2023-02-25: The Warmth I Feel In This Reunion Is A Little Unfamiliar Now
- Log: 2023-02-25: The Warmth I Feel In This Reunion Is A Little Unfamiliar Now
- Cast: Alma Stirner, Mia Brinkman
- Where: Britannian Mainland - Celestial Being Secret Hangar
- OOC - IC Date: 0097-02-25
- Summary: Mia finally gets the chance to reunite with one of her dearest friends. Despite the fact that Alma's mood is all over the place, they reconnect fairly well.
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
It's been a long time since Alma was allowed freedom of movement -- it's honestly a little disorienting, at this point... the last few months have been dizzying for her, and honestly, her connections to things feel a little... tenuous, at best.
But she needs to be the version of herself that can help Yuliana best, and that -- at the moment -- means finding her way to a discreet, unlabeled hangar at a linear train station in Britannia and then taking an elevator down from there. When she was in Londo Bell, Celestial Being would have been her enemy; now they're her allies, if only by dint of her few remaining connections.
There aren't many mobile weapons here, but it's where she's been forwarded to select something for deniable operations; she walks across maintenance catwalks, looking for something that strikes her fancy to bring home to Yuliana and Elisa in order to make hers. She's wearing a green coat not terribly far off from the cut she'd chosen the last time she had to contend with Britannian winter in a meaningful way, 17 years ago; like then, her hair is up, too, and her look seems built entirely around a pair of earrings and a choker with bright green crystals. A little green eyeshadow sets off her eyes a bit; in general, her look is a lot more makeup-forward than it used to be, though it's clear she knows what she's doing.
... even for an ex-Zeon soldier, that's a lot of green.
"Hmmm... hmmmmmm... I do like the sense of speed here!" she murmurs, looking at an EXAMAC, mostly heedless of who else might be around. Her cheeks puff out a bit as she taps her chin, deep in thought.
<Pose Tracker> Mia Brinkman has posed.
"That range...? Hm. No, not good enough. If it could just turn a little better..." Mia, too, is lost in thought as she works on fine tuning the limbs of a mobile weapon in, conveniently enough, one of those hangers that a certain ex-Zeon soldier just happens to find herself in. She's making minute adjustments to a larger machine's arms, poring through reams of notes to compare and contrast different readouts, never looking particularly satisfied with whatever it is she's doing.
And of course, she takes a break by chance at the same time when that certain soldier starts wandering along those maintenance catwalks. Mia lets out a long, inhaling hiss as she stretches her arms back over her head, freezing up briefly when she feels that satisfying pop in her back. Although her wardrobe has certainly added some new colors over the years (mostly through jackets and coats with various subdued shades of white, red, and yellow), Mia hasn't really updated the rest of her look to keep up.
Notably, she's still wearing the same kind of glasses she used to so long ago, just a bit bigger to fit her face better. Her hair is still largely in the same frumpy style it had been, too, albeit a fair bit longer all around. She's got it tied up in a loose ponytail at the moment, though, on the off chance it could get caught in the machinery.
Spotting movement from an unfamiliar outfit, though, has her peering right at- "... Eh? Is that...? Are you...?" She doesn't sound like she's sure, but she's approaching fast!
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
It does make her terribly easy to spot, doesn't it? Her youthful appearance, coupled with the fact that most of what's changed in her usual look is, at the moment, backslid all the way to the One Year War... it'd be hard to miss Alma Stirner, at the moment. And indeed --
She'd recognize that voice anywhere. "Mia?!" she starts, and it's like the years slide away and she's sixteen again, if just for a moment; she turns, and it's not just Mia who's suddenly approaching at speed.
... Alma's more certain -- and a little giggly, to boot. She reaches out to embrace Mia on approach --
... Something's off. Even if Mia isn't nearly as sensitive to that world as Alma herself, the sense of easy connection that used to roll off Alma just... isn't there. She looks like Alma, sure; she acts like Alma; she reacts to Mia's presence exactly as Alma would. "You're here? Oh, I thought I'd lost you forever -- when we never managed to meet up again after the war, I was so worried, but... ahaha, oh my gosh! I never would have imagined..."
She holds just a bit too tightly. "What happened? I have so many questions...!" she enthuses, just the same.
<Pose Tracker> Mia Brinkman has posed.
Mia's absolutely stunned when she confirms that it is, indeed, Alma she's staring right at. Her initial excitement is high, of course, as she lets out a pleasantly surprised squeak at catching her friend and embracing her, and it takes a long while for that off-ness to really set in.
It still needs to punch through all the concern, both from what she had felt back then and what she's feeling now. "Alma! It's really you? How did... Where? Weren't you.. I mean, wait, but you were...!" Although Mia's gotten a bit stronger over the years (and added a few inches of height) and considerably more tired, she's still struggling a bit to try and keep all her excitement in after so long.
"I thought you... You're not mad, then?" She finally blurts out, some of that relief getting replaced with a touch of apprehension. "I mean... For working here. Instead of-"
Right. This is still a Celestial Being hangar, isn't it? And seeing as how she's never heard of Alma joining up with them, Mia takes it upon herself to take off her coat quickly and throw it over Alma's head. "Oh dear... Did anyone see you coming in? Come on, I know where we can get you out of here before anyone notices. You're not hurt, are you? You sounds different, too..." Mia's already sounding considerably more worried, but she's keeping it together for the time being. She can freak out after her friend's somewhere safer!
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
"What? Why would I be mad?! Mia, the last time we got to talk I was ready to die for you," Alma starts, and then -- a coat?! "Aaah -- hey, hey -- ah! Hold on, there's a misunderstanding here!" she stammers, even as she starts to get led. "I'm working with you now! Things are changing really fast lately!"
... She is easy to lead, though; she doesn't fight the being led around too terribly hard. "Do you know Dr. Kafim and Yulie?" she asks, doing her best not to fight too much so she can keep talking. "I don't know how much you guys all talk to each other, but -- I'm on your side!"
... well, strictly speaking, she's on their side, but that's not relevant right now. "Mia -- we need to talk about this!" Something nags at her. She could cut through this misunderstanding a lot faster --
-- no, it's fine.
<Pose Tracker> Mia Brinkman has posed.
"... Eh? Wait, you are? I thought you were-" Mia stumbles a bit, and she has enough sense to at least get that coat off Alma's head before guiding her towards the break room. "-with... I don't know. Londo Bell, NERV, one of those places. It sounded like a lot of former soldiers went right back to it, so I..."
Almost all at once, the adrenaline that had been running through Mia leaves her just as quickly, and she's slouching over a bit while her moving pace slows donw considerably. "Y-yeah, I've... I mean, I haven't really talked to either of them ina while, but I've just kind of been... Here."
She gestures back at the rest of the hangar. "Or other places like this. Putting things together, improving them, trying to get something better together that can really stop all of the fighting. Something that means people like us don't have to fight like we used to."
With her mind considerably more at ease, Mia nearly collapses onto Alma with another hug, albeit with less energy than before and more relief. She's trembling, though, even if her voice is considerably less shaky. If nothing else, she's got it together at least on one front, and it's a good thing that Mia (probably) can't see her tearing up right about now.
"Y-yeah, let's talk. Everything that's happened since then... Where have you been, anyway? What have you been up to? And... How'd you get here, anyway?"
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
"Oh, I mean. I was with the AEUG, and then with Londo Bell," Alma answers, starting to level off a bit. "It's not that I wanted to go right back to being a soldier... I had a civilian job for five years after the war! But there were things I couldn't leave alone."
As they head into the break room, Alma leans into Mia, letting herself be hugged. She's a little more stable than Mia, it seems... or maybe it's just that her whole emotional affect is a touch muted. "That's good! That's always been your kind of talent, Mia... I'm really glad you found somewhere you could do what you do best." She smiles, and she is a little misty-eyed -- but the old Alma probably would've started crying on the spot.
"Me?" She sounds genuinely surprised at the interest. "Well... do you remember Lilith?" Embarrassed, she explains, "We met up again during the Gryps Conflict and teamed up for a while. We were partners -- and she was my commanding officer in Londo Bell for a while." Her mood takes a sudden, sharp shift down, flaring with an anger that seems to sit wrongly on her face, as she says, "... then she tried to kill Yulie, and I just couldn't handle her anymore. Since then I've been working with the Kafims!" Mood right back up. Alma's always had a little bit of a labile mood, but this... "Which is why I'm here -- to get something I can use to help them."
"What about you? I'm not surprised to see you working on mobile suits, but here...? What happened?"
<Pose Tracker> Mia Brinkman has posed.
As their conversation continues, though, Mia does start to notice that off-ness about Alma again. She's never known Alma to be a complete blubbering mess, of course, but she's still surprised that her response has been so... Tame?
Maybe there's something going on that she's not aware of, but it'd be strange to poke at it without any real prompting. Instead, she focuses on helping Alma into the room, content to just be near a missed friend after so long, finally grabbing a table for them and raiding the fridge for drinks. "Coffee? Soda? Something stronger?"
Mia opts for an energy drink herself, along with some water. Luckily, she's not drinking either when Alma mentions working with Lilith, and she nods slowly while sipping from her can of stuff. "That's not too surprising. She sounded a lot better that last time I heard her compared to when we were fighting."
Distant memories, but remembering what Lilith had been like before Alma finally cooled her down is still a strong enough contrast to stick in Mia's mind. It's Alma's sudden mood swings towards and away from anger in such a short span, though, that gets Mia to go slightly wide-eyed and moderately confused at first. "... Eh? Oh, you knew them before Celestial Being? That's..."
Actually, that kind of tracks. It's not like Mia's knew them prior to joining herself, so... Something still seems off, but she can't put her finger on what. Still, knowing that Alma's safe still puts her mind at ease despite the oddness! "Great! With us working together, we'd be able to put a stop to more wars before they can start even faster. I only joined up recently, but... Um."
Time for memory lane! "After the war, I went back home with my parents to work at Zimmad. It was nice for a while, since I could really focus on improving and working on existing designs, but..." She hesitates. "Zimmad got folded in to Anaheim, and... That happened. Um. So. I actually joined up with AEUG for a little while, too, but it didn't go so well."
Mia doesn't say anything about punching someone, but she might have something on her record there. Maybe.
"So I left them, did some freelance work for a while just fixing up antiques, and then... Here I am, trying to end war by creating more machines for it. It still keeps my brain healthy, at least!" She laughs, but it's a tired one.
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
They'd managed to almost meet and then missed each other... it's a little frustrating. To have been as close as both being with the AEUG, only to miss each other... "Ahaha... it seems like things keep lining up that way -- Killy was apparently with Karaba at the same time, too... if things had just been a little different...!" She's not direly sad, but it is a little melancholy.
"She's not better -- if anything, she's worse. She thought Yulie was hurting me, so she tried to wreck Yulie's wedding... she hasn't changed a bit. She's just as angry as she was during the war..." Her cheeks puff out, and the anger isn't just ill-fitting on her but immature besides.
She manages to pull out of the spiral before long, though. Hearing about Mia seems to get her in a better space -- and one that's more Alma-like. "I'm really glad you keep finding new places to do what you do best! Even if they don't always work out, you've always been incredible! You're smart... and you're still just as cute as you were back then, too!"
That gives her something to turn her gaze toward, as she sits in the break room. "I know my love life sounds like a mess lately, but -- what about you? Are you seeing anyone?" It's weirdly stabilizing, to be able to just... talk to Mia like an old friend. It's the best she's felt in months, even if there's still a lot that's -- off.
Mia Brinkman says, "Right? I mean, it makes sense with how large everything is, if you... Hm?" Alma mentions another name from their past, and Mia practically jumps out of her seat. "Killy's alive, too?!" She practically shouts in surprise, more of that relief washing over and seeming to drain her even more with so much tension leaving her body that she didn't even know she had. %r%rEven Alma's downturn in mood (again) isn't enough to put a damper on Mia's own mood, although it's another oddity that she reasons away for now. The fact that two of her friends have been confirmed as being alive so quickly have her positively elated, and she manages a light chuckle after the fact. "I didn't even know Miss Yuliana got married... Wait. I think I heard something about it, actually, but..." %r%r"Well, at least the lieutenant cared enough to show up." Mia still manages a chuckle at her own crappy joke, then shifts her chair over closer to Alma's just to enjoy the moment. She does puff her chest up a bit at Alma's praise, even if the circumstances had been worse than they could have been. "Considering how it all went... Well, objectively speaking, I think my work did do pretty well, even if the result..."%r%rBest to turn her own attention away from that topic. Instead, Mia giggles lightly at the praise, blushing faintly while ruffling Alma's hair herself. "Am I? I thought I'd at least be called more mature by now.%b%bBut you're still misbehaving as always, aren't you?" Chuckling mischievously, Mia tugs on Alma's head playfully before freezing up at the mention of her love life.%r%r"Ah, that... No, not right now. It's a busy life, handling all these machines, you know?" Mia half-lies, clearly omitting a lot of detail there. "So many parts to service, so much tweaking to do. And it's hard to really get the right kind of attention once people start asking about where I work."%r%rOnly then does Mia's mind recalibrate, and she squints at Alma curiously. "Wait... How's your love life a mess? Were you... Did you...?""
<Pose Tracker> Mia Brinkman has posed.
"Right? I mean, it makes sense with how large everything is, if you... Hm?" Alma mentions another name from their past, and Mia practically jumps out of her seat. "Killy's alive, too?!" She practically shouts in surprise, more of that relief washing over and seeming to drain her even more with so much tension leaving her body that she didn't even know she had.
Even Alma's downturn in mood (again) isn't enough to put a damper on Mia's own mood, although it's another oddity that she reasons away for now. The fact that two of her friends have been confirmed as being alive so quickly have her positively elated, and she manages a light chuckle after the fact. "I didn't even know Miss Yuliana got married... Wait. I think I heard something about it, actually, but..."
"Well, at least the lieutenant cared enough to show up." Mia still manages a chuckle at her own crappy joke, then shifts her chair over closer to Alma's just to enjoy the moment. She does puff her chest up a bit at Alma's praise, even if the circumstances had been worse than they could have been. "Considering how it all went... Well, objectively speaking, I think my work did do pretty well, even if the result..."
Best to turn her own attention away from that topic. Instead, Mia giggles lightly at the praise, blushing faintly while ruffling Alma's hair herself. "Am I? I thought I'd at least be called more mature by now. But you're still misbehaving as always, aren't you?" Chuckling mischievously, Mia tugs on Alma's head playfully before freezing up at the mention of her love life.
"Ah, that... No, not right now. It's a busy life, handling all these machines, you know?" Mia half-lies, clearly omitting a lot of detail there. "So many parts to service, so much tweaking to do. And it's hard to really get the right kind of attention once people start asking about where I work."
Only then does Mia's mind recalibrate, and she squints at Alma curiously. "Wait... How's your love life a mess? Were you... Did you...?"
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
"I mean, I can't be sure -- but I've heard about her after she sent out the postcards, so the odds are pretty good! She's made of tough stuff." That gives Alma cause to grin -- and she really does look like the old Alma, when she thinks about Noisy Fairy. "I never stopped trying to find you guys... I'm just not very good at looking." She brings a hand behind her head, rubbing at it and letting out that old, familiar, 'Nishishi~' laugh.
Absently playing with her earring, its quartz just a bit deeper green than the shade of her own eyes, Alma listens to Mia's own relationship situations. "I'm definitely getting into trouble... but it sounds like you aren't! Do you need me to meddle? I've gotten way better at meddling over the last decade or so... I think Killy, like --" She looks up, putting a finger just below her lips and tapping thoughtfully. "... I'm still finding ways she influenced me sometimes! So as your former squad leader, maybe you need to let me meddle a bit to find someone for you!"
... and then it's back to the bad part. "Lilith and I took a few years to get to that point, but... yeah. Before she tried to kill my best friend, we were dating. Oh, um -- I actually met Yulie while I was looking for you! At first I didn't know what to make of her, but... we fixed that really fast. Lilith thought she was doing something to me... she even left a note saying she hoped I'd keep looking for you and the rest of Noisy Fairy if things didn't work out! That you could..."
... she trails off. "A -- anyway, ahaha, sorry, sorry! That's way too much about me, ahahaha..." Alma wraps her arms around Mia again, now that they're situated on the couch. "I'm just glad I found you! It was always just us, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Mia Brinkman has posed.
"Good! I just wish we'd all be able to get together under better circumstances than... Well, everything you've mentioned." Mia chuckles lightly and settles her head against Alma's with a relief that she hasn't felt for years. She quickly pulls away, though, when the thought of Alma meddling in her love live comes to the forefront.
"Eh? N-no, I'm okay! Really! It's not like I haven't had any luck on that front or anything." A half-lie. "I just... Haven't really had the time." True. "Or the interest, I guess." Half-lie.
Of course, when Alma mentions that her love life involved Lilith, it just so happens to come at a moment Mia's actually drinking. Thankfully, it's just water when she does her spit take all over the table, but she still needs to actually grab a towel to wipe all that off.
"Y-you and Lilith. Really? That's..." Mia pauses in mid-wipe to stroke her chin with her free hand. "... So I guess it really does happen like in the books sometimes." She can't help but snicker quietly at that, although only for a few moments until she recalls why they stopped being a thing. "You did always fly by the seat of your pants... But it worked out pretty well most of the time."
Alma mentioning Lilith showing concern for the rest of the Noisy Fairy crew, meanwhile, has Mia settling back into her seat with a thoughtful frown. "That reminds me... Have you heard anything from the others since then? If Lilith mentioned that much, and..."
'That you could..' What? That's another strange omission. Strange enough that Mia actually has to bring herself to ask, even while slouching against Alma to enjoy the contact she hasn't had in so long. "I'm glad, too. It really has been far too long since we've met. You, me, Helena, Irmela and Barbara and Killy... How are you holding up, though? Between everything and coming here... Do you have a place to stay yet?"
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
The spit-take gets Alma to huff. "Is it really that surprising?" she asks, moving to help clean it up; she doesn't even notice, fully, what she's saying. "But... yeah," Alma says. "And it was good, up until that, too, which makes the whole thing worse!" comes the slightly-too-huffy follow-up, before they get settled back in.
"We can't all be genius engineers with great plans! Some of us are just getting by on intuition," Alma teases, giving Mia a friendly poke on the shoulder. "But.. no, I haven't actually heard from anyone. I've heard about some of them? But I never confirmed anything... I was hoping you'd have something more." Alma's never been gloomy -- but it's easy for her to dwell, and she indeed dwells.
Not for long, though, because Mia is asking her a question that needs an answer! "Huh? Until recently, I was staying with the Kafims! And I should really..." ... huh, no, actually, Yuliana did say that Alma should go out instead of just serving as a glorified therapy dog, right? "... ahaha, what I was saying was -- I should really broaden my horizons a bit! So no, I don't have anywhere I'm staying here in Britannia right now..."
Something strikes. Inspiration strikes. "... And I can get back to cakes! I've been trying to nail the flavor Irmela was going for during the war for years -- it's never quite right, but I'm pretty good now! Maybe I'll pick up the pace if someone else who was there can tell me what I'm missing..."
Alma's dumb little hands ball up into excited fists, and she's practically squealing. There's the old Alma.
<Pose Tracker> Mia Brinkman has posed.
"I mean... Only at first?" Mia admits with a little laugh, although she does hold back considerably considering the circumstances Alma's brought up a few times by now. "I guess... Yes, it must've been rough. But at least you're here now, right?" Laughing a little more freely now, she furrows her brow as she considers the topic of finding out about the rest of their little crew, then snaps her fingers a moment later.
"We're here now, right? So if we start pursuing Celestial Being's goals and putting down more wars before they start, we'll make a bigger name for ourselves. And they're bound to see us at work if we..." That gets Mia to pause again. "Does anyone besides CB know you're with us? I... Haven't gone public myself yet, either, but I'm sure some of them would recognize the Gnomides once I take it back out on the field."
Alma mentions her living situation and here cakes, and Mia's mind once again comes back to more pleasant and less work-related topics. "So that's what else you've been working on! Did you have a lot of opportunities to do that while you were with the Kafims?" A beat, and then Mia raises an eyebrow. "'Until recently' meaning... Ah, you've got your own place now. That makes fridge space much easier to manage... Oh, I'll be glad to try some whenever you make it, too!"
Even though she's in her thirties, Mia's feeling some of the energy of her youth finally coming back, misgivings and all.
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
"Yeah! Here's really good," Alma agrees, brightly -- and even moreso when Mia starts setting their future agenda. It's nice, in a way letting Yuliana set the tone isn't. Mia seems to have some genuine hope for the world, whereas for all Alma's committed herself to taking care of her dear 'Yulie'... in a lot of ways, she still finds what Elisa and Yuliana want a little obscure.
"No, though, no one knows. As far as anyone's aware Yulie and I both disappeared after something got a little crazy in the REA... I don't even have a mobile suit right now!" Her cheeks puff out and she says, "Yulie's a wanzer specialist... I was hoping to take something from here and have one of her friends modify it some."
The cake is a better topic ultimately, though. "I haven't had a lot of chances to really keep trying at that particular recipe over the last few months. I've still been making pastries and cakes, but... not as often and not as good?" More giggling. "It'll be nice to get back to it... I really do want to get it right. I wish I could just track down Irmela... I bet even Barbara would have the recipe..."
Mia assumes Alma has her own place now, and Alma shakes her head. "Not really! Originally I thought I'd just be going back there... and I mean, I could at any time. But if you want a roomie, I bet they'll let me!" ... 'Let,' like she has to ask them for permission about where she's staying. What is this dynamic...?
<Pose Tracker> Mia Brinkman has posed.
"Not even the...? Oh dear, that's not going to do. Let's get something picked out for you, and maybe I can even pitch in and see if I can't magic with them, too!" Sounding fired up, Mia gets up, and then... She sits back down. "Later. After we get some sleep and catch up on everything else first. We don't want your big return to be half-assed, after all, and I haven't really had a chance to get my hands on a Wanzer before..."
Despite the fatigue, there's a clear fire in Mia's eyes again. It's a familiar one, and it certainly seems to be far more present-at-all compared to topics like her love life.
Cake, too, is a good topic! "I've heard baking is more of a science than an art, so if you document everything you do, I'm sure it'll work out. At least, if you can taste the minor differences... A second opinion would help there, I bet."
Alma clarifying her living situation, meanwhile, has Mia's gaze going blank for a moment. "... You don't have a place now? Oh dear, what am I going to do with you?" Sighing dramatically, Mia chuckles after a moment and places her hand on Alma's shoulder with a light shake. "Give me... Um."
Right. She hasn't cleaned up the place in a while, has she? "... Why don't you pick out something in the hangar first? Take your time, though, since there's a lot of ground to cover!" It's definitely not a cover for how much of a mess Mia's own room might be right now.
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
"Hey! I've had a really weird time of it lately... it's not like I've been living out of ships for the last dec..." ... yeah, actually, it is like that, Alma. It actually is like that! You have been living out of ships for the last decade other than whatever weird live-in arrangement you have with Yuliana. Once she realizes that, she has to scratch her cheek and go, "... Ahahaha, okay, you got me."
The topic of baking seems very safe. "That's what I was hoping for... I feel like I'm missing something in the taste profile and I don't know what it is! I've tried every trick in the book for extending your ingredients in wartime, I've tried looking through Zeon provision lists... I'm just stuck, ahahaha." Maybe she was never meant to be the only one doing it, though. A second opinion would help.
The touch to her shoulder prompts a laugh. "... Yeah! I can do that. I have my eye on something, but I might want to see how it handles first, even if it's just in the simulators... I doubt they'd let me immediately take it out. ... maybe after we bring it to Yulie and Dr. Kafim's place I can see how it really handles. I bet you'd get along with Shari, too!"
There's a nostalgia to that as she reflects, "Remember how we always had to test everything live first? Simulator tech has really evolved a lot, huh... I bet it would've saved both of us a few bumps and bruises."
She does not seem to sense -- psychically or otherwise -- that she's been distracted from pressing on the topic of Mia's room. Stretching out a bit, she finally starts to stand back up, saying, "I'll go take a second look for sure. ... Thanks, Mia. I hope we can do a lot of good together...!"