high_seas | (no subject)

Ah, from bad to worse.

Alice gave a startled yelp. She'd been so caught up in her own worries she hadn't thought about the clear and obvious fact Makoto might have a less than pleasant reaction towards seeing Regina there in the flesh. She felt quite foolish for that for just a moment, but also saw this needed to be diffused and fast.

She held out her uninjured arm and took a few steps forward.

"M- Makoto-san, hold on!" she sputtered, and then composed herself. "This Regina-san... She is not from the same time as us! She comes from sometime well after us, and... She appears to have changed."

She lowers her arm and sighs. From being defensive over Regina, to defending her. Just what in the world were you doing, Alice?

"I know it may sound hard to believe, but... she appears to be quite genuine..."

Oh dear.

Mana surged forward, putting herself in between Makoto and Regina.

"She's right!" Mana declared. "Regina has changed! She's not affected by whatever her father did to her...! I swear, Makopi! She... she did and said things that Regina would never do!"

Then, she stepped forward and tried to take hold of both Makoto's hands. "Please... this is a happy occasion! Even if you have doubts... you can trust something I say, right...?"

What else could she say? Rikka and Regina had barely talked in the first place, either here or at home. And Mana and Alice had kind of covered all the bases just now...

"Um... hi, Makoto... I'm sorry this is the first thing you're coming in to..."

Mana was now standing between Regina and Makoto, but Regina wasn't the type of person to let something like that get in her way. She peered around Mana's shoulder, giving a friendly wave. "Makotoooo! I'm joining Mana's crew!" She hopped around the Mana-barrier at that point, looking as friendly as possible. Which, since Regina is a crap actress, means it was genuine.

Also, there might be a very familiar spear strapped to her back. Just something to note.

Thankfully, the interference of her teammates did succeed in stopping Makoto in her tracks. Not that she would have attacked Regina without a word, but she certainly wouldn't have been calm about things. Still, she wasn't really sure how to feel about this.

Regina turning over a new leaf again? Well, on the one hand, it was a bit hard to swallow. Especially given how hostile she had been the last time they had seen each other. On the other hand... Well, Makoto wanted to believe in her, at least a little.

"...alright." She took a deep breath and tried to remain peaceful. "If you say it's okay, then I'll try to believe it..."

Oh, okay and there Regina was now, suddenly addressing her in a very friendly manner. She couldn't help but be a little taken aback by that. And who could blame her, really... But she'd try not to be hostile, at least.

"Ah... Right. I guess we'll be crewmates, then."

Hesitantly, Makoto tried looking Regina in the eye as nicely as she could... when she suddenly spotted that spear. Oh dear god, what the hell was that doing here?! Sorry, calmness gone, we're back to very wary again.

"W-Wait a second..." There was no mistaking it, was there? That spear had to be... "That's... That's the Princess's spear! Why do you have that?!"

Just when things seemed like they were calming down again, there came Makoto's last comment. Alice had been wondering just where Regina had gotten a spear like that, but there was so much else going on it seemed like the least important element.

When, indeed, it might have been the most important element.

"The Princess' spear?" Alice asked, eyelashes fluttering for a moment before casting a confused look back to Mana and Rikka, then a skeptical one towards Regina. "Regina-san... just what are you doing with something of Princess Marie-Ange's...?"

Mana blinked, and stopped, wheeling around to stare at Regina again. That... that was an interesting question. And yet...

"... Regina, is this like the royal crystals? This isn't the first time you've had a connection to something related to the princess..."

The gears were already turning in Mana's mind. Did Regina have some connection to the princess? And yet, those crystals also had a connection to someone else they knew...

Rikka was rapidly losing track of this conversation. Regina had something linked to the Princess? Something else, now?

"Wait... if we're looking for the Princess, but you have her spear..."

Either it'd been left behind in the Trump Kingdom... or Regina had met their wayward princess somewhere since they'd seen her last. Which... was a problem.

That suspicion was back in Makoto's tone. In Alice's, too. Regina wasn't so blind as to not notice that. But why were they suspicious? Didn't they already decide to trust her? Why wouldn't they realize that it obviously meant the spear chose her?

She was about to say as much, but a stray thought hit her.

They were all from... earlier. They didn't know the truth. They didn't know any of the truth. Behind Regina and Aguri and Ai, behind Ange-Marie.

And Makoto...

Makoto was devastated. Regina remembered, she was there, when Marie-Ange used the last of her life force to talk with them one last time. Makoto's tears and sadness. Telling her the truth would unleash all of that.

What was she supposed to do? She could tell them the truth, but Makoto would be devastated. She had just arrived in another world again, was this really the best time to tell her? What would Mana do?

She couldn't pull Mana aside for advice, though. Everybody was looking at her. Waiting for an answer.

She could always lie? But Regina never really lied. She wasn't good at it. Truth be told, everybody watching her could pretty much watch her thoughts unfold across her face. (Wonder what they're thinking about that?)

Lying wasn't the right thing to do, was it? But if it spared her friend heartache, then it had to be the right thing to do.

Well, she could always just hide the truth now, and ask Mana what she should do later. These kind of situations weren't Regina's forte, she didn't know how to handle them, but Mana surely would.

Right, yes, that seemed like a good plan.

Putting on her most neutral expression, Regina replied, "The spear chose me, that's all."

Yup. Smooth. She totally nailed it.

Well, that sure wasn't strange or suspicious at all. Especially after Regina was quiet for so long and looking so odd. Makoto narrowed her eyes.

"...what does that even mean?" Normally, Regina's strange response might've led Makoto to be a little more forgiving and open. But this was about the Princess. Her Princess. So she can't leave the sharp edge out of her voice. "Why would it choose you? That doesn't make any sense."

Alice watched Regina's actions closely. While what she said was still suspect, the way she reacted was a whole other matter. It was clear there was something Regina did not want to say, but... Alice could not bring herself to think it was out of malice.

This also could not afford to get out of hand. Someone would have to get the truth out of Regina eventually, but... This involved the Princess. Clearly. If that was the case, given the concern she had already shown over Alice and Rikka's injuries... Was it something for Makoto's sake, if she could truly take Regina at face value now?

...if for no one else's sake for the moment, it seemed most prudent to hold towards Mana's faith, at the very least.

Mentally, she thumbs through everything she does know, and...

"Regina-san, did you... help us in the end? Is that what this is?"

It was thin, and she didn't know if Regina would pick up on it, but any attempt right then to at least point towards her supposed genuine intentions needed to be played to at least keep this from blowing up into something much bigger. They could figure out the truth of the matter later.

Edited 2014-02-22 15:46 (UTC)

Mana couldn't help but notice the expressions running across Regina's face. In a sense, Regina felt like a wholly different person right now. And she saw who it was directed towards...

"Makop-... Makoto..." Mana said, reaching out to put her hand on the other girl's shoulder. She had used her friend's real name... Not only that, she had stopped herself and done so.

If only to give the other girl a sense of the seriousness she felt, because she didn't know how to say anything better than Alice did.

Edited 2014-02-24 09:53 (UTC)

Regina's dilemma... did a lot to convince Rikka. She'd noticed, the first few times they'd met, that Regina had a very, very hard time not wearing her heart on her sleeve. So she agreed that something was weird here. Alice's theory... made a lot of sense in that context. But it's a leap of logic she's not prepared to make right away.

"Help us...? Regina did? But that... I don't understand. We know her as our enemy. She shot us. Do you think that... between now and then...?"

...She's starting to get a headache.

"...Eh?" Regina looked confused for a moment. Not because she was caught off guard, but because, well, wasn't that much obvious? "Of course I help you." Or, well, she supposed it might be better to say that they help her.

....Oh, wait. Waaaait. She gets it now. This is to help explain why she has the spear!

.........Best not to tell them that she got it beforehand, then. When she was still fighting them. Probably.

Regina... helped them? That... Well, that would make this a lot better. If Regina had helped them, then the odds of her having stolen the spear, or anything like that, were significantly lower.

Not that this was enough to really go on here, but... still. She wanted to believe in Regina. After what they went through, when Regina almost sacrificed herself for Mana's sake...

"I see." She paused, looking down for a moment, still deep in thought. Giving people the benefit of the doubt wasn't something she was very good at. But she could give it a shot. "So it's like that?" A sigh and she looked back up at Regina. "Alright then. I'm... I'm still not sure about this, but if you say it's okay, then I'll believe you, Regina."

Alice breathed a slight sigh of relief. If she were be truthful, that "leap of logic" she made was simply desperation, with really only Mana's faith in Regina having changed and Regina's own reactions just then to back herself up with. It was a gamble to quiet the current situation down, and... it seemed like it had paid off.

For now.

So, she gave them all a smile. "Then... in that case, we should all get inside, yes? Rather than stand around here on this deck, I believe all of us have a lot to catch up on..."

Mana couldn't help but smile. She let out a sigh of relief and nodded at Alice's statement, spreading her arms to usher everyone towards the galley.

"Indeed we do...! I'll make us all something delicious, trust me! You'll all love it, because I'm going to put a ton of it into making it!"

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1/IDK

2/10,000

3/infinity

4/forever

5/the horizon

6/10,000,000

7/7

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