ᴏᴏ2 ( ᴠɪᴅᴇᴏ) | ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀᴅ ǫᴜᴇᴇɴ

[insubordination]

So.

[ it is a public message, to the network, that pops up on the circle's watches and roy looks Less Than Pleased (tm) with the sudden state of affairs. the weather in the temple is absolutely out of control, there are apparently weird cakes appearing in the kitchens, and the fighting ring has turned into a magical court. great.

so, that may be the reason why roy's tone is particularly clipped, or even frustrated. but he seems methodical, in his words, and he is sitting at a table with a notebook, a glass of water, and a weird looking lizard on the table that has an odd rainbow-shift to the scales.

( ignore the lizard. it seems roy is. ) ]

The Circle is currently compromised of people of a variety of talents; soldiers, magicians, teenagers . . . all of us have particular skills to contribute to the cause of whatever it is we're meant to do here. I know quite a few people [ like maes, and barabas ] have been keeping track of various magical powers that we have been gifted, and organized some semblance of structure -- all of which is necessary. But we have to acknowledge what happened to Akvos.

[ he pauses, there. ]

Astoria has not been entirely clear with the Circle on what our purpose is. That may be an innocent error, or a purposeful move to win our trust. I'm not here to argue the merits of whether or not we should trust her, but we have no choice but to participate in whatever world she sends us to. Whether we like it or not, we are stuck there until she brings us back, and we have some opportunity to assist whoever is there. We cannot depend on her to figure out what to do in order to prevent another Akvos, or -- it seems, another El Minha, given King Kathashun is no longer in his own world.

[ roy taps the pen against the table once. ]

I don't have any solution as to what we did right, or wrong, or whether or not it was our fault in the first place. But I want to begin the conversation to work to prevent it again, and seeing as Astoria is either not willing or not capable of explaining herself at the moment, we need to learn to work without her. What are we missing? What do we need to work on? And what can we do in order to be more organized before our next world?

[ and, finally, roy feeds the lizard one (1) piece of lettuce, which it lazily seems to chew on. ]

I'm of a mind we need to organize fighters, healers, and transporters, but I'm open to ideas and suggestions -- and questions, about previous worlds to those who were not there to experience them. I have been to El Minha, Struxta, and Akvos. And I'm certain "older" members of the Circle will be happy to share their experiences, too.

( filtered to maes + riza )

[ almost immediately, his expression turns from serious and leaderlike to tired. ]

Who wants to keep notes?

[ PLEASE DON'T MAKE HIM DO IT :( ]

( end filter )

( ooc: please feel free to threadjack in this post! especially if you want to use this to foster CR and/or build "teams" that roy is looking to enlist. c: )

Comments

[fairysong]

[Early nineteen hundreds... that really is ancient history, huh? At least by her own standards.

It blends together, anyway. Like how modern students will all lump the 1800s together, Sheryl sees everything before the turn of the millennium as essentially the same era. Biplanes and iMacs.] I've never heard of Amestris before. But you're right, that's a while back-- it's 2059, for me.

So there aren't even any airplanes at all where you come from?

[insubordination]

Ah... they exist, but I wouldn't get on one.

[ nope.jpeg. ]

They're fairly new, in terms of technology. Trains are still the primary mode of transport.

[fairysong]

[Weird. That's so weird.]

I can tell you, they've come a long way since your time, then. My boyfriend's a pilot. And I've spent my entire life on a gigantic city-sized ship flying through the galaxy.

[She pauses.] There are trains to help you get around inside the ship.

[It's really, really big.]

[insubordination]

Ah, so I've heard. The paladins of Voltron have described in great detail how inadequate our technology is in comparison to theirs.

[ alien people, amirite. ]

But that is -- impressive, to say the least. Were you born on it? The ship.

[fairysong]

They're around the level of technology I'm familiar with, from what I've seen. [It's so strange to be talking to people who aren't like, living in space.]

I was born and grew up on one of them, yes-- the Macross Galaxy. I spent most my life there, but I live on another one, now. The main island of a Macross-class ship is about fifteen kilometers long, and it's got an atmosphere, a simulated sky, a city, parks and forests, even some artificial rivers.

Honestly, this is the longest time I've ever spent on an actual planet.

[insubordination]

Interesting.

[ curious, even. ]

So is that the way of most people, in your universe? People don't live . . . on planets, anymore?

[ the thought is so foreign to him that roy has difficulty putting it in a sentence. what a bizarre thing. ]

[fairysong]

People live on planets, sure. I think there's a couple billion living on Eden, and maybe a few hundred million on Earth? [She doesn't sound completely sure of this.

Because she's not.] That's the purpose of the Macross immigration fleets, though-- to find new planets for humanity to settle.

The Frontier fleet had just found a place to end its journey, last I remember from home.

[insubordination]

What's wrong with the original planet that you need to settle elsewhere?

[ the idea of settlement, to roy, is a bit of an uncomfortable one, given what happened to ishval in the name of "expanding amestris," but he's willing to give Sheryl's world the benefit of the doubt. ]

[fairysong]

It got attacked.

A little more than a half century ago, in Space War One, something like 90% of all of humanity was killed. Even after we made peace with the Zentradi, we thought it was a good idea to spread through the galaxy, just in case.

[Even if the events she's describing are horrible, she says them very matter-of-factly; they're events in a history book to her.]

[insubordination]

Ninety percent?

[ a bit . . . incredulous, at the number. ]

Ninety percent of humanity? As in, the planet?

[ pardon the rest of your story, sheryl, but that is a little hard to wrap his mind around. ]

[fairysong]

[His incredulity is greeted with a matter-of-fact tone that borders almost on nonchalance-- obviously, Sheryl recognizes that it was a harrowing moment for humanity, but it's in the history books for her. She knows that they survived and went on to spread through the galaxy.] It's pretty hard to believe, I know. The Zentradi orbital bombardment killed billions.

I'm not a hundred percent sure on the exact numbers, but by the end of the war, there were only a couple hundred million humans left on the planet.

So even after the Zentradi fleet turned on their masters and allied with us, we knew that we had to spread through the galaxy and find new home planets where we could live, just in case anything like that happened again-- with how close humanity came to extinction.

Makes sense to me, right?

[insubordination]

[ it's . . . an incredible thought, and it makes his skin crawl to think how close amestris came to having humanity eradicated for the purpose of father's immortality. roy had always known it was possible to lose, but he had never once considered what it would actually look like. you're preoccupied, in the heat of battle. but to hear a story that it actually did happen . . .

it's remarkable, really, how determined humanity is to survive. it's almost comforting, in a way. ]

Makes sense to me.

[ it's murmured, repeated. ]

Remarkable, on all fronts, really, how strong our survival instinct can be.

[fairysong]

No kidding. And just over half a decade later, we've got fleets finding new unsettled worlds where humans can set down and thrive. We're back up to a couple times pre-war levels, as far as I know.

[There's a pause.] Finding out that we could reproduce with the Zentradi probably helped with that. Half of my friends have mixed parentage.

[Humanity will meet alien races

and bone them]

[insubordination]

[ ........................ great. ]

I reiterate my earlier point.

[ survival is key, apparently. good lord. ]

[fairysong]

Well, you don't need to get embarrassed about it or anything. It's just kind of a fact of life where I'm from!

[She's probably reading a little too much into his tone.]

[insubordination]

I'm not embarrassed, just observant of the human condition.

[ survival instincts. or maybe morbid curiosity. all the same: ]

I'm glad the human race has continued to be inventive and adventurous, that's all.

[fairysong]

Plus, it's a good thing to try and make peace with the guys you used to be fighting, don't you think? It's a lot harder for two groups to hate each other when they've got kids and grandkids together.

[Harder, but not impossible.]