2019-10-21: Just Run Away
- Cutscene: Just Run Away
- Cast: Lunata Croze
- Where: Thames
- Date: 21st October 2019
- Summary: Lunata ruminates from her encounter with Jay as she searches for a new job.
We're not going anywhere.
> next
ETHOS COMMISSION - MIKE TRUK .............. 2.700 GELLA
OFFSHORE SALVAGE - SLEVE MCDICHEAL ........ 7.500 GELLA
Running away sounds good right about now, but... she can't. She wouldn't.
> next
DIGGER LICENSES ONLY!! - TOMY SMEHRIK ..... 3.330 GELLA
PAYIN IN REFRACTORS - DEAN WESREY ......... 5.550 GELLA
Something /else/ bad has happened, hasn't it? It always does.
Dressed in an olive green singlet and black spats, Lunata clicks away at a Memory Cube-sourced list of contracts. Her Yevonite robes hang from a hook inside her cockpit. It's not a garment anymore, riddled with holes from Odessan buckshot. It almost feels like a bitter reminder now.
The worst thing about a monitor, she's finding, is how it doubles as a mirror. How it reflects the strange porcelain-like crack spreading through her face. Another reminder. No matter how human-like her face is, how lifelike the magic can make her pretend like she is... she isn't human. Not anymore.
It's late -- two in the morning. The carrier's residents have either gone to bed, or are off on their nightly patrols. The fishermen have already sailed off on their high-tide expedition, to return at the crack of dawn with their bounty to feed the others. She declined the offer to go on patrol tonight.
I don't have any answers... and I don't have any more leads either.
Back home. Back to Filgaia. Back to not having any leads. Back to no answers. Back to having no hope but feeling the sands on her timer continue to run dry. For a moment it felt like she had hope...
...
Was it hope? She chose Yevon when she heard, saw... felt the Maester. What was it about Maester Seymour that made her dare to hope again? It wasn't anything about him or the way he carried himself. He was nice, sure. But a lot of people are nice. No, there was something...
Something about that Aeon of his and the way he speaks of her. Something about the way Vinsfeld spoke to him in Mi'ihen, about his father. In hindsight, perhaps...
Perhaps it wasn't hope.
Perhaps it was just sympathy coming in the disguise of hope.
She still remembers the panic coursing through her entire body in Macalania, after Jyscal's sphere dropped, ever so conveniently. The way hope can be dashed away in such a fragile manner. Then... way Belize approached her, to calm her down. She really hopes the Summoner made it through all right.
What even happened in there?
...
Lydia was abducted by Solaris. A man named Krelian appeared at the temple.
So Jay's going to fight Solaris and Gebler too now... the Drifters are. Pretty soon there won't be a military insurrection or ancient conspiracy or demonic force that she hasn't chosen to fight.
Can't really go back to the Wolves... can't really go back to the Carakin... can't go back anywhere...
Some of them say running away from your problems sounds appealing. That if they could they would. But none of them ever do. They're all made of... stronger stuff. They have lineages, they have duties, they have passions... something intangible and forceful that lets them all put themselves on the line even when the bad news comes. No matter how much it hurts them. No matter how long it takes.
/I/ want to run away.
... it makes her feel like the littlest person. Like when everyone in your circle of friends casually jokes about something you'd do for real.
I can't stop running...
> next
PAYIN IN REFRACTORS - DEAN WESREY ......... 5.550 GELLA
HOT WEB CAMO GEARS - BOBSON DUGNUTT ... 1.110 D.DOLLARS
... These jobs suck. Half of them look like scams and ads. The worst part is that even two years ago she might have fallen for some of them.
Just keep running... that's all you can do.
She pauses at the last contract on the list.
> next
GEAR PILOT WANTED - T.BONNE ............ 9.999 GELLA
"... Gear pilots, huh ..." Lunata murmurs.
-click-