[Ah. Right. He should've guessed this had something to do with all that from the very moment Foundation first came up...]
My understanding? Mostly pretty limited to what that shrimp said in his big threatening broadcast.
[He'd been, uh, busy, when the message had been actually going live. But he'd gotten the rundown.]
Something about how they're the 'ultimate coordinators', destined to shepherd humanity? Or something along those lines... [His frown deepens.] Early intel reports also mentioned rumors of mind control, but I don't know if that was ever substantiated.
[He and Yzak both got yoinked here from a point in time pretty soon after the coup was successfully dealt with. Not much of a chance for following up on leads.]
[ 'That shrimp'.............. Orphee is a lot of things in Lacus' mind right now (some of them very unflattering, some of them fearful, some of them just melancholy), but that's a new one........ ]
The bit about mind control is true.
[ She didn't have time yet to properly talk to Kira about what he experienced, but the details don't really matter when she gets the gist - and when she's felt the gravitational pull of Orphee's mind on her own. ]
And... all that Orphee claimed about my political stances is obviously untrue, but it is true that I am such an Accord. I had just not been aware of it until that point.
[ And adding quickly, due to uhhhh the context: ] I do not know how to use mind control personally, and I am not clamoring to find out.
[Honestly, Dearka has zero reason to call Orphee a shrimp; he was just trying to think of a name to call him that was just the right amount of insulting without being overly crude, and that was the first thing he came up with :/
Who cares about that guy though? Lacus is the real focus here. He blinks at her, taking in everything she just imparted. Processing. This is, after all, the first time he's gotten her side of the story on what went down.
...A while back, long before Lacus showed up here, he'd made a rather mean-spirited joke to Yzak around the claim that she might be one of the (allegedly) mind-controlling Accords. He's... Starting to feel kind of bad about making that joke now. This can't be easy for her to disclose. ]
...Damn.
[It's all he can think to say at first. He scratches the back of his head, contemplating for another moment. Mind control. In their home world? Apparently it was more likely than he thought! Hearing the initial reports was one thing, but hearing it confirmed from Lacus herself really drives the reality of it home.]
Well... Alright. I mean, I believe you; mind whammying the free will of humanity doesn't exactly mesh with the kind of philosophy you tend to preach. [He musters a smile when he says that; it's a glimpse of the normal jokey-joke Dearka, rare to see these days, trying to put her more at ease.] So what can you do instead?
[ At least somebody remembers the speech she gave during Durandal's attempt at the Destiny Plan. There was something deeply disturbing about her name being evoked for the exact opposite message and the public just... swallowing it. It's confirmation, in some way, that it doesn't matter which 'Lacus Clyne' it truly is. Whether it be Meer singing to the troops or Lacus herself in the resistance... What matters it that there is a 'Lacus Clyne' that claims to have the answers, no matter which direction. She wonders if this is how the Gods of old religions feel - so revered, yet so utterly ignored.
But all of that is her personal burden to carry, and it doesn't help them save Yzak and the others.
So let's get to the point. ]
Close your eyes. That might make it less startling.
[ And once Dearka does, he'll suddenly feel intrinsically aware of their surroundings. The terrain around them is going to feel as intuitive as mapping his own body - where the buildings are, where the individual villagers are moving... He can sense it, easily. The knowledge of it remains even as Lacus stops projecting it, but it isn't being live updated anymore. A snapshot of their surroundings in that moment.
And then Lacus' voice is in his head: ] This is what I can do.
[Dearka cocks his head slightly, curiosity mounting.]
Alright...
[He does that! He looks a little uncomfortable when he does, but that's only because they're in enemy territory as far as he's concerned, and it kind of goes against his instincts to let his guard down.
...
Spoilers: even with his eyes closed, this is still pretty startling. Startling enough that he actually opens them again very quickly, as he sucks in a surprised breath. But the briefly overlapping images are disorienting enough to force them shut again, and he holds them that after that.
Voices inside his head are nothing new, at this point: it's not terribly different from getting an audio message via the ocular. But there is still... Some kind of difference, he can't quite put her finger on. This feels like a more direct connection, if that makes any sense at all. And he can only figure that it's significant, that she's saying something in here and not aloud.
Dearka's brow furrows. He has a LOT of questions, and he's come to no conclusion about how he feels about the current situation. But first thing's first: trying to sound calm (and probably failing a little bit), he thinks as clearly as he can right back at her.]
[ It takes a moment before any kind of response comes. That is owed to the fact that Lacus can absolutely not hear him and takes a second to even realize that he might be attempting to contact her nonverbally without the help of the implant.
Her response is mostly a guess, and comes out of her mouth like normal speech should: ]
Oh! If you're trying to answer me, I can't receive it! With Kira, I was able to hear feel his thoughts as well, but... Nothing like that has happened since I came here.
[ So it's anyone's guess on whether or not it was because Kira is Kira and they're in love, or simply because her abilities are weakened in some way. ]
[Dearka opens his eyes again and actually looks a tiny bit embarrassed that he was sitting there for so long waiting for some kind of psychic answer.]
A-ah, right. Gotcha.
[His rebound is pretty quick, though.]
But, I mean, that... What was that? I don't even know what to call it, that... Heightened state of awareness. Is that just how the world looks to you all the time? And... What, you can broadcast messages into people's heads now, too?
[Sorry he's not being very sensitive about this, gurl. He's still trying to wrap his head around what he just experienced.]
[ It feels weird to talk about this one way or another, it honestly doesn't matter if he's sensitive or not... THIS IS A LITTLE FAST THOUGH. ]
Uhm... Let me try and go through this one thing at a time...
[ There is so much happening in her own body that she had no idea about until a month ago. This is like puberty but way worse and infinitely more psychic. ]
It's not all the time. I have to focus to activate it, and it works better when I am feeling tense. When I tried to do it back at the base, it was fairly unreliable - but it always worked in the simulator.
[ Yay for high stress SEED mode activation!! ]
And the messages... Yes, I believe that's about what it is. I can link up my consciousness with others and share what I am perceiving or thinking. In... In principle, it should be the same technique that the Black Knights used to manipulate Kira, but... as you can see, it can also be applied to merely share information without applying force of suggestion to somebody else.
[ But Dearka can see why she hasn't exactly broken down the door to tell them all about this. The associations are... bad. Real bad. ]
[Yeah they're not great! And there's a good chance that by the end of this conversation, Dearka might finally do a little pulse check to see how she's feeling, having to delve into all this stuff. There's even a flash of something like sympathy on his face.
For the moment though, he's pretty focused in on wrapping his head around these new abilities of hers, and figuring out how they can best make use of them in the coming days.
He exhales, calming back down a little bit.]
Right... Okay. I can definitely see how that could come in handy in the right situation, too. Especially now, when our tech keeps crapping out at inopportune times.
[He hesitates a second; there's almost certainly no reason to ask what he's going to ask next, but he has to, for his own peace of mind.]
...I'm sure you already would've said if this were the case, but... You can't use it to sense if any of the missing are nearby, can you? Or even just confirming their absence, that would be helpful too.
[There's a desperately hopeful glint in his eye, despite his better judgement.]
[ That hope hurts to see, but at least Lacus is prepared for the question. She's been trying around with this power a lot for the last few days - though it had taken her until a little after the kidnapping to remember that this was something she could do at all. ]
I don't believe they're in the village, yes. I have not yet had time to test these powers extensively, so I can't give you a perfect guarantee. There may be something I could miss, like underground caverns or something similar.
But I have been periodically taking looks around from every vantage point I could think of, and I've never found a concentration of people that could be our missing.
[ Picture Lacus climbing onto second floors and into cellars in order to run her SEED mode scan... that's been her daily life here!! ]
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no subject
My understanding? Mostly pretty limited to what that shrimp said in his big threatening broadcast.
[He'd been, uh, busy, when the message had been actually going live. But he'd gotten the rundown.]
Something about how they're the 'ultimate coordinators', destined to shepherd humanity? Or something along those lines... [His frown deepens.] Early intel reports also mentioned rumors of mind control, but I don't know if that was ever substantiated.
[He and Yzak both got yoinked here from a point in time pretty soon after the coup was successfully dealt with. Not much of a chance for following up on leads.]
no subject
The bit about mind control is true.
[ She didn't have time yet to properly talk to Kira about what he experienced, but the details don't really matter when she gets the gist - and when she's felt the gravitational pull of Orphee's mind on her own. ]
And... all that Orphee claimed about my political stances is obviously untrue, but it is true that I am such an Accord. I had just not been aware of it until that point.
[ And adding quickly, due to uhhhh the context: ] I do not know how to use mind control personally, and I am not clamoring to find out.
no subject
Who cares about that guy though? Lacus is the real focus here. He blinks at her, taking in everything she just imparted. Processing. This is, after all, the first time he's gotten her side of the story on what went down.
...A while back, long before Lacus showed up here, he'd made a rather mean-spirited joke to Yzak around the claim that she might be one of the (allegedly) mind-controlling Accords. He's... Starting to feel kind of bad about making that joke now. This can't be easy for her to disclose. ]
...Damn.
[It's all he can think to say at first. He scratches the back of his head, contemplating for another moment. Mind control. In their home world?
Apparently it was more likely than he thought!Hearing the initial reports was one thing, but hearing it confirmed from Lacus herself really drives the reality of it home.]Well... Alright. I mean, I believe you; mind whammying the free will of humanity doesn't exactly mesh with the kind of philosophy you tend to preach. [He musters a smile when he says that; it's a glimpse of the normal jokey-joke Dearka, rare to see these days, trying to put her more at ease.] So what can you do instead?
[Straight to the point.]
no subject
[ At least somebody remembers the speech she gave during Durandal's attempt at the Destiny Plan. There was something deeply disturbing about her name being evoked for the exact opposite message and the public just... swallowing it. It's confirmation, in some way, that it doesn't matter which 'Lacus Clyne' it truly is. Whether it be Meer singing to the troops or Lacus herself in the resistance... What matters it that there is a 'Lacus Clyne' that claims to have the answers, no matter which direction. She wonders if this is how the Gods of old religions feel - so revered, yet so utterly ignored.
But all of that is her personal burden to carry, and it doesn't help them save Yzak and the others.
So let's get to the point. ]
Close your eyes. That might make it less startling.
[ And once Dearka does, he'll suddenly feel intrinsically aware of their surroundings. The terrain around them is going to feel as intuitive as mapping his own body - where the buildings are, where the individual villagers are moving... He can sense it, easily. The knowledge of it remains even as Lacus stops projecting it, but it isn't being live updated anymore. A snapshot of their surroundings in that moment.
And then Lacus' voice is in his head: ] This is what I can do.
no subject
Alright...
[He does that! He looks a little uncomfortable when he does, but that's only because they're in enemy territory as far as he's concerned, and it kind of goes against his instincts to let his guard down.
...
Spoilers: even with his eyes closed, this is still pretty startling. Startling enough that he actually opens them again very quickly, as he sucks in a surprised breath. But the briefly overlapping images are disorienting enough to force them shut again, and he holds them that after that.
Voices inside his head are nothing new, at this point: it's not terribly different from getting an audio message via the ocular. But there is still... Some kind of difference, he can't quite put her finger on. This feels like a more direct connection, if that makes any sense at all. And he can only figure that it's significant, that she's saying something in here and not aloud.
Dearka's brow furrows. He has a LOT of questions, and he's come to no conclusion about how he feels about the current situation. But first thing's first: trying to sound calm (and probably failing a little bit), he thinks as clearly as he can right back at her.]
Is this a two-way connection?
no subject
Her response is mostly a guess, and comes out of her mouth like normal speech should: ]
Oh! If you're trying to answer me, I can't receive it! With Kira, I was able to hear feel his thoughts as well, but... Nothing like that has happened since I came here.
[ So it's anyone's guess on whether or not it was because Kira is Kira and they're in love, or simply because her abilities are weakened in some way. ]
Lacus! Doing fine! Doing fine!!
no subject
A-ah, right. Gotcha.
[His rebound is pretty quick, though.]
But, I mean, that... What was that? I don't even know what to call it, that... Heightened state of awareness. Is that just how the world looks to you all the time? And... What, you can broadcast messages into people's heads now, too?
[Sorry he's not being very sensitive about this, gurl. He's still trying to wrap his head around what he just experienced.]
no subject
Uhm... Let me try and go through this one thing at a time...
[ There is so much happening in her own body that she had no idea about until a month ago. This is like puberty but way worse and infinitely more psychic. ]
It's not all the time. I have to focus to activate it, and it works better when I am feeling tense. When I tried to do it back at the base, it was fairly unreliable - but it always worked in the simulator.
[ Yay for high stress SEED mode activation!! ]
And the messages... Yes, I believe that's about what it is. I can link up my consciousness with others and share what I am perceiving or thinking. In... In principle, it should be the same technique that the Black Knights used to manipulate Kira, but... as you can see, it can also be applied to merely share information without applying force of suggestion to somebody else.
[ But Dearka can see why she hasn't exactly broken down the door to tell them all about this. The associations are... bad. Real bad. ]
no subject
For the moment though, he's pretty focused in on wrapping his head around these new abilities of hers, and figuring out how they can best make use of them in the coming days.
He exhales, calming back down a little bit.]
Right... Okay. I can definitely see how that could come in handy in the right situation, too. Especially now, when our tech keeps crapping out at inopportune times.
[He hesitates a second; there's almost certainly no reason to ask what he's going to ask next, but he has to, for his own peace of mind.]
...I'm sure you already would've said if this were the case, but... You can't use it to sense if any of the missing are nearby, can you? Or even just confirming their absence, that would be helpful too.
[There's a desperately hopeful glint in his eye, despite his better judgement.]
no subject
I don't believe they're in the village, yes. I have not yet had time to test these powers extensively, so I can't give you a perfect guarantee. There may be something I could miss, like underground caverns or something similar.
But I have been periodically taking looks around from every vantage point I could think of, and I've never found a concentration of people that could be our missing.
[ Picture Lacus climbing onto second floors and into cellars in order to run her SEED mode scan... that's been her daily life here!! ]