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[She's not crying, she's trying her best not to cry. But she does look absolutely miserable, and the smile she tries to put on when she sees Lu Bixing is very obviously a fake one.]
Hey. You alright?
Hey. You alright?
Not really.
[Man.]
Lavi said he wanted his uniform, before tomorrow. Think you can get it to him?
[Man.]
Lavi said he wanted his uniform, before tomorrow. Think you can get it to him?
He said it was in your room, he told me to ask you when I spoke to him.
[Weh...]
[Weh...]
[...]
He and I are similar in ways that are not easy to describe. It made me feel seen, but it also made me feel a little less lonely.
If things had gone differently...
[But they didn't. She didn't tell him something important until far too late, and now there's nothing that can be done about that.]
...it's best not to think about that, I guess.
He and I are similar in ways that are not easy to describe. It made me feel seen, but it also made me feel a little less lonely.
If things had gone differently...
[But they didn't. She didn't tell him something important until far too late, and now there's nothing that can be done about that.]
...it's best not to think about that, I guess.
[ oh no tuuri your dokis??? THATS SAD
he gives her a little smile, again, that last part ringing more familiar than he really likes, and then shifts a little where he's sitting to nudge her very gently with his arm. ]
...he's a really good kid. [ lavi, that is. ] I still think so, even now. I'm glad that he was able to help you in that way - even if it was just for a little while.
he gives her a little smile, again, that last part ringing more familiar than he really likes, and then shifts a little where he's sitting to nudge her very gently with his arm. ]
...he's a really good kid. [ lavi, that is. ] I still think so, even now. I'm glad that he was able to help you in that way - even if it was just for a little while.
[IT'S FINE she has eyes, she saw how Lavi and Rynlan were acting at trial.]
I get the feeling that he helped a lot of people, not just me. He's going to be missed.
I get the feeling that he helped a lot of people, not just me. He's going to be missed.
Just a little bit, yeah.
[Wait until they figure out that one of the people on that CYOA is a murderer.]
But I guess we have to keep our chins up, don't we?
[Wait until they figure out that one of the people on that CYOA is a murderer.]
But I guess we have to keep our chins up, don't we?
[ LAVI AND RYNLAN??? HELLO??? I DONT HAVE EYES!!!!
anyway - tuuri gets a little huff, at that. ]
Yes, he will be. [ ... ] You know, what you said - I think I felt that way, too. One of the very first things Lavi and I did was bond over books. We both love to read, and when I was growing up, for a little while, books were my only friends. I was a kid like him, once, you know? Maybe a kid like you, too.
anyway - tuuri gets a little huff, at that. ]
Yes, he will be. [ ... ] You know, what you said - I think I felt that way, too. One of the very first things Lavi and I did was bond over books. We both love to read, and when I was growing up, for a little while, books were my only friends. I was a kid like him, once, you know? Maybe a kid like you, too.
[Tuuri saw their interactions and drew a lil heart around both of them, I don't know if that's actually accurate she just thinks it's accurate.
And talking about Lavi and books gets Tuuri to smile, just a little bit.]
It was books for us too. We talked and found out are jobs are similar- we both work to preserve the history of our respective worlds. He also speaks several of the same languages I do, and we were able to go through several of them to see.
And talking about Lavi and books gets Tuuri to smile, just a little bit.]
It was books for us too. We talked and found out are jobs are similar- we both work to preserve the history of our respective worlds. He also speaks several of the same languages I do, and we were able to go through several of them to see.
[ hello tuuri! do you like falling into a memory hole? no? neither does lu bixing! but you know what, that's too bad! when he falls with tuuri, lu bixing makes a noise - startled, and then trying to reach out and make sure she doesn't fall and hurt herself, and then, just like that, the screen appears.
he has enough time to sigh, but ironically, the memory itself seems to suit the screen well. ]
he has enough time to sigh, but ironically, the memory itself seems to suit the screen well. ]
[ the takeover of the not-so-affectionately named "trash space station" was quick and efficient, and frankly, kind of amazing, at least in your eyes. lin jingheng is incredible - that you've always known - and between him and your father, a 'self defense force' of sixty crappy mechs are told to stand down, and the corrupt arms merchant called the 'old fart' is tossed directly into prison as you and lin take on control of the station itself.
the place is a mess. there's hardly any electricity, and the people who live on it are refugees or ragtag smugglers who worked for the old fart. they're rough and tumble and peak eighth galaxy, and when you get off of your mech and start to get to know them, you realize you can solve some of their problems, with a little time. in the background, you and lin discover the entire space station is powered by an old, old mach 3 mech - and the mysteries on mysteries continue. you start to fall in love with the people here the way you fall in love with the eighth all the time, and they start to love you, as you fix their video screens and you work day and night to build a thermonuclear power station with your students at your side. two weeks pass by smoothly.
but then, the rumblings of something strange start to happen. more specifically, the sixty mech 'self defense force' starts to get angry and rebellious - not at lin and you, but instead at their old leader, who is currently hidden deep in the depths of an underground prison for lin and your dad to question, because he took so long to surrender to lin that people got hurt. (because, truthfully, operating a mech when you aren't trained to is terrifying. it's against human nature, to be knocked around in the vacuum of space.)
you find out about it from saturday, the young leader of the self defense squad, who has absolutely nothing to do with the loud protest itself. he comes to talk to you instead - the so called 'revolt' is just a protest, at the moment - but as you're talking to him, things start to get dicey. the men and women and refugees are getting angrier and louder and angrier, and they start to call for violence. they turn from where they're in the tiny city square towards the administration building where lin, your father, your students, the mech core and the prisoner himself all are.
shoot.
truthfully, you're less worried about the damage an angry mob can do, and more worried about lin. you already had to beg him to give you some time to keep this station from becoming bait for the warring prince cayley in order to save the people who live on it, and he will not be happy if a bunch of hooligans start banging down his door and calling him insults. you gather up your personal device and start to hack into the base itself, pulling up cameras of the networks of the base's road, finding a roadblock mechanic and throwing up a iron fence roadblock in the path of the now growing, angry mob. saturday cheers beside you, and you're pleased, but you don't even get enough time to smile.
the mob, which couldn't fight together to save its life barely a week ago, coordinates into one giant force like a battering ram. it'd be impressive if it wasn't horrible - they start ramming into the iron fence, which is rusty and old like everything else on this base. screaming, shouting for blood, for their old leader to come out, why did he abandon them, why would he treat them like this, why, why, why --
you make it on the scene just in time for your device, hacked into the network, to pop up a warning. Warning. High Energy Particle Concentration. Warning.
your eyes widen; your breath catches, as you realize in horror that lin's summoned the particle cannons on the side of the building, and he's going to fire.
the fence comes down. the mob screams in delight.
the blossom of heat starts from the particle cannon and you slam your fingers into your device and start to type, furiously - in the spare seconds before an entire group of people is turned to ashes you grab onto the base's tiny self defense shield and you throw a programming command and the entire shield concentrates in one spot like a wall in front of the shrieking, angry mob, and lin's fired particle cannons slam into it with the force of the IUS's best technology. the defense net shatters into pieces, and the entire base shakes like an earthquake, as the shrieks of rage turn to confusion and horror.
you exhale.
when the smoke clears, the defense net is gone, but the mob remains. and you know lin could fire again, if he wanted to, but you have no way of stopping it, a second time. your head whips up to the administration building like you could see him, like you could beg him not to, but you're too far away and that won't work. you have a golden chance in this moment of confusion, and you seize it.
you summon two medical robots. saturday makes a confused noise but you ignore him, as one finds your arm, places an antiseptic, creates a sanitized safe zone and then injects something into your arm. there's no time for anesthesia, and the pain is violent enough to drop you to your knees, but you feel the familiarity of power go down your spine like lightning, and that's all you need.
opium biochip activated.
you turn up the features as it changes your mental capacities. camouflage. invisibility. and you push them outwards, out to your surroundings and the network you've created. you create the illusion - the slight, soft hum sound that echoes through the brain of every person in the mob. the camouflage sweeps over a row of houses, so they suddenly vanish in a sweep of bright light white, and the logo of the cayley pirates appears in their place, and the tiny, useless mechs in the mech bay change too, into the illusion of massive, terrifying cayley mechs with all of their guns pointed directly at the planet.
you switch your attention - blood drips out of your nose - to the massive multimedia screens in the center of the space station that you fixed a few days ago, and you reach into your own files, and the people of the trash space station see it.
they see the sky filling with mechs and then, missiles. hundreds and hundreds of every side, unflinchingly, dropping down, down, down - the anger turns to shrieks of fright and terror, people trying to scramble away from doom and despair and misery as missiles are going to land and -
the video turns off, and you straighten.
the crowd is silent, dead silent. several of the members of the self defense force have fallen to the ground. others are crying. horrified, shocked by the fact that what they saw wasn't real, relieved, and - stopped.
you clear your throat. ]
I'm sorry for what you saw just now. I was debugging the terminal and unintentionally turned on the footage from the news of the bombing of Beijing Beta. [ silence. the crowd looks to you for answers, shocked and stunned.
in the middle of the crowd, a young man starts to sob. it takes your attention - you realize that he's next to a wall, and he's having a hysteria reaction, that he's balled his fists up and is punching the concrete, enough that the startled mob members turn to look at him. you rush over to the man, unable to bear watching, and use the super strength afforded to you by the biochip to take his hands. ]
Listen to me. [ you coax, to the screaming, crying man - ] Listen. To. Me.
[ and, slowly, he does. he takes a deep, hiccuping breath, snot trailing down his face, and you exhale too, some of the tension in your shoulders finally starting to break. you're talking not just to him, but to the entire crowd, turning your voice from gentle and soothing to delivering facts. ]
You guys have mechs. That makes you militant in the eyes of those people. [ of the ones on the video - the very same people who destroyed your home. why would you have that footage? because beijing beta is where you lived. it's where your school was. your friends lived. it's a place that you called home, and in the blink of an eye, ares von and the cayley pirates destroyed it.
you won't have that again. ] If you all try and destroy the mechs in the storeroom like you're thinking right now, you'll blow up your entire planet, and the energy of the explosion will draw the Cayley pirates here like you're throwing them a dinner party. Right now, we're safe, but the first time Prince Cayley was kicked out of the Eighth Galaxy, it was because he ignored these underground channels. He's not going to make that mistake again, and when he comes here, it will be a matter of time before he kills us all.
[ silence ripples across this crowd of haggard faces - some old, some young, crying, scared, silent. your heart aches for them, but you have to be firm in the words you deliver for this exact reason. you look across the crowd as you stand, finally releasing the hands of the man who was beating himself up on the wall, who wipes his face and makes a squeaky sob noise like a conch.
you take a deep breath. this place needs a leader - a real leader, and you can't let chaos reign, but you can't let them be consumed by despair, either. you step up, and you carry the light of the future on your shoulders when you say: ] If you don't want to die like that, then put your Self Defense Squadron uniform on tomorrow, and report to the mech bay, and come see me tomorrow. Roger that.
[ the silence passes, again, slowly. you rub the man beside you's back, and watch, as one by one, the angry, furious mob from before starts to disperse in silence, heavy with the weight of what their future can hold. you saved them from lin's irritation.
now, you can only hope they can save themselves. ]
[GODDAMN
Tuuri kind of stares at the screen for a while, surprised by what she's seen. Lu Bixing can actually do all of that? Then again, he is tougher than he looks, so maybe it's not so surprising after all.
She looks to the screen, then to Lu Bixing. And then:]
Did it work in the end?
Tuuri kind of stares at the screen for a while, surprised by what she's seen. Lu Bixing can actually do all of that? Then again, he is tougher than he looks, so maybe it's not so surprising after all.
She looks to the screen, then to Lu Bixing. And then:]
Did it work in the end?
[ surprise! yeah!! well. it's - it's a memory that feels ancient, and lu bixing blinks a little surprised when the film finally ends. there's a strange sense of nostalgia that comes from the space station, from seeing saturday's young face, and for a moment, he's distracted by it, enough that he has to sort of check back in to remember tuuri's right there.
ah. well. he gives her a little smile. ]
It did. Not well, at first - only ten of the original crew showed up, but it grew over time.
ah. well. he gives her a little smile. ]
It did. Not well, at first - only ten of the original crew showed up, but it grew over time.
I'm not too surprised by that. You seem to have a gift for pulling people together.
[He's helped with that here, even.]
But I'm glad it turned out alright.
[He's helped with that here, even.]
But I'm glad it turned out alright.
[ the first part makes him smile, ducking his head - modest, a little sheepish. ]
Maybe. I wouldn't be a very good leader if I didn't, right?
[ sometimes you are the prime minister. there's something about it turning out alright that makes his gaze soften as he looks at where the screen left off, but... he shakes his head after a moment to clear it. ]
I am too. All things considered. That was nearly twenty years ago, now - I haven't thought about that day in a long, long time.
Maybe. I wouldn't be a very good leader if I didn't, right?
[ sometimes you are the prime minister. there's something about it turning out alright that makes his gaze soften as he looks at where the screen left off, but... he shakes his head after a moment to clear it. ]
I am too. All things considered. That was nearly twenty years ago, now - I haven't thought about that day in a long, long time.
This place does seem good for bringing up memories, doesn't it?
[Speaking of which, it's time for Tuuri's memory! Read from 439 to the top two panels of 448, and then 454 to 463.]
[Tuuri is going >T by the end of it, because of course it's a memory where she gets called out for being manipulative.]
[Speaking of which, it's time for Tuuri's memory! Read from 439 to the top two panels of 448, and then 454 to 463.]
[Tuuri is going >T by the end of it, because of course it's a memory where she gets called out for being manipulative.]
[ this is so funny. he doesn't quite understand the context, but the want for a vaccine, and the persistent tagalongs - it's so familiar that it makes lu bixing nostalgic, and he gives tuuri a warm smile, and. well, then he laughs, at that face she makes. ]
Busted. [ teasing, playful. ]
Busted. [ teasing, playful. ]
[She is! Pouting!!!]
It all turned out fine in the end, so it's fine!
[She is so busted.]
It all turned out fine in the end, so it's fine!
[She is so busted.]
[She's at the planetarium dealing with an emo guy, so she can still be here when Lu Bixing shows up too.]
Oh, hey! If you want some privacy I can duck out.
[Or if he wants to talk, she can stay.]
Oh, hey! If you want some privacy I can duck out.
[Or if he wants to talk, she can stay.]
I felt like I needed to clear my head too, which is why I'm here.
[Well ok, she'll lead the way in.]
It's not the same sky, but it reminds me of when I used to watch the stars as a kid.
It's not the same sky, but it reminds me of when I used to watch the stars as a kid.
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