YSS Kaiyo II - Observation Deck
20日 8月 YE 39
0100 Hours
Meissa got up from bed. She needed to do something she'd done many times already, late at night. She kissed Mat on the forehead, and snuck out the door to the Observation Deck.
"MEGAMI, star map." Meissa whispered as a volumetric map of the stars appeared. She found what she was looking for, sat down, and began praying to the stars.
"Hey. Can you hear me?" she asked.
The soft patting of tiny, bare feet permeated the air behind Meissa, a certain albatross having followed Meissa from the crew lounge.
Meissa looked behind her for whoever was there. "What are you doing so late at night?" Meissa asked.
Arbles looked kind of silly, clad in a silken nightgown with a partially-eaten meat-and-cheese sandwich clasped in her smol hands. She hefted it up a few decimeters, then briefly pointed to her swollen stomach. And then she spoke, softly, "What about you?"
"...there isn't a simple answer." Meissa replied. She had a sense of deja vu, where the last time a pregnant lady walked into her contemplating her past, she got adopted.
"Something personal?" The little one stepped toward Meissa softly, sitting down next to her cross-leggedly.
"Quite." Meissa replied. "Although a few here and there know about it."
"Ah. I'm assuming you don't want to talk about it again, then. At least not with someone new?"
Meissa looked at her tiny friend as she pat her head gently. Ah, fuck it. It was fate.
"I think I know you well enough." she answered.
Mrs. Iemochi winced a little as Meissa patted her messy, soft, but quite warm hair.
"Well, you know already that I'm really not all that into our religion." she started. "But, I make a special case for my dad."
"Hmm?"
"Do you...have any family members you really care about?" Meissa asked.
"Seino, of course. our children. I haven't seen my parents in so long but I care about them too..."
"And, what would you say makes a home?" Meissa asked. "What is love known by?"
"Well... a home is somewhere where you can be comfortable with people close to you."
"Then, by that definition, before Saki sort of...adopted me, before the Kaiyo, I was homeless for a while." Meissa replied.
Arbles remained silent for the time being, Meissa sitting in silence beside her.
"Essentially, imagine if Mochi died." Meissa spoke. "That's the impact my dad had on me."
A small hand seemed to suddenly grip at Meissa's shoulder, pulling the two birbs close. Despite not saying a word, it was clear that Arbles was feeling impacts from these thoughts.
Meissa only wrapped her wings around her smol friend. "Yeah. You...probably know what's going on now."
"...m... mhm..."
"My dad's buried in the ground, and I don't even have the luxury to know where my mother is." Meissa chuckled. "I'm a mess, and I went a little mad for a week before I managed to get my mind pieced back together. To be honest, I'm...not that strong of a person."
"Well I doubt that. You picked yourself up again, rather than just... moping around."
"Well, that's the cruelest part," Meissa continued. "Dad taught me all these things, from espionage to gun tricks, and at the end of his life I feel like I was supposed to use all that to find my mother. And there she went, vanishing like some ghost."
"Hmph. Any indication why, like a notice from the government?"
"Nothing." Meissa replied. "Nothing at all. It could have been contempt, but I never got that feeling from dad. I never got any feeling of spite or anything. It was almost like dad just...knew it had to happen."
"Well, then..."
"Like...I tried to find the reason why he would do that. Was he projecting my mother onto me? And who was she in the first place?"
"Presumably, someone who was important to somthing..."
“And that’s what I basically summed up.” Meissa replied. “And that level of secrecy is only done for either the government...or for criminals.”
“But, flowers don’t grow off flowers, do they?” Meissa asked her friend, again. “The most beautiful things in the galaxy were built off of mud and pouring rains and dying stars.”
"That is true. And.... Hm." The smol one took a bit of her sandwich thoughtfully - even a moment like this didn't fully outweigh three stomachs. The morsel disappeared down her throat before she continued, "Well, you've had your rain, and your mud, and.... Your dying star. Are you a flower?"
"I don't know, to be honest." Meissa replied.
"Well let's think about what you've done that's like, good." Thoughtful chewing. "For one, you're more or less one of the like, commanding soldier people on the battlefield. People look to you for decisions. Then-" Arbles took another bite, not even bothering to fully swallow before speaking, "You'ph got the whole SOPHHT thing goin' onmm." A swallow, thank the light that's over. "I'll be honest if I wasn't able to be myself myself I'd rather look like you. Hmm, what else..." The little one took another bite of the fading sandwich, chewing thoughtfully again.
"That's flattering." Meissa chuckled. "You'd look like me if you didn't want to look like yourself. Anything about you?"
"Hm?"
“Just wondering about your life, you know.”
"Honestly? The most interesting thing about me is that I wasn't born with the name Arbitrated Shan. It was originally Lynne Aliana, and then I did some stupid thing as a kid and became Arbitrated. But hey, if it wasn't for that I probably never would have found Mochi. And for that... I guess I'm kinda glad I wasn't perfect."
“Perfection’s never perfect,” Meissa stated.
"Annnd...?" The little one's voice seemed to tease Meissa, not unlike a parent or teacher trying to coax an answer out of a child.
"And, well, I guess all the Elysians onboard this ship are a bunch of nuts." Meissa laughed.
Arbles chuckled a little bit, as well. "That we are, that we are... But that's the thing that got us this far. We were nuts and joined the Star Army rather than sit around at home on Elysia."
“Is that why you had such a concerned look whenever I told one of those stories how I got a bone broken or something as a kid?” Meissa asked.
"....Yeah, a little bit."
"Hey, I was a fighting little mongoose at a young age." Meissa stated. "If anything bad happened, I probably could fight my way out." She took a chance to hug her tiny friend.
Arbles smiled a little in the darkness as she was hugged by the owl. "Well, look where it's gotten you. You do have a job, kinda technically. You have a family, and people who care about-also love you. Sounds like success isn't passing you by."
"Hey, you do too. Can't be all bad."
"It's not at all. I quite like life like this. Maybe a couple less things trying to kills us every day would be nice later on but for now, it's great to be kinda like this."
“How are you doing, anyways?” Meissa asked. “Staying low on stress for the ones growing inside you?”
"I do my best, yeah."
“My own house is a glorified tomb, heh...” Meissa contemplated.
Arbles pouted. "You mean a few walls and a ceiling is. Verses uh, your home. Which I'm pretty sure is the Kaiyo."
“That is true.” Meissa replied. “And yet I doubt I’ll sell that house, either.” She let the image of the front lawn flash in her memory, letting her unconscious broadcast the image in a small area around her.
"Well, then. Why do you just... mope about it then? I mean, honoring your loved ones is important, but well... I don't think your dad wanted you to just like... sit around because he left." She shrugged, "Maybe it's like one of those movies and he left some secret or something."
“Maybe not, but if Mochi died, would you just...let it go?” Meissa asked. “And I’d be happy to let you search the place with me.”
"That's different. He's my husband, not my father, and he didn't raise me to be, well... he just didn't raise me."
“Exactly. And that’s why its not very possible for me to just...let it go.”
"...I didn't say forget about him if that's what you thought. I meant don't just sit around waiting for him to come back or something. Or your mother."
“Why do you think I’m here, then?” Meissa asked, lightly smoothening her friend’s hair.
"Here, or here?" As she repeated the word, Arbles gestured about as if to indicate specifically the observation area.
"...yes." Meissa answered. So helpful.
Arbles sighed, "You stole that from Kyoi, didn't you?"
"No, I barely talked to her." Meissa replied. "I did it to someone else I knew early on in life, though. He was pretty mad every time I did it."
"Huh. Well she probably stole it from you then," the little mother chuckled.
"No, she barely talks to me." Meissa stated again, bonking the mother on the head, patting her little bump.
"Now you pray they don't steal it from me."
"Hmph. We'll see, we'll see..." Instinctively, Arbles's hands darted to her stomach as it was pat.
"Hey, at least I feel much more solid about being around small children after Kikyo."
"True, true... Why even was she transferred off? I didn't really get much info about that." Awaiting Meissa's response, the little one went back to eating her sammich.
"Wasn't fit for combat." Meissa replied. "She had the skills but not the nerves. Not like us who can sweep a whole squad without even so much a twinge on our consciences."
"Ah, that's pretty unfortunate... I guess she just didn't have it in her." Arbles sniffed.
"No, she's just off in a fort somewhere getting training."
"Well, yes I know that. It'd be stupid to straight up kill her or something."
"I was thinking more like, removing her SACN module and putting her in civilian life. Wow, you have darker thoughts than I do and I'm the one with a dead dad buried in the backyard and a mom who's AWOL." Meissa poked.
"You're the one who made it sound like something worse than retraining was on my mind. I know how they uh, 'recycle' nekos that don't meet standards on creation. Do the math on that one..."
"Yeah, but do they just recycle Nekos who are born on ships that their mothers don't want fighting, instead putting them into civilian life?"
"I never said I was an expert."
"Well," Meissa blushed. "I-ah...had to do a lot of research. Much less for your situation."
"...Why?"
"Because by a crazy technicality, Saki is my adoptive mother figure which makes Kikyo my sister."
Arbles paused for a moment, looking at Meissa in the dim light. And then, four words: "Huh... Well that's neat."
"My family situation is weird. Have I ever said that?"
"Not this weird... or clear. Or clearly weird."
"Hey, whatever you do, make sure these two don't end up in my spot with weird family trees." Meissa replied, giving Arble's belly a little poke.
The little one winced a little, not so much in pain, just... awkwardness. "Trust me, I don't want to. Mochi's been through enough."
"Again, I'm sure all of us Elysians on board have been through too much for one lifetime." Meissa replied, hugging the mother of incredibly small stature with her wings.
"Mrh..." the syllable slipped out from the smol's lips slowly, her body warm even for the blanket-like hug Meissa was delivering.
"Ssh..." Meissa took her arms and pat the tiny pink angel next to her. "Wonder if I'll be an okay mother. Granted I don't want to get pregnant any time soon, but still. It's a curiosity."
Arbles shrugged. "Well, I doubt you'll be forgotten. You're certainly quite an impressive person."
"Mmm, but my issue isn't being forgotten." Meissa replied. "It's to make sure they grow up all nice and well so they can take on the world when they need to."
"I'm sure you'll do that, too."
"Thanks." Meissa gently ruffled the unusually soft hair. Again.
After a few minutes, Arbles looked over at Meissa again. "Feeling better? You should probably get back to sleep soon."
“Eh.” Meissa shrugged. “Things suck. We all make the best of what we can do. I should be telling you to sleep. I’m not caring for three people.”
"Hey, I need the energy for the three of us," Arbles joked a little, "gotta get it from somewhere." She hefted her 'snack' as if in a demonstration.
"Exactly," Meissa replied. "So sleep." More patting.
"Fine, fine... After I finish my sandwich."
20日 8月 YE 39
0100 Hours
Meissa got up from bed. She needed to do something she'd done many times already, late at night. She kissed Mat on the forehead, and snuck out the door to the Observation Deck.
"MEGAMI, star map." Meissa whispered as a volumetric map of the stars appeared. She found what she was looking for, sat down, and began praying to the stars.
"Hey. Can you hear me?" she asked.
The soft patting of tiny, bare feet permeated the air behind Meissa, a certain albatross having followed Meissa from the crew lounge.
Meissa looked behind her for whoever was there. "What are you doing so late at night?" Meissa asked.
Arbles looked kind of silly, clad in a silken nightgown with a partially-eaten meat-and-cheese sandwich clasped in her smol hands. She hefted it up a few decimeters, then briefly pointed to her swollen stomach. And then she spoke, softly, "What about you?"
"...there isn't a simple answer." Meissa replied. She had a sense of deja vu, where the last time a pregnant lady walked into her contemplating her past, she got adopted.
"Something personal?" The little one stepped toward Meissa softly, sitting down next to her cross-leggedly.
"Quite." Meissa replied. "Although a few here and there know about it."
"Ah. I'm assuming you don't want to talk about it again, then. At least not with someone new?"
Meissa looked at her tiny friend as she pat her head gently. Ah, fuck it. It was fate.
"I think I know you well enough." she answered.
Mrs. Iemochi winced a little as Meissa patted her messy, soft, but quite warm hair.
"Well, you know already that I'm really not all that into our religion." she started. "But, I make a special case for my dad."
"Hmm?"
"Do you...have any family members you really care about?" Meissa asked.
"Seino, of course. our children. I haven't seen my parents in so long but I care about them too..."
"And, what would you say makes a home?" Meissa asked. "What is love known by?"
"Well... a home is somewhere where you can be comfortable with people close to you."
"Then, by that definition, before Saki sort of...adopted me, before the Kaiyo, I was homeless for a while." Meissa replied.
Arbles remained silent for the time being, Meissa sitting in silence beside her.
"Essentially, imagine if Mochi died." Meissa spoke. "That's the impact my dad had on me."
A small hand seemed to suddenly grip at Meissa's shoulder, pulling the two birbs close. Despite not saying a word, it was clear that Arbles was feeling impacts from these thoughts.
Meissa only wrapped her wings around her smol friend. "Yeah. You...probably know what's going on now."
"...m... mhm..."
"My dad's buried in the ground, and I don't even have the luxury to know where my mother is." Meissa chuckled. "I'm a mess, and I went a little mad for a week before I managed to get my mind pieced back together. To be honest, I'm...not that strong of a person."
"Well I doubt that. You picked yourself up again, rather than just... moping around."
"Well, that's the cruelest part," Meissa continued. "Dad taught me all these things, from espionage to gun tricks, and at the end of his life I feel like I was supposed to use all that to find my mother. And there she went, vanishing like some ghost."
"Hmph. Any indication why, like a notice from the government?"
"Nothing." Meissa replied. "Nothing at all. It could have been contempt, but I never got that feeling from dad. I never got any feeling of spite or anything. It was almost like dad just...knew it had to happen."
"Well, then..."
"Like...I tried to find the reason why he would do that. Was he projecting my mother onto me? And who was she in the first place?"
"Presumably, someone who was important to somthing..."
“And that’s what I basically summed up.” Meissa replied. “And that level of secrecy is only done for either the government...or for criminals.”
“But, flowers don’t grow off flowers, do they?” Meissa asked her friend, again. “The most beautiful things in the galaxy were built off of mud and pouring rains and dying stars.”
"That is true. And.... Hm." The smol one took a bit of her sandwich thoughtfully - even a moment like this didn't fully outweigh three stomachs. The morsel disappeared down her throat before she continued, "Well, you've had your rain, and your mud, and.... Your dying star. Are you a flower?"
"I don't know, to be honest." Meissa replied.
"Well let's think about what you've done that's like, good." Thoughtful chewing. "For one, you're more or less one of the like, commanding soldier people on the battlefield. People look to you for decisions. Then-" Arbles took another bite, not even bothering to fully swallow before speaking, "You'ph got the whole SOPHHT thing goin' onmm." A swallow, thank the light that's over. "I'll be honest if I wasn't able to be myself myself I'd rather look like you. Hmm, what else..." The little one took another bite of the fading sandwich, chewing thoughtfully again.
"That's flattering." Meissa chuckled. "You'd look like me if you didn't want to look like yourself. Anything about you?"
"Hm?"
“Just wondering about your life, you know.”
"Honestly? The most interesting thing about me is that I wasn't born with the name Arbitrated Shan. It was originally Lynne Aliana, and then I did some stupid thing as a kid and became Arbitrated. But hey, if it wasn't for that I probably never would have found Mochi. And for that... I guess I'm kinda glad I wasn't perfect."
“Perfection’s never perfect,” Meissa stated.
"Annnd...?" The little one's voice seemed to tease Meissa, not unlike a parent or teacher trying to coax an answer out of a child.
"And, well, I guess all the Elysians onboard this ship are a bunch of nuts." Meissa laughed.
Arbles chuckled a little bit, as well. "That we are, that we are... But that's the thing that got us this far. We were nuts and joined the Star Army rather than sit around at home on Elysia."
“Is that why you had such a concerned look whenever I told one of those stories how I got a bone broken or something as a kid?” Meissa asked.
"....Yeah, a little bit."
"Hey, I was a fighting little mongoose at a young age." Meissa stated. "If anything bad happened, I probably could fight my way out." She took a chance to hug her tiny friend.
Arbles smiled a little in the darkness as she was hugged by the owl. "Well, look where it's gotten you. You do have a job, kinda technically. You have a family, and people who care about-also love you. Sounds like success isn't passing you by."
"Hey, you do too. Can't be all bad."
"It's not at all. I quite like life like this. Maybe a couple less things trying to kills us every day would be nice later on but for now, it's great to be kinda like this."
“How are you doing, anyways?” Meissa asked. “Staying low on stress for the ones growing inside you?”
"I do my best, yeah."
“My own house is a glorified tomb, heh...” Meissa contemplated.
Arbles pouted. "You mean a few walls and a ceiling is. Verses uh, your home. Which I'm pretty sure is the Kaiyo."
“That is true.” Meissa replied. “And yet I doubt I’ll sell that house, either.” She let the image of the front lawn flash in her memory, letting her unconscious broadcast the image in a small area around her.
"Well, then. Why do you just... mope about it then? I mean, honoring your loved ones is important, but well... I don't think your dad wanted you to just like... sit around because he left." She shrugged, "Maybe it's like one of those movies and he left some secret or something."
“Maybe not, but if Mochi died, would you just...let it go?” Meissa asked. “And I’d be happy to let you search the place with me.”
"That's different. He's my husband, not my father, and he didn't raise me to be, well... he just didn't raise me."
“Exactly. And that’s why its not very possible for me to just...let it go.”
"...I didn't say forget about him if that's what you thought. I meant don't just sit around waiting for him to come back or something. Or your mother."
“Why do you think I’m here, then?” Meissa asked, lightly smoothening her friend’s hair.
"Here, or here?" As she repeated the word, Arbles gestured about as if to indicate specifically the observation area.
"...yes." Meissa answered. So helpful.
Arbles sighed, "You stole that from Kyoi, didn't you?"
"No, I barely talked to her." Meissa replied. "I did it to someone else I knew early on in life, though. He was pretty mad every time I did it."
"Huh. Well she probably stole it from you then," the little mother chuckled.
"No, she barely talks to me." Meissa stated again, bonking the mother on the head, patting her little bump.
"Now you pray they don't steal it from me."
"Hmph. We'll see, we'll see..." Instinctively, Arbles's hands darted to her stomach as it was pat.
"Hey, at least I feel much more solid about being around small children after Kikyo."
"True, true... Why even was she transferred off? I didn't really get much info about that." Awaiting Meissa's response, the little one went back to eating her sammich.
"Wasn't fit for combat." Meissa replied. "She had the skills but not the nerves. Not like us who can sweep a whole squad without even so much a twinge on our consciences."
"Ah, that's pretty unfortunate... I guess she just didn't have it in her." Arbles sniffed.
"No, she's just off in a fort somewhere getting training."
"Well, yes I know that. It'd be stupid to straight up kill her or something."
"I was thinking more like, removing her SACN module and putting her in civilian life. Wow, you have darker thoughts than I do and I'm the one with a dead dad buried in the backyard and a mom who's AWOL." Meissa poked.
"You're the one who made it sound like something worse than retraining was on my mind. I know how they uh, 'recycle' nekos that don't meet standards on creation. Do the math on that one..."
"Yeah, but do they just recycle Nekos who are born on ships that their mothers don't want fighting, instead putting them into civilian life?"
"I never said I was an expert."
"Well," Meissa blushed. "I-ah...had to do a lot of research. Much less for your situation."
"...Why?"
"Because by a crazy technicality, Saki is my adoptive mother figure which makes Kikyo my sister."
Arbles paused for a moment, looking at Meissa in the dim light. And then, four words: "Huh... Well that's neat."
"My family situation is weird. Have I ever said that?"
"Not this weird... or clear. Or clearly weird."
"Hey, whatever you do, make sure these two don't end up in my spot with weird family trees." Meissa replied, giving Arble's belly a little poke.
The little one winced a little, not so much in pain, just... awkwardness. "Trust me, I don't want to. Mochi's been through enough."
"Again, I'm sure all of us Elysians on board have been through too much for one lifetime." Meissa replied, hugging the mother of incredibly small stature with her wings.
"Mrh..." the syllable slipped out from the smol's lips slowly, her body warm even for the blanket-like hug Meissa was delivering.
"Ssh..." Meissa took her arms and pat the tiny pink angel next to her. "Wonder if I'll be an okay mother. Granted I don't want to get pregnant any time soon, but still. It's a curiosity."
Arbles shrugged. "Well, I doubt you'll be forgotten. You're certainly quite an impressive person."
"Mmm, but my issue isn't being forgotten." Meissa replied. "It's to make sure they grow up all nice and well so they can take on the world when they need to."
"I'm sure you'll do that, too."
"Thanks." Meissa gently ruffled the unusually soft hair. Again.
After a few minutes, Arbles looked over at Meissa again. "Feeling better? You should probably get back to sleep soon."
“Eh.” Meissa shrugged. “Things suck. We all make the best of what we can do. I should be telling you to sleep. I’m not caring for three people.”
"Hey, I need the energy for the three of us," Arbles joked a little, "gotta get it from somewhere." She hefted her 'snack' as if in a demonstration.
"Exactly," Meissa replied. "So sleep." More patting.
"Fine, fine... After I finish my sandwich."
