It is like any other April morning. Soft spring sunshine, a gentle breeze, cherry blossom spinning off the trees and dropping gently onto the earth. You are walking down the street clad in clean, crisp school uniform, bag heavy with books and lunch and all the things you need for the first day of the school year, blending in with the stream of other teenagers walking down this very street. Others are getting off the bus at the nearby bus-stop, others waiting around and staring at their phones having clearly made arrangements to meet with others, yet more others careening out of the train station. This is a scene being repeated many, many times over in many variations, all over the country. This is not a particularly extraordinary moment, you yourself do not particularly stand out.

But at the same time, you do.

For the school you and the many others are heading towards is no ordinary school, but Hope's Peak Academy, that large, sprawling, internationally known behemoth that was started with the aim of discovering and fostering teenage talent in an attempt to improve society. And improve society it did. Many, many success stories have come out of Hope's Peak-many entertainment personalities (some of whom you're a big fan of, yourself), many people who have gone on to cure diseases or invent something game-changing, many people who have influenced the way the world lived. Other countries view Japan as a world power now because of it, and some have even opened their own Hope's Peak Academies-many run by alumni from the original. There is the Reserve Course, too, but that is a completely different story, though still significant in its own way.

Either way, Hope's Peak Academy is quite possibly the most prestigious high school in the world, let alone Japan, and as a student of said school, you are now a part of all that history. Which is how you know that not only are you most definitely not just another high school student heading to school on the first day of the year, but that this is no ordinary year of this extraordinary school. No, this year is special, more than special.

It is the 100th anniversary of the school.

The precise day the school opened one hundred years ago was actually the fourth of April, but this year it falls on a Sunday, so that anniversary is being celebrated today instead. But the entire year itself is a big one-in the weeks leading up to it, everyone online has been posting about it, the news constantly reminded viewers of it and everyone who knows you has somehow found this out and have not failed to stop reminding you. Even now, as you're walking, you can hear some of your fellow students talking about it. And as you finally get to the street the school is located on, you can see signs of the celebrations beginning. There is a colourful banner with gold lettering proclaiming "100 YEARS" strung up across the gate, and another similar one high on the front of the building. But in front of the gates, there is a small film crew set up, and a person who appears to be the presenter or journalist-you lean towards presenter, considering the surprising lack of news vans-is interviewing a student-a Main Course one, to be specific.

As you get closer, the presenter finishes with the person, lets them rush into the school, and starts to look around. The presenter focuses on a Reserve Course student getting out of their car at first, and you take that opportunity to just slip into the rapidly growing crowd and get through the gates, but all of a sudden there is a hand on your shoulder and a voice asking:

"Excuse me, do you have a minute?"

You freeze at the sensation, and turn around to see the presenter smiling beatifically at you. Well, so much for that. As you subtly shrug their hand off and step back a step, you wonder what happened with the other student-were they deemed too unimportant, or did they just refuse? You also wonder why, of all the students from both courses that are currently flocking towards the building, you were the next one considered the most amenable towards being interviewed.

Ah, I suppose it can't be helped.

"I suppose." You answer neutrally, already thinking of what you say.

"Great!" the presenter asks. "It won't take long, I promise. Thank you so much!"

The presenter goes on to explain that a documentary series is being made about this anniversary, and about the impact the school has had on the world in those 100 years, and that it will be filmed across the course of the year. All you need to do at this stage, is give your name and course and class, and answer a brief question, and while you did not particularly want to be filmed at this time of morning, this does not seem so bad, though you do sidestep the question of being featured in other parts of the documentary later in the year. Once the preliminaries are out of the way, you are filmed, and you try your best to appear as relaxed and natural as you can, as you give an answer that will satisfy the presenter but doesn't take up too much of your time, an answer that is not whole truth but not a lie either. When you're allowed to go, it's a relief, and you barely allow the presenter to thank you before you are rushing away, aiming to disappear inside as soon as possible. You cannot help but smirk as you hear the presenter corner someone else-a male student, from the annoyed 'what the hell' you hear clearly over the hubbub, but you quickly forget it, and look around you.

There are yet more banners here and there, and even streamers woven into the trees. A teacher is handing out little gold badges in the shape of the number "100" and you accept one gracefully as you keep walking, kicking up both cherry blossom petals and confetti. After going through a courtyard, the babble of students is starting to divide into two-Main Course going towards one building, Reserve Course to another, though there's still a little mixing going on. Quickly, efficiently, you turn and head towards the building you're supposed to go to, observing your surroundings as you do. A sign hung around the statue of the Hope's Peak founder catches your eye, but you decide for now it is better to find a good seat in the hall for the entrance ceremony, so you continue in.

Recognising various faces, you exchange greetings and make small talk all the way up to the hall, and from there, you're on your own. Here, too, bears signs of celebration-a huge banner across the stage that looks a lot like the one that is hung across the front of the building, streamers hung up everywhere, even gold and silver balloons held down by weights in the corners of the halls. Even the chairs set out for you all are tied up with sparkly ribbons tied into elaborate bows. It's like we're going to have a party. Though, all things considered, it's perhaps not such a crazy idea.

You look for a free seat that's not right at the front but that isn't right at the back, preferably only a few seats into the row, and thankfully you spot one, so you speed walk as quickly as you can manage to reach it, quickly plonking your bag down on as you do. A quick glance suggests nobody is going to contest you for this seat, so with a sigh of relief you take the bag off, sit down, then settle your bag on your lap…and wait.

Time goes by, you watch the flurry around you, listen to the fragments of conversation, feel the giddy, excited atmosphere get even more so. You notice there are people filming in the back, but they do not seem interested in talking, only in recording, so you do not worry too much about them. Instead, you wait and observe, your feelings churning around your head intensely.

And then, the lights dim, and your attention is taken to the stage as the chatter dies down, gradually dwindling into a heavy silence, one that weighs on you. Your hand instinctively reaches for the badge in your pocket, curling around it as though it is a charm of some sort. The dimness becomes a deep darkness, and you hold your breath until a spotlight shines on the stage, and a figure steps out. The silence becomes awed rather than tense, and the figure smiles self-effacingly as he surveys the waiting students. Then, he steps up to the microphone, and after clearing his throat, starts to speak:

"Hello, SHSL students…"

Your grip on the badge tightens, as you stare, rapt, hanging onto every word that he has to say. Suddenly, the room is giddy again with a bright, fizzing energy- you can almost hear it, pretty much feel it. You don't need to look around to know that everyone in the room is the same in this, and you don't need to look far to know why:

The 100th year of Hope's Peak Academy has begun.

So, for better or for worse, I am here with another SYOC idea. I'm sure my track record proves I am able to keep at and finish stories, but I should point out that since I am doing my teacher training right now, I will not be able to update as frequently as I have done with other stories. Still, I am super, super excited about this story, and I really hope I'll get some amazing submissions so I can get it started.

Anyway, some background on the premise: As you may have surmised from the prologue and plot summary, this story takes place during the 100th year of Hope's Peak-2032/2033-, and it's a complete AU, although I am using certain aspects of canon and doing my own thing with them in this. It'll essentially be a killing-game origin story-that is to say, a story that explores how a killing game would even be thought of, and how the people responsible got to that point, against the backdrop of what is supposed to be a special year for the school. Those people, of course, being the cast you give me. Since the general idea is that these people aren't all raging psychopaths/secret SHSL Despairs with death wishes the way Junko was, I'm hoping that this will be an interesting killing-game origin story with lots of interesting dynamics. And suffering. But definitely interesting dynamics.

Anyway, I am looking for a cast of 13, a mix of both SHSL students and Reserve Course students. I don't necessarily want an exact equal number (though if things turn out that way, it's good) of each, but I hope to have roughly similar amounts. The same goes with genders, not to mention classes/year groups. Anyway, I have rules and guidance below that should explain some things below, so, I'll leave you to read that, then if you decide you wish to submit to this, then the form will be put on my profile once this is up.

P.S. No, the entire fic is not going to be in second person. The idea is for it to have a non-specific POV, so it could potentially apply to a member of the cast.

Rules and guidance:

1) This is not first-come, first-served, but I do have a final deadline of 28/10/2018. I will accept characters gradually as I go along up until this deadline, and information about talents and various character ratios of the accepted characters will be included on my profile, and depending on how well things go the submissions may close before that date, but yeah, 28/10 is absolutely the final deadline. You will know if I've accepted your OC, as I will PM you specifically for this purpose. Though when you first send an OC, I will PM to tell you I have seen/acknowledged the app too (though, please be patient when it comes to this, considering my other commitments).

2) While we're on the topic of things on my profile-as with SHSL Survivors' , status updates for the fic will be put there as it's easier for me to do it that way, so it is worth checking there every so often even when the SYOC is closed.

3) NO recycled characters. Unless they were rejected elsewhere, or from a story that has either been explicitly discontinued or simply hasn't been running for at least a year, do not send characters you've sent to other stories to me. And if you get an OC accepted here, do NOT send them elsewhere. If I receive a recycled OC, I will not acknowledge it, let alone accept it. If you recycle an OC you get accepted here, they will be promptly killed off and forgotten, or something similar depending on what role they had here until that point.

4) Three characters may be sent per submitter. Pairings (whether familial, romantic, work-related, whatever) are welcomed, but I will only accept two pairings at most, considering the cast is fairly small. Whether I have pairings or not will also be indicated on my profile.

5) Submissions are to be sent by PM only. I will ignore review OCs.

6) Details, please. You don't have to be me and write a mini-novel, but I want effort put in(so no Mary Sues/ Gary Stus blah blah blah). And details are always good J

7) If you are sending me a character with an SHSL, on the whole I'd prefer different talents to canon, but I will probably accept canon talents. I want to have AU vers of canon characters here too, but haven't finalised which ones. Though, with that being said, this AU also follows the idea that each year has an SHSL Lucky Student so that's a canon talent I'd 100% allow. I'd also prefer talents that are, well, actual talents, even if they are niche or a little suspect.
Also, I won't be posting a submitted talents list, since it doesn't matter to me if I get repeats of talents when it's just the submissions-but make sure you look at my profile for what I've accepted to be sure I haven't accepted someone with that talent already, because that's the point at which repeats matter to me.

8) Since this is a complete AU, the Tragedy and pretty much everything that happens in canon is not happening here, or at least has not happened at the point the story starts (you will see what I mean by that…eventually), so don't refer to those events in the backstory or anywhere.

9) There is other guidance in the brackets next to various sections of the form-please make use of it to help you, but of course delete them when filling the form in for extra space. But if something does confuse you please do ask me and I'll do my best to help.

10) Enjoy yourselves!