2022-06-27: Frittering Time Away
- Log: 2022-06-27- Frittering Time Away
- Cast: Alma Stirner, Anita Rosetta
- Where: Ra Mari
- OOC - IC Date: 0096-06-27
- Summary: Anita and Alma chat about food. They become friends.
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
Alma has had an... eventful week. Her trajectory has taken her far from the Gwennangorn, to follow up on a lead that turned out to be nothing (and get chewed on a fair bit as a result); from there, she's hooked up with the Ra Mari to get back to the Gwennangorn and maybe catch up with a few people in the interim. It's a weird few days.
Definitely not all bad, though; she's managed to catch up with *multiple* people that she used to know, just in her short time on the vessel, and even remembered something important that she reached out about a while ago. (To be fair: it was over appetizers, that time. No one *really* remembers anything after eating a bunch of potato skins.)
Speaking of which: Alma's *current* status involves food too! She's presently staring at a shipboard vending machine, trying to make a decision. She's either deep in thought or not thinking at all.
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
It's been an eventful week for the people of the Ra Mari, as well. There's still some recovery left to do and, being generally protective of her friends, Anita hasn't strayed far from the ship. Unfortunately, there's a limit to what she can actually... do, on her own to help. Sometimes, the only thing she can do is wait and be ready to lend a hand where she can.
So for now, this means a lot of time spent cooped up in her room, distracting herself with some tinkering. Of course, there are times when she does need to venture out - the present sees her making a trip over toward one of the vending machines... but it seems she isn't the only one who had this same idea!
Anita pauses, looking Alma over for a moment before recognition hits her. It was a while back, but she does remember meeting her. So, she takes a step forward, offering a brief wave of greeting.
"Hey there. Alma, right?" Anita greets, before looking toward the vending machine. "What're you thinking?"
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
"Hrrmm... well, I was thinking the chicken sandwiches 'cuz when they're good they're *really* good," Alma answers, giving Anita a winning smile, "but I kinda just want to skip to dessert... it's been a weird week, ahahaha." She takes a few moments to look at Anita, likewise having to dislodge the name from her memory.
"Oh! Anita! Right right. Hi! Ahaha, wow, it's been... months." Rubbing at the back of her head, she asks, "Are things going okay over here? Like, everything seems good, but..." She gives a vague gesture, admitting, "... I'm not as on top of things as I usually am myself..."
She pushes that aside for now, though, not wanting to be a downer. "Ah, but -- right, food! Anything you'd recommend? I know every ship is a little different when it comes to food..."
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
Anita nods along in understanding, considering the situation.
"Well, hey, I'm sure not gonna stop you. Sometimes you just need a pick-me-up, right?" She replies with a shrug and a smile of her own.
"Got it in one." Anita confirms of her name, and shakes her head. "Yeah, it's been a while."
Are things going okay? That sure is a question...
"Ah... well, things are a little rough right now, but that's about to be expected." Anita admits with a sheepish chuckle. "I'm sure everyone'll bounce back. They just need the time and the space. How about you?"
But, food! Anita nods, considering the current menu with a 'hm' and a serious expression.
"Well... if it's desserts you're after, I gotta recommend the apple fritters. ...If you like apple, that is. But if you do - yeah, absolutely."
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
"Oooh! ... Aaah, apples... I kinda like the newer stuff more than the heritage stuff, honestly?" Alma slips her card into the vending machine, tapping out the code for the apple fritters. "Desserts seem like they're real hit or miss from a machine, though... if it's sugar-forward enough that's one thing, but you can't really get subtle flavors like this!"
Dessert flavor is something Alma thinks a lot about, honestly. "Eeeh... I hope they make it! You guys seem like you have a really good crew though, honestly? Like -- that's a big part of it. As long as you don't all lose it at once, you bounce back... and you seem like you're a pretty stable presence."
Clunk.
Alma reaches down, snagging the apple fritters; she doesn't take a bite just yet. "Hmm -- you recommended 'em... do you want one?" She starts moving to sit down. "I had kind of a weird encounter with an REA officer. I hear a lot of weird stuff about them, but I try to stay open minded... but this's been weird for days."
I don't understand that.
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
"Oh yeah? I can't say I know the difference too well, myself... I've always been the type to just grab whatever I can get." Anita admits, and then nods. "That's definitely true, though. I guess it's tough when you have to keep how long they last in mind too, and not just making 'em taste good..."
As for her friends, Anita smiles.
"I'm sure they will. ...I'm glad you think so, though. Me and the others... we've known each other for a long time, so we all kind of... support each other. As long as we're together, we can help each other get back up." She says, and then chuckles. "You think so? I try to be, anyway."
Alma offers one of the fritters, and Anita grins.
"Well, that's nice of you. Sure, if you're offering." She says. Alma moves to sit down, so Anita follows suit. She nods as Alma explains.
"Oh yeah...? That sounds rough. Sorry that happened to you..." Anita says. An REA officer, huh... That makes her think back to that party a while back. "What happened?"
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
"Yeah... you always have to juggle a bunch of stuff when dealing with a big situation like this." Alma taps her chin once, then admits, "I don't really have the head for it..." Inclining her head down slightly, she rubs at the back of her head, fluffing up her long hair a bit.
"I'm a pretty good judge of character," Alma admits, at that mention. "Not to toot my own horn or anything like that! I just... I'm usually right about people. If I've got a weakness, it's believing in them a bit too much!" There's a little darkness behind that thought --
-- but it passes almost instantly. Alma rarely lets herself feel bad for long, though anxiety isn't totally foreign to her.
The REA officer, though... "We were both getting back from an operation in Helmajistan; one of her pilots looked at me like she knew something horrible was going to happen if I stayed. She kinda... pinned me down on the catwalk? We had a pretty normal conversation, but it's... I mostly just nodded along, and I felt kind of sick afterward. When I was right there, right then, I thought it was heatstroke or something! But when I had a minute to myself I thought, 'No, this is totally something spooky!'"
Ruri_Hoshino teleports in.
POT: Ruri Hoshino is now set observer.
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
"It really makes you respect the ones who can come up with that kind of thing. ...The ones who manage to make them good, anyway." Anita replies with a nod.
Alma says she's a good judge of character, and Anita nods.
"Good skill to have, I'd say." She says. Believing in people, though, huh... it sounds like there's a story behind that. "If you ask me, better to believe in people and be disappointed sometimes than to not believe in anyone at all."
She 'hm's, though, listening as Alma recounts her story.
"You felt sick? Was it something she said, or..." Anita frowns, then. No, wait a second... Didn't Rena and Arriety mention something similar? "...Did you happen to catch her name?"
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
"Aah, right? I'm the same way!" She smiles broadly, and affirms, "I'm glad you think so too... sometimes you take risks on people, or you wait, and you kick yourself, but... I don't wanna become the kind of person who won't."
She takes a bite of an apple fritter, finally. "... Oh *wow* these are really good! I normally like a little subtler flavor, and like, you can kinda tell this is a concession to the problems with scooting this much food around..." She has a little bit of frosting on her cheek. "But it's really good! You can tell that people really sat down and went, 'OK, we're sticking this in a vending machine, so what do we have to do to make it okay anyway?'"
Alma needs a second on names, because frankly that whole thing was a mess. "... Well, she was really insistent on getting *mine*... she was a Captain... Captain... Juli -- no! Yuliana! That's it! Yuliana Dispersal." She suddenly realizes that there'd be a reason *behind* the question, rather than just small talk. "Have you met her, too? ... Was it weird for you?"
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
"Yeah... It's just way too exhausting to have to go through life looking at everyone and wondering what their angle is, anyway. Nope, can't do it." Anita replies with a shrug and a shake of her head.
She grins, then, as Alma takes a bite of the apple fritter.
"Right? It's like, definitely obviously mass-produced junk food, but it's good mass-produced junk food. Definitely a favorite." Anita agrees with a nod, finally starting on hers now that Alma's tried hers. "That's my kind of speed. I like things quick and easy."
Anita is more than happy to give Alma the time she needs to think, munching on her apple fritter as she does.
And then, Alma says a familiar name and Anita nods.
"I had a feeling. We were sent over to a party China to rep Londo Bell, so she was there too and we had a brief chat." Anita explains, and then shakes her head. "Nah. Not for me, I mean, but my friends were saying something like that."
She shrugs.
"It was the kind of conversation where everyone's talking politely on the surface but there's a whole other thing going on underneath." She says. Though she ended up leaving most of the talking to Rena and Arriety.
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
It's kind of funny, to Alma, in a sense; Anita's subjective experience of the world is almost certainly completely different from hers, but emotionally, they've ended up at pretty much the same spot -- at least on this key issue.
"I actually kinda like to bake... well, okay, it's not that I *like* it. It's more..." She picks up a fritter, gesturing with it. "I'm trying to get a flavor right for someone else's sakes, and I was kinda bad at it at first, but... I made myself like it by doing it a lot, and remembering who I was doing it for?" That gets more embarrassed back of the head rubbing.
"... Huh, okay. So it really is her..." Alma chews on that. "I usually don't have those kinda conversations? Like, I'm always pretty direct with people, and I think they're pretty direct with me."
-- Because you force the issue, Alma, by skipping all the intermediate steps, but that aside --
"I don't know if she does it consciously? And I think if she doesn't, like, if it's just... part of being around her, it'd be kinda mean to act like that's *wrong*, but..." Her cheeks puff out. "Aaah, this is hard! It's good to know that it's not just me, though..."
She cants her head a little, and it's at this point that she gets curious: "What got you out into Londo Bell?"
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
Anita listens as Alma explains. Baking for someone, huh?
"Wow... whoever they are, they're pretty lucky. I know I'd be really happy if I knew someone was putting in that much effort into something for me." Anita comments, smiling good-naturedly at the embarrassment. That person must be pretty important...
Those kind of conversations... Anita nods.
"Yeah... I tend to leave them to Rena or Eight. They're way better at that than I am." She replies, shaking her head. She 'hm's consideringly, then, as Alma continues. "I dunno... maybe it's just the sort of thing you need to learn in her position."
She shrugs.
"But I'm gonna excuse it if she does it around my friends either." She says. Alma changes the topic, then - what got her into Londo Bell? At that, Anita chuckles.
"It's, uh... kind of a long, embarrassing story. ...And a little heavy." She admits. "But to keep it simple, I moved to the Earth Sphere from my home colony to be closer to my friends, but I needed to be able to support myself somehow. I was kind of out of options at the time, so I ended up signing up with the OCU military. That worked great for a while... but, there I was involved with an incident with some of the other trainees, and as a result I kind of... got kicked over to Londo Bell."
She shrugs at that.
"Worked out in the end, really, since it meant I ended up on the Ra Mari with everyone." She concludes. There's definitely some things excised, based on her earlier comment. She doesn't really want to drop everything on her right away.
"...How about you?" She asks.
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
"Ahahaha, thanks! It's been... a real work in progress. And like -- I'm good now, I make stuff Lilith likes, but... I haven't hit the right flavor exactly yet, after..." She hangs her head. "... I finally lost count except for in my diary... I was trying so hard to keep the numbers on the cakes in my head, and I got past 300..." You can feel the anime cute-despair squiggles.
... has she been making cakes every month for nearly a decade?
And, for that matter: is she still not satisfied?
She moves on from Yuliana; without knowing *why* being around her is like that, there's not a lot she can do about it. Besides -- Anita is in front of her now and is a very cool-seeming person! "... ahahahaha, the old, 'not fitting in here so we're gonna dump you somewhere we think about you less,' huh..." She's a little delicate with it, but the nervous giggle isn't actually that nervous. "That was me when I was 15 or 16, but it was with the Flanagan Institute. I couldn't use the Bits even with a bunch of help," 'help' is definitely code for something but let's not go there, "so they dumped me with a special operations group instead. From there I surrendered to the Federation after a bunch of stuff... then went home 'cuz the war ended before I surrendered anyway! Then I signed on with the AEUG a lot later -- and then finally I ended up in Londo Bell!"
She's a little sheepish as she concedes: "... I didn't actually ever think I'd be fighting for the Federation, when I was a teenager, but... well, the AEUG won! So now it's kinda on us to take care of what we won, I guess?"
BBSYS: Post 49, 'Turn Counter Up!' has been published to Announcements.
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
Anita nods along as Alma explains what she's been going through to hit just the right flavor... but she freezes, as she gets to just how many she's gone through.
"O-over three hundred, huh... Wow." Anita remarks, surprised. She... feels kind of exhausted just hearing that. She's not sure she could do something three hundred times without hitting the mark at any poin, not without giving up. "And you're still going at it? That's... some determination."
She grins a little, as Alma seems familiar with her story - or at least, others like it.
"Yup, exactly." She confirms with a nod. She listens, then, as Alma recounts her own story.
"I'm glad that worked out." She remarks, of getting to go home because the war ended anyway... though her interest is piqued when Alma brings up the AEUG.
"You were with the AEUG, huh...? That's pretty cool." Anita comments, impressed. For certain reasons, she has a lot of respect for them.
"Yeah, I can see how that'd be, uh... unexpected. But... that's a good way to look at it. It'd be pretty easy to just pat yourself on the back and leave it that... but, you aren't. I can respect that." She says.
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
"It's important to me! The food we had on-base, when it was still around... some nights I remember it and I just start giggling. I think about Mia smooshing my face, or Helena giving me a noogie, or the way Killy always knew just what to say, and I think... yeah, I can try it again." Alma's kind of sentimental, and that's putting it lightly.
"Yeah! Like -- movies end with the hero riding off into the sunset, but... we gotta keep at it." Alma makes it sound so easy -- and for her, maybe it is? Or maybe she just knows the hard parts are worth it. "I think a world that stopped after the hard part would be kinda sad..."
But again, Alma's not someone to dwell on the sad parts, so she just grins and moves on. She puts a hand out on the table -- then decides she's going to stuff an apple fritter in her face before this part. Once it's in her mouth, she asks a simple, direct question -- with her mouth still full.
"Wanna be friends, then?"
<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.
Anita listens fondly as Alma reminisces about times spent with her team. She can't help but smile a little. It makes her appreciate the time she has to share with everyone now a little more.
"That sounds pretty nice... I can see how that'd keep you going." Anita replies with a nod.
Anita is pretty impressed, honestly... on her own she's not much of a big mover, but hearing someone like Alma sound so motivated about it helps give her a little motivation, too.
"Yeah... there's still a lot left to do." Anita agrees."
But, after finishing a fritter, Alma has a question for her. It's an easy one to answer. Anita nods, offering her a grin.
"I think that'd be great."