melodiesoflife | Last Argument of Kings

Where : Aqures Ixen, 14th district
When: June 30th
Summary : Logen considers going to war again
Warning: Logen is basically his own warning. Swears, graphic discussion of violence, really could be anything.

War always comes from the South. That much has always been true for Logen. When Bethod and his war chiefs, Logen first among them, pushed south, when the Union counterattacked from the South... or even when Logen went on his pointless quest with Bayaz, not so long ago now. A different time, a different place, yes, but Logen is amused by the seemingly circular nature of his life. The shabbily dressed Northman stares south,
a bottle of wine in his right hand, his left rubbing the stump, scarred mass where his finger used to be.

He considers to himself that he's scared, again. He always is, before a big fight, and the Bloody-Nine isn't the one in charge. He knows what's coming, probably better than most, in an open war. But seeing something horrible coming really isn't any comfort. He thinks about the fights he's had in cities before. In Carleon, in the north, and the huge brawl in Adua, down south in the Union. Well, at least this time he likely won't be smashing his way in to save a King who was one of his few friends. But... the thought sobers him. In all of this city, he probably doesn't have a friend, his own unwillingness to get close to any of the other strange people, the so-called Heroes, strikes him. He takes a little breath, and looks back south, muttering to himself, "This time, I won't even leave behind any bad songs, or fear. Maybe that's for the best."

He can be found just standing, drinking, and staring south towards the not-yet visible army that presumably will be coming to attack the city, occasionally sipping from his wine and muttering to himself. Logen, his significant size, and generally aggressive way of carrying himself aside, looks a bit like a massive, reeking vagrant, and only the belted on sword gives even the slightest indication he's anything other than a drunk.

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"Are they? Well, fuck them and their fancy ships too then." He grunts, looking at Yuffie, then at the bottle. For someone from the Circle of the World, it would hardly be an issue for someone of Yuffie's age to get completely boozed up, so he hands it over with a shrug.

"You don't have any Chagga, do you?" Logen asks, already aware that the chances for that are basically nil.

She took the bottle with a smile and took a long drink. Yuffie was used to drinking though she was small so it hit her pretty quickly if she wasn't careful.

"If only we had a big canon." She thought about ShinRa for a moment before shaking the thought away.

"I don't know what that is." Her tone was very matter of fact and while she didn't really answer the question it's obvious that the answer is no.

"A big what?" Logen blinks at her.

"I reckon the only big thing we need is a big chief who knows how to get the carls and thralls moving in the right direction, and knows the right time to charge. If we could get them to fight us out on the plains instead of here, that might be better."

Wow that's a lot of words that Yuffie didn't know but she still agreed with him.

"A canon is a really big gun." She clarifies with a smile taking yet another long swig of the bottle before passing it back to him. She's in a good place now. "As for leading them away from town... well that would be easier if we knew what they wanted."

"Well, in my experience, you mostly just go to war to kill the other side's chiefs, take their gold, their land, and maybe their women and children if you're after that." He shrugs his shoulders. "So it's a question of which one of those the Empire wants."

"Women and children?" Yuffie looked up at him with a stare that suggested that he had three heads instead of just the one. She couldn't help but wonder what sort of crazy world he was from.

"I think it's safe to say they are coming to kill the heroes of light."

Logen looks back at her without showing much in his eyes, and says, "Well, it's to kill the chiefs, then. So we've got to kill their thralls, and carls, and maybe what chiefs of theirs we can get."

"OKay. You need to speak words I know. What are thralls, carls and chiefs? I thought a place only had one chief... person in charge."

She squinted for a moment before shaking her head.

"Thralls are people you give weapons to, put them in front commanded by Carls, who fight for a living. Chiefs are anyone who tells the professional soldiers what to do, Named men, generally. You give them a Dozen, or even more."

Yuffie just looked up at him like he was crazy. "That makes no sense. So you're saying that some people don't have names where you're from?"

She honestly can't wrap her mind around that considering her family name and bloodline was important to Wutai.

"There are names and then there are Names." He shrugs his shoulders at Yuffie.

"You have to get better at explaining stuff. Do you mean like a family name versus a personal name?"

Yuffie's trying but she was very close to just taking what was left of the wine and walking away. The only problem with that was that Yuffie loved to talk to people who generally looked grumpy.

"I mean the kind of name you get for killing men, not the kind of name your mother gives you."

Yuffie shrugged at that. "Everyone kills where I'm from. People, monsters, there is no point in gaining a name if you're the same as everyone else." Which was her nice way of saying that's stupid.

Of course Yuffie was also the sort to think of fantastic nicknames to call herself. That hobby has mostly died down.

"Everyone? SO who farms? Who makes things? If everyone kills, your world is very strange."

"Even farmers fight. People who make things can fight too." It wasn't as if everyone was stuck doing one thing their whole life. Plus most of the people in Wutai did a little bit of everything.

Everyone trained to a degree.

"That's thralls. Named men make a living fighting, like carls, only, well, they're good at it. Or lucky. Or brave."

He scowls at Yuffie.

Yuffie resisted the urge to stick out her tongue at him.

"Yeah, I don't get it. Whatever." She put her hands behind her head and glanced over at him with a crocked smile. "As long as your a good fighter. We need those now."

"I guess maybe I am. Or maybe I'm just lucky. I don't know. Or unlucky. Don't get too close once things get bloody."

"Why not? I'm fighting too!"

"It isn't about whether or not you're fighting, honestly. I'm sure you will be. I don't discriminate that well, if the fighting gets hard enough, you see."

"See what? It isn't as if I haven't been in a war before." Except last time she was five and the memory still haunted her.

Logen sighs, beginning to wonder if this little girl is actually listening to him. "What I'm trying to say, is that no one near me is safe. At all. From me."

She was half listening and she'd very much argue against being a little girl.

"Mmmm, why's that? I don't think you'd be able to catch me in a fight." He was big and she had her suspicions that he was kinda slow at least compared to her.

Logen doesn't respond to that. He just shakes his head. And holds out his hand for his bottle.

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