WEEK 2

[strangerpeople]

WEEK 2

[A week has passed. There's been no body, no investigation, no trial. No deaths. Congratulations!

Now the question is, will it last? At the moment, the Commander seems content with forcing people to do petty and mean-spirited errands in return for a mere shower. On the one hand, it's just for showers. On the other hand, what if the demands start to get more extreme? Would caving in encourage her? Is anyone willing to try and find out?

Honesty, with all the strange dates and information floating around from what's been uncovered, the only one in this place who's probably not worried as the time slips into its next movement is Sir Riprazor McRockfang. That's right, he's a sir. A grumpy sir, yes, but still a sir. No one's going to mess with him, regardless of what his true origins may be. And if they do, beware - he bites. Omnom. Good luck, everyone.


There are fifteen strangers - and one alligator - in this place.]

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

Comments

[theserpentsmiles]

[...He looks a little surprised - not very, because how could an outsider know? But a little, because that's so optimistic it hurts.]

No. They call it the "E as in end" class, because once you're in Class E, it's almost impossible to get out. It's where all the dropouts and delinquents go - all the people who have no shot at a bright future.

[backuphero]

[Something furious flashes in his eyes for a moment - but only a moment. Sometimes, he can rein it in, when there's someone else to worry about.]

That's... it's not right to do that to people.

[theserpentsmiles]

[It gets worse.]

It's not even about us.... It's more that we aren't allowed to succeed, because that would break Asano-san's perfect system. The worse things are for Class E, the harder the rest of the school will work to avoid joining Class E.

[backuphero]

That's... that's barbaric, not "perfect". I mean, it sounds like you all banded together anyway, but...

[Who would look at this kid and say he wasn't allowed to succeed? What the hell kind of bastard would do that?

But those are questions it's not appropriate to ask somebody grieving, so they stay unspoken.]

[theserpentsmiles]

That's why we've been rebelling. The systematic discrimination against Class E breaks down if we succeed anyway. That's what sensei taught us.

[Once you get a taste for fighting back against the chains that bind you, you don't stop until you've forced the world to recognize you.]

[backuphero]

That's why you said what you did about... [he pauses just for a moment, trying to remember exact words and settling on paraphrasing] a coup not stopping, isn't it? He taught you that, and you really learned it. You, and your friends.

[theserpentsmiles]

Right. [Class E has been throwing their own coup for a year now.... They have to push through and finish it. Because they'll be fighting an uphill battle for their entire lives, they can't ever afford to let up.]

When sensei came to the class, we were all so used to bring crushed underfoot that we didn't even imagine things could be different. Sensei made us change by force. If he hadn't...

[Nagisa doesn't like that particular thought.]

[backuphero]

So he saved you, huh?

[The other options for why that sentence trails off as it does are too depressing to contemplate.

He does squeeze Nagisa's shoulder gently, now, making a go at extending the offer of "you can lean on me if it'd help" without saying so in words.]

Well. Most of you. Sorry, that was... that was really thoughtless of me, more than usual even.

[theserpentsmiles]

[He accepts it this time, letting himself be small and weak. They all knew the end had to come, but... The mountain isn't their home anymore, graduation means setting out into the wider world. No teachers to guide them anymore. Somehow that part didn't fully sink in until the end.]

He saved her too - that was when she gave up on revenge. A few months ago.

[backuphero]

So she had a few months without that hanging over her head, with you, and with her other friends. It'd never be enough, but....

[It's better to live free for a little while than to die bound by hate, he doesn't say, because saying it would make him a total hypocrite... and there's no un-cruel way to phrase that, besides.]

[theserpentsmiles]

[He nods.]

She was probably the most amazing of us. Not a prodigy like Karma-kun, but... We never seemed to know everything she was capable of.