2023-03-08: Sort Of Like A 'Sunflower' Of Love
- Cast: Yurika Misumaru, Lucine Azul
- Where: Tenchu Tower - Nadesico
- Date: U.C. 0097 03 08
- Summary: Yurika (# of boyfriends: 0) talks about dating and love with Lucine (# of boyfriends: 1)
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
The concept of 'night/day' can lose meaning on a spaceship; when a ship is effectively serving as the planetary body instead of, well, a planet, sometimes the rules need to be whatever the heck they need to be.
So, regardless of whatever anything is, it's nighttime now. The lights are on in the hallways and other spaces that need them, but the living quarters are quiet. Maybe there's a night shift, but those people are likely uninteresting, dull people who don't rant about Gekiganger, get into love triangles, or exchange gossip. What sort of crew is that? A boring one.
The night/day cycle is especially important for plants, as many need that cycle to rest. It also allows Lucine the ability to sleep, since it's been doubling as her quarters, more or less. There, Lucine is curled on her futon, dressed her pajamas. Her eyelids clench.
Hands Mine come to grasp Mine her from all angles. Mine Lucine can't Mine escape these MINE; she doesn't MINE have MINE the MINE Dianthus MINE on MINE her MINE.
I
N
E
M
Lucine seizes awake, and raises, her hair a bedhead in full bloom. ...
What the heck even was.... whatever happened? Also, what happened?
A few minutes later, the door to the greenhouse opens, and sleepy Lucine goes for a walk, hoping to find something at the vending machine that could convince her to go back to sleep. Maybe someone else is up?
No, that would be silly. Normal people are asleep right now!
<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.
"Ughghhh, why do I have to be on the night shift? It's so boooooring...!" complains Captain Yurika Misumaru at the Nadesico's staff room, kicking her legs slightly petulantly upon her stool, spinning around it lazily. "Everyone on the night shift is always blabbing about Gekiganger this and Gekiganger that, and setting up these convoluted romantic complications since they're worked up past 9 PM, and the rumors are just off the charts, it's so blaaaaaahhh!"
The Prospector, a man who has never looked affected by time or weariness in his entire life, hands Yurika a clipboard in the same way he would at 9 AM, or 3 in the afternoon, or in the midst of a temporal time-twist. "Unfortunately, Ruri-chan and Miss Reynard have both fallen a little bit ill - it's that time of year where bugs catch on, especially amongst the crew, so you don't want that spreading around."
Yurika, of course, is pretending like the clipboard of dreaded Tasks and Duties is not in front of her, hands planted to the stool's side and arcing upward, staring at the ever-baleful fluorescent lighting. "...mou, but I wanted to see what the nightlife was like here at Tenchu...it's gotta be kinda fresh and exciting! Crowded around one of the greatest achievements in the world, all aimed at the future and stuff. I had an outfit planned and ever-"
Suddenly, Yurika darts forward and clutches the clipboard, eyes wide with some manic idea. "Well if I'm saddled with this, I'm bringing flair to boring night duties!!" And with that, Yurika's run off to gods know where (her quarters), leaving Prospector rubbing his head with a struggling little sigh.
So that's probably why Yurika's here at the vending machines dressed like, uh, she's going out clubbing! Super cropped white crop top with a big sunrise-themed pattern, a neon magenta jacked, and the tightest and most ripped jeans Lucine's seen in her entire life. Oh and sunglasses! But they're up over her forehead. Her phone in one front pocket plays a tinny, synthpop hit from Somewhat Too Long Ago To Be Trendy And That's Why It's Super Trendy Now, and her blunt little heels clack clack clack upon the floor. She has a Target in mind from the vending machines, aimed there like an arrow, before-
"Oh! Lucine! Wow, you're a real fashion pioneer in that getup. It's not exactly following the Rules of Fashion, but maybe maybe - maybe that kind of instinct is exactly what the world of dance halls needs to- oh wait no you just got out of bed. ...Dang iiiit, I'd hoped I'd found a fellow Night Shift Night Life* practicioner!"
*This is a cultural practice Yurika has only just made up and which lives entirely in her imagination.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
".... Ah... Maybe some ramen..." Lucine ends the thought with a yawn. ".... Maybe one of those candy bars..." It's nighttime logic, so clearly she needs whatever first comes into her mind!
Finally she comes to her final decision: some soup in a can, a bottle of flavored water, and a candy bar. Surely the breakfast(?) of champions here. And she's certainly dressed like one, in her flannel pajama bottoms and colored t-shirt fashionally set askew. And her hair is in a wonderful state of mock low G, with curls just beginning to wake up and realize they need to follow the laws of gravity, but there's no real rush on that.
And Lucine is, in fact, taking a nice long drink from her flavored water bottle when Yurika walks up.
And now Lucine is fully awake, dealing with the dangers of having liquids go down the wrong tube as she sputters and coughs. "... Ah..." One yellow eye opens as the other is squinted shut. ".... I... slept wrong."
There's a long pause. ".... Are you doing a funeral...?" That always seems to be the reason Yurika is dressing up as one thing or another. "... a club.... funeral...? Earth has a lot of different ones I don't know about..."
<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.
"I finished the funeral business ages ago, aaaagh!" Yurika's hands fly up to clutch her temples, the ridiculousness of that entire affair flashing back in her mind. "I'm finally caught up. I'm finally caught up. I'm finally-!"
Rapid-fire headshaping. Blblblbl. "But no! I'm trying to be STYLISH! I got stuck on the night shift with a bunch of Stuff and Things to do, even when I wanted to go out for a night on the town!"
Yurika pulls off a festive little twirl and a raising of her fist, with her biggest sparkliest wink she can muster at Lucine. "You see? This would've charmed everyone's socks off, and I'd fall into a whirlwind romance with a jet-setting traveler in no time!"
The uplifting tone of her voice lingers for a while, before...oh so suddenly, Yurika staggers sideways, face planting against one of the vending machines, fist banging at the little suite of buttons. (Selected: Carrot Soup.) Sniffling. Pouting. "Aaaaah it's already happening! I'm becoming eaten up by my job! The boy of my dreams has more with one of my subordinates than with me! I'm not even his first kiss! And...and...we can hardly discount that minute by minute, the charms of youth are slipping away..."
The vending machine begins balefully pouring out a bowl of carrot soup - its least popular item, wow! - and Yurika whirls around to clutch Lucine's shoulders. "...I've...I've...!! ...I've already found a gray hair, waaaaaaaaaaaggghhhhh!!!" Tears cascade down the captain's eyes. "It's oveeeeer, the path of whirlwind romance is slipping from my fingers, it's no faaaaiiiir I worked so hard to be the most beautiful and energetic maiden in the seven seas and I'm like the last person here to have a dizzying and amazing first kiss! Oh no, what if Ruri beats me?!?! I'll never live it down...!"
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
"Ohhh." Lucine twists the tab on her can of soup, and sips. "... So that's why you're dressed like that..."
As strange as Yurika's outfit is, as she twirls, Lucine admits-- okay no, it's still very garish, but Yurika would definitely be the one to carry it with all the confidence in the world. She'd definitely get into a whirlwind rom--
"Ah..." Yellow eyes blinkblink, as Lucine tilts her head. Sure, she and Ruri have a similar eye color, but hers doesn't have quite the same crystalline clear quality Ruri's has. It's more like a curious hoot owl. "But I thought you liked..." If Lucine Newtype sense was worth a damn, it'd be ringing all the warning bells in her head about now.
Instead, Yurika is the one that saves Lucine from going any further into that minefield.... by landing her troubles at the feet of the poor vending machine, which only has carrot soup to offer her in her time of need.
Lucine sips her drink, eyes still wide. Siiip.
".... Oh! I know a lot of people with grey hair, though, and they're nice people! Like Kaworu! He has grey hair." LUCINE IS TRYING HER BEST. And also, isn't Kaworu also dealing with unrequited feelings? WHICH IS A SECRET.
".... You can still have a whirlwind romance, Captain Misumaru! You're intelligent, quick witted, and able to handle just about any struggle that's been thrown at the Nadesico. Ah... y-You're a really cool boss to work under, too! People like people who are confident!"
Lucine is not going to say she's had her first kiss. THAT'S DIFFERENT.
<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.
Yurika doesn't even think before taking the cup of piping hot carrot soup, slamming it like a beer after a long day, gagging slightly on the contents, and wiping her mouth. The two halves of her brain simply fire on all cylinders in completely different directions.
"G-guh, Lucine, you're always sho nice, and so fluffy, it's no wonder you're falling in love so muuuuuch..." ...she's genuinely starting to get that drunken dizziness. That was just soup, right?! "That's what's become...f-f-f-fashionable, it's all about being cute as-a-button huhh? Maybe I gotta start...taking some pointers from you. Or at least...Or at least..."
The haze entirely clears with a few blinkblinks from Yurika. She only just caught that from before. "...eh? ...eh!? Wait are there rumors about who I might be going after besides the incredibly super obvious guy I'm always going after? How is that even possible! It's not some prank Hikaru's spread for some kind of hyper-dangerous Nadesico doujin? Nadesicoujin?!" (that doesn't work)
- $#
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
Recovering from being rocked by the shoulders by her lovesick captain, Lucine sips from her soup again. So nice, and so fluffy??
.... i-is her hair that bad....? "... I.... only have been in a relationship with Liam, and... it... was only over two months ago that we made things official..." Yurika isn't the first to make this 'mistake'. How long have people thought they were dating?!
........ was everyone better at this than she and Liam were...?
WAIT, Yurika wants advice f-from--
".... me.....?" She rapidly shakes her head. "Nonono, you shouldn't be like me, Captain! You should be like yourself, confidence and able to say what's on your mind and able to pull off any outfit!! It took me about a year to admit that I liked a guy, and he admitted first!!" Pause. ".... W-well, it was after he came back from being brainwashed, so we were both very scared we'd lose each other, so... b-but! You're a wonderful super cool captain, and it's because of you that I'm here!"
Pause. ".... B-because you have a great work environment here..." Not because of something incredibly traumatic to the both of them that she's not about to talk about it.
"... I was.... thinking, ah, Akito..." Pause. ".... Wait.... you two... are from Mars, right...? Like me." Blinkblinkblink. ".... So you two, met on Mars, then? What was it like for the two of you...? I mean, I know some vague details, but... I honestly... don't know much... but the two of you came because you were concerned about Mars, so... it's a part of the two of you, as well..."
Wait. WAIT. This is how she can get Yurika to think about something else! "Are you two from Alba City, or a colony, like me?" She was going to say 'Alba City, like Spike is', but is Spike from Alba City? He could be from anywhere.
<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.
Hands clasped at both cheeks, Yurika ponders how it took Lucine just so long, peeking closer and closer to the gardener - and idly flicking at one stay puff-tuft of hair. "...nnnn. Nnnnn, I'd almost want to think I'm in the same shoes as you, but it's just not panning out that way...! We should be so similar. I should be lovey dovey honeymoon mode by now, just like you are! Since...well..."
Unfortunately for Lucine, these two things are connected. It's ~Storytime With Yurika~! The captain pulls up a chair, crossing her legs over one another, and clears her throat. "No actually we weren't from Alba City!" (great prologue there) "Yes, once upon a time, I was born on a little military base on Mars. Uhhh I forget which one. Right after the One Year War, we were all kinda worried that Zeon remnants moving to Mars would stir up trouble. So my dad hatched a great plan! And it involved little tiny me! Nobody wanted any kinda war to happen, since Mars was hard to live on at all, so we made a whole big PR campaign where I went on TV and posters and stuff."
Yurika's hands clasp together, and she suddenly gives Lucine this big, bright, super-baleful, kinda-pitiful look. A practiced 'ahem', then a lightening of her voice, like she was much, much younger. "Our red planet is precious. But only cause we work together! I want to see Mars grow big and strong just like me, but it won't happen if we fight."
(It may indeed be familiar! It was a fairly prolific PR campaign sent among colony inhabitants and Zeon remnants alike! She's child actor famous!) "And it worked! Even though the One Year War made everyone super tense, we let bygones be bygones and Zeon people were allowed to set up camps and towns in the outback and stuff and even trade sometimes. And then I moved to the Utopia Colony, where I met Akito! My very first crush! I'd thought we'd grow up together there, and I'd cure him of his grouchiness with the power of sweetness. ...buuuuut then my dad had to move back to Earth on military stuff, and I had to leave him behind, and for a while I kinda slowly forgot. And then we got the news that the Jovian Lizards attacked and ruined EVERYTHING on Mars and totally wiped out the Utopia colony, and I sorta assumed that he probably died since he still lived there when I last caught up with everyone there over the phone. Except he didn't die! Cause he was suddenly on Earth for some reason, probably by a sheer miracle! That's when I knew it was a ~FATED ENCOUNTER~, the same kind of love that saved the world from the Devil Gundam, where if we held hands together we'd fire the sort of love-love Gekigan Beam or whatever that saved Mars! ~The End.~"
Yurika closes her storybook (what!?) restfully and sets it aside, eyes closed in low tranquility.
"EXCEPT IT'S NOT WORKING OUT LIKE THAT BECAUSE HE'S TOTALLY DATING MEGUMI CAUSE I SAW THEM KISSING AND NOW SHE'S SUPER CLINGY ABOUT IT AND HE'S EVEN GRUMPIER AROUND ME AND WE'RE BOTH SUPER DUPER BUSY ALL THE TIME NOW AND LIKE THERE'S NO WAY I CAN LOVE LOVE BEAM WITH SOME RANDOM PERSON TO SETTLE FOR EXCEPT I KINDA THINK I GOTTA SETTLE DOWN AND FIND SOMEONE ELSE BUT LIKE NOTHING IS EVEN REMOTELY CLICKING AND IT'S JUST UN FAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRR"- - - -
this is probably not what a sleepy lucine wants to deal with.
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
"... W-well, Liam's a little different... It wasn't love at first sight, even if he was good-looking... ah, since he was--" Should she divulge that was a bioengineered soldier? Even if Yurika likely would have had access to such information (if she even was interested), it's still something Liam should have the option to reveal on his own. "H-honey... moon...." Color rises up Lucine's face, until she's a nice shade of vivid pink as Yurika pokes a tuft of feathery owl hair. ".... w-..... we're.... not.... married...."
As Yurika pulls up a chair, Lucine deposits her 'meal' on a complimentary bar-style table next to the vending machine area, scooting herself in for mealtime. "The... One Year War..." Oh right, that conflict, with the Zeon remnants that fled to Mars. Lucine listens avidly, grabbing from her bottle of water. "Oh! So *you* were the girl on those old posters and ads from those nostalgia articles, ah, the ones about Mars back in the 80s?" Yurika isn't that much older than Lucine is, but it all makes sense now, distantly.
So she and Akito met in a colony.... Lucine leans her chin on one upturned hand. ".... Ahhhhh, so you were childhood sweethearts...." She giggles. "My colony, Nemi, didn't have any kids at first... my mom and dad were the youngest couple there. Everyone else were childless or with grown children, so I would talk to the plants!"
....... Which she does. Now. When she thinks no one is looking. "... The Utopia Colony... they were trying to help with terraforming too, weren't they..."
But then, cruelly, they were divided, and Yurika though Akito was dead, and then.... "..... I see now.... that's why you thought it was fate." She nods, slowly, sipping the last of her soup. ".... He must have escaped when the attacks first happened, since he's dealing with his trauma too--" WAIT LUCINE, that's private Newtype information that he never told you! "... I mean, he... seems.... that way!!"
A second later, Lucine's head flops down on the table, a quiet, distressed groan coming from underneath. ".... Why am I talking like this.... You're the captain, and I shouldn't keep this from you....."
Lucine, of course, means 'I am a Newtype who can sense people's emotions'.
But what will Yurika think, as Lucine tries to drum up the courage to admit it?
<Pose Tracker> Yurika Misumaru has posed.
Lucine's distress is...admittedly, somewhat odd to Yurika! She's just kinda tipping her head balefully at the forward-flopping gardener, leaning over her and shadowing the fluorescent lights from over Lucine's hair.
"...I-I didn't wake you up or something, did I? Now that I think on it, you wandering here in your pajamas, you were probably asleep and just stirring from bed a bit. You look kinda exhausted, and you're saying kinda silly things..."
"...this whole time, you've been kinda talking like you need to hide things I'd obviously know!"
---Yurika, of course, means: 'that Akito is dealing with some stuff'. You don't need to be a hyper-cognizant brain genius to listen to the way the man screams in the heat of combat or in other situations to think 'hmm, that guy's got some trauma'.
But also it's not like Yurika's emotions are a particularly non-obvious thing!
"Hmph, I think I've gotta get you to ~bed~ again, sleepyhead. Here we go- huph!" Abruptly, she is Lifting Lucine Over One Shoulder and marching back towards her room...!
<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.
She should tell Yurika. _She should tell Yurika_. Lucine rotates her head upwards, ready to speak. "W-well--"
......... oh. Right. These are things a person would know. Especially if they were someone like Yurika Misumaru, who would pay attention, rather than catch it like some sort of debris from a filter.
Yurika makes... a very good point. It's likely the reason Lucine has managed to go this long *without* needing to make it clear: everyone, for all their drama, doesn't exactly reign back their passion.
... Oh, right. 'LET'S GO PASSION' is literally a line in a certain anime song that keeps playing from Akito's room.
Sure, this isn't the case for everyone (Lucine can't get a read on Akatsuki even if she tried), but still, Yurika's eye for detail isn't just on the battlefield.
"..... Captain." Lucine blinks.
..... She then begins to tear up. ".... You really do care about his well-being.... But, you should be just as kind to yourself!"
And Lucine should be in bed, as Yurika has (wisely) concluded. "A-ahh!" Lifted like a bag of potatoes, Lucine is marched back to her room by her boss. "A-ah, my candy bar!"
However, she doesn't object. And when Yurika leaves, Lucine opens her mouth again.
But this confession is a little more personal to Yurika herself. ".... I'll... be rooting for you, Captain!"