2010-05-17 - Three's Company

It has been a long day for Marie Parfacy, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. After a checkup in the medical bay of the Shirogane, she was deemed physically fit for service again... though she did submit a very quiet request to not be sent to the Super Soldier Institute for additional testing. She can only hope that will be honored.

The rest of the day has been spent wandering aimlessly around the ship. There were so many things to do! Or, more accurately, so many things to see and to -feel-. Marie scarcely walked two steps without laying her hand on something, even running it against the wall. The feeling of the lower gravity near the engines and in the hangar bay. The feeling of the carpet in the lounges. The feeling of the viewports. She didn't even register that there was a serene yet definitely -pleased- smile on her face the entire time. While that might not normally be out of the ordinary, almost nobody on board had ever seen Soma Peries smile, so seeing this sight turned several heads.

After hours of aimless wandering, she found herself walking back to the crew quarters. It was wonderful to move around the ship on her own legs, but she could do that any time. Now she wanted someone to talk to. "Louise?" On the off chance that the blonde had returned to her own room, Marie presses her hand flat against Louise's door. "Are you in?"

Louise Halevy is actually not in; perhaps fortunately for Marie, though, she's only stepped out to check something with the quartermaster. As a result, she arrives back in time to bump right into Soma -- Marie -- at her door, a little surprised.

"So -- uh -- Som... Marie. Right, Marie," Louise says, still not understanding why the sudden change... but at the very least, she can sort of sense that things are all right. Soma is Marie, Marie is Soma. At least, for now. "Hello, Marie," she says, a little more firmly, a few moments later.

"Did you want to speak to me about something?" she asks, her words a little more measured than she might usually use. 'Feels OK' or no, it's still a little... jarring.

A FEW SECONDS AGO

Leo Stenbuck has his face buried in a pillow, but that doesn't do much to stop him from hearing the muffled voices outside of the room's door... save that it makes them a little more muffled. Frowning, he lifts his head out of the pillow and Listens in the direction of the door. Did Louise lock herself out again...?

Aaand that's Louise's voice. Yeah, definitely locked herself out. With an exasperated sigh, he rolls out of bed and heads for the dor.

NOW

Before Marie gets a chance to answer Louise's question, the door into Louise's room suddenly whooshes open, revealing a shirtless - and suddenly surprised - Leo Stenbuck. "Uh," he says dumbfoundedly, looking from Somarie to Louise and then back again.

After a few moments, he adds, eloquently, "Uh."

Before she hears Louise's voice, Marie can feel her presence approaching. She looks up from the door and greets the blonde with a smile. "Louise." Reaching out, she tries to take Louise's hand in her own and just... holds it. She doesn't even answer right away... and then the door opens.

Marie blinks several times and turns to look at the shirtless Captain. "I didn't expect to find you here, Leo." She seems surprised, but not bothered by his strange location. Marie -has- been monopolizing Louise for the past two nights, after all. It isn't that strange that he'd want to spend time with her, is it?

"But.. it's good that you are. I wanted to talk to you both." She shifts her weight a bit, glancing toward Louise...whose hand has still not been released. "About me. I think you both deserve to know."

Louise shrinks away a little from that holding at first... but it's Marie. It's okay, then. Turning her eyes toward Leo, she says, "Hello, Leo. S... ah, Marie's up and around again." Nevermind that she's been up and around for a while now -- the important thing is to make sure Leo knows she's OK. He was torn up about it.

When Marie offers to talk about herself, she moves on from Leo's eloquent greeting and says, "... yeah. I know you're still -- who you are, I can feel it, but... I want to know what happened with you and Katharon that -- made you like this," she eventually explains.

"Should we head into my quarters?" she asks both of them, after a little thought.

Leo keeps looking back and forth between Somarie and Louise, still obviously kind of taken aback. It's only now starting to really set in how /different/ Soma acts now that she's Marie. And she's... holding Louise's hand? Well, that's... kind of weird, but...

When Louise asks if they should step inside, a thought flashes across Leo's mind's eye, and he suddenly lifts his gaze up and to the left and stares into the middle distance for a few seconds.

INSIDE LEO'S IMAGINATION

"Should we head into my quarters?" Louise Halevy asks Leo and Marie; then she turns and licks Marie's face, from jaw to temple.

THE REAL WORLD

"YES," Leo says suddenly, more loudly than he intended to. "We should- shouldn't clog, uh, the hallway," he stammers, stepping out of the doorway into Louise's room and hurriedly gesturing the girls inside.

Marie's face falls a bit as she notices Louise's initial reaction. She should let go. She wants to let go. But... -hand-. She does finally let go once the invitation into the room is extended, though. "I think I..." She stops short at Leo's very sudden agreement as well, hesitating.

"Ah... right. We shouldn't block the hall." She can read your Quantum brainwaves, Leo Stenbuck. Or at least, she knows that something is weird, but can't put a finger on it. After a brief look at the Captain, she turns into the room, letting her hand trail along the wall. "I was wondering if I could borrow some clothes, Louise... I don't have anything besides my uniform." Soma was cmofortable in it. Marie would like to dress a bit more casually when she's off-duty.

"And um..." More hesitation, as Marie runs her fingertips over the edges of a desk. "It isn't anything they did to me. Not really."

Som -- Marie -- Somarie, there we go, Somarie seems... different now. She has wants that Louise would never have expected from Soma... even if they're more -- normal girl wants. Louise sure hasn't dealt with /those/ in a while. "Well... I don't have too much myself, but there's a few things, certainly," she says to Marie as they head into the room.

She turns to Leo, first noting, "The hallway wasn't that full -- we could've stayed out there... I just thought it'd be a little more comfortable in my quarters." Leo acts weird with alarming frequency lately. He really needs to go back on the pills. "Are you feeling well? You seemed strange for a moment."

Marie distracts her from that kind of thinking, however, with the beginnings of 'explaining herself.' "... are you sure?" she asks, firm on this. "I can feel 'you' still, but -- you're sure they didn't do anything to you?" She knows they would.

"I, uh, I just woke up," Leo informs Louise sheepishly, as he ensures the door shuts behind her. It's a lie, but it will have to do as a cover story until the devil on his left shoulder falls unconscious from the sleeper hold being administered to it by the angel that on his right shoulder.

Well, technically, now they're both on his left shoulder, because, you know.

Sleeper hold.

Still obviously a little distracted, Leo turns and tromps back over to Louise's bed, flopping onto the foot of it and crossing his arms over his chest. "If they did do anything to you," he points out, as he slowly regains his composure, "You might not remember it."

The blonde is given a grateful smile. "Thanks, I..." She shakes her head and walks toward the bed, sitting down on the edge of it. Almost unconsciously, her hands press down against the bed coverings, slowly moving to get a good feel of the material. "I'm still me, Louise. It's just..."

She pauses again and shakes her head. "I remember everything that happened there. Most of it. This isn't something they did to me. This is... it's.. this is -me-." She looks up, glancing between the two. "I was born in the Super Soldier Institute, but they couldn't work with me. I was unresponsive..." There's really only one way to put it. "I've been in a coma for the past nineteen years. Soma was... -is- another me they made so I could wake up. She's part of me. I'm not Soma but... I am." It was really hard to explain, even from what she knew.

"I have all her memories, so I know everything that's happened. I know how she felt." Marie bites her lower lip lightly, once more looking between the two. She's honestly not sure what their reaction will be to this news, and she's more than a little scared... and it shows on her face.

A split personality? Another soul? Two halves of the same person? Louise can't quite figure this one out, but at the very least, hearing Marie explain it in such a manner puts her fears to rest... much as Leo put her worries about his weird feelings to rest by telling her he just woke up. Everything in the conversation at least is starting to make sense now.

Louise starts to chew on her lip a little, though, just the same. Sensible or no, gut-feeling positive or no, it's... it's a lot to take in. "... So you're part of the same person..." Louise says, nodding. "You've got her thoughts, her memories..."

Glancing to Leo, she seems to be looking for a little direction here. She's already been close to Marie, already stayed with her enough to know that she's at least not /malicious/... But...

Louise isn't the only one overwhelmed by what Somarie is saying; in the wake of the first part of the Cyber-Newtype's explanation, Leo has a skeptical look written on his face. It isn't that he doesn't believe her, per se... it's just that as he is wont to do, he's already made up his mind that Katharon brainwashed her - whether he realizes it or not - and every other part of the story is now being run through a filter in his brain that mashes the story into a shape where that makes sense.

Frowning, Leo gestures for Louise to come sit down when she looks to him for direction, and then turns to the other girl and urges, "Okay. I... I think we're with you so far." He pauses for a moment, examining Somarie's face, and then scoots closer to her and puts his arm around her shoulders to give her a reassuring /Christian side hug./

"It's okay," he assures the Cyber-Newtype gently. "None of this is your fault. We're not gonna be... mad, or anything. Right, Louise?" he asks, looking back to the blonde.

"Right," Louise says to Leo, nodding. "It's not your fault, what happened."

"Sort of like that..." She dips her head downward, looking toward the floor. "It isn't like with most Cyber-Newtypes. Soma was afraid... we were afraid they would kill her to bring me back. That's what happened to our comrades that they captured. They're... they're dead. Gone. They've had their personalities wiped away." Marie can't help it.. she shivers a bit at the thought. She remembers how scared Soma was, how crippling the fear was that she'd be wiped away and forgotten, killed in the worst possible way. "They realized.. Captain Testarossa realized I wasn't like them. She promised I'd be safe." Remembering that seems to calm her a little bit, at least.

When Leo puts his arm around her shoulders, Marie lifts her head in surprise. "You... I..." She hesitates, glancing toward Louise. After a moment, she leans toward Leo, just enough to put some of her weight against him. "I'm not sure why I woke up and why Soma fell asleep... but she's -not- dead. Soma is still here." Lifting a hand, the Super Soldier places it first to her forehead, then to her chest.

It's okay. They won't be mad. it's not her fault. Something... happened. "I know this is strange and weird to you. It is to me too. I can remember everything you shared with Soma. All the feelings. The emotions she had a hard time showing. They're all in my memories."

Louise turns away, and says something inaudible but distinctly unladylike; the sentiment, thanks to her quantum brainwaves, carries deep enough that the turning was probably completely unnecessary. When she turns back, her face is a little scrunched up.

"Captain Testarossa..." She's heard that name before, she thinks. Wasn't it a man, though...? An Englishman? Perhaps it was a different Captain Testarossa who made some promise to Soma. "... If you still remember all of Soma's feelings, then -- then it's okay, right, Leo?" she says, turning to Leo.

At the bare minimum, Louise /wants/ it to be okay. She's lost so much in her life that just once, just this once, she wants it all to be okay. She wants Marie to be just another side of Soma and for all of this to be okay.

The part of the explanation which involves one 'Captain Testarossa' kidnapping and brainwiping dozens of people raises Leo's hackles instantly, and he grits his teeth down on a sudden wave of rage. As the explanation goes on, however, the rage slowly melts away, replaced with despair. Leo looks steadily at Soma as she discusses her shared memory with Soma, grief written plainly across his face.

SOME TIME AGO

"Leo, I want you to understand why I trust you." Rei refuses to look at Leo, still. Her own voice is flat, cold, like touching smooth marble. She seems to be trying to stay alienated. Rei and Leo never really had 'fights,' per se. When Rei was upset, she just shut off for a while. Like she's doing now. Except this time, she's speaking. She's communicating.

"I remember everything, Leo." Rei pauses, then continues, voice seemingly struggling to stay neutral. "Everything. I have every memory that you made. But I can't..."

NOW

When Louise asks Leo for confirmation, his response is to slump forward and reach up to cover his eyes with his free hand. "Sorry," he rasps unevenly after a second, rubbing vigorously at his face and then sitting up again. "No-- yeah, it's- it's okay. It's gonna be okay," he promises the room at large, rubbing Soma's shoulder in a way he can only hope is reassuring.

Did Marie say 'she' in regards to the submarine captain? Ah, how silly! She must have misspoken.

"...I don't want to think about them right now." Her voice is sad, and she's radiating a bit of that emotion as well... along with a feeling of loneliness. "It is?" She glances to Louise, extending a hand toward the blonde. Amber shes sift to the side, toward Leo as he rubs his face. "I know it's not the same, but... I'm here. She's part of me. I don't know when she'll wake up again, but..." Her head dips down slightly, and if Louise gave her hand then it gets a light squeeze.

"I want to thank you. Both of you." Putting aside the sadness, she looks up again, a smile coming over her face. "You treated Soma like a real person, but you didn't try to force her to do things she didn't want to. Thank you." Marie pauses again, nervous glance being cast toward Louise... before she leans over to give Leo the quickest of pecks on the cheek. "You could have treated me horribly and nobody would have thought badly of you, but you didn't. Soma never said so, but she appreciated that." She's a bit embarrassed to point out exactly what she's talking about... but hopefully the message is clear enough.

Taking a deep breath and putting a smile on her face as Leo tells her -- tells all of them -- that it's gonna be okay, Louise breathes a happy sigh of relief. Giving a light squeeze of the hand back, Louise says, "I -- if you're both part of the same 'you,' then..." Then they'll figure it out. They'll make it work. Somehow.

"Of -- of course Soma's a real person! Of course /you're/ a real person!" Louise says. Of course, her definition of 'real person' also excludes 'any member of the Divine Crusaders or Katharon unless and until they defect to the Federation,' so...

Squeezing Marie's hand again as Leo rubs Marie's shoulder, Louise's smile widens a little -- and is replaced with an expression of shock as Marie kisses Leo on the cheek. She blinks a few times, abruptly having a hard time saying much of anything.

Then again, Marie /was/ much more... feely, than Soma. That much, at least, she already knew... so maybe it's not such a surprise after all.

Louise isn't the only one surprised by the peck on the cheek, although Leo reacts to it in a much more obviously positive way. Although still visibly shaken and upset, the affection makes a weak smile spread across his face, and he gives Soma's shoulders a gentle squeeze in response, turning his head to look at her again.

Alright, stay focused, he tells himself. There's still so much that could make this situation not, in fact, at all okay. At the top of the list is the Institute calling her back for 'readjustments', and somehow making whatever Katharon obviously did to her worse... or, even worse, deciding to 'terminate' her because of what happened. He's still scared that that's what they did to Carris; it's been about a year, now, since the boy simply disappeared.

He needs to protect Soma, or Marie, or whatever the hell her name is. He needs to protect Louise. He needs to lock this shit down, and make sure everything is okay, like he promised them it would be.

Leo's eyes slip over to the shocked Louise; his weak smile turns into a slightly stronger grin, and he extends his free arm and teases, "Jealous? Well, come here, then~"

The reassurance that she's a real person, that Soma is a real person... it means a lot to Marie. -She- knows she's real, and she knows that Soma is a real, whole person even if she was artificial. That shouldn't be a problem, though... her body was sort of artificial, after all, having been -grown- more than born. Still... it warms her to know that the people she trusts feel that way.

There's a faint blush of color over her cheeks as she both sees and -feels- the surprise from Louise. "I... I... sorry, I..." She stammers for a moment, but seems unwilling to let go of Louise's hand. "Before... I can give you two some privacy. But before that.." With rather surprising strength, she tugs on Louise's arm, trying to pull the blonde toward her. "I..." Her voice is soft, nothing like the stronger tones Soma usually took. "I don't want to be alone. Would it be okay if Louise stays with me again tonight?" The question is posed to both of them, and her gaze shifts back and forth nervously from Leo to Louise.

Leo completely fails to read the mood; on the other hand, Louise isn't entirely opposed to it, either, scooting a little closer... though she's hesitant to break her grip on Soma's hand -- Marie's hand, too. Getting pulled toward her (without any resistance at all), Marie asks her question... and after looking to Leo, Louise nods once.

"I'm going to stay with her," she says, as if there really isn't any argument to be had on this one. "She's been gone for a long time... I think she deserves not to be alone." She's almost embarassed by the whole situation -- she wasn't really expecting that, and almost feels bad for accidentally being party to 'driving Somarie out of the room.'

... Almost.

Well, so much for /that./

It doesn't take reading Leo's barely-broadcasted brainwaves to detect his worry at the question, and his dismay at Louise's immediate declaration of How It Is Going To Be. "Oh," he says sullenly, shifting uncomfortably, his arm loosening from around Somarie's shoulders a little. Fantastic... another night of nightmares. Christ, it's as bad as when Louise was mad at him...

After a moment of somberness, however, a light suddenly blooms in his heart; a light called ~*~hope~*~. "Well," he begins uncertainly, "Maybe we... I mean, you know, I don't want to, to disrupt 'girl time', or, you know, or make things weird, or whatever, but..."

"Well... I just mean that, you know," he stammers, "Maybe I could, uh... I mean, as long as it's, like, a sleepover thing...?"

"You don't.. want that..." Marie lowers her head slightly as she feels Leo dropping his arm. By the time she looks toward him, though, his attitude seems to have changed. She isn't sure if it's better or not.

She pulls Louise a little closer, both arms wrapping around the blonde in a hug. "I don't think that's allowed." There's the faintest of frowns on Marie's face as she considers what Leo said, or was trying to say. She honestly can't think of any other reason to say no, so her gaze shifts toward Louise. She can help!

"... actually, technically -- it's all right to cohabitate for up to two days without reporting it..." Louise says; perhaps notably to Leo, she doesn't seem particularly weirded out by Marie giving her that hug. It's like being close with her isn't that much stranger to her than being close to him.

"... and actually, five if we say it's for psychological health reasons -- since her escape from Katharon, that is." Of /course/, the person clinging to the rules of the military as the only thing she has left in life other than glorious him knows that one.

"I think it'd be best to use S -- Marie's, room," she affirms. "She should... get to stay in it again, now that she's here again." This may mean poor Leo gets to sleep on the floor.

Leo - who was fully prepared to be totally shot down or forced to all but beg and plead - opens his mouth to respond... but doesn't actually say anything. After a moment, he closes his mouth again, and takes a moment to look puzzled before he says, uncertainly, "So... that's a 'yes', right?"

Before he even finishes saying it, he's compelled to leap on the moment of agreeability either way; he slides forards off the edge of the bed and turns to wrap one arm around each of the hugging girls in some sort of /super hug./ "Thanks," he says earnestly. "I... really appreciate it."

He pauses again. Wasn't there something he was supposed to talk about? Something about not letting Somarie get OH RIGHT- "But, uh, first," he suddenly adds, withdrawing from the hug - or at least hug attempt - enough to look Somarie in the eye, "I need to ask you to do something, uh, Marie. It... it might be hard, but you only have to do it until I get this all sorted out, so I can make sure nothing goes wrong. Okay?"

Don't get too excited. When Marie said she wanted to sleep with Louise, she meant it quite literally. She's spent the last two nights just clinging to the blonde, not unlike the reversed situation several weeks ago.

The regulations.. Marie knows them. Or rather, Soma knew them all and Marie can remember them. "O.. okay then." She's a little nervous about that, but Leo can behave himself, right? She's a bit surprised as he hugs them both, but the emotions she can feel aren't really... bad in intention. Maybe he just needed to not feel lonely too.

The serious expression and the look draw Marie's attention. "What's that?"

Louise gives Leo a small smile as he wraps his arms around both of them briefly, then breaks the hug from Marie just as he breaks the hug with them (if she'll let her). Keeping her focus on Leo, then, Louise tilts her head a little and asks him, much as Marie does, "What's that?"

Perhaps surprisingly, Leo is not radiating waves of devil perversion; he is mostly, in fact, just lonely, an emotion stirred to life and tinged with jealous by how feely Somarie and Louise are being with each other. Sure, there's some 'two girls being affectionate yesssss' in there, but mostly he seems to just feel, well... left out.

But he's trying not to think about that, because /business time./ "I need you to..." he begins, frowning. He pauses, and then starts again. "It would... help, a lot, if you could... pretend to still be Soma, until I get this whole thing... under control. I understand if you... don't want to, or are scared to, or, or something, but I'm worried about what the, uh, the doctors will do if you don't."

"You don't have to answer right now," he assures the Cyber-Newtype. "I can... probably still make things okay if you don't. But it would make things much easier - and safer - for everybody. So please give it some thought."

"Now," he says, unwrapping his arms from around the two girls and leaning back to grab at where his shirt is lying on the floor, "If we're gonna go, we should go."

SOME TIME FROM NOW

Leo Stenbuck is crammed between the wall and Louise Halevy in Marie-- well, technically, in Soma Peries's unfortunately small bed. It is not terribly comfortable, and he kind of regrets not pushing to stay in Louise's room - or to go to his - but it beats the shit out of sleeping alone... that is to say, for Leo Stenbuck, 'not sleeping.'

So he keeps his head resting on Louise's chest, his eyes squeezed shut, trying to fall asleep. It's hard, because, well, everyone knows what happens when two girls are in close proximity like this, and it is not at all what Leo wishes it was. Every time someone giggles or shifts more than a little bit, his eyes snap open and he lifts his head, just in case his prayers to God and Earthnoid Jesus have come true and Somarie and Louise have started kissing.

He is continually disappointed.