2022-06-10: Why We Ask 'What' Is His Purpose
- Log: Why We Ask 'What' Is His Purpose
- Cast: Yurika Misumaru, Ruri Hoshino
- Where: The Nadesico
- Date: 2022-06-10
- Summary: Ruri discloses Alexis Kerib's influence to Yurika. Yurika, at least, is convinced of his wickedness.
<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.
Yurika Misumaru has rallied every ounce of determination to conquer her greatest foe yet. The specter that has loomed over her entire life, and which, in this crucial hour of romantic tension, must finally be surmounted.
The sash ties securely around her waist.
The hat sits firmly upon her brow.
The incessant flames are quelled, and mastered.
The myriad beasts slain and slaughtered - the essences of life harvested and divided.
Every task, every event, so perilously precious on time! Alarms ring constantly, and Yurika must take action as swiftly as the wind!
And at the end of it all...
"Excellent...excellent! I think Akito-kun will finally understand the feelings that words and actions aren't enough to express! Surely, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, as they always say." A big, bright, beaming smile fills Yurika's expression, as she merrily rolls a cart down the Nadesico's hallways. Upon this cart, a single, silver dome sits, ready, and waiting.
And from the seams, an unfathomable smell spews. Pallid and sour. Swirling and heaving. A curse of the ages lurks, barely contained by something unprepared to contain it. The platter must not be unsealed.
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
The Nadesico is idling, at the moment, docked in space; there's more than enough time for the bridge crew to take their lunch breaks. Perhaps it's for this reason that Ruri is walking down the hall, tapping away at a data pad held in a hand. Minato says she shouldn't bring devices to the dinner table, but Ruri has some very important calculations to complete. It's not like she's just messing around.
Tap, tap, tap, her fingers press on the pad, as she walks towards the cafeteria. As a DARK PRESENCE emerges from that direction..............
Ruri's nose wrinkles. She looks up, at the cart rolling forward.
"Fool," she chastises all Yurika's efforts, with all the emotion of a dead squid. Ruri shortly does some more very important calculations, this time all in her head:
The crew is doing something foolish. Ruri could just keep walkin'. This is just like that incident with the ticker tape, or that time Goat went around wearing bunny ears. These strange events just happen, around Ruri, and the best thing to do is to let them happen.
On the other hand, Ruri does need to talk to Yurika, and for once they're not working.
Without missing a beat, Ruri casually shifts her step over to the left so she's standing in front of the horrific doom platter. "If you're not busy, Captain, can I talk to you?" Ruri asks, from over her data pad.
Unwittingly, she may have delayed disaster.
<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.
~((Yurika...your anchovy and pomme fraise casserole with serrano-apricot marmalade...I never knew such wonderful flavors could be put into edible form. I knew from the beginning...from the moment I laid eyes on you...!))~
~((Ohh, Akito-kun, I put every ounce of my love into this dish...something conventional just wouldn't do to express my feelings! My heart feels like it's blossoming...!))~
~((...Yurika...))~
~((...Akito...!))~
~((Yurika...!))~
"Akito...!!!"
Blurting her little delve into fantasies sorta snaps Yurika out of them for a second, eyes blinking open to return to reality and observe Ruri in her path. A little laugh of slight (but only slight) embarrassment parts from her mouth, rubbing the back of her head all bashfully.
"Aaahahahah, I got lost in thought again, didn't I? Never mind that...hmmm, so you need something? Well..." Her head twists to the side, to her war crime - MASTERPIECE - then back to Ruri. Food, Ruri. Food, Ruri. "...Weeeeeeeeelllllllll...hm. I guess I did burn it a liiiiiittle tiny bit, so it's probably a touch too hot even by the time I brought it to Akito's room, so I can help you out?" The captain claps her hands together, tipping forward a little (the improper way to address someone shorter than you) with the biggest brightest smile she can muster.
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
Ruri just gives Yurika an impressively flat expression. She's already called her a fool! She hardly needs to repeat herself.
Ruri looks at the war crime.
Ruri looks at Yurika.
Ruri looks at the war crime.
Ruri looks at Yurika.
"Okay," she agrees, and starts walking, back towards the cafeteria. Her nose is still wrinkled. "But let's go somewhere else. I don't like this smell." Clearly, a child just can't appreciate the complex masterpiece of an... anchovy and pomme fraise... urk.
At least everyone expects Ruri to be blunt and rude about this sort of thing!
And once they've found a seat in the cafeteria -- Ruri picked up a perfectly normal muffin and some orange juice, thank you very much -- she looks down at her lunch, quiet, for a moment. "Captain... do you remember when I told everyone about the man who appeared out of nowhere in our computer control room? Alexis Kerib." She did tell the crew about that first meeting, the strange alien who appeared to warn her about 'Cosmic Law' -- amongst other things.
It's just...
The meetings after that...
There's a light frown on her face, as this very serious young lady dips her head. "I need to apologise, Captain. Actually, I met him many more times, but I failed to file the appropriate incident reports. He's been talking to me... that's why he saved my life, I suppose." Ruri appeared on the Nadesico out of nowhere, herself, when the Zentradi attacked Sheryl's concert and Ruri was away to see it. Goat filed his incident reports, at least. "Omoikane thought he was a very suspicious man, but... I thought he wasn't a bad person."
Ruri frowns a little more obviously -- which is still quite a mild expression, but it's all relative, when it comes to her. "But I was talking to Ms. Sheder," the ZAFT pilot they took in after her attack on the Federation, "and... she told me that Mr. Kerib gave her the kaiju she was using to attack everyone. I, um... I think he was... well, it's possible Ms. Sheder wouldn't normally be the sort of person to take such extreme action, without encouragement." She glances aside, the shadow of a wince over the wall of her face.
"I don't really know if it's as bad as it sounds, but... Mr. Kerib has a way of... placing distrust on certain avenues. So... I think her actions should be considered in that context... or something like that."
<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.
Part of Yurika considers taking just a little plate of her own cooking into the cafeteria. A deep-rooted self-survival instinct gently nudges her into. . .not, doing that. Instead, the vending machines deposit for Yurika a nice cup of tea, a BLT, and an orange tart. The irony that if she just brought this to Akito's room that it'd make for a wonderful and cozy little shared snack is completely lost on her.
"Aaaaaahhh, Alexis Kerib. The mysterious accomplice..." The tall, shadowy cloaked man from beyond the stars who appears only in dire moments to provide strange hints and enigmatic assistance. Yurika's read the reports, and has maybe a sliiiiightly more romantic envisioning of him. Like a slightly edgier and more wicked tuxedo-clad anti-villain who appears in flourishes of darkness. The kind of stranger who can't help but be compelling, even if his motives are murky and his actions morally unsound - deep inside, there surely must be a heart of gol-
Ahem. Pay attention, Yurika. Ruri-chan's clearly at an impasse. With a clapping of her own cheeks, those wide blue eyes of hers hold onto Ruri's gaze intently. "...Distrust is the right word for it. Mmmmmm, how do I put this...Ah, yes." Her hands plant upon the table, giving a firm little nod. "Not everyone who's trying to help you is trying to help you. If that makes any sense! Like say..."
Slowly, Yurika's hand slides the cute little orange tart across the way towards Ruri. "If I suddenly gave you this, with no cost, it might seem like I'm doing it purely out of the kindness of my own heart. But then, I might be trying to get you to look the other way if I decided to just have you cover all my shifts on the bridge because I wanted to take a week off and laze around!"
A twist of the head, fingers rubbing Yurika's chin in ponderance, her eyes gazing skyward. "Since you didn't report it, I get the impression that you knew that there was something wrong. It's probably because you've been surrounded by a lot of closed-minded adults, and you thought they'd cut you off from someone who you felt like you could trust. Like they'd see someone who just looks like a shady alien man coming around purely as a problem, but you want to think he could be a friend."
There's a slightly long pause, Yurika's fingers pushing together, as she figures out...just how exactly to delicately go about her immediate next thought. "...Well, you're telling me now about it, so I guess it's a little bit redundant to say that you can tell me about these sorts of things! Ahahahah~ But really, the long and short of it...if he's getting people to use kaiju to blow everything up, he's pretty clearly a villain who's just trying to get us to do something risky for him, isn't he? Mhm mhm, when I was a little girl, I remember my dad talking about someone real similar. He had this terribly dashing smile and showed up from Jupiter out of the blue - and my dad made it really really obvious that men like this are always trying to mooch off of people!"
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
Ruri would call Yurika a fool if she could see into her heart, but somehow, Ruri's shy about that. The Captain lives to see another day.
Instead, she gets to give advice. Not everyone who's trying to help is trying to help...
Her eyes, too gold and too bright, track down to that cute little tart as it moves. Looking the other way... is that what adults call 'bribery'..?
Ruri doesn't quite understand motives like that, so she looks back up to Yurika, still listening. It's a strangely astute observation, Ruri thinks, coming from the Captain. She hadn't quite thought of it that way, but... when she spells it out like that, the logic makes a lot of sense, to her. Hasn't she been worried about the adults around her not understanding her friends this whole time..?
(The issue of Omoikane, left unreported as a Super AI in official reports, will surely never become a problem.)
She sinks in her chair, a little, when Yurika says Alexis Kerib is clearly a villain; this, too, is logic which makes sense, but she can't help but resent it. People like that... are always mooching off of people, huh.
Ruri resolves to look up what that means later.
"I see... so you're saying that Mr. Kerib is our enemy, after all. Well, it's not surprising to me... he always told me how the crew was letting me down." There's something a shade melancholic to the admission; a touch of shame, even. It would be a difficult thing to see on her face, had Yurika not been looking for some months, now. "... I suppose something like that is very suspicious."
She can tell herself she should have known better a hundred times, and a hundred times she'd miss the point of just why she, alone amongst the myriad staff of the Nadesico, would be so uniquely vulnerable to someone like that.
(Why she still feels like she's missing something, or not explaining properly, or --)
"I'm sorry," she settles on, heartbeats later. "I feel I've let you down, Captain. My evaluation was flawed. I just..." Her voice drops down, as her gaze falls aside, again. "... I feel sympathetic to outsiders... or something along those lines. I don't know."
(The implications this has for all those other friendships Ruri has been cultivating is probably a question for another day. Surely at least that nice civilian girl Arriety isn't a secret supervillain? Surely?!)
<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.
Gloved hands fold over Yurika's face. If she had glasses, maybe the lighting in the cafeteria would make them look ominous, purely by mistake. The tells are subtle, and maybe most would ignore it. But...
Her most important duty as a captain is to pick up on these problems, isn't it?
"Hmmmmm. HMMMMMM. Well, that could've been a less than delicate way to put it, ahaha~ The way you say things so straightforwardly made me think I should do the same! But what people say and how they want to hear stuff back isn't always matched, you know!"
It's time to take the boldest, riskiest maneuver. One of Yurika's hands gradually extends - giving Ruri fair warning - and provides a single, cozy pat to the top of her head. Yosh yosh.
"...Nononono. It's not your fault! Guuu, that's the worst part of that sort of shifty manipulator guy. He's totally the kind who's reeeeeally good at figuring out the things people have gripes with, and pulling and pulling on them. And it's the worst, because...ya know..."
"It wouldn't be as effective if he wasn't a little bit right!"
Yurika's hand withdraws, both clasping at her back, her spoon reaching out to scoop up a generous helping of orangey sweetness. "One of the best parts of the Nadesico is just how many worlds people come from. But it's also the hardest part about making sure everyone gets along. Lots of different experiences in one place make us have all sorts of perspectives that get us out of the crazy jams we get into...but I doubt a lot of people here really trust each other."
"It's totally normal, Ruri! It's completely fine that you see all the things you're good at, and don't understand the ways everyone else aboard excels in their own way. It's totally easy to see how a troublemaker can turn that into doubts that anyone aboard here really cares about you besides what you're capable of."
And that signature little gesture - a big, merry V-sign with one hand, soon sits inches from Ruri's face.
"That's why...I'm going to make sure I have your back! Rain or shine, if the weird ways someone else is acting really bothers you, you can always call on me for a little bit of help!"
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
It's an incredibly risky manoeuvre; Ruri is known, amongst other things, as being terribly touch-averse. Despite being a cute little girl, she has never once hugged ANYONE, which might be its own war crime, really.
(Well, that's part of it.)
No wonder, then, that her head ducks a little at the approach, but... in the end, Ruri doesn't youth roll out of range of Yurika's headpat. She looks a little baffled and annoyed at the whole concept, and it's easy to say it's because she thinks she's too old for a gesture like that.
Ruri... never thought Alexis was very good at manipulation, given how much of a foolish alien he was. She wonders: was he really pulling at problems Ruri had..?
(If she didn't have problems with people, would things have been different?)
As it happens, though, someone doesn't have to be psychic to settle on just what's bothering someone else. Because Ruri thinks that to herself, only for Yurika to tell her it's normal, actually -- and here her gold eyes widen, in surprise. She blink-blink-blinks, at that cheerful V.
"You're... looking out for me?" Ruri asks, and that surprise is a pale colour over her tone, just the same. "It seems that even if you're a foolish person, there are things you understand better than I can, so... um..."
Ruri Hoshino, resident keeps-up-with-the-supercomputer genius who still has doctorate-level calculations just sort of sitting there on the data pad she's put off to the side, has no information about how to deal with something like this. After a moment's awkward hesitation, Ruri bows her head, again. "Thank you for your consideration, Captain."
HOW IS SHE SO PROPER SHE IS TWELVE
(Actually, she's turning thirteen soon. You know what that means? Birthday festival!)
<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.
It's best not to push that gesture too much - Yurika leaves it at a singlular pat - not even a patpat! - then makes sure Ruri has her space to breathe and process.
Her tea's gotten cold! And so half of it is downed in a single, overzealous gulp. "And that's the way it is for everyone! Yep! Everyone's a huge fool in almost every subject, but they pretty much always are really really really clever in a really specific one. The ones to watch out for are the ones who are really good...at convincing you they know more than they do!"
The cup clatters back down onto the table once Yurika's finished. "And please! Ruri-chan. You can just call me Yurika! Especially in this situation. You know..." Fingers twiddling together, something's clearly gotten Yurika a little flustered - before she pushes herself past and blurts out her thoughts.
"...In more than a few ways, you're more of a 'captain' than me. When it comes to the technical decisions...the stuff that actually makes the ship move and handle, you know...that's pretty much all you and Omoikane! ...I still don't know exactly what being a 'captain' means for me. The closest I can think of is exactly what I'm doing here, but..."
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
That's why Ruri got orange juice. She drinks hers, too, following Yurika's lead. It's supposed to be cold, so it's fine.
She can accept that people who are good at seeming good at things they're not good at are dangerous; she's more sceptical about the idea of calling the Captain Yurika. Her incredulous expression shifts to realisation, though, when Yurika pushes through to share her thoughts.
"Correct," Ruri assesses, without much regard for the feelings of the situation. "If it were a question of controlling the ship's systems, I would be the superior choice to lead the vessel. Just in terms of reaction speed and integrated response, I would be able to control situations to a high degree of tactical specificity."
She pauses, for a light moment.
"... however, the Nadesico's maximum crew complement is 214 persons," Ruri points out, tone as flat as ever. "And I don't really understand how they work. Actually, what you said here was surprising to me. I didn't really think about it that way at all. So, you see, I don't want to be Captain. I couldn't do that job... since I don't know how to deal with normal humans." There's something about how she says normal humans, which says something about how she views herself, but --
Ruri doesn't stop to dwell on it. "There's certainly a definition of the captain's role," she offers, not unkindly. "We can look it up sometime."
<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.
Blink, blink.
"Normal humans?"
Blink, blink.
"Hahahahah, you must have come from somewhere really strange if you think the people around you are normal!" Yurika starts counting on her fingers. "We have a corporate secretary and a voice actress on our bridge, two of our three pilots are a doujin author and a master of indecipherable puns, but our actual best pilot is one of the cooks...me and Munetake are the closest to real military admirals, and...aaaaah, I promise you Munetake's a big weirdo~! I guess Mr. Hory is also ex-military, but he's kind of odd in the opposite direction..."
Yurika snaps her fingers and calls up one of those eternally handy-dandy floating holoscreens, navigating to a video player. "If you want a better idea of something 'normal', this is more like what a battleship is supposed to be like!"
A booming, somber intro sequence plays. A lone, gray vessel crosses the sea of stars. A crew in identical uniforms lines up, saluting - differentiated mostly by accent colors in their uniforms. They are all oh so professional, but oh so heroic in their comportment. The captain is the sternest and most resolute of them all - with a sage wisdom in his weary old eyes.
Then the music starts to crescendo. A chorus breaks out into hailing this noble crew's dangerous journey to Mercury, where rugged outcasts clad in sweeping imperial uniforms plot their strategy of conquest. It's a story of triumphing against all odds! It's a story of love - sweeping, heart-pounding love between those who come from different worlds! It's a story of every last member of this stalwart battleship pushing it to their limits! ...And then also seeming to fall in love! There's like twelve different couples in the mere minute-long span of this opening sequence.
Of course it's the kind of thing Yurika's starry-eyed for. Within moments, her original point is replaced with: "Oh oh oh! That long-haired guy is a political prisoner granted one last lease of freedom on board this vessel - but that girl, she's actually the granddaughter of the Earth President! He's super cold and standoffish at first, and he keeps denying how long he's clearly into her, ahahaha-!"
Yurika has, indeed, straight up roped Ruri into watching an episode of a corny space soap opera as soon as the opening sequence becomes the actual show.