2023-05-30: If The Sun Won't Rise, Just Fake It
- Cast: Asciel Colette, Ai Martel, Emilia Eschonbach
- Where: Side 4 - Yunghui Colony
- Date: U.C. 0097 05 30
- Summary: Even though the last hours before showtime are oh so critical, a little bit of a surprise comfort is always welcome.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
Yunghui Colony, in Side 4, is a...bohemian sort of place, to put it that way. One of the earliest colonies put forth by the REA, and primarily by Khanka besides, it's a place of scrappy prosperity, as many older colonies have to be. One can see the ebbs and flows of its fortunes literally woven into the landscape - rivers of immaculate and shining development between puddles of unstable and piled-upon complexes of somewhat shanty homes, like mountains rising above festive and gaudily lit streets.
And all over town, the posters for NE_PHI_lim-inal loom, with nary a citizen far from Asciel Colette's half-in frame, blood-dripping face leering excitedly and starrily. It's rare to see an up and coming performer give so much attention to this space, but Asciel's chosen Yunghui for a very important reason:
-its concert venue managers were willing to host a Federation outlaw!
Asciel hasn't exactly gotten like, a stadium, but it is a pretty respectable venue able to seat a good few thousand people. And for the past four or five days she's been a tireless taskmaster setting it up for her impending show, one that's poised to be very heavy on optical and live-digital effects, with a slew of holographic emitters and even several gravity rigs. Lighting and choreography is checked and re-checked, and Asciel acts relatively...begrudgingly in the art of working with others, racing up to handle a lot of adjustments herself. She's all over the place, and is a huge pain in the butt to work with - to the point that...well...
...she's utterly forgotten that someone very important was showing up around now!
<Pose Tracker> Ai Martel has posed.
"Would you like to go on a trip with me?" Ai asked Emmy, at the end of their most recent tutoring session. "A couple of days from now. It won't be more than an overnight stay, at worst... we'd be going to Yunghui Colony, Side 4." When asked why, she met the girl with a gentle smile. "That much is a surprise. But you'll love it, I'm sure."
The shuttle flight was booked first-class; uneventful, but very cozy. Ai passed some of the time with small talk, hoping to catch up with Emmy's personal life and the goings-on therein; the rest, for her, was reading.
Aboard the colony, she sports a night-themed dress, lavish as she ever is, in a midnight blue with violet trim. Her umbrella, ever present, is perched closed upon her shoulder as she leads Emmy toward their destination. She still hasn't explained, of course, where they're going; it should be simple enough to guess, though, as the posters begin to approach critical mass, some even pointing toward a nearby concert venue!
Ms. Martel herself, meanwhile, sports a brighter grin than usual. It's easy to see she's excited, too... and as they round the corner, they find themselves standing before said venue, just down the street. The blonde produces a pair of tickets, handing one to Emmy--it's to tonight's concert, of course, with larger print along the bottom proclaiming that the tickets come with BACKSTAGE PASSES! "Surprise~"
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
For Emilia, this had been something of a surprise trip. Movement to space usually required so much careful movement- but here she was, on nearly no notice, on Side 4.
Even though she had just travelled overnight to Nouvelle- with all the trouble that entailed- Emilia couldn't say no to a trip like this, risky as it was. No matter how many times she went to space, the wonder never faded. The fact that she was in first class was a plus- but she spent so much time looking out the window of her window seat, looking at the stars up close.
And she talked- about how things were going with Milly, about learning to play ambition, about Ranka's big concert, about meeting Killy, about going to Karaoke with her cousin- the fact that she had a cousin on her father's side! About almost every piece of happy news in her life.
She may have skipped some details that might have been of interest to a historian like Ai, but... well. This didn't seem the time for heavy news or revenge.
%She was dressed pretty simply. Comfortable jeans, a plain t-shirt, one of her nicer non-Britannian styled jackets.
Yunghui wasn't like the Republic of Zeon, and nowhere near the Frontier Fleet. It felt closer to a spacebound Area 11... She had been expecting something like this eventually but... this was still a little rough. Ai would have seen her looking at the posters, though. "O-Oh! I've seen s-s-some of her p-performances..." She says, recognition on her face. "She... s-s-sung some of the s-songs that Ranka liked..." A pause. She had seen her somewhere else-
But that thought is derailed when Ai pulls out the tickets. She looks up at the older woman with even eyes wide. "R-r-really!?" She tried to find words, but they wouldn't come out.
So instead she hugs Ai with all her might. She holds for a little while, before letting go and looking at the entrance. She wordlessly takes Ai's hand- and as soon as they're ready, she's well and truly ready to go inside.
Not long after, she's looking at the Backstage Pass around her neck, looking around at the concert in awe. She's only been back stage for one concert before- and this was a very different affair.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
When first disturbed from her oh so hectic schedule and perfectionist tendencies by being informed of visitors arriving backstage, Asciel is a little bit...perturbed by being interrupted, staring somewhat blankly at Ai and Emilia. At this moment in time after all, she's not really attentive to reality, so much as she is to systems and exchanges - a lot of what she's doing is very much via texts and phone calls, and her physical self is kind of just a puppet being dragged along.
Said puppet, incidentally, was practicing for the second song in her performance itinerary - and with that comes a very 'idol themed' routine, so she looks...very aggressively 'like an idol' in an uncharacteristic way, all poofy skirts and frilly ribbons and tied up twintails and bare shoulders. Her form factor, of course, isn't very 'cute petite idol', and the distinct sturdiness of this body's arms are on full display - but there's an artificiality to the whole costume, isn't there? And a sense that...it could be removed rather quickly. The bit will make sense when the performance comes!
It takes a little bit, in this otherwise kind of liminal in-between spot of the backstage, for Asciel to process exactly that she has company. Very important company.
In a complete and utter panic, Asciel texts her entire production team a quick and probably slightly alarming "Something's come up, I won't be available for a short while, you can take a break or keep doing what you're doing" before pivoting on a heel and-
Sweeps Ai in her arms, dips her utterly perpendicular to the ground, and plants her lips right on Ai's, unflinching and uncompromising, getting rather lost in it. "...Is it already that time... No, I suppose it makes sense that you've come early, but I'd have sorted out a better welcome. Mmm. Aah. Hnnn. It's actually a little tough for me to change tracks so fast, ahahah. But I already feel so, so much brighter seeing you, my resplendent flower. Rest assured that after the concert's over and nothing truly matters, we're going backstage and making and absolute mess of-"
---someone else is here. Someone else right there! Someone clearly accompanying Ai. Pupils visibly narrowing in a way slightly like cameras - there's a profoundly inhuman sort of intensely electronic luminosity in Asciel's eyes as they assess Emilia. Ai's lifted to more of a 45 degree angle, enough to be held up in one arm, as the other fans under her Asciel's chin, deep in thought.
"...Ahahah. An unfamiliar face. I imagine if you're at this venue, this colony, you've seen the posters and everything. Mhmhm. Well met, my little truffle. I am none other than the radiant Virtual Sage, Miss Asciel~ My hope with this performance is to put on an absolutely unforgettable performance, unbound by the constraints of an orderly society, free to be an expression of my ideas of a new world~ I can't help but wonder if my dear Ai brought a fan along, fufufu."
...there's a slight squeeze of Ai's arm, but one with a decent amount of tension, right after Asciel says that - and the lingering note after her laugh almost saying in and of itself: 'please don't surprise me with fans'.
<Pose Tracker> Ai Martel has posed.
"Really," confirms Ai to her younger counterpart, a smile on her face as she takes Emmy's hand. As they proceed backstage, hand-in-hand, she explains, "I wasn't sure how familiar you might be with Asciel's music... to be entirely honest, that's not the real reason I brought you here..."
She trails off at the sight of Asciel in that outfit. There's a blush on her cheeks, and she seems to be looking... rather admiringly as she approaches--
Only to give an unladylike yelp as she's swept into the woman's arms effortlessly, looking almost bashful at the indulgent kiss. She laces her gloved fingers between Asciel's, though, smiling as they part--only for her eyes to go wide with alarm as the talk begins to get steamy.
Her relief when Asciel distracts herself is palpable... though her shoulders fall a touch at the tone she senses, the tension. She shakes her head. "Asciel, my dear... this is my student and dear friend, Emilia. I told you about her... she's why I asked for two tickets."
Reclining a little bit in her lover's arm, she looks to Emmy with a smile. "Emilia, this is my girlfriend, Asciel. This is why I invited you, really. You're both unspeakably precious to me... and I've been remiss in not introducing you before.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Asciel's an impressive figure, and even if the outfit feels... off form, to Emmy. There's definitely something about it that doesn't fit-
But that is all disrupted when Asciel dips Ai like it's nothing and Emmy blushes and looks to one side. She suddenly feels extremely like a third wheel-
And also wonders if she could ever kiss Milly like that, in public. If their situations could change that much.
Asciel introduces herself in a difficult to follow and very impressive way- thankfully cutting short having to hear everything. Unfortunately, she can figure the rest of what Asciel was going to say. And then Ai introduces her, and Emilia gives a low curtsey. "U-um, it's n-n-nice to meet you, Miss Colette." She can read the little silence. She's good at that. Still, she should do her best to make a good impression. This is Ai's girlfriend, after all. Still, that explains the trip... and the backstage passes.
She looks up at the impressive form of Asciel, then briefly to Ai, then back to Asciel. Nerves silence her again, as she slowly remembers where she heard that voice before. One of the other forces that came for that train.
She doesn't want to Behave like an intruding fan... and it seems inappropriate to say 'hey we did some terrorism together that one time.'
"Th-th-thank you very m-much. For. Th-the tickets!" is what she eventually settles on.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
There's aaaalmost a visually present swirly loading icon in front of Asciel's face trying to recall who exactly Ai's talking about. Really, the most difficult thing of regularly conversing with Ai is keeping up the little conversations - the ones that...well...Asciel struggles to care much about. Even now, caring for Ai is a little knot of fate she's awkward with - something she didn't structure her day to day existence around.
It's hard to see people when you've placed your eyes in rhetorical satellite orbit - you sacrifice that for being able to see the world as a whole more easily.
But! The handy part of being a digital being is having all of this saved! it just takes her a while to run the search because of the distance involved. "Emilia, Emilia. Hi! Yes. You're important to Ai - so that entails that you're important to me. Good. Hmmm. You certainly sound quite nervous around me. Hoh. Hoohhhh.~" Asciel's towering frame sets Ai up on her feet, so that the idol can tip forward from her imposing height to get her face a bit too close to Emilia's.
"Believe it or not - and most people don't believe it when public figures say this - I had a rather hard time talking to people not too long ago. I arguably couldn't stand doing it at all, it felt obnoxious and tiresome. If you share that struggle - then watch me, and I'll show you how sheer determination can thrust you past that hurdle!~"
"Though that's not to say you should follow in my footsteps and be an idol. The stage is mine, sorry~"
After being an oppressively glowing sun in Emmy's face for a little while, Asciel finally stands upright more, arm hooked around Ai's waist as she leads her on a bit of a tour. Really, the show's still a work in progress, and she did tell her crew to take a bit of a break - so they can walk right up onto the stage, right in front of the myriad empty seats, half-finished camera spots, and spotlights awkwardly set up to put a little too much illumination on the surface.
"...Truth be told, having you here is pretty motivating. It's one thing to perform for the sake of countless supporters. It's another seeing a face that warms me up in the crowd. Just be warned~ I'm being a liiiiittle aggressive on this one. That bucket of dense red liquid over there isn't really blood, I promise you!~ Fake blood's a really useful theatrical tool! Especially when it's formulated to clean up nice and easily for the far less visceral next song~ ...mm, wait, I think there's a little bit of it still in use for the second performance. Dear me, I'm going pretty deep on that theme~"
<Pose Tracker> Ai Martel has posed.
It's about that time that Ai remembers the time that the three *did* meet on the battlefield... but she leaves that much quiet, for the moment. She hasn't exactly explained her Amalgam affiliations to Emmy, after all.
There's a little swell of pride in her, a wide grin, as Asciel explains her previous struggles talking to others. "It's true, you know... I suspect I was one of the first. You are both unique, among all the world... Asciel perhaps a bit more severely so," she explains to Emmy. She doesn't elaborate, instead moving on. "I sparked something in her, I think. And her in me."
Emmy did the same, of course, though in a very different way. She grasps the girl's hand gently as they move on to tour the stage.
There's a curious look on her face, as Asciel explains the fake blood, tapping her finger to her chin. "Hum... is a splash warning necessary for this show, I wonder?" she asks, half-joking, grinning at Asciel.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Emilia blinks a few times as Asciel seems to place her. The height difference is notable, Asciel needs to lean down a lot to get close to Emmy. And she is imposing, and Emmy has to stop herself backing off. She doesn't want to be rude to Ai's girlfriend, after all.
Still, as Asciel tells her story, full of enthusiasm and Ai confirms it, Emmy nods a bit. Sheer determination, huh... "I-I'd like that. I-i-if I can." One comment lands, and Emmy looks away. "I... al--ready know that.. I'm n-not meant to be on st-stage." What happened at the Deculture Festival still stings, apparently. "But... I don't m-mind it th-that much." Sometimes it's enough to be the person who provides the support behind the curtains, doing what she does best.
Still, hearing that story seems to brighten Emmy's face a little. "Th-that's so r-r-romantic!" Emilia Eschonbach, a girl who is a sucker for a heartfelt love story. A love that's with someone unique across the world...
Still, the fake blood gives her pause. "..D-d-do you prefer p-practical effects. In y-your shows, M-Miss Colette?" The girl is genuinely curious- she *has* been watching a lot of different performances. She kind of expected someone called the Virtual Sage would sh8ift more towards virtual effects.
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
Both of Asciel's hands cup her own cheeks, stepping out in front of Ai and Emmy towards the invisible audience. An emotion has overcome her dearly, one she can't just murmur to those important to her - even if nobody else would hear it anyway.
They clasp at her heart, heels clacking on the polymer floor below.
"The baleful blue planet and every little mayfly whirring around its orbit - it's a place that has and will continue to drive people mad trying to grasp it all. To thrive on the scale of a planet is to seek ascendance - to grow to a grander scale, into a titan that can exert its will upon the soil. Perhaps the era of mobile weapons, of Wanzers and Gundams, is all to try and make anyone into that kind of lifeform. Perhaps that boy from Celestial Being, the one who proclaims he, himself, is the Gundam - maybe he is the solitary sane one, who is capable of facing the future."
Those cupped hands spread open, blossoming like a flower. "...I could not have understood why that's truly a tragedy before I drunk deep from the wine of love. Before I allowed myself to do so. The idea that one would sacrifice love to ascend in this way was something I innately knew humans became - that they transformed into sphinxes with wings of iron and hearts of wood if they abandoned that primal need, in favor of their own little 'saving' or 'damning' of the world."
Pivoting on one heel, Asciel's eyes shimmer like the stars back at Emilia and Ai, her smile vast enough to dazzle the world. It has to be - because captivating the world is part of her mandate. "Ai made sure I knew I had to 'transform' too - because I existed for the sake of saving the world, and assumed love was for those in need of salvation myself. Now I understand - I can have both things. I can hold Ai in my embrace and purge the smoke-spilling souls of Earth - I just have to exceed my already exceptional nature. And it's happening. I'm doing it right now. This concert is my declaration of it - that I am coalescing myriad falsehoods into truth. That I can metamorphose into the final idol anyone will ever need. That Asciel, the song of tomorrow, the vanguard of Earth's fortress among the vast cosmos, and Asciel, the arbiter who will be the solitary entity with blood left on her hands, the one who will ensure humans can't ever imagine hurting each other for gain ever again - that these two things MUST be connected. Must be shared. That's what it means for me to be 'like the heavens', as you could divine from my name.~"
---and Emilia now just has to deal with how her mom is somehow head over heels for someone who's like this, who'll just monologue to themselves on matters that make no sense to anyone but herself, and expect everyone to deal with it. Asciel looks pleased with herself after all that!
...is this concert really going to be successful at all???
"Ah, and I wouldn't waste material getting it all over people senselessly. Like I said~ I should be the only one bearing that burden of others' life splashed on me. Both practical and digital effects have their place for achieving different effects, and I like the artfulness of combining them. Besides, using a projector to beam red on my face would look so cheap compared to something physical~"
<Pose Tracker> Ai Martel has posed.
"I believe you can take the stage when the time is right," Ai quietly reassures Emmy, who proclaims the romance of their story. "Isn't it just?" There's a soft laugh.
And Asciel waxes poetic, talking about things only she and perhaps Ai can grasp. And not entirely, at that...
Asciel doesn't seem to be particularly good at hiding her nature, assuming Emmy can keep up with that much. "I suspect you recognize her," she notes simply, a grin on her lips. "We met well before the train heist... it was a happy coincidence that our interests more or less aligned that day." There's more than a hint of regret in her voice. The completely botched recovery operations still weigh on her.
"She... I think I properly expanded her horizons. Made her more than she was before we met." Ai closes her eyes. "I'm proud of that."
Quietly, aside to Emmy, she adds, "We're working on effective communication techniques."
To Asciel, she nods, grinning, "It sounds like it'll be a wonderful spectacle, my dear. I've been looking forward to it since you first mentioned it."
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Asciel's speech loses Emilia somewhere around 'a boy who calls himself a Gundam'. The word still bears some heavy weight for Emilia- but the Gundam and the White Base were only half responsible, weren't they?
Still there's something hard to resist in Asciel's smile. As strangely as the woman speaks.... Emmy can feel she has the power to sweep people along, with those confusing, flowery words.
She's not sure how she feels about that.
Ai just mentions the train raid like it's nothing and Emmy whips around to face her. "Is... Is th-th-that okay to...?" No... AI trusts her implicitly. And Emmy trusts Ai so much. She's done so much to help her, and keep her safe. "...Th-that was y-you, then." Emmy feels a bit of fear, as Ai confirms her suspicions. Even though the Gundam Fight was stopped... Emmy still felt like a failure. Ranka had been safe, but...
"You two... d-d-don't keep any s-secrets from. Each other. D-d-do you?" She sounds... it's hard to say if she's jealous, or upset with herself. Maybe both.
The words of a friend echo in her ears. Her hand goes to the locket hanging from an e-carbon cord around her neck, rubbing it with a thumb. "...Th-that's what... m-m-makes it true love, r-right?"
<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.
"Hey, I heard that!" Asciel gets a little bit cheek-puffy and pouty at the suggestion that she - who's spent like six entire years on figuring out communicating, could possibly have more to work on! She's marching herself right up to Ai and giving her a playful tug on the ear - one that'd be a liiiittle too rough for a normal person, but Asciel's being trained on handling people with a superhumanly durable one! Totally not a problem.
"I'm saying my whole truth, just as it was the day we met, and that is what my truth sounds like." A starry little wink that'd explode a frailer heart goes Emilia's way. "When we first got in touch, I was evasive for just a moment, but it got tiring to keep secrets. We quickly realized we could entrust our truths to each other, even though mine came with some risk. As for true love..."
Love, love love. It's still a word that doesn't completely sit still in Asciel's thoughts. It's not shaped to fit in her perfectly - she has to make a lot of room for its contours and extensions - as though to visualize this for herself, her hand is so brazenly meandering along Ai's leg down the front, chin resting on her girlfriend's head. "What if I said that waiting for love to be 'true' at first is something that inevitably leads to a love full of lies- or that 'lying' is the first step to 'becoming'..."
Both of Asciel's hands clasp right in front of Ai's waist, and something restful enters her expression, eyes closing, irises still luminous behind her eyelids, letting off twin circular spinny flashes. "...the changing is beautiful. I have always sought to improve myself. ...My experience with 'love' is that it is...something that does not fit 'inherently' into place. The larva melts down into a more liquid form when it comes time to pupate - and that involves giving up your shape to better fit mating with another. For me...Ai here has forced me to get better at seeing things in the way other people see them. I'm so used to appeasing an audience that an individual's desires and needs were alien to me.~"
"...Tell me about what you wish to change about yourselves, both of you.~ Or maybe...what's already changed!"
<Pose Tracker> Ai Martel has posed.
Ai's reaction is just as playful, a little yelp and a few bats of her hand against Asciel's wrist. "Chouette!!" she protests.
There's a nod of confirmation. "It was... well, I certainly can't say I believe in love at first sight, but... I think we found one another disarming. And no. We don't keep secrets. I suspect we could... we all have our secrets, our little skeletons in the closet, and honesty isn't the same thing as opening all those doors at once."
She looks up as Asciel rests her chin upon her head. "But I think I've laid it all bare." She'd forgive Asciel for not doing the same, of course--she's something so much More, it might take lifetimes to open every last nook and pull out the cobwebs.
There's a nod, too, at Asciel's thoughts on love. Love is compromise, after all--and while the need to change another in a relationship dooms it to failure... to allow oneself to change, that's nothing if not admirable, is it?
She closes her eyes a moment, thoughtful at the question posed. "... I wish to more fully let go of the past I've lost. I can hardly return there, or bring back what was taken. I can't forget, of course. But... I must learn to move forward."
Ai looks at Emmy, and sees a girl she knew a lifetime ago. A girl Emmy isn't, and can't be.
But someone she can do right by nonetheless.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
The way the two interact, as unusual a person as Asciel is- Emmy's still not sure how much is costume of Asciel's body and it seems rude to pry- she thinks she can follow this time. Love is changing, evolving, ever different...
But what it was made off didn't change.
This time, Emmy holds the locket in her hand, an opens it, hiding it with her hand- but someone who can see through the cameras could see the two pictures within, if they so dared. She looks at it, as the two talk about secrets and loss...
She mulls over Ai's answer. Letting go of a past she can't go back to. Emmy finds her answer different. Almost in opposition.
"I... I w-w-want to be st-stronger. Strong enough th-th-that... I c-c-can protect every... e-e-everyone I l-love. So th-that I w-w-won't lose anyone I h-h-hold dear ever again." She snaps the locket shut. It's foolish to think she could have saved the people in her locket. Her father, in his crisp Zeon uniform. Her mother, in both pictures, four years apart. The little girl that was her. She could never have saved them, she was too small, too young.
But her mind drifts to Ranka nearly being taken from her by Cornelia, only for Brera to take her instead.
To the night the Knightpolice raided the HQ, on Kallen's birthday, how one wrong step could have cost them everything.
To Milly, in her hospital bed, a bullet in her stomach from a Britannian soldier.
"Never... N-n-never, ever again."