thebastion | EVENT: Day 322 [open]

Megaera speaks it, too, I think. [Not that Zuko's ever heard of English, but "Red" seemed to understand her before.

She moves a little closer to the prisoners, but unlike the other two swordspeople, her stance is more protective than threatening. She shoots Ikuri in particular a sharp look.]

No one is getting harmed here because of a personal grudge. That isn't justice.

[It's not honorable either. She looks back at the prisoners and gestures to herself so they know it's an introduction ~~that Colin doesn't have to make for her~~.]

Zuko.

Ask them why they needed the Core.

[Elerian]

I've already given Ikuri the "justice" talk. She's angry because she feels close to Crona. She knows who she's supposed to go after, she won't harm them unless they try to escape or fight.

[Nevermind that fact that Ikuri had only just met Crona... Colin knows that Ikuri's still trying to figure things out. He's getting a better picture of her state of life the more he hangs around her.]

And... that's a very good point, Otoha. If I can get anything more to that effect, I will. But... obviously, this isn't going to be easy.

[English.]

Let me explain a little...

We were on a peaceful mission when your group ambushed us. Your group attacked our allies and killed two of us, on what was supposed to be a milk run.

Many of us are very angry. That said... We're not going to slaughter you, nor are we going to torture you. We're going to protect you from those that would like to do either of those.

You ARE going to be imprisoned, though. Attempting to escape will give the vengeful the reason they need to hunt you. I don't think I need to elaborate on that one... Obviously, I can't say "don't try to escape" and expect you to listen. Gods above and below know that if I were in your shoes, I'd be trying everything in my power to get out of here.

[Sure is saying a lot to ask about the core, isn't he?]

But whatever the case, if you value your lives, it would be in your best interests to cooperate. We gain nothing by your deaths, and many of us would prefer that you not die. Can't speak for everyone, obviously, but the same can be said of all groups.

Now, Zuko and I would like to know... Why was your group after the core? What was worth ambushing and killing two of ours for, trying to kill ALL of them for?

[Oh, and he's scanning both of the prisoners deeply. He wants their bio-signatures and any identifying information he can get to keep track of them. Plus, if one of them's packing an internal explosive, he doesn't want to be caught off guard. And before anyone says that's crazy, we'll just remind you that Colin IS carrying around enough anti-matter to annihilate a city.]

[No internal explosives, but the man does have metal bits in the bone of his left leg. Stainless steel, and they appear to have been there for at least a few years, definitely long enough for the previously-broken bone to heal around them. The woman seems perfectly healthy and devoid of any internal explosives, but there is a long, horizontal scar along her lower abdomen, at least ten years old, if not older.

After listening to Colin, the woman lets out a short, bitter laugh.]

A 'peaceful' mission? Don't be ridiculous. Your actions in the past have been far from peaceful, we won't be fooled by any claims otherwise.

And why would anyone be after the cores? We need power, just as everyone else does. And with the majority of the Cores lost to the abyss, and your group- [she practically spits out those two words] using up the remaining few with this monstrosity, there is little we can do but fight over the remaining ones. So don't act innocent, any actions on our part are your fault!

[The man quietly says Red's name there, to get her to stop. Which she does.]

[Otoha moves forward, his stance casual but his hand gripping the hilt of his sword. They won't understand his language, but hopefully they'll understand his body language.]

They could have asked.

[Not that he's the best at sharing, but other people in the Bastion are fare more generous than he is.]

[Zuko is... quite obviously taken aback by this accusation, like she's been slapped. She looks angry, and a little hurt. She's used to being blamed for things, and she's accepted (and internalized) the blame for a lot of mistakes in the past, and yet, she doesn't know what Red is talking about. Their initial encounter with the Ura was... less than diplomatic, but everyone survived it. Even their manhunt for the Gasfella didn't end in death.

Unless they did something whose consequences she isn't aware of. It wouldn't be the first time she's done wrong without knowing it.]

What is it that you think we did?

We would have been willing to work together.

[Right? Aren't they the good guys?]

[Welp, right at the start of things...that sharp look would've been nothing to her; had your eyes met for it, you would've gotten a sharp look right back. Specifically: Do not do this. I have no desire to harm you but I will go over you if I need to...and if you fight me, I promise I shall fight back. Do not put me in that position.]

[If you caught that look, that is. And if you did, it would've only been for a few seconds; she's unwilling to stay on Zuko's eyes, not on account of feeling at all intimidated, but rather the opposite. The struggle Ikuri faces is to keep reason in the face of hunger: the former fueled by trust, the latter by anger and grief. The favor of that battle sways like a pendulum - not only with each passing moment, but each sentence spoken by a given party. And such direct challenges as those you are repeatedly handing her? Are not only feeding that darker side, but scratching very familiar Old World itches.]

[In short, she is not intimidated by you, but you are in fact kind of threatening her stability. And how's that for irony: she's trying to serve the cause you want in spite of you. Stop helping, Zuko.]

[And speaking of helping...many of Colin's words, they need addressing. In the opening, he was right. Other things, though...other words and concepts bothered Ikuri as surely as Zuko's did, if not more so. We gain nothing by your deaths. True, but only for the moment. Ikuri is waiting for that to change. ~~Hungry tiger is sure she's going to get her scraps once the others are finished, you see.~~ And really, that particular hope is her primary weapon against the hungrier side, paired with "killing them won't help Crona, it's what they know that will help Crona, and we need that."]

[But the finality, see, the finality of that stated concept: we are not going to hurt you. The difference between 'yet' and 'ever' might be the difference between Ikuri winning...or losing.]

[It is possible that the engineer is only weaving a deception. She is intimately familiar with such means firsthand; she never used them, only suffered them. A cruel thing indeed to be employing here, and if she cared anything for these wretches she might've actually spoken against it.]

[But that one thing, that one word, 'justice'...see, that's a little something she can't get past, Zuko - she's wrestling with that idea in her head over and over. Killing those who wronged you - even killing those who lost a combat - that is justice. That's how things were done, the accepted method. Yes, the Bastion is different; it's a different world, these are different people, they're not Otherian, they're not fighters of her species or make. She's made progress in accepting and incorporating this.]

[But justice? Justice?]

Edited 2015-07-14 22:20 (UTC)

Crona is dead.

[The words are spoken slowly, thick with misery and pain...at first. Only after the emphasis do we hear the wrath.]

Her murderers live...and you would defend them. That...is not justice.

[It can be inferred that she's addressing Zuko, but really it's more that she's answering what Zuko posed and addressing it to everyone else. And the aforementioned glare...is still fixed on the captives.]

~~[should we be thankful they don't understand her?]~~

[She wouldn't have cared for the majority of what was said, ironically. True, their tongues clearly lacked respect for their opponents and their position; she would've been all too happy to carve it into them, as it were. But otherwise she would've done a fair enough job of restraining herself, even against the accusations.]

[But it was the last thing Red said. Denying responsibility, placing it all on their captors--]

[Mental gears turned much too fast, but the translation was thus:]

[We are blameless.]

[Our arrows? Faultless. Our traps? Not a trace of sin. Our escape? Neither shame nor wrong. We deny our deeds. We deny Crona and we deny Crona's death; we wash our hands and condemn you, who failed.]

[And that...was way the hell over the line.]

[Scream of rage and she's already charging with sword coming out all in nearly the same moment you'd better think fast]

[What's that Loki said in the first Thor movie? "Damn."? Yeah, that's about Colin's response. Fortunately, he's right there, and he was honestly expecting something like this.]

[And yes, this is still in English.]

WATCH THEM, ZUKO! WE'VE GOT THIS!

[His arm shoots out and he basically tries to grab Ikuri around the torso. She's a strong thing, but then, so's he. He knows he only has to keep her from them for a little while.]

[He figures that the prisoners are likely to run. It's what he'd do if given such an opening. He's arming the Goober turret he's got at his workshop, just in case Zuko can't keep them wrangled. Or won't. There are some trust issues here on all sides...]

[When someone is suddenly charging in her general direction with a sword, Zuko's first instinct is actually gonna be to draw her own swords. They're still held in the same hand, she doesn't have time to separate them if she's going to block this successfully--

But then she registers Colin's shout. She might grumble about him giving her orders later, but right now it does get her to turn her attention to the prisoners. She's close enough she can grab one of them if they try to make a break for it, and she's confident she could chase the other down.]

[Otoha moves quickly, springing into action to try to slam into Ikuri, enough force to get her attention but not enough to cause permanent harm. He hasn't drawn his sword yet, but he's not exactly eager to hold back. Once he's made contact, he plants his foot down and immediately pivots, doing what he can to get in front of the prisoners.]

[His stance is low, not quite crouching but definitely bent, with a definite aura of threat. His expression is more feral than anything else, something in his eyes more amused animal than man.]

Don't. Move.

[His voice is quiet, but clear. This is his element. This is what he's meant for.]

[The woman doesn't move, she is too angry by all of this, and she has long since accepted that she won't be making it out of the Bastion alive, so she stares Ikuri down unflinchingly. If this is her time to go, then she accepts it.

The man, however, does not accept that this is their time to go. He does move, but not to escape. No, he is trying to grab for the woman and pull her down, to protect her from getting gutted by Ikuri or harmed by anyone else. If nobody stops him, then the two of them will fall to their knees, with the man trying to protect the woman with his own body.]

[Alright, we gotta buncha things happening at once. We'll go through them.]

[Ikuri is one pissed-off Ikuri, and gutting is definitely on the menu; were she left on her own, one suspects that we'd have us some dead hostage folk before the antiviolence could kick in. Fortunately for all involved, she's not unmonitored, and so--]

[Otoha collides with her before she can reach them. A fortunate move: it catches her off-balance, kills her momentum and very nearly sends her the other way. That's when Colin catches her, hooking her around the waist as intended...and thank goodness for your enhancements, sir, because you're going to need them.]

[She thrashes wildly in Colin's grip, crying out in outrage and protest, practically clawing in the direction of the captives as she fights to scramble to them - neither grasping nor caring why he's holding her ~~but very very unpleasantly surprised, to say the least, that it's even happened~~, only knowing that she's being kept from her targets. She's just started to segue into the battle mindset: nothing holds existence but targets and obstacles, all else is void...]

[...and then we have our cavalry, the Bastion's anti-aggression field, starting to seep in and push down her battle-lust; in so doing, it also starts to return her reasoning to her, restore conscious judgment. For once, though, this is what Ikuri doesn't want. She resists as much as she can, tries to feed her anger and aggression by dumping in the right feelings, the right thoughts, the right notions...but rather than increasing capability, all this really does is deepen her grief.]

[You can see the struggle play out on Ikuri's face- she's desperate to fuel her wrath, but it's fading fast. By strangling her drive to fight, the antiviolence field has essentially sped up her course toward what would be the normal aftermath. (When anger fades, what you have left is...)]

[Ikuri's struggles in Colin's grasp weaken, but still, stubbornly, she makes a token effort to wriggle free of him - it reaches the point where he doesn't have to keep trying to hold her down anymore, this battle is basically won. She reaches for the prisoners, hands clawing, but she cannot get them; her face weakens, showing her refusal to believe it, to believe that it all could be so cruel as this and she must do naught but accept this.]

[She finally gives in, her body going somewhat limp in Colin's grasp; her hands grasp him, now, any part of him she can reach, though she hasn't turned around - and it's not to free herself, merely to clutch him. Her eyes stay fixed on the captives; this struggle is over, and she knows it, but how the hate burns in her, how sick it all seems...]

[...then her eyes shut, and her head droops as well, her body tremoring just so. If anyone's saying anything to her at this interval, it's lost completely; goes right through her, she doesn't hear them.]

[It seems she's given up. She doesn't turn to Colin, her back to him even as he keeps her restrained...]

[She violently bolts up, yanks herself up and forward-]

BASTAAAARD!!

[...to give us that. No attempt to escape, just...a single final scream of condemnation, aimed entirely at Red. Whatever rage was left in her seems to be spent, that scream carrying most of it away...and the rest draining out.]

[Without warning she abruptly twists around in Colin's grip, but only to turn herself - in nearly the same motion she's flung herself into him (as much as she can in this position), her arms coming around to catch hold of anything she can, burying her face in any part of him she can reach...]

[And she's sobbing brokenly again.]

((TRIVIA! You'll eventually notice that Ikuri does not actually make tears. Oh, she can sob, whimper, whine and uglycry with the best of them - but for all her carrying on, there is no fluid of any kind from any part of her. Totally dry.))

[Well, this is just what the situation needed, isn't it?]

TAKE IT EASY! YOU'RE NOT DOING ANYONE ANY GOOD IF THEY'RE DEAD BEFORE THEY TALK!

[And then she starts sobbing into his chest. What is his life?]

[He sighs and lifts his hand to pet her hair gently, hugging her with the other hand, and he looks at Zuko and Otoha.]

We need to keep talking to them, but this seriously isn't the way. We need two level-headed guards at least on them at all times. I can keep talking to them, but we need to get Ikuri someplace where she can calm down first.

[He looks at the prisoners.]

And you two... I TOLD you, you're not going to die this way. But I would encourage you to not take potshots at people who have no idea what you're talking about and are grieving. I'm VERY interested in finding out whatever it is we did to your group, but as you've already seen, our patience is fairly limited at the moment.

[Zuko relaxes her stance a fraction once Ikuri starts sobbing (in Colin's arms? really?), but she's not putting her swords away just yet. This girl is a literal loose cannon, Zuko has half a mind to lock her up for a while, too.

She frowns at the prisoners, and the way the man is protecting the woman. Loyalty to a leader, or to a friend? Whatever they've done and whatever they believe, she can't see them as anything less than people.]

Maybe talking should wait.

Let's get them locked up in one of the empty houses for now. Otoha, you can take first shift guarding them. [She tries to think of who else she considers level-headed enough for this (although congrats Otoha on graduating to trustworthy enough to guard prisoners).] I'll see if I can find Ahime.

I'll take a shift myself once I've rested.

And Colin, you keep her well away from them.

[... He can appreciate the loyalty, even if he wasn't actually planning on striking them unless they tried to escape. He straightens up a bit, though the look isn't entirely gone from his eyes. He doesn't really know Ahime, but he nods a bit. He can take orders just fine.]

[He glances at Ikuri and Colin and suppresses the urge to roll his eyes a little. He can understand grief, he can understand recklessness, but he can't understand breaking down in the middle of something like this. They need information, and killing them hasn't been called for. He'll have to try to talk to Ikuri later to see what the hell she was thinking.]

[He returns his gaze to the prisoners, trying to recall any of his English classes. Maybe he can string together a sentence. He's seen enough American movies to recall a little bit of the 'tough talk'.]

You stay here. Don't make any funny moves.

[His accent is terrible, but it's at least comprehensible.]

[In Elerian now.]

I'm taking her to Paarthurnax.

And we're going to have a nice, long talk later, princess. Bring your swords.

[He looks at Otoha then, and he nods to him. He has no idea Otoha's going to go looking for Ikuri later.]

[He turns his attention to Ikuri now, picking her up in his arms as though she were just a small child, sword and all.]

Come on, Ikuri. We're gonna go find Grandpa-dragon, he can keep you safe.

[And under control.]

[No resistance. If anything she'll hold on to him, too, grateful for the contact...and perhaps also grateful that she's being taken away from this.]

[Move where you will, good sir.]

[What, Colin can give her orders but she can't give him orders? That's a nice double standard.

Zuko of course has no idea what he's actually pissy about, but she'll sheathe her swords and draw her chin up a little. She's never backed down from a challenge in her life ~~and she has the scars to prove it~~.]

Fine by me.

[She turns to Otoha.]

You can handle this for a few minutes?

[She's pretty sure the answer is yes but she'll confirm before she goes to find Ahime or someone equally capable.]

Yes.

[That's all that needs to be said, really. The others can bicker all they want, but if they need someone to look intimidating and keep the prisoners from moving around, he can do that. It doesn't look like it's going to be particularly hard.]

EVENT: Day 322 [open]

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[/3 in the end!] - keywords relevant, I guess? also editing out durr

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[3/3] - and then the NPCs talked shit.

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Liberties taken, a fella hopes they work--

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