(closed)

[sololoquy]

CHARACTERS: Kylo Ren (sololoquy) and Aloy (datapoint)
DATE: Sometime during the Crashing Wave campaign
WARNINGS: None
SUMMARY: Kylo Ren and Aloy just conned two dudes out of marriage pearls

[He had only gotten a brief glance at the pearls before the divers had handed them over. It hadn't taken much -- a simple mind trick he'd done one hundred times over, and they were practically tripping over themselves to share their bounty, no payment necessary.

Kylo Ren waits until they are some distance away from the divers before opening the ornamental box and peeling back the silken cloth to get a better look at them.]

Hm. These are quite large.

[He sounds almost pleased with himself, tipping the box just enough to show Aloy.]

I must commend you, Aloy. [He even remembers her name.] You are very perceptive. I believe this will be the key to finishing this mission properly.

Comments

[datapoint]

[Aloy stretches up to get a look at the pearls, nodding -- they are pretty large, though she has no real frame of reference. It's not like pearls are a common sight in post-apocalyptic Colorado.]

That's why they gave me the patch that says "inventor," [she says dryly, though it'd be a more effective joke if they were actually wearing their uniforms. Oh, well. The point is, there was some reason Hathaway thought she fit the smart bill.]

It's a good thing you're so persuasive, though! I wouldn't have been able to afford one of these, let alone two.

[sololoquy]

One of the few perks to being a politician.

[That was a generous title for what he was -- in truth, hardly at all applicable to his job. But "enforcer" is much more intimidating, and wouldn't quite translate to what he'd managed with the two pearl divers.]

We are fortunate that they desire peace as well. I gather that there is much impatience surrounding this dispute.

[He covers the pearls again and tucks the box under his arm.]

Now we just need to find a proper alliance to be made. Influential enough to sway some of the more stubborn members of each clan.

[datapoint]

[She nods again, considering what it would actually take to form an alliance. A couple of pearls are just a drop in the bucket in the face of two countries on the brink of outright civil war.]

Things would be a whole lot easier if there was a clear enemy. Both sides are victims of circumstance.

[sololoquy]

The enemy is greed.

[He's very familiar with it. Power was the one of the more seductive vices in his galaxy -- it doesn't surprise him at all that the Mountain Clan is collectively losing their minds over the Sea Clan's presence.]

The only way to counteract it would be a demonstration of greater power. Something I am not certain Empress Nama is currently capable of.

[datapoint]

[Fighting an ideology has got to be more complicated than that, she thinks. Displays of strength don't solve every problem, just like violence isn't always the solution.]

Well... if they could all have what they wanted, there wouldn't be any need for greed.

[sololoquy]

Perhaps. But if what they want is to be greater than their adversary, they will forever be at odds with one another.

[Which is bleak, but that about sums up everything he's seen in the past few years.]

We are fortunate that both of these nations lack technology, in this case.

[datapoint]

[When he says 'lack technology,' Aloy is certain he means like the things she's seen at Headquarters -- the technology of the Old Ones, gigantic metal ships that go into space and weapons like that of machines. She agrees, of course; even if the empresses don't officially declare war, their people are pretty vicious about each other, something that would be even worse if they had Deathbringers or whatever else.

Still, she feels some kind of need to defend people with the same sort of technological advancement that her own world has.]

You can still sow a lot of destruction with a cudgel and a lot of anger.

[sololoquy]

Indeed. But it will be slower, and more easy to control with a formidable military.

[He still has trouble seeing an end to this without Hathaway's intervention. But he isn't quite certain where Aloy or anyone else stands on that given ALASTAIR's history, so he keeps that little bit to himself.]

I must confess, I lack some experience in societies like this one.

[datapoint]

[She kind of got that -- he seems a little stiff, both in his posture and in his opinions -- but she's not sure what precisely he's referring to, so she ventures,]

Which part? It seems like women rulers are strange to a lot of people in our guild. [An opinion she disapproves of, herself. She thought the Carja women were an anomaly, but maybe not.]