Sudden Death - Believability Chapter 3
Mar. 22nd, 2022 05:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shivalriesSeason: Winter
---
Location: Cafe
HiMERU: —Let us review the current situation.
We can trace everything back to these "orders".
When we were first assigned to the Kansai region, the qualifying rounds were proceeding as usual.
Tsukasa: Right. By doing our idol duties, we can be awarded SSL$.
While the name and definition are slightly different, SSL$ are virtually the same as the L$ we earn regularly.
This should all sound very familiar to those of us from ES.
Ritsu: Yeah, but that also means we ES idols have an enormous advantage in terms of experience.
That's why we've been given these orders. We have to level the playing field.
With these rules in place, it'll minimize the gap between us and idol strays (?) in the neighborhood.
This way, we can all have a fair fight, if only on the surface.
Rinne: Yeah, well, the real problem's makin' these local idols wrestle in a ring they're not used to. Puts 'em squarely on the underdog side.
Most of these "orders" are stupid crap we could pull off easy, anyway.
That barely counts as a handicap.
Niki: Huh? I can barely handle mine as it is!
Rinne: Hold up, Niki, get in our fellow idols' shoes for a sec, will ya?
For these local idols, it's like handin' a soccer player a mitt and a bat and tellin' 'em to play baseball all of a sudden.
Not to mention the other team's full of literal pros who've been practicing baseball their entire lives.
And then imagine these pros turn around and tell you, "Oh, don't worry, I'll dye my hair brown as a handicap. I don't really want to, but this way it's more fair, right?"
That's what it sounds like, see?
Now isn't that stupid? We're basically conning 'em! One side's totally losing out while the other's like, "Look, we're both losing here!"
And you still wanna tell me that skipping the takoyaki for a while gets in the way of your idol job? Seriously?
Most of these "orders" are total bullshit. ES idols still have an overwhelming advantage here.
If you wanna talk about equality and fairness, then let 'em play on the soccer field!
Niki: Ngh... I don't get all this sports stuff! If you want me to understand, you have to compare it to food!
Rinne: You didn't even try to understand in the first place, did ya?
HiMERU: Heh. And yet how bravely you pressed ahead with your explanation, Amagi.
Rinne: Shut up, man.
Anyways, that's the deal: the outcome of SS is fixed. ES idols will use their humongous advantage to mow down all the stray idols out there.
Ritsu: Yup, it's all a war of aggression, this SS. The goal is to expand our territory and force non-ES idols to surrender to us.
Rinne: Like Yamato Takeru, huh—no wait, maybe Yamatai-koku is closer. [1]
Ritsu: ...?
Rinne: Ah right, it's all lost in history for you guys, huh?
It's 'cause a whole bunch of different ethnic groups got shoved under the "Japanese" umbrella, y'know. Wars and massacres were forgotten because they were never recorded.
Eh, guess it's got nothin' to do with the modern age.
I mean, if you really think about who's the bad guy here, it's gotta be us homo sapiens who rose to the top of the food chain by killing off other species!
If the ghosts of neanderthals come back to haunt us, then who are we to object, huh?
Anyways. All this rigged SS crap is supposed to prove our superiority as ES idols by givin' us a bunch of easy wins.
Plus, it's s'posed to spread the good word about ES' magnificence. Did I get that right?
HiMERU: —Yes. However, the situation has changed.
The other day, a great many posters appeared all around the Kansai region.
Upon them were written the orders we were instructed to hide.
The posters revealed which idol had which order, in excruciating detail.
Tsukasa: Yes. We learned about Crazy:B's orders from those posters as well.
Rinne: —And? What happens now?
Ritsu: Everybody was just kinda dumbfounded when it happened, like it was just a quirky little phenomenon.
But some were clever. They realized that if they took what was written on the posters as truth—
Then the ES idols' enormous advantage wouldn't be so much of a threat anymore. Bringing us down would be surprisingly simple.
---
[1] This... took an extraordinary amount of clicking around to understand (thanks for nothing Rinne <3) but it seems that both Prince Yamato Takeru and the Kingdom of Yamatai (Yamatai-koku) were known for being conquerors of huge swaths of land in Japan, at different points in history. This is one of the reasons Rinne draws the comparison to SS.
As for why he says Yamatai might be a "closer" analogy, it might be best to trace it back to the word yamato. In terms of Yamato Takeru's time period, yamato refers to the Yamato Dynasty, which persists to this day as the Emperor of Japan's blood lineage. However, yamato can also mean "the yamato people of Japan" (not solely the emperor's lineage, but referring to the current ethnic majority). This version of the term is used to differentiate the ethnic majority from other ethnic groups in the country, and is thought to have originated from "Yamatai". Thus, according to Rinne's logic, the struggle between ethnic groups during the time of the Kingdom of Yamatai can be compared to the struggle between the powerful ES and non-ES idols. (I feel a little insane at this point!) ↑
---
< Believability Chapter 2 || Masterlist || Believability Chapter 4 >
---
Location: Cafe
HiMERU: —Let us review the current situation.
We can trace everything back to these "orders".
When we were first assigned to the Kansai region, the qualifying rounds were proceeding as usual.
Tsukasa: Right. By doing our idol duties, we can be awarded SSL$.
While the name and definition are slightly different, SSL$ are virtually the same as the L$ we earn regularly.
This should all sound very familiar to those of us from ES.
Ritsu: Yeah, but that also means we ES idols have an enormous advantage in terms of experience.
That's why we've been given these orders. We have to level the playing field.
With these rules in place, it'll minimize the gap between us and idol strays (?) in the neighborhood.
This way, we can all have a fair fight, if only on the surface.
Rinne: Yeah, well, the real problem's makin' these local idols wrestle in a ring they're not used to. Puts 'em squarely on the underdog side.
Most of these "orders" are stupid crap we could pull off easy, anyway.
That barely counts as a handicap.
Niki: Huh? I can barely handle mine as it is!
Rinne: Hold up, Niki, get in our fellow idols' shoes for a sec, will ya?
For these local idols, it's like handin' a soccer player a mitt and a bat and tellin' 'em to play baseball all of a sudden.
Not to mention the other team's full of literal pros who've been practicing baseball their entire lives.
And then imagine these pros turn around and tell you, "Oh, don't worry, I'll dye my hair brown as a handicap. I don't really want to, but this way it's more fair, right?"
That's what it sounds like, see?
Now isn't that stupid? We're basically conning 'em! One side's totally losing out while the other's like, "Look, we're both losing here!"
And you still wanna tell me that skipping the takoyaki for a while gets in the way of your idol job? Seriously?
Most of these "orders" are total bullshit. ES idols still have an overwhelming advantage here.
If you wanna talk about equality and fairness, then let 'em play on the soccer field!
Niki: Ngh... I don't get all this sports stuff! If you want me to understand, you have to compare it to food!
Rinne: You didn't even try to understand in the first place, did ya?
HiMERU: Heh. And yet how bravely you pressed ahead with your explanation, Amagi.
Rinne: Shut up, man.
Anyways, that's the deal: the outcome of SS is fixed. ES idols will use their humongous advantage to mow down all the stray idols out there.
Ritsu: Yup, it's all a war of aggression, this SS. The goal is to expand our territory and force non-ES idols to surrender to us.
Rinne: Like Yamato Takeru, huh—no wait, maybe Yamatai-koku is closer. [1]
Ritsu: ...?
Rinne: Ah right, it's all lost in history for you guys, huh?
It's 'cause a whole bunch of different ethnic groups got shoved under the "Japanese" umbrella, y'know. Wars and massacres were forgotten because they were never recorded.
Eh, guess it's got nothin' to do with the modern age.
I mean, if you really think about who's the bad guy here, it's gotta be us homo sapiens who rose to the top of the food chain by killing off other species!
If the ghosts of neanderthals come back to haunt us, then who are we to object, huh?
Anyways. All this rigged SS crap is supposed to prove our superiority as ES idols by givin' us a bunch of easy wins.
Plus, it's s'posed to spread the good word about ES' magnificence. Did I get that right?
HiMERU: —Yes. However, the situation has changed.
The other day, a great many posters appeared all around the Kansai region.
Upon them were written the orders we were instructed to hide.
The posters revealed which idol had which order, in excruciating detail.
Tsukasa: Yes. We learned about Crazy:B's orders from those posters as well.
Rinne: —And? What happens now?
Ritsu: Everybody was just kinda dumbfounded when it happened, like it was just a quirky little phenomenon.
But some were clever. They realized that if they took what was written on the posters as truth—
Then the ES idols' enormous advantage wouldn't be so much of a threat anymore. Bringing us down would be surprisingly simple.
---
[1] This... took an extraordinary amount of clicking around to understand (thanks for nothing Rinne <3) but it seems that both Prince Yamato Takeru and the Kingdom of Yamatai (Yamatai-koku) were known for being conquerors of huge swaths of land in Japan, at different points in history. This is one of the reasons Rinne draws the comparison to SS.
As for why he says Yamatai might be a "closer" analogy, it might be best to trace it back to the word yamato. In terms of Yamato Takeru's time period, yamato refers to the Yamato Dynasty, which persists to this day as the Emperor of Japan's blood lineage. However, yamato can also mean "the yamato people of Japan" (not solely the emperor's lineage, but referring to the current ethnic majority). This version of the term is used to differentiate the ethnic majority from other ethnic groups in the country, and is thought to have originated from "Yamatai". Thus, according to Rinne's logic, the struggle between ethnic groups during the time of the Kingdom of Yamatai can be compared to the struggle between the powerful ES and non-ES idols. (I feel a little insane at this point!) ↑
---
< Believability Chapter 2 || Masterlist || Believability Chapter 4 >
