In the wake of all that's lost [closed, possibly forward-dated]

[bequiet_hescreamed]

Central Park was a great rectangular mass of green growth haphazardly dumped next to the Kohaku River. Much like the ship on which it was situated, it gave Clef the odd sense of something having been lost in translation - that his surroundings were so far removed from their original context that his appreciation of them could only be coincidental.

For instance, the zoo consisted of a landscaped courtyard surrounded on all sides by man-made structures. Though secluded and luxuriant with growth, the empty buildings and walkways maintained little evidence of their original purpose while being only tangentially suitable as a place for three people to sit and talk. Yet, the Conservancy served their purposes well for a number of reasons.

"Stacy?"

Silence.

"We should be able to talk freely here," Clef said, mostly for Presea's benefit, as he leaned his staff up against a wall. "In theory."

Comments

[forging_on]

Presea glanced around curiously. It seemed like a bright open space to her, no sign of anything special. But Clef had brought her and Fuu to this particular place for a reason. The ship hadn't answered his inquiry. She couldn't hear them.

Whatever this was, it was important. So her face was schooled in seriousness for once, instead of her usual cheer. She hadn't been especially cheerful since Clef had explained what had happened to Cephiro, in any case. It had taken the wind out of her sails more than a little.

"Wars are so complicated," she muttered, mostly to herself.

[monster_san]

Fuu was almost accustomed to seeing famous landmarks placed at random in the City, although she only knew that this was Central Park from the sign at the gates. She made her way to the abandoned zoo, brushing her fingers over the leaves once or twice.

For the past few days she'd had a sick sort of feeling in her stomach. Stacy was repodding again, or rather, the Daligig were. And it was dishearteningly unsurprising to learn just who had been removed....

She smiled politely, if briefly, when she found Clef and Presea. The look on Presea's face made it impossible to keep it up for more than a moment. "I'm sorry, I'm a bit late."

[bequiet_hescreamed]

"We've just arrived, ourselves," Clef replied, returning Fuu's polite smile with an equally short-lived one of reassurance.

They should get started, shouldn't they?

"I don't want to simply dump a lot of information onto you, Pharle," he said, turning to Presea earnestly. She had suffered enough already, and what they would have to fill her in on would be almost as difficult to take as the news that Cephiro was gone.

"Fuu and I have new information to exchange - " he threw a glance at Fuu as he said this. What he really meant was that he had information - he didn't explicitly know about Fuu, but she was usually the more informed of the two of them. "But we have a reasonable amount of time in which to do that and tell you everything we can, so please don't hesitate to speak up if you need us to slow down for any reason."

Not that Presea had problems speaking up, in general, but he was admittedly being a little overprotective. This same situation had thrown him into quite a long period of depression before she had arrived, and Presea was normally such a bright and cheerful person that he didn't want to see the same thing happen to her.

"Do you have any questions, first of all?"

[forging_on]

Presea smiled just a little, briefly. She wasn't used to Clef treating her like she was made of glass, and she kept meaning to ask him to stop, but somehow the words never quite escaped her. Maybe later.

She'd been trying to think of the right things to ask ever since Clef had proposed this meeting. The opportunity to be in a space where Stacey couldn't overhear them was a rare one indeed, from what she'd gathered. They might have time, but she should get caught up as much and as well as she could, in order to help.

"Well, how much of that brochure is actually true? That's probably a good place to start," she said.

[monster_san]

"The information in the guide is true, but... not complete," Fuu said, after a moment of thought. "It's true that the Ohm can and do attack universes. However, it's more than anger that drives them. I spoke to one of those who made direct contact, and she said there was a sense of deep sorrow as well. It also skimps on the details of the first mutiny against the Daligig." There was a disapproving note in Fuu's voice at that.

Still, it was a good jumping-off point, so long as the new crew member in question got acquainted with someone who could give them a fuller assessment of the situation later, as they were doing now. "There are no lies in there, though."

[bequiet_hescreamed]

Clef nodded once in agreement, adding, "Much of the information that cannot be verified came from the Daligig, who have been known to lie when it suits them. We have no other reason to believe that it is false, however."

[forging_on]

This really wasn't too unexpected, now that Presea thought about it. Wars always had two sides. (Although there seemed little chance of befriending the other side, at least at this juncture. But who knew, really?) She frowned, however, to hear that their benefactors, or whatever they should be called, lied. Now, there was a fine line to walk between sharing too much information and too little, in case it should be leaked or your troops foundered. (One book of Autozami history was enough to inform her of this.) But actual lying was more than a little suspicious. It was insulting. Why would you act like this with your allies? It was a sign of mistrust, or of missing information. It was dangerous to all involved.

"You don't have any reason to believe it's true, either," she said. "Or maybe you do, and I've just not heard it yet. I have to say, I'm not surprised there was a mutiny." She might be feeling a bit mutinous herself.

[monster_san]

"Yes, especially in light of recent events," Fuu said, her eyebrows drawing together as she recalled the would-be Punishment. "They also think that torture is acceptable and even necessary as a disciplinary tool--two crew members who tried to leave the ship were nearly victims."

It had been a horrific day. After returning from shore leave on a planet that didn't even allow the Daligig on its surface because of their transgressions... "However... the ship does seem to be fond of us, when she's in her right mind. So that is one good thing."

[bequiet_hescreamed]

"Yes. Whether we are on the right side of this war may be debatable, but it has been made clear that we are not in charge of our own destinies," Clef elaborated. "Recent events have brought the issue to a head, but I think there has always been a certain amount of resentment of the Daligig among the crew."

[forging_on]

Torture? Presea's eyes widened in worry. What a terrible way to treat the people you fought alongside! (There was torture, okay, and then there was torture. She might trap someone in a cage for doing something unfortunate, but she really wasn't going to pluck out their fingernails, no matter what she promised.) It was also a way to see how much they were really valued by their rescuers/captors. That is to say, not much.

"If that's the way they treat people, I don't blame them," she said firmly, crossing her arms.

[monster_san]

At another time she might be amused at the irony of Presea being angry at the thought of torture, but thinking back to the sight of Howard and Charles would quickly take any humor away. As it was, Fuu merely nodded. "And to complicate matters, it looks as though a lot of people who are high-ranking or openly in support of another mutniny are being returned to the pods," she said. She did her best to keep anxiety from her voice, but the tightness of her tone spoke for itself.

"I think... I must say that if the Daligig are methodically removing any potential troublemakers from the crew, I might be next," she said, one hand partially covering her mouth, the other tightly gripping her elbow. "I haven't been as vocal as some, but I did speak sharply to the Daligig during their Punishment attempt, and I've spoken to a person who personally made contact with the Ohm."

Admittedly, 'speaking sharply' was nowhere near the level of what Clef had done, and she had done her best not to attract attention when meeting with Atom and Councilor Yunos. But those two were in the pods, and Fuu had no idea how much of her thoughts the Daligig would know about via Stacy.

[bequiet_hescreamed]

Clef looked down for a moment, his expression mixed.

"That may be," he said, looking back up again, "but from what I've seen the Daligig seem to prefer to have as many of us awake and able as possible."

He couldn't quite explain why they might feel that way. Certain crew members did seem to be instrumental to certain missions, but those missions seemed incidental to their real job of fighting the Ohm. Perhaps the same held true of those battles, but Clef's impression was that everyone needed to fight in those cases - it didn't particularly matter who "everyone" happened to include at the time.

Yet, he did know what he had seen. When the previous crew had openly rebelled against their overlords, the Daligig had waited for the battle itself to begin - surely they were aware before then that something was about to go down - and then only stunned and repodded those involved, rather than killing them. Even their methods of torture did not cause any permanent physical harm, and when Clef had attempted to assassinate Yavek the Kessek guards had retaliated by merely attempting to punch him. None of it quite made sense unless one assumed that the Daligig had some reason why they didn't want the crew members harmed.

This recent round of repoddings seemed to fit that pattern, as well, affecting only the knowledgeable, the authoritative, and the loud among the dissenters. It was as though repodding was a last resort, to be enacted only if there was no other option.

"I cannot guess why, but their actions seem to say that we are valuable to them, and I believe we are more valuable out of the pods than in them."

[forging_on]

"Well, we're their soldiers, yes? Of course they'd want as many people awake as possible," Presea said. This made sense to her, just from what little she'd seen. She waved a hand. "And even if we don't fight directly, the support is important. People want to do their best. They want to... to get their worlds back. If it's possible."

She looked down quickly. That was much less than her usual optimism, but she just couldn't wrangle that right now.

[monster_san]

Fuu thought about that. Perhaps that was true; perhaps the repoddings were over with now that the Daligig had proved their point. Get rid of a few vocal, high-profile people to intimidate the rest of the crew into quiescence... that was plausible, too.

Her heart twisted in sympathy at the look on Presea's face. Optimism in the face of something as massive as the destruction of universes was almost impossible. It didn't help that Fuu placed no trust whatsoever in their claim that they might be able to extract the secret to restoration from the Ohm.

And as much as she wanted to, she didn't think she could leave that unsaid. "I don't think it's impossible, but I don't think that following the Daligig's orders will help us do it. They may need us, but they've made it clear that we're to do as we're told, not to think for ourselves."