(fourteenth miracle) BBS + action

[bunnypassingby]

In my country, Japan, we used to have a star festival called Tanabata, celebrating the meeting of two stars (Vega and Altair) which represented the two lovers Orihime and Hikoboshi meeting for the one time they could every year. People write down wishes on pieces of paper and hang them on bamboo trees. It's said that if you burn them by a river after the night of Tanabata (July 7th), the wishes would come true.

Last year some other people and I helped Japan-sama write down people's wishes on paper and hang them on small trees. I'd like to do that again this year. If anyone would like to join me, I'll be in the quad with some pens and paper for you to write your wishes on, or if you're busy, you can post your wishes here and we can write them down for you.

- Mikuru

[As promised (or perhaps you saw her before the BBS post), Mikuru is in the quad with pens, paper, and string for tying the wishes up. As most of her resources at the moment are going into homecoming, she doesn't have little trees this year and has strung up her wish on one of the quad's trees nearby instead.

[Her wish on the tree, written in Japanese, is to Stay safe, Itsuki-kun.]

Comments

[gunbladegrrl]

Mikuru...

[There's no polite way to ask. There isn't any good way to begin to broach the conversation subject. She struggles visibly for a moment, before finally blurting out...]

What happened?

[bunnypassingby]

[That is a broad, broad question that, this being Maria, Mikuru can kind of guess the specifics of. She shifts uncomfortably, then pats the seat next to her for Maria to sit down.]

With... the field exam? [There's nothing else she can think of that would deserve that kind of a struggle to get the question out, best to make sure.]

[gunbladegrrl]

[She nods, not really having more words, as she sits.]

[bunnypassingby]

[Again, she looks around before speaking, quieter now, and she looks off a few times as she speaks too; she doesn't really want the whole quad listening in.]

I... I choked. I was meant to make this shot and I fumbled it, and I messed up again later on trying to make up for it and it brought my Judgment score down... And I had a really low Attack score anyway...

[Her hands smooth over her skirt in her lap.] I read up on some of Garden's history and previous field exams, and I read that there have been exams where out of twelve people, only four passed... So... [So on one level, she kind of gets it.]

[gunbladegrrl]

[Maria doesn't have a good response except to reach out and pull her friend into a tight hug.]

[bunnypassingby]

[Mikuru hugs back just as tightly, burying her face in Maria's shoulder. She hates talking about it, so this is only about the second time she's mentioned it to anyone who wasn't actually in her exam...

[A sniffle.

[Oh, no, she's not going to cry in public...]

[gunbladegrrl]

You big dummy.

[She loosens up with one hand just enough to give Mikuru a tap with a closed fist so light that it couldn't possibly be called a punch.]

You weren't confident at all, were you.

[bunnypassingby]

[Maria's entirely correct: Mikuru's approximate attitude going in was "WELP GOING TO FAIL BUT I WILL DO MY BEST".]

I-it's hard to be confident going in when you know the success rate isn't always high... [Excuses.]

[gunbladegrrl]

You -- [She shifts so that instead of hugging Mikuru, she has an arm around her neck in the lightest headlock ever performed.]

I don't understand you sometimes at all! How, after everything you've done and everything you've learned, can you still not believe in yourself?!

[bunnypassingby]

[Mikuru wrings her wrists.] I just - when I'm under pressure and I know someone's watching and grading and waiting for me to mess up - and someone's paying Garden and I just get so scared that I won't be good enough -

[gunbladegrrl]

[She leans back, grabbing Mikuru by the shoulders now to fix the other girl with a fierce stare.]

Mikuru. Whatever -- I don't know what you're thinking, but there's no one I'd rather have on my side in ANY sort of conflict or confrontation than you.

[bunnypassingby]

I - [She gulps, and drops her gaze.

[And looks back up at her again, her lower lip wobbling a little before she presses her mouth together and nods, trying (though it's hard when she's a little teary) to return that fierce stare.

[She has no idea how to put into words in either of her languages (not that she has her translator on) how much this means to her, how much someone else's belief in her helps. Failing that, she raises a hand to cover one of Maria's and nods again.]

[gunbladegrrl]

You remember when you were helping me work on my Limit Break, and we fought that T-Rexaur?

That's the first T-Rexaur I ever fought. That's the ONLY T-Rezaur I've ever fought. You were braver than I was, right then. You shouldn't ever think of yourself as anything less than amazing.

[bunnypassingby]

[The smallest of headshakes.] I was so scared... But I had you by my side! And we weren't being graded and didn't have money placed on us or anything...

[She takes a deep breath and lets it out again. She knows this isn't meant to be about wallowing.]

... Thank you.

[gunbladegrrl]

You were scared! I'd never fought a T-Rexaur before, I always ran from them, and yet when that thing wandered up to us you just turned and got ready to fight it like it was nothing!

[bunnypassingby]

I thought you'd fought them before! I didn't want to look like a coward and I thought with two of us, we could do it, and...

[Mikuru starts giggling, because wow, that was kind of a dumb assumption.]

[gunbladegrrl]

And the only reason I didn't say we should run is because you dived right in, and I didn't want to seem like I was afraid!

[She had it under control until Mikuru starts giggling. That makes her start too, to her embarrassment -- she's supposed to be a strong tough girl, they don't giggle!]

[bunnypassingby]

[Mikuru is not about to judge her for giggling! Mikuru is, generally, a judgment-free zone.]

Well, we can talk about it if there's a next time. [She's grinning, but tries to get more serious.] But, um - really: Thank you. For... believing in me, for everything you said.

[gunbladegrrl]

[Maria judges herself! She's a gunblade girl, not a giggling girl!]

You're not allowed to stay a cadet when I graduate. That just means at the NEXT ball, we'll both be out there in our uniforms, right?

[bunnypassingby]

["I'll do my best!" ... is what she wants to say, her first instinct. But that's not good enough for Maria and her faith. Instead, Mikuru makes a fist.] Right!

[... sound a little more convincing, honey.]

[gunbladegrrl]

[Maria just gives her a look that's partly exasperated, mostly fond.]

If I can do it, you can do it.

And I can do it. So you can do it.

[bunnypassingby]

[Mikuru thinks about it for a moment, and then nods, extending a pinky.]

Let's do this.

[Pinky promise her we'll do this!!]

[gunbladegrrl]

[She hooks her pinky around Mikuru's immediately, with a grin.] End of this quarter, that ball is for both of us.

[bunnypassingby]

[And shake.] I guess I'll only get a new dress for Homecoming instead of one for the graduation ball as well...

[... Mikuru, was that a joke?]

[gunbladegrrl]

And then we can both spend the entire ball wondering why the female uniforms are so short.