Bad ideas from good sources

[herodrawing]

[Psychologists on location? Good! Izuru visited a counselor a day or two ago, just once, to see how it's like. What results did the visit bring?]

[It's early morning and someone is knocking to your door. It's the Team Rabbits leader, ready to barge into the room - if you let him.]

Hey! I know it's sudden, but would you like to participate in a team-building exercise?

It will be fun, I promise!

Comments

[ugyuuya]

[Returning to his room from some personal PT Yuuya notes the excitable young pilot at his door. As Izuru spots the older pilot and launches into his sales pitch, Yuuya notes the rest of the Argos Flight poking their heads out of their nearby rooms at the commotion.]

Alright Izuru what did you have planned and I'll consider it but UG operations have made our schedule a bit more crowded with new development plans.

[herodrawing]

Well, you see mr Bridges - there are all kinds of diffrent cockpits, right? For example your TSF works a lot different than a mobile suit.

We need to study how each one works, so we can save each other in an emergency!

[ugyuuya]

[Yuuya pauses for a moment in thought before looking back at the nervous teen.]

And you say this idea came to you while you were seeing one of the counselors? It's actually a pretty good one given the current attrition rate of certain units.

TSFs actually eject the entire cockpit out the back as part of their emergency evacuation process and the interior can be used as a powered exoskeleton so it's probably a good idea for us to be properly briefed on those procedures. Get a time for us and I'll take it up to our command to adjust the timing of any tests, it's a good initiative you've got there kid.

[herodrawing]

He he, thank you! I knew we could learn a lot together.

[It feels good to be praised for once.]

... Wait a second, TSFs have exoskeletons inside? That's awesome!

[ugyuuya]

Yeah, they're sadly not worth much in engagements vs. BETA but it's better than nothing if you have to fully bail from your unit. We're working on a helmet for the pilot suit now to make space missions much less hazardous for us. The cockpit is fully environmentally sealed but if it is compromised we want something that will keep us breathing. Thankfully the suit was originally tied to a space development program so that's solid enough to handle vacuum.

[herodrawing]

You don't have a helmet?

[Izuru connects the dots.]

Wait, those weird outfits you're always wearing are your pilot suits?!

[ugyuuya]

You thought that we just all wore them for fun? A TSF is capable of extreme bursts of speed and maneuverability which can have a negative impact on the pilot even with the unit's safeties engaged. The TSF suit bolts into the unit to help protect the pilot from those or being thrown around the cockpit in addition to serving as a protective suit for shrapnel and the like and having several medical/life support functions built in.

As I stated the original suits were for a space development plan so we already have old style helmets designed for some of the first generation suits which we can refit for modern suits. The Zero-G training is going to be the hard part though.

[herodrawing]

Ohh... They really sound useful, don't they? Every suit is different it seems, I have to remember about that too.

Even if.

[Izuru briefly gestures around his chest level.]

No, nevermind that last part!

[ugyuuya]

Yeah I'll give that the TSF suit is pretty form fitting compared to most other piloting suits but it's by design. At least the combat suits are opaque, the training suits are translucent/transparent depending on the body region so instructors are able to visually identify pilot injuries without having to refer to suit monitors. It also quickly removes the embarrassment reflex, even VG the womanizer that he is won't flirt with women in a TSF suit. It's a mental state that's just trained into us.

1/2

[herodrawing]

Is... that so...

Translucent training suits.

2/2

[herodrawing]

I want to see that! Do you have any lying around?

[ugyuuya]

[Yuuya gives Izuru an unusual look and shakes his head slowly.]

No we don't have any of those on hand Izuru. We're all established pilots and so we only have the opaque variety of suits. I guess we could requisition several if we needed to for cross-training other pilots but even then I'm not so sure we'd want to bring in the translucent suits because I think a few of the female pilots may just riot if we tried to make them wear them.

[herodrawing]

I didn't want to make anyone wear them, I just wanted to see how they look like...

So. Umm.

[Awkward intensifies.]

I need to ask others yet so I'll see you on the exercise, lt Bridges. Okay?

[ugyuuya]

It's pretty simple to imagine what they look like, the black solid parts are white instead and instead of the opaque blue/purple it's the translucent material so it's more flesh tone instead.

I'll see you for the exercise Izuru but don't feel too bad about it I just had to pause for a moment and imagine what someone like Kei or Kanae would have to say about those suits and it was not a good place. At least it was a little better than suggesting the translucent suits to Raquel...