’re doing right now matters.

Nevertheless, you march on. It’s roughly 10 more minutes under this pouring rain, and then you’ll be in school.
You quickly check with yourself if you were by any chance under class duty, but you remember that the class representative proposed to undertake it for the whole week.

It’s funny how every person you know has some sort of goal or target in their lives, except you.
Most people are quick to blame it on your missing mother, but the truth is you don’t know why you’re a loose satellite either. I mean, a lot of people go through much worse and simply deal with it.

>>46818093
Crash! The noise of something falling to the ground.
The noise comes from the road at your left, an alley much too short for cars.
Whoever fell, fell from something like a motorbike or a bike, an accident surely caused by the slippery wet ground.

‘Alright, I take it back. That cat was a blessing in disguise’, you think.
Now, what to do? Someone fell, and the amount of injuries they sustained is unknown to you. Surely being wounded and wet doesn’t sound nice.
Then again, it’s not really your problem, right?

>Go check out what happened
>Ignore it and go to school
>[… n…, w… !]

>>46818128
>>[… n…, w… !]
Fuck, we're in SOL/drama part, aren't we?

>>46818187
“….!”
Someone is screaming. The quietest scream you’ve ever heard is resonating through your brain.
You shake off that feeling once again, and pull yourself together.

No time for that. Actually, you better go check on what happened in the alley.
You get there with an hurried pace, to see a girl standing in the pouring rain.
Her bike is on the ground and she’s rubbing her head.

“Are you alright?”, you ask, moving towards her.
She raises her face, that quickly melts revealing a crimson skull that shrieks in rage.
“AAAAAH!”

“Ah?” In front of you, the girl is looking at you through her glasses, thoroughly puzzled.
“Oh, nothing. My imagination is playing me strange tricks today. Are you hurt?”

She nods. “A bit. But I am ok”. She stretches her hand towards you, as to ask for help.
You rush to her side and help her up. She grasps her bike and smiles at you.
“You’re 「 」, aren’t you? I am 「 」, I think we’ve met before!”

She didn’t say a word, yet those non-sounds triggered something in your head that made you recognize the former as the concept called ‘my name’ and the latter as the concept called ‘her name’.
She’s still smiling at you, but you’re getting more and more uncomfortable. Something is horribly wrong.

“Yeah, that’s me. Nice to meet you, I guess”
She laughs. “Silly, I told you, we’ve met already! We are in the same school, you just don’t remember me!”
“R-right”, you say, trying to downplay it.

“Would you like to walk to school together?”, she asks
“Sure”, you say.
You turn around and head for the main road.

The sound of someone clearing her throat makes you turn around.
She’s still there in the rain, trying to get her bike up.
Time to be a gent.

>>46819134
You walk back to her, help her with her bike and offer her to share the umbrella.
“Thank you very much, 「 」. I always knew you were a kind guy.”
She clings on your arm as you walk, looking dejected.

“I… I am sorry”, she mumbles. “I know what kind of day it is for you, and still, I… I trouble you with my problems…”
She looks on the verge of crying, and you reassure her with a pat on her back.
“It’s ok. I have to move on in life”.

She looks at you with eyes full of tears.
“I… I know how it feels like. I lost my younger brother too, in an accident, a few years ago…”
You pull her closer. Words don’t help in this situation.

She goes quiet, and you quickly reach the school. There’s much suffering in human life.
In fact, maybe too much.
Something’s been off the entire morning and you haven’t been able to put your finger on it.

At the entrance, however, stands a demon of fury: your childhood friend, with a gaze that could kill a man.

>Ignore her
>Approach her
>[ t…n…r…, …e …up!]

>>46819157
>>[ t…n…r…, …e …up!]

>>46819157
>>[ t…n…r…, …e …up!]

>>46819699
>>46819210

You slump your shoulders as you sigh.
“Good morning, 「 」. How are you on this fine morning? “
It’s not working. She still looks like she wants to kill you.

“Oh, do not worry about me!”, she says mockingly. “Apparently you’re in high demand, so no need to care for people like me!”
Damn, she probably saw you walking with 「 」. Surely she must have misunderstood.

“Look, it’s not like…”
She’s looking at you with eyes full of sadness. What is it? Why is everyone so emotional? No one is so emotional in real life! Bad days happen but then life goes on, right… right?

Real life… what do you mean by that?
“I am sorry”, she says, her voice broken. “I know it’s hard for you today, but I saw you walking hand in hand with her and…”

She moves closer and sinks into your chest, holding you tightly.
Her tears are making your shirt wet.
“It’s alright. I don’t really know her, although she seemed to know me. I will make up for this, ok?” you say, without really meaning it.

She stares at you dead in the eyes.
“I will take you up on that offer right away then. Come with me after class…”
She turns away facing the opposite direction. “…there’s something I must tell you.

Before you have a chance to reply, she runs away.
You sigh once again. What is it with people today?
You already know you won’t be able to focus in class.

And sure enough, the time passes like a breeze as you try to figure out what your childhood friend might want.
But there she is, at the school entrance, right where you met. She’s smiling this time, however.
“You really did come”, she exclaims surprised.
“Of course. Is that so weird?”

“Oh, no! Not at all, I was just… happy to see you”, she stutters, visibly flustered.
The sky’s still grey, but there’s no more rain in sight.
“Shall we go?”, you ask, and she silently responds with a nod.

>>46820139
It’s the same cat you met this morning. This sure is one hell of an anti-climatic cat.
“MEEEOW!”
“Huh? You again?”, you ask, as you move towards it.

Electricity runs through your body, causing you an immense pain. You kneel, holding your head with your hands.
“ 「 」! Are you ok?”
“I am fine… It’s this damn cat… since this morning….”

>ask your friend for help
>Try to kick the cat away
>[th.. i. no. re.., w… up!]

>>46820167
>>[th.. i. no. re.., w… up!]

>>46820167
>>[th.. i. no. re.., w… up!]

very tempted to kick that cat

>>46820450
>>46820190
One last, tremendous, effort, and you get up coughing violently.
Your vision is blurry, but you can definitely feel the wetness on your shirt and on your clothes.
Slowly but surely, your focus returns.

You’re in a dark room, surrounded by three familiar figures: a voluptuous catgirl, a knight in full armor and a priest in long robes.
“Oh man. Did I miss something?”, you casually ask.

The look in the catgirl’s eyes would be enough to kill a person.
“What’s the problem, Mittens? Somebody took a dump in your crunchies?”
The punch that reaches you was surely dealt at a speed not perceivable by human eyes.

“Owh, owh! What was that for?”
“Well, let me see”, she answers, barely keeping her composure. “Kicking me while I was weak, giving me a stupid name and, most of all, putting the mission at risk!”

Your memory returns in a flash.
Upon arriving in the Drama sector, you had attempted to self-insert.
The results were unpredictable.

“Ugh… Guess self-inserting isn’t the same everywhere”, you mumble.
“Of course not, dumbass! Next time maybe ask for advice before digging in!”, she scolds you again.
You try to look around for support, but even the silver knight is shaking his head.

“I am sorry guys. I screwed up. I am not very good with all of this, you can say I am a one trick pony”
The priest is the first to accept your apologies, waving his hand as if to say ‘no big deal’.
The catgirl is still looking pissed, but the Silver Knight once again points with his index to the ground, a gesture that means “keep focused on the matter at hand”

Begrudgingly, she seems to have accepted your apologies.
You fumble with your pockets until you extract that coin the Rotten Magical Girl gave you.
“Mom’s Basement, do you receive me?”
“Loud and clear, poophead. Glad to hear you’re back”

>>46821132
Of course the agreed codename was ‘Outer’, but Rotten Girl called you poophead once and everyone kinda went with it. ‘Weren’t only Outers supposed to have the power of naming?’

“Mom’s Basement, please stick with the codenames. What’s the situation there?”
“Best Girl was worried, the rest of us was pissed. No one suspicious around”
“Great to hear that”.

Time to plan the next step.

>”What can you tell me about the Drama section?”
>”I would like to know my whereabouts”
>”I can handle this”

>>46821170
>>”What can you tell me about the Drama section?”
>>”I would like to know my whereabouts”

>>46821170
>>”I would like to know my whereabouts”

>>46821243
>>46821195

“For the next step, I am going to need some information on where I am and on the Drama section”
“Sure thing. RIght now, you’re in an inn not different from the one you usually attend in the Holy City. You have been carried there by your teammates, whom you ought to thank”

You take a look around. The furniture is indeed fitting of a fourth-rate hostel.
“Sounds about right. Go ahead”
“The second question isn’t as easily answered. Drama is as old as the Outers are, and it’s hard to fathom their attachment to such a genre. If anything, you have the answers on why you Outers like Drama so much”

Rotten Girl is perfectly right, and you hate it. This time the hot potato is yours to deal with, there will be no asspulls, no deus ex machina, only your below-average intelligence and a bunch of sad people.
“Ok, I am going to try and figure it out.”

Your experience with drama is rather direct: it occurred through self-insertion, after all.
What did you learn back there?
Emotional. All characters were too emotional. And everything was gloomy, and sad.

Why would anyone want to feel sad?
It’s a stupid question. You’ve read drama books, you’ve watched sad movies on tv.
But you didn’t do that to feel sad. No, you did it for…

“CATHARSIS!”, you yell out loud.
“Poophead, this is Mom’s Basement. Please don’t yell that loudly”
“Mom’s Basement, I’ve got it! People watch sad stuff for the catharsis!”

“We’ve heard you, poophead. So what’s your conclusion?”
“If this place is rotting, it’s because people aren’t getting their catharsis. The stories are becoming too far-fetched, the stakes are too high, and a real resolution at that point is impossible.”
“So go out there and tell them”.

>>46821743
And you did. You spent the rest of your day convincing the denizens of the Drama area that they didn’t need love stories between a cancer patients and a woman affected by spinocellar ataxia. Sometimes less is more.
Satisfied with the result, you headed back to the Drama Inn.

“It was a long day. I sure hope you guys don’t mind spending the night here. We’ll leave tomorrow morning”, you proposed.
No one objected, and you breathed a sigh of relief, considering how tired you were.
You headed to your room and laid down on the bed on which you were lying before, and you felt a sting in your neck.

You quickly got up and checked the pillow.
There stood the last piece of the puzzle.
“Bingo!”, you whispered, satisfied.

=======================

That's it for today, guys, since there's only two of you.
I will pass by the WQTG on Sunday to give a couple of announcement for those players who don't follow my twitter.

We're gonna have the season finale next time, so it would be a shame if someone were to miss it.

>>46821779
>season finale
So soon?

>>46821839
It's not the end of the quest, it's just the closing of one narrative arc.

I think it's for the best considering that I will have some RL issues coming up in the near future, it will give you guys some closure before the narration begins once more.

>>46821779
Oh wow, that was solved quickly.

>>46821969
I wanted to focus this session on 'alternative storytelling' rather than on trouble-shooting.

Next one's gonna be a tad more exciting.