2024-11-08: Break the Cycle?

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  • Log: Break the Cycle?
  • Cast: Liam 7-020, Aurora Dusk, Lucine Azul
  • Where: Liam and Lucine's house in Orb
  • OOC - IC Date: 0099-11-08 (split over two days OOC)
  • Summary: Liam brings Aurora to his and Lucine's home in Orb to introduce the two, and so that he and Lucine can get Aurora's measure. The conversation soon turns to darker topics, and Aurora finds out the truth behind the Jovian Lizards even as she lets some worrying details of her own slip.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        Liam took a small but meaningful risk when he gave Aurora his address.

        His apartment is easy enough to locate: it's part of a modern mid-rise housing block, with green space on the roof and in a small park between the buildings. The lobby is clean and bright and well-maintained. A video relay connects guests with residents: when Aurora uses it, she'll see Liam in a red polo shirt and shorts, smiling. He's there at the door when she gets out of the elevator.

        "Aurora." He still has the smile on when he greets her, but it's underscored by anxiety. He gestures inward, at the apartment proper. Beyond the door lies a little entryway, with a closet and shoe cubby. Beyond that are the living room, dining room, and kitchen, all unified through an open floor plan. There's a couch and a few comfy chairs in front of a thinscreen TV, a dinette set, and rows of houseplants by the large windows.

        "Come on in."

<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.

         Aurora is a pretty busy bee lately, but she's managed to find time, or at least arrange her responsibilities in such a way that this is a convenient visit to her. She's not entirely sure what Liam's house will look like, but it makes sense when she sees it.

        Aurora is wearing a fairly casual outfit: dark green cardigan over white shirt, black pants. Comfortable, easy to move in, not particularly fancy. Once she steps out of the elevator, she looks around and appreciates the new scenery. She's been in many lobbies before... sometimes they all blend together, sometimes she can pick out the details.

        Once she sees Liam, she waves and trots over to him. "Hey, Liam." She smiles. Her greeting is enthusiastic, but not... shouting, or anything. Naturally, she picks up on his anxiety... she's known him for a while, and she's a bloodhound for these things in general. Comes with the Newtype territory, really. A look of concern inches onto her face, and she takes a wild stab in the dark about it. "Something wrong? Is something going wrong lately... at work, or something?"

        And once she's invited, she hops over the threshold, slips out of her plain black shoes, and walks in. She's not a vampire, but she does prefer to be invited in as opposed to breaking and entering. Comfy place...

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        Lucine's thinking, when Liam figured they'd have Aurora meet them at the apartment, was that their address was likely easy to find as it is. If they wanted the security of anonymity, they would have opted for another place.

        Lucine, likewise, did do a little better than her usual casual gremlin chic' of 'comfortable large t-shirt, sometimes with random food/sap stain that refuses to go away, shorts, house shoes, ponytail'. Now she's wearing a nice pink linen blouse and light-colored seersucker shorts, and.... house shoes, because they're in the apartment. You always save the nice clothing for when there's company over, after all!

        Standing over by one of the plants and checking a leaf, Lucine looks up at Aurora. "Ah, hello. Aurora, is it? A very pretty name..."

        Compared to Liam, Lucine's overall aura is relatively calm, if curious. However, she does retain a level of caution, walking over to extend a hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you... Liam's told me about you." It's an open-ended statement; just how much did he say? Her polite smile says nothing, but her pleasantness is matched by her inner mood, at least.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        There is no elegant way to answer Aurora's question. "Just nerves," Liam says. "Still not quite used to having guests over." He's genuinely glad to see Aurora, but her situation is still worrying him.

        Liam closes the door behind them, and steps into the little kitchen. "Do you want something to drink?" he asks. "We have... water, cola, decaf iced tea with lemon, and hot tea."

        It's not fair. He should be able to show her the life he's made for himself--and introduce the love of that life--without worry. "Feel free to sit wherever you want, too."

<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.

         "Ah, I get it. There's a lot I'm not used to either..." ...she figures he's worried on her behalf. Last time he saw her, they were both lab rats. Now only she is!

        Aurora wasn't really planning on any cloak and dagger activities. It's a house call to friends from the same team. She's looking forwards to an opportunity to turn the cloak and dagger nonsense OFF, actually... as much as she's able to.

        "...any juice?" Is wanting pineapple juice on a house visit childish taste? She's not about to ask for wine. "If not, I'll have tea." Aurora takes a seat next in a comfy looking chair with a good view of the room... and the exits. Habit. Liam's probably familiar with it. Old Crucible lesson. Nega Force lesson. ECOAS lesson. Everywhere lesson, really. Hell, Augusta lesson.

        Pretty name, huh? ...She guesses it is. "Thanks. You're Lucine, right?"

        The girl ahead of Aurora gives her a fairly pleasant impression, on first sight, observing her slight caution. Understandable. Aurora's own aura reflects her feelings. She's cautious around new people herself, though there's a degree of implicit trust earned by being close to someone close to her. At least a little. She takes Lucine's hand with that level of ambient new-person wariness and shakes. "Nice to meet you too... he did? What did he say?" Overall, Aurora is in a good mood too, though if Lucine pays attention, she can distinguish a little bit of lingering stress. Work-related. Lots to do lately.

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        "We have orange juice," Lucine says, as she walks over to the fridge, before looking at Liam. "You want anything, Liam?" For herself, she grabs a can of cola.

        Lucine smiles, and nods. "Yes. Lucine Azul." It's a response to the wariness that Aurora projects in multiple ways; while she lets Liam's own emotions be (an effort she has to keep telling herself to do), Aurora is a different matter.

        Sure, Aurora may be deadly, and what Lucine senses cannot predict the future outside of immediate danger, but the first way she learned of Aurora was as an old friend of Liam's.

        So many of those have had terrible ends.

        "That you two knew each other from... back then," she says vaguely. If Aurora opts for the orange juice, Lucine will be preparing a glass of that for her. "Liam and I met later... a few years ago." When he was literally trying to defect, in fact, though she leaves that out.

        She also leaves out any indication that their powers may be the same, or at least, similar, choosing instead to let her settle in, and observe.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        "...Yeah," Liam says, with a nod. "I remember when I had to learn how to do... everything. Cooking, cleaning the apartment, washing clothes, shopping. I mean--more than I knew." He helped around the house as a child, but there's a big difference between that and managing an actual household. "Making a budget. Then figuring out how to get credit reports, how to evaluate an apartment..."

        Liam's anxiety dies down to a dull flicker as he gestures out at the apartment. It's not huge by any stretch of the imagination, but it's home. And having a home after a decade in the lab is... well.

        "Sometimes I have to remind myself it's real," he says, his voice low.

        But he's also paying attention to Aurora. Liam, of course, knows where all the exits are. He knows how to get to the emergency stairwell, and how to signal for help from the little balcony. If all else failed, he could grab Lucine and jump for the balcony next door.

        "Orange juice, please," says Liam.

<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.

         Aurora DOES opt for the orange juice. Fortunately, the morning's toothpaste is no longer a factor in her mouth. She's drunk water since then.

        "Paperwork is... a lot," she echoes. "There's always something to be filled..." The slow easing of Liam's anxiety seems to work well with Aurora. Seeing him calmer takes some of the edge off of her, to.

        "You've got a pretty name, too." The process of unthawing begins. That foot in the door from Liam is probably helping. Broadly, she's glad to be here. Lucine probably gets the sense that this was a very welcome reunion on her part. For her part, Aurora is examining her with her own senses... there's a sense of curiosity about her. No outsized suspicion, or anything. Slightly LESS than average, actually.

        "Yeah, Crucible. We met there, and parted when he left..." Aurora doesn't really care to be vague about it. "He told me he made friends. I'm glad." Yes, she is. He was always so nice. He deserves to have someone who'll take care of him. Aurora can't really do it, considering her position, but if he's in trouble, she'd definitely show up if she knew! ...hopefully. "He's changed a lot since then... I mean, he's less... robotic, in the way he talks?"

        Aurora, too, knows where the exits are, at least the ones she's seen from here and the outside. She can guess how to get to the emergency stairwell, and in an emergency, Liam and Lucine know. If all else fails, she keeps throwing knives on her. Does Liam, she wonders? Probably. He is like her, sort of.

        She could try tying together curtains and rappelling down to a lower apartment. Or leaping across the balconies. That works too. Hopefully, it won't be necessary.

        Now why would Aurora notice Lucine being a Newtype? ...Is she probing deep enough to provoke the telltale flexatone-ring of a psychic interaction, or is she scanning the surface?

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        "Ah, thank you." Lucine nods. "I've grown into it, I think..."

        ".... Definitely. It's... been a process, but seeing him grow into his own skin, and find his voice... it was wonderful. I... was there, when he was breaking away," she finally admits. "By chance. So... we sort of met at an odd time for both of us." Lucine grabs a few ice cubes and drops them into each glass, then brings one to Liam, then to Aurora. "I was just settling into life on Earth, and he... was settling into life."

        Two aliens, trying to find their way.

        She gives a small smile towards Liam's own quiet astonishment, feeling a surge of pride that would certainly be noticable to Aurora, if she can sense things in that direction.

        And either way, once Aurora seems comfortable enough, Lucine... springs the topic. "... You're... a Newtype, correct?"

        She almost added a 'too' there, but she neglects it as a last minute decision. No everyone can sense other Newtypes, after all, or communicate mind-to-mind. The array of abilities seem unique to each one, and that is just Newtypes alone. ".... sorry to be blunt like that," she says, softly, her gaze softening. ".... It... didn't feel right, to not at least... say it, aloud."

        And yet, she didn't say she was herself.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        Liam's cheeks redden as he picks up the glass. What Aurora and Lucine have to say is true, of course, and he's proud of it--but still! "Thanks," he says, and he bends slightly to give Lucine a quick kiss on the cheek. "Yeah. I... hotwired my machine, and managed to get away. I made it across the border between occupied and unoccuped Japan, and that was where NERV found me." And Lucine, too.

        Lucine brings up something Liam wasn't expecting her to. There's a sudden flash of dull surprise--edging towards alarm--before he calms down. He glances between Aurora and Lucine, apparently leaving this one for them to explain, for now.

<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.

         "Grown into it? Like a new name?" Aurora asks curiously, tilting her head. She has a new name! She's not NT-294 anymore. Not just NT-294 anymore. She's grown into Dusk, she thinks. Dawn Dusk.

        

        She begins sipping her orange juice. Delicious. "Thank you." The ice is a nice touch. Juice always tastes better with ice. "Settling into life on Earth...? How is it?" Ah, a visitor from... somewhere else. Her curiosity is aroused again, and she starts trying to guess. Probably a colony. Possibly a Coordinator? Orb has plenty of Coordinators. Aurora doesn't really feel any prejudice towards them. Right now, anyway. Could be Mars. That place got rocked a few years back. Damn lizards. Maybe it's Mercury!

        "Ah, so that's how it happened..." She turns to Lucine. "If you were there... NERV, too?" She smiles. There's something sweet about that, actually. Love can bloom indeed! It's sweet to see Liam and Lucine together. Maybe there's a slight pang of 'I want to experience a romance', too. Aurora's never gone steady with anyone! If only her schedule permitted it. Aww.

        "Yeah. A Cyber-Newtype, specifically," she clarifies. Not very awkwardly. She's used to what she is. In more ways than one. Liam seems to be on edge about the question, somehow, and Lucine is dancing around it. There's a slight... not irritation, but Aurora doesn't want to be treated with kid gloves here. Lucine is probably paying attention to her reaction, and she isn't put off about the question, or shaking with fear or anything. She is a Cyber-Newtype from the labs 'formerly' operated by the Titans. ('You only lose when you accept defeat' - Emily Ashcroft, 0088, playing the worst game of poker known to the Federation). "How familiar are you with the topic? It's... not like I have to be treated like a glass duck, or anything."

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        "No, just... seeing it on a tag, and realizing that's me." She tilts her head slightly. ".... I came from a small area, so the nicknames were numerous." How many ways could Aurora be pared down to a nickname, she wonders. Audrey? Audy? Rorie? Rora? Auri?

        "It's been a few years, so... it feels like another home planet to me, now. I still have my moments, though... I... still sometimes have trouble sorting factions, especially ones with history." Returning to her soda, she opens it with a pop, and sips from it. "Certain things... don't come as naturally to me, but some of that is just a Cowboy thing." Whether or not Aurora would realize that this is a Martian term, as opposed to a historial one, may be up to her.

        There are fewer cowboys out there, after all, due to... reasons.

        "Ah, no, Nergal. Part of the Nadesico crew, specifically. Back then we were allied... I think we still are, in a sense, though with Nergal it's often on a lending basis, or... just pilots doing their own thing. It just so happened... that I was there."

        A Cyber-Newtype. Lucine takes this in stride. "Ahh. I'm still learning the many types." The ruffled nature of Aurora is taken into consideration; Lucine chuckles. "Ah, sorry. I'm a Newtype myself... when I realized I was trying to get a sense of you, I wasn't being that fair... And... in some ways, knowing that someone else is one can make things easier. I'm just the average type, I'm afraid... No real training."

        That spike of surprise didn't go unnoticed; Lucine sends Liam a grin.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        "Lucine's from Mars," Liam says. Hopefully Lucine's okay with that. "A little agricultural colony-lab. She taught me how to garden." Liam gestures towards the planters, which include house plants--some small succulents, a growing jade plant, a pothos vine--and edible specimens like chives and rosemary. "Some of the neighbors help take care of them if we're both out of the apartment. It's... really nice, to have something alive that you care for."

        Liam smiles back at Lucine. He's feeling less anxious, himself, though they're still no closer to figuring out what's up with Aurora. "I think it made things easier when we first met, and more complicated later on. You always knew how I was feeling, which meant less pressure on me for having to say it."

<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.

         Aurora has many nicknames. Aura. 'Rora. Auau, if somebody wants to be real diminutive. At least, those are the common ones she's experienced, and the ones whose context she's most used to. ...294, if you REALLY stand on ceremony about it. Not many people Aurora interacts with on a daily basis stands on ceremony about it.

        "Yeah, there's a lot of that kind of history. A lot's happened in the past... since I was born. I think I could explain some of it... Liam could, too," she helpfully offers. Aurora is proud of her knowledge, biased as it may be.

        "Cowboy..." Aurora tries to place it. No need - Liam says it out loud. "Martian, huh... I garden sometimes, too." She follows Liam's gesture to the planters. Ah, food. Spice type things. Her eyes peek around. Any cooking magazines nearby? Aurora subscribes to something like that.

        "...We're all survivors of disasters here..." A strong impression. Quieter, she speaks to herself, mostly. "I won't let it happen again. I won't..." And another thing they have in common, too.

        "Ah, Nadesico. I'm familiar. It's one of those famous ships... I'm glad we're all allies."

        "Newtypes do many types of things... many many types..." Aurora taps her finger on the armrest as she half-remembers a rhythm. "You too?" She perks up slightly. Ah. Solidarity, sort of. A fellow Newtype. It's not like this makes them comrades in and of itself, of course, it's just one point of similarity. Aurora was already guarding her thoughts habitually, so it's not like the shutters slam down or anything. She DOES get a bit more sensitive to psychic contact, though. She'd shake a hand if it came through the window, so to speak... and she's more likely to notice that hand.

        "Yeah, Newtypes can do that. It took a little bit of... getting used to, when I got those senses." She cried a lot. Everyone's feelings really are noisy sometimes. And they're not often GOOD feelings in that environment.

        Aurora IS pretty good at hiding what she is, though some things do show on the surface. Right now, her thoughts are on the present conversation. She's not a big fan of disasters like on Mars, she's not bothered by being a Cyber-Newtype, the plants are making her think of cooking (she's an amateur)... there's a slight hint of thoughts taken home from work.

        "...How's... Work? The weather?" She's not quite practiced at this talk yet.

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        "Well, it wasn't that much that you didn't seem to know already," Lucine gently teases Liam. "A lot of this was new to me too... just being able to bring dirt from a store is... so wild, to me." She sips her soda. "In Alba City, that would be a thing, but.... in colonies, depending on what kind..." Some may welcome that exchange, increasing the possible biodiversity. However, it's a difficult balance. ".... And... there's plants here I never knew existed. I knew crops, but... so many incredible things are out there."

        Lucine nods as Aurora talks about her own experience with being a Newtype. ".... I... ah, 'awoke' very young, but... I was very isolated in my community. So... I didn't do much growing until I... came to Earth. Liam... witnessed a lot of that." The way she kept getting distracted in the city, how people would grab her attention, for seemingly no reason at all.

        .... How she'd try to complusively comfort him before he even voiced his own discomfort.

        "I... mostly just sense emotions. Not always, and many things escape my notice. Ah, I... do have a danger sense, as well." How many times has it come in with barely any time to warn others?

        "The weather here's a lot warmer and more humid than I'm used to... but I'm getting used to it. As for work..." She grins towards Liam. "It's touch and go, many times. Some... things came up recently that has made things... very difficult." How widespread is the knowledge of who the Jovians really are?

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        Liam nods. "Yeah, you couldn't do that at Nemi, could you? Everything had to be shipped in just for the colony. So we were both a little overwhelmed. I remember when we went go buy furniture the first time, and I..." Liam grins. "The first thing I bought was emergency supplies. Everything on the Tokyo-3 disaster preparedness brochure. I wanted to be sure I was prepared." And it was there that he first met Sousuke.

        He hasn't seen Sousuke since Jupiter. Liam's face falls as he thinks back to it, now. What happened to Sousuke and Kaname? They just... weren't there, one day, and they slipped out of his life so easily it's like he never even knew them, sometimes.

        Liam drinks more of his orange juice.

        "It's weird not having seasons," he says. "But it's not like the lab. It's just... hot." Liam pauses a beat, and then tries something else. "Have you made any friends at work, Aurora?"

<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.

         "Yeah, dirt is common on this planet. It's literally called Dirt." Ha ha ha. "There sure are a lot of plants. Lots of fruits to make juices from too..." She taps her chin. "Lots of animals, too." A brief flash of thought. 'We're out of pineapple juice.' Can't grow those, unfortunately.

        Aurora nods to Lucine's own explication too. "It's hard to get used to all the... flow, at first, right?" Hard and unpleasant. Fortunately, she's grown stronger now. There was some... esoteric weirdness, too, that she had to adapt to.

        She listens to Liam's story. "Mmhm. Be prepared," she repeats. Aurora is ALWAYS prepared. The shift in Liam's emotions is evident to her. "..."

        She counts off on her fingers. "I get the emotion and danger sense too. It was hard to get used to... being able to feel other people's feelings." She continues explaining. It goes in a particular direction - she's at least a little proud of how good she is at her job. "I'm very aware of my surroundings. I can feel when I'm being attacked, before it happens, even if I'm not looking in that direction. It's like I can see it before it happens. I can see where my targets are moving, too. My reflexes run fast, and I'm great at dodging." How many fingers does she have? Only ten, right? Right. "Funnels, too. I've got a lot of practice," she says, with the implicit assumption that so does Lucine.

        "The cyber part is... I don't think I'm AS strong as Liam, but I'm real strong. I can hold my breath a long time, I'm tough, and my stamina is... real high."

        Friends, huh? Aurora thinks a little. She's met a few people. "I think so. I've got a few squadmates... there's a girl from the Interior. She's plucky, I think." Fairly warm feelings for her. She's a nice person. Aurora swills her orange juice, and the ice clinks. "There's Adrian. He's..." He's her teammate, when they're together. He's smug and arrogant and overconfident and... to be honest, a prick. He IS her teammate, she reminds herself. "...He puts his foot in his mouth a lot."

        Huh. Aurora hasn't met too many people yet. There are a few she's fond of, though it's not like Lucine can pick out faces or names. "I was... out of it, for a little while, after... Break the World." She clenches her fist. It was a dark time. She's recovered, now, as recovered as you can be from having the sky fall on you. It awakened an old terror she didn't know she'd absorbed, coming seeping out from her mind like soap out of an old sponge, getting all over the carpet... Painful feelings. Angry feelings.

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        "I know that much, definitely," Lucine says, nodding. "It's the things that aren't commonly know about, like... durians. Starfruit. Breadfruit. Jackfruit! I didn't even realize what actual pomegranates looked like, just the juice."

        Nodding along with Aurora, Lucine adds, "It's... like being in a noisy city, when you've grown up in a tiny village... but in time..."

        Aurora's mention of funnels draws a cringe from Lucine. "Ah, well... the only time I used them.... it.... didn't go so well. Hand to hand combat..." She thinks on it, drinking from her soda. ".... Mostly just... danger sense." It's not really jealousy that forms, but a feeling of inadequacy. She doesn't want to be able to calm those things; she knows where they formed from.

        .... At the same time, she wonders if such abilities are commonplace, and if she'd be judged by that standard, someday. Perhaps that's just a part of the 'cyber' aspect.

        It's an illogical thought to be having in the first place.

        "I know people like that on my crew," Lucine says, with a certain amount of humor. "The Nadesico is certainly known for its crew." Certain things, Lucine'd miss, coming from Aurora. Thoughts, mental images, memories. But the emotions that come with each name, if vague, come through clear enough for Lucine to find some similarity.

        But the same comes through in Aurora's own words.

        Or, just by the context of how painful an event is. ".... We... all had a rough time." Her gaze looks up to Liam, remembering what it was like to pull through of the other end of that coma, and see Liam without his hair, and, more importantly, the wear in his voice and face. ".... Was it... hard? Being where I was at the time... all I felt was... that explosion of emotion and pain, even as high up as I was." Or was it *because* she was there? How do such things travel, if at all?

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        There are differences in the way Aurora and Lucine describe their abilities, as well as those abilities themselves. Liam puts a hand on Lucine's shoulder, and gives it a gentle squeeze. Ever since other Newtypes have entered their social circle, Lucine has compared herself to them--to Leina, especially. Liam wishes she felt less pressure to do that. He doesn't look terribly surprised by what Aurora describes. He's trained with her, after all. He knows her baseline, or what it was. (It might have changed.)

        Lucine mentions the funnels, then. Liam gives her shoulder another squeeze. That's a memory with sharp edges, for both of them.

        At the mention of Adrian, Liam's smile grows a little thin. "I know someone a little like that. She was... getting better, but then she almost died during a mission, and when she came back from medical leave, she was even angrier. I... don't really blame her." That's partly a lie. Liam is frustrated with Asuka--it feels like a betrayal, even if her feelings are valid. Then, it's on to something even darker.

        "Looking down on it, I..." Liam takes a breath, to the count of four. "I thought about all those people looking up. Aurora." Liam meets her eyes. "There's... something I have to tell you, about what happened."

<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.

         "You get used to it. You get used to a lot of things."

        "...didn't go so well?" Funnels are the weapon of a Newtype. Aurora believes that. "I know what it's like to feel like... you aren't strong enough." Of course she does. Might makes right in her world. If things aren't right.. surely, with enough might... "...maybe I could teach you?" she offers, trying to be helpful.

        "...we all did. It... was horrible." She grits her... voice. It was very hard. Aurora's voice is worn too, now. "I never thought I'd see... that. Again." Again, the clench of the fist. Again, the tight feeling of determination, of coiled violence. Of anger. She won't forgive them. "Watching it... I felt so powerless. Like everthing had been for nothing," she says, bitterly. "It just... keeps happening. It keeps happening...!" There's a brief flash of something else: the memory of having a rank tab pinned to her collar. Her mission, her purpose, her goal. Is this why she joined the Gaia Sabers? Because the Earth needed a sword? Is that what motivates her? Can Lucine even see it?

        "...what happened?"

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        In some ways, Liam has a better handle on Lucine's emotions that the Newtype does herself. While Lucine can be better in dealing with certain parts of grief and pain than she once was, the sense of inadequacy is a stubborn one.

        And a complex one, as Liam also knows well, by that hand squeeze on Lucine's shoulder.

        "Nonono, that's fine!" Despite Lucine's earlier feelings, the refusal is a little bit *too* quick to come out. "... I'm fine, without funnels. My unit is unique to me, as it is, so... I wouldn't trade it for anything."
        
        While Lucine's comparison was more positive to Aurora's recollection, Liam's is more dark, owing to the nature of NERV's crew. Lucine places her hand over Liam's as it sits there on her shoulder, giving it a squeeze. He doesn't say the name, but there's few people Lucine can think of that fit that description aside from Asuka.

        Lucine's hand remains there as they venture into topics Lucine knows less about, concerning something shared between Liam and Aurora.

        While random memories don't show up, it's the sharply edged ones, born out of strong emotion, that do hit her. ".... Aurora... maybe... we should sit down for this?" She's not sure what Liam will say, but she can read the room well enough.
        

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        Liam glances between Lucine and Aurora. He lets her decision speak for itself. Aurora is dear to him, but if the 'experiment' proved anything, it's that Lucine needs to be in a better place before she even thinks of operating a psycommu system again. So much could have gone wrong. What if it wasn't Leina who responded, but an officer who shot first and didn't bother investigating further? What if the prototype sustained critical damage, and fell into the sea? What if...

        Lucine squeezes his hand. It's welcome support, as Liam's thoughts continue to drift down a darker path.

        "...Yeah," he says. His eyes close, and he feels them growing misty. "I--I thought that, too. Why did I go through all of this if I couldn't stop it from happening? But..." Liam's eyes open. He glances at Lucine, again, and nods. "Yeah. On the couch, if you want." Liam gestures towards the sofa--starter furniture, yes, but still comfortable. He waits until Aurora is seated.

        "ZAFT didn't drop that colony," Liam says. "It was... a group of renegades, and they had help. There was someone from some 'Company', and some kind of Neo-Neo-Zeon, called themselves the Crossbone Vanguard. And the Jovians. The Jovians were the ones who turned the colony into a bomb."

<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.

         "Okay, if you're sure." Huh. "Not every Newtype uses funnels, I guess."

        Aurora didn't realise she had stood up. She sits back down, and concern for Liam is on her face. Their shared tragedy, across time.

        Liam's revelation pushes Aurora through several... stages. "...Renegades?" Suspicion. "Are you... sure?" No, she doesn't quite believe that. She does her business through multiple levels of denial. Surely, ZAFT is the same.

        "...Company?" Well, that's vague. Anaheim? Not their style. It WOULD a shakeup?

        "...Another Neo-Neo-Zeon?" And now, the anger is back. Damn Zeeks, Aurora thinks! They'll never stop, will they? Not until they've taken everything from her! "They've been getting away with this for too long...!"

        "...JOVIANS? But there- there aren't any people on Jupiter, right? You mean... the lizards, right?" Confusion again. She's flabbergasted. "Weren't the Jovian Lizards drones? How could they carry out a colony drop?"

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

In some ways, Liam has a better handle on Lucine's emotions that the Newtype does herself. While Lucine can be better in dealing with certain parts of grief and pain than she once was, the sense of inadequacy is a stubborn one.

And a complex one, as Liam also knows well, by that hand squeeze on Lucine's shoulder.

"Nonono, that's fine!" Despite Lucine's earlier feelings, the refusal is a little bit *too* quick to come out. "... I'm fine, without funnels. My unit is unique to me, as it is, so... I wouldn't trade it for anything."

While Lucine's comparison was more positive to Aurora's recollection, Liam's is more dark, owing to the nature of NERV's crew. Lucine places her hand over Liam's as it sits there on her shoulder, giving it a squeeze. He doesn't say the name, but there's few people Lucine can think of that fit that description aside from Asuka.

Lucine's hand remains there as they venture into topics Lucine knows less about, concerning something shared between Liam and Aurora.

While random memories don't show up, it's the sharply edged ones, born out of strong emotion, that do hit her. ".... Aurora... maybe... we should sit down for this?" She's not sure what Liam will say, but she can read the room well enough.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

Liam glances between Lucine and Aurora. He lets her decision speak for itself. Aurora is dear to him, but if the 'experiment' proved anything, it's that Lucine needs to be in a better place before she even thinks of operating a psycommu system again. So much could have gone wrong. What if it wasn't Leina who responded, but an officer who shot first and didn't bother investigating further? What if the prototype sustained critical damage, and fell into the sea? What if...

Lucine squeezes his hand. It's welcome support, as Liam's thoughts continue to drift down a darker path.

"...Yeah," he says. His eyes close, and he feels them growing misty. "I--I thought that, too. Why did I go through all of this if I couldn't stop it from happening? But..." Liam's eyes open. He glances at Lucine, again, and nods. "Yeah. On the couch, if you want." Liam gestures towards the sofa--starter furniture, yes, but still comfortable. He waits until Aurora is seated.

"ZAFT didn't drop that colony," Liam says. "It was... a group of renegades, and they had help. There was someone from some 'Company', and some kind of Neo-Neo-Zeon, called themselves the Crossbone Vanguard. And the Jovians. The Jovians were the ones who turned the colony into a bomb."

<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.

"Okay, if you're sure." Huh. "Not every Newtype uses funnels, I guess."

Aurora didn't realise she had stood up. She sits back down, and concern for Liam is on her face. Their shared tragedy, across time.

Liam's revelation pushes Aurora through several... stages. "...Renegades?" Suspicion. "Are you... sure?" No, she doesn't quite believe that. She does her business through multiple levels of denial. Surely, ZAFT is the same.

"...Company?" Well, that's vague. Anaheim? Not their style. It WOULD a shakeup?

"...Another Neo-Neo-Zeon?" And now, the anger is back. Damn Zeeks, Aurora thinks! They'll never stop, will they? Not until they've taken everything from her! "They've been getting away with this for too long...!"

"...JOVIANS? But there- there aren't any people on Jupiter, right? You mean... the lizards, right?" Confusion again. She's flabbergasted. "Weren't the Jovian Lizards drones? How could they carry out a colony drop?"

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        "Yes," Lucine says, finishing her drink to hide her grimace. "I'm.... fine, as is. I'll leave funnels to people who know how to use them."

        Her hand is still on Liam's, Keeping him centered, at the same time it does the same for her. She breathes through her nose, thinking on Liam's words.

        ".... Nothing justifies what any of us went through, Liam. None of us are trained in how to prevent a colony drop, because... there's nothing to learn. _However_." She looks up at him, and at Aurora in turn, with those yellow eyes. "We arrived on the other end knowing we did all we could. We didn't shrink back, and I'd like to think some lives were spared because of it."

        Her mind tiptoes around the idea that, by intervening, perhaps they managed to make something land where it originally wasn't. Did they choose who would die, without realizing it?

        She moves away from Liam to grab another drink, dropping the can in the recycling bin along the way, as Liam explains to Aurora.

        ".... It's still secret," Lucine murmurs, her mouth looking like the very words are leaving a bad taste in her mouth. She takes out a glass this time, filling it with water and some ice cubes, which clink neatly in the glass. "Even if the secret's lid was blown wide open, it's still... lingering. But yes. Jovians were part of the colony drop, as revenge for things done to them a century ago. Why they've only brought in drones up until now? I don't know. Perhaps their higher ups didn't see it as necessary, or..." She thinks on it a moment. ".... Distance...? I suppose, if even the distance from Mars to Earth is enough to stagger communications by a few hours... Jupiter... would be even worse. And the Chulips..."

        She frowns, still debating aloud. ".... People can't go through those, can they...? That has to be the reason. We're warned never to try to go through them, so... Perhaps, it's the same, for them." The drones may have been a means to an end; a way to get around logistics of time and space.
                
        "I've heard rumors of Mars had their tiny share of Neo-Zeon groups," Lucine continues, sipping water. "Being on the frontier, it's easy for fringe groups to exist.... Whether or not there's any true connection is usually left up to debate. In the end, it's people willing to hurt others, and in the Jovians' case... it's payback."

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        Is Liam sure? He entertains the possibility that he isn't, but then Lucine takes his hand, and grounds him with both her words and her touch. He takes a deep breath, and lets the anger exist. "Nothing justifies it," Liam says. Another deep breath. He meets Aurora's gaze, and shakes his head.

        "I know this is... a lot. It's awful." Name the feeling. Untangle the feeling and the thoughts. "I feel helpless. Sometimes I think the same thing is going to happen, over and over again, and that we all suffered for nothing." Liam could argue with her about the motivation behind the horror, and the very real cycle of atrocity and revenge. But he knows how she gets when she's like this, sometimes.

        Liam's parents taught him, over and over again, that the people in space loved, hated, and suffered just like the people in occupied Ireland, and elsewhere on Earth. Aurora has very different formative lessons.

        "Do you just... want to cry?" Liam says. He's giving her permission. This is his home, and she is safe here.

<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.

         It doesn't escape Aurora's notice, what Lucine does for Liam. There's a sense of approval in the air over it... a sense of approval when she talks about doing what she can to prevent the colony drop, too. "I'd like to think that, too."

        

        "...The Jovians... who are they?" She isn't actually sure. She's just been told that they're people, basically. The Zentradi were people, but they came from elsewhere. "Are they aliens?" She nurses her drink, numbly.

        Aurora holds her head in her hands. Yes, it's awful. Yes, she feels helpless. Liam is exactly right about that. And she was starting to feel safe, in her little uniform, in her duties, in her... wherever she goes, before all this happened. Foolish. You are NEVER safe. Even the sky above your head isn't guaranteed to stay there.

        With all that said, does she want to cry? She's already cried over the colony drop, and her shattered sense of safety. This is a shock, and she's being forced to think about the event again... but the main shock here is that Mars wasn't a random event.

        No, she doesn't really want to cry. She wants to yell. Her fists clench tightly, and she has to set her glass down for fear of it shattering in her hand.

        "I don't want to cry," she responds, at least half-convincingly. "I've cried over this too much already." She shakes her head. "It just... keeps happening! The same thing keeps happening! Over and over again! What, was Mars not enough for whoever these people are? They have to come here and... try and blow up the entire Earth?!"

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        Who are the Jovians? "They were part of a group that rebelled during the Lunar War, about a hundred years ago. When the uprising was quelled, those still rebelling fleed to Mars, though it was reported instead that they were all killed. Since there was technology of interest in Mars, they were shoved off there as well... with nuclear weapons. People outside of the conflict were nonethewiser. So... they fled to Jupiter. The Jovians were... wronged, and their existence was covered up." It does feel a little unnerving, to see words she had often said herself being spoken by someone else, someone she had just gotten to know.

        It feels a little like she's talking to herself, in some ways. "...Still."

        "... They were the ones that still decided to hurt us back. Their culture has formed around this, in fact... They feel they're taking back what's rightfully theirs, with Mars. The pilots we fought had known us. They were sad to fight us, but felt it was their duty." She sighs, and takes a drink of water. "It shows.... how easily someone hurt cane become the ones who engage in violence the next cycle, if they're not careful."

        She looks up. "You have to always be the one to break the cycle, and you have to keep choosing that direction. It's not a question of fighting or not fighting... it goes beyond that, to the reasons *why* you fight."

[OOC] Aurora Dusk says, "will probably fix that spelling error in bluray anyway"
<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        Liam nods. "There were times I didn't feel like crying," he says, "because I didn't feel anything. Like I was hollow inside." Those few late nights spent at Lucine's bedside, holding her hand, and wondering what he'd do if she never woke up. "You feel how you feel."

        And how does Liam feel right now? Scared. Worried for Aurora. Proud of Lucine. Uncomfortable with himself, but not completely. He squeezes Lucine's hand, tighter.

        "The Jovian military," and he's careful to include that, "recruited two young women and sent them here to murder everyone on Earth. In the colonies, too. What do you think would've happened to them? At minimum, Earth would be lifeless. At worst, it wouldn't exist. Then they'd die, too, as their orbits destabilized."

        Which is, in fact, a good point of evidence for why ZAFT wouldn't support it, Liam thinks.

        "I know you feel helpless. I do, too. But we can help each other. That's... why I invited you over, to see how you were doing."

<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.

         Aurora eagerly absorbs the new information, taking mental notes. Moon. Mars. Nukes. Jovians. "So that's why nobody knows about it... except a few people. I'm sure some people already knew." She's sure some of the people she works for already knew, on that count. Troubling.

        Is Lucine talking to herself? Surely, she's despaired over the endless cycle. Has she lain awake at night, brooding? Has her heart screamed for vengeance?

        "You knew them?" Aurora stares in disbelief. "...These are pilots from Jupiter, right? How did you meet them?" It's not like they'd just... walk up to Lucine on the beach or something, right?

        Liam's clarification is appreciated... and the note about orbital mechanics has its own implications. ZAFT... probably wouldn't do that. Do they have a plan to get out of it? Would it even be possible? ...Aurora doesn't know. She's inclined to trust Liam's judgement on how the actual physics shakes out; her expertise is in the physics of shooting things at distance.

        "...And those two women were... when did you meet them? Did they just... decide to come down to Earth to take a look at the people they were planning to send straight to Hell?"

        In any case, it doesn't particularly matter to Aurora how the Jovians justify themselves. In the end, it all comes down to the one principle war can be said to have anyway: 'aut vincere, aut mori'. 'Conquer, or die.' Once the gates are open, you have no choice but to fight, and no choice but to win, whatever it takes. They have their duty, and Aurora has hers.

        "Why I fight..." Easiest question she's ever been asked. "This is exactly why I fight. I'm sick of it," she almost spits. "I'm sick of living in fear of a sky that doesn't stay above my head. I'm fighting to stop exactly this. I'm not going to let them keep doing it. Colonies, asteroids, GENESIS, whatever!"

        She picks up her glass and swills it, before chugging it and planting the glass down like it's something OTHER than juice. Did she pick that up from somewhere? "I... yeah, I do.

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        Lucine's hand, back in Liam's own, squeezes back readily, as she sips from her glass. "Right, the Jovian military. .... It's... important to remember that part."

        It feels a little telling that she didn't do that herself to begin with, Lucine realizes, guiltily.

        ".... They were... proud." Lucine's chin lowers, her gaze going back to the floor. "Like it was a higher calling. I imagine.... they felt it was an honor to die for their military. To be on the fringes of the solar system, on a planet that had no surface, likely reliant on whatever technology they had, or whatever technology was there already... I imagine their identity was shaped a specific way. Like... a cult, or tiny nation. Mars would get those too, though it was easier to collaborate between colonies, rather than pretend you were all alone..." Would those colonies still be out there, surviving, or collapsing in on themselves?

        Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. "They met us -- that is, the Nadesico crew, though Liam was along too -- during a beach retreat. The rest of the crew had a lot more experience with them, as they helped each other out during a mission to far off space. Liam and I were on another mission at the time, so... I never got to know them that well..."

        Lucine falls silent as Aurora chugs that glass of juice, recognizing that fiery trait in pilots like Ryoko.

        But with Ryoko, it came with depression and guilt. Would it be the same for Aurora, Lucine wonders? ".... I wonder.... if those pilots... felt the same."

        It hurts to ask that aloud, in the many times she's yelled otherwise. "... Earth likely felt like someone they needed to strike first, before they were struck themselves. Those higher in authority would feel differently, but those.... aren't the ones on the battlefield."

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        Mars is Lucine's trauma to bear. Liam lets her explain it. The anger in him never quite goes away, but other emotions join it. He wraps his arms around her shoulder, and glances between her and Aurora. The parallel hasn't escaped him. He knows Lucine has gone through horror, rage, and helplessness, because he's been there beside her. She's told him.

        Aurora slams the glass down. Liam startles; he was already tense, but his head whips to glance at Aurora's hand, and then Aurora proper. He takes a breath, holds it to four, and lets it out. "That's why I fight, too," Liam says. "And if I run into any of those pilots ever again, I'm going to give them hell. Nothing excuses what they did. Nothing." Heat rises in his voice, but it's not the consuming wildfire it's been before. "But Lucine's right, it has to stop somewhere."

<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.

         It's not a distinction Aurora has strictly been raised with, but practically speaking, when she talks about 'Zeon' or 'ZAFT', she means the military and government. Would she treat random citizens differently? Probably. She doesn't really think about them, though.

        "Proud... like it's some kind of honor," she grits out. Her identity, too has been shaped in particular ways - by her childhood, by what she's experienced, by her training. "Wait, really? They just showed up while you were at the beach?"

        She gives Liam a guilty look when the slam makes him flinch. "Sorry. Tense." The emotions tied to the gesture are a quagmire. Stress, mainly. It's an imitation of a drinking habit, but Aurora doesn't drink.

        "Nothing," Aurora echoes. "I can't forgive them. I won't!" Echoing Liam's words, echoing the rising heat - her own heat, the fury of someone from whom everything has been taken. "Same here. I'm going to make it stop."

        "They got their first strike, and if I ever see them, they're not getting a second one. If they want to die for their cause, I have no problem giving them exactly what they're asking for." Her eyes have sharpened, and there's a determined glint in them as cold as the blue of her pupils. The desire for vengeance, to strike back when struck, is hardly a rare one in this era... and Aurora has been struck over and over again.

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        "I'll fight them too. But I won't give them their pyrrhic victory. They'll have to suffer through the mundane hell of paperwork, trials, and jailtime. No glory."

        Listening to Aurora's anger again, Lucine ponders. So this is what she sounds like, yes, but this is also Aurora's fury. Earth is Aurora's home, as well as one Lucine also considers her own.

        'I have no problem giving them exactly what they're asking for.' Liam expressed things along similar lines as well, but not completely.

        "... And more will replace them." Out comes Lucine's words, neutral, and logical, at least in her view. "... And tales of their glorious end will be brought back, or made up, if they have to. So more will be brought into the military, and sent to continue the cycle. If we treat them as they wish to treat us, we give their leaders what they want. Perhaps, even if we avoided it, they'd still claim those soldiers died in honorable combat, but..."

        That is what Lucine feels, as she looks at it from afar. From the stories her Dad told her, to her own experiences here on Earth, to her own feelings, and examining them. And, some of it, Lucine realizes, is from her complusive need to play the peacemaker, but turned towards a different direction.

        "I'll likely feel different, when I see them again, but... Liam is correct, in that this is a military. I imagine their society only has enough to serve that part alone, though... who's to say we don't have some grand city on Jupiter, just hidden from view."

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        Liam's seen that gesture, too, but not in person. He's seen it in the movies, when a character is really upset, and getting drunk. There's no alcohol in Aurora's glass. She must be copying the same movies, then, or...

        Somebody she knows? Somebody she knew?

        "You startled me," he says. She's done a bit more than that, but this is not the time to get into it, or the pit in his stomach that grows with everything Aurora says. The worst part is that she's not... wholly wrong. She has every right to be angry. Those Jovian pilots and their co-conspirators did something unforgivable. An eternity in jail is the absolute least they deserve, in his mind. "We give their leaders what they want," Liam says, seizing on another thing Lucine's said. "We don't know who they are. We don't know anything about them, and if the Federation hadn't tried to bury them, we would at least know who was really responsible."

        Liam grips Lucine's upper arm, gently but firmly. It's a silent signal--this line of conversation isn't going anywhere. They've both said what they needed to say.

<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.

         'So more will be brought into the military, and sent to continue the cycle.' Aurora's response is quick, and certain. "If they think they can keep doing this until they get what they want, with no response, they've got another thing coming."

        Aurora rubs her temples. "Yeah... We don't know a thing about who they are, other than... the brief history you managed to pick up." She huffs. It's frustrating, being kept entirely in the dark. "I hate dealing with... buried problems like this." The anger doesn't quite recede, but she's not yelling anymore. Is that progress? She's got something else to focus on. "We have to find out more. I can do some digging on my end."

<Pose Tracker> Lucine Azul has posed.

        In the end, Liam knows Lucine well, as well as many of her habits.

        One of them is, when she sets her sights on something, she doesn't let off of it until someone dissuades her otherwise.

        Case in point: Liam gripping Lucine's arm with a practiced touch-- just enough to get her attention. And Lucine, trusting Liam as she does, understands instantly.

        "It's still under wraps... if there wasn't enough hints revealed during the battle for Nergal to step in, we may not have ever known. All of it... was a secret." She looks down. "..... I can't go any further right now; by revealing what I did already, if you go looking immediately, it will likely throw some flags up. Let the matter rest a bit... then do your research, to ensure there being less of a chance of all of us being connected. The Jovians aren't going anywhere, and neither are we."

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.


        Liam flinches a little, inwardly, at Aurora's words. Of course there will be a repsonse, he thinks but does not say. That's why it's a cycle.

        "There's probably plenty of people out there who still want this under wraps," he says, instead. He reaches up, and pinches the bridge of his nose. "They're not gonna go away. Be careful, is what I'm saying. Okay?"

<Pose Tracker> Aurora Dusk has posed.

         Aurora simply nods. She's familiar with the principles of covert action. "Okay, Liam. I'll be careful." She's not TOO worried. She has her own people behind her. "I'll give it some time before conducting any investigations. But I can't keep it a secret forever. This problem has been buried for far too long... you said Nergal was covering it up?"

        She takes in a breath. "...I can't keep this from EVERYONE I know."