Disclaimer: if you recognize it, it's not mine. if you don't recognize it, it's still probably not mine. except cobweb. she's mine.
Summary: In the beginning of all the best stories, everyone meets in a tavern. Theodore Kurita, Coordinator of the Draconis Combine, gets a different ending, or possibly a new beginning. Definitely Multicross.
Warnings: none
Ouroboros
By Dragon of Dispair
… not stuck this time, only distracted…and i wouldn't count on me becoming undistracted any time soon…
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He was never, ever going to complain about night watch in a battlemech again, should he ever again be in a position to do so. And any under his command was going to spend a night like this: freezing cold, peering through a blizzard, and getting laughed at by the regular infantry.
Okay, so the other guards weren't laughing. They weren't aware that "night watch" for Theodore had previously meant "perfectly sheltered in a warm multi-ton war machine that could scan for enemies kilometers away thus requiring only a minimum of actual attention", however his difficulty was obvious to them all. Mostly they assumed his troubles were related to his age. There were those who might have mocked him anyway; Haru-san was one of the (thankfully small, given that Theodore's presence raised the number of guards to a whopping eleven men) group who'd snickered at Theodore's difficulties. Braver than his cohorts — a mixed group of armed peasants and minor samurai so distantly related to General Daidoji that they only resided in the keep because the guards were housed in a barracks next to the stables — he'd actually stood to confront Theodore.
He (literally) swallowed whatever words he'd been about to say when the Theodore had looked at him like Haru was a penitent kowtowed before the Coordinator's thrown and he was considering whether or not to invite him to use the garden as his father would have; instead he'd politely wished Theodore a pleasant watch and hurried away.
The watch, of course, was not pleasant. Two days after Theodore had been officially hired the mild autumn weather had turned unexpected to a blizzard that made using the Mark 1 eyeball a pretty useless endeaver. Not only was the snow blown around violently, causing a complete whiteout, but the wind cut through their haori and other cold-weather clothing like it wasn't even there putting the watchers in danger of hypothermia.
The guards didn't relax, but even the most experienced of them seemed content to spend their time between patrolling huddled in the little rooms that dotted the wall, huddled against the cold. Theodore knew he should have taken his cue from them; he didn't. The snow made him more worried. He knew, consciously, that his companions were right. This world of non-mechanized infantry and cavalry, hand-forged weapons, and supplies carried by wooden-wheeled carts likely couldn't field any sort of attack during this weather. It wasn't until the guard commander, Daidoji Akio, came out to where Theodore stood on the wall, huddled into a blanket and oilcloth tarp and startled him out of a listening trance that he realized he was listening for the thundering footsteps of an approaching battlemech rather than watching the tree line for approaching infantry. Blizzards did hamper battlemech combat by reducing the effectiveness of targeting sensors, but the cold increased the efficiency of heatsinks so many commanders, especially in the Lyran Alliance, Free Rasalhague Republic, and some mercenary companies (coughKellHoundsIcough), who calculated the two factors as equalling out against the potential of taking the enemy by surprise.
The commander didn't make issue of Theodore's strange issue of paranoia and seeming inattentiveness; he just passed the newest recruit a steaming ceramic cup full of fragrant tea. "Arigatou gosaimasu," Theodore murmured; he didn't go through the ritual of declining the gift twice, lest it get cold.
Akio didn't comment on the lapse in protocol; he only huffed in approval. Obviously he was glad he didn't have to beat the manners out of another wet-behind-the-ears recruit, which would have been awkward for both of them — Theodore was nearly twice Akio-san's age. They watched the swirling snow in silence for a few moments, Theodore wondering if he was going to be reprimanded for his trance.
"It's different than being on campaign," was what he said, when he finally spoke.
What was there to say to that? It was only the truth, even if Akio-san couldn't know exactly how true it was for Theodore. "Yes it is," he said, simple inflectionless truth.
The commander nodded. "It's only the start of winter. Thou should consider coming into the guard house to warm up occasionally."
It both was and wasn't a reprimand, and it was again only the truth. "Yes Commander."
The other samurai nodded and turned, his footsteps blown away by the wind. A neigh sounded and they both stiffened. Theodore shivered violently as he dropped the blankets to work his wakazashi free of its sheath. "Remain at your post," Akio snapped, as if Theodore would do anything else, before rushing to investigate: the sound had come from outside the front gates, the other side of the compound from Theodore's station. A moment later the alert bell rang — it was the one Theodore mentally thought of as the Yellow Alert signal rather than the one that indicated they were under immediate attack — and the other guards streamed out of their warm guard rooms to take their positions along the wall.
The wait was nerve-wracking. Hours and hours while the blizzard wailed through the night around them. Neither the alarm bell nor the all-clear signal rang. They could hear the commotion at the gate, which quickly spread through the rest of the compound. Fires that had died down to sleepy coals were prodded to angry wakefulness and candles were lit throughout the keep. Activity buzzed through the buildings as though someone had kicked a beehive. It set all of them on edge, not the least because they were supposed to be watching the forest for potential attacks and only caught the briefest glimpses through the snow of what was going on in the keep.
The other guards speculated as those on patrol passed those peering out into the night with lanterns; Theodore shared what he was hearing easily enough, and listened to the gossip he was told. He heard horses, mostly. Unhappy and distressed horses and the din of people moving and panicked conversations — nothing that those on the back wall with him weren't also hearing. The patrollers told him that a large procession had been caught in the blizzard and was taking shelter here. The gates had been opened to welcome their guests and there were too many horses for the keep's stables.
They relaxed somewhat. It explained why the all-clear signal hadn't been sounded; they needed to be on alert in case some enemy out there took advantage of the commotion.
Still they were starved for information of what the hell was going on, so when a servant ran up the stairway he was practically mobbed by those guards close enough to do so. The servant just shook his head and excused himself, moving along the wall until he reached Theodore. "Sir. The General requests thine presence in his office."
"Of course." He followed the servant off the wall and through the narrow hallways and walled paths the servants used to the office, where he was left to wait. A few minutes later, Ir'rik'uk was also led in. He didn't have any idea of what was going on either. It was another hour before General Daidoji let himself into the building, looking harried and tired.
"Kurita-san," he said without preamble, too tired for courtly manners, "I'm relieving thee from thine duty on the wall. Thou are my guest and thou will act like it. Wait in the barracks until I send for thee. Ik'rik'uk-san, stay with Kurita-san. The two of thee will attend the opening of Court, but after, I expect thou both to remain out of sight."
With that they were dismissed, General Daidoji hurrying them out and himself striding away in the manner of the already Way Too Busy to Deal With This Shit.
Outside in the snow Theodore and Ik'rik'uk looked at each other; Theodore shrugged. then led the way to the barracks. The General obviously wanted his two most embarrassing members of his court out of the way.
Rather than allowed to pile onto the bed he'd been assigned when he was hired, Commander Akio directed him to a mat in the corner. "I know the General wants thou here, out of the way, but thou will be assigned new quarters soon and in the meantime I need to find a place to put all the new guards. Get thine things and stay out of the way."
Fortunately Theodore didn't have that many things, and most of them had remained packed. He hadn't exactly needed camping gear while he stayed in the barracks.
Seeing as their help was profoundly not wanted, it was still the middle of the night or very early morning, and without the blankets that were still on the formerly-his bunk it was freezing, the fire unable to keep the space warm with people constantly coming and going, he and Ik'rik'uk (practical creatures they occasionally were) curled up together for warmth and went to sleep.
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They were given new quarters in the morning, which was good because as the night had worn on it had become obvious that even the space their mat rested on was going to be needed to house the new guards from the procession.
The General's wife, Lady Daidoji Kokoro, also with the same air of Too Busy to Deal With This the General had had, showed them to the game room, apologizing that with their new guests there was no other rooms available on the guest floor. Or among the servants, though of course the Lady would not dream of putting two honored guests among mere servants.
Some shoji screens had been brought in to divide part of the room from the rest, then that into two separate rooms for Theodore and Ik'rik'uk. They were small, little more than a futon, a brazier and a sword rack in Theodore's for his blades. Ik'rik'uk immediately went to all fours and started sniffing through his new bedding, which caused the Lady to avert her eyes from the unseemly, inhuman behavior. Theodore simply looked over the improvised room and assured the Lady that it would do fine, and that there was no reason for her to use more of her valuable time attending to them. They bowed to each other, and she left, still ignoring Ik'rik'uk.
Theodore was more worried about privacy. He'd already noticed that most of the internal walls of the keep's buildings were almost all shoji screens. Nothing was private, as he truly defined the word, but at least in the barracks he'd had a lockable box to keep his possessions in. He didn't have much, but what he had was extremely valuable to him, and this room was only a visual barrier keeping it from the game room, which would be extremely popular over the winter. Not all those who came to entertain themselves would resist the temptation to snoop.
Shrugging he resigned himself to it. There wasn't anything worth stealing, except the coins he'd earned from the bounty on the bandit ears, which he decided to keep on himself at all times, and his swords, which presumably any snooper would have sense enough to leave alone.
They were left there, alone save for the occasional harried looking servant who rushed in to retrieve or rearrange something in the game room, for three days. Theodore spent the time teaching Ik'rik'uk how to play Go; the Nezumi was surprisingly good at it.
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tbc
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I think i finally figured out why I feel compelled to leave notes. Both the narrator and all the characters around him are the "imply it don't say it" types and so i'm never sure if these things are going to actually come up in the narrative. Since I'm writing this more for myself and for friends that respond to me directly than for the cold vastness of the indifferent internet, I put the notes in so we can follow what's not being said outright.
notes:
for the not battletech inclined: "to invite (someone) to use the garden" is a euphemism for "command (someone) to commit seppuku". When Takashi ordered an underling to kill himself he'd often invite the person to use the palace gardens for the ceremony.
In case it never comes up within Theodore's POV: The General had several reasons for taking Theodore off the wall. The two most significant both have to do with appearances. First, the story of his son's rescue is going to get around to his guests and it would not look good for him to have rewarded the ratling with a court position and the samurai (ronin, yes, but still samurai) with guard duty. Yes, it's what Theodore said he wanted, but that won't matter to his guests. Maybe if he hadn't insisted on Theodore staying he could say he'd rewarded the ronin adequately, but with him there he needs to be able to say the reward he got was equal to the one he gave a mere ratling. So he takes the ronin off the wall.
Second, as a guest Theodore can hopefully stay out of sight out of mind of his guests, while as a wall guard he'd be forced to interact with the procession's guards (all of which are higher ranked samurai than the general himself — more on that later) as they supplemented the established guards, and General Daidoji would be the one to take any flack for having hired a ronin as guard.
