(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

[heeroics]

Setsuna F. Seiei.

[ Heero acknowledges him likewise. out of respect. because these fuckin weirdos.

The description rings a bell for him immediately: the vacuum-suited man in the clothing store with whom he briefly discussed the nature of their circumstances. Lockon had been adamant that this place was very real, and very dangerous. Heero had found him appropriately vigilant. ]

The spacesuit. [ he nods. ] That explains it.

[elswhisperer]

You've met him.

[ That saves the trouble of an introduction. ]

...I just have one question. What impression did you get from Lockon Stratos?

[ He's just. A little worried about Neil.

Maybe a lot. ]

[heeroics]

[ Yes, he has, Heero confirms with a quiet affirmative grunt.

When asked for his impression, Heero pauses for a moment to study Setsuna's face. It isn't an unusual question to be asked, but there can be a variety of intentions behind asking it. Sometimes an interest in a comrade is cursory.

Sometimes it isn't.

Maybe Heero sees the worry there. He folds his arms, keeping his voice quiet. ]

He is highly prepared. [ Succinct, but broadly a compliment. ] And absolute in his conviction that this world is now his reality.

[elswhisperer]

[ If Lockon has accepted that this is real, then he'll have to accept one way or another that he's alive. Not some walking specter of the past. And from there... well, Setsuna can hope. ]

I see.

[ Those traces of worry seem alleviated for now. Now, Setsuna can talk business. ]

He found it strange that so many Gundam pilots have been gathered here. I think it's suspicious too. I've considered the possibility that my Gundam may be here somewhere, in the city's possession. The last thing I remember before the train was sitting in its cockpit.

[ While having his brain scrambled, but that's not relevant right now. ]

[heeroics]

[ Heero doesn't disagree: it is very strange to find so many pilots gathered in one place. In his own world, abducting any one of them would be a sure sign of large-scale political machinations afoot. Taking Quatre Raberba Winner, of all people? Practically a declaration of war.

Here, though...

Could it all be meaningless? The question has haunted him since he arrived. Heero has never known a life wherein he is irrelevant; it feels foolish and short-sighted to even entertain the possibility. Like he's missing something desperately important. ]

Mine was sent into the sun.

[ in other words: it would be far stranger to find his Gundam in the City.

Despite that, Heero isn't precluding that possibility - he simply thinks that detail might be of interest, should they indeed find Wing Zero here. Dead people. Dead mobile suits. Brought back like it's nothing. ]

[elswhisperer]

[ Oh. So that's why he's a former pilot.

He's sorry for your loss, Heero. ]

Why? Were the others destroyed, too?

[heeroics]

[ In fairness, Wing Zero was also in pieces by the time he was done with it - Heero has always been pretty hard on his mechs. Regardless: he doesn't appear very beat up about it. He never thought he needed a special mobile suit to fight. ]

All but one. Wufei refused.

[ Wufei is also convinced his mech embodies the soul of his dead wife, so Heero doesn't hassle him about it.

Even if Preventer hanging onto the possibility of summoning the Gundam Altron to their aid, like some kind of ace in the hole - off the record, of course, as such things tend to go - makes the party line they feed to the public into something of a joke. An endless waltz, indeed. Someone like Setsuna will ping to the contradiction right away, he's sure. ]

Total disarmament. Mobile suits were banned in the Earth Sphere after the second Eve War.

[elswhisperer]

"Total disarmament", but Wufei's Gundam remains. Why was his allowed to be the exception?

[ The 'why' is not so hard to guess at.

No matter the world, a Gundam is a Gundam. A machine possessed of great power, that can be used for good or ill.

Anyone who could benefit from that power would want that technology preserved. ]

[heeroics]

It was voluntary, for the five of us. And some people can't let go.

[ Heero shrugs, neutral. Once again, his judgment is reserved.

Wufei may have a lot more to say on the subject, but he can tell his story for himself. ]

We have an understanding. He knows I'll kill him if I have to.

[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?

[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?

[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.

[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) ]

[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. ]

[elswhisperer]

[ He could slap SO many swords on his Gundam. ]

So far, Duo Maxwell and Chang Wufei. Your descriptions were accurate.

[ Is it throwing shade to say that about Duo... ]

[heeroics]

[ can't be shade when it's the truth - and Heero for one had said out loud. without a whisp of shame. at least he'd meant what he said about being able to trust Duo with a mission.

Heero nods. good: if whatever is going on involves them as Gundam pilots, it's best for them to be an allied front. he's had more time to ruminate over the importance of what he'd felt only as a hunch when he'd first met Setsuna. ]

Wufei is a good point of contact. He's organized.

[ Heero and Duo demonstrably are Not ]

[elswhisperer]

[ That fits with his own impression. Good to know. ]

Duo Maxwell's personality is difficult. Becoming his ally may take time.

[ Says Setsuna, whose personality is also difficult. ]

[heeroics]

[ Heero offers a grunt of solidarity. He has two bullet holes to show for his first meeting with Duo Maxwell. ]

He knows anyone can talk about anything.

[ Because Duo can talk about anything, and people believe him when he says "I never lie" with a flip of his braid and a single, toothy flash of that charismatic grin of his. It's no mystery to Heero why Duo is so cagey and mistrustful of others. ]

He'll be an ally when he has reason to.