2023-03-10: We Can Do Better
- Log: We Can Do Better
- Cast: Naoko Suzuki, Rena Lancaster
- Where: Hangar Bay, Ra Mari II
- OOC - IC Date: 0097-03-10
- Summary: Nova and Rena learn a few things about what makes the other tick, and arrange their first official collaborative project!
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
While elsewhere in the world the Big Prom for highschoolers is getting underway, one person of highschool age is instead hanging out in the hangar bay of the Ra Mari II. Which shouldn't be a big surprise - the girl who calls herself Nova Stellar has barely left the ship ever since arriving there. She hasn't even made use of the provisional pilot status she received during the GENESIS crisis since then. Not that, as a guest rather than crew, she has any official duties that require her to do any of that. The captain's made it clear that she doesn't actually need to do anything. But what self-respecting Miracle Worker would just sit in her quarters all day? There are other things she can help with, which is exactly why she's here!
As such, it's been the Ra Mari II's engineering crew who have mainly had to put up with Nova's antics as of late. Though undeniably skilled in engineering tasks, her help can be... a bit much sometimes. Seemingly incapable of just keeping it simple, she's had to be talked out of so many convoluted, impractical and/or experimental ideas. Repair work is boring after all, how could she not want to make some improvements while she's at it? Things are starting to settle into a bit of an understanding at least, there are already far less problems with having to stop her from messing with machines in active service, letting her use spare parts instead when she feels the need to tinker.
But, again - not actually part of the crew, so her coming and going can't exactly be predicted, nor what she's planning to do when she's around. Sometimes she's not there to do much of anything except gawk at the machines that happen to be present at the time. This happens to be the case right now, as Naoko - sorry, Nova - is standing before the Gaia Gear Alpha, looking up at it with no small measure of elation. Those cargo shorts with tools clanking around in its roomy pockets make her look at least a little bit the part of an engineer, but that T-shirt sure doesn't. It's a purple shirt with a very ominous-looking giant black Haro on it, large lettering identifying it as PSYCO HARO. ...Nothing to worry about, probably.
See, all she does when she steps closer to the Gaia Gear is gently touch its foot with her hand. And then she starts petting it. Perfectly normal.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
Rena does wonder, a little, why Naoko didn't go to prom. She remembers her own -- though that was three years ago, now, and hearing about a prom has a way of making her feel old. She is a little surprised that Naoko has adapted so well, all told. It's been quite the few weeks.
She heard, though, that the new girl was looking at the Gaia Gear Alpha. So she came along.
The white Mobile Suit is in its docking bay; it's in Mobile Suit mode, with its notable head-fin, stark white coloring, and an imposing look. It is disabled, but there is the slight pressure that one can feel from psychoframe material.
Rena Lancaster is wearing her uniform. She slows to a stop, as she walks along, and she watches -- head tilted, blue-and-red hair bobbing -- as Naoko touches the foot.
Then she smiles, and calls out: "It's something else, isn't it?"
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
"Geh!"
Naoko literally jumps at the sudden voice from behind her, yanking her back from whatever far-off place she was at mentally. Whirling about, her spooked expression quickly makes way for a bright smile. "Oh, hey, Rena, good timing!" First name basis is fine, right? She generally thinks that's fine, for anybody she knows the first name of. She always insists that people just call her Nova too, so that makes it fair.
Waving the uniformed pilot over, she's quick to get right down to business. "It's something else alright - I've been wanting to get a better look at it! See what makes it tick, you know?" Turning back towards the Gaia Gear, stars form in her eyes as she looks up at it again, hands folded together. "Just look at that design - not too bulky, not too slim, just right. Ultra-compact Minovsky reactors, so many movable parts... and the Psychoframe, of course! Ahhh, I want to take it apart~"
She's quick to turn her head back to Rena, smiling innocently. "...Ahahaha, just kidding!" The smile and the look she gives Rena afterwards are subtly different, implying an 'Unless...?'
Regardless of how that may have come across, she seems to consider it fine to go on and ask, "Say, think you could show me the cockpit? The people who work here are no fun, they won't unlock any of the cockpits for me without the pilot's approval." She gives a pouty look, even though she really has no business judging anyone else for that, considering she also keeps the Sukeban's cockpit securely locked at all times.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"I heard you were down here, Nova," Rena says, with a smile. She had been meaning to talk to Nova for some time, now. As Nova was a pilot and Rena was the flight commander -- well, it made this her responsibility. She scratches at the back of her head.
She doesn't insist on rank, though.
"I don't blame you," she says. "Though... I'd rather you not take it apart. I might have to sortie, you know?"
She looks up, for a moment, then she nods. "Yeah. We can see the cockpit. Do you have a lot of experience with Mobile Suits?" she asks, as she starts up the stairs to the hatch-level catwalk. "You certainly know how to fly..."
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Nova isn't shy to let out a "Yessss," with an accompanying fistpump. It's plain to see how into machines she is, whether it's working on them or studying them. "Sure sure, I promise I won't break anything!" No promises about not touching anything. Important distinction.
Following Rena up, she considers her answer for a moment, moving her head side to side and going 'hmmm', before finally shrugging. "There's a lot I know about them, but if you say 'experience', then I guess I'd have to say no. Especially if you mean if I've ever flown one, sure haven't done that. Only piloting I've ever done is my own Sukeban."
She's silent for a moment, inwardly debating whether she should say what she was thinking about saying, deciding to continue after a moment, in a softer voice. "...You may not believe this, but that time I followed you out, and we fought that Gundam? That was the first time I've actually fought anything. And the first time I've flown in space. So I'm not... actually very used to any of that. I just kind of... improvise." Suddenly switching to a more confident tone, she adds, "Well, I am a Miracle Worker, after all. You should expect these sorts of things."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"It is one-of-a-kind, you know," Rena says, with a smile. She stops as she comes to the hatch, and opens it up -- and the interior isn't all that different than another state of the art Mobile Suit. A three-dimensional display around the cockpit; a fairly involved heads-up display, and a chair floating on an arm in the center of that.
The display is meant to move and fold, ever so slightly. It adjusts for the transformation sequence. Rena looks down at it for a moment.
Then, she looks back at Naoko. Her brown eyes widen, a little, with surprise at what she says. "That... was the first time?" she says. "That's incredible. You're a natural, then."
She smiles for a moment. "I'll keep it in mind, Miracle Worker! ...but how'd you find the Sukeban, then?"
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Naoko takes the compliment with pride, beaming as she agrees, "Right?! Everybody better watch out, I don't know the strength of my own miracles!"
She literally doesn't. And her emotions below the surface betray that this bothers her a lot more than she's letting on. Still, even if she doesn't know why she's unnaturally good at certain things, she's determined to embrace whatever abilities present themselves. She does genuinely want to try and live up to that label of Miracle Worker she keeps emphasizing. And speaking of miracles... when asked about the Sukeban, she grins.
"Find it? Is that what you think happened? I built it! Took a few years, but the results are pretty amazing, wouldn't you say?"
That would explain the pigtail-like head ornaments of the Arm Slave, mimicking Naoko's own hairstyle. It probably doesn't explain much else. And Naoko is too distracted by the Gaia Gear's hatch opening to volunteer any more details, if she was even planning too. While she looks excited at first, her expression soon settles into a frown.
"...Huh. I wasn't expecting something so... normal. Don't tell me you're actually just flying this like any other ol' Mobile Suit? That seems like a waste when you've got a Psychoframe in there, and from what I've seen, you're obviously capable of using it to its fullest potential."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"I don't think I know mine, either," Rena says, though it's with a sigh and a scratch of her cheek.
She catches a little on those emotions -- a worry under the surface -- and Rena tucks that away. She can keep that in mind; calling attention to it might be rude. Then, though, she nods. Her eyes are a little wide, nonetheless. "Built it... that's incredible."
She hesitates for a second -- and then she looks at Naoko. "I do a lot of the controls with a standard AMBAC system," Rena says. "Now, I've been working on the OS--well, actually, a copy of the OS in my quarters--to improve it. But... I do most of the movements the way a Mobile Suit would. I'm still new to psychoframes."
She hesitates. "And the psychoframe helps, a lot, but it lets me really focus my efforts there on the parts only the psychoframe can do."
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Naoko is just eating up every bit of praise, puffing up with pride when deemed incredible yet again. "Yepyep, I know, but you shouldn't stop saying it!" There's no irregularities in her emotions to suggest she's lying, either. Not quite understanding how she does things doesn't make the things she does any less real.
She wrinkles her nose at the mention of the AMBAC system. That feels crude and uninteresting to her, not something she'd even want to try and get used to. But when the OS comes up, that's when her eyes light up again. "Oho... reprogramming the OS, you say. Would you like some help with that? I'm pretty confident I can figure things out well enough, I rewrote the Sukeban's OS myself too!"
She frowns, then looks a bit sheepish as she scratches her cheek. "Okay, you got me, I didn't exactly build the Sukeban entirely from scratch, most of the frame and the OS were there already before I started." She shrugs exaggeratedly. "They just sucked, is all! So I redid the whole thing, and now it's way better!"
Again, she hesitates a moment, as is her tendency when she's uncertain whether it's wise to say more. But, as before, she does decides to continue. "...I admit, I don't know a lot about Psychoframes, but I really, really want to learn more about them. That's what I get out of this, I want to see what you can do with it." She grins, and rubs her hands together. "How badly could you break the laws of physics, I wonder...?"
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
Rena laughs a little when Naoko says that, before she nods. "I'll try not to. And... sure," she says. "I can send you the OS. I'm using the one I wrote for a Variable Fighter as a basis," she adds.
She could even rewrite an entire OS? Rena supposes she shouldn't be too surprised -- she actually did that, herself -- but it's different when someone isn't even a pilot, ordinarily.
She wrinkles her nose, for a moment, though.
"You... have to be careful with that," Rena says, a little more seriously. "A Psychoframe is very powerful. And... it's hard to control, too. The thing at Axis Shock... that was amazing, but it could end terribly, too. I've only done something like I did in GENESIS one other time... and I'm not sure I could do it again, reliably."
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Naoko actually jumps for joy at the agreement. Ordinary day-to-day engineering tasks get old fast - special projects like this is what she craves. With this, her day is absolutely made. As such, she displays the appropriate amount of enthusiasm.
"Yessss! You really mean it, right? No takebacks, it's a promise! And I in turn promise to do my very best, of course! I've been waiting for this, finally a chance for some advanced programming again! Hehehe... this'll be the first thing I get to work on here that's actually worthy of a Miracle Worker!"
Naoko has already gotten started on things in her head, going by pure assumptions which probably will make these thoughts useless in practice, but she can't help it when she gets excited. She wants to get started on this yesterday. It's difficult to dampen her enthusiasm now, but Rena's sobering words do manage to bring her back to reality again somewhat.
"...Yeah, okay, I get you. But, you have to admit, it's exciting, isn't it? Something that can do the impossible, that nobody knows the full capabilities of? Even if it's scary, you have to embrace that, right?" She stands up straight, stating in an official-sounding tone, "If there's anything you can do to help, you should do it." Then clarifying in her normal voice, "That's the Miracle Worker's creed! Believe in that, and the Miracles will follow!"
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"No takebacks!" Rena promises. "I'll send it your way once I'm back. I probably could use a Miracle Worker's help. Let me know what you think of my work, though, too."
Rena is -- not that she advertises it, as much -- quite good with computers. She grins, though it's more muted, as she looks at the Gaia Gear Alpha. "It is exciting," she admits. "But that's a reason to be careful. To not get so swept up in excitement that I forget myself."
Then, she smiles more easily. "That's a good motto, though," she says. "I'll keep it in mind. Is... that why you decided to deploy in Sukeban? Back during GENESIS?"
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
"Ahaha... I'll try," is the best Naoko can promise for critiquing Rena's programming. "I'm pretty new to the whole 'working as a team' thing, so I'm probably not the best judge of other people's work. And, uh, making sure other people can make sense of mine." Definitely one of those terrible people who don't leave comments in their code at all.
Averting her eyes, Naoko looks a bit like she might start to whistle innocently at any moment. Getting swept up in excitement, yeah... she wouldn't know what that's like. Not at all. And then Rena hits upon an example of her doing exactly that, her expression making it immediately obvious.
"...Yeah, got me again. But also, it's only fair, isn't it? I'm the one who came here not knowing where to go, and I was just... basically offered a home, like immediately. Pretty sure I can't ever repay that properly, but helping out where I can, that's a good start, right?"
There's that moment of hesitation again, before she speaks again. "It's... not that I wasn't scared. It's just that I'm more scared of always having to wonder how things could have been different, if only I'd done everything I could."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"You have to start somewhere!" Rena says, with a smile. "It was computer club for me, in high school."
Coding up games was one of the things that her aunt and uncle let her do; they didn't want her in sports for a number of reasons. She nods, once, and then she tilts her head for a second. "Well... we're like that. We're a good crew," Rena says. "And... a lot of us get what it's like to not be sure you have a home. So don't feel you have to repay it."
She smiles a little. "But if you want to help us, I'm not turning you down. Just to be clear."
She gets quiet for a moment, though.
She understands both of those fears. It's not so far from her own emotions -- though guilt and a need to make up for the past comes into it, too. "I think I get that," Rena admits, her voice quieting down for a second. "If you're okay helping out, here... we're not going to turn you away. I'd rather know I did everything I could, too."
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Ah. A high school club. "Yyyyeah, I did not do... clubs." There's very obviously a Story there, but it's not one that Naoko's volunteering. Instead, she shifts to a chipper tone, relating, "I just read up some stuff online and it looked real easy!"
Must be nice, being so talented. You'd think that. You'd... think that. Well, not Naoko, she is quite pointedly avoiding having too many thoughts about that.
One glance at the basic medical checkup they had her doing would make it obvious that she's not talented at absolutely everything, at least. While she's not downright unhealthy, it's pretty clear that she doesn't even know what regular physical exercise is. No miracles would be happening in a footrace.
"People keep telling me that," she says of not having to repay the debt she feels she owes, which she obviously doesn't agree with. "I can't just keep sitting around though, that's not gonna feel great. Everybody's working hard, and all I do is eat your food? No way. ...Besides, you know what they say about idle hands." She wriggles her fingers in the air, grinning.
Turning it more serious, however, has the effect of her becoming more sober, and putting her hands behind her back instead. "...Yeah. I didn't think there would be people this easy-going about helping total strangers out there, and letting them do whatever they want. But I'm sure glad there are. It's something worth protecting, I think."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"Ah... yeah. I wasn't sure if you're still in school. But..." Rena blinks. That's a lot of talent; she always thought herself smart, but that's a whole other level.
"It sounds like you're just a natural at this sort of thing," she says, with a smile.
She listens as Naoko explains, though. She gets that -- she doesn't like sitting by while others work hard, either. "Yeah," she agrees. She nods. "I know what you mean. If everyone's at work, I need to be too."
Then, she tilts her head to the side. "It is," she says. "I'm glad you think so, though. I don't think... everyone really sees it the same way. The Federation doesn't, I'm sure."
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Not being in school anymore would explain why Naoko's not at prom, at least. Or... why she hasn't left the ship all that much. One would be forgiven to still have questions, given that she looks young for her age, and even knowing her actual age would still put her in high school, normally speaking. Not that she's about to say anything on the subject.
Of course, 'normal' is not a word that even Naoko herself identifies with. When you're a natural at so many things most need to study for, well... "Starting to see where the Miracle Worker comes from?" She grins, but for some reason there's a melancholy undertone to her emotions.
That moment passes quickly, with Naoko making a face at the mention of the Federation. "I always thought they were the good guys, but, well, I saw what happened, that time at Orb. They don't mention stuff like that on the news." She shrugs. "So y'know, screw 'em. I don't know anything about politics, but I know what's important to me. I also know bullies when I see them, and I'm not one to let a bully just get away with doing whatever they want."
There's also a story there that Naoko isn't volunteering. Judging from her grin, this one is either funnier, or more disturbing. Possibly both.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"A little bit," Rena admits, with a smile. Even if she can pick up on that melancholy. Just a little, she thinks; there is something more to it, why this girl isn't in school.
"They don't," Rena agrees, more seriously. "I... knew it was complicated. Since I came from the colonies. I used to think, if we were there, we could make it better. But... that's not the case."
She looks up, then, and nods. It's a little more simple than she would put it -- but it isn't wrong, exactly, either.
"We can do better," Rena says. "Make things better. And protect people, too. It's complicated, but... I believe in Eight. And in us."