Eva Iden'no (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mtsilver_conquor) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
voidtreckernet2021-05-27 11:03 am
mtsilver_conquor) wrote in voidtreckernet2021-05-27 11:03 am
Entry tags:
Llama 13 - [Audio]
(OOC: Threads arising from this question may contain some unpleasant aspects of Eva's world re: mewtwo/s, including how they were created and how they're seen. Eva'll take any actual talk of it off the ICP.)
A question, if you will. [Eva is nowhere near as calm as she tries to sound, and it becomes clearer as she speaks. She's also recording all of this on Roro for later playback.]
Say... Say you know someone. You call them a good person, someone who always helps and tries to do the right thing. Yet, they've also protected a creature... no, a person your society and culture deems a kill-on-sight threat, for very good reasons. It's not the right thing to do by society, and it means... means they'll be branded a Traitor to be executed if anyone ever finds out. [A breath -you wouldn't be wrong if you get the feeling this is personal for her, because, it is. ] But they feel it's the right thing to do because the person is a person and worse yet, the equivalent of a child. So they do. They protect the person, even knowing they've signed their death warrant.
What... What you do if you found out? Would... would you condemn them? Or would you... would you agree with them?
Ah... and um. For those that saw that illusion, the one with the kids -my sisters-, can... Can I talk to you? Privately?
A question, if you will. [Eva is nowhere near as calm as she tries to sound, and it becomes clearer as she speaks. She's also recording all of this on Roro for later playback.]
Say... Say you know someone. You call them a good person, someone who always helps and tries to do the right thing. Yet, they've also protected a creature... no, a person your society and culture deems a kill-on-sight threat, for very good reasons. It's not the right thing to do by society, and it means... means they'll be branded a Traitor to be executed if anyone ever finds out. [A breath -you wouldn't be wrong if you get the feeling this is personal for her, because, it is. ] But they feel it's the right thing to do because the person is a person and worse yet, the equivalent of a child. So they do. They protect the person, even knowing they've signed their death warrant.
What... What you do if you found out? Would... would you condemn them? Or would you... would you agree with them?
Ah... and um. For those that saw that illusion, the one with the kids -my sisters-, can... Can I talk to you? Privately?
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Eva exhales - and then picks her words carefully before metaphorically throwing her hands up because she can't do this on the ICPs. ]
It... This... This isn't... This is better off the ICPs.
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....I'm good goin' off ICP I guess, this is jus' where y' were askin'.
[EVA U GOOD??]
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And Jou is welcome to get a vision or hunch that this 10000% relates to her world's mewtwo.]
Awesome. Uh, does the library work? I'm already there, so...?
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[And he will!! After first blinking off a sudden flash of Fluffy.
Awww.
Well he'll hold that close for now, hands awkwardly in his pockets as he comes into the library shortly after the call and vision.]
...Hey! [S...S'UP...]
So uh...y' got uh...Got anythin' to get off yer chest abou' this or...
[Is there a ramble in store?? A vent?? He is ready, with his ears,]
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She sighs- and decides to cute to the chase.]
By law, she's a creature. A monster. Not a person, so it doesn't matter that she's a child. They'd only see a monster, a threat... and they wouldn't be wrong to assume that.
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Really.
[The blond tries not to react. He fails- his eyebrows shoot right up, hands in his pockets.] So- cat gets enough smarts t' talk an' think, tha' makes it worth killin'?
Sounds t' me like th' guys makin' tha' rule got their values in a knot. What's th' difference, [he warns coldly,] B'tween th' 'cat', an' their own kind?
Don' say power- humans know how t' adjust f'r it, an' f'r tha' matter, power's plenty dangerous in th' hands of somethin' tha' can't think tha' way. Which means all it comes down t', is they don't want anythin' other than 'humans' at th' top of the chain. Unless y' got other excuses for 'm, f'r why instead of at leas' talkin' an' workin' with 'm, they go f'r execution first? [he asks dryly.
It's a bitter pill, maybe. But humans are stronger than even humanity itself thinks- heck, the train may well be proof of it half the time. For all the power any creature, Fluffy included, has, humans could probably make a work-around if they really wanted. And even without intelligence, something with the right amount of power would be considered a danger anyway.
Was the difference then the ability to exercise control? Maybe. At the very least, it seems clear- it isn't about morals. It's about keeping their place on the food chain, their place as 'the smart ones' on the planet, far as it looks.
If Eva has excuses, she can go ahead and say them, but he's pretty sure he can sink them like stones at this point. To that end, he adds-]
...I don' know about you, but there's never a good excuse, for killin' something for existin'. Bein' in immediate danger, bein' under attack, tha's one thing. [Self-defense isn't pretty, but it would still be self-defense.] But what you're sayin' would happen?
That's murder.
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We're far, far from it. Do you think, really think, that for all our technological sophistication -and I include guns in that, but even then, they're not the game-changer people would think against an energy manipulating monster- [Princess has been shot and that only made him angrier-] that we're any match for pokemon? That we haven't had whole towns and cities, whole sub-regions, ravaged and ruined in the past by pokemon? That for all we tame the very monsters that define our world, we don't have death from said same tame monsters? That we haven't faced the nightmare that is sapient pokemon before? We have- we have stories and tales passed down and written records from all over the world and the oldest date back millennia.
[There's a bitter, jaded through and through laugh as Eva shakes her head. And when she speaks, it's with the weight of Lived Experience, of a woman who truly comes from a world where humanity, for all its technological sophistication, well and truly teeters on a knife-edge in a dance where one slip means bloodshed.]
Let me give you an example, or the facts why it'd happen, and then maybe you'll understand why the laws are as they are. You've never huddled and prayed that that storm off the coast, the one that's been there for days, the one that stops the fishing fleets from going out, that not even the bravest of stormriders will go near, doesn't bring something far, far worse than rain and thunder with it when it does eventually make landfall.[Yet her face says it's happened before; that she's seen the aftermath of said storms.] That it doesn't attract a god or ten and make everything worse and when you try and drive them off, you end up with death and blood as good people die to protect a town. Never had to hide inside because the winter that it was so bad it drove in monsters that typically avoid human settlement, but also brought predatory ice-types and yuki-onna right into towns, never mind deal with idiots who lose control of their monsters for some many reasons it's not funny, only sad and tragic. Never had to deal with the aftermath- [Eva cuts herself off with a shuddering breath.]
Now put all that with human intelligence- Gods. She's a person, yes. Yet, and I do mean yet, she has all the instincts of a monster and I know what side of her would win out if, say, something spooked her, or attacked her or the like-
[She looks him dead in the eyes now.] It's not the human side. Yet I'll still protect her, because she is a child -a kitten- and she deserves to have a chance to live and grow and learn and she will learn -she's more than whatever instincts she has, I'm sure of it- and if that means I'm putting my very species in danger, then so be it.
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Dead.
A very cold, very chilling aura comes from Katsuya in this moment. The kind that made Hirutani so desperate to have him back at his side on the streets. The kind that had Seto Kaiba in his world pause as she looked over his criminal records.
The kind that people forget far too easily.]
Let's get one thing clear, [he bites through, reaching for his shirt of all things. And somehow what would be a clumsy, awkward motion of stripping the top off fails to come across as such, his words cutting through the air like ice.] I have never said that world was anything more or less than a cartoon, but I sure don't remember saying anything that would tell you my sense of danger came from an island chain I wasn't even on for half a year, [he spits.
The shirt is off-balled in his hand and then slammed to the ground, an angry, chest covering scar there in the clear shape of bird's talons.
He points, accusing, and angry.] But you know what I don't care. I don't give a rat's ass about what you think I have, or haven't done- what things in our worlds, our home worlds can, or can't do, because this isn't a goddamn contest, Eva.
This is about what's right, regardless of what the people around you have been spouting- regardless of what can or can't be changed. You don't like what I'm saying? [he practically taunts- but there is no edge of humor here, no superiority to be had.
It is all cold anger, his eyes wide and practically spitting invisible flame.] You don't like what everyone else is saying?! Don't ask questions on the ICP, if you aren't ready for the answer! Don't ask these things, and then get angry when we agree that you made the right fucking choice!
Because here's the thing Eva! It's not about if you can change the world! Hell most of us here, there's plenty we know we can't change that we know isn't right! And there can be plenty of good reason behind those rules of the world, hell, it could come from the warmest damn heart there is for all I know! But you know what?
[There is a crack in his voice, as it becomes a bit clearer what he saw precisely. His eyes water, but the passion does not at all fade.]
When the world makes a scared, confused kid younger than my baby sister have to choose between killing something they just named Fluffy, and accepting that they might get killed instead? There's something wrong with the world.
And you're damn well owed the right to not be made to feel guilty, and wrong, for choosing something else's life.
[A deep breath- his point has wavered, hand lowered as it shakes. Another breath- he goes on.] So shut the hell up with the excuses, Eva. I don't care.
Not when it's putting you through hell.
1/3
It all dies at the sight of scar. Dies into a horrified gape as those look very much like something -it couldn't be that strange dragon with him, right?- had had a go, a serious one at that, at gutting the teenager before her. Or at least took hot steel to him...Yet, it's not burn scars. Or, if it is, it doesn't look like anything she'd recognise. Gods. Maybe it did gut him.
Eva swallows down the bile. Not because she can't picture it, but because she can. Can easily recall the stench of blood that'd follow such an act because one doesn't get that kind of scaring from shallow wounds. Yet, he's standing here and that means he survived. Survived to live and breathe, to move as if it never happened.]
2/3
She's ready with a retort or ten, but then he goes and says that and-
She can't breathe, can't think and it's only willpower that keeps her standing. Only ten long, hard years that keep her from flinching or showing anything outside the armour of a Champion. Only her time here, the carefully touching on things with a few trusted people but even then never going to deep or saying too much (it's safer that way. Safer for everyone.)
She shouldn't hide behind it, she knows this. Knows it all too well, but but but - she's a lady. Ladies do not have breakdowns when someone (a boy at that and if she wasn't in the middle of panic she'd be having words over it instead) calls them out on things and she's distantly aware she deserves this. That Jounouchi's not wrong for his view of her reaction. Yes, maybe she's been a bit angry--]
3/3
He's wrong. He's wrong. He can't have seen that movement (he did--) and more to the point, there's nothing wrong with Arkea. It's her that's the wrong one, the broken one. The one who's not a good person at all and if she wasn't broken, then she'd have turned the species in, yet she can't.
Because she's broken and-
She has to regain control of this, somehow.
Yet all she can do is eye him like she's seriously considering being a flight risk.
Which, to be fair, she is - and all because Jounouchi's butted up against, well, blown wide open, the damage that Arkean societal and cultural indoctrination on this topic has done. Damage that Eva's only started to acknowledge as anything other than 'that's how life is'.]
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(Family photos he never got sit in his mind, the words of adults closing the final doors he had hope in, until the only option left was to be exactly what they accused of him,)]
...Sometimes... ...th' things we believe in... ...are wrong, [he says quietly, looking to the ground.]
...We jus' never noticed, 'cause we never saw 'right' b'fore.
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Of the life and lies she's carried on her shoulders.]
Maybe. Or maybe it's how life is.
[And then her gaze is sharp. Critical and seeking clarification before she makes a call on if Jou is someone to be wary of, or someone who might, just maybe, be an ally.]
... What did you see, Seer?
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Give it a cent'ry or so b'fore y', and people were saying what you did, for things that were worse, y'know. [It is, what it is. The cycle continues, but for different things.]
Life might be somethin', sure- an' we might not be th' ones to change it, but th' point is you're not alone. Not righ' now.
[Hands in his pockets, he stands a bit straighter, and perhaps even shrugs.] You heard me, an' what I said. I saw a kid- scared, confused, hands full 'f somethin' way too big f'r her.
I saw her make a choice, an' y'know what? I'd say she made th' right one, ev'n if it was th' hard one.
[Sometimes the most 'correct' answers are the hardest ones to pull off, as it is.]
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Still, she's silent as she considers his words. She's not alone here; she's known it for... a while. Maybe. She has had nightmares, two of which woke her cabinmates at least, so... So his words are true in many respects.
Yet... yet... yet the fear, the deep-seated paranoia that's kept her alive until now says it's false, that eventually, something will give, that someone from home will come and she will be executed as befits a Traitor like her (after all, she's guilty of the crime and thoroughly unrepentant at that). That lowering her guard and allowing this hope-of-allies in is a Very Bad Idea.
The realist in her wins out as she stares at Jounouchi-] So...
[Her breath hitches -At least Satoru's not implicated in this, thank Fate- and she can't breathe, yet still manages to force the words out.]
Y-you saw the moment I realised.
[It has to be that, with the way he's talking. It can't be anything else.
Her chest is tight and blood cold and icy, ghost-cold fingers grip her spine. She still, she smiles in the panic's face and denies fear's voice as they clamour to escape the box she's shoved her emotions in.]
What will you do with this knowledge should another from Arkea show up?
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The smile fades however, and at Eva's question he even frowns.] Seein' as it's a serious deal, an' it's yer business, obviously my lips are sealed on it. It ain't my place t' go spreading that around, [he remarks seriously.] But...
[...But...] ...If someone did find out, [he starts, Red Eyes managing to pick an excellent time to start rising up to loom behind Katsuya,] Well...
I talked back t' Gods b'fore I had Red-Eyes at my back, [he ultimately says with a smirk.] An' hell, I was in a gang f'r a bit on top of that...
...So I'd trade a few words~ Ain't like it'd be impossible t' follow 'm home, far as they know~! [Which means it's absolutely a bluff, but it's the sentiment of it all that counts. Red Eyes, his scales far more real seeming than anything Katsuya's pokemon have ever given, size ever apparent in the train where only his head, neck, and the barest of his shoulders can appear outside of the depths of the shadow, is perhaps only there for the dramatics.
...
Though it's probably effective, at least.]
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[It's all she can say, really. She's trying to trust him.
It's hard. It's terrifying. It's one thing to know that others are aware of some details, but it's a whole other beast when it's a Seer that Knows. It's... good to know that Red Eyes is there, that the creature is a dragon. Has red eyes. It could be taken as a dark-type and she's aware of how uncomfortable the type can make people.
She offers a smile, still brittle but not as practised. It's real; or as real as she can get it right now.]
Okay.
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[He won't pry, or try to keep conversation going. He just nods, and stands there.]
...you gonna be okay? [He offers, less as a genuine question, and more as an offer for whatever she needs.]
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[Hard. The options opening up now aren't things she's ever had to consider before, and now she can...
Eva's not sure what to do other than what she's always done: one step in front of the other as she looks ahead and believes that what she's doing is the right thing. As much as she hates fate and how it jerks her around and pushes her into things she'd rather not have done, she is its plaything.
And it likes her alive.]
I'm fine, really. Thanks.
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[He's not really sure what the best options for...necessary coping is, on a train if he's honest. Actually he might not know the best ideas for it anywhere, but he's trying.]