2024-05-20: Macrocosmic Problem, Microcosmic Understanding
- Log: 2024-05-20 - Heat of the Moment
- Cast: Laffinty Fin E Ld Si, Madoka Kyouno
- Where: Kamogawa, Tokyo
- OOC - IC Date: April 24, UC 0099
- Summary: The Jersey Club helps set the stage for future endeavours, and discuss about the general state of affairs.
<Pose Tracker> Laffinty Fin E Ld Si has posed.
Lan is not presently attending at KamoJou; she's a full-time worker at Pharos, where she spends her days...looking at the ocean, and reading about whales, and thinking about girls. Normal full-time researcher stuff. She does help the staff take readings from Vox Lympha from time to time, but Orca...
...even now, she dislikes sitting too long in the machine...
That's why she has turned up toward the end of the schoolday, only to find Madoka engaging in the traditional Jersey Club activity of 'potentially, anything.'
The pale girl in the military vest looks at the excited array of students and the impromptu pile of construction parts they've thrown together.
Then she looks at Madoka. "We are building the vessel here?" she asks, blankly.
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
Madoka is busy taking joba no matter how inconveninent it may be. To be working for the good of everyone, to be at the peak of physical activity no matter the time of day. In other words: Madoka was being the best leader of the Jersey Club that she could strive to be. There lies Madoka, lifting up a piece of lumber and knocking on it, checking out the plans for this particular piece of construction...
"Ah, Lan! Yeah, we're just building a stage set for some future things the drama club wants to do. The movie club also wants some of it, so they asked me to help start planning the stage for their new film." A beaming smile before grunting to herself, snagging at the lumber to pull along to a spot.
"Start pulling lumber, okay? We just need to move some stuff around to mark the area."
<Pose Tracker> Laffinty Fin E Ld Si has posed.
Lan nods, her face a mask of serious consideration. "I see. And so, to ensure resources are prepared and distributed, you endeavor to prepare them yourself." ... A faint smile. "Yes, of course I will help. We are the Jersey Club."
Lan steps over to a length, considering it with a serious eye. This is no easy challenge, and she would match it earnestly.
One second later: "hnnnnnnnNNN"
Did you know it's possible to have NO idea how to pick up a weight heavier than one pound? Lan is literally pulling it and those noodle arms are making no headway.
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
There's only a few seconds spanning the time between Lan beginning to pull that lumber and Madoka coming from behind to lift the lumber in question, easily grunting as she slung that second plank over her shoulder. "...Lan, you want to lift with your legs." Simple and effective direction, placing that second lumber plank, and...
Plonk. That piece of wood dunked on the ground, outlining the start of the space for the stage. An appreciative exhale before turning to face the princess, an eyebrow crooked up with curiosity.
"...Lan, have you done any physical labor?" An innocent question from a girl used to being outside, those eyes glimmering with absolutely no malice.
<Pose Tracker> Laffinty Fin E Ld Si has posed.
"Madoka!" Lan yelps, pleased but surprised for the help. "Oh! Alright," she says, and it clearly takes her some thought to parse what that means. She might not even entirely get it. Sometimes you have to feel the burn a few times before the meaning of the phrase settles in...
Lan trots along, helping in her capacity of Secondary Support, and somewhat awkwardly helps set it down, stepping away also somewhat awkwardly. "Oh. Uhm. N, not really," the princess admits. "I have had servants for most purposes...normally I suppose I would be undergoing training at the Militia Zodia military academy now, but..."
...her eyes cast aside. "That...isn't an option. My brother and Moid have seen to my needs and protection until now."
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
Madoka's already in the middle of going through the motions, refusing to stop even as she slowed down the slightest bit. Already checking out the next piece of lumber while moving in close to Lan.
"A military academy? Up there?" Her eyes cast towards the cosmos, narrowing her eyes to try and stare at wherever that might be. ...Of course it's too far away. She won't say she didn't try! "...That won't settle the question with De Metrio, would it." No matter the type of fight it was, it still left a sour pit in her stomach.
Still, that didn't stop her active body from trotting along, lifting a smaller pile of pipes for Lan to hold and move. "And there's no way to talk with them about it? It has to be something serious if they're willing to head all the way here..."
<Pose Tracker> Laffinty Fin E Ld Si has posed.
Lan does her best to support, but...may be slowing Madoka down. Well, that's training, right?
"The planet's far away, in a whole other section of the galaxy," Lan says, earnestly. She accepts the pipes and follows along, continuing, "It's been a traditional joint Polyhedron training ground for a long time. Actually, I believe my brother and the Prince and Princess of De Metrio once attended Militia Zodia at the same time. Our worlds were close, once. But now..." ...Yurikano... ...Vilagiulio...
She almost misses the drop point, but manages to return to reality in time to walk up to it and...stop, holding the pipes in her hands. "No," Lan says, eyes cast down. "It's long past time for talking."
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
It's a steady pace, Madoka slowing down for Lan's benefit. Pipes to the drop point., Back to the lumber, the pipes, the makeshift area slowly filling out with planks and places for construction materials. She already checked the forecasts: Clear skies for the rest of the week, enough time for this to not run the risik of rot or other maladies.
"I don't know much about the wider state of affairs at Polyhedron, but..." She trailed off, gazing off at the sky for a few moments in the direction towards the (presumed) site of that empire. Before pointing a different direction. "We've made it as far as Jupiter, I think. Though most of us keep to around Earth." Still, even in the deep blue of the sky, there are minute dips and blemishes in the far reaches; Ships moving along the cosmos, a few steady dots signaling the Sides at their Lagrange Points. Taking a breath for the cool breeze to wash over.
"Is it?" ...She wanted to know more. Needed to know more. The sensation of swimming with nothing anchoring is an intoxicating one, but one needed a shore to moor off of eventually. "Mmh. Mmmmmhhhh. Polyhedron, princess, prt of LeGarite...Sorry, Lan, I'm still getting everything together. But if they want to try and reclaim what's been found on Earth, then they'll have to be diplomatic."
<Pose Tracker> Laffinty Fin E Ld Si has posed.
Lan will tire out before too long, even at this relaxed pace. She is, after all, someone who's never done much more physical than standing on a stage while her brother spoke. Still. She does try, depositing a box full of tools and nails near the pile of materials.
"The Earth Macross ships reached much further than Jupiter. There's colonies far across the galaxy sponsored by Macross vessels. But the program seems to have ended, now," Lan says. Moid tells her the Fold drives were stolen and misappropriated by corrupt leaders, and only some of them have returned even now. Her stomach twists thinking about it. Her brother would never allow such corruption! Neither would she!
Lan's gaze casts down. Vilagiulio, she thinks again, forcing her heart to harden. My enemy. Her posture squares. "They don't," Lan says, with a shake of her head. "If they want to keep it here, maybe, but...if their only interest is to get the Vox and retreat...that could be done. And if they had that power, the time would come when they could threaten the whole Earth. That's why we want to make sure you're ready to fend them off. This is a trained rebellion. They won't do something foolish like try to fight the whole SAL army at once."
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
"Mhm, if I remember..." Her brow furrows while the transfer of materials continues. This sort of pace is easy for her; It's more to keep Lan occupied, eventually handing over a water bottle (Kamogawa-branded) for her efforts. Taking a spot in the shade for a moment, looking up at the azure sky. "Some of the elites took the ships and ran. Some form of corrupiton." Lucky her. She was...In a word, not that knowledgable about the situation. And yet.
There's a curious gaze cast towards the princess, eyebrow crooking upwards as she downs her own bottle of water. Practically sucking it dry with an exhale, wiping the sweat off her brow. "After being in it...I can feel why they'd want it. It feels natural, you know? A bit weird at first, but other than that, it's..." A roll of her shoulders. "Not that bad, honestly." Asuka's words ring in her mind.
...She chooses to look away from that in the current moment.
"Still, to threaten the whole Earth?" There's a small tap of her own chin. "We've had a few of those. You saw the South Pole, right? Axis Shock? What else, what else...Oh, the North Pole turned green a few years back!" Right, right, this and that... "But still, to think that a whole empire was out there without us. Feels weird, doesn't it?" Another sip of that nearly empty bottle.
"How's it feel? All..." A breeze picking up as she sweeps out her arm. "All this."
<Pose Tracker> Laffinty Fin E Ld Si has posed.
Lan doesn't even quite notice how tired she is until Madoka hands her a bottle of water instead of a box. "O, oh," she says, and suddenly releases a breath, her own body's heat suddenly reaching conscious attention and prompting an unconscious sigh. "Thank you."
She follows to the shade. She squats rather than flopping onto her butt. Sitting straight on the ground seems uncouth, still. "Their power is greatly higher than even the top of the line Ovids we've seen so far," Lan says, examining the bottle like an alien technology (it is one) before determining the mechanism. "ah...a break-away seal...I see..." she murmurs, and palms the cap. "But, it isn't insurmountable." Madoka...she still doesn't even know the legend. It rattles around in Lan's brain. Should she tell her? She deserves to be informed. It's Lan's job to inform her! But...
She remembers Moid's stern face. 'If you can't pilot, Kyouno-san must. You know this.'
She drinks daintily. "I wouldn't know," she says, rougher than she normally might, to Madoka's prompt about how strange it all is. Lan is the strange one, after all.
How does it feel? Lan blinks up, pulling out of her thoughts to look at Madoka, then up to the sky. "Earth has many problems...it's astonishing to think how much is happening here on this one planet. But it is the home of Humanity, after all..." She smiles, just faintly. "Perhaps it will always be turbulent."
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
A slow release of breath as she grabs her own bearings, fingers touching the side of her own neck to check warmth. Sweat, the sign of proper hydration.
"Is it? I've touched a few of the older mobile suits when having to move a few things here and there. The farms have a few to help till the soil every spring, but no guns." Granted, mobile suits and Ovids aren't 1:1, but the general sense of 'larger in relation to the surrounding area' was, at the very least, helpful. "But, if we're waiting for the rest of your empire to arrive...I wonder how they'd take everything else happening here." An absentminded muse. Maybe it is just the Vox. Maybe if that were gone, everything would be...Fine?
...But still. That would leave one side unsatisfied.
"I guess so. Britnannia's been the Big Dog, but they haven't taken their stuff offworld." As far as she's aware. "Well, NUNE now, but we're across the coastline from them. If anyone tries to pull authority via their country, they have no legal power here." There's a hint of a steeled edge on that sentence.
"Humanity's always turbulent? I can't say you're wrong, but I think we'll all do just fine." A streeeetch. Back to it. Lumber. More lumber. Slowly whittling away the construction transport, eventually starting on tarps. "All this one planet, and now we have more empires...If we can make peace with the Zentradi, what's one more~?"
<Pose Tracker> Laffinty Fin E Ld Si has posed.
Lan does not know the importance of sweat so she drinks slow and without urgency. She does not know the subtle signs of thirst.
"Yes...the scars of Earth's recent wars are remarkable. Old weapons turned to farming equipment." It's terrifying, she thinks, that they should have enough to do it. "It's efficient," she says instead.
Lan grimaces. "I'm not sure," she admits. "But, my brother's main interest is making sure the Vox are used properly, for peoples' benefit. I don't think there should be any real problems."
She doesn't have a feeling about Britannia. She'd prefer not to have to fight humans, but she frets it might be inevitable, if things remain as they are. For now...for now they can focus on preventing the theft of the Vox.
She sees Madoka stand and, mimicking her, attempts to down the whole rest of the water bottle, angling it back and--
Sadly, Lan remains unable to enter Water due to a wizard curse.
She chokes loudly, punching her chest and coughing uncontrollably for a long few seconds before getting it gradually under control. "I," she says, slowly, awkwardly looking at Madoka near the lumber. "I hope so," she says, with a weak smile.
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kyouno has posed.
<poem> Madoka is tuned to the signs of thrist and general muscle weariness; The type of knowledge ingrained by pure use of the body, which is why she's being so careful with pushing Lan in the first place. The eagerness is good. But making sure she doesn't push too hard is key...
"Efficient? After they left those suits here, what else were we going to do with them? There's enough people who've left the various armies that know how to keep it cobbled together. Ah, not for any real fighting. All the weaponry was sold off or dumped." Truly, humanity finds a way.
"Really? Then, nothing to worry about. All we have to do is pilot them, right? If there's anyone coming from space or if NERV needs help for their operations, I'll be there." And she gives the most reassuring smile at that statement, standing proud.
The thought of conflict between others is seen as inevitable in her eyes. If the rebels want the Vox, then it stands to reason that...one would come. There's no escaping that fact.
The gaze of concern crosses her face on that cough, giving the gal a few smacks on the back to help clear that airway. "Yeah...After this, we're heading downtown."
Lan's not going to go back to her lodgings without at least a few heating pads for what soreness she's sure to have tomorrow. Call it the intuition of a body.