video | un: yukimura

[dairekka]

[Okay. This isn't hard. He's stuck here... and... there's no real way back so the best option is to work with this ALASTAIR ... clan? Clan. In order to fix issues in different places...

... and this ear cuff will let him talk to people but he has no idea how. Jewelry doesn't let you talk to people?? Talking to people lets you talk to people??

Carefully and very tentatively, like he's worried the communicator is about to leap out at him and grab him, Yukimura sets the little ear cuff communicator on the ground in front of him and crouches down in so he's eye level with it. Enjoy the overabundance of red.]

...

[He takes a deep breath. He was told he could talk to people, but he can't see anyone so... he'll have to speak loudly so he can be heard.

Brace yourself, Futurology.]


HELLO?

[... Nothing.]


HELLO, ARE YOU ABLE TO HEAR ME THROUGH THIS PIECE OF JEWELRY?

[Still nothing?? This is concerning him. Is he alone here, other than the man who had spoken to him when he first arrived? What should he do in this situation? Begin a scouting mission to search out any signs of life? Or should he continue shouting through this piece of jewelry he doesn't really believe is doing what he was told it would do.

...

Option B it is.]

I AM WORRIED THAT THIS JEWELRY IS NOT DOING WHAT I WAS TOLD IT WOULD, AND THAT I WILL FIND MYSELF AT A COMMUNICATION DISADVANTAGE IF THIS DOES NOT WORK. CAN ANYONE HEAR ME? [He reaches out and taps on the side of the cuff, shaking the image rather violently.] ANYBODY?

[TAP. TAP. TAP.

BEEP.]

... [He leans forwards, almost conspiratorially and whispers....] Hello?

[... Someone help this poor, unsuspecting loser out. Please. For the sake of your eardrums if nothing else.]

Comments

[babbylon]

And acquaintance of Date Masamune...?

[Maybe acquaintance isn't the right word. Maybe he's fishing. Maybe you'd better cut bait, Yukimura.]

[dairekka]

[Yukimura, this is not running away. This is you making poor life choices and answering the creepy man's leading questions. Just remember this moment in the future.]

You know of Lord Masamune?

[Then again, he knew of Yukimura too before he'd really given this man any information. How did he know that anyway?]

[babbylon]

Certainly. We're quite close.

[Dragon, oh dragon, where are you...]

[dairekka]

... [Hmm. Well he certainly doesn't know everyone in Masamune's clan, but he would have thought that someone with hair so light would stand out to him somewhat.]

You are a member of the Date clan, then?

[I'll take "innocently implying Gilgamesh is inferior in status to Masamune" for £10, please and thank you.]

[babbylon]

[Not to worry, Yukimura. He'll correct that quite handily for you.]

I am Masamune's superior.

[At least he didn't say master. Yet.]

[dairekka]

[Warning signals might finally be firing up in that thick skull of his.]

A daimyo has no superior.

[Because this man is certainly not the emperor, and he certainly knows his Lord answers to no one but himself. He can assume Masamune is the same in that respect.]

[babbylon]

He has an emperor. A king.

[In flawless Japanese:]

I am he who came before the others; a warlord to end all warlords; a peerless sword, a shining crown. I have bested him and so he recognizes me as ruler.

breaks in dramatically during the homeland speech

[wardance]

—Whatever this guy says about me is a lie.

[babbylon]

Oh? So I did not best you and you are not my...?

[He trails off. Mercifully.]

[wardance]

Exactly.

[babbylon]

Bullshit.

[wardance]

Ha? Prove it.

[babbylon]

We've children among us. Let us save our passions for another time.

1/2

[wardance]

How thoughtful

[ not. ]

i'm just gonna go ahead and say this would come after he replies to masamune further down the post?

[dairekka]

[... Hello there.]

I see?

[He doesn't see at all. But he did think it weird the guy was claiming to be a ruler over Masamune. That... would be impressive, but unlikely.]

Sounds good

[wardance]

...Nevermind, I'll explain later.

[dairekka]

... He is very insistent he is the emperor though. Is his memory addled?

[He's not going to trust the words of an addled liar over his rival, let's be honest here.]

[wardance]

Eh, he's pretty old so he could definitely be senile.

Still, I think he was trying to be a smartass and get creepily poetic on you, but it failed because it went over your head.

[dairekka]

[Such shade, Masamune.]

Really? He looks barely older than you or I.

[Is he really that old?]

Oh. That's what he was doing? Poetry is not creepy.

[dairekka]

[Yukimura stares at him for a few moments, before leaning forwards a little conspiratorially towards the communicator.]

You... are aware the emperor is merely something of a figurehead?

[It's not much of a brag to claim emperor-hood when the Shogunate and daimyos had more influence over immediate clans and Japan on the whole. Even he's aware of this.

And he can't imagine Date Masamune recognising anyone as an ultimate ruler, other than himself.]

[babbylon]

Indeed. I am also very much aware of the legend you and your fellow samurai carve throughout history.

[Humming, concedingly:]

Perhaps it is better to say we have something of an understanding. He is a stubborn man.

[dairekka]

[Then why call yourself an emperor... if you know where the true power of their era lay, Gil?]

Most warriors who strive toward a goal are.

[He, for example, is stubborn. So is his lord, and so, naturally, is Masamune too. They wouldn't get very fair if they gave up at the first major hurdle.]

[babbylon]

And what goal do you strive towards, Yukimura?

[Because I sincerely doubt a cub like you thirsts for something as savage as conquest.]

[dairekka]

[That was the big question, and luckily he now has an answer.]

For a land without war.

[That is, essentially, his lord's goal as well. The only way he knows to achieve this would be to fight alongside his lord until the Takeda clan could stand proudly over a Japan that lived peacefully, not one wrecked by clan squabbles and never ending violence.

When looking to the future, Masamune had said, even injustices become just. For now, the fighting was necessary so that peace could someday rule over Japan.]

Though it may be far off, it will be achieved someday.

[babbylon]

I see.

[And Gilgamesh could rip it apart, that sort of ridiculous ideology. Spit on it, tell him he's worthless for imagining such a land that could never be, tell him he's naive for thinking that humans will do anything but war amongst themselves when left to their own devices...

But for now, all Yukimura will get is a middling I see before Gilgamesh moves onto something else.]

I suppose I also owe you a name. I am called Gilgamesh; I am like an emperor in that I was the first king in mankind's history. It is simply in my nature to introduce myself that way, because it is that title that defines me. Rule is inherent to my position and all that I say and do.

[The killer: Gilgamesh flashes a gentle smile, handsome enough to slay any maiden. Or even a tempered swordsman.]

I look forward to working with you, Yukimura. I can tell already you're quite the talent.