02 - I hate kissmass

[heavenlymisandrist]

Your Admiral subjects his prisoners to indignities like this mistletoe, and you claim it is in the name of redemption.

[ Ceres' voice is bitter, if not furious. She didn't promise she wouldn't lecture. As it turns out she can't just send Aya home and be done with it. And as Aya is slow to point out, Ceres does owe her for finding the Mana, even if they didn't quite make it to retrieval. ]

Must I truly lower myself to such baseness to leave this place?

[ Aya did say she should socialize more. This is probably not what she had in mind. ]

Comments

[deadly_ned]

Someone's not forcing you to kiss them, are they?

I don't think mistletoe is meant to be a tool of redemption.

[heavenlymisandrist]

If they had they would be dead.

[ She may not have powers but she's got a mean grip... ]

It is a component of this place.

[deadly_ned]

It could just be that he's in a festive mood. I don't think everything here is intrinsically designed to make inmates graduate.

Hi. My name is Ned.

[heavenlymisandrist]

Do you find the situation amusing, Ned?

[ Y u no see her point of view??? ]

[deadly_ned]

I find it less worrying than the actual current things to worry about. Wondering about surprise kisses as directed by a plant are sort of small sugar compared to what we usually face.

Not to make light of a dire situation. I'm not.

I'm only offering one man's perspective in the hopes of shedding light.

[heavenlymisandrist]

You are a man. I'm sure being forced into such a position against your will seems trivial in your perspective.

[deadly_ned]

I'm not sure anyone would find being forced anywhere to be a trivial thing. Regardless of. Gender.


But the mistletoe isn't hurting anyone. Except for dogs. I think I remember reading that it was poisonous to dogs, which is another good reason to have it hung high.

[heavenlymisandrist]

Would you know if it was? Had you even considered the possibility? Or were you too concerned about the local dogs to think of anything else?

[deadly_ned]

As an owner of a local dog, I'm very concerned about his susceptibility to mistletoe. He's had a few close calls and I don't think I can bring him back from the dead.

Again.

The point is I don't think the mistletoe is hurting anyone.

[heavenlymisandrist]

And so great is your conviction that it becomes fact.

[deadly_ned]

No one's getting hurt by it. I'd say that's a pretty safe bet to make.

[Voice]

[mercurialize]

... They're just leaves.

[Voice]

[heavenlymisandrist]

They have the power to force those near them together against their will.

[Voice]

[mercurialize]

Together how, exactly?

[Voice]

[heavenlymisandrist]

Physically. Most notably, they are made to kiss. If there is more to it than that I have not observed it.

[mercurialize]

[Compulsion spells. He hates compulsion spells.]

Duly noted. So why isn't anyone getting rid of these things?

[heavenlymisandrist]

Because they are content to be complicit in the evils of this place.

[mercurialize]

And you can't get rid of them yourself?

[heavenlymisandrist]

Only so many can be removed before they begin to replace themselves.

[mercurialize]

They? Who's they?

[heavenlymisandrist]

The mistletoe.

I have not seen anyone fixing them in place.

[darknessb4me]

You could escape. Or die.

[heavenlymisandrist]

[ She eyes him cooly before gracing him with a response. ]

Are you truly so bored here that you have nothing better to do than waste the time of others?

[darknessb4me]

Not even going to try? Sometimes they break early, I suppose.

[heavenlymisandrist]

I am not a fool.

[ She is well aware that death is not permanent, and if escape were so easy he wouldn't be here. ]