RP: YSS Miharu Mission 5, Aftermath

Bastard.

Tom looked refreshed. His hair was as clean and spiky as ever, his skin glowing its natural whitish pink and looked as smooth as compact snow. His eyes were alert and focused on whatever he was reading, with the occasional furrowed brow.

It made her all the more self-conscious, but she blushed. He was recovering, but he still was hard at work. The others were, too ... but he was hers. She liked him when he was so focused. It was music: the sound of the gears in his head turning and churning, a well-tuned machine completing a task with peak efficiency. All they had just gone through, just done ... yet onward the gears churned. It was a calming sound, but made her skin even hotter.

"Do you know what it means to rest, Juni-san?" she asked from the portalway, eyes on him, but her head leaning with her body against the door's frame.

After several minutes of waiting, and observing the semi-repaired, half-cleaned hull of the Hoshi, Kai circled around and found an entrance. The Yamataian wandered inside, and was somewhat impressed, and sobered, simultaneously. The Hoshi's interior had been cleaned where it could be- the unscarred portions almost sparkled. However, all along the hallways, and in the bays, were bodies. Though they were covered by tarps in most cases, there was no mistaking what they were. Kai grimaced, faced once again by his own mortality. Would the next time be permanent? as far as he could tell, none of these bodies would ever be revived, none of them would have a second chance as he had. And even if they did get one, they would have missed so much.

Kai had missed so much. A single hour of his life was gone, but the impact of that hour, would resound for so much longer. What was he to do? Kai continued for the hallways, looking for sprites- He ignored the Mokuren sprites, looking instead for the few remaining Miharu sprites. They were like his second family, now.

The first Sprite Kai found, he asked one simple question: "Where is Yuzuki-Heisho?"

Miyoko looked up as she heard Yuzuki's voice, with the apple clenched between her teeth while she pulled up status reports with both hands. After a few moments, she freed one hand and used it to pull the apple away to let her respond. "I'm sorry if I woke you up. And yes, I'm just trying to get a sense for what kind of shape the ship's in altogether. With most of the chain of command recovering, things are a little unorganized."

She shifted a few more reports around in front of her before adding, "If all the rooms are taken, you could use the bed in the one I grabbed if you'd like."

Rin lay on her assigned bed in the medical bay of this strange and foreign vessel. Yes, it was still Yamataian but it still felt so very foreign. The heat worked fine, of course, but it still felt cold, unwelcoming, and, despite all the people, almost lifeless to the sprite.

Upon waking up, which was quite the startle after a brief moment of confusion, Rin sat up and hugged her renewed lower half and embraced the distinct lack of deadly nanomachines eating away at her flesh. It was also nice not having the metal-on-metal screeching and wrenching as her body was gnawed in half by a saw. Still, her lower half didn't feel quite the same, just like her environment. It didn't help that she felt so defenseless in the hospital gown, especially after having spent an eternity in the AMES suit and in a, supposedly, protective power armor.

After her mind had cleared up further, the lavender-haired sprite remembered the mission: the whole reason why that empty void had nearly claimed her pained form. A quick glance around reassured her that she was somewhere comparatively safe and decently familiar when compared to the slimy muck that was the inside of the Misshu ship.

"Okaa-san, we won, right?"

The voice that replied back sounded like a foreign language, eliciting a short gasp from Rin.

"Miharu?"

The Mokuren's Megami replied again, and it still made no sense.

The sprite sat in shock as the rest of it came back to her. Seeing Rin's expression, a sprite hurried over. What was supposed to be an "Are you okay?" came out as more babble to the sprite's ears. Who was this talking to her? Rin's head bobbed in an attempt to make the strange alien go away, before she lay back down. Seeing nothing physically wrong, and with nothing that she could do, the nurse finally let her be.

---

Rin lay there, in this unfamiliar place. Her eyes stared blankly at the ceiling above her until the light hurt her eyes forcing them to explore what was around her. She didn't want to accept it. She nearly dozed off once or twice, but with all the memories rushing through her head, of course the nightmarish, aberration that had stolen the Taisa's image, desecrated her sister's form, and that had nearly ended her life would reappear, cutting short any rest. A friendly power armor would then come to spare the defenseless sprite from the abomination until... well, you know. Through this, Rin couldn't make out the name of who it was before she forced herself awake. Who was it that had betrayed her trust to cause her to be half the neko she was before?

In her own little world, surrounded by all of these strangers, the sprite had another question, but was too afraid of the answer. Who else was gone?

@Nyton:

Nimura's expression was neutral, but the gaze from her blue eyes was piercing. "In this life, with nothing to be done to reverse it, they are the Taisa's willing slaves. Should we have left them to die?"

@Yukari

Tom looked up from his datapad. When he saw Yukari, a big, sweet smile formed on his face. The earphones were removed and the datapad was dropped to his side.

"I suppose you can't take the ship out of the engineer," he said. "How are you doing, my love?"

~~~~~

@Asher

Asher's peaceful calm was interrupted by the arrival of a nurse. Her violet eyes held a little bit of irritation as she watched the injured man from behind.

The scent of lavender was apparent, especially now that she had finished washing with her favorite scented soap minutes ago.

"Mr. Westwood," she said calmly. "Your wounds are still tender. Why aren't you in the medical bay?"

Her answer came in the blink of an eye, data transferred discreetly to her.

"...Oh."

~~~~~

@Rin

A uniform-clad Neko entered Rin's room, approaching her bedside and standing next to it. She was in officer's panels, but it had red crosses on her badges.

"Ma'am, please remain calm," she said. "Too much movement will jeopardize your recovery."

Somehow, Rin instinctively knew the woman's name and rank:

Chief Medical Officer Rena Suzuki-Shoi.

Suzume Miharu saw the wounded, wandering Kai before he saw her. The Neko watched him some from the entrance to the Multi-Function Bay he was in before she twisted away from sight, and scrambled to look busy. No one liked to be spied on, and she was well aware of how hard the raiding party had fought and what they sacrificed.

When Kai approached her inspecting part of Hoshi, she stood and bowed first, then answered. "Yuzuki-Heisho is on the bridge, Nakamura-Heisho." She stiffened; Kai looked so very serious. "She is with Saito-Juni."

Yuzuki considered the infantry Juni's offer, but only briefly.

"I'm going to stay with the Hoshi, at least until everything is finished."

That is what she said - and it was simple enough. The unnatural feelings she felt aboard another ship gave her chills, but it wasn't something she was going to voice. The Hoshi, Yuzuki felt, was the only thing that she had left, but she had learned the hard way that speaking of her convictions, especially the convictions she only partially understood or the ones she had been born with, wasn't the right way to keep real people talking. It had forever altered her working relationship with Freeman, and Yuzuki wasn't about to try touching a hot oven again.

To try to veer away from the topic, Yuzuki offered another one.

"The damage to ship systems was primarily caused by the internal fighting. Overall the ship itself is still in good condition. Nothing is beyond Class-C damage. The worst we have to deal with is reconfiguring the propulsion systems to regular space again - the way we set it up to operate in deadspace, they're wasting energy. That, and updating the rest of this fleet. Their technology is vastly behind ours, and it's just barely compatable."

Finally, she turned her head back, eyes wide, appearing not the least bit tired. It was a clever ruse she had learned a long time ago. Two days and nights without sleep wasn't anything to her. She couldn't help her eyes wandering to the apple, though.

"Have you seen Rin?"

Asher's quiet thought was apparently broken by not words, but smell. The lavender scent was obvious from several feet away. It wasn't overtly strong, just impressive in it's settling allure. When he was young, the neighbor's wife would often put lavenders out by her window. The smell would often drag him from inside his home or off the street, because usually, when the neighbor's wife was setting out Lavendars, she was getting ready for a long bath. If she was getting ready for a long bath, she was not only getting naked, but oiled up for the soak and that--... Sometimes did not end well. At any rate, the smell reminded him of home, and mature, oily, naked women.

"Mr. Westwood," she said calmly. "Your wounds are still tender. Why aren't you in the medical bay?"

Click to expand...

The Malifarian turned his head to the side, looking back at the Nurse from the corner of his vision, accompanied with a docile sigh.

"...Oh."

Click to expand...

At that, Asher's dull face went from dull, to uncomfortably sharky grin. He lifted a hand and pinched his fingers together.

Miyoko listened attentively to Yuzuki's report, although there wasn't much she could do with the information herself. She mentally filed it away and nodded when it was complete. "Well, it's good to know we're not nearly dead in the water. If you're short of people or supplies, please let me know. Most of the command staff is recovering, but I'll do what I can." What would she do if Yuzuki said yes? Miyoko had no idea. But Yukari had asked her to take care of the ship, and she was damn well going to do her best. She'd just have to learn it as she went if there was anything she actually needed to do.

Yuzuki's question snapped Miyoko back out of her reflection. After a moment to consider it, she shook her head. "I haven't, sorry. I know she was listed as injured, but I wasn't in the medlab when she was processed. She's probably over on the Mokuren."

@Asher

Kana Nishimura let out a long, deep breath between her parted lips as she crossed her arms over her chest and leaned her weight on her left leg, bending her hip ever so slightly.

"Mr. Westwood, you do know that molesting the Santo Hei's does not result in speedy recovery, right?"

There was a knowing smirk on her velvet lips. The shark-like grin on Asher's teeth seemed like an invitation.

"You should go easy on the new ones," she added with an arched eyebrow, running her hand through her waves of black hair. "They are not used to such stimulus... yet."

She began to approach the wounded warrior with that same smirk.

Despite the lustful approach of the voluptuous dame, Asher remained silent, and quiet. His red eyes locked on to hers, searching, seeking for something deep. The thoughtful gaze replaced the grin as he leaned his head back on the back-rest of the viewing couch he was sitting on. His sight of her was now upside down, chin-spike pointing straight up into the air. His head tilted one way, as he continued to inspect her approach, before he arched a brow curiously at her, as if questioning her intent.

Nyton ran a hand through his hair. It had begun to grow out somewhat beyond his typical regulation cut so there was a bit more that became unkempt with the pass of his hand. Along with that he felt the two day old stubble growing out over his face.

"That's the catch though, is it not? Should we leave them to die or save them so they can live on as devoted slaves. What could we do? At the time it was not even a choice we could make that would not have cost us our own survival. I can take a little comfort in knowing that Kotori-dono is one of the better task masters to be devoted to." he began, pausing to give a slight grin. "Granted I do speak from a biased perspective."

Seriousness returned to Nyton's face immediately as his brow furrowed. "Given our circumstances I am going to have to find satisfaction in that we survived, our survival inadvertently saved their lives, my belief that Kotori-dono will treat them fairly, and the hope that they now have a chance to do more with themselves than remain trapped in some timeless expanse. Even if it is with their freedoms slightly removed."

With a sigh Nyton returned Nimura's gaze. "Is there an answer you are looking for Nimura?"

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ayumu was covered in blood. Her uniform was soaked by it. Her face was streaked with it.

People were dying. Everywhere!

No no no, I just need-! I just need more time!

There is no time. Save them NOW!

Another unit of hemosynth! A-a a little more gauze! Tourniquet! Stat!

It didn't seem to matter though. Everywhere Ayumu turned there were patients dying. The medical center was piled high with the bodies. The closest ones to her died the second she reached them. The furthest ones cried out in agony until they grew silent and still.

Wait! No! They have to live! Please! Don't die! I can't let them die!

A slight movement could be seen among the pile of dead and Ayumu rushed over to it. She forced herself to climb over the dead until she found a hand raised up. The nurse threw the dead bodies aside until she found the source of the movement.

"Azumi!"

"A-yumu-" gasped the blonde neko. Her uniform was ragged. Several bulges could be seen crawling around in her.

"No, no, no! Surgery! I can do surgery! Just stay with me Azumi!" the nurse protested.

"It hurts-!" Azumi cried out before a large insect tore through her body and burst out from her chest. Ayumu cried out in horror as more bugs began to tear Azumi apart from within. Before long Azumi was dead along with everyone else in the room. As the insects flung more gore upon Ayumu's face she closed her eyes and began screaming-

With a start Ayumu woke up from the nightmare. She had been working in Hoshi's medical center helping to return it to some semblance of order. The other task she had been set about was to assist in updating the 2nd Fleet's medical techniques. Some things could be learned but certain procedures required the experienced hand of a practitioner. Somewhere along the line though Ayumu had grown exhausted and passed out at her desk. The experience had been all too trying for her and she could still feel herself trembling when she was alone.

So many had died during the mission. Each death she could only feel as though she could have done more to prevent it. The haunted nurse shook her head and folded her hands together while trying to push the memories out of her mind. As much as she could she decided to focus on getting back to work.

"Hoshi, do I have any appointments or classes coming up?" Ayumu asked aloud to the MEGAMI.

"Ah. Thank you." Kai's expression turned to one of slight worry. "Is she busy? I don't want to intrude if she is." He looked at the other sprite, thinking about how he was now in a way related to her- his body born of the same 'blood' as all the Miharu sprites. Mentally, Kai shook his head. Outwardly, he simply observed the multifunction bay, looking at its current state of disrepair.

Slightly worried, he wondered to himself does she want to see me? She's probably very busy overseeing all this... "If you don't think she's busy, could you take me to the bridge. I... uh, Seem to have forgotten its location."

In truth, some part of him was sure that if he did not have someone accompanying him, he would become afraid and simply walk by the door, or leave the Hoshi altogether. Where this realization came from, Kai had no idea, but he could tell the feeling existed, and didn't want to give in. He might as well stack what few cards he had in his favor.

Kyou had quickly gotten tired of sitting in her bed for hours on end. She wasn't very happy with how things had turned out, but sitting around with nothing to do wasn't helping her keep her mind off of the casualties they'd taken. So she'd gotten herself out of bed, and started wandering around the ship, just looking around and focusing on keeping her mind occupied with something other then recent events. Eventually, she ended up at the observation deck, still not having found anyone she felt like talking to, or anything to do (since she hadn't found the kitchen, and didn't feel like asking the MEGAMI either).

She stepped onto the deck, wincing a bit at the ache still present in her upper body, and then paused, one eyebrow arching up at the rather predatory manner of the girl in front of her, the eyebrow going up even further when she noticed that it was Asher sitting over there, and he hadn't leaped straight to his feet at what was most likely a fairly blatant offer. Kyou thought about it for a moment, then leaned up against the wall, and cleared her throat audibly. "I'm, ah... not interrupting anything, am I?"

'What...what happened? What just happened?'

That was a question that Nao found herself asking quite a lot, and she suspected that she wasn't the only one who was asking that as well. Just what had happened? Normally, the Sprite didn't have enough time to dedicate to asking questions. Sure, she could have thought about anything she wanted to while working, let her mind wander across endless scapes and realms...but that made her work ok. It wouldn't be exemplary or excellent. In fact, looking back, she didn't bother setting time aside to speak to the others for this very same reason.

'Stupid, stupid, stupid.' No. Wait, that wasn't the case. 'Baka, baka, baka.' There. That was more politically correct; Nao wasn't slow, dull in mind. No, she was just another fool, a silly, blind fool, and she knew it. The Sprite's mistake rubbed itself in her face in each and ever single damned passing day. Why didn't she speak? Talk to people? Make friends? Of course she knew why. It didn't mean she liked it. She bitterly hated the irony of what she did.

'I didn't want to be forgotten.'

So the work Nao did was top notch. Unflinching quality done at breakneck speeds; no compromise whatsoever. All her time was invested into sleeping, eating or working. Bitter, bitter irony. It isolated her from everyone else. She hated being such an idiot. 'How old am I anyways?' Nao wondered. Of course she knew that too. Just a few months spent actually living, created on the Miharu like reinforcements in a military buildup preparing for a big one. Of course, she didn't know it. Nao knew it, but she really didn't know it in a much deeper way. Didn't fully comprehend. She just kept her head buried in her work, hoping it would all pass by.

Any normal Sprite's early days would have been filled with love and learning. Getting to know everyone. Getting to know the ship. One of the first things that happened shortly after Nao was born though, was Junko's first death. Nao's work, she easily got lost in it, and at that early stage, she did love it. It wasn't hard to imagine the young, young sprite throwing herself into it, desperately and ignorantly attempting to drown out the grim dark despair rather than crying on someone's shoulder.

'If I did that, I would have talked to someone at least.' She looked at her work for a moment, contemplative. 'And...I would have talked to her sooner.'

Nao was not stupid, and so wasn't going to go on and fool herself like may other people would; she knew that it was a spur of the moment. A moment that burned so brightly for her dim life, yes, but still only a faint whim. Chance. A flip of the coin, roll of the dice. Still, that didn't mean she missed Junko. Yes. That moment. It was so short and fleeting, even shorter than the rest of her abysmally short life. The time that lead up to it was so deceptively peaceful.

'Don't get me wrong, we were still going through hell and high waters...but...That...'

Her world and new passion, both all taken away. And so now, Nao found herself looking at the wirework she was doing; it was shitty. The sprite simply yanked it out and prepped it for a do over. And then looked at the time; yes, she kept track of how long these things took her. Less than a handful of minutes, most of it spent absentmindedly looking at the thing and not actually working. It took Nao far, far less than an hour to pretty much do a rough summary of her entire fucking life. She started to laugh, and laugh, and laugh.

Before she started to cry.

"I'm sorry, I-" she hiccuped. "I can't keep working. Please cover for me. I-I need to talk to someone." Nao got up and left the work to a crewwoman of the Mokuren before anything could be said, habitually pushing herself away from others. But, this was a little different from how it felt with others of the Miharu though. With another person from the Mokuren, Nao felt like they were both like animals whom had just first encountered one another, circling with wary eyes, curious and uncomfortable. Wary. Unsettled.

Nao now knew she needed to talk to someone, that was for sure, but who? The only person she had fixated on for the entirety of the entire Nightmare was Junko. But she was gone. How could she talk to her, get to know her when she was well dead? A part of Nao felt a pang of darkness as a simple fact came to mind; she didn't even know how Junko had died. Died, died d- wait. Could it be? Maybe that was a good place to start a talk?

Nao stood as tall as her stature would allow, without so much as a pain in her back, and walked through the halls of the Hoshi in search of that someone who she could hopefully speak to, thereby ending her third hour of overtime.

But with whom? Who would she ask, speak to about something other than work?

Nao just felt that she would simply know when that person came by.

Hope's burning flame was dim, but it had light.

For her, it was more than enough.

“Ah.”

Conversation was not precisely Yuzuki’s strong point. She searched for more things to say – words, just to fill the uncomfortable silence of the Hoshi. Somewhere far off, back in the nearly cleared passageways, she thought that she could hear footsteps – boots on grating. That was to be expected. Probably they were all returning to work, again. Her break, however short, was going to be over soon. The thought of someone else working, while she just lay there languidly, staring off into space like a fool, annoyed her more thoroughly than the worrying influence of fatigue or hunger.

“We don’t need people, or supplies,” Yuzuki said quietly, “This place… is too crowded. I have been sending the ones who feel uncomfortable around the bodies to the Mokuren and the other ships to work. We have maybe six of our crew, to ten of the Mokuren’s, and sometimes it’s almost hard to breath.”

Her stomach was churning, again. She rubbed the apple-visions out of her eyes by massaging around them. When she had finished, she dropped her hands, letting her head loll to the side against the headrest facing away from Miyoko, as Yuzuki had been when the sensor specialist had first come in.

“What we need,” Yuzuki stated, “What we need…”

It only occurred to her after she had started the sentence that she didn’t know exactly how to finish it.

What Yuzuki needed was her world to stop spinning like so much mush in a blender. She assumed, simply because of who and what she was, that it was also what the other sprites needed. And everybody had seemed to agree. So they worked, because that is what they did, and the bodies were cleared and the ship was cleaned and the maintenance was completed, but no matter how deeply Yuzuki engrossed herself, nothing would change the way things had turned out. Nothing would erase the names. She had figured that out last night, pouring her soul into an armor, hoping that once it was completed everything would work itself out. It was a silly hope.

She found herself blinking away tears as she stared at the pilot's panels. Not many, but the world was blurring.

“When I find out myself,” Yuzuki stated pragmatically, “I will let you know.”

"Oneee-chan! Do-we-have-time-to-take-a-bath?"

"Daaame Akiko-chan."

"Oneee-chan! Do-we-have-time-to-have-a-snack?"

"Daaame Akiko-chan."

The voices of two nekovalkyrja were heard just around the bend and up a little ways from Nao. They sounded like they were playing some kind of song game where one made a request and the other denied it. After a moment the sources of the song would come around the corner and pause.

Nao was faced with two nekovalkyrja. One was slight and petite with short brown hair and wearing a Miharu caretaker uniform and carrying a broom. The other was slightly taller with reddish blonde hair that fell behind her back and wore the same styled uniform and pushing a cart. It appeared they had been busy with cleaning. They both smiled, the shorter one waving at Nao.

"Hiiiiiiii!" greeted the shorter neko.

Miyoko frowned as Yuzuki described the current working conditions, but stayed quiet, letting her talk at her own pace and without prompting. It was obvious that there was something more bothering the sprite, but it would be hard to know where to begin... in her relatively safe spot on the Hoshi, she'd seen enough to give her nightmares for a year, and she didn't even want to imagine what Yuzuki had seen on the Shlarvasseroth.

A pang of guilt ran through Miyoko at her own helplessness in the face of Yuzuki's distress. Early on, she'd taken the view that the sprites were the closest thing she had to sisters and tried to make life on the Miharu at least a little more welcoming for them than her own formative years had been. But this, this was a little outside of her expertise. About all she was trained to do in this area was refer the patient to a trained psychologist if it started interfering with her duties.

But. Doing what I can in the face of problems I have no qualification to address is practically my main skill these days, Miyoko thought to herself wryly. There were obviously some problems here she couldn't fix, but that didn't mean she couldn't do anything. "What you need, I suspect, is breakfast," Miyoko said, reflecting back on Yuzuki's glances at her apple and the sound of her empty stomach. She closed the displays on her station and then stood up, apple in hand. "And maybe a good night's sleep, but I'm afraid I can't deliver that. If you'd like, though, I can grab you something from the kitchen."

Yuzuki blinked away the dampness, looking back up at Miyoko once Yuzuki was sure her eyes were clear. Then, she smiled a bit, since it wasn't in her to remain completely deadpan when every fiber of her being resounded with agreement. She did need food. One step at a time.

"Yes," she said, "I mean, thank you. I guess I should have grabbed something before coming up here. I didn't figure on someone else finding me, tell the truth."

And I didn't want to go into the kitchen, Yuzuki's brain mentally added into the silence that followed. The last time she'd been in a kitchen had been with Freeman, and their conversation had been oddly foreboding, uncomfortable, and a little bit awkward. Yuzuki stood and stretched her full height, as best she could in the cockpit, viewing this sudden aversion ruefully. How many memories could she possibly avoid like this?

"I'll go with you. I should go back to the deckplates soon."