1901/Soldiers in Exile

Soldiers in Exile
Date of Scene:	09 August 2017
Location:	Mutant Town
Synopsis:	Akula encounters Okhotnik in Mutant Town, having been sent to find her by Ares.
Cast of Characters:	Okhotnik, Akula

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Okhotnik has posed:
The streets of Mutant Town are populated with all sorts, of course. The strange, the unusual, the freaky are taken in stride here; it's in the name, after all! But even here, there are those who don't fit in. Those who do not have jobs. Those who do not have homes. Those who live on the streets.

The homeless. The forgotten. The abandoned. The lost.

Amongst them has arisen an interesting figure. She does not try to draw attention. She keeps a very low profile. But amongst the homeless she has become something of a figure of reknown and importance; a protector that all can trust, for she is not from the outside. She is one of them. And as one of them, they do not ask where she comes from. They do not ask how she can do what she can do. They just thrive in the safety from abuse that she generates in her own quiet way: none dare abuse the homeless where she can see, because she will end it.

Permanently.

Diya blends into the rest of the 'pride' of the homeless in the alleyway, an unkempt, unclean woman with dark and greasy, lank hair that probably is usually of a lighter color, dressed in the multi-hued browns and tans of modern desert warfare military surplus, finished off with an olive drab jacket. She stays amongst her own kind, head down, causing no one any trouble. The one unusual thing is that she seems to almost always be surrounded by a small collection of various wild, runaway and feral domestic breed cats. They don't touch her. They don't come close to her. But they hover within sight of her, not unlike how a pride of lions stays close enough to always be in support of one another.

The streets of Mutant Town are still reeling with the recent upheavals in the local gang structures. The previous top dog gang, the Evos, have been eviscerated in the last couple of weeks. Their total population is down to less than a quarter what it was, and they're running and hiding. It's pretty clear someone out there has been hunting them down with furious intent, capped off with the open warfare that obliterated their moneymaking efforts at the Meat Locker house. So there is a new current of uncertainty and tension in the air on the streets, as the disenfranchised watch and wait for whatever may come next; for those responsible to step out of the shadows and declare themselves and their new territory.

Akula has posed:
And so the shark is sent forth.

She marches into Mutant Town, someone who is not altogether unknown in these parts, and whose coming is greeted with a certain level of wincing and shuttering of windows and doors. That poor motel. Those poor streets. They took forever to get back to some semblance of order - now here comes the half naked giantess that usually heralds more property damage. At least Juggernaut isn't still bringing the house down. Maybe things will have time to fully recover.

She marches in, shoeless, sockless, nearly shirtless. She's wearing a half shredded t-shirt and equally torn up jean shorts. Her steps rumble and rattle things nearby. Her tail swishes idly as she looks at the crumpled piece of paper in her hands.

She grimmaces.

< HEY RUSSIAN SOLDIER! IF YOU ARE ANYWHERE IN THIS GOD-FORSAKE PIECE OF #@$& DUMP, SOUND OFF. I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO BREAK OPEN WALLS JUST TO LOCATE YOUR SORRY *&$, > Akula bellows loudly in Russian.

Okhotnik has posed:
Subtlety, thy name is not Akula. Diya's eyes turn towards the strange grey-skinned woman as she thunder-stomps her way along just like any of the other homeless. And she winces as the woman decides to bellow out and shout in Russian.

'John' told Diya that it would be her choice whether or not to approach them when they came. She - apparently erroneously - assumed that meant the others would be subtle. Quiet. Non-disruptive.

WRONG!

The ashen blonde woman winces, and looks around at the others to see how many seem to understand the 'foreign' language of those shouted words. Seeing no comprehension, what she instead sees is fear; her people are afraid of what this means, of the threats that may follow.

With another grimace, the woman who looks like a homeless vet - because she is! - pushes up easily, gracefully, to her feet. She's tall for a woman but in no way a giantess. But she walks with a smooth, easy grace that the observant would likely call almost predatory. And there's definitely an aura of the unafraid; of the dangerous. And she strolls across the street towards the giant mutant, stopping a few feet away before addressing her. When she speaks, her diction is mushy and indistinct, disguising her clipped, sharp Russian accent to her English.

"What are you shouting about? No one here wants any trouble."

Akula has posed:
Akula's attention is drawn to the other woman, recognizing the accented English - at least this one speaks it better thatn Akula herself does. Ulianna could care less if she can barely speak 'Americanski', this place is a nest of filthy capitalists anyways.

She grins widely. "Ahh, there are you beink. John is sendink me, grab whatever you are draggink and we will leave." Well. Poise, charm and diplomacy all in one package, it seems.

Okhotnik has posed:
Diya frowns and shakes her head. When she speaks, she continues to keep her voice soft, almost mumbling, and indistinct to hide her accent. "I am not a lost puppy. I am not here to be fetched." She's not at all sure how to take this. "He said he knew others like me. Others lost, abandoned. That he could put me in touch, let them know where to find another." Not that she would then be instantly drafted.

Akula has posed:
The larger woman snorts, smiling. "At least you are haffink spine," Akula appraises. "Somewhat. I am beink told you are soldier of Mother Russia, but you are actink like sad little pumpkin." She's had enough of thinking hard to remember English words, and switches back to Russian. She wants to express herself more clearly, and she keeps her voice lowered out of courtesy to the other woman.

<"He does know others like you, if you are what you say."> Her posture straightens, one hand on her hip, sliding back into a behavior she hasn't used since Afghanistan. The behavior of a commander. <"He's got a warehouse he's stationed me in for the time being, and for that, I'm grateful. He's not like other men, I'll tell you that for nothing. That's why I tolerate him."> Her orange eyes look up and down over Okhotnik. <"So what is it that you want to do here? Continue to live in an alleyway with the strays? It's hardly fitting, even if Russia and its military are a pathetic shell of what it once was.">

Okhotnik has posed:
Okhotnik shrugs her shoulders a bit, rolling them beneath the loose-fitting jacket. ~//"I live in the alleys with the strays to stay below the notice of these people. The military and intelligence services of 'beloved Mother Russia' are hunting for me."//~ Diya explains. Sad little pumpkin? Seriously?

~//"As for what I want, I miss my unit. My team. They made my life, my service, worth living. 'John' said that he knew others like me. I thought I might find some of what I lost."//~ And it sounds like that might be possible. But will going with Akula expose her, and bring the black armored intelligence agents after her? She's not sure.

Akula has posed:
Hey, she hasn't had to use English this much since her language classes in the 1970's. Pumpkin is the best she can do.
<"He was not wrong to introduce us. I, too, am a traitor now. I can never go home to my beloved Arkhangesk. I, too, lost my platoon. My purpose. My nation,"> Akula explains calmly. <"Let me ask you then. What was your division? Your rank?">

Okhotnik has posed:
Questioned, Diya answers promptly, naming her division and her unit, as well as her rank - Major. ~//"They came for me. Men in black armor. They demanded I come with them. My unit turned their backs on me. I had to run."//~ She clearly has not made peace with the abandonment yet. She ran to save her life; singled out by those she did not know, whose authority she did not recognize, she ran rather than be their lab rat, their victim. But it meant the end of everything for her.

Everything but Diya's accursed life.

Akula has posed:
Akula steps closer, out of the street, away from prying eyes, to move a little nearer to Diya and her alleyway. This way, she can speak more freely. Every wall has ears, or so whe was taught.

<"They came for me, to take me to the Red Room."> Akula looks directly into Diya's eyes. She wants to see if there is even the faintest twitch of recognition in them when she utters those two last words.

Okhotnik has posed:
The homeless woman makes a soft hiss of inhalation at the mention of those words, then a brief, tiny inclination of her head to acknowledge what the other has said. Yes, she knows of the Red Room. Not a lot. But enough to be afraid of it. Enough to avoid it. ~//"I do not know where they would have taken me."//~ she admits. It could have been the Red Room. She didn't stick around to find out.

Akula has posed:
<"As you can see, I am a mutant. I was born a shark, declared dead by the state and taken away to be raised as a soldier. I have known nothing else but service to the Union,"> she explains. <"I lost my men, and my rank, in that hell of sand in the middle east. Everything and everyone died, and I alone was left to crawl out of my own blood. When I returned, it was for nothing. We lost the war. the Vympel unit were being forced to attack the white house in August. I was there, on those steps, ready to go in and slaughter every last member of the Duma who would not stand down.">

She stares through Diya, her mouth a thin line, the age finally showing on her otherwise young looking body. <"The union died that day. The special forces were dishonored. My platoon was dead. My fate was to be turned over to the hands of traitors and sent to the Red Room. Rather than suffer the indignity, rather than let the name of my comrades be pissed on by spineless freaks obsessed with openness with the West, I left everything behind. I marched into the White Sea on the banks of my hometown, and I vanished. From the date I see on papers in this filthy den of rot, I was thirty years beneath the ice in the Arctic Ocean, living among my non-sentient brothers and sisters.">

She stops for a moment and takes a breath, tip of her tail twitching a little, and looks back at Diya. <"John Aaron was kind enough to give this thrown away soldier a place to stay, but he cannot give me what I truly want. I do not know if it is the same for you, but if he has sent me to you, then he means you well. You should not ignore that he is a worker, and an honorable on at that.">

<"What do you want, then? I can give you a place to say, but I know nothing of the Russia that you have lived through. We may have been born in the same land, but we are not the same breed. It is no slight against you.">

Okhotnik has posed:
Diya listens, watching and taking in far more than any would ever expect, as Akula tells her story. Some of what she speaks of - a good bit - happened before young Diya was ever born. Though she has learned of some of it in history classes, and some of it from the mouths of older soldiers, they are not part of her own experience. She gets it.

~//"I am not sure what I want. I know that I can never go home again. Russia is lost to me, as is my family."//~ And she is young enough that her family is likely still alive and well. Or at least they were.

~//"I want to stay free. I want to figure out what has happened to me, how I have been changed, and learn to master it. And I want to find a way to be useful."//~ It shouldn't be hard for even Akula to realize that part of the reason Diya is hesitant to leave the streets is that staying amongst the homeless population has given her a bit of a purpose: protecting the other homeless. If she moves away and improves her lot, they won't trust her anymore, they won't accept her help and protection.

And she won't be there when they need her, either.

~//"But I do not know how you, or 'John', can help me with any of those."//~ Again, more bald honesty from one Russian to another.

Akula has posed:
<"Time and effort will do that. I do not know your circumstance, but if you have found something that gives you strength - stay with it. I will come here regularly, to make certain you have provisions. No soldier should be forced to live like this."> The edges of Akula's mouth quirk. <"We are better than Americans that treat their conscripted soldiers like dung.">

Akula turns away from the alley. <"I will not trouble you then. You know what you want. John may also give you provisions if you ask. I am not in any position to anything more than that. I have no home, no papers, nothing but these rags - and I am fine with that.">

Okhotnik has posed:
The homeless woman looks up at Akula and nods. ~//"I thank you for that. I will share the provisions with the others. For now, a few replacements of clothing would be useful, if those are available in the provisions."//~ Diya offers, honestly. She rather ruined what had been her spare set of clothes during the right with the Evo gang, and she's not one to prefer civilian attire as replacements.

~//"You are no trouble to me. I was expecting something quieter. But you are as you are, as I am as I am. And we share much, even as we differ much. We need not be entirely the same to work together."//~ That too is a lesson both learned in their service to the country that has abandoned them. Diya eyes the shark woman. "Do svidonya, Tovarisch." she offers, with a nod rather than a solute.

Akula has posed:
Akula smiles again. "Udachi," she says in return. Now there is work to be done, and she turns to leave Mutant Town.

Purpose is good for both of them.