Yamato

[katzepaw]

Comments

week 0; saturday

[katzepaw]

[He'll come back to the dorm a little bit later. Looking up when he sees him, giving him a little nod.]

So. . . ?

[ghoststrums]

[ yamato doesn't look any less angry than he did for most of trial! unfortunate. ]

What the hell was the point of all this?

[katzepaw]

I don't know.

[Caleb. . . has spent a lot of his post trial conversations bullshitting people. But he doesn't think Yamato will respond well to that.]

No point, really, except to pin the responsibility somewhere. Even though we all know that even if that girl acted, she didn't act unprompted.

[ghoststrums]

[ he would not, thank you caleb. he nods, tightly ]

There's no way she did it for fun. But that she wouldn't even explain herself there... We don't even know how she did any of it, either.

[ truly. got lucky with a dog, ]

[katzepaw]

No. We just followed some little traces of suspicion to one conclusion. [. . .] If she had some sympathetic or even not entirely culpable reasoning, she did herself no favors, but. People in that situation lie all the time.

[ghoststrums]

There's nothing sympathetic about beating a guy to death. [ he closes his eyes ] But she... there's no way she just did it for the hell of it. Not with how things turned out.

[katzepaw]

No, there isn't.

[. . .]

But people can be manipulated.

[ghoststrums]

... Yeah. And if it's something like that, then can't they do it again with other people?

[katzepaw]

They can. They probably will.

[ghoststrums]

[ bad. bad. bad!!! ]

... Did you catch that whole thing the bear said, near the end? About school traditions?

[katzepaw]

. . . I didn't. I was focused on talking to her, as little good as it did. What did he say?

[ghoststrums]

That this school is "very old" and there are traditions he can't change, even as the principal. And that's why we had to vote, and why we shouldn't vote for ourselves.

[katzepaw]

[Oof.]

. . . Magic, as we both know, isn't real. But I have a hunch we're in a realm of something like it. Often, there are rules that exist like that, old and hard to alter, perhaps nonsensical.

I don't get the impression the bear is a mastermind.

[ghoststrums]

I still think the bear's an asshole.

[ like, that's important. ]

But it ... sounds like some sort of. I don't know. Ritual? [ he does not know if that is the right magical term for this. ]

[katzepaw]

Ritual could be right.

[ghoststrums]

... So what does it mean for us, if we're in the middle of something like that?

[katzepaw]

We need to do our best to understand it. What it's for, how it works. Then maybe we can stop it, but in the meantime we're in a precarious position.

[ghoststrums]

[ there's an aggravated sigh ]

What else is new there?

[ they've got! more questions! more danger! he is tired. ]

[katzepaw]

It isn't going to be easy.

[But he did well. He didn't fight the bear. That seems like it was hard for him.]

. . . You and Beauregard are a lot alike, I think.

[ghoststrums]

[ let him fight the bear already. but he smiles a little, awkward ]

In a good way, or a bad way??

[ he likes beau, and he knows caleb is friends with her, but also, ]

[katzepaw]

A bad way.

[. . .]

. . . You both are a little hot-headed, but smart. You can fix things with that, if you try to. It's a good thing.

[ghoststrums]

You should tell her that, too. [ is he dodging the commentary on himself a little? yes. ] She called herself a dumbass yesterday.

[katzepaw]

Now you are meddling, but maybe it's deserved.

[He said something too nice, the grossest crime.]

[ghoststrums]

I'm not meddling. Beau's my friend, too.

[ this is genuine concern wow ]

[katzepaw]

I say things to her.

[But also, their dynamic is so incredibly asshole siblings. You can't say too many nice things to your sister.]