Scene #3104: Heart to Heart

Owner	Pose
Yunomi Stadler	Yunomi Stadler was not used to talking through feelings anymore. She was used to talking through the strata of paperwork from the construction site and paying out bills from other guilds. She was used to processing billing paperowrk, and the long grueling hours constructing the manavines needed to fill orders and compress down into the Nexus. She wasn't used to having to talk through things with her Dad anymore, because she was a fully functioning adult -- minus the ability to drive cars or cook for herself, anyway. So there she was, climbing up the /perfectly normal/ steps, clad in seasonably appropriate jeans, sneakers and a T-shirt under an open sweatshirt, human ears, and no tail. She even gives a slight wave to the neighbors. She didn't fly in -- she took a walk. And she made a note, after this, that she /was/ going to stop in at the crab shack, and she /was/ going to feast on crabs, in a sort of revenge to The One that Got Away.
Richard Stadler	There was one good thing you could say about the Multiverse in general, and Rick's own world in particular. Medical science was rather advanced, and for an Elite, wounds that would have taken months or years to heal previously were stitched up in just a little under a week. Certainly, Stadler was still wincing and moving a bit slowly, gripping his ribs every so often, but so long as he didn't move too suddenly or take too deep of breaths, he was able to operate somewhat normally. At the moment, his hands were working over a ten key (/those/ hadn't taken a beat), other hand running over the keyboard and typing one handed with a occassional slap of the tab button to move to a different cell. There was a slight beep at the CCTV monitor off to the side, as he peered at it, before smiling slightly. "Well, a little early." He mentions to himself. And walking, for once! Not that she couldn't have used the roof. There was a reason Stadler was on the top floor of the condo building. Granted, it was because the roof offered good sightlines to the road and had enough space to land a Blackhawk, but that was beside the point. A stand up, a quick command to lock the terminal he was working on, and then a slightly slow, wincing walk to the door, which he opens up before Yunomi can reach, looking out, and smiling brightly. "There she is. I wasn't expecting you for at least another half hour. Warpgate get you through here okay?"
Yunomi Stadler	Yunomi knew better than to reach for the door. She's never caught him off guard -- not with an appearance, anyway. She still had her goggles hanging around her neck (and a smudge of grease on her chin, discoloring the skin), but her eyes light up, and she gives the biggest smile, Her body tenses, as if she were going to leap up and hug him --- but she remembers the whole 'bleeding from the eyeballs' thing. And she exhales. "Warpgate got me through fine, I guess I was just eager to get out of Nivix for a while." she replies with a little shrug, sticking her bandaged hands into her pocket, and she settles for just smiling up at him. "Been a while since I've been out this way. I forgot how Frederick smells."
Richard Stadler	Stadler grimaces just a little bit, but not from pain, watching her tense up just slightly, before taking a breath, moving forward, and enveloping her in a tight hug. "Oh, come on. Not /that/ badly wounded. Felt like it at the time, but it was supposed to be a non lethal battle. I think if he was trying to kill me... well, I would be in a bit worse shape." A sharp intake of breath. "Still, don't squeeze too hard, those ribs are still setting." After breaking the hug himself he walks into the apartment again, leaving the door open for her. "I don't have your nose, but I imagine it smells like people with a lot of cordite on the edge of it. I can understand the need for a break, though." He pauses. "Well, on an academic level, at least. Not like I'll ever be going to Disneyland any time soon. How is Nivix, though? Rhapsody not being a slavedriver, I'm hoping?"
Yunomi Stadler	Yunomi gives a grin, and reaching up, she wraps her arms around her dad, and gives him a light squeeze, mindful of her bandanged hands (which go /right/ back to the pockets as she releases him. It felt good. Nivix felt like home -- but this? This was Home. She walks in, closing and locking the door behind her. "My nose isn't that good unless I'm in my natural form, Dad." she replies embarrassedly, "but every city, every place has a smell. London smelled like old books and green wood and traffic smog. Frederick smells like the sea and the armed forces with a little bit of choloroseptic. Nivix smells like..." she pauses, and has to stand perfectly still for a moment as she gets a rather concerned look on her face "... goblins and electrical fire, with just a touch of 'this shouldn't be here' smell." she gives a wry smile, and follows him in. "No, no, the opposite actually. Rhapsody's concerned for my health..." her hands stay firmly in her pockets. "Apparently I may be a work-a-holic."
Richard Stadler	Richard Stadler gives a slight nod. "Well, it's still better than mine. One of the things you lose with age, I suppose." Stadler notes. Though, Yunomi herself might catch the faint waft of tobacco... at least a few days old in the appartment. Probably somethin Richard had thought was gone. "That would be Frederick. You know they're thinking of moving the Coast Guard operations center from Kearneysville here? Not that I'd complain about not having to slog down 340 whenever I need to chat with them." He notes. A little small talk as he goes to the kitchen. "Did you want coffee?" Another slight smile as she describes Nivix. "Now /that/ sounds like an interesting smell. So long as it's not too often that you smell the aftermath of an explosion, I'm happy." He says, moving to pull out coffee grounds. "And well isn't that just suprising. I wonder where you get that from?" A little bit of a chuckle. "I suppose I'm supposed to be the good parent, tell you to take it easy, take a vacation, but you and I both know how that works. Work is work, and work that engages you isn't something I'd shy away from. If I thought you needed to take a break, I'd be over there with Rhapsody and locking the door to your workshop." He says, popping the beans into the grinder, turning it on for a moment, leaving a pleasent lull of about 30 seconds to have the grind. He's still looking down at the coffee machine as he scopes them on top of the filter. "You going to tell me about the hands?"
Yunomi Stadler	"That'd be nice, although they missed out on all the shenannigans from when I was younger and the BEQ had all those sentient flapjacks." Yunomi gives a rueful smile, "It'd be enough for them to reconsider their operations. They still keeping that under wraps, or has it spread out yet?" Yunomi inquires as she eschews furnature, and just hops up onto the counter for a perch, watching him make coffee. "Still not allowed to have it, standing orders from Solid Snake. I don't think it ever got taken off the books." she recalls, and she gives a shrug with a smile. "I don't think I'm missing much, but I like the smell anyway." she replies,a nd she gives a little, embarrassed s mile as she rubs the back of her head. "It has been three days, two hours and eighteen minutes since the last mana-related explosion in my workshop. I keep on having to find new connectors and supports because of the reaction to the high energy fields surrounding it. My next step is to ask Ryxinel for about three tons of Mizzium in order to keep the reactions down and to channel the energy to a collecting pod which will absorb the ambient radiating mana so that it's not wasted -- kinda like having a coffee maker attached to your electric heater." she explains, and she gives a grin. "Well. You /did/ raise me." she points out, "nevermind the times I snuck into your briefcase.... and yeah. Rhapsody gave me orders. Thaniel is backing them. Studies, work, training, experiments, shower, sleep, repeat, makes Yunomi a dull tanuki -- and nice try dad, but there are only /two/ living beings who can lock down my lab and workshop, and one of them is a millennia old dragon." she gives a grin, and she listens to the coffee grind. She leans forward, taking in the smell, and then he asked. She saw it coming. Hey, she's not taking part in any martial arts tourney, but at least she wasn't /bleeding from her eyeballs/. The mage leans back a moment, and then she looks down at her bandaged hands. "... you know how I had all this... chaotic stuff happen. Turning Rex into a Tyranosaur, the cookie dough golems -- the /mattress/ coming to life and attacking?" she asks, and she looks at her hands. "Part of the reason I left was because I needed finer control over my powers. I asked Niv to help me... and finer control came with practice. A lot of practice. Sometimes, if I push myself too hard, I get what're called 'mana burns' I guess. They bruise and look like first or second-degree electrical burns. They blister a bit. They look ugly. I change the dressing on them a couple times a day and wear gloves most of the time when I work to protect them."
Richard Stadler	"Coast Guard has a lot to deal with these days, Yunomi. Lot more things to guard the coast from after all, not just the odd unwelcome vistor." Of course you don't mention the word 'zombie' if you can help it. Never know who exactly might be listening, after all. "But they'll probably be in an annex building, off the main base. Nothing too close or inside the wall, so they'd have missed the shenanigans anyway. Not as much as I do sometimes, though." An easy smile as she hops up on the counter, before sliding the watter in and flicking the device on. "And you know that's something of a Blue Law, now. I don't even know if it's still on the books, and it would be the lowest kind of buearucrat who decided to use it. Whose going to report you, anyway?" His smile dims just a bit. "We're still keeping things under wraps, of course. Current administration's keeping with the party line, mass panic, and all of that. Made some inroads in the public consciousness side of things, though, on a few blogs and fan fiction sites. Not too important right now. Not compared to... mana-related explosions. I assume danger like that is a requirement of research... in the Izzet, at least. I can't fault results or tradition, though I wish that dragon would have more safety features installed. I'd help, but I'm not very much of a mage, and even less of a high-energy physicist. I cna at least offer a... err... well." Another more sheepish smile. "I'm not that good of a cook, either. I do have MREs. I sincerely doubt a few rides in my breifcase imparted you with a love of long work hours... though maybe the smell of an office late at night could have done that. I really should do a bit of research on that. Rhapsody has more on site experiance than me, though, and I would trust her judgement on the issue... if I had to. A large mechanical dragon doesn't really need excessive amounts of back up from an old man with a rifle, no, does he? A bit of an offended look. "Though, I imagine that you're not trusting in my ability to barricade an open doorway. I'm quite good at it, you know; Remind me to tell you this story about when I was at a Kroger with a squad from the Conneticut National Guard, one of those small seaside towns- He pauses, before shaking his head. "Almost forgot the matter at hand." He says. Not going to be dissuaded tat easily from the story of the bandaged hands. He listens to her explination, at the finer control over magic. He cocks his head a bit. "I... see. So they need to be in your pockets to protect them from injury, then?" He says, non-chalantly... but directly.
Yunomi Stadler	Yunomi bites at the inside of her cheek a amoment, and looks down at her hands. "... this started after Chuck was killed." she states. "I'm... angry." she adds. She swallows a hard lump in her throat. "I'm angry that Niv-Mizzet let me fail. That he didn't tell me his plan. I'm angry that when I lost my Guardian powers. I'm angry that the people I love keep getting killed, or disappear into the aether. I'm angry that my own fears stopped me from progressing in the Izzet while Niv was around. I'm angry that I keep shutting myself away because my work is easier to deal with than my failures. I'm angry that I can't even hang aroudn with Sir Bedivere and try to ride a /horse/ without shoving these thoughts down inside... and..." tears well up in her eyes, and she stubburnly refuses to let them fall, instead she presses one bandaged palm against her eyes, rubbing vigerously, "... I'm angry that I can't trust anyone else to talk to about this, other than you... because I know you understand, Dad. And... you shouldn't have to shoulder two lifetimes of grief." Her breath quivers. And she brings her hands down, squeezing them into tight fists. "Chuck's gone, Niv-Mizzet's gone, I can't find my sensei, I haven't heard from Sakiaro, and.. and Kaeru-hime still isn't talking to me. I can't feel it anymore. And I don't want to open up to anyone else because... because...." she shakes, and she raises her hands to her eys again, rubbing "... I'll just... I don't want anyone else to get hurt."
Richard Stadler	Rick paused in the middle of coffee making, for a moment, before continuing. He keeps his hands busy as he listens to her, just for the sake of having something for them to do besides resting impotently on the counter. He listens to what words she has to say, and then calmly fills up a cup of coffee for himself, tasting it thoughtfully. "I know what you want, Yunomi. You're a protector; not wanting to see other people hurt is in your nature, and making sure of it... well, I don't think you have any trouble with that. One of your flaws, though, is that you protect everyone except yourself." He moves to take a seat down at the table, still holding the coffee. "I made mention that work for the sake of work you enjoy, was no problem, no matter what others feel. Work for the sake of distraction can be good as well... for a time. But eventually you've got to come to terms with what's keeping you there, to move forward. And it sounds like you're always, always running. "He takes another sip, but keeps looking into her eyes. "We fail. We all fail, Yunomi. Not one of these people we call ELites got where they are without something occuring that pushed them back. And this is not minor. Battles, worlds, countries... family." The last word has a pause, but Stadler says it unflinchingly. "And we can learn from those failures, we can let them define who we are, who we must be, and what we do, but one day, you have to stop running from them. Accept them. Know that you will work despite them because the well-lived, valiant life is the best way to atone. Fill the emptiness with resolution." "Maybe you feel you can't do that. Concerned about what your friends, your /good/ friends, will think of you for mentioning them. More likely, though, you're being the Protector. You don't want them to worry, to think everything is fine. They don't want that. They want you to /be/ fine, not just act like it. You think Rhapsody wouldn't jump at the chance to help? To give back some, just some, of what you've given her? You think you haven't earned with me so much of a credit to your account with the love you've let me feel that three lifetimes of grief would still leave you in the black? It pains me to not be able to fix your problems, yes. To not be able to find your father, sensei, and Kaeru for you, but I'd rather know you feel this way than not. And so would each. And. Every. one of your friends."
Yunomi Stadler	Yunomi notices the lack of flinch. She takes a deep breath, and rubs at her eyes again. The smudge at her chin has managed to climb up her cheek. Her eyes are red and iritated. She takes a deep breath, and just tries to let go of the pain. Just for a second. Ten seconds. Let it go and breathe it out. The tobacco smell that clung to the elder Stadler hovered around her. And she glanced down at her hands, and stretched her fingers, and then closed them tightly. She could feel the taut skin, healing still, moving beneath the bandages. She shifts her weight a moment on the counter, and then slides off. She reaches over, and grabs a mug from the cupboard, and pours herself any coffee that was left, and in almost perfect silence, she tiptoes to the table, and sits, across from her dad. Not the tanuki responsible for her being -- but the man responsible for her. One of the three humans she would unhesitatingly lay down her life for. And oh, did she know that it was the same in reverse. She settles with the black coffee in front of her, and she looks into the cup as if all of the mysteries in the Izzet and all of Ravnica and all of the Multiverse were contained within, and as he speaks, she rests her fingers on the edge of the glass. She didn't feel like crying anymore. She didn't want to cry anymore. Her shoulders rose up. The astral signature of her real ears flickered as they pinned back, and faded away in the half-instant, almost too quick to see. "... you know I left Frederick because I didn't want my powers outstripping my control and hurting you, don't you?" she asks quietly, and goes to sip that coffee.
Richard Stadler	Stadler continues his talk as he watches her move, sees her reactions. Keeps speaking as she takes a mug, fills it up with the brew (and given Stadler's tolerence for caffinee at this point, it's not exactly half caf). He looks at her with the hint of an approving smile, actually sitting across from him with coffee in hand. Yunomi might be able to see the pride in his eyes, the sense that, despite... no, because of her flaws no matter the failures, there was something good he contriibuted to in this world. He noticed the little flick of the ears, the rising shoulders, earning a firm nod, and he wanted, more than anything right now, to feed into that. "I knew. Or had an inkling at least. I certainly told myself is was because you primarily wanted to study somewhere that could make use of your talents, more so than a place with an ocean of secrets surrounding it. Something given your work I've seen, holds water. In the back of my mind, though, I could see a bit of it. I should have said something, then, brought it out. Control is good, Yunomi, and so is learning it. But never fear what you might do to me... Well, scratch that. I was going to say that I'm tougher than I look. But you know that, and I don't think that would change your mind..." A pause, before he tchs. "Well, worth a shot. Yunomi, I am much tougher than I look. Your powers could hurt me, but I will accept it if it means helping you."
Yunomi Stadler	Yunomi gives a small smile, closing her eyes. Coffee and tobacco. The Dad Smell. "I'm kinda glad you didn't. I thought I was hiding my worry pretty well. I mean, yeah, I wanted to study so badly where I didn't have to be careful, or create more work for you." she admits, and gives a small shrug, and then she gives a smart little smile. "Yes. Except now I fling lightning around and I /really/ don't want to be the cause of you bleeding out your eyeballs or being attacked by a suddenly animated sleeper sofa." Yunomi replies, blows across the top of the coffee, and takes a sip. And when the bitterness hits her, her eyes go wide. She swallows the altogether not-prepared-for hot liquid, and it gets stuck. She gurggles for a moment, pupils shrinking as she chokes, coughs, and grabs for the nearest handiest soft thing (be it her sweatshirt or a bunch of napkins), and ejects coffee through her nose! "Oh, oh!" and she releases a string of curses in Japanese too terrible to admit a young lady uttered. "That's /bitter/!"
Richard Stadler	"Oh, you were." Rick says. "But I am a good listener, when I need to be. And I did need to be, in this case. I would hope you wanted to study because it was exciting to learn, as well. That you did out of joy and note entirely after fear, or concern. I'm sure Rhapsod would agree with me. Work is always helped with you around, anyway, and I enjoy bearucratic challenges." A slight groan. "Oh, I mention that once, and people jump on it. DeClere does say that there's not permanent effects, just a lot of electricity at one single location. Not that she approves of the fighting in /general/, but. And you're acting if I don't have plans for killing an animated sleeper sofa; granted, I've never killed living furniture, but the thought of magically enhanced traps has- And then Yunomi starts coughing and gurgling, standing up quickly. "Yunomi! What's-" And then she's ejecting coffee out her nose, leaving him still /very/ concerned, but more confused... before she annouces the reason. He's looking at her for a few seconds, and then just /laughs/. Snickering, relieved, peels of laughter as he collapses back in the chair. "Oh... Oh God!" He says, taking a full 30 seconds to calm down. "I'm.. sorry, Yunomi, I have not idea what that's just... Ha!" A wide grin on his face, as he motions to the cabinit. "I keep cream and sugar, you know; don't use it myself, because I'm in it for the kick, but feel free! Once you're done, I have one of those.... online... coupon things for a crab shack. The one here or the one in Balitmore if you want to eat by the water. Not a /long/ drive." He says, downing the rest of his coffee before standing up. "Or we could fly. I do know a BATFE agent who owes me a favor- remember those Conneticut National Guardsman?"
Yunomi Stadler	Yunomi's laughing as well, coughing up the rest of the coffee into a bunch of napkins, wiping at her nose, and just... laughing. It felt good to hear him laugh. She goes to stand, still giggling. "Once I get cleaned up... ah man... maybe Snake had the right of it when he ordered me never to drink that stuff. So much of a sweet tooth." she laughs, and gets up to excuse herself to the bathroom to clean up. "I could go do the crab shack -- the one nearby's fine. It's a nice walk this time a year." she calls back, "Ugh. Baltimore. No desire to go there. It smells like unwashed gymsocks."
Richard Stadler	Stadler moves to the file by the door, grabbing the coupons he had stored there. "You know, beating aside, winning the WMAT would have been wonderful. No having to worry about coupons then. Thrill of the chase would have been gone. And there's nothing wrong with it in moderation." He says. Once Yunomi's out of the bathroom, he's got the door open. "Oh, it's not that bad. Just have to know the right places. The very... very few right places." He manages to get out with a straight face, as the Condo is exited for a pleasent walk with family in the slightly biting cold of early autum.
Yunomi Stadler	Yunomi steps out, stepping through the door and she pauses. "When you stop by Ravnica... you are either going to love Kush and Kresh's, or you will be scarred for life." Yunomi realizes outloud. "... oh, and by the by? Keeping up with tradition. The guild that hates mine uses zombies." She gives a grin. "Race you to the street. Readysetgo!" And Stadler's daughter books it down the hall. Sometimes, some things don't change.