voidtreckernet | Llama 13

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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?

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[How situational? Is what she wants to ask, but she can't. Not over this.]

No, I think you sound like a good person, and a bit like someone I know, who said about the same about the protected.

[Namely herself -once she'd done freaking out about various things- and Satoru. Once she'd calmed down from the near the heart attack at least.]

You know, I got a story I could tell ya but... not over this. A couple of 'em, actually.

[If they don't make her hate him, instead.]

Sure, I'm in the library and I wouldn't mind company.

[Luckily(?) her scale of what to hate a person for is rather messed up by most worlds.]

Alright.

[He heads to the library, then. Oh so classily he has a bottle of wine that he took from the kitchens that got left among the stash of smuggled drinks, but if he's gonna tell this story, he needs a goddamn drink.]

[He finds her pretty quick, passing by the shelves before settling down into a seat near her.]

If you're old enough to share and want a drink, just ask. [He's at least as polite as one can possibly be when they plan to drink in a temple of knowledge, scant though it be.] So... I knew this guy. I really hate 'im. Short version of the story is that a guy hired him to kidnap some kids, bring 'em to him, an' most of those kids ended up dead.

[She eyes the bottle, considers -considers it for all of two seconds and her only regret is not having enough points for her own bottle-, then laughs a little as she produces two small mugs with vine like patterns from her Arms band.

She totally stole them at some point on this mission. She offers on to him.] I can share, though don't let me drink too much. Mug? Might as well try and be proper.

[She listens and when he's done- There's no judgement, just a thoughtful look.] Guessing you left that when you found out what happened to the kids?

[He leans in and pours some into her mug. Damn, them arms bands are useful. But then she takes a drink of the one she has.]

[He takes a long swig directly from the bottle then.]

He was their father. Had enough proof for it. Made it out like I was just the cabby goin' to pick up his littlun's. An' he was a Celestial so he could... make anything. I was a former slave an' I was lookin' at more money I ever saw in my life, so long as I brought 'im his kids.

He knew which one of my team to hit. He... had to. The rest of 'em knew better. He picked the one that had been sold by his own parents. A daddy wantin' his youngin's back? I was helpin', even. I could... convince myself of a lotta things. I was stupid like that. Put it together when I went to Terra to get the last one...

...It is real funny that he knew exactly when that boy's mama was gonna die. [And his expression says 'funny' in the 'what a bastard' way. Like it just dawned on him how exceptional that timing was.]

I asked 'im where the rest of 'em went. ...Tried to get help but I did it all wrong an' my group exiled me. So it was just me an' my shitty asshole crew with this boy I couldn't deliver. ...Spent the rest of my life tryin' to protect 'im an' not tell him why. His bastard father eventually died, an' so did I- Makin' sure he lived past 'im. So... if ya don't hate me right now, then you know is shit is situational. If you do, I can't blame ya. I ain't ever forgiven me.

[There's a noticeable flinch at the former slave part, though very likely not for the reasons Yondu might think. She does wait until he's done though, and the first thing out of her mouth is an adamant, heartfelt:] It's not stupid, not if you were lied to - and lies of omission count. He used you. Don't ever think you were stupid for falling for it, because your not. My best friend, Erin- her mother did that to her for years. So... It's not stupid to act on what you believe is true at the time, even if it turns out it's not.

What matters is... is that when you found out, you tried to do the right thing, and ultimately you did. You protected that child from their father. I could never hate anyone like that because-

[She pauses here to take a massive gulp of wine.] I'm the Traitor in the story I told. The- no. Fluffy was created as an experiment to create a god-species pokemon. She was made as a tool- she broke free, and- 'I found her' is too light for what-

[Another gulp of wine, and by now, Eva's stare is someone recalling painful memories.] -what happened. I caught her and if anyone should be hated, it's me. She's sapient - the first sapient pokemon in 300 years- and I legally own her because without a 'ball's marker, she could be caught -and the Rockets would try, and I can't just- she's a child, a person, not a weapon, and Arkea's stupid-

[And that said, Eva proceeds to finish the mug of wine and curl up because she didn't mean to unload all that, but it's out there now, so she just has to deal with it.] I'm not a good person at all.

I was stupid mostly 'cause Ravagers have a code. One of the rules is 'you don't deal in kids'. An' I did. Thought I was bein' slick, what with it bein' their daddy. Just bein' a cabbie, right? Might have gotten away with it if he'd been legitimate. Instead I came to the only friends I'd ever known for help an' they was so pissed at me they never looked kindly on me again.

...I didn't apologize, either. Didn't know how, really. Just got pissy about it. Lots of stupid things I did, even besides not seein' Ego for what he was. But that's beside the point...

[He's spent enough time being a dumbass validating his own dumbassery here.]

Like I said, I was a slave- a battle slave, actually. Now I was real lucky in that those friends released me in the first place. Some slaves needed someone else to buy 'em to get out. It ain't a good position to be in but if you gotta be in hell there might as well be one angel watchin' over ya.

Should tell ya about the damn Skrulls sometime. How hard they had it.

It ain't much consolation but from someone that's been collared, I think you're doin' the right thing.

[He makes quotes with his fingers and mouths "situational", before taking another drink.]

[She's quiet for a while, thinking things through, yet at the end of the day, even if she lacks a lot of context, she can't stay silent on this matter.] Code or not, you're still not stupid. [She will say it a million times and then a million more.] Dealing in kids implies knowingly selling them, and that's- that's different from returning them to the father. That those friends never looked kindly on you again, even after tempers flared and cooled... I'm sorry, yet... that's... that's not friendship, not being a community. Not in my books.

[She doesn't say what else she thinks, that there's a not zero chance they too unknowingly dealt in kids. He doesn't need it, and she's not sure she wants to open that can of worms. Not when friendship is complicated. Not when gods only know Eva's made her blunders and yelled at her own friends, fought and said hurtful things, yet she tries to understand.

The next words are more of a ramble, as if she has to get them out, and in a way, she does. She's not really sure how to deal with this because at the end of the day, Eva doesn't think of herself a good person. Yet it's not the first time someone's said it to her, yet it's still so new.] I- thanks, I think? but I don't- she's not collared - legality wise, sure yet I literally can't make her do anything. When I say human against pokemon ends in pokemon favour, I mean it, and that's not knowing everything that was done to make her - to her. I didn't see all the notes. [Even now, she only knows about half of what Satoru found in those labs.] But- but what I do know is that the right thing would be to free her and that's what I want more than anything. We talked about it - we talk about at least once a year, yet because she's so iconic as a 'new species' I 'own' [finger quotes included] it's safer this way, and she has a voice, both her own and through me. A-Also I have heaps of pics on Roro if you wanna look?

[A small laugh -she's not a crazy cat-kid mum, really- and then in an effort to get off her, she asks:] The Skrulls?

[He thinks again about why Stakar was so angry. You didn't know because you didn't wanna know because it made you rich. But Yondu... Yondu is an idiot, and even in his final days his response to that was demands, and not an acknowledgment.]

I really handled it like a dumbass. I was too damn proud. Hell, even here I've been a dumbass a few times. Just walked out on people when I didn't like where the discussion was goin'.

[He scoots in the chair so he's facing her, bottle resting in his hand on the arm of it.]

Yeah. Show me. An' Skrulls are shape-shifters. The species what owned me tried to wipe 'em out. Decided they were threats. I knew shit had gotten bad when there were Skrull slaves around an' then one day their weren't any around. I could do the math. I think a few of 'em are still out there, hidin', masqueradin' as somethin' else.

[Skrulls are predominately good people, in his book.]

But yeah, show me your kid. I don't got no pictures of mine. Just a video of his ship during a big battle we was both in.

[The Rotomi's in her hand in near blink of an eye and Eva pulls up the folder of pictures, and there's a lot of them (as if someone was rather camerahappy), before handing the phone over to Yondu. Other pictures include what seem to be hi altitude shots of Fluffy flying, of selfies from bird- or aerodactyl-back (or, it seems, one self of Eva very much getting a piggyback ride at high altitude. There's even one with Fluffy vs waves.] Her name's Fluffy. Just stay within a metre of me; it's a safety feature of Rotomi, and it's a pain to extend it as you have to hack the programming.

[She settles back with sigh.] Long as you learn from it, which I think you have if you can all it being a dumbass, you know?

As for the Skrulls... Well, I'd hope the species wasn't wiped out. That the ones that are still out there are safe and not hunted any more, but if the aggressors decided they were a threat and if they're the kind that's stop at nothing, then... that's unlikely. Granted, if they're the kind of people to own slaves, then...

[Her nose wrinkles in distaste.] Well, they're probably not, overall, a good species.

[He reaches out and takes the phone, holding it and flipping through the images. Pretty much the essential folder of a proud parent, whether of a pet or a person.]

I know a hyper-intelligent raccoon. They're these kinda... big ol' rat lookin' Terran things with fluffy tails? Sorta like they got masks with their fur pattern? Got experimented on by scientists. Absolute asshole, but still good people. He'd probably stand in Fluffy's court.

[He holds the phone back out to her after looking.]

Yeah, I'd never do it again. Got a lot better about what jobs I took. [He even would turn them around mid-job and say that he had to, having no intention to finish in the first place, taking a second-rate deal out of ethics but write it off as self-preservation.]

Yeah... Not all Kree are awful but... the ones that are? Don't go about it half-assed. I didn't get the scars on my face from fightin'. [He tips his his head to point out the strange pattern. They're not random. They're almost like tally marks.] But Skrulls are real good about bein' sneaky so they probably made it. [He sounds like he admires them for it.]

Rac... [What's tha- Wait.] Ah- like a jig'zaguma, then? Geeze, they're lucky they didn't get maimed for their efforts, assuming racoons are like those things. [There's a small tsk and half smirk, half grimace as she accepts the phone back.] Even if they aren't, I think I'd like to meet him. He sounds interesting at least.

[And.... it'd be one more ally the mewtwo species would have as a whole.

Yet when he brings up the scars, Eva glances away before shaking her head and offering an easy grin.] I'd been hoping those were ones from fishing nets, not... not what they actually are.

Edited 2021-06-19 22:52 (UTC)

I think most people just figure it's somethin' like that. I kinda... there's someone I think a whole lot of here... I figure I think too much of 'em. Gonna work on that, try to fix it. But I told 'em what happened to me.

You could see it right on their face. I said what I was and it was too much.

[He feels self-conscious bringing it up around them now.]

It's rough talkin' around a whole twenty years of your life, but I can keep from bringin' it up. Well, the Raccoon got it anyway. I think he spent the same time percentagewise of his life cookin' in a lab somewheres on Terra.

If Fluffy ever shows up, I'm going to introduce you to her. [Eva means, it too. Her kitten-daughter needs all the friends!]

But, seriously. Give them time. If they respect you, they'll come around. If they don't.... Well. That's on them, not on you. Never on you.

[She means every word, and she will defend him until she's dead.

Yet, she can't not comment on this, not when Yondu sounds so much like Erin several years ago now. Completely different topics, but still...] Stop me if I'm staying things you know, yet this is reminding me of something back home. Where it's not talking around so much as off-hand mentions when it comes up. That way if people want to know more, they can ask.

I don't think it was disrespect. I think it was like what I said. Too much.

[But, hey, at least she has some experience with the lab expirement. It sucks, but at least it's a kind of sympathy for relatively rare trauma. Or at least in comparison to the train, anywhere else that sort of background would be rare. He's found it too much here.]

I dunno, this is the most I brought it up in a while. Or so I figured. It's more on my mind than usual 'cause I keep runnin' into people that went through similar. I ain't ever all that upset about me, but I get real pissed off about them.

[Especially since so many of them are just kids who got used.]

Could be. Sometimes it just happens.

[She shrugs a little, feeling somewhat awkward and not really sure what to say outside that.]

Yeah, this place has a way of dragging in in people who've been through shit. I guess we're interesting. [Everything about her says she's clearly not even remotely amused to be considered interesting to some unseen force.] Though, if you ask me, I think it's because we've got the skills needed. Even the kids and I understand many see that as an issue.

Either way, if you're willing, I'd be willing to listen if you need to get things off your chest re: the slavery thing. I can't promise to understand, but I would listen.

I'm usually alright. Sounds funny, but the Kree are what they are an' I ain't really the vengeful sort. [He's got kind of a 'either kill them or don't worry about them' attitude about it all. And that's honestly the part that probably bothers most people. That he casucally accepts it as something that happened to him, at least outwardly.]

I think it picks us 'cause we got the capacity to change things. Face stuff bigger'n us.

[He'd made someone real mad by putting it that way, though. Like they assumed he was somehow advocating that kids would be taken for that purpose when he hates that they're here with all his heart.]

True, yet won't change the fact the offer's a standing one. [She's not even remotely bothered by the casual acceptance of the horrific. Life is as it is and crying over it won't change the past. What she can do is keep the door of communication and friendship open.]

You're likely right on that; at least most of the kids here can look after themselves, yet... Still not right, you know? Just because they could face this doesn't mean they should.

Oh, I hate it a ton. [He says that willingly and flat out.]

[So much about this train that he hates.] But I guess you can see why I don't want nothin' bad happenin' to 'em if I can help it. It's a pretty decent feelin' for anyone worth the air they breathe, true, but I don't feel right unless I'm really tryin' to keep 'em safe.

[It's a karmic debt on top of his fatherly tendencies. It's knowing that he doesn't want these kids to turn out like him, because he still sees himself as a worst case scenario. Train might have decided they're worth endangering but Yondu's willing to throw himself under a bus for them.]

I can, yes, and I do feel the same as you. [She's firm on that, and the only reason she's not with any of the other teams on missions is she's one of the Orange Leaders.]

Though I'm also of the mind that how much protection they need varies, but I know that's likely my world talking.

If it helps I'm a team lead in charge of a team with a shitload of kids.

[He snorts a little. He thinks that he was made a lead because he was a rare adult (also WangJi knew he had some captaining experience).]

A lot of 'em are real good at takin' care of themselves, yeah. I get a lotta worlds do some kinda walkabout thing. But that's still for them and they're prepared for it. This is differ'nt.

From what the other Centaurians I met said, I probably woulda started learnin' to hunt pretty young if I lived normal.

Probably, yeah.

[Eva nods in a greement, then grins.] Normal's overrated, but I get what you mean.

Though, I do have to ask: do you know how to hunt now?

[He can't help himself. He just laughs a mean little laugh.]

Oh hell yeah. Just 'cause I ended up huntin' people more often than animals ain't meanin' I'm no less of a hunter. Man's gotta make a livin' an' findin' in general, whether it's walkin', crawlin', breathin', or sittin on a shelf, is good Ravager work.

Exactly. Instincts are instincts.

[There's a wry grin, and as light as she treats the topic, Eva means every word.]I know who to approach if Fluffy ever shows. I hope she doesn't, but someone who understands the instinct is... yeah. I can only so much.

[There is, after all, a very big difference between raising a typical pokemon and raising a mewtwo.

A heartbeat, then: ] If you ever need a hand in a hunt, just let me know? Gods only know I've experience with it thanks to my world.

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Llama 13 - [Audio]

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Jumping to action

Action!

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Technically, the ones with mew have another cat pokemon instead.

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Sorry for the delay. /)(\

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Sorry for the delays ahhh /)(\

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Sorry for the delay. Feel free to drop this if it's too old.