[ Justy glances at her when she tucks in at his side. He leans in her direction before nodding and stepping forward. Her presence is a comfort, one that keeps his knees from shaking as he audibly swallows. If this place could do this much, there's no way to know what awaits them in the unknown.
He didn't completely remember the walk back then, so it's only fitting that they're forced to trudge through this alley. The sound of rats and skittering in the dark accompany them as the louder sounds behind them grow dull. Up ahead, uneven light spills from a door. It illuminates the trash, junk, and dubious puddles along the edges of their mostly clear path.
Once they pass the threshold, Justy's tense shoulders relax when his eyes fall on what appears to be the front end of a massive blue ship. A space ship, though it would be easy to mistake as sea faring if it weren't stored in a rundown hangar that is almost as uncared for as the ship itself. The area around them is littered with haphazard equipment, tools, ship parts, and trash. Outdated, the blue ship is rightly a piece of junk now.
Yet you wouldn't know it by the warm, genuine smile on Justy's face when he looks up at his ship in the middle of being stripped down to nothing, not a repair. Justy brings his heels together, straightens up, and salutes it with his free hand. One of the tiles spelling out Soyokaze in bold yellow Japanese, hiragana, falls with a loud clatter. Something electric pops above it, a visible and audible spark from one of the wires attached to it's hull.
Justy can't look at her. ]
I know it's not real, but... it's nice to see it again. This ship was home for a while.
[ He means it, in sort of a bittersweet way. Mixed in with the trash at their feet are newspapers with moving marquees without end. Some have headlines announcing victory, some with Tylor's photo in dress whites plastered across them. All he has eyes for are this ship as he starts walking toward it, to squat before the "ze" tile that'd landed on the ground.
It appears to trigger another thing he hates: paperwork.
A mass of them start to flutter from the darkness of the ceiling. His school reports, doodles, art, love letters already in pieces from being passionately torn to shreds, photos of a toothy young Justy Ueki Tylor with big eyes and a smile too big for his face. He's alone in every one. Other faces burnt out, some of them disintegrate before they touch the ground, but most survive.
A hail of student IDs follow, clattering with a less energetic face on each one as the years go by, a study in the progression of youth to reality. Some official looking documents mix in and are missing sections, charred out, but enough multiples fall that it is easy to piece together.
Justy Ueki Tylor. Born July 7th, UC 6978. UC 6991, a Keian High School graduation photo, looking far too young even before the math can be done. University acceptance letters, UC 6992, degrees from UC 6997 economics, industrial distribution. His military file paperwork is thick, peppering the ground with countless reports regarding one Lt. Commander, Justy Ueki Tylor, age 20, Captain of the undefeated Soyokaze.
Justy refuses to look at them, emotion draining from him with the effort. But he doesn't stop her from it, doesn't do much of anything except squat before the tile, frozen there. The ship groans, metal fighting metal, until it slowly begins crumbling to dust.
It's too much, the sound of it as the paperwork keeps piling around him. He laughs. But it's so forced that it's sad, and his body goes lax after that. His voice, small. ]
It's not fair. This isn't... this isn't scary at all.
no subject
[ Justy glances at her when she tucks in at his side. He leans in her direction before nodding and stepping forward. Her presence is a comfort, one that keeps his knees from shaking as he audibly swallows. If this place could do this much, there's no way to know what awaits them in the unknown.
He didn't completely remember the walk back then, so it's only fitting that they're forced to trudge through this alley. The sound of rats and skittering in the dark accompany them as the louder sounds behind them grow dull. Up ahead, uneven light spills from a door. It illuminates the trash, junk, and dubious puddles along the edges of their mostly clear path.
Once they pass the threshold, Justy's tense shoulders relax when his eyes fall on what appears to be the front end of a massive blue ship. A space ship, though it would be easy to mistake as sea faring if it weren't stored in a rundown hangar that is almost as uncared for as the ship itself. The area around them is littered with haphazard equipment, tools, ship parts, and trash. Outdated, the blue ship is rightly a piece of junk now.
Yet you wouldn't know it by the warm, genuine smile on Justy's face when he looks up at his ship in the middle of being stripped down to nothing, not a repair. Justy brings his heels together, straightens up, and salutes it with his free hand. One of the tiles spelling out Soyokaze in bold yellow Japanese, hiragana, falls with a loud clatter. Something electric pops above it, a visible and audible spark from one of the wires attached to it's hull.
Justy can't look at her. ]
I know it's not real, but... it's nice to see it again. This ship was home for a while.
[ He means it, in sort of a bittersweet way. Mixed in with the trash at their feet are newspapers with moving marquees without end. Some have headlines announcing victory, some with Tylor's photo in dress whites plastered across them. All he has eyes for are this ship as he starts walking toward it, to squat before the "ze" tile that'd landed on the ground.
It appears to trigger another thing he hates: paperwork.
A mass of them start to flutter from the darkness of the ceiling. His school reports, doodles, art, love letters already in pieces from being passionately torn to shreds, photos of a toothy young Justy Ueki Tylor with big eyes and a smile too big for his face. He's alone in every one. Other faces burnt out, some of them disintegrate before they touch the ground, but most survive.
A hail of student IDs follow, clattering with a less energetic face on each one as the years go by, a study in the progression of youth to reality. Some official looking documents mix in and are missing sections, charred out, but enough multiples fall that it is easy to piece together.
Justy Ueki Tylor. Born July 7th, UC 6978. UC 6991, a Keian High School graduation photo, looking far too young even before the math can be done. University acceptance letters, UC 6992, degrees from UC 6997 economics, industrial distribution. His military file paperwork is thick, peppering the ground with countless reports regarding one Lt. Commander, Justy Ueki Tylor, age 20, Captain of the undefeated Soyokaze.
Justy refuses to look at them, emotion draining from him with the effort. But he doesn't stop her from it, doesn't do much of anything except squat before the tile, frozen there. The ship groans, metal fighting metal, until it slowly begins crumbling to dust.
It's too much, the sound of it as the paperwork keeps piling around him. He laughs. But it's so forced that it's sad, and his body goes lax after that. His voice, small. ]
It's not fair. This isn't... this isn't scary at all.