View source for 2024-06-06: 'Adapting' Our Messy Lives

*'''Log:''' 'Adapting' Our Messy Lives
*'''Cast:''' [[Character :: Anita Rosetta]], [[Character :: Ruri Hoshino]]
*'''Where:''' Name Pending~, Orb Union
*'''Date:''' 2024-06-06
*'''Summary''': ''Ruri, Archimedes, and Harro comes to visit Anita and her squad of Haros for some important socialisation... but before Ruri gets down to Haro Business, she has to tell Anita she admires her.''
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[[Category:Logs]]
[[Category:Phase 2, Turn 1]]
[[Category:Phase 2]]


 <Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
<poem>

It's a nice day in Orb, a little cloudy but with a little sun still peeking through. Anita is off-duty today, and it's the sort of day she'd usually enjoy by spending her time lazing about the condo... but not this time, because today, Anita's expecting company! She isn't the only one off-duty today, so sending out an invitation seemed like a good idea.

...It's a nice idea - being able have friends over to a visit to her own home. Not for any specific purpose, but just to hang out. That's something she's missed. So, she's made a point of making sure everything's nice and ready!

...Of course, in a home shared with Rena Lancaster, that's not going to take ''much'' - it's already, by default, going to be nice and orderly. But the Haros are all situated in their spot in the Haro Shrine or relaxing on the couch, in the case of Anita's companion Haro who's been with her since she was a child. Even the rules-oriented, quiet, pedestal-mounted Haro gifted to her and Rena is relaxing in its own way... and Anita herself, naturally, is lounging on the couch while she waits.

Everything's ready - the only thing left to do now is wait for her guest!

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
<poem>

        Eight gave Ruri a dressing-down, some time ago, about ''working too hard.'' And when she talked to Minato about that, well, of ''course'' Minato backed her good friend Eight up in underlining that Ruri ''should'' take more breaks. Over time, this has resulted in...

        ... Ruri taking ''shore leave'' when they're parked in safe havens.

        Shore leave! Imagine that!

        Ding-dong, the doorbell chimes, and --

        "Anita! Anita!" Archimedes flaps her little head-wings, fluttering up beside Ruri, Harro clutched in her arms. Again, she chimes, with her mechancial voice: "Anita! Anita!"

        "That's right," Ruri smiles, gently, to her excited Haro. And when the door opens, to that tune of Anita-Anita-Anita, she looks up to her cyborg friend. "Hello, Anita-san. Can we come in?"

        Harro beeps, warmly, rolling to the side in Ruri's arms. He still has that glow of Photon Power in his eyes. Who knows what he's capable of?

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
<poem>

The doorbell chimes! Anita can hear the chorus of 'Anita! Anita!' even before she opens the door. She chuckles to herself as she stands up out of the sofa, making her way over to the door and opening it for Ruri and company.

"Hey Ruri, Archimedes, Harro. Good to see you all." Anita greets with a smile and a casual wave. "Yeah, come on in, sit anywhere you like. Glad to have you over."

The moment Ruri enters, she will find herself greeted by a chorus of 'Ruri! Ruri!' and one polite but somewhat stiff greeting on a screen as the Haros welcome her in.

Seeing the inside of the house, fully furnished now instead of waiting to be assembled... Rena and Anita have really made a cozy living space for themselves. It's warm and homey, and they've really made it theirs. As for sitting space, there's plenty of room on the sofa for guests as well as chairs in the dining room...

...and, near the Haro Shrine, a pair of beanbag Haro chairs with a little table in-between them.

"How was the trip over? You and everyone on the Nadesico doing alright?" Anita asks, and pauses for a second before adding, "Oh, want anything to drink?"

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
<poem>

        "There you go," Ruri says, setting Harro down once he's in the safety of Name Pending~. (Ruri respects non-alphanumerical characters in names.) Harro beeps, as he rolls around the floor, circularly.

        "Haro! Haro!" Archimedes flaps her own way in, to greet all the Haros. And so, to the tune of that chorus --

        Ruri steps in, too, and after a moment evaluating all the sensible seating, does the sensible thing and goes to sit on a beanbag Haro.

        "That would be good," she says, mildly, when she's offered a drink. "Do you have any orange juice?" She likes orange juice. Particularly when it's canned and processed. (Sorry, Ms. Howmei.) "The Nadesico is doing well," she adds. "We're assessing potential Jovian threats, right now. But we're not in any mission critical status, so it's all right if I step out for a few hours." She has all her paperwork in order, naturally.

        "Good job," she adds, looking around, "unpacking everything. I read that's something it's easy to put off, when you move house."

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
<poem>

Anita steps aside to make sure there's plenty of room for Harro to roll. Archimedes, meanwhile, greets the Haros, who greet back. Ruri takes a seat on one of the beanbag Haros - and Anita smiles. Clearly, she approves of this choice.

"Think so! Lemme go get that." Anita replies, moving over to the fridge. As she rummages for a glass and the orange juice, she listens as Ruri fills her in on the Nadeisco's current situation.

"Oh yeah?" She considers, filling up the glass. "That's good - feels like it's been a while since the last time they made a big move, so it's good to be cautious."

She smiles, though, returning to Ruri and offering her the glass.

"Here you go - one orange juice." She says, and takes the other beanbag chair. For herself, she's acquired soda - something bubbly, fizzy, and very sweet. "Still... definitely good to give yourself time to relax every now and then."

Ruri compliments their unpacking, and Anita chuckles.

"Thanks. Rena deserves most of the credit. If it was just me... Geez, bet I wouldn't be even half-done." She remarks. "But she got a plan of action put in place... which, uh, was still a whole Thing, but it went a lot better than with no planning at all."

"But if there's one thing I'm good at, it's moving stuff around." Anita says proudly, flexing her left arm. She's gone with a basic, but sleek, metal model today. No need for the bells and whistles when she's just relaxing at home.

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
<poem>

        "Thank you," Ruri says, when Anita confirms the good news about juiced oranges. "And yes, we can't get cocky. Just because there hasn't been a big attack, that doesn't mean it's over. Jovians aren't human, so they don't ever get tired."

        And, "thank you," she says again, as she reaches up to take the glass. Sip. "It's good." Her expression doesn't shift much, so just take her word on that one.

        "Rena-san must be very good at organisation," Ruri says, "since she's still doing really well in Dozoo Degwa. So of course she'd get matches when unpacking for real." Is unpacking just another puzzle game?

        Maybe it could be...

        "You are very strong," she says, though, looking to Anita's arm. "Much stronger than I am." That's not saying much; Ruri is infamously bird-boned, and even now she's fifteen-going-on-sixteen, she's ''still'' below-average in terms of physical feats. "But you're smart too, Anita-san. Being able to plan stuff out is only one kind of intelligence."

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
<poem>

"Right. They could just be waiting for an opening." Anita agrees with a nod. She takes a sip of her soda, then grins as Ruri compliments the orange juice. She can accept that. "Glad you like it."

Anita settles into her Haro beanbag chair, letting herself sink deeper into it. It's good for reading - there's even a little bookcase nearby. ...It can be a little ''too'' comfy sometimes.

Rena being good at organization... Anita nods.

"Oh, for sure, she's the best." She agrees fondly. "It's like she just knows exactly what to do."

She chuckles.

"Have you ever seen her, just, really get into the zone when she's playing? It's incredible." Anita enthuses. But Ruri compliments her strength, and Anita smiles.

"Well, I've got a little help... Still, it's alright if you aren't. Everyone's got their thing they're good at." Anita replies. And Ruri says ''she's'' smart, too, and Anita chuckles a bit sheepishly, massaging the back of her neck with her free hand. "You think so? I've never seen myself as 'smart', particularly..."

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
<poem>

        "It's difficult to win a match against her, when she's going all out," Ruri agrees, on Rena's ''zone.'' "But I'm getting better."

        Improving her skills in puzzle games is clearly just as direly important as improving her capacity to respond to the Jovians.

        "You are," she insists, quite serious. (She's always quite serious.) "I know you didn't do it alone -- but you still developed Svipul, Anita-san. The Visual Link System lets it work with you harmoniously. A lot of people couldn't do something like that. But you think about how you can work with the world by using your strengths, instead of just trying to be like other people."

        She sips her orange juice, again. "It's good," she says. "I always admired it, since I'm not like other people, either."

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
<poem>

"It's honestly impressive you can do that well. I can't even get a round." Anita admits with a laugh. And this is taking it seriously - something Anita rarely ever does. But she knows how invested in Dozoo Degwa Rena is, so she'll give her one-hundred percent all the same. Anita smiles. "Just keep at it, you'll get there. I'm sure Rena appreciates having someone she can have a fair fight with."

Puzzle games are ''very'' important.

Ruri insists, then, that she is smart - that she developed Svipul and the Visual Link System. Anita pauses. Her first instinct is to point out that she couldn't have done it without the engineering team of the Nadesico - she has them to thank for helping the cybernetic uplink getting established and working correctly. But... Ruri continues, saying she always admired how she works with the world with her own strengths. Because Ruri isn't like other people, either.

Well... if it means that much to her, it's hard to downplay it.

"...Thanks. I guess I should listen to my own advice more." Anita admits with a small smile. She looks down at her left arm, looking it over thoughtfully. "I guess, I've just always thought... 'if this is the way things are, I might as well make the most of it'. It's a part of who I am, right? ...Who we are."

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
<poem>

        "It's hard to have a fair fight when you're good," Ruri agrees, and doesn't think ''that'' hard on how she can last so much longer than Anita can against the mighty Rena. It just means she plays video games more, surely.

        (Are there hacking competitions where she styles on everyone? Surely not.)

        Of course, Anita having ''help'' to make it isn't really a mark against her, in Ruri's book. Asking for help is important. She learned that when she asked everyone to help her save Omoikane, after all.

        "I think that's a good way to look at it," she says. "I wonder why things are this way a lot, but that doesn't change that this is how it is. That's something I like about the Nadesico. Before I came here, it would have been completely foolish to imagine people proudly making mistakes and messing up. But even though it's a ship full of foolish screw-ups, everyone makes the most of their lives... well, more or less." She can't account for Ryoko getting so flustered all the time. But in a way, isn't that kind of making the most of her tsundere nature, too? (Omoikane started calling her a tsundere, and so it's stuck in both of their brains now.)

        "Accepting who we are... well," she adds, thoughtfully, "I guess it's something a lot of us have had to do."

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
<poem>

"Definitely." Anita agrees. The unfortunate reality of being good at video games...

She listens as Ruri continues, a slight smile crossing her face as she talks about the Nadesico, and about her change in opinion - it always feels like such a colorful place.

"Right? People are... messy. But it's because we're all messy in our own ways that we have room to fit together." She agrees, and nods. As for accepting who they are...

"...Yeah. For some of us, it's something that's just always staring us in the face. And others, it's lying in wait to creep up on them..." Anita replies. "It all comes down to just... what you do when you have to come face to face with yourself."

She smiles.

"For me, I know I became a lot happier when I decided to use it as a way of expressing myself."

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
<poem>

        "People are messy..." Ruri echoes, thoughtfully, looking down at her cup of juice. (It's half full, not half empty, or so they say.) "Sometimes they don't fit together perfectly. But they understand each other better after the argument, I think." Is she thinking of Ryoko again?! That's so unfair!

        She looks at the reflection of her too-gold eyes in the orange liquid, for a moment. And then...

        Siiiip.

        "You're very good at expressing yourself," she says, which is high praise, by Ruri's standards. "I like all the different arms you have. Do they all do different things?"

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
<poem>

"Yeah." Anita agrees, finishing off her soda. "It might be rough in the moment, but it helps in the long run, once it heals."

Ruri says she's good at expressing herself, though, and Anita grins.

"Thanks." She sets her empty cup aside on the table and leans back.

"They do! I've got a number of 'em, depending on what I'm doing. Like, this one..." Anita raps her knuckles against her left arm. "You can hear how it's kinda hollow, right? When I'm just lazing around here or out and about, I don't need a lot. So I can just go with something lightweight and fashionable. But if I'm expecting trouble, I can go with something heavier, with a bit more punch and tools built in for quick fixes or self-defense."

Her companion Haro rolls off the sofa, bouncing a bit when it hits the ground before rolling over to Anita. She picks it up, setting in her lap.

"And when I'm working on Haros or any other bits of technology, precision is the key - so they tend to be a bit more fragile but a lot more dextrous, and with a lot of useful machine-work tools built in." She explains.

</poem>
 <Pose Tracker> Ruri Hoshino has posed.
<poem>

        Ruri tilts her head, because she ''can'' hear the hollowness. "Oh, I see. The hollow design makes it easier to lift, so you don't get as tired." Like how boots are heavier than sandals!

        Archimedes is currently rolling around Harro, of course, to make sure he doesn't roll into the couch. Repeatedly. Again. She takes her job as Harro-minder very seriously.

        "I wanted to go over some of the new firmware updates while I was here, actually," Ruri says, looking over to them. "I thought there were some improvements we could make, and..."

        She'll be talking technical details for the next half an hour, minimum, but she wanted to talk them over with ''Anita,'' because Anita loves Haros with all her heart.

</poem>