Astronomy class, again

[stoppedhiding]

Characters: Golbez, open to anyone at Conquest
Format: Either
This log is: open
Location: Astronomy class
Summary: Stars are astronomical, right?
Warnings: Astronomy :|

Another day meant another class. By now probably all of his students were bored out of their minds, since Golbez had never assigned anything more than "Read your textbooks" -- although on the other hand, if they wanted to spend the class period passing notes or doodling, he didn't care.

Monday of Round Three, however, was a little different. Rather than the Conquest school uniform he'd been assigned, Golbez stood behind the desk at the front of the class in the cloak, skirt, and Lunarian jewelry he'd arrived in Rakuen wearing; on the whiteboard behind himself, he'd simply scrawled the word Stars. He was a bit on edge; what he was about to spend the class period doing was surely against the rules. He wasn't concerned about being punished, though -- rather, he was worried that any students who went along with the discussion might be in trouble. But he was tired of playing along with this charade.

Once the class was settled, he began to speak. "It is said that to defeat the ones holding us prisoner, we need to obtain 'the stars' -- six of them, probably. I'm fairly sure that the term does not refer to distant, giant balls of plasma. Which raises the question: To what does it refer?"

He looked out at the class, eyes narrowed. "Any suggestions?"

Comments

[imperceptible]

"This entire city is set up for the fighting, right?" Kevin pointed out immediately, feeling relieved that they were finally getting this out into the open. "Maybe it's got something to do with the game."

[stoppedhiding]

Golbez nodded; he'd be very surprised if it turned out to be unrelated. "More than likely. There are a number of abilities listed in the manual that have corresponding images of stars or suns, although that may be too obvious of an answer."

[imperceptible]

It shouldn't have surprised him that Golbez had actually read the manual. It actually made Kevin feel a little guilty for not having done that yet, though he kept meaning to. But every time he started reading the dreadfully boring thing, he always caught himself nodding off twenty minutes later. The damn thing was about as entertaining as a dictionary.

"I don't think unlocking abilities has anything to do with it." He added, thinking of that story about some kid managing that in the first round and still being here. "But this whole Exaclan thing- it's kind of like a game, isn't it? That probably means there's a way for anyone to get these stars."

[stoppedhiding]

"Right." That made more sense -- besides the fact that it would have to be possible for anyone to do it, it was more likely that the answer wasn't so blatantly obvious for anyone to find.

He glanced about the room quickly, to see if anybody else had something to weigh in with.

[swordofzero]

Suzaku raised his hand to be polite, even though Golbez didn't seem a strict teacher... He took in his lack of uniform, at all.

"When I drew Lelouch's weapon last week a star appeared."

[stoppedhiding]

He blinked in surprise. Is that so. "On the weapon?"

[swordofzero]

"In the air, where all the numbers come up at the beginning of each battle. There was a star." He had no idea what it meant, the same had not happened when he had drawn any other weapons, nor had it happened to Lithuania's weapon when Estonia had drawn it in the same battle.

[stoppedhiding]

Nothing like that was written in the manual. Come to think of it, hadn't some strange symbol appeared when the weapons had been drawn in the exhibition match three weeks prior? Golbez hadn't been in a good position to see it clearly, but now that he thought of it... Those could have been stars.

There really was more to Lelouch than he'd been letting on. "Was this before or after he was appointed prefect?"

[swordofzero]

"Before." Suzaku thought back, "It happened on Thursday, I think he became a prefect on Friday." He had noticed the symbols as well on the weapons in the exhibition match but what made those weapons, and Lelouch's weapon different than the other weapons.

[straightupzorra]

Guess who is here to break up this little party. Santana would have been willing to overlook his breaking the dress code if that was his only infraction, but to try and strategize during class time was something that she wasn't allowed to over look. So, Santana stood, "Hey, teach, for one, this isn't fashion class, you can't just wear whatever you want and I'm gonna hafta reprimand you for that, but you're going to wish that's the only thing wrong with what you're doing."

She crosses her arms and starts walking towards him, "You can't teach about these stars, even if astronomy is a nice cover for it. You can't plot some attack during class time, you need to teach your stupid class. But since you've decided against that, you have to pay the price."

[imperceptible]

The minute Santana stood and started speaking, Kevin narrowed his eyes at her, not feeling exactly charitable since that "rousing" ceremony at the end of Round 2. Maybe she hadn't instigated the pain, but she was part of the system that was allowing it.

It wasn't until she started threatening Golbez, however, that he slid to his feet, slamming his hands against his desk.

"What the hell does it matter what he teaches? Because I think it's about time we started focusing on the real problem: getting out. Maybe you're cool with being tortured, I'm not."

[straightupzorra]

She spins around to meet him and slowly starts walking towards him, not stopped until she was only a few inches away from him. As she walked, she spoke, "Once upon a time I was taken from my home and brought to this island. It fucking sucked. I didn't know what was going on or how this battle system worked. So we tried to tamper with the system. Do you want to know what happened? We were all punished. You think that little headache charade is the worst that can happen here? You're even dumber than I thought. But you know what, there are rules in place, and by following those rules we achieved victory, which allowed for the reset and all the others, save six, to be sent home. But now the game has started again and the more rules you break the longer it will take you to get home. So shut up about being tortured, because you're not, and start playing the fucking game."

[imperceptible]

Taller or not, more impressive or not, Kevin didn't back down. Perhaps it was because he hadn't experienced despair here yet, or maybe it was because he already had of a different kind that he was sure of his words. Convinced that what they were doing was wrong.

"So it's okay to keep doing what they want us to do? To keep playing their stupid game so most of us can go home? Is that what these six stars are? Sacrifices so the rest of us can have a happy ending?" His eyes flickered towards Suzaku as he said that, acknowledge his statement about peoples' weapons having stars on them when they were drawn. "Screw that. That kind of outcome is bullcrap."

[swordofzero]

Suzaku got to his feet and went to stand next to Kevin, he didn't speak, the kid could hold his own it seemed. But he wanted to be near in case Santana tried anything. He stood glaring silently.

[straightupzorra]

Santana turns to glare at Suzaku as well, not one to back down no matter how much things were stacked against her, but turns her attention back to Kevin. She laughs in his face, "Sacrifices imply death, and you should have realized by now that death means nothing here. Sacrifices imply that the person didn't have a choice, that's now how the game works," her tone gets deadly serious, it's obvious this is a warning and it's obvious that something really bad could happen, "The more you fuck up and fuck around, the worse things are going to get around here. That's not just me being a bitch and being Prefect to get you to shut up, but the win condition gets dangerous and fucking around with it makes it even worse."

She leans back a bit, not in a standing down type of way but in a, it's your funeral type of way, "But hey, if you actually want to get tortured, don't let me stop you."

[stoppedhiding]

"Kevin, Suzaku, sit down," he said a bit impatiently. If he was going to be punished, then fine; at least it looked like the students would be fine unless they deliberately stood up to defend him. Although some of what Santana had said just now, in response to them, had been enlightening. "If there's a price to pay for disobedience, then get it over with."

[straightupzorra]

She stares him down, "I could be an even bigger bitch and punish the hell out of you, but you know what, I'll be the bigger person this time. Since this is your first offense your punishment is only a fifteen Rak fine, but if you pull this shit again it will be much worse."

Santana snaps her finger and all the Raks her has come to her. She grins, "It seems you only have ten, well that is rather unfortunate. I tried to be nice but it seems like you're out of luck."

[imperceptible]

Suzaku's presence was acknowledged with a nod, since it was good to know there were others on the same page as him. As Golbez gave him an order and Santana gave him the fine, he slowly clenched and unclenched his fingers before letting out an irritated noise akin to that of an angry cat.

[stoppedhiding]

...that couldn't be good. He had a bad feeling about this. It was yet something else not covered by the manual.

"Unfortunate in what way?" he demanded, eyes narrowing into a glare.

[straightupzorra]

"Unfortunate in a, it effects everyone but you kind of way," she looks even more smug than usual, "Oh and it doesn't effect staff either."