dualislogs | ya gotta wanna be a battering ram

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ya gotta wanna be a battering ram

WHO: The entire dang city.
WHAT: Dualis Days, a week-long summer celebration.
WHERE: Central Square Park and the rest of the city.
WHEN: June 17-23.
WARNINGS: Terrorist violence, likely some blood and injuries. Please warn in individual threads!

June 17; Central Square Park.

Every year for as far back as anyone can remember, the start of summer is heralded by the week-long festival known as Dualis Days. This celebration officially kicks off at midday in the middle of Central Square Park with a commencement speech by the current mayor. This year marks Marcelina Dubanowski's third term as mayor of Dualis; she is an average-sized, middle-aged human-presenting woman with blonde hair styled in a short bob and a plastic, toothy smile that never seems to turn entirely off.

"Welcome, one and all!" she begins, with the practiced cadence of someone who is quite comfortable with public speaking. She invites all citizens, new and old, to spend the next week indulging in festivities in all districts of the city and getting to know their neighbors a little better. This is a joyous time of celebration, and the crowd responds with enthusiastic applause as the mayor finishes her speech and introduces this year's parade marshall, Peshtigo Tengfei.

Tengfei blows a whistle six times to signal the start of the parade - and this is where the celebration goes sideways.

A loud explosion tears through the air, and it's followed by panicked screams and the sharp screech of microphone feedback. A bomb has gone off at the platform where the mayor was standing, collapsing the wood and tearing it to splinters and dust. Chaos erupts in the gathered crowd, and as the people shift in all directions to get clear of any possible additional bombs, a loud siren cuts through the cacophony, calling attention to the sudden crackle of video feed present on all television screens throughout the city, including those set up in the park to broadcast the mayor's speech for those standing far from the stage. The picture is plain, a black background and bold white block letters filling the screen:

WAKE UP
WAKE UP
DON'T BELIEVE THE LIES

The final image is an anatomical graphic of a human heart, displayed for about three seconds, and then the feed goes black again.

Confused murmurs sweep through the crowd as citizens resume tending to the injured and evacuating the area until official first responders arrive.

June 17-23; aftermath around the city.

Dualis Days continues as scheduled, though Mayor Dubanowski is unable to enjoy the festival, as she is spending the week in the hospital recovering from her injuries. A team of Iterations guard her door - no visitors allowed - but the news media frequently report updates on her condition. Nothing to worry about, folks! Return to your celebrations, and don't mind the increased visible presence of the Hand as Iterations are stationed every few blocks throughout the city. It's only for your protection, after all.

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Squall is still tense but he sees that gesture and understands what Hank is doing, so he forces himself to relax. He stuffs his hands in his pockets and slouches his soldiers, putting on the best surly teenager who doesn't know any better look.

The iteration pauses to watch Hank, paying him some heed by virtue of his affiliation.

"Report any official matters to headquarters. My duty is to enforce the peace." It turns back to Squall. "You have been cited once for attempted verbal disruption of the peace, Squall Leonhart. This is your final warning. It is recommended for all citizens to partake in the festival. Entrust your safety to the authorities. All is well."

Squall twitches in annoyance but nods, forcing himself to keep his head down. "I will. Sorry."

The iteration continues to bore its eyes into Squall before turning away to return to its post. Squall's scowl just deepens once its back is turned.

These guys really remind Hank of why he used to hate androids. Hank claps his hand on Squall's shoulder. "Come on. I'll show you one of the food carts that was decent."

Something that was said bothered him more than he wants to admit there. People being recommended to enjoy themselves no matter what. Hank Fuckin' Anderson, who spent the last three years in a depressed hellpit, knows all too well you can't make someone enjoy something if they damn well aren't in the mood for it. And some of these people aren't in the mood for it.

"Hey, look. I'd assume for now that anyone who knows about anything going on? Gonna stay far away from those things. But I'm not gonna bullshit you and tell you to go get some cotton candy."

He grabs the reigns of the mechanical horse to get it come along with them rather than climbing back up on it.

There's no love lost for Squall either. He's been attacked by several murder machines in his lifetime by now. It's just a bonus that this one happens to talk. He doesn't like the implications of it all. Just shut up and obey and keep his head down? That doesn't sit well at all.

He shoots another look at the Iterations to make sure they aren't paying attention to him again as he follows Hank.

"Good." Maybe Seifer was right though. They have to bide their time here if they want to make any progress. He sighs. "I'll find another way. This just means they have something to hide."

He's giving the horse a look like he wants to try touching it though.

"At least keep in mind that sometimes governments do this for more than just control. So just be careful how you approach it."

The horse clops along, and other people have already patted it, so Hank finally notices Squall looking, though. "Go ahead, it's pretty light metal for such a heavy looking animal" Animal. Even though it's not really one. But he decides then to add more to his previous explanation.

"There was a big problem ten or so years ago- actually it went on for decades, but laws were finally passed to control it -in my world with people going into churches or mosques or schools or fuckin' shopping malls and just blowing stuff up or shooting people or mowing them down with cars and then they'd leave some note saying, 'I'm showing the truth' type of shit. When it wasn't that. It was them showing their ass and doing a dick-measuring contest with the last guy that hurt a bunch of people.

"So as much as some public outrage and curiosity would be nice, might be better to do the questioning on the down low until we know, because these guys might not deserve the attention they're after. Everyone should absolutely question what goes on around them. They shouldn't act out until they have facts instead of suspicions."

Squall looks at a loss when Hank catches on to what he's thinking. He rubs at the back of his neck awkwardly before moving the few steps close to touch its 'mane'. Definitely metal but softer than he expects. He smooths his hand down along the neck of it for a moment before stepping away again. The marvel in his eyes fading when he does.

He was listening though. And the behavior is so strange that he has to take a moment.

"They killed people just because they can?" Who the hell has that much free time? Isn't war enough? He looks ahead with a deeper frown.

"I won't trust a city that kidnapped its entire population from other worlds for DNA, but I'll keep off their radar when I ask around next time." And he does intend to. Even without information, he can at least gauge what the citizens are like.

"Yeah. Some of 'em claimed it was for some other reason. Reading a bunch of shit on racial superiority or being mad at all the women that turned them down or thinking that if they didn't, their religion can't win or somethin' like that. But that's just an excuse they make to themselves. Almost all of the time you could go back in their search history and discover they'd crunched the numbers on how much they could do versus someone else who did the same."

Hank's still cynical about the whole thing. Even years later.

"Good call. On both fronts. I don't think they exactly do much of a screening process when they bring people in, either. Helpful DNA does not necessarily indicate a helpful person. Could be a top stock fit and healthy piece of shit," he grumbles, as critically as everything else he says. But he is genuinely glad to hear that there are people determined not to take things at face value. Generally, he knows most of his world went wrong because people were way too quick to write off both where each other came from, and the general problems of their entire society.

This fuckin' big head might think it's doing good but people can kill each other through willful ignorance, and a hard turn of world can end up in a lot of dead just through a well-maintained false sense of security.

"That's stupid and a dangerous way of thinking." Sure there are people who have always been on the more violent and psychotic end of things even where Squall is from but these just sound like civilians hurting people because they can.

"I'm not going to waste my time if the bombers here turn out to be idiots like that." Hurt them maybe and turn them over to the authorities. "I have friends waiting for me back home and a job to do." A job he doesn't want to do but he's kind of stopped resisting the whole idea of being a commander.

He folds his arms, gripping tight just out of frustration. "There's too much we don't know about this place."

"Well, we've not been here for ages. So I don't think you can be blamed for not knowing everything when you're not even sure where five fuckin' public toilets are and where you can buy an emergency charger when your battery is running out. But hey, if you've learned that then you've at least caught up with me."

He gives Squall a sympathetic look. He can tell the kid wants to figure stuff out and do the right thing. And he knows that he can't judge by age here. Just, in his experience, kids are usually the easiest for extremists to prey on.

"You seem pretty young for a guy with a serious sounding job." It's more an invitation to explain than a doubt. "You're kind of acting like someone that's used to watching out for trouble."

Squall blinks in confusion. Public toilets? Why is that important... Is he joking? He taps at his pocket at the mention of batteries though. Right. His phone. It'll take some getting use to having this around.

"I'm not worried about those," he says instead. It's just troubling how hard it is to find anything relevant to their enforced stay. The observation does have him eye Hank for a moment. The man seems genuine enough and he wants to get to the bottom of this too. That's enough to qualify for an ally.

"I'm the commander of Balamb Garden. A school that trains mercenaries. Everyone in the school is around my age or younger." Child soldiers. Always a joy. "We just ended a sorceress war. There's a lot to do."

Mostly a joke, because that's been the question he's fielded most from random people during the festivities so he had to make a point to know. But also an example of how little they're still acquainted with the world when they've not figured out some of the more simpler aspects yet.

"That a choice or a requirement?"

Wait, a sorceress war? What the fuck?

"No sorceress wars where I come from." He swears to fucking god if Gandolf is named anywhere in this conversation he might just go fuckin' chuck himself off a building and assume that'll wake his dumb ass up.

Squall looks confused. Choice or requirement?

"I was an orphan. It was the only place I could go. I grew up there." That and because he was stuck in a stable time loop. He tilts his head at 'no sorceresses wars'.

"You'll want it to stay that way. My girlfriend's the only sorceress left. She's not evil but the whole world's afraid of her. Most sorceresses go mad without a knight so they try to conquer the world. The one we fought was from the future... She wanted to compress time and destroy everything so she can rule what's left."

Is this better or worse than Gandalf?

"Nah we're just stuck on the whole android uprising thing." That comes out sort of distantly, knowing how fuckin' crazy he would have thought that sentence was twenty years ago.

"Yeah, a lot of teenagers end up in the military if they don't end up kicked out on the streets if they don't have anybody to take care of 'em." He's trying to drag his brain into the mindset of, sure, sure. Sorceress wars. And his girlfriend is a sorceress. And she is doing things from time?

"...If you destroy everything there's nothing fucking left. Can she not do fucking math? Two minus two means fuck you too. What the shit?" Though he does note that this kid is here without his girlfriend. Seems to be a curse to separate people from their loved ones. Like Aleifr and his wife, or him with Connor. Not that he loves Connor in that way (if he says it to himself enough, it's true). But you know. He's separated from him, and he feels it, and it fucking sucks.

"Android uprising...?" What? Aren't humans the one who programmed them? The thought of fighting a bunch of androids is equal parts horrifying and exciting though.

And, well, it's not his girlfriend who's the evil one from the future thankfully. (He sure hopes not. That'll be depressing.) So mostly he just misses her. A lot.

"I think that's what she wanted. To erase all existence. I don't know what made her this way but she hurt my friends, possessed Rinoa..." And as he learned recently, fucked up Seifer too. "We had to stop her."

"Peaceful uprising, actually. Turns out they didn't like that humanity made a whole race of thinking people just so they can avoid being kind to their workers and would have a whole exploitable class of artificial slaves. Luckily they got heard. But it took going through a whole lot of lives to get there."

He's still proud of everything his partner did, glad to be able to call that man 'partner', and for someone who used the word 'uprising' he sounds extremely fond.

"Less with the bombs and the obscure fear-provoking news broadcasts and more with the open and informative broadcasts with reasonable pleas."

"In any case, it went a little better than crazy bitches trying to destroy the world and possessing people, as you fucking do, I guess." He has to take a moment to boggle at the sky because what a story that is.

There's a pause as he listens to that, looking at Hank with some level of awe. A peaceful uprising? That's certainly a dream but he never thought he'd hear about it being possible, even with the casualties involved.

"Our worlds are very different." There's no way around it. "I was trained for war. I think fighting's all I'll ever know. Even with the sorceress dead, there's a country ready to start another. A peaceful way to end things may not be possible. Fighting with words and making someone else listen..."

Another pause and he looks uncertain. "Maybe one day we'll get there but I'll probably be really bored."

"Well, peaceful on one side. The humans were pretty big assholes, but that's no surprise. Where I'm from we fuck a lot of things up." Hank never lacks in judgement for his fellow man, at least of his universe.

"Androids basically shamed people into behaving, by being fuckin' compassionate. That probably won't last either, but as a race it's keeping them alive."

He snorts a small laugh at the comment of being bored. "Don't worry, even if there's not full scale war there's small scale assholes."

"Humans are assholes. Can't argue that." He folds his arms. So are adults actually. "I hope your world figures it out." Peace is boring but it's something to work towards.

"I can fight monsters too I guess." He can make a living hunting. If he ever manages to free himself from Garden. It's kind of weird thinking about a life beyond SeeD. Scary even. "But first we have to find a way home."

"I think the thing is pretty dead set on making sure we only have one way home. And while I'm not a huge fan of playing along, it's better than spending the whole time locked up. You can do more if you take things one curiosity at a time. I'm not saying don't look for a way, but maybe do those in baby steps." And spread out those curiosities between people.

He doesn't want to discourage him. But he doesn't want to see a guy his age thrown into a cell as an enemy of the state for asking too many questions.

"Maybe we can find out more about that disease we're supposed to be helping out with, too. I'd like to know what's taken so long to fix it when this piece of shit's capable of bringing in people from all over the galaxy, including some pretty damn good experts."

Squall nods, sighing softly. "Seifer said the same thing." Play along. Waiting. What is he supposed to do with that? He doesn't do downtime well.

"I'll try to go about this differently." It won't stop him from taking stupid risks but the advice has been absorbed at least. "People like to talk. Someone will say something useful eventually." He eyes Hank again. He's not 100% comfortable cooperating with/trusting an adult he just met, but it helps to remember the feeling is probably mutual for everyone who didn't know each other before arrival.

"We'll have to meet privately to talk about our findings when that happens."

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ya gotta wanna be a battering ram

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