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Ramshackle Dorm - Lounge
| A few days later... |
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I thought the NRC Tribe had been disbanded. The culture fair is over, after all. |
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Non. Vil chose to simply put it on indefinite hiatus. |
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Okay, if that's what you want to call it. Regardless, this was sudden. |
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Yeah! I didn't expect to get an NRC Tribe message calling us out to Ramshackle after class. Is something going on, Vil? |
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Thank you all for coming. Grim couldn't make it, of course... but there's nothing to be done about that at the moment. |
| ...... |
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There are some important matters I wanted to discuss with you all. First, I'll touch on what happened the day of SDC. Allow me to apologize for betraying your trust. |
| Huh...? |
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I realized we would lose, and my solution was to curse my rival. It was the ugliest possible thing I could've done. I am truly sorry. |
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Goodness. I'm not used to Vil apologizing like that. |
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Well, at least your curse didn't succeed, right? |
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Yeah! You didn't harm a single hair on Neige's head. |
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That's only because you, Rook, and the rest of the group stopped me. Yet I still hurt you when I overblotted. That incident could've ended my life... Or any of yours. |
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..... |
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You exhausted your magical reserves fighting me, then had to immediately perform. No matter how determined you were, I highly doubt you were able to give 100 percent. |
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That's not true! I thought it was our best performance ever! |
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I agree. Vil, we crushed it out there! |
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..... Well, "crushed it" is kinda subjective... |
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Are you really going to debate this?!. |
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Okay, yes, we fought for our lives and won, then lucked out big time when Malleus fixed the stage for us. Then we busted our tails and got through the whole performance, start to finish. It was incredible, and I agree we did the best we'd ever done. That said... |
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You mean just because we were happy with it, doesn't mean the audience was. |
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Oh, I see... |
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Ace and Jamil have the right of it. I've been reviewing our show recording with a more critical eye... And it's apparent we weren't performing at even half our usual level. Positioning was sloppy, kicks weren't reaching their full height — even your fingers were all over the place. Which makes sense, given the battle you'd just fought. It was the best you could have done, yes. But you weren't AT your best. It was critical for you to be at your best when you performed, and I failed to make that happen. Our loss at SDC is entirely on me. Some leader I turned out to be. |
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