exsilium | 001 | (accidental) voice

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001 | (accidental) voice

[There's the sounds of a scuffle---with a girl's voice cursing and complaining about 'stupid idiots, I'm not handing over my marques or whatever the money here's called! I told that little girl I'd buy her some bread!' ---when the tablet's voice feed suddenly clicks on:]

Okay, now let me get this straight. We're supposed to be soldiers, off fighting this war, right? So tell me this---

[The girl speaking quickly grunts as she dodges the thugs' attacks. The sounds of her footsteps make a scurrying noise as if she quickly backpedaled away. Afterward, she takes a deep, irritated breath.]

---isn't part of our job supposed to be keeping the peace? Why are there still moron thugs running around?

[After she poses this inquiry, there's the sound of electricity cracking, and the tablet suddenly shuts off.]

[ooc: tags might be slow, sorry! action tags are welcome as well, for anyone who's up for it!]

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[Well sorry Shiki, for coming from a balanced, humane society (kind of, until recent events in Mikoto's home world turned out be a rude awakening)! It's not her fault Academy City was practically a utopia (on the outside) for Espers like herself! So there's a pause, as Mikoto draws in a sharp breath, while raising her eyebrow at his strange getup.

He wasn't wrong---one look at the state of the city and the Civic Gardens told a thousand words, but...]

No, really?! Which is why we have to at least try!

[Seriously, she should be a shonen protagonist instead of a tsundere sometimes.]

If we gave them something to believe in, instead of just, I don't know---writing them off, the natives wouldn't have to resort to petty crap like what those idiots tried to do to me! Like you just said, we're fighting for them! What's the point of doing that if we're apathetic towards them?!

Edited 2013-07-08 00:15 (UTC)

Maybe if we were enlisted voluntarily. [Finding it impossible to allow himself to sympathize with a bunch of kidnappers who refused to do things quite for themselves, Shiki tilted his neck and looked down at his comm with one scrutinizing eye.]

You're being too willing to assume that either side is going to be understanding and accommodate the other. They may have this grand reason for needing to use outsiders rather than putting their ridiculous weaponizing technology to use for themselves, but so far I'm not seeing anything.

[He raised his left hand, metaphorically weighing things.] On one hand we have the people being kidnapped, being handed weapons and asked to fight an insurmountable enemy. [Up came the right, though the camera was now pointed at the bleak sky above.]

In the other, we have the people who can create unfathomable weapons, who are barely fighting for themselves and just 'screwing around' with things, leading to the destruction of worlds they claim they want to protect.

I wouldn't say it's apathy. It's well-deserved resentment for at least a few of us.

Yeah.

[Although her words are firm, her tone is not. Again, these are all valid---and disheartening---points he's bringing up. She had things to settle back in Academy City: the AIM Burst going awry, Saten in a coma, Academy City at the risk of destruction. If she was here and not there, what the hell would happen? How would they be able to fend the Burst off? What would happen to Kiyama, who held the key to reversing the effects of Level Upper? What would become of Saten?

Yanked away from all that, and forced to fight a war for a cause she barely even understood...but...no. Shiki's opinion was one of many. Maybe it was all shady, maybe even all an elaborate ploy...still, she couldn't just wallow, right?]

A few of you. That's still not the majority. Maybe you're right---maybe all of this'll turn out to be pointless. But that's for the individual person to figure out and judge. That's for me to figure out and judge. For now, though? I'm not gonna just sit on my butt and get all touchy about the situation. I'm gonna do something to make this inconvenience worth it. At least if things go bad, there'll be no regrets.

[She's sounding oddly mature as she speaks, her voice gaining resolve.]

Call me naive. Call me idealistic. You can even call me a flat-out idiot. I'm not in this for glory and whatnot. Obviously, people have it rough here, and I'm gonna help them as best I can. Because my friends back home wouldn't want me to give up.

[At that, Shiki realized he had heard speeches like that on television. He was a child, once. He used to watch those cartoons in the hospital and carried that bad habit with him to the Arima household. Even Arihiko was an idiot like himself, carrying on and drifting into that little fantasy world of 'cartoon heroes'.

For some reason, this girl seemed to perfectly emulate a speech he must have heard in one of those shows or at least read in one of the silly weekly jumps at the newspaper stands. For some reason, this made him irrationally annoyed--only enough to really make him call her out on it.]

What kind of ridiculous speech is that? What are you, a comic book hero or something? Of course I'd call you an idiot for reciting that kind of thing.

[You hear that pause? You hear it? Yeah, that's a sign she's just been told...told in the sense that what just came out of her mouth sounded like something Kamijou Touma would say.

What. The. Hell. What is wrong with her?! And on top of that, Kiyama called her 'tsundere' a while back and even joked that she was in love with the moron so now her mind's making all sorts of unnecessary correlations---

So have that pause for a bit. It's a pretty growly pause, though.]

[There's a loud crack of electricity, which causes static to fill the feed for a bit, followed by the sound of something metal being kicked. This was humiliating---first his bad luck, and now his preachiness? Was this a side effect of being in contact with the AIM Burst or something? Sure, that had been a pretty stressful situation and thinking of Touma and his words lent her a tiny bit of confidence at some points, but.

THAT'S NOT THE POINT. It's amazing how all of that maturity she displayed goes flying out the window.]

Sh-shut up! I'm not trying to make myself look like a hero! I'm just telling what I think needs to be done! So you've maybe had it rougher than other people here! That doesn't give you an excuse to be a jerk about it!

Who said I've got it rougher? [Responding with even more resentment in his voice, Shiki propped up his arm and looked away from his camera. The crack of electricity didn't really fire off any warning signs for him. Plugging and unplugging the same cleaning tool over and over warranted the occasional spark on his end.]

Even then, I don't really care about sounding like a jerk. It'd be worse if I were delusional and telling myself lies about the situation. As far as I can understand, I have to violate all my principles just to get by, here.

[On a daily basis, he had to be accepting of forced kidnapping, the removal of basic freedoms and the forced prospect of war. People said it wasn't 'voluntary', but all survival instincts fired up and made people fight when they were placed in danger and said kidnapping placed them in danger.]

Not that it matters. Most of the people here are liable to agree with you. Not many people understand the worst aspects of this situation and just how much of themselves they're giving away to this cause.

[He added, his mood deflating as much as possible, clearly enough.]

Whether they want to or not. You can claim it's voluntary, but not one of us signed a form asking to be brought to this tinderbox.

I can see that.

[You can practically hear the eyeroll.gif. Survival, schmurvival. Of course people would immediately kick themselves into gear the moment danger got shoved in their face. Maybe not always by fighting, but retaliation was at the core of taking action. Voluntary or not, taking action was simply the only thing one could do.]

It's called adapting. You kinda can't get by in life without that, you know. How do you think the human race has survived for as long as it has? Not just through wars, but even just nature. Clearly that's something you have a hard time with, if you've been here long and you're still feeling like you're being used. You think I don't have a life to go back to? The answer's yes. But I'm not gonna stand around angsting over it. If zapping the United Earth means I can go home, then I'm all for whatever they throw my way.

It's just that we kinda need a place to live. Kinda pointless if we're just standing on empty land when they do show up. We'd look pretty stupid. That's what I meant by, we shouldn't just toss the homefront to the wayside.

What's your answer to all the minors being handed weapons? I've seen pretty young people come in through those doors and they're offered items to kill the same way you pick out a can of soda in a store.

I've never witnessed it myself, but I've read about plenty of countries that give weapons to children, because they desperately want an advantage in numbers. Now, so what? If what you're saying is true, then it should just be done and not questioned in the first place.

[This janitor was seriously questioning real moral implications of their situation. Maybe he deserved a higher pay grade.]

If this is human nature, then it's wrong. The more I think about being 'inhuman', the less I feel bad about it.

[Shiki should win a Nobel Peace Prize! Clearly cleaning floors is way above him!! But...wow. That was harsh! And unneessary! And mean! And hits really, really, really close to home.

Mikoto falls silent for a pretty long stretch. She thinks of what she saw in Kiyama's memories. Those children in the experiments...that was kind of along those same lines...and they all died because of it. But the difference was that someone like Mikoto---a minor herself---had already-considerable powers and was far from defenseless.

Did that make her inhuman, too? She shudders slightly at the thought. Did that make her like the AIM Burst? Academy City as a whole promoted the exploration of Esper powers...but for what purpose?]

But...why the hell would you see yourself as 'inhuman'?

[She grits her teeth. Dammit, she couldn't let him get to her like this. She wasn't some kind of...monster.]

Obviously, you've got thoughts and feelings on all of this. Isn't that the point of being human? Being able to think? Sure, you're being really harsh about everything [but completely correct], but I think now you're taking it too far.

And besides, some of us 'minors' were born with the capacity to do things like that! Does that mean we're just gonna go 'oh, okay, sure!' when we're handed a weapon and told to go fight? No! Some of us even hate our abilities! Making kids fight is wrong---but in this case, what other choice do we have?!

Self defense is much different. [He didn't want to answer that. The last thing Shiki wanted to admit was that he was as close to a perfect killer as anyone else in the world could get. Above all else, he was made for this kind of mission. The thought alone made him nauseous and horrendously terrified.]

Sending children to fight in war, not just allowing a means to protect themselves... I can't consider the two the same thing.

And even then, it isn't a choice. Children are just as likely as adults to get sent to the battlefield. If you say 'what choice do I have?', then it's clear you have no choice. This is a situation made to exploit the good in people.

[Mikoto can't help but growl a little at that. Exploiting. That was what those bastards who were testing the AIM Signals were doing back home. The worst part? With her level of power, Mikoto could've been one of those children. And now...as much as she wanted to help these people---who clearly didn't trust outsiders like her, and Shiki, and everyone else who got dragged here---was it even worth it?]

Okay, fine. Say I buy your argument. What should I do with myself, then? Since I'm locked in a situation beyond my control and expected to just follow along with it like some lost little puppy.

Let those big, adult monsters take care of things. Don't assume that this thing is going to cave in if you don't take a part in it.

[Shiki couldn't have imagined what it was Mikasa wanted to accomplish. Heroism on one person's side was villainy on the other. Nobody wanted to die, not even monsters. It was why Nero Chaos nearly retreated when confronted with him. Death was...]

It's not a guarantee that you'll revive, either. I'm not here to give you commands, but it would be a shame if somebody died because of a hero complex. Life isn't that invaluable.

You don't sound like you're all that fond of adults. But then again, cleaning up after us is all they ever do, right? Still,whatever. You've made your point. 'Fight the power!' We'll see what happens. If things go to hell, I'm not gonna go down with it...

[She was still intent on fighting. But not for the Initiative. She couldn't very well abandon the circumstances and look the other way. She would fight because she wanted to fight.

She was no supporter of authority, either; don't get her wrong. But there's a certain bite in Shiki's words that give her the impression that mere rebellion wasn't the motive behind that bite.]

...but not because I wanna play hero. It'd be because it was my choice. So, what? Are you saying you're afraid to die? Huh, after all that talk about how the Initiative's one big farce, that almost makes you sound human, senpai.

Edited 2013-07-18 16:28 (UTC)

No. To be honest, I could die at any second more than anyone else here. I just don't want my last moments to be here so long as I can help it. If I have to do something reprehensible to make sure I won't have any regrets, I might just consider it.

[Wanting to get home that badly--Shiki couldn't have said too much more about wanting to get out of a world that was literally made of death, where hundreds of monsters were gathered to fight an insurmountable enemy.

It was a horror story, plain and simple.]

And, don't call me 'senpai'.

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001 | (accidental) voice

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