tunein | 04 ❥

[Whatever was going on in her head, she kept it under wraps, under many layers. She's not giving any of it away in her words, her tone. This speech was giving them more of a demonstration than any vocal exercise. Talking made it easier to fall into habit. Yes, I am okay. There's nothing wrong, see?

You have to be strong for everyone else when you're a pillar of support.

She nodded, grateful for Souji's interjection.] Yes. That was the reason I was invited along, to voice coach. [She tries a smile. It sticks, but doesn't meet her eyes. Yes, talking makes it easier.] My acting skill isn't... well, it's non-existant. I will do my best where I can, however.

[There's a rippled murmur along the opposing side of the circle and even though it remains a murmur, the distinct then what are you doing here? comment can be made out and an awkward silence follows until the club leader clears her throat and hands Lucina a sheet for vocal exercises, before telling them to split off into pairs and practice.

Nobody comes to Lucina.

Of course. She expected that.

At least two of the girls who don't seem daunted by her lack of being able to put on a show say they'll ask her for coaching later, but they already agreed to go with each other before you came in, tough break.

Yeah. This is beginning to feel like a waste of time. She ducks her head, letting out a long and restrained sigh, her hands held firm at her sides. Frustration. She keeps it tempered, looks around for Souji instead. Is he partnerless, or should she sit this one out...]

[Oh, if only he could believe that without feeling bad.

And if he could be any more aggravated than he was at his homeroom teacher, he certainly didn't seem to show it -- save with a stare at the two girls who'd partnered up with each other, though he doesn't quite catch the remark. They were a lot less uptight with Yumi around than they were without her. When did they get this way? All of a sudden, he sorely missed the discipline she put down.

Whatever -- if they weren't going to put up with her, then he will.

Souji glances to her; he hadn't moved from his spot at all.] Nevermind them. They're still pretty upset over last year.

[She doesn't have to look far, thankfully. She moves the extra steps over to him and tries to push out everything else as she goes. It doesn't really work.]

Mm. I know, it's... it's not vindictive. It's...

[She can't think of another way to put it. Now she's said it wasn't vindictive, she's stuck on thinking that maybe, maybe it is.

The last part however is something to grasp at.]

Should I ask?

[He scratches his head as soon as she questions him about it. Well, it wasn't like it had been a closely guarded secret or anything. Virtually everyone in the basketball club poked fun at Kou over that whole mess.]

Someone ruined Shakespeare during the festival last October. The leader...didn't take it well.

[That was putting it lightly...and for the sake of the poor friend that did it, he doesn't mention said player's name at all.]

Edited (Because I like introspect) 2013-10-02 09:49 (UTC)

[That would be the culture festival, then. She's heard its in October, at least. But it does explain a few things about why the club is acting the way it is. She doesn't judge the individual responsible, though, even if she doesn't know who it is.] And they don't want something similar to happen again.

Mm. [He wasn't entirely sure why they thought it was a good idea, but then, he wasn't always the progenitor of good ones himself.] There isn't much to worry about though. You're willing to learn, right?

Right. [She nods once.] If anyone is willing to help me with that.

[He gets up, and brings out the script he'd annotated over the past week. If that didn't say wonders about what he wanted to do, this probably would.] Of course I'll help.

[Besides, he had quite a bit to repay her for. He'd be terrible if he stopped now.]

Edited (It just didn't flow right to me before. 8|a) 2013-10-02 19:10 (UTC)

[Lucina's first instinct is to be surprised... but it never makes it onto her face. No. She's not that surprised at all. He's already proved to be someone she can count on.

She's terrible at asking for help. Always has been. The fact he offers, regardless... it's a good thing for her to hear.]

Thank you.

[Utterly geniune. It sounds like it's for a great deal more, as well. She glances to the script.]

Where should we start?

[Some of them were already giving him odd looks while he kept his attention on her. Their thoughts probably ran along the lines of 'was he nuts? It's not worth it!' or 'It'll never work out', even 'You can't make something out of nothing'. Not that he really cared to notice -- especially when she said herself she wanted to learn.

They'll make it work, no matter how long they have to, or how much effort they have to put in.

Souji holds the script out to her. What was written seemed to be the draft of a book he'd come across once before he first left town. He normally wouldn't have an interest in these, but something about it caught his eye; that it was an old legend. Rather, one rewritten for the modern eye, with its actual content intact. One in which a great warrior led an entire army against impossible odds and saved the world from destruction. Perhaps it was idealistic, and it'd take more hands than they actually had -- but it seemed like a good idea for when he came back later on, especially if he took only the relevant parts. It would shrink the number of people they needed considerably.

He hated having to actually condense it, though. There were so many pages to go through for the scenes he wanted to re-enact...] We can't really start if you don't know the script.

[There was quite a bit in the annotations themselves, too. The emotions he had to draw out, the actions they had to perform, among other things...]

[Lucina's attention has long since left the other drama club members, attempting to block out the comments she was sure they were probably passing to each other. Instead, she focuses on the script, taking it easily with one hand and holding it up to quickly read and skim the first few paragraphs.

At first it seems fairly standard, idealist to be sure, something of a legend, perhaps, what with the mention of a prince and a princess and a dragon within the first few lines.

She was just reading through some of the emotions to be conveyed by the prince as he inspired his fledgeling army to follow him as he started his campaign, when she noticed the name.

Marth.

She stopped, and looked up at Souji. Surely not. Surely he didn't know. He wasn't the type to poke fun at her like this, was her? She didn't think so. But it was one hell of a coincidence, if-

She looked for the princesses' name. Caeda.

Now she was certain fate was toying with her, nevermind if Souji knew. It was unlikely - it wasn't public knowledge. Perhaps this was romanticised highly, handed down until the truth was no longer discernable, but Lucina knew of the two people on which it was based.]

... it's alright. I think I'll be able to work with this one. I already know this story.

[They were her ancestors. The start of her royal house. Of course she knew.]

[If there was anything that could have told her that he didn't know a thing about her heritage, just the rumors that cropped up, it was the blink of confusion when she looked to him. Had he done something wrong? Had he brought up some bad memories just by showing her what he'd written for the Drama Club's last ditch effort to redeem themselves at the next culture festival? He didn't know for certain.

When she mentions that she knows it already, though...he shuts his eyes for a moment to think. It made things easier, that she had a clue of what the play entailed, but...there was a part of him that felt uncertain. Like something was amiss...that there was much to uncover about his friend -- more than he could have ever expected.

Or maybe she picked up the book herself recently, too...but that would've been just plain coincidence.

He could put that away for a while, either way -- it'd be distracting from what they were supposed to be doing.]

That's good. [A beat. The most important part was the role, so...] Is there anyone in particular you have in mind?

[Like many other things that have happened today, Lucina's prior emotions have been buried, forced aside to the matter at hand. It's easier to function like this, right now.

Rather than think of the negatives which is what her mind is stumbling over if she allows it. It's a good thing Souji continues, because it certainly helps with that inner mantra.]

Marth. Or Caeda. [That at least is... something absolute. She has to align herself with them. She feels it, deep down.]

[He blinks again. Awful forward of her to pick the role that seemed more suitable for him...but then, were it up to the leader he's liable to get stuck with the cross-dressing role. As that same festival proved, he looked like he could fit into anything given a little effort. They didn't have much else to lose at that point anyway; they already lost 9/10ths of their dignity, if not all of it; desperate would be one way to put them.

So he shrugs and goes with it. She did seem to have the resemblance down...]

Marth it is, then. [He'll explain if she asks about why he let her take the role, but there's the matter of the acting itself, which he pauses to consider how to explain best. Being a drama member for most of your stay didn't exactly make it any easier to tell how acting worked, given how it was all feeling and whatnot.]

[Conversely, Lucina wasn't expecting to get it. She simply had to stand for one of them. So it's surprising when he offers her the one that he really should be taking for himself.

As such, she doesn't ask why, though her face does.] Alright, then. Thank you. [She casts another glance down at the script as he ponders what next to say. It's probably fortunate that from the looks of things Marth has grandiouse speeches and fight scenes. She can do those well enough. The inbetween bits, they can work on.]

Don't mention it. [He catches that look, but decides on answering the silent query that showed later. It'll probably become apparent anyway, given how on edge the leader was...

The emotional sort of people, strangely enough, were more his type. Rather ironic considering he hides the bulk of what he's feeling behind that straight face... Caeda seemed like one such person that lined up with it, too, so it was probably better if Lucina didn't get caught up in trying to do more than was necessary. They didn't need to go piling on the stress, and as it was, he'd probably blow a gasket if something happened.

Souji sits down as he tries to sort his thoughts out.] A good part of acting is... trying to feel out what would motivate you to act the same way. Or what would make you feel the way they would.

[At least, as far as the books he'd gotten had all agreed on. That was the most common factor...the motivation; there were plenty of others that said otherwise, but so far, it's worked for him.]

Edited (Botched wording. :|a) 2013-10-04 18:59 (UTC)

Motivation. [She repeats the word slowly, still glancing over the script. She's not ready anymore, as her eyes are still, but it's helping to focus her thoughts.

She'd like to think she knew what Marth's motvations were, or, well, are, if this is in a play, based on a legend based on fact. So she tries to put it into words.]

Why he wants to do what he wants to do... for the kingdom and woman he loved. Loves. [Just putting that back into present tense there.] To bring peace, and change the future. I think I could work with that.

Mm. [It was good that she was on the same page, but...] We have plenty of time to sort this out, in case there's something wrong. [It wasn't like it was going to happen soon, anyway. October was a long way off -- and rehearsals for that act usually don't start until August.

They had the room. They just needed to make the most of it, and iron out any errors that arose...]

Right, of course. [She nods again.] Still, it's a place to start from, isn't it? For the time being. We can figure the rest out as we go along.

Yeah. It shouldn't take too much effort to at least hash things out.

[...It's a while after that, and as they continue putting what they want to do with the play together, that the club leader decides to grab his attention for a sec. He holds up his hand to have a moment to chat with him; there's some aggravated yelling, though Souji remains stone-faced while the other boy vents out his frustration, a bit of talk over how this was going to work. Eventually, the discussion goes to the roles in their last ditch effort for a play.

Suffice to say, amidst that, Lucina would get the reason why Souji picked Caeda over Marth -- one of them, at any rate. It wasn't exactly the way he wanted her to know about the rest of the festival...but the mention of crossdress -- or something along those lines; with how much the club leader went on, it was hard to tell -- does come up somewhere in the middle. And judging by the way one could virtually see the steam come out of his ears, the club leader definitely preferred it to be that way.

Souji himself was no less of a lineface than he was earlier -- shrugging and telling him they'd make this work, in spite of him not feeling comfortable with it. The leader sighed again, asking him to make sure of it, lest they lose the little shred of dignity they had left.

By the way, thanks a lot; now we won't have to waste our thread making another blue wig.

At that off-handed remark, the gray-haired teen watches him go away and sighs before looking back to Lucina.]

...Sorry about that.

Edited 2013-10-06 03:00 (UTC)

[When the club leader comes over, Lucina is rather immersed - reading from a script is something she can do easily. It's just when you add in the acting part that she has a problem. When Souji's called away though, Lucina sits back down on a chair, though it's really not far enough away for her to miss any of that conversation.

Especially when a lot of it is shouted.

Her eyes dart between the two of them as she absorbs the facts. It clears up one or two things, about Souji's decision to take on Caeda, but it doesn't make her raise an eyebrow or look too surprised. Her brother can be quite feminine as well as flamboyant when he wants to be. There's a lot of stigma you have to wade through when you want to dance in an area that's reserved specifically for women. She has no issue with it what-so-ever.

Of course at this point she has no idea he would look quite flattering in it, but that's a side issue.

She tried not to think of herself being the source of yet another argument. Maybe she should have insisted on Caeda, instead of Marth. No one wanted her around. Maybe she shouldn't even be here at all with the amount of problems she seemed to be causing instead of solving. Not just the school. But Inaba.

She tried to ignore that feeling, too.

So instead, she shrinks into the chair and gazes at nothing and waits for them to finish. At least Souji is fighting his corner and not backing down. She's taking it that he's good. She's also taking that since a couple of groups have stopped to listen in and are agreeing with the fact he could pull it off loud enough for her to hear, at least.

Eventually Souji looks back to her. She blinks.] It's alright. [She sounds remote, somewhere far away. And it's not. It's not at all but what can she say?] ... do you want to continue? Or would they mind if I left early?

[It's only fifteen minutes or so until they would usually dismiss but she needs a change of scenery.]

[He cradles his head. And for a change, his flat expression seemed to contort into something more...frustrated -- it wasn't as visible as, say, what she probably saw when Yosuke blew his lid, but it was there. If there was anything he wanted to do at that point, especially with what the club leader yelled at him about, it was go somewhere else. He wanted Drama Club day to be something relaxing. Instead, something had to happen that would leave him on just as sour a note as her.

So much for taking his mind off his stress.] I don't think they'd mind both of us leaving. Not as is.

Right. [There's a soft sigh of relief on her part, but she's already picking up her back and tucking the script under her arm to hand back to him as soon as they get out of the room. They can do that later. Right now she just wants to leave.

She notes his frustration, as much as hers, even if it's slight. Considering she's not seen him like this before, it says to her it's not something that happens very often.

She makes her way out of the door and holds it open for him to follow.]

[Rarely was more like it. Today was just that special blend of frustration that really got to him.

He follows as soon as he's packed away his things and slung his bag over his shoulder again. And as he makes those steps out the door, he spares one more look to her.] ...We could go to the roof. Unless you have something else in mind.

[That she'll figure out, given time.

She thinks about the suggestion. Normally, she might, but the school... she's been here long enough today. What's the bet that something else will come up? There is one place she can think of which rarely gets visitors, usually only intermitent.]

If you wouldn't mind... I would suggest the shrine. I know it's a fair way out of our way, though...

04 ❥

time for a career change, kou

Big time. 8|;

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