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

[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.

[a_mere_human]

Setsuna glanced at Feldt, then looked back at Tieria. Where had he been?

"Allelujah's recently been released. Aside from that, nothing has changed since the last time we spoke.

"Where have you been for the last few weeks?"

[eltneg.livejournal.com]

"Pardon?" The tone of his voice mirrors the incredulity on his face.

"Last few weeks? Are you ill, Setsuna? It's been months— no, years since we've last had contact." He briefly glances Feldt's way, as if searching for some sort of validation from his colleague. After all, she'd survived alongside him, lived out those four years, the future as clear as dishwater, quietly (and sometimes tearfully) mending the tattered remains of their organization.

[pinkbridgebunny.livejournal.com]

Give her a few minutes to think about this. Her mind was racing as she tried to figure out what was going on. "The last time we spoke, Tieria, you didn't know about the years we had spent searching for Setsuna. You were here before and didn't know about the death of Lockon Stratos. If I'm guessing correctly, you were sent back to the pods and came back with more knowledge of what had happened."

This was probably the most that she had spoken in quite a long time. She pulled up Setsuna's report on her Omnicom and handed it over to Tieria. "This is a report (http://eradicating-war.livejournal.com/567.html) Setsuna created. It has a lot of information in it, you should read it."

[a_mere_human]

"Tieria Erde..." What did this ship do to him?

[eltneg.livejournal.com]

Feeling somewhat like Alice who had just crash-landed in Wonderland, he takes the Omnicom from her to briefly skim Setsuna's report. Daligig. Stacy. The crew. The Ohm.

Despite his best efforts, the sigh he exhales still trembles. His expression hardens.

"I would like to request that from now on," His gaze lifts from the Omnicom still clutched in his hand, "Both of you assume that I have never set foot on this ship prior to this point in time. This will prevent further confusion."

At least, any more confusion than what Tieria was already processing.

[pinkbridgebunny.livejournal.com]

"Yes, Tieria," she said. She then motioned around the hangar. "This is the hangar. All of the different Gundams, mobile suits, and fighters are stored here," she motioned to where the Meister's suits were. "Gundams Exia, 00, Virtue," she paused for a moment. It seemed that Seravee was here as well. "Seravee, Arios, Kyrios, and Dynames. The other suits belong to different pilots that are also on board the ship. Setsuna can give more information on them. I haven't met all of the pilots yet."

She stopped again and looked back at Tieria. "This is going to sound impossible, but the first Lockon Stratos is alive and on board this ship."

[a_mere_human]

"Veda is also somewhere on board the ship as well, though we haven't found its exact location as of yet," he added in, though he figured that Tieria's train of thought would probably be stuck on Lockon not being dead.

[eltneg.livejournal.com]

For a moment, all he can do is stare. Numb.

Lockon...? Alive? And here of all places? This had— this had to be some sort of... no. Feldt was the last person who would joke about something of this magnitude.

He lifts a hand to his face, obscuring his eyes.

Lockon. Allelujah. Veda. His mind is racing, straining under the crushing weight of this torrent of newfound information, struggling to formulate some sort of reaction other than stunned silence.

How should he react?

"... I see." He answers hollowly after a long moment.

[pinkbridgebunny.livejournal.com]

She could understand the stunned silence. She had done the same thing when she had first arrived and found the hangar. She had also done the same thing when she first found out that Lockon was here. Not Lyle, but Neil. She had thought it was impossible for Dynames to be here instead of Cherudim. She had actually cried when she found out that Lockon was here.

"It's a lot to take in," she said. She knew, she had dealt with it all before. She went quiet, unsure of what else to say. All he could do was take in the information and deal with it as he saw fit.

[jesus_is_gundam]

Setsuna was also quiet, and turned his head to look over at Virtue and Seravee, then down towards the other Mobile Suits.

"None of the other 'Gundams' use GN drives," he stated, abruptly changing the subject. Because when all else fails? Gundam. "Or have access to Veda's support, like the Throne units did. Outside of adopting the same name, and a similar aesthetic design for the head, their units are nothing like ours, and their pilots aren't Meisters."

sorry if this is intruding I'll delete if it is!! 8Da;;

[hellraiser02.livejournal.com]

Speaking of other Gundams and their pilots...

"Well la-di-dah, look who it is!" called a quite obnoxious voice from behind the Celestial Being group. The younger, poutier, braided boy to which the voice belonged was leaning against the leg of one of the nearby suits, arms crossed.

"Mr. Too-Good-For Duo! Long time no see, pal, that was a quick repod and pop. You take a nap or something?" His pout was directed straight at Tieria, making it obvious to whom he was speaking.

nope, not at all!

[eltneg.livejournal.com]

He'd quietly filed the topic of Lockon into the far reaches of his mind for later assessment (he could only process so much), thankful that Setsuna had intervened with a less volatile topic, when the aforementioned obnoxious voice warned the trio of company.

At first, he neglected to respond, but it soon became apparent that it was he who this stranger was addressing.

"Who is that?" Asking Duo himself? Pfft. That kind of social aptitude was for amiable folks like Lockon.

I don't mind.So posting order is Tieria > Feldt > Setsuna > Duo?

[pinkbridgebunny.livejournal.com]

"Duo Maxwell," Feldt answered. "Pilot of the Gundam Deathscythe, one of the units without a GN Drive."

She hadn't noticed the other pilot there until he had spoken. He was good at being quiet when he wanted to. Most of the time, he just chose not to. Still, she had been able to take a look at Deathscythe and found it rather fascinating.

Works for me!

[jesus_is_gundam]

"He previously thought you were female," he told Tieria. That mistake of Duo's was something Setsuna had made no attempt to correct him on, "and made several unsuccessful attempts at pursuing a romantic relationship with you."

Sorry, Tieria, this is still Setsuna. He doesn't know how to be facetious.

:x sorry, fell asleep

[hellraiser02.livejournal.com]

"Setsuna. Buddy. Pal," Duo grinned, though it was a grin like a skeleton- "I'm seriously gonna throttle you one'a these days."

That out of the way, he leaned forward and sauntered his way towards the trio, braid swaying behind him. "Now, what I think he meant to say- and I will preface this with, what actually happened, is that ol' Setsuna here didn't specify anythin' when we met, and I wasn't pursuin' nothin', I was just being friendly and accommodating to a fellow newcomer to Stacy. Yanno, not that Setsuna'd know anything about bein' friendly," He shot a pointed glare to the other Meister, before turning back to Tieria. "So, let's do this right this time, shall we?"

He stuck his hand out. "Duo Maxwell! I run and hide but I never tell a lie. Ah, and Miss Feldt's info is right on target, as usual. Big black Gundam with the wings over there, he's my partner."

haha, no problem, i think all of us were pretty tired.

[eltneg.livejournal.com]

"Female?" He echoes dubiously, "How did he come to such an absurd conclusion?"

His eyes cut to the approaching (supposed) pilot, allowing him his minute to explain, and then to the hand thrust his way. He hesitates for a moment before returning the gesture, his hand gripping Duo's firmly. While he found himself believing Setsuna's (unsurprisingly) concise explanation much more so than Duo's glossed over rebuttal, it wasn't as if he could recall any of this occurring (something of which was proving to be increasingly frustrating).

"Tieria Erde."

Before returning his arm to his side, he pauses to briefly regard his hand with a jaded gaze. Was that really the first time he'd ever shook hands with another? ... It had been a surprisingly mundane experience.

[pinkbridgebunny.livejournal.com]

"I don't know, Tieria. I haven't been here as long as Setsuna has, but I'm the only one from the Ptolemaios bridge crew that has woken up here so far. the others are still in the pods," she said. It was amazing. She was actually speaking more than a few sentences at a time, but when she was giving information or reports, she could talk on and on.

"I'm going to need to look over the other suits," she said, glancing at the other suits that had arrived. She had checked over the systems of the other suits and everything was just fine. Which was odd in itself, since there had always been a few problems with the suits, especially the 00.

[jesus_is_gundam]

"I don't know either." He still couldn't figure out how Duo could have genuinely thought Tieria was female, but let that matter drop for the moment.

"He lies frequently, though," Setsuna warned.

[hellraiser02.livejournal.com]

"Well no offense buddy, but you got a pretty face." He notice the befuddled glance to the hand, and added, "I don't got cooties, don't worry."

"Ohhh, ya don't say, you guys got more engineering staff?" He was about to ask further when Setsuna's offhand warning earned a sharp glare.

"I do not! Repeat one lie I've ever told you," Duo scowled, looking incredibly insulted.

[eltneg.livejournal.com]

A pretty face? If Duo thought he'd looked puzzled before when he'd been inspecting his hand, Tieria looked utterly baffled now. He can't recall having heard anyone... compliment him in such a way before.

"That isn't..."

But before he can complete his train of thought, Setsuna's comment has already deterred Duo; Tieria's attention shifts to Feldt.

"I'll accompany you." The Gundams were something familiar, something routine in all this uncertainty. He also couldn't help but be a little curious, especially where it concerned the GN-005 Virtue. They had long since retired the once-mutilated suit in favor of the newer model, Seravee (which was stationed beside its predecessor), yet there it stood, restored and ready for combat.