2022-12-23: The Goals of the Clyne Faction
- Log: 2022-12-23: The Goals of the Clyne Faction
- Cast: Rena Lancaster, Lacus Clyne
- Where: Ra Mari
- Date: U.C. 0096 12 23
- Summary: After bringing her back to the Ra Mari, Rena has a conversation with Lacus Clyne.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
Rena took Lacus Clyne back to the Ra Mari, when she landed the Gaia Gear Alpha on it. It's a little awkward (to say the least) having the daughter of a major PLANT politician onboard, though after Riika, they have a model for this at least.
Still, it took Rena a little bit to come check on Lacus. She wasn't put under arrest or confined to quarters or anything -- but they weren't sure what her status was, exactly.
A lot happened..
So when Rena went to look for her, she tried the quarters they gave her -- and didn't find Lacus. Then, she started looking around the ship. Finally, now, she has made her way to one of the ship's lounges. It has a vending machine for coffee and tea, several tables and chairs, and a refrigerator. Rena peers in, looking about.
"M-Miss Clyne...?" she asks, aloud. "Oh, God, if I lost her, I'm in so much trouble--"
<Pose Tracker> Lacus Clyne has posed.
So the thing about Mr. Pink is this. He hates doors. He hates doors so much that he will digitally hack and unlock any door he comes across. And if a door isn't locked or confined, he'll just open it and wander out. And Lacus just has to follow her little mini-Haro!
"Hello, Miss Lancaster." Lacus floats in from her seat in the lounge, sipping from a pouch. Her gown and hair flow all around her in the low gravity as she holds onto a support handle with ease.
"Would you like some hot chocolate with me? The vending machine lets you add peppermint flavor."
Aside her floats Mr. Pink, flapping and screeching, "DISOBEDIENCE!"
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"D-Disobedience...?" Rena says, with a brief stare at Mr. Pink. He appears to be less benign than she thought; to be fair, her previous encounter was inside a cockpit, and Rena was focused on not dying at the time.
She looks back at Lacus and hesitates for just a second. This is almost surreal, but she adjusts after a second. It's not like she told Lacus to stay put.
"Sure," she says. "Hot chocolate sounds nice. Uh..." She glances at the machine. "The peppermint is pretty good. It's better than I expected on a military ship."
A beat.
"So, um... are you settling in okay?" Rena asks. "Is everything comfortable? It was... kind of a surprise, finding you in a mysterious Mobile Suit, in an abandoned colony."
<Pose Tracker> Lacus Clyne has posed.
Lacus chuckles. "Oh, he just has a temper, Mr. Pink. Don't worry about that. Be nice," she adds to her Haro, which floats into her hands.
"Everyone has been very kind." She settles down into one of the chairs with the grace of one used to low-G in heavy skirts, somehow. "I hope I didn't get you in any trouble. I was trying to get a better look at that Mobile Suit myself, and got caught up in the confusion. I just wanted to know more about its capabilities. I'm afraid I am no pilot. You seemed to take to it very well, though! So I'm glad it found a good fit."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"I didn't know Haros could have tempers," Rena admits, a little awkwardly. Admittedly, she heard they sometimes had a mind of their own.
Rena steps off the floor -- floats over -- and neatly swivels to sit down. It's less impressive; she has pants on, the standard tan-and-black uniform of the Federation military. "You didn't get me in trouble," she says. "Though I don't think we've mentioned you're here to the higher ups, so... maybe don't say anything about it, yet."
She hesitates a second. "...That was a pretty dangerous place to be, for someone who isn't a pilot. Why were you there?"
<Pose Tracker> Lacus Clyne has posed.
"They all have their own little quirks when you get to know them." Lacus pets Mr. Pink gently. "I wish I could meet the person who programmed the first. Their grandfather, yes?"
She looks up at Rena as the pilot arrives. "I suppose it was a dangerous place to be," she agrees. "But the truth is..."
Her expression changes, the smile growing slightly more reserved. "We came across some interesting information. Probably the same you did. So I decided to travel out with some of my bodyguards to verify it myself. It was more that I wanted to see how things turned out, and what actions to take from there. I realize that is cryptic..."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"Amuro Ray?" Rena asks. She wonders, for a second, if she knows. She doesn't know how widespread news of his not-quiite-miraculous return is. "Yeah. He... could probably tell us a lot about how the Haros were built, and where they came from."
She listens, after that. Her expression becomes more serious, after a moment, then she nods.
"I saw a lot of that," she says. "I see why you'd go investigate it. But... were you there on behalf of PLANT? Or... is this something you were investigating on your own, Miss Clyne? Because... I know your father is someone important. But I didn't think of you as a ZAFT soldier, exactly."
<Pose Tracker> Lacus Clyne has posed.
Lacus nods. "Perhaps if it's meant to be." She says no more about how much she knows, or doesn't know, about Amuro Ray. Maybe she means in the afterlife.
She shakes her head at Rena's question. "I choose not to act on behalf of a nation, even if my father is a Chairman of the PLANTs. I was not and likely will not be acting in an 'official matter.' Nor should you assume my father is responsible for my actions. I take it all upon myself."
Take all what upon herself?
She lowers her eyes. "Not everyone in the PLANTs feels the way Chairman Zala does. Just as I'm sure not every Londo Bell soldier agrees with everything your command does."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"Ah... so, um, you were there on your own. I'm... a little surprised," Rena says.
She falls quiet, though, at the mention of Chairman Zala. Rena's eyes glance to the side -- then she shakes her head once. "I don't agree with a lot of things that Federation's commanders do. I don't think I'm alone in that, aboard this ship," she says. She hesitates for a second.
"So... I don't assume that's true of you," she says. Then, she smiles. "You were nice to me when we were escaping. That's worth something."
She hesitates, though, for a second. "Can... I ask what you're trying to accomplish? Not what you were doing in Denver Colony. But... what you'd like to do, with the world the state that it's in."
<Pose Tracker> Lacus Clyne has posed.
"I like to listen to people out as individuals, not as members of their nations. Their actions are their own, right?" Lacus sips her hot chocolate. Mmm, pepperminty.
And Rena asks a good question. Her eyes brighten.
"I am glad you wish to know that. Thank you for not just assuming. The truth is, I have no easy answers. Why should I? I have lived a sheltered life, that of a songstress and a political figure." She sets her hands in the lap of her gown, and looks distantly out at the...hallway. This would be more dramatic if there were a view of space, but she can make do.
"I simply feel that the way things are is not necessarily how they must be. That to say 'this is just how it is' is to concede to those who are shaping it that way. All of us are capable of shaping our own fates and destinies. If there is a way I can use my power and influence to bring about peace, to end this painful history of war after war...but what a task! It is too broad, too nonspecific. Any tyrant can say they want the end to war, no?"
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"I think so, at least," Rena says. "Sometimes they go against them, sometimes they line up... sometimes they're just making the best of what their nation decides." She takes a sip of her own hot chocolate. Pepperminty indeed.
Then, she looks up, and blinks.
Sadly, the views of space are only available on the observation deck -- which isn't near here. "You're welcome," she says, though it sounds a bit like a question. Rena hesitates for a second, though. "It does feel like we keep making the same mistakes. The way we can't get out of this cycle of fighting wars, of these conflicts still playing out, often over the same things."
She looks down, then nods. "But you're right. It's not something any one person can do on their own." She hesitates for a second. "And there's... immediate problems, too, like the current war. It's gotten pretty bad, to put it mildly."
<Pose Tracker> Lacus Clyne has posed.
"It's gotten much worse," Lacus agrees with a slow, sad nod. "We have a long history of bloodshed. But it has not always ended the same. We made peace with the Zentraedi to such an extent that their blood flows among ours. They say the Super AI have the intelligence and humanity of those who built them. We are not all so different that we as people cannot learn to set our differences aside, to live with one another, are we?"
Unsaid: the words 'Natural' or 'Coordinator.' Just people.
"I like to think that is proof of another way. I am trying to gather like-minded individuals to help me take action, when the time comes. Not against any nation but against this war."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"Yeah... we did. It feels like we should be able to do that again. But that some people... don't want to see that happen," Rena says. She frowns. She wishes she knew who; 'Blue Cosmos' is so big, it's hard to call it a small group with a focused plan.
She looks up, then, and she blinks. "You... are?" she asks. "Like, to--to find a way to make them stop? Settle it?" she asks. "And--what about the other parts of it? The Sleeves, the... the different rebellions? It's all so tangled up."
<Pose Tracker> Lacus Clyne has posed.
"I told you it was an enormous task, right?" Lacus smiles, tinged with a bit of sadness.
"If I have the power to find a way to end the conflicts and protect civilians, I will do so. It is very arrogant of me, is it not? But that is all I can do. I sing of peace, but that is not enough, not anymore. Though I like to think it makes a little difference..."
She tilts her head. "This is why I need to gather as much information as I can. Find out all that I can. All that we can, me and my allies. I hope it does not make us enemies someday, Miss Lancaster. You seem very kind."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"No kidding," Rena says, with a little laugh. There's not much mirth in it.
"I... don't think it's bad, what you're trying to do," she says, then her expression becomes more serious. "I don't want to be your enemy, either. I'd like a better, kinder world, too. I'd like to say that we're fighting for that, but... I don't know anymore."
Recent events have left her faith in the Federation shaken. "I hope you can. I'll... I'll think in it," Rena says. "And... there's someone here you should meet. She has information. She's... a ZAFT pilot, who had to flee, named Riika Sheder. She's on the ship, too."
<Pose Tracker> Lacus Clyne has posed.
"A ZAFT pilot?"
Lacus's eyes widen slightly, and then she beams. "Yes, I would like that very much! I must thank you all for sheltering her. If she is willing to share this information with me...but even if she is not," she adds, "I must let her know I can give her sanctuary on the Clyne Estate if she needs it."
She makes this promise knowing full well that Riika is likely a refugee from her own government.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"I'll introduce you," Rena says. "We recovered her after she was attacked... ah, but, that's really her story to tell." For that matter, this might be a story Riika might be more comfortable sharing in more detail with Lacus. She isn't a Federation officer, after all.
"Sanctuary would be good," she says. "I think she'd be happy about it. I'll let her know that you're on the ship."
She hesitates. "If it's okay, I'll... also tell the Captain about what you said. We've all been thinking about this sort of thing a lot. I don't want to promise anything," Rena says. "But... I think she'd want to hear."
<Pose Tracker> Lacus Clyne has posed.
"I am glad. I will speak to your captain as well, and anyone else who wishes to listen. If anyone asks, I am here on a diplomatic visit and that is all." Lacus knows exactly who would ask, and how they would spin it. She has to at least try to stay ahead of that for now.
"If you all ever need sanctuary as well, please come to me. I will not turn you away. But come carefully," she adds with a little knowing smile.
"Thank you, Miss Lancaster. May I call you Rena?"
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"I don't doubt that she'll want to talk to you," Rena says, with a smile. "Eight's pretty great, in general."
She hesitates for a second -- but she nods. She would like to say that it's not necessary; after JOSH-A, and the attempt to kill a lot of Federation and ZAFT soldiers, Rena wonders if it might be necessary. "Thank you. We will," she promises.
Then, Rena smiles again. "O-Of course! Can I call you Lacus?"
<Pose Tracker> Lacus Clyne has posed.
Lacus nods. "Please do," she insists.
"Will you sit with me a little while longer? Mr. Pink gets lonely without company and I do not want him wandering off by himself to cause trouble again."
"A PROBLEM!" Mr. Pink adds. Helpfully?
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"It's a pleasure, then, Lacus," Rena says with a smile.
Her smile becomes more dubious as she looks towards Mr. Pink. I-Is he saying that he will be a problem or that something else is a problem? She blinks, then looks back at Lacus.
"S...Sure," she says. "I'd be happy to."