junko ( 純狐 ) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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onceuponacomm2021-06-12 07:41 pm
purefuries) wrote in onceuponacomm2021-06-12 07:41 pm
Afterparty II: Two Hearts, One Valve
[ There's some joke about pizza to be made after all of that, but the bakery is broken, so we'll make do. The gathering seems to be happening outside this time, just around the entrance to the lodgings building, someone having left small notes and quick knocks and promptly disappearing, all saying something about getting fresh air.
Presented on a collection of tables is tea, fish stir-fry courtesy of Edelgard, chazuke from Tenn, and some sweet tarts from Junko. There also seems to be seeds in a bowl...? (Nageki is trying) Some chairs have been dragged out if you'd rather not stand around.
It's nice and breezy out tonight, though. Look up at the moon, and try not to feel too alone. ]
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She's a little surprised, honestly. She thought that trying to organize the trials into a more expedient process might be more trouble than it's worth, but she thinks she's been proven wrong.
She's also touched by his endorsement.]
It sounds like something that should be brought up to the others.
You've given this a lot of thought. I'll support your ideas if that's what you need from me. Is this something you're practiced in? Law?
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It's the only thing I've been able to think about, honestly. We can't just do nothing.
And yes, I'd appreciate your support. Your word means way more than mine does.
[ There's the briefest flash of a pained expression, caught more off guard by the question than he has any right to be. ]
I guess you could say that. This place just reminded me how important justice is, even if we have to fight for the closest version of it that we can make for ourselves.
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Injustice feels like something that is near universal. My own world is filled to the brim with it as well.
[She looks melancholic as she swirls the tea around from her cup. She has to stomach the deaths of the innocent even here. There really is no end to it.]
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[ Makoto looks at her with some genuine warmth, a measure of commraderie in having dealt with injustice first hand. It's a guess on his part, but her expression mirrors the way he feels about his own choices. ]
Our worlds have that in common. Mine just hides it well. Actually, before this place I would've blamed human nature. But not everyone here is even human, so it must be something else. A common thread through universes maybe.
[ After another sip-- ]
Your world's got to have some good too, though, right?
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It's too late. It was probably too late as soon as they arrived. But maintaining morale isn't about being hopeful yourself, it's about comforting those under your protection and bolstering their hope, so she'll nod.]
I agree. Even if we can't prevent more killing, at the very least I hope we can ensure that the innocent aren't punished for the crimes of the guilty. We'll do our best. That's all that we can do. We just have to make sure that our best is enough.
[She nods in solidarity, but she's caught a bit off guard by his question. Something good about the world as it is...? There's good, but so much of it is just disguising more rot.
Something good... Her thoughts turn to her friends, bold flirtatious songstresses, determined hard-working princesses, loyal melancholy shadows, insufferably bright and loud presences seeking to outshine the sun itself. The boy with the dagger... who couldn't dance.]
There are good people in it. Good friends who deserve better than the lot that their lives have given them. And they're worth fighting for a better tomorrow.
[They're worth inevitably betraying for a better tomorrow when the time comes... It doesn't matter.]
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[ Makoto's gaze drifts, a slow nod. ]
Maybe that's universal too? Good people worth fighting for.
[ Even if the ones he knows are mostly gone. ]
Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?
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[She quirks a brow at his question, but nods slowly.]
Go ahead.
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[ A pause, just enough time for him to think through asking. ]
What are your friends like? Anything you're comfortable sharing, I just... want to hear about good people, the type of person you believe is worth fighting for. If that's all right.
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My friends...? Well...
[She also stops, contemplatively as she considers... how to summarize her friends and classmates.
Hmm.]
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Then there's Caspar, Linhardt's best friend. He's hardworking, determined, with a strong sense of justice. He wants to make his own path seperate to his family's legacy and to live his life freely. He has all the makings of someone who could do great things with his life but he's been relegated to second in command to his weaker older brother who has no desire to rule. But he's... unfailingly optimistic, almost to a frustrating extent.
And then there's Bernadetta. She's... a gentle soul, frightened of just about everything and everyone. Me especially, to be honest. [A fond smile appears on her face at that.] She has a fascination for carnivorous plants, and she spends a lot of time nurturing them in the garden and sewing dolls resembling them. She's a talented artist and an even more skilled writer, but she lacks the confidence to really harness that. Her father mistreats her, part of a deal we struck with her mother involved shipping her off to school, away from him. If I'd known sooner I might have... [She frowns.] Well, regardless, I'd only heard stories about the reclusive heiress of House Varley, but she's a lot sweeter than the stories depict her as. I only wish to help her.
And then there is Dorothea. She's... breathtaking. Beautiful, radiant, charismatic and brilliant. She was an urchin on the streets before being taken in by a teacher at the academy and given the role of a songstress on the stage. She's here to marry above her station, to secure her future and find a good spouse who will treat her well. She's capable of some truly incredible things and I hope that the world is kind enough to allow her to do so. She's earned that much.
And then there's Ferdinand. [Her voice takes a turn for the slightly more frustrated but there's affection there.] He's... convinced that he's my rival. Out of all of them I've known him the second longest, I believe when I was younger and his father hadn't betrayed mine there was even talk of us being married off. He's a good person. Sheltered, spoiled, and stuck in the ways of nobility, but he's kind, and he wants to help the people even if he lacks the ability to do so in the ways he's convinced himself are his only option. But he tries. A little too hard perhaps, but he tries at everything he does.
[And out of all of them he's the one who will most likely stand against her. But that's an inevitability she can't dwell on.]
Petra is the princess of Brigid, a vassal state of the Adrestian Empire that attempted to break through during a civil war between the prominent nobles and the Emperor. I have done my best to protect her from what I can, but... she's a hostage. The heir to a state that was in open rebellion only five years ago. We are both prisoners by circumstance, so I feel a certain kindship to her. She's taught me some of her language and in turn I've been trying to teach her mine. She's a fast leaner, only a few years ago she struggled with pronouncing just about any of it but now she's nearly fluent, even if some of the grammatical rules confuse her.
And then there's Hubert.
[She swallows, a little homesick.]
He has been by my side since I was four years old. He's been my best friend and confidant since then, and he's been the only one I know I can always rely on. He's often harsh, grim, frightening even, to those who don't know him like I do. He thinks that he has to be. His family has always had a... link with mine. House Vestra is supposed to be the dark shadow of the Hresvelgs, and they're meant to be spymasters as much as caretakers. Sometimes I feel as if he was fated for a life of bleak misery because he was assigned to me in that cruel expectation, and then damned again when he chose to stay by my side once more even after his family betrayed mine.
But I don't know what I'd do without him. He's the only family I really have left.
[She does know that Hubert probably doesn't count as a good person, with the amount of blood that he will spill for her, even as she argues that they will share equal responsibility. But he's someone she wants to protect too.]
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After she's done, Makoto's quiet for a beat, coffee cup finally emptied. ]
Thank you for sharing all of that. They're... all so different but you really understand them, don't you?
... And I'm going to guess that crests mean more than just a family symbol?