2020-08-21: Don't You Ever Get Tired Of It

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  • Log: Don't You Ever Get Tired Of It?
  • Cast: Loren Voss, Lily Keil, Fei Fong Wong, Leah Sadalbari (cameo)
  • Where: Kasutho Island
  • Date: August 21, 2020
  • Summary: Thanks to a chance bit of paperwork crossing his desk, Loren heads to Kasutho. His aim is to shed blood -- but will the Wolves let him?

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    There had been a situation in Kasutho while they'd been out. Something involving a sorceror's experiments, if the information they'd had was correct. Intelligence was on the job -- for once they didn't need him to do anything about it. That suited him fine.

    He would have ignored the whole business, frankly, if it weren't for one thing.

    It's just chance in the end.
    Some of the paperwork that crosses his desk -- sign-off for medical supplies/support, something about the remnants from the lab -- that mentions observable Ether traces. Strong ones.
    That meant--

    The Major can kill him for this later, if she wants. If there's the chance she was involved--
    If she's still there--

    He's not going to let it slip through his fingers.

    He'd requested leave. He was due it. It had been granted.
    For once things were working in his favor.

    ...Well, sort of.

    Kasutho is a fair-sized island, and he only has so much time. While no one's seen any red-haired women...

    Well, suffice to say, his luck on the matter has only continued to be good. No one's seen any red-haired women, but they did mention a pair of figures who sounded a little bit familiar.

    Maybe it hadn't been Elly after all at the lab. But it might have been someone else who Loren owes a great deal. It's just a matter of finding out how far ahead of him she's gotten.
    Or for that matter, the man she's with.

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Powerful Ether traces. It could be her. But then, someone else...

Well. Lily Keil recently had a facility to help destroy. There were many things that needed not to be repeated, and a base that needed not to be useful again. But... it is a big island, and she's still on it.

When Loren seeks to find, one of the people he'll spot at the clearing here is Lily Keil, filling up a canteen from a spring. Dressed in old fatigues, she's kneeling at the moment with her attention on her surroundings, but there's always a blind spot.

She has been talking to Fei possibly, as they travel towards the rendezvous point.

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei has been spending most ofhis time n the Karlsefani as of late but even he has to get out there sometimes to get some air before he gets...

CABIN FEVER

Or otherwise goes stir crazy. He is not a red haired woman either. At least not this time around.

"She's going to be okay I think." Fei is saying. "Emeralda and I made her sandwiches. PB&J. You should've seen Emeralda's face when she tried the orange marmalade." He laughs a bit and adds, "I actually thought she wouldn't mind it, but she liked grape well enough."

He seems to be doing better. Finally? Finally.

Surely nothing will upset that today!

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    "I thought it had to be you."

    The voice is, of course, a familiar one. Who else could make a statement like that sound particularly petulant?

    "No sign of her, of course. It figures. My luck never is that good," says none other than Captain Loren Voss, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword as he surveys the two of them.

    "You know, I used to think they wanted you alive," he says, and it's uncertain which of them he's referring to, at least at first. "Bring you in over that Gear, let them sort it out. Or bring you in over your Ether..."

    Slowly, he slides the sword from its sheath, the blade glinting in the sunlight.

    The last time they'd seen him, hadn't he been with Odessa's ilk? Just what does that mean--

    He doesn't advance on them, though -- at least not yet. Instead he holds the blade in hand, its tip tilted towards the earth underfoot.

    "The way I'm thinking, though... you're more of a pain alive than dead."

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily has spent a lot of time out. Just, out, on her own mostly. But not entirely! She isn't all antisocial she's just had a lot to think about.

"Good," Lily answers Fei as she fills the canteen. "...Heh. It sounds like I should've. Sounds like we've got a flavor to remember, anyway."

Finally! That's much better. And it seems like it may just be that way... Until, of course--that voice.

That voice, and the feeling there, too. Lily narrows her eyes immediately, turns around to face Loren. She doesn't stand at first, but her hand moves down to the knife at her boot.

The sword slides from its sheath. Lily pulls her knife.

"...I'm tired," she says then, as she rises. "...You have no idea how much has happened lately. You just have the same..."

"You know what? Fine. If this is how it's going to be, then come on." She switches her grip, point-down, and adopts a fighting stance.

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei looks over to Loren.

His expression undergoes several different changes and phases. At first he looks surprised, then he looks kind of depressed. Then he moves all the way to a brief spurt of fury before ultimately getting an utterly detached expression in his eyes.

"Don't you have friends to help you?" He looks around. He doesn't see Lan. Or...any other Solarians.

"I..." He sees Lily moving into a stance and Fei hangs his head for a moment. Is he calm enough to fight here?

Wait, he thinks, maybe he doesn't have to fight. He can try something....clever.

He suddenly tilts his head curiously, looking past Loren and behind him.

"...Is that...The Emperor? What's he doing there?"

He points behind Loren.

...Fei, the key word here was 'Clever'.

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    If the Major knew what he was now doing-- certainly, there would be some form of hell to pay. This is unauthorized, an action set against the chain of command. Death might be preferable for some of them -- the Black Wolves are one of many thorns in the Empire's side. But there is a means and a way in which to do it.

    Once, he would have cared about it more. Once, he would have remembered what was precisely at stake.

    But in this moment, Lily pulls a knife from her boot and something in his soul sings at that motion.

    It's almost a smile. The way his lips twist is almost -- but not quite -- a smile.

    Is this what he's wanted? Some sense of forward direction in the midst of the mire. Something that has a purpose and a goal. Something he still remembers that he wants.

    His grip tightens on the blade's hilt. It seems for a moment like this situation is going to run forward in one particular direction. And then Fei asks him, doesn't he have any friends?

    "Shut up," is Loren's response, and if looks alone could kill, perhaps Fei would have dropped dead on the spot. "That's none of your business. --And it doesn't matter! I don't need them. I don't need anyone else."

    He takes one step forward, when Fei tries a clever gambit.

    Loren just stops and stares at him. He squints.

    "...Are you a complete idiot?" he asks Fei.

    ...It does work to buy time, just not for the reason Fei may have preferred?

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily is still mostly at tired. But also wary. She doesn't actually want to fight that much at the moment. ...Nevertheless, what Fei does is not... what she expects.

What Loren does isn't what she's expecting, either. Sshe obviously can't say anything about what the Major would do, mysteriously... But Lily catches that smile.

It's unhinged, frankly. It reminds her...

"You..."

Fei has neglected to strike. Loren isn't actually coming at them with his sword. So Lily, after a moment, pauses--and then stands straight again, lowering her weapon.

"No," she says, and shakes her head. "This is too weird," she says. "...You're..."

Lily, possessed of certain empathic abilities, frowns. "...I'm not giving you what you want. Not this time."

"...I'm tired, Voss. Don't you ever get tired of it? I didn't go to war for this."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

Fei almost just threw his fist into Loren's face but it was a close thing. But in the past few days he's had to fight some true horrors and some REAL assholes and while Loren is, indeed, a real asshole--Timotheus makes Loren look like Riesenlied.

"Well... I'm.... a farmer with amnesia with like ten years of memories and you guys control most modern information so..." Fei shrugs. "That's right, I'm a complete idiot." He doesn't even deny it.

"Though..." He reaches into his pocket and draws out a deadly...!

...Medical tricorder that he stole from a federation ship. "I can use this thing. It's actually really simple. Took a minute to figure out. But if you're unwell maybe it can figure out what it is."

He looksto Lily for a momentt who says 'not this time'.

He blinks at her. He didn't expect that from Lily. He was half expecting to need to drag her behind some cover.

"Oh." He says.

He looks back to Loren. "Sorry we're not in the mood. It's been a long week. Do you want to rechedule?"

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    He just continues to stare at Fei, as if he were trying to figure out where to begin to approach all of that. It buys Fei time.

    It buys all of them time. That moment is all it takes. Lily--

    Backs down.

    "What...? What are you talking about?" utters the medic, shaking his head as if in disbelief. The hand gripping the blade goes white-knuckled. "I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill both of you, and then I'm going to--"

    He turns, sharply, the preknit web of Ether beginning to stir about him. Fei has pulled something out and points it at him. It's a--

    Loren wrinkles his brow and squints at it. "What is that? Some kind of ancient weapon?"

    He takes one sharp step backwards after. "Unwell--? What are you talking about?"

    'Don't you ever get tired of it?'

    He jerks his head her way. "Of course not. This world is ours to maintain. Unlike you, we don't have the luxury of 'getting tired'." The sword in his hand shakes, just barely. "What are you... what are you playing at, Keil?"

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily is inclined to argue with Fei saying he's a complete idiot, and she gives him a look that suggests as much--but she doesn't voice it. Maybe because she said she was tired, or maybe because she looks again thoughtfully at the tricorder. So Lily then starts to respond to Loren, who has called on Ether if only incompletely--a part of her calls out to answer it, to destroy the threat quickly.

Lily looks back to Loren again. Reschedule...

"Are you, though?" Lily asks him. She shakes her head. "I guess that's unlucky for you, then. If you want to conquer a world you have to run it. But you know what?"

Lily stows her knife in her belt and crosses her arms.

"I do get the luxury of getting tired, and I'm tired now. I've been at war long enough."

"I'll keep fighting, obviously. There are things I have to do, even if you think this 'world' isn't my problem. But not today."

"...Why do you fight, Voss? Why did you go to war? Was it to die in some forest, far away from anyone who cares about you?"

"I've lost too much already. I'm not losing more today. Not even an enemy." Lily shakes her head, and starts to turn around.

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"If it's yours to maintan why is Filgaia shit?" Fei asks rhetorically. "What makes Solaris the rightful rulers of Filgaia anyway? I'll tell you why." He fans out his arm to the side.

"'Cause they're the best at murder. Not war.--Hyadeans got them beat there--but murder is much more practical than war, isn't it Loren? That's all it is. The first prize in murdering. No more, no less. And that's why you're mad at Elly. Because she knew that--just like how you know that--"

He shakes his head slowly.

"She just had the bravery to do something aboutit." He lowers his head, gripping his fist briefly.

"...But I'm tired. I'm tired of fighting your empire. I was tired of fighting your empire before I even knew you had an empire. Solaris won. Solaris always wins. Not because they're stronger, but because they're always willing to lower the bar."

He raises his head. "So you won. So what? Why do you care about us? We're nobodies. Even Id couldn't beat you guys. I know, because he tells me every single day as he tries to get me to break that defeating you is impossible. There's no power alive that can do it, is there Loren? You're invincible."

He pauses. "...Is that why? Are you just so...bored in your absolute victory that you need to come down here and hunt us for sport? I didn't want to get involved in the first place. I would've lived a happy little farm life if not for..."

It's you.

"..." Fei lowers his head a gain. "If your masters are the ones being unfair, take it up with them. Hell, he could even fight them together. Make the world a more just place. But I don't think you want that, so..."

He shrugs. "You're just passing on the unfairnesss of your system onto us."

He looks towards the tricorder. He raises it up--

--and hits the little scanner button. Bweeeeeep.

"It's a medical tricorder from a secret space civilization."

He considers it.

"...You know... I was told I shouldn't tell anybody about it but... They're a bigger fish than even Solaris aren't they?"

He laughs sharply. "Even your mighty civilization built on corpses is DUST compared to what's out there! Isn't that hilarious Loren??"

He grins widely. "Isn't it funny? You should laugh too!"

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    "I am not," he says to Fei, "taking judgement from someone like you. Tell me your kind haven't caused devastation. Tell me you're not responsible for the state of this world! It's in all the history books, isn't it? How you keep fighting each other--"

    He takes a breath, his blue eyes wide. "Call it whatever you want. But you -- you said you were a farmer." He points, drawing perhaps on one of the few farming metaphors he knows, and for good reason given his birth and position. "Don't you have to cull the herd for its own good sometimes? Van Houten is-- you don't understand what she's capable of. Maybe you'll find out someday!"

    They control the world so they have to kill. They have to take lives. It's for everyone's good that they're such good managers.
    It's to their own detriment that they cannot rest for maintaining the world.

    Lily's next words cut deeply.

    "...Why do you fight, Voss? Why did you go to war?"

    For a long -- terribly long -- moment he stares at her, blankly, as if he were trying to find the answer to that question but failing, over and over again, like a machine stuck in a faulty routine.

    There had been a reason. There had been a very good reason! He had wanted to-- he had to-- it was for--

    His lips part and he finally blinks, looking like someone who has roused from a stupor. "It's-- it's none of your business!" he shouts at her, starting forward a step.

    The tricorder instrument beeps. Loren stops in his tracks.

    "A secret... space..."

    For a moment, he feels like his throat has closed up. For a moment, he feels like he's falling. He's shaking, he's shaking, he can't get enough air--

    Out there -- out there in the rest of the universe--
    I wanted there to be someone else.
    I didn't want there to be anyone else.

    He'd wanted--

    "Shut up," he croaks, through a throat that doesn't want to work. "SHUT UP!" he manages to force out in a scream, as Lily turns away, as he manages to break through the paralytic fit, as he manages to break into a run, as he manages to swing his sword the one time as he closes upon her and

    and...

<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.

Lily isn't sure; she's pretty good at murder, herself. She knows many who are good at it. Is Solaris the best?

Would it be better if that were or weren't true?

"..."

She doesn't answer what Fei says immediately. She just thinks of this 'other' civilization'. Space...

So that's where. She doesn't laugh.

She doesn't laugh because she hasn't had the answer to her question. In the moments before she turns away, she continues to watch him. It's then that she hears of that. It's then that she turns. He croaks his answer, and breaks through. Distantly, Lily is aware of his approach. His sword swings out--

"Gh--"

It is an involuntary noise, one Lily makes before she drops to one knee. Loren has slashed through her jacket, a deep gash down her shoulderblade and back. But she doesn't fall further than that. Deep red blood rests on the blade, some splashing down onto the green grass; she drops the canteen as her fingers twitch.

"...I don't have a 'kind', Voss. You know that better than anyone."

Circuitry flares about her body, deep violet, blazing through the solid fabric of her jacket. Her eyes cloud over, turning black; the wound itself flashes with light, but does not heal; instead, the blood welling from it vibrates, beginning to float upward like the rocks and dirt about Lily.

An unholy burst of gravitic force erupts around her, but does not touch Fei--it grips blood and twists painfully before slamming out from her in a concussive wave.

But it will not kill. She meant what she said, even as her skin shimmers and the blood that arose falls back to the earth again.

"...That's about how I feel about that question now, too, I think."

<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.

"Yeah well--we're idiots." Fei says. "You're not supposed to be the same as us. You're supposed to be better, aren't you? And maybe you are. But you aren't better enough to save Filgaia. Not by yourselves. And you definitely aren't the biggest fish in the universe." Fei slides the tricorder back into his pocket.

"...And sure, maybe as farmers we cull the herd. But... Don't you realize how insane that is to apply that to peoplee? People aren't cows, Loren!"

"And Elly..." Fei shakes his head. "She accepted me as Id. Even I don't accept me as Id. So--yeah. Of course! I'm going to accept her no matter what she's capable of. Even if it kills me, Loren."

It wouldn't even be the first time, would it? Lily turns and Fei turns to follow her. Only for Loren--

--It's his fault, Fei thinks distantly. He taunted him. He pushed him onward because he lost his temper. He lost his temper because...it's just been so hard.

Don't they see it's just so hard? He wants to lie down. He wants to rest. He wants it to stop. There's always more battles. Threats. Mysteries. Ever expanding out into the greater cosmos. It isn't the life that makes it hard, it's the terrible, terrible ends, the pain, the suffering, the never-ending and infinite expression of trauma throughout the cosmos.

"Lily...!" Fei shouts his fists burting into flares of blue light as he spins around--

--But Lily's already handling it. Fei grips at his fist. If he had more powerr. If he had Id's power...
It still wouldn't be enough. But at least...

doth thou desire the power?

Fei recoils as if he'd been the one physically struck. He looks to Lily.

...and odes what he probably should've done ages ago: Grab her arm and run the fuck away with her.

"Damn it! Why couldn't I keep my fool mouth shut!?" He yells at the world.

<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.

    "What... what makes you think... that you're people?!"

    This, before the shock rips the rug out from underneath him, this before the shock nearly roots him to the spot, this before the shock nearly ruins him before the both of them.

    This, before rage and hatred show him the route out again.

    Once, there would have been a burst of exultation for wounding her so. He feels nothing, nothing but a blinding pure fury. He would have swung at her again--

    But her eyes go black.

    Loren stops hard, beginning to pivot. Beginning to chain together Ether in a net, a shield, a--

    She's faster.
    The tethers of Ether are sliced to ribbons, fading in the wake of that spell, the spell which is now free to connect without interference.

    The spell hits hard.

    It's like he's just jammed his finger into an outlet, if that outlet also contained a bomb. He's flung backwards. He loses his grip on the blade, which flies in a short arc to land blade-down in the earth.

    He himself slams into a nearby tree, which itself tilts like a drunkard in response. He exhales a wheeze. Sagging against it, he soon collapses to his knees then drops into the dust and dirt facefirst.

    Everything hurts. Something must be broken. It hurts too much to even move an inch, right now.

    He doesn't rise when Fei grabs Lily's arm and the two of them make their escape.

<Pose Tracker> Leah Sadalbari has posed.

A period of time later...

Step-step. Step-step. Step-step. A woman's form approaches Loren, on the ground. She looks down with her single blue eye and a hard expression.

"...You should know, Captain Voss," says the Watcher, "That I am very angry."