2023-07-07: Triplets
- Log: 2023-07-07 Triplets
- Cast: Rin Starking, Sheryl Nome
- Where: The Nadesico - Over The Orb Union
- OOC - IC Date: July 7, UC 0097 (2023)
- Summary: During Ruri's birthday party, Sheryl and Rin mingle and chat about what they've got in common. Triplets!
<Pose Tracker> Rin Starking has posed.
PARTY PARTY JOIN US JOIN US PARTY PARTY JOIN US JOIN US
For Rin Starking, of course, it's great to be out here. The curiously agile student of Ashford Academy has completed her exams, and like many other Ashford students, opted to spend the celebratory post-exam period on a foreign trip. Orb isn't that far from Area 11 -- at least geographically -- and she knew people.
She knew SOME people, anyway. Rin sent her present digitally, and has been mostly skulking near the food platters, common haunt of the socially awkward. Rin is wearing something that resembles a kimono without exactly being in the family - the sleeves are a little short and the threading has CYMK hues that no conventional kimono would, although the diamond-like pattern on the hem might not be unfamiliar to old textile designers. The dominant tone is a sort of dreamy sunset pink-purple. Rin is wearing her hair up in the usual chignon-like braid-wrap.
For fleeting moments, Rin is in a realm of regrets. Should she have come here? Maybe it's awkward. People are going to be upset about the Emperor and whatever he's doing today. They're right to be, but I can't tell them I'm --
-- the thought, though it went through Rin's brain faster than a regular persons, derails as her eyes detect a certain hue of hair.
Could that really be her? Rin estimates.
Well, it could be an impersonator, but Nergal has the money, Rin thinks... and maybe she knew Ruri, too. The Nadesico has been in a lot of stuff. If she happened to be in the area, then--
-- What's the worst that can happen? Rin thinks to herself.
And so she steps forwards.
"Heyyy! Remember me?" Rin chirps as she comes into the general area of interstellar superstars, her eyes quickly flicking back and forth in case an elbow is about to fly towards her abdomen. You never know just who might be the security guard.
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
It is fun to join a party! Sheryl attended Ruri's birthday party last year too--though back then, it was more properly a Tanabata festival, and this year the focus is more on Ruri herself. That's Sheryl's understanding, at least, which is why she didn't come in a yukata this time. Upon arrival--her flight was delayed by turbulence along the way--she'd heard about what had happened, and set out to give Ruri her present straight away.
But there are a lot of people here for Ruri, and Sheryl's hardly the only one giving her a gift, so that's a conversation that lasts about a minute with a promise of more later. Sheryl walks off to mingle, dressed in a pink babydoll dress with matching purse and heels and dark tights. Dark shades protect her eyes, and Pure Shield protects her skin--the party itself might be inside at the Observation Deck, but there's still going to be some hanging out outside.
...or there would have been before the two kaiju showed up. Fortunately, both of them were defeated by the time Sheryl made it.
Right now, she's on her way to the drinks that Ranka's in charge of handing out when Rin comes up and greets her. Brera and Grace are probably somewhere in attendance, but no elbows come flying Rin's way. Sheryl, for her part, blinks over at her. It takes her a moment, lips pursed in a thoughtful frown, before recognition lights her blue eyes.
"Oh! You're the recycling girl!" A smile follows as she settles a hand on her hip, and she winks. "...Just kidding~. Rin Starking, wasn't it? You were a big face during the Deculture Festival last year! The beach party, the Crossdressing and Cosplay Pageant, and the Millympic Games."
Sheryl of course was just as big if not bigger, considering her role in each of those--she was merely a contestant in the Millympic games, while she performed at the beach party and judged at the pageant. Indeed, Rin has that last one to thank that Sheryl remembers her name at all. Even if Rin didn't score that highly overall, Sheryl liked the showing she made in the first round.
<Pose Tracker> Rin Starking has posed.
The recycling girl!
Oh my God, Rin thinks. This is horrible!! She's completely forgotten who I am?! I guess she meets literally five million people every - wait she's smiling - god damn it, bamboozled again!! There is also a wordless memory of a pet bird doing something funny related to bamboozling.
So externally, Rin just laughs; "Yeah!" she says. "And I guess I did make a mark there, huh," she continues, one hand on her hip. "I guess it's easy to forget what you've done when you're floating loose in life through the vales of secondary education!"
Sometimes Rin doesn't sound normal at all.
"I do remember that beach party, though," Rin continues, and her cheeks pinken a little as her lips spread into a grin. "I'd say I'm surprised to see you here but I guess I'm more surprised I didn't notice ya coming in! I guess you're just here as a guest, though. So before the kaiju," Rin continues, "I reconnoitered the spread, and it's pretty standard space-type nihon ryoori, so I hope you like curry and crab stick. The cake pops looked good..."
Oh god I have nothing to talk about, Rin thinks. Maybe I could recruit her for-- no, not at this public party on a corpo ship.
"But I bet you're looking for a drink, first thing."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
That's okay. Sheryl sometimes doesn't have a terribly good grasp of what 'normal' sounds like. Even now that she's focusing on her studies and is on hiatus from being a megastar, she still has to keep up with her health regime and vocal practices so she can pick up right where she left off when she returns to being the Galactic Fairy, so she still doesn't have a lot of time for just hanging out with friends like a normal girl.
"That's right. I am on break, after all," she says with a shrug. "And honestly, it's not uncommon for me to be on the Nadesico. I was using it for an escort ship a lot while I was on tour and during the filming of Bird Human." She might not have been in the movie, but she was still present during filming thanks to doing the main theme. "I'm actually more surprised to see you here! How do you know Ruri?"
At least that's a topic besides food. Sheryl glances over at the spread, and sure enough, it's as Rin says. She's not hungry at the moment, though, so she simply nods. "I saw that Ranka was manning the drink stand--"
Pan to the drinks stand, where Ranka is currently not--it looks like some of the other crewmates have pulled her off. Sheryl shrugs more dramatically and sighs. "Well, she was manning the drink stand! I'll have to say hello to her later." She smiles over at Rin. "It's drinks after all, then."
<Pose Tracker> Rin Starking has posed.
"We hung out during Bird Human," Rin informs Sheryl. "I mean I guess it was kind of quiet but we were doing stuff in that stunt shooting phase with the live footage - you know, I think you can see Ruri's hair in one of 'em? I guess she couldn't put on the helmet."
What with the twin tails. Of course, Rin could be wrong. It could have even been the VFX crew.
"Heck yes, let's drink!" Rin enthuses. As they drift over, she continues. "So from there I guess we got along. We swapped gamer tags... I didn't know what to get here and I'm kind of just here for a long weekend since we finished exams up at Ashford and like everyone else is already bouncing, and the tickets were on sale, so I was like: Why not? Why not go overseas unescorted?'
Rin grins afterwards. "You got exams yourself? I don't know if you guys are like on different home schedules, up there," Rin says, jerking a thumb spacewards and so with the suggestion of the Fleets.
"I'm kind of good at them," Rin says.
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
"Oh! That makes sense. It's not like they were always filming," Sheryl muses. Ruri was there, and Rin was there, so it makes sense that they might've found some time to get to know one another--especially since, as Rin reminds her, they both helped out with the stunt piloting. She laughs. "Really? I guess the editors missed that bit. Considering they had a whole rest of the movie to splice together and, what, a week to do it in? I can't fault them for that."
They'd better fix that for the Blu-Ray, though, Sheryl thinks.
As they head over to get drinks, Rin continues her explanation. Sheryl listens, then laughs again. "I wish I could go overseas unescorted! Even when I'm on my own, my manager's eyes are always on me. Not that that's a bad thing, though. I couldn't tell you how many times I would've died if not for her."
She says it like it's a joke, but she's actually completely serious.
"They're done with by now, thank god. You'd think they'd be on a different schedule, but I guess being part of the GUTS association made sure they all synced up. It's convenient in a way. And I definitely did better this year than last!"
She pauses, though. "What, good at exams?"
<Pose Tracker> Rin Starking has posed.
"I mean I'm not THAT overseas," Rin says with a puckish little smile, "but yeah, my father's pretty chill about that stuff. I mean it helps I kind of have the higher grade of passport buuuut I don't wanna brag."
"Oh wow, they did that to you? I hope it wasn't that bad," Rin continues with a thoughtful frown. "And yeah, like -- I don't wanna say I'm super smart, I'm just beautiful and talented," one shrug of the shoulder, "but like I'm, good at exams. I realized it's kind of a skill in its own right, so I just don't sweat studying as much!"
And what are the results of this? Rin is not saying. At least, she isn't bragging about the results.
"... When you say you might have died, like, are you being literal?" Rin then asks, more cautiously.
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
"Japan is still a decent ways off! It's all water from here to there, too," Sheryl points out. She smirks when Rin claims to not want to brag. "Uh huh. I can tell how humble and self-effacing you are," she teases. "It'd be nice to be good at tests. I'm better at learning by doing, myself--I'm sure I did much better on the practical than the written exam."
Stopping at the drinks counter, she considers her options, then goes for a virgin pina colada. "Anyway, it's fine. I'm exaggerating a little--Grace keeps track of where I am and all because that's her job, but it's not like she watches me while I sleep or anything like that." She takes a sip and leans on the counter. The Nadesico crew is used to her by now, so they don't gawk at her presence or anything like that. (As far as Sheryl knows, anyway.)
Is she being literal, though? "Oh--just once or twice," Sheryl says nonchalantly. (It's been more than once or twice, but who's counting? Sheryl deliberately is not.)
<Pose Tracker> Rin Starking has posed.
"I'm famous for my humility," Rin replies. She obtains something a little fizzy and beverage laden. She sips her drink then, watching. Thinking for a moment. She thinks a lot, at least. Grace, her producer; huh, Rin meditates. I guess that role's not just your manager.
"That's fair," Rin says then. "That just makes you friends or something, right?"
Or something.
"The big thing with tests is that the questions have a structure to them," Rin continues. "It's hard to do it in practicals, since, obviously, you have to know your stuff, but in our school a lot of it involves writing themes and essays and stuff. Or else it's like automatic review things. Automatic review is easy-squeezy if you know how the questions are structured and just take a moment to make sure they're not using similar spellings."
Sip.
"... You know, I wondered something," Rin asks then: "Was it weird, to be in a movie about that stuff, on that island? Like... how'd it feel?"
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
"Oh, me too. We're twins!" Sheryl jokes. They both take a moment to enjoy their drinks, ignorant of Rin's thoughts. She personally thinks of Grace as her manager, but--she is a lot more than that. Her producer, her confidant... practically her mother in some respects. She's always been there for her, ever since that day they met.
She doesn't think of that, though. Sheryl has a bad habit of taking Grace for granted.
"Friends? I don't know about that," she says--case in point. "We're both professionals."
Even if now she does silently acknowledge that Grace takes care of her way more than a professional normally would.
"Oh yeah? Hmm... I never noticed that before," Sheryl says. She doesn't admit it's because she only went to school for the first time last year. "Can you give me some tips? I really don't want to have to do another year again. It was embarrassing enough the first time!"
The question about the island gives her pause. "It was weird, but probably not in the way you'd figure," she says, a little more subdued. She brushes back her hair from her right ear, where her purple drop crystal earring dangles. "This was a memento from my grandmother--Mao Nome. But she died when I was little, and she was really busy with her research, so I never got a chance to hear much about the Mayan Island or Great-Aunt Sara. A lot of stuff, I only learned when I read the script. Plus--look at me."
Sheryl sweeps her free arm across her chest and then outwards. "I don't even look like a Mayan, do I? With this alabaster skin, you'd never guess. I get that from my father." She draws it back to her drink. Droplets of condensation drip down her pink-painted nails. "But when I was in that clearing, where Sara was supposed to have done her sacred rituals..."
She pauses; then she shakes her head and laughs, backing right out of the emotional moment. "Well, it was certainly inspiring, to say the least!"
<Pose Tracker> Rin Starking has posed.
"Triplets!" Rin says, which will be explained later.
Sheryl proclaims professionalism. Maybe that's being an adult, Rin thinks. You stop having 'friends' really, you just have 'professional contacts.' It's a sad thing to consider. As she leans against a nearby piece of furniture, just a bit, with her hip, she says, "You really don't, no. It's kinda funny."
She gestures with her chin in the broad generation of the distinct absence of Ranka at the drinks stall. "She did nail the whole mayan look. I looked up that stuff, since like, they're kind of in the Homeland now and everything. The ruins and everything. But..."
"Haha, yeah, you can't control which side you get after, can you?" Rin says.
"... You felt something there?" Rin asks, about the clearing -- but she's also getting out her phone from an internal pocket in the robe.
It's a... family picture? "See, like, look at this," Rin says, showing a picture. It's in some kind of orchard with snow on the ground. Everyone is in winter coats. Rin is discernible to the left of a woman; on the other side is a guy who looks like Britannian Central Casting. In front of those three are three others, all girls; one is a young woman a little younger than Rin and kneeling down, a moody 12-or-so-year-old, and an enthusiastic child.
"Like that's my sister Opal in front of me and we are twins but we don't look much alike, do we? And that's why NOW you're a triplet," Rin concludes.
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
Later is later. Right now, Sheryl gives Rin a 'what are you talking about' kind of look. "Uh, what?"
But the conversation moves on, and Sheryl decides to let it drop. She looks back at the spot where Ranka should be--she'll be back soon enough, no doubt, conveniently in time for Rin and Sheryl's conversation to end--but right now she's right there. It's true; Ranka, with her darker skin, looks more like her own grandmother than she does. Part of it of course was make-up and costuming, but... still.
"Yeah." Sheryl shrugs. "What can you do? It's not like my fair skin has done me wrong, so I can't exactly be sad about it, either. And like I said before--I don't actually know much about my mother's side of the family." She quirks a wry smile. "I ought to be grateful my father took my mother's name. If they'd done it the other way around, who knows if the director would've asked me to sing the main theme?" After all, even if it were just coincidence, there's a lot of power in the vocalist of the main theme having the same last name as your leading lady.
"I don't know if I felt something. I'd already read the script several times by then; I knew what was supposed to have happened. Though who knows if any of it actually did. For starters, if there was really something weird about Nome blood, I would be the first to know!"
Technically, Grace would be the first to know. And Sheryl would know only once it was too late. But again: who's counting? Not her.
Still, when Rin brings out her phone to show her a picture, Sheryl takes a quick sip of her drink, then leans in to get a better look. A family picture... It looks like she has a pretty big one. Something twinges in her chest. She masters it.
"Oh! So that was the joke," Sheryl utters, leaning away to look at her wide-eyed. "You really don't! Does she go to another school, or did she just not go to any of the DecuFes events I was at? Or..."
Another, very real option suddenly presents itself to her--one she's personally familiar with--and she hesitates as something flickers in her eyes. Then, smoothly, she concludes, "...is that a delicate matter?"
<Pose Tracker> Rin Starking has posed.
"Yeah, she goes to another school," Rin says. She looks at the phone then, at the question, for a second or two longer than Rin usually takes - she always seems to have a snappy comeback. Not this time. She had to think about it.
"She's inheriting the title? Opal, I mean," Rin says, tapping her on the phone. "We figured that out around middle school so she's in a school back in the capital so she, you know, she's getting with the right kind of education."
"I mean it's honestly kind of lame in some ways," Rin continues, putting the phone away, "because now she's gonna be responsible for the orchard. My father there, Count Starking, he's one of the guys who actually gets into it there. Most of his stuff is just like owning shares of fruit companies and this one guard-robot manufacturer, but he's a hobbyist. He's breeding the best apples he can over in Toyama!" In Area 11.
"I think Gala (middle) is gonna go to Ashford, though," Rin says as she pockets the phone. "I've told her a bunch of stories and I even promised to hide free games around campus for her if she does apply. We'll see how that one goes."
"But yeah, I don't think any of the schools in the mainland would like even consider something like GUTS, they're kind of snooty. It's part of why I was so glad to be involved with the movie, you know?"
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
"--oh, this is a Britannian thing," Sheryl suddenly realizes out loud. A title... "Are you some kind of blueblood?" The idea doesn't intimidate her--for one, Rin is a fan of hers--but it is a little surprising. Rin didn't strike her as, well, nobility. But maybe that's why her sister is the pick of the litter. Or maybe it's the other way around--she acts like this because she's not getting anything.
Sheryl doesn't have a lot of respect for how Britannians do things. Still, she listens, setting a hand on her hip as she shifts her weight to the other leg. At the end of her explanation, in which Rin essentially does indeed say she's a blueblood when she says her father's a count, she nods. "Good luck to your other sister on that. For what it's worth, I never would've guessed you were nobility." She quirks a smile and winks. "You're arrogant in a charming way. Like me. Triplets~.
"I do know, though. If it were a normal stuffy school system, I wouldn't have bothered with Mihoshi Academy. The GUTS program has been a really fun experience--something I wouldn't have gotten just touring around the galaxy, getting privately tutored. I'm guessing it's a little like that for you too? Even if it might not've been your first choice in the beginning, it's let you meet a lot of people you otherwise never would've met."
<Pose Tracker> Rin Starking has posed.
Rin sort of looks ashamed but amused at the same time. "Well I guess I'm not a BLUEblood blueblood," Rin says. "I don't remember it that well but me and Opal were actually born in Taipei. Count Starking met my mom during the War," the One Year one, presumably, "and they got married then, and like, he helped her get to her family in Taipei and just was like: Welp, everything's all f'd up, I better stay here."
"I mean he still had his money so it wasn't exactly a sacrifice," Rin adds in a lower tone of voice.
"But... yeah," Rin exhales. "Most of the people at Ashford are like wealthy bot not noble," she continues. "Count Starking's not at all broke but he couldn't afford to make a place like Ashford, so I guess your blood isn't everything. It always seems to be in movies and stuff, doesn't it, though?"
She folds her hands bhind her head, having put her drink down. "... What's it like over there at Mihoshi? That's the one I never went to. Jindai was pretty spicy but I also never went to that one in Tokyo-3. Looked too much like this one level in Kill The Dawn."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
There really are a lot of reasons to be ashamed to be any stripe of Britannian nobility, aren't there? That's even without Rin being a Black Knight, which Sheryl knows nothing about. She doesn't know much about Earth's many, many wars, either, but she doesn't ask about that point. A war is a war, in her view, and for some reason Grace encourages her not to think critically about things like politics.
She doesn't know where Taipei is, either. Her best guess is that it's somewhere on the mainland. But that's not really the point, either.
"You can make do most places as long as you've got the money for it," Sheryl agrees sotto voce, nodding. So that's just how it generally is at Ashford, huh... It's a weird thing to think about. "Why do so many rich Britannians send their children to get educated in an 'area'? I had the impression they all thought of Japanese people and spacenoids as beneath them."
Sheryl gets a pass, because she's beautiful, white, rich, and famous--but she's keenly aware of how other spacenoids get treated. She also notes that Rin refers to her father not as 'father' but as 'Count Starking,' so while she might make him out as sympathetic in her anecdote, it doesn't seem like there's much love lost between them.
"I guess not. In my experience, it's not the blood but the connections that matter," she replies.
The question about Mihoshi gets a thoughtful look, and she sips on her pina colada for a moment as Rin weighs in on her own experiences. "I haven't been to Jindai or that Tokyo-3 school either, myself, but if Ashford's all about prestige, then Mihoshi's all about skill. There's lots of technical programs there, and the campus is big enough to put a concert on. I know because I did." She winks. "It's well-funded, too--there's lots of simulators and equipment, and the classrooms are really spacious. I don't regret transferring in."
<Pose Tracker> Rin Starking has posed.
"Well..." Rin says, sucking on her teeth.
"It's complex," Rin says, "and I want you to know right now I'm not making any excuses for the Empire, but we're here, right now, in a like double neutral zone, so, I think in this case, it's because we're local. I don't know all my father's opinions but he did marry a Taiwanese lady, and *her* dad was Japanese. But he's not exactly the highest guy in society, either."
"I was really happy I was able to use that once to get Ranka out of a checkpoint that was giving her crap, though," Rin muses.
Back to the topic, quietly. "But I think a lot of it is because everything in the homelands is kind of static. Like everything's locked up and everyone has a good thing going, and they pass that down to their kids... the business class develop things but most of the really new ideas don't start there, you know? Unless it's like, basic research, particle accelerators and interstellar probes and stuff." Not that interstellar technology is anything new to SHERYL, but be that as it may.
"Count Starking owned a lot of stuff, and had a big portfolio, and there's even a house in Pendragon -- but it's smaller than the one we live in now, it's just really valuable because of the neighborhood. Until he came to Area 11, he couldn't have ever gotten an *orchard* -- the Portofino family and the Fishkins own all the really great ones in the northern part. And, I mean, he bought it - but I know he bought it at a bargain price."
Rin finishes her drink. Silence for a few moments. "Oh, neat," Rin muses. "It sounds like I might have gotten in good there, huh? You know, they were telling me, the other stunt guys who were gamers, I ought to look into doing stunt performing. I'm really thinking about it."
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
"Hmm..." Sheryl's lips quirk up in a slight smile. Rin says it's complex, but it seems pretty straightforward to her: they just happened to live there already. It's probably not the case for everyone, but it is for Rin, and that's good enough for now. "That makes sense. At least you're using your terrible Britannian powers for good."
The concept of the technology is nothing new to her, but Sheryl's no rocket scientist. She doesn't do research, unless it's research for her music or fashion or trends or whatnot. The idea that the mainland is stagnant doesn't surprise her, though. Her experience in Britannia showed her that either people reject new ideas or take new ideas and reframe into the ideas they already had. Sheryl was accepted, but people tended to conveniently ignore or reframe that she's a spacenoid. It was not a great experience.
She doesn't go into that, though. It's enough that it helps her understand what Rin means. "Good for him, then. As long as he's not treating people like garbage," she comments.
Finishing off her virgin drink, Sheryl sets down the glass. "Oh yeah? You could do worse than Mihoshi, then. I'm not sure if they have a program for stunt work, but honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they did. It's an important part of the acting world. Depending on how much school you have left, it might be better to do a program after you graduate, though. I joined the flight program, which is a three-year program normally, as what'd normally be a third-year student. It's a little, what else was I expecting?"
<Pose Tracker> Rin Starking has posed.
Rin snorts. Then she giggles. Then she grins. "Pretty much!" she says, finally. "I just wish I could do more, you know? Like I mean there's just so much going on, you know? Like I don't know if they'd have colonized space at all if we hadn't kind of been the example of, look, see, you CAN just burn something new into the world."
Problematic, but it's said casually. "I kind of want to go to the colonies sometime," Rin muses, looking upwards. "I guess I'd just be a rich tourist, though. O well. Maybe some day." Then she glances to the side as she considers, and then after a slow bilnk she says, "Wait, hold on - hold up. You're gonna be a pilot? You guys got mandatory service on the fleets or something?"
"I mean I bet you're great at it," Rin continues, "I just didn't expect it! Isn't it kind of dangerous?"
Yeah, RIN, unlike DRIVING ILLEGAL WAR MACHINES
<Pose Tracker> Sheryl Nome has posed.
"Oh, no, I want to be a pilot," Sheryl says firmly--though maybe being a fighter pilot is another matter at this point. Still: "You remember the Vajra attack on the islands? I know you were there. Well, they--"
"Sheryl!" Grace's voice calls them from across the room. She waves a hand, her expression apologetic. Next to her, Brera looms, stone-faced as usual. "A moment, please?"
"Hm? I wonder what's up," Sheryl says, wide-eyed with curiosity. She looks back at Rin. "Let's put a pin on this conversation, Rin. See you later!"
And with a wink and a playful blown kiss, Sheryl sets down her now-empty glass and strides over to see what Grace wants.