tushanshu | [Console/Video]

[Genis is feeling all out of sorts. Yes, he'd been told that this massive headache and otherwise feeling completely lethargic and terrible would be gone by tomorrow, and so he would have considered putting this out there until then, but someone had told him that he looked somewhat familiar, that there was some older girl with the same hair colour. And while there were possibly a zillion people in all the infinite worlds out there that he didn't yet know about that had elder girls with a silver-white hair, the description sounded like a shoe-in for Raine. He had to make the post.

[But Genis looks just... terrible. He's tired and just feels just empty, not to mention hungry. You'll see a 12 year old's face just looking like he could use a really really nice sleep. And as a result, he's not afraid to be cranky. Granted, he's always unafraid to be cranky, but that's his excuse at the moment.]

I really hate to gripe about this first thing, but come on. I come straight from one world where I'm hated just for being a half-elf, and now I'm in a world where I'm hated just because I'm not from around here? Greeeeeat. You know, I'm beginning to wonder if there even is a world out there where people don't discriminate against other people for completely stupid reasons.

I mean, what'd you guys even do to the kedan anyway? Did you go out and kidnap everyone's kids or something? Because if it wasn't as big as something like that, I don't know what you could have possibly done to get them to hate you so badly.

[He says this with the most deadpan delivery ever. He then just shakes his head as if just in disbelief that he's already stuck in a world worse than the one he'd just left.]

Okay, at any rate, I don't know who exactly is out there listening to this, but... hey. I'm Genis Sage. I don't suppose any of you know someone named Raine, would you? Anyway, as for me, I guess I'm just a student at the moment, though I really haven't been attending school for a while since I've been travelling around my world for the past while with my sister and my friends. Despite that, I could probably still graduate at the top of my class even without having been diligent on all my homework last year. [He says this with a remarkable amount of pride despite his general malaise of feeling empty and tired.]

Anyway, I'd say that I'm looking forward to meeting all of you soon, but right now I'm much more interested in waiting for this massive headache to go away first. Though I'm told that's supposed to go away tomorrow, so that's one thing going my way.

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So what you're saying is that the kedan don't exactly appreciate us being truly honest with them.

[Yeah, he went there.]

But okay, I get it. I'll make sure to be quiet about it when I need them to do a favour for me.

[He's not happy about it, though he can appreciate the wisdom behind it.]

[Tony likes this kid. Straight-talking, no nonsense, right down to business. Not afraid to say what he thinks. Just like Raine.

And Tony can't honestly say he disagrees with him. He can see where the kedan are coming from, but it's hard not to resent being treated like a second-class citizen for no rational reason.

Still, he has a responsibility to... help uphold the foreigner faction agenda, or whatever. And for now, that means cozying up to the kedan.]

Everybody keeps telling me I need to give this "diplomacy" thing a try, and I'm playing along, [Tony says, trying not to come off too sardonic.] Things are getting better between us and the kedan, so maybe it's working.

[What can he say? He's too smart for his own good, and he doesn't appreciate the kedan oppressing his own awesomeness.]

Diplomacy? [He sounds a little disappointed perhaps.] Well, in fairness, I guess it can work sometimes. One of the villages had a non-aggression pact with the nearby Human Ranch, so we did live rather peacefully there for a while. [Until everything was ruined. By him, no less. Oops.] Though sometimes it just ends up masking the problems and not really getting anything done.

So I hope for our sakes it actually is helping rather than making things worse.

I guess we'll find out. Luckily we've got a few other options if diplomacy doesn't work. [Speak softly, carry a big stick... and if people start acting like they've forgotten you have a big stick, give 'em a couple smacks with it, to remind them that you have it. That's how it works, right?]

...Wait. [Hold on, back it up a second - did he say "human ranch"?] "Human Ranch"?

[Why is it a human ranch? Is it a ranch for humans? What are they ranching them for? Slave labor? Food?!]

When diplomacy doesn't work, you fight, right?

[How often diplomacy has failed to work for them, it's not even funny. It's always been about knocking heads together in the end.]

Yeah, Human Ranches. The Desians would round up humans from the local towns and perform experiments on them. It looked like slave labour in some aspects, but they were really trying to harvest mana from them to evolve Exspheres.

[What the fuck?] "Harvesting mana"? And that's better than slavery? [Tony's not an expert, but that sounds way more sinister.] And everyone was okay with that? What the hell are Desians?

[Nothing Raine had ever said to Tony had indicated that she came from some kind of crazy human-farming dystopia. THIS IS DISTURBING INFORMATION.]

I never said it was better. [Ugh. Genis rolls his eyes on that.] I'm saying that, as far as everyone knew, it just looked like they were subjecting humans to slave labour. But they were really running their experiments where no one could watch. Until we started busting down the doors and investigating them. Oh, and shutting them down.

[Oh, good, they were shutting them down— wait.

Tony squints.]

Were you taking them down for harvesting mana, or for having human slaves?

[He's hoping to hear "yeah both of those things are definitely bad and not allowed," and not "human slavery is totally cool, but mana harvesting is a bit over the line."]

Because of both! Seriously, do you expect us to be monsters or something? Sheesh!

I won't forgive what the Desians did. I was always against them after seeing what they did to my friend Marble. But we literally couldn't do anything about it until after we knew what was actually going on inside!

Edited 2015-03-05 12:08 (UTC)

[...Hm. Okay. It still seems like there was a lot of sketchy stuff going on, but at least Genis was against it...? Sounds like a fucked up universe, though. Tony's glad it's not his.]

What did they do to your friend?

They made Marble do all of this work for them. I don't even know if there was a reason for it or if they just wanted to force mana out of them. But one time, I brought half of my lunch after school one day to give to Marble. They caught her over by the fence where she wasn't supposed to be, and so they started whipping her for it.

And then they turned her into a monster to attack my village after we tried to stop them.

[Whoah. Shit. That's some really intense stuff.]

Good for you, taking them down. [His expression is still a little shocked, but he sounds honestly admiring. Taking out an operation like that couldn't have been easy. That's a serious accomplishment, especially if this kid is as young as he looks.]

Yeah, those jerks had it coming to them. They deserved everything they got and more, really.

[Yeah, he doesn't take that one personally at all. Nope.]

You can say that again. That's got to be why you got grabbed by the Magical Hero Claw Machine. It's running on automatic now, but it still pulls people who know what evil looks like and how to fight it.

So... is this Magical Hero Claw Machine actually what it sounds like, or is this just you being sarcastic when talking about this spell that brings people here?

Yes, it's literally a coin-operated arcade game, [Tony says, sarcastically.] That's how we get here. Quarters and a joystick.

Ha ha, very funny.

[Console/Video] - Grade +1.00

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