cartesianism | WEEK 2: April 8th

WEEK 2: April 8th - April 12th

Second Week

Seven days have passed. Quite peaceful days, almost too peaceful. The town has welcomed you, excited to see tourists for the first time in many, many, many years. Some may have liked the peace, others may have been annoyed by it, but it was undeniable Cartesio seemed like such a nice and safe place it was hard to believe you had been told to kill each other.

But the threat is still up in the air. What's more: how much patience does the Sergeant have left?

Every time you take a look into the Lodge, you see the Sergeant. Lately he's looking more and more annoyed. Even though you can't see his face, you can feel he's getting frustrated. How long will it be before he lashes out and does something about these peaceful days?

Nobody in the town could suspect the harrowing times that'd befall Cartesio.

When you wake up on Sunday, you'll find new maps in the map rack and brochures on the table, showing places you hadn't noticed in the town before. Enjoy!

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Activity Check

Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday

[Welcome to the second week! If you want to contact the Sergeant, please post here!. Also please remember to submit your activity check!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

...Did you have to do that a lot? I mean, you know. Combat. Like, I got the whole spy thing even if you're awful at it, but...

[She has A Concern, even if she won't outright admit to it.]

Huh? Yeah.

[She sets the ARCUS down on the table and grabs another bite of pancake, stuffing it into her mouth and then proceeding onward while chewing.

Graceful.]

Can't always get in n' out without bein' seen, so sometimes I hadta fight my way out.

[Swallow.]

'Sides, Thors is a military school. [She flips the device closed to show off the cover, proudly displaying "Thors Military Academy" alongside a horned lion that must be the school's insignia.] So when I was there to spy on C, there was a whole buncha combat training, never mind the field studies...

Oh, yeah, and the whole civil war C went n' started.

So yeah. I'd say I do it a lot.

[She doesn't seem particularly upset about any of that, though, and just takes another bite of pancake. It is definitely not just tiredness clouding her judgement here.]

[Perhaps unsurprisingly, she gives another pause, blinking several times.]

...I don't even know where the hell to start. Are you, like, okay?

[It's okay. Millium is a lot to unpack, and it seems even she knows that much.]

Yeah, I'm fine. [By her standards and no one else's.] I mean, the civil war wasn't great, but we mostly made it through all right. Everything else, that's just a part of the job.

How did a student even start a civil war...?

[That's her first of many questions.]

Oh. Well, he was kind of also a terrorist and he kind of assassinated Gramps.

[A beat.]

D'you wanna sit down? This might be a long story.

—Kind of? How do you kind of assassinate someone?

[That expression of shock is punctuated by her sitting down as Millium offers.]

Err... well... it kinda didn't. Take.

[Another bite of pancake as she figures out how to explain this.]

Gramps is the Chancellor of Erebonia, where I'm from. ...He's my boss. [Some people have been confused about that, and she's too tired to remember who she's told.] And he sent me to Thors to keep an eye on Crow, because he thought Crow might be "C," the leader of the Imperial Liberation Front.

Group of terrorists that wanted Gramps dead, basically.

Weeeeell, turns out Gramps was right, but he hid it really well, so I only found out when he went to Heimdallr and sniped Gramps down in the middle of a speech. And once Gramps was outta the way, the Noble Alliance tried to take back over the Empire.

We helped stop 'em. And we got Crow to agree to stop being a terrorist and come back to school, too, but then the big robot Duke Cayenne woke up stabbed him, so he died. And then right after he died, it turned out Gramps wasn't actually dead.

Dunno how he made it. Hide n' seek champion, I guess.

[Nom.]

Is he your grandfather as well as your boss, or is Gramps just a nickname?

[That is, by far, the easiest question that what Millium says brings to mind. She stays quiet for the rest of the explanation, trying to decide where to start once it’s over.]

...How did you get someone who tried to murder a chancellor to stop and come back to school? I mean, ignoring the part where he didn’t have a chance because of the... robot.

Just a nickname. I don't really have "family," not in the same way you do.

[Just one of many things she sounds entirely too okay with.]

Well, he n' Rean got into a fight in their giant robots, n' Rean totally kicked his ass. So, like, what was he gonna do, keep fighting us? It was either do what we said or let the military handle him.

[There’s a pause. Part of her knows it probably isn’t what Millium meant, but it’s such a sore subject for her that she lets out:]

That might be true, but you don’t anything about the way I have family.

[Once it’s out, she looks eager to move past it, at least.]

...Are wars in your home typically fought with giant robots?

...

You're right. I don't. I'm sorry.

[That's oddly heartfelt, for her. She might not quite understand, but she at least knows what it's like watching someone with issues with family from the outside.

That's a part of why she pesters Natalie, after all. Not just for the fun of it, but because there's a part of her that looks at this girl across from her and sees that blonde boy from the video on Tuesday. She can't help but want to cheer them up in the same way.]

Umm... well. They didn't used to be? Rean n' Crow's robots used to be special. I mean, they still are, they're the "Divine Knights" of legend. But Crow kinda let the Noble Alliance study his and they started mass-producing things like 'em, so now? Yeah, they basically are.

...It's fine.

[She seems sincere in that, at least; if she was bothered for a moment, that feeling is relinquished.]

I can't decide if that's really cool or really terrifying. Where did they get the robots in the first place?

It was kinda both, having been there.

[If that helps.]

Um. I don't actually know where Crow got his, he had it for three years before we met him I guess? But Rean found his waaaay down in the basement of this creepy old schoolhouse we had on campus. We helped him fight a whole bunch of weird "trials" to get it.

...So your life is basically a fantasy novel with added robots and political intrigue. I think I'm starting to connect the dots.

...Ehehe. Y'know, when you put it like that, I can't even say no...

[It's anime bullshit, is what it is.]

It’s the only appropriate way to put it.

[If only Natalie had been exposed to anime. Everything here would make so much more sense.]

Guess you're not wrong about that.

Everything has been pretty crazy. But it's been fun, too, even with the sad parts.

...A civil war with giant robots was fun for you?

[Somehow, instead of skeptical (okay, maybe there's a bit of skepticism), she sounds curious.]

I mean, that part of it wasn't.

But even though all that was happening, I got to go all sorts of places with my friends while we were helping out. See all sorts of things I never get to see on mission.

I got to be Millium of Class VII, instead of Millium the Ironblood.

[There's... something about that she can relate to. A chance for things to be normal for once when it's not what you're accustomed to. A chance to pretend you're an average person, living an average life. It's enough to make her pause, and when she speaks, there's an understanding in her tone that's not often present.]

...Well, good. Think you'll be able to do it again?

[And that gets a bittersweet smile.]

No.

Class VII's over now. Since Crow's dead and Gramps is back, my job there's over. Even if I asked Gramps to let me stay out the next year with Rean, Rean's gonna be going on missions just as much as I am from here on out, and everyone else went their own way, too.

We have a promise to get back together sometime, but... who knows how long that's gonna take? And even then, I dunno how long we'll have.

[Even if she stops most of the concern from showing, the frown is evidence that she doesn't like the answer.]

Couldn't you just, like... find a new job, or something? You don't have to stay there, do you?

[She shakes her head.]

Maybe if I were Lechter or Claire. But for me, this isn't really a job I can quit.

Y'don't really get too much of a choice when that's what you were made n' bought for.

[...Oh.]

—What?

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MASSIVE CS/2 SPOILERS HEYO

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