2023-04-11: Recollections of White and Scarlet
- Cast: Kikka Kobayashi, Leina Ashta
- Where: Fujinomiya - Kobayashi Household
- Date: U.C. 0097 04 11
- Summary: It's been some short time since the returned Char Aznable made his play to destroy Earth with Palau. Unable to stop thinking about it, Kikka invites Leina over for a visit. They distract themselves with games and talk about it in equal measure.
<Pose Tracker> Kikka Kobayashi has posed.
For a few reasons, Kikka's spirits haven't exactly been at their highest. Although she was excited to take the opportunity provided by her spring break to visit family on Earth.. it's almost ironically awful timing that she came down just for Sayla to be missing and to experience an asteroid drop by Char Aznable.
In any case, Kikka's classes are still temporarily cancelled due to the chaos, and she can easily be found at home in the Fujinomiya area - furiously scribbling down notes.
She's already been informed of Sayla's safety, so she doesn't need to extensively fret over that part. But Kikka does realize she's just going to drive herself nuts if she keeps thinking about what she sees as the utterly incomprehensible actions of Amuro and Char.
She'd like to take her mind off all that, and she knows there's someone else who might need that. A few taps on VEREX later, and she's invited Leina over.
When her friend arrives, Kikka will greet her with a friendly smile and a huge plate of pastries and cookies. "Mom made them! We didn't forget that you loved these." She grins, placing the plate on the kotatsu. "Oh, and feel free to warm yourself up." She takes her own seat, the kotatsu's something she's seriously been taking advantage of every since she's been home.
She reaches for the television remote. "Ever since I've been home, Letz's had me on what he'd call the Lychee vs Gekiganger 'grind'. With not much else to do, I think I've definitely gotten better if you're up to it." She challenges.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Kikka is not the only person driving herself nuts. Upon Sayla arriving home safely, Leina established a moratorium on speaking about the subject that brought her into Char's care.
She was to be given long enough to rest, recover, and collect her thoughts. No matter how long that might be. However, that was more for Sayla's benefit than her own...
... because she REALLY needed to talk about it, immediately, as scared as she might be of the answers she received. An invitation from Kikka was welcome as a result.
It forced her to take her mind off of the 'Artesia' subject.
Hoisting her carry on bag from her flight over her shoulder, Leina arrived in a simple pink jumper over a white T-shirt, a pair of worn skinny jeans, and just as worn in trainers.
"Oh my gosh! I'll have to thank Fraw. Now I wish I hadn't filled up so much from the in flight meal!"
And indeed she does grab two cookies and cuts a pastry in half which is a very light take for this very active Ashta with an ordinarily very big appetite. She's not particularly showing, other than her clothes are subtly a touch baggier.
Dropping her bag, and shedding her shoes, she makes do with with her socks as she stuffs her feet under the Kotatsu, wiggling herself in with a sigh. "I'm definitely forcing the issue this year, getting us one of these around the home."
The suggestion though, Leina laughs, "Letz always did have that competitive streak~" There's a thoughtful pause, "If he's that into it he'd maybe fit in on the PLANTs? Apparently they're big Gekiganger fans up there."
She takes a nibble of a pastry. "Wouldn't have figured! Anyhow, I'm game~ Wonderful Persimmon takes tooooo long to unlock but she's worth it!"
She seems cheerful enough now? Maybe it's the influence of Sayla being back. Though the happiness subtly drops out of it, "How have you all been holding up around here with... you know?"
She's not trying to divert from the distraction of gaming, not really, but my gosh, this is a whole household of people who considered White Base their family... the return of Char must be... trying.
<Pose Tracker> Kikka Kobayashi has posed.
Kikka's pretty baggily dressed herself - but that's just more her style at this point. The college life really leads one to prioritize comfort when you can...
Which is why she thinks it's criminal that kotatsu haven't caught on in the moon city of Von Braun. "Oh you have to - they're all seriously missing out," She affirms Leina pushing the issue after the bite of a pastry.
"And I bet you know all too well that a competitive streak only gets even stronger between siblings~" She grins. "Oh yeah, he's a hardcore Gekiganger main... I don't really get it myself, but it's not shocking that it's a cult classic, I suppose." She considers. She's never actually asked him his thoughts on seeing space again, like she did. "As for me, I definitely prefer the magical girls, so I was pleased to unlock her~"
She picks up a controller and begins setting up the game, opening up the character select screen. "Wonder Persimmon's all yours so I'll pick Natural Lychee - she is pretty cute." She laughs.
Her expression has been lighter this whole time, but the question does bring back a thoughtful look. "Mmm.. it was really hard to believe at first." She replies. "And honestly? I wanted him to stay gone." There's a bit of heaviness in admitting that. "Even if he's only fighting for Cosmic Law like the 3G people said... I don't know if any of us can forgive him."
"He was a foolish commander and even more irresponsible man." She shakes her head. "...I'd still like to hear how he actually thinks after all these years, though."
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"Oh yeah, I fell in love while dating Shiro." She snorts, as she grins, "He used to tease me that my real love was the Kotatsu, not him, when I fell asleep a few times before we even started making out."
She does laugh shortly after, "Oh yeah, though with Judau and me it wasn't video games, squabbling was just every day life, you know?"
It makes sense given that they were so dirt poor, couldn't afford a console, much less a trip to the arcade.
"I actually tried watching the series myself recently with Banagher and we didn't get it? It feels like it was ahead of its time since like... it was a nearly a century before Mazinger and Getter but, the gender politics, whoof."
A bite is taken off of one of the cookies. A small bite, this feels like a theme now, ordinarily this plate would be long gone by now.
"Yeah give me Natural Lychee and Wonderful Persimmon any day. Actually makes me a little worried about whether the PLANTs are going a little too patriarchy? Their only Magical Girl is something called... Domestic Princess Miri-Miri?"
Leina's happy to take up her controller as she grins, "Thankfully not too rusty. Got Banagher a copy for his birthday so Audrey and him have been eating it up."
As Kikka sets up, her voice takes on a slight edge, "... Knowing he's Sayla's brother makes everything he did worse, not better to me. I definitely won't ever forgive him. I wish he'd never returned."
She does tilt her head to the side, "How he thinks." She repeats quietly, "Well..."
Is it really her place to say? At the moment she's not feeling too charitable with keeping her peace on the issue, "...according to what Sayla told me, the entire Second Neo-Zeon War was... all but meaningless to him, except as a means to fight Amuro again."
Wait what?
"That the two just... couldn't stop, after what happened in the One Year War with... with Lalah."
It's such a horrible thought, as she adds, "Just think about it. All those lives, all that suffering... and all it ever meant to him was..."
One last hurrah against Amuro Ray.
<Pose Tracker> Kikka Kobayashi has posed.
"Ahaha, I can almost imagine that..." Kikka laughs out loud as Leina recounts Shiro's reaction to her falling asleep on the kotatsu during a date. "Not that I've ever really been on a date but it definitely sounds like something I'd do."
Leina talking about squabbling with Judau as a fact of every day life also gets a smile out of her. "Definitely. Apparently it was like that even before we were siblings, back on the White Base.. it was always something or another. In that sense, I guess it's fate he ended up being my brother." She's still smiling, but she can't bring herself to let Katz's name out of her mouth... even if later conversation will likely force it.
"Hmm.. let me guess." She ahems, putting on her worst fake-macho voice. "This is a MAN's duty. Stand back princess, for it is the struggle of men to fight the evil empire." And then she just looks jokingly disgusted. "Yeah, I think we were more just into how flashy their attacks were. Their dialogue is... pretty rough." She laughs awkwardly.
She's not even sure what to say about something like Domestic Princess Miri-Miri though... it's a little too much even to make fun of.
"Good, good," Kikka grins, as Leina claims she's not rusty. "I'd like a challenge~" When the game starts, Kikka starts off surprisingly strong, putting to full use the combos she remembered, letting Natural Lychee pull off moves she didn't think were possible years ago. It's not quite tryhard gameplay, though... while a challenge is good, having fun is the most important part.
Her expression turns into a sharp frown as Leina offers some insight into how Char Aznable fights. It all comes back to that rivalry, huh...
"I want to say you have to be joking, that it makes no intuitive sense." Kikka shakes her head. "If what Sayla told you is true, he's even more foolish than I thought."
"Even his time with the AEUG, as Lieutenant Quattro Bajeena." She says quietly. "Katz fought under his command in the Grpys War."
...Did he even see such a naive and hero-worshipping kid as another pawn in his game of chess with Amuro Ray?
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"One day we're going to work on that." Leina vows immediately, "You're amazing! There's got to be someone for you out there."
Part of her wonders if it's just that they hear she was on the White Base and get too intimidated but she was like FOUR?
Then again some people hear she served briefly with Bright when she was ten and acted like that so still.
Like is everyone blind!? Kikka is great! She does grin, "Fated to be siblings~ Honestly, that's the one kind of fate I can get behind, family in that sense."
Even if Leina's tie to Judau is by blood, found family is something she's always been able to get behind, the family you choose yourselves.
Leina laughs at the fake Macho voice, "Exactly like that!" She actually clears her throat, and takes on a more masculine sounding voice herself, "You have to stay out of it, this is a fight between men Nanako-chan." She says, all gravelly and serious, but reasonably well acted(She once played Viola in an ancient play called Twelfth Night), "You can't possibly understand! A woman doesn't have what it takes for this kind of battle! They're far too delicate!"
Pause, her voice changes back to normal, "Which is what I'll say to Letz next time I have Wonderful Persimmon Combo Juggle Gekiganger into oblivion." Her lips tug with mirth.
Kikka actually does startle Leina in the beginning, but she seems to get the hang of it quickly enough again as she falls back into her patterns of movesets that she'd practiced in the past.
Eventually though, she at least does provide a challenge because Newtypeism just provides that distinct advantage of knowing your opponent's intentions.
She's not going too hard though, she seems to enjoy the distraction from... everything. Unfortunately that's not always to be, given the nature of the conversation.
It would do Kikka a disservice to just say 'It's a Newtype thing' and she knows it, when even she can't adequately describe what being bonded to a person is like.
For a time she stares off into space, eyes half-lidded. She only found out after the war that everyone on the Argama was mourning Katz without saying anything to its new crew.
"Given his speech at Dakar I'd like to believe he wasn't using Katz... or Kamille for that matter, like that. Maybe he really was trying to give being his father's son a try."
The idea makes her skin crawl a touch, Casval Rem Deikun, the son of Zeon Zum Deikun. "If he lost faith in humanity after Gryps then there'd only be one thing left to him."
I suppose you really are as much of a coward as I am, Artesia, if leaving her behind is your first thought.
"I shot him you know, dead on. Of course, it didn't make a difference. Not with Oath over Omega. Part of me just..."
Her sightline trails down, then her eyes both pinch shut, as she confides hushed, "... wishes he'd disappear. If he couldn't spare even the slightest effort to be there for either of them? Then the best thing he ever did was walk out of their lives to begin with."
<Pose Tracker> Kikka Kobayashi has posed.
"Aww-" She flusters a little when Leina encourages her. "If I had to guess, it's just because I really just get way too wrapped up in my studies to really put myself out there." She puts her hand on the back of her head. "I'd like to change that... it's nice to meet people."
She nods firmly about Leina's statement about fate when it comes to found family - her entire family may be found, but they're no less to her.
"Gosh--" She interjects at Leina's terrifyingly accurate Gekiganger impression - she definitely hears the theatre kid coming through. "It's too real!" And she breaks into a total giggle - especially about Wonderful Persimmon comboing the daylights out of Gekiganger.
"Aw man.." Kikka mock-whines. "Your blocks are so well timed. I thought I had you so many different times!" Ultimately though, she had a lot of fun, which is the important part -- and as a nice bonus, it provided some valuable practice for throwing off Letz's moves.
Kikka understands a little bit about what it means to Newtype Bond - she can't forget how she used it to help lead Amuro to safety in the One Year War, even if it felt like a dream. And that bond continues to persist to this day, even when Amuro was thought to be gone from this Solar System.
But a bond so strong as Char had -- one that he was willing to throw Axis onto the Earth for? No matter if she is a Newtype, she can admit that she doesn't understand it.
She does slowly nod, as Leina brings up the speech at Dakar. "Mmm.. maybe I jumped right to seeing the worst in him." Kikka admits. "It'd be nice to think he really did try..." She lets that hang in the air for a moment.
"Kamille." She switches the topic slightly. "I'd like to visit him, too. ...Even if he's probably even more busy than me since he's a doctor."
Her eyes widen with shock when she hears that Leina shot Char Aznable?? "You wouldn't lie about that." She affirms, then. "And I can't blame you, either. I guess things felt like they were healing after he was gone, and then--"
Her head sinks down. "I wonder if I'd do the same thing in your position. But is that really what following Amuro Ray's footsteps is about? I doubt it." After all, she won't even learn to pilot a mobile suit after what happened.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"And hey no shame at all putting your studies first. Just. You know." She winks at her, "Once you do give it a try I bet you'll find someone your type easily enough. You've got good instincts Kikka."
There's a mutual laugh at the Gekiganger impression, before, "Just had to get back in the zone again." As she puts two fingers at her forehead in a V, winking again as if showing off a seated pose, "Magical Girl - Wonderful Persimmon!"
She grins after, so wide there are teeth showing, "All those hours I put in before, figures the muscle memory would still be there."
As the conversation changes though, she nods quietly, "It'd be nice, yeah."
It's almost hard to believe? She wouldn't, usually but... she laughs, and nudges her, "Are you kidding me? He's my PCP, and we still make a lot of time to just, talk. He'd love to meet you! I'm sure of it!"
In the end, she doesn't bring up that Kamille could tell her a lot about Katz during that time, and her father too. It's a tough subject, so she just wants to validate the impulse and see if she can work up to it.
Her gaze turns abstracted, and she grows quiet, and maybe Kikka can see in that moment, "Things weren't... really healing." She tells her softly, "Not really. I always figured it was Amuro but..."
A helpless shake of her head as it becomes obvious why, "She told me recently she hadn't called Mirai, or your Mom since Axis."
There's this, thin rueful smile smile, a sad look in her eyes, "In the end I'm kind of mad at both of them. I don't even think about following his footsteps. Because well... I only ever met the guy, trying to kill me and Banagher and Judau - being willing to cut through Sayla to get at the three of us."
A small laugh, as she just lets it transition into this prolonged sigh, "It's not even fair of me, I know... It's just... I know him as the guy who killed Sayla's happiness, despite the two not even having... talked, in years."
<Pose Tracker> Kikka Kobayashi has posed.
"Hee hee, I'll try my best." Leina's encouragement really is infecteous. "And you know, I could probably write some killer romance poetry when I do find someone." She grins.
"Sheesh, seriously..." She laughs, as Leina grins about muscle memory-ing her way through. "Guess it's like riding a bike.. fighting game skills never ever go away." Still, Kikka doesn't try any less hard in the coming rounds - sometimes she feels like she makes her most ingenious combos right in the middle of the match.. and wonders how she even did it!
"Oh!" Kikka exclaims, when Leina explains that Kamille is much more accessible than she would've thought. "That's.. amazing. I'd love to get to know him, then." She nods enthusiastically. "And Fa, too, definitely." She does have questions about Katz as Leina deduced.. but it's not the only reason.
Kikka can feel the sense of quiet before Leina confirms her suspicions. It wasn't healing after all, and it's only after she'd stayed home for an extended time that she's begun to figure that out. "Yeah. Mom's... I think she feels sad." Kikka frowns. "She's always been a kind person, but it's only now that I can see that melancholy on her face." Axis was four years ago now. "I think.. we'll need to force the issue, when it comes to those two." Kikka decides.
"Our feelings.. aren't always going to be fair." Kikka takes another bite of pastry... she noticed Leina's stopped touching hers, but she focuses on the conversation. "He's made a lot of mistakes... stupid mistakes that I bet he regrets. With Sayla and my Mom, too." Mistakes he may never be able to take back.
"My own memories of him are limited. He was kind of mean sometimes, really moody. I think the war took a lot out of him." It almost sounds dismissive, not of Leina's feelings, but as the man Amuro Ray is built up to be.
"That's why it's so hard for me to understand Char Aznable's feelings about him. It.. doesn't line up with how I remembered him at all."
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"Fair warning, I'll be asking for constant updates when the inevitable happens." She winks again at her, "And those poetry drabbles."
Indeed, in the coming rounds, while Leina doesn't try to overdo it, she still keeps providing a challenge at least. Kikka even surprises her a few times with the improvisation and wins the round. "Hey good one!"
She nods enthusiastically, "Fa's incredible. I first met her back on Shangri-la." She actually giggles lightly, "We even schemed to sort of get my brother on the crew together."
Despite the melancholy turn on the conversation, she nods thoughtfully at Kikka, "I did try, after I found that out, demanded she call all of them, but I think it'll take... more of an effort to break down that wall that she erected between the two of us. Get them... really talking again, not just forcing a single phone call. It'll be good for them both."
She can only imagine how lonely Fraw gets sometime. It's been years, and she's young, part of her wants to try and find her a date again but, that one feels solidly poking into business that's not hers.
"Yep... like, I know he was just... a kid. When they broke up, they were both younger than the two of us." As she points back and forth, between the two of them and sighs lightly, "And like, what he went through, what all of you went through."
A shake of her head, before her eyes lift up to Kikka, nodding helplessly, "Yeah, Sayla told me the same, even after the war. What the Federation did to him, keeping him grounded. Crushing his spirit slowly, preventing him from even being an Engineer like he wanted."
And yet still, she resents him, as it feels like he didn't try to give back even a fraction of what Sayla did, holding him together.
Char Aznable's feelings. Part of her doesn't want to think about his feelings anymore, but part of her... there's a sigh, "I don't know, part of it probably is a guy thing on some level. The two competing. That competition ending in tragedy. But..." She lets herself mull it over for a time, "... something about that tragedy bonded them together. And for a Newtype that's..."
A hand loops in the air, again she has trouble articulating it, "... it's hard to describe. It just. Hurts being separated from one another - even if you are bound by love. Being bound by tragedy? I can't imagine how painful that would be..."
Her hand drops, and her tone quiets, "... for anyone."
<Pose Tracker> Kikka Kobayashi has posed.
"Well well.. looks like you've already latched on as my trusted proofreader." Kikka grins, at Leina's warning. "Of course I'll keep you updated!"
Kikka's shocked that she pulled out the win on the last one, even if she can sense she wasn't receiving the full fury of what Wonderful Persimmion is capable of. "Thanks! That was really close, too..."
"I feel like she's really someone to look up to," Kikka replies, about Fa. "I mean.. that is definitely amazing in its own right." And almost certainly improved the Ashtas lives for the better, even if it took a long time.
"More than a phone call... I agree. I think they'd have a lot more to talk about than they would think." Kikka nods. "Aaaand we're persistent enough to make that happen, don't you think?" Mom dating someone new... that's an interesting thought. And might be beneficial, although Kikka won't force it.
Kikka senses she and Leina won't ever be able to agree on Amuro.. but it's not entirely a bad thing, or something she holds against her. There's plenty of reasons to resent Amuro Ray, and equally plenty of reasons to lament his circumstances.
Kikka listens silently, as Leina explains the type of Newtype bond Char and Amuro hold. "I didn't really know about Lalah. Not until I decided to do my own research." Kikka frowns. Another painful aspect of Amuro's life she was too young to understand at the time. "I think I understand a little better, though. It really does sound -- unbearable."
Kikka puts her controller down, sufficiently worn out from the intense matches. There's a brief moment of silence as Kikka processes what Leina's told her. "I'm glad we could talk." She eventually breaks it. "...And thanks for keeping us company, too."