2022-06-27: Seeing Difficulty
- Log: Seeing Difficulty
- Cast: Lin Xiahe, Alma Stirner, BC-001 Minae
- Where: Ra Mari
- Date: 27th June 2022
- Summary: Xiahe appears on the Ra Mari to visit old friends and make new ones alike!
<Pose Tracker> Lin Xiahe has posed.
The Ra Mari is currently en route to Londo Bell's centre of command, Londenion! It isn't seeing active combat or anything exciting at present, what with the troubles with the Vajra a problem for the future...
But it doesn't mean there aren't problems. Or... something approximately in the shape of a 'possible problem'.
Today's possible problem comes in the shape of a young woman with long dark hair and small qilin-horns popping out of both sides of her head, dressed in a lovely ruqun -- a traditional Chinese dress -- coloured white, with translucent blue and pink silks. She's carrying a folding fan shaped like an aralia leaf with her.
First, she knocks on Minae's counselling door, because it's easier to find someone who has an actual assigned office rather than a passenger, but she has two people she wants to find in mind today.
"Hellooo~? Excuse me, is Acting Counselor Minae present?" she calls, lightly sing-songy. Maybe they'll both be there, if she's very lucky.
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
They are, indeed, both very there. Alma's only just gotten there herself; she has something she wants to talk to Minae about specifically, but she needs to work her way around to actually saying it because it... well, it's such a jumble, really.
When there's a knock at the door about halfway through putting it together, she laughs it off a bit with an, "Aah, don't worry -- this can wait! Sounds like there's a friend here," and an easy grin. She stretches out a little bit, and gets situated more fully in her seat.
"I'll let you call her in," she affirms, after a moment's thought. It is, after all, Minae's office, even if she's here to do a little catching up and a little processing of her own.
<Pose Tracker> BC-001 Minae has posed.
Minae is not really the sort to wallow extensively in nostalgia. She's very comfortable where she is in life, very happy with her extended Kakapo family, and in order to quell Arriety's worries she's taken pains to let both the Brave Project and GGG know that she intends to live her life as the person she is now - even if she's still working out the finer details of what a 'person' is exactly, and what that means for her.
Still, you don't reconnect with the group that built you for the first time in eight years without a few memories popping back up to the fore, and her recent trips back to the Orbit Base have left her spending some time hunting through her old notes and case reports. Algernon may be more or less extinct at this point, but there's still a point of pride in knowing that she might have been one of the most knowledgeable people on the subject - or at least on its effects on the human body.
It's obviously a day for memories, given the new old face that graces her office. "I feel a little bad about not remembering you that well," she hums, though she doesn't sound too upset as she smiles: "I don't think I even caught your name back then, but still... it's not a very good showing for robotkind, is it?"
"Are you sure?" the robot asks immediately, dropping to a frown. "I don't mind if you want to start. We've already sat down together - though I suppose it would be better to deal with it now," she mutters in thought, then zones out a little as the little camera outside the door swivels.
"May I-- eh?" is as far as she gets through her reply to the knock on the door before she has to catch herself; she jolts up all of a sudden, pressing the door open button at the same time as she connects to the ship docking records. She is not expecting either thing to give her the answers she expects. "Eh??"
<Pose Tracker> Lin Xiahe has posed.
Xiahe explodes into the room the moment the door open button is pressed, arms spread and diagonally upwards with her enormous smile as she exclaims: "Minaeeeeeee! And-- ooh, Alma! Wonderful! I was seeking the both of you, knowing you would be on the ship, but I did not expect to find both of you at the same place. Am I interrupting?"
And there's Lin Xiahe, a by now nine-year old artefact from both their pasts, looking like she hasn't aged a single day. Back in the day, she threw her lot in with the Karaba and by extension the AEUG, with a focus on fighting against terrestrial threats such as the Mycenae and Dinosaur Empires... which also lined her up against Cyber Newtype labs and the Algernon phenomenon both, as well as the Machine Primevals.
"Ah, it's been far too long, Alma!" Xiahe immediately exudes mirth and warmth as she moves into the room, before beaming over towards Minae, her smile softening a bit. "And I can plainly tell how far you've come yourself, Minae."
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
"No, it's totally fine!" Alma says, waving it off. "I think maybe the most important thing for me right now is to talk to people anyway..." Indeed, being close to Xiahe seems to be shaking off whatever cobwebs she'd had when forming up with the Ra Mari.
"It's been a while!" she enthuses, standing up and moving to give Xiahe a hug if it's permitted. She certainly gets a tiny bit into her personal space either way. ... Okay, she tells herself, as she gets comfy; it's not *her*.
"Nah, you're good!" she adds, to Xiahe. "It really has been too long..." Rubbing at the back of her head, she admits: "I still haven't found any of the others yet..." Ah, her Fairies are still flying, it sounds like.
<Pose Tracker> BC-001 Minae has posed.
"Eh???" adds Minae, finishing off the three-question-mark trifecta; she blinks in confusion for a little longer than a robot really ought to, but then she does pride herself on a very human sort of reaction at times like this. "Miss Xiahe?" Part of her cancels the boarding records search before she really registers that she's done it. It's a thing of impulse, and it's only afterwards that she'll realise that might have been because she wanted to preserve the idea of Xiahe just sliding on board.
"You're looking-- really well," she blurts, glancing between Xiahe and Alma with some mild confusion - and it really is mild, because Minae has spent a lot of time recently around people who have significantly better senses than she does despite being a robot. If Alma knew she was on board - and she does seem to take the other woman's entrance in stride - then that's that.
"And, thank you," she adds with a warmer smile as she settles down. "It's certainly been quite the journey, since those days. I met Alma just today as well," the robot hums lightly, not very attuned to suspicious coincidences. "We were just going to have a session, but I'm sure there's some time to catch up. I don't think you're interrupting at all?" she phrases it as a question, double-checking the answer with Alma.
<Pose Tracker> Lin Xiahe has posed.
If Minae spent long enough on it, she'd see that noooope, Xiahe definitely never registered herself on the flight register of personnel. Then again, appearing out of nowhere in the middle of nowhere at the most inopportune of times is one of her skills.
Alma comes in for a hug, and she drapes her arms around her in turn without hesitation. Xiahe isn't a terrifying nega-Newtype sphere of psychic interference; what she /is/ is... lonesome. There's a persistent emotional nadir in the midst of her everything, that all of her seems to be achingly trying to outrun and never quite succeeding.
The phrase 'that smile never quite reaches her eyes' is a pretty good way to describe her, which Minae can certainly pick out since that's just basic empathy at work. It's not the 'I'm smiling and idly thinking of knifing you in the back' kind, at least; she consciously /means/ most of what she socially presents and does, it just never quite... forms a complete connection with the back-end of her.
"In the flesh!" Xiahe beams to Minae. "You were somewhat difficult to look up, after our friends at the Gutsy Galaxy Guard were..." gesture. The exile is really upsetting, so she moves straight past it.
Alma's mention of the others gives her pause, and she puts her fan to her lip with a squint of her eye as she laments, "I did try my hardest to find Miss Killy, since you mentioned she was with Karaba. But I never crossed her path before I left. I'm sorry."
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
Feeling loneliness is a familiar feeling, a bit; Alma doesn't suck and/or die about it, but she definitely has bonds she misses, relationships she hasn't been given the chance to re-cultivate. She gives Xiahe a firm pat on the back with the hug, then breaks away.
Alma is kind of unflappable about who a presence is, under normal circumstances. She usually senses the general vibe of a familiar person before they even enter the room; it's one of the many traits that make her very weird and very uniquely Alma. "... Yeah, actually, Minae's right, even I didn't age *that* well..." She laughs at herself a bit. "Kinda jealous! Aaah, but it's good, it's good, you deserve it!" The mention of Killy gets a slightly melancholy but very earnest, "Thanks for trying. I know we'll meet up again someday... we made a promise!"
She thinks about the exile. "Oh -- I think Guy is back now, at least, actually!" she offers for Xiahe, hoping to grease the skids a bit between Xiahe and Minae on that particular point... but not moving past. She's never one to let something drop, which may be -- not her worst trait but certainly her most infuriating.
<Pose Tracker> BC-001 Minae has posed.
The question would probably be whether Minae remembered - or picked up on - Xiahe's emotional disparity during the period of time nine years ago. At the time, she was a little too focused on Algernon and her patients to the exclusion of other concerns - but by the same token, nine years is a lot of time for a lot of things to happen. The past isn't so important, so much as the Xiahe in front of her right now.
Not that she'd ask first, not so openly. Instead, she breaks into an apologetic smile as she nods. "That's true... I'm sorry. I ended up going out to the colonies - partially because we thought it would be a good idea, but also because there was someone who needed my help out there. It turned out to be a very good idea," she adds as she lifts up slightly in pride. "And now I'm here!"
Minae feels the same as she always did; there is no psychic presence there, which makes for a comforting sort of dampening effect compared to the pressure of other people. Or... ... well, nearly the same. In the intervening time, she's managed to nurture something. It's just a tiny little spark, and still soft, but there's a heart there somewhere.
"That's true. I've actually been back to the Orbit Base recently. It kind of feels a bit weird to say it out loud, but I'm acting as a consultant for the GGG at the moment alongside my post here," she grins sheepishly, scratching at one cheek. "Though, I'm trying to make sure I do things in person, rather than just let them load up a copy of me or something like that."
She is terribly diplomatic, and doesn't point out that by rights she's the one who's going to change appearance least of all.
<Pose Tracker> Lin Xiahe has posed.
After Alma pulls away, Xiahe swans over to sit on the corner of Minae's desk, crossing her legs as she does so. Ever so prone to sitting or standing on impossible angles and objects, this one. Like a habit she can't break.
"Come now, Alma, you're lovely," Xiahe smiles. "And-- well, thank /you/! Receiving such compliments," she laughs gently, winking. "I do cheat, but that is neither here nor there."
She nods, of the news regarding Killey, and lets that go; she does genuinely hope Alma can see her friends again one day. To not even be able to reunite, to think of how those close and important to you can just drift off and disappear without you being able to do anything about it...
Xiahe lets that thought that's gone on too long on the tail go.
"That's not a bad idea in the slightest. You hadn't spent much time outside of Earth last I knew, Minae, and broadening your horizons is ever so worth it. I consider my time on Februarius One well spent, after all."
She's pretty vocal about her time on the PLANTs; it's a bit -- unusual, perhaps, the way she can sometimes drift back as if she were there from the very days they were launched. But she is a highly nostalgic person prone to exaggeration as well.
Alma's news of Guy being back, and Minae's corroborating it, however, actually catches Xiahe off-guard for once. "Really now?" she admits honestly. "I had thought that after the exile, that would be... ... that. Mm. Perhaps I should speak to him, then." She chuckles. "I have been touring, trying to catch up with old friends, just like you, Alma. But I do admit I have more personal freedom at the moment, with no calling I have to answer to at present."
That's a half-truth, her favourite kind of truth. She did find her way into BioNet with a loose and mutual set of agreements, but it isn't as if her personal freedoms are lesser for it.
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
Alma hasn't quite noticed that spark -- or maybe it's that she hasn't formed a deep enough bond to process that light into something she can see, yet. It's complicated. Being a Newtype is weird!
"You're uncopiable, at heart," Alma teases Minae, though it's pretty good-natured; she appreciates the type of person who can be in the trenches with something as heavy as Algernon a lot.
Looking Xiahe over as she settles onto the desk, she raises an eyebrow. "You went to ZAFT?" she asks, having not heard that one yet -- after all, they've only just run into each other again! "I actually think that's pretty neat... I'm kind of curious what they were like!" She doesn't pry for specific details, but she *is* interested.
"There's some... complicated stuff," Alma adds, on the topic of Guy, "but it's probably not my story to tell." This prompts an awkward rub at the back of her head.
<Pose Tracker> BC-001 Minae has posed.
Minae is certainly not aware of Alma's fairies - but she can pick up enough in terms of context that she raises her eyebrows. "... if you're looking for someone, I can certainly keep an eye out for you. I might spend a lot of my time around the Ra Mari, but if you're looking for someone who can analyze news sources and collate information, I promise you won't find much better. At least, not without paying," she adds with another slightly impish hum.
"I can definitely say that I wouldn't be the person I am now without having gone out into the world," Minae adds gently, nodding to Alma at the same time. There's a real confidence that there wasn't before, and her smile is strong and assured in the face of that. "Ah, and I've made a lot of friends since then, too. Bit by bit, I'm learning about who I am together with them. ... maybe that's a little corny," she adds with a smile. "Ah, but, I'm a counsellor. I'm allowed."
Her smile doesn't falter; for all that she might have empathy, she's also entirely willing to take Xiahe at her word, not worrying about half-truths when she has no reason to be on the lookout for them. "I probably shouldn't just give out his contact information, but if you have the old GGG communication lines, they ought to work."
"ZAFT... is it okay for you to be here?" she wonders, before frowning. "Actually, I'm kind of surprised they even let you off a ship without being in full uniform colours. Not that I don't think they could stop you, but I'd bet someone tried."
<Pose Tracker> Lin Xiahe has posed.
Xiahe tilts her head and has a somewhat charmed smile at Alma's tease, doubling down with, "Absolutely, and that is as someone who has worked with multiple Super AI, as you know. You're truly one of a kind, Minae." Maybe she just wants to see Minae melt down into embarrassment one day. Who knows! Perhaps that spark in her heart will just let it happen.
She blinks as Alma mentions ZAFT, though; she shakes her head. "Not... quite ZAFT. I merely lived in the PLANTs; I was never involved with their military. It isn't even--"
A pause, as she catches herself. 'It wasn't even ZAFT yet, back then', she thinks to the pre-Zodiac Alliance days, the days when the PLANTs didn't flourish as they're known today... but she's already pushing credibility being around people again after so long. She huffs gently.
Alma mentions that the topic of Guy is complicated; that Minae should probably not just hand out contact info like that. "Oh, that is fine; I know I can find my way to speak to him, one way or another. If nothing else, perhaps I should re-visit the Orbit Base. Really, I thought that was all appropriated after their exile..."
It's something of a blind spot in her intelligence -- she didn't pay /any/ attention to the GGG's holdings after that. It just... hurt too much. Which is a mistake when dealing with intelligence, but sometimes these things happen.
"I'd meant to ask... were you there at the time of the Axis Shock, Alma? I actually do not have a clear idea of how you'd bridged the AEUG and Londo Bell."
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
"Aaah... who cares if it's corny!" Alma replies; she definitely needed a talk like this. She feels great, poking around this kind of thing. "I think people just call stuff corny or whatever 'cuz they're scared of opening their hearts a little bit... that's why you gotta be good to 'em, even when it's hard." Her smile turns a bit lopsided as she adds, "Maybe especially if it's hard!"
She adds, a little quieter, "And -- if you're serious about that offer, I can get you a group picture, at least. It's... not a lot to go on, but it's important to me." She doesn't want to make the conversation about her -- indeed, it's important to her that it *isn't*.
"Oh -- I kinda assumed, since you were a veteran," Alma admits, scratching her cheek a bit. "My mistake!" She moves on, instead. "And... yeah. Not on the side of the battlefield where the pushing started, but... yeah. I've been with Londo Bell basically since they put it together."
<Pose Tracker> BC-001 Minae has posed.
"Aw..." whines Minae, who comes fairly close to melting already - but she's also much too likely to take it as a truly genuine compliment on its own merit right now, buoyed by it instead of blobbing. "Thank you both... that means a lot. I think maybe I pride myself a little on being my own self like this, and I know I've come a long way," she admits, but leaves it at that. Her lengthy lecture on what makes a Super AI's heart, and how she suspects she might differ to the ones that work off Bravery... well, it can wait for another time.
"Ahaha," she adds. "From what I remember, it turned out to be a little tricky to appropriate it in full. There are a whole lot of very high up backers of GGG - both generations of it. Plus, I think a lot of people depended on it as a way to restock and refuel," she taps at her lips for a moment. "Having it vanish or come under unilateral control would have been pretty tricky."
She can't repress the grin that lifts on her face as Alma cheers her on. "Aah, but I've gotta be careful! If I'm too cheesy, Eight will give me such a look. And I'm sure that Callisto would shrivel up into a ball too," she hums, though the tone of her voice definitely suggests she's going to give it a proper try sometime. Not to mention that she didn't mention Arriety.
She softens right afterwards, though, and nods. "Of course. I wouldn't mention it otherwise. It really wouldn't be a problem - I'm already doing something similar to try to keep abreast of everything. It'd be easy to keep an eye out. It might not be very useful, if they're staying off the grid, but I'm still happy to try."
<Pose Tracker> Lin Xiahe has posed.
Xiahe tightens the cross around her legs, kicking her feet very gently as Alma speaks, chuckling. "Indeed, being sincere is often difficult for people," she speaks without a trace of irony. "I am full glad you've been able to surround yourself with friends in the years since, Minae. The way you speak of them is fond indeed; maybe I even find myself a bit envious."
Alma speaks about the offer, and Xiahe smiles to say, "I am certainly happy to keep searching on my end as well. It wouldn't tax me much to keep an eye out."
She listens to Alma's brief account of Char's rebellion, nodding. "I was nowhere close myself, but... it is impossible to miss that rainbow, spreading through space. You've certainly been through much, and to see it now, three years later..." She stops before she really tips her hand of how sour she is about it all.
She isn't really here to talk about Londo Bell, when her interest is more the individuals in it. She focuses on Minae instead, smiling a bit more wistfully. Her hard work, and Eight and Callisto... as well as Orbit Base.
"Oh, no, it is fair to assume I ended with ZAFT, is it not? But I was just in a position to observe how it changed over the years, from its earliest days when it struggled to... now."
Xiahe pauses to look inwards for a moment. Soon enough, her new allegiances will be made known, and she may even fight against the very people in this room. Is she ready for that? Once upon a time, she wouldn't even think about it. Now, with ever more proof that her heart has changed...
"Well! I think I have taken enough of both your time -- I would like to be nosy and say hello to some other people on this ship," Xiahe beams. "I have this feeling your Captain is no stranger to strange people on her vessel."
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
"Callisto..." Alma pauses at that name coming up -- it's actually enough to sort of clear her mental table for a few seconds. "Wait -- I was supposed to sit down with her!!" She hangs her head, saying, "I feel like I'm losing track of stuuuff... good thing I'm here, though." ... again: not very serious. Mostly chill.
GGG remains a topic she's *less* aware of; she'd crossed paths now and then, here and there, but she hasn't even been to Orbit Base. Instead, she puts her full attention on Xiahe. When Xiahe decides to withdraw rather than press the issue in her head, Alma feels... a little bit of genuine concern. She doesn't know *what* it is that makes this so difficult -- only that she's seeing difficulty.
Getting situated herself as Xiahe moves to head off, she agrees, "You should say hi to as many people as you can, given the chance! You never know when those meetings'll be important. It was good seeing you again, though!"
<Pose Tracker> BC-001 Minae has posed.
"Hehe," Minae sums up her own situation with a pleased laugh, folding her hands together in her lap. Okay, maybe she might melt a little bit in the end, as she wobbles from side to side with another hum. It's only the talk of Char's rebellion that makes her stop, as she lapses into a thoughtful frown. "... it's a shame I couldn't see it then. I wonder what I would have thought about it? How I'd have felt?"
Perhaps it's enough for now that she's talking in past tense - that she's clearly hoping to be able to see it, or phenomena like it, in the future.
"Ah, you know her?" Minae brightens up at Alma recognizing the name, nodding with another smile. "Don't worry. She's on board at the moment, so I can just let her know. I'm sure she'll have time after we're done here, and it's not like there's any rush for either of you. The Captain really is pretty used to being flexible, in the end, and it's not as if we're hurting for time. Most people are taking the time to rest after a sortie at the moment."