thecapitol | (no subject)

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WHO| Kaidan&YOU!!
WHAT| he's alive again, good lord.
WHEN | RIGHT NOW.
WHERE | p. much anywhere (just give me headsup)

Kaidan didn't expect to get back up from his... "fight" with Shepard. But he did. His biotics are offline, head pounding and the lights effectively robbing him of his sight. It's dark now, and Kaidan has emerged from his room, moving out to the commons. The Capitol is lit up like a torch and at least his migraine has died down enough for him to take in the sight without the immediate backlash of pain.

He doesn't know if anyone else made it out like he did. He died there, in the Arena. He shouldn't be here. It's easy to assume that he wasn't the only one brought back but he shouldn't get his hopes up like that. Not now. He's had enough time to recover, now it's time to figure everything else out.

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Despite herself, Momoko still stumbles a bit when she spots another person she so recently saw die onscreen walking around the Capitol. Actually, this was the first she'd seen technically walking around the city--everyone else she'd spotted from a distance at some party or other. She debated with herself for a moment before deciding to take this chance to find out what it was like in the Games, in these new types of Games.

She plastered on a fake, shy smile and moved towards the man. What was his name? He'd lasted quite a long time, she'd seen it all the time on the screens...oh, yes. "Ah, hello? Mr. Kaidan?"

Kaidan doesn't know how to feel when so many people he's never met know his name. He was one of the finalists in the games, of course he was well known. He tries to keep a low profile, but it doesn't work. The girl across from him-- a smile and a pleasant look to her; she greets him in a way that sets Kaidan off balance, awkward and nervous. He's not used to being back from the dead yet either. "Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko. And you...?"

A lieutenant! That explained his success when she so rarely caught him actually fighting onscreen. This new information also had her smile flickering, ever so slightly. Momoko had never had what you might call an idealistic view of human nature, but setting up an arena for military men to slaughter schoolgirls was beyond even her level of cynicism.

No point in dwellling, though. "Momoko, Momoko Ryugasaki. I watched you, in the Games. You were very good," she said, the compliment as fake as her expression. She didn't actually know much about Kaidan's strategy and anyway, he didn't win, so it wasn't good enough.

"Of course you did." Everyone did. Just... watched as they died, put on bets and treated it like a game. It makes Kaidan draw himself off; folding his arms and blocking himself away. The Arena, what a joke. He was supposed to save people, not kill them. He looks at Momoka then, really looks at her and Kaidan's gotten good at reading people. He can tell that Momoka isn't taking kindly to him, despite the act she's putting on. "I wasn't very good. If I was, I would've saved more people, not made it to the final few."

Momoko let herself frown this time, genuinely confused. "But that's not how you win. You win by surviving." She titled her head thoughtfully. "You wouldn't be able to save more than one person anyway. And saving anyone is pointless, really, since nobody stays dead--" She cut herself off, flushing in embarrassment. She had to be more careful, babbling cold-heartedly about the pointlessness of protecting people probably wasn't the way to endear herself to the public.

"Ah, but I suppose you can play it however you want."

"Why would you want to win something like this? There is always a choice." Kaidan narrows his eyes, thins his lips and grinds his teeth. Killing for survival... no. He would never find that to be something acceptable. He'd let himself be killed so Shepard could survive; he'd do it again for someone else.

"What kind of question is that?" demanded Momoko, too outraged to keep up the act anymore. "'Why would you want to win'--so you don't die! So you don't have to go back! It's basic survival, animal instinct, to want to avoid death, avoid pain, to not want to be murdered in front of thousands of these psychopathic spectators--" She stopped, breathing heavily, surprised at herself.

Maybe suppressing her fear in favor of preparations hadn't been the best plan after all.

Calling the prospective sponsors she was hoping to charm psychopathic probably wasn't a very good plan either.

Kaidan takes a step in, but it's only to shield Momoka from anyone that might be watching, might be listening. His shoulders are broad enough to take it. "I get it, I do. But to help someone else who shouldn't be here, someone who shouldn't have to fight... to give them a chance to escape from the arena. That's not a bad reason to die. I'm a solider. I protect."

Momoko flinched, slightly, when he moves closer but doesn't move herself. No point in showing any more weakness. She doesn't know how to respond to his statement, she can barely comprehend his statement. "Soldiers kill," she mutters eventually, then adds. "And that's a stupid plan. Going in knowing you'll die is one thing. Going in trying to die is...ridiculous."

"Soldiers who kill like they want us to kill can't call themselves Alliance." Kaidan crosses his arms. He's built his morals up strong and sturdy. Protect and serve those who need it. That desperate sort of classic romance has never really left Kaidan, not even after so long serving humanity. "Whether you believe me is up to you, but it's the truth."

She frowns. "What alliance? In the arena? I watched the Games, your allies all died." The ones he spent so much time trying to protect, anyway. Not the most sensitive way of putting it, but Momoko has long lost track of why she came over to talk in the first place. If all his talk is sincere, than he got so close to winning through sheer luck and not he's the most fantastic liar she's met, so he's not likely to fall for her own digs for information.

Kaidan's lips thin when she mentions his failed... failed team. It hurts to remember how he was separated from them all, only to see their faces go up each night he couldn't protect them for. "Where I come from, the military is called the human Alliance. That is what I mean."

"If you're the 'human' Alliance...what are the other alliances called?" She's actually not entirely sure she wants to know the answer to that.

Kaidan pauses a bit, knowing distantly that many people here didn't know that humanity was part of the intergalactic community; that they weren't the only species to occupy Earth anymore. "We represent humanity on a galactic scale. The word you're looking for is other species, not alliances."

"Oh," says Momoko numbly. There's a part of her that wants call that statement out as a lie, but considering this is a man recently back from the dead speaking, that seems rather pointless. "That makes sense," she says instead.

"Not really, but sure, if you want to think that way." Kaidan knows it's a lot to take in. Humanity is only in their first generation of all this stuff, even in his time. Not a whole lot of people take it this well. "Even if I'm not serving right now, right here, that doesn't mean my duty has changed."

"Your duty to protect people," says Momoko slowly, turning the concept over in her head. "That's your only plan. Pick someone to help win over and over?" She glances over at the milling citizens around them, some of whom are staring much more blatantly at the pair of them, possibly wondering if they're seeing an alliance or a feud in the making.

"I'm not sure how long they'll be interested in that."

"Does it matter what they think? I won't preform for them." Kaidan crosses his arms again, narrows his dark eyes. He can't tell where this girl stands on all this. She's never been in the Arena and it shows. Things change once you're in there.

Edited 2012-05-23 19:56 (UTC)

"You're already performing for them," snaps Momoko and she has definitely lost control of this conversation. "Everything you do here or in there is for them." She doesn't know what it's like in the Arena but she knows an exploitative pageant drama when she sees it.

"If that's how you want to handle this, then yes." Kaidan shifts his weight, keeping his temper and keeping his calm as he always does. He can see that Momoka is fishtailing and he keeps his voice a low baritone to try and sooth her, at least a little.

Momoko doesn't know what is to be soothed so she's not sure what's happening here. She shrugs it off, whatever it is, and mutters, "It's the only way some people can handle it." Not everyone dragged into the arena is a trained soldier.

"I can understand that. Just try to remember that not everyone will try to kill you. Not everyone fits in here." Kaidan smiles, just a small pull of his lips. He tries not to think how she will be put in the arena, how she will have to try to succeed, to survive... It only would serve to set Kaidan off, not something he needs to do in public, or at all. Staying collected and calm... that's the key. Always is.

Momoko looks at Kaidan, trying to figure out if he's serious or not. She decides he is and raises an eyebrow. "How will that help? I'd rather assume someone is trying to hurt me and be wrong than assume they're allies when they're not." She shrugs, trying to regain some her usual poise. "The consequences of trusting a person are always far worse than the consequences of trusting no one."

There is really only one person Momoko feels comfortable trusting with her life or anything else, and she is somewhere far from the Capitol and wherever it's situated.

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