003. [Text]

[fatalissimo]

[PRE-POST WHATNOT]

[It's raining outside today, but for once Nonon doesn't seem to mind; she's still in the utter sinkhole that is Violet City, but for the time being, her morale is good. Her money ran out quite some time ago, and she'd been okay with sleeping outside (it was going to take more than that to get her down properly) until that freak snowstorm last week felt the need to hit; seeing as she'd never worked a day in her life (not a proper job, not something that wasn't school and training) the idea of doing that was something almost completely foreign to her, but eventually she'd caved and applied somewhere and gotten hired.

And in the time since, she's discovered the surprisingly unsarcastic utter joy in the equation that is "make muffins = get money."

Sure, she's probably never going to get the flour out of her hair again and half the time she somehow ends up with glaze on her face, but she's found a bakery and they were hiring and she's stronger than she looks, and there's something really satisfying about being able to do things with her hands and see the results, and generally she's doing really well. Singing a bit while she does it, even, and making use of her Ambipom's entirely too many hands to hold trays for her while she works.

Life is actually surprisingly good today.]


[TEXT]

This place is actually pretty mundane, for somewhere that has a bunch of magical fire-spitting animals at their disposal. It took a lot of considering it, but I don't think I can really complain about that, though. It's sort of nice to know that even in a place that has something like that, people aren't using them to burn each other's faces off.

(Usually, anyway, I've heard there are a few whackjobs that do that.)

How many of you are from somewhere like this? Where there's not much going on, I mean, and you can just kind of exist.

And if you're from somewhere that's not like this and there's stuff going on all the time, what's it like for you to be living here now? Is it boring for you, or is it sort of a relief?

Comments

[diamondo]

[.............UM]

what does that have to do with your position on the student council??

[HE'S NOT GOING TO LIKE THE ANSWER, IS HE]

[fatalissimo]

It means I'm high ranking enough to not live in the slums?

[are...are you stupid, or...]

[diamondo]

why
my school didnt do shit like that
normally that shits based on what your parents do

[fatalissimo]

Well, that's not really fair, is it?

[diamondo]

how is that not fair
they worked hard in life to get where they are
or alternatively they didnt do jackshit and didnt get far

[fatalissimo]

Well, yeah, and you're expected to do nothing about it?

What sort of lazy ingrates are you?

[diamondo]

what the hell are you supposed to do about it
most people cant legally get hired if theyre in school
so unless you find a way around that theres no real way of improving your living conditions

[fatalissimo]

And that's pathetic! You're not going to be ready for the real world if you just sit on your ass all day and expect your parents to hand everything for you - what the hell are you supposed to do if there's a crisis or they die or something? You're not going to be prepared to face anything that way!

[diamondo]

i guess you have a point there
but im pretty sure thats not the way most schools are run
or neighborhoods and shit
its kind of hard to wrap my head around actually

[fatalissimo]

[...she is 1000% done, what the hell.]

What do you even do in your schools?

[diamondo]

i was gonna say "learn" but then i realized thats not really true
wait hang on do you go to a private school
that might explain things

[fatalissimo]

[... :|a ]

Sort of? We have some really strict criteria when it comes to who can stay and who ends up getting removed.

[diamondo]

well i guess that might explain things a bit better
i thought you were talking about like a public school
i dont know if theyre as shitty where youre from
but theyre pretty fucking awful

[fatalissimo]

I went to public school for a while when I was a kid. I guess they were pretty bad; I didn't really care, though, because I wanted to go so I could be in the same class as someone important to me.

[diamondo]

yeah? i guess thats as good a reason to go as any
so is this school of yours like something you have to be accepted into
or is it just something you pay a lot of money to go to or what

[But do you have a SHSL title.]

[fatalissimo]

You have to be accepted - we look for students with a lot of potential and we work with them from there. You can't just pay money to get in, that would defeat the purpose of it; you can also get expelled if you aren't good enough to stay. We don't give free rides to slackers.

[diamondo]

that sounds a lot like the school i just got into
except the whole living situation thing
wheres your school located?

[...Well, okay, that first line's not entirely accurate, but he doesn't remember anything about Hope's Peak prior to the killing game, so!]

[fatalissimo]

It's in Japan! Near Tokyo Bay.

Yours?

[diamondo]

its also in japan near tokyo
im guessing your school doesnt exist where im from or i wouldve heard about it

[fatalissimo]

Unless you happen to go to Honnouji Academy, that's probably the case.

[diamondo]

yep never heard of it
im guessing youre not familiar with hopes peak either

[fatalissimo]

"Hope's Peak"? Really? That's cute.

So if it's really like mine, from what you've heard - what's a school like that doing taking in a gang leader, anyway?

[diamondo]

you know i never questioned it back home
but now that im here i question it all the time
hopes peak accepts the best of the best in their respective fields
so youve got people like the super high school level programmer
or the super high school level swimmer
but youve also got shit like
super high school level gambler
and super high school level good luck
(which was drawn from a lottery rather than being chosen)
so they purposefully picked us out because of our abilities
so obviously im the super high school level biker gang leader
and i have no idea why they decided that would be a good idea for their school
but im not even going to question it

[fatalissimo]

"Super High School Level"? Is that supposed to mean you're better than everyone else in your age bracket, or is it implying you're good enough to be admitted to a particularly super high school?

It's stupid as hell either way, but one's stupider than the other.

[diamondo]

its not stupid!

[...care to try that again, Mondo?]

okay yeah it sounds stupid as hell
but it means were the best at what we do in our age bracket
though i guess hopes peak is kind of a super high school
everyone wants to get into it and they say if you make it in your future is practically guaranteed to be great so
theres that i guess