2024-09-02: What Happens Now?

• Cast: Liam 7-020, Lucine Azul
• Where: The Ra Mari II Medical Bay, Magallanica
• Date: U.C. 0099 09 02
• Summary: Three days after the impact of Junius Seven, Lucine awakens. Liam helps her reorient herself, and catches her up on what happened. Together, the two start to confront the frightening new world around them.

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<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        The hum of monitors has been a constant.

        Nurses have been in and out checking on Lucine and her faithful boyfriend, making her her readings are stable, as well as swapping around equipment whenever necessary. From the viewpoint of the nurses, Lucine's condition has been promising, if perplexing. Training doesn't usually account for Newtypes, especially the sort that are out in the wild, rather than modified or grown in controlled environments, with every adjustment made in the service of making them better in their roles.

        .... Then again, it's not as if that training accounts for those as well.

        Liam has gained his share of fans in his short stay here, though they likely have the sense to stay away to give the man his space. These two are one of many added to the medical staff's workload, and the sight of a pilot staying faithfully by his girlfriend's side has had the more gossip-hungry staff busy.

        The rosy picture it paints leaves out all the jagged edges and loneliness, as well as the grey of simply waiting for things to change. Numbers mean nothing if eyes don't do anything but flutter, or lips move but don't say any words. A twitching hand can't reach out and grasp your own.

        The grey monotony could be so overpowering that it masks the time when something changes.

        The fluttering eyes open, slowly; yellow eyes look towards the ceiling, then around, as other parts of Lucine's brain begin to take in her surroundings.

        "....?" A hand grips the bedsheet, feeling the fabric beneath her fingers. "...... Mn...?"

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        Liam has stayed by Lucine's side as much as he can. He doesn't want her to awaken, and find herself alone.

        Of course, the nursing staff isn't about to let him grind himself to nothing for Lucine's sake. He's a patient, now, too--psychological walking wounded--and he needs care, just as Lucine does. The nurses have brought him meals and water, and conducted regular wellness checks. They moved a cot into Lucine's room so he would have a more comfortable place to sleep. When he couldn't sleep, they consulted with a doctor, who gave him medicine to help. (Liam brought his usual meds in the bug-out bag, but the neoklonopin barely put a dent in his anxious thoughts.) They brought him a stress ball, and when he broke that on accident, they brought him some kind of putty.

        Liam is playing with it now as he sits by Lucine's bedside, twisting and pulling it between his fingers. Nevertheless, his attention remains on Lucine. When her eyes open, he stops immediately, and sets the putty on her dresser. He leans in close. The first thing she sees, silhouetted by the ceiling light, is his face.

        "Lu...?"

        Liam looks like he's been through hell. His clothes are rumpled. Big, dark circles line his eyes. His hair and beard are gone; his head is completely shaved. He reaches out, his hand clasping hers.

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

         Liam's situation almost mirrored Lucine's own, back on Mars. Once she had woken up from her own coma, she had slept next to her mother's bed, not bothering to move unless it was to do the barest necessities of life. And now, on the other end...
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        It takes Lucine a moment to collect herself, but the recognition is in her eyes as they center in on him, focusing in. Her hand squeezes his back, almost reflectively. It's weak, owing to her waking up, but it's a large difference as to how it had been.

        "... Liam...?" Her voice is soft, slightly scratchy from having not used in the past few days.

        And before that, well.

        ".... Where am I....?" She looks around the edges of Liam's face, right to figure out from what she can see beyond it.

        She shifts, trying to get up, but immediately falls back on the bed.

        The short span of time meant her body strength wasn't too depleted from what she was before, but she's still waking up, and obviously disorientated. "...mnh...." Her body barely rises a few inches before she's forced to concede and fall back down.

        "What happened?" Nurses come in, summoned by the readings on various monitors; while they try to be conscious of Liam and the way Lucine begins holding his hand tighter, at a certain point, the contact had to be broken, but not without the nurse warning it.

        "Hold on, dear, just a moment..." The nurse repositions Lucine's hand over, so Liam can hold it once again, before continuing. "How long has she been conscious?" the nurse asks Liam, as they work.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        "...Lu," Liam breathes. She's awake. She's finally awake. Liam starts to tremble. Tears mist his eyes as he clasps Lucine's hand between his. A soft sob escapes.

        "You're... on the Ra Mari II," Liam manages, between deep breaths. The door opens. The nurses file in before Liam can even think to press the call button, and he is grateful for it.

        "I don't know," Liam says. "You..." He lets go of Lucine's hand, and wipes his eyes with a tissue offered by a nurse. "You stopped responding when the colony hit. When they opened the cockpit, you were..." Liam sucks in a breath as the memory wells up, another horrific image in a litany of horror. "You were catatonic."

        "She just woke up," Liam adds, to one of the nurses.

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        ".... The Ra Mari II?" Lucine is confused, glancing around. Then, focusing on Liam, she asks, with the neutral bluntness only available to those still waking up, ".... Where's your hair...?"

        Liam is crying. He's sad. She can feel his sadness. There's sadness in the nurses too, as well as warmth, and a tired weariness.

        This feels so familiar. These feelings, too. The atmosphere of the room is like an ignored, sullen friend who was finally remembered. "Is this on Mars?" she murmurs quietly. ".... But I hadn't met you back then..."

        'You stopped responding when the colony hit.' Her readings begin to increase. "The colony hit..." Then, hitting a point, they level off, and begin to settle to a still tense, but manageable level. ".... There were... people.... they died, so many, at once..."

        It all feels far away, now, like it happened to someone else, or in another life.

        Lucine tries to get up again; one nurse looks up. "Would you like to sit up? That may make it easier for you to talk with your boyfriend here."

        "... Y-yes..." Yellow eyes look up at them with bewildered glances. "That'd be good." Her eyes escape back to Liam. ".... When did you wake up...?" she asks, almost like an echo, towards Liam.

        Wait, no, would he be unconscious too?

        "... You weren't asleep," she says immediately afterward, blinking once.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        Liam shrinks back. He runs a hand along his scalp, and his heart sinks. "Shaved it," he says. "Felt like I had to."

        "No. We're on Earth." Is Lucine confused about where and when she is? Anxiety tightens around Liam's heart like a vise. "...Yeah. Millions of people, all at once." He shakes his head. No, he wasn't asleep.

        "I was so scared I'd lost you, too," Liam says, his voice a breathy whisper.

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        "... Ah," Lucine says, neither saddened, or pleased about it, once she realizes the reason itself is seemingly neutral. Her other hand reaches up, gently, to touch the contours of his face instead, her gaze softening.

        She smiles, leaving her hand there on his cheek, until gravity cruelly pulls it down.

        "She'll be like this for a while," the nurse says softly, to Liam. "Her signs seem to be stable, so once we get some things taken care of, we'll give you some time alone. Would you like something to eat or drink? If your hands feel steady, we can give you some ice shavings to give her, if you like."

        "... I heard you," Lucine says. ".... You were talking. ... How long... was I out?"

        A cold thread of fear creeps up her spine, but one of the nurses quickly answers. "A few days, dearie. He's been here the entire time."

        "... But your job at NERV," Lucine questions back.

        'I was so scared I'd lost you, too.'

        Lucine's eyes focus in, feeling with tears. "..... I could have... lost you..." It didn't occur to her, back in her coma. There was nothing but that darkness, and the sense of someone talking to her, or a pressure on her hand. What was something that gave her a semblence of comfort becomes something tangible in the waking world, which she can lose. ".... Don't go, Liam, don't go. I'm not going anywhere, I promise... I..." Tears fall down her cheeks. "I'm so, so sorry that I left you like that...."

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        Liam turns to the nurse, and nods. "...Yeah," he says. "Ice chips for her. And the usual for me." A meal tray, and a glass of water. It's sad to think he has a 'usual', here. "Does this mean you can take the IVs out?" That, of course, depends on whether or not she's getting additional medication, Liam realizes after a moment.

        But if it means she can start eating and drinking and healing on her own, then...

        "It's been three days," Liam confirms. "Don't worry. Kaworu knows where I am." It's anyone's guess if NERV will let him stay here, though, with NUNE blaming everyone and anyone for the massacre.

        Anyone and everyone but the Jovians, Liam thinks, bitterly. His hand tightens around Lucine's. "I'm not going anywhere. It wasn't your fault."

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        "For now, yes, since her readings are steady," says a tall, but quiet nurse by Liam, who gently starts extracting tubes. "We'll need ones to make sure they stay that way, but if you're able to give her ice chips, that'll help a lot." He gives Liam a gentle smile. "I imagine she'd prefer it was you, anyway."

        After making some notes on his tablet, he looks back. "I'll get them sent up. Claria, are you able to handle the rest while I get these reports in?"

        The nurse, an older woman, smiles. "Of course. It won't take me that long."

        As the male nurse leaves, Lucine is quiet, trying to sort her thoughts. ".... Three days...? It doesn't... feel that long..." The idea of that lost time eats at her, as she becomes more and more awake, as well as more aware of each ache and pain that may have persisted in her in-bed stay. "Kaworu... is he okay? Is Shinji? Where did the colony hit?"

        All she felt was...

        ....

        How did she get like this? Did it really out her out?

        ".... This... happened before, on Mars," Lucine recalls, with some difficulty. ".... I... when I got to Alba City, I was out. That's what the nurses told me... When I woke up, my mom was still out... and... I stayed with her... they even brought a cot for me..."

        Much like the cot that was brought for Liam.

        ".... You have to go through that..."

        'It wasn't your fault.'

        ".... I know," Lucine says, after some thinking. "... I just... don't like that it happened." She tries to get up, but falls back against the bedding, as the nurse adjusts the upper half of her bed. ".... I can't stay here, I need to..."

        "You're where you need to be, dearie. I doubt the doctor will sign off on you until we know you're on the mend." She turns towards Liam. "Same goes for you."

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        "Okay," Liam says. Fewer IVs is better, as long as Lucine is still getting what she needs. He glances after the nurse, but only for a moment. "Kaworu is uninjured. I... don't know where Shinji is." Liam takes a few deep breaths, and squeezes Lucine's hand.

        "It broke apart. Primary impact sites were Shanghai, Rome, Philadelphia." Liam feels himself pulling back into tight, clipped words, shorn of as much emotion as possible. "Secondary impact sites throughout the northern hemisphere. Majority of casualties occurred in NUNE member states." Majority of murders, he feels in his heart. "NUNE is blaming Coordinators."

        This happened on Mars. This means Lucine's suffering through all of this, all over again. Liam squeezes her hand tightly, and his jaw just as tight; the tendons in his neck stick out. "We're... we're at Magellanica," Liam says, through tensed muscles. "Passage back to Orb from there. Orb's... in one piece. So's Tokyo-3."

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        ".... Kaworu will likely be at Shinji's side if he's hurt." Funny, how she's come to think of one in connection to the other, in situations like these. "The other pilots... Ryoko, Hikaru, Alto... do you know if they're okay too?"

        It isn't one impact site, but several. ".... I wonder if that's better or worse than if it hadn't burst apart..."

        No wonder it wasn't at once, but several, like a timed fireworks display.

        ".... Then... that was those people that I must've felt." It's an obvious conclusion, almost something that didn't even need to be commented on. All the same, she needed to say it, to say that this was something that happened to her, not a hypothetical person that happened to be her, at some point in time.

        Liam no sooner thinks it than Lucine speaks about it, though it's unclear if it was coincidence or something else. "It was... worse than it was on Mars. There's more people, here, I think. I don't know. It just... felt..." She pauses. ".... I don't know if I can put it in words. .... It feels like it happened to someone else."
        
        'NUNE is blaming Coordinators.' Lucine draws a sharp intake of breath. "That'll mean people like.... " Ruri. Or people who may only pass as Coordinators, like Kaworu (at least, Lucine is sure he isn't). ".... We have to keep them safe. NUNE's blaming... the wrong... people..."

        The right people were--

        Her heart rate spikes on the monitor.

        ".... They killed us all. Hunted us down like animals...." Her voice shakes, her face tenses. ".... They did this to us.... and now they... they...! Why, why...."

         The nurse, still finishing up, looks at the heart rate monitors with alarm. "Hold on, dearie, slow down, it's okay... NUNE won't lay a single hair on either of your heads. None of us care you're Coordinators."

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        "I don't think Shinji was on Earth," Liam says. "He lives here now." A bit more tension creeps back into his voice, but at least there's emotion in it, now. "I think the others are still alive. Haven't been able to confirm." Because he's been here, with Lucine, caught in the whirlpool of his own trauma. His whole face tightens; he bares teeth as he stares into the middle distance.

        People like Ruri. People like Kaworu. Like Liam, because when did Blue Cosmos bother to differentiate between voluntary genetic editing and BioNet's experiments? "I know," Liam says, and he squeezes Lucine's hand, again. He couldn't be paid to give a shit about Nergal's NDA in this moment. "Nobody knows. NUNE needs its..." Is it a scapegoat? There are reports--credible reports--that rogue ZAFT forces were part of the drop.

        He can't finish the sentence. Why, he thinks. Why, why, why do they never hurt the people who deserve to be hurt?

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        "Oh.... that's right..." Yellow eyes grow hazy with relief. "... He's safe here. Everyone else... they'd let us know, if someone had died..." It's faulty logic, but Lucine is holding to it.

        But the colony drop may have been just the beginning.
                
        Ruri. Kaworu. People Lucine's never thought about as one or the other, because it never mattered to her before. People like...

        Would Liam count?

        The thought comes into Lucine's head like a shooting spark of burning wood, scalding hot to the touch.

        "..... I won't let them hurt you," she says in a soft, but determined whisper. Her eyes lid halfway, as she grasps Liam's hand back with as strong of a squeeze as she can manage. ".... They'll have to go through me."

        That steadies her, though the nurse still looks at Lucine's readings as another nurse enters with a tray of Liam's food, as well as a cup of ice shavings.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        "I know you won't let them," Liam says. But would it matter? What they want doesn't matter as long as someone else wants to hurt them, and wants it more. Isn't that what they learned from all this?

        Liam takes the tray with his free hand, and nods to the nurse, in gratitude. He takes the cup, next, and sets it down. He plucks a chunk of ice from within, and takes a moment to feel the chill on his fingertips. "Open," he says, and if Lucine does, he feeds her the ice chip.

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        Is it hopelessness she feels from Liam, or is it from herself? She wants to comfort him, and hold his head against her.

        The best she can do is squeeze his hand, doing so twice before he has to take it away to accept his food.

        And now, the girl who declared she'd protect him will now be fed ice chips from him, as she lays there against the bed, her hair about her like a soft halo of teal blue.

        Open.

        Lucine obliges, opening her lips and accepting the ice chip, feeling the shock of it against her tongue and mouth. "Cold," she says, softly.

        Her eyes lock with Liam's own, and begin to tear up as she smiles. ".... I love you." He's said it a million times these past few days, and she needs to catch up.
        

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        Liam tousles that soft, teal hair, and runs his hand down Lucine's cheek. "I love you, too," he says. Even if everything else feels hopeless, that hasn't changed.