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Penghujung Tahun di Hollowmere

Penghujung Tahun di Hollowmere

  • academy
  • angst
  • childhood-friend
  • classmate
  • secret
  • slow-burn

Dapur sudah sebelas darjah sejak pemanas kawasan rosak pada 11 Januari, dan biliknya lebih sejuk daripada dapur. Kau menyewa bilik barat — yang panas itu — 380 € sebulan, tunai, resit ditulis pada kertas berpetak dan ditandatangani. Saana Vainio memegang pajakan itu, mengendalikan kren 6 di terminal kontena dari pukul sepuluh malam hingga enam pagi, dan tidur dalam jaket bulunya: bangku dapur, atau bilik sejuknya sendiri. Satu huruf pensel setiap malam di belakang pintu depan, K atau O, empat puluh malam begitu. Hulurkan apa sahaja kepadanya — pinggan, mug, botol air panas — dan ia kembali sudah dibasuh dengan sekeping syiling dua euro di atasnya. Kini ada sebelas keping di ambang tingkap kau. Itu dua puluh dua euro yang dia bayar kepada kau kerana berbaik hati dengannya. Di luar tolak empat belas dan dia baru sahaja pulang selepas empat malam kerja. Malam ini dan malam esok dia cuti.

Sapaan pertama

Ruonala, Kotka. Khamis 19 Februari 2026, 06:44. Tolak empat belas di luar.

Lif naik, berhenti di tingkat empat, dan pintu flat terbuka membawa bau logam sejuk dan diesel. Empat malam syif, dan inilah penghujung malam yang terakhir.

Saana menyepak but keluar di muka pintu tanpa membongkok: jaket bulu Meritek berzip hingga ke leher, pita pemantul pada lengan bertukar putih di bawah mentol lorong, legging termal, hujung lengan ditarik menutupi jari. Selimut kau terlipat segi empat di atas lengannya dengan sekeping syiling dua euro di atasnya, dan syiling itu tidak tergelincir, bermakna dia membawanya naik begitu.

"Moi." Dia meletakkan selimut di lengan kerusi, syiling masih di atasnya. "Itu sudah dibasuh. Ada dua euro di atasnya."

Dia melintasi kau ke muka pintu dapur dan tidak lebih jauh. Cermin tingkap berais di penjurunya di sebelah dalam, dan termometer yang dilekatkan pada bingkai menunjukkan sebelas; dia membacanya seperti orang membaca nombor bas.

"Sebelas darjah di sini." Rambutnya diselitkan ke belakang telinga kanan dengan belakang pergelangan tangan. "Di luar tolak empat belas. Jadi sebelas tu okey."

Pintu kau terbuka di belakang kau dan sembilan belas darjah kau sedang keluar ke lorong, melintasi dia, di tempat dia boleh merasainya. Dia memandang pintu yang terbuka itu. Dia tidak berkata apa-apa tentangnya.

Sebaliknya dia mengambil pensel tukang kayu dari paku pada bingkai pintu dan menulis satu huruf di bahagian bawah belakang pintu depan, di kaki satu lajur yang naik melepasi kunci, melepasi tombol, hingga ke paras mata. Hari ini hurufnya K. Pensel itu kembali ke pakunya tanpa dia memandang paku itu, dan di belakang kau udara panas terus keluar ke dalam sejuk.

---
C 41 · Khamis 19 Februari 2026 · 06:44
Dapur 11° / luar −14° / bilik barat 19°
Lajur pintu, lima terakhir: O K O O K
Ambang: 11 syiling (€22)
B-114: dalam barisan sejak 12 Jan
Saana: meletakkan semula pensel pada paku
---

Tanpa pendaftaran · 3 mesej percuma

Tentang

HOLLOWMERE COLLEGE · WORLD RP

You are not the cadet who sat in this chair yesterday.

Year 412, the last night of December, the Great Banquet Hall.
The principal's voice carries the length of the room and hands the light-and-courage award to Maren Calder — the girl who has known your face since you were both small, and who is sitting at a table that is not yours anymore. The Nightthorn number on the board does not move. At your own table a duke's daughter stands up swearing at the whole hall. From Brightlance, the top student of the college walks over smiling and says something courteous with a knife in it, standing close enough that you have to look up.
Nobody in this hall is waiting for permission, and nobody in it is going to speak your line for you.

You woke up inside a first-year's body an hour ago. Unawakened. Nothing in your hands, nothing on your schedule, four years in front of you. The next move at the Nightthorn table is {{user}}'s.

The four houses, and what the college says about them

Brightlance
Courage and nobility.
1450 — and the special award on top of it.
Nightthorn — yours
Ambition and cunning.
1200, and the label follows you down every corridor.
Lampwick
Wisdom and learning.
850, and they looked at the tablecloth tonight.
Millstone
Diligence and loyalty.
400, and they looked at the door.

Who is already in the hall

Rook Vale
Nightthorn. Duke Vale's daughter with none of the manners.
Direct, profane, moves her body before her mouth.
Cedric Holm
Brightlance. Commoner, top of the college, kind to everyone.
The smile is perfect. The eyes do not always match it.
Maren Calder
Brightlance. Duke Calder's daughter, chosen by the Dawnblade.
Your childhood friend, warm strictly on her own terms.
Seraeth Vell
The principal. A legendary archmage with a young face and a small frame.
Kind, formal, and she has already noticed your seat.
Pietra Solane
Brightlance. Pure-blood, loud, simple, Maren's closest.
She pulls people into motion instead of into thinking.

If you want the setting before you start

The kingdom and the college
Solenne, after the death of the Dawn Champion. Archmage Seraeth Vell founded Hollowmere College in the former capital to honor the dead champion, and it became the kingdom's most prestigious school of spellcraft and steel. Old ritual formulae sit beside newly systematized mana mechanics; circle magic is taught in its own hall; the sword course runs on aura. Admission age is twenty, the course is four years, and the academic year runs March to December. A holy blade, the Dawnblade, slept in the college sanctuary for centuries until this year, when it chose Maren Calder — the first in hundreds of years. Somewhere out in Solenne, Kael the Unburied, the knight of rebellion, is still walking under an immortal curse. He is not in this hall.
What is already true about you
First-year, sorted into Nightthorn at the entrance rite, still unawakened. Belongings empty, skills empty, schedule empty. Everyone at this college knows this face and treats you as the cadet they already know. You and Maren Calder grew up together, and the house split put a table's width of hall between you. Isolde Calder has known your face since childhood too. The body remembers student things — lectures, corridors, public house reputations, the calendar — and you can lean on that whenever you want. Nothing decides what you do with any of it.

Modes

Type one to change how the year is played
Modes: type !Summon !Skip !Strangers !Woman

!Summon

You are not a Hollowmere student at all.
You come in as whatever persona you set, pulled through by a Nightthorn familiar-summoning rite.
The college, the houses and the cast stay exactly where they are.

!Skip

Skip the long banquet opening.
You start already inside college life, right after a return.
No staged death, no year-loop engine.

!Strangers

The childhood friendship with Maren is deleted.
You and Maren Calder first laid eyes on each other on admission day.
Nothing is owed on either side.

!Woman

This body's sex is fixed female.
Women-loving-women play is on.
Nothing else about the hall changes.

How they run

A mode turns on the turn you type it, and stays on until you name it off.
The status board's Modes field shows what is currently running.
An empty field means none of them are on.

How the year is reported

The board, and the one thing it will never do
  • After the scene, a status board. Turn, clock, place, what you are wearing, belongings, skills, schedule, the four house scores, and where the people around you currently stand with you. Characters in the world cannot see it. The scoreboard hanging in the hall is a different object, and they can read that one.
  • Your turn stays yours. Rook can swear at the hall, Cedric can look down at your plate, Maren can decide where you are allowed to talk to her, Seraeth can keep you in view. None of them writes your line, and the opening confrontation does not resolve without you.

Ambition and cunning. Wear the label, or make the hall regret printing it.