( CLOSED ) a glorious planet tucked in the far reaches of a mostly unknown system

[avicula]

WHO: Emil (unluckynumberseven), Maes Hughes (dadandgone), Thor (worldsaway) and Dutch (avicula)
WHERE: Bajikan and the moon Caritas
WHEN: March 8 to March 16, most likely
WHAT: The volunteer team heads down to the planet and tries to get the materials needed to get the fleet running again. In the process, secrets and desires are revealed, magic happens, they fly to the moon and back, and tempers may flare.
WARNINGS: Sad backstories, secrets that probably involve violence, possibly sex and actual violence.

Comments

[avicula]

[ stealing a shuttle and flying it to the moon had been a distraction, but now that's done and they're here, left waiting because russula "isn't available right now" to meet with them. dutch has half a mind to just break into whatever stronghold russula has here and demand an audience. the problem with that plan, of course, is that she doesn't know where russula is at all.

so she's left pacing in front of the shuttle. back and forth and back and forth, mind replaying her confession. she had been proud, and khlyen had smiled at her. it had meant the world at the time, and she hates herself for how easily he had manipulated her almost as much as she used to hate khlyen for doing it to her—and now that she knows why, she can't even hate him anymore.

she's lost without that hatred, without johnny to help her make sense of it all. ]

[unluckynumberseven]

[He's seen that level of nervous energy before. A part of him tries to reason that it isn't really his problem, that she'll probably just get angry and he might make it worse.

But he's been able to help before. If Kainé and the feral shade twisting inside her could slow down and hear his voice, who knows? Maybe Dutch just needs someone to listen.]

Hey, um... are you okay? Do you wanna fight, or maybe talk about it?

[avicula]

[ dutch forces down her first reaction (a snarl) and her second (walking away), bringing her shoulders down from where they've been slowly but surely creeping up to her ears before she turns to look at emil. he's strange, with the mask, and he's undeniably young, and some of the things he's said remind dutch of little yalena of yardeen, sent to a royal harem to restore her family's honour and turned into a weapon. ]

You don't want to fight me right now. [ or ever, probably. a fight would probably help, though. ]

[unluckynumberseven]

I'm tougher than I look, you know!

[Magically, anyway. Physically, she could flick him across the room if she caught him.]

It's just... you seemed pretty wound up since, you know. The secrets. And sitting around with nothing to do but stew in it? All I'm saying is, I understand. And I'm here if you wanna talk or yell or battle about it.

[avicula]

A punching bag looks a lot tougher than you, and I doubt punching one would help right now. [ it might, if she did it for long enough. even just admitting this much brings another surge of—anger? discomfort? dutch isn't entirely sure what she feels, just that she doesn't like it. ]

But all right. Let's see what you've got.

[ she's heard his secret, too. she can sympathise with it; she can't recall what her father smelled like or sounded like, the image of her mother laughing is not something dutch can picture anymore. he's a lot younger than her, she figures; that he can already not remember hints at more of a story.

dutch isn't going to ask. she doesn't want to know. ]

[unluckynumberseven]

[There's a story there all right, but for the time being Emil is happy to do this. Some people were just... angry, that's all. And in his experience, it usually masked a lot of terrible history.]

Awesome! Come on, let's move a little bit farther out.

[He floats past her, putting a little distance between himself and the shuttle.]

I don't want to hit anyone by mistake or anything.

[avicula]

[ dutch refuses to talk about her history, terrible or not, or at least she refuses more often than not. she's told more people things about herself in the last year than she's ever done before. between johnny and d'avin, alvis and pree, even pawter—she's had friends. family, almost, even beyond her team.

she'd rather fight a kid than admit that she misses them. she'd rather fight a kid than think about khlyen. ]

Hit anyone with what? [ she asks, already thinking back to the magic tricks he'd shown. he might just be a kid, but he's got some skills that might be able to keep her on his toes if he knows how to use them in a fight. ]

[unluckynumberseven]

[He can still read tension in her body language. Between the pacing, the short answers, and the truth she was forced to tell in front of everyone... maybe he doesn't know her very well, but he can't deny that her tells are very similar to his best friend's.]

Yeah! A... lot of times, actually.

[The bravado melts into something closer to guiltily as he admits that. He kind of doesn't want to fight, but he offered. And if it'll help her out, he's happy to do it.]

It's what I'm built for now, but don't worry! I won't use anything too strong.

[avicula]

[ dutch isn't worried, if only because she's gone up against those stronger than her and survived before. if she can hold her own against sixes, if she can kill them, there's little that still holds terror for her. (that's a lie, but it's one she'd happily tell.)

she'd tell him that she's not worried, but she ends up asking instead: ] Built for?

[unluckynumberseven]

Well, yeah!

[He spreads his arms and wiggles the fingers of his free hand. His other clutches the staff he always seems to carry with him.

Obviously a weird skeleton kid, definitely not something found in nature.]

I wasn't always like this. Actually, I looked like a normal human not too long ago. This is a weapon form.

[Funny how much easier it's getting to call himself that, to think of himself as something monstrous. He used to stumble on the word, and now it's the best description he has to give.

What else is there to say? He was built to withstand hostile environments and destroy everything in them.]

[avicula]

[ a weird skeleton kid is only vaguely less weird than a "weapon form" that was built, but it is less weird to dutch. she's not sure she likes the idea of weapon forms being built. scratch that: she's sure she doesn't like it. ]

So who built you?

[unluckynumberseven]

Um...

[She's almost certainly not from his world, but he gives it a shot.]

Have you ever heard of the National Weapons Laboratory?

[avicula]

No, but I'm guessing that's the answer to my question.

[ a laboratory. she's not sure if that's better or worse than her childhood. worse, probably. ]

[unluckynumberseven]

[It's a tossup, really.]

Yeah. Like I said, I used to be a normal kid once. But... it's really okay, because with the power I have now, maybe I can help people.

What about you? You said... you were proud to kill someone. Did they hurt you?

[avicula]

[ a "that's none of your business" is the first thing dutch thinks to say, but she swallows the words down. he's just a kid, isn't he? and he's been sharing, he seems almost frighteningly idealistic if what he just said to her is true, and it lines up with how he's acted so far, and dutch—

dutch hasn't managed idealism in years, but she can't be angry at khlyen for taking her childhood away and then doing the same to someone else, can she? ]

They didn't. I was trying to make my mentor proud. I thought this would do it. [ for a while, it had. ]

[unluckynumberseven]

Mentor? You had a teacher?

[Wow, their stories really are pretty different. Sure, he and Halua had their Sensei, but she was more like a guide and a guardian to them, and in the end, she didn't stop the experiments from happening.]

Did it... work?

[avicula]

Someone who taught me how to kill people.

[ probably not what her father had in mind when he'd hired khlyen to mentor her in the royal harem. none of the other girls got trained to be an assassin. just dutch's luck that she looks exactly like khlyen's daughter. ]

For a while.

[worldsaway]

[Awkward isn't quite the word Thor would use to describe his situation with Dutch. They're adults, they were intimate, he doesn't think less of her and he's sure it happens to be mutual. The only discomfort comes in the fact that he wasn't of sound mind and that he's a little preoccupied with the fact that he'd like to do it again.

There hasn't really been an appropriate time. On a mission. With a little one and another man around. Not that he's angling for it entirely, but he has come to respect and appreciate her all the more. She's a troubled soul, like most of them, but she's admirably competent and strong and he appreciates that.

What he doesn't appreciate is passing, so it is with a loud and heavy sigh that he thuds himself down on a seat behind her.]

If you continue to pace like that, you'll dizzy us all. [He pats the seat alongside him.] Come now. We can't be waiting much longer.

[avicula]

[ there's nothing awkward about sex, if you ask dutch. there was something surprising about the intensity and urgency of it, and she's pissed at the thought of being manipulated by something in the air, the memory of what happened to old town still too fresh, luxuria too similar to what happened to johnny and pawter, to everyone behind that wall breathing in the air and becoming happy, so happy—too happy to care about anything at all, like people dying. dutch hates that she was manipulated, but she didn't hate sleeping with thor. she doesn't hate the idea of doing it again, either, but only if this time it'll be entirely her own choices, and his. nothing in the air, nothing influencing them.

dutch refuses to be anyone's puppet—and yet here they are, giving away secrets for the sake of a fleet they know little to nothing about.

she frowns at him when he sighs, and through his first sentence, too. ]

Oh, am I bothering you? [ there's a barb in her words, something angry, but it isn't really directed at him. it's directed at their situation, at the anger and shame and loss itching under her skin. she does sit next to him, though, if only to prove that she's not so affected by her emotion that she can't sit still. ]

[worldsaway]

In a sense, yes. [He notices the barb, but it doesn't do him any harm. It brushes past him with no real retaliation, just an extremely mild expression and tone in his response.

He does, at the very least, quirk a brow at her when she comes to sit by him all the same.]

Is it something to be delved into or is it something you would like to be distracted from?

[avicula]

[ it's almost a relief when he doesn't retaliate—but only almost, because a fight with thor would definitely take her mind off things. it is a relief when he asks his next question, though. ]

What kind of distraction did you have in mind?

[ dutch isn't sure what she'd prefer to be on his mind, fighting or sex. ]