Friday Meme Light: Cause It's A Bittersweet Victory (Ten Years Later Thread)

[thewunderkind]

The clock continues to turn on the ship.

The last years have been of turbulence, surprises and great fights, but eventually, five years ago, the Ohm were defeated and slowly, peace was restored to the entire multiverse. The crisis was averted! Congratulations!

...However rebuilding universes takes time. Energy. Power. It still might be years off before you'll get to go home, and Stacy is truly saddened about that. Call it catch 22 if you will, but at least the life on the ship is a lot more peaceful now. The farms have grown, and now there's enough in-house grown food to feed everyone who doesn't feel like eating slop or eating slop in the sensoriums every day. That's a small comfort, right? Oh sure, there's still the surprise or two on it, but now there's slowly more places to stop, and Stacy has been a lot more lenient about people getting their shots...

As they sometimes say, life will find a way to flourish, anywhere it can. My, there's a lot more bellies around the ship than before...

And maybe. One day. Far off future. You'll get to go home. But that's not now.

Ten years is a lot of time for people to grow, personalities to change and emotions to emerge. How have your characters turned out of it?

Comments

[daemonomicon.livejournal.com]

Time had not been kind to Grandmaster Cargn Thane.

Now a good 802 years old, he was quite ancient. But it was not old age that crippled the aging Grey Knight. Rather, it was the ravages of war that took its toll on Cargn. Even centuries of experience cannot prevent the eventuality of battle scars, and in a war as fierce as this one had been, Cargn's scars had eventually piled up too high.

In addition to the cybernetic arm he sported since that early battle on Zokez II, the aging Grandmaster now sported a number of other prosthetics to repair the damage of battles now long past. He refused the more advanced cybernetics the Engineering department was capable of creating, instead preferring the relatively primitive bionics of his own world that were found in storage, built and blessed by techpriests of the Adeptus Mechanicus. His leg was replaced with a simple looking bionic one, and though it was combat-grade, damage to his genetic structure from an Ohm bio-weapon led his body to eventually start rejecting the bionic, giving him a severe limp and forcing him out of combat. His jaw had been destroyed when he was caught in an explosion, forcing him him to replace it with a bulky vox-unit. It gave him a truly horrifying visage now, his face just two empty eye-sockets and a crude looking vox-speaker. The replacement gave him a droning, monotonous voice.

Cargn was currently hobbling through the streets of the City, returning to the Shrine he still maintained after all these years. There was a now-familiar clank-tap sound as he walked, the sound of his metal foot followed by his cane as he moved onward. He wore a black robe these days, representative of the fact that he now considers himself ready to join the Seekers, those Grey Knights too old and wounded to fight who instead spent their days guiding their Chapter with their ages of wisdom.

Time was not kind to Cargn Thane, but still he continued on.

[ghost-bait.livejournal.com]

Miku didn't mind her sensei's new visage. Well, not now, anyway. It had been difficult for her to accept the injuries at first. But, Cargn was stubborn, just as stubborn as Steve could be. So, she simply accepted it.

Now, as she waits for him to at the steps to the shine, she shifts on her feet. "Good evening, Cargn-sensei."

[daemonomicon.livejournal.com]

Despite being somewhat hunched over from his old injuries, Cargn still towered over Miku. It would be a rather odd sight to anyone else.

++Ah, greetings, my dear,++ he replied in his buzzing, monotonous new voice. The vox-unit couldn't convey emotion or tone, so it sounded far more deadpan than Cargn had wished it would be. It made him sound much like Sigmund, his servo-skull familiar.

++I hope you were not waiting very long.++

[ghost-bait.livejournal.com]

"Not at all, sensei. It's given me plenty of time to reflect," she answered blithely. She adjusted the way her skirt laid, and smiled at him. "I'm ready for my lesson, if you don't mind giving it to me." She knew his leg pained him a lot more these days, and was more than willing to put off lessons if he was sore.

"If not, I did just find a very nice tea the last stop, and I have come to share it with you."

[daemonomicon.livejournal.com]

++I would be happy to,++ he replied. ++Though perhaps after tea. These old bones need a bit of rest first.++

Over the past ten years, Miku had long since moved past the point where Cargn would feel she still needed lessons, but there was always something he could still teach her, given his centuries of experience with his own psychic abilities.

Besides, he tended to scare most people, so these moments of socialization were something for him to look forward to.

[ghost-bait.livejournal.com]

Miku smiled, "Of course, sensei, as you wish." She followed behind him dutifully, though questioned exactly what she could do if he fell. Cargn, as tall as he was even stooped, would crush her like a brick falling on origami.

As they entered the Shrine, Miku felt her psychic guards drop ever so slightly. It had always been a safe place for her - even if she was not one of Cargn's own - despite its loath "Where have you gone today, sensei? Steve and I spent time at the Meiji Shrine." She moved through to find his tea kettle and water, locating his large, blue teacup with familiarity. "I prayed for our continuing good luck."