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(open) with that soul to sell
Who: mikazuki (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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
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. ]
no subject
[ Tipping his bead to look at Reign, he lets go of one of the rakers and lifts his hand to tug gently at his cheek below one eye. The light in them isn't entirely human anymore, instead a low, mechanical green.
There and gone again, he looks back down, placing his hand on the controls. A hit of a few buttons with his thumbs, and the entire thing rumbles with propulsion. ]
Yeah. The Alaya-Vijnana system is what lets us... [ hum ] talk, I guess.
[ Something very like a symbiotic relationship, though Barbatos is fully a machine. ]
no subject
[ Reign leaned in a bit to catch the change of colour of Mikazuki's eyes, looking entirely inhuman, though resembling the same shade as the lights the machine emitted earlier. ]
So the machine is also talking through you?
[ It seemed all so complicated, but also very interesting. ]
Does it help you better control the machine?
no subject
It's more... I listen to it, and it listens back.
[ It's more about that than it is control, as if the thing around them is alive, a beast with a heart. Mikazuki crooks his elbows, bringing the rakers back. The thrusters pulse and the Gundam tilts, brimming with energy. ]
Ready to go?
no subject
[ Reign didn't quite fully comprehend, but he kind of got the gist of it.
He nodded eagerly, brimming with restrained excitement while holding himself back from punching the air and accidentally hitting some buttons he wasn't supposed to. ]
Yes! Let's fly!
no subject
You got it.
[ With the go ahead, he doesn't waste anymore time with grasping at words. It's easier to show. He guns the rakers forward and goes hard on the propulsion, kicking the verniers on. The great machine goes into a crouch and then vaults into the air with a blast of energy.
Around them, the wind whistles and roars as it cleaves to allow the beast through, the ground beginning to tunnel out as it grows more distant in a flash. ]
no subject
Oh my god! We're in the air!
[ Everything moved by so quickly, the ground below getting smaller and smaller, and soon enough they were surrounded by clouds. ]
How far up can this machine go?
no subject
I wonder... it's not really meant to fly on its own.
[ At least in so many words. But they can push the envelope, just a little.
He pumps the pedals again, giving the thrusters another boost to push them higher. ]
no subject
For now, he enjoyed the scenery around them as they flew through the air until the machine slowed down. ]
Really? Why's that?
[ Time to test the machine's limits! ]
Can Barbatos fly to space also?
no subject
[ That force trying to pull them back down to the planet. He wonders if Reign feels it, the weight of it settling in the cockpit as the machine levels out, its own white armor glaring into the optical cameras. Barbatos is like a beacon in the sky.
It hovers there, suspended, and begins to tilt. ]
There's no gravity in space, so it can move anywhere it wants to.
no subject
Well, contrary to certain beliefs, vampires can't turn into bats and fly either.
[ He could feel the weight, felt himself pushed back when Barbatos had flew up into the sky.
The whole g-force thing.]Does that mean you've flown it in space too? Is it all right to try that?
[ Not that Reign knew that space was a place without oxygen, and certain precautions need to be taken before they could do that. Right? ]
no subject
because Mars had no culture, Mikazuki blinks, bright gaze falling back to Reign. ]People believe that?
[ Wild. ]
Well... it can't get into space on its own. The atmosphere is really tough. We'd burn up before we got there.
no subject
[ The same kind of applied to humans too, come to think of it. ]
Then how does Barbatos fly up to space? Is there a way to do it?
no subject
[ Animals in general had been a whole new experience for him on this planet, but people changing into them is still an entirely different tier to try and wrap his brain around.
He's always been curious, though. ]
A shuttle. I guess if you wanted to come with when I bring it back...
sorry for lateness
[ Honestly, it had surprised Reign when people assumed he could turn into a bat, and he often had to correct that wrong assumption. ]
Something like travelling aboard the Thesa station prior to heading to space, huh? [ His face broke into a wide smile. ] Oh, I would like that, yes!