[PRP] Election Selection Projection Reflection (Barth+Riley)

[Toshihiko Two]

The ballots were in, and all that was left to do was wait.

There were a lot of positions, Treasurer and Public Relations and so on (although the options for Secretary had been singular), and all of them were stocked with talented, dedicated, and ambitious students.

The Presidential ticket had only carried two names.

Whether the Student Council members would be announced across campus or in an assembly, both would be mentioned on the Ickycom, and Barth was folded into his largest chair, thinking. Black thorns were using the upholstery as a trellis. They wrapped up the legs, arms, and back. Barth had been growing more comfortable with them, but the imminent election results were a welcome distraction. Gaining the Presidency would kill several birds with one stone, and losing it...

The thorns curled in slow, lazy patterns.

He had thought long and hard about his speech, and tried to keep his campaign...honest, in most respects. True to form. The speech had fit neatly after Riley's, but it was her speech which stuck damnably in his mind. He doubted few students, if any, had paid much attention to them. But he had paid attention.

For now, he would just have to be patient.  

[Nio Love]

Patience was a sloth's virtue. It was not one of hers.

Riley rapped gently on Barth's door, without having previously informed him of her visit. Yet she was there, tapping away, waiting to be let in. Her silence was mandatory, as she wasn't accustomed to his mind yet, and couldn't reach out to him until the door was open.

But he was there. That, she knew. That, she could feel.  

[Toshihiko Two]

Handsome moved in his slow, dragging way to sniff the door jamb.

"Door's unlocked," Barth said out of habit.  

[Nio Love]

Riley wasn't surprised to find the door unlocked, but knowing the fact would never make her walk in without knocking, first. Manners were everything, after all. Still, when she heard the go ahead, she pushed the door open and found herself feet to face with a woehound. She tried not to hit it with the door itself, and slid in with as little opening as possible, before closing the door behind her.

Her hand squeezed the doorknob as it pressed against the small of her back.

Hello, Barth.
 

[Toshihiko Two]

"Err, hello, Riley," Barth said. The thorns withered immediately, shrinking back under the chair like they had been sucked up by a vacuum.

"Don't mind him. ...Handsome, would you, err," Barth made a weak whistling noise. The woehound ignored him completely, lingering by the door.  

[Nio Love]

I won't. Her soft voice managed to muster, before she took a few steps forward and looked around for an appropriate seat. It was a large selection.

May I? She waved her fingers idly at the chair beside him, once more waiting for permission before taking the seat and sinking down into it.

Say one thing for the sloth demon, he had very comfortable furniture. It was probably one of many reasons why she didn't visit often. One could sink into such things and forget the reason you were here.

She did not forget.

You know what day it is. It wasn't a question, so much as a statement, and as she said it she was looking directly forward, instead of facing him.  

[Toshihiko Two]

Handsome trailed behind Riley, following her with gradual interest, and finally settling at her feet. He had remained quiet, and buried under the hair, it was difficult to tell what, exactly, he wanted.

Barth tried another whistle, to no great success, then paused before attending to Riley's statement.

"Yes." And then, voicing his earlier thoughts, "...Nothing left to do but wait."  

[Nio Love]

Riley bent forward to look at the woehound at her feet, and tilted her head. It seemed docile, and gentle, but there was only one way to be sure. She reached forward, very carefully, her fingers pointed down to test a reaction before she brought them closer for a soft pet, if it didn't growl.

Mmhm. Was her slow response, and her eyes finally lifted up to look at him. So I was wondering. If, ah. She looked a little annoyed at herself, and rolled her eyes at the hesitation. Well, I feel like it might be kind of appropriate if we waited together. Would that be.. acceptable?  

[Toshihiko Two]

The woehound sniffed her fingers, and put his head down again, tail wagging once.

Barth considered Riley carefully. It was, perhaps, not the best idea to be alone with Riley when the Candidacies were announced. That would put her speech into a dastardly context. A warning about safety, and then if the votes didn't go as planned...

He looked at Handsome, still laying by her feet.

"Fine by me," he said at last. "...Sorry about that mule comment, by the way."  

[Nio Love]

You did what you had to do. Riley's voice sounded a little sharp, but it was to be expected. She ran her hand down the length of woehounds body, brushing the back of her fingers down the long fur coat. Sorry about the booth. The tone had softened, but her eyes turned down to the pet when she said it.  

[Toshihiko Two]

Barth waved a hand dismissively. "It was a couch and a table."

Handsome remained floppy and quiet.

"Been sort of a long campaign, hasn't it."  

[Nio Love]

Very long. Riley agreed with a drawn out sigh. She pulled away from the pet at her feet, and laid back in the chair, sinking down into it.

The elections are important. She sounded like she was trying to convince herself, as she said it. It was odd. They're going to determine who's in charge of all this year's events and all of the-

Her hand reached up and pinched the bridge between her eyes as her voice cut short in a sigh.

I wish I had never come to this forsaken school. She grumbled low, and much more honestly than before. I wish I never learned to care. For all I know, half the student body will be dead before our next prom. And here we are worrying about who's going to be in the student council.

Council.

She snorted in mirthless laughter. Using the word in this context, after a lifetime of being preened for a different kind of council, was laughable.  

[Toshihiko Two]

He admitted, "The elections are important to me."

Although not on the level of arranging events and catering.

"The last Student Council involved a lot of dithering and occasionally handing out cats and candy. But it was, not to be unkind, on the demonless side. Sort of lacking in...direction. Whatever the result from the ballots, that will not be the case this semester. The job description is straight-forward, at first glance. Not labor-intensive at all. Announcer and figurehead. But the Council's focus is the responsibility of the President. Whether that focus providing fun distractions, which may in fact be the wisest course, or...otherwise."

Barth folded his claws.

"Although lately you've been trudging around like you have a black cloud hanging over your head. Especially with that speech. Half the student body seems err, a bit fatalistic, doesn't it?"  

[Nio Love]

Riley shifted in her chair, resting the side of her head against it. Her eyes were on Barth, watching him carefully. She never took the time to really look at him. The very epitome of what a demon should strive for. In every sense. The same thing she used to see when she looked in a mirror.

And as he spoke, Riley realized that Barth had been serious about the election. Where at first she had wondered why he would even want to take on the trouble of a position, the simple elegance of his explanation gave her her answer. And yet, as much as she understood, it made no difference. He wasn't allowed to win, because it meant she would lose.

Those were the facts.

His question was responded with ominous silence and a penetrating gaze. Was it fatalistic? She obviously didn't think so, or her priorities would be different. So very different. Her eyes were there to tell him the stories that she herself would not.

And so, she watched him.

It was unclear as to when, exactly, Barth fell asleep. The difference between a conscious Barth and a sleeping Barth was minimal, if any. At some point, his chest rose and fell slower than before, and his eyes had spanned that great distance from almost closed, to closed. The election had them both exhausted, it seemed, because Riley was threatening to fall asleep on the chair as well.

Sadly, the ickycom flaring to life at four in the morning kept her from having any such pleasure.

She looked up as she heard the announcement, and let it sink in. There was the obvious thrill of victory, flooding adrenaline through her body, but it was tempered by a foreign feeling that crept up on her when her eyes fell back on Barth. She didn't understand it, but it was killing her buzz. So, she quietly stood from the chair, and considered leaving.

But first, she turned and pulled the covers off of Barth's bed. Returning to stand in front of the sleeping sloth demon, she dropped the covers on his body and tucked the corners in while trying not to disturb him.

He looked so tired.

She finished tucking him in, and brushed a lock of hair away from his face. She was glad he was asleep, because she was sure the look on her face was violently affectionate.

I'm sorry you had to be the one in my way. She whispered, confident that his mind would not comprehend it in his slumber. She watched him sleep for one last moment, before leaving his room for the night.