2023-09-03: A Woman With Something She Must Do
- Cast: Sophia Mayhew Castellan, Shelby Korts
- Where: Ra Mari II
- Date: U.C. 0097 09 03
- Summary: After the trying battles in and around Denver Colony, Sophia takes the brief breather granted by the psychocrystal chrysalis to check on Shelby.
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
Getting away from the orbit of Denver Colony and finding somewhere reasonably safe in the vast blackness of space is not too hard. Finding a ship that got away from there? A little more of a trick, unless you follow any debris, repairs in progress, or methods a touch more metaphysical and esoteric.
inhale
It's only been a few hours since the operation to stop Jona Basta from detonating the -- albeit reduced number -- helium-3 tanks at Denver Colony. In the main hangar and maintenance bay, her Jagd Doga is strung up on cables, chains, and equipment, the head damaged, the whole left arm missing, and one leg all but ready to fall apart. The cockpit inside? A chunk of it needs replacement, with a few blown screens and sections of the panoramic interior offline.
What happened to the pilot...?
Shelby Korts is currently resting in guest quarters; little better than a bunk with a window view, unconscious since the Phenex Gundam picked her up and carried her back to the Ra Mari II while ghosts
THEY ARE CARVED.
THEY ARE CARVED.
THEY ARE CARVED.
THEY ARE CARVED.
while the words of ghosts linger in her mind, harsh and whispered and rough inside her head. She's clad in a sleeveless black bodyglove with sparse trim and long pink lines from neck to ankles. Her pilot suit is folded carefully on a chair nearby; her helmet set atop it... and the inside of the visor bears spatters of blood sticking to it. She's out cold -- or asleep?-- a cold compress wrapped in a towel secured to her shoulder where a massive welt is spread through and a damp washcloth folded over her eyes.
Needless to say, Shelby Korts looks like absolute hell right now.
The door, also, is open -- for the doctor, friends, guests, or... more.
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
The Hyperion was nearly ruined by Jona's final attack, and many of her mobile suits now need repair, to say nothing of extensive ammo replenishment. The ship herself, too, saw severe damage. Sophia has sent the whole vessel back to the rear line, expecting an imminent battle with a Space Hermit Crab.
Instead, Denver turned into a Space Chrysalis. On Desmond's recommendation, they stayed in the region a little longer to gather data...and then made for another ship in the area.
G-Hound codes, a promise to be on her best behavior, and a little honesty serve to get Sophia aboard the Ra Mari II. She's got her overcoat clipped over her shoulders in its cape mode, as usual, but under that is her navy-colored normal suit rather than the G-Hound uniform. She came here directly. Her first stop is a moment to stare silently at the brutalized Jagd Doga. Similar status to her own ship, she thinks. Reflexively she releases her Geass, and follows the connections that reveal themselves. She turns down guidance.
*
The door to Shelby's room opens and the Commander - it's not her own ship, she uses her land rank here - steps in.
She picks up the damaged helmet, spatters of blood within. Her own eye pulses, a pain shooting into her from what she knows isn't a physical source. She places her forehead against it, eyes shutting. "Is this a kind of pain we're meant to forgive?" she sighs, and puts the helmet back down.
She steps over to the unconscious body of Shelby Korts and watches for several long moments. She doesn't know how long she stands there, wordlessly processing the sight, before sitting at the chair for guests.
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
Like this, it's a lot easier to see the things Shelby's been hiding all this time: The injection scars, perfectly spaced, as though they were performed by machine... and repeatedly. Old nicks and gashes long since healed, but a line or a smoothing knot of skin down sturdy arms. Her compression sleeves are off; the web of damage done to the inside of her forearms visible to a more careful look. Marks in her hairline, even, signalling why she wears her hair forward most of the time.
too many ghosts looking you in the eyes
my eyes
mine
A wince in her sleep, a tension and a slight twitch. Tremors and spasms. A grunt and groan that suggests her rest isn't as recuperative as she'd like right now. And then one arm lifts to hold her head while she sucks in a deep, deep breath, but--
s o p h i e ?
"Guhh!!"
And she tries to sit up, using both arms-- though immediately her weight sags to her left, wincing and letting out a gasp of pain. The washcloth drops from her face, and her eyes blink blearily, searching for her glasses-- and god her right eye is bloodshot.
"S... Sophie...?" she asks aloud, eyes half-lidded-- cast downward.
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
She can't help herself. Sophia leans closer, taking in the sight of all that history. Injection scars, precise and clear. Other injuries, more natural and scarred over from rough healing. With her hair swept up, Sophia can even see those marks in her hairline.
Something bubbles in Sophia's stomach, that anger at a world that has dared to harm her kin. But she forces herself to sit and breathe. She doesn't want Shelby's first sight to be Sophia pacing with unspent anger. She's sure such things would wake the poor girl.
...Perhaps that happened anyway. Shelby jolts upright and over, and Sophia leans back into her own space, watching her sister recover herself.
She manages a thin, sad smile. "I knew you must have had a rough time in there. Even I did," she says, simply.
Shelby casts her eyes down, and Sophia silently holds a hand out for her. "Bad dreams?"
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
Then, she could sleep. Even if occasionally, in the middle of the night, Caedra Beatrix Castellan would pace the long halls of their home, rubbing her eyes and unable to sleep. The times she would find a quiet place to curl up and sleep, laying on a sofa, or finding her sister. In those times, she could still sleep.
Not quite like now.
Shelby Korts moves the washcloth to the side, taking Sophia's hand. It takes a moment to pull herself upright, legs swinging over the side of the bunk. The cold pack on her shoulder remains in place through ace bandages and metallic tooth-clips, helping to keep the swelling down on the joint.
"Yeah," she says, gaze still cast downward. She hasn't let go of Sophia's hand, either. "Don't have my music. Helps... with drowning it out."
"I. ... t-the... the ghosts. They're inside there, I can ..." Her left hand lifts from her lap, making a small gesture as though she's trying to coax the words out. "Hear. Them. The psychoframe..." Her mouth forms a flat line. "It's so loud in there. I can't hear anything. But we still... saved him."
Then, her eyes finally lift.
She looks... so tired.
"I'm sorry."
BBSYS: Post 1194, 'Opening Announcement 3-9-2023' has been published to Character Announcements by Beam Coat.
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
Sophia's become someone who thinks too much. Has to hide too much of herself behind layers and walls, hide too much anger in the boiling cauldron at her core. She doesn't think she can soothe her sister's thoughts, anymore. "I guess it would," Sophia says, quietly. She's been doing her reading. She simply holds on to Shelby's hand, rather than approach or retreat, seated in the chair and watching Caedra pull herself together. 'They're still inside there, she says, and Sophia finds herself unconsciously palming the side of her left eye with her unused hand, the pain still throbbing. "I...had my own experience," she confesses. "There's something in that place that shouldn't be. Shouldn't...exist, at all. Reaching out to form a connection to your death. At least then they'd have anything."
She scoffs. "It's regretful, but sometimes a poorly trained dog must be put down for the sins of its master," she says, cold.
She softens, when Shelby looks up at her, and she shakes her head. "It was my decision that kept us in the fight," she says. "I lost several men, and the Hyperion took enough damage I've had to send it away for now." ... "The parts, at least, can be replaced. You saved your man. I won't take that from you."
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
She looks up -- the hand over Sophia's left eye, much like the state of her own right eye. Shelby sniffs, rubbing her eyes with her free hand, trying to keep herself held together. Is it for herself? Or for her older sister, for whom she wants to never let down? Like, asking for her trust... and several of her crew losing their lives.
The coldness, however, makes her expression fall slightly. That's some Britannian talk.
"They have to be stopped... but ... the people, t-the ghosts, s-stuck in Denver didn't ask. F-For it. They're victims."
Victims of greed... malice. Of the Federation, even. The same horrid systems that are responsible for how Caedra became Shelby.
"I can't help them? M-Maybe my friends can, but I'm. I'm just ... a liability," she says, looking down again. Is it ... self-doubt? "I keep hearing them. I can't ... I don't know how I can help them." Her hand gestures again in a circle. She's struggling for words, and it's visibly frustrating her.
Eventually, she sighs, closing her eyes. The fingers holding Sophia's hand grip a little tighter. The throbbing is a focus, more than a distraction, as her eyes finally open again.
"I'm scared. ... t-that I'm not strong enough to help."
CHANSYS: No channel with that name or alias found.
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
Would Caedra have ended up like her, if she'd been so lucky?
Is that a bad thing?
Questions she finds herself asking, when Shelby gives her looks like that. She curls her fingers ever so slightly more to grasp Shelby's hand. "Victims," Sophia says quietly. "Yes. That is so." She could sense that, see the wriggling bondlessness. This unnatural state, this horror, could not be something the world would create on its own. Could it?
Shelby can't help them... "Do you believe that?" Sophia asks, very quietly, and tries to look her in the eye. Her own left eye is shot as well, watering still from the ache in her nerve,, persisting long past the end of the assault. "Or do you simply fear the answer you do have?"
She pauses, eyes flicking down to their joined hands.
She reaches up and clasps Shelby's hand in both of hers, holding firm. "Is it something you need to do? Or just an obligation you have created?"
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
"... I'm scared. But I..." She sounds like she used to, on days it was too much, days where she tried her best for her big sister; her face scrunching up behind impossibly large glasses rather than hiding behind her skirt and crying. It's when Sophia tries to look her in the eye that her eyes lift-- still, so tired-- that she meets gaze.
"I need to it. Not just for me, for ... my friends. ... and the other kids. That... that were at Augusta."
Feeling the warmth of the hands that clasp her own, Caedra leans forward-- to lean against her sister, drawing in a deep, controlled breath.
"I promise."
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
Sophia searches Shelby's world for a moment.
Then she brings her hand up and presses gently against the back of her head, holding her against her safely. Her thumb strokes her hair.
She thinks of Princess Cornelia, months ago, demanding to understand why Sophia had not brought Shelby straight back to Britannia.
"You've become a woman with things you must do," Sophia says, quietly.
"Then, you will find that strength. You have found it so far." She smiles, very faintly. "I'm told we Castellans are a stubborn bunch."
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
Shelby smiles, head turning against Sophia to a more comfortable position. There she stays, for a time, letting her arms-- left side more gingerly-- slide around the elder Castellan and hold her in a hug. "Thank you for having faith in me. A-And, I'm ... I'm sorry we had to meet up like this."
Caedra's grip relaxes a bit, but she stays right there -- the place that feels like home. "How long can you stay?"
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
The two sisters linger there together. Sophia finds her eyes closing to take in the sense of her sister's presence. She doesn't need her Geass for that.
God, she finally doesn't need her Geass for that.
"I have hunted you across hell and heaven once," Sophia says. "A..." she huffs a small laugh. "Haunted space chrysalis, is little deterrant."
She strokes Caedra's head as her sister relaxes into her. She sent the Hyperion away, and took the Helios here, so in other words..."As long as I please," she says.
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
"And I'll tear down the sky for everyone I care about," she murmurs. A rare complete, direct, totally honest statement that she once upon a time shared with Anser with no hesitation or pause. "Space ghosts screaming inside my head or not."
Shelby's eyes close after a moment. "Captain's perogative," she says with a slight bit of humor edging into her voice. Her body feels a little more slacked, relaxed.
It doesn't hurt as much with Sophia there -- her body still does, of course. Her injuries, the bruises and the scuffs and scrapes, the old aching scars, but inside her head? It seems, blissfully, more calm than it has been for a long time. It's not like Yuliana taking hold of her, or C.C. creating a bubble -- it's just a sense of safety and calm.
And maybe that's enough, for now.
"Thanks, Sophie," Caedra says, closing her eyes. It's hard to say if the exhaustion's taking her or not.
<Pose Tracker> Sophia Mayhew Castellan has posed.
"Good," Sophia says, encouraging and fond. Such a violent oath, but Sophia feels proud of her sister for caring so deeply and living so strongly. "Don't fear them. Their fate is tragic, but that does not entitle them to your heart."
Captain's prerogative. "Oh yes," Sophia chuckles.
There's a quiet in her. The doubts, too, fall away. Questions of king and country are so small, irrelevant; her sister is here. Charles zi Britannia's ego can wait. "You can't show me a face like that," Sophia says fondly, "and think I won't come to your side, Caedra."
A slow run of her hand down Shelby's head and neck. "Rest," she says. "I'll be here."