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Julieta still has a little time before the test flight she’s scheduled for, and so she wanders around outside the hangar. Earth is kind of weird, but she doesn’t really mind being here. She watches as a butterfly flutters past, seeming to be completely carefree… despite not really caring for the taste the first time, that doesn’t really stop her from lunging at the insect, popping it into her mouth and swallowing it down.
As soon as the taste hits her tongue, she regrets it.
“Blech,” Julieta groans, sticking out her tongue. It’s a bit late for her to do anything about it, but the bug tastes so foul she wishes she could undo that little move. She heads back into the hangar, heading for one of the resting areas. She grabs a bottle of water, and starts chugging it down to try and get the taste out of her mouth. She’s glad they have plenty of bottled water around for the Gjallarhorn pilots stationed here, so they can rehydrate between flights.
They always tried to keep up that sort of supply, but it’s been especially necessary lately. Julieta remembers what kicked all of this off in the first place, with some of their pilots coming back half passed out from the heat, and some even succumbing to it while at the controls of their mobile suits. Since most of the pilots of the Arianrhod Fleet don’t have to worry about combat on Earth, the new environments weren’t exactly easy on the pilots.
Julieta hasn’t had to face that kind of issue yet, given her skills. But that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be something she might run into in the future. The current pilot suits they’ve been wearing are meant for space, so of course they don’t allow for much transfer of heat, and they sure don’t breathe any air in or out. That works fine if something happens and you have to eject from your mobile suit, you wouldn’t want to vacuum of space to suck all the air out of you, and you wouldn’t want to lose all your warmth, either.
But here on Earth? It more or less means you’re baking in your pilot suit, and there’s no way to get any sort of relief. That’s why they wanted to try and come up with a new design, one that’s more light weight and breathable, meant for missions on Earth. Julieta is the one testing it out today, and while it does feel kind of like a waste of her talents, she’s not going to go against anything Commander Rustal asks of her.
She has always wanted to strive to be his Blade, to be the one he can count on for anything and everything. While that usually means heading into combat, it’s not like she’s going to turn down something simpler, either. Even if it’s not as exciting as what she usually enjoys. It takes another bottle or two of water to have Julieta feeling like she even slightly got rid of that awful taste, and she feels as though she’s sloshing when she moves.
Her bladder begins to protest her decision, a pang of need hitting her, but that is just when she hears the buzzer for the flight preparations beginning. She shrugs, heading to the meeting point for now. It’s not as if she’s going to have to worry too much. Every pilot suit she’s ever worn has had a toilet pack in it, just for times like this. It’s not like MS pilots can spare the time to worry about the bathroom, and relieving yourself in the cockpit is just a part of combat.
Julieta knows if things get too bad, she can just use it and be done with it. She heads to meet up with Rustal and the others, reporting in for her test flight.
“Finally,” Iok says, crossing his arms when Julieta arrives.
“The buzzer only just went off,” Julieta counters, shrugging.
“You should have been a bit early,” Iok continues, with a bit of a smirk. She can tell that he’s not serious, and just wants to get under her skin.
“In that case, maybe I’ll go take another quick break,” Julieta teases back, turning to go.
“Julieta,” Rustal says, his slightly stern but far more serious voice cuts through their bickering. “You don’t have time for another break.”
Julieta pauses, and shrugs.
“Yeah, that’s okay,” she says. She hadn’t really thought about how quickly things would get worse, and she was more than willing to use Kujan’s irritating attitude to earn herself a chance to relieve herself. But if Rustal says there’s no time, there’s no time. She doesn’t need to worry about it, anyway. Again, she’ll be able to just use the toilet pack in the new suit, and there’s nothing to worry about!
“The new pilot suits are right here,” Iok says, gesturing to one of the preparation rooms next to her Reginlaze. “Go ahead and get changed so we can get started.”
Julieta knows there’s not much point in wasting time, and so she heads into the changing area and begins getting out of her uniform. She can feel her need growing greater and greater, as her slender body is bared to the open air. She hurriedly gets into the new pilot suit, but with a single glance down, she notices that there’s nothing in the crotch for the toilet pack. Suddenly, she’s quite a bit more worried.
Julieta slowly opens the door, sticking her head out to where Rustal and Kujan are waiting for her.
“Hey, uh,” Julieta starts, her face flushing a bit. “Does the new design not have a toilet pack?”
“Of course not,” Kujan says, shaking his head. “Why would there be? We’re trying to cut down on how much weight the new suits have, and optimizing for comfort.”
“Ah,” Julieta answers, squirming a bit behind the mostly closed door. “That’s fine! Uh, could I go and take a quick break, though?”
It’s not fine. It’s not even a little fine! She wouldn’t have blown off heading to the bathroom if she thought that she didn’t have to worry about it.
“Quit being so childish, you’re not some little kid. Do you really need a toilet pack? I thought you were supposed to be some kind of amazing pilot,” Iok says, taunting her about it. Julieta can feel her face flush that much darker, and she opens the door the rest of the way, glaring at him.
“I don’t need it! I was just surprised that it wasn’t here, okay?” Julieta says, digging herself deeper and deeper into this. Kujan shakes his head.
“Fine, just get in your Reginlaze already. We’ve got people waiting to see how the new suit handles Earth’s temperatures,” Iok says, and Julieta pushes past him. It’s a bit hard to hide just how badly she needs to pee, but she’s not going to let anyone see the strain in her movements. She climbs into the cockpit of her mobile suit, letting it close in around her, and finally breathes a sigh of relief.
She didn’t want to let on to how badly she needed to go, when she should have handled that beforehand. Now, she’s left alone in her mobile suit, about to launch without any chance to fix this. She’s not about to let herself lose control, not when she’s supposed to be testing out the new suit… but what else can she do?
She doesn’t know how she’s supposed to last long enough to tell if the newly designed pilot suit can actually handle the temperatures and environment of Earth without causing issues for the pilot. It’s not like this is going to be some quick flight, and she’s already struggling against her aching bladder!
“We’re looking for about an hour flight, okay?” Rustal’s voice comes over the communicator in the Reginlaze, and Julieta’s face is brought up on the monitor. Rustal can tell she seems a bit nervous, and offers some encouragement. “It’ll be fine. We don’t think you’re going to get overheated with the new design, so go ahead and push the suit as much as you can. We want this to be as close to real combat as we can get.”
“Yes, sir!” Julieta answers, doing her best to keep the strain on her body from showing on her face, or being heard in her tone. Once the communication cuts off, she sighs again, squirming in her cockpit. The lights begin counting down, and she hears the go ahead to launch. “Julieta Juris, Reginlaze, launching!”
And with that, she’s off. The catapult launches her mobile suit, and she can feel the lurching G force of the sudden movement. It slams her back against her seat, the clamps mostly holding her in place despite the somewhat more streamlined design of the new pilot suit. With her hands on t he controls, Julieta finally feels as though she’s in her element. Things might be a bit rough, it’s going to be hard to hold out for the entirety of this test flight, but she’s at least behind the controls of a mobile suit.
She feels most comfortable here, in a place where she knows she’s talented, in a place where she can show her skills. While there aren’t any enemies for her to face off against, that doesn’t stop Julieta from pretending. She begins going through various maneuvers, still adjusting a bit to the differences in piloting with Earth’s gravity effecting her.
It’s a big difference, but this is a good chance for her to practice. It doesn’t take her all that long to adjust to it, even if the differences can be damning for some veteran pilots. Julieta is simply that skilled, and there’s no way she’s going to let something as simple as her mobile suit suddenly having to worry about weight change things up for her. Her hands are a bit shaky at the controls, and she keeps moving her legs together as much as she can while keeping her feet on the pedals.
She doesn’t want to let on to just how bad this is getting, doesn’t want to let that show up in her piloting, but it’s hard to keep her movements from being just a bit sloppy. It’s hard enough to focus when she’s got her bladder constantly crying out for relief, but it’s made that much worse by the way the new suit feels against her skin. Usually, a pilot suit is warm, often oppressively so, and there’s a comforting weight to knowing that you don’t need to worry about something as simple as trying to hold in your piss while you’re piloting.
But this? This is hell. Julieta knows that she can’t keep this up forever, and she doesn’t have any way out of it. With both Rustal and Kujan, and countless others watching the test to see how the suit holds up, Julieta can’t let herself lose control. She can’t. But that doesn’t really change the facts of the situation. With all the water she chugged down right before the test, things are just getting worse and worse for her.
She can’t keep still, can’t think straight, and her hands are starting to shake more and more. Given how cramped her cockpit is, Julieta can’t exactly cross her legs to try and counter that growing pressure, either. She is doing her best, but she knows it’s only a matter of time.
“How’s it going, Juris?” Iok cuts across the communication lines. “You seem like you’re struggling a bit.”
“Shut up,” Julieta hisses through grit teeth. “Just let me focus.”
“You did have to go, didn’t you?” Iok presses further, and Julieta frantically shakes her head.
“No, I didn’t!” she claims, while another line opens up.
“Juris. Kujan. Cut the chatter,” Rustal says, cutting them both off. “This is just a test, but we should still keep the comms down to a minimum.”
“Yes, sir!” Both Julieta and Iok answer, and they all cut off their lines, leaving Julieta in silence once more. She can hear the humming of the mobile suit’s reactor, she can feel the cooler air all around her, and she can feel her stupid aching bladder, crying out for relief!
She doesn’t think she can hold out much longer, but the test flight is still ongoing. By now, she’s made it through maybe three fourths of the hour they asked of her. She can’t keep herself from trembling, and her hands can hardly keep still as she struggles with all she’s got to keep from pissing herself. She can’t do it. She knows she can’t do it. But is she supposed to just let go!? Even if it’s impossible, the idea of so many people knowing that she wet herself out on a test flight is mortifying.
Not only will Kujan know, and all the technicians and soldiers who happen to be in the hangar, even Rustal will see. Julieta doesn’t want to face them all, not if she’s going to disgrace herself like that. But… what else can she do? A soft whimper slips past her lips, something she can’t keep from escaping. The communications open back up at the sound of her voice, and the strain on her face is obvious.
“You really did have to go, huh?” Iok teases, smirking at Julieta. She shrieks, slamming a hand down against the side of her cockpit.
“Damn you, Iok!” she cries out, cursing him, just as she loses control. She can see the other’s faces on the monitors, watching, and she knows that she can’t hide what’s going on. She’s wetting herself. She can feel it, rushing out of her, rushing down her legs, getting into the new flight suit and soaking through the more breathable fabric all too easily.
She can feel it pooling down in her boots, what doesn’t seep into the seat, that is. She whimpers, biting her lip and feeling her face flush. She’s humiliated, so ashamed of herself that she would be pushed to this point where others can see! And yet, the intense relief she feels is palpable. She can’t deny the rush of endorphins that the relief allows her, even when Iok’s laughter comes across the comms.
“What’s the issue, Juris?” Iok asks, while Julieta tries her best to keep her composure.
“Shut up!” she protests, while the clear sound of liquid splashing comes across the radio, the faint trickling sound more than audible to all the surrounding soldiers and technicians. Rustal cuts off the feed, not saying a word on the subject. Kujan finds it hard to keep from chuckling, guessing at what’s going on far too easily.
When the flight is finally over, and Julieta lands back in the hangar, she refuses to open up the cockpit. While some of those present have finally guessed at what happened, even without the added insight that Iok has from their final exchanges before her launch, there are more who have not figured things out.
“Come on, Juris, just open up the cockpit. We have to see how that suit held up,” Iok taunts her once again, while Julieta protests fiercely.
“I’m not ever coming out!” she claims, while more and more questions file in around her. All of those outside want to know what’s going on, but finally, Julieta murmurs. “The seat is wet…”
That’s enough to have Rustal a bit worried. He moves in closer, forcing the door open, relying on Kujan to add some extra weight to their movements. The cockpit doors finally slide open, and it’s obvious that Julieta pissed herself. Rustal seems fully shocked, while Iok was more or less aware of the situation from the start. She had asked to head back out to relieve herself, after all.
“Well, well, look at that. It would seem the oh so gifted pilot Julieta Juris couldn’t hold her bladder,” Iok announces, laughing. Some of the other pilots and technicians join in his laughter, while Julieta goes steaming red in the face.
“Shut up! It’s not my fault! There’s… no toilet pack, okay?” she claims, while Rustal moves in a bit closer. He offers her his hand, helping to pull her out of the cockpit.
“You couldn’t have expected that,” he says, offering her some support.
“Doesn’t mean she shouldn’t have been more careful from the start,” Iok teases, and Rustal shoots him a warning look. Julieta glares at him, but there’s not much left that she can say about it. The mechanics that were working so hard to force the cockpit open in the first place were shocked to see the girl coming out in her soaked flight suit, and the technicians present for the test jot down some notes about putting the toilet packs back in, just in case.
~X~
“You know, the early versions of the Earth Type pilot suit didn’t have toilet packs,” one Gjallarhorn pilot says to another, as the pair begin suiting up for a sortie on Earth.
“Oh, yeah? I think I heard something about that,” the other answers, while the first can’t help but chuckle.
“Did you hear any specifics, though?”
“No, not really. Just that the early testing went well besides that,” the second responds.
“You know Juris, right? That supposedly fantastic pilot?” the first starts, leading the second to nod in answer.
“Yeah, she’s some kind of hot shot prodigy, right? A real monster at the controls.”
“Well, she’s the one who tested them. Apparently she couldn’t even go an hour without pissing herself mid flight, so they put the toilet packs back in,” the first explains, laughing raucously. “It’s just a rumor, but I heard Kujan mentioning it so someone, so it’s probably pretty accurate.”
“She couldn’t even go an hour? And she’s supposed to be this great?” the second one laughs, shaking his head. “Wow, well, I guess you can’t be completely perfect, huh? Someone should tell her to work on her endurance.”