srwu | (no subject)

1 - Alhambra, out-of-the-way room

[During the attack on Alhambra, Kagura's concern was, primarily, with the Graveyard personnel. Mute as she is, she managed to get people to pack up and safeguard everything important and evacuate in time for the damages to the base and their labs to have minimal effect on Graveyard material.

The problem is that among the damaged areas was Kagura's room. Which means she no longer has a locked place to hole in.

So at one point, if you're wandering around the most remote areas of the base, you might hear a male voice shouting. Closer inspection reveals Kagura in front of a screen, being absolutely ripped a new one by one of her superiors. The words "against intent of orders" "risk" "insubordination" "liability" "we can have you scrapped" "never fly again" and so on are used a great many times, while the fairy simply stands there and takes it. Not like she can defend herself, she can't even talk. So she's standing at attention with a fixed frown - so fixed, in fact, it's kind of disquieting. In the end, the commander signs off, and Kagura relaxes, floating down to a table with a thoughtful expression.

She makes some tiny scratches on a piece of paper with a mechanical pencil's small lead bar. It looks like some kind of diagram - it's very, very little, since Kagura has small handwriting even for her size, but there seem to be initials, relation arrows, and X marks on some. And she's so absorbed that she hasn't even noticed you.]

2 - Gym, late at night

[Late at night, if you go near the gym, you might notice a light turned on. Going in makes it clear nobody is using it, though...

...until you decide to look on one of the tables. Kagura is on it there, using bottlecaps as weights, surrounded by open handbooks on muscular rehabilitation. The effort has opened a few of her old wounds, but the fairy is too focused on keeping going despite the pain to care about the little drops of blood dripping on the paper.

She does notice someone coming in, though, which makes her drop the weights with a startle and turn around to look at you accusingly. Is there no bloody privacy in this place, seriously.]

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Umm, sorry. I'm sorry Major, it's just that the lights were on and I cannot sleep, so...

[Setsuko raises her hands apologetically. But then she notices something - and takes a few steps forward, looking closer just to be sure.]

Is that blood? You are hurting yourself!

[Kagura waves a trembling arm dismissively, frowning. She's visibly in a fair amount of pain, but she's stubborn. No pain, no gain. so instead, she floats near a paper tissue nearby, and with some effort she tears a little band and begins putting it around a couple of the bleeding wounds.
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Then she looks at Setsuko with an interrogant look. Yeah, Kagura can about guess why you can't sleep.]

With everything that happened recently... please wait!

[Setsuko sees what Kagura is doing and quickly uses the excuse to change the conversation and move away - only to return quickly with some contents of a nearby first aid kit.]

At least use medical gauze, Major.

Edited 2015-01-28 20:05 (UTC)

[Kagura just remains sitting there, with a very unimpressed raised eyebrow that just screams "really?". She raises two fingers. Two things?

First finger. She touches the gauze and makes a gesture as if she was going to try to tear it into small strips, without success. Oh, right. Kagura is not actually strong enough to break medical bandages. That's probably why she went for tissues.

Second finger. She makes a very clear "yeah, not buying that, settle down" gesture and points at Setsuko to keep what she was saying. Trying to sneak a topic change on someone like Kagura, no matter how exhausted, is not going to be that easy.]

[Setsuko also has a pair of scissors, and she uses those to cut off a tiny strip of bandage. Which she proceeds to hand over to Kagura while already starting to work on a new one.]

Here.

Umm.

[Awkward silence seems to prevail, but finally Setsuko's need to get it off her chest wins over.]

Major, do you know Toby... lt Watson used to write online under the nick "Glory Star"? That's how I found him. After the... the thing with Paradigm City.

[Head shake. No, Kagura did not know that.

Then she frowns deeply and makes an "again?" gesture. Is a Glory Star writing again?]

Yes.

Yes he is. Glory Star is back, or at least someone who acts the same way as him.

[Kagura instantly seriouses the fuck up. She takes the only thing available to write nearby - her own blood - and writes quite clearly on the table]

TRAP

I know.

[Setsuko reaches out, trying to stop Kagura as soon as she's done with the second letter. No need to suffer for the sake of drama.]

It's too convenient, isn't it? And we... both know what happened to Toby. He's gone, and now someone is pretending to be him.

No, not just someone.

[Setsuko strongly suspects the identity of the troll...]

[It's not like there's not enough dripped blood around for a little writing, Setsuko. Come on, it's not even yours. Kagura nods, and continues]

DOWEN

[Setsuko reads the word and just nods.]

The Chimera know where to find him actually. The thing is though... if I go see Glory Star, he'll know it and expect me.

[Kagura thinks for just an instant, but she's running out of blood as is. Fuck. She really misses her voicebox now. She looks at Setsuko and makes a gesture of writing on her hand - she needs something to write with, because this is going to be a bit longer than single words]

I have considered several options... ah, here. There you go.

[Setsuko puts her cellphone in front of Kagura, with its touchscreen keyboard activated.]

[Kagura looks at the phone with a moment of reluctance. Still, this is important, so with a single venomous "if you laugh they will never find your body" glare she leans forward and begins hitting the keys.

And given how adorable it is to see the little fairy stretching and pawing at the keyboard with open hands, like a kitten pawing at a screen, one can see why Kagura thought this would be demeaning. Still, she writes]

what are your options for now

Well, umm.

[Setsuko tries to compose herself. Between the serious situation she's in and Kagura's double-handed typing method, she is in the middle of conflicting signals.]

I could just ignore him. But if it's Asakim then he won't give up so easily and will try to force my hand... I think.

So I could actually go there. But not alone, that's what he expects. I'd ask others to come, and we'd spring a trap on Asakim. He can be beaten, it's just that...

[Setsuko pauses for a second. It's painful but she has to admit it.]

We were reckless. We acted recklessly and that's why everything went the way it did. I won't act reckless again.

And also...

[Kagura waits patiently. She has a pretty good idea of what Setsuko is about to say, but she should say it herself]

It's possible that...

That it really is Toby. It's very unlikely but we saw stranger things happen, so if I have a chance, I won't pass on it.

We just need to be really careful and not let our guards down until we are sure.

[The little fairy sighs. As she was fearing. She shakes her head emphatically and begins writing.]

don't hope. hope kills. assume watson is dead. dowen wants you give up for some reason. does not kill you, kills around you. hoping is playing his game.

I... I will be careful, okay? Until I'm sure it's really him.

I'm not stupid, Major. But even if it's 99% chance of it being a trap... that is still 1% that Toby is alive. And that's more than what we thought.