2011-07-12 - Shopping and Coffee

Tina takes a deep breath. "No more fish for her for awhile. I'm starting to get a little fished out.", she says. The woman looks around as she enters the shopping mart. She starts to look around, grabbing a cart. The woman takes a moment to look around though. She blinks a few times as she wonders if she entered the wrong area. There's a lot of DCers about...

Well, most parts of Australia are under Crusader control, but that doesn't mean that everyone in the supermarket is a soldier. There are a handful of them, though. A group of uniformed men cluster around a display showing about sixteen different types of coffee. There are others who are much more mundane though - mothers with their children, single folks walking with shopping carts... And then there is the young white-haired woman looking at the baking ingredients on sale at the end of one aisle. She looked young, maybe twenties at the most, but she isn't dressed like a soldier. Tight fitting jeans cling to her curves and a loose, fashionable men's style shirt is cut short over a form fitting tank top. The faint lines of visible blue tattoos show on her arms as she reaches up, grabbing down a few bags of chocolate chips. Actually, her entire basket seems to be ingredients for various baked goods.

Tina passes by the baking goods aisle. "....Hmmmm. Cookies.", she says. The woman reaches over, and grabs 2 packages. Tina is in her typical outfit. The simple mercenary outfit she normally wears. She takes a moment to look at the other woman, and gives a light chuckle before heading towards the meat department. Sinya needs some ham. All cats love ham! The woman takes a deep breath, looking at several cuts...

Lin blinks as an arm comes by her face, and the framerunner draws her own arm back, just a few inches from touching the other woman's quite on accident. The white-haired woman draws a few strands of hair back from her face, and then looks at the mercenary with a confused raise of one pale eyebrow. She catches the other woman's gaze, and then a soft smirk plays at her lips. "What's so funny?" She muses, watching the stranger's path as she moves towards the meat department. Normally, Alina probably wouldn't have paid too much heed to such things, but she did have to go in that direction, herself. "Excuse me." She asks to the man behind the counter, "Do you have any meats pre-sliced. I need it thin." The worker points out a mixed array of spiced meats, obviously exactly what she's looking for. So, Lin grabs three - obviously more food than just for herself. "Got people at home you're cooking for, too?" She offers, tucking the packages into her basket.

Tina nods her head a little bit. "Yeah, a cat girl that has too much fish on the brain. I need to get her something else. Thinking some ham, and possibly some beef stew.", she says. The woman orders about 4 lbs of beef cubes...."I tend to cook for a lot of people. For some reason, everyone loves my cooking.", she says. The woman smiles, and gets a few herbs, and then looks over. "Cooking for somebody yourself?", she asks. The woman stretches out, and puts everything in the cart.

"Catgirls." Alina chuckles to herself, and then shakes her head. "They can be a handful, that's for sure." The framerunner still had to set up a date with a certain snow-leopard girl the next time she's back on mars. The thought nearly diverts her attention, but she manages to blink free of it. "Someone special to you?" She asks, curiousity in the young woman's blue eyes. She does nod, though, giving that answer to Tina's question before elaborating. "My brother and little sister. She's got a special diet. But I figure hot-pot is easy enough, and I've never heard of anyone turning down homemade cookies." Special diet - is a bit of an understatement, when her little sister prefers to eat things /boiling/, but that's another matter.

"I used to cook a lot when..." She starts, and then presses her lips together. Well, it couldn't actually hurt. "Well, when I was staying on the Argama. Their food sucked. And I mean... hamburgers in wrappers under a warmer sucked." A shiver runs up her spine as she sticks her tongue out, making a disgusted sound. "But, ever since I found my brother, I haven't had much chance to cook. Military life. Kind fo saps some a lot of your time, you know?"

Tina laughs a bit. "I'm a bit of a mercenary, so when things are slow, I tend to cook.", she says. The woman smiles a bit. "But combat rations suck horribly. When I was young, I learned to cook anything I could find. Even c-rations can be tasty if you know how to cook them right.", she says. Tina smiles a bit, and looks at her. "I could cook something for ya real fast if you want.", Tina offers. "I mean, if you're heading back to duty, since I know how that goes."

"I figured." Lin motions her chin slightly towards Tina's jacket, and then smiles softly. "A Trailer, then?" She's picked up a bit of information about them since her return to a semi-lucid state, although it's not all pleasant. At the very least, she refuses to use the term 'Trailer trash', probably because she isn't fond of the equally unpleasant term 'Ender' to refer to her own kind. "I'm actually from Mars, myself. I work for BAHRAM." The framerunner doesn't seem too worried about revealing this fact - afterall, this is Crusader territory, and there's little harm that can come of it.

The offer of food, though, has her laughing as she runs a hand through her hair. "Jeeze, you Earth girls move fast. I don't even have your name and you're already offering me dinner?" There is a light-hearted, teasing tone to her voice. "How about we do coffee first? Exchange pleasantries, that sort of thing?" Lin tucks her basket in front of her, and then starts to wander in the direction of the check out, not actually going too far, though.

Tina laughs a bit. She shows her emblem. There's a Raven sitting on a skull that stands in front of a AC. A Raven Mercenary. The emblem under it is a school girl that looks like hell washed over her, bleeding from hundreds of wounds, walking forward with two uzis in her hands. "Oh, sorry. Just used to cooking for others. Moving fast?", she asks before laughing fast. "You can only wish. Not many can get close without flunking out.", she teases.

Tina pops her back. "Alright. I can take some coffee.", she says. The woman moves over to the registers. Its going to take a bit for Tina since she bought enough to feed a small size army...

Unfortunately, Lin has no idea what the emblem represents specifically, although she'd probably seen it at some point during her briefing on various organizations. Her short-term memory, while it had improved significantly over the past few months, still isn't quite up to par. "I never knew school girls could look quite that ferocious." She notes, seeming amused by the concept. "Wouldn't know, though. I never went to school." Not real school, anyways. Not unless you counted torturous experiments and grueling pilot training - nope, definitely not most people's average childhood years.

Still, there is a playful look in the young woman's eyes as she smiles, the expression lighting her face. "Well, I could wish, or I could work for what I want. I find the later far more rewarding at the end." Lin sets her basket down onto the belt, letting them ring up the handful of items and then pays on a card. It's her brother's, but the cashier doesn't seem to argue with her. With a little cloth bag filled with her newly aquired food items, Lin stands at the end of the other row, helping to bag up Tina's things while she waits. "I'm Alina, by the way. Alina Luddite." The name might be familiar to Tina, depending on who she knew or had met among the Crusaders. A surprising number of people knew her brother - not always favorably.

Tina smiles a bit. "Tina Uesugi. I know an Ascian Luddite, who I beleive hired me for a botched job a while back. And its drawing of a Corpse Princess. An old show I watch on occasion about a girl who was killed by ghosts, and came back from the dead to hunt them down, and send them to hell with her. It was a joke a long time ago as well, that cause I used to pilot in my school uniform, everyone called me, School Girl.", she says. The woman laughs a little bit. "Any relation to him though, Ascian?", she asks. Tina nods her head. "Thanks for helping bag.", she says. The woman puts everything in the basket, and takes a deep breath. "It wasn't the best job I had, but I can't complain though. I mean, getting stuck with three battleships...Best to run away at that point."

"Nice to meet you." Lin bobs her head slightly, closing her eyes for a moment in what is probably a display of a bit too much effort in order to commit the name to memory. Still, when those dark blue eyes open again, she nods. "Ascian is my younger brother." She explains, and then chuckles to herself, doing another of those little motions where she brushes her hair back with her fingertips. "Well, by about ten seconds anyways. We're twins. He's probably the better pilot, although not by much, and only because I was out of commission for about six months. Got shot down by Acemos, then held prisoner while they decided if they wanted to disect my brain or not. Freaking A-LAWs." She curses under her breath.

Still, that moment of irritation doesn't linger, "Anyways, my brother usually calls me 'Lin'. I think my offical callsign is Akert Two, but usually I use Mistwalker." It is the name she had given herself when she was part of Katharon - because that's how she had felt - walking the mists, not knowing just who she was or where she belonged. "You must have been a pilot from a pretty young age then, I guess?" she asks, and then shrugs her bag up onto her shoulder. "I don't even remember when I got in my first mech. Must have been pretty young, myself."

Tina giggles a little bit. "Yeah, I started when I was about 15 years old, though I was practicing when I was 10 or 11. Amoung the Ravens, I'm kinda a new girl, but I'm quietly one of the better pilots, sopposedly. Sim data shows me being able to fight with the Founders of the Nest almost on equal footing.", she says. The woman opens up a compartment on a massproduced AC, she puts the grocieres in there. "This isn't my AC. Just had to rent one since I have to take special medicine to pilot mine, and I don't think food is a good reason to speed 10,000 credits on to get.", she says. The woman takes a deep breath. "And I have no love for the A-LAWs right now either. They've taken over the Nest...I'm going to kill one of them if they don't get out of my home soon..."

"I think we were seven or eight when we were first conscripted. Well... our father kind of sold us as guinea pigs to a science lab." There is a hint of that irritation that shows in the set of the young woman's eyebrows, but she takes a deep breath and tries not to let memories of her father ruin her day. She hated the man, that much is clear just from the venom that momentarily lingers in her voice. Luckily, confusion sets in, "What are Ravens?" Lin asks, following the other woman out to where her machine is parked. The white-haired woman doesn't seem to have a mech nearby, at least not at first. Perhaps she came on foot?

Still, she hesitates, seeming a little embarassed. "Sorry. Um. How do I explain this..." She uses that free hand, and rubs at the back of her head, fingers moving over the scars there. They aren't visible - not anymore, but Lin can feel them none the less. "About half a year ago, I was in a pretty bad fight with the A-LAWs. Barely made it out alive, but... my memories are a little iffy." She wobbles a hand in the air, "It's coming back, but slow going. So... excuse me if I ask anything too stupid. I just have no idea what Ravens are other than birds, or who the Founders are, or even what the Nest is."

She does glance at the Armored Core with some lingering curiousity, but offers a twitch of a half-smile. "I'm an Orbital Frame pilot, myself. My partner is Mayet, it's a twin unit to my brother's Amenthes." Twins, flying twin mechs, go figure. "I usually don't bring her in to town, though. Martian units aren't looked upon too favorably around most places. So I've got a Mobile Suit I use when I need to be more inconspicuous."

Tina laughs a bit. "Ravens are...simply a group of mercenaries. I'm a Raven. The Nest is where most Ravens live. The founders are the ones who created the Nest.", she says. THe woman giggles a little bit. "Its kinda complicated until you've dealt with us a few times. And pretty much every Raven is an AC pilot. Just that we have a ranking system where we do a live battle to see where we stand in terms of whose the strongest."

"So. Ravens are mercenary Trailers who live in a place called the Nest." Alina nods her head, knowing full well that she'll probably forget at least part of that by tomorrow. Ah! The pale woman reaches into her pocket and pulls out a little datapad and starts to type the information in. "Notes for later." She explains, and then tugs at the bag on her shoulder again, tucking the datapad away. There is a brief time when the screen is visible, showing a photograph of two blue-haired children, smiling arm in arm. Then it is gone again. "We don't have any sort of system like that. It's military, so you're ranked when higher ups rank you. My brother is a Lieutenant, though. He gets paid a small fortune." Lin pats her purse, "And I get to steal his credit card. So it works out."

She looks around, "So, I think there is a Neo-Starbucks up this way."

Tina nods her head. "Neo-Starbucks it is. And if you've seen the money I make at times, you'd be surprised.", she says. The woman stretches out. "There's a reason why Ravens pay for everything themselves. And what we don't pay for, the Nest covers. So, all and all, the lot of us can get by without having to actually work for years at a time if we didn't want to. Just that we pull from our retirement funds when we do it. Like I put 20% of my checks in my retirement fund, just so I could retire when I'm 30 or 40 years old.", she says.

As they begin to walk down the street, Alina seems quite relaxed. She doesn't exactly seem like a soldier, but then again - a great many people would think the same thing about Tina. "Just soldier pay, here. And to be honest, I have no idea if my brother and I will even live long enough to think about 'retirement'." She shrugs, not seeming all that bothered by it. Just up the road, there is a sign with a huge coffee cup. The smell is already enticing those out on the street. "Right now, I'm more worried about today, and tomorrow."

She steps in, and then up to the counter to order, "Go ahead and order, I'll cover you. Since I invited you out." Yes, she's trying to be polite and pick up the tab. Stepping to the side, she folds her arms slightly, watching Tina with a small smile. "Mostly, I just want to take what little I make and have some fun. I plan on heading down to the ocean tomorrow, catch some waves."

Tina nods her head a bit, and then takes a quick peek at the sky. She then takes a deep breath, and orders just a regular coffee, and then a passionfruit tea. She smiles a bit. Why those two things? She looks at the coffee a bit after its made. "Tomorrow is going to be a bad day to surf or go to the beach.", she says. "Storms will be coming in tonight, and likely will be around for awhile.", she says. The weather people havn't said anything about storms...So how would Tina know that? "In Hawaii, the weather people used to buy coffee before they made a forecast for the day. If the bubbles were in the middle, there's a storm coming cause the humidity is rising. If they were on the side, then its dropping.", she explains. "The bubbles on the coffee are trying to move to the center, but they're moving to the side as well.", tina explains. "But I hear in Brazil, there's going to be this monster wave coming in from the Alantic current. Sopposedly going to be 2 or 3 miles wide.", she says. "I'm going to be there in my bikini and surf suit. I always bring them with me when I come to Aussie or Brazil.", she says. There's a wink there.

Alina blinks slightly, looking at Tina with a bemused smile as she peeks forward and then looks towards the coffee, trying to somehow see whatever it is that she had seen. "You can tell the weather from coffee?" She asks, sounding a bit enthralled by the idea. The framerunner looks down into her own coffee, and then smirks. Then, shrugging, she walks out towards one of the tables, slinging her bag down and then settling herself into a chair with a relaxed sort of ease. "It's a shame, though. I was hoping to give it a shot." Lin leans forward, then sips some of the warm liquid, licking at her lips.

"You see, I don't actually remember surfing, but my brother told me that I used to go when we had breaks in training." She shrugs softly, "I've been hoping to get a chance taking my board out. See if it comes back to me or not." Of course, she does raise an eyebrow at the idea of the other young woman in her bikini and surf suit. "And now you've got me tempted to go up to Brazil, if only for the sights." Lin laughs, seeming to be genuinely enjoying the company.

Tina laughs a bit. "Well, now, if its sights you want...", she winks. "I can go change now, and we can rent a couple of boards. Or find a hidden cove, and try to get some good waves there without suits if you don't have one. Teasing! Honest.", she says with a light laugh. "Sorry. Just that when you're betting your life every day, you tend to look for the fun in everything, and joke around a lot. Cause god knows when you might get to see tomorrow."

Lin looks up over her coffee, and then seems to actually be considering the offer for a moment. "Ahh, teasing." She takes another drink, although a smirk plays on her lips. "Don't worry about it. I'm a hopeless flirt. It's alright if you aren't into it." She leans forward, letting the fingertips of one hand play over the markings on her opposite arm. Strangely, up close, those tattoos almost seem as if they are glowing, pulsing faintly as if they were some separate, alien heartbeat. "But I know exactly what you mean." Her smile falters slightly. "I nearly died last year, and then nearly lost myself in the process." She sighs, looking down at her nearly empty cup. "It was Ascian who saved me. Helped me remember who I am. What's important to me." Then, she glances across the table again, offering Tina another of those soft smiles. "Now, it's like every day is a gift. Every breath." She trails off, then looks away, as if she felt a bit silly for talking about such things.

Tina giggles a bit. "Oh, don't worry dear. I've had boyfriends and girlfriends before. Can't really be picky being a mercenary.", she says. The woman giggles a bit. "Though, if you don't mind...", she winks. "I've had missions that went from bad to hell. Lost my father during one of those missions. He was killed right on top of me, and took me years to wash the blood out of the core.", she says. THe woman winces a bit. "I...I hate to admit it, but I hate being alone. I promised a friend I was looking into finding my own place, but...I just can't do it...", she says.

"The truth?" Lin leans forward a bit, her fingers tracing the side of the cup. "I've never had a boyfriend, or a girlfriend. We never had time before. The Akert project kept my brother and I so busy we rarely got out into the outside world, and we never really had anyone but each other." She leans back then, and shakes her head. "He's had a girlfriend since then, but it didn't work out. We're both pretty... new to the whole thing, I guess. You know, living without a gun pointed at your head."

Even so, Lin does offer a sympathetic look, nodding her head. "Growing up, we had to watch other kids die all around us. They weren't much older than us. Seven, eight. It was horrible." A shiver runs up her spine, and causes goosebumps to break out on her arms. With a quick rubbing motion, Lin tries to warm her skin and get rid of them, but it seems to be a fruitless effort. "My father is the one who started all of it. I hate him." She clenches one hand into a fist, and then closes her eyes, as if forcing her emotions under control.

"It's different now, though." By the time her eyes open again, she's back to smiling, although it's more subdued now. "I can't stand to be alone either. Sometimes, when I still get nightmares, I come sleep in Ascian's room." She tucks a few strands of that white hair back almost shyly. "He's always taken care of me like that. But, I guess I still need other people, too. No one wants to be alone."

Tina takes a long moment to sit there. She's much smaller now. The woman almost seems like a child. "Everytime I get into an AC, I hate to admit it, but I feel like I'm stepping into my coffin. One day, it will be my coffin. I don't try to hide it either. I know its the truth.", she says. The woman takes a deep breath, and puts her hand on the table, taking in a deep breath. "I'm almost thankful for the stims as they push the fears out of my mind when I fight.", she says.

Slowly, but with great care, Lin reaches her hand forward and lays it gently over Tina's own, showing a look of both sympathy and understanding. "You aren't alone." The young woman's fingers are warm, and the lines on her arms seem to glow a bit brighter from that physical contact. "Every person who gets into a mech knows they are putting their lives on the line when they go into battle. But the reason we fight, the reason we come back... it has to be for ourselves and for those that we love." Gently, she draws her fingers away again, and then reaches for the bag of groceries. "I lost my family once, and I'm never going to lose them again. I have to fight to keep them safe. It's all I can do." Lin's head cocks to the side, as if she were hearing something spoken in her ear.

"And speaking of family... I'm afraid I need to be getting back to mine. We've got a mission coming up and I need to test Mayet's new AI upgrade." As the white-haired framerunner gets to her feet, she offers Tina another of those small smiles, and then grabs a napkin, jotting a transceiver code onto it. "This is my personal code. Maybe next time I'm back on Earth we can catch some waves, and I'll get to see that bikini." She slides the number over, then actually does something daring and leans in to give the other woman a kiss on the cheek. "It was nice meeting you." She whispers, and then with a wink, Lin steps back and gives a wave of her fingers. "Seeya." Then, with a quick turn, the framerunner is gone into the crowd of people mulling about the streets.

Tina laughs a little bit, and waves off as she looks at the napkin. She puts it in her inner sleeve pocket. She looks out at her AC. "I'm glad I never told her my other callsign. Something about being called Corpse Princess really sends a shiver up my spine...", she says. The woman gets up, and finishes her tea. She holds her hand a little bit, and a blush comes to her cheeks. "I guess, its time to go back to my solitude.", she mutters, getting her gear together, and heads out to the AC. She's got a ton of cooking to do....