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༉‧₊˚. kim yara: log.
asterath; after the car crash.
“narin?” she called nervously.
“here,” her sister replied weakly, blood coating one of her legs entirely.
“mama? papa?” no response. “mama? papa?” she tried again. the shards of glass in chaeyoung’s pretty face was the last thing that yara saw before the deafening silence swallowed her whole.
༉‧₊˚. kim yara: log.
asterath; after the car crash.
yara was fuming as she read every word of her former friend, seojun lee’s, application for becoming an asterathi councillor.
‘I believe Asterath deserves more diverse representation among its councilors, and perhaps more importantly, more gang-affiliated members. While I am personally a Snake, I want the other gangs to know that I stand for all of us in this. The Council has recently grown more and more full of non-gang-affiliated members, and while they claim to be the most neutral, the truth is that they don’t stand for all of the gangs, they threaten all of them. I want to ensure that Asterath can remain what it is, and not be turned into a second Voxthain, as some would like it to be. We ought to embrace the things that make us unique. We ought to be proud of being Asterathi, proud of our differences from our neighbors. And I want to ensure that we can move forward, improving our city, without changing what makes it Asterath.’
oh, shut up, seojun. obviously he had not just been targeting her, but also the two other non-gang-affiliated people applying, but this would not go well for yara if she left his comments unaddressed in her form. the news of her applying had spread quite quickly around asterath, so seojun had decided to get at her before she could say anything, but yara had predicted that. trying to outsmart me, seojun? impossible. she had purposely let the news of her application leak via her sister narin, and then she waited. if she applied last, she could see what the others had written on their forms, and then she could counter their words and twist some of their campaigns to suit herself. it was called having a plan, and all councillors needed one, but simply via the applications, you could tell that none of the others had a plan for this campaign. already, yara seemed like the better candidate.
‘listen, people of asterath,’ she had started. a good way to get people’s attention. ‘i may be non-gang-affiliated, but abolishing the gangs is not my priority. i don’t care about them, as long as they behave themselves.’ take that, seojun. yara knew that her application would be so much longer than the other ones, but she had to undo the damage that seojun's had done to hers before she had even begun. it was one thing to target her during the campaign, another to target her before she had even applied. okay, fair, he might have been targeting isla rey, or atilius augusta, but all of asterath knew that that was unlikely. he was definitely targeting her, her whose views he knew like the back of his own hand, her who had unbefriended him the minute he joined the snakes, her who used to be his best friend, and was now best friends with his younger sister, aera.
‘I want the other gangs to know that I stand for all of us in this,’ seojun had wrote. how pathetic. he was clearly afraid that his snakes’ votes wouldn’t be enough to earn him his seat on the council, and so he was appealing to the other gangs. how utterly pathetic. he knew he wasn’t europa vyperion, who had her parents to back her up, but he wasn’t taja devi either, under a disguise, so he had to appeal to other gangs else he wouldn’t be voted in. it was laughable. would the scorpions vote for a snake over their own? a spider? no way in the seven hells. if they were to vote for anyone over their own, it would be someone that posed no threat to any gang, not a bloody snake, especially when they already had snakes on the council. one openly, europa, but a spy too, taja. it was yara’s job to keep tabs on everyone for the blacklights, like it was narin’s job to keep tabs on everyone for club serpentine. funny really. the sisters probably had tabs on each other.
‘I believe Asterath deserves more diverse representation among its councilors, and perhaps more importantly, more gang-affiliated members.’ well done on helping out your opponents, seojun. you can be sure to expect a gift from katniss winters and elena flores. it was true, there were only two gang members amongst the asterath council, but both of them were snakes. yes, seojun, diverse probably means not electing me or isla or atilius, but it also means not electing you. so guess who’s plan will backfire? obviously, seojun did not think that through when writing his application, but here yara was, analysing his words like an english literature essay. ‘The Council has recently grown more and more full of non-gang-affiliated members, and while they claim to be the most neutral, the truth is that they don’t stand for all of the gangs, they threaten all of them. ouch. maybe yara did, but not the others. yep, definitely targeted. as for those on the council, none of them particularly ‘threatened’ the gangs. adéla, yara’s close friend, was indeed a blacklight, but most of asterath just knew her as a girl on the council who wasn’t particularly fond of the gangs. ceonrei too, another one who didn’t really like the gangs - especially serpentine - and the pari siblings kept out of all situations with the gangs. the ratio stood thus: two for anti-gangs, two for ‘i don’t care’s, two for pro-gangs, and more specifically, snakes. elect anyone and the scales would be tipped in favour of one party or another.
yara rubbed at her temples as she got onto the next sentence. surprisingly, she was having a lot of fun picking apart what was wrong with seojun’s application, and using that to her advantage. ‘I want to ensure that Asterath can remain what it is, and not be turned into a second Voxthain, as some would like it to be.’ directed at isla, for sure. yara wasn’t a huge fan of voxthain, and seojun knew that, so that was clearly targeted at isla with her voxthain noble friend group. ‘despite some saying that all non-gang-affiliated are out to make asterath a second voxthain, i don’t want to turn asterath into a second voxthain. if voxthain was what i wanted, i wouldn’t be in asterath applying for the asterath council. i would be in voxthain, applying for the voxthain one,’ she wrote, just to be clear. you’re welcome, isla. funnily enough, seojun’s entire reasons for wanting to be a councillor were reasons why others shouldn’t be councillors, not why he should be a councillor. ‘And I want to ensure that we can move forward, improving our city, without changing what makes it Asterath.’ oh, really? and how do you propose to do that, einstein? what are your ambitions for our city? what would you like to make happen apart from have an extra snake on the council and someone for your fellow gang members to vote for? pathetic, pathetic, pathetic.
and just like that, yara’s counter claim was penned. ‘i love asterath, and i would love to keep asterath as asterath. (note that italics are used as well, seojun.) we all know that gang members are naturally biased towards their respective gangs, so we need more people on the council that are there for the general public - those without gang affiliations and those willing to listen to everyone.’ there. her first paragraph, countering seojun’s claims, was finished. and now she could dedicate her second paragraph to why she should be chosen as councillor. forgot something there, did you, seojun? yara quickly scribbled down her reasons, and submitted the form without a doubt. i have a plan for this campaign. have fun racing me, mr lee. we’ll see who can make it to the end.
