2024-07-01: The Cycle's Trailing 'Tale'
- Log: The Cycle's Trailing 'Tale'
- Cast: Ruri Hoshino, Calas Zelinn
- Where: Orb Union - Toy Store
- Date: 2024-07-01
- Summary: Ruri meets Calas while shopping for the twins, and they recognise each other as former enemies -- though they're quite friendly, now. They have a conversation about the weight of war, but there are things both of them aren't saying.
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
The Nadesico is docking in Orb for a while -- it's a friendly port, and they have a lot of things to arrange. Including, on Minato's part... a birthday party.
But that's later.
Right now, Ruri Hoshino doesn't have that much to do, docked at a friendly port like this. And so, she's accessing... shore leave. Did you know that sometimes people leave the ship? Like, for no reason? Wild, right?
Okay, technically not for no reason. She's been given a quest by Lahvi to go find some tyke bikes for the babies now they're approaching two years old, to help them with their coordination. Ruri does not suspect for a minute that he would give her this quest specifically because she'd have to leave the Nadesico to go shopping, and so...
... she's in a commercial district, currently shopping in a children's toy store.
And in civilian clothes, for once; a pale sundress, with ribbons at her twintails, and a little bag slung over her shoulder. (Plus her communicator, of course, on the sash about her waist. Just in case there's a crisis.) She's a teenager, so she's both too old to be browsing this section of the toy store for herself, and too young to be browsing for her own children.
What a curious mystery!
<Pose Tracker> Calas Zelinn has posed.
Calas is not associated with any particular ship these days; her time on the Socrates is long over. But she does have a birthday approaching. Not her own, but someone else's. She has a number of things to do! She's in Orb on a Visit, for a few reasons--but the real reason is that the Assembly has asked her to have a nice outing with a particular Orb sub-minister.
But that doesn't take up all her time. Looking around the nation where Coordinators and Naturals live in peace is of great interest to her. And the aforementioned birthday.
Calas is also in a sundress, but hers comes with 1) a vest 2) a stroller. Tarol is snoozing away at the moment, calm as he's being walked. And Calas turns to look at little bikes...
She pauses, as she ses Ruri and her communicator. At first, she simply notices that Ruri is the wrong age to be here. But the communicator reminds her...
"Miss Hoshino, isn't it?" Calas inquires, coming to a stop nearby. Tarol is old enough to have brown hair, and his eyes are closed. He is in cute red clothes. He matches his mom!
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
Ruri blinks, as she hears her name, and looks up. Her skin is pale to white, her hair pale to blue; it just makes her bright gold eyes more stark, looking up.
What she is, is...
"Yes?" She asks, firstly, before she scrutinises Calas a little more closely. Recognition comes over those eyes, a moment later, as she asks: "Mrs. Zelinn?" They met, on the beach. They've met in battle, as well, but...
... she's much smaller, face-to-face, even if she's grown a little in the years since Calas last saw her.
One might expect Ruri to be guarded, recognising an old enemy like this -- but strangely, Ruri isn't. She's reserved, certainly, but she was reserved before she recognised Calas; she's just a reserved sort of girl. Instead, she asks: "Is that your child?"
He's in red, so Ruri isn't sure what his gender is. Babies just kind of have... universal baby gender.
<Pose Tracker> Calas Zelinn has posed.
Those eyes are stark. Calas notices them more strongly today. The too-young operator of the Nadesico...
Calas nods when Ruri recognizes her. "That's right," she says. Mrs. Zelinn. A name she has been happy to have, though these days, it's a little more fraught.
Well, that's not important right now.
"Yes," Calas answers. "His name is Tarol." She looks around the edge of the stroller, checking on him and noting that he's still sleeping for the moment. "He's fifteen months." Which means she had him in 0097--the same year the Bloody Valentine war ended. "..."
She's also fairly reserved. Moreso than the last time Ruri met her, in fact. "...I probably shouldn't try to shop for him while he's with me, but I don't think he'll mind while he's asleep," she says. "And I came to Orb on my own."
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"Hello, Tarol," Ruri says, looking into the stroller -- but quietly. He's sleeping! "Then he's just a little younger than Admiral Orlodhari's children... I see, that's why we've met here." She pauses, and adds: "Since I'm shopping for them."
Mystery solved! Ruri, thankfully, does not have children of her own. She might be approaching the age where it's acceptable for her to go to war, but she's definitely still too young to have her own baby.
(Ruri doesn't particularly want children of her own, anyway. Maybe she'll change her mind when she's older... but maybe she won't. She likes Aarmi and Zaress a lot, but after all her experience babysitting, she doesn't think she wants to be responsible for a baby all the time.)
"You're on your own..." She blinks, long, just the once. "I see. So that's why you didn't assist Captain Oono, when ZAFT destroyed the Shakuyaku. If Tarol was born fifteen months ago, you would have been busy." She's good at timeline maths, apparently.
<Pose Tracker> Calas Zelinn has posed.
Calas smiles. She's happy that Ruri is engaging with her baby, even if he's asleep. "Oh?" she wonders. Admiral Orlodhari, of Magallanica... Of course Calas knows the name. "Ahh so that's why," Calas answers, because she now puts it together. Ruri must be shopping for her friend(?)'s children.
Definitely too young to have her own. She'll have plenty of time to consider that decision later, hopefully. If war doesn't rob her of it.
"...Hm?" Calas wonders. "It's true that I retired again." She is not surprised that Ruri would be good at math. "The Shakuyaku... An ally of yours, then?" A shake of her head. She almost says she doesn't know why a ZAFT ship would destroy a Nergal ship in peacetime, but...
It wasn't peacetime for the Jovians.
"But no. I'm done with war. I just want to live in peace with my family."
It feels dishonest, somehow. But she isn't sure why.
"I guess they kept fighting, then..."
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"The ND-004 Shakuyaku was the next model of the Nadesico-class," Ruri explains. "The Socrates destroyed it, and fired on its escape pods, too. A lot of people died, but we were able to save Sarutahiko." She reports this as stoically as the weather; the only hint it bothers her is the hint of trouble, in her strange eyes.
She frowns, but lightly. "They did," keep fighting. "The Nadesico is still active, too. But it's okay if you don't want to fight, any more."
<Pose Tracker> Calas Zelinn has posed.
The Socrates destroyed it. That much, well--if they're still at war, Calas can't expect they wouldn't destroy their enemies. But Ruri might catch the slight widening of her eyes as Ruri explains that they also fired on the escape pods. "She'd go that far..." A sigh. Of course she would. "That girl," Calas says, and her expression is complicated.
"...I'm glad you were able to save someone," Calas says. "Have you seen her since? The ship? I guess it's not really my business anymore."
"I see. So you're still fighting, too." She frowns, at that. "...I don't," she says, and maybe she protests a little much. "War takes from people. ...It's only when we have to, that we should fight."
No, why should she be surprised at all? The Jovians have done more than fire on escape pods. She knows full well.
"We all do terrible things in war. I'm no exception. ...Maybe I just don't have the stomach for it anymore." She looks down at Tarol, as if anchoring herself. "Or maybe I hoped she could be better than our generation."
"I'm not usually so naive."
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"Not since we got back from Gallia IV," Ruri shakes her head. "Though, I suppose they must have had their own way to get back, since they were able to follow us." She doesn't know how they followed them, evidently.
"If the Nadesico stops fighting," Ruri points out, and talks about the ship instead of herself, "the Jovian automatons will build up on Earth, and kill a lot of people. Maybe NUNE would get people to fight them, but they don't have the combat data Omoikane has, so it would be much less efficient."
There's a light frown on her face, still. "I understand," she says, mildly. "I executed the Captain's order to raise our shields over an underground refugee camp on Mars. The pressure of the Distortion Field killed ten percent of the remaining population by displacing the structure and surrounding rock onto them, which buried them alive." She describes it all so -- clinically. "And there are other things, too. But I shouldn't talk about some of them, because it's a secret. Anyway, every generation does it, more or less. That's the cyclic nature of war of the Earth Sphere. I read about it all the time."
<Pose Tracker> Calas Zelinn has posed.
"...Right." They presumably did. But Calas doesn't talk about that for the moment. Instead, she listens to Ruri talk about the ship. The Jovian automatons, she mentions. And NUNE...
"I see. No, that's a very solid reason to keep fighting. I can't say I think someone as young as you were should've been involved... But you are, anyway. And it's not my place to tell you how to live and what to do."
She doesn't volunteer that she's not sure NUNE would bother.
But Ruri says she understands, and Calas watches her. "Yes, you do," she says, voicing that she believes her. That's a lot of people dead, too. And Ruri carried out the order. How did she feel, back then?
...Calas doesn't ask.
"That's fine, I don't need to hear the secrets. That's what I read, too."
She looks down at Tarol again. "Well, if you're going to be the one keeping everyone safe, I guess the least I can do is help you pick out some toys. I can tell you what my other kids liked when they were about that age. What are you looking for?"
The cyclic nature of war in the Earth Sphere...
"...You're too young to believe things like that are inevitable, though." Even if she might be right.
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"Maybe not," Ruri agrees. "But I am, anyway."
What Nergal did was probably illegal and definitely unethical, but the Nadesico is still her home. She doesn't want to leave.
How she felt about it...
Ruri doesn't tell.
Her expression gentles, though, when Calas offers to help her pick. "Thank you," she says. "Their father wants them to have something to ride on, to help them develop their balance and coordination. The little bikes."
She turns, to look at the tyke bikes. "Well," she says, "maybe it isn't inevitable. I guess I just want to find an explanation... or something like that. But it would be nice if the twins didn't grow up like me. They say eleven is very young to start fighting. I don't think it's a good thing."
<Pose Tracker> Calas Zelinn has posed.
Calas has also done illegal and unethical things, and is unprepared to try to argue whether they are better or worse than buying a child. ...Of course, she doesn't know that part.
"Right." She is, and that isn't changing.
Calas nods, and her expression softens too. "I see... It's good that he's involved in their upbringing like that." Not that most fathers aren't or something. It's fine. "And he's right, that's important. Let's see..." She knows, of course, of Eight and Lavnadim Orlodhari; this has been established. "They'll need something sturdy. My kids did, too--Coordinator children can be rough on toys." She kneels down, and drags her thumb across a few of the tyke bikes. "...This one's a good brand--it'll hold together. I'm surprised Orb stores carry it."
Calas looks back up at Ruri as she talks again. "I agree," Calas says. "It's much too young. ...And it would be nice, if they didn't grow up like that."
She considers for a moment, and some of the fire that carried her to the AEUG burns inside her again, just for a moment. "If you're going to fight, then maybe you can fight for that, too."
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
The Orlodharis are Kind Of A Big Deal, but Ruri isn't the type of girl to namedrop someone for status. "He's very involved," she nods. "He watches them a lot. But when the Nadesico isn't doing anything nearby, I come out to babysit for them. It's good for them to take breaks, too."
Ruri remembers that lecture.
"I don't remember how I treated my toys," she says, mildly, and with no weight at all, "but so far, the twins are very strong. Since they're half-Zentradi, after all." She puts her hands on her knees, as she leans down to see... "That looks nice," she agrees, with a nod. "I'll get those ones, then. Thank you for your advice, Mrs. Zelinn."
She looks to Tarol's napping-place, thoughtfully. "And," she adds, "that would be nice."
<Pose Tracker> Calas Zelinn has posed.
"That's nice," Calas says. "I wish I had a responsible girl like you to watch mine." A beat, "Breaks are very important for parents especially. But everyone some."
Ruri doesn't remember. But the twins... She imagines they are strong. "You're welcome, Miss Hoshino." She continues to be formal about it. And then she smiles at Tarol.
"...I think he's a little young for one of these, so I'll check the next aisle. But take care."
"...And good luck."
Calas stands up, and moves to push her stroller away.
<Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
"They say babysitting is the kind of job a teenager normally has," Ruri says. "I think it's nice. I like seeing them learn how to solve problems. They're getting better every time I see them." She still doesn't smile, but her words are gentle enough to be genuine, anyway.
She straightens, and nods. "Good luck to you, too," she says. "I hope you find someone who can help you take a break. Until next time, Mrs. Zelinn."
And thanks to Calas's help, she knows exactly what toys to bring to the front desk. She's sure Lahvi will be happy with what she's found, if a mother helped her find it.
It's nice to do nice things for the kids.