2023-03-05: Is This Plant Taken

• Log: Is This Plant Taken?
• Cast: Banagher Links, Riika Sheder
• Where: Ra Mari II
• OOC - IC Date: March 5, 0097
• Summary: Riika finds Banagher hiding in the roses from Angelo Sauper. The two end up talking.

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<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.

Exhausted, Banagher takes shelter behind a particularly thick bush of roses. No way Angelo would look here, right? Besides, it's the end of the day, it's fine to take a break... He's not complaining, he's not! Just a little tired.

For once without an ever-present hoodie, Banagher wears a simple white t-shirt and shorts that are certainly going to get grass stained. Leaning back against the wall, he takes a deep breath.

"One more day, then a break." Banagher murmurs to himself, glancing sideways to look at the flowers. He's never really spent time around plants before, certainly not something as delicate as roses. They're pretty nice...

It's going to be fine. This is a great hiding spot -- who would come looking for a Gundam pilot behind a rose bush, anyway?

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

Riika Sheder doesn't spend most of her time on the Ra Mari (original or new edition); she tends to spend the majority of her shipboard life on the Eternal.

But the Ra Mari II is more than just a ship; it may as well be a facility, for how big it is. It certainly has more complete modification equipment; the Eternal is great for maintenance and repair but Riika's experimental systems sometimes need a bit more than it has.

So Riika is here... and yet she doesn't need to do anything right now. She will in a few hours, but at the moment, she's at liberty. Which means she came to visit something else the Eternal doesn't have much of: a garden.

Riika doesn't need to wear her uniform anymore, since she chose not to rejoin ZAFT, and indeed she's off-duty anyway so she can get along without it. She's still reasonably well-dressed, because that's just her: a short skirt with opaque black tights underneath; a dark green blouse with long sleeves, neatly buttoned; white cuffed boots; her pink-tinted glasses, as always.

She was also not expecting to find someone else in the bushes, judging by her hesitation when she gets close to Banagher's flowers. "Sorry," she says, uncertain about the protocol. "Is this plant taken?"

<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.

Banagher startles, too lost in his own thoughts to have noticed Riika's approach. Staring up at her with wide eyes, he relaxes after a moment. Clearly, this is not a member of the Sleeves' Royal Guard.

"Uh--" Banagher stutters, an embarrassed flush quickly forming. "...no. Sorry. I'm... not exactly hiding. You're welcome to join me."

With a slightly sheepish smile, the young man scoots over, as if making room for Riika to join him -- should she wish to, you know. Sit on the ground, behind a rose bush. "I asked someone for training, and they passed me off to their..." He searches for a word. "...intense. Second in command. I'm forbidden from complaining, so when I get tired, I just... Sit by myself for a little while. It's worked out so far."

Riika certainly looks nice! Rose-colored glasses, huh? What an unusual accessory.

"But he's got to be back to fawning over his Captain now anyway." From this close, Banagher's exhaustion is clear. Dark circles line his eyes, and his wild brown hair is a bit of a mess. "My name is Banagher. It's nice to meet you, miss..?"

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

Now, Riika wasn't entirely serious; she knows that most people do not hide behind bushes in the garden, but on finding someone there she just had to ask. Plus, it was safer than asking why he was hiding, which...

Well, she's just been told anyway, but she would have felt rude or presumptious asking! So now she didn't have to.

Riika does indeed step behind the bushes, because why not? It isn't as if she had anything else she needed to do, and she can take in the greenery just fine from here. "I suppose that was the wrong person to ask, then?" she asks with a slight smile. "Still..."

She can't imagine just not practicing. But she can imagine it being hard with some people. And Banagher really does look tired... "Have you considered practicing with someone else?" she asks instead. "Maybe that would help you. If you're having trouble learning from one person... try another!"

Riika smiles, then. "Oh, sorry! I'm Riika, Riika Sheder. I'm usually with the Eternal, not the Ra Mari, but I come here often enough that it's not really a surprise when I am." She recognizes Banagher's name, because she does read the Three Ships reports, and it's a name she's heard elsewhere too, but she doesn't press immediately, beyond: "You're with the guests, right?"

<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.

Banagher ducks his head a little. "Yeah. My girlfriends were unhappy that I asked him. The guy I asked is." Again, a pause, as he considers his word choice. "Notorious. But very talented. I think he can teach me something nobody else could."

From this angle, the roses are very pretty. Many blossoms that would be hidden from the front are on full display! Whoever the Ra Mari II's gardener is, they're good at their job. Something about the rose bush feels nostalgic to Banagher. Maybe that's why he picked this hiding place?

"I do have someone else in mind I'd like to ask. I just need to survive this first." Banagher can't imagine taking on another set of training in the middle of what he's currently going through. "Are you a pilot, Miss Riika?"

Is Banagher with the guests? "Yeah, kinda. I'm not exactly in the military anywhere, or anything. But I'm a pilot." He's quiet for a moment, as if debating to say more. Eventually... "The Eternal is an incredible ship, I've read about it recently. How did you join up with them?"

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

They are pretty flowers. Riika grew up on a landscaped colony, and she saw plenty of flowers there, but she's spent a lot of her time on ships and shuttles lately, and when she was on Earth she spent most of it in the desert. Lots of rocks. Not much greenery. She appreciates the flowers just for being here and it shows.

Girlfriends? Riika thinks to herself. It's unusual enough that she'll probably remember it later, not so much so as to be unique. "Mmm... well! A lot of talented professionals are a little bit..."

Riika is too nice to say 'jerks' about people she doesn't know.

"...abrasive," is what she settles on. "So good luck, I suppose! I lucked out with some of my early training, I guess. It was a lot of work but it wasn't bad work or anything like that."

Is she a pilot? Riika's smile returns. "I am! Actually, I'm with the engineering corps - or, well, I used to be. But I'm a test pilot. I actually designed the mobile suit I'm flying these days! I'd show you, but, um..." She's not sure she's allowed, given his unusual position. What is the policy? She'd know if it was ZAFT with the Sleeves, but that's not how it is, with him not in the military.

"Are you an... independent contractor?" she asks, the most polite way to say 'mercenary' she knows. "Oh - well, how I got on the Eternal is kind of a long story... I guess the short form is that I used to be with - with ZAFT, and now I'm not." She's not ashamed of being with ZAFT. She's just not sure how Banagher will respond to hearing that she is almost certainly a Coordinator, given they make up effectively all of ZAFT's piloting crew. "I was at Jachin Due," she adds, which is usually enough to let people draw their own conclusions as to when and why she joined the Three Ships.

It's still uncomfortable to say that she was accused and exiled from the PLANTs, sentenced to death, after all. Even if they later went back on what Rau had done.

<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.

Banagher laughs at "abrasive". "No kidding. I've had a lot of great teachers in the past, and I have an amazing mentor, but," He shrugs. "I'll just have to do my best. Thanks."

"Woah!" Banagher leans in. "I was in engineering school before -- everything! That's amazing, Miss Riika! My friend Takuya is just like you -- or he'd like to be, really. Back at school, he'd filled our dorm with a hundred different mobile suit designs."

An independent contractor... "W--well, uh." Banagher thinks it over again. If Riika's in the 3SA, she'd know who he is if she looked it up anyway, right? "I pilot the Unicorn Gundam. I kinda fell into the cockpit and then things kept happening, and now I'm here and... sort of a fugitive? I haven't broken any laws or anything though."

Well, probably? Maybe?

"...maybe trespassing." Banagher amends, sheepishly. "But nothing bad. ZAFT, though, that's cool! They're really brave. Standing up against the Federation is -- really scary. The Feds are after me, too, and the Unicorn."

Banagher looks up at Riika seriously, concern in his eyes. "I'm glad you're still alive, Miss Riika. That was a terrible battle. I hope you're happier with the Eternal."

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

"If you want any extra practice," Riika starts to offer, then realies it might be a little awkward because, first, she's often busy, and second - and more critically - she's often busy on a different ship entirely. "Well, if I'm around I'd be willing! Sometimes you just need some extra work. And I'm not calling you bad at it - I was up at all hours when I was going through some of my training!"

Riika, who'd been on a scholarship at the time, had to place - and place well - in her class to keep it. She does not regret the extra time and work, but boy did it destroy her social life for a while.

"But really, you were at engineering school? Are you going to go back to it?" He did use the past tense and she isn't sure, if he's on the run like he says, that he would have graduated. "Or did you finish it? I know there's a lot of people who do the design sketches... I've been at it for years myself. I'd show you some, but I don't have my pad with me. I just wanted to come in and look at the flowers." ... "They're pretty nice, aren't they? The ships I've been on generally don't have much in the way of flowering gardens. Sometimes hydroponics, but that's it."

Riika actually laughs. "I think technically, as far as the Federation is concerned I've been more illegal than you have, then." She's almost certainly not right, but she won't realize the error until she learns more about Banagher and Unicorn Gundam. "...and ZAFT, for that matter. I think technically I stole a mobile suit, even though it was just going to the scrap facilities... and I wasn't conscious at the time anyway."

She meets Banagher's gaze, mostly; her eyes don't quite focus, he can see at this range - that may explain the glasses - but she's definitely looking at him. "I think I've been doing a lot better lately, yeah. And I can make a difference here. A good difference. I don't... like the war, and I'm glad it's over, but I'd like to make sure it stays over. Coordinators and Naturals don't need to fight any more than Earthnoids and colonists, or anyone else. That's why I decided to stick with the Three Ships once... well, once all this happened."

... "Sorry to get kind of heavy on you!" Riika honestly does seem apologetic.

<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.

"I'd appreciate that." Banagher answers. "We could always just use the simulators if you're in a rush. It's a good idea to learn from a lot of different people. I'll be around the Ra Mari II for a while, though the Unicorn is -- somewhere else."

Rikka's experience was much like Banagher's, then -- with no home or family, losing his own scholarship would've been a crisis.

Banagher looks very intently at the flowers, suddenly, as Riika asks about his school. "Oh, well... I was at Anaheim Electric... It was destroyed in a battle between the Federation and Neo-Zeon. I'm only alive because of the Unicorn. I would've liked to finish, but I think that part of my life is over, now."

"The flowers are nice." Banagher agrees, after a moment's quiet. Even though it's been nearly a year, it's difficult to think of the death of his classmates and professors. "I'd love to see your sketches sometime. I do a little myself, but they're nothing special. Just a way to pass the time."

Riika's laugh manages to bring a smile back to the young man's face. "A lot of cool people have stolen mobile suits, though. But... how did you manage to steal a mobile suit while unconscious?"

If Banagher notices the lack of focus in Riika's eyes, he doesn't point it out. She's clearly paying attention to him, that's enough. "I'm glad. It's important to fight for what you believe in. Having the power to do what you think is right is -- rare, I think. We're both lucky. I don't know that much about Coordinators, but I'm a Newtype, myself. So I understand how people get afraid of anyone different from themselves."

"Captain York is a good person." Banagher smiles again. "And I know she believes in her comrades. I think you're in the right place, Miss Riika. You'll be able to make a difference without a doubt." It's his turn for a little laugh, now. "I don't mind. It's nice to be able to talk to someone besides Lieutenant Angelo for a change."

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

"Well, the simulators sound pretty good!" Riika is pleased - you can always learn something from someone new, even if they don't know they have it to teach. If nothing else, he'll have his own style. And she doesn't mind either teaching or being a useful person to practice on, either.

Riika actually did have her family backing her up; they just didn't have enough money to support her. (It's the opposite; she sent most of her ZAFT paycheque home when she started making one.) But losing it would have been as much a crisis as Banagher, probably. It was certainly her only opportunity.

"Oh..." That must have been Industrial Seven, Riika thinks; she'd heard of it, as in the way of the PLANTs any attacks against colonies got an outsized amount of press. Even the ones the Federation would rather not talk about. (ESPECIALLY the ones the Federation would rather not talk about.) "I'm really sorry to hear that. I didn't know, I'm sorry!" She wouldn't have brought it up if she had.

But at least he's smiling again, and she can at least move on without it being too awkward. "I can certainly show you them when I have them on me," she agrees. "As for how I stole it when I was unconscious, uh..."

...

"I was wrecked at the time," Riika says, a little awkward herself now. "I was pretty badly hurt and the suit wasn't in good shape. I kind of passed out while flying." This is a horrific understatement - Rau tried to kill her, then left her for dead when her damaged suit smashed into an asteroid. Except it hadn't been her suit, it had been the detachable flight system, and he hadn't been able to see it clearly. But she's not really ready to talk about it to someone who doesn't already know.

So he's a Newtype? You never can tell, or at least Riika can't, but it doesn't bother her any more than her being a Coordinator seems to bother him. People are people, after all. She'd got in an argument with some of the more hardline ZAFT members before - some of her fellow test pilots - but she's never really found anything to prove her wrong.

"Captain York is a good person," she agrees. "I'm lucky to have this opportunity and I don't intend to waste it. I think you will too, actually. Even if you're just visiting now, if you're flying with the Unicorn..." Maybe she has heard of it, at least a little. ZAFT was pretty close to the Sleeves, as fellow pro-colonists called 'terrorists' by the Federation, after all - she even recognizes Lieutenant Angelo's name! - and she's with the Three Ships Alliance now. "...well, I don't know much, but everybody seems to be interested in it - but it's you who's ended up with it. So, good luck?"

<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.

"It's alright." Banagher says, softly. "It was a while ago now. Not that I don't still miss everyone, but -- we have to keep moving forward."

Riika will be able to understand that, Banagher thinks.

"I actually have some sketches on my phone, for a gift I made for my girlfriend." Banagher pulls his phone out, swiping through his pictures. When he holds it up to Riika, he smiles, clearly proud. "It's a modified Haro accessory. It projects a small hologram in any shape or color. I turned it into a hair clip -- she really likes those."

The pictures, quite literally, illustrate this. Clean, straight lines. Banagher clearly took his time and designed the little accessory with a lot of love.

"Oh -- Miss Rikka, that's awful." Banagher is all concern, now, golden eyes wide. "Does that really count as stealing? Anyone who would hold that against you is an idiot."

Banagher's smile turns a little nervous. "Everyone wants the Unicorn, yeah... I've tried to learn as much as I can about the world. Earth and the Colonies... There's still so much I don't know. It's -- difficult to speak to people honestly, when they all want something from me. But even so."

A decision has to be made, and soon -- sooner, all the time.

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

Riika understands missing the lost. There's a lot of lost in the PLANTs, too - and not all because of military action.

Riika edges a little further in so she can look at the phone more easily. "Oh, that's nice!" She sounds surprised, as much because of the clean lines on the phone as anything else. "The battery life might be a little short, I suppose, unless you can - sorry! It's a habit." She interrupted herself because she is not here to criticize what Banagher has done.

It really is impressive, to get it in a little package. "I bet she'd really like that, yeah..." She passes it back, though not without looking at it a little longer. She'd like something like that, herself, but she's not going to copy Banagher's design. Though maybe she could make her own thing...

"Oh, they asked for it back, mostly," Riika says. "I told them it wasn't salvageable - it wasn't, really; we saved part of one arm and the cockpit and not a whole lot else. And that was the end of that! But, you know... technically it probably counted. Technically."

Everyone wants the Unicorn...

"Well if there's anything I can do to help," she says, a little uncertainly. "I mean, that's what we're here for, right? I mean, the Three Ships Alliance - if they're starting violence to get it you, and that ship. Or if there's anything I can do to explain about the PLANTs. They're colonies, too, and I've lived there all my life; probably only the other ZAFT soldiers on the Eternal would talk to you about it."

A decision does have to be made, but that doesn't mean you have to go into it blind.

<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.

Banagher looks excited as Riika criticizes his design. "No no, it's been so long since I could talk about this with anyone! I only had a few days to design it, so the battery is definitely a fault. It's rechargeable, I was hoping it could just be a nightly recharge type thing? Like you would a phone, or a watch."

"I've seen Leina wear about a thousand of these things." Banagher smiles fondly. "So this way I can give her a thousand more. Anything she could want. We actually found the base projector component at HaroCon, and the rest I just kind of put together based on what I found lying around."

Of course, what's 'lying around' at the PPL is a little different than what most people have access to.

"It's yours! Don't give it back!" Banagher insists, on Riika's side, even only knowing half the story. "I'm glad you were able to save some parts of it. If I ever lost my Gundam, I don't think I'd be able to recover."

Riika gets another one of those gentle smiles. "Thank you, Miss Riika. There is something." A breath. "I'm being hunted by the Unicorn's sister machine, named the Banshee. It's already attacked around the Ra Mari II twice now. If it comes again, and you're still here, please help me protect everyone! I can't -- defeat it on my own. I've tried."

"I'd like to hear about the PLANTs, too, if you have the time." Banagher says, though he looks a little defeated after mentioning the Banshee. "I'd like to hear about normal life there. What people value, what they struggle with... What they need help with."

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

"I didn't," Riika assures Banagher.

Technically, Riika lied, or at least omitted that they had been able to save the gun in the surviving hand. It was nothing special; a standard-issue suit-powered beam rifle, powerful enough but nothing unique to any military in the Earth Sphere. It's on Svalinn now, repaired and modified for the new suit, along with some parts from the cockpit that weren't damaged; it reminds her of where she came from.

"Leina? ...that wouldn't be Leina Ashta, by chance?" She remembers those hairclips. Riika is surprised, because... "I know her! We spoke in Tsutsujidai before, more than once. If it is her, say hello for me! I'd like her to know I got through everything all right; I haven't spoken to her in a long time, since before all of this." She waves her hand in the general direction of... well, the Ra Mari, though she brushes her fingers against the roses as she does.

And then jerks back. "Ow, they bite...!" She looks at her finger - thorn-poked but not enough to draw blood, just enough to sting. She shakes the hand out and then lowers it, looking sheepish.

The sister machine... "I heard about the attack, but I wasn't here when it came," Riika says. "If I was here I certainly would! Of course, there's no guarantee it will return, or that it will return when anyone in particular is here..." She looks thoughtful, then concerned. "I'll do what I can though," she promises.

As for the PLANTs: "Sure! Look, I can't stay all night tonight, unfortunately; I have some work I promised to help with out in the mechanics' bay, again, I said I'd help someone with theirs if they gave me a hand with tuning something on Svalinn. Svalinn Gundam is mine," she clarifies. "But I will absolutely tell you about the PLANTs when I have a moment. I miss them, but at least I've been to a few of the city clusters."

<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.

At Riika's recognition of Leina, Banagher laughs, shaking his head. "She really does know everyone. Yes! Leina and I have been dating for a few months now. She means everything to me, I love her so much."

"I'll let her know, I'm sure she'll be grateful to hear you're alright. I've got her VERTEX if you want to message her yourself!" Knowing Riika and Leina are friends seems to endear the other pilot to Banagher even more. Though... when Riika says the flowers 'bite', he has to cover his mouth against another laugh. "O--oh, careful! Are you alright?"

Banagher shakes his head, though, at the discussion for the Banshee. "It's hunting me. As long as I'm here, it'll appear again, it's only a matter of time." The young man looks haunted. "It knows how to find me, somehow, in my dreams... Every night, it appears, telling me the same things, grabbing me."

How much of that is a nightmare and how much is some kind of psychic Newtype occurrence? To Banagher, at least, it's entirely the latter.

"That's alright, Miss Riika. I don't want to trouble you at all." Banagher says, gently. "If you'd like some help in the mechanics bay, I've done some work here before. We could talk and work at the same time? Or another time is alright, too."

<Pose Tracker> Riika Sheder has posed.

Riika looks at her finger. "Well, I think it'll take a bit more than a thorn to stop me," she half-jokes. "Seriously, though; it wasn't bad. Just a little pointed. I forgot roses have thorns when they're still on the bush."

Definitely a colonist. She might have seen flowers, she might have seen terraformed and gardened plants, but she was never in them like someone who'd gone into the wilderness of Earth. Riika's only Earthbound wilderness experience is on rock and sand.

"I'd definitely appreciate that," Riika says, with a broader smile. "Her VERTEX, I mean - I had a way to contact her before but I lost a lot of my contacts except for the ones I had memorized. Thanks a lot. I would like to say hello again."

The smile does fade slightly at the nightmare. Riika is not a Newtype; she doesn't have any kind of psychic sensitivity, and she's not even entirely sure how much of it is real. Some of it must be, of course; she's seen funnels, the same as anyone else. But some of this could just be a nightmare. She isn't exactly in a position to judge.

"Mmm... thought that doesn't exactly give a schedule, does it? I don't know... even if they are looking for you, they might wait for you to leave, and then ambush... or simply find a weird time to come in. But I'll do what I can," Riika promises.

And she's happy to turn to lighter things. "Oh, if you've been to the mechanics bay before - I didn't know if you were allowed in it," she admits. "Since, well, warship. When I was a guest on the Ra Mari - the first one, not this one, before the Three Ships Alliance was a thing - there were some areas I wasn't supposed to go, and others I felt uncomfortable going."

"But if you're willing and able, sure! It's going to be a bit of aerial movement, I'm afraid," Riika admits. "Svalinn Gundam has a dockable flight pack, with wings - solid ones, not bird ones - and I've been having some trouble with the quick docking mechanisms, so I'm making some tension and clamp adjustments up there. But if you want to come along, we can talk while we work on it!"