[It is. Sometime after the meeting has ended. Tempers have flared, bad things happened...and in the end, Sesa stood by and did nothing, like he often does. He managed to keep himself together and didn't get involved beyond expressing his displeasure verbally, but that didn't matter in the end. Mizuki still got hurt.
His hands are still shaking, having been right there, right next to him when it happened.
Unable to leave the Inn, Sesa escapes upstairs now that people have begun to disperse. Some go in pairs, others go off to be alone...but he's pretty sure he saw Gnosis go this way. Mizuki has Elsword, and Irene probably doesn't want to see him right now.
So.
He'll find the room Gnosis chose to go into, and gently knock.]
[Every fucking meeting, he swears to god. They're lucky he opted not to freeze the room solid this time around because God he was this fucking close to putting several people in the goddamn ground. He's never gotten along with Lancelot, and at this point the man's incendiary words have made Gnosis stop waffling on the guy. He fucking hates him. He has decided this now.
Either way, while Moder seemed content to let people go as long as they would hunker down in a warm building, the lab is... not warm, not at all, not with how he can't get any fires to light or anything to work in there recently. He's back in his old inn room, the one he was using before the lab was constructed, since it's so blazing hot downstairs that the upstairs has become nice and toasty. There are still bits of dust on the walls around old photographs from when he was trying to investigate the mysterious photos everyone had shown up with, that he summarily moved and stuffed in a drawer, and it looks like the bed he stole has been replaced.
Gnosis is at the desk playing with a dagger like an unhinged freak when Sesa knocks. It's the one he once gave to Monch, hand-made, that she returned to him before she ran off into the snows and disappeared for five years.
She'd probably want him to stab Lancer between the eyes with it. Hell, she'd probably chastise him for yet again failing to stand up for a friend when that's always been his failing.]
You may. Come in. Close the door behind you. If I have to hear Lancelot's voice one more time tonight, I might actually be accused of murder.
[It wouldn't be the first time.]
...I assume you wanted to talk about the chaos downstairs, in any case?
[Sesa steps inside, his boots clomping against the wood floor. He's quick to close the door behind him as Gnosis asks, pulling his tail in afterwards so he doesn't accidentally get it caught. Though he does take a moment to survey his surroundings, curious as to whether this might have been where Gnosis lived previously, he's not too focused on the room itself and so much Gnosis, who is the only member of Rhodes left to talk to. Kreide had shown up at quite possibly the worst time, and though Gnosis clocked him as someone else from Terra, Sesa hadn't really had a chance to get to greet him. He figures then may not have been the best time either way.
The air is...tense, for lack of a better term, as Sesa approaches. He stops somewhere near the desk but not quite all the way, fiddling with his infection monitor on his wrist.]
Yes. I feel...terribly ignorant, to tell truth.
[He seems ashamed of this fact, even if the matter of Seaborn isn't something someone from Sargon could possibly be expected to understand. He only first really saw the ocean when coming to Rhodes, after all.]
...about Seaborn, I take it? Or the Profound Silence?
[What else is there to be ignorant about, really?]
Kjerag has never experienced Seaborn. I doubt our climate is friendly enough to the sea-faring races. Until I joined Rhodes Island, I hadn't seen an Aegir in person, even. I have only passing knowledge that I've accrued from reading archives, and from other Iberians' accounts.
[...]
Why don't you sit? [Vague motions to the bed.] It'll be a long-winded explanation, even though I only possess cursory knowledge.
[The offer to have a seat is appreciated- he would have just stood there otherwise- and he'll take him up on it, making his way over to sit on the edge of the bed. He's still nervously worrying the cuff around his wrist, his claw tracing the bright blue markers on it as he glances from his lap back up to Gnosis.]
It is the same with Sargon. And even if I had the opportunity to hear about them, I doubt I would have learned much.
[Sesa has been...singularly focused on One Thing for so long that there hasn't been a lot of room for much else. At least, not until he joined up with Rhodes.]
I fear I may have spoken out of turn downstairs.
[Irene seemed...incensed. And he hadn't understood why.]
"Out of turn" is slashing someone with a blade to see if they bleed blue or not. Not that I'm forgiving Mizuki for feeding everyone parts of himself, but I don't believe it warranted an attack.
[Sigh.]
Regardless, this is tricky to explain. Seaborn are, effectively, a hivemind race of sea-faring creatures akin to Aegir. I know little about them, but I understand that it's customary for them to work on adding others to their hivemind and expanding it as much as possible. The Abyssal Hunters — you might have seen them on the landship before — are lab-created Seaborn-hybrids made to stop the Seaborn threat. If you see Gladiia on the landship if we get out of here, I'm sure she'd be willing to tell you about it.
As for the Profound Silence, I've heard only second-hand accounts. Most Operators are too young to have experienced it, including both Mizuki and Irene, as it happened over forty years ago. Irene did explain it to Elsword when he was getting protective, [as he does,] but it is as she said: The Seaborn, over forty years ago, attacked Iberia's coastlines and devastated their infrastructure and society to the point where they were no longer the strongest nation on Terra. That said, what she conveniently left out is that wars are bred from two sides, not one.
[Sips his know-it-all tea.]
The Iberians incited violence against the Seaborn first, from what I read. According to Thorns, Iberian teachings are... what they are, so I don't entirely blame her for seeing this as a one-sided issue. After all, crimes during war are still crimes during war, regardless of who lit the flames first.
After the Profound Silence, though, Iberia became... well, according to the Iberian Operators I've spoken to, and these are direct quotes: "Racist", "a hellhole", and "the worst place on Terra", if you're Aegirian. The Iberian Inquisition, which Irene is a part of, cracked down on and terrorized the Aegir population ever since, since there's believed to be a connection of some sort between the Seaborn and Aegir. Credit where credit is due, though: Irene does have an Aegirian friend. Lumen, the... squirrelly Medic Operator. The one with the blue hair and anxiety. I don't think she means ill toward Aegir entirely, but Seaborn are another story, and I don't blame her for that.
Like the people of Kjerag, Iberians tend to be... zealots.
[Sesa is silent as Gnosis explains. He genuinely appreciates Gnosis taking the time to lay everything out for him like this, even if the Liberi doesn't fully understand it all himself. He wants to understand, but he's starting to realize that this isn't just a matter of Mizuki being potentially dangerous...it goes a lot deeper than that.
He doesn't want to be biased, nor does he want to make snap judgements without having all of the facts. Irene's reaction, given what she has likely lived through and how she's been raised, is ultimately explainable, even though he wouldn't call it justified. Mizuki, in contrast...
How is he meant to change the way he is?
It's a lot to process, and it shows in the way his expression darkens, the tip of his tail whipping about near his ankles.]
I see.
...you know. I don't think Mizuki hid his true self from us out of malicious intent, as she seemed to imply. I understand her frustrations, but...I know Mizuki. He wouldn't do that.
[Maybe that's naive of him, but it's what he believes with conviction.]
Clearly, he at the very least knew this is the sort of reaction from some of us that it would have elicited. I cannot say I would have acted differently.
...ah, that's right. You and Mizuki are gaming friends, aren't you?
[Gnosis doesn't know much about the little guy... less now, he feels. But still.]
I don't believe anyone hides details like that out of malice, either. There's rarely a person on Terra, or in other worlds I imagine, who doesn't have something to hide.
[Sesa nods, pulling his claws through the edge of his hair draped over his shoulder.]
Yes. I know...how that feels.
[He has so, SO many secrets that he's kept...even from himself. He couldn't begin to count them all.]
Mizuki means a lot to me. I never wish to see him hurting, or upset...or feeling as if there are things he can't talk to us about. But at the same time, I want to respect his boundaries, particularly in matters I couldn't ever understand.
That's quite noble of you. Far more noble than Irene was, though I'd hate to see what would have happened if that discussion was had in private. I worry Mizuki wouldn't have defended himself. He seems to be...
[Gnosis carefully picks his words here, humming thoughtfully.]
...someone who would stand in front of a moving train if someone demanded he do it. Whether that's noble or stupid is for you to decide, based on context.
[He loves Mizuki with his entire heart, but also. Why.]
Mizuki wants nothing more for folks to get along. I know that if he could have gotten away with it, he probably would have never told us about any of this. And why should he have to? It isn't as if it changes much...at least, not for some of us.
[The, uh. The thing about feeding them his tentacles is a bit much, but Sesa is Sargonian, he eats suspect shit all the time, so maybe he's not someone who should be counted in this.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
succiduous) wrote2023-07-30 08:17 pm
After da stabbening
His hands are still shaking, having been right there, right next to him when it happened.
Unable to leave the Inn, Sesa escapes upstairs now that people have begun to disperse. Some go in pairs, others go off to be alone...but he's pretty sure he saw Gnosis go this way. Mizuki has Elsword, and Irene probably doesn't want to see him right now.
So.
He'll find the room Gnosis chose to go into, and gently knock.]
Gnosis? May I speak with you?
no subject
Either way, while Moder seemed content to let people go as long as they would hunker down in a warm building, the lab is... not warm, not at all, not with how he can't get any fires to light or anything to work in there recently. He's back in his old inn room, the one he was using before the lab was constructed, since it's so blazing hot downstairs that the upstairs has become nice and toasty. There are still bits of dust on the walls around old photographs from when he was trying to investigate the mysterious photos everyone had shown up with, that he summarily moved and stuffed in a drawer, and it looks like the bed he stole has been replaced.
Gnosis is at the desk playing with a dagger like an unhinged freak when Sesa knocks. It's the one he once gave to Monch, hand-made, that she returned to him before she ran off into the snows and disappeared for five years.
She'd probably want him to stab Lancer between the eyes with it. Hell, she'd probably chastise him for yet again failing to stand up for a friend when that's always been his failing.]
You may. Come in. Close the door behind you. If I have to hear Lancelot's voice one more time tonight, I might actually be accused of murder.
[It wouldn't be the first time.]
...I assume you wanted to talk about the chaos downstairs, in any case?
no subject
The air is...tense, for lack of a better term, as Sesa approaches. He stops somewhere near the desk but not quite all the way, fiddling with his infection monitor on his wrist.]
Yes. I feel...terribly ignorant, to tell truth.
[He seems ashamed of this fact, even if the matter of Seaborn isn't something someone from Sargon could possibly be expected to understand. He only first really saw the ocean when coming to Rhodes, after all.]
no subject
[What else is there to be ignorant about, really?]
Kjerag has never experienced Seaborn. I doubt our climate is friendly enough to the sea-faring races. Until I joined Rhodes Island, I hadn't seen an Aegir in person, even. I have only passing knowledge that I've accrued from reading archives, and from other Iberians' accounts.
[...]
Why don't you sit? [Vague motions to the bed.] It'll be a long-winded explanation, even though I only possess cursory knowledge.
no subject
[The offer to have a seat is appreciated- he would have just stood there otherwise- and he'll take him up on it, making his way over to sit on the edge of the bed. He's still nervously worrying the cuff around his wrist, his claw tracing the bright blue markers on it as he glances from his lap back up to Gnosis.]
It is the same with Sargon. And even if I had the opportunity to hear about them, I doubt I would have learned much.
[Sesa has been...singularly focused on One Thing for so long that there hasn't been a lot of room for much else. At least, not until he joined up with Rhodes.]
I fear I may have spoken out of turn downstairs.
[Irene seemed...incensed. And he hadn't understood why.]
no subject
[Sigh.]
Regardless, this is tricky to explain. Seaborn are, effectively, a hivemind race of sea-faring creatures akin to Aegir. I know little about them, but I understand that it's customary for them to work on adding others to their hivemind and expanding it as much as possible. The Abyssal Hunters — you might have seen them on the landship before — are lab-created Seaborn-hybrids made to stop the Seaborn threat. If you see Gladiia on the landship if we get out of here, I'm sure she'd be willing to tell you about it.
As for the Profound Silence, I've heard only second-hand accounts. Most Operators are too young to have experienced it, including both Mizuki and Irene, as it happened over forty years ago. Irene did explain it to Elsword when he was getting protective, [as he does,] but it is as she said: The Seaborn, over forty years ago, attacked Iberia's coastlines and devastated their infrastructure and society to the point where they were no longer the strongest nation on Terra. That said, what she conveniently left out is that wars are bred from two sides, not one.
[Sips his know-it-all tea.]
The Iberians incited violence against the Seaborn first, from what I read. According to Thorns, Iberian teachings are... what they are, so I don't entirely blame her for seeing this as a one-sided issue. After all, crimes during war are still crimes during war, regardless of who lit the flames first.
After the Profound Silence, though, Iberia became... well, according to the Iberian Operators I've spoken to, and these are direct quotes: "Racist", "a hellhole", and "the worst place on Terra", if you're Aegirian. The Iberian Inquisition, which Irene is a part of, cracked down on and terrorized the Aegir population ever since, since there's believed to be a connection of some sort between the Seaborn and Aegir. Credit where credit is due, though: Irene does have an Aegirian friend. Lumen, the... squirrelly Medic Operator. The one with the blue hair and anxiety. I don't think she means ill toward Aegir entirely, but Seaborn are another story, and I don't blame her for that.
Like the people of Kjerag, Iberians tend to be... zealots.
no subject
He doesn't want to be biased, nor does he want to make snap judgements without having all of the facts. Irene's reaction, given what she has likely lived through and how she's been raised, is ultimately explainable, even though he wouldn't call it justified. Mizuki, in contrast...
How is he meant to change the way he is?
It's a lot to process, and it shows in the way his expression darkens, the tip of his tail whipping about near his ankles.]
I see.
...you know. I don't think Mizuki hid his true self from us out of malicious intent, as she seemed to imply. I understand her frustrations, but...I know Mizuki. He wouldn't do that.
[Maybe that's naive of him, but it's what he believes with conviction.]
Clearly, he at the very least knew this is the sort of reaction from some of us that it would have elicited. I cannot say I would have acted differently.
no subject
[Gnosis doesn't know much about the little guy... less now, he feels. But still.]
I don't believe anyone hides details like that out of malice, either. There's rarely a person on Terra, or in other worlds I imagine, who doesn't have something to hide.
no subject
Yes. I know...how that feels.
[He has so, SO many secrets that he's kept...even from himself. He couldn't begin to count them all.]
Mizuki means a lot to me. I never wish to see him hurting, or upset...or feeling as if there are things he can't talk to us about. But at the same time, I want to respect his boundaries, particularly in matters I couldn't ever understand.
no subject
[Gnosis carefully picks his words here, humming thoughtfully.]
...someone who would stand in front of a moving train if someone demanded he do it. Whether that's noble or stupid is for you to decide, based on context.
no subject
I hate to admit that I agree with you.
[He loves Mizuki with his entire heart, but also. Why.]
Mizuki wants nothing more for folks to get along. I know that if he could have gotten away with it, he probably would have never told us about any of this. And why should he have to? It isn't as if it changes much...at least, not for some of us.
[The, uh. The thing about feeding them his tentacles is a bit much, but Sesa is Sargonian, he eats suspect shit all the time, so maybe he's not someone who should be counted in this.]