2022-05-18: Concern
- Cutscene: Concern
- Cast: Akane Shinjo, Alexis Kerib
- Where: Tsutsujidai
- Date: 0096-05-18
- Summary: Akane and Alexis chat about the last week.
"Staying home again, are we...? I'd ask if something happened at school, but you haven't even gone since the concert!" Alexis doesn't tend to check up on Akane this frequently, but there's a limit.
(After all, how can new, interesting feelings go unexpressed if Akane languishes in the same one, day in and day out? She seems to have no intention of making a kaiju to solve this one, either, and taking the risk of having her talk to an outsider, however insincerely, didn't make much of an impact either. Indeed, she mostly seems to have taken that as occasion to continue moping about the same things.)
"Yeah. I'm... waiting," Akane explains, with a rub at the back of her head and a grimacing smile. "I'm going to talk to Sayla about Anti."
A "Really?" escapes Akane's computer speakers utterly unconsidered. This is maybe the first genuine surprise Alexis has received since he started overseeing Akane's care; even her entanglement with Renais wasn't quite this incomprehensible. After a momentary pause to get his bearings, Alexis asks, straightforward enough: "May I ask why? She'll no doubt chastise you for your behavior... I doubt she'll understand the relationship between creator and creation."
Something about Alexis's phrasing nags at Akane. It's easy to believe him -- of course Sayla is going to tear her apart for this -- but... "You do, though?" Akane's question is tentative; she can get sharp with Alexis, but this is... something a little different. "I mean, I'm the one creating the kaiju. Unless you've been holding out on me, that's the relationship, right? I design, and you bring it to life..."
... what is it Alexis does, again? Oh, sure, he says the magic words that make it bigger, make it move -- but is that all that much?
Alexis offers a pleasant-sounding laugh. "There are things you learn simply by observing, Akane-kun!" He remains utterly impassive as always as he explains, "Why, I've seen more creator-creation pairs come to blows than not in my time! People who don't understand that simply have a somewhat -- naive, view of the way of things."
... it's normal? What happens between Akane and Anti is normal. Akane needs some time to chew on that one -- time that she also spends literally, physically chewing on the straw of a juice box. (After actually getting it out of the micro-fridge beneath her desk, of course. Reach in, fumble with the straw, tap-tap-tap at the desk with it, slip it in, bring it to her lips. ... start chewing.)
She doesn't have all that many mental models for an active creator-creation relationship, after all. So maybe this is just what happens when you're next to each other long enough. ... there's some comfort in that, she decides; it's not her fault if this is just the way things are. And Alexis has been around a pretty long time, so if he's seen it play out as often as it sounds like he has...
"Huh. I gueth thashh possthible," Akane offers back, around her straw. Her eyes shut. She swallows, breathes out, and...
... decides there's a reason she avoids resting her eyes for very long at a stretch, in this world. It's her imagination that makes her dangerous, after all.
"Sometimes you just need to make it clear what goes and what doesn't in the house, right?" she concludes to Alexis. "Speaking of going, though... I wonder if Anti's found Gridman yet. It kinda feels like cheating, but hey! It started being cheating when the sword came out."
Alexis thinks about Anti's other task. "I'm sure he's pursuing it with all necessary enthusiasm," is the answer he volunteers.