serengalen | (no subject)

[Can it end in awkward interruptions if he's actually been skulking about in the shadows, studying her Dyne since before she got there? Because he knows that this thing isn't Martian, and it's not like anything else he's ever seen.]

[She doesn't even look up, but she sort of...sighs.]

...Lumi, I'll call you back.

[She doesn't quite turn around, either.]

Enjoying the look of her?

[He's not even going to act surprised.]

...More than just the look of it. This isn't just any normal machine. Even most aces couldn't handle the power this can produce.

Can't say I know much about that. She and I get along just fine.

[She stands up from the computer so she can turn around to look at him.] ...I won't deny she's a special lady, though.

I can tell you at a glance that, with the right pilot, this Dyne could turn the tide of a battle.

[He'll look it over again.]

She, huh? What's her name?

No pressure, huh?

[She kind of laughs, but she's watching his reactions pretty sharply, if he looks back to her.]

...Menhit.

Menhit... That was an old Earth goddess, wasn't it? I'm not really that up on it, but my school covered some culture.

[...what kind of normal school on Mars would cover ancient mythology, Siggy.]

...What school did you go to?

[Seriously, bro, most schools on Luna don't cover that shit.]

An egyptian war goddess, I believe. 'She who massacres"...it was kind of a morbid name, but after all that happened, I can't deny it fits.

I spent some time at some nice academies, before I wound up drifting a bit.

[He shrugs like this is totally a normal thing.]

Well, I'd rather have someone with a name like that on my side.

[She's kind of...eyeing him but she's not really going to pry, it isn't like she's offering up her life's story, either.]

Guess you're in luck.

[She rubs at her neck.] You came here for her?

Edited (woops wasn't done ) 2013-12-31 10:06 (UTC)

What can I say? I'm a dyne pilot, there's a new dyne, and it's not anything I've ever seen here on Mars... Hell, it's a Lunar design, but it looks like five years out from their workhorses.

Closer to six. [She answers it automatically before she catches herself--she really doesn't like having to dodge around this, but she's aware as much as she had fun, she barely knows Siegfreid. Not exactly the situation to tell someone you stole a prototype your brother built.]

I had it on pretty good authority she's unique, but... I wasn't really in a state of mind to ask too many questions about where she came from.

[It's not a great lie and she really obviously doesn't want to tell it, but it's not entirely untrue, either.]

...I realize this is your first stint as a soldier, so, I'm just going to lay this out there.

When you're on the battlefield, the past doesn't matter. You don't need to know anything about the person by your side beyond the fact that you're both fighting to keep the other one alive. This means a lot of us carry some serious things close to our chests.

Now add to that that you're a mercenary. The people you work with today could easily be the people you have to kill tomorrow. There's nothing you can say about this sort of work: we're on contract for Martian independence during this war, but, maybe next time we'll be on the side of the colonies, or even the Lunar forces. It's the nature of the job.

[He shrugs.]

There's no bigger point to this. Hide what you need to, and tell what you have to. It's the only way you'll stay sane in this line of work.

...I'm just worried it won't stay the past. That's not anyone else's problem but mine.

[She laughs, rather bitterly.] I was going to be a doctor, and now I'm two-hundred twenty-five million kilometers from everything I ever new to be lectured on how to be a soldier of fortune. I know better than anyone I can only go forward, but forgive me if I can't help but find a sort of bleak irony to all this.

But as for the Dyne, I don't have answers I'm going to discuss with a guy I've known one night, even if was rather fantastically memorable, no offense.

Like I said: hide what you need to, tell what you have to. I wasn't asking about Menhit, so don't feel like you have to tell me anything about her, either.

[He'll smirk and bit and turn to walk out of the hanger.]

But I'll take the compliment.

Don't think you'd believe me if I told you!

[...He can probably tell she's watching him, turned around or not.]

Oh, I'm sure you do. Shame you're leaving so soon, though. Boss wanted me t'run her through some trials, see what she can do. Pretty sure he's selling tickets.

[She'll just idly put that out there. You know. As you do.]

[She can probably sense the grin even though he's turned.]

Putting you through the paces, then? Okay, fine. I'll see what that astrodyne of yours can do. Maybe I'll even man one of the test suits myself.

Ehh...just don't go charging me for the damages! I'll take you out with one shot.

[Well then. She'll just tie her hair back and get this shit ready to party, shall she? ]

We'll see how you do in practice. Remember, it's not how advanced your machine is: it's your skills as a pilot that matter.

[She just waves him off--apparently she is of the 'less talk, more backing it up' school of thought on this one.

Either way, once she's actually in the dyne and launching, those watching (or, indeed, participating) should notice one thing right off the bat--Menhit is fast.]

[Most the old units that have been sortied against her are, well, gone in a flash, with the loadout that she carries and the frankly ridiculous speed that she puts the suit through.

...And then one, one of the old Cimeies units, seems to have lead its shots perfectly unless she makes a quick dodge to the side. Clearly that's not an AI pilot.]

...Found you.

[She makes a pretty unnerving habit of fucking vanishing whenever she dodges--she knows damn well he's more experienced than she is and will corner her eventually, but she's going to make him work for it, as long as she can.

Slightly more alarming might be that, despite having never really been a pilot before all this, by her own admission, she's either picked this up incredibly fast, or that dyne was designed to respond to her.

And if he gives her any time to aim, he might find himself at the wrong end of a cannon blast design to wreck the gears of that dyne.]

[The Cimeles is an outdated unit, more suited for spectacle and propaganda by this point than something like an actual battlefield. Logically, there should have been no way that that first shot shouldn't have annihilated the unit.

But instead the thing seems to pivot through usage of its verniers, body crouched down both to provide smaller profile and to let it finish reloading its launcher.

The question of course is, how many more lucky predictions can he make.]

[He'll have to make them quickly, because she's closing the gap with alarming speed and....is that a sword. Who in the name of god gave her a sword, much less one that ~~can pierce the heavens~~ appears to be drawing energy straight from the reactor.

Sure, closing like this makes it pretty much impossible for her to dodge if he fights back, but she's gotta be fairly confident she'll hit, if she's doing something this crazy, right? ....Right?]

Edited (HTML MY MORTAL FOE) 2013-12-31 11:50 (UTC)

[Of course, if she closes range that fast, there's no way he can fire without blowing himself to hell and back, and he can't immediately go for his own heat blade. The suit remains crouched for her advance, and then at the last possible second, straightens up.]

[The ammo can't fire if not electronically primed, of course, and if she just impaled his main cannon, well, that's a successful enough parry. And in response he'll try to kick her suit back so he does have time to draw the heat knife.]

[It does send her back a fair ways, and but if he's drawing a heat blade, well. She doesn't bother to dodge but...yeah that dyne just slid into a vom tag stance, riku what are you doing.]

[His blade is simply a knife, no proper stancing really possible to face down a superior build and equipped suit. After all, Siegfried's experience really can't do much much more for him than this; the gulf between the suits is really that high.

But he'll hold the blade in both hands, ready to stab anyways, and there's the tell-tale whine of his generator cranking up to full capacity...]

[And she lunges forward, a powerful strike that ends with the blade tip just....touching to the reactor and stopping, assuming he doesn't block it. If he does she knows better than to take this any farther--repairing this thing now would be a requisitional nightmare.

Either way, she clearly aims to put an end to the fight here and now.]

[He likewise rockets forward, but the more advanced suit and the larger weapon win the day. He does stop there, blade still thrust outward, but the system not moving.]

In a real battle, you can't accept that an enemy won't be willing to sacrifice themselves to defeat you.

[The heat knife is aimed for the jointing on one of her suits arms, she might realize.]

But this is your victory.

...So I see.

[She accepts this without snarky commentary, likely a galactic first, and steps the suit back to let him move freely before heading back to the hangar, where she is being mobbed, much to her consternation.

The fact she's clearly going to have bruises from being knocked around by that kick of his aside, she...looks a little pale and out of it, actually.]

[He'll be taking this one back to the hangar where the mercenary company keeps all their older suits, anyways. And, y'know, probably be screamed at for the fact that he sortied in a completely outdated mech without telling anyone during a life fire exercise and got the damn thing damaged on top of it.]

[She does eventually escape her throng of fans and make it over in that direction, and she does have the sense not to interrupt him getting yelled at, since there's unfortunately no way she can cover for him on this one.

So she waits and stands to the side and once the PMC's gone and satisfied and out of earshot--]

You know, if you're going to give all the commanding officers hypertension, you should at least give me time to make them pills to help with that.

[There's a moment -- just a moment -- when he walks out of that office where its all almost-regal bearing and a gaze that would make lesser men flinch away from it in intensity, before he catches himself and it all melts away back into that devil-may-care playboy attitude.]

ehhh, they'll be fine. I thought you had the adoring public to deal with?

[...she has the weirdest girlboner right now, she's 22 and what is this, besides something that suits him almost as well as it is fucking terrifying. But she shakes it off after a second, and shrugs at his question.]

Escaping is a valid method of dealing with them.

...wao, did something happen? You're all red in the face, you know.

[Just gonna be looking away for a second and grinning a bit.]

S-shut up. [She huffs, even though that naturally made the blush even worse.]

We get along fine, but it's not like Menhit's easy to handle, you know! [Yes. Blame the flush on the Dyne. We're sure Riku's a good enough liar to pull that off.

Or, you know, not at all.]

Been a 'dyne pilot for nearly a decade now, and I've never heard of one leaving their pilot with a blush, you know.

[He laughs a bit louder at that. Siegfried Graves: he is a jerk.]

A dec--How old are you?!

[Dude you don't look that much older than her, what the hell.]

What? I left school and started when I was fifteen. It's not the most uncommon thing in the world.

[Actual Boy That Killed Adolescence Siegfried Graves.]

...[Well, it's not, but she ends up rubbing at the back of her neck, because she doesn't actually much like the idea.] Nothing, I just...thought you were closer to my age, 'sall.

...How old are you, then, Riku?

[Because if this is about to get creepy he will adopt a fifth identity, don't think he won't.]

22, don't give me that look.

[Relax, you are not also Actual Pedo Siegfried Graves.]

Those three years make a difference when we're talking about almost a decade ago, though.

[12 is kind of a different thing than 15 there.]

Yeah, that's... a pretty significant difference, when you're talking a decade ago.

[He just realized she's the same age as his little sister, this might have gotten a touch awkward for him.]

Guess that explains why you sound like an old man when it comes to Astrodynes.

[She's a hell of a lot blunter than Lumi, that's for damn sure. He's still a good five years younger than her brother, so the awkward is not shared, but she is noticing.]

...Didn't think it was that big a difference at this age, though. Was that something I should have mentioned?

Nothing. I guess it just reminded me of someone from back then.

[He shrugs and kind of waves a hand.]

No matter. It was another lifetime, you know?

[She is going to punch you for that when all is revealed, you know. Either way, she watches him for a moment, and shrugs.]

That's up to you. Can't say I won't be a little disappointed if you decide the resemblance is too much, but that's on me.