Conquest round 12

[kingofpoisons]

When all the students were gathered for the assembly at twelve noon on Sunday of Round Twelve Day stepped forward her face stern. She was joined on the platform by Santana and her team of Prefects; Flynn Scifo, Cino, Suzaku Kururugi and Golbez. Conquest had two more prefects but they were both unconscious.

"Good morning." Those who had been in Rakuen long enough would know the warning of her tone. The lack of extra raks in their bags the day before would have told them that they had lost this last round, though those following the battle records carefully might be a little confused at that.

"I would like to remind all of you that though I wish for victory, victory can not be achieved without participation and last round it is in participation that you failed."

A ripple of pain went though the audience as the battle records went up. "There were no Conquest only battles, disappointing. How do you expect to improve when you do not practice." Pain rippled through the Players of last round.

"However Ein beat Dirk Strider, well done Ein, Aly beat Onozuka Komachi," no well done for Aly as she was no longer a member of the school, "And Isabela beat Dirk Strider, well done Isabela." Day's eyes narrowed, "America lost his battle." America would be hit with a penalty, not too strong though.

"But at least he fought... you lost the round because of lack of fights, something you will improve on next Round.

Her eyes glittered and she took a bite of apple. "You all know the price of failure but let me tell you the price of not fighting at all is worse."

With that Arthur Pendragon was hit by a full level penalty. Day glared at him the whole time, even if he had already been punished with a fine she had to make her point felt.

The punishment went on for five minutes, anyone who moved or spoke got hit.

When it was finally over she glared at the audience. "Turn it around in Round Twelve, go out there and win, but more importantly fight. Anyone who fights less than three times will regret it next week."

With that the names of the unlucky Players of Round Twelve came up.

"Golbez
Suzaku Kururugi
Samuel Henderson
Cirno
Arthur Pendragon
Stellaluna"

Comments

[straightupzorra]

[talk to your head prefect?]

[she's annoyed, be warned]

[unflinchable]

[Arthur tries really hard not to react to the warning penalty. First he just grits his teeth and tries to bear it, but it gets worse and worse. He rubs his forehead and pinches the bridge of his nose trying to relieve the pressure that's building up there, but nothing seems to work.]

[Eventually, as his vision swims, he is forced to take a knee, and stays down for the remainder of the assembly.]

[When it ends, it takes Arthur a good few moments to rise again, he looks a bit shaken but determined nonetheless. No one was going to attack him like that and get away with it.]

[He planned on two things: fight as much as possible to show off his worth, and make Day pay.]

[whitestknight]

[ Once the assembly has ended and the prefects are free to move, Flynn heads over to Arthur. It says something about Conquest that he already has painkillers in his pocket for just these occasions. He offers some now. ]

For the pain.

[ecthelion]

[Ein had no way of knowing that those battles weren't listed chronologically. And even if he could, his head hurt a little too much to think about it.

No one with this authority deserved to treat their subordinates this way.

Whether or not Day was a demon, it wasn't right. But now wasn't the time to judge. Without the ability to draw a weapon, how could he fight?]

[ecthelion]

[Arthur had helped him once before. It was natural to be worried about him.]

...You all right?

[swordofzero]

Suzaku had spent most the last Round in a coma but he was not surprised to see his name on the board. He frowned at the display at the end, recognising the victim as the man who had came third in the tournament. He checked his glove, and saw that Lelouch's name wasn't on it, he must be a Player as well.

He looked round, looking for people who hadn't found Players yet.

[kingofpoisons]

[Dare you approach Day? Warning she is not happy, in case that wasn't already obvious.]

[unflinchable]

[He looks at Flynn with a blank expression but takes the pills. He examines them though, they're not exactly like medicine he's familiar with]

Medicine? Thank you.

[he doesn't really know what to do with them so he just holds on to them for now]

That was the warning penalty I've heard about, then? She'll pay for doing that to me.

[unflinchable]

[Arthur rubs his forehead]

I'll be fine. Day, on the other hand, will not be.

[ecthelion]

That... sounds good. It's not right for her to treat us like this.

[stoppedhiding]

[ Golbez is irritated by the punishments, but he can handle them. He's used to them, and it helps that he feels like he deserves them.

Still, he approaches Day. ]

A moment, if you have one.

[whitestknight]

It is an unfair system, but I can't recommend seeking personal revenge. It won't accomplish anything. [ ... oh right, he forgets that medicine here is strange. It's been too long. ] Ah, about the medicine- you swallow them. Like a gel.

[unflinchable]

When the system is unfair you fight until it can be changed, this is more than personal revenge, it is to better the lives of all those who reside here.

[oh but he's confused]

A gel?

[unflinchable]

It is very unfair, therefore someone must do something about it, and I will.

[justaflowergirl]

Yuka just stared at Day, absolutely stupefied. -This- was how she thought you could motivate people to fight? This made less sense than the time those three fairies thought that blowing up Daiyousei's house would be a great way to get her to join their cause!

The will to fight was a delicate thing, hidden deep inside everyone's heart. Nurtured with water and sunlight, it could grow until it became the power that could even save the world. What exactly did she think would happen if she kept digging up those seeds to check on them because they weren't growing fast enough for her?

Before this assembly, she'd been thinking it'd be good to be a Discard this round. It'd mean no fighting, but she'd have plenty of time to get to know the plants around campus, which had seemed like a good trade.

So much for that idea.

[whitestknight]

Any system is there for a reason, unfair or not. [ aaaand then they're distracted back onto the medicine topic ]

Gels are medicine from my home world. I often forget they aren't universal.

[frozenmemories]

[Cirno stood completely still through out the assembly. She remembered what happened the last time she had moved during one of these and wanted nothing to do with it. At the announcement of players, she was already looking for who to vow with when she heard her name. Her head whipped towards Day with a look of shock and a bit of fear. She made her way to the edge of the platform, staring at her glove as she sat on the edge.]

Oh no......Not now....What do I do?

[kingofpoisons]

Of course Golbez, what do you want?

[stoppedhiding]

I was simply thinking that perhaps people would be more... amenable... to participating in battles if there were more of an indication as to why this was necessary.

As far as we can tell at the present moment, battling doesn't actually seem entirely necessary to achieve victory and return home. If we're misguided, then do let me know.

[frozenmemories]

After her moment of sitting on the platform, Cirno had decided to just go with it. She was still being very wary about the whole threat that was looming over her head now was keeping that fear hiding in her expression. She spotted Yuka and flew over everyone's heads to get to her quickly.

"Yuka! You didn't get hit did you?"

She hovers at eye level, looking concerned and not explaining what she means as usual. She knew those penalties well at this point, even as she was preparing herself for one heading her way once this round ended. She didn't look very thrilled.

[justaflowergirl]

"Huh?" She thought back. There'd been a twinge of something earlier, but it hadn't really stood out as something abnormal. Was that what Cirno had been referring to? "... I'm not really sure."

[themiraclemiko]

Sanae could have spoken up. This was something she felt wasn't right. But something told her that it wasn't worth it. That was, until she watched one person fall on one knee, apparently in major pain. In reaction, she took a step towards him, and immediately grasped her own head. "Ah...!" She fell over for the rest of the penalty, unable to do a thing but focus on something other than the pain.

Once it stopped, she slowly got to her feet, feeling a bit dizzy. "That... what..."

[ecthelion]

...We will.

[frozenmemories]

"Well...Did you get a headache or anything?"

After that question, she plowed onwards into her tasks, "You get to be a Weapon this round, Shouldn't be that hard. Some people come in and are Players right away! Now you just have to vow with someone. If they are nice, they will give you all your rights and you don't have to worry about too much, or go to the later classes...."

She smiled at this, trying to hide the fact she was not expecting this to be easy at all. She lands, shifting around a bit. She wanted to ask but at the same time, didn't want to.

"...I want to ask you to be my Weapon but..." She lowers her voice a bit, blushing as she admitted this, "I don't wanna lose you in a fight. I'm not the best at this Player thing."

[justaflowergirl]

"There might have been something like that... it was just for a moment though."

Yuka contemplated what Cirno was saying. It seemed like she had very different ideas of the advantages and disadvantages of player, owned weapon, and discard. Yuka did have to admit that free access to the forest would be nice. The other "rights" didn't really seem all that significant to her, but she supposed other people had their own priorities.

Yuka hugged Cirno. "You shouldn't worry so much. If your mind is filled with doubt, how can you do your best? And even if you do lose me, I won't be gone. Someone else would be able to call upon my time, but we could still talk to each other and do things together... well, maybe not this." She chuckled a bit. "We'd still be friends. And that's the most important thing."

She let the smaller girl go and stepped back a bit. "Besides, I have no intention of being passive despite the way some of the documentation describes Weapons. There's more that I can do to help than just letting you pull a weapon out of me."