2023-02-07: Forward
- Cast: Seolla Schweizer, Renais Cardiff, Sousuke Sagara
- Where: Tsutsujidai
- Date: U.C. 0097 02 07
- Summary: The birdcage breaks open.
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
The tearing of the sky around Tsutsujidai has finally cleared - and finally, the world seems just a little more tranquil. The past few days have been an exhausted spot of relief and recovery for a number of people, many of whom never intended to stay here for so long.
Seolla felt the obligation - the call to deploy in the last moments of the conflict, against Ennil, whod helped her push through all this. But pushing herself that far, the only thing she knows how to do, left her struggling and exhausted over the past day or two, snoring away terribly loudly. As soon as she awakened yesterday though, Doctor Mass presented an offer, in no small part because of a girl in her notebook. Someone faint and familiar to Seolla. Latune-11 - no, Latune Subota - was in their care, having survived several years ago, and put on the path to recovery. It was possible, then, if she was willing to take that hand.
After all this - after just how much Seolla's realized shes been controlled, taken advantage of - practically held hostage by the dangerous regimen shes been subjected to - even after all that, shed assumed, |she'll just have to do her best when she gets back|. but someone familiar. Someone who could escape
It was now or never - and the idea of it being never suddenly felt so cold. So hollow.
She couldnt bear the idea of staying, so suddenly. The offered plan to smuggle her out with the Jindai students and transfer her there seemedmiraculous.
It was enough to make her momentarily forget, on her last day in Tsutsujidai - that it was never intended to be her decision.
>"Bronzo-27. We've finally gotten back in touch with you,"< rasps the voice of an older woman through Seolla's handguard, suddenly blinking and flickering in the middle of Seolla packing her things in front of the clinic for the last time. >"An unexpected hitch in our operation, but judging by the vitals we're receiving, you're clearly still alive. Good work."<
The voice alone is enough to make Seolla's breath lock up. A slight tinge of blue crosses her forehead - there's a certain blankness in her eyes.
>"Gahh, but get to what's important already!" drones another voice, a somewhat elderly man instead - this one enough to make Seolla suck in a tire-squeal of an inhale. >"With four extra weeks on your assignment, you did kill that Akane girl, right? Your 'dear sister' is still recovering from that, after all! Tell us at once, Bronzo-27, how it went."<
A cold sweat is dripping off of Seolla's forehead - still clutching her folded up coat above her briefcase. Her heart is racing. She can't figure out what to say. How to say it. Her mouth briefly opens-
>"Hmmmm? Bronzo-27. Your pulse is rising awfully fast. Usually you respond a bit faster. You're not in a sorry state since your medication ran out, yes? Ah, of course. We'll have it ready for you as soon as we arrive in this blasted colony."
...It's enough to make Seolla shake - and worriedly glance off to one side, a terse swallow going down her throat. ...but in some small way, her body starts to move of its own accord. Placing her coat in her suitcase diligently. Moving like something made of rust and ice, creakily and wearily. Her stare transitions from the ones who've helped her, and moves off into space.
Just like that, optimism cedes to a dull requirement to resign to her fate.
>"Damn it, what's wrong with this thing? I can hear something but not a word from her. Hmph. No, you're definitely still alive and kicking - there's brainwave responses out of this. Hah. You'd better not be ignoring us, Bronzo-27-"< Each time they use |that title| the light seems to drain from her eyes a little more. >"Well, whatever your state is, we should be at your location in juuuust about 8 hours. You'd better not be trying to hide that you screwed it all up!"<
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
With contact re-established between Tsutsujidai and the outside world, Sayla Mass has decided to bury herself in Shuffle Alliance work almost immediately--and given Renais Cardiff an assignment she can't in good conscience decline. She's sure part of it is an attempt at ducking her, but... it's true that she's got experience in discreet asset extraction, leaving aside the bond she's begun to forge with Seolla.
So there's an understandable modicum of alarm in her as, from the other side of the room, Renais hears the communicator on Seolla's wristband bark to life. She's dressed similarly to her 'normal' in here, short-shorts with rolled cuffs worn over black ribbed leggings, and a baggy zip-up hoodie, with somewhat worn sneakers. She pushes off of the wall, walking over toward Seolla.
As she listens, she weighs her options... and after the people on the other end have finished speaking, Renais pulls out a pen and a notepad. Quickly, she scribbles out two words and shows the page to Seolla.
It's a simple instruction, underlined twice: STAY SILENT
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
For now, the team preparing to smuggle Seolla out of Tsutsujidai has been attending to fairly practical concerns. She'll need a Jindai uniform. Sousuke has planned to sneak her out along with him and Shinji Kazama. Shinji's a friend who has long since gotten used to Sousuke's idiosyncracies, so as long as he doesn't ask too many questions, it should work. The Captain has already been informed he's coming back - AL saw to that, without being told, annoyingly - and, separately, about Seolla. Everything's going well.
Sousuke has just entered the room with a uniform skirt he's managed to borrow from one of the girls that's been stuck here. He's not sure why she was grinning.
Which makes the timing phenomenally terrible when he opens the door directly into the sentence 'Your pulse is rising--' and gets the words, "I've acquired--" out before his soldier's instincts tell him something is INCREDIBLY wrong. He sucks in a deep breath. Waits it out.
Eyes cut to Renais, then to Seolla.
The state of the plan has just changed. What now...
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
>"Hmph. It's not just that she's alive - it's easy enough to determine that she's moving around just from the coordinates, if only a little bit. Yes - that's someone else's voice we just heard there. Listen to me, Bronzo-27. Listen to this voice you remember so clearly. We're the ones you've entrusted with your safety. I'm certain you've been in dire shape for at least the past month. I can understand your pain."<
There's a pause in the voice, Seolla's bottom lip quivering as she struggles with Renais' insistence. The voice of Aguilla Setme that she's grown so accustomed to. The one she's always returned to |because she had no other choice| in times of need.
>"Or is it that you're hiding something? No, you don't have anything to hide. If you do, it's because someone despicable is trying to use you. Take a deep, long breath, Bronzo-27."< - - - and Seolla obliges that much. Affirming Aguilla. >"You've wound up indebted to someone out there, haven't you? Yes - because you certainly were only equipped for those two weeks. They look at you and only see something they can use. They're envious of how hard you've worked, and want to grind you to dust for their purposes. But they're not your family. You're just a tool they want to exploit. And the moment you are no longer useful to them, they'll throw you away."<
...whatever way Aguilla's kept her grip on her for so long, it clearly has an effect. Seolla once again glances towards Sousuke - this time, her eyes are leerier. Hazier. Less certain of something. She outright takes a step backwards to get distance from Sousuke and Renais.
>"Oh, for goodness sakes! Quit playing the long game. Look, I've brought the other two, we know she'll respond to them, damn it!" A sound of slight shuffling and struggling and grunting from Adler Koch - and two other voices as well, before added natures join the chorus.
>"...Dearest younger sister. Seolla. Have you been well? It's all going to be alright. We've been worried sick about you back here."< This one, at least, is familiar - the distinct tones of a previous guest, Ouka Nagisa. The sound alone melts Seolla's gaze a little, tears welling up in her eyes. >"Just sit tight. I'll be here for you. All the pain you've been in will go away soon."<
>"Yo, partner. Kh, it can't possibly be easy."< This one, a less familiar one - a young man presumably around Seolla's age - and someone deeply important, judging by how Seolla's practically pouring tears down to the floor. >"Hey, look. Listen to me for a little bit, alright? Whatever happened out there, it's gonna be alright. Cause I know you're the toughest out of all of us. I'm sure you've been thinking about us too. So that's why this is really important for me to say."<
His voice - Arado's voice - clears, just a touch. Like he's leaning closer. >"|Don't forget what we promised each other.| I'm sure you've been thinking about us non-stop over there. I'll hold out and wait for ya, Seolla, cause I know you'll fulfill that promise. Got that?"<
What they promised each other...
The promise they made, the three of them-
)))No matter what it takes, we're making it out of here together.(((
...What they promised each other...
...So Arado's trying to say, that-
Seolla bolts upright, as though jolted awake. She gazes at those restraining bracers at her wrists and ankles that glow so brightly and rapidly, demanding her attention. As though she'd push her face in if it meant seeing Ouka and Arado again.
...But she tears herself away, and breathlessly turns back to Renais and Sousuke. Those cuffs around her limbs - - presented out towards the two, a panicked look in her eyes. Eyes darting back and forth, as she holds her ground as resolutely as she can when she's shaking so much.
...Her gaze flits to Renais' metal arm. To where she can tell Sousuke's concealing a handgun. Her teeth are gritted tightly - her eyes are open wide. Her breath catches in her throat-
And she stands her ground, eyebrows knitting. The firm stance of someone prepared for something which might be painful, eyes locked directly to her companions with all the certainty she can muster.
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
As Sousuke enters the room, Renais holds up a hand, puts a finger to her mouth--but it's too late already. Circumstances have changed.
Renais' teeth grit. A fire builds in her core, flaring hotter as Aguilla lies. Calls themselves her family, even as they deny her name. Manipulates her by saying of *course* she isn't hiding anything. Guilt is such a powerful motivator. It's a lie she's seen before; one she's seen push victims to run back into their captors' arms. She's already plotting out in her head how she'll have to subdue Seolla to get her out.
However, she doesn't make any moves toward the girl as she steps back. Instead, she writes something on the pad and shows it to Sousuke: THEY'RE COMING FOR HER. ETA 8 HOURS
'We know she'll respond to them'. Such a clinical way to phrase it.
Manipulative bastards.
Renais expects them to implore her to return, but... neither Ouka nor the boy do. Arado's words even hearten her, a little... but it makes the fire inside her blaze brighter.
Still-- it's almost a surprise when Seolla presents her hands to the two... but she gives the girl a silent nod, and then one to Sousuke. The G-Stone on her gloved arm shines as she grips the speaker-bearing cuff in both hands, turning Seolla's wrist to find where it was locked into place--or, failing that, a weak point.
Regardless of what she finds, she pushes her fingertips between cuff and wrist as carefully as she can--but regardless of care taken, there's bound to be pain when metal fingers wedge themselves so tightly. Once her grip is secure, though, she starts to pull, wrenching the cuff apart. The ribbing of her leggings--her bodysuit--starts to glow, faintly, as her core temperature rises... and finally, it comes loose. She hands it rapidly to Sousuke, giving him a trusting nod as she moves on to Seolla's other wrist... and then to the cuffs about each ankle after that.
And then, it's over. Sweat drips from the cyborg's nose, from her chin, joining Seolla's tears on the floor.
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Sousuke has surprisingly little personal experience with this type of manipulation. His is the world of men who reveal they've taken a better check while delivering a bullet, not...manipulators undercutting the will through what he can only understand as magic.
But he's seen magic before, and mostly he's learned he hates it. Watching the girl sweat and strain like those shackles were tied to the heaviest weights imaginable.
Renais moves first, but Sousuke's close behind. Renais hands him the mangled cuff. He knows this role. He pulls his gun, scans the device with his eyes - there, transmitter assembly - and blasts it open. Repeat four times. Then he pushes the uniform across the table toward Seolla while finding a stray box to dump the remains of the shackles in. "I'll use Arbalest to destroy them," he says, closing it. "They said 8 hours? They'll double time now. We have to move up the schedule."
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
...though the cuffs are certainly firm and locked, they're not something indomitably firm and unbreakable - there's clearly a regularly used locking point on them. ...Seolla's only so much help herself, twisting her elbows a little cluelessly in trying to help Renais isolate where they can be taken apart. She hasn't ever really seen them taken off - it's a bit of a process to adapt to the idea that they're removable at all.
>"Geh? What the hell's happening to make such a racket? All of our readings are having a hissy fit. Damn it, Bronzo-27, speak up already, or you're really in for it!"<
The first gunshot rings out - Seolla is, gratefully, accustomed to gunfire in her presence, and with a bit of tensing herself up in preparation, knows not to get twitchy or dodgy. Sousuke can aim where needed. ...honestly, if he couldn't? If Renais couldn't control her strength? It's okay to take a few bullet wounds. It's okay if it tore up her arms and legs.
-but they're more careful than that.
>"Gunshots? Khhh, what the hell kind of situation are you in? ...no, one of the transmitters just cut off."< -the second one confirms Aguilla's suspicions there. "Hmph. An inconvenience, but pointless. There's other means of tracking you down. Listen up, whoever you are. We're not letting you take our prized daughter so easily. She's a good and loyal girl who knows what's best for her and her siblings. Really, you're making matters much worse for yourself - Bronzo-27 is quite the handful to try and restrain, and eventually whatever lies you're feeding her will clash with her natural instinct to come home. I doubt you'll stop whatever foolishness you have planned right now, but we'll be merciful, knowing the strained situation everyone must be in. If you abandon your venture at once, and leave Bronzo-27 at her current coordinates, we won't hunt you do-"<
The final volley of gunfire, and the last of Renais' forceful tearing of the manacles, finally turns those communicators to slag - and Seolla immediately falls against Renais and Sousuke.
A deep breath in-
A long, shrieking, roiling scream muffled deep into Sousuke's shoulder, gripping him in a vice that'd leave bruises. Overwhelming fear - overwhelming pain - overwhelming uncertainty, all belted out in one, terse, ear-clawing, frankly horrible noise from her throat.
She pulls her face back, soaked in tears, hyperventilating - and leering at the box with those restraints. One firm step forward - and Seolla's stomping on the ruined, smoking remains, sputtering out a smaller, smaller form of that curdling call of dysfunction she just hid in Sousuke's shirt.
"...my...my...MY NAME IS SEOLLA, DAMN IT-!"
"You had-" *stomp* "-NO IDEA-" *stomp* "-how HORRIBLE you made it-" *stomp* "-to REMEMBER MY-" *STOMP* "-TO REMEMBER EVERYONE'S-" *STOMP* "-IT WAS SO HARD WHEN I LOST SOMEONE'S NAME FOR GOOD-" *STOMP* "-THEY ALWAYS SMILED WHEN I MADE ONE UP FOR THEM-" *STOMP* "-AND YOU KEPT TAKING IT AWAY!!!"
Breathing furiously, pupils dilated, a grimace plastered on her face, hands shaking. Seolla finally relents in that moment of catharsis, whispering to herself, "...at least you never found...where I etched it into my bedframe...maybe...maybe I made it up too..."
Her foot is still on the box's remains, a blank look in her eyes. Sapped of energy, for just a bit. Still, like a statue. And then-
"...right. When's the transport leaving? Can we accelerate the schedule any, or is that too risky at leaving students behind?" Hurriedly, with a second wind of determination, Seolla tosses on the uniform over her undershirt, getting herself dressed and looking just like any student of Jindai's - albeit one with an unusually athletic build, height, and forceful stride. The bag with her belongings is over her shoulder. It's light. The only precious thing in there is her notebook.
Leering out the window briefly, Seolla scans the area for signs of if they were already here - "...It wouldn't be those two in the actual transport. Likely it'd be some broader G-Hound agents. Kh. They might have contacts from the actual Britannian camp, but hopefully they're still exhausted from everything that happened there. Damn it. If they hurt anyone still at this clinic, I'm gonna-"
Fist banging on the window, before Seolla whirls around ahead of Sousuke and Renais. "...no. Let's get out of here as fast as possible. I don't...I don't want there to be any other choice. ...restrain me on your own terms if you have to. I'm..."
<Pose Tracker> Renais Cardiff has posed.
It takes all of Renais' willpower not to yell into the communicator, not to dare them to come hunt her down like they're threatening. She knows it'd likely make things worse for the other two.
She waits, patiently, supportively, as Seolla vents. As she yells, as she asserts her identity. She sets her hand on the girl's shoulder a moment before she goes to get fully dressed. "We'll post agents here to make sure they don't hurt anyone else," she reassures.
"Sergeant Sagara, have them prepare a shuttle for emergency extraction. She's right, we can't wait." But to Seolla's request for restraints, to not have a choice, Renais shakes her head. "No. We're not taking you in restraints. This is a choice." She places both hands on the girl's shoulders, looking into her eyes. "You've spent a long time being coerced. Manipulated. Forced. What we're doing today... it's important because it is your decision. Something *you* are doing, for yourself and for your friends."
Her hand slides down the girl's arm and grips hers gently. "We will leave together."
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Sousuke is familiar with that tone of speech. That's not the tone of someone bluffing, but it is the tone of someone who has no choice but to threaten. He hardly worries. Still, he doesn't give them a word until he's blown the last one.
With that done, with the restraints boxed, he looks about ready to charge off, but Seolla falls against them, falls against him. A little flummoxed for what to do, he eventually realizes at least one hand should go around her to accept her presence.
Then she sweeps the restraints to the floor so she can stomp the hell out of them and his eyes go wide because that's also his FEET, but Seolla's anger is focused and her target is singular. Smoke rises from the seams afterward.
That kind of rage, at least, is familiar, and he keeps his hands clear while it goes off. It reminds him of Gauron - the way the man insisted on calling him a name nobody else now knows him by, back in the forest in Khanka. Thankfully, that's not a concern he has to worry about anymore. "Seolla," he says, and it's just a nod and an affirmation.
Renais has the plan covered, and Sousuke nods. "I think I have an idea, in fact," he says, and pulls his Mithril-secured terminal from his pocket, placing a call to one of the few lines readily active in the PLANT.
"Santos, it's Sagara. Complication, we have to move up the timetable. Is the ECS transport here yet? Six hours..."
Frown. Seolla walks in. "No, too long. We'll use a standard transport and bring Arbalest. If I run its ECS in field only mode, it should still be enough to disrupt any scans they may be able to use to single her out."
Seolla slams the wall. Sousuke looks up, then to Renais, then to Seolla. "I'll go get Arbalest," he says, to both ends of the conversation. "I'll meet you at Dock 7."
<Pose Tracker> Seolla Schweizer has posed.
A slight wavering in Seolla's voice, as her feet slowly feel like they're made of lead. "...I've...I've made my choice. I'm doing this. I need to do thi - - - It's important to me, that I do this. Every time I've had to go back there's this awful feeling I've swallowed, but now that I'm not swallowing it I realize I have to hurl."
Her arms grip Renais's hand as tightly as she did Sousuke's back. "...hhhh, you probably saw it though. It's really...really hard to think, whenever I hear those voices. I can still hear them in me. I don't think they're real. They're hazy right now. They're mad at me, and I feel it. If I sat around long enough, they'd get clearer. I...I might do something irrational, so I'm making sure it's clear right now."
"I'm going with you all. ...Don't allow me to wind up doing anything that screws it up. I...I think it's happened that way before."
Another memory she's not allowed to have. Its colors are gone - it's all gray outlines in black. No faces. No senses - (it was cold, right?) - just conceptual shapes of boxes. They were larger than her - (so it was a long time ago?) - and they were something to cling to. Something that was different and still when she cried. She wanted [them] - but she was an obedient girl, and pushed away from them when told, and they didn't reach out to stop her.
[Learned] that day that not even her own body would allow her to go anywhere else in the world.
That husk of a memory burns after years pushed aside as little more than a bad, shapeless dream in a time like this. Seolla's grip winds around Renais's arm, squirming and shivering. "Don't let go of me. Please. Even if I push back. I'm...fighting that, but I'm not very strong. The thing I want most in the world is - - - to black out, and wake up exactly where you two want me to be, so far away from where I'm supposed to be that I couldn't practically get there if I tried. Far enough away that running back to you is so much easier than running back there."
But if anything - Seolla's the one pulling on Renais, isn't she? She wants to move. She wants to see what's past that boundary she could never break. It's the fire that's consuming every ounce of her, and she's thirsty for whatever gasoline will keep the blaze up.
One last look at this clinic - a place that did its best to be just a little more amenable than its scruffy, impromptu nature would appear. One last look at this place that, because it cared just a little bit, is more of a home than she can think of.
"...no, the thing I want most in the world is...to think of everything I'll tell Doctor Mass when I'm finally out of this place."
There's an impatience in every footstep and movement going forward - because finally Seolla is looking forward to something.