forgivetheinsubordination | IC Contact

The neraki will if we stay much longer. They're not blind to patterns. They've just lacked ample time to observe.

[ Because they were much faster on the aggressive uptake then they were on pulling back to watch. It was... a curiosity, and an understandable reaction.

As is what Garrus says now. There was doubt because I wanted there to be doubt. She knows people like that - more than her fair share, perhaps. I believed because I wanted to believe. There was doubt because I wanted there to be doubt.

Things might be better.

Ah... but they weren't. Annie holds up her flowercrown, no artistic masterpiece, but serviceable. She holds it up to see the grey, cloudy skies above framed by its lopsided oval in her hands. Things might be better... but they aren't. ]

... So shitty.

[ Her flower crown, the situation they're in, where they're headed - probably all of it. ]

[Garrus shakes his head.]

They might observe patterns, but they don't know tech. They can't expect that there's some our lives are dependent on, I don't think. It's not a part of their world. It'll take people who have saved lives with tech to grasp it, people who rely on it for some of their needs.

[If it's not a part of their lives, why would they think it was crucial to someone else? Otherwise it would be just like a treasured spear. A trinket.]

Gotta have context to make assumptions. The neraki aren't gonna clue in. ...But that doesn't make any of this less shitty.

You'd never want to take trinkets off your enemies?

[ That's what she means. Understanding what the cuffs do might never be coming, but taking them first as spoils, seeing what happens when they're gone... that's what she can see being pieced together.

Especially when the Neraki make their own tokens to wear. It's a precedent she keeps in mind. ]

No.

[He's killed a lot. He's never been tempted to take a trophy.]

And generally, when someone takes something, the person they're taking from is already dead. Maybe you've seen people act differently. But most of what I've seen... Hell, all of what I've seen, is that things get taken when the fight's done. Which means if the neraki take a cuff as a token, it'll be after the damage is caused. They won't get a no cuff equals death correlation.

And you presume the next place we're asked to annihilate will have individuals of enough technological level to understand? Or simply those more devious?

[ She finds the logic flawed. Then again, she supposes she would. Her own world and her experiences are much less broad than what Garrus has run into over the years. ]

Pattern seems to be that you get more advanced as missions go on. I could be wrong. But I'd bet on them at least having the wheel, possibly electricity. Which means they'd get the fact that some pieces are needed to make other things work.

[Educated guesses don't always pan out, here, and he's only got two worlds to go by. But Garrus is at least rather certain they won't be dealing with someone of a lower development level of the neraki.]

You got a better guess at what's to come?

No.

[ She examines her shitty flower crown. She has no idea that days later, amidst a snowstorm, she will have a much more beautifully crafted one crushed and thrown at her chest, courtesy of Eren.

That all this will be cut short, and there is nothing but moving forward and carrying on. ]

Just no desire to think that we're untouchable... regardless of who has or has not invented a wheel before meeting us.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think we're untouchable. At all.

[He watches her look at what she's made. His is even more shoddily constructed, unfortunately. Ino made him one, once, and he's kept it. He hadn't thought to ask if there were any tricks to it.]

We were talking about them knowing the cuffs meant something to our survival, specifically. Think they're more likely to figure that throats are vulnerable places first, unless they've got some notion of tech being central to their society.

Mm, not for survival, but it's more... people aiming for tokens as a way of cutting out the heart of a symbol. That sort of thing instead of an understanding of technology.

[ She still shrugs, letting her crown settle in her lap. ]

Breaking that takes less knowledge than making. Kind of like the situation here.

Mm.

[That... That bears more thought. As a token, yes, the cuffs stood out. People wouldn't have to know it was a lifeline.]

Might still be on the safer side of that. Trophy hunters want unique trophies. I think. But anyone who wants to take down the CDC, yeah. They'll go after the cuffs because that's what they stand for. Wonder if there's some way to cover them up.

[ It's where Annie operates out of, because it's more intuitive to her. The technology isn't... and it's why she does believe that enough time with the Neraki will highlight this, if their efforts in currying favor don't pay off.

Trophy hunters, as such, are outside her purview. ]

We may want to find a means. That, or equal decoration.

[ Said while holding up her unencumbered wrist. ]

Green might have it easier with their... whatever it's called activated. Different uniforms cover the wrist, but unless we all stick to using the blackglass for cuff functions, it's still something we'll be showing off during active duty. If it's not until that point, it's not a problem...

[ She glances out toward the water. ]

Here, they didn't touch the cuffs with the recruits they kept in the villages, did they?

[ So perhaps less of a danger, as long as they hold the present line. ]

Juggernaut. And as far as I know, they didn't.

[His voice is a little distant as he answers, gaze on the horizon. Equal decoration would lessen the chance of enemies grabbing the real cuff, but it would still stand out.]

Wonder if we can get some sort of... cloaking upgrade, just for the cuffs. Because there are cloaking devices, but they're for the full person. Know someone who can sew, too. Maybe a combo of the two. Don't really know what would work.

[He's built some things in his time, but nothing like a cloaking device or camo circuit.]

Cloaking?

[ He has her attention again: she doesn't recognise the term. ]

What do you mean by that?

Uh.

[That's one of the things Garrus doesn't tend to keep on him, though he touches an armor compartment anyway as if the device he'd bought would materialize.]

If we walk back to my rover I can grab the one I own, show you, or I could attempt to explain. Just won't be a very satisfying explanation.

[Not with the tech level of her world being what it is.]

Basically makes you invisible to the eye, some tech.

... Well that's interesting.

[ Meant sincerely, with a note for how that is dangerous, an advantage, and also something to wonder about if people don't get too self-sure when using it. So what would one do to disrupt a cloaked individual... ]

Something small that could do that would be functional as long as we were avoiding close direct encounters, or they had no ready way to disarm it and show what we'd been hiding.

Point. Might be more effort than it's worth. So the best option might be cover-ups. Make it look like useless adornment with fabric, hide it out in the open.

[He's not great at stealth either. This at least is pretty blatant and out there.]

We could work on ideas for that. Talk to people. See what we can come up with.

Simple is easiest. We can see what people come up with... or if it's all dismissed. The Instructors might have opinions on it too.

[ The "but" that follows after is implied, and left as an implication. But that may not be anything they consider worth worrying over. ]

Then let's talk again about this when we've done a little legwork?

[The flower crown in his hands is as "good" as it's going to get. Frankly, it'll probably fall apart long before he can stick it on his telusa and watch the animal play with it. Stiffly he gets up, stretching a little, hoping that his body gets back to normal soon.]

And maybe by then I can make these decently.

Deal.

[ ... Maybe not for the flower crowns.

Soon enough, the Neraki will outshine them on those anyhow. Annie stands in the perpetual grey of this day, inclining her head toward Garrus. Her crooked crown hangs from her fingertips, flowers intact. ]

Until then.

IC Contact - Consignment

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