2019-12-02: A Last Gasp
- Log: A Last Gasp
- Cast: Yue Rohay, Shalune Amira (as Granny), Ambrosius
- Where: Meria Boule Outskirts
- Date: 2nd December 2019
- Summary: Yue takes Ambrosius to meet her Aunt (called Granny), while also observing a familiar pile of junk her mother landed on her lap...
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
As pleasant as taking her aunt -- who's STILL known as Granny -- around Meria Boule and its festivals are, the elephant (Gear) in the room still really needed to be addressed... and that's why Yue's asked Granny to actually take her to see the machine that actually took her here to Aquvy in the first place.
She's also gotten in touch with Ambrosius, given she's not quite confident about her own mechanical skill and he's been far more in touch with a lot of tools and...
... well, there's a more personal reason, simply, introducing family to him.
"I... really did not want to see this ever again," Yue admits as she looks up towards a...
Well...
It's kind of... charitable to call it a Gear? It's not a bipedal humanoid machine for starters -- it's a plane, an aircraft. White and blue in colour scheme where the paint job... survives, which isn't much. Albeit if a plane had weird Gear legs sticking out of its back at slightly odd angles where the thrusters would be, and you can kind of see a mangled face trying to hide itself underneath a heat-warped, blast-ridden shield slapped ontop that's serving as the plane's beak.
It looks like it's gone through hell.
"But mother really meant it when she said she's returning it in the condition I left it in," Yue sounds even more glum. "I also have no doubt she will ask me to pester some Drifters with it."
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
'Granny' is an elderly Veruni, hunched over and supporting her weight on a simple length of metal piping that she's squared off at each end to turn into a walking stick. It looks industrial and beat-up, much like she does - but also just as weathered and enduring. Dressed in thick clothes and scarves, she notably does not wear any kind of environmental protection, despite the occasional rattling cough that clearly indicates that VR has its claws in her.
"You and me both. I didn't realize she even knew where to find me," she mutters back to her niece, rubbing her hands together against the cold of the morning. "Can't blame the kid for that one, even if it's thanks to her that I keep thinking I'm going to have a Sentinel knocking down my door any day now."
She falls silent for a moment, studying the twisted and battered machine and thinking about her sister; her lips slowly curl into a rather complicated expression before she shakes it away with a breath. "Looks about as good as you do," she grouses, before hobbling forwards towards the frame. "Didn't get to fly it much, what with the teleport. Interior looked-- fine enough."
Turning slowly, she looks back towards Yue's lament. "... so, are you going to?"
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Yue had contacted Ambrosius with a request. There was a machine she wanted him to look at - and, more importantly, someone she wanted him to meet. He certainly wasn't one to turn down a request from a good friend and so it isn't long before he arrives.
He's not alone, of course. As always he's accompanied by his ever-reliable assistants - Minerva, the Scutum soldier, and a presently-unnamed worker machina from Spira patched up with Veruni technology.
"The state of a maaachine... often tells its story... And this one.... has been through much..." Ambrosius observes as he arrives, looking over the Gear. He can't help but be curious about it - this is a fairly unique specimen among Gears.
But, he pauses - there's manners to worry about, as well.
"It is good to...see you again... Yue... I do hope... you are well..." He replies, and then looks toward the woman accompanying. "And... you must be...Yue's aunt... It is... a pleasure to meet you..."
At this, he offers a polite bow, though quiets down as Yue mentions her mother. He can tell it's a bit of a sore subject.
"You need not... go through it alone... Siiimply ask... and I will be there to assiiist..." He offers.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
"Are you even surprised?" Yue asks quietly to Granny, on the topic of her mother and by virtue of relation, Granny's sister. "I am surprised Shalune is not here, though. I can just imagine her trying to scuttle the machine and capsize it..." A pause. "Or perhaps she would just declare it a heap of junk. Heh."
Ambrosius comments on the machine and she nods in turn. "It was called the Aura. I am genuinely surprised it still flies."
Judging from the kind of damage it took... it isn't an overstatement to say it was in a cataclysm. Metal doesn't warp so uniformly like that unless exposed to a truly great source of heat and energy.
But there's more pleasant things to worry about at present, as she looks to Granny and Ambrosius. "This is Ambrosius," she introduces, "A good friend of mine for a long time now. I trust him fondly in many regards."
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"'course she would. It /is/ a heap of junk," she stresses back to her niece, pausing to sink her head down as she tries to hide a couple of thick coughs. "But it's a heap of junk that's been quiet for centuries. Better check it over first. Then you can have her scuttle it. Wouldn't be the worst way to get out of your jam."
She snorts, a little quieter when she adds to herself: "Saw the other one. It looked like it was doing a lot better. You got the crap one on purpose, it seems."
The old Veruni woman lifts her head, her eyes glinting with recognition. "Mister Ambrosius," she greets, though she doesn't bow her head. "I've heard a lot 'bout you. Bet you don't even know you've been on the news a few times," she snorts with the hint of a wry smile. "I remember readin' your theses back in the day. Always figured you'd go far, never thought it'd be this literal."
Given the status and position of Yue's Mother, Granny looks about as far from that as can be. There was always talk about a distinguished scientist who spoke out against her and got shuffled off somewhere she wouldn't cause trouble, but it's difficult to imagine when looking at her now. On the other hand, maybe teaching Shalune was all the trouble she needed to raise anyway.
"... thank you for looking after my fool niece while she gets dragged off to other worlds," she adds quick as lightning, and then the sentence is gone and probably the elderly Veruni will never admit to having said thanks ever again. Marivel Armitage has partially disconnected.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Ambrosius glances toward Yue at the mention of Shalune, and then to Granny. ...So, that must be where she got it all from. It is something he had thought about, but that does make sense. ...And her character explains a lot, too.
"...The Aura..." Ambrosius murmurs, turning his attention back to the machine, studying it closely. He nods to himself, then looks between Yue and Granny. "The damage is...severe... It will not be easy... However... I do not think it is...beeeyond repair..."
Yue introduces him, and Ambrosius turns his attention to Granny now.
"...That is a surpriiise to me... yes..." He replies. The news? He hadn't heard about that. ...Well, it wasn't like he ever really had the opportunity to tune in with what was going on back with the rest of Veruni society - his work kept him busy, and he tended to tune it out most of the time anyway. But, she'd read some of his works, hm...?
"I am...honored to hear that..." He replies with a polite bow, with a slight smile as she tosses out that lightning-quick thanks.
"It was... no trouble... Iiindeed, I was...glad for her preeesence..." He says.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue pauses as Granny relates to her on how the machine has been 'quiet'. There is a longer pause, as she listens on the news of the 'other one'. A quiet, almost mysterious smile creeps across her lips. "'Tis in a better place now, I am sure..."
She lifts her head again, her shackles and chains jangling as she gets a bit closer. She smirks just for a moment as Granny mentions about Ambrosius' theses-- then points out, "You should try out his fiction too. I am always a fan."
There's a quiet grumble, though not unfond, as Granny thanks him for looking after her. She can't disagree, of course -- having Ambrosius around has been... girding, for her spirit. "I thank you as well for accompanying me, and yet..."
A hum.
Then, an almost mischevious smirk.
"If my mother assigns me a weaponless Gear, then is that not easier to be harmless, for me?"
That's... a certain kind of optimistic thinking, sure.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"Surprise to everyone, more like. Who knows what's going on in Laila Bellian heads these days?" Granny grumbles back to the taller Veruni, a hand shoved in her pocket as she winces and stands up a little straighter. "I'll bet less than a handful even know what an 'Aquvy' even is, let alone what it means for you to be out here."
Her reply to Ambrosius' compliment is a quick nod of recognition and perhaps respect, but again it's gone much too quickly to read into it further. Instead, she eyes her niece with a frown, and lightly taps her 'cane' against one of Yue's ankles to get her attention, a dangerous glint in her eye. "So long as you aren't teasing him by mentioning it. Or else I'll start recommending your fiction to him, too."
There's a long silence after Yue's grand plan. . . and then another rap on Yue's ankle. "You fool girl. You think she's going to give a damn about that? She'll just order you to stand in their way anyway. At least make sure you've got something, even if it's a decent engine. Right now it'll fly, at least," she adds towards Ambrosius. "But I dunno about more than that. I'm not some hotshot pilot."
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
"I suppooose... they need something to oooccupy themselves..." Ambrosius replies, shaking his head. Laila Belle was a nice place to visit, but the people could certainly be...difficult, to say the least.
There is a chuckle, though, as Yue brings up his fiction.
"It is alright... I am...proud of my works..." He replies. "Yue is...an aaavid reader of mine..."
He looks toward Yue for a moment, though as Granny mentions her /own/ works of fiction. He couldn't help but be a /little/ curious...but then, Yue mentions how a weaponless Gear might be easier, but Granny asserts reality.
"Iiindeed... Uuunfortunately... There are many ways for...a Geeear such as this... to cause harm... Even without weeeapons..." He replies, shaking his head. He pauses for a moment, considering.
"...However... If your wish...is to aaavoid causing harm... I can at leeeast... Help ensuuure... That your weaponry will be... nonfaaatal..." He offers.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
"Oh, I would not tease by mentioning something that should not be shared--" Yue pouts, "--as you do. Those works of fiction should be consigned to vaults even more deep and dangerous than Filgaia's greatest secrets--OW!"
She starts hopping on one knee when Granny raps her on the ankle. "What was that for!"
There is a sulk as Ambrosius points out there are many ways a Gear can cause harm, even without weapons, and Granny reasserts that she'd just throw them in their way anyway.
"True... before we can even think about weapons, we need to think of the basics," Yue murmurs. She walks underneath the belly of the machine and rummages around for where it looks like there might be a hatch lever. She finds and gives it a tug--
- CREAK*
"That is a truly unpleasant sound," Yue remarks as the cockpit hatch opens about halfway. She starts tugging at it with a groan. "Perhaps Minerva can help?"
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"Occupation isn't the problem. There's a ton of ways to occupy yourself in Laila Belle. The problem is doin' more than just letting the time pass uselessly." The Veruni elder seems sour about that, but... well, perhaps that's because she's been in the same sort of place, languishing away for so long. Or maybe it's just because she's sour anyway.
"I'll look into 'em, then. Don't worry about what I said. Yue can keep her secrets a little longer, even if it's to put a match under them," she adds after the rap, obviously not paying attention to Yue's pouting in how blunt she is.
There's a humourless, thin smile on her lips as Ambrosius and Yue casually discuss something that would surely be considered light treason if her sister were there to overzealously overhear. "Most of the ballistics are shot. Power output's significantly down, too, but that's not the problem when the barrels are warped. Whatever you're gonna use, you're going to need to bolt something new on."
She hisses through her teeth at the squeal of stressed metal, and grimaces up towards Yue. "Thought I heard something give when I got out," she admits, and furrows her brow. "Even gettin' it back up in the air is gonna need a lot more energy than I can give. Maybe I really should call the girl over. Sure she'd be thrilled to work with you two."
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
"Hmm... I suppooose... you are correct..." Ambrosius replies, on the subject of Laila Belle. As for Yue's fiction, though, Ambrosius chuckles good-naturedly - he leaves it at that, for now, instead turning his attention back to the machine.
The cockpit hatch opens only halfway, and seems to resist being opened further.
"Iiindeed... Minerva?" Ambrosius asks, looking toward his assistant.
"...Understood." She replies, gliding hovering. She takes her place beside Yue, gets a grip on the hatch...and aims to just wrench it right open with raw - but calculated - force.
"Hm... Yes, that will be an iiissue..." Ambrosius murmurs, as Granny points out that damage to the barrels. They'll need to use something new. "I am certain... we will find something..."
He looks back toward her, then, suggesting that she should call the girl over.
"I am...afraaaid we do not...quiiite always... see...eye to eye..." He admits. "...However... if she were willing to...aaaccept my presence... I would work with her..."
He pauses for a moment, though.
"...Though I wonder... if she would be willing to cooperaaate... consiiidering its purpose..." He wonders.
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
- POP*
The hatch opens the rest of the way; there's a frown from Yue's face as she remarks, "I think it will... hold for now, but it's going to sag further and further until it's replaced." She pats Minerva on the shoulder with a smile.
She listens in on Granny's assessment of the machine, but before anything else, she actually climbs up to the cockpit in a minor feat of acrobatics -- and then throws a little ladder down for them. "Found it! Still here."
The Aura isn't exactly meant to be a multi-seater, but there's room enough for people to look; the cockpit, as is the design for... hopefully most Gears, is the most intact thing inside the entire machine... and even then there's signs of damage where the integrity was starting to breach.
She's got her attention on the dashboard, though.
"My keyboard is still here," Yue remarks fondly. "It has all the stickers and wear and everything."
A lot of the markings and structure are familiar, but... rather dated, even by Veruni standards. And there are sets of instructions and caution labels in a language that isn't the Veruni's, alongside miscellaneous paraphernalia that depict a different age.
"You have your orders... as will I," Yue remarks sympathetically to Ambrosius. "That's why I am confident to leave Big Shal in her hands. By the way -- I know the tech is different from what you are used to, so if you find anything interesting, I'd be willing to share, Ambrosius."
She arcs her eyebrows once people are onboard, and looks to the ignition.
"... think I should turn it on? It's probably a low chance we'll blow up."
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
"... could just leave them on. They ain't bad, for intimidation's sake," Granny comments thoughtfully towards Ambrosius, tapping the end of her cane against a stone on the ground as she thinks, the hollow rings coming in a regular, staccato beat.
She's silent for a long while as they size up the machine, then frowns to herself. "That girl... once upon a time, I would have said she wouldn't care. Show her a machine that's broken, and she'll go fix it. 'least, that's what I thought. If she's found herself a couple of convictions along the way, then good for her. Still, she sat down to supper with me, even after knowin' a lot more about who we are." It's not really clear if there's a point to her little speech, or if she's just rambling to herself.
"It's awful is what it is," she calls up the ladder, not even making an attempt to climb it for obvious reasons. "How many times have I told you to get a new one because it sticks? Or at least make an attempt to clean it? Turning it upside-down don't count," her grouse is full-on now that Yue's ankles are out of reach. "Still, it was fun enough tellin' your Mother to press the smiley-face to start the power sequence."
"'s your funeral, not mine," she adds as she steps back, taking in the sight of the entire mech - the way parts of it move and creak. After a moment, her eyes narrow in silent thought.
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
"That is...something we can deal with..." Ambrosius replies, on the subject of the hatch. Minerva replies to the pat on her shoulder with a brief nod of acknowledgment.
Yue climbs in, and Ambrosius follows after once she throws the ladder down - he goes in last, however. He's quite tall, after all, and he doesn't want to block them in.
It really is quite dated - he recognizes some of these systems from old recordings, more than anything. He notes the unfamiliar language, and notes to the keyboard and all its stickers. He smiles fondly for a brief moment, and listens quietly as Granny talks on a certain someone. He doesn't comment for a while. Though eventually...
"...She is an interesting one..." He observes.
He looks back to Yue, then, and nods.
"It is all...quite iiintriguing... I have not had the...opportunity... to see teeechnology... Of this aaage... for myself... I have only seen it... in reeecordings..." Ambrosius comments. And then...she asks if she should turn it on.
...He hesitates for a moment.
"...Well. I suppooose... it will be the... best way to tell... how much work... we have aheeead of us... And... if it eeexplodes..." He pauses for a moment to consider his wording before chuckling wryly. "...Then...well... I suppose that would be...one problem...taken care of..."
<Pose Tracker> Yue Rohay has posed.
Yue is quiet for a moment longer, and she thinks about something she has alluded to Ambrosius before, but it's something she's never spoken out loud in the clear -- and this seemed to be even more the time for it.
"Yes... this machine is a remnant of our people before the great exodus," Yue confides. "... and the same goes for me as well. Both this machine and I were left behind on Filgaia."
Granny, wisely, doesn't climb in. Yue pouts with a remark of, "I /do/ clean up. Just because it sticks does not mean it is filthy!" as she speaks around an entire cockpit that certainly looks... lived in. It's probably not hard to tell it's a mobile home, as much as it's not designed to be, at certain stints.
"To be honest, I am not sure how much the Aura has that has not already been advanced upon," Yue muses. "It must almost be like visiting a museum."
A chuckle.
"A museum that we are about to activate..." as she hits that smiley button to start it up.
The backlights come on, one by one; a complicated medley of buttons and lights and blinkers and warnings flash around them, followed by the low thrum and roar of a turbine winding up--
- GRRROAR*
--and promptly belching as several dozen warnings crop up. Yue's busy on the keyboard already, seemingly having little issue even with the shackles on her arms.
"Power at 29 percent... and not climbing," she reports. "Engine anomalies reported on sub-units 3 and 7... fatal errors detected."
A pause.
"Well, I am most /glad/ it at least made enough of a voyage to spirit you here, Granny. But I believe I have shopping to do in the Thames."
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
Yue's admission makes Granny tighten her expression, and look up towards the cockpit with a very faraway sort of gaze, one that's looking more into the mists of time than the beat-up Gear and its current pilot. "... you're a smart sort, Mister Ambrosius. Wonder if you can figure out what that means for Yue... and why I'm just glad she's not stuck under the dissecting knife each day."
"Bet it does," she shifts away from the more serious talk in the blink of an eye, raising her makeshift cane up to rap-rap-rap against the metal. "None you'd mean to make, but old keyboards hide a lot of dust. Besides, I don't know how you managed to sneak half the stuff into that cockpit. I kept thinking I'd turn around and find a mattress propped up against the wall."
She steps back again as the engine's whine begins to pick up in power. It's not that she's scared - quite the opposite, she seems singularly unconcerned about the chances of it exploding. After all, she was piloting it just a short time ago. But it does allow her to watch as something gives way on one of the engine housings, the small 'pock' of heating and shifting metal pressuring one of the armor plates until it simply pops straight off.
Unimpressed, she taps it a few times with her metal rod, then levers it over to look at the scorch marks on the interior side. "... a last gasp, I s'pose. Nice of it to drop me some place nice, at least," she scoffs. "Better that than rusting away along with my collection of rust. 'The Thames', is it? Haven't been on the sea in donkey's years."
<Pose Tracker> Ambrosius has posed.
Ambrosius nods quietly as Yue confides how old the machine is - and she as well.
"...Yes." He replies, then looks Granny. "I will... do my best... to eeensure that does not happen."
He chuckles, though, as Yue protests about the state of her Gear. He's polite enough not to comment on it directly.
"Perhaaaps...a little..." Ambrosius comments, on the subject of the Aura's age. "But there is vaaalue... even in older teechnology..."
But, it's time to start it up! Ambrosius is both curious and cautious at the same time. He braces himself...and looks around for that 'GRRROAR' as the turbine sounds, and then peters out.
"Hm... well...at least... we have an iiidea... of where we...ought to begin..." He comments, amused.