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[Powder Miner]

Faith had spent a lot of the day (and, for that matter, the previous night) stuck in somewhat awkward contemplation. That... had been a shitstorm. She hadn't expected that things would have gotten as bad as they had. She... probably shouldn't have worded what she'd said to Noriko with so much vitriol, even if the words had bubbled up from somewhere deep within her. Shit, though... she guessed that the whole thing at least did her the favor of exposing to the light just how fucked up this group was... somehow, practically the most traumatized group of kids in the city had happened to be Awakened at the same time and place, huh?

She'd been too devoured by the fear to pay attention to it for a long time. When her every waking moment had been spent terrified either of the world here that was going to kill her or of the world back home that'd been in other ways so much worse... it hadn't been easy to pay attention to how the others were doing and what they were going through. She still didn't know exactly what Noriko's context was, and of course Noriko didn't know what hers was, either. ...she didn't even know the full story with Yuki, not quite, and the process of finding out...

...well, dealing with Noriko might honestly be easier than that, though that didn't make it easy. Faith spent most of the class that she shared with Noriko staring at the other girl with a contemplative expression - one that didn't seem hostile but was very much a searching gaze. Faith intercepted Noriko after class very briefly, sending a "We really do need to talk," her way before scuttling off towards her next class.

The next interception (or at least attempt at it) came instead at the end of school, Faith waiting outside the school's main exit for Noriko to pass by.

[Chevaleresse]

Kouta

"What are you doing?" He was still coming back down to earth, and the effort he'd just exerted was still crashing in on him. The voice coming over the comms was muffled by exhaustion - and nerves, now that the actual fight was over. Kouta didn't even know the people he'd just trusted his life with, and he'd come close to. . . not dying, but something equivalent. It was a lot to deal with at once. The boy changed his focus to the AIs. "Um, did you let Onee-chan know what's happening yet? Or, um, what happened, I guess."

[Empiricist]

Kouta
"Giving you somewhere to crash!"
She continues painting away, handling her cleaver more like an oversized than the brutal weapon it was.

"Not yet, she was in a sensitive position. We shall notify her at the next available opportunity."

"Okay! I think I'm ready now!"
Ready for what? She's just kinda standing in the middle of her new ink puddle, waving her arms at you. Well, not you, the plane.
"Fly it down here!"
What like, into her?

[Chevaleresse]

Kouta

"Um. . ." He was fairly certain this variant didn't have any STOL - which was a term he apparently knew now - capabilities, but apparently Aria had some sort of extradimensional space thing going on with her ink. Or something. "Just fly it into you or?" He brought the jet around and came in with as slow of an approach as he could manage without stalling out, ready to pull out of the maneuver if something went wrong.

Noriko

She spotted Faith waiting for her. A sigh of quiet frustration escaped her. Noriko had been hoping to leave before Faith had a chance to do something like this. She knew it was childish, ironic given what she'd said last night, but this confrontation was something she did not want to have. She was still angry at Minato, and Faith had bit deep into a conflict that ultimately wasn't about her at all. Noriko's expression turned bitter. I suppose I should thank her for making me realize how selfish he really is. She shook her head, then moved up to place herself in Faith's view more clearly. She wasn't going to initiate this, especially not after last night.

[Powder Miner]

It took a moment before Faith spoke, and when she did it was with a quiet sigh. "So... do you remember what I said at the end of all that?" She was silent, but only for a brief moment - she didn't really think it would be a good idea to make Noriko play the game of 'yes, I will repeat what you said back at you'. "I said that we don't understand each other because we haven't told each other anything. And it did make me reflect that we really are a dysfunctional mess. I'm pretty sure we've almost all... maybe even that we've all got some way of being screwed up that we've kept to ourselves, while not going out of our way to find out the ways everyone else is screwed up. Maybe it was always going to turn out like this at some point, when I think about it like that."

Faith sighed, and then took in a deep breath, nerves playing into it and making it tremble just a bit. "So... look. Uh... we'll have to move the conversation elsewhere if you agree to this, but... maybe we actually do tell each other, then. It's not going to be one way because... I mean, look, I've had to deal with some..." a pause, as she looked for the wording, "I was being completely crippled by some things of my own for a long time, and they're... they're not gone, really. I need to make you understand that it isn't just that we're all heartless, but that we've been living in our own little... painful bubbles, I guess. But, um, basically: I am willing to listen to you, to hear you out and hear what is hurting you, and maybe see if there is anything I can reasonably do to help. And then I will tell you everything about what it is with me - things that I haven't told Minato and Yuki, because I kind of can't."

[Twinwolf]

The thought had, of course, passed through Shef's mind. Leone's intel had indicated that grocery purchases were fitting for two people, along with other clues. But still, there could be no certainty there as to what was really going on. Even if his aura based sweep of the apartment had misled him and there was in fact no one there, Shef stepped forward, committing to this choice. The phrase in for a penny, in for a pound whispered tantalizingly in the back of his head.

As he approached the opening into the living space, his eyes swept over the furnishings, not merely appraising value, but also cleanliness. Yuki had let slip some small indication that she was in financial straits, and well she was working too jobs as far as Shef was aware. Concluding his appraisal, his gaze swept towards the couch, uncertain of what precisely he would find there.

The house's furniture was spare, but what there was was surprisingly clean; Yuki didn't seem like a cleanly type, but she did work at a 'maid' cafe, so maybe there was something to that. As it turned out, the place was occupied after all; a woman sat on the couch, staring a TV that was running the news. She and hadn't apparently noticed his presence. Given the hair color visible at this angle, and the skin tone, it was probably easy to figure that it was Yuki's mom.

[Chevaleresse]

Noriko answered Faith with another sigh of her own. "Look. I get what you're trying to do here. Venting my entire tragic backstory at you isn't going to make this go away." Her brows furrowed in a not-quite-scowl as she spoke. "As far as I can tell, even after all this, you guys still aren't concerned with what I actually think. You might think you are, but you're not." She put a hand up to her head, as if she could draw out the pent-up frustration from her skull. "I appreciate that you want to at least try to help, but this won't fix anything that's wrong. Minato will still be a selfish ass, I'll still be an emotional time bomb, and it's still going to be hard to even sit in the same room, much less actually work together." Noriko took a step away from Faith. "You should be worrying more about Yuki, anyway. She deserves to have someone worrying about her." She shook her head. "Hearing more about other people's problems won't make mine go away, and I'm tired of them acting like it will." Noriko turned to walk away, trying not to let guilt weigh her down as she did.

[Powder Miner]

Faith shrugged at Noriko, with a little bit of a helpless expression. "Well, I mean... I don't know what you think, Noriko. That's kind of the point. I don't know what you think and I don't really understand you, because I don't know very much about you. I don't think any of us actually understand each other. ...Not even me and Yuki." Let alone her and Minato, it occurred to her. "And it's actually... really bad. So that's what I want to do something about, really." She sighed. "I mean, I really can't force you. But... do you have anything else in mind?"

[Strider03]

No response to his statement entrance. A few options were easily eliminated. Unlikely that she was simply deaf, the TV volume, while not high, was on. Not ignoring him, that seemed unlikely during a break in. Possibly asleep, the slumped posture made it difficult to tell. Few other options beyond that save some awakened situation that he could not possibly predict. With that in mind, he conjured a few portals, at angles, just to get a frontal look, make sure there wasn't some form of danger awaiting him. Not asleep it seemed. Comfortable that there wasn't, he approached.

It had to be Yuki's mother. With the intel Leone had provided, that was one of the few options that fit. Yuki's mother who seemingly never left the house, and was sitting during the middle of the workday in this rundown apartment. So this would explain it, why Yuki had appeared so cautious about every minor expense, and possibly why the mind reader had felt bad? Definitely a significant burden, that the girl had probably been carrying for a while. Should be searching for a job though. Why the hell would she just spend all her time inside with Yuki carrying the load.

As Shef stepped forward around the side of the couch, he asked cautiously again, "Hello? Miss can you hear me?" He reached out a hand, waving it gently in front of her face.

[Empiricist]

Kouta
Welp, here goes nothing. You loop the plane upwards, thrusters and engines flexing experimentally, the plane rising and falling, slowly synchronizing with your slowing bresth as you see how far you can push it, how slow you can go, before you lose control, before the descent will become a crash.

Letting out one last exhale, you send the plane downwards, beginning its final approach. The wind is heavy, the rain torrential, but true your path remains, guided by the plane's sensor array as if it were part of you. In some ways it is, a welcome luxury given the circumstances.

The building comes up, and fast. A grey speck blooming rapidly to fill your world. You're coming in fast, dangerously fast. The F-35A variant was not built with carrier landings in mind, and top of this building, is considerably shorter than a carrier. You hope Aria knows what she's doing.

Fear and regret begin to set in, a chill down your spine and and sinking sensation at the pit of your stomach, and it is only then that the girl springs to action. With the deranged motions of a marionettes she twists upwards into the plane's path... and straight up RKOs that shit straight into the ink.

The impact is no what you expect. The way Aria's armor looked, you expected it to be like water. You expected a hard impact. Thirteen hundred tonnes of screaming metal and epoxy composite meeting the eldritch deep in a single apocalyptic crash.

Instead it simply splashes through. The deep rushes through the plane's engines, rushes past the sensors, enveloping it all. There is not bottom, no end, a black infinity held in less than a millimeter of pigment. An endless void swallowing all. All light, all noise, all sensation.

And yet you sense still. Movement. Activity. Life. Something like it anyways. Lurking in the edges. Just outside your peripherals. Just outside your senses. Just outside your consciousness.

One by one your sensors go offline. Piece by piece your planes dissolves away. Was it destroyed? Forgotten? Dissolved? A singular presence diluted by an infinity of possibility? You simply cannot tell.

But as it varnishes you feel a weight lifting your from you. Relief. Proper relief, washing over you at last. It's over. It's done. You've won.

And yet somehow you know this isn't the end. Maybe it's Sendo. Maybe it's the augs. Maybe it's just intuition.

The fight is over. But your story has only just begun.

[

Roll The Fucking OP

]

((Well, hope this was enjoyable, or at least not a complete waste of time. I don't see much reason to RP what happens next since there's going to be a lot of of the nothing, but I'm sure you or Kouta probably have some questions to ask, so feel free to just shoot them iyt as dot points or something and I'll throw in the appropriate response.))

[Chevaleresse]

"The person who did the most wrong here actually apologizing for real might help." A venom that was growing to be distressingly familiar seeped into her voice. "Not that I think he will. He keeps acting like he's done no wrong, but his whole hero act is just to make him feel better about himself. He just wants to be the protagonist." Noriko pressed her lips together, then gave a single shake of her head. "You want to know the first thing that hurts? Realizing that. And you should realize it too. Not trying to be a bitch, but I'm pretty sure that's why he likes you. You're his damsel in distress, he gets to act out his little fantasy with you." The blue-haired girl sighed. "Believe it or not, I'm not actually trying to insult you here. Even if I'm still a little pissed about what you said." Her eyebrows moved in such that it was clear her thoughts were now focused on the one in front of her. "Didn't think it was that hard to figure out that I might not have had the easiest life, being, you know, a minor taking care of her adoptive brother by herself. Not to mention the job at the fucking maid cafe." She took a deep breath with her eyes closed, attempting to reel herself back. Noriko wasn't actually trying to start another fight; everyone knew she'd done more than enough to last a lifetime in that department at this point. "Just. . . forget about me. Make sure Yuki's doing alright and I'll take care of myself. Always have."

[Powder Miner]

Faith sighed a little at the first part of what Noriko said, and just looked at her with a bit of a wistful expression. "Yeah, I know, Noriko. But it wouldn't really be fair of me to rake him over the coals for it. I had wanted him to swoop in and be the hero, pretty much as the premise of the whole thing. I don't really need that anymore, I guess. I'll have to figure out what to do about that." ...anyway, the conversation was back to more hostile grounds, now. Faith had to pick her words carefully. "Well... I mean, yes, I did notice that. But I had figured that things would have been getting better, since you were getting stuff from the AI. And... well, Noriko, I've been too busy dealing with the ways in which my own life wasn't the easiest to dig further than that." Faith cleared her throat to prevent herself from getting choked up and stumbling over her words. "The emotional instability you mentioned, it... I mean." She shrugged helplessly at Noriko. But... picking her words carefully, so she had to move this back to Noriko. "...and, I'm sorry, but... I guess I don't really understand how that all comes to what happened yesterday happening like it did, or I guess how it connects to what I said, actually."

"And, um... I... can't make sure Yuki's doing alright, by myself. I can try harder to maybe make sure that she has money, since her having that screwed-up job too is a sign, but I... I can't really go all the way."

[Chevaleresse]

"He forgot." She took a careful, slow breath. "I got on his case about a time I got hurt pretty bad on a mission and he just ignored me. And he forgot about it completely. Why would he remember? He's a good guy, so obviously he didn't actually do anything wrong, and all he had to do was explain why." Noriko rolled her eyes as she spoke. "So I got mad. I made a mistake and screwed it up for everyone because I can't handle this - can't handle him - any more. All he does is give a shallow apology and keep on doing exactly what he was doing before. Yesterday was just me figuring that out."

[Twinwolf]

No response to his statement entrance. A few options were easily eliminated. Unlikely that she was simply deaf, the TV volume, while not high, was on. Not ignoring him, that seemed unlikely during a break in. Possibly asleep, the slumped posture made it difficult to tell. Few other options beyond that save some awakened situation that he could not possibly predict. With that in mind, he conjured a few portals, at angles, just to get a frontal look, make sure there wasn't some form of danger awaiting him. Not asleep it seemed. Comfortable that there wasn't, he approached.

It had to be Yuki's mother. With the intel Leone had provided, that was one of the few options that fit. Yuki's mother who seemingly never left the house, and was sitting during the middle of the workday in this rundown apartment. So this would explain it, why Yuki had appeared so cautious about every minor expense, and possibly why the mind reader had felt bad? Definitely a significant burden, that the girl had probably been carrying for a while. Should be searching for a job though. Why the hell would she just spend all her time inside with Yuki carrying the load.

As Shef stepped forward around the side of the couch, he asked cautiously again, "Hello? Miss can you hear me?" He reached out a hand, waving it gently in front of her face.

There was no verbal response. The woman's eyes did track the movements of his hand, somewhat, but she didn't speak up.

[Strider03]

Mute? Deaf? No, certainly not, he'd already eliminated the latter anyway. The response was unnatural, starkly opposed to what it should be. It was not a cautious or frightened response to Shef's illegal intrusion. The expression betrayed no understanding of the situation.

Shef let out a huff, why, he did not know—was he annoyed at being ignored? Putting that aside, he sent off a quick text:

Any medical record info on the mother?

It seemed unlikely that Léone had access to such things, but to hell with it. No harm in asking. For now, Shef took his phone flashlight, and pointed it at the woman's eyes, watching her pupils carefully. "Yeah I know it's not a concussion, but what else am I supposed to do?" he grumbled. He snapped his fingers in front of her face. "Hey! Help me out here, can you flinch at least?"