Meetra Surik (extorris) wrote in knowhereic, @ 2017-07-03 03:11:00 |
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Entry tags: | fullmetal alchemist: canon: roy mustang, star wars (legends): canon: meetra surik |
Characters: Meetra Surik and Roy Mustang
When/Where: A little while after this conversation/A bar then the Barracks
Rating/Warnings: Low (mentions of war, death, violence)
Honestly, Meetra wasn't sure why she was here. Being invited for drinks was odd. It wasn't an activity the Jedi exactly condoned so such things had never felt important. Still, in this case she could at least offer a hand, and perhaps some advise. This Colonel shared what she often felt when she allowed herself to stop. Think. Wonder how right the Council, and by extension Kreia, really were. Those feelings weren't helped by the recent nightmares that had so far cost her a lamp when she pushed it aside with the force.
But her wounds would scar, as any other had before them. Hers was not to burden others with them, but allow her experiences to guide if they could. In the end, you could not really take the Jedi out of the woman. Her experiences, her ideals, were still much the same as they had been. Different now, tempered by war and what that brought but her inner core still remained the same. Helping was in her blood.
Being social, was less so. Small talk had never been her strength. Give her an army and she'd lead it to victory. Give her someone to break bread with and she struggled to find things to relate to. Yet she still walked into the bar, even if she was unsure. Finding the one who she intended to meet was easy. She halted and offered a bow, something so ingrained in her it was simple habit, before tilting her head as she rose. "Well met Colonel."
And then she sat down because, well what else was she to do. The great General of the Mandalorian wars always fell flat in finding the start of a conversation. In the end she settled for, "how long did you serve?"
--
It was habit that made Roy ask the woman out. It was routine and it was utterly pointless in this place given there was no image to uphold because his Lieutenant wasn’t here and he wasn’t a Colonel in the State Military. In a mass of bodies in an unknown country (or in this case, not a country) the State Alchemists and in particular, the famed Hero of Ishbal, was no one to be concerned with. So why the hell had the words rolled out of Roy and why the hell had he gone through it? Right, for the same reasons he’d gone to play a game with Gambit, because he could see his Lieutenant’s look in his mind’s eye while she scolded him for isolating himself. He could hear Hughes’ irritation as he desperately insisted Roy make friends in the right places because he’d need the support in anything he ever hoped to achieve.
Roy wasn’t trying to achieve anything here, but he supposed having ‘friends’ would still be beneficial.
That was why he sat in a stuffy bar with a drink already in hand, ignoring the looks from outsiders who were sizing him up. He was difficult to miss or mistake as anything other than military from somewhere based on his rigid body language, sharp eyes and the blue uniform and decorations - he screamed uniformity and discipline and the confidence of a big cat, which all made him a big target. If they wanted to start a fight to prove something, so be it, but Roy wasn’t going to initiate. He was too sore from his last night out for that. That thought made him smile a lazy smile.
He was saved from the moment by the arrival of the woman Meetra though. He didn’t flinch when she bowed, but he did return the motion at a less severe angle then sat straight again.
“Ms. Surik,” He was Military through and through, so even among civilians he was respectful. She also saved him from the trouble of deciding something witty or charming to say by diving headfirst into talk of the military itself - all logical, neutral topics as far as Roy was concerned. He blinked anyway. Not his usual approach.
“I’m still active duty,” he said. “I joined the academy as a boy, got my certification as a State Alchemist and have been there since. Over a decade now.” He was only 30. “In hindsight, maybe not a wise career choice.” He joked.
***
"Meetra," she corrected out of habit. She'd heard the miss being used before but it never felt like it quite applied. She'd always been either Meetra, Knight, or General. Most who saw the robes saw Jedi, and no more. Some saw her, but not who she was. So she corrected. She set her hands on the table, politely, and listened. She studied him, trying to guess age. She was always off, because she had no comparisons. She could only guess at her own, which made it hard to guess others. Never mind that even if they looked human, they might not be. Near humans could pass well enough sometimes, and that meant lifespans could be different. And that didn't take into account the lifespans of those who were from the various different galaxies.
"State Alchemist being what exactly?" She asked and tilted her head again. This she could do. This was easy. This was talking about shared experiences. "Perhaps not. I joined the army out of defiance, which may not be better." She gave half a smile. "To do better. To truly be Jedi." She raised her hand in an idle wave. "An order of ancient protectors of the galaxy. They serve," she paused trying to fit it to words. If she had no idea what a state alchemist was, chances were he may not know what Jedi were. Although some did know. Or perhaps guessed. "What is good in the universe. Where I am from, there is something called the Force which has a dark, and light side. Jedi serve the light. We protect. Guard. Defend innocents. An army of very skilled and ruthless warriors washed into the galaxy, killing hundreds of thousands. The Jedi, did not react. It wasn't for them to intervene. There were some who dissented and joined right away. I had to be convinced into it. But I joined nonetheless."
She shrugged, "I joined young too. I don't know how old I was. But I believed. I fought and climbed the ranks until the army had one head, and us two generals. Me and Alek." She sighed. "I left when I could no longer follow them, after the battles were won so I suppose I deserted. I went to the council, and was exiled." She shrugged. She hoped she had not burdened too much. This was simply sharing to her. To open conversation. She folded her hands on the table. "What happened? To make the noise return in the face of quiet? What do you see, when you close your eyes?" Her tone was gentle, and undemanding. She would not press if he chose to decline answering, but she did understand.
--
"Meetra," Roy allowed, determining that yes, the woman did in fact have a right to decide how she was addressed.
Roy peered back at her with sharp eyes, watching her watch him - watching her assess him. It wasn't anything no one else had ever done before, so he maintained his casual expression and did the polite thing of listening when she spoke. There was no point in having invited her here if he wasn't going to pay attention.
"Light and dark? Is it really so easy to divide in your world?" The idea of multiple worlds still hurt his head, but in a philosophical perspective he could understand it. He could suspend disbelief long enough to accept it. But, listening to her explanation then, Roy was dismayed by the notion that so many worlds were plagued by darkness and the threat of extermination. Of course it couldn't be limited to one nation against another in one world. Amestris wasn't special, but it was the only life Roy knew and now he was learning of all this outside horror..
He took a drink from his glass to pause and gather his thoughts. It was a lot to take in. Jedi? He was still shaky on the concept. Light and dark, please.. that was too simplified. But defending and protecting those that couldn't help themselves? Yeah, he could get behind that. He did, readily.
"I joined the military because I thought I could change the world. I wanted to make a difference. Such naive idealism." He laughed at himself, shaking his head before he paused, because what she said was relevant. She left because she couldn't follow them - her strange council. He hadn't gone anywhere but he didn't want to follow anyone either.
Then Meetra asked the question that had brought all of this around, that was the crux of Roy's ambitions and the catalyst of his nightmares. He rubbed his neck with one hand and sighed.
"I see the burning bodies of the dead I left behind me from my first war. I see the faces of the women and children." He looked at Meetra, frowning. "There's no light and dark in the world. We all have it in us in both directions. I was a soldier following orders and what we all did was dark. But I have to believe there’s a way to atone for it."
***
This was not as awkward as it might have been. Helping was in her blood. She'd had this conversation, a variation of it, with Bao-Dur before. It was why, in essence, she'd come here. At his question she smiled. "Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, no. The Dark Side is a powerful thing, in that it allows for terrible things to be able to be done but philosophically? That might just be people. But I have never been a good philosopher on the Force. I agree ti has a will, and an odd sense of humor, but beyond that?" She shrugged. "We make our own choices."
She nodded to his explanation. "Jedi are different. I was both born into it, and not. I was Force Sensitive, so the Jedi found me and took me from my family as a baby. They raised me. But when the Mandalorians came, I could not be a hypocrite. One of my mentors fought in skirmishes so when a lot of us joined the military I at first did not go. But when the hypocrisy was explained I did. I could not let the universe burn, not when I felt so deeply about it."
At the other explanation she only gave another nod. She did not judge. "It's a planet for me. The destruction of it, and a people. And the quiet after." She shook her head, "explaining the force to those who do not have it has never been a strong suit of mine. But one moment everything was vibrantly alive. I could feel all f life flowing around me. I could sense the life in the galaxy, how everything had it's own tune and harmony. One moment I saw, and the next there was nothing. I did what had to be done, not the one following orders but giving them, and would do it again." She held up one hand, "Malachor, the planet, and the Mandarlorians." She held up her other, "the galaxy." She lowered the hand that had represented Malachor. "There was no other choice. But it still sits with me. The quiet, knowing the lives that went with the planet. Feeling them die, all at once and then nothing." she lowered the other hand. "I cannot offer much explanation or comfort in this. The scars remain."
----
Roy paused, thoughtful while he considered the implications of what Meetra was saying. Born into it? Taken by force to be raised among a people she didn't know. It seemed barbaric in practice and yet he had no moral leg to stand on. Not all alchemists were in the State Military but those that were were trained to be deadly weapons for the government to employ at will. He hadn't become an alchemist for that end, but it was what he'd become.
No, he couldn't judge a society he didn't know.
But still.
It was chilling, too. She'd decimated an entire planet and for what? The greater good? Roy looked at Meetra with hard, sharp eyes, at a loss for the moment of what to say about it. His end goal of becoming Fuhrer was so that he'd never again be forced to take orders such as those Meetra must have issued to her soldiers. But what would he have done in her position? What would he do when he became Fuhrer and the inevitable choice fell between them and the citizens of Amestris?
Try for peace, he thought. But peace isn't always possible. Even he knew that now.
Roy finished his glass and pushed it across the counter for the barkeep to take, tapping his fingers across the panel before he withdrew, folding his arms over his chest as was his custom.
"A man-" Roy paused, frowning, "A fellow soldier told us that whenever we killed someone we should look them in the eyes and never forget. Don't turn away from death, that it was the least we could do." Roy raised his eyes to her face. "I don't know what it's like to feel an entire planet blink out of existence, Meetra. But it occurs to me that we deserve that burden and that we owe it to the world or hell, the whole galaxy-" He'd learned by now there was more than one planet anywhere in the stars, "to do the best we can now."
The barkeep sidled over just then, turning Roy's attention that way. "Two of the same," the Colonel said quietly and when he was delivered two drinks, pushed a glass toward the woman.
"So what now? When it was over what did you do?"
***
"I agree with your fellow soldier," she offered. She raised her arms to set her elbows on the table and leaned her chin on her hands. "I did not turn away when I gave the order. And I believe the Force..."she paused. "punished is to harsh of a word I feel. But it did react to my choice. I destroyed a people, and sacrificed my own to do so." She shrugged. "So it gave me my current burden. An eye for an eye, so to speak." She smiled when he spoke he did not know. "Force. Don't. This is not a burden I would have any other carry, and it is mine to bear. It was my order, my design. An argument I gave another under my command. He'd crafted the bomb, but it was my word that carried it through."
She took the glass out of courtesy and sipped from it, but like any drink with alcohol found she didn't like it. Even her time in the army or traveling with various companions had not changed that. She doubted she ever would like it. But she was too polite to decline. She'd simply drink this, and then have no more. "I traveled. After my exile I went everywhere. I discarded all the rules of the Jedi save one and let myself adjust as best I could to my new reality. I looked for any family I might have, and found some. But I felt it cruel to show up at those doors saying I might be the daughter they gave to the Jedi. It was enough to know I had family, at least for me. I had no real purpose, no real drive. I belonged to no one, and had no orders." She set her fingers around the glass and tapped against it. "And then I was pulled back."
"Between when I left and returned the Sith, the opposite of the Jedi, had been eradicated the Jedi. As I was no longer Jedi, I slipped under their radar. So another member of the Council used me as a pawn. They used their influence to draw me back into public space, so I could become bait." She gave a small chuckle. "I did not realize until too late what was happening. I just found a galaxy in chaos and ruin. What else could I do but try and put it back together. It killed the Council, in the end. I regret that. Then I found out the one I'd served before, my friend and mentor, had disappeared. Before I came here I was to meet his wife, to see if she knew any more." She frowned, "I do hope, wherever he is, he will understand my little trip here." She gave half a smile, "I am sorry if that does not give a good answer to the what now question. It is a hard one to answer, one only you truly can. The past cannot be forgotten, but I believe it can be learned from. As for how to adjust?" She gave a short laugh, "let me know if you find an answer. I am still looking."
----
"I can relate." Roy said quietly, a half smile darting across his visage then disappearing again behind his somber expression. "I was raised by my father's sister, but I looked for traces of my parents' lives for a long time." Not nearly the same scenario, he'd at least been aware of where he'd come from and from who, unlike Meetra. God, her whole life was a mess of terrible decisions and consequences; Roy tried to act rationally almost always but even he was subject to stupidity once in awhile, it just seemed not to manifest quite so drastically as it did hers.
Roy took a drink from his glass, looking at the liquid that passed for alcohol and finding it displeasing at best. No matter the taste, it would have to do. It would work to get him drunk anyway and he supposed that was the end game anyway.
“I couldn’t live a life without orders, without a direction. I had a grand plan before coming here.” He laughed again, mirthless, the sound of the truly disbelieving as he sank into the reality of his life. “And now I’m faced with the question …. What the hell was the point if I was going to end up here?” He gestured around them sharply and nearly knocked the glass off the counter. He caught it at the last second, wincing lightly then righting it with deft hands.
“I’m pissed.” He admitted. And lost. He hadn’t been there for more than two weeks yet though, what would his state of mind be like in six months? Roy rubbed his face and the back of his neck again, his tells that spoke volumes of his anxiety.
“Damnit.” He shook his head and slouched back in his chair.
***
She could understand that. She'd had a plan of her own, and if not a plan at least a direction. Revan was missed by his family and the universe at large. And after everything, because she'd failed seeing how far he'd fallen and never gone to try and set things right, the least she could do was bring him home. She had only a vague understanding of where, only minor clues to indicate her path but it still needed to be done. But now she was here. "It is my belief this is where the Force considers us necessary. But it is how I justify this entire thing. All of us here have specific skills, knowledge, powers. And we have just faced an enemy that required all of our strength to fight. No matter where we were before, this is now where we need to be."
"I cannot truly understand what it is to live in a place where orders are something that carries one through a day. You had a plan, now you must adjust. I understand it is not the greatest of advice. It is all I have, unfortunately." At least as far as advice went. It wasn't always her strength. "I could help." She lowered her hands back onto the table. "The Force allows one to calm others. It would entail going into your mind, although I would not be able to read it, and calm it." She raised one hand and let her glass float to it." The Force allows one many things. But I will understand if you do not enjoy the thought of another in your mind. I have similar things. Only the very powerful can really intrude." Although technically, this was different than reading a mind. But it was similar enough that she knew it might cause issue.
"There are ways to continue what your normal is There is security detail you can do. It is not the same, but as there is no real way back..."she trailed off with a shrug. "One must make do. I find comfort in still being able to aid others. I train those who wish it, instruct them in meditation and the forms of combat I can teach until the Force has me move on. If routine is what you wish for, all I can offer is to find a new routine."
---
"I refuse to believe that." Roy said, his tone angry. "I refuse to believe that this is more important than the lives at home - we're in the middle of another civil war, somehow that means less than this? No."
He didn't know what was happening to the Lieutenant right now, to his other subordinates and staff. It scared the living shit out of him to the point that even now his fingers balled into fists and anger swept through his veins like fire. They didn't need his protection but hell if he didn't feel it necessary to be there with them.
His sharp eyes darted upward when Meetra made her offer. "No," he said, curt. No one had ever messed with his mind before, the very idea of it made him uncomfortable because he didn't understand how it was possible or what it meant. But even in her offer she was right. He had to adjust, find a new normal, it was that or go right back into a downward spiral.
He forced himself to relax, letting go of the anger and the discomfort at his situation for the moment. "I'll help with whatever happens here," he said. "But I do it with the aim of it being temporary. I won't make this my home.”
The Colonel frowned.
“Not that any of this is your concern. But …. Thank you, for talking.” Because it was the first time he’d voiced any of the things they’d discussed here. It was nice to know there were others that understood what he’d come from. That had been the members of his team but in their absence, well, having people like Meetra helped.
***
She tilted her head, a habit of her own, and showed no judgment when he grew angry. She was not in his shoes, did not know his life. And she had no right to preach about the Jedi's views, especially now she disagreed with how the Jedi interpreted the Code. "You have that right. I understand how some things are more important. Yet," she set the glass down, "we are here. There is no way to return that I know of, save sometimes people disappear. How and why are questions no one is asking or able to answer. Perhaps there is no answer to it."
She nodded, "as you wish. You have that right too. As you have the right to consider this temporary. My advice remains the same however. I have to admit to not understanding the concept of home. Everything has always been a place. This is no different to me. So in that, I cannot be of much aid either." Then she smiled. "Thank you, for talking. And listening. Besides you are not the first I have tried offering advice to. You remind me of one of my companions, in how you have spoken. There are differences, but many similarities. The Force does think itself amusing in that regard." She added and took a sip from the drink. "And I still don't like these drinks. They aren't, I think, for me."
"And I am sorry," she gave after a pause. "That your country is at war with itself. I wish I could offer my aid in those regards as well."
---
That was the crux of his issue, Roy figured. There were no answers and he was as powerless as he'd ever been while in the military. How the hell anyone could build a life on this floating station while knowing they could simply blink out of existence was beyond him. So it made the most sense to operate as if you could go at any time, don't make solid roots, don't do anything that could change the course of this place's history because it wasn't theirs and in the end they wouldn't be here to see it through. And still there was no promise they'd be sent back. So far only a few people had gone.
Roy sighed softly.
Then he smiled faintly and nodded at her. "It's not a good example of an appropriate drink. Not my first choice either, but it does the job." And the job had always been to stop him from functioning fully. It stopped the noise from taking hold in the quiet hours when he was alone. That way his nightmares didn't disturb the other occupants of his assigned barracks.
"Come on, let's get out of here." Roy said, unexpectedly.
***
"I suppose it does. It's never been something I've enjoyed." She did not enjoy losing control, or let her mind slip. It took focus and some practice keeping the wall that kept others out going, and if she were to lose that, too much might be seen. She wished to keep her privacy. At the offer she blinked. But all in all what else was she to do here? There wasn't pazaak to busy herself with. So she shrugged and rose. "as you like." she motioned to the bartender and set down the credits appropriate for her drink. Then she motioned to the door. "Lead on."
And this is where she stumbled. She had no real places in mind that would be better for conversation. Her routine was simple, and from an outside perspective relatively dull. She would do the same thing day after day, and consider it no different or boring. She knew enough of the perspective of those outside the order that they would consider her meditation rather boring. But she'd grown up in that, in the same thing every day. There were times she missed the endless plains of Dantooine, of knowing the same thing day after day. She supposed others had more of an idea of where to go. And being somewhat social wasn't a terrible thing. She missed her companions, her friends. And she'd gone so far from the woman who kept everyone at arm's length and only saw them as useful allies that now she could no longer approach people as such. She still kept her distance, but only because now she knew how easy she made Force Bonds, and could influence others. It was too easy to abuse.
---
The Colonel turned to transfer his own credits before he followed Meetra out of the dingy little hole and into the dingy little street. He adjusted his military issued jacket and inhaled the mechanical smelling air, his eyes roaming over the wide breadth of Knowhere, taking in the lights and the stream of people moving around this rotting city of a station. It was amazing and confusing at once to remember this is where he was. It had been so far outside of the realm of possibility before, back in Amestris.
A quiet stillness settled between he and Meetra, for a moment the Colonel was at a loss at what to do now. He looked from her then out back around them and just... stopped.
Beyond 'leave the bar' he had no plan. He didn't want to take her home. Yet. Which basically cut his usual choices to nothing. Roy stuffed his hands into his pockets and laughed at how bizarre this had all become.
"Well, what now?"
If he had a motive they’d be moving toward it. He didn’t, so they just… drifted. The silence was fine, it didn’t bother him in this context. What else need be said that they hadn’t already discussed?
***
Out of instinct, she looked around. Places like this were always dangerous, no matter what. And oddly, all in all it missed the presence of a Hutt, or one of the Cartels, to truly remind her of Nar Shaddaa. Perhaps one of the lesser smuggling moons would be more similar, but she knew without having to really go there that even then she'd not find the marks of the Cartels she was still looking for. At least with the Black Suns, she knew where she stood. Even a little.
She still took stock of her defenses and let made sure her 'sabers were well within reach. She had another companion to think of, and while no one who rose to the rank of Colonel on merit would shy at combat it was still part of her duty to look after him. It also afforded her time to at least try and think of something. At his question she turned to him and sighed. "I don't know." She was honest at least. "The Jedi do not teach you to handle situations like this. I can discuss tactics, train others. Lead them if I must. But beyond that?" She shrugged. "We were taught to be neutral, never forming any sort of connections. Ironically, we are still called to play ambassador when it's needed. Finding common ground beyond that?" She shook her head, "I was never taught how to do that."
Even in speaking with her companions it had always been about the mission, or helping them finding a new balance with their life. "I train and meditate, and to me that is enough. I've been told that the life of a Jedi, or former one in my case, can be seen as a bit dull." She paused as she thought. "Beyond that I play Pazaak, a card game, and I race swoops. A sort of vehicle from where I am from." She'd actually liked doing that. No Jedi should admit to getting a thrill of racing through treacherous grounds on a machine that was just a bit dangerous but she'd never been great as a Jedi. She'd been good at it too. It had always been a good way to earn credits.. "There are no swoops here. I can offer to teach you the game if you like. I have to admit to being simple. But I will not make any new connections, or friends, that way."
---
Roy, for his part, was accustomed to having someone at his back looking out for him. While he didn't trust Meetra implicitly it wasn't out of the realm of comfort for him to accept a woman as an extra pair of eyes and ears and if necessary, as a secondary defense in an altercation. Lieutenant Hawkeye was typically that for Roy, but she wasn't here. Meetra would suit. Not that the Colonel himself was unaware of his surroundings. No one knew him here, but if they wanted to start something they'd learn why he was titled the Flame Alchemist. In preparation of that, Roy removed a pair of white gloves from his pocket and pulled them on.
He regarded Meetra with a stoic expression, it slowly morphed into disbelief and then something like wry humor.
“So you have no hobbies.” He said.
“It's fine, it isn't your task to entertain me. But I'll learn your pazaak. Maybe I'll teach you chess. It's a game of tactics and anticipating your opponent's moves. I think you'd enjoy it.”
Then at least it would be in the realm of things the both of them understood and in some ways use the parts of their minds that they were both attuned to.
God. They sounded like a pair of old badgers with nothing better to do.
***
She understood the expression. She'd seen it before. So she smiled. "Jedi aren't encouraged to have hobbies," she gave with some sarcasm. "If you aren't training, you meditate. When it becomes all you know, then it matters little how you spend your time. Even in the military, I did not really expand beyond that. I looked after my men, trained, meditated." She shrugged. "It is a quiet life."
"You asked for my company. I am honest enough to admit that my company is not exactly the greatest. My normal is different from others." She nodded, "I might. Then it is this way," she began moving to the barracks. She had made a pazaak deck, an easy enough thing to accomplish, but such things were left where she rested. "I attend the poker games when they are held. I suppose that could be called a hobby." She gave a wry smile. "If you think me odd, you are not the first to do so." She kept an eye on her surroundings, but she knew the Force would warn her of danger if it came. Such were the advantages, even if she did not use the force in the exact same way as others.
"What of yourself? Do you have hobbies? Beyond chess. What is it you do, when you find yourself with nothing else to do?" She was curious, but also would not press the issue. Some were more closed about their lives.
---
"Sounds like it," Roy agreed absently, thinking he'd probably have shot himself a lot sooner if his life revolved around such monotony and silence. But it was her way of life and while he didn't understand the appeal he could accept it. He also thought it sounded boring as hell but it wasn't his life. So be it.
Roy walked beside Meetra, equals in appearance and in stride, as they maneuvered the streets and the people and the noise of Knowhere, making their way back to the barracks. No one attacked them, but they did earn their fair share of looks - the woman and her military companion - being sized up by people who thought they could get something out of them.
"Research." Roy said. "State Alchemists are required to submit to an annual assessment of our progress, if we haven't made sufficient advances we're put on probation. Another year passes with similar results we lose our certification, our commission, and we're kicked out of the military. So I research." He paused.
"Alchemy is a science. It's a mix of chemistry and physics and manipulating the laws of nature. I was working on something..." He shook his head to himself. "Doesn't matter. I don't have any of my notes here."
He shrugged.
Upon reaching the barracks, Roy paused and pulled the door for Meetra, the habits ingrained. He was a gentleman after all. "After you."
***
It made her pause when he opened the door, because it didn't immediately register why. She'd seen it often enough, but such things never came to her mind. So instead she took the offer with a smile and walked through before walking to where she rested. "If I sound like I am trying to push you into a direction I do not mean to. But, perhaps if you can no longer research what you did before why not something new? Or start your research afresh? If what you do is a mix of all these things, why not apply it to these new circumstances? This is essentially brand new ground. As I know it, you are the first of your State Alchemists here. I would think that would lend itself to several different discoveries."
She tilted her head again, "Although without meaning the disrespect, removing your most capable soldiers because they fail to research something seems contradictory. I understand wanting to keep an edge to a blade, but such things may lend to drastic things. What if an Alchemist hits a wall. Something they could overcome, but not in a year? I have seen what those who claim to be scientists are willing to do, given enough pressure or credits. Czerka was willing to kill a planet, and a species, to keep it's hold on kolto, a certain medicine in my galaxy. I worry for what people in desperation might be willing to do. But I should not judge. I have no right to it."
She moved into the room where her bunk was and moved to it. She smiled at T3 and patted his head as it chirped at her. "Hello T3, all well?" She smiled at the response and looked to Roy, "this is my friend T3-M4. He is what we call a droid. And while not as exact as us, alive in a sense. Sentient." She removed her hand, "this is my friend Colonel Roy Mustang. I doubt he will understand you." At the beeps she looked back to Roy, "he says hello. Droids have their own language, and I've spend enough time around them to know it." She sat down on the bed and took out the deck she'd made. "Do sit." She'd shared too many quarters with too many people to really feel as if this might be considered odd. She sorted the cards and listened to T3's beeps. "No. You put the odds in your own favor when you play. That's still cheating."
---
"It's a dumb law, it's lead to a lot of corruption." Roy agreed mildly, a lazy smile making its way across his features. The more comfortable he got with her the more casual he became. "But our alchemy belongs to the State. We have access to the best laboratories and libraries in the world, but what we discover is all for military use. It's why so many people shit on us. Alchemists follow a belief 'be thou for the people.' State Alchemists are the dogs of the military, we sacrificed our concern for citizens when we agreed our alchemy was not for them, but to be used against them."
In a more familiar, comfortable setting, Roy's body language changed. He seemed to slide from rigid military personnel to big cat. His casual confidence had always been there but he relaxed into a contented calm as he settled onto the bunk and leaned in to look at the droid whose beeps and chirps made no sense, "Hello.." A sentient robotic creature without a soul. What strange times these were, between this and York's Delta.
Roy furrowed his brows, looking at Meetra finally, because she raised a valid point. Why didn't he continue his research here? What was stopping him? Having no valid response, Mustang said nothing instead, but the idea stuck inside his mind. Maybe so..
"Hm," he mused a breath later. "Meetra," he smiled his lazy smile again. "That might be the best idea I've had." He smirked, it hadn't been his idea at all, but he'd take credit for it.
“What do you think, T3? Is it safe to give these people alchemical secrets?”
***
Oddly, she missed her own deck. It had been a gift at first, and a source of some comfort and amusement later. It was one of the few possessions she could claim as her own, nevermind what the Jedi might say about that. As he explained she listened. When he finished she frowned. "I do not think I like your government very much Colonel. You have a gift, no government should make that a weapon." It made her smile, "despite the irony and hypocrisy in saying that. I made myself a weapon, despite the Council saying Jedi should not be such. Choice, I think, is the important thing. Everyone should be allowed to choose what to do with their gifts."
She looked up as he claimed the idea for his own. Instead of commenting on it she only smiled. She didn't mind. She wasn't raised to mind. At a beep she glanced to the droid. "A little like the Force I think. Same principles in being used for ill or good." T3 turned to Roy and understanding Roy could not understand him nodded his head. It made Meetra smile, then chuckle at the next beeps. "He says as long as you do not share it with HK, he is of the opinion that the more things to protect those here, the better. HK is another droid. An assassin droid. Had a habit of calling everyone meatbag. His creator's sense of irony." When she finished with the deck she leaned back. "I need to get them coloured. This is the main deck," she tapped on the one in the center before handing him ten cards. "That is the side deck. Usually one assembles this on their own but under the guise of teaching I have made it as equal as possible. The main deck consists of cards reigning from one through ten. The goal of this game is to reach exactly twenty. In true games each player would draw from the main deck, the higher number determining who goes first. For now I will simply draw a card." She drew one from the main deck and set it down in front of her. "Now, you would choose four cards from your side deck," she did so and set them down face up. "While you would keep these hidden from your opponent in a regular game you can see some are plus cards, where others are minus. Some cards can be combination of those. There are also plus one or 2 or minus one or two cards as well as flip cards that can change the written number. So if you have a two, it would then change to minus two." She looked up to make sure he was following her.
"Now one can either stand or end your turn. Stand means your current sum would remain unchanged until the end of the set and you no longer play any cards. One's opponent could still draw and play cards. If the score is twenty, you automatically stand. Ending your turn means you are then bound to draw another card from the main deck.. We must both draw from this main deck and place that card in front of us," she motioned to the card in front of her," like so. There are four ways to win the set. By outscoring, as long as you do not go over 20, by going bust which is when you go over twenty, by filling the table with nine cards without busting, or by using a tiebreaker. Or, obviously, by reaching twenty. Three won sets make a game, and in the event of a tied set, no one wins and another set is played. As I drew the first card I will end my turn, which means you draw a card for yourself. Does anything need explaining?"
---
"I don't like it either." Roy stated. "I told you I had a grand plan before coming here. I was going to restore our democracy and change the world." He shrugged. No sense in wallowing in it, was there? If there was one thing he'd taken from his earlier conversation with Meetra it was that he couldn't change what was, he could only choose to do something about the current problems. He'd opt to move forward. It wasn't to say that his issues with the situation or his home world were forgotten, far from it, but more that he was more willing to accept things as they stood.
Progress, anyway.
Roy looked at T3 and smiled when it nodded at him, "Well, I guess that settles it." He joked, sitting back on the bunk and folding his arms over his middle, watching Meetra explain the complicated rules of a game he had no intention of winning. Well, he wouldn't win it anyway, out of her superior experience, and because he was prone to naturally testing the way others thought. Sure, chess would be a better gauge because he understood the game, but this here? Here he was breaking the ice.
Mustang laughed faintly, "How about you just tell me when I screw up. I'll learn as we go."
***