2024-05-03: Blind Spot

• Log: 2024-05-03 Blind Spot
• Cast: Elan Ceres, Leina Ashta
• Where: Asticassia School of Technology
• OOC - IC Date: May 3, UC 0099 (2024)
• Summary: After submitting responses to various duel requests, Leina asks Elan various things about a certain new transfer student from Mercury.

---

<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.

It is nearing the end of the school day at Asticassia, yet the sky hasn't yet shifted. It's about that time that someone approaches the Dueling Committee Office.

UL037

Right now the young woman is wearing an Asticassia University Uniform, which is the same as the High School one, save the accents are different, rather than the red of the students, or the orange of the Holder, they're dark purple.

She hasn't modified it at all, wearing knee socks and dark trainers, and on the left side of her short dark brown hair are teal flowers.

There are several men in suits following her around, though they're keeping their distance. The Dueling Committee knows why, certainly, even if they weren't all members of the Three Branches. After all, she's absent from campus often enough for official duties. The entire administration and faculty would have to know why.

Upon entering, there's a smile upon her face as she strolls up to one young man, and starts bringing out rolled up papers to one Elan Ceres.

"Hello, Elan Ceres right? We've corresponded before over this business... I thought I'd swing by to drop off this month's in person."

They're all very neat printed copies of the Digital Dueling Challenges the Committee formalizes and sends out digitally. Each one when unrolled is met with a mark under the blank...

Reject
  X - NO MEANS GET LOST CREEP

Reject
  X - YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF

Reject
  X - I'M NOT GONNA VALIDATE YOUR ENTITLED MANCHILD FANTASIES

There's absolutely no reason for her to be doing this, save the digital versions don't leave any room for comments on her reasons why. That's why she goes to the extra effort.

Since she's come to Asticassia, despite not being a part of the Piloting program, she's received various dueling challenges, but she hasn't accepted a single one.

It's quite probable that Elan Ceres knows about Puru-1, that... past, but - given how this young woman presents herself now years after the Laplace Incident, it's obvious how truly little they have in common.

After all, she has plenty of things to live for. People to live for.

"Sorry if it gives you extra work filing it print, but you know-" There's a shrug, and a touch of something a little more savage behind that otherwise affable smile, "-sometimes you have to send the proper message?"

<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.

        The Dueling Committee does know why. Leina Ashta is a little infamous with them, given how she rejects all duel proposals submitted to her. The only thing that's unusual about this encounter is that Leina is submitting her rejections in person for once.
        
        Elan looks up from the e-paperwork he's handling via a tablet, gloved hand mid-swipe. His pretty face is as inexpressive as usual as Leina approaches, neither confirming nor denying that he is Elan Ceres. When she holds out the papers to him, he sets down his tablet to accept them and reads them over, his long side bangs and tassel earrings nearly brushing the paper.
        
        He has heard of the Puru-1 incident. Of the Banshee Gundam. It is, all considered, not his business; she got away from that situation. It does make her more notable to him than most, though, which is why he bothers to read at all.
        
        (She goes to such extra effort to be so willful. To 'send the proper message,' as she puts it. It's a little irritating. But not enough for him to say anything.)
        
        "I've received your responses for this month, Leina Ashta," he states, voice soft and indifferent, as he sets them aside next to his tablet for processing. In e-correspondence, he's always been eloquent, polite, and professional. In person, he's... not not that. But there's so much he could engage with here, and he just doesn't.
        
        He does at least meet Leina's eyes, even if he doesn't return her smile. "Is that all?"

<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.

A little irritating seems apt. She's not exactly popular on campus save how she doesn't fit in, doesn't fit the mold.

For a young woman, for a pilot - for someone who has made a name for herself in the Dominicus Corps.

Even her professors have had endless headaches from her challenging their grading based on their political bias.

It's a privilege she possesses, of a different sort.

The privilege of being one of the few people who can do what Cathedra retains her for. That necessary hypocrisy.

She's made few friends among the girls - and a lot of enemies among the boys, hence the dueling requests. Making herself a big target - then deflecting the bullets aimed in her direction by rejecting them.

And them hating her all the more for refusing to participate in their culture.

Paradoxically, she's far more popular in the Corps themselves, the benefit perhaps of her efforts to bring her squad home.

Her eyes look over Elan, with a hint of mirth, "Wow I thought everyone was exaggerating about the whole Ice Prince thing, even after seeing your messages. No wonder you're so popular with the girls."

She's not actually being insincere in a sense, Elan isn't what she expected of a Corporate Heir in the school of privilege, but - it's not that unusual for someone to stand out for being so serious minded and professional.

"A walking fantasy... with every one of them hoping to be 'the one' to melt your heart."

She's not wrong either, so many of them are, but she states it so easily, so shamelessly.

He's not a Newtype, so of course she can sense little about him - just little nudges about his intent, and mostly only if that's hostile.

Is she getting to the point? Or is she putting in a declaration of intent? Her last boyfriend was younger after all.

"Does make a girl wonder, if that's on purpose... or..."

But as her seagreen eyes look at his, there's something else, it's less sincerely irreverent, and more - serious.

"Don't suppose you could spare some time for a private talk? Something I'd like to ask about."

She doesn't say as a member of Cathedra because - it's off the books, the Council has made it's decision after all, so she has no /real/ authority to intervene.

<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.

        Privilege. That's the word for it, isn't it? The ability to be turned into a human experiment and not only survive but escape and thrive. The ability to enter a particular society and actively buck their assumptions and norms with open contempt and face only superficial consequences. To be all that and still have a future--and a past. Leina is privileged.
        
        And, like those with privilege, she will never understand those who aren't.
        
        ...or so she seems to Elan.
        
        So when Leina starts teasing him about his nickname, about his popularity, about his being a romantic fantasy, he only continues to look at her with inexpressive spring green eyes. No sign of embarrassment, irritation, derision, or anything. It's simply others' perception of him.
        
        But at the same time, it is tiresome. He waits for her to get to a point. And waits. And waits.
        
        And waits.
        
        By the time Leina starts wondering if his Ice Prince act is exactly that, Elan turns away from her to start processing her paperwork. If she wants to gossip, she can gossip with the air. It's thus only her tone and not the look in her eyes that he picks up on when she asks for a more private talk.
        
        That tone is Leina's saving grace here, because he otherwise continues to process the paperwork without looking at her, but he does at least ask, "What is it?"

<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.

It is true she is privileged, but unlike many who have it- Leina Ashta realizes it. The reason for it is perhaps not so unusual, after all, there are some who dwell within this very room that began with circumstances not all that different from her.

But it is true that sometimes that privilege causes one to misunderstand, to miss, to overlook.

As Elan turns away to do his paperwork despite her still standing there, Leina muses to herself that she made a bad first impression perhaps, but bad first impressions tell you something about the person in question.

Is she simply not worth his time? Does he dislike her? It wouldn't surprise her if all the members of the Three Branches disliked her. She's an upstart that upset the balance of power - that forced Cathedra into the moral position of hypocrisy out of pure necessity.

And even after all they've gained from it, they certainly don't feel gratitude towards her.

Elan asks her outright what it is, and Leina looks around the Dueling chambers, as if wondering if it's being monitored, and figuring that it is, eventually just decides to go forward with it anyway.

It's not unusual to be asking questions.

"It's about our recent transfer student from Mercury, she's given our technical department in Cathedra quite a few headaches already... even if only on accident. The Council made it's decision but..." There's this momentary shrug, "... let's just say I have a personal interest into the matter?"

She remembers Syam Vist's presentation. GUND Format - a form of transhumanism he took a personal hand in suppressing, just like the Newtype, before he recanted on his deathbed, offered the decision to the next generation.

Would he disapprove of her actions now? Part of her doesn't much care.

"And I wonder if it's not the same with you."

It's certainly not that she suspects him of being a Witch. Of course not, why would she ever? It's just, she saw the time logs. He entered the cell - and he stayed longer than was necessary to deliver her meal.

And just with his reactions so far, that feels notable.

"This Suletta Mercury... I certainly would prefer she not be designated a witch by the powers that be."

After all, even if this is the first time she's ever encountered a potential GUND Format Gundam-or rather Gund-Arm, she knows that most of these things begin with...

... a scared child in over their heads.

<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.

        A bad impression? Maybe. (Certainly.) But it's at least no worse of a reception than Elan is known to give most anyone. He did sit there and listen for a while, and he did prompt her to say what's on her mind.
        
        (Peil Technology has an interest in Leina as a member of Cathedra actively attending the school, but--an arm's-length sort of interest. Elan understands why that is, too.)
        
        He doesn't know what she might ask about, and he doesn't hazard a guess, even inside his own guess. Given her blathering about romance and recent needling from certain Dueling Committee members on the same topic, it's nonetheless no surprise that Leina brings up the transfer student from Mercury. At least her interest seems to be actually professional.
        
        Professional--but also personal.
        
        A woman whose life was almost eaten by a special Gundam... That's what Leina is. She may be privileged, but she did have that experience. Elan does acknowledge that. It's equally no surprise that she might have a personal interest in Suletta Mercury, too. He doesn't stop working, but--
        
        I wonder if it's not the same with you.
        
        That does surprise him a little. Leina's far from the first person to notice Elan's interest in Suletta. But she's the first to notice it that has the life experience to potentially figure him out.
        
        Being figured out means failing in his mission. Elan is well aware of what that would mean. But what gets his hands to slow isn't that prospect, but...
        
        "..."
        
        He resumes his work at the same pace, still not looking back up. "...I'd also prefer that. She just wants to live like a normal girl."
        
        (Not 'she's just a normal girl.' Because clearly she's not.)

<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.

The life experience, certainly. After all, Elan isn't her first contact with Peil. One of the Peil CEOs (Maddeningly she couldn't even identify which one even if she wanted to) took part in her deposition regarding her experiences in the Vist Foundation.

The impression she had was they were a little too interested in pressing her for more information than she felt comfortable putting on the record.

It isn't enough that she thinks Elan is necessarily connected to anything untoward himself, just him entering that cell that day...

...well...

"A normal girl?" She actually smiles at that, but if Elan's paying attention, there's something almost rueful and a little sad.

Like she doesn't think it's possible.

Like entering a Gundam curses someone with the inevitability that something will be lost.

"Is that what she told you in that holding cell?"

Leina asks, but after watching him for a few long moments, exhales, "GUND Format - Gund Arm. They say they can't prove it, but, if she's involved in something that has her piloting a Gundam like that..."

There's no hesitation as she adds, "...I feel a certain responsibility towards helping her."

<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.

        The Peil CEOs do sort of blend together, don't they. Despite that, Elan knows all their names and faces whether he wants to or not.
        
        He is paying attention, even if he doesn't seem like it. That faint, sad little smile of hers gets him to side-glance at her, face stationary. They flick back to his work. There isn't much left to do. A refusal is very straightforward to process, even if there are three of them. With annotated notes on why.
        
%"...She has a list of things she wants to do as a student here. Like making friends and giving them nicknames, and eating lunch on the roof, and going on dates. Things normal people get to do."
        
        He doesn't specify exactly when she told him that, but that isn't very important, in his view. So, they can't prove if the Aerial is a GUND-ARM or not... or at least that's what they claim, but if it could be proven, it would have already been disposed of.
        
        "That's an unexpected position for someone in Cathedra," he comments.
        
        But not an unexpected position for specifically Leina Ashta. She did already say that this was a matter of personal interest, that the higher-ups have already made their decision, and there is of course her history as Puru-1. It tells Elan something in return: personal is more important to her than professional. And that perhaps her willfulness applies to those among Benerit's enforcers too.

<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.

"..."

Leina for a time is speechless as Elan speaks about the things that Suletta wants to do, then closes her eyes, and looks away.

"... I didn't realize Mercury was that badly off. Even the poorest Colonies have schools where someone could check off most of that list."

Even Jupiter has schools, Leina thinks, of Judau and all the times she struggled with the thought of just taking a one way ticket there.

It's a sad list, that all she wants is the normal experience.

"I wonder if it's possible if she's not from Mercury at all."

It would make more sense to her if she was just from some - well hidden BioNET lab or the like, but why would BioNET play their hand like this?

Nothing about Suletta Mercury makes sense to her, except the picture of someone in over their head.

"... Maybe I'm just not a jaded old Witch Hunter." Leina smiles wanly at him, "But I choose to be charitable to the old timers. It's not that they wouldn't want to save a kid in a suit like that - that's taken the field."

A beat.

"It's that they can't."

Leina tells him grimly, because perhaps she's not fought a GUND Format Gundam before but - she knows what it was like for normal pilots when she took the field in the Banshee.

That feeling of being overwhelmed, of it being life or death.

"Everything you've said sounds like you would want to Mister Ceres, and to me that's a point in your favor."

Mister? Does that sound like she's showing respect for him? Like she found something unexpected in this interaction.

Perhaps she just doesn't expect the CEOS of the Three Branches to much care for anything other than their bottom line or their families.

"Is there anything else you can tell me about her? Anything that could help me get to the bottom of this?"

<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.

        At first, Elan doesn't respond to Leina's shock. He doesn't have a concept of what life is like most places, including the colonies. However, then she wonders if Suletta Mercury might not be from Mercury at all, and he looks at her.
        
        "What do you mean?" he wonders.
        
        It may be a sad list. But it's a list all the same. The crystallization of her hopes and wishes. ...something he doesn't have.
        
        He doesn't remark on Leina's charitability. He knows well that 'charitability' in this case might just mean 'awareness of her place'--though given what he's seen of her thus far, that might well not matter to her. He can't be sure. One thing he is sure of, though: she knows well of helplessness. Well enough to ascribe it to those jaded old Witch Hunters.
        
        'It's that they can't,' huh...
        
        "Oh," he says. And nothing more.
        
        That is, until Leina talks about the point he unknowingly gained with her. Elan doesn't care about that, but he is momentarily confused, something conveyed through how he blinks, once. "Want to what?"
        
        His chin dips slightly at the follow-up question, though. Is there anything else... There isn't, really. He's still getting to know Suletta himself. But he does have her contact information.
        
        The question is, does he trust Leina enough to share it with her?
        
        "...No," he decides. "I don't know her well, either."
        
        (Yet.)

<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.

When Elan asks what she means, Leina's wondering aloud, "No that's stupid - her Mother was at the council meeting representing Shin Sei. It was on the paperwork... even for BioNET that's absurd."

She murmurs, rubbing the bridge of her nose briefly, before dropping her hand and smiling at him, "I'm just - being paranoid... jumping at shadows."

Still she decides to contextualize things there, to perhaps explain her reasoning for, "I was wondering if she might be from some lab that creates pilots for - machines like that. I was in one - once, but I was kidnapped off the streets of Barcelona. The man who ran mine specialized in memory. He - altered mine, so that I believed that I had joined them, was working for them of my own free will."

She's at least not as angry about it anymore but she definitely feels vulnerable admitting this to someone she just met. "They even had commands where just - they spoke them and I forgot what had just happened."

Leina rubs the back of her neck awkwardly, "Just - I sometimes have to check myself before thinking everyone is involved in some awful conspiracy like that."

It's easy perhaps to see why this young woman might question her own reality after something like that.

His mild response isn't taken poorly either, it's a hard subject after all, humanizing 'witches', but then again - she's not that far removed from one herself.

"Save her," she clarifies. "You said you'd prefer she not be designated a witch. And it sounded like you'd prefer she get the chance to be a normal girl."

While she's still being serious, there's a subtle playfulness to her smile, "To someone in your position, that feels like an uncommon opinion for someone like her - causing such controversy in the group with an upcoming duel to decide her fate. You're in danger of making me wonder if you're actually quite kind."

She winks at him. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

He does say in the end that he doesn't know her well though and she nods in acceptance of that. "Well then - thank you for your time."

And at that, she actually extends a hand to shake, "It was actually very nice meeting you, you're not at all what I expected... so I'd ask you please forgive the assumption, so to speak."

<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.

        Elan has a basic awareness of what happened to Leina as Puru-1, but it's different to be told even a brief version of her story from her own lips. This is especially so after she contradicts herself, tells herself why it's absurd to think Suletta might be a BioNet lab mouse. He only watches her converse with herself; only watches her explain herself.
        
        ...specialized in memory, huh.
        
        Is it worse to have one's memories altered and erased by design as the main point of an experiment, or for them to be burned out as a byproduct of that experiment? Leina says that she was made to believe she volunteered when she was actually kidnapped. But Elan doesn't even remember that much. Whether he volunteered or whether he was kidnapped doesn't matter, because the end result is the same. None of it is left inside him now--except for the curse of GUND-ARM itself.
        
        Either way: "How awful," he says, deadpan. Is there irony somewhere in there? Maybe it's just Leina's imagination.
        
        He falls silent at the talk of awful conspiracies, though. That really is awful--far beyond any need for description.
        
        Leina's claim that he wants to save Suletta doesn't get another blink. But he does stare at her. She's... not wrong. But there's no saving someone in her position. At least, not by him. He's in no position to save anyone.
        
        It's why he doesn't respond when Leina teases him about quite possibly being kind. Suletta made that assumption too. It's better to say nothing and let people think what they will.
        
        And so the Ice Prince reasserts his moniker... Even so, though, when Leina extends a hand to shake, he looks down at it, then up at her. Slowly, he accepts it and shakes it once. "There's no need," he tells her. No need for any forgiveness, he means. She really can assume what she likes. It doesn't matter to him.
        
        What does matter, though, is...
        
        "...If you do find out anything about Suletta Mercury, please let me know."
        
        His lack of expression doesn't change any. But in the context of the rest of his behavior and mannerisms, it's quite a bold request. To that end, he'll even exchange contact information with her.

<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.

It's difficult to say which would be kinder to those theoretical scenarios, at least in Elan's situation.

After all, Leina Ashta had a family to return to, one that fought for her, one that cared for her.

That changes the calculus quite a lot.

His 'How Awful' - she takes as just a token show of sympathy for something a near stranger just unburdened.

Any irony she hears she second guesses immediately as another byproduct of needing to check her sense of reality.

"It just is."

She says, as if brushing off it's own gravity, to list it as just another fact about herself. Like - that she attends Asticassia, or that she likes Haros.

She does it out of what she thinks is to add his own comfort.

Elan stares at him perhaps, over the idea of saving Suletta - and academically perhaps Leina might agree.

There is a curse in her mind when it comes to Gundams.

It's just not the same curse that he understands it to be. Suletta if she's afflicted by that curse can be saved.

Can live - some semblance of a normal life, even if some things will just be lost.

She perhaps thinks of Judau leaving for eight years, just because he had to get away - had to get away from humanity fighting endlessly, pointlessly and self-destructively over this stupid blue sphere.

Her handshake is pretty firm for a young woman of her build at least, but she simply tells him, "If you say so then... Thank you."

But his last comment... she does eye him for a moment, then blinks, as if assessing this.

Then smiling at him, "... Sure." Part of her knows that it might be a mistake to trust a Corporate Heir like him on the Dueling Committee but...

... despite it all, she had a good impression of him. "If I find out anything more I'll let you know... off the record."

Releasing his hand, she brings out her Student Notebook from her bag and after a moment, he'd have her contact information appear from proximity on his own.

"Thanks again and have a good evening - I'd better be careful on my way out."

There's only a faint tease as she shoulders her bag more solidly, and turns to leave waggling her fingers to wave him goodbye.

"If anyone finds out we exchanged contact information, then half the girls on campus will be planning untimely accidents for me."

<Pose Tracker> Elan Ceres has posed.

        It does change the calculus. Elan doesn't have anyone waiting for him. No one who would miss him if he were gone; no one who would celebrate the anniversary of his birth. But there's nothing he can do about any of that. It just is.
        
        It just... is.
        
        He doesn't respond when she thanks him. It's not really something he needs to be thanked for. She does eyeball him when he asks for any information she finds out about Suletta, and that's not unreasonable. He didn't give her Suletta's contact information for the same reason. Ultimately, though, she smiles and agrees. She brings out her student notebook, and he does the same. The next moment, when he has her contact information, she'll have his in turn.
        
        He doesn't intend on saying farewell. As she turns to leave, he puts his notebook away and moves to finish up the paperwork. But then she jokes again with him. The way Shaddiq does, or at least tries to, from time to time.

        He glances over at her.
        
        "You can handle it," he decides.
        
        And then he returns his attention to his task and lets her go on her way.