thisavrou | AUDIO

how tall are you?

185 cm or 6'1''.

[Bless Tetora for basically everything.]

Edited 2017-09-02 21:57 (UTC)

[ putting pieces of metal together to make death contraptions can serve a less-murdery purpose, never let anyone convince you otherwise! ]

med-grade foam might be hard to come by, but i can figure something out.
do you need it asap?

I don't need anything medical grade, just something that my arm can rest on.

[He doesn't want to waste supplies that are useful for potential escape attempts.]

Wood is fine. I can pad it with cloth.

Thanks for this.

[He says it even before the effort is made, because the consideration means something to him. It's good that he's gotten to the point he's more welcoming of help now. It's taken a while.]

least i can do.
i have a request too, actually. nothing you have to worry about.

[ that is, nothing any of them would have to worry about getting looked into - depending on the perspective one assumes. ]

Same for me. [He'd like to see him, That is.] Tell me when you're done and we can meet.

[ as far as crutches go they're not the best-looking, but it's got everything a hobbled man needs - steady support, a rubberized end to soften the edges, a padded arm rest that makes use of a ripped up shirt, generously "provided" by their gracious host.

not one bit of it is regulation, but ask him if he gives a shit. ]

I work fast, give me my pat on the head.

[Fareeha is trying to reconcile the obvious stretch of time, but hearing a familiar voice over the TAB is immensely comforting.]

Miller. I don't mean to bother you since it sounds like you have enough going on already, but if you're available later, I'd like to catch up. Seems I'm missing a considerable amount of time.

-- and if there's anything I can do to help, don't hesitate to ask.

Fareeha?

[Because asking the obvious questions is how things go.]

Yeah. I'll let you know. There's a pool area we can meet by and talk, if you want.

[It's empty but you know. It's not like he's going swimming.]

Yes, it's me.

[Not knowing what exactly has transpired, she won't begrudge him the obvious. She figures she might be wary, too, if the tables were turned.]

Just tell me when, and I'll be there.

[It would give her time to find out where it was, anyway.]

Edited (derp) 2017-09-02 22:49 (UTC)

I'll message you as soon as I can get around properly.

[Properly, he says. This is far from proper. By the time he sends the message it's dark, and he doesn't even have his old prosthetic to walk with. He has a crutch.]

[He finds a plastic lined patio chair to sink his weight into, only thinking after he's down that he might have trouble getting back up. He's gotten too used to his prosthetics; something he should remedy. Or something he should do something permanently about.]

[At least they came in useful one last time.]

[That's how she finds him, though, staring around him in a state of faint grumpiness (a look that's easy for him to fall back into) but reclined in a lounging position nontheless.]

[Fareeha has had plenty of time by now to explore most of the surrounding buildings and grounds, has found an egg, and fashioned a sling to carry it with her, had a couple meals, started a stockpile in her room, and is on the lookout for other materials and scraps that might prove useful in the coming days or weeks or however long they're held here.

When she finally gets the message from Miller, she heads over immediately and it doesn't take her too long to find him. He definitely looks worse for wear, and she pulls over her own plastic lawnchair to settle into so she doesn't have to disturb him.]

Hey. I take it things weren't exactly as peaceful as they seem, around here?

They were exactly as peaceful as they seemed. That's what made me suspicious.

[He sits up, giving her a good once over. He can't get close to do so, but it's just a cursory glance. Age? Seems the same. Hair. No injuries. Not all that much has changed.]

Glad to have you back, Fareeha.

[Good enough a greeting. But as per usual, he's quick to inform her of what's going on. Recently he's found his footing again, his old role, and god he wishes that it actually didn't fit like a glove.] Thisavrou had no military. Nor did they have any prolonged conflicts. Almost any integration went the same way. Say, take their altercation with the Sli'arth far back in their history. They were a nomadic and hostile and aggressive species. The Savrii easily convinced them that they would share their resources.

But we both know if a warlike and aggressive species attacked a planet with infinite resources and no apparent military, how that would actually go.

The intermediaries did this to us because we had the ability to maintain our dislike and suspicions. We never "integrated".

Edited 2017-09-03 06:22 (UTC)

[Fareeha is relatively unchanged, outside of a constant look of worry given the current circumstances.]

It's good to be back. Odd, since I don't really remember being gone at all in the first place, [Odd, but not impossible.] but you're right. A nomadic and hostile species still retains a greater singular set of goals; we're literally a rag-tag jumble of varying ethics, experiences, and skills. We haven't even integrated to that tribe yet. There will always be troublemakers, but we weren't exactly geared up for success from the start.

[She rests her elbows on her knees and clasps her hands, taking in a breath and thinking about everything she can remember about her time before.]

That's what I've told other people. [He says in agreement.] We could never expect everyone to play along.

This was always what was going to happen. And they've been holding it against us.

[He sighs.]

The force field extends down through the tunnels, somehow, so we can't escape that way. But it also makes me think it might be round. I have an idea to shut it down.

[A sphere. That's definitely the Savrii covering their asses. She glances up at Miller when he mentions having an idea to shut it down; she's still not sure where she stands on attempted escape quite yet, but she will hear out the intel just in case.]

[She leans forward, dropping her tone; she wasn't sure what sort of surveillance they were under but she assumed it wasn't none..] Really? And what's that?

[It says something that he trusts her to be real and not a Savrii induced hallucination. That she's genuinely there.]

Depends on if I can get the parts made, honestly. Right now we're in the supply collecting stage.

[He's made the executive choice to keep some of their resource chains hidden from each other, though. That's just a matter of chopping up the intel collecting from others if the Savrii catch wind.]

Well, if you need help scavenging for parts, you need only ask.

[She gives him a small smile. It's good to be able to fall into old habits, with how much everything else has changed, and she appreciates the trust that Miller gives her.]

I'm sure our gracious hosts will bring you something on their next delivery if you ask nicely.

[ or they might already be doing that. considering this might be monitored, Miller. ]

[He absolutely expects it to be monitored.]

Someone offered to help make me one. He's a good kid, talented. I'd give him B+ in R&D.

[That's higher than both of them.]

I don't feel much like asking nicely, no matter what you think. [Even if Ocelot's possibly been called out, he's just going to go with the 'Ocelot's on their side' hints. Seems the best angle to take.]

What, you didn't want my help?

[ Miller, literally everyone is better than him and his E-rank ass in R&D. he's good at many things. designing and building shit is not one of them. ]

Look, I'm sure they have a good reason for all of this.

[ just keep playing the game, no matter how much it irritates you. it's a lesson he's learned well. ]

Sure they do. The one about us reflecting? Bullshit.

We're all threats to them. I don't want their damn help.

[Fake it til you make it. Luckily there's enough well practiced and genuine arguments between the two of them that a partially manufactured one has the ability to resonate with bits of truth, edges of old malice.]

I talked to them. They're not unreasonable.

Look at it from their perspective, Miller. Ever since we started showing up, people have been causing trouble.

It's no different than Comrade Stalin's purges of those unloyal to the Party back home.

[ perhaps a little hint to others on how he might actually feel about this whole situation.

just another method of control. but let them think he really believes in them. he'll bide his time like he always does. ]

So I guess that means they're going to reappropriate all of our stuff, too? The good communist way. Even the ones that were only here on the possibility of something going wrong.

[Which he can't mention enough of.]

I don't know that they didn't warn you about this beforehand.

[He trusts that he would have but Miller's old motherbase thoughts are good to rear their head here.]

What can I say? They remind me so much of the Motherland that I can't help but be endeared to them.

[ only at home, he always had the advantage. here... ]

It may come as a shock to you Miller, but even I don't always know exactly what's coming.

[ in more ways than one. ]

I guess it's a lot easier when you can make sure some people don't know what's coming.

[Can he use a partially staged argument to be petty? Yes. Maybe.]

Did they teach you "we're disappointed in you and this is for everyone's own good" speeches before they sent people to the gulag? [Asking for a friend.]

Now Miller, don't be unfair. We haven't had gulags in the Soviet Union since I was a boy.

[ just... continuing forced labor camps. but technically they weren't the same. ]

That would imply we'd even bother to talk to the guilty in the first place. If anything, maybe the Savrii are too lenient.

Lenient? They wiped out an entire facility worth of people just because they were exposed to information about their technology. You know how people like that are.

[Certain hospitals come to mind.]

They knew the risks. If you mess with things you don't understand fully, don't be surprised when something happens.

[ people always do. civilians or otherwise. just like some people had in the hospital. ]

And no one should live expecting to be meat for the grinder. They should live expecting to do good work. They took that job for that reason and they should be treated with respect for that.

[That man in the hospital had a lot of good reasons to live, dammit.]

You can't know exactly why or why not someone did anything, Miller. In the end, everyone is just doing what they have to do.

[ he's always been a practical person. and the fact of the matter was, very last person had made their choice. ]

But I did. I could see it in the remnants of their lives. What we left in case their relatives came looking.

[He remembers how much the medic had liked helping people. He remembers that he had siblings, and the life in his one visible eye in those last moments.]

It's better to treat them as though they have some value and find solutions to spare as many as you can. The Savrii are lazy, uncreative, and stagnant. They've stunted their entire society trying to exert this level of control. Some of those lives could have changed things as they were needed.

You see what you want to see. I'd think after all this time, you'd learn that you can't ever know what others are thinking, or what they really want.

[ that had been the thing with Venom, hadn't it? Ocelot had taken measures to make sure he didn't know the truth, but Miller? he'd believed what he'd wanted, despite the differences in between the two 'big boss'es.. and he continues to, thinking that he knows what's best for everyone else.

once again, here he is, going on and on about things he didn't fully understand. ]

And is that for you to decide as well? We're the outsiders here.

The only reason you don't know is you turn yourself off to it. It makes it easier for you to hurt people.

[To get your rocks off to it.]

[Ocelot, as far as he's concerned, only has one thing he understands about being a person. And honestly there's so little human about him he doesn't even deserve that. And he can say that for once without wanting Big Boss for himself.]

[It's not about the Savrii anymore and he knows it. They are outsiders. But they were never meant to be. Their "integration" never took. More numbers and resources. A greater spread of skills and access than a group of scientists could give them. Numbers and codes that could lead them to different worlds they originally couldn't find.]

You're too pig-headed to talk to. I would bet you're only alive now because someone else remembered that you were a human.

[That someone being Big Boss. Ocelot's too steeped in his zealotry to ever think of people as people.]

[ Ocelot's actually finding himself suppressing a laugh. was this still part of their mutual cover? or was Miller once again taking everything so damn personally?

the line was always blurred with him. ]

Don't try to psychoanalyze me. You're bad at it.

[ he knows how to compartmentalize things, true. but who else would be willing to do what needed to be done? he's seen what happens when you try the other way.

it only leads back to Zero and living under complete control. better to die free. ]

I'm alive because of my charming personality, Miller. You might want to take a lesson or two.

[ and hey, that's not true. he thinks of people just fine. he just expects them to do the same things he'd do if he were in their position. ]

Edited 2017-09-17 20:39 (UTC)

You're charming the way used car salesmen are charming.

[It has become more relevant. Because he's talked with Lavellan and learned what he's been through. Because he was handed a dogtag in a dream from someone he lost. Because he'll never see sacrifices as something to be taken, but something to be given as a gift of trust.]

[A trust he had betrayed.]

[Yeah, it's a little personal. That's why he doesn't add more to it.]

Edited 2017-09-17 20:42 (UTC)

Our mutual friends would say otherwise.

[ the fact of the matter was that sure, Ocelot did have what some people might call "skewed priorities". but at the end of the day, he deeply respects Venom, not only for what he did on the helicopter, but also for his reaction after the fact, even when he discovered the truth.

but then again, he also saw who the real enemy was. the same person that Miller had brought to their doorstep and started this whole damn mess in the first place.

but will Ocelot ever feel guilty for anything he's done? why should he? ]

[Because a decent human being would feel bad for destroying someone's life. For all that Kaz isn't always a decent human being, he does feel that regret intensely.]

Just because someone is your friend doesn't mean that you have to agree with their unfortunate life choices all the time.

[ well... it wasn't as though he had any choice in the matter, now was it? Zero isn't exactly the sort of man that you refuse. there are plenty of things he's done in his life of his own volition that others could blame him for.

in this... he was just another puppet. but he's hardly going to admit that to someone like Miller. ]

Oh, look at that. There's something we actually agree on.

[ he still thinks John is a little too forgiving for his own good. but his friendship with Miller is his prerogative. as is Venom's. he's not either of their keepers. ]

For once a predictable response.
I'm actually surprised you didn't come up with a more original comeback.

[To be honest, Kaz is also too forgiving for his own good in this case. But he's at least learned peace is in all of their best interest. Hence why, despite saying what he's said (and feeling the justified anger that he feels) he's holding his tongue on half the things he's thinking.]

[Some of those soldiers in that nation will be the ones he cultivated and cared for. And like hell will he watch them go up in a puff of nuclear smoke.]

Well, aren't you impressive? Too bad you couldn't use that clairvoyance all those years ago when it mattered.

[ sure his comment was a little petty (really petty), but sometimes that was Ocelot's way.

in the end, it would be Zero's responsibility if those men died, wouldn't it? they were the ones fighting against the world of complete control he was trying to create. and, if what they said about the future was true, Miller would just go right along with his plan because someone hurt his feelings, despite all of it being his fault in the first place. sure, he has Venom's guarantee that won't happen, but Ocelot isn't the best when it comes to trust. ]

I should have predicted that one, too.

[Petty, yes. But one that Kaz has already considered, his heart has already scarred to a point and he's already told enough people his shame that he can't even have it be some horrible revelation.]

[Congratulations. Finally. Finally, Kazuhira Miller has gotten so tired of a petty insult that it's become the equivalent of "Well your face is ugly." Though considering the source the bland insult would be "But at least I'm not a bottle blond.]

I was told to look to the future and I'm choosing to do so. [He even has the half thought of "putting a ring on it" but it's just an idle, bigger than a world-changing business fantasy at this point.] But my past mistakes tell me that these are bad people to deal with.

[ of course, he'll keep bringing it up until Miller gets. it. ]

Depends on which future you mean. As long as you've learned form your mistakes and don't head down that same path. You know where that leads.

[ the fact of the matter was, John was dead if things didn't change. for whatever else, Miller goes right back to working for Cipher, and trains David to kill John. and while he might say that John had wanted to die in the end, what had helped contribute to that mental state?

but again, this really wasn't supposed to be about any of this. it was a show for the Savrii. to make them think he was on-side. ]

Can you stop with that please.

It gets old.

[If he knew that Ocelot would blame Kaz for John's mental state, he'd be especially livid. Because Ocelot is the worst person for anyone's mental state he's ever goddamn known (especially his own, and he's still furious that he has to deal with it when he was doing so much better without it). He can strip a man of his desire to live for himself or make choices. He can make brave men suffer for the entirety of their lives for goals that could have actually been met through transparency. And sometimes Kaz wonders how that, for a very enjoyable instant, he found himself thinking of the man as a human being rather than a force of mental turmoil. Where it came from, well... He's forgotten now.]

[But yeah, it's a show for the Savrii. So he'll have to deviate it.] And don't you threaten me in regards to them, either. Remember, here? You're outnumbered.

Like I said, you have nothing to worry about here. But you are right about one thing: this conversation is getting old.

[ though, on Ocelot's end, it was certainly a different feeling altogether. in the long run, he really hadn't cared that much about Miller one way or another, or his anger. but, finding out what happened to John had changed that, and while he at least thinks that he tries to be civil...

well. can you blame a man for being petty or angry?

regardless, he's done for the time being. it was a good show for the Savrii, if nothing else.

(not that it mattered in the long run) ]

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