Performance Tests [OPEN]

[jesus_is_gundam]

While everyone else was busy going shopping down on the planet, Setsuna had more important things to do. Namely, take his Gundam out for a test run.

Everything had gone smoothly, and all systems were functional. Which bothered him a little bit. There had been certain subtleties to the 00, sometimes it would pull on a hairpin turn, an occasional rattle in the cockpit when he pushed past a certain speed... none of those things were there. The suit was perfect. Too perfect. It was almost as if the suit was brand new.

Except the 00 Raiser had been through hell, and the odds of its GN drives being repaired after Exia and 0 Gundam exploded were faint at best. It did have all the hallmarks of Celestial Being's craftmanship, but even so, Setsuna couldn't help but wonder where did this suit come from? And its GN drives? Two more questions to add to the growing pile, and he still had no answers.

"Gundam..."

As he exited the machine, he half expected to have Trudy screaming at him again about him not asking permission before launching previously. As if he needed her permission, or anyone else's, to take his own suit outside. But as he lowered himself from the cockpit to the ground, those concerns went right out the window as he noticed the two suits docked behind Dynames.

...so, he was here now. And off in the distance he could see that Tieria's suit, which had disappeared briefly, was back again. Which meant that the four of them were together again. The thought brought the smallest of smiles to the corner of his mouth, though only for a brief moment.

"Allelujah..."

As his feet hit the hangar floor, he scrapped whatever plans he did have. After all, if Arios, along with its predecessor Kryios, were both here, his comrade was sure to show up soon enough looking for them. Setsuna would just hang out by his own suits and wait for him.

Comments

Just saying this so that the others know, Feldt is likely to threadjack.

[pinkbridgebunny.livejournal.com]

Feldt had been a safe distance away, watching Setsuna in the 00 Raiser. She had been saddened to see Virtue leave for a short while, but it was a surprise to see it back along with Arios and Kyrios. Wait, Arios and Kyrios? That could only mean that Allelujah Haptism, another Gundam Meister, along with Tieria Erde were here. She quickly made her way to the floor of the hangar and to Setsuna's side.

"Tieria, Allelujah," she said quietly. "All the Meisters are here. That could mean that the others will be here sometime."

She hoped that Sumeragi, Milena, Ian, and Lasse had survived.

[a_mere_human]

"Perhaps," Setsuna stated. "But that's not something we can count on."

He didn't dwell on the thought, however. Miss Sumeragi, Ian, Saji, and the others weren't here right now. Just the other Meisters (sans Lyle and Soma) and Feldt. And that was that.

[pinkbridgebunny.livejournal.com]

It was time to think about something else. She hadn't asked him about the 00 yet. She wanted to know just how it was working. "How was the 00?"

She was one of the few people that could repair and work on the computer systems for it. Ian wasn't here to do so.

[a_mere_human]

Setsuna didn't answer at first, simply staring up at the machine for a moment.

"It handled flawlessly," he finally answered. Though he still seemed bothered by that fact.

[pinkbridgebunny.livejournal.com]

She was silent for a moment. "Odd. It always had a couple of flaws in it." She should have been happy that the suit handled perfectly, but the 00 had always had a few flaws in it, even if they weren't big enough to really cause any trouble with the suit in combat.

[dhianeila.livejournal.com]

She had felt no danger, so had no worries when she noticed Setsuna's Gundam had gone out. Still, that did leave her curious, which was why Dhianeila's projection was also in the hangar when the Meister returned. Seldom did she also feel much joy from Setsuna in the time that she'd known him, so his reaction when he noticed the other suits in the hangar didn't go unnoticed. She felt glad feeling Setsuna happy, even if it was a somewhat brief rush.

"Hello, Setsuna," she spoke aloud to let her presence be known.

[jesus_is_gundam]

"Princess Dhianeila Y Leisha Altoria Ol Yunos..." He hadn't expected to see her there. He didn't figure her for a hangar rat like most of the pilots were. Plus he thought she'd be down on XaXing.

"You're not on the surface?"

[dhianeila.livejournal.com]

"I was, earlier!" she exclaimed with a smile. "I gave Kang my funds because I cannot be there to bring anything back myself. But I've met so many different people so far. This planet is such an amazing thing to exist in this universe."

[a_mere_human]

"I suppose." He couldn't say he found the place as interesting as she did. Outside of his Gundams, he wasn't that materialistic. He didn't see why people had to own so much stuff, remarkably more than what they needed.

"Why are you here?" While he could understand that it would be hard for her to stay around so many people for long, which would explain why she was on board Stacy, that didn't explain why she was in this part of the ship. He was curious to know, and being blunt was very much his style.

[dhianeila.livejournal.com]

"Having so many beings from so many different parts of the universe coming together here and interacting ... it is an interesting and very smart way to show that we can all exist together." Yeah, the buying stuff wasn't her main point of interest, either. Not when there was such a great example of peaceful foreign relation going on.

She looked over to Setsuna's Gundam. "I saw that took this one out, despite there being no need for battle. Were you testing the operations?"

[praises]

Allelujah had definitely seen better days. It wasn't exactly visible to the naked eye save for the pinch of stress evident in his brow—even he was somewhat relieved to find that his mobility hadn't be affected in the four years he was unable to move more than few inches at a time. But even that seemed like it was falling into a narrow sort of binocular vision at this point, straying farther and farther away on the scale of importance.

The light, the feeling like the floor had been dropped from beneath him. It was unforgettable. The only thought that flashed through his mind had been brief; Allelujah wondered if the detention facility had been attacked, if that was how it would all end for him, after all.

Luck had somehow been on his side.

Which is what he would have liked to have thought, had he not wound up spit up into some pulsing, sick-smelling foreign cavern, covered in slime and thankfully, mercifully alive but also decidedly naked and wholly confused. And it hadn't ended there. No sooner than he had found his way to being uncomfortably clothed again by some kind of lighted guidance system, Allelujah had been tossed into a clockwork trap of mazes and portals, pressed forward to navigate with the promise of ... cake.

Not that he wanted or really cared about cake at this point, but if not for a goal, what else was there? His ingrained distaste for being used as a lab rat would only get him so far in life or death situations, and he couldn't really afford to be picky.

Some few odd days later, he'd come to find out, he'd been released once again. Told he was the toy of some AI, GLaDOS. He'd been through with this before then, too. He was still working through general disorientation, the rush of seemingly impossible information that was still there to greet him upon being free. The only thing on his mind was to find a source of familiarity now, and the best option so far looked like it was going to be the hangar. Mobile suits were there.

Upon entering, he stops short, eyes wide, searching. To his surprise, there were units he recognized. Gundams he recognized.

And those he did not.

"This is ..."

[a_mere_human]

This is... a friendly face-- okay, more a familiar face, at least.

"Allelujah Haptism. Read this," he stated, holding his omnicomm out. Yes, leave it to Setsuna to go straight from 'pleasantries' to business with barely a breath in between. But considering that he figured that Alle's next question was going to be 'What the hell is going on?', the files he was about to see would give him some answers.

I LIVE

[praises]

It was familiar all right, familiar enough to stun Allelujah into a dead halt on all fronts.

Only a bewildered "Setsuna—?" was his eloquent response. Near mechanically, a trained reflex from simply knowing Setsuna and how he operated after all those years, Allelujah took the device. Though admittedly, he was still doing more staring than reading, somewhat shell-shocked.

\o/

[a_mere_human]

Setsuna gave him a few minutes to look over everything, simply standing aside quietly. He eventually turned his attention towards Kyrios and Arios, but noticed an important detail and began looking around further.

"I don't see the GN Archer," he noted. "Soma Peries isn't with you?"

[praises]

Allelujah was caught off guard by the sudden question, attention severing from the unbelievable information he was trying to take in about this ship, the situation, everything. In fact, he looked as though he was all but forgetting about the omnicomm and its contents.

"Soma Peries." The very name sounded heavy and hesitant in his mouth. Allelujah averted his eyes to the side. "No. I haven't been able to see Marie since Lagrange-1."

Since the UN's final attack on Celestial Being.

"Four years ago."

[eltneg.livejournal.com]

To say he was 'distressed' would be putting it nicely.

From the familiar confines of Seravee's cockpit with Feldt hastily transferring coordinates from the Ptolemy to the Gundam's mainframe, to the muggy, nigh suffocating conditions of this living, breathing ship (Stacy, was it?) had been alarming on its own. The about-face from the dimly lit nursery of pods (still coughing slime from his lungs) to the sterile conditions of a hellish labyrinth had been even more so. Why the AI had continued to insist on confectionaries when he'd explained multiple times that he had no interest in sweets hadn't made his stay at the "Enrichment Center" any more tolerable. In retrospect, he never did see hide nor hair of the rumored cake.

... And then there was Veda, a detail of which he'd been aware of from the moment he'd spilled like a fish from the artificial womb of the ship and gasped his first breath, near incessant with bewilderment.

"Veda..." He breathes out, a name he'd once based his entire identity on felt foreign on his tongue, as he entered the Hangar— only to come to a grinding halt, both physically and mentally (you can almost hear the cogs rasping), as he lifts his lowered gaze.

"G-Gundam?" he exclaims before a certain someone usurps his focus, "Setsuna!"

He's not sure just how many more surprises he can take.

I said she might threadjack.

[pinkbridgebunny.livejournal.com]

There was another surprise that he was going to get. From another part of the hangar there was another member of Celestial Being. She had been watching Setsuna in the 00 from a safe distance. She hadn't been able to go out with him when he went to test the systems of the Gundam, but she had been waiting quietly for him to return.

It seemed that he hadn't noticed her at the foot of Exia, where she had been watching for the 00 to come back and she was about to go talk to Setsuna when she noticed the other Meister.

"Tieria?" she called out, stepping out from around the foot of Exia, so that she could be seen better.

Re: I said she might threadjack.

[jesus_is_gundam]

"Tieria Erde." Setsuna responded, giving his comrade a slightly odd look. "You seem surprised."

[eltneg.livejournal.com]

"Feldt?" He forms her name like a question, his attention transitioning for a third time.

His alarm surrenders to agitation at Setsuna's idiocy comment. Why should he be anything but surprised! And is that any way to approach someone you haven't seen in upwards of four entire years?

"Don't mock me. Explain the situation, post-haste."

[pinkbridgebunny.livejournal.com]

"So you don't remember anything," she said more to herself than the others. She figured that it would be best for Setsuna to explain, since he had been here for the longest time. She stepped closer to the other Meister, giving Tieria a bit of room.

[sniping-meister.livejournal.com]

As usual now, Haro bounded ahead of his owner, ears flapping and chirping happily. Lockon didn't mind. The hangar was safe and more than likely Feldt was there anyway. He vaguely remembered a request from Duo to retrieve some tool from Setsuna; he wondered where Setsuna hid the things he took as the spoils of poorly thought out plans.

/threadjack

[eltneg.livejournal.com]

Normally, Tieria wouldn't have bothered to look up (he stood by the edge of the walkway, hands loosely gripping the safety rail), but the familiarity of Haro's robotic chatter was entirely too much to ignore. While there were bound to be hundreds, if not thousands, of occupants aboard Stacy, surely Haros weren't commonplace.

He found himself (guiltily) wishing he hadn't.

"Lockon... Stratos—?"

Of course Feldt and Setsuna hadn't any reason to lie, not about something like this; they hadn't anything to gain. And now— there wasn't any room left for disbelief.

[sniping-meister.livejournal.com]

Lockon approached, and as soon as he saw Tieria he slowed. "Oi, Tieria..."

[eltneg.livejournal.com]

He blanches. He feels chest tighten and his stomach drop, and he's sure his hands would be shaking if they weren't already too busy squeezing the life out of catwalk's railing.

Nothing could've prepared him for this.

[sniping-meister.livejournal.com]

"How long have you been here?" he asked, as though nothing were wrong. He still had no other good way of coping with the fact that in some future he died.