2022-11-22: "That Hero of Yours"
- Log: "That Hero of Yours"
- Cast: Mic Sounders the 13th, Ennil El
- Where: J-Ark, Unknown Spatial Coordinates
- OOC - IC Date: 0096-11-22
- Summary: Mic Sounders needs a little cheering up. Fortunately, making new friends is easy, especially compared to ending sentient life.
<Pose Tracker> Mic Sounders the 13th has posed.
The J-Ark is a massive vessel, standing proud and defiant in space as if daring others to attempt to best it. It and everything on it is bathed in the vivid orange of sunset, the sunset that Ruin Apostles must bring upon all life for the sake of the universe. And among its personnel are mechanical giants, the sapient, Super AI Brave Robots Corp.
And one of them is in the hull, sulking and sniffling.
Even if he can't cry real tears, Mic can simulate big, sad, goopy eyes with his HUD display. There are several crumpled oil cans that Piggy hasn't gotten around to picking up yet. Despite the blush displayed on his HUD alongside those sad eyes and his best attempts, he cannot actually drink away his sorrows.
Because, in a rare moment of careful judgment, Liger did not install 'drunk.exe' into Mic Sounders.
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
Ennil El is not a member of the Brave Corps, Robo or no. Not for lack of camraderie on the part of her fellow Ruin Disciples, either - whatever Triple Zero has changed about them, it has not eroded their sense of brotherhood.
It's just that she isn't really used to the superhero vibe. Super AIs are a fact of life, but Ennil's particular world had never really included all that many sentient robots.
Much less the... strangely animated Mic Sounders the 13th, who sometimes feels like a mascot costume come to life. But this particular distress is one Ennil can actually understand, in part because she was present for the events that inspired it. And she's doing her best to be more involved with others, as strangely pointless as that seems in the face of the undeniable Cosmic Will.
"You, uh... is that good for you?" She glances around at the emptied-out oil can debris. Well, what does she know about how a Brave Robo works? "You know what. Don't worry about that. I'm guessing... that ninja guy was somebody you knew, huh?"
<Pose Tracker> Mic Sounders the 13th has posed.
Interrupted from his sulk-fest by a voice he knows but doesn't know very well yet, Mic sniffs and looks down at Ennil.
"It's okay. Mic has good fuel storage." He taps the middle of his blocky chassis with one of his rather stubby hands.
But when she brings up Volfogg, he starts sniffling again. It's a simulated sound, of course, but pretty realistic, as his mouth draws into a wrinkly frown. "Volfogg is smart and brave and cool, and now we lost him! He was helping me run training protocols. And I miss him." He wipes at his 'eyes' with his 'hand', even though there's nothing there to wipe. He's picked up on a lot of human body language.
Splaying his big feet out in his sitting position, he gives Ennil another look. "You just joined us, right? You're our new friend?"
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
Navigating what exactly makes a person who is a machine distinct from either a machine or a person is too much thinking for Ennil right now. Especially because she wasn't... really planning on a conversation at all, with how intense the past few days have been, until she heard the big guy sniffling. She's still holding a plastic bag over one shoulder, with the mark of a Tsutsujidai shop. A single fluffy ear is breaking the surface line. So she just shrugs and decides to stick with 'person' for the time being.
"He seemed pretty dependable. Not that he's gone, uh - It seemed like... The guys who grabbed him, it's not like they just got rid of him! They were pretty careful to hold onto his AI block." She tries to put on an optimistic smile. "So. It could still work out, right?"
He's like a big kid. It actually takes Ennil back, and her expression softens a bit as he sits. "I guess so, yeah. There's someone here I wanted to -- " She has to stop herself there. What she'd originally wanted... wasn't so different from what just happened to Volfogg. "Well, I wanted to make sure she was being treated like a friend. But you guys are alright. I'm Ennil."
<Pose Tracker> Mic Sounders the 13th has posed.
"Mamoru won't destroy Volfogg," Mic asserts, some of his energy back just from talking to someone else. "Mamoru's a hero! That's why we have to convince him to stop opposing us and join us. But I don't know how! And now Volfogg might forget about the Oath too. We were warned never to let anyone purify us, or-or we'd lose our way." He fidgets, tapping his chubby fingers together.
"Ennil. Ennil has a friend here? Then she's my friend too now, and so are you!" Given his shape, he can only kind of crouch down to offer Ennil a huge hand to shake. "I'm Mic Sounders the 13th! I'm glad you joined us. You, uh, did, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
"Mamoru... a hero, huh? I don't know much about heroes, but it seems like there's a lot of them around here." Still, it does do her some good to see him stop sniffling. And he focuses on her, introducing himself and leaning down to greet her.
"That's a pretty unique name." She grins, reaching out to tap one of his big fingers, the shift in her stance forcing her to lower the bag a bit - there's a Sheryl CD in there along with some other odds and ends - and does her best to match the big bot's energy. "Loni Garvey. She's with some of the others - and she was the one who brought me here, too. But the Chief decided I'd be more useful in Tsutsujidai, I guess. Until things didn't work out. I heard you were there too for a while -- How'd you like it?"
It's a very precious place to her, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Mic Sounders the 13th has posed.
"Mamoru was Mic's best friend! We sent him and Ikumi through the ES-Gate so they could live on. But then we learned it's not good for anyone to live on. I thought he would understand, but he keeps opposing us! I'm trying not to be mad at him..."
His optical cameras zoom in on the bag, curious mech that he is, and he beams, his mood changing on a dime. "Oh, that's a Sheryl CD! I love Sheryl Nome! There was someone singing a Sheryl Nome song at the mall! It wasn't her but she had a great voice! I need to track her down someday." Never mind that he was just talking about annihilating all life. "Tsutsujidai is nice! Made a friend there too. We played airsoft. Mic had to go easy because he's a lot bigger. Hmm, what else...lots of kaiju, but only sometimes."
Thinking of Tsutsujidai, and Volfogg's loss, just starts reminding him of Bad Things again. He wants to mope and drink more oil until his tank hurts, but he can't do that with company nearby! He's a social mech. So he jumps on the subject change happily.
"Loni, Loni Garvey..." He leans back, his HUD display briefly turning to a scan of names, then question marks. "I have her listed as personnel but I don't know anything else about her. Is she nice?"
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
"Wow. Sounds like you had a lot of adventures. I mostly met Akane Shinjo... and a few of her friends. That's actually where I got the CD! A friend of mine is a big Sheryl fan. I hope we can still be friends." Which is a strange thing to say, since eventually she'll have to --
She can tell he's having a bit of a rough time with it though. Since his pal's gone, and all.
"Nice? You know... We only got to spend a little time together, but I think she must be." It's actually an interesting question for her. She cared a lot about rescuing Loni, before she came here... "A lot of people cared about her, and they were worried when she disappeared, the first time Amuro came back. We have a lot in common, though." She smiles. "I'm glad people here care about her too. I wish she didn't have to fight, but... I guess we have to do what's best, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Mic Sounders the 13th has posed.
"Oh, Amuro! I haven't gotten to meet him yet, but he's super famous!" Mic says as if Ennil and literally everyone else in the solar system has not heard of him. Excitement is back in his digitized voice, his eyes displaying big stars. "And Akane Shinjo is, uh, uh..."
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"Super important in Tsutsujidai! I haven't met her either but I bet she's cool. Anyway, people here will be very nice to Loni! Mic will make sure of it!" He puffs out his metal cheeks and makes little fists of DETERMINATION.
And then something occurs to him.
"Hey, Ennil? Can I ask a question? GGG Command told me it's hard to get people to really understand the Oath Over Omega, but you joined us. How did Loni convince you...?"
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
Well. That's an interesting question, huh? It's not as if it hasn't happened - Loni and Amuro are proof of that, that it's not just the folks from GGG who embraced the Oath Over Omega.
But how did it happen for Ennil?
"Well I'd actually come to... Try and stop Loni. I thought someone was forcing her to fight. It's an awful thing that happens too often on Earth..." This time, it's Ennil's turn to be bummed out. "When someone is being hurt and everyone ignores it, I get really mad. So I tried to fight back against something I thought was bad. It didn't really work, and... a nice boy who was trying to help me got hurt in the process. I felt awful. It didn't make sense why that happened." It's hard to look at that big goofy glowing screen and be anything less than earnest, though.
"It was Loni who let me know that it was okay. And that she wanted people to stop getting hurt, too." She takes a deep breath. "It still doesn't really make me happy, that this is the only way. But it's better for people to not be sad anymore, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Mic Sounders the 13th has posed.
"Forced to fight!? That's awful! Poor Loni! Mic hates when people are being hurt too!" And Mic can't really imagine people ignoring that. People do that?!
"I think it's okay that Ennil tried. We all want people to stop getting hurt. This is the only peaceful way to go about it, even if it means we have to fight for a while. I don't think anyone here would ever make Loni fight, though. I have to because I'm a robot. Though, it doesn't really make me happy either...but Swan told me you have to do the hard thing to do the right thing sometimes. And I want to do the right thing!"
Ennil's answer is a bit more vague than Mic was hoping, but the fact that she's here now means that others can be converted to the Oath Over Omega without going to That Place. Hmm.
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
"Yeah. Once I understood that Loni was fighting to help, and not being forced -- "
It's hard for her to finish that thought, but fortunately Mic has a lot of energy and it's easier to just ride the wave. "You're a pretty interesting robot, then. If you're just supposed to fight, it's funny that you're such a cheery guy."
Yeah, it's interesting that they'd build him that way. "Ms. Swan's probably right. It's definitely not been easy for me to do the right thing. I think you have to be pretty strong." She gives Mic a thin little grin. "Maybe that's easier when you're big and made of metal."
It's interesting that he cares so much. There's a little nervous energy in him -- he really is like a big kid. "You're still hoping to convince someone, aren't you? That hero of yours?"
<Pose Tracker> Mic Sounders the 13th has posed.
Mic's HUD displays blush stickers at the compliment. "Thank you! We were all programmed with personalities to help us do our best. So HyoRyu is very hotheaded and brash and EnRyu gets grumpy at him, but they work really well together! And I'm a Sound Robot who uses my music to help my allies, so I was programmed to be helpful and social!" Which explains very little about Mic's...odd personality at all, but he seems to think it does.
"Humans are really strong, though! Guy is this big," he holds his hand a bit taller than Ennil-Guy's a tall guy- "and he's super strong. And so is Hyuma! I bet he could teach you how to lift weights if you wanted to be that strong."
But Ennil is sharp, and Mic's blush sticker activates for a different reason this time. He even sounds a little sheepish. "I really miss Mamoru. I want to get to know him again now that he's bigger. Maybe I can talk to Dr. Liger about it."
<Pose Tracker> Ennil El has posed.
"Ahaha. That's. Not totally what I meant, but you know what? They did a good job. You're definitely very helpful."
She looks a little wistful when Mic opens up though. "Yeah, that must be rough. You said... You helped him escape, right? That would've been years ago, wow. I think we're actually close to the same age, if I remember when all that happened to the original GGG."
She gives the big guy a pat. "I hope the two of you work things out. He clearly still thinks about you guys, even if you're on different sides. I bet it's not as hard as you think -- Heroes make impossible stuff like that happen all the time, right?"
She hefts her bag. "I kinda need to unpack, so. You keep on doing your best, alright Mic Sounders? Lots of people need your help."
<Pose Tracker> Mic Sounders the 13th has posed.
"Mamoru's voice is a little different now. And he can do Heaven and Hell with Ikumi! I'm very proud of him but I wish he was doing it with us!" Mic scowls, but only for a moment. It's really just hard for him to keep up a sulk.
"Heroes make impossible stuff happen...thank you, Ennil! Mic will be a hero! And I'll keep doing my best, so you too! You're my friend now, after all, so you have to!"
He gives her a V with his fingers before she leaves, then looks around at his discarded oil cans. "Ugh, what a mess. I better clean this up or Piggy will be cross..."