(no subject)

[tobeajedi]

Who: Herons and visitors!
Broadcast: None.
Action: SS Heron
When: February!

[It's a February mingle! Come visit, stay and do nothing, enjoy the luxury bath suite.]

Comments

Vima Sunrider | OTA

[tobeajedi]

A: Gym

With her mother now a part of the fleet, Vima had been making a special point to hone her physical skills as well as the Force. So she was actually using the dumbbells as intended, for a change. Or practicing blocking harmless (but stinging) shots from a training remote with a piece of rebar.

B: Space rats

They're in the kitchen today. Gnawing on powdered egg. Rather than yell or chase Vima took this as another opportunity to practice her skill with the Force: they were single-minded enough to be a challenge for a mind trick. "You don't want the fake egg. You want to bother someone else."

C: Wild card! Want something else, go ahead here.


(ooc: Prose or brackets is fine! It's just a little easier for me to type sans formatting when I can rn.)

A

[astrobleme]

Thud, thud thud. Thud thud thud. Thud... thud, thud. Back and forth, up and down, Shinji has been following the stairs and walkways that lead into and out of the cargo bay. He keeps talking himself into and out of introducing himself to the person who's busy down there. By process of elimination, he has figured out that she is the Heron's other--original--undoubtedly better--pilot. He has spent the last week hiding in his bunk, for the most part, so he hasn't met Vima yet. They really should. Meet. Like normal people. Like he isn't the most pathetic, insecure boy in the known universe.

Thud thud thud.

Now he's at the bottom of the stairs, staring at Vima and the collection of gym equipment. He takes one step backward, then steps forward again, slowly and carefully inching near to Vima.

"I..." Oh, god. He doesn't know what he's doing. "I hope I'm not... bothering you, or anything, but..."

[tobeajedi]

Vima had picked up on the pacing outside of the cargo bay, but she had decided not to say anything about it until whoever it was decided they wanted to actually walk in--it made a good rhythm for the weights, anyway.

It also made a good excuse to take a breather when the presence finally stopped going backwards and turned into a person she wasn't sure she recognized. The way he registered in the Force was actually more familiar than his face. "Not a bit," she said, wiping her bangs out of her eyes and putting on a friendly smile; he looked kind of scared, for some reason. "What do you need?"

[astrobleme]

A spine, Shinji thought, infused with self-hatred.

He had an unmistakably anxious appearance. It came across in his posture (slouched), the fidgeting of his fingers (constant), and how he couldn't make eye contact for too long (always a chore). Up until now, he had decided that it would be best to just stay in his own lane, so to speak, not making himself known unless absolutely necessary. A ship didn't need two pilots unless the first one was incompetent. And this person, with her red hair, her friendly smile, her lifting of weights--she didn't seem incompetent.

But he was starting to get restless, resentful of his bunk. There were things he needed to ask about. For the sake of the ship. Or something.

"Vima Sunrider," he said slowly. "That's your name, right? I'm still sort of new around here, and I don't... think we've talked before."

[tobeajedi]

"The one and only," said Vima. She regarded the boy curiously. She'd grown up with Jedi, who tended to have a certain baseline of self-confidence, and she had never seen anyone who seemed so lacking in it. "No, we haven't, but I think I have seen you once or twice?"

She thought about hopping up and going over to offer a handshake, but decided that might spook him. "You're one of the new crew, right? What's your name?"

[astrobleme]

The one and only, huh? Between that and Vima's red hair, Shinji couldn't help but be reminded of Asuka. Not the Asuka he knew these days, but the one he used to know, the one with enough confidence to beat a sphinx in a staring contest. The reminder both did and didn't make him feel more comfortable. Hard to explain.

"Probably," he replied. He had a tendency to wander around the ship like a sleepwalker. "I've been assigned here for a little more than a week. My name is Shinji. Shinji Ikari."

Time to say it. Say it. He had to say it. Nothing would happen if he didn't say it.

"I'm the second pilot. So I thought I should introduce myself... sooner, rather than later. Just in case. I mean, you probably don't need me at all, but I thought you should know. If you ever do. Need me."

[tobeajedi]

"It's nice to meet you, Shinji." Vima gave him a friendly smile and refrained drom remarking on how long it had taken to do that. Joking him might just hurt his feelings. "I think most normal, not-kidnapped-into-holoprogram ships do have more than one pilot, so we're a bit better off now."

She put the weights aside. "So have you ever piloted before?"

[astrobleme]

"Nice to meet you." It was less fragile of an echo, but still just an echo.

Shinji didn't know what to think about the whole kidnapping thing. If Atroma hadn't kidnapped him, he wouldn't have been reunited with Kaworu. That was by no means an unwelcome gift.

"Back home, I was the pilot for a non-traditional vehicle. There's enough overlap that I might be able to figure things out... plus, the augment. I just need the opportunity to practice." For the time being, he hadn't gone anywhere near the pilot's seat. It seemed wrong to do that without making himself known.

[tobeajedi]

"I'm sure you'll pick it up in no time," said Vima. It hadn't taken her long, after all, and her own experience before this had been a poorly-judged adventure in a mining pod. Quite possibly Shinji would just plain be a better pilot than her.

"If you want to get started in it, I'll be happy to let you take the pilot's seat for a while." That was no trouble, and she could just grab a shuttle if she wanted to mess around. "What kind of non-traditional vehicle?"

[astrobleme]

Wow. That wasn't as hard as Shinji had thought it would be. He stood in silence for a moment, staring uncertainly, as if there were some kind of catch he hadn't heard yet. In his experience, people could get scarily protective of their roles. Himself included.

But Vima didn't add any special terms to the arrangement. Nodding, a bit relieved, he said, "Thank you. As soon as I get a feel for the controls, I should be fine." He was used to things going disastrously wrong, so he wanted to be prepared. The worst-case scenario might depend on him to not be a fuckup. "Oh, uh... Evangelion. Just imagine a giant suit of armor. 70 meters tall, or so."

[tobeajedi]

Vima's eyebrows went way up at that description. Things 70 meters long, maybe, that was a pretty standard starship size. But she hadn't heard of that being a size for any ground-based vehicle. (No AT-AT walkers in her time.)

"And you operated the... Evangelion on a planet's surface?" she said, leaning forward with a look of deep interest. "What do you use it for?" Though she had a feeling the answer was not for peaceful contact with new life and new civilizations.

[astrobleme]

"Yeah. Eva had aquatic capabilities, too, I think, but I didn't deal with that..." Talking about Evangelion still felt strangely hollow. Shinji preferred feeling nothing over anything else he could feel: anguish, rage, terror, more anguish, even more terror. The absence of pain was a relief for his heart.

Restlessly, he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Eva was designed to be a weapon," he said, then, not quite nonchalant about it. "And I'm... I was selected to be a pilot. But like I said, there's got to be enough overlap here."

[tobeajedi]

Aquatic capabilities, too? Vima was filled with curiosity, but she checked herself from asking even more questions about that. Shinji seemed to be somewhat ambivalent about it... especially when he said that the Eva was designed to be a weapon.

He was awfully young to be deliberately sent into a war, wasn't he? How were things done on his homeworld?

"Sounds tough," she said. "Well, the learning curve isn't quite so frantic as it is in a battle... we do get sent into hostile territory every few months. But I'm pretty sure that's staged for the audience."

[astrobleme]

"Hostile territory..."

Yikes. Shinji didn't feel like he was the least bit prepared to go into battle again.

Eyes narrowing slightly, he asked, "Who are the hostiles? Just more alien species?" He couldn't find the courage to ask if they were expected to hurt--or even kill--anyone they might encounter. That, too, was something he didn't feel like he could do as he had done before. Only protecting Kaworu or Asuka could make him do something like that. Only then. And it would happen with a lot of regret.

[tobeajedi]

"We don't know, honestly. Some of us think it's just droids--programmed to fly around and shoot at us. Then once they've put on a good show, they stop."

Vima frowned. "I don't know of anyone getting seriously hurt so far. But it's not right to put us through that just for ratings."

[astrobleme]

That was alarming to hear. It did make sense, though: reality TV shows were all about manufactured drama and outrage. Shinji just wouldn't have guessed that Atroma would go that far.

"I have a powerful friend here with me," Shinji said quietly, a hint fondly. "If anything bad happens, he should be able to protect everyone on board the Heron." Even though Shinji knew little and less about Kaworu's Angelic abilities, the other Angels had been spectacularly formidable, so...

B

[survives]

Leanne wasn't entirely surprised to find something gnawing on the powdered eggs in the kitchen. It was... admittedly not the first time she found something like that. That voice though?

Well, that was new.

She couldn't help but shake her head and laugh when she heard Vima. "Is that really gonna work?"

[tobeajedi]

Vima blinked and looked up--with her concentration broken, the critter scampered off towards its hidey-hole. "Oh, hey! Didn't think I had an audience." Of course it would look strange from the outside--shoot, this wasn't going to seem weird to her, was it? "I'm actually trying the Force... you can use it to persuade sometimes."

[survives]

"Sorry, sorry! I probably should have said something sooner."

Leanne huffed out another laugh, before shrugging a shoulder. "Do you really mean that? The... The Force. It could have really persuaded it? Because that just sounds awesome!"

She paused, frowning for a moment. "And probably safer for all our food."

[tobeajedi]

Oh, good. Vima grinned, a little relieved that Leanne didn't chastise or otherwise seem uncomfortable with the idea of a mind trick (at least on rodents). "If you do it right, you can--the Force can have a powerful influence over the mind."

She straightened up and put her hands on her hips. "It can influence whole armies... and I've convinced a few of these guys to leave, too, but they're stubborn little things."

[survives]

Leanne's eyes widened, just slightly. Something that could influence even whole armies? Wow. The Force had already seemed impressive when Vima talked about it before. If it could do even this?

She couldn't even imagine.

"Awesome," she repeated under her breath, shaking her head slowly. "But. Does that mean they're just... um, strong against the Force?"

[tobeajedi]

"It could be," Vima said--well, that wasn't implausible, was it? Some sentient species were pretty resistant to its influence, and it could also be learned, though she hadn't considered it as applied to vermin species. "Maybe they just have a natural resilience."

She crouched down again, watching the thing twitch its whiskers from its hiding place. Of course, they could just lay traps, but she didn't have any desire to actually hurt these things. "If I knew what they were called, we could probably look them up. Maybe they've got psychic predators on their homeworld, who knows?"

[survives]

"Maybe," Leanne agreed easily. She really didn't know much of anything about the Force or even... space rats, but. It still didn't sound impossible to her.

She leaned forward slightly next to Vima, trying to get a better look at the hiding place herself.

"I don't know... Psychic predators sound kind of scary." She huffed out a laugh, shaking her head. "Do you think maybe someone else on the crew would know?"

[tobeajedi]

"Hmm, they might!" Vima thought about how many of her shipmates had previous experience with interplanetary travel--Shinji might, possibly, although he'd said that his piloting experience was ground-based. The only other one she knew for sure was their new counselor.

"Padme would, maybe. She's from the same Galaxy as me, and she's done a lot of traveling--hopefully not around psychic predators." She grinned. "I haven't met any myself, fortunately."

[survives]

"Seriously?" Leanne brightened at that, just slightly. Someone else from where Vima was from? From where things like the... the Force existed?

How cool was that?!

"That's so awesome! Maybe she does know. Even if she's never run into them either... I hope," she paused, letting out another laugh. "She's probably still heard of them or something like them, right?"