animus_network | six ✾ video; partially filtered

I need some assistance with acquiring a set of fighting fans - they'll only be used for defense and monster-fighting when the administration feels the need to take away our powers. I'd like a set of metal ones with either sharpened edges or hidden blades.

I've been told by Diarmuid Ua Duibhne that I should speak to a Thorin Oakenshield about this? I'm not sure where I'd get the metal, but I trust both of you on this one.

There's...something else.

[And she takes a deep breath.]

People with violet collars are quite possibly in for some trouble, because unless something happened after I -

[The long pause is probably telling. Yes, she died.]

- I failed to stop him from taking it, there's a tank of your collar fluid in Sephiroth's hands. It's probably fairly obvious what I mean by 'failed'. Considering he's not above either mind control or killing other people, I don't really think I have to say a lot more.

filtered to the Investigation Team, Commander Shepard, and Diarmuid Ua Duibhne:

Remind me that when my gut tells me something is a bad idea, that it is generally right. My gut was telling me to get one of you guys last night when I was - and I swear, I was not down there to get in trouble, I was just curious since I'd gotten two collar checks, which I cooperated with, last week. I wanted to take a look. I didn't know...I didn't know what would happen.

I happened to be down there when the door was open, when it had been closed or protected the entire week, and...it ended badly. I didn't know if I'd have time to get backup, as much as my gut was screaming at me to get it, and I'll be frank here: I died trying to stop Sephiroth. I knew having anything in his hands was a bad idea.

I thought someone would - anyway, what should I do, when someone I thought I could trust because of mutual friendship because of...well, Yu trusts him. I thought I could too, and I would have done something, and yes, it probably would have ended the same way. I still would have done something if he was the one getting attacked. It was...not good, to say the least, to learn that it doesn't go both ways. I don't know what to do now. I didn't call him out or anything, because I don't know what happened after I died and I know it's not fair to call someone out like that, but I don't know what to do now.

private to Ryoji Mochizuki:

[And it's here that Yukiko chokes up, starts to shake a little trying to keep her tears in.]

...I won't ever be as stupid as that again. I just didn't want anything - I know your collar is violet and I just didn't want anything related to it or to you in any way in the hands of someone who's hurt you, and I just wasn't fast enough, and...I'm sorry I couldn't stop Sephiroth from killing me. I'm so sorry.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Thank you. Someone was able to confirm that as far as they knew, he had it, but as for plans, that's anyone's guess.

[She pauses for a moment.]

Be careful, okay? I don't want anyone else getting - I'll be flat-out honest, getting killed. He's killed two people that I know of, myself included, and that count doesn't need to get any higher, even if death's not permanent here.

[There is a noticeable pause as Sheba considers that information, and then she nods.]

I don't think he'll kill me. He's been pretty civil with me so far, considering that our first meeting ended with me killing him... [Says the squishy fifteen-year-old. Okay then.] From what I know of him, he probably didn't take it to manipulate anyone. [Her hand comes into view and her fingers brush against her own collar - violet. Maybe it's just wishful thinking, considering it's the violet-collared residents that are at risk if Sephiroth does anything.] Or at least... not us. He's said many times that what he wants most is to get out of here and make the administrators pay for what they've done, and I have ways of confirming that.

[The many benefits of being a cheating mind-reader. She's a little apprehensive about doing so, but if Sephiroth is outright evasive - well, it wouldn't be beyond her powers to at least try and read his mind, though that would likely destroy whatever small amount of trust she'd managed to build.]

[Yukiko looks concerned. On the one hand? She's not going to celebrate the fact that Sheba's killed Sephiroth. She's angry and hurt, yes, but a death isn't something to celebrate.

On the other? He has manipulated people. Yukiko has seen that, too, and been hurt by it. She has to suppress a little flare of anger and the words at what cost? - those won't help. She knows they won't do anything good.

It all comes out as a concerned expression, her eyes going from worried to surprised to worried again.]

I hope that's the case. I truly do. I have to wonder about some of his tactics, if it is all about getting out of here and making the administrators pay, though. I've seen him manipulate and mind-control people, too. I wish I could tell you otherwise, but I can't.

[And she does. She doesn't like that it's the truth she's seen, but she doesn't have to like it.]

If I go by my gut here, it says I should trust you. I didn't listen last night, and that got me into a world of trouble.

I still say be careful, though.

...he does have a temper. That doesn't excuse what he's done to you and what you've seen him do, though.

[She'll admit that Sephiroth is the type that is exceedingly dangerous, especially when angered. And she'll admit that being angry doesn't make the act of killing or manipulating someone any less repulsive. Good intentions don't always make a good person... bad actions don't always make a bad person, either.

She supposes she'll have to be very careful in how she treats him, moving forward. As useful as he thinks she might be... she also thinks his strength might be useful. His strength and his willingness to act, which is how they got in the situation where it was even possible to take collar fluid at all. This probably isn't the time or the place to point that out, though.]

I'll be careful. You be careful, too. It isn't just him or any of the others who have been brought here that we'll need to look out for. The administrators... Jason especially, because he's so angry... that's the bigger threat. And they have ways of keeping tabs on us all. They probably know where the collar fluid is and who has it, and they will probably know if it changes hands.

I think we can stand up to them if we work together, because there's so many more of us than there are of them. They hold most of the cards, but there's strength in numbers. There are some people here that I wouldn't trust as far as I could throw them, but... [And then she looks down.] ...I'd rather have them on my side than against me, when it came time to take the administrators down.

It doesn't, but you're right, too. There are other, bigger threats. Next month, if my calendar is right, is going to be especially dangerous. Right now isn't the time to pick fights that don't need picking.

[Yukiko nods.]

I will be. I don't know that there's any way to entirely avoid Jason or any of the administrators, but I'm training just in case our powers are blocked again.

I definitely believe there is strength in numbers, too. We do outnumber them, and we've made progress - it's slow and it's steady, but it's still progress. I believe that when the time comes, we'll be....

[Yukiko closes her eyes for a moment. She can't say 'exactly prepared'. She can't say 'ready'.]

...we'll be waiting and we'll be as ready as we can be. It's never exact, and it can't be exact, as much as I'd like to know that every single thing that could possibly go wrong has had a plan made for it. I think we all share a goal, though, and that's a lot, in a time like that. There's nobody here, I don't think, that wants to see the administrators stand forever.

That's right... next month is one of Jason's months again, isn't it?

[With everything that's happened so far - she doesn't expect Jason to be pleased. Sheba feels sort of sorry for anyone who will be newly-arrived that month; they won't have done anything to anger him, but if he does try and take out his anger on the residents, they'll be paying for the actions of people who have come before them.]

That's smart. I should start doing the same thing... I'm a little useless whenever our powers go out, I think. [She makes a face, but after a moment, she chuckles. She'd been able to hold her own against monsters while she was on Weyard, even without using Psynergy - but she'd always had two or three people to back her up doing that. And the monsters here seemed stronger and more vicious. It's sort of amusing how different things are, though she knows she shouldn't really be amused by it.]

I wouldn't care if the administrators were still alive, as long as they weren't hurting people. They do their thing, I do mine... but when they hurt people I care about, that crosses a line. Something has to be done about them, or at least about Ruana and Jason. If this really were a rescue mission... if they really had saved us... I'd feel grateful to them. But I can't feel grateful for being kept alive just long enough to be used as - I don't know. Their toy? Something to experiment on? It's wrong.

That kind of feeling is probably normal. Nobody wants to be used... their mistake was in giving us all something to fight against. Even though there are a lot of people we don't get along with here - people we might never see eye-to-eye with - we can all agree that the way they treat us needs to change, or it needs to be stopped.

...we should try and remember that. Because they're probably going to want to make us feel isolated, like we can't fight back, like there's no point in trying to cooperate with each other. If we let them make us feel like that... if we give up... then they win.

[A pause, and then there's a wry smile.] There's no way I'm letting them win.

six ✾ video; partially filtered

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