{ 017 - Video }
The fog rose and a dragon came.
[Isley's voice accompanies the gentle click of his Forge as he turns it on, the gears humming internally, a soft whir of noise that is barely audible against the brush of wind across the speakers. The sword he normally carries at his hip is driven into the earth; he rests his back against the blade and in his lap ( Read more... )
[Isley's voice accompanies the gentle click of his Forge as he turns it on, the gears humming internally, a soft whir of noise that is barely audible against the brush of wind across the speakers. The sword he normally carries at his hip is driven into the earth; he rests his back against the blade and in his lap ( Read more... )
[she goes quiet for a moment, pressing her lips together.]
...I'm not that reckless. That man, Gaskin? He wasn't normal.
[Even by her standards.]
Reply
[...]
[He gives her a look.]
You're very reckless. Don't use that man as an excuse.
Reply
There was nothing in him but destruction. And hate.
[...not that any of that explains her failure to fight him off.]
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
[And she switches to Private!]
I don't believe that. I don't even believe it about you, much less everyone else. Although I suppose you're closer to it than most.
[And then, because she's been thinking it...]
"Eradicate everything down to the last insect?"
Reply
[He sighs and shakes his head.]
Pieta was no longer required, Priscilla.
[And it is his way to cast aside what no longer has a place in his plans, to undo it...erase it completely.]
Reply
[She goes quiet for a moment, presses her lips together.]
It isn't that I don't understand death, or war. I've certainly done my share of dying and killing, and that squabble you, Riful and Luciela had was worse than Pieta ever was. In something like that... people fight. They die.
It's the reason I've never been as sympathetic as Helen, or Deneve, or any of the others would have liked, when it came to that battle. Because they went in as warriors, and warriors die.
But eradicate everything? That has nothing to do with defeating an enemy. That's killing for the sake of it. It's not something I'll ever understand - even then I wouldn't have understood.
[...]
And I'm not deluded. Didn't you ever wonder why I cried for them?
Reply
Reply
[She tips her head a little.]
...I was thinking about other things, then. But I remember how much you liked to feel the lights go dark.
Reply
It isn't something I've enjoyed explicitly for some time. I do miss it, the rapid succession of lights flickering out in such large numbers.
You've known this about me for some time, however. Why should discovering those orders stir your thoughts and make you uncomfortable? If that is what you are.
Why did you cry for them, Priscilla?
[A pause.]
I remember when we were painting the mural in my home, you told me you wished I could feel things the way that you did, that I knew that kind of awareness. Is that why you cried? Because they filled your head to bursting even as they perished? You became less aware of them with time though, did you not? Then you wasted your tears, Priscilla.
Reply
[Why did she cry?]
...at home, I felt everything. Every fear. Every bit of hope. Every dream. I felt what they hated, and what they loved, and why they fought. Individuals. Warriors, who suffered and grew strong, and defiant... defiant enough for the Organization to send them out to die.
And then they were gone. It was a waste.
And... I know what you are, and who you are. I know. Of course I do. I know how much you love... death. But I love battle. And I love letting my yoki free. And I love crushing everything that troubles me under all of its waves. I love doing a lot of things that I probably shouldn't.
But I don't do those things just to do them. Because if you had said, kill everyone who resists. Or kill whoever attacks you. Or even just kill all the soldiers, it would have been different - it would have been... a part of war. Maybe a part you enjoy too ( ... )
Reply
If you know, Priscilla, if you accept that I'm not going to change, why are we discussing this? I don't need to tell you that I refuse to make apologies for my past actions, you're already well aware. I shouldn't have to say that I would do it all again in a heartbeat if given the chance, either. In part because it thrilled me, and in part because there was nothing else to be done.
War breeds contempt. The surviving members of the Organization who went to Pieta, however beneath me then, still managed to kill Rigaldo, and later play a hand in my own death. Do you understand now? I wanted nothing of them to remain, nothing that could be used for the gain of another.
Unfortunately for me that desire fell short of realization.
Reply
Leave a comment