[open] coping mechanisms

[shacklebreaker]

Who: Simon Blackquill (shacklebreaker), Taka, and you!
When: 21st December/early hours of 22nd
Where: Various
What: The Twisted Samurai spends the day alone for some personal reflection.
Rating/Warning: AA5 spoilers. Mentions of death/implied suicide. Drankin.

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i. AFTERNOON - CERES GARDENS

[Blackquill's brought his hawk to the gardens to give him some exercise. At the moment he's throwing scraps of meat for Taka to snatch out of midair, making the bird work for his food. If Taka catches it successfully -- which he does without fail, every time -- the hawk is whistled back and rewarded with another treat.

It's not a training session, but rather, a way to get Taka to stretch his wings. The hawk is already well-trained enough that Blackquill doesn't even need a hood or jesses for his bird. The last thing he's interested in is tying his faithful companion down when Taka can fly free, and it gives him a calming sense of peace to watch him soar and dive through the air.

Once Taka has eaten his fill, Blackquill can be found strolling through the gardens. His hawk is hidden in the trees, although anyone observant might notice the bird never strays too far away.]

ii. LATE EVENING THROUGH TO 1AM - NOVUS/REPLEA

[Given today's date, there's morbid appropriateness in stowing away for the evening in what the locals knew as the 'entrance to the underworld'. The bar might be considered seedy to some, filled with criminals and rebel activity as it was, but after seven years on death row, Blackquill is more comfortable with this brand of drinking company than anything else.

Not that he's interested in socialising. He's too wrapped up in his own thoughts for that, nursing a drink at the bar and trying to numb the dull pain that has hung over him all day.

He'd spent seven years in a cell. Seven years, waiting for his own willing demise. For seven years of sleepless nights, confinement and isolation, the past replaying over and over in his mind, he'd marched, slowly but resolutely, towards the end.

Then, at the very last moment, she'd reached out and snatched him from the jaws of death.

Were all those years worth it? Yes, if it was to serve the one more important to him than life itself. But now after all that pain, here they were, in Cerealia. Their world had been destroyed, and they owed their existences here to data. The more he thinks about it, the more he feels he'd failed her. And that her struggles, too, had been for nothing...

But such thoughts are enough to drive a man to madness. Better not to think on it. He downs the last of his beer, and slams down a hand on the bartop for another.

Tonight is going to be a long night.]

iii. EARLY HOURS OF THE MORNING - APARTMENTS

[It's almost 2am when Blackquill returns to the apartment complex. He'd hoped to slip in unnoticed, but as he fumbles to find his room key, the plastic snowman Athena had put outside her room a few days prior bursts into song. Yet again.]

Curse you, you noisy thing-- [He mutters under his breath, rifling through his pockets with more urgency. He'll try and get into his room before anyone on the floor is woken up...]

Comments

[shacklebreaker]

Just so. He's very good for keeping unruly attorneys and witnesses in line, or for handling evidence.

He even made the courthouse his home, for a time.

[All said as if this is perfectly normal.]

[faithfulflame]

Unruly attorneys, huh?

[This is not normal at all.]

What drew you to falconry in the first place then? It's a fairly rare thing, these days.

[shacklebreaker]

I've both a fondness for birds, and I am an admirer of the way of bushido. Thus it was only natural that I should get a hawk of my own, as a means to emulate the samurai of yore.

[Translation: he's a huge weeaboo with samurai delusions.]

[faithfulflame]

Ah, so that's it.

[WEEEEEB.]

Are you...a swordsman as well, then?

[shacklebreaker]

Yes. I studied swordplay under a woman with a sincere passion for Japanese culture.

[He seems to hesitate, then, before adding,] ...Her name was Dr Metis Cykes.

[faithfulflame]

Athena-san's mother?

[A question, but she already knows the answer. She's curious.]

[shacklebreaker]

Yes. First and foremost, however, I learned psychology from her, and that was how I met Athena.

[It feels strange to discuss this with anyone after seven years of not breathing a word. But he has little to hide anymore, just as Athena doesn't. Even so, he says wearily,]

... That is enough about me. What about yourself? You wear the robes of a miko, correct?

[faithfulflame]

Ah. Well, I suppose that makes sense.

[Athena had mentioned Psychology being good for lawyering.]

And that's very astute. Yes, I am a miko. From Hikawa Shrine in Asakusa. Tokyo, if you've ever been.

[shacklebreaker]

I have been to Tokyo, but I have never seen that particular shrine. It is good that you are maintaining such traditions, even in a soulless shell of a place like this.

[Robots and technology do nothing for him, compared to tradition and culture. The robots here don't even have hearts or minds of their own.]

[faithfulflame]

You think it's soulless?

[That's a curious choice of words, and her posture shifts, as she's clearly interested in his answer.]

[shacklebreaker]

Yes. This colony that is supposed to be the last hope to the worlds... It's naught but an artificial, empty husk that worships pleasure and luxury. Even the robots tasked to maintain order cannot think or feel as we do... And we are utterly at their whim.

[He reaches over to stroke Taka's plumage, expression grim.]

As the saying goes: a gilded cage is still a cage. That is how I see this place.

[faithfulflame]

You don't think a machine can have a soul, Simon-san?

[This is an odd question, she realizes, but...it's actually somewhat relevant to her past. And to her religion.]

[shacklebreaker]

[He has an understanding of Shinto enough to surmise why she'd ask that, so he clarifies his answer.]

Whether they do or do not, they remain naught but tools unless they possess a heart. Like the little companion Athena wears around her neck, for instance.

[faithfulflame]

I hadn’t noticed that much about Athena-san, but that’s a good answer. Not all kami inhabiting objects are able to do more than the object’s intended purpose, but there’s always the chance they might. [Similar to Tsukumogami in the modern age.] And these robots are no less possibilities, at least. I’m not quite willing to write off this place as completely devoid of a soul yet.

[shacklebreaker]

When next you meet Athena, observe the necklace around her neck. Perhaps then you'll understand why I distinguish between that kind of robot, and the robots that exist here.

[But he respects Rei's position, too. What he'd meant was "soulless" simply as a turn of phrase -- he should have expected a miko to have a more literal stance on it.]

[faithfulflame]

I'll do that. But...is that necklace a machine?

[shacklebreaker]

Yes. Its name is Widget, and it was developed by my mentor.

[faithfulflame]

I’ll…keep that in mind then.