nysalogs | ain't seen the light since we started this band ( open )

[ It's bizarre, how quickly they swerved from one trajectory to another. Jim had felt the argument hovering between them like a tangible thing-- not surprising, given that they're strangers, ultimately, no matter that they had a fun night together. But that strange space where they were both clearly debating whether or not to back up off the thin ice or not had vanished in favor of: this.

Something about it bugged her. Badly.

Huh.

Well, Jim's at Dutch's place now, knocking on the door and leaning against the frame, watching the street behind him as he waits. When she opens it, she'll be greeted by a familiar face and a friendly smile, though bright eyes are dimmed slightly by the fact that someone got in a good whack to his face at some point recently. ]

Hey.

[ he's right: something about it bugs her, badly. the idea that there are beings stripped of their free will, turned into weapons or at least tools of violence and destruction -- it hits a little too close to home. she can tell herself that she wants to help because it's what johnny would do, but that doesn't explain away the anger burning inside her chest. this'll be an outlet for it, maybe.

she hopes it will be.

jim's at her door and dutch opens, taking in the bruise on his face and grinning a grin that stretches the cuts and bruises on her own. there's a bandage peaking out from underneath her shirt, too, but none of her injuries are going to slow her down unless she lets them, and she has no intention of letting them. of course not. ]

Hey yourself.

[ she's dressed in heavy leather, knives tucked away at strategic spots (the boots, at her belt, one in her hair) and a gun strapped to her thigh. bigger than a phaser; meaner-looking, too. ]

Let's go kick some arse.

[ What a pair they make already, he thinks, taking in her banged-up face; it's not any misplaced chivalry that made him ask repeatedly about seeking medical attention. He'd ask anyone who admitted to having done what she did, and he's used to being the boss, after all. (Or mom, whatever. Go to sickbay. Don't touch that. Put that back. Stop swearing in front of the ambassadors.) ]

I don't know how much arse is left to be kicked, [ pushing away from the door. ] But it can't hurt to go take a look. Make sure people are actually doing what they said they'd be up to.

[ And not either ignoring it or making it worse, somehow. Jim's in what he's usually in, jeans and his jacket, phaser stuck inside the back of his pants. With a setting toggle it can cut through lesser spaceship bulkheads, so, you know. No need for gun envy. ]

How much of what was going on did you catch, after the fights?

[ you're not her real mom, jim!! (which is a good thing because her real mom is-- well, it's complicated.) ]

There's always some arse that needs kicking.

[ he pushes away from the door, dutch follows. her movements are smooth despite the injuries. ] Not that much. Care to fill a girl in?

People started wanting to do blood sacrifices, and stopped being satisfied with their own blood. They wanted Olympian blood, specifically, but were happy to push anyone who objected into the fire just for spite's sake. Shaman from up on the mountain were handing out 'dragon blood' that were making people nuts, and also doing-- what we're going to go check out.

[ It's been .. A Week. Jim's exasperated with all of it.

Oh, and: ] Coincidentally, Olympia lost its shit at the same time with rioting and their hospital barricading its doors and refusing to aid anyone. Someone or something was riling people up with.. weird, rage-inducing fog.

[ dutch makes a face at 'blood sacrifices' because she never got that until the hullen, but now watching someone bleed is more of a comfort than she ever would have thought possible. it means they're human. it means they're still themselves. ]

People are shit sometimes.

[ a lot of times, if you ask her. it took johnny to make her see that sometimes, they're amazing, too. ]

People do things because they're motivated to do them. Be it cultural or something else like-- profit, I understand that's still a big thing here.

[ People are shit sometimes goes over Jim's head as a flippant criticism of the situation, and not an actual judgement. Because people have invented medical care and most of them have empathy and he's seen so many incredible things.

Even here. Sort of. ... Alright, he's struggling a bit with here. ]

The dragon's blood being passed out here seems to have had a similar effect of 'mist' that appeared without an as-yet-identified source in Olympia, causing uncontrollable aggression. There's no way that's a coincidence.

They hate each other. They're not going to coordinate.

[ unless there's some third party involved, interested more in stirring shit than subject to old resentments. using those old resentments.

dutch hates shit like this. ]

Profit's not a big thing where you're from?

[ Jim just glances at her, about coordination. Because hate can be a hell of a motivator – but he's discovered over the years that there are plenty of things that overrule it, even when the odds are so, so against it. He's seen Romulans and the Federation sit down and talk, he's worked with one faction of Klingons against the other, he's seen Romulans and Vulcans work together.

Shit that just sounds like gibberish to anyone else, he's sure. So, moving on - ]

Nope. [ A lopsided smile. ] We don't use money or any kind of currency. There's still industry, import-export, service work, but Earth has been fully socialist for over a hundred years. It's one of the requirements for admission into the Federation, even.

Must be nice.

[ where dutch is from, joy (which is their currency) matters a great deal. the more you have, the more power you have. with the entire quad owned by the company, which in turn is owned by the nine, well. the quad isn't even a democracy, much less socialist. ]

It is.

[ The Federation is great!!! >:T ]

Don't get me wrong, it's not some mindless utopia. People still can end up with shitty lives, or have bad things happen to them. Humanity had to survive a war that brought the planet to the brink of extinction, the stretch of post-atomic horror, practically re-evolving from nothing. The only reason we managed to make contact with anyone off planet is people were so desperate to leave.

It takes constant, dedicated hard work to keep it what it is, but.. [ he shrugs. It's worth it. ]

[ her tone might have been sarcastic, but the thing is - it does sound nice. the quad is, well. it's the quad. it's on the brink of civil war, there's an actual war with the hullen happening... it's nothing like what he's describing.

what he's describing sounds unlike anything dutch has ever known. ]

Place I'm from? I guess it's still in the "brink of extinction" phase of things. [ okay, things aren't quite that bad yet, but - if they don't win this war against the hullen, it's goodbye humanity. ]

[ To be fair, it's unlike anything most people have known, even in the universe Jim's from. The Klingon and Romulan Empires, the worlds beyond, the Dark Market - they all operate with money, they all operate with fascism, or capitalism, or vicious tribalism. (He thinks of Eurydice giving him shit over being on a ship called Enterprise but not dealing in money. Dutch reminds him of Eurydice, a little bit.) ]

The only place to go from the end is to start again, [ he says, though his tone of voice isn't exactly optimistic. More like-- stubborn, determined. Because Jim isn't a blind optimist, he's just the most bullheaded incidental genius there ever was. ]

You're much more put together than any post-atomic horror blight I've heard of, though.

[ :) ??? ]

War's only just starting.

[ and isn't that the truth? aneela and her ships are in orbit and everything is going to shit. dutch just needs to kill aneela to end this war -- but killing aneela will end her, too. it's hullen 101. either way, dutch is going to die. was going to die, except now she's here.

she's not sure how she feels about this new lease on life, but she's not thinking about it very hard, either. ]

Peace could be so easy.

[ People just have to let it.

And, welp.

Case in point: this fucking mess. Getting up to the Altar of Vwhatever is a bit of a hike, but Jim doesn't find it too taxing. It's getting dark by the time they arrive, torches and lamps lit up, anxious activity milling around outside the entrance. ]

You don't know shit.

[ how can peace be easy when aneela is insane and intent on killing them all or turning them into mindless parts of a hivemind?

but they're at the altar soon enough and dutch forces the surge of anger she feels down to look around instead, taking everything in. ]

[ He doesn't argue, but not because he's offended or particularly shut up about it-- he didn't mean it in any other way but the plain mechanic of it. Sometimes, he's noticed, jaded people become defensive about their shitty situations, as if the lack of solution is a personal failure, and not just the way the universe has dealt a hand.

(Like he used to.)

Jim doesn't look offended. He just looks back at her, as if waiting for her to go on, maybe get something out of her system, but that's all.

And then the moment passes, and there's work to do. ]

[ in dutch's case, she's pretty sure it is personal failure. the hullen would have taken over the quad without her involvement, sure, but -- aneela never would have come if not for dutch. khlyen never would have died. johnny and d'avin and pree and alvis never would have joined a war.

but she won't linger on that. instead, she'll look around for any trouble, for any creatures, for anything. ]

Which way? [ she asks, after a moment. ]

ain't seen the light since we started this band ( open )

for dutch

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