Arrival

[63rd_shockwave]

[An old face joined the team today: Sarah, the blonde kung-fu superhero woman who's been trying to murder Volya. And she immediately makes her way to a bar, where she proceeds to fix herself some cocktails.]

...This is gonna make the next custody swap real awkward...

Comments

[majestic_keiki]

No. I'm a soldier of the ESUN and a student of the Grandzeele military academy.

Why are you so concerned with my age anyway?

[63rd_shockwave]

...Sorry, it's just...I had a kind of rocky life, being on the front of the last big crisis and all...I just don't really want anyone else to deal with all that.

[A beat.]

...A military academy?

[majestic_keiki]

Yes. Remember the battle of Nora colony and the MJP program that became famous after that? It's the academy for the students of that program.

[63rd_shockwave]

Oh yeah...So that was the 'flees his own armor' guy...

Well, as long as nobody pressured you into it, I guess it's fine.

[majestic_keiki]

Why are we even talking about me?

Don't you have a lot of things you need to explain too?

[63rd_shockwave]

Yeah, but I'm bigger than you and can beat you up.

[majestic_keiki]

And face assault charges on top of all those attempted murders of Volya?

[63rd_shockwave]

[A facepalm.]

...You're entirely too literal sometimes, you know...

...Well, fine, ask away.

[majestic_keiki]

It got you talking about yourself, didn't it?

And I could ask about why you waited until the torture ended to turn on her, but it was a confusing situation and I don't think anybody knew if it would have helped stop it, so I won't. But I do wonder who you are.

And like I said, thank you for helping us either way.

[63rd_shockwave]

I wanted to give her a chance to make the right choice. She didn't.

Anyways, if you want, look up the archive stuff on Maverick Firestorm. That's me, though they didn't get the whole story, of course.

[majestic_keiki]

That does make sense...Even if people don't deserve that chance when giving it means letting someone continue to get tortured.

And I'll look up that material, flaws and all. I'm sure the military has put up a page about me and the rest of my team, but it'll probably just be propaganda to make us look cool. I'm Kei Kugimiya and I pilot Purple-2...I was the one you tried to prevent from blocking that lance.

[63rd_shockwave]

You did a good job, then.

Anyways, I guess I'll be around, if you have questions. Though if they're too hard I might want you to get me a drink before I answer.

[majestic_keiki]

What is your name, anyway? I just introduced myself as well.

And why do you believe what some prophecy says about who will destroy the world? There have been lots of those that didn't happen in the past.

[63rd_shockwave]

Sarah Daniels.

And those weren't from the Sidereal Tapestry. It's got a perfect record, even with some long shots...

[She trails off, and looks down at her glass for a while.]

[majestic_keiki]

I was present in a battle where we killed a being that claimed to be an incarnation of fate and made the same claim about its record.

And if it has a perfect record, is it even possible to kill him? That would mean opportunities for change and variation, which includes ones where he doesn't destroy the world or kill humanity or whatever it is he's supposed to do.

[63rd_shockwave]

It offers predictions in the form of if/then statements, fixed points from which there are several diverging lines. So you get 'This kid will destroy the world if he is not stopped', 'an empire will cause a thousand years of darkness if these specific people fail', and 'at some point these two people will turn on each other.'


...And if you could kill an incarnation of fate, clearly they weren't that good.

[majestic_keiki]

That was rather the point of that example. It's hard to believe in fate when the first person you met who claimed to align purely with it got killed in opposition to their claimed fate later.

Also, does the tapestry even say Volya needs to die or just that he needs to be stopped? Because your first example sounds like it.

[63rd_shockwave]

Well, my first run-in with the tapestry went down exactly like it said it would, despite fighting it for three years straight.

And yeah, it's killed.

[majestic_keiki]

One instance isn't a lot. And I'm sure you can understand we can't just take somebody's word for it when somebody's life is on the line.

[63rd_shockwave]

[As Kei talks, Sarah's grip on her glass tightens. It creaks slightly, then completely shatters in her hand, spilling bits of drink all over the table.]

...Sorry.

[majestic_keiki]

[Kei's expression twitched ever so slightly as the glass shattered.]

Did it hurt...

[63rd_shockwave]

Only the words.

[She starts picking the shards of glass out of her hand and placing them in the leftover bit of glass. There is no blood.]

It was the one time for me, though others have had their own experiences. And it was kind of a big deal.

[majestic_keiki]

Look, would you really feel confident in the capacity of special ESUN unit if its members were immediately going to let a stranger kill somebody because a medieval ornament told them they had to to save the world? Unity Group holds military capacity equal to some countries, we need to exercise some caution in what we trust.

Also, did you see the tapestry presenting this prophecy or were you told it? The Knights or their leaders might not be honest, if it's the latter, even if the tapestry itself is infallible.

[63rd_shockwave]

Yeah, well, just 'cause you have to do it doesn't mean I have to like it.

I'll see you around.

[She gets up, taking the splintered glass with her.]

[majestic_keiki]

I didn't say you had to.

I was just saying that maybe you're wrong and that either way it's perfectly reasonable to be skeptical of your claims.

[And with that Kei moved to leave as well.]