2026-06-03: May Weapons Be Free
- Log: 2026-06-03 May Weapons Be Free
- Cast: Remi Ryuuja, Yanagi Nagisa
- Where: Shimokitazawa - Peacock Silk
- OOC Date: June 03, 2026
- IC Date: Monday, November 19, 2012
- Summary: Remi tracks down Yanagi at Peacock Silk, and the two of them have a conversation about their shared past at Blacksite Revelation.
<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.
Some months back, Remi had received a small shock. The sight of another Number from the labs, one Remi had taken for dead, when her presence in the lab had simply ceased.
Thanks to Yua, Remi has a name to use instead of that number. And a place of business. It's still taken her a while to work up the nerve to go talk to her. In some ways, it might just be easier to remain ignorant, to not have any information that the NWO can squeeze out of her.
On the other hand, if she knows something, if she did something to get out...
Unfortunately for Remi, this is her first time dealing with the onset of Winter since leaving the lab, and she is miserable. She is bundled up far more than usual: black beret, scarf and gloves, a full-length trenchcoat, over a long-line green cardigan, black turtleneck and pencil skirt, tights, and dark green ankle boots.
Someone used to working with clothing might easily notice that the materials ahve all been carefully selected for maximum insulation. The scarf is currently covering the bottom half of her face.
She sees the front entrance, observing how it is not, in fact, an entrance, and then walks around to the side.
Deep breath, and...
Remi pushes open the door and steps inside.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Winter is often an unpleasant time. Yanagi, once Number 99, knows this well.
She spotted Remi that day too, but has since forgotten about the encounter since she hasn't seen her since. Why worry about it, especially when Yua said she wouldn't tell the NWO anything about her?
She is herself clad in a textured off-white alpaca fur sweater that ventilates on the shoulders and drapes over a long, loose ruffled skirt of pearlescent sea green silk. A charm anklet of silver stars, moons and planets dangles from her left ankle, and matching earrings and necklaces decorate her ears and neck. On either side of her head, pinning her long, wavy ash-gray hair in place, are a pair of shooting star hair pins trailing flat gemstone rainbows.
The door opens. Yanagi does not look up; on top of being thusly dressed, she has a jeweler's eyepiece on as she works on a commissioned piece at her work station. It's a gold necklace set with malachite beads such that the stripes look like alien eyes. It's quite captivating and more than a little eerie.
She's humming along with the radio next to her station, which is playing an extremely catchy 80's power rock ballad. Something about always having faith. Hard to tell, as it's in English. The store otherwise seems empty, though the lights are on and, of course, the door was unlocked.
<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.
Despite all of the layers, Remi can't help but let out a shiver as she steps inside. There is a quick sweep of the store--habit, in case there's any trouble. Though, if this is not a supernatural space, she doesn't expect much trouble that she can't handle.
... not that she'd be too terrible concerned if it were, either.
But then her gaze settles on Yanagi. It is an odd sensation, seeing her outside the lab like this--slightly less odd than the first time, granted, owing to having advance knowledge, but... even so.
"... you've done well for yourself." Her voice is polite, almost conversational. "I trust business is going well?"
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
While Peacock Silk caters to the supernatural crowd, the boutique is not itself a supernatural space. But maybe it could be...! (Sure. Just wait until midnight.)
A familiar voice speaks up. Yanagi stops humming. She looks up, unsmiling, and her dark grey eyes settle on Remi. Her skin tone is as pale as ever, but her lightly applied make-up brings some much-needed color to her cheeks.
"Oh, it's you," she says. "Thank you, it is." She pauses a beat. "Are you here to kidnap me?"
She's a lot more direct than she used to be.
<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.
Is she here to kidnap Yanagi? Remi shakes her head, and whatever cheer she had in her voice vanishes, replaced with something far less emotional. "... No. If that were the case, I wouldn't have announced myself."
Whether she can sneak up on a Navigator or not, the fact remains, this isn't how she would do it.
She pulls the carf down to reveal her face. though she pulls her trenchcoat closed just a littl tighter. "I never expected I'd see you again."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"Hmmm..." Yanagi doesn't look like she quite believes Remi--and it might be hard to blame her, considering there are definitely agents within the NWO who are twisted enough to want that kind of fear provoked first--but in the end, she nods once. "All right."
She nods again at Remi's comment. "You thought I was dead, I expect. It was coming sooner or later. It still is," she says, matter-of-fact. Her regular visits to Tominaga Chiropractic for the Gold Finger experience have been wonderfully therapeutic, but they can't actually cure DMD. Nothing can. "They thought I was dead too. I was supposed to have died, out in the tunnels."
She smiles. "But I didn't."
She looks back down at her work and resumes tinkering with it. "If not that, then are you here to find out how I escaped? So you know, I'm not going to tell you, but even if I did, it wouldn't help."
<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.
Remi won't take offense to not being trusted. It's not exactly like she's fully in control of herself, at times. Though on this particular day, she is--there's no orderst o follow, only the impulse of her own curiosity.
"Yes." Remi nods once, to the idea of Yanagi being dead. "... or worse. But certainly not escaped." She lets out a single, mirthless chuckle at death still coming for her. "Death comes for us all, in the end."
She doesn't have DMD. But the Suppressants will take her in the end, just as surely as anything else.
"In the tunnels..." Remi frowns a little at that. "... they left you without an escort, then. Unawakened." After all, they never would have let her go, if she'd been Awakened.
"Evidently."
"The thought had crossed my mind, yes." She nods slowly. "Very well." She pulls her gloves off for a moment to rub her hands together, trying to suppress another shiver. She studies Yanagi for a moment.
"It seems you've become a jeweler, then. I'm sure it must be a fascinating profession." She's trying to get back to being conversational, but having a little trouble with the tone.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Really, even if both of them were perfectly healthy, death would eventually come. All that lives will one day die. The two of them will know that reality sooner than most, that's all.
"Mmhm. They lost patience, decided I was a lost cause, and decided to let the demons finish me off," Yanagi replies. "So if you do take anything away from this conversation, I suggest it's to find a convincing way to fake your own death. I haven't gotten bothered at all since then."
This does leave out some crucial details, but who's counting? She did say she wouldn't tell.
"It's fascinating to me! But I've loved jewels and jewelry for a long time," Yanagi says brightly. That was her creative work back at Blacksite Revelation too, as Remi might recall. She fixes one of the malachite beads in place, then looks up to tilt her head at Remi.
"Too cold?" she suggests.
<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.
It's true, sad as it may be.
They lost patience. "... I see." It's rather abhorent, to discard a life thus, but Remi can't honestly say she's at all surprised. "Sadly, while they have lost patience with you, they have invested... considerable resources on me. I suspect they shall not let me go so easily."
And there would be other issues, with her two friends.
Remi does recall it. Remi spent her time with acting, though she always rather focused on combat. (And, indeed, used a rapier--a historical one, not a sport one--when fighting.) "... your fascination seems to ahve paid off, at least."
"... It has been a while, since I felt the touch of winter. I am still getting used to it."@emit
It's true, sad as it may be.
They lost patience. "... I see." It's rather abhorent, to discard a life thus, but Remi can't honestly say she's at all surprised. "Sadly, while they have lost patience with you, they have invested... considerable resources on me. I suspect they shall not let me go so easily."
And there would be other issues, with her two friends.
Remi does recall it. Remi spent her time with acting, though she always rather focused on combat. (And, indeed, used a rapier--a historical one, not a sport one--when fighting.)
"... It has been a while, since I felt the touch of winter. I am still getting used to it."
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"Mmm." Yes, Yanagi supposes that would be true, she reflects as she looks Remi over. She had to be adjusted, and so many of the Artificial Persona Users died for various reasons. At least with her, all they had to do was falsify her death and traumatize her over and over in an attempt to get her to awaken naturally. Compared to everyone else...
Well, "compared to everyone else" is exactly the kind of thinking they used to control her, so she discards that line of thought right away.
"That's too bad," Yanagi replies, and she's sincere enough about it. "I know Yua can't really leave either." She tilts her head the other way. "By the way--what's your name?"
She doesn't offer her own; she assumes Yua already told her.
The explanation about winter gets a blink, though. "Oh. Really? That's unexpected," she utters. "Did they only start letting you out of the facility this year?"
<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.
Yes. Remi was made to be a weapon, and they made many changes to her in pursuit of that goal. Lucky her, others in her poject suffered rather swifter deaths.
Usually.
Remi pauses, as Yanagi asks her a rather basic question. She blinks a little, frowning as she chastises herself mentally. "Remi Ryuuja, dear. And Yua-chan took the liberty of introducing you, Nagisa-san."
She considers the question. Yanagi already knows about the facility. It doesn't give her any new information to say, nor does it threaten her own safety. "... yes. I will manage, however." Because what other choice does she have?
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
"I thought she might have," Yanagi replies. "You're here, after all." She smiles. "It's nice to know your name at last, Remi."
It does indeed not change anything. She nods again, slowly this time, when Remi confirms her guess. "I suppose you feel like you don't have any other choice," she says, almost as if reading Remi's mind--but she isn't. She just knows what the situation is like.
"You might have more options than you think, though. You just have to be willing to risk your safety," she adds, though. "That's how they control you, you know. They make you think that way because that way you don't fight back or try to escape."
She starts on affixing the next bead. "Of course, if you prefer things the way you are now, there would be no reason to try. However, if you're free enough to come here, you're free enough to choose to live and die on your own terms."
For Yua, she understands why she's chosen to stay a captive; she has a baby in her belly, and she's not willing to risk its unborn life. Remi, though... Surely she isn't pregnant too.
<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.
When Yanagi smiles, Remi manages one herself. If Yanagi is pleased to have made the introduction, then... maybe she can relax, just a little. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance as well."
"... were it only my own life, I would rather agree. But we both know that my... 'benefactors'--" she utters the word with anote of disdain. "Are hardly the forgiving sort. And they are willing to take their displeasure out on others."
There's also the matter of her conditioning, which may or may not have been evident to Yanagi in her time at the lab. Remi is paralyed for choice, because her choices must consider others.
... They would consider those others regardless, to be fair. But it is still rather limiting.
"Hardly," she reponse, to liking the way things are now. "... but I will gain nothing by acting rashly."
Remi isn't. Thankfully.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
They do both know that. However, when Remi points out that she risks not just herself but others by defying her masters, Yanagi gives her a second-long blank look.
"Oh. Yes," she says, in the air of someone who forgot that could be an issue.
Because she did. What do "others" matter to one who is free?
That blank look shifts into pitying. "Poor thing," she murmurs. "Don't worry. It won't matter forever." ...on account of she doesn't have long to live regardless, presumably.
"So why did you come here, Remi?" she wonders.
<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.
That blank look... Remi observes it, with a slight narrowing of her eyes. She's finished rubbing her hands, and slipped her gloves back on again. Though she hasn't attempted to open her coat for the indoors or remove her hat.
"Save your pity, dear. It does both of us a disservice."
She shrugs a little at the question of why she's here. "The reason I have come is also the thing you have elected not to divulge. Beyond that... simple curiosity, I suppose."
There's also just very few people she can speak about the lab to. Not that she wishes to dwell on it.
<Pose Tracker> Yanagi Nagisa has posed.
Yanagi smiles when Remi tells her not to pity her. She doesn't argue the point, however. Besides which...
"Hmm?" She tilts her head again, confusion flickering in her dark eyes. "But didn't you say you don't intend on escaping? What good would it do you to know?" Simple curiosity, perhaps. She smiles at that too. "True! Sometimes we just want to know, even if it does no good. Well, it might do you no good, and it also might do me harm, so I'll continue to hold my silence."
She half-turns in her swivel chair to gesture towards the trendy interior of the boutique. "Well, if you're curious, please do sate it as much as you like! I'm proud of the work we do here, and welcome admirers and customers alike." She smiles back at Remi, eyes squinting shut. "Please don't send any business our way, though! Your 'friends' aren't welcome!"
<Pose Tracker> Remi Ryuuja has posed.
Remi arches an eyebrow at Yanagi. "I never said I had no intention of escaping... merely that my life is not the only one I must consider." That, and Miho is working from within the system, but she's not about to volunteer that information.
If she were willing to cut all ties and run, certainly she might get far... but then again, what would they do, if, say, they wanted a certain Navigator to locate her?
And how thoroughly would she have to burn her bridges to make the attempt work? No, she would need resources, and a plan. Contingencies.
Things she doesn't have yet.
Remi nods. "And I do not begrudge you the withholding. You certainly don't owe me anything."
Remi chuckles. "No, I rather imagine they are not. Rest assured, I have no desire to spoil your hard-won freedom."