rionaleonhart | His Hair, However, Remains Terrible.

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/501278.html

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His Hair, However, Remains Terrible.

Rei: I got an email from Netflix today about a new show. 'When everyone else mysteriously vanishes from their wealthy town, the teen residents of West Ham must forge their own society to survive.' Sounds like it might be your jam.
Riona: I was about to say 'if it's not High School Musical: The Musical, I'm not interested,' but actually that does potentially sound my jam.

I've now watched the first series of The Society! The concept's interesting: a bunch of teenagers are stranded in an empty town. Instead of going full-on Lord of the Flies, they try to construct a functional society and then have to try to prevent it from falling apart (how do you decide who makes the decisions? how do you make sure you don't run out of food? how do you deal with crime?). I'm not especially invested in any of the characters, though, so I doubt I'll be writing fanfiction (although I've said 'I'm not going to write fanfiction' about many things in the past and I've almost invariably been wrong).

Out of curiosity, I checked AO3 a few episodes in, to see which characters and pairings were popular, and I was surprised to see that the most-written character was Grizz, the guy with terrible hair who up to that point had contributed nothing but pretentious quoting. He does have some better moments in the latest episodes, though.

There was one character dynamic that caught my interest at points:

(Campbell talks Elle, with whom he's not at the time in a relationship, into masturbating next to him, and she insists he do the same.)
Riona: Oh, hey, I'm into this.
(Campbell turns out to be generically abusive and controlling.)
Riona: Okay, I'm no longer interested in this relationship.
(Elle tries to murder Campbell, accidentally almost killing multiple other people in the process, and he is simultaneously afraid and INTO IT and becomes convinced they're the only people who can understand each other and calls her 'my little poisoner'.)
Riona: ...okay, yes, this has returned to being up my street.

Sadly, it was not especially up Elle's street. I was really hoping they'd end up in a twisted but equal relationship based on mutual fear and fascination and willingness to achieve their goals by murdering the hell out of people.

I haven't done a meme here in a very long time, but for some reason I feel like digging this one up.

Ask any fictional character you think I might be able to manage a question, and I'll reply in-character as them with an answer (or possibly reply as myself going 'WHAT THE HELL, I CAN'T DO THIS'). Feel free to ask either as yourself or as another character.

You may, if you wish, ask multiple questions (and/or multiple characters) or attempt to engage the characters in extended conversation.

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I've now watched the first series of The Society! The concept's interesting: a bunch of teenagers are stranded in an empty town. Instead of going full-on Lord of the Flies, they try to construct a functional society and then have to try to prevent it from falling apart (how do you decide who makes the decisions? how do you make sure you don't run out of food? how do you deal with crime?).

Good premise! I feel like "They try, they generally make an effort to be decent, and it all falls apart in complicated ways" makes more sense than "We will try to imitate Lord of the Flies without understanding it." (A big part of Lord of the Flies was boy's boarding school culture at the time and what values the boys were being taught.)

(Campbell talks Elle, with whom he's not at the time in a relationship, into masturbating next to him, and she insists he do the same.)
Riona: Oh, hey, I'm into this.
(Campbell turns out to be generically abusive and controlling.)
Riona: Okay, I'm no longer interested in this relationship.
(Elle tries to murder Campbell, accidentally almost killing multiple other people in the process, and he is simultaneously afraid and INTO IT and becomes convinced they're the only people who can understand each other and calls her 'my little poisoner'.)
Riona: ...okay, yes, this has returned to being up my street.

That does sound like your kind of thing.

It's definitely an intriguing premise! It's also brought up some issues about this sort of fictional situation that hadn't occurred to me before. The show had a brief aside about it being difficult to get hold of tampons because people were hoarding them, and suddenly it's really bothering me that The 100 never addressed that. What are these stranded, supplyless teenagers doing when they get their periods?

You can make reusable pads, but that's for people who know how to do that and have gathered the necessary materials and generally have some kind of plan.

JD, what is your least favorite thing about Turk?

Squall Leonhart, tell me three things about yourself.

Sharpey Highschoolmusical, if you were locked in a Dangan Ronpa situation, what would you do? (No on else will know your answer.)

What, Turk? I can't answer that! The guy's great! Hold on, I've just gotta eat something and then I'll tell you all about how—

Wait, where are the Lucky Charms?

Okay, no, that jerk finished my cereal. He's the worst and I hate him.

...why?

I'm a gunblade specialist. I'm a student at Balamb Garden.

That's all I really have to say. I don't know what you want to know.

Gathering information.

Tell me about Balamb Garden.

...

(Shouldn't have said anything.)

Mostly confidential. There are brochures online if you want to know the basics.

(I guess I should report this.)

*takes notes*

Are you acquainted with a Rinoa Heartily?

How accurate are you with the gunblade?

(They know Rinoa? Who is this? Did she tell them to mess with me? Is she in danger?)

Rinoa Heartilly? Doesn't sound familiar. Why are you asking?

Oh good. I'm looking for someone with a very specific set of skills, and if you're as good with the gunblade as I've heard, you may be what I need.

...

(Stay calm.)

If you have a job for Garden mercenaries, you can give me the details and I can pass them directly on to the headmaster.

So you want to take this through official channels?

*frowns*

*makes notes*

I think we're done here, young man.

(Is there any reason she'd be targeted specifically? Someone who wants to suppress the Timber resistance? They asked if I knew her. Do they know that I know her? Why would they approach me specifically if they did? Or maybe they just know that she commissioned Garden, and they don't know which specific SeeDs helped her?)

(Maybe I'm worrying over nothing. It could be something else.)

...

(It could be something else.)

We can talk privately if you'd like.

Pleased to hear that, young man.

First, would you be willing to confirm your skills with the gun blade? Target-shooting, over long distances?

The gunblade is a close-range weapon, sir. The trigger vibrates the blade after impact for more damage. I'm acquainted with a sharpshooter.

(Who has a history of choking on missions that are too personal.)

(...they probably don't need to know that.)

Thank you, young man. Is your acquaintance discreet? I would like to speak to them, if so. I don't believe this is a close-range mission.

I can introduce you. Hold on a moment. He should be nearby.

Hey, Irvine? There's someone I need you to talk to. They're trying to enlist a sharpshooter for a private job.

...don't say 'yes' so easily. I just think we need to know what it is.

No. It's just a feeling.

...are they what?

I don't think whether they're hot is really relevant right now.

Hey! Heard you need someone who can handle a rifle. I'm your guy.

Excellent. If I were to, let us say, have irritating nocturnal birds eliminated, you would be the man for the job?

You bet. Gun's in my hand; just point me in the right direction.

Are you familiar with Rinoa Heartily?

What? Yeah. She's not a mercenary, though, right?

...

...Irvine.

What? What're you looking at me like that for, man?

She isn't. Can you tell me how you know her?

(Uh, Mr Leader's looking daggers at me. Maybe I'm supposed to be careful here.)

Uh, I don't really remember. Some people I did a job with had worked with her before, I think.

Any particular opinion about her?

Any opinion about the Forest Owls?

Don't know that much about the situation in Timber. The guys who went to help out there were from Balamb; I'm Galbadia Garden. Which, you know, is closer, but I guess the resistance weren't big on getting help from us when the Galbadian army's the one occupying.

I do know Rinoa is smokin'.

...what???

Thank you. I may contact you for future jobs. I believe you're not what I'm looking for at the moment.

Huh, that was weird.

Irvine.

What? You were giving me the dirtiest looks.

They asked me about Rinoa as well.

What'd you say? Yeah, maybe you didn't say she was hot, but I know you know it's true.

Do you think it's possible that their target is Rinoa?

What? Shit. No, why would anyone want to take her out?

They were asking about the Timber resistance, right?

...shit. What do we do? You want me to... (mimes gun firing)

We don't know if they're after Rinoa. We don't know if this person's just here on behalf of someone else. Killing them might not change anything.

So what? What do we do?? Fuck!

We need more information. One of us needs to follow them. The other one needs to gets Rinoa somewhere safe.

You should be the one with Rinoa, man. She's closer to you. Never kicked you down any flights of stairs.

So you'd be tracking them?

Yeah. What, you don't think I can do it?

The cowboy outfit is a little... conspicuous.

What about you? You're wearing fifty belts and head-to-toe black leather. You look like you just stumbled out of someone's sex dungeon.

...I'll follow them. You find Rinoa. Get the others together.

(Okay, I've run out of ideas, but this has been really fun!)

(It does seem like a natural stopping point! I've enjoyed it a lot more than Squall has.)

Uh, locked in a what?

O... kaaaaay. Well, that sounds like it sucks. I call my parents to come get me.

But we get our own bedrooms? First thing I do: decorate my bedroom.

I'm pretty sure your parents aren't allowed to come get you.

Excuse me, the Evans family is very wealthy and well-established and there's no way some stupid bear is going to tell us what we can or can't do.

I'm really curious to know whether you originally asked Squall this question with the goal of steadily plunging him further into uncertainty and alarm.

No, I was all, "I know nothing about the character", but his reaction was interesting, so I started googling things.

High School Musical: The Musical sounds amazing. Very rtmi!

[Mark Corrigan voice] Jeremy, why is there a live chicken in my bed?!

Oh, I see. I try to do something nice for this house, I make the effort to get in all the ingredients for a lovely chicken dinner, and suddenly you're complaining.

I don't have any money, Mark. I found this garden, and it didn't have nicely packaged chicken breasts running around. That's not how it works, Mark. It just had chickens.

[Perfect <3]

A few questions; feel free to take or leave whichever you like—

Joshua, I know the entry fees in general were your invention, but do you always pick them for poetic irony value like with Shiki's and Beat's? Or was Shades just pretentious like that?

Keiichi, if you could choose one other person to remember what's been happening and stay sane alongside you for the month of June, who would you choose?

Squall, I haven't actually played your game but I need to know: how many "tfw no GF" jokes do you hear on a daily basis in Balamb Garden?

~~Komaeda, I keep hearing rumors about something between you and one Sans Undertale. Is any of it true?~~

The entry fees in the first week, before Kitaniji started becoming desperate, were fairly representative. But poetic irony? A little pretentious-sounding, I'd say, and of course I'd never dream of being anything other than straightforward. I prefer to think of it as 'amusement'.

Someone else remembering? That'd probably help a lot. I guess...

...well, not Satoko. She doesn't need to remember any of the crap her uncle did.

If I said Mion or Rena, I'd be forcing them to remember what I did to them just so I could feel less alone. I don't think I could...

Uh. This is harder than I'd thought. Maybe my parents, so I could actually talk to an adult about this? But then they'd know what I'm capable of.

Maybe the answer is choosing someone I'm not too close with already? Maybe... Shion? I'd feel bad about making her remember what her sister did to her, but... okay, this is gonna sound horrible, but I could handle doing that to her better than doing it to one of my close friends.

I've seen that a couple of times on the Garden forums. I... don't really know what 'tfw' means. I know 'GF' means 'Guardian Force', obviously.

Sumo: Who's a good boy?

(Is it me???)

I loved 'The Society'. The moral dilemmas were believable and quite gut wrenching - and I can't judge them, because what would I have done in that situation?

There's also something of 'Lost' about it.

I didn't get deeply invested in any of the characters - except perhaps Sam and Becca.

I was definitely thinking 'what would I do in this situation?' at points, particularly regarding the question of what to do with the murderer. I'm thoroughly opposed to the death penalty, but what options do they have? Everything will fall apart very quickly if people know that it's possible to murder without penalty, and that there's already a murderer walking amongst them. Do you lock him up? How? Where? My eventual conclusion was 'cut off a finger', but that in itself is pretty horrific.

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His Hair, However, Remains Terrible.

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JD

Squall

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Irvine

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Sharpay

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Jeremy

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