Implications

[itbelongsinamuseum]

1
[After the defense of the Macross as it tried to return, Alex hung around the hangar back on base for a while rather than going to get changed immediately. Mostly she seemed to have just stopped in place, lost in thoughts.]

So...Did Enki lie to me, did Enlil half-assedly cheat or does Humbaba mean something else entirely?

2

...Just drop it. We haven't talked in ages and that's what we end up talking about?...Right, we should. Goodbye.

[Alex was just on the phone with somebody and it didn't go well. She looks quite angrily at the poor, innocent piece of consumer electronics even after hanging up. Her expression quickly slumps slightly, though, the anger fading away.]


I should have guessed that.

Comments

Re: 1

[itbelongsinamuseum]

Of course we did. Winning seems to be what we mostly do here...

Or that is what I want to say, but that thing hit like a truck. I'm pretty lucky that it didn't hit the cockpit with that blow.

[a_louse]

I doubt Enki would let his chosen champion die that easily. Especially a champion who's charitable enough to give gifts to enemies in the middle of a battle.

[itbelongsinamuseum]

Hopefully, but I don't have any superpowers myself and he's not exactly aware any longer, so if a bad hit got through to the cockpit, it'd be as bad as if it happened to anybody else. Probably worse in space, I don't think he ever expected that to be somewhere the fight would go.

[a_louse]

You can't exactly blame him, I doubt he knew about how space looks like back in the day. Myself, I sometimes wondered how would it feel, to travel beyond the sky and into the stars. Then, I left Paradigm and it turned out people do that on an everyday basis, and even live there.

Live, and fight, and die.

[itbelongsinamuseum]

It's quite impressive, isn't it? I'd never been up there until joining Unity Group either. It's nothing like the places I used to know...It makes you think, doesn't it?

[a_louse]

It certainly puts your life in perspective. And it shows that no matter how big youlr world is, there will be some people who will try to look beyond its boundaries, and make the world they know wider.

[itbelongsinamuseum]

And it's mostly just empty, which kinda makes it scarier. We're so used to having stuff surround us when we're on Earth that the endless nothingness of space is strange and foreign.

[a_louse]

And yet people go out into that strange nothingness. Humanity is braver than some might think.

[itbelongsinamuseum]

Yes. We've been daring basically forever. I mean, going into space with lots of advance testing is a lot less crazy than sailing into the middle of the Pacific in a canoe hoping to hit an island. Yet tens of thousands of people did just that.

It makes you proud of your species...Unless you're terrified of the insanity, I guess.

[a_louse]

I believe that if you want to live peacefully, some things are better left indisturbed. But there are people who value other things more than their own peaceful life, and I can respect that.

[itbelongsinamuseum]

Right. Still, I wonder what went through the heads of the first people who headed into space decades or centuries before we learned how to make use of any resources from it.

[a_louse]

If I had to guess, it was the same thing that makes us constantly put our fingers into new matters, some of which turn out to be way too big for us; curiosity about the unknown.

[itbelongsinamuseum]

Well, yes...And wanting to stick it to the other guys if my high school history class can be trusted.

[a_louse]

Admittedly I'm not an expert on international politics. I'm reading up a lot about them, but for most of my life I lived in a place where they just didn't exist.

It looks like the principles on which they operate have a lot in common with what I'm already familiar with, however.

[itbelongsinamuseum]

Politics are just rich people trying to grab power by convincing others to support them. I don't really bother with them.

[a_louse]

I suggest you stay away from Paradigm Corp then. The only difference in their modus operandi is that sometimes they don't bother with the convincing part.

[itbelongsinamuseum]

Sounds like a really charming government you have out there. Why do people even put up with them? Hired goons?

[a_louse]

You don't need to bother with that when most of the public sector is on your beck and call, the police included.

[itbelongsinamuseum]

Doesn't that just make the police hired goons?

[a_louse]

I know some men on the force. They really want to protect and serve the people of Paradigm.

But as long as the police is controlled by the corporation, that is not possible. If you want to make a difference, you have to do it on your own.

[itbelongsinamuseum]

And nobody has the confidence to try to challenge the corporation? Seems like nobody actually likes its government.

[a_louse]

Schwarzwald does, if his crazy ramblings are to be believed. But I doubt anything good is going to result from it.

This is not something that can be changed by force. That will just result in chaos.

[itbelongsinamuseum]

That doesn't sound much better, no. And there's got to be something that can be done other than hoping they change what they're doing.

[a_louse]

To change your life for the better, you need to look for an opportunity and grasp it with your own hands. But there are some people working in Paradigm to make sure everyone gets that opportunity, and that it won't be swooped away from them.

Why do you think I took the job of talking with ESUN about establishing mutual relations?

[itbelongsinamuseum]

I've had a lot to think about, so I didn't consider it. And most countries have embassies with each other.

So it was in hope that the rest of the world could help Paradigm get a better government?