ii | video

[onblackwings]

[ This lady's looking a little different, for anyone that's spoken with her before. Not any older, but there's a sort of crooked quality to her nose, like it'd been broken and healed some time ago. She's lounging in the Initiative apartments, looking like she's recently made friends with a superiority complex. ]

I want to speak to those of you who have seen a war before. Not the skirmishes that the Initiative sends us on here, but actual war.

And failing that, I'll take anyone that knows magic — and can teach it. That part is important. Don't waste my time if all you can do is cast it.

Comments

[solitaire]

D'pends on how you go about it, I guess.

_{( He's offended. )}

[onblackwings]

How would you, then?

[solitaire]

I wouldn't.

[onblackwings]

You're beginning to sound like the last person I should be asking about this.

[solitaire]

C'est possible. Then again, I got an unbiased opinion.

[onblackwings]

I'm not looking for unbiased opinions, I'm looking for good stories.

[solitaire]

Least y'know there's a big difference then, huh, chère?

Though I might have a story.

[onblackwings]

Tell it, then.

[solitaire]

Once, there was a group a people bein' hunted down. So they ran, an eventually they got to a' island. They could defend it well 'nough, but not for too long. Eventually, they were surrounded. So they built a wall up 'round their island.

Every day, they'd fight from dawn 'til dusk. An' every day their enemies would keep comin', one after the other, tryin' ta break down that wall. Every night, when their enemies slept, they'd rebuild the wall for the next day.

An' every day, more an' more a 'em died, until the ones that were left didn't even know if it was worth it, anymore.

[onblackwings]

[ She looks intrigued at first, but then... dang. Kinda not the glorious tale she was hoping for. ]

If they were being hunted, it was their only option. What else could they have done that would have been more worthy?

[solitaire]

Well, some a' them asked that question. They tried ta go beyond the wall, see what was out there an' if they could make peace.

But their leaders didn't like that so much. So they started ta turn against each other. The war came in beyond the wall. Traitors, anyone who wanted ta escape, they were all killed.

[onblackwings]

That's a stupid reason to start a fight. They should have just left, then, and not bothered to consult with the others.

[solitaire]

Rock an' a hard place, chère. They were either enemies on the outside, or traitors on the inside.

[onblackwings]

Were you there?

[solitaire]

Ah. _{( Technically, the answer is "an alternate version of me was, but I lived through him and have all his rather disturbing memories." )}

...oui. I was.

[onblackwings]

What did you do?

[solitaire]

I fought. First at the wall, then inside it. But it wasn't me that figured out what was what.

_{( He shrugs, there, as though to say he's not so special. )}

[onblackwings]

But which side did you pick?

[solitaire]

The side that ended up blowin' up that wall.