2020-06-24: Your Unknown World
- Log: Your Unknown World
- Cast: Kaguya, Fereydoon
- Where: Locus Solus
- Date: June 24, 2020
- Summary: Within the Locus Solus, an intruder is detected.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Deep in the heart of Veruni territory, in a secure facility, Kaguya stands looking over a screen. She's dressed in Veruni attire outright at the moment--her armor, green and chrome, though her mask is down, her hair is loose. She looks more or less like she's supposed to be here, except...
Well, she isn't precisely.
She stands in front of a touchscreen in front of a whole set of servers, reading data files that are absolutely classified. The tools she used to do it in the first place are nearby; one is plugged into the system now, a couple in her bag instead.
Her blonde hair is down, and her strange green eyes ar tracing over the data. But, by this point...
She's already closing it down again, just doing a last view and taking out the drive she used to take her notes with it. In short order the system is down again, like it was untouched.
...But she was detected in the system, she just doesn't know it yet. "So it really is..."
She mutters to hrself, obviously troubled, quiet. But without anyone around, she doesn't need to perform bombastic anger. She doesn't have the energy for that as weighty as this is.
She starts to turn, around to go past another shelf on the way towards the entrance again.
<Pose Tracker> Fereydoon has posed.
EARLIER
"...Yes? What is it?"
"Persephone, my liege. There has been an intrusion into the secure databanks within the Locus Solus. She believes the intruder is still present."
Silence follows.
"...Mm. Is that so? Then I will leave the matter to you, Fereydoon. I do not think our 'anomaly' will wait."
"At once, my liege. With your leave..."
NOW
His footsteps make no sound as he makes his way through the server space within the Locus Solus. It hadn't taken long -- a short conversation with Persephone, already tracing the guard shifts for the night -- to work out what had happened.
The remaining matters were who.
And in what manner with which they would be dealt.
There is in the end one person in the server stacks.
It's a funny thing, nearly, as capable as Fereydoon is of thinking that something is 'funny'.
Because of who it is.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmNGrWEZ0Fc
"So it was you," his voice announces, and in the end, the place he is standing, having arrived from seemingly out of nowhere, is that precise place that will trap her within the server stacks, unable to escape.
"Kaguya."
He is silent, as if awaiting her explanation.
Or confession.
Is it a relief that his face can be seen, now?
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Kaguya, naturally, doesn't hear silent footsteps. She actually thinks for a while that she's going to be able to get out as quietly as she made it in. For a moment, anyway. Except... for that voice.
"What," Kaguya starts, blinking, as she turns the rest of the way to see him, looking up--of course it has to be up. She can see his face, and hers is definitely cautious--she looks if not guilty, then certainly aware that there's trouble, now. There's a few moments where the small scientist lets her mind race ahead, working on outcomes; explnations, excuses, whether she can successfully play dumb or not...
"...Sentinel," she says instead after a moment, and straightens up. The qiet, the hesitation, the pensiveness that was there in her unguarded moments is replaced by seriousness.
"Guess there's safeguards. All the data's intact, if you're concerned--I didn't alter any files. Just read them."
"...There's things I learned, out there in the world. Things I learned about our history, and our future. I had to confirm them for myself."
She looks around, considers whether anyone is here--knowing it's almost certainly no one. "...Not everything I wanted to know was here, but there was enough. There's some conflicting reports from way back when, but that'll happen I guess." She doesn't go for weapons; she has them, obviously, in a dangerous place like this. Some are even visible. But her hands are free.
"...The TF System. Heavy stuff, huh?"
While she can mostly keep her mouth under control in the presence of a noble... she's gotten well-used to having authority herself. She isn't good at meek.
<Pose Tracker> Fereydoon has posed.
He knows who she is, of course. Even if there were none of her accomplishments to go by, he would at least know her as the sickly sister to one of his own soldiers.
The question is why one of their loyal operatives is in here, after having accessed the servers covertly -- or at least, nearly so, if Persephone had not caught a tell-tale spike in the data.
"Persephone will be the judge of that," says the born-and-bred soldier. The Rygs house has always been more inclined towards the arts of war than the more subtle craft his fellow Sentinel favors. "Hm... so you read the files."
He takes one quiet step forward, making her escape -- such that it remains -- that much less likely.
"I see. So you sought out the answers for yourself rather than ask." Briefly, the man closes his eyes.
"And so now you understand why we cannot tell our people, nor do we have any other options available."
If there is violence or judgement yet to be handed down, its shape cannot yet be read. This room is quiet, other than that low hum of data flowing through the servers, other than the sound of each other's voices.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
And obviously, Kaguya knows who Sentinel Fereydoon is. She might've known family members of his, when she was back on the Locus Solus, though certainly not well. Not given the status of the Rygs house, and the status of Kaguya's family back then in turn. Persephone...
"Naturally," Kaguya answers about that. "I did."
Kaguya mentally reviews the locations of everything in her pockets and in her bag. She can only count on the pockets on her person; the bag would be too slow, and he'd reach her before she could get anything out. Going for a weapon on the other hand would be problematic. There's one thing she could do, one thing, other than the risk of grabbing 'that'...
Fereydoon closes his eyes only briefly, but Kaguya doesn't. She sort of stares, one of those stares of someone who's seen a little too much. It doesn't last all that long, but neither does it entirely leave her expression.
She seems to have made her peace that something may happen. Maybe it's not surprising that she can talk relatively comfortably knowing that. Maybe it is.
"I respect Professor Elvis a lot," Kaguya says. "But I needed to know that he wasn't holding back on me, or trying to spare my feelings, or anything like that. I couldn't trust it unless I saw it for myself. ...Maybe I just got used to seeing things for myself out there."
"..."
She nods, after a moment, with a sigh. "We definitely can't tell our people. Or anybody else, for that matter. I do get that. Not our people, not other people... Whether I like the idea much or not, spreading that around would make sure there were no other options. It'd force everyone's hands, ours included."
No other options, though? Kaguya is more silent on that, looking troubled, shaking her head once. "I see the logic," she says instead. "Our leaders' ultimate responsibility is to our own people, not someone else's. And I don't have a better solution."
<Pose Tracker> Fereydoon has posed.
He doesn't have his sword in his hands. It rests as always strapped across his back. But she would know the stories about Fereydoon. He doesn't need to have it in his hand to be a threat. The only question is whether he would do it in here and risk damaging the servers, or...
She couldn't ask Elvis. Because he might have softened the blow, so to speak.
"..."
He watches her for a long moment.
"...I see."
He folds his arms across his chest, looking her over from head to toe, as if he could thereby ascertain some aspect of her being.
They can't tell their people. They can't tell anyone.
"If the Moderates found out about this... it is a regrettable decision for us to make, but we cannot permit ourselves as a people to die out."
Retreat from Filgaia is no longer possible.
He hasn't shown a flicker of emotion the entire time. He might as well be an animate statue. Yet, his gaze meets with hers if briefly, and there is--
Almost, a sort of understanding.
"You... more than most, must understand this."
And then that glimmer is gone, replaced by the professional soldier, the right-hand man of Lord Volsung.
"...Nevertheless, you have entered this facility without the permission to do so, and similarly accessed confidential information. This is your ultimatum: come quietly, and I will see no harm befalls you, as befitting your accomplishments."
He does not elucidate her other option.
It is, after all, barely an option.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Anything Kaguya can do in terms of raw battle prowess, she's confident Fereydoon can do faster and better. He has more than her strength, easily, and probably more speed, especially with the way the Factor is slowing her down on Filgaia, bringing pain to some of the most basic movements here and there. Would he risk damaging the servers?
She's not sure. It's hard to say. But his expert eyes can see through her youth--a girl younger and older than him both. She is obviously calculating something, has that distant look that suggests thought more than feeling, older than her apparent years would suggest.
He doesn't flicker. That makes it harder to make decisions. "Yeah," she says. "It'd be... a problem."
But she sees that brief way he meets her eyes, that way there is almost something...
"I do," Kaguya answers, and she finds she answers it before she even thinks about it. "I understand it very well."
So why doesn't it sound sympathetic?
The glimmer is gone, and Fereydoon is a soldier again. There's a choice point here that Kaguya can see plainly, though there's an irony in it that she can't help but notice. "...You know," she says. "In some ways, I have more claim here than most of our people. For me, it wasn't that long ago that we lived here. All this being on Filgaia, being among humans... it's weird, and new. I'm used to just us."
Something dull in the pit of her stomach answers her, though. She has her answer. She knows it, now, and there is a faint pulse of something--not from her, exactly, barely registerable, just a little ripple in the air as she inclines her head, something familiar... something reminiscent, in its way, of Volsung himself. She has a similar look in her eyes as she meets Fereydoon's gaze again.
"Yeah. I believe you. Lead the way, Sentinel."
<Pose Tracker> Fereydoon has posed.
He's younger than her in total years. Of that, there can be no question. She might have known his parents (or even his grandmother) in fact--
Better than he ever did.
But in terms of lived experience...
The Veruni are a long-lived people. They do not typically have many children, as a rule, even when their health was less on the line than it is now. Even when they returned to Filgaia, they were but a few in number. But the generations since they left Filgaia have taken their toll -- those who remain of the cohort that left can be easily counted. Those who remember the search for a suitable star, more than that. Those who fled another dying world, more than that. And so on.
The current generation is still young, younger than Kaguya and her sister. And there's no guarantee they will see even their 100th birthday.
Fereydoon might be younger than her, but it is unlikely he will ever even come close to her age, martial achievements and apparent good health or no.
But of course, by then, Kaguya will have already have...
He does one thing when Kaguya says how strange it is now. How much the world changed while she slept.
"I cannot imagine it," Fereydoon says, wielding his honesty like a blunt weapon. "This is the only world that I have ever known." Then he pauses, his gaze still upon her. Perhaps he's thinking about something else -- or someone else. "...Nevertheless, you have broken our law by coming here. Now, if you will follow me..."
He watches her again for a long moment, then turns, beginning to lead the way out of this corridor within the Locus Solus.
He doesn't ask her to walk in front. He doesn't turn his head to keep an eye on her. Is this trust, though, or an assumption that whatever she might do... he'll be able to stop it?
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
By then, of course; it's inevitable.
Kaguya listens to Fereydoon's honest reply, and it makes sense to her, but as a blunt weapon it severs something nevertheless. She feels a gulf here, a long distance from this man. He is noble; he is younger but also older. He has only known this world. ...How much, really, does she have in common with him? ...With...?
She recognizes the straight arrow type when she sees it. "That's true. I did."
Kaguya follows along, footsteps quiet but not as quiet as his; they click faintly. As he neglects to turn his head, leads the way, Kaguya considers again her options. She has a fair view of his back; she has a lot of tricks. ...No, better than tricks. She has 'that' power. Maybe she could manage it.
...Does she have more in common with anyone else, though? The story Avril told her about a man who slept away the years floats up to her mind...
"It was nice," she says instead. "But all we wanted by the end was to think about 'home', going back."
"You already know how that turned out."
If there is a move to be made, it won't be now, or here. Kaguya walks through the halls of her former home for what she is fairly certain will be the last time.
<Pose Tracker> Fereydoon has posed.
It's a funny thing, perhaps -- at least to an outsider. A man like Volsung, supported whole-heartedly by a man like Fereydoon. Indeed, if the stories are true, the soldier has been his supporter from the start.
But reality necessitates hard decisions. Even amputation is required in medicine to save the body. In the end, there is only one course they can take.
He's quiet as they walk the halls, his gaze in front of him.
"There are no monsters left in this sector. There is nothing to fear," he tells her. Was it from the patrols, whose distraction thanks to the monsters earlier permitted her entrance, or...?
'It was nice'.
"So I understand." He comes to a stop after a few moments more.
He doesn't look back at her.
"...Your condition is advanced," he says finally. "So why is it that you have not come here for treatment?"
At her stage, though, if she did check herself in... would she come back out again?
No advanced patient has ever left.
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
It is funny. Kaguya thinks Fereydoon might almost fit in better among the knights of Hyland than here, in some ways. But this is where he is, and she doesn't know him that well; surely there are reasons such a straight arrow is in a position of so much authority.
It's obviously not just his lineage, though it wouldn't surprise her in theory if for someone it was. Just not the Sentinels she's heard of. Not the ones Volsung relies on...
Kaguya's not as quiet, but she's not as chatty as she could be. She, unlike him, looks around a lot, curious about her surroundings more than worried, though... "That's good," she says. Some of the monsters that roam this place could give even her trouble, after all. There were reasons beyond stealth to keep quiet.
But it was nice. 'Was', is the key. But as he doesn't look back... As he asks that question...
"Heh heh," the small scientist answers, shaking her head. "You know," she says. "I thought about it. Especially before I left. My family would be happier if I did, 'accomplishments' or not."
That hangs on the air for a moment before she dispels it, "But I have too much to do now, and before..." She thinks how to phrase it. "Did you know that for years, I planned and plotted and worked for what I'd do when we got back to the planet? I'm pretty sure they used some of my work anyway, while I was asleep, since I prepared a number of our plants on the ship for transplant in any number of environments. But I spent years waiting for it, imagining what it would be like. Thinking of what we might see, how it could've developed..."
"So I guess it's just that I'd rather die out there doing something than waiting around for another disappointment. Something about wasted potential, right...?"
"The ship was always, always moving. ...I don't want to stay still, either. I've slept long enough."
<Pose Tracker> Fereydoon has posed.
There are reasons, of course.
It's just that those reasons boil down to the nominal leader of the Veruni as a whole (though perhaps not if you were to ask the Moderates). But let it be said:
Volsung did not only look to the Veruni nobles for his most trusted operatives.
The sole part of the Locus Solus that still sees 'regular' foot traffic is its medical heart. The rest of the ship has been claimed by a mix of Radicals, monster swarms, and the occasional boltholed Moderate infiltratee. The size of the ship and its current condition mean that it's difficult when there are monster surges to necessarily surveil all potential points of entry, as Kaguya has ascertained and made use of this day.
But typically, the Moderates simply don't get that far in.
The monsters alone usually solve as many problems as they create.
He still doesn't look back as she remarks that her family would probably prefer it. "Yet you haven't," he remarks, in the silence that follows her comment.
She gives him her answer.
He's silent for a long moment. In that time, his body answers for him: he straightens, his back and shoulders tensing. His hands briefly curl into fists. "I see. So your feelings are the same as hers." As whose? "...Even if your family wishes otherwise, you intend to..." Real anger -- at someone, or rather, something else, laces the words. But then Fereydoon trails off. His fingers uncurl from the palms of his hands; his stance at once becomes more formally rigid. "...My apologies. That was unbecoming of me."
He continues walking, as if what had just happened hadn't. "The connection relay is straight ahead. I will collect your formal statement and confirm with Persephone once we are beyond."
He adds, as they approach that gateway,
"Lord Volsung is... indisposed at the moment."
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
Clearly it's not the way it used to be. Kaguya can smell even from here the various aromas of medical treatment, antiseptic and otherwise. Of course there is still much of the ship under monster trouble...
She didn't waste much of her time using that freedom to sightsee; she was focused, had a deliberate set of targets, after all. She had measures to deal with the monsters if she had happened to run into too many... But tried to avoid making that much noise.
She is rather more adept than the average operative, Radical or Moderate. ...Though naturally she counts among the Radicals, right? That certainly has been the case. It would have to be.
Kaguya can be self-absorbed, but in this situation she has a lot of observation already in mind. She notices the tension in Fereydoon--the reference to a 'her'. There's actual anger there, and for a moment Kaguya considers her contingency plans... but he calms. He actually apologizes.
"...It's fine," she says. "I'm sure you have a good reason."
She finds herself less curious than she imagined she would be; maybe it's just that she's so used to the idea of rank, here. Besides, he keeps walking.
"All right. That's fair, I'll try and be complete about it."
She ends up wry, though, looking up at him. "Too busy to deal with an irresponsible girl, I bet." She's well aware of her apparent age, at least. "..."
If she intended to say something else, she doesn't for the moment. She just looks around again.
<Pose Tracker> Fereydoon has posed.
'I'm sure you had a good excuse.'
"A soldier must remain disciplined at all times," is his slight non sequitor of a reply. He keeps moving. "There is no such thing as an 'excuse'."
Is this where her sister gets it from, somewhat? The martial training? Or is this just a quirk endemic to Fereydoon and Fereydoon alone?
He approaches the door, which only opens when he presents his hand to it. Biometrics?
The door slides open.
But he glances back at her at last, surprise in his gaze as he regards her.
"No," he says, the persona of the Soldier taking over once again, "Lord Volsung will wish to speak to you."
A pause, as he stands aside to usher her in to the relay.
"Privately."
<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.
At all times...
"You'd know more about soldiering than me," Kaguya demurs, not willing to make an argument of letting him off for the comment. She understands it, she thinks--but he definitely reminds her strongly of her sister at that moment. She puts it in her mind to recall for later. Maybe she can learn a bit.
But for now, she watches the door slide open, looks to the mechanism--a door she couldn't open, before. A door that it was best for her not to open apparently. Good thing she didn't go that way...
But as he looks at her in surprise, she actually takes that as a little victory--not for long. "Oh," she says.
Privately.
"Great."
She is exactly as enthused as one might imagine her to be.