Congratulations? [OPEN]

[fieldpromoted]

Trudy slouched through the city with her hands in her pockets, kicking at the gravel. She'd have to see Reinforce and get a new uniform made. She'd have to schedule a meeting with the captain, and one with Kira and Michael to check in with them about their squadrons.

She was going to have to promote someone to Commander in Rogue Squadron, and quite frankly she didn't see any viable candidates in the bunch. Winchester had a slug in his head, and it was obvious to anyone who knew him that his first loyalty would always be to his family. Hemeros was a good kid, but kind of a wild pilot. Fenton was a good kid too, decent pilot, but he was a kid. Not someone she wanted as an officer. Janson might do, especially since he had so much more experience with the X-wings, but his absence at the training exercise had been kind of glaring - but then, maybe he'd been nabbed by GLaDOS to go run mazes.

The door to the Drunken Dragon was open as always, and Trudy felt some of the stress sliding off her shoulders as she walked in, flinging herself onto a bar stool. "Whatever new stuff you think I'll like that you've got back there, I need it," she said.

Comments

[a_mere_human]

Sitting not too far from her, towards the end of the bar, was someone who would probably end up being a huge headache to her. Setsuna was by himself, quietly drinking some water as he looked over something on a datapad. He had glanced up at her when she came in, but otherwise paid her no mind.

[fieldpromoted]

He may not have said anything to her, but she certainly noticed him. She remembered his face from the training exercise - and remembered his distinct lack of participation. Not that she could really lay into him, since he wasn't officially part of her military yet, but feeling out the kind of guy he was seemed like a good move.

Trudy moved down a couple of chairs until she was sitting near him. "I remember you from the sensoriums," she said. "Have any thoughts about what you watched?"

[governorkang]

"Way ahead of you," Kang grinned, thumping a clay jug in front of her. "It's vodka."

[fieldpromoted]

"Hot damn, Kang, you just became my favorite person on the ship. Where the hell did you manage to get vodka? Don't tell me we've got a distillery and I didn't know about it."

Trudy uncorked the jug and sniffed. It smelled like paint thinner. She grinned. "Got a glass for me, Legartijo?"

[a_mere_human]

He glanced up from his pad at Trudy, regarding her quietly for a moment. Whatever he decided, it was hard to tell, as he looked back down at his pad.

"None that matter."

[fieldpromoted]

So much for trying to be friendly.

Trudy gave a kind of mental shrug. If he didn't want to care, that wasn't her problem. "I don't think we actually met," she said, extending her hand. She hesitated only a brief second before she gave her new rank - she'd taken it, she had to stand by it. "General Trudy Chacon. You're a pilot, I take it."

[governorkang]

Kang laughed, setting a mug in front of Trudy as well, "Mei-Xing's helping out. She's got a spell that speeds up fermentation time."

[fieldpromoted]

Trudy poured herself a good couple of fingers - she'd nurse this for a little while. She didn't want to get herself plastered, not like she had when Kawalsky died, but she didn't really want to be sober right now either.

She took a sip and her eyebrows went up. It wasn't bad. Not fantastic, but not bad. "Well, cheers to the misanthropic elf chick," she said. "Who knew she'd be good for something besides pissing people off?"

[a_mere_human]

"Setsuna F. Seiei," he responded, looking up at her, but not shaking her hand. He actually wasn't trying to be disrespectful there, though he was aware it might come off that way. But he always avoided physical contact with people as much as he could.

"I'm a Gundam Meister," he clarified. Sort of.

[fieldpromoted]

Trudy'd met enough people on the ship that had apparently never been raised with manners that his lack of response to the offered handshake went almost unnoticed.

"A mobile suit pilot, then," Trudy said. "I fly with the Rogues, myself, but I'll admit that I've wondered what those machines could do."

[a_mere_human]

He was raised with good manners. All of which were beaten out of him after he joined a group of religious extremists.

"It's very different than piloting an X-wing," he informed her.

[fieldpromoted]

"Well I didn't start off flying those either," Trudy said. She took a small drink of her liquor, her eyes wandering around the bar as she reminisced. "They started me off flying transports, then I got switched to a chopper and stayed flying that for a couple years. Now I'm on Stacy, and atmosphere craft doesn't have much use, so I learned the X-wings."

She said it offhandedly, like everyone could pick up a new craft in the relatively short time she'd been here. Of course, if he was anything like the rest of the Gundam pilots, he had more talent in his little finger than in her whole body.

[governorkang]

"I like her well enough, for an elf," Kang chuckled, his tone giving no indication of whether or not he was joking. "I can see why others wouldn't like her, though. She's a pretty damn powerful mage, actually."

[fieldpromoted]

"I don't give a shit about her magic twiddle or whatever," Trudy said. "She's got an attitude that I just can't stand. Makes me want to pop her in the mouth every time she opens it." She shrugged, dismissing the thought. "At least I don't have to deal with her. Nanoha is welcome to her."

She glared at nothing. Sorry Kang, she's in a really pissy mood today.

[a_mere_human]

He listened carefully, eying her expressions as she talked.

"You're a career soldier?"

[fieldpromoted]

"Oh, I joined the Marines when I was eighteen because I didn't have much else to do with my life. Served my contract out there and decided to ship out of system with a mercenary group."

He had a right to ask her about herself. She would be his commander, if he decided to join up. He should know as much about her as she was willing to give. "So I guess you could say that."

[a_mere_human]

"Hm." Exactly what that noise meant was anyone's guess.

"So what do you fight for now?"

[fieldpromoted]

Well. "Popping out the hard questions, huh?" she asked, contemplating her mug of vodka.

It was a good question. What was she really fighting for here? It was easy to say that it was to keep the Ohm from spreading, but a good bit of it was anger at them for destroying her home. And even more than that...

"To stop them, because someone has to," she said. "Because I have the skills. If I don't use them, I'm as good as a murderer." She knocked back the rest of her vodka - philosophy was not her favorite thing in the universe.

[a_mere_human]

Well, it was less stupid than Kira's response. But, still...

"That sounds like a very empty reason," he stated evenly, like he was just making a simple observation.

[fieldpromoted]

If he was trying to get a rise out of her, he'd have to do a better job than that. "I'm not going to pretend I have the secret answers to the universe, kid," she said. "Maybe I'm fighting because I can't stand to be on the ground too long."

A little flippant, but she found that the more she thought about it, the more she thought there was some truth in that. She was a pilot - it wasn't just an occupation to her. "Don't know what I'd do with myself if I retired anyway."

[a_mere_human]

He wasn't trying to get a rise out of her. He was just socially inept and a poor conversationalist.

But he could understand how she felt. For most of his life, the only thing he really knew how to do was fight.

"Then you should find something worth fighting for. Otherwise, all your battles will be meaningless."

[fieldpromoted]

"Hell, fighting not to die sounds like a pretty good reason for me. We're all backed into a corner here. It's either do or get wiped out of existence, so I know which one I'm picking."

'Meaningless' was kind of a strong word. Sure, the simulations didn't do shit for morale, especially when they kept losing to the Ohm. Kira had built that program better than she thought. "And besides, we've only had the one encounter with the enemy."

[a_mere_human]

Setsuna tilted his head a bit. He didn't think that 'do or die' would inspire much in the troops, but he wasn't in charge.

"Only one encounter?" He figured there would have been more, the way people spoke about the Ohm.

[fieldpromoted]

"As a company, yes," she said. "Anyone who's here has also met them a little more personally, when they wiped out their universes... you can ask Stacy to restore the memories if you want."

Trudy didn't see much point in doing it, herself. She'd heard plenty from the other crew members about the way the Ohm operated when they got down to the business of wiping out a universe. It just sounded like more trauma she didn't need.

[a_mere_human]

He thought about that for a moment. Only one encounter, memories that can't be trusted, and hearsay. Not much to go on when sorting out sides in a war.

"I'll pass."