(OPEN) probably the least secret secret meeting, all things considered

[elswhisperer]

WHO: Setsuna F. Seiei (elswhisperer) & you!
WHAT: The code word log!
WHERE: City Hall Park
WHEN: July 12
WARNINGS: N/A


[ Over the course of the past few days, you may have noticed simple, nondescript flyers posted here and there across the city. All handwritten, they list a location (a particular statue in the City Park) along with a time and date (3:00 PM, July 12). Below that, an extremely brief message:

For establishing safe communications.

- moment.

On the day of, you'll find a young man in a red scarf waiting by the named statue. He has with him sheets of blank paper, pens, and pencils. ]

My name is Setsuna F. Seiei. 'Moment' from the network. The purpose of this meeting is creating a way to safely disseminate information to each other all at once. If one of us found an exit, or determined the identity of our captors, we'd be jeopardizing ourselves by revealing it openly over the network. At the same time, the network is our most efficient method of communication. We need to make the most of all the tools at our disposal.

We can accomplish that with the use of code language. One that's not complicated; that anyone could remember and pass along. What that code is and what we want to communicate with it is something one person can't determine for themselves. That's why I wanted us all to meet.

Without cooperation, we're not gonna get anywhere.

[ ooc: just a couple things! go ahead and mingle/threadhop as you like (especially bc i may not be the fastest tagger rn), and if setsuna has already mentioned to your character that he's been working on something, feel free to assume he left some kind of vague message about checking flyers over the inboxes or smth. ]

Comments

[elswhisperer]

[ Setsuna doesn't even blink at that admission. Sometimes that's just how it is with your comrades. He gets it.

(If Setsuna could be a little less cool with the possibility of his friends killing him, though, it'd probably be best for everyone.) ]

Why did you agree to destroy your Gundam?

[heeroics]

[ Always a relief when Heero doesn't have to explain his willingness to murder, at least when it's the future of humanity that's at stake. Wufei is the only other person Heero's spoken with at length who wouldn't have so much as flinched, he thinks.

He decides he was right to trust Setsuna as an ally.

Though he asks an interesting question. Does he know that Heero can't quite let go of the war himself? Or maybe it's something impossible to imagine, throwing away mobile suits the way Heero does. There's no easy answer to read on Setsuna's face. ]

My suit is a tool. I'm the weapon.

[ Matter-of-factly: that is how he was trained.

Yes, Quatre had his persuasive arguments about the idolatry of war machines, and Relena had her treatise of disarmament... but ultimately, Heero wouldn't have agreed to either if he weren't completely assured - rightly or wrongly - of his ability to be effective without Wing Zero. ]

Would you destroy yours?

cw: substance use

[wrenchedup]

[ Dude you are totally a fucking legend. ] Uhuh, that going well?

[ Like Wrench these days is usually semi-drunk as a base level, RIP his liver IF ITS EVEN A REAL LIVER. He's.......... paced himself now that he's noticed they replenish less frequently, though. Definitely taken his smoking habit to a whole new level. Maybe sometimes takes one too many advil. Things have been great!

... but in other news, this dude is T-Posing and you know what he's going to join. Cause fuck it, right? Get a fucking arm workout in. Let's walk and talk, shall we??? ]

A good simulation wouldn't feel like a simulation, though. Then again, I've never been in one until probably now so maybe they still suck. This place DOES have boundaries. If you walk to far you come right back again. That screams simulation to me unless some Einstein-Rosen Bullshit just decided to surround a very specific perimeter of some unknown city called The City for some reason. Science IS weird.

[ Oops, sorry person he almost walked into. ]

[zerofive]

And the alternative is to do nothing, accept our captivity, and wait for a chance without even an attempt at cooperation.

[Wufei does not think highly of that option; he's never been one not to fight, when there was any chance of a purpose in doing so.]

If you were going to do that, then you would not be here at all. A complete language would be unweildy, but code-words, meanings beyond the usual? We can manage something.

[indwelt]

[ He can't help but chuckle a little at the bluntly stated opinion. Harsh, but true. ]

I suppose I wouldn't be. I'm not much of a fighter these days, but I don't like sitting back and just accepting my fate either, you're right.

[ It would be an insult to the name he's inherited if he were to do that. ]

Do you have any experience with it? Coming up with code-words?

[braidedwonder]

Why do you need to know?

[ Look, just because he's no longer in a place where he necessarily has to hide that he's a Gundam pilot doesn't mean that he's necessarily keen to get into the reasons why. Hell, he hasn't even really discussed those reasons with his fellow pilots, much less someone he knows through Heero Yuy. ]

[elswhisperer]

[ Ah.

Heero reminds Setsuna of himself. His old self.

A human who's a "weapon" and "a person who can do nothing but fight" are two different ways of expressing the same concept. The only difference appears to be that where Setsuna was resigned to this fate, Heero seems to have no such qualms.

It strikes him that Heero seems young. A teenager. How old was he when he first picked up a weapon...? ]

No. Never.

[ The answer comes without deliberation. ]

My Gundam is more than a weapon. With 00 Raiser, I can expand the consciousness of myself, and those around me, so that people can communicate without barriers. Through understanding, we destroy the root of conflict. Force alone can't accomplish that. That's what I've learned, as a Gundam Meister. As someone who believed that force was enough.

[heeroics]

I see.

[ Heero doesn't see, exactly. Setsuna describes his Gundam as if it has the capabilities of a God, but then - hadn't Treize spoken of his vision for the ZERO System that way? He'd hoped it would show Heero how to end the war. The path they needed to take to attain peace.

That was before all of them had run up against the inherent flaw of the technology, one after the other: ZERO was built for victory, not pacifism. ]

ZERO has never been able to show me how to stop humanity from fighting. I've asked it again and again.

[ A scowl touches briefly on his lips, in memory of that long, painful source of frustration. It doesn't stay, though. ]

I'm not good at communication, either. So I'll leave that to her - to Relena. She would agree with you.

[elswhisperer]

[ Heero was like him; seeking answers with his Gundam. And truthfully, despite his own ideals, Setsuna's not good at communication, himself.

They really do have a lot in common. That momentary look of frustration feels familiar.

Knowing that people seem fated to be in conflict, watching the world refuse to change for the better, the exhaustion of endless fighting; he understands it all. ]

Relena?

[elswhisperer]

I don't need to. If your reasons are private, I won't push for answers.

[ He's curious, certainly, but he knows it's none of his business. ]

YOU'RE GOOD i have been slow on tagging for Reasons lately so this is fine...

[gripper]

It depends what part you're in. There's twenty-six Districts—I'm from 11. ( Nest K is notoriously one of the nicer places to be from, really... ) Worlds of difference between our Backstreets and the Backstreets of, say, District 23.

( Kromer smiles wryly. )

Most people who go missing there end up on someone else's plate.

[heeroics]

Relena is -

[ The reason you fight, his subconscious supplies unbidden. He smothers the thought before it has a chance to fully surface, too aware of the reality that she isn't here now, and that isn't an attitude Heero should be nurturing in her absence.

He drags himself back to reality. Sighs quietly. He hates not knowing whether or not she's safe. ]

...naive in many of her ideals, but she believes in them. And she's strong. Stronger than me, without any weapons at all.

[zerofive]

It seems to make no sense that there would; it would be reasonable to expect them to be trying to punish us, for the actions we undertook as Gundam Pilots— or if they wanted us to pilot on their behalf... But nothing like that is happening, here.

[One does not typically come to pilot anything so exceptional as a Gundam, after all, without being required to have competency in more mundane forms of the skill. But here, there is no evidence of spacecraft of any kind, let alone a mobile suit, or even some kind of simulation device. It's too strange.]

However, it also seems impossible for it to be a coincidence. This many Gundam Pilots, all in one place? Ridiculous.

[elswhisperer]

[ That sounds familiar.

Marina Ismail will never pick up a weapon. She'll never stop believing in peaceful solutions, no matter how the world tests her ideals.

The strength it takes to choose compassion again and again is no lesser than the strength it takes to fight. ]

I know someone like that. I was only able to believe that people could understand each other because I met her. The world can't change without people like them.

[heeroics]

[ Heero finally pulls his gaze away from the distance he'd been staring into, seeking out Setsuna's eyes.

He agrees completely, of course... but isn't this growing more and more uncanny?

Is every aspect of humanity and conflict really so predictable, no matter which layer of the universe it happens to inhabit? Or are their worlds truly... parallel, in a way? What would it be like to meet this person that Setsuna knows. What if Relena met her.

Heero will be mulling over questions like those for awhile. But the answers make no difference to the here and now, because it's the two of them.

He smirks just slightly, entirely to himself. How interesting. ]

I would have liked to see your Gundam.

[ (he means fight) ]

[braidedwonder]

You wouldn’t know the context of it, so it doesn’t make sense to share. [ it’s a stupid excuse, not even his fellow pilots know half of his life prior to Operation Meteor by his own choice. But Duo Maxwell would be a husk if not filled with excuses.

Eventually, though, he will provide a more surface level answer: ]

I wanted people in space to be able to smile again. Without having mobile suits lurking over them all the time as a threat to comply.

[elswhisperer]

[ Surface level though it may be, it's more than nothing, which is more than Setsuna anticipated. ]

That's a fight worthy of a Gundam.

[elswhisperer]

[ That smirk makes Setsuna feel like he's missed something, and that shows on his face. He couldn't begin to guess what's going through Heero's head. ]

Yours too.

[ Except Setsuna's taking that purely at face value. It's awful for Gundams to be fighting other Gundams!! It means things have gone very, very wrong!! ]

[heeroics]

[ Don't worry about it, Setsuna. Let the unhinged teenager fantasize about how great it would be to fight Gundams for fun in a world where everything simply repairs itself. Including the pilots.

Imagine all the upgrades they could come up with. ]

Ah. Have you met the others?

[ He's already run into Setsuna's comrade, after all. ]

[braidedwonder]

I'm glad I pass muster. [ Then why does it sound so sarcastic? Of course, the former Deathscythe pilot is suspicious as hell about what this is all about, if he's honest. This guy reminds him of Heero but somehow even more intense, and it's anything but a compliment. ]

What was your reason, then?

sorry for all these delays, province is on Fire :(

[zangetsu]

（ hahaha, robbie is asking the juvenile delinquent the right (wrong?) questions. ichigo stares at him a moment, and then reaches up to scratch idly at his cheekbone as if in thought. ）

Uh. Yeah. It goes back to normal within twenty-four hours, far as I can tell.

[benedicus]

It sounds like we've got the beginnings of a strategy started then.

( now the hard part was going to be spreading that information covertly.

not at all this angel's forte. )

Perhaps next meet we can provide others with stencils and a symbol legend?

[coolerjunpei]

Yeah, I can think of some more. Do you know how to make stencils...?

[He seems like the kind of person who knows how to make little crafts. Ahem.]

[benedicus]

( may he never find out or he would be terribly sad to know that this happened to her. )

Well, it's quite the pleasure to meet you! I always enjoy meeting a fellow gourmet.

( those who enjoyed the pleasures of food and drink were always his favourite kind of people. what a shame it would be to be in such a wonderful world with countless delights and barely experience any of them! )

My name is Aziraphale. So, don't be too surprised if I reach out later!

( a little laugh.

but he's not kidding. he's gonna definitely dump excess baked goods on this girl. )

[benedicus]

I certainly do.

( provided no one wanted to ask any nosy questions, he could also do a lot more than that. )

You can count on me in this regard.

( if he sounds a little excited to say that, ignore it. )