Super Robot Wars ∀: Deep Space IC Thread - Part 1: The Culmination

[Nanami Touko]

Good Relations

"Hm? Elaine?" Uh, this is where I do that, social interaction thing, right? To get friendlier with the pilots? "Not starting anymore fights, are you?" she asked with a smile, probably not prodding the right topic to make friendly banter out of. She'd learn. "Oh, files?" Eyes glazed-- real quick, "yeah, the prison stuff, right? Don't worry about it. That was then, this is now. If you're here, then it must not've been something worth locking you away for. Were you worried about that?" Jess finally stopped typing, though she'd been looking at Elaine the entire time. "Or was it something else on your records? Something we don't know about?"

[Phoenix]

People stopped worrying about the singularity theory a long time ago, so Brant wasn't surprised by Avery's reaction. Its near irrelevance in modern times was why he'd brought it up, in fact. Soon, Brant realized, Avery wasn't actually oblivious to the singularity theory, she just didn't know it by that name.

To be fair, Brant mused, if you wanted a spy, you could just hire a human. If you wanted a walking bomb, you just had to fill a youth's head with suicidal nonsense and convince them it was a good idea. If you wanted an assassin, you could hire someone or take care of the 'problem' yourself. He wasn't too concerned with machines taking over some of these dirtier jobs, as long as they didn't completely phase people out. That would be when war would be nothing but a game to the powers that be, assuming it wasn't, already.

Brant chuckled at Avery's eventual apology. "It's no problem. I think about this kind of stuff a lot, myself. It comes with some of my hobbies."

[scorri]

Astin shook themselves, having zoned out for a little bit there. "Oh, uh... Well I went to the Academy. So lots of training there, though it's mostly sims, not actual mechs. That was really only for minor practice and then the year end tests. It's... I dunno. Calming? Easier to focus up there. I've got my weapon and the enemy and that's that. Keep those on your side alive and running and take out the enemy with as little damage to the person running the mech as possible."

[Dandragon]

"Prison...yeah..." So they didn't keep their promise even after all this time. What a surprise. "Is there anything after that? Any files about...*sigh* Nevermind." Elaine looked away for a moment. Despite it being several years since getting arrested and being 'officially pardoned', Elaine couldn't help but worry about how she would be judged by her teammates. Of course, if they already weren't judging her for being loud and obnoxious like Tarquin was earlier. Elaine sat down next to Jess. "Say, do you know anything about the incident on Earth Colony 2, about two years ago?"

[Terrador]

Bruno nods; it seems as though Astin didn't have much to offer, either. [so far as I can tell, the entire team is fairly green. Barring the XO and the navigator, is there anyone present with real combat experience?] That said, perhaps he had something to offer to Astin in return; after all, he didn't have much left to do today!

"Sergeant Doyle," Bruno begins, "Is that offer to fence an open one?"

[Nanami Touko]

Dangerous

"Regular line o' thinkin' in your hobbies, huh? You know, you never did mention what place you worked before. Somethin' ye can't talk about, eh?" She snickered, folding her arms and adjusting her ball cap again, going back to blowing her gum. "Ah, well, we all got secrets we're workin' on, or stuff from the past. Don' worry too much about it. Anyway, these guys're just gonna fix the rest of it up, then we'll strap another pylon on, so the fun part's over. You're 'free t'go', I s'pose, heheh." Avery gave Brant a lazy salute and started to walk off towards the changing rooms. The mechanics outfit was decent, but regular clothes were a lot more fun.

Reminiscing

"Uhhhh... Earth Colony two..." Jess' eyes focused on the table, totally zoning out for a good few seconds, before jumping back up a bit and nodding, "right! That whole incident with the rebel invasion. Were you the one that hopped in the defense mechs to help? Great! I knew our group was pretty special, but it seems everyone has something neat about them." Jess smiled some more; this was great! New boat, tonnes of skilled and cool pilots. Elaine might've been a bit of a hot head, some issues with the other pilots, but surely they could all smooth those things over together! Maybe this whole situation was far from as awful as Jess thought it was. She kept her eyes glancing at Elaine, going back to tapping her virtual keyboard. "Was that all? You're making it sound like this was something bad, haha. Don't spook me like that."

[scorri]

Astin's face immediately brightened. "Really? I mean, I brought gear and equipment with me, but I didn't really think I'd find someone... I'd love to fence you if you're willing! My gear should all be in my room." They stood up and managed to trip over the chair as they tried to push back away from the table. "Ah, uhm, that's... I'm fine, don't worry. But yes. Fencing would be wonderful. It's nice exercise and a good way to relax."

[Dandragon]

Elaine was in shock. "How..? How do you..? That...Alright, yes it was me." Elaine sighed. She hadn't tried to be so obvious, but the cat was out of the bag. Well, the captain had to learn sooner or later. "So...What are you typing up?"

[Nanami Touko]

Report Sent

"I was..." she said before slamming the enter key and leaning back, with a heavy sigh, "typing up the report for central of the training exercise. And everything that happened in it. Sorry if I... Dove a little deep, there." She smiled wryly and sat back up, stretching. "Your report said you were in jail, but were pardoned, and the dates matched up; you brought it up so out of that blue that I put two and two together and assumed-- but I guess my assumption was right on the mark. So hey, whatever works out. Not a problem to me; again, if the ANF considered your time an issue, you wouldn't be here right now. You'd be doing janitor work on some Kraken ship, or just at a base. Try not to worry about it, Elaine."

Wait, should I? I... I guess. "So... What was up with Tarquin, there?" She shut her pad and shimmied over on the couch a bit, giving Elaine some more space. "You got pretty in his face. He's only fourteen... You also got riled up by that unknown's taunt. You've really got to be able to control your temper in all these situations. I'm sure someone's told you the whole team talk at some point, so I won't repeat it, but..." She blushed just a bit. "I know I have my... Own shortcomings to get over, but I have to worry about all of you, as well.'

[Dandragon]

Elaine frowned. "That little...*sigh* Tarquin was the one who started it. I heard him laughing at me, and twice he's given me a dirty look. A look that says that I shouldn't be here. A look that..." Elaine stopped for a moment, before leaning back into the cough for a bit, letting her arm hang off the side. "A look that I've been getting ever since I helped defend Earth Colony 2." Elaine looked off to nowhere in particular, trying to think of what to say next. What should she say? Should she let it go?

After about a minute of silence, Elaine gave up trying to hide it. "...I was...never really pardoned for my time."

[Nanami Touko]

Anger Management

Jess wasn't exactly impressed, but she tried not to show it. "Elaine, we're... We're adults. Tarquin is fourteen... For whatever reason, he's a wonderful pilot, but he's... Going to act his age. You can't let children get to you, that's... Well, we left all that behind in high school, I would hope." Whether or not she'd been getting these looks, for whatever reason, didn't excuse going off-- physically especially --against a child... If Tarquin was starting things then Jess would talk to him too, but that level of reaction over smug looks was never going to be acceptable.

And neither was that. "Uhm... What?" That, made no sense. Jess froze again, blinking back in, but still looking confused. "But... Your records never said that... What are you talking about?" That was... Worrisome. Central had to have had a reason to send her here without a real pardon, if it was the case, but why would they have changed the sentencing in her records...?

[SB.]

"Yeah, it felt pretty similar to me too." Mateus agreed. "The setup for all of it was kind of different, but in the end I guess the sims are pretty close to the real thing." Which made sense, now that he thought about it. "What's the pad about?" he continued, confused as to what the boy needed it for. Maybe it was prying in hindsight, but it was weird to see him just bust it out of nowhere - especially since Tarquin was just a kid.

[Dandragon]

Elaine ignored how Jess spoke to her about Tarquin. "...When I was about 18, I was training to become a pilot all the way in Italy, with my Uncle being an overseer in one of the mech development facilities. It was there that a special prototype was finishing development. It had weapons on it that I had never seen. And it was gonna be tested soon. I had begged my uncle to be the test pilot, but someone else was already selected. So, in my...young stupidity, I tried to steal it. Get a good ride out of it before the other guy could." She shifted herself in the couch, trying to get comfortable. "I was caught immediately. Wasn't even at the elevator to the bot. Just walking around the feet. Like they had been expecting me or something. So, what was my punishment for a first offense?" Elaine looked towards Jessica. "10 years. 10 years in god damn prison. Oh, and my uncle tried to reason with these people. These government officials meant to uphold and follow the law to a T. These black suited official scumbags." Elaine got visibly angry just talking about them. She shook her heard, trying to stay on track.

"My uncle pleaded with them to at least lower my sentence, if not outright drop it. He was willing to pay so much just to keep me safe. But apparently I didn't realize how special that robot was. How I needed to learn." The images of how these men in black suits intimidated her that day flooded back into her memory. They made her skin crawl the way they spoke. And with it, all the memories of the specific prison they chose, though they never mentioned a name. "I barely lasted a year in that place. I broke out, slowly making my way to ANF territory, and then to Earth Colony 2."

"And you know what happens from there. Everyone within a single facility gunned down, as 3 unknowns terrorize the Colony, if not for one brave individual able to take them out. As a reward, they said I would be officially recognized as a pilot and that I would be pardoned for my offenses. ...But they lied to me." She gritted her teeth. "I wasn't pardoned for anything! I was left out to dry, sent back to Italy, and not even given anything. I wasn't recognized as any hero outside of Colony 2 and where I live in Italy. They simply wiped my name under the rug and let some pretty boy take MY credit for what I did!" She slammed her fist onto the wall behind them, hard. "It was only when I confronted them directly about it they I got something, alright. I got them denying my involvement in anything, and whispering that I should be lucky I'm out of prison right now." She held her head in her hands. "And they way they looked at me...The way they were silently judging me, like the delinquent they saw me as..." The images of the government dog staring her down, the same way Tarquin did, flashed in her head. "I knew they never planned to give me anything..." Her voice was shaking with anger. Her hands let go of her head and fell down onto the couch. "I had to wipe my own slate clean...I had to commit one more crime to get half of what I was promised. I had a few buddies of mine help me hack into the criminal database and erase my sentencing." Now she looked ashamed of everything. She was a roller coaster of emotions that had finally come to a stop. She gave a deep breath before looking back at Jessica. "And that's my story...That's what happened, and that's why I reacted so badly at Tarquin. He reminded me of those no-good.." She stopped herself before she went on a tirade. "...I'm sorry, you...didn't need to hear all that. Didn't mean to dump all that on ya."

Edited June 26, 2016 by Dandragon

[Nanami Touko]

Referral

Why would you ever try to steal an important robot just to give it a joy ride? WHY? Especially when there's already a pilot! Oh, gosh... Jess felt her worries slowly creeping back in, her refreshing shower being ruined swiftly. She was tempted to jump in with something in line with 'then you got what you deserved, that was a serious offense', but kept quiet as Elaine still had extra to say. Going as far as to mention that she'd broken out of prison. Jess paled a bit. "Uhm..." The heroics were all well and good, but all this sounded like to Jess was that Elaine was an immature girl who couldn't handle the consequences of her actions and broke out of prison to run into a stroke of luck. It was rather terrifying. She was beginning to rethink the assignments to Dry Lake. Maybe we were all sent here to be disposed of...

"Y-You did what?" she whispered, grimacing as Elaine revealed another secret-- hacking into the ANF mainframe to clear her charges. Jess had to look away, lest the look of terror slowly growing on her face be recognized. They were working with a legitimate convict. No wonder she was so quick to aggravate! She nearly punched a teenager over basically nothing! This explained everything and Jess was not a fan. She couldn't exactly say anything; she hadn't decided any of these postings, and it wouldn't do to try and go against Central's orders, but it still scared her half to death.

She tried her best to feign a smile, still very, very worried. "Uh, w-well! That's fine, j-just... You can't act like that around Tarquin; h-he's too young to know what he's doing, and... W-Well, you know. Just try to be the bigger person! Uhm, i-if you need to speak to someone about your issues w-we have a wonderful therapist working with us... O-On the Riese. Her name's Cheryl, I'm sure she could help, uhm... I've... Got some work to do still, so... W-Was there something else?" You're stuttering she's going to pick up on that oh gosh...

Edited June 26, 2016 by Melissa

[Dandragon]

Elaine looked back at Jessica once again. "You're scared of me. It's easy to tell." She got up. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't of said anything to begin with. ...I'll uh...I'll leave you alone, now." Maybe a swim at the pool would be best. The entire mess hall had probably heard her. She was used to working alone. It's how she survived all those years in hiding. I just wanna be a hero...I can't let my past decide who I am now. She took one look back at Jess, trying her best to smile. She could clearly see how afraid she was of her. Maybe it's too late to change that. Elaine walked out of the mess hall and out into the runway, letting her arm rest on a wall, and her head on her arm. Maybe I am just a loud delinquent...

[Phoenix]

Brant was willing to share more about himself if someone from the unit or crew asked, but his life outside the ANF, the public and the private areas, weren't things he wanted to dredge up without a prompt. Everyone had their own lives and issues to worry about, after all. Avery decided to leave the rest of the repairs to the bots she'd assigned and headed off after a brief and markedly loose salute, which Brant more or less mirrored. Alone with the repair bots, he continued watching until they were finished the wing itself, and then made his way toward the changing rooms.

[Shin]

"I like to make a note of how each training exercise and task I've carried out, it allows to me critically evaluate them." Tarquin responded, jotting a few details down. "It allows me to make a record to improve further performances. I include every detail I deem important to the outcome."

That much was true, but part of the pad's purpose was also for Tarquin to vent his own frustrations - he certainly wasn't going to complain directly to those at fault, neither his superiors nor wildcards like Elaine.

[SB.]

Mateus blinked. "That's pretty smart." Truth be told, Mateus was trying not to show how impressed he was by the kid's work ethic. It was kind of nuts, and also made him feel... kind of inadequate, honestly. Damn. "Do you look at it a lot?" he asked. It wouldn't surprise him - Tarquin seemed pretty serious about this stuff. His fork hovered a short distance away from his mouth, forgotten, as he listened for a response.

[Shin]

"Every night, I have approximately two hundred exercises logged. Along with my own personal musings." he replied, replacing his notepad - he didn't particularly like the idea of letting someone else read it. It was only natural if the conversation went on long enough, but then again, Tarquin had no idea what to actually say to Mateus. He wasn't very bright and he didn't have any interests Tarquin knew of. He didn't want to make him feel too stupid, so most of Tarquin's interests were out of the window.

"I do other things too, like..." Tarquin began, desperately trying to find a conversation topic. Particle physics was a no go, as was the history of the capacitor... and even he found atmospheric water currents rather dull. Tarquin was rapidly realising how vastly different from the norm he was, no wonder he'd never held a proper conversation if he had nothing to talk about. Who even read so many reference volumes? He'd be better off talking to a researcher than anyone remotely near his age. "Books." he finally answered, it had been the only thing he could think of that wouldn't bore someone like Mateus. "I like reading, they even let me bring some of my books when I moved here."

[Nanami Touko]

Fear

"N-No! No, o-of course... Not..." She was already gone... But really, who wouldn't be scared, hearing something like that!? In Jess' position, no less! She had a criminal working under her! This could totally ruin her career, and her life. Elaine seemed super lax about it as well, like she hadn't even done anything wrong... Jess leaned back into the couch and sighed, covering her face for a moment. "I'm gonna have to email some people... I should probably eat something, but... Ugh, wow, my stomach is just in knots." But, she had to eat, either way. Hungry wouldn't do. Trying her best to not think overly much about what was going on around her, she wandered on over to the cafeteria's kitchens and started fiddling a salad together...

Edited June 26, 2016 by Melissa

[Juliette]

"Yay! Very thanking!" Juria was thrilled the XO had managed to cheer up a bit compared to earlier. "Am not too knowing about not-cat animals. Would need learning before more animal robots." Reo kept reacting as before to the pats, leaping into Juria's arms again when offered. "Hopefully you are much lucky with report! Eating comes soon for me. But no need for Reo to!" Pleased with herself, Juria wandered towards the cafeteria. "Hmm. What eat?"

[Dandragon]

Elaine didn't know how long she had been outside moping, but it felt like hours. She should have been accustomed to people not accepting her, but in reality it only kept hurting more and more each time. It seemed like it would never end for her. She turned around, taking her arm off the wall. Maybe it was time to let out some stress. She began walking her way to the workout room, but not before eyeing the pool. As half-assed as the pool was, the water looked beautiful. Elaine smiled. No matter how heated up she got, swimming, hell even staring at the water would make her feel better. As if it was cooling her down. Well...it probably was. Maybe later, but right now, she was planning to take out some stress in another way. Gotta wait a whole thirty minutes after eating. At least, I think it's thirty minutes.

She had come out of the lockers already in her own work out gear, though her own regular attire would have probably been sufficient. It was then she noticed Kim doing what looked like some stress relief of her own. "<Looks like your hard at work. Mind if I join?>" She said, walking over to her own bag. Not waiting for a response, she put on her gloves, got in a stance, winded up, and threw a punch as hard as she could with a "Hrah!" before continuing to wail on it. Her anger was welling up again. Anger at how she must have singlehandedly ruined her potential friendship with her captain, and how that information may soon spread and ruin any possible friendships after that. Anger at how people would judge her over her own wiping of her record, for without doing that she would have no career. Anger at Tarquin for being a smug little brat. But that wasn't the only thing she felt. Inside she felt sadness and regret over her decisions in life, like touching that damn robot, or not simply waiting the ten years, or a possible bail from her parents or her uncle. But that only brought on more anger. Anger that how there was never a trial, anger how she didn't even get a lawyer, anger at how...how...She lost track at how many things she was angry yet, she just kept on punching. And punching. And punching.

[Balcerzak]

After a pretty much entirely delightful little conversation with the ship's navigator, to whom he also wished an excellent remainder of the day before departing, Thorvald headed to the workout room to get in a little strength training. He wasn't super fanatical about his regimen, though he liked to keep to a schedule if he could help it sometimes circumstances get in the way and he fully acknowledged that. As for results, while you'd never find him on the cover of any bodybuilder magazines, he had developed a fair bit of quiet strength, muscles lurking silently beneath the surface, waiting to be used. As mentioned before, today was leg day, and (equipment providing) he had a pretty good idea of the routine he was going to work through. He was going to start of with some abductors, then move into some curls and extensions, then finish with lunges and squats. Nothing super fancy, and he usually kept the weights to a medium intensity, focusing instead on repeated sets of many reps for endurance.

When he'd arrives, a couple of the ladies were at the punching bags, going at it. He grunted a friendly acknowledgement, but wasn't going to initiate a conversation if neither of them did. Sometimes in a workout, you just want to focus on achieving your goals, and without knowing their individual attitudes towards a session, he didn't want to do anything to take away from that. He did a circuit of the room, appraising the equipment, and noting that it had generally everything that the Caribou Cape installation had had, though obviously the layout of the individual machines and such differed, he nodded approvingly. Then it was time to get started. Unconsciously humming to himself snatches of a song that had been popular a few years back, he got right in on his exercises.

[Ether]

Well, it seemed that within minutes, she had suddenly gathered a crowd... well, not her specifically, but a crowd had gathered within the gym, at the very least. Elaine had arrived first, and had asked her if she had any qualms with her joining... Seung-Min gave her an affirmative shake of the head, but it seems she'd been asking mostly as a formality, already wailing on one of the punching bags. As expected by her feelings of anger and regret, she didn't show much in the form of technique, instead attacking the thing at full force.

"<You won't last long, doing it that way.>" Seung-Min noted, as she continued attacking her own invisible opponent, making full use of the CQC discipline instilled in her by the military. While her strikes contained far less strain and outward effort, they managed to output similar levels of force and damage to the bag, knocking it around quite effectively.

It was around this time that Thorvald, the inpromptu squad leader had arrived, Kim giving the man an acknowledging nod as he circled the room, looking over the equipment. She wasn't sure what he was planning to use, but it seemed it wouldn't be the boxing equipment like either of the other two, based on where he seemed to be headed.

[Terrador]

Bruno steps free of his seat, walking backwards out of the mess hall in advance of Astin. The Nevada heat makes a concerted effort to cook him alive. Instead, it batters aimlessly against his eyelids, his ears, the back of his head. [it is still surprising... it reminds me very much of my childhood. A warm sensation.] He thumbs backward through the tome that is memory, so sparse as it was for all. One day with his brother leaped to mind, just as Tuco had leaped across the river. The day had that quiet, burning heat, just as this one did. Tuco's ankle was badly sprained; Bruno, so young as he was, could not help his anxieties. In hindsight, it may have been a better day than he once thought; the two had laughed all the way to the doctor's, moved to merriment by the eclectic poses of Bruno bearing the tremendous weight of his brother's leg.

The older man waits outside the court for Astin (only a few steps behind), leaning casually against the wall. A small smile and a wave ahead betray his lack of knowledge, as he admits just after:

"I am afraid that you must teach me from the very beginning. Do not worry; I expect to learn quickly!"