[plot] Invasion: Day 3.2

[theearth]

Who: EVERYONE + Returnees
What: Day 3.2 of the Invasion!
Where: UP INTO THE SKY AND BEYOND
When: ICLy: The 1st of May! OOCly: May 16th to May 21st!
Warnings: Please warn in your subject line if anything that deserves a warning occurs; this includes R-rated things as well as things worthy of a content warning/trigger warning.

The Central info post



Description: People will get to space either with a spaceship flown by one of the characters who were clued in by Badri (though they can of course pass their knowledge on further) OR by their own means - magical girls who are space compatible, someone's own starship, mechas, etc.

They will get to a place where they will encounter more enemies, so combat types must come along - but they are not the ones who will define how this turns out. Those who will define how this turns out are others. A number of other abilities need to be combined, and a number of people that may have combat powers but don't have to must combine their forces here:
- Any characters dare to talk to the Enemy peacefully and alone, though children, animals (or people with animal companions) or grandparent types have a bonus. Important is that these characters are not initially aggressive or condescending towards the Enemy.
- The Cures with their purification powers, and any character with similar powers.
- People who belong to one of the following groups and will tell of their "field": Gardeners or people who otherwise have a strong connection to earth and nature/environmentalists; artists (especially musicians); religious persons with an inclusive approach; people who feel a strong, healthy and friendly love for another person, be it romantic or otherwise.

What this day is for: Invading the aliens' home base. Everything else that happens on Day 3 should take place in the Day 3.1 post.


How this works:
- Day 3.2 continues what happened in Day 3.1 and the days before and includes the counterinvasion. If you have any questions, please as them here!
- There will be toplevels on this post for encounters with The Boy and for general alien territory exploration. Please start your own threads freely in reply to those toplevels or to the post, if your thread doesn't fit any toplevel! Please format the subject line like this: "Location(s)/Network | ota/closed/etc". Please keep in mind that each character may change location twice per day (= a maximum of three different locations) and that day 3.1 and 3.2 are the same day.
- Fighters whose muns aren't interested in the fight/explore option can go straight after the boy, too, if they can ICly justify their character doing that! But there are also chances for Boy encounters in the fight/explore option.
- This post can be used for both network and action threads.
- Keep in mind that returnee characters must have checked in and must request their echoes if they get any.
- Please direct all questions to this thread on the General Invasion Guide
- For the returnee registration, please go here.

Comments

[boychild]

"...That really does sound complicated." He chews on his lip and leans back, in a way - rotating backwards ever so slightly.

"Why can't you make it easier?"

[elfstoned]

"If asking permission is too complicated," says Aaron matter-of-factly, "then don't touch him in the first place." His shoulders are squared; his manner isn't angry, but it is pointed, and a little protective.

"You have a right not to be touched, if you don't want to be: so does he."

[espigeonage]

"It's a complicated subject," Julien adds, both glad of Aaron's treatment of it and hoping that it won't tank... whatever they're trying to do. "It takes a while to understand. Touch is important. People need it, but if it's not on their own terms, it's... it feels wrong. It's a connection for everyone involved, it should be a willing one."

[boychild]

"And you can't want something if you aren't asked if you do?" He is clearly trying to grasp this, but also a bit unclear on the how to do so.

[elfstoned]

"You can want whatever you like," says Aaron swiftly. "But acting on that want when what you want belongs to someone else -- that, you should not do. Every person belongs to him- or herself."

[espigeonage]

The song comes to mind. Julien pushes past that.

"People shouldn't always get what they want. There's a saying - something like you're free to swing your fists, but you're not free to swing them into people. Sometimes doing what you want upsets people, or hurts them."

[boychild]

He worries his lip, pondering.

"But you came to my home even though I didn't ask you to."

[elfstoned]

"We came to your home because you came to ours," Aaron replies, his tone even but serious. "A lot of damage has been done to it already. We want that to stop."

His mother is dead because of that damage. The pain of that is still fresh, still recent; it hasn't even begun to fade. It leaves Aaron unwilling to treat this lightly, unable to keep his words light.

[espigeonage]

Julien unfurls a wing enough to reach, but stops short of touching it to Aaron. "He's right," he says. "You've hurt us. You've been hurting us for a while, but we couldn't talk to you before."

[boychild]

He nods thoughtfully and falls quiet for a bit, pondering their words. Finally, he moves on to a lat thing that was tacked onto Julien's words. "Why couldn't you talk to me before but can do it now?"

[elfstoned]

"We didn't know how," Aaron says. "If we had known, we would have asked you to stop a long time ago."

[espigeonage]

"I knew you existed, sort of." Many months ago Badri had claimed that he himself and the others were 'boys' and there was a 'man' somewhere. "But not where you were or how to get here. Was all this your idea?"

[boychild]

He frowns, ignoring Julien for the moment and rounding on Aaron. "Who told you how to?"

[elfstoned]

"That doesn't matter," says Aaron, meeting the boy's eyes steadily. "When you came to our world, did you do it intending to harm as many as you have?"

[espigeonage]

Julien just shakes his head. Aaron's taking the initiative, he will back him up.

[boychild]

"It absolutely matters. TELL ME WHO TOLD YOU." Yep, he's pretty close to throwing a temper tantrum right here.

[elfstoned]

Aaron stands his ground, firm -- stern, but not speaking in anger.

"And if I don't?" he asks. "What will you do? Kill me, like all the other people on Earth who have died because of this? If you do, you'll never learn who told us."

[espigeonage]

Julien's pupils pin and his feathers rise in ruffles, especially on his neck and back. He opens a wing and half-closes it about his friend like some kind of cloak, a wordless sort of promise; he swallows back two or three things and just says, "You're killing us down there. Right now."

[boychild]

"They should NOT ACT INDEPENDENTLY OF ME-," and then he stops abruptly. "They shouldn't be able to. Except for- But why-

They wouldn't do anything that doesn't exist in me. What did they..."

The world around them blurs as he turns around and steps away, and suddenly they are back in the white void that they started in. That is, Julien and Aaron are. And there is a door, or rather an airlock, and if they attempt it they can just walk or fly over to it and step back out into the corridor.

[elfstoned]

There's a moment of deep, deep silence.

Then, Aaron lets out a long breath.

He puts a hand on Julien's wing, a silent thank you -- he knew he was playing with fire, there. He doesn't doubt that that boy could have killed them easily, if he'd had a mind to.

[espigeonage]

Aaron sighs and lays a hand on him, and Julien hugs him against his body with a wing, hard, his claws sliding off armor and catching on chain mail.

"Now what? Do we... look for him again, or is that enough?" He wants it to be enough. He wants to go home, even though he knows there's nothing to go back to, he want to be done with all this bullshit. But he'll stay with Aaron, regardless.

[elfstoned]

Aaron considers it. He doesn't know if they've achieved their goal. The boy doesn't seem to understand that he must stop; that can't be assured. However, something has certainly changed -- some realization has been reached, and what the consequences of that are, Aaron cannot say. The minds of children are capricious things, following trains of logic that few others could.

But he doesn't think he could force the boy to speak with him more, if the boy doesn't want to. Aaron looks out at the emptiness for a long moment more.

"I think," he says slowly, "that if he doesn't want to be found, we won't find him. I think we've done all we can here. Our welcome is worn out, and we had better head for home before our presence is no longer tolerated."

[espigeonage]

"I suppose," Julien says. He thinks something similar. It's so easy to imagine going back and finding those soldiers again though, either in the corridor or back on Earth. "I really don't want to fight anymore. The past couple days - I don't know if I can keep doing that, Aaron."

[elfstoned]

He turns to face Julien, hearing the weariness. Aaron looks him in the eye -- not taking the measure of him, not in any kind of calculating way at least, but getting an idea of where Julien is, in his head and his heart.

Aaron doesn't step forward, not exactly (he can't) but he does move forward, reaching around Julien's neck to pull him into a real hug. He'll speak soon -- but he's going to be quiet for a second so the wordless reassurance can sink in.

[espigeonage]

"I mean, I'll do it," he babbles, surprised and feeling tears prickling as they well up. "I'll do it. I'm not giving up yet, I can still..." Shutting his inner eyelids squeezes them out, dampening the feathers on his face. "But - it's - it's awful! I hate this. I can't... I don't want."

He hooks his head down, hides his beak in Aaron's hair. Julien has seen enough and is himself dirty enough, despite needing to keep his feathers orderly, that the state of it barely registers. "I don't want to see anyone else dying."