2022-11-12: One Minmay for the Road
- Log: One Minmay for the Road
- Cast: Lucine Azul, Ryoko Subaru
- Where: Portside Bar
- OOC - IC Date: 2022 11-12
- Summary: Ryoko, recovering from her own emotional trauma from battling the Shamblo in Side 3, drags an equally emotionally soggy Lucine to vent over age-appropriate drinks. Lucine and Ryoko then try to combine their complete lack of knowledge on matters of love and relationships, while Lucine gets a hint that there is a lot to Ryoko than she cares to show.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
The Nadesco's greenhouse has seemed... a little less green, lately. It's hard to really put a finger on it, since the the produce has been just as plentiful. Lucine has kept up on her duties as chief greenhouse operator despite her frequent disappearances lately. Just, there's a certain lushness that has dissipated from every leaf and flower, like every plant had been taken inside and forced to operate on indoor lighting. Like... exactly each plant is now, and always has been.
There was never a sun here, but for some reason, the plants seemed to think there was.
Coincidentally, Lucine's mood is equally devoid of happiness. After borrowing Leito to go to Tsutsujidai in the Dianthus, she's holed herself up in the greenhouse like an actual teenager in a low mood, the door closed, but not locked.
The weepy gardener is red-eyed and red-nosed, curled up in her bed which she hasn't yet rolled up for the day, in the corner that she's reserved for her actual living space. Tissues are gathered to the side of her, tidily placed aside an assaulted tissue box that is running dangerously low.
Rumor has it that it has to do with that NERV pilot, Liam. Who, if Ryoko tries to look up, is currently MIA after the assassination attempt on Drake, the Mobile Fighter.
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Subaru has posed.
The Nadesico is docked at Zum City, and there was an awful battle against Amuro Ray under the influence of Triple Zero, and the Shamblo. Ryoko's Aesti came back beaten up all the hell, Uribatake is throwing a conniption fit over it, but she promptly just shut herself in her room and refused even medical examination.
~The next day~
A screen appears in Lucine's room, showing Ryoko with a bag of ice over her eye literally right in front of her face on the bed, "Lucine! I'm buying you a drink!"
The door to the greenhouse just shunts open, and a bag of ice crunches on the floor. Ryoko has a shiner on her right eye with an unhealed cut over it.
She moves bedside, picks her up, hauls her over her shoulder, and walks out carrying her.
She does not even give her the option of refusal. As she hauls her off ship to a portside bar. They could just hit up the bar in the cafeteria but...
... this isn't the kind of conversation she wants even Howmei to overhear.
Eventually, she plops Lucine down on a bar stool, "Get her a Minnmay, and keep them coming. ... Whiskey for me."
What Lucine may not realize is, a Minnmay, is non-alcoholic. Ryoko isn't about to tell her that, and neither is the bartender.
Once the drinks are in front of them, Ryoko downs her shot, with a momentary grimace, "Alright. Let's hear it."
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
For better or worse, Ryoko didn't have Lucine with her to battle Amuro, or the Shamblo, due to Lucine being gone at the same time. It was likely for the best. Lucine didn't do well with the Shamblo the first time around.
The screen appears over Lucine's bleary face. ".... Buh I'm not old enough to drink..."
You know it's bad when Lucine doesn't even complain beyond that when Ryoko busts in, draping over Ryoko's shoulder like a stole made of self-pity and unsuppressed woe.
And it's got to be really, really bad when Lucine, looking at the Minmay, just downs it. "Liam got brainzapped by Akane and now is in Tsutsujidai and I found him there and he was wearing a wig and a school uniform and I can't give him that, I can't give him a school life, and I messed up the fight with Drake and then you went to fight in that battle and your eye is swollen, and I can't do anything because I just want the guy I was too afraid to even say that I loved him back. And what if he's forgotten about me completely? And what if I'm just being the obsessive girlfriend, except I never even got to that point because I thought I was being the smart person by not saying anything because he was still trying to sort through everything and learn how to live his life but it didn't stop me from snuggling with him and-- and--"
It's an impressive transformation, how she just sags onto the bar countertop like a blobfish.
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Subaru has posed.
Yeah that's not going to stop her.
Lucine lets it out, and Ryoko's eyebrows shoot up as she mutters, 'what the hell's an Akane.' but doesn't interrupt her. Sideeyeing her with her unswollen eye as she talks about the virtues of a wig and a school uniform and how she can't give him that.
"Lucine." She keeps going. About how she got hurt, how she might just be an obsessive girlfriend. "Lucine."
Didn't stop me from snuggling with him causes Ryoko to turn a little pink and look up, right as Lucine completes her transformation into the blob fish.
"... Okay that's a lot."
Ryoko gets another shot, and downs it right away. Yep, this is going to be that kind of conversation.
"Okay. Look. I don't know what an Akane is, and I'm working out what brainzapped means but... really? You think he's better off there? Rather than doing 'adult stuff' with you, and being all lovey dovey like I know you two would be?"
Ryoko shakes her head, "That's crazy talk. What's this about being obsessive even? Like obviously you want good things for him. You just don't want him to be 'brainzapped' too. What's obsessive about that? Geez." She reaches out a shoulder, and there's just a back and forth nudge as she lightly shakes her with that hand, "That sucks. That all sucks. But like look - I can guarantee you're the best thing in his life. And I'm sure Akane would have to brainzap him into a lobotomy for him to forget that."
Ryoko's already feeling a pleasant buzz, and this is good. Distracting herself like this is way better than even thinking about her problems. "There's no way otherwise. Sounds like, he's being tricked to me. Because, sure, you can't give him those things - but you can give him way more than that, and he'd have to be the biggest moron in the world not to know that."
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
Thankfully for Lucine, Leito's presence had ensured the worst thing hadn't happened when Lucine found Liam. Liam could eat in peace.
At a better time, Lucine would have filled Ryoko in on what and who an Akane is. She'd even be able to explain the connection to Alexis, explain who Alexis is, and explain what a Tsutsujidai is.
_Ryoko is getting none of those things today._
"... It's not a technical term, it's whatever Akane's been doing to all the people who've gone to Tsutsujidai. They get their minds changed, but they're the same person, but something's different." Lucine sniffs, a warning sign that even this explanation may not be up to par. "Nono, it's not that he's better there, but he's safe there, for now, because I found an envelope, and it's like the envelope I got when he and I got attacked just before that big festival, the Sheryl concert, with the big green smoke kaiju... But that's what happens in Earth comic books, right? The boy leaves, and the girl gets obsessive because she won't let go, but it's not like that at all, but..."
Wait. "'A-adult stuff'....? Nononono, I meant, like... I hugged him. And, uh..." Soon Lucine orders another drink, which is impressive when you are a blobfish. "We didn't do anything like that!! I swear! I know he looks big and tall but he's really gentle and sweet, you know?"
The Minmay appears, and Lucine immediately drinks it, sighing. "The best thing in his life...? I mean... being free is good, too... He escaped from BioNet." Which is a great thing to drop in a conversation. "... He is being tricked, but in the worst way..."
Lucine's chin rolls around to look at Ryoko, and Ryoko's injured eye. ".... How did you manage against... Brainzapped.... um, Ray?" It would hurt to say Amuro's name aloud. "Or did you try to fight against the Shamblo?"
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Subaru has posed.
Ryoko listens, even as her next shot arrives. This time she just absently moves it from side to side in her hand as she looks sideways when she cites Earth comic books, "W-Why would I know anything about that?" She flusters, thinking Lucine doesn't know she reads Shoujo manga.
"You're being ridiculous. Why should you have to let go? Sounds like this Akane should let go! And if she doesn't then someone should deck her. Maybe repeatedly."
Ryoko pantomimes a jab in some phantom Akane's direction with her free hand, before downing her shot, and sideeyeing Lucine, "But you WANT to right? Do adult stuff? Why wouldn't you!? Isn't that why people date, because they're eventually thinking adult stuff?"
Ryoko slaps her on the back, perhaps a bit too hard over her being tricked, "See? See! If he's being tricked then why can this be best for him? How can you be obsessive? You want him back right? Then you gotta fight for him!"
And then she asks the big question, and Ryoko looks at her empty shotglass, damn. The buzz is rolling through her senses, and right now she grimaces, "Shamblo. The Second Coming of the Red Bastard was up there fighting Ray." She glares sidelong at Lucine, and in her hand, Lucine might notice the shotglass is making a cracking sound perilously, "The ASSHOLE did something to Callisto, activated some sleeper command in old conditioning or something. She turned on us, shot everyone down who was fighting the Shamblo."
Her anger boils over, "... GODDAMNIT!" and Ryoko hurls her shot glass at the wall, which does the rest of the job shattering it. The bartender asides calmly, "You're paying for that." "DON'T CARE!" She shouts back. "JUST BRING ME ANOTHER!"
Tricked by Char Aznable again. Once with his rhetoric when she had a puppy crush. This time accepting his presence at the battle, so long as he was dealing with the White Devil.
Ryoko couldn't feel more humiliated.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
"D-deck Akane? But she's in total control!" It would help if Lucine 1. explain who Akane is, 2. explain why Akane is not a normal person, like they are.
You know, a traumatized pilot dealing with past regrets and a pilot who can sense emotions.
As Ryoko mentions the vague phantom of 'Adult Stuff' Lucine's face grows more and more red, and her eyes wider. "I couldn't do that to him!! H-he's still learning what it's like just to be a person! Several months ago it was like a total breakthrough that *we held hands*, and he'd talk about how he was scared he'd, maybe, break me, just by hugging. He's spent so much of his life just... being a weapon, for someone else. Making decisions on what he likes, or having actual likes... he has trouble with that. But he keeps learning. And I don't want anything to damage that. Not even Akane."
Instead of the pitying slosh of Lucine's earlier talk, with each word, a fondness grows in her voice as she looks down at her drink (now her third).
But then, she's reminded of where Liam is, and Lucine regresses back to her blobfish state. "I do want him back... I should do something, instead of waiting for the others to move, but what? Maybe, if I talk to Akane..."
Ryoko mentions the Shamblo, and Lucine winces, empathically. "... The Dianthus couldn't even get a scratch in against those barriers." Ryoko mentions Callisto, and now, Lucine blinks. "Callisto...?" Callisto turned on everyone. "... Was she a Newtype?"
An odd question to say, for a normal person, like Lucine is. "... That is... the Shamblo had something weird happening with it. It might affect her, maybe, if she was a Newtype, so..." Lucine startles as Ryoko smashes the shot glass against the wall.
That is, she startled a smidge before Ryoko got up. Fast reflexes.
".... Is it... because... of the Red Comet being involved, isn't it? Even if it's indirectly?" she says, softly, distantly remembering Ryoko's reaction to the name during Mitsuba's battle simulation. "I'm sorry, Ryoko. You had to deal with that... Just.... having someone turn on you like that."
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Subaru has posed.
"Yeah! Deck her! Show her who's boss, why should you be scared of some boyfriend stealing brainzapper?"
Ryoko actually turns on her stool as she mentions how she couldn't do that to him, and then leans into her field of vision, "Oh yeah? And if tomorrow he wanted to learn to be a person by doing 'adult stuff' would you turn him down?"
Ryoko, the virgin, who's never even held hands or been kissed - asks of Lucine.
"Oh come on! Talk to her? What good is that gonna do? Should I talk to the Second Coming!? And ask him to politely never do that to Callisto again?" She growls, there's a subtle slur in her words now.
A new shot finally comes, and Ryoko grabs it, "Yeah. Probably a Cyber Newtype from Haman's Neo-Zeon."
Callisto's never told her that, but one can't mistake that Qubeley. And she mentioned Glemy - but if she were, then agewise... dang, that's fucked up. Ryoko's self-loathing grows as she thinks of her time in Char's Neo-Zeon.
Something weird with the Shamblo? "Eh? Well maybe, but that Full Frontal bastard said something like 'Puru-2 dance for me' over the wideband radio, and she responded something about 'Yes Master Glemy'. So don't think it was the Shamblo. He just probably saw an opportunity to take us down and took it."
Lucine however, asks about the Red Comet, and Ryoko just... stills.
"... I can't stand the guy. Even discounting Axis. He's got that handsome face, and charming personality, but he uses anyone and everyone. Even kids. ... Especially kids." Ryoko finally takes the shot, and in the aftermath she's just, barely there, staring ahead at the shelves of booze. "Lets their star get snuffed out too soon... just to service his damned ego."
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
"... B-but that'd be... really great... but, ah no!" Lucine shakes her head furiously. "It wouldn't reverse the mindzap! It's make things worse.... I think!"
And tomorrow, if he wanted to learn to be a person by doing 'adult stuff'--
Lucine's face turns beet red. "Liam, doing... with.... me...." Like in the romance comic books.... where they... ".... You mean.... where he confesses, with his hands on the wall, and me looking up at him.... and we're.... very close... a-and then!"
The gardener clears her throat, as she shuffles a little in her chair. "I-I mean, I wouldn't... say no...but!" More quick shaking of her head, as Lucine, the virgin, talks about 'adult stuff' with Ryoko, the virgin. Both of whom have learned from romance/shoujo manga, not one of them would admit to it.
"... The second... coming... who is this person, then, Ryoko?" Pale yellow eyes blink at the green-haired pilot, bewildered. "A... cyber newtype, huh..."
Ryoko's recounting feels like a cold bucket of water dumped over Lucine's head, on top of the residual emotions from Ryoko herself.
".... Ryoko..."
There is no blobfish here, only Lucine, leaning forward just so in her barstool, her expression gentle. ".... Did this... happen to..." (Did this happen to you?) "Did this happen to... a friend of yours, Ryoko?"
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Subaru has posed.
"Deck her until she undoesh it!"
Ryoko slurs, as she really really isn't understanding this. Maybe Akane is some weird science criminal or something but she figures she has a glass jaw.
"Yeah! Just like that!" Ryoko says of the Kabedon confession, "Then you let him do shtuff!"
Ryoko isn't in fact, certain what Adult Stuff is, on an academic level she knows what sex is, but she doesn't think about it. She just thinks up to kissing and not beyond. Maybe because she can't even really imagine someone wanting to do that with a tomboy like her.
"Full Frontal. Everyone says he'sh Char reborn. Dunno if he is, he's as much a bastard ash him though."
The residual emotions cause Ryoko to ask. And Ryoko just remembers a thirteen year old girl, back when she was sixteen. That jealous possessiveness, that desire to be special. Ryoko... wanted to be her. Three years her senior, and she wanted to be her. Because even as a brat, she was special. Everyone paid attention to her. Everyone knew her worth.
"No." Is Ryoko's eventual, sobering answer.
The two barely talked. And the few times they did, she sniped at Ryoko, who yelled back at her. She was put in a mobile suit at thirteen and she died because she believed that's what would win her the affection of a man who was twenty years her senior.
"It's just scummy. Thash all. Disgusts me."
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
"Deck her... until she undoes it..." The little devil on Lucine's shoulder might as well have green hair now, as the gardener seems to seriously consider it. "... I don't think it'd work like that, but..."
"... But... what if... I... ah, want to do things back?" Lucine asks, with the sober air of someone asking a philosophical question. "It's... nice to be... kissed, but sometimes..." She remembers how Liam reacted, when she held his face so gently, and the sound he made. Or the way Liam felt, when she kissed him on the cheek. "... I.... like both!"
It would sound more revolutionary if Lucine's face wasn't still beet red. "... I like... to kiss him, and also, to be kissed! Because he needs to know how I feel too! Even if... I can feel what he feels, he can't tell with me, I have to tell him!"
Vague admittance of her Newtype nature aside, Lucine is tearing up again, but she seems almost... happy. "When we get everyone back.... I'll tell him. I'll tell him what I feel, Ryoko. Because not everything has to be a certain way, and because... we're not like those people in the comic books. We're not made of paper." Nevermind that Lucine read them on a tablet, but the point is still legit.
Ryoko's emotions are another matter, falling into a world Liam would be more familiar with than Lucine would, and even then, not by much.
"Full... Frontal. He... took advantage of someone you knew?" she asks, softly. "... But... not a friend. Just because you didn't like that person... doesn't mean you would've been immune. To... all of that. To the dark side, of the charisma." Immediately, Lucine winces. This is private, what she's feeling. Shelby would've called Lucine out on what she was doing.... or would she?
"... Sorry, I'm... assuming too much. Too many comic books!"
<Pose Tracker> Ryoko Subaru has posed.
"Course it would! Why wouldn't pummeling her work?"
Oh Ryoko.
'what if... I... ah, want to do things back?'
Ryoko is taken aback, because that's not something she ever considered, the woman doing things back to the guy. It's never like that in her Shoujo manga. "Whoa! I didn't realize our Luci was so bold!"
Will Liam be put off by that... Ryoko worries, but nah, if he loves her he'll definitely not mind her taking liberties like her being the one to kiss.
"Hey sure, why not! Kiss him back all the time if that's what you want!"
Ryoko seems shocked, when he gets back, SHE'LL TELL HIM? "W-Well I guess it's alright for you to be the one to confessh like, you shaid he has trouble being a person sho... it makes sense that, you would wanna tell him."
Ryoko doesn't know if she could be that brave!!! God! The guy is just supposed to know right? He's just supposed to know and be the one to confess.
... but if Liam is so traumatized he can't even be a person, it makes sense for the two of them. "Good or you! Yeah!" She says, awkwardly, definitely blushing.
And then she asks, and the color goes out of her cheeks, "What makes you think it was to someone I know!?" She blurts out aghast that Luci has cottoned on to the truth, "It was just... some kid I heard about." She lies, badly, "Char Aznable is just schum that's all! And if Full Frontal is him, then he's schum too!!!"
To the Dark Side of his charisma, does that make Char Aznable some Shoujo villain?
... No.
... He doesn't deserve that much credit.
"Yeah, shounds like you've been reading too many comics!!"
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
For a moment, Lucine looks at Ryoko with an almost owl-like tilt of her head, realizing the different in Ryoko's logic. It is good to punch someone to get someone back, but, for you to admit your feelings to that someone? There's a certain mishmash in Ryoko's emotions, like two different conflicting feeds of information.
..... Like two tomcats, who were unfamiliar with each other, who just realized they're in the same room and had to make sense of each other.
Maybe... that's the drink?
She looks back down to the bartop. "..... If I feel that strongly about a person that I am willing to punch someone, it would... make sense, right? If I had admitted my feelings to him earlier, I'm not sure if I'd feel any better right now, but.... I suppose... I am bold, in my own ways... just not in the ways... people usually look at, I suppose..."
Certainly, not in speaking.
Ryoko, however, has cottoned slightly onto Lucine's other stroke of boldness, borne as it might be of all the times the gardener has wondered about the strangely complex emotions the tomboy pilot struggles with. "... It's just... you always look out for people, but you look down on yourself, even though you're a good person. Like... how you came to find me, even though you felt terrible yourself. But, I suppose, it'd make sense if it was... someone you heard about, instead." And it could legitly be that, too.
"... Um.... yeah, it's probabluy the comic books.... and the drinks..." She tilts her head at her fourth. "But aren't Minmays... usually nonalcoholic, come to think of it...?"