onepassingnight | two | which to bury, us or the hatchet?

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two | which to bury, us or the hatchet?

[ the classroom is utterly silent.

there are twenty polished wood desks of high caliber, each stamped with 'Alabaster Boarding School for Youths' in gold leafing. of the five in the first row, Riku is seated atop the third desk in a school uniform, pressed navy blue blazer and trousers with a sky-blue tie, a white dress shirt underneath (oddly enough, no shoes). the teacher's desk is empty, every desk is empty, and the back half of the classroom is practically shrouded in darkness.

none of that matters to Riku, though. he's just staring ahead to the dry-erase board in front of him, staring at it.

it's covered in red marker, messages ranging from 'you're a fake' and 'stop conning us' to 'please just talk to us again' and 'i miss having you around', although the latter are marginally less frequent than the formers. and in the middle, the only phrase in black, is you're a menace.

there are no erasers or markers anywhere near the board, or on Riku. as the door opens to shed more light, he looks over. ]

Why are you here?

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[She's younger-looking to fit back into high school, but it's unmistakably Ami and that wrongness about her dark eyes still says a lot about who she's become.

She eyes the board before answering. It doesn't take much to see the signs of bullying quite literally written all over it. So she lies, of course. Something about that quiet posture of his makes her lie.]

I came to clean that disgusting filth off. Everyone should do their share of cleaning duty, after all!

[Yes, she's offering to get rid of those messages.]

[ oh great here comes the headache. he frowns a little, noting her eyes, noting her stance, noting everything past and present and future and he looks back ahead at the board.

his shoulders tense as she speaks, then slack, and he lets his head drop. ]

It's not your job. It's mine.

[ but if she's here to clean it off, then she must have an eraser, so he opens his hand and holds it out for her to give him one. ]

[She doesn't want to see him again any more than he wants to see her; not after he threw her away. But the dream world has brought them together again anyway, and whatever type of person she may be, she does not ignore that pain of being made to be alone.

She also isn't prepared to insist. She steps forward, offers that sly little smile, and opens her hand to reveal the eraser.]

Go ahead, then!

[ he takes it gingerly to start wiping off the messages. they all come off.

except for the black one. he stares at it, honestly surprised for a moment--maybe a little broken when he realizes that it's not going away, but it's all sealed up a second afterwards as he gives it to her. ]

[She eyes the black one. Then she asks him, without the sarcasm and baiting and biting this time:]

Is it the truth?

[ he breathes in, he closes his eyes. ]

I don't know.

[She hadn't expected that. She'd expected a yes or no.

But it draws her in even more, despite herself, against her will that tells her to stay uninvolved and aloof; because it's the same. She knows her genuine motives, and she knows her petty and jealous motives. She does not know whether she is that girl still capable of feeling, or the monster she presents herself as.

She tends to suspect it's the latter.

Ami hops up to sit on a desktop, letting her legs drape over the sides.]

Whether you are or not, don't let that [she jerks her head towards the board] decide it for you.

Characterization can be shown in direct and indirect ways. Indirect ways include interaction with others.

The way people react to you influences you, because you react.

[ he slowly turns to her. ]

People think they're the hero all the time when they're really the villain. Why would I be any different?

[She's truly not sure it matters anymore, and shrugs a shoulder. She's seen 'heroes' destroy the universe, and abandon the people they should love - whether the princess forsaking the girl she never needed or the men the prince betrayed to protect the princess in the past. She's seen 'villains' come together to protect a world they didn't want to see ended, and to try, with their stunted and staggering steps, to walk towards a new future.

Besides, those words don't decide, either.]

Those words don't have much meaning anymore. It's your actions that say what you are.

[ he frowns at her, then his eyes flicker down.

unlike the last time they met, he was so guarded, he knew so much, but the last few days--

he isn't sure of anything. his psychic ability is more hampering than helpful. is he really what the papers say? should he just... ]

My actions? Based on what? A job?

[She grins again, never serious for long - it seems - except in her angers. She pulls on the front of her uniform, near her shoulder.]

I'm not just this school's top student.

[ a pause; a sigh, a smirk. ]

Show-off.

[Oh, it's bragging; but it's also more. She hated being seen as only one thing: just study, just fight, it doesn't matter what it is, she is more than just one part of herself.]

So are you just your job?

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