(no subject)

[jests]

who: haruka (hoennmaihime) + luke (jests)
what: miscellanies relating to the ~sage~ ordeal
where: luke's apartment
when: the sunday after said mine fiasco

[ he'd have preferred somewhere public — a loose means of keeping his private life exactly that, but preference so rarely aligns with reality. equally, he can appreciate the want and need for keeping any conversation about that, about what had occurred, what the sage had said and how much of it was truth (or a version of) away from unwanted ears.

(it's for the same reason he's avoided discussing it much on the network: he can't wholly rid himself of a distrust in the network. he's aware he's in possession of a degree of hypocrisy relating to that — whilst he's more than willing to reveal who he is (for an image of trust), that's about it. everything else is negligible, open to being bent and manipulated for whatever seems most useful.)

so: whilst he's not entirely happy about the location, he can't argue that it doesn't make sense — and from a purely personal standpoint, it's easier. whilst he wasn't injured to the degree that some were in the mines, he didn't escape scot-free: he's bruised and he's tired and the lack of need to go anywhere is almost welcome.

equally welcome, then, is the fact that his apartment is clean and tidy; it's modest and minimalist in the sense that there's little that immediately pops out as personal upon entering (though the electric kettle in the kitchen (open plan) betrays his british origins; the small, visible assortment of books in the lounge speak of an interest in politics and international relations; and the singular family photo paints him as an only child).

though they hadn't agreed on meeting early, it's not yet noon; early enough, then, that the day won't have felt wasted by the end, early enough to sit and wait with nothing more useful than a cup of coffee and have no need to feel as if one ought to be doing something more useful. ]

Comments

[jests]

[ there's a quiet huff of breath at that — amused, for all intents and purposes, though not without an edge of disdain. he'll readily admit that — particularly after the day previous — that each denizen of the network has his or her use, but that use may be found in a lack of competency. even the foolish and the misguided have their strengths if one knows how to use them and pick them; nevertheless, one certainly couldn't say that the network, by and large, had succeeded in forming a competent community at this point.

(he doesn't particularly care for that, either. he doubts that whatever will come of this in the end will be as black and white as is being painted at present, and he's freely amused by the idea that they've all been painted as heroes. as the good guys. he imagines it's because it's easier than imagining that one has been forced towards a position that sits poorly alongside so-called morals, but morals themselves are often loose and changeable.) ]

There doesn't appear to be a criteria. [ the coffee is partway to his lips before he speaks and afterwards, he blows softly onto the drink in an undoubtedly vain attempt to cool it (some people add a dash of cold water, but he's always found the idea unpalatable and, regardless, prefers to drink his coffee hot) before taking a sip. ] When one lacks honesty and accountability, the hero is the victor, and for as much as it's easy for us to say that our [ a beat and his lips quirk slightly; the term has always struck him as overly dramatic. ] enemies are committing wrongs, we don't know why. I imagine they believe that everything they've done has been necessary, that everything they'll do will also be necessary; heroism calls for actions that others wouldn't take, does it not?

[ another pause and a loose, light shrug. he's not bothered about clinging desperately to the idea of them being right, of morality versus immorality — he's aware he's selfish and ultimately self-serving, and he doesn't shy away from that but in appearance and action when it's necessary, and any claims as to a deep-seated desire to do good would, perhaps ironically, feel distasteful. ]

Though I do feel as if the network could do with a little less navel gazing. What one has [ received; found; been given; woken up with— ] matters less than what one does with it. And if yesterday is anything to go by. [ he doesn't so much trail off as simply not bother to add the obvious: it ought to be obvious, implicitly understood that regardless of whether the sage had been telling the truth about anything else, he had been right when he'd said they were under- and unprepared. ]

[hoennmaihime]

[Haruka sits quietly and simply listens while Luke talks, wrapping her hands daintily around her cup. It keeps her hands in sight (a display of trustworthiness) but in a way that isn't blatant, even if she hasn't tried to sip at her coffee just yet. Wanting to hold on to something warm and wanting to avoid burning her tongue weren't mutually exclusive desires, after all.]

Well, you know. Some people need to believe themselves to be good, for whatever reason.

[She doesn't, of course; she never has. A virtue of a her birthright, of seeing just how deeply the 'bad guys' were integrated in society, of realizing how things would topple if the rotten parts of the world just magically disappeared one day.

She is nothing but in it for her own survival.]

Even in the face of evidence that they're anything but.

[Disgusting, Haruka thinks, and struggles to keep the sneer off her face.

-If yesterday was anything to go by, they were done.

It was a shame, truly. With some molding, training, and learned self-discipline, some of them might have amounted to something given the various displays of potential and self-sacrifice yesterday.

...Might still amount to something. She takes her first sip of coffee (delicious) and begins to word out her forming idea.]

...There's certainly potential though. Properly guided- [another sip.] -we might see some of the rabble ascend to knighthood.

They'd like that, don't you think? 'Happening upon' a way. Being made to feel noble. [Because she could do that, and the happiest workers did work the hardest.] Especially given how terribly lost they feel right now.