2022-02-07: Come Crashing In, Into My Little World
- Log: 2022-02-07- Come Crashing In, Into My Little World
- Cast: Shelby Korts, Akane Shinjo
- Where: Tsutsujidai Streets
- OOC - IC Date: 0096-02-07
- Summary: Shelby Korts enjoys a mildly unsettling dream.
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
Do you hear it?
Silence.
Only the distant sounds of nature echo in the ears; the stillness of the air and the feel of natural air and humidity. There's no faint smell of engineering and construction in the distance, no clustered streets of buildings stacked on top of each other. There's a weight there in her gut that wasn't before, as her legs feel pressure that they haven't in years.
Slowly, her eyes trail upwards. The city doesn't curl on itself. The world doesn't roll over her head. There's no horizontal pillar running from end to end, no massive wall separating sections of the Open and Closed areas of Sweetwater Colony.
Shelby Korts is on Earth. She just has no idea how she got here.
Crushing. Oppressive. Silence.
The street would feel like any other if it weren't for the sheer amount of people around her; a bustling city of people moving to and from their daily lives in the middle of a sunny afternoon, but there's something Off. There's something Odd. Shelby can sense it immediately, because, it's that -- it's
S i l e n t.
Colossal forms lost in the misty horizon, nestled among buildings and streets in a way that makes them look like they're just part of the scenery. Houses, apartments, convienence stores and thrift stores selling junk. A school, in the near distance.
She just stands there: Confused, terrified, on a street corner, staring at a crossing light flashing red warnings, while cars roll by and the city keeps moving. For anyone else, it would be just another day. For Shelby -- a survivor of war and trauma and betrayal -- her eyes lull back and forth while for the first time(?) in her life(?) for years(?), the only things she can hear are, ultimately ... herself. Her breathing, struggling to keep it deep and measured; her pulse thumping like a drumbeat.
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
A school, in the near distance.
Tsutsujidai is still a pretty sleepy city. It's not perfectly, fully sleepy, the way it was a few months ago, but the oppressive silence remains. It's... it's a weird day. It's also a Monday -- which means school is in session. Or, more accurately, school has just gotten out of session. Shelby can see students walking home, making their way through the city streets. There are blips, here and there, among the silence -- a pair of girls, one of them in a loud jacket and another much more subdued in her affect, manage to skitter through the noise like a marble falling off a shelf in a still house. They move just a bit faster, talk just a bit more intimately. It's normal talk, nothing magical or wondrous -- they're discussing a recent trip to Fumo-Fumo Land, and how long it took to get served at the dessert truck there.
"At least they kept the ice cream cold, right?" "... Yeah. It wasn't bad, Ramo, I was just disappointed they were sold out of the fruit bars."
They're there and gone, though. Besides -- there's a much louder, more -- present, presence, breaking off from the pair to cross the street toward Shelby.
Akane Shinjo, to the awakened, in a place like this, is blazing as the evening summer sun. She might be a little 'loud,' in that way, even in a normal setting. In Tsutsujidai, though, she comes off like a scream in comparison.
But all she's doing is walking through the world, sipping at a box of tomato juice...
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
A school. She's seen them from afar, but never really been in one(?). Students crossing the streets, chatter and voices-- all things you *should* hear, but none of the things *she* should hear. Shelby shifts her hand up to her chest to clutch at it, not quite sure what she should think, or say, or if she should just start to scream so that she can wake up from this dream or nightmare or--
-- scream.
Shelby Korts can hear too much. She can sense, too much, and too frequently, in a way that can never be turned off. The presence of one among the three is enough to draw her blue-eyed stare immediately.
Shelby's attire is as comfortable as ever, from her usual hoodie and leggings with a gradient tone, and a t-shirt branded with colony concert dates from within the last couple of years. She looks -- she feels -- like she should be a normal part of any city, but she too is like a loud, droning noise in a place like Tsutsujidai to anyone Awakened.
Her attention shifts from the two girls talking about their day before she zeroes in on the third with the box of juice. The third, broken off from the pair to walk toward her. The third, crossing the street the moment the light turns green.
The sight of the kaiju silhouettes on the near horizon finally seem to sink in. What the hell is this?
She waits for the third girl to be Just Close Enough. There's no mistaking who she's talking to. "... I'm ... I'm not supposed to be here."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
For a split second, Akane finds herself *very* disoriented. It's not like looking into a mirror, not fully -- but this is the second time a strange, pink-haired person broadcasting more than she expects has come into her space. She has to consider, then, for a moment: play dumb, or play it straight?
Playing it straight would almost certainly mean another person nosing around. But she can already tell that this one is weird. There's something about her that gnaws at her perception.
This close, the pink-haired girl's aura, the... sensation, that is 'interacting with her,' is a lot clearer. She's not a Newtype -- not exactly. It's hard to say what, exactly, she... *is*. "Are you another weird traveler? They seem to pop in every day lately," she says, assessing Shelby.
It's... confusing. Akane feels loud, and whole, and real -- unlike all the slow-moving cardboard surrounding her. She sips at her tomato juice. Her red eyes meet those distinctly human blues. But it's like whatever feelings are there are just -- in a foreign language. The suggestion of shape and tone and 'speech' is there -- but it's not... the same.
She decides to play it stupid. It's better to churn some disinformation into the system -- maybe if they get the wrong idea, they'll leave. "... are you from the same place as the last one? Where the PLANTs are at war with the Earth?" She at least *sounds* curious.
The garbled feeling rolling off Akane scans like threat, in some direction or another. But it's hard to tell if she thinks Shelby's going to bite her -- or if she's trying to broadcast that *she's* about to snap her jaws at her.
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
Nominally, she would be evaluating her exits right now. She'd have a way to run to safety, a phone to call out, or a way to get in touch with the others, but she doesn't -- no safety net, no friends, no real way out of here. Shelby's presence reads a mix of things: Scared, confused, alone, unsure.
The closer Akane stands, the more that Shelby seems to recenter herself. There's noise now. There's something ... familiar. Strange? Different. The Newtype's brow creases. "Every day? I'm ... not the first?"
"Wait--"
And then the next question comes before she can fully put her own thoughts together. Shelby's head slants slightly. "Yes. ... Sort of. I'm not from the PLANTs, but I live in space?" The pink-haired girl's head turns to look away, like she's still trying to figure things out. "Then, this isn't a dream. Why is--"
Head lowering, her skull feels a familiar throbbing sensation the longer she stands next to Akane. It's strange that pain is a welcome relief, she thinks to herself. "Sorry. This... *is* Earth, right? But ..."
Shelby's eyes drift one more time to the kaiju on the horizon. "I ... sorry. Where am I? Do you see those...?"
As quickly as one thought moves to another-- as she looks the juice-drinking student square in the face and tries to assess the potential(?) threat(?) of a totally normal(?) student(?), she quickly thrusts out her open hand because that's how you're supposed to greet new people. "Er. Sorry. I'm Shelby."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane struggles to read in the same way she presents that prompt to others. (Well, okay, that's not entirely true. Akane Shinjo speaks rejection in every language of the heart. Most of the other ones are hard, though!)
"Huh? Yeah, this is the Tsutsujidai Ward of Nouvelle Tokyo. Everyone else seems to expect something else, though?" Akane cants her head slightly to one side, and summarizes, "So I guess you're not the first person to have *that* experience."
The hand gets thrust out -- and Akane takes a step back. She looks a little startled; after a second, she puts a hand over her heart, with a slightly nervous-sounding, "Aha... Akane. I don't really do handshakes..." Why does everyone want to shake her damn hand?
Staying light on her feet after that half-step back, Akane sips at her tomato juice. She doesn't take her lips off the straw as she replies, "Okay, I guess you're from... outside this reality? I guess I can give you the basics."
Telling people this -- approaching them in this way -- gives her at least a modicum of control back. It's something. "I can see the kaiju... people from wherever you're from can too! There's a couple kids at my school who can, too. No one else does. You might freak people out if you bring it up. ... they just stand still, though." She starts to walk, and she seems to expect Shelby to walk with her as she explains. "From what I've been able to piece together lately, our usual round of visitors is coming from... outside reality, I guess? I don't think the first one was from your world. But a lot of them have been."
The feeling of threat subsides. Akane is still the brightest presence by a mile -- but at least now she's managed to level off to a more neutral stance. (Neutral, in any language of the heart, remains neutral.)
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
Tsutsujidai. Shelby stares down at her hand for a moment, holding it out for an uncomfortable length of time. Then, she looks down, even after Akane expresses her distaste for the gesture, and stares at her hand longer before lowering it to her side. This pink-haired young woman is a little strange(?). At closer glance, it looks like the Newtype doesn't sleep much. Maybe that's part of it.
And then she starts to walk, even as she starts to explain things.
"This ... reality?"
And the explanation leaves her... a little more than confused. The giant monsters-- the kaiju-- and the note that she shouldn't draw too much attention to them leads her to looking over her shoulder and back at them one more time before snapping attention straight forward.
The pressure in her temple; the reminder that there is still something, some*one* in this place that feels even remotely normal to her, leads to Shelby's guard lowering even just the slightest. But she looks utterly, horrifically confused. Another world? Another reality? Is this like another whole *universe*? Pushing her glasses back up her nose, her eyes close as she tries to piece things together. "This doesn't make sense. I-- I have to be dreaming. Is another reality even like, a real thing? I thought that was like TV. I can't -- it. Wait."
"Then, how come you know? Like. Are you stuck here, too?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"It sounds crazy, right?" Akane offers, rubbing at the back of her head. "But I guess it's how things are." It's just how things are. Another knife driven up through the floor of her little world. Another little concession to not having her perfect space.
Another reminder that she needs to crush a Vessel of Light. It might shut it up... and even if it doesn't, maybe smearing such a being across the wall of the world would tell everyone to *stop coming in.* In the meantime, though, she can at least do her best to make it a pain in the ass for outsiders to investigate.
"Huh? No, this is my world... a few people in my class only started noticing the kaiju like a month ago! I don't know what causes it..." These sentences are all, of course, true for a given value. Akane remains a little cautious -- there's certainly a significant amount of... static, to her feelings, still.
Sip. Sip. Sssssluuuurrrrpp.
Akane thinks she's fed Shelby enough information to start drawing some wrong conclusions. So she decides not to say anything. She just watches.
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
Shelby can't turn it off. Her mind-- her powers-- running full tilt, all the time. All the damn time. Her brow scrunches, trying to get a better read of Akane with each passing moment, but it's so difficult. It's noise, but -- noise of a different type, and a whole other caliber. Feelings. Emotions. Resonance.
Voices.
'This is my world.'
Who is this girl? She seems so sure of herself that--
Shelby hastens her pace a few steps to get ahead of Akane, her mouth pressing into a flat line. As chaotic and meandering as she can be, this has given her a bit of focus. "Then how did I get here? What is this place? Did *you* bring me here?"
It's hard for her to hide her emotions: A swirl of worry, confusion, and frustration, wrapped up so tightly in the psychic noise she presents-- and absorbs-- all the time. "Is this some kind of trick?"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Rejection and threat. The emotion Akane broadcasts most reliably, most clearly. "What? Why would I do that? *How* would I do that? I don't want to worry about whatever other worlds are out there," Akane says. The reaction prompts another, harder-to-parse emotion that's somehow louder than the clearer ones.
"I think you're -- um -- we got off on the wrong foot," she says, with a nervous laugh. She takes a half-step back, holding up her hands. Everything about her stance is apologetic, tense. "Everyone who comes through from your world makes it sound scary. I just wanna go to class and then go home, but people keep homing in on me when they get here... so I guess I'm just trying to keep them from scaring everyone, and figure out why." Well, that or they have a lot more guests, but that's a terrible possibility that she hates, so she dumps it in the trash.
Conveniently, she also dumps her now-empty juicebox in the trash. "... So, let's try this again. What makes you think *I'm* bringing people here?" she asks. This is the most genuinely unsettled she's sounded since she's gotten here, and her emotions are a mess to an even greater extent than usual. It's hard to read -- but it makes it hard to believe she thinks she has the reins on this situation, at least.
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
Shelby does her best to try to absorb the information being told to her -- that others come here. Others talk about the world she comes from. Others from her world. This, is *her* world.
The way she presents it sounds ... reasonable, almost. The gears are visibly turning in the pink-haired girl's mind as her weight shifts, moving to the side to no longer obstruct Akane's path. She also turns her head to look around herself a little more, like she's still not sure of herself in gravity. That, or ... this place is getting to her a little more than she expected.
"I don't." A momentary pause, expression becoming increasingly pensive. "I don't know. You're the only thing here that makes sense. You see things. You react to me."
Shelby turns a little, looking to the rest of the city and the people within it. Her speech becomes a bit more clipped, not quite sure how to put some of it. "I have ... a sense. I can feel things. People. I can feel you, and your emotions. I can't feel anything else around me. So..."
One hand gestures toward Akane. "You're the closest thing that makes sense and that doesn't make sense." Shelby's gaze drops. "Sorry. I didn't... mean to accuse you. I'm not ... good... at people."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
"Aahah... it's fine. I'm not great either," Akane says, taking a breath. Right. Okay. Suspicion redirected. Breathing room. She's back in control of the interaction. That's the only thing that matters. As long as she has that, and doesn't betray the true nature of the situation, things are okay.
She shifts on the balls of her feet, taking a step -- *almost* toward Shelby, but mostly to the side. "You're not the first one to say that, either. It's weird. Though, huh..." She thinks about that a little. Her head cants to one side a bit. Then the other.
... nah, she thinks. Hibiki might be Gridman, but other than *that*...
"So, what -- do you not feel anything from everyone else?" On some level, Akane knew that -- unexpressed feelings get loud for her. But it's another thing to hear that it's not that this world allows her to feel like it's quiet, but that it's *actually, legitimately* quiet.
Her own emotions are dying down now, in fits and spurts. She's not quiet -- it's impossible for her to be -- but she's at least... getting calmer.
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
'Do you not feel anything from everyone else?'
Shelby does something that is, for her at least, very dangerous: She closes her eyes and just listens. If this were anywhere else on Earth or the Sides, this would be a dangerous prospect. She just lets the noise flow like she used to. It's like pulling back the protections and exposing a raw nerve; her brow tenses and her eyes clench a little tighter.
Nothing. Silence. Other than this beacon of emotions and control and flickers of being, all she feels is "... just you." Her eyes open. Shelby seems a little distraught, letting her arms cross low. "If I were home I'd probably have a migrane by now."
Her eyes drift to the kaiju again, and the blue haze of the day. "I hope I'm not stuck here. I can't be stuck here, right? Other people were here. And left. I could probably take a train? I don't have any money, though. Oh god, I don't have any money-- none of this feels right. I'm stuck? Could this be -- but the psycho-frame was... ah."
The pink-haired young woman plucks off her glasses and starts rubbing her face. "This makes *no sense*!"
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
Akane is pleasant, obliging! "... Huh. Wow, okay." That's... actually kind of strange to her. The idea that it's not just that she feels better here, feels more level -- but that there's *actually nothing* ... it's weird. It's... uneasy.
Maybe all of that energy flows out, Akane thinks. Through that 'psychic rupture.' Or maybe these outsiders pick her up because she's...
... ew. Akane doesn't want to think about that. This is her world now -- in every sense of that word. She doesn't want it. Time to check out again. "... Every other person who's come through here the way it seems like you are," Akane says, reaching into her bag, "has been able to get out just fine on the train. I don't know where it takes you, but people have left and come back, so it's not like you're gonna die if you leave."
She reaches into her bag, fumbling around a bit. "I have money in here somewhere -- it's three gilla for a one-time train pass..." It takes her a *while* to find it. All her things just hang out loose in her bag. "Do you want some coffee or a sandwich or something? I should probably get home soon, but I can at least give you enough to pick up a cup of coffee before you head out..."
There's actually something that picks up in her as she starts talking about feeding Shelby. It's... a more human emotion, than a lot of the rest. She seems genuinely excited to provide care, and more than that, excited in a way that *parses as normal, faintly happy excitement.* After all her jumbled monster emotions, this one is probably a reprieve.
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
"The train...? How strange. I don't ... I didn't come on a train. I just ... I thought I was sleeping, and then I ... I was just on that corner? How strange."
Shelby can absolutely feel it -- the positive emotion, the joy in being able to help someone out. A smile still feels a little foreign to her face, but she does perk up as this person, as this person in control of her own reality, seems to be genuinely pleased to help out. "If it's that easy, you're -- gosh, you're a life-saver. Thank you, really!"
Her hands push into the pockets of her hoodie, nodding. Is she getting lost in the moment? Forgetting where she is? Letting the sole emotion of the sole person in a city of crushing oppressive (silence(?)/loneliness(?)) impress upon her more than it would any other day of the week? "I'm not that hungry, but ... Coffee would be great. I'm a really good cook, too, so maybe sometime I can make something for you, too."
"I'm sorry, you're being so nice to me, but -- I don't even know your name."
<Pose Tracker> Akane Shinjo has posed.
The offer of reciprocity puts Akane instantly back on her guard a bit. Back to static. "It's fine," she says, with a little nervous giggle. The static starts to return a bit. She does at least extend the necessary gilla for some coffee and a train pass. "I don't eat much, and I'm kinda picky -- but, uh, it's good!" What's good?
Don't worry about it, Akane thinks. Please don't worry about it.
"Oh, um -- Akane Shinjo," she says, chewing at her lip a bit. "It was nice to meet you... but you should probably get going, okay?" She takes a step back, noting, "I... have to catch up with class. I keep skipping school lately."
... Maybe she needs a little more control than that. "If you end up here again... tell me if you figure out why our worlds keep connecting, okay? I'm trying to figure it out, too." That much, at least, isn't a lie. Even if she's doing her best to mask that this really is 'her' world in more senses than 'the one she lives in,' even if she's trying to assert control over this imperfect, sleepy little place... she *does* want to know why things keep creeping back in. Alexis has been no help about *that* mystery...
<Pose Tracker> Shelby Korts has posed.
Hopefully, she didn't offend Akane with that, or spook her too much. Was it too forward to offer? You're supposed to repay kindness, right? That's ... what she was told, right? But, with money in hand, Shelby gives Akane another honest smile. She introduced herself at least a little bit the first time, and now she gives it in full: "Shelby Korts."
"I'm not a scientist, but ... I'll see what I can do. I know smart people."
There's more she wants to know: The kaiju, the reason they're just There, and why nobody seems to notice. Why Akane seems fairly insistent visitors don't draw too much attention to them. Really, Shelby's still not convinced this isn't some kind of elaborate dream. Would it be so bad if it were? Especially one she could come back to, sometime? Tsutsujidai (is) doesn't seem that (strange) bad.
Her head lifts, turning away from Akane and looking for signs. Her Japanese is more or less tourist-passable, but finding a train station by herself shouldn't be too hard. "Thanks, Akane! Good luck with. School. Ing?"
And then she starts to back away, soon to be out of sight and searching for her (escape) way home.