WEEK 6.

[trustfellows]

WEEK 6 You've lost a lot of people this week, haven't you? Katniss Everdeen and Weiss Schnee were killed for rule violations, while Chie Hori and Frank Archer were murdered by Mikoto Suoh and Yuuki Terumi. It doesn't really matter how they died, though, does it? After all, they're dead now and the only thing you can do is keep moving forward. It seems like there's no end in sight. Saturday is given to regrouping and sleep; come Sunday morning, the clock chimes the hour at seven o'clock and there are no dead bodies to be found, so it can be assumed that all of you are safe for the time being. That said, you'll be feeling a little groggy when you wake up; it seems you've regained something that you didn't realize you'd lost... Changes were promised to you this week; while Sunday dawns seeming no different from the previous weeks, it seems one change is going to remain a constant - namely, a new floor has been opened up to you. Whether this is a promising sign or not is something that you're going to need to decide for yourself. The important thing, for now, is that you continue to do well. PARTICIPANTS REMAINING: 19

SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY
[OOC: Welcome to week six of Trustfell! Feel free to make as many top levels as you'd like and tag out to other characters! This post is for all of your interactions this week... at least until the weekend. Don't forget to save those threads for coins and the activity check!

If you'd like to get in contact with the Coordinators, you can do so through private meetings with Alena Hilda!]

Comments

[heritrix]

It's complicated. The short answer is I was raised as an only child.

[sleepytimegal]

Raised as...? That's...a bit of a loaded answer itself, Rin.

[heritrix]

I said it was complicated, didn't I? I grew up without siblings, but it wasn't always like that. [...] The truth is I have a younger sister.

[sleepytimegal]

...It sounds like you guys were separated.

[heritrix]

Mm. [She touches her left arm.] To a mage family, passing on their knowledge and spells means everything, but passing it down is a difficult process. There can only be one heir. It's customary to have only one child for this reason, or to raise any other children with little to no knowledge of magic's existence.

[Rin smiles, a little sadly.] In a freak stroke of luck, however, both my sister and I were born with above average potential.

[sleepytimegal]

[ ...Oh, jeez. ] So...what happened? What did your family do, they couldn't just...

[ But Rin's already said they were raised separately. ]

[heritrix]

As it happened, there was a family who was once a close ally of ours, whose bloodline had withered. They had no viable heir to continue their legacy, and mine had one extra.

I'm not sure how father made his decision, but in the end he chose me as his heir. Sakura was adopted by the Matou family.

[sleepytimegal]

But... [ She frowns. The whole thing sounds awful, honestly. ] Do you ever see her? Do they live close?

[heritrix]

[Rin shakes her head.] No. No contact was a condition of the agreement, besides what's necessary. She's my underclassman in high school, so some interaction is unavoidable.

[sleepytimegal]

...That's awful. Why weren't you even allowed to talk to her? She's...your sister.

[heritrix]

[Reaching for a cup of tea, Rin cradles it before sipping to respond to Alex, and likely showing that symbol she drew on her hand with the motion.]

The magecraft a family practices is their life; the product of generations and generations of hard work. A mage will gladly kill anyone from outside their family to steal another's secrets. Just because we were siblings doesn't mean we can get buddy-buddy. I could try to weasel her family's techniques out of her, or she might try the same.

[sleepytimegal]

But she's still your family. Just because she's in another house, she's still...your sister!

[ ... ]

I don't...think I like the rules of the mage association, Rin.

[heritrix]

You shouldn't. We're pretty terrible people.

[sleepytimegal]

...I never said you were terrible. Nor did I think it.

[heritrix]

[...Rin leans back in her seat, glancing back at the wall of secrets in front of them.]

Do you remember the conversation we had, about the girl in your secret? [...] I tried to comfort you by saying that I bet you saved her more times than you gave her up.

[sleepytimegal]

I- yeah, I do. [ Okay, this is a weird divergence. ] I don't see what that has to do with...?

1/2

[heritrix]

What you did, and how you felt... You said you couldn't write it off. That it was part of you.

[Rin's eyes shift to her own secret now, then Kirei's. Her gaze is fixed, and intense.] I learned something about Sakura last week, from Kirei. It's complicated, but apparently she wasn't as invaluable to her family as we thought she'd be. Something terrible was done to her, and in the version of events Kirei recalled, she'd become the vessel of a devastating power, and corrupted at that.

Her grandfather lost control over her. She'd killed hundreds of people, and Kirei seemed to think she was reaching a point she could devour the entire city itself.

[heritrix]

[Silence hangs in the air, and Rin takes another drink of tea. Runs her finger over the lip of the cup.]

I didn't have to ask him how the other me had responded. I knew exactly what Rin Tohsaka would do. If Sakura is that far gone, of course she'd kill her.

...Nothing like that has become of my sister, so far as I know. [And she doesn't think... No, that doesn't matter to this. She's trying to be easy on herself.] But you of all people should get it, right? I wasn't even shocked by what that other me would do.

That's a part of me, too.

[sleepytimegal]

...

[ Alex sits there silently, clearly thinking. Just thinking. That... Yeah, that's-- ]

I do get that. But...I still can't think you're horrible for it. I- I've seen other sides to you, and...if I've got good in me, then you've got just the same kind in you...don't you?

[heritrix]

...More than I should, arguably. I'd have an easier time of things if I were a crueler person.

[Rin's jaw tenses. If she were just a little crueler, Archer wouldn't have betrayed her, twice over. She'd have been able to act on that incentive three weeks ago, and Fuyuki would be safe.

If she were colder, it wouldn't bother her at all when so many people screamed at Hilda last night for murdering her younger sister. Or the week before that, when Kirei told her what he did about Sakura, and Rin realized she might need to choose to do the same.

And yet...]

If you asked me weeks and weeks ago, I'd balk for that reason. But I'm starting to think maybe I'm better off the way I am.

[sleepytimegal]

[ Easier, but would she be happier? Alex holds her tongue on that; Rin's got a lot to say here, and what she's wanted most is for them to talk, to help her if she needed to. ]

What made you change your mind?

[heritrix]

I don't like the way it makes me feel.

[So Alex was on the money, actually. Rin smiles, and her heart hurts.]

I love being a mage, and I admire elegant, pragmatic people. Emulating those traits to become an excellent mage is all I've ever wanted for myself.

But some things I've seen in my memories... [She seems to linger on this thought, then starts over.] What someone I knows has been through... It made me realize committing to that lifestyle, and even achieving everything I want might not make me happy.

Hilda probably feels that way too, sometimes. Or maybe that's me projecting my own thoughts.

[That would be the other thing that made Rin change her mind. It, and everyone else's reactions, screaming at Hilda for what she'd done.

Before this there was steady progress, people chipping away at Rin's barriers little by little. In combo with her memories, it started a series of little changes. Wanting to live up to that, but not knowing how. Emphasizing with Alex, who reminds her for someone, and Elda's strange wisdom. Learning from Tarrlok's mistakes.

But that. Every knife-like cry—that was your sister?—had hurt Rin as deeply as if she was the target of those words, and not Hilda.]

[sleepytimegal]

[ ...Alex reaches over and puts a hand on Rin's arm. ]

It's...normal, you know. Projecting. I... It was different, but-- [ Her own shock and horror, drawn from the memory of it, the... How could anyone choose that? That pain? She can't understand it. ...Maybe, from Rin... ] ...I'm sorry that this is something you feel like, you uh...have to choose, Rin.

[heritrix]

[Rin blinks at Alex's hand on her arm, then smiles up at her.]

It's okay. You make it easier.

[sleepytimegal]

[ Ah... my rin/alex feelings, back at it again ]

...Whatever I can do to help.