[ She doesn't sound disappointed, simply accepting. ]
Don't worry about that. I'm probably pretty good at positive encouragement. He's really reasonable when you sit down with him and talk logically. Well, on most subjects. I think he's afraid of being seen as too much like a girl or something. But sometimes boys are just like that. So it's no big deal.
I don't really know a whole lot about Rocket. I know it's a criminal organisation, yakuza style and all that. But I don't really know a lot of details. I get the feeling it's a lot different than my father's organization, if for no other reason than my world doesn't have pokemon.
If you know Yakuza, then you basically got 'em down pat. Criminals with Pokémon that use 'em as tools. The way Niko came to view and treat them was quite the anomaly for our society.
[he shrugs a little awkwardly.]
Along with... uh. Everything else. But he's gettin' better, that's what matters.
Yeah, I'm familiar. My dad was in charge of his own criminal organization, too. [ She laughs a little. ] It's one of the weirder things Niko and I have in common.
I'm glad for that. And I'll do what I can to help him continue to do so. He's a good guy, he just doesn't always know what 'good' entails. And I can relate to that, too.
Mmm... the irony. Y'know how I'm his legal guardian right now? [he rubs the back of his head.] That thing I mentioned... I used to have my own criminal organization, too. Not in the same way as Niko's father, it was more... ecoterrorism but...
I'm starting to get the impression that the porter has a thing for former criminals. [ She turned around to tend to the electric kettle, which was starting to whistle. ] The cult I was in, well, it engaged in terrorism, too. Though not ecoterrorism.
No kiddin', right? Yeah, I'll go for some. [he tilts his head.] Reckon that's all cults are good for, hurtin' people. S'all I did, anyway. Convinced myself I was doin' the right thing. Ugh. What a mess.
[ She doesn't show her surprise that he was a cult leader specifically, but she decides to give him the benefit of the doubt for the time being. She moves to grab two mugs and then steeps the tea. ]
Mind if I ask what all you did? It sounds like you know better now that everything's further away.
Really, it seems like it's always the job of kids to step up and pull things off where the adults fuck up. [ She comes over with the tea soon after. ] Well, I guess maybe I'm a little jaded there, with everything going on in my world.
Nah, you're right. Older generation always leaves their mess for the younger one. Part of the reason why I tried to retool my team was to try and take responsibility and clear up. Leave a better world for the generation to follow us. It's only fair.
[he shakes his head lightly, watching as she pours the water.]
Guess it's a universal constant for adults to be friggin' useless, eh?
I wish more adults saw it as 'only fair' instead of focusing on how they got theirs, and the youth having to work harder to get even half of what they did can go fuck themselves.
The universal constant of adults being useless is really frustrating, and extremely exhausting.
[ There's a groan. ] It's not like pride is all that important, so people being unwilling to admit they're wrong when things are important is just hurting everyone in the end. It's so stupid.
[ Says someone who has a hard time admitting she's wrong - though that's usually due to her having not-enough-proof that she's wrong and no one explaining how they're right past insistence that they are. ]
In my world it's just billionaires messing things up for everyone. People can't afford to live in the cities they work in. Social systems are breaking down in a lot of countries because the businesses are making them shoulder the load of the businesses not paying their employees. Death by overwork is no longer just a Japanese thing, though at least with us it's more our stubborn pride than being worked so hard in large numbers that our bodies just give out... Money that should be going to looking after the weakest in our society, to build them up and make society better as a whole is just going into the pockets of businesses and corrupt politicians. The only thing we seem to have going for us is an inventor about ten years ago managed to get a renewable energy source going and somehow managed to get news about it out past the many organizations fighting against it, so at least we're poisoning our planet at a much slower pace than before. [ She looks down at her mug, her eyebrows furrowed. ] At the rate things are going, there's going to be massive social upheaval. If we're extremely lucky we won't end up with nuclear war on our hands when that happens. The only thing sustainable about my world is the energy, I think.
[ She then sighs. ]
As for what happened for me...? Well. The short version is that I was a secret child of a crimelord. Not sure if I can rightfully consider my father's organization proper yakuza, but that's another subject. He was also a politician - one of those corrupt ones I mentioned before - but around the time I was eight he got found out, and his holdings raided. I was being kept in one of them at the time. Ended up with a new identity and was kidnapped by The Forge less than a month later.
I've been here long enough that I think I need to state that cults like The Forge aren't common in my world. And on the public side of things the forge was mostly seen as weirdos who wanted to wake up sleeping gods, but mostly did so through prayer and living in their compound in the middle of the woods. No one knew that The Forge had some pretty deep fingers in everything from law enforcement and politics to organized crime and a few businesses. This- this wasn't normal.
Anyway, when I was kidnapped I got the feeling that The Leader was going to kill me, and I thought fast and made it seem like I was a confused little kid looking for guidance to make the world make sense again. [ She sneered bitterly. ] What adult man can resist the urge to guide a little girl down his chosen path, right? [ The sudden viciousness left her tone and became the casual one it had been before. ]
That was what the church made me relive, in case you're curious. [ She takes a deep drink of her tea before she continues. She's not looking at anything in particular. It seems like maybe she's forgotten this was supposed to be the short version of things. ] From that point it was just survival. I am apparently good at many things, including leading the other kids once I got my footing. I was prized for my skills, and it would take a whole lot more for The Leader to outright murder me than the other kids, so I got good at reading his moods and deciding when to take the punishments for others mistakes so I didn't have to deal with the morale damage of 'so the Leader killed another one of us for an imagined mistake again!' and also to keep as many of my peers alive in general as possible...
I eventually got put in charge of the cult's social media - which, everything has a social media in my world. It's a real shock to me that some people here just don't have it when in my world you're viewed as suspicious in job interviews if you don't have some presence. So it was sort of a big deal when I was put in charge. And by then the public knew we were terrorists, so I sort of became a household name for all the wrong reasons.
Got captured once. I managed to talk law enforcement into letting me go back in as a spy. And I used the social media to sneak messages to them in plain site.
Then we woke up a god.
I was the sacrifice, just a little blood - not that I knew that's all it would be at the time, none of us knew and I still only have theories as to why it was me that had to give it - and when the god was released... Well, he liked the 'fun little trick' I was playing. If I helped him release his brother, then he would help me escape and give unto me a boon.
From there it was just more survival as The Leader became more and more unhinged, and we were chased from the compound and stuck living off the land - which is a really bad idea when you'd already been harshly rationing for over a year, and no one knows how to actually do that living off the land thing... Anyway. Eventually we found Kin's brother, and once again I was the one to sacrifice blood to release him. And then...
Then Kin and Gin tore apart and ate The Leader, and anyone else who got that far. Which was fine. It was mostly just the worst of the worst by then. Kin left, giving me the gift of flames as he did...
And then I went into protective custody. Eventually ran away because my caregivers were slowly poisoning me. I'm pretty sure they have no idea I saw them sneaking some white powder into my food one night. I went to live in the forests, since well most of the country wants me dead and have seriously injured other people they thought were me in disguise, because I wasn't put in jail like they wanted.
In the end I was actually looking for a way to another world when I came here, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't my doing that got me here.
[ She's been staring blankly in the general direction of the floor for some time now, her voice sounding more and more numb and airy as she continued. Now she's silent, though still gazing at something well beyond the ground. ]
[he's silent as he listens to all this-- sees lots of similarities between his own world and others that he's heard of. feels anger for what ruby was forced to go through, even that she had to relieve it in the church. no wonder the poor kid can't sleep.]
Shit, Ruby. That stressed me the fuck out. You wanna smoke up? Reckon we both need it right now.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
[ She doesn't sound disappointed, simply accepting. ]
Don't worry about that. I'm probably pretty good at positive encouragement. He's really reasonable when you sit down with him and talk logically. Well, on most subjects. I think he's afraid of being seen as too much like a girl or something. But sometimes boys are just like that. So it's no big deal.
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[he leans back lightly, grunting.]
Not surprised.
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I don't really know a whole lot about Rocket. I know it's a criminal organisation, yakuza style and all that. But I don't really know a lot of details. I get the feeling it's a lot different than my father's organization, if for no other reason than my world doesn't have pokemon.
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[he shrugs a little awkwardly.]
Along with... uh. Everything else. But he's gettin' better, that's what matters.
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I'm glad for that. And I'll do what I can to help him continue to do so. He's a good guy, he just doesn't always know what 'good' entails. And I can relate to that, too.
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[he makes a face.]
Such a... coincidental thread.
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I'm starting to get the impression that the porter has a thing for former criminals. [ She turned around to tend to the electric kettle, which was starting to whistle. ] The cult I was in, well, it engaged in terrorism, too. Though not ecoterrorism.
Want some tea? There's enough water for two.
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No kiddin', right? Yeah, I'll go for some. [he tilts his head.] Reckon that's all cults are good for, hurtin' people. S'all I did, anyway. Convinced myself I was doin' the right thing. Ugh. What a mess.
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Mind if I ask what all you did? It sounds like you know better now that everything's further away.
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[he shrugs.]
Someone younger than you stopped me.
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Now that sounds like something out of my world.
Really, it seems like it's always the job of kids to step up and pull things off where the adults fuck up. [ She comes over with the tea soon after. ] Well, I guess maybe I'm a little jaded there, with everything going on in my world.
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[he shakes his head lightly, watching as she pours the water.]
Guess it's a universal constant for adults to be friggin' useless, eh?
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I wish more adults saw it as 'only fair' instead of focusing on how they got theirs, and the youth having to work harder to get even half of what they did can go fuck themselves.
The universal constant of adults being useless is really frustrating, and extremely exhausting.
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[even so long on, it's a source of great shame for him. it will be for the rest of his life, he reckons. archie just sighs and shakes his head.]
I can't even imagine. Mind if I ask what happened back home for ya?
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[ Says someone who has a hard time admitting she's wrong - though that's usually due to her having not-enough-proof that she's wrong and no one explaining how they're right past insistence that they are. ]
In my world it's just billionaires messing things up for everyone. People can't afford to live in the cities they work in. Social systems are breaking down in a lot of countries because the businesses are making them shoulder the load of the businesses not paying their employees. Death by overwork is no longer just a Japanese thing, though at least with us it's more our stubborn pride than being worked so hard in large numbers that our bodies just give out... Money that should be going to looking after the weakest in our society, to build them up and make society better as a whole is just going into the pockets of businesses and corrupt politicians. The only thing we seem to have going for us is an inventor about ten years ago managed to get a renewable energy source going and somehow managed to get news about it out past the many organizations fighting against it, so at least we're poisoning our planet at a much slower pace than before. [ She looks down at her mug, her eyebrows furrowed. ] At the rate things are going, there's going to be massive social upheaval. If we're extremely lucky we won't end up with nuclear war on our hands when that happens. The only thing sustainable about my world is the energy, I think.
[ She then sighs. ]
As for what happened for me...? Well. The short version is that I was a secret child of a crimelord. Not sure if I can rightfully consider my father's organization proper yakuza, but that's another subject. He was also a politician - one of those corrupt ones I mentioned before - but around the time I was eight he got found out, and his holdings raided. I was being kept in one of them at the time. Ended up with a new identity and was kidnapped by The Forge less than a month later.
I've been here long enough that I think I need to state that cults like The Forge aren't common in my world. And on the public side of things the forge was mostly seen as weirdos who wanted to wake up sleeping gods, but mostly did so through prayer and living in their compound in the middle of the woods. No one knew that The Forge had some pretty deep fingers in everything from law enforcement and politics to organized crime and a few businesses. This- this wasn't normal.
Anyway, when I was kidnapped I got the feeling that The Leader was going to kill me, and I thought fast and made it seem like I was a confused little kid looking for guidance to make the world make sense again. [ She sneered bitterly. ] What adult man can resist the urge to guide a little girl down his chosen path, right? [ The sudden viciousness left her tone and became the casual one it had been before. ]
That was what the church made me relive, in case you're curious. [ She takes a deep drink of her tea before she continues. She's not looking at anything in particular. It seems like maybe she's forgotten this was supposed to be the short version of things. ] From that point it was just survival. I am apparently good at many things, including leading the other kids once I got my footing. I was prized for my skills, and it would take a whole lot more for The Leader to outright murder me than the other kids, so I got good at reading his moods and deciding when to take the punishments for others mistakes so I didn't have to deal with the morale damage of 'so the Leader killed another one of us for an imagined mistake again!' and also to keep as many of my peers alive in general as possible...
I eventually got put in charge of the cult's social media - which, everything has a social media in my world. It's a real shock to me that some people here just don't have it when in my world you're viewed as suspicious in job interviews if you don't have some presence. So it was sort of a big deal when I was put in charge. And by then the public knew we were terrorists, so I sort of became a household name for all the wrong reasons.
Got captured once. I managed to talk law enforcement into letting me go back in as a spy. And I used the social media to sneak messages to them in plain site.
Then we woke up a god.
I was the sacrifice, just a little blood - not that I knew that's all it would be at the time, none of us knew and I still only have theories as to why it was me that had to give it - and when the god was released... Well, he liked the 'fun little trick' I was playing. If I helped him release his brother, then he would help me escape and give unto me a boon.
From there it was just more survival as The Leader became more and more unhinged, and we were chased from the compound and stuck living off the land - which is a really bad idea when you'd already been harshly rationing for over a year, and no one knows how to actually do that living off the land thing... Anyway. Eventually we found Kin's brother, and once again I was the one to sacrifice blood to release him. And then...
Then Kin and Gin tore apart and ate The Leader, and anyone else who got that far. Which was fine. It was mostly just the worst of the worst by then. Kin left, giving me the gift of flames as he did...
And then I went into protective custody. Eventually ran away because my caregivers were slowly poisoning me. I'm pretty sure they have no idea I saw them sneaking some white powder into my food one night. I went to live in the forests, since well most of the country wants me dead and have seriously injured other people they thought were me in disguise, because I wasn't put in jail like they wanted.
In the end I was actually looking for a way to another world when I came here, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't my doing that got me here.
[ She's been staring blankly in the general direction of the floor for some time now, her voice sounding more and more numb and airy as she continued. Now she's silent, though still gazing at something well beyond the ground. ]
no subject
Shit, Ruby. That stressed me the fuck out. You wanna smoke up? Reckon we both need it right now.
no subject
With my history I probably shouldn't... But...
[ She shook her head. ]
Screw it. I want to get some sleep tonight. I'll take you up on the offer if you don't mind.