051. Huu and Katherine talk
June 2993, New Oslo
Huu came in with the shield, blocking the front of his face and the side of his chest as he did so. Right hand holding an arming sword, a thick, brutal thing. Jabbing away at the figure in front of him, trying to poke, prod, find any kind of weakness.
He knew, in the back of his head, and the front, and everywhere else, that this was a bad idea. Going defensive was ceding the advantage, a voice said.
But, the quiet voice that was now the loudest nearly screamed that without a defensive posture, he was going to find himself very dead, very quickly.
He, of course, listened to the loudest voice and hid behind his shield.
Naturally, that was when the axe came down on top of the shield, the fanged head caught around the lip and pulled away. The shield going out dragged him forward, out of balance, stumbling even. The sight of the cracked egg on a Steiner fist, the last thing he saw as the dagger held in the arm to his right came down on his neck.
'Dead' bleeped the electronic voice.
Huu grumbled, yes, I know I'm dead, he thought as the Armsman fell forward to the ground in a heap. The internal bracing preventing him from breaking his neck or something, but still, this sucked.
'Restarting' the voice said again, Huu feeling himself being lifted into the air by the neck plate. Like a kitten under a mother cat's jaws
Setting him back on his feet, his mother, the same height as he was... as in, short, patted him on the shoulder.
"Aggression, Huu. Aggression. You showed it in the tunnels, too much aggression some might say, why aren't you doing it here?" His mother asked, pushing him to one of the reinforced benches on the side of the classroom.
The gymnasium (not to be confused with the term for schools in the Commonwealth), was large, well ventilated... and filled with Armsman clad retainers of House Eggers and his own Wolverines. All practising their Exosuit Combat Arts.
He couldn't tell if they were working hard or hardly working, what with the suits covering their bodies and all. But, really, that wasn't his job in the grand scheme of things. His job, was to make sure everyone had enough money to do their work... properly and safely.
"Well, you're... not the enemy. It's a little hard to... you know, get aggressive. I might hurt you." He said, trying to get his emotions across. It wasn't great, but it was something.
"That, and I was really angry at the time. Angry at the Combine, angry at Alessandro, angry at the LCAF, angry at dad. But, now I'm feeling... normal again. Back to where I was. I'm just... not feeling as strongly about it as I was... I don't know how to explain it. It feels wrong to not be angry about it anymore."
A sigh came from his mother.
"My little emotional lifeboat. That's what you are, son. When you get down, you float right back up. If you get high, you drop right back down. There's an equilibrium, that I've never seen you deviate away from for too long. When you got angry over your Locust toy being crushed by accident, you spent an hour furious at Phan, before returning to normal. When you held hands with Baron Arrestor's daughter for the first time, you were overjoyed for half an hour, before you returned back to normal." Her voice was reassuring. Huu for his part was trying to come to grips with the description. Emotional lifeboat? He... he could see it. Not very reassuring... but he could see it.
"You've been like since you were an infant. Don't feel bad, it is just who you are. As long as you remember the reason for your anger, and keep it close... that should be enough. Learn to harness your emotions, so you can use them at any time." His mother continued, trying... in her own way, to reassure him. Patting him companionably on the shoulder... which given they were in Armsman suits was more of an almighty clang.
Pulling him onto his feet, she patted him again on the shoulder. Really, it seemed after he went and... killed some people (which he really should feel bad about... but didn't... which was worrying), she was much more open with him emotionally.
Huu didn't want to think about why that was. Was his mother a psychopath or something? The whole 'I am Katherine von Eggers' thing she did... was looking a little different now that he had actually been on the battlefield. Had killed people. Was that her big thing? It's not like he was different in any way, right? Or was it the allergy thing? Thinking about it, he had no idea what her priorities really were. Children don't really think about things like that, do they?
"If you need to get into that mindset again. Think about what put you into a more aggressive mindset to begin with. What made you angry? Why did you react the way you did? Immerse yourself, and then learn how to pull yourself out. Control the emotion, don't be controlled by the emotion." She concluded, walking back to the centre of their practice area. Seeming to want to beat him into exhaustion as part of some... martial family bonding.
Huu really wished she thought playing computer games or something counted as family bonding in her mind... not swinging sharp things at each other.
As they moved through the eighth drill of the day, and the ninth sparring practice, the involuntary king asked the question that had been on his mind since that... conspiracy meeting.
"Mom, did you know dad... Phan... was like that?"
Panting, legs locked to keep him upright after a furious flurry of blows from his mother, he waited for an answer.
"Hmmm?"
"Loyal to the Archon and... all that indoctrination stuff."
"Oh, of course. I used to run a mercenary company you know. Handled more sensitive matters. Met your father on one, this teenager, eyes of steel. Interesting boy. Followed me around and grew up... and well, I thought why not. I needed to have children, and he was the best fit."
...
"Wut."
"You don't think I was a virgin or something, do you? I know you watch pornography on your computer, it shouldn't be a..."
"No no no, I mean, no epic tale of romance, no big sweeping off feet... just... you wanted children?"
"Yes. That's exactly it. I told him I wanted children, I was Baroness through Giovanni Steiner, and he was the one I chose for the role. I wanted strong children, he had been in an LIC direct action team. I do care about him greatly, of course, a little bit more than the rest of those that are mine. In case you were wondering if I picked him like a stud without caring about feelings. You were a bit of a worry for a while. It's good to see that you carried the family line through."
Huu was being hit with multiple revelations at the same time.
The first being that his mother had... done things that turned her into a mother. He didn't want to think about that at all!
The second being that is mother had... chosen his father like... a favoured breeding bull. Which just raised even more question about what the relationship between his parents was... and how his mother even thought on certain topics.
Like... did women think like that, or was it just his mother?
Huu vowed to himself he would ask Glory and Iris about it. He never realised just how much his mother had influenced his thoughts about women before.
The third issue... he had a family genetic history? Mother never spoke of her parents... but was this a family thing? Was he looking at Iris like someone that would bear him... him... him children? No, that wasn't it, right?
Seriously, this was a mind fuck. A seriously major mindfuck.
"So everyone in our family... thinks like you?" He asked finally. Not even pretending to be going through the drills anymore.
"What do you mean think?"
"The whole... breeding thing." He was squeamish just... thinking about it.
"That? Oh, of course. Your grandmother defeated your grandfather when he participated in a raid into the bandit kingdoms in the periphery. Two years later, he returned to Blackjack with me as a babe. It is who we are."
"Mother... a sample size of two... is not a trend..."
She cocked her hip, "I would think it is."
Huu shuddered, he needed to talk to Iris.
Was this normal?
Were all women like this, or was his mother... actually abnormal?
And if she was... how much of what she taught him... was something he could rely on?
So many questions to ask, not enough answers to be found.
The rest of the conversation was... perfunctory. He wasn't planning on asking any more questions about his family right now. Not when he knew he wouldn't like the answers.