(no subject)

[peanutbuttercup]

Who: Reece, Zach & OPEN to other prefects
When: Lunchtime on Tuesday
Where: The Cafeteria
What: Brainstorming ways to get you little shits to be nice to each other
Warnings: N/A, in progress. Also Cam and I write VERY short tags sorry that's just how we roll

When it comes to the Anonymous posts, Reece is firmly on Mr. Calderon-Boot's side of things. He's really getting tired of them and all the vitriol that seems to inevitably come out when people's names aren't signed to their words. So an entire journal system of nothing but anonymous posts is kind of his worst nightmare. Without wards working, the best option for having a semi-private discussion about what to do seems to be an in-person conversation. So, after serving himself a sparse meal, he sits with Zach in uncharacteristic silence as they wait for other prefects to arrive. Despite himself, he can't help but read through some of the entries that went up this morning before people realized wards were failing as he picks at his food. "This is a mess," he eventually says to Zach, flipping the journal shut.

Comments

OK OK SORRY IM HERE

[readingrainbows]

Reece's comment breaks the uncertain quiet, and Zach groans dramatically. Faceplants into his open journal, wrinkling his nose against the sudden smell of woodsmoke. "I hate this," he mumbles into the book, sophomore optimism abandoned now that he was in the relatively private company of prefects. "That other kid was right. It's pointless."

[peanutbuttercup]

"It's not pointless. We just have to distract people instead of trying to police their behavior." Being a prefect at this school is like herding cats, and Reece is allergic to cats. He reaches over to close Zach's journal. "Maybe we should try to get people to put them in a box again or something?"

[readingrainbows]

Zach doesn't want to make things harder, but "I don't know. The box kind of feels like a punishment. Or like important is something is being taken away from us." He fidgets, then confesses, "I always feel like I"m going to miss something."

[heyitsnia]

"What if we gave them something in exchange?" Nia, who apparently has ears like a hawk has eyes, joins in the conversation before she's got a foot at the table. She sits, offering a pleasant, "Fellas," as greeting, and then pops a blueberry in her mouth before continuing, "You give us a journal, we give you a ... cupcake?"

[browbeats]

"Or we steal them all while they're eating their cupcakes?" Rosy only half-seriously suggests. "I mean, distractions usually work best, but during the day we can't exactly drag everyone off to a bonfire or the zoo, and after curfew it might as well be the anonymous post." Ah, way to be optimistic, Rosemary.

"We could try being unceasingly positive?" is a more serious suggestion that can't help but sound sarcastic coming from Rosy's mouth.

[heyitsnia]

"We could drug the cupcakes," Nia mumbles with a dreamy lift of her brow. If only. "I wouldn't go the unceasingly positive route. Approaching Coppertale with happiness is like hitting a wasp nest with a flaming cricket bat - no offense, Dom."

"Obviously we can't control everything. Let it be an opt in sanctuary," pausing, she looks down at her plate. "The sensible ones will come, the rest of the kids will leave once they see how hot the stove can get. It's a waste of time trying to get everyone to comply."

[thecourtier]

"None taken. I'm the only one here who has to live in my dorm" Dom quips, letting her continue.

[browbeats]

"I mean, hell, I'm half a Coppertale myself," Rosy says with a shrug, though calling herself half Ribbonfin would be exaggerating her fishy attributes, "and if we were just worrying about them then sarcasm is probably the best medicine, but it's definitely a mix of assholes."

Rosy taps her foot as she thinks. "If we did do a get together sanctuary thing, I'm sure Mr. Calderon-Boot would help us. It would be really last minute though, what can we even do with this much lead up?"

[thecourtier]

"Yeah, our assholes are a different breed of assholes than most. I think our juniors will be pretty OK, but Liv and I just need to keep an eye out on them anyway. They're not best left unsupervised" Dom half-laughs, half-groans.

[browbeats]

Rosy raises an eyebrow. "I think they're just as capable of handling themselves as anyone else." If she's joking, it's not obvious. "But we're working on the bigger picture here anyways. Do you have any ideas for the whole school?"

[peanutbuttercup]

"Well, what do we do for the new moons?" Reece says. This is pretty much his wheelhouse as a prefect these days. "Distractions and positive outlets for people's attention. We could try to get everyone to play some kind of game outside, or just flood the journals with innocuous comments instead of mean ones."

[browbeats]

This is so NOT Rosy's wheelhouse as a prefect, and she's relieved when Reece contributes. Ah, nice boys, what would we do without you?

"The tidal wave of nice helped fizzle the anon post in I think January? Just drowning out the nastiness helps it lose momentum." She shrugs. "Not a bad thing to try if it picks back up after curfew."

[thecourtier]

Dom keeps his shoulders low and relaxed. He knows Rosy well enough to not take offence, and she knows him well enough to know he'll do right by the cabin boys even when they don't realise it.

"Well, like I said to Zach earlier, I think we need to encourage people to seek help and assistance away from the journal network if they've got anything personal they need to work out. All it takes is for one prick to sign the wrong name on purpose and we've got some poor kid being messed with. And there's no way I'm letting that happen if I can help it." His jaw is, for once, set square and firm. He means business with this.

[browbeats]

Rosy had promised herself three times that she was going to stop looking at the journals until this problem was fixed, and three times she had broken that promise. No matter how much of a headache it kept giving her, she had to keep checking to make sure there wasn’t a very important pointless fight for her to be getting into.

“So, how many stages of grief do we still have to work through before we can get to the good ideas?” she asks, joining the crack team of Super Awesome Best Friend Problem Solving Prefects with her lunch. “Has destruction of the journal network and just telling everyone to deal with it been floated yet?” Not that Rosy thought that was even kind of a good idea, but it was definitely a thought, and something that might have to happen at this rate.

[fillefidele]

"Pretty sure that proposing the destruction of the journals gets suggested on a bi-weekly basis anyway" Jo quipped, popping up late to the party, having spent her morning either at class or wrangling stray Ebonhide freshmen. "But I swear to god I'll do the damn job myself sometime soon,"

[thecourtier]

Dominic strolled into the cafeteria like he didn't have a care in the world, but of course, there was more going on in his pretty blond head than people gave him credit for. Not one of the 'obvious' prefect types, he basically kept his job because he cared about doing the right thing and making sure people were doing OK. The 'don't be an asshole' rule was one Dom tried to adhere to himself, and he didn't think most other people had an excuse not to.

Hands still in his pockets and backpack slung over his shoulder, he sauntered up to the boys and slid in beside Reece, slipping his bag onto the floor.

"So, one problem I thought of that doesn't SEEM to be cropping up yet, not that I can tell for sure yet..." he began, letting out an exasperated growl in his Quebecois tones. "Signing comments with names."

[readingrainbows]

Zach pops his head up. He doesn't know the Coppertale junior well, but he's never been one to stay quiet when he's curious about something, so he's quick to ask: "What do you mean?"

[thecourtier]

"Well, you know how for now we've just been signing our names to counter the anon stuff?" Dom replied, not missing a beat as the younger prefect joined seamlessly into the train of thought.

Waiting for a response, Dom pulled out his own journal, not even considering his own meal yet.

[readingrainbows]

Vigorous nodding from Zachary. Okay, so maybe there were a few times where he'd forgotten to sign off, but at least he was trying.

[thecourtier]

Dom pinched the bridge of his nose, annoyed with the mere concept. "Well, I know prefects have been doing it to show ourselves, and other like minded people who want to help. Thing is, if the anonymous posts teach us anything, it's that it won't be long before someone starts signing as one of us to start stirring things. Or signing as anyone, really. I feel like we need to come up with something to counter anyone pretending to be one of us, especially if it's some kind of announcement, or relating to student safety."

"Am I making sense?" he asked, genuinely wondering at that point if his English was failing him. At least HE knew what he meant.

[peanutbuttercup]

Reece leans his head back during this explanation to examine the cafeteria ceiling. He has a headache. "Yeah," he says when Dom's done talking. "There's probably nothing we can do to prevent that. Maybe ask the staff to make an announcement, and have them tell everyone to take everything with a grain of salt."

[thecourtier]

"My best thought at this stage is that we all go around to our houses and years to let people know in person - and we can speak to the Freshmen between us - making it perfectly clear where we stand and that if they need assistance urgently, that the journal network shouldn't be used for that purpose until fixed."

Dom taps his fingers on the table, thinking. "Any kind of announcements need to be personal, I think. Paper can be tampered with. So, yeah. Unless they hear it in person from a prefect or teacher..." his voice trails off, still thinking.

"And if it's something private but non-urgent, people are just going to have to let it wait, or go speak to them in person, assuming it's before curfew."