2009-05-12 - He's The One They Call Dr. Feelgood

THE PILLAR OF HEAVEN, HIGH ORBIT STATION

Leo Stenbuck never knew the orbital elevators had such robust medical facilities.

Among other things he doesn't know are why he was routed to the Elevator for medical care, especially care of such a special nature. He emerged from the Wing Gundam Zero unharmed... at least physically. His emotional health has been in turmoil since the incident, however, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better.

The boy's noncooperation doesn't help. In accordance with the will of the Man from Jupiter, at least two different psychiatrists have been flown to the Pillar to interview him. Both have come away empty-handed; Leo is barely willing to speak, and the only real reaction either were able to get out of him was either stony silence or uncontrollable sobbing.

Day three of his visit to the Pillar of Heaven is proceeding much like days one and two. The boy sits, alone, on the bed in the room he's been assigned, silent and mostly still. The only real variable is where he is; today, he's sitting on his bed, staring out the window at the Earth below and wearing a blanket over his shoulders.

The life of Leo Stenbuck is an exciting one.

The life of Leo Stenbuck is an exciting one--

And that excitement is about to increase exponentially.

The past days have been glum for the former Titan boy. Glum and, more likely than not, full of questions. But the view of Earth offers no solutions save for a slowly spinning gem of blue and green to stare at in wonderment over. So why is he here? There are other places to go, certainly. Perhaps better. But then--

"You've been through a lot, haven't you?"

--/he/ really preferred that it be here.

The voice comes at an almost disarmingly calm pitch, from just at the entrance of Leo Stenbuck's room. The source: someone who should look familiar to him at first... but different at a closer inspection. Green hair, purple eyes, a kindly smile; the seemingly young man who stands before Leo is nothing if not the picture of serenity. He closes his eyes, that smile easing just a touch.

"And yet you're still here. It's a sign of strength, don't you think... Leo Stenbuck?"

Leo's first thought is 'great, another doctor.' The boy swivels his head towards the doorway when Ribbons speaks. He is, suffice to say, not looking so great; his nose and cheeks are mottled red, and his eyes are bloodshot.

Leo's /second/ thought is 'lol wut.' His face contorts, briefly, in surprise. Whoever this is, they sound different. As far as Leo can tell, they look kind of different, too, but...

The surprise disappears after only a moment, fading back into what qualifies as 'neutral' for Leo at the moment; a look of downtrodden misery and despair. Without even waiting for Ribbons to finish, the boy turns back to the window, drawing his blanket tighter around him.

He can't shut off his ears, though. A sign of strength... with an irate huff, Leo shuts his eyes and tries to ignore his visitor. If he ignores him, maybe he'll go away. ... but...

After about four seconds of pointed silence on Leo's part, he turns back to the young man in his doorway, squinting uncertainly. The voice is definitely different. And he's almost certain that's a boy. But... if you put him in a dress, maybe...

"Captain... Care...?" Leo croaks uncertainly. His voice is hoarse, despite being used so little the past few days. Spending half of your day crying does a number on the throat.

Silence overtakes the hospital room. The young man before Leo, much like Leo himself, doesn't say a word after he finishes his peace. He can wait.

He is, if nothing else, a patient man.

When Leo finally speaks, the young man doesn't look surprised -- as if the response is something expected, something that was already rehearsed before the conversation was even held. Still, he shakes his head, violet eyes opening once more as they focus in on Leo.

"Healing? No. My name is Ribbons. Ribbons Almark.

"And I'd like to help you."

A moment of silence passes once more before the green-haired youth speaks again, his tone and expression more apologetic, yet completely pleasant.

"I'm sorry for intruding, but I was hoping we could have a moment to talk."

Ribbons... Almark. So he's not... Healing... and his name is... Ribbons. They could be siblings... twins, even... but... but her last name is 'Care' and his last name is 'Almark' and-

Ugh. Earthnoids.

Leo pointedly avoids eye contact with Ribbons, as he is wont to do, and after only a few seconds turns back towards the window again. Help him... "So you are another doctor," Leo says quietly, shifting on the bed to pull his knees up to his chest and wrap his arms around them.

"... I don't want to talk," he continues, after another long stretch of silence. "There's nothing... nothing you can do to help me. Not unless you can change the past..." Tears well up in his eyes for the fifth or sixth time today; he maintains enough of his pride to struggle to hold them back.

"... just... please, just call Admiral Scirocco," the boy begs. "I-if you talk to him, he'll say it's okay for me to j-just go back to the Archangel... or... or s-somewhere..."

A doctor? Ribbons doesn't respond; but the look on his face suggests nothing but amusement at the notion. Still, that isn't what he's here to discuss. Leo wasn't really brought to this place to be poked and prodded at by doctors, after all. No, there's something much grander in mind.

Leo continues to talk, and Ribbons listens. Listens to his pleas, for him to talk to Admiral Scirocco, to get Stenbuck cleared. Ribbons closes his eyes, and smiles.

"Did you know the 'Man From Jupiter' was really born on Earth?"

By the time the question is posed, Ribbons is already standing near the window pane of the hospital room, staring down towards the Earth -- as if in clarification of his statement. He doesn't look at Leo -- just as much as Leo refuses to look at him. But his calm voice continues unabated, speaking with such confidence as if it were the word of God himself.

"It means that every person to ever be invited to join the Titans was born on Earth. It's a narrow-minded notion, isn't it? All of them..." Ribbons' sentence trails here, his calm, violet gaze shifting back to Leo once again.

"... except for you. You are a special person, Leo Stenbuck...

"... but you feel lost now, don't you?"

Well, that is an interesting tidbit of information, isn't it?

When Ribbons shares his little factoid about Paptimus, Leo's entire body stiffens, and his hands grip into the sides of his legs. He maintains that position patiently, in silence, until Ribbons finishes speaking and it becomes his turn to speak. Given how eager he seems to speak, it's astounding he keeps his mouth shut that long.

"No he wasn't," the boy says, almost immediately after Ribbons falls silent. He's still quiet, and his voice is still hoarse, but there's something in his tone suggesting that even the implication is personally offensive to him somehow. "He was born at Jupiter. Or, or on the Jupiter Energy Fleet. If he wasn't, they wouldn't call him 'the Man from Jupiter.'"

He visibly relaxes as he speaks, reassured by his own words. "That would be stupid," Leo points out quietly, turning his head to take Ribbons entirely out of his field of view. After a pause, he continues, "And I'm not lost. I..."

You what? he asks himself. You already let the Titans die. Carris is locked in the Newtype Labs; Daiyu might as well be a cripple. Sarah and Cagalli probably hate you as much as they hate each other. Yazan will kill you if you give him half a chance. Every time Captain Merquise gives you a challenge, you fail it. All you have is Master Paptimus... and he likes Sarah more than you, anyways.

"I..." Leo repeats, leaning his forehead to rest against his knees. Tears stream down his face, but he manages to keep his speech coherent, if shaky. "... I don't... kn-know..."

"Paptimus Scirocco was born in Greece," Ribbons continues smoothly after Leo's denial of his statement, as if he were simply continuing with something that was undeniable fact. "He was raised in Jupiter and enlisted in the Jupiter Energy Fleet, but his home will always be the Earth. It's strange, isn't it?

"From a certain standpoint, the real 'Man From Jupiter' is you."

Ribbons' gaze returns back towards the Earth as Leo's own doubts begin to consume him. In stark contrast, the young green-haired man before him seems the epitome of confidence and self-assurance. But not just /self/-assurance...

"For a long time, people have looked down on you for where you were born, haven't they? You were belittled for the circumstances of your birth, made to think it was a weakness, something you should be pitied for. Humans are such cruel creatures. They're not able to see past the scope of their own vision." Ribbons shakes his head, his expression sad -- apologetic, even. He lifts a hand, looking down towards his palm as he speaks again.

"But not you. The thing that people has told you is a weakness is actually a strength. Those from space have a vision that is far broader than those confined to the Earth, unable to escape their pasts. You have the capacity to see a peaceful future." The fingers of Ribbons' hand twitch vaguely, as if beginning to curl inward ever-so-slightly. "The Titans collapsed, and you couldn't do anything to stop it. But that was essential. An organization run by those only capable of seeing their own greed, unable to free themselves from their own spiteful pride and avarice, deserves punishment." A pause. That hand clenches into a fist, before Ribbons' eyes lift, his smile serene.

"Don't you think someone who truly wishes for a better world should be the one to have the power to guide humanity?" The implication is there, for Leo to read clearly: it wasn't the Titans who should guide the future, was it?

It was Leo.

While Ribbons speaks, Leo cries silently into his knees. From Greece...? That can't be right... can it...? Paptimus is supposed to be like him... a spacenoid. An Ender, even. But being born on Earth... what does that change? Does that make him an earthnoid? Amuro Ray was born on Earth, too... but everyone considers him a spacenoid, right?

Contemplating the intricacies of determining 'race' based on physical location rather than ethnicity makes Leo's head hurt. He'd like to keep on believing that Ribbons is just lying, but... why would he lie to him? He wants to help him... right? But the things he's saying...

The boy draws his blanket cloak entirely around his body, cocooning himself in it from the neck down. His race... a strength? Leo's thoughts drift to the numerous occasions his body has embarassed or failed him when presented with the Earth's gravity or the strength of those born in it; how it hurt just to stand when he first got to Earth, how he's so effortlessly injured by people like Yazan and Dingo...

Maybe Ribbons is right. Or maybe... Ribbons is misinformed.

The green-haired young man asks his final question, and Leo lets it hang for almost ten seconds. Another person who wants something from him... who thinks he's more than he is. He wishes everyone would just leave him alone. So many people expect so many things from him... and he's never been able to deliver.

Eventually, Leo breaks the bad news. "I'm not a Newtype," he says quietly. "Not until the procedure. But... that's so far away. And even when it happens..." The boy's voice cracks, and he shrinks further into his blanket shell. "I'll just be... a bad copy."

"That's all I ever do," he laments. "Try to copy people better than me. Everything... everything I've ever succeeded at, I've had someone holding my hand... ... you're talking to the wrong person. I'm not special. I don't... I don't have the power to guide humanity..."

"I'm just a loser... a stupid Ender kid..."

He's not something special.

"Aren't you?"

Ribbons lets the question linger for a long, silent moment, poignant in its simplicity. His lips spread into a thin smile. His eyes shut as he turns his back to Leo and the view of Earth, hands clasping easily behind his back. "You have strong desires, don't you? To have power enough to protect your friends and the people who have been hurt. To keep this world from plunging into chaos. To fulfill a promise..." Ribbons' eyes crack open, unseen with his back turned as it is. "... to take back what was ripped from your grasp. Isn't that right?"

Turning slowly, Ribbons dons a neutral expression, moving with fluid ease towards the stand next to Leo's bed. "You know that path isn't the right one for you." The Cyber-Newtype procedure. A procedure that has caused more problems than solved them. "You've seen the harshness of life. You know the ignorance of humanity. You haven't suffered so much to simply copy others who are lesser than you, Leo Stenbuck. After all..."

Ribbons' hand stretches out, setting a small bottle onto the stand. Inside? Simple, harmless looking pills.

"... the truly strong innovate the future."

Leo sniffs, lifting a hand out of his blanket shell to wipe at his eyes and nose. There's something oddly calming about Ribbons... and he is, at least, right in that regard. Leo has made a lot of promises... a lot of threats, too. Most of them he hasn't been able to follow through on. But... at least one, he-

Leo's eyes swivel to the bottle as it hits the nightstand. The sound it makes is hardly large, but there is a strange weight to it, and it knocks his train of thought right off the tracks. "Innovate... the future...?" he repeats, staring at the pills.

Slowly, the boy leans across his bed, reaching out to grab the bottle and draw it closer to his body with shaking hands. He cracks it open (after struggling for about two seconds with the childproof lid) and peers inside.

Pills...? Leo's brow furrows in thought. After a few seconds, he speaks again. "Sarah... she said we were... important cogs. To... to Master Paptimus's vision of a peaceful future..." As he speaks, he sets the bottle's lid aside and digs a single pill out, carefully examining it.

"... I don't want to be a cog," the boy declares. "I want to be stronger. Strong enough that... tht what happened won't happen again. Strong enough that people will respect me... that Master Paptimus will... will need me. That Sarah will..."

Leo's eyes are still full of tears, but his expression hardens, and he turns his gaze onto Ribbons. This time, he doesn't shy away from eye contact. "What are these? Can they give me the power I need... to 'innovate the future?'"

"You're much more important than a cog, Leo Stenbuck. You're lost -- but it wasn't meant to be that way for long." Ribbons' fingers drift from the bottle just before Leo snatches it up. Stepping back, he watches with a thoughtful gaze, continuing on even as Leo inspects that pill. "The Titans were just the foundation for something greater. You understand, don't you? In order to create peace, sometimes the old must be torn down for it to be reborn as something better.

"And when it is, it needs visionaries to sculpt it into a purer form."

But, Leo has questions. Of course he does. He wants to be stronger. Can those pills do it? Ribbons meets Leo's gaze, his eyes full of nothing more than the most absolute of certainties. He smiles.

"Of course."

And in a moment, that gaze is lost as Ribbons closes his eyes. "Those pills will give you the strength you yearn for. Not to become a Cyber Newtype, not to become a pale imitation of a path humans are not ready to take. They are the way to make you more than a cog. The way to fulfill your desires. The way to make you something..." Ribbons' eyes open, and as they do, purple has been intermingled with lines of digital gold, glowing in the dim lighting of the room as Ribbons Almark smiles.

"... more."

When Ribbons reopens his eyes and starts, in layman's terms, innovating all over the place, Leo's own eyes widen. He's not exactly sure what's happening, but... whatever it is, it's something. An edge over the rest of humanity... an edge experience has shown him he needs if he's to be great, as Ribbons thinks he should be. As Paptimus needs him to be.

As he wants to be.

Without looking away from Ribbons' eyes, Leo lifts the pill in his fingers to his mouth, inserts it, and swallows.

The placebo effect is a powerful one. Leo feels better instantly; all of a sudden the mistakes of his past don't seem so bad, and the future seems ever brighter. The boy shrugs off his blanket armor and swings his legs off his bed, rising out of it. He's only wearing a white, short-sleeved t-shirt and a pair of boxer shorts, and he strides immediately towards one of the room's corners, where a Federation uniform sits folded upon a chair.

The boy lifts the uniform jacket off the chair, unfolds it, and begins donning it. As he buttons it up, he asks, without looking over his shoulder, "How long will it take? Until I can do... that?"

Not bothering to move as Leo confidently strides past him, Ribbons just keeps up his knowing, assured smile. His glowing eyes turn, looking over his shoulder as Leo speaks. How long?

"Some time," Ribbons responds calmly, "but the effects will come quickly. You already have talent -- this will make it something more than simply that. I'll prescribe you more once you've finished with those."

Turning on his heel slowly, Ribbons Almark regards the young boy from Jupiter with an even, considerate gaze. "You'll know when the pills start to take effect. And when they do... it'll be time to put your strength towards carving out a new world of order for the future. The Titans time is over...

"... but opportunity to learn from their mistakes will come soon enough."