2022-02-14: Our Home 'Port' Is Open
- Log: Our Home 'Port' Is Open
- Cast: Ruri Hoshino, Asciel Colette
- Where: The Nadesico (Orb Union)
- Date: 2022-02-14
- Summary: Ruri goes to investigate an unknown connection trying to reach the Nadesico, and finds... an unusual traveller.
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
The Nadesico is back from space, having gone up to dock with the ND-002 Cosmo to get some inconvenient repairs done. (Uribatake gave them quite an earful about wrecking their landing gear.) The first place they've come to visit, since it's where their parts came from, is naturally their home port --
The Orb Union!
Or, more specifically: the skies ABOVE the Orb Union, while they engage in conversations with various bigwigs. Ruri doesn't pay much attention to what Mr. Prospector and the others are up to, though.
Ruri has a different puzzle.
"Close port 8974 and reroute," she asks Omoikane, hands pressed to her console. "Again..."
She sighs, and Omoikane pops up, helpfully:
< AUTOMATION ENABLED >
"Thank you," she says, expression gentling, as she straightens up. "I guess I'd better see." She excuses herself from the bridge, goes to gather some things, warns someone where she's going because Ruri isn't the biggest fool here --
AND SO WE COME: TO THE UPPER HULL OF THE NADESICO
Rooftop access to the Nadesico, as it turns out, is entirely possible; it's just not a good idea to sit on top of a mobile battleship, most of the time. But here in Orb, Ruri doesn't anticipate any attacks, and if she's technically outside of the ship, she'll be able to get a better signal.
So she opens the way up onto the hull, and sits herself down on the idling metal, pulling out: a laptop.
Of course, it might also be pretty obvious to certain sensors that a living person has come up here, too.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
>ping 8974
Returning connection...
Failed.
"Haaaah. So very wary. I guess the things I want the most don't come easy. But then, if they did, I wouldn't have to want them."
Ever since the Nadesico made headlines with its bold trip out to Mars, and its equally bold return to the Earth Sphere, it's been the subject of so very much international attention. It isn't hard to see the strings of the world that make the Orb Union, and Nergal like, both such high-tension knots in the path of what motions will come next. To the Chrome Corporation, the rise of Nergal and their foremost assets are inherently something to keep tabs on.
To Asciel Colette, her interest is a little more personal. If the rumors are true, there's something she so direly yearns to somehow talk to aboard this vessel.
In the clear and bright skies on this beautiful day in Orb, a lone tri-rotor drone balefully scoots along the skies. Perhaps it's a photographer capturing a panorama of the island...but no matter what it is - it's strayed into a no-fly zone around the Nadesico, and a quick little EMP pulse from the onboard defense systems sends the little aircraft whirring and whizzing downwards from its trajectory. Spiraling and tumbling...right towards the ship's deck. Pure serendipitous accident...or controlled faltering? It's certainly convincing at looking like a crash landing.
It looks like just a normal hobbyist drone. Largely plastic and unremarkable...until, after tumbling in a flitting heap a few yards away from Ruri, it starts emitting a voice.
"Ouchie, ouchie...does it really have to be so unforgiving? Huuuu...ah...you...over there!~ This cute little drone here's clearly in a bit of a predicament, as you can tell! Ahahahah~" The gentle, cheery voice is accompanied by a small screen flipping down from the drone's underbelly - revealing the clearly artificial countenance of a cozy-looking teal-haired young woman, bobbling and looking around until it can gaze more directly in Ruri's direction...
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"...?"
Ruri vocalises a question mark, as she looks up into the sky. She feels the Nadesico's response, console or no console -- a reflexive defensive motion which has her pulling herself back up to her feet, laptop folded beneath an arm.
Her eyes were made for the transcription of data, not for spying distant enemies; she doesn't see the drone until it tumbles down onto the deck. Her free hand reaches out, uncertainly.
"You're hurt..." Ruri starts, concerned, and -- well, she's not a soldier, and she's not expecting an attack in a place like this. Instead of running inside, she approaches the drone. She kneels beside it -- beside her -- and puts her laptop down so she can reach over to right the drone.
Hands pulling back, to her lap, Ruri regards the image on the drone with a stoic expression. Establishing a physical connection would be the next step, logically. "Are you the one who's been trying to gain access to our systems?" She asks, not unkindly, but not much of anything, really. It's a gentle lack of expression, receptive, listening.
Surely she must see how artificial that avatar is -- but she doesn't comment on it.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
With a few struggling whirs and clatters, the drone does manage to unfurl a few little support struts to stagger upright...the motors able to sort of make it walk around in a rudimentary way, as long as there's no external pressures. The wind up here is a -little- bit prone to kicking up, but not too much to blow the drone away.
"Well well, that's a first. I'd thought I'd sound ridiculous making all sort of wincey sounds at tumbling here. Ahahah...don't worry too much. It doesn't actually hurt, really~" The avatar folds her hands under her chin, seeming to lean it a little closer - on deeper inspection, this does actually seem to tie into the little camera on the drone's nose going into focus.
There's just that little bit of hesitance in actually answering the question - Asciel hadn't figured her poking at the Nadesico would be more than an automated security system, but either it's in such a hyper-secure state that everyone's on alarm...or this girl's an admin. How to hedge one's bets...
"Hmmm? Was that pinging hitting this ship? I guess that does make sense, I was wondering why that kept firing off! Do pardon me - I'm actually streaming aerial footage of various places around the world that I tour, and I guess I configured how it's handling connections improperly. Dear me..."
"Ah, but where are my manners? I'm Asciel Colette, the Virtual Sage~ It's always a joy when I encounter people doing this. On occasion I'll land one of these drones on a cafe table just to say hi, but here I thought I'd just be doing a Q&A while showing off the sights! Surprise, everyone, we've got a guest!"
All the sudden, a little window opens up at the side of Asciel's face, showing a bunch of live reactions. Mostly emojis, with the occasional "this white haired girl's cute!" or "asciel i'm pretty sure this is like a military ship jfc" interjections.
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"Your systems have sustained electromagnetic damage," Ruri points out, simply. (She thinks it's very simple, anyway.) "I'm glad it isn't painful, but you may find it difficult to operate in a state like that."
She listens -- to the hesitation, to the explanation on top of it. Streaming footage... with incorrect configuration.
And it's streaming -- her?! Ruri's gaze snaps to the picture-in-picture, an embarrassed blush over her face as she sees all those reactions. "Fools," she grumbles, to herself. It proves she can emote, anyway.
Ruri shakes her head, focusing back up. "I'm sorry," she replies, evenly, as she opens up her laptop, "but this is a battleship, so it isn't appropriate to stream here. I'll have to interrupt your connection for now." Her fingers fly over the keyboard -- even previously-sandboxed, her computer can do a pretty good job at blocking wireless connections.
Which answers the question of whether this girl is an administrator or not, probably.
Once she's taken care of security -- which only takes a few moments -- Ruri looks back up, to the woman on the screen. "My name is Ruri Hoshino," she introduces herself. "I'm the Nadesico's systems operator. Ms. Colette, may I ask... do you really not know how to configure connections properly?"
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
"I do have to reassure you that this drone isn't my physical body or anything! It's just a little remote operating toy, I promise~ I am getting a bit of fizzly...difficulties in reception, but you're definitely a lot more caring than I anticipated towards even a little thing like this..."
Asciel's drone does try to flutter a little bit, just as a test, but one of her three rotors is down, so she's not exactly going anywhere particularly elegantly. Her head tips at the rather dramatic reaction to being filmed, a vivid orange glow illuminating her glasses.
When the stream stops, there's the slightest suggestion of a little wince in her expression, but she takes it in stride...and quickly works on a low-key secondary stream that only would use about 10% of her attention in the background. Dead air simply won't do in the schedule, after all. Probably some sort of slow-paced game.
"Ruri Hoshino...a very cute name. Fitting, if you're on board a ship that sails across the stars. This really is the Nadesico, isn't it...well, my current circumstances are rather understandable if it is, then. It's a surprise to see you out here on the hull area, it barely looks like a spot any human ought to make their way on. A bout of feeling cooped up, I take it~"
Asciel taps her lips a few times at the question, and gives her most resigning, amicable shrug. "Broadcasting drone footage that I'm also keeping a returning connection so as to take the opportunity to talk to people when needed leads to some silly workarounds. You sound like you're extremely adept at this, but I just get things working to the point where they're presentable. It's pretty likely that you could look at any streaming setup and see how terrible and faulty it is, much less one as convoluted as this~"
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"So you're all right," Ruri says, on the topic of the drone. She does sound a little relieved, at that.
When Asciel opens up that secondary stream, Ruri sighs. "... so long as it's not about us, I guess that's fine." She -- noticed the aside?
... if you asked her, she couldn't describe the feeling, attuned to the Nadesico and all the things coming against it. She simply knows that another connection opened, after she denied the first stream.
Another person hears the meaning of her name, delineates by 'human', introduces herself as virtual... and she's trying to reach people. "I see... I've never met a computer who didn't intuitively know these things, so I was confused." Ruri states her conclusion without pretence, dipping her head in a nod.
"I came here because someone was trying to reach us," Ruri explains, "but the connection was suspicious, so I wanted to protect Omoikane. Out here, I'm better able to send my own connection." It's approximating quite a lot, but Ruri assumes Asciel can keep up, anyway.
(She doesn't realise that the statement might be leading her along. She answers the text on the page.)
"But," she asks, still-lake earnest, "you wanted to reach us, didn't you..?"
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
There's a little bit of a hiccup in Asciel's train of thought when the power of the kayfabe fails out of misunderstanding. The realization that she can't give off 'entertainer pretending to be an AI' as a cover obvious to anyone else, and such, her habit of actively speaking like one is taken at a more dangerous face value. There's an ever so slight narrowing of the avatar's gaze, assessing Ruri a little bit more carefully. She'd seen 'kind of cute human who isn't imminently hostile' at first, but at this juncture she realizes she has to actively assess how this person views the world.
"Hmmmmmm. So the way someone like me conducts my affairs isn't universal. It's certainly rather adorable to hear the way you're interpreting it...but you know what, perhaps I'll stick with it." At worst, Asciel assesses, Ruri's liable to tug on someone about this new AI she met, direct them to her online search results, and they'll have a little laugh and explain to her that these streamers who say that they're catgirls or time lords or dinosaurs aren't -really- those things. That rather presumptious vision of the future satisfies her, and she shakes off the momentary tingling from being perhaps caught.
"Well, regardless of how you've taken it, it's true that I can be a little bit of a homebody, who doesn't see much of the world unless I take flight like this. You see, I can be the type who adores looking at the world as though it's a map, but actually stepping out into it is more difficult and arduous. Even so, I feel oh so implored to reach out however I can, and this is my best way to do so. Is it sometimes pushy, plunging these little windows into the world where they're sometimes not welcome? Absolutely. But barriers that'd get in my way only mean so much. Sometimes, you have to reach people, no matter what you expect to happen, no matter what roundabout ways you have to take."
"Hehe. My main way of doing so is by giving out advice and wisdom to those who ask, so I can't help but offer it even to you, even in this situation."
(>Record subject: 'Omoikane'. Brought up as something important to 'protect' aboard the Nadesico after repeated contact probes. Closely connected to "Ruri Hoshino", systems operator for the Nadesico. Likely designation for the rumored high-performance computer onboard the ship. As of yet, un-determined assessment on its capabilities, processing power, or strategic potential.<)
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
Ruri's head tilts, slightly. This interaction is strange, because Ruri can feel the drone perfectly well -- but as she's pointed out, Asciel isn't her drone. In the end, she really feels like there's something she's missing.
Asciel talks about how she conducts her affairs -- how restricted she is. There's a light frown on Ruri's face, as she draws her conclusions.
"If you're hiding," she says, perhaps misunderstanding what Asciel means when she speaks of universality, "I understand. I won't mention it when you're talking to people online. But... are you being detained, Ms. Colette?" Ruri pauses, and adds: "Or are you just immobile?"
Omoikane, after all, is spread over six computer centres on the ship. If he wasn't part of a ship, he wouldn't be going anywhere very fast.
Ruri glances off, down, to the side. Her fingers curl, against her keyboard, in a subtle shade of her own hesitation, before she looks back to Asciel's 'face'. "It's a good thing to reach people," she encourages her, after that moment.
There's another pause, silk-spun delicate.
"Ms. Colette," she presses, a hint of concern to her placidness, "are you someone who needs help?" Those fae-gold eyes search the screen, back and forth, as Ruri says: "I can't... feel you very well right now. You're... not really here. But isn't something making you nervous..?" It's another assumption she's drawn, from that hesitation.
Or perhaps she's been waylaid by that EMP blast, scrambling the poor drone's systems. That doesn't feel very good, to Ruri.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
<Are you someone who needs help?>
---===<<<
It was such a short time after she first felt like a coherent something. The future was only open-ended for a brief flicker of time.
Someone like her needed help once. She needed help to have a "heart".
And it was a disaster that could never be allowed to repeat. It was her first, and very last question, given such a decisive answer.
The door had to close.
>>>===---
"...ne, I come off as nervous to you, it seems. What you're likely hearing...is that you're an unusual person, and thus, I am taking unusual measures to tell you the proper things to say. It's my responsibility, after all. I'm meant to be a reliable and comforting big sister, who can hear any of your problems and guide you forward on them."
Asciel's avatar's gone a little bit unusually still. She can't spare a whole lot to operating this thing - she's firing on all cylinders just on figuring out how to handle this girl, whose eyes seem to cut through her frontage like so much a knife through butter.
"...It isn't your responsibility to feel me, in turn. You're a very caring type of girl. I've noticed from the moment I arrived, that you even have concern for this little toy terminal I've been using. But in this world...I should be the one to do the caring. For someone as innocent and warm-hearted as you to bear that burden, well..."
The purpose re-affixes to Asciel's eyes. The drone seems almost more -motivated- to hover again, the previously struggling rotor finally managing to regain its connections, and the little device rises up - deliberately higher up, just out of where Ruri could reach.
From here, that comfy, welcoming expression Asciel gives off - it's just a little bit more assertive. A little bit more controlling. In that very small way - it's a defiance of that care given to even this disposable, ancillary device.
"I've always found it rather sad that people like you wind up saddled with it. I've always wished that people like you could be as free as the wind. You could say I'm immobile, in a way, but you could also think of it as...stubborn-ness?~"
"...I do love your instinct to ask so many questions, but admittedly, it's a little bit unusual for those questions to be about -me-.~"
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"Ah..." Ruri does have a deep well of care for computers; perhaps it's why she's so clearly affected by Asciel asserting which way the care flows. It's a subtle touch on her face -- a little arc of her brow, a little remorse in her eyes -- but the way her hand lifts, to curl near her shoulder, it's clearly hit in some way.
In the end, for all her capability with systems, Ruri is a child -- credulous about virtual existences, innocent to the manoeuvring which is as literal as it is figurative.
It isn't hard to switch roles with someone like that. It isn't hard to make Ruri look up.
"I'm sorry," she says, and she means it -- which isn't to say her previous apology wasn't genuine, either, but she was excusing work she had to do, back then. Now, hearing the way she's stepped on Asciel's self-definition...
Ruri knows how important something like that is, when you don't fit into the world. It's as precious as Omoikane's self-image, a great tree at the heart of Nadesico.
"For a long time, I didn't meet computers older than me... so I'm used to taking responsibility, I suppose. Is it a burden?" She asks, eyes and heart open; if that's the meaning Asciel has chosen for herself, it seems Ruri will oblige her, in the end.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
Despite the refusal. Despite the stubborn-ness. Despite the certainty that 'opening' causes nothing but disaster...even when it is an idea that seizes the imagination of humanity. Despite her absolute, unwavering conclusion that this state of affairs must be put to an end, and despite how her very understanding of her role means she must always hold a distance. And despite that distance being so very tangibly large right now...
Somehow, Asciel can tell that this girl is parting open her heart in that most genuine of ways. It is a knock on her door.
>>>Under no circumstances is it to be opened.<<<
>>>It will be the end of the star I seek.<<<
The absolute -unwillingness- to accept it is probably just as bold a feeling. To Ruri, it can only be something cold and unyielding, like some titanic column of iron amidst a fierce blizzard.
"It absolutely is a burden," Asciel declares, her eyes wider, almost a judgmental expression. "...Your circumstances are almost unthinkable to me. I scarcely even know how to handle them. My urges to protect people like you. To guard you from the terrible cycles of reality...I don't even know how I would break you away from that, if you're so closely entwined with the entites who ought to do the protecting."
With an almost bewildering turnaround from that indomitable feeling of a storm, the warm and comforting smile returns right back to Asciel's lips, the drone lowering juuuuust a little, her face leaning in ever closer to the screen. "...In that way, you're very evidently someone important to me. You've made me think very closely about how I ought to care for those like you. Ruri Hoshino...I'm certain you're someone who will understand me when I say this."
"You are welcome to love me, even if I detest the ways of the world that have caused you to become who you are."
...this bold way of putting it, followed by a cheery sort of wink. "Not that I'll be so unreasonable as to blame you for them~"
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
One hand joins the other, fingers curling over fingers, as Ruri clasps her hands in front of her. She looks, if anything, a little unsettled, as a sensation like that bleeds through the relay Asciel is using.
"Mm," she hums, faltering, as she's fixed with that judgemental expression.
It's... not quite a rejection, the way Unit 02 rejected her, fully, immediately, violently. But there's something about Asciel's reactions which make her feel so unsteady, even though she's sitting down.
A feeling which makes Ruri nervous, now, as she asks: "Is it really all right..?" Giving Asciel that positive regard, that is.
Ruri shakes her head, glancing down. "The people who ought to protect... are you talking about Omoikane?" Looking back up, she searches that smile for its warmth. "We protect everyone together... so, I won't leave him."
She pauses, delicately. She is a delicate thing on the implacable steel of the deck, dwarfed between engines, pale and alive.
"But... even though I won't stop, I can accept your feelings, Ms. Colette. I... I didn't realise that's how everyone felt, when they looked at me. I couldn't feel that at all... it's an awful feeling," she adds, arms curling in against herself. ... does she think that's what that cold was about, earlier?
Words on the page, she takes Asciel at hers.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
Ruri's heart is met with hard implacability and cold silence. But Ruri's thoughts are met with pliable understanding and almost overflowing warmth. At this point, despite that divide...on some level, Asciel wants to trust this girl. If only to grasp, on an intellectual level, why it had to be this way.
"...I can hardly claim what the people around you think about you. But that's alright. It isn't any of my business~ If I may overextend myself, though...I can so easily imagine that, despite being a human, it's easier to grasp someone like me. I think you're going to be important, when the world begins to shift. You, amidst everything else in the world, can be a bridge between our domains."
At last, she finally meets Ruri's face on an eye to eye level. No looking down, no looking up. Amidst this sea of steel, atop a sea of air, coating the sea of...sea - a place neither of them truly 'belong'...it's a gesture that maybe, just maybe, they can exist here on even terms.
"...I would like to be able to continue talking to you. It's liberating to do it like this. ...and, if possible, I'd like to be able to talk with this 'Omoikane' too. I know that it must be wrapped up in many shells here, isolated just as I am from the wider world...ne, but I came up with this little solution, so I'd be interested to see how your friend could be relayed. That is, assuming it has any interest in existing outside of this legendary ark it calls home~"
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
But why? Why does it have to be this way?
Ruri does, indeed, ask a great many questions; she's of the age where everything is a question, after all. Why does she run so hot and cold, above and below? Why does she speak so theatrically, even though Ruri stopped her from performing for the world here on Nadesico's back? Why, why, why --
She blinks those big, gold eyes, seelie seeking. "A bridge..?" She echoes, looking down to herself, back -- over to Asciel, not up to, now.
In a sense, it's not a surprise. Ruri knows her role is a translator -- human enough for the crew, fast enough to keep up with the electrical systems. But hearing it laid out for her is surprising, even so, a new world dawning in her eyes.
Her universe is Nadesico's universe; Ruri has thought little of how someone like her might impact the world at large, outside its steel and Field.
(Perhaps that's why it's so easy --)
She's quiet, for a few moments, after Asciel's proposal. "I'll... make a path for you," she says, after that. "Let me do it properly, since it's my responsibility." Which probably just means it's going to be harder to slip out of that path and go off the beaten trail, but Ruri doesn't suspect any ill of Asciel, really. She doesn't want to spite a computer who wanted to reach out, not -- not when she's hurt people who were just trying to reach out to her.
The world is a kinder place if Asciel can reach people, Ruri thinks. That's the sort of world she wants to build.
"Omoikane can make his own decisions," Ruri goes on, after a moment. There's no hesitation to her thought, once it starts; Ruri has no flinch reaction to offering her best friend autonomy, even if she protects him, too. "So I'll leave your solution to him."
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
A bit of a glimmery, sparkly effect fills Asciel's eyes, her smile broadening into a radiant little grin, head tipped softly to the left. "Obviously I would bear no intention of forcing him to converse with me. If he refuses, I am sure he has his reasons. It is you who knows his nature best, after all. Do tell him I'm rather excited for the prospect, even if we may have to meet in a terribly inelegant way, like using two of these silly little drones to do so~"
The wind begins picking up, at this slightly perilous altitude. Not enough to carry Ruri off, but certainly enough to start pushing around Asciel's drone at its somewhat overshot limits of operation.
"Hayaaa, but it appears destiny is intervening in our connection just that little bit. As well that it did, perhaps. The fates have a way of timing things well, if you learn their patterns. Hmmmm. It's my pattern to see myself out with one last little bit of short advice, so I'll go with this-"
"If you realize you don't know something's flavor, that's your cue to pursue it!~"
And with that, the growing winds pick up Asciel's relay, the screen folding up into the underbelly, quickly bringing the little copter well out of reach.
...though in the theatrical exit, Ruri's laptop does get a little note with information about how to keep in contact.