Latest revision as of 07:59, 14 August 2015

Euphemia Barchetta has posed:
    Euphemia is just starting to get eased in to her new life. Though she's been on the planet for a few months, it's still been less than a week since she has actually spent a reasonable amount of time in the city of Tokyo proper. Even on Midchilda she lived out in the country and visits to major cities were rare, partially because the girl could hardly be trusted not to cause too much trouble or run off and barely be seen from again. She's been apartment shopping today, soon to have her own place to live because overly inquisitive young girls can cause quite a ruckus around corporate offices and laboratories.

    For most of the day the car and foot traffic had been immense, but now it's late out and things have quieted down some. There's only a few people on the sidewalks and the street itself is mostly empty save for busses that pass by. Truth be told the transit rules were pretty confusing to her and she'd been mainly relying on herd logic to not get run over in the streets. That doesn't mean she's walking across the street at an improper time, however. In fact, what she's doing is probably far worse.

    Horns can be heard honking every minute or so, along with sounds of annoyance and even some cursing. Arms and legs wrapped around a traffic light post, Euphemia has slowly been scaling it this way for the last half hour. It's taken a lot of work to figure out how to do it without just sliding down, but she's learned that if she squeezes her feet together on either side of the post there's enough friction to allow her to slowly climb.

    Sure, she could just fly up there to check it out, but she's supposed to be -in disguise-, her fellows at Eclipse having taught her how important keeping separate identities for her magical and non-magical life was. Once at the top she climbs out over the road and starts looking over the actual stoplights. The red briefly obscures as her head goes in front of it.

    Cue more honking.

Lena Reiniger has posed:
After the events of a few nights ago that, looking back on them, was a very bad mistake given the situation she'd found herself in--who attempts non-violence with that many hostiles in an area--Lena has had a lot dumped on her plate. Sure, on a personal level, spending the night at Shiori's house since she'd figured Riventon's people might actually be looking for her at her apartment, had been... interesting. Actually talking to a native about her not being from Earth and all of that wonderful stuff didn't feel too bad. There was just this feeling! Being so close to him for the whole night. She just couldn't sleep. And then visiting the hospital -again- with another arm injury was just the highlight of her next morning.

On top of that, what the Lost Logia turned out to actually be isn't something she really wanted to have dropped in her lap, but it's there and she needs to seriously consider what she's going to do with it. Keeping it on her person probably isn't the smartest of ideas, so she's dropped it off somewhere she's pretty sure will keep it well hidden with appropriate sealing placed on it. Lena is starting to think her best bet with it might be to see if she can track down Lindy.

But for now she's just clearing her head, doing something her doctor probably would advise against with an arm just freshly recovered from a nasty break and a dislocation, but she's pretty sure the weak magic she has in place around her shoulder to keep it from getting jarred about too much will work. Plus it beats wearing a brace for mobility.

Lena's actually speeding down the street, a blank helmet on her head, and a similarly black performance jacket on her body. She's leaned over a rather expensive looking bike, the same gunmetal color of her Knight Armor, just letting her mind wander away from all the troubles, as only a night drive can do.

And then some damn fool is climbing street lights and making a scene and she has to immediately break, bike turning sideways as it screams to a halt Akira-style, just before she slams into the back of a stopped car. She's about to give the man a talking to when she looks up and notices just what's blocking the lights. Off comes the helmet at that.

Euphemia Barchetta has posed:
    There is an exchange of words as the driver of the car rolls down his window and starts shouting up at the girl hanging on the beam the stoplight is mounted to. The response to this is indignant, "There's no signs or anything saying I can't! What's the big deal anyway? If those two are off this one has to be on!" She motions with her arms to the yellow and green lights, and at one point even lets go with both her hands, waving them down at the driver in annoyance as if he's the one at fault here.

    The light still red Euphemia leans down over it again and stares into the bright red light, her hair falling down off of her head and looking a bit purplish with the stoplight shining through it. Several taps are made then at it, and it's quickly apparent that the light is made out of an array of red LEDs.

    "Aww," she sounds as she realizes she'd have to crack open the casing to try and steal some, not yet willing to go that far to satisfy her curiosity. Especially not when she's being watched. As the light turns green the car speeds off, and Euphemia pulls herself all the way up on top of the bar. She holds her arms out to the side and walks back towards the post like an amateur balance beam gymnast, (in reality it's plenty wide for it!).

    As she goes she notices the motorcyclist, stopping for a moment and pressing one finger to her chin. That lady looks... vaguely familiar! Which is odd, because almost no one on this planet should. Maybe it's just a trick of the dark night?

    With a laugh she drops down, catches the pole between her thighs and lets herself swing beneath and hang from it, hair falling down from her head once more. She'll 'raise' her arm and wave to Lena, "Hi!"

Lena Reiniger has posed:
She's just sort of standing there, watching the exchange happen with a look on her face that can only be called gobsmacked. This is actually a thing that's happening in downtown Tokyo. Clearly she was not prepared for this level of strangeness when she left her apartment, because she doesn't even bother to just go around the stopped car like any sensible person might do. Nope, she's just going to stand there and look between driver and... monkey. What else could you call a young girl doing this?

It only dawns on her after the car in front of her pulls away that maybe she should do something about getting the girl down from there. So, after the realization--and a honk from behind her, to which she makes a somewhat rude geature--she rights herself and heads down the road a bit until she can turn off and park. And just what's she going to do when she gets there and gets the kid down? Perhaps call the police and let them deal with it? Maybe have her call her parents so they can pick her up? Questions to be answered later. Right now she's coming up under the light and staring up and... she's being waved at. The hand holding her helmet comes up briefly in a sort of wave before she calls back up at her. "Shouldn't you come down from there?" Though she's pretty sure that's probably not going to work.

But wait! There's more! It's not like Ascalon has been idle during all of this and soon enough he quietly pings, a display showing in the corner of Lena's vision with, of all things, the crew compliment of the Asura. 'What does this have to do with anything,' comes the mental response to her device and in answer he cycles right on down the list to the rather recently added janitor. A young girl rather very much like the one she's staring at right now. Eyes narrow a moment, looking at the picture, and then she goes right back to the girl on the street light. Maybe a little older, but otherwise... "Oh Saint Kings of old, don't take the light apart!"

Euphemia Barchetta has posed:
    The mysterious bike rider, who is now herself getting passed by the car behind since the light did in fact change, waves back to her! This puts a bright smile on the girls face, pretty though green in the glare of the stoplight. "I will soon enough," she replies happily to the question. This has her tilting her head 'up' to look at the ground, a thoughtful expression on her lips as she considers the distance. Hanging like this means she won't have -so- far to fall. She probably could just let go and flip over to land on her feet... 'Though probably not in this dress,' she decides. She's already pushing her luck a bit hanging upside down.

    Her expression remains quizzical as Lena's focus seems momentarily distracted, only for the sudden shout. This elicits a short round of laughter from the girl. She was recognized! "I wasn't going to! Or, well, I -was-, but I was just going to take one of the lights. But they're embedded. Boo!"

    Keeping her legs hooked about the pole she leans back up and drags herself over to the post, clinging on while flipping her legs up and over, eventually sliding down the post while spinning around it, "Wheeee!" She pushes off and drops the last foot, taking advantage of the momentum.

    NOW the girl is running out into the middle of the street, trying to get a better look. "...Lena!"

Lena Reiniger has posed:
Oh please don't drop down from there, she doesn't want to have to catch someone that decided it was a good idea to jump off a street light. Thankfully, much to Lena's relief, Euphemia doesn't do that and instead opts to come down the somewhat more sensible way. And when she does get down, Lena does not look at all pleased with the girl. This might even be made all the more obvious when she takes her free hand and whaps the poor girl right upside the back of the head. "The hell do you think you're doing!?" She begins, helmet pointing up at the light. "There aren't signs that say you can't do that on Midchilda, but you can't do that on Midchilda! What makes you think you can do that on UA-97?"

But she's safe now and that's all that really matters, and it doesn't appear that anybody is going to get out and give the girl what for. So she moves back from the street, leaning against a building while she gives the girl a nice long look. Definitely hasn't been on the planet as long as she has. Way too young. Lena herself looks a good bit older than she did on the Asura, with the nearly two years that have passed for her. "Well... I guess it's a good thing you didn't die in that incident," and she honestly does sound like the thought worried her. "But... you got here a lot later than I did."

Now the question is... what's she going to do with her? Lena supposes the best option would be to ask if the girl's father was also out of subspace or if he even survived, but the side of the road probably isn't the best option for having that kind of discussion, right?

Euphemia Barchetta has posed:
    "Kyah!" comes the cry of surprise from Euphemia as she's smacked in the back of the head. This has her putting on an upset face with pursed lips. She's hasn't even been here a week and already people are telling her what she shouldn't be doing! She reaches up behind herself and rubs a little bit at the spot she was smacked, but luckily it doesn't feel too sore. She straightens her hair out a little, which needs it from all the hanging upside down.

    "I've been wanting to do that all day! And I waited until it was only a few people that'd see me." As she's told she couldn't do that on Midchilda she gives Lena a bright smile and an utterly mischievous laugh, "I can't do it on Midchilda because the police on Midchilda could catch me. The police here can't!"

    Beamingly bright smile!

    She'll follow Lena and get out of the street, still messing with her hair a bit by the time the she makes it to the wall she leans against. The girl herself noticed herself being examined, and thus makes a little spin in place. "You've been here a while? That explains the vehicle. ...and the age! You got tall!"

    Unfortunately there are -other- things on her mind as 'didn't die' is spoken. "Yeah, no thanks to those heartless TSAB -jerks-." It probably comes out with more venom than she was trying to use, and likely as quite a surprise to Lena. In the last bit before the Incident her opinion of the Bureau had started plummeting, to the point that even in confinement words like 'insubordinate' and 'questioning orders' were being used to refer to her. Lena might have heard some of this despite being confined to quarters, but Euphemia was hardly ever openly hostile to just about anything.

    "I've been here a few months," she offers after cooling off for a moment. "I was with my dad when it happened. He made it to the planet but was hurt bad; no one ever came for us." A thought occurs to her just then and she starts looking over Lena, mainly seeing if there's any type of TSAB rank markers or IDs on her. "Looks like no one ever came for you, either."

Lena Reiniger has posed:
She rolls her eyes and for a moment it even looks like she might reach over and smack her again, but it doesn't come. Instead she can only sigh. "Just because most of the people on this world can't use magic doesn't mean you should use it to break the law. Besides, how much magic are you going to use with a civilian device anyway?" She clearly doesn't yet know that Euph has upgraded. But yes, the idea of the girl breaking the law makes Lena level such a frown at her. It is the look of disapproval. Of course she's definitely not one to talk about things like that. Very much a case of the pot calling the kettle black! But as they say, do as I say and not as I do, right?

She snorts a bit at the comment but all she can really do is nod. It's true, she's been planetside for a good while. She throws on a very slight smile, pretty much the most she's ever been seen with by anybody on a TSAB vessel. "I've been here long enough," she says, "that I've even settled down. Got married, have a family." It even looks like she's wistfully thinking about what's waiting for her at home... for a moment, but then she looks over at Euph and the smile becomes a bit more of a smirk. "Or I've just been bumming around for two years. Which do you believe?"

And just like that, the mirth is killed by the sad, harsh truth of reality. So her father did survive, at least for a while. The hurt bad makes her think the worst, because she's pretty much gotten to the point where she always expects the worst when things go wrong in spectacular ways. Looking off to the side, Lena frowns. She doesn't really want to make it any worse but... well... the girl probably needs to hear the truth she's likely already figured out. "Nobody's coming for us. Everybody that was suppose to be on that mission joined up knowing that either it went off without a hitch or we weren't coming home," she says with a sort of matter-of-factness that would be expected of a person that had come to accept their fate. Even so, there's a very slight hint of sympathy in her voice. After all, Euph wasn't suppose to be on the ship to begin with, she didn't sign up for what was essentially a suicide mission. "TSAB's not going to risk more people to recover a single ship's crew. It'd be stupid to expect them to when the chance of success is so low."

Euphemia Barchetta has posed:
    "I climb things! It's one of the things I do. And taking things apart is one of the other things I do. This isn't half as bad as the time-" Oh right, no one ever found out about that. "Anyway..! I don't think what I was doing was all that horrible. I can more than take care of myself and if people think I'm in danger and get worried that's their problem, not mine. Besides, even if I had gotten the light I probably would have put it back tomorrow if they hadn't already replaced it."

    The look of disapproval is met with playful defiance. Lena might be able to smack her upside the head again, but what can she -really- do to stop her from causing mischief? She's not stuck on a ship where she has no choice but to follow the rules anymore. As for how much magic she can do? "Enough!" is the winning reply. Every once in a while a gem of some kind can be seen peeking out from under the collar of her dress. It might even have been fully exposed one of those few times she was dangling upside down. It's dark green and kite shaped, but generally only visible for a moment or two at a time. It's not -too- far of a stretch to guess it is, in fact, a Device of some kind in standby mode.

    She considers the two options offered to her and sighs, "I'd be happy for you if it was the first, but I bet it was the second one." The happy mood being killed was probably unavoidable as the harsh truth of reality is going to be a topic often discussed on such a meeting. "I'm not surprised. And actually, I don't even blame them -too- much for not sending anyone. They just should have never started such a dumb mission in the first place, or listened when people tried to tell them how bad of an idea it was."

    She huffs, crossing her arms and turning away for a moment. Talking about it more is going to make her upset, and being upset is the opposite of having fun.

    "...take me for a ride!" Euphemia suddenly exclaims, going over to Lena's motorcycle and hopping on the back of the seat and bouncing the suspension up and down a bit. "Come on, it'll be fun! I haven't ridden on any of this planets vehicles yet, and this one looks -awesome-! I won't even try to press any buttons or do anything stupid. I promise!"

Lena Reiniger has posed:
Oh she does indeed notice that Device peeking out every now and then, but she can't really get a good look at it, making it at least a little hard to identify. There's at least one that was on the Asura that she knows of that looks kind of like that, but surely it wouldn't register a child as a master, right? And surely Euph, curious as she may be, wouldn't actually use it? More questions to be answered later. Instead she's just going to reach out and poke her lightly on the forehead. "Just don't cause too much trouble. Even if it is a backwater, this world's not a bad place, and it doesn't need a non-native messing things up," another stern frown. Listen to your elders!

She can't really argue with the assessment of things. It was a pretty stupid mission and people did say how badly it would go. But even so, Lena feels that it needs to be pointed out, "that's why when they asked for people to sign up for the mission, they made it very clear it was probably going to be one-way with no rescue coming." That almost seems specifically aimed at a certain stowaway that shouldn't have even been on the ship to begin with, but maybe not. "Regardless, we couldn't just abandon a world to something like the Book." Especially a world that actually has no means to handle such a problem. Not that the TSAB really has much better means to handle it, but at least they could do -something- against it.

No! She's touching a machine! Her machine! It's almost like handing over her Device to the girl... almost. But Lena keeps her cool and follows her over, not making a scene over it. Instead she points out a very serious issue with the request. "I don't have an extra helmet, and this one won't fit you," and the make her point even more clear, she plots said helmet right on Euph's head. "And the vehicles here aren't that much different from the ones on Midchilda. Really only difference is they run on fossil fuels instead of renewable sources." What else would she be expecting of a backwater world?

Euphemia Barchetta has posed:
    It's probably a good thing that Lena doesn't know Euphemia -that- well. If she did she'd realize that of course the most dangerous TSAB device on the ship would be exactly the one she wanted to use most. Just putting an extra layer of security around something was enough to make her decidedly more interested in it. Her father was at least smart enough to never let her near a non-civilian device at home or on the Asura. After planet fall, however... "It seems pretty fun so far. I like it here! If I was here with my family and under better circumstances I'd probably be really happy. It's too bad about the whole 'dangerously inaccessible' thing."

    Does the TSAB have anything to say about tourism on unadministrated planets? They might, but Euphemia sure doesn't know about any. The girl gets a bit huffy again at even the slightest bit of defense that Lena puts up for TSAB, "Yeah well maybe you didn't see how much pressure they put on people who didn't want to go. You're probably the type who would consider it your duty to go on a suicide mission if you thought you were the best person for the job. My dad was too... but my mom begged him not to go. They didn't drop it when he told them 'no' the first time." Or that's simply the story he told his family when he decided to go, but either way the young girl remains unconvinced it was a good idea even if the people knew the risks.

    To her credit she says nothing of her own predicament- she wasn't ever authorized to go, let alone asked. She just wasn't found until it was too late to get her off the ship.

    With the helmet plopped onto her head she looks up at Lena, the thing sliding around a bit. "It's good enough! And if anything -actually- bad happened, you still have your Device, right? A barrier would be fine for a helmet, or even to protect the whole body. ...or to just fly away instead of crashing."

    This is not a girl who takes 'no' lightly and is extremely accustomed to getting what she wants, even if through sheer defiance and willpower. "I've never been on a vehicle like this one either, not on Midchilda or anywhere. And I know you can pilot it really well because of the way you stopped!" Yes, she noticed that.

    There's more weapons than mere 'logic' she has at her disposal too. She's still young enough that she can tilt her head down, pout her bottom lip a little, and look up at Lena through cyan colored eyelashes. "Pleeeease?"

Lena Reiniger has posed:
She's definitely not about to defend the recruitment methods the TSAB uses. Even she'd openly admit that sometimes they can be more than a little pushy with where they want to send good agents. And the comment about how she thinks of herself hurts more than a little bit. Another thing she won't deny being true, but still... it reminds her of her father, and she can't really stand that. Her frown is enough to show that she's probably not pleased with the direction her thoughts have done.

But annoying or not, there is one thing that Euph has that can make things better. Being pushy and just innocent enough in thoughts to make someone snap out of their own worries so they can worry about the silly things a kid might do. She shakes her head and crosses her arms. She's just going to stare right back at that pouting face. "And if I still say no?" But she's not really going to let her answer the question. She doesn't really want to know what would happen if she said no. Instead she hops on and gets the thing started up. It's... actually not nearly as loud as would be expected for the engine on it. Still a decent noise maker though. "Flying's out of the question, too obvious," she says, looking back at Euph. "You might want to hold on tight." It's almost said as an after-thought while she slowly gets the bike back onto the road. There's a light you see, and she's not so silly as to not observe traffic laws even as she breaks a few for the girl she's with. "You have anywhere to stay tonight?" It's the obvious question to ask, really.

This light is taking so long to change ov--oh, there it is. It's really only the briefest of checks to see if Euph's ready and then they're off. Slow at first, but she's quick to pick up speed, maybe going just a bit faster than is posted on signs.

Euphemia Barchetta has posed:
    It wasn't intended as an insult, or as a compliment either. But sometimes that's what can make the words of kids so painful- they have a propensity to just say things exactly as they see them and the truth from time to time can cut straight to the bone. Still, if she knew her words would hurt or upset Lena she probably would hare phrased them differently.

    When asked what she'd do if Lena denied her Euphemia makes a sad little noise and pouts just a tiny bit more, only to cheer when Lena hops on and starts the motorcycle up. "Yay!" she exclaims, hopping a little and once more bouncing the bike (lightly, it wasn't a huge hop) on it's suspension once more.

    "You're the best, Lena!" she cheers and compliments, leaning forward and hugging tightly onto the tall redhead. That's not merely to show her appreciation either, following the suggestion and staying close with her arms holding tight for the duration of the ride, however long it lasts.

    One trick to dealing with Euphemia is that she primarily just wants to have fun and avoid boredom; if given a task she can keep her mind on or doing something she considers fun her more over the top dangerous behavior tends to drop considerably. Lindy was pretty smart when she made the girl a janitor- it let her satisfy her curiosity about the ship and occupied her physically at the same time.

    "Um, the couch of someone I've known for a few days," she admits about having a place to stay. "I'm going to have somewhere more permanent soon, but not yet."

    As the bike starts to move she holds on just a little closer, and once they're up to speed she'll let out a long, "Wheeeeee!"