( 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

[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.