Scene #4194: Discussions on the Silver Kingdom

Owner	Pose
Guest Madeline	Madeline had figured that Kutsuuko might not want to go deep into the heart of her Empire for a simple meeting. This left the bar and grill or some other place like it - not places she was really wanting to discuss this at - or some place that was less worrying for a guess. For Madeline, this meant that she could offer the city of Paragon as a place to meet, at a little cafe. While technically part of her empire, the pretty and orderly city was mostly run independently, and it was well-known she'd offered the regency here to a Unionite. It was the closest she came to a neutral territory. She did at least make sure to clear the place out, and put forth some measure of trust by meeting largely alone. Largely. There's probably some protection nearby, but for the moment she's set herself up at a table with the menu, and actually looks a little more concerned over the selection than any strange kingdoms. Visiting the city is important, though, as this is where the refugees come to when leaving the Silver Kingdom. The streets are clean and orderly, and it seems a little too perfect... though sharp eyes can spot a few signs that it's not all as perfect as it used to be. Paragon is still a nice place, but the population is no longer controlled through Sorcery, so there will be poor and disgruntled.
Yuri Stinson	There's a faint rush of wind (And a weird rattling of chains) and the brim of Essence that signals the arrival of a second Exalt. Yuri, who happened to be in the city anyway, trying to see if anyone was ready to revolt against the shackles that oppressed them (not enough were yet, though he had handed out some nifty Mutinous Ivory Daggers to people who wanted to kill crooked tax collectors) has decided to stop in, "Greetings. May I join you?" He asks in a detached tone, looking at the table. He abruptly has a mug of coffee from the cafe in his hands, "I will consume coffee with you and discuss matters which are relevant to our world." Without asking or waiting for permission, he sits down at one of the chairs and then lifts the mug to his mouth. He bites into it like an apple and chews, watching Madeline in particular. Weirdly, the coffee seems to stay perfectly in place where he bit it, despite the gaping hole in the side of the mug.
Kutsuuko Shiratori	Meeting up on scheduled terms, with an ostensibly trustworthy person, even if Kutsuuko has only heard of her through secondary sources, in a city as close to neutral as it gets in her territory, is something even she would feel weird about attending armed to the teeth. Sure, she'd gotten away with lugging her 'grand daiklave' around at a festival where there were public duels and a standing army, but this is a little different. Fenrir dress jacket, shoes that aren't obviously combat boots, and some local currency are a gestures towards accepting the proposal. Her hardcase set and an officer's sidearm of unfamiliar make are hopefully not preparations too far in the other direction. There's not much she can do about the bulky, red armoured bracelet though. It'd be legitimately sketchy or weirder to be wearing anything big and baggy enough to cover it up. There's also not much she can do about being weirded out by Paragon. Less its recently-sorcerous perfection, mind, so much as another big, pretty, open air city with horizontal construction and no military police in sight. Aside from the trips to investigate this same world, and one other brief visit elsewhere, she hasn't had much time to get reacclimated to the kind of urban living most people in the Multiverse take for granted. As much as she tries to hide it, she looks distinctly awkward as she arrives at the cozy little cafè building, standing a little too straight and looking around a little too much before finding where she's supposed to sit down. Spotting some dirty jerk rummaging through junk waiting for pickup had honestly been her most reassuring sign of the day. Equally visible is that moment of 'who's this asshole?' when Yuri seats himself, before him eating half a coffee mug finally pushes the weirdness into proper poker face territory, where Kutsuuko ceasing to look put off comes down to a conscious decision to not ask. "Yeah." she starts a little uncertainly, glad to be sitting across from him at least. "That's why I'm here. Less the coffee, but if I'm here I might as well. See what it's like when it isn't ground up and frozen. Y'know. While we're talking."
Guest Madeline	Coffee is a universal constant, it seems, since Pern is largely banned and thus klah is not a thing the Multiverse has ever heard of. Coffee it is instead. Madeline sips hers and tries to ignore Yuri being weird, much like trying to ignore that weird friend who tells the jokes that nobody gets. Except that's usually Madeline. "The coffee here is pretty good," she admits. "But it's also nice and quiet, so we can discuss things. I have a feeling I'll be needing to pay more attention to this matter anyway, I should probably visit this city more often. I can put my personal project on hold for a bit."
Yuri Stinson	Yuri looks over towards Kutsuuko and blinks several times, staring at her in turn, "Hello. I am The Dark Hero That Rebels Against All Tyranny, Whom Was Forged In The Fires of Subjugation And Tempered By The Hammer Of Oppression. Yuri Stinson is also acceptable. We have spoken over the radio several times, I believe." He takes another bite of the coffee and looks towards Madeline, "The coffee here is very good. Have you been importing beans from the larger Multiverse sources?" He asks her blandly.
Kutsuuko Shiratori	"No I- no, coffee isn't really on the import list for now. I mean if you're really important and kind of an asshole, sure, but we're figuring out . . ." she wobbles her hand, the one with the bulletproof glove. "More necessary stuff right now. Most people on-base are still old enough to remember when coffee was a thing and insist they can't live without, so some dark corner of hydroponics whines about having to grow it, and you get the odd smartass outside who manages to get a robusta tree going on some patch of dirt or another for extra change, so it's not ideal." Her first time hearing Yuri's full, long-ass name is an experience alright. "Right. Kutsuuko Shiratori, God Eater, First Unit Far East Branch. Nice to meet face to face." Madeline has the lion's share of her attention for the moment though, being the person who had actually called her here, and whom she has less to go on, as well as less implicit reason to believe her to be 'weird but harmless'. "That because you think someone is likely to be trying to listen in, or because it'll sound bad if you say it too loud?" Kind of an asinine question. She's the one here plying a ruler for information on how to potentially kill a rival. "I appreciate it. I'll try not to take up much of your time, but as you can tell out, I don't know a hell of a lot more about this world and my target than what I've been able to see with my own eyes."
Guest Madeline	Madeline shakes her head, "I don't believe we're importing either. I haven't asked, though. I make it a point to open up trade where it makes sense, especially with my offworld holdings needing supplies. Victory Sound is a bit of a money sink right now, but it seems to be coming around. It helps that their world is in about as bad a shape as our own." Ah yes, titles. "Hello, Shiratori. Madeline Vance, The Radiant Empress of Unwavering Rule. Empress of the Radiant Empire, and so on. You can call me Madeline or even Maddie if you like. I generally expect those who are courteous and have the respect of the factions to be less caring of titles, and... it is a mouthful." But she didn't invite either to talk titles. "It's a strange world to many," Madeline admits. "But I can try to answer questions. For me, I've been getting refugees from the Silver Kingdom now and then, here in the city. I'd have asked them to come, but they're unable to tell me anything useful... which in itself is useful. It isn't even a spell, I'd be able to break that. They just don't know."
Yuri Stinson	Yuri takes another bite of coffee and nods to both of them as he listens, "I see. I see." "I have very little information about their ruler. We did not have contact much, back when she worked for the same Masters as I." Yuri ponders, mulling it over, "I only ever saw her at the yearly Calibration ceremony or when another of our kind had Exalted." He thinks a bit, "But what information I have is that her Kingdom is completely content. There is no discontent within their borders."
Kutsuuko Shiratori	"Thanks. I'll stick to Madeline if you don't mind. The full thing is kind of clunky to say, but Maddie sounds a little too familiar." The corner of her mouth twitches at the rest though. On the positive side, she's come here with something to actually trade, but at the same time, it's not happy news to deliver. "I can answer that. You're probably overthinking it, if anything, or else she knows that everyone else would assume magic and act accordingly. I can confirm that miss fangs has been going to ground with this one; sticking with the least magical methods she can think of. A huge chunk of their infrastructure is dedicated to funnelling 'immigrants' from the places they take over to their royal 'processing center', and then going over them one by one to see how they fit in. The ones you're getting out here are the rejects; people too independent or not useful enough to want to keep. They have them drugged up the entire time so they don't remember anything, so there's nothing to pry into their head for." Elbows on the table, she winds up staring over her folded fingers, looking too darkly serious for someone her age. "The ones they keep I'm guessing aren't much better off. I don't really care what the philosophy is on whether it's better to be forced to be happy or free and potentially miserable or whatever, but it's a fact that they churn through them Aldous Huxley style and slot them out into all their little perfect places with no complaints. Doping them up is only part of it. We've retrieved some sort of artifact they're using for synthesizing stuff that seems like it's supposed to have a longer term biological effect, I'm guessing some kind of indistinguishable implant, but definitely something that people elsewhere won't pick up on, since even the regular citizens get kicked out if they stop being useful." "You get it right? The whole empire is like some junk scavenger, raiding places for parts, gleefully slotting in the new ones, replacing the ones that break, upgrading to anything fancier they find, except the parts are people and they're all happy to be there. When they go conquering, they don't really want the land or the infrastructure or the resources, they just want the people." She pauses to consider just a moment. "I guess if I want to put it a little less pleasantly, ditch the junk scavengers analogy and think of it like a living thing. Kills countries to get at the meat inside, digests the people and breaks them down into the stuff it needs to grow, regenerate or evolve, and sheds the rest over time."
Guest Madeline	"That's kind of a disturbing analogy, but one that I expect is more accurate than you think, given that this is a former Green Sun Princess," Madeline replies after a moment's thought. "I had thought it might be something mundane, rather than a spell... when magical methods failed. If one of the Green Sun Princesses had greater skill in Sorcery than I, then that would be a big problem, to say the least." She sets down her cup and nods at Yuri for emphasis. "Look at what he's become by shedding his human limitations. Is it hard to imagine someone taking a similar step, and becoming a living city like that?" She tsks, then leans back. "I'll have to get a better look. My worry here is very simple. I'm not going to make any attempt to hide that I would like the Silver Kingdom to be mine eventually, but my first priority is to my own lands and the people therein. Simply killing their ruler may... have unintended effects. These people are innocent of any act against me, so I have no reason to wish them ill. Maybe we can work out an understanding... or maybe you're seeing something more sinister than there is." She glances at Yuri. "I doubt it, though. Yuri and I have both seen the effects of a population manipulated into happiness. There is often a price."
Yuri Stinson	"Rude." Yuri says, finishing off the coffee and the mug in a last bite before dabbing his mouth with a napkin and placing his hands in his lap. He looks towards Madeline and monotones, "At least I have a wife, instead of being over eighty and still unwed." He points out. "It is difficult for me to say what manner of event may be occuring in the Silver Kingdom," Yuri then continues, looking between the two ladies at the table and considering both their words. He then says, "As it is, I am unable to presently act against her, because there is no cry of the oppressed for me to latch upon. I can only say that her kingdom is unnaturally pleasant and that it resists my concept." He picks a shard of ceramic out of his teeth with a fingernail and then pops it back into his mouth, "No improvement can come to Creation without great sacrifice." He replies to Madeline vaguely, "There will never be a perfect leader or a eutopia without something being lost in the process. What her cost is is uncertain. You may be right, Kutsuuko Shiratori and Madeline Vance."
Kutsuuko Shiratori	"You're going to have to elaborate. I've never heard of a Green Sun Princess until exactly right now." She gives a sideways glance to Yuri. Picking pieces of coffee mug out of his teeth does a wonderful job of sinking in the point that Vitriol Fanged Princess who blah blah could, or even should, probably be weird as all get out, but it's still a pretty big step to go from that to 'living city'. "Honestly, you could tell me that she turned into the water supply to get inside everyone's brains and wants to conquer more cities so more people will drink her, and I'd still have to believe you. If you think that magic isn't her strong suit, that's one thing off my list, but as far as everything else goes, it seems like I'm the only one on the contract who's taking the whole 'killing her' thing seriously, so if it comes down to it, I'm going to be the one stuck doing the fighting and dealing with whatever weird A++ double good stuff she throws at me. I might be wrong and change my mind later if it turns out to be a misunderstanding, but if I'm not and I don't, I need to know what I'm dealing with." For all the slightly bratty cynicism though, Kutsuuko immediately gets the drift of what Madeline is saying on the subject of the people she'll have to deal with, and she can't ignore that. Pod people or not, she knows perfectly well what happens when a social machine like that collapses and that many displaced people come banging at everyone's doors. Hell, half the reason she does her job is so that doesn't have to happen again. "If you've got some other way to get rid of her, I'll hear it out, obviously, unless you mean you want to work out an understanding with her, in which case I'm not seeing it as likely. She's got a pet Exalted bodyguard everyone seems to have a very high opinion of and it seems like she can spot anyone coming for her a mile away. You'd know better than I how she'd react to you instead of one of us off-world bums, but you're a household name and I'm not sure they like you." She sighs. "I guess in the end, I don't want to ruin a bunch of people's lives for nothing. I feel like this situation is a great big minefield of warning flags that she's going to work up to something crazy, and even if she isn't, all those people from the surrounding countries have a right to be protected too don't they? Picking fights, starting wars and 'processing' people who didn't ask for it seems like a good enough reason on its own. Lay it out for me."
Guest Madeline	"I didn't say she was bad at magic, just not as good as I am," Madeline points out. "I am, last I checked, the strongest Sorcerer in Creation. That doesn't mean others can't get awfully close." She drums fingers on the table. "But powerful sorcerers usually try to solve matters with sorcery. Hammers and nails as the saying goes. Most likely it's some kind of innate magic. I'll come with you to investigate and see if she can see through my own abilities." Sigh. "What Infernals do and become are... conceptual. They ARE a concept. It's hard to explain, but like... look at Yuri here. He's the concept of Rebellion. He literally cannot act on this kingdom because it has no rebellion nor WANT of rebellion. If the people were unhappy, he could draw from that. So whatever this one is doing, it's making everyone content... or she's ensuring they're content because it feeds her power. Maybe peace and contentment is her thing, I don't know."
Yuri Stinson	"Oh, she wouldn't be a match for you in a fight," Yuri says absently, looking up from taking a particularly large piece of ceramic out of his teeth and looking towards Kutsuuko, "She was strange even from her time among us brothers and sisters of the Green Sun. She never fit in among our kind for many reasons. If I recall..." He seems to think about it, tilting his head, "There were a lot of signs," He muses on the point, "Again. I was always distanced from my Brothers and Sisters anyway. This caused her to seek out my Loomed Deception frequently," He explained, "She would ask me for advice on things. Seek my counsel about what Creation needed. Inquire as to our nature, our purpose, our goals." "We were of similar goals, so we often discussed methodology." He's rambling, mostly. He doesn't so much realize that he's going off on a tangent and remembering 'The good old days of war, demon hookers, and blow', but rather his mind just sort of meanders, "My motivation, at the time, was to eliminate conflict from Creation through the destruction of all martial forces. Hers was to remove violence through the subjugation of the masses into slavery. We had similar ends, but different methods of delivery." "Her success was second to few, and she was favored by many Patrons. Alveua once crafted her a lantern that could hold... something. I forget," He scratches the back of his head, "And she often had tea with Ligier. Few were so favored as he and she shone bright in the rays of the Green Sun for her actions. But none knew her secret save me." He seems to ruminate upon it, "Perhaps because it was so aberrant for our kind. But, that is to say." He looks up, "The Vitriol Fanged Princess is a pacifist."
Yuri Stinson	Yuri then looks over, "She is correct as to my nature. I cannot act because the Princess, regardless of all else, is not considered a tyrant by a sufficient enough group of individuals to facilitate a rebellion. In her case, there are none." He looks over towards Madeline and then says vaguely, "Three Hundred and Fourty-Two." Before looking back to Kutsuuko. "I wish I could help in this matter, but I am not capable."
Kutsuuko Shiratori	"Oh." Smooth. "Sorry, I know basically jack and shit about magic except kind of how to kill things using it maybe? If she's not going to turn me into a newt then I can't say I'm upset about it though. Though, if you can pull off going incognito, I'd like to have you around. You seem serious; the kind of lady who talks to people and does math and reads maps and all that instead of pretending to be a bird." In her favour, Kutsuuko has had a fair amount of time to get used to the idea of what Yuri is, or at least claims to be. For various reasons, it's not as difficult for her to wrap her head around than most, so a more direct parallel between his bright red keyword and something of equivalence that the princess might hold similarly close to in concept is helpful. "Don't worry about it big guy. I'm not the kind of person so entitled that they get angry they aren't getting enough free help." Though she'll definitely listen to the free advice. Green Sun, Ligier, Loomed Deception: all fancy and weird words that don't mean much to her outside of their contextual cues, but the idea is simple and believable, though it does make her wonder how Yuri changed his concept from 'nobody can fight without armies' to 'give rise to armies out of those who can't fight'; questions for later. What gets her to just about spittake the coffee she's completely forgotten to actually order is that last little nugget of info. "Wait, wait, hold on. I was literally /in/ the palace. I got recruited as a mercenary to go and fight a big battle under this shiny golden guy's army. I know they're not making all that stuff up about war and conquest. They have huge armouries and hangars and . . . I mean I can vouch for the lantern but there's no /way/ she's a pacifist, or if she is, someone's screwing her and she has no idea or can't stop them."
Guest Madeline	Madeline narrows her eyes at Yuri, but lets the comment slide for now. First the marriage bit, then the comment about numbers. He's trying to get under her skin, isn't he? "Stop making me think I'll regret getting involved in this," she wags her finger at him. In the palace? "Perhaps she herself does not. But even a pacifist might swat a fly, or catch a rodent. Or, as you say, someone is deceiving her. Or she has changed... that's an interesting thing to learn. I'm not a believer in slavery as a solution to problems, so I think we'll end up at odds sooner or later. At the least I can check for sorcerous influence."
Yuri Stinson	"You are familiar with The Nathan Hall?" Yuri asks to Kutsuuko, "He, himself, a pacifist. But many fight battles for him. The principle is not foreign. How often does the Pope from your human world himself wage a Crusade?" Yuri considers this thoughtfully, "Few Kings fight their own ways. They have soldiers for that." Yuri ruminates upon this topic, "It has always been this way. She, herself, will not commit violence. She will find others to do it on her behalf." He stands up out of his chair, "A sweet voice does much to mend the wounds of war and the confidence of men who have met monsters." Yuri looks over to Madeline, "You would have become involved inevitably, more likely than not. It is not your nature to be idle," He muses, looking between the two. "I must depart, for now."
Kutsuuko Shiratori	"We haven't had a pope in twenty five years. Nobody in their right mind prays anymore." It's odd that Kutsuuko immediately snaps to reply to that first above all other things more interesting and pertinent to the topic. "I can't say I like that kind of reverse thinking, but if you're sure that's how she is, then I'll take your word for it. I'm still pretty set on getting rid of her, but I'd appreciate a first-hand second opinion from someone who knows more than me. It'd be nice to have some backup who doesn't draw huge amounts of attention too." She becomes dimly aware of the fact that she had actually brought money. "Not to mention if you can check for magic and identify what it is. I was working with a white mage from the Union but she's been kinda scarce and cagey. If we're all of the same mind on this right now-" Come on, there's got to be a more professional way of asking to trade phone numbers. "I'll drop you my burner frequency and we'll talk when you have the free time." Yeah. Like a secret agent. Now maybe she can order some dark roast black she's never heard of and nail it.