the first couple of weeks at skku has always been exciting for most and foreboding for freshmen. and as days go by and tables and chairs are being set up in the courtyard, excitement begins to climb for the much anticipated WELCOME WEEK—where freshmen make themselves known to the rest of the university and upperclassmen relish in a bit of school spirit and fun before schoolwork really starts to pile up.
skku’s welcome week, especially, is a spectacle to behold. with the university’s many clubs taking to setting up their own tables for new recruits, there will also be sponsored food stands and the occasional game here and there thrown into the mix. students are highly encouraged to attend for the sake of getting to know their peers and, in the long scheme of things, making useful connections for the years to come. and for those who have yet to find their footing in skku, this is the perfect chance to get properly situated amongst the student body.
OUT OF CHARACTER DETAILS, and here it is: our first task (slash event)!
this event will be held mainly on the dashboard, with options to rapid-fire thread on the discord server.
the in-character date for this event is september 6 - september 10, 2021, the first full week of classes after syllabus week.
out of character, this event will last from september 26, 2021 - october 17, 2021 at 11:59pm est.
please use the tag #virtue:welcome for anything relating to this event/task, and to tag the media blog @virtuemedia in any open starters, edits, etc.
TASK ONE (001),
our first task revolves around our pledges getting a sneak peek into what it’s like being an initiate virtue; during the initiates’ third year of university, they spend the whole year monitoring any potential candidates for next year’s pledge class and providing reports to any virtues in the society interested.
in fact, there’s a certain first-year student that the society currently has their eyes on, and for this first task, it’s up to the pledges to figure out exactly who that is.
therefore, all our pledges must provide a report about this first-year student they (should hopefully) notice during welcome week and why they think this student should/would be a good candidate for next year’s pledge class.
○ the winning condition for this event is that each pledge must choose one (1) word from this LIST OF KEYWORDS to incorporate into their report.
○ one of the four (4) words per each lineage is the “winning word”; please be sure to message the MAIN with your choice of word by october 10, 2021 at 11:59pm est.
○ and yes, there is a possibility for both pledges in a lineage to lose!
but, we of course can’t forget about our virtues! at the same time, all of our virtues must provide their own report about one of the pledges in their own lineage; these reports will be handed in to the current cardinals.
please be sure to have your report (in the form of solo) posted by october 17, 2021 at 11:59pm est—or you run the risk of being assigned a lovely punishment!
IMPORTANT REMINDERS,
think of welcome week as a smaller-scale school festival! there’s a club expo, plenty of school spirit to go around, and a concert held on the last day of the week for any and all creative clubs to showcase their talents (and recruit new members)!
like always, pledges and virtues should NOT be interacting in public with each other, but of course, it’s only natural for the best of the best to gravitate towards one another.
please be sure to be inclusive and reply to as many starters as possible, regardless if you’ve plotted already or not.
insoo’s actions this week will be discussed more in detail in the discord server, but if you would like any specific developments/headcanons to happen with your muse and insoo during the event, please be sure to contact an admod first!
suhyeon’s not been a stranger to cameras, all of his life. when he was younger, it was his parents making sure to capture each one of his milestones, and it quickly lead to tv reality shows and seeing them trained on his father, and then they were on him, too, for the commercials he filmed, the dramas he landed. he remembers them at events, snapping moments of his parents on either one of his sides, dripping in the most expensive clothing and jewelry and suhyeon remembering to smile for so long his cheeks ached.
for the modelling he has tried out, holding himself in the correct positions, shifting from one to the next, he remembers the way that his mother used to stand off to the sidelines, could see the way he needed to correct himself in her eyes. straightening up more, making sure that the emotion reached his eyes, and that it wasn’t as empty as all of this made him feel sometimes.
he found a camera laying around at his house, stacked up on a shelf like it was put there to keep, no more space anywhere else but to gather dust here, forgotten. cleaning it up with gentle hands, he found that it still worked, and so he discovered the film that it needed, loaded it up and taught himself how to use it. it’s what he has in his hands, now, perched up on the stone steps near to the entrance to one of the academic buildings, and he has the strap around his neck as he brings the camera up to his eye, looking through the viewfinder. there’s a group of friends, laughing and stumbling along, carrying backpacks and bags and watered down cups of coffee, someone with headphones in, hurrying along and turning the world around them in a blur, and someone reading off of a packet of papers, pacing, several feet away, muttering words under their breath almost as an incantation, but it’s probably just last minute cramming.
he supposes he has been all of these things, in his time here. he shifts the camera to the leaves of a nearby tree, watching the way the branches arch out into different paths, connecting to varying parts and leading off to another. suhyeon thinks that humans are a lot like that, too, though not quite as solitary, even more free then when the wind rustles the leaves and threatens to disrupt their peaceful placement among the branches. there is the way that he has his own connections, and those lead to another, and another, and if he was just a single curve of life along the pathway of so many others, he wonders just what his branches would look like, how they lead all of the way back down to the root.
welcome week had been a bit of a blur, by now. the way that the lens looks when he zooms in and out too quickly, and he has to wait for the world to focus. he had applied to the photography club, and finds himself now, behind a camera, wondering if somehow that will prepare him better for what lies ahead, and maybe it will give him some perspective. he had been searching all week for potential candidates, and from behind the camera, finds himself looking from as many places as he could think to seek out. at the library, in the corner, tucked between mysteries and romance, the dusty shelves just like he rescued his camera from, wrapped in the scent of old books and worn bindings. he had been on the stretch of grass that students often laid out blankets to relax on or work, and he had looked up to the blue sky, coated in fluffy clouds of white, and wondered if what he was looking for truly laid between.
here, there is the sun, offset by the awning he rests beneath, one leg tucked up against his chest and the other hanging down, bouncing the back sole of his shoe against the brick as he sweeps his view. he can barely hear it in his ears. there is that freshman that he had seen around, meandering inbetween the club booths, and at the concert, in which suhyeon had not been able to find what he was looking for, either, but he remembers the face in the crowd. maybe just another perspective student, but suhyeon wonders why he continues to see him when he isn’t trying.
he remembers the way the freshman smiled at each of the club representatives, and he thinks about if he chose one, or if he was just kind enough to speak and shake the hand of everyone he met. maybe the kindness to offset something else, something hidden, suhyeon thinks of the way that he offsets the discomfort of his lifestyle for his mother, stretched smile over teeth and a lot of hope that it doesn’t change the look in his eyes. he is here for a show, not for a heart to heart, not for anything other then the way he presents himself. remembering the curtains being drawn, all of this is a stage, a show, that suhyeon guides himself through the motions of.
he wonders if this is a show to him, too. and there he is, through the viewfinder, making his way up the stairs. he’s alone, but whenever he meets the eyes of someone, he smiles wide. the warmth reaches his eyes. suhyeon lets the camera fall against his chest and slides down off the stairwell, falling into step beside him up into the building. “hi! i’m cha suhyeon, are you new here?”
later that night, he’s reaching out for a pen and paper and committing his results with ink. he thinks it’s the pen that he actually procured from the calligraphy booth, and it glides well over the paper as he records the name of the freshman that he met earlier. in a practiced, neat scrawl, he commits all of his thoughts to permanence.
... in all of my observations, he treated every interaction with the utmost kindness and respect. every new person he encountered, he took his time to make sure they felt like they had his attention, and it was obvious to see that his interest was genuine. i believe he would be a great potential candidate for next year’s pledge class because of this trait that he has, in which i have the most confidence he would extend to all other pledges alongside him if he was indeed chosen.
i believe this ability could lead to an uncanny advantage at making connections and smoothing over even the most tangled sort of interactions for the benefit of the candidate, all potential negativity offset by the positive outlook and cadence of the individual. if he could certainly become aware and harness this capability, i believe him to be an invaluable addition to the society and what they stand for...
suhyeon folds the paper, and seals it carefully in an envelope. there is a gentle shake in his hands that he quells, and passes his report along. that night, he stares at the camera on his desk, that empty, glass curve of the lens, night time stretching long across his ceiling, and hopes, quietly, that he has made all of the correct moves.
