2020-10-21: A Future with Us
- Log: A Future with Us
- Cast: Kamui, Zhang Xiumei
- Where: Bevelle
- Date: 21st October 2020
- Summary: Xiumei discovers Kamui in the Bevelle battlefields.
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
ARMS has had better days.
The first impact was losing Brad at the Main Gate, when he sacrificed himself in order to stall for time for everyone else to be able to escape the ancient machine known only as Megaman Juno;
Then there is now, with the current skirmish with Yevon within Bevelle, and the news that several of their members -- Marivel, Ashley, and the others -- have been taken captive within.
And there is also what Juno said to Kamui...
Kamui's been scarce in the last couple of days -- but it's not hard to trace her, what with one portion of the battlefront having a clear trail of destruction. Blown-up YKT-12s and YAT-99s, clearly melted by a superhot force only a Buster could muster.
The little Reploid is standing atop a cliff, overlooking the city still.
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.
Xiumei is trying to keep her chin up. It isn't easy; Brad Evans is dead, Eleanor is now trying to take his place (and Clarissa Arwin, but Xiumei privately has to focus on how it affects Nora), and so many of them are missing. It's hard to not have a heavy heart, and busy work will only keep bad feelings away so long. But, she has to find Kamui...
She tells herself that it's to be sure that Kamui is safe and sound, when Marivel gets back. But, the truth is, she doesn't know for sure that Marivel and the others will be, and she worries about what Kamui would do.
She follows the trail of blasted and destroyed YKT-12 and YAT-99 Machina, the familiar melted blasts in their husks. Xiumei walks along, nervously, in her Model AV armor. Her eyes glance about, before she spots Kamui atop the hill. She trudges up, then stops a little behind her.
"...Kamui?" Xiumei asks.
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
The air is eerily silent; it's that lull inbetween skirmishes of a battlefield where both sides are recuperating, with nothing but the occasional burst of gunfire that makes one jump with how silent everything is.
The wind is blowing, fluttering that battered black shawl of hers -- and Kamui turns slowly, a red glint from her camera-eye visible underneath her hair. Then it fades.
"Xiumei?" Kamui asks. "What are you doing here...?"
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.
"Oh, um..." Xiumei trails off, when she is asked. Her eyes linger on that red glint from her camera eye; her eyes blink a few times, and then she smiles, though it is a little more forced than usual. She is doing it out of well-trained politeness and a little nervousness.
"...I wanted to check up on you," she says. "It'd been a few days, and with everything happening, ah..." She reaches up, brushing back a little of her long, purple hair with her gloved fingers.
"I didn't want to take chances."
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
Kamui's chest wrenches a little, realising she's looking rather intimidating right now. It's not really Xiumei's fault -- it wouldn't be anyone's fault, the expression she's giving off... but right now, it's leading back into a toxic thought of hers.
That she's dangerous to Xiumei. To the others.
"I'm looking for a way in," Kamui admits. "I thought that if I didn't find a tunnel, I might just make one. If they hurt any of our friends..."
She feels that ancient wrath of hers building up again. She tries to pacify herself, 'breathing' in and out several times, slowly.
"How are you? How is Eleanor?"
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.
"I've thought it too," Xiumei says, and she steps up the rest of the way, standing next to Kamui. She glances sideways at her, then shakes her head. "It's really tempting, knowing they're all in there... that we could save them if we rushed in."
She hesitates, then, and sighs.
"...but it's really dangerous, if we just bring everyone on top us," she says. "They could overwhelm us and capture us. If we can find a tunnel, though..."
She trails off, then glances sideways at Kamui. She smiles again at the reploid. "...I'm okay. I'm worried about everyone. And Mr. Evans..." She looks down. "...Eleanor's working really hard, too."
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
Kamui pauses at Xiumei's own admissions that she wants to rush in and save them all. It is tempting. But dangerous, if they bring all the force they have to muster on them.
"I know it must be hard on her... on you, too. On everyone, really."
A pause, as she uncomfortably glances aside and adds:
"I... were you there, Xiumei? At the Main Gate, at that time. When that Administrator unit said it."
A longer, more uncomfortable pause still.
"I know now I am a danger to you all. I'm not making this situation easier."
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.
"...yeah. We'll be all right," Xiumei says, even if she doesn't sound totally sure. But she needs to make herself smile and keep herself from succumbing to that sort of despair. She remembers what it felt like.
She turns her eyes back on Kamui, though, at the question. Her eyes blink; they're aglow and lighter green than usual, as the Biometal applies a lens of light over each eye. It help adjusts for her vision problems; it also looks like Avile's eyes did, in the past. When she blinks, her eyes still glow through the eyelids.
"I heard," she says. She hesitates for a second.
"I know it's scary, what he said, but... we don't want you to go anywhere else. You're not..." She hesitates. "...you're not making things harder for us, Kamui."
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
Kamui feels both a mixture of pride and a tinge of jealousy, perhaps; pride, that Xiumei's gained a measure of strength since her first days at ARMS; jealousy, that she can't muster the same at the moment. She feels close, once more, to that edge of despair.
Kamui notices her eyes shift for a moment -- she sees Avile's eyes, and feels a bit haunted for it. Even if she's there, now, with Xiumei, within the Model A Biometal...
"Everyone is so accomodating... but why?" Kamui asks quietly. "I... what I long feared was true, Xiumei. The details are vague to me still, but I knew I was -- the Knight of Valmar, they called me then. I committed many atrocities and took many lives."
Her head hangs softly. "I know now the flaw inside me... and... it may very well happen again. Seeing what I see here, in Bevelle -- it reminds me of why I turned down that road."
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.
"I don't... I don't know a lot about Valmar, or what happened back then," Xiumei says, with a shake of her head. She hesitates for a second, then she puts her hand on Kamui's shoulder. Her still too bright eyes look sideways at her, and she smiles with a little tinge of regret.
"But, um..."
It's hard to put things in to words. "...just because you did something once doesn't mean that you will again, okay?" she finishes. "And I know it's bad, and I'm... I'm not entirely sure what to do. But we can get through it, and you're not alone."
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
Kamui is silent for a while, in thought as Xiumei expresses she doesn't know much about Valmar. "Do you remember, when we rescued Tio from that woman, Neriah? She was possessed by a portion of the creature known as Valmar."
She tilts her head, frowning gently, frustrated at the gaps still existing in her memory. "I understand Valmar is known as a devil in modern-day Filgaia. Which is... given what I DO remember, not an unreasonable way to view us."
She feels Xiumei's hand on her shoulder.
"I see these humans abusing us, Xiumei. Renouncing machina with the very same breath they use their own. Just using machinekind to their own ends. I..."
She closes her one good eye.
"I remember my heart sinking at such a sight." She doesn't, at the moment, include the other major reason -- Varius.
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.
"Yeah... I remember," Xiumei says. "That was scary. I'm glad that we got her out of there. I..." She hesitates, but she knows well that Valmar is a devil-like figure. Her family wasn't religious, but she knew enough about the Granasian faith from osmosis. She looks down.
"I know," she says. "They're hypocrites. They say one thing and do another, and use what they say they believe in to hurt the Al Bhed. And others..."
She shakes her head, and looks back up. "I don't like it either. I can only imagine how it gets to you." She, after all, isn't nearly as old as Kamui.
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
Kamui keeps her head low, in an almost penitent manner. She keeps taking these long, drawn-out breaths as she works through her feelings.
"The other one is..." A pause. "I remember. I remember thinking... 'Varius was right'." She hesitates, scowling as she clutches at her heart. "The feeling of thinking humankind was not worth working with."
She bites her lip, as she says, "I will help resolve this incident, but... I want to talk with you, with Marivel, with Acacia and Eleanor... about the future. What it is I should do, what would be best."
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.
Xiumei's eyes widen a little.
Marivel told her, once, that Kamui killed Varius, after he turned against humanity. She hesitates, then, and her eyes look down at the ground. She swallows a little hard, then, but her hand stays on Kamui's shoulder. "Kamui..."
She shakes her head. Avile is silent, in her mind; Varius is less so. Her eyes look at her, the concern clear. "Varius says... that he wasn't in a good place, then. That... that it's not what he still thinks."
She hesitates a moment more.
"We can talk about the future," she says. "But... please don't think that you don't have one with us, okay?"
<Pose Tracker> Kamui has posed.
Kamui blinks a few times as Xiumei speaks -- and in turn, conveys what Varius thinks too. She almost begs to hear his voice, but bites her lip, thinks of Xiumei's privacy as well, and what she promised about not wanting to just use her as a vehicle for people from the past.
"... okay," Kamui acquiesces quietly. Varius doesn't feel that way anymore -- she honestly wouldn't have guessed, but...
They never talked about that. And...
Not talking about how they feel really led them down so many paths, didn't it?
"Thank you," she includes. "To-- all of you. Avile. Varius. And you, Xiumei."
<Pose Tracker> Zhang Xiumei has posed.
There might be something to Varius telling Xiumei what to say; he always felt a little awkward about being honest about his feelings. Telling Xiumei, and letting her do it for him, is easier than speaking for himself. And Avile, in this case, remains silent.
"O-of course," Xiumei says, with a little smile. She hesitates, then steps closer and hugs Kamui. It is a little brief and awkward as hugs go; Eleanor is the one who is better with hugs, but she tries.
"I'm, um, I'm glad I can be a little help," she says.
And maybe also grateful that she was thanked herself, rather than just being a vehicle for Varius and Avile.