Scene #8975: Where Do You Draw The Line

Owner	Pose
Aidan Proudpick	Spire City is the meeting place. It's a beautiful city, if you don't mind the winds, the wind breaks, and aren't Petra or Eggman. Mostly populated by birds. Elevators powered by wind go up and down over streets that have multiple levels. Small airships go back and forth like taxis. The meeting place is the top of a building over looking a worker district, where people who work in the factory live. The 'Mothership' as Aidan calls it still hovers in the air in the distance, a constant blot on the sun. Aidan being Aidan, he has a couple of bottles of the local juice, and a few lentil flatbreads with an umami sort of filling. He is wearing a tunic similar to the local fare, ears too far forward, too up, tail twitching erratically. Nervous as he stares at the airship. The call was simple, if a hard one for Aidan to ask, though it implies how he holds Hibiki up as a role model. "How do we fight something without a big target on its back?"
Hibiki Tachibana	It was getting to be about the time that she checked up on Aidan and his progress again anyway, so she hardly minds hearing that he needs to talk with her about something. She can make time to go see what it's all about; better to do this sort of stuff in person than just over a call. Spire City, the capital of the Gale Empire, isn't quite where she expected to be called out to - but well, it certainly must mean that Aidan really isn't being held up as a criminal by them right now. Weird. Either way, one benefit of being a member of the Watch is that it probably won't be too difficult to make a brief stop here, even if the checkpoint from before is still in order. She doubts she's in their travel records as the person who punched her way into the Emperor's transport a couple years back. ...She hopes? Yeah, she hopes. Regardless, Hibiki eventually steps up close to Aidan on the rooftop, hands in her pockets and the hood of her jacket pulled up for once. A glance at the behemoth of an airship - definitely dwarfing all the previous ones she remembers seeing out of the Gale Empire - gets a frown out of her, but she's more focused on the question Aidan asked that brought her out here. "Are you asking about /that/ thing, or is this something else?"
Aidan Proudpick	Walking all the way across the Empire, god Aidan misses being able to fly, would be a terrible idea. "Hey, Hibiki. Me and Kale and Ishirou worked on plans." He leans back on his hands, looking up over his shoulder at her. "I think we're all sort of on the same page. The Emperor probably is taking a page from Eggman. The Gale Empire will need to be stopped." A jerk of his head at the airship. "That'll need to be destroyed." Then a turn to face forward. "But that's not enough. He'll just come up with something else. He'll just keep pushing, keep draining his city dry." This should be what makes Aidan feel that burning in his chest. But it only makes him hunch forward, shoulders up. "I'm used to breaking things when they came towards Quicknest. Then it's defense. And attacking one of the Winds, that's just easy, they puff themselves up so much." "We can't do that here. We have to fight an entire kingdom. Not just a whole place of cultists. Not a whole kingdom of robots. We gotta fight in the middle of homes. In the middle of people. We may have to fight soldiers, soldiers who're just defending their home."
Hibiki Tachibana	"If there's really no convincing Aug-- ...Emperor Gale II, I figured that'd be the case," Hibiki says on the topic of destroying the airship, glancing up at it. Of course, taking down one massive ship isn't the hardest thing in the world, no matter how big it is; so it makes sense that this is about more than that. It's all the other messier parts in between and after. Her focus shifts back to Aidan as he talks, taking in the change in his posture. A low sound comes out from her throat. "...That's what 'war' is, I guess. And that's not something I can give advice on; as far as I get the situation, the Empire'll be out of the Commonwealth and the Paladins' good books if they're not gonna listen to reason. And then I dunno what'll exactly happen. It might be stuff like that. Might be something else." There's a long pause. "The way you're talking, it sounds like you wanna do something about the Emperor himself; so he won't keep doing that pushing that's causing all of this." "Is that right?"
Aidan Proudpick	"I'll fight him. I'll put everything I got into it," A shake of the head. "Then what? The House of Nobles will still be there. And I'm not sure the Emperor even HAS a successor, so then, who takes over. Civil war," Aidan murmurs. "Even if we stop him, even if we take him down, this ain't just about stopping him from going forward." He finally turns around, grabbing one of the bottles of a fresh local fruit water, though still on the ground. He folds his legs crisscrossapplesauce. "It's about saving this entire kingdom. Keeping it up. I-" He grimaces, "WE have to make sure this kingdom stands when everything is done. I owe- No, I WANT it for Skye, I WANT it for Kale. And I want it for everyone out there," he gestures out to the city beneath them. Heat is rising up in him. That fire. But it cools again. "Hibiki, you are one of the heroes I want to be like. How do I ask people to fight? And maybe die? I should be the one dying, not them. We should be the ones fighting, not them. I want... I want to teach people how to be a hero, how to stand up for their home, but this. This is more than I ever imagined."
Hibiki Tachibana	After Aidan finishes, the first thing Hibiki does is shuffle in place, looking somewhat uncomfortable with the compliment. Not that different from when he called her a good leader. "...I'm not a hero, Aidan. Farthest thing from it. I'm not even a good role model. I dunno how to answer complicated questions like all of that. How to... teach people that stuff, or what it takes to keep a kingdom going." An arm pulls up out from her pocket, and her eyes glance down at her hand. "The only things I have are closed fists... and open palms. I can only deal with little problems... that are right in front of me. That's it." After a moment of silence, her hand slips back out of sight and she shakes her head. "So the only thing I can tell you is what I'd do. Doing something like... killing the Emperor isn't even an option on the table for me. You said you absolutely won't kill anyone, so I'll figure that /should/ go for you too. I want to talk with him and make him see sense. If he won't listen, then I'll punch his huge expensive airship as hard as I can and see if he will after it's gone." "...And then if he still won't, I'll make sure he knows that I'll be there to stop him every time after. That a lot of people will. That he's making his own worst fear - his fear of what might happen to his Empire if it's at the mercy of the Multiverse - a reality by doing what he is. That he's being a bigger enemy to the people he loves than the ones he's afraid of." Hibiki pauses. "Kale told me a little more about him. About Augustus. Gale II. I learned some important things about his background - enough to guess why he thinks making a giant ship like this is the way to go. And I also got an idea of the kind of person he was even before that, years ago; when we attacked the ship he was on, and also when we fought Zephyr. Do you remember that?" "...I'm not smart enough to handle whole empires or complicated stuff," she reiterates. "So I don't. But I can deal with the people right in front of me, and I can try to understand them. What they cherish, and how they think. Because that, through them, is the only way I can try to make sure it never actually needs to get to... deposing the Emperor, or civil war, or anything like that." "You've said a bunch of times that you'll never trust him. That you /have/ to take him down. You probably got plenty of reason to think that way. But if you want my honest answer-- ...the best way to save this kingdom is to make the man who loves it enough to go this far for it get his head on straight. Make him understand there are better ways than all of this." She gestures up at the gargantuan airship. "That's how I'd fight it. With a clenched hand to stop them, and then an open hand to pick them back up after."
Aidan Proudpick	"You ARE a hero, Hibiki. You put your life on the line for Lance. I remember that. I was so sick that I didn't want to do that myself." Aidan lifts his hands, shaking them quickly. "I didn't mean kill. Just. Dethrone. Take responsibility for his crimes." "I remember a little bit of that. The fact he wanted to invest in Quicknest," Aidan shakes his head, "That's why I think there's something there. I want to believe. For our sake, for their sake. I hated him, Hibiki. But I hated everyone here. I hated Kale, I hated the Emperor. I hated the Winds. I even wanted to punch the new East Wind's stupid block off. It was when I heard him talk. About how much he loves his people. It was like looking into a mirror." "That's... that's not enough, Hibiki. You weren't there. You didn't see an entire world eat itelf alive because of the rich squeezing people to death. I GOTTA do something. I AIN'T just wait for him to act. I've been waiting to react ever since I came to the multiverse." This he is certain up, looking up. "I'm not going to let that happen here." There is some sudden hope. "Tell me. Tell me what Kale told you. I gotta know. There HAS to be a way for him to see sense."
Hibiki Tachibana	"Lance..." Hibiki's expression grows cloudy, hard to read. Not necessarily in a bad way. Just complicated. "...is the perfect example of why I'm not a hero. I didn't help him because I thought it was the right thing to do. I helped him because I wanted to. Because I..." She trails off, her head turning to glance over the vertical cityscape. "Every time I do anything 'heroic', it's just because my sort of selfishness leans that direction. That's all." She gives a nod at Aidan's clarification. Well, he's mentioned how much he has it out for the Emperor before, so it pays to be sure. And she's silent for a while after, listening to Aidan explain his circumstances, and then ask his question. "...From the way Kale described it. He was the kind of guy to be more interested in technology and gadgets - working with them - than everything that went into ruling an empire. When he took the throne... well, he might not've been all that ready for it. That's what he told me, last time we talked." Her head tilts up towards the gargantuan ship. "So it's only natural, I guess, that the Emperor'd resort to things like this. It adds up to what I heard from him, way back when. Why he was so adamant on industrializing and bringing places like Camembert Way up to to more modern standards. He's used to dealing with obedient machines more than people who can't agree on anything. That's the way he knows how to do things. The only way he can, when he feels like it absolutely has to be done to protect his country." "Gale admitted he was too rough with Camembert Way, even if he still though it was necessary. He's not heartless. But he's definitely desperate. In his eyes, I'm sure he thinks he's entirely in the right - that this is the only way to defend the Gale Empire. Showing him why that's not true is what we have to do. It might take a few hard knocks before he'll listen, but if that's what it takes." "But I don't think it's impossible, because I know all of that about him. And I'm not saying you sit down and wait for him to act. I'm saying to /show him/ a better way, and then help make that way happen. Is that the right way, or the best way?" She pauses. "I dunno. But it's how I'd want to do things."
Aidan Proudpick	Aidan stands up finally, taking a swig from the bottle. It's a nice mix of melon juice and water for the hot days. "I don't know if that's true. I... I definitely don't like what happened on that train." Aidan stares at his drink. Something Ru Li said coming back to him as he stares at it. Neurons linking together. He is staring at his drink for a thirty seconds as he thinks, then brings the bottle up to his lips to sip. "I don't know. We are all gonna think our way is right. That's why we need the Paladins and us. Two sides of the same coin, you know?" A little smirk on his face at that thought, before he finally comes back into focus to look at Hibiki. He starts moving back and forth, rolling the bottle to swirl the juice in it, a restless twitch of his tail, pacing. "But he knows how to manipulate people. He used a human woman to speak to Petra. He offered me a knighthood-Okay, that one's easy. He knows what his job is, wants to do his job, but doesn't know how to do it right. Maybe... maybe he's not manipulative, he just doesn't understand how to connect with people. So he leads them around?" He stops in place, smoothing his hair back, "Okay." He flashes a smile, "I wanted to make Perry Talon my friend, help him be what he wants to be. Maybe I can do that to the Emperor too, right?" Aidan can almost believe it. Surely he just wants to do a good job. That's... all they might have to do, right? Just smile. Open his heart. Reach out. That should be it. Please, let that be it. "He just needs to find his way." His smile wanes slowly. "But, if I can't help him be what he wants to be, I gotta help his people be what they wanna be." He turns back towards the airship, draining the rest of the cool and sweet beverage. "I wish I was stronger, Hibiki. I wish I knew I could always be right. I don't wanna hurt anybody again. I know it ain't right to think I can do everything so people don't get hurt. I just- I just wish I could." A deep breath, then a slow exhale. "It makes me feel like I can see the top of the hole." He nods, looking at Hibiki. A smile. "Thanks. Thanks for talking to me." The sun dwindles in the sky, and Aidan moves closer, putting a hand on Hibiki's shoulder. "And thanks. Yer a good leader, and a good talker. I think I might have actually left if it wasn't for you and Kale."
Hibiki Tachibana	I don't know if that's true. I... I definitely don't like what happened on that train. "Nobody did. Me included," Hibiki agrees, recalling herself losing it in the theater car, before she frowns a little. "And even though he was responsible for all of it... I still decided to give him that chance, putting my own feelings above what everyone else wanted to happen." She breathes in, and then out. "...I'm sure I'd do it again, too. So I can't accept being thought of as some hero. For that and a lot of other reasons." She steps up to the edge of the rooftop while Aidan speaks, listening even when she's not looking at him - listening to him run through what he's seen of the Emperor, and what he wants to do. It's when he brings up strength that she speaks up again, slowly. "I always wish I could be stronger. For all my talk about understanding and connecting with people, a part of me wants to just be able to protect everything I care about and never let any of it slip through my fingers." "...But I'm really weak. And stupid, too. So I'm glad I'm able to join hands with other people to do what I can't do by myself. It's like you said with the Paladins and us. I just wish I was better at that, too." Another inhale-exhale, as she turns back to him. "Not that wishing will get anyone anywhere. The way I see it, you can remove Gale II from the throne and make him pay for his crimes-- or you can have him make amends for everything he's done by helping to make a better Gale Empire. He wants that, Kale wants that, and you want that - so it shouldn't be impossible to find a way for everyone to work together to make it a reality." "As long as you're willing to try. You just have to convince him to try, too." She once again glances off to the side at the compliment, her hand drifting beneath her jacket hood to rub at the back of her neck. "If I was good at leading, the Watch wouldn't be how it is now. ...All of this is just more of me being selfish. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I didn't try to help you pull yourself up." Still, she lets his hand rest there for a moment, so that has to count for something. And after a second, she turns to head off. "...By the way, you been keeping track? It's gonna be a month since your training started in a day or three. But you sound like you're doing a little better instead of worse, so I think you'll be okay."