2023-02-12: New Sides
- Log: 2023-02-12: New Sides
- Cast: Milly Ashford, Emilia Eschonbach
- Where: An Island in the Pacific Ocean
- OOC - IC Date: 11 Feb 0097
- Summary: Having turned back from Sheryl's hike early, Milly and Emilia rest up and talk. They each see a new side of each other.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
Milly mostly doesn't feel bad about interrupting the hike; it was a spur of the moment Sheryl Nome urge rather than a planned part of the excursion, after all, and they explicitly told her not to push herself. And they did their best to accommodate her. Sometimes, you just can't do it, especially given the circumstances.
Heading back to the resort hotel is a decent compromise. She's gotten to her room for food, water, painkillers, and a lie-down; best to knock out all the potential culprits at once. (Her pain's actually pretty low, but she can't be certain her own sense of how bad it is isn't wrong.)
"Thanks for this!" she says, and there is some genuine enthusiasm there. "It's not that I wasn't having a good time, but my doctor did tell me not to push it... nanotherapy's still fairly new. I'm not sure how good I feel about it, but my mother did insist, and the doctors say it is working..."
Rubbing at her head as she lies there, she murmurs, "Gorgeous views out here."
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
While Emilia would have liked to make it all the way there, she would much rather come back early than have Milly hurt herself. Either option is spending time together, and a resort is a nice place to spend it.
"Y-you're w-welcome," Emmy responds, as she settles herself next to Milly. "...I th-think this m-might be. A t-t-time I agree with her." She sighs. "I know it's s-selfish b-but... I w-want you to have the b-best. Recovery ch-chance."
Emmy's mind wanders back to what Ranka asked her about just before Milly took a turn. Two-timing on Tessa? What does she mean? Gently, Emmy leans her head on Milly's shoulder. "Th-there are." She takes a few moments. "D-do you want a-anything?" She asks. She's not so settled that she can't get something- but it'd be nice to just sit like this for a while.
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
Scooting up the bed a little bit, Milly tries to get up to a sitting position again -- then has to switch which side she's rolling over toward as she gets up. One of her eyes screws shut, though she does reflect, "... well, at least it's at the point where I could get away with that if I had to. I just wish I didn't feel this dazed."
With an enthused giggle as she hears Emmy thinks wanting Milly to recover is selfish, Milly says, "I do too. I take a lot of pride in my talents, you know! Heavy metal poisoning isn't something to mess with..."
The question of whether she wants something takes her a second. "Hmm -- we have... no, I drank that -- wait, is there still grape juice in the room fridge? I could go for that." Now more fully situated, she asks, "How are things going in Student Council? I hate skipping meetings, but there's no other appointment times for some of these."
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
"I u-understand b-b-but..." Emmy puts on her firm voice. "Y-you're not g-g-going to get better if y-you d-don't r-rest when you're d-dazed." She grabs one of the extra pillows, and moves to help Milly position it for comfort.
Milly giggles, and Emmy smiles for a second before the comment of heavy metal poisoning. She tries to look away and hide the anger on her face. Those Britannian bastards...
A request for juice pulls her out of it. "Y-yeah, I th-think so. Did y-you want one g-glass or should I bring the whole th-thing over?" She slips off the bed, and walks to the minifridge.
"I-I'd be... l-lying if I s-s-said th-things were. C-completely n-normal. E-everyone s-seems to b-be okay. With m-me being acting p-president but..." She sighs. "Ev-every so often... We're g-getting requests th-that seem. Shady." She starts walking back with grape juice and a glass of water. "I th-think Lelouch c-caught some of them, m-maybe? O-o-out of character, I kn-know." Emmy starts to reposition herself. "I-it's not the s-same w-without you th-there. I think e-everyone's h-hoping you'll recover q-q-quickly." She places the drinks on a sidetable before getting back on to the bed, and handing Milly her juice. "E-either that or w-worried I m-might make them work regularly." A smile creeps back on to her lips. "A-a-and I am s-s-sure R-Rivalz would lose a b-bet if he had to d-do a real d-days work before g-graduating."
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
"... Realistically, I'm going to drink the whole jug," Milly admits, with a smile. "Bring it over." Once she has it in hand, she starts drinking; normally she'd have asked for a glass, but... part of being with someone you love is being able to be a little messy, especially when you're not tracking especially well.
"They say I should be fine in time for exams. They don't change much from year to year, so I'm feeling confident," Milly adds, hoping to assuage Emmy's worries about her getting better.
Shady requests, though... "It'll be good for you," she enthuses, "to get used to losing paperwork efficiently. Still... I'd hoped to end my career as class prez on a bang and not a whimper. Maybe I should..."
She sighs. "No, I think my moratorium ended in that PLANT. ... I'm finding it hard not to be angry. I know groups like the Black Knights and that former Federation battle group are kind of extreme, but it's hard to feel like things are on the right path..."
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Honestly it's kind of sweet to see Milly Ashford drinking juice from the pitcher. Maybe Emmy watching her do so with a dumb little smile on her face might hurt the image but... These are sides to Milly she never got to see until now. She's going to enjoy them.
"W-well, i-it's easier to p-pass than f-fail how you did." Emmy tries to show confidence, but... Honestly, she's still worried about more bad news. She sips her water as Milly talks about ending her career on a bang, than a whimper. "M-maybe y-you still c-can. If I'm m-managing the d-day to day instead of you. M-maybe you can f-focus on s-something... 'd-definitively M-milly'."
Emmy falls quiet for a bit as she talks about the moratorium ending. "M-maybe you sh-should be a-angry." There's a fire in her, now. "Th-they *shot* you b-b-because... because you were a-at a hospital th-they wanted! They f-f-fired nukes at the P-PLANTS! They d-destroyed one!" She's looking Milly in the eyes now. "A-a-and if you l-listen to people in Area 11... s-s-some of them feel organizations like the B-Black Knights are the only d-d-defense they've g-got against the Kn-Knightpolice!"
tEven as an outsider, Emmy sees things and hears things in the 'bad' part of town. "I-I'm angry! I'm s-s-so angry!" She catches her voice rising, and stops, taking a breath or two before continuing, more quietly. "...Professor M-Martel h-has been t-teaching m-me about the O-One Year War. A-a-and... th-there's s-so much we d-don't get taught. Th-th-the spacenoids h-had legitimate g-g-grievances. Even i-if... Even i-if my grandfather coopted th-them for his own purposes." The way she says that word, she isn't talking about Joseph.
She slowly starts to calm down. "...the Fe-Federation and B-Britannia... they c-can't keep going as th-they are. Th-they c-can't."
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
"... Maybe you're right. You've got a real eye for the day-to-day operations," Milly agrees, "so I can do something special on my way out." That thought seems to make things much easier on her.
The topic turns, though. The anger in Emmy's eyes... that's something Milly hasn't seen before. In a way, this is the same sort of 'new side' to Emmy that 'fuck it, I'm going to pound this whole jug of grape juice' is for Emmy to see in turn; she can't say she finds it offputting.
"It sounds like I need to be doing a little more studying," Milly concedes. "But... you're right. Everything going on right now is just -- upsetting... if people feel they need to be protected from their protectors, something is wrong." She shouldn't dwell on this while she's literally having lead pulled back out of her brain by short-run nanomachines.
She does anyway. "The Ashford family does owe its good fortunes to this whole system, though..." Milly murmurs, after a little thought. (That it's also lost them by it doesn't occur to her at the moment.) "I wish there was something I could do to change things. As is, I just... feel like Britannia can't change course."
Something clicks. "... so I guess it'll go extinct, but that'll hurt so many people -- people who are already pretty desperate." ... It's heavy, and right now, Milly can't lift more than ten pounds.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
Emmy smiles. "B-besides, i-if I can't find a v-v-vice president w-without a g-good head for budget incentives and sp-spontaneous action, r-r-rumours of your last h-hurrah had better haunt the sch-school for decades." It's a light good hearted jab. Or encouragement.
Protection from their protectors... Milly... really needs to see Area 11 from different angles. But she feels bad for unleashing that anger while Milly's already sick and dazed. "M-Maybe once y-y-you're recovered, I c-can see if my b-boss will let you w-work a shift." She doesn't specify where, but mentioning the cafe seems like a red rag right now.
But Milly raises a good point, and Emmy stops. If it can't change, it will go extinct. But so might people dependent on it. "...then... M-maybe f-focusing on changing things... isn't wh-where you sh-should look. Then." She closes her eyes. "M-maybe... Maybe they n-need someone l-looking out f-f-for the people who are going to f-f-fall... and get a n-n-net out to. Catch. Them."
This turn Emmy's gaze both inward and outward. She never looked for any way to interact with Britannia other than destruction. But... Zero must have? On the other hand, he didn't make any appearances during Tsutsujidai. Maybe he isn't planning that far ahead...
Emmy looks a little defeated herself for a minute. "M-maybe... Maybe that's too b-b-big a problem right now."
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
"That's a good point," Milly concedes. "Maybe Kusanagi? I know he doesn't seem the type, but he does seem like the kind of person who performs under pressure. With the right kind of stimulation he might impress you!"
The rest of it, though. ... the rest of it, though. "That's not a bad thought. If you can't stop something from coming down and you can't evacuate, then catching them's about all you've got." A smile crosses her face and she admits, "You're always sharper than I'm expecting, and that's saying a lot. I definitely feel like the Student Council's in good hands."
... she's honestly too tired to fixate on all the horrible things that could exist. She drains the rest of her grape juice, leaning over to put it on the bedside table --
-- and bends just wrong at her surgical site, and ends up dropping it. At least it's just empty. And plastic.
"... Sorry, can I ask you to get that? I think I'm about out of bending for the next few hours," she asks. ... she's only a little embarrassed.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
That gets a baffled look, and Emmy just stares. "Do y-y-you mean G-Grabbyhands Kenji?!" She shakes her head a bit. "V-Valerie is s-s-still mad that sh-she c-can't recruit Miss T-Tamashiro because of h-him..." She shakes her head. "H-Honestly are all the M-Motorcycle Club either l-l-lazy or perverts?"
Still... he can't be a worse worker than Rivalz.
The comment that she's sharper than Milly expects... does elicit a smile, one of those small shy ones. "I st-still k-kind of hope th-that one day... I st-stop surprising you." She slips off the bed to walk around and get the jug with a nod. "N-no problem." She slips it back in the fridge, for now. "D-d-do you want me to g-get some more when I h-head down next?" If it's wanted urgently, well, there's room service. Otherwise, Emmy's got other plans. "S-s-so... It s-s-sounds like it's r-r-recharge time. D-d-do you w-want to c-curl up and w-watch a movie or s-s-something?" She gets back on to the bed, sliding next to Milly into a position where she can cuddle without moving. It's a little awkward, but Emmy can bear awkward. "R-r-right now, we've got th-the f-future to ourselves."
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
"I do!" Milly says. "Trust me. I already enforce, so I have a VP who's fun to be around, easygoing, and approachable. People are going to think they can walk all over you, so you need a VP who's going to throw them out a window!"
She says it like it's that simple.
Does she want more grape juice... "... Yes, that'd be great," she agrees. "On both counts!" Milly scoots a touch too -- she can move, if at strain -- and gets comfortable with Emmy. "I'm thinking... hm... period drama, maybe?"
As she settles in, she notes, "I think we're always going to surprise each other now and then. But if we didn't, that'd mean we were just spinning our wheels. Iron rusts from disuse!" A hand comes up to wind lazily in Emilia's hair, as Milly lets out a contented sigh.
<Pose Tracker> Emilia Eschonbach has posed.
And then it clicks. "I... s-s-see... And th-then I can keep on" Someone who will through you out the window. "Th-that's why President Hayashimazu has Kaname..."
Emmy, no.
Emmy reaches for the remote, wrapping an arm around Milly and putting her head against Milly's shoulder."O-okay!" She starts scrolling through the films on offer. Do You Remember Love, Artesia, Jeeg: The Hero of Steel, An Earthnoid In Munzo, The Lovers of the Third Princess... A mix of classics and new films. "Are y-you up t-to picking? I d-d-don't know any of these.
Emmy smiles, and blushes as Milly plays with her hair. "...Maybe, but I think it'd b-b-be nice. If we r-r-rusted together wh-when we were old."
<Pose Tracker> Milly Ashford has posed.
"... You're already this sentimental? Sounds like I'm going to have to push myself to keep up."
With a content smile, she says, "I've never actually seen Do You Remember Love. Let's try something new together." A beat. "... new to me, at least."
She falls asleep halfway through the film, but she's satisfied with that.