2023-12-15: Siblings Once More
- Log: 2023-12-15: Siblings Once More
- Cast: Sayla Mass, Casval rem Deikun
- Where: Shuffle Alliance Safehouse, West Africa
- OOC - IC Date: December 15, 0097
- Summary: Sayla and Casval have their first real conversation since he was purified. After some awkward small talk, they discuss what it will mean to be family again- and what they'll call each other.
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
The place Sayla is headed today is an unassuming small house in one of the cities on the outer edge of the WACU. A place where people don't pay super close attention to their neigbours.
The house itself tends to be watched, and there are regular deliveries. But visitors are rare. Sayla's dressed casually for the African summer- khaki pants, a light eggshell blue blouse, boots, a hat- and aviator sunglasses.
The two share a taste in some things.
She knocks thrice on the door, then once, then thrice again.
Weirdly, perhaps, one can get a slight sense of nervousness from Sayla. She and Casval haven't actually... properly talked one on one since... well, since he was purified.
But it's overdue- and Sayla is finally getting to work on having these long overdue talks.
<Pose Tracker> Casval rem Deikun has posed.
The safehouse is smaller, perhaps, than he's used to... but it is comfortable, and out of the way, where people don't give their neighbours much of a second look. It's ideal for somebody trying to rehabilitate himself.
Three knocks, then one, then three.
There's a long pause, and then the door opens - and Casval greets her, wearing a sleeveless shirt - red, of course - and slacks, with his hair a little messier and more grown-out. He smiles - a little awkwardly - to see Sayla, with a gentle "Please, come in," and steps to one side, opening the door wider for her.
The place is reasonably tidy - not fastidious, but it's clear he's putting in the work to keep it organised. Casval takes off the sunglasses once Sayla's stepped inside and tucks them into his front shirt pocket, closing the door behind her. "I hope your journey went smoothly. The sitting room is through this way - can I get you anything?"
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
Sayla steps through as she's invited in, a smile of her own meeting Casval's. "Thank you." She can see that her brother's taste in clothes is still what it is. She removes her own sunglasses, pulling a case out of her handbag and sliding them in, before returning them.
"Easy enough, for now. It's not a long train ride these days." She thinks for a moment, before the question. "Coffee?" She asks, after a second's thought. Even though it's hot, she could probably use the caffeine.
There's a few moments of awkward silence after that, as she walks through to said sitting room. "Are your eyes still giving you trouble?" She asks, noticing he was wearing the sunglasses indoors.
A few more moments pass. "...So, how have you been?" She asks, after a moment.
Is this... how awkward it's going to be the whole time?
<Pose Tracker> Casval rem Deikun has posed.
"Coffee," Casval agrees. "A good time of day for it."
Sometimes any time feels like a good time for coffee. "I can't make any promises as to the quality, but I'll do my best."
Are his eyes still giving him trouble? "Some days are worse than others," he admits, "but things are... improving overall. My eyes seem to be more sensitive, though, so I wear the sunglasses more often than maybe I need to."
He pauses to consider how to answer Sayla's last question. "... I've been writing. After Triple Zero, I thought it might be prudent to keep some record of the experience, as well as document the past."
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
"I'll be sure to temper my expectations," Sayla says, jokingly. Though her coffee standards were high BEFORE Renais moved in- and they only got higher from there.
Sayla nods as Casval speaks. "...We can look into treatments, perhaps? Running that improvised purification wasn't exactly... peer reviewed. Or tested. There were likely to be side effects." There's a pause. "...Though, hopefully, we won't need it again. 3G launched to Jupiter a few months ago. That will hopefully put an end to it." There's a sense of worry from Sayla- she's desperately hoping some people will make it back, after all. But against something like that...
She blinks a few times as Casval mentions what he's been working on. "The official autobiography of Casval rem Deikun, hm? I think you'd have a bestseller on your hands, even with the spite buying." Sayla chuckles a little. "You have no idea what sort of books came out about you and Amuro after the Axis Shock." There's a pause. "...Well, I hope you have no idea. There was some drivel in there."
Also Leina swore Sayla to secrecy when it came to telling him about 'Casval!!'. That, Leina had claimed, was her right as part of Sayla's penance.
"...Still. I think I might like to read it, when you're finished. Even if I might have opinions on the parts about our childhood." Sayla finally sits, getting comfortable on a couch.
Sayla takes a while before her next question, thinking about it. "...So, have you thought about what you want to do after that? The Shuffle Alliance seem... satisfied with what you've been doing so far. You probably won't have to stay under house arrest much longer."
<Pose Tracker> Casval rem Deikun has posed.
Casval brings back a tray of coffee cups with a strainer and some milk and sugar. "I realised I... don't know how you take it," he says, sheepishly. "I don't think either of us had developed a taste for it before... everything." He's taking his black, apparently.
"It's... I think it's phantom pain from that procedure. Given everything I did under the influence of the Oath - and everything before that - the occasional burn ache is a small price to pay for being clear-headed again."
... He's downplaying it. Even if you didn't know the man, that much would be obvious.
"... I'm mostly writing for myself," he admits. "Looking back on the One Year War and everything after that, I sometimes feel as though I don't recognise my own thought process or memories. I suppose I'm trying to... organise it. Still - perhaps you're right that there is a market for it." Sayla mentions the drivel, and he gives her a wintry look. "... I think I would rather not know," he decides - then laughs a little at himself.
"... Something has been bothering me, actually," he says, when Sayla asks about his future plans. "Or someone, I suppose - Bhakarov, and his... work on trying to recreate the Red Comet. I believe that that symbol has no more value except as a means for him to consolidate power. With Full Frontal... indisposed, and no other candidates for that project known, that means tracking down and ascertaining the motives of Zoltan Akkanen."
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
Sayla pauses, but nods. "...Not really. I didn't start drinking it until medical school." She reaches for hers- black as well. "...I think I started to stubbornly make it seem like I wasn't a child. But nowadays I'm something of a snob on it." She takes a sip- and it's fine enough. Drinkable.
Sayla frowns. "...Casval, you don't need to sugarcoat it. It's fine if you need to put them back on." She shakes her head. "I still have colleagues in the field who owe me favours."
She sips her coffee as Char explains his feelings. "I see..." She's not entirely sure about that. "I suppose getting it all down might help you there." Another sip, another thought. "...That said, I know someone working on a book who might be able to help you with that- and I think she'd jump at a chance for an interview." A pause. "...Do you remember Hayato Kobayashi, Casval?" Kai had kept her in the loop, back then. She knew they met.
Still, his concern about what's concerning him. "...That's a reasonable concern. I don't know if he'd go back to working for Bakharov after how things panned out, but... getting an eye on him might be worthwhile. You'd want to look for him yourself, then?" Sayla crosses one arm across her stomach, continuing to hold her coffee. "...Do you have a plan in mind if you do?"
<Pose Tracker> Casval rem Deikun has posed.
"The war," Casval answers in response to Sayla starting to drink coffee in medical school. He shakes his head. "No, I'm well enough - this isn't one of the worse days. ... It's a lot better than I expected it to be, actually... besides, your favours aren't mine, I'm not sure any doctor that isn't you would agree to treat me, hippocratic oath or not."
He frowns into his coffee. "Kobayashi. Yes, I remember." He remembers Katz, too. "... Who's writing the book?"
"... I do feel some kind of responsibility to those who were... part of that project, to be honest. I want to judge for myself what kind of person Akkanen is. I know he has a reputation as a wildcard, but..." he shrugs. "I don't know him. That makes it a risky prospect, but, I don't think he'd be satisfied with anything other than a face-to-face meeting."
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
Not even the academy, hmm? Kind of a surprise. "...If you say so." Sayla sounds a touch frustrated, but... well. This is hardly going to be the last of this discussion, hopefully.
"...His daughter, Kikka." Sayla responds, a little quietly. "I think she'd like to know your thoughts... and have the chance to talk to someone who knew her brother during the Gryps Conflict." Kikka deserves that sort of closure, if she can get it, after all.
Responsibility, is it? That's a change too, in a way. "I see. It's a gamble," Sayla admits. "The fact that he fought alongside us at all was a surprise." Sayla takes a moment. "I can see what I can find, at least. Maybe something will come of it, if you try." A pause. "...You're having someone watch your back, though. His reputation is earned- there's a decent chance he might just try to kill you."
That and there's probably reasonable concern from command about Char meeting one of his 'clones'.
<Pose Tracker> Casval rem Deikun has posed.
Casval looks down at his coffee again, as Sayla explains who's writing the book. He lets the topic of his physical condition lapse also - full knowing it will doubtless come up again.
"I see." He sighs. "I suppose that's the other side of facing up to my past. ... Very well, I'll agree to meet her, if she's interested. Maybe not for an interview, but... we'll see how it goes."
"The idea of my personality being... imprinted onto others, and the level of psychological trauma it would take to achieve that... no. After my experience with the Oath - being... changed, and not even realising anything was wrong until it was out of me?" He shudders, leaving the rest of whatever he might have said hanging unspoken.
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
That's probably the extent of what she can ask. "I'll let her know, then." Sayla says, simply. Maybe that's a good way of looking at it. "She's a good kid- well, kid isn't really the right term. And she has clearance."
She puts down her coffee when he talks about the trauma involved in what he perceives as the process. "...I can understand that. We're still working on what Murasame and Vist did to Leina, I can't imagine the damage of having whole other person imprinted onto you." How it will go is anyone's guess, but Sayla can at least argue for him to have that conversation.
That's when Sayla remembers something, and reaches into her bag. "...I forgot to get this back to you." She says, extending her hand- and presenting Char with the locket she took as collateral. "I did say I would return it when everything was over. My apologies."
The locket, however, raises another concern. "You should know... I met Nanai Miguel. A little under two years ago. She took a bunch of Neo-Zeon who didn't want to get involved with Bakharov and retreated to Sweetwater." She pauses. "I think you'll probably want to avoid it, for the time being... but she deserves to know you survived, if anyone does. What she does with that is up to her, though."
<Pose Tracker> Casval rem Deikun has posed.
He looks up when Sayla says Nanai's name, taking the locket back and slipping it into his shirt pocket along with the sunglasses. "... I had some suspicions. One of the pilots who flew against me while I was in the Oath's thrall... she sounded familiar." He nods. "If anyone deserves to know I'm alive, it's Nanai."
He takes another sip from his coffee mug, and sets it down. "... What comes next for us? With Leina's new... situation with Cathedra, and Vist having outed you to the world, I'm sure your life is a lot busier than it was even while trying to stop me."
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
"...Hm." That's the opposite of what Shelby expected, then. "...I'll have someone see if she's willing to receive contact. Though I could hardly blame her for not."
And then Char reaches the question that Sayla had been dancing around, and she falls silent for a few moments.
"....I'm not sure, to be honest." She says, quietly. "The federation is in a shambles, to the point that hunting you down doesn't seem to be on their agenda. People haven't forgotten, but right now... I'd guess someone sees your existence as useful."
Sayla let's out another sigh. "I take it Mineva told you about the deal?" Either that or Char's better at intel gathering from his position than she thought. "It's complicated, but as long as you're not in the cockpit of a psychoframe suit, you're not her responsibility. The blowback has been more to do with... trust, than anything else."
She lets out a mirthless chuckle. "That isn't the half of it. The Foundation's been scrambling to make up donations since it was revealed I was 'Char Aznable's sister'." Her shoulders sag a bit. "But there's no closing the lid on that Pandora's box, is there?"
She reaches back for her coffee, taking another sip over slightly dry lips. "...On the other hand, you've apparently made a good enough impression on my daughter for now that she's moved to considering inviting you over during the holidays." There's a smile, but the emotions are complex.
"I think... I'd like that, maybe. But beyond that... I don't know. We'll probably have to work this out step by step, after all." She leans back in the chair again, turning her blue eyes back to him. "I've no illusions that where we go from here will be easy- but if I'm introducing you to the people I care about... I need to know that you're going to remain part of my lifge this time."
<Pose Tracker> Casval rem Deikun has posed.
"Leina misdialed me, actually." It's a little amusing. "She explained some of her situation - or, I suppose, vented about it. It's a difficult position to be in."
He considers. "Bakharov will probably be interested in finding me at some point, so I guess keep an eye out for that."
When Sayla mentions having him over for the holidays, he sits up straighter, blue eyes glinting. "I would... like that very much, actually. It gets a little... quiet, here, sometimes, and I'm tired of running away from everything - so I suppose we should decide on what we call each other?"
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
THAT gets a surprised look out of Sayla. "She... misdialed you." Sayla says, staring at him a little. "...I'm surprised she didn't just hang up out of hand. Well. You must have done well in that conversation." That explains something at least.
"He will, almost certainly. Especially if he can't get at Mineva anymore..." ...That leaves one more target, but maybe it's not wise for Sayla to bring that up right now. "But I think his options are limited right now. If Side 3 went back to the Federation, he'd lose his sway almost immediately- or at least his hands would be tied. Stopping that has to be his major goal right now, you'd think."
The fact that Char seems amenable to the idea makes Sayla smile, despite her usual reserved demeanor. It would be nice... even if it might also be awkward as hell. "...Huh?" Sayla blinks a few time, a little paused. "Ah... Right. Well... everyone in my life knows me as Sayla these days. Artesia... isn't who I am anymore. And it's not like I particularly want to call you Char." She smirks, briefly. "And I've rather outgrown calling you big brother." Going beyond the time rather confused things on that front.
"...So, I guess... well. Who do you feel like being, then? Casval, Edouard or... I suppose, even Quattro?"