ardent: (A mob jumps to their feet)
Kiyotaka Ishimaru (石丸 清多夏) ([personal profile] ardent) wrote2014-03-04 05:27 pm

012. Video/Action for Goldenrod City

[VIDEO]

[Ishimaru is outside again today, seeming to be taking advantage of the nice weather while it holds; at least he's looking at the camera today, and his gaze is shifting...a little less, maybe. He still seems a bit tired but at least he's calm; the view behind him is, once again, that square in Goldenrod near the Center.]

The place I came from put a lot of emphasis on punishment...both for what we did, and what we didn't do. Failure to act in a certain way, to do as we were told, was punished; failure to not act in the way that we were expected to was likewise punished. Rules and laws and "justice" were used to control us, not to guide or help us; instead of keeping us safe, they were used to tear us down.

No matter what we did, we were going to be wrong.

[His voice remains firm but calm through all that; he's not shouting, but he doesn't seem about to cry, either. Just...working through it, really.]

When situations are hard like that, and seem unwinnable, it's easy to forget what justice is intended for. It's meant to protect people, and most importantly, it's meant to give people hope - for themselves, and for the future!

So even if...even if you haven't always done what's right, even if you've made mistakes or taken punishment - if you choose to do right afterwards, the wrong you've done doesn't have to define you!

I think there comes a time when you deserve to be considered good again!

[...yep, there's the shouting.]

It's not going to be easy - it's something I'm still working on, too. But if we're willing to work hard and not lose hope, I think we'll all be all right, in the end! We just have to do our best.

I hope today is both good and productive for you, and if not, I know that tomorrow will be better!


[ACTION]

[Returning to Goldenrod City has been...strange.

It's not strange in the way that coming to a new place tends to be strange, or perhaps returning to an old place that's changed drastically in your absence; there's no lack of familiarity, and if anything the strangeness is caused by just the opposite - there's a weird sense of returning home to it, and Ishimaru isn't entirely sure what to do with that. He hasn't felt that way since before Hope's Peak; it's weird to experience it now, but it's not altogether unwelcome.

...granted, it's not something he has long to dwell on; he finishes the video and takes a while to just...collect himself, but eventually he heads back to the house. And as soon as he manages to get the front door opened there's a sudden sharp skittering of nails against the floor and the vibrations of twenty-odd Eevees hup-hup-hupping their way down the stairs, and he flinches a little and braces for the moment where the swarm hits -

And then there's a thud, and there is quite simply nothing.

...

... ... ...

Huh.

It takes him a moment to open his eyes, given that they'd slid closed while he was in the middle of preparing for impact; apparently the thud was the fuzzball legion all sitting in unison, and now they're just kind of parked on the floor and headtilting like confused pugs because grandpa's home and we sat and why is he just standing there.

He's clearly going to be spending some time playing with the fuzzballs today, because oh my god they did so well. c: ]
beholdmydemons: (... - shut up navarre)

[video]

[personal profile] beholdmydemons 2014-03-06 02:00 am (UTC)(link)
That...uh. Well, that you have to say, "you deserve to be considered good"...who decides what's deserved? I hear the word and think, if I'd done something "wrong" and put that much stake in thinking I deserved...to not be punished after a while? It'd only make me fear that I didn't have the right of it after all. Deserving is something other people choose for you. I can't see it as anything but a torment, really.

[...Honestly it's probably a heaping serving of religious anxiety that's sitting behind this kind of attitude but there you have it.]

But that you can say it so firmly must mean it has some power, regardless of what I believe. So don't take it too much to heart.
beholdmydemons: (talk - hoy brother)

[video]

[personal profile] beholdmydemons 2014-03-08 04:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmmm. [His first reaction to that is a feeling best summed up as "haha, bullshit". It takes a massive effort to not just out and say something along those lines, but there's a definite note of it in his voice and he frowns a little.]

It's the other way around, you know. Not that decent people act like that, but that that's what you choose to call decent. I don't mean to say I disagree with you, but nobody can truly say with authority who deserves what - you have every man condemning one thing and praising another. So rather than "you deserve to be considered good", I'd say...[He fumbles a little here, thinking.] ..."You're still as human as any other."
beholdmydemons: (unhappy - wry grin)

[video]

[personal profile] beholdmydemons 2014-03-08 07:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[He starts off kind of nodding along, then...gradually...stops. There's a point somewhere in there about murder, but...no, actually, people don't universally agree that taking things is unfair. By the end he's shaking his head a little instead.]

One would hope they're not, but - [He shakes his head again.] That's...not how it is at all. There's nothing holding people to that. What you're talking about is human nature, but that can be twisted by - well, by the kinds who'd tell you what you don't "deserve". I'm not simply playing on conjecture...
beholdmydemons: (... - shut up navarre)

[video]

[personal profile] beholdmydemons 2014-03-08 07:38 pm (UTC)(link)
[Yeah, they've had this conv-

...termin-]
-what?
beholdmydemons: (unhappy - the fuck is that)

[video]

[personal profile] beholdmydemons 2014-03-08 07:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Wh...I, uh...what do you mean by that...?

[Record scratch, etc. He's missing something here.]
beholdmydemons: (unhappy - wry grin)

[video]

[personal profile] beholdmydemons 2014-03-08 08:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Well - [He stalls out for a moment, seeming baffled.] Human nature isn't always good, though - I mean, I believe nothing puts it in the wrong, but...

[...He is so confused. With his own train of thought, and with Ishimaru suddenly not getting at what he thought he was getting at.

Walter stares for a few seconds more, expression slowly changing gears to something cautious and curious.]


...What...do you believe good is?

[well that escalated quickly]