destinystrings | Autumn Festival (OPEN)

Entry tags:

Autumn Festival (OPEN)

Who: EVERYONE
Where: Virgo Ward
Summary: Autumn Festival Log! You're all invited!
Warnings: MELONS
Ahh Autumn. The time for harvest, and the normal national holiday that falls on the 24th and 25th. Demons? Angels? Magic? Well nothing's been put on pause, but even the Anoli need to relax once in a while...

With that free time, what's a newcomer like you to do?

Well Hinoto-Ri has much to offer! As they seem to be the only standing city in...well, anywhere, they've tried to merge and adapt as many festivals around the world as they can.

Ergo this Fall festival is a mixture of everything the world could offer. Corn on the cob, Pumpkins, Yaki Imo (Oven-Roasted Sweet Potatoes), Ramen stands, Falafel, caramelized apples...

A giant dragon is tied down in the middle of the waters. At night, you can see a few pixies hover close to it, keeping other monsters at bay. The streets have been decorated as well.

But most importantly, the upper Virgo Ward has been turned in a giant festival area...even more so than usual! Now the millions of stalls don't just try to sell things to you, they sell things to you thematically with this fall! Giant pumpkins and fresh produce made in Libra and Capricorn..did you know that Capicorn has an amazing giant apple orchid, protected by the office of Wands and Swords? Try out some free samples! One taste is enough to convince you that having Persona to irrigate the fields ass a crispness to the fruit..right? Winter outfits...hats are in this year! Listen to some of the new music groups, and get pumped for the upcoming movies!

There is giant mooncake in the middle of all the tents and stalls. Don't worry about the money! Everything's free today! It is a time for sharing and family and...

...being thankful for what you have. No matter how small it might be.

For a city of survivors, Hinoto-Ri is certainly trying to have a good time.

You should join them.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

For the entire pause, Daichi just stared back as he...gradually, began to lose the structure of his spine more and more, though he tried not to show it. And then, when Yamato finally spoke--

"--Huh?" Apparently he was just as surprised as Yamato was! Hey cool, he didn't piss him off!

"Uh.. yeah..." Whatever just go with it. He wasn't as firm as he was before, but at least he wasn't a rambling pile of anxiety! "I guess it some places it might, like if you have a job or you have to protect someone, but I think if your duty hurts more people than it helps, happiness and well-being would be more important."

"Hurts more people than helps...?" Yamato muttered. Well, that was the definition of his meritocracy, wasn't it? All the pitiful dregs would be crushed - as they should be - and they certainly outnumbered the chosen few who would soar to the top.

"So duty can be so easily abandoned for the well-being of others? Is that what you're saying?" It seemed a bit...wrong, to think that. Duty was to be upheld no matter what. To abandon it for something as silly as happiness of all things...

"Yeah, I think so. Like, if someone tells you to kill someone because they stole food from a store... there's no way I'd do it. I'd rather get in trouble myself than do something like that when it's not necessary."

Then again, he'd never really had any kind of duty in the sense like Yamato has. So it was pretty easy for him to make a claim like that.

Yamato tilted his head slightly. "...so, if a few rioters broke into Nagoya's headquarters and robbed all of the supplies from that place, supplies that are already stretched thin between JP's members, you would have allowed them to go?"

Uh oh. Yamato's not looking at all amused.

--Suddenly he is a lot more, uh. On edge. They'd managed to hide it from Yamato when they gave some of the supplies away to the citizens but... well, Yamato couldn't just throw them to the demons now since he wasn't the leader of JP's, but... That, didn't mean he wanted the guy to find out even after the fact.

"W-Well, I don't think they should do it so violently, but--" Let's just avoid eye contact for the rest of the conversation, yeeaah, "--they have as much right to try and survive as JP's did. So, yeah. I would have let them go."

The silence after that was so thick with tension, it was a miracle it didn't suffocate them both.

"Your compassion is a weakness," Yamato said. He didn't sound angry, but he didn't sound all that amused either. In fact, he was quietly impressed that Daichi had more of a backbone than he was led to believe - and really, the supplies issue was no longer, well, an issue.

At least he knew where the 'disappearing' stock of supplies had gone now, though. No doubt Daichi and possibly Io - maybe even Kaito - had been distributing it to the masses out of misguided compassion.

"In a situation like that, sacrifices had to be made," Yamato said flatly, not a shred of regret or sympathy in his tone, "It is unpleasant, but the supplies were to ensure that the JP's forces were kept strong and healthy while the Septentrione were fought off. Do you believe we could have gotten as far as we did without enough food or water?"

Yamato could. Yamato was trained to do such things while half-starved. However most employees, and Kaito's group, probably never tried such a thing. It was awful, and hard.

If it was possible for silence to suffocate, Daichi was sure he was almost veeeery close to it.

"N-No... I... I know I probably wouldn't have made it through the week if it wasn't for JP's..." Boy that giant dragon thing looks really interesting all of a sudden.

"But I still don't think it's fair if the people we're protecting go hungry and die just so we can protect them, right? I mean then there's nothing left to protect."

Well, he didn't necessarily agree with the idea that compassion was weakness, but that didn't mean he didn't feel kind of like his self-esteem took a blow at the mention anyway.

"Shijima," Yamato said coldly, "Life is not fair. If to defend the world, a large portion of the civilians had to die, so be it. Those that remain have proven themselves durable and ingenious enough to survive."

He tilted his head, smirking wryly. "Do I need to remind of Sapporo? Their sacrifice ensured the destruction of the Septentrione, a vast amount of death for those we are protecting. It was necessary."

"Just because it helped doesn't men I have to be happy about it...!"

He grimaced; Sapporo still left a bit of a bad taste in his mouth. But it's not like anything could be done now anyway, right?

"And just because it's not fair doesn't mean I have to accept it. Everyone's deaths may have been the price to beat the Septentrione, but..."

Daichi didn't exactly know how to end that sentence, but it was too much for him to accept a point of view like that.

"You're speaking like a child," Yamato pointed out flatly. "I never said one had to be happy with the decisions they make. You merely have to recognise how it was necessary, and not dwell on the unfairness of it all. A sacrifice was made, our goal was met, and that is it."

That was why Yamato spared no compassion for the rioters who were starving and dying. They were a necessary sacrifice, and at least it culled the weak from the strong.

"So what?! I am just a normal teenager you know! I'm not a soldier like you or Makoto...!" Daichi was actually getting a bit stand-offish there; not so much angry, as he was simply defensive.

Honestly, he was starting to feel a bit homesick.

"If I had a chance, I'd still go back and try to do something about it. I don't care how necessary you think it was."

"Heh..."

Yamato's cold mask broke, his lips curving into a little smile. How strange it was that Daichi only had claws when prodded hard enough - still, it pleased Yamato to know that he wasn't meek and soft through and through.

"Good," he said. "Your ideals are not something that should be easily swayed by another's will."

Even if Yamato thought Daichi's ideals were childish and naive, he cannot fault someone who believed in them so fervently. It was the only reason he gave his grudging respect to Ronaldo - the man may've had a stupid ideal, but he was staunch in his convictions.

"Huh--?"

Oh and then...Yamato wasn't angry? Geez, he's never going to get used to this guy's weird mood-swings.

"'Ideals'? I guess so... I just think it's messed up to write off so many people like that. I think most people would do the same."

"Such compassion will be your downfall, but if you adhere to that creed until the end, well, I cannot fault you for it," Yamato said dismissively, turning his gaze away from Daichi as if he was growing bored with the conversation.

"Even if it is as nauseatingly naive as Kuriki's."

"You keep saying that, but I dunno... I think it's more important to have compassion than to be all business like that. Especially after that week. I mean we all could've died even sooner if it wasn't for each other."

Hm... But he wasn't really good at this ideals and concepts kind of thing. It was kind of more Kaito's area, wasn't it?

"Ronaldo too. He had a lot of good ideas, you know."

Okay, Yamato's going to turn and stare at you.

"What? You mean his pathetic imaginary world of 'equality'? Please. That world would stagnate and rot to nothingness within months."

He respected Kuriki that didn't mean he liked his ideal at all. He still hated it with a burning passion. Yup. Hate.

Oh there's the anger ahahaha...

"Well, yeah...! I mean on paper, it's not that bad. There would be a lot less people getting suffering or getting screwed over, but in practice, the whole thing still wouldn't work. That doesn't make it inherently bad though."

Hm...okay. That's better.

"It is unrealistic. That in itself makes it 'bad'," Yamato said coldly. "To want a world that is good and equal...that is impossible. Basic human nature makes it nothing more than a pipe dream."

"If you're gonna be like that, yours was unrealistic too you know!"

Well Ronaldo wasn't here to defend his own viewpoint so Daichi wasn't just gonna leave him stuck up the river without a paddle! Uh, theoretically speaking.

"That week taught me that humans want to be the best and help each other. You're gonna get people that do both no matter what."

"..." Yamato harrumphed, crossing his arms over his chest. That was true... he had seen a strange amount of people, Daichi included, willing to throw their lives on the line to protect the unworthy, the weak...

'You're weak too.'

Yamato shoved that memory aside almost viciously, and gave Daichi a narrowed stare. "...think what you will. Neither of us will budge on our ideals."

Daichi was too busy thinking about whoah, did he actually beat Yamato in an argument sort of? Maybe? to realize if Yamato as having any horrible flashbacks.

When Yamato did speak again, he just chuckled sheepishly and held his hands up palms out in a defensive gesture. "Hey, like you said, that's a good thing, right? You just gotta know that there are other options open, y'know?"

"Isn't it weakness to abandon what you believe in for another option?" Yamato question. His expression was tensed in a slight frown, his gaze drifting over to a far off lantern.

Other options open...yes, he remembered Ronaldo and Kaito trying to recruit him after his devastating loss. Was it an insult? They claimed that the basis of Equality was to help others, even those who they viewed as enemies, and yet they knew Yamato was completely dedicated to his own ideals.

Was it weakness to cling to that ideal even to death (which he had done), or was it weakness to give in and change to another...? Yamato thought he knew the answer when he allowed Tsuutenkaku to crush him, yet now...

Hrngh. This frustrated him.

"I think there's a difference between ditching your beliefs when someone tells you to and just being open-minded and adaptable. If nobody ever changed their opinions or couldn't be convinced, then a lot of things would be different, you know? Not that it's bad to stick to your guns, but..."

Augh, this was hard. How was he supposed to word it really? He wasn't sure anything he was saying even made sense anymore. "Being so gung ho just kind of blinds you to other things."

"..."

Blinded him to other things, huh? Yamato's gaze didn't waver from the poor lantern he was scrutinising, but it was obvious he was mulling over Daichi's words.

If one encountered a problem with only one solution in mind, and repeatedly used that solution despite it being proven as ineffectual, then they are rigid, uncreative, and foolish. This was the basics of strategy. You had to maintain multiple possibilities and solutions and theories within your mind to adapt to the situation as it changed.

But...had Yamato fallen into that amateur trap? People only changed when the very foundations of their lives have been dragged into upheaval. Revolution only happened when it was forced in the midst of fighting. It was the only solution, his meritocracy, to finally cut out the corruption and the vileness-

Or was it? Again, Yamato believed there was only one solution to the problem, without giving thought to other compromises. He could not lead a meritocratic society, even if they were back in their own world - aside from being dead, he had lost, and him championing the world would be a direct violation of its very core principles...

Had he been too single-minded? Is that what Kaito had meant when he called him weak, then?

"...you have given me much to think about."

"Really?"

--Er, wait maybe he shouldn't be sounding so surprised, ahaha...! That was certainly one way to break the tension though. Cue awkward chuckle.

"Uh, I mean, cool! Glad I could help...?

Autumn Festival (OPEN)

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