2011-06-02 - Two Nightmares

After recent events, one might start to wonder if the white-haired pilot known only as 'Lin' actually has some sort of deity on her side. Either that, or she simply has nine lives and has yet to actually burn through them all. The framerunner had been one blast away from being killed during the her impromptu defense of Neo-MTV, and that had been a bit too close for comfort for her. What's worse, she'd started to feel quite strange lately. Ever since fighting that other Orbital Frame, things hadn't quite felt right. Her nights had been fitful at best, and her days weren't much better.

"No!" Lin cries out, jolting forward out of her sleep. It's the second or third time she's woken in a start. With a groan, she rubs at her head. The girl's white hair had grown back in, covering most of the scars, but that didn't mean all things were healed. "Oh screw it, I can't sleep anymore." She mutters to herself, throwing the blanket off as she pushes to her feet. After having trouble sleeping in the city, she'd set up camp up on one of the plateau's not far from Macua's family home. Getting away hadn't helped much. With the night still far from over, she leans herself against the form of her Hizack - borrwed after the destruction of her Ootsukigata, and flicks on one of the running lights, rummaging around in the cockpit for something to read.

Macua may be thought of much the same with her surival in so many sitition. Also aliens habit of targeting her for whatever reason. She'd been keeping Lin company. She had no past and there was a lot of empthy there. Macua's own mobile fighter sas resting near the hi-zack and Macua her self was still sound asleep but also tossing nd turning abit. She's also mumbling in something it's clearly words but not english, japanese or or even Portugese.

There is a click of sound as Lin turns the light back off. She had a datapad that she'd gotten from Quatre to help her learn about the world, and it seemed a good a time as any to catch up on some things. As she walks back, the white-haired pilot seems to try to keep quiet, plucking up her own blanket as she walks by Macua and laying it across the other woman's shoulders. Since being taken under the Brazilian's 'wing' so to speak, Lin had found that she actually enjoyed the other woman's company. "Looks like I'm not the only one who's having trouble sleeping." She sighs to herself, and then settles down nearby, the glow of the datapad lighting her face as she starts doing a search for 'dinosaurs', as strange as that topic might be.

Macua Huitl is prehaps rembering being Adom Nazir, or prehaps her time as a Zondar robo? The E-35 Puppet Mistress. Either way theblanket seems welcome as she calms a little bit. Macua's robotic pet a haro called Zako is already bouning about.

"Not sleep well! Not sleep well! Did bad men destroy Lin's mind too?"

Ahh, it's the panty-stealing haro again. Lin blinks, squinting in the darkness to watch the little machine's glowing lights as they bounce around. "If you've got her clothes again, she's not going to be happy." Lin warns, although she doesn't seem terribly upset by the robotic company. If nothing else, it gives her an excuse not to fall asleep face-first in the datapad. "Mmm." She considers the machine's question, glancing once at Macua before looking back at Zako. "You're talking about the Balmarians aren't you? When she was... someone else." Lin had gotten some of that story before, but there were always specifics that were left out. "As for me... I don't think anyone did this to me intentionally. I'm sure the feds who had me prisoner were pretty pissed about it, all things considered." Especially figuring that they had been willing to try hacking into her already damaged brain in order to get whatever information it held.

Indeed what does the haro do with that thing anyhow. It doesn't ay anything else and it boucnes onwards. "Not the first time! Not the first time!" Had it happen to Macua before? She's startint to stir a little bit for a moment. Seem she's going to bw wking upo in a moment. The haro just starts chirping. Feddies! Feddies! Over and over andnot being much more helpful than that.

Lin just stares at the haro as it does that little bouncing dance around the area. "Not the first time, what is that supposed to mean?" That just serves her right for trying to have a conversation with the annoying little bot. "Oh just shut it, Zako, you're going to wake up Macua." Lin tries to get the thing to quiet, keeping her voice down, but it seems to be of no avail as the Brazilian pilot starts to stirr. Leaning her head forward, Lin simply face-palms and shakes her head. Getting to her feet as quickly as she can manage, the white-haired pilot sets the datapad aside and does what is probably the most silly thing she can do in this situation, and that's trying to catch the little annoyance and force it to shut up. Just what Macua needs to wake up to, a flailing Martian trying to strangle her haro.

Zako chirps "Bad men, *plays a sound byte which disturbingly sounds like a robotic Macua going Zooonnndar* Then smirking man!" It rolls around More. Macua now might laugh she knows Zako often brings it on it self. Macua now actually starts to move she's waking up and she yawns. "...is it morning already?" She yawns again looking around to get her bearings.

In the darkness, Lin ends up mostly making a fool of herself as she trips over her own pillow and ends up sprawled on the ground, her arms bare inches from being able to catch the still bleeping Haro. With a groan, she narrows her eyes at the machine, and then seems to give up on catching the thing. "I have no idea what you're talking about." With a grunt, she chucks the pillow in the direction of Zako, knowing full well that it wouldn't do the thing any damage, even if she manages to hit it. It's at that point that she realizes Macua is now fully awake, and an embarassed look spreads over Lin's features. "Uh, not morning. Sorry Macua." Lin offers, pushing herself up onto her knees as she dusts some of the dirt off of her clothing. Diving for haros isn't exactly good for her pajamas. "I couldn't sleep, and I guess I said something that set Zako off. He keeps bleeping about 'bad men' and 'not the first time' and won't shut up." The framerunner gives a glare in the bot's direction.

Macua Huitl wakes up to what seems to be comedy. She tries not to giggle at what she's seen and seeing that Lin is well not happy about it. She really does try to not laugh. "Good morning Lin, you sleep all right? Oh I see. A lot sets Zako of, even I'm not sure about him." She blinks. "It calls a lot of people bad men but I don't get the other part."

Zako is now totally quiet without another word. It doesn't seem to want to explain at all.

The fact that the haro goes so inexplicably silent is enough to leave Lin throttling the air as if she were strangling the little machine's non-existant neck. "Mmm." She stops mid-way through the motion and then lets her hands drop back down to her sides. For the most part, Lin is a bit unusual, and not just because of the glowing mark on her arms or her seemingly naturally white hair. Mostly, she just seems far too easy going when not on duty in contrast to the serious, cold-hearted soldier she can be in combat. "That's what started all this. I couldn't sleep so I was going to look up dinosaurs on the datapad Quatre gave me." She seems hesitant, but then sighs as she runs one of those hands through her hair. "Nightmares again. Anyways, Zako started asking if the bad men destroyed my mind, too. So I asked if he meant the Balmarians, and he said that the Balmarians weren't the first time someone had messed with you."

Still seated in that kneeling position, Lin seems almost comfortable there. There is a lot of Japanese culture in some places on Mars, so perhaps she'd picked it up somewhere along the line. "I'm starting to wonder if it isn't more commonplace than I thought. Although, if it was, maybe there'd be a way of fixing it."

The haro is now silent... very silent. It's not going to help with any more information it seems. With Macua waking up really she seems to well? She now look at her friend very sleepy still. She yawns a little bit. "Nightmares, ya I get them sometimes. No it was far from the first time I'm afraid. I had to deal with the ones who snatched me orginally. Wiped my mind had me on horrible combat drugs. They were so bad the Balmarian who reconditioned me was horrifed at what they'd done. At lest they make people when they are done."

She frowns a little bit. "Then there was the zondar." She takes note of how she's sitting. "It came back to me in time without them maintianing my conditioning."

Luckily for the haro, it is being quite so silent, so Lin no longer is plotting shoving the little bot out of an airlock at the first available opportunity. It's still quite dark, with only the first hints of the morning sun starting to cast the horizon a slightly purplish shade against the black of night. "They've been getting worse lately, the nightmares." Lin admits, seeming a bit reluctant. While some parts of Katharon had been quite welcoming to her, there were plenty of others watching her every move for some sign that she is an enemy about to betray them. "At first it was always these horrible things." Rubbing one hand along her arm, Lin seems to almost be scratching at her veins. "Machines, and medicines and ... and dead kids." Taking a steadying breath, she shakes her head. It seems her own experiences aren't that much different than Macua's own, which is perhaps why she has some kinship to the Brazilian pilot.

"Lately, there's been this boy in them, over and over again. Sometimes he's in the background, and sometimes he's hurt, or in danger. When I see the things happening to him, it hurts, and I don't know why." That hand which had been at her arm comes up and hovers over her heart for a moment before she lets out a sigh. "I feel... like it's important somehow. And the worst part about it all is that it only seems to confirm that I don't belong here." Lin shifts herself, leaning back until her rump comes to rest on the ground, legs stretching out in front of her. "If I'd been part of Katharon before, someone would have known. So wherever I came from, it's out there, somewhere."

Macua Huitl says "There's some I can't remeber anymore. The Balmarian who converted me actually ... destroyed those memories. It was strange but I remeber I had nightmares." She seems a little lost then snapos put of it as she wakes up and starts literning intently. She frowns this sounds much like she did know abotu such progject.

"So it's getting woerse but that also means on some level your remebering. Just remeber whatever you do remeber its your life and make what you want to be right." She humms for a moment. "A figure over and over? I had a few of those. They turned out to be relatives. Most notably my younger sister. She was the first thing I recalled about my past was her. She is a newtype like me and I was always a little closer to her than my brothers cause of it."

"In my case I'd been reported dead in an accdient when I was getting some on the job learning for a school project...they thought I was dead. Hell I had to dig up my own grave. I used to think I might have been a clone..."

"I wonder if I have a grave somewhere..." The thought ends up bringing a strange expression to Lin's features. In her dreams, she'd seen the unmarked white headstones in some foreign place. Maybe she was just another of those unnamed children - another failed experiment. This moment of morbid thought doesn't linger though, as the young woman shakes her head to rid herself of that lingering doubt.

"Well, I'm not a newtype, I can tell you that much for sure, but every time I dream of him, it has this really odd feeling." She may not be a newtype, but there is something unusual about Lin that tends to set some newtypes on edge. It's easy enough to pick up on the metatron poisoning in her system, and the weirdness that comes with it, but the young woman's strange ability to block out that newtype second sight is what is most disconcerting. At times like these, to a newtypes senses, it is almost as if she simply doesn't exist. "It's... probably nothing." The young framerunner manages to pull a smile to her face, "Things turned out for the best for you at least, right? You're a Gundam fighter, a ranking member of Katharon, you even have a cute boyfriend from what I've heard. It can't be all bad."

There is a bit of a romantic nature in Lin, and certainly a kind heart regardless of what she's been through. Somehow, in the worst times, she still manages to find some light. "I think... when we get back to the Argama, I should see about getting permission to pilot Mayet. The Orbital Frame, that is..." The last part seems added as an afterthought, even if she rarely refers to the unit by name - if at all. "It might be enough to jog my memories, and at the very least... it will save Katharon a good chunk of credit on outfitting me with another unit. Since there's no way I'm taking a Hizack into battle again." No, she'd been told well enough not to drag that archeic mass produced unit out for anything combat related.

Macua Huitl grimaces it's a rather morbid thought but a very possible one after all. She's not sure what she can do to comfort the other at this point at least she can't at that second untill an idea hits her. Macua was not the most fond of metatron it was strange iot racted to emotions. She's had some frames just she doen't even want to remeber that one encounter with Ascian, or Napth. She reall doens't but she looks at the other for a moment tilting her head a little bit.

"It's not I just can't go back to being who I was. I was so different, I was so quiet, far more girly. My brothers are still looking at me funny to be honest."

She catches that bit abotu Romance "Ya, it's kinda funny how that happened. We met while I could only remeber the day I was rescued by Garrod, Roybe and Witz. ...he never pushed or tried to take advantage of my lack of memory. "Maybe so but I think that's a choice you'll need to make really. Some times frames can be very strange machines..."

Is it even possible to go back to who you once were? That is a hard question for someone who has so very little in the way of memories of who she once was. "I'm afraid sometimes of who might have been." She admits, fidgeting with the sleeve of her shirt and pulling it up just enough for those faintly glowing lines to be visible. "The higher ups still seem to see me as just a potiential enemy, but they're wrong." Covering those lines up again, there is a more determined look on her features. "Even if I end up being on the other side of the war, even if I had to fight against the Argama ... I'd still never betray the kindness any of you have shown me." Her eyes glance more softly towards Macua, bitinat her lower lip. "You and Quatre... you're my friends. No matter what else happens."

The words seem true enough from her lips, although who knows how the future will roll the dice for this young framerunner. Still, the corner of her mouth quirks upward slightly at te mention of Macua's romance. The poor girl hasn't even been kissed - not that she can recall anyways, so she latches onto such things with interest. "He sounds really sweet." There is a moment of thought, and then a nod of her head. "I just hope to find someone someday. Someone who doesn't mind glow-in-the-dark girls." With a laugh, Lin leans back, propping herself on her arms.

For the time being, she lets the thought of her Orbital Frame slide as other things come to mind. "You don't happen to know anything about dinosaurs, do you? I mean... not the extinct ones, but the kind that walk on two legs and wear trenchcoats and bad disguises?"

Macua Huitl Says, "You are who and it's a honest fear. But the question is who are you now. And to be honest they have reason to do so. It's happened before we rescued someone and they were an enemy plant all along. If that makes any sense? It's not like they dragged you out and shot you or spaced you." She smiles a bit. "That means a good bit to me."

She looks to the other girl for a moment "He's a bit of a doof but yes he is. I'm sure you can find someone someday at least once your life's sorted out a bit more. Oh /them/ you mean the ones who are ... the other self aware race native to Earth? It's not our fault they were hiding under ground when we came around. I mean they could go off into La Giass there's tones of areas unclaimed there but really they are a pain to deal with. Wait you met one and they didn't try to kill you?"

Sometimes, Lin is simply left to ponder things, and the question of just who she is now - well, that isn't something she can answer. There are too many lost bits of her heart, of her soul, and she well knows it. Some of it is slowly being put back together, but it's like working on just the edge pieces of a much bigger puzzle. "Oh, I understand the paranoia all too well, but you'd think a medical expert could convince them that I wasn't just a really good liar. Because last I checked, you couldn't fake brain scans." It was still long odds that she would ever fully recover her full memories, although some of the skills and flashes of images she'd had left the Argama's doctor with some hope.

Love, and the rest of the Argama take a back-seat momentarily to Macua's description of the dinosaur race. Lin raises one white eyebrow curiously, "The one I met didn't actually tell me much. It was like he was afraid I'd take one look at him and go running for the hills." Pause, blink. "Is that the normal reaction people have to dinosaurs?" Lin, of course, is not normal, and thus she has little fear of such in-human creatures. "But no, he didn't try to kill me. I helped him take some photographs of the ruins up north. You know, that touristy place they keep showing on vids. He claimed that they were... researching human history and trying to understand us through our past actions." She closes her eyes for the last bit, as if she were looking for just the right words. Then, flashing them open again, Lin shrugs her shoulders. "He seemed nice enough, but I'm guessing... they're the bad guys, right?"

Macua Huitl says, "I think Ryouma of the Getter team is fond of saying !$@#$ Dinosaurs. Then tends to cut them down. That's kinda odd most of them are ... really running on hateraid I don't like to be near them." Could it be there was one that was much younger and not full of hateraid yet? Who knows really. "Heh, interesting. Just watch your guard around him even if he's on the level his superiors might not be."

She seems a bit iffy on the dinosaurs. "They are dangerous more than anything."

"No you can't but you can do things to people's mind that would make your stomach churn. I'm still dealing with the ghost of something I did as a Balmarian my self..."

Lin's expression remains softer now, seeming to have shaken off the worst of the negative emotions that nightmares and rogue haros had brought on. "Guess I've spent too much time around Quatre. I try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt." with a nod, she seems to take the warning to heart, although perhaps not as seriously as one might expect. Afterall, many would have said the same thing about befriending an anmesiac framerunner, and she owed a great deal to the people on the Argama who had been willing to give her a chance - even if they /are/ relatively few and far between - and mostly bribed by food. "He did seem young, though. He invited me on a motorcycle ride. Did you know dinosaurs can ride motorcycles?" She sounds almost awed by this revelation. Ahh, poor naive girl.

This more pleasant thought gets an abrupt de-railing as Macua turns back to the topic of minds and memories. With that, Lin gets to her feet and offers a hand out to the green-haired woman. "Yeah, I know all about it." Afterall, she had been on the 'chopping block' for some experimental disection of her brain to get at the still-lost memories hiding within. "But I wouldn't let what you did as a Balmarian bother you too much. You're a good person, and a good friend." And no one will convince her otherwise, that much seems obvious from her tone of voice. "Anyways, since we're up... we might as well head back to the Argama early. I'm not looking forward to reporting losing my Ootsukigata to the hangar crew." There is a wince visible at the edge of her lips.

Macua Huitl seems Lin's doing a lot better at this pioint and she now dfinally streches. "It doesn't suprise me at all actually they are basically humanoid and other than the tail are built quite a lot like us." She grins a bit. She looks back to her friends. "WE should get some food first, and it happens. I gone through a lot of machines myself. Better the machine than the pilot though. Unless it's likes some of the mecha GGG use where they are actually people themselves. Maybe I'll have to go catch us something but either way food!"