[thread; closed]

[bringingjustice]

Who: Captain Harlock, Nill.
Where: Elysium + Terra.
When: Morning - early afternoon.
Summary: Rude awakenings lead to epic and unneeded rescues.
Rating: PG-13. Some swearing and violence. Overall derpness of Nill.
Other: Makes sense in log.

Comments

[bringingjustice]

To say that it seemed like he would have a lot of explaining to do -- as he ran past a crowd of pedestrians and firefights to deal with the mess in the hanger -- was an understatement. Or at least, that is what it felt like. Still, he continued on his run down the streets of Elysium to reach the transport to Terra. Good that he was on the highest level so that he could just flash an ID card instead of deal with all the nonsense one usually had to go through to get to the higher or lower levels. He would rather that everyone live freely and not answer to these sort of things, but he could not change a system in a day. The rich would think they were better and the poor themselves worst. But that was not how it should be. Everyone was --

His thought process had to halt when he handed the ID over. This did not take particularly long other than the person seemed to think that Harlock was one of those eccentric Elysium types. Which Harlock, if he had the time, would explain that he was a simple pirate living in a time that does not need him. But there would be no time if his friend was in trouble. The sound of sudden rush of air through his cape and he was on the transport down, arms folded, and leaning back against the glass container -- watching the so-called beauty of Elysium fade into the scenery of Terra. In his opinion, all levels were beautiful because of the people that lived there.

Enough sentimental reflection. It would take a few minutes to reach Terra. Harlock would like to humor that he had enough time to catch a few minute's sleep, but he was too restless, too anxious to know what was going on. Yet, his stance and overall expression betrayed none of these thoughts. All he could do was hope that Spanner could hold out or be prepared for the battle that he had brought upon himself. No. A sudden shake of the head to throw those latter thoughts out into the air to be forgotten. He would not lose anymore friends. There would be talk first if this was indeed a violent intention.

[silencedbird]

Nill ticked off the list of things that she had gotten done that day on her fingers, mental going through the list while putting up a finger for each thing; the clothes were out to dry, house was tidy once again, albeit a bit dusty (she had decided to dust when she could, but didn’t entirely know how to go about doing so; she figured she’d find out eventually, though.)

The next, and possibly last thing on the young girls list was... attempting to sew. Spanner had managed to rip one of his shirts while building something the other day-it had apparently gotten caught, and he hadn’t realized until he heard the ominous ‘riiip’ as the cloth tore-and Nill was quite convinced that it would be one of the most helpful things that she could do for her mechanic brother. It would save him money so that he wouldn’t have to go buy new clothing, and he would be able to keep using the articles of clothing that he liked. She couldn’t cook properly yet, and Spanner didn’t seem to mind if things were messy, so... she could be helpful if she learned this, couldn’t she?

With that thought in mind, the winged child sat outside of the house/garage in Terra and attempted for the first time to fix rips and holes in clothing. (within two minutes, she’d pricked her fingers five times.)

[bringingjustice]

Stepping off the transport, he turned easily in direction of the mechanic's residence. There seemed to be an unknown breeze that occasionally would blow his cape from side to side as he walked. Not enough to get in the way of his stride, but enough to be something of a bother. Yet, he could not worry about the weather at this time -- but he did not want to run. Not yet. Gather his strength and waste nothing. Hold on or prepare. Those words he kept repeating.

It seemed like so few of people remembered him -- or rather, it had been awhile since the TURK had been in Terra. He was getting more stares that he remembered. Though, it may have been that he was an AWOL soldier. Were they still looking for him? He really couldn't say. There were so many other things to worry about than one lost soldier. The very soul of this city was being stifled. The freedom and justice that they should be fighting for had been stifled to a quiet whimper. He could not hear it anymore. A hard blow that had taken him a few years to accept, but he would revive its spirit. That would be what he would be willing to die for -- if someone gave him such a mission.

His steps became more and more sure -- Harlock remembered what it was that he wanted to fight for, what he wanted to do. Keep his friends safe, keep their integrity. Everything that should happen in the world that he wanted to see, would. His shadow was cast over the side of Spanner's home. He looked down only for a few moments before walking forward to knock on the door. There did not seem to be sounds of struggle ... did that mean that it really was an attack?

[silencedbird]

Nill, seated off to the side a little ways away from the door, blinked and looked up at the sound of approaching footsteps, an inquisitive expression overtaking her young features. The cape the man wore reminded her of something she’d seen on the old Saturday cartoons that she used to watch as a child-before she had ended up in that place-and she had to blink again to make sure that she wasn’t imagining it. No, she certainly wasn’t, though she had never seen the man at her and Spanner’s door before. A friend of his, perhaps? Whether he was, he hadn’t seemed to notice her for some reason. Not entirely unusual, all things considered, though the tiny wings sprouting from her back did merit some degree of conspicuity.

Lifting a hand, though, she began to wave in the man’s direction to try and get his attention, for lack of a voice to call out with. Somewhere behind her, however, she could hear ‘thud’ing noises start up, but the girl paid it no mind; living with a mechanic like Spanner, who spent most of his time in the garage, she was used to hearing such things by now. She didn’t note that the noise, while still in the garage itself, was growing steadily louder.

[bringingjustice]

Harlock had not noticed the young girl with wings. It may have been that she was on his blind side or that he simply was so lost in his own thoughts. He still was wondering what had happened to his friend. The thought to call out to him was a heavy one. Enough so that he folded his arms over his chest, eyes closing in thought, to think. There had been a time when he called out to others in a friendly tone -- now he spoke more softly. Perhaps, it was more sincere now than it was when he was young.

He flinched slightly at the noise of metallic feet approaching. It reminded him of something. What? For some reason, his hand was already reaching down to pull his gun from its hoister, ready to kill whatever was making that sound. That was so unlike him. He always tried to avoid such tactics if he could. Too many people had died because of him. Both directly and indirectly. He would not be the cause of such again if he could. But, that sound... Harlock was turning and walking into the garage, curosity getting the better of him. It was now that he saw the small girl.

"What?"

[silencedbird]

Once the man finally turned to look at her, Nill straightened out slightly and offered up a polite smile, bringing her hand back down to her lap and the shirt on it. She tilted her head to the side, as close to a ‘hello’ as she could give to anyone. She would have asked his name; if she was there for help with fixing something, or if he was a friend of Spanner’s, or if he was lost, but she could do none of those things and therefore not be of any real help to the man. She pointed at the garage instead, as if to ask whether or not he was looking for her ‘brother’. The girl sensed no danger from this person-or much of anyone, really, Belial being a very good example-and wasn’t wary of the stranger before her. Or, for that matter, the sound of.. something coming towards them. She almost seemed deaf to it, even though she wasn’t.

It was at this point, though, that the young girls’ line of sight fell onto the blatant scar on the face of the man before her, and her expression took on a slightly more worried, sympathetic note. She hoped it didn’t still hurt, even though it looked like it probably did. Hoping that something didn’t hurt had never done any harm, after all. She knew that personally.

[bringingjustice]

Harlock had raised his hand and waned to come closer to the somewhat adorable guest. Instead, he kept his distance from the girl. He didn't want to scare her and smiled politely in response to hers. His hand raise to hide the laugh at her tilted head. Somehow, he thought that she was fairly cute -- like some small sparrow he saw outside his window. However, he kept those thoughts to himself as they were fairly rude. "Hello. I'm Captain Harlock. I'm but a simple pirate." Tilting his head slightly to her, he introduced himself as that would be the best action to take instead of just have them stare at each other the entire day. "And you are?"

He started for a moment and stared at the mechanical creation. Harlock knew that Spanner made them and would try to quell the anxiety that he felt towards it -- having to forcibly pull his hand away from his holster. There was no reason to think that it was something that was going to hurt them. At least, he wasn't going to think that for now. What kind of man would he be if he jumped to conclusions like that? Clearing his throat, he did not know why he felt so anxious about that robot and would do his best to ignore it. Still, his gaze shifted from the young girl to the robot and back. "Is Spanner around?"

[silencedbird]

A pirate? Nill had heard that word before, she was quite certain of it. Her parents had never been terribly affectionate people, seeing their blue-eyed daughter as more of nuisance and waste of what little money they had than anything else, but her father had always had a flair for story telling; for the life of her, Nill could not remember the stories she was told or the worlds that she got to visit with her father on those rare, happy occasions, but ‘pirate’ certainly struck a chord somewhere. ‘Captain’ did too, of course, but ‘pirate’ had a more dominant sense of nostalgia to it. She couldn’t remember what a pirate was, though, and automatically filed it under the ‘good guy’ category in the back of her mind. Harlock seemed nice enough, after all.

At the question of her name, the young girls’ wings began to flutter just a bit, as though she were mildly frustrated with herself; on the network, Nill could meet all kinds of people and make lots of new friends, but in person she couldn’t even tell someone her name, or ask for theirs. She had never minded it until she had started living with Spanner. Not having any way to answer the first question, Nill nodded almost immediately to the second; yes, Spanner is here, would you like to see him? She might have asked him that if she could have.

She didn’t notice that the robot was making its way up to her from behind.

[bringingjustice]

"You won't tell me?" There was a soft, teasing sort of way that he said this, before it became a little more serious. "Or you can't?" His head was tilted slightly as he watched the robotic creation draw near. Once more, he felt a narrowing of his good eye before it widened in more than a little surprise. The machine had reached out to grab Nill in a manner that he doubted the girl wanted to be. Already, he was hurrying to her aid -- his fluid motions causing a ripple through his cape as he grabbed onto the mechanical arm that held her.

"That's really no way to treat a lady."

There was a pause before the steel and metal snapped like it was nothing. He couldn't stop her from falling to the ground with the portion of the arm still attached, but at least he had saved her from harm. Reaching out, he grabbed onto the robot's neck -- or the best description of it -- and lifted it into the air. The other arm took a few swings at him which he dodged easily, despite the close contact. Bobbing and weaving around the arm while still maintaining his grip, just something a TURK needed to know how to do. However, he couldn't keep this up. Not reasonably anyway.

Looking around for something to help him, he noticed a jug of milk resting just within his free arm's reach. He wasn't going to question why it was there anymore than just accept that it was going to be his savior for now. Lifting it from its resting place, he used his thumb to pop the top of the jug off, poking something of a hole in the plastic. "Drink up." Without further ado, he poured the contents of the jug into the mouth portion of the robot. It fizzled and sparkled -- enough so that he jumped back, reaching down to tug on the collar of Nill's shirt to pull her back as well -- before keeling over. Permanently shut down.

"Well." He set Nill down carefully. "Are you okay?"

[silencedbird]

If Nill could have, she probably would have made an ‘eep’ sound at the arm that suddenly picked her up from seemingly nowhere. Ahhh what was happening? Had the men that were chasing her when she first got away come back, and were they going to take her away? A million similar, frightening thoughts went through the girls mind in the span of a second before she finally turned her hear to look at just what had decided to lift her up. And, it was... one of Spanner’s robots? She blinked. How strange. They’d never done that to her-or her ‘brother’ for that matter, if she recalled correctly-before.

Before she had time to think about it much more, though, she had already fallen to the ground with a quiet ‘thud’, though the robot still hadn’t let of her. Looking back at Harlock, Nill’s wings flattened against her back. Had that man just... taken an arm off of the robot? She wasn’t so much scared as she was worried that Spanner would be upset. Oh, this was very not good. She didn’t know how to fix a robot...

And then she was being lifted up again by the pirate and pulled away from the arm and the sparking robot before it fell to whatever might have been considered its knees. Ohh, Spanner would definitely be upset by that. Upon being set down, Nill looked up at her ‘savior’, blinking at him before nodding; yes, she was alright. Of course, her ‘brother’ would be upset, but Nill knew one thing at least.

‘Pirates’ were definitely in the ‘good guy’ category.

[bringingjustice]

"Good." He seemed relieved about this and well, he was. Wonder what that was about. Harlock stared at the now permanently broken robot and wondered just what had happened. Had it been what caused the ARCADIA to have its little episode. Still, he had to say that this was a stroke of luck for the both of them. Perhaps it was even destiny that told him that he should come here. Even if he hated the idea that his life was being pulled along by some string, so long as he could help someone along the way, that was all that really mattered.

"You still look a little shaken up." Not one to invite himself into someone's home, he held his hand out to her instead. "I vaguely remember that there are some places to eat here." A pause. If Spanner's not here, I really can't ask my question. But this girl. Harlock reached into his pocket to fish out the remote identical to the one that Spanner had. "This may seem like an odd question, but did you see Spanner with something like this?" His expression was serious but there was some sadness there. He didn't want to think his friend had betrayed him. Betrayed the ARCADIA.

[silencedbird]

Without even a minute of hesitance, Nill reached out her hand and took the ‘pirates’, pulling herself into a standing position with his help; she was light, and it would show when she did that. Shaken up? No not quite, just worried, not unlike a small child that has just broken a very important and expensive vase that her parents had only recently gotten, expect with a more ‘oh I hope he won’t be upset’ mentality to it than one similar to ‘oh I hope I won’t get in trouble’. A slight expression of confusion flitted across her face. Places to eat? Why was he talking about that? Was he hungry?

Once Harlock pulled the remote out of his pocket, though, almost immediately a look of guilt look over her features, and Nill seemed to shrink slightly. Oh, she had done something bad when she had pressed those buttons, hadn’t she? But, despite that, Nill had never seen Spanner with the remote before, she she reluctantly shook her head. Spanner hadn’t been the one to do it, after all, she had.

[bringingjustice]

"Think of it as making up for startling you before." Harlock was, of course, talking about what he had just done to the robot. Besides, he disliked the idea of waiting in Spanner's house like some boogeyman for the mechanic to come back. Just wasn't his style. But, stealing away his charge for a quick bite probably would end just as poorly if he came back and didn't know where she was. No need to make it seem like an eye-for-an-eye when he wasn't even planning any sort of revenge. "In case he comes back, we should leave a note for him, okay?"

He looked a little confused by her reaction to the remote. However, it wasn't really in him to start interrogating a small girl. Instead, he supposed that he would let it go for now. If she wanted to tell him what happened, she could tell him. While the ARCADIA was his one true treasure in the world, he wasn't going to lose sight of what else was important. The people that that ship protected. "Well, if you think of anything, let me know."

[silencedbird]

Ohh, that made more sense. He felt bad for what had happened with Spanner’s robot. Nill would have liked to reassure the man that it was perfectly fine, that she hadn’t been so startled and that he didn’t need to do anything to make up for it, but of course, it was just another thing she had no real way of conveying; so she nodded to the idea of leaving Spanner a note. It would probably be best to leave something for him to find with at least somewhat of an explanation as to why she wasn’t there and why his robot had been killed.

At Harlock’s second statement, the blond-haired girl simply nodded again and offered up a small smile. She wouldn’t be able to explain what had happened, though maybe Spanner could help her later on. Back in the place that she’d spent most of her life (had it been a lab? She supposed it had been, though at the time she hadn’t given it much thought. Her parents didn’t want her, and she was sent away, and that was the end of that.) she had never really given her lack of a voice much thought, because no one really spoke to her. Thinking about it now, though, she couldn’t remember what it was like to be able to speak. She couldn’t even remember the sound of her own voice.