usedfeatherdance | Feather 17 [Video]

[ The video clicks on to a view of the ceiling in one of the rooms of the Blackthorn Inn. The fan is slowly circling, and the only other thing visible in the frame is an arm reaching straight up from slightly off screen, holding up a Rising Badge. ]

We've already figured out that collecting a whole set of badges doesn't actually get you anything of value, right? Or did that finally change while I wasn't looking?

[ Joshua sighs, and the arm lowers out of the feed. There's the sound of it hitting the bed, and the camera shakes just the slightest. ]

You'd think that after I spent this long collecting them, I'd feel prouder at finally winning the last one. Mmm, perhaps this isn't really for me after all.

[ After a pause, he giggles. Then he rolls over and leans over the Gear, his face finally entering the camera's view. ]

How about this? Tell me about the worst thing that happened to you at home that you're still willing to talk about. Even if it doesn't seem to compare to what others have been through. Tragedy is quite relative, after all.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Technically I don't have to. My cooperation would simply change the metric of which story you'd be willing to tell, now wouldn't it?

I don't recall asking you to go first.

You didn't. But you asked me to go either first or second.

It's funny how that works, isn't it?

Do you have a story you're willing to tell, even at the risk of me possibly deciding not to reciprocate?

That depends on why you're asking about this in the first place. The answer has no bearing on what I'm willing to tell you, I'd just like to know if I'm speaking to someone who would like reassurance that their life isn't as horrible as they think it is, someone who would like reassurance that their life is exactly as horrible as they think it is, or just some sort of sadist.

Or none of the above, that's acceptable as well.

I'm just curious about what I'm getting into; you understand.

Let's go with sadist.

[ But he's giggling behind the text. ]

I thought it would be an interesting topic. I can learn about the sort of things that can happen in other worlds and at the same time get a bit of insight into what the person sharing with me considers important.

Fair enough, then.

One of the things that comes immediately to mind was losing an important mark - I'm a bit of a freelancer by trade, a soldier under direct employ of the government, and my orders involved apprehending a fugitive and recover someone he'd taken hostage, should he still have said hostage with him. The fugitive in question was someone that I had a personal fight with, not just a professional one.

The first time I attempted to apprehend him, he managed to get the upper hand in a physical fight and impaled me straight through the abdomen with a length of steel pipe, nearly killing me in the process. The second time, he managed to take a second hostage and was generally condescending before starting a firefight that collapsed a building, allowing for his escape a second time.

The soldiers that were supposed to be under my command during this time were a temporary arrangement, offered to me by the government; they decided to rebel against said government by trying to set up snipers to shoot me in the head. It didn't work, but it was highly annoying.

That entire assignment wasn't the high point of my life, to put it lightly; there's another incident that definitely qualifies as the worst thing to have happened to me, granted, but it's something I don't talk about quite as often.

Nearly dying to a hole in the gut sounds like plenty enough for me, but I suppose that's why I'm not a soldier. Were you given this assignment because of that personal fight?

Actually, no; it was entirely a professional deal until I got a look at the person's face, at which point we realized that we had more history than we'd thought.

And did that make it easier or harder?

It made it more interesting.

Not one to speak in terms of difficulty? Are you so important to the government that the sabotage was deliberate, or were you simply a target of convenience?

Not one to have the difficulty of my mission influenced by whether I've seen my mark's face or not.

I wouldn't call it sabotage, per se - I was trying to apprehend the man at the time, after all, and I would have been more surprised if he hadn't tried to strike back at me. At the same time, he would have gone after me eventually; he was specifically targeting people like me and killing them. So he would have come for me eventually, I'm sure.

I was referring more to the snipers in particular.

I actually have no idea what that one was, other than incredibly stupid on the organizer's part. I'm fairly expendable and I'm sure they knew it; if they were trying to destroy someone important they were aiming at the wrong target - all killing me would have done was brought attention to their little rebellion.

Edited (...jfc Lazarus can we not screw up my tags please and thank you) 2013-07-29 19:37 (UTC)

Maybe it's a compliment. They thought you were dangerous enough to their movement that you had to be dispatched while awareness was still low.

Feather 17 [Video]

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