pc w/ dahut

[applebough]

as said by the great andie:

📣 NO OODOOD IN THE BLOOLOOL

Comments

[applebough]

[ Why indeed. Poor Dahut. Yuri witnesses the memory and for a moment, she's quiet. She recalls Dahut's decommission notice too. She feels that she understands why Dahut would want to wait to bring back his mother. The woman feels... familiar for some reason despite having never met. The complicated relationship between him and Scien makes her curious too. She would definitely agree that Scien is the exact opposite of anything motherly and nurturing, but the hair color...

...

They're still in the void, waiting to play the new one. Not yet. ]

... Dahut?

[artificialsweetener]

Aha... [WELL. As far as things go, that could have been worse, considering it's just him talking about how he fusses over Scien like a mother would their son, and his plans for his own mother, which weren't a secret even back home.

There's the faintest little trill of soft nostalgia in his emotional spread, though, as there almost always is when he thinks of his mother.]

Sorry about that. These rifts are so terrible and fussy...

[applebough]

Did you experience these in the Helly Belly as well?

[ That must have been rough. The emotions that she feels from Dahut are nice... ]

And... did you ever get further on your research to revive your mother?

[artificialsweetener]

We did! Isn't that the most annoying thing? Dead, just memories in a machine, and still subjected to these weekly bits of nonsense...

[A DRAMATIC SIGH, though the very mildly miffed vibe behind that quickly gives way to softer and kinder feelings at Yuri's question.]

I was able to get further, fortunately... Thank you very much for asking! So many people have been so sweet. I know that it would make my mother happy to hear!

[applebough]

[ Even the dead don't get a break... ]

You've been working hard for her sake all this time...

[ She tilts her head a little. ]

You and Scien were enemies?

[artificialsweetener]

[No rest for the weary or the rats...

At the question, he looks faintly exasperated, but in a way that's more lightly amused than anything.]

Aha... Well! We do head very different teams at the end of the day - or we did, rather! All that's in the past now. But! Mademoiselle Ceres was referring to the silly little play-acting we had to do in front of our subordinates every time we were together in public. We'd behave as enemies to keep their itch to fight relatively satisfied, you see.

[applebough]

Ah... the social politics in the research facility is rough, isn't it?

[ To even having to pretend to do all that... Yuri feels herself being tired so quickly. ]

[artificialsweetener]

[She is so valid... His least favorite part of the job by far. POLITICS!! WHAT FOR!]

They were! Fortunately, this and that happened so they've been pretty smoothed over now. Monsieur Scien rendered my team's work more or less useless, but it's the best outcome for us and for everyone else, so it all works out.

[applebough]

[ .............................. ]

Did you... not lose anything from it?

[ Hello??? ]

[artificialsweetener]

[Oh yeah, that does sound kind of dire, huh. HE JUST LAUGHS and waves a hand.]

Not at all! When I say he rendered our work useless, I mean he finally gave up on fighting against the importance of emotions and fixed the memory bank problems himself.

[applebough]

[ Dahut?? Please. ]

I... I see.

[ Wow. ]

After that, did you merge?

[artificialsweetener]

It's a fairly recent development, but that's the likely follow-up, yes! No more Team Zero and Team One, just the Institute. We'll finally be able to get some progress done on the rest of our problems...

[Like the wholeass curse which is just still out there, cursing.]

[applebough]

I hope that didn't impede your progress too much...

[ MVP to whoever persuaded Scien that emotions were important. God.

The void starts playing this memory up to 1:11:54. Enjoy............ ]

[artificialsweetener]

[He's about to say something but then he gets MEMORY WHOPPED and he's just left sitting there like :man_standing: thinking about how much of an absolute wholesale asshole that GUY WAS??? HELLO!!!! There's a little spike of reflexive anger as he starts to shake himself out of the memory. Smug assholes escaping unharmed truly make him want to start throwing rocks.

But he turns to Yuri soon after and - though he knows that Gregor and the others are apparently used to dying and coming back and dying and coming back, there's a certain weight to being handed the only gas mask in a situation like that.]

...You survived that, right?

[So many people are dead in this bar that he can't be sure!!]

[applebough]

... Yes.

[ Yuri smiles, but it falters quickly. ]

The only time when I experienced dying was when I was a phoenix, and everybody had seen that, but... I will die if I ever choose to return to The City. Gregor is from a further point in time than I am, and I witnessed his memory of me dying the moment that I got pulled here from.

[artificialsweetener]

[WELL. He was glad to hear that first part, at least!! Even if it's immediately negated by the everything else that follows, he hates it here so damn bad. Though it retroactively shines a light on some of the things he'd heard from Gregor all those weeks ago.]

...Then - if you have the choice, you won't be returning, right?

[applebough]

Yes.

[ At that, she smiles a little again. ]

No matter how this ends up, I will not be returning to The City no matter what. I have no feelings in wanting to return to that place ever again, so... it will be fine.

[artificialsweetener]

[Thank god! There's a little softness to his smile as it returns to his face, too, and he nods.]

Wonderful, then! To be honest, what I've heard of The City from Mademoiselle Rodeo and Monsieur Gregor sounds less than ideal, anyway... I want you to be able to have a bountiful future full of happiness.

[And that place does not seem conducive to achieving that result...]

[applebough]

I understand why the Rodya and Gregor are returning, but I don't have anything that ties me to that place, so I won't be returning. It's... a rough place. Even if I were to somehow survive that monster encounter, I would go back to being treated as an outcast with hard difficulty in making ends meet where...

[ um. ]

... risking my life for a promotion is apparently a bad thing?

[artificialsweetener]

Right, I remember hearing that you had it pretty rough there... Well! No sore loss, then! You'll just be saying goodbye to a place that didn't do anything for you, anyway.

[And avoiding a horrible monster-related death on top of that, too!

Anyway he's the last person to judge anyone for risking their life for a promotion, however:] It's generally frowned upon, yes.

[applebough]

[ They continue to have things in common... ]

Does that mean you think differently about it?

[ Tell her more about that, Dahut. ]

[artificialsweetener]

[:handshake: unfortunately...]

Well! I think that in most cases, for most jobs, there isn't much of a reason to put that much of yourself into your work... Like, if you're a baker or a teacher, it'd just be silly! But if you have a high-risk, high-reward job, then I think fatalities can just be part of it, you know? [...] But I don't think risking your life for a company just because they tell you to is very good. By "high-risk, high-reward", I'm thinking more along the lines of "your job will help save thousands of people".

[applebough]

But you risk your life in that last scenario because people will want to stop you?

[ She remembers something about people being targeted... ]

[artificialsweetener]

Well, in my specific case, it's more that the field of science is volatile in general... Some people aren't happy about the progress, too.

[It's them fuckin royals all my homies hate the royals.]

[applebough]

Oh...

[ There's a look of understanding in Yuri's eye. ]

It's the clash of humanity values, isn't it...