princess maker - WILD CITY

[idolpro]

[ When you insert the key and open the door, you'll find inside the room looks small, cramped, just one living space without any doors—you can hear noises of the bustling life outside, as well as other people beyond the thin walls. the space bends on the walls, and a basket sits on the table in the center of this studio room with a blanket folded into it.

Inside, a baby stirs restlessly - you hope she goes back to sleep soon, and you play your flute in hopes of lulling her back to sleep. Unfortunately, a sharp knock sounds from the ceiling - the tenants upstairs don't like what you're doing. You take a more drastic measure, singing softly to your baby as you rock the basket back and forth and hope the tenants don't complain again. ]

-

[ Slowly, the scene changes, fading in and out with various silent scenes—the baby cries, and in turn, the upstairs tenants knock at your ceiling again; she finds her way to your flute, tooting happily though no noise comes out; a little toddler, she becomes attached to a stray cat; you decline her request, and she storms out to run away for a little while as you regret; she returns, covered in cat hair and ignores everything you say; then the wall becomes opaque. ]

[ In the corner of the room, a young girl the age of 10 crouches, looking away from you. she holds a cat in her arms, petting the creature constantly.

You wish you could have done better for your baby girl. But, this is what you love to do and maybe you'll get a gig that pays well enough that you two can move out of this shithole - hopefully. You tried your best to rear her, but with how infrequent you're in the house, working odd jobs in the day and performing at the pub at night, you're not sure anymore. You know she is capable of anything if she puts her mind to it - even becoming a princess - but you also know it's not easy to become a princess, and she's horribly equipped for any of that. Then again, if anything your little tyke is tough, and if anyone could be a rags-to-riches princess, it would be her. Thankfully, you've emergency savings - for her schooling, of course. You have a lot of regrets, but maybe it's not too late. ]

Comments

2

[idolpro]

You tell your daughter to keep the toy, and she does. While the classmate doesn't notice at first, she eventually does after your daughter brings it to school a couple of times, and she isn't particularly happy. She doesn't actually say anything, though -- instead she gets some of her friends together to start bullying your daughter.

Your daughter lets you know, because after all, you said you'd take care of it. She comes home with scuff marks, saying she was pushed down -- but nothing much else seems to have happened. The teacher says she gets into shouting matches with the other kids often, owing to her rebellious nature. It's starting to affect her studies, and the school administration is starting to see her as a disruption.

What do you do?

DECISION

[idolpro]

Re: DECISION

[rollyourluck]

[ taking our daughter Dice Nyaa the Short Lived and putting a hand on her shoulder as Bark crouches down to speak to her ]

Dice, listen to me. If those other kids are being mean to you, you don't need to take it. You fight back. You're learning martial arts, you're good at it, that's what it's supposed to be for. Don't start fights, but don't be afraid to finish them if you need to. Just remember: never throw the first punch, but punch back if you get hit.

[ and when's that is done, Bark is going to have A VERY STERN talk with the teacher about how she needs to keep other kids from bullying his child and making it known that if nothing is done, they will be pulling her from the school and teaching her themselves!! ]

Re: DECISION

[idolpro]

Yes, sir!

Your daughter's alignment is now chaotic neutral.

Re: DECISION

[rollyourluck]

[ this surely won't end poorly and will only serve to make the school better ]

DISCUSSION

[idolpro]

Re: DISCUSSION

[rollyourluck]

--I can't believe we need to fight a child.

Re: DISCUSSION

[aboar]

[ BT ] She will learn. [ the hard way. ]

Re: DISCUSSION

[rollyourluck]

It probably won't look good if we fight the girl ourselves though.

Re: DISCUSSION

[aboar]

[ so?

...

...... ]

Then she should do it herself. [ that's what she's getting from this. ]

Re: DISCUSSION

[eatsthecanary]

Well, that other girl probably doesn't deserve a doll now.

Re: DISCUSSION

[theyregooddogs]

This is why you hide the doll.

[shakes his head with an eye roll]

Uh, we need to talk to her about how she's handling this, not solve it for her.

Re: DISCUSSION

[eatsthecanary]

It was pretty dumb to just have it in the open. The classmate would be bound to notice.

... Is it her fault if she's getting beat up?

Re: DISCUSSION

[theyregooddogs]

No. But she isn't going to learn how to fend for herself if we step in. I'm more concerned about the other adults around the kids.

Re: DISCUSSION

[eatsthecanary]

Well, that's what the martial arts is for.

Re: DISCUSSION

[shutthefoxup]

The little girl isn't getting the doll back.

3

[idolpro]

Okay.

Well.

Dice takes your advice to heart, and next time some students mess with her beats the everloving shit out of them.

So that's great! The problem is that the teachers see her as way too much of a liability, and because of this they also take your advice to heart and just, you know.

Kick her out of school. You said you'd pull her and teach her anyway, right? And they don't have time to make sure every kid in the school doesn't bully her so they don't get hospitalized, sooooo...that's that!

Anyways, the biggest problem besides the fact that expulsion does not look good on the record of someone trying to be a princess is there are a lot of parents with a lot of hospital bills and general complaints demanding recompense for Dice's actions.

What do you do?

DECISION.

[idolpro]

Re: DECISION.

[rollyourluck]

Let's beat some zombies up!

[ We're moving our family to the SOUTH and beating up zombies

we're going to be a badass family of zombie beaters ]

Re: DECISION.

[idolpro]

You pack up and move south in hopes of better things.

You quickly end up afoul of several wandering groups of zombies before your martial prowess -- Dice CAN beat up a zombie! ...Well, almost. She does have an arm horribly mangled fighting one. You know how it goes! -- gets you noticed by a wandering tribe.

They adopt you as protectors, and exchange agree to heal and teach Dice. The treatment restores her arm, heavily scarred -- though it takes her eyesight mostly due to the magic employed in stopping the parasites that infected her after being bitten. She learns, though -- how to survive in the desert despite her blindness, how to live, and she takes to these lessons much better than she took to the lessons back in New Senteca.

By the end of the week she's doing a lot better than before despite her blindness, and the sand people seem to enjoy your presence. Is this really getting her any close to being a princess, though...?

Re: DECISION.

[rollyourluck]

[ SHE'LL ALWAYS BE MY PRINCESS ]

DISCUSSION.

[idolpro]

Re: DISCUSSION.

[rollyourluck]

--What a stupid school.

Re: DISCUSSION.

[eatsthecanary]

[ hm ]

Can we leave the country?

Re: DISCUSSION.

[rollyourluck]

Isn't that a bit extreme?