2022-11-27: The Chance to Know You
- Log: 2022-11-27- The Chance To Know You
- Cast: Alma Stirner, Puru Two
- Where: Londenion
- OOC - IC Date: 0096-11-26~27
- Summary: Alma Stirner reaches out to the young lady who may well be her daughter, does her best to be honest with her, and allows her to choose the next steps.
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
It's... been a few hours. Alma got back from drinks with Sayla Mass. Things were great -- complicated, but great. Then she got back to the spaceport, and...
... handed her things and informed there had been an incident. At the moment she's under no suspicion, but has been told to expect the Gwennangorn to be fully reassigned and its personnel to be likewise fully dispersed.
Alma has read the same note five times now, maybe hopeful its contents will change. They, of course, have not.
It's this that brings her to a different part of Londenion than the part in which she got drinks with Sayla Mass. She stands outside an apartment door. She's probably felt before she's seen -- her essential energy remains the same, but at the same time, her heart is sinking and that's impossible to miss.
"C-callisto?"
<Pose Tracker> Puru Two has posed.
It's been a few hours here, too. A few hours everywhere. The tyrannical march of time continues in all reaches of the Earth Sphere. In those few hours, a civilian girl has come and gone, and the apartment's sole inhabitant has returned to her torpor.
But it isn't to last. Nothing does. Even if the door buzzer did not ring, the subconscious hum of a familiar presence would rouse Puru Two from her sleep anyway. And so it does.
... ache ...
Upon reaching the waking world again, Puru Two's psyche immediately weighs heavily on the space around it. It is a thing of dread and uncertainty, a misty cloud of cold leeching warmth and love from the environs. She has not yet gotten over whatever happened at Side 3.
Hisssssss--that's the noise the apartment door makes as it slides open. Swift, instant, without warning. There stands the girl who sometimes calls herself Callisto, hands swathed in bandage tape and dark circles beneath her eyes. She looks fairly hale otherwise.
"Sorry, I was asleep. I'm here." a pause. Her eyes focus, but only a little. She might be on painkillers, because her pupils are not quite normal. "... you look... fearful...?"
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
Taking a deep breath, Alma stabilizes herself when she sees Puru Two. "I was hoping I could catch up with you... I was thinking of doing it tonight or tomorrow, but I just got some kind of bad news. Though you look pretty tired..." Is this the right thing to do, she wonders -- share what she knows, share why she knows it, share her own pain? Which parts of this are the right thing to do...?
She takes a couple steps into the apartment, and decides -- for the moment -- that centering Puru has to come first. "Are you okay? I, um... so, there's something I want to say about -- why I acted the way that I did, at Side 3. I'm a little nervous! But you get to decide what it means."
Fluffing out her long hair, she says, directly: "I think... I might be your -- ahaha, this is weird, right? Like -- I feel like 'genetic donor' is too sterile, but I've never been in your life... so 'mom' doesn't feel right... yet. Though -- if you wanted to -- if you wanted me to be! I'd be honored! And --"
Another steadying breath. "What I'm saying is -- Leina helped me put some things together, about... who you are, and my own history. And I want you to know I'm here for you, before anything else."
<Pose Tracker> Puru Two has posed.
The girl in the doorway is looking at Alma with a perfect hundred-yard stare to begin with, but the trauma that leeches out of her into the plane where emotions and feelings are palpable is -measured-. This is not someone suffering a total loss of control right now. She focuses, as it's the only way to keep up with Alma's rapidfire train of thought.
"Come in at least," Callisto?waves her fellow redhead inside, moving aside to clear the path. "It hurts to be on my feet for too long."
So, inside. It's a fine enough apartment, but the soul inhabiting it is a bit empty. There's a token potted plant, whatever furniture came with the issue to the military, and little else. "Side 3...?" she echoes, following Alma's logic. "Sure? You didn't do anything wrong. Nobody did, but that freak in the mask."
On another layer, eyes flare open in the darkness. Hate smoulders. Like coals with a fresh breath of air.
Callisto? is listening while pouring a glass of water. Make it two. Deja vu, she thinks. "You think you might be...?" she audibly follows along, but only so far, before her voice falters and falls away.
Cobalt eyes squint. "... you're... saying..."
Puru Two turns to face Alma, confusion and wonder cleaving through the fog of her pain. "You're telling me they... made me from..." her head cants to one side, as if the connection is too absurd to believe. "... you?"
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
Finishing her shuffle inward, Alma gets situated on a couch. "Yeah, but there was -- the way I freaked out a little over you was kind of... weird, if you don't know what I know," she says, nodding to the redhead in front of her. Her own green eyes turn off to one side for just a second --
-- and then Puru Two looks at her with new clarity. "I couldn't really believe it either, but... for Leina it was a hunch, and then we started talking, and the timeline turns out to be about right... they would have been starting those experiments during my first clinical exams, before everything officially turned into Flanagan."
If the second glass of water is on offer, now's a great time to accept it, she decides. "It's -- a lot. And I mean, it's big and it's complicated! But what I want to say is... it's up to you. There's no one right way to be family -- and we don't have to at all! But... we could. I know we've only met a few times, but... I did feel a connection."
Getting situated, she affirms: "There's -- something else, too. But we can take as much time to get through this part as you need, since... that one's just about me, and not about you, unless you want it to be."
<Pose Tracker> Puru Two has posed.
C?l?i?to is a keen listener, a hand straying her forehead as she knits leaps in logic together and tries to remain rational. Alma explains that Leina is the one who led this hunch, first. "Then that would mean..." her brow knits. Does she have the right of it? "Flanagan scientists... used you, and maybe... someone else, to make my sister. And then the rest of us were made when that succeeded..."
Ice fills the veins of P?llis?u's hand from the sheer surprise of it.
A lifetime's search, a question hanging unanswered... suddenly, completed.
Answered.
Filed away.
"Sorry, I'm just... I'm... this is a lot." Alma gets her glass of water, and the younger girl drains hers in a single go. An ugly, desperate, thirsty motion. When she opens her eyes, they are unmistakenly wet. "But it's not... bad. How could you think I'd want to part ways after learning that?"
Whatever her name and identity, she isn't afraid to face Alma with this newfound knowledge and, it seems, accept it. "I want to know more. I want to know you better, it's... only fair. It's only right. I just want to."
Cold sweat on the back of her neck. It's simply a lot. "Wait--what's the other part you want to tell me? Is something wrong?"
It takes more than a little disassociation to defeat Callisturu Two, anyway.
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
Alma is a little more measured; she may well not be the source of everything that exists in Puru Two. "I'm pretty sure there's another donor, but... I dunno who it'd be," comes her follow-up concession, scratching her cheek a little. "If that's a thread you wanna pull, I'll help pull it! I don't even know where we'd start, but..."
Another measured sip. "Well -- I guess we'll start at... I was in the Principality of Zeon's Earth Attack forces... then there was a long stretch where I was kinda listless, when I was about your age. I was having a really hard time for a while -- they purged our records and I couldn't really handle the atmosphere at the VFW... there were a lot of really bitter people, and it's -- easy for me to end up in someone else's energy if I feel like I'm alone. Then I got involved with the AEUG for a few years, and then Londo Bell... and now I'm here." Tearing up a little bit, she says, "I have almost two decades' worth of stories to tell you... we're -- really behind, ahaha."
Puru prompts her on the other part. "So -- first, how do you want me to address you...? Anything's fine." Keep her in the driver's seat. "The other thing is... I was hoping I could introduce you to my partner -- Lilith. So you could meet a family, and decide if you wanted to be part of it." Now she's got tears streaming down her face. (She still thinks of Lilith that way -- as her partner.) "But it sounds like she tried to attack Captain Dispersal at her wedding... and it might be because she's scared for me." One last time: "It's okay if that's already too much. But -- she's important to me, and I only just found out, and -- I wanted you to know why she isn't here."
<Pose Tracker> Puru Two has posed.
Who else was involved?
Who else would Flangan have had their mitts on?
Puru Two closes her eyes for a moment, fingers pinching the bridge of her nose. There's a time for this train of thought, there's a time for this line of enquiry, and it isn't now. This woman has clearly swallowed a mountain of anxiety to give you this information, now focus.
She bundles up all of that uncertainty, all of that fear, and shoves it behind steel. Stay there until you're needed.
Now take a breath. Be centred -- this woman deserves it.
"Well," the younger one begins. "we'll have time to figure out the best stories to start from. And go from there. You can just tell me who you are, what you want out of life..." a quick shrug, the pleasant kind. A conversational pause, little more. "Family things, right? I'm... I've found one family already, growing it by one or two people isn't that hard."
Her talking-softly voice is quite nice, really! It just doesn't see much use. This girl briefly dabs at Alma's cheek with the back of her sleeve as she takes a seat next to her. "Honestly? I'm having an identity freakout lately. It's not your fault." she notes with a huff and a wry smile. Yes, just getting it out there helps. Catharsis. "So I'm Puru Two. That's my real name, my real me. Callisto... it's just a fake ID. It was kind of a dream, too. New name, new life, but... if I threw it all away, we wouldn't be meeting like this and talking." she gauges Alma's reaction, first.
"But it's a mouthful to pronounce, so you can call me Callisto, Callie, Puru, 'Two'... whatever you want."
She's very gentle. Moreso once Alma mentions Lilith, and the prospect of growing this family. It's heartrending in its sincerity. "I..." Puru Two begins.
Alma mentions a name:
Dispersal
Crimson eyes flare open in the blackness of the void again.
kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill
Puru Two regains her senses as she hears Alma speak the words: '--why she isn't here.'
Puru two says, placidly, "Dispersal? ... I see."
<Pose Tracker> Alma Stirner has posed.
Alma's not usually... well, okay, yeah, she kind of is. The big heart ruminates a bit, even if it doesn't get-and-stay down in the dumps about it. "Ahaha... you really are just as amazing as I thought," she says, lips curling up in a big smile. Even if her gut is telling her Puru Two is holding something back here -- well, Alma herself was too, right?
When Callisturu admits she's having an identity freakout lately... well, Alma wasn't exactly in a better place at, what, 18? 19? She's not gonna fault her for that in the least. Taking another sip, she says, "That's fine. Right now, Puru is fine," she says. She doesn't want her to feel 'unreal,' and she doesn't want her to feel like a number, so..." Alma looks absolutely happy, for just this moment, whatever else is boiling in the back of her brain. Even with the tears streaming down her face. "... Puru. I'm happy to have the chance to know you."
The anger at Yuliana's name bleeds into her, a bit -- no, more than a bit. It's a bit of a nauseating feeling, but... it affirms her resolve. She has to confront Yuliana. Making Yuliana happy doesn't have to mean enabling every horrible thing she does, swallowing every cruelty.
Alma blinks. "... You know her, too, then...?"
<Pose Tracker> Puru Two has posed.
"That's fine. Right now, Puru is fine,"
The crimson eyes in the black of space do not waver, they simply narrow. Focused.
"... Puru. I'm happy to have the chance to know you."
They do not fade, they gain in intensity.
Puru Two inwardly grapples with her sense of self and her emotions. There is joy in this meeting, and the unreserved acceptance in Alma's heart is a balm onto this young firebrand's own. And yet.
And yet.
Puru Two gently squeezes Alma's shoulders. Her self-control is evident, as a poisonous fury roils from her skull at the thought of Yuliana Dispersal. At every turn, at every tragedy visiting the tight-knight family of the Ra Mari... there she is. Devil woman. Terrorist. Coward, hiding behind the laurels of her rank and station.
"I know her." Puru Two confirms in a neutral voice. "I do."
"She's very dangerous. Please stay away from her." Puru Two asks this of Alma in a near-monotone. From rapturous joy to blinding anger, she is lost amidst the currents of emotion this day. Flung from peak to trough.
"Because if she hurts you as well..."
The thought goes unfinished, but does it truly need to be said?
In the blackness of the space where emotions are given form, the crimson eyes squint shut. Puru Two forces the hatred off at the tap. Not because she doesn't want to hate, no, but because she knows.
She must save it. Until she really needs it.
"Okay... mom?"