2023-10-20: Separate Worlds, Similar Heads
- Cast: Shari Loom, Teletha Testarossa
- Where: Barcelona, AEU
- Date: U.C. 0097 10 20
- Summary: Tracing the path of communications and movement across the world, a Whispered girl reaches out to another in an attempt at assurance, even if there are machinations in store for the two.
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
Shari Loom is off the train and here in Barcelona, though she's still getting her bearings--she's just off the train. It's a nice, sunny day, and she stands out fairly well--the dark clothes and makeup help make sure of that. Right now, she's still in the station, having redirected to a bench to check her phone and figure out exactly where she is in relation to where she wants to be--which is a school in the city.
So, pink-haired Shari is not hard to spot if someone looks, especially with a couple of people eyeing her as an obvious Tourist.
...But there are other ways to notice her, too, other things to notice about a girl who hears Whispers.
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
Barcelona was a place to admire from afar; To appreciates the sights of Britannian Tourism Places, to chomp on a local snack sandwich and ideally, enjoy oneself. Unfortuntately, business had to be done. People, contacted. Paths, traced along, finding someone who left their traces obvious on the world map, working off of the words of multiple people and the information one is given upon receiving trust.
It is this sort of confluence of actions that leads Tessa to this train station, dressed in a brazenly casual manner. Sure, there were PRT around, in the background. Only watching for the eventual contact, Tessa adjusting her own collar with a sigh. Delicacy, delicacy.
Such delicacy amounted to being a giant blot of everything, emotions leaking freely on choice. Anxieties, hesitations, convictions, and the slow onslaught of stubbornness and frustration that underlined everything, before...
"Shari Loom?" She makes no attempt to hide her presence, the calm demeanor of a commander in contrast to her casual autumn outfit. A light jacket is always necessary, even if she kept the braid. "Do you have a moment?"
"Your birthday is December 24, 0079, correct?"
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"Uh?"
Shari is surprised to see Tessa approaching her, not because of who she is necessarily, but because of how she is. After her time with the Nega Force, she recognizes a command look when she sees it.
And she knows that feeling, to be sure, all those emotions jumbling together. Her own spill out much the same way--anxiety, despair, and great anticipation of something she came here for--
"That's me," she says, dubiously.
"...And that's my birthday," Shari answers, also dubiously, slowly locking her phone and putting it in her purse. It's got a password on it!
She knows what she wants to ask; it floats from her mind unbidden: are you a cop? as a concept, a general feeling, but it's not what she says.
"...Are you one of the people Leina told me about?"
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
It's ahrder and harder to properly separate that steely gaze from a relaxed stare nowadays. Considering the situation at hand, it's command that wins out. The subtle aura of knowing that her words have physical power to change lives, even if the underlying, near-transient hesitation barely manifests.
A chill through the air.
"...December 24, 0079. The same as mine, down to the span of a few minutes." There's a glance left. A glance right. Even though she knows, she knows that the area was relatively safe, its hard to not...Have her neck bristle in anticipation. To wonder what might happen.
"Not Cathedra, no. Has she said anything about who you are?" A finger, tapping against her own forehead. "Has...Yuliana?" There's only the faintest of ripples of fear; Yuliana was a person. A person strong like any other, but a person nonetheless. Arrogance, or confidence in her decision to do this?
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
There is a chill. Shari can't say she likes it, really, but she knows command for another reason. She knows the experience of watching Elisa give orders.
"...Yours, too?" Shari wonders, unsettled. She feels that anticipation, and it's not the happy anticipation of waiting for her new boyfriend, anymore. Not for now.
"Kind of," Shari answers. "There's people 'like me' and people who can 'help me', though I'm not so sure of the second part." Pause. "No, that's just Leina. Yuliana doesn't..."
Shari considers. "Yuliana doesn't realize I'm like you all. I know why, but I'm not going to tell you why until I know who you are."
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
A heartbeat skip of nervousness. First contact always felt...Unusually testy for her own tastes. Connections, bonds, reaching out to others, trying to establish something even when other connections where there...
"Yes. The ones. Like us. Are down to a certain point." Don't elaborate. Don't show the whole hand when the other isn't trusting. Show knowledge. Show that...One isn't alone in the world. Hope for that, at minimum.
There's a raise of the eyebrow; Yuliana wanted to kill Gayatri, so...So...why not her? It just gets more complicated. "She...didn't? Even though she wanted Gayatri, so why..." No, that isn't important, that isn't the main point, stop diverting, stop PROCRASTINATING ON IT-
"Teletha Testarossa. Jindai High School, Japan." Stated flatly, fishing her wallet out and showing just a glimpse of a card. The card of a Colonel of Mithril, before just as quickly shuttling it away. "I'm here because of...a lot of things." Let the ambiguity hang. "Not that you'll be kidnapped or anything. I can guarantee that much."
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"A certain point...?"
Shari wonders. But indeed, in that moment she isn't trusting--and that doesn't change until Tessa says a particular thing. It isn't the question of Gayatri. It isn't her name, though her school helps. She looks at the card, and catches some details.
"...Oh." Pause. It's the assurance. "Well, if you're not going to kidnap me or something," Shari says, "Then I'm willing to talk. I do want to know more about stuff. So, I'll tell you why Yuliana didn't want me."
"Partly because she's already got me--but mostly because Elisa intervened. Yuliana doesn't recognize what I am because Elisa doesn't want her to. Probably because I'm useful... I think she likes me OK, but you can't really count on her to care about anyone but Yuliana."
"I shouldn't talk too much about them, but I'll give you that much, since I want to be... fair."
"I'm from Ashford Academy. Area 11. I don't have any fancy credentials unless you want to see my Inter-school Coordinator card."
"..You wanna sit down? It's awkward talking to somebody standing up."
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
There's only silence as Tessa listens on, the minute adjustments to slip that wallet into a secretive pocket on the dress; It pays to be doubly-paranoid about credentials, even if the card itself was only one of multiple authentication measures. "Because her wife doesn't want her to?" Curiouser. Stranger. "I'll be the first to admit I haven't been the most diligent about either one's activities, but to think they're even keeping secrets from each other is concerning."
A nod. "I'm not optimistic enough to see you suddenly turncoat." A turn on her heel, jerking her chin towards a public bench lined by a few decorative trees. Wide enough area to spot anyone coming towards the two, public enough that two girls sitting there wouldn't be out of the ordinary. And yet, the silvernette has a smile. "Though if you'd love to, please tell me."
Sitting down and streeeetching as one trying to maintain professional decorum could, shoulders slumping the slightest bit. "Ashford, huh...So many places harboring so many people nowadays. IN the interest of not keeping you too long...First off, are you aware of what you are?" The hypothesis in her mind after brushing against the Omnisphere. The pins and needles in the head at the eyes.
"Namely, you felt those eyes, did you not? Over at the REA."
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"Mm. Yeah." Shari could elaborate... But Tessa didn't come here to talk about them, so she doesn't elaborate too much. "It'd be inconvenient for me if you did start," she admits. "Since I'm helping them and all. But I understand if you need to. Just be careful. They're not... to be messed with."
Shari stands up to shift over to the bench there--and smiles. But it's a wan sort of smile, rather than a very happy one. "I'm afraid that's not possible," she says. "No matter what I want, I can't."
Shari takes another seat. "Is there a thing I am?" Shari wonders, which is a 'no'. "I've never heard of a name. But I've 'felt' people like me before. We're not Newtypes, right? It's different."
But the eyes...
"Yeah," Shari says. "I get those all the time. She--the uh. The presence in the Void. She's watching me a lot of the time. She gets... jealous."
"When I don't do what She says, it's bad."
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
"I understand." A warning was a warning, however non-threatening it may be at first. To underestimate a couple who had that sort of influence, to disseminate those flyers, to leave behind flowers that never changed...Mildly concerning, at minimum. Deathly serious, at absolute worst.
"...I see." She doesn't push on that point. Everyone has their reasons, and there's no pity in that statement. There's only...a slight pang of wonder, of being invisibly trapped like that. "I hope you have the freedom to choose eventually."
"Yes. Thanks to what you've said, it's impossible to tell you everything. As much as there's people on your end who you can't talk about, I'm of the same sort." A frown. "Though, if I know my brother, he hasn't told either of them yet, which means..." There's a moment of mental deliberation in the open, Tessa's face twitching as she worked through the thought processes for a moment.
"The official terminology that we're using is Whispered. We're not Newtypes. Something else entirely." Just a bit. Just a bit to give the reassurance that there are other people out there. The smallest bit of information to dribble out, blood to a shark, olive branch to an animal. "From what I've experienced, its best to call them a distant relative of sorts. I don't believe Zeon Zem Deikun anticipated us, anymore so than the rise of Cyber-Newtypes or Coordinators."
A breath. "I can't stop what you're doing, but I at least want you to know your lot in life." Those eyes. Those damn eyes. "So its a sentient thing? Her? She?"
The obvious question. "And is She watching right now?"
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"Good."
Shari gives another lopsided smile. "That'd be nice," she says. "I guess if it were just me... Mm. it doesn't matter."
"That's fair," Shari says. "Leina said the same to me. It'd be nice to know more, but we might be on opposite sides again sometime." She wonders about Tessa's brother in the moment. But she doesn't sk; that's an obvious frown point.
Instead, "...Whispered," she says. "That makes sense." It's a little bit, but it is something, and Shari latches onto it. "Yeah... It's not a space thing. No, Leina tells me Newtypes aren't a space thing either. Anyway."
"...Thanks," Shari says. "I can't stop what I'm doing either, so..."
Pause. "Yeah. She's definitely sentient. She's not... like you or me, though. She's bigger." Shari pauses, and closes her eyes. "I don't think so. I'd feel it, if She were. It's... not good for me, when She is. If you heard me... sounding kind of weird, during that incident? That's what it's like when She's around. And that's if She's not angry with me."
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
She allows the matter to settle. There's no reason to pine for the current impossible.
"I don't have doubts that we will. With the paths we're following right now, we're bound to fight eventually." The fatalistic admission. Shari's in Yuliana's camp. It's a done deal unless there's something to break her free from it. Something more drastic than she can think of in the current moment.
"Newtypes...If people could find out what exactly they were...I wonder how many would try to stop it." A flat question of wonderment. "When you have some wanting to kill on sight, it's hard to get a true answer."
"And I'm not going from my path," so says the Colonel of the seas.
A beat. "Ah, so that was..." Tapping a finger against her own cheek, brushing the tip of her braid against her nose. Calm down. Calm down. "I didn't catch a glimpse of her myself. Only the feeling of her gaze."
"...It took a few sleeping pills to be able to rest properly the day after."
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"Yeah..." Shari sighs. "I don't really want to fight anybody," she admits. "All I want to do right now is meet this guy I've been texting with. Maybe see the city some."
Newtypes, though... "It's weird. Yuliana feels the way she does about Newtypes, but she and the Silent Calling are still helping them--breaking them out of labs, and stuff. I don't really get it..."
The Colonel is so unwavering. Shari doesn't think she could ever be that way.
"It's like that," Shari says, grimacing in sympathy. "I have nightmares all the time. When She's mad, I... see things. I hear things. It hurts. ...But I shouldn't talk too much about that, probably."
"She got jealous when Leina met me, too. But she doesn't seem to care after the first time. Maybe it's something about a first meeting that gets Her attention? I don't know."
"...She's some kind of god, I think. That's why you can't help me. No one can."
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
"...I have to. That's why I'm there in the first place." Though... "...Am I interrupting a date?" Wait. Oh. Oh damn it she should've been more CAREFUL- "Or are you two just looking for each other?"
Don't mull over it. Only the thought of what lies next. She can focus on Kaname and Sousuke afterwards. "Ah, you make it sound so complicated. I can't figure her out either, especially when she's seemingly turncoat every few days...It's hard to get a bead on her." Or her wife. Or their operation. Something in the background, churning, pieceing together, to some unknown end.
There is only the grim nod of understanding. "The stuff in your head, from what you are. That can also happen, not just outside influences. Keep yourself steady, and don't push yourself too deep into letting the outside in." Basic understanding of the voices that Whisper from afar.
She. She. The ephermeal She. The one that scratched at her mind twice over now. It's a strange sensation. "Some kind of..." God. Divinity. Deity. Grace. The words of assuming something greater than the self. "But it's something."
"You can put a concept to it. Something tangible." Eyes. They're tangible. Voices. Tangible. If it were something truly inhuman...Madness would've coated her eyes. "I won't say I can get you out, but I don't believe something that can have a conceptual boundary can necessarily be uncontained forever."
Nihilistically optimistic. It's better to hope.
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
"I see." Pause--Shari shakes her head quickly. "No, no. We're going to meet up later; I only just got off the train. We're not supposed to meet for an hour or two yet."
But Yuliana, "She is complicated. She used to hate Newtypes, now she's got this whole... 'I can save them from themselves', paternalistic kindness thing going. That's why I don't get it. But as long as they're helping people I don't feel so bad helping out with those parts, at least."
The stuff in her head... "Yeah," Shari says. "I've experienced that, too. The stuff I can make... It's crazy. But it's not crazy. I understand it. I know how it all works; I know all about extracting energy from that dimension. It's an incredible power source. Except the way that Elisa uses it--that's weird." Keep herself steady, and... "Okay. I'll try."
"Something...?"
"I guess," Shari admits. "I hadn't thought of it that way."
"...You're not the first person to say there's 'hope'," she says. "I'll believe it when I see it. But thanks for thinking about it, I guess."
Fatigue. Despair. But a little nugget of... something, something else, a tiny flame to be nurtured.
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
"Oh, good..." ...Was that worry wafting off of her? The importance of keeping someone waiting was a sacred bond, something that she couldn't really try to do...! But an hour? That's more than enough time. Plenty of time.
"...I..." Save them from themselves. An inherently selfish and selfless thing on both sides of the boundary. "I understand that sentiment, a little bit." Saving others. As many people as possible. Ending operations with no one dead. "Just do what you can."
"Exactly. To see the knowledge there, but not knowing how you learned it." She keeps quiet about the small tidbits. Things to file later, things to try and investigate even though there's the suspicion she won't learn anything. "From the sphere where She resides?" Another approach.
"Something tangible that can be made into a physical thing means that there's a chance. I'll believe in that chance, even if I don't know what will be at the end of that road." As much as there's the apprehension about...Her? Such an odd name, such intangibility... "Does. Does She, the one who keeps looking at you...Do they have a name?"
"Mhm. Hope's something that you can't give. I know." Something that you can't exactly force someone to cultivate inside, no matter how hard you try. The simmering embers in her own heart attest to that. "I'm sure that one day, it'll be something you see."
The sparks of wanting to yearn for a better future, stoked.
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
Shari marvels a little; this serious Colonel can contain that kind of worry, too. And on her account, for something like her meeting a boy!
"Yeah, it's cool," Shari says.
Then, Tessa seems to understand the sentiment Yuliana has. "I'm glad you do. I still don't. But.." She considers. "I'll do that. What I can."
"Yeah, that's it," Shari says, enthused at least that someone else knows it. "Mm-hm," she answers about the energy. "It's not Her energy--I know that much. It's just, energy from where She... is."
Shari is pretty sure apprehension is exactly the right feeling to have about Her. Sympathy radiates from Shari; there is little that could make her feel more connected to Tessa than this. "...I don't know," Shari says. "If She has a name, She's never told it to me. But we call her the Empress at the End of All Things."
Something you can't give. Shari never thought of it that way. The question in her is obvious. "...That'd be nice," she says, instead of 'that's impossible', this time.
"Do you..." Shari hesitates. "Do you want my number? You can probably get it on your own with your fancy intel, but..."
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
It's only fair. Even if you're meeting someone for the first time, its proper decorum, proper respect for the other to be there at the appointed time. Something to be said about connections with others...SHari can't be late. She can't be.
"That's all I can hope for." Hope's a word that has so much weight to it. To hope for something is to place your feelings on someone, bit by bit...Was it the right call? No Whispers in her head could talk cohesively about manipulating someone.
That, she had to learn on her own.
"Ah...From there. I'd love to see it, if you ever have the chance." Energy from the Omnisphere? An interesting phenomenon, something that...can definitely be useful. "There's Japanium from the Photon Power Lab, the psycommu metal that Cathedra is wrangling up, but to harvest from there..." Maybe for a TAROS, or for a Lambda Driver, that liquid of possibility that powers the undefinable.
"...It's a name, which is more than I knew five seconds ago." The Empress at the End of All Things. "Thank you for that." Empress...
"If only things were so easy." Hope is never easy. Resignation was. Take the hard way.
"...Sure, though I can't say I have my own phone. You'll know when it's me, Shari." She does, however, pull out a bill. "Here. Treat him well, and make this a night you won't forget." To sightsee and to sample the local cuisine. There's also the minor thought, the black under the warmth.
If she learns of life outside of Yuliana and Elisa, that's something to hook on. Insurance money.
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
Shari really wants that meeting to go well.
If Shari feels she's being manipulated, she hasn't said so--but then, that's the trick of manipulating someone. Making sure they don't feel that way.
"Hmmmm," Shari says. "If I get the chance... it probably couldn't hurt to show you. I'll have to think about it, though." She could now, but... Not in that form. No, that wouldn't be right at all. "It's pretty much limitless energy though. It could be used for a lot of things. ...Elisa happens to use it for mind control and stuff. But it doesn't have to do that."
More than she knew before? "Well, you're welcome. We'll see if She minds that I told you that, I guess."
It's not easy, no. But...
"OK," Shari says. She rattles off her number, next--and blinks, taking the bill. Then she smiles, at what Tessa says. "...Sure," she says. "I'm sure it will be. I've... really been looking forward to it." There is something else there--that warmth, over the black. A quiet hope, bubbling up inside her.
Maybe it's a start.
<Pose Tracker> Teletha Testarossa has posed.
Tessa can only hope that the meeting will go well.
"Take your time. Considering the circumstances, it may be a while before we see each other in this manner." There's the ringing of the trains; The carts moving in and out, shuffling people about. A glance every so often at one of them, silver eyes flicking to read at a digital sign and back at Shari.
If She minds? She. Her. The Empress. Concort it into a dual meaning. She. "Ahaha, I hope not..."
Tessa doesn't take her eyes off that bill, lips curving into a smile as she stands up. There's no need to write down a series of easily memorized numbers. "And if he turns out to be a terrible person, let me know, okay? Or Leina, she's good at those kinds of things." ...Wait, if Leina was the one, then, that would possibly mean...
...In-ter-est-ing.
"...If you see her before me, tell Leina that we're doing well." As if on perfect cue, a train screeched onto the platform, doors opening up as the Colonel stretched. "Better than the last time she saw me. And when I see you next, tell me all about this date of yours, okay?"
Answer or not, she stepped into that train. Ah, this was the right one, towards a secondary location: Mass Village.
<Pose Tracker> Shari Loom has posed.
<poem>
"Oh... yeah," Shari answers, getting Tessa's meeting. The ringing of the trains happens. Shari notices the glances, but only now.
Shari also hopes not. But she does like Tessa's smile in the moment. "Sure," Shari says of if. She doesn't think he will--she 'hopes' he won't. But it feels more than hope. Maybe because 'hope' seems so small and unattainable to her.
"...Cool," Shari answers, at the 'if'. And then--
"I will!"
It's a promise, if a small one. And Shari likes the feeling of it.