Chapter Text
December 12th, AC 432, Magadan
Sometimes Robin Kuo refers to herself as “Prez,” not.. her.
It sounds more terrifying than it seems, to forget your own name and to become a moniker. Kaiser would love for that to happen to him, and Robin gets the sense that Monarch doesn’t seem to care if it were to happen to himself.
Though, for all the years knowing him she still doesn’t really know what makes that guy tick. She’s tried to strike up a conversation, but he really only has one word answers. Comic says he does that to everyone, which Prez knows is true. He was especially closed off when she was in the hospital. He just locked up and looked away when she brought up Presidia. She doesn’t know if all that stuff Crimson One said to him really sunk in, or he just ignored it and ripped the peacekeeper to shreds. He didn’t say what he told him, and since Robin was passed out the whole time she’ll just never find out. He just said he was glad she was okay, which was okay with her. But she can’t help but be a little curious.
So for Monarch, Prez has no idea what he’d think about losing his name.
To Comic and Diplomat, (Peter? Robin can’t really remember. He’s not really a fan of his name.) their monikers are just shields to hide. Diplomat, whose name is definitely Peter, wants to hide from his name. Comic just wants to hide from the consequences. Names mean nothing to them, so losing them or changing them is just a fact of life.
Galaxy? Robin thinks Galaxy prefers the name because he loves to DJ with it. It’s a sweet name, if you care at all about disk jockeys. She would like to think he knows how to keep his name separate, he seems like he has a healthy work-life balance. Unlike Prez, he knows how to live a double life. He wouldn’t let himself forget either name.
But for Prez- Robin, she’s torn. She’s not afraid of forgetting her own name, at least that’s what she thinks, but here she is; running away from that very possibility.
She spent two months in a hospital bed after Presidia. That whole ceasefire business went out the window really fast, the Federation got terms imposed on it by the other world powers. Rather than getting to negotiate with Cascadia, the Pacific Federation ended up receiving an unconditional treaty to sign, or else face escalation from the Kerneuropans and West Africans. It was a hard and bitter pill to swallow, but it’s not like the Federation would collapse over it. It’s just going under some.. contractions.
If the Federation were to actually collapse, Robin would probably have a panic attack, considering her entire family lives in the core.
Robin looks outside the bus window, which she has to wipe the frost off the glass to see through. Magadan winters are infamously cold, and it seems this year’s is going to be a harsh one. The town she’s in looks as if it got hit by an avalanche. She vaguely remembers watching an infomercial about how before the calamity, Magadan snow was better, but now they need copious amounts of energy just not to freeze to death. Federation buildings are all grey and depressing, or so everyone says, and the snow really only adds to this effect. The only color comes from all of the advertisements and neon signs that people put up.
The bus stops just in time, right before Robin thinks she’s going to go numb with boredom. She grabs her luggage and awkwardly nudges her way through the people in the bus aisle. She almost forgets to swipe out with her bus card, and she almost trips on her own shoes going down the steps, but eventually she makes it to her stop without having to end up in a hospital bed again.
She’s running. Well, okay, in this instance, she’s dragging her luggage through thick snow, so she’s technically trudging, but Robin Kuo, Prez, is running - running away.
She only became a mercenary because she wanted to support her family. Instead of getting an education and getting a stable job like a normal person would, she gambled it all on the lives of running guns. She doesn’t remember how she went from mechanic hobbyist to PMC crewgirl to Weapon Systems Operator, but now she’s in possession of more money than she could ever know what to do with. Her former(?) boss has more power than he could ever know what to do with, and so naturally, she’s running away from it all.
Robin can’t just go back home. She knows they’d take her in with open arms. But something nags at her, something doesn’t want to see them, to look them in the eyes. Prez doesn’t like to think of what she’s done to have the money she has, but thanks to that deal they signed, she has all the money she can launder, and all the rent she could pay. They’re all set for life, even if they don’t really know it, and even if she doesn’t want to tell them how or why.
Magadan is a core state, it’s close to Daegu, where her family lives. It’s also close to Cascadia, where Sicario is now staying. She’s so close, and yet so far.
Robin looks up at the apartment complex ahead of her. Already, the sun has set, even though it is only about 4:00. Every footstep she makes happens before she even realises. Since she left that hospital bed, Prez hasn’t felt like herself. She feels possessed in a way. She quietly enters her new home, though she has to find the instructions she wrote down in her bag first.
Keypad, door, elevator, room 304.
Her roommate has the second key apparently, so she has to knock and hope they’re home.
It’s really only until Robin’s hand is hovering over the door, over Room 304 that she even registers that she has a roommate - that they would be a living, breathing person, who could perceive her. Who would have their own life and their own thoughts and feelings, and that..
It quickly clicks in Robin’s head as to why rent was so low compared to the other rates. She just doesn’t think at all it seems. But it’s too late for regrets, a statement that probably summarises Prez’s life then and there.
It’s a hurdle just to knock. She has no idea why she’s so nervous, especially in hindsight when the door finally ppens.
“..What.”
Robin blinks, and it takes a second for her to adjust and look downwards and the source of the disgruntled voice. Standing in the doorway, staring at her scornfully through round glasses and past long, messy black hair, is a woman who looks like she could be found underneath a dusty carpet, or maybe underneath a mountain of boxes in a lonely attic. She adjusts her sleeves so that her wrinkled shirt appears even.
“ What?! ” She repeats, angrier than before. Her blue eyes are like arctic glaciers, staring at her with such malice that they wish to just hack her to death.
“Oh- I uh,” Robin stammers, genuinely caught off guard, “I’m your, uh.. Your roommate!- Your other renter,- uh..”
The woman just frowns deeper at what Robin is saying to her, which really only makes Robin more nervous. Did she get the wrong room? Or is this really who she’s living with?
“Didn’t you get a letter saying I’d be coming here?” Robin asks with an awkward smile to land the quiet accusation that this perfectly lovely lady forgot she was in a room for two. The bespectacled woman looks away from Robin and seems to tighten up. Her lips purse and she appears to hold a cringe before sighing loudly and longly, rolling her eyes.
“Yes…” she admits.
Robin almost apologises for the inconvenience she seems to be dealing towards this young lady, but before the words leave her lips she quickly remembers that she’s done nothing wrong!
“Then can I come in..?” Robin asks with a polite smile.
“...Yes..” The other woman says, though it clearly loathes her to even say it. She steps aside, and Robin drags her luggage into the apartment. She remembers seeing the pictures online, it had pretty decent space and a pretty good kitchen, but arriving in person, she didn’t exactly expect for her roomie to..
“Why are there so many boxes and DVDs?” Robin asks, trying her best to navigate through the living room to the small hallway. The only really clear spot is the couch, everywhere else is a minefield of books, dvd cases, and full cardboard boxes.
“I got kicked out of my last place,” her roomie says cooly with a shrug, “you know. The economy.”
“R-right.” Robin says, almost tripping over some horror movies and definitely knocking over some video games with her rolling luggage that she awkwardly tries to lift. She tries to maintain eye contact and move at the same time, and really all this accomplishes is making her not look where she’s going and catch her roomie’s eye just in time to see her give her an absolutely scornful look for making a mess of her mess.
"Yeah, I’m from Cascadia, and the economy isn’t so good there either.” Robin says, which in her defense, is the truth. It’s why it sounds so truthful. She just neglects to say that she’s probably made up the GDP of some periphrary state now. What sucks about hiding your money is you can’t dump it all on reckless and gaudy lifestyle choices.
“Cascadia, huh?” Robin’s roomie says, sounding a little more interested now, but still not interested enough to help Robin get her luggage past a tight space between two towers of boxes. “Citizen?”
“No.” Prez answers.
“Good, because I’d have some choice words to say about your government.” Robin’s roomie says, which should sound like a joke but she doesn’t say it like one.
Robin finally gets her luggage through the box alley, and she finally has some room to breathe. Her roomie quickly catches up with her, Robin can’t tell if she’s being welcoming or her roomie’s trying to blow her up with her mind and that’s why she’s following her and looking at her so intently.
“Where’s my room?” Robin asks with another polite smile. Her roomie doesn’t return it. She just walks past her and walks to the end of the hallway. She points to the door on the left. When Robin moves to walk to it, her roomie stops her by the chest.
“That’s my room, buddy.” She says, no affection in the name. “You’re across me. We share a bathroom too, so try not to make a mess or use my toothbrush or whatever.”
“Uh.. Okay?” Robin responds. She’s trying to stay polite and patient, but her roommate does know what contract she signed, right? She’s being a real dick to someone who pays half of the rent. “Good to know?”
“Yeah. Whatever.” Her roomie says, letting go of her and dropping her hands to her side. Robin catches her looking her down like a cop at a security checkpoint, but before she could point it out, her roomie opens her own room door. Prez can catch just a small glimpse inside, the lights aren’t on, instead the room is illuminated by a blue light, probably her roomie’s computer screen(s). It looks like just as much of a mess there done it does in the living space. Her roomie scoffs and is inside her own room in seconds, and she swings the door behind her with a not so subtle “SLAM!”
“Wait!” Prez says quickly, her mouth moves before she thinks.
There’s a quiet, letting Robin’s words ring uselessly in the apartment. She feels a little embarassed for raising her voice even. The door remains shut to her, but Robin doesn’t move. She just lingers outside, pathetically? Is it pathetic to want to talk to a person you’ll have to live with? Prez doesn’t really get to answer that question, because the door opens after much delay. Her roomie pokes her head out, a tired glare pointed at her. It’s only here that Robin really notices that she has rings around her eyes.
“What.” She says, just like she did when she greeted her the first time.
“My name’s Robin Kuo.” Prez says, almost reaching out her hand for a shake but deciding not to, figuring her roomie’s not one for contact. (Except when she touched her chest just now.)
Her roomie meets Robin’s eyes, and for a moment that hostility falters. She looks her roommate up and down again, letting Robin stir in the silence. Robin doesn’t move or react.
“Naren Fujiro. But just call me Eye-Tee.”
“Eye-Tee?” Robin repeats, “Why would I-”
Eye-Tee shuts the door on her before she can finish her sentence.
Robin sighs and rolls her eyes. Eye-Tee? Like the job, IT? That kind of explains it. They all put on this kind of aloof, need nobody act from what she can tell. Sicario’s IT guy was fucking annoying like this, and apparently according to Comic, a total pervert secretly. Though she doesn’t really trust Comic on gossip that much. Robin turns around and opens the door to her own room. To her (shameful) non-surprise, it’s also a mess. It seems her roomie, Naren, though Robin would just call her Eye-Tee if that’s what she prefers, dumped more of her garbage onto her room. The bed has no bedsheets, or even mattress covers or pillows for that matter, and turning on the room light only reveals the total cave the room has become. Prez feels just tired looking at it. Actually, she’s felt tired for a while. It’s probably the jet lag.
Even though it’s barely 5:00, Robin just pushes her own luggage inside the room and shuts the door. She can do her chores later. She just takes off her coat and winter hat, and winter boots (which only after taking off did Prez realise she forgot to leave at the door like a polite person would). She makes what space she can, and collapses face first on the bed.
The light’s still on, so if she wants to fall asleep she has to get up or waste the power bill. Just another reckless Robin Kuo decision she supposes. Rolling over, the back of her head touches a leathery strip. Picking it up, she seems to be holding a book. It’s dark blue, and it’s about the size of a passport. That’s not very interesting though, what’s really interesting is that in golden text reads..
“PACIFIC FEDERATION FLIGHT RESERVIST JOURNAL”
Prez blinks for a moment, and an uneasy feeling seems to hang over her.
..Before she just throws it away and falls asleep without a second thought.