2023-06-07: Super Good
- Log: Super Good
- Cast: Milly Ashford, Shari Loom
- Where: Area 11
- OOC - IC Date: 0097 06 07
- Summary: Shari runs into Milly at a coffee shop, and they get to talking. Milly is getting OLD.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
When you already have a plan for what you're doing, a gap year or a gap term becomes a little pointless. Millly is getting acquainted with this pointlessness all too well; her days are starting to fade into each other.
Being home might have that effect, too; Milly has definitely noticed the slightly listless aura around the place. As long as she gets out and does things, it's not that miserable a feeling, but she's definitely starting to notice how much worse she does when she doesn't schedule anything.
Going back to Ashford itself would be a little ridiculous -- but she does still have a lot of fondness for a lot of the fixtures near the academy. She's set up at a coffee shop with a laptop, tap-tap-tapping at her chin with a stylus. (Yes, it's a laptop with a stylus. Usually she doesn't need it, but today's activity does require a little drawing and handwriting...)
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
Shari Loom, on the other hand, has been very busy. Schoolwork always takes up some time, especially given that she has to fit it in around going around the world, babysitting international terrorists, and stressing out about the technology she's using and how Yuliana probably isn't going to stab her today.
Plus, the whispers are only louder since Ra-Shalom.
But not right now! Right now it's quiet and Shari is going to have some coffee. She steps into the shop, makes an order, and turns around, to spot--
"Oh, hey," Shari says to Milly. Her makeup is heavy today; it almost covers up the fatigue in her eyes. Almost. She is still in uniform.
"...." In the space of that silence she sidles up to the chair. "The exciting life of adult work... Whatcha up to?"
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
Milly's gaze sweeps over Shari. She's got to be -- what, a second year, now? Same as Emilia? That's got to be fun. "Shari, right? It's been a while," Milly says, her lips curling up in a small smile. When Shari approaches the chair, Milly offers, "Take a seat if you want," with a gesture.
The prompt about what she's working on, though... "To tell you the truth, I'm working on a wardrobe change. I'm not that excited about a lot of what I've been wearing to marriage interviews lately and I was hoping to change things up..."
She tugs the corner of her lip down slightly with the butt of the stylus, then says, "After forty of these you start to find the same looks a little tiring." It looks like she's considering saying something else... but not yet.
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"Right!" Shari answers, and smiles back. She does in fact take a seat when Milly offers, sliding into the chair and setting down her mysteriously heavy purse.
"Oh, yeah?" Shari says, and then nods along. Marriage interviews, huh? Well, it's[ not that strange to her, with a father in Britannian government.
%"Yikes. That's a lot of interviews. Not findnig anybody who works out, huh?" Shari asks. "I'm glad I don't have to worry about that right now." Maybe later, but only maybe. "...I guess I could see getting bored, for sure. Even before you take into account your look..."
Shari doesn't seem to notice that she's considering something else, or else she's deliberately ignoring that impulse. Could be either one.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
"I'm pretty picky," Milly says, with a bit of a twinkle in her eye as she says it. "I can kill time for as long as I want, but sooner or later it's going to get kind of..." Her shoulders sag a bit. "Anyway, I'm not gonna bore you with that too much."
Her lips curl up a bit. "So -- how's school going?" A pause, as she looks at herself, going, "That's definitely a question with an expiration date before it makes me sound like a concerned adult... I am interested, though. I try not to bother my grandfather with those kinds of questions, even if he is the headmaster."
She glances at her laptop briefly, and surreptitiously closes a few tabs.
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"Sooner or later they'll probably make you pick somebody," Shari says, in the tone of 'remember that you are mortal' because she's exactly that kind of goth girl. "Oh, OK. I mean, I don't mind or anything."
But--school! She laughs. "You think you're getting that old?" she wonders. "I dunno. School's... good! Super good. Real good. Great. Uhhh. Fine." Pause. "...I mean, I guess. I'm kind of up to a lot of extracurricular stuff at the moment, so it's kinda just going..."
"I forgot about the headmaster thing."
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
"Not yet, but I turn 20 soon," Milly reflects. It's the indisputable age of adulthood -- even as the world argues over when adulthood starts, 20, especially in the OCU, is a bit of a milestone. At that point, no one can argue over it, and as it approaches Milly's starting to feel a little reflective about it.
SHe fixes Shari with a stare as she gradually bargains herself down. "It doesn't sound like it. It kind of sounds like you're having a weird time. Do you wanna talk about it?" It's drawing her, bit by bit, back into Class Prez space -- and she doesn't really mind it. Shifting her posture slightly to look more closely at Shari, she asks, "Is there something you want to be more than 'just going'?"
She decides to let the headmaster part drop. She doesn't really want to be 'a headmaster's daughter' or 'an heiress' right now, when there are more interesting things to be.
BBSYS: Post 968, 'FPT Known Issue' has been published to Announcements by Escudo Shard.
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"Aaah, yeah. The big 2-0..." Shari marvels at it. So far away. So Old. Milly will turn into an old maid before her very eyes. She looks sympathetic, in any case.
But that stare.. "Well." Pause. She is having a weird time... And Milly is offering to talk about it. Maybe talking with her will help out. Maybe it won't. But she finds the words tumbling out anyway.
"...it feels... I mean, there's so much other stuff going on that I can't focus. Between everything exploding in space all the time and all the invasions and all the everything it's like... I mean, what's the point, right?"
"It's hard to think any of it matters."
Allenby Beardsley has arrived.
Allenby Beardsley leaves for Nagoya [BUF].
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
It's true. Soon she'll only have opinions about taxes, cooking, and her romantic partner.
"Mm, yeah. I know what you mean, actually," Milly concedes, after taking a few seconds to think about it. "I haven't really felt up to some of this ever since that thing with the anomalous PLANT." Reflexively, Milly brings a hand down to her side, rubbing gently. ... it doesn't hurt anymore, but still...
"I think the point is that we can choose to change or choose to die, though." ... it does leave her wondering how she'll have to change to cope with a world that's like this, but that's a problem for... well, present Milly but not in front of Shari. "The little stuff matters a lot, you know. If I died tomorrow I'd have a lot to regret, but not coming here and getting coffee and running into you."
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"Really?" Shari wonders of Milly. Shari was sure that this was a unique feeling that other people wouldn't understand. "Oh... Yeah," she says. "I wasn't there for that," she admits. "I don't get out to space that much in general. I mean, sometimes? But not that much." She glances down to her side, and, "...Ah..."
Then, Milly presents a choice, and Shari considers it thoughtfully. "Change or die, huh...?"
"Maybe you're right." Her shoulders sink a little. "I just... need to get more OK with everything, I guess. I need to adapt. People are counting on me, after all." Like Elisa, and Yuliana... And the... uhh. The people they're gathering...
She smiles though. "That's nice. I like not being a regret." Pause. "...I think I am a regret for some people," she admits, "But whatever, they don't matter!"
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
"You're a commoner and I don't think you have ultra-deep pockets either," Milly points out, "so for you this is actually gonna be the best time to try getting out to space. I did a lot of work with the visa office on getting academic travel considerations for GUTS, but if you keep living here you're going to be behind a pretty stiff Area border." ... that's something that's been nagging at Milly too, actually. She's wealthy enough that she can still travel, but it is getting a little more difficult...
"More okay can help, but sometimes less okay's pretty important too. Sometimes it's worth trusting your gut. I'm kind of 50/50 on that." Pleasantly, she appends, "Knowing which problems are head problems and which problems are heart problems is a sign of maturity."
At the mention that people who'd regret Shari don't matter, Milly just laughs. "That's a healthy outlook -- though you do have to keep those people in mind if they're the type to... bring things back around to you again."
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"Hmm..." Shari is a little shifty at the matter of not having deep pockets, because her deep pockets are a matter of CRIME. "That's a good point," she thinks about. "Yeah... I guess I shouldn't keep living here. I'm only here because of my dad. He's in the government, so..." She gestures vaguely. "I'm not really attached to anyplace in particular."
"You think?" Shari asks. "Oh. Well. I guess I don't have that down yet. Everything feels like a 'head' problem when you've got migraines, right?" Ha ha ha! Shari gives a lopsided smile.
"Oh, it's fine. People who have trouble with me tend to forget about it pretty quickly. I guess I'm just lucky!"
Has nothing to do with the heavy mind control orb in her purse. Nothing at all.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
"Well, high school's old enough to get emancipated in Britannia, if you really want to go that route," Milly points out. "Nobility position or meritocratic?" 'Meritocratic' is not the usual term for positions available to commoners in Britannia; in this area, Milly is telling on herself and her politics. "It doesn't really matter if you're sure, but you do have to consider any titles, even minor ones..."
The migraine joke gets a polite laugh with just a bit of an 'eesh' behind it. As to the forgetting, though... "Doesn't that kind of bother you? Even if it's a bad impression, making a mark is important, right?"
... it's just a passing thought, though. She lets it skate without too much pressing.
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"Eh? I dunno. That seems like a lot of trouble. It's not like I see my parents that often anyway." But Milly has a point. She could do that. "...Hmm." She notices the way of putting it. But it doesn't bug her. "Nobility. Pretty minor, though. It's my mom's."
Eeesh! It's... not untrue that she gets migraines. It's just that that's not all she gets. But forgetting? "Nah," Shari says. "I mean, it's important, but... Stuff like that is troublesome. I'd rather they just leave me alone."
"I feel like my life would be a lot easier if the things I don't like just... went away, you know? But that's not how life works. I gotta get used to them, like we were saying."
Name: Aliases:
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
"Hmm, then it sounds like we're kind of in the same boat. Ours is technically..." She gestures with a hand, before finishing, "lapsed." This might explain the marriage interviews, actually...
"There's things it's okay to forget and things it isn't, I think. You'll have to figure out what they are on your own time, though, because if I just tell you the answers... well, they're not going to be your answers, right?" Milly leans in conspiratorially, adding, "'Your' answers are usually the most fun ones anyway."
She doesn't press on what those things are. Instead: "You can get used to them or change them. Either way's fine, you just can't sit there hoping they go away."
(Says the woman on her 40th marriage interview.)
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"At least my parents aren't nagging me about getting married," Shari says. Bright spot she has that Milly doesn't! "...Which is to say it sucks that you're stuck there." She might get the same when she gets a little older, though. She is only a second-year or so.
"Telling people the answers is something cool and sexy people do," Shari says immediately, and it takes her about three seconds to crack. "Ahahaha... No, I get it. Besides, you don't really know what all I'm dealing with, so... you probably don't have those answers. I think you're right. I like the idea of 'fun' answers..."
But she doesn't know what can be fun about the Whispers, or about...
"A lot of stuff I can't change... Like..."
Pause. "So I've got this... aunt." It's a lie, but it's not far off. "And she's really into all this weird stuff, and I can't really get out of showing interest. But it's weird and it takes up a lot of time."
"So you know, stuff you can't change, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
Family things activate Milly immediately. When Shari starts actually talking about her problem, she briefly pushes her hair back and then leans in a little closer. "Oh, I get that for sure. Lately my mother's been kind of the same way? Or, well -- I guess it's been about a year now..." That's a weird thought.
She thinks it through a bit. "At the same time, that's not always the best idea. I don't really want to get tied up with her stuff. I went to this destination wedding with her that seemed like it was kind of related, and that was a mess..."
Looking a little exhausted, suddenly, she ultimately waves it off. Things that don't change go extinct, but... is the best solution just 'living with them because they can't'? "I think you should consider what you're getting out of it, at least. But sometimes it is fine to just stick with it."
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
Family things apparently do! "Oh, yeah?" Shari asks. "All the robes and the jewelry and stuff... It's just kind of--I mean, I guess it could be cool, but it isn't."
And then what Milly says about a destination wedding registers for her, and Shari opens her mouth and closes it. "Ah, ha ha ha. Yeah. Weddings! Those are... super messy sometimes. My aunt got married, and I actually didn't end up going..."
"Hmmm. Well, I am getting something out of it, at least. A lot of stuff. It's a pain in the ass," she admits, "But it would probably be worse if I just quit..."
"Like, she..." Pause. "Well, she gives me presents, I guess. That's nice."
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
"Oh, congratulations to her! I hope everything goes well for the two of them," Milly enthuses. She doesn't drill down too much on the robes and jewelry part because that's... honestly kind of a lot to think about.
"I'm not going to push you to any particular decision," Milly says, ultimately. "I just want you to make sure you're happy with yours." ... It's something she should be thinking about too, right now. She's at her own crossroads, a bit -- a place where she really ought to think about whether she'll be happy with the next steps.
Presents, though... "Any interesting presents?" she enthuses, leaning forward a bit more. "I don't know if 'stuff' is the first thing I'd prioritize, but at the same time, I do like stuff." That gets punctuated with a smirk.
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"Thanks," Shari says. "I think it's going pretty good for them already..." Which is bad for everyone else. But is that really her problem? Maybe not. ...But maybe it is. But maybe...
"Oh, yeah... Well, that's cool of you. Still doing the senpai thing even though you graduated, and all." There are a lot of next steps to take. "I dunno, right now I'm... When I get to focus on it school stuff can be fun. Not the grades and tests and all, but the people. Sometimes."
Presents! "...Haha. Yeah, actually. I've..." She considers showing her one, and then instead pivots to, "A lot of gems? Like, i've gotten into jewelry as a hobby. I could show you some sometime. If, you know. You wanted to keep talking, outside of randomly meeting up..."
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
Milly thinks about that for a few moments. "I don't mind doing the 'senpai thing,'" Milly answers. "I think it's fun to see who people really are, even if they just need a little nudge to get there sometimes." Her expression stays playful as she notes, "Not that I'm in as good a position to nudge anymore, but there's still plenty of opportunities!"
Having an excuse to meet up instead of hoping to run into her at coffee shops near Ashford gets her immediate attention. "That'd be great! My schedule is pretty open lately, as long as I've got a little notice. You should still have both my phone and my VERTEX, right?" If she doesn't, she'll need to write those down -- but she doesn't seem to mind the thought of doing so.
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"I think that's... nice. I do like seeing who people are. But sometimes it's more fun to nudge them, you know? I do that sometimes, too, believe it or not. Heheh, maybe you gave me the idea." A smile back. "There are!"
"Right, I've got those," Shari says. "My schedule's not as open, but when I have time... I'dlike that a lot!"