with the lights out it's less dangerous

[epyonrose]

It’s nights like these that Treize perversely thinks of Im Westen nichts Neues. He watches the screen before him, clicking lifelessly through display after display of data. It’s the same, all the same, and it will be for some time. In two weeks, there will be a strike on the L2 colony, but it will be settled quietly and with minimal violence.

Comments

[epyonrose]

"There was a revival of a much older romanticism era about seventy years ago," he says, of the decor. "I'm fond of it in any incarnation

[epyonrose]

"There are pilots inside of them," he says, with a little note of vindictive pride in his voice. His hate for the mobile dolls is notorious. "There are some models that function on artificial intelligence, but we only use them for reconnaissance or construction that's too dangerous to risk endangering a pilot. They're completely unsuited for combat."

... He's trying not to sound too smug, but he really hates those things. It's a point of endless personal pride that he proved their ineffectiveness and finally got the measure put down.

[mareprocellarum]

Pela picks up on it, all the same, turning to look at Treize again. She thinks the idea of artificial intelligence is frightening, frankly, but that's partly because... she is not caught up with all of this modernity yet and doesn't think you can rely on a machine like that. There's no way to plan for every situation, to program every response, they just can't be as flexible as a real person inside.

"You don't like them much, do you? They sound like - I don't know, overgrown toys, with no room to adapt inside. No concept of mercy or justice, only programming."

[epyonrose]

"I do not like them much at all," he says with wry humor. "And that is precisely why." He shakes his head. "Giving the power of a toy plastic army to men with no concept of real war, real life... it disgusts me."

And now a smile, somewhat knowing. "And now that I've gone and filled your head with the political darkness of a hundred years - shall we?"

[mareprocellarum]

"Terrible as it is, at least it's not the political darkness I'm used to - I can get a little overzealous at home, apparently." James called her a martyr, before. She isn't (yet), but she didn't argue that hard, either.

"Yes, let's. I'm sure I can find dozens of things to ask you about endlessly wherever we go."

[epyonrose]

Martyrdom is something Treize knows about intimately; he was almost one himself, and avoided it through an unfortunate mix of chance and mercy, and not at all for lack of trying. Maybe someday the nexus will show him the future that would have been, and he'll feel a little bit better about it. Maybe not

[mareprocellarum]

It's like watching him step out into the sun, she thinks, away from the machines and that dark building. The soldiers are slightly surprising, but not hugely - so she studies them and smiles, slightly, all the same. Maybe they'll think she's shy, who knows. (Her bearing suggests otherwise, of course.)

The hovering car, however, surprises her, but Pela manages to hide it long enough to get inside, and even then it only shows in the form of another smile that's more amused by her own culture shock. Not self-deprecating, not remotely, but wondering when the surprises will stop rolling in. Probably not any time soon.

[epyonrose]

He has to have a certain reservation about him - he's not the friendly cheerful president that some times need. He's a wartime leader that's adjusted into peacetime - he's strong, dignified, elegant, and has to find the balance between intimidating and awe-inspiring. He'll remember everyone's names but not make smalltalk except with the top officers, he'll be gentle in the wake of horror but never let anyone put forth less than they are absolutely capable of.

It's not until they're both seated and he's made sure that she's not going to fall over when the vehicle starts moving that he gives them the go-ahead and sends her a private smile - politics, yes, he's on even now

[mareprocellarum]

She kind of suspects there aren't many times when Treize isn't on, in a sense, but that's how it should be. Pela is, fortunately, coming into this with a marginally better understanding of political necessity than the average girl, even if it's not the same kind of politics, precisely. She leans slightly to one side, tipping her head to get a better glimpse out the window of that huge estate.

"That is practically its own town," she informs him, teasing, "and it's beautiful, of course, but this means it's got to have a name. Doesn't it?"

[epyonrose]

"Castle Morgendämmerung, originally, because of how it sits on the hillside. But we call it Aurora, now."

He shrugs off the size of it; the country of Luxembourg is practically his, anyway. He owns most of it by now, and the base is so good for the economy and he's so revered it doesn't really matter. Much of the residential properties were his before he succeeded into OZ, anyway.

[mareprocellarum]

"Aurora, like, um...the northern lights?" It's not really visible much where she's from, but curiously she knows the phenomenon well. There are Mer in the cold waters, too, after all.

[epyonrose]

"Yes. It's not accurate, but it's a pretty word, and easier for people who don't speak a Germanic language to get around." He seems amused at that, being so good with languages. "Most of the people who've lived here since the twenty-third century have been English or French speakers, and a lot of things have ended up mixed."

[mareprocellarum]

"I see. Language does that, after a while. You know, I haven't learned French yet, or anything Germanic," she says, sitting back thoughtfully, "I just got done with Spanish- maybe I should do both of those at once. They're not at all similar, are they?"

[epyonrose]

"Not on the surface, but I find all things have certain similar tenets once you know enough of them. Chinese and Russian, for example, are very similar, which tends to surprise people. It's the writing I end up stuck on."

Treize doesn't have the Mer intuitive aptitude about language, he has to do his learning the old fashioned way - but he has an edge having grown up very very multilingual.

[mareprocellarum]

It's probably more impressive to have done it his way, considering Pelagia is taking what is a racial characteristic and abusing it mercilessly to have a tactical advantage on land.

"Me too! I'm still not very good at reading English," she frowns - not embarrassed, because it is just a matter of time, but she's... teaching herself, that's kind of part of it, "Written language is new to me in general, and I've seen Chinese, that must take a while."

She says, with the complete expectance she'll tackle it eventually.

[epyonrose]

"I keep meaning to take the time to study it, but I always end up find my attention elsewhere." His primary motivation for learning Chinese is not, in fact, that it's a major global language (though it certainly is), but more that it's useful in terrorizing (hah) someone he's rather fond of.

The transport slows and he rises, used to the movement of it. "Here we are."