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May mini-mini-event
05/31 16:00
The student council elections take place after class on Monday, with students instructed to gather in the auditorium for the assembly. Attendance is not mandatory, but once students enter the auditorium and take their seats with the rest of their homeroom, they will find that they are not able to speak or get up from their seats. There are no teachers present.
Fifteen minutes past the hour, the doors to the auditorium close and the assembly commences, with the current student body president Maya Arisu stepping up to the podium, obligatorily thanking everybody for coming, and briefly going over the agenda: the student council candidates, sitting in a neat row behind her at the back of the stage, are to first introduce themselves to the student body, after which the candidates will make a case for why they would best serve the student body. As each person comes up to the podium, a projector shines on the white screen behind the stage with an image of the student's profile, displaying their full name, homeroom, blood type, handedness, club membership and leadership roles, current grades, and current merit points. Those in the student council are held to high standards, be it scholastic achievement as exemplified by grades or club participation, or eloquence or bravado if they have nothing else going for them but talk big anyways, like the current candidate in the middle of a passionate speech concerning the atrocity that is Ishimaru's eyebrows, like, do you really want that to be the face of the student body--
The mic cuts off and Maya drops the end of the power cord before striding up to the center of the stage, staring at the candidate to get out of her way or risk a broken foot.
"I'm going to stop wasting your time," she says, voice quiet but at the same time clear and audible in the hush of the room. "The qualities I'm looking for in a member of our council isn't intelligence or diligence or kindness. Who the person is matters the most: what they do and how they think."
She turns around, facing the candidates, looking at each of them in turn. "We will be testing your character. Follow me."
One by one, the student council candidates rise to their feet and file out of the auditorium after Maya, stiff and robotic, almost as if they have no control over their bodies as she leads them out the door. The moment the last candidate leaves the auditorium, the spell binding everybody's limbs and voices breaks, students jumping to their feet to push and shove each other out of the way in their excitement to leave-- not to go home, but to crowd around the windows surrounding the courtyard, or to race each other to the higher floors to claim the windows with the best views:
Out in the courtyard, the student council candidates line up against the side of the school. Facing them, in a half circle in front of the wisteria tree, are several familiar faces, each with a dagger in hand, a stagger to their steps, yellow in their eyes, and wild animalistic abandon in the way they lunge at the student council candidates.
The sun is bright overhead. Blood spills and soaks into the ground. The school stays true and does not turn.
Fifteen minutes past the hour, the doors to the auditorium close and the assembly commences, with the current student body president Maya Arisu stepping up to the podium, obligatorily thanking everybody for coming, and briefly going over the agenda: the student council candidates, sitting in a neat row behind her at the back of the stage, are to first introduce themselves to the student body, after which the candidates will make a case for why they would best serve the student body. As each person comes up to the podium, a projector shines on the white screen behind the stage with an image of the student's profile, displaying their full name, homeroom, blood type, handedness, club membership and leadership roles, current grades, and current merit points. Those in the student council are held to high standards, be it scholastic achievement as exemplified by grades or club participation, or eloquence or bravado if they have nothing else going for them but talk big anyways, like the current candidate in the middle of a passionate speech concerning the atrocity that is Ishimaru's eyebrows, like, do you really want that to be the face of the student body--
The mic cuts off and Maya drops the end of the power cord before striding up to the center of the stage, staring at the candidate to get out of her way or risk a broken foot.
"I'm going to stop wasting your time," she says, voice quiet but at the same time clear and audible in the hush of the room. "The qualities I'm looking for in a member of our council isn't intelligence or diligence or kindness. Who the person is matters the most: what they do and how they think."
She turns around, facing the candidates, looking at each of them in turn. "We will be testing your character. Follow me."
One by one, the student council candidates rise to their feet and file out of the auditorium after Maya, stiff and robotic, almost as if they have no control over their bodies as she leads them out the door. The moment the last candidate leaves the auditorium, the spell binding everybody's limbs and voices breaks, students jumping to their feet to push and shove each other out of the way in their excitement to leave-- not to go home, but to crowd around the windows surrounding the courtyard, or to race each other to the higher floors to claim the windows with the best views:
Out in the courtyard, the student council candidates line up against the side of the school. Facing them, in a half circle in front of the wisteria tree, are several familiar faces, each with a dagger in hand, a stagger to their steps, yellow in their eyes, and wild animalistic abandon in the way they lunge at the student council candidates.
The sun is bright overhead. Blood spills and soaks into the ground. The school stays true and does not turn.
OOC
✽ Happy Execution Day! For those unfamiliar with how murdergame executions work, the initial top-level is reserved for Ishimaru and Madison to fight to the death, while the rest of the post is free for characters to post reactions as well as to play out the aftermath.
✽ As a general guideline, the dropped characters look the same as originally, aside from yellow eyes, and the way they move is haltingly, as if they're resisting the compulsion to murder. It is a compulsion, though! So if both Ishimaru and Madison refuse to fight each other, they'll just get stabbed by somebody else.
✽ The execution will end once there is only one person left, after which the door will allow them back inside the school. Before then, the doors and windows are locked, and trying to escape the courtyard will result in loss of consciousness, with enough warning to turn back. The moment there is one survivor left, the npc students go home, as the position is won by default. Congrats! Hope it was worth it.
✽ As a general guideline, the dropped characters look the same as originally, aside from yellow eyes, and the way they move is haltingly, as if they're resisting the compulsion to murder. It is a compulsion, though! So if both Ishimaru and Madison refuse to fight each other, they'll just get stabbed by somebody else.
✽ The execution will end once there is only one person left, after which the door will allow them back inside the school. Before then, the doors and windows are locked, and trying to escape the courtyard will result in loss of consciousness, with enough warning to turn back. The moment there is one survivor left, the npc students go home, as the position is won by default. Congrats! Hope it was worth it.
no subject
[Meng Yao has been such a reliable and dear friend. He would feel bad not being polite around him.
Still, something gives him pause, as his gaze wanders back towards the courtyard door ]
Your view of me... really hasn't changed? After that, am I really no lesser in your eyes?
no subject
...Before that faded away. There was something he felt he had to tell Ishimaru.
He planned on never telling him. Not even a hint of it. But he had learned the other had died, from someone else's mouth. That felt like a private piece of information; that being said, he felt it was his turn. But, it was a gamble. He knew Ishimaru still felt a weight against killing in the first place, and so he could view him the same way Nie Mingjue had started to look at him.
However, he wanted to trust in someone, and he was desperate for that. He wanted to help. So, he made that gamble.
Meng Yao got down on his knees, hands balled into fists. Then he moved his fists to rest on his knees as he looked at the other. ]
It hasn't; you're my friend and you were forced to do what you did. If I judged you for that, I would have to be a hypocrite, considering what I've done.
There's...something I have to confess to you. Before all of this, I was involved in a war, and in that war, I killed many people.
Because of that, though, the people I cared about weren't eliminated when someone attempted an all-out extermination campaign against them. Does that make me unjust? Maybe you can think that it was different from your position, but I'll bring up the fact that I ended up killing people who didn't deserve to die. When I was in enemy lines and it was my life against theirs, I chose my own. Time and time again.
I won't go into too much detail, but under enemy surveillance if I didn't kill these people, who were my allies, then I would be killed. I was essentially handed the knife, figuratively, and literally, like you were. Except instead of this school, it was Wen Ruohan who was responsible for that.
The situation you were in is comparable to mine, even if it wasn't on such a grand scale. It was kill or be killed. I don't think killing is always the answer, and I don't think it should be. But just because someone has to kill another person, and they have no other choice but to...it doesn't mean that they're evil.
[ ... ]
I'll understand if you...look at me differently now. Or if you don't want to accept this or if it takes some time, but I believe because of what you went through, if I kept this from you, I would be dishonest.
...In the end, I think now we're similar, and I don't think we should be viewed as lesser for that. None of us wanted to kill anyone, after all.
no subject
I... I see.
[There's another brief pause before he speaks again.]
So, for the most part, it was like being a soldier. That is, somewhat of a complicated issue. I cannot quickly judge those who fight to protect their home. [He's never been against the military, but Meng Yao's words make him start to really think about it. Does anything really make killing another person right or justified?]
I feel that I am in no position to judge you. As you say, it seems that we are in similar boats. Except that your actions were on a much grander scale... You fought to protect much more. [With the threat of an 'all-out extermination campaign', he must have been fighting to protect so many people!]
Still, I - I understand the point that you are making. In all the time that I have known you, you have only shown yourself to be kind and dependable. You are no cruel, violent being. Whatever you were forced to do... that was not the true you.
no subject
...and then there it was.
Meng Yao didn't doubt that it was still going to be difficult. Taking the life of someone who was clearly your enemy was easier. Even if it didn't come easy to someone, that was something he always thought. But for other people who had never done such a thing, it would take a mountainous effort. Never mind the fact that if clearly they knew that person was innocent in the first place it would make it even harder.
But maybe even if the guilt will persist, saying all of this would make it a bit more bearable. ]
And the same applies to you.
[ He'll smile, though it was a weak one. ]
Please continue to think over this one's words as long as you need to. It still won't be easy to move forward, I know that. But it may help that you're not alone.
[ Pause. ]
I also would like to thank you for not changing your opinion of me. Not everyone would do the same, even if they were in your circumstances.
no subject
"And the same applies to you."
It's a logical, predictable conclusion. But it was one that Kiyotaka's mind did not want to process for itself. He tries to reject anything that could resemble an excuse. So when Meng Yao says it aloud, it takes him by surprise and manifests as a concept that he has to face. Even if he tried to highlight the differences between them, there's no denying the connections between their situations. And that he should be able to give himself the same benefit of the doubt that he has extended to Meng Yao.
He's silent for a few moments afterwards, before he speaks again.]
...Of course. The way I see you cannot change so easily.
[He still feels like the same Meng Yao. It's just now that Ishimaru can start to perceive the weight that he's carrying all this time. It's like a burden he's carrying now.]
A-and... I would like to thank you. [After a pause, he adds with a hint of a smile-] Now I do not feel as if... I am alone.
[He doesn't feel better. He's not sure if he'll ever feel 'better'. But there is some level of comfort in feeling like he's sharing this burden with someone else.]
no subject
But, those fears were unfounded. He believed that now.
So, he gave him a smile in return, confident they'll continue walking this difficult path, together. And maybe be able to be true to themselves no matter what pain came their way. ]
It's no issue at all.
I could have never left you to face this matter on your end. Besides, being there for each other is what friends do—and I consider each and every friend I make to be precious to me.
[ Because he will never take such things for granted, not when he had so little of them in the first place. ]
no subject
He can't hold up a smile for long, but still he looks gratefully towards Meng Yao for a few moments.]
...I... I see. [His cheeks are stained by cuts and tears as he faces him.] I appreciate that very much. This friendship... is nothing less than an honor.
no subject
No matter where he had gone in his life, he had never encountered many people who would deign to be friendly with him. He could only wonder, that should no one have known of his background, that he would have more friends. Maybe that was really part of the key. ]
... I'm glad that I'm still capable of inspiring such comments in others, even as I know why you have said so.
[ Meng Yao will shift his position to a little more comfortable. ]
I also hope you don't mind if this one decides to linger longer still.
no subject
He only looks at Meng Yao for a few moments before bowing his head and looking back down at the floor.]
...I do not mind at all. You may stay... as long as you wish. Meng Yao-kun.
[He will sit in silence now as he collects his thoughts. But even in this state, it provides some level of comfort, to have some kind of company.]
annnd i think this is a good place for a wrap \o/
[ Sometimes, camaraderie was found in the least likeliest of places, and it became a stronger foundation than what anyone may have been able to conceive of.
Meng Yao didn't doubt that what happened will forever be written in stone.
But at the least despite their differences, and the pain that came with what's happened, they've been able to bond with things ending up more hopeful than not.
Either way, Meng Yao was more than fine with sitting in companionable silence, until it was time for either of them to move again. ]