GreenSheep & Ariamis Collab
A voice called out to her, shocking her out of her revelrie. It seemed to be the pilot of the other mech, the meek looking girl who had went with that rather unexpressive one and the other who seemed incessantly happy all the time.
"Umm, hello. I was the pilot of the Frame you shot down. I attempted to contact you, but you had your communications shut off. Not that it really mattered, since this was everyone against everyone. You've got a really cool-looking Frame to pilot, with the red eyes and all. My Frame looks kind of goofy in comparison. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Elora Liu'un."Her eyes widened at that. Of course... she did turn off her communications because of that horrible music. It was just as well that Elora didn't hear her though. Blushing deep red, Utano pulled her cap over her head.
"...sorry...sorry for just now.."Elora was surprised to see her blush like that, considering how she was a celebrity and all. Maybe she was wrong in assuming that idols were really sociable folks. There was one thing that bothered her though, and she couldn't help but ask.
"So, umm...not to be rude, but...I'd like to know your name, if thats okay with you."Still keeping her face hidden as well as she could, she nodded.
"Utano. Kiyokawa Utano. UTAU is what most people would call me though." It was her stage name after all. Taking in a deep breath, she looked at the girl, obviously filled with questions, but unable to put words to even one.
"..ah..h..how are you able to do this?" she finally asked.
"I mean.. how are you so calm about all this? The fighting, and the knowledge that you could just.. die."UTAU...Elora tried to remember if she's listened to her music. She may have had one of her songs in her playlist playing when she was working on the computer, but she couldn't say for sure. But she was glad to know her real name in the very least. Then Utano asked her a question, and it was one she wasn't prepared to answer.
"Umm...well, I'm not. In fact, I kind of gave up back there, if you didn't notice. I...left Sigma behind, and...I just couldn't do it anymore. When I tried to contact you I wanted to say I wasn't even going to fight." Elora made a meek smile.
"But it doesn't matter, since we all lost, right?"So not only did Utano mess up, she had also fired on someone unwilling to fight. It was good that today was only a mock, and not a real battle like she thought it would be, but still... What if this happened during real combat? What if she simply started killing everyone indiscriminately?
"Yeah... we all failed, didn't we?" She hung her head, and sighed. All of a sudden she stood up, a look of resolve on her face.
"I'm sorry."With that, she bowed apologetically to Elora.
"I'm sorry for shooting you when you didn't want to fight. I don't know wha..what ...just now.. happened."Elora didn't know what to say. She was usually the one to be apologizing, not the other way around. It seemed like she wasn't entirely happy with how this played out either, so Elora decided not to dwell on the subject any longer.
"No, don't worry about it, please. We were meant to do that, and I was in the wrong for refusing to fight, not you. So, umm...how did you get picked to be a pilot? I was picked because I survived a Cruxi attack, and I know a lot about computers so they gave me Rilus to pilot.""Picked?" Utano seemed to regain a bit of her composure again.
"I.. I don't really know. I was in the middle of writing a song when these people suddenly grabbed me. Next thing I know, I'm here piloting a robot. That's why I'm still wearing this SONG outfit. Its like a ministudio; I made most of my songs using this." From the tone of her voice, it was obvious that she put a lot of pride in her works.
"So uh... I actually have no real experience with these, or even how my mech is supposed to work. Back to what you were saying; what was that bit with the Cruxi? You actually met them and survived?"She was abducted...Elora didn't know that was one of the ways pilots were recruited. She believed every word the adults said when she was brought over to Meridia, but thinking back, she may have been lied to on more than one occassion. This was cruel of them, and Elora sniffled a bit at hearing about it. Then Utau mentioned her outfit being a ministudio, which immediately got Elora's attention. She was about to ask Utano her about her software when she asked about the Cruxi attack. Painful memories flowed back to her mind, and she visibly shivered.
"Oh, I...I don't want to talk about it, sorry. They...were the stuff of nightmares. They just one day came to Epsilon V and..." Elora paused, obviously not wanting to continue her train of thought.
"Let's just say that there's a reason they're feared. I only saw glimpses of them, but they're not something to mess with." She realized she may have been scaring Utano with her words, and shook her head.
"No, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up. But I want to ask about your ministudio; what kind of software does it run on? What's the storage capacity on it?" Elora attemtped to change the subject once more before things got too awkward.
Utano kinda panicked a little when she saw the girl's face scrunch up at the mere thought of her background. Again, she had no idea what to do in this sort of situation, so it was quite a relief when Elora tried to change the subject.
"Ah this?" Eager to bring the subject as far away from Cruxi as possible, Utano fell back on her persona.
"This is SONG, the Studio Outfit: Noveau Grade. I have no idea what that means but..."With smooth movements long practiced, she activated her suit, which shimmered to life as it drew out a hologram of a purple electric guitar with blue highlights. With a flourish, she strummed out a note on it, or more accurately, the suit detects what string gets interfaced with and how, then outputs a note appropriate to it.
"It could process several million songs, runs on the latest Macrosoft 29, and uh... That's all I know, but isn't this neat? I could stage a concert by myself if I need to." Temporarily forgetting her situation, she strummed out a tune happily on the hologuitar.
If Elora remembered correctly, SONG was the newest in the line of idol-dedicated music gear, right after SONNET which was popular with the last generation. She audibly gasped when the holographic guitar appeared and Utano played it, awed at how realistic the hologram was. She was really happy that she managed to get off to a good start with Utano, and her worries seemed to fade away with the strumming.
"I'd love to hear you singing one of these days," Elora said, and smiled.
"And, I'd like to, umm, take a look at it, but not if you don't want to, that is..." Elora opened her mouth to continue, but then saw the helicopters arriving.
"It was great talking to you, Utano. I hope we can do it again."Almost puffing out with pride, she strummed out a few lines from her songs.
"Of course, you'd get a free VIP front seat to my concerts. If you like, I can also give you a few tips while you look over my outfit."She looked over to the helicopter arriving.
"Hmm. Talk to me anytime you like."
