[x] Don’t tell anyone, but if they ask you’ll tell the truth.
-Optional
[x] Give her a comforting hug (Like you wouldn’t choose this one)

Sounds like a ticking timebomb and I can't think of a way to tell someone and not have it be painfully obvious we did it.

[x] An /at/ update

[X] Agree not to tell anyone
-Optional
[X] Give her a comforting hug (Like you wouldn’t choose this one)

None of these will really help her problem, but having someone to confide in should at least not worsen things any.

[X] A glimpse into someone else's life (Mima)

Curious why she was missing. Also, more Mima.

[X] Lie to her. Tell someone. (A teacher, doesn't matter who)
[X] Give her a comforting hug (Because why wouldn't I want to hug Cirno?)

The stupidest thing you can do in a situation like this is to just bottle it up. Tell a teacher, or any other figure of authority, including who you got to know it, and that you promised not to tell someone.

[X] A glimpse into someone else's life (Shou)
Because I'm curious.

[x] Don’t tell anyone, but if they ask you’ll tell the truth.
-Optional
[x] Give her a comforting hug (Like you wouldn’t choose this one)

Abuse is bad.

[x] An /at/ update

voting for porn is really awkward considering what the update's about

Wordlessly, I kneel down and wrap my arms around my distraught friend. Her breathing is erratic, but you can tell she’s trying to stay strong. “Cirno,” you whisper in her ear, “I won’t tell anyone. But, if someone asks, I won’t lie to them. All I ask in return is that you come to me if you ever need anything.” Cirno slowly wraps her arms around your back and lightly sobs, but you can tell that she’s still trying to hold it in.

After a number of minutes Cirno slowly releases you, prompting you to do the same. Her face is red and her eyes are full of tears. “Thank you,” she says softly. “If anything happens, if anything changes, you’ll be the first to know. Okay?” You nod. A long silence follows as both of stare at each other, feeling like you understand each other better now.

Eventually, you glance at the sundae and say, “Your ice-cream is melting.”

“Yeah, I guess it is.” She turns back to it and picks her spoon back up. “Do you want to help me finish it?” Cirno gives you a light smile, as if to say that she’s feeling a little better now.

“Sure, let me grab a spoon.” You smile back at her. She quickly pulls out another plastic spoon from her pocket.

“I always grab two, just in case one breaks.”

The two of you silently eat the sundae with no real desire to do so.

Eventually, the ice-cream is gone and the two of you are just sitting there silently. Until your phone buzzes from a text message from Shou. “Hi Alex, we are waiting at the mall entrance by the movie theater.”

“Cirno, my aunt’s here to pick me up. Will you be okay?” You ask, not really wanting to leave her just yet.

She hesitates for a moment before saying, “Yeah, I think I will be.” She actually sounds sure of that. “I think I’ll just go home. I have some homework to do before tomorrow.”

“Alright, call me if anything comes up.” She nods and you two quickly go your separate ways. As you walk through the food court, you try to see if you can spot Utsuho but she is nowhere to be seen. Perhaps she decided to truly give the two of you privacy? Regardless, you find yourself worrying about Cirno your whole walk to the other side of the mall.

When you finally do get outside, you see your aunts car pulled up to the sidewalk. Shaking your head to clear it, you quickly make your way over and see that the front passenger seat is already occupied by Shou. Big surprise there. So, you open up the rear passenger door and slide in next to Kogasa who smiles in greeting.

“Hello Alex,” Byakuren greets you. “Did you have fun yesterday and today?”

“I had a blast.” While technically true for yesterday, today, not so much. Still, it’s not a direct question. Plus you don’t want to talk about it with Kogasa and Shou around.

“That’s good,” She says with a smile. “So, where do you want to eat?”

“I dunno,” you mumble. “Where do you all want to eat?”

“I want to go to Toad-House!” Kogasa says as she throws her arms up.

Shou is calmer about telling you her choice. “I want to go to the Aki-hut.”

“And I have no preference,” your aunt says, leaving the decision to you.

“Okay, what are the Toad-House and Aki-hut like?” You ask, knowing full well that you can’t make a decision based off of just the names.

“Toad-House is a pseudo fast-food type of place. It’s also partly a playplace for children, but they have games for teens and young adults too.” Byakuren explains as she puts the car in drive. “As for the Aki-hut. It’s a family run pizza and burger place. Most of their dishes revolve around fresh vegetables and they even have vege-burgers.”

-Choose one
[] Toad-House
[] Aki-hut
----------
For the record, I suck at coming up with names.

Oh, I should probably mention that I'll be writing something for /at/ either later this month, or after NaNoWriMo ends. It will be considered noncannon, but still tied to Myouren Academy. Who the scene involves will be a surprise~

[X] Toad-House

Seeing Kogasa happy would be a real boost to our mood.

[X] Toad-House

Kogasa~
Sorry, I have a weak spot for children.

“Psuedo-fastfood sounds good to me.” You say as you pat Kogasa on the head. Seeing her happy should boost your mood some.

“Okay, Toad-House it is then,” Byakuren says as she puts the car in drive. Before she actually takes her foot off the brake, she asks, “You are buckled, right?”

“Of course.” You highly doubt that you’d get into a wreck, but better safe than sorry. As the car starts moving you start talking to Shou and Kogasa about their day while your aunt just listens quietly, saying something every-so-often but for the most part remains focused on the road.

Somehow the conversation gets shifted to learning to drive. “Yeah, I’ve got my learners permit. I could probably pass my test to get my license too!” Shou boasts. “What about you Alex? You don’t have your learners, do you?”

“Nope. I never really needed it,” you tell her, feeling a little ashamed of the fact. “Everywhere I needed to go either had a bus stop, was within walking distance, or I was given a ride by a friends parent.”

Byakuren chuckles and says, “Well, you aren’t missing much. Once you have your license people start asking for rides, expect you to be places on time, and gas is expensive.”

“Exactly!” Shou laughs. “Gas is the whole reason I haven’t gotten my license yet!”

“I won’t pay for your gas if you do start driving,” Byakuren says with a faint smile.

“Well, I’m likely not going to bother any time soon. Everything seems to be within walking distance of a bus stop anyway.” You respond flatly.

Shou turns in her seat to give you a teasing smile, “Oh? Are you saying that you’ll never want to pick up your girlfriend in a shiny corvette?”

“You make it sound like I care about cars. If it works, then it’s good enough for me.” Admittedly, taking the bus to and from your dates is hardly the ideal situation.

For the, thankfully short, remainder of the trip, Shou bugs and teases you about your upcoming date with Mokou. Kogasa doesn’t seem to understand what a date is exactly, and you are in no hurry to explain it to her, nor are Shou and Byakuren. Your aunt just phrased it as, “Two people spending a day together,” and that seemed to be enough for her.

When you arrive you are slightly unnerved by the building. It looks like a giant cylinder with large googly-eyes on top and paintings of frogs jumping around the base. The location is actually pretty convenient. It seems like it’s on the edge of the housing district and the shopping district, so you could probably walk to it if you wanted.

The inside looks like a pond! The floor is painted to resemble water, the tables are lily pads, the chairs look like rocks, the booths are logs, and the playpen has vinelike ropes hanging throughout it. Once you take it all in, you pause and ask Shou, “So, why the giant google eyes?”

Smiling, and suppressing a chuckle, she answers, “The owner has a hat that looks just like the outside of the place.”

“That’s right!” A voice calls from the playpen. Out comes a small girl wearing a hat with googly-eyes, a white sleeved purple dress with a frog print on it, and white knee socks. You raise an eyebrow at the little girl as she adjusts her medium length blonde hair so that it isn't in her face, and when she finishes she lowers her arms and her sleeves fall past her fingertips. She can’t be that much older than Kogasa, if you’re just going off of height that is, but you can tell her face looks a little more mature than children. “My name’s Suwako, and yes, I look like a kid. No, I am not a kid. I just never seemed to grow up, not that I mind. It does make some things awkward though.” You can only imagine… “Anyway, Sanae will ring you up at the counter. I gotta do some paper work, Nice to see you again Byakuren!” She quickly skips to the back, seemingly without a care.

“I don’t even…” You don’t even…

“Yeah, that’s pretty much the normal reaction to meeting her. Would you believe she’s actually in her late thirties?” Shou says it with an expression like she’s waiting for your brain to explode.

“I can’t, what? How?”

“Don’t worry about it,” your aunt says with obvious amusement. “We should probably go order now.” Kogasa is already staring at the menu, waiting for all of you. You notice that Sanae is smiling and talking to her, and when she notices you she waves enthusiastically.

You decide to go with a bacon cheeseburger. Shou just orders a salad off of their menu, apparently she’s worried about her calorie count or whatever. Both Byakuren and Kogasa order a spicy chicken sandwich, and Kogasa only chose that because Byakuren did. Though, that kid seems like she’ll eat anything.

Business seems slow today, so you aren’t surprised when Sanae comes on her “meal break”. “So, Alex, what did you think of my mom?”

-Choose one
[] “I thought Miss Yasaka was your mom?”
[] “I said it before, but I’ll say it again, I don’t even…”
[] “She seems nice, strange but nice.”
[] Something else (Write-in)
----------
So... Sanae has to mommies. That's something, right? That happens, it's not weird. Or at least it shouldn't be. I'm going to have fun with the next update most likely.

On a sidenote, I don't have as many Suwako pictures as I thought I did. I need to go remedy this.

[X] “I said it before, but I’ll say it again, I don’t even…”

Suwako is weird.

>So... Sanae has to mommies. That's something, right?
I was thinking it would be interesting to see a character with two moms, but the writer knows best.

[X] “I thought Miss Yasaka was your mom?”

I know Alex is a understanding guy, but this needs to be brought up for him to be understanding about it.

[x] “She seems nice, strange but nice.”

Seesh I would ahve voted for Aki-hut, oh well. At least in other places they're not neglected.

[X] “She seems nice, strange but nice.”

That may have been new or exciting like....30 years ago. Nowadays seeing gay/weird shit is just whatever.

You pause for a moment before answering, “She seems nice, strange, but nice.”

Sanae smiles and says, “Yeah, that’s what a lot of people say. I guess she doesn’t seem so strange to me because I’ve known her my whole life.” That sounds about right to you. You hardly find people strange if you’ve grown accustomed to it, and you aren’t much different from them. “She acts childish at times, but it’s what helps her run this place. She says to know what the kids like, she has to think and act like one.” She sighs and adds, “It does make things awkward when we go out to eat though. People don’t seem to realize that she’s in her late thirties, so they tend to treat her like a child, which is only helped by her antics. I do wish she’d act her age at times though…”

“At least one of your parents acts their age,” Shou says, picking at her salad.

“Kanako needs to lighten up some,” Sanae mumbles. Your aunt smiles slightly as Sanae quickly adds, “Ah, please don’t tell her I said that! She gets enough of that from mom.”

“So, if you don’t mind me asking, why do you call Miss Yasaka by her first name, but Suwako ‘mom’?” You ask, feeling like there’s a story behind it.

“Oh, no real reason. Kanako thought it would be confusing for me to call them both mom, so they flipped a coin on who got to be the mom.”

“They flipped a coin?” You say feeling a little let down.

“Well, that’s what mom says. Kanako says she called dibs.” She shrugs as if to say she has no clue who’s telling the truth.

“I thought people couldn’t have two mommies?” Kogasa says innocently.

You immediately drop your head into the palm of your hand. “Oh boy,” you whisper, and you hear Shou do the same.

“Uh, Kogasa, do you know where babies come from?” Shou asks tentatively as Byakuren attempts to stop her.

“The stork brings them to waiting mommies and daddies!” She announces proudly. “I didn’t know he brings them to two mommies.” How adorably naïve of her. You are also glad she isn’t questioning the logic behind a baby delivery bird. Byakuren visibly relaxes, as does Shou. Sanae, however looks a little awkward, as if she wants to explain it to her, but doesn’t know if she should. To which you just look her in the eye and shake your head. Now is not the time for that landmine. Maybe in a few years…

Luckily, that conversation quickly disappears and with it any possibility of having to have “The Talk” with Kogasa. Speaking of Kogasa, she has run into the playpen and is climbing around in the ballpit.

While she’s over there, you get a text message from an unfamiliar number. The message quickly tells you who it’s from. “Hey alex its reisen. Can u call me l8er? Its importent.” It’s readable, but horribly spelled and punctuated. This is why you hate text messages. Still, if it’s important you should probably give her a call…

You decide to wait until later, as she asked, and program her number into your phone.

##########

At about seven thirty that evening you get a text message from Kaguya as you are about to call Reisen. “Alex, reisen is mad @ me and i dont know what i did. Call me please?”

Oh boy… This sounds like a mess…

-Choose one
[] Call Reisen
[] Call Kaguya
----------
So, out of curiosity, would you explain where babies come from to Kogasa?

[x] Call Kaguya

Kaguya is expecting a call, Reisen isn't, so if we need to get her side of the story, we can get it afterwords (hopefully, anyways)

>So, out of curiosity, would you explain where babies come from to Kogasa?
Fuck no

[x] Call Reisen

I figure we should get some insight from her side, but the arguement is good for the other choice.

[X] Call Reisen

First to the mill

[X] Call Reisen

I think it's fine either way, but Reisen's request was first.

Also, no I don't think I would. At least, not yet. Way too young.

Reisen had asked you to call her first, so if she and Kaguya are having a fight, you should probably get her side of the story first. So you dial in her number and wait for her to answer. In the middle of the fifth ring, you hear Reisen’s voice crackle in, “Hello?” She sounds a little cheery, but you can’t really tell.

“Hi Reisen, it’s Alex,” you say politely. “You wanted to talk?”

“Oh, hi Alex! Yeah, I have a small, um, issue.” She lost her cheer and now sounds rather hesitant. “Do you have a MyBook page?” She asks.

“A what?” You answer with your own question.

“MyBook is a social media site that most people at school use. I’m surprised Shou hasn’t set one up for you.” Before you can ask what that has to do with anything, Reisen gets to the point by saying, “Well, anyway, Kaguya found some old baby pictures of me. Some really embarrassing pictures too. And she decided it was a good idea to share them with the world and tag me in them.” And now she sounds annoyed, which is really different than her usual slightly reserved and doormat-like tone.

“Well, did you ask her not to?”

“Of course I did! And she went and did it anyway! I’ve asked her to take them down and she just says, ‘they’re cute,” and won’t do it!”

Sighing you say, “Okay, so what do you want me to do about it? If she won’t do it for you, what makes you think she’ll listen to me? And why didn’t you call Mokou or just tell your mom?”

“Mom stays out of our arguments, says that we need to sort it out ourselves, and Mokou would, well, she doesn’t like being dragged into our fights.” There’s an awkward pause on her end for a moment. “And as for why I wanted to talk to you, Kaguya often doesn’t see the problem with what she does and you seem logical. So, maybe you could talk some sense into her? Get her to take them down?”

With another sigh, you ask, “Just what’s so bad about these pictures anyway?” She doesn’t say anything for almost a minute. “Hello? You still there?”

“Y-yeah. I’m here. Sorry. I was more than a little overweight when I was younger and I don’t like people knowing that, anyone who knew me then has pretty much forgotten about it.” That suddenly makes her lack of eating seem more like extreme dieting than not being hungry. “No one’s commented on them yet, so please, can you have her take them down?”

-Choose one
[] “I’ll talk to her, but I make no promises.”
[] “Hate to say it, while Kaguya is wrong to do it without your permission, it’s also her account to do what she wants with.”
[] “They’re just pictures, and it shouldn’t matter what you look like in the past. Nor should it really matter what you look like now. If people want to make a big deal out of it, then that’s their problem.”
----------
Stupid work, stupid snow, stupid day before thanksgiving. Stupid me for always procrastinating. Yep, today's going to be a fun day...

[x] “I’ll talk to her, but I make no promises.”

Seems like the best option.

[x] “I’ll talk to her, but I make no promises.”

[X] “I’ll talk to her, but I make no promises.”

Well it's all we can really do.

[X] “I’ll talk to her, but I make no promises.”

>[] “Hate to say it, while Kaguya is wrong to do it without your permission, it’s also her account to do what she wants with.”
I don't know the laws that plays in US, or whatever country this story supposedly takes place in.
What I do know, is that where I'm from, posting pictures of others online without their consent is outright a crime.

>>60373
In the US, that is not against the law. Some individual states do protect 'personality rights' in certain contexts, but those are related to trademark law and as such are largely concerned with fraud (e.g. false endorsement). The First Amendment right to freedom of expression has repeatedly been held to trump these.

There are some associated laws that may be pertinent. The photos are doubtless under copyright (initially to the photographer), and without consent therefrom, the copyright holder or their designee can have the photos removed by submitting a DMCA request. Alternatively, Kaguya may have obtained the photos illegally (breaking and entering and/or unauthorized access to computer systems).

>>60373
>>60374
These are family photos, taken by their mother, who neither gave permission or denied Kaguya the ability to scan them and put them online. For all intents and purposes, Kaguya did not break any laws in doing this, she only upset Reisen.

I'll update later tonight. Once I wake up some.

“Okay, fine, I’ll talk to her. But I make no promises.” You tell your friend.

“Thank you Alex,” she says sounding relieved and grateful. “I’ll talk to you later then, bye.”

“Later,” you say before ending the call. You start to wonder why people seem to come to you with their problems or at least are willing to trust you so much. Oh well. You quickly dial in Kaguya’s number as you lay down in your bed.

“Hello?” You hear Kaguya’s voice after the third ring.

“Hi Kaguya, it’s Alex.” You greet her, making a point not to get straight to Reisen’s request. “You wanted to talk?”

“Yeah, Reisen is mad at me…” She mumbles as though she doesn’t exactly want to talk about it.”

“Your text said that you didn’t know why, but do you have any ideas?” Tread lightly here. You kind of want it to be her idea.

“Well, I know what she’s upset about, but not why,” she admits. You guess knowing “what” and “why” can be two different things.

“Okay, and what is she upset about?”

“I posted some pictures of her on a social media site. These pictures were from years ago, and I mean YEARS. Like, elementary school, it’s been that long. She hates those pictures, but I love them. They’re all pictures of me and her and trust me, neither one of us looks anything like we do now. Reisen used to be overweight and I used to be, well I looked a lot like my mom in those pictures. And I used to wear these really big nerdy glasses, oh and I had braces. So both of us weren’t really what you would call a pair of cute kids, but I didn’t care because I was with her.” She pauses for a moment while you just lay there listening. “She doesn’t like thinking about the past because dad walked out on us not long after Tewi, our little sister, was born. No one knows why, and if mom does she hasn’t told us.”

When she takes another pause you take the opportunity to ask, “Has she said anything about the pictures?”

“She wants me to take them down.”

“And why haven’t you?”

“Well, I guess it’s because I don’t want to. I mean, I don’t have any profound reason for keeping them up, I just want to and don’t see why it’s such a big deal.”

Sighing, you reply, “Me neither…” You aren’t lying at least. If it were you, you wouldn’t really care. But it’s not you. “Well, Reisen texted me earlier, and I called her just a moment ago at her request. And she wants me to try and persuade you to take the pictures down.”

“Well, you aren’t really doing a good job of that,” she chuckles. “But, I don’t know. I don’t want her to be mad at me, but I don’t want to take them down…”

“How about this, take them down for a little while, talk it over with her, and find some pictures she doesn’t mind you having up there. Win-win for everyone!” It seems like the most sensible choice at least.

“I suppose, but she’ll probably tell me not to put any back up.” You both sigh, likely for different reasons. Kaguya because she’s slightly disappointed, and you because they both are being stubborn over something that you find to be so stupid. “Well, thanks Alex. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Alright, have a good night.” You say moments before she hangs up.

You flip your phone closed and toss it onto your nightstand. It’s a little early, but you have an important day tomorrow so you decide to go to bed now.

-Time Skip
[] Enough Procrastinating, get to the date already
[] No time skip, go through the day as usual
[] Skip to (What Class/Lunch)
----------
Okay, well, that was a thing. What's with me and giving characters depressing moments?

Anyway, I present the time-skip choice because even I feel like this is taking too long to get to the date. I'm okay with going with whatever you guys want though. I have things planned out for the entire day, but it's nothing that can't just be glossed over later.

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving everyone! One thing I'm thankful for this year is all of you! That sounded a lot less cheesy in my head...

[x] Enough Procrastinating, get to the date already

fuck yeah mokou time

>>60379
also, now that I think about it, I'm thankful for mokou

>>60380
Why is that?

[x] Enough Procrastinating, get to the date already
It would be nice to get to something we've been waiting for a while for.

>>60381
because mokou is best girl all day everyday

[x] Enough Procrastinating, get to the date already

[X] Enough Procrastinating, get to the date already

-Friday 11/02/2012

The school day took far too long for your liking. Everything just seemed to drag on, and all you could really think of was your upcoming date with Mokou. The two of you talked during homeroom about what your plans were. She wants to visit a couple shops, one of them being the antique store you visited a while back. You want to visit some music stores. Christmas is coming up and you figure that if you find a decent guitar, your aunt will buy it for you.

It’s currently three ten, and you agreed to meet Mokou at her place at about five. Given that you have more than enough free time you take a much needed shower, gym class had you running around far more than usual. Shou said it was because you were pumped for your date, you can’t really deny that.

When you get out of the shower you decide that it’s time to get some homework done, because you know that you won’t want to do it later.

At about four forty, you head out after saying goodbye to Shou and giving Kogasa a little hug. You decided against wearing anything too fancy. A light blue short sleeved button up shirt that you have unbuttoned over a black t-shirt and a pair of blue jeans. You also have your plain black watch strapped to your right wrist. You hope that you don’t come across as too casual though.

When you arrive at Mokou’s apartment, you have to take a deep breath to calm yourself down. You don’t want your nerves getting the better of you after all. You knock on the door and wait for a moment. You can hear some voices inside, but not what they’re saying.

When the door opens you find yourself face to face with Miss Kamishirasawa who is still wearing her white blouse and dark blue skirt. “Good afternoon Alex,” she says pleasantly, letting me into the apartment. “Mokou’s still getting ready, and she’ll probably be a few minutes. So please, make yourself at home.”

She heads over to the table where her books, papers, and binders are all laying open. You take a seat on the couch as you glance at your watch. Four fifty-five. It seems like you were a little early, but you had also expected Mokou to be ready by now.

It’s rather awkward to just be sitting there while you wait for her…

-Fight the awkwardness!
[] Make small talk with Keine
[] Examine the pictures on the walls
[] Oh, hey, they have a cat. Play with the cat.
----------
Ah, don't you just love the awkward moments where you are waiting on your date while their parent(s) are in the room? I have no idea what that feels like...

Anyway, This is the last day of NaNoWriMo and as such I may take a small break with writing. But, knowing me, that "small break" might be far too long. So, I got a dry-erase board and stuck it to the inside of my bedroom door. I'll be writing down the date that I want to have my next update out by and be forced to see it every time I leave my room. Hopefully I'll be able to guilt myself into writing that way.

[X] Oh, hey, they have a cat. Play with the cat.

Dude, it's a cat. I'm also hoping it doesn't end up clawing us.

[x] Oh, hey, they have a cat. Play with the cat.

kitty!

[x] Oh, hey, they have a cat. Play with the cat.

Always get on the pet's good side.

[x] Oh, hey, they have a cat. Play with the cat.

[X] Oh, hey, they have a cat. Play with the cat.