Chapter One: The Change Game

​

Information

​

Accepted Players

​

​

Axel was sitting in a gymnasium, the one of Simmons School of Rebirth. It was the beginning of his first day at the new school. Beside him, on fiberglass chairs, were sitting seven other teens. Apart from their proximity in age, he could not tell a single common trait between the eight of them.
Some were muscular and big, others were slender and thin; a few of them had dyed hair, there were a couple of girls, and the rest were guys; some looked smart, and some looked dumb.

One thing Axel was sure about, was that each and every one of them was ****ed up by society, one way or another. It was well known, mostly just from it's name, that the people who attended the "School of Rebirth" didn't had the best of life.

Right after they entered the building, Axel had examined each and every one of them. None has peaked his interest, 'Just some normal junk…' He thought. After they've all sat down, the middle-aged man who guided them into the hall has begun talking; Axel, of course, didn't listen.

"...will be expected to behave and display discip-" Their councilor stopped speaking, strangely.

Axel raised his head, the middle-aged man, whom his name he did not remember was frozen and emotionless. Someone from the group asked him if he was awake.

To his surprise, the man responded, albeit not quite the same.

"Yes. I am awake."

"I'm not the one you call Moralis." The man responded to one of the questions.

Axel was a bit restless, he thought it was probably a new comers joke, and he begun to drift in thoughts. Soon after, the middle-aged man left the building and the group of them was left alone.

Axel stood up and took the package with his name on it.

"I guess it will happen sooner or later..." He said, tirelessly, "My name is Axel, nice to meet you."

He stood there, beside the desk with the others packages, waiting to get over with the introductions.​

Ryan rolled her eyes as she sat in the gymnasium of the Simmonds School and tapped her foot against the floor as Mr. Whatshisface spoke. She had briefly considered skipping, but figured that wouldn't help her situation at all. If anything, it would just get her in even more trouble than she already was in. She looked around the gym and sighed.

Support group, huh? Makes this sound like an AA meeting… I guess it kind of is, in a way.

She raised an eyebrow as the counselor's voice changed and sighed. Of course she would have the luck of ending up with a counselor who's insane. It was bad enough that she was being forced into a support group that she clearly didn't need. She just hoped that none of her classmates were crazy. Most of them looked tame, but she knew better than to judge people based on their appearances. That's part of what had gotten her in trouble in the first place.

"This is so stupid," she muttered under her breath, shaking her head as she thought about her ex-boyfriend. She pinched her wrist and took a deep breath. She couldn't think about him. The best thing to do would be to forget about him completely. Thinking about him is another part of what had gotten her in trouble. She had a good feeling that he was the one who called the police on her.

Introductions? What is this, kindergarten? I don't even think Lucy had to introduce herself at school.

Ryan reluctantly stood up from her chair and walked to the table with the packages, noticing that two other guys had done the same. After finding the package with her name on it, she turned to the guys and sighed. Here goes nothing, she thought, rolling her eyes.

"My name's Ryan," she said, crossing her arms against her chest. "So, why are you two here? You look like a couple of nerds. It's hard to think that you'd do anything bad."
​

Emily sat in silence, trying not to yawn too obviously as Mr. Moralis gave his introductory spiel which unsurprisingly amounted to nothing more than "Behave, make friends, don't fuck up."

Honestly, the Simmons School of Rebirth was the last place on Earth that Emily would have expected to end up in as a child… well other than prison. Now she'd been in both and judging by the introductory speech she was now being subjected to she wasn't entirely sure which institute she would rather be stuck in. It wasn't like she didn't want to improve herself and get back on her feet… but she'd figured a school for messed up people would be a little bit more interesting. As it stood she felt like she'd mistakenly been inducted into some fancy prep school.

As the guidance councillor prattled on, Emily took the time to survey her fellow inductees. Two athletic looking guys, a slim ginger whose hair was real unlike hers, some guy with piercings who looked like just about every other wannabe badass she'd met in her years, a slightly chubby boring looking dude, a chick with a weird face and another that was kind of cute. Before she realised it, she realised that she was wondering what these people had done to end up here. Obviously they weren't all there for the same reasons she was, although she guessed some of them could be, but they looked like your typical group of teenagers really. Not exactly a clique, in fact she could hardly see most of them spending time with the majority of the rest of the group, but normal people. She honestly had no idea what any of them had done, she wasn't sure she wanted to. She certainly wasn't about to blurt out that she'd gotten hooked on crack and sold her body to pay for the habit… not that she felt it was her fault her life had gone to shit.

That was when the atmosphere changed, Emily wasn't really sure exactly what the change was, but suddenly the room felt that much quieter and a chill seemed to hang in the air… and she wasn't cold. That was when she realised Moralis had stopped speaking. He was just standing there with some sort of blank expression on his face.
"You awake?" Emily heard someone say, she wasn't sure whom. She didn't really care. Then the reply came, and a chill ran up her spine for reasons she couldn't explain.
"Yes… I am awake." The councillor said, he sounded different.
"Mr. Moralis?" another voice she wasn't interested in questioned.
"I'm not the one you call Moralis" the monotone voice replied. This was the last straw for Emily, she didn't much want boring but now their guidance councillor was fucking with them? Not likely.
"Well who the hell are you then?!" Emily demanded, her tone indignant
"Who am I? I am Heartseed… I guess. Yes, that could be my name."
"What?" Emily spluttered, infuriated and bemused by the situation.
"Just listen." The voice said, and for some reason Emily fell silent, she wasn't sure why but she felt compelled to be silent.

Seemingly satisfied with Emily's decision to shut up, the monotonous voice continued.
"I find this little group… interesting. So I'm going to spice up your lives a little to keep myself amused. Some strange things are going to start to happen. I recommend you try to just keep going with your lives. That is all."

A few moments later and the councilor hurriedly fled the room. Emily figured that maybe he was embarrassed about pulling such a stupid stunt.
"What the hell was that all about, weirdass school." Emily muttered to herself, getting up and walking over to where the others were also collecting their packages and making introductions. Emily suppressed a sigh, it seems she'd be stuck with these people and with the asshole councilor. She didn't like being forced to spend time with a group of people she didn't get to choose. That was the sort of crap her parents would foist on her. She collected her package before looking up at the rest of the students "I'm Emily, and I am out of here before someone else pulls some weird shit. Nice to meet you, or whatever."

Emily turned tail and walked out the door, hopefully she could run into some people later she would actually want to spend time with. She wasn't about to make friends with her forced support group. She turned a corner at the end of the hall, following a map from her package… and then she was suddenly back in the gymnasium. She blinked. Was she loosing her mind? She had literally just left and she had not been standing there at any point.
"What the fuck?" she said out loud without realizing… the voice she heard was not her own.​

Douglas Stamper - Simmons School of Rebirth

Well that was... strange

Doug leaned back in his chair as he recalled the events that had just unfolded. It wasn't as if it was extremely out of the ordinary, but the act that the guidance councilor had put on was rather... off. Perhaps the administrators at this school applied a "scared straight" tactic on their students, but it's not like Mr. Moralis was being intimidating or anything. The only way that Doug could describe his behavior as was slightly eerie.

"Just listen,. I find this little group… interesting. So I'm going to spice up your lives a little to keep myself amused. Some strange things are going to start to happen. I recommend you try to just keep going with your lives. That is all."

The monotone repeated the words inside of his head. If anything it sounded more like a warning, maybe even a threat. Perhaps it was a comedy act, the name "Heartseed" did in fact seem pretty comical and the way Mr. Moralis had run off was akin to that of a comedian fleeing the stage after a failed joke.

Nonetheless, sitting here stewing about it wouldn't solve anything. Douglas' eyes scanned the rest of the members in his "support group". There was a rather athletic looking black guy, another guy with bright orange hair, a chubby kid with no eyebrows, a pretty girl with bright blue eyes, quite the attractive young man who was covered with piercings, and a tanned girl with dyed orange hair.

Before he could open his mouth to introduce himself, the orange haired boy spoke up. "My name is Axel, nice to meet you."

As Doug was about to respond another voice beat him to it. "Hi my name is Nick" The eyebrowless boy said.

The girl with blue eyes, spoke up in response. "My name's Ryan. So, why are you two here? You look like a couple of nerds. It's hard to think that you'd do anything bad."

Before anyone else could respond, Doug got out of his seat. "Hey there, no need to act so condescending my friend." He said with his signature smile, he turned to the two boys to address them as well. "There's no need to be telling each other why we're here just yet, if you're not comfortable with doing so." He walked over to pick up the package with his name on it. "My name's Doug by the way, nice to meet all of y'all!"​