2023-05-07: The Faces We Put On
- Log: The Faces We Put On
- Cast: Naoko Suzuki, Rena Lancaster
- Where: Hangar Bay, Ra Mari II
- OOC - IC Date: 0097-05-07
- Summary: Naoko and Rena discuss their collaborative effort to improve the Gaia Gear's OS. For which Naoko sees cause to apologize, to Rena as well as the Phenex's pilot.
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Since Palau, there's been little word from Nova Stellar regarding the Gaia Gear's OS improvements she'd been assisting with. It would be a reasonable assumption that the patch she sent over contained all she had at the time. That code however was purposely self-purging, in case of any mishaps. Clearly unsatisfied with the results, all she said about it afterwards came down to 'back to the drawing board, I'll let you know when I have something'.
Since then, nothing. Not until she recently sent over a new batch of code, with the simple note, 'I did my best, hope it'll be of some use'. Quite unlike last time, rather than one huge block of improvements all applied at the same time, she divided everything into clearly designated, well-commented sections. Moreover, she included a custom patching program that allows for easy insertion or removal of related code blocks, with descriptions of what they're meant to improve. This gives Rena complete freedom to make choices and easily switch things out. The ideas are no less solid, but the approach is just about the complete opposite of what Nova did before. This may not be a coincidence.
As for the self-styled Miracle Worker herself, more often than not these days, she can be found at her 'station' in the Ra Mari II's hangar bay. A corner with a bunch of long workbenches, directly outside a storage area full of junk parts. Stuff that people have given up on, only still considered suitable for stripping down to their base components to see what can still be reused. Nova is full of ideas, and letting her tinker with this stuff has led to some surprising results. Not always very practical or particularly useable results, but certainly surprising. She is kept happy and occupied this way, which is usually more preferable to letting her mess around with machines that need to be ready to sortie at a moment's notice. As Rena's now familiar with, there's no telling what might happen when you give her complete freedom.
Today's project is hard to identify. She appears to be tinkering with... a Mobile Suit's severed fingertip? What on earth could she be doing with that? Whatever it is, it appears to require soldering the exposed wiring, because that's what she's in the middle of at the moment. When she pauses, she frowns pensively at her work, letting out an unnecessarily long "Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..."
This must be what a Miracle Worker in her natural habitat looks like.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
Rena had implemented the patch from Palau -- and made a few little shifts, but nothing huge, out of respect that there might be work to do. Moreso, after Nova noted she didn't feel she was done.
She looked over all of the changes, took note of them, and made some of those implementations. She ran the Gaia Gear Alpha through a few paces in the simulator.
Today, though, she is coming into the hangar after doing some paperwork in the morning. She slows to a stop, though, upon seeing Nova with...
...a fingertip from a Mobile Suit?
She tilts her head to the side, before she walks over, and peers at it for a moment. "What's that for, Nova?" she asks.
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
At the sound of an unexpected voice adressing her, Nova slowly turns her head, with another elongated but now also quizzical "Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm?"
It takes her a moment to shift her brain away from Work Mode enough to focus on the person standing there. A few blinks later, she finally reaches the point of recognition, upon which she cracks a smile. "...Oh hey, it's Rena! Hello! How's it going?"
Wait, she was asked something first, wasn't she? Mentally backtracking a bit, she recalls the question, indicating the severed half-of-a-finger. "Oh, this? It's nothing, yet. Just trying to figure things out. But, can you imagine what it could be?" She gives Rena a moment to imagine, then she raises a finger to explain her own mental images.
"Picture if you will, Koji Kabuto, executing his famous Rocket Punch. Now, also picture Domon Kasshu, charging forward with his famous God Finger. Everybody knows these moves, and for good reason, they're awesome! But! Because everybody knows them, you can see them coming. There are easy tells if you watch the machine carefully." Not to mention the yelling of attack names, but that's beside the point. "Now... what if you could do both these moves, and no one would see it coming?"
'Do you get it yet,' she seems to be silently asking with her dramatic pause. Then she flings her arms out to either side, triumphantly declaring, "That's right! Rocket God Finger!!"
She's... so incredibly proud of herself. "Heh heh heh... are you impressed?" And yet, she moves on from that in the same breath, from overly dramatic to casual in no time flat. "So anyway, how's things with the Gaia Gear Alpha?"
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
Rena waves when Nova looks at her, her fingers waving in the air. "H-Hi?" she asks. "Ah, I'm good, uh--"
But Nova answers, and she cracks a smile. She listens, patiently, as Nova explains what it could be. She nods at the mention of those famous attacks; she wrinkles her nose for a moment, when asked if she 'gets' it and there is a visible moment of hesitation.
"I'm not--o-oh," she says, her eyes widening a little. "You... you think you can do that? It does sound... um... memorable! But it seems like it would be hard to do. Like, would the finger... erm... break, when it shoots off?"
A beat.
"They're great!" she says. "I've been implementing the OS changes you sent, and made a few tweaks using simulator data, too. Nothing huge, just... little tune-ups here and there."
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
It should be clear that Rena is asking a pointless question. Does Nova think she can do that? With a casual wave of her hand, she's quick to respond, "Of course! I'm a Miracle Worker, I do impossible stuff all the time!"
It's not entirely a frivolous boast. Nova's proven to have a talent for working with machines, whether it's fixing, upgrading or piloting. She's also proven to both think and act in a non-standard way a lot of the time. Well, it would sense that somebody who's seriously going around calling herself a Miracle Worker would be... eccentric, wouldn't it. As for whether she can manage to do this particular thing... it will remain to be seen if anything actually manifests from the idea. But ideas, she has those to spare.
"Well of course the finger's gonna break, it's not a God Finger unless it explodes heads, and it won't explode heads without exploding!" Nobody claimed she was thinking about making a weapon you could use more than once. It's... kind of a running theme with her ideas. Massively destructive, only one shot. A good secret weapon should only need one shot!
Anyway, what was she saying? Ah, yes, OS changes. "Right, right, that's... that's good. I mean, that's... if that works for you." Not quite so enthusiastic there. She looks sheepish, a little guilty as she scratches her cheek.
"Um... about, what happened at Palau... I reviewed the footage, and I could kinda see that it wasn't working the way I calculated it would. I mean, the code I gave you." Forced on you, to be more accurate. "I've been thinking about that, and I kinda... forgot the human element, I think. Bad habit, I've worked more with machines than with people, so... I'm sorry, I should've asked, instead of just... doing that."
This explains the changed approach in what she sent over. It was her way of trying of apologize.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"I'm... very interested to see how it works, then!" Rena says, with a smile, and a nod of her head. She doesn't quite doubt Nova's ability, but she isn't entirely sure about this.
But she could be surprised, too.
"It does," Rena says, with a more reassuring tone. "Don't worry, okay? You did great. I know it's easy to want it to be perfect... but we only get there piece by piece, you know?"
She smiles, then -- and then Rena shakes her head. "It's okay. I'm glad you realized... you should ask first. But your heart was in the right place. You wanted to help," Rena says. "And... next time, just ask, okay?"
A beat.
"Because if we work on it together, then it'll be even better," she says. "That's how these things go."
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Nova gives a thumbs-up! She's all too keen on showing off. If indeed something comes out of this idea. More often than not it doesn't, but she moves on to the next thing quickly enough. Trying a lot of things and seeing what sticks is how you learn! And she won't take offense if people don't share her vision - if everybody thought the way she does, there'd be a whole bunch of Miracle Workers around, and it wouldn't be special anymore.
Still, whether in the outlandish or more practical, there's always that perfectionism. Rena's spotted that one correctly, once Nova commits to a task, she strives for the best possible result. If it falls short... well, that should be okay, but in this case... it was dangerous to someone other than her. That's not something she's had to deal with before. And it's difficult to accept as being okay.
"I just--" she begins to protest, but she's not entirely sure where to begin. Especially when Rena's being so understanding. Another thing she isn't used to. She starts again, in a softer tone, eyes averted. "I should have done better than that. I don't know exactly what I could have done differently, but there has to be something..." It's always difficult to accept that there isn't anything she could have done to improve the result. But in this particular case, there's a specific reason.
"You should have still been there," she says out of nowhere, turning back towards Rena. "If only we'd had one more Psychoframe, then, then maybe...!"
It may be unclear where she's going with this. Though as her gaze drifts to the floor, her following question is likely related. "...Have there been any reports of the Phenex showing up anywhere since then?"
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"It's okay to make mistakes. And... I have trouble with it, when I do," Rena says. "I feel like I should get it right. If I get it wrong, I think about who I let down -- who's disappointed, who's affected, and if they won't see me as someone they can rely on. But..."
She sighs, then she looks up at the ceiling; her hands slide into her pockets, and her ash blue hair bobs as she looks up at the ceiling for a moment.
"It's complicated. Maybe you did something differently -- but maybe I didn't fly well enough. Maybe bad luck played a factor. Maybe good luck, too, because we fought the Red Comet and we're still here." Rena shakes her head.
"You can't take everything on yourself, Nova, because no one can carry everything," she says. "We do the best we can, you know? And we try to get better next time. But... we have to do it together."
Then, she blinks -- and Rena frowns, but shakes her head.
"...not that I've heard," she says, about the Phenex.
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Nova - rather, Naoko looks at Rena with open surprise. It's strange... it's always felt like she was the only one who ever doubts herself. The only one who makes mistakes. Everyone else is... "--but it always looks like you know exactly what you're doing! You, and Eight... everyone on this ship. Compared to me, you're..."
She doesn't finish her sentence, but the direction was clear enough. She seems to catch herself, fiddling with her left braid as she tries to salvage things a bit. "W-what I mean is... that's how a Miracle Worker works. You can't just do what you know will work all the time, that's not gonna make any miracles happen." Yeah, that sounds good. Perfectly sound and logical.
She mutters under her breath at that word, 'together'. That's really the key to all this, the thing she's been unable to really grasp so far. "It's just... what I'm used to." She laughs, but there's no mirth in it. "If I didn't take everything on myself, nothing was going to happen. This... this whole 'we' thing is..." She shakes her head. Nothing comes of dwelling on things. "Well... I'm glad that's how it is. But, you know. Old habits." She clearly doesn't like to talk about the past, but it's just as clear how much it continues to bother her.
Yet the Phenex, in particular, is painful to think about. Especially when Rena confirms her suspicions. Nova grimaces. "I knew it. Like I said... I reviewed the footage. I saw the Phenex going down, towards Earth." She chuckles, in spite of herself. "I thought she was just, you know. Leaving. I even waved. But, now that I've looked at things more clearly, I think that... she was crashing."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"I definitely don't always know what I'm doing," Rena says with a little laugh. She smiles, though, and shakes her head quickly. "We might act like we know, but... everyone has doubts."
She hesitates for a second, and then she nods. "It's good to experiment. But... when it doesn't work, that's okay. And you can learn from it, too. And get help!"
She hesitates for a moment, and then she look to the side. "But I know what you mean. Just ask Anita, Eight, or Arriety about the times I'd be up to two in the morning because I tried to take care of everything by myself." She looks back, then she cracks a smile.
The smile fades.
"...that's horrible," she says, quietly. "Can you tell where? Maybe we should look for her. The Gaia Gear Alpha's Psychoframe--I bet it could help."
<Pose Tracker> Naoko Suzuki has posed.
Everyone has doubts. That claim, itself, is something Nova has to doubt. It's been part of her worldview for so long, the assumption that most people know what they're doing at all times. That maybe, in time, she'd grow up to be like that too. Is she supposed to just accept she may never be any more sure of herself than she is now...?
In spite of her mental distress, she attempt to laughs it off as best she can. "That's a little hard to imagine... I didn't think I knew that many actors."
What's easier to believe, and nicer to hear, is that she may have some things in common with Rena. Trying to take on too many things yourself. Foregoing sleep for the aforementioned reason, that too is something she still regularly does in the service of trying to be more useful. Makes it a bit easier to shrug, and respond semi-jokingly, "Won't give you a hard time over that if you won't do it to me."
No room for levity where it comes to the matter of the Phenex, though. She looks much nearer to crying, just thinking about what might have happened. "What Rita said... it was the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me. I don't... want her to be gone."
Not that she knows this for sure. There isn't really a way for her to know. She holds up her hands in a gesture of helplessness. "The Sukeban's sensors are good, but they're not that good. There no way I could track it all the way down to the planet. It was never supposed to even be in space, it wasn't designed for that." ...And yet, she's been piloting it in space just fine, somehow. Might be no point in pressing her there, she's bound to have a Miracle Worker line ready for that one.
This being the case, however, she looks to Rena pleadingly. "I have no choice but to leave this to you... though, if you learn anything, please let me know. I need to know if she's okay."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"I'm not sure if it's acting, exactly. Just... the faces we have to put on because we're in a fight. Or in charge," Rena says, with a smile. "Okay, so maybe it is a bit of an act."
Then she tilts her head to the side, before she smiles. "I'll keep it in mind!"
Then, she frowns -- and she looks more seriously. She reaches a hand out, patting her on the shoulder. "...I don't think she's gone," Rena says, her voice quiet. "I think she's out there, somewhere. And I think we could find her. Maybe... my Psychoframe can help."
She hesitates, then nods. "If I hear anything, sense anything, find anything, I'll tell you. I promise."