2022-07-28: Drowning in Memory (Redux)

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<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.

"This way." Banagher says, gently. He didn't want to frighten the little girl, sassy as she was. Deep in his heart, he had a sense of something... off. Something wrong, with this whole situation. Leading Puru Ten to Marida had to be the right decision, they were a family, they belonged together. But, all the same... He looks back at the eleven year old hopefully following him. Maybe he should've talked to Leina first.

He doesn't say much as they pass through the hallways of the Garencieres. It's a fairly short trip to Marida's quarters, thankfully. Haro, still in Banagher's arms, recognizes the door. "Marida! Marida!" He calls, waving his winglets. Banagher raises a hand, knocking politely. "Miss Marida? I have someone who'd like to meet you. Can we come in?" 


<Pose Tracker> Puru Ten has posed.


        Full of ice cream and also food, Puru Ten follows along after Banagher Links, her 'new friend'. She hopes he'll be a friend anyway. She's extremely wary and jumpy, even with Banagher's Shounen Protagonist aura of friendship making. You know, like Goku. Why she is so resistant to forming connections is unclear, but she keeps coming right up to the border of becoming emotionally invested only to skittishly dance back from it. Then she has to start the acclimation process all over again. Something bad must have happened to her to make her so afraid.
        Her head isn't pondering either her stomach or her feelings. Instead, she is trying to understand her current circumstances. She didn't wind up asking a lot of questions, too busy stuffing her face and jealously guarding her food like a street dog used to having to fight for its scraps. But she did ask a few. 'Where are you from?' 'Do you have any family?' 'Have you ever been to Earth before?' 'What's with the Feddie toy?' 'You're not with the Feddies are you?' 'Hey, wanna' see my Mobile Suit later? It's pretty awesome!' 'Wait, you're not some kind of spy, are you? You better not mess with my Qubeley!'
        It was an eventful but largely uninformative discussion. Perhaps deliberately. Because now all she can dwell on is the questions she was afraid to ask, because she was even more afraid of the answers. That woman in the picture looked so much like one of Puru's sisters, but... She couldn't be. Maybe there was a mutation? Or one of the others who was still undergoing accelerated growth while the eleven of them went out to fight? Or maybe it's all a big lie!?
        She spends more time tormenting herself than paying attention to where she's going, right up until Banagher starts yelling, 'Marida! Marida!' and Puru's head snaps up, looking around wildly.
        She's not ready! 

<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.

        Inside Marida's quarters, still in her light-blue medical scrubs, a certain Cyber Newtype is performing push-ups one-handed. Upside-down. With her broken hand. Don't worry, it's all tightly bound with a cast and everything so it only hurts a lot, it's all good. She pauses when she hears her name being called by a robot in the hallway, followed by Banagher's identical* but non-robotic voice (*not actually identical). Putting her other hand on the floor to take some of the weight, even in this low gravity, Marida bunches up her body and then just 'falls' into a sit.

        She looks calmly at the door. But inside, her stomach feels full of butterflies. Where is this anxiety coming from? Is it that presence from before, like sour milk? No, it's something more familiar... "Yes." she replies succinctly, eyes narrowing slightly as she watches the door to see who comes through. 


<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.

Banagher, of course, answered every question Puru Ten placed to him. "I was born on Side 1, but I went to school on Side 7. My family died. I've been to Earth once, for a cherry blossom festival. This is Haro! He's a model of Amuro Ray's pet! (this is said with considerable pride) I'm not with the Federation. I'm just trying to learn about everyone's point of view. I'd like to see your Mobile Suit, I won't mess with it. You can see mine, too, if you want. It's called the Unicorn."

Keeping up with children is tiring! Especially one that seems hellbent on filling the silence by saying everything that came to her mind. He can sense the anxiety from the little girl, and gives her a smile. "Here, come on in. Marida's a great person."

Entering the room, Banagher takes a seat on Marida's bed. "Were you working out again? You've got to let yourself heal!" Haro is placed gently in his lap, and Banagher looks expectantly at the door, waiting for the moment the two women lock eyes. 


  <Pose Tracker> Puru Ten has posed.


        Ba-dump. Ba-dump. Ba-dump.

        Puru Ten's heart is thudding rapidly as she hesitantly crosses the threshold, still about fifty percent expecting some sort of trick or trap and fifty percent hoping desperately that everything Banagher said was true. When she looks at Marida, Puru stops breathing. A sense of unreality washes over her. She knows now for sure. She knows. That's one of her sisters. Finally, after a year apart.
        A year? No way. No way, no way, no way. Puru is trying to hyperventilate but she can't breathe. She's trying to scream, to laugh, to cry, but her body isn't cooperating. One gloved hand clutches at her throat as thin, whistling breaths manage to make it through her constricted airway only rarely, and are drowned out by her breathless choking.
        <<Why is this happening to me!? Why is she like that? Why am I like this? Why did he bring us together? What kind of nightmare is this!?>>
        The escalating anxiety only makes it worse as Puru Ten begins to stagger around the room, hands wrapped around her own throat, like she's trying to strangle herself. Gagging and eventually falling to her knees on the floor. 

<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.


        "I need to be prepared to pilot in case we are short-handed." Marida says distractedly, her attention riveted on the girl who appears in the doorway.

        *THUD THUD THUD* Marida's heart goes, anxiety filling her just as it fills the mirror image of Marida when she was the same age. But it's not quite as intense, because she knew that Two had survived, and there was the additional potential family connection of Alma Stirner. So she is excited, because this is the first actual face-to-face reunion with one of her sisters in years. But the anxiety pouring into her is coming from Puru Ten, which stresses out Marida, which turns into a feedback loop.

        So instead of replying to Banagher's finger-wagging admonishment, she jumps up and rushes over to Puru Ten, grabbing her by the shoulders. "It's okay. Calm down. Focus on relaxing and breathing. Relax." The surreal nature of this reunion is not lost on Marida, but helping her sister comes before anything else. "Calm... Calm... Breathe. Calm... Calm... Breathe." she repeats over and over, trying to get Ten to focus on Marida's measured voice.

        A flash of memory percolates up through Marida's mind. This is very familiar. This has... Happened before.

        But last time, it was Two who was playing the role of rescuer, and Marida went running off to find one of their handlers. What happened back then? How did Two save Ten then? 


<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.

His hopes for a happy reuinion dwindling, Banagher slowly frowns as he picks up on the anxiety from the two redheads. "Is something wr--"

The little girl staggers around, choking herself. Banagher jumps to his feet, sending Haro flying off in the zero-gravity. "Puru Ten!" He hurries over, anxiously hovering just behind Marida. What was he supposed to do in this situation? Banagher glances at the emergency phone next to the door. Did they need a doctor? Should he call the Captain?

Marida's voice is steady as she tends to her sister. Though he floats over next to the emergency call button, Bangher doesn't press it yet -- waiting to see if Marida's actions would help the little girl. 


<Pose Tracker> Puru Ten has posed.


        Puru is shaking her head at first, scared to follow Marida's directions, scared not to follow them, scared of the same memory that is coming back to the surface, scared of a traumatic event that happened very much more recently for her than for Twelve given the time discrepency. The memory of choking on nutrient paste, her body too exhausted from physical training, enhancement drugs, forced Newtype awakening, frequent surgery, and a host of other horrors to deal with something as simple as a semi-solid in her throat. The memories of gagging, choking, feeling the world retreating from her just as her vision was narrowing to a pinpoint, hearing the crying of her sisters around her and of Two trying to keep her with them despite the fatigue that made her want to just give up and die.
        The hand covering her eyes. The fist pushing up under her rib cage... 

<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.


        The memory that comes back to Ten helps Twelve administer treatment. She puts her hand over Ten's closed eyes, one less sense to be overwhelmed by, helping the younger clone to lie back on Marida's lap. Then she uses her knowledge of the body that allows her to perform such feats as knocking people out and then awakening them to place her other hand on Ten's back, using her fingers to stimulate the respiratory response by rubbing the ribs. Then she leans down and puts her forehead against her sister's, closing her own eyes, and just Sending to Ten.

        <<It's okay. It's all going to be okay. You're safe here. Just relax and focus on me. Nothing else. We'll get through this together, okay?>> 


<Pose Tracker> Puru Ten has posed.


        Slowly, gradually, the gagging and choking ceases, replaced with wheezing gasps, coughs, and eventually stable breathing, even if a bit shakey. Puru Ten isn't going to cry again like she did then. Puru Ten doesn't want to cry in front of some boy she barely knows. Puru Ten starts to cry as everything hits her all at once.
        She'll still have questions to ask, but for right now, a bond she hasn't been able to feel in far too long has been reestablished, and with it, a piece of herself afraid of forming new bonds starts to grow braver.
        But for now, she just clings to Twelve and cries like the older Cyber Newtype is her big sister, instead of the reverse.

<Pose Tracker> Marida Cruz has posed.


        Marida strokes Ten's hair while she supports her older sister, their apparent ages seemingly reversed to an outsider's perspective, even if they were always identical to begin with. Raising her head, Marida asks Banagher softly, "Can you please get the Captain, Banagher?" It's not in her tone of voice, and not in her expression, but in those flat, always-blank violet eyes there is another message she is passing along as well.

        <<Thank you.>> 


<Pose Tracker> Banagher Links has posed.

"I... don't want to interrupt," Banagher says, quietly. He steps toward the sisters, kneeling on the ground next to them. "But you have another sister waiting out there, too. She's on Earth, with my f--girl-- uh. My friend Leina. Her name is Callipso, and she desperately wants to meet both of you."

To Marida's request, Bangher nods softly. "Of course. I'll be right back." He reaches out softly, placing a hand on Marida's shoulder for just a moment. The warmth between the two of them, in that moment, was enough to make Banagher's heart sing in his chest. With one final smile, he stands and hurries from the room.

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