2023-08-01: re configure: (wing)

• Cast: Asciel Colette, Alouette Pommier
• Where: Nouvelle Tokyo
• Date: U.C. 0097 08 01
• Summary: Self renovation in progress. Query dilemma: 'how am I going to explain this huge a business transaction at a -maid cafe-...'

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<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

Welcome to Yes Milady, Nouvelle Tokyo's finest maid cafe! Alouette is taking a shift here today, because why not? It's a bit on the sketchier side for sure, and many of their customers strangely resemble yakuza and other such figures.

So here is Alouette Pommier, 3G's resident supergenius, wearing a maid dress on a particularly slow shift of work. It has ribbons! Lots of them.

She doesn't particularly mind the diversion, really... there's a lot she'd prefer to take her mind off for the time being. And she is learning quite a lot. Not only is writing people's names with ketchup a very fruitful method of kanji memorization, she can almost do the customer service voice without it being off-putting!

For the time being, she's on a short break until more customers come by, scrolling away on To-Witter (which has not been renamed). Has Akane posted any new art? Maybe Ranka put out an update about her upcoming concert! The 'Virtual Sage' is trending...? Only a corner of her gaze remains on that lovely heart-themed entrance.

<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.

        It's normal to get over something after a few months, isn't it?

        You're supposed to move on with your life and find new resolutions to new problems, aren't you?

        ---if only it were that easy for Asciel.

        A sourness persists in her heart at just the way she was prevented from a ~heartfelt concert~ that would ~save the planet~. It wasn't just about the specifics of the Palau disaster and its aversion and whether it was better to spare no expense and stop the dilemma with margin to spare, or if saving everyone possible was worth the risk.

        ...it's that it was her moment to shine. Her that would save the world, with her voice. Just like she always dreamed. Like she imagined was the way to live.

        ...it was easy enough to find that Alouette worked here. Amalgam's tendrils are broad enough that many in high places may not even realize they're acting as primary informants.

        -And so, she arrives. Towering well over everyone on Nouvelle Tokyo's sidewalks, clad in showy summery attire. Ripped denim shorts, bright magenta two-piece top in a polyester material, vivid cyan hair done up in tri-tails, and gold-hued sunglasses to top it all off.

        ...her head, briefly, bonks on the lower taper of the heart-shaped entryway with a decidedly loud noise that utterly kills Asciel's cool and suave entry. Don't think about it don't think about it. She helps herself to a seat that creaks under her frame, and immediately locks her sights on Alouette.

        "So, 'ma cherie', we meet again.~" Asciel booms in somewhat too loud a voice, turning a few heads more than her already natural attention-grabbing presence. "To think, you'd decide who does and does not get to save the world and then return to a kitschy little maid cafe like this. Hehehe." she's already starting on this, so tactless.

<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

For Alouette, so much has happened since Palau threatened to fall, since she robbed Asciel of the chance to solve it her own way. Char Aznable was purified. She found herself tied in a century-long conspiracy and became a prisoner of the Vist Foundation. It's significantly less important, but she got her job here since then, too. She couldn't possibly imagine Asciel still held that grudge, but maybe she should have.

"Bienvenue chez vous, maitresse~" She stands up and greets their new customer without breaking a sweat. And then covers her mouth in light shock, when she processes who just bonked their way into the cafe.

"It's you... Asciel Colette." she starts, in an initially much colder, but maybe just awkward tone, as if she's been totally caught off guard.

"It's been some time, hasn't it?" Could she hand this one off to a coworker? Probably. But Asciel's just forced the issue and Alouette doesn't back down from such things.

"Only my girlfriend really calls me that..." Alouette comments on 'ma cherie', that hint of awkwardness remaining. "But I don't suppose I can complain about that here." She adds, with a shrug.

"What do you mean 'save the world'?" She asks, totally rhetorically. "Is that seriously what you think you were doing? I suppose it must be." Her heels click as she walks closer to Asciel's table. "Well, I don't care who saves the world. I care about how it's done... and I simply couldn't agree with your methods. That's all." She answers her rather tersely, shuffling a menu on the desk. It's rather pink and cutesy. "It's not like I'm the only one who gets to decide that, even if that's what it looked like. So let's talk about it, shall we? But first... is there anything this kitschy little maid can get for you?"
Kaname Chidori teleports out.

<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.

        Resting her elbow on the table, tipping her sunglasses down to let one vivid orange iris bloom in color, Asciel beholds the simple but effective maid attire, fingers fanning over her mouth. "Really, I only came here since any other venue seemed wildly inappropriate. A place of study is rather intrusive, and, well. All things considered, the GGG's facilities would proooooobably see me as a threat. Not that I'd blame them, though I'd certainly find it foolish to hamper the operations of the only group that can really effectively handle the Triple Zero problem. And showing up at your home is out of the question~"

        That said, Asciel does have A Question asked of her, and as though on sheer instinct, she does fan open the nearby drink menu, analyzing everything on the sheet, coming to the conclusion she has absolutely no idea what any of it entails. It's set aside as quickly as it came up to her face.

        "Well, I doubt you have a spare Goldion Hammer or something on its caliber sitting around at this cafe, unless that's the name of a special cocktail. So don't you worry your adorable little self working too hard on my behalf. Really - you're still a student if I'm not mistaken, and you're a GGG operator, and you're working here..."

        Tipping the table just a touch, Asciel supports much of her heavy upper body, both elbows on the top, chin cupped in both hands. "You know, it's always been hard for me to deal with people like you. I'm so used to...those without many capabilities in their lives. For whom the demands of even one of these duties would erode them thoroughly. You surely understand why I can't just assume the human spirit will fix everything in times where failure is not an option - since everyone fails, eventually."

<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

Alouette nods in understanding, that this is the only place Asciel possibly could have reached her. "That's reasonable," she agrees. "This isn't a bad place to have conversations like these, all things considered." Even if it's a little - very, embarrassing to have to talk to Asciel looking like this. "You wouldn't believe the amount of interesting things I've overheard just working here!"

And well, when Asciel sets aside the drink menu, she shouldn't be surprised, considering she offered drinks to a Super AI. It was mostly a common courtesy, she does want that high rank!

"We'd probably have to pay Goldymarg an astronomical rate of royalties for that one." Alouette answers dry, about a Goldion Hammer cocktail. So with nothing requested to be served up, Alouette takes a seat across Asciel, her blue eyes meeting Asciel's own bright orange.

"I am all of those things," Alouette answers with a nod. "But please don't worry yourself about me. Working here, and being a student? I know they're not necessary." She says, with almost a wistful tone. "But I won't always have the chance to do these things, either. I'd like to experience everything I can before it's too late." Her words are a little existential for a teenager... but she doesn't seem sad, either.

People like her, Asciel says? "I'm not perfect either, you know." She answers, about the failings of the human spirit. "You must've heard what I was up to between our last meeting. Just because I was Brave... doesn't mean I never got hurt." She's talking about the Vist scandal of course. "It's because I was able to help others, and they could help me, that we all made it out." Looking at Asciel more directly, her eyes sharpen. "That's why I find it hard to believe in the miracles only one person takes upon themselves. Not Rita Bernal's... and not yours, either."

<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.

        The pulse from Asciel's one opened eye flickers a little, and there's a...strange adjustment in her posture. Pulling slightly backwards when Alouette elects to take a seat opposite her.

        -it isn't usual.

        An intrusive and overwhelming presence has barged into Alouette's perfectly peaceful day, one that would steal the burdens she's held dear. Is that - a mote of fear in Asciel's expression? It's an almost magnetic response - an assumption of repulsion. All the same, sitting more upright...

        "You didn't have to bring the worst miracle of all into question," Asciel sighs. "...Don't compare us. She lives in a world I will never inhabit, and meanwhile, I live in this one." ...An awkward protracted pause, as Asciel's own blurted out words send the smallest spiral through her systems.
|this life is all there is for her. a truth so dire it can't be looked in the eye.|
        "Bravery is being hurt, obviously. I've beheld the GGG for a long time, after all. I know full well what they endure. I know that every member of them, human and inhuman alike, have seen the brink of demise more times than they can count. It's as simple an impetus as any for me to finally make my debut over the course of the last few years." A wry little smile flickers on Asciel's lips, before she covers them with a menu like an unfolded fan.

        "You likely wouldn't believe that I, of all people, was fairly reclusive until recently. But I deemed it necessary to emerge from the egg. While it may seem a safe and coherent system, an egg is weak and fragile, and swiftly runs dry of nutrients. One is left to wonder if creatures would ever emerge from them, though, were the world kinder, were nutrients aplenty. In such a world, I wonder if it remains morally fraught to stay in the egg...but given many already prone to seclusion, it could easily be the opposite. That if there's 'no reason' to hatch, a human would prefer not to leave in the first place. That is to say..."

        "...in the pursuit of fostering a more brave humanity, the logical solution is to add peril. Your desire to broaden your horizons is because there is a world full of horizons which shrink at your doorstep, and survival itself merits leaping past the sunset itself. I don't think you or I would take these steps to improve ourselves were they un-necessary."

        There's a faint grimace across Asciel's expression before she even finishes asking: "Isn't fighting to ensure others can live as vibrantly as ours tautological? We are only the way we are because the world is so fraught...we'd likely be cowards in a safer world, but is that so bad?"

<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

In a way, Alouette's still doing her job here. Many clients request for their maids to simply sit down and have a chat with them. She's heard it all, from dying mothers, to girlfriends drifting away, to the troubles of a busy day at work. To her... despite their standing against each other on the battlefield, Asciel might just be another troubled customer.

So that fear Asciel might be expressing... it barely goes registered. But it's not entirely ignored, as she tilts her head to meet Asciel's more upright posture.

"I didn't mean to imply..." She trails off as Asciel seems to take some level of offence at the comparison to Rita Bernal. "You're right... she's not of this world anymore. But she still has a specific, predictable script she wants to follow." She says quietly. "Even I know it isn't easy to force a miracle into place." The Galeoria Pliers still strenuously staple Tsutsujidai into place."

But she feels there's something more to Asciel's instinctual pained reaction to the mention of Rita. Is that fear again? "I've thought a lot about the type of future she dreams of. It sounds nice, but... there are far too many things in this world I don't want to lose." Are beings like Asciel included in that?

Asciel then asserts that bravery is to be hurt, citing the countless crises GGG has faced. It strikes a cord, a little. "Is it because this time, they're working to bring that very end of the universe themselves?" She asks, citing Triple Zero. "I know it hurts them a lot, more than I can imagine. But that's not the only thing bravery is. It's trusting in the people you love to fight for you. Even if they don't realize it... they're counting on people like me, Mamoru, Ikumi, and Hana." She wants to roll her eyes a little at Asciel's little stunt with the menu... but her expression remains serious.

As Asciel goes into that egg analogy, Alouette listens carefully. She sees where she's going with this, but she waits for her conclusion as is polite.

"I see what you mean. I attend school not to learn, but to interact with others. Interaction can be dangerous... but to remain in the egg is to never get that." She nods. "If an egg was safe to remain in, it'd still be missing a key 'nutrient'. It'd be no better than if I chose to stay with BioNet." Which gave her everything she ever could have wanted... except for love.

"Is that so bad...?" She considers that. "Some occasional smaller projects such as this one and high school is one thing. But if I wasn't ever able to use my abilities with real stakes... I think I'd probably be pretty miserable. It's the whole reason I was made after all." She frowns. "Isn't it the same for you? What will you do after creating this safer world you desire?"

<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.

        "Thankfully, a much simpler question, at last." A surge of assurance returns to Asciel's posture. It's not just that she has an answer - it's that the answer's so consumed her that she rests upon it, that it occupies her constantly. "I will have a lot to do, really. Arguably, far more a task than I do right now, as vast as my duty is as it stands. That's okay though. I'm very good at quickly expanding the scope of what I'm capable of - nothing's impossible for me, after all!~"

        A cheery little peace sign over one eye later, and an almost song-like tone enters Asciel's voice. Not quite actually singing - but it's a fable she's recounted to herself more times than she can count.

        "When the world's last sunset finally arrives, 'tomorrow' will be a problem only I concern myself with. For everyone else, living day by day will return, just as it was in aeons past. They will not need to build a future, because the reasons for doing so will finally come to a pass. Humanity will not fight against nature, because I will keep them informed of imminent disasters. Humanity will not fight against themselves, because I will keep them so stable and sustained that war promises blood without glory. Humanity will not fight against the stars - ideally, they won't even know there's a cosmos out there to get them, if I have my way."

        "Ideally, the cosmos won't know we're here either, but that ship maaaaay have sailed. No matter!~ I'll simply become a shield so vast that even the violence of the stars can't break me.~"

        Clapping her hands together in pride once...saying this certainly releases Asciel's tension quite a bit. She's even drawing just a tad closer to Alouette in the process. It's not just that she doesn't think she'd be miserable - it's as true a dream as she's ever recounted. An end to miracles by way of an end to anything so vast that a miracle would ever be needed again.

        "I think a lot of people worry a world like this would have nothing to offer them, but it's not like there'd be no challenges - they'd just be hurdles humans can...like, actually overcome, without being far more amazing than their peers. The mountains would still be there to climb, the seas would still be there to swim. It sounds difficult, because you've all lived so long in fear of future calamity that you build greater calamities to ward them away. But I think finally, I can end the endless waltz of war, peace, and revolution - I just need to add a fourth beat to stabilize the whole mess of a song!~"

<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

"Mm hmm?" Alouette sits up straight, at this task Asciel seems to set up for herself. "What do you plan on doing anyways, Miss Impossible?" She asks, resting a single finger on her chin.

And well, when she receives that answer, Asciel almost seems to go into a self-induced trance. And Alouette sinks into a certain uneasy feeling of dread she can't quite place. "That's... just ridiculous." Alouette shakes her head. "How are you going to do that all by yourself?" Power over nature, the stars, and even others... that isn't power Asciel has at the moment. "Even you would break before you could withstand something like that all on your own."

But the idea of the cosmos attacking them... "Acting like it's all just hostile is giving up in the first place." She counters. "If we act with hostility or ignorance... then of course they won't like us. But we were even able to befriend the Zentradi... thanks to the power of music you love so much." And that's not all, some of GGG's most stalwart allies aren't even of this solar system. "My first crush and best friend was an alien, you know~" She adds, with a wink. "But even people like him can live peacefully on Earth."

Still, she remains unconvinced when Asciel continues to explain her miracle-less world. "I can understand the joy in climbing and swimming, sure... I actually just bought my very first swimsuit." There's a hint of pride in that second part. "But the kind of world you're describing... one that lacks courage and wisdom, where people refuse to step forward and take responsibility for themselves?" She looks... sad, that she and Asciel will never come to an agreement on this. "I don't think I could get anything out of a world like that except sheer disappointment."

<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.

        "That's why it's so important I prevail the art of song, yes!~" Two fingers slide up to sweep across Asciel's lips. 'Prevail', like music is a tool or technique. "To ensure everyone's protection, singing of comfort and warmth as much as possible, so that all the stars know that this blue planet is one of harmony."

        "It all does need to be watched and monitored, however - because any sufficiently large spacecraft or colony is an easily rerouted weapon. The descent of Axis would have wiped out most life on Earth - but it doesn't take some vast and determined evil to perform this deed. It's just changing the route on a colony's thrusters. It's entirely possible for a single malicious actor to have accomplished this. It's entirely possible for an accident to have achieved this." Asciel's head turns skyward, despite the ceiling in the way. "I'm not giving up, I'm just acknowledging the simple reality that it's alarmingly easy to destroy this treasured planet. The Universal Century alone has seen staggering amounts of it carved away - do you really think we can endure any further centuries like this? It needs to end, some way or another, or else there won't be a world at all."

        Asciel's stare comes back to earth, her right eye opening - behind those sunglasses, the black sclera adds a colder feeling of judgment. "Blame the troubled times on bad actors all you may, but the core of that strife is the growth of possibility - the weapons and civilization that let one person's festering hatred trample over billions. I've simply come to a conclusion that it's easier to dismantle everything humanity's built than it is to end hatred forever, and you can't mean to tell me that's unreasonable."

        Kicking her legs gently, unaware that she's accidentally using a maid cafe for its entirely intended purpose (she's been bamboozled!), Asciel muses, "...I think I would actually like a drink. Just for the aesthetic of it, really, so...something magenta in hue. I went to all this trouble to look cute, look radiant, for people I didn't even intend, but the look is incomplete without something tangible to hold onto." Probably one of the strangest reasons a customer's had for ordering a drink, but given it's a maid cafe, likely not the strangest. "...maybe it'll help. I'm still not used to this, you know. This, being...a single will against another...removal of disparity...why is it so hard to distill what I'm getting at..." She gestures between herself and Alouette, struggling to find the word. The one that she's looking for being, of course, 'conversation'.

<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

"And yet people sing about far more than just comfort and warmth. There's just as many tragic breakup songs as there are gushy love songs. That's what I find so fascinating about music actually... everyone seems to have their own things to sing about."

Gazing at Asciel, she adds, "And that goes for you too, right? I couldn't make it to your last concert, but I saw it on stream after. Every one of your songs had something interesting to say." She smiles. (The part with the apples confused her. Surely it didn't have anything to do with her surname.)

When Asciel looks to the sky, Alouette's gaze follows. "What you're saying is true..." She concedes, that Axis is shockingly easy to replicate. "People are really stupid... a lot of times. And I've watched it over and over. But if you never give them the chance, of course they'll never learn. That's what it means to have responsibility. And even you can't carry all that responsibility by yourself. That's stupid, too. I'd rather not watch you try."

Asciel does have a point that the bad actors would never have the power they do without the tools they've been given. But is simply taking away those tools easier? "I don't care about what's easier," she replies. "Take away their tools and they'll only rebuild them, and come up with a reason to turn them on you." She frowns. She doesn't want Asciel to set herself up to become some sort of martyr. "In the end... it's not a sustainable solution, just as jailing or killing the 'bad guys' doesn't end hatred. So, no... you're not unreasonable. But you are a little ahead of yourself." Alouette flips her hair curl. She's a sassy young woman.

Although when Asciel asks for a drink, she straightens right back up into maid mode. "Coming right up, my lady~" She momentarily disappears to pour what Asciel describes as 'something magenta': raspberry lemonade will do. "Here you are!" The lemonade is placed in front of Asciel, for her to pose with as she wishes.

"I don't think it's a bad thing, really..." She considers, in terms of this discussion the two of them are having. "I can't help but disagree with you... but I find this way more engaging than if you affirmed I was right at every turn, you know. I don't need that kind of validation." Just as she doesn't really need validation of her beauty from the men who attend this cafe. "I'm sure that's not what you were looking for either, was it?"

<Pose Tracker> Asciel Colette has posed.

        (Nooooo it has nothing to do with Alouette's last naaaaaame it's entirely a silly biblical allusion!)

        The curious glow Asciel has about her, humming softly to herself and swirling her straw before taking a sip (she can't taste sadly) comes down to: she really likes being called 'my lady'. Twintails and ponytail alike bobbling while her lips play with the straw, it's certainly brought the oh so smug streamer way back down to earth.

        "...hoooh, so you watched that. ...hehe. Good. I'll improve upon it in every way. That's what I can strive to do at all moments. What I can do forever. Improve how much I can carry and answer everyone's questions. Besides, it's less responsibility than you think. In the process, I'd just as well erase any means I could use to bring harm to the world and those within it."

        Sipping, sipping, to the point of a soft slurping. "I want to be very thorough, you understand. Not just 'lock away some Mobile Suits'. An end to the type of tools that could even feasibly build them. I doubt people could turn much on me with wood and stone as the sum total of their capability, especially when all I'm doing is advising them towards gentle, idyllic prosperity. Personally, I think it's a very sustainable solution, because it's how humans lived sustainably for countless un-recorded eons, riiiiight up until they cursed themselves around eight thousand years ago. Rewind the off-beat tune riiiight up to that point, and I'll conduct it into rhythm again.~"

        One hand tugging at a thin shoulder strap, Asciel suddenly feels someting odd come over her. An almost sedating impulse. "...tsk. ...I came here having quite the issue with you, but annoyingly, you're too..." A heightening in temperature, heat haze making her slightly luminous hair shimmer. "...it keeps happening. It keeps happening! Everyone who's like me, who should understand the way I see the world, they keep rejecting me, and everyone I couldn't possibly connect with...they're the only ones I can talk to! What in the world's happened to me..."

        -to innoculate herself against a life of managing humans, a little too much has spilled into her being...

        It's a frustration that sticks with her as she winds up staying at this cafe for longer than expected through the night, because unfortunately for Asciel (but fortunately for Alouette...)...

        ...she really has no conception of the kind of bill she's racking up either.

<Pose Tracker> Alouette Pommier has posed.

Alouette is good at pleasing customers, and it tells from how Asciel looks oh-so-satisfied at her provided title and drink. Oh, she's going to earn so much tonight...

"I did. It was very... how do you say it? Raw. In emotion and feeling. And quite the interesting experiment, too! I want to see how far it takes you, too..."

But Asciel's methods, being so thorough in the rhythm can only mean one thing. "You wish to become a goddess of sorts to humanity, then." She considers. It's in at least one of the names. After her recent conversation with Guy, she actually went and checked out the few existing footage of the Sol Master Palparepa. Asciel is much easier on the eyes than the man who fancied himself God of the material world, but... she may very well not like to know how GGG handled him.

"...Charming?" She finishes Asciel's rather frustrated statement, with a very pleasant smile. "It's rarely ever predictable how these kinds of interactions go, even for someone like me." She nods. "Which must be why I find myself venturing to places like this and the school. So stay a while if you'd like."

And stay a while Asciel does, until pretty much the end of Alouette's shift. "Your total..." She prepares the bill. "Is 100 G. Thank you for choosing Yes Milady, and I hope to see your face again~!"