like a bitter stranger

[samuraiwomen]

Who: Everyone
What: Our monthly family meeting.
When: March 5th, 2000.
Where: Yogen dorms common room.
Warnings: Discussions of murder, suicide, child death...more?



[ A message goes up on the forums late Friday evening.

S.chidouin: Group meeting in the dorms Saturday. 12:00. No punching. No stabbing. I'll bring stickers.

If your character would not find a post from Sara worth listening too, Bonnie is wandering around, vaguely noting how important this meeting is, and how very much you should attend. No further details are forthcoming.

The meeting itself is a quiet affair. The fireplace is not lit, there are no snacks. Sara waits in the corner for everyone to arrive and get settled and then she clears her throat to speak. ]

As most of you know... [ It's hard to start, but her voice gets firmer as she goes on. ] We spent the last two months investigating Maya Arisu's murder. That case is solved. A few weeks ago, Bonnie-chan and I found the culprit.

Rantaro Amami killed Maya Arisu, Hiro Arisu, the vice principal and is presumably responsible for the scene with Keigo Arata. He is also dead. I just figured...everyone should know. To many people got hurt the last few months. I'm sorry.

[ She fiddles with her hair. That's all...she really has to say. There's not much more then that as the gist of it. ]

Comments

[rearranger]

[ Deserving of hatred? No, it's the opposite. They're both the same though. Whether it's one death or ten, whether it's for survival or to protect what's important, it's all just the same. It's thoughts and feelings and needs that lead to action. It's pain and misery that others can't possibly understand because they don't want to. It's everything that's missed before it comes to that point because they don't want to see that either.

It's throwing away all of the parts of a person that are inconvenient, then hating them for the fact that they refused to see them properly.

Of course he understands that. He understands how naive they are, how much they want to trust, how much it hurts when that trust is breached. How it feels like everything was a lie when the person was presenting everything. None of them can understand each other. None of them can get close without hurting one another. That's how it always is.

Midori was right, but even so he hesitates for just a moment. It's always like that. It's the same as the way Komaeda always gives him just a little pause, and he has to take the smallest step back to run through his own thoughts anew. But his colleague already commenting for both of them, and he's not able to contradict that. But what would he even say? How can he express those thoughts that rattle around? ]

Believing in someone means seeing the worst parts of them... But Hiyori's right.

[ There's a bit of hesitation, but it dissipates quickly, ]

It's not gonna do any good for you to get all worked up.

[samuraiwomen]

[ There is a very short list of people Sara feels genuinely comfortable being vulnerable around, and Midori is dead beat last. Every word he says makes Sara's face tighten, not with her usual anger, but with the a guarded panic that she's desperately trying to keep under control. When he claps, she has to tighten her fists to keep her body language still. ]

Even if its my fault... [ Is it? ] I was talking to Ranger, not you.

[ She doesn't like him just coming in and deciding how Ranger feels...she doesn't like Midori at all. But she can't force anything but a helpless look when Ranger seems to agree with Midori that she's a failure. ]

No...that's not right. Believing in people means trying to see the best. It means trusting someone... understanding someone is different. You can say I didn't understand Amami, Ranger, but I believed in him.

[ She's not going to say a word more with Midori around. If she does, maybe she'll tip over to anger. She won't walk away, but she'll let them go, if they want... ]

[antitoxin]

Now, now... Miss Sara, you were talking around me.

[ they're supposed to be classmates, love interests, married. why is she acting like this? he will frown just a little, as if he even cares about what's happening at the moment. ]

I'm curious, and you can take your time with the answer... do you believe or believed in him? They're two different things.

[ because the latter speaks that she had given up on him because his actions have became a problem for her. if she can't understand him, if she can't believe in him, what else is there? ]

If you no longer believe in him, that's okay. No one will force you.

[rearranger]

[ Isn't belief without understanding nothing more than an image in one's head? It's an untested hypothesis, but rather than being dreams of molding the world, it's people's imagined lives. It's no different than believing a magician's tricks or a pastor's sermons, it's pictures and stories of people that reality can never match up to. Even so, that question needles him. Believe, or believed... Well, isn't it obvious? Its just the same for both of them. He'd known that already, but the reminder stings all the same.

Amami had tried though - not just with Ranger, but with Sara too. Why else would he have let her figure it out? ]

... No need to assign fault. If you made any mistakes, you do better. If you don't, then you don't need to worry about it.

[ Amami succeeded, and those who wished to stop him failed. Assigning blame to any one person is pointless when these situations are full of shifting parts and pieces that align just right to create these situations.

As for the man standing next to him - ]

You talk too much, Hiyori. Didn't you say you talked to talk to me about? In that case, let's talk.

[ He had come to collect Ranger because he was going too far, right? There's no need for him to make idle chitchat in order to do that. ]