synopsychic | [Check-In] Your Enthusiasm is Appreciated

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[Check-In] Your Enthusiasm is Appreciated

[It isn't too long into the Jaunt before Ryo's excited voice comes through on the network.]

BEST JAUNT EVER!

[And Hajime's far more exhausted mental voice comes in afterwards.]

This is Hajime, we, ah, did that thing where we're both infiltrating and not infiltrating, and there's some kind of space base out here with a lot of aliens bent on conquering Earth to take care of some bioweapon? I just...don't really know what's going on beyond that.

[Ryo cuts in again.]

And we're mantises! Mantis people are normal here! Not many of them, but enough to be normal! IS AMAZING!

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Oh my god this half-infiltrating thing is a fucking headache. [Among other, more traumatising things. But he's keeping those well under lock and key, filtering it into frustration instead.]

Hey, I'm, uh-- he calls himself [a sharp, dissatisfied growling noise] but everyone else just calls him Growl, I'm-- he's the captain of this squadron of Xuil, we're all cat people. Alien bullshit, apparently.

Meanwhile I've just got a headache from a job interview.

You doing okay over there?

I'd prefer to be myself, fucking frankly. My guy's on the front lines.

[Gil does not like the front lines.]

Are you Jupiter or Earth-side?

Neither, I'm on... Mars.

[There's just... a sigh. Nothing against Mars in particular, just. That Jaunt.]

[There's a brief, spitted yowl in some alien language that doesn't fully translate, but the idea is full of expletives.] Fuck's sake.

Well, I'm the one with a bung leg this time, so. At least that's different.

I'm sorry. My leg's still as shit as it's always been, but suit pants cover it just fine.

Let me know if there's anything I can do. Trying to learn this office, but there's gotta be something I can get out from files or something like that.

Don't get in any fucking ships. I don't wanna have to hurt you. My guy's got a giant meteor hammer and I really know how to use it.

I can drive a car but wouldn't have the first idea of how to use it. And I... don't like the idea of killing someone you can't see. It'd at least give them a chance to surrender. And there's something kind of... almost sneaky about it.

It's really not sneaky.

[A memory comes Casper's way: the atmosphere is tense and the display in front of him is immediately overcomplicated - but when the memory focuses on a radar, and then out the window, it's a waiting tension, looking out to see unrefined enemy mechas in the distance and expecting one to strike any minute.]

... Maybe it's the Norse influence, I don't know. It just doesn't feel right... though I'd prefer no one have to fight anyway, personally.

Too bad. My role's here for a good time, not a long time, and he's planning on taking down as many humans as he can with him.

[Said in a very tired voice.] It's war, Cas. It's been going for two years and we're convinced the humans started ut

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helborn - 2019-09-22 13:45 (UTC) - Expand

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helborn - 2019-09-22 15:08 (UTC) - Expand

You get used to it.

I'm guessing you're with the Empire? As far as my infiltration knows, we don't have enough defected pilots to make a whole squadron of catdudes.

You guys don't have Ogres either-- that's. Not me, that's the ship I'm piloting. They're this fuck-off heavy shield mechas with giant hammer chains and missiles. Which is weird, for Empire ships, normally it's like- tracker balls and shit.

[give him a moment to sift through this.] ...huh, I'm actually pretty high up the food chain.

... you have no idea how hard it is for me not to attempt to interrogate you on all the Empire mech capabilities right now. Charlize is... just a little obsessed with her work.

My speciality is Ogres, I couldn't tell you much about the others. But if I did I'd be in so much trouble with Montrev, he would throw me in the brig so fucking fast--

...son of a mother fuck Delaunay's my fucking superior.

... oh my god, really? [She's not sure if she wants to laugh or cry.] I guess that explains why I haven't seen him around if he's on the other side.

He's Her Higness's uncle, Commander of intelligence, and he is super on team Down For Murder - his lover was my old captain, got killed during Tharsis. Montrev started training me to like, make up for it, I think? I was absolutely a coping mechanism, when I look back on that.

... oh jeez, he's got another dead Rolande. Great. Amazing.

But I mean, that does make sense in its way. That he's ready to fucking salt the Earth over this. Considering how from your perspective we provoked you into war with fucking germ warfare and assassination of the princess' wife— and then he lost a Rolande and he probably hasn't had time to properly mourn—

Yeah. Understandable. Sucks for us Earthlings, but understandable.

Yeah, there's a lot of anti-Chikyuumaru sentiments on our end. My guy's being super stubborn about not even trying to consider your guys' side.

I mean, from your perspective, we committed hella war crimes on your asses. And, like, even if it was by accident or by a group of terrorists that don't represent how most Earthlings feel about the Empire... well, that's what a lying government who was trying to cover their asses would claim, right?

I mean, don't get me wrong, I really wish we could make peace. Even Charlize does. Sure, that means that the Phileon would be less important, but war isn't the only thing you can use mecha for. It's just the most profitable.

Oh man, I know you.

The other Mantoids and I make bets on whether or not you can actually tell the Mantoids apart.

Edited 2019-09-22 14:39 (UTC)

...I don't know if I should be offended or not?

You guys know you all smell different, right? [The sharp, dissatisfied growling noise] just doesn't care about your lot.

Everyone else misses a lot of subtleties in the Mantoid language because there's a pheromone thing going on with it that's not going to mean a damn thing if you're not an insect. Assumptions follow.

And we can pick up on not caring about us, hence the betting.

[Ryo pipes up afterwards.]

Zippy thinks he's nice and fluffy!

Honestly the Xuil squad all ignore you guys because the pheromones give us a headache after like, twenty minutes if we're right next to you.

But for real, my guy knows that feel. People think us purring and growling both sound the same, so they think we're super aggressive all the time.

...that's fair enough.

We can't help but get kind of twitchy at sudden movement, it's just how we're wired with the compound vision, but people think that means we're going to jump them and eat them at any second.

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