2022-02-15: This 'Drift' Wasn't So Far
- Log: This 'Drift' Wasn't So Far
- Cast: Ruri Hoshino, Eight York
- Where: The Nadesico/the Ra Mari (Comms)
- Date: 2022-02-15
- Summary: Ruri finally manages to contact Eight and make amends for an unfortunate interaction.
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<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
Dear Captain York,
I guess a lot of regrettable things happened a little while ago because of what I
> Delete draft? OK
Dear Captain York,
I wish our last encounter had not gone so foolishly, but
> Delete draft? OK
Dear Captain York,
I'm very, very, very
> Delete draft? OK
Dear Captain York,
I'm a fool.
There are many things I didn't understand about the world. I guess I never had to learn about them. But I didn't realise how shocking rejection was. And I didn't realise how cold it felt to care about me, either.
I did some very thoughtless things the last time we met, and not just then, either.
I
> Delete draft? OK
Ruri stares down at her console, downcast.
In the end, she doesn't manage to finish any of her messages until she gets a little help from someone beside her.
Dear Captain York,
I'm sorry I hurt you. I don't want that conversation to be the last one we have. But I understand if you don't want to talk to me right now, too. Reaching out to people isn't bad. I'm just a stubborn girl.
Kind regards,
Ruri Hoshino, Systems Operator, ND-001 Nadesico, Nergal
Eventually, she even manages to send it off.
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
Captain York looks down at the console before her, considering the words on it as she sits behind her desk. Ruri's message is displayed on it, and has been for the last few minutes. She's thinking...
The blonde is in her office at the moment, having just finished some other work, and happens to be resting a hand under her cheek as she reads it over. There is a small smile on her face; this had been something she'd been rather worried about...
Eventually, she begins to tap out a reply:
Ruri,
Thank you for your message. I would have understood if you'd wanted to avoid talking to me after last time, but I admit that I would also have been unhappy. I happen to have some free time at the moment if you still wanted to talk. It doesn't have to be the last conversation at all.
-Eight
...her style is altogether less formal, admittedly. But that's just how she is. She sends off the message, and then depresses a button at her desk.
"Rezza," she says. "Keep taking care of the bridge for me for a bit. I have something to handle here in my office."
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
> No new messages.
> One new message. (It was an internal Nergal note; Ruri scans over it and disregards it for the hope-rising horror it is.)
> No new messages.
The next time Ruri refreshes her inbox, thinking all the while she's being very subtle about it, Omoikane co-opts the automatic message.
< BUSY SCHEDULE >
"Mm," Ruri sighs, looking down at her console. Back to work, then. She pulls up the window bowl, all surrounded by various reports into the Nadesico's condition. "All right. Please bring up --"
< MESSAGE ! >
That's Omoikane again, excitedly undercutting any automatic notifications, because this message is from the person Ruri wanted to talk to.
It only takes Ruri a moment to read the contents; it takes minutes longer for her to transmit a reply.
Dear Captain York,
I would like that.
Kind regards,
Ruri Hoshino, Systems Operator, ND-001 Nadesico, Nergal
Apparently her emails are just all like that.
Clearing a window for communication at a distance is always a little tricky, given Minovsky interference, but eventually Ruri is able to route a connection to the Ra Mari. She hails the ship on a private channel, but all the checks and signatures are in place.
The communication windows the Nadesico transmits are squares of video centred on the user's face; this one is a little fuzzy at the edges from the distance, but it's still perfectly legible as Ruri's stoic face.
(There are a lot more windows behind her, occasionally drifting into view, because Ruri is in fact at this moment surrounded by those windows.)
"Come in, caiman, common, combine," she echoes into the window, as she opens the channel. "... there. Hello, Captain York. Thank you for agreeing to speak with me today."
She says that, but she does end up pausing, after she says it. She's an awkward child! "Please accept my apology," Ruri settles on, after a moment. "I was very inconsiderate." There's not much inflection to prove that, either way; her voice sounds much the same it always has. But there's a little dip of her head, and a little arc to her brow as her gaze comes back up, which suggest she's not entirely an unmoved pool.
(Not that anyone was convinced Ruri was.)
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
Eight York does have a busy schedule. It's true. For instance, while she waits on a reply from Ruri, she catches up on a little more paperwork; a commendation for an officer's work in the last battle is being recommended, and she's signing off on it, which means a ceremony later.
Little things.
When the message window pops up, Eight is at her desk in her office, looking into the console. She waves with a smile. "Hi, Ruri."
Awkward is fine. Eight is willing to wait for Ruri to find her feet, as it were, or her words more generally.
"I accept," she says simply. "I wouldn't have held it against you... but I appreciate that you'd say so. Thank you." She pauses. A little dip of her head, a little arc to her brow... yes, Eight can see it; she's gotten good at reading facial expressions instead of surface emotions, at least pretty good.
"How are things going at the moment? I'm finally enjoying a quiet bit for my part."
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"It would have been fine if you had," Ruri says, glancing away, a little mumbley. She doesn't really know how to express how allergic she is to allowing kindnesses like that, but since she's trying to apologise to Eight, she doesn't really feel she can be cross about it, either.
Anyway, it's not quite... like that, since she's apologising in the first place.
Her gaze comes back to the window a moment later, though. "The Nadesico has finished repairs after the incident with the Seventh Angel," she reports, "so we'll be continuing our work soon, but for now we're not doing much at all. Ms. Haruka was trying out a new shade of nail polish, and Ms. Reinard and the Captain are up to their usual foolishness. I've been completing technical reports, since the systems have been under a little strain, lately."
Ruri pauses, in her dry report.
"I rode a train for the first time not so long ago," she adds, personally. "And I got to meet an F-28 Messer, too." Well, maybe she looks a little more enlivened, relating things like that.
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
"Thanks." Eight notices the mumbleyness, and isn't going to belabor it too much. But she does appreciate it. ...It's just that she'd have held it against herself, more than against Ruri. She can't really easily explain how much a relief it is to hear from her, after all that...
"That's good. The Ra Mari should be done with repairs soon, too."
She considers. The systems have been under strain... Haruka does seem really good at that kind of thing. Eight never gets the chance to do as much these days.
"Oh really?? I like trains, we used to have one on the colony from one side to the other that I rode a lot." A beat, "An F-28 Messser! Classic! Well, that's fun!"
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
Minato brings a particular office-lady energy to the bridge, but Ruri described her as the fool looking out for them to Lilith, anyway. She must have some shred of positive regard for her.
(Well, liking one out of two helmswomen ain't bad.)
Ruri's expression gentles, when Eight responds so well to her Escapades. "We were riding one in a colony too," she confirms, "since there wasn't a good place to position the Nadesico nearby." Well, Eight has a big ship, too -- she surely knows the foibles of finding parking. "I met Doctor Dorothy on the train," she adds, remembering that Eight met her during that doomed party, too. "I suppose she's a little callous, but she's really a kind woman, when she's speaking personally." And quite animated! But Ruri doesn't add that part.
"Mr. Biaggi isn't so bad, either," she adds, and her neutrality is at least engaged, now. "He's a bit of a hot-shot, but he told me about accepting help... well," Ruri shrugs, with a shade of apology, "I'm an obstinate sort of girl, as you can see, so it took a lot of reminders for me to realise something like that. Anyway, he introduced me to his Messer, and it was very eager to explain things. I think it's used to introducing people to flying, or something like that. I've never operated a craft on my own, so I thought I might try something like that... if we ever get some time to ourselves, that is," Ruri is sure to add, dutifully, interrupting her version of excitement to remember why she's sitting here. "I wouldn't interrupt our mission for something recreational like that."
Her expression doesn't shift too much; Ruri doesn't lift her voice in exclamation. But she has been having fun, probably.
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
"Ahh, yeah. It's hard to find a good place for a battleship," Eight agrees, immediately intuiting that particular problem because she sure does. Doctor... Oh right! From the party! "Oh, yeah?" Eight asks. "That's good. I didn't get to talk to her very long after everything that happened, but I appreciate how quickly she went into action."
Biaggi... Yes. Eight remembers him, too. "That's okay," she says of Ruri being obstinate. "He seemed nice when I met him," mostly, "And I'm glad you got to make a friend with his Messer. Maybe that'd be a good option for you--there's a lot of them out there, and a personality like that makes sense, too." Since they're supposed to be easy to fly... "Of course," Eight answers of 'not interrupting the mission'. "But you'll have some leave eventually, I'm sure."
It's... nice. "I remember when I learned to drive land vehicles... It was a lot of fun."
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"As it turns out, she's a practicing doctor," Ruri says, because not all doctors do, after all. Some are just involved in research! "So it makes sense she'd respond promptly to injuries." Ruri pauses, and reflects: "She... was very concerned with what I wanted to do -- like you, Captain York. I didn't really have an answer for her yet, either, but I think I'm beginning to understand why everyone asks."
Wait, did she not know???
Well, it's not like endangerment of the youth was one of those subjects Ruri had to become an expert in. She can tell Eight all about wave theory or data stacks, but she's still not really clear about the current status of child labour laws.
"It does? I only really talked to the one," Ruri goes on, conversationally neutral, which is different to all the other types of neutrality she can display. "I only really know how to operate the Nadesico... though, I suppose I could interface with other electronic systems well enough. But there were a lot of controls there... it wasn't like an IFS control scheme at all."
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
"Yes, that makes sense," Eight agrees with Ruri. And what Ruri wanted... Yes. Yes, good. "That's good. It's fine if you take a while to come up with your answer; it's your answer, so it'll come when you're ready." She nods.
...She's not touching 'why Ruri didn't know' because. Reasons.
"It's very different," Eight agrees. "I don't actually know how to pilot a Messer very well, myself. I'm used to autobalanced control schemes for that kind of thing, and it's mostly designed for in-atmosphere maneuvers. But you could learn!"
"Not that I pilot other things than the Ra Mari too often, but I'm theoretically cleared for shuttles, runabouts, a lot of mobile weapons..." She gestures. "It's nice to know how to do things."
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
Ruri nods, to Eight's agreement. When she's ready... that's fine, she thinks.
She listens to Eight's explanation, about the various types of vehicles, with a little nod here and there to indicate her attention. "I see... it all seems quite complicated," Ruri says, finally. "Of course, the Nadesico has many complicated parts to account for, but it's not a case of handling sticks and toggle switches. Well, there are human interfaces for people who don't have IFS capabilities, but it's a very different set of demands."
Her expression softens, finally. "I like learning new things," Ruri shares, downright pleasantly, by Ruri's standards. "The world is a very large place. There are still many things I don't know." Her favourite hobby is reading the encyclopedia, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
"Yes, it would be pretty different. I don't have IFS capabilities myself, so I'd be stuck with the sticks and switches," she says with a little laugh. "That's how we pilot the Ra Mari. Chovan's really good at it, too." It is pretty complicated; driving, piloting, all tehse things...
That is pleasant by Ruri's standards. "You know, that's one of the things that attracted me to the military. It's an excuse to travel all over, see all sorts of new things and people." And fight them! ...Well, that part isn't always the case. "There's a lot of world out there, and a lot of things to learn."
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
The Ra Mari has a system like that... well, it makes sense, Ruri thinks. She didn't feel a proper computer overseeing everything, in Eight's ship.
Distantly, a voice can be heard: "Ruri-Ruri?"
"So that's part of why you came to the military," again, Ruri leaves unsaid. She doesn't highlight the part about fighting them, either, even though she certainly knows about it; Ruri isn't exactly innocent to truths like that. "I suppose it would give you new people to travel with, as well..." After all, the military tends to assign people without caring too much what they think about it, as far as Ruri knows. She sounds like she appreciates it well enough, as she approximates: "I guess it's a good way to see things, then, isn't it?"
This is the precise moment where a woman with light brown hair sticks her head through the window bowl. Ruri -- doesn't jump, but she does visibly startle, as she looks to the side. "Ruri-Ruri," Minato Haruka says, cheerfully pointing one of those painted nails upwards, "the Captain is trying to get our attention! Oh, yoo-hoo, Captain York," she asides, looking to the communication window with a little wriggle of her fingers. "Please excuse us!"
"O...oh," Ruri says, a touch frazzled, as Minato retreats out of the window bowl to leave her alone. "Excuse me," she dips her head, to Eight. "I have to go now. But -- but it was good to talk to you, Captain York." She looks pleased enough to say it, or perhaps the word is relieved.
She leaves the channel open long enough for Eight to say her parting words before she closes it up and dismisses the window bowl, of course. Whatever the Captain wants, it can wait another few seconds, right?
<Pose Tracker> Eight York has posed.
<poem>
Sadly, the Ra Mari lacks an AI like Omoikane. It would certainly help a lot of things!
'Part of'. She already explained some of the other reasons to Ruri, after all, but that's part of why she came back. "It does at that. I've made a lot of new friends!" And some even very good friends. "it--"
She starts to answer, but Ruri startles. And there is Minato! "Hi there," Eight replies to Miss Haruka, and smiles at her even. "Sure."
She nods to Ruri then. "It was good to talk to you, too. Take care, Ruri."
Those are Eight's parting words, and she will be able to return to her work a little happier than before. <poem>