2023-09-23: Threats of Daily Reminders
- Log: 2023-09-23: Threats of Daily Reminders
- Cast: Leina Ashta, Rena Lancaster
- Where: Barcelona, AEU Spain
- OOC - IC Date: 2023-09-23
- Summary: Rena takes her first trip to Earth after the Denver Colony incident, where she is reunited with Leina. The two have a long talk and Leina threatens armed intervention regarding Rena's self-esteem. Celestial Being might be jealous.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
It's currently a mild late summer day, as the seasonal weather starts giving way towards fall. It is thus something 'in-between' in this small town on the Valencian coast.
And one Leina Ashta sits at a cafe, an espresso in hand, as her fingertips clack away on laptop keys. What's she working on?
Homework. Makeup homework. She had missed SO MUCH school. And while she was already repeating the year due to absences, it was a year that had ALMOST been completed.
So, a deal was struck. It's interesting how reasonable school administration can be when the government is backing said deal.
Mostly at this point she's old enough that she could just take an exam, but graduating? Walking at graduation? That milestone, it was actually important to her. And thus... infinite, makeup, work.
The cafe has a few more people present, because Benerit has plain clothes security set up following her all the time. And while ordinarily she hated that kind of thing... recent events had driven home for her perhaps, the grim necessity of it.
It's also where Leina is set to meet Rena today. Give the security some credit, they're not enclosed in enough to eavesdrop, to make this uncomfortable for Rena, to make her feel unable to talk, and they're blending in well...
... but they're certainly there.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
Rena has been a little out of the loop since Denver Colony.
She kept Leina updated through text messages -- it wasn't hard to figure out that Leina was busy, and Rena got some of the details. Working with a group in the Federation, which wants to combat some of the same stuff they did -- not that Rena is inclined to trust that, after how her stint in the Federation went -- and those negotiations won the Three Ships Alliance some breathing room.
This is her first time on Earth, since the incident. She has a medical monitoring bracelet on; Dr. Bidan and Fa wanted to be sure there wasn't anything strange with the Psychoframe shard in her and the rigors of a shuttle doing atmospheric reentry.
She walks up to the cafe, wearing a button-up dark blue shirt and black slacks. Just below her collarbone, there is a gleam of deep blue. The same Psychoframe shard. Leina heard about that, too.
"Leina!" Rena says, as she approaches.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"Rena!" Leina calls out, not giving in to the impulse to call her Renalle as she stops typing, shifting the labtop aside.
There's a curious look beneath Rena's collarbone, because certainly... she's heard, but also for someone who has been exposed to a lot of Psycho-frame.
She certainly feels it.
"Huh."
That's her full assessment, at the moment, not something she's trying to call too much attention to, as she smiles at her, and stands up, pushing out her seat for the shorter girl to give her a fierce hug.
"Sorry I missed doing that sooner. It was a whole thing." She murmurs to her, "Glad to see you up and about, I was so worried about you."
As her grip loosens, she invites her over, "And I'm so glad you're here! It's all on me today. How are you feeling? Was your flight comfortable? Hope it wasn't too much trouble getting down here in your condition!"
She's definitely fussing. She's very much fussing over her.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"Hey," Rena says, with a smile, and she walks over. She blinks at the hug -- then she laughs, her arms thrown around Leina and hugging her back. She stays there, for a second; she can't quite see the way the little bit of crystal visible on her gleams.
It might be a little annoying, the way it can just do that.
"I missed this," she says, with a sigh, and she pulls back. "It's okay. I picked an awful time for this." She says it with a smile, though. "I was worried about you, too, and--and everyone else."
She hesitates for a second. Fussing, indeed.
"Th-thanks, Leina," she says "I'm doing better. I'm a little stiff, but now that I can walk around more, that's going away fast. The flight was fine, and it was okay, um--it's really safe, I've even done a couple test flights--"
She laughs. "Seriously, it's okay. I mean, as okay as having a piece of crystal shot through my chest can be. So, um. Yeah! Okay with an asterisk!"
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"Oh psh." Leina said dismissively, "As if you picked it at all! Please." Taking her own seat back, "Good, good. No weird side effects or anything?"
She asks, as if concerned, "Huh, so soon? Well - if you were feeling up to it, I get it. I'm glad you've been so quick on the mend."
And then what Rena says, causes an amused look and a grin as she lifts a cup of espresso back to her lips, "That's, a big Asterisk. An Axis sized one." Leina winks at her as she takes a sip.
Before she gives her a more serious look, "You're sure? It's okay if you're not. I'm here for you, if 'not' being okay for someone is what you need."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"Nothing big," Rena says. "It's... a little weird. I can sense the Gaia Gear from basically wherever I am. It's faint, right now, since it's up with the Ra Mari II. And it's... affecting my awareness, in the usual ways."
Like always having a little bit of Psychoframe with her. Leina has experience with that.
She laughs a little, then she nods. "Yeah. I'm not rushing it, I promise. I've still got some restrictions. They wanted to make sure I can be in the cockpit at all," she says. "And--"
She holds up her wrist monitor. "They're keeping an eye on me." She hesitates for a second, then. Then, Rena looks down.
"I'm... doing my best," she settles on. "I don't think I'm ever going to stop blaming myself, a little, for everything that happened. If I'd done something differently, if I'd not gone in at all, if I'd..." Rena shakes her head.
"...It's a lot," she says. "But... I'm working on not being that hard on myself."
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"Huh." Leina says after a moment, brow furrowing, "Me and Banagher can do the same with the Banshee and the Unicorn... it's... just the bond we both have with them, but... that still seems a bit different."
Leina gives her a look that's not quite concern so much as it's... "Nanai Miguel once told him and Mineva she intended Psycho-frame to be an aperture. She actually was training children off small pieces of Psycho-frame, the size of Go stones."
In fact, Leina reaches into her purse, and takes out one. It truly doesn't look any different from a Go stone, just faintly crystalline.
"Like this one." She slides it over to the center of the table, but she doesn't force Rena to take it.
"I think it's a wise precaution at least, until we know exactly how it affects you."
She then listens to her, and there's a nod, a thoughtful look...
"Well. If it helps, those are all the kinds of thoughts I was dealing with for years regarding Elpeo. Things I could have done differently, blaming myself for not reaching out to her..."
There's a quiet sigh, "I've come to terms with it but I don't think I'll ever completely stop?" There's eventually just this, faint smile, "Our feelings just get, stupid sometimes. We don't give ourselves the grace we'd give other people. I bet you'd say right now to me 'none of that is your fault'! like instantly right?"
Leina reaches a hand across the table, as she tells her, "You'll get there, little by little, it's just hard at first. But-" She gives Rena a more serious look, "-maybe it's best to put it this way, a lesson I perhaps learned a little too late."
A pause and...
"I don't think you'd beat yourself up so much if you were a bad person, Rena. The fact that you do, is evidence that you're not. And you should remember that, as you're struggling with this."
Again that smile returns, "We fought tooth and nail up there for you - because all of us know, without a doubt, that our lives are better for having you here with us."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"Yeah," Rena says. "I never did before, but... I don't know if it's because it's not a full Psychoframe unit, if I'd just not really bonded yet, or..." She motions to the little bit of crystal.
Then, she tilts her head -- and takes the small, smooth stone. She turns it over in her fingers, before she nods.
"I guess that makes sense," she says. She hesitates. "I guess I'll be a bit of a test case for long-term Psychoframe use in people. But... so far, so good."
She quiets down, as Leina explains -- fighting back an impulse to say that what happened with Elpeo isn't her fault. Then, she nods, as she listens.
"I..."
A bad person wouldn't beat themselves up over it. She can't argue with the logic -- it doesn't make it so easy for her to internalize it, still -- and she smiles a little. Rena looks down, for a moment.
"...Yeah," she says. "I... I know. I heard what all of you told me. And that you risked a lot to save me, too. I'll... I'll always be grateful. And I won't make light of what you did, by saying I'm not worth it."
Rena shakes her head. "I don't have that luxury, any more. So I'll need to start believing I am."
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"It's hard to say, really. Even the people who manufacture these kinds of units, don't really understand them." Then softer, "Dr. Murasame didn't despite him - pulling off things in these that noone really had before."
Perhaps that's in part why Cathedra finds it so dangerous, that this technology can't REALLY be understood what it's capable of.
That it reacts so differently to different people, in different units, in different capacities.
"You shouldn't have to be." Leina points out, "And if it ever starts going weird places... we may need to consider options."
Her eyes shift to the side, "I almost lost Banagher to his soul becoming a part of Psycho-frame forever... it was... so close. I don't really want to lose you too."
Her eyes drift down for a time, as if she's still dealing with unresolved feelings over all of that. But they return to Rena as she speaks, "Good. You'll get there, sooner than you think I bet."
She grins at Rena, "And if you need it, offering a free service where I just - text you or call you every day to drill those beliefs into you."
At first it sounds like mostly a joke, but then... "I'll really do it~" ... perhaps more like a playful threat.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"Yeah," Rena agrees, quietly. "I don't think they know what they built. It's... kind of sad, really. They never really considered all of the things they could do."
She doesn't need to explain more, really. Psychoframe has mostly been a source of fear -- or a source of a miracle, in an emergency. They never really had the chance to put it to another use, or even find out if it could.
Rena hesitates, though, when Leina says that.
Then, she shakes her head. "I... already had a brush with that, when I was trapped in there. With them," Rena explains. "I don't want to leave this world behind. I won't be doing that. If anything comes of this, I'd like it to be figuring out how people can coexist with it long-term."
She smiles, then, and tilts her head. Sooner than she thinks?
She laughs, and holds both of her hands up. "W-Well... I won't say no," she says. "And it would be nice to hear from you, since... you know, I know you're going to school."
And some other things, besides.
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"Definitely wasn't... intended this way." Leina says with a notable wince, "Nanai's apprentice ah- lemme put it this way, she called the RX-0's an abomination."
That definitely says a lot when it comes to Anaheim and Vist not really considering the... intent of the creator.
It comes to the subject of... Rena having a brush with that, and Leina looks briefly alarmed, before she reminds herself that he's still here.
"I'm... glad you don't. I'm glad you're still here."
She lets herself take a deep breath at that. "Well... if that's what you want to find out, then I'll support you. Just... know, if things don't work out, I'll support you finding an exit ramp, okay?"
Before she laughs, as things turn to a lighter subject.
"Then I'll do it. Every day." She grins at her, "Yeah. School and other things is accurate."
Leina does seem to be assessing her, making certain that she's not... feeling guilt off of her in regards to that.
"It's a good deal by the way. Eight was worried that... I was sacrificing myself, but I promise it's not that. It's, just doing my part for progress? For making certain the good will of Mineva's message keeps spreading."
She does at least feel resolved on the matter? But there are certainly some anxieties and doubts, as there are with any life changes.
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"Mm."
Rena shakes her head. "I don't think that's right. They're dangerous, but... it's more complicated than that," she says. "I don't think we should be so quick to say they shouldn't exist."
She nods, then, as she looks at Leina. She hesitates, just as she considers it. "I will," she says. "And... don't worry. The only test I'm planning to do is just go through each day."
And take plenty of data about what she experiences, too.
At the subject change, though, Rena laughs -- and she doesn't quite feel guilt about it. But, as far as she knows, it's something that Leina agreed to. Which it is, but...
"I trust you," Rena says. "And I trust Eight. I don't want you to think of it as a burden you're taking for us. But... if you think it'll help, I support you. And..."
It's a shade of what Leina said, a moment before. "If something changes, you know who you can turn to."
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"I don't think it's right either - but I do think that, most people who desire Psycho-frame, want it all the wrong reasons."
Is perhaps Leina's way of putting it, "I know it's a stretch to trust the Federation, but I support it's regulation... because... imagine a Newtype Arms Race."
It's, easy enough to imagine, with Haman's Neo-Zeon. If they hadn't destroyed themselves in a Civil War...
...it might be their world right now.
"Maybe things will be different some day, but right now - once we open that box, it can never be closed again."
Leina says quietly to Rena as her eyes slowly close, "I don't want kids in the Colonies to wake up to seeing rainbow light and then - nothing, as their entire world turns to dust."
It's a stark image, but it's not that difficult to imagine.
Her eyes open, and she smiles at her, "Thank you. And I promise you, if things don't work out - I know I have people I can rely upon."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"I think you're right," Rena says, with a nod. "Most people who pursue it... it's not for a good reason."
She hesitates for a second -- and she can imagine it. It wouldn't be a stretch that someone might try make ten Mobile Armors like the Neo Zeong -- stripped down to be mass produced, yet with enough Psychoframe to do considerable damage.
Her nose wrinkles, and then she looks down. "Yeah. I don't want that, either. So... we have to make it so they have a future, and make sure that future is bright," she says. "And we can't ignore the Federation."
Unless, she thinks, the Federation destroys itself. The recent news about the OCU and OAC gives her pause.
Rena smiles after a moment. "You can!" she says. "And... you know. The fun stuff, too. Going to university! And there's you and Banagher, too~."
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
The recent news... definitely gives her pause. However, she does believe that at the very least, those blocs won't be able to shut Cathedra and it's enforcement out.
After all, the Benerit Group is now the dominant power for manufacturing mobile suits. If one wants those weapons at all...
... then one will have to submit to Cathedra's regulations for their territory.
Rena however mentions, 'the fun stuff' as well as 'going to university' and 'you and Banagher.'
Leina's eyelashes flutter for a moment, before she then leans forward, a palm on her chin, an elbow on the table.
"'The fun stuff' And then all of those things, almost within the same breath." She gives her this coy look, "Renalle, was that a roundabout way of asking about my sex life?"
Leina teases her, and then with a wink, "No need to be shy, we're pretty open about that kind of thing here in Spain."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"Oh my God," Rena sputters when Leina says that. Then she laughs, holding up both of her hands. "No, no--I mean, I assumed you're not doing bad there, given... you know."
She is also dating two people.
Then, she lifts an eyebrow. "I didn't realize about Spain, though. I guess I don't quite know my Earth countries as well as I thought."
She leans back in her chair. "But sure. Fun stuff. Love life and not-so-much."
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
Leina laughs at Rena's reaction, with this small grin on her face, "You're soooo adorable." She can definitely see how her friend is dating Eight and Annie both.
"I mean, I didn't either until I lived here. It's! You know. So different from Space? There's a whole nationalistic identity thing and rivalry here over borders."
A fingertip points up, "Whereas up there - it's like, what borders? You just identify with the Colony you grew up on, and it's tough to think outside of what's around you."
Whereas when it comes to fun stuff, "Well. Beyond all that, there's no travel restrictions? They don't even mind if I travel to Magallanica, though they want security to always come with me."
Leina rolls her eyes, "Corporate shuttles and mobile suit escorts and all the rich person stuff I hate." She does sound exasperated, "But, I guess, after what happened the last time I got you know, kidnapped? That I can deal with it."
As she then sums it up by simply saying cheerfully, "So don't think for a moment I'm gonna avoid all of you once I get caught up. In fact, my goal will be that you're all complaining about seeing too much of me for years to come."
<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.
"That," Rena complains, her face still red, "is not playing fair."
Though she smiles when she says it, and she looks back at Leina, and her eyes follow her fingertip. "Yeah," she says. "That makes sense. Growing up in Winter Wonderland... I mean, it's no wonder I ended up friends with who I did. All of us knew the world was bigger than the colony's walls."
She cracks a smile when Leina rolls her eyes.
"Yeah, the security's... I can't say I'm totally bothered," she admits. "And you better visit! Banagher will be sad if you don't. And me too!" she says. "I still need to get you out with me and Annie to something. And we've gotta see Eight's kids, and once Eight can go somewhere again, we gotta take her out."
She laughs. "There's a lot you just can't miss."
<Pose Tracker> Leina Ashta has posed.
"It certainly isn't~" Leina says back playfully, "Deal with it." As she grins, since she is fair in most things.
Teasing her friends is turning out to not be one of them.
"Yeah that makes a lot of sense." There's this almost rueful smile, "Makes me wonder, if I'd grown up there rather than - left Shangri-La, if we'd have been friends. Before we did, we just... had no idea."
Rena isn't bothered, "Of course you're not." Leina scowls, but it's not truly one she's upset about, "Mom wanted me to have a bodyguard for years. Even if she'd never say it, the outcome sure feels like one big 'I told you so.'"
There's a grin at her, "What on like some, double date or something? Sure. I'm game for that." As she then says airily, "I have no intention of missing a single thing ever again."
Before she then smiles, and says quiet, sweet, "We both have a whole lot of living to do, together."