Moses is almost always forthcoming.
"I, uh, well, my parents died when I was about 8, I think - a cave-in. They didn't double-join the i-beams in the tunnel above ours and...well, anyway, there was a cave in. I was stuck down there for...I dunno, a long time. I slept six times before they found me. I think the news said a week. I knew my parents were dead, and for a while I thought I was too - that I'd become a ghost, down there, until I heard the digging sounds, and then I felt all of the pain. My arm" he holds up his right, mechanical arm, " was crushed and my leg too. The female bone." No, you correct him, probably the femur. "Oh."
"So I was sent to an orphanage. I had a lot more of me mechified than most of the other kids, but it was just, um, prosthetics at the time." The word is said carefully and slowly. "It was weird, because my brother, Tank, he survived. He's my big brother - older too. Really big. And I still have a couple cousins, but..." He stops.
"I don't know where they are, now."
After a while he continues. "But I ended up at this orphanage. And I was kinda famous, so people would come to see me sometimes. They just wanted to look, and I didn't talk then, so that was ok. Then - have you heard of Amuro Namie?" You have - she is the daughter and sole heir of a powerful Allskin family in Geneva Prime with connections to Goshi. "Well, she came to see me, and I remember that she was so pretty, I said 'you're pretty', and I hadn't talked in a while, so everyone was surprised. So after that I lived with the Amuro family, in their high-rise, in the middle of the city."
"It was really nice. I was really happy, and Namie was happy. I got much better upgrades, and I got to thinking about what I would do with myself, what my Job would be. I figured, I'm a survivor. I survived a cave-in, so how could I do a Job that was about surviving? That's how I got to be a Deep Delver, and I started fixing myself up to do that."
"So things were going good, and I grew up, and they tried to teach me a lot of stuff about the First Minds and about sitting still and about bowing. I think some of it stuck. But I turned 15 and it was time for me to get a job on my own, and I was all set to be a Delver. But Namie had another gift for me. She had this box" he indicates, pointing over his right shoulder, to the warm, clicking box that is now scuffed with wear but still quite intact "and she had a socket for it specially made. We mounted it, me helping and looking in a mirror - she didn't want anyone to help, and didn't want me to tell anyone. I didn't figure out why for a while - I just thought it was a secret, like our secret. And I guess its also that."
He walks for a while, very quiet (for a Mechified) and doesn't respond to your further prompts for some time.
"I'm changing. Everything is changing. So fast. I feel like...like I always keep seeing clearer, but I can't...say what I see. Its so different." After a few false starts at going on, "But after I left the Amuros, I think Namie's dad was happy I was gone, and she couldn't really visit me in the mines. She wrote a few times but...I'm not much of a writer, so I guess she gave up on it. Its...getting from the mines to their high-rise...its a long way, you know? Not just miles."
"So I was a Deep Delver, got promoted to Second Class. I saw my brother a couple of times - he's a 'spitter, and...well, I told you how big he is." Moses holds his arm over his head as far as it will go to indicate what he means. "But I think he was doing ok. Finding good work. I wasn't close with my cousins, but they helped me get in on a delving team. I got good at tossing big rocks onto a conveyor, and alter did my own delving. I was pretty good at it. Careful. No...no cave-ins for anybody else. And that's about that, before...all this happened."
Ruins
Cities
5 comments:
When Kiyoshi hears the name Amuro he goes white as a sheet, then flushes slightly. Moses probably does not notice, being who he is, but there is definitely a reaction...
Rei, on the other hand, being the one who Moses is telling this all to, does notice, and immediately looks Kiyoshi's way. (The upshot being that unless Kiyoshi retreats into the Void, Rei will read his thoughts, as her telepathy is always on and always directed at whatever she happens to be looking at.)
Whether she learns anything from Kiyoshi or not, Rei turns back to Moses after a few moments and listens attentively to the rest of his tale.
When it is done, she asks, "Do you think your brother is still in Geneva Prime somewhere?"
Rei looks thoughtful for a moment. 'If he is,' she thinks to herself, 'I doubt that he's in good hands. By now, Goshi would have taken him in to either use him against or turn him against Moses. Being denounced by a family member would be valuable propaganda, and having something to hold over Moses's head, as a hostage at the very least, would also be very, very useful. At least, That's what I would do.'
Moses notices, but doesn't put together why it is that Kyoshi might have gone white. He figures Kyoshi just forgot something, or has to go to the bathroom.
"I don't think they'll do anything to Tank. He wasn't part of the insurgency. He wasn't even in the mine. I'm not sure where he was working when...all of that happened."
He thinks for a while.
"I think it'll be hard for Goshi to ...hold anyone over me, like you said. They...if there was ever going to be peace, its gone now. And the people I used to know, my brothers and sisters in Work, are all dead now as far as I know. If I ever go back to Geneva Prime" he tenses up and glares into the distance "it'll be to tear Goshi down for good. Not for anyone else. For me."
"But, if I never go back, then they don't have a good reason to hurt my brother. If he talks against me, who cares? And why try to use him if they think I'm dead when that whole part of the city collapsed? And if I tried to do something to Goshi, they'd just kill me, and that would be the end of that. Nothing would change."
Rei blinks in surprise. "... Did I say that in your mind?" she asks. 'I... didn't actually mean to do that,' she thinks. 'I think these fractals are getting to me.' She reddens very slightly, then shakes her head, dismissing the embarrassment.
"You're right. He wasn't a part of the insurgency. He wasn't in the mine. But he is your brother. You should be prepared for the possibility, at least. You're still a powerful symbol."
What Rei gets:
"Namie?" *Surprise* *Shame* *Anger/Consternation* How far back does it go? "How closely were we all connected and did not even know it?"
And when he sees Rei looking: "This is none of your business." **VOID**
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