#passionsafire

A wild Maria appears! "My, I didn't realize this had come around again so quickly...! Happy birthday, I hope it's one to remember!"

To say this is like a dream come true for Elphelt would be an understatement. How could she not be any more excited? The embodiment of rock & roll... in the flesh!

"Yes! I've been to almost every single one ever since I found out about you guys, your music really comes from the heart⸺I can tell! Whenever I hear you and Mylene sing... it's like I can feel it! Totsugeki Love Heart has to be my number one song!"

Jumping from one foot to the other, she seems like a child who just met their hero for the first time.

"Oho! To think I'd come face-to-face with one of you out here, Gundam!" the pilot says, addressing the youth's mobile suit over a secure frequency. "I've never seen your model before. What kind of destiny must have been spun together for us to cross paths, hm?"

The sudden incoming voice confused her, Suletta unsure on who this person was, let alone what they wanted. Were they a foe? That's what she assumed, holding onto the controls with steady fingers.

He clearly knew that she was inside a Gundam, already letting her know that she should be wary.

Taking a glance back at the sea of blueprints on her desk, Melissa has to bite back the urge to sigh, otherwise, she risks being dragged out of the lonely hangar. For anyone who actually knows her, they might've already realized that her honest intentions are to go back to it as soon as he turns his back on her.

"Some of the units have been underperforming," it isn't the units themselves, of course—rather, the dissonance between machines so great that some simply lag behind. Some pilots can acccept it when there's a clear hierarchy set, such as when militaristic ranks are enforced.

Others, however, seem vocally discontent. "We can't give everyone a new machine, so, we're trying to give a couple grunt units a boost to make up for it."

It's a bottle of lemonade.

"You look like you're about to pass out over here, sweating like that. Take this, it's cold."

Prone to overworking—well, it's not like she means to do so, it just happens! She's looking somewhat pale right next to her worktable, blueprints scattered all over it and then some…

It isn't until Basara comes along (startling her in the process, which isn't a big accomplishment in itself), that Melissa finally looks up.