(open) with that soul to sell

[sparsity]

Who: mikazuki (sparsity) & various & you!
What: THIS, boy and mecha are reunited. (EDIT: now a catch-all for other prompts!)
When: early april. (EDIT: and through may)
Where: thesa station - hangar deck, space, observation room! (EDIT: now on el nysa, inn wyver, mikazuki's residence)
Warning(s): mentions of kidnapping events, probably some blood. now ft. domesticity.

I. THESA STATION

[ Show us we can trust you, and he shall fall back into your capable hands.

It crosses his mind, from time to time. That promise in the face of a promise. What strength he possesses had been given to him by such things — promises. His home and heart destroyed by a force far more common than the Storm, that was all that was left. And when he had the chance to trade his compliance for another life, his, and everyone else's, he seized it. Sunk his fingers in and clawed his way back, too chaotic and exhausted with dissatisfaction to give up. Mikazuki takes because it is the only way he knows how to give.

No matter how much things stayed the same. He doesn't know what he'd proved by going through the same motions he was always going through, knuckles upside his face and blood in his mouth, deaths that remind him of being fifteen again, but this trip to Thesa yields something different.

Barbatos is no longer under Darma's lock and key. ]

A. HANGAR STATION — THE BLOOD AND SHIRTLESSNESS OPTION
[ Usually standing dormant, Gundam Barbatos cuts an intimidating figure among the Natha mobile suits. Elongated limbs capped with golden claws and notched with inhuman joints, horns jutted from atop its brow like a devil. Its pearly white color shines in the light of the bay, every seam, facet, and angle gleaming as if new.

Finding Mikazuki here with it isn't unusual, his visits with it in tandem with his visits to the stasis unit. He comes here often despite months and months of no changes in the suit's status, always quiet and standing sentinel. Like he's drawn to it by a force that can only be called fondness, stronger than any gravity. But today, the cage mount the machine is usually fixed against is lowered, two maintenance catwalks closed over its chest unit. ...And Mikazuki is no where to be found despite the area looking as if it's in launch prep.

At its front, the forward-facing cockpit hatch yawns open, and there's the sound of rustling around coming from inside. A loose shirt and jacket come drifting out, discarded, but caught harmlessly in the low gravity of the bay. Also an empty space capri sun, and a power bar wrapper...

Because that's not weird. ]

B-THE FIRST. CATAPULT DECK — THE JOYRIDE OPTION (CASUAL/NEW CR)
[ When he finally gets situated in the machine, however arduous a reunion that might be, Mikazuki requests a code for launch clearance once he figures out he's allowed. He's done his waiting, and among all the violent human familiarity and the planet's alien freedom down below, this is what he knows. However unassuming his disposition is, he's quick to grasp at it and hold tight now that he's able. Nothing has to flood back to him — it's already all there.

There's a great lurch and hiss of metal that rocks the catwalks as the cage disengages from the hangar wall, pistons whirring. A static clip fills the immediate area as Mikazuki activates his comm. Voice as mild as always despite the way it booms from the Gundam: ]

You'd better get in here if you're staying.

[ A pause. ]

They're about to let all the air out.

[ You know, no pressure. ]

B-REDUX. CATAPULT DECK — THE JOYRIDE OPTION (CLOSE CR)
[ Maybe it's all of that above, but he's not yet climbed into the suit despite being attached to it by neural system implanted at the topmost curve of his spine. It might seem a brutal, nearly inhuman thing to share synapses with a machine, to share his retinas and his cerebellum, all the blood in his body, but he wears it well. Wears it like it's pumped some of his own colors back into him, vibrancy in every one of his harsh angles.

Hanging out of the cockpit, cord curled in a wide arc behind him, he grasps the hatch with one hand to keep his balance upright and holds his other out. ]

Come on, I'll show you.

[ Be brave. You basically asked for it. ]

C. OBSERVATION ROOM — THE CHILL EXISTENTIAL OPTION
[ He's been told gaining access to this place is also a measure of trust by the Natha's standards. Mikazuki could be curious about that in itself, but he finds that he isn't, brain too full of a comfortable mechanical hum, alive with the presence of the machine he shares his strength and existence with. That's plenty enough for him, giving him a peace he hasn't known since waking up months and months ago. All the metal in his blood is singing, the natural violence of it satiating.

Not as though he looks the part, perched on the rails by the vast panels of glass overlooking the space outside as Thesa orbits El Nysa. Up this high and with no competitive light to silence them, the stars roar out against the sky. Small in comparison to that darkness, his shoulders slope, eyes reflecting the pale, celestial blue glow of the room. He's fixed on no one point, not searching for familiar constellations when there are none.

He only knows them thanks to Barbatos' guidance system, anyway.

With everything awash in that calm color, there's a lot to look at around him too. Consoles meant to track the activities in the hangar, programs monitoring the station's axis and velocity, research materials, projections of star systems thrown about. Out of the blue, he ventures to anyone partaking: ]

If it's hard for you to study like this, I'll go.

[ Despite not being loud or disruptive, he feels it, momentarily personal. The space at his side is so achingly empty that nothing else here is louder to him. ]

Comments

c - to lead into navigating/piloting later maybe?

[dawnblushed]

Hm?

[Regular maps are straightforward enough to read, Yona thinks - but star maps are another beast entirely. Maybe it's the difference between 2D and 3D that's throwing her off, or maybe it's just that the projections of the stars are so pretty that she's easily distracted. She has to learn to read them effectively if she's going to be able to navigate for any pilots later, though.

Engrossed as she is, she doesn't seem to realize Mikazuki is there until he speaks up, but when he does, she smiles.]

No, it's okay if you stay. Actually, I'm told there will be a lot of noise and people around when I'm doing this for real, so it would be helpful if we talked a little while we studied, if you wouldn't mind. What are you thinking about, Mikazuki?

revs engines let's do it

[sparsity]

[ There's an offhanded hum in response at first, sort of an unspoken "I see" and "Really?" in Mikazuki language. He supposes that if this was supposed to be the bridge during combat, it would get noisy... he's just never seen it combined with an observation deck. He thinks of the Isaribi, but it's fleeting.

Shifting on his perch, he drops to the floor with a quiet thud of his heels and heads towards the console Yona is at, removing his hands from his pockets. ]

Nothing much. [ Not a lie, but not entirely the truth either. ] This is what you're learning?

[ Lifting an arm, he reaches out for one of the holographic star maps. ]

b - the first

[winddaughter]

[She's probably not supposed to be wandering through here, but she hasn't yet been able to bring herself back down to Olympia. Gulliver's hanging to her back, a big white sleeping lump of fur, and she can't help it.... she's staring. She'd seen the other ships and suits that the Natha had but this...

It's not the same, not even close, but there's a pang of homesickness that she can't ignore and she longs and....

And stares.]

I...

[Is he joking with her? A game, to toy with her emotions? Hey, get in, never mind just kidding--

They're about to let all the air out.

Oh. Oh man. He's probably not kidding then!! She bolts, clambering to get in before she, y'know, suffocates.

And then--]

They're really letting you fly this?

[sparsity]

[ He takes emotions very seriously.

But it's with the same sort of cavalier deadpan that Mikazuki answers once he finds someone actually taking him up on his offer by scaling up the suit before the catwalks retract. In hindsight, he probably should have looked around for some normal suits, but it's too late to worry now.

It's not very roomy, but it could be worse. ]

They should. [ He reaches a hand out to help her pile into the cockpit. ] It's mine.

[winddaughter]

[Small, made smaller with Gulliver, but she could certainly care less about space issues, and takes his hand, the delight on her face beaming.]

You're kidding me! This is yours? It's gorgeous!

[sparsity]

[ Normally reserved on his own, that look is infectious. He feels it the moment he hauls Anemone in as he might do to any one of his other teammates back home. The smile that flicks onto his mouth is mellow in comparison, but no less fiery. It's like a piece of him that'd been missing is back. ]

Yeah, from home. This is Barbatos.

[ As the cockpit hatch hisses shut, he leaves her to finding a place to settle as the retinal projection kicks in. ]

You didn't seem surprised by it.

B- first option

[beatupgrass]

[Rocket sometimes comes to the hangar deck to mess around with the ships and all assorted, biding his time until he can get his own, but that thing. That thing is new. That thing is... Kinda awesome.

He's so awestruck that he almost doesn't realize what's happening until he's spoken to, and he's torn between running and pretending he wasn't starstruck by a vehicle of that magnitude and just running to jump in and get a good feel for how it rides, himself.

With much trepidation (to cover up the fact that he wanted to it- like hell if he'll admit to being impressed by someone else), he climbs in.]

Who the hell did you have to kiss up to to get this?

[sparsity]

Darma.

[ Completely straightfaced. No shame here; not that he really consciously kissed ass for it, but the end result is the same. Outside, there's a lurch as the deck depressurizes. Also, there's a furry critter in his cockpit now, but he did offer.

So he passes a short look over and then hits the mechanism for the console to rise up and lock into place. ]

But it's more like... she gave it back to me.

[ Homegrown death machine. ]

[beatupgrass]

That may take some doin'. [He scowls, tone grim and agitated. He's a little pissed at the Celestials, and doesn't trust them, in general, but god, it looks like they give good bribes.

His eyes aren't on anything but the console, studying every inch of it like he can memorize it, fingers itching at his sides to start touching.]

I don't have anything for her to give back to me, but I wouldn't mind something like this...

[sparsity]

[ Mikazuki doesn't outright say don't touch... ]

It didn't take much, for my part. Just surviving down there.

[ Which could mean any manner of craziness, when it came to the feuding cities and everything in between, but he figures this guy has been through it, same as him. Maybe his bullshit threshold is just unusually high when he's got something he wants.

Thirty tons of something. ]

You like machines?

b-redux bc hell yeah he's gonna

[braidedwonder]

[ Duo is equal parts curious as he is intimidated by the idea of being so intimately tied to his Gundam. Sure, Deathscythe Hell was his old buddy, his oldest friend in this entire mess he'd come to know as Operation Meteor, the Eve War, and now El Nysa, but he's never shared neural connections with his mobile suit. Hasn't even crossed his mind, if he's honest. He's cringed a few times thinking about the pain of those surgeries, even if curious fingers had, on occasion, brushed over the longer fingers at the top of his spine out of curiosity.

Mika's voice busts him out of his reverie, muttering under his breath for a moment before, more authoritatively : ]

Yeah yeah I know how launch works! [ Thankfully he also knows a thing or two about boarding a Gundam - the reduced gravity and pressure in the launch deck making it easy to kind of half climb, half jump from place to place on the suit. ]

I'm assumin' you have an extra place to strap in?

[sparsity]

[ In this instance, maybe he'd said it purposefully, just to be cheeky. But Mikazuki leaves it hanging in the air between them moreso when it's a fellow pilot, leaving Duo to either follow or get out of dodge. He's already floating into the cockpit and pushing himself down into the jumpseat when Duo boards. Warding the cord back, there's no other safety measures visible, not even for him...

Blinking, head canted, he makes an ah sound, as if he's just now thinking about it. ]

Well... not really.

[ Tada. ]

You can change your mind, still.

[braidedwonder]

[ Duo takes a cursory look around the cockpit, noting the sheer lack of anything with a bit of wonder and horror all in one. Sure, it's pretty cool to take a look at, but at the same time how the hell is he not beaten to shit by the end of every battle? Sure, Duo is a bit of a reckless terrorist, but when he's fighting he's at least strapped in to his seat to the nines so that he comes out with bruises instead of, you know. A cracked skull or worse than cracked ribs. ]

Jesus Christ. How am I not gonna end up plastered somewhere in the g's you're gonna pull on eject?

[ A pause, and a sigh. ]

If you're tellin' me to back down it ain't gonna happen, so forget it.

a

[shikomizue]

[It certainly is a sight, the demon that looms in the hangar. Compared to the Natha mobile suits, the weapon seems as if it could pry away from its feeble restraints at any moment. Takasugi has seen the machine before, along meanderings paths through the station. Every time he passed, it remained, statuesque.

Now debris floats in the absence of gravity; maybe he'd caught it snacking. The cockpit opens, a wide maw poised to consume any fragile composition of flesh and bone that passes.

Takasugi steps onto the walkway, the mesh metal shaking underfoot. As it always does - he hasn't seen technology in any reach of the galaxy manage to stabilize such a crude structure. To reach the cockpit, he sidesteps a shirt drifting by.

There's no remarkable design to it, but he recognizes the scent.

With an arm resting above the entrance to the cockpit, Takasugi leans inside.]
Looks like you've caught a demon. [There's no one else here besides Mikazuki, but Takasugi isn't looking at him. He's keened his head to look at what appears to be the control panel.]

[sparsity]

[ A hum. Thoughful, half in greeting, somewhat distracted. ]

I don't know if caught is the right word...

[ Mikazuki replies from within that maw, likewise not casting a look backwards. He doesn't need to; he'd recognized the gait even on new ground, the presence that meets jaws with jaws. Being caught between them isn't so bad, but his attention is on a small compartment in the jumpseat, accessible when the console is lowered. ]

Returned, maybe.

[ Everything in his body is wired to think that what he's seeing here is wrong, those last memories of this exact space broken, piecemeal, and red. It's cool on the inside of the cockpit, every component clean and fashioned expertly from dark metals and carbon.

They all lie quiet, much like he has.

They all have been made new again.

Much like him, too. ]

[shikomizue]

[Everything about a weapon is violent - from its inception, metal banged into shape by heavy hammer, to the day it's cast aside, broken, dulled, or outclassed. A sword can be beautiful to behold, but there's no beauty in the acts it commits.

The looming, white demon is the same, artistry in the curves of its armor and the soft glow of the cockpit.

But Takasugi doesn't see anything severe in the way Mikazuki touches the panels. It's not the grip of knuckles white on a lifeline, it's the gentle caress of an old friend.]

Then congratulations, on your reunion. [He lowers himself forward, stepping into the cramped cockpit. There's care taken not to bump any controls, or lean against what could be a touch panel, but he doesn't bother feign disinterest in whatever it is Mikazuki is fiddling with.

Even if he doesn't understand the machinery itself, Takasugi knows well the serenity that comes when preparing a weapon.]

sometime after the intro . . .

[notwagging]

[ keaton isn't sure what to do. obviously, knocking on the door would be the first thing, but after that... what if he was wrong and went to the wrong house? even though there's a distinct feeling of Mikazuki--- a passing scent, perhaps some sound that he could just barely pick up with those fluffy listeners of his--- he's not entirely sure what he'd do if he knocked and found some stranger instead.

so, being extra careful, he raises his fist and... gently punches the door.

not knock. punch, as his tail stays low and unmoving--- just a little anxious. ]

[sparsity]

[ Keaton's nose didn't steer him wrong. Inside, Mikazuki is getting ready to head to the Gilded Cage. Most of his wounds from the weeks previous are pale and faded now, only the deepest of them looking like they'll scar over. With his hair washed and pants and boots on, he's throwing on a shirt when he hears a thump on his door. There's almost something about it that puts him on edge, and he's still while he waits for another, like a knock.

Or any indication of what's going on outside at all, really. When nothing comes, he approaches his own door quietly, pulling it open to see — fluff. ]

...what are you doing?

[notwagging]

[ ah. well, he's right about one thing! this is definitely Mikazuki's place, and his tail immediately starts to wag, despite the sheepish looking smile on his face as he looks from side-to-side nervously. any answer he gives will certainly be tainted by the enthusiasm his body is showing, so he might as well just be straightforward for once. ]

Oh. I... wanted to see how you were doing. I was worried about you.

[ he pulls his hand back, by no means wanting to threaten Mikazuki with the softest punch he could possibly give a door. who knows how powerful that might be a human! it might even tickle him. ]

Can I come in?

[ because he knows this isn't a cave from home--- Keaton can't just walk into a house invited. ]

after coalition meeting

[eaudevamp]

[ Reign had seen the monstrous machine near the South Outpost when he attended the coalition meet the day before, and had been curious about it. He hoped the mecha — a term which he'd later learned about — would still be there when he decided to head out to that same place again when evening came.

Lo and behold, it seemed the mecha was still there.

As Reign moved closer, he was taken aback by how huge the mecha was. It was perhaps one of the largest thing he'd ever seen. ]

Wow, it's so big!!!

[ He wondered who could possibly pilot this mecha. ]

[sparsity]

[ Reign won't have to wonder for long. His exclamation spurs the machine's pilot into movement from up above, footsteps falling against the metal platform the raised hatch makes. Luckily, the face that pops over the edge to look down below curiously is a familiar one.

And it goes both ways. ]

Oh, Reign. Hey.

[ Super casual. ]

What are you doing out here?

[eaudevamp]

[ The sound of footsteps against metal had Reign glancing up, one hand raised in a wave, surprise clear on his face. ]

Mikazuki! Hello back.

[ A grin. ]

I saw this big machine here when I attended the Coalition meeting yesterday. So this is the one you told me about, huh?

Thesa Station, idk when, we'll figure out the timing later

[jesus_is_gundam]

[Something's different.

Setsuna knows this, he can feel it in his bones that something around him has changed. The thing is, he doesn't know who or what or where, and it bugs him. Rather than just dwell on it, though, he ends up talking a bit of a walk, hoping it'll clear his head.

Without realizing it, his feet eventually take him to the hanger, passing by all of the various suits in there. It isn't until he stops before one suit in particular that he's forced to come to a stop.]

It's you, isn't it? [The thing that drew him there, the source of these feelings.]

You're awake.

[Gundam.]

[sparsity]

[ Where there's a Gundam, its pilot usually isn't too far behind. ]

It is now.

[ It's the same for Mikazuki.

He approaches, steps light on carbon thanks to the low gravity. Quiet reigns around them save the natural shifting of working metal, technicians in the distance. Hands in his pockets, Mikazuki regards the other man evenly — this pilot. ]

[jesus_is_gundam]

[Setsuna seemingly doesn't regard the younger pilot at all. Not that he means to be rude, but his attention is focused purely on the Gundam. He doesn't know why this machine called out to him.... or even if it called out to him. After all, its pilot is right here, Setsuna could've merely overheard; a result of the fading connection between them refusing to let go.

Even so, he stares at the machine as if he expects it to break down and confess all of its secrets and all of its sins, knowing full well it has plenty of both. It doesn't, of course, as there's only one way to get everything you want out of a Gundam, but Setsuna's not the one meant to pilot it.]

Mikazuki Augus.

[Its the first acknowledgment of the younger pilot's presence, even if Setsuna's gaze remains focused on Barbatos.]

They gave it back to you...