1: Didn't you just win the round?
"Immigrants have long been the source of America's prosperity, and they will be a vital part of America's future. Thus, the plan: The United States should revise its policies regarding individuals who have entered the US without inspection, permitting all current undocumented residents to forego the requirement to apply from their home consulate to secure citizenship.
"Inherency: there are currently over eleven million people in the US thought to be undocumented, and this issue is currently politically urgent. While there have long been paths for undocumented individuals to receive lawful permanent residence or citizenship, the process is unnecessarily arduous and rife with barriers and penalties that resemble criminal punishment – CitizenPath, 2016…" Eren's voice rang strong in the opening speech of their first round of the day's debate tournament.
Eren was a perfect first affirmative speaker. Mikasa suppressed the warmth she felt threatening to advertise on her skin as she let her attention drift. Eren's pure conviction in his words was evident to judges from the moment they made eye contact with him. His undeniable charisma was something that gave Mikasa both great pleasure and annoyance, as it tended to attract not only attention from herself but from a drove of other young women at their college.
Eren wrested judges' attention so strongly at times that Mikasa observed them ceasing to take notes. This one had, and seemed happy to sit back in their seat to enjoy the young man's performance. Mikasa smiled to herself at the good omen and forced her concentration back to her flow sheet. Eight columns, eight speeches – Eren led as the 1AC as usual, so she took her notes in the section furthest to the left.
Dark eyes flickered up to the pair sitting across the room. Mikasa used her hair as a curtain to mask her calculating gaze. From Marley College, Bertholdt Hoover and Reiner Braun. Both were diligently taking notes and occasionally whispering to one another so it was hard to tell who might be the 1NC, but Braun seemed to have a bit more of a presence about him. Mikasa wagered that like many novice pairs, Marley would put the showy orator up for the first negative speech and leave the second to the more cerebral partner, who would have the job of building the roadmap for the critical negative block.
Mikasa heard Eren reach the second advantage, and she made a note of such on her flow. A time check told her he was reaching the last quarter of his speech. Good, Eren. She felt a twinge of pride, and let it show through a small smile. His reading time had improved incredibly over the past two months since they started debating. It had initially frustrated him to the point of hysterics, but as ever, Eren persevered.
"Advantage three: Economy. Newly documented immigrants will be more likely to fully engage in job sectors traditionally lacking in diversity, without risking the threat of deportation…"
The rhythm she had been tapping out with her toe wavered unconsciously. Mikasa wrote and then circled the third advantage. It hadn't been one that they'd planned – they hadn't had the chance to go over the intricacies. The premise that previously undocumented workers would suddenly devote their livelihoods to specific professions that would benefit the US economy was rife with gaps for a strong negative opponent to exploit.
A phone alarm signaled the end of the first speech. "Open for cross-ex," Eren breathed, steadying himself after eight continuous minutes of speaking. He glanced at the judge. "Closed, or.."
"Closed," the judge affirmed. Mikasa bit the inside of her cheek. Novice judges were often unaware of the default to closed cross examinations, but this one must have had some debate experience. She wouldn't be able to intervene or interject at all for the next three minutes as either Hoover or Braun tested their argument for any weaknesses.
Reiner stood. That makes two things I haven't planned for, shit. If Reiner was asking questions, that meant that Bertholdt was the first speaker. She tried to clear her assumptions asReiner cleared his throat, sifting through some of the papers on their table. "Can you restate your last advantage?" Shit, shit.
"Of course." Eren referenced Mikasa's flow as he reiterated their most recent position. As she listened, she began scribbling notes to help Eren answer some of the questions that were bound to come up. If they'd been keen enough to launch directly into the content of the third advantage, Braun was sure to test the obvious weaknesses. Unfortunately, Mikasa couldn't be completely confident in Eren with their lack of prep…
Mikasa sighed and stopped writing. She would have to trust in him, and see where that left them.
"At what rate do you expect newly documented immigrants to take jobs like the ones you specified?"
"Not every immigrant will take a job in these sectors, of course, and that's fine so long as we acknowledge that we aren't solely granting legal citizenship just to use them as disposable workers in high need fields—"
"How many?"
Eren paused. His voice faltered as he committed to an answer. "Let's say… 20% of people able to work, in an immediate time frame. But it should be noted that the overall plan will have the added effect of increasing the number of immigrants able to pursue higher education free of financial disincentive. This in turn should increase the percentage I just named, since more will be qualified." While his affect may have been off, Mikasa had nothing wrong with the content. It made the best of out a difficult position. She hoped it deterred their opponents away from that line of reasoning for now.
Bertholdt passed Reiner a paper. The blonde read it, and nodded. "Alright. Is this a net benefit to the United States?" Phew.
"Yes," Eren immediately responded. The judge chimed in with a fifteen second warning.
"Can you think of anyone this might harm?"
"No, by and large all citizens will enjoy the benefits of a stronger economy. The magnitude of our impact covers all of the United States, per the evidence I read in the latter part of my speech. It—"
"That's time. Thank you," The judge expectantly looked toward the negative. "Do you need prep time?"
Hoover spoke audibly for the first time. "Yes, one minute please." One nod from the judge.
Mikasa whispered as she shifted the paper she had written talking points for Eren under her flow sheet. "You did a good job of exploiting the questions, Eren." It was a classic strategy: use any open ended question to take up more time to explain to the judge why they should ultimately vote for your side. "I'm not sure where they're going to go with their strategy. If they're taking prep now, they must be changing their speech in some way."
Eren smiled. "Yeah, I'm excited about the advantage. I think it'll be a great way to improve our impact debate in the rebuttals." He looked at the papers she had set aside while she flowed. "You should prep the 2AC."
Mikasa nodded, though she already had a mental list of cards she would read for their second speech. The cards – highlighted pieces of printed evidence that supported arguments – made up the core of debate. She needed less time than Eren to assemble them into a logical outline. Eight minutes while their opponent spoke would be more than enough. "I don't know if I can until I have a better idea of how they're going to integrate the cross-ex. It was unexpected." That isn't going to land well. "I think it will be fine, though."
"You think it wasn't a good idea to read that argument," Eren stated. Not a question, but Mikasa couldn't help but elaborate.
"I wish we would have had time to discuss, that's all," Mikasa shifted away from Eren and began organizing cards for her speech. She registered the defensive body language from Eren. It didn't budge even as Bertholdt began the 1NC.
"Eren, you need to flow so we have a record—"
"You always dictate everything that we do in a round, Mikasa," Eren lamented. "I think this is a risk we can take and win on. Trust me, please."
Mikasa tapped her fingers on her flow, thinking of the unused notes that hid underneath. The childish urge to wave them in his face was easily quashed. "Eren. I do trust you."
"Then let me handle whatever happens with that advantage. If it ends up being a mess, I'll clean it up. I can do this," Eren said with some finality, as he picked up his pen and looked over toward the current speaker.
It was a mess, and it was cleaned (barely, as the judge noted much to Eren's chagrin) but enough to allow the affirmative to scrape by with the win. After the round, as the judge expounded on his opinion of how the affirmative constructed their advantages, Mikasa willed with all of her mental energy for the judge to change topics. The telltale signs of Eren being wound up were present: head angled down, fists curled on his lap under the table, bottom lip trapped between his teeth. She resisted the urge to reach out and take his hand. The judge finished, and three voices chorused a 'thank you, judge' before the sound of chairs and shuffling papers filled the room.
Mikasa had barely finished packing up their files before Eren took his cards and notes in one haphazard stack – completely unorganized, Mikasa thought with some exasperation – and left the room. A quick exchange of handshakes and polite smiles were the last of her obligations to that first round, and she hurried after Eren.
"Eren," Mikasa called as loudly as she could without drawing unnecessary attention to the tension between them. He stopped toward the end of the hallway, but didn't turn to look in her direction. As Mikasa neared him, Armin and Jean arrived.
Armin was a frighteningly perceptive kid. Mikasa made eye contact with him after he finished quickly surveying Eren. She pressed her lips into a thin line.
"Is everything okay, Eren? I saw some of the ballots… Didn't you just win the round?" Armin's eyebrows were stitched together, a product of concern and confusion combined. His last question depressed Mikasa's mood further.
"Yeah, Eren, you look like shit." Mikasa glared over toward Jean, who at least had the decency to look slightly embarrassed under her withering gaze.
She would handle Jean later. "The judge thinks Eren farted during the round," Mikasa lied with a straight face. "It smelled pretty bad." Blue eyes widened slightly before they shot over toward Eren. Mikasa had a tendency to attempt to use humor as a last resort in moments of tension involving Eren. Jean chuckled dryly, trying to discern if it was true before giving in completely to his urge to tease.
"No, no, it's not that," Eren spat. "Stop screwing around, Mikasa. I'm just tired of risks that I take not panning out. I'm not good at this. I can't get better quickly enough."
No one had an answer for him, and the relief was palpable when a loud voice further down the hallway announced that the second round pairings were posted to the wall.
They made their way slowly through the crowd of people to check the sheets for their names. Armin and Jean found their room number, and wished Mikasa and Eren luck before disappearing into the crowd of students heading to round two.
The sheets had row after row of information – each listed a judge's name, a room number, and student names beside their school affiliations for both the affirming and negating teams. Mikasa found this part of the day to be oddly stressful, and it took her a few long moments to pick out their information on the page. "JAAC, that's us… We're in room 1C21. We're on the affirmative again, against a team from University of Sina. DRFR," Mikasa read. She checked the judge name out of compulsion. Judges were often from a massive and fluctuating volunteer pool, so it was rare that they had a repeat judge, let alone name recognition. It never hurt to know, just in case.
Mikasa read the name aloud. She didn't anticipate the inner meltdown it would trigger in Eren's eyes. It quickly became an outer meltdown.
"Fuck!" Eren dragged his hand down his face and around his jaw before bringing it back up to run through his hair. He leaned in to look at the row Mikasa still had her finger pressed against to read the information for himself. The confirmation triggered another few expletives. Mikasa couldn't help but think about how attractive Eren was even when visibly distressed. "That was the guy at the law firm I interviewed at last year. I remember it because you two have the same last name."
"Levi Ackerman," Mikasa repeated. She remembered the cloud of melancholy that Eren wore for days after his return from his unsuccessful attempt to secure an internship. "Wasn't he an asshole to you afterward?"
"You have no idea," Eren groaned. "Kill me now, I'm going to die of embarrassment if he fucking remembers me."
A/N: Hi all, it's been years since I've written anything for public consumption, but the plot demands writing. So far it's been a fun challenge to think of how to characterize Mikasa, Eren, and Levi without flattening them out too much. It's also a fun way to develop my own novice knowledge of debate and to do some reading on the resolution topic for next year in my area, which is immigration.
I hope this becomes a fun break from some original fiction writing I'm doing on the side. Much of the story is undecided, apart from the premise, so we'll see where it takes us. Comments and constructive criticism always welcome! Thank you for reading. - H