2019-07-16: A Fate Known to Me
- Log: A Fate Known to Me
- Cast: Amaterasu, Yue Rohay
- Where: Luca
- Date: 16th July 2019
- Summary: In scouting Luca in the aftermath, a convict comes across the commander of the Veruni forces...
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
It's a rare thing to see Amaterasu in the state she is now.
For context, the commando is just about married to her job. There may in fact be bets running back home whether she wears her armor to bed, even in a safe location like Laila Belle or the Locus Solus.
But then, someone with her job is never safe. Her job for years now has been to eliminate Moderates, and there are times when the so-called Moderates attempt to strike back.
Up here on the moon, however...
She's dressed simply, a plain shift and pants favored by the locals, if adjusted for her size -- the hem has been let out and it still seems a little too short. The sea breeze catches her hair. Up here on the roof -- pockmarked by flame and debris from the battle -- she can see the horizon, above which hangs the Blue Star. Gaia. Filgaia.
She seems, for the moment, to be even unware of anyone else's presence.
Until she shifts, not even glancing over her shoulder.
"Is that you, Ka-ya? Have you finished repairing my armor?"
Perhaps there are other reasons than security for her being without her armor...
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
It seems like there is a common penchant for people in the like to dwell upon rooftops. Luca has seen better days. Even now some of the fires have yet to be put out, and the stench of blood and grease and battle has yet to truly fade out of the air. It's not the most pleasant of smells.
"... nay, unfortunately," Yue answers rather gently as she hops down to land on the same rooftop, closer to the other end. "It is just a convict, Commander Amaterasu."
She certainly looks like she's been through the wringer, though how much of that is just from her existence as a lifelong convict and how much of that is through the battle is... debatable.
She bobs her head for a moment. "I may leave you to your peace, if it is preferred."
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
Luca is a city ruined by war.
And for Amaterasu, this is what is /necessary/. The city will recover, most likely, and if it does not, it is not her concern. Her eyes are only for the blue sphere hanging over the horizon.
For Filgaia, or more accurately, for her people.
She turns fully at Yue's voice.
"Where is your minder, CR-S01?" she says, after looking the haggard-seeming prisoner over. "Have you been left to wander? I suppose it cannot be helped in our current situation, but I will have words with No.7," she says, folding her arms over her chest.
She appears to consider the offer for a moment. Then she shakes her head. "No. If your minder won't see to you, than I shall."
There is, briefly, silence.
"...What does your minder have you do when you are not in service, CR-S01?"
Amaterasu... isn't as familiar with this part of the process, when it comes to seeing to detained prisoners. Even on the Locus Solus, it was just a matter of turning them over to facilities...
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
"... ... I have elected to suggest that she stay away from Luca for the time being, so she is back on the Highroad while I observe in her capacity," Yue answers. Her very careful tone suggests that it wasn't as much a suggestion as she insisted the Minder not fully immerse herself in a war-laden city.
A curious arrangement, that, with the Minder, well, being her Minder and technically in charge.
A Minder that can't be more than, like, 13 years old. In Veruni terms, or literally, none can say.
"I hope that will not be an offense to you, Commander. I will submit to your desires in the interim," she adds.
She steps just a bit closer, but then she listens to the Commander's question of what she does when she's not in service.
"Ah. As a solitary prisoner... I merely read and attempt other miscellaneous hobbies. 'Tis only in Duogrammaton's death games or in service of Digs that I am allowed to leave."
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
"Oh?" Ever so slightly, Amaterasu inclines her head to her right. "And she listened to you? Hmm..." she muses, as if turning over the particulars in her mind. "She /is/ rather young, isn't she... I wonder whatever it is that they were thinking. I never was involved with that end of the legal system, even on the Locus Solus."
She has been, by now, a solider nearly three times as long as she was ever a security officer. Those days are but a faint memory.
"In any case, their decisions are none of my concern. Hmm, but it appears that you now are, CR-S01. Fortunately for you, I am on leave, effective until repairs are completed. So I have time to play 'replacement minder'."
She, despite how she refers to the permanent Veruni prisoner, does listen when Yue explains what she does in her downtime (such that it is).
"Other hobbies? Such as?" Amaterasu asks, a faint frown lingering on her lips. "...Ah, yes. The games. Duogrammaton's own hobby. I suppose I have Persephone to thank for those as well. Hmm." Her expression grows ever more sour. "It would do more good if it were a battle of skill. Veruni versus Veruni, perhaps -- watching humans die in sport gains us little. But I have no business critiquing entertainment, if that is what our people desire."
Her expression grows pensive; she again folds her arms over her chest. "I wonder, sometimes, if it is out of a sense of 'retribution'."
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
"... ... she is rather young, yes," Yue answers carefully, with all the care of someone who knows and likely can't say any further other than 'there is something going on here and I can't do much but make the best out of it'. "And inexperienced with the ways of the world."
But Amaterasu says she's on leave and has time to play 'replacement minder'. A little curious smile goes on her face.
"... I have begun to attempt knitting and sewing, but both the lack of light and lack of freedom in my hands makes it a lost cause. Reading, I fear, remains the best pastime available to me."
She listens a little closer... then lowers her head, as if to nod.
"'Tis not just humans he pits me against, Commander. Monsters, fiends, whatever dangers the Control Zone corrals. Or sometimes even homegrown." She doesn't sound like she disagrees with her assessment of what the games should be.
"Perhaps so. In his words, paraphrased, it is the blood his audience smells that proves lucrative."
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
It's possible she could inquire after it, if she were so inclined. But on the other hand, criminal justice falls outside her jurisdiction. She is a soldier now; she will leave justice to those who administer it, and instead see to the enemies of the Veruni... within and without.
"Inexperienced. Hmm, hmm. I suppose they did not expect her to end up here." Her gaze settles on Yue for a moment. "So, she is the seventh?"
Though something about mention of sewing and fabric arts does get the soldier's attention. ...Until Yue mentions that it is often too hard to see.
"Perhaps a light may be negotiated," she states, before glancing off again to the horizon. "But your hands must remain shackled. Those are the terms of your service, CR-S01."
Not just humans, then.
"I see. So this is the end to which our funding is put? I am not an afficionado of these shows, as you may surmise. We should be preparing ourselves for our conquest, not wasting our time and energy on these diversions."
She eyes Yue.
"But I suppose a traitor such as yourself must think differently. Isn't that right?"
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue is silent for a while; she has that cucco feather in her mouth, as she so often does. The feather lilts up and down gently as if she were lightly chewing on it, in thought. "I am not aware of how many minders there are, but it would follow there are six others, I suppose."
She does crack her eye open when Amaterasu says they could negotiate a light. Hmm. That would make things easy.
"That it is," she quietly agrees with Amaterasu on the conditions of her service. "They do not remove my shackles even when I am in service," she adds, even with a light chuckle.
She doesn't quite reach on the topic of whether she's a fan or not, or whether it's a pointless diversion or not... she's just a hapless actress trapped in the midst of it all.
But when she eyes her and asks that question...
"Commander Amaterasu... pray tell me."
She bobs her head gently.
"Do you believe me to be a Moderate?"
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
And in response, Amaterasu stares her down.
"Are you claiming you are not? Do not presume to mislead me, CR-S01. We well understand the terms of your sentencing, even all these thousands of years hence."
She stares at Yue as if she could peel back her flesh and prise the truth from her.
"We know what the Moderates did. Your group's meddling cost us this planet. And what's more... you attempted to kill /her/."
Their only hope, it is said. The one thing that will allow them to reclaim this planet.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
"... ... I am not claiming anything one way or the other," is Yue's particularly slow response, after another long and momentuous pause.
"Because Moderate or Radical, all I am is a convict now."
She chuckles just for a moment longer as she lifts her head and looks towards that flesh-piercing gaze. She is an incredibly powerful woman, one who would break her down not only physically, but mentally and emotionally too.
But... there is just nothing but tiredness in those eyes in turn. Not something that resists her gaze, nor falls subservient into it.
Like it just is.
"I only wished to know your thoughts. That is all... Commander," she bows her head gently.
<Pose Tracker> Amaterasu has posed.
Amaterasu's gaze does not lessen in intensity so much that her attention shifts away -- much like how a lighthouse's beam might move onwards in the depths of night.
"So you aren't. Hmm. I see."
She inclines her head in a short, crisp nod.
Her gaze departs from Yue altogether.
"I imagine you have had much time to contemplate your crimes," she says, to the sky alone.
"And now you know my thoughts as well. I am an executioner of Moderates, CR-S01. Follow my command and I will spare you my judgement. But up here, whatever those on Filgaia have determined for your fate... up here, your fate is mine and mine alone to deliver."
The breeze picks up again, catching with it the scent of the sea...
And ash. And blood.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue looks up towards the distance as well. Towards the sea, towards the broken seawall where Hashmal and Cuchulainn so much as shattered through it. She hears Amaterasu's words for her.
"... that it is, Commander," Yue responds very quietly, yet tersely.
"Indeed, there has been much time for me to ruminate..."
She lifts her head up again with a strangely calm -- or placid -- smile.
"... that my fate has been known to me for a long time now."
What it really means is up to interpretation. But perhaps the resignation therein is as much a statement of clarity beyond the ambituity of her words.
So why does she seem to still strive so much for her minder?